Rādhān
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Rādhān (or al-Rādhān, Arabic: راذان) was a region in south central Mesopotamia (Iraq) in the early Middle Ages. It was an administrative district under the ʿAbbāsids and also a diocese of the Church of the East. It is also known to have had a Jewish population and was probably the country of origin of the Rādhānite merchants. The name, however, does not appear in any Hebrew texts.[1]
The exact location of Rādhān is not certain, but it was not far from Baghdad. It may have been roughly the same as the area known since the later Middle Ages as the Sawād, a fertile territory southeast of Baghdad on the eastern bank of the Tigris.[1] Other authorities place it north of Baghdad, still east of the Tigris[2] or further south of Baghdad and west of the Tigris in the region of Maishan.[3]
Cities that have been located in Rādhān include al-Madāʾin (ancient Seleucia-Ctesiphon), Dastagird, Baʿqūbā, Nahrwān, ʿUkbarā and Kilwādhā (now the eastern part of Baghdad).[1]