Workshop "New Research on Seljuk Anatolia"

at IFEA

closed to inscription

Scholarship on Seljuk Anatolia (c. 1081-1307) has been dominated till recently by the figures of Claude Cahen and Osman Turan, whose work envisaged the region as, respectively, a 'little Iran' and as a predecessor to the Ottoman and Republican states of Turkey. Yet scholarship on the broader Middle East has often neglected or sidelined the Seljuks of Anatolia, largely as a result of a perception of a limited source base. This workshop presents the results of recent research on the Seljuks of Anatolia by both scholars from within and outside Turkey, bringing to light new sources and interpretations from both literary and art historical perspectives. It will therefore suggest ways in which fresh approaches of interpretation and the exploitation of hitherto unknown or undervalued sources can refine and indeed change our understanding of the history of the period, and the intertwined nature of its Islamic, Iranian, Byzantine and Armenian cultural traditions.

David Durand-Guédy (independent scholar, Tehran): The munshaʾat produced in Seljuk Anatolia: state-of-the-art and perspectives.

Osmangazi Özgüdenli (Marmara University) : The Persian poems of the Seljuk sultans of Anatolia.

Andrew Peacock (University of St Andrews/ANAMED): The Persian Courtly Literature of Seljuk Anatolia Revisited: The Manuscripts of the Anis al-Qulub.

Break (around 3.30 pm)

Suzan Yalman (Koç University) The Sultan's Favorite? Amir Ayaz in Rum Seljuk Anatolia.

Rachel Goshgarian (Lafayette College): The Carved Wooden Doors of the Armenian Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Muş (known as Mšo Sultan Surb Karapet) - or, What Was Going On in Muş in the Thirteenth Century?

Oya Pancaroglu (Bogazici University): Shahmaran, the benevolent serpent: the trajectory of an extraordinary creature from eastern Iran to Anatolia.