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EDESSA

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 933 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EDESSA , the See also:

Greek name of an See also:ancient See also:city of N.W. See also:Mesopotamia (in 37°'21' N. See also:lat. and 390 6' E. See also:long.), suggested perhaps by a comparison of its site, or its See also:water See also:supply,l with that of its. Macedonian namesake. It still bears its earlier name, modified since the 15th See also:century (by the See also:Turks?) to Urfa. The See also:oldest certain See also:form is the Aramaic Urhai (" Western " See also:pronunciation Urhai), which appears in Greek as an See also:adjective as 'Oppoevn' -eo13 (perhaps also as a fortress with See also:spring, as 'Opplt),4 and in Latin as Orr(h)ei,6 and (in the inscription on See also:Abgar's gave) Orrhenoru(m).6 The See also:Syriac See also:Chronicle ascribed to See also:Dionysius of Tell-mabre derives the name from a first See also:king Urhai, son of Hewya, whom See also:Procopius (De belle persico, i. 17) calls See also:Osroes (cf. below),. connected by Bayer' with See also:Chosroes s from which G. See also:Hoffmann would also derive the Syriac Urhai (Z.D.M.G. xxxii. 742). The Syriac See also:town name has, however, the form of an ethnic, and we may there-fore with See also:Duval leave it unexplained (Hist. 22). The fact that the Arabic name is Ruha 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 See also:suggestion of See also:Assemani and others that Ruha comes from poi) of See also:Callirrhoe.

A gentilic of the form Ru-u-ai occurs in a See also:

letter (of an See also:Assyrian king?) to chiefs in a (Babylonian?) town as the designation of three captives (Harper, See also:Ass, and Bab. Letters, No. 287 [=K 941, See also:line 6; cf. Bezold, See also:Die Achamenideninschriften, p. See also:Eli.), who have Semitic names; and Ru-'-u-a is the name of an Aramaic See also:people mentionec' with other Aramaeans by Tiglathpileser IV., See also:Sargon and See also: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 connexions that imply seats near the See also:Persian Gulf" The See also:district name See also:Osroene for 'O4,bo,tvi,, is Greek, perhaps due to See also:analogy of See also:Chest-See also:des. It occurs but rarely in Syriac (Uzroina); e.g. Chronicle of Edessa, § 35;10 elsewhere Beth-Urhaye (e.g. See also:Cureton, Spicileg. Syr. 2o). In the See also:time of Tiglath-pileser I.

(c. Imo B.C.) the name seems to have been " District of (not Edessa, but) See also:

Harran " (See also:Annals, vi. 71). The See also:Arabs pronounced the name er-Ruha (see above), and that form prevailed till it gave See also:place to Urfa in the 15th century. The Greek, name Edessa appears in the See also:Jerusalem See also:Targum to Gen. x. to as Hades (me, See also:myrtle) ; it has been proposed (cf. Duval, Hist. d'Edesse, 23) to derive Edessa from See also:Aram. See also:rat, as though =See also:Carthage, New Town; but Syriac writers, when they occasion-ally" use the name (Edessa, See also:term; so Yaqut, Adasa), show no suspicion of its being Semitic. According to See also:Pliny, v. 86, Edessa was also called See also:Antioch, and coins of See also:Antiochus IV. Epiphanes with the See also:legend "Antioch on the Callirrhoe " may imply that he rebuilt and renamed the place (so Ed. See also:Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa, Real encyclopadie, See also:col. 1933, 66; otherwise Duval, Hist. 23; cf., See also:art.

OSROENE). Pliny indeed seems to See also:

call the city itself Callirrhoe, and S. Funk finds it so named in the See also:Talmud (Bab. Mee., 18a See also:rent Inv K~nS nen 'no: Die Juden in Babylonien 200-500, ii. 148; 1908) ; but K. Regling (Klio, i. 459 a. I) maybe right in his emendation which applies the See also:title in Pliny to the sacred spring. See also:History: Pre-Hellenistic.—Until excavation gives us more definite data we can only infer from its position on one of the "So See also:Appian, Syr. 57; cp. Steph. Byz., s.v.

Ebsaaa: 15c3 ri a ri,v bbctrcrn Agee. Steph. Byz., s.v. Barvat. 3 Dio, passim. ' Isidore Charac. I (See also:

Muller, Geog. Gr. See also:Min., i. 246). 6 Several times in Pliny, Nat. Hist.

6CIL. vi. 1797. ' Hist. Osrhoena et Edessena, p. 33. 6 Written 'Oapogs in Dio See also:

Cassius, Excerpta, lxviii. 22. 0 See the reff. collected by M. Streck, M. V.G., 1906. The name occurs in the same See also:company in the fragmentary tablet K. 1904.

The See also:

mountain Ru-u-[a], mentioned thrice by Tiglath-pileser IV., is placed by Billerbeck near See also:Hamadan (Sandschak Suleimania, 82, 86, and See also:map, 1898). 10 See further See also:Payne See also:Smith, See also:Thesaurus I Io b. u In translating from the Greek; also in See also:Ephraim (Duval, Hist. 22, n. 4) and the Acts of Sharbil (Cureton, Anc. Syr. Doc. 41).See also:main thoroughfares between the Mediterranean and the See also:East (see MESOPOTAMIA) that Urhai-Edessa, possibly bearing some other name, was already a town of some importance in the See also:early Babylonian-Assyrian See also:age. Whatever may have been the ethnographical type of the early inhabitants, it must by the beginning of the second last See also:millennium B.C. have included See also:Hittites in the large sense of the term, probably See also: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 I3Iarran-Carrhae, between which and See also:Samosata (on the See also:Euphrates) Urhai lies midway (some 25–30 M. distant from each) in the district watered by the Balnh.. Although at Edessa itself no See also:cuneiform documents have yet been found, a little more than four See also:hours See also:journey eastwards, at Anaz (=GAM?) =See also:Dar of Tiglath-pileser IV: was found in 1901 a slab: with a bas-See also:relief and an inscription; and 15–20 min. W. of Eski-1,Jarran, in 1906 a very interesting 6th-century Assyrian inscription (see MESOPOTAMIA).

In the later Assyrian See also:

empire the See also:population was largely Aramaic-,speaking; but S. Schiffer's theory (Beiheft I. zur Orientalistischen Litteratur-Zeitung) finds contemporary See also:evidence of Israelites settled in the neighbourhood of Edessa in the second See also:half of the 7th century B.C. At the fall of See also:Nineveh many towns in Mesopotamia suffered severely at the hands of the Medes. The See also:period remains dark, notwithstanding the obscure.See also:light that has been thrown on it lately (Pognon, See also:Inscriptions). When Aramaic ' began to take the place of Assyrian in written documents is not known; but just across the Euphrates the See also: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 See also:stage. Moreover, although the Syriac of the See also:Story of Ahigar is of a See also:late type, the See also:sources of the story, traces of which are to be found in the See also:Hebrew See also:Tobit (q.v.), go back to the.pre-Hellenistic period. Graeco-See also:Roman Times.—According to a credible tradition found in See also:Eusebius (Excerpta, 179), the Syriac Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius of Tell-mahre (Tullberg, 61), and elsewhere, Urhai was renovated, like other Mesopotamian sites, in 304 B.C. by Seleucus I. Nicator, who gave it its Greek name.12 . It would See also:share in the Hellenistic culture of See also:Syria, although the See also:language of the See also:common people would continue to be Aramaic (E. R.

Bevan, See also:

House of Seleucus, i. 227 f. with reff.). With the decay of the Seleucid See also:power, weakened by See also:Rome and See also:Parthia, the old influx from the See also:desert would recommence, and an Arabic See also:element begin to show. Von See also:Gutschmid (Untersuch., cf. Duval, ch. iii.. end) argues plausibly that it was in 132 B.C., in the reign of Antiochus VII. Sidetes, that Edessa became the seat of a See also:dynasty of some See also:thirty See also:local See also:kings, whose See also:succession has been preserved in native sources. The name of the first king, however, appears in different forms (cf. above), and one (Osroes-Orhai) is so like that of the town that Ed. Meyer suspects the historicity of the first reign, of five years. The names of the other kings—Abgar, Ma'nu, Bekr, &c.—are for the most See also: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 See also:influence of the dominant Parthians,13 would hardly maintain their distinctness from the Aramaic populace. This See also:state which lasted for three centuries and a half, naturally varied in extent.14 Bounded on the W. and the N. by the Euphrates, it reached at its widest as far as the See also:Tigris. At such • times, therefore, it included such towns as Ilarran . (Carrhae), See also:Nisibis, Sarug, Zeugma-See also:Birejik, Resaena,• Singara, Tigranocerta, Samosata, Melitene.

Its position " on the dangerous See also:

verge of two contending empires," Parthia and 17 On a possible restoration under the name of "Antioch on the Callirrhoe see above. 13 The Edessans used to call their town " the city," or the daughter," " of the Parthians " (Cureton, Anc. Syr. Doc., 41 ult., 97 1. 7; 1061: 12). 14 The portion of the Mesopotamian See also:steppe under Osrheenic influence was, according to See also:Noldeke (Zeitsch. Ass. xxi. 153, 1908), called 'Arabi in Syriac. on the See also:banks of a beautiful stream in the very centre of the See also:kingdom, and at the See also:head of a See also:defile commanding the approaches from the See also:coast to the interior. It was the See also:original See also:residence of the Macedonian kings; and even after the seat of See also:government was removed by See also:Philip II. to the more accessible See also:Pella, it continued to be the See also:burial-place of the royal See also:family. At the celebration of his daughter's See also:marriage here, Philip H. was murdered by See also:Pausanias in 336 B.C. His son See also:Alexander was buried at See also:Memphis through the contrivance of See also:Ptolemy; but the bodies of his granddaughter See also:Eurydice and her See also:husband Arrhidaeus were removed by See also:Cassander to the ancestral See also:sepulchre.

On the occupation of the town by See also:

Pyrrhus the royal tombs were plundered by the Gallic mercenaries. Owing to its position commanding the Via Egnatia, the town retained its importance during the Roman and See also:Byzantine periods. For its See also:present Rome, determined its changeful fortunes. See also:Parthian pre-dominance yielded for a time to Armenian (See also:Tigranes, 88–86 B.C.). Then, at the time of the expeditions of See also:Lucullus, See also:Pompey and See also:Crassus, Edessa was an ally of Rome, though Abgar II. Ariamnes (68–53) played an ambiguous part. In A.D. 114 Abgar VII. entertained See also:Trajan on his way back to Syria (Dio See also:Cass. xviii. 21); but in 116, in consequence of a See also:general rising, his See also:consul L.' Quietus sacked the city, Abgar perhaps dying in the flames, and made the state tributary. See also:Hadrian, however, abandoning Trajan's forward policy in favour 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 IJarran that was chosen as the site of a Roman See also:colony, and made the See also:metropolis by See also: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 ft. high, which stood, no doubt, in front of a See also:

temple connected with some local cult. Trustworthy data for determining its nature are lacking. One or both of the pools below the citadel containing sacred See also:fish may have been sacred to See also:Atargatis (q.v.), an See also:Ishtar-See also:Venus deity; and according to the See also:Doctrine of Addai, alongside of Venus were worshipped the See also:sun and the See also:moon? See also:Nergal and See also:Sin were known as " twins," and connected with the sign See also:Gemini, under the name ellamme, " the youths " (cf. Zimmern, K.A.T. 363). This makes more plausible than it otherwise would be the suggestion of J. Rendel See also:Harris that the See also:great twin pillars were connected with the cult of the Dioscuri, and that in the Acts of See also:Thomas is to be seen a later See also:attempt to substitute other " twins," viz. Jesus and Judas-Thomas (Addai), whom legend buried " in Britio Edessenorum " (explained by See also:Harnack as the Edessan citadel: Aram. births) 3 Whether it was at Edessa that a Jewish See also:translation of the Old Testament into Syriac was made,' under the encouragement perhaps of the favour of the royal house of Adiabene (See also:Josephus, See also:Bell. See also:Jud. ii. 19. 4), or whether that See also:work was done in Adiabene, b cannot be discussed here.

That the translation did not share the See also:

fate of the other non-See also:Christian Syriac writings, which did not survive the 13th century (see SYRIAC LITERATURE),. is due to the fact that it was adopted (after being revised) by the Christians, and thus rescued. Although the beginnings of See also: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 See also: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 See also:middle of the and century, although the earliest seat of the Syrian See also:church may have been farther east, in Adiabene.6 Parts of the New Testament were certainly translated into Syriac in the and century, although whether the " Old Syriac " (so e.g. Hjelt) or the Diatessaron (so Burkitt) came first is uncertain. About the end of the and century Edessene Christianity seems to have made a fresh beginning: the ordination of Palut by See also:Serapion of Antioch may mean that things ecclesiastical took a westward trend, and it is possible (so Burkitt) that the " Old Syriac " New Testament version was now introduced. A strong See also:man offered himself in Bardaigan (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 See also:court See also:Julius See also:Africanus stayed for a while. A Syrian See also:official See also:record from this reign, preserved in the Edessene Chronicle, gives a somewhat detailed See also:account of a violent See also:flood (autumn, 201) of the Daisan See also:river which did much damage, destroying ' The inscription, which is difficult to read, connects the structure with Shalmat the See also:queen, daughter of Ma`nu, who cannot be identified with certainty, and refers to some See also:image(s), which probably excited the pious vandalism of the Arabs. ' See also:Nebo and See also:Bel (Doctr. Addai, 31) may come from the Old Testament (Burkitt). ' S.B.A.W., 1904, 910 if.

{ So, e.g. F. C. Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity, 72. 6 Marquart, Ostasiat. and osteurop. Streitzuge, 292 if. Marquart, op. cit.amongst other things " the See also:

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 See also: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 Aa3GAR); but though he visited Rome there is no See also:proof that he ever became a Christian (See also:Gomperz, in Archdologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Osterreich-Ungarn, xix. 154-157). It was at Edessa that See also:Caracalla, who made it a military colony under the See also:style of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum, spent the See also:winter of 216–217, and near there that he was murdered. The religious philosophical See also:treatise preserved under the title of See also:Book of the See also:Laws of the Lands was probably produced at this time by a See also:pupil of Bardesanes, and the Acts of Thomas in its original form may have followed not long after. See also: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 See also:constant struggle with Rome in which Edessa naturally suffered.

The native state was restored by See also:

Gordian in 242; but in 244 it became again directly subject to Rome. The Edessan martyrs Sharbel and Barsamya, whose " Acts " in legendary form have come down to us, may have perished in the Decian persecution. In 26o the city was besieged by the Persians under See also:Shapur I., and See also:Valerian was defeated and made prisoner by its See also:gates. See also:Odaenathus of See also:Palmyra (d. 267), however, wrested Mesopotamia from the Persians; but See also:Aurelian defeated his successor See also:Zenobia at Emesa (273), and See also:Carus, who died in 283 in an expedition against the Persians, and See also:Galerius (297) carried the frontier again to, the Tigris. See also:Diocletian's persecution secured the See also:martyr's See also:crown for the Edessenes Shamona, Guria (297), and IJabbib (3o9), and shortly thereafter See also:Lucian " the martyr," who though born• at Samosata received his training at Edessa; but the See also:bishop Qona, who laid the See also:foundations of " the great church " by the sacred See also:pool, somehow escaped. Edessa can claim no share in " the Persian See also:Sage " Aphrahat or Afrahat (.See also:Aphraates); but Ephraem, after bewailing in Nisibis the sufferings of the great Persian See also:war under See also:Constantius and See also:Julian, when See also: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 ") See also: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 See also:death (373) the See also:emperor See also:Valens banished the orthodox from Edessa, they returned on the emperor's death in 378. Under See also:Zenobius, See also:disciple of Ephraem, studied the voluminous writer, See also:Isaac of Antioch (d. circ. 46o). See also:Rabbula perhaps owed his See also:elevation to the see of Edessa (411-435), in the See also:year which produced the oldest dated Syriac MS., to his See also:asceticism, and it was to his time that the sojourn there of the " Man of See also:God " (See also:Alexis) was assigned; but he won from the See also:Nestorians the title of the See also:Tyrant of Edessa. In particular he exerted himself to See also:stamp out the use of the Diatessaron in favour 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 See also:

Ephesus (431) it began to gravitate eastwards, Nisibis becoming its eventual headquarters; but Edessa and the western Syrians refused to See also:bow to the See also:Council of See also:Chalcedon (451) when it condemned Monophysitism. In and around Edessa the theological strife raged hotly.' When, however, See also:Zeno's See also:edict (489) ordered the closing of the school of the Persians at Edessa; East and See also:West drifted apart more and more; the ecclesiastical writer Narsai, "the See also:Harp of the See also:Holy Spirit," fled to Nisibis about 489. Till about this time Syriac influence was strong in See also:Armenia, and some Syriac See also:works have survived only in Armenian See also:translations. In the opening years of the 6th century. the Persian-Roman War (502–506) found a chronicler in the See also:anonymous Edessene history known till recently as the Chronicle of See also:Joshua Stylites. Whether Edessa received 7 Some one found time, however, to produce the oldest dated MS. of a portion of the See also:Bible in any language. from the emperor See also:Justin I. the additional name of Justinopolis 'See also:nay be uncertain (see Hallier, op. cit. p. 128); but it seems to have been renewed and fortified after the " See also:fourth i6 flood in 525 (Proeop. Pers. ii. 27; De aedific. ii. 7). About this time, according to Noldeke, an anonymous Edessene wrote the See also:Romance of Julian the Apostate, which so many Arab writers use as a history. Chosroes I.

Anushirwan succeeded in 540, according to the last entry in the Edessene Chronicle, in exacting a large See also:

tribute from Edessa; but in 544 he besieged it in vain. A few years later See also: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 See also:Jacobites (q.v.). The valuable Syriac Chronicle just referred to probably was compiled in the latter half of this century. Islaoh.—In the first See also:decade of the next century Edessa was taken by Chosroes II., and a large part of the population trans-ported to eastern See also:Persia. Within a See also:score bf years it was recovered by the emperor See also:Heraclius, who reviewed a large See also:army under its walls. The See also:prophet of See also:Islam was now, however, See also:building up his power in See also:Arabia, and although Heraclius paid no heed to the letter demanding his See also:adhesion which he received from See also:Medina (628), and the deputation of fifteen Rahawiyin who paid See also:homage in 63o were not Edessenes but See also:South Arabians, a few years later (636 ?) Heraclius's attempts, from Edessa as a centre, to effect an organized opposition to the victorious Arabs were defeated by Sa`d, and he See also:fell back on Samosata. The terms on which Edessa definitely passed into the hands of the Moslems (638) under Riyad are not certain (See also:Baladhuri). As it now ceased to be a frontier city it lost in importance. In 668 occurred another destructive flood (See also:Theophanes, p. 537), and in 678 an See also:earthquake which destroyed part of the " old church," which the See also:caliph Mo'Awiya 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 See also:caliphate to the long See also:process which eventually substituted a new See also: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 See also:

Theophilus of Edessa (d. 785), author of a lost history, translated into Syriac the two books of the poet See also:Homer on the See also:Conquest of the city of See also:Ilion." When the See also:Bagdad caliphs lost See also:control of their dominions, Edessa shared the fortunes of western Mesopotamia, changing with the rise and fall of See also:Egyptian dynasties and Arab chieftains. In the loth century al-Mas`udi, writing in the very year in which it happened, tells how the See also:Mahommedan ruler .of Edessa, with the permission of the caliph, See also:purchased See also:peace of the emperor See also:Romanus Lecapenus by surrendering to him the napkin of Jesus of See also:Nazareth, wherewith he had dried himself after his See also:baptism. The translation of the Holy See also:Icon of See also:Christ from Edessa is commemorated on the 16th of See also:August (Cal. Byzant). A few years later See also:Ibn IIaul*al (978) estimates the number of churches in the city at more than 300, and al-Mokaddasi (985) describes its See also:cathedral, with vaulted See also:ceiling covered with mosaics, as one of the four wonders of the See also:world. In 1031 the emperor recovered Edessa; but in 1040 it fell into the hands of the See also:Seljuks, whose progress had added a large element of Armenian refugees to the population of Osrhoene. There is no See also:reason, therefore, to discredit Magrizi's statement that it was three See also:brother architects from Edessa that the Armenian See also:minister Badr al-Gamali employed to build three of the See also:fine city gates of See also:Cairo (1087-1091). The empire soon recovered Edessa, but the See also:resident made himself See also:independent. Thoros applied for help to See also:Baldwin, brother and successor of See also:Godfrey of See also:Bouillon in the First Crusade, who in 1098 took See also:possession of the town and made it the See also:capital of a Burgundian countship, which included Samosata and Sarug, and was for half a century the eastern See also:bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem.' The local Armenian historian, however, See also:Matthew of Edessa, tells of oppression, decrease of population, ruin of churches, neglect of See also:agriculture. ' The See also:counts were: Baldwin I. (1098).

Baldwin II. (two), Joscelin I. (1119), Joscelin II. (1131-1147). With the See also:

campaign of Maudud in r110 See also:fortune began to favour the Moslems. Edessa had to endure See also:siege after siege. Finally, in 1144 it was stormed, Matthew being among the slain, by `Iiiiad ud-Din Zengi, ruler of See also:Mosul, under Joscelin II., an achievement celebrated as " the conquest of conquests," for laying the responsibility of which not on God but on the See also:absence of the Frankish troops, an Edessan See also:monk, See also:John, bishcp of Ilarran (d. 1165), brought down upon himself the whole See also: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 See also:Europe by the See also:news of its fate led to " the Second Crusade." In 1182 it fell to See also:Saladin, whose See also:nephew recovered it when it had temporarily passed (1234) to the See also:sultan of See also:Rum; but the " See also: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 Hulaku and his Monguls on Sarni (Barhebraeus, Chron. Arab., See also:

Beirut ed., 486). Mostaufi describes a great See also:cupola of finely worked See also:stone still See also:standing by a court over a See also:hundred yards square (1340). See also:Ali b. Yazd in his account of the See also:campaigns of Timur, who reduced Mesopotamia in 1393, still calls the city (1425) Ruha. 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 See also:Modern Town.—Urfa lies See also:north-east of the Nimrud Dagh. It is surrounded by a See also:wall, strengthened by square towers at distances of 18-ao steps, probably dating in its present See also:condition from See also:medieval Mahommedan times. On a height in a corner towards the west, overtopping the town by 100-200 ft., are the remains of the old citadel, and the two famous Corinthian columns' known as " the See also:Throne of Nimrud." 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. Bucking-See also:ham at 20,000, and the nearer as `See also:Ain Zalkha (i.e. Zuleikha, the wife of Potiphar).

On the north edge of the Birket al-Khalil (see See also:

plan in Sachau, p. 197) is the great See also:mosque of See also:Abraham, the interior of which is described by J. S. See also:Buckingham (Travels, pp. to8-1 ro). Diagonally opposite the mosque is a house with a square See also:tower, which is locally believed to occupy the place of the famous ancient school. The See also:waters of the two pools make their way in a single stream southwards out of the town. The once dangerous stream Daisan (~iapros) no longer flows southwards through the town, but encircles it on the north and east in the channel of the old See also:moat. This stream, now called Kara Kuyun, and the other are exhausted in the See also:irrigation of the gardens lying south-east of the town, except when See also:fuller than usual, when they reach the Balih. Not far east of the sacred pool is the largest building in the town, the See also:recent Armenian Gregorian cathedral, whose See also:American bells were first heard during Sachau's 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 See also:bazaar, which lies between the See also:chief mosque and the sacred pool, and contains several streets, are displayed not only the native woollen stuffs, pottery and See also:silver work, but also a consider-able variety of See also:European goods, especially See also:cloth stuffs. The See also:principal manufactures are fine See also:cotton stuffs and yellow See also:leather.

The streets are of course narrow and winding; but the houses are well built of stone. The outskirts are occupied by See also:

melon gardens, vineyards and mulberry plantations. The fertile See also:plain south of the town is noted for its See also:wheat and fine pasture. The See also:climate is healthy except in summer; the " See also:Aleppo See also:button " (see BAGDAD, vilayet), a painful See also: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 See also:graves, where are most of the ' Pictures in Burkitt, Early East. Christ., See also:frontispiece; P.S.B.A. See also:xx1>iii. 151 f.; J. R. Harris, The Heavenly Twins. inscriptions published by Sachau, who also visited and describes (pp. 204-206) the Der Ya'qub, 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 See also:

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 See also:Baedeker's Handbook in 3906 at 30,000. See also:Vice-Consul Fitzmaurice said that before See also:December 1895 it was See also:close on 65,000, of whom about 20,000 were Armenian, 3000 or 4000 Jacobites, Syrian-See also:Catholic, Greek-Catholic, See also:Maronites and See also:Jews, and the remaining 40,000 See also:Turkish, Kurdian and Arab Mahommedans. Two barbarous massacres occurred on the 28th and 29th of See also: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 See also:massacre. The Deutsche Orient-See also:Mission has its chief seat in Urfa, and there have for years been American and See also:French See also:missions. The Germans have an orphanage with 300 Armenian See also:children, a See also:carpet factory and a medical station. The American school had some years ago 25o pupils. AuTHoruTIEs.—Inscriptional: H. Pognon, Inscriptions semitiques de la Syrie, de la Mesopotamie et de la region de Mossoul (1907, 1908) ; Sachau, " Edessenische Inscchriften," in Z.D.M.G. See also:xxxvi. 142-167; F. C. Burkitt, " The Throne of See also:Nimrod," in P.S.B.A. xxviu.

149-155 (1906) ; J. Rendel Harris, The Cull of the Heavenly Twins (1906) ; Noldeke, " Syrische Inschriften," in Z.A. xxi. 151-r61, 375-388 (1908). See also:

Literary: See also:Ludwig Hallier, Untersuchungen uber die Edessenische Chronik mit dem Syrischen See also:Text (1892) ; F. Nau, Analyse des parties inidites de la chronique attribuee a Denys de Tellmahre (2898) ; J.-B. See also:Chabot, Chronique de Denys de Tell-Mahre, quatrieme partie (1895); W. See also:Wright, The Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite (1882); Bayer, Historia Osrhoena et Edessena (St See also:Petersburg, 1784), collects the references in classical authors; for the coinage see references in von Gutschmid (see below). Discussions: A. von Gutschmid, Untersuchungen uber die Geschichte des Konigreichs Osroene " (in Memoires de l'acad. imper. des sciences de St-Petersb. vii. set.. tome 35, No. 1, 1887) ; L.-J. Tixeront, See also:Les Origines de l'eglise d'Edesse et la legende d'Abgar (1888) ; R. A. See also:Lipsius, Die Edessenische Abgarsage kritisch untersucht (188o); K.

C. A. Matthes, Die Edess. Abgarsage auf ihre Fortbildung untersucht (1881); F. Nau, Une Biographic inediie de Bardesane l'astrologue (1897) ; Bardesane l'astrologue: le livre des Lois des Pays (1899) ; A. See also:

Hilgenfeld, Bardesanes, der letzte Gnostiker (1864) ; A. A. Bevan, ' The Hymn of the Soul " (in Texts and Studies, 1897); F. C. Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity (1904); J. R. Harris, The Dioscuri in Christian Legend (19(33), and The Cult of the Heavenly Twins (1906); the histories of Rome, Persia, See also:Crusades, See also:Mongols, &c.; See also:Rubens Duval, Histoire politique, religieuse et litteraire d'Edesse jusqu'd la premiere croisade (1892), a useful compilation reprinted from the Journ.

As.; the excellent See also:

article by E. Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, 1933-1938. Topoggrapphy: J. S. Buckingham, Travels in Mesopotamia (1827); E. Sachau, Reise in Syrien u. Mesopotamien (1883), 189-210; cf. Duval, op. cit. See also:chap. i.; C. See also:Ritter, Erdkunde, xi. 315-356. Map of town in See also:Niebuhr, Voyage enArabie, reproduced with modifications in Wright, Chron. Josh.

Styl. ; also a map in See also:

Reclus, Univ. Geog. ix. 232. Four pictures of the town in Burkitt, Early East. Christ. (H. W.

End of Article: EDESSA

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