Mardin Province is known for its Arab-style architecture, and for its strategic location on a rocky mountain overlooking the plains of northern Syria. Early settlers in Mardin were Syriac Orthodox Christians, arriving in the third century. It remained a heavily Christian area during occupations by Muslim Arabs between the seventh and twelfth centuries, and even during its use as a capital by the Artukid Turcoman tribe between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. This tribe fell to the Mongols in 1394, but the Mongols never governed the area closely.
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