Urfa

Urfa, the ancient Edessa, is the City of Prophets, where tradition says Nimrod hurled Abraham into a fire at the citadel and the flames turned to water and the wood to carp, the origin of the sacred fish pool of Balıklıgöl beside the Halil ür-Rahman mosque. After the Mongol conquest of 1260 the city lay almost deserted, with only Turkmen nomads in its ruins, and the Mamluks who held it garrisoned only the citadel they had restored. Urfa had little trade, as caravans took other routes.

Traffic returned in the late 14th century. Timur occupied the city in 1394 and admired its buildings, and about 1400 a Mamluk writer found it rebuilt and prosperous. The Aq Qoyunlu took Urfa in the early 15th century, and in 1429 a Mamluk army stormed the citadel, demolished the fortress and enslaved its women and children. In 1480 a Mamluk general besieged the city with cannon and fireballs during Ramadan, but the Aq Qoyunlu defeated him. The Ottomans took Urfa about 1517. A tax register of 1518 counted 1,082 families, and by 1566 the number had grown to some 2,570.