Trebizond Vilayet

The Vilayet of Trebizond or Trabzon was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) in the north-eastern part of the Ottoman Empire and corresponding to the area along the eastern Black Sea coastline and the interior highland region of the Pontic Alps. The region was populated mainly by ethnic Turks in the western half and Laz-speaking Muslims in the eastern half, although throughout the period of Ottoman rule there was a history of conversion to Turkish Islam of many of the region's Pontic Greeks - with even Gulbahar Hatun, the mother of sultan Selim the Grim said to be of Pontic Greek origin.