Uluabat is located on the banks of the
Mustafakemalpaşa River (ancient and medieval Rhyndacus). It is first mentioned by
Theodore of Stoudios in one of his letters, as the site of a
xenodocheion (
caravanserai). By the late 11th century, it featured a
market town. The existence of a
4th-century bridge carrying the road between
Cyzicus on the
Sea of Marmara to the interior of Asia Minor made it a place of some strategic importance, especially in the wars of the
Komnenian emperors against the
Seljuk Turks in the 11th–12th centuries, during which it is best known. The Seljuks raided Lopadion and its surrounding areas during the reign of
Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) and a large Seljuk army from Iran, numbering around 40,000 - 50,000 men, sacked the town and pillaged the region in 1113. Alexios fought the Turks in the vicinity, and in 1130, his successor
John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) built there a great fortress which became the base of his campaigns against the Turkish
Sultanate of Rum. During the same period, Lopadion is attested as an
archbishopric. In 1147, the French and German contingents participating in the
Second Crusade united at Lopadion. Following the
fall of the Byzantine Empire to the
Fourth Crusade in 1204, the fortress was briefly occupied by the
Latin Empire, who returned after the
Battle of the Rhyndacus in 1211 and until ca. 1220. It then returned to the
Empire of Nicaea, and remained in Byzantine hands until it was captured by the
Ottoman Turks in 1335. The area was a site of confrontation during the
Ottoman Interregnum as well: sometime in March–May 1403,
Mehmed I defeated his brother
İsa Çelebi in the
Battle of Ulubad, and consolidated his control over the Asian heartland of the Ottoman Empire around
Bursa. In January 1422, the armies of Mehmed's son
Murad II and
Mustafa Çelebi confronted each other in the area, until Murad engineered the defection of
Junayd of Aydın and the other supporters of Mustafa, forcing the latter to retreat to Europe, where he was captured and executed. ==See also==