Ulubad or Uluabat, in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

period Lopadion ( grc, Λοπάδιον), Latinized as Lopadium, is a settlement near the town of

Karacabey Karacabey is a town and district of Bursa Province in the Marmara Region of Turkey. It is located just west of the Simav River near its confluence with the Adirnaz River. District of Karacabey borders districts of Mudanya and Nilüfer from ...

in the

Bursa Province Bursa Province ( tr, ) is a province in Turkey along the Sea of Marmara coast in northwestern Anatolia. It borders Balıkesir to the west, Kütahya to the south, Bilecik and Sakarya to the east, Kocaeli to the northeast and Yalova to the n ...

of northwestern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It was sited on the ancient

Miletouteichos Miletouteichos ( grc, Μιλητουτεῖχος) was a Greek town located near the coast of the Propontis in ancient Mysia. It is mentioned in the '' Hellenica Oxyrhynchia'': in the year 395 BCE, the troops of Agesilaus II, king of Sparta, ...

History

Uluabat is located on the banks of the Mustafakemalpaşa River (ancient and medieval Rhyndacus). It is first mentioned by Theodore of Stoudios in one of his letters, as the site of a ''xenodocheion'' (

caravanserai A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes coverin ...

). By the late 11th century, it featured a

market town A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this distinguished it from a village or ...

. The existence of a 4th-century bridge carrying the road between

Cyzicus Cyzicus (; grc, Κύζικος ''Kúzikos''; ota, آیدینجق, ''Aydıncıḳ'') was an ancient Greek town in Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peni ...

on the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

to the interior of Asia Minor made it a place of some strategic importance, especially in the wars of the

Komnenian emperors The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Komnenos dynasty for a period of 104 years, from 1081 to about 1185. The ''Komnenian'' (also spelled ''Comnenian'') period comprises the reigns of five emperors, Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Al ...

against the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

in the 11th–12th centuries, during which it is best known.

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...

(r. 1081–1118) fought the Turks in the vicinity, and in 1130, his successor

John II Komnenos John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( gr, Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he ...

(r. 1118–43) built there a great fortress which became the base of his campaigns against the Turkish

Sultanate of Rum fa, سلجوقیان روم () , status = , government_type = Hereditary monarchy Triarchy (1249–1254)Diarchy (1257–1262) , year_start = 1077 , year_end = 1308 , p1 = B ...

. During the same period, Lopadion is attested as an

archbishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. In 1147, the French and German contingents participating in the

Second Crusade The Second Crusade (1145–1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144 to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crus ...

united at Lopadion. Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the fortress was briefly occupied by the

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzan ...

, who returned after the Battle of the Rhyndacus in 1211 and until ca. 1220. It then returned to the

Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse ...

, and remained in Byzantine hands until it was captured by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

in 1335. The area was a site of confrontation during the

Ottoman Interregnum The Ottoman Interregnum, or the Ottoman Civil War ( 20 July 1402 – 5 July 1413; tr, Fetret Devri, , Interregnum Period), was a civil war in the Ottoman Empire between the sons of Sultan Bayezid I following the defeat of their father at the ...

as well: sometime in March–May 1403,

Mehmed I Mehmed I ( 1386 – 26 May 1421), also known as Mehmed Çelebi ( ota, چلبی محمد, "the noble-born") or Kirişçi ( el, Κυριτζής, Kyritzis, "lord's son"), was the Ottoman sultan from 1413 to 1421. The fourth son of Sultan Bayez ...

defeated his brother İsa Çelebi in the Battle of Ulubad, and consolidated his control over the Asian heartland of the Ottoman Empire around

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in t ...

. In January 1422, the armies of Mehmed's son

Murad II Murad II ( ota, مراد ثانى, Murād-ı sānī, tr, II. Murad, 16 June 1404 – 3 February 1451) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1444 and again from 1446 to 1451. Murad II's reign was a period of important economic deve ...

and Mustafa Çelebi confronted each other in the area, until Murad engineered the defection of Junayd of Aydın and the other supporters of Mustafa, forcing the latter to retreat to Europe, where he was captured and executed.

References

Sources

* * * {{coord, 40.202915, N, 28.437370, E, display=title Byzantine fortifications in Turkey Populated places in Bursa Province

History

See also

References

Sources