Academic literature on the topic 'Byzantine historian'

This paper suggests that Michael Attaleiates, the eleventh-century Byzantine historian, purposefully changed the ethnic label for his contemporary Norman mercenaries from ‘Frank’ to ‘Latin’ in order to portray these figures as ethnically close to the Byzantines of his own day. In addition, it suggests that Attaleiates’ motives for such a portrayal lay in his argument that Norman mercenaries were a potential solution to the empire's challenges with the Seljuks. This article examines the ways in which Attaleiates positively portrayed Norman mercenaries in Byzantium, and how he crafted historical parallels between them and the Latins of Byzantium's Roman past.

While the first two chapters of Doucas's historical work present a meagre outline of world history - a sketch which becomes a little more detailed from 1261 on, when the narration reaches the history of the Turks and their conquests in Asia Minor - the third chapter deals with the well-known battle of Kosovo, which took place in 1389. From that point on, the Byzantine historian gives much important information on Serbia, as well as on the Ottoman advances in the Balkans, and thus embarks upon his central theme - the rise of the Turks and the decline of Byzantium. Doucas considers the battle of Kosovo a key event in the subjugation of the Balkan peoples by the Turks, and he shows that after the battle of Kosovo the Serbs were the first to suffer that fate. At the beginning, Doucas says that after the death of Orhan, the ruler (o archgos) of the Turks, his son and successor Murad conquered the Thracian towns, Adrianople and the whole Thessaly, so that he mastered almost all the lands of the Byzantines, and finally reached the Triballi (Triballous). He devastated many of their towns and villages sending the enslaved population beyond Chersonesus, until Lazar, son of King Stefan of Serbia (Serbias), who ruled (kraley?n) in Serbia at that time decided to oppose him with all the might he could muster. The Serbs were often called Triballi by Byzantine authors. For the fourteenth century writers Pachymeres, Gregoras, Metochites and Kantakouzenos the Serbs were Triballi. However, Pachymeres and Gregoras refer to the rulers of the Triballi as the rulers of Serbia. Fifteenth century writers, primarily Chalcondyles and Critobulos, use only that name. It seems, nevertheless, that Doucas makes a distinction between the Triballi and the Serbs. As it is known, the conquest of the Serbian lands by the Turks began after the battle on the river Marica in 1371. By 1387. the Turks had mastered Serres(1388) Bitola and Stip (1385), Sofia (1385), Nis (1386) and several other towns. Thus parts of Macedonia, Bulgaria and even of Serbia proper were reduced by the Turks by 1387. For Doucas, however, this is the territory inhabited by the Triballi. After the exposition of the events on Kosovo, Doucas inserts an account of the dispute of John Kantakouzenos and the regency on behalf of John V, which had taken place, as it is known, long before 1389. At the beginning of his description of the civil war, Doucas says that by dividing the empire Kantakouzenos made it possible for the Turks to devastate not only all the lands under Roman rule, but also the territories of the Triballi Moesians and Albanians and other western peoples. The author goes on to narrate that Kantakouzenos established friendly relations with the king Stefan Du{an, and reached an agreement with him concerning the fortresses towns and provinces of the unlucky Empire of the Romaioi, so that, instead of giving them over to the Roman lords, he surrendered them to barbarians, the Triballi and the Serbs (Triballoys te kai Serbous). When he speaks later how the Tatars treated the captives after the battle of Angora in 1402, Doucas points out that the Divine Law, honored from times immemorial not only among the Romaioi, but also among the Persians, the Triballi and the Scythians (as he calls Timur's Tatars), permitted only plunder, not the taking of captives or any executions outside the battlefield when the enemy belonged to the same faith. Finally, when he speaks of the conflict between Murad II and Juneid in Asia Minor, Doucas mentions a certain Kelpaxis, a man belonging to the people of the Triballi, who took over from Juneid the rule over Ephesus and Ionia. It seems, therefore, that Doucas, when he speaks of the land of the Triballi he has in mind a broad ethnical territory in the Balkans, which was obviously not settled by the Serbs only or even by the Slavs only. According to him Kelpaxis (Kelpaz?sis) also belonged to the Triballi, although the name can hardly be of Slavonic, i.e. Serbian origin. On the other hand, he is definitely aware of Serbia, a state which had left substantial traces in the works of Byzantine authors, particularly from the time when it usurped (according to the Byzantine view) the Empire. Writing a whole century after Dusan's coronation as emperor, Doucas is not willing, as we shall see later to recognize this usurpation. Although he ascribes to Serbia, in conformity with the Byzantine conception of tazis, a different rank, he considers Serbia and the Serbs, as they are generally called in his work (particularly when he describes the events after the Battle of Kosovo) an important factor in the struggle against the Turks. Therefore he makes a fairly accurate distinction between the Serbs and the other Triballi. In his case, the term may in fact serve as a geographical designation for the territory settled by many peoples, including the Serbs. When he uses specific titles and when he speaks of the degrees of authority conveyed by them in individual territories Doucas is anxious to prove himself a worthy scion of the Romaioi, who considered that they had the exclusive right to the primacy in the Christian hierarchy with the Roman emperor at its top. He makes distinctions of rank between individual rulers. The Emperor in Constantinople is for him the only emperor of the Romans (basileys t?n R?mai?n). King Sigismund of Hungary is also styled emperor, but as basileys t?n R?man?n, meaning Latin Christians. The last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Dragas Palaleologus is not recognized as an emperor, and the author calls his rule a despotic rule (despoteia). He has a similar view of the Serbs. Thus he says, erroneously that Lazar was the son of King Stefan of Serbia (yios Stefanoy toy kral? Serbias) and that he ruled Serbia at that time (o tote t?n Serbian kraley?n). Elsewhere, Doucas explains his attitude and says that o t?n Serb?n archgos etolm?sen anadusasthai kratos kai kral?s onomazesthai. Toyto gar to barbaron onoma exell?nizomenon basileys erm?neyetai. Lazar exercises royal power (kraley?n) in Serbia, which is appropriate, for the author thinks erroneously that Lazar was the son and successor of King Stefan Du{an. It is significant that he derives the werb kraley? from the Serbian title 'kralj', i.e. from the title which never existed in the Byzantine Empire. Moreover, there is no mention of this werb in any other Byzantine text. When he narrates how Serbia fell under the Turkish rule in 1439, Doucas says that Despot Djuradj Brankovic seeing his ravaged despotate (despoteian), went to the King of Hungary hoping to get aid from him. There can be no doubt that the term despoteia here refers to the territory ruled by Despot Djuradj Brankovic. Doucas correctly styles the Serbian rulers after 1402 as despots. The space he devotes to Serbia in his work, as well as the manner in which he speaks of it, seems to indicate, however, that he regarded it, together with Hungary as a obstacle of the further Turkish conquests in the Balkans. Doucas's text indicates that Serbia, though incomparably weaker than in the time of Dusan's mighty empire, was in fact the only remaining more or less integral state in the Peninsula. The riches of Serbia and, consequently, of its despots, is stressed in a number of passages. Almost at the very beginning Doucas says that Bayezid seized 'a sufficient quantity of silver talents from the mines of Serbia' after the Battle of Kosovo. When Murad II conducted negotiations with Despot Djuradj for his marriage with the Despot's daughter Mara, Doucas writes, no one could guess how many 'gold and silver talents' he took. Doucas also says that the Despot began to build the Smederevo fortress with Murad's permission. The building of a fortress has never been an easy undertaking and if we bear in mind that Despot Djuradj built the part of the Smederevo fortress called 'Mali Grad' (Small fortress) in two years only, we realize that his economic power was really considerable. When Fadulah, the counselor of Murad II, sought to persuade his lord to occupy Serbia, he stressed the good position of the country, particularly of Smederevo, and the country's abundant sources of silver and gold, which would enable Murad not only to conquer Hungary, but also to advance as far as Italy. After Mehmed II captured Constantinople, the Serbs undertook to pay an annual tribute of 12.000 gold coins, more than the despots of Mistra, the lords of Chios Mitylene or the Emperor of Trebizond. Already in 1454 the Despot's men brought the tribute to Mehmed II and also ransomed their captives. Critobulos's superb description of Serbia is the best testimony that this was not only Doucas's impression: 'Its greatest advantage, in which it surpasses the other countries, is that it produces gold and silver? They are mined everywhere in that region, which has rich veins of both gold and silver, more abundant than those of India. The country of the Triballi was indeed fortunate in this respect from the very beginning and it was proud of its riches and its might. It was a kingdom with numerous flourishing towns and strong and impregnable fortresses. It was also rich in soldiers and armies as well as in good equipment. It had citizens of the noblest rank and it brought up many youths who had the strength of adult men. It was admired and famous, but it was also envied, so that is was not only loved of many, but also disliked by many people who sought to harm It'. It is no wonder that George Sphrantzes once complains that Christians failed to send aid to Constantinople and that he singles out for particular blame that 'miserable despot, who did not realize that once the head is removed, the limbs, too disappear'. It may be said, therefore, that Doucas regarded Serbia as one of the few remaining allies of at least some ability to stem the Turkish advances, and that this opinion was primarily based on its economic resources. Serbia was clearly distinguished as a state structure, as opposed to most of the remaining parts of the Peninsula, inhabited by peoples which Doucas does not seem to differentiate precisely. According to him, the authority over a particular territory issued from the ruler's title, the title of despot, which was first in importance after the imperial title, also determined the rank of Serbia in the Byzantine theory of hierarchy of states. Doucas's testimony also shows that this theory not only endured until the collapse of the Empire, but that it also persisted even in the consciousness of the people who survived its fall.

This work concerns the letter sent from the French College in Phillipopoli/Plovdiv (Bulgaria) by Pater Joannes /Jean-Baptiste/ Thibaut, the French Byzantines ? musicologist, to Tihomir Ostojic, professor at the Secondary school (Gymnasium) in Novi Sad, a literature historian and expert on Traditional Serbian Church Chant. At that time Thibaut was widening his research interest in Byzantine Chant and neumatic notation, to include Slavonic Chant Tradition, first Russian Chant and later that of the Balkan peoples as well. He was one of the first foreigners to show interest in the Orthodox Chant Tradition of the Southern Slavs, and perceived that, contrary of the Russians, South Slavs never adopted early Byzantine neumatic notation. Visiting monasteries in Bulgaria he tried to find reasons for this lack of Byzantine notation among the Southern Slavs. In the above letter he posed very serious questions regarding Chant in the Serbian Orthodox Church, more precisely regarding the "Karlovci Chant". Unfortunately, it is not known if Thibaut received any kind of reply from Ostojic, nor have we found the reply sent to him by the Serbian Patriarch Georgije Brankovic, whom he also addressed, asking for help. Answers by those experts to the Thibaut's well formulated questions would be an extremely important contribution to studies of Traditional Serbian Church Chant.

Kritobulos of Imbros, the author of a historical work covering the period from 1451 to 1467, describes the deeds of the Sultan Mehmed Fatih. The work written between 1465 and 1467 is an autograph of the author. Apart from a knowledge of literature (Thucydides), one can discern in this work a definite interest in medicine. K. was sultan's governor of Imbros for almost ten years. At the same time he was a patriot in the sense that he expressed solidarity with the unfortunate inhabitants of Constantinople.

This article discusses the notion of Byzantium and Byzantium's potential capacities as a multifaceted borderland, as shaped and perceived in Julia Kristeva's novel Murder in Byzantium. In spite of its title, this is not a historical, but rather a so-called total novel, which reconciles several different plots - romantic, criminal, political and philosophical. It relies on both fictive and historical texts, especially on The Alexiad, written in the 12th century by the Byzantine princess and the first female historian ever, Anna Comnena. Through a literary analysis, this article shows how Byzantium is shaped in the novel by transgressions of the borders of narration, identity, space and time. Byzantium is thus of great interest to the general public and an academic discussion of borders, origin, history and culture, so important for the discussion of Europe's role today in - or, as suggested in the novel, perhaps between - Eastern and Western cultures.

This article aims to expand information on the life and academic career of a historian from Łódź, the co-founder of Polish post-war Byzantine studies – Halina Evert-Kappesowa. Based on student files preserved at the University of Warsaw, as well as employee and promotion records in the Archives of the University of Łódź, the author has established facts such as the date and place of Kappesowa’s birthday, subsequent stages of education and reasons for her delayed promotions. She has also addressed Evert-Kappesowa’s achievements and their reception. This paper provides vital additions to the debate on the contribution of female historians to the development of Polish history. The text consists of two parts; the first is devoted to the biography of the heroine and her research interests. The second concerns the course of her scientific career.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the selected works of one of the twelfth century Norman historian living in the British Isles, Gerald de Barri of Wales (1146-1223) in terms of his knowledge of the Byzantine world and its cor­relation with the Normans (from England and Southern Italy). The term Byzantine world has been evolving for several decades. Today it refers no longer just to the land of the former East European Empire, which later transformed itself into the Greek Byzantium, but it can be referred to the Balkans or the Kingdom of Normandy, while scientists are constantly expanding its borders with the help of other sciences such as archeology. We will do this based on his work: De in­structione principis, Topographia Hibernica, Expugnatio Hibernica, Itinerarium Cambriae and Descriptio Cambriae. Selected by Gerald of Wales the themes of the Byzantine and Norman kingdoms of Sicily, which appear in his five works ci­ted above, are proof of the broad political horizons of the elites from British Isles that were associated with the Plantagenet dynasty. Gerald was never in Sicily, in Byzantium or in the Holy Land, but he had some source in sight, both in the form of eyewitness accounts of events and in the accounts of contemporary wri­ters, which does not diminish the credibility of the data he cites. Better and more strongly, he was interested in the facts of the kingdom of Normans in Sicily than in Byzantium. Such a state of affairs seems to be understandable, as he saw in them both a political partner and, to some extent, a model to imitate, especially in the aspect of conducting politics against the conquered peoples.

THE idea of papal sovereignty was foreign to the Byzantines. They had trouble enough trying to understand the Western interpretation of papal primacy. Papal ‘sovereignty’ was beyond them, unintelligible, unreasonable, and unhistorical. It is true that the East Roman Christians, whom for convenience we call Byzantines, did not all live in one generation. Their cultural and political roots were in Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium; and their empire endured in one form or another for 1,100 years, from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. In so long a span their ideas naturally evolved and changed, as did their society. But their concept of the order of the Christian world remained stable. It was based upon the formula devised by the first Christian historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, in the fourth century. The formula was an amalgam of pre-Christian, Hellenistic notions of monarchy, with Old and New Testament elements. The Christian Roman Emperor was the elect of God and, as God’s vice-gerent on earth, he ruled over what was the terrestrial reflection, albeit a poor copy, of the Kingdom of Heaven. His patriarchs or supreme bishops of the Christian Empire, especially the Patriarch of Constantinople, his capital city, were the spiritual heads of the Christian world, acting in harmony with him. Church and State were therefore one, indissoluble and interdependent.

This thesis is concerned with the editorial, printing and marketing history of four Byzantine historical narratives, published between 1556 and 1645, and soon collectively identified under the name Corpus Historiæ Byzantinæ (hereinafter, 'Byzantine Corpus'). The four Byzantine historians - Ioannes Zonaras, Niketas Choniates, Nikephoros Gregoras and Laonikos Chalkokondyles - enjoyed considerable popularity in early modern Europe, with a peak of interest in the second half of the sixteenth century. This thesis aims at highlighting how these four texts, despite being so popular in a number of early modern European countries (particularly in the German-speaking area, in Italy and in France), did not do so for the same reasons: in fact, depending on the country in which these books were printed, they were marketed, perceived and read in very different ways. This element is particularly relevant in light of the fact that the Byzantine Corpus represents the earliest predecessor of the Corpus Fontium Historiæ Byzantinæ, the modern resource for the study of Byzantine historical sources. Chapter 1 analyses the early formation of the Byzantine Corpus and, in particular, the figure of Hieronymus Wolf, first editor of the Byzantine Corpus, often considered the 'father' of Byzantine studies; his relation with his patrons, the Fuggers of Augsburg; finally, his relation with his publisher, the Basel printer Johannes Oporinus. It then provides contextualised bibliographical and paratextual descriptions of the editiones principes of the Byzantine Corpus, all printed in Basel. Chapters 2-5 reflect the same comparative approach, used to investigate how the later editions of the Byzantine Corpus were prepared and marketed in different European countries: each chapter provides a bibliographical and paratextual analysis of the subsequent German, Italian, French and Genevan editions respectively. The Conclusions draw together all the information collected in the previous chapters and investigate three pivotal aspects of the Byzantine Corpus: i) the formation of the Byzantine Corpus and the individual popularity of each of the four Byzantine historians based on the frequency and popularity of both individual and collective editions; ii) the distinctive reasons of their popularity, analysed through a comparison of the different approaches with which editors and publishers have presented these texts to their respective audiences in Germany, Italy and France; iii) the reasons for the rise and decline in popularity of the Byzantine Corpus in the early seventeenth century.

Cette thèse est une étude littéraire du livre de Jean Kinnamos, historien byzantin du XIIe siècle. L’œuvre s’intitule « Chronique des règnes de Jean et Manuel Comnène, empereurs byzantins du XIIe siècle. » Elle contient : une présentation du contexte historique et littéraire de la période, une présentation de la vie de l’auteur et de ses sources et modèles, le texte grec et une nouvelle traduction en français
This thesis is a literary study of John Kinnamos’s book, a Byzantine historian of the XIIth century. The book is entitled « Chronicle of the reigns of John and Manuel Comnenus, Byzantine emperors of XIIth century. » It presents : a presentation of historical and literary context of period, a presentation of the author’s life and of his sources and models, the greek text and a new translation into French

[Truncated abstract] My focus has been twofold. On the one hand I have highlighted and elucidated the events which Pachymerēs narrates, glossing with prosopographical and topological notes the people, places and things mentioned in the text, and explaining other esoteric details, such as the range of many and varied, ornate Byzantine court honorifics. On the other hand I have made a critical comparison between Pachymerēs and the other important sources for the period, Greek, Western, and Eastern, to provide explanations for differences in the various narratives, to suggest which source is the more accurate for any given event, and to fill up the narrative ‘gaps’ of Gomme .... I must stress that both by training and inclination I am an historian, not a philologist, so the commentary will be historical rather than philological. This is despite the importance Pachymerēs himself places in the clever use of language and his frequent use of allusions to and quotes from other works, Classical, Byzantine or biblical. The question of mimēsis, how much Pachymerēs is directly trying to imitate or incorporate older texts, has received limited attention, and only where Pachymerēs’ use of the earlier text is vital to the understanding of his own work. Similarly, questions of language, and the way in which Pachymerēs uses it, have not been explored except in those instances where it directly affects the historical point our author is making. Pachymerēs’ Historia is an important source for a pivotal period in Byzantine Imperial history, and many scholars have not used it as efficiently as they could due to the denseness of his prose and his “tortuous syntax” (Bartusis 1992:55) ...

L’objet de cette thèse est le destin de l’ « Histoire Romaine » de l’historien romain de langue grecque Cassius Dion (environ 163 – après 230), qui racontait les événements historiques des débuts de Rome jusqu’au 229 ap. J. -C. , à l’époque byzantine. Deux tiers de son ouvrage nous sont parvenus à travers différentes sources byzantines et le problème de leur fiabilité pour une reconstruction historique moderne se pose. Les trois sources les plus importantes examinées par cette thèse sont les « Excerpta » constantiniens (Xe siècle), l’Épitomé de Cassius Dion par Xiphilin (XIe siècle) et l’ Épitomé de Zonaras (XIIe siècle). Elles sont comparées pour la période des Julio-Claudiens avec le texte originel de l’ « Histoire Romaine » selon trois aspects : fidélité au texte, choix des sujets et rôle des matières religieuses. La recherche révèle leurs similitudes et leurs différences et permet de tracer l’évolution de l’attitude envers l’histoire de Rome à différentes périodes de l’époque byzantine et de déterminer le contexte historique de la transformation de l’ouvrage de Cassius Dion pour les besoins de ses lecteurs byzantins
The subject of this thesis is the destiny at the Byzantine epoch of the “Roman History” by the Roman historian of Greek language, Cassius Dio (about 163 – after 230), which traced the historical events from the beginning of Rome till 229 A. D. Two thirds of his book have come down to us in different Byzantine sources, and we are faced with the problem of their reliability for a modern historical reconstruction. The three main sources examined in this thesis are the “Excerpta” of Constantin VII (Xth century), the “abbreviation” of Cassius Dio by Xiphilin (XIth century), and the “Chronicle” of Zonaras (XIIth century). They have been compared for the period of Julio-Claudians with the original text of the “Roman History” according to three aspects : fidelity to text, choice of content, and religious matters. The research reveals their similarities and differences and allows to trace the evolution of the attitude towards the roman history at different periods of the Byzantine era and to determine the historical context of the transformation of Dio’s work to meet his Byzantine public’s requirements

L'image négative de Byzance puise ses racines dans les chroniques occidentales du Moyen âge. Au XVIIIe siècle, elle est diffusée par les philosophes Montesquieu et Voltaire et par les historiens Lebeau et Gibbon. C'est sur ces bases que se constitue l'histoire byzantine. Au début du XIXe siècle, les romantiques assimilent Byzance à une longue décadence de l'empire romain où règne le luxe, le vice et la perfidie. Cependant, il se dessine déjà une image plus nuancée chez les historiens allemands avec la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, l'image de Byzance évolue. Le philhellène anglais Finlay, les premiers spécialistes allemands Hopf, Kugler, et le français Rambaud font progresser l'histoire byzantine. De nombreux préjugés demeurent notamment lorsque son histoire se heurte aux prérogatives ou sert de faire valoir aux enjeux occidentaux et nationaux du XIXe siècle. Ce phénomène est amplifié dans le dernier quart du XIXe siècle chez certains historiens français qui ont mal vécu la défaite de 1870 (Lavisse, Renan). Cependant, la vision de Byzance s'améliore grâce à quelques spécialistes allemands : Neumann, Krumbacher, Heyd, anglais : Bury, français : Gasquet, Schlumberger. Ces historiens ont permis de mettre fin à un certain nombre d'à priori. Ce travail se poursuit en France et en Allemagne dans le premier XXe siècle avec des spécialistes tels Diehl, Chalandon. A partir de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, la vision de Byzance a donc évolué favorablement sous l'influence de l'école allemande. Cette évolution n'apparaît pas dans les manuels scolaires et des images conçues parfois plusieurs décennies auparavant sont encore d'actualité. Pourquoi une image si négative ? L'histoire de Byzance a porté des enjeux essentiels (légitimité impériale, évangélisation, culture) qui la mettait en concurrence avec les revendications de l'Occident. Son histoire est un discours au service de stratégies politiques ou religieuses, culturelles ou nationales. Son histoire a servi de contremodèle à toutes les passions qui ont animé le siècle. Au début du XXe siècle, Byzance devient le domaine réservé des spécialistes et acquiert ses lettres de noblesse

This project refers to the construction of a 3D map of Thessaloniki’s historical route. The Yedi Kule Conquest – Monument Road Race took place in the old city of Thessaloniki, which was built during the Byzantine and Ottoman period. The purpose of this project is the digital recording of the castles, the monuments, the old churches, the traditional buildings, and the squares which are prime examples of the architectural beauty of the place. The methodology of the project is based on the online software Google Earth Studio and Adobe Premiere Pro. These are the tools of digitization, rendering, and building process of the animation. With this methodology, the authors achieved the documentation of land use and the architectural landscape. The animation is a credible graphic index of the historical background of Thessaloniki. The Yedi Kule area constitutes of a cultural mosaic made from different historic periods. The buildings and the neighbourhoods give the sense of transition of the narrow roads, the old Christian churches, the house of the first Turkish governor, and the byzantine castle to the modern city. In Thessaloniki, three historic periods coexist the Ancient Greek/Roman, the Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire. The responsibility of the governmental politics and of every citizen of Thessaloniki is to promote and preserve the historic background of the city. The final product offers a good opportunity for the digital storage of Thessaloniki’s old city. The animation creates an interactive environment that portrays the current image of the transition from the old to a modern city.

Nablus old center stands as a typical Arab city with a relevant geographical location. Successive historical periods distinguish its history - from Canaanite to Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader or Ottoman - till nowadays. This cultural diversity has layered chronological strata on its urban fabric. Therefore, diverse historical characteristics reflected in the city’s urban morphology have undergone continued physical and functional transformations, not only gradually by time and various socio-cultural, economic or political factors, but also radically by earthquakes and war destructions. Present-day Nablus’ physical image echoes a palimpsest of urban/social identities and an asset for a very sensitive collective memory. This paper examines the formation, evolution and constitution of the old city of Nablus by a retrospective analysis that searches the morphological momentum for each phase in articulation with a reflection around its historical meaning for the city. Methodologically, this study is conducted on both urban and architectural levels, surveying street hierarchy and plot distribution. This understanding will be extremely important for an accurate perception of this tissue in order to advocate for a concerned idea of the city’s reconstruction, following recent urban annihilations. At a time when urban rehabilitation pushes plans for quick and immediate results, reading Nablus’ urban morphology can work as the lacking tool for an instructed and operative regeneration.

Although Ankara gained international attention mainly after its declaration as Capital of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the city hosts many buildings and monuments from different historical eras. The remains of Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman Empires discovered in the center of the city, clearly bear witness to the rich and diverse heritage of the capital. However, this heritage appears as less documented, studied and even not properly conserved. The citadel of Ankara, which dominates the narrow streets of the old city has withstood its long history very well and today houses a small neighborhood made up of valuable Ottoman wooden buildings. The link to the Roman and Medieval periods is still tangible. The Roman theatre remains at the foot of the hill are still observable, while the stone columns and beams used in the construction of the walls in a later era. The aim of this paper is to document and present the different historical eras of the castle, focusing on the remains of the medieval era. Analyzing the key features of the castle and the previous intervention on it will support the identification of the potentials of the site. Finally, recommendations for future work of architectural preservation will be elaborated on the basis of national and international conservation guidelines.

The Castle of "paper". Excursus of Gallipoli’s castle presence in historical cartographyThe castle is located at the eastern part of the Gallipoli’s old town: the first data in archives and libraries started from the sixth century under the mention of castrum and in the following centuries there are many informations on parchments, written documents and bibliography published until today. The Syllabus Grecarum Membranarum from the twelfth century and the Statutum de reparatione castrorum of Frederick II are two precious sources about the primitive castle’s architecture.The structure endured the passage of the Byzantines, Normans, Swabians, Angevins and again, Aragonese, Venetians, Spaniards, Austrians and finally the Bourbons, until it became property of the State and now of the Gallipoli’s municipality. It has suffered over time numerous interventions to adapt it to new military needs: the castle was no longer effective with leading defence from new siege weapons, as for other architectures of the same period.The numerous representations preserved in Italian and European archives give a complete picture of the Gallipoli’s urban development and include the defensive system of the city: the different views illustrate the walls and allow us to understand the castle’s main evolutionary dynamics and its connection with the town.

In the Middle Ages a chain suspended between two towers defended the entrance of Kyrenia’s little harbour, like the chain across the Golden Horn in Constantinople. William de Oldenburg, who visited Cyprus in 1211 during the reign of King Hugh I, referred to Kyrenia as “a small town well-fortified, which has a castle with walls and towers”. He perceived the chain tower as part of Kyrenia’s fortification system in that time. The Byzantines had already fortified the city, but in the thirteenth century, during the Longobard war, before the siege of the city, Frederick II’s party, under the direction of Captain Philippo Genardo, improved the defences of the city. The chain tower is still visible today in the north side of the old Kyrenia harbour. It consists of an 8,15 m diameter cylindrical tower and a 1,5 m diameter pillar on top of it. The tower was supporting a chain attached on the other side to another structure. The fortifications on the north side terminated against the harbour in a square tower or bastion holding the chain to be raised and lowered by means of a windlass. The paper includes the digital photogrammetric survey of the chain tower using a structure from motion software, the historical research and the comparison with other coeval harbour defence constructions of the eastern Mediterranean.

Rethinking Urban Design Problems through Morphological Regions Ezgi Küçük¹, Ayşe Sema Kubat² ¹Urban Planning Coordinator, Marmara Municipalities Union ²Prof., Dr., Istanbul Technical Univercity, Faculty of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning E-mail: ezgikucuk89@gmail.com, kubat@itu.edu.tr Keywords: the Historical Peninsula, morphological regions, urban blocks, urban design, Beyazıt Square Conference topics and scale: Urban form and social use of space The concept of urban square is a debated issue in the context of urban design practices in Islamic cities. Recognizing the relation between urban morphology and urban design studies in city planning and urban design practices is highly vital. Beyazıt Square, which is the center of the city of Istanbul, could not be integrated to the other parts of the city either configurationally or socially although many design projects have been previously planned and discussed. In this study, the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul is observed as an essential unit of the traditional path reflecting each civilization, namely Roman, Byzantium, Ottoman and Republic of Turkey that have been settled in the region. Transformations in urban blocks in Beyazıt region are elaborated through a series of morphological analyses based on the Conzenian approach of urban morphology. Morphological regions of the Historical Peninsula are identified and Beyazıt region is addressed in detail in terms of the transformations in urban block components, that are; street, plot and buildings. The effects of surrounding units which are the mosque, university buildings, booksellers and Grandbazaar on Beyazıt Square are discussed according to the morphological analyses that are applied to the region. Previous design practices and the existing plan of the area are observed through the analyses including town plan, building block, and land use and ownership patterns. It is revealed that existing design problems in Beyazıt Square come from the absence of urban morphological analyses in all planning and design practices. Through morphological regions as well as the conservation plans, urban design projects can be reconsidered. References Baş, Y. (2010) ‘Production of Urbanism as the Reproduction of Property Relations: Morphologenesis of Yenişehir-Ankara’, PhD thesis, Middle East Technical University. Barret, H.J. (1996) ‘Townscape changes and local planning management in city conservation areas: the example of Birmingham and Bristol’, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham. Bienstman, H. (2007) ‘Morphological Concepts and Landscape Management: The Cases of Alkmaar and Bromsgrove’, PhD thesis, University of Birmingham. Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis, Institute of British Geographers, London. Conzen, M.R.G. (2004) Thinking About Urban Form: papers on urban morphology 1932-1998, Peter Lang, Bern. Çelik, Z. (1993) The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century, University of California Press, Berkeley. Günay, B. (1999) Property Relations and Urban Space, METU Faculty of Architecture Press, Ankara. Kubat, A.S. (1999) ‘The morphological history of Istanbul’, Urban Morphology 3.1, 28-41. Noziet, H. (2008) ‘Fabrique urbaine: a new concept in urban history and morphology’, Urban Morphology, 13.1, 55-56. Panerai, P., Castex, J., Depaule, J. C. and Samuels, I. (2004) Urban Forms: The Death and Life of the Urban Block, Architectural Press, Oxford. Tekeli, İ. (2010) Türkiye’nin Kent Planlama ve Kent Araştırmaları Tarihi Yazıları, (Articles of Turkey’s History of Urban Planning and Urban Studies), Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, Istanbul. Whitehand, J.W.R. (2001) ‘British urban morphology: the Conzenian tradition’, Urban Morphology 5.2, 3-10. Whitehand, J.W.R. (2009) ‘The structure of urban landscapes: strengthening research and practice’, Urban Morphology 13.1, 5-22.