BRUSA or BROUSSA, the capital of the Brusa (Khudaven dikiar) vilayet of Turkey. The city stretches along the lower slopes of the Mysian Olympus or Kechish Dagh, occupying a posi tion above the valley of the Nilufer (Odrysses) not unlike that of Great Malvern above the vale of the Severn. It is divided by ra vines 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 in terest ; the more important are those of the sultans Murad I., Bay ezid (Bajazet) I., Mohammed I., and Murad II. (14o3-1451), 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 earth quake, and rebuilt by Ahmed Vefyk Pasha. Silk-spinning is an important industry, and there are also manufactories of silk stuffs, towels, carpets, burnus, and felt prayer-carpets embroidered in silk and gold. The hot iron and sulphur springs near Brusa, vary ing in temperature from 112° to F, are still much used. The town is connected with its port, Mudania, by a railway and a road. Pop. But for the comparative proximity to the sea this ancient and beautiful city would probably have become the capital of the new Turkish republic. During the Greco-Turkish conflict (1919 2 2) Brusa and neighbourhood was the scene of severe fighting. In April 1920 the sultan's force under Anzavur Bey, when advanc ing on Brusa, was defeated by the Nationalists, who in their turn were defeated and driven out of the city in August by the northern army of the advancing Greeks. When the final rout of their main forces took place, in 1922, the Greeks offered a stubborn resistance at Brusa, and did not finally withdraw until Sept. 12. Before this retirement a commission of Allied officers arrived to prevent any wanton damage being done to the architectural masterpieces in the city.
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 Kara manians ; in 1512 it fell into the power of Ala ed-Din; and in 1607 it was burnt by the rebellious Kalenderoghlu. 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 (1838) ; and C. Texier, Asie Mineure (1839).