Chorum

CHORUM, the chief town of a sanjak of the Angora vilayet in Asia Minor, altitude 2300 ft., situated on the edge of a wide plain, almost equidistant from Amasia and Yuzgat. Pop. about 1 2,500, including a few Christians. Its importance is largely due to its situation on the great trade-route from Kaisarieh (Caesarea) by Yuzgat and Marzivan to Samsun on the Black Sea. It corresponds to the ancient Euchaita, which lay 15 m. E. Euchaiti was attacked by the Huns A.D. 508, and became a bishopric at an early period and a centre of religious enthusiasm, as containing the tomb of the revered St Theodore, who slew a dragon in the vicinity and became one of the great warrior saints of the Greek Church. Something of the old enthusiasm seems to have passed to the inhabitants of Chorum, whom most travellers have found bigoted and fanatical Mahommedans (see J.G.C.Anderson, Studia Pontica, pp. 6 ff.).

Categories: CHE-CHR | Turkey