Everything about Ayd N totally explained
Aidın (
Greek:
Αϊδίνιο) is a city in and the seat of
Aydın Province in
Turkey's
Aegean Region.
Aidın is the heart of the lower valley of
Büyük Menderes River (
Meander River) down to the
Aegean Sea, a region that has been known for its fertility and productivity since ancient times. Today the best-known crop is
figs, although the area grows other agricultural products, has some light industry and the province of Aydın also contains some internationally known historic sites and centers of tourism. The weather is hot in summer, and warm all year round.
Etymology
Once the ancient city of
Tralles and then
Güzelhisar, the city was later named after the
Anatolian Turkish Beylik of
Aydınoğlu, which ruled here in the
14th century.
History
Antiquity
In ancient Greek sources, the name of the city is given as "Anthea" and "Euanthia". During the
Seleucid period, it received the name "Antiochia" (Greek: Αντιόχεια). At other times it was also called "
Seleucia ad Maeandrum" and "Erynina". In
Roman and
Byzantine times, it was known as "Tralles" or "Tralleis", and was one of the largest Aegean cities in antiquity.
According to
Strabo Tralles was founded by the
Argives and
Trallians, a
Thracian tribe. Along with the rest of
Lydia, the city fell to the
Persian Empire. After its success against
Athens in the
Peloponnesian War,
Sparta unsuccessfully sought to take the city from the Persians, but in
334 BC, Tralles surrendered to
Alexander the Great without resistance and therefore wasn't sacked. Alexander's general
Antigonus held the city from
313 to
301 BC and later the
Seleucids held the city until
190 BC when it fell to
Pergamon. From
133 to
129 BC, the city supported
Aristonicus of Pergamon, a pretender to the Pergamene throne, against the Romans. After the Romans defeated him, they revoked the city's right to mint coins.
Tralles was a
conventus for a time under the Roman Republic, but
Ephesus later took over that position. The city was taken by rebels during the
Mithridatic War during which many Roman inhabitants were killed. Tralles suffered greatly from an
earthquake in
26 BC.
Augustus provided funds for its reconstruction after which the city thanked him by renaming itself
Caesarea.
Strabo describes the city as a prosperous trading center, listing famous residents of the city, including
Pythodorus (native of
Nysa), and orators
Damasus Scombrus and
Dionysocles. Several centuries later,
Anthemius of Tralles, architect of
Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople, was born in Tralles.
Christianity
An early
bishop Polybius (fl. ca.
105) is attested by a letter from
Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the church at Tralles. The city was officially
Christianized, along with the rest of
Caria, early after the conversion of
Constantine, at which time the
see was confirmed. Among the recorded bishops are: Heracleon (
431), Maximus (
451), Uranius (
553), Myron (
692), Theophylactus (
787), Theophanes and Theopistus both
ninth century, and John (
1230). Tralles remains a
titular see of the
Roman Catholic Church (
Tralles in Asia or
Trallianus in Asia); the seat is vacant following the death of the last
bishop in
1974.
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The Turkish era
After the
Battle of Manzikert in
1071, the
Byzantine Empire was in civil chaos throughout Anatolia. The
Seljuks took Tralles and it was integrated into the
Sultanate of Rüm.
Manuel I Comnenus retook the city for Byzantium in the later half of the
twelfth century. It remained Byzantine until it was finally taken by the Turks in
1282.
The Beylik of
Aydınoğlu was founded in the region in 1307 and ruled the lands north of
Büyük Menderes River up to and including
İzmir. The principality was taken over by the rising
Ottoman Empire, for the first time shortly before the
Battle of Ankara between the
Ottomans and
Tamerlane in
1402, and then finally in
1425, Tamerlane having given back the province to the sons of Aydın in the interval.
Aydın was the principal administrative center for the
Vilayet (
province in the Ottoman administrative system) till
1850, covering the areas corresponding to Turkey's current Aydın and
Muğla provinces, as well as the southern portion of the
İzmir Province. Inside that Vilayet, the
Sandjak ('district' in the Ottoman administrative system) of Aydın used to correspond more or less to today's
Aydın Province. In 1850 the provincial seat moved to İzmir, which had started to outgrow Aydın city in size as it became a booming port of international trade, although the province's name remained "the Vilayet of Aydın" until the foundation of the
Republic of Turkey.
In the 19th century Aydın continued to benefit from its location at the center of the fertile Menderes valley, and its population grew. At that time, besides
figs and
olive oil, which were the traditional crops of the region,
cotton also grew in importance, with many
European investors seeking alternative sources of cotton at the time of the
American Civil War. The first railroad in the Ottoman Empire was thus built by the
British Levant Company connecting Aydın to Smyrna (now
İzmir), the line was opened on
23 September,
1856. The railway station that they built remains an impressive structure in the city of Aydın.
The Greek Occupation of Aydın
During the
Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), violent fighting took place in and around Aydın, especially in the beginning phase of the war, during the
Battle of Aydın between
27 June and
4 July 1919. The civilian population of the city, principally Turkish as well as Greek, suffered heavy casualties. Neither could the city's
Jewish population, 3,500-strong in
1917 go unscathed.
The "efe" resistance
Aydın remained in ruins until it was re-captured by the Turkish army on
7 September 1922. Resistance warriors such as the
efe Yörük Ali, who were based in the surrounding mountains and conducted a guerrilla warfare against the Greek army, became heroes in Turkey. Following the war and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey the Greeks of Aydın were exchanged with Turks living in
Greece under the
1923 agreement for the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
Aydın today
Recent decades have seen Aydın going beyond its traditional role as hub for agricultural products, and developing a diversified economy increasingly based on services. One event in this process was the opening in
1992 of
Adnan Menderes University, named after a favorite son of Aydın,
Adnan Menderes,
Turkey's prime minister during the
1950s. The economy is aided by the city's location, only an hour's drive from the sea-shore. In fact, many residents of Aydın typically have summer houses and investments in or around such centers of tourism as
Kuşadası,
Güzelçamlı and
Didim. The construction of the six-lane
İzmir-Aydın motorway also shortened the journey from Aydın to İzmir, Turkey's second portuary center, to less than an hour, and less still to the international
Adnan Menderes Airport.
But still the city has a quiet country market town feel to it and its dominance, within both the
Turkish market and abroad, in the production of a number of agricultural products, particularly figs, still identifies
Aydın Province, and most of this trade is managed and handled from Aydın itself.
Aydın city centre is small, centred on one palm-lined avenue of shops and cafes, and a maze of narrow side streets, dotted with orange trees. The people are traditional and family-oriented, so there's little night life, or cultural amenities for young people, although presumably now they've a university this will change. There are a number of mosques, high schools,
dersane (private courses cramming students for the university entrance exams) and other public buildings. Like all Turkish cities Aydın is now spreading as the middle-classes are leaving their flats in the city for smarter apartments or houses slightly out of town.
Places of interest
- The Ottoman period mosques of Ramazan Paşa, Süleyman Paşa and Cihanoğlu
- The Byzantine tower and fortifications above the town
- Roman era ruins (of Tralles) including a gymnasium and a theatre
- The statue of Yörük Ali Efe in the town, which was pulled down and remade after public protests that the original statue showed the efe without a moustache.
- Aydın Museum - archaeology, coinage and ethnographic collection
Further Information
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