[16] The city benefited from its situation as a river crossing and port in addition to its position at the end of an old Roman road which connected it to the Mediterranean Sea, and thus became an important commercial and strategic centre in Upper Mesopotamia.

[48] Later, an Artuqid coalition of Da'ud of Hisn Kayfa, Timurtash of Mardin, and Ilaldi of Amid threatened Zengi's realm in 1130 whilst he campaigned in the vicinity of Aleppo in Syria, forcing him to return and defeat them at Dara.

[49] The dozdar (governor of the citadel) of Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar, Thiqat al-Din Hasan, was reported to have sexually harassed soldiers' wives whilst their husbands were on campaign, and thus Zengi sent his hajib (chamberlain) al-Yaghsiyani to handle the situation.

[51] On Zengi's death in 1146, his eldest son Sayf al-Din Ghazi I received the emirate of Mosul, including Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar,[52] and Izz al-Dīn Abū Bakr al-Dubaysī was appointed as the city's governor.

[62] The three brothers marched with the caliph's campaign until they split at Al-Rahba, and travelled to Sinjar,[64] where Ali and Ishaq briefly remained whilst Ismail continued onwards to Mosul.

[65] After the sack of Mosul, the Mongol army led by Samdaghu besieged Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar until the summer of 1263; the siege was lifted and the city spared when the Church of the East bishop Henan Isho claimed to have knowledge of chrysopoeia, and offered to render his services.

[17] In 1326/1327, the city was granted as a fief to a Turkman chief, and Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar remained under his control until the disintegration of the Ilkhanate in 1335, soon after which it was seized by the Bohtan clan in 1336/1337 with the aid of al-Ashraf, Ayyubid Emir of Hisn Kayfa.

[18] Uzun Hasan usurped leadership of the Aq Qoyunlu from his elder brother Jahangir in a coup at Amid in 1452, and set about expanding his realm by seizing Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar in 1456, whilst the emir of Bohtan withdrew into the mountains.

[17] In the mid-17th century, Evliya Çelebi visited Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar en route from Mosul to Hisn Kayfa,[78] and noted the city possessed four muftis and a naqib al-ashraf, and its qadis (judges) received a daily salary of 300 akçes.

[81][17] The Ottoman response to Mir Kôr was delayed by the war with Egypt until 1836, in which year Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar was retaken by an army led by Reşid Mehmed Pasha.

[85] The Ottoman government unsuccessfully encouraged Bedir Khan to surrender, and the vali (governor) of Diyarbekir wrote to the Naqshbandi sheikhs İbrahim, Salih, and Azrail at Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar to mediate in June 1847.

[91] Yezdanşêr met with Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Fenwick Williams at Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar in 1849 whilst he participated as the British representative in a commission to settle the Ottoman-Iranian border.

[99] Osman, son of Bedir Khan, seized Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar in 1878 after his escape from captivity at Constantinople using demobilised Kurdish veterans of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, and proclaimed himself as emir.

[30] In the late 19th century, the French geographer Vital Cuinet recorded in La Turquie d'Asie the city's five caravanserais, one-hundred and six shops, ten cafés, and a vaulted bazaar.

[111] As late as 1910, the Miran clan annually migrated from their winter pastures in the plain of Mosul to Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar in the spring to trade and pay taxes, and then across the Tigris to summer grazing grounds at the source of the river Botan.

[114] In 1915, amidst the ongoing genocide of Armenians and Assyrians perpetrated by the Ottoman government and local Kurds, Aziz Feyzi and Zülfü Bey carried out preparations to destroy the Christian population of Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar on orders from Mehmed Reshid, vali of Diyarbekir.

[115] From 29 April to 12 May, the officials toured the district and incited the Kurds against the Christians;[116] Halil Sâmi, kaymakam of Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar since 31 March 1913, was replaced by Kemal Bey on 2 May 1915 due to his refusal to support the plans for genocide.

[119] After the murder of Captain Alfred Christopher Pearson, assistant political officer at Zakho, by Kurds on 4 April 1919, the occupation of Jazirat Ibn ʿUmar was considered to ensure the security of British Iraq, but ultimately dismissed.

[122] Local Kurdish notables complained to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey of alleged illegal activity by Nihat Anılmış, and although it was decided no action was to be taken in July 1922,[123] he was transferred away from Cizre in early September.

[127] In response to Kurdish revolts in the 1920s, the Turkish government aimed to Turkify the population of eastern Turkey, but Christians were deemed unsuitable, and thus attempted to eradicate those who had survived the genocide.

[129] In the 1960s, the infrastructure of the city was developed as a new bridge, municipal buildings, and new roads were constructed and streets were widened, and amenities such as a public park named after Atatürk and a cinema were built.

[130] The economy of Cizre was severely disrupted by the eruption of the Gulf War as trade with Iraq was embargoed and the border was closed, resulting in the closure of 90% of shops in the city.

[130] On 21 March 1992, a pro-PKK demonstration to celebrate Newroz in contravention of a state ban was dispersed by Turkish soldiers, and led to violence as Kurdish militants retaliated, resulting in the death of 26-30 people.

[21] Riots erupted in Cizre in October 2014 in response to the Turkish government's decision to prohibit Kurds from travelling to Syria to participate in the Syrian Civil War.

[133] The YDG-H, the militant youth wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), subsequently erected blockades, ditches, and armed checkpoints, and carried out patrols in several neighbourhoods to block the movement of Turkish police.

[20] The population began to recover in the second half of the 20th century,[17] and later increased dramatically from 1984 onwards due to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict as thousands of people fled to Cizre to escape pressure from both the Turkish armed forces and PKK militants.

[197] The Jewish community of Cizre is attested by Benjamin of Tudela in the mid-12th century,[2] and he noted the city was inhabited by 4000 Jews led by rabbis named Muvhar, Joseph, and Hiyya.

[208] Cizre became a place of pilgrimage in the 15th century due to its association with Nuh (Noah), and it attracted notable figures, such as the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and potentially also his sons.

[172] Gregorius Thomas, archbishop of Jerusalem, was buried at the church of Mar Behnam in 1748 behind the right wing of the altar; his grave and an inscription in Garshuni was still extant when visited by Aphrem Barsoum in 1910.

[220] Cizre is located at the easternmost point of the Tur Abdin in the Melabas Hills (Syriac: Turo d-Malbash, "the clothed mountain"), which is roughly coterminous with the region of Zabdicene.