According to German geographers
Georg Hassel and Adam Christian Gaspari, Malatya was composed of 1200 to 1500 houses in early 19th century, inhabited by Ottomans, Turkmens, Armenians, and Greeks, while the mountainous areas in the
sanjak of Malatya were mostly inhabited by
Kurdish tribes such as
Reşwan. The province had a population of 306,882 in 1927 of which was
Muslim and
Christians. Linguistically,
Turkish was the most spoken
first language at , followed by
Kurdish at and
Armenian at . The population increased to 410,152 in 1935 of which was Muslim and Christian. Turkish remained the most spoken first language at , followed by Kurdish and Armenian at . The province had a population of 483,568 in 1950 of which Turkish was spoken by of the population, followed by Kurdish at . Armenian remained the third most spoken language but decreased to . The modern province of Malatya does not fully coincide with the province of Malatya until 1954, before when the province also included the modern Turkish province of
Adıyaman, which was more than double Kurdish-speaking than Malatya according to the 1965 census. It was estimated in 2012 that about 20% to 30% of the province was
Alevi of which the vast majority was
Kurdish. This group is mostly politically aligned with nationalist Kurdish parties especially after the
Sivas Massacre and activity of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party since the early 1990s. == History ==