History of Rize: Lazi Kingdom, Byzantine Coast and Tea Province

Rize’s history is the history of the eastern Black Sea coast — a landscape so rugged that it resisted absorption by successive empires longer than the more accessible Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, producing a patchwork of distinct peoples (Lazi, Hemşin, Laz, Armenian) whose cultural traces remain visible in the valley communities above the modern coast road.

Ancient Rhizaion

The ancient settlement on the Rize coast — Rhizaion in Greek — was part of the Pontus kingdom and then the Roman province of Pontus et Bithynia. The name is preserved in modern Rize (a direct derivation).

Pontic Kingdom: The Kingdom of Pontus controlled the Black Sea coast from the 3rd century BCE. The Pontic kings, particularly Mithridates VI Eupator, maintained the Black Sea coast as part of their domain in the prolonged conflict with Rome.

Roman period: After the defeat of Mithridates, the Rize coast became part of the Roman province. The importance of the eastern Black Sea route (connecting Rome to Armenia, Persia, and the Caucasus) made the coastal towns significant transit points.

The Lazi and early medieval period

The Lazi were a Caucasian people who inhabited the eastern Black Sea coast — distinct from the Anatolian peoples to the south and west. Their kingdom, Lazica, controlled the hinterland from the coast to the mountains.

Lazica and Byzantium: The Lazic kingdom was periodically under Byzantine influence and periodically under Sassanid Persian influence — the Black Sea coast was contested between the two empires in the 6th century CE. The Lazic War (541–562 CE) between Byzantium and Persia was fought partly in this area.

Byzantine consolidation: Byzantine control of the eastern Black Sea coast was consolidated in the 7th–10th centuries — though the difficult terrain always made central control partial.

The Hemşin people

The Hemşin (Hamshen) people of the mountain valleys above Rize and Artvin have one of the most debated ethnic histories of any community in Turkey. The most widely accepted view is that they are descended from Armenian communities who migrated into the Kaçkar mountains from the Artvin area in the medieval period.

The migration: Hemşin oral tradition and some documentary evidence suggests the founders of the Hemşin community migrated from the Lake Van/Armenian heartland to the Kaçkar valleys — possibly escaping Arab raids, possibly for other reasons. The migration likely occurred between the 7th and 9th centuries CE.

Language: The Hemşin language (Homshetsma) is a Western Armenian dialect, preserved in isolated mountain valleys while the connection with mainstream Armenian culture was lost. Most Hemşin are Sunni Muslim rather than Armenian Christian.

Culture: The Hemşin developed a distinctive culture of seasonal migration — spending winters on the coast or in cities (particularly as pastry-makers in Istanbul and other Ottoman cities) and summers at the high yaylalar. This pattern still continues in modified form.

Ottoman Rize

Ottoman incorporation of the Rize coast occurred in the 16th century. The area was valued for its lumber (the Black Sea forests provided timber for Ottoman construction and shipbuilding), its agriculture, and its position on the route to the Caucasus.

Population: Ottoman Rize had a mixed Muslim Turkish and Greek Orthodox (Pontic Greek) population, along with the Hemşin communities in the mountain valleys.

Population exchange (1923): The Pontic Greek community was removed from the Rize area in the 1923 exchange. Unlike Trabzon and Samsun, Rize’s Greek community was smaller and the exchange’s impact less visible in the surviving built environment.

Introduction of Tea (20th century)

The history of Rize’s transformation into a tea province is one of the more unusual stories in modern Turkish economic history.

Pre-tea: Before tea, the Rize coast was primarily a hazelnut, corn, and timber economy — significant but not dominant in the national picture.

Soviet Russia as the model: Tea cultivation existed in the Russian Caucasus (present-day Georgia) across the border. The Turkish Republican government identified the Rize climate as suitable and initiated tea cultivation programmes from 1924.

Expansion: The state-directed expansion of tea cultivation through the 1930s–50s transformed the Rize hillsides — the characteristic terraced tea plantations replaced forest on the lower slopes. Çaykur (the state tea company) was founded in 1971 to consolidate production.

Scale today: Rize province produces approximately 60% of Turkey’s tea — around 60,000–70,000 tonnes of processed tea annually. The tea economy employs a significant portion of the rural population, particularly women as seasonal pickers.

Historical timeline

Period	Event
c. 300 BCE	Pontic Kingdom; ancient Rhizaion
1st c. CE	Roman province of Pontus et Bithynia
541–562 CE	Lazic War between Byzantium and Sassanid Persia
7th–9th c.	Hemşin community established in mountain valleys
16th c.	Ottoman conquest
1923	Population exchange
1924	First tea cultivation programme begins
1971	Çaykur founded as state tea company
Present	60,000+ tonnes tea/year; Turkey’s tea capital

For the tea landscape today, see things to do in Rize. For the shared Black Sea historical context, see history of Trabzon.