| Summary/Abstract |
FOR THE third time in its history, the city of Raqqa is in ruins. It was first destroyed by the Persians in the early sixth century when it was known as Callinicum but was rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian shortly thereafter. The second time it was destroyed—by the Mongols in the mid-thirteenth century—it took centuries for the city to be rebuilt; its time as a political and intellectual center of the Islamic world had come to an abrupt end. The once and future capital of the Islamic caliphate was described as uninhabited ruins by historian Abu al-Fida in the early fourteenth century.
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