Mhallami

Mhallami
محلّمى

Total population
150,000
Regions with significant populations
Turkey	60,000
Lebanon	50,000
European Union	25,000
Germany	15,000
Languages
North Mesopotamian Arabic Western Aramaic, Kurdish & Turkish
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Semitic peoples Syrian

The Mhallami, or Mhalmites, (Arabic: محلّمى‎‎, Mḥallame; Syriac: ܡܚܠܡܝ̈ܐ‎, Mḥallmāye/Mḥallmoye; Turkish: Mıhellemi) are Syrians, most of whom are living in and around the city of Mardin, Turkey. Outside of the region, they are also known as Mardinli.

Originating from the Arab tribe of Banu Hanifa, their homeland was Najd in central Arabia, but they were settled by the Umayyad caliph Muawiyah I to that region. They are now primarily speakers of North Mesopotamian Arabic (qiltu variant) and Sunni Muslims of Shafi`i madh'hab.

Origin

After the Umayyad expansion into north Mesopotamia, many families from the Arabian Peninsula were settled to the region of Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, wrote Yaqubi, who lived around that time, in his book Kitab Futuh Al-buldan about the resettlement to the region of Mardin.

Mhallami of Lebanon

Lebanon had a population of 70,000 to 100,000 Mhallami prior to Lebanese Civil War. Their origin and legal status became a particular concern when they started to seek asylum in Western European countries en masse in the early 1980s.

Mhallami of Turkey

Most Mhallamis in Turkey live in Mardin, and at the village of Yerköy.

The first Mhallami cultural association of Turkey was founded in February 2008 in Mercimekli village of Midyat. In 2015, the founding chairman Mehmet Ali Aslan became the first Mhallami to be elected a member of the Turkish Parliament.