Victory Inscribed: The Seljuk Fetihname on the Citadel Walls of Antalya, Turkey.

• Author: Majeed, Tehnyat
• Position: Book review

Victory Inscribed: The Seljuk Fetihname on the Citadel Walls of Antalya, Turkey. By SCOTT REDFORD and GARY LEISER. Adalya Supplementary Series 7. Istanbul: AKMED, 2008. Pp. ix + 184 (Turkish, 1-70; Eng., 71-148), illus. [euro]30.

The volume under review, co-authored by Scott Redford and Gary Leiser, is a valuable addition in the field of Islamic architectural epigraphy in which there is a dearth of published studies that historically contextualize Islamic inscriptions. The authors' in-depth examination of the various formal, textual, and historical aspects related to this victory inscription of the Saljuq sultan 'Izz al-Din Kayka'us inscribed on the fortress walls of Antalya in 1216, along with the essay contributions of literary, cultural, and archeological value by Burhan Vark1vanc, Wheeler M. Thackston, Jr., and Veronica Kalas, offer a diverse set of approaches to study a single text in great detail. In its wider scope, therefore, the book demonstrates the use of paradigmatic frameworks that may be employed for studying building inscriptions. Moreover, this bilingual edition caters to both an English and Turkish readership.

As part of a collaborative venture that includes historians, art historians, architects, and archeologists, Redford and Leiser accomplish the monumental task of bringing together the mass of material for this inscription that was dispersed in the collections of the Antalya museum, documented in earlier reports, and remained in situ. Even though the focus is a medieval Arabic inscription, the extent of this project can be gauged by the expertise drawn not only from the Islamic period but also from earlier Classical and Byzantine periods. The authors reexamine the stone-carved inscription and combine a meticulous transliteration and translation of the entire Arabic text with a detailed analysis of its location, structural material, and palaeographic, stylistic, and compositional features. Their edition corrects Ahmed Tevhid's record of the Fathname inscription first published in 1926, and includes parts previously undeciphered. Thus it finally documents as complete a text as possible of this celebratory inscription installed soon after the Saljuq reconquest of Antalya and, most importantly, provides a comprehensive commentary based on extensive fieldwork and research into the larger social, political, and cultural contexts.

The book is divided into five chapters that effectively consider the Fathname inscription from...