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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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originally called FIRUZ SHAPUR, or PERISAPORA, a town founded about A.D. 350 by Shapur (Sapor) II. Sassanid, king of Persia, 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, in lat. 33° 22' N., long. 43° 49' E. It was captured and destroyed by the emperor Julian in A.D. 363, but speedily rebuilt. It became a refuge for the Christian and Jewish colonies of that region, and there are said to have been 90,000 Jews in the place at the time of its capture by Ali in 657. The Arabs changed the name of the town to Anbar ("granaries"). Abu 1-`Abbas as-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid caliphate, made it his capital, and such it remained until the founding of Bagdad in 762. It continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid period. It is now entirely deserted. The site is occupied only by ruin mounds, as yet unexplored. Their great extent indicates the former importance of the city. (J. P. PE.)