Giannitsa

Known to the Ottomans as Yenice-i Vardar, Giannitsa became a center of their power in Macedonia after the conquests of the late 14th century. The frontier commander Gazi Evrenos established the town and endowed religious and charitable institutions there. When he died in 1417, he was buried in a mausoleum in the town he had helped to build.

Evrenos's descendants continued to shape Yenice. His grandson Ahmed Bey endowed a mosque, a school and a charitable kitchen in 1498, adding to the foundations that supported urban life. The Sufi teacher Abdullah al-Ilahi also made the town his home in the 15th century, giving it a reputation as a place of religious learning. His influence endured among the poets and scholars drawn to this Ottoman center in the centuries that followed.