History
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The Selimiye Mosque exterior after restoration. Architect Sinan called the Şehzade Mosque in Istanbul his apprentice work, the Süleymaniye his journeyman work, and the Selimiye his masterpiece. He was 85 when he finished it.
The area around Edirne has been the site of numerous major battles and sieges starting from the days of the Roman Empire. The vagaries of the border region between Asia and Europe gave rise to Edirne's claim to be the most frequently contested spot on earth.
The Square of the Fountain, Adrianople, 1839
Adrianopole. La mosquée Sultan Selim, ca. 1907–1915; from the Nicholas Catsimpoolas Collection of the Boston Public Library
Roman and Byzantine period[edit]
The city was reestablished by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of Orestias (named after its mythological founder Orestes), which was itself built on a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama, Uskudama, Uskodama or Uscudama. Hadrian developed it, adorned it with monuments, and changed its name to Hadrianopolis (Anglicised as Adrianople). Licinius was defeated here by Constantine I in 324, and Emperor Valens was killed by the Goths here during the Battle of Adrianople in 378.
Simeon captured Adrianople and Byzantine soldiers before the Battle of Adrianople, by John Skylitzes.
During the period of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan at the Battle of Adrianople in 1205. In 1206 the Latin regime gave Adrianople and the surrounding area to the Byzantine aristocrat Theodore Branas as a hereditary fief. Theodore Komnenos, Despot of Epirus, took possession of it in 1227, but three years later was defeated at Klokotnitsa by Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. In 1321, Andronikos III set up his base in Adrianople, initiating the First Palaiologan civil war against his grandfather, Emperor Andronikos II.
Ottoman period
The exact date of the Ottoman conquest of Adrianople is disputed. While some sources place the conquest in 1361 or 1362, other historians argue that the city likely fell later in the decade during the reign of Sultan Murad I. Due to its strategic position at the junction of major Balkan land and river trade routes, Adrianople had long served as an important regional center during Byzantine period, ad these geographic and commercial advantages contributed significantly to its importance as an early Ottoman capital. The city became "Edirne" in Turkish, reflecting the Turkish pronunciation and Murad moved the Ottoman capital here from Bursa. Mehmed the Conqueror (Sultan Mehmed II) was born in Adrianople, where he came under the influence of Hurufis dismissed by Taşköprüzade in the Şakaiki Numaniye as 'certain accursed ones of no significance', who were burnt as heretics by Mahmud Pasha.
An artist illustration of Adrianople in 1857
Under the Red Crescent: Or, Ambulance Adventures in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
The city remained the seat of Ottoman power until 1453, when Mehmed II took Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) and moved the capital there. The importance of Edirne to the early Ottomans explains the plethora of early Ottoman mosques, medreses and other monuments that have survived until today although the Eski Sarayı (Old Palace) was largely destroyed, leaving only relatively slight remains. Also, there is evidence of a scriptorium in the Ottoman's Edirne palace during this period.
Uzunköprü Bridge, the world's longest medieval stone bridge, connects Anatolia with the Balkans on the Ergene River and was erected between 1426 and 1443 by the primary architect, Müslihiddin, during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat II.
That Adrianople/Edirne continued to hold an important place in Ottoman hearts is reflected in the fact that Sultan Mehmed IV left the Topkapı Palace in Constantinople to die here in 1693.
The wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, spent six weeks in Edirne (then Adrianople) in the spring of 1717 and left an account of her experiences there in her The Turkish Embassy Letters. Wearing Turkish dress, Montagu witnessed the passage of Sultan Ahmed III to the mosque, visited the young wife-to-be of his vizier, Damad Ibrahim Pasha and was shown around the Selimiye Mosque.Selimiye Mosque in Edirne in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Adalet Tower part of Edirne Palace Complex.
Adrianople 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 a fire in 1905. At that time it had about 80,000 inhabitants, of whom 30,000 were Turks; 22,000 Greeks; 10,000 Bulgarians; 4,000 Armenians; 12,000 Jews; and 2,000 more citizens of unclassified ethnic/religious backgrounds.[citation needed]
A Street in the Suburbs of Adrianople - Walsh Robert & Allom Thomas, circa 1836.
Zappeion Greek Girls' Central School of Adrianople, the Greek Girls' School in Edirne (1884).
Macedonia Tower after its transformation into the Edirne Clock Tower in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Adrianople was a vital fortress defending Constantinople and Eastern Thrace during the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. It was briefly occupied by the Bulgarians in 1913, following the Siege of Adrianople. The Great Powers – Britain, Italy, France and Russia – attempted to coerce the Ottoman Empire into ceding Adrianople to Bulgaria during the temporary winter truce of the First Balkan War. The belief that the government was willing to give up the city created a scandal for the Ottoman government in Constantinople (as Adrianople was a former capital of the Empire), leading to the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état led by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) under Enver Pasha. Although it was victorious in the coup, the CUP was unable to stop the Bulgarians from capturing the city after fighting resumed in the spring. Despite relentless pressure from the Great Powers, the Ottoman empire never officially ceded the city to Bulgaria.
Edirne was swiftly reconquered by the Ottomans during the Second Balkan War under the leadership of Enver Pasha (who proclaimed himself the "second conqueror of Adrianople" after Murad I) following the collapse of the Bulgarian army in the region.
The entire Armenian population of the city was deported to Syria and Mesopotamia during the Armenian genocide on 27–28 October 1915 and 17–18 February 1916. Their homes and businesses were sold at low prices to Turkish Muslims.
Mustafa II dressed in full armour, who reigned over the Ottoman Empire from 1695 to 1703, was born in the Edirne Palace, early 18th century.
During the Greek War of Independence, the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Balkan-Muslims fled to Edirne and became known as Muhacir.
Administrative arrangements[edit]
Adrianople was a sanjak centre during the Ottoman period and was bound to, successively, the Rumeli Eyalet and Silistre Eyalet before becoming a provincial capital of the Eyalet of Edirne at the beginning of the 19th century; until 1878, the Eyalet of Adrianople comprised the sanjaks of Edirne, Tekfurdağı, Gelibolu, Filibe, and İslimye. After land reforms in 1867, the Eyalet of Adrianople became the Vilayet of Adrianople.
Turkish Republic[edit]
Adrianople/Edirne was ceded to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, but recaptured and annexed by Turkey after the Greek defeat at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, also known as the Western Front of the larger Turkish War of Independence, in 1922. Under the Greek administration, Edirne (officially known as Adrianople) was the capital of the Adrianople Prefecture.
Historical populationYearPop.±%1400s70,000—    1500s105,000+50.0%1700s35,000−66.7%1800s33,000−5.7%1900s68,661+108.1%192734,528−49.7%196578,161+126.4%197084,531+8.1%197594,449+11.7%1980105,503+11.7%1985120,663+14.4%1990124,361+3.1%2000140,830+13.2%2010152,993+8.6%2014165,979+8.5%2022180,002+8.4%
From 1934 onwards Edirne was the seat of the Second Inspectorate General, in which an Inspector General governed the provinces of Edirne, Çanakkale, Tekirdaĝ and Kırklareli. The Inspectorate Generals governmental posts were abandoned in 1948, but the legal framework for them was only abolished in 1952 during the government of the Democrat Party.
