Cultural encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval period: The Italians in Anatolia in 12th - 15th centuries. Symposium Proceedings.= Orta Çag'da Anadolu'da kültürel karsilasmalar: 12-15. yüzyillarda Anadolu'da Italyanlar. Sempozyum bildirileri.

Paperback. 4to. (27 x 20 cm). Proceedings in English and Turkish. 227 p., color and b/w ills. Cultural encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval period: The Italians in Anatolia in 12th - 15th centuries. Symposium Proceedings.= Orta Çag'da Anadolu'da kültürel karsilasmalar: 12-15. yüzyillarda Anadolu'da Italyanlar. Sempozyum bildirileri. Starting from Spring 2014, VEKAM organizes an international symposium once a year on Cultural Encounters in Anatolia in the Medieval Period. After the Georgian Empire and the Ilkhanids this year's theme is on "Italians in Anatolia during 12th and 15th Centuries" (Istanbul excluded). The symposium held on May 13th, 2016 at the premises of VEKAM in Ankara/ Turkey. "The Mongol victory over the Seljuks in 1243, the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, which led to the commercial rise of Tabriz, and the rapprochement between Cilician Armenia and the Mongols resulted in a shift of the trade route across Anatolia. Ayas in Cilician Armenia replaced Antalya as its Mediterranean outlet. Mongol rule also furthered trade between Tabriz and the Black Sea port of Trebizond. It is along these itineraries that Italian merchants travelled to and from Mongol territories, as illustrated by the journeys of the father and uncle of Marco Polo and of Marco himself in the second half of the 13th Century. At Ayas on the shore of Cilicia Venice received trading privileges in 1261, well after Genoa's first treaty with the Armenian kingdom (1201). The Venetian element in Ayas' foreign merchant community grew with the general increase in the intensity of trade and with the inception of the state galley run or incanto. But international trading activity at Ayas, and the use of the tracks to Sivas, seems to have been cut short by the Mamluks' acquisition of the port in 1337.".