Toponym
From the 17th to the 19th century, the sancak bore the name of its capital, Sis. The town of Sis became Kozan during the overlordship of the Kozanoğulları, a Kurdish clan, between 1700 and 1866.
It is believed that the toponym Kozan is Kurdish (for ‘barns’?). Kozan is the settlement established by the Kozanlu/Kozanoğlu tribe in the north of Sis. Today it includes Sis.[1]
Administration
During the period of 1872-1902 the northeastern sancak of the Adana Vilayet comprised the four kazas of Sis, Feke (Vahka, Bilanköy), Hadjin in the north and Kars-ı Zülkadriye (Kars-ı Maraş; Kadirli) in the south.
After Turkey was declared a republic, Kozan became a province, compromising the sancaks of Kozan, Kadirli, Feke and Saimbeyli (previous Hadjin) between 1923 and 1926.
Population
After the Ottoman-Russian war of 1877/8, some of the Muslims who migrated to the Ottoman realm, were settled in the sancak of Kozan, in particular in Hadjin, where their resettlement changed the ethnic composition of this town.[2]