QAMISHLI, AL-

also spelled Qamishliye, town in northeastern Syria. It lies along the Turkish border. The border divides the Syrian town of Al-Qamishli from the Turkish town of Nusaybin. The town was founded in 1926 as a station on the Taurus railway. Its mixed population increased with influxes of Armenian, Assyrian Christian, and Kurdish refugees from Turkey and Iraq. The town also has Sunnite Muslims, Syriac-speaking Christians, and a Jewish community. It is the seat of both an Armenian and a Syrian Catholic archbishopric. Located on the Jaghjaghah River, a tributary of the Khabur River, the town is the centre of an extremely fertile area, growing cotton and wheat. A spur of the railway line extends approximately 20 miles (32 km) farther east to a wheat and cotton depot. The region is within a zone of moderate rainfall, so dry farming is practiced as well as farming by irrigation. In recent years, with the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Qarah Shuk region 50 miles (80 km) east of the town, Al-Qamishli has begun to grow rapidly. The town has a sawmill and cement factory. In addition to being a railroad centre on the route from Istanbul, Ankara, Mosul, and Baghdad (the old Orient Express), Al-Qamishli also connects with Dayr az-Zawr and Aleppo. Domestic air service is provided to Aleppo and Damascus. Al-Qamishli is linked by road with both Turkey and Iraq. It serves as a market centre for the whole of northeastern Syria, and its importance has eclipsed that of Al-Hasakah as a transport, market, and cultural centre. Pop. (1987 est.) 126,236.