An Invested Frontier: Reconsidering the Roles of Nicaean and Seljuk Building Programs in the Thirteenth Century

53 pagesThe geographic, historic, and economic relationships between the Empire of Nicaea and the Sultanate of Rūm in the early thirteenth century are often portrayed through a polarizing lens. Despite territorial contestation after the Fourth Crusade (1204), the two states individually experienced brief periods of prosperity in the form of large-scale building. The Laskarid dynasty refortified urban centers as the Seljuks constructed caravanserais across Asia Minor. On account of the Mongol Invasion of 1243, an event that limited Seljuk independence, Nicaea sent provisions across the shared Lykos valley to the recovering state, which created a network of fixed points between the Hermos valley and Taurus mountains. This increase in traffic indirectly caused traveling and local groups to utilize fortified spaces in different ways, which drew the Laskarid and Seljuk-sponsored building programs even closer. The incorporation of historical data into geographical and archaeological analyses will help to better understand how structures participated in networks at a specific moment in history and encouraged cross-border trade