Byzantine empire
157-413: [REDACTED] Sasanian empire Byzantine–Sasanian Wars or Byzantine–Persian Wars it is a series of conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanian Empire that lasted 207 years and ended with the victory of Byzantine empire , after which the Sassanian Empire declined and was conquered by the Arabs after 30 years. Throughout its history, the Sasanian Empire sought to gain control of
314-620: A small skirmish , they forced Belisarius to retreat to Dara . In 530, the Byzantines managed to win a number of major victories. Under Dara, Belisarius routed a completely superior force, while Sittas and Dorotheus defeated the Sasanian army at Satala (530) . However, in 531 Belisarius was defeated at Callinicum and was removed from command of the army, the Persian general Azaret was also removed because he failed to take advantage of
471-402: A Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively. Ardashīr began leading campaigns into Greater Khurasan as early as 233, extending his power to Khwarazm in the north and Sistan in the south while capturing lands from Gorgan to Abarshahr, Marw, and as far east as Balkh . Ardashir I's son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria and the western portion of
628-536: A colony there. The last battle between Rome and Parthia was fought in the vicinity of the city in 217. With the fresh energy of the new Sassanid dynasty , Shapur I conquered Nisibis, was driven out, and returned in the 260s. In 298, by a treaty with Narseh , the province of Nisibis was acquired by the Roman Empire. During the Roman–Persian Wars (337–363 CE) Nisibis was unsuccessfully besieged by
785-570: A general amnesty, which brought Armenia back into the Sassanid Empire. Around 570, "Ma 'd-Karib", half-brother of the King of Yemen, requested Khosrow I's intervention. Khosrow I sent a fleet and a small army under a commander called Vahriz to the area near present Aden , and they marched against the capital San'a'l, which was occupied. Saif, son of Mard-Karib, who had accompanied the expedition, became King sometime between 575 and 577. Thus,
942-589: A highly advantageous peace treaty with the new emperor Philip the Arab , by which he secured the immediate payment of 500,000 denarii and further annual payments. Shapur soon resumed the war, defeated the Romans at Barbalissos (253), and then probably took and plundered Antioch . Roman counter-attacks under the emperor Valerian ended in disaster when the Roman army was defeated and besieged at Edessa and Valerian
1099-500: A hunting trip in 309. Following Hormizd II's death, northern Arabs started to ravage and plunder the western cities of the empire, even attacking the province of Fars, the birthplace of the Sassanid kings. Meanwhile, Persian nobles killed Hormizd II's eldest son, blinded the second, and imprisoned the third (who later escaped into Roman territory). The throne was reserved for Shapur II , the unborn child of one of Hormizd II's wives who
1256-596: A major Byzantine offensive in Armenia was defeated at Anglon . Also in 541, Khosrow I entered Lazica at the invitation of its king, captured the main Byzantine stronghold at Petra , and established another protectorate over the country, commencing the Lazic War . A five-year truce agreed to in 545 was interrupted in 547 when Lazica again switched sides and eventually expelled its Persian garrison with Byzantine help;
1413-712: A member of the Parthian House of Karen , one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran , quickly raised a new force and stopped the Hephthalites from achieving further success. Peroz's brother, Balash , was elected as shah by the Iranian magnates, most notably Sukhra and the Mihranid general Shapur Mihran . Balash (484–488) was a mild and generous monarch, and showed care towards his subjects, including
1570-635: A number of battles he crushed them and drove them out beyond the Oxus river in 450. During his eastern campaign, Yazdegerd II grew suspicious of the Christians in the army and expelled them all from the governing body and army. He then persecuted the Christians in his land, and, to a much lesser extent, the Jews . In order to reestablish Zoroastrianism in Armenia, he crushed an uprising of Armenian Christians at
1727-410: A rational system of taxation based upon a survey of landed possessions , which his father had begun, and he tried in every way to increase the welfare and the revenues of his empire. Previous great feudal lords fielded their own military equipment, followers, and retainers. Khosrow I developed a new force of dehqans , or "knights", paid and equipped by the central government and the bureaucracy, tying
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#17327913140151884-464: A relatively peaceful era with the Romans, and he even took the young Theodosius II (408–450) under his guardianship. Yazdegerd also married a Jewish princess, who bore him a son called Narsi. Yazdegerd I's successor was his son Bahram V (421–438), one of the most well-known Sasanian kings and the hero of many myths. These myths persisted even after the destruction of the Sasanian Empire by
2041-800: A strategically critical area for control of the Silk Road . Shapur therefore marched east toward Transoxiana to meet the eastern nomads, leaving his local commanders to mount nuisance raids on the Romans. He crushed the Central Asian tribes, and annexed the area as a new province. In the east around 325, Shapur II regained the upper hand against the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom and took control of large territories in areas now known as Afghanistan and Pakistan . Cultural expansion followed this victory, and Sasanian art penetrated Transoxiana , reaching as far as China. Shapur, along with
2198-535: A title also given to the instructors. The administration was confided to a major-domo, who was steward, prefect of discipline and librarian, but under the supervision of a council. Unlike the Jacobite schools, devoted chiefly to profane studies, the School of Nisibis was above all a school of theology. The two chief masters were the instructors in reading and in the interpretation of Holy Scripture, explained chiefly with
2355-460: A town inhabited by Chaldeans, Arabs, and Jews. The town was largely Arabic-speaking such that Kurdish families settling in the town eventually learned Arabic. The ethnic and linguistic demographics changed after mid-century. Jews migrated to Israel, and Assyrian population substantially decreased. After dense Kurdish migration in late 20th century, Nusaybin became a largely Kurdish-speaking and Kurdish town. A very small Assyrian population remains in
2512-669: A year later after an abortive invasion of Commagene. In 543, a Roman invasion of Armenia was defeated by a small Persian force at Anglon, and Khosrow I unsuccessfully besieged Edessa in Mesopotamia a year later. A peace treaty was signed in 545. In Lazica, Khosrow I's attempt to establish direct Persian control over the country and the missionary zeal of the Zoroastrian priests soon caused discontent in Christian Lazica and King Gubazes revolted in 548, this time against
2669-650: Is a municipality and district of Mardin Province , Turkey . Its area is 1,079 km , and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated from the larger Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli by the Syria–Turkey border . The city is at the foot of the Mount Izla escarpment at the southern edge of the Tur Abdin hills, standing on
2826-403: Is certainly in line with contemporary Roman public opinion. According to Al-Tabari , some 12,000 Persians of good lineage from Istakhr , Isfahan , and other regions settled at Nisibis in the fourth century, and their descendants were still there at the beginning of the seventh century. The School of Nisibis , founded at the introduction of Christianity into the city by ethnic Assyrians of
2983-451: Is generally sparse. Nusaybin is predominantly ethnically Kurdish . The city's people have historically close ties with those of neighboring Qamishli, and cross-border marriages are a common practice. The city also contains a minority Arab population. In early 20th century, Nusaybin was composed mostly of Arabs who came from Mardin , roughly 500 Jews, and some Assyrians, totaling to 2000 people. Likewise, Mark Sykes recorded Nusaybin as
3140-564: Is on the north side of the Syria-Turkey border, which divides it from the city of Qamishli. The Jaghjagh River flows through both cities. The Nusaybin side of the border has a minefield , with a total of some 600,000 landmines having been set by the Turkish Armed Forces since the 1950s. Located to the east is Mount Judi , which people (including Muslims ) consider to be the place where the ark of Nuh or Noah (who
3297-615: Is regarded as a Nabi or Prophet in Abrahamic religions ) came to rest. There are 84 neighbourhoods in Nusaybin District. Fifteen of these (8 Mart, Abdulkadirpaşa, Barış, Devrim, Dicle, Fırat, Gırnavas, İpekyolu, Kışla, Mor-Yakup, Selahattin Eyyübi, Yenişehir, Yenituran and Zeynelabidin) form the central town ( merkez ) of Nusaybin. Nusaybin has a semi-arid climate with extremely hot summers and cool winters. Rainfall
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#17327913140153454-601: The augustus Constantius II ( r. 337–361 ). The Roman soldier and Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus described Nisibis, fortified with walls, towers, and a citadel, as "the strongest bulwark of the Orient". After the defeat of the Romans in Julian's Persian War , Julian's successor Jovian ( r. 363–364 ) was forced to cede the five Transtigritine provinces to the Persians, including Nisibis. The city
3611-659: The Assyrian Church of the East , was closed when the province was ceded to the Persians. Ephrem the Syrian , an Assyrian poet, commentator, preacher and defender of orthodoxy, joined the general exodus of Christians and re-established the school on more securely Roman soil at Edessa . In the fifth century, the school became a center of Nestorian Christianity , and was closed down by Archbishop Cyrus in 489. The expelled masters and pupils withdrew once more, back to Nisibis, under
3768-650: The Avars and Slavs , the Persians made a final attempt to take Constantinople in 626 , but were defeated there. In 627, allied with Turks , Heraclius invaded the heartland of Persia. After the Battle of Nineveh (627), Iranian forces were finally broken and Byzantium won war, forcing civil war-torn Persia to seek peace. Sasanian empire The Sasanian Empire ( / s ə ˈ s ɑː n i ə n , s ə ˈ s eɪ n i ə n / ), officially Ērānšahr ( Middle Persian : 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩 , lit. ' Empire of
3925-601: The Battle of Hormozdgan in 224, Ardashir's dynasty replaced that of the Arsacids and promptly set out to restore the legacy of the Achaemenid Empire by expanding the newly acquired Sasanian dominions. At its greatest territorial extent, the Sasanian Empire encompassed all of modern-day Iran and Iraq and parts of the Arabian Peninsula (particularly Eastern Arabia and South Arabia ), as well as
4082-543: The Battle of Vartanantz in 451. The Armenians, however, remained primarily Christian. In his later years, he was engaged yet again with the Kidarites right up until his death in 457. Hormizd III (457–459), the younger son of Yazdegerd II, then ascended to the throne. During his short rule, he continually fought with his elder brother Peroz I , who had the support of the nobility, and with the Hephthalites in Bactria . He
4239-596: The Caucasus , the Levant , and parts of Central Asia and South Asia . One of the high points in Iranian civilization, the Sasanian dynasty's rule was characterized by a complex and centralized government bureaucracy, and also revitalized Zoroastrianism as a legitimizing and unifying ideal. This period saw the construction of many grand monuments, public works, and patronized cultural and educational institutions. The Sasanian Empire's cultural influence extended far beyond
4396-812: The Chaldean Catholic Church and the Maronite Catholic Church . When the Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Hassaké was promoted to archiepiscopal rank, it added Nisibi to its name, becoming the Syriac Catholic Archeparchy of Hassaké-Nisibi (not Metropolitan, directly dependent on the Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch ). Established in the 18th century as Titular Archiepiscopal see of Nisibis (informally Nisibis of
4553-595: The Iranians ' ), was the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire . Named after the House of Sasan , it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651, making it the second longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty after the directly preceding Arsacid dynasty of Parthia . It fell to the Rashidun Caliphate during the early Muslim conquests , which marked the beginning of a monumental societal shift by initiating
4710-593: The Islamization of Iran . Upon succeeding the Parthians, the Sasanian dynasty re-established the Persian nation as a major power in late antiquity , and also continued to compete extensively with the neighbouring Roman Empire . It was founded by Ardashir I , a ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened amidst internal strife and the Roman–Persian Wars . After defeating Artabanus IV of Parthia during
4867-706: The Mamikonian family, touching off a revolt which led to the massacre of the Persian governor and his guard in 571, while rebellion also broke out in Iberia . Justin II took advantage of the Armenian revolt to stop his yearly payments to Khosrow I for the defense of the Caucasus passes. The Armenians were welcomed as allies, and an army was sent into Sassanid territory which besieged Nisibis in 573. However, dissension among
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5024-602: The Roman Empire had since their peace treaty in 387 agreed that they both were obligated to cooperate in the defense of the Caucasus against nomadic attacks. The Romans helped in the defense of the Caucasus by paying the Iranians roughly 500 lbs (226 kg) of gold at irregular intervals. While the Romans saw this payment as political subsidies, the Iranians saw it as an opportunity to influence Roman military affairs. The Roman emperor Theodosius II 's unwillingness to continue
5181-854: The Sassanid Empire thrice, in 337, 346 and 350. According to the Expositio totius mundi et gentium bronze and iron were forbidden to be exported to the Persians, but for other goods, Nisibis was the site of substantial trade across the Roman–Persian frontier. Upon the death of Constantine the Great in 337 CE, the Sassanid Shah Shapur II marched against Roman held Nisibis with a vast army composed of cavalry, infantry and elephants. His combat engineers raised siege works, including towers, so his archers could rain down arrows at
5338-668: The Shabuhragan , to him) and sent many Manichaean missionaries abroad. He also befriended a Babylonian rabbi called Samuel . This friendship was advantageous for the Jewish community and gave them a respite from the oppressive laws enacted against them. Later kings reversed Shapur's policy of religious tolerance. When Shapur's son Bahram I acceded to the throne, he was pressured by the Zoroastrian high-priest Kartir Bahram I to kill Mani and persecute his followers. Bahram II
5495-507: The Tigris , taking Ctesiphon. Narseh had previously sent an ambassador to Galerius to plead for the return of his wives and children. Peace negotiations began in the spring of 299, with both Diocletian and Galerius presiding. The conditions of the peace were heavy: Persia would give up territory to Rome, making the Tigris the boundary between the two empires. Further terms specified that Armenia
5652-536: The Tskhenistskali ). Nevertheless, the Persians manage to resupply Petra. The new Byzantine commander Bessas quelled a pro-Persian revolt of the Abasgi tribe, took and dismantled the fort of Petra after a lengthy siege and fierce fighting as Mihr-Mihroe did not arrive in time. The latter unsuccessfully diverted his force against Archaeopolis in 551 as many of his men were lost due to a lack of supplies. However,
5809-659: The Turkish Historical Society , Yusuf Halaçoğlu, following the Turkish government's policy of Armenian genocide denial , said that the remains dated back to Roman times. Özgür Gündem reported that the Turkish military and police pressed the Turkish media not to report the discovery. The Turkish Interior Ministry looked into dissolving Nusaybin city council in 2012 after it decided to use Arabic , Armenian , Aramaic , and Kurmanji on signposts in
5966-726: The king says "I am the lord of the Empire of the Iranians". More commonly, as the ruling dynasty was named after Sasan , the empire is known as the Sasanian Empire in historical and academic sources. This term is also recorded in English as the Sassanian Empire , the Sasanid Empire , and the Sassanid Empire . Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire and subsequent rise of
6123-566: The marches where Roman and Parthian powers confronted one another, Nisibis was often taken and retaken. In 115 CE, it was captured by the Roman Emperor Trajan , for which he gained the name of Parthicus , then lost to and regained from the Jews during the Diaspora Revolt . After the Romans again lost the city in 194, it was once more conquered by Septimius Severus , who made it his headquarters and re-established
6280-469: The 14th century, composed his celebrated catalogue of ecclesiastical writers. The disorders and dissensions, which arose in the sixth century in the school of Nisibis, favoured the development of its rivals, especially that of Seleucia; however, it did not really begin to decline until after the foundation of the School of Baghdad (832). Notable people associated with the school include its founder Narses; Abraham, his nephew and successor; Abraham of Kashgar ,
6437-409: The 400-year-old Parthian Empire to an end, and beginning four centuries of Sassanid rule. In the next few years, local rebellions occurred throughout the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sakastan , Gorgan , Khorasan , Marw (in modern Turkmenistan ), Balkh and Chorasmia . He also added Bahrain and Mosul to
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6594-515: The 5th century was the most important episcopal see of the Church of the East after Seleucia - Ctesiphon . Many of its Nestorian or Assyrian Church of the East and Jacobite bishops were renowned for their writings, including Barsumas, Osee, Narses, Jesusyab and Ebed-Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church has defined titular archbishoprics of Nisibis, for various rites – one Latin and four Eastern Catholic for particular churches sui iuris , notably
6751-410: The 80s neither side was able to achieve anything. In 589, the Persian general Bahram 6, was able to repel the Roman offensive, but after a single defeat he was dismissed. The angry general raised an uprising, as a result of which Khosrow 2 was elevated to the throne, but Bahram was still dissatisfied, after a while Khosrow was forced to flee to Byzantium, and Bahram IV became emperor, but a year later he
6908-647: The Alchon Tamgha and the name "Alchono" in Bactrian script on the obverse, and with attendants to a fire altar on the reverse. Shapur II pursued a harsh religious policy. Under his reign, the collection of the Avesta , the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, was completed, heresy and apostasy were punished, and Christians were persecuted. The latter was a reaction against the Christianization of
7065-436: The Arabs. Bahram gained the crown after Yazdegerd's sudden death (or assassination), which occurred when the grandees opposed the king with the help of al-Mundhir , the Arabic dynast of al-Hirah . Bahram's mother was Shushandukht , the daughter of the Jewish Exilarch . In 427, he crushed an invasion in the east by the nomadic Hephthalites , extending his influence into Central Asia, where his portrait survived for centuries on
7222-416: The Armenian provinces into the empire and deploying Roman garrisons in the area. Already in 526, an open confrontation began between the empires in the Transcaucasus . At first, the Persians were lucky, the uprising in Iberia was suppressed, the Roman offensives were repelled, and attempts to strengthen the border were stopped by Persian raids. In 528, the Persians moved from Iberia to Lazica , where, in
7379-419: The Byzantine Empire and met little effective resistance. Khosrow's generals systematically subdued the heavily fortified frontier cities of Byzantine Mesopotamia and Armenia, laying the foundations for unprecedented expansion. The Persians overran Syria and captured Antioch in 611. In 613, outside Antioch, the Persian generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin decisively defeated a major counter-attack led in person by
7536-422: The Byzantine Empire held a small portion of western Armenia. Bahram IV's son Yazdegerd I (399–421) is often compared to Constantine I . Both were physically and diplomatically powerful, opportunistic, practiced religious tolerance and provided freedom for the rise of religious minorities. Yazdegerd stopped the persecution against the Christians and punished nobles and priests who persecuted them. His reign marked
7693-474: The Byzantine emperor Heraclius . Thereafter, the Persian advance continued unchecked. Jerusalem fell in 614, Alexandria in 619, and the rest of Egypt by 621. The Sassanid dream of restoring the Achaemenid boundaries was almost complete, while the Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. This remarkable peak of expansion was paralleled by a blossoming of Persian art , music , and architecture . While successful at its first stage (from 602 to 622),
7850-525: The Byzantine generals not only led to an abandonment of the siege, but they in turn were besieged in the city of Dara , which was taken by the Persians. Capitalizing on this success, the Persians then ravaged Syria, causing Justin II to agree to make annual payments in exchange for a five-year truce on the Mesopotamian front, although the war continued elsewhere. In 576 Khosrow I led his last campaign, an offensive into Anatolia which sacked Sebasteia and Melitene , but ended in disaster: defeated outside Melitene,
8007-535: The Byzantines move deeper into Persia, all the way to Caucasian Albania . In Mesopotamia, however, the war began disastrously for the Byzantines. After a victory at Sargathon in 573, they laid siege to Nisibis and were apparently on the point of capturing this, the chief bulwark of the Persian frontier defences, when the abrupt dismissal of their general Marcian led to a disorderly retreat. Taking advantage of Byzantine confusion, Sassanid forces under Khosrow I swiftly counter-attacked and encircled Dara , capturing
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#17327913140158164-457: The Christians. However, he proved unpopular among the nobility and clergy who had him deposed after just four years in 488. Sukhra, who had played a key role in Balash's deposition, appointed Peroz's son Kavad I as the new shah of Iran. According to Miskawayh (d. 1030), Sukhra was Kavad's maternal uncle. Kavad I (488–531) was an energetic and reformist ruler. He gave his support to the sect founded by Mazdak , son of Bamdad, who demanded that
8321-429: The Eastern Romans, founded several cities, some of which were named after him, and began to regulate taxation and internal administration. After the reign of Kavad I, his son Khosrow I , also known as Anushirvan ("with the immortal soul"; ruled 531–579), ascended to the throne. He is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. Khosrow I is most famous for his reforms in the aging governing body of Sassanids. He introduced
8478-410: The Euphrates in 296, he was eventually decisively defeated by them. Galerius had been reinforced, probably in the spring of 298, by a new contingent collected from the empire's Danubian holdings. Narseh did not advance from Armenia and Mesopotamia , leaving Galerius to lead the offensive in 298 with an attack on northern Mesopotamia via Armenia. Narseh retreated to Armenia to fight Galerius's force, to
8635-436: The Great . A part of first the Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire , the city ( Latin : Nisibis ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Νίσιβις ) was mainly Syriac -speaking, and control of it was contested between the Kingdom of Armenia , the Romans, and the Parthian Empire . After a peace treaty contracted between the Sasanian Empire and the Romans in 298 and enduring until 337, Nisibis was capital of Roman Mesopotamia and
8792-437: The Hephthalites. Smbat, with the aid of a Persian prince named Datoyean, repelled the Hephthalites from Persia, and plundered their domains in eastern Khorasan , where Smbat is said to have killed their king in single combat. After Maurice was overthrown and killed by Phocas (602–610) in 602, however, Khosrow II used the murder of his benefactor as a pretext to begin a new invasion, which benefited from continuing civil war in
8949-441: The Kushan Empire, while leading several campaigns against Rome. Invading Roman Mesopotamia , Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis , but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories. The emperor Gordian III 's (238–244) subsequent advance down the Euphrates was defeated at Meshike (244), leading to Gordian's murder by his own troops and enabling Shapur to conclude
9106-430: The Middle East, justifying this with the Achaemenid legacy. Byzantine empire , in turn, sought to seize Transcaucasia and the trade routes coming from distant China. During Julian's Persian campaign , the Romans suffered a crushing defeat. As a result of the humiliating peace treaty for the Romans, a huge number of territories in the east were ceded to the Sasanian Empire , including Armenia. The last conflict in
9263-456: The Persians in Anatolia and the Caucasus, winning a string of victories against Persian forces under Shahrbaraz , Shahin , and Shahraplakan (whose competition to claim the glory of personally defeating the Byzantine emperor contributed to their failure), sacking the great Zoroastrian temple at Ganzak , and securing assistance from the Khazars and Western Turkic Khaganate . Nisibis Nusaybin ( pronounced [nuˈsajbin] )
9420-441: The Persians suffered heavy losses as they fled across the Euphrates under Byzantine attack. Taking advantage of Persian disarray, the Byzantines raided deep into Khosrow's territory, even mounting amphibious attacks across the Caspian Sea . Khosrow sued for peace, but he decided to continue the war after a victory by his general Tamkhosrow in Armenia in 577, and fighting resumed in Mesopotamia. The Armenian revolt came to an end with
9577-417: The Persians. Gubazes II requested aid from Emperor Justinian I and allied with the Alans and Sabirs . Justinian sent 7,000 Roman and 1,000 Tzani (relatives of the Lazes ) auxiliaries under Dagisthaeus to assist Gubazes and besieged the fortress of Petra but faced tough resistance from its heavily outnumbered garrison. Persian reinforcements under Mihr-Mihroe defeated a small Byzantine force guarding
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#17327913140159734-453: The River Mygdonius to bring down a section of the walls, and creating a lake around the city and using boats with siege engines to bring down another section. Unlike the first siege, as the walls fell, Persian assault troops immediately entered the breaches supported by war elephants. Despite all this they failed to break through the breaches and the attack stalled. The Romans, experts at close-quarter combat, and supported by arrows and bolts from
9891-422: The Roman Empire by Constantine the Great . Shapur II, like Shapur I, was amicable towards Jews , who lived in relative freedom and gained many advantages during his reign. At the time of his death, the Persian Empire was stronger than ever, with its enemies to the east pacified and Armenia under Persian control. From Shapur II's death until Kavad I 's first coronation, there was a largely peaceful period with
10048-462: The Romans (by this time the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire ) engaged in just two brief wars with the Sasanian Empire, the first in 421–422 and the second in 440 . Throughout this era, Sasanian religious policy differed dramatically from king to king. Despite a series of weak leaders, the administrative system established during Shapur II's reign remained strong, and the empire continued to function effectively. After Shapur II died in 379,
10205-446: The Romans ). It has been vacant for several decades, having previously had the following incumbents, all of the (intermediary) archiepiscopal rank: Established as Titular Archiepiscopal see of Nisibis (informally Nisibis of the Armenians ) in circa 1910. It was suppressed in 1933, having had a single incumbent, of the (intermediary) archiepiscopal rank : Established as Titular Archiepiscopal see of Nisibis (informally Nisibis of
10362-421: The Romans in the west, where Persian forces won a series of battles but were unable to make territorial gains due to the failure of repeated sieges of the key frontier city of Nisibis, and Roman success in retaking the cities of Singara and Amida after they had previously fallen to the Persians. These campaigns were halted by nomadic raids along the eastern borders of the empire, which threatened Transoxiana ,
10519-419: The Romans; an attempt by the Iberians in 524/525 to do likewise triggered a war between Rome and Persia. In 527, a Roman offensive against Nisibis was repulsed and Roman efforts to fortify positions near the frontier were thwarted. In 530, Kavad sent an army under Perozes to attack the important Roman frontier city of Dara . The army was met by the Roman general Belisarius , and, though superior in numbers,
10676-428: The Sasanian king Khosrow II regain his throne. In 602, Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas . Khosrow declared war, ostensibly to avenge the death of the deposed emperor Maurice. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East, the Aegean Sea , and before the walls of Constantinople itself. While the Persians proved largely successful during
10833-490: The Sassanian Empire in mystery. The Sassanian Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I . Ardashir's father, Papak , was originally the ruler of a region called Khir. However, by 200, Papak had managed to overthrow Gochihr and appoint himself the new ruler of the Bazrangids . Papak's mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the provincial governor of Pars . Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power over all of Pars. Subsequent events are unclear due to
10990-410: The Sassanid possessions. Later Sassanid inscriptions also claim the submission of the kings of Kushan , Turan and Makuran to Ardashir, although based on numismatic evidence it is more likely that these actually submitted to Ardashir's son, the future Shapur I . In the west, assaults against Hatra , Armenia and Adiabene met with less success. In 230, Ardashir raided deep into Roman territory, and
11147-421: The Sassanids were able to establish a base in South Arabia to control the sea trade with the east. Later, the south Arabian kingdom renounced Sassanid overlordship, and another Persian expedition was sent in 598 that successfully annexed southern Arabia as a Sassanid province, which lasted until the time of troubles after Khosrow II. Khosrow I's reign witnessed the rise of the dihqans (literally, village lords),
11304-575: The School of Edessa in 489, the scholars migrated to Nisibis's school and established the city as the foremost centre of Christian thought in the Church of the East. According to the Damascene monk John Moschus , the city's cathedral had five doors in the 7th century, and the monastic and later bishop of Harran , Symeon of the Olives , was recorded as having renewed several ecclesiastical buildings in
11461-454: The Tigris, and agreed not to interfere in the affairs of Armenia and Georgia. In the aftermath of this defeat, Narseh gave up the throne and died a year later, leaving the Sassanid throne to his son, Hormizd II . Unrest spread throughout the land, and while the new king suppressed revolts in Sakastan and Kushan, he was unable to control the nobles and was subsequently killed by Bedouins on
11618-978: The Tigris, had to hand over all the provinces the Persians had ceded to Rome in 298, as well as Nisibis and Singara, to secure safe passage for his army out of Persia. From around 370, however, towards the end of the reign of Shapur II , the Sasanians lost the control of Bactria to invaders from the north: first the Kidarites , then the Hephthalites and finally the Alchon Huns , who would follow up with an invasion of India . These invaders initially issued coins based on Sasanian designs. Various coins minted in Bactria and based on Sasanian designs are extant, often with busts imitating Sassanian kings Shapur II (r. 309 to 379) and Shapur III (r. 383 to 388), adding
11775-495: The Turkish army claimed that 325 were "neutralised" by 4 May. A curfew was in place between 14 March and 25 July in the majority of the town. After the fighting ended in a Turkish Army victory, in late September 2016 the Turkish government began demolishing a quarter of the city's residential buildings. This rendered 30,000 citizens homeless and caused a mass evacuation of tens of thousands of residents to neighboring towns and villages. Over 6,000 houses were bulldozed. After demolition
11932-674: The Turkish government, and Ali Atalan and Gülser Yıldırım, two elected members of the Grand National Assembly from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), began a hunger strike in protest. Two civilians and ten PKK fighters were killed by security forces in the ensuing unrest. By March 2016, PKK forces controlled about half of Nusaybin according to Al-Masdar News and the YPS controlled "much" of it, according to The Independent . The Turkish state imposed eight successive curfews over several months and employed
12089-454: The aid of Theodore of Mopsuestia . The free course of studies lasted three years, the students providing for their own support. During their sojourn at the university, masters and students led a monastic life under somewhat special conditions. The school had a tribunal and enjoyed the right of acquiring all sorts of property. Its rich library possessed a most beautiful collection of Nestorian works; from its remains Ebed-Jesus, Bishop of Nisibis in
12246-444: The alliance, Khosrow also married Maurice's daughter Miriam. Under the command of Khosrow and the Byzantine generals Narses and John Mystacon , the new combined Byzantine-Persian army raised a rebellion against Bahram, defeating him at the Battle of Blarathon in 591. When Khosrow was subsequently restored to power he kept his promise, handing over control of western Armenia and Caucasian Iberia . The new peace arrangement allowed
12403-421: The army and bureaucracy more closely to the central government than to local lords. Emperor Justinian I (527–565) paid Khosrow I 440,000 pieces of gold as a part of the "eternal peace" treaty of 532. In 540, Khosrow broke the treaty and invaded Syria, sacking Antioch and extorting large sums of money from a number of other cities. Further successes followed: in 541 Lazica defected to the Persian side, and in 542
12560-518: The army of Areobind. Kavadh I , who reached Edessa , began demanding peace in exchange for a payment of 10,000 pounds from Byzantium, but Areobindus refused this. The success of the Byzantine forces at Amida, as well as the invasion of the Huns, forced the Sassanids to retreat from Edessa . Lazica , a kingdom usually allied with the Persians, converted to Christianity and sided with Byzantium. He
12717-779: The banks of the Jaghjagh River ( Turkish : Çağçağ ), the ancient Mygdonius ( Ancient Greek : Μυγδόνιος ). The city existed in the Assyrian Empire and is recorded in Akkadian inscriptions as Naṣibīna . Having been part of the Achaemenid Empire , in the Hellenistic period the settlement was re-founded as a polis named "Antioch on the Mygdonius" by the Seleucid dynasty after the conquests of Alexander
12874-436: The campaign of Khosrau II had actually exhausted the Persian army and treasuries. In an effort to rebuild the national treasuries, Khosrau overtaxed the population. Thus, while his empire was on the verge of total defeat, Heraclius (610–641) drew on all his diminished and devastated empire's remaining resources, reorganised his armies, and mounted a remarkable, risky counter-offensive. Between 622 and 627, he campaigned against
13031-558: The capture of his harem and the loss of all the Roman territories he had occupied. Shapur had intensive development plans. He ordered the construction of the first dam bridge in Iran and founded many cities, some settled in part by emigrants from the Roman territories, including Christians who could exercise their faith freely under Sassanid rule. Two cities, Bishapur and Nishapur , are named after him. He particularly favoured Manichaeism , protecting Mani (who dedicated one of his books,
13188-474: The care of Barsauma , who had been trained at Edessa, under the patronage of Narses, who established the statutes of the new school. Those that have been discovered and published belong to Osee, the successor of Barsauma in the See of Nisibis, and bear the date 496; they must be substantially the same as those of 489. In 590, they were again modified. The monastery school was under a superior called Rabban ("master"),
13345-687: The cessation in smuggling has led to a 90% rise in unemployment in the city. Nusaybin is served by the E90 roadway and other roads to surrounding towns. The Nusaybin Railway Station is served by two daily trains. The closest airport is Qamishli Airport five kilometers to the south, in Qamishli in Syria. The closest Turkish airport is Mardin Airport , 55 kilometers northwest of Nusaybin. Nusaybin
13502-513: The city after a four-month siege . At the same time, a smaller Persian army under Adarmahan ravaged Syria, sacking Apamea and a number of other cities. They were only pushed away from Syria proper by a bumbling Byzantine defence near Antioch. To make matters worse, in 572 the Byzantine emperor Justin II had ordered the assassination of the Ghassanid king al-Mundhir III ; as a result of
13659-409: The city because the approaches to the breaches were impassable due to floodwater, mud and debris. The soldiers and citizens inside the city worked all night and by dawn the breaches were closed with makeshift barriers. Shapur's assault troops attacked the breaches, but their assault was repulsed. A few days later the Persian lifted the siege. Nisibis was besieged a second time in 346 CE. The details of
13816-555: The city in 338, 346, and 350, when St Jacob or James of Nisibis , Babu's successor, was its bishop. Nisibis was the home of Ephrem the Syrian , who remained until its surrender to the Sassanid Persians by Roman Emperor Jovian in 363. The bishop of Nisibis was the Metropolitan Archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Bit-Arbaye . By 410, it had six suffragan sees and as early as the middle of
13973-436: The city was populated by descendants of Spartans . Around the 1st century CE, Nisibis ( Hebrew : נציבין , romanized : Netzivin ) was the home of Judah ben Bethera , who founded a famous yeshiva there. In 67 BCE, during Rome's first war with Armenia , the Roman general Lucullus took Nisibis ( Armenian : Մծբին , romanized : Mtsbin ) from the brother of Tigranes . Like many other cities in
14130-537: The city; what remained of the Assyrian population emigrated during the height of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict in the 1990s and as a result of the resumption of the conflict in 2016 , only one Assyrian family reportedly remained in the city. Nisibis ( Syriac : ܢܨܝܒܝܢ , Nṣibin , later Syriac ܨܘܒܐ , Ṣōbā ) had an Assyrian Christian bishop from 300, founded by Babu (died 309). Shapur II besieged
14287-630: The coinage of Bukhara (in modern Uzbekistan ). Bahram deposed the vassal king of the Iranian-held area of Armenia and made it a province of the empire. Bahram V's son Yazdegerd II (438–457) was in some ways a moderate ruler, but, in contrast to Yazdegerd I, he practised a harsh policy towards minority religions, particularly Christianity . However, at the Battle of Avarayr in 451, the Armenian subjects led by Vardan Mamikonian reaffirmed Armenia's right to profess Christianity freely. This
14444-446: The command of Areobindus . This army was divided into two parts: one of them went to capture Amidah, the second besieged Nisibis . Although the Byzantines were initially successful at Nisibis , they could not consolidate the advantage, Kavadh I forced Areobindus to retreat during a counterattack. The second part of the army tried to come to the support of the first, but it was too late, the Persians defeated this army, separately from
14601-465: The defenders. They also undermined the walls, dammed the Mygdonius River and constructed dikes to direct the river against the walls. On the seventieth day of the siege, the water was released and the torrent struck the walls; entire sections of the city walls collapsed. The water passed through the city and knocked down a section of the opposite wall as well. The Persians were unable to assault
14758-608: The early 20th century for economic reasons. A synagogue in Jerusalem practises the Nisibis and Qamishli rites today. Nusaybin made headlines in 2006 when villagers near Kuru uncovered a mass grave, suspected of belonging to Ottoman Armenians and Assyrians killed during the Armenian and Assyrian genocides . Swedish historian David Gaunt visited the site to investigate its origins, but left after finding evidence of tampering. Gaunt, who has studied 150 massacres carried out in
14915-554: The early period of Arab rule. The monasteries of the nearby Tur Abdin, led by the reforms of Abraham the Great of Kashkar , founder of the "Great Monastery" of Mount Izla, underwent substantial revival in the years after the Muslim conquest. However, besides the baptistery known as the Church of Saint Jacob ( Mar Ya‘qub ) and built in 359 by bishop Vologeses, little remains of ancient Nisibis, probably because of ruinous earthquake in 717. Archaeological excavations were conducted in
15072-404: The elusive nature of the sources. It is certain that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, the governor of Darabgerd , became involved in a power struggle with his elder brother Shapur. Sources reveal that Shapur was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By 208, over the protests of his other brothers, who were put to death, Ardashir declared himself ruler of Pars. Once Ardashir
15229-479: The emperor Yazdegerd I ( r. 399–420 ). As a result of this council, the Church of the East was set up, and the bishop of Nisibis became the metropolitan bishop of the five erstwhile Transtigritine provinces. Narsai , formerly a theologian at the School of Edessa , founded the famous School of Nisibis with the bishop, Barsauma , in the 470s. When the Roman emperor Zeno ( r. 474–491 ) closed
15386-421: The empire passed on to his half-brother Ardashir II (379–383; son of Hormizd II) and his son Shapur III (383–388), neither of whom demonstrated their predecessor's skill in ruling. Bahram IV (388–399) also failed to achieve anything important for the empire. During this time Armenia was divided by a treaty between the Roman and Sasanian empires. The Sasanians reestablished their rule over Greater Armenia, while
15543-411: The first half of the 4th century; each time, the city's fortifications held. The Syriac poet Ephrem the Syrian witnessed all three sieges, and praised Nisibis's successive bishops for their contributions to the defences in his Carmina Nisibena , 'song of Nisibis', while the Roman caesar Julian ( r. 355–363 ) described the third siege in his panegyric to his senior co-emperor,
15700-512: The first stage of the war from 602 to 622, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, several islands in the Aegean Sea and parts of Anatolia, the ascendancy of the emperor Heraclius in 610 led, despite initial setbacks, to a status quo ante bellum . Heraclius's campaigns in Iranian lands from 622 to 626 forced the Persians onto the defensive, allowing his forces to regain momentum. Allied with
15857-567: The former's disadvantage: the rugged Armenian terrain was favourable to Roman infantry, but not to Sassanid cavalry. Local aid gave Galerius the advantage of surprise over the Persian forces, and, in two successive battles, Galerius secured victories over Narseh. During the second encounter, Roman forces seized Narseh's camp, his treasury, his harem, and his wife. Galerius advanced into Media and Adiabene , winning successive victories, most prominently near Erzurum , and securing Nisibis ( Nusaybin , Turkey) before 1 October 298. He then advanced down
16014-493: The frontiers to act as guardians against invaders. He was tolerant of all religions, though he decreed that Zoroastrianism should be the official state religion , and was not unduly disturbed when one of his sons became a Christian. After Khosrow I, Hormizd IV (579–590) took the throne. The war with the Byzantines continued to rage intensely but inconclusively until the general Bahram Chobin , dismissed and humiliated by Hormizd, rose in revolt in 589. The following year, Hormizd
16171-622: The governments of France and the new Republic of Turkey in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne , the Turkey-Syria border would follow the line of the Baghdad Railway until Nusaybin, after which it would follow the path of a Roman road leading to Cizre . After the establishment of the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon , Nusaybin lost over 60% of its population to the settlements there, most prominently Qamishli . Nusaybin
16328-465: The head of a large army granted to him by the Hephthalite king, returned to the empire's capital. Jamasp stepped down from his position and returned the throne to his brother. No further mention of Jamasp is made after the restoration of Kavad I, but it is widely believed that he was treated favourably at the court of his brother. The second golden era began after the second reign of Kavad I. With
16485-633: The history of the Roman-Sasanian wars was the Shapur 3 campaign in Armenia , as a result of the peace treaty , Armenia was divided into two parts: Persarmenia (territory ceded to the Sassanians) and Armenia Minor (territory ceded to the Romans). In 421, Bahram V became emperor of the Sasanian Empire and continued the persecution of Christians in the territory of the Sasanian Empire, which
16642-451: The kingdom. Peroz tried again to drive out the Hephthalites, but on the way to Balkh his army was trapped by the Huns in the desert. Peroz was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army near Balkh. His army was completely destroyed, and his body was never found. Four of his sons and brothers had also died. The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of Khorasan − Nishapur , Herat and Marw were now under Hephthalite rule. Sukhra ,
16799-421: The latter was unopposed elsewhere in the field and managed to capture Cotais and the fortress of Uthimereos, blocking the important roads to the highland regions of Scymnia and Souania , which were also captured by him later. In the summer of 555, he dislodged a superior Byzantine-Lazic force at Telephis and Ollaria by stratagem and forced them to retreat to Nesos. Mihr-Mihroe died of illness shortly after and
16956-458: The mountain passes and then relieved the besieged Petra. Lacking enough supplies, Mihr-Mihroe garrisoned 3,000 men in the fortress and marched to Armenia leaving 5,000 soldiers to supply Petra. This force was destroyed by Dagisthaeus at the Phasis river in 549. The next Persian offensive also proved to be unsuccessful with the commander Chorianes killed in a decisive battle at the river Hippis (now
17113-402: The nomad King Grumbates , started his second campaign against the Romans in 359 and soon succeeded in retaking Singara and Amida. In response the Roman emperor Julian struck deep into Persian territory and defeated Shapur's forces at Ctesiphon . He failed to take the capital, however, and was killed while trying to retreat to Roman territory. His successor Jovian , trapped on the east bank of
17270-402: The payment made shah Yazdegerd II declare war against the Romans, which had ultimately little success for either side. The Persian king Kavadh I was sorely short of money, for this reason he declared war on Byzantium. In 502, the Sassanid emperor invaded Byzantine empire , and captured a number of fortresses not ready for war by the Romans. Anastasius I sent an army of 52,000 men under
17427-417: The petty landholding nobility who were the backbone of later Sassanid provincial administration and the tax collection system. Khosrow I built infrastructure, embellishing his capital and founding new towns with the construction of new buildings. He rebuilt the canals and restocked the farms destroyed in the wars. He built strong fortifications at the passes and placed subject tribes in carefully chosen towns on
17584-453: The physical territory that it controlled, impacting regions as distant as Western Europe , Eastern Africa , and China and India . It also helped shape European and Asian medieval art. With the Muslim conquest of Persia , the influence of Sasanian art , architecture , music , literature , and philosophy was gradually absorbed into nascent Islamic culture , which, in turn, ensured
17741-692: The province from the Huns while the Thracian Roman troops were sent to the East. Ardabur sent Anatolius to Persarmenia , where he joined the rebels, while Ardabur entered Persian territory and devastated Arzanene . The general of the Sassanid army , Narses, engaged Ardabur in battle, but was defeated and forced to retreat. Narses planned to attack Mesopotamia , a Roman province that had been left unguarded, and moved there, but Ardabur foresaw his enemy's plan and intercepted him there. The Sasanian and
17898-556: The remainder of the Roman–Persian Wars and the construction of nearby Dara to defend against Persian attack, Nisibis was not returned to Roman control before it was conquered in 639 by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Muslim conquest of the Levant . Under Sasanian rule and after, Nisibis was a major centre of the Christian Church , and the bishop of Nisibis attended the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon convened in 410 by
18055-524: The restorer of monastic life; and Archbishop Elijah of Nisibis . As a fortified frontier city, Nisibis played a major role in the Roman-Persian Wars . It became the capital of the newly created province of Mesopotamia after Diocletian 's organization of the eastern Roman frontier. It became known as the "Shield of the Empire" after a successful resistance in 337–350. The city changed hands several times, and once in Sasanian hands, Nisibis
18212-571: The rich should divide their wives and their wealth with the poor. By adopting the doctrine of the Mazdakites, his intention evidently was to break the influence of the magnates and the growing aristocracy. These reforms led to his being deposed and imprisoned in the Castle of Oblivion in Khuzestan , and his younger brother Jamasp (Zamaspes) became king in 496. Kavad, however, quickly escaped and
18369-605: The seat of its governor (Latin: dux mesopotamiae ). Jacob of Nisibis , the city's first known bishop , constructed its first cathedral between 313 and 320. Nisibis was a focus of international trade, and according to the Greek history of Peter the Patrician , the primary point of contact between Roman and Persian empires. Nisibis was besieged three times by the Sasanian army under Shapur II ( r. 309–379 ) in
18526-551: The second siege have not survived. Shapur besieged the city for seventy-eight days and then lifted the siege. In 350 CE, while the Roman Emperor Constantius II was engaged in a civil war against the usurper Magnentius in the West, the Persians invaded and laid siege to Nisibis for the third time. The siege lasted between 100 and 160 days. The Persian engineers tried several innovative siege technics; using
18683-453: The situation and began raiding Caucasian Albania , wintering there and plundering territories. Khosrow wanted to ask for peace, but the victory of his general in Armenia stopped him. In 578, the main front moved to Mesopotamia . Mauritius has conducted successful raids on both banks of the Tigris . Khosrow wanted to ask for peace again, but died, and his heir Hormizd IV interrupted the negotiations. In 582, Maurice became emperor, but in
18840-448: The south with little or no interference from the Parthians. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, which was separated from the rest of Iran. Crowned in 224 at Ctesiphon as the sole ruler of Persia, Ardashir took the title shahanshah , or "King of Kings" (the inscriptions mention Adhur-Anahid as his Banbishnan banbishn , "Queen of Queens", but her relationship with Ardashir has not been fully established), bringing
18997-401: The spread of Iranian culture, knowledge, and ideas throughout the expanding Muslim world . Officially, the empire was known as the Empire of the Iranians ( Middle Persian : 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩 , ērānšahr , Parthian : 𐭀𐭓𐭉𐭀𐭍𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓 , aryānšahr , Greek : Ἀριανῶν ἔθνος , Arianōn ethnos ), the term is first attested in the trilingual Great Inscription of Shapur I , where
19154-561: The summer of 1915 in Mardin , said that the Committee of Union and Progress 's governor for Mardin, Halil Edip, had likely ordered the massacre on 14 June 1915, leaving 150 Armenians and 120 Assyrians dead. The settlement was then known as Dara (now Oğuz). Gaunt added that the death squad, named El-Hamşin (meaning "fifty men"), was headed by officer Refik Nizamettin Kaddur. The president of
19311-431: The support of the Hephthalites , Kavad launched a campaign against the Romans. In 502, he took Theodosiopolis in Armenia, but lost it soon afterwards. In 503 he took Amida on the Tigris. In 504, an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice, the return of Amida to Roman control and a peace treaty in 506. In 521/522 Kavad lost control of Lazica , whose rulers switched their allegiance to
19468-451: The town, in addition to the Turkish language . In November 2013, Nusaybin's mayor, Ayşe Gökkan , commenced a hunger strike to protest against the construction of a wall between Nusaybin and the neighboring Kurdish -majority city of Qamishli in Syria . Construction of the wall stopped as a result of this and other protests. On 13 November 2015, the town was placed under a curfew by
19625-523: The two empires to focus on military matters elsewhere: Khosrow focused on the Sassanid Empire's eastern frontier while Maurice restored Byzantine control of the Balkans . Circa 600, the Hephthalites had been raiding the Sassanid Empire as far as Spahan in central Iran. The Hephthalites issued numerous coins imitating the coinage of Khosrow II. In c. 606/607 , Khosrow recalled Smbat IV Bagratuni from Persian Armenia and sent him to Iran to repel
19782-568: The unsuccessful attempt on his life, al-Mundhir severed his alliance with the Byzantines, leaving their desert frontier exposed. In 575, the Byzantines managed to resolve their conflict with the Ghassanids , the latter in turn plundered the capital of the Arabs allied to the Persians. Khosrow I prepared a grandiose campaign through the Caucasus to Anatolia , but during this campaign he was defeated near Melitene. The Byzantines took advantage of
19939-462: The use of heavy weapons in defeating the Kurdish militants, resulting in large swathes of Nusaybin being destroyed. 61 members of the security forces had been killed by May 2016. By 9 April, 60,000 residents of the city had been displaced, yet 30,000 civilians remained in the city, including in the six neighborhoods where fighting continued. YPS reportedly had 700–800 militants in the city, of which
20096-646: The vicinity of the 4th-century baptistery in the early 21st century, revealing various buildings including the 4th-century cathedral. First mentioned in 901 BCE, Naṣibīna was an Aramean kingdom captured by the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari II in 896. By 852 BCE, Naṣibīna had been fully annexed to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and appeared in the Assyrian Eponym List as the seat of an Assyrian provincial governor named Shamash-Abua. It
20253-491: The victory at Callinicum. After the failure of the Siege of Martyropolis and the death of Kavadh I , a peace was concluded, according to which Byzantium retained Lazica and the Sassanids retained Iberia . Those calls were answered that year by the Persian king Khosrow I , who entered Lazica, captured the Byzantine main stronghold of Petra, and established another protectorate over the country. Khosrow I retreated to Persia
20410-496: The walls and towers checked the assault and a sortie from one of the gates forced the Persians to withdraw. Shortly after the Persian Army, suffering heavy casualties from combat and disease, lifted the siege and withdrew. The Roman historian of the 4th century, Ammianus Marcellinus , gained his first practical experience of warfare as a young man at Nisibis under the magister equitum , Ursicinus . From 360 to 363, Nisibis
20567-538: The war resumed but remained confined to Lazica, which was retained by the Byzantines when peace was concluded in 562. In 565, Justinian I died and was succeeded by Justin II (565–578), who resolved to stop subsidies to Arab chieftains to restrain them from raiding Byzantine territory in Syria. A year earlier, the Sassanid governor of Armenia, Chihor-Vishnasp of the Suren family, built a fire temple at Dvin near modern Yerevan , and he put to death an influential member of
20724-978: Was raided by the Qarmatians . Nisibis was captured in 942 by the Byzantine Empire but was subsequently recaptured by the Hamdanid dynasty . It was attacked by the Byzantines once again in 972. Following the Hamdanids, the city was administered by the Marwanids and the Uqaylids . From the middle of the 11th century onwards, it was subjected to Turkish raids and being threatened by the County of Edessa , being attacked and damaged by Seljuq forces under Tughril in 1043. The city nevertheless remained an important centre of commerce and transport. In 1120, it
20881-540: Was a place on the transit routes of Syrian Jews leaving the country after the 1948 formation of Israel and the subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries . Upon reaching Turkey, after a route that took them through Aleppo and the Jazira sometimes with the help of Bedouin smugglers, most headed for Israel . There had been a large Jewish community in Nisbis since antiquity, many of whom moved to Qamishli in
21038-494: Was also amenable to the wishes of the Zoroastrian priesthood. During his reign, the Sassanid capital Ctesiphon was sacked by the Romans under Emperor Carus , and most of Armenia, after half a century of Persian rule, was ceded to Diocletian . Succeeding Bahram III (who ruled briefly in 293), Narseh embarked on another war with the Romans. After an early success against the Emperor Galerius near Callinicum on
21195-426: Was appointed shah (king), he moved his capital further to the south of Pars and founded Ardashir-Khwarrah (formerly Gur , modern day Firuzabad ). The city, well protected by high mountains and easily defensible due to the narrow passes that approached it, became the center of Ardashir's efforts to gain more power. It was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgerd. Ardashir's palace
21352-510: Was captured by Shapur, remaining his prisoner for the rest of his life. Shapur celebrated his victory by carving the impressive rock reliefs in Naqsh-e Rostam and Bishapur , as well as a monumental inscription in Persian and Greek in the vicinity of Persepolis . He exploited his success by advancing into Anatolia (260), but withdrew in disarray after defeats at the hands of the Romans and their Palmyrene ally Odaenathus , suffering
21509-702: Was captured by the Artuqids under Necmeddin Ilgazi , followed by the Zengids and Ayyubids . The city is described as a very prosperous one by the period's Arab geographers and historians, with imposing baths, walls, lavish houses, a bridge and a hospital. In 1230, the city was invaded by the Mongol Empire . Mongol sovereignty was followed by that of the Ag Qoyunlu , Kara Koyunlu and Safavids . In 1515, it
21666-407: Was ceded to the Sassanian Empire after the defeat of Julian. Before that time the population of the town was forced by the Roman authorities to leave Nisibis and move to Amida . Emperor Jovian allowed them only three days for the evacuation. Historian Ammianus Marcellinus was again an eyewitness and condemns Emperor Jovian for giving up the fortified town without a fight. Marcellinus' point-of-view
21823-595: Was completed in March 2017, over one hundred apartment towers were built. The Turkish government offered to compensate homeowners at 12% of the value of their destroyed houses if they agreed to certain relocation conditions. As a result of Turkish government policy to close all border crossings with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria , the city's border with Syria (i.e. the large Syrian city of Qamishli) has been closed, with claims that
21980-419: Was crowned in utero : the crown was placed upon his mother's stomach. During his youth the empire was controlled by his mother and the nobles. Upon coming of age, Shapur II assumed power and quickly proved to be an active and effective ruler. He first led his small but disciplined army south against the Arabs, whom he defeated, securing the southern areas of the empire. He then began his first campaign against
22137-623: Was defeated and Khosrow II came to power. The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , also called the Last Great War of Antiquity, was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sasanian Empire . It was the final and most devastating conflict of the Roman–Persian Wars (54 BC – AD 628). The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice helped
22294-443: Was defeated at the Battle of Dara . In the same year, a second Persian army under Mihr-Mihroe was defeated at Satala by Roman forces under Sittas and Dorotheus, but in 531 a Persian army accompanied by a Lakhmid contingent under Al-Mundhir III defeated Belisarius at the Battle of Callinicum , and in 532 an "eternal peace" was concluded. Kavad succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with general success against
22451-448: Was evacuated and its citizens forced to migrate to Amida ( Diyarbakır ) – which was expanded to accommodate them – and to Edessa ( Urfa ). According to the Latin historian Eutropius , the cession of Nisibis was supposed to last 120 years. Nisibis remained a major entrepôt ; one of only three such cities of commercial exchange allowed by Roman law promulgated in 408/9. However, despite several Roman attempts to recapture Nisibis through
22608-408: Was followed by the rest of the Caucasian kingdoms, such as Iberia , to get out from under the influence of the Persians. The Persians tried to bring back the now Christian kingdom of Iberia to Zoroastrianism , but this kingdom rebelled, following its neighbor Lazica . As part of his strategic consolidation of power in the East, Justinian I further strengthened the border defenses by incorporating
22765-452: Was given refuge by the Hephthalite king. Jamasp (496–498) was installed on the Sasanian throne upon the deposition of Kavad I by members of the nobility. He was a good and kind king; he reduced taxes in order to improve the condition of the peasants and the poor. He was also an adherent of the mainstream Zoroastrian religion, diversions from which had cost Kavad I his throne and freedom. Jamasp's reign soon ended, however, when Kavad I, at
22922-556: Was killed by his brother Peroz in 459. At the beginning of the 5th century, the Hephthalites (White Huns), along with other nomadic groups, attacked Iran. At first Bahram V and Yazdegerd II inflicted decisive defeats against them and drove them back eastward. The Huns returned at the end of the 5th century and defeated Peroz I (457–484) in 483. Following this victory, the Huns invaded and plundered parts of eastern Iran continually for two years. They exacted heavy tribute for some years thereafter. These attacks brought instability and chaos to
23079-468: Was on the north side of the city; remains of it are extant. After establishing his rule over Pars, Ardashir rapidly extended his territory, demanding fealty from the local princes of Fars, and gaining control over the neighbouring provinces of Kerman , Isfahan , Susiana and Mesene . This expansion quickly came to the attention of Artabanus IV, the Parthian king, who initially ordered the governor of Khuzestan to wage war against Ardashir in 224, but Ardashir
23236-412: Was overthrown by a palace coup and his son Khosrow II (590–628) placed on the throne. However, this change of ruler failed to placate Bahram, who defeated Khosrow, forcing him to flee to Byzantine territory, and seized the throne for himself as Bahram VI. Khosrow asked the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (582–602) for assistance against Bahram, offering to cede the western Caucasus to the Byzantines. To cement
23393-446: Was replaced by Nachoragan . Less than 10 years after the end of the Lazic War, tensions have risen again. The Persians invaded Yemen, expelling the Byzantine allies, and the allied Arabs raided the territories of Byzantium in the east. In 572, there was an uprising against the Persians in Armenia, which was suppressed, but the connection of the head of the uprising with the emperor helped unite all Christians in this region. This helped
23550-494: Was returned to Roman domination, with the fort of Ziatha as its border; Caucasian Iberia would pay allegiance to Rome under a Roman appointee; Nisibis, now under Roman rule, would become the sole conduit for trade between Persia and Rome; and Rome would exercise control over the five satrapies between the Tigris and Armenia: Ingilene , Sophanene ( Sophene ), Arzanene ( Aghdznik ), Corduene , and Zabdicene (near modern Hakkâri , Turkey). The Sassanids ceded five provinces west of
23707-519: Was started by his father Yazdigerd I . The Persians hired several Roman gold miners, but now refused to send them back; moreover, the Sassanids seized the property of Roman merchants. This was the reason for the first Byzantine-Sasanian war . The commander-in-chief of the Roman army was Ardabur , who, incidentally, came from the Iranian tribe of the Alans . Ardabur needed to collect many troops for his campaign. Theodosius, therefore, allowed some Pannonian Ostrogoths to settle in Thracia , to defend
23864-439: Was taken by the Ottoman Empire under Selim I thanks to the efforts of Idris Bitlisi . On the eve of World War I , Nusaybin had a Christian community of 2000, along with a Jewish population of 600. A massacre of Christians took place in August 1915, after which the Christian community of Nusaybin diminished to 1200. Syrian Jacobites , Chaldean Catholics , Protestants, and Armenians were targeted. As agreed upon by
24021-419: Was the base of operations against the Romans. The city was also one of the main crossing points for merchants, although elaborate counter-espionage safeguards were also in place. The city was taken without resistance by the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar in 639 or 640. Under early Islamic rule, the city served as a local administrative centre. In 717, it was struck by an earthquake and in 927 it
24178-585: Was the camp of Legio I Parthica . Because of its strategic importance on the Persian border, Nisibis was heavily fortified. Ammianus lovingly calls Nisibis the "impregnable city" ( urbs inexpugnabilis ) and "bulwark of the provinces" ( murus provinciarum ). Sozomen writes that when the inhabitants of Nisibis asked for help because the Persians were about to invade the Roman territories and attack them, Emperor Julian refused to assist them because they were Christianized , and he told them that he would not help them if they did not return to paganism. In 363 Nisibis
24335-402: Was to be later confirmed by the Nvarsak Treaty (484). At the beginning of his reign in 441, Yazdegerd II assembled an army of soldiers from various nations, including his Indian allies, and attacked the Byzantine Empire , but peace was soon restored after some small-scale fighting. He then gathered his forces in Nishapur in 443 and launched a prolonged campaign against the Kidarites . After
24492-432: Was under Babylonian control until 536 BCE, when it fell to the Achaemenid Persians , and remained so until taken by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. The Seleucids re-founded the city as Antiochia Mygdonia ( Greek : Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Μυγδονίας ), mentioned for the first time in Polybius ' description of the march of Antiochus III the Great against Molon ( Polybius , V, 51). The Greek historian Plutarch suggested that
24649-463: Was victorious in the ensuing battles. In a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where the former met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir went on to invade the western provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. At that time the Arsacid dynasty was divided between supporters of Artabanus IV and Vologases VI , which probably allowed Ardashir to consolidate his authority in
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