Etymology · Pre-Turkic toponym
The ancient name of Mesudiye was Durayda — a place name unique to this location in Türkiye, preserved unchanged from a period before the Turkish settlement of Anatolia. The 1907 muhajir founders inherited this name; in 1934 the village was officially renamed Mesudiye.
Historian Osman Gümüşçü has noted that Durayda predates the Turkish arrival in Anatolia and has been preserved unchanged. The name does not match the typical Turkish toponymic patterns (-köy, -kale, -hisar, descriptive geographic terms) and is grammatically distinct from Turkish.
Durayda first appears in Ottoman tax registers in 1500 (BOA, TD nr. 40, p. 938) as "Karye-i Durayda" (Village of Durayda). The name reappears in registers of 1541 (TD nr. 415, p. 135) and 1584 (Ankara Tapu Kadastro, TK nr. 113, vr. 204b). This continuous documentation across three centuries confirms the toponym's stability.
In 1934, under the Republic's village naming reforms, the village was officially renamed Mesudiye — from the Arabic mes'ûd, meaning "happy, blessed". The rename reflected the wish that those who would live there might be content and at peace. However, "Durayda" remains the historically recognised name in older documents and in local oral tradition.
“Durayda” is a unique place name, used in no other settlement in Türkiye. The local historian Durmuş Ali Gülcan (1904–1997) recorded that the name is “the corrupted form of a name surviving from the age of ancient peoples”.
The scholar Osman Gümüşçü also confirmed this finding, stating that Durayda is a name “that existed before the arrival of the Turks in Anatolia and has been preserved unchanged”.
“The corrupted form of a name surviving from the age of ancient peoples.” — Durmuş Ali Gülcan (1904–1997), local historian
“A name that existed before the arrival of the Turks in Anatolia and has been preserved unchanged.” — Osman Gümüşçü, scholar
Two explanations of the name's origin circulate among the people. However, the academic confirmation that the name existed before the Turks weakens the scholarly validity of these popular explanations.
“Dur orada” (“stop there”): it is said to come from a Turkish expression. It is believed to describe the place where a traveller or a migrant took a rest.
“Duraydı, gitmeyeydi”: it is related that this was said with reference to people who had to leave their homeland because of famine; in the sense of “if only it had stayed, if only it had not gone”, it expresses longing and regret.
Because there is also a “Dağ Duraydası” in the region (today's village of Ağaçoba, in the Güneysınır district of Konya province), the village has been known by various names in the course of history:
Durayda — the original and oldest name.
Ova Duraydası — the Durayda on the plain; used to distinguish it from Dağ Duraydası.
Muhâcir Duraydası — the name used to indicate that it was a village of migrants.
Mesudiye — the official name given in 1907.
In the endowment deed (vakfiye) of the İmaret that Karamanoğlu İbrahim Bey II (1423–1464) had built at Lârende in 1432, the “Oraydonya Kışlağı” (the Oraydonya winter pasture) was allocated as a source of income.
The toponym “Oraydonya” bears a marked phonetic resemblance to Durayda and is located in the same geographical area. This connection shows that the name Durayda goes back at least to 1432, that is, to the pre-Ottoman Karamanoğulları period.
Endowment deed of Karamanoğlu İbrahim Bey II — Date: 1432 — the endowment deed of the Lârende (Karaman) İmaret. “Oraydonya Kışlağı” is recorded as a source of income.
In the Ottoman period, the Durayda land was initially a farm belonging to a person of Greek origin named Pandalakis. The farm later passed into the hands of Abacızade Mustafa Efendi.
During the reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II it was planned to route the Hicaz railway line through the region. The Ottoman state compensated the owners of the lands along the route; Abacızade Mustafa Efendi too received the price of the land and transferred his property to the state.
The Durayda land thus became state property. This opened the way for the state to settle here the migrants of the Karabağlar oymak who came from Bulgaria in 1906–1907.
Chain of ownership
1. Pandalakis (Greek farm owner) — Ottoman period
2. Abacızade Mustafa Efendi — took over the farm
3. The Ottoman State — purchased it with Hicaz railway compensation (reign of Sultan Abdülhamit II)
4. Migrants of the Karabağlar oymak — settled here with the 1907 settlement