The Ayn-ı Zülal was a natural spring.¹\n It flowed into a five to six foot deep tank with fish in it, which were\nsaid to be sacred by the superstition of the inhabitants.²\n Çelebi writes:

\n
The Fish Spring is an important spring in the city. This water with\nfish is a water of life, many people have bathed in this water and have\nbeen saved from diseases such as fever and leprosy and death. This water\nflows into an old pool and contains thousands of kinds of fish. But no\none dares to catch them. A few people who tried to catch these fish were\nparalyzed and their mouths and noses were bent.³
\n

Fletcher reports:

\n
We found a pool near the walls filled with holy fish, though I am not\naware of the origin of their sanctity. They looked fat and comfortable,\nhowever, and were by no means timid, coming frequently to the surface of\nthe pool to look at us, and to receive the morsels of bread which we\nthrew in from time to time.They had indeed no cause for fear, as it was\nexpressly forbidden ,under severe penalties, to catch any of them, while\nthe supplying them with food was regarded as highly meritorious.⁴
\n

It is also said that after Sultan Murad IV Khan’s brutal 1638\nconquest of Baghdad, the fish were spontaneously injured and the water\ntransformed into blood.⁵\n When that khan came to Diyarbekir and killed Sheikh Aziz Mahmud Urmevi,\nthe water again turned to blood.⁶\n After the Khan saw this, he reportedly regretted his killing of the\nSheikh and set free four fish from the pool and placed gold and silver\nornaments on their gills.⁷

The spring was used to supply the western parts of the city, going up\nto the Sultan Şüca\nÇeşme near the Mardin Kapısı.⁸ It seems that the\nspring was originally named in Syriac after the Mar Zhuro church, which\nwas located next to it, but the name was changed into Ayn-ı Zülal\nlater.⁹

\nAkyüz, Gabriyel. Diyarbakır’daki Meryem Ana Kilisesi’nin tarihçesi :\nM.S. 3. Yüzyıl = Makhtvāyūt zavne d-ʻedtā d-Yaldat ilaha Maryam d-mdīnat\nʻAmīd, dura talītayā. Mardin : G. Akyüz, 1999. http://archive.org/details/diyarbakrdakimer0000gabr.\n

\nCutts, Edward Lewes. Christians Under the Crescent in\nAsia. London, New York: Society for Promoting\nChristian Knowledge; Pott, Young, 1877. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006017649.\n

\nFletcher, James Phillips. Narrative of a Two Years\nResidence at Nineveh and Travels in\nMesopotamia, Assyria, and\nSyria. Colburn, 1850.\n

\nHaspolat, Yusuf Kenan. Diyarbakır sosyokültürel tarihi 2. Dicle\nÜniversitesi, 2013. http://acikerisim.dicle.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11468/8051.\n

\nJames Silk Buckingham. Travels in Mesopotamia,\n1827. http://archive.org/details/Travel1816BuckinghamMespotDiarbekir.\n

\nÖzcoşar, Ibrahim. “Diyarbakır Mekan Toplum\nEkonomi.” Accessed January 16, 2023. https://www.academia.edu/38103844/Diyarbak%C4%B1r_Mekan_Toplum_Ekonomi.\n

\n",[259],"Description",{"_13":261,"_15":34,"_17":262,"_36":263},"https://black-amid.pjtsearch.com/iiif/manifests/230",{"_66":280},[264],{"_13":265,"_15":40,"_41":42,"_43":266,"_45":267,"_47":268},"https://black-amid-iiif.pjtsearch.com/iiif/2/3158d3aeaaf4efaeb1dc4a2a4de4373b.jpg/full/max/0/default.jpg",814,956,[269],{"_13":270,"_15":51,"_52":53,"_43":266,"_45":267,"_54":271},"https://black-amid-iiif.pjtsearch.com/iiif/2/3158d3aeaaf4efaeb1dc4a2a4de4373b.jpg",[272,273,274,275],{"_43":183,"_45":279},{"_43":181,"_45":278},{"_43":276,"_45":277},{"_43":266,"_45":267},407,478,239,120,[281],"Diarbekr walls",[283],"\nThe Ayn-ı Zülal was a natural spring. It flowed into a five to six foot deep tank with fish in it, which were said to be sacred by the superstition of the inhabitants, and no one dared to hurt them.\n",[285],"Ayn-ı Ze'ura (‘Ayn-i Zülâl)",[8]]

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