The recorded history of Amasya begins with ancient Amaseia, built at the foot of Mount Harşena in the narrow valley of the Yeşilırmak. The city became the first capital of the Kingdom of Pontus, founded by a dynasty of Persian origin, and its kings had their monumental tombs cut into the rock face directly above the palace. The geographer Strabo was born here and described his home town at length in his work. After the Mithridatic Wars Amaseia passed under Roman rule and kept its importance as a provincial city and episcopal see, and in the Byzantine period as the centre of the Armeniakon theme.
The Turkish period, which began with the Danishmendids, continued under Seljuk, Ilkhanid and Eretnid rule; the Halifet Gazi Madrasa, the Gökmedrese and the Ilkhanid hospital all survive from these centuries. Under the Ottomans Amasya became a princely province. Çelebi Mehmed reassembled the state from here during the Interregnum, princes such as Bayezid II and Prince Ahmed governed the city for many years, and in 1555 the first peace with Safavid Iran was signed at Amasya. Titles such as "City of Princes" and "Oxford of Anatolia" grew out of this close neighbourhood of court and madrasa.
The articles in this section cover a long span, from prehistoric mounds to the Republican era. Amaseia: The First Capital of the Kingdom of Pontus and the Rock-Cut Tombs of the Kings, Amasya, the City of Princes, The Treaty of Amasya (1555) and The Amasya Circular mark the main stages of the series. Narrower subjects such as the kadı court registers, the waqf system, silk production, the earthquake of 1668, the Celali revolts, the American College at Merzifon and the city's twentieth-century population movements are treated in separate articles. The circular drafted at the Saraydüzü Barracks in June 1919 and the Amasya Talks of October that year, the events that defined the city's place in recent history, are described in detail.