Sanli Urfa (in Turkish Şanlıurfa) is a city in eastern Turkey, and the provincial capital of Sanliurfa Province. To the Arabs it was known as Ar-Ruha and to the Greeks it was Orra; its Kurdish name is "Riha". It is about 80 kilometres east of the Euphrates River. The population is about 275,000 (1990).
In ancient and medieval times it was called Edessa, when it was a part of the Syriac kingdom Osroene . According to Muslim tradition it is the location of Ur, and the birthplace of Abraham is said to be at a mosque in the city. The Great Mosque at Urfa was built in 1170, on the site of a Christian church the Arabs called the "red church," probably incorporating some Roman masonry. Contemporary tradition at the site identifies the well of the mosque as that into which the towel (mendil) of the prophet Jesus was thrown (see Image of Edessa). Under the Ottomans it was a centre of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery.
It still has ruins of its ancient walls and of an Arab castle. 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 Assyrian Quarter").
The official name of the city has been changed into Sanliurfa (Şanlıurfa in Turkish spelling) in 1984 which was Urfa until this date. 'Şanlı' means great, glorious, dignified in Turkish, a reference to the city's role in the Turkish War of Independence.
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Last updated: 08-02-2005 01:09:40
