قوجه ایلی

Ottoman Turkish

Kocaeli province

Etymology

Morphologically from قوجه (koca, “big, large; elder, chief, husband”) + ایل (el, “nation, territory”), but the first part takes its name from Akça Koca, the Ottoman leader who conquered this territory from the Byzantine empire in the 14th century.

Proper noun

قوجه ایلی • (koca eli)

1. Kocaeli (a province in East Marmara region, Turkey)

Descendants

• Turkish: Kocaeli

Further reading

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2010–) “Kocaeli”, 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) “Kocaeli”, in Osmanlı Yer Adları [Ottoman Place Names]‎^[1], 2nd edition, Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, page 473