In 1123 he was captured by Balak of Mardin, and confined in Kharput with Joscelin, his successor in the county of Edessa, who had been captured in the previous year.
Happily for Kaikobad, the princes mistrusted the power of the Egyptian, and it proved a difficult task to penetrate through the mountainous, well-fortified accesses to the interior of Asia Minor, so that the advantage rested with Kaikobad, who took Kharput, and for some time even held Harran, Ar-Roha and Rakka (1232).
Kharput probably stands on or near the site of Carcathiocerta in Sophene, reached by Corbulo in A.D.
The early Moslem geographers knew it as Hisn Ziyad, but the Armenian name was Khartabirt or Kharbirt, whence Kharput.
Kharput is an important station of the American missionaries, who have built a college, a theological seminary, and boys' and girls' schools.