DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0107
OF ASIA MINOR 97
Seljuk Sultans carried out no policy of extermina-
tion, but treated the Christian subjects so well that
many of them fought valiantly against the oppres-
sive Byzantine emperors. In view of facts like
these, we must conclude that the population of
cities like Ladik and Kutaya (Kotiaion) became
Mohammedan in the mass, and that any Christian
remnant dwindled or emigrated.1
The change was due, probably, to two reasons.
In the first place, though no direct persecution of
Christians was practised by the Turks, yet the posi-
tion of inferiority aud degradation, to which the
Christians were reduced, was such that a strong
temptation existed to seek the easy, ever open
entrance to honour and privilege. This alone,
however, would have been insufficient without the
second cause, which was that Phrygia had always
been a hot-bed of heresy, and that all heretics were
exposed to very harsh treatment at the hands of
the Byzantine government. Many of these heresies
were coloured by Oriental ideas; and a strong Orien-
tal substratum existed in the population. Hence
they were prone to relapse into a religion of the
thoroughly Oriental type like Mohammedanism.
On the other hand Cappadocia, where the Orthodox
Church had been far more completely victorious,
has a very much larger Christian population.
1 Cities ivnl Bishopries of Plirygia, i., p. 25 ff.
7
Seljuk Sultans carried out no policy of extermina-
tion, but treated the Christian subjects so well that
many of them fought valiantly against the oppres-
sive Byzantine emperors. In view of facts like
these, we must conclude that the population of
cities like Ladik and Kutaya (Kotiaion) became
Mohammedan in the mass, and that any Christian
remnant dwindled or emigrated.1
The change was due, probably, to two reasons.
In the first place, though no direct persecution of
Christians was practised by the Turks, yet the posi-
tion of inferiority aud degradation, to which the
Christians were reduced, was such that a strong
temptation existed to seek the easy, ever open
entrance to honour and privilege. This alone,
however, would have been insufficient without the
second cause, which was that Phrygia had always
been a hot-bed of heresy, and that all heretics were
exposed to very harsh treatment at the hands of
the Byzantine government. Many of these heresies
were coloured by Oriental ideas; and a strong Orien-
tal substratum existed in the population. Hence
they were prone to relapse into a religion of the
thoroughly Oriental type like Mohammedanism.
On the other hand Cappadocia, where the Orthodox
Church had been far more completely victorious,
has a very much larger Christian population.
1 Cities ivnl Bishopries of Plirygia, i., p. 25 ff.
7