Armenia 100 Years Ago

[abcdefghij]

My Britannica which is much more recent than the above does have the monograph very similar, particularly the above paragraph is verbatim.

Note the highlight above.

It lends to a slight misconception. I say "slight" for a reason. Reading the above one would get the impression that Diayarbakir and Tigranakert are the same. There is a sizable diasporan community that idetify themselves as Dikrangerdtsi/Tigranakert-tsi and leave the impression that  they are in fact from Tigranakert. Amid and Tigranakert were never the same. However there may be a valid reason why they do that. When Tigranakert (built by Tigran the Great) was finally destroyed many of its inhabitants were absorbed into the region of Diyarbakir, they not only brought the name with them they also continued to speak with the distinct dialect of Tigranakert. Many still do. The reason why I said "slight" misconception.

There is very little about Tigranakert except that it was located several tens of miles NW of Diyarbakir, best estimation is that it may have been where the Turkish town of Silvan is now. In fact it is said that several years ago the ruins could still be seen there. Before Tigran had his capital city built the place was  known as the Town of Np(h)rkert, or Nrp(h)rkert.

Who and what is Np(h)r? Nephertiti?

Sme time ago a forumer had advanced the question if Antioch was not also a capital of Armenia (see the thread of "Mayraqaghaq" ) That impression arises from the fact that during the height of his conquest Tigran II was stationed at Antioch and he considered to make it his royal seat but decided agianst it considering the distance from the heart of Armenia.

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

Diyarbekir's Ulu Cami has what most modern books say is a "complicated building history" - i.e. they don't know exactly when it was built! It's built out of so much reused Classical and Byzantine masonry (and which is reused in a sort of pseudo-Classical style) that in the 19th century the whole structure was thought to have been a converted Roman-period palace, which might be where that palace of Tigranes statement originated from. But the Tigranes connection is not believed any more, as far as I know. The mosque might date back to the 7th century.

 

The original Tigranakert is probably (almost certainly) Arzen. It's to the SE of Silvan, and a long way east of Diyarbekir. I've read that the ruins were all deliberately destroyed in the 1970s and that nothing much is left now. The whole area, being Kurdish, was closed to travellers until recently - so I've never been there. The only proper description of the place was published in 1865 (Taylor - Journal of the Geographical Society, vol35, 1865). Of course, since the 1920s, no career archaeologist ever went there because of its Armenian connection.

[abcdefghij]

I've got a photocopy of that 1865 description of Arzen - I'll try to scan it, and post it later.

[abcdefghijk]

For Arzen see my posting "The Original Tigranakert".

 

Steve

[abcdefghijk]

VAN

 

Van occupies the site of Dhuspas, of which the native name was Biainas (Assyrian, Urardhu), the Byana of Ptolemy and the Ivan of Cedrenus, whence the modern Van. Dhuspas, the Thospia of Ptolemy, gave its name to the district of Thospitis, the modern Thosp. The Biainian dynasty, of which Sarduris I. (c. 833 B.C.) was the first king, died out with Sarduris II, who in 645 B.C. entered into an alliance with Assur-banipal. Inscriptions of nearly all the kings exist, and the various excavations at Toprak Kale show an advanced state of civilization and great technical skill (see illustrations in Maspero's Histoire ancienne, vol. iii, Les Empires).

 

In the 6th century B.C. Van passed into the hands of the Persians, and shortly before it fell to Alexander the Great it was rebuilt, according to Armenian historians, by a native prince called Van. In 149 B.C. Valarsaces or Vaghar-shag, the first Armenian king of the Arsacidae, rebuilt the town, and a colony of Jews was settled in it by Tigranes (94-56 B.C.). In the middle of the 4th century A.D. it was taken by Sapor (Shapur) II, and became the capital of an autonomous province of the Sassanian Empire, until it fell into the hands of the Arabs (c. 640), under whom it regained its autonomy.

 

About 908 the governor of Van or Vaspuragan was crowned king by the caliph Moktadir, and in 1021 his descendant Senekherim was persuaded by Basil II to exchange his kingdom for the viceroyalty of the Sebasteian theme. After having formed part of the possessions of the Seljuks, Mongols, Tatars and Persians, Van passed in 1514, after the defeat of Shah Ismail by Selim I. at the battle of Kalderan, to the Osmanlis, who only occupied the town in 1543. In 1636 it was taken by the Persians, but soon recovered. In 1845 the town was held for a time by the Kurd chief Khan Mahmud, who eventually surrendered and was exiled.

 

The vilayet of Van lies along the Persian frontier between the vilayets of Erzerum and Mosul. The northern sanjak comprises open plateau country N. and E. of the lake (with a large Armenian agricultural population and Kurdish semi-nomad tribes occupied chiefly in cattle and sheep raising), also of several fertile districts along the south shore of the lake. The southern sanjak is entirely mountainous, little developed and having the tribes only partly under government control. This comprises most of the upper basin of the Great Zab, with the country of the Nestorian Christians and many districts inhabited by Kurdish tribes, some of them large nomad tribes who descend for the winter to the plains of the Tigris.

 

The mineral wealth of the vilayet has never been fully explored, but is believed to be great. There are petroleum springs at Kordzot, deposits of lignite at Sivan and Nurduz, several hot springs at Zilan Deresi and Julamerk. Excellent tobacco is grown in Shemsdinan for export to Persia. The trade of Van has declined; European goods, with which the bazaars are fairly well supplied, come from Trebizond through Erzerum. There is a fair local trade in wheat and agricultural produce, also sheep and cattle, wool, hides and furs for export. A thick woollen cloth called shayak, coarse cotton chintzes and a kind of soap prepared from the efflorescences of the lake, with dried and salted fish, are also produced.

 

The cuneiform inscriptions of Van are very numerous, the town having been the capital of the Vannic kingdom of the Assyrian period. At the end of the Gardens is the rocky mass of Toprak Kale, on which was a fire temple and altar; near it is the Meker Kapusi ("Door of Mithridates"), a large inscribed slab of rock with the names of several deities. On the citadel rock are several inscriptions, the principal being a trilingual one of Xerxes on the southern face. Many other inscribed stones and tablets have been found built into modern buildings, while the excavation of a mound brought to light relics of a stone age.

 

 

LAKE VAN, called Arsissa Palus and also Thospitis from its Armenian names, is roughly rectangular 55 miles long and 40 broad, with a long north-eastern arm which increases the greatest length to 80 miles. It stands about 5260 feet above sealevel. It is without an outlet, and its greatest depth is along the southern shore. It has constant steady fluctuations, rising and falling some 8 feet in a periodic movement of five years. In the middle of the l0th century a sudden rise submerged several places on the banks, including Arjish Kale, and the waters did not again subside. The north-eastern arm is much shallower than the rest. The water is bitter and undrinkable, being largely impregnated with carbonate and sulphate of soda with some borax. The salts are evaporated in pans, and called perek, being sold for washing purposes. There is, however, good water along the coast from springs and streams.

 

The lake has been navigated from the earliest times, and about 80 sailing boats, carrying about 20 tons burden, now ply on it, chiefly with wheat and firewood. Severe storms make navigation dangerous in winter. The southern shore is fringed by a steep range of mountains, with several thriving villages along the coast. The hills have now been almost denuded of trees. At the southeastern corner is the island of Akhtamar with its ancient church, erected (c. 928) by Gagig, first king of the Ardzrunian dynasty. The Catholicos of Akhtamar is one of the highest offices in the Armenian Church, and dates from 1113. The small islands of Lim and Gdutz have also monasteries and churches. Large numbers of darekh, a kind of herring, exist in the lake, and are caught in nets from boats or when they enter the shallow lagoons in the spring and summer. Either fresh or salted they form an important article of diet of the poorer people.

[abcdefghijk]

CAESAREA MAZACA (modern Kaisarieh)

 

The chief town of a sanjak in the Angora vilayet of Asia Minor. Mazaca was the residence of the kings of Cappadocia, later called Eusebea (perhaps after Ariarathes Eusebes), and named Caesarea probably by Claudius. It stood on a low spur on the north side of Erjies Dagh (Mt. Argaeus). The site, now called Eski-shehr, shows only a few traces of the old town. It was taken by Tigranes anddestroyed by the Persian king Shapur (Sapor) I. after his defeat of Valerian in A.D. 260.

 

At this time it is stated to have contained 400,000 inhabitants. In the 4th century Basil, when bishop, established an ecclesiastical centre on the plain, about 1 mile to the north-east, and this gradually supplanted the old town. A portion of Basil’s new city was surrounded with strong walls and turned into a fortress by Justinian; and within the walls, rebuilt in the 13th and 16th centuries, lies the greater part of Kaisarieh, at an altitude of 3500 ft.

 

The town was captured by the Seljuk sultan, Alp Arslan, in 1064, and by the Mongols in 1243, before passing to the Osmanli Turks. Its geographical situation has made it a place of commercial importance throughout history. It lay on the ancient trade route from Sinope to the Euphrates, on the Persian Royal Road from Sardis to Susa, and on the great Roman highway from Ephesus to the East. It is still the most important trade centre in eastern Asia Minor. The town is noted for its fruit, especially its vines; and it exports tissues, carpets, hides, yellow berries and dried fruit, Kaisarieh is the headquarters of the American mission in Cappadocia, which has several churches and schools for boys and girls and does splendid medical work. It is the seat of a Greek bishop, an Armenian archbishop and a Roman Catholic bishop, and there is a Jesuit school. On the 30th of November 1895 there was a massacre of Armenians, in which several Gregorian priests and Protestant pastors lost their lives.

 

The population, according to Cuinet, is 71,000 (of whom 26,000 are Christians). Sir C. Wilson gave it as 50,000 (23,000 Christians).

[Arpa]

CAESAREA MAZACA (modern Kaisarieh)

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

 

Mazaca huh!

 

I had posted the following about a year ago, it may be worthwhile to revisit;

http://hyeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=6953&pid=55279&st=0&

 

Mazhak/Kesaria

Some of the common names; Mazhaq, Kayseri, Ghayseri, Caesaria

A city in what was once known as Cappadocia, at the convergence of the River Alis(Kizil Irmak)and the Karasu stream.

It has been a Cappadocian city since antiquity. Acccording to Khorenatsi King Aram of the Armenians assigned his brother Mshak as governor to that city hence the traditional Armenian name Mazhak. According to Greek legend the city was founded by Ariarat IV during the 2nd millennium BC. During the 6th c BC the the Medes (marastantsis) invaded the city kingdom , and later the Seleucians did the same. During the 3rd c BC the city gained its independence once again ruled by the Ariarat dynasty. At different times the city was also known as Eusebia. In the year 17 AD Mazhak became a province of the Roman empire and it was renamed in honor of Caesar Caius Julius Octavian as simply Caesaria. In the 1022 the Byzantine emperor Basil II granted the city to Prine David Artsruni of Sebastia who in turn granted the city to his son in law Gagik II Bagratuni. In 1065 King Gagik Abasian to save the city (I think we are talking about Ani here)from Seljuk attacks granted the country to the Byzantian emperor Lucas (1059-1067) for which he received the City of Mazhak back. Due to this many Armenians moved to Kesaria, but in 1073 the Seljuks attacked and conquered it. During the 11th c. the Armenian population reached its highest level , so much so that an Armenian diocese of Mazhak was created. During this time Kesaria also reached its zenith of prosperity as it became a main hub of trade for all the merchants from Kilikia, Assyria, Constantinople, Trabzon etc. (Now do you see why the Kesaratsis are also know as Armenian Jews? Remember all those jokes about them?) Even if the city hd always been densely populated, during the 12th and 13th c their numbers had so grown, including the Armenians that the Catholikoi would be installed and enthroned in Mazhak. Of the some 60,000 inhabitants in 1915 20,000 were Armenian.

It would be extraneous to state that the Armenians of Kesaria were prosperous and very entrepreunorial. They still are even here in America. Of course the King of Apukht( some may know it as Basturma) is an Armenian of Pougkeepsie NY

 

Of course I would be amiss not to mention that Mazhak has some very important Armenian connections besides the above mentioned.

 

Grigor the Illuminator was spirited as an infant to Kesaria when his father Anak was assassinated, that is where he became a Christian and was consecrated as Bishop.

[Nakharar]

Steve, I'm surprised that you still haven't lost your interest about all things Armenian considering that instead of getting acknowledgment and appreciation you are subjected to this atrocious behavior. All the best.

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

Steve, I'm surprised that you still haven't lost your interest about all things Armenian considering that instead of getting acknowledgment and appreciation you are subjected to this atrocious behavior. All the best.

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

Thanks Nakharar. If the behavior were from some Turks then it might be understandable, though, actually - I don't think that most Turks would act in such a dishonourable way.

 

Steve

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

In the 1022 the Byzantine emperor Basil II granted the city to Prine David Artsruni of Sebastia who in turn granted the city to his son in law Gagik II Bagratuni. In 1065 King Gagik Abasian to save the city (I think we are talking about Ani here)from Seljuk attacks granted the country to the Byzantian emperor Lucas (1059-1067) for which he received the City of Mazhak back.

 

Sorry Arpa - looking back at my reply to your original thread I've written that the Gagik in question was actually the King of Kars. Actually I was wrong and you are right - it was Gagik II, the last Bagratid king of Ani.

[Nakharar]

Thanks Nakharar. If the behavior were from some Turks then it might be understandable, though, actually - I don't think that most Turks would act in such a dishonourable way.

 

Steve

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

 

You didn't last 5 minutes here. I guess some people's tolerance threshold must be very low.

[Azat]

It has nothing to do with anyones threshold. He was banned for violating the code of conduct and now he is trying to force himself back onto the forum.

[Nakharar]

It does. When things become personal the "abused" becomes the abuser.

[Azat]

so would your solution be to allow anyone who violated the code of conduct to be allowed to post again? What would you propose we do?

[Nakharar]

I have nothing against the Code of Conduct and in obvious cases such as spamming and hate speech an immediate and total ban should be enforced. But a thread can be introduced possibly under the General forum for those who feel that they have been banned for the wrong reasons and have no means to have their voice heared in the open. When this ban is enforced that person should still have a right of appeal. I don't know if it is possible, but the banned person should not be able to access any other thread or forum except this one during this period. When his case is put under scrutiny and the thread in question is layed out to the open, only then should a ban be put in place after deliberation. In order for this process to be effective it has to be trasparent. One can introduce a time-out period for temporary bans: eg. one week, two weeks, one month and 90 days accordingly. The final decision making should be reserved to the moderators, but everyone should be able to post his/her opinion. The decisions should be taken by majority vote and the reasons should be explained fully.

[Azat]

That is an excellent idea and believe me with Steve all the moderators have struggled alot with. Actually with any banning, but in Steve's case we always continued to allow him to post even after the 3rd and 4th and 5th time her was warned. And while the last reason may have not been the most legit reason, the moderators had lost hope in the case.

 

I will post all your comments in the mods section and maybe we can somehow come up with that kind of a system if the forum software allows for that.

[MosJan]

I have nothing against the Code of Conduct and in obvious cases such as spamming and hate speech an immediate and total ban should be enforced. But a thread can be introduced possibly under the General forum for those who feel that they have been banned for the wrong reasons and have no means to have their voice heared in the open. When this ban is enforced that person should still have a right of appeal. I don't know if it is possible, but the banned person should not be able to access any other thread or forum except this one during this period. When his case is put under scrutiny and the thread in question is layed out to the open, only then should a ban be put in place after deliberation. In order for this process to be effective it has to be trasparent. One can introduce a time-out period for temporary bans: eg. one week, two weeks, one month and 90 days accordingly. The final decision making should be reserved to the moderators, but everyone should be able to post his/her opinion. The decisions should be taken by majority vote and the reasons should be explained fully.

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

 

NAkhararJan

in his case we have gave him way to much leeway - asked him friendly , friendly warnings, official warnings, temporary suspension, ++++++++

and every one of the warnings are for the same problem - steve and thoth - something that has happened outside of this forum – not even on this continent, has made it’s way to our forum - we have asked steve not to bring this up and to stay a way from thoth, not to relive any personal info of any forum members – not to slander and insult ……

 

he has been banned and he will stay banned !!!

 

he is no longer welcomed to our forum

[vava]

One thing i'd like to point out - and we've said it before: Mods here are usually pretty vigilant with respect to offensive posts, or conduct that doesn't abide by the Code of Conduct. Most of the contentious materials are removed/edited without the knowledge of the general forum membership. This goes with warnings as well - sometimes the warnings are public - but many times there are warnings made in private. As such, 'everyone's opinion', may not always be a precise method of measurement in everycase. Then there is the questions of 'proof' - in order to make a 'case' likely some 'proof' would be required - which would in turn oblige us to re-post the offending materials (obviously not an option in most instances). Overall I think the idea of an appeal is not all bad - and we will look into it - I do think that there are some potential pitfalls that would need to be ironed out first.

[MosJan]

Vava somthing liek a appeal sub forum

i think it's a good idea

 

Thanks NAkharar and VAvajan

 

I'l open one soon

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

MALATIA (MALATIEH or Aspuzu)

 

The chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Mamuret el-Aziz vilayet of Asia Minor, and a military station on the Samsun-Sivas-Diarbekr road, altitude 2900 feet, situated about 10 miles S.W. of the junction of the Tokhma Su (medieval Kubakib) with the Euphrates, near the south end of a fertile plain, and at the northern foot of the Taurus. Population about 30,000, including, besides many Armenian Christians, bodies of Kurds and Kizilbash. It is a wholly modern place, rebuilt since the earthquake of 1893, contains fine public buildings, and is noted for its fruit orchards. There are Protestant (American) and Roman Catholic missions, and an Armenian Catholic archbishop has his seat here.

 

Eskishehr or Old Malatia (Melitene), 5 miles N.E. and 3 miles from the great medieval bridge (Kirkgeuz) over the Tokhma Su, is said to owe its present desolation largely to its occupation by Hafiz ***** as his headquarters in 1838 before his advance to fight the disastrous battle of Nizib with the Egyptian, Ibrahim. But it has still many inhabitants and large gardens and many ruinous mosques, baths, etc., relics of Mansur's city. It was the residence of von Moltke for some months, while attached to Hafiz's army.

 

The earliest site was possibly Arslan Tepe about 2 miles south of Eskishehr where two Hittite stelae representing hunting scenes, now in the Constantinople and Paris museums, were found in 1894.

 

In the time of Strabo there was no town in the districi of Melitene, which was reckoned part of Cappadocia. Under Titus the place became the permanent station of the 12th (Thundering) Legion. Trajan raised it to a city. Lying in a very fertile country at the crossing point of important routes, including the Persian Royal Road, and two imperial military highways from Caesarei and along the Euphrates bank, it grew in size and importance, and was the capital of Armenia Minor or Secunda.

 

Justinian, who completed the walls commenced by Anastasius, made it the capital of Armenia Tertia; it was then a very great place (see Procopius). The town was burnt by Chosroes on his retreat after his great defeat there in 577. Taken by the Saracens, retaken and destroyed by Constantine Copronymus, it was presently recovered to Islam, and rebuilt under Mansur (A.D. 756). It again changed hands more than once, being reckoned among the frontier towns of Syria. At length the Greeks recovered it in 934, and Nicephorus II, finding the district much wasted, encouraged the Jacobites to settle in it, which they did in great numbers. A convent of the Virgin, and the great church which bears his name, were erected by the bishop Ignatius (Isaac the Runner). From this time Malatia continued to be a great seat of the Jacobites, and it was the birthplace of their famous maphrian Barhebraeus (or Abulfaragius). At the commencement of the 11th century the population was said to number 60,000 fighting men. At the time of the first crusade, the city, being hard pressed by the Turks under Ibn Danishmend, was relieved by Baldwin, after Bohemund had failed and lost his liberty in the attempt. But the Jacobites had no cause to love Byzantium, and the Greek governor Gabriel was so cruel and faithless that the townsmen were soon glad to open their gates to Ibn Danishmend (1102), and the city subsequently became part of the realm of Kilij Arslan, sultan of Iconium.

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

MERSINA

 

A town on the south-eastern coast of Asia Minor, and capital of a sanjak in the vilayet of Adana. Pop. about 15,000 including many Christians, Armenian, Greek and European. Its existence as a port began with the silting up of the harbour of Tarsus and Pompeiopolis, east and west, in the early middle ages; but it did not rise to importance till the Egyptian occupation of Cilicia (1832).

 

It is now the busiest port on the south coast, being the terminus of the railway from Tarsus and Adana, by which (but still more by road) the produce of the rich " Aleian " plain comes down. It is served by most of the Levantine steamship companies, and is the best point of departure for visitors desiring to see Tarsus, the Cilician remains, and the finest scenery of the East Taurus. There is, however, no enclosed harbour, but only a good jetty. The making of a breakwater has long been under consideration. The anchorage in the roadstead is good, but the bay shoals for a long way out, and is exposed to swell from south-west and south. Mersina is an American mission centre, and the seat of a British vice-consul. Like all lowland Cilicia, it has a notoriously bad summer climate, and all inhabitants who can do so migrate to stations on the lower slopes of the Taurus.

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

ZEITUN (= "olive")

 

The name of several places in Turkey and Egypt, but principally an Armenian town in the Aleppo vilayet, altitude about 4000 feet, situated in the heart of Mt. Taurus, about 20 miles N.N.W. of Marash. The inhabitants, about 10,000, all Christians, are of a singularly fine physical type, though too much inbred, and are interesting from their character and historical position as a remnant of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia. The importance of Zeitun dates from the capture of Leo VI. by the Egyptians in 1375, and it probably became then a refuge for the more active and irreconcilable Armenians; but nothing certain is known of the place till 300 years later.

 

It long maintained practical independence as a nest of freebooters, and it was only in 1878 that the Turks, after a long conflict, were enabled to station troops in a fort above the town. In 1890 there was a serious revolt, from the worst consequences of which the town was saved by the intercession of the British consul at Aleppo warned in time by the devoted energy of T. Christie, American missionary at Marash; and in 1895, after the Armenian massacres had commenced elsewhere, the people again rose, seized the fort, and, after holding out for more than three months against a large Turkish force, secured honorable terms of peace on the mediation of the consuls of the Powers at Aleppo.

 

The inhabitants seem to be abandoning their robber customs and devoting themselves to oil and silk culture. In consequence transit trade through the passes of eastern Taurus (see MARASH), long almost annihilated by fear of the Zeitunli marauders, revived considerably. The governor must be a Christian, and certain other privileges are secured to the Zeitunlis during their good behaviour.

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

This entry is one of the most interesting in the online encyclopedia - unfortunately it has been badly scanned. I've tried to correct most of the errors - but a lot still remain (especially where it is Greek letters that have been scanned).

 

I didn't know that Urfa, the current name for Edessa, is directly descended from the name that was in use over 3000 years ago.

 

 

EDESSA

 

The Greek name of an ancient city of N.W. Mesopotamia (in 37.21 N. lat. and 39.6 E. long.), suggested perhaps by a comparison of its site, or its water supply, with that of its Macedonian namesake. It still bears its earlier name, modified since the 15th century (by the Turks?) to Urfa.

 

The oldest certain form is the Aramaic Urhai (Western pronunciation Urhoi), which appears in Greek as an adjective as Opponv, h1~po (perhaps also as a fortress with spring, as Opp), and in Latin as Orr(h)ei, and (in the inscription on Abgar's grave) Orrhenoru(m). The Syriac Chronicle aseribed to Dionysius of Tell-mabre derives the name from a first king Urhai, son of Hewya, whom Procopius calls Osroes, connected by Bayer with Chosroes, from which G. Hoffmann would also derive the Syriac Urhai. The Syriac town name has, however, the form of an ethnic, and we may therefore with Duval leave it unexplained. The fact that the Arabic name is Ruh supports the hint of the Graeco-Latin forms that there was a vowel between the R and the H. There is little plausibility in the suggestion of Assemani and others that Ruha comes from p077 of Callirrhoe. A gentilic of the form Ru-u-ai occurs in a letter (of an Assyrian king?) to chiefs in a (Babylonian?) town. as the designation of three captives, who have Semitic names; and Ru-u-a is the name of an Aramaic people mentioned with other Aramaeans by Tiglathpileser IV., Sargon and Sennacherib. It is not impossible that some such people may have settled at Urhai and given it their name, although the Ru-u-a are always mentioned in connections that imply seats near the Persian Gulf. The district name Osro~n for O4,5oipi~,, is Greek, perhaps due to analogy of Chosroes. It occurs but rarely in, Syriac (UzroIna); e.g. Chronicle of Edessa, 35; elsewhere Bth-Urhaye. In the time of Tiglath-pileser I. (c. 1100 B.C.) the name seems to have been District of (not Edessa, but) I:larrn (Annals, vi. 71). The Arabs pronounced the name er-Ruh (see above), and that form prevailed till it gave place to Urfa in the 15th century.

 

The Greek name Edessa appears in the Jerusalem Targum to Gen. X. 10 as Hadas (v17, myrtle); it has been proposed to derive Edessa from Aram. Sri,, as though Carthage, New Town; but Syriac writers, when they occasionally use the name, show no suspicion of its being Semitic. According to Pliny, Edessa was also called Antioch, and coins of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes with the legend Antioch on the Callirrhoe may imply that he rebuilt and renamed the place. Pliny indeed seems to call the city itself Callirrhoe, and, S. Funk finds it so named in the Talmud; but K. Regling may be right in his emendation which applies the title in Pliny to the sacred spring.

 

History:

 

Pre-Hellenistic.

 

Until excavation gives us more definite data we can only infer from its position on one of the main thoroughfares between the Mediterranean and the East that Urhai-Edessa, possibly bearing some other name, was already a town of some importance in the early Babylonian-Assyrian age. Whatever may have been the ethnographical type of the early inhabitants, it must by the beginning of the second last millennium B.C. have included Hittites in the large sense of the term, probably Aryans, and certainly Semites of some of the types characteristic of early Assyrian history. Most probably its people belonged to the domain of the then more famous IJarr~n-Carrhae, between which and Samosata (on the Euphrates) Urhai lies midway (some 2530 m. distant from each) in the district watered by the Balih.. Although at Edessa itself no cuneiform documents have yet been found, a little more than four hours journey eastwards, at Anaz (= Gullab?) Dflr of Tiglath-pileser IV. was found in 1901 a slab, with a bas-relief and an inscription; and 1520 mm. W. of Eski-Harran, in 1906 a very interesting 6th-century Assyrian inscription

 

In the later Assyrian empire the population was largely Aramaic speaking; but S. Schiffers theory finds contemporary evidence of Israelites settled in the neighborhood of Edessa in the second half of the 7th century B.C. At the fall of Nineveh many towns in Mesopotamia suffered severely at the hands of the Medes. The period remains dark, notwithstanding the obscure.light that has been thrown on it lately (Pognon, Inscriptions). When Aramaic began to take the place of Assyrian in written documents is not known; but just across the Euphrates the change had occurred as early as the 8th century B.C. (Zengirli, Hamath; see also Pognon). Certain it is that the earliest documents that have survived in Syriac, or Edessene Aramaic, do not represent an experimental stage. Moreover, although the Syriac of the Story of Aiqgr is of a late type, the sources of the story, traces of which are to be found in the Hebrew Tobit (q.v.), go back to the pre-Hellenistic period.

 

Graeco-Roman Times.

 

According to a credible tradition found in Eusebius, the Syriac Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius of Tell-mabre, and elsewhere, Urhai was renovated, like other Mesopotamian sites, in 304 B.C. by Seleucus I. Nicator, who gave it its Greek name. It would share in the Hellenistic culture of Syria, although the language of the Common people would continue to be Aramaic. With the decay of the Seleucid power, weakened by Rome and Parthia, the old influx from the desert would recommence, and an Arabic element begin to show. Von Gutschmid argues plausibly that it was in 132 B.C., in the reign of Antiochus VII Sidetes, that Edessa became the seat of a dynasty of some thirty local kings, whose succession has been preserved in native sources. The name of the first king, however, appears in different forms, and one (Osroes-Orhai) is so like that of the town that Meyer suspects the historicity of the first reign, of five years. The names of the other kings, Abgar, Manu, Bekr, etc, are for the most part Arabic, as the people (in whose inscriptions the same mixture of names occurs) are called by classical authors; but the rulers, among whom an occasional Iranian name betrays the influence of the dominant Parthians, would hardly maintain their distinctness from the Aramaic populace. This state which lasted for three centuries and a half, naturally varied in extent. Bounded on the West and the North by the Euphrates, it reached at its widest as far as the Tigris. At such times, therefore, it included such towns as Harran (Carrhae), Nisibis, Sarug, Zeugma-Birejik, Resaena, Singara, Tigranocerta, Samosata, Melitene. Its position on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, Parthia and Rome, determined its changeful fortunes. The Edessans used to call their town the city, or the daughter, of the Parthians. Parthian predominance yielded for a time to Armenian (Tigranes, 88-86 B.C.). Then, at the time of the expeditions of Lucullus, Pompey and Crassus, Edessa was an ally of Rome, though Abgar II. Ariamnes (68-53) played an ambiguous part. In A.D. 114 Abgar VII entertained Trajan on his way back to Syria; but in 116, in consequence of a general rising, his consul L. Quietus sacked the city, Abgar perhaps dying in the flames, and made the state tributary. Hadrian, however, abandoning Trajan's forward policy in favor of a Euphrates boundary, restored it as a dependency of Rome. When L. Verus (163-165) recovered Mesopotamia from Parthia, it was not Edessa but Harran that was chosen as the site of a Roman colony, and made the metropolis by Marcus Aurelius (172).

 

To one of the native kings doubtless is to be ascribed the Syriac inscription on one of the pair of pillars, 50 feet high, which stood, no doubt, in front of a temple connected with some local cult. Trustworthy data for determining its nature are lacking. The inscription, which is difficult to read, connects the structure with Shalmat the queen, daughter of Manu, who cannot be identified with certainty, and refers to some image(s), which probably excited the pious vandalism of the Arabs. One or both of the pools below the citadel containing sacred fish may have been sacred to Atargatis, an Ishtar/Venus deity; and according to the Doctrine of Addai, alongside of Venus were worshipped the sun and the moon. Nergal and Sin were known as twins, and connected with the sign Gemini, under the name ellamme, the youths. This makes more plausible than it otherwise would be the suggestion of J. Rendel Harris that the great twin pillars were connected with the cult of the Dioscuri, and that in the Acts of Thomas is to be seen a later attempt to substitute other twins, viz. Jesus and Judas-Thomas (Addai), whom legend buried in Britio Edessenorurn (explained by Harnack as the Edessan citadel: Araln. birtha).

 

Whether it was at Edessa that a Jewish translation of the Old Testament into Syriac was made, under the encouragement perhaps of the favor of the royal house of Adiabene or whether that work was done in Adiabene, cannot be discussed here. That the translation did not share the fate of the other non-Christian Syriac writings, which did not survive the 13th century is due to the fact that it was adopted (after being revised) by the Christians, and thus rescued.

 

Although the beginnings of Christianity at Edessa are enshrouded in the mists of legend, and the first mention of Christian communities in Osrhoene and the towns there is connected with the part they played in the paschal controversy (c. A.D. 192), it has been reasonably urged that the legends imply a fact, namely that Christianity began in the Jewish colony, perhaps by the middle of the 2nd century, although the earliest seat of the Syrian church may have been farther east, in Adiabene. Parts of the New Testament were certainly translated into Syriac in the 2nd century, although whether the Old Syriac or the Diatessaron came first is uncertain.

 

About the end of the 2nd century Edessene Christianity seems to have made a fresh beginning: the ordination of Palut by Serapion of Antioch may mean that things ecclesiastical took a westward trend, and it is possible that the Old Syriac New Testament version was now introduced. A strong man offered himself in Bardaisan (q.v.; Bardesanes), to whom perhaps we owe the finest Syriac poem extant, the "Hymn of the Soul", though orthodoxy rejected him. He was a contemporary of Abgar IX, at whose court Julius Africanus stayed for a while. A Syrian official record from this reign, preserved in the Edessene Chronicle, gives a somewhat detailed account of a violent flood (autumn, 201) of the Daisan river which did much damage, destroying amongst other things the palace of Abgar the Great, rebuilt as a summer palace by Abgar IX., and the temple of the church of the Christians. The form of this last statement shows that at the time of writing (206) the rulers had not adopted Christianity themselves. Abgar IX. is now commonly supposed to be the ruler to whom the famous legend was first attached (see ABGAR); but though he visited Rome there is no proof that he ever became a Christian. It was at Edessa that Caracalla, who made it a military colony under the style of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum, spent the winter of 216-217, and near there that he was murdered. The religious philosophical treatise preserved under the title of "Book of the Laws of the Lands" was probably produced at this time by a pupil of Bardesanes, and the "Acts of Thomas" in its original form may have followed not long after.

 

Sassanian Period

 

In 226 the Parthian empire gave place to the new kingdom of the Sassanidae, whose claim to the ancient Achaemenian empire led to constant struggle with Rome in which Edessa naturally suffered. The native state was restored by Gordian d.242; but in 244 it became again directly subject to Rome. The Edessan martyrs Sharbel and Barsarnya, whose Acts in legendary form have come down to us, may have perished in the Decian persecution. In 260 the city was besieged by the Persians under Shapur I, and Valerian was defeated and made prisoner by its gates. Odaenathus of Palmyra (d. 267), however, wrested Mesopotamia from the Persians; but Aurelian defeated his successor Zenobia at Emesa (273), and Carus, who died in 283 in an expedition against the Persians, and Galerius (297) carried the frontier again to the Tigris. Diocletians persecution secured the martyrs crown for the Edessenes Shamona, Guria (297), and Habbib (309), and shortly thereafter Lucian the martyr, who though born at Samosata received his training at Edessa; but the bishop Qona, who laid the foundations of the great church by the sacred pool, somehow escaped. Edessa can claim no share in the Persian Sage Aphraha or Afrahat (Aphraates); but Ephrem, after bewailing in Nisibis the sufferings of the great Persian war under Constantius and Julian, when Jovian in 363 ceded most of Mesopotamia to Shapur II, the persecutor of the Christians, settled in Edessa, which as the seat of his famous school (called the Persian) grew greatly in importance, and attracted scholars from all directions. He taught and wrote vigorously against the Arians and other heretics, and although just after his death (373) the emperor Valens banished the orthodox from Edessa, they returned on the emperors death in 378. Under Zenobius, disciple of Ephraem, studied the voluminous writer Isaac of Antioch (died circa 460). Rabbula perhaps owed his elevation to the see of Edessa (411-435), in the year which produced the oldest dated Syriac manuscript, to his asceticism, and it was to his time that the sojourn there of the Man of God (Alexis) was assigned; but he won from the Nestorians the title of the Tyrant of Edessa. In particular he exerted himself to stamp out the use of the Diatessaron in favor of the four Gospels, the Syriac version of which probably now took the form known as the Peshitta. When the popular Nestorianism of the Syrians was condemned at Ephesus it began to gravitate eastwards, Nisibis becoming its eventual headquarters; but Edessa and the western Syrians refused to bow to the Council of Chalcedon (451) when it condemned Monophysitism. In and around Edessa the theological strife raged hotly. When, however, Zeno's edict (489) ordered the closing of the school of the Persians at Edessa, East and West drifted apart more and more; the ecclesiastical writer Narsai, the "Harp of the Holy Spirit", fled to Nisibis about 489. Till about this time Syriac influence was strong in Armenia, and some Syriac works have survived only in Armenian translations. In the opening years of the 6th century the Persian-Roman War (502-506) found a chronicler in the anonymous Edessene history known till recently as the Chronicle of Joshua Stylites. Whether Edessa received from the emperor Justin I the additional name of Justinopolis may be uncertain; but it seems to have been renewed and fortified after the fourth flood in 525. About this time an anonymous Edessene wrote the Romance of Julian the Apostate, which so many Arab writers use as a history. Chosroes I Anushirwn succeeded in 540, according to the last entry in the Edessene Chronicle, in exacting a large tribute from Edessa; but in 544 he besieged it in vain. A few years later Jacob Baradaeus, with Edessa as centre of his bishopric, was carrying on the propaganda of Monophysitism which won for the adherents of that creed the name of Jacobites (q.v.). The valuable Syriac Chronicle just referred to probably was compiled in the latter half of this century.

 

Islamic Period

 

In the first decade of the next century Edessa was taken by Chosroes II., and a large part of the population transported to eastern Persia. Within a score of years it was recovered by the emperor Heraclius, who reviewed a large army under its walls. The prophet of Islam was now, however, building up his power in Arabia, and although Heraclius paid no heed to the letter demanding his adhesion which he received from Medina (628), and the deputation of fifteen Rahawiyrn who paid homage in 630 were not Edessenes but South Arabians. A few years later (636?) Heraclius's attempts, from Edessa as a centre, to effect an organized opposition to the victorions Arabs were defeated by Sad, and he fell back on Samosata. The terms on which Edessa definitely passed into the hands of the Moslems (638) under Riyd are not certain.

 

As it now ceased to be a frontier city it lost in importance. In 668 occurred another destructive flood (Theophanes, p. 537), and in 678 an earthquake which destroyed part of the old church, which the caliph Mohawiya I. is said to have repaired. To the latter part of the century belongs the activity of Edessa's bishop Jacob, whose chronicle is unfortunately lost. It may have been the impulse given by the final supremacy of the caliphate to the long process which eventually substituted a new branch of Semitic speech for the Aramaic (which had now prevailed for a millennium and a half), that led Jacob to adopt the Greek vowel signs for use in Syriac. A century later Theophilus of, Edessa (d. 785), author of a lost history, translated into Syriac the two books of the poet Homer on the Conquest of the city of Ijion. When the Bagdad caliphs lost control of their dominions, Edessa shared the fortunes of western Mesopotamia, changing with the rise and fall of Egyptian dynasties and Arab chieftains. In the 10th century al-Masudi, writing in the very year in which it happened, tells how the Mahommedan ruler of Edessa, with the permission of the caliph, purchased peace of the emperor Romanus Lecapenus by surrendering to him the napkin of Jesus of Nazareth, where with he had dried himself after his baptism. The translation of the Holy Icon of Christ from Edessa is commemorated on the 16th of August (Byzantine calendar). A few years later Ibn IIaulsal (978) estimates the number of churches in the city at more than 300, and al-Molsaddasi (985) describes its cathedral, with vaulted ceiling covered with mosaics, as one of the four wonders of the world. In 1031 the emperor recovered Edessa; but in 1040 it fell into the hands of the Seljuks, whose progress had added a large element of Armenian refugees to the population of Osrhone. There is no reason, therefore, to discredit Maqrlzis statement that it was three brother architects from Edessa that the Armenian minister Badr al-Gamali employed to build three of the fine city gates of Cairo (1087). The empire soon recovered Edessa, but the resident made himself independent. Thoros applied for help to Baldwin, brother and successor of Godfrey of Bouillon in the First Crusade, who in 1098 took possession of the town and made it the capital of a Burgundian countship, which included Samosata and Sartig, and was for half a century the eastern bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The counts were: Baldwin I. (1098). Baldwin II. (1100), Joscelin 1. (1119), Joscelin II. (1131-1147). The local Armenian historian, however, Matthew of Edessa, tells of oppression, decrease of population, ruin of churches, neglect of agriculture.

 

With the campaign of Maudud in 1110 fortune began to favor the Moslems. Edessa had to endure siege after siege. Finally, in 1144 it was stormed, Matthew being among the slain, by Imgd ud-Din Zengi, ruler of Mosul, under Joscelin II, an achievement celebrated as the conquest of conquests, for laying the responsibility of which not on God but on the absence of the Frankish troops, an Edessan monk, John, bishop of Harran (died 1165), brought down upon himself the whole bench of bishops. Edessa suffered still more in 1146 after an attempt to recover it. Churches were now turned into mosques. The consternation produced in Europe by the news of its fate led to the Second Crusade. In 1182 it fell to Saladin, whose nephew recovered it when it had temporarily passed (1234) to the sultan of Rum; but the "Eye of Mesopotamia" never recovered the brilliance of earlier days. The names it contributed to Arabic literature are unimportant. By timely surrender (1268) it escaped the sufferings inflicted by Htilk and his Monguls on Sarug. Mostaufi describes a great cupola of finely worked stone still standing by a court over a hundred yards square (1340). Aub. Yazd in his account of the campaigns of Timur, who reduced Mesopotamia in 1393, still calls the city (1425) Ruh. In 1637, when Amurath IV. conquered Bagdad and annexed Mesopotamia, it passed finally into the hands of the Turks, by whom it is called Urfa.

 

 

The Modern Town

 

Urfa lies north-east of the Nimrud Dagh. It is surrounded by a wall, strengthened by square towers at distances of 18-20 steps, probably dating in its present condition from medieval Mahommedan times. On a height in a corner towards the west, overtopping the town by 100-200 feet, are the remains of the old citadel, and the two famous Corinthian columns1 known as the Throne of Nimrtid. In the hollow between this height and the town rise two springs which form ponds, the farther removed of which from the citadel is known as Birket al-Khalil, doubtless the Callirrhoe of the classical writers, and contains the sacred fish, estimated by J. S. Buckingham at 20,000, and the nearer as Am Zalkha (i.e. Zuleikha, the wife of Potiphar). On the north edge of the Birket al-Khalil (see plan in Sachau, p. 197) is the great mosque of Abraham, the interior of which is described by J. S. Buckingham (Travels, pp. 108-110). Diagonally opposite the mosque is a house with a square tower, which is locally believed to occupy the place of the famous ancient school. The waters of the two pools make their way in a single stream southwards out of the town. The once dangerous stream Daisan no longer flows southwards through the town, but encircles iton the north and east in the channel of the old moat. This stream, now called Kara Kuyun, and the other are exhausted in the irrigation of the gardens lying south-east of the town, except when fuller than usual, when they reach the Balih. Not far east of the sacred pool is the largest building in the town, the recent Armenian Gregorian cathedral, whose American bells were first heard during Sachaus' visit in 1879. About the middle of the town is the largest mosque, Ulu Gami (parts of it probably pre-Islamic), which probably occupies the site of the Christian church reckoned by the early Mahommedan writers as one of the wonders of the world. In the bazaar, which lies between the chief mosque and the sacred pool, and contains several streets, are displayed not only the native woollen stuffs, pottery and silver work, but also a considerable variety of European goods, especially cloth stuffs. The principal manufactures are fine cotton stuffs and yellow leather. The streets are of course narrow and winding; but the houses are well built of stone. The outskirts are occupied by melon gardens, vineyards and mulberry plantations. The fertile plain south of the town is noted for its wheat and fine pasture. The climate is healthy except in summer; the "Aleppo button", a painful boil, is common. The rocky heights south and west of the town, whence the building material is largely obtained, are full of natural and artificial caverns, once used as dwellings, cloisters and graves, where are most of the inscriptions published by Sachau, who also visited and describes (pp. 204-206) the Der Yaqub, nearly two hours distant.

 

Urfa is the capital of a sanjak of the same name, in the vilayet of Aleppo. The population was estimated by Olivier in 1796 at 20,000 to 24,000, by Buckingham at 50,000, by Chernik in 1873 at 40,000, by Sachau in 1879 at 50,000, in Baedekers Handbook in 1906 at 30,000. Vice-Consul Fitzmaurice said that before December 1895 it was close on 65,000, of whom about 20,000 were Armenian, 3000 or 4000 Jacobites, Syrian-Catholic, Greek-Catholic, Maronites and Jews, and the remaining 40,000 Turkish, Kurds and Arab Mahommedans.

 

Two barbarous massacres occurred on the 28th and 29th of October and the 28th and 29th of December 1895; 126 Armenian families were absolutely wiped out. He believes that 8000 Armenians perished in the second massacre. The Deutsche Orient-Mission has its chief seat in Urfa, and there have for years been American and French missions. The Germans have an orphanage with 300 Armenian children, a carpet factory and a medical station. The American school had some years ago 250 pupils.

[Guest abcdefghijkl]

Is the icon described as "the napkin of Jesus of Nazareth, where with he had dried himself after his baptism" this: http://hyeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=9851 I wonder?

 

"...in 1040 it fell into the hands of the Seljuks, whose progress had added a large element of Armenian refugees to the population of Osrhone. There is no reason, therefore, to discredit Maqrlzis statement that it was three brother architects from Edessa that the Armenian minister Badr al-Gamali employed to build three of the fine city gates of Cairo (1087). And the architects are said to have originally come from Ani, hence the similarity of the gates to the towers of the walls of Ani.

 

 

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/virtualani/graphics/spacer2.gif

Edited November 12, 2004 by abcdefghijkl

[phantom22]

Thanks for the information that enlightened me. Now I know about the resource for which my Dad was sent to Europe to train (to improve its output). 1915 changed all that, stripping his family of all but the shirts on their backs and no father, and so he ended up as a hammal in Paris.