Malazgirt
| Malazgirt | |
|---|---|
  Malazgirt | |
| Coordinates: TR 39°08′52″N 42°32′39″E / 39.14778°N 42.54417°ECoordinates: TR 39°08′52″N 42°32′39″E / 39.14778°N 42.54417°E | |
| Country |
 Turkey |
| Province | Muş |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Halis Coşkun (BDP) |
| • Kaymakam | Bilal Yavaş |
| Area[1] | |
| • District | 1,526.71 km2 (589.47 sq mi) |
| Population (2012)[2] | |
| • Urban | 21,733 |
| • District | 60,261 |
| • District density | 39/km2 (100/sq mi) |
| Post code | 49400 |
| Website |
www |
Malazgirt (also Malâzgird; Armenian: Մանազկերտ, Manazkert; traditional English: Manzikert) is a town in Muş Province in eastern Turkey, with a population of 23,697 (year 2000).
History
Founding
Modern research places Malazgirt's founding to sometime during the reign of the Urartian king Menua (810–785 B.C.).[3] The suffix -girt, found in many toponyms in Prehistoric Armenia, comes from the Armenian -kert which means, "built by". A popular Armenian folk tradition, tied to the writings of Armenia's early medieval historian Movses Khorenatsi, holds that Manzikert was founded by Manaz, one of the sons of Hayk, the legendary and eponymous patriarch and progenitor of the Armenians.[4] The name of the town was originally Manavazkert (Armenian: Մանավազկերտ) but over time its name was shortened to simply Manzikert.[3]
Medieval
The lands around Manzikert belonged to the Manavazyans, an Armenian nakharar family which claimed descent from Manaz, until 333 A.D., when King Khosrov III Arshakuni of Armenia ordered that all members of the family be put to the sword.[3] He later awarded the lands to another family, the Aghbianosyans. Manzikert was a fortified town,[5] and served as an important trading center located in the canton of Apahunik' in the Turuberan province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. It also served as the capital of the Kaysite emirate from around 860 until 964.[6] After the Armenian revolt of 771-772 the Abbasid government encouraged the migration of Arab tribes to the region and this resulted in the settling of Arab tribes in the vicinity of Malazgirt.[7] In 968 The Byzantine general Bardas Phokas captured Manzikert, which was incorporated into the Byzantine katepanate of Basprakania (Vaspurakan).[8] In 1054, the Seljuk Turks made an attempt to capture the city but were repulsed by the city's garrison under the command of Basil Apocapes.
The Battle of Manzikert was fought near the town in August 1071. In one of the most decisive defeats in Byzantine history, the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeated and captured Emperor Romanus Diogenes. The Turkish victory led to the ethnic and religious transformation of Armenia and Anatolia, the establishment of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, and later the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. The Seljuks pillaged Manzikert itself, killed much of its population, and burned the city to the ground.[3]
Modern
In 1915, on the eve of the Armenian Genocide, Manzikert was part of Bitlis Vilayet and had a population of 5,000, the great majority of them Armenians.[3] The city's economy revolved around the cultivation of grain, trade and the production of handicrafts. There existed two Armenian churches, Yerek Khoran Surb Astvatsatsin (Three Altars Holy Mother of God) and Surb Gevork (St. George, called St. Sergius by H. F. B. Lynch),[9] and one Armenian school. Like many other towns and villages during the Armenian genocide, its Armenian population was subjected to massacres and deported. In Russia's spring advance of 1915, they reached the city, but were repelled by a Turkish counter-attack shortly after.
Notes
- ↑ "Area of regions (including lakes), km²". Regional Statistics Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
- ↑ "Population of province/district centers and towns/villages by districts - 2012". Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
- 1 2 3 4 5 (Armenian) Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh. «Մանզիկերտ» [Manzikert]. Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1981, vol. 7, pp. 210-211.
- ↑ Movses Khorenatsi. History of the Armenians. Translation and commentary by Robert W. Thomson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978, I.12.
- ↑ Leiser, Gary. "Manzikert" in Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Josef W. Meri (ed.) London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 476-477, ISBN 0-415-96690-6.
- ↑ See Aram Ter-Ghevondyan, The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia. Trans. Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1976.
- ↑ Sinclair, T.A. (1989). Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume I. Pindar Press. p. 98. ISBN 9780907132325.
- ↑ Ter-Ghewondyan. Arab Emirates, p. 115.
- ↑ H. F. B. Lynch. Armenia, Travels and Studies. 2 vols. London: Longmans, 1901, vol. 2, pp. 270-73.
