Editing Fallujah (section)

===Early history and middle ages===
{{main|Anbar (town)|Nehardea}}

The region of Fallujah lies near the ancient [[Sassanid]] Persian town of ''[[Anbar (town)|Anbar]]'', in the Sassanid province of [[Asōristān]] . The word ''anbar'' is [[Persian language|Persian]] and means "warehouse". It was known as '''Firuz Shapur''' or '''Perisapora''' during the [[Sassanian]] Era. There are extensive ruins {{convert|1|mi|km|abbr=on|order=flip|0}} north of Fallujah which are identified with the town of Anbar. Anbar was located at the confluence of the Euphrates River with the King's Canal, today the Saqlawiyah Canal, known in early Islamic times as the [[Nahr Isa]] and in ancient times as the Nahr Malka. Subsequent shifts in the Euphrates River channel have caused it to follow the course of the ancient Pallacottas canal. The town at this site in Jewish sources was known as [[Nehardea]] and was the primary center of [[History of the Jews in Iraq#Babylonia as the center of Judaism|Babylonian Jewry]] until its destruction by the [[Palmyra]]n ruler [[Odenathus]] in 259. The Medieval Jewish traveller [[Benjamin of Tudela]] in 1164 visited "el-Anbar which is [[Pumbeditha]] in [[Nehardea]]" and said it had 3,000 Jews living there.<ref name=Yarshater /><ref>{{Citation|last=Adler |first=Marcus Nathan |author-link=Benjamin of Tudela |title=The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, critical text, translation, and commentary |publisher=Phillip Feldheim Inc. |year=1907 |location=New York City |pages=Chap. 34 p. 53 |url=http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/history/seminar/benjamin/benjamin1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224080505/http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/history/seminar/benjamin/benjamin1.htm |archive-date=24 December 2008}}</ref>

The region played host for several centuries to one of the most important [[Jew]]ish academies, the [[Pumbedita Academy]] in the city of [[Pumbedita]], which from 258 to 1038 along with [[Sura Academy|Sura]] ([[ar-Hira]]) was one of the two most important centers of Jewish learning worldwide.<ref>{{Citation
 |last         = Bacher
 |first        = Wilhelm
 |author-link   = Wilhelm Bacher
 |title        = Academies in Babylonia
 |encyclopedia = [[The Jewish Encyclopedia]]
 |pages        = 145–147
 |publisher    = [[Funk & Wagnalls]]
 |location     = New York
 |year         = 1906
 |url          = http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=710&letter=A
 |access-date   = 21 February 2009
 |lccn         = 16014703
 |url-status      = live
 |archive-url   = https://web.archive.org/web/20081027035855/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=710&letter=A
 |archive-date  = 27 October 2008
 |df           = dmy-all
}}</ref>[[File:Fallujah 1914.jpg|thumb|Fallujah's [[Caravanserai]], ca. 1914|left|242x242px]]Under the [[Ottoman Empire]], Fallujah was a minor stop on one of the country's main roads across the desert west from [[Baghdad]].