Aydoğan | 41sianon theme (see note 22), this time not limited to its capital but also covering the adjacent
Armeniac theme.
. EbuɆl-Hayr-i Rumi, Saltuk-name, 1:11.
. Ibid., 1:16.
. “Alaman” probably refers to German-speaking people in general. Among the Germani,
the Romans distinguished the Franks, who lived on the lower Rhine, and the Alamanni—from
which the word “Alaman” might have derived—who lived on the upper Rhine. Such distinc-
tion was not linguistic but geographical. Geary, The Myth of Nations, 81.
. The medieval meaning of Rus is related to the Kievan Rus, in today’s Ukraine and
Belarus. Franklin, “The Invention of Rus(sia)(s),” 184.
. EbuɆl-Hayr-i Rumi, Saltuk-name, 1:24. These, however, add up to eight.
. Ibid., 1:178. Frengistan, the country of the Frenks (Frenk İli) is adjacent to the domain of
Rum (Rum mülki) and is governed by Filyon Frenk, or the Pope (Pap). Ibid., 1:88.
. Ibid., 1:156–169.
. According to the Saltukname, Anatolia is Yunan and the rule of Yunan is in Kayseriyye,
Kayseri, referring to ancient Greek heritage in general. However, here western parts of Anato-
lia are also described as Yunan. Ibid., 1:12, 21.
. Ibid., 2:58. The centrality of Dobruja in this part of the text probably points to the for-
mation of the cult of Sarı Saltuk in this area.
. Ibid., 2:110 (italics added).
. The Arabic term salb means “crucifixion.” While in Islamic practice it refers to a crimi-
nal punishment in which the body of the criminal, living or dead, is exposed for some time,
in later Persian and Turkish usage it means “hanging.” Here, Turks are described as loyal and
obedient because they fear salb. E. Vogel, Encyclopaedia of Islam, online ed., s.v. “Salb.”
. EbuɆl-Hayr-i Rumi, Saltuk-name, 3:238 (italics added). Like other Turkish dynasties
such as the Karaman and the Akkoyunlu, the Ottomans also tried to invoke Oğuz genealogies
for drawing support from the Oğuz Turcoman tribes in Anatolia, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. As
early as 1077, Kaşgarlı Mahmud argued that his sultans, referring to the Seljuks, also belonged
to the Oğuz tribe of Kınık. The Ottomans in return took on this legacy and claimed to be the
successors of the Seljuks of Rum. The prophecies of the worthy ancestors of Korkut Ata and
Oğuz became a way for the expanding Ottomans to assign justification to their struggle es-
pecially against other Muslims. Flemming, “Political Genealogies in the Sixteenth Century,”
123–137.
. EbuɆl-Hayr-i Rumi, Saltuk-name, 3:256 (italics added).
. Kafadar, “A Rome of One’s Own,” 10.
. Ibid., 11.
. Özbaran, Bir Osmanlı Kimliği, 17.
. EbuɆl-Hayr-i Rumi, Saltuk-name, 1:51–57, 226, 336.