Mongol Rule in Seljuk Anatolia

Mongol Rule in Seljuk Anatolia
The Politics of Conquest and History-Writing 1243-1282
By Sara Nur Yıldız

Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers (30 May 2011)
Language English
ISBN-10: 9004174338

Informed by the question of how Mongol rule transformed thirteenth-century Seljuk political culture, the volume explores the constantly evolving structures of both the Mongol Ilkhanate based in Iran and its client state, the Seljuk sultanate of Anatolia. Writing outside the nationalist paradigms of the mainstream scholarly literature, the author not only takes issue with the assumption of the marginality of Mongol rule in Anatolia; she also offers an alternative political narrative constructed according to a critical reading of the sources, especially of the underutilized unabridged sole manuscript of the main source for the period, Ibn Bibi’s Persian history. Her reconstruction of an alternative narrative employs, as an explanatory device, the dynamics of factional court politics.

About Sara Nur Yıldız
Dr. Yıldız taught at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Manchester University, UK (2000-2001), and at the History Department of Istanbul Bilgi University (Sept. 2003-Feb. 2008). She received her doctorate from University of Chicago in 2006, with the thesis entitled, "Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-century Seljuk Anatolia: the Politics of Conquest and History Writing, 1243-1282," under the supervision of John E. Woods, Cornell Fleischer and Robert Dankoff.