MEDIEVAL TURKEY

Transcription

1 HIS 508:410 Fall 2014 T Th 4:30-5:50 PM, MU 208 Tuna Artun tuna.artun@rutgers.edu Office hours: M Th 11:00 AM 12:30 PM Van Dyck 002A MEDIEVAL TURKEY Asia Minor was historically one of the most populous and important regions of the Mediterranean World from classical antiquity to the early modern period. Between the late eleventh and the early fifteenth centuries of the Common Era, this vital region connecting Western Asia with Europe underwent a number of profound transformations--perhaps most importantly, a predominantly Turkish-speaking and Muslim society emerged where the populace had once been largely Greek-speaking and Orthodox Christian. Our course will trace this and other social, political, and economic changes that contributed to the creation of Turkey in the late medieval period. Readings. Required: Course reader, available on SAKAI. Please note that the readings marked below with (*) are primary sources. [Highly] Recommended: Claude Cahen, The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rum: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Evaluation. There will be two scheduled quizzes: one map quiz and a vocabulary quiz that will require you to provide a definition (one to two sentences) for important historical individuals, places, events, or concepts. The participation grade is a combination of your degree of involvement in class discussions and in one of the two scenarios that will be played out (in class) during the fourteenth week. The midterm exam will be a combination of short essay questions and vocabulary questions similar to the second quiz. The final paper is a research paper (10-12 pages), which will require you to bring together both primary sources and secondary literature. The grading breakdown for the course is as follows: Map quiz: 5% Midterm: 30% Vocabulary quiz: 5% Final paper: 35% Participation: 25% Important note on the use of electronics. The use of laptops, netbooks, and tablets of all sorts is prohibited during class. Please make sure to bring a notebook for taking notes! 1

2 Week 1 T Sept 2: Introduction: Turks and Asia Minor in World History. Th Sept 4: Turkic Peoples and the Islamic World, ca Readings: Peter Golden, Central Asia in World History, pp ; Svat Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, pp and Week 2 T Sept 9: The Great Seljuks. Readings: Soucek, pp ; (*) excerpt from al-ṭurtūshī, Sirāj al-mulūk. Th Sept 11: Byzantine Asia Minor in the Eleventh Century. Readings: Speros Vryonis Jr., The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor, pp Week 3 T Sept 16: Seljuks of Rum and the Danishmendids. Readings: C. Cahen, The Formation of Turkey, pp. 7-20; (*) Battalname, pp. 1-3; *Map quiz* Th Sept 18: The Emergence of Tourkia: Sociocultural Change and Continuity. Readings: Vryonis, pp , Week 4 T Sept 23: Deus Vult: Crusaders, Byzantines, and the Turks. Readings: S. Runciman, The First Crusade, pp ; (*) Robert the Monk, The speech of Urban II at Clermont, 1095; (*) Two accounts of the siege of Nicaea. Th Sept 25: Franks in the Levant, ca Readings: Donald Nicole, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, pp ; Angold, The Byzantine Empire, pp ; (*) Excerpts from the autobiography of Usamah ibn Munqidh. Week 5 T Sept 30: The Komnenian Restoration. Readings: Michael Angold, The Byzantine Empire: A Political History, pp ; (*) Anna Komnene, Alexiad, Books II & III. 2

3 Th Oct 2: Court Culture in the Twelfth Century: The Seljukids and Komnenoi. Readings: Margaret Mullett, Tented Ceremony: Ephemeral Performances under the Komnenoi in Court Ceremonies and ritual Power in Byzantium and the Medieval Mediterranean, pp ; A.C.S. Peacock, Court and Nomadic Life in Saljuk Anatolia in Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City-Life, pp ; Rustam Shukuruv, Harem Christianity: The Byzantine Identity of Seljuk Princes in The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East, pp Week 6 T Oct 7: The Latin Conquest of Constantinople. Readings: Angold, The Byzantine Empire, pp ; (*) Niketas Choniates, The Sack of Constantinople. Th Oct 9: Religion and Politics: Orthodoxy and Catholicism in the Levant. Readings: Angold, The Byzantine Empire, pp ; Angold, Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, pp ; (*) The excommunication of Patriarch Michael of Constantinople, Week 7 T Oct 14: A New Status Quo: The Rum Seljuks and Laskarids. Readings: David M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, pp ; Cahen, Pre- Ottoman Turkey, pp Th Oct 16: Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce in Late Medieval Asia Minor. Readings: Cahen, Pre-Ottoman Turkey, pp ; (*) Testament of Maximos for the Monastery of the Mother of God at Skoteine near Philadelphia. Week 8 T Oct 21: Mongols in the Middle East. Readings: George E. Lane, Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran: A Persian Renaissance, pp ; (*) The Death of the Last Abbasid Caliph: A Contemporary Muslim Account; (*) The conversion of Özbeg Khan to Islam from Ötemish Hajji, Ta rikh-i Dust Sultan. Th Oct 23: Mid-term Exam [in class] Week 9 T Oct 28: Asia Minor under Ilkhanid domination and the end of Rum Seljuk rule. Readings: Cahen, The Formation of Turkey, pp

4 Th Oct 30: Muslim Culture and Religious Life in Late Medieval Asia Minor. Readings: C. Cahen, Pre-Ottoman Turkey, pp ; A.C.S. Peacock, Sufis and the Seljuk Court in Mongol Anatolia: Politics and Patrnage in the Works of Jalal al-din Rumi and Sultan Walad ; (*) A dispute between the Greeks and Chinese, excerpt from the Mathnawi of Rumi. Week 10 T Nov 4: Turkoman Principalities in Western Asia Minor I: Background and Formation. Readings: Cahen, The Formation of Turkey, pp ; Donald Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, pp ; (*) Ibn Battutta in Asia Minor. Th Nov 6: Turkoman Principalities in Western Asia Minor II: Later History and Legacy. Readings: Elizabeth Zachariadou, The Emirate of Karasi and that of the Ottomans: Two Rival States in The Ottoman Emirate, pp ; Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, pp Week 11 T Nov 11: Society in Medieval Pontos: A Unique Case? Readings: Anthony Bryer, Greeks and Turkmens: The Pontic Exception, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 29, pp ; (*) Excerpts from the Codex E of the Monastery of St. John Prodromos on Mount Vazelon. *Vocabulary quiz* Th Nov 13: The Black Sea World. Readings: Charles King, The Black Sea: A History, pp Week 12 T Nov 18: The House of Osman. Readings: Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, pp. 4-13; (*) Gregory Palamas among the Turks, Speculum 26, no.1. Th Nov 20: Raiders or Holy Warriors? Readings: Paul Wittek, The Warriors for the Faith in the Ottoman State in The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, pp ; Heath Lowry, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, pp. 5-13; Cemal Kafadar, Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State, pp

5 Week 13 T Nov 25: The Unification of Rum, ca Readings: Imber, pp ; (*) Excerpts from the Letters of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. Th Nov 27: [Thanksgiving] Week 14 T Dec 2: Th Dec 4: Class Project I Class Project II Week 15 T Dec 9 Turks and Rumis Readings: Cemal Kafadar, A Rome of One s Own: Reflections on Cultural Geography and Identity in the Lands of Rum Muqarnas 24 (2007), pp