Arslantepe , c.3000 BC, in the
Malatya Museum Arslantepe has been inhabited since the development of agriculture in the
Fertile Crescent, nearly 6,000 years ago. From the
Bronze Age, the site became an administrative center of a larger region in the kingdom of
Isuwa. The city was heavily fortified. The
Hittites conquered the city in the fourteenth century B.C. In the
Hittite language,
melid or
milit means "honey." The name was mentioned in the contemporary sources under several variations (e.g., Hittite:
Malidiya and possibly also
Midduwa;
Akkadian: Meliddu; The
Neo-Assyrian king
Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 B.C.) forced the kingdom of Malidiya to pay tribute to Assyria. The Neo-Assyrian king
Sargon II (722–705) sacked the city in 712 BC. At the same time, the
Cimmerians and
Scythians invaded
Anatolia and the city declined. Some occupation continued on the site into the Hellenistic and Roman periods—a smithy with four ovens has been excavated from the Roman period. There was a long gap in occupation between the mid-7th century and renewed use of the site in the late 12th or early 13th century. Archeologists first began to excavate the site of Arslantepe in the 1930s, led by French archaeologist
Louis Delaporte. Since 1961 an Italian team of archaeologists, led by
Marcella Frangipane in the early 21st century, has been working at the site. From the 6th century BC, Melid was ruled by the Armenian
Orontid Dynasty, who were subjects of the
Achaemenid Empire. After periods of Achaemenid and
Macedonian rule, Melid (Malatya) was part of the Kingdom of
Lesser Armenia.
Melitene during the Roman Empire Diodorus Siculus wrote that
Ptolemaeus of Commagene attacked and captured Melitene from the
Kingdom of Cappadocia, but couldn't keep it for long since
Ariarathes V of Cappadocia marched against him with a strong army, and Ptolemaeus withdrew. The Kingdom of Cappadocia, ruled by the
House of Ariobarzanes (95–36 BC), became a Roman client in 63 BC. After the Kingdom's annexation by the
Roman Empire in 17 AD, the settlement was re-established as Melitene in 72 AD on a different site, as the base camp of
Legio XII Fulminata (which continued to be based there until at least the early 5th century according to
Notitia Dignitatum). The legionary base of Melitene controlled access to southern Armenia and the upper Tigris. It was the end point of the important highway running east from Caesarea (modern
Kayseri). The camp attracted a civilian population and was probably granted city status by Trajan in the early 2nd century AD, It is known for being a prolific source of imperial coins minted from the 3rd to the early 5th centuries.
Procopius wrote admiringly of the temples, agoras and theatres of Melitene, but no evidence of them now remains. It was a major center in the province of
Armenia Minor (
Pokr Hayk,) created by Diocletian from territory separated from the province of
Cappadocia. In 392 A.D., emperor
Theodosius I divided Armenia Minor into two new provinces:
First Armenia, with its capital at Sebasteia (modern
Sivas); and
Second Armenia, with its capital at Melitene.
Melitene during the Middle Ages During the reign of the Emperor
Justinian I (527–565), administrative reforms were carried out in this region: The province of Second Armenia was renamed
Third Armenia (
Armenia Tertia), with its territory unchanged and its capital still at Melitene. Melitene's city walls were constructed in the 6th century by the emperors Anastasius and Justinian. Those that still stand mostly date from the Arab period, perhaps of the 8th century, though retaining the layout of and some remnants from earlier building phases. The city was sacked by the
Sassanids in 575, but it recovered and was made in 591 the capital of
Armenia Prima by emperor
Maurice. The town contained many shrines to martyrs, including that of the widely venerated local saint
Polyeuctus. The city was captured by the
Rashidun forces under
Iyad ibn Ghanm, but the Byzantines quickly retook it until
Mu'awiya I established a garrison in the town. The Arab colony was abandoned at some point during the reign of
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan until
Hisham restored it, though it was destroyed by emperor
Constantine V. The
Abbasid al-Mansur then established it as a substantial outpost from which raids deep into the Byzantine Empire were conducted. Throughout the Dark Ages, the area between Melitene and
Caeserea became a no-man's land of independent lords and villages. In the 9th century, under its semi-independent emir
Umar al-Aqta, Malatya rose to become a major opponent of the
Byzantine Empire until Umar was defeated and killed at the
Battle of Lalakaon in 863. The Byzantines attacked the city many times, but did not finally take it until the campaigns of
John Kourkouas in 927–934. After successively accepting and renouncing vassal status, the city was finally taken in May 934, its Muslim inhabitants driven out or forced to convert, and replaced by Greek and Armenian settlers. The West
Syrian diocese of Melitene has been established since the 6th century and was as well surrounded by other bishoprics belonging to nearby towns. In the 10th century the Emperor
Nikephoros II Phokas convinced the
Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch to move the head of the patriarchate into the region of Melitene. In the early 11th century, Melitene continued to act as a large commercial city that grew in wealth and prestige. The 12th century historian
Matthew of Edessa states that "its wealth was unlimited when it came to gold, silver, precious stones, pearls and
brocades". The merchants of Melitene were so wealthy, that three sons of a Syriac Christian named Abu Imran were said to have built churches, nunneries, monasteries, and even struck the Byzantine imperial gold coinage for a year at their own expense. In addition, they are reported to have loaned emperor
Basil II 100 centenaria of gold. Abu Salim, the eldest of the three brothers, is also stated to have ransomed 15,000 captured Christians from Turkish raiders at five dinars a head. The city was attacked and devastated by the
Seljuks in 1058 and much of its population was either killed or sold into slavery. Matthew of Edessa states the following: Melitene, from one end to the other, billowed with blood. Nor was there anyone to pity the old or the young. There one could see the bodies of glorious and distinguished (people) fallen and drenched in blood; children cut to pieces in the arms of their mothers, with blood and milk flowing together. Who can put into writing the divine wrath which the city of Melitene bore on that day? All the green plants of the fields were covered with blood, instead of sweet dew. After so much shedding of blood and captive-taking, they led before them into slavery beautiful and distinguished women, boys and girls, with an inestimable amount of gold and silver. The Danishmends took over Malatya one year later in 1101 following the
Battle of Melitene. The Danishmends then fought repeatedly with the
Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate about the possession of the city and were able to hold it until 1152, though the Seljuks did not gain full control until 1177. Under Danishmend and Seljuk rule, Malatya became a centre of knowledge as many Persian and Arabic scholars took residence in the city. The Seljuk Sultanate also undertook an extensive development of the city. After being ruled by the
Ilkhanids for around 50 years at the end of the 13th century, the Muslim population of the city invited the
Mamluk Sultanate to Malatya in 1315. On 28 April 1315, the Mamluk army entered the city; this was followed by the looting of the city by the army. The
Eretnid dynasty gained sovereignty over the city for some time, but from 1338 onwards the Mamluks secured its control. However, for the latter part of the 14th century, the control of the city fluctuated between the Mamluks and the
Dulkadirids. The reason behind the displacement of the city center was that the Ottoman army settled and stayed, probably by seizing from its settlers, in the previous city center, in the winter of 1838–39, before taking the road for
Battle of Nezib in 1849. Because of this, citizens of the Malatya established the new city based on a near town called Aspuzu. The city saw rapid expansion in the 19th century, and by the end of the century it had around 5000 households, 50 mosques, six
madrasas, nine inns and five
Turkish baths. Ottoman sources also recorded ten churches. In 1889 and 1890, Malatya was struck by two large fires that destroyed thousands of shops. The city was then hit by the
1893 Malatya earthquake, which killed 1300, destroying 1200 houses and four mosques. A
cholera outbreak that subsequently took place in 1893 killed 896 people. The destroyed buildings were rebuilt in 1894. In the aftermath, a
Red Cross team sent to Malatya and led by Julian B. Hubbell concluded that 1,500 Armenian houses had been pillaged and 375 burned to the ground. According to the
1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, Malatya city was inhabited by 30,000 people with a clear ethnic
Turkish majority, and an Armenian population of 3,000, of whom 800 were
Catholics. Of the five churches in the city, three belonged to the Armenians. In the spring of 1915, the vast majority of the Armenians of the town were rounded up by Ottoman authorities and deported on death marches as part of the
Armenian genocide. According to reports of the governor of the Malatya district, of the 6,935 registered Armenians in Malatya, 197 were left in the town as artisans. In the early Republican era, Malatya became the centre of
Malatya Province and enjoyed a substantial growth in terms of population as well as covered area. This development was further accelerated by the construction of the Adana-Fevzipaşa-Malatya railroad in 1931, and a few years later in 1937, by the construction of the Sivas-Malatya railroad. Following the
2014 Turkish local elections the new municipality officially took office. Today the city is generally considered to be a notable trade and industrial hub, as well as a cultural centre point thanks to the
İnönü University that was established on 28 January 1975. == Demographics ==