Anatolian
Anatolia (from the Greek Aνατολή Anatolḗ, 'east, lift'; Anadolu in Turkish), also called < b>Asia Minor, is a peninsula of Asia, bathed to the north by the waters of the Black Sea and to the south and west by the Mediterranean. Located in the Middle East, it is separated from Europe by the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. Today it belongs to Turkey. Although its eastern limits are somewhat imprecise and even imaginary, its area is estimated to be about 756,000 km².
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Because Anatolia is a mountainous region, it has historically been a military stronghold for various peoples. Among others, from the Hittite Empire, Arzawa, the Assuwa League, Troy, Ephesus, Pergamum, Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Commagene, the Roman province of Asia, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, the Byzantine Empire, Seljuk Empire and the Ottoman Empire; in addition to the Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Assyrian, Arab, Persian and Jewish peoples, among others. Likewise, due to its geographical position, it has traditionally been a place of passage and connection between Europe and Asia, the West and the East.
Definition
The Anatolian peninsula, also called Asia Minor, is bounded by the Black Sea to the north; by the Mediterranean Sea, to the south; by the Aegean Sea, to the west; and by the Sea of Marmara to the northwest, which separates Anatolia from Thrace in Europe. In Ancient Greece the western part of the peninsula was known as Asia, later extending the name to the entire continent, so the peninsula was called Asia Minor.
Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line from the Gulf of İskenderun to the Black Sea, adjoining the Anatolian Plateau. This traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster's Gazetteer, as well as in the archaeological community. By virtue of this definition, Anatolia is bounded on the eastern by the Armenian Highlands and the Euphrates River, before the river turns southeast to enter Mesopotamia. In the southeast, it is bounded by the mountain ranges that separate it from the Orontes Valley in Syria (region) and the Mesopotamian Plain.
However, after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, Anatolia was defined by the Turkish government as effectively contiguous with Asiatic Turkey. In 1941, the First Turkish Congress of Geography created two regions east of the Iskenderun-Black Sea Gulf line calling them the Eastern Anatolian Region and the Southeastern Anatolian Region, the former largely corresponding to the western part of the Armenian Highlands., and the last with the northern part of the Mesopotamian plain. This broader definition of Anatolia has gained widespread acceptance outside of Turkey and has, for example, been adopted by the Encyclopædia Britannica and other encyclopedias and general reference publications.
Etymology
The earliest known reference to Anatolia—as “Land of the Hittites”—was found on cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia from the time of the Akkadian Empire (2350-2150 BC).[ citation needed] The first name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula was Ἀσία (Asia), presumably from the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia.[ citation needed] When the name Asia came to spread in Late Antiquity to other areas east of the Mediterranean, the name Anatolia was specified as Μικρὰ Ἀσία (Mikrá Asía) or Asia Minor.
The name Anatolia derives from the Greek ἀνατολή (anatolḗ) meaning "the East" or more literally, "dawn", comparable to the derived Latin terms "levant" and "orient". The precise reference of this term has varied over time, perhaps originally referring to the Aeolian, Ionian, and Doric colonies on the western coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme (Aνατολικόν θέμα) was a theme covering the western and central part of present-day Central Anatolia Region. The modern Turkic form of Anatolia is Anadolu, which derives from again from the Greek name Aνατολή (Anatolḗ). The Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin.
In English the name Turkey of ancient Anatolia first appeared around 1369. It is derived from the Medieval Latin Turchia (meaning "Land of the Turks", Turkish: Türkiye), which was originally used by Europeans to define the Seljuk-controlled parts of Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert.
Geography
It is bordered to the north by the Black Sea, to the east by the Taurus and Antitaurus Mountains, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the west by the Aegean and Marmara Seas. The Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait separate it from Europe. It is located in the Middle East region.
The terrain of Anatolia is geographically complex. A central massif composed of raised and lowered areas, covered by recent deposits and giving the appearance of a plateau of rough terrain, lies between two folded ridges that converge to the east. The lowland areas are reduced to narrow coastal strips along the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea coasts. The area of flat or gently sloping land is rare, confined to the Kizil river deltas, the Çukurova coastal plains, and the Gediz river and Büyük Menderes river valleys, and some inland high plains, mainly around Tuz Gölü (the Salt Lake) and Konya Ovası (the Konya Plain).
History
Origin and age
Anatolia has seen the development of various cultures since prehistoric times. Among the Neolithic sites are Çatal Hüyük, Cayönü, Nevali Cori, Hacilar, Göbekli Tepe and Mersin. The occupation of the mythical site of Troy, located in western Anatolia, also began during the Neolithic.
Among the civilizations and peoples that settled or conquered Anatolia, it is worth mentioning: the Hittites, the Phrygians, the Cimmerians, the Persians, the Galatians, the Celts, the Greeks. the Romans, the Armenians, the Goths, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire. The famous Trojan War took place on this peninsula, in which according to legend a union of Greeks led by Agamemnon defeated the Trojans led by Hector.
Eastern Anatolia contains the oldest monumental structures in the world. For example, the monumental structures at Göbekli Tepe were built by hunters and gatherers a thousand years before the development of agriculture. This part of Asia Minor is a region at the heart of the Neolithic revolution, one of the first areas in which humans domesticated plants and animals. Neolithic sites such as Çatalhöyük, Çayönü, Cori Nevali and Hacilar represent some of the world's oldest known agricultural peoples. The earliest historical records of Anatolia are from the Akkadian Empire under Sargon in the XXIV century BC. The region was famous for the export of various raw materials. The Assyrian Empire traded in these resources, especially silver. One of the Assyrian cuneiform records found in Anatolia, at Kanesh, uses an advanced system of trade calculations.
Unlike the Akkadians and Assyrians, whose holdings in Asia Minor were peripheral to their core lands in Mesopotamia, the Hittites were centered on Hattusa in northwestern central Anatolia. They were the speakers of an Indo-European language known as the "language of Nesa." Originally from Nesa, they conquered Hattusa in the 18th century BC, dominating a Hurrian-speaking population. During the Bronze Age, they created an empire, the Hittite New Kingdom, which reached its height in the 14th century BC.. The empire encompassed much of Anatolia, northwestern Syria, and upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 B.C. C., the empire disintegrated into several independent Neo-Hittite states. Ancient Anatolia is subdivided by modern scholars into various regions such as Lydia, Lycia, Caria, Mysia, Bithynia, Phrygia, Galatia, Lycaonia, Pisidia, Paphlagonia, Cilicia, and Cappadocia.
Since the collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, the western coast of Anatolia was settled by Ionian Greeks. Over several centuries, numerous Greek city-states settled on the Anatolian shores. The Greeks started Western philosophy on the western coast of Asia Minor (Pre-Socratic philosophy). In the 6th century BC, most of Anatolia was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. In the IV century B.C. C., Alexander the Great conquered the peninsula. After his death and the dissolution of his empire, Anatolia was ruled by a series of Hellenistic kingdoms. Two hundred years later, western and central Anatolia was under Roman control, but continued to be heavily influenced by Hellenistic culture. In the 1st century BC BC, the Armenians established the Armenian kingdom in Tigran, which ruled over much of eastern Anatolia between the Caspian, Black and Mediterranean Seas.
Anatolia is known as the birthplace of currency as a medium of exchange (sometime in the VII century B.C..), which flourished during the Greek and Roman times.
Medieval and Renaissance Periods
After the division of the Roman Empire, Anatolia became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire. Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids from the 7th century century, but in the IX and X in a revival of the Byzantine Empire, it recovers its lost territories and even expanded beyond its traditional borders, in Armenia and Syria. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Turks advanced through Asia Minor, which was nearly conquered in 1080.
The Turkic language and Islamic religion were gradually introduced as a result of the Seljuk conquest. This period marked the beginning of Anatolia's slow transition from majority Christian and Greek-speaking to majority Muslim and Turkish-speaking. In the following century, the Byzantines managed to reassert their control in western and northern Anatolia. Control of Asia Minor was divided between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, with Byzantine territories gradually shrinking. In 1255, the Mongols spread across central and eastern Anatolia, and would remain until 1335. The Iljanate garrison was stationed near Ankara.
By the late 14th century century, most of the peninsula was controlled by the Anatolian beylates. The Turkmen beyliks were under Mongol control, at least nominally, during the decline of the Seljuk sultans. The beyllics did not mint coins bearing the names of their own leaders while they remained under the suzerainty of the Iljanato. Osman was the first Turkish ruler to strike coins bearing his own name in 1320, inscribed "minted by Osman's son of Ertugul". Since, in practice, minting coins was a prerogative granted in Islamic territories only to sovereigns, Osman can be considered to have gained independence from the Mongols. After the fall of the Ilkhanate around 1335-1353, the legacy of the Mongol Empire in the region was the Eretna Uighur, a dynasty that was overthrown by Kadi Burhan al-Din in 1381. Among the Turkmen leaders of the Ottomans, a great power arose in around Osman and his son Orhan I. Smyrna was conquered in 1330, and the last Byzantine possession, Philadelphia (present-day Alasehir), fell in 1390. The Anatolian beylates were in turn absorbed by the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. XV. The Ottomans completed the conquest of the peninsula in 1517 with the capture of Halicarnassus (Bodrum) from the Knights of Saint John.
Modern Times
With the beginning of the slow decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, and as a result of the expansionist policies of Tsarist Russia in the Caucasus, many of the Muslim nations and groups in that region, mainly Circassians, Tatars, Azeri, Lezgins, Chechens, and various Turkic groups left their ancestral lands and settled in Anatolia. As the Ottoman Empire continued to fragment during the Balkan War, much of the non-Christian population of its former possessions, especially Balkan Muslims, flocked to Anatolia and were resettled in various locations, mostly all in the old Christian towns along the peninsula.
Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century century. With the partition of the Ottoman Empire and after the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), all remaining Greek ethnic groups in Anatolia were expelled during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Asia Minor became the main focus of the new Republic of Turkey, founded in 1923, its inhabitants being mainly Turkish and Kurdish.
Links
Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category Anatolia.- Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia gallery on Anatolia.
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