July 29, 1752 Earthquake: Edirne, Istanbul, Turkey

AD 1752 Jul 29, Edirne. There was a destructive earthquake in Thrace, preceded by foreshocks. Much damage was done to houses and public buildings in Edirne, where 100 people were killed. The nearby towns of Havsa and Haskoy were completely ruined, with some loss of life. Some public buildings in Ipsala and Enez were significantly damaged. The shock was felt strongly in Istanbul, and to a lesser degree in Smyrna. There are two contemporary Ottoman narrative accounts for this event - an eye-witness description written from Edirne, and that of a historian written from Istanbul. Both are subsequently sources for a late-nineteenth-century history of Edirne […] The earthquake caused great damage in Edirne: except for the four minarets of the mosque of Sultan Selim, and one each of the Defterdar, Mustafa Pasa and Ibrahim Pasa mosques, all others in the city were demolished or left leaning; many domes fell; houses, shops and walls were ruined […] In Istanbul the shock was strongly felt. The British ambassador was aware of a 'vertical' ground motion followed by three or four strong horizontal shocks directed from northwest to southwest. The only damage was the collapse of a few old houses, but it is said that the shock was followed by a fire in which 57 shops burnt […] The earthquake was widely felt in Smyrna, but it was not strong. European sources grossly exaggerate the loss of life in Istanbul and Edirne, where they say that a few thousand people were killed. In fact, it is said that the death toll was kept down because the earthquake occurred when no one was in mosques. There are no casualty statistics for other places. (reference #9116)

Reference #1071 places the earthquake in Istanbul with a intensity of VI.