İznik

İznik
İznik
Coordinates: 40°25′45″N 29°43′16″E / 40.42917°N 29.72111°E / 40.42917; 29.72111Coordinates: 40°25′45″N 29°43′16″E / 40.42917°N 29.72111°E / 40.42917; 29.72111
Country  Turkey
Province Bursa
Government
  Mayor Osman Sargın (AKP)
  Kaymakam Hüseyin Karameşe
Area[1]
  District 736.51 km2 (284.37 sq mi)
Population (2012)[2]
  Urban 22,507
  District 43,425
  District density 59/km2 (150/sq mi)
Post code 16860
Website www.iznik.bel.tr

İznik is a town and an administrative district in the Province of Bursa, Turkey.[3] It was historically known as Nicaea (Greek: Νίκαια), from which its modern name also derives. The town lies in a fertile basin at the eastern end of Lake İznik, bounded by ranges of hills to the north and south. As the crow flies, the town is only 90 kilometres (56 miles) southeast of Istanbul but by road it is 200 km (124 miles) around the Gulf of Izmit. It is 80 km (50 miles) by road from Bursa.

The town is situated with its west wall rising from the lake itself, providing both protection from siege from that direction, as well as a source of supplies which would be difficult to cut off. The lake is large enough that it cannot be blockaded from the land easily, and the city was large enough to make any attempt to reach the harbour from shore-based siege weapons very difficult.

The city was surrounded on all sides by 5 km (3 mi) of walls about 10 m (33 ft) high. These were in turn surrounded by a double ditch on the land portions, and also included over 100 towers in various locations. Large gates on the three landbound sides of the walls provided the only entrance to the city.

Today the walls are pierced in many places for roads, but much of the early work survives and as a result it is a tourist destination. The town has a population of about 15,000. It has been a district center of Bursa Province since 1930. It was in the district of Kocaeli between 1923 and 1927 and was a township of Yenişehir (bound to Bilecik before 1926) district between 1927 and 1930.

The town was an important producer of highly decorated fritware vessels and tiles in the 16th and 17th centuries.

History

For the history before the Ottoman conquest, see the article on Nicaea.

In 1331, Orhan I captured the city from the Byzantines and for a short period the town became the capital of the expanding Ottoman emirate.[4] The large church of Hagia Sophia in the centre of the town was converted into a mosque and became known as the Orhan Mosque.[5] A madrasa and baths were built nearby.[6] In 1334 Orhan built a mosque and an imaret (soup kitchen) just outside the Yenisehir gate (Yenişeh Kapısı) on the south side of the town.[7]

The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta stayed in Iznik at the end of 1331 soon after the capture of the town by Orhan.[8] According to Ibn Battuta, the town was in ruins and only inhabited by a small number of people who were in the service of the sultan. Within the city walls were gardens and cultivated plots with each house surrounded by an orchard. The town produced fruit, walnuts, chestnuts and large sweet grapes.[7][9]

A census in 1520 recorded 379 Muslim and 23 Christian households while a census taken a century later in 1624 recorded 351 Muslim and 10 Christian households. Assuming five members for each household, these figures suggest that the population was around 2,000. Various estimates in the 18th and 19th centuries give similar numbers.[10] The town was poor and the population small even when the ceramic production was at its peak during the second half of the 16th century.[11]

The Byzantine city is estimated to have had a population of 20,000–30,000 but in the Ottoman period the town was never prosperous and occupied only a small fraction of the walled area. A succession of visitors described the town in unflattering terms. After his visit in 1779, the Italian archaeologist Domenico Sestini wrote that Iznik was nothing but an abandoned town with no life, no noise and no movement.[7][12] In 1797 James Dallaway described Iznik as "a wretched village of long lanes and mud walls...".[7][13] Most of the remainder of the town was destroyed during 1921 in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922); the population became refugees and many historical buildings were damaged or destroyed.[14]

Pottery and tiles

Main article: Iznik pottery
Iznik tiles inside the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne

The town became a major center with the creation of a local faïence pottery-making industry during the Ottoman period in the 16th century, known as the İznik Çini. Iznik ceramic tiles were used to decorate many of the mosques in Istanbul designed by Mimar Sinan. However, this industry declined in the 17th century[15] and İznik became a mainly agricultural minor town in the area when a major railway bypassed it in the 19th century. Currently the style of pottery referred to as the İznik Çini is to some extent produced locally, but mainly in Kütahya, where the quality – which was in decline – has been restored to its former glory.

Surviving monuments

A number of monuments were erected by the Ottomans in the period between the conquest in 1331 and 1402 when the town was sacked by Timur. Among those that have survived are:

Several monuments survived into the 20th century but were destroyed during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). These include:

Sport

The İznik Ultramarathon is a 130 km (81 mi) trail endurance running event that takes place around Lake İznik in April since 2012 as the country's longest single-stage athletics competition.[27]

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

İznik is twinned with:

Spandau / Berlin, Germany

Notes

  1. "Area of regions (including lakes), km²". Regional Statistics Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  2. "Population of province/district centers and towns/villages by districts - 2012". Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
  3. Lonely Planet Turkey ed. Verity Campbell 2007 Page 291 "Original İznik tiles are antiquities and cannot be exported from Turkey, but new tiles make great, if not particularly cheap, souvenirs."
  4. Raby 1989, p. 19–20.
  5. Tsivikis, Nikolaos (23 March 2007), "Nicaea, Church of Hagia Sophia", Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, Foundation of the Hellenic World, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  6. St. Sophia Museum, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Raby 1989, p. 20.
  8. Dunn 2005, p. 158 note 20. Raby (1989, p. 20) suggests a date between 1334 and 1339.
  9. Defrémery & Sanguinetti 1854, pp. 323–324; Gibb 1962, p. 453
  10. Raby 1989, pp. 20–21.
  11. Raby 1989, p. 21.
  12. Sestini 1789, pp. 219–220.
  13. Dallaway 1797, p. 169.
  14. Uyan, Ayhan (28 November 2011), İznik’te Milli Mücadelede Yunan Tahribatı, iznikrehber.com, retrieved 19 June 2013
  15. http://mini-site.louvre.fr/trois-empires/en/ceramiques-ottomanes.php
  16. Haci Özbek Mosque, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  17. Green Mosque, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  18. Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer, "Nicæa"
  19. Nilüfer Hatun Soup Kitchen, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  20. Süleyman Pasa Madrasa, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  21. Tomb of Çandarli Hayreddin Pasa, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  22. Kastrinakis, Nikos (16 June 2005), "Nicaea (Byzantium), Dormition Church", Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, Foundation of the Hellenic World, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  23. Mango 1959.
  24. Kanaki, Elena (22 June 2005), "Nicaea (Byzantium), Church of the Dormition, Mosaics", Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor, Foundation of the Hellenic World, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  25. Esrefzade Rumi Mosque, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  26. Seyh Kutbeddin Mosque and Tomb, ArchNet, retrieved 20 September 2014.
  27. "İznik'te maraton heyecanı başladı". Sabah (in Turkish). 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
  28. "Twinnings" (PDF). Central Union of Municipalities & Communities of Greece. Retrieved 2013-08-25.

References

Further reading

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