Tarsos

One of the principal cities of ancient Cilicia, Tarsos (mod. Tarsus, Turkey) retained its prestige in the medieval world through its association with the apostle Paul and its proximity to the Cilician Gates, the premier mountain pass between Cilicia and Anatolia.

Conquered by the Muslims in 637, Tarsos was part of the Syrian frontier with Byzantium. Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas conquered the city for the Byzantines in 965, but the catastrophic defeat of the Byzantine army by the Turks at Mantzikert in 1071 effectively isolated Tarsos from Constantinople. Initially conquered by Tancred in the course of the First Crusade (1096-1099), the city changed hands frequently among the Byzantines, the Franks of Antioch, and the Armenian Rupenid dynasty. With Adana, the town formed part of the dower of Cecilia, sister of Baldwin I of Jerusalem, after she married Roger, regent of Antioch. In 1172 the Armenians conquered the city for a final time, and it remained in their hands until it was seized by the Mamluks sometime after 1337.

Circumstantial evidence from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries suggests that the city was thinly inhabited. The silting up of its harbor slowly redirected trade toward Ayas (mod. Yumurtalik, Turkey) and other ports in Cilicia. The Church of St. Paul, once the Latin cathedral, survives as the Kilisse Camii, and parts of two other medieval churches also survive.

-Christopher MacEvitt

Bibliography

The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia, ed. Thomas S. R. Boase (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1978).