TREBIZOND, or TEEBISOND (in Turkish, Tarabezdn), is a Turkish eyalet in the n.e. of Asia Minor, stretching along the s.e. shore of the Black sea for 240 in., with an esti mated pop. of 540,000. The surface is mostly mountainous, the slopes toward the sea being thickly wooded. The eastern portion of the eyalet is known as Lazistan, from its inhabitants, the Lazi, a savage vindictive race, distinguished among their neighbors for their barbarous manners and predatory habits. The port of Batoum and a part of Lazis tan, on the Russian frontier, were ceded to Russia in 1878. Next to Trebizond, the most important places in Trebizond are Samsoun, Kerasun, and Gumish-Khaneh. The chief town of the eyalet is TREBIZOND, a flourishing sea-port city, on the Black Sea coast, about 110 m. n.w. of Erzerum. It is surrounded by walls of great extent, which inclose numerous gardens as well as the town itself, and is inhabited by a pop. of 40,000 to 50,000, chiefly Moslems. Outside the walls are various suburbs, where most of the Christian inhabitants reside, and in which the principal bazaars and khans have been established. The city is defended by several forts along the walls, and by a fortified citadel perched upon a high rock on one side of the town. It possesses an excellent harbor, which, however, is only considered safe during the summer months, the road stead of Platena, 7 in. to the west, being employed for the rest of the year. There are numerous mosques and "medresses," ten churches for Greek Christians, copper foundries, dye-works, etc. The geographical position of Trebizond is, in a commercial point of view, rivaled only by that of Alexandria, and has made it the great entrepot of the commerce between eastern Europe and central Asia, and the second commercial city of the Turkish empire. European goods are brought hither, since 1830, by regular
services of steamers from Constantinople, and the mouths of the Danube; and those of Asia by caravans from Erzerum, Tabriz, and Syria. The value of the annual imports by sea is about £1,500,000; that of the annual exports may amount to a little over £1,000,000. The inland traffic with Anatolia is supposed also to represent a value of near £1,000,000. The goods brought overland embrace silk, wool, tobacco, wax, gall nuts, oil, opium, drugs of various kinds, honey, timber, carpets, and shawls; and those arriving by sea are principally aottou cloths, glass, cutlery, fire-arms, as well as grain, iron, tin, spices, etc. Trebizond is the ancient Trapezus, and was founded by a colony from Sinope; it was a flourishing town under the Colehians, when Xenophon arrived there in his famous retreat from Persia. Conquered from Mithridates by the Romans, it rapidly rose in importance, became a free city, was made by Trajan the capital of Pontus Cap padocicus; and, by the same enlightened ruler, was provided with a larger and better harbor. On the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, and the expulsion of the Comnenian emperors, one of the imperial family, Alexis, established himself at Trebizond, where he had previously exercised the functions of governor, and founded a state known as the Empire of Trebizond, which stretched from the Phasis to the Halys, and maintained its independence against the Timks till 1462, when the last emperor was defeated and captured by-sultan Mohammed II.