Tekirdag has a settlement of about 6,000 years. Due to its fertile lands and its location between Anatolia and the Balkans, it has been under the rule of various cultures and tribes throughout history. Inhabited places have been identified in prehistoric and posthistorical times.
Chalcolithic finds were found in Güngörmez and Güneşkaya Caves in Şarköy district and Toptepehöyük in Marmara Ereğlisi. According to the researches on the coastline of Tekirdağ, it is understood that there is a dense settlement belonging to the Early Bronze Age. A great migration wave occurred in Thrace in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.
Thrace was opened to trade with the establishment of Greek colonies in the 7th century BC. In this period, cities were established on the Marmara coast of Thrace. After the Scythian Expedition of the Persian King Dereus in 514-513 BC, the Persian domination continued until the Attic-Delos Sea Union, founded by Athens against the Persian threat in 478-477, cleared the Persians from Thrace. In 342 BC, Macedonian King Philip II annexed the Thrace but after the death of Alexander II, the eldest son of Philip, Thrace came under the rule of Lysimachos.
The developments that started with the Roman Emperor Tiberius sending a governor to Thrace resulted with the establishment of a Roman Province in Thrace by Emperor Claudius in 46 AD. Thrace remained under Roman rule for many years. With the division of the empire into two in 395 AD, Thrace, which remained within the Eastern Roman Empire, began to be dominated by the Turks in 1354, when the forces under the command of Süleyman Pasha landed in Gallipoli. In 1356, Şarköy and Malkara were captured and in 1357, Murat I took Tekirdağ and Çorlu under Turkish rule. The lands of our province, which were occupied by the Bulgarians in the Balkan Wars (1912), were liberated from the enemy occupation in 1913. After the First World War, Greek forces, benefiting from the privileges of the Armistice of Mudros, occupied Tekirdağ on July 1920 but on November 13, 1922, the Greek occupation was ended and Tekirdağ lands were again under Turkish rule. Tekirdağ became a province as a result of the new organization initiated according to the Teşkilat-ı Esasiye Kanunu, dated 20 January 1922. However, in the difficult conditions of the War of Independence, organization could not be achieved immediately. It was turned into a provincial center on 15 October 1923, just before the proclamation of the Republic. Our province, which historically known as Bisanthe (5th century BC), Rhaedestus (343 BC-843 AD), Rodosto (843 AD-1358), Rodosçuk (1358 AD -with the conquest of the Ottomans), Tekfurdagi (1732 AD), was named “Tekirdağ” after the proclamation of the Republic.
On December 6, 2012, with the 24th clause of the 2nd article of the law numbered 6360 published in the official gazette, the district of Süleymanpaşa were established as a municipality with the same name and it is consisting of the villages and municipalities within the borders of the Tekirdağ Central district. The district of Süleymanpaşa was named after the conqueror of Rumelia, Şehzade Süleyman Pasha, who was the son of Orhan Gazi and made Rumelia permanently Turkish territory.
