The Landscape of Disaster:
Absence and Presence of Physical Features in the description of the Battle of Manzikert (1071) by Michael Attaleiates
In-person presentation at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII)
The Battle of Manzikert (1071) is a crucial event in the history of medieval Anatolia. The army of the Eastern Roman Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068-1071) and that of Alp Arslan, Sultan of the Great Seljuk (r. 1063-1072), met somewhere near the modern settlement of Malazgirt in the province of Van, Türkiye. Sources on the battle are many, yet only one author – Michael Attaleiates – was actually present on the battlefield, and he provided some clues as to its location. A description of the battle was included in his grand narrative Historia, written nearly 10 years later. This account formed the basis of many other Byzantine narratives, and is one of the sources that has been used by recent historians in their attempts to reconstruct the battle.
The presentation will analyse Attaleiates’ narrative using the tools of narratology, and will treat Manzikert as an important element in the grand narrative of the Historia. The focus will be on the rare concentration of emotions that suffuses Attaleiates’ account, allowing it to be read not only as the work of a historian, but also as a survivor narrative. The combination of literary motifs and traumatic perceptions might help explain why Michael Attaleiates (who was particularly attentive to the landscape in his work) suddenly blurred his vision as regards spatial details. Finally, the presentation will analyse the complex relations between the scarce information that is present in Attaleiates’ text, the landscape currently visible in situ, and the recent results of the Malazgirt Survey Project, which succeeded in producing tangible finds that can be linked with the battle and the events surrounding it.
Speaker: Roman Shliakhtin, University of St. Andrews (MSCA MEMANZ)
Admission only after registration via email to event@sri.org.tr
