Silvan ( ku, Farqîn; ota, ميا فارقين, translit=Meyafarikîn) is a city and district in the

Diyarbakır Province Diyarbakır Province ( tr, Diyarbakır ili, Zazaki: Suke Diyarbekır ku, Parêzgeha Amedê) is a province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincial capital is the cit ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Its population is 41,451.

History

Silvan has been identified by several scholars as one of two possible locations (the other being Arzan) of Tigranakert (Tigranocerta), the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Armenia, which was built by King Tigran the Great (ruling 95–55 BC) and named in his honor. Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh. ''«Տիգրանակերտ»'' (Tigranakert).

Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( hy, Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան, ''Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran''; ASE) publishing house was established in 1967 as a department of the Institute of History of the Armen ...

. vol. xi. Yerevan:

Armenian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության գիտությունների ազգային ակադեմիա, ՀՀ ԳԱԱ, ''Hayastani Hanrapetut’yan gitut’yunneri az ...

, 1986, pp. 699-700.

Roman era

In 69 BC, the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Republican Rome The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman King ...

defeated Tigran's troops in the battle of Tigranocerta. The city lost its importance as a thriving center for trade and

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

culture in the following decades. In 387 AD, with the Peace of Acilisene, Tigranakert was made part of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. Around 400 AD, the city's

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

, Marutha (later, saint Maruthas), brought a large number of relics back from

Sassanid Persia The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

. These were relics of Christian martyrs persecuted under Sassanid rule. For this reason it was renamed Martyropolis (Μαρτυρούπολις), " city of the martyrs." Following the reforms of

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...

(rule 527–565), the city was made the capital of the province of

Fourth Armenia Roman Armenia refers to the rule of parts of Greater Armenia by the Roman Empire, from the 1st century AD to the end of Late Antiquity. While Armenia Minor had become a client state and incorporated into the Roman Empire proper during the 1st c ...

. The city was inconclusively

besieged Besieged may refer to: * the state of being under siege * ''Besieged'' (film), a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci {{disambiguation ...

by the Persians in the last phase of the Iberian War. The city suffered heavily in the Battle of Martyropolis in 588 AD, but soon prospered again.

Islamic era

It was known by the name of ''Meiafarakin'' after the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

s took over this region in the 7th century. It came under the control of the

Hamdanids The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern A ...

in 935, then the

Buyids The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Iranian dynasty of Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central and southern Iran from 934 to 1062. Coup ...

in 978, then it came under the Kurdish Marwanids and became the capital of the dynasty until the end of the 11th century. The city and the entire province of Diyarbakir were taken in 1085 by the Seljuk Malik-Shah I. During the following years, the city changed hands several times according to rivalries between Seljuk clans and local rulers. In 1118, the Artukids took the city. They resisted for many years the attacks of Zengi. The Artukid Husam al-Din Timurtash built the Malabadi Bridge near Meiafarakin, this bridge was one of the wonders of the time by its dimensions. The dynasty remained in place but preferred to reside in Mardin, leaving a governor to Meiafarakin In early 1260, the city was besieged and captured, and its population was massacred by the Mongol army led by

Hulagu Khan Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of We ...

, with the help of his Georgian and Armenian allies. The Artukids eventually disappeared in 1408 under the attacks of the Qara Qoyunlu.

Ottoman Empire

In 1896, reports by the British Vice Consul Hallward indicate that many villages were destroyed during the Armenian massacres in 1895. Hallward was engaged in the rebuilding of about 35 villages.

21st century

Naşide Toprak from the ( HDP) was elected Mayor of Silvan in the local elections in March 2019. She was dismissed in March 2020, and Mehmet Uslu has been appointed as a trustee instead of her. Silvan was the site of serious clashes between Turkish government forces and Kurdish

Kurdistan Workers Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK) separatists in August 2015 during the wider Operation Martyr Yalçın.

Archaeology

Archaeologists working in 2021, headed by the vice-rector of Dicle University, professor Ahmet Tanyıldız announced that they had discovered the graves of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum

Kilij Arslan I Kilij Arslan ibn Suleiman ( 1ca, قِلِج اَرسلان; fa, , Qilij Arslān; tr, I. Kılıç Arslan or ''Kılıcarslan'', "Sword Lion") (‎1079–1107) was the Seljuq Sultan of Rum from 1092 until his death in 1107. He ruled the Sultan ...

who fought against the Crusader forces. They also revealed his daughter Saide Hatun's burial during nine days of work. Researchers dug two meters deep across a 35-square-meter area and focused their works on two gravesites in Orta Çeşme Park.

Ecclesiastical history

Notable people

* Ibn Nubata (d. 984), preacher * Ibn al-Azraq al-Fariqi (1116–1176), chronicler * Mehdi Zana (b. 1940), Former Kurdish politician * Yekta Uzunoglu (b. 1953), doctor, writer, human rights fighter, translator and entrepreneur. *

Mahsum Korkmaz Mahsum Korkmaz, also known as Agit (Kurmanji: Egîd) (1956 – 28 March 1986), was the first commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. Korkmaz moved to Lebanon in 1979 and alongside Kemal Pir was responsible for the recr ...

(1956–1986), first commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. *

Leyla Zana Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician from Kurdish descent. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakh ...

(b. 1961), Kurdish politician * Hakki Akdeniz (b. 1980),

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

philanthropist and restaurateur from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Notable sites

* Malabadi Bridge