Şanlıurfa in Türkiye was designated as the “OIC City of Tourism for 2023” by the 11th Islamic Conference of Tourism Ministers held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 27-29 June 2022, within the framework of a program conducted since 2015 to highlight a city of the Muslim world each year with cultural activities organized by the OIC Member States and the OIC institutions concerned.
On this occasion, IRCICA, the Governorate of Şanlıurfa and the University of Harran are jointly organizing a symposium on “Şanlıurfa, City of Art and Culture” that will underscore the role and importance of Şanlıurfa in Islamic history, culture and civilization.
The symposium will cover the following themes: “Urfa in Islamic History”, “Urfa in Islamic Culture”, “Culture in Ancient Urfa”, “Art and Architecture in Urfa”. 15 scholars and specialists from different universities will present studies on these aspects of Şanlıurfa.
One of the oldest cities of the world, Urfa lived under different rules since the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia through the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, the Omeyad State with the Muslim conquest in 18 H, the Abbasid State, the Crusaders County of Urfa (1098-1144 AD), then the Anatolian Seljuks, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Safavids, and from 1517 on, the Ottoman State, and the Republic of Türkiye. Throughout this history it was successively named Orhay, Edessa, el-Ruha, Urfa, and since 1984, Şanlıurfa (Glorious Urfa, for its victory during the Independence War). It has been a land of multi-faith and multicultural coexistence, an active contributor to the historical process of the worldwide transmission of sciences and philosophy from Ancient Greek culture through the Golden Age of science and philosophy in Islam with translations and contributions, and an important center of Islamic culture with the scholarship, medreses, literature, urbanization, public institutions, waqfs, arts and crafts it cultivated during centuries.
The symposium will be held at Harran University, Osmanbey Campus, Şanlıurfa on 11-12 December 2023. The language of the symposium will be Turkish. Click here for the program.
