| Vilayet of Adrianople ولايت ادرنه Vilâyet-i Edirne | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vilayet of theOttoman Empire | |||||||||||||
| 1867–1922 | |||||||||||||
Flag | |||||||||||||
The Adrianople Vilayet in 1900 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Adrianople (Edirne)[1] | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| • Coordinates | 41°10′N26°19′E / 41.16°N 26.32°E /41.16; 26.32 | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• Muslim, 1914[2] | 360,411 | ||||||||||||
• Greek, 1914[2] | 224,680 | ||||||||||||
• Armenian, 1914[2] | 19,773 | ||||||||||||
• Jewish, 1914[2] | 22,515 | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
| 1867 | |||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1922 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||||||
TheVilayet of Adrianople orVilayet of Edirne (Ottoman Turkish:ولايت ادرنه;Vilâyet-i Edirne)[3] was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of theOttoman Empire.
Prior to 1878, the vilayet had an area of 26,160 square miles (67,800 km2)[4][5] and extended all the way to theBalkan Mountains. However, by virtue of theTreaty of Berlin (1878), the Sanjak ofİslimye, most of the Sanjak ofFilibe and a small part of the Sanjak of Edirne (theKızılağaç kaza andMonastır nahiya) were carved out of it to create the autonomous province ofEastern Rumelia, with a total area of 32,978 km2.[6] The provinceunified peacefully with thePrincipality of Bulgaria in 1885.
The rest of the vilayet was split between Turkey and Greece in 1923, culminating in the formation ofWestern andEastern Thrace afterWorld War I as part of theTreaty of Lausanne. A smaller portion had already gone to Bulgaria by virtue of theTreaty of Bucharest (1913) following theBalkan Wars. In the late 19th century, it bordered on theIstanbul Vilayet, theBlack Sea and theSea of Marmara in the east, on theSalonica Vilayet in the west, onEastern Rumelia (Bulgarian since 1885) in the north and on theAegean Sea in the south. Sometimes the area is also described asSouthern Thrace,[7] orAdrianopolitan Thrace.[8]
After the city of Adrianople (Edirne in Turkish; pop. in 1905 about 80,000), the principal towns were Rodosto (nowTekirdağ) (35,000),Gelibolu (25,000),Kırklareli (16,000),İskeçe (14,000),Çorlu (11,500),Dimetoka (10,000),Enez (8000),Gümülcine (8000) andDedeağaç (3000).[1]
Sanjaks of the Vilayet:[9]
Total population of the Adrianople Vilayet by ethnoconfessional groups according to French orientalistUbicini on the basis of the official Ottoman Census of the Vilayet in 1875:[10]
| Population | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Muslims | 603,110 | 37.83% |
| —Muslims | 557,692 | 34.98% |
| —MuslimRomani | 45,418 | 2.84% |
| Christians | 974,644 | 61.14% |
| —Bulgar millet &Rum millet | 937,054 | 58.78% |
| —Ermeni millet | 16,194 | 1.02% |
| —Roman Catholics | 12,144 | 0.76% |
| —ChristianRomani | 9,252 | 0.58% |
| Yahudi millet | 16,432 | 1.03% |
| GRAND TOTAL | 1,594,186 | 100% |
Total population of the Adrianople Vilayet (includingEastern Rumelia) in 1878 according to the Turkish authorKemal Karpat:[11]
| Group | POPULATION |
|---|---|
| Bulgarians | 40% (526,691) |
| Other Christians | 22% (283,603) |
| Muslims | 39% (503,058) |
| TOTAL Adrianople Vilayet | 100% (1,304,352) |
Population of various ethnoconfessonal communities in the Vilayet and its sanjaks according to the 1906/7 Ottoman census, in thousands, adjusted to round numbers.[12]The communities are counted according to theMillet System of the Ottoman Empire rather than by the mother tongue. Thus, some Bulgarian-speakers were included in the GreekRum millet and counted as Greeks, while the Muslim millet included Turks andPomaks (Bulgarian speaking Muslims).
| Groups | Edirne | Gümülcine | Kırklareli | Dedeağac | Tekirdağ | Gelibolu | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muslims | 154 | 240 | 78 | 44 | 77 | 26 | 619 |
| Greeks | 103 | 22 | 71 | 28 | 53 | 65 | 341 |
| Bulgarians | 57 | 29 | 30 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 162 |
| Jews | 16 | 1 | 2 | – | 3 | 2 | 24 |
| Armenians | 5 | – | - | – | 19 | 1 | 26 |
| Others | 2 | - | – | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Total | 317 | 292 | 181 | 89 | 159 | 96 | 1,176 |
A publication from December 21, 1912, in the Belgian magazineOns Volk Ontwaakt (Our Nation Awakes) estimated 1,006,500 inhabitants:[13]
Male population of theFilibe Sanjak of the Adrianople Vilayet in 1876 according to the British R. J. Moore:[14][15]
| Turks | Muslim Gypsies | Christian Gypsies | Bulgarians | Greeks | Armenians | Jews | KAZA TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filibe kaza | 28% (35,400) | 4% (5,474) | 0% (495) | 63% (80,107) | 3% (3,700) | 0% (380) | 1% (691) | 100% (126,247) |
| TatarPazardzhik kaza | 23% (10,805) | 4% (2,120) | 1% (579) | 70% (33,395) | 1% (300) | 0% (94) | 1% (344) | 100% (47,637) |
| Hasköy kaza | 55% (33,323) | 3% (1,548) | 0% (145) | 42% (25,503) | 0% (0) | 0% (3) | 0% (65) | 100% (60,587) |
| Zagora kaza | 20% (6,677) | 3% (989) | 0% (70) | 75% (24,857) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 2% (740) | 100% (33,333) |
| Kazanlak kaza | 46% (14,365) | 4% (1,384) | 0% (24) | 48% (14,906) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 1% (219) | 100% (30,898) |
| Chirpan kaza | 24% (5,157) | 2% (420) | 0% (88) | 74% (15,959) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 100% (21,624) |
| Sultan-Jeri kaza | 97% (13,336) | 1% (159) | 0% (0) | 2% (262) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 100% (13,757) |
| Akcselebi kaza | 59% (8,197) | 3% (377) | 0% (0) | 38% (5,346) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 0% (0) | 100% (13,920) |
| TOTAL Filibe Sanjak | 37% (127,260) | 4% (12,471) | 0% (1,401) | 58% (200,335) | 1% (4,000) | 0% (477) | 1% (2,059) | 100% (348,000) |
Male population ofİslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1873 according to Ottoman almanacs:[16]
| Community | Population |
|---|---|
| Muslims | 37,200 (47%) |
| Non-Muslims | 46,961 (53%) |
| TOTAL Islimiye sanjak | 100% (84,161) |
Male population ofİslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1875 according to British R.J. Moore:[17]
| Community | Population |
|---|---|
| Muslims | 42% (44,747) |
| Non-Muslims | 58% (60,854) |
| TOTAL Islimiye sanjak | 100% (105,601) |
Total population of theSanjak of Gümülcine of the Adrianople Vilayet In the 19th century:[18]
| Sanjak | Muslims | Christian Bulgarians | Christian Greeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gümülcine | 206.914 | 20.671 | 15.241 |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)