III. The Beginnings of Transformation

BEGINNINGS OF TRANSFORMATION
this area until the latter half of the twelfth century, had to contest
possession not only with the Greeks but with the Seljuks of the plateau.
The valleys of the Lycus, Iris, Halys had been penetrated on numerous
occasions and in considerable force by the Turks prior even to the
appearance of Danishmend, as Paipert and Coloneia were raided in 1054
and 1057 respectively, 171
and Neocaesareia was sacked in 1068. 172
Amaseia and Castamon were surrounded by raiding Turkish bands when
Alexius Comnenus left Amaseia with Roussel. He paused near Castamon
to see the family estates but found them abandoned, the Turks pillaging,
and he himself only narrowly escaped capture. 173
By the time of the
Crusade of 1101, the Danishmendids had conquered Paipert, Argyropolis,
Coloneia, Neocaesareia, Doceia, Comana, Amaseia, Euchaita, Pimolissa,
Gangra, though Gabras of Trebizond had reconquered Paipert and
Coloneia at one point, 174
and the Byzantine general Taronites continued
to contest Danishmendid control in the area. The Crusaders of 1101
found the regions about Gangra-Castamon east to Amaseia partly
deserted, and the earth scorched. 175
In the warfare of the twelfth century,
especially in the reign of John Comnenus, the Greeks succeeded in
retaking Gangra, Castamon, and numerous other fortresses for restricted
periods, and so the area found itselfin much the same state of continuous
warfare and change of political domination as did western Anatolia. 176
In the latter halfofthe century the Seljuks ofKonya began, gradually, to
absorb the holdings of the Danishmendids as well as those of the Greeks.
In 1196 the emir ofAnkara besieged Dadybra for four months, bombard­
ing the houses, polluting the water and eventually reducing it by famine.
The Greek inhabitants were expelled and the city recolonized by
Muslims. 177
Previously, rebellions ofByzantines had brought considerable
destruction to Byzantine Paphlagonia in a manner strikingly reminiscent
of the rebellions in western Asia Minor at this time. 178
SOUTHERN ANATOLLA
Cilicia and the Taurus regions, especially, witnessed frequent political
change and military occupation. As a result of the First Crusade, the
1 7 1
Honigmann, Ostgrenze, pp. 181, 184. Cedrenus, II, 606.
1 7 2
Cedrenus, II, 684-685. Attaliates, 105.
1 7 3
Bryennius, 88, 93.
1 7 4
Danishmendname-Melikoff, I, 71-72, 108-112, 251-258, 277—280, 315. Anna
Comnena, III, 29-30, 76.
175
Anna Comnena, III, 37. Albert ofAchen, R.H.C., H.0., IV, 564, says ofthe regions
of Gangra, "segetes et omnia sata regionis depopulantes." Danishmendname-Melikoff,
I, 96.
1 7 6
See Chalandon, Les Comnènes, II, 46-47, 77-91. Nicetas Choniates, 25-26, 29,
45-48. Cinnamus, 13, 15, 21. Theodore Prodromus, P.G., CXXXIII, 1373-1383.
Michael the Syrian, III. 249, 234. Malik Ghazi massacred the Greeks of Castamon. E.
Kurtz, "Unedierte Texte aus der Zeit des Kaisers Johannes Komnenos," XVI B.Z.
(1907), 75-83.
1 7 7
Nicetas Choniates, 626.
178
Ibid., 553
162