Edirne - History

History

The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 16 major battles or sieges, from the days of the ancient Greeks. Military historian John Keegan identifies it as "the most contested spot on the globe" and attributes this to its geographical location.

According to Greek mythology, Orestes, son of king Agamemnon, built this city as Orestias, at the confluence of the Tonsus (Toundja) and the Ardiscus (Arda) with the Hebrus (Maritza). The city was (re)founded eponymously by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama, Uskudama or Uskodama or Uscudama . It was the capital of the Bessi. Hadrian developed it, adorned it with monuments, changed its name to Hadrianopolis, and made it the capital of the Roman province of Haemimont, or Thrace. Licinius was defeated there by Constantine I in 323, and Valens was killed by the Goths in 378 during the Battle of Adrianople (378). In 813 the city was seized by Khan Krum of Bulgaria who moved its inhabitants to the Bulgarian lands towards the north of the Danube.

During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the battle of Adrianople (1205). Later Theodore Komnenos, Despot of Epirus, took possession of it in 1227, and three years later was defeated at Klokotnitsa by Asen, Emperor of the Bulgarians.

Following its capture by the Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1365, Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453; until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) which became the empire's new capital.

Under Ottoman rule Adrianople was the principal city of a vilayet (province) of the same name, both of which were later renamed as Edirne. Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, was born in Adrianople. It was here that he fell under the influence of some Hurufis known as Certain accursed ones of no significance, who were burnt as heretics by Mahmut Paşa.

Sultan Mehmed IV left the palace in Constantinople and died in Edirne in 1693.

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, lived in Edirne from 1863 to 1868. He was exiled there by the Ottoman Empire before being banished further to the Ottoman penal colony in Akka. He referred to Edirne in his writings as the "Land of Mystery".

Edirne was a sanjak centre during the Ottoman period and was bound to, successively, the Rumeli Eyalet and Silistre Eyalet before becoming a province centre at the beginning of the 19th century. Edirne Province comprised the sanjaks of Edirne, Tekfurdağı, Gelibolu, Filibe and İslimye before 1878.

The subdivisions of the Edirne Province before 1878 were:

  • Sanjak of Edirne: Kazas of Edirne, Dimetoka, Kırkkilise, Maa Çimren Cisr-i Mustafa Paşa, Cisr-i Ergene, Babay-ı Atik, Beykar Hisar, Maa Hatunili-Kızılağaç, Havsa, Ferecik.
  • Sanjak of İslimye: Kazas of İslimye, Ahyolu, Misivri, Burgaz, Aydos, Karinabad, Yanbolu and Zağra-i Cedit.
  • Sanjak of Gelibolu: Kazas of Gelibolu, Gümülcine, Şarköy, Enez, Evreşe and Keşan. Gümülcine was a kaza of the Filibe sanjak at the beginning of the 19th century.
  • Sanjak of Filibe: Kazas of Filibe, Pazarcık, Zagra-i Atik, Hasköy, Kazanlı, Çırpan, Ahiçelebi, Sultanyeri.
  • Sanjak of Tekfurdağı: Kazas of Tekfurdağı, Vize, Çorlu, Lüleburgaz, Malkara, Midye, Hayrabolu.

The subdivisions of the Edirne Province between 1878-1912 were:

  • Sanjak of Edirne: Kazas of Edirne, Havsa, Dimetoka, Mustafapaşa, Ortaköy, Cisr-i Ergene and Kırcaali.
  • Sanjak of Kırkkilise: Kazas of Kırkkilise, Ahtabolu, Vize, Midye, Lüleburgaz, Babaeski and Tırnovacık.
  • Sanjak of Tekfurdağı: Kazas of Tekfurdağı, Çorlu, Malkara and Hayrabolu.
  • Sanjak of Gelibolu: Kazas of Gelibolu, Eceovası (its center was Maydos and renamed as Eceabat in 1923), Mürefte, Şarköy and Keşan.
  • Sanjak of Dedeağaç: Kazas of Dedeağaç, Enez and Sofulu.
  • Sanjak of Gümülcine: Kazas of Gümülcine, İskeçe, Ahiçelebi, Darıdere, Eğridere and Sultanyeri.

Edirne was briefly occupied by imperial Russian troops in 1829, during the Greek War of Independence; and in 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. The city suffered greatly in 1905 from a conflagration. In 1905 it had about 80,000 inhabitants, of whom 30,000 were Muslims (Turks and some Albanians, Roma and Circassians); 22,000 Greeks; 10,000 Bulgarians; 4,000 Armenians; 12,000 Jews; and 2,000 more citizens of non-classifiable ethnic/religious backgrounds. Edirne was a vital fortress defending Ottoman Constantinople and Eastern Thrace during the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. It was briefly occupied by the Bulgarians in 1913, following the Battle of Odrin; and by the Greeks between the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 and the end of the Turkish War of Independence in 1922.

According to the 2007 census, Edirne Province had a population of 382,222 inhabitants. The city is a thriving center of commerce for woven textiles, silks, carpets and agricultural products.

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