Where the Middle Ages Begin
Debacle at Manzikert, 1071: Prelude to the Crusades By Brian Carey Medieval History Magazine, Issue 5 (2004) Introduction: The Seljuks, like other Central Asian nomads before them, relied on light cavalry horse archers as their primary means of attack. These Turks proved irresistible on the battlefield, conquering the Muslim states in present day Syria, northern […]
Islamic Frontiers, Real and Imagined By Asa Eger Al-‘Usur al-Wusta. The Bulletin of the Middle East Medievalists, Vol. 17:1 (2005) Introduction: Beginning in the ninth century, Muslim historians, jurists, and geographers frequently discussed the Islamic-Byzantine frontier or al-thughur and al-’awasim provinces primarily as a militarized region, daral-harb. Warriors of the faith, in their view, performed […]
Harran as a Co-existence Centre of various cultural bodies in the 7th-10th c. A.D. Paper by Sinasi Gündüz (Istanbul University) Given at the International Symposium on the Historical Relations Between Arabia, the Greek and Byzantine World (5th century B.C. – 10th century A.D.) on December 7, 2010
Art and Identity in an Amulet Roll from Fourteenth-Century Trebizond By Glenn Peers Church History and Religious Culture, Vol.89:1-3 (2009) Abstract: This article examines a unique survival from the Middle Ages: an amulet roll, now divided between libraries in New York City and Chicago, which now measures approximately 5 m in width and 8–9 cm […]
Conrad III and the Second Crusade in the Byzantine Empire and Anatolia, 1147 By Jason T. Roche PhD Dissertation, University of St Andrews, 2008 Abstract: This thesis aims to revise the established history of the passage of the Second Crusade through the Byzantine Empire and Anatolia in 1147. In particular, it seeks to readdress the […]
The landscape of Cappadocia in central Turkey has been sculpted by centuries of erosion. Christians began to build Churches here as early as the 1st century. One of them is the 12th century Karanlik Church meaning “the dark church” because hardly any light penetrates inside the building. It has original fresco paintings of the time. […]
St. Nicholas Churches in Anatolia and Thrace By Yildiz Ötüken Arkeoloji Dergisi, Vol.1 (1991) Introduction: This paper contains a brief presentation of some of the monasteries and churches dedicated to St. Nicholas In Anatolia and turklsh Thrace. Our work on the subject was based mainly on previous research and a number of travel journals published […]
Procopius on Roman, Persian and Gothic Strategy near Dara and Rome By Christopher Lillington-Martin Lampeter Working Papers in Classics (2008) Abstract: This paper reinterprets Procopius’ descriptions of opposing Roman, Persian and Gothic strategies near Dara in AD 530 and Rome in AD 537-8 by reconsidering evidence pertaining to the location of temporary army camp sites. […]
The Sons of Hagar in Archbishop Eustathios᾽ The Capture of Thessaloniki: Some Evidence Concerning Late Twelfth Century Byzantine-Turkish Relations By Gerasimos A. Merianos Byzantina Symmeikta Vol.17 (1996) Introduction: The Capture of Thessaloniki, Eustathios’ account of the conquest of his archbishopric by the Normans of Sicily (1185), constitutes a significant historical source for the period 1180-1185, […]
The Seljuks of Rum in Turkish Republican Nationalist Historiography By Dogan Gurpinar MA Thesis, Sabanci University, 2004 Abstract: This study investigates how Seljuks of Rum are posited within the Turkish history in the republican era. Although this study had confined itself only to academically oriented studies, rather than being a study of historiography, it tried to display […]
Tilling the Hateful Earth: Agricultural Production and Trade in the Late Antique East By Michael Decker Oxford University Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-0-19-956528-3 This book explores the agrarian landscape and economy of the eastern Mediterranean from modern Israel to Turkey. This region experienced a surge in population between the fifth and sixth centuries AD that raised […]
Archaeology of the countryside in medieval Anatolia By Edited by T. Vorderstrasse and J. Roodenberg Publications de l’Institut historique-archeologique neerlandais de Stamboul, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten/Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), 2009 ISBN: 978-90-6258-324-9 This book is a publication of the acts of a symposium held at the NINO in 2008 on […]
The Great Caliphs: the Golden Age of the ‘Abbasid Empire By Amira K. Bennison IB Tauris, 2009 ISBN: 9781845117375 The flowering of the ‘Abbasid caliphate between 750 and 1258 CE is often considered the classical age of Islamic civilization. In the preceding 120 years, the Arabs had conquered much of the known world of antiquity […]
Church and State in the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, 1198-1375 By Charles A. Frazee Byzantine Studies / Etudes Byzantines, Vol.3:2 (1976) Introduction: Cilcian Armenia had its origins in the eleventh century as a result of the Seljuk Turkish invasion of eastern Anatolia, the Armenian national homeland. Too few in numbers to mount a successful resistance […]
Seljuk Architecture and Urbanism in Anatolia By Ali Uzay Peker European Architectural History Network Newsletter, No. 1 (2008) Introduction: This essay provides a guide to the most important Seljuk sites in the city of Konya and offers an overview of Seljuk history and of Seljuk cities in Anatolia. Seljuk is a general name given to the Turcoman […]
Townscape and Building Complexes in Medieval Western Anatolia under Turkish-Islamic Culture By Çağla Caner Power and culture: Identity, Ideology, Representation, edited by Ann Katherine Isaacs and Guðmundur Hálfdanarson (Pisa University Press, 2007) Abstract: This study aims to explore the contribution of building complexes to urban development and the evolution of important town centres in Western Anatolia between the 14th […]
Agricultural Productivity in Eastern Europe and Western Asia in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries By Metin Coşgel Paper given at Towards a Global History of Prices and Wages (2004) Abstract: This paper provides standardized estimates of labor productivity in arable farming in selected regions of eastern Europe and western Asia during the fifteenth and sixteenth […]
Barbarian Incursions: The Coming of the Turks into the Islamic World By C.E. Bosworth Islamic Civilization, edited by D. S. Richards (Oxford, 1973) Introduction: In considering the role of the Turks in the transitional period of Islamic history – one which merits as much study by orientalists as, for instance, the so-called ‘crisis of the […]
Agricultural Productivity in the Early Ottoman Empire By Metin Cosgel XIV International Economic History Congress (2006) Abstract: This paper provides standardized estimates of labor productivity in arable farming in selected regions of the early Ottoman Empire, including Jerusalem and neighboring districts in eastern Mediterranean; Bursa and Malatya in Anatolia; and Thessaly, Herzegovina, and Budapest in […]
Sixth Century Alania: between Byzantium, Sasanian Iran and the Turkic World By Agustí Alemany Ēran ud Anērān: Studies presented to Boris Ilich Marshak on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, edited by Compareti Matteo, Raffetta Paola and Scarcia Gianroberto (Venice, 2006) Abstract: This paper tries to collect and analyse all available evidence – mainly from Byzantine, Iranian and Arabic sources […]
Chormaqan Noyan, the first Mongol Military Governor in the Middle East By Timothy May MA Thesis, Indiana University (1996) Abstract: In the year 1230, the Mongol Empire was essentially the same size as it had been when Chinggis Khan died in 1227. After Ogodei Khan came to throne, the Mongol Empire expanded at a fairly […]
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