Stepping Through Anatolia: Ibn Battuta’s Anatolian Travel Route and Digital Transfer of This Route
Project no. 32342 · Status: Kapanmış · 2024
Summary
<p>Almost all experts on the relevant subjects accept and state that Ibn Battuta was the greatest traveler of the Middle Ages. Considering his travels totaling approximately 115,000 kilometers, it is clear that this is not an unfounded assumption. One of the important stages of Ibn Battuta's travels spread over a very wide geography is the Anatolian region. Due to the importance of the traveler and his travelogue (er-Rıhla), various scientists in different countries have conducted and continue to conduct extensive research on the different stages of the travel. However, no study has been conducted on the Anatolian stage, except for a few articles with limited scope. Ibn Battuta visited various cities and settlements in Anatolia at a time when the Seljuks of Turkey had recently collapsed and coincided with the period of the second principalities (1330s), and provided detailed information, especially about Western Anatolia. In this study, Ibn Battuta's Anatolian travel will be examined by observing the chronology, an attempt will be made to shed light on a controversial section of the Anatolian travel in the limited literature available, the obtained data and results will be visualized on a map, and Ibn Battuta's Anatolian travel and the route he followed here will be presented in detail for the first time. The research will be based on a method where the original Arabic text of Ibn Battuta's travelogue and its translations and editions in different languages are taken as the center and the information obtained from here is checked through other sources belonging to the period. The obtained data will be supported by field research and the route Ibn Battuta followed will be determined in the most accurate way and visualized on the map. In addition, a selection of the information he provided about the cultural elements in the places he visited will be displayed on this map (or presented through an interactive use), making the study more educational and suitable for use in educational stages as a cultural history study.</p>