Gediz, Turkey

History

Until 1970, Gediz was located at present-day Eskigediz, 7 km to the north on the upper reaches of the Gediz Çayı stream. After the old town was destroyed in the 1970 Gediz earthquake, the town was rebuilt at its present location on the plain. The site of the present town was previously known as Karılar Pazarı.

Gediz's origins are in the ancient and medieval settlement of Kadoi (Ancient Greek: Κάδοι), which was located at present-day Eskigediz. Kadoi's earliest known mention was by Polybios in the 2nd century BCE. In Roman times, the town was located in Phrygia Epiktetos, near the border of Phrygia, Mysia, and Lydia. (The sources for this period are Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium, and Ptolemy.) The 6th-century Synekdemos of Hierokles later mentions Kadoi as part of Phrygia Pakatiane. Kadoi was also a Christian diocese attested consistently from the 7th through 12th centuries in the Notitiae. Until around the 9th century, it was listed as subordinate to Laodikeia, and after that as under Hierapolis until the 12th century.

Gediz was administered as a sanjak under the Seljuk dynasty as well as the succeeding Germiyan beylik. The oldest mosque in what is now Eskigediz, the Umurbey mosque (also called the Serdar mosque), dates from the Seljuk period.

From the History section of Gediz, Kütahya on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.