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Society of Architectural Historians, 67th Annual ConferenceAustin, TX, 9-13 April 2014Deadline: 1 June 2013For full call for papers and to submit abstracts: http://www.sah.org/conferences-and-programs/2014-conference---austinOver the past years, a critical body of scholarship on the architecture of latemedieval Anatolia has emerged, which discusses the fluid frontier character ofthe region as crucial for its building fabric. Increasingly, historians of artand architecture look across the perceived boundaries between modern nationstates or religious communities. Rapid historical changes affected the region:in the late eleventh century, Turkish Muslim tribal confederations moved intothe Byzantine Empire. As one of these groups, the Seljuks, consolidated theirrule, the slow yet steady Islamization of Anatolia began. The Seljukscommissioned mosques, city walls, and caravanserais to mark their rule. Alreadyin the 1240s, the Mongol of the region led to the submission of the Seljuks tonew overlords. Under Mongol rule, architectural patronage in Muslim Anatoliagreatly shifted; connections to Iran, the Caucasus, and Central Asia wererenewed. The Byzantine capital fell to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, only to bereestablished several decades later in diminished form. The nascent Ottomanprincipality became an important new actor that would defeat the ByzantineEmpire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Cemal Kafadar has pointedout that limitations of national narratives have greatly influenced the studyof the history, art, and architecture of the region. Medieval Anatolia tends tobe presented looking back from the perspective of the Ottoman Empire in thesixteenth century. Thus, the medieval monuments appear as mere sources ofinspiration for the imperial Ottoman mosques. This panel invites studies thatcross disciplinary divides within architectural history and archaeology, andengage critically with the national historiographies of Turkey, Armenia,Georgia, Iran, and Greece, to create a more nuanced picture of thishistorically and culturally complex period through its monuments.Patricia Blessing, Stanford University, pblessin@stanford.edu