Bursa

Bursa

, city, Turkey

Bursa (bo͝orsäˈ), city, capital of Bursa prov., NW Turkey. The market center of a rich agricultural region, on the ancient Silk Road S of Constantinople, Bursa was long noted for its silks, but is now a producer of automobiles, other textiles and apparel, and metals. Founded at the end of the 3d cent. B.C. by the king of Bithynia, Prusias I, it was called Prusia ad Olympium or Prusa. It was captured by the Seljuk Turks in 1075, taken by the Crusaders in 1096, and in 1204 passed to the Byzantines. Captured in 1326 by the Ottoman Turks, it became the Ottoman capital. It was sacked by Timur in 1402; afterward Adrianople (now Edirne) became (1413) the new Ottoman capital. Among the city's sites, the Green Mosque (1421) and mosque of Beyazid I (1399) are especially noted. The town is sometimes called Brusa.

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bursa

, in anatomy

bursa (bûrˈsə), closed fibrous sac lined with a smooth membrane, producing a viscous lubricant known as synovial fluid. Bursas are found in regions where muscles or tendons rub against other muscles, tendons, or bones. The bursas function in two ways, lubricating points of friction, and dissipating force by distributing it through a fluid medium. Normally, the bursas produce just enough synovial fluid to reduce friction. However, constant irritation may lead to oversecretion and consequent enlargement of the bursa, a condition known as bursitis. In the hand and foot, the bursa assumes a tubular form. Called the synovial sheath, the structure encloses the tendons along their entire length.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bursa

 

a city in northwestern Turkey; administrative center of Bursa Vilayet. Population, 212,500 (1965). Located in the foothills of the Ulu Dag ridge. Highway junction. There is trade in silk, merino wool, and cereals. Industry includes silk, wool, woodworking, fruit and vegetable canning, and building materials. There are mineral springs in the vicinity.

Bursa was founded in the early second century B.C. by the King of Bithynia, Prusias II, under the name Prusa. It became part of the Roman Empire and later of Byzantium. In 1326, after a ten-year seige, it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and became the first capital of the Ottoman state. It retained its importance as one of the main cities of Turkey after the capital was transferred to Edirne (1365, by other data 1402) and later Istanbul (1453).

The present-day regular layout of the city took shape during the second half of the 19th century, coming to include the old center of Bursa with its stone two-story houses and its parks, gardens, and architectural monuments—the mosques of Orhan (1304-1417), Ulu Cami (the Great Mosque, 1396-1400), Murad II (1424-27), Yesşil Cami (the Green Mosque, 1424), the Yesşil Türbe mausoleum (1420-21), and a military hospital (1394).

REFERENCES

Bei-oglu. “Brussa i ee pamiatniki.” Istoricheskii vestnik, 1909, vol. 117, no. 8.
Gordlevskii, V. A. “Rukopisnye biblioteki g. Brusy.” Dokl. AN SSSR, 1929, no. 2.
Inalcik, H. “Bursa.” In Encyclopédie de l’Islam, vol. 1. Paris-Leiden, 1960.
Gabriel, A. Une capitale turque: Broussa-Boursa, vols. 1-2. Paris, 1960.

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Bursa

 

originally a dormitory for impoverished university students in the Middle Ages. One of the first in southwestern Rus’ was the bursa of the Kievo-Mogila Academy. Later, “bursa” came to mean “dormitories of religious seminaries and other schools where the students were supported by the state”; hence, bursak, meaning “a seminary student supported by the state.” The harsh regime, corporal punishment, and rough ways that characterized bursas in Russia in the early part of the 19th century were described by N. G. Pomialovskii in his Bursa Sketches.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

bursa

[′bər·sə]

(anatomy)

A simple sac or cavity with smooth walls containing a clear, slightly sticky fluid and interposed between two moving surfaces of the body to reduce friction.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Bursa

a city in NW Turkey: founded in the 2nd century bc; seat of Bithynian kings. Pop.: 1 413 000 (2005 est.)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005