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Ghazis, roads and trade in north-west Anatolia 1179–1291

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Ian Booth
Ian Booth*
Affiliation:
Sussex
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Abstract

This article shows that parts of the late antique road system in north-west Anatolia were sometimes closed between 1179 and 1291, due to unsettled conditions, and that alternatives were in use. The alternative road from Herakleia Pontica to Kastamonu went via Çaycuma and Daday and that to Ankara via Eskişehir. Both Christian and Muslim border raiders existed in the area and may have caused these closures. They sometimes acted together but their importance is unclear since conditions were also both politically and militarily unstable. The article concludes that the Muslim raiders were not ghazis, as has been thought.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , 2007 , pp. 127 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2007

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References

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