Neolithic and ancient history The area of Ras al-Ayn was inhabited at least since the
Neolithic age (c. 8.000 BC). Today's Ras al-Ayn can be traced back to a settlement existing since c. 2000 BC, which in the early 1st millennium BC became the ancient city of
Sikkan, part of the
Aramaean kingdom of
Bit Bahiani. It was later conquered by the
Medes. The archaeological site is located on the southern edge of the mound
Tell Fekheriye, around which today's Ras al-Ayn is built, just a few hundred meters south of the city center. During excavations in 1979, the famous
Tell Fekheriye bilingual inscription was found. The nearby town of
Tell Halaf is also a former site of an Aramean city.
Classical era In later times, the town became known as "
Rhesaina", "Ayn Warda", and "Theodosiopolis", the latter named after the
Byzantine emperor
Theodosius I who granted the settlement city rights. The latter name was also shared with the Armenian city of Karin (modern
Erzurum) making it difficult to distinguish between them. The
Sasanians destroyed the city twice in 578 and 580 before rebuilding it and constructing one of the three Sassanian academies in it (the other two being
Gundishapur and
Ctesiphon) in it.
Medieval history In 640, the Arabs conquered the city, which was the only city in Upper Mesopotamia to fall by the sword, as due to its central position and great strategic importance the Greeks defended it to the last. Ras al-Ayn became contested between the
Zengids,
Ayyubids, and the
Khwarazmians in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was sacked by
Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century, ending its role as a major city in
al-Jazira. Approximately 80,000 Armenians, mostly women and children, were slaughtered in desert
death camps near Ras al-Ayn. As well as the
Deir ez-Zor camps further south, the
Ras al-Ayn camps became "synonymous with Armenian suffering."
Modern history After the
fall of the Ottoman Empire and the 1921
Treaty of Ankara, Ras al-Ayn became a
divided city when its northern neighborhoods, today's
Ceylanpınar, were ceded to
Turkey. Today, the two cities are separated by a fenced border strip and the
Berlin–Baghdad Railway on the Turkish side. The only
border crossing is located in the western outskirts of Ras al-Ayn. The town was first part of the
French colonial empire's
Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon and, from 1946, the independent state of
Syria.
Civil War During the
civil war, Ras al-Ayn was engulfed by the long
Battle of Ras al-Ayn. In late November 2012,
rebels of
al-Nusra Front and the
FSA attacked
Syrian Army positions, expelling them from the town. During the following eight months, the
Kurdish-majority
People's Protection Units (YPG), present from the outset, gradually entrenched its position, and eventually formed an alliance with a non-jihadist FSA faction. On 21 July 2013, this alliance expelled the
jihadists after a night of heavy fighting. The town was part of
Rojava for the following six years, until it was attacked and captured by the
Turkish Armed Forces and allied
Syrian National Army during the October
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, in the
Second Battle of Ras al-Ayn.
Bombings On December 10, 2020, a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint run by Turkish-supported
Syrian National Army rebels in Ras al-Ayn. Reports on casualties differed, but according to several sources the explosion killed over 10 people including 2 Turkish soldiers. Turkish authorities blamed the
Peoples Protection Units (YPG) for the car bombing as Turkey claims they are affiliated with the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). According the
ABC, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombing. ==Demographics==