2 March – December 1354
Gallipoli, 1354
On 2 March 1354 an earthquake destroys hundreds of villages and towns around the Dardanelles. The walls of Gallipoli fall, nearly every building is ruined, and the Greek inhabitants leave the town. Within a month Süleyman moves in from Tzympe, rebuilds the walls and settles Turkish families brought over from Karesi and other parts of Anatolia.
The port of Gallipoli, etching by Henri de Gourcy, about 1880Wikimedia Commons, Henri de Gourcy, Public domain (Port de Gallipoli.JPG)
Süleyman’s men take the other abandoned towns of the peninsula and the coast, and in 1354 and 1355 Bolayır, Malkara, İpsala and Rhaidestos (Tekirdağ). John VI offers money for Gallipoli. Orhan is said to answer that he has not taken the town by force and cannot give back what God has granted him.
The harbour of Gelibolu, the former Gallipoli, on the DardanellesWikimedia Commons, Filanca, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Gelibolu.JPG)
In Constantinople many fear that the Turks will come for the city next. John V returns from Tenedos with Genoese help and enters the capital in November 1354. In December John VI gives up the throne and becomes a monk.
Sources
- John VI Kantakouzenos, Histories, book 4.
- Nikephoros Gregoras, Roman History.
- Halil İnalcık, “Gelibolu”, in TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 14 (1996).
- Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453 (2nd ed., 1993).
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