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Çaka (or possibly Çakan) Bey was a Turkish emir who founded an Islamic polity based on the town of Smyrna (modern İzmir) in or just before 473–4/1081, one of a number of states set up by Turkish military strongmen in Anatolia in the years following the Saljūq victory over the Byzantines at Manzikert (Malazgirt, 463/1071). Very little is known about his activities during his period of rule, and our knowledge is based almost exclusively on The Alexiad, a Greek biography of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos written by his daughter Anna towards the middle of the sixt…

Chios is the fifth largest Greek island, located in the eastern Aegean Sea, approximately eight kilometres (five miles) off the coast of present-day Turkey. Known in Turkish as Sakız Adası because of its production of gum mastic, or sakız, it is separated from the Anatolian mainland by the strait of Chios (Sakız Boğazı). In the Middle Ages, the island was a haven for the ships of merchants and pilgrims. From 482/1089 to 485/1092, during the first period of Turkish expansion in the region, it was briefly occupied by Çaka Bey (a Turki…

(the Ottoman Turkish name for Chios, the Greek name of this island and of its capital; ṣaḳi̊z means “gum mastic”, a testimony to the product for which Chios was famous), an island in the eastern Aegean alongside the Turkish coast, from which only 8 km/5 miles separate it at the narrowest point of the strait of Chios ( Ṣaḳi̊z bog̲h̲azi̊ ); the large peninsula of Karaburun on the mainland, jutting north, separates the island’s northern half from the gulf and port of Smyrna [see izmir in Suppl.]. With an area of 841 km2, it is the fifth largest island of the Aegean after Crete [see iḳrītis̲h̲ …

(nom ottoman de Chios, qui est le nom grec de cette île et de sa capitale; ṣaḳiz signifie «gomme mastic», en témoignage du célèbre produit de Chios), île de l’Est de la Mer Egée à proximité de la côte turque, celle-ci se trouvant à 8 km seulement du point le plus proche du détroit de Chios ( Ṣaḳi̊z bog̲h̲azi̊); en s’avançant vers le Nord, la grande péninsule de Karaburun sur le continent sépare la moitié Nord de l’île du golfe et du port de Smyrne [voir Izmir dans Suppl.]. Avec 841 km2 de superficie, elle est la cinquième grande île de l’Egée après la Crète [voir Iḳrītis̲h̲], Eubée [voir Eğriboz], Lesb…

(A.), pl. ḳarāsina and also ḳarāṣin/ḳarāṣīn , “corsair, pirate”, stems from Italian corsale , which has further given forms closer to the original but less commonly-found, such as ḳurṣāl , pl. ḳarāṣil/ ḳarāṣīl , and kursālī , pl. kursāliyya . In turn, Arabic has formed the abstract noun ḳarṣana “privateering, piracy”, still in use today, as is also ḳurṣān , sometimes conceived of as a plural. In the colloquial there is further the verb ḳarṣan “to raid, act as a pirate”, and the dialects also given to ḳurṣān the double sense of “corsair” and “boat”. This latter term was an Andalusi…

(a.) “navigation, seamanship; seafaring”. Like its English and French counterparts, navigation , the Arabic term has both a narrower and a broader connotation. The former refers to the mariner’s art of determining the ship’s position, charting her course and assuring that her progress and ultimate arrival is performed efficiently and safely; the latter, to seafaring in general. The term is attested in its faʿʿāl form, mallāḥ , at least since the ʿAbbāsid period (Lane, vii, 2733); it appears to go back to Akkadian and ultimately Sumerian ( Chicago Akkadian dictionary, Letter M …

(a.), pl. ḳarāṣina et aussi ḳarāṣin/ ḳarāṣīn « corsaire, pirate », de l’italien corsale, qui a fourni également des formes plus proches de l’original, mais moins courantes: ḳurṣāl, pi. ḳarāṣil/ ḳarāṣīl et ḳursālī, pi. kursāliyya; à son tour, l’arabe a formé ḳarṣana «course, piraterie», encore en usage de nos jours, comme d’ailleurs ḳurṣān, parfois senti comme un pluriel; le dialectal connaît aussi le verbe ḳǝerṣǝn «pirater, faire la course» et donne à ḳurṣān le double sens de «corsaire» et de «navire». Ce dernier terme était andalou (cf. Pedro de Alcala, . . . de lingua arabica libri duo, G…

(a.) «navigation, marine; voyage par mer». Tout comme ses équivalents anglais et français, navigation, le mot arabe possède à la fois un sens restreint et un sens large. Le premier désigne la capacité qu’a le marin de déterminer la position du vaisseau, de porter sa course sur une carte et d’assurer avec efficacité et sécurité sa marche et son arrivée à bon port. Le second réfère à la navigation en général. Le mot est attesté sous la forme faʿʿāl (mallāḥ) au moins depuis l’époque ʿabbāside (Lane, VII, 2733); il semble remonter à l’akkadien et, en dernière analyse, au sumérien ( Chicago Akkadia…

A. IntroductionAuthors at the time, and many modern historians, have read Byzantine history of the 11th and 12th centuries in an almost teleological way, from the perspective of two catastrophes: the near-collapse of the empire in the decade following the Battle of Manzikert (1071), which led to the loss of former heartlands in Asia Minor, and the Sack of Constantinople (8.10.) during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, which really seemed to mark the fall of Byzantium [143]. Even though the empire in fact survived – ‘resurrected’ – for another two centuries until 1453, to…

, the Turkish name for Samos, an island in the south-eastern Aegean alongside the Turkish coast, from which only 1.8 km/1.2 miles separate it at the narrowest point of the Dar Bog̲h̲az/Stenon Samou. With an area of 468 km2, Samos is one of the larger islands in the Aegean, and today forms, with Ikaria and a few other islands, one of Greece’s 52 nomoi . The capital and main port city is situated on the north-eastern coast inside the bay of Vathy, and was known by this name until outgrown by a suburb called Samos. The nearest important port on the Turkish coast is Kuşadası [see aya solūḳ …

, nom turc de Samos, île de la mer Egée le long de la côte turque, dont elle n’est séparée que d’1,8 km à son point le plus étroit du Dar Bog̲h̲az/ Stenon Samou. Avec une superficie de 468 km2, Samos est l’une des plus grande īles de la mer Egée, et constitue actuellement avec Icarie et quelques autres īles, l’un des 52 nomoi de la Grèce. La capitale et principal port est située sur la côte Nord-est dans la baie de Vathy, et était connue sous ce nom jusqu’à ce que prenne plus d’importance un faubourg appelé Samos. Le port le plus important sur la côte turque est Kuşadaşi [voir Aya Solūḳ], et une navette m…