The Islamic–Byzantine Frontier in Seljuq Anatolia

This chapter addresses the nature of the Islamic-Byzantine frontier in the thirteenth century– the post-‘Abbasid period before the Ottomans, with the aim, not of describing the frontier, but rather considering how it was perceived from the Seljuq point of view, particularly regarding the role the Byzantine frontier played in the mental worlds of the educated populations of places such as Konya, the Seljuq capital. Muslim Anatolia in the thirteenth century makes an important case study, not only because it was a period of relative stability on the frontier between Byzantium and the Muslims, but also because it is the earliest period to be adequately attested in the Arabic and Persian sources from Anatolia, which barely exist for the first century of Turkish domination. The chapter examines the concept of the frontier in Seljuq texts, accounts of frontier warfare in Seljuq literary texts, concluding that the evidence suggests that, contrary to expectations, at least from the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Islamic-Byzantine frontier was of relatively limited importance to the Islamic side. It was not until the rise of Ottoman power in the fourteenth century that the Islamic frontier with Byzantium would again assume major political and ideological importance.