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medieval worlds • no. 14 • 2021
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at |
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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medieval worlds • no. 14 • 2021, pp. 179-207, 2021/12/01
In 1502 or 1503 Kemāl paşa-zāde (d. 1534), also known as Ibn-i Kemāl, the future Şeyh’ül-İslam (chief Muslim judge) under Sulaymān the Magnificent, described the world of Byzantium which the Ottomans had conquered. There, he reproduced the realia of the »fortress past« of the Ottomans. Ibn-i Kemāl described Byzantium as a commonwealth of fortresses, each headed by a tekvur (»emperor«), which was at odds with historical accuracy. This pointed to the period of the second half of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century as a time of transition, when the cities in the frontier zone in Anatolia were sometimes reduced to the size of a fortress, and their inhabitants were forced to find a new location. The extant tales about the initial fortress, from which a new state formation (beylik) had begun, and the stories about the conquests of the chain of neighboring fortresses, per se reflected the growing importance of the small cities as chief colonization centers in the boundary zone in Asia Minor. The vision of the »fortresses’ past«, still remembered at the time of Sulaymān the Magnificent, even affected the imperial aspirations of the Ottomans and their self-representation as the new masters of the conquered lands.
Keywords: Ottomans, Byzantium, Karamanoğulları, Karamanids, Asia Minor, Ak-koyunlu, Sulaymān the Magnificent, Ibn Kemal, Bender inscription, Cilician Armenia