Raqqa

Raqqa, on the Euphrates in northern Syria, was an important city of the Jazira; the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid made it his principal residence for a period around 796-809. The jurist al-Shafi'i (d. 820) is reported to have spent time in the region, and the early Hanafi judge Muhammad al-Shaybani (d. 805) died at nearby Rayy while on travel with the caliph; the astronomer al-Battani worked from Raqqa.