Bālis was a city located on the western bank of the Euphrates, to the west of al-Raqqa, in present-day Syria. The Romans called it Barbalissos but its roots are in the Hittite settlement of Emar. Its location at a bend in the Euphrates close to Aleppo made it a natural entrepôt between the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and the riparian trade towards and into the Gulf. According to the third/ninth-century historian al-Balādhurī, around 14/636 the city surrendered to the Arab armies under the