Malatya

Malatya is the capital of Malatya Province and a metropolitan municipality in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region. It serves as a major hub for industry, healthcare, education, and agriculture, and is the world's leading center for apricot production and export. The city's name likely comes from the Hittite word *melid* or *milit*, meaning "honey." Its history reaches back nearly 6,000 years to the ancient settlement of Arslantepe.

The ruins of old Melitene lie at Arslantepe in what is now the Battalgazi district. The historical city remained at Battalgazi (formerly Old Malatya) until the 19th century, when it gradually moved to its present location. Malatya is one of the world's most important apricot-growing areas, producing a large share of Turkey's dried apricots and earning the nickname "Land of Apricots" (Kayısı Diyarı).

Arslantepe has been inhabited since the rise of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, about 6,000 years ago. During the Bronze Age, it became an administrative center for the kingdom of Isuwa and was heavily fortified. The Hittites conquered it in the 14th century BC. The Hittite name *melid* or *milit* appears in various forms, including Malidiya and possibly Midduwa in Hittite, Meliddu in Akkadian, and Meliṭeia in Urartian. After the Hittite Empire fell, the city became the center of the Neo-Hittite state of Kammanu, which preserved Hittite traditions. Archaeologists have found a palace within the city walls, decorated with statues and reliefs, including monumental stone lions and a ruler. Kammanu was a vassal of Urartu from 804 to 743 BC. According to scholars Igor Diakonoff and John Greppin, an Armenian presence may have existed in Melid as early as 1200 BC.

The Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC) forced Malidiya to pay tribute. Later, Sargon II (722–705 BC) sacked the city in 712 BC. Around the same time, Cimmerian and Scythian invasions caused the city to decline. Some occupation continued into the Hellenistic and Roman periods—a Roman-era smithy with four ovens has been excavated. A long gap in occupation followed from the mid-7th century until the site was reused in the late 12th or early 13th century. French archaeologist Louis Delaporte began excavating Arslantepe in the 1930s. Since 1961, an Italian team led by Marcella Frangipane in the early 21st century has worked there.

From the 6th century BC, Melid was ruled by the Armenian Orontid Dynasty, subjects of the Achaemenid Empire. After periods of Achaemenid and Macedonian rule, Melid became part of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia.

Diodorus Siculus recorded that Ptolemaeus of Commagene captured Melitene from Cappadocia but soon lost it when Ariarathes V of Cappadocia marched against him. Cappadocia, ruled by the House of Ariobarzanes (95–36 BC), became a Roman client in 63 BC. After Rome annexed the kingdom in 17 AD, Melitene was reestablished in 72 AD on a new site as the base camp of Legio XII Fulminata, which remained there until at least the early 5th century, according to the Notitia Dignitatum. The legionary base controlled access to southern Armenia and the upper Tigris and was the endpoint of a major highway from Caesarea (modern Kayseri). The camp attracted a civilian population and likely received city status as a municipium under Trajan in the early 2nd century AD. It was a prolific source of imperial coins from the 3rd to early 5th centuries. Procopius praised its temples, agoras, and theaters, though no trace of them survives. Melitene became a major center in the province of Armenia Minor, created by Diocletian from part of Cappadocia. In 392 AD, Theodosius I divided Armenia Minor into First Armenia (capital Sebasteia, modern Sivas) and Second Armenia (capital Melitene).

Under Emperor Justinian I (527–565), administrative reforms renamed Second Armenia as Third Armenia, with its capital still at Melitene. City walls were built in the 6th century by emperors Anastasius and Justinian; those still standing mostly date from the Arab period, perhaps the 8th century, though they retain the layout and some earlier remnants. The Sassanids sacked the city in 575, but it recovered and became the capital of Armenia Prima under Emperor Maurice in 591. The town contained many shrines to martyrs, including that of the widely venerated local saint Polyeuctus. The Rashidun forces under Iyad ibn Ghanm captured the city, but the Byzantines quickly retook it until Mu'awiya I established a garrison. The Arab colony was abandoned during the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, then restored by Hisham, only to be destroyed by Emperor Constantine V. The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur later made it a substantial outpost for raids deep into Byzantine territory.