KHARPUT (officially Ma'murat-ei/Azîz), a town of Armenia, the seat of a mutasarrif, is situated about 60 miles north of Diarbekir on the highway to Siwas, and occupies a peculiarly picturesque position on a rocky eminence rising above the great plain through which the waters of the eastern Euphrates describe a devious passage. Besides the imposing ruins of the castle on the height, it possesses an ancient Jacobite church and convent, and is the seat of an important American missionary college and schools. The population may be estimated at 25,000 or rather more, as there are 5000 households in the town (70 Jacobite, 500 Armenian, and the rest Turkish).

There is epigraphic evidence for the existence of a town on this site in the time of Nero (see Mordtmann in Hermes, 1880), and by some it is identified with Carcathiocerta, the capital of the province of Sophene. Kharput (Armenian, Kharpert, i.e., Castle Rock; Xdρπoτe of Cedrenus; Arabic, Khartabirt) appears in the older Arabic literature as Hisn Ziyad. It is the Quart Piert or Quart Pierre of William of Tyre, the scene of the tragical story of the imprisonment of Baldwin II. by the emir Balak. See Tozer, Turkish Armenia, he., London, 1881.