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, Siʿirt , Isʿird , the orthography in medieval Arabic texts for a town of southeastern Anatolia, 150 km/95 miles to the east of modern Diyarbakir and 65 km/44 miles to the south-west of Lake Van (lat. 37° 56′ N., long. 41° 56′ E.). It lies on the Bohtan tributary of the upper Tigris in the foothills of the eastern end of the Taurus Mts. It is the modern ¶ Turkish town of Siirt, now the chef-lieu of an il or province of the same name. 1. History. (a) The pre-Ottoman period. Siʿird is mentioned very little in early Islamic sources; the absence of fortifications apparently made it of…

, a town of western Anatolia, in modern Turkey Uşak (lat. 38° 42ʹ N., long. 29° 25ʹ E., altitude 907 m/2,976 feet). 1. History. In Antiquity, the town came within the empire of the Hittites, and the ruins of classical Flaviopolis are nearby. In the 8th/14th century it came within the beylik of the Germiyān-Og̲h̲ullari̊ [ q.v.]. The only extant waḳfiyye of this period, dated ¶ 721/1321, concerns the foundation of a zāwiye there by Yaʿḳūb I (Mustafa Çetin Varlik, Germiyan-oğullari tarihi (1300-1429 Ankara 1974, 43, 107), and the still-extant Ulu Cami is u…

, modern Turkish form Manisa, classical Magnesia, a town of western Anatolia, in the ancient province of Lydia, lying to the south of the Gediz river on the northeastern slopes of the Manisa Daği, which separates it from Izmir or Smyrna (lat. 38° 36′ N., long 27° 27′ E.). In Greek and then Roman times, Magnesia ad Sipylum was a flourishing town, noted amongst other things for the victory won in its vicinity by the two Scipios over Antiochus the Great of Syria in 190 B.C., and continued to flourish under the Byzantines (see Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie , xxvii, 472-…

, the Ottoman Turkish form of the name of the Romanian town of Iaşi, conventionally Jassy. It lies on the plain of northeastern Moldavia near the confluence of the Bahlui river with the Prut (lat. 47° 10′ N., long. 27° 35′ E.). ¶ In Ottoman times, it was the capital of the principality of Bog̲h̲dān [ q.v.] or Moldavia. Dimitri Cantemir, from 1121-2/1710 to 1122-3/1711 resident in this town as prince of Moldavia, stated that the seat of government had been transferred to Yas̲h̲ by Stephen the Great (838 or 9-909 or 10/1435-1504; in reality this was do…

(t.), a term of Ottoman fiscal administration. Poetic texts from the 8th/14th to 10th/16th centuries give the meanings “presence, proximity, lord, highly placed personage, service, duty, reverence” ( Tarama sözlüğü , v, 3748 ff.). In ḳānūnnāmes of the 9th/15th and particularly of the 10th/16th century, however, the word has a much more technical meaning, and signifies the holding of state-owned lands ( mīrī ) by a subject of the sultan, involving the mediation of an officially appointed tax-collector (holder of tīmār , zeʿāmet or k̲h̲āṣṣ , administrator of a waḳf …

, the Ottoman Turkish form of the Serbian town of Smederovo, older form Semendria. Lying on the Danube downstream from Belgrade [ q.v.] (lat. 44° 40′ N., long. 20° 56′ E.), it was in pre-modern times a fortified town and, under the Ottomans, the chef-lieu of a sand̲j̲aḳ of the same name. Since the break-up of Yugoslavia, it has come within the Serbian Republic. A first conquest under Murād II (842/1438) did not lead to permanent incorporation into the Ottoman Empire, since due to the crisis of 847-8/1444 the sultan thought it necessary to preserve the Serbia…

or al-ruhāʾ , the Arabic name of a city which was in early Islamic times in the province of Diyār Muḍar [ q.v.] but known in Western sources as edessa (Syriac Orhāy, Armenian Uṛhay). It is now in the province of Diyarbakir in the southeast of modern Turkey and is known as Urfa, a name for the city which is not clearly attested before the coming of the Turks to eastern Anatolia. 1. In pre-Islamic times. The city is probably an ancient one, though efforts to identify it with the Babylonian Erech/Uruk or with Ur of the Chaldees cannot be taken seriously. Its site, at the j…

, a town in the Taurus Mountains region of southern Anatolia, falling within modern Turkey and now the chef-lieu, as Maraş, of the il (formerly vilayet ) of Maraş. It lies about 2,000 feet/610 m. above sea-level on the northern edge of the hollow (ʿAmḳ of Marʿas̲h̲; now Čaḳal Owa and south of it S̲h̲ēḳer Owa or Marʿas̲h̲ Owasi̊) which lies east of the D̲j̲ayḥān and is watered by its tributary, the Nahr Ḥūrīt̲h̲ (Aḳ-Ṣū). As a result of its situation at the intersection of the roads which run to Anṭākiya, to ʿAyn Zarba and al…

(modern Turkish spelling, Samsun), a town of northern Asia Minor, in the classical Pontus. The Byzantine settlement, known as Amisus, attracted the attention of the Dānis̲h̲mendids [ q.v.]; as Sāmiya, it is mentioned in the historical epos known as the Dānis̲h̲mend-nāme . The city passed into Turkish hands at the end of the 6th/12th century, but was temporarily retaken by the Byzantines; in 608-9/1212, Samsun formed part of the Comnene principality of Trebizond. When before 585/1189 Sultan Ḳi̊li̊d̲j̲ Arslan divide…

, a town on the northern, Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, in the eastern part of classical Pontus and in the later mediaeval Islamic Lazistān [see laz ], now in the Turkish Republic (lat. 41° 03′ N., long. 40° 31′ E.). In Byzantine times, Rhizus/Rhizaion was a place of some importance and was strongly fortified. With the Ottoman annexation of the Comneni empire of Trebizond in 865/1462 [see ṭarabzun ], it became part of the Ottoman empire. A list of Orthodox Church metropolitanates still in existence at the end of the 9th/15th century mentions…

(t.), lit. “pedestrian”, denoted, in Ottoman military usage of the 8th-10th/14th-16th centuries, infantryman. Originally forming part of the k̲h̲āṣṣa army serving directly under the ruler, in the 10th/16th century the yaya were considered part of the provincial forces. According to Meḥmed Nes̲h̲rī [ q.v.], under Sultan Ork̲h̲ān peasant taxpayers were offered the opportunity of joining the army as yaya, and large numbers of people applied. Under Murād II, the yaya were supposedly given the nickname enik (puppy) as a form of derision (Nes̲h̲rī, Kitâb-ı Cihân-nümâ …

, the Ottoman Turkish name for classical and early Byzantine Thessalonike, modern Greek Thessaloniki, conventional form Salonica; the largest city of Macedonia, on the gulf of the same name, to the east of the Vardar river mouth. The city has always possessed a large and secure port, and was located on the Via Egnatia connecting Durazzo (Durrës) with Byzantium. In the 5th/11th century, it is first named Salonikion, from which all variant names derive: Ṣalūnīk or Ṣalūnīḳ in Arabic, Solun in Bulga…

, the Turkish form of the ancient Greek name Smyrna , one of the great mercantile cities of the Eastern Mediterranean. It lies in western Anatolia at the head of the Gulf of Izmir, and the pre-modern city lay mainly on the small delta plain of the Kızılcullu (ancient Melas) river. Izmir has a history going back five millennia, archaeological excavations having revealed the earliest level of occupation as contemporary with the first city of Troy at the beginning of the Bronze Age ( ca. 3,000 B.C.). Greek settlement is indicated from ca. 1,000 B.C., and Herodotus says that the city was f…

, an old-established town of eastern Anatolia, not far from the upper Euphrates. It lies at the junction of important roads (in antiquity: the Persian royal road and the Euphrates route; in modern times Samsūn-Siwās-Malaṭya-Diyārbakr and Ḳayṣariyya-Albistān-Malaṭya-K̲h̲arpūt) in a plain (the fertility and richness of which in all kinds of vegetables and fruits was celebrated by the Arab geographers, as in modern times by von Moltke and others) at the northern foot of the Taurus, not very far sou…

, a town in eastern Anatolia, modern Turkish Elaziğ, now the chef-lieu of a vilayet of the latter name. The area around the town is rich in evidence of prehistoric and protohistoric settlement. Bronze Age sites have been investigated at Ağin, Norçuntepe, Tepecik and Han İbrāhīm Şah, whilst traces of Hellenistic and later occupation have been found at Aşvankale and Kalecikler. Thus a more or less continuous occupation of the Elaziğ area since Chalcolithic times seems likely, even though it is not certain exactly at…

(t.), a term of Ottoman Turkish administration. This series of “Registers of Important Affairs” is for the most part kept in the Başbakanlık Arşivi-Osmanlı Arşivi, Istanbul. Two hundred and sixty-three registers are ¶ catalogued as Mühimme Defterleri (MD), but in addition, we find registers and fragments of registers in other series which help fill some of the gaps in the MD series. On the other hand, thirteen registers catalogued as MDs are really appointment registers ( ruűs defterleri). Two registers in the Kâmil Kepeci section are also MDs, and two others have been l…

, modern Turkish Nevşehir, a town of central Anatolia in the Cappadocia of classical antiquity. It lies 60 km/40 miles to the west of Kayseri [see Ḳayṣariyya ] and 13 km/9 miles south of the Kızıl Irmak river [ q.v.] at an altitude of approx. 1,180 m/3,600 feet (lat. 38° 38′ N., long. 34° 43′ E.). It is now the chef-lieu of an il or province of the same name; in 1970 the town had a population of 57,556 and the il one of 231,873. The News̲h̲ehir region was in the 6th to 9th centuries AD known for its monastic caves, and became a frontier region during the Arab invasions. The inha…

, modern form İzmi̇t , a town of northwestern Turkey, lying at the head of the Gulf of Izmit (Izmit Körfezi) in lat. 40° 47′ N., long. 29° 55′ E. It is the classical Nicomedia, named after Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who in 264 B.C. founded it as his new capital. The Roman emperor Diocletian made it in the late 3rd century A.D. his capital in the east; it was there that he abdicated in 305 (see W. Ruge, art. Nikomedeia , in PW, xvii/1, cols. 468-92). The spelling Nikumīdiyya appears in such Arabic geographers as Ibn Ḵh̲urradād̲h̲bih and al-Idrīsī, and subsequently, forms like Izn…

(a.), pl. aswāḳ , market. 1. In the traditional Arab world. Sūḳ , market, is a loanword from Aramaic s̲h̲ūḳā with the same meaning. Like the French term marché and the English market , the Arabic word sūḳ has acquired a double meaning: it denotes both the commercial exchange of goods or services and the place in which this exchange is normally conducted. Analysis of the sūḳ is thus of interest to the economic and social historian as well as to the archaeologist and the urban topographer. The substantial textual documentation which is available has as yet been …

, Eriwan , the capital city of Armenia, possibly identical with the town called Arran by the Arab geographers Ibn Rusta and Ibn Faḳīh, which in Armenian is called Hrastan and Rewān in Ottoman sources. In Islamic times, the town seems to have become important from the mid-10th/16th century onward. The city is located close to the Armenian patriarchal seat of Echmiadzin, often referred to as Üčkilise “Three Churches” in Ottoman and European sources, even though there are actually four churches. In the 10th/16th century, the town fo…