III. The Beginnings of Transformation

BEGINNINGS OF TRANSFORMATION
population centers were not compactly settled and centered in one urban
area and so had no walls to protect the inhabitants. Laodiceia in Phrygia
was made up ofscattered settlements at the foot of the mountains andwas
not defended by walls. 195
But as a result of the invasions, the settlement
was concentrated into a centralized synoecism and fortified with walls.
The rural populations of the area then must have retreated to the safety
of the new walls. Just to the east Chonae, Sozopolis, and Baris must have
seen the flocking of rural elements to the safety of the city walls through­
out the twelfth century. 196
In the east the commercial center ofArtze was,
like many other cities, without walls and the town was scattered about
over a considerable area. Consequently, the Turks destroyed it and the
inhabitants fled to the protection of the walled city of Erzerum. 197
the Georgian regions ofTranscaucasia there was a similar devastation and
consequent flight of local populations. 198
In
In the north the rural popu­
lations largely abandoned the regions about Gangra, Castamon, and
Amaseia, some ofthem no doubt seeking refuge in the larger towns. 199
the south the farmers deserted the Pamphylian plain and sought refuge in
Attaleia (and elsewhere as well), and the countryside became the camping
ground of the Turkmens who came to raid and to besiege Attaleia. 200
Thus the invasions and repeated raiding very markedly disrupted the
rural society in many parts of Anatolia. The most abrupt and serious dis­
placement must have taken place in those areas that Muslims and
Christians contested for the longest periods, namely, the region between
Dorylaeum and Attaleia in the west, along the boundary between Danish-
mendids and Greeks in the north, and in the border regions about the
Taurus and the river valleys in the south and east.
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