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14th-15th Century Anatolian Beylik
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The Aydinids or Aydinid dynasty, also known as the Principality of Aydin and Beylik of Aydin (Aydın Beyliği), was one of the Turkoman Anatolian beyliks and famous for its seaborne raiding.
The Beylik of Aydin, originally began as a vassal of the Germiyanids. Along with Sasa Bey of the Beylik of Menteshe, the sons of Aydin conducted a series of raids and conquests, in which they captured the city of Ephesus in October 1304, where they expelled, killed or enslaved much of the local Christian population and pillaged the Basilica of Saint John the Theologian. However, soon after the capture and sack of the city, Sasa fell out with Mehmed, the eldest son of Aydin, before being killed in 1308, which caused Mehmed to declare his independence from the Germiyanids and establish his own emirate.
From 1317–1329, the Aydinids besieged Smyrna. After the son of Mehmed, Umur, finished the conquest of the city, the Aydinids used it as base for piracy and banditry in the southeastern Mediterranean, conducting raids on Aegean islands and devastating the surrounding coastal regions. In 1332 and 1333 Umur launched piratical raids across the Aegean, attacking the Venetian island of Negroponte, along with the Greek mainland.
The Aydinids also participated in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, as Umur was an ally and friend of John VI Kantakouzenos, providing him with material and soldiers for his military exploits, in return for hyperpyria.
The danger of Turkish piracy in the Aegean, the preying upon Christians and the threat the Aydinids posed to Venice and the Knights of Rhodes, were the main causes for the Smyrniote crusades, in which the Crusader coalition conquered Smyrna in 1348 and killed Umur in battle. The Crusaders held the city for nearly 60 years, until it fell to the Timurids in 1402.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aydinids”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.