Genisea () is a town in the

Vistonida Vistonida () is a former municipality in the Xanthi regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares ...

municipal unit, within the municipality of Abdera in the Xanthi regional unit of

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It is the seat of the municipality Abdera. According to the 2021 census, the population of Genisea was 2,049 inhabitants.

History

Genisea was ruled by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

from 1478 to 1912, and was known as ; more specifically (after the Nestos River, ) or ('tobacco'), to distinguish it from (modern

Giannitsa Giannitsa ( , in English also Yannitsa, Yenitsa) is the largest city in the regional unit of Pella and the capital of the Pella municipality, in the region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece. The municipal unit Giannitsa has an area of 2 ...

).Tahir Sezen, ''Osmanlı Yer Adları'', Ankara 2017, T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü Yayın No: 2
''s.v.'', p. 810
In a tahrir defter of 1454–1455, it is recorded as . According to this record, the town was divided into nine quarters and had 154

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Turkish households, and about 700 people in total; seven of whom were

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

s, indicating the existence of seven mosques. There were no Christians in the town, and it remained a purely Muslim city for centuries. In the Ottoman tax registry of 1519 ( Hijri 925) the town was recorded as , and was inhabited only by Muslims (215 households and 124 bachelors); it was in the jurisdiction of Kasım Paşa, and it was also a hass, directly owned by the Sultan. According to the accounting defter of 1530 (Hijri 936), which contains the records from ten years prior, there were 204 Muslim households (approximately 1,000 people), and the town was recorded as . There were also some Christians in the villages of the

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

, where Genisea was the administrative center. The district had 110 villages consisting of 3,022 Muslim and 1,729 Christian households; most of the Christians lived in ten large villages. In the tahrir defter of 1568–1569 (Hijri 976), the town was included in the

Süleymaniye Mosque The Süleymaniye Mosque (, ) is an Ottoman imperial mosque located on the Seven hills of Istanbul, Third Hill of Istanbul, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent () and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan. An ...

'' vakif'' in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. At that time, there were 223 Muslim households and 88 bachelors (1200 people in total) in the town, and no Christians. Under the spellings "Yenidje" or "Yenidze", Genisea was famous for its superior Oriental tobacco, especially suited for

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

s. It lent its name to the Yenidze tobacco factory building in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

and to the British Yenidje Tobacco Company Limited.

References

Populated places in Xanthi (regional unit) Abdera, Thrace {{EMacedoniaThrace-geo-stub

History

See also

References