Kemaliye

History

Eğin may have been founded by Paulician Armenian Christians in the 9th century. Certainly, a Paulician state was headquartered at nearby Tephrike (modern Divriği) by 844. Alternatively, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica reports that Eğin was settled by Armenians who emigrated from Van in the 11th century with King Senekerim-Hovhannes of Vaspurakan of the Artsruni dynasty). Eğin became known as a center of Armenian musicians, and later, literary poets. In 1813, James Playfair's "A System of Geography" described Eğin as "[A] little town in the form of an amphitheatre, at the foot of a mountain, in a fruitful tract that reaches to the Euphrates." The British explorer Francis Rawdon Chesney followed the course of the Euphrates for a survey expedition between 1835 and 1837, and mentions Eğin as "a town of 2700 houses on the right bank". In comparison, he counts about 3000 houses in Erzincan and 2923 families in Malatya. Chesney describes Eğin's situation in a deep valley where the "mountains rise to about 4000 feet on each side of this singular fissure, which is so narrow that it is crossed by a bridge between lofty limestone precipices seeming to overhang the town and as it were to threaten its destruction." In 1895, the British geographer Charles William Wilson describes Eğin as follows in a travel guide to Asia Minor: Armenian historian Vahakn Dadrian reports that in 1896, the town was evenly divided between Armenians and Muslims (Turks and Kurds). He says that Eğin was notable for its prosperity and had previously escaped the 1895–1896 Hamidian massacres through a ransom payment by the Armenians of 1500 Turkish gold pounds. However, British archaeologist David George Hogarth writing for the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica noted a massacre of Armenians in Eğin on…