The Roman and Byzantine name Izala for the area around Mardin is probably derived from Izalla.
Izalla was first established under the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I around 1230 BC. BC on a campaign to the Assyrian northern border to Šubria still mentioned under the old land name KUR Azalzi. Izalla later became a tribute to Assyria . The name was then changed to KUR Azallu / Azalli.
Assur-Nasirpal II led in the 9th century BC BC as well as several campaigns against Izalla like the Babylonian king Nabupolassar in the year 609.
"The king of Akkad went to help with his army ... he went up to Izalla and the numerous cities in the mountains ... he burned theirs .. During this time the army moved as far as the Urartu district. "
When Darius is in the Behistun Inscription v insurgency to 521st In the land of Urartu on the mountain in the province of Izalla, but from 486 BC. Was incorporated into the empire of the Achaemenids .
Dietz-Otto Edzard: Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology (RLA) . Vol. 5, reprint, de Gruyter, Berlin 1980, pp. 225f., ISBN 3-11-007192-4 .
Robert Rollinger, The Median “Empire”, the End of Urartu and Cyrus' the Great Campaign in 547 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle II 16). Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Ancient Cultural Relations Between Iran and West Asia, Tehran 2004.
Karlheinz Kessler , Studies on the Historical Topography of Northern Mesopotamia, Wiesbaden 1980.
K. Radner / A. Schachner. From Tušhan to Amedi: Topographical questions concerning the Upper Tigris region in the Assyrian period. In: J. Tuna / I. Öztürk / I. Velibeyoglu (ed.), Salvage Project of the Archaeological Heritage of the Ilısu and Carchemish Dam Reservoirs Activities in 1999, Ankara 2002, pp. 729-776.
