Edessa

Edessa (ĭdĕs`ə), ancient city of Mesopotamia, on the site of modern Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It emerged in the 4th cent. B.C. as Orrhoe, or Arrhoe, and was later named Edessa by Seleucus I of Syria. From c.137 B.C. it was the capital of the independent kingdom of Osroene. It later became a Roman city. There in A.D. 260, Shapur I of Persia defeated Emperor Valerian and took him prisoner. Edessa was a center of Christianity by the 3d cent. A.D. and became one of the major religious centers of the Byzantine Empire. The city fell to the Arabs in 639 and remained in Muslim hands until captured by the Crusaders in 1098. Baldwin (later Baldwin I of Jerusalem) became the ruler of Edessa, and when he became king, he turned it over to one of his cousins. The city, however, fell to the Muslims in 1144 and passed to the Ottoman Empire by 1637.

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Edessa

Chief city (pop., 1991: 18,000), Macedonia, Greece. Located on a steep bluff above the valley of the Loudhiás River, it is a prominent trading and agricultural centre. The assumption that it was Aigai, the first capital of ancient Macedonia, has been challenged by archaeological discoveries at Verghina. Fought over by the Bulgarians, Byzantines, and Serbs, Edessa was taken by the Turks in the 15th century. In 1912 it passed to Greece.