NUSAYBIN

formerly Nisibin, town, southeastern Turkey. The town is situated on the Grgarbonizra River where it passes through a narrow canyon and enters the plain. Nusaybin faces the Syrian town of Al-Qamishli and is 32 miles (51 km) south-southeast of Mardin. Strategically commanding the entrance to the upper Syrian plains from the mountain passes of Asia Minor, Nusaybinthen called Nisibiswas a frontier outpost of the Assyrian empire. Captured from the Armenian king Tigranes I the Great by the Roman Lucius Licinius Lucullus in 68 BC, it changed hands intermittently in the Roman-Parthian struggles, was conquered by the Persians in the 5th century, and was then taken by the Arabs about 640. It continued to prosper under the caliphs until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. It finally declined as a result of invasions and internal troubles. A North African traveler, Ibn Battutah, who passed through in the 14th century, saw it in a state of decline that he attributed to the compulsory substitution of wheat for fruit crops. Nusaybin was also a major centre of trade in antiquity and retains some significance for its position on the upper trade routes from Mosul, Iraq, 120 miles (190 km) southeast, and its location on the Istanbul-Baghdad railway. Pop. (1980) 30,981; (1990 prelim.) 50,605.