Silvan has been identified by several scholars as one of two possible locations (the other being Arzan) of Tigranakert (Tigranocerta), the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Armenia, which was built by King Tigran the Great (ruling 95–55 BC) and named in his honor.[7][8]
It was known by the name of Meiafarakin after the Arabs took over this region in the 7th century. It was then controlled by the first three Arab Caliphates until it came under the control of the Hamdanids in 935, then the Buyids in 978, then it came under the KurdishMarwanids and became the capital of their dynasty until the end of the 11th century.[11] The city and the entire province of Diyarbakir were taken in 1085 by the Seljuks under Malik-Shah I.
During the following years, the city changed hands several times due to rivalries between Seljuk clans and local rulers. In 1118, the Artukids took the city. They resisted the attacks of Zengid ruler Imad al-Din Zengi for many years. The Artukid Husam al-Din Timurtash built the Malabadi Bridge near Meiafarakin, one of the wonders of the time by its dimensions. The dynasty remained in place but preferred to reside in Mardin, leaving a governor to preside over Meiafarakin.
In 1896, reports by the British Vice Consul Hallward indicate that many villages were destroyed during the Armenian massacres in 1895. Hallward was engaged in the rebuilding of about 35 villages.[14]
Naşide Toprak from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was elected Mayor of Silvan in the local elections in March 2019.[16] She was dismissed in March 2020, and Mehmet Uslu has been appointed as a trustee instead of her.[17]
Archaeologists headed by professor Ahmet Tanyıldız, the vice-rector of Dicle University, announced in 2021 that they had discovered the grave of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum Kilij Arslan I, who fought against the Crusader forces. They also discovered his daughter Saide Hatun's burial site during nine days of work. Researchers dug two meters deep across a 35-square-meter area and focused their works on two gravesites in Orta Çeşme Park.[18][19]
The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople reported 13,824 Armenians living in the kaza of Silvan on the eve of World War I, all Kurdish-speaking. They had 28 churches, two monasteries, and 35 schools.[4] The town itself had 2,500 Armenian Apostolic Christians and 1,500 other Christians: Chaldeans (500 according to Priest Joseph Tfinkdji), Syriac Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, and Melchites. Assyrians call the city ܣܝܠܘܐܢ.[4]
Today, the municipality and district are Kurdish.[2][4]
^Avdoyan, Levon. "Tiganocerta: The City 'Built by Tigranes'" in Armenian Tigranakert/Diarbekir and Edessa/Urfa. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 6. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2006, pp. 94-95.
^Adontz, Nicholas (1970). Armenia in the Period of Justinian: The Political Conditions Based on the Naxarar System. Trans. Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. p. 134.
^Edwards, Robert W., "Martyropolis" (2016). The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology, ed., Paul Corby Finney. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 115. ISBN978-0-8028-9017-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^van Bruinessen, Martin (2000). "Kurdistan in the 16th and 17th centuries, as reflected in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname". The Journal of Kurdish Studies. 3: 25.
^Bai︠a︡rsaĭkhan, D. (2011). The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335). Leiden ; Boston: Brill. p. 133-134. ISBN978-90-04-18635-4. The Ayyubid ruler of Mayyāfāriqīn and Amida, Al-Kamil Muhammad, had broken his vow to Hűlegű to supply troops for the siege of Baghdad . (...) Hűlegű sent support, in the form of Mongol-Christian troops commanded by a certain Chaghatai and the Armenian Prince Pŕosh Khaghbakian. The Governor of Mosul, Badr al-Dīn Lu'lu', who was in conflict with al-Kāmil Muhammad, sent a supporting force to the Mongols commanded by his son, along with siege engineers to Mayyāfāriqīn.
^Verheij, Jelle (2012). Jorngerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (eds.). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill. pp. 107–108. ISBN9789004225183.
