Alanbaşı, Yusufeli
Village in Artvin, Turkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alanbaşı is a village in the Yusufeli District, Artvin Province, Turkey.[1] Its population is 402 (2021).[2]
History
The former name of Alanbaşı is Kiskim or Kiskimi. It appears in Georgian sources as Kiskimi (კისკიმი), and in a 1574 Ottoman cadastral register (tahrir defteri) and in the Ottoman cebe defteri (1694–1732) as Kiskim (كسكم).[3]: 99 [4] On an 1854 Kiepert map it is written as "Gisgim".[5] Kiskim was also the former name of an Ottoman sanjak and of the Yusufeli district (kaza).[6]
Kiskim lies in Tao, one of the regions that made up Georgia in the Middle Ages; the Ottomans took the region and the village from the Georgians in the mid-16th century. The Kiskimi Chapel, located in the village's Kansasi quarter and dated to the 9th century during the Georgian kingdom period, indicates that Kiskim was an old settlement.[7]
During the Ottoman cadastral survey of 1574, Kiskim was one of the villages of the Pertekrek nahiye of the Tortum sanjak, within the Çıldır Eyalet. At that time it was a large settlement of 256 Christian households. Heva—today a quarter of Kiskim village known as "Bağlık" or "Hav Bağları"—was then a separate village.[3]: 100
In the cebe defteri of the Çıldır Eyalet covering 1694–1732, the village appears as Kiskim (كسكم). Located in the Pertekrek liva, its revenue in AH 1124 (1712/1713) was 202,240 akçe and was assigned as a has to Hasan Bey, mirliva of Pertekrek and Nisf-i Livane. In AH 1142 (1729/1730) its revenue was recorded as 519,390 akçe and assigned as a has to İbrahim Bey, mirliva of Pertekrek and Nisf-i Livane.[4]
In the census of 1835—when the Ottoman administration recorded only the male population for conscription and taxation—Kiskim was one of the villages of the Kiskim sanjak. Recorded as "Nefs-i Kiskim," the village had 297 men in 117 households; adding an equal number of women, its population is estimated at 594. The Kiskim sanjak itself comprised 21 villages, with 3,116 men in 1,173 households, suggesting a total population of about 6,232.[3]: 100
In the 1928 Ottoman village list, the village was recorded as Keskim/Kiskim (كسكیم), attached to the central nahiye of the Yusufeli district of Artvin Province.[8] In the 1940 general census, recorded as "Kıskim," it held the same administrative position within Çoruh Province, with a population of 812.[9] Because Kiskim or Keskim was not Turkish, the village's name was changed to Alanbaşı in 1959 under Law No. 7267.[10] In the 1965 general census, the population of Alanbaşı was 998, of whom 515 were literate.[11]
Hav Bağları
Formerly a village in its own right, Hevi or Heva is today a quarter of Alanbaşı known as "Bağlık" or "Hav Bağları." The old name Hevi (ხევი) or Heva (ხევა) derives from the Georgian word meaning "stream" or "valley."[12] Hevi is also the name of a historical region in Georgia. The settlement on the bank of the Çoruh River was written as "Hav" (خاو) in an early Ottoman record.[13]
According to the Ottoman cadastral register of 1555, Hevi was a village of the Pertekrek sanjak with 4 Christian households, where wheat, barley, millet, grapes, fruit, cotton and beans were cultivated, alongside market gardening, beekeeping and chestnut growing.[13] In the 1574 Ottoman detailed register Defter-i Mufassal-i Vilayet-i Gürcistan, it appears as "Heva," attached to the Pertekrek nahiye of the Tortum sanjak, with 17 households.[3]: 100 The villagers later converted to Islam, and in a 1652 cizye register all were recorded as Muslim. In the 1848 population register of Erzurum Province, Hav or Hevi was recorded not as a separate village but as a quarter of Kiskim.[13]
Historic structures
Within Alanbaşı there are two churches, the remains of two castles, and a cave. One of the two churches, the Kiskimi Chapel, dates from the 9th century yet survives largely intact. A second church, located 1 km south of the village at a place the villagers call "Ançirtik," is a small single-naved structure; built of roughly hewn stone with lime mortar, its north-western part survives. Of the two castles, the Kiskimi Castle is thought, from its position and size, to have served mainly as a watchpost in the Middle Ages. The other castle stands on a ridge outside the settlement; built of roughly hewn stone and lime mortar, its surviving walls reach 2 metres in height, and the villagers regard the structure as a church.[14][3]: 206–207
Geography
The village is 144 km from the provincial centre of Artvin and 39 km from the district centre of Yusufeli.[15]
