 While Turkish sources track the emergence of the term to the 14th century when two separate parts of the city were controlled by two different powers, the upper İzmir being Muslim and the lower part of the city Christian.During the late 19th and early 20th century, the city was an important financial and cultural center of the Greek world.Out of the 391 factories 322 belonged to local Greeks, while 3 out of the 9 banks were backed by Greek capital.