History of Muğla

In antique times in Anatolia, the region between the Meander (Menderes) and Indus (Dalaman) rivers in the south was called Caria. The inhabitants were Carians and Lelegians. In his Iliad, Homeros describes the Carians as the natives of Anatolia, defending their country against Greeks in joint campaigns in collaboration with the Trojans.

As one of the first cities in Carian region, Mugla, located inland, could not benefit from the naval trade and was therefore not so affluent as its contemporaries like Halicarnassos and Mylasa. The antique name of Mugla is open for discussion. Various sources refer to the city as Mogola, Mobella or Mobolia.

There are almost no ruins to enlighten the history of Muğla. Whatever exists were found quite accidentally. On the high hill to the north of the city, the presence of some insignificant ancient remains indicate that the acropolis was located here. Two inscriptions unearthed within the city are from the 2nd century B.C., attesting to Rhodian domination.

In the 13th century B.C., following the invasion by Ramses II, the Carian region was under Egyptian rule for some time. The Anatolian tribes were defeated during the Trojan War and the Dorians settled along the southern shores in 1000 B.C. In 546 B.C., the Persians enslaved the Lycian King Croesus and took over the region when Caria became a satrapship governed by kings of its own race.

In 334 B.C., Alexander arrived in Anatolia and, following the shore line, conquered first Halicarnassos (Bodrum) and then Mugla. After his withdrawal from the region, Muğla went through a dark period of tumult. In 188 B.C., with the aid of the Romans, Muğla fell under the reign of the Pergamum Kingdom. However, Attalus III, the King of Pergamum, bequeathed all the kingdom, including the Muğla region, to the Romans in 133 B.C., by virtue of which the city became a Roman province. For some time the area changed hands among various generals and dictators. In 395 A.D., when the Roman Empire was divided into two, it became part of the Eastern Romans (Byzantines).

The Byzantine reign came to an end in 800 A.D. when the Abbasid Caliph Harun Al-Rashid arrived in the region, whereupon the Islamic influence became predominant.
Following the Manzikert (Malazgirt) War, Anatolia was "Turkified" and some sources mention the arrival of Suleiman Shah (Kilij Aslan I) in 1074 A.D.

During the decline of Seljukians in 1284, the region was called Menteşe due to the domination by Menteşe Beg. During the reign of the last Chief of Menteşe, Ilyas Beg, by late 14th century (1390-1391), the region was con-quered by Bayezid I (The Thunderbolt) and, following the invasion of Tamerlane (Timur), it was captured by the Ottomans in 1424 which was the starting point of dominant Turkish rule.

source: akyaka(dot)org