Nisibis

Nisibis (Akkadian Naṣībīna, in Hellenism temporarily Antiochia in Mygdonien, Syriac‑Aramaic ܨܘܒܐ, Ṣōbā, Armenian Medzpine) is an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia in the present district of Nusaybin of the Turkish province of Mardin on the Turkish‑Syrian border. The modern name is Nusaybin (see modern history there).

History

The city of Nisibis is documented since the 10th century BC. In 901 BC the Assyrian king Adad‑nirari II marched against the Temanite Nūr‑Adad of Nisibis. From the middle of the 9th century BC to 612 BC it is recorded as an Assyrian provincial capital. The Mygdonians lived, according to Strabo, in the area of Nisibis. According to Strabo Nisibis lay at the foot of Mount Masius.

Under the Seleucids Nisibis bore the name Antiochia in Mygdonia, which fell out of use again when the city, from 141 BC, first became part of the kingdom of Adiabene under Parthian suzerainty, then passed to Armenia. After the conquest and brief occupation by the Roman commander Lucullus in the course of the Third Mithridatic War, Nisibis belonged from about 36/38 AD to the Parthian Empire.

The city came under Roman rule in the Parthian War of Septimius Severus at the end of the 2nd century AD and was, especially in Late Antiquity, fiercely contested because of its favourable location and economic and military significance between Rome and the Sassanian Empire that succeeded the Parthian Empire. Previously, in the Parthian War begun by the Roman emperor Caracalla, the last great field battle between Rome and the Parthians had taken place at Nisibis in 217. The city, however, changed owners repeatedly thereafter. In 298, by the Peace of Nisibis (a “humiliating peace” for the Sassanians) important parts of northern Mesopotamia became Roman, including Nisibis, and the city was designated as one of three locations where trade between the two great powers was to be conducted. From 309 to 338 Jacob of Nisibis was bishop of the Christians of Nisibis. He had the church built, which was later named after him and in whose ruin his tomb is located.

The Persian king Shapur II besieged the city in the fourth century three times in vain (338, 346 and 350), but after the failed Persian campaign of Emperor Julian his successor Jovian had to cede Nisibis to the Sassanids in the subsequent peace treaty of 363. Most Roman inhabitants had to leave the city, including the church teacher Ephrem the Syrian, and were replaced by Persian families who settled in Nisibis; this disgrace remained long unforgotten in Rome. Even more than 120 years later the Eastern Romans should demand the return of the place, and in the 6th century imperial troops tried at least twice (543 and 572) in vain to capture Nisibis. The site lay very close to Roman territory, constituted one of the strongest, largest and most important Persian fortresses and housed a garrison of several thousand men. To be able to meet the threat emanating from Nisibis, the Eastern Romans in the 6th century built the site Dara-Anastasiupolis, located not far from the city on the other side of the border, as a counter‑fortress and also stationed strong troops there. Through the peace treaty of 591 Nisibis then again came under Roman control and was again heavily contested at the time of Chosroes II.

Nisibis was already in the early 5th century the seat of a metropolitan; this later became Nestorian. Nestorian Christians and other religious minorities persecuted in the Roman Empire settled in large numbers in Nisibis. The city was therefore also a very important religious and – since the relocation of the famous school of Edessa to Nisibis in 489 (see School of Nisibis) – academic centre. It was probably conquered in 639/640 during the Islamic expansion by the Arabs and, apart from some short episodes, was thereafter controlled by Muslims.

Presumably Nisibis was one of the places where the knowledge of Greco‑Roman antiquity was transmitted especially intensively to the Arab conquerors. Since a severe earthquake in 717 the city, which had already suffered from the loss of border trade between Romans and Persians, lost much of its importance. From 1515 the Ottomans dominated the city (see Nusaybin).

Reception

In memory of the work of Jacob of Nisibis and Ephrem the Syrian in the city and especially of the resident School of Nisibis, the NISIBIN – Research Centre for Aramaic Studies at the University of Konstanz was named after the ancient city.