Mardin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.
Mardin
Cityscape
Cityscape
Official logo of Mardin
Coat of Arms of Mardin Municipality
Location of Mardin within Turkey.
Location of Mardin within Turkey.
Coordinates: 40°42′N 37°38′E / 40.7, 37.633
Country Flag of Turkey Turkey
Region Southeastern Anatolia
Province Mardin
Government
 - Mayor Metin Pamukçu (Justice and Development Party)
Area
 - Total 8,891 km² (3,432.8 sq mi)
Elevation 1,083 m (3,553 ft)
Population
 - Total 65,072
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code 47x xx
Area code(s) 0482
Licence plate 47
Website: http://www.mardin.bel.tr

Mardin is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for its Arab-style architecture, and for its strategic location on a rocky mountain overlooking the plains of northern Syria.[1] Mardin has a very mixed population, Turks, Assyrians, Aramean-Syriac people, Arabs and Kurds all represent large groups.[2]

Mardin is an Aramaic word (ܡܶܪܕܺܝܢ) and means "fortresses."[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] History

Men from Mardin around the turn of the last century.
Men from Mardin around the turn of the last century.

The earliest settlers in Mardin were Assyrian Christians, arriving in the 3rd century AD; in fact, the old Assyro-Babylonian religion existed in Mardin until the 18th century.[3] Most Syriac Orthodox churches and monasteries in the city, which are still active today, date from the 5th century AD, such as the Deyrülzafarân Monastery.[citation needed] Mardin is likely the Maride and Marida of the Greeks and Romans. Another important church, Kırklar Kilisesi (Church of the 40 Martyrs), originally built in the name of Benham and Saro, the two sons of the Assyrian ruler who executed them because they chose to become Christian, dates from 569 AD.[citation needed] Mardin remained a heavily Christian area during its control by Muslim Arabs between the seventh and twelfth centuries, and even during its use as a capital by the Artukid Turkish dynasty which ruled Eastern Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The 12th century Sitti Radviyye Madrasa, the oldest of its kind in Anatolia, dates from this period. The lands of the Artukid dynasty fell to the Mongols who took control of the region in 1394, but the Mongols never directly governed the area. Mardin was later controlled by the Turkish Akkoyunlu kingdom. The Kasımiye Madrasa was built by Sultan Kasım, son of the Akkoyunlu Sultan Cihangir, between 1457 and 1502.

[edit] Trivia

  • Mardin is the one of the two main settings in the popular Turkish television series Sıla.


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mardin, Turkey, from planetware.com
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia of the Orient - Mardin
  3. ^ Parpola, Simo. Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today (PDF) (English). Assyriology 17. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies.

[edit] References

  • Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste (1692), Les six voyages, I:187
  • Niebuhr, Carsten (1778), Reisebeschreibung, Copenhagen, II:391-8
  • Socin, Albert (1904), Der Arabische Dialekt von Mōsul und Märdīn, Leipzig.
  • della Valle, Pietro (1843), Viaggi, Brighton, I: 515
  • Makas, Hugo (1926), Kurdische Texte im Kurmanji-Dialekte aus der Gegend von Mardin. Petersburg-Leningrad.
  • Shumaysani, Hasan (1987), Madinat Mardin min al-fath al-'arabi ila sanat 1515. Bayrūt: 'Ālam al-kutub.
  • Jastrow, Otto (1969), Arabische Textproben aus Mardin und Asex, in "Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft" (ZDMG) 119 : 29-59.
  • Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1971), Linguistische Analyse des Arabischen Dialekts der Mhallamīye in der Provinz Mardin (Südossttürkei), Berlin.
  • Minorsky, V. (1991), Mārdīn, in "The Encyclopaedia of Islam". Leiden: E. J. Brill.
  • Jastrow, Otto (1992), Lehrbuch der Turoyo-Sprache in "Semitica Viva – Series Didactica", Wiesbaden : Otto Harrassowitz.
  • Ayliffe, Rosie, et al. (2000) The Rough Guide to Turkey. London: Rough Guides.
  • Wittich, Michaela (2001), Der arabische Dialekt von Azex, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
  • Grigore, George (2007), L'arabe parlé à Mardin. Monographie d'un parler arabe périphérique. Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, ISBN (13) 978-973-737-249-9 [1]

[edit] External links