{{Short description|Ancient city in southern Mesopotamia}} {{Other uses}} {{Distinguish|Kashmar}} '''Kashkar''', also known as '''Kaskar''', ({{langx|syc|ܟܫܟܪ}}), was a city in southern Mesopotamia. Its name appears to originate from Syriac {{lang|syc|ܟܪܟܐ}} ''{{Transliteration|syc|karḵa}}'' meaning "citadel" or "town".<ref name=frontiers>{{cite book|last1=Mirecki|first1=BeDuhn|last2=Jason|first2=Paul Allan|title=Frontiers of faith: the Christian encounter with Manichaeism in the Acts of Archelaus|year=2007|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-16180-1|pages=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQd8b5s5QBUC}}</ref> Other sources connect it to {{lang|syc|ܟܫܟܪܘܬܐ}} ''{{Transliteration|syc|kaškarūṯá}}'' "farming".<ref name=zahrira>{{cite web|last=قزانجي|first=فؤاد يوسف|script-title=ar:مدينة كشكر: أول مدينة مسيحية في بلاد الرافدين|url=http://www.zahrira.net/?p=2481|publisher=Zahrira.net|accessdate=31 January 2012|language=ar}}</ref> It was originally built on the Tigris, across the river from the later medieval city of Wasit.
The city was originally a significant Sasanian city built on the west bank of the Tigris where Greek speaking deportees from north-western Syria were settled by Shapur I in the mid third century A.D.<ref name=acts>{{cite book|last=Harrak|first=Amir|title=The acts of Mār Mārī the apostle|year=2005|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-13050-0|pages=69|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ePjro4KB4MC}}</ref>
According to Syriac tradition, Mar Mari is said to have preached and performed miracles and converted many of its inhabitants to Christianity.<ref name=acts/> Kashkar became an important centre of Christianity in lower Mesopotamia and had its own diocese which lay under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal Province of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.<ref name=acts/>
During a flood the Tigris burst its banks leaving Kashkar on its east bank. The medieval city of Wasit was built on the west bank of the new channel by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who drew off the population of Kashkar, which eventually turned it to a ghost town.<ref name=frontiers/> By the middle of the twelfth century Kashkar ceased to exist as a bishopric see.<ref name=acts/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== See also == {{Portal|Christianity}} *Kashkar (East Syrian Diocese) *Abraham the Great of Kashkar
{{coord missing|Iraq}}
Category:Archaeological sites in Iraq Category:History of Wasit Governorate Category:Former populated places in Iraq Category:Sasanian cities