Siverek

About Siverek

Siverek is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 3,936 km2, and its population is 267,942 (2022). Siverek is in the Şanlıurfa province but is geographically closer to the large city of Diyarbakır (approx. 83 km).

Siverek was historically known in medieval Arabic as Hisn ar-Ran (Arabic: حصن الران), which was corrupted into Greek as Chasanara (Greek: Χασαναρᾶ), as found in the Escorial Taktikon.

The word "Siverek" is of Armenian origin. In Byzantine sources, it is mentioned as Sevaverag. The literal meaning of this name used for Siverek in Byzantine and Armenian sources is Sev "black" and Averag "ruins". Other ways to spell Sevaverag include Sebabarak, Sebabarok, Sevaverak, Severags and Suveyda.

The town came under Byzantine control sometime after AD 956 and had become the seat of a strategos by the early 970s. Together with Edessa, Gargar, Samosata and Hisn Mansur formed part of the Byzantine defence system up to the 1060s when 200 Frankish horsemen were stationed there.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.