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Loulon
Loulon (), in Arabic known as Lu'lu'a (), was a fortress near the modern village of Hasangazi in Turkey. The site was of strategic importance as it controlled the northern exit of the Cilician Gates. In the 8th–9th centuries it was located on the border between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate and played a prominent role in the Arab–Byzantine wars of the period, changing hands several times. Location The Scottish scholar W. M. Ramsay identified the fortress as a 300-metre high steep hill fortress west of the modern village of Porsuk in the Çakit valley, but modern scholars identify it with the 2,100-metre tall rocky hill some 13 km north of Porsuk, lying between the modern villages of Çanakçi and Gedelli. The identification is supported by ruins of walls encompassing an area of 40 x 60 metres and traces of barracks and cisterns on the hilltop dating to the 9th–12th centuries, as well as by an unobstructed view to Hasan Dağ, which is commonly identif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Beacon System
In the 9th century, during the Arab–Byzantine wars, the Byzantine Empire used a semaphore system of beacons to transmit messages from the border with the Abbasid Caliphate across Asia Minor to the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. According to Byzantine sources ( Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Theophanes Continuatus and Symeon Magister), the line of beacons began with the fortress of Loulon, on the northern exit of the Cilician Gates, and continued with Mt. Argaios (identified mostly with Keçikalesı on Hasan Dağı, but also with Erciyes Dağı near Caesarea), Mt. Samos or Isamos (unidentified, probably north of Lake Tatta), the fortress of Aigilon (unidentified, probably south of Dorylaion), Mt. Mamas (unidentified, Constantine Porphyrogenitus has Mysian Olympus instead), Mt. Kyrizos (somewhere between Lake Ascania and the Gulf of Kios, possibly Katerlı Dağı according to W. M. Ramsay), Mt. Mokilos above Pylae on the southern shore of the Gulf of Nicomedia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos (, sometimes Latinised as Theophilus; 20 January 842) was Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos was well-educated in the imperial household but upon his accession to the throne was met with the dual threat of the Abbasid Caliphate in Asia Minor and the Aghlabids in Sicily. He personally led the armies in his long war against both the Abbasid Caliphate and the Aghlabids in Sicily, beginning in 831. He won fleeting victories but the retaliation of Caliph al-Mu'tasim () was devastating, as was most humiliating in the Sack of Amorion in 838, the ancestral home of Theophilos' Amorian dynasty. Internal strife within the Caliphate allowed the Byzantines to recover. Theophilos engaged in many construction and renovation projects. One of his closest allies was the learned and cosmopolitan John the Grammarian, and they both improved relations with the Caliph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hasangazi
Hasangazi (formerly Lu'lu'a, Lulu, or Lüle) is a village of the Ulukışla District, Niğde Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Its population is 828 (2022). It is located 16 km east of Ulukışla and 70 km south of Niğde. The town is rumored to be named after a war veteran of the Turkish War of Independence but its name was stated as Esengazi in old Ottoman documents a few centuries before the war. In recent years, the town has experienced a seasonal population increase as residents of Mersin and Adana have fled the heat of the cities. The village is served by the Turkish State Railways station ''Gümüş''. History The village lies near the Byzantine fortress of Loulon, known in Arabic as Lu'lu'a. Between 1216 and 1218, Kaykaus I captured the town from the Armenians. The Seljuqs strengthened its fortifications and made it an important way station on the road between Sis and Kayseri. Owing to rich silver deposits nearby, the town became an important ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faustinopolis
Faustinopolis (), also Colonia Faustinopolis and Halala, was an ancient city in the south of Cappadocia, about 20 km south of Tyana. It was named after the empress Faustina, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, who died in a village there. Her husband, by establishing a colony in it, raised it to the rank of a town under the name of Faustinopolis. Hierocles assigns the place to Cappadocia Secunda, and it is also mentioned in the Antonine and Jerusalem Itineraries. The town was close to the defiles of the Cilician Gates, and was likely situated at modern-day Başmakçı, Niğde Province, Turkey. Following the Muslim conquests and the subsequent Arab raids, the site was abandoned for the nearby fortress of Loulon. Faustinopolis is a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyana
Tyana, earlier known as Tuwana during the Iron Age, and Tūwanuwa during the Bronze Age, was an ancient city in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia, in modern Kemerhisar, Niğde Province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. It was the capital of a Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom in the 1st millennium BC. Name The name of the city was () during the Hittite Empire, and () in the Luwian language during the Syro-Hittite period. From the Luwian name were derived: * the Neo-Assyrian Akkadian name of the city, (), * and the Ancient Greek name of the city, (; ). Geography Location The location of the Hittite Tūwanuwa/Neo-Hittite Tuwana/Classical Tyana corresponds to the modern-day town of Kemerhisar in Niğde Province, Turkey. Surroundings The region around Tyana, which corresponded to roughly the same area as the former Iron Age kingdom of Tuwana, was known in Classical Antiquity as Tyanitis. History According to later Hittite sources, Tūwanuwa was an important cult centre, and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarsus, Mersin
Tarsus (; Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒅈𒊭 ; ; ; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,029 km2, and its population is 350,732 (2022). It is a historic city, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin metropolitan area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey. Tarsus forms an administrative district in the eastern part of Mersin Province and lies at the heart of the region. With a history going back over 6,000 years, Tarsus has long been an important stop for traders and a focal point of many civilisations. During the Roman Empire, it was the capital of the province of Cilicia (Roman province), Cilicia. It was the scene of the first meeting between Mark Antony and Cleopatra, and the birthplace of Paul the Apostle. Tarsus was served by Adana Adana Şakirpaşa Airport, Şakirpaşa Airport, replaced in August 2024 by Çukurova International Airport; and is connected by Turkish Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region includes the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye and Hatay. Name The name of Cilicia () was derived from (), which was the name used by the Neo-Assyrian Empire to designate the western part of what would become Cilicia. The English spelling is the same as the Latin, as it was transliterated directly from the Greek form Κιλικία. The palatalization of c occurring in Western Europe in later Vulgar Latin () accounts for its modern pronunciation in English. Geography Cilicia extends along the Mediterranean coast east from Pamphylia to the Nur Mountains, which separate it from Syria. North and east of Cilicia stand the rugged Taurus Mountains, which separate it from the high central plateau of Anatolia, and which are pierced by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo The Mathematician
Leo the Mathematician, the Grammarian or the Philosopher ( or ὁ Φιλόσοφος, ''Léōn ho Mathēmatikós'' or ''ho Philósophos''; – after January 9, 869) was a Byzantine philosopher and logician associated with the Macedonian Renaissance and the end of the Second Byzantine Iconoclasm. His only preserved writings are some notes contained in manuscripts of Plato's dialogues. He has been called a "true Renaissance man"Marcus Louis Rautman (2006), ''Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, ), 294–95. and "the cleverest man in Byzantium in the 9th century". He was archbishop of Thessalonica and later became the head of the Magnaura School of philosophy in Constantinople, where he taught Aristotelian logic. Life Leo was born in Thessaly, a cousin of the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Grammarian. Little is known about his early life. In his youth he was educated at Constantinople, but found higher education options limited in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic, which is derived from Classical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as ( "the eloquent Arabic") or simply ' (). Arabic is the List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language, third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations, and the Sacred language, liturgical language of Islam. Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caliphate
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim world (''ummah''). Historically, the caliphates were polities based on Islam which developed into multi-ethnic trans-national empires. During the medieval period, three major caliphates succeeded each other: the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), and the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1517). In the fourth major caliphate, the Ottoman Caliphate, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire claimed caliphal authority from 1517 until the Ottoman caliphate was Abolition of the Caliphate, formally abolished as part of the Atatürk's reforms, 1924 secularisation of Turkey. An attempt to preserve the title was tried, with the Sharifian Caliphate, but this caliphate fell quickly after its conquest by the Sultanate o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael III
Michael III (; 9/10 January 840 – 24 September 867), also known as Michael the Drunkard, was Byzantine emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian dynasty, Amorian (or Phrygian) dynasty. He was given the disparaging epithet ''the Drunkard'' () by the hostile historians of the succeeding Macedonian dynasty, but modern historical research has rehabilitated his reputation to some extent, demonstrating the vital role his reign played in the resurgence of Byzantine power in the 9th century. He was also the youngest person to bear the imperial title, as well as the youngest to succeed as senior emperor. Life Early life and regency Michael was the youngest child of the emperor Theophilos (emperor), Theophilos and his empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos), Theodora. His precise date of birth is uncertain, but the balance of available evidence supports a birthdate in early 840, probably on 9 or 10 January. He was coronation of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macedonian Dynasty
The Macedonian dynasty () Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty, ruled the Byzantine Empire from 867 to 1056, following the Byzantium under the Amorian dynasty, Amorian dynasty. During this period, the Byzantine state reached its greatest extent since the Early Muslim conquests, and the Macedonian Renaissance in letters and arts began. The dynasty was named after its founder, Basil I the Macedonian who came from the theme (Byzantine district), theme of Macedonia (theme), Macedonia. Origins The dynasty's ethnic origin is unknown, and has been a subject of debate. During Basil's reign, an elaborate genealogy was produced that purported that his ancestors were not mere peasants, as everyone believed, but descendants of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, Arsacid (Arshakuni) kings of Armenia, Alexander the Great and also of Constantine the Great. Some Persian writers such as Hamza al-Isfahani or Al-Tabari, called Basil a ''Saqlabi'', an ethnogeographic term that usually denoted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
