Editing Urfa (section)

===Ottoman period===
{{see also|Urfa Sanjak}}
[[File:Semailname 47b.jpg|thumb|[[Suleiman the Magnificent]]'s conquest of Baghdad in 1534 indirectly boosted commerce in Urfa by making regional trade routes safer to travel.]]
<!-- [[File:Balıklıgöl_park_9091.jpg|thumb|Park of Balıklıgöl]] -->

Urfa was likely initially incorporated into the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the rule of [[Selim I]] around 1517.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} The earliest surviving Ottoman [[defter|tax register]] for Urfa, compiled in 1518, documented 1,082 families (700 Muslim and 382 Christian), suggesting a total population slightly exceeding 5,500 people.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} The relatively low population figure can be attributed to political turmoil in the region, particularly the ongoing conflict with [[Safavid Iran]].<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} By 1526, the city's population had increased to 1,322 families (988 Muslim and 334 Christian), indicating an estimated population of approximately 8,000.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}}

Urfa experienced a renaissance under Ottoman rule.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7}} Industry and commerce picked back up, and its population rebounded, although it never reached the same population heights it had once held in the classical and early medieval periods.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7}} The high point lasted for about a century and a half, beginning with its conquest by the Ottomans.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7}} According to Mehmet Adil Saraç, Urfa's population first became majority Turkish sometime during this period, sometime between 1520 and 1570.<ref name="Saraç 2018"/>{{rp|22}} By 1566, a tax register shows the city with an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 people (1,704 Muslim families and 866 Christian families).<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} At this point, the city was described as having five large ''mahalle''s, each named after one of the five city gates, and it "must have had an active textile industry".<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} A [[bedestan]] is also recorded.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Urfa's prosperity in the 1500s was based on both trade and agricultural production.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|66}} Urfa was an important [[entrepot]] on trade routes between Iran and Aleppo.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|7}}

Because of its prosperity, Urfa's population grew as it attracted residents from nearby cities.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|66}} In 1586, Ottoman authorities created the [[Eyalet of Raqqa]] out of territories that had previously belonged to the [[Eyalet of Diyarbekir]], and Urfa became "the center of economic and political power" in this new province.<ref name="Winter 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Winter |first1=Stefan |title=The Province of Raqqa under Ottoman Rule, 1535–1800 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |date=2009 |volume=68 |pages=253–67 |doi=10.1086/649610 |s2cid=163430587 |url=https://www.academia.edu/3809120 |access-date=16 November 2022}}</ref>{{rp|258}} At the same time, the city's prosperity attracted bandits and nomadic tribes, although the urban population was largely unaffected.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|66–7}} That changed at the end of the century, when the revolt of Karayazıcı Abdulhalim turned Urfa into a battlefield.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}}

Relatively little is known about Karayazıcı, but he was presumably a tribesman who worked as a bureaucrat in the local administration (''Yazıcı'' means "scribe").<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}} His army was recruited from other local tribal members.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}} In 1599–1600 (1008 AH), Karayazıcı's army laid siege to the outer and then inner citadel and thus gained control of Urfa.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}} The contemporary historian [[Mustafa Selaniki]] blamed Urfa's fall on the governors of Aleppo and Damascus failing to send reinforcements in time.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}} He set up a "quasi-state" based at Urfa's inner citadel, declaring himself sultan and [[Hüseyin Pasha (Celali rebel)|Hüseyin Pasha]] (who had worked with him to capture the citadel) as grand vizier.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|67}} Eventually, though, Ottoman troops (backed by reinforcements from Damascus and Aleppo) surrounded the inner citadel, dug trenches, and engaged the rebels in a bloody battle in the middle of the city.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|68}} The rebels ran into ammunition shortages during the battle and had to melt down coins to use as bullets.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|68}} Hüseyin Pasha was killed in the battle, but Karayazıcı himself managed to escape.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|68}}

The instability accompanying the [[Celali rebellions|Celali revolts]], and especially Karayazıcı's occupation of the city, must have sapped Urfa's prosperity.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Several 17th-century accounts refer to parts of the town as being in disrepair.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} For example, when [[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier]] visited Urfa in 1644, "there were so many empty lots that [he] compared the town to a desert".<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} The central Ottoman state's control of the surrounding Raqqa Eyalet weakened significantly in the early 1600s.<ref name="Winter 2009"/>{{rp|259}} Powerful ''[[emir|ümera]]'' families from Urfa assumed responsibility for governance of the eyalet, while the actual office of governor was a [[sinecure]] for prominent Ottoman generals or their sons.<ref name="Winter 2009"/>{{rp|259–60}}

Urfa court records from about 1629 to 1631 (1039–40 AH) provide insight into local government during the [[Ottoman-Safavid War (1623-1639)|Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623–1629]].<ref name="Winter 2009"/>{{rp|259}} The Ottomans were in the process of mobilizing troops and resources in the area for the war effort, and the [[qadi]] of Urfa was responsible for [[billet]]ing troops and gathering provisions.<ref name="Winter 2009"/>{{rp|259}} In August 1638, Sultan [[Murad IV]] stayed at Urfa along with his army while en route to Baghdad in [[Capture of Baghdad (1638)|the final campaign of the war]].<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|12}} He ordered restoration work on the citadel, which is mentioned in written sources and confirmed by an inscription on the walls that still exists.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|12}}

The most detailed account of early Ottoman Urfa was written by [[Evliya Çelebi]], who visited the city in 1646.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Part of his interest may have been because one of his relatives was a qadi here.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} His account mentions only three gates, with different names than those of the 1566 tax register.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Evliya wrote that he counted 2,600 houses in the fortified part of the city, which probably indicates a population total similar to 1566.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} At this point, Urfa had houses generally made of mud brick; more opulent houses, belonging to paşas and qadis, had their own gardens and baths.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591}} Evliya also recorded 22 mosques, 3 medreses, and 3 [[zaviye]]s.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|591–2}} He listed several hans, including the Yemiş Hânı, the Samsatkapısı, the Hacı İbrâhim Hânı, the Beykapısı Hânı, and the Sebîl Hânı.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|306}} He also wrote that the city had 400 shops and several mills, including one named after one Tayyaroğlu Ahmed Paşa.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} However, he was apparently unimpressed by the city's shops and markets.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}}

Evliya also wrote that Urfa had a [[tannery]] that produced high-quality yellow [[maroquin]] leather.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Tavernier also noted the city's leather, saying that along with [[Tokat]] and Diyarbakır it produced some of the best maroquin leathers.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Besides leather, Urfa was also renowned for its cotton fabrics during this period.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}}

According to Onur Usta, part of why Urfa appeared to European visitors as "a derelict city with houses reduced to rubble" during this period was because it had a lot of residents from nomadic and tribal backgrounds.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|68}} These people would have still engaged in nomadic [[transhumance]] activities during most parts of the year and "only needed a roof over their heads during the winter".<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|69}} The abandoned-looking houses would have belonged to them.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|69}}

[[File:Şanlıurfa,_Şanlıurfa_Merkez-Şanlıurfa_Province,_Turkey_-_panoramio_(6).jpg|thumb|left|The Rızvaniye Mosque at Balıklıgöl, built in the early 1700s]]
Information about Urfa during the 1700s is relatively scarce, but one source is the fiscal records of the new Rızvaniye Mosque.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} These document the [[waqf]] properties assigned to the mosque, including shops, gardens, mills, and public baths, as well as information about tenants and rents.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Based on various fiscal and tax documents, it seems that Urfa suffered a series of troubles in the 1750s and began to sink into poverty.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|70}} One of the most serious problems was rampant banditry, which both impeded agricultural production in surrounding rural areas and hindered economic recovery.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|70–1}}

A serious outbreak of plague hit Urfa in the 1780s, and many people died.<ref name="Saraç 2018"/>{{rp|22}} [[Iraqi Turkmen]], particularly from the regions around Mosul and [[Kirkuk]], were deported and resettled in Urfa to help repopulate the city.<ref name="Saraç 2018"/>{{rp|22}} The connection with Kirkuk in particular left cultural and linguistic traces in Urfa, and some present-day Urfalis have described the two cities as having an "uncle-nephew relationship".<ref name="Saraç 2018"/>{{rp|19, 22}}

====19th century====
[[File:Urfa_Regie_church_5489.jpg|thumb|Urfa Reji Church, the structure was built on the remains of a church from the 6th century in 1861.]]
In the Ottoman period, Urfa was a center of commerce because of its location at a crossroads with Diyarbakır, Antep, Mardin, and Raqqa.<ref name="Taş 2019">{{cite book |last1=Taş |first1=Yasin |title=Osmanlı döneminde Urfa'da sosyal hayat (mahkeme kayıtlarına göre 1850–1900) |date=2019 |publisher=Hiperlink Eğitim İletişim Yayıncılık |location=Istanbul |isbn=978-605-281-528-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzfLDwAAQBAJ |access-date=3 October 2022 |language=Turkish}}</ref>{{rp|292}} Many Jewish, Armenian, and Greek merchants were present in Urfa, especially from Aleppo.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}}

[[James Silk Buckingham]] visited Urfa in 1816 and ended up stuck there for a while because the roads were closed due to the ongoing [[Ottoman-Wahhabi War]].<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Buckingham's account of early-1800s Urfa is one of the most informative of the late Ottoman period.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} By this time, the name "Urfa" had come to predominate, with only the city's Arab Christians still calling it "al-Ruha".<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} The standard of living in Urfa had evidently increased since the 1600s – the mud brick houses recorded by Evliya Çelebi had given way to finer masonry structures that Buckingham compared to the houses of Aleppo.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} The houses described by Buckingham had ''[[harem]]'' and ''[[selamlik]]'' quarters separated by a courtyard, with the ''selamlik''s boasting "opulently furnished reception rooms" on their upper floors.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Buckingham described the city as being divided into [[janissary]] and sharif factions, also like Aleppo.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Many of the city's bazaars were closed due to the war, but Buckingham noted that Urfa had a thriving [[cotton]] trade during peacetime and observed some of the city's cotton printers at work.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}} Coarser wool cloth and rugs were also manufactured in Urfa.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|592}}

In the mid-1800s, Urfa benefitted from a general increase in commercial activity in the region.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|8}} Most of the larger courtyard houses in the present-day old town probably date from this period.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|8}} The large Armenian church on the western main street was built in 1842 and many mosques were probably also built around this time.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|8}} According to Suraiya Faroqhi, though, the city's population "must have been at a low ebb for several decades in the mid-century".<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|593}}

[[File:Urfa_Kitchen_Museum_building_3309.jpg|thumb|left|Urfa Kitchen Museum Building]]
However, in the late 1800s, Urfa declined in importance as a commercial center.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} In particular, the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869 caused a major realignment of trade routes, shifting away from overland caravans and towards maritime commerce.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} As a result, the volume of commercial traffic coming through Urfa decreased markedly compared to previous periods and became increasingly local/regional in nature.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} The local economy shifted away from producing goods for export and toward meeting the basic needs of the local population.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} Workshops produced less in general during this period and their focus was more on cheap basic goods like local fabrics and household goods.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} Imports also declined because the locals were focusing more on consuming cheap basic goods rather than luxuries; they were living simpler, more frugal lives.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292}} Because people were using more local products, the cost of living also decreased and people had to work less to meet their expenses.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|292–3}} Contemporary court records document that there was extensive commercial contact between Muslims and non-Muslims; they bought and sold goods freely between each other and entered into commercial partnerships together, indicating that there was relatively high trust between both groups.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|293–4}}

The main centers of commercial activity in the Ottoman period were the bazaars, where both local and imported goods were bought and sold.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|309}} Generally, a bazaar would be named after its primary function and main goods sold there.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|309}} For example, the İsotçular Çarşısı was named because of the homemade chili peppers sold in this street.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|309}} Among the bazaars mentioned in late 19th-century records: Kadıoğlu, Köroğlu, Eski Arasa, Teymurcu, Sarayönü, Belediye, Beykapı, Akar, Sipâhî, Bedestan, Hânönü, Kafavhâne, and Hüseyniye.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|309}}

There was a huge increase in the number of hans recorded in the ''Aleppo [[Salname]]''s in the late 1800s: from just 7 in 1867 to 11 in 1888, 18 in 1889, and 32 in 1898.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|306}} According to Yasin Taş, this is because not only were new hans being built, but records were simply counting more types of commercial buildings as hans.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|306}} Muslim and non-Muslim travelers would both use the same hans regardless of religion.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|309}}

In the countryside surrounding Urfa, life went on largely unchanged.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314}} Most rural villagers were involved in agriculture, and farmlands were typically plowed using the same low-tech methods that had been used for thousands of years.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314}} Cows and oxen were kept as draft animals.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314}} Irrigated farmland around the Euphrates and some streams was more expensive than the waterless fields called "deştî land" which was not able to be irrigated.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314}} Irrigation channels were repaired jointly among the people who used the water.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314}} Sometimes there would be people living in the city (often non-Muslim) who would own farmland outside the city and deputize local villagers (often Muslim) to run the farm under the muzâraa contract.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|314–5}} In 1846, taxes could not be collected because of drought and locusts.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|315}} In 1861, 1863, and 1886, there were locusts; in 1870 there was a drought due to lack of rain.<ref name="Taş 2019"/>{{rp|315}}

Up until the mid-1890s, about 20,000 of the city's 60,000 residents were Armenians.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} In 1895, however, thousands of Armenians were killed in a series of massacres by both civilians and soldiers.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} First, in October, Turkish and Kurdish locals killed hundreds of Armenians over a two-day period.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} Then for two months the Armenian quarter was effectively subjected to a siege, with no food or water allowed in.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} The Turks claimed that the Armenians had a weapon cache, which they demanded in return for lifting the siege.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} In December, the siege ended when "a crowd of Turkish soldiers and civilians" entered the Armenian quarter and killed thousands of its inhabitants.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} About 3,000 survivors sought shelter in a nearby church – which is normally recognized as a place of refuge under Islamic law.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} However, soldiers burned the church to the ground, killing everyone inside.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} The troops went on to loot and burn the rest of the Armenian quarter.<ref name="Miller 1995"/>{{rp|620}} According to [[Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross|Lord Kinross]], some 8,000 Armenians were killed in total.<ref>{{cite book | first = Lord | last = Kinross | author-link = Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross | title = The Ottoman Centuries, The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire | publisher = [[Harper Perennial]] | year = 1977 | location = United States | isbn = 0-688-08093-6 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/ottomancenturies00kinr/page/560 560] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/ottomancenturies00kinr/page/560 }}</ref>

There was a small but ancient [[Urfalim|Jewish community in Urfa]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Edessa|journal=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]|year=1906|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5431-edessa}}</ref> with a population of about 1,000 by the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with Harun Bozo|url=http://www.centropa.org/index.php?nID=30&x=bGFuZF9zZWxlY3Rvcj0xODc7IHNlYXJjaFR5cGU9QmlvRGV0YWlsOyBzZWFyY2hWYWx1ZT03MzM=|work=The Library of Rescued Memories|publisher=Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation}}</ref> Most of the Jews emigrated in 1896, fleeing the [[Hamidian massacres]], and settling mainly in [[Aleppo]], [[Tiberias]] and [[Jerusalem]]. There were three Christian communities: [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac]], [[Armenian Orthodox Church|Armenian]], and [[Roman Catholic Church|Latin]]. The last [[Neo-Aramaic Languages|Neo-Aramaic Christians]] left in 1924 and went to Aleppo (where they settled in a place that was later called ''Hay al-Suryan'' "The [[Syriac Christians|Syriac]] Quarter").<ref>{{cite book
 | first = John |last=Joseph
 | author-link = John Joseph (academic)
 | title = Muslim-Christian Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries in the Middle East: The Case of the Jacobites in an Age of Transition
 | url =https://archive.org/details/muslimchristianr0000jose
 | url-access = registration
 | year = 1983
 | publisher = [[State University of New York]] Press
 | location = United States
 | isbn = 0-87395-612-5
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/muslimchristianr0000jose/page/150 150]
 }}</ref>