Hamdanid emir Nasir al-Dawla in 936. The latter sent his brother, Sayf al-Dawla, to defeat the rebel and assume the governorship of the entire Diyar Bakr. During the next decades, Sayf al-Dawla would use the town as a base for his operations against the Armenian principalities to the north or the Byzantines to the west. In the course of these conflicts, the Byzantines sacked Arzen in 942. The Hamdanids soon retook it, but the area remained contested after that. During this period, the Kurds first appeared and settled in the area, quickly supplanting the Arab element. The town declined in importance from the mid-10th century on, so that the 12th/13th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi reported that it was deserted and in ruins. Apart from Taylor's sketches, little survives of the town today, as the area has been given over to agriculture. References Sources History of Siirt Province Arminiya Former populated places in Turkey Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity) Former emirates Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo Roman–Persian Wars