Amida (Mesopotamia)
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Amida ( el, Ἄμιδα, syr, ܐܡܝܕ, ku, Amed) was an ancient city in
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
located where modern
Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
now stands. The city was located on the right bank of the
Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
. The walls are lofty and substantial, and constructed of the recycled stones from older buildings.


History

Amid(a) was established as an
Aramean The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...
settlement, circa the 3rd millennium BC, later as the capital of
Bit-Zamani Bit-Zamani is an ancient Aramean state in northern Mesopotamia, located within the mountainous region of Tur Abdin. In Bit-Zamani was the city of Amida (Amedu, modern Diyarbakır). It was one of the four Aramean states that bordered Assyria. The ...
. The oldest artefact from Amida is the famous
stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
of king Naram-Sin also believed to be from third millennia BC. The name Amida first appears in the writings of Assyrian King Adad-nirari I (C. 1310 -1281 BC) who ruled the city as a part of the Assyrian homeland. Amida remained an important region of the Assyrian homeland throughout the reign of king
Tiglath-Pileser I Tiglath-Pileser I (; from the Hebraic form of akk, , Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "my trust is in the son of Ešarra") was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period (1114–1076 BC). According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of ...
(1114–1076 BC) and the name Amida appeared in the annals of Assyrian rulers until 705 BC, and also appears in the archives of Armenian king Tiridates II in 305 AD, and the Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...
(325–391 AD). It was enlarged and strengthened by
Constantius II Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...
, in whose reign it was besieged and taken after seventy-three days by the
Sassanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
king
Shapur II Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigne ...
(359). The Roman soldiers and a large part of the population of the town were massacred by the Persians. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who took part in the defence of the town, has given a minute account of the siege. The Persians did not attempt to garrison the city after the siege. Amida was besieged by the Sassanid king
Kavadh I Kavad I ( pal, 𐭪𐭥𐭠𐭲 ; 473 – 13 September 531) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 488 to 531, with a two or three-year interruption. A son of Peroz I (), he was crowned by the nobles to replace his deposed and unpopular un ...
during the
Anastasian War The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the t ...
through the autumn and winter (502-503). The siege of the city proved to be a far more difficult enterprise than Kavadh expected; the defenders, although unsupported by troops, repelled the Sassanid assaults for three months before they were finally beaten. Part of the prisoners of Amida were deported to
Arrajan Arrajan (Argan) was a medieval Persian city located between Fars and Khuzestan, which was settled since Elam period and an important in the Sasanian period until the 11th century. It was the capital of a medieval province of the same name, which ...
, a city refounded by Kavad I, who then named it "Weh-az-Amid-Kawad" (literally, "better than Amida, Kavad uilt this. During that same war, the Romans attempted an ultimately unsuccessful siege of the Persian-held Amida, led by generals Patricius and Hypatius. In 504, however, the Byzantines reconquered the city, and
Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
repaired its walls and fortifications.Procopius, ''De aedificcis'', ii. 3. 27. The Sassanids captured the city for a third time in 602 and held it for more than twenty years. In 628 the Roman emperor
Heraclius Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was List of Byzantine emperors, Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exa ...
recovered Amida. Finally, in 639 the city was captured by the
Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
armies of
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and it remained in Arab hands until the
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...
dynasty of the
Marwanids Marwanids may refer to: * Marwanids (Diyar Bakr), a Kurdish dynasty that ruled in Diyar Bakr in the 10th–11th centuries * Marwanids, a branch of the Umayyad dynasty Umayyad dynasty ( ar, بَنُو أُمَيَّةَ, Banū Umayya, Sons of Um ...
ruled the area during the 10th and 11th centuries. In 1085, the
Seljuq Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...
captured the region from the Marwanids, and they settled many
Turcomans Turkoman ( Middle Turkic: تُركْمانْ, ota, تركمن, Türkmen and ''Türkmân''; az, Türkman and ', tr, Türkmen, tk, Türkmen, Persian: ترکمن sing. ''Turkamān'', pl. ''Tarākimah''), also called Turcoman and Turkman, is a ter ...
in the region. However, the
Ayyubids The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...
received the city from their vassal State the Artiquids in 1232, and the city ruled by them until the Mongolian
Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm, ...
captured the city in 1259. Later the Ayyubids of hasankeyf Took back the city and ruled it until it was sacked by the
Timurid Empire The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani (Chagatai language, Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Tu ...
in 1394. Yavuz Sultan Selim, the Ottoman Emperor received the city from the
Safavids Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
in 1515. Amida is a diocese of several Christian denominations; for the ecclesiastical history of Amida and Diyarbakir, see the Diyarbakır article.


See also

*
Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
* Siege of Amida *
Ephraim of Antioch Saint Ephraim of Antioch ( el, Άγιος Εφραίμ ο Αντιοχείας), also known as Saint Ephraim of Amida ( el, Άγιος Εφραίμ o Ἀμίδιος, Syriac language, Syriac: ܐܦܪܝܡ ܐܡܕܝܐ), was the Patriarch of Antioch, ...
, Church Father born in Amida


Notes


References

* George Long, "Amida", in William Smith, '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'', Volume 1, Walton & Maberly, 1854, p. 122. * * Matthew Bennett, "Amida", ''The Hutchinson dictionary of ancient & medieval warfare'', Taylor & Francis, 1998, , p. 13. {{Former settlements in Turkey Roman towns and cities in Turkey History of Diyarbakır Catholic titular sees in Asia Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Populated places in ancient Upper Mesopotamia