 | Şanlıurfa Province: Encyclopedia II - Şanlıurfa Province - History
Şanlıurfa Province - History
The history of Şanlıurfa city dates as far back as 8,000 BC. It was among several cities in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin that together, are considered to be the cradle of the Mesopotamian civilization. The Turks claim that Urfa (its name, since Byzantine days) is the biblical city of Ur, due to its proximity to the biblical village of Harran, and is where Abraham was born and defeated by King Nimrud. However, the Iraqis also claim the same about the city of Ur in southern Iraq, as do many historians and archeologists.
Urfa was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Huri-Mittanis, Assyrians, Kendani, Mede-Persians, Macedonians (under Alexander the Great), Seleucids, Arameans, Osrhoenes, Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, Crusaders, and the Islamic empires of the Ayyubids, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. Islam came to Urfa around 639 C.E., when the Ommiad army conquered the region without a fight.
At the end of World War I, with the Ottoman Empire defeated, and European armies attempting to grab parts of Anatolia, first the British and then the French occupied Urfa. The British occupation started, for the city of Urfa, de facto, on 7 March 1919 and officially as of 24 March 1919, and lasted till 30 October 1919. The French forces took over the city the next day and their uncomfortable presence, met by outbursts of resistance, stretched till 11 April 1920, when they were defeated by locally assembled forces (the new Turkish central government in Ankara being in phase of composition, with the National Assembly declared on 23 April 1920.
The French retreat from the city of Urfa on 11 April 1920 had been conducted within the framework of an agreement reached between the occupying forces and the representatives of the local forces, commanded by Captain Ali Saip Bey assigned from Ankara. The withdrawal that was meant to take place peacefully has been broken by an ambush the same day on the French by irregular forces at the locality called Şebeke Pass on the way to Syria, leading to 296 casualties among the French, and more among the ambushers.
Urfa has been officially re-named Şanlıurfa (Urfa the Glorious) by the Turkish Assembly in 1984, following recurrent requests by the representatives of the province, desirous to earn a title similar to those of the neihgboring 'Gazi' (veteran) Antep and 'Kahraman' (Heroic) Maraş for their own locality. The delay in according the title can possibly be explained by the controversial nature of the closing chapter of the region's liberation (attack on troops withdrawing under an agreement by irregulars).
Other related archives11 April, 1919, 1920, 1984, 1985, 1990, 1992, 2000, 23 April, 24 March, 30 October, 639, 7 March, Abraham, Adıyaman, Akkadians, Alexander the Great, Anatolia, Ankara, Arab, Arameans, Assyrians, Ayyubids, Babylonians, British, Byzantine, Crusaders, Diyarbakır, Ebla, Euphrates, European, French, Gaziantep, Harran, Hittites, Iraq, Islam, Islamic, Kurdish, Macedonians, Maraş, Mardin, Mesopotamian, Ommiad, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turks, Romans, Sassanids, Seleucids, Seljuk, Sumerians, Syria, Tigris, Turkey, Turkish, Turks, Ur, Urfa, World War I, archeologists, census, historians, hydroelectric, hydropower, irrigation
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
