Kastamuni

Kastamuni, or Kastambūl. (1) A vilayet of Asia Minor which includes Paphlagonia and parts of Pontus and Galatia. It is divided into four sanjaks—Kastamuni, Boli, Changra and Sinope—is rich in mineral wealth, and has many mineral springs and extensive forests, the timber being used for charcoal and building and the bark for tanning. The products are chiefly cereals, fruits, opium, cotton, tobacco, wool, ordinary goat-hair and mohair, in which there is a large trade. There are coal-mines at and near Eregli (anc. Heracleia) which yield steam coal nearly as good in quality as the English, but they are badly worked. Its population comprises about 993,000 Moslems and 27,000 Christians. (2) The capital of the vilayet, the ancient Castamon, altitude 2500 ft., situated in the narrow valley of the Geuk Irmak (Amnias), and connected by a carriage road, 54 m., with its port Ineboli on the Black Sea. The town is noted for its copper utensils, but the famous copper mines about 36 m. N., worked from ancient times to the 19th century, are now abandoned. There are over 30 mosques in the town, a dervish monastery, and numerous theological colleges (medresses), and the Moslem inhabitants have a reputation for bigotry. The climate though subject to extremes of heat and cold is healthy; in winter the roads are often closed by snow. The population of 16,000 includes about 2500 Christians. Castamon became an important city in later Byzantine times. It lay on the northern trunk-road to the Euphrates and was built round a strong fortress whose ruins crown the rocky hill west of the town. It was taken by the Danishmand Amirs of Sivas early in the 12th century, and passed to the Turks in 1393.

(J. G. C. A.)