Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır (Kurdish: Amed‎) is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey. Situated on the banks of the Tigris River, it is the administrative capital of the Diyarbakır Province. With a population of about 930,000 it is the second largest city in Turkey's south-eastern Anatolia region, after Gaziantep.

Diyarbakir is also a major cultural and economic center in Turkey and as such has been a focal point for conflict between Turkey's government and its Kurdish population.

Names and etymology

The name Diyarbakir (Arabic دیار بکر "Diyaru Bakr which means the land of Bakir;Armenian: Տիգրանակերտ Tigranakert;Ancient Greek: Άμιδα, Amida; Ottoman Turkish: دیاربکر‎ Diyâr-ı Bekr; Syriac: ܐܡܝܕ‎) is inscribed as Amid on the sheath of a sword from the Assyrian period, and the same name was used in other contemporary Syriac and Arabic works. The Romans and Byzantines called the city Amida. Among the Artukid and Akkoyunlu it was known as "Black Amid" (Kara Amid) for the dark color of its walls, while in the Zafername, or eulogies in praise of military victories, it is called "Black Fortress" (Kara Kale). In the Book of Dede Korkut and some other Turkish works it appears as Kara Hamid.

Amid (disambiguation)

Amid is an alternate name of Diyarbakır, a city in Turkey.

Amid (Persian: اميد‎‎) may also refer to:

Chaldean Diocese of Amid

The Diocese of Amid (Diyarbakir) was a diocese or archdiocese of the Chaldean Church from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. From at least the 13th century the city of Amid had been part of the Diocese of Maiperqat of the Church of the East; following the schism of 1552 it became the seat of its own diocese in the Chaldean Church.

The archdiocese lapsed in 1929 on the death of the bishop Shlemun Mushe al-Sabbagh. The title of Amid was revived by the Chaldean church in 1966 for the sole remaining Chaldean diocese in Turkey, whose bishop resided in Istanbul.

Background

The East Syrian Diocese of Amid was a comparatively late foundation. The city of Amid (Diyarbakir) was predominantly an Armenian and Syriac Orthodox centre; there is little evidence for a presence of the Church of the East in the earlier period. Amid was part of the Church of the East Diocese of Maiperqat in 1257, when the bishop Yohannan 'of Maiperqat and Amid' was present at the consecration of the patriarch Makkikha II. Some years later the bishop Ishoʿdnah of 'Maiperqat, Amid and Mardin' was present at the consecrations of the patriarchs Denha I in 1265 and Yahballaha III in 1281. The diocese of Maiperqat is attested as early as 1018, and given the prominence of Maiperqat in the titles of these two bishops, Amid and Mardin were probably administered by the East Syrian bishops of Maiperqat in the thirteenth century.