Theoretical Background and Hypotheses

As in other periods, any attempt to examine this significant period is beset by a variety of obstacles due to the lack of comprehensive information. Nevertheless, the scattered

160 Other Christians moved to an area called Ainkawa, located to the north of Erbil.

161 Hay (1921, p. 36) states that “The Kurds are an Aryan race, and are thought to be identical with a branch of the ancient Medes. He describes their language, as a pure language that belongs to the Indo-European languages”. Mirawdeli (1993, p. 26) argues that “The Kurdish language is the most essential feature and socio-historical and spiritual medium of Kurdish identity and culture”. Throughout history, this language has suffered from oppressive attempts by different powers to marginalise or obliterate it.

Edmunds (1957, p. 7) indicates that the suppression caused some western travellers who visited the Kurdistan region in the 19^th century, to describe the language as a corrupt form of Persian, or a mix of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages. The Kurdish language is, in fact, considered older than the Persian language but was influenced by the main factors that affected the Kurds: religion and political powers.

Some have claimed that the Kurdish alphabet was originally written from left to right. Following the arrival of Islam, however, the Arabic language became dominant and Kurdish was written from right to left in Arabic scripts.

162 A poem was written to Mosul’s ruler indicating that people in the city were celebrating Newroz day.

information has helped to envisage the situation. Currently the Attabeg architectural elements, other than an old minaret and three tombs, have disappeared as a result of the city’s rapid growth in recent decades. Various methods were, therefore, required to collect information and construct a picture of Attabeg Erbil. These include written source, aerial photographs of different periods, archaeological and historical studies, and the snowball technique in interviews, and site visits.

Following the rule of the Al-Hathebani Kurds, Imad Al-Din Zengi, founder of the Attabeg of Mosul, attacked and seized Erbil in an attempt to increase his power by dominating the Kurdish emirates that surrounded Mosul city. After his invasion, he handed the administration of Erbil and other provinces of Adiabene to Zain Al-Din Ali Kukburi, founder of the Begtegin dynasty in Erbil. However, the ruler who made significant changes was his son, Muẓaffar Al-Din Kukburi (1190-1232) who had the administration of Erbil and other areas, such as Kirkuk and Shahrazour. During the rule of Muẓaffar Al-Din (who had an enormous impact on the city’s urban morphology) Erbil reached its peak and became one of the strongest cities of that era (Nováček, Amin and Melčák 2008, p. 261; Al-Mudaris 2003, p. 41). The Orientalist Stretch¹⁶³ describes this era as being a ‘Golden Age’ (Houtsmal 1987, p. 521). The ruler, Muzaffar Al-Din had a strong connection with the city: he first ruled it for a short period at the age of fourteen following his father’s death. He left Erbil after a disagreement with his guardian but returned later (after the death of his brother, Zain Al-Din Yusuf, in 1190) during the rule of Salah Al-Din, his brother in law, who gave Erbil and the surrounding territory to Muẓaffar.

The City’s Site Plan

Muẓaffar Al-Din¹⁶⁴ identified himself as equal to the leaders of other cities in the region.

He was religious, with an inclination towards Sufism, as was clear from the many religious institutions he ordered to be built, and the annual celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Under his rule, the city came to have a very distinctive urban area, to which people immigrated and then settled. In 1230 the Tartar Mongols, under their leader Hulagu, made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Erbil. When Muẓaffar

163 The writings of the orientalist Stretch are in the ‘Encyclopaedia of Islam’.

164 It is being said this ruler took money by force from the rich people of the city, sometimes imprisoning them, and helped the poor (Al-Hamawi [12^th century] 1980).

Din Kukburi went to fight them he found they had fled. The Attabeg period ended after 44 years of rule, with the death of Muẓaffar Al-Din Kukburi in 1233. It was followed by numerous attacks against Erbil by different groups: Mongols, the Hulagu and neighbouring Arab and Kurdish tribes (this will be discussed in the following chapter).

As the main concern of this study is Erbil’s urban core, this section will introduce various possible scenarios as aids in identifying the city’s functions and outline;

consequently, this will help to identify the outline of the of the urban core. Four scenarios will be introduced, which aim to describe the site plan of the city in the 12^th century, in addition to the scenario of the author of this study. The first scenario, which depends on written sources and archaeological evidence, was introduced by Doxiadis associates¹⁶⁵ in 1959 while they were working on the design of the master plan for Erbil and other cities in Iraq. Doxiadis’ sketch map is significant as evidence of an older Erbil that was later destroyed by the boom in growth faced by the city. A second scenario is that of the historian Abdul-Raqib Yousef (2007) who attempted to trace the outlines of the old city based on historical writings, investigation, interviews, and by merging the Doxiadis sketch map with the google map. The third scenario comes from the investigations conducted between 2008 and 2011 by the archaeologists Karel Nováček, Narmin Ali Muhammad Amin and Miroslav Melčák the results from which were published in 2013. Their analyses used a variety of sources: travellers’ descriptions, individual testimonies, satellite imagery, aerial photographs and archaeological remains.

The use of remote sensing in the analysis allowed them to probe more comprehensively than ever before and thus provide a significant city pattern in greater detail than that produced by Doxiadis. Nevertheless, their proposal remains hypothetical and the locations given for some components are in contradiction to those offered by other historians and some historical sources. Nováček, Amin and Melčák (2013) also tried to trace the fortification system of Erbil in line with their hypothesis on the Assyrian walls.

A fourth scenario has been based on the analysis and interpretation; it included a critical analysis of the above-mentioned scenarios, historical analysis, visual analysis to the satellite imagery, aerial photographs, comparison with other historic tell cities in the SWANAAP region.

165 I found the Doxiadis sketch map inside a report in the Doxiadis Archive in Athens; it was part of Doxiadis’ research into Erbil’s historical background.

The Doxiadis Scenario (1959)

The sketch map (figure 4.2), produced by Doxiadis in 1959, describing Erbil in 1233 is very abstract, lacks detail and was perceived as no more than a piece of informative historical background; probably because the principal aim was to produce a master plan for the modern city of the 1950s. Nevertheless, Doxiadis’ drawing (aside from Hertzfeld Sketch map, 1916) is considered to be the first attempt to address the outline and archaeological features of the city in that era. The sketch emphasises some essential urban elements, such as the wall that surrounded the citadel (Qal’aa) and the oblique path between the main south gate and the old minaret called the ‘Al-Muẓaffaria minaret’. Adjacent to this path and approximately on its middle southern side, the sites of the bazar and the Khanaqa area were located. The valley Basté into which the water drained was shown, and behind this the site of two unnamed schools was indicated. The map also highlighted a path drawn by a dashed line and marked as ‘trace of a road’; this was located in the area to the south, below the citadel. The path is currently referred to as the Kirkuk road. With regard to the citadel, the map revealed that it was surrounded by a wall and a moat and three gates.

Figure 4.2: The city of Erbil in 1233 CE

Source: Redrawn from (Doxiadis report 1959, p. 13)

Although, as mentioned earlier, the information introduced by Doxiadis is abstract with some uncertain facts, it is considered to be the first attempt to bring together some written sources and the archaeological evidence on a map. It introduced a hypothesis, which offers an expression of the city’s urban elements as known in 13^th century. It is clear from the bibliography and the drawings in the report that Doxiadis’ survey of material found in the historical sources was brief, as these historical sources offer information later ignored in Doxiadis’ proposal. For example, the contradiction in the two differing options for the relationship between the city wall and the citadel was neglected as the team opted to follow the Abu Fida descriptions, while the Al-Hamawi source was used in Doxiadis’ report but his description regarding the wall was not shaded. Neither was there any indication of the maidan, i.e. the public square, which was located in the south part of the citadel. There is ambiguity surrounding the drawing of the dashed line, which possibly represents the current position of the Kirkuk Road and the location of the Khanaqa and the bazar area; there is no evidence to show the reason behind the choice of this area for the location of the bazar. It can, however, be suggested that Doxiadis might have found some similarity between Aleppo and Erbil:

both were prosperous at that time, each had a citadel and a gate located in the south part of the city. Hence, Doxiadis may well have positioned Erbil’s bazar to follow the site of Aleppo’s^, which was certainly located in the western part of Aleppo’s citadel.

Abdul Raqib Yousef Scenario (2007)

Between 1982 and 2006 the noted Kurdish historian and researcher Abdul Raqib Yousef conducted research with a view to uncovering traces of Erbil’s city wall and its gates.

The findings were written in a report that was handed to UNESCO, and published in the Al-Ta’akhi newspaper in 2007. In 1982, he conducted another research regarding the gates and was submitted as a report to the Director General of Antiquities and Museums of the Northern Region of Iraq and to the Erbil Governorate. In his research Abdul Raqib Yousef used various methods to collect information based firstly on historical sources and on unstructured interviews¹⁶⁶ with a large number of elderly people, some of whom were in their eighties. He also walked through Erbil’s streets, old alleyways and its vacant land. Following this, and by making use of the Doxiadis sketch map and merging it with a google map, he was able to trace the city wall, the citadel and the city’s gates

166 All the interviews were video recorded

(Yousef 2015; Yousef 2010, pp. 2-4; Yousef 2007, pp. 1-12). Figure 4.3 illustrates the process of merging the google map with the Doxiadis sketch map.

Figure 4.3: Merging the google map with the Doxiadis sketch map Sources: Abdul Raqib Yousef

Yousef stated that the citadel had four gates; the north, south, east, and west gates.

Knowledge of the east and west citadel gates was based on a comparison of field work with historical sources provided by Ibn Al-Mustawfi (d.1239), who made an indirect allusion to the existence of a tomb near the east and west gates. In Yousef’s opinion the west gate might have been demolished and houses built on its site. He also states that a north gate existed in the Attabeg period but it was probably closed and later reopened in 1926 or 1927 by the Mutasarif (governor of Erbil), Ahmad Afandi. With regard to the lower city, he concluded that Erbil had four gates: the east gate (Bab Al-Farah¹⁶⁷), the west gate (Bab Al-Mosul), the south gate (unnamed) and the north, and largest, gate (Bab Amka). In addition, there was the old eastern gate called the Bab Al-Fahammyia.

The significant findings were the approximate location of the Khanaqa Al-Junaina (Sufi lodge) and of the madrasa/school called the Faqira or the Tin (mud), located near the

167 The Farah (means joy) gate was located near the current Shaqlawa roundabout (now the roundabout named Shaikh Mustafa Naqshbandi). Bab means gate; Bab Al-Farah which is The Farah Gate

Bab Al-Farah on the citadel’s east side¹⁶⁸. In the1950s traces of the northwest part of the foundations of the city walls were found by local people and workers near the Al-Allaf mosque and the governorate building. The city in this period had a maidan (public square), located in the south part of the citadel beneath its south gate: this reached out towards the valley where the old cemetery was located. The Khanaqa were located to the east side of the maidan, and the bazar and the old qaisaria were probably to its west (Yousef 2015). The old cemetery was named by Ibn Al-Mustawfi as the cemetery of the Maidan. This cemetery persisted until the early 2000s when a huge commercial project, Bazari Nashtimn¹⁶⁹, was built in its place. By excavating of the project on the site of the cemetery, three layers were discovered: two belonged to the Islamic era i.e. 12^th and 18^th centuries and the third layer was pre-Islamic and contained large ceramic jars in which dead bodies were buried. Figure 4.4 shows the locations at which the old Maidan and the old cemetery existed; ‘A’ marks traces of the city wall, ‘B’ is the location of the masjid (similar to mosque) Al-Shaikh Mustafa, and ‘C’ is the approximate location of the Farah gate. A question mark represents the approximate location of the Bab Al-Fahammyia Gate. Figure 4.5 is elaboration was based on Yousef’s report, interview and email communication 2015.

Figure 4.4: Traces of the old city: the findings of Yousef (2007)

(A) the location at which traces of the city wall were found in the 1960s: the mosque (the white block) and Erbil Governorate (the big block), (B) Masjid Al-Shaikh Mustafa, (C) the approximate location of the Farah Gate, (?) the approximate location of the Bab Al-Fahammyia Gate

168 This will be discussed in detail in the researcher’s scenario as a comparison will be made between the Yousef (2007) and Nováček et al. (2013) hypotheses and findings.

169 Another huge commercial project is currently under construction

Figure 4.5: Abdul Raqib Yousef’s Scenario for the city of Erbil in 12^th century

The Nováček, Amin, and Melčák Scenario (2013)

The archaeologists Karel Nováček, Narmin Ali Muhammad Amin and Miroslav Melčák, produced a map on which the architectural components and urban elements are placed to fit their hypothesis. They divided the city into a citadel area and three other sectors, which represent the lower city, rabidh. According to the literature, the 12^th century city of Erbil was a large complex that included a citadel on a hill surrounded by a deep ditch, while the expansion in the lower part of the city tended to be wide and long. Based on their understanding of the historical texts, a hypothetical relationship between the architectural components excerpted from different sources was suggested and some buildings were placed in specific sectors; for others, however, it proved impossible to establish their location. Nováček, Amin, and Melčák (2013, p. 9) divide the city into a citadel and lower land with three sectors. They introduce around seventy buildings and other architectural structures, just a few of which were positioned very approximately in the city and the original locations of the rest were uncertain. Inside the citadel was a ruler’s palace called Dar Al-Imara, a congregational mosque - the fundamental gathering point of religious life, and the Madrasa Al-Qalʿa, the citadel school. It was impossible for them to site these components precisely¹⁷⁰.

170 In the 12^th century after the Attabeg period, the Christians of Baghdad immigrated to Erbil following the Mongol attacks. They settled in the citadel and built architectural elements, such as the Nestorian

The lower city was divided into three sectors; the first started from the citadel gate onwards and its area sprawled to the south. Descriptions of the celebrations of the Prophet’s Birthday helped the researchers to visualise the layout of this area in detail.

In this sector there was a vast open space maidan below the citadel; it was drawn on the map as an avenue with the name ‘Tell Zutti’. At the end of the avenue, a gate called the

‘Bab Al-Maydan’ or Al-Maidan was situated in the south or southeast of the city with a small cemetery located close Bab Al-Farah in the south part of the city (with regard to the position of Farah Gate, it has been suggested that it stood as an access point into the city and was close to the Khanaqa Al-Junaina). Approximate positions for some buildings were established; e.g. the Ribat Al-Zahid, the ascetic’s lodge, which was situated below the citadel on the eastern side of the maidan near to the Sufi lodge /Khanaqa - the building in which celebrations took place, and the nearby religious school for Shafi'i scholars called the Al-Madrasa Al-Faqira. They also identified the sites of cemeteries; the first being in the south valley, called Basté, south-east of what is now the Nishtiman building, while the second was placed near the Maidan in the south part of the citadel, and identified by some scholars as the cemetery of the Al-Maidan gate.

The second sector contains the east gate, the Bab Al-Fahammyia. The still-existing Masjid Al-Kaff was positioned near this last gate and, finally, the cemetery (Nováček, Amin, and Melčák 2013, pp. 10-11). Based on the opinions of Al-Naqshbandi (1989, p.

42) and local people, masjid Al-Kaff was attached to Imam Ali and theorised that this was probably the first sign of Shi'ite influence in Erbil¹⁷¹; this is far from reality. For the third sector, the lower land, speculation was based on the surviving monument from the Attabeg period, the Muẓaffaria minaret or, as some call it, the Choli¹⁷² minaret (ibid., p.

11). From the results of the archaeological survey they suggest that the area of the Muẓaffaria minaret was a self-contained quarter where the buildings, in particular the Begtegin buildings, clustered around the old mosque. They assumed that the religious schools; Al-Madrasa Al-Muẓaffaria or Dar Al-Hadith were located in this area, where the congregational mosque, Almasjid AlJamma’a, was positioned. The Mosul gate¹⁷³

church and the Mar Behnam church which was probably either this church or the original church that existed in the citadel before the coming of Islam and later adapted as a mosque (or the original church that existed in the citadel before the coming of Islam was adapted to a mosque). Neither of these components was positioned on the map.

171 This view will be discussed later in the fourth scenario

172 Choli in the Kurdish and Arabic languages means the empty land or area.

173 Near the location of the Mosul gate there was a grave

was identified. They also found other public buildings¹⁷⁴ but were unable to identify their original location. The entire city was surrounded by its wall, but the relationship between the citadel and the wall is debatable. Nováček, Amin, and Melčák (2013) did introduce two suggestions, one based on Ibn Al-Hamawi, the other on Abu Al-Fida

was identified. They also found other public buildings¹⁷⁴ but were unable to identify their original location. The entire city was surrounded by its wall, but the relationship between the citadel and the wall is debatable. Nováček, Amin, and Melčák (2013) did introduce two suggestions, one based on Ibn Al-Hamawi, the other on Abu Al-Fida