Bitlis

Bitlis occupies a narrow valley southwest of Lake Van, where roads descend from the Armenian highlands towards Mesopotamia. A castle dominates the town and its streams, bridges and stone buildings. For centuries Bitlis was the seat of a Kurdish princely house whose rulers balanced local authority against the ambitions of the larger states surrounding them. Armenian Christians and Muslims formed part of the town's varied population.

The principality changed hands amid the struggles of the Aq Qoyunlu, Safavids and Ottomans. In 1578 Sultan Murad III restored Sharaf Khan to the hereditary rule of Bitlis. A prince as well as a scholar, he composed the Persian-language Sharafnama in 1597, recording the histories of Kurdish dynasties, including his own. His work preserved accounts of the many rulers and communities of the region. In the seventeenth century the wealthy emir Abdal Khan entertained the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi, who described the court and town. Relations with the Ottoman governor of Van later broke down, and imperial forces moved against the emir. Bitlis remained a centre of local rule and culture amid the rivalries that repeatedly drew armies through its mountain passes.