In the Roman period, the city itself was known as Marida (Merida), from a Neo-Aramaic language name translating to “fortress”.
Between c. 150 BC and 250 AD it was part of the kingdom of Osroene, ruled by the Abgarid dynasty.
Byzantine Izala fell to the Seljuks in the year 1070 AD. During the Artuqid period, many of Mardin’s historic buildings were constructed, including several mosques, a madrasa, several maktabs, shadirvans, caravanserais, and other types of Islamic architecture.
Mardin served as the capital of one of the two Artuqid branches during the 11th and 12th centuries. The lands of the Artukid dynasty fell to the Mongol invasion sometime between 1235 and 1243, but the Artuqids continued to govern as vassals of the Mongol Empire.
During the medieval period, the town (which retained significant Assyrian and Armenian populations) became the centre for episcopal sees of Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Church of the East, Syriac Catholic, churches, as well as a stronghold of the Syriac Orthodox Church, whose patriarchal see was headquartered in the nearby Saffron Monastery from 1034 to 1924.
In 1451 the Kara Koyunlu besieged the castle of Mardin, damaging the city after their failed attempt to take the stronghold. About half a century later, in 1507, Ismail I of the Safavids succeeded to capture the city and the castle.
A Venetian merchant who visited the town that same year wrote that there were still more Christian Armenians and Jews in the city than Muslims.
A few years later in 1515, the city yielded to the Ottomans, who were bitter rivals of the Safavids, though the castle still remained under the control of Ismail I. One year later, the Ottomans under the leadership of Selim I besieged the city anew and eventually annexed it in 1517. During this time, Mardin was administered by a governor directly appointed under the Ottoman Sultan’s authority.
The city experienced a relatively tranquil period under Ottoman rule, without any significant conflicts or plights. European travelers who visited the city in the late 18th and early 19th centuries gave highly variable estimates of the population, but generally indicate that Muslims (or “Turks”) were the largest group, with a sizeable Armenian community and other minorities, while Arabic and Kurdish were the predominant languages.
During World War I Mardin was one of the sites of the Assyrian and Armenian genocides. On the eve of World War I, Mardin was home to over 12,000 Assyrians and over 7,500 Armenians.