III. The Beginnings of Transformation

BEGINNINGS OF TRANSFORMATION
toward Iconium, and in an effort to scorch the earth in the path of the
Crusaders, they gained entrance into the Greek towns, pillaged the houses
and churches, carried off the livestock, silver, gold, and other booty, and
then burned and destroyed everything that they could not carry away and
that might have been of some use to the Latins. Later in his reign, the
emperor Alexius I passed through the same areas and sought to destroy
the Turkish encampments and to waste the area so that the Turks would
not be able to use it to attack the empire. The sultan also scorched the
earth about Iconium. As the region had become the border between
Greek and Turkish possessions, it was slowly being turned to wasteland
as a result of the frequent military campaigns and by express desire of
both sides so that invaders might not find sustenance in these regions. 28
As Phrygia remained a critical frontier area in the reigns of John and
Manuel, it suffered considerably from Turkish raiding, 29
but with the
battle of Myriocephalum it was largely lost to the Turks. Pamphylia and
Pisidia had a fate similar to that ofPhrygia. After the initial recoveryofthe
area by Alexius and John, the Turks raided and expanded into the region,
until by 1204 little outside Attaleia remained Byzantine. 30
In the mid-
twelfth century the fertile agricultural area of Attaleia was so unsafe
because of the Turks that the inhabitants had to import their grain by
sea. 31
There are indications that Lycia and Caria also saw repeated
waves ofincursions. 32
Though the contemporary narratives give only a partial account of the
events and situation in western Anatolia, these are sufficient to indicate
that the invasions and warfare brought considerable upheaval to the
western Anatolian districts of Bithynia, Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Ionia,
Lycia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia. The majority of the raids have
remained unchronicled, for the Seljuks at this time had nothing in the way
ofchronicles (at least chronicles that have survived), and the Byzantine
historians were too concerned with the capital to note the recurring
raids. It is to be assumed that the border raids of the Turkmens were
constantly operative, and in fact the language of the Byzantine chronicles
states this explicitly. 33
The disruption and destruction often brought by
the Turkish raids to Byzantine urban and rural society in western Asia
Minor were extensive, and a number of authors refer to this phenomenon
in very general terms. Anna Comnena speaks of the Turkish "satraps"
28
Gesta Francorum, pp. 54-55. Alexius burned Turkish settlements wherever he found
them in order to protect his lands from the Turkmen raids, William of Tyre, VI, xii.
Alexius had the villages of Bourtzes burned because of the Turks, and then removed all
the Greeks, Anna Comnena, III, 200-203. Tudebodus, R.H.C., O.C., III, 29.
2 9
Theodore Scutariotes-Sathas, 190. Nicetas Choniates, 71-72. Cinnamus, 179.
3 0
Theodore Scutariotes-Sathas, 190-191, 208. Nicetas Choniates, 50, 689.
3 1
William of Tyre, XVI, xxvi.
32
Miklosich et Muller, VI, 17, 19, 84, 87; IV, 323-329, where it is implied that the
destruction of Latrus at the end of the eleventh was repeated again in the twelfth century.
3 3
Cinnamus, 59-60. Nicetas Choniates, 551.
148