Trebizond (Old Gr. Trapezous; mediæval Lat. Trebisonda; Turk. Tarabzûn) is the capital of a province in the extreme NE. of Asia Minor. The city is a flourishing seaport on the Black Sea coast, between the sea and the mountains; its importance being due to the fact that it stands on the great overland trade-route between Europe and Persia over the tableland of Armenia, though this trade has been much injured by the Batoum-Tiflis railway. It is surrounded by walls of great extent, which have numerous picturesque forts and enclose numerous gardens as well as the town itself. Outside the walls are various suburbs, where most of the Christian inhabitants reside, and in which the principal bazaars and khans have been established. The harbour is but a roadstead, not protected on the north-east, and vessels cannot come close inshore; but there is regular communication with Constantinople, the mouth of the Danube, and some Mediterranean ports. The pop. (50,000) comprises Turks, Armenians, Greeks, and Persians.
The city is noted for its silk manufactures, which, however, are fast decaying. The old Greek city dates from 700 B.C., and was founded by a colony from Sinope. Conquered from Mithridates by the Romans, it rapidly rose in importance, became a free city, and was made by Trajan the capital of Pontus Cappadocius. On the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 one of the imperial Byzantine family, Alexis, established himself at Trebizond, where he had previously exercised the functions of governor, and founded a state known as the Empire of Trebizond, which stretched from the Phasis to the Halys, and maintained its independence against the Turks till 1462.—George of Trebizond (1396–1486), descended of parents from Trebizond, was born in Crete, but settled in Italy in 1420 as a teacher of rhetoric, Greek grammar, and philosophy.