History of Samsun

Samsun is a very old residential area for the history of humanity. With the inclusion of today’s city center, people have been living in Kızılırmak valley, Kavak, Tekkeköy, and Çarşamba savannas.

In the middle stone age ( B.C 10000 - 5000) it is known that people were living in the asylums in Tekkeköy and they are the primal residents of the region. Again, in Neolithic and Calcolithic periods, it is known from the excavations that people were living in Dündar Tepe, Kalenderoğlu, and Bafra İkiztepe.

The primal community that lived in Samsun by establishing a state is Gashkas. Also this community is called as Gasgas ( B.C 5000 – 3500). After this known primal community, Paflagons who were in control of the whole North Anatolian, lived in Kızılırmak Basin ( B.C. 3000 – 1100). Hittites ( B.C. 2000 – 1200), Phrygians ( B.C 1182 – 676), Kimmers ( B.C. 676), Lydia’s ( B.C. 1200- 547, they constructed a site called ENETE in the place which is known as Kara Samsun today).

Milletlies (Ionia), (B.C. 2000 – B.C. 400), settled down to ENETE from Aegean by using Black Sea way, and they called ENETE as “Amisus” or “Amisos”. As the result of the beating of Krezus who is the king of the Lidia, against Persians ( B.C. 550-330), the Persian Empire captured the Amisos in B.C. 546. In B.C. 331, Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire, Macedonia Empire captured the Amisos. After the death of Alexander the Great, Kont Kingdom whose origins are based on the Persian Empire was established ( B.C. 255-63). Amisos became the capital city of Kont Kingdom. Later that, in the firs century before Christ, Amisos entered the dominance of the Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire was divided into two branches, Amisos stayed inside the borders of Byzantine Empire in A.C. 385. Although in A.C.860, during the Abbacy Period, with the order of Caliph Mutassım, Amisos was captured by the armed forces which were under the command of dreadful Omar; but Byzantine Empire took it back later. After Turks had come to Anatolian, Samsun was beleaguered by Danişmentliler, but it could not be obtained. During the Anatolian Seljuk Empire, Muslim residential areas of Samsun were captured by Anatolian Seljuk Empire in 1185. For the first time, the name Amisos was changed and it became Samsun. After the Crusade, Trabzon became the capital city. Then, Cenevizliler, had a dominance on the trade in Black Sea; so they lived here approximately 100 years. In this period, Samsun where the Turks lived was called as “Muslim Samsun”, and trade site of the Cenevizliler which is 3 km away from the Muslim Samsun, was called as “non-Muslim Samsun”.

In 1071, after Manzikert War, after Seljuks created the Muslim Samsun by constructing a castle at the coast of Samsun; with Kösedağ War in 1243, Trabzon Rum Empire captured Samsun; but then, in 1296, Samsun was captured by Anatolian Turks. In 1389, during Yıldırım Beyazıt period, it became a part of Ottoman Empire. While Anataolian Seljuks Empire was collapsing, it became capital city of Canik Principality.

source: samsun.gov.tr