Sanliurfa (tur. Şanlıurfa, Urha, Armenian Ուռհա) is a city in Turkey, the capital of the province of Sanliurfa.

Name
In the language of the Arameans, the city was called Urga. Antiochus IV Epiphanes named it Antioch Kallirgoi, Seleucus I Nicator - Edessa, most likely in honor of the city of the same name in Greece. Under the Romans, he bore the name of Aurelius Anthony and Opellius Macrianus, as well as Alexandria. In the Middle Ages, the Franks called it Edessa, and the Syrian authors Urhoy/Orhoy. Then the city became Urfa. In Kurdish, the city is called Riha.
In 1983, the prefix Shanly- (Russian glorious) was added to the names of the province and silt of Urfa, in honor of the city's merits in the war against the French invaders.

Geographic location
The city of Sanliurfa is located in the southeast of Anatolia and is the capital of the province of the same name (ila). Geographically, the city belongs to Northern Mesopotamia.
Sanliurfa lies 80 km from the Euphrates and 45 km from the Turkish-Syrian border, in the northwest of a fertile plain surrounded by mountains in the west, north and east. To the southeast lies the valley of Harran. Three streams flow through the city.
Sanliurfa is located at the crossroads of ancient trade routes: the west-east route from Persia and Nusaybin to Samosata and the Mediterranean coast, and the north-south route from Diyarbakir to Harran and Syria.

History
prehistoric times
Near the city is the oldest temple complex on earth Göbekli Tepe, dating back to about 9000 BC. e. There are suggestions that Urfa is the Hurrian city of Urshu, mentioned around 2000 BC. e. in Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite cuneiform inscriptions. In 1370 B.C. e. Urshu was conquered by the Hittites under the leadership of Suppiluliuma I. After the decline of the Hittite kingdom, Urshu passed into the possession of Karchemish.

ancient ages
The city was conquered by Alexander the Great. Seleucus I Nicator, for political reasons, gave the city a Greek name - Edessa, like the city of the same name in Macedonia. The founding date of Edessa is usually given as 303 BC. e.. Город имел прямоугольный план застройки с четырёхугольными стенами и воротами, ориентированными по сторонам света. The fortress partially protruded beyond the city walls.
After the collapse of the Seleucid state, an independent Assyrian kingdom of Osroene arose around Edessa. The list of his kings is given in the chronicles Syrian Archbishop Dionysius of Tellmar. This kingdom after the baptism of King Abgar V by the Apostle Thaddeus became the first Christian state.
During Roman times, the city initially retained its independence. Gnaeus Pompey the Great approved Abgar of Edessa around 67 BC. e. on the throne. According to Plutarch, the latter played an important role in the defeat of Crassus in 53 BC. e. at the battle of Kara. After that, Edessa, along with Osroene, went to the Parthians.
Urga became famous thanks to the first Christian king Abgar V, who corresponded with Jesus Christ through his secretary and artist Hannan. According to the Bible, Abgar (Avgar) asked Jesus for healing. Jesus wiped his face with a handkerchief, and his image remained on it. After the resurrection of Jesus, the apostle Thaddeus delivered the kerchief to the king, and, having touched this image, he recovered. In gratitude, Abgar converted to Christianity. Thus, the first Christian icon appeared (see Savior Not Made by Hands).
When the Roman emperor Trajan visited Antioch in 114, the king of Edessa, also named Abgar, presented him with gifts, among them about 200 horses. But already in 116 the city fell and was destroyed by the Romans. Emperor Hadrian appointed the Parthian prince Parfamaspatus as ruler of Edessa. In 165, the city rebelled against the Parthians and opened the city gates to the Romans, the Roman governor became the ruler of the city.
Edessa initially competed in the worship of the moon god Sin with nearby Harran. It is also known about the veneration of the goddess Tarata. In the “Book of Laws” of Vardesan of the beginning of the 3rd century, it was reported that in Syria and Urgoy, men were castrated in honor of Tarata. However, Edessa became Christian early. Presumably, the first Christian churches were built under King Abgar VIII (177-212).
In 194, Edessa rebelled against the Romans, but the uprising was put down by Emperor Septimius Severus. Abgar XIX (212-214) briefly ascended the throne. However, soon in Rome, he was removed from office and killed by the emperor Caracalla, and the city in 214 became a Roman colony.
In 233, the remains of St. Thomas (Maar Tuma) were brought to the city and buried in the main church. In subsequent years, kings continued to rule Edessa, so in 243 another king named Avgar moved with his family to Rome.
In 259-260, the Roman army under the leadership of Emperor Valerian I defeated the Persians under under the leadership of Shapur I near Edessa, and the emperor himself was captured.

late antiquity
Edessa had the right to mint coins, its high society, the city was the center of trade in luxury goods brought with caravans. Thus, from ancient times there were trade relations between Edessa and India. This in turn led to the establishment of contacts between Asian and European countries, and the well-fortified city prospered economically.
During late antiquity, Edessa was an important religious and scientific center of the Syrian-Roman East, even when, by order of the Byzantine emperor Zeno, the “Edessa School” was closed in 489, and its professors fled to the Persian Nusaybin. In the VI century the city became the center of the struggle between the Eastern Romans and the Persians. In 543 or 544, the grandiose fortification of Edessa fell under the Persian Shahinshah from the Sassanid dynasty, Khosrow I. In 525, most of the city was destroyed by the overflowing river Skirt (Daisan). Byzantine Emperor Justinian I ordered to carry out work to restore the city.

Middle Ages
In 638, the city fell into the hands of the Muslims, and this is where the ancient history of the city ends. In 1052, Edessa again went to Byzantium. Then the power was seized by the Armenian prince Abu-Kab, after whose death the city passed to his son Vasil. Then the city was occupied by the former Byzantine curopalate Filaret Braham, who was replaced by his officer Thoros. He held back the Seljuk raids, but in 1097 he called for help from the crusaders of the first crusade and adopted their leader, Count Baldwin of Boulogne. After the murder of Thoros during the uprising of the townspeople in 1098, the Crusaders completely seized power, making the city the capital of the County of Edessa, and Baldwin the count of Edessa. But in 1144 the city was again captured by the Seljuks of Zangi from Aleppo, plundered and completely destroyed in 1147. Most of the inhabitants of Edessa, led by the archbishop, were killed. The defeat of the crusaders was the reason for the organization of the second crusade.
In the following centuries, the city was conquered by the Mongols and then by the Mamluks.
In 1637, Edessa was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and renamed Urfa. At that time, the city was a trading center selling cotton, leather and jewelry.
In 1830, the city briefly came under the control of Khedive Muhammad ali Pasha.
In 1895, after pogroms among Armenians and Syrian Christians by the special forces of the Sultan, the so-called Hamidiye, in the south and east of Anatolia, Johann Lepsius built several houses of mercy in the city for the residents who survived the pogroms. Since 1903, these houses were headed by the Danish missionary Karen Jeppe, who during the First World War became the savior of many Armenian children from the genocide. In 1917, Jeppe was forced to leave Turkey for health reasons and continued her work as the official representative of the League of Nations in neighboring Syria. The occupation of Urfa by British troops in March 1919 brought a brief respite to the city. The restoration of Urfa began. But then the French entered the city. The latter were expelled by the Turkish liberation troops. During the Armenian genocide of 1915, out of 35,000 Armenian residents of the city, 30,000 were victims of the genocide.

City Founder
Ephraim the Syrian calls the founder of the city the Assyrian king Nimrod, identifying Orkh with the biblical Erech. This opinion was taken up by Isidore of Seville, the first encyclopedist of the Middle Ages. James of Edessa, in turn, identified Nimrod with Ninus, the son of Belus, named by Diodorus Siculus the founder of Nineveh. Fifteen-meter pillars on the territory of the fortress of Urfa, for example, are called the “Throne of Nimrod”. Abu-l-Faraj considered the founder of the city of Enoch. According to another Assyrian legend, Urfa was founded by Org, the son of a snake.

Religion
Sanliurfa remains a religious center to this day, it is called the "city of the five prophets" of Islam. Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham) and Job lived here. And according to the traditions of Islam, Abraham was born here. Thus, Sanliurfa is connected with the Old Testament city of Ur.
After the baptism of King Abgar V and the inhabitants of his state, which was not confirmed by historical documents, the first Christian churches were built. It is also claimed that Abgar V ordered to cut off the hand of everyone who castrates himself in honor of Tarata, which caused the disappearance of this tradition. The appearance of the Mandylion, a plate with the image of Christ, which became the first Christian icon, dates back to the same time.
The central place of pilgrimage in Sanliurfa is the Khalil-Raman Mosque and the related Abraham Pond, filled with