ArmeniaArmenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia, with geopolitical ties to Europe. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center. Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage.
UrfaUrfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (ʃanˈɫɯɾfa), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa in Hellenistic times. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. About northeast of the city is the famous Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe, the world's oldest known temple, which was founded in the 10th millennium BC.
Roman provinceThe Roman provinces (Latin: provincia, pl. provinciae) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor. For centuries it was the largest administrative unit of the foreign possessions of ancient Rome. With the administrative reform initiated by Diocletian, it became a third level administrative subdivision of the Roman Empire, or rather a subdivision of the imperial dioceses (in turn subdivisions of the imperial prefectures).
NabataeansThe Nabataeans or Nabateans (ˌnæbəˈtiːənz; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as Nabāṭū; Arabic: ٱلْأَنْبَاط, , singular النبطي, ; compare Ναβαταῖος; Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. Their settlements—most prominently the assumed capital city of Raqmu (present-day Petra, Jordan)—gave the name Nabatene (Ναβατηνή) to the Arabian borderland that stretched from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.
Syria (region)Syria (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠 Sura/i; Συρία) or Sham (ash-Shām) is the name of a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other synonyms are Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. In modern times, the term "Syria" alone is used to refer to the Syrian Arab Republic. The term is originally derived from Assyria, an ancient civilization centered in northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq.
RaqqaRaqqa (ar-Raqqah, also ) is a city in Syria on the left bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and bishopric Callinicum (formerly a Latin and now a Maronite Catholic titular see) was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate between 796 and 809, under the reign of Harun al-Rashid. It was also the capital of the Islamic State from 2014 to 2017. With a population of 531,952 based on the 2021 official census, Raqqa is the sixth largest city in Syria.
Balikh RiverThe Balikh River (نهر البليخ) is a perennial river that originates in the spring of Ain al-Arous near Tell Abyad in the Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests ecoregion. It flows due south and joins the Euphrates at the modern city of Raqqa. The Balikh is the second largest tributary to the Euphrates in Syria, after the Khabur River. It is an important source of water and large sections have recently been subjected to canalization.
BardaisanBardaisan (11 July 154 – 222 AD; ܒܪ ܕܝܨܢ, Bar Dayṣān), known in Arabic as ibn Dayṣān (ابن ديصان) and in Latin as Bardesanes, was a Syriac-speaking Assyrian Christian writer and teacher with a gnostic background, and founder of the Bardaisanites. A scientist, scholar, astrologer, philosopher, hymnwriter, and poet, Bardaisan was also renowned for his knowledge of India, on which he wrote a book, now lost. According to the early Christian historian Eusebius, Bardaisan was at one time a follower of the gnostic Valentinus, but later opposed Valentinian gnosticism and also wrote against Marcionism.
NarsehNarseh (also spelled Narses or Narseus; 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩, New Persian: نرسه, Narsē) was the seventh Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 293 to 303. The youngest son of Shapur I (240-270), Narseh served as the governor of Sakastan, Hind and Turan under his father. Shapur I was eventually succeeded by his son Hormizd I (270-271), who died after a reign of one year. Shapur I's eldest son Bahram I, who had never been considered as a candidate for succession to the throne by his father, ascended the throne with the aid of the powerful Zoroastrian priest Kartir.
TatianTatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (ˈteɪʃən,_-iən; Tatianus; Τατιανός; ܛܛܝܢܘܣ; c. 120 – c. 180 AD) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century. Tatian's most influential work is the Diatessaron, a Biblical paraphrase, or "harmony", of the four gospels that became the standard text of the four gospels in the Syriac-speaking churches until the 5th-century, after which it gave way to the four separate gospels in the Peshitta version.
