(Yalnız Selvi, Muhacir Köy, Ümraniye Town, Ümraniye District)
Once, Ümraniye was completely covered with forests. Everywhere was covered with forests, trees and green. With green trees, every side was like a part from heaven; because the climate was convenient for a forest.
According to historical sources, Phrygians were first people to reside in Ümraniye. Accepting pine trees as holy, Phrygians created pine tree forests everywhere, starting from Büyük Çamlıca to Alemdağ and Kayış Dağı. In the next years, the Area in which Ümraniye is located were conquered by Romans and Byzantines.
Harun Reşit came near Krizepolis (Üsküdar) in 782 with his armies. After staying here for a year, he was defeated by the army of Byzantium Empress, ÎREN, and as a result he was required to give 70.000 gold coins to Byzantines, annually.
From time to time, our district changed hands between Byzantines and Muslim armies. The first state to make Anatolia Muslim and a Turkish land is Danishmends. Danishmends conquered lands until Byzantine Empire. They built a castle on Alemdağ.
Sultan Turasan, a friend of Danismend Gazi, fought against Byzantines for many times in this castle, and due to not getting the expected support from Anatolia, he was killed there. Seljuks came until İznik; they conquered it and made it their first capital. Being the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire Era, Orhan I conquered our area and made it an Ottoman land.
The first name of our district is claimed to be "Yalnız Selvi" (Alone Cypress). In the beginning of the 17th century, it was devoted to Sheikh Aziz Mahmut Hüdayi by Ahmet I, the sultan of that time. The area, whose borders were as far as Bulgurlu until the foundation of the republic, remained as a town which was a part of Üsküdar as a property of the charity. The reason why Ümraniye was first called "Alone Cypress" is that, there were a few houses among a few tombs, a few cypresses and a forest.
The first settlers of Ümraniye were immigrants coming from Batumi first, and then from Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, after Balkan Wars. Therefore it was famously called as "Village of Immigrants".
Remaining as a village until 1960, Ümraniye was exposed to an intense immigration after an Organized Industrial Zone was founded. The municipality was first founded in 1963. Ümraniye is shows interesting example of urbanization, being most rapidly urbanized and populated part of Istanbul and at the same time exactly preserving the village and other local traditions.
With the coup of 1980, the municipality of Ümraniye was terminated and was made a branch directorate under Üsküdar. Becoming a district again in 1987, Ümraniye experienced the first local elections in 1989. With 35 neighborhoods and a population of 650.000, our district is bigger than most cities of Anatolia. It has 22.000 hectares of land.
Ümraniye is a rich district with its wide economic variety. It ranges from small manufacturing industries to textile, from manufacturing of replacement parts to wooden products.
MEANING OF ÜMRANİYE
The word "Ümran" is Arabic. It means "happiness, felicity and welfare in societies". The real meaning of it is "area on which people worked to make it developed and to make the living conditions convenient.
According to some resources: Ümran (Ar) 1- Public works, being prosperous, becoming completely residential and sufficiently processed, 2- Civilization, development, prosperity Umran= Ümran