Adilcevaz (, ku, Elcewaz) is a town and district capital of the same-named district within
Bitlis Province
Bitlis Province ( tr, , , ku, Parêzgeha Bidlîsê) is a province of eastern Turkey, located to the west of Lake Van. The province is considered part of Western Armenia by Armenians. The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has ...
of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. The city is on the shore of
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...
. The mayor is Necati Gürsoy from the
AKP.
The famous Kef castle built by the
Urarteans lies near Adilcevaz.
Monastery of the Miracles
Monastery of the Miracles also known as Monastery of Ardzgue () is a destroyed Armenian monastery on the hills in 2.18 miles northwest of Adilcevaz in Bitlis province of modern Turkey, to the north of Lake Van.
History
The monastery is mentione ...
is 2.18 miles northwest of Adilcevaz in the hills to the north of Lake Van.
History
The medieval town of Adilcevaz, under the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
and then the
Seljuk Empire
The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turko-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total are ...
, was located on and around the steep hill by the lake.
Some fragments of the town walls from this period are still visible.
An inscription naming the 15th-century
Qara Qoyunlu
The Qara Qoyunlu or Kara Koyunlu ( az, Qaraqoyunlular , fa, قره قویونلو), also known as the Black Sheep Turkomans, were a culturally Persianate, Muslim Turkoman "Kara Koyunlu, also spelled Qara Qoyunlu, Turkish Karakoyunlular, Eng ...
ruler
Jahan Shah
''Muzaffar al-Din'' Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf (1397 in Khoy or 1405 in Mardin – 30 October or 11 November 1467 in Bingöl) ( fa, جهان شاه; az, Cahanşah ) was the leader of the Qara Qoyunlu Oghuz Turkic tribal confederacy in Azerbaijan and Ar ...
was made by the old city's west gate, but he is "unlikely to have contributed much to the walls" - they were probably built before the Seljuks and then renovated 1231-43 during Seljuk rule.
A small mosque from perhaps the 14th or 15th century is the only building that still stands in this area.
There was also a suburban area beyond the walls, mostly to the south - which is now underwater.
One inhabited area was apparently left isolated as rising water levels turned it into an island at some point.
During the late middle ages, water levels rose again, and the suburban areas to the south were abandoned in favor of the flat land around the area where the
Ottoman-era
Ulu Cami
A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.*
*
*
*
*
*
*
...
was later built.
Probably by the late 16th century, when the Ottoman mosque was built, the southern island had also been submerged.
The old walled area was "no longer viable as a town center", although there were still some houses here.
Most likely, the nine-domed Ottoman mosque was built to reflect the town's shift rather than to encourage it; most of the suburbs had probably already relocated before its construction.
Another monument from about the same time is the now-mostly-ruined
han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
in the nearby village of Kohoz (officially Yolçatı).
The han is locally attributed to Zal Paşa (d. 1580), who was
sanjak-bey
''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' ( ota, سنجاق بك) () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak' ...
of Adilcevaz at the time of
Süleyman I's
campaign against the Safavids in 1548-9, but there is no other archaeological or textual evidence to validate this.
In recent centuries, Adilcevaz has shifted again, this time from the old Ottoman town center to its present-day location 1 km further east.
An earthquake in the late 1800s caused flooding that destroyed many houses by the lake shore, which probably contributed to this second shift.
An account in 1879 noted that the small older mosque was no longer being used as a place of worship; it was then used for grain storage.
It has since been heavily restored.
In 1979, T.A. Sinclair wrote that there were "only bad hotels in Adilcevaz".
Neighbourhoods
* Akyazı
* Akçıra
* Aygırgölü
* Aşağısüphan
* Bahçedere
* Cihangir
* Dizdar
* Erikbağı
* Esenkıyı
* Göldüzü
* Gölüstü
* Gümüşdüven
* Harmantepe
* Heybeli
* Karakolköy
* Karaşeyh
* Karşıyaka
* Kavuştuk
* Kömürlü
* Mollafadıl
* Sefasahil
* Yarımadaköyü
* Yolçatı
* Yukarısüphan
* Yıldızköy
* Çanakyayla
* Örentaş
* İpekçayır
References
External links
The Armenian "monastery of the Miracles" at Adilcevaz
{{Authority control
Towns in Turkey
Populated places in Bitlis Province
Districts of Bitlis Province
Kurdish settlements in Turkey