Spolia Riches in Turkey and North Africa

 

From Turkey round to North Africa very large quantities of spolia sources have survived, simply because population pressure has destroyed most comparable complexes in the West (compare Douai in 1391, where  95% of the stone appears to have been in reuse, with the systematic purchase of old properties for demolition.[1]) Hence streets of tombs of which the Via Appia now provides such scarce remains are better envisaged from Elaiussa Sebaste, Hierapolis, or Assos in Turkey[2]. In a sense, we can visit such areas today and imagine when we view the large range of surviving ancient monuments that we are actually transported into mediaeval Europe, and confronting ancient monuments there. In spite of depradations and some extremely serious earthquakes[3], large quantities of antiquities remain; some antique sites have only recently stopped being inhabited; and the population pressures that were such a devastating feature of later mediaeval Europe are largely non-existent, so that antique sites, except those by the sea, are probably safe for the future.

 

The re-use of spolia may be observed all over the ex-Greek or ex-Roman world, often by peoples who have no genetic or apparently cultural connection with Greece or Rome, but who affected the antique taste for extravagant materials such as marble, without necessarily wishing to quarry their own. This practice seems most frequently to be taken for granted, and we may suspect the re-use of spolia as totems of Roman grandeur, tradition, or architectural splendour[4] – a usage arguably parallel to that of nouveaux-riches who acquire old portraits for their houses in order to give themselves a pedigree. In the case of fortifications, the ideological justification is an old one, because the equation between walls equalling civilisation, and no walls equalling either barbarism or subjection, goes back to the Greeks[5]. Spolia walls, with the enormous effort needed to construct them, display continuity; but contemporary accounts are as lacking in  the East as they are in the West, so we have no mediaeval rationale proffered to confirm this.

 

The richer the spolia, the greater the impact and influence: Crusaders and Armenians imitated classical building techniques in many of their castles[6], and employed antiquities frequently; the Seljuk Turks did likewise; the Ottoman Turks denuded classical sites for their own vast building works[7]; and the French relied heavily on Roman roads and fortresses, as well as on Roman water systems and cisterns, for their conquest of Algeria. In other words, the French probably made use of antiquities in the same practical fashion that must have informed most of the Western Middle Ages, when Roman water supplies were convenient for baptisteries[8].

 

In the West documents, luckily, provide some kind of counterbalance to the lack of physical remains, but usually only by inference: explicit references to spolia are rare, although occasionally archaeology can help, as at San Vincenzo al Volturno[9]. In the East, scholarly attention will not yet allow the production of the level of facts and figures, graphs and charts that may be found, for example, in Randsborg’s work for the West.[10] In Greece, the beginnings of a corpus of mediaeval towers is appearing, fighting against scholarly disinterest.[11] In Turkey, Syria and North Africa, Foss, Pringle and others are charting the landscape of mediaeval fortifications, and establishing a chronology.

 

Spolia are plentiful in Turkey and North Africa because in both areas invasions took over a country whose population had dropped dramatically since the hey-day of Roman occupation, and because of the fact that the invaders were without any tradition of their own of monumental architecture. Consequently, they continued at least some of the traditions of those they had conquered, including a respect for classical materials, which they also re-used in enormous quantities. For example, the 500-plus antique columns in the Great Mosque at Kairouan were famous, with some particularly admired for their sheer beauty by Leo Africanus[12], no doubt partly because the aesthetics imposed on the spolia with symmetry of forms and colours[13]. El-Bekri,[14] amongst others, remarks on the deux colonnes rouges, tachetées de jaune, dont la beauté est incomparable in the mihrab of the mosque at Kairouan, which he says came from an old church, that L'on raconte qu'avant le déplacement de ces colonnes, le souverain de Constantinople avait voulu les acheter au poids de l'or, aussi les musulmans s'empressèrent de les transporter à la mosquée. It has even been suggested that the Arabs bothered to cut but a few columns until well after Seljuk times, preferring to use spolia instead. [15] Certainly, foreigners  were frequently impressed by their use of marble[16], and descriptions of sumptuous marble-rich palaces[17] and baths[18] abound, together with wonder at the quality of the marbles used, their whiteness[19] and their smoothness. Even Christian churches as far east as Diyarbakir were rich in marble, and some of this survived past mediaeval times[20]. But then, some people were clearly obsessed by marble, sometimes mistaking limestone for it.

 

In North Africa, such large quantities of spolia were available at least in part because of the spolia walls built during the Justinianic conquests of AD 533/554, and because of that same an acceleration of the processes of decay in once-populous cities that we find in Italy.[21] Such walls arguably represented a renovatio for North Africa, although there are good reasons for treating such statements in inscriptions with some scepticism[22], the more so since dedicatory inscriptions (not to mention Procopius) do not mention spolia, perhaps taking it for granted that their very use betokens a renewal, as they claim. Certainly, some sites do display care in the reuse of spolia - such as Timgad, where the Byzantines generally did not recut any spolia for the fortress (built 539-40, as we know from the foundation inscription), but simply chose the blocks carefully. In the barrack houses, material was recut, but equally carefully laid (although of low quality when compared with the Roman wall). Columns are also reused in the walls, dans l'appareil du mur, remployé sans doute dans le noyeau du mur en cours de régularisation.[23] However, the (usually inflated) late antique boast of renovatio tends (in North Africa[24], as in the West) to mean making good rather than completely building a fundamentis – although in some cases parallels with the renewal of the whole Empire are implicit, even if only rhetorically[25]; and the very act may imply the reconstruction’s status as a historical monument, or yet, perhaps, as imitation of the antique [26], as is obviously the case with S. Mark’s, Venice, which struck at least one commentator (as it was certainly intended to do) as comparable to Hagia Sophia[27]. Civic boasting is always irredeemably upbeat[28], and similar boasting, often explicit, is to be found in funerary inscriptions.[29] Parallels are to be found in claims of military conquest[30], as well as in fort-building by the Arabs.[31]

 

Even though Procopius is not explicit on the beautifying properties of spolia, from the actual results we can conclude that he believed spolia helped produce that effect. He describes Justinian's energetic wall-building at length and, even where ruinous walls were rebuilt, presumably with spolia, as at Kertsch and Sevastopol, he writes that the walls had fallen completely into ruin, and he made them remarkably beautiful and thoroughly safe (III.vii.10). But as an antidote to Procopius' exuberance (or mendacity[32]), Cameron believes that a lot of Justinianic buildings were shoddy, relying on interior marble for their effect - perhaps this is why so many contemporary ekphraseis, including the section on S.  Sophia in the Buildings, spend so much of their time praising the coloured marbles. [33]  For Duval[34], spolia enceintes are a symbol of the continuity of civilization, just as the building of a wall marked the foundation of classical colonies. Assessing intent is always difficult, however. Thus with the Panaghia in Antalya, built with temple spolia, it is argued that the building was indeed a renovatio, being seen as new, not as old - what Gassi calls attualizazione del materiale antico. The spolia, in this interpretation, lose their connotation of antiquity,  armonizzandosi perfettamente con quelli bizantini in un contesto ornamentale e architettonico unitario.[35] This theory, even if correct, still gives little insight into how the builders viewed the spolia they used, or whether they knew what they were, and how old. But the general idea is surely analagous to display on fortifications; as Uggeri has it, the display of antiquities on churches are I parlanti monumenti della romanita, and the church un vero archivio di pietra, il luogo piu idoneo per conservare le memorie della citta.[36]

 

One of the ironies of our study is that Crusaders and pilgrims certainly knew many of the places and monuments in our territories, including monuments which have since disappeared, much better than we can today reconstruct them. Myra, where S. Nicholas was still performing miracles,  was a landfall for pilgrims as, further west, was the now-deserted Patara - jadis puissante et belle, a été aujourdhui [late 1330s] détruite par les turcs[37]. Again, many important antique centres in Turkey (or rather their hinterland) were targetted for trade in the Middle Ages.[38] We may suspect, by analogy with what happened in Europe, that this included trade in spolia, perhaps as ballast (cf.Vasari), along with staple commodities[39] - an eastern counterpart to the marmorarii of Rome, whose work reached England and France by the early 11th century.[40] Certainly, there is at least one narrative account of Christians selling spolia to North Africans, if only from the early 18th century[41]. In a sense, after the Ottoman Turkish takeover, and the cutting of many of the sea and land routes, in the 16th century Western Europe, through her travellers[42], had to pick up the pieces of antiquarian study, and re-learn what mediaeval generations of crusaders and pilgrims probably already knew. Such travel accounts are frequently important, because we cannot trust the current appearance of monuments as necessarily identical to the mediaeval appearance - although they help us ponder on  the meaning of renovatio[43]. Even 19th century photographs give us information now otherwise lost[44].

 

Another irony, which hinders any chance we might have had of coherent contemporary discussions of the use of spolia, is the studied indifference that can be read into metropolitan Byzantine attitudes to classical statuary. Thus Cyril Mango believes that, when the Turks took the City the Hercules reliefs on the Golden Gate, and the serpent column, were the only two specimens of ancient sculpture left. He is equally mournful about Byzantine artistic engagement with the classical past, and with the impact of the past on the present: Each time we find a Byzantine representation of a classical subject, it appears, upon inspection, to be separated from its ultimate classical model by a long chain of transmission, usually in the minor arts. A penchant for relief sculpture, not to mention iconoclasm, of course, were the reasons[45]. But an indifference to the past is surely startling, with the classical tradition killed in a city once crammed with antique artworks - whereas the use of spolia elsewhere in Turkey helps preserve that tradition. Mango's assessment seems confirmed by an early 8th century chronicle which intimates that not much material is left and, when it writes of portrait sculpture, cites work from four centuries before[46]. Krousmmos' sack in 813 AD depleted the stock of antiquities even further. Some travellers much later found such a dearth of antiquities somewhat odd[47]. Nevertheless, some imitation of the past continued in the matter of spolia, if we accept Foss’ suggestion that 12th-century restorations of the Land Walls followed, in using spolia, ninth-century models[48].

 

 

 



[1] A. SALAMAGNE, L’Approvisionnement en pierre des chantiers médiévaux: l’exemple de Douai (Nord) aux XIVe et XVe siècles, in Archéologie Médiévale, XXX V (1997), pp. 45-76. Cf pp.53ff.  In one case, the chateau de Cantin was bought by Douai in 1391 and dismantled to build the communal belfrey (p.54). As late as the 15th century, masons were set to work to tailler et rapareiller old stones for new work;

[2] W.M. LEAKE, Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, with comparative remarks on the ancient and modern geography of that country, London 1824, p.128: for the cemetery, The whole gives, perhaps, the most perfect idea of a Greek city that any where exists;

[3] E. GUIDOBONI, editor, I terremoti prima del Mille in Italia e nell’area mediterranea, Bologna 1989: pp.622ff for chronological catalogue; and G. Traina, Fra archeologia, storia e seismologia: il caso emblematico del 21 luglio 365 [i.e. in North Africa], in ibid., pp.449-51. A. di Vita, Evidenza dei terremoti del 306-10 e del 365 DC in Tunisia, Antiquités Africaines, 15 (1980), 303-7 for renovatio inscriptions. See also A. DI VITA, Sismi, urbanistica e cronologia assoluta. Terremoti e urbanistica nelle citta di Tripolitania fra il I secolo a. C ed il IV secolo d. C, in L'Afrique dans l'Occident romain, 1er siecle av. LC - IVe siecle ap. JC, Rome 1990 (Actes du colloque Rome 1987), (Coll. de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, 134), pp. 425-94;

[4] H. BARNES & M. WHITLOW, The Oxford University / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Survey of Medieval Castles of Anatolia (1992). Mastaura kalesi: a preliminary report, in Anatolian Studies, 43 (1993), pp. 117-135; cf. p.117: there is a need for archaeology in the study of the medieval period in Turkey. The Byzantine sources are limited, and documentary materials for medieval Asia Minor barely exist;

[5] Y. GARLAN, Recherches de poliorcétique grecque, Athens & Paris 1974, p.92ff La muraille, en tant que fait de civilisation;

[6] MARSHALL, Warfare, cit., pp. 93ff for castle building in the East;

[7] W. MUELLER-WIENER, Spoliennuetzung in Istanbul, Beitraege zur Altertumskunde Kleinasiens, in Festschrift fuer K. Bittel, Mainz 1983, pp. 369-82, with much on Ottoman spoliation, pp.375ff;

[8] K. GREWE et al, Die Wasserversorgung in Mittelalter, Mainz 1991: cf. p.18 fig. 4 for Tabaka, Tunisia, with a castellum divisorium turned into a church;

[9] V. FEDERICI, Chronicon Vulturnense, I, Rome 1925, 220-1, describing the church which was dedicated in 808 AD: father Joshua got the Emperor ut illis concederet templum antiquissimum in territorio Capuano, quod maximis colupmnis et diversis lapidibus ad antiquis fuerant institutum in locum, ubi Edes Imperatoris, vel Cripte dicebantur ... [and they all worked so hard that] non multo tempore praeclaro opere et maximis colupmnis ecclesia levaretur, with 32 columns in all, we learn. Column fragments of red Aswan granite have now been found, so the account may be strictly accurate;

[10] K. RANDSBORG, The first millennium in Europe and the Mediterranean: an archaeological essay, Cambridge 1991, p.82ff for towns and other centres; and cf. R. HODGES & B. HOBLEY, editors, The rebirth of towns in the West AD 700-1050, London 1988;

[11] M. K. LANGDON, The mortared towers of Central Greece: an attic supplement, in Annual of the British School at Athens, 90 (1995), pp. 475-503; p. 475 for the quotation; author lists 58 such structures, which frequently incorporate spolia., and there is a high probability that the majority are of Frankish date (p.496). Cf. also P. W. LOCK, The Frankish towers of Central Greece, in ibid., 91 1986, pp.101-123: he lists 28, with frequent use of spolia but no reference to any decorative intent;

[12] Description de l’Afrique, Tierce Partie du Monde, Lyon 1556, p.286: deux desquelles dressés auprès la grande chapelle, sont d’une hauteur inusitée, et incomparable, de couleur rouge, parfaite, et reluisante; diaprées, et martelées de petites tâches blanches, tirans sur le porphire;

[13] N. HARRAZI, Chapiteaux de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, 2 vols, Tunis 1982, p.214;

[14] EL-BEKRI, Description, cit., p. 53: editor notes that similar red-spotted columns to these have been seen in the ruins of nearby Sabra;

[15] G. GOODWIN, The reuse of marble in the Eastern mediterranean in medieval times, in Journal Royal Asiatic Society, (1977), pp. 17-30; Certainly, the reuse of antique and Christian monuments was systematic: cf. C. BARSANTI, Alcune riflessioni sulla diffusione dei materiali di marmo proconneso in Italia e in Tunisia, Aken des XII Int Kong fuer Christ. Archaeologie Bonn 1991, Jbuch Antike & Christentum Ergaenzungsband 20,1, Muenster 1995, 515-23. See p. 523: Spoliazione sistematica delle fondazioni cristiani da parte degli arabi  (protobyzantine capitals at Kairouan, Sfax, Tunis, Gafsa). And they tended to go for the best material: cf. C. Barsanti, Tunisia: indagine preliminare sulla diffusione dei manufatti di marmo proconnesio in epoca paleobizantina, in F. DE’MAFFEI, C. BARSANTI & A. GUIGILA GUIDOBALDI eds, Constantinopoli e l’arte delle provincie orientali, Rome 1990, pp. 429-31.

[16] Trinity College Cambridge; MS R.5.4: Iosias Bull, A briefe discourse of some thinges which my travaile acquainted me with (i.e. of Constantinople), 1598: cf. pp.7-8 ; and cf. De Turcarum Moribus Epitome, Bartholomaeo Georgieuiz Peregrino autore, Lyon 1554, p.9, for a view of a mosque with, in the courtyard, a large tazza, presumably marble, with the water gushing from lion-heads into the lower basin;

[17] e.g. P. BERGERON, Abrégé de l’histoire des Sarasins et Mahometans, in his Voyages faits principalement en Asie, The Hague 1735, col 43, of the Casare Palace of the Caliphs of Egypt, at Cairo, in the 12th century:  portiques et galleries de marbre, voûtes dorées, et pavé de marqueterie et mosaïque, mouloures et gravures diverses, le tout très-riche, et exquis. Il y avoit la des viviers et canaux revêtus de marbre;

[18] C. DE VILLALON, Viaje de Turquia, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires 1947, (written in 1557), p. 300: at Istanbul, the baths inside todos son marmol, jaspe y porfido;

[19] MARMOL, Affrica, cit., for 240r: Charles V at Carthage was impressed by y aun se veyan pedacos de los muros enteros de los Alcacares labrados de marmol blanco, y una grandissima cisterna muy honda y ancha, y los arcos enteros; and for his fortress at La Goleta his soldiers los quales an acabado de deshazer los edificios de Carthago llevandose la piedra para la fabrica de los baluartes;

[20] GABRIEL, Voyages archéologiques, cit., p. 183, note 1, cited from M. POULLET, Nouvelles relations du Levant, Paris 1668, II, pp. 416-7 for churches in Diyarbakir: les anciennes églises laissent encore voir certains grands desbris, ou le iaspe, le marbre, les moulures, les frises, les corniches et les bas-reliefs ont été aussi fréquemment et aussi régulierement mis en oeuvre que l’on pourrait faire en Europe. The same note refers to a vague description of perhaps a church (S. Mary) but, more probably, the Grand Mosque, with three hundred columns – although Nasir-I Khusraw refers to 200 monoliths inside it, supporting stone arcades, and smaller columns above, themselves supporting arcades;

[21] N. CHRISTIE, The Archaeology of Byzantine Italy: a synthesis of recent research, in Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, II.2 (1989), pp. 249-293; p. 282 for quote;

[22] E. THOMAS & C. WITSCHEL, Constructing reconstruction. Claim and reality of Roman rebuilding inscriptions from the Latin West, in  PBSR, 60 (1992), pp. 135-77. Most inscriptions say the walls were built from the foundations, when only repairs were made: J. DURLIAT, Les dédicaces d'ouvrages de défense dans l'Afrique byzantine (Coll. De l'Ecole Francaise de Rome 49), Rome 1981;

[23] J. LASSUS, La forteresse byzantine de Thamugadi. Fouilles Timgad 1938-1956, I, Paris 1981. Pp. 59-106; cf. figs 26-30, 164, 142; fig. 13 & p. 42;

[24] T. KOTULA, Thèmes de la propagande impériale à travers les inscriptions africaines du bas-empire romain, in Histoire et Archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord, Paris 1985 (IIe Colloque Int., Grenoble 1983), pp. 257-63: cf. p. 257, and p. 262 note 4;

[25] H. MAGUIRE, Imperial gardens and the rhetoric of renewal, in P.MAGDALINO, editor, New Constantines. The rhythm of Imperial renewal in Byzantium, 4th – 13th centuries, Aldershot 1994, pp.181-197;

[26] cf. THOMAS & WITSCHEL Constructing reconstruction, p.168 & Appendix 2. But some scholars still take such inscriptions at face-value, such as C. LEPELLEY, The survival and fall of the classical city in Late Roman Africa, in J. RICH, editor, The City in Late Antiquity, London & New York 1992, 50-76; his view is underlined in the subtitle of his Les cités de l’Afrique Romaine au Bas-Empire, I: La permanence d’une civilisation municipale, Paris 1979 – although his list of municipal constructions and restaurations, taken from references in 236 inscriptions, at pp. 112-120, has no more than ten monuments built or restored after 400 AD;

[27] e.g. F. SANSOVINO, Historia universale dell’origine et imperio de Turchi, Venice 1568, fol 52r describing Hagia Sophia: Fuori della chiesa per ogni parte vi son portichi con colonne superbissime di serpentino, e di bronzo con musaichi bellissimi, cosi come si vede nel Tempio di San Marco di Venetia; al qual par che rassimigli alquanti, di fuori massimamente;

[28] J. DURLIAT, Les dédicaces, cit., 38 dedication inscriptions: cf. Cats 3 & 4 for: Guelma, 8 for Tebessa, 12 for Afsa, 19-21 for Timgad. He point out, p.109, that Justinian asked Belisarius to inventory especially those cases where the walls should be made smaller in extent to cater for a smaller population of defenders;

[29] H. SARADI, The Kallos of the Byzantine City: the development of a rhetorical topos and the historical reality, in Gesta, XXXIV/1 (1995), pp. 37-56; cf. p. 44: epitaph of Bishop Eugenius of Laodicea Combusta on his sarcophagus: I rebuilt the whole church from the foundations with all the adornments around it, namely the porticoes, the tetrastoa, the painting, the mosaics, the water-fountain, the porch and all the works of the stone-masons;

[30] G. RAVEGNANI, Castelli e citta fortificate nel VI secolo, Ravenna 1983, pp. 27-8: Justinian, in spite of giving the impression of taking back all Roman Africa, in fact only controlled the coastal strip;

[31] G. MARCAIS, Manuel de l'art musulman. L'architecture, Tunisie, etc, Paris 1926, p. 44, cites Ibn Khaldun to the effect that Abin Ibrahim Ahmed erected in Africa nearly 10,000 fortresses, made of stone and lime mortar, and equipped with gates of iron; for a census, see R. BOUROUIBA, L'architecture militaire de l'Algérie médiévale, Algiers 1983;

[32] CHRISTIE, The archaeology of Byzantine Italy, cit., provides his own translation (p. 264): When J is recorded as carrying out 'total rebuilding' we may find just repairs; 'new works' may denote the restoration of an existing structure; and 'restorations' may be non-existant; and again, B. CROKE & J. CROW, Procopius & Dara, in JRS, 73 (1983), pp. 143-59; cf.p. 159, where they find by examining The Buildings against an actual site that Procopius is frequently found to be exaggerated, misleading and sometimes contradictory;

[33] A. CAMERON, Procopius and the 6th century, London 1985, pp. 84-112; quote from pp.110-11;

[34] N. DUVAL, L'état actuel des recherches sur les fortifications de Justinien en Afrique, in XXX Corso di Cultura sull'Arte Ravennate e Bizantina: Seminario Giustinianeo, Ravenna 1983, pp. 149-204: cf. pp.181ff, p.166;

[35] G. GASSI, Scultura architettonica e spolia marmoree della Panaghia di Antalya nel quadro della produzione artistica dell’Asia Minore meridionale I: epoca paleobizantina, in DE’MAFFEI, Constantinopoli, cit,  pp.73-114. See especially pp. 90ff for reuse of spolia in Southern Asia Minor;

[36] G. UGGERI, Il reimpiego dei marmi antichi nelle catthedrali padane, in A. M. ROMANINI, editor, Nicholaus e l’arte del suo tempo, Conference, 3 vols, Ferrara 1985, II, pp. 609-66; cf. p.610;

[37] LUDOLPH OF SUDHEIM, in Pélerinages: récits, chroniques et voyages en Terre Sainte, XIIe - XVIe siècles, Paris 1997, p. 1048;

[38] P. LEMERLE, editor,  Krekic, Dubrovnik et le Levant au Moyen Age, (Documents et recherches sur l’Economie des pays byzantins au Moyen Age), Paris & The Hague 1961. Cf. map, opposite p. 151, for Dubrovnik’s trading escales in the East: mostly western Greece, of course; but also Smyrna, Mytilene, Altologo (or Theologo, i.e.  Ephesus); and Palatia (i.e. Miletus, and the seat of an Emirate, which shipped corn to the West), as well as Rhodes, Antalya, Tripoli, Beirut, Acre and Jaffa. F. THIRIET, Délibérations des Assemblées Venitiennes concernant la Romanie, Paris & The Hague vol I (1160-1363), 1966; vol II (1364-1463), 1971. There were Venetian merchants at Ephesus: cf. item 623 for 4 February 1356: the ambassador is to go to Ephesus and Miletus, in order to contact Venetian merchants there. A parallel point can be made for North Africa: Cf. F. THIRIET, Les relations entre la Crète et les émirats turcs d’Asie Mineure au XIVe siècle, in Actes XIIe Congrès international des Etudes byzantines II, 1964, pp. 213-222. The Venetians appointed a consul at Tunis in 1281: cf. I Rubric LI, and an ambassador was negotiating there in 1292: Rubric CLXV; in 1339 they were importing wool from Tunisia: cf. item 476; they still had a consul in Tunis in 1455: vol II item 1515;

[39] E. ASHTOR, Levant trade in the later middle ages, Princeton 1983;

[40] MORTET, Recueil, cit., I.34, for beautification of Saint Benoit sur Loire, 1005/1030, by Abbot Gauzelin, in his Life, Chorum psallentium quoque pulcherrimo marmorum compsit emblemate, quo asportari jusserat a partibus Romanie – i.e. a storiated mosaic, from near Rome;

[41] ALI BEY EL ABASSI, Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807, 2 vols, London 1816. Cf. I.236-7 for the roof of Tripoli’s great mosque, is supported by sixteen elegant Doric columns of a fine grey marble, which, are said, to have been taken in by a Christian vessel in the early 18th century; There were certainly antiquities available earlier: cf. E. ROSSI, Storia di Tripoli e della tripolitania dalla conquista Araba al 1911, Rome 1968, pp.75ff for Tripoli at beginning of 14th century, and the description by at-Tigani in 1307-8, who informa di aver visto nel castello avanzi di antichi edifizi; ma era in rovina e I governatori ne avevano venduto la maggior parte;

[42] R. KERR, A general history and collection of voyages and travels, XVII, Edinburgh & London 1824, pp. 529-632, gives an excellent commented bibliography of travels with various aims; and cf. H. MURRAY, Historical account of discoveries and travels in Africa, 2nd edition, 2 vols, London 1818, II, pp. 535-550; II pp.213-260 for early travels to Barbary; for the predominantly ethnographical and sociological bent of such travellers, cf. D. BRAHIMI, Voyageurs français du XVIIIe siècle en Barbarie, Doctorat d'état, Paris II, n.d.;

[43] Isa Bey Camii at Seljuk, in O. ASLANAPA, Yuzyillar Boyunca Turk Sanati, Istanbul 1977, pp. 41 & 143, was only a weed-infested shell but 20 years ago;

[44] F. SARRE, Reise in Kleinasien, Sommer 1895. Forschungen auz seldjukischen Kunst und Geographie des Landes, Berlin 1896. Pl. X LIV for spolia at Suverek, plate XLIV, pp.142ff for Egherdir, with plate LXI for its spolia-rich fortress;

[45] MANGO, Antique statuary, cit., pp. 55-75; cf. p.75;

[46] A. CAMERON & J. HERRIN, editors, Constantinople in the early eighth century: the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai, Leiden 1984. Pp. 45-6 for the author's antiquarian interests; p. 27 for the early 8th century date; pp. 29-30 for the book's strangeness: not a guidebook; certainly not comprehensive; and not a laudatio urbis either;

[47] O. DE BUSBECQ, Travels into Turkey, London 1744. He went to Constantinople as Ambassador in 1554. P.49: Yet there are some valuable Relicks of old Monuments to be seen; but not so many as a Man would imagine, considering how many Constantine brought thither from Rome; and again SANDYS, Travails, p.27: I think there is not in the world an object that promiseth so much afar off to the beholders, and entred so deceiveth the expectation;

[48] C. FOSS, Cities, fortresses and villages of Byzantine Asia Minor, Aldershot 1996, (Collected Studies series), p. 179;