Söğüt

For other places with the same name, see Söğüt (disambiguation).

Söğüt
Town
Söğüt Söğüt
Coordinates: 40°1′7″N 30°10′53″E
Country	Turkey
Region	Marmara
Province	Bilecik
Government
• Mayor	İsmet Sever (MHP)
• Governor	Murat Öztürk
Area
• District	530.21 km2 (204.72 sq mi)
Population  (Template:Turkey district populations)Template:Turkey district populations
• Urban	Template:Turkey district populations
• District	Template:Turkey district populations
Time zone	UTC+3 (FET)
Postal code	11600
Area code	(+90) 0228
Licence plate	11
Website	www.sogut.bel.tr

Museum of Ertuğrul Ghazi in Söğüt.

Söğüt ([ˈsœ.yt]) (Turkish for "willow") (Greek: Θηβάσιον or Θηβάσιο) is a town and district in Bilecik Province, Turkey. It is in the Marmara region in the north-west of the country, with an area of 599 km² (231 sq mi), bordering Bilecik to the west, Gölpazarı to the north, İnhisar to the north-east, Tepebaşı (Eskişehir) to the south-east, and Bozüyük to the south-west. Söğüt district has 5 boroughs and 23 villages, with the population last recorded as 21,012 citizens (2000), but according to a 2010 estimate the population was 19,425.

Söğüt is notable as the founding location and first capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1299 to 1335.

History

Söğüt was a Seljuk Turkish land in western Anatolia which was given to Ertuğrul by the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Kayqubad I. Ertuğrul bey and his tribe migrated and settled there during Mongol invasion after the Battle of Köse Dağ. Ertuğrul ruled there and handled the matters of the people living in there until his death. He also made a mosque for the Muslims living there and dug up a well in there so that they could use for Ablusion. The mosque is still located in there as Ertuğrul Gazi Mosque. Söğüt later gave birth to the Ottoman Empire. It was a small land that extended from the Kayi branch of the Oghuz Turks who settled Anatolia in the 12th and 13th centuries. The village of Söğüt was surrounded by three greater Turkish tribes: Eskenderum in the north, Eskişehir in the east, Konyali in the south; the Eastern Roman Empire in the west. Legend has it that the bey (chief) of the tribe in the late 13th century, Ertuğrul, bravely kept the enemies at bay so that his son, Osman, could conquer them all during his reign from 1299 to 1326. When Osman's son, Orhan, came to power after his father's death, he renamed the Kayi tribe Osmanlı in honour of his father. The village of Söğüt (formerly Thebasion until 1231) later grew into a town that served the Osmanlı tribe as its capital until the capture of the Byzantine city of Bursa in 1326. The capital was moved to Bursa as it was a significant city of the region.

Söğüt was the birthplace of Sultan Osman I. It was conquered by Ertuğrul for the Anatolian Seljuks from the Nicean Empire in 1231. It had a kaza centre in the Ertuğrul Sanjak of Hüdavendigâr Vilayet, the centre of which was Bilecik. The kaza centre included present-day districts of İnhisar, İnönü, Mihalgazi, Sarıcakaya and Yenipazar, central and eastern parts of Bozüyük and some villages of Nallıhan and Tepebaşı before World War I. Söğüt was occupied three times by Greek troops during the Turkish War of Independence: 8-11 January 1921, 24 March-21 April 1921 and 12 July 1921-6 September 1922.

Today

Today Söğüt is a small town in the humid river valley of Bilecik Province in Turkey. Turkish history and life-size statues of the Ottoman sultans are exhibited in the Söğüt Ethnographical Museum. It is also the 3rd biggest district center in its province after Bozüyük and Bilecik.

Sources

• Farrell, Brian P.; Fairey, Jack, eds. (2018). Empire in Asia: A New Global History From Chinggisid to Qing. Vol. 1. Bloomsbury Publishing.