MardinMardin (Mêrdîn; ماردين; Merdīn; Մարդին) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris River. The old town of the city is under the protection of UNESCO, which forbids new constructions to preserve its façade. The city had a population of 129,864 in 2021. The city survived into the Syriac Christian period as the name of Mt.
CommageneCommagene (Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which served as its capital. The Iron Age name of Samosata, Kummuh, probably gives its name to Commagene. Commagene has been characterized as a "buffer state" between Armenia, Parthia, Syria, and Rome; culturally, it was correspondingly mixed.
Lakhmid kingdomThe Lakhmid dynasty (اللخميون), referred to in Arabic as al-Manādhirah (المناذرة, romanized as: ) or Banu Lakhm (بنو لخم, romanized as: ), was an Arab kingdom in Southern Iraq and Eastern Arabia, with al-Hirah as their capital, from the late 3rd century to 602 CE. They were generally but intermittently the allies and clients of the Sasanian Empire, and participant in the Roman–Persian Wars. While the term "Lakhmids" has also been applied to the ruling dynasty, more recent scholarship prefers to refer to the latter as the Naṣrids.
Maurice (emperor)Maurice (Mauricius; Maurikios; 539 – 27 November 602) was Byzantine emperor from 582 to 602 and the last member of the Justinian dynasty. A successful general, Maurice was chosen as heir and son-in-law by his predecessor Tiberius II. Maurice's reign was troubled by almost constant warfare. After he became emperor, he brought the war with Sasanian Persia to a victorious conclusion. The empire's eastern border in the South Caucasus was vastly expanded and, for the first time in nearly two centuries, the Romans were no longer obliged to pay the Persians thousands of pounds of gold annually for peace.
