The interpretation of Turkish movements into Anatolia during the eleventh and twelfth centuries

Abstract

The entrance of the Turks into Anatolia in the eleventh century marked the beginning of a cultural transformation process which lasted until the fifteenth century, coinciding with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottomans. During the course of four centuries, Anatolia experienced a cultural transformation, i.e. the Turkification of the society through the processes of nomadization and Islamization. Although twentieth-century scholarship has studied the first wave chronologically and thematically, with emphasis placed upon the effects of Turkification on Byzantine society and the policies of the Anatolian Seljuk state, the term "Turk" and the various groups it embraces (Tiirkmen, ghazi, and warrior), as well as the motivating forces inspiring movements into Anatolia, have not been sufficiently examined. After a review of secondary scholarship, the contexts and inherent problems of the sources as reflective of the social milieu of that time period is approached thematically with a chronological treatment of the Byzantine and Armenian sources. The depiction of a nomadic invasion into Anatolia is then contrasted with the jihad-ghaza atmosphere portrayed in the later Turkish epics, The Legend of Dede Korkut and the Danishmendname, which contain discrepancies stemming from their perspective in time.