Timeline of Laz History
From the kingdom of Colchis to a language UNESCO lists as endangered: twenty-six centuries of Laz history, and the articles that tell each part of the story. Filter by era, or scroll the whole way down.
6th century BC
The kingdom of Colchis
On the eastern Black Sea coast rises Colchis, the land Greek myth gave the Golden Fleece. The Laz trace their origins to its people.
Read the article2nd century AD
The Laz enter the record
Roman and Greek writers name the Lazoi among the peoples of the Colchian coast, the first clear mention of the Laz as a distinct group.
Read the article325 AD
Lazica at the Council of Nicaea
A bishopric exists at Pityus on the Lazic coast, and bishops from the region attend the first great council of the Christian church.
Read the article5th century
John the Laz in Jerusalem
A Laz monk born Mithridates leaves the imperial court for the Holy Land, where he helps found Palestinian monasticism.
Read the article522 AD
Lazica adopts Christianity
King Tzath is baptised at Constantinople. The kingdom is bound to the Byzantine world and set apart from Zoroastrian Persia.
Read the article541-562 AD
The Lazic War
Byzantium and Sasanian Persia fight for two decades over the Laz homeland, in a grinding war of sieges around the fortress of Petra.
Read the article555 AD
The murder of Gubazes II
The Lazic king is assassinated by Byzantine officers. The Laz nobility demand justice and obtain a public imperial inquiry.
Read the article562 AD
The Fifty-Year Peace
The war ends. Lazica is recognised as a Byzantine vassal, and Byzantium agrees to pay Persia an annual tribute.
Read the article1204-1461
The Empire of Trebizond
A Greek successor state of Byzantium governs the coast. Under its rule the Laz remain Orthodox Christians.
Read the article1461
The fall of Trebizond
Mehmed II takes Trebizond. The coast as far east as Rize passes to the Ottomans: the southern Laz lands enter the empire.
Read the article1547
Gonio and Batumi taken
Campaigns under Suleiman the Magnificent bring the northern Laz districts under Ottoman rule. All of Lazistan now lies in one empire.
Read the article16th-18th centuries
The conversion to Islam
Over roughly two centuries the Laz move from Christianity to Islam, drawn by the social and administrative advantages of the Ottoman order.
Read the article1814-1834
The Tuzcuoglu rebellions
Laz valley lords revolt against Ottoman centralisation, the most famous of the region resistance movements.
Read the article19th century
The Sanjak of Lazistan
The region is formalised as an Ottoman province carrying the name of the Laz, within the vilayet of Trebizond.
Read the article1878
Batumi annexed, the muhacir leave
Russia takes Batumi under the Treaty of Berlin. Tens of thousands of Muslim Laz leave as muhacir and resettle across Anatolia.
Read the article1925
The Rize Hat Revolt
Resistance on the Black Sea coast to the new Turkish republic dress reforms ends in arrests and hangings.
Read the article1929
A Laz alphabet and a newspaper
In the Soviet Union, Iskender Tzitashi devises a Latin alphabet for Lazuri and publishes Mcita Murutskhi, the first Laz newspaper.
Read the article1938
The Soviet window closes
Soviet policy reverses. Tzitashi is executed in the purges, the Laz schools close and his alphabet falls out of use.
Read the article1984
Feurstein Latin alphabet
The German ethnologist Wolfgang Feurstein publishes the Laz alphabet still in use today, reviving written Lazuri.
Read the article2005
Kazim Koyuncu dies
The Laz singer dies at 33. His songs had carried the Laz language to audiences far beyond the Black Sea.
Read the articleToday
A language listed as endangered
UNESCO classifies Lazuri as definitely endangered. Perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 people still speak it fluently, and a revival movement works to keep it alive.
Read the article
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