Khabur

{{For|the tributary of River Tigris|Khabur (Tigris)}} {{Infobox river | name = Khabur | native_name = {{native name list |tag1=ar|name1=نهر الخابور |tag2=syr|name2=ܢܗܪܐ ܚܒܪ |tag3=ku|name3=Çemê Xabûr |tag4=tr|name4=Habur Nehri}} | name_other = | name_etymology = | image = Khabur,SheikhHamad.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Khabur south of [[Al-Hasakah]] | map = Khabur River in Syria 2004 CIA map.jpg | map_size = | map_caption = | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 6 | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_size = | pushpin_map_caption= | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = [[Syria]], [[Turkey]] | subdivision_type2 = | subdivision_name2 = | subdivision_type3 = | subdivision_name3 = | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | subdivision_type5 = City | subdivision_name5 = [[Ras al-Ayn, al-Hasakah|Ra's al-'Ayn]], [[Al-Hasakah]], [[Busayrah]] | length = {{convert|486|km|mi|abbr=on}} | width_min = | width_avg = | width_max = | depth_min = | depth_avg = | depth_max = | discharge1_location= | discharge1_min = {{convert|2|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} | discharge1_avg = {{convert|45|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} | discharge1_max = {{convert|57|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} | source1 = [[Ras al-Ayn]] | source1_location = | source1_coordinates= | source1_elevation = {{convert|350|m|abbr=on}} | mouth = [[Euphrates]] | mouth_location = | mouth_coordinates = {{coord|35|8|33|N|40|25|51|E|display=inline,title}} | mouth_elevation = | progression = | river_system = | basin_size = {{convert|37081|km2|abbr=on}} | tributaries_left = | tributaries_right = | custom_label = | custom_data = | extra = <ref>{{cite journal |author=Hole F |author2=Zaitchik, BF|year=2007 |title=Policies, plans, practice, and prospects: irrigation in northeastern Syria |journal=Land Degradation & Development |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=133–152|doi=10.1002/ldr.772|s2cid=129117310 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Burdon, DJ |author2=Safadi, C|year=1963 |title=Ras-el-Ain: the great karstic spring of Mesopotamia. An hydrogeological study|journal=Journal of Hydrology|volume=1 |issue=1|pages=58–95|doi=10.1016/0022-1694(63)90033-7|bibcode=1963JHyd....1...58B}}</ref> }} The '''Khabur River''' is the largest perennial tributary to the [[Euphrates]] in [[Syria]]. Although the Khabur originates in [[Turkey]], the [[karstic]] springs around [[Ras al-Ayn]] are the river's main source of water. Several important [[wadi]]s join the Khabur north of [[Al-Hasakah]], together creating what is known as the Khabur Triangle, or Upper Khabur area. From north to south, annual rainfall in the Khabur basin decreases from over 400 mm to less than 200 mm. This has made the river a vital water source for agriculture throughout history. The Khabur joins the Euphrates near the town of [[Busayrah]].

==Name== In ancient times, the river was known in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] and [[Amorite language|Amorite]] as ''ḫabur'',<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Buck |first=Mary E. |url=https://brill.com/display/title/56136 |title=The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit |publisher=Brill |year=2020 |pages=237-238}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelb |first=Ignace J. |author-link=Ignace Gelb |url=https://archive.org/details/computeraidedana0000gelb |title=Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1980 |pages=20}}</ref><ref name=":1">[[Tell Fekherya bilingual inscription]], see: {{Cite journal |last=Greenfield |first=Jonas C. |last2=Shaffer |first2=Aaron |date=1983 |title=Notes on the Akkadian-Aramaic Bilingual Statue from Tell Fekherye |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4200185 |journal=Iraq |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=112 |doi=10.2307/4200185 |issn=0021-0889|url-access=subscription }}</ref> in {{Langx|he|חָבוֹר|ḥāḇōr}},<ref>Malamat, Abraham (1962), "חבור", in [[Encyclopaedia Biblica (Israel)|''Encyclopaedia Biblica'']] vol. 3, [[Bialik Institute|Instituti Bialik]], p. 3</ref> and in {{Langx|oar|𐤇𐤁𐤅𐤓|ḥbwr}}.<ref name=":1">[[Tell Fekherya bilingual inscription]], see: {{Cite journal |last=Greenfield |first=Jonas C. |last2=Shaffer |first2=Aaron |date=1983 |title=Notes on the Akkadian-Aramaic Bilingual Statue from Tell Fekherye |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4200185 |journal=Iraq |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=112 |doi=10.2307/4200185 |issn=0021-0889|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The river was well noted by ancient writers, with various names used by various writers: [[Ptolemy]] and [[Pliny the Elder]] called it the ''Chaboras'' ({{langx|grc|Χαβώρας}}),<ref name=Chaboras>[[Ptolemy]], ''[[Geography (Ptolemy)|The Geography]]'', 5.18.3; [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]], 30.3.</ref> [[Procopius]] called it the ''Chabura'',<ref name=Chabura>[[Procopius]], ''B.P.'', 2.5.</ref> [[Strabo]], [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]], and [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] called it the ''Aborrhas'' (Ἀβόρρας),<ref name=Aborrhas>[[Strabo]], xvi; [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]], ''Historia Nova'', 3.13; [[Ammianus Marcellinus]], ''Rerum Gestarum'', 14.3, 23.5.</ref> and [[Isidore of Charax]] called it the ''Aburas'' (Ἀβούρας).<ref name=Aburas>[[Isidore of Charax]]</ref> It was described as a large river of Mesopotamia which rose in [[Mons Masius]], about {{convert|40|miles|km}} from [[Nisibis]], and flowed into the [[Euphrates]] at [[Circesium]] (Kerkesiah).

==Geography== The course of the Khabur can be divided into two distinct zones: the Upper Khabur area or Khabur Triangle north of Al-Hasakah, and the Middle and Lower Khabur between Al-Hasakah and Busayrah.

===Tributaries=== The river is fed by several smaller streams, the names of which are mentioned by the later classical writers. These are, the [[Scirtus]] (Procop. ''de Aedif.'' 2.7), the [[Cordes (river)|Cordes]] (Procop. ''de Aedif.'' 2.2), and the [[Mygdonius]] ([[Julian the Apostate|Julian]]. ''Or.'' i.).

The tributaries to the Khabur are listed from east to west. Most of these [[wadi]]s only carry water for part of the year. *[[Wadi Radd]] *[[Wadi Jarrah]] *[[Jaghjagh River]] (ancient Mygdonius) *[[Wadi Khanzir]] *[[Wadi Avedji]]

==History== Since the 1930s, numerous archaeological excavations and [[Archaeological field survey|surveys]] have been carried out in the Khabur Valley, indicating that the region has been occupied since the [[Lower Palaeolithic]] period.<ref name="Nishiaku">{{cite journal|doi=10.3406/paleo.1992.4566|last=Nishiaki|first=Y.|year=1992|title=Preliminary results of the prehistoric survey in the Khabur Basin, Syria: 1990–91 seasons |journal=Paléorient |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=97–102 |url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_1992_num_18_1_4566 |access-date=7 July 2010}}</ref> Important sites that have been excavated include [[Tell Halaf]], [[Tell Brak]], [[Tell Leilan]], [[Tell Mashnaqa]], [[Urkesh|Tell Mozan]] and [[Tell Barri]]. The region has given its name to a distinctive painted ware found in [[Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia|northern Mesopotamia]] and Syria in the early 2nd millennium BCE, called [[Khabur ware]]. The region of the Khabur River is also associated with the rise of the Kingdom of the [[Mitanni]] that flourished c. 1500–1300 BC.

The Khabur River is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible: "[[Tiglath-Pileser III|Tiglath-Pileser]] ... took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor (Khabur), Hara and the River Gozan, where they are to this day".<ref>{{bibleref|1|Chronicles|5:26|HE}}</ref> The identification of the Khabur with the Habor is not contested.

The Khabur river was sometimes identified with the Chebar or Kebar, the location of [[Tel Abib]] and setting of several important scenes of the [[Book of Ezekiel]]. However, recent scholarship identifies the Chebar as the ''ka-ba-ru'' waterway mentioned among the 5th century BCE Murushu archives from [[Nippur]], close to Nippur and the Shatt el-Nil, a silted up canal toward the east of Babylon.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Henry O.|title="Chebar", in ABD|year=1992|publisher=Doubleday|volume=1|isbn=0-385-19351-3|page=893}}</ref>

The ancient city of [[Corsote]], visited by [[Cyrus the Younger]] on his ill-fated expedition against the Persians as told by [[Xenophon]], was located at the confluence of the Khabur River, known by them as the 'Mascas', and the Euphrates according to [[Robin Waterfield]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Waterfield|first1=Robin|author-link1=Robin Waterfield|title=Xenophon's retreat : Greece, Persia, and the end of the Golden Age|date=2006|publisher=Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]]|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=9780674023567|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBoJfzXxeqIC&q=Khabur+mascas&pg=PA102|access-date=20 January 2017}}</ref> Other authors have been circumspect upon the precise location of Corsote due to the changing names and courses of the rivers since that time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rennell|first1=James|title=Illustrations, chiefly geographical, of the history of the expedition of Cyrus, From Sardis to Babylonia and the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks|date=1816|publisher=Bulmer|pages=101|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hmBNAAAAcAAJ&q=Corsote+masca&pg=PA101|access-date=21 January 2017}}</ref>

[[Ptolemy]] (5.18.6) mentions a town called [[Chabora]] (Χαβώρα), on the Euphrates, which he places near [[Nicephorion]], and which probably derives its name from the river, and [[Theophylact Simocatta]] mentions Ἀβορέων φρούριον, which is, as certainly, the same place.<ref>''The History of Theophylact Simocatta'', 4.10.</ref> Procopius speaks of it as a river of importance, and Ammianus states that [[Julian the Apostate]] crossed it "per navalem Aborae pontem". Strabo describes it as near the town of [[Anthemusias]].

In the seventh and eight century, several monasteries from the [[Tur Abdin]] such as the [[Monastery of Qarṭmin|monastery of Qartmin]], the [[monastery of Mar Awgin]] and the monastery of Mar Yoḥannān Ṭayyāyā, owned farmland in the upper Khabur valley and often had depended monasteries, so-called Lower Monasteries. As such, [[Simeon of the Olives|Simeon]], who was a monk and administrator at the Qartmin abbey, planted 12,000 trees at the Lower Monastery near [[Sisauranon]] (which earned him the name 'of the olives').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brunner |first1=Kyle B. |title=The Life of Simeon of the Olives: An Entrepreneurial Saint of Early Islamic North Mesopotamia |date=2021 |publisher=Gorgias Press LLC |isbn=978-1-4632-4346-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZV-XzgEACAAJ |access-date=6 March 2025|pages=59–60,65–66,76 |language=en|chapter=Simeon of the Olives and his World: Life of the Khabur Basin during the early Islamic period}}</ref>

===Modern Khabur River Valley=== [[File:Assyrian church in Al-Khabur.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Assyrian Church of the East|Assyrian Church]] in Khabur River Valley.]] The Khabur River Project, begun in the 1960s, involved the construction of a series of [[dam]]s and [[canal]]s. Three dams were built in the Khabur Basin as part of a large irrigation scheme that also includes the [[Tabqa Dam]] on the Euphrates. The section of the Khabur River within [[Tell Tamer Subdistrict]] are home to a self-governing Assyrian enclave. Two dams, Hasakah West and Hasakah East, have been constructed on tributaries to the Khabur between Ra's al-'Ayn and Al-Hasakah. The capacity of the reservoir of Hasakah West is 0.09 km3, and is also the southeastern end of the Assyrian enclave. The capacity of Hasakah East is 0.2 km3. A third dam, Hassakeh South, was constructed on the Khabur 25 km south of Al-Hasakah. The reservoir of this dam has a capacity of 0.7 km3.<ref name="mutin">{{cite journal|last=Mutin|first=Georges|year=2003|title=Le Tigre et l'Euphrate de la discorde|journal=VertigO|volume=4|issue=3|pages=1–10|language=fr|url=http://vertigo.revues.org/index3869.html|access-date=18 December 2009|doi=10.4000/vertigo.3869|doi-access=free}}</ref> The Khabur Valley, which now has about four million acres (16,000 km2) of farmland, is Syria's main [[wheat]]-cultivation area. The northeastern part is also the center for Syria's oil production.

==References== {{reflist|2}} *{{DGRG|title=Chaboras}}

[[Category:Euphrates]] [[Category:Khabur (Euphrates)| ]] [[Category:Rivers of Syria]] [[Category:Rivers of Turkey]] [[Category:Geography of Hasakah Governorate]] [[Category:International rivers of Asia]]