Adilcevaz
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Adilcevaz (; , ) is a town in Bitlis Province of
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. It is on the northern shore of
Lake Van Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...
. It is the seat of Adilcevaz District.İlçe Belediyesi
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
The mayor is Abdullah Akbaba from the AKP, elected in the 31 May 2024 local elections. The famous Kef castle built by the
Urarteans Urarteans were an ancient people who spoke the Urartian language. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wolfram (2008). "URARTU IN IRAN". ''Encyclopædia Irani ...
lies near Adilcevaz. Monastery of the Miracles is 2.18 miles northwest of Adilcevaz in the hills to the north of Lake Van.


History

The medieval town of Adilcevaz, under the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...
and then the
Seljuk Empire The Seljuk Empire, or the Great Seljuk Empire, was a High Middle Ages, high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turco-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, established and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. ...
, was located on and around the steep hill by the lake. Some fragments of the town walls from this period are still visible. An inscription naming the 15th-century Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahan Shah was made by the old city's west gate, but he is "unlikely to have contributed much to the walls" - they were probably built before the Seljuks and then renovated 1231-43 during Seljuk rule. A small mosque from perhaps the 14th or 15th century is the only building that still stands in this area. There was also a suburban area beyond the walls, mostly to the south - which is now underwater. One inhabited area was apparently left isolated as rising water levels turned it into an island at some point. During the late middle ages, water levels rose again, and the suburban areas to the south were abandoned in favor of the flat land around the area where the Ottoman-era
Ulu Cami A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''Friday prayer, jumu'ah' ...
was later built. Probably by the late 16th century, when the Ottoman mosque was built, the southern island had also been submerged. The old walled area was "no longer viable as a town center", although there were still some houses here. Most likely, the nine-domed Ottoman mosque was built to reflect the town's shift rather than to encourage it; most of the suburbs had probably already relocated before its construction. Another monument from about the same time is the now-mostly-ruined han in the nearby village of Kohoz (officially Yolçatı). The han is locally attributed to Zal Paşa (d. 1580), who was
sanjak-bey ''Sanjak-bey'', ''sanjaq-bey'' or ''-beg'' () was the title given in the Ottoman Empire to a bey (a high-ranking officer, but usually not a pasha) appointed to the military and administrative command of a district (''sanjak'', in Arabic '' liwa’' ...
of Adilcevaz at the time of Süleyman I's campaign against the Safavids in 1548-9, but there is no other archaeological or textual evidence to validate this. In recent centuries, Adilcevaz has shifted again, this time from the old Ottoman town center to its present-day location 1 km further east. An earthquake in the late 1800s caused flooding that destroyed many houses by the lake shore, which probably contributed to this second shift. An account in 1879 noted that the small older mosque was no longer being used as a place of worship; it was then used for grain storage. It has since been heavily restored. In 1979, T.A. Sinclair wrote that there were "only bad hotels in Adilcevaz".


References


External links


The Armenian "monastery of the Miracles" at Adilcevaz
{{Authority control District municipalities in Turkey Populated places in Bitlis Province Adilcevaz District Kurdish settlements in Bitlis Province