Iconographic Approach To Diyarbakır’s Figured Reliefs Of Artuqid Era Urfa Kapı

Urfa Kapi (Urfa Gate) is one of the four main gates built in the 4th century Byzantine era city walls of Diyarbakir that leads the road from the west to the town of Urfa. The gate is between the two towers, regulates in and out of city flow was built during the reign of Hasankeyf Artuqi Sultan Nureddin Mohammed whose father Fahreddin Kara Arslan failed to conquer the city on three attempts before his conclusive attempt in April 1183 with the cooperation of the Selahaddin Ayyubid who led Ayyubid forces, and took over the city on 9th of May 1183, and Artuqi era northern gate (Urfa Kapi) was then refurbished, and decorated with figured reliefs. A beam to relieve the weight of the massive wall over the gate have two superimposed reliefs of which the lower depicts a bull’s head, and the second figure is an eagle on the head of the bull. These whole figures of bull’s head and the eagle’s head did not survive until today except the horns. The traces left today hint there was a ring held by the mouth of the bull. Between the curved cavity of the lintel and the gate there lies a flat base with arched top where in the middle there is a winged dragon figure with swirling body and knotted tails on each end surrounding the inscription showing the date. It only gives the date in writing as Hegira 579 (years 1183-1194). On the surface of the wall right over the lintel there lays an inscription of three lines naming the Artuqi ruler Nureddin Mohammad as the patron. On the gate frames facing each other has two reliefs of bullheads with wreath like rings on their necks along with complementing compositions of several reliefs of bullheads and ram heads. Max Berchem in search of victorious commander symbol on the figured composition of Urfa Kapi, explained the inscription naming Artuqi ruler as falcon, interpreted the figured decorations of the gate symbolizing the city’s conqueror and tried to find a coat of arms of the city. He went on his interpretation that the eagle over the bull’s head could be a symbol of Inalogullari or Nisanogullari (principalities). He based his interpretations on the inscriptions dated 1155-1156 and 1163-1164 on the eastern extensions of Grand Mosque (Ulu Djami), and lion-bull combat reliefs, and the dateless inscriptions made by Nisanogullari on the edges of greater arches of the building’s eastern façade, without any reference to Ilhanogullari, he believed that these represented the victory of Nisanogullari over Ilhanogullari. On the contrary, the inscriptions on the group of buildings of Grand Mosque point out that they belong to Inalogullari and in fact, the lion-bull struggle reliefs were made during the reign of Ilaldi (died 1141), the ruler of Inalogullari. It could be assumed that Ilaldi, the ruler of Inalogullari rebuilt the Grand Mosque after devastating earthquake and fire. As a person who had it made the eastern and western blocks of the building, he might have thought that a propitious day must be chosen for the groundbreaking. If so, the inscription showing the date of April-May 1141 supports this idea that on the northern impost of the middle porch vault facing the Grand Mosque courtyard there is a relief of a bull’s head representing zodiac sign of Taurus, and on the southern impost there is a lion’s head relief symbolizing the Sun proves to be meaningful. On the date of May 8th, 1141 there occurred an eclipse of the Sun. There is a strong probability that the depictions of lion and bull struggle mean a new day, which used to be celebrated by ancient Turks and Iranians as Nevruz. As in all bull-dragon reliefs the bull always appears to be the dominating, winning figure, and the dragon is depicted as the defeated animal. However, in this Artuqi era Urfa Kapi neither bull’s head and winged dragon, nor the figure of eagle on top were depicted as fighting each other. In fact, it was pointed out that during the construction period of the gate the Sun was eclipsed, and Urfa Kapi reliefs of the dragons

Keywords

Artuqid; Diyarbakir; Urfa Kapi; Eagle; Bull’s head; Winged dragon.