“The triangular Muradiye plain, which contains two important Urartian sites, is bounded by the high range on the south-east and by the Açadağ (former Ala Dağ) on the northwest. (…) Despite the alignment of the two main corridors, the medieval trade route from the north of Lake Van to Persia did not run the length of either, but crossed from one to the other. From Muradiye (Berkri) it crossed the hills to the town’s southeast by a pass (maps still show ‘ruins’, no doubt those of hans or villages on the valley, leading to the pass). Thereafter it went to [...]
Archives: Regions
Our CPT for the regions
Kaza Mahmudiye / Hoşap / Khoshap / Khosab
Administration Between the kaza Van and the Iranian-Ottoman border lay the kaza Mahmudiye in the far east of the province of Van. It got its name from the ruling tribal leaders of the Kurdish Mahmud clan (Kurdish: Mehmûdî), whose seat in the village of same name (Mahmudiye) was elevated to the center of the kaza in 1869. The Mahmudiye / Hoşap / Güzelsu kaza was later integrated into the Hakkari sancak. In 1928, during republican times, the village of Mahmudiye (also Hoşap / Xoshap) was renamed Saray (‘Palace’). In 1946, the district center moved to the town of Özalp, but in 1990, [...]
Sancak Hakkari (Akkare)
An independent province Hakkari (1875-1888) was only of short life span, because already after 13 years the Ottoman border region was added to the province Van. A triangle: Kurds, East Syriacs and the Ottoman State In his travelogue Armenia: A Sketch of her nature and inhabitants (1878) the Austrian officer and author Amand Freiherr (Baron) von Schweiger-Lerchenfeld [...]
Sancak Van
“And therefore, the kazas of the Van sandjak were the following: Ardzge/Adilcevaz, Ardjesh/Erciş, Pergri, Gevash/Gevaş (historically Vosdan/Reshdunik including the Gardjgan and upper Gargar nahiyes), Mahmudiye or Khoshap (Karasu nahiye), Norduz (historically Antsevatsik, renamed Mamuratul-Reshad in 1913), Shadakh, and Van.”[1] Circle dance at an Armenian wedding in Van (around 1900) Labor Migration from the Van Basin Since the 1870s and [...]
Kaza Van
Population “If we include the population of the caza or neighborhood of Van, we shall probably not err much in arriving at a total of at least 64,000, made up by 47,000 Armenians and 17,000 Mussulmans. Consul Taylor in 1868 reckoned the inhabitants of ‘Van and the neighborhood,’ by which he would appear to mean of the town and caza, at 17,000 Mussulmans and 42,000 Christians. For Christians one might almost write Armenians.” Source: Lynch, H.F.B.: Armenia: Travels and Studies. Vol. II (The Turkish Provinces). London: Longmans, Green, and Co. (Reprint Beirut: Khayat, 1965; 1967; 1990, p. 79) Armenian woman of Van (Source: [...]