The oriental margins of the Byzantine World: A prosopographical perspective

The chronological and geographical limits of the following discussion encompass the eastern outskirts of the Byzantine world from the end of the twelfth century to 1261, with a particular focus on the empire of Trebizond in 1204-1261 and the Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia up to the 1260s. I shall begin with the empire of Trebizond and shall then turn to the territories adjacent to the Byzantine Pontos from the south, namely to Muslim Anatolia. If the affiliation of the empire of Trebizond to the Byzantine world is unlikely to cause any surprise or doubt, the extension of Byzantine civilization through Anatolian Muslim territories requires some special explanation, which will be set out in the proper place.