Antiquity of
Shalmaneser III in the
British Museum, 9th century BC People have inhabited the area around Diyarbakır since the Stone Age. The first major civilization to establish itself in the region of Diyarbakır was the
Hurrian kingdom of the
Mitanni. It was then ruled by a succession of nearly every polity that controlled
Upper Mesopotamia, including the
Arameans,
Assyrians,
Urartu,
Armenians,
Achaemenid Persians,
Medes,
Seleucids, and
Parthians. The
Roman Republic gained control of the city in 66 BC, by which stage it was named "Amida". In 359,
Shapur II of Persia captured Amida after a siege of 73 days. According to the
Synecdemus of
Hierocles, as Amida, Diyarbakır was the major city of the
Roman province of
Mesopotamia. It was the
episcopal see of the Christian
diocese of Mesopotamia. The Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus was serving in the
late Roman army during the
Siege of Amida by the
Sasanian Empire under
Shapur II (), and described the successful siege in detail. At some stage, Amida became a see of the
Armenian Church. The bishops who held the see in 1650 and 1681 were in
full communion with the
Holy See, and in 1727 Peter Derboghossian sent his profession of faith to Rome. He was succeeded by two more bishops of the
Armenian Catholic Church, Eugenius and Ioannes of
Smyrna, the latter of whom died in
Constantinople in 1785. After a long vacancy, three more bishops followed. The diocese had some 5,000 Armenian Catholics in 1903, but it lost most of its population in the 1915
Armenian genocide. The last
diocesan bishop of the see, Andreas Elias Celebian, was killed with some 600 of his flock in the summer of 1915. An eparchy for the local members of the
Syriac Catholic Church was established in 1862.
Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War brought an end to the existence of both these Syrian residential sees.
Middle Ages In 639, as part of the
Muslim conquest of the Levant during the early
Arab–Byzantine wars, Amida fell to the armies of the
Rashidun Caliphate led by
Iyad ibn Ghanm, and the Great Mosque of Amida was constructed afterwards in the city's centre, possibly on the site of the Heraclian Church of Saint Thomas. The dynasty's foundation was laid by a chief from the
Bohtan (Botkhti) tribe named Badh ibn Dustak, who captured Mayyafariqin (modern
Silvan) and later Amida. After Badh was killed in 990, he was succeeded by his nephew, al-Hasan ibn Marwan, the son of his sister and a man named Marwan. Al-Hasan is considered the true founder of the dynasty that bears his father's name. The Marwanid emirate reached its apogee under the 50-year reign of
Nasr al-Dawla Ahmad (1011–1061). This period is remembered as one of peace, prosperity, and cultural flourishing. Nasr al-Dawla was a skilled diplomat, balancing relations with the era's great powers; the Buyid Emirs, the Fatimid Caliphs, and the
Byzantine Empire, all of whom sent envoys and recognized his rule. The Marwanid court, based primarily in
Mayyafariqin and Amida, fostered a "pluralistic political rhetoric" that allowed for the coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups, attracting migration from surrounding regions. This period saw extensive public works, and Nasr al-Dawla left monumental inscriptions, still visible, on the Roman walls of Amida. The city was taken by the
Seljuks in 1085 and by the
Ayyubids in 1183. Ayyubid control lasted until the
Mongol invasions of Anatolia, with its last Ayyubid ruler
Al-Kamil Muhammad. The Mongols of
Hulagu captured of the city in 1260 (
Siege of Mayyāfāriqīn), following a long siege with a small Mongol force and a much larger Georgian and Armenian force under the Georgian leader
Hasan Brosh. Between the Mongol occupation and conquest by the
Safavid dynasty of Iran, the
Kara Koyunlu and
Aq Qoyunlu – two
Turkoman confederations – were in control of the city in succession. Diyarbakır was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire in 1514 by
Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, in the reign of the sultan
Selim I ().
Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.
Safavids and Ottomans |left The
Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire saw it expand into
Western Armenia and all but the eastern regions of
Kurdistan at the expense of the Safavids. From the early 16th century, the city and the wider region was the source of intrigue between the Safavids and the
Ottoman Empire, both of whom sought the support of the Kurdish chieftains around
Idris Bitlisi. It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1514 in the campaigns of
Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, under the rule of Sultan
Selim I.
Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid Governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of
Armenians and
Syriac Orthodox Christians. The city was also a site of
ethnic cleansing during the 1915
Armenian and
Assyrian genocide (see:
1915 genocide in Diyarbekir); nearly 150,000 were expelled from the city to the death marches in the
Syrian Desert.
Republic of Turkey In January 1928, Diyarbakır became the center of the
First Inspectorate-General, a regional subdivision for an area containing the provinces of
Hakkari,
Van,
Şırnak,
Mardin,
Siirt,
Bitlis and
Şanlıurfa. In a reorganization of the provinces in 1952, Diyarbakır city was made the administrative capital of the
Diyarbakır Province. In 1993, Diyarbakir was established as a Metropolitan Municipality. Its districts are
Bağlar,
Bismil,
Ergani,
Hazro,
Kayapinar,
Çermik,
Çinar,
Eğil,
Dicle,
Kulp,
Kocaköy,
Lice,
Silvan,
Sur,
Yenişehir,
Hani and
Çüngüş. The American-Turkish
Pirinçlik Air Force Base near Diyarbakır was operational from 1956 to 1997. Diyarbakır has seen much violence in recent years, involving Turkish security forces, the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Between 8 November 2015 and 15 May 2016
large parts of Sur were destroyed in fighting between the
Turkish military and the PKK. In early November 2015, Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist
Tahir Elçi was killed in the Sur district during a press statement in which he had been calling for a de-escalation in violence between the PKK and the Turkish state. in the
Sur district (2010 photo) A 2018 report by Arkeologlar Derneği İstanbul found that, since 2015, 72% of the city's historic
Sur district had been destroyed through demolition and redevelopment, and that laws designed to protect historic monuments had been ignored. They found that the city's "urban regeneration" policy was one of demolition and redevelopment rather than one of repairing cultural assets damaged during the recent civil conflict, and because of that many registered historic buildings had been completely destroyed. The extent of the loss of non-registered historic structures is unknown because any historic building fragments revealed during the demolition of modern structures were also demolished. As of 2021, large parts of the city and district were restored and government officials were looking towards tourism again. A Turkish professor and former journalist from the country commented, "It is like having an epicenter of an earthquake in
Harrisburg and buildings in New York City are collapsing." == Sports ==