Ahlat (, ) is a town in Turkey's Bitlis Province in Eastern Anatolia Region. It is the seat of Ahlat District. Its population is 27,563 (2021). The town of Ahlat is situated on the northwestern shore of Lake Van. The mayor is Abdulalim Mümtaz Çoban (AKP). History Ahlat, known by its Armenian name of Khlat or Chliat in the ancient and medieval period, was once a part of the district of Bznunik'. The town was taken by the Arabs during the reign of Caliph Uthman (644–656); in 645, Uthman instructed the governor of Syria, Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, to send Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri in an expedition to Byzantine-controlled Armenia—although some sources insist that the Caliph commissioned Habib directly. During the next four centuries, Ahlat was ruled by "Arab governors, Armenian princes, and Arab emirs of the Qays tribe". In the early eighth century, Arab tribes settled in the region, and Ahlat became part of the Arab Kaysite principality. Ibn Hawqal (died ca. 978) mentioned Ahlat as an important stopover point on the Urmia-Mayyafariqin trade route. In about 983, Ahlat was controlled by a Kurdish chief named Bāḏ (in Armenian spelled as "Bat"); thereafter, Ahlat was associated with the Kurdish Marwanids (centered in Diyar Bakr), which sprang from Bāḏ. In the winter of 998, the Curopalates David III of Tao besieged Khlat but was unable to capture it, partly because of his contemptuous treatment towards its Armenian population. In 1057, Herve Phrangopoulos retreated her with 300 Norman knights after breaking with Michael VI but was betrayed by Aponosar (Abu Nasr), the emir of the city. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the Seljuk army, led personally by Sultan Alp Arslan (1063-1072), took possession of the town. The Seljuks then gave control over the town to the Turkmen slave commander Sökmen el-Kutbî (or al-Qutbi). Sökmen and his successors were known as the Shah-Armens (or Ahlat-Shahs) and made Ahlat their capital. In the 11th century accounts of Nasir Khusraw (in his Safarnama) the town of "Akhlat" (, ) is mentioned. According to the Institute of Ismaili Studies (who cite Thackston, W. Wheeler McIntosh, ed. trans., Nasir-i Khusraw’s Book of Travels (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2010), 8.), the excerpt goes as follows: "From there (Harran) we arrived in the city of Akhlat on the 18th of Jumada al-Awwal [November 20 CE]. This city is the border town between the Muslims and Armenians,