Town · Harput: the Artuqids of Harput · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Harput

Harput is a fortress-town on a high rock above the plain that is now Elazig, north of the Taurus near the meeting of the Murat and the Euphrates.

The Cubukid emirs held it from about 1085, the Artuqid Belek from the 1110s, then the Hisn Kayfa Artuqids, and since 1185 its own Artuqid emir. Its Great Mosque, opposite the citadel, carries a tax inscription of 541 AH (1146-47); TDV credits it to Fakhr al-Din Qara Arslan, the present emir's father, while Wikipedia credits Cubuk or his son (attested 1107). By the late 11th century Harput had overtaken old Arsamosata as the main town of the district.

Who holds it

Name
Imad al-Din Abu Bakr son of Qara Arslan
Title
Emir of Harput
Since
581 AH (1185)
Family
Artuqid
Confidence
high

See Abu Bakr of Harput.

Lord in 1200

Imad al-Din Abu Bakr in person.

Allies and rivals

See Harput.

How things stand that morning

Seat of Abu Bakr.

Wealth

The plain.

Threats

  • Seljuk Malatya next door from 1201.

Charter

None: a lord's town, not a commune.

Council

No council recorded; the lord's governor (shihna or subashi) and the judge (qadi).

Communities

A mainly Armenian and Syriac Christian population drawn from the villages and from Arsamosata, with the emir's Muslim garrison and officials (Wikipedia); numbers not recorded.

Fairs and markets

None recorded for 1200.

Militia

The lord's garrison in the citadel.

Walls and castle

The citadel on its rock (perhaps wholly rebuilt by an Artuqid prince in the early 1200s, so its 1200 form is not known); the town walls on the ridge.

Trade and crafts

Grain and vines of the plain; the roads from Malatya and Erzincan to Amid and the Jazira.

Places of note

  • Great Mosque of Harput: Tax inscription of 541 AH (1146-47).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Few sources for the town in 1200.

On the map: Near land only; the plain is drawn under Abu Bakr of Harput.

Primary sources for Harput

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
  • The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
  • The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Harput' (M. A. Unal), 1997
  2. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Artuklular'
  3. Wikipedia, 'Harput'

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.