Fidra; Fidre; al-Fādira Complete

Description

A village in Jabal Ḥalaqa, recorded in TIB 15 on pp. 1159–1160 as Fidra. Also spelt: Fidre, and al-Fādira. Based on the evidence of dated inscriptions, we can infer that the settlement was occupied mainly in the fifth and sixth centuries. Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15 list thirty-six houses. Among notable buildings, there was a three-aisled church, and a baptistery. Literature (after TIB 15): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014 with further references), p. 1159–1160; Butler, H. C. (ed.) Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division II: Architecture, Section B: Northern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1920), 251–254; Butler, H. C., Smith E.B., Early churches in Syria: fourth to seventh centuries (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1969), 70, 71, 152; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), vol. 1, 51 note 2, 297 note 1; Tate, G., Les campagnes de la Syrie du Nord (Beirut: Presses de l’Ifpo, 2013), 57–58, 92–93, 100, 102, 107, 122, 124, 179, 283, 319; Hadjar, A., The Church of St. Simeon the Stylite and other Archaeological Sites in the Mountains of Simenon and Halaqa, tr. P. J. Amash (Aleppo: , 2002), 164–165, no. 21. Inscriptions: Syriac inscriptions: E. Littmann (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1934), no. 23 (Syriac inscription). E. Littmann (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1934), no. 24 (Syriac inscription). Greek inscriptions W.K. Prentice (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division III: Greek and Latin Inscriptions. Section B: Northern Syria (Leiden: Brill, 1922), nos. 1138–1143 = IGLS II 432–437 (six Greek inscriptions which mention the construction of buildings, the involvement of lesser clergymen and artisans). Greek inscriptions offer a range of dates from the fifth centuries and come mainly from houses: 411, 421, 424, 453, 489. Syriac inscriptions appear in the sixth century: 513, 532. Image: Plan of a house after PAES II B5, p. 253.