In ancient times, the south-western part of Anatolia was known as Caria. From the 13th century until the 15th century, the area was under the control of the Menteşe Principality. Therefore it was called Menteşe province in the Ottoman period. Beçin (Peçin), situated approximately five kilometres from Milas, was one of the locations under the control of the Menteşe principality. The name of the city, which was also referred to as Barçın or Berçin in literary sources, was recorded as Petzona in a treaty made by İlyas Bey of Menteşeoğulları with the Venetians in 1414. The city was selected as the administrative centre of the Principality due to its more sheltered topographic structure. The city, which took its final form in the Byzantine period and later in the Turkish period, consists of the lower city surrounded by the walls and the inner castle, which rises on the rocks in the north and dominates the plain. There are abandoned houses, a grave monument from the Hellenistic period, and public buildings such as Turkish baths and a cistern inside the inner castle. The city square is surrounded by Ahmed Gazi Madrasa, Orhan Mosque, shrines, Hanikah, Kizilhan and the Domed Fountain. The architectural texture that has been unearthed in recent years provides valuable information in terms of the plan of the medieval Turkish city. The city walls, the Madrasa of Yelli (Kepez), and the Madrasa of Karapasa, the Forest Dervish Lodge, and other lodges indicate that Becin was intended to become a centre of science in the Menteşe Principality. Beçin was under the rule of Menteşeoğulları until 1424, after which it came under the rule of the Ottoman State. The population of the city, which did not show much development during the Ottoman period, gradually decreased. At the beginning of the 17th century, during the Jelali revolts, the inhabitants of the city were completely displayed to the inner castle. After the 1950s, the last families living in the castle left Beçin. The Karapaşa Madrasa is situated to the south of the city, beyond the city walls. It was probably constructed in the first half of the 15th century. Only a portion of the structure's walls remain intact. The single-story edifice has an almost square shape and a rectangular plan, with an open courtyard and a single iwan. There are three student cells on the eastern and western edges. The madrasa is constructed with rubble stone. The Ahmet Gazi Madrasa, commissioned by Ahmed Gazi of Menteşe in 1375, is another educational structure in the city. The Orhan Mosque is situated in close proximity to the Ahmet Gazi Madrasa, on the west of the Taxman House and Sofuhane. The entrance door, the niche of the mihrab, the marble door frame, and the lintels on the north facade are the only elements of the body walls that have survived to the present day. The epitaph of Orhan Mosque has not survived to the present day. However, the celebrated Ottoman traveler of the 17th century Evliya Çelebi (1611-1682) references the epitaph of the mosque in his Seyahatname (literally, "book of travels"). He writes, "This blessed mosque was constructed by the enormous, grand, triumphant, and victorious Emir, Sultan of the Turkish Veterans, Şucaü’d-devle’d-din Orhan Ibn Massoud in 732. May Allah bless his victories. It has no minaret and is an ancient structure, now covered with earth. It is raised on long and floating feet, and within the mosque there are sixteen pine pillars.”
BEÇİN CASTLE VE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
