Hamshen (Համշէն) Armenians or Hamshenis (Համշենի) are a group of Armenians who inhabit the Black Sea coastal areas of Turkey, Russia, and Georgia. Most adhere to either Sunni Islam or Armenian Apostolic Christianity.
Leontius the Priest wrote that in the 8th century, the Armenian princes Hamam and Shapuh Amatuni, who lost their domains in Artaz to Arabs, moved to the Byzantine Empire with 12,000 of their people. They were given the town of Tambut in the mountains (S of Rhizaion). The town was immediately renamed Hamamashen, which evolved to Hamshen (the Armenian and local name for it) or Hemşin (the official and Turkish name today). This pocket of Armenian people prospered in the Pontic Mountains, and, virtually cut of from other Armenian populations, developed it's unique dialect of Armenian.
