Hemsin
Encyclopedia
Hemşin is a town and district of Rize Province
in the Black Sea region of Turkey
, 57 km from the city of Rize
.
Hemşin is a district of green hills 19 km inland from the Black Sea
.
and was a site of early Greek settlements and once part of the Roman Empire
and the succeeding Byzantine Empire
.
The Hemshin region is shown as part of Kolkhis (299 AD- 387 AD), Tzannoi ( 387 AD – 591 AD) and Khaldiya ( 654 AD – 750 AD). The specific location of Hemşin is indicated as Tambur/Hamamašen as a fort and town for the first time in the map covering the period 654-750.
Those two names (Tambur and Hamamašen ) are included in the History of Taron by Ps. Hovhannes Mamikonian in a short passage about a war between the ruler of Tambur, Hamam, and his maternal uncle the Georgian Prince, which resulted in the destruction of the town to be rebuild by Hamam and be named after him namely Hamamshen. This event is declared by Mamikonian to have taken place in early seventh century. Hamamashen became with time Hamshen. The Swiiss-American history specialist Hovann H. Simonian who conveys this story reports also that the date given by the author may be wrong.
Two other Armenian chronicles Ghevond and Stephan Asoghik of Taron, report in short passages in their histories about a migration from Armenia/Oshakan led by prince Shapuh Amatuni and his son Hamam. Ghevond conveys this immigration to be to avoid heavy taxes imposed on Armenians by the Arab rulers. The Amatuni lords are offered fertile land to settle down by the Byzantine Emperor, after they crossed the Corukh river. This migration is dated to be after 789 by Ghevond and as 750 by Stephan Asoghik of Taron.
Benninghaus specifies “Tambur” as the destination of the migration led by Hamam and his father Shapuh Amaduni and says that they have seemingly met people there who were already Christians, possibly Greeks. Redgate informs about possible symbolism used in the Ghewond’s history and possible garbling in Mamikonian’s history, and cautions not to take everything at face value. Hachikian states “There is no clue as to where Tambur, the legendary capital of Hamshen, was located. The only certain thing about it is that it clearly belonged to a much earlier time- if it existed at all”. He also mentions in the footnote the name similarity between Tambur and a yayla known as Tahpur or Tagpur, located in the heights of Kaptanpasa. Simonian states that Tambur is probably in the vicinity of Varoşkale (altitude 1800 m).
A description of "Haynsen" in the Kingdom of Georgia, its inhabitants and history is contained in "La Fleur des histoires de la terre d'Orient" by Hetu'm of Corycos, written around 1307, translated into English in 1520, and later reproduced in the travellers' tales of Samuel Purchas published in 1614. Purrchas uses the term "Hamsem" to designate the region and concludes that this is the place of the original Cimmerian gloom of Homer
's Odyssey
The translation of He'tums related passage to modern English uses the term Hamshen.
He'tum describes the region to be "miraculous and strange place" unbelievable unless seen by own eyes, dark and without roads. Signs of human settlement are that "...People in those parts say that one frequently hears the sounds of men bellowing, of cocks crowing, of horses neighing in the forest,"
Those people are described by He'tum, leaning upon Georgian and Armenian Histories, to be the descendants of the men of the "wicked" Iranian Emperor Shaworeos who had chased and harassed Christian people.
The referenced translation suggests this Emperor
could be Shapuhr II, [A.D. 309-79].
Simonian considers the so described difficulty in access not to imply total isolation. On the contrary, he reports, Hemshin served sometimes as a transit route between the coastal regions and the Armenian plateau.
Further theories of medieval settlement to Hemşin are that
Sources of the ruling powers in the region, (Byzantine Trapezuntine, Georgian, Armenian and Turkish) are silent about Hemshin; until the conquest by the Ottomans. It is deduced that Hemşin has been governed by local lords under the umbrella of the greater regional powers changing by the time namely the Bagratid Armenian kingdom, the Byzantine Empire, its successor the Empire of Trebizond, the Georgian Kingdom, the Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu Turkmen Confederations until it was annexed by the Ottoman Empire which collapsed as a result of the WW1 and gave birth to the Republic of Turkey.
The Ottoman conquest of Hamshen occurred sometime in the 1480s: an Ottoman register dated around 1486 calls it Hemshin and mentions it as being an Ottoman possession.
The present community of Hemşinli thus surfacing is exclusively of Islam faith and Turkish speaking. This goes for the people living in Hemşin or people still maintaining links to the area although they live all over in Turkey.
A distinct community settled about 50 km east of Hemşin in 22 or 23 villages around Hopa and Borçka call themselves also “Hemşinli” and they are often referred to as the “Hopa Hemşinli”. Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux at the University of Cambridge refers to this group as the “Eastern Hamshenis”. Hemşinli and Hopa Hemşinli are separated not only by geography but also by language and some features of culture and are almost oblivious to one anothers existence. Simonian reports about existence of various theories regarding the appearance of the Hope Hemshinli group. Those are related to whether they migrated from Hemshin or they were settled by the Ottoman authorities; whether the migration/settlement was early 16th or late 17th centuries;
whether the migration took place in one step or two waves. The Hopa Hemşinli are Muslims as well, although they tend to be regarded as "lax" in their attitude to religion.
Simonian reports that there is a controversy regarding whether they arrived in the Hopa region as Moslems or converted to Islam after arrival.
The Hopa Hemşinli speak a language called "Hemşince" or (“Homşetsi” and/or Homshetsma in some sources). This language is a dialect of Western Armenian, influenced by Turkish and Laz, to the extent that it is almost mutually unintelligible with mainstream Armenian.
In addition to these groups there are people speaking Hemşince / Homshetsma in the countries of the former USSR whose ancestors have probably originated from Hemşin and/or Hopa Hemşin in course of the various population movements to the Caucasus.
Those among them who confess to the Islam have been deported from the Adjara area of Georgia at the Stalin era to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A considerable number of these deportees have moved to Krasnodar Krai since 1989, along with the Meskhetians.
Most of those of Christian faith currently live in Abkhazia and in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, in particular, the Sochi area, and Adygeya.
Rize Province
Rize Province is a province of north-east Turkey, on the eastern Black Sea coast between Trabzon and Artvin. Its capital is the city of Rize.-Geography:...
in the Black Sea region of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, 57 km from the city of Rize
Rize
Rize is the capital of Rize Province, in northeast Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.-Etymology:The name comes from Greek or Ριζαίον , meaning "mountain slopes". In modern times, its name in Greek was usually Ριζούντα . Its Latin forms are Rhizus and Rhizaeum...
.
Hemşin is a district of green hills 19 km inland from the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
.
History
As part of the Rize province, Hemshin had been a refuge for some CimmeriansCimmerians
The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.According to the Greek historian Herodotus, of the 5th century BC, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, in what is now Ukraine and Russia...
and was a site of early Greek settlements and once part of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and the succeeding Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
History until the Ottoman Conquest
The American historian Robert H. Hewsen shows the region where today's Hemshin is located to be populated by a people with different ethnic background throughout the ancient and early medieval history. He indicates thereby that some designations may have alternative forms and partially presents the names used with question marks. In summary from 13th century to 6th century BC Kolkhians, 550 to 330 BC Kolkhiansa and Makrones, 180 BC to 14 AD Laz (Chanian tribes), in the Arsacid Period (63 AD-298 AD) Heniokhians, Makhelones, Heptakometians, Mossynoikins as well as Sannians, Drilles and,Makrones are mentioned.The Hemshin region is shown as part of Kolkhis (299 AD- 387 AD), Tzannoi ( 387 AD – 591 AD) and Khaldiya ( 654 AD – 750 AD). The specific location of Hemşin is indicated as Tambur/Hamamašen as a fort and town for the first time in the map covering the period 654-750.
Those two names (Tambur and Hamamašen ) are included in the History of Taron by Ps. Hovhannes Mamikonian in a short passage about a war between the ruler of Tambur, Hamam, and his maternal uncle the Georgian Prince, which resulted in the destruction of the town to be rebuild by Hamam and be named after him namely Hamamshen. This event is declared by Mamikonian to have taken place in early seventh century. Hamamashen became with time Hamshen. The Swiiss-American history specialist Hovann H. Simonian who conveys this story reports also that the date given by the author may be wrong.
Two other Armenian chronicles Ghevond and Stephan Asoghik of Taron, report in short passages in their histories about a migration from Armenia/Oshakan led by prince Shapuh Amatuni and his son Hamam. Ghevond conveys this immigration to be to avoid heavy taxes imposed on Armenians by the Arab rulers. The Amatuni lords are offered fertile land to settle down by the Byzantine Emperor, after they crossed the Corukh river. This migration is dated to be after 789 by Ghevond and as 750 by Stephan Asoghik of Taron.
Benninghaus specifies “Tambur” as the destination of the migration led by Hamam and his father Shapuh Amaduni and says that they have seemingly met people there who were already Christians, possibly Greeks. Redgate informs about possible symbolism used in the Ghewond’s history and possible garbling in Mamikonian’s history, and cautions not to take everything at face value. Hachikian states “There is no clue as to where Tambur, the legendary capital of Hamshen, was located. The only certain thing about it is that it clearly belonged to a much earlier time- if it existed at all”. He also mentions in the footnote the name similarity between Tambur and a yayla known as Tahpur or Tagpur, located in the heights of Kaptanpasa. Simonian states that Tambur is probably in the vicinity of Varoşkale (altitude 1800 m).
A description of "Haynsen" in the Kingdom of Georgia, its inhabitants and history is contained in "La Fleur des histoires de la terre d'Orient" by Hetu'm of Corycos, written around 1307, translated into English in 1520, and later reproduced in the travellers' tales of Samuel Purchas published in 1614. Purrchas uses the term "Hamsem" to designate the region and concludes that this is the place of the original Cimmerian gloom of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
The translation of He'tums related passage to modern English uses the term Hamshen.
He'tum describes the region to be "miraculous and strange place" unbelievable unless seen by own eyes, dark and without roads. Signs of human settlement are that "...People in those parts say that one frequently hears the sounds of men bellowing, of cocks crowing, of horses neighing in the forest,"
Those people are described by He'tum, leaning upon Georgian and Armenian Histories, to be the descendants of the men of the "wicked" Iranian Emperor Shaworeos who had chased and harassed Christian people.
The referenced translation suggests this Emperor
could be Shapuhr II, [A.D. 309-79].
Simonian considers the so described difficulty in access not to imply total isolation. On the contrary, he reports, Hemshin served sometimes as a transit route between the coastal regions and the Armenian plateau.
Further theories of medieval settlement to Hemşin are that
- following the Seljukid Turks occupation, Ani Armenians have fled to Hemshin which had never seen any human face before;
- there has been continuous influx of Armenians from the South following the initial settlement; resulting in an armenisation of the area through expelling local Tzan population and
- the armenization of the Tzan people took place through ruling dynasties in the South.
Sources of the ruling powers in the region, (Byzantine Trapezuntine, Georgian, Armenian and Turkish) are silent about Hemshin; until the conquest by the Ottomans. It is deduced that Hemşin has been governed by local lords under the umbrella of the greater regional powers changing by the time namely the Bagratid Armenian kingdom, the Byzantine Empire, its successor the Empire of Trebizond, the Georgian Kingdom, the Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu Turkmen Confederations until it was annexed by the Ottoman Empire which collapsed as a result of the WW1 and gave birth to the Republic of Turkey.
The Ottoman conquest of Hamshen occurred sometime in the 1480s: an Ottoman register dated around 1486 calls it Hemshin and mentions it as being an Ottoman possession.
Demographics
The Ottoman era has witnessed two major developments in the Hemshin region: Islamization and population movements. Islam faith has commenced to spread possibly prior to the Ottoman rule but it has become the general religion not before the end of the 16 th century. A number of population movements (both into and out of the region) are also known to have happened during the Ottoman era. Even though detailed information regarding the nature of these movements is missing, in summary:- there has been some emigration from Hemşin of Hemşinli belonging to the Armenian church to western counties of the eastern Blacksea region during the earlier centuries of the Ottoman rule,
- some emigration by Hemşinli of İslam faith to western Anatolia as well as to the Caucasus has taken place as a result of Turco-Russia wars and the accomponying hardships in the 19 th century,
- there have been some immigration into the area during the Ottoman rule.
The present community of Hemşinli thus surfacing is exclusively of Islam faith and Turkish speaking. This goes for the people living in Hemşin or people still maintaining links to the area although they live all over in Turkey.
A distinct community settled about 50 km east of Hemşin in 22 or 23 villages around Hopa and Borçka call themselves also “Hemşinli” and they are often referred to as the “Hopa Hemşinli”. Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux at the University of Cambridge refers to this group as the “Eastern Hamshenis”. Hemşinli and Hopa Hemşinli are separated not only by geography but also by language and some features of culture and are almost oblivious to one anothers existence. Simonian reports about existence of various theories regarding the appearance of the Hope Hemshinli group. Those are related to whether they migrated from Hemshin or they were settled by the Ottoman authorities; whether the migration/settlement was early 16th or late 17th centuries;
whether the migration took place in one step or two waves. The Hopa Hemşinli are Muslims as well, although they tend to be regarded as "lax" in their attitude to religion.
Simonian reports that there is a controversy regarding whether they arrived in the Hopa region as Moslems or converted to Islam after arrival.
The Hopa Hemşinli speak a language called "Hemşince" or (“Homşetsi” and/or Homshetsma in some sources). This language is a dialect of Western Armenian, influenced by Turkish and Laz, to the extent that it is almost mutually unintelligible with mainstream Armenian.
In addition to these groups there are people speaking Hemşince / Homshetsma in the countries of the former USSR whose ancestors have probably originated from Hemşin and/or Hopa Hemşin in course of the various population movements to the Caucasus.
Those among them who confess to the Islam have been deported from the Adjara area of Georgia at the Stalin era to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A considerable number of these deportees have moved to Krasnodar Krai since 1989, along with the Meskhetians.
Most of those of Christian faith currently live in Abkhazia and in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, in particular, the Sochi area, and Adygeya.