Düziçi

History and Monuments

The city was once known as Irenopolis and Neronias. Its fortress, Haruniye Kalesi, was built in 785/86 under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, forming part of a chain of Arab defenses along the Nur Dağları; it was named al-Haruniyya after him. In 959, the Byzantine general Nicephorus Phocas captured 1,500 residents of Haruniyya. The fort was repaired after Emir Sayf al-Dawla of Aleppo retook it in 967. Following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, nomadic Turks entered Anatolia, and the Avşar tribe of Turkmen temporarily settled the nearby hills. Between the mid-12th century and 1198/99, the area came under the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. On January 22, 1236, King Hethum I and his wife Isabella granted the castle and village of Haruniyya to the Teutonic Knights.

The fortress design shows a compact, keep-like layout with a large eastern tower protecting a postern gate. Continuous galleries with pointed vaults run along the north and west walls, pierced by arrow slits. The main gate is on the south side. Repairs may have been done by the Teutonic Knights or the Mamluks. The eastern tower’s lower level likely served as a cistern. The Egyptian Mamluks captured it in the late 13th century and made Haruniyya the administrative hub of eastern Cilicia by the mid-14th century. The Ottomans, under Sultan Selim I, took control in 1516 during his Egyptian campaign, and the town kept the name Haruniye through Ottoman times.

Düziçi is one of several places in the Çukurova region claiming ties to the legendary 17th-century folk poet Karacaoğlan. After World War I, French forces occupied the town until the Turkish War of Independence. The district now has 61 schools, including one kindergarten, 29 eight-year elementary schools, 22 five-year elementary schools, and nine high schools: one science high school, two Anatolian high schools, one public high school, one vocational and technical high school, one health professions high school, one commercial high school, one multi-program high school, and one general high school. Notable landmarks include the castle of Harun al-Rashid, the Haruniye hot springs, and Mount Düldül, a peak in the Nur Mountains.