Editing Akhisar (section)

==History==
===Ancient history===
{{Main|Thyatira}}
The town was the most important center in ancient North [[Lydia]]. Findings suggest a possible earlier period of pre-eminence under the [[Hittites]]. [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] occupation of the region took place around 500 BC. Thyateira was later conquered by [[Alexander the Great]]. In later years, Thyateira was captured successively by the [[Seleucid Empire]], the [[Attalid dynasty]] of [[Pergamon]], and by [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]], until the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] Era that started in 80 BC.

In 214 AD, the [[Roman Emperor]] [[Caracalla]] promoted the town to the status of a regional and administrative center with powers of [[adjudication]] (conventus). The city flourished considerably under the [[Roman Empire|Roman]]s and became a large [[metropolis]] with 3 [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasiums]]. As of the 2nd century AD, Christianity spread in western [[Anatolia]] by the actions of [[Apostles in the New Testament|apostles]] like [[John the Evangelist]] and [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]]. Thyatira is mentioned twice in the [[New Testament]]. The [[Book of Acts]] refers to a woman of Thyatira named Lydia (Acts 16:14), though the Apostle Paul converted her to Christ in Philippi of Macedonia,{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} not Thyatira. The other occurrence is as one of the [[Seven churches of Asia|Seven Churches of Asia]], in the church of which was a woman identified as a prophetess and called "Jezebel" for deceiving some of the [[Christians]] there into compromising with [[idolatry]] and committing sexual immorality ([[Book of Revelation|Revelation]] 2:18-29).

[[file:ThyatiraBasilika.jpg|thumb|right|Ruins of the Thyatira church]]
After the partition of the Roman Empire in 395 and the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|upcoming of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century]], raids by [[Arabs]] resulted in great loss of land for [[Byzantium]] and the region of Thyatira witnessed many battles between [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] and Arab forces.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

Thyatira was repeatedly attacked by the Arabs and later by the Turks, however it was rebuilt over the ruins.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=J. E. |title=The Revelation in Plain English |date=30 June 2006 |publisher=Dorrance Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-8059-6981-8 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gtTKMuv6480C |language=en |quote=Thyatira was repeatedly attacked by the Arabs and the Turks throughout the years, but each time it was rebuilt over the ruins. Now the city is a Turkish town called Akhisar, with little evidence of its character in the apostolic era.}}</ref> In the 12th century, a large-scale inflow of [[Turkish people|Turkish]] tribes started. Thyatira swayed back and forth between Byzantine and Turkish rulers during for two centuries. In the 14th century, Turks under the [[Anatolian Turkish Beylik|Anatolian Beylik]] of [[Sarukhanids|Saruhan]] conquered all Western Anatolian lands and Thyatira went under Turkish rule in 1307. Towards the end of the same century, Akhisar became part of the extending [[Ottoman Empire]]. Under Ottoman administration, Thyatira was at first a subdistrict (''[[Qadaa|kaza]]'') in the [[sanjak]] (''district'') of Saruhan (corresponding to present-day [[Manisa Province]]) within the larger [[vilayet]] (''province'') of [[Kütahya]].

===Modern period===
Akhisar continued its development in the 17th century. However, since the second half of the 16th century, the [[Celali rebellions|Celâlî rebellions]] in the region took the city under its influence. For this reason, the city walls were repaired at the beginning of the 17th century. Due to the Celali rebellions, some of the people in the vicinity settled here and the population of the city increased. As a matter of fact, [[Evliya Çelebi]] writes that in 1671 the city had twenty-four neighbourhoods and 2600 houses, most of which were covered with tiles. He also records that there were forty-seven mosques, three [[Hammam|hamams]], about 1000 shops, one [[bedesten]], ten inns, seven [[madrasa]]s and twenty-three primary schools, and that it is surrounded by vineyards, gardens and orchards. He also states that there is an old castle ruin on the hill in the middle of the city and that the city was surrounded by walls for fear of the Celâlî named [[Karayazıcı Abdülhalim|Karayazıcı]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=AKHİSAR |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/akhisar |access-date=2023-01-05 |website=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}}</ref>

In October 1895 newly resettled [[Islam in Bulgaria|Muslims from Bulgaria]] attacked and massacred members of the local Armenian community.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodogno |first1=Davide |title=Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815-1914 |date=7 November 2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4001-4 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ua0NTAN84wC&pg=PA197 |language=en}}</ref> The Saruhan Eyalet was later incorporated into the [[vilayet of Aydın]] until the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.

During the course of the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-22)]] the [[Army of Asia Minor|Greek Army]] invaded the town on June 5, 1919. Due to the developments of the campaign, which included unrest from the Turkish populace, the Greek forces withdrew on June 10, 1919.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Akhisar Tarihçesi |url=https://www.akhisar.bel.tr/akhisar/akhisarin-tarihcesi |access-date=11 January 2023 |website=Akhisar Belediyesi}}</ref> Soon after, Greek forces re-invaded Akhisar during the [[Greek Summer Offensive]] on June 22, 1920.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Turkish National Movement|Turkish Nationalist]] forces captured the town on September 6, 1922, toward the end of the [[Great Offensive]].<ref name=":0" /> Athanasios Karathanasis in his book wrote that following the capture, an estimated 7,000 local [[Greeks]] were killed in Kırtık dere.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karathanasis |first=Athanasios |date=2013 |title=The Genocide of the Greeks in Asia Minor |url=https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/kosmos/article/view/5373 |journal=Cosmos |language=en |publisher=[[Aristotle University of Thessaloniki]] |issue=2 |page=19 |doi=10.26262/kosmos.v2i0.5373 |issn=2529-0797 |quote=In Axari [Akhisar], 7.000 out of 10.000 Greeks were slaughtered in the gorge of Kirtik Dere.}}</ref> The remaining were party to the [[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yıldırım |first1=Onur |title=Diplomacy and Displacement: Reconsidering the Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations, 1922-1934 |date=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-97982-5 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4394667}}</ref>{{Request quotation|date=June 2022}}<ref>Κατάλογος των προσφυγικών συνοικισμών της Μακεδονίας σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία της Επιτροπής Αποκαταστάσεως Προσφύγων (ΕΑΠ) έτος 1928</ref>{{Request quotation|date=June 2022}} Furthermore, although the local Muslims had sworn on the [[Quran]] that they would protect the remaining Armenian community upon the arrival of the Turkish army in town, they instead cooperated with them in plundering and massacring the Armenians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Göçek |first1=Fatma Müge |title=Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence Against the Armenians, 1789-2009 |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-062458-3 |pages=319–320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHcRDAAAQBAJ |language=en |quote=In İzmir, all the Armenians were rounded up, and after all their belongings and money were taken away, they were imprisoned, beaten, and raped. Especially in Akhisar, even though the local Muslims had sworn on the Quran that they would protect the local Armenians upon the arrival of the nationalist forces, they instead allied with the forces, plundering and massacring the Armenians.}}</ref>

===Historical demographics===
According to demographic statistics of 1917, the district of Akhisar had a total population of 39,157 prior to [[World War I]], with 32,280 being Muslims, 5,877 [[Greeks]], 515 [[Armenians]], and 485 [[Jews]].<ref>{{harvnb|Serçe|1998|pp=6–7}}</ref> At the end of 1917, or at the beginning of 1918, the total population of the district was 38,706; of this population, 31,936 were Muslims, 5,782 were Greeks, 506 were Armenians, and 485 were Jews.<ref>{{harvnb|Serçe|1998|pp=32–33}}</ref>  According to Greek statistics in 1921 during the [[Occupation of Smyrna|occupation]], the district of Akhisar had a total population of 56,986, with 48,356 being [[Turkish people|Turks]], 7,638 [[Greeks]], 489 [[Armenians]], and 503 [[Jews]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Νοταράς |first=Μιχάλης Ι. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/563059594 |title=Εις την Ιωνίαν Αιολίαν και Λυδίαν πριν πενήντα χρόνια |year=1972 |location=Athens, Greece |pages=11–115 |language=el |oclc=563059594}}</ref>