Amid(a), also known by various names throughout its long history, had been established as an Assyrian settlement, circa the third millennium BCE.

The oldest artifact from Amida (modern Diyarbakir, Turkey) is the famous stele of king Naram-Sin, also believed to be from third millennia BCE.

The name Amida first appears in the writings of Assyrian King Adad Nirari who ruled the city from about 1310 to 1281 BCE as a part of the Assyrian homeland, of which Amida had remained an important region throughout the reign of king Tiglath-Pileser-I (1114–1076 BCE).

The name Amida appeared in the annals of Assyrian rulers until 705 BCE, and also appears in the archives of Armenian king Tiridates II in 305, and the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (325–391).

Constantius II has enlarged and strengthened this city on the upper Tigris.

Marcellinus narrates vividly the episode of Shapur’s capture of Amida with the aid of Xionite auxiliaries.