AIDIN  . (I) A vilayet in the S.W. of

Asia Minor including the ancient Lydia, Ionia, Caria and western Lycia . It derives its name from the Seljuk emir who took Tralles, and is the richest and most productive province of Asiatic Turkey . The seat of government is Smyrna . (2) The principal town of the valley of the Menderes or Maeander, about 70 M . E.S.E. of Smyrna . It is called also Guzel Hissar from the beauty of its situation on. the lower slopes of Mons Messogis and along the course of the ancient Eudon . It is the capital of a sanjak . It was taken by the Seljuks, Aidin and Mentesh, late in the 13th century, and about 1390, when ruled by Isa Bey, a descendant of the first-named, acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty . In the Seljuk period it was a secondary city under the provincial capital, Tireh (q.v.) . In the 17th century it came under the power of the Karasmans of Manisa and remained so till about 1820 . Aidin is on the Smyrna-Dineir railway, has large tanneries and sweetmeat manufactories, and exports figs, cotton and raisins .

It was greatly damaged by an

earthquake in 1899 . On a neighbouring height are to be seen the ruins of the ancient Tralles (q.v.), the site to which the name Guzel Hissar was particularly given by the Seljuks . Aidin is the seat of a British consular agent . As there are considerable numbers of Greeks, Armenians and Jews among the inhabitants, there are a Greek cathedral, several churches and synagogues in addition to the fine Turkish mosques . (D . G .