Amasya's emergence as a Turkish homeland cannot be fitted into a single day of conquest; it took shape over several decades of effort by the Turkmen beys who spread across Anatolia after the victory at Manzikert on 26 August 1071. After the victory of 1071, the commanders in Sultan Alp Arslan's entourage launched raids into the interior of Anatolia, Byzantine rule over these lands collapsed, and in the conquered territories small principalities, free in their internal affairs by permission of the Seljuk ruler, came into being. One of the most powerful of these was that of the Danishmendids, who made Sivas their centre. For roughly a century Amasya remained under this dynasty, and it was then incorporated into the Anatolian Seljuk State.

The two periods are not separated by sharp lines. Under the Danishmendids the city was a frontier and garrison town; one of the heaviest clashes of the Crusades in Anatolia took place close by. Under the Seljuks Amasya became a city known by the title "Dar al-Izz", the "abode of glory", and was recognised for its madrasas, its pious endowments and its governorship. After the Seljuk authority dissolved came Mongol pressure, the Eretnid state and a period of local emirate; Amasya entered Ottoman administration only at the end of this long transition.

From Amaseia to a Danishmendid City

The city's oldest known name is Amaseia. When and by whom it was founded is not known with certainty; it is thought to have existed before the age of Alexander the Great, and its history is believed to reach back to the Hittite period. In the Hellenistic era it was at times the capital of the kings of Pontus, in 63 BC it was incorporated into the Roman state, and in the third century AD it gained importance as a bishopric. The Arabs took the city in 712; a few years later Byzantine forces under Emperor Leo III (717-741) recaptured it. When the Turkmen reached the Yeşilırmak valley, Amaseia was a frontier town that had stood under Byzantine rule for centuries. That the old name survives in the form Amasya shows that the settlement continued unbroken through these changes of hands; Turkish rule was not a destruction but the continuation of life in the same valley under a new political roof.

Danishmend Gazi and the Founding of the Dynasty

The founder of the dynasty, Danishmend Gazi, belonged to a Turkmen family that had lived in Azerbaijan; what is known of his life and ethnic origin is scanty. Ibn al-Athir writes that his original name was Taylu and that he taught the Turkmen, while the Danishmendname gives him the name Ahmed and tells the origin of the epithet "Danishmend" in epic fashion; this account does not square with known historical fact. In 1064 he entered the service of Sultan Alp Arslan and soon rose to be among his favourite emirs. He took part in the Battle of Manzikert; after the victory he conquered Sivas, which had been granted to him as an iqta, and formed the first core of the dynasty (1071). It is reported that Alp Arslan asked the emirs who had fought at Manzikert to undertake conquests in Anatolia and announced that the lands they conquered would be granted to them as iqta. According to Nisaburi's Seljuqnama, in this allotment Sivas, Tokat, Amasya and Kayseri were assigned to Danishmend Gazi; the sultan also promised that these places would be exempt from tax, that no burden would be laid on the sons of Danishmend, and that Seljuk princes would not meddle in his land. Using Sivas as his base, Danishmend Gazi and his emirs Çaka, Turasan, Kara Doğan, Osmancık, İltegin and Kara Tegin took Amasya, Tokat, Niksar, Kayseri, Zamantı, Elbistan, Develi and Çorum, laying the foundation of one of the first Turkmen principalities established in Anatolia. At first the Danishmendids campaigned in the name of the Great Seljuks; after 1086 they acted in their own name.

The sources do not agree on exactly when and by whom Amasya was taken. Encyclopedic accounts state that there is no certain information on the date of the Turkish conquest of the city, only that it was known to be under Danishmendid administration. Local official accounts write that Amasya and its surroundings were conquered by Danishmend Ahmed Gazi; this name corresponds to Melik Ahmed Danishmend, the name used for Danishmend Gazi in the epics. Another account says that Amaseia fell to the Turkmen Danishmendid emirs in 1075 and was their capital until Kilij Arslan II annexed the dynasty's domains. Since the dynasty's centre is given as Sivas in the sources on the dynasty, the claim that Amasya was its "capital" should be read with caution. This discrepancy between sources does not alter the fact itself: in the first half-century after 1071 the city came under Danishmendid rule and became one of the early centres of the Turkification of Anatolia.

After the death of Danishmend Gazi he was succeeded by his son Gümüştegin. Under him the dynasty expanded by exploiting the rivalry between the Seljuks of Anatolia and of Syria; Gümüştegin was the first Danishmendid ruler to strike coins in his own name. His coins bear Greek and Greek-Arabic inscriptions, and some issues carry Christian symbols, ruler portraits and a lion figure.

The Battle of Merzifon and the Crusaders of 1101

The best-known event in Amasya's Danishmendid history is the battle fought close to the city in the summer of 1101. With the capture of Jerusalem in the First Crusade, fresh excitement had arisen in Europe, and a new Crusader contingent made up of Lombards, French and Germans crossed into Anatolia in 1101. When the Crusaders reached Constantinople they learned that Bohemund, Prince of Antioch, had been taken prisoner by Gümüştegin and carried first to Sivas and then to Niksar, and they set out to rescue him. The army, which left the vicinity of İzmit in June 1101, took Ankara and then turned towards Çankırı in order to reach Amasya and Niksar.

This advance forced the Danishmendids and the Seljuks of Anatolia into a joint resistance. A Turkish force of about twenty thousand, under the command of Gümüştegin, Sultan Kılıç Arslan I, Ridwan, the Seljuk malik of Aleppo, and Qaraja, emir of Harran, routed the Crusader army near Merzifon in August 1101. The local official account reports that the engagement was fought between Amasya and Merzifon on 5 August 1101 and mentions the Seljuk sultan Kılıç Arslan together with Danishmend Ahmed Gazi. In the same year the Turkish forces also scattered the second Crusader army advancing towards Konya and a third army near Ereğli. The defeat at Merzifon ended the Crusaders' attempt to reach the interior of Anatolia and the Black Sea line.

After the victory the alliance dissolved. When Gümüştegin released Bohemund for a ransom (1103), Kılıç Arslan, who demanded a share of the ransom, marched against him and defeated him near Marash. Gümüştegin died at Sivas in 1104; with his death struggles for the throne began within the dynasty.

Emir Gazi, Melik Muhammed and the Position of Amasya

Gümüştegin's eldest son Emir Gazi reunited the dynasty after the succession struggles. By placing his son-in-law Mesud on the Anatolian Seljuk throne (1116), he made the Danishmendids the strongest political force in Anatolia. He took Malatya, Kayseri and Ankara, and in 1129 gained control of Çankırı, Kastamonu and the Black Sea coast. When he died in 1134 he was succeeded by his eldest son Melik Muhammed. Melik Muhammed fought the Greeks, the Crusaders and the Armenians, invited many religious scholars to Anatolia, and rebuilt the ruined city of Kayseri, where he had the Great Mosque of Kayseri built. He died at Kayseri in 1143.

After Melik Muhammed's death the dynasty split into three: Sivas, Malatya and Kayseri. Amasya remained under the Sivas branch. Emir Gazi's son Yağıbasan is recorded as malik of Sivas and Amasya; in 1150 he took Ünye, Samsun and Bafra on the Black Sea coast. According to the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates, after the death of Sultan Mesud I in 1155 Amasya, Ankara and Cappadocia were given to Yağıbasan, one of the Danishmendid sons-in-law, and Kayseri and Sivas to Zünnûn. In later years Yağıbasan allied himself with the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos against the Seljuk sultan Kılıç Arslan II and defeated Kılıç Arslan in 1162; in 1164 he died beside his son-in-law Shahinshah at Çankırı and was buried in the cemetery of the madrasa he had built at Niksar.

Who took the throne after Yağıbasan is disputed. According to some accounts, his wife married İsmâil, the sixteen-year-old son of Zünnûn's brother İbrâhim, and proclaimed him ruler. Other sources say that his son Cemâleddin Gazi succeeded him. Some historians write that Cemâleddin Gazi's real name was İsmâil and that, after ruling for two years around Tokat and Amasya, he was removed by his cousin İbrâhim (1166). This uncertainty shows that in the last years of the dynasty Amasya, together with the Sivas branch, remained caught up in the same struggles for the throne.

What Remains of Danishmendid Amasya

Danishmendid architecture is modest in material, technique and ornament; its importance lies in forming the first examples of an Anatolian Turkish architecture seeking its own identity in its formative period. Some of these works are regarded as forerunners of later Seljuk and Ottoman design schemes. Most of the buildings of this period in Amasya have either disappeared or been radically altered in later ages.

The oldest Turkish building in the city is the mosque that the Danishmendid Melik Gazi had built on the site of today's Şamlar Mosque, just east of the citadel. The origins of the Küçük Ağa Complex also go back to the Danishmendid period, but this group of buildings was almost entirely renewed in the late fifteenth century under the Ottomans. The existence of the Yağıbasan Han and the Palace of Danishmend Gazi in Amasya is known from sources, but neither has survived. The Çağlayan (Çalâkçalık) Bridge over the Yeşilırmak, about six kilometres from the city, was built in the first half of the twelfth century by Hüsâmüddevle Hasan, son of İltegin Gazi, one of Yağıbasan's emirs. The six wide openings of the seventy-metre bridge are spanned by round brick arches, and the piers are strengthened with spurs on the west side. The ruined tower-like section rising on the bridge's axis is thought to have been a kind of history kiosk, and in this form it is regarded as the earliest known example of the history kiosks that would become an indispensable element of Ottoman bridge architecture.

The dynasty's buildings in neighbouring cities give an idea of the architectural outlook of the age. The Garipler Mosque in Tokat is the oldest dated building of the dynasty to survive, and archival documents show that it was built by Danishmend Gazi. The Great Mosque of Kayseri was built in the time of Melik Muhammed, and the Kölük Mosque-Madrasa in Kayseri probably in the time of Yağıbasan. The madrasas that Yağıbasan had built in Tokat and Niksar are among the earliest examples of the "domed madrasa" type, with a courtyard covered by a lantern dome; the dome at Tokat reaches a diameter of about fourteen metres.

Amasya in the Danishmendname

The ghazi tradition of the Danishmendids in Anatolia was kept alive in an epic narrative called the Danishmendname. The work was written in 1245 at the command of the Anatolian Seljuk ruler Izz al-Din Kaykaus II by the chancery scribe Ibn Ala, by compiling the legends circulating among the ghazis; this first copy has not survived. Arif Ali, the commander of Tokat Castle, rewrote the text in the reign of Murad II (1421-1451) in a prose that included verse passages, and all copies now available reflect this second version. Irène Mélikoff's critical edition and French translation of 1960 is the basic work for the scholarly study of the subject.

According to the narrative, Danishmend Gazi, with the caliph's permission, begins conquests in Anatolia, restores Sivas and decides to take the region from there to the Black Sea. He conquers the districts of Tokat, Zile, Amasya, Çorum and Niksar and invites the people to Islam. The people of Niksar later renounce the faith and kill Muslims; Danishmend Gazi retakes the city, but is ambushed on the road to Canik and martyred, and by his will is buried opposite Niksar Castle. His son Melik Gazi goes to Baghdad and appears before the caliph, recovers the places his father had conquered and has a tomb built over his father's grave at Niksar. The epic mixes historical events with legendary elements; even so, because its heroes were real Turkish beys and the places named appear under Anatolia's real geographical names, Ottoman historians used it for a long time as if it were a history book. In its sequence of events and in its details it cannot be regarded as a reliable chronological source on its own.

1175 and Seljuk Rule

The end of the Danishmendids came amid the struggles between members of the dynasty and the balances among the Seljuks of Anatolia, Byzantium and the Zengids. From 1165 Kılıç Arslan II annexed Danishmendid lands systematically; around 1169 (in other accounts 1171 or 1173) he ended Danishmendid rule at Kayseri and Zamantı. After Zengid atabeg Nur al-Din Mahmud died in 1174, Kılıç Arslan took Sivas, Niksar, Komana, Tokat and the other Danishmendid lands in the summer of 1175. Amasya's passage under Seljuk rule is also dated to this year. Emperor Manuel, who saw the Danishmendids as a counterweight to the Seljuks, wanted them to recover their lands; he sent his commander Gabras with an army of thirty thousand to Amasya and Niksar, but achieved nothing. According to the accounts, the force sent under Shahinshah to take Amasya was also ambushed near Eskişehir. The Malatya branch of the Danishmendids came to an end in 1178, and the dynasty lost its independent political existence in Anatolian history.

Under Seljuk administration Amasya became an important city; some sources say that in this period the city was known by the title "Dar al-Izz". Toward the end of his life (probably 1184-1185) Kılıç Arslan II divided the country among his eleven sons; in this partition Amasya fell to Nizam al-Din Arghun Shah, and the lands extending to Tokat and the Black Sea to Rukn al-Din Süleyman Shah. Rukn al-Din Süleyman Shah seized Amasya from his brother by force. When he took the Seljuk throne as well in 1196-1204, Amasya, like the whole Anatolian Seljuk realm, became a province bound to his rule.

Building in Seljuk Amasya

In the Seljuk age the architectural identity of the city became distinct. The works of this period generally lie south of the Yeşilırmak, in the city's main settled area. The Halifet Gazi Madrasa and Tomb date to 1209-1210. The Burmalı Minare Mosque belongs to 1237-1247. The reason the Gökmedrese Mosque is also called the Torumtay Mosque is that it was built by Seyfeddin Torumtay, who was appointed governor of Amasya in the time of Kaykhusraw II. Its inscription was removed from its place and has not been found, so the exact date of construction is unknown, but Torumtay's endowment deed of 1266-1267 shows that the building was completed by that year at the latest. In the deed the building is called the Gökmedrese and was used as both madrasa and mosque. With its façade closed to the outside, built of thick cut stone and flanked by cylindrical corner towers, it bears all the characteristic features of Seljuk architecture. The adjoining tomb is adorned with purple and turquoise glazed brick and tile; Torumtay's own tomb, dated 1278-1279, stands separated from the building by a street. The mosque's kündekâri door leaves are kept today in the Amasya Museum.

Amasya Castle was in the Seljuk age an effective fortress controlling the Samsun-Tokat road; who built the castle is not known with certainty. The Anatolian Seljuk ruler Ala al-Din Kayqubad I, in order to draw on the experience of the neighbouring Khwarazmian beys against the Mongol threat, granted some provinces to them as timar; Amasya was given to Bereket Khan in 1231.

The Babai Revolt

After the death of Ala al-Din Kayqubad in 1237, poor administration of the state increased social tensions. The greatest eruption of this tension was the Babai revolt, centred on Amasya. Baba Ilyas-i Khorasani had most probably come to Anatolia with Turkmens from the Khwarazmshah lands during the Mongol invasion. According to the Menakıbü'l-kudsiyye, written by his grandson Elvan Çelebi in 1358-1359, he settled in the village of Çat near Amasya (today's İlyas village), opened a dervish lodge there and began to spread the Vefaiyye order, gathering many disciples around him. The semi-nomadic Turkmens adopted his teaching quickly; this mass lived under hard economic conditions and complained of the pressure of Seljuk administration. They became so devoted to Baba Ilyas that they called him "Baba Resulullah".

Baba Ilyas left the actual command of the uprising he had prepared against Kaykhusraw II to his deputy Baba Ishak. The date of the uprising appears as 1239 in some sources and 1240 in others. In the first phase the Babais took Southeast and Central Anatolia, but suffered their first great defeat at Amasya. The sultan had withdrawn as a precaution to Kubadabad Castle; the subaşı of Amasya, Hacı (Mübarizüddin) Armağanşah, was charged with suppressing the revolt. Baba Ilyas, who had taken refuge in Amasya Castle, was cornered there, captured and executed on the castle's bastions. Baba Ishak, who could not save his sheikh, marched on Konya, but was defeated on the Malya plain near Kırşehir by the Seljuk army, which included mercenary Frankish soldiers, and was killed. The revolt was suppressed; yet the movement continued to spread in Central and Western Anatolia through Baba Ilyas's son Muhlis Pasha and his deputies, and in later times it laid the ground for the abdalan-i Rum movement, for Bektashism, and for the groups called "Qizilbash" in sixteenth-century documents.

Mongol Pressure and Amasya After the Seljuks

The Seljuk State, defeated by the Mongols at the Battle of Kösedağ in 1243, was subjected to Mongol plunder for more than half a century, and Amasya was affected by this as well. The Mongol masses who settled in Central Anatolia were generally called Tatars; those who settled in Amasya were mainly the Ca'unghar tribes of the left wing. For a time the city was governed by Mongol governors, and then came under the rule of Taceddin Altınbaş, son of the last Seljuk sultan Kaykhusraw III (Gıyâseddin Mesud).

In 1308-1309 Anber b. Abdullah, a slave of İlduş Hatun, wife of the Ilkhanid ruler Öljeitü, together with the Anatolian emir Ahmed Bey, had a hospital (darüşşifa) built in the city. The building is sometimes taken to be a Seljuk work, but its inscription points to the Ilkhanid age. The darüşşifa worked for a long time as a medical institution; Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin, the author of the Cerrahiyye-i İlhaniyye, practised medicine and surgery there. That the building is called a bimarhane arose from the mistaken idea that only the mentally ill were kept there. The widespread account that patients were treated with the sound of water and with music could not be verified in the sources examined here.

After the Eretnid state was founded in Sivas, Amasya came under its rule in 1341. In the same year the Taceddinoğulları, based at Niksar, occupied the city; Eretna, after securing the support of the Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir, sent Tüli Bey, who with the help of the people of Amasya drove the invaders out of the city. Hacı Şadgeldi Pasha controlled the city from 1362 until his death in 1381, and in this period notable building activity took place: in 1363 the castle was repaired, the old mint was renewed, a paper workshop was set up, and in 1372 buildings consisting of a mosque, a madrasa and a soup kitchen (imaret) were built. Şadgeldi died in the war he fought with Kadı Burhaneddin; after the struggle of his son Fahreddin Ahmed Bey with the same rival came to nothing, the city passed to the Ottomans. The date of this transfer is given as 1393 in some sources and 1398 in others. The Turkish-Islamic identity that Amasya had acquired in the Danishmendid and Seljuk ages entered a new phase under Ottoman rule.

Chronology

1064: Danishmend Gazi enters the service of Sultan Alp Arslan.

1071: Battle of Manzikert; Danishmend Gazi takes Sivas and founds the core of the dynasty.

1086: The Danishmendids begin to act in their own name rather than in the name of the Great Seljuks.

1101 (August): The Crusader army is routed between Amasya and Merzifon.

1104: Gümüştegin dies; struggles for the throne begin in the dynasty.

1134: Emir Gazi dies, Melik Muhammed takes the throne.

1143: Melik Muhammed dies; the dynasty splits into the Sivas, Malatya and Kayseri branches.

1155: Mesud I dies; Amasya, Ankara and Cappadocia are reported to have been given to Yağıbasan.

1164: Yağıbasan dies.

1175: Kılıç Arslan II brings Sivas, Niksar, Tokat and Amasya under Seljuk rule.

1178: The Malatya branch of the Danishmendids also comes to an end.

c. 1184-1185: Kılıç Arslan II divides the country among his sons; Amasya falls to Arghun Shah.

1196-1204: Reign of Rukn al-Din Süleyman Shah II; Amasya becomes a province bound to him.

1209-1210: Halifet Gazi Madrasa and Tomb.

1231: Amasya is granted as timar to the Khwarazmian Bereket Khan.

1239-1240: Babai revolt; Baba Ilyas is executed at Amasya Castle.

1243: Battle of Kösedağ.

1308-1309: Amasya Darüşşifa.

1341: Amasya is attached to the Eretnid state.

1393 or 1398: The city enters Ottoman administration.

Sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources