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History of Hatay


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Antiquity

Settled since the early Bronze Age, Hatay was once of the Akkadian Empire, then the AmoriteKingdom of Yamhad and Mitannis, then a succession of Hittites, the Neo-Hittite "Hattena" people that later gave the modern province of Hatay its name, then the Assyrians (except a brief occupation by Urartu) and Persians. The region was the center of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, home to the four Greek cities of the Syrian tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea, andLaodicea). From 64 BC onwards the city of Antioch became an important regional centre of theRoman Empire.

Islamic era

The area was conquered by the armies of Islam in 638 and came under the control of the Ummayadand Abbasid Arab dynasties. Then following the first Turkish conquest by the Tolunoğulları tribe in 877 Hatay was controlled by various Turkish emirates, under the umbrella of the Seljuks and theAleppo-based Hamdanoğulları after a brief rule of Akşitler. In 969 the city of Antioch was recaptured by the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by PhilaretosBrachamios, a Byzantine general in 1078. He was Armenian and founded a principality from Antioch to Edessa. It was captured by Suleiman I, who was Sultan of Rum (ruler of Anatolian Seljuks), in 1084. It passed to Tutush I, Sultan of Aleppo (ruler of Syria Seljuks), in 1086. Seljuk rule lasted 14 years until Hatay's capture by the Crusaders in 1098, when it became the centre of the Principality of Antioch. Hatay was captured from the Crusaders by the Mameluks in 1268.

Sanjak of Alexandretta

By the time it was taken from the Mameluks by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I in 1516, Antakya was a medium-sized town on 2 km² of land between the Orontes River and Mount HabibNeccar. Under the Ottomans the area was known as the sanjak (or governorate) of Alexandretta. Gertrude Bell in her book Syria The Desert & the Sown published in 1907 wrote extensively about her travels across Syria including
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