Rumkale
Rumkale | |
---|---|
Rumkale, Gaziantep, Turkey | |
Coordinates | 37°16′19″N 37°50′17″E / 37.27194°N 37.83806°E |
Type | Fortress |
Site history | |
Events | Synod of Armenian Church in 1179 |
Rumkale (lit. 'Roman Castle'; Armenian: Հռոմկլա, romanized: Hromgla[1]), also known as Urumgala,[2] is a ruined fortress on the Euphrates, located in the province of Gaziantep and 50 km west of Şanlıurfa.
History
[edit]Antiquity
[edit]Its strategic location was already known to the Assyrians and it is possible that it was fortified by the Romans, no remains of periods earlier than 1000 CE have been identified at the side.[3] It is said that John, an apostle of Jesus, lived in Rumkale during Roman times.[4] Rumkale became then a part of the Byzantine Empire.
Medieval period
[edit]In the late 11th century, the castle now known as Hromgla was part of the Armenian principalities of first Philaretos Brachamios and then Kogh Vasil.[5] Kogh Vasil's adopted son Vasil Dgha was forced to hand over his lands to Baldwin II of Edessa in 1116 and it remained under the name Ranculat in Latin rule until the end of the county of Edessa.[6] With an Armenian bishop already present during that time, it was purchased by Gregory III from Beatrice of Turbessel in 1148 or 1150 to obtain a safe settlement for the Armenian Catholicosate.[7] Gregory's brother Nerses IV was elected as Armenian Catholicos here in 1166 and it seems that at this time a very considerable settlement existed there during his time that also housed representatives of the Syriac Orthodox and the Catholic Church.[8][9]
The castle became then part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. In the 1170 and 1172, theological conferences exploring a union of churches were held at Hromgla between the Armenian Church and the Byzantine Church with the Syrian Orthox (Jacobite) Church sending observers. In 1179, a synod of 33 Armenian bishops took place in Hromgla came up with a compromise and sent a profession of faith to Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, but he died in September 1180 before it reached him.[10] From 1203 to 1293, it served as the residence of the Catholicos of the Armenian Church.[11] The site became an important center for manuscript production, reaching its artistic peak under the Catholicos Constantine I who employed Toros Roslin, whose stylistic and iconographic innovations had profound influence on subsequent generations of Armenian art.[9]
By 1268, Hromgla was isolated from the remainder of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and was attacked by a force of Mamluks of Egypt, which destroyed the town while it was unable to conquer the citadel.[12] In 1292, the castle was captured by the Mamluks following a protracted siege who then named it Qal'at al-Muslimin. The Mamluks rebuild the castle and used it as a forward base against the Mongols, though the castle seems to have become less important compared to Bahasni and Ayntab. The castle was then damaged by Timur's forces and came then under Ottoman control.[12]
Ottoman period
[edit]In 1516, Rumkale came under Ottoman rule following the defeat of the Mamluk Sultanate at Battle of Marj Dabiq the same year.[13] All residents of Rumkale recorded in the Ottoman defters during the 16th-century were Muslim.[14]
Neighborhoods | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Kazan | Qizilja | Rumlulu | Hajji Halil | Total |
1536 | 388 | 318 | 622 | 583 | 1911 |
1552 | 322 | 268 | 328 | 605 | 1523 |
1570 | 313 | 296 | 363 | 566 | 1538 |
1584 | 337 | 414 | 450 | 661 | 1862 |
Notes | Estimates are calculated by multiplying hane (household) by 5 and adding the number of mücerreds (single people).[16] |
Historian H. Basri Karadeniz identified two mosques in Rumkale, the Grand Mosque (Ulu Camii) and the Castle Mosque (Kal'a Camii) in the 16th-century Ottoman records of the town. In addition to both two mosques, historian Ali Yılmaz listed 3 mosques Horos, Mehmed Saruji, and Zeytun, as well as 4 masjids, Kubbeli, Han, Hajji Osman, and Diremli. According to Yasin Taş, these mosques were potentially located in the neighboring villages, and the town contained only the first two mosques based on the same records, which attested to the presence of a smaller clergy community in Rumkale: 1 hatib, 2 imams, 2 muezzins, and 1 duagu. In parallel, 17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi mentioned one mosque and another in the suburbs in his seyahatnâme (travelogue).[17]
Desertion
[edit]Following the 1831 rebellion led by Bekirzade Mehmed Bey, the voivode (tax-collector, warlord) of Rumkale, the Ottoman government decreed the depopulation of the town and the destruction of the homes to prevent the fortress from harboring any future rebels.[17]
The remaining few intact buildings were bombarded by Ibrahim Pasha during the Second Egyptian–Ottoman War, which forced the residents to relocate to the village of Kasaba, while influential families moved to the town of Halfeti on the opposite (eastern) side of the Euphrates or the city of Aintab in the west.[17]
Access
[edit]The fortress, now situated across a peninsula created by the reservoir of Birecik Dam and within the administrative boundaries of Gaziantep's Nizip district, is currently accessible by boat either from the neighboring site of Zeugma or from the town of Halfeti. As of March 2017, it was not possible to land at the site; extensive (re)building is underway inside the fortress and on the external walls.[citation needed]
Gallery
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Sarafean, Georg Avedis (1957). A Briefer History of Aintab A Concise History of the Cultural, Religious, Educational, Political, Industrial and Commercial Life of the Armenians of Aintab. Boston: Union of the Armenians of Aintab. p. 27. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
- ^ Öcal, Mehmet; Güler, Selahaddin E.; Mızrak, Remzi (2001). Şanlıurfa kültürü sözlüğü. Şurkav Yayınları. p. 39. ISBN 9789757394235. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
- ^ Comfort, Abadie-Reynal & Ergeç 2000, p. 113.
- ^ "Roman Castle to open to tourism". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
- ^ Dadoyan 2012, p. 41.
- ^ Stewart 2006, p. 271.
- ^ van Lint 1999, p. 32.
- ^ Russel 2005, p. 201.
- ^ a b Evans 2008, p. 141.
- ^ Hamilton 1999, pp. 4–5.
- ^ "Eastern Churches" by James Darling, London 1850, page 35, paragraph 2
- ^ a b Stewart 2006, p. 272.
- ^ Karadeniz 1998, p. 433.
- ^ Karadeniz 1998, p. 435.
- ^ Karadeniz 1998, pp. 435–437.
- ^ Karadeniz 1998, p. 436.
- ^ a b c Taş 2024, p. 137.
Sources
[edit]- Comfort, Anthony; Abadie-Reynal, Catherine; Ergeç, Rifat (December 2000). "Crossing the Euphrates in antiquity: Zeugma seen from space". Anatolian Studies. 50: 99–126. doi:10.2307/3643016. JSTOR 3643016. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- Dadoyan, Seta B. (1 November 2012). The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: Armenian Realpolitik in the Islamic World and Diverging Paradigmscase of Cilicia Eleventh to Fourteenth C. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4128-4782-7. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- Evans, Helen C. (2008). "Hromkla". In Evans, Helen C. (ed.). Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9781588396600. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- Hamilton, B. (1999). "Aimery of Limoges and the Unity of Churches". In Ciggaar, Krijna Nelly; Teule, Herman G. B. (eds.). East and West in the Crusader States: Context, Contacts, Confrontations II : Acta of the Congress Held at Hernen Castle in May 1997. Peeters Publishers. pp. 1–12. ISBN 978-90-429-0786-7. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
- Karadeniz, H. Basri (August 1998). "XVI. Yüzyılda Rumkale". Belleten. 62 (234): 425–456. doi:10.37879/belleten.1998.425. ISSN 2791-6472.
- van Lint, Theo M. (1999). "Lament on Edessa by Nerses Snorhali". In Ciggaar, Krijna Nelly; Teule, Herman G. B. (eds.). East and West in the Crusader States: Context, Contacts, Confrontations II : Acta of the Congress Held at Hernen Castle in May 1997. Peeters Publishers. pp. 29–48. ISBN 978-90-429-0786-7. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
- Russel, James R. (2005). "The Credal Poem Hawatov Xostovanim ("I confess in faith") of St. Nerses the Graceful". In Ginkel, Jan J.; Murre-van den Berg, Hendrika Lena; Lint, Theo Maarten van (eds.). Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East Since the Rise of Islam. Peeters Publishers. pp. 185–236. ISBN 978-90-429-1418-6. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
- Stewart, Angus (2006), 'Hromgla', in Alan V. Murray (ed.), The Crusades: An Encyclopaedia, II, p. 607. ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1-57607-862-0
- Stewart, Angus (2006). "Qal'at al Rum/Hromgla/Rumkale and the Mamluk Siege of 691 AH/1292 CE". In Kennedy, Hugh N. (ed.). Muslim Military Architecture in Greater Syria: From the Coming of Islam to the Ottoman Period. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-14713-3. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
- Reuven Amitai-Preiss (1995), Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281, pp. 179–225. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-46226-6.
- Taş, Yasin (June 2024). "Bir Harabe Şehrin Kaybolan Mabetleri: Eski Rumkale Merkezinde Cami ve Mescitler". Journal of Waqfs (in Turkish). 61: 133–150. ISSN 2564-6796.