Description
Book SynopsisTurks ruled the Middle East for a millennium and eastern Europe for many centuries and it is an undoubted fact that they moulded the lands under their dominion. It is therefore something of a paradox that the history of Turkey and aspects of the identity and role of the Turks, both as Muslims and as an ethnic group, still remain little known in the west and undervalued in the Arabic and Persian-speaking worlds.
This book contributes to historical scholarship on Turkey by focusing on its key foundational myth, the battle of Manzikert in 1071--the Turkish equivalent of the battle of Hastings. Manzikert destroyed the hold of Christian Byzantium on eastern Turkey and opened the whole country to the spread of Islam, a process completed with the fall of Constantinople and Trebizond some four centuries later.
Translations and a close analysis of all the extant Muslim sources--both Arabic and Persian--which deal with the battle of Manzikert are provided in the book. It also looks at these writings as literary works and vehicles of religious ideology and analyses the ongoing confrontation between the Muslim Turks and Christian Europe and the importance of Manzikert in the formation of the modern state of Turkey since 1923.
Trade Review'This original and thought-provoking book operates on several levels ... a captivating read that is a powerful reminder to Western scholars and students of the achievement of Turkish - rather than Arab or Persian - leaders in the history of the Muslim Near East.' -- Jonathan Phillips Times Literary Supplement 'This is a passionate book with an agenda to address the importance of the Turkish contribution to the medieval period ... as well as presenting a superb deconstruction of a historical event in the memory and ideology of centuries of writers.' -- Jonathan Phillips Times Literary Supplement 'This original and thought-provoking book operates on several levels ... a captivating read that is a powerful reminder to Western scholars and students of the achievement of Turkish - rather than Arab or Persian - leaders in the history of the Muslim Near East.' 'This is a passionate book with an agenda to address the importance of the Turkish contribution to the medieval period ... as well as presenting a superb deconstruction of a historical event in the memory and ideology of centuries of writers.'
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations; Comment on Transliteration; Part 1: Medieval Muslim interpretations of the battle; Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: The twelfth -century sources for the battle of Manzikert; Chapter 3: The thirteenth-century sources for the battle of Manzikert; Chapter 4: The fourteenth-century sources for the battle of Manzikert; Chapter 5: Writing the battle; Part 2: The legacy of the battle; Chapter 6: The Islamic legacy of Manzikert - the ongoing Muslim-Christian confrontation; Chapter 7: The heritage of Manzikert: the myth of national identity; Appendix; Bibliography.
