Starting from Spring 2014, VEKAM has been organizing yearly international symposiums to introduce various cultures that lived in Anatolia and support research in these fields of study. The symposium proceeding volume titled Cultural Encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval Period: Ilkhanids in Anatolia which was held on may 21st-22nd May, 2015 at the premises of VEKAM in Ankara/ Turkey focuses on the fields such as; history, literature, mysticism, art, urban history and architecture during the Ilkhanid Period. In this respect we believe that the Ilkhanids in Anatolia symposium proceedings will fill an important gap and lead up new researches in this field.

A new understanding of the transformation of Anatolia to a Muslim society in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries based on previously unpublished sources.

This book is a study of Islamic architecture in Anatolia following the Mongol conquest in 1243. Complex shifts in rule, movements of population, and cultural transformations took place that affected architecture on multiple levels. Beginning with the Mongol conquest of Anatolia, and ending with the demise of the Ilkhanid Empire, centered in Iran, in the 1330s, this book considers how the integration of Anatolia into the Mongol world system transformed architecture and patronage in the region. Traditionally, this period has been studied within the larger narrative of a progression from Seljuk to Ottoman rule and architecture, in a historiography that privileges Turkish national identity. Once Anatolia is studied within the framework of the Mongol Empire, however, the region no longer appears as an isolated case; rather it is integrated into a broader context beyond the modern borders of Turkey, Iran, and the Caucasus republics. The monuments built during this period served a number of purposes: mosques were places of prayer and congregation, madrasas were used to teach Islamic law and theology, and caravanserais secured trade routes for merchants and travelers. This study analyzes architecture on multiple, overlapping levels, based on a detailed observation of the monuments. The layers of information extracted from the monuments themselves, from written sources in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and from historical photographs, shape an image of Islamic architecture in medieval Anatolia that reflects the complexities of this frontier region. New patrons emerged, craftsmen migrated between neighboring regions, and the use of locally available materials fostered the transformation of designs in ways that are closely tied to specific places. Starting from these sources, this book untangles the intertwined narratives of architecture, history, and religion to provide a broader understanding of frontier culture in the medieval Middle East, with its complex interaction of local, regional, and trans-regional identities.

An important book on the monetary history of the Ottoman empire by a leading economic historian.

In The Origins of the Ottoman Empire, Köprülü criticized as unscientific the prevailing Western explanations of the origins of the Ottoman Empire. Leiser's translation from the Turkish reveals Köprülü's modern historiographic method, and his unique contribution in describing the nature of the relevant Muslim sources. Using these and other references, Köprülü gave the first broad comprehensive account--political, religious, social, and economic--of the Turkish history of Anatolia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and outlined the major factors that led to the rise of the Ottomans.

First published in 1943 in Turkish, intended to introduce a series of studies of the specific local sources for information on the Seljuks. The series itself was never written. The sections survey published and unpublished sources, chronicles and lost chronicles, diplomatic, and literary sources. An

Iran is an ancient place of extreme contrasts. It is both blessed and cursed.It is home to both Islam and anti-Islam. This book attempts to trace out the Secret History of Iran, from 500 B.C. to present. This book covers the various secret groups and cabals that continue to dominate Iran, from the remnants of Mystery Babylon and the Sabaeans to crypto-Byzantines. Their little known role in the Mongol Invasion is investigated. Connections between such groups and well-known poets and intellectuals produced by Iran is methodically examined. Under the little known Khwarezm Empire, Iran served as the key to the Mongol destruction of the Islamic World. Today, Iran has once again been thrust into a similar position, as the modern-day Mongols encircle the Middle East. What role will Iran play this time?