In the 8th century, Armenian Prince Hamam, his father Prince Shapuh Amatuni, and their people migrated north to the Black Sea region in order to escape Arab invasions of Vaspurakan. They settled in the ruined city of Tambur and its surrounding villages. Prince Hamam rebuilt the city and named it Hamamshen ("Hamam's hamlet" in Armenian), this becoming the nucleus of the modern district.
The Hemshin peoples (Armenian: Համշէնցիներ, Hamshentsiner; Turkish: Hemşinliler) are a diverse group of peoples who in the past or present have been affiliated with the region.[3][4][5][6]
^Bert Vaux. Hemshinli: The Forgotten Black Sea Armenians. Cambridge: Harvard University, 2001, pp. 1-2, 4-5.
^Peter Alford Andrews, Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey. Wiesbaden, Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989, pp. 476-477, 483-485, 491.
^Simonian, Hovann H. "Hemshin from Islamicization to the End of the Nineteenth Century" in The Hemshin: History, society and identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. Hovann H. Simonian (ed.) London: Routledge, 2007, p. 80.
^Hachikian, Hagop. "Notes on the Historical Geography and Present Territorial Distribution of the Hemshinili", in The Hemshin, pp. 146-147.