Turhal, a district of Tokat province, is one of the three largest towns of the province with its population of 80 thousand people. The historical past of the county and the historical roots of its name are rather limited and insufficient....
moreTurhal, a district of Tokat province, is one of the three largest towns of the province with its population of 80 thousand people. The historical past of the county and the historical roots of its name are rather limited and insufficient. Am of our work is to reveal a scientific text that can form a source to much deeper work on the subject in the future by gathering concrete data about the history of the town of Turhal and the root of its name. In our study, the literature search method was applied and English historical were also reached and translated sources except from Turkish and Ottoman texts.
The fact that the names of places have been changed in the course of time and the contradictions between given locations and information from time to time have created the main limitations of our work.
In all written texts existing today related to the history , the evidence of Turhal's antiquity is attributed to the famous geographer and traveler Strabon and his famous masterpiece Geographica, and it is said that the name of turhal in the antiquıty is Gaziura or Talaura. But when looking at the related part in Geographicadirectly, it is difficult to say that what Strabon says about an abandoned fortress and city Gaziura directly points to Turhal. Hamilton and Van Lennep also approaches that information with suspect. However, there are some information that the ancient Gaziura may be İverönü and Horoztepe, located in Erbaa and we can say that this thesis is more consisitent when we look at the remains in the mentioned areas. In theAnnuario Pontificio of 1910, it is indicated that Talaura is today İverönü which lies within the boundaries of the Erbaa county. But Smith refers to this area as Horoztepe, which is also located within the boundaries of Erbaa. Turhal's antiquity history, unfortunately, contains serious uncertainties. However, it should not be neglected that the topography described in past ages is very different from today’s. The fact that Turhal on the shore of the Yeşilırmak and the areawhere it is in is a depression area filled with alluvial materials carried by it must be kept in mind when investigating the fact that the Yeşilırmak which had made heavy floods throughout history.
When we look at the origin of Turhal's name, In the books of Lennep and Hamilton published by Cramer in the years after 1832, the name of our town was mentioned as Turhal (Tourkhal).During our study, it was seen that there was another city called Tırhal in central Greece. It is understood that the name of mentioned city is a hybrid Turkish-Greek word meaning "Trikala" (Three Castles). Although we could not find a direct connection between these two cities, which once had lived within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, it is meaningful that there are three castles Zile, Turhal and Horoztepe (Erbaa) in the vicinity of Turhal.
Turhal is at a strategic junction between Tokat, Zile and Amasya and at the same time It is also seen that Turhal is composed of a castle built to manage the trade routes in this area and a few houses around it. Despite its advantageous position, the reason for not being a large historical settlement place is that the land has been under constant water and mud with constant floods throughout history. But Turhal's actual history begins with the construction of the Sugar Factory and is a much more magnificent success story. This part of Turhal's history, which is a contemporary city built almost from scratch, has waited to be told.
