Babaeski

Babaeski (Baba-yi 'atik) is a small town in eastern Thrace, 50 km south-east of Edirne, on the railway linking Kirklareli to the Edirne-Istanbul main line. In the Byzantine period it was called Bulgarophygon. Its present name derives from the Turkish dervishes (baba) who settled there, as at other places, during the Ottoman expansion in the Balkans. ²

In the seventeenth century Babaeski was a kadi of the sanjak of Vize, later attached to the sanjak of Kirkkilise (Kirklareli). It is now a kaza of the vilayet of Kirklareli; its population in 1945 was 5,936, and the whole region had 37,607 inhabitants, mainly occupied in agriculture. The town has two mosques, one from the time of Mehmed II and one built by the architect Sinan in the name of the grand vizier 'Ali Pasha Semiz. A stone bridge built under Murad IV over the Ergene river, west of the town, is a historic monument. ¹