Malatya

FOLK DANCES

Malatya lies in the halay region, but dances other than the halay are also found. Cultural exchange with other provinces has increased the variety of dances: for example, the delilo is danced in Elazığ, the beşayak in Adıyaman and the papuri in Bitlis.

Halays are danced to the davul (drum) and zurna (shawm). Locally, leading a halay is called "Dillân Çekme". The dancer leading the halay, which is danced by five people, is called the "halay başı" and the dancer at the end the "Pöççü"; both hold a handkerchief.

The instruments played are above all the davul, zurna and kaval (flute), as well as the bağlama, cümbüş and darbuka; in Arapgir district the clarinet is more common. Besides the halays there are semahs, danced in a group and ceremonial in character. In and around Malatya the Hızır Semahı, Bozok Semahı, Demdem Semahı, Arguvan Semahı and Kırat Semahı are danced. The folk song known as the henna song, "Yüksek Ayvanlarda Bülbüller Öter" (Nightingales sing on the high verandas), is danced by girls and women while henna is applied.

The costumes in Malatya's dances do not fully reflect the region, and different costumes are found from district to district. In folk dances men generally wear a white embroidered "papak" (cap) called "küm", though sometimes they dance bareheaded.

Women wear on their heads a fez called "küllük", edged with gold coins, with a "pusu" over the fez and a dolak or printed scarf on top. They wear "şalvar" (baggy trousers), an "üç etek" (three-skirted robe) and over it an apron called bernavile. A white and red handkerchief is pinned to the edge of the coloured sash wound around the waist, and on the feet are embroidered socks and black yemeni slippers.

The main dances are:

Ağırlama (Grani, Ağır, Ağır Malatya) / Alkışta (Arkuşta, Yarkutta, Halkuşta, Harkuşta) / Aşırma Halayı / Arapgir Halayı / Bapuri (Papuri, Papori, Pagpuri) / Berde / Başayak Halayı / Çarşı Su Halayı / Cezayir

Oyunu / Çeçer / Dillan / Değirmenci Halayı / Delilo Halayı / Gelin Halayı (Yüksek Ayvanlarda Bülbüller Öter) / Gerzani Halayı / Gezinti / Güvenk (Kevenk) / Güzeller (Nâri) / Hem Hime (Hımhime) / Heyhat / Hoplama / Halayı / Hoşgeldin / Karahisar Halayı / Keçike (Koçike), Keçikey, Lorke (Lorki) Halayı / Kemaliye Tamzarası / Kırıkhan / Kol


TRADITIONAL DRESS

In cultural life, dress has been shaped by features particular to the region. Men's dress changed with the Republican period, while women's dress developed slowly, keeping pace with changes in the social structure. Cotton and woollen weaves predominate in traditional dress. "Arapgir Kemhası" woven on home looms, and şalvar cloth, aba and shirt cloth woven on culfa (weaver's) looms were the main materials of dress. The thick peştemal and çinko peştemal woven in places closest to the provincial centre, such as Yukarı Banazı, Yakınca (Kilayik), Gündüzbey, Barguzu and Yeşilyurt (Çırmıhtı), were used in women's dress until around 1975, and continue to a small extent today. In short, local weaves, striped linen and goat-hair fabrics were used in traditional dress. Finely woven peştemal cloth called çinko, akkaralı and checked alaca çarşafs (wraps), çıbın of flannel and linen silk, and "Bervanik" as a peştemal were widely worn. Embroidered (nakışlı) socks complete the outfit. Today, clothing reflects everyday modern dress.

a) Traditional men's dress:

Şalvar, a shirt, a waistcoat, a sash, embroidered socks and black yemeni slippers make up men's dress in the region.

b) Women's dress:

On their heads, women wear a felt "fez" called "küllük", held under the chin by a strap called "sakındırak"; the top of the fez, fastened with string, is called the "tepelik". On it is placed a thin embroidered plate of silver or copper, and sometimes a row of gold coins is strung along the front of the tepelik. Over the tepelik a printed scarf or a black, white and purple "poşu" is set on a thin hoop and tied at the back. Over the küllük they wear an "izar" of fine white muslin measuring 1–1.5 metres, with the part at the back left long so it falls below the waist.


TRADITIONAL HANDICRAFTS

The region's handicrafts were still thriving until 25–30 years ago, but technological change and changing needs have caused them to be forgotten, even to disappear. Carpets, kilims and saddlebags are still woven, especially in villages that raise sheep and goats. Culfa weaving and çarpana (tablet) weaving, once common in some villages, have lost their character. Coppersmithing continues on a limited scale, while trades such as wood carving, cartwright work, packsaddle making and yemeni making have died out; only in packsaddle making are a few masters trying to carry on. In jewellery, the bracelets known as Aleppo work and Damascus work and the twisted pearl necklaces called hap, once important, have lost their importance. As for woodwork, carved wooden decoration and other woodwork were widely used in Malatya's mansions: three-compartment "ambar" (granaries) for storing grain, wire-mesh food cupboards, hollow güğüm used as churns, troughs, spinning wheels, winnowing machines, spoons, the pitchforks used in winnowing, carved wooden coffee and grain mortars and hearth hoods. Today these have lost their importance.

The Coppersmiths' Market, which once served a wide function, has turned to making souvenirs. Today porcelain, steel, aluminium and glass have replaced copper.

Until quite recent years, teşt (basins), cauldrons (don kazanı, bulgur kazanı, kuşgana, cıngırlı kazan), sitil (buckets), sini (large trays, medium trays, trays), bowls of various sizes, sehen (plates), ewers and eleğeni were made. They were decorated with Seljuk and Ottoman ornament and with stylised flowers and motifs of deer, roe deer and birds. Pottery included water jugs of fired reddish clay, wide pans and pots. This craft has also completely lost its function today.

Cloth and fabric printing with wooden blocks, such as çit printing, curtains, tablecloths and printed scarves (yazma), kept its importance in Malatya and Arapgir district until recent years.

Today, tablecloth printing and the making of "bervanik", used as aprons/peştemal especially by older women and by women in folk-dance groups and which efforts are being made to popularise as clothing, are carried on by one master. Developments in weaving present a broad picture. Alongside carpets, kilim and cicim weaving have declined. Culfa-type weaves have lost their importance, though runners and table covers are still made on these looms in small numbers. In Yeşilyurt district, the weaves known as "cırmıktı", woven on hand looms in past years, are used for rough clothing and floor coverings.

In Arapgir district, "Manusa weaving" was once a broad field of work: up to 1,100 flat and jacquard looms met the fabric needs of the area, and their products were taken to many parts of Anatolia and by caravan to Aleppo for sale.

Among Malatya's woven products, the carpets of Ören, Kürecik, Dirican, Parçikan, Başören and Sinan village are famous. Malatya kilims are distinguished by borders of castle-tower motifs framing the rectangular field, with hexagonal and octagonal medallions in the centre. Bird and camel-neck, scorpion-foot, ram's-horn and geometric motifs are found. Besides red, black, brown, beige, navy and white are often used. Locally the kilims are called "Yedi dağ çiçeği" (seven mountain flowers). Dirican kilims are known as "Dirican gözü ak kilimi" and "sık kilim". In sıklı kilims the field is divided into rectangles, each called a sık. In Sinan kilims the border is a diamond and the main pattern is the rose.

In Malatya, cicim is woven on horizontal looms and used for rugs, sacks, saddlebags, bags and shepherds' bags.

Malatya is also a city famous for its carpets; the carpets of Ören, Başören, Dirican, Parçikan and Kürecik in particular have made their name. Today carpets woven on looms set up in villages by the Public Education Centre with state support are developing widely. The region's famous Ören carpets have borders and medallions in the centre. The most common ornaments are ram's horns, dragon claws, stylised flowers and plant shoots, in white, black, red and navy; some have cotton warps. Carpets and products woven with this technique, such as side rugs, floor rugs, divan rugs, prayer rugs, carpet cushions, bags and saddlebags, have created a wide range of uses. Malatya carpets have about 700 knots per dm². Some have plain fringes and some braided. In the past the wool was dyed entirely with natural root dyes, but this has declined and ready-made dyes have taken their place.


VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

After mud brick, wood is the material most used in Malatya houses. The beams binding the walls, inner and outer joinery, floors, windows, doors, stairs and cupboards are all of wood. Iron was used only for grilles on doors, windows and the vents above doors.

The large houses of Malatya, generally called konak, have a "selamlık" (reception section).

It is entered through the wide street door. This section is the house's guest room and is large.

Today traditional Malatya houses are disappearing fast. The mansions are scattered, especially the "Beşkonaklar" on Sinema Street and in other neighbourhoods; among the districts, this character has been preserved to a small extent in Yeşilyurt and Arapgir.

Source: http://www.malatyatecde.net/sayfa_oku.asp?id=52

Malatya, the Land of Apricots, which has held an important place in the pages of history for its natural, historical and cultural abundance, lies in the Upper Euphrates Basin of the Eastern Anatolia Region. The ranges forming the high western part of the South-eastern Taurus cover a wide area in the south of the province, and north of them stretches the Malatya plain, which the Tohma river divides in two. The Euphrates, Tohma, Söğütlü, Sultansuyu, Beylerderesi, Derme Suyu, Kuru Çay, Sürgü and Şiro Çayı are Malatya's main rivers. Plateaus and plains cover much of the province; the main plains are Malatya, Doğanşehir, İzollu, Akçadağ, Yazıhan, Mandıra, Distrik, Erkenek, Mığdı, Sürgü and Çaplı.

Its position at the crossroads of routes for trade and cultural exchange between three continents has increased Malatya's historical and cultural importance. This has made Malatya important in every period of history and always drawn attention to it. Called "Melitae" in the Kültepe documents, "Maldia" in Hittite documents, "Meliddu, Melide, Melid, Milidia" in Assyrian documents, "Melitea" in Urartian sources, "Melitene" in Roman and Byzantine sources and "Malatiyye" in Arabic sources, the city was named "Malatya" by the Turks. The Czech scholar Bedřich Hrozný, who contributed greatly to deciphering Hittite, said the city's name meant "honey and fruit garden" in Hittite. In Hittite hieroglyphic texts, Malatya is represented by a calf's head or a bull's foot.

Malatya's history goes back to the Hittites. A Hittite palace from the 8th century BC was found at Aslantepe Mound, 4 km from the central district. After the Hittites, the region was ruled by the Kingdom of Carchemish, of Hittite origin, the Mitanni, the Hurrians, the Semitic Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians in the 6th century BC, and later the Kingdom of Commagene, the Kingdom of Pontus, the Parthians, the Sasanians and the Romans. When the Roman Empire split in two in AD 395, Malatya fell to the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), which made it a provincial capital. After Islamic armies under Habib ibn Maslama conquered Malatya, the city was a frontier city of the Islamic state for 79 years, in 655–712 and 735–757. The Byzantines, taking advantage of internal strife in the Islamic state, occupied Malatya, but after the Battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert) in 1071 the Seljuks conquered it in 1085. For 40 years, from 1135 to 1175, Malatya was the capital of the Danishmendids, who were subject to the Seljuks. After the Seljuks the city passed to the Ilkhanids and then to the Mamluks, and when Sultan Selim I (Yavuz) ended the Mamluk state in 1516, Malatya definitively joined the Ottoman state.

In the Ottoman period Malatya was one of the five sanjaks of the Dulkadir beylerbeylik (province) centred on Maraş; in the mid-18th century, because of internal revolts, it was separated from Kahramanmaraş and attached to the province of Diyarbakır. After a quiet period up to the Tanzimat, Malatya became the centre of one of the three sanjaks of the province of Mamuretülaziz. By the beginning of the First World War it had become one of the larger central cities of Central Anatolia, and in the Republican period it became a province. The arrival of the railway in Malatya in 1931 and the city's rail link to Sivas in 1937 paved the way for its development.

The economy of our Malatya, the Capital of Apricots, keeps growing, and our province continues to shine as an ever more attractive and liveable city, with positive developments in many fields, above all tourism, health, industry and education.

Source: http://www.malatya.gov.tr/malatya-tarihi1

Because of the rugged terrain of the region, Malatya was known until recently as a province that was hard to reach. Today, however, it is very easy to get to Malatya by road, air and rail.

Services run from many of Türkiye's major cities to the Intercity Bus Terminal, 5 kilometres from the centre of Malatya. From the terminal to the city centre there are municipal buses, minibuses and taxis.

On major highways, Malatya can be reached from Istanbul via Ankara and Kayseri. From İzmir the route is via Afyonkarahisar, Konya and Kayseri. Malatya is linked to Kayseri by the D300, to Adıyaman by the D850, to Sivas by the D875 and to Kahramanmaraş by the D330.

The city's air connections are via Erhaç Airport in Akçadağ district, 30 kilometres from central Malatya. Several private airlines run daily scheduled flights to Erhaç from Istanbul and Ankara all year round. Erhaç, which also has flights to İzmir and Antalya in summer, has an international terminal from which, in certain seasons, there are direct flights from some European cities, above all Frankfurt in Germany. Havaş shuttle buses run from the airport to the city centre.

It is also possible to reach Malatya by train from neighbouring provinces and from Ankara: Malatya lies on the routes of the Güney Kurtalan Express, Van Gölü Express and Fırat Express.

Malatya is known as the centre of Türkiye's dried apricot production and exports. Most of the dried apricots produced in the country are grown here, which is why the city is called the 'Land of Apricots'.

Besides apricots, industry, health, education and agriculture make Malatya one of the region's important centres.

According to the 2024 data on the page, the province's nominal gross domestic product is 156.4 billion lira, or 210,748 lira per head.