History

The history of Adana is intrinsically linked to the history of Tarsus; they seem often to be the same city, moving as the neighbouring Seyhan River changed its position and the name changed over the course of centuries. Adana was of little importance in ancient history while Tarsus was the metropolis of the area. Also, Ayas (today Yumurtalık), and Kozan (formerly Sis) have been population and administrative centers, especially during the time of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia.

The history of Adana goes back 3000 years; finds in the region reveal human occupation of the area during the Paleolithic Age.

Tepebag Tumulus, where archaeologists found a stone wall and a city center, was built in the Neolithic Age; it is considered to be the oldest city of the Cilicia region.

Then the city was directly and indirectly the subject of many epic poems and legends over the course of many millennia. Adana is mentioned by name in a Sumerian epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

According to the Hittite inscription of Kava, found in Hattusa (Boğazkale), Kitvanza Kingdom was the first kingdom that ruled Adana, under the protection of the Hittites in 1335 BC. In that time the name of the city was Uru Adaniyya and the inhabitants were called Danuna.

After the rule of the Hittites, circa 1191-1189 B.C, invasions from the west caused many small kingdoms to take control of the plain, as follows: Kue Assyrians, 9th century BC; Cilician Kingdom, Persians, 6th century BC; Alexander the Great in 333 BC; Seleucids; and the pirates of Cilicia and Roman statesman Pompey the Great.

During the era of Pompey, the city was used as a prison for the pirates of Cilicia. For several centuries thereafter it was a waystation on a Roman military road leading to the East. After the split of the Roman Empire, the area became part of the Byzantine Empire and was probably developed during the time of Julian. With the building of large bridges, roads, government buildings, and irrigation and plantation, Adana and Cilicia became the most developed and important trade centers of the region.

In the mid 7th century, the city was captured by the Arab Abbasids. According to an Arab historian of that era, the name of the city was derived from Ezene, the prophet Yazene's grandson.

The Byzantines recaptured Adana in 964. After the victory of Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert, the Seljuk Turks overran much of the Byzantine Empire. They had reached and captured Adana sometime before 1071 and continued to hold the place until Tancred, a leader of the First Crusade, captured the city in 1097.

In 1132 it was captured by the forces of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, under its king, Leo I. It was taken by Byzantine forces in 1137, but the Armenians regained it around the year 1170. Adana remained a part of the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia until around 1360 when the city was ceded by Constantine III to the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in return for obtaining a peace treaty. The Mamluks capture of the city allowed many Turkish families to settle in it. The Ramazanoğlu family, one of the Turkish families brought by the Mamluks, ruled Adana until the Ottomans captured the city.