of northeastern tracks to Erzurum, On Ancient Tracks in Eastern the Caucasus and Iran. Anatolia The diagonal was the spine of Frank Harold the system, its most ancient University of Washington, Seattle (USA) element and the only one that Photographs by Ruth Harold continued to function through the turbulent centuries of the Arab and Turkish conquests. Portions of Glance at a map, and you are apt in Ottoman times, thanks in the the diagonal paralleled the Royal to see the Anatolian peninsula as first place to the scholarly labors Road of Achaemenid times, which a bridge that links Asia with of Franz Taeschner eighty years linked Susa in the foothills of the Europe; and it has served that ago (Taeschner 1924-1926), and Zagros Mountains with Sardis near purpose many times, most notably there is every reason to believe the Aegean shore. Roman, in giving passage to the Turks. that those routes recapitulate in Byzantine and later Arab armies Look more closely, and you will outline (albeit not in detail) trails marched that way. For the notice that Anatolia is corrugated in use for centuries before. The Ottomans, the diagonal served as with mountains, the eastern map of the trade routes in the 17th the military road that connected portion in particular, and makes for century [Fig. 1] has been Istanbul with the important rough traveling. Eastern Anatolia simplified so as to highlight the seaports of Tarsus, Adana and has always been remote country, chief overland tracks and their Payas. When Sultan Selim (“The the frontier between empires and connections with the high roads Grim”) set out in 1514 CE to annex home to fractious and inde- of Iran and the Arab lands. eastern Anatolia, his army pendent-minded peoples; and so Several branches, deviations and followed that well-trodden track all it remains today. connectors have been omitted for the way to Eregli before turning clarity. To make sense of the northeast for Sivas, Erzurum and Such were the hazards of travel Anatolian road-net, think of three the Iranian frontier (Taeschner out there that long-distance major cords: the diagonal route, 1924). In early Ottoman times traders preferred the sea-lanes linking Istanbul to Tarsus (Adana), merchant caravans, too, relied on across the eastern Mediterranean Antakya, Damascus and ultimately the military road, but with the whenever possible. In Roman and to Mecca in faraway Arabia; a return of centralized government early Byzantine times, for central route passing through trade reverted to the more direct instance, a bolt of silk might make Sivas, Malatya and Diyarbakir en central route to the east. Yet the its way overland from one oasis route to Mosul and then to Basra diagonal lost none of its to the next all the way from China, on the Persian Gulf; and a skein significance, for it carried the Hajj, but would probably travel the final leg of its journey by sea. It would Map © 2007 Frank & Ruth Harold first be carried on camelback across the Syrian Desert to Antioch (today Antakya, in Turkey’s Hatay); or perhaps skirt the desert to the north via Nisibis (Nusaybin) and Edessa (now Sanliurfa, or plain Urfa); and then it would be loaded aboard a ship bound for Rome or Constan- tinople. For much of that period, eastern Anatolia was a zone of conflict between Romans and Parthians, Byzantines and Sassanians, with Kurds and Armenians thrown in. All the same, established trade routes did traverse those highlands, and when the sea-lanes turned unsafe or the tolls too high the caravan tracks came into their own. We are quite well informed about the Anatolian trade routes Fig 1. Towns and trade routes of Anatolia in the 17th century.
59 the annual pilgrim caravan from state in earlier centuries, when its Anatolia until they were mas- Istanbul to Mecca. trade routes formed part of that sacred and expelled at the larger net that we designate as the beginning of the 20th century. The central route, well Silk Road. The Anatolian silk trade established in Byzantine times, led The ancient Christian kingdom goes well back into classical times. through settled country with of Armenia, intermittently in- For example, despite the frequent ancient and populous cities such dependent, lay astride the trade wars that pitted the Byzantine as Amasiya (classical Amaseia) routes of eastern Anatolia, from Empire against Sassanian Iran, and Sivas (Sebaste). Turning more the Pontic Alps in the north to Lake the Emperor Justinian I was to the south, it passed through Van in the south. Armenia reached pleased to negotiate a treaty that Malatya (Melitene), Diyarbakir its zenith of power and prosperity designated fixed ports of entry (Amida) and Mardin, towns that in the 10th and 11th centuries, as where silk could be purchased later came to mark and defend the the ruins of its capital city Ani (a from Persian merchants: Nisibis frontier of Byzantium. The route few miles from Kars) still attest. (Nusaybin) on the Syrian plain, crossed onto the Syrian plain at The safest route between Erzurum Raqqa on the Euphrates River and Nusaybin (Nisibis), and then and Iran passed through Ani, and Artaxa on the Aras, near modern followed the river Dicle (Tigris) the city continued to flourish even Yerevan (Boulnois 2004). south to Baghdad and the Gulf. after its capture, first by the Byzantines and then by the Seljuk The Byzantine port city of The northeastern route Turks (1064 CE). The 13 th century, Trebizond (modern Trabzon) holds branched off at Sivas and marched however, brought misfortune: the a prominent place in the annals of eastward to the frontier strong- Mongol conquest, a devastating Anatolian trade. We learn of a hold of Erzurum (Theodosiopolis; earthquake and eventually the Sogdian embassy in 509 CE, which the contemporary name comes realignment of the trade routes traveled there overland from from the Arabic for “Land of the southward. Ani was not destroyed Central Asia via the Volga River Romans”). But east of Erzurum in war, but rather abandoned by and clear around the Caucasus the country grows wilder, and the its inhabitants in the 14th century. Mountains, with the object of by- information sparser. Taeschner is They left behind the imposing and passing the rapacious Persians by of no help here, for his inquiries evocative shells of churches, establishing direct commercial stopped at Erzurum. Fig.1, drawn palatial houses and vast defensive links with Constantinople. The from several sources (Le Strange walls. 1905; Brice 1981; TAVO 1994), Emperor responded with a mission shows two main routes. One ran of his own, but little came of it at The Mongols get a bad press and through Ani (near today’s Kars), the time (Boulnois 2004). A deservedly so, for wherever the down the valley of the Aras River, century later, the situation hordes galloped they left little but past Yerevan to Tabriz in Iran; the changed dramatically. The Muslim smoking ruins in their wake. other corresponds to what is today armies burst out of Arabia, Baghdad was sacked and burnt in the main road, from Erzurum via overwhelmed Sassanian Iran, 1258 CE, and the Abbasid Dogubeyazit to Tabriz. Some maps drove the Byzantines out of the Caliphate collapsed in chaos. Yet show a third route, from Erzurum lowlands (contemporary Syria and subsequent Mongol Khans ruled southeast to Lake Van and on to Iraq), and disrupted the familiar an empire that stretched from Tabriz, but this has been omitted sea-lanes. The caravans were China to Syria, peaceful and as the mountain crossing appears forced northward, reaching orderly and hospitable to to have been a minor track. Note Trebizond from Central Asia either commerce. Eastern Anatolia was also the spur that leads from by way of northern Iran or else open to traffic as never before. Erzurum northwest to the port of around both the Caspian Sea and Marco Polo is only the best known th Trabzon (ancient Trebizond) on the the Caucasus. Trebizond in the 8 of the travelers who passed this th Black Sea. In practice, trade through 10 centuries was a major way, riding from Sivas to Tabriz routes from Iran and Central Asia transit port, where silk, paper, and clear across Iran to Hormuz were likely to terminate at perfumes and spices from eastern on the Gulf in 1271 CE, on his way Trabzon, from where goods were lands were exchanged for western to the court of the Great Khan. It shipped to the capital by sea. linens, woolens, medicinal sub- is not altogether clear just where stances and especially gold and the high road then ran, for Marco By the 17th century CE the glory silver coins. Incidentally, those Polo’s account is quite vague. days of the caravan trade were were not camel caravans: mules However, Marco’s failure to long past, and the protracted and donkeys were preferred for mention either Ani or Lake Van, warfare between the Ottoman the stony tracks of Anatolia. The coupled with his specific Sultans and the Safavid Shahs of carrying trade was chiefly in the description of Mount Ararat, Iran had left eastern Anatolia hands of the Armenians, who suggest that he may have passed impoverished and depopulated. played a large role in the not far from today’s Dogubeyazit. The country was in much better commercial and cultural life of Trebizond continued to flourish as
60 the chief port for trade between its prime attractions, yet facilities offshoot of Shiism, with their own Constantinople and Khanbalik for visitors are entirely adequate unique beliefs and places of (contemporary Beijing). It even and for the time being the country worship). Of ancient Antioch little enjoyed a spell of autumnal glory is quiet. The map [Fig. 2] shows remains above ground, apart from in the 13th and 14th centuries, our itinerary for a three-week the superb mosaics displayed in when it was the capital of a journey in the spring of 2006. We the local museum; they come diminutive independent empire arranged it as a private trip from Daphne, once a wealthy that left us the Byzantine monu- through Geographic Expeditions suburb in the foothills of the ments that visitors come to (geoEx.com), with our own vehicle Ammanus Mountains. An hour’s admire. Annexed to the Ottoman (quite indispensable). Our guide, drive away are the ruins of Empire in 1461 and renamed, driver, and mentor was Serdar Seleucia ad Piera, Antioch’s port Trabzon remained a significant Akerdem, an archaeologist and in classical times until silting port and provincial capital, where native of the region, intimately rendered it unusable. crown princes were sent to learn familiar with its places and peoples the art of governing. But with the (not to mention the local deli- decline of the caravan trade it lost cacies); we could not have wished Gaziantep is a prosperous and its pre-eminence as the seaport for better company. forward-looking city of about a of Inner Asia. million, which boasts a medieval * * * Adana is a large commercial city citadel and an archaeological Travelers to Eastern Turkey leave of little antiquarian interest. But museum dedicated to the mar- behind the celebrated Greek and Antakya is the ancient Antioch, velous Roman mosaics recovered Roman ruins, the mosques and one of the four great cities of the from the ruins of Zeugma on the palaces of the Ottoman Sultans, classical world (with Rome, Euphrates River. A major crossing and also the swarms of tourists. Constantinople and Alexandria), and the staging post for military Instead, they can savor an older and a terminus of those branches expeditions eastward, Zeugma Turkey: slower, traditional in dress of the Silk Road that traversed or was destroyed by the Sassanians and manners, intensely Muslim, skirted the Syrian Desert [Fig. 1]. in 252 CE; the site is now largely conservative and ethnically Antakya today is a lively and drowned by the lake rising behind diverse. On these marches of the livable city with a Mediterranean the Birecik Dam. Gaziantep is also Ottoman Empire, the minorities ambience, ethnically as much Arab the starting point for an excursion come to the fore: Syrian as Turkish. Christians, Muslims to the castle of Rumkale, whose Christians, Alevis, Armenians, and Alevis mingle in the streets ruins brood over those same Kurds, Georgians. The remote- in apparent amity (Alevis are a waters. Rumkale is quite ness of eastern Anatolia is one of somewhat secretive sect, an accessible but not mentioned in any of the guidebooks that we
Map © 2007 Frank & Ruth Harold have consulted, and well worth a detour for that reason alone. About 30 km northeast of Gaziantep is the small town of Halfeti, half-drowned by the waters, where one hires a boat for the short journey upstream. The castle consists of a large fortified enclosure atop a narrow rocky ridge, bounded by cliffs and reinforced with walls; at its base, a great fosse cut into the rock makes Rumkale an island in the sky. Fortunately, a placard in English supplies the basic facts: built by the Byzantines, occupied by Arabs and then Crusaders, sold to the Armenian Kingdom of Little Cilicia which made it a bishopric as well as a citadel, later held by the Mamelukes and at last taken by the Ottomans. The ruins of a church and of several monasteries date to the Armenian phase (12th Fig 2. Itinerary of a journey in eastern Anatolia, spring 2006. – 13th centuries CE).
61 Still on the western hold in the endless wars side of the Euphrates is against the Sassanians of the astonishing funerary Iran; the modern name extravaganza of Nemrut comes from the Arabic Dagh. In the first century (“Home of the Bakr” B.C.E. this region made tribe). Subsequently, the up the independent fortress was held by kingdom of Commagene, Seljuks, Turkomans and which grew rich on its Ottomans. All of them fertile soil and on the contributed to the massive proceeds of trade along black walls that still ring the route that skirted the most of the old city. Syrian desert [Fig. 1]. Within are narrow, King Antiochus I (64 – crowded streets, a bazaar, Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold 38 BCE) had himself Fig. 4. A coppersmith in the bazaar, Urfa. mosques, churches and buried beneath a gigantic Hans built of bands of tumulus atop Mount Nemrut at Romans and Byzantines held it black and white stone (you can 7100 feet; terraces flanking the and the Crusaders made it the stay in one, converted into a tumulus bore statues of the king County of Edessa; much of the hotel). Diyarbakir has long since and his relations, including Zeus citadel is thought to date to their burst the confines of its ancient and Herakles, whose heads now reign. Urfa was destroyed by the walls; now a city of more than two stand on the ground. The kingdom Mongols in 1260 CE, and never million, swollen with refugees did not long outlast the king: really recovered; Commagene was annexed by it was absorbed Rome, and the sanctuary on the into the Ottoman mountaintop lay utterly forgotten Empire in the 17th until rediscovered by a German century. Urfa’s surveyor in 1881. bazaar is a wonder, a maze Once across the Euphrates River of alleys, court- we are fairly into eastern Anatolia, yards and old and there is no better place to Hans, where savor Turkey in the Middle East craftsmen still than the ancient city of Sanliurfa ply their trades (usually called by its old name, [Fig. 4], and a Urfa). Memories are long in a visitor catches place that can trace its history glimpses of an back for 3500 years, and tradition earlier day when has it that that Urfa was the caravans birthplace of Abraham; pilgrims traveled from come here in droves to pray at here to Aleppo Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold Abraham’s cave, and to feed the and Baghdad. Fig. 5. A view of Mardin. carp in the sacred pool [Fig. 3]. Alexander conquered Urfa, Heading east we enter basaltic displaced by the civil war of the lands, harsh and ‘nineties, Turkey’s ethnic tensions poor. This is are palpable here even to the most largely Kurdish innocent of travelers. country, and Diyarbakir is their Mardin has charm to enhance its capital. Here is interest, and will be a highlight on another city of any tour of eastern Turkey. The almost town extends in tiers along the unimaginable slope of a steep hill; stairs and antiquity, whose narrow alleys, buttressed with foundations go arches, connect one level to the back nearly 4000 next [Fig. 5]. The summit is years. In Roman crowned by a large fortress, and Byzantine unfortunately a military zone and
Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold times it was closed to visitors, which held off Fig. 3. Pilgrims at the sacred pool, Urfa. Amida, a strong- the fearsome Mongols in the 13th
62 not be out of place in nearby Iran Van is an ancient place, but the [Fig. 6]; it will be drowned if the old town was completely de- planned dam is built. stroyed in the fighting of 1915. What survives is the Castle of Van Continuing eastward we leave on its whaleback of a rock, the last echoes of the Medi- crowned with ruins that reach terranean world, cross the high from the Urartian period to the Taurus Range and climb onto the Ottoman. In the surroundings are Anatolian plateau. Lake Van, a number of Urartian sites, and my surrounded by snowy peaks, is
Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold Ruth 2006 © Photo personal Ultima Thule: the Kurdish wild and lonesome. Historically, all castle of Hoshap on the high this country was occupied by mountain road into Iran [Fig. 8]. Armenians who were violently Truck drivers love Hoshap; gas is driven out between 1915 and uncommonly cheap there, just 1918; most of the inhabitants don’t expect a receipt. today are Kurds. The numerous Armenian churches in the hills are From Van northward the road falling to pieces, but one exception traverses bleak but magnificent Fig. 6. The 15th-century tomb- is the splendid Akhtamar church volcanic country to the frontier tower (türbe) at Hasankeyf. on an island in the lake, built in town of Dogubeyazit (“affec- the 10th century CE and decorated tionately dubbed ‘doggie biscuit’ century (it fell to Tamerlane a with stone reliefs [Fig. 7]. At the by tourists over the years”; Rough century later). Mardin overlooks time of our visit the interior was Guide), just a short hop from the the Syrian plain; it was always a closed for restoration. The road Iranian border. Agri Dagh, Mount citadel rather than a trading mart, from Diyarbakir through Bitlis to Ararat (17,000 ft) looms over the and served as the capital of the Van was an important trade town, and may (or may not) local Artukid dynasty from condescend to peek out the 12th century to the of the clouds. Of anti- 14th. Syrian Orthodox quarian interest is the Christianity has long had fantastic palace of Ishak a strong presence in the Pasha, built in the 18th city; the community has century by a local shrunk in recent years but grandee on a plateau several churches survive, overlooking Dogubeyazit; and the Christian imprint it blends all the regional on Mardin’s architecture is styles into a most quite visible. charming potpourri [Fig. 9, next page]. Dogu- Mardin is the gateway to beyazit straddles the the Tur Abdin, the main road into Iran, once “Mountain of the Servants” again named Ipek Yolu; (of God), historically a this route seems only to Christian district but now have become prominent predominantly Kurdish. after the Mongol con- Several of the grand Fig. 7. The 10th-century Akhtamar church on Lake quest, replacing the older monasteries remain Van (watercolor by Ruth Harold). route via Ani. active, notably Mor Gabriel, parts of which date back route in Ottoman to Byzantine times. The bleak, times; a fine 15th stony plateau, dotted with flocks century of sheep, leads eventually to caravanserai Hasankeyf, built on a rocky spur testifies to that. overlooking the Dicle (Tigris) River. And just in case A Roman and then Byzantine you had forgot- frontier post, it contains remains ten, the name of from the Seljuk, Artukid and the road entering Kurdish occupations. Down by the Van will jolt your river stands the tomb-tower memory: Ipek th
(türbe) of a 15 century prince, Yolu, the Silk Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold covered in colored tiles, that would Road. Fig. 8. The Kurdish castle of Hoshap.
63 of the transience of all human achievement. North and west stretch the Pontic mountains, and yet another culture. The “Georgian Valleys” hold numerous churches dating from around 1000 CE, when this Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold Ruth 2006 © Photo country was the home of the Georgian state before the capital was moved to Tbilisi. It is sad to see these splendid buildings falling into ruin, with almost nothing being done to arrest the decay. The country is mountainous and beautiful, laced with large rivers, and turns progressively greener as Fig. 9. The 18th-century palace of Ishak Pasha overlooking Dogubeyazit. we proceed north. By the time we A few more hours’ drive, north Road between Erzurum, Yerevan reach the Black Sea, the across glorious rolling plateau with and Tabriz. Today the frowning landscape feels almost like home views into the green valley of the walls (restored), and the exquisite (except for the tea plantations): Aras, brings one to the small city ruins of the cathedral and of a narrow, densely populated of Kars. Though notorious for its several churches, accentuate the coastal strip, painfully green and chilly and damp climate, Kars is lonesome landscape and the relentlessly damp. an attractive and relatively liberal sweeping views. Though Ani The Towers of Trebizond have town. Held in turn by Armenians, ceased to be a capital in the 11th haunted my imagination ever century it con- since I read Rose Macaulay’s novel Fig. 10. The fortress of Ani. tinued to pros- by that title thirty years ago; and per, and the even though Trabzon is a modern finest of its commercial city, I was not surviving disappointed. There has been a churches [Fig. settlement on the Trapezus, the 11] was built as narrow tableland between two late as the 13th steep ravines, at least from the century. Few time of the Greeks. Trebizond was places speak so a flourishing port in Byzantine eloquently as Ani times, and after the sack of Fig. 11. The 13th-century Church of St. Gregory at Ani.
Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold commissioned by a merchant, Tigran Honents.
Seljuks, Georgians and even Russians, it still keeps its large grey castle. But the reason for coming out here is to visit the melancholy ruins of Ani, capital of the Armenian state from 961 to 1045 CE (until recently, this was a somewhat hazardous excursion, requiring military permission, but is presently quite routine). The city was built on a triangular plateau bounded by deep and rugged ravines, and defended at the base by a massive wall reinforced with bastions [Fig. 10]. With a population of over 100,000, Ani in its heyday was said to rival Baghdad and Constantinople. It was certainly a flourishing city that
did well on the trade along the Silk Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold
64 Müller GMBH, 1924-1926). For the region east of Erzurum, limited information can be found in Guy Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905, reprinted by Al-Biruni, Lahore, Pakistan), and in Donald Pitcher, An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire from the Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972). See also Luce Boulnois, Silk Road: Monks, Warriors and Merchants on the Silk Road (Odyssey Books, n.d., ca. 2004). Jason Goodwin’s Lords of the Horizons (New York: Henry Holt, 1998) offers a very readable appreciation of the Ottoman Empire. For Armenia see David
Photo © 2006 Ruth Harold Marshall Lang, Armenia – Cradle Fig. 12. The Monastery of Sumela. of Civilization (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970); and A.E. Constantinople it became the University of California at Redgate, The Armenians (Oxford: capital of a successful commercial Berkeley. Now retired from forty Blackwell, 1998). For historical state on the Black sea (1205 – years of research and teaching, he maps see: An Historical Atlas of 1461 CE). Its emperors left us a is Professor Emeritus of bio- Islam, W.E. Brice, ed. (Leiden: E.J. clutch of monuments: the chemistry at Colorado State Brill, 1981); and the Tübinger dignified cathedral church of University, and Affiliate Professor Atlas des Vorderen Orients Haghia Sophia, several smaller of microbiology at the University [TAVO]. H. Kopp and W. Röllig, churches now serving as of Washington. Ruth is a micro- eds. (Tübingen: Dr Ludwig mosques, the magnificent mon- biologist, now retired, and an Reichert Verlag, 1994). For travel, astery of Sumela plastered onto a aspiring watercolor painter. The we recommend the Rough Guide cliff in the mountains [Fig. 12], Harold family lived in Iran in 1969/ to Turkey, by R. Ayliffe, M. Dubin, and yes, a few fragments of walls 70, while Frank served as Fulbright J. Gawthorp and T. Richardson, 5th and battlements that recall a more lecturer at the University of ed. (2003), which we found to be martial past. Modern Trabzon Tehran. This experience kindled an inexhaustible mine of in- belongs to our time — workaday a passion for adventure travel, formation on all matters Turkish. and up to date and frantic with which has since taken them to traffic. But if you give rein to your Afghanistan and back to Iran, imagination you may still hear the across the Middle East, into the clip-clop of hooves in the shopping Himalayas and Tibet, up and down streets, and catch a glint of the Indian subcontinent and along sunlight on what remains of the the Silk road between China and fabled towers of Trebizond. Turkey. They can be reached at
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