History of Ottoman Civil roads
Apart from the main military roads of the Ottoman Empire, which are well-known, there existed an extensive network of routes that connected the empire’s cities, towns and villages to one another as well as to Istanbul. Evidence of these routes is visible in the architectural remains; the Ottomans were prolific builders, and their towns and cities still boast mosque-complexes and related structures. Evliya’s Book of Travels also provides information about many lost buildings. Lists of post-stations (menzil) where state couriers (ulak) changed horses as they carried imperial orders and instructions from Istanbul outwards, and local intelligence and reports, petitions and requests inwards, supply the names of intermediate places and allow us to recreate the network. The mosque-complexes indicate that a place was a route node; the lines of intervening routes is indicated by bridges, caravansarays, fountains, saints’ shrines and extant stretches of paved road. In parts of northwest Anatolia, such historical infrastructure has almost been lost under development.
Land surveys from the 16thC and earlier indicate that there were many, many settlements in the region, and where there were settlements, there were routes and roads for people to travel between them.
But how did they go? What was their line of travel? To what extent was any particular inter-settlement route paved? We therefore turn to Evliya Çelebi’s 1671 pilgrimage route through the Ottoman heartland of northwest Anatolia to research what remains today of local routes.
The Ottoman road network in Northwest Anatolia
The EÇW begins on the southern shore of the İzmit Gulf, at the village of Hersek, southern node of a short sea route that cut travelling time.
It reached the city of Nicea/İznik after several days. It ran to the watershed along the Drakon/Yalakdere River, passing the Byzantine/early Ottoman fort of Xerigordos/Çobankale; the early 18th c. Ottoman bridge built by the mother of Sultan Ahmed III on Roman foundations; a pass of Kızderbent and drops to İznik Lake and turns east to the walled city of Nicaea/İznik.
In 1534 and 1638, the Ottoman army camped by a 12m high, inscribed, marble, Roman obelisk dating from the 1stC CE. Near here it meets the Hoşgörü Byzantine road and continues to Nicaea, famous as the site of the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, and as the place where the Byzantine government took refuge when the knights of the Fourth Crusade occupied Constantinople in 1204-60. The walls stand in large part, and there are other remains from pre-Ottoman eras. The city was important for the Ottomans in the pre-1453 period, and a number of precious monuments from the earliest years of their state still stand. İznik was famous in the 16thC for its tiles and other ceramics that are still highly sought-after. Evliya visited İznik several times and described its sights.
Evliya headed south to the town of Yenişehir; the road down the valley from Mecidiye to the Plain is a particularly notable example of paved road.
Yenişehir was an Ottoman base from c.1300CE; the mosque-complex of an Ottoman grand vezir, Koca Sinan Pasha, was built here in the 1570s.
The EÇW heads south towards the city of İnegöl, passing through several small villages before skirting the İnegöl Plain to the lower slopes of the Uludağ Massif. The villages here are agricultural in character, but they have histories stretching back many centuries; Sungurpaşa and Çavuşköy are both named for early Ottoman warriors and trekkers can visit their shrines. At Çavuşköy, the trail follows another stretch of historical paved road to Şehitler and the shrines of two holy men-Tatlı Dede and Hasan Dede.
Babasultan houses the important shrine of Geyikli Baba, a holy man from today’s northwest Iran who was present with Sultan Orhan when he took Bursa in 1326. Most of the villages are listed in Ottoman land surveys, and some are much older. The city of İnegöl has several early Ottoman monuments and was a major junction for east-west as well as north-south routes.
From İnegöl Evliya followed the river south through the Mizal Pass, which was guarded by villagers, but he met with brigands in the forests, and records his adventures.En route to Çukurca the trail passes close to the carcass of a mighty pine tree from which the cradle of the first sultan, Osman, is said to have swung. In the village, Evliya visited the shrine of another holy man.
The landscape the trail next traverses is largely upland pasture, interspersed with areas of woodland and forest; the route then descends towards Kütahya where there are stretches of historical paved road between villages.
In Köprüören is the grave of a 15thC saint from Central Asia, while at Yoncalı, Evliya describes a hot-water spa which could cure many illnesses.
The Evliya Çelebi Way meets the Phrygian Trail northwest of Kütahya, which a Byzantine castle that continued in use under the Ottomans, and a wealth of religious and secular monuments described by Evliya.
