Samosata

Samsat (Kurdish: Samîsad, Ottoman Turkish صمصاد Semisat), formerly Samosata (Ancient Greek: Σαμόσατα) is a small town in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river. It is the seat of Samsat District. The town is populated by Kurds of the Bêzikan tribe.

Halil Fırat from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected mayor in the local elections in March 2019. The current Kaymakam is Halid Yıldız.

Samsat was the ancient capital of Kingdom of Commagene. The current site of Samsat is comparatively new, however, being rebuilt in 1989 when the old town of Samosata was flooded during the construction of the Atatürk Dam. As of 2018, reconstruction process had not yet been fully completed. An ancient tell nearby dating back to Paleolithic times has survived to the current day.

Its population was 3,790 in 2022, up from 3,520 in 2017.

Hellenistic period

The city of Samosata was founded sometime before 245 BC on the previous Neo-Hittite site of Kummuh by the Orontid king of Sophene, Sames I. He may have founded the city in order to assert his claim over the area, a common practice amongst Iranian and Hellenistic dynasties, such as Cappadocia, Pontus, Parthia and Armenia. The city was built in a "sub-Achaemenid" Persian architectural form, similar to the rest of Orontid buildings in Greater Armenia. Naming cities such as Samosata (Middle Persian *Sāmašād; Old Persian *Sāmašiyāti-) the "joy of" or "happiness of" was an Orontid (and later Artaxiad) practice that recalled the Achaemenid royal discourse. Samosata served as one of the most important royal residences of the Orontid kings of Sophene.

Like other early-Orontid royal residences, Samosata experienced a sudden shift in its architectural style under the Orontids of Commagene due to their close involvement in the Greco-Roman world. During this period, Samosata was most likely populated by a variety of peoples, descended from Arameans, Assyrians, Neo-Hittites, Armenians, and Persians. Samosata was amongst the places where its ruler Antiochus I Theos (r. 70–31 BC) founded sanctuaries that contained inscriptions about his cult as well as reliefs of his dexiosis with Apollo-Mithras.

Roman period

In 73 AD, Samosata as well as the rest of Commagene was incorporated into the Roman Empire. It may have been during this event that the Syriac letter of Mara bar Serapion was composed. The letter makes mention of an Aramaic-speaking elite in Samosata that studied Greek literature and Stoic philosophy. Under the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138), Samosata was given metropolis status along with Damascus and Tyre.

Roman legions were later placed in Samosata to discourage the Sasanian Empire (224–651) from attacking it. In 260, it was the first city that was sacked by the Sasanian emperor Shapur I (r. 240–270) following his capture of the Roman emperor Valerian (r. 253–260). Shapur I is known to have had coins minted in the same fashion as the Roman antoninianus, which he may have taken from the material used in the mint of Samosata.

It was at Samosata that Julian II had ships made in his expedition against Shapur II, and it was a natural crossing-place in the struggle between Heraclius and Chosroes in the 7th century.

Samosata was the birthplace of several renowned people from antiquity such as Lucian (c. 120–192) and Paul of Samosata (fl. 260).

Medieval history

The Arabs conquered Commagene from the Byzantines in 640. Safwan bin Muattal, a sahabi and commander during the Muslim conquests, was buried in Samosata.

In the tenth century, the town, which was the second biggest in the region after Melitene, was recaptured by the Byzantines. In June 966, Samosata was the venue of an exchange of prisoners between the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas and his Muslim foe Sayf al-Dawla.

After the collapse of Byzantine authority in the region, the town fell into the domain of the Armenian Philaretos Brachamios. At some point after that it fell into the hands of a certain Baluk, on of Amīr Ghāzī, who is mentioned among the army of Ridwan of Aleppo which besieged Edessa in 1095. While he managed to fend off an expedition in 1098 under Baldwin of Boulogne send by the ruler of Edessa, Thoros, he later had to sell the town to Baldwin for 10,000 gold coins upon which it belonged to the county of Edessa.

Warfare in the 13th century devastated Samosata. Rukn ad-Din Sulayman Shah II of the Anatolian Seljuks captured Samosata in 1203. The Anushtegins conquered and looted the town in 1237. The Mongol Emperor Hülagü Khan conquered Samosata in 1240 and the Beylik of Dulkadir conquered the town as well.

Samosata was temporarily absorbed into the Ottoman Empire by Bayazid I in 1392, and in 1401 it was destroyed by Timur. In 1516, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I recaptured it for the Ottomans who renamed it Samsat. It lost its old importance in the Ottoman administration and became the centre of a sanjak.

Modern times

During Turkey's republican period, the population of the town decreased. In 1960, Samsat was made a district center and connected to the province of Adıyaman.

The city of Samsat was evacuated from the old settlement on 5 March 1988 due to the construction of the Atatürk Dam. A new location for the settlement was announced through Law No. 3433 on 21 April 1988. The historical Samsat was submerged in 1989 as the dam created the Atatürk Reservoir. The new town was built beside the new waterline by the Turkish government to house the displaced residents.

The new town of Samsat was destroyed by an earthquake on 2 March 2017. The city was largely rebuilt afterwards.