There had been a small but ancient…
1896 CE
Under the Ottomans Urfa is part (Sanjak) of the Aleppo Vilayet.
The area had become a center of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery.
Most of the Jews emigrate in 1896, fleeing the Hamidian massacres, and settling mainly in Aleppo, Tiberias and Jerusalem.
There are three Christian communities: Syriac, Armenian, and Latin. According to Lord Kinross, eight thousand Armenians were massacred in Urfa in 1895.