Mazgirt

Mazgirt

Mazgirt is one of the oldest settlements due to its geographical location. The history of the district goes back to the Bronze Age. The region came under the rule of the Hurrians in the 2200s BC, the Hittites who advanced to Syria in 1375-1335 BC, and the Urartians who dominated the Harput (Elazığ) region in the 9th century BC when the Hittite state collapsed. Mazgirt Castle and Bağın Castle belong to the Urartian period. The Medes, who destroyed the Assyrian and Urartu states in the 560s BC, dominated the entire Tunceli region, including Mazgirt. When the Medes were eliminated by the Persians in the 550s BC, the region came under the rule of the Persians, and as a result of the defeats of the Persian armies against Alexander in 334-332 BC, the region came under the rule of Macedonia. Later, the region changed hands from time to time between Cappadocia and the Romans. The dominance of the Roman Empire continued for a long time, and after the empire was divided into Eastern and Western Romans in 395, Mazgirt remained within the borders of the Byzantine Empire. After the Sasanian Empire captured Erzurum and Diyarbakır in 503 under the rule of Kubat the First, the Tunceli region constantly changed hands between the Sassanids, Byzantium and Arabs until 1071. Artukoğulları, who captured the Harput castle in 1115, put an end to the dominance of Çubukoğulları and took control of the entire southern part of Tunceli, including the Mazgirt district. In 1100-1200, Mengüçler dominated the region. In 1228, when the Anatolian Seljuk ruler Alaeddin Keykubad I put an end to the sovereignty of the Mengüç tribe, the district came under the sovereignty of the Anatolian Seljuk State. Bağın Castle, located near Bağın (Dedebağ) village, remained under the control of the Seljuks during this period. With the defeat of the Anatolian Seljuk State by the Mongols, the region came under the control of the Mongols in 1243. Many principalities emerged during this period. In 1300, Akkoyunlus dominated the region. After Fatih Sultan Mehmet defeated the Akkoyunlus in the Otlukbeli war in 1473, the region came under the rule of the Ottomans. Ottoman rule was consolidated in 1514 when Yavuz Sultan Selim defeated Shah Ismail in the Battle of Çaldıran. Mazgirt was a township of the Çemişkezek sanjak in the 1530 census. The settlement, which was the town center in the census of 1541, became a sanjak center after this date and was given as a yurt and a hearth to the sons of Pir Hüseyin Bey in the Mazgirt Sanjak. In 1663, the privilege given to the generation of Pir Hüseyin Bey was abolished, and the sanjak status was also abolished, turned into mukataa and began to be ruled by Voivodes. According to the Cizye Book records of 1691, 53 men who were paying jizya lived in the settlement, which had a Muslim and non-Muslim population in the 17th century.