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Graves of the Arabs in Asia Minor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

Among the Mahommedan religious antiquities of Asia Minor the tomb-sanctuaries held to represent the resting-places of Arabs killed during the forays of the viii–ix centuries form a well-marked and extremely interesting group. Their authenticity is on general grounds more than doubtful. The campaigns of the Arabs led to no permanent occupation: the lands they had conquered for the moment were restored to Christendom or fell to alien races. Only in the borderlands, where in times of peace Christian and Moslem might meet on equal terms, can we expect a true tradition regarding Arab graves or a continuous veneration of them to have persisted.

Of these borderland Moslem cults supposed to date back to the Arab period we can point to two examples, the tomb of the ‘sister of Mahommed’ at Tarsus and the tomb of Umm Haram in Cyprus.

The former is mentioned by Willibrand von Oldenburg (1210) as still a place of Moslem pilgrimage under the Christian kings of Armenia. It was situated outside the church of S. (Beatus) Peter and S. Sophia in the middle of the town.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1913

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References

page 182 note 1 Ed. Allatius, Leo, Σύμμικτα, 14Google Scholar:—In angulo quodam extra foris Ecclesiae sepulta est soror Mahomet; cuius tumbam Saraceni in multo petunt ṭimore et devotione. The site of the church in question is said by Langlois to be occupied by the present Djami, Oulou (Cilicie, 317).Google Scholar

page 182 note 2 Strange, Le, E. Caliphate, 133Google Scholar, quoting Masoudi (d. 943). Yakout's lexicon (1225), also quoted, says that the tomb was still to be seen. Both authors probably possessed accurate local information.

page 183 note 1 The Story of Umm Haram in J. R. Asiat. Soc. 1897, 81 ff.

page 183 note 2 Const. Porph., de Them. iii. 40, and Al Baladuri (d. 893 A.D.) cited by Cobham.

page 183 note 3 Armain, Tr. in Martin, Vivien de S., Asie Mineure, ii. 667Google Scholar: (Memlahah) … il y a en cet endroit un tekieh ou couvent de dervichs, dans lequel reposent les reliques d'une sainte dame qui vivait du temps du Prophète. The earlier Turkish geographer Piri Reis (c. 1550, ap. Oberhummer, , Cypern, i. 427)Google Scholar does not mention the tomb in his description of the island.

page 183 note 4 Kootwyck (1619) who describes the salt-lake at length, does not mention the tomb (Cobham, , Exc. Cypr. 191Google Scholar): the earliest foreign notice of it seems to be that of Le Bruyn (1683, loc. cit. 191).

page 183 note 5 Arch. Zeit. 1881, 311.

page 183 note 6 J.H.S. iv. 12.

page 184 note 1 Travels in Cyprus (Cobham's translation), 184.

page 184 note 2 The tekke has been visited by many European travellers: the earliest first-hand account by a western known to me is that of the anonymous author of the (B.M.) Add. MS. 7021 (f. 35). It was known at least by repute to Menavino, (Cose Turchesche (1548), 60).Google Scholar

page 184 note 3 Ramsay, in J.H.S. iii. 119Google Scholar; cf. Hist. Geog. 144.

page 184 note 4 Arch. des Miss. vi. (1896), 446.

page 184 note 5 Un Mois en Phrygie, 89.

page 184 note 6 Barth, H., Reise, 889Google Scholar; Mordtmann, loc. cit.; SirWilson, C. in Murray's, Asia Minor, 144Google Scholar; Ramsay, , Pauline Studies, 168, etc.Google Scholar

page 184 note 7 Byz. Zeit. xix. 106: In der sog. ‘Kirche,’ d. h. dem älteren Teil des Klosters, etc.

page 184 note 8 Khalfa, Hadji, tr. Armain, , in Martin's, Vivien de S.Asie Mineure, ii. 702.Google Scholar

page 184 note 9 Asie Mineure, iv. 213.

page 184 note 10 Loc. cit.

page 185 note 1 Op. cit. 447.

page 185 note 2 Pauline Studies, 168 and elsewhere.

page 185 note 3 Rambaud, , Etudes Byz. 79.Google Scholar

page 185 note 4 Sidi Battal had at least two other Christian wives, a daughter of the Emperor and a daughter of his vizier Akrates (probably Akritas himself); cf. Ethé, , Sayyid Batthâl, 99, 100.Google Scholar

page 185 note 5 The father of Ala-ed-din, for instance, married a Christian woman (Sarre, , Reise, 39 f.Google Scholar).

page 185 note 6 Pp. 213 ff. This relation does not form part of the romance proper, to which we shall return. Other Turkish sources are quoted by Mordtmann, A. D. (Gelehrte Anzeigen d. bayr. Akad. 1860, 260295Google Scholar, and Σύλλογος Κ ᾿ πόλεως Παράρτημα τοῦ θ᾿ τόμον xiv ff.).

page 186 note 1 A renegade family established in Bithynia under the early Ottoman sultans.

page 186 note 2 Probably about 1534, the year of the emperor's visit to the tomb on his way to Bagdad (Hammer-Hellert, , Hist. Emp. Ott. v. 212Google Scholar).

page 186 note 3 Wann sie Krieg fürnemmen, so rüffen vnd schreyen sie zu dem Sedichassi dem Heyligen der Victori und dess Siegs … Soll begraben liegen auff den Grentzen Othomannorum und Caramannorum (Breuning, , Orient. Reyss. (1579), 106Google Scholar). The convent was by this time already in the hands of the Bektashi, (cf. J. R. Asiat. Soc. 1907, 568)Google Scholar, who were intimately associated with the Janissaries.

page 186 note 4 Visited by Radet, and Fougères, in 1886 (see map in Arch. des Miss. vi. 1895).Google Scholar

page 186 note 5 ‘With Al Battal was killed Malikh the son of Shu'aib’ (Kitab AlUyun (xi cent.) ap. Brooks, in J.H.S. xviii. 202Google Scholar).

page 186 note 6 The tekkes of Melik Ghazi (1) in the Kale Dagh near Sarimsakli (R. Kiepert's map, section Kaisarieh) and (2) at Niksar in Pontus (Evliya, , Travels, tr. von Hammer, ii. 18, 104Google Scholar, Cumont, , Stud. Pont. ii. 261Google Scholar) are probably to be connected with the Danishmend prince ofthat name (1106–1113), but the legend current at Niksar suggests contamination with the Arab cycle.

page 186 note 7 Karadja Hissar according to Radet (op. cit. 515).

page 187 note 1 For the adventures of Sidi Battal see the authorities cited by Mordtmann (loc. cit.) and especially the canonised version of the romance, a Turkish composition of the xiv–xv century based on an Arabic original, translated by Ethé, (Fahrten des Sayyid Batthâl, Leipzig, 1871).Google Scholar

page 187 note 2 The historical Sidi Battal appears from the Arab sources (Brooks, , J.H.S. xix. 26Google Scholar) to have been present at this siege.

page 187 note 3 It is this princess who is buried beside the hero.

page 187 note 4 Oberhummer, in Meyer's, Konstantinopel, 332.Google Scholar

page 187 note 5 Hamilton, , Asia Minor, ii. 99.Google Scholar

page 187 note 6 Ramsay, and Bell, , Thousand and One Churches, 435.Google Scholar

page 187 note 7 Hadji Khalfa, tr. Armain, 676; cf. Le Strange, , E. Caliphate, 146.Google Scholar

page 187 note 8 Le Strange, op. cit. 152; cf. Cuinet, , Asie Mineure, i. 332.Google Scholar

page 187 note 9 Hadji Khalfa, 660. So Digenes has at least three tombs, near Trebizond, in Crete, and in Karpathos, and other memorials in Cyprus and Crete (Polites, , Παραδόσεις, i. 73, 74, 118–122, 131Google Scholar), while the historical Christian conqueror of Crete from the Arabs, Sarandapechys, multiplies to such an extent that his name becomes a generic word for a giant.

page 187 note 10 Evliya, tr. von Hammer, i2, 78.

page 188 note 1 Evliya, tr. von Hammer, i2, 78.

page 188 note 2 Ethé, op. cit. 89.

page 188 note 3 Tr. Armain, 678.

page 188 note 4 Murray's, Asia Minor, 20.Google Scholar

page 188 note 5 Evliya, ii. 228; there is now a turbe only, administered by the Bairami dervishes of Angora (Perrot, , Galatie, i. 283Google Scholar).

page 188 note 6 Ainsworth, , Travels, i. 157Google Scholar; cf. Barth, , Reise, 74, 78.Google Scholar Schumas (sic) figures in the romance (Ethé, loc. cit. 21) as a monk converted by Battal.

page 188 note 7 Wilson, , in Murray's, Asia Minor, 36.Google Scholar

page 188 note 8 (F. W. H.)

page 188 note 9 Cuinet, , Asie Mineure, i. 166.Google Scholar

page 188 note 10 Khitab al ‘Uyun ap. Brooks, in J.H.S. xviii. 200Google Scholar: the death of Abd-el-Wahab is place under the next year by Al Tabari (d. 923, ibid.).

page 188 note 11 Ethé, ob. cit. 7.

page 188 note 12 Ibid. 57; cf. Evliya, i. 27.

page 188 note 13 Ibid. 37, etc.

page 189 note 1 Le Strange, , E. Caliphate, 153.Google Scholar

page 189 note 2 Ethé, op. cit. 11.

page 189 note 3 Tr. Sanguinetti, ii. 277.

page 189 note 4 Tr. Sangninetti, ii. 349. Cf. Evliya, ii. 38.

page 189 note 5 Le Strange, , Palestine, 272.Google Scholar

page 189 note 6 The beginnings of a Battal myth were recognised in our own times by Barth, (Reise, 153)Google Scholar between Yuzgat and Caesarea, where a historical person of the reign of Murad IV (1623–40) bearing the title of Battal was already becoming confused with the legendary hero.

page 189 note 7 Brooks, Ap. in J.H.S. xxi. 76.Google Scholar

page 189 note 8 A real burial gives a similar claim. It was not without such an intention that the Caliph Mamoun was buried in the frontier town of Tarsus (Le Strange, , E. Caliphate, 132–3Google Scholar).

page 190 note 1 Hammer-Hellert, , Hist. Emp. Ott. ii. 595Google Scholar (who aptly compares the finding of the Sacred Lance by the Crusaders before Antioch); cf. Evliya, i2. 35. The occurrence is not mentioned, however, by any contemporary authority for the siege (Mordtmann, , Belägerung K'pels, 111Google Scholar), and probably took place shortly after. (So Cantemir tr. Joncquières, i. 106; d'Ohsson, , Tableau, i. 305.)Google Scholar A modern version of the story is told by Adamson, S. in Harper's (June, 1913, 30 ff.)Google Scholar in which, as in the case of the tombs of Umm Haram and Sidi Battal, the first discovery of the sanctity of the site is attributed to shepherds.

page 190 note 2 Hammer-Hellert, , Hist. Emp. Ott. v. 221.Google Scholar

page 190 note 3 The cult of Houlfet Ghazi at Amasia (Cumont, , Stud. Pont. ii. 169Google Scholar) is probably based on no more than the discovery of the (ancient) sarcophagus in which the hero is said to rest. Similarly in Karpathos two ancient sarcophagi are supposed to be those of Digenes Akritas and his wife (Polites, , Παραδόσεις, i. 122Google Scholar).