• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Tinto Maps #7 - 21st of June 2024 - Anatolia

Hello everyone, and welcome to the seventh edition of Tinto Maps! I am once again asking for your support back to the duty of showing a new region of the map of the super secret Project Caesar, which this week is Anatolia!

Countries:
Countries.jpg

A beautifully divided Anatolia! The disintegration of the Sultanate of Rûm in the 13th century, caused by the Mongol invasion, led to multiple Turkish Beyliks grabbing power over their area. Probably the strongest in 1337 is the Ottoman one, founded by the Turkoman leader Osman Ghazi, but there are other strong contenders such as the Eretnids, the Germiyanids, or the Karamanids, which will be fighting for hegemony over the region. You might also notice that the Byzantine Empire//Eastern Roman Empire//Basileía Rhōmaíōn//[insert here your favorite naming option] still holds a few positions in Anatolia, the most notable being the city of Philadelphia. Apart from them, other interesting countries in the region are the Despotate of Trebizond, held by the Komnenoi, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, and, of course, The-country-known-in-another-IP-as-Hisn-Kayfa, the Ayyubid remnant in al-Jazira. And you might also notice some Genoese outposts, making them important players as well.

Dynasties:
Dynasties.png

The dynastic map is pretty straightforward, as a different dynasty rules each Beylik. We have fixed the issue with the random dynasty names, so no more weird 'the XXXX of XXXX' dynastic names anymore. To spice things up, we could maybe start a Byzantine discussion: Palaiologos, or Komnenos?

Locations:
Locations.jpg

As usual, please consider that dynamic location naming is not yet a thing in this region, and therefore the inconsistencies in the language used. As an additional note of caution, please don’t use the Aegean Islands as a reference or benchmark for comparison, as a review of them is something that we’ve got on our list of ‘to do’. You may be able to see that the location density in the region is gradual, from denser coastal regions to bigger inland ones.

Provinces:
Provinces.png

We have changed the coloring of the provinces, making them more different, and easier to understand, though. Apart from that, suggestions in this matter are welcomed, as usual.

Terrain:
Climate.jpg

Topography.jpg

Vegetation.jpg

The terrain in Anatolia is quite interesting and unique, as it’s composed of very different features: the central Anatolian Plateau, with a colder climate and more sparse vegetation, is opposed to the rugged and more forested coastlines to the north and south, while only having fluvial flatlands to the west, and in Cilicia (an area that always has been a choke point between Anatolia and Syria. And to the east, the territory becomes increasingly more mountainous, as it approaches the Caucasus.

Cultures:
Cultures.jpg

Anatolia is the first region of the Middle East with cultural and religious minorities added, just in time for this Tinto Maps, so we can have endless discussions about the divide between the Greek and Turkish cultures! Hurray! Now seriously, we’ve made what we think is the most accurate division for 1337, given the scarcity of data. The stripes point to a variation of the pop percentages in each location, from let’s say 70% of Greeks in Izmit or Bursa, to 80% of Turks in Ankara or Konya. We have also added some subdivisions of these cultures, with the Pontic and Cappadocian Greeks; and the Turkomans (you might note a majority of them around Sivas and Malatya), that portray more a ‘class//social grouping’ divide than an ethnic or language divide, as these Turkoman pops are always tribesmen, while we consider the settled population as Turkish. Other than that, we have a good amount of Armenians distributed between the areas of Cilicia and Armenia; Laz people to the north; and Kurds to the east (the brownish-greenish culture). Also, please ignore the chunk of Syria that appears, as the minorities there are not yet done.

Religions:
Religions.jpg

We’re back to interesting religious divisions! We have in Anatolia Orthodox, Sunni, Miaphysite, and Nestorian pops. And if you wonder what are those pink stripes in Thrace, they are a Paulician minority.

Raw Materials:
Raw Materials.jpg

There are some interesting materials distributed all over Anatolia, such as Alum (which was a main export to Italy, usually handled by the merchant republics), Silk, Marble, or Copper. And if you’re wondering about the Spices, they were previously Saffron.

Markets:
Markets.jpg

The market centers of the region are Constantinople to the west, Trebizond to the north, and Damascus to the south. Nothing speaks against a Turkish Beylik conquering one or all of them, or creating a new market center, probably in the middle of the Anatolian Plateau, although probably it will require some infrastructure to make it fully functional.

Location and Country Population:
Pops Locations.jpg

Pops Country.jpg

And populations. Byzantium has some edge over each of the Beylikz, but not if they ally with each other, or if they ally with its Balkanic rivals… Also, have I heard about a 66K Ayyubid challenge?

That’s all for today! We’ll most likely be uploading the French feedback results by the end of next week or at the start of the following one (as next week there's an important bank holiday for this company, Midsommar St. John's Day, and some people will be on vacation a few days), and in the meantime, we'll also be reading and answering your feedback about Anatolia. And next Friday, we will be taking a look at Russia. See you then!

PS: I had a flight today that was delayed, therefore the delay on the DD until an (interesting) hour in which I'll be available for replying.
 
  • 150Love
  • 136Like
  • 7
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
How will the Ottomans be elevated from beylik to empire and will there full name change with the transition? For example; will they go from "Ottoman Beylik" to "Sublime Ottoman State".
[REDACTED]
 
  • 62Haha
  • 20Like
  • 3Love
  • 1
Reactions:
  • 47Haha
  • 12Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
On Cappadocia, is there a particular reason the location of Ürgüp has no Cappadocian/Orthodox stripes at all? I'd imagine the demography there is not too different from Nevşehir, it's hard to see which of the two all their surrounding towns and villages fall under but if anything Ürgüp itself and especially its neighbouring town of Mustafapaşa (still coloquially called by the Greek name of Sinasos by locals today) is more heavy on the Greek side. I'd also recommend renaming Nevşehir to Muşkara at game start, could even be a good idea for a flavour event where after a certain level of development and/or after a certain year it gets renamed Nevşehir, referencing Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha
 
  • 3
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Question - It seems to me, there's to little farmlands in all regions, Anatolia included. Am I seeing the farmland vegetation wrong, or it should be more location considered farmlands in game. What's necessary for a location to be considered farmland?
Agreed. Anatolia does have some pockets of very good farmland so those not being represented at all looks strange.
I've quickly drawn in the best farmland in Anatolia:
EDIT: Removed the map because it was quite imprecise, just look at the detailed soil map I posted on the next page.
 
Last edited:
  • 5Like
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
Given the scarcity of scholarship in English and the challenges of working with primary sources for this period, your work is impressive!

However, as a historian working in a closely related field, I am intrigued by some of the choices you made.

1) Why did you choose to make the Alaiye beylik independent from the Karamanids? Literary sources (such as al-Umari) and material evidence (epigraphy, numismatics) contradict such a decision (at least until the early 15th century). The beyliks were fairly loose entities but in this case, why favor the Alaiye branch over others, like Ermenek?

2) How are you planning to model the Iranian and Mongol populations? While Turkish immigration during the Mongol invasions is well-documented, there was also significant Iranian immigration. Michael Meinecke and Carole Hillenbrand have covered this topic extensively. Additionally, sizable Mongol communities existed in areas like Sivas (see Juergen Paul) and the Bulgar Mountains.

3) The existence of the Akhi Republic is a hotly debated topic. Akhi brotherhoods and lodges were widely dispersed across Seljuk Anatolia and the post-Seljuk period. It seems peculiar to designate them as an independent “dynasty” solely in Ankara. Why not name it “Ankara” instead, with a Republican government? Also, why did you choose the Mengucek dynasty for this region?

4) Simple curiosity, why did you select certain Seljuk remnants, such as the Kubadids, while excluding others (e.g., Arzen)?

That’s all for now. Thanks for your work.
 
Last edited:
  • 12Like
  • 8
  • 1Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Do you already have a map mode for culture groups visualisation (greek and pontic together, etc) ? Which cultures will Turkish and Turcoman be grouped with ?
It's a bit early to talk about that, unfortunately.
 
  • 31
  • 14Like
Reactions:
Will the Genoese city of Pera/Galata be represented in some way?

I think that both it's commercial value as an outpost of the Genoese/European trade network, as it's strategic value as a controller of the straits make it justified to add it as a location.

"Already by the seventh decade of the fourteenth century Constantinople and its immediate neighborhood had formed only a small island surrounded by territories under Ottoman rule, with its communications by sea and its seaborne trade under the control of the Italian maritime states. Economically too the Ottoman capitals of Brusa and Adrianople had begun to overshadow the former imperial center. The old silk route from Persia via Trebizond to Constantinople had, by the end of the fourteenth century, been diverted to Brusa, which had then become the principal trading-center in Oriental products for the Genoese merchants of Galata, and toward which both the silk caravans from Persia and the spice caravans from Syria now converged. In short, Constantinople was the dead center of a dead empire, which George Scholarius described before its fall as "a city of ruins, poor, and largely uninhabited.' " – Halil İnalcık in
"The Policy of Mehmed II toward the Greek Population of Istanbul and the Byzantine Buildings of the City" 231.

"The details of the first Ottoman-Genoese cooperation on the Straits, which was to maintain its strategic importance for a century, ware worth recapitulating here. The negociations with the Genoese ambassadors, two Peran citizens, Filippo Delomede and Bonifazio Sauli, sent by the admiral of the Genoese fleet, ended with a formal treaty of alliance between Sultan Orkhan and the Genoese. The Genoese promised to pay tribute, which in the eyes of the Ottomans, put Pera under Ottoman protection. During the war, in fact, the Ottomans supplied the Genoese with one thousand archers, who were stationed at Pera oand on the Genoese ships. These forces defended Pera in the summer of 1351, when the city was besieged by joint Venetian-Byzantine forces. Orkhan himself, with his army, met Doria on the southern shores of the Bosporus at Chalcedon. Following the crucial battle of the Bosporus (February 1352) between the Genoese armada and the allied fleet of Venice and Aragon, the Genoese cited with praise the aid given to them by Orkhan. [...] It should be emphasized that it was not a coincidence that the Ottomans developed their foothold on European soil shortly after the battle of the Bosporus in 1352. [...] As for the Genoese they secured Ottoman protection for Pera against the Byzantines and the Venetians, as well as commercial privileges in the expanding Ottoman territoies. The close ties between Pera and Bursa, the Ottoman capital, were to enhance the prosperity of both cities." – Halil İnalcık in "The Question of the closing of The Black Sea under The Ottomans" 419-420.

Both quotes are from Halil İnalcıks oevre, which although it is pretty old scholarship, it holds up pretty well.

Also, will the Genoese colonies have a lot of autonomy? When I did research on this topic it seemed to be scholarly consensus that the citizens of the colonies acted independently, often to the detriment of the mother city. (Think the incitement of the Ottomans from Francesco Draperio, a (former) Peran citizen, against Chios, a Genoese colony, in 1455).
Yes to the first question, no the second.
 
  • 38Like
  • 7
  • 1Love
Reactions:
How much of Russia are we getting next week? Just the principalities, up to the Ural, or also including Siberia?
The core of the Russian lands up to the Urals, not the lands of the later Russian Empire.
 
  • 53Like
  • 24
  • 4
  • 1Love
Reactions:
  • 38
  • 22Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions: