قرقلر ایلی

Ottoman Turkish

Kırklar Eli province

Etymology

Morphologically from قرقلر (kırklar, “forties”) + ایل (il, el, “country; tribe, nation”), but this is just a corrupted form of the earlier name قرق كلیسا (kırk kilise, literally “40 Churches”), probably in honor of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, which were quite popular among the Christian population in Anatolia.

Proper noun

قرقلر ایلی • (kırklar eli)

1. Kırklareli (a city and province in West Marmara region, Turkey)

   Synonym: قرق كلیسا (kırk kilise) (obsolete)

Descendants

• Turkish: Kırklareli

Further reading

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2010–) “Kırklareli”, in Nişanyan Yeradları: Türkiye ve Çevre Ülkeler Yerleşim Birimleri Envanteri [Index Anatolicus: An inventory of place names of Turkey and surrounding countries] (in Turkish)
• Sezen, Tahir (2017) “Kırklareli”, in Osmanlı Yer Adları [Ottoman Place Names]‎^[1], 2nd edition, Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, page 462