Turkish-German Relations in Literary History From the Fifteenth Through the Twenty-First Century
New perspectives on Turkish-German Relations in Literary History
İrem AtasoyThe Turkish-German relations are deep-rooted and based on a long history which can be traced back to the Crusades. The chronicle entitled Gesta Francorum (1100–1101) of an anonymous author1 connected with Bohemond I the prince of Antioch and Robert the Monk’s travelogue Historia Hierosolymitana (1107–1120) are the earliest historical literary sources in Europe which contain information about the Turks. The idea of the chronicles was based on creating an “enemy image” to motivate the Christians just before the start of the First Crusade2 and they were “very influential in the development of crusading ideas” (Morris, 1993, p. 56, 88; Kuran Burçoğlu, 1999, p. 189). In these two important literary texts, Turks were portrayed as “Enemy of God and Holy Christianity”, “misfortune of the Christians” and “dreadful barbarians3”.