Arabissus

Arabissus or Arabissos (Ancient Greek: Ἀραβισσός), also known as Tripotamos, was a town in ancient Cataonia, then Cappadocia, and later in the Roman province of Armenia Secunda.

History

Arabissus in the 5th century

The Byzantine Emperor Maurice was born there in 539 who embellished it during his reign. The town suffered from the earthquake of 584/85 and in July 629, emperor Heraclius met here with Shahrbaraz to arrange terms with Persia to end the ongoing war.

The town belonged to the so-called Armenian Hexapolis and remained under Byzantine control in the seventh century. It suffered much during the wars with the Arabs and became the center of a kleisoura. After Sayf al-Dawla ravaged Arabissos and its environment in his campaigns of 944 and 951, the town was replaced by Plasta.

Location

The town corresponds to present-day Afşin, formerly Yarpuz, in Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Arabissus has in some publications been identified with Gülşehir; however, this connection has been refuted. Gülşehir’s earlier names Arapsun and Yarapson probably derive from the ancient Tripotamos rather than from Arabissos.

A cave of the Seven Sleepers is located in the Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye.

Ecclesiastical history

Arabissus was an episcopal see, a suffragan of Melitene.

Eudoxius of Antioch, the bishop of Antioch, was from Arabissus.

Its diocesan bishops included Otreius, who was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381, and Adolius at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Adelphius, who was a signatory of the 458 letter of the bishops of the province of Armenia II to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian to protest at the murder of Proterius of Alexandria, the writer Leontius, who came later, and Georgius, who was at the Trullan Council of 692. Michael the Syrian mentions several Jacobite Church bishops of Arabissus of the 7th to the 10th centuries. Its titular bishops include Stephen Peter Alencastre (1924–1940).

Arabissus is now a titular see of the Catholic Church.

References

  1. 1 2 Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
  2. 1 2 Foss 1991, p. 149.
  3. ↑ Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 263.
  4. ↑ Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 26.
  5. ↑ Titular Sees ('A')
  6. ↑ Tischler, Johann (1972). "[Review of] Demetrius J. Georgacas: The Names for the Asia Minor Peninsula and a Register of Surviving Anatolian Pre-Turkish Placenames". Türkiyat mecmuası (in German and Turkish). 17. Istanbul: Maarif Matbaası, İstanbul Üniversitesi Türkiyat: 101, 109, 121. Retrieved 31 October 2026. [Translation] P. 101: "Arabisun, -son (Gülşehir): Arabisos, accusative of Arabianos, is misleading in this form and should be rejected. The town of Gülşehir, 38°/34′, is also called Arapsun, earlier Arap'su and Yarapson (cf. Ramsay, HG 287), which probably goes back to the ancient Tripotamos (Ptolemy 5.7.8). The Arabic forms cited by the author certainly also derive from this Tripotamos, even if they may have been reshaped on the model of Arabianos. The accompanying cross-reference, 'cf. Efsus, Yarpuz,' should likewise be rejected, because these names do indeed go back to Arabissos (see below), but lie some 200 km farther east (38°/36′). The absence of any geographical specification, however, creates the impression that they are identical."; P. 109: "'Efsus (now Afşin): Arabissos' is misleading in this form, especially when one reads on p. 121, 'Yarpuz: Arabissos.' The matter is as follows: the ancient Arabissos (38°/36′, i.e., Cappadocia) survives as Yarpuz or Yarpiz (see Hirschfeld, RE II 364), having been distorted through folk etymology; compare Turkish yarpuz, yarpız, 'pennyroyal' (a plant). Among the Arab geographers, by contrast, the town was called Absüs or Afsüs (Streck, RE Supplement II 115), whence Turkish Efsus. This name, however, was probably displaced in recent times by the form Afşin for euphemistic reasons (efsus means 'fault, damage'), since afsun or efsun means 'spell, charm.'"; P. 121: "Yarpuz: Arabissos": One misses the cross-reference to "Efsus," p. 109; for further discussion, see above.
  7. ↑ Georgacas, Demetrius J. (1971). The Names for the Asia Minor Peninsula and a Register of Surviving Anatolian Pre-Turkish Placenames. Beiträge zur Namenforschung. Neue Folge, Beiheft 8. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. p. 136.
  8. ↑ Suda, Eudoxius
  9. ↑ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 441
  10. ↑ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 449-450
  11. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 836

Sources

Attribution

38°14′46″N 36°54′42″E / 38.246013°N 36.911673°E / 38.246013; 36.911673