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Muş Մուշ
Municipality
MuşLocation in Turkey
Coordinates: 38°44′00″N 41°29′28″E / 38.73333°N 41.49111°E / 38.73333; 41.49111
Country	Turkey
Province	Muş
District	Muş
Government
• Mayor	Sırrı Söylemez (DEM)
Elevation	1,350 m (4,430 ft)
Population	120,699
Time zone	UTC+3 (TRT)
Postal code	49000
Area code	0436
Website	www.mus.bel.tr

Muş (pronounced [muʃ]; Armenian: Մուշ; Kurdish: Mûş) is a city in eastern Turkey. It is the seat of Muş Province and Muş District. Its population is 120,699 (2022). Almost all of its population consists of Kurds.

Etymology

Various explanations of the origin of Muş's name exist. Its name is sometimes associated with the Armenian word mshush, meaning fog, explained by the fact that the town and the surrounding plain are frequently covered in fog in the mornings. The 17th-century explorer Evliya Çelebi relates a myth where a giant mouse created by Nemrud (Nimrod) destroys the city and its inhabitants, after which the city was named Muş (muš means "mouse" in Persian). Others have proposed a connection with the names of different ancient Anatolian peoples, the Mushki or the Mysians, or the toponyms Mushki and Mushuni mentioned in Assyrian and Hittite sources, respectively.

History

Iron Age

Kingdom of Urartu

An inscription belonging to Urartian King Argisti I (785-765 BC) was unearthed near Kepenek Castle. The inscription is now under protection by the Muş Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. The inscription in question reads:

To Master Haldi, Argisti, son of Minua, this silence He built his temple and a castle perfectly (and) took his name from Argistihinil put it. Thanks to the greatness of Haldi (I am) Minua son of Argisti, mighty king, great king, King of the Land of Bianili, lord of the City of Tuspa

The date of foundation of Mush is unknown, although a settlement is believed to have been around by the time of Menua, the king of Urartu (c. 800 BC), whose cuneiform inscription was found in the city's vicinity.

Medieval period

During the Middle Ages, Mush was the center of the Taron region of Armenia. It is first mentioned as a city in Armenian manuscripts of the 9th and 10th centuries. In the late 8th century, Mush, along with the Taron region, came under control of the Armenian Bagratid (Bagratuni) dynasty, who reconquered it from the Arabs. Mush and the Taron region were captured and annexed to the Byzantine Empire in 969.

After the 11th century, the town was ruled by Islamic dynasties such as the Ahlatshahs, Ayyubids, Ilkhanids and Kara Koyunlu. In the 10th-13th centuries Mush developed into a major city with an estimated population of 20 to 25 thousand people. In 1387 the central Asian ruler Timur crossed the area and apparently captured Mush town without a battle. Later the Akkoyunlu ruled the area and in the 16th the Ottomans took control over the town and region in the 16th century from the Persian Safavids. Mush remained part of the Ottoman Empire till the early 20th century and during these times retained a large Armenian population. In 1821 a Persian invasion reached Mush.

Modern

British traveller H. F. B. Lynch travelled to Muş at the end of the 19th century. He described the city as "the most mis-governed town in the Ottoman Empire".

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city had around 20,000 inhabitants, of which 11,000 were Muslims, while 9,000 were Christian Armenians. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) the town had 27,000 inhabitants, of whom 13,300 were Muslims and 13,700 Armenians. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) the population was nearly equally divided between Kurds and Armenians.

During the Armenian genocide of 1915 the indigenous Armenian population of the region was exterminated. Over 140,000 Armenians of the Mush sanjak (living in 234 villages and towns) were targeted in June and July 1915. Military-aged Armenian men were conscripted to serve in World War I. The Armenian population was largely defenseless to these threats. The massacre of the Armenian population of the city of Mush came only after the surrounding villages were destroyed.

The town was captured during by the forces of the Russian Empire in February 1916 during the World War I. It was recaptured by Mustafa Kemal's Turkish Second Army in 1917.

In the 1960s, the Arakelots Monastery was dynamited by Muş officials.

Education

Alparslan University is one of the universities in Muş.

Tourism and main sights

The touristic places in Muş are the historical Murat Bridge, the tulips on the Muş Plain, Muş Castle, Kepenek Castle, Haspet Castle, Mercimekkale Mound, Lake Akdoğan, Künav Cave, Lake Haçlı, Kayalıdere Castle and Malazgirt Castle. The area of Muş has several ruined castles. Under the rule of medieval Armenian dynasties, monasteries and churches were built in localities near Mush, such as the Arakelots Monastery, Surp Marineh Church, and Surb Karapet Monastery, most of which are now ruins.

Under the rule of Muslim dynasties, other types of buildings were built as well. There are mosques from the Ottoman and pre-Ottoman period which show influences of Seljuk architecture, such as the Alaeddin Bey (18th century), Haci Seref (17th century), and Ulu (14th century, previously an Armenian church) mosques. Other sights include caravanserais like the Yıldızlı Han (13th century) destroyed in 1916, the now almost completely ruined Aslanlı Han, the bathhouse and fountain of Alaeddin Bey, and tombs of Muslim saints.

Transportation

The city is served by the Muş Airport. It has a train station and a bus station (MUŞTİ).

Demographics

In the late 19th century, H. F. B. Lynch reports that the city of Muş had two large mosques with minarets, four Armenian Apostolic churches (Surb Marineh, Surb Kirakos, Surb Avetaranotz, and Surb Stepanos) and one Armenian Catholic church.

Before the Armenian genocide, Armenians formed the majority of the population in the kaza of Muş. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, on the eve of the First World War, there were 75,623 Armenians, with 113 churches, 74 monasteries, and 87 schools. They were all massacred during the Armenian genocide, many of them burned in their houses. Almost all Muslims were Kurds.

According to the 1927 Turkish census, the Muş District had 21,486 Muslims and 13 non-Muslims.

Population of the municipality of Muş numbers 120,699 according to a 2022 estimate. Kurds make up the majority of the population. The rest are Arabs, Crypto-Armenians, Terekeme Turks and Circassians.

Gallery

• Muş Alaeddin Pasha Mosque
• Muş Alaeddin Pasha Mosque
• Muş Ulu Mosque
• Muş Ulu Mosque
• Muş Ulu Mosque
• Muş Hacı Şeref Mosque
• Muş Tuba Mosque
• Muş street scene
• Muş street scene
• Muş street scene
• Old house in Muş
• Old house in Muş
• Muş Hospital
• Haspet Castle
• Haspet Castle
• View of Muş

Notable locals

• Armenak Shahmuradyan, Armenian operatic tenor
• Zafer Çağlayan, Turkish politician and former Minister
• Sabahattin Oğlago, four-time Olympian cross-country skier
• Zeki Eker, Turkish politician of Kurdish origin
• Kürşat Duymuş, Turkish football defender

Climate

Muş has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dsa, Trewartha climate classification: Dcao) with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry and sunny summers.

References

1. ^ "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
2. Adem Avcıkıran (2009). Kürtçe Anamnez Anamneza bi Kurmancî (in Turkish and Kurdish). p. 56.
3. İl Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
4. ^ Saracoglu, Cenk (2010). Kurds of Modern Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism and Exclusion in Turkish Society. I.B.Tauris. p. 194.
5. ^ Tas, Latif (2014). Legal Pluralism in Action: Dispute Resolution and the Kurdish Peace Committee. Ashgate Publishing. p. 33.
6. Hakobyan, Tadevos Kh.; Melik-Bakhshyan, Stepan T.; Barseghyan, Hovhannes Kh. (1991). Հայաստանի և հարակից շրջանների տեղանունների բառարան [Dictionary of toponymy of Armenia and adjacent territories] (in Armenian). Vol. 3. Yerevan: Yerevan State University Press. p. 892.
7. ^ Petrosyan, Armen (2002), The Indo-European and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic, Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, pp. 140–142, ISBN 9780941694810.
8. Hakobyan 1987, p. 198.
9. "Eski Çağ'da Muş" (in Turkish). Iğdır University Sos Bil Der. 29 July 2019. p. 24.
10. Hakobyan 1987, p. 199.
11. Thomas, David Richard (2001). Syrian Christians Under Islam: The First Thousand Years. BRILL. p. 160. ISBN 9789004120556.
12. Hakobyan 1987, pp. -199-200.
13. ^ Sinclair, T.A. (1989). Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume I. Pindar Press. pp. 293–294–333–335. ISBN 9780907132325.
14. ^ "Kaza Muş / Մուշ – Mush". Virtual Genocide Memorial. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
15. Hakobyan 1987, p. 200.
16. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Mush" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
17. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mush" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
18. Walker, Christopher J. (1990) . Armenia: The Survival of a Nation (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 211–212. ISBN 978-0-312-04230-1.
19. Dadrian, Vahakn N.; Akçam, Taner (2011). Judgment At Istanbul: The Armenian Genocide Trials. Berghahn Books. p. 37. ISBN 9780857452863.
20. Kévorkian 2011, pp. 339–345.
21. Kévorkian 2011, p. 345.
22. Kévorkian 2011, p. 339.
23. Winter, Jay (2004). America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Cambridge University Press. p. 62. As a result nearly all able-bodied Armenian men were conscripted into the Ottoman army, starting with the 20–45 age group and subsequently extending the call to groups aged 18–20 and 45–60.
24. ^ Suny, Ronald G. (2015). "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Princeton University Press. p. 289. ISBN 9781400865581.
25. Tucker, Spencer C. (2013-12-16). The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-135-50694-0.
26. Kramers, J. H. (1993). "Mūs̲h̲". In Bosworth, C. E.; Pellat, Ch.; Van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. VII (New ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
27. Maranci, Christina (2002). "The Art and Architecture of Baghesh/Bitlis and Taron/Mush". In Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.). Armenian Baghesh/Bitlis and Taron/Mush. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Press. pp. 120–122. ISBN 978-1-56859-136-0.
28. "Gezilecek yerler". Kültür Portalı (in Turkish). Retrieved 2023-11-23.
29. "Muş GoTürkiye". Muş İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü (in Turkish). Retrieved 2023-10-06.
30. "60 dakikalık Muş il brifingi" (PDF) (in Turkish). Muş Valiliği. February 2017. p. 36.
31. "Muş BasınMuş Basın / GEÇMİŞİN SİLİK İZLERİ". Memleket Havadis (in Turkish). Retrieved 2023-10-05.
32. ^ Van Gölü Havzası Sempozyumu Bitlis İli (Turkey) İstanbul Üniversitesi Avrasya Arkeoloji Enstitüsü. Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi Atatürk Üniversitesi ÇEKÜL. Ii. Van Gölü Havzası Sempozyumu. 1. Basım ed. Van: Bitlis Valiliği İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü; 2007. p. 280
33. Gündoğdu, Raşit; Demir, Esra (11 April 2014). "The Arabs in Turkey". impr.org. International Middle East Peace Research Center. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
34. Gültekin, Uygar (23 September 2014). "Muş Ermenileri derneklerine kavuştu Paylaş". Agos (in Turkish).
35. Hakobyan 1987, p. 203.
36. "Resmi İstatistikler: İllerimize Ait Mevism Normalleri (1991–2020)" (in Turkish). Turkish State Meteorological Service. Retrieved 2 May 2021.

Sources and external links

• GCatholic - former and titular Armenian Catholic see
• Hundreds of pictures of the town

Bibliography

• Hakobyan, Tadevos (1987). "(Mush)". Պատմական Հայաստանի քաղաքները (in Armenian). Yerevan: "Hayastan" Publishing. pp. 196–203.
• Kévorkian, Raymond H. (2011). The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 9781848855618.

• Muş
• Populated places in Muş District
• Eastern Catholic titular sees
• Former Armenian Catholic eparchies
• Armenian genocide extermination centers
• Kurdish settlements in Muş Province
• Provincial municipalities in Turkey
• Former Armenian communities in Muş Province