The Vilayet of Adrianople or Vilayet of Edirne (Vilâyet-i Edirne) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1878, the vilayet had an area of 26160 sqmi and extended all the way to the Balkan Mountains. However, by virtue of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), the Sanjak of İslimye, most of the Sanjak of Filibe and a small part of the Sanjak of Edirne (the Kızılağaç kaza and Monastır nahiya) were carved out of it to create the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, with a total area of 32,978 km2. The province unified peacefully with the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885. The rest of the vilayet was split between Turkey and Greece in 1923, culminating in the formation of Western and Eastern Thrace after World War I as part of the Treaty of Lausanne. A smaller portion had already gone to Bulgaria by virtue of the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) following the Balkan wars. In the late 19th century, it bordered on the Istanbul Vilayet, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara in the east, on the Salonica Vilayet in the west, on Eastern Rumelia (Bulgarian since 1885) in the north and on the Aegean Sea in the south. Sometimes the area is also described as Southern Thrace, or Adrianopolitan Thrace. After the city of Adrianople (Edirne in Turkish; pop. in 1905 about 80,000), the principal towns were Rodosto (now Tekirdağ) (35,000), Gelibolu (25,000), Kırklareli (16,000), İskeçe (14,000), Çorlu (11,500), Dimetoka (10,000), Enez (8000), Gümülcine (8000) and Dedeağaç (3000).

Administrative divisions

Sanjaks of the Vilayet:

Demographics

Total population of the Adrianople Vilayet by ethnoconfessional groups according to French orientalist Ubicini on the basis of the official Ottoman Census of the Vilayet in 1875: Total population of the Adrianople Vilayet (including Eastern Rumelia) in 1878 according to the Turkish author Kemal Karpat: Population of various ethnoconfessonal communities in the Vilayet and its sanjaks according to the 1906/7 Ottoman census, in thousands, adjusted to round numbers. The communities are counted according to the Millet System of the Ottoman Empire rather than by the mother tongue. Thus, some Bulgarian-speakers were included in the Greek Rum millet and counted as Greeks, while the Muslim millet included Turks and Pomaks (Bulgarian speaking Muslims). A publication from December 21, 1912, in the Belgian magazine Ons Volk Ontwaakt (Our Nation Awakes) estimated 1,006,500 inhabitants:

Sanjak of Filibe

Male population of the Filibe Sanjak of the Adrianople Vilayet in 1876 according to the British R. J. Moore:

Sanjak of İslimiye

Male population of İslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1873 according to Ottoman almanacs: Male population of İslimiye sanjak of Adrianople Vilayet in 1875 according to British R.J. Moore:

Sanjak of Gümülcine

Total population of the Sanjak of Gümülcine of the Adrianople Vilayet In the 19th century:

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