Editing Urfa (section)

===Mamluk and Aq Qoyunlu rules===
The Mamluks gained control of Urfa sometime in the early 14th century.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7}} They renovated the ruined citadel probably during the third reign of [[an-Nasir Muhammad]] (1309–40), but the city "attracted few inhabitants".<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7, 216}} The Mamluk garrison only occupied the citadel itself; the surrounding city was still practically deserted and not worth committing any soldiers to defend.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|218}} Located close to the Mamluks' eastern frontier, Urfa had "no commercial importance" because merchant traffic in Upper Mesopotamia was taking a route through [[Mardin]] and [[Ra's al-'Ayn]] rather than through Amid and Urfa.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7, 218–9}}

That changed in the late 14th century, toward the end of the Mamluk period.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7, 218}} Some commercial traffic had begun passing through Urfa enroute to Aleppo, and the city became at least partly repopulated.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|218}} By around 1400, [[al-Qalqashandi]] wrote that Urfa had been rebuilt and was prosperous again.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Meanwhile, in 1394, [[Timur]] occupied Urfa without much resistance; he "admired the buildings and took away some of the portable wealth".<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|219}}

The [[Aq Qoyunlu]] seized Urfa, a strategic military outpost on their western frontier, in the late 1410s or early 1420s.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|219}} At some point, the Aq Qoyunlu ruler [[Kara Osman]] granted Urfa to his son [[Ali Beg (Aq Qoyunlu)|Ali]], whose quarrels with his brothers beginning in autumn 1428, prompted Kara Osman to replace him with Ali's brother Habil as governor of Urfa.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|59}} Ali left Urfa in 1429 and headed north where he laid siege to Harpoot, which fell before Mamluk aid could come to the city's aid. This prompted the Mamluks to attack Urfa, an Aq Qoyunlu base that posed threat to Mamluk-held Aleppo.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|59}} One day before the main Mamluk army arrived, a "local Arab contingent" reached Urfa and defeated Habil's Turkic forces. The Mamluk army arrived the next day and besieged the city. On 24 July, the citadel surrendered, and the Mamluks demolished the fortress and enslaved the women and children, killing many others. Contemporary historians compared the violent event to [[Siege of Damascus (1400)|Timur's sack of Damascus in 1400]].<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|59}}

About a decade later, Urfa was involved in the civil war between Ali Beg's son [[Jahangir (Aq Qoyunlu)|Jahangir]] and Jahangir's uncle Hamza for control of the Aq Qoyunlu.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|59}} The contemporary historian [[Abu Bakr Tihrani|Tihrani Isfahani]] wrote that Hamza's troops besieged Urfa but did not elaborate.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} Jahangir ended up making Urfa his main base at some point, from which he attacked Hamza in [[Erzincan]] and then later sent a raid against [[Ergani]].<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} Urfa was then the site of a battle in 1451, where [[Uzun Hasan]] successfully defeated other Aq Qoyunlu leaders shortly before gaining control of the tribal confederation as a whole.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|219}} In 1462-3, under Uzun Hasan's reign, Urfa's citadel was renovated.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|10}}

In early November 1480, a large Mamluk army under [[Yashbak min Mahdi]], who was ''[[dawatdar|dawātdār-i kabīr]]'' or executive secretary to the Mamluk sultan [[Qaitbay]], laid siege to Urfa.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} Yashbak bombarded the city walls with heavy cannon fire and used catapults to hurl fireballs into the city.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} This happened during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, prompting [[Fazlallah Khunji Isfahani]] to liken Yashbak's actions to the tyrant [[Nimrod]] torturing the prophet Abraham with fire – also in Urfa, according to tradition.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} Aq Qoyunlu forces quickly arrived at Urfa from Diyar Bakr and, after a failed attempt at negotiations, [[Battle of Urfa (1480)|a pitched battle]] took place.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} The Aq Qoyunlu army's right wing was commanded by [[Sulayman Beg Bijan]] and the left wing was commanded by [[Sufi Khalil Beg Mawsilu|Khalil Beg Mawsillu]].<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}} The Mamluk forces were utterly defeated, and Yashbak was later executed.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}}{{refn|group=note|Contemporary sources give conflicting dates for when this battle took place. According to [[Ibn al-Himsi]], it took place on 19 November; according to [[al-Sayrafi (Mamluk historian)|al-Sayrafi]], 17 November; according to the anonymous ''Chronicle of Bar Hebraeus'', 23 November.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|60}}}}