Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

emperor Kantakouzenos (1341-55) and Aydinoglu Umur Beg as it is reported again
in the Dusturname . After a meeting where the emperor asks the gazi not to
destroy his empire and the latter tells the Byzantine ruler not to be sad, our
source reports: "They talked, wished each other well, and became brothers."[26]
So serious is Umur Beg about this brotherhood that he turns down Kantakouzenos's
offer of his daughter's hand as if marrying her would constitute incest: "The
tekvur is my brother, his daughter my daughter; our religion does not permit
this sort of thing."[27] He does not budge even later when the beautiful
princess practically throws herself at his feet and says: "take me, and let me
be your slave."[28] He hides his face in his hands to conceal his sorrow, but a
gazi must observe a code of conduct; he cannot do certain things once a
brotherly relationship is established even if that brother is the ruler of the
infidels.
My intention here is not to provide more evidence of cooperation between
Anatolian Muslim warriors and Byzantines, the prevalence of which is beyond
doubt. The point is rather to show that the literature produced by or among the
gazis to glorify their deeds did not find it contradictory to present their gazi
protagonists in cooperation with Christians. If such was the gazi mentality, why
should we define it to have been otherwise?
We should not, on the other hand, assume that because the gazis were able to
embrace the infidels, they would proudly have all such embraces
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announced and recorded. Their lack of inhibition regarding cooperation with the
infidels was certainly not boundless and should not be romanticized. There were
times when the gazis would sooner forget any alliances they may have made with
their Christian neighbors. Orhan's wedding to the daughter of a local Bithynian
ruler, traditionally dated to ca. 1299, is merrily reported in Ottoman
chronicles, but there is total silence concerning his marriage with the daughter
of Kantakouzenos (the princess Umur Beg had turned down). Orhan's marriage was
part of a relatively protracted period of cooperation between the Ottomans and
the Kantakouzenos faction in the Byzantine Empire that turned out to be a
turning point in Ottoman expansion toward southeastern Europe; and that whole
period represents a lacuna in Ottoman histories, which prefer to present a very
different scenario of the early military achievements in Thrace, as we shall see
below. The Dusturname , on the other hand, chronicling the story of a long
defunct polity, is not inhibited in dealing with the pact between Kantakouzenos
and the House of Aydin.[29]
It is not always easy to distinguish between these warrior epics and
hagiographies of holy men, just as it is at times difficult to differentiate a
warrior from a dervish or vice versa. These difficulties are particularly
manifest in the vita of Sari Saltuk , who seems to have crossed the line between
the two vocations with particular ease.
The Saltukname was compiled by Ebu'l-hayr-i Rumi , who traveled extensively to
collect oral traditions concerning Sari Saltuk , a legendary figure of the
thirteenth century, on behalf of Prince Cem (d. 1495). Completed ca. 1480, the
book doubtlessly contains a good deal of earlier material. This work is even
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