On Ancient Tracks in Eastern Anatolia

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).

Load more