ABSTRACT
Marash, an important city of the Mediterranean region, acquired more significance under Turkish rule during the Seljuk period than its significance during the Byzantine period. While the developments about this place in political and military areas are well known, we possess rather dispersed and inadequate knowledge about its economic life. Consequently, studies on the aforementioned field have not been generally conducted or they have been treated under general topics within Middle Eastern and Near Eastern studies. However, Marash had been one of the central points of land trade between Anatolia and Syria due to its location. According to the ancient documents, three roads crossed the eastern Taurus and reached Commagene; the first went from Cocussus to Germanicia, the second went from Arabissus to Germanicia and the third went from Melitene directly southwards to Samosata. One of these three passes led to Marash from modern Göksun, the second and most important of them led from Elbistan to Marash, and the third one led from Malatya to Samsat by passing through Polat and Adıyaman. Caravans carrying trade goods had to pass through these locations.
Here, we will try to present the economic condition of Marash during the beginning of its Turkish rule by collecting the dispersed and inadequate data located in the main sources. Our main period of study will be 11th-13th centuries. We will try to reveal the economic condition of Marash and its environs during the aforementioned centuries by evaluating the data collected from the sources. Native Christian sources will especially form the fundamentals of this study, but we will also use the data supplied by Muslim historians and Italian merchants.
