Harput

Harput crowns a rocky height above the fertile plain of the upper Euphrates. Its fortress, known to Armenians as Kharberd, guarded a town whose churches, mosques, markets and workshops reflected a long history of settlement. Under the Artuqids the city became a princely centre, and its Great Mosque, built in the twelfth century, stood among the monuments of that era.

Rival powers fought over Harput in the later Middle Ages. Uzun Hasan took it for the Aq Qoyunlu in 1465; his mother Sara Hatun endowed a mosque bearing her name. The Safavids seized the city in 1507, and the Ottomans acquired it after the battle of Chaldiran. As a sancak centre, Harput retained its administrative importance and served the surrounding towns and villages. By the eighteenth century the district was connected to the administration of the Keban mines. In 1834 the governor moved his residence to Mezre on the plain below, and some inhabitants followed. The old fortress and the buildings around it remained a reminder of the city's long role as a stronghold and meeting place of communities in eastern Anatolia.