Note 223 — Chapter IX · DIYÂRBEKR TO KONIA June 4—July 1
Reading edition
The existing ruins are probably mediæval. Ainsworth (Travels and Researches, Vol. I. p. 246) reports an illegible inscription, presumably Arabic or Turkish, over the gate. I do not remember to have seen it. The fortress of Ṭarandah is mentioned as early as the year A.D. 702, when it was in the hands of a Moslem garrison. In the ninth century it was held by the Paulicians, a sect of Eastern Christians whose beliefs were mingled with Manichæanism. (Le Strange: Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, p. 120.)