Antiquity In the second half of the second century BC, as the
Seleucid Empire disintegrated during wars with
Parthia (145–129 BC), Edessa became the capital of the
Abgarid dynasty, who founded the kingdom of
Osroene (also known as Edessa). This kingdom was established by
Arabs from the northern
Arabian Peninsula and lasted nearly four centuries (c. 132 BC to A.D. 214), under twenty-eight rulers, who sometimes called themselves "king" on their coinage. Edessa was at first more or less under the protectorate of the
Parthians, then of
Tigranes of
Armenia, Edessa was
Armenian Mesopotamia's capital city, then from the time of
Pompey under the
Roman Empire. Following its capture and sack by
Trajan, the Romans even occupied Edessa from 116 to 118, although its sympathies towards the Parthians led to
Lucius Verus pillaging the city later in the 2nd century. Christianity is attested in Edessa in the 2nd century; the gnostic
Bardaisan was a native of the city and a philosopher at its court. From 212 to 214 the kingdom was a
Roman province. struck in Edessa by
Macrinus 217–218 AD The Roman emperor
Caracalla was assassinated on the road from Edessa to Carrhae (now
Harran) by one of his guards in 217. Edessa became one of the frontier cities of the province of Osroene and lay close to the border of the
Sasanian Empire. The
Battle of Edessa took place between the Roman armies under the command of the emperor
Valerian and the Sasanian forces under emperor
Shapur I in 260. The Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirety by the Persian forces, including Valerian himself, an event which had never previously happened. The literary language of the tribes that had founded this kingdom was
Aramaic, from which
Syriac developed. Traces of Hellenistic culture were soon overwhelmed in Edessa, which employed Syriac legends on coinage, with the exception of the
client king Abgar IX (179–214), and there is a corresponding lack of Greek public inscriptions.
Late Antiquity According to the
Chronicle of Edessa, a Syriac chronicle written after 540, the cathedral church of Edessa was founded immediately after the end of the
Diocletianic Persecution and the 313
Letter of Licinius, which ended the general persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. The cathedral church was dedicated to the
Holy Wisdom. Around 23 different monasteries and churches are known to have existed in the city, with at least as many again just outside town; these attracted many pilgrims.
Eusebius of Caesarea even claimed in his
Church History that "the whole city" was "devoted to the name of Christ" in the early 4th century; in fact the city had at least some pagan inhabitants into the early 5th century, as well as Jewish ones. Eusebius also claimed to quote the
Letter of Abgar to Jesus and the
Letter of Jesus to Abgar in the state archives of Edessa, foundational texts of the
Abgar Legend.
Egeria, a high-status Roman lady and author, visited Edessa in 384 on her way to
Jerusalem; she saw a
martyrium of
Thomas the Apostle and the text of the
Letter of Jesus inscribed on the city walls, said to protect the city. She saw a longer version of the
Letters than she was previously familiar with, and was assured that the holy words had repelled a Persian assault on the city. When Nisibis (
Nusaybin) was ceded to the Sasanian Empire along with
Arzanene,
Moxoene,
Zabdicene, Rehimena and
Corduene in 363,
Ephrem the Syrian left his native town for Edessa, where he founded the celebrated
School of Edessa. This school, largely attended by the Christian youth of Persia, and closely watched by
Rabbula, the friend of
Cyril of Alexandria, on account of its
Nestorian tendencies, reached its highest development under bishop
Ibas, famous through the
Three-Chapter Controversy, was temporarily closed in 457, and finally in 489, by command of Emperor
Zeno and Bishop Cyrus, when the teachers and students of the School of Edessa repaired to Nisibis and became chief writers of the
Church of the East.
Miaphysitism prospered at Edessa after the Arab conquest. Under the Sassanian emperor
Kavad I (), the Sasanids attacked Edessa. According to Joshua the Stylite the shrine outside the walls set up in the 340s was burnt by his troops. Edessa was rebuilt by
Justin I (), and renamed Justinopolis after him. The Greek historian
Procopius, in his
Persian Wars, describes the inscription of the
Letter of Jesus's text on the city gates of Edessa, which he stated made the defences impregnable. According to a legend first reported by
Eusebius in the fourth century, King
Abgar V was converted by
Thaddeus of Edessa (
Addai), who was one of the
seventy-two disciples, sent to him by
"Judas, who is also called Thomas". However, various sources confirm that the Abgar who embraced the Christian faith was
Abgar IX. Under him Christianity became the official religion of the kingdom. Addai was succeeded by
Aggai, then by
Saint Mari, who was ordained about 200 by
Serapion of Antioch. Thence came to us in the second century the famous
Peshitta, or Syriac translation of the
Old Testament; also
Tatian's
Diatessaron, which was compiled about 172 and in common use until
Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa (412–435), forbade its use. Among the illustrious disciples of the School of Edessa,
Bardaisan (154–222), a schoolfellow of Abgar IX, deserves special mention for his role in creating Christian religious poetry, and whose teaching was continued by his son Harmonius and his disciples. A Christian council was held at Edessa as early as 197. In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed. In 232 the relics of the apostle Thomas were brought from
Mylapore,
India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination many martyrs suffered at Edessa:
Sharbel and
Barsamya, under
Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Shâmôna, Habib, and others under
Diocletian. In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa had evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, and established the first Churches in the Sasanian Empire. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the
First Council of Nicaea (325). The
Peregrinatio Silviae (or Etheriae) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388. As metropolis of Osroene, Edessa had eleven
suffragan sees.
Michel Le Quien mentions thirty-five bishops of Edessa, but his list is incomplete. The
Eastern Orthodox episcopate seems to have disappeared after the 11th century. Of its
Jacobite bishops, twenty-nine are mentioned by Le Quien (II, 1429 sqq.), many others in the ''Revue de l'Orient chrétien
(VI, 195), some in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft'' (1899), 261 sqq. Moreover, Nestorian bishops are said to have resided at Edessa as early as the 6th century.
Islamic rule The Armenian chronicler
Sebeos, bishop of
Bagratid Armenia writing in the 660s, gives the earliest narrative accounts of
Islam in any language today. Sebeos writes of a Jewish delegation going to an Arab city (possibly
Medina) after the Byzantines conquered Edessa: Muslim tradition tells of a similar account, known as the
second pledge at al-Aqabah. Sebeos' account suggests that
Muhammad was actually leading a joint venture toward
Palestine, instead of a Jewish-Arab alliance against the Meccan pagans toward the south.
Middle Ages The
Byzantine Empire often tried to retake Edessa, especially under
Romanos I Lekapenos, who obtained from the inhabitants the "
Image of Edessa", an ancient portrait of Christ, and solemnly transferred it to
Constantinople, August 16, 944. This was the final great achievement of Romanus's reign. This venerable and famous image, which was certainly at Edessa in 544, and of which there is an ancient copy in the
Vatican Library, was looted and brought to the West by the
Republic of Venice in 1207 following the
Fourth Crusade. The city was ruled shortly thereafter by
Marwanids. In 1031 Edessa was given up to the Byzantines under
George Maniakes by its Arab governor. It was subsequently retaken by the Arabs, and then again by the Byzantines. Under Byzantine rule, Edessa remained an important centre for the production of textiles and was quite prosperous as indicated by the city's tax revenue, which was 50 pounds of gold per year. In the years 1071-1072, the city's population was around 35,000 residents, of whom 20,000 were Syrians, 8,000 were Armenians, 6,000 were Greeks and 1,000 were Latins. Following the collapse of Byzantine control in Anatolia, the city would be controlled by the
Seljuq dynasty (1087), an Armenian named
Thoros who gained independence from the Turks (1094), and the
Crusaders (1098), who established there the
County of Edessa and kept the city until 1144, when it was captured and sacked by
Imad ad-Din Zengi, and most of its inhabitants
were allegedly slaughtered together with the Latin archbishop. These events are known to us chiefly through the Armenian historian
Matthew, who had been born at Edessa. In 1144 the city had an Armenian population of 47,000. In 1146, the city was briefly
recaptured by the Crusaders and lost after a few days. In the words of
Steven Runciman, "the whole Christian population was driven into exile and the great city, which claimed to be the oldest Christian commonwealth in the world, was left empty and desolate, and has never recovered to this day." The
Ayyubid Sultanate's leader
Saladin acquired the town from the
Zengids in 1182. During Ayyubid rule, Edessa had a population of approximately 24,000. The
Sultanate of Rûm took Edessa in June 1234, but sometime in late 1234 or 1235, the Ayyubid sultan
Al-Kamil re-acquired it. After Edessa had been recaptured, Al-Kamil ordered the destruction of its Citadel. Not long after, the
Mongols had made their presence known in Edessa in 1244. Later, the
Ilkhanate sent troops to Edessa in 1260 at which point the town voluntarily submitted to them. The populace of Edessa were thus saved from being massacred by the Mongols. Edessa was also held by the
Mamluk Sultanate, and the
Aq Qoyunlu.
Subsequent history Edessa was subsequently controlled by the
Safavid Iran, and from 1517 to 1918 the
Ottoman Empire. Under the Ottomans in 1518, the population of Edessa was estimated at a mere 5,500; likely due to the
Ottoman–Persian Wars. By 1566, though, the population had risen to an estimated 14,000 citizens. In 1890, the population of Edessa consisted of 55,000, of which the Muslim population made up 40,835. ==Syriac literature==