Anbar الأنبار
Anbar Anbar's location inside Iraq
Coordinates: 33°25′11″N 43°18′45″E / 33.41972°N 43.3125°E / 33.41972; 43.3125
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Al Anbar

Anbar (الأنبار) was a town in Iraq, at lat. 33 deg. 22' N., long. 43 deg. 49' E, on the east bank of the Euphrates, just south of the Nahr 'Isa, or Sakhlawieh canal, the northernmost of the canals connecting that river with the Tigris.

Anbar was originally called Firuz Shapur, or Perisapora and was founded circa 350 AD by Shapur II, Sassanid king of Persia. Perisapora was captured and destroyed by Emperor Julian in 363, but speedily rebuilt. The town became a refuge for the Arab, Christian, and Jewish colonies of that region. Anbar was adjacent or identical to the Babylonian Jewish center of Nehardea (Hebrew: נהרדעא), and lies a short distance from the present-day town of Fallujah, formerly the Babylonian Jewish center of Pumbeditha (Hebrew: פומבדיתא).

The name of the town was then changed to Anbar ("granaries"). Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid caliphate, made it his capital, and such it remained until the founding of Baghdad in 762.

It continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid period, but now it is entirely deserted, occupied only by ruin mounds. The great number of these indicates the former importance of the city.

[edit] See also

• Nehardea
• Fallujah
• Pumbeditha

[edit] References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Anbar.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Coordinates: 33°22′43″N 43°42′57″E / 33.37861°N 43.71583°E / 33.37861; 43.71583

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