Diyarbakir (Amid)

Diyarbakir (medieval Amid), on the upper Tigris in southeastern Turkey, was the chief city of the Diyar Bakr region of the Jazira, ringed by its famous black basalt walls. The engineer and inventor al-Jazari (d. 1206), author of the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, served the Artuqid rulers of Amid/Diyarbakir.