Ahlat

Template: Infobox city in Turkey / Maintenance / County

Ahlat ( in the past also known as Chlat ) is the county town of the district Ahlat the Turkish province of Bitlis and is located on the western shore of Lake Van. Ahlat has a population of 21,122 inhabitants, which is composed largely of Turkmens. Ahlat lies on the route between the Suphan Dagi and the Nemrutvulkan. Besides today's Ahlat there is a medieval Ahlat, which is now in ruins.

Culture

Ahlat in its history was, among other things, the capital of the Turkish Ahlatschahs which shaped the city culturally and architecturally. Thus one finds in Ahlat traces of Seljuk and Turkmen architecture. Ahlat is known for its cemetery with grave stones in türkmenischen mutton form from the 12th to the 15th century. Efforts will be made to explain this place, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Name

About the origin of the name there is a legend: After an attack of the Medes, the city fell and the king Lat was seriously injured. When his daughter saw him, she exclaimed in horror, " Ah! Lat, Ah! Lat". This screams penetrated up to the Medes, who called from now on the city Ahlat.

The Urartian called the city Halads, the Medes and Persians Ahlat, the Turks Hilat, the Armenians Şaleat, the Assyrians Kelath, the Byzantines and the Arabs Chliat Achlat. The Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi called Ahlat once pearl in Anatolia.

History

Ahlat was for a time part of the Armenian kingdom. After the invasion of the Muslim Arabs in eastern Anatolia in the 7th century Ahlat was ruled for the next four centuries, under a contract of Arab governors and autonomous Armenian prince. In the year 983 Ahlat was conquered by the Kurdish Marwaniden. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, in which the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines, Sultan Alp Arslan Ahlat took them. The Seljuks followed in 1100 by the dynasty of the Ahlatschahs, which was defeated by the Ayyubid al - Adil I. 1207. The Ayyubid Ahlat was attacked twice by the Georgians. 1230, the city fell after six months of siege in the Khorezm Shah Jalal ad-Din, who was defeated shortly thereafter by a coalition of Ayyubid and Rum - Seljuks.

End of the 13th century Ahlat then became part of the Mongol Ilchanats. In 1246 the city was hit by earthquake and largely destroyed. Ahlat that was dominated by various Turkish dynasties, was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I.. 1548 conquered the Iranian Shah Tahmasp I. the city and devastated it. He lost Ahlat but again Selim's successor, Suleiman I, who built a citadel outside the city by the lake. To the citadel, which was 1554/55 completed, a new town came. Until 1847, when the Ottoman Empire abolished all independent princes, Ahlat was under the rule of Kurdish vassals. During the First World War, the city was a contested area between the Ottomans and the Russians; Since 1923 it belongs to Turkey.