Edessa - Odessa

Do not confuse the place-names Edessa and Odessa. Although only the first letter is different, and the pronunciation of the two in rapid speech may be indistinguishable, they are not connected other than by coincidence.

• Edessa (Ἔδεσσα) was a city in Upper Mesopotamia founded in the fourth century BCE and named after the ancient capital of Macedonia. The city is now known as 'Urfa, or Şanlıurfa, a city in Turkey. In 1097. The state of Edessa was ruled by Crusaders from 1198, when Baldwin I (of Boulogne) established the County of Edessa as its first Count. When Baldwin became King of Jerusalem in 1100, he passed the county of Edessa to Baldwin of Bourg, a relative of his, who became Baldwin II of Edessa - and later, in 1018, on the death of Baldwin I, King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. At that point, Joscelin of Courtenay, Prince of Galilee and Lord of Turbessel (1115–1131) was made Count of Edessa, as Joscelin I.

Baldwin II of Le Bourg (Jerusalem 1118–31)

House of Courtenay

1119–1131

Joscelin I

1131–1150

Joscelin II (son; deposed, died 1159; Turkish conquest of the county)

1159–1200

Joscelin III (son; titular count; continued Turkish rule of Edessa)

• Odessa is a city, and important port, on the Black Sea. It is now within Ukraine. It was named, in 1794, under Catherine the Great, in the belief that it was the site of the ancient Greek colony od Odesos (Ὀδησσός), actually the Bulgarian city of Varna.

History‏‎