Malazgirt

Malazgirt (Malazgird) is a historical settlement in the Mus region, dating back to the Seljuk-Byzantine War of 1071, which was one of the turning points in the history of the Kurdish dynasty of the Mervans and recorded as an accident during the Ottoman period in which the majority of the population was Kurdish (Volume 1, s. 132; Volume 4, s. 113). Malazgirt was one of the important cities under the rule of the Mervanian dynasty in the 11th century. During this period, the Seljuks began to organize flows into Byzantine territory, the western and northern neighbourhood of the Marvans. The Seljuks became the new and defining political actor of the region; the Mervs began to index all their policies to them (Volume 1, p. 131). According to the sources, the two armies met in Zi'l-Hicce 463 / August 1071, when the negotiations between Alparslan and the Byzantine Emperor were fruitless; the resulting battle was won by Alparshlan and his Mervanian army (Volume 1, p. 132). However, it cannot be said that the Mervans were very profitable in this war, because when they returned to the land of Alparslan, they left the control of these two important cities of Mervânî as a result of the appointment of their governors to Ahlât and Malazgirt (Volume 1, p. 132). The work History (History) by the Armenian historian Aristakes Lastivertsi, an eyewitness of the period, describes the developments in the geography of Armenia up to the Malazgirt War; Aristakes was the first Armenian historical figure to record the Seljuk invasion and expedition to the region (Volume 1, p. 113). In the collection sources: from antiquity to Timur, Zekî Beg records that the Malazgirt Plain was on the historical scene well before 1071: during the time when the Assyrian king of Nayri fought with the coalition of the kings, the Malazigirt Plains were the scene of bloody battles, and the Assian king erected a large inscription describing the victories that the Tigris River won over the region (Collection: Zekîbeg, History of Kurds and Kurdistan, PDF p. 110). According to the same work, it was decided that cities such as Hoy, Selmas and Maku would join Azerbaijan in the division of the Timurid period, while cities such Asmara and Van would join Armenia (Collection: Zekî Beg, Kurds and Kurdistan History, PDF p. 36). In the Ottoman Administrative Records, Malazgirt is included among the minorities recorded in the Mufassal Tahrir Book of Hınıs, Varto, and Bulanık, which dates back to the time of Kanuni Sultan Suleyman. The book summarizes the number of mirliva, women, towns, castles, zeamet, sipahi and jebel, villages, mezraa and nefer (Volume 3, p. 24). In a book of Kamil Kepeci classification, Malazgirt is listed along with the administrative units attached to Diyarbekir province, including the Amid, Ruha, Ergani, Siverek, Hasankeyf and Besyan, Bocyan, Zilan tribes (Volume 3, p. 50). There are also records of the management of the flag: in 1036/1627, Seyad Bey, formerly the flagbearer of Tekman, was appointed to the Malazgirt flagbeard by Van Beylerbeyi (Volume 3, p. 48). A record in the Kurdish Ashiret and Nüfüs Mühimme diaries reports that the Bisyan and Bociyan tribes, who came from Diyarbekir with 300 houses to the Erzurum and Malazgirt sides, damaged the property and crops of the indigenous tribes; Behlül Bey, responsible for the aforementioned tribes was ordered to prevent the evils of the tribe (Volume 3, p. 13). According to Kamusü'l-Alam, Malazgirt is an accident related to the Mus Sanğası of Bitlis Village; of its 21,000 inhabitants 12,000 are Muslims and Kurds, the rest are Armenians (Volume 4, p. 113). ## Economic Life In the Erzurum customs records of 1768, Malazgirtli merchants are also recorded among the traders who imported silk from Iran; it is seen that Malazgirdli merchans brought 13,5 m of silk and sold it in Erzuram; these records show that merchants in Kurdistan geography were engaged in intensive trade with Iran (Volume 3, p. 37). According to the Salnames, salts were found in the villages of Hasan Pasha and Moriyan in Malazgird; salt was used both in forming the economic source of the province and in daily life and livestock production (Volume 4, p. 304). The name of the rivers in the Malazgird Cause is Badişan, Hefreng, Kasuk, Chokan and Masiyan. In modern Kurdish, Heftreng means "Seven Colors", while Masiyan means "Fishes" (Volume 4, p. 276). Records of the folk culture also reflect the salnames: when the sound of the Shekrik river was heard from far away in Malazgird and when white mist or black clouds formed on the summit of Mount Sübhan, it was believed that rain would fall (Volume 4, p. 275). In the travel records of Arifi Pasha, who served in the region between 1891-1896, Malazgirt passes between the stops of the 1895 route along with Derik, Patnos Valley, Tutak, Karakilise and Bayezid (Volume 4, p. 79).