History of Iznik - Lonely Planet Travel Information

History

İznik may have been founded as early as 1000 BC, but it became a town of any significance only under one of Alexander the Great’s generals in 316 BC. A rival general, Lysimachus, captured it in 301 BC and named it rather romantically after his wife, Nikaea. The name stuck, and Nicaea became the capital city of the province of Bithynia, which once spread out along the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara.

Nicaea lost some of its prominence with the founding of Nicomedia (today’s Kocaeli/İzmit) in 264 BC, and by 74 BC the entire area had been incorporated into the Roman Empire. It flourished under the Romans, but invasions by the Goths and the Persians brought ruin by AD 300.

With the rise of Constantinople, Nicaea once again acquired importance. In AD 325, the first Ecumenical Council was held here, producing the Nicene Creed, the statement of the basic principles of Christianity. More than four centuries later, the seventh Ecumenical Council was held in Nicaea’s Aya Sofya (Hagia Sofia) church.

During the reign of Justinian I (527–65), Nicaea was refurbished with grand new buildings and defences that served the city well when the Arabs invaded. Like Constantinople, Nicaea never fell to its Arab besiegers, but did eventually fall to the Crusaders. From 1204 to 1261, when a Latin king sat on the throne of Byzantium, the true Byzantine emperor, Theodore I (Lascaris), reigned over the empire of Nicaea. When the Crusaders left, the imperial capital returned to Constantinople.

On 2 March 1331, Sultan Orhan conquered İznik, and the city soon possessed the first Ottoman theological school. In 1514 Sultan Selim I captured the Persian city of Tabriz and sent all its artisans west to İznik. They brought with them their skill at making coloured tiles, and soon İznik’s kilns were turning out faïence (tin-glazed earthenware) unequalled even today. The great period of İznik tile-making continued almost to 1700, before going into a decline that lasted until 20th-century fashion (and business sense) brought about a revival.