At The Crossroads Of Empires: 14th-15th Century Eastern Anatolia

A compilation of selected papers presented at a conference held in Istanbul in May 2007, treating history, coinage, architecture, and arts of the book. This publication gathers new scholarship about the remote, previously under-researched eastern parts of modern Turkey, from the final decades of Ilkhanid rule to the eve of the Ottoman empire. This is a very complex period and the lack of sources creates a serious handicap for its understanding. Much of the difficulty in dealing with the history of this region originates from its extreme political fragmentation and the rise of numerous local dynasties following the collapse of Mongol power in the mid-14th century. This book shows that cultural life flourished at various local centres despite long periods of political instability and discord in eastern Anatolia as it became embroiled in the ongoing conflicts between such states as the Mamluks and Ilkhanids, and later, the Timurids and Ottomans.--Cover.