Ahlat (; ) is a town in Turkey's Bitlis Province in Eastern Anatolia region. It is the seat of Ahlat District. The town had a population of 27,563 in 2021. The town of Ahlat is situated on the northwestern shore of Lake Van. The mayor is Abdulalim Mümtaz Çoban (AKP).
Geography In terms of size, Khlat (Ahlat) was second only to Van among the cities located on the shores of Lake Van. It is situated on the western coast of the lake, on an elevated plateau, with several small rivers and streams rushing toward Lake Van through its eastern and western parts. Its location is picturesque. To the south, the panorama of the city is enhanced by Lake Van (which was also called the Lake of Khlat), while to the southwest and northwest, the beacons of the Muş and Manazkert plains—Mount Nemrut and Mount Sipan—bound the city's horizon. History Ahlat is one of the oldest settlements in Armenia, and it is difficult to determine exactly when it was founded. Initially, it was mentioned as a town (village-town), but it later transformed into a major city that had its own strong fortress and was considered the largest port on Lake Van.
Dozens of Armenian and foreign chroniclers provide extensive information about Khlat, including Stepanos Asoghik, Aristakes Lastivertsi, Vardan Areveltsi, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, Grigor Khlatetsi, Matthew of Edessa, Yaqut, Ibn al-Athir, John Skylitzes, and others. Aristakes Lastivertsi considers it one of the largest cities in 11th-century Armenia, while the famous Arabic chronicler Yaqut describes Ahlat as a "strong and renowned city," "endowed with all kinds of blessings." They speak of it with particularly high praise as a port and a well-fortified fortress-city. The city's defensive wall was commonly described as a massive, turreted structure with three gates.
Authors from different periods and nationalities have referred to Khlat by various names and variations of the same name, such as Allarkh, Ikhlat, and others. In ancient Armenian literature, it was sometimes called the "City of Bznunik" (or Kaghak Bznunyats). The Turks usually call it Ahlat, a name they adopted from the Arabs. According to the 11th-century Arabic chronicler Ibn al-Athir, the Arabs called the city Khlat (meaning "mixed") supposedly because its inhabitants were not homogenous and spoke three languages: Arabic, Persian, and Armenian.
Ahlat, which was known in ancient and medieval times by its Armenian names Khlat or Chliat, was once a part of the Bznunik province. During the period of the Armenian Kingdom from the first to the fifth centuries and subsequently until the last quarter of the eighth century, Ahlat belonged to the Bznuni noble house and served as the chief city of the Bznunik province. Following the anti-Arab rebellion of 773–775, when the Bznuni family, along with several other Armenian noble houses, lost their political influence, the Bznunik province and its center, Ahlat, passed under the control of the Bagratunis of Taron by the late eighth or early ninth century. During the reign of King Smbat I Bagratuni from 890 to 914, the city was fully liberated from Arab rule, and its ancient, pre-existing fortress was reconstructed.Ter-Ghewondyan, Aram N. The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia. Trans. Nina G. Garsoïan. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1976, pp. 32, 144. Approximately around this period, along with numerous other Armenian cities, Ahlat entered its era of resurgence, and within a relatively short span of time during the tenth and eleventh centuries, it grew into one of the country's largest and most populous cities. The city was first captured by the Arabs during the reign of Caliph Uthman between 644 and 656. In 645, Uthman ordered Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria, to send Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri on an expedition into Byzantine-controlled Armenia, though some sources claim the Caliph instructed Habib directly. Over the next four centuries, Ahlat was ruled alternatively by Arab governors, Armenian princes, and Arab emirs of the Qays tribe. At the beginning of the eighth century, Arab tribes settled in the region, and Ahlat became part of the Kaysite Emirate. The geographer Ibn Hawqal, who died around 978, mentioned Ahlat as an important stop on the Urmia-Mayyafariqin trade route. By around 983, Ahlat came under the control of the Kurdish leader Bāḏ, who is referred to as Bat in Armenian sources, and after this, the city became associated with the Kurdish Marwanid dynasty centered in Diyarbekir, which descended from Bāḏ. In the winter of 998, Curopalates David III of Tao, besieged Ahlat but failed to capture it, partly due to his dismissive attitude toward the local Armenian population.Ter-Ghewondyan, ''The Arab Emirates in Bagratid Armenia, pp. 113, 139. In 1057, after breaking ties with Emperor Michael VI, the Norman mercenary Herve Phrangopoulos retreated here with three hundred Norman knights, but he was ultimately betrayed by the city's emir, Aponosar, also known as Abu Nasr. The rapid development of Ahlat was heavily driven by its status as a major port on Lake Van and its strategic location on the vital highway linking Artskesh to Baghesh. By the first half of the eleventh century, it had evolved into a major hub for craftsmanship and trade, boasting a population of several tens of thousands of residents. During this prosperous era, the peace of the city was disrupted only once, in 997, when David, the Curopalates of Taik, launched an attack on Ahlat with the intent of conquering it and annexing it to his vast principality. However, his forces suffered a humiliating defeat under the city walls and were forced to retreat empty-handed.
From 1000 AD when the city was granted to the Artsrunis by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II its natural course of development continued until the Seljuk invasions of the 70s of the eleventh century when it was captured and destroyed by the latter. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 the Seljuk army under the personal leadership of Sultan Alp Arslan who ruled from 1063 to 1072 took possession of the city. Subsequently the Seljuks handed over control of the city to the Turkmen slave-commander Sökmen el-Kutbî. Sokman and his successors were known as the Shah-Armens or Ahlat-shahs and they made Ahlat their capital. In the eleventh century the city of Ahlat written in Persian as Axlāt is mentioned in the records of Nasir Khusraw in his Safarnama. According to data from the Institute of Ismaili Studies which references Thackston's translation of Nasir-i Khusraw’s Book of Travels the extract reads as follows. From there from Harran we arrived at the city of Ahlat on the eighteenth of Jumada al-Awwal November 20. This city is a boundary point between Muslims and Armenians and is nineteen farsakhs away from Bekri. The prince Nasruddawla was over one hundred years old and had many sons to each of whom he had given a region. In the city of Ahlat they speak three languages Arabic Persian and Armenian. In my estimation it is for this very reason that they named the city Ahlat meaning mixture. Their commercial transactions are carried out in phouls which are possibly ancient Roman and Greek coins and their rotel the Armenian currency is equivalent to three hundred dirhams. In the year 1100 the Shaharmens captured Ahlat and made it the capital of their vast sultanate. Their dominion here lasted until the 30s of the thirteenth century up until the Mongol invasions. At the beginning of the thirteenth century when Northern Armenia was liberated from the Seljuk yoke and a semi-independent powerful principality was formed there under the leadership of the Zakarian princes attempts were made by the initiative of the same princes to also liberate the central parts of the country including Ahlat and its surroundings. For that purpose Zakare II and Ivane I Zakarian took the lead of an Armenian-Georgian army in 1210 and campaigned toward the shores of Lake Van and Ahlat. However that campaign of the Zakarian brothers ended in failure. Khlat again remained under foreign yoke Ivane was captured by the sultan and was released only after the threat made by Zakare.
Due to the new political turmoil caused by the decline of the Seljuks and the invasions of the Khwarazmshah and the Mongol Empire Ahlat briefly became a subject of dispute among the Ayyubids the Kingdom of Georgia and the Sultanate of Rum which was the Anatolian branch of the Seljuk dynasty. In the twelfth century Ahlat and its adjacent territory were conquered and reduced to vassal dependency by the Kingdom of Georgia. During this period the Georgians called the city Khlati which was a modified version of the local Armenian name Ahlat. After the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243 and the fall of Baghdad in 1258 Ahlat along with Eastern Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia became a part of the Mongol Empire. The Mongols included Ahlat within the Ilkhanate also known as the Hulaguid state and during the subsequent period the khans of the Ilkhanate minted coins in Khlat. According to Hamdallah Mustawfi who died in 1349 the revenues received from Ahlat under the Ilkhanids amounted to up to 51,500 dinars. After the Ilkhanate Ahlat became part of the Jalayirid state and then part of the Ak Koyunlu state.