As part of the Rize province, Hemshin had been a refuge for some
Cimmerians and was a site of early Greek settlements and once part of the
Roman Empire and the succeeding
Byzantine Empire. In the 8th century,
Armenian Prince
Hamam, his father Prince
Shapuh Amatuni, and their people migrated north to the
Black Sea region in order to escape
Arab invasions of
Vaspurakan. They settled in the ruined city of Tambur and its surrounding villages. Prince Hamam rebuilt the city and named it Hamamshen ("Hamam's hamlet" in
Armenian), this becoming the nucleus of the modern district. This
Principality of Hamamshen existed until the 14th century, when it was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire. ==Demographics==