AMIDA, (anc. geog.) a principal city of Mesopotamia, (Liber Notitiae); Amnea, (Ptolemy); situated on a high mountain, on the borders of Assyria, on the Tigris, where it receives the Nymphius. — It was taken from the Romans, in the time of the emperor Constantius, by Sapor king of Persia. The siege is said to have cost him 30,000 men; however, he reduced it to such ruin, that the emperor afterwards wept over it. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, the city was rased; the chief officers were crucified; and the rest, with the soldiers and inhabitants, either put to the sword, or carried into captivity, except our historian himself, and two or three more, who, in the dead of the night, escaped thro' a postern unperceived by the enemy. The inhabitants of Nisibis, however, being obliged to leave their own city by Jovian's treaty with the Persians, soon restored Amida to its former strength; but it was again taken by Cavades in 501, but was restored to the Romans in 503. On the declension of the Roman power, it fell again into the hands of the Persians; but was taken from them by the Saracens in 899. It is now in the possession of the Turks. Here are above 20,000 Christians, who are better treated by the Turks than in other places. A great trade is carried on in this city, of red Turkey leather, and cotton cloth of the same colour. The Arabian name of Amida is Diarbeker, and the Turkish one Kara-Amed. E. long. 39. o. N. lat. 36. 58.