İngilizce Şanlıurfa Tanıtımı

İngilizce Şanlıurfa tanıtımı

Şanlıurfa tanıtımı İngilizce

Şanlıurfa (often simply known as Urfa in daily language), formerly cited as Edessa or in Kurdish; Riha or Urhāy, or in Armenian Urhai) is a city in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province Urfa is situated on a plain under big open skies, about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River The climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters The urban population of Urfa is mainly Turkish while the outlying regions are mixed Kurdish and to a lesser degree Arabian

Etymology

The city has been known by many names in history: Ուռհա, Urhai in Aramaic, ܐܘܪܗܝ, Riha in Syriac, الرها, Ar-Ruha in Arabic, Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa) For a while it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης) During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis Although, prior to the Turkish rule, it was often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Εδεσσα, Edessa

'Şanlı' means great, glorious, dignified in Turkish and Urfa was officially re-named Şanlıurfa (Urfa the Glorious) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1984, in recognition of the local resistance in the Turkish War of Independence The title was achieved following repeated requests by the city's members of parliament, desirous to earn a title similar to those of neighbouring rival cities 'Gazi' (veteran) Antep and 'Kahraman' (Heroic) Maraş

History

The history of Şanlıurfa is recorded from the 4th century BC, but may date back to the 8th century BC, when there is ample evidence for the surrounding sites at Duru, Harran and Nevali Cori It was one of several cities in the Euphrates-Tigris basin, the cradle of the Mesopotamian civilization According to Turkish Muslim traditions Urfa (its name since Byzantine days) is the biblical city of Ur, due to its proximity to the biblical village of Harran However, the Iraqis also claim the city of Ur in southern Iraq, as do many historians and archaeologists

Urfa is also known as the birthplace of Abraham, commemorated by a mosque in the city and the birthplace of Job

Urfa was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Hurris, Armenians, Mittannis, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Macedonians (under Alexander the Great), Seleucids, Arameans, Osrhoenes, Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, Crusaders

The city of Edessa

In the Byzantine period Edessa was a powerful regional centre, and a sophisticated city with churches, schools and monasteries

The age of Islam

Islam first arrived around 639 CE, when the Umayyad army conquered the region without a fight Islam was then established permanently in Urfa by the empires of the Ayyubids, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks In the aftermath of the First Crusade, the city was the center of the Crusader County of Edessa, until 1144, when it was again captured by the Turk Zengui, and most of its inhabitants were slaughtered together with the Latin archbishop (see Siege of Edessa) For the ten years following the Turkish capture, Urfa was at the center of European history, since the very reason for which the Second Crusade was launched was the city's recapture While it began with an enthusiastic massacre of Jews in western Europe and the presence of an Emperor and a King of France gave it much lustre, it was a disaster, its only success recorded resulting from auxiliary operation when an English fleet took from the Arabs and passed into the hands of the future King of Portugal the city of Lisbon

Under the Ottomans Urfa was a centre of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery There were three Christian communities: Syrian, Armenian, and Latin The last Syrian Christians left in 1924 and went to Aleppo (where they settled down in a place that later got called Hay al-Suryan "The Syriac Quarter")

The First World War and after

In 1914 Urfa was estimated to have 75,000 inhabitants: 45,000 Kurds and Turks, 25,000 Armenians and 5,000 Syrian Christians There were also some Jews

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 of the city of Urfa started de facto on 7 March 1919 and officially as of 24 March 1919, and lasted till 30 October 1919 French forces took over the next day and their uncomfortable presence, met by outbursts of resistance, lasted until 11 April 1920, when they were defeated by local resistance forces (the new Turkish government in Ankara not being established, with the National Assembly declared on 23 April 1920