ABSTRACT
From the rise of the Seljuks in Anatolia to the era of the Turkish principalities, including the Ottomans, archaeological evidence usually focuses on an urban life confined within the city walls. The textual evidence, meanwhile, offers an idealised view of urban life and the role of the city's walls in survival and the creation of an urban identity. This chapter discusses how the early Ottoman city of Bursa grew out of the late Byzantine Prousa, which had itself grown out of classical Prousa. Through these transitions, it focuses on the changing boundaries and focal points of the city and how its rulers manipulated the urban fabric to announce their legitimacy and cement their legacy as well as examining what it means to be an ‘Islamic city’ or an ‘Ottoman city’ and the process of colonisation. The chapter begins by viewing the urban framework of the old city of Prousa.
