Shabakhtan

Shabakhtān was the medieval Arabic name of a region east of ar-Ruha and Harran, consisting of the Tektek Dağ hills as well as the area around Viranşehir.^[1][2] It is mentioned roughly from the time of the Crusades until the end of the 13th century, when much of the region's population probably left.^[1] It had several fortified strongholds with dependent fiefs (‘amal, plural a‘māl).^[1] Of these, the most frequently mentioned was Jumlayn, which is the present-day site known as Çimdine Kalesi in the eastern Tektek Dağ.^[1] Other sites included Tall Mawzan, al-Qurādī, and al-Muwazzar.^[1] T.A. Sinclair identified Tall Mawzan with present-day Viranşehir.^[2] Al-Quradi may have been the fort at Sumatar; less likely possibilities are Şuayp Şehir and Qal'ah Choban.^[2] Al-Muwazzar (or al-Muwaddar) may also have been at Sumatar.^[2] Further north, Siverek was not part of Shabakhtan.^[2]

The Tektek Dağ region was likely a stronghold of the "pseudo-Sabians" (i.e. the moon- and planet-worshipping pagan religion that had its center in Harran) and may have had a sizeable population of them as late as the 13th century.^[2] Tall Mawzan, on the other hand, seems to have been mostly Christian; it was the seat of a Syrian Orthodox bishop and was probably outside the area inhabited by the pseudo-Sabians.^[2]

Shabakhtan changed hands often during the 12th and 13th centuries when sources mention it.^[1] Some or all of it had been part of the short-lived County of Edessa, but by 1144 at the latest it had come under Imad ad-Din Zangi.^[1] After he died, Shabakhtan was taken over by the Artuqids of Amid and then their relatives the Artuqids of Mardin.^[1] It was then ruled by several different Ayyubid princes, then by the Khwarazmshahs and the Mongols, and finally by the Artuqids again at the end of the 13th century.^[1]