Cizre

Cizre, known in Arabic as Jazirat Ibn Umar, stands where the Tigris leaves its mountain gorges for the plains of the Jazira. A canal across a bend in the river once made the town an island, giving it its name and creating a natural defence around the settlement. The bridge and river port connected routes from Amid, Nisibis and Iran, while rafts could travel downstream towards Mosul. The great mosque and the remains of the medieval bridge recall the prosperity of this fortified crossing.

By the fourteenth century Cizre had become the seat of the Kurdish emirs of Botan. In 1384–85 the ruler of Hasankeyf attempted to seize it, but the emir of Botan repelled him and consolidated his position. The emirate later acknowledged Safavid authority; after the Ottoman victory at Chaldiran in 1514, Idris Bitlisi persuaded its ruler to accept Ottoman suzerainty. Botan's hereditary rulers continued to govern from Cizre under the empire.

The town also became a centre of Kurdish literary tradition. The love story of Mem and Zin, associated with the court of Cizre, was celebrated in the poem composed by Ahmad Khani in 1694 in the northern Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish. Between the river, fortress and mountain of Judi, Cizre retained its place as both a political seat and a setting for stories cherished throughout the Kurdish lands.