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Eyes, Springs, Gemstones - all three sparkle. Is that the common connection?

I've got a photocopy of that 1865 description of Arzen - I'll try to scan it, and post it later.

Diyarbekir's Ulu Cami has what most modern books say is a "complicated building history" - i.e. they don't know exactly when it was built! It's built out of so much reused Classical and Byzantine masonry (and which is reused in a sort of pseudo-Classical style) that in the 19th century the whole structure was thought to have been a converted Roman-period palace, which might be where that palace of Tigranes statement originated from. But the Tigranes connection is not believed any more, as far as I know. The mosque might date back to the 7th century. The original Tigranakert is probably (almost certainly) Arzen. It's to the SE of Silvan, and a long way east of Diyarbekir. I've read that the ruins were all deliberately destroyed in the 1970s and that nothing much is left now. The whole area, being Kurdish, was closed to travellers until recently - so I've never been there. The only proper description of the place was published in 1865 (Taylor - Journal of the Geographical Society, vol35, 1865). Of course, since the 1920s, no career archaeologist ever went there because of its Armenian connection.

It was Germany that started it, encouraging (for its own political, economic and historical reasons) the breaking up of Yugoslavia and recognising new borders and countries regardless of the ethnic consequences.

"We Europeans" From Gamavor - rednecked and deep in the heart of cow-pokeing Texas!!!!!! Are there any laughing-till-they-explode smilies?

Everyone is lonely in here - if they weren't then they wouldn't be here.

DIARBEKR (Kara Amid or Black Amid; the Roman Amida) The chief town of a vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on a basaltic plateau on the right bank of the Tigris, which here flows in a deep open valley. The town is still surrounded by the masonry walls of black basalt which give it the name of Kara or Black Amid; they are well-built and imposing on the west facing the open country, but almost in ruins where they overlook the river. A mass of gardens and orchards cover the slope down to the river on the S.W., but there are no suburbs outside the walls. The houses are rather crowded but only partially fill the walled area. The population numbers 38,000, nearly half being Christian, comprising Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites and a few Greeks. The streets are 10 feet to 15 feet wide, badly paved and dirty; the houses and shops are low, mostly of stone, and some of stone and mud. The bazaar is a good one, and gold and silver filigree work is made, peculiar in character and design. The cotton industry is declining, but manufacture of silk is increasing. Fruit is good and abundant as the rich volcanic soil is well watered from the town springs. The size of the melons is specially famous. To the south, the walls are some 40 feet high, faced with large cut stone blocks of very solid construction, with towers and square bastions rising to 500 ft. There are four gates: on the north the Kharput gate, on the west the Rum, on the south the Mardin, and on the east the Yeni Kapu or new gate. A citadel enclosure stands at the N. E. corner and is now partly in ruins, but the interior space is occupied by the government konak. The summer climate in the confined space within the town is excessively hot and unhealthy. Epidemics of typhus are not unknown, as well as ophthalmia. The Diarbekr boil is like the Aleppo button, lasting a long time and leaving a deep scar. Winters are frequently severe but do not last long. Snow sometimes lies, and ice is stored for summer use. Scorpions noted for the virulence of their poison abound as well as horse leeches in the tanks. The town is supplied with water both by springs inside the town and by aqueducts from fountains at Ali Punar and Ham ervat. The principal exports are wool, mohair and copper ore, and imports are cotton and woollen goods, indigo, coffee, sugar, petroleum, &c. The Great Mosque, Ulu Jami, formerly a Christian church, occupies the site of a Sassanian palace and was built with materials from an older palace, probably that of Tigranes II. The remains consist of the facades of two palaces, 400 feet apart, each formed by a row of Corinthian columns surmounted by an equal number of a Byzantine type. Kufic inscriptions run across the fronts under the entablature. The court of the mosque is entered by a gateway on which lions and other animals are sculptured. The churches of greatest interest are those of SS. Cosmas and Damian (Jacobite) and the church of St James (Greek). In the 19th century Diarbekr was one of the largest and most flourishing cities of Asia, and as a commercial centre it now stands at the meeting-point of several important routes. It is at the bead of the navigation of the Tigris, which is traversed down stream by keleks or rafts supported by inflated skins. There is a good road to Aleppo and Alexandretta on the Mediterranean and to Samsun on the Black Sea by Kharput, Malatia and Sivas. There are also routes to Mosul and Bitlis. Diarbekr became a Roman colony in A.D. 230 under the name of Amida, and received a Christian bishop in A.D. 325. It was enlarged and strengthened by Constantius II, in whose reign it was taken after a long siege by Shapur (Sapor) II, king of Persia. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who took part in the defence, gives a detailed account of it. In the later wars between the Persians and Romans it more than once changed hands. Though ceded by Jovian to the Persians it again became annexed to the Roman Empire, and in the reign of Anastasius (A.D. 502) was once more taken by the Persians, when 80,000 of its inhabitants were slain. It was taken c. 638 by the Arabs, and afterwards passed into the hands of the Seljuks and Persians, from whom it was finally captured by Selim I. in 1515; and since that date it has remained under Ottoman rule. About 2 miles below the town is a masonry bridge over the Tigris; the older portion being probably Roman, and the western part, which bears a Kufic inscription, being Arab. The vilayet of Diarbekr extends south from Palu on the Euphrates to Mardin and Nisibin on the edge of the Mesopotamian plain, and is divided into three sanjaks: Arghana, Diarbekr and Mardin. The headwaters of the main arm of the Tigris have their source in the vilayet. Cereals, cotton, tobacco, rice and silk are produced, but most of the fertile lands have been abandoned to semi-nomads, who raise large quantities of live stock. The richest portion of the vilayet lies east of the capital in the rolling plains watered by tributaries of the Tigris. An exceptionally rich copper mine exists at Arghana Maden, but it is very imperfectly worked; galena mineral oil and silicious sand are also found.

ECHMIADZIN, or ITSMIADSIN A monastery of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Erivan, the seat of the Catholicus or primate of the Armenian Church. It is situated close to the village of Vagarshapat, in the plain of the Aras, 2840 feet above the sea, 12 miles W. of Erivan and 40 N. of Mount Ararat. The monastery comprises a pretty extensive complex of buildings, and is surrounded by brick walls 30 ft. high, which with their loopholes and towers present the appearance of a fortress. Its architectural character has been considerably impaired by additions and alterations in modern Russian style. On the western side of the quadrangle is the residence of the primate, on the south the refectory (1730-1735), on the east the lodgings for the monks, and on the north the cells. The cathedral is a small but fine cruciform building with a Byzantine cupola at the intersection. Its foundation is ascribed to St Gregory the Illuminator in 302. Of special interest is the porch, built of red porphyry, and profusely adorned with sculptured designs somewhat of a Gothic character. The interior is decorated with Persian frescoes of flowers, birds and scroll-work. It is here that the Catholicus confers episcopal consecration by the sacred hand (relic) of St Gregory; and here, every seven years he prepares with great solemnity the holy oil which is to be used throughout the churches of the Armenian communion. Outside of the main entrance are the alabaster tombs of the primates Alexander I., Alexander II., Daniel (1806) and Narses (1857), and a white marble monument, erected by the English East India Company to mark the resting-place of Sir John Macdonald Kinneir, who died at Tabriz in 1830, while on an embassy to the Persian court. The library of the monastery is a rich storehouse of Armenian literature (see Brosset’s Catalogue de la bibliothque d’Etchmiadzin, St Petersburg, 1840). Among the more remarkable manuscripts are a copy of the gospels dating from the 10th or 11th century, and three bibles of the 13th century. A type-foundry, a printing-press and a bookbinding establishment are maintained by the monks who supply religious and educational works for their co-religionists. To the east of the monastery is a modern college and seminary, Half a mile to the east stand the churches of St Ripsime and St Gaiana, two of the early martyrs of Armenian Christianity; the latter is the burial-place of those primates who are not deemed worthy of interment beside the cathedral. From a distance the three churches form a fairly striking group, and accordingly the Turkish name for Echmiadzin is Uch-Kilissi, or the Three Churches. The town of Vagarshapat dates from the 6th century B.C.; it takes its name from King Vagarsh (Vologaeses), who in the 2nd century A.D. chose it as his residence and surrounded it with walls. Here the apostle of Armenia, St Gregory the Illuminator, erected a church in 309 and with it the primacy was associated. In 344 Vagarshapat ceased to be the Armenian capital, and in the 5th century the patriarchal seat was removed to Dvin, and then to Ani. The monastery was founded by Narses II., who ruled 524-533; and a restoration was effected in 618. The present name of the monastery was adopted instead of Vagarshapat in the 10th century. At length in 1441 the primate George brought back the see to the original site.

ERIVAN A government of Russia, Transcaucasia, having the province of Kars on the W., the government of Tiflis on the N., that of Elisavetpol on the N. and E., and Persia and Turkish Armenia on the S. It occupies the top of an immense plateau (6000-8000 ft.). Continuous chains of mountains are met with only on its borders, and in the E., but the whole surface is thickly set with short ridges and isolated mountains of volcanic origin, of which Alagoz (14,440 ft.) and Ararat (16,925 ft.) are the most conspicuous and the most important. Both must have been active in Tertiary times. Lake Gokcha (540 sq. miles) is encircled by such volcanoes, and the neighbourhood of Alexandropol is a volcanic amphitheatre, being entirely buried under volcanic deposits. The same is true of the slopes leading down to the river Aras; and the valley of the upper Aras is a stony desert, watered only by irrigation, which is carried on with great difficulty owing to the character of the soil. The government is drained by the Aras, which forms the boundary with Persia and flows with great velocity down its stony bed; the fall being 17 to 22 feet per mile in its upper course, and 9 feet at Ordubad, where it quits the government, while lower down it again increases to 23 feet. Many of the small lakes, filling volcanic craters, are of great depth. Timber is very scarce. A variety of useful minerals exists, but only rock-salt is obtained, at Nakhichevan and Kulp. The climate is extremely varied, the following being the average temperatures and mean annual rainfall at Alexandropol (alt. 5078 ft.) and Aralykh (2755 ft.) respectively: year 42, January 12, July 65, mean rainfall I6~2 in..; and year 53, January 20.5, July 79, rainfall 6-3 in. The population numbered 829,578 in 1897 (only 375,086 women), of whom 82,278 lived in the towns. An estimate in 1906 gave a total of 909,100. They consist chiefly of Armenians (441,000), Tatars (40%), Kurds (49,389), with Russians, Greeks and Tates. Most of the Armenians belong to the Gregorian (Christian) Church, and only 4020 to the Armenian Catholic Church. The Tatars are mostly Shiite Mussulmans, only 27,596 being Sunnites; 7772 belong to the peculiar faith of the Yezids. While barley only can be grown on the high parts of the plateau, cotton, mulberry, vines and all sorts of fruit are cultivated in the valley of the Aras. Cattle-breeding is extensively carried on; camels also are bred, and leeches are collected out of the swamps and exported to Persia. Industry is in its infancy, but cottons, carpets, and felt goods are made in the villages. A considerable trade is carried on with Persia, but trade with Asia Minor is declining. The government is divided into seven districts: Erivan, Alexandropol, Echmiadzin (chief town: Vagarshapat), Nakhichevan, Novobayazet, Surmali (chief town: Igdyr), and Sharur-daralagoz (chief town: Norashen). The principal towns are Erivan (see below), Alexandropol (32,018 inhabitants in 1897), Novobayazet (8507), Nakhichevan (8845), and Vagarshapat (3400). ERIVAN, or IRWAN, in Persian, Rewan A town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, situated in 40 14 N., 44 38 E., 234 m. by rail S.S.W. of Tiflis, on the Zanga river from which a great number of irrigation canals are drawn. Altitude, 3170 ft. Population (1873) 11,938; (1897) 29,033. The old Persian portion of the town consists mainly of narrow crooked lanes enclosed by mud walls, which effectually conceal the houses, and the modern Russian portion is laid out in long ill-paved streets. On a steep rock, rising about 600 feet above the river, stand the ruins of the 16th-century Turkish fortress, containing part of the palace of the former Persian governors, a handsome but greatly dilapidated mosque, a modern Greek church and a cannon foundry. One chamber, called the Hall of the Sardar, bears witness to former splendour in its decorations. The finest building in the city is the mosque of Hussein Au Khan, familiarly known as the Blue Mosque from the color of the enamelled tiles with which it is richly encased. At the mosque of Zal Khan a passion play is performed yearly illustrative of the assassination of Hussein, the son of Ali. Erivan is an Armenian episcopal see, and has a theological seminary. The only manufactures are a little cotton cloth, leather, earthenware and blacksmiths work. The fruits of the district are noted for their excellence especially the grapes, apples, apricots and melons. Armenians, Persians and Tatars are the principal elements in the population, besides some Russians and Greeks. The town fell into the power of the Turks in 1582, was taken by the Persians under Shah Abbas in 1604, besieged by the Turks for four months in 1615, and reconquered by the Persians under Nadir Shah in the 18th century. In 1780 it was successfully defended against Heraclius, prince of Georgia; and in 1804 it resisted the Russians. At length in 1827 Paskevich took the fortress by storm and in the following year the town and government were ceded to Russia by the peace of Turkman-chai. A Tatar poem in celebration of the event has been preserved by the Austrian poet, Bodenstedt, in his Tausend und em Tage im Orient (1850).

I'll post a picture of the Egin "akn", as soon as I get my scanner to work - scsi card is playing up.

SIS (ancient Sision or Siskia, later Fiaviopolis or Flavias) The chief town of the Khozan sanjak of the Adana vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on the left bank of the Kirkgen Su, a tributary of the Jibun (Pyramus) and at the south end of a group of passes leading from the Anti-Taurus valleys to the Cilician plain and Adana. It was besieged by the Arabs in 704 but relieved by the Byzantines. The Caliph, Motawakkil took it and refortified it; but it soon returned to Byzantine hands. It was rebuilt in 1186 by Leo II., king of Lesser Armenia, who made it his capital. In 1374 it was taken and demolished by the sultan of Egypt, and it has never recovered its prosperity. It is now only a big village of some 3000 inhabitants. It has had, however, a great place in Armenian ecclesiastical history from the times of St Gregory the Illuminator to our own. Gregory himself was there consecrated the first Catholicus in A.D. 267, but transferred his see to Vagarshabad (Echmiadzin, Etchmiadzin), whence, after the fall of the Arsacids, it passed to Tovin. After the constitution of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, the catholicate returned to Sis (1294), the capital, and remained there 150 years. In 1441, Sis having fallen from its high estate, the Armenian clergy proposed to remove the see, and on the refusal of the actual Catholicus, Gregory IX., installed a rival at Echmiadzin, who, as soon as Selim I. had conquered Greater Armenia, became the more widely accepted of the two by the Armenian church in the Ottoman empire. The Catholicus of Sis maintained himself nevertheless, and was supported in his pretensions by the Porte up to the middle of the 19th century, when the patriarch Nerses, declaring finally for Echmiadzin, carried the government with him. In 1885 Sis tried to declare Echmiadzin schismatic, and in 1895 its clergy took it on themselves to elect a Catholicus without reference to the patriarch; but the Porte annulled the election, and only allowed it six years later on Sis renouncing its pretensions to independence. The present Catholicus has the right to prepare the sacred myron (oil) and to preside over a synod, but is in fact not more than a metropolitan, and regarded by many Armenians as schismatic. The lofty castle and the monastery and church built by Leo II, and containing the coronation chair of the kings of Lesser Armenia, are interesting.

TREBIZOND (Gr. Trapezus) A city of Asia Minor, situated on the Black Sea, near its south-eastern angle. From the time of its foundation as a Greek colony to the present day it has always been a considerable emporium of commerce, and it was for two centuries and a half the capital of an empire. Its importance is due to its command of the point where the chief trade route from Persia and Central Asia to Europe, over the table-land of Armenia by Bayezid and Erzerum, descends to the sea. Its safety also was secured by the barrier of rugged mountains (7000 to 8000 ft.) which separates its district from the rest of Asia Minor. So complete is the watershed that no streams pass through these ranges, and there is hardly any communication in this direction between the interior of Asia Minor and the coast. For the same reason, together with its northern aspect, the climate is humid and temperate, unlike that of the inland regions, which are exposed to great extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter. The position which was occupied by the Hellenic and medieval city is a sloping table of ground (whence the original name of the place, Trapezus, the Table-land), which falls in steep rocky precipices on the two sides, where two deep valleys, descending from the interior, run parallel at no great distance from one another down to the sea. The whole is still enclosed by the Byzantine walls, which follow the line of the cliffs and are carried along the sea-face; and the upper part of the level, which is separated from the lower by an inner cross wall, forms the castle; while at the highest point, where a sort of neck is formed between the two valleys, is the keep which crowns the whole. On each side, about half-way between the keep and the sea, these ravines are crossed by massive bridges, and on the farther side of the westernmost of these, away from the city, a large tower and other fortifications remain. The area of the ancient city is now called the Kaleh, and is inhabited by the Turks; eastward of this is the extensive Christian quarter, and beyond this again a low promontory juts northward into the sea, partly covered with the houses of a well-built suburb, which is the principal centre of commerce. The harbour lies on the eastern side of this promontory, but it is an unsafe roadstead, being unprotected towards the north-east and having been much silted up, so that vessels cannot approach within a considerable distance of the shore. From here the caravans start for Persia, and at certain periods of the year long trains of camels may be seen, and Persian merchants conspicuous by their high black caps and long robes. The route which these caravans follow is a chaussee as far as Erzerum, but this in places is too much broken to admit of the transit of wheeled vehicles. The railway by Batoum to Baku by way of Tiflis has tended greatly to turn the channel of commerce from Trebizond into Russian territory, since it helps to open the route to Erivan, Tabriz and the whole of Persia. The total population of the place amounts to about 40,000, of whom 22,000 are Moslems and 18,000 Christians. Great Britain and all the larger European states have consulates there. The vilayet, of which Trebizond is the chief town, consists of a long irregular strip of coast country, the eastern half of which is deeply indented and mountainous. History: the city of Trapezus was a colony of Sinope, but it first comes into notice at the time of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, who found repose there. Notwithstanding its commercial importance, the remoteness of its position prevented it from being much known to fame either in the Hellenic or the early medieval period; its greatness dates from the time of the fourth crusade (1204), when the Byzantine Empire was dismembered and its capital occupied by the Latins. During the confusion that followed that event Alexius Comnenus escaped into Asia, and, having collected an army of Iberian mercenaries, entered Trebizond, where he was acknowledged as the legitimate sovereign, and assumed the title of Grand Comnenus. Though only twenty-two years of age, Alexius was a man of ability and resolute will, and he succeeded without difficulty in making himself master of the greater part of the southern coast of the Black Sea. The empire thus founded continued to exist until 1461, when the city was taken by Mahommed II. The cause of this long duration, and at the same time the secret of its history, is to be found in the isolated position of Trebizond and its district, between the mountains and the sea, which has already been described. By this means it was able to defy both the Seljuks and the Ottomans, and to maintain its independence against the emperors of Nicaea and Constantinople. But for the same reason its policy was always narrow, so that it never exercised any beneficial influence on the world at large. It was chiefly in the way of matrimonial alliances that it was brought into contact with other states. The imperial family were renowned for their beauty, and the princesses of this race were sought as brides by Byzantine emperors of the dynasty of the Palaeologi, by Western nobles, and by Mahommedan princes; and the connections thus formed originated a variety of diplomatic relations and friendly or offensive alliances. The palace of Trebizond was famed for its magnificence, the court for its luxury and elaborate ceremonial, while at the same time it was frequently a hotbed of intrigue and immorality. The Grand Comneni were also patrons of art and learning, and in consequence of this Trebizond was resorted to by many eminent men, by whose agency the library of the palace was provided with valuable manuscripts and the city was adorned with splendid buildings. The writers of the time speak with enthusiasm of its lofty towers, of the churches and monasteries in the suburbs, and especially of the gardens, orchards and olive groves. It excited the admiration of Gonzales Clavijo, the Spanish envoy, when he passed through it on his way to visit the court of Timur at Samarkand (Clavijo, Historia del grail Tamorlan, p. 84); and Cardinal Bessarion, who was a native of the place, in the latter part of his life, when the city had passed into the hands of the Mahommedans, and he was himself a dignitary of the Roman Church, so little forgot the impression it had made upon him that he wrote a work entitled The Praise of Trebizond, which exists in manuscript at Venice. Little was known of the history of the empire of Trebizond until the subject was taken in hand by Professor Fallmerayer of Munich, who discovered the chronicle of Michael Panaretus among the books of Cardinal Bessarion, and from that work, and other sources of information which were chiefly unknown up to that time, compiled his Gcschichte des Kaiserthums von Trapezunt (Munich, 1827). From time to time the emperors of Trebizond paid tribute to the Seljuk sultans of Iconium, to the grand khans of the Mongols, to Timur the Tatar, to the Turkoman chieftains, and to the Ottomans; but by means of skilful negotiations they were enabled practically to secure their independence. We find them also at war with many of these powers, and with the Genoese, who endeavoured to monopolise the commerce of the Black Sea. The city was several times besieged, the most formidable attack being that which occurred in the reign of Andronicus I, the second emperor, when the Seljuks, under the command of Melik, the son of the great sultan Ala-ed-din, first assaulted the northern wall in the direction of the sea, and afterwards endeavoured to storm the upper citadel by night. They failed, however, in both attempts; and in the latter, owing to the darkness, and to the occurrence of a violent storm which suddenly swelled the torrents in the ravines, their force was thrown into inextricable confusion, and they were compelled to abandon their camp and make the best of their escape from the country. So great was the strength of the fortifications that Mahommed II. might have experienced much difficulty in reducing it, had it not been. for the pusillanimous conduct of David, the last emperor, who surrendered the place almost unconditionally. Ancient Memorials: Several interesting monuments of this period remain at Trebizond in the form of churches in the Byzantine style of architecture. One of these is within the area of the old city, viz, the church of the Panaghia Chrysokephalos, or Virgin of the Golden Head, a large and massive but excessively plain building, which is now the Orta-hissar mosque. On the farther side of the eastern ravine stands a smaller but very well proportioned structure, the church of St Eugenius, the patron saint of Trebizond, now the Yeni Djuma djami, or New Friday mosque. Still more important is the church of Haghia Sophia, which occupies a conspicuous position overlooking the sea, about 2 miles west of the city. The porches of this are handsomely ornamented, and about 100 ft. from it rises a tall campanile, the inner walls of which have been covered in parts with frescoes of religious subjects, though these are now much defaced. But the most remarkable memorial of the middle ages that exists in all this district is the monastery of Sumelas, which is situated about 25 miles from Trebizond, at the side of a rocky glen, at a height of 4000 ft. above the sea. Its position is most extraordinary, for it occupies a cavern in the middle of the face of a perpendicular cliff 1000 ft. high, where the white buildings offer a marked contrast to the brown rock which forms their setting. It is approached by a zigzag path at the side of the cliff, from which a flight of stone steps and a wooden staircase give access to the monastery. The valley below is filled with the richest vegetation, the undergrowth being largely composed of azaleas and rhododendrons. An. antiquity of 1500 years is claimed for the foundation of the monastery, but it is certain that the first person who raised it to importance was the emperor Alexius Comnenus III of Trebizond; he rebuilt it in 1360, and richly endowed it. The golden bull of that emperor, which became thenceforth the charter of its foundation, is still preserved; it is one of the finest specimens of such documents, and contains portraits of Alexius himself and his queen. The monastery also possesses the firman of Mahommed II by which he accorded his protection to the monks when he became master of the country.

SAMSUN (ancient Amisus) The chief town of the Janik sanjak of the Trebizond vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated on the S. coast of the Black Sea between the deltas of the Kizil and Yeshil Irmaks. Population is about 15,000, two-thirds Christian. It is connected by metalled roads with Sivas and Kaisarieh, and by sea with Constantinople. It is a thriving town, and the outlet for the trade of the Sivas vilayet. Steamers lie about 1 mile from the shore in an open roadstead, and in winter landing is sometimes impossible. Its district is one of the principal sources of Turkish tobacco, a whole variety of which is known as "Samsun". Samsun exports cereals, tobacco and wool. Both exports and imports are about stationary, the Angora -railway having neutralised any tendency to rise. Amisus, which stood on a promontory about 15 m. N.W. of Samsun, was, next to Sinope, the most flourishing of the Greek settlements on the Euxine, and under the kings of Pontus it was a rich trading town. By the 1st century A.D. it had displaced Sinope as the N. port of the great trade route from Central Asia, and later it was one of the chief towns of the Comneni of Trebizond. There are still a few remains of the Greek settlement.

TOKAT (Armenian Evtoghia, ancient Dazimon) The chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Sivas vilayet of Asia Minor. It is situated in the Sivas-Samsun chausee, altitude 2280 feet, at the mouth of a rocky glen which opens out to the broad valley of the Tozanli Su, a tributary of the Yeshil Irmak. It rose to importance under the Seljuks. Population is about 30,000, two-thirds Mussulman. The industries are the manufacture of copper utensils and yellow leather, and the stamping of colours on white Manchester cotton. Near Tokat copper pyrites, with iron and manganese, kaolin and coal are found; but most of the copper worked here comes from the mines of Keban Maden and Arghana Maden, on the upper Euphrates and Tigris.

KARA-HISSAR SHARKI (Eastern Kara-Hissar) Also called Shabin Kara-Hissar from the alum mines in its vicinity, the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Sivas vilayet of Asia Minor. Population is about 12,000, two-thirds Mussulman. It is the Roman Colonia, which gradually superseded Pompeys foundation, Nicopolis, whose ruins lie at Purkh about 12 miles W. (hence Kara-Hissar is called Nikopoli by the Armenians). In later Byzantine times it was an important frontier station, and did not pass into Ottoman hands till twelve years after the capture of Constantinople. The town, altitude 4860 ft., is built round the foot of a lofty rock, upon which stand the ruins of the Byzantine castle, Maurocastron, the Kara Hissar Daula of early Moslem chroniclers. It is connected with its port, Kerasund, and with Sivas, Erzingan and Erzerum, by carriage roads.