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The Menderes Massif of western Turkey is a key area to study feedback relationships between magma generation/emplacement and activation of extensional detachment tectonics. Here, we present new textural analysis and in situ U–(Th)–Pb titanite dating from selected samples collected in the transition from the undeformed to the mylonitized zones of the Salihli granodiorite at the footwall of the Neogene, ductile-to-brittle, top-to-the-NNE Gediz–Alaşheir (GDF) detachment fault. Ductile shearing was accompanied by the fluid-mediated sub-solidus transformation of the granodiorite to orthogneiss, which occurred at shallower crustal levels and temperatures compatible with the upper greenschist-to-amphibolite facies metamorphic conditions (530–580 °C and P < 2 GPa). The syn-tectonic metamorphic overgrowth of REE-poor titanite on pristine REE-rich igneous titanite offers the possibility to constrain the timing of magma crystallisation and solid-state shearing at the footwall of the Gediz detachment. The common Pb corrected 206 Pb/ 238 U ( 206 Pb*/ 238 U) ages and the REE re-distribution in titanite that spatially correlates with the Th/U zoning suggests that titanite predominantly preserve open-system ages during fluid-assisted syn-tectonic re-crystallisation in the transition from magma crystallization and emplacement (at ~ 16–17 Ma) to the syn-tectonic, solid-state shearing (at ~ 14-15 Ma). A minimum time lapse of ca. 1–2 Ma is then inferred between the crustal emplacement of the Salihli granodiorite and nucleation of the ductile extensional shearing along the Gediz detachment. The reconstruction of the cooling history of the Salihli granodiorite documents a punctuated evolution dominated by two episodes of rapid cooling, between ~ 14 Ma and ~ 12 Ma (~ 100 °C/Ma) and between ~ 3 and ~ 2 Ma (~ 105 °C/Ma). We relate the first episode to nucleation and development of post-emplacement of ductile shearing along the GDF and the second to brittle high-angle faulting, respectively. Our dataset suggests that in the Menderes Massif the activation of ductile extension was a consequence, rather than the cause, of magma emplacement in the extending crust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]