756 CE BY NO MEANS MILD QUAKE(S)

Guidoboni et al (1994:370) indicates that this earthquake is referred to in Megas Chronographos 12, but Megas Chronographos 12 refers to the Sabbatical Year Quakes - see Megas Chronographos in the Sabbatical Year Quakes.

• Map showing location of Habura (aka Khabur) River
  Syria 2004 CIA map
  
  Wikipedia - קרלוס הגדול - CC BY-SA 3.0

Guidoboni et al (1994:371) adds the following notes about Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre's account

It has not been possible to identify the site of Habura. The only indication provided by the editor of the text of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tellmahre is a reference to the Thesaurus Syriacus (Payne Smith 1879, I, col.1172), which laconically reports: name of a city.

Habura (aka Khabur) is a tributary of the Euphrates River and is located in northern Mesopotamia (Jazira). Guidoboni et al (1994:370-371) wrote before Harrak (1999)'s translation of Pseudo-Dionysius was available so I will assume that Habura has now been identified as Khabur.

AD 757 Massisa, Kafr-bia

An earthquake damaged Kafr-bia, and probably Misis. This earthquake is known only from a decree Al-Mansur issued for the rebuilding of al-Massisah following an earthquake in a.H. 140 (25 May 757 to 13 May 758). He comments that the inhabitants of the town were ‘not very numerous’. Whether this was due to the earthquake or simply reflected the fact that the town was in decline is not known.

Le Strange adds that Misis was partially destroyed by earthquake a year earlier in a.H. 139 (5 June 756 to 24 May 757); he quotes no authority (Le Strange 1905; Blochet 1895, 554 n. 3).

References

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

〈050〉 757 March 9

• Habura: VII
• Mesopotamia
• Syria
• Palestine

• Surface faulting and liquefaction in Mesopotamia
• Landslide at Mount Tabor

Sources

• Theophanes: A strong earthquake in Syria and Palestine.


• Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysus of Tell-Mahre: A big and terrible shock in the region of Mesopotamia. Near Harbura, three villages fell down.

Seismological compilations

• Guidoboni et al. (1994): 757 March 9, Habura, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia I = IX. A powerful earthquake struck Syria and Palestine on 9 March 757 (Theophanes). In the year 756 on Tuesday 3 March, there was a great, violent and terrible earthquake in the land of Mesopotamia where three villages near Habura collapsed, many people there were crushed and perished (Pseudo-Dionysius).


• Russell (1985): An earthquake by no means mild, affected Palestine and Syria on 9 March 757 (Theophanes).

References

Sbeinati, M. R., R. Darawcheh, and M. Monty (2005). "The historical earthquakes of Syria: An analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C. to 1900 A.D.", Ann. Geophys. 48(3): 347-435.

(250) 9 March 757 Habura, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria

sources 1

• Theoph. 430
• [Dion. Tellmahr.1 2.216

sources 2

• The Great Chronogr. 12

literature

• Payne Smith (1879)
• Russell (1985)
• Whitby and Whitby (1989)

catalogues

• von Hoff (1840)
• Mallet (1853)
• Sieberg (1932 a)
• Amiran (1950-51)
• Grumel (1958)
• Guidoboni (1989)

Theophanes records a strong earthquake in the year of the world 6248 [756-757 A.D.], during the sixteenth year of the reign of Constantine V:

In this year, a powerful earthquake struck Syria and Palestine, on 9 March.

Pseudo-Dionysius of Tellmahre reports collapses in three villages in Mesopotamia:

In the year 1067 [of the Greeks; i.e. 756 A.D.], on Tuesday 3 Adar [March], there was a great, violent and terrible earthquake at midnight in the land of Mesopotamia, and three villages near Habura collapsed. The many people who were there were crushed and perished, like grapes in the press, and many places were destroyed in the earthquake, which took place because of the great number of our sins.

It has not been possible to identify the site of Habura. The only indication provided by the editor of the text of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tellmahre is a reference to the Thesaurus Syriacus (Payne Smith 1879, I, co1.1172), which laconically reports: "name of a city". For problems of dating the sources, see Whitby and Whitby (1989, p.197).

References

Guidoboni, E., et al. (1994). Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean Area up to the 10th Century. Rome, Istituto nazionale di geofisica.

130/747 : earthquake in Châm, in the month of Ramadan (month of May). Several seismic tremors; the most violent earthquake is in Jerusalem; the western and eastern parts of the Dome of the Rock were damaged; numerous victims including many transmitters of traditions of the Prophet (of Medinan origin). The caliph Abû Dja`far al-Mansûr removes the silver and gold plates which covered the doors of the Dome of the Rock since the caliphate of `Abd al-Malik b. Marwan. Dinars and dirhams are minted which will be used to finance the reconstructions⁶⁶.

140/757 : earthquakes in al-Massîsa ; the surrounding wall is weakened. The caliph al-Mansûr decrees the reconstruction of al-Massisa under the responsibility of Djibrayl b. Yahya . The inhabitants of this town were few in number. The wall was rebuilt and the city was called al- Ma`mûra . The construction manager builds a large mosque. He paid the wages of 1000 workers⁶⁷.

158/774 : second earthquake in Jerusalem under the caliphate of al-Mahdî; reconstruction of the Dome of the Rock; the architecture was modified: al-Mahdî had it rebuilt lower and wider⁶⁸.

References

TAHER, M.A. (1996) "Les grandes zones sismiques du monde musul-mans a travers l'histoire. I. L'Orient musulman," Annales Islamologiques 30 (1996): 79-104. - open access

* 756 A.D. calculated date ?

• In Syria and Palestine, a strong earthquake, (Will).


• Between 758 and 775 AD., in Palestine and Syria, in Jerusalem, Aleppo and Antioch, destroyed buildings; strong enough


• 765 (May 3) AD, felt in the North of Syria, damaged buildings in Jerusalem, earthquake associated with faults in the 30.8° N - 33.6° N zone, M_L = 6.2 (BM1) which refers to the descriptions of (Will) above, among others.


• 765 AD Jerusalem, the damaged AI-Aqsa Mosque (BM1)


• 757 AD, 140 AD, the city of Misis, I = VII, (PTAH).


• In the year 140 AD. H, the walls of the city of Misis, which were in poor state because of the earthquakes, were restored by the caliph AL-MANSOUR, and the city was renamed AL-MAMOURAH (TAHA)., NAJA: J = in the interval (23 MAY 757- 13 MAY 758), i.e. the period which corresponds to the year of restoration of the walls, 140 A.H.

References

Abou-Karaki, N. (1987). Synthèse et carte sismotectonique des pays de la bordure Orientale de la Méditerranée: sismicité du système de foilles du Jourdain – Mer Morte, University of Strasbourg, France. Ph.D. Diss.

The Earthquake of March 9, 757

The earthquake of 757 completes the present analysis of earthquakes in Palestine and Arabia through the mid-8th century. Theophanes wrote of this earthquake, In this year, an earthquake. by no means mild, affected Palestine and Syria on the 9th day of the month of March (1839: 662-63). The year referred to was A.M. 6248, which dates the event to March 9, 757.

Further textual documentation of this earth-quake has not been found. Cedrenus, for example. did not record any events at all between June 754 and June 759 (1839: 10-11). Even so, the temporal proximity of this earthquake to Theophanes' own lifetime (ca. 758-817), coupled with his general accuracy and consistency in documenting earlier earthquakes, suggests that sections of ancient Palestine and Syria were indeed affected by an earthquake on March 9, 757, provided that his dating is correct. Whether the Negev, the Jordan Valley, or the regions east of the rift were affected as well cannot be established from this text. No archaeological evidence has yet been correlated with this earthquake.¹⁶

References

• reproduced with permission from Gary Kronk (personal communication,2024)

1P/760 K1 (Halley)

• Discovered: 760 May 15.8 (A=0.94 AU, r=0.59 AU, Elong.=35°)
• Last seen: 760 July
• Closest to the Earth: 760 June 2 (0.4105 AU)
• Calculated path: ARI (Disc), PER (May 22), AUR (May 29), LYN (Jun. 3), CNC (Jun. 6), LEO (Jun. 8), VIR (Jul. 10)

The Chiu T'ang shu (945), T'ang hui yao (961), and Hsin T'ang shu (1060) provide virtually identical details of this appearance of 1P/Halley. The comet is referred to as a "broom star" when it was first seen on 760 May 16 "in the east between Lou [α, β, and γ Arietis] and Wei [35, 39, and 41 Arietis]." The date and location indicate a morning observation, implying a UT of May 15.8. The comet is described as white and about 4° long. The details acquired from the Chiu T'ang shu and Hsin T'ang shu were obtained from the astronomical chapters. It is interesting that the annals of these two texts say the comet was first seen on May 17.

The Chinese accounts say that it moved rapidly toward the northeast. It passed the Mao [the Pleiades], the Pi [α and ε Tauri], the Tsui-Hsi [γ and φ¹ Orionis], the Shen [α, β, γ, δ, ζ, and κ Orionis], the Tung-Ching [γ, ε, ζ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, and 36 Geminorum), the Yu-Kuei [γ, δ, η, and θ Cancri] the Liu [δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ρ, σ, and ω Hydrae], and Hsien-Yuan [α, γ, ε, ζ, η, κ, λ, μ, o, ρ, and 15 Leonis, and α and 38 Lyncis]. It finally moved to the west of the T'ai-wei Enclosure, 7° to the west of Yu-chih-fa [β Virginis], and was extinguished. It lasted for a total of more than 50 days.

The details of the comet's final observation are interesting to examine. First, the statement that the comet remained visible for over 50 days indicates it was still under observation following July 5. Second, although the T'ang hui yao and Hsin T'ang shu say the comet passed within 7° of β Virginis, the Chiu T'ang shu says it passed only 0.7° away. Calculations using the orbit below indicate the comet never passed closer than 3.7° from that star and that this occurred on July 13.

The Byzantine monk Theophanes the Confessor wrote Chronographia around 813 and noted that during Annus Mundi 6252 (759-60), "a very bright comet appeared for ten days in the east and another twenty-one days in the west.".

The Arabic historian Agapius of Manbij (10th century) reported, "In this year the star with a tail appeared, and it was in Aries before the Sun, and the Sun was in Leo. It proceeded until it was under the rays of the sun, then went behind it and stayed 40 days." David Cook (1998) has suggested the observation was actually made by Theophilus of Edessa.

The first person to suggest that this comet was 1P/Halley was P. A. E. Laugier (1846). Although he did not compute an orbit, he said the orbit of that comet could fit the available Chinese observations if the perihelion date was estimated as 760 June 11. J. R. Hind (1850) investigated this apparition and agreed with Laugier's conclusion, right down to the date of perihelion. He said, "The return of the comet in 760 appears to me little short of a certainty." P. H. Cowell and A. C. D. Crommelin (1908) were the first to investigate the long-term orbital motion of 1P/Halley and concluded the perihelion date was 760 June 15. The modern orbital investigations of D. K. Yeomans and T. Kiang (1981), Werner Landgraf (1986), and G. Sitarski (1988) have included the effects of nongravitational forces and have almost unanimously determined the perihelion date as 760 May 20. Calculations using the Yeomans-Kiang orbit below indicate the comet reached at a minimum solar elongation of 2° on April 3 and a maximum solar elongation of 35° on May 17. On June 1 the comet reached another minimum solar elongation (18°), and on June 2, it attained its most northerly declination of +41° (apparent). It reached a maximum solar elongation of 54° on June 22.

T	ω	Ω (2000.0)	i	q	e
760 May 20.671 (UT)	99.997	44.687	163.443	0.58184	0.96785

• ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE: H₁₀=2 (Vsekhsvyatskij, 1964), 4.0 (Kronk)
• FULL MOON: April 5, May 4, June 3, July 3

References

Kronk, Gary W. (1999) Cometography A Catalog of Comets Vol. 1 Ancient-1799: A Catalog of Comets 1 Cambridge University Press - not open access - Cambridge University Press

Williams, J. (2024). "Mid-8th Century CE Seismic Sequences Along the Dead Sea Transform." Annals of Geophysics 67(1): SE101.

Supplemental Appendices for Williams, J. (2024). "Mid-8th Century CE Seismic Sequences Along the Dead Sea Transform." Annals of Geophysics 67(1): SE101.