Sinop citadel inscriptions

Sinop citadel inscriptions

A survey to document the Seljuk inscriptions on the citadel wall at Sinop was undertaken in 2008 by Scott Redford of Koç University.

The inscriptions are on the walls of the inner citadel (keep), which is situated near the neck of the promontory of Sinop. They were published in the 1920s and 1930s but there were errors in transcription and the names had often been incorrectly tied to known Seljuk historical figures. Moreover, the publications refer to their positions on a Seljuk building but all are, in fact, spolia and the original positions of the inscriptions are unknown. Until nine years ago the keep was used as a prison but it is now accessible and the inscriptions are again available for study. The keep also contains two sculptured lions with an inscription of Alaeddin Keykubad, the earliest known examples of Seljuk sculpture.

The sixteen inscriptions were carved in 1214-1215 during the rebuilding of the walls after the Seljuk conquest of the city. They refer to the foundation of the fortress and mention large numbers of people involved in the building. Unfortunately, many have been moved from their original positions and some have been erased, but they are still the largest corpus of building and administrative records for the early Seljuk period.

Most of the inscriptions are of a standard type, giving the name and titles of the sultan, Izzeddin Keykavus, the name of the emir who paid for that section of the wall, and the date. Others mention the governors of the largest Seljuk provinces, architects and a scribe. The inscriptions of the civilians were smaller and located overlooking the harbour, where they were high up and invisible. All are in Arabic except for one bilingual Arabic and Greek inscription and a Persian poetic piece.

The photogrammetry project showed that some Byzantine structures were reused by the Seljuks.