Boyabat
Encyclopedia
Sinop Province
Sinop Province is a province of Turkey, along the Black Sea. It is located between 41 and 42 degrees North latitude and between 34 and 35 degrees East longitude. The surface area is 5,862 km², equivalent to 0.8% of Turkey's surface area. The borders total 475 km and consists of 300 km of land and...
in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The mayor is Mehmet Ermiş (AKP
Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...
).
Boyabat has a population of 50,000 in the town itself. The town is in the Gökırmak valley located 100 km south of Sinop over the mountain range along the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast.
The town is the trade hub for over a hundred villages around it. Of larger centers nearby, up the Gökırmak ("blue river") valley to the west is Kastamonu
Kastamonu
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of...
, down the Gökırmak and later Kızıl River valley to the east you find Samsun
Samsun
Samsun is a city of about half a million people on the north coast of Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Samsun Province and a major Black Sea port.-Name:...
.
Name
The name Boyabat is said to consist of "boy" which means border and the PersianPersian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
suffix "abad" (آباد) which means built/cultivated town/agricultural landscape. It bears witness to the fact that the border between the Byzantine empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
and the empire of the Seljuq Turks was once here.
History
Boyabat town was built below a castle which probably has not been in serious use since around 1300 A.D. but may be as old as 2800 years. The castle overlooks the Gökirmak valley. This valley is long and lies parallel with the Black SeaBlack Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast. Together with a similarly placed valley in eastern Anatolia it forms a natural east-west pathway used both in antiquity and later as part of the silk road. The older history of Boyabat may have started from Bronze Age, and it may have been ruled by Kaskians, Hittites
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, Paphlagonians, Persians, Lydians
Lydians
The Lydians were the inhabitants of Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian group....
, Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
kingdom, and Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
.
The area has since been under the rule of several Turkish states (Danişmendli, Seljuq, Pervaneogullari, Jandarids), Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and Turkish Republic and has been spared from major military conflicts and battles on its territory for at least 500 years.
Kazdere/Gazidere, a tributary of Gökirmak, passes through the town. It cuts the rock that the castle is perched on with a dramatic pair of vertical walls. The wall on the castle side has a window on the rock face illuminating descending tunnels for a newly discovered large underground city from roman times. The tunnels may also have served for water supply and safe passage during siege.
Today
The main income source of the area is agriculture, animal husbandry, and some forest related activities. Of agricultural produce Boyabat is renowned for its rice. Rice fields cover the bottom of Gökirmak and Kizilirmak valleys.The town boasts some local industry, notably brick, tiles, and ceramic production, unhusking and polishing of rice, and tanning.
Mondays a weekly bazaar is held in Boyabat center and the town overflows with farmers and merchants of the area. A larger several days long yearly event "Panayir" (fair) is held in autumn (starting the second Wednesday of October) just outside town. It lasts several days and attracts participants from a much larger area.
The local character of Boyabat is reflected in the characteristic old houses, handwoven traditional scarves popular among the farmer ladies and woodprint scarves among town ladies. Davul
Davul
The davul or tupan is a large double-headed drum that is played with sticks. It has many names depending on the country and region.-Names:Some names of davuls include:*tupan *davul...
and zurna
Zurna
The zurna , is a multinational outdoor wind instrument, usually accompanied by a davul in Anatolian folk music. The name is from Turkish zurna, itself derived from Persian سرنای surnāy, composed of sūr “banquet, feast” and nāy “reed, pipe”...
music is the hallmark of weddings. They lead processions through the town carrying gifts to the wedding house. On arrival, the drummer in full traditional drummer outfit performs a drumplaying dance to the music of zurna. Another Boyabat tradition kept alive is the whole grilled lamb kebab served in special restaurants. Village weddings and the panayir /fair also include a wrestling championship performed to the tune of Davul and zurna, playing non-stop epic "Koroglu
Koroglu
A dance tune in a five-beat rhythm that was well-known to the farming populations of Asia Minor and the Aydın area in particular. In Turkish, “köroğlu”means “the son of the blind man” and the reference is to a famous troubadour whosereputation spread from Asia Minor as far as the Caucasus, Persia,...
" melodies.
Like every other similar town in Turkey, a large number of people originating from Boyabat now live in large metropolitan centers, mainly Istanbul some 650 km or a 10 hours bus ride away.
During the latest decades Boyabat town itself has also expanded greatly by the building of apartment blocks. The plan of the city is altered by a wide thoroughfare which also attracted arenas of business out from the old shopping district.
The countryside around has also seen dramatic changes. A belt of planted pine forests, a dry canal diverting flash floods away from town center, factories on the plains west of the town etc..
The construction of the Boyabat dam has started on 2008 on the Kızıl River near Duragan
Duragan
Durağan is a town and district of Sinop Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey.The town is at the location where Kizil River joins its trubituary Gökırmak just before crossing the last mountain range northwards to the Black Sea....
, another under planning just upriver, a tunnel to avoid the highest peak of the mountain pass towards Sinop are major infrastructure projects in the area.
Notable natives
- Yusuf Kemal Tengirşek (1873–1976): Foreign minister of Turkey
- Teyyareci Nuri bey (1890–1914 ): Piloting pioneer
- Salih Zeki Bey (1864–1921): Mathematics professor
External links
- District governor's official website
- Boyabat, Sinop : Where is it in Turkey? schematic map, part of the Atlas of Turkey which also contains historic maps of the region.
- Boyabat pictures taken by traveller Dick Osseman in June 2005
- News from Boyabat
