Alaşehir

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Alaşehir
Location of Alaşehir within Turkey.
Location of Alaşehir within Turkey.
Coordinates: 38°21′N 28°31′E / 38.35, 28.517
Country Flag of Turkey Turkey
Region Aegean
Province Manisa
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 - Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Licence plate 45
Website: http://www.alasehir.bel.tr/

Alaşehir (Greek: Philadélphia (Φιλαδέλφεια)) is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. It is situated in the valley of the Kuzuçay (Cogamus in antiquity), at the foot of the Bozdağ (Mount Tmolus in antiquity). The city is connected to İzmir by a 105 km (65 mi) railway.

It stands on elevated ground commanding the extensive and fertile plain of the Gediz River, (Hermus in antiquity) presents at a distance an imposing appearance. It has several mosques and Christian churches. There are small industries and a fair trade. From one of the mineral springs comes a heavily charged water popular around Turkey.

Within Turkey, the city's name is synonymous with the dried Sultana raisins, although cultivation for the fresh fruit market, less labour-intensive than the dried fruit, gained prominence in the last decades. Named Philadelphia in antiquity, Alaşehir was a highly important center in the early-Christian and Byzantine periods, and remained a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.[1]

Contents

[edit] Ancient Philadelphia

Alaşehir began as perhaps one of the first ancient cities with the name Philadelphia. It was established in 189 BC by King Eumenes II of Pergamon (197-160 BC). Eumenes II named the city for the love of his brother, who would be his successor, Attalus II (159-138 BC), whose loyalty earned him the nickname, "Philadelphos", literally meaning "one who loves his brother". The city is perhaps best-known as the site of one of the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation.

Lacking an heir, Attalus III Philometer, the last of the Attalid kings of Pergamum, bequeathed his kingdom, including Philadelphia, to his Roman allies when he died in 133 BC. Rome set up the province of Asia in 129 BC by combining Ionia and the former Kingdom of Pergamum.

Philadelphia was an independent neutral city, under the influence of the Latin Knights of Rhodes, when taken in 1390 by Sultan Bayezid I and an auxiliary Christian force under the Byzantine emperor Manuel II after a prolonged resistance, when all the other cities of Asia Minor had surrendered. Twelve years later it was captured by Timur, who built a wall with the corpses of his prisoners. A fragment of the ghastly structure is in the library of Lincoln Cathedral.

Philadelphia was the last Byzantine stronghold in inner Asia Minor. Its Greek inhabitants fled the town during World War I and created Nea Filadelfeia, in Greece.

[edit] Philadelphia in the Book of Revelation

It is this ancient Philadelphia site that is commonly surmised to have been the headquarters of one of the seven churches referred by John in the Book of Revelation.[2] Philadelphia is the sixth church.

[edit] Turkish history

[edit] Greek occupation in Alaşehir (1919-1922)

[edit] Modern Alaşehir

[edit] Notable people from Alaşehir

[edit] Notes

  1. ^   "Philadelphia". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  2. ^ 1:11 (King James Version

[edit] References

v • d • e
Seven churches of Asia
1. Ephesus · 2. Smyrna · 3. Pergamos · 4. Thyatira · 5. Sardis · 6. Philadelphia (modern Alaşehir) · 7. Laodicea
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ala%C5%9Fehir"
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