BRUSA, or BROUSSA (anc. Prusa)  , the capital of the Brusa (Khudavendikiar) vilayet of Asia Minor, which includes parts of ancient Mysia, Bithynia, and Phrygia, and extends in a south-easterly direction from Mudania, on the Sea of Marmora, to Afium-Kara-Hissar on the Smyrna-Konia railway . The vilayet is one of the most important in Asiatic Turkey, has great mineral and agricultural wealth, many mineral springs, large forests, and valuable industries . It exports cereals, silk, cotton, opium, tobacco, olive-oil, meerschaum, boracite, &c . The Ismid-Angora and Eskishehr-Konia railways pass through the province . Population of the province„ 1,600,000 (Moslems, 1,280,000; Christians, 317,000; Jews, 3000) . The city stretches along the lower slopes of the Mysian Olympus or Kechish Dagh, occupying a position above the valley of the Nilufer (Odrysses) not unlike that of Great Malvern above the vale of the Severn . It is divided by ravines into three quarters, and in the centre, on a bold terrace of rock, stood the ancient Prusa . The modern town has clean streets and good roads made by Ahmed Vefyk Pasha when Vali, and it contains mosques and tombs of great historic and architectural interest; the more important are those of the sultans Murad I., Bayezid (Bajazet) I., Mahommed I., and Murad II., 1403-1451, and the Ulu Jami' . The mosques show traces of Byzantine, Persian and Arab influence in their plan, architecture and decorative details . The circular church of.St Elias, in which the first two sultans, Osman and Orkhan, were buried, was destroyed by fire and earthquake, and rebuilt by Ahmed Vefyk Pasha . There are in the town an American mission and school,and a British orphanage . Silk-spinning is an important industry, the export of silk in 1902 being valued at £620,000 .

There are also manufactories of silk stuffs, towels, bumf's, carpets,

felt prayer-carpets embroidered in silk and gold . The hot iron and sulphur springs near Brusa, varying in temperature from 112° to 178° F., are still much used . The town is connected with its port, Mudania, by a railway and a road . There is a British vice-consul . Pop . 75,000 (Moslems, 40,000; Christians, 33,000; Jews, 2000) . Prusa, founded, it is said, at the suggestion of Hannibal, was for a long time the seat of the Bithynian kings . It continued to flourish under the Roman and Byzantine emperors till the loth century, when it was captured and destroyed by Saif-addaula of Aleppo . Restored by the Byzantines, it was again taken in 1327 by the Ottomans after a siege of ten years, and continued to be their capital till Murad I. removed to Adrianople . In 1402 it was pillaged by the Tatars; in 1413 it resisted an attack of the Karamanians; in 1512 it fell into the power of Ala ed-Din; and in 1607 it was burnt by the rebellious Kalenderogli . In 1883 it was occupied by the Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha, and from 1852–1855 afforded an asylum to Abd-el-Kader . See L.-de Laborde, Voyage de l'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1838) ; C .

Texier, Asie Mineure (Paris, 1839) .