Resurrecting Ruins

By Nicole Findlay

If not for a chance encounter with two strangers in a Damascus hotel, archaeological ruins dotting the Euphrates River might continue to lie unexplored by visitors to the region.

During a trip to Syria, Greg Fisher, an assistant professor of Greek and Roman Studies in the College of the Humanities, met writers from the Lonely Planet series and struck up a conversation. Upon learning of his expertise in the Roman and Iranian empires in Late Antiquity, the travel guide representatives asked Fisher if he’d write about the lesser-visited ruins, Dura Europos, Zenobia, and Zalabiya. The latter two are located on a remote stretch of the Euphrates.  The result is a section entitled “Greg’s Ruins Rundown”.

While Fisher rues the “cheesy” title, his motive for writing it has less to do with promotion of tourism in than to increase awareness of the ruins that are slowly crumbling into the Euphrates River. Conservation of their archaeological sites is something the Syrian government struggles to find funding for, he explained. 

“Show up at a site and you have often the entire place to yourself,” Fisher said. Aside from some earthquake damage, the sites have changed little since they were abandoned almost two thousand years ago. “Paint is still visible on the walls at Zenobia, for example.”

The ancient fortress-cities are among the best preserved remains of the far-flung Roman Empire.  To expand and solidify their rule, Romans also identified and forged relationships with important local leaders who could rule by proxy. 

Some of these included Christian Arab tribes, and have been the subject of controversy among modern scholars.  While reading the works of Irfan Shahid the most prolific writer on the subject, Fisher found himself at increasing odds with the scholarly findings.

“The history of these tribes was interpreted to support certain modern ideologies and provide a specific explanation of the past” said Fisher. “And, while Islam has played a powerful role in creating a sense of ‘Arabness’, it is clear that before Arabs were Muslims, they had a political identity which was tied to their roles as allies of Rome and the Sasanian Empire of Iran.”  

Fisher’s assertion is controversial because traditionally scholars have focused on the role of Islam in creating Arab identities. However, according to Fisher’s research of two client tribes in particular, the Jafnids and Nasrids, as well as others in the Arabian peninsula, both Romans and the Sasanians played a role in creating Arab identities prior to Islam.

“All the elements were there for the creation of a new force to explode out of the peninsula and accomplish what it did,” said Fisher. “Historians have portrayed this as a conquest that left a huge dividing line but it was actually more of a slow evolution with occasional violent outbursts. The Arabs were already political so it should be no surprise that they became more so.” 

Fisher presents his research findings both in the classroom and in an upcoming book to be published by Oxford University Press later this year.