Adrianople Vilayet
The Vilayet of Adrianople or Vilayet of Edirne was a first-level administrative division of the Ottoman Empire.
This vilayet was split between Turkey and Greece in 1923, culminating in the formation of Western and Eastern Thrace after World War I as part of the Treaty of Lausanne. A small portion of the Vilayet was given to Bulgaria in the Treaty of Bucharest after the Balkan wars. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of. In the east it bordered with the Istanbul Vilayet, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, in the west with the Salonica Vilayet, in the north with Eastern Rumelia and in the south with the Aegean Sea. Sometimes the area is described also as Southern Thrace, or Adrianopolitan Thrace.
After the city of Edirne, the principal towns were Tekirdağ, Gelibolu, Kırklareli, İskeçe, Çorlu, Dimetoka, Enez, Gümülcine and Dedeağaç.Administrative divisions
Sanjaks of the Vilayet:
- Sanjak of Edirne
- Sanjak of Kirklareli
- Sanjak of Tekirdag
- Sanjak of Gelibolu
- Sanjak of Dedeağaç
- Sanjak of Gümülcine . The whole Sanjak was ceded to Bulgaria, with a small part to Greece in 1913.
- Sanjak of Filibe
- Sanjak of Slimia
Demographics
Total population of the Adrianople Vilayet in 1878 according to the Turkish author Kemal Karpat:
| Group | POPULATION |
| Bulgarians | |
| Other Christians | |
| Muslims | |
| TOTAL Adrianople Vilayet | |
Population of the groups of the Vilayet and Sanjaks according to the Ottoman census in 1906/7, in thousands, adjusted to round numbers.
The groups are counted according to the Millet System of the Ottoman Empire not according to the mother tongue, some Bulgarian-speakers were part of the Greek Rum millet and counted as Greeks, while the Muslim millet included Turks and Pomaks.
| Groups | Edirne | Gümülcine | Kırklareli | Dedeağac | Tekirdağ | Gelibolu | Total |
| Muslims | 154 | 240 | 78 | 44 | 77 | 26 | 619 |
| Greeks | 103 | 22 | 71 | 28 | 53 | 65 | 341 |
| Bulgarians | 37 | 29 | 30 | 17 | 6 | 1 | 120 |
| Jews | 16 | 1 | 2 | – | 3 | 2 | 24 |
| Armenians | 5 | – | - | – | 19 | 1 | 26 |
| Others | 2 | - | – | - | 1 | - | 2 |
| Total | 317 | 292 | 181 | 89 | 159 | 96 | 1,134 |
A publication from December 21, 1912, in the Belgian magazine Ons Volk Ontwaakt estimated 1,006,500 inhabitants:
- Muslim Turks – 250,000
- Muslim Bulgarians – 115,000
- Muslim Roma people – 15,000
- Orthodox Armenians – 30,000
- Orthodox Greeks – 220,000
- Orthodox Bulgarians – 370,000
- Orthodox Albanians – 3,500
- Orthodox Turks – 3,000
Sanjak of Filibe
Male population of the Filibe Sanjak of the Adrianople Vilayet in 1876 according to the British R. J. Moore:
Male population of İslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1873 according to Ottoman almanacs:
| Community | Population |
| Muslims | 37,200 |
| Non-Muslims | 46,961 |
| TOTAL Islimiye sanjak | |
Male population of İslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1875 according to British R.J. Moore:
| Community | Population |
| Muslims | |
| Non-Muslims | |
| TOTAL Islimiye sanjak | |
Sanjak of Gümülcine
Total population of the Sanjak of Gümülcine of the Adrianople Vilayet In the 19th century:
| Sanjak | Muslims | Christian Bulgarians | Christian Greeks |
| Gümülcine | 206.914 | 20.671 | 15.241 |
Gallery
