Edessa

Edessa (Arabic Er-Ruha, called by travellers Orfa), a very ancient city, fabled to have been founded by Nimrod, in the north of Mesopotamia, between Aleppo and Diarbekir, 78 miles SW. of the latter town. Of its early history we know little, but with the conquest of Persia by the Greeks the history becomes less obscure. Seleucus, in particular, is said to have done much for the improvement of the city. Christianity was introduced into Edessa at an early period. In the reign of Trajan, the city was made tributary to Rome, and in 216 A.D. became a Roman military colony, under the name of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum. During this period, its importance in the history of the Christian church continued to increase. More than 300 monasteries are said to have been included within its walls; it was the seat of Ephraem Syrus (q.v.) and his school, and played an important part in the Arian and other controversies. Here, moreover, the famous portrait of Christ, supposed to have been painted by St Luke, and sent by the Saviour himself, with a letter, to Abgar (q.v.), king of Edessa, was preserved, till it was carried in 944 to Constantinople, and thence to the church of St Bartolommeo in Rome. Edessa was conquered by the Moslems in the seventeenth year of the Hegira, 638 A.D. Christianity declined, and wars at home and abroad during the caliphate destroyed much of its temporal splendour and prosperity. It was long held by the Arab tribes of Hamdân and 'Okeyl. The Byzantine emperors succeeded in recovering Edessa for a time in 1031, but the Seljuk Sultan, Melik Shah, retook it in 1086. There was always a strong Christian element in the population, and it was due to this that the city opened its gates to Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1097, who made it the capital of a Latin principality and the bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Under the Frankish princes, Edessa held out valiantly against the Mussulmans, till at length 'Imâd-ed-dîn Zengi, ruler (atabeg) of Mosul, succeeded after a siege of a month, and several unsuccessful assaults, in taking the town and citadel in the year 1144, when the conqueror was so struck with the beauty and magnificence of the city that he withheld his men from sacking it. An attempt, however, of the Christian section of the inhabitants to betray the place to Joscelin in 1147 brought about the ruin of Edessa; the Christians were defeated by Nûr-ed-dîn; the city was laid waste; and all who were not massacred were sold as slaves. In 1182 Saladin added Edessa to his already extensive empire, and it was passed on to his kinsmen. After many vicissitudes, in the course of which Edessa fell successively into the hands of sultans of Egypt, Mongol emperors, Turkomans of the White Sheep, and Persian shahs, the city was finally conquered by the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I., in 1515, and has ever since formed a portion of the Turkish dominions. It now contains above 40,000 inhabitants, of whom 2000 are Armenian Christians; the rest are Turks, Arabians, Kurds, and Jews. Edessa has numerous mosques and bazaars; manufactures of cotton goods, goldsmiths' wares, and morocco leather, commerce in British manufactures obtained by way of Aleppo, and a large trade in corn, &c. with Syria. Easterns, to whom it is the residence of Abraham, regard it as a sacred city.