Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Öz

Following the Luwian migrations to Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC, the Luwian population spread to southern Anatolia as well. During the Assyrian Colonial Age, 19th century BC, the Luwians lived near the current settlement of Silifke, among others. The epic narratives of the texts of the 13th century BC suggest that Ura began to prosper as an active port of Mediterranean trade routes in the 19th century BC. There is evidence that the word Ura means great in Luwian. Likewise, the word Ura appears in the agreement records made with local notables in the region during Hittite King I. Arnuwanda’s (late 15th century BC - mid 14th century BC) reign. In the 13th century BC, the settlement of Ura came to the fore as a port and merchant city. Ura was the most strategic port controlled by the Hittites in the Mediterranean during this period. Ura would not disappear from records after the collapse of the Hittite state. In the Iron Age, during the campaigns of the Assyrian King Sargon II (715 BC), the name Ura appears in the form of Harrua. In the middle of the 6th century BC, the Babylonian Kingdom organizes a campaign against the Pirindu Kingdom in the region. During these campaigns, Ura was not the name of a port city but the name of a capital in a mountainous area. Following this, it is understood that the word Ura is not simply the name of a single city. It is the name of a region in a broader sense. After the establishment of Greek colonies in Cilicia and in the Hellenistic Period, the word Ura continues to exist with a difference in pronunciation as Hyria or Hermia. With the beginning of the Turkish (Anatolian Seljuk) campaigns to Cilicia in the Middle Ages, the word Ura also enters Turkish. As a result, it appears in the 16th century Ottoman Empire census records as the name of a village affiliated to Silifke and has been pronounced as “Ura” or “Uğra” in Turkish from the 16th century to the present.