Malazgirt

Malazgirt
Malazgirt Location of Malazgirt within Turkey.
Coordinates: 39°48′N 42°19′E / 39.8°N 42.32°E / 39.8; 42.32
Country	Turkey
Region	East Anatolia
Province	Muş
Government
– Mayor	Mehmet Nuri Balcı (BDP)
Population (2000)
– Total	23,697
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)

Malazgirt (also Malâzgird, Malazkurd; 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.).^[1] The suffix -girt, found in many toponyms in Eastern Anatolia, comes from the Armenian -kert which means, "built by". A popular Armenian folk tradition holds that Manzikert was founded by Manaz, one of the sons of Hayk, the legendary and eponymous patriarch and progenitor of the Armenians The name of the town was originally Manavazkert (Armenian: Մանավազկերտ) but over time its name was shortened to simply Manzikert.^[1]

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.^[1] He later awarded the lands to another family, the Aghbianosyans. Manzikert was a fortified town,^[2] 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.^[3] The Byzantine general Bardas Phokas captured Manzikert in 968.^[4] 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 of 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.^[1]

Modern

In 1915, on the eve of the Armenian Genocide, Manzikert had a population of 5,000, the great majority of them Armenians.^[1] The city's economy revolved around the cultivation of grain, trade and the production of handicrafts. There existed two Armenian churches, Surb Astvatsatsin and Surb Gevork, and one Armenian school. Like many other towns and villages during the 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.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} (Armenian) Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh. «Մանզիկերտ» (Manzikert). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. vii. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 210-211.
2. ^ Leiser, Gary. "Manzikert" in Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Josef W. Meri (ed.) London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 476-477, ISBN 0-4159-6690-6.
3. ^ See Ter-Ghewondyan, Aram N. The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia. Trans. Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1976.
4. ^ (Armenian) Grigoryan, Gnel (1983). Տարոնի Բագրատունիների Ֆեոդալական Իշխանությունը IX - X Դարերում (The Feudal Bagratuni Principality of Taron from the 9th to 10th Centuries). Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences. pp. 148–149. 

Coordinates: 39°09′N 42°32′E / 39.15°N 42.533°E / 39.15; 42.533