Edirne

Cultural background

Because of its location on the Thracian peninsula, which joins Anatolia to Europe, Edirne has a rich cultural history. Throughout history, the various communities migrating to Anatolia or Europe passed through Edirne, but very few of them settled here and founded a civilisation. Excavations in and around Edirne show that the first settlements in the area began at the end of the Neolithic. The earliest known people of the area are the Thracians, followed by the Macedonians and the Romans.

When the Roman Empire split in two, Edirne remained within the Byzantine Empire. After long Byzantine rule, the area joined the Ottoman Empire. Edirne's closeness to Europe greatly influenced the evolution of its culture both before and after the Turks, so the course Edirne's culture has followed is quite different from that of the Anatolian provinces.

Edirne's food

Different ways of eating are found in Edirne. Fruit and vegetables have an important place in the diet. The making of white cheese, famous throughout Türkiye, is very widespread. This cheese, called Edirne cheese, is usually made from sheep's milk.

Mavzana, tarhana, ciğer sarması, akıtma, badem ezmesi (almond paste), lokma, gaziler helvası and deva-i misk are the main original dishes and desserts of Edirne. Isırgan yemeği (nettle dish), borani, belmuş (a kind of cheese dessert), kaçamak (made from cornmeal), akçakatık (made by adding cheese to milk) and hardaliye (a grape and mustard-seed drink) are also among its original foods.

Edirne's handicrafts

Handicrafts were highly developed in Edirne, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Woodwork, lacquered dishes and boxes, flower painting, bookbinding, ta'liq calligraphy and carving, and gravestone carving were the main old crafts. Most of these have not survived to the present.

Edirne's woodwork is widely famous. With influences from Istanbul and Europe, a style called Edirnekari developed in Edirne. Edirnekari woodwork consists of carved, inlaid and painted pieces.

Plant motifs such as tulips, hyacinths, carnations, bouquets and fruit were generally used. In the painted pieces, plant dyes such as iris green, purple, saffron yellow, chicory brown and coffee brown were used.

Broom making survives in the area as a craft aimed at the market. Brooms are made from broomcorn, in various types: hand brooms, long-handled brooms, small hand brooms and round brooms.

One of Edirne's oldest crafts is misk sabunu (musk soap) making. Soaps made in the shapes of oranges, apples, lemons, pears and the like are sold as souvenirs. Pottery, mat weaving and basket weaving are also surviving crafts.

Edirne's handmade embroidery stands out for its colours, meaningful motifs and skilled workmanship. The colours, which have kept their vividness even in the oldest examples, are the work of Edirne's madder dyeing. Dark blue, pink, red, yellow and black were used most. Plant motifs dominate. The embroidery was generally done on sakangur and salaşpur cloths and Flemish-type weaves, using crochet, ulama and openwork techniques.

Source: http://www.edirnevdb.gov.tr/kultur/kulturel.html

Edirne's earliest known people, the Odrysians, of Thracian descent, are known to have founded a city in the area, at the place where the Meriç and Tunca rivers meet, where Edirne stands today. Under the Macedonians, who ruled the area after the Odrysians, the city came to be known as Orestia/Orestas, most probably from a change of the name Odris or Odrisia. In the 2nd century AD the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138), because of the strategic importance of the town of Orestia, gave it city status and his own name. So in the Roman period the city was known as Hadrianopolis/Hadrianupolis/Adrianupolis/Adrianapolis. Over time Adrianopolis became Adrianople/Adrianopel. In the early Ottoman period it was called Edrinus/Edrune/Edrinabolu/Endriye. In the History of Aşıkpaşazade, written in 1476, the city's name appears as Edrene. From the early 16th century the city is seen to be called Edirne. Edirne was conquered by Murad I in 1361 and was the capital of the Ottoman state for 88 years (1365–1453) until Istanbul was taken. It has earned various titles in its history. In its happy times Edirne was “Der-i Saadet” (the Gate of Felicity), a “City of Festivities”. From Murad II to Mehmed IV, victory celebrations, circumcision festivals and Mehmed II's wedding ceremonies were held on a scale “to make Istanbul jealous”. Of course, Edirne was not remembered as a “Der-i Saadet” in every period. This “frontier city”, “an Islamic wall” in Evliya Çelebi's words, met disaster many times in its history, suffering most from sieges and occupations. Next to Edirne remembered as the “Gate of Felicity” for its festivities, one must also place “Edirne, its heart forever burning”. Edirne has always been a city of intense cultural life. Architectural innovations came with its buildings; the finest examples of calligraphy and decorative art were made here; its many medreses witnessed lively debates; and the first practices recorded in the history of medicine began here. Edirne, which found its true identity in the Ottoman period and was the empire's second city, is a city where our cultural heritage is felt most intensely. With its mosques, bazaars, bridges, historic houses and above all the magnificent Selimiye, Edirne is the city that first greets those coming to our country and best reflects the character of a border city.

Source: http://www.edirne.gov.tr/tarihce

There is an ongoing airport project in Edirne, but it is not yet possible to reach the city by air. The city is reached by bus. There are direct bus services to Edirne from many parts of Türkiye; otherwise you can reach the city by changing in Istanbul.

Edirne stands on a fertile plain where the Meriç, Tunca and Arda rivers meet. According to records from 1892, there were well-kept vegetable gardens, orchards and mulberry gardens around these rivers, and apricots, plums, quinces, mulberries and medlars grew in abundance.

The same records say there were 19,476 vineyard plots around the city, that wine and rakı were made from the grapes, and that most of the wine was sold to Europe. In 1892 the city had 3,870 shops, 280 bakeries, 134 mills, 7 flour factories and 5 printing houses.

The city centre is about 7 kilometres from Greece and about 17 kilometres from Bulgaria. Musk-soap making and broom making are also counted among the area's traditional crafts.

The Kırkpınar festivities

Kırkpınar, Edirne's traditional oil wrestling, is not just a wrestling event but one that affects life in the city. The Kırkpınar wrestling, held for the 644th time in 2005, has a legendary origin. This section looks at the Kırkpınar event, its history, traditions, legends and its place today.

The legend of Kırkpınar

During the campaigns Orhan Gazi organised to take Rumelia, his brother Süleyman Paşa marched on Domuzhisarı with 40 soldiers. They crossed to the opposite shore on a raft and took Domuzhisarı. After the other fortresses were also taken, the 40-man vanguard turned back. During this campaign, the soldiers in the group would wrestle wherever they stopped to rest, and in a match between two of the warriors there was never a winner. They first wrestled at Samona, now within Greece's borders, and in a match lasting days the pair could not beat each other. Later, on Hıdrellez day, the same pair wrestled again in the Ahırköy meadow (according to some, on the Ortaköy road 17 km from Edirne). In the match, which lasted from morning until midnight, both collapsed breathless on the meadow and died. Their comrades buried them under a fig tree.

Years later, warriors on another campaign came to their comrades' grave and saw a strong spring flowing there. The people believed that those who lay there were among the “Kırklar” (the Forty, a group of saints) and called the place Kırkpınar (Forty Springs). According to another legend, the name Kırkpınar stuck because the people who set foot there were 40. In later years, wrestling began to be held at the same place in memory of those who died there. Over time this became a tradition and turned into the Kırkpınar oil wrestling.

Another view of Kırkpınar is that this wrestling was carried there by Sarı Saltuk, who crossed into Rumelia a hundred years before the Turks took Edirne, and that the Turks later adopted it in the time of Sultan Murad I.

Kırkpınar wrestling in the Republican period

Because of the changes to our borders brought by first the Balkan Wars and then the First World War and the Greek occupation, the Kırkpınar wrestling could not be held in its original place (the meadow of the village of Samona in Greece) and in its own order, and for a time it was held at a place outside Edirne called Virantekke.

After the Republic (1924), the first wrestling, if not under the name Kırkpınar, was organised at Sarayiçi by İsmail Habib Sevük, then Edirne's Director of National Education, to help the Türk Ocağı (Turkish Hearth).

Then, after being organised for a time by the Kırkpınar ağas, the wrestling was held in the following years by the managers of the Child Protection Agency and the Red Crescent for the benefit of those organisations; in 1946 it passed to the Edirne Municipality.

Source: http://www.edirnevdb.gov.tr/kultur/kirkpinar.html