At the beginning of the 20th century it had an area of 32,308 square miles (83,680 km2), while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 996,126.

[5] The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.

[citation needed] From 1913 to 1916, Ahmed Muammer was the Vali (governor) of the vilayet, and he has been accused of being complicit in actions against the Armenian population.

[8] Sanjaks of the Vilayet:[9] Not: Reşadiye (İskefsir till 1909) was nahiya center in Hamidiye kaza of Sanjak of Karahisar-ı Şarki till 1906.

Wilson, Charles William; Hogarth, David George (1911).