In the first two decades after its conquest, until 1383, the city was the seat of a frontier march ("uç") under Evrenos, confronting the Serbian territories of Macedonia. The walled city continued to be inhabited locals, Gazi Evrenos also brought in Turkish settlers to the countryside around the town to stop any riots . From the prevailingly Ottoman rule toponymy of the area, it appears that the region was largely supported, and subsequent Ottoman censuses show that Muslim Turks quickly became the dominant element in the rural districts around the city. Evrenos also invested in the city as building "masjid" (small mosque), an imaret, bath, and shops outside the city walls, establishing a "waqf" that according to Machiel Kiel became the "nucleus of Islamic life in Western Thrace". The 16th-century geographer Mehmed-i Ashik also mentions a hostel ("imaret") built by Evrenos.