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Turhal is a town and a district of
Tokat Province Tokat Province ( tr, ) is a province in northern Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Amasya to the northwest, Yozgat to the southwest, Sivas to the southeast, and Ordu to the northeast. Its capital is Tokat, which lies inland of the middle Black ...
in the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
region of
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
. It is 48 km in the west of Tokat Province. Turhal is situated on a fertile plain fragmented by the Yeşil Irmak river. It has an elevation of approximately 530 m. The city is best known for its sugar beet processing plant established in 1934 as an important enterprise of the young
Turkish Republic Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
.


History

The first nucleus of Turhal appeared as an important fortress or
fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...
named Talaura (Τάλαυρα in
Ancient greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
) on the way between today's
Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey and is the capital of Amasya Province, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ...
and
Tokat Tokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey in the mid-Black Sea region of Anatolia. It is located at the confluence of the Tokat River (Tokat Suyu) with the Yeşilırmak. In the 2018 census, the city of Tokat had a population of 155,00 ...
provinces. It is deduced from the tablets found in the region that Turhal had been inhabited as early as the third millennium BC and had relations as far as the Mesopotamian cultures such as
Sumerians Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
who had already invented an effective
alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
. The Persian invasion in
Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
during the 6th century BC made this region an important center influenced by the cult of
Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...
. The famous geographer of the antiquity, Strabo has, on various occasions, drawn up different accounts on the region describing Turhal as a fortress in the north of another ancient city named Gayyura. In the 3rd century BC, the region was occupied by the contingents of
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
's Macedonian army, but many insurrections had also taken place in this era as the Macedonian occupiers couldn't build up a total control on the region. After the collapse of Alexander's Empire (as Alexander died in 323 BC), the region was taken over by the
Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...
Kingdom founded on the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
coast who later had to retreat in the face of emerging Roman power in the whole Anatolia. The Pontus Kings from the Mithridates descendance constructed an even more powerful fortress on a rocky hill in the center of the outer city whose remains are only two ruined towers and several tunnels today. The struggle between the two powers lasted for decades and ended up in an absolute defeat suffered by the Pontus Kingdom. Having captured the fortress, the Roman General Pompeius destroyed it. In 395, The
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
was divided into two independent states and thus, Turhal became a
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
domain together with other eastern Roman provinces. Turhal was the site of the bishopric of Ibora which persists as a
titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...
of the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
to this day.
Evagrius Ponticus Evagrius Ponticus ( grc-gre, Εὐάγριος ὁ Ποντικός, Georgian: ევაგრე ქართველი), also called Evagrius the Solitary (345–399 AD), was a Christian monk and ascetic from Heraclea, a city on the coast ...
was born there in the mid fourth century. During the Byzantine era, the region had undergone several raids from the
Sassanids The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
in the 4th and 5th centuries, later from the Muslim
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
in the 8th century. As the constant Turkish immigration to Anatolia and the emerging Seljuk power in the neighbouring east weakened the Byzantine rule in the region, the Turkish principality of
Danishmend The Danishmendids or Danishmends ( fa, دودمان دانشمند; tr, Dânişmendliler) was a Turkish beylik that ruled in north-central and eastern Anatolia from 1071/1075 to 1178. The dynasty centered originally around Sivas, Tokat, an ...
captured Turhal and its environs in 1071 but later ceded it to the Kingdom of
Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...
(Selçuklular). In the 13th century, the whole region was invaded by the Ilkhan Emperors who extended their rule as a devastating wave from the
Middle Asia Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...
to Anatolia. In 1399, Turhal was taken over by the Ottomans who were uniting the Turkish principalities in Anatolia under their command. After a short invasion by Temur, Turhal was taken over once more by the Ottomans in 1413. The most significant change in the demographic structure of Turhal occurred during the second half of the 19th century as the town became a place of settlement for the Muslim refugees and immigrants coming from the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
and
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
due to constant military conflicts that the collapsing Ottomans got involved around those regions such as the
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
(1854–1878) and the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878.


Today's Turhal

As mentioned above, Turhal is best known for its sugar beet processing plant established in 1934. But today Turhal's economy depends on much diverted business sectors such as
textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
, animal feed and
dairy products Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in ...
. Turhal also has a machine works which provides an important income to the town. Today, Turhal is becoming important with its natural
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
deposits and marble processing industries. Traditionally,
stockbreeding Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...
and other agricultural activities still keep their importance too. According to the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
taken in 1997, the total population of Turhal is more than 115,000 and is still on the increase.


Gallery

File:Turhal 2004 1885.jpg, Turhal Central Mosque File:Turhal 2004 1886.jpg, Turhal view of Kale Hill File:Turhal 2004 1890.jpg, Turhal view of Kale Hill File:Turhal 2004 1887.jpg, Turhal Yeşilırmak view File:Turhal 2004 1896.jpg, Turhal Yeşilırmak view File:Turhal 2004 1900.jpg, Turhal from Kale Hill File:Turhal 2004 1901.jpg, Turhal from Kale Hill File:Turhal 2004 1906.jpg, Turhal from Kale Hill File:Turhal 2004 1902.jpg, Turhal mine entrance File:Turhal 2004 1913.jpg, Turhal old houses File:Turhal 2004 1916.jpg, Turhal old houses


See also

* Ibora


References


External links


Turhal images from D.Osseman's archivesDistrict governor's official websiteDistrict municipality's official website
{{Authority control Populated places in Tokat Province Districts of Tokat Province