anchorites and anchoresses 39Turkey. Anatolia extends from the AEGEANSEAto the
Euphrates River, and it is dominated by a large central
plateau, some 3,500 to 6,500 feet (1,000 to 2,000 meters)
in elevation. It has peripheral mountain ranges, including
the Taurus range in the southeast.
Asia Minor’s peace and prosperity under the BYZAN-
TINEEMPIREremained intact until the destructive Per-
sian raids of the early seventh century. These were
followed by Arab raids that continued relentlessly for
the next two centuries, despite a system that provided
a kind of defense in depth. During these centuries,
its cities shrank in size as they had to become heavily
fortified. The able emperor Michael III the Drunkard
(r. 842–867) launched an offensive in 856 that began to
turn back Arabic penetration. Taking advantage of Mus-
lim disunity, he created peaceful conditions that lasted
until the advent of the SELJUKSin the middle of the 11th
century. The massive Byzantine defeat, the Battle of
MANZIKERTin 1071, opened the door to Seljuk Turk
expansion. Several Turkish states took control of various
regions, but fought frequently among themselves
and sporadically against the crusading armies from
western Europe that passed through the peninsula.
The last Byzantine efforts to maintain some control in
Asia Minor were dashed at the Battle of Myriokephalon
in 1176. Anatolia then passed under the control of
Turkish rulers, culminating in the OTTOMANSin the
15th century.
Further reading:Clive Foss, Survey of Medieval Cas-
tles of Anatolia(Oxford: B.A.R., 1985); Robert Hillen-
brand, ed., The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia:
Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Edinburgh in 1982
(Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1994); Mehmet
Fuat Köprülü, The Seljuks of Anatolia: Their History and
Culture According to Local Muslim Sources,trans. Gary
Leiser (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992);
William Watson, ed., The Art of Iran and Anatolia from the
11th to the 13th Century AD(London: University of Lon-
don School of Oriental and African Studies, Percival
David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1975).
anatomy Anatomy is the study and science of the
human body. The Middle Ages inherited the Greek and
Roman concepts of anatomy, which had barely survived
and were revived in western Europe in the 10th and
11th centuries via Muslim and Jewish scholarship. The
Jewish Talmudic knowledge of anatomy was based more
on a pragmatic study of medicine and surgery. The real
study of anatomy in the West began in southern Italy
with the establishment in 1030 of the medical school at
Salerno, where Jewish physicians worked alongside
Christians. In 11th-century Salerno the BENEDICTINE
monk CONSTANTINE THEAFRICANwrote a book on the
anatomy of pigs, which remained for centuries a stan-
dard textbook. By the beginning of the 14th century,
anatomy had become a course in the leading medical
schools of Europe at that time, BOLOGNA,PADUA, and
MONTPELLIER. In 1315 at the University of Bologna
Modino de Liucci began teaching anatomy. His course
was based both on theory and on limited dissections of
human corpses. He stressed the importance of the dis-
section of human bodies, to differentiate them from the
bodies of animals. Many still believed, especially north
of the Alps, that theoretical study from textbooks was
sufficient and that human bodies should not be dese-
crated. Eventually Liucci’s theories and procedures were
accepted and the first dissection of a human body was
done at VIENNAin 1404.
Further reading:Andrea Carlino, Books of the Body:
Anatomical Ritual and Renaissance Learning,trans. John
Tedeschi and Anne C. Tedeschi (Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1999); George Washington Corner,
Anatomical Texts of the Earlier Middle Ages: A Study in the
Transmission of Culture (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie
Institution of Washington, 1927); Fu’ad Ishaq Khuri,
The Body in Islamic Culture (London: Saqi, 2001);
Jonathan Sawday, The Body Emblazoned: Dissection and
the Human Body in Renaissance Culture(London: Rout-
ledge, 1995).anchorites and anchoresses The lay or religious
anchorite was someone seeking to create a perfect imita-
tion of Christ and to find God by isolation and peniten-
tial practices. Ideally his or her progress was animated by
a profound faith, fostered in a spirit of humility and
accomplished with absolute personal liberty and love of
God. To fulfill this lofty ideal, it was necessary to with-
draw permanently or provisionally to a desert and iso-
lated place. It was a popular way of breaking with the
world and society to return to a human identity in the
image of God. If that was accomplished, the anchorite
could return to the world to convert it to a true Christian
one. Famous ones founded monastic communities, led
popular religious movements such as the First CRUSADE,
or founded religious orders such as the Camaldolese and
CARTHUSIANS. Since they were by definition out of con-
trol, they aroused the suspicions of both the lay and the
ecclesiastical authorities.
From the late antique world on, there were varied
forms of anchoritic life: eremitism, reclusion, residence
on columns, and colonies. Complete solitude was rarely
accomplished. Most often the anchorites lived apart, but
some accepted visitors and disciples even forming a
nascent community. The early communities existed
mainly in PALESTINE and consisted of individual
anchorites living in solitude during the week who met
together for the Sunday liturgy. Within the BYZANTINE
EMPIRE, anchorites eventually lived under the jurisdic-
tion of the new coenobitic monasteries. Complete isola-
tion was reserved only for a select few, since the