Hoşap Castle (, , ) is a large 17th-century castle located in the village of Hoşab, Gürpınar District, Van,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It is at a distance of approximately 50 km to the city center of Van.

History

The castle was built upon the foundations of a medieval

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

fortress, preceded by an Urartian stronghold, with the eastern stretches and towers preserving the layout of the original Armenian structure. The Armenian structure had only two walls, one located near the keep and one at the present-day intermediate walls. Most of the surviving masonry, including the entrance tower and outer walls, was built or rebuilt in 1649 by Sarı Süleyman Bey, chief of the Kurdish Mahmudi tribe. The Mahmudi tribe which occupied the fortress of Hoşap were originally of Yezidi origin and migrated to the region from the

Jazira Region The Jazira Region, formerly Jazira Canton (; ; ), is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As part of the ongoing Rojava conflict, its democratic autonomy was off ...

. Hoşap means "fresh water" in Persian. The fortress received its name from the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

of the same name. It was mentioned by 13th century

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

chronicler Yakut by the name ''Khavshab'' in the Ashevatsyats province of Vaspurakan. The former town of Hoşap lay on the flat ground north of the castle rock and in the enclosed space on the opposite side of the castle from the road; the present village extends into this space. The town was defended at one corner by the castle and elsewhere by a wall, which originally started from the ends of the castle’s two cliffs. Built of mud, and toothed with the remains of mud battlements, the wall of the early Ottoman period can still be seen in stretches. On the north of the former town it now starts from a point beyond but the line of the cliff, near the Van road and extends along a natural ridge eastwards. From the castle’s southerly cliff the wall crosses the low saddle to the north-east. The two walls meet at the summit of the next hill, in order to keep control of all the land commanding the town. Beyond this hill’s summit stretches a seemingly empty expanse of low, spreading hills. Until the 1850s, the fortress-city of Khoshab had about 1,500 families, including 1,000

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

. The Armenians of Khoshab were engaged in agriculture, crafts, and trade and had two churches within the fortress that were destroyed upon their expulsion, while the Kurds were mostly engaged in

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

. Until 1847, semi-independent Kurdish beys also resided there, but in the same year the Ottoman government, occupying the fortress, abolished their semi-independent rule.

Gallery

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References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * Archaeological sites in Eastern Anatolia Castles in Van Province History of Van Province 1640s establishments in the Ottoman Empire Kurdish historical sites

External links

{{Category Commons, Hoşap Castle

History

Further reading

Gallery

References

Bibliography

External links