The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13 ...

their subordinate status was made formal years before
(1301/2) by the inception of the kharaj tax, an annual
tax on Christians . The requirement of the blue badge,
kerchief, or hat, to set the Christians apart from Kuslims
was observed by the Bavarian captive, Johann Schiltberger
around 1400, and so was a feature of the entire 14th
2
century .
With the breakdown of the IlrKhanid government in the
1330*8, various Turkmen, Mongol, and Kurdish bands
became completely unchecked. For example, in 1343, the
Qara Qoyunlu (Black Sheep) Turkmens (who had established
bases in Bagrewand and Kajberunik* in the late 13th
century) were ceaselessly raiding around Hat . The
Spanish Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta in 1333 noted that
Karin/Erzerum was "mostly in ruins as a consequence of
a factional feud which broke out between two groups of
Turkmens there"4. During the 1330's and 1340's, the
cities of Ersnjan, Sebastia/Sivas, and Karin/Erzerum
were under almost constant seige by rival nomadic groups .
SA p. 165.
JS p. 74.
14CC p. 334.
Battuta p. 437.
SA pp. 167-69.
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