In XVI-XX. centuries the lost settlements in Anatolia: The sample of Manisa-Konya

Anatolia is one of the areas that have been settled since the early days of history thanks to the natural and human characteristics that it possesses. With the appropriate geographical conditions, although the dominant force changed, these lands which hosted many civilizations in the historical period, continued to have settlement without any interruption. It is noteworthy that some of the centers of the government were lost over time, especially when examining the settlements in this area from Ottoman period to now. In the present study, by focusing on this subject in the samples of Manisa and Konya, from XVI. to XX. centuries have been searched for the answers to the questions about, where, when, how the settlements and how many of them were lost and have been put forward hypotheses about the answers of these questions. Factors such as natural disasters, banditry, the deterioration of the timar system, the activities of the migrant settlers, taxation and migration in rural areas were effective in the disappearance of the settlements in the process. Also in research areas it has been made evaluations by defining that new settlements were established, some of the centers of the settlements continued their lives by changing places and qualities in a period from XVI. to XX. centuries.