The regions of southern Turkey and northern Syria were subjected to a devastating earthquake on February 6, 2023, with a high seismic force estimated at 7.8 on the Richter scale, in addition to more than 1,300 aftershocks, at a rate of one every 3 to 5 minutes, which left tens of thousands dead and injured, and millions more. Their homes were destroyed and destroyed.
It is noteworthy that these affected areas fall within the scope of what is known as the "East Anatolian Fault", which is a tectonic border area between two plates of the earth's crust, the Anatolian plate and the Arabian plate, and when these two plates are under contact, their friction causes catastrophic results such as those we saw in the recent earthquake. .
This is from a scientific descriptive point of view, but what is remarkable is that Arab and Turkish historians have monitored the occurrence of dozens of earthquakes in this region for more than 13 centuries. The first century to the thirteenth century AD”[1], counting 80 earthquakes during that period, with an average of 6 earthquakes per century, that is, an earthquake every 15 to 16 years;
However, to this day, seismologists are still unable to predict the exact times of earthquakes by day and hour.
It seems that the number of earthquakes that occurred in these regions was much greater than what the researcher mentioned above. For example, the historian Ibn al-Qalanisi records in his "History of Damascus" about 13 major earthquakes in the Levant and the Jazira, i.e. the regions of southern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine today, in The period between 460 AH and 554 AH;
What suggests to us that the number of major and destructive earthquakes that struck the region over the course of 13 centuries may have exceeded 170, which is a huge and large number and corresponds to the nature of the seismic region[2].
The affected areas fall within the range of what is known as the "East Anatolian Fault", which is a tectonic boundary zone between two plates of the earth's crust, the Anatolian Plate and the Arabian Plate.
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This observation tells us that the history of earthquakes in the Levant and Anatolia received special attention in the sources of Islamic and Arab history from the era of the Prophethood and the Rightly Guided Caliphate until the time of the Ottoman Empire. Transport, and we see the seriousness of natural disasters in these areas for more than 1,300 years, with the appalling human and urban losses.
Earthquakes changed the course of history
During the conquests of the Levant, the country was exposed to two earthquakes, the first of which was in the year 13 AH, from which Palestine was severely damaged, and after which epidemics and diseases spread, and the second in the year 15 AH, from which the city of Homs was damaged, and other earthquakes occurred in Palestine in the year 39 AH and the year 43 AH, as Another major earthquake occurred in the Levant, especially in the regions north of Aleppo, but the most dangerous of these earthquakes occurred in the year 130 AH / 748 CE and led to the killing of tens of thousands of people in the Levant and Palestine, so that many of the Ansar coming from Medina who settled in the Levant and Palestine Specifically have perished in this earthquake.
The golden historian, who is a Levantine, tells us, quoting the narrators of his news, saying: “When the shiver that occurred in the Levant in the year 133, it was most of it in Jerusalem, many of those who were in it from the Ansar and others perished, and the house of Shaddad bin Aws fell on those who were with him, and Muhammad bin Shaddad greeted And his luggage was gone.”[3] And Shaddad bin Aws was one of the heads of the companions of the Ansar, and his son Muhammad was one of the senior followers.
In the following year, a major earthquake struck the Levant, with Damascus in the heart of it, and we note that these two major earthquakes that destroyed entire cities and killed thousands of people occurred in the last two years of the Umayyad dynasty, and there is no doubt that the occurrence of such major disasters with what the state was going through The Umayyads from an internal struggle and an external struggle against the Abbasids hastened the demise of this state.
In the next century, we will notice that the earthquakes that occurred in the northern and then southern Levant were in the cities of Al-Mossa, Antioch, Raha, Raqqa, Harran, Ras Al-Ain, Homs, Damascus, Tarsus, Adana and Lattakia. Whole cities, or as he says: “There was no house left of it but it was destroyed, and only a few remained of its people” [4].
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As for the third century AH / ninth century AD, it witnessed 8 major earthquakes in the whole of the Levant, from southern Turkey to Palestine today, which caused heavy losses in lives, money and buildings. During it, entire cities in Palestine, and historians monitored for the first time the occurrence of a huge "tsunami" that flooded the entire Palestinian coast.
Ibn al-Jawzi says that this earthquake affected the entire regions of Palestine until the city of Ramla and its villages were demolished. to his condition" [5].
Ibn Katheer narrates that people took advantage of the state of sea water “islands” retreating after this great earthquake, and they descended to its depth after valuable things such as jewels, money, etc. became clear to them, but it was not a short time until he “returned to them and destroyed many of them or most of them”[6].
It appears that the epicenter of this earthquake was in the southeastern Mediterranean.
As for the historian Ibn al-Qalanisi, he narrates in his book “The History of Damascus” some of the effects of this great catastrophe that occurred in Palestine and Syria close by, and the death of most people under the rubble. One of them because of the destruction of their families, and that the water came out of the mouths of the wells due to the greatness of the earthquake, and about 100 souls perished in Baniyas under the rubble, as well as in Jerusalem.”[7]
There is no doubt that the impact of this huge earthquake extended to the Levant in Syria and southern Turkey today, and it is part of a series of earthquakes that occurred due to the great eastern Anatolian fault, as we note, and it caused horrific losses to the extent that the Byzantine emperor exploited it in the countries of the Romans (Turkey and Eastern Europe). Today) the Muslims preoccupied themselves with this disaster, so he attacked them in the regions of southern Turkey and northern Syria, which represented a border between the two states at the time, “and the Muslims marched to him, so the Muslims were defeated and a group of them was killed, and the villages and villages between the Roman country and Manbij were burned, and their men were killed, and their women were taken captive. And the people of Aleppo feared greatly.”[8], And had it not been for the interruption of supplies and supplies and the distance between him and his capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), he would have taken advantage of the opportunity and occupied all of the Levant and killed its people.
However, if we reflect on such a huge earthquake that changed the shape of urban conditions and caused huge deaths in the entire Levant, we will notice that the Roman Emperor "Romanos" who took advantage of the earthquake to deceive the Muslims was deceived by his power a few years later when he decided to go out with his armies and equipment to eliminate On the emerging Seljuk power in the region at the time, led by Sultan Alp Arslan, the famous Battle of Manzikert took place in 463 AH / 1071 AD, in which the Seljuks crushed the Byzantines, captured Romanos, and set out to control all of Anatolia until they reached the Sea of Marmara, separated from Istanbul only by the Bosphorus Bay, and this It is the second time in Islamic history that we see the strong and huge impact of earthquakes in some way changing a stable political system in the region in the case of the Byzantine state, as we saw it before with the Umayyad state.
13 earthquakes in a century
As we mentioned above, we monitored with Ibn al-Qalanisi, the historian of the Levant at this stage for nearly a century, in the period between 1068-1161 AD, thirteen major and devastating earthquakes in different regions of the far north of Levantine and the Jazira, in areas such as Malatya, Raha, Gantab, Marash, Antioch and Adana, passing through Aleppo and Hama. And Homs and even Damascus and then Hauran "Daraa", as well as the entire cities of Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea in the north through Jerusalem and Nablus and even Ayla or Eilat on the coast of the Red Sea in the south;
This confirms to us the extent of the activity of the Eastern Anatolian Fault and its seriousness.
Just as the earthquakes of the years 130 and 460 AH were among the most influential and destructive earthquakes, the earthquake of 552 AH / 1157 CE was one of the most dangerous earthquakes in the Levant in light of the Islamic-Crusader conflict at that time, as it occurred in the regions of Antioch, Shaizar, Aleppo, Homs, Baarin, Tripoli, the Levant, Sidon, Beirut, Acre, Lattakia, Apamea, and others. In his famous biography, "Al-Etibar", Prince Knight Osama bin Munqith provides us with tragic details about this earthquake that destroyed their city and the seat of their rule, Shaizar, which today belongs to the Syrian governorate of Hama. Bin Munqidh, Osama’s cousin, had prepared a big feast on the occasion of his son’s circumcision, so all the family of Banu Munqidh gathered with him to celebrate, but fate did not give them time. Nights in a terrifying and disturbing manner [9].
In her study on "Earthquakes in the Levant in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries A.D.," Hoda Al-Waisi monitors the negative economic and social impact that these earthquakes had on Muslims and Crusaders, and confirms that they were a direct cause in changing the course of events. Instead of attacking, earthquakes were a cause. In adopting the defensive strategy, and the retreat of the two parties to their afflictions, and the shortage of the number of fighters and manpower, and the ruin of agriculture, and the spread of diseases and epidemics, and then the occurrence of famines that coincided with these earthquakes, as happened in the city of Edessa and Antioch in the earthquakes of the years 507 AH, 508 AH, and 512 AH, and the earthquake in the year 533 AH that coincided With it, large swarms of locusts and mice appear [10].
Deadly earthquakes in the Ottoman era
The earthquake of 1509 AD was one of the strongest and most severe earthquakes that occurred in the new Ottoman capital, Istanbul.
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The earthquakes continued with their strength and intensity throughout the following Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras, and the earthquake of 1509 AD is considered one of the strongest and most severe earthquakes that occurred in the new Ottoman capital Istanbul, and its impact extended to the depth of Anatolia and northern Syria, and its aftershocks lasted 45 days, and it was described by some historians and travelers such as Nasuh Mutarji And Olia Shalaby and others that it was like the "Little Resurrection", in which Istanbul alone lost about 10% of its population, and many researchers monitor other earthquakes throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, some of which reached a magnitude of 7.8 degrees, compared to the size of the devastation that occurred in the cities of southern and central Anatolia, There is no doubt that earthquakes occurred in the regions of Sivas and Amasya, and their impact will extend to the north of the Levant and southern Turkey [11].
Historians and researchers continue to monitor the earthquakes that hit the region, as the Shami historian and Captain of the Ashraf, "Muhammad Khalil al-Muradi" mentions in his history "Silk Pearls in the Notables of the Twelfth Century" a remarkable description that we will mention in full due to its importance about the great catastrophe that occurred with the earthquake in 1073 AH / 1663 CE, saying: "An earthquake occurred in Damascus in the year one hundred and seventy-three on the night of Tuesday, the eighth of Rabi` al-Awwal, before dawn, and it reached Jerusalem, Gaza, those areas, Sidon, Safed, and all the countries of the Levant coast, Homs, Hama, Shaizar, Hisn al-Akrad, Antioch, and Aleppo, and it reached every week twice and thrice until Monday night, the sixth of Rabi` al-Thani of the aforementioned year. Then, after completing the last evening prayer, all of the aforementioned places were destroyed, and three staircases were erected in Damascus, and most of Damascus, Antioch, Sidon, Al-Bureij Castle, and Hasiya were ruined. The earthquakes are connected to the end of the aforementioned year, and this was followed in Damascus before the end of the year by a severe plague, and its villages and surroundings spread, and most of its mosques were reconstructed from the wills of the dead, and the Damascus mosque, the Citadel and the Sulaymaniyah hospice were rebuilt with funds disbursed from the sack of the Ottoman state.”[12]
We understand from the text above that earthquakes until the seventeenth century and even the beginning of the twentieth century before technological development and urgent medical intervention were accompanied by the occurrence of diseases and epidemics, and that the aftershocks of earthquakes that occurred since ancient times on the eastern and southern Anatolian rift continued for long periods of time, and were influential and dangerous. In the entire regions of southern Turkey, the whole of the Levant, and even Palestine, and it is a historical narrative that we have support for from all the sources that preceded it for centuries.
Therefore, we notice in those earthquakes that occurred in the north of the Levant and south of Anatolia that they follow each other and successively, and we also notice a large amount of accompanying losses, as happened in the famous earthquake that struck the regions of Antioch and Aleppo in August 1822 AD during the time of the Ottoman Empire as well, and what occurred Approximately 20 thousand dead and hundreds of thousands wounded, and caused great devastation in the cities of Antioch, Aleppo, and others, and the aftershocks of these earthquakes caused heavy losses, which were recorded by the French consul in the city of Aleppo at the time, saying that it is not possible to imagine the magnitude of fear and panic that afflicted them in the aftershocks of the earthquake, let alone the earthquake itself. And the size of death that spread everywhere [13].
Thus, we can say, based on the above, that the regions located between eastern and southern central and southern Anatolia, the northern Levant, and even the southern regions are all connected to each other due to the friction of the Arabian plate with Anatolia, and we can also notice that an earthquake occurs in these regions every 10 to 15 years, More or less, and there is no doubt that the recent earthquake that occurred in 10 states in southern Turkey and its devastating impact spread to all regions of northern Syria and left more than 20 thousand dead and tens of thousands injured so far, is one of this endless series of earthquakes that it is exposed to. This region from ancient times to the present day.
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Sources:
[1] Khaled Al-Khalidi: Earthquakes in the Levant from the first century to the thirteenth century AD, Journal of the Islamic University, Gaza, January 2005, p. 67.
[2] Ibn al-Qalanisi: History of Damascus, p. 159.
[3] Al-Dhahabi: History of Islam 8/29.
[4] Ibn Katheer: The Beginning and the End 10/346.
[5] Ibn al-Jawzi: al-Muntazim fi Akhbar al-Ummun 16/116.
[6] Ibn Katheer: Previous
[7] Ibn al-Qalanisi: Previous.
[8] Ibn Al-Jawzi: Previous.
[9] Osama bin Munqith: Consideration, the investigator’s introduction, p. 7.
[10] Huda Muhammad Al-Waisi: Earthquakes in the Levant in the 12th-13th Centuries AD, p. 122.
[11] Özcen Tatar ve Suha Baytimur, 1789-1808 YILLARI ARASINDA OSMANLI DEVLETİ'NDE DEPREMLER VE METEOROLOJİK ÂFETLER, s506,507.
[12] Al-Muradi: Silk Al-Durar 3/82.
[13] Osmanlı donemi 1822'de büyük Antakya depreminde 20 bin kişi yaşamını yitirdi