MİDYAT
The geographical position of Midyat is that, there stage Dargeçit in east,Ömerli in west ,Savur in northwest, Gercüş in the north of Batman, Nusaybin in south and İdil province of Şırnak in southeast of the province. This name is used to mean the land and mountain of the warshippings.The one of this region is over 10.000 kilometres square.
There are different opinions about the foundation and name of the province. According to some sources the name of province means “mirror” coming from a combination of Arabic Persian on Suryanic language after lots of changes.
According to another opinion ,the name “Midyat” comes from “Matiate” which means the land of the caves. Thinking about this opinion, say that the name “Matiate” is on Asur prescriptions in the 9th century B.C. Paralel to this opinion, it’s said that “Elath” land showing that caves were the first places of living in Midyat(The place Ziyaret –Nesire 3 kms distant to Midyat and near Acırlı Municipility)has been here since Romans.
This information is included about the history of the province in he Mardin Annual of 1973 ; Eti Turks coming from Middle Asia to Anatolia, inhabited in the land between Dicle and Fırat rivers called Mesopotamia (in about 2000 B.C) while passing into the region they built a large land of caves and raised their animals here. The caves under Midyat were used as shelters in that times.There are connections between these caves.Then Komuk Turks the vanguard inhabitant of Middle Asia Turks inhabited in this region .
Komuks in this region fought with Asurs for years.It’s determined that Asurs conquered this region for few times. But this invasions didn’t last for long and they had to go back. As a matter of fact Komuks were dominant in this case in the period of the Asur Ruler Tiglatninip. The region was invaded by different nations in the years between 500-100 B.C. Makedonians, Persians, Romans ruled in this region Midyat was really inhabited or founded as a region in the period of Selefkus(the years in 180 B.C.)
Midyat became a province in 1810 and then Cevat Paşa Mosque and Ulu Mosque were built at that time. According to the general census in 2000; the population of the province is 56.669 in the centre, 71.416 in the villages and totally 128.085. In recent years, an intensive amount of the people in the villages and migrating to the centre of the province.