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

8
the Saljuq sultans and rulers of eastern Asia Minor lacking
an Armenian, Georgian or Greek parent or grandparent .
Indeed, some have suggested that the great warlord and
founder of the Daniehmandid emirate, hero of the Turkish
epic the Danlshmend name. emir Malik Janlahmand himself,
2
was an Armenian Muslim . Judging from the many clearly
that Intermarriage took place rather extensively from
the very beginning of the Turkish occupation of Anatolia
and for several centuries thereafter. Anna Comnena speaks
of the offspring of such unions as mixovarvaroi. and the
twelfth-century Balsamon refers to their curious practises.
When the Greek historian Dlcephorus Gregoras passed through
Bithynia en route to Nicaea in the middle of the fourteenthcentury,
just one generation after the conquest of Nicaea,
he observed that the population consisted of Greeks,
mixovarvaroi (Graeco-Turks), and Turks. Thus intermarriage
of Muslims and Christians at every level of society played
a very important role in the integration and absorption
of the Greek Christian element into Muslim society" (DUH
pp. 228-29). The Tuikish-language equivalent of mixovarvaroi
may have been ikdlah. signifying a gelding or cross-bred
animal, particularly a mule. See PT pp. 192-93.
1
SMH pp. 227-34. Furthermore, certain Christian families
of western and central Asia Minor, cited as "Greeks" in
Greek sources, such as the Tornikes, Taronites, Phocades,
Musele, Skleroi, etc. were in fact of Armenian descent,
even if no longer identifying as such. See A.f.Kashdan,
" Armlano-vigantllskie zametkl". PBJL #4(1971) pp. 93-105,
and thesame author's recent study, Armiane v soetave
eos pod atvulushchego klasaa Vizantil v Al-JLllvv.LArmeHians
in the aompositlon o7
~
he Ruling Class of .byzantium in
KeTT-XII CenturlesT TMoacow, I97 ). p, Charania, '
The Xrmenlans in the Byzantine Empire (Lisbon, 1963).
2
According to S.Eremyan, "Liparit zoravarl ha ordnera ev
Danismanyan tohml cagman xndlra [The Succesaorf of General
Llparlt and ihe Problem of the Origin of the Daniehmandid
Linel", Teickagir #8(1947) PP. 65-79, Malik .DanisEjiand was
none other than the Armeno-Georgian Hrahat/Rat Orbeleac/
liparltean. The Turkish scholar Kalil Yinanc, Selcuklular
[cited by I. Melikoff in La Geste de
Deyri. .
welik Danismend (Paris , I960) p. 76] probaTSTy followTng
the 18th century Armeniaui historian M. am$ean has suggested
that Danishmand was an Armenian captive of war-possibly
85