Anbar

Anbar, also called Massice or Fairuz Sapur, ancient Mesopotamian town located on the left bank of the Euphrates River, just north of the modern city of Fallujah and downstream from Al-Ramādī, in central Iraq. Originally called Massice and Fairuz Sapur (Pērōz-Shāpūr), it was destroyed by the Roman emperor Julian in 363 ce. The town was rebuilt and became known from at least the 6th century as Anbar (from Arabic Al-Anbār, “The Storehouses”). Jews from the academy of Pumbeditha took refuge there from Sasanian persecution in 588, and it became a Jewish centre. Anbar was the residence of the Abbasid caliphs from the beginning of that caliphate (750) until the founding of Baghdad (762).