Aydin

The Aydinids were a Turkoman dynasty on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, initially a vassal of the Germiyanids. Aydin's son Mehmed Bey seized Ephesus in 1304 and made himself independent emir around 1308, ruling from Ayasuluk.

The long siege of Smyrna ended in 1329 under his son Umur, who turned the city into a base for fleets that raided the Aegean. Umur allied with Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos in the civil war of 1341 to 1347. His piracy provoked the Smyrniote crusades: a Latin coalition took Smyrna in 1348 and Umur was killed in the fighting.

The beylik survived but was absorbed by the Ottomans in 1390. Timur's victory at Ankara in 1402 briefly restored the dynasty, yet the last bey, Junayd, was defeated and put to death by Sultan Murad II in 1426.