Hadath

Al-Ḥadath al-Ḥamrā

Arabic: الحدث الحمراء‎‎
Shown within Turkey
Alternate name	Adata
Location	Turkey
Region	Kahramanmaraş Province
Coordinates	37°42′25″N 37°27′36″E / 37.707°N 37.460°E / 37.707; 37.460

Al-Ḥadath al-Ḥamrā' (Arabic for "Hadath the Red") or Adata (Greek: Ἃδατα) was a town and fortress near the Taurus Mountains (modern southeastern Turkey), which played an important role in the Byzantine–Arab Wars.

The town was located at ca. 1000 m altitude on the southern feet of the Taurus-Antitaurus range, near the upper course of the Aksu River in the Gölbaşı district. Its exact location has been lost, and it has been variously identified with locations north or south of Inekli lake.

Hadath became important in the early Middle Ages due to its strategic location: it was located in the fortified frontier zone, the Thughūr, that separated the Umayyad and Abbasid empires from the Byzantine Empire. The town lay to the southwest of the important Pass of Hadath/Adata (darb al-Ḥadath) which led over the Taurus into Byzantine Anatolia, but was also situated between the two major frontier strongholds of Marash/Germanikeia (mod. Kahramanmaraş) and Malatya/Melitene, and controlled passage from northern Mesopotamia to western Armenia. As such, it became a major base for the frequent Muslim invasions and raids into Byzantine territories, and was often targeted by the Byzantines in return.

It was conquered by the Arabs under Habib ibn Maslama during the reign of Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), and became a base for the annual invasions launched against Byzantine Anatolia under the Caliph Muawiyah (r. 661–680). The Byzantines reclaimed the city in the 750s but did not reoccupy it permanently. In 778, the Byzantine general Michael Lachanodrakon sacked the city, but it was immediately rebuilt by Caliph Al-Mahdi (r. 775–785). Mahdi renamed it al-Mahdiya or al-Muhammadiya on this occasion, but these names failed to catch on. Mahdi's successor Al-Hadi further repopulated the city with people from the surrounding region, but in the winter of 786, floods caused heavy damage to the city walls, which had been hastily rebuilt of sun-dried bricks. The Byzantine strategos of the Armeniacs, Nikephoros, learned of this and destroyed the city, burning it to the ground.