Malabadi Bridge

About

The Malabadi Bridge or Karaman Bridge (Kurdish: Pira Mala Badî ("Bridge of the House of Badh"), Turkish: Malabadi Köprüsü) is an arch bridge spanning the Batman River near Malabadi village in Silvan in southeastern Turkey. Construction began in the year AD 1146/47 during the Artuqid period, and appears to have been completed by about 1154 (AH 549). The bridge was commissioned by Husam al-Din Timurtash of Mardin, son of Ilghazi, and grandson of Artuk Bey which one of the important commander of the Oghuz Turks. According to the local 12th-century historian Ibn al-Azraq al-Farīqī, the contemporary bridge replaced one built in 668/69 (AH 48) that had collapsed in 1144 (AH 539). Inconsistencies between the two surviving manuscript copies of Ibn al-Azraq's account make it difficult to definitively identify the Malabadi bridge as the one he refers to as the Qaramān or Aqramān bridge. Nevertheless, many aspects of his geographical description and historical account support this identification. Ibn al-Azraq says that construction of the current bridge was initiated by the Artuqid ruler of Mayafaraqin and Mardin al-Saʿīd Ḥusām al-Dīn Temür-Tash in 1146/47 (AH 541), under the supervision of al-Zāhid bin al-Ṭawīl. After al-Zāhid had built the bridge's eastern footing it was destroyed by floods. Al-Zāhid was fined for "defective craftsmanship" and replaced by Amir Saif al-Dīn Shīrbārīk Maud

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