“The Holy Land, My Mother Anatolia”

Abstract

The younger Theodore Laskaris grew up in the cities, coastal plains, and mountainous river valleys of western Asia Minor, a most unusual spatial setting for the life of a Byzantine prince and emperor. Only at the age of thirty-two (1255) is he first attested to have crossed the boundary between Asia and Europe and set foot in the Balkans. His life was embedded in the physical and human geography of Asia Minor. His native land seeped into his sense of identity and entered his psyche. He was attached to it and gave it endearing names, such as “beloved ground,” “fatherland ( patris ),” and “the holy land, my mother Anatolia.” 1 In what ways did he perceive and imagine his native land? What was Byzantine Asia Minor like in the first half of the thirteenth century?