Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire
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How it came to be
Bursa, on the slopes of Mount Uludağ in north-western Turkey, became the first Ottoman capital in the early 14th century. Five sultans, Orhan Ghazi, Murad I, Bayezid I, Mehmed I and Murad II, each built a centre, mostly on a hill.
Each centre was a külliye, a complex that gathered a mosque, a madrasa, a bath, a public kitchen for the poor and tombs. Trade was run by the Ahi brotherhoods, and the khan districts flourished. This way of building a city became the model for later Ottoman towns.
Cumalıkızık, 10 kilometres to the east, was founded as an endowment village whose income supported the külliye of Orhan Ghazi, and 270 old buildings survive there. In 2014 eight components in the city and the village were inscribed.
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