Editing Urfa (section)

===Age of Islam===
Urfa surrendered to the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] general [[Iyad ibn Ghanm]] in 639 without resistance, supposedly when Iyad "stood at its gate riding a brown horse" according to [[al-Baladhuri]].<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|46}} Several versions of the terms of surrender appear in historical sources, mentioning the citizens would be responsible for "repairing 'bridges and roads'".<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|46}} The pact also guaranteed that the city's Christians would keep ownership of the cathedral.<ref name="Guidetti 2013"/>{{rp|244}} Sometime shortly after Urfa submitted to Muslim rule, a mosque was built in the city, although its location is unknown.<ref name="Guidetti 2013"/>{{rp|245}}

In the early centuries of Arab rule, and particularly under the Umayyads, Urfa was still a major Christian city.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|201}} It formed part of the province of [[Diyar Mudar]].<ref name="Brill EoI">{{cite book |last1=Honigmann |first1=E. |last2=Bosworth |first2=C.E. |last3=Faroqhi |first3=Suraiya |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C.E. |editor2-last=Van Donzel|editor2-first=E. |editor3-last=Heinrichs|editor3-first=W.P. |editor4-last=Lecomte |editor4-first=G. |title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume VIII (NED-SAM) |date=1995 |publisher=E.J. Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=90-04-09834-8 |pages=586–7 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/volume-5/Volume%208/page/589 |access-date=27 October 2022 |chapter=AL-RUHĀ}}</ref>{{rp|589}} The city reportedly had 300 or 360 churches, and there were many monasteries. The population was mostly Syrian Orthodox but with significant Melkite and Jewish minorities; there were relatively few Muslims.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|201}} The city was led by a group of distinguished citizens, including magnates and agricultural landowners, who "formed a partly self-governing body" that dealt with the caliphal government rather than the bishop.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|3, 201}} Some of the leading families in this period included the Gūmāyē, the Telmaḥrāyē, and the Ruṣāfāyē.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|589}}

[[File:Surrender of the Mandylion to the Byzantines.jpg|thumb|left|Image from the [[Madrid Skylitzes|Chronicle of John Skylitzes]] showing the surrender of the ''Mandylion'' to the Byzantine army in 943.]]
During the reign of the Abbasid caliph [[al-Mansur]], the city walls were demolished after the local Muslim governor revolted.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|3}} The old walls had already been damaged by floods in the 7th and 8th centuries.<ref name="Tonghini 2021">{{cite book |last1=Tonghini |first1=Cristina |title=From Edessa to Urfa: The Fortification of the Citadel |date=2021 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-78969-757-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8tAqEAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 October 2022}}</ref>{{rp|11}} In 812, Urfa's citizens had to pay a large sum to the anti-Abbasid rebel [[Nasr ibn Shabath al-Uqayli]] to prevent him from attacking the unprotected city.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|589}} Afterwards, the citizens had new defensive walls built around the city.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|3}} According to [[Bar Hebraeus]], the walls were commissioned by someone named Abu Shaykh and paid for by the citizens.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|589–90}} The walls and towers visible today belong to this rebuilding effort, albeit with later renovations.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|3}} The citadel was likely begun at the same time, probably with the addition of a moat on the south side.<ref name="Sinclair 1990"/>{{rp|6}}

When the caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] came to power in 813, he dispatched his general [[Tahir ibn Husayn]] to Urfa to put down Nasr ibn Shabath's rebellion. The rebels besieged Tahir's forces in Urfa, but the local civilians (one of them was the future Syriac church leader [[Dionysius I Telmaharoyo]]) supported the soldiers and the siege was unsuccessful. Tahir's troops later mutinied, however, and he was forced to flee to Raqqa; he later appointed someone named 'Abd al-A'la as governor of Urfa.<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|590}} In 825, while Tahir's son [[Abdallah ibn Tahir al-Khurasani|Abdallah]] was governor of al-Jazira, his brother Muhammad enacted a series of anti-Christian policies in Urfa. He ordered the destruction of several churches, claiming that they had illegally been built after the Muslim conquest. That same year, he also had a new mosque built in the [[tetrapylon]] in front of the city's Melkite cathedral. Before its conversion into a mosque, the tetrapylon had been a meeting place for church leaders. The locations of the mosque and cathedral are unknown.<ref name="Guidetti 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Guidetti |first1=Mattia |title=The contiguity between churches and mosques in early Islamic Bilād al-Shām |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |date=2013 |volume=76 |issue=2 |pages=229–58 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X13000086 |jstor=24692807 |s2cid=162707445 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24692807 |access-date=21 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|245}}

In the spring of 943, the Byzantine army campaigned in upper Mesopotamia, capturing several cities and either threatening Urfa or, according to [[Symeon Magister]], besieging it outright.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|19}} The Byzantines demanded that the ''[[mandylion]]'' (called ''al-mandīl'' in Arabic), by now a famous Christian relic, be handed over to the emperor. In return, the city would be spared and 200 Muslim prisoners would be released. With permission from the caliph [[al-Muttaqi]], the people of Edessa handed over the ''mandylion'' and signed a truce with the Byzantines.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|46}}<ref name="Brill EoI"/>{{rp|589}} The ''mandylion'' was [[translation (relic)|translated]] to Constantinople; it arrived "triumphantly" on 15 August 944.<ref name="Tonghini 2021"/>{{rp|19}}