A Short History of Çeşme — Izmir
This article is a some parts of translate of Çeşme’nin kısa tarihine giriş: Cumhuriyet Öncesi. The original article was published in Gazete Yenigün, on 8th June, 2024.
Living is undoubtedly about enjoyment. We should also experience the satisfaction of learning new things that add pleasure to life, right? In this article, let’s talk about Çeşme, the beautiful town in İzmir. After all, those stunning beaches where beautiful girls and handsome men swim are already filling up. The streets of Alaçatı are getting lively, and people are moving to their summer houses. So, what used to be on these beaches?
The current version of Çeşme is characterized by its castle in the center. The center square and the municipality center, is now in the castle square. However, in antiquity, there was nothing in this place.
In ancient times, the most important settlement within the borders of Çeşme was in Ildır. In fact, most of the coastal areas were not inhabited in the past. If there were settlements, they were built on the hills. Why? There were two reasons for this practice. The first was to protect against pirate attacks, and the second, perhaps more important reason, was to avoid malaria epidemics in summer. For this reason, until modern medicine and pharmaceuticals, settlements in coastal areas were sparse. As such, Çeşme was also sparsely settled.
This continued until the Turkish period. Then, during the Ottoman period, we see some Turkish tribes in Çeşme. But since tribes could move to higher regions when necessary, they could survive pirates and malaria. In this period, there is no known Greek settlement in Çeşme. In this state, we also pass the period of Mehmed the Conqueror and come to the period of Bayezid II. There are some Turkish villages and nomadic tribes in Çeşme. But the villages are not on the coast. For example, Alaçatı was home to the Alaca At tribe at that time. Ilıca is similar. The most important village in Çeşme at that time was the village of İsmail-obası. This village, as the name suggests, was founded and settled by Ismail’s tribe. It is built on the hills, typical of the period. Today, this village area is being restored.
Until the period of Bayezid II, Çeşme was either under Seferihisar or Karaburun that kazas, in terms of civil administration. There was no administrative unit called Urla at that time. In the Ottoman Empire, Kaza, an administrative unit was similar to a district today. In other words, in the region called the peninsula, there was either Karaburun or Seferihisar that kazas, as an administrative unit. If not connected to them, Çeşme and its surroundings were directly connected to İzmir.
So Çeşme was not a kaza. In fact, there was no name Çeşme anyway. There was the village of İsmail-obası. This brings us to the period of Bayezid II. Probably, the increasing volume of trade with Chios necessitated the construction of a castle in the region. Because The Ottomans were now stronger; they built the castle and increased their control over trade. After this event, settlement began in the castle area, in today’s Çeşme center. Therefore, the name Çeşme also began to appear in sources. While the central settlement of the region used to be the İsmail-obası Village on the hills, the castle area on the coast became the new center. Over time, the settlement expanded. As the region gradually became more populated, Çeşme became a town and then an administrative unit.
This growth of Çeşme continued in the 18th century, during the Ayanlar Period. During this period, some external factors also helped Çeşme. The first factor was the increasing trade between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. This increase in trade became an opportunity for agricultural production in the Aegean Region. Hacı Memiş Ağa, an important ayan in Çeşme during this period, wanted to make investments. However, he was short of staff. The second factor emerged in Chios. When a great earthquake hit Chios, Hacı Memiş Ağa brought many unemployed and homeless people from the island to Çeşme. This wave of migration changed the demography in Çeşme. Thus, the administrative unit, which was mostly composed of Turkish residents, gained a Greek-dominated population due to the laborers brought by the ayans.
In this state, the region reached the Republic. Then, as you know, the population exchange, new settlers, and later the modern era’s activities in the towns and tourism — these last ones are the subject of another article.
To summarize, the Hacımemiş district, now a favorite area in Alaçatı, owes its origins to the influence of Hacı Memiş Ağa. He left a significant mark on many places, including the center of Çeşme. His efforts transformed Çeşme from a predominantly Turkish population to a predominantly Greek one, reflected in the large 19th-century church built there. However, even before his time, it was Bayezid II who constructed the great castle that paved the way for Çeşme’s development. The caravanserai of Suleiman the Magnificent next to it is early evidence of the increasing commercial activity and growth in Çeşme.
