Tarsus, Mersin

Excavation of the mound of Gözlükule reveals that the prehistoric development of Tarsus reaches back to the Neolithic Period and continues unbroken through Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages.

The settlement was located at the crossing of several important trade routes, linking Anatolia to Syria and beyond. Because the ruins are covered by the modern city, archaeology has barely touched the ancient city. Located at an important port in a merchant marine trade network spanning the eastern Mediterranean and beyond from the third millennium and earlier, from the earliest times the city was an important vortex of cultural interchange with traces of its influence visible from pre-Homeric Greek evidence forward. During the Hellenistic era it was a center of exchange among Neo-Platonic, Gnostic and Mystery traditions. The city may have been of Anatolian or Semitic origin; it is first mentioned as Tarsisi in Neo-Assyrian records of the campaigns of Esarhaddon, as well as several times in the records of Shalmaneser I and Sennacherib, the latter having the city rebuilt. A Greek legend connects it with the memory of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus (Ashurbanipal), still preserved in the Dunuk-Tach, called 'tomb of Sardanapalus', a monument of unknown origin.

Stephanus of Byzantium quotes Athenodorus of Tarsus as relating another legend:

Anchiale, daughter of Iapetus, founded Anchiale (a city near Tarsus): her son was Cydnus, who gave his name to the river at Tarsus: the son of Cydnus was Parthenius, from whom the city was called Parthenia: afterwards the name was changed to Tarsus.

Much of this legend of the foundation of Tarsus, however, appeared in the Roman era, and none of it is reliable. The geographer Strabo states that Tarsus was founded by people from Argos who were exploring this coast. Another legend states that Bellerophon fell off his winged horse Pegasus and landed here, hurting his foot, and thus the city was named tar-sos (the sole of the foot). Other candidates for legendary founder of the city include the hero Perseus and Triptolemus, son of the earth-goddess Demeter, doubtless because the countryside around Tarsus is excellent farmland. Later the coinage of Tarsus bore the image of Hercules, due to yet another tale in which the hero was held prisoner here by the local god Sandon. Tarsus has been suggested as a possible identification of the biblical Tarshish, where the prophet Jonah wanted to flee, but Tartessos in Spain has also been offered as an identification for this. (See further[4])

Silver coin of Achaemenid satrap (governor) Datames, minted in Tarsus, dated c. 375 BC. Obv: The God Baaltars seated. Rev: Datames wearing Persian dress, inspecting arrow held in hands. Winged solar disk to the upper right.

In historical times, the city was first ruled by the Hittites, followed by Assyria, and then the Persian Empire. Tarsus, as the principal town of Cilicia, was the seat of a Persian satrapy from 400 BC onward. Indeed, Xenophon records that in 401 BC, when Cyrus the Younger marched against Babylon, the city was governed by King Syennesis in the name of the Persian monarch.

At this period the patron god of the city was Sandon, of whom a large monument existed at Tarsus at least until the 3rd century AD. Coins showed Sandon standing on a winged and horned lion, and it is now thought likely that the Lion of Saint Mark on the pillar in the Piazza San Marco in Venice was in origin a winged lion-griffin from such a monument at Tarsus.[5]

Alexander the Great passed through with his armies in 333 BC and nearly met his death here after a bath in the Cydnus. By this time Tarsus was already largely influenced by Greek language and culture, and as part of the Seleucid Empire it became more and more hellenized. Strabo praises the cultural level of Tarsus in this period with its philosophers, poets and linguists. The schools of Tarsus rivaled those of Athens and Alexandria. 2 Maccabees (4:30) records its revolt in about 171 BC against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had renamed the town Antiochia on the Cydnus. The name did not last, however, due to the confusion of so many cities named Antioch. At this time the library of Tarsus held 200,000 books, including a huge collection of scientific works.

The big Temple of Tarsus, one of the largest and most important in antiquity

Oscillum depicting a couple kissing. Terracotta figurine made in Tarsus, Roman Era.

Ancient Roman road in Tarsus

In 67 BC, Pompey, after crushing the Cilician pirates, subjected Tarsus to Rome, and it became capital of the Roman province of Cilicia.[6] To flatter Julius Caesar, for a time it took the name Juliopolis. It was also the place where Cassius Longinus planned to kill him as early as 47 BC. It was also here that Cleopatra and Mark Antony met and was the scene of the celebrated feasts they gave during the construction of their fleet (41 BC). In William Shakespeare's 1606 play Antony and Cleopatra (Act 5, Scene 2), after Antony's death Cleopatra says she is going to Cydnus to meet Antony, i.e., she will commit suicide to meet him in the afterlife; "Go fetch / My best attires: I am again for Cydnus, / To meet Mark Antony."

Cleopatra's Gate in Tarsus

In the Roman period, the city was also an important intellectual centre, boasting its own academy. One of its leading disciples, the philosopher Athenodorus Cananites, was the tutor of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, a fact which secured continuous imperial patronage for the city.[6]

When the province of Cilicia was divided, Tarsus remained the civil and religious metropolis of Cilicia Prima, and was a grand city with palaces, marketplaces, roads and bridges, baths, fountains and waterworks, a gymnasium on the banks of the Cydnus, and a stadium. Tarsus was later eclipsed by nearby Adana, but remained important as a port and shipyard. Several Roman emperors were interred here: Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Maximinus II, and Julian the Apostate, who planned to move his capital here from Antioch if he returned from his Persian expedition.[7]

Church of St. Paul in Tarsus (the church and the surroundings are on the UN World Heritage tentative list.)

Tarsus was the city where, according to the Acts of the Apostles, "Saul of Tarsus"^{[Acts 9:11]} was born, but he was "brought up" (^{[Acts 22:3]}) in Jerusalem.[8] Paul was a Roman citizen (Acts 21:39; Acts 22: 25–29) "from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city". Saul, who would eventually become Paul the Apostle after his encounter with Christ (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3), returned here after his conversion (Acts 9:30). About eight years later, Barnabas retrieved him from Tarsus to help with the work of preaching and teaching in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:25).

By this time a Christian community probably already existed, although the first recorded bishop, Helenus, dates only from the 3rd century. Owing to the importance of Tarsus, many martyrs were put to death there, among them Saint Pelagia of Tarsus, Saint Boniface of Tarsus, Saint Marinus of Tarsus, Saint Diomedes, Saint Quiricus and Saint Julitta.

The city remained largely pagan, however, up to the time of Julian the Apostate (r. 361–363), who reportedly planned to make it his capital.[9] Following his death during his campaign against Sassanid Persia, he was buried next to the city walls, opposite the earlier tomb of the Tetrarch Maximinus Daia.[10] Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook public works in the city, altering the course of the Cydnus river and rebuilding the bridge. Toward the end of his reign, the city suffered from riots of the Blues hippodrome faction.[10]

A cave in Tarsus is one of a number of places said to be the location of the legend of the Seven Sleepers, common to Christianity and Islam.

Lead seal of Theodore, Metropolitan of Tarsus (late 7th century)

The first recorded bishop of Tarsus, Helenus, went several times to Antioch in connection with the dispute concerning Paul of Samosata.[11] Le Quien [12] mentions twenty-two of its bishops, of whom several are legendary.

Tarsus was the metropolitan see of the province of Cilicia Prima, under the Patriarchate of Antioch.[12] From the 6th century, the metropolitan see of Tarsus had seven suffragan bishoprics (Échos d'Orient, X, 145).

The Greek archdiocese, again mentioned in the 10th century (Échos d'Orient, X, 98), has existed down to the present day, as part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.[13]

At about the end of the 10th century, the Armenians established a diocese of their rite; Saint Nerses of Lambron was its most distinguished representative in the 12th century.

Tarsus is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees as a metropolitan see of both the Latin, the Maronite and the Melkite Catholic Church.[14]

• Lupus, present at the Council of Ancyra in 314;
• Theodorus, at the Council of Nicaea in 325;
• Helladius, condemned at Ephesus, and who appealed to the pope in 433;
• the exegete Diodorus, teacher of Theodore of Mopsuestia and consequently one of the fathers of Nestorianism.[15]
• Nicholas of Tarsus, who was exiled about 525.[16]
• Kaynon, bishop of Tarsus fl 560. heretical follower of Athanasius, grandson of Empress Theodora[17]
• Abaibuus fl.847
• John fl. 979 (Jacobite bishop)[18]
• Athanasius I fl. 936 (Jacobite bishop)[18]
• Athanasius fl.1141 (Jacobite bishop)[18]
• Athanasius II fl.1264 (Jacobite bishop)[18]

Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the city came first into contact with the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. It is unclear when the town was first captured by the Arabs, but it is clear that it, and the wider region of Cilicia, remained contested between the Byzantines and the new Caliphate for several decades, up to the early 8th century. According to the Muslim sources, during his retreat the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) deliberately withdrew the population and devastated the region between Antioch and Tarsus, creating an empty no man's land between the two empires.[19]

It was not until the early Abbasid period that Tarsus, by then lying in ruins, was once more reoccupied and refortified, this time as an advanced strongpoint within the fortified zone of the al-ʿAwāṣim, stretching from Tarsus northeast to Malatya, and as an assembly centre for expeditions against the Byzantine Empire.[20] The first attempt was undertaken by al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i in 778/9, but it was apparently unsuccessful, and the city was not fully restored until 787/8, by Abu Sulaym Faraj on the orders of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809). 3,000 Khurasanis and 2,000 Syrians (a thousand each from Antioch and al-Massisa) were given houses and land in the new fortress city.[21] Tarsus was apparently recovered by the Byzantines soon after, at some point at the turn of the century. The city probably remained in Byzantine hands during the Abbasid civil war of the Fourth Fitna, but returned to Muslim control by 830, when Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) recommenced offensive campaigns against Byzantium, using the city as a base.[22]

Henceforth and until the Byzantine reconquest in the 10th century, Tarsus was one of the main centres for the holy war (jihād) against Byzantium, comprising annual raids (ṣawāʿif) into Byzantine lands through the Cilician Gates when the mountain snows had melted and passage was possible. These were mounted by the local garrisons, maintained by the taxation not only of the frontier zone of the al-ʿAwāṣim but also by generous subsidies from the caliphal government, and large numbers of volunteer warriors of the faith (mujahidun or ghazis).[23] Tarsus remained under direct Abbasid control until 878/9, when it and wider Cilician border zone were granted to the autonomous ruler of Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun. The local governor Yazaman al-Khadim returned the city to the direct allegiance to Baghdad from 882 on, but was forced to recognize the Tulunids again in 890. Tulunid possession of the border zone lasted until the death of Ibn Tulun's heir Khumarawayh in 896, after which Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) re-asserted direct control.[24] The area remained under Abbasid rule for the next four decades. After a brief period where the border zone was under Ikhshidid control, in 946/7, Tarsus recognized the overlordship of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla of Aleppo, who had become the new master of northern Syria and of the Byzantine borderlands. Facing a resurgent Byzantium, he was able to stem the tide for a while, but in 965, the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (r. 963–969) captured the city, ending Muslim rule there.[25] Throughout this period, the governors of Tarsus also operated an active mint in the city.[26][27]

The terms of surrender of the city allowed any Muslim who wished to leave with as many of his possessions as he could carry. Many of those who left eventually settled, according to al-Muqaddasi, at Baniyas. Most of those who remained behind became Christians, and the local main mosque was either torn down or turned into a stable.[20] The city remained under Byzantine rule until 1085.[10] It was thereafter disputed between Latin Crusaders, Byzantines (1137–1172), Seljuk Turks, and the Armenians of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Kingdom of Lesser Armenia).[10] The city was the capital of the Armenian Principality of Cilicia for 118 years, between 1080 and 1198. These last became definitively masters until about 1359, when it was captured by the Ramadanids with Mamluks. Finally, the area was brought under the control of the Ottoman Empire by Selim I in 1516.

In the Middle Ages Tarsus was renowned throughout the Middle East; a number of Arab writers praised it as a beautiful and well-defended city, its walls being in two layers with five gates and earthworks outside, surrounded by rich farmland, watered by the river and the lake. By 1671 the traveller Evliya Çelebi records "a city on the plain, an hour from the sea, surrounded by strong walls two-storeys high, moated on all sides, with three distinct neighbourhoods inside the walls".

Tarsus Grand Mosque

Kırkkaşık Bazaar

Under Ottoman rule, it initially formed part of the Eyalet of Aleppo. After the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 it became seat of a sanjak (sub-province) within the Cyprus Eyalet, before being transferred in 1608 to the sanjak of Adana as a kaza (district).[20]

Despite its excellent defences, Tarsus was captured from the Ottomans in 1832 by the Mamluks of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt, son of Muhammad Ali, and for 8 years remained in the hands of the Egyptians, who began growing cotton on the surrounding plain. Upon the return of the Ottomans this cotton drove a substantial growth in the economy of the area, due to increased world demand for the crop during shortages caused by the U.S. Civil War. A new road was built to the port in Mersin and the city of Tarsus grew and thrived. Still today many large houses in the city stand as reminders of the wealth generated during this period. However, after being a port for 3,000 years, by the end of the 19th century neglect resulted in Tarsus no longer having access to the sea, and the delta became a swamp. At this point Tarsus was a typical Ottoman city with communities of Muslim Turks, Christian Greeks and Armenians. At the founding of the Turkish Republic in the 1920s the swamp was drained and the River Berdan was dammed to build Turkey's first hydro-electric power station. Irrigation, roadworks and a railway brought the economy of Tarsus back to life, with new factories, particularly producing textiles.