The Commercial Evaluation of Medieval European and Anatolian Cities: Seville, Paris, Konya, Kayseri

Abstract

The geographies most affected by the events experienced in the Middle Ages, a period in which there was no unity of states, were Europe and Anatolia, the lands ruled by the Roman Empire. In the early periods, societal traumas emerged as a result of wars, migrations, epidemics, and related threats, which negatively impacted urban life, leading to the abandonment of cities. While Europe struggled with invasion and migration movements coming from the north during these times, Byzantium, which dominated Anatolia, faced threats from the east and south. In this unstable era, urban populations decreased, and urban life experienced political, military, economic, cultural, and sociological regression. However, the end of invasion and migration movements in the Late Middle Ages paved the way for the development of urban life, along with all its dynamics.

In the study aimed at evaluating the commercial activities and development of European and Anatolian cities throughout the Middle Ages, two cities from Europe and two from Anatolia were selected. Seville and Paris, medieval Western European cities with river connections to the sea, and Konya and Kayseri, located in the interior regions of Anatolia on ancient land trade routes, were chosen as examples. Although there have been various studies that separately examine medieval European and Anatolian cities from different perspectives, there is no study that comparatively evaluates European and Anatolian cities in the manner presented in our study. As a result of the study, fundamental similarities have been identified between European and Anatolian cities, which are geographically and culturally very different from each other.