Bursa
[key], city, capital of Bursa prov., NW Turkey. The market center of a
rich agricultural region, on the ancient Silk Road S of Constantinople,
Bursa was long noted for its silks, but is now a producer of automobiles,
other textiles and apparel, and metals. Founded at the end of the 3d cent.
b.c. by the king of Bithynia, Prusias I, it was called Prusia
ad Olympium or Prusa. It was captured by the Seljuk Turks in 1075, taken by
the Crusaders in 1096, and in 1204 passed to the Byzantines. Captured in
1326 by the Ottoman Turks, it became the Ottoman capital. It was sacked by
Timur in 1402; afterward Adrianople (now Edirne) became (1413) the new Ottoman
capital. Among the city's sites, the Green Mosque (1421) and mosque of
Beyazid I (1399) are especially noted. The town is sometimes called
Brusa.
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