Balıkesir

Balıkesir grew in the old land of Mysia, where Turkmen settlers found the remains of an old castle and called the place Balukiser, the root of its present name. It became the capital of the Karasi beylik, founded by Karasi Bey around 1297 on the Seljuk frontier. Its ruler Demir Khan sent galleys to raid Cyzicus and Thrace, yet in 1328 he signed a truce with the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III. In 1333 the traveller Ibn Battuta met him here and thought little of him or of the townspeople.

The Ottoman sultan Orhan took Balıkesir after a Karasid prince fled to him for help, and Karasi became an Ottoman sanjak. In 1393 it was attached to the new province of Anatolia.