At the Crossroads of Empires: 14th-15th Century Eastern Anatolia

Varia Anatolica XXV

238 pp, b/w figures, pb, articles in English.

At the Crossroads of Empires: 14th – 15th Century Eastern Anatolia is a compilation of selected papers presented at a conference held in Istanbul in May 2007, treating history, coinage, architecture, and arts of the book. This publication gathers new scholarship about the remote, previously under-researched eastern parts of modern Turkey, from the final decades of Ilkhanid rule to the eve of the Ottoman empire. This is a very complex period and the lack of sources creates a serious handicap for its understanding. Much of the difficulty in dealing with the history of this region originates from its extreme political fragmentation and the rise of numerous local dynasties following the collapse of Mongol power in the mid-14th century. This book shows that cultural life flourished at various local centres despite long periods of political instability and discord in eastern Anatolia as it became embroiled in the ongoing conflicts between such states as the Mamluks and Ilkhanids, and later, the Timurids and Ottomans.

This region, with its fertile lands and wealthy provincial centers, attracted the attention of the greater regional powers based in Egypt-Syria, Iran and western Anatolia. But the mountainous, somewhat harsh topography and considerable geographical distance from the centres of empires made it an area difficult to control from afar. Thus, local rulers and principalities, dependent, semi-dependent, and sometimes autonomous vassals thrived. Except where the Turkmen Aqquyunlu rulers managed to create their own empire, this area was never in the hands of a single dynasty. This picture of various factions is reflected in the artistic material which has no uniform and homogenous artistic style. Various traditions co-exist, so the area might best be defined as a cultural and artistic platform, where ideas circulated, emerged and interacted.

Table of Contents  

• Acknowledgements
• Beyazit, Deniz / At the Crossroads of Empires: 14th – 15th Century Eastern Anatolia

I. History

• Yildiz, Sara Nur / Post-Mongol Pastoral Polities in Eastern Anatolia during the Late Middle Ages
• Peacock, Acs / Between Georgia and the Islamic World: The Atabegs of Samc?xe and the Turks
• Shukurov, Rustam / Foreigners in the Empire of Trebizond (the Case of Orientals and Italians)

II. Coinage

• Sinclair, Tom / Some Conclusions on the Use of Coins on the Ayas-Tabriz Route (Late 13th and First Half of 14th Century A.D.)
• Ilisch, Lutz / Continuity and Transformation of the Lion and Sun Device on Coins of the Jazira
  from the Artuqid to the Safavid State 

III. Architecture

• Schneider, Peter / Research on the Rizk Mosque of Hasankeyf: al-?Adil Sulayman and the Building Activities during his Reign
• Acikyildiz, Birgul / Cultural Interaction between Anatolia and Mosul in the Case of Yezidi Architecture
• Durukan, Aynur  / Aqquyunlu Art in Diyarbakir and its Surroundings
• Mahi, Khalida / Tile Revetments from the 15th Century in Eastern Anatolia: A Problem of Attribution

IV. Arts of the Book

• Ohta, Alison / Turcoman Bindings: Dissemination of Technique and Decoration
• Tanindi, Zeren / The Arts of the Book: Patrons and Interactions in Erzincan between 1365 and 1410