Like other bodies of water, the Black Sea has been given a number of names. It was known as the Sea of Trebizond during the early Islamic centuries due to the popularity of the Trebizond Port in the south coast of the sea. Muslims in general and Iranian and Azeri merchants in particular contributed to the boom of trade in this port. Thus, the sea was named after its most important port because of its commercial significance for Iranians, considering that they had been acquainted with the sea through this port. We know such naming for other seas and ports; however, for some reasons, it is considered as an exonym for Asian Minor, which has been part of the Byzantine Empire for a long time. These reasons can be explored and discussed within the context of the ties between Muslims and the Byzantine Empire in the years before and even after the Battle of Manzikert. This study examines the continuity and changes made in the names given to the Black Sea, the reasons behind it, and the continuation of the two folk and formal names given to it.
Abu al-Fida. (1970).Taqwim al-Boldan. Trans. Abd al-Mohammad Ayatai, Tehran.
Akisik-Karakullukcu, Aslihan. (2013). “The Empire of Trebizond in the World-Trade system: Economy and Culture”, in Trade in Byzantium papers from the Third international Sevgi Gonul Byzantine studies symposium. Edited by: Paul Magdalino, Nevra Necipoglu, Istanbul, 24-27.
Azari Esfarayeni. (2014). Ajayeb va Qarayeb. Compiled by Vahid Ruyani and Yusuf Ali Yusufnejad, Golestan.
(1988). Ahmad ibn Yahya, Futuh al-Boldan. Tehran.
Beihaqi, Mohammad ibn Hosain. (2005). Tarikh-e Beihaqi. (History of Beihaqi). Corrected by Ali Akbar Fayyaz, Edited by Mohammad Jaafar Yahaqi, Mashhad.
Biruni, Abu Reyhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad. (1988). al-Tafhim li-Awa'il Sina'at al-Tanjim. Preface by Jalal al-ddin Humaei, Tehran.
Biruni, Abu Reyhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad. (1973). Tahdid Nihayat al-Amakin Li Tas'hih-i Masafat al-Masakin. Ahmad Aram, Tehran.
Blois, Francois. (2007). “The Name of the Black Sea”, in: Iranica 13, Iranian Languages and Texts from Iran and Turan. Ronald E. Emmerick Memorial Volume, Edited by Maria Macuch, Mauro Maggi and Werner Sundermann, Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden.
Bryer, Anthony A. M. (1980). The Empire of Trebizond and the Pontos. London.
Dameshqi, Muhammad Abi Talib al-Ansari al-Sufi al-Dameshqi. (1865).Nokhbat al-Dahr fi Ajaeb al-Barr wa al-Bahr (Excerpts of Time on the Marvels of the Land and Sea). Petersburg.
Eastmond, Antony. (2004). Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium, Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond. England.
Graham, A. J. (2006). “The Colonial Expansion of Greece”, in: TheCambridge Ancient History. Second Edition, vol 3. Part 3, Edited by Boardman, John II. Hammond, N. G. L., Cambridge University Press, pp. 83-162.
Grinevetsky, S.R., Zonn, I.S., Zhiltsov, S.S., Kosarev, A.N., Kostianoy, A.G. (2015). The Black Sea Encyclopedia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Hafiz Abru, Shahab al-ddin Abd al-llah Khawafi. (1996). Geography of Hafiz Abru. 1, Corrected by Sadegh Sajjadi, Tehran.
(1928). Histories. vol., II. Book III-IV, Trans. A.D. Godley, London.
Hudud al-'Alam men al-Mashriq el-al-Maghrib. (1983). (The Regions of the World from the East to the West). Corrected by Manouchehr Sotoudeh, Tehran.
Hyde, F. (1991). Tarikh al-Tejarah fi al-Sharq al A'dna fi al osour al-Wosta (The History of Business in the Far East in the Middle Ages). Trans. Ahmad Reza Mohammed Reza, Second Part, General Egyptian Book Organization.
Ibn Hawqal. (1987). Iran in Surat al-Ardh. Translated and edited by Jafar Shoar, Amir Kabir Press, Tehran.
Istakhri, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim. (1961). Masalik wa Mamalik. Compiled by Iraj Afshar, Tehran.
Kufi Qazwini, Zakariya' ibn Muhammad (2000). Aja'ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Mawjudat (The Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence). Lebanon, Beirut.
Masoudi, Ali ibn Hossein. (1991). Muruj al-Dhahab wa Ma'adin al-Jawhar(The meadows of gold and mines of gems). Trans. Abolghasem Payandeh, Vol. 1, Tehran.
Masoudi, Ali ibn Hossein. (1893). al-Tanbih wa al-'Eshraf (Admonition and Revision). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
McGing, Brian. (2004). “Pontus”, in: Encyclopaedia of Iranica. http:// www. iranicaonline.org/articles/pontus (accessed on 20 September 2016).
Milner, Thomas. (1855). The Crimea, its Ancient and Modern History. London.
Moghaddasi, Motahhar ibn Taher. (1995). Creation and History. Trans. Mohammad Reza Shafi'i Kadkani, Volumes 4 to 6, Tehran.
Mostofi Qazvini, (2002). Nozhat al-Qoloub. Corrected by Mohammad Dabir Siaghi, Qazvin.
Munk Hojte, Jakob. (2009). Mithridates VI and the Pontic Kingdom (Black Sea Studies). Santa Barbara.
(1813). Plutarch’s Lives. Translated from original Greek by John Langhorne and William Langhorne, Vol IV, London.
Polo, Marco. (1903).The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. In Two Volumes, Vol I, Translated and Edited with Notes by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B. London.
Rubruck, William. (1937). “The Journal of Friar William Rubruck”, in: The Contemporaries of Marco polo. New York.
Schmitt, Rüdiger. (1985). “Black Sea”, in: Encyclopedia of Iranica. http:// www. iranicaonline.org/articles/Black Sea, Last Updated: December 15.
Sharif Idrisi, Mohammad ibn Mohammad ibn Abd al-llah ibn Idrisi. (2002). Nozhat al-Moshtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq (The Delight of him who desires to Journey through the Climates). Cairo.
Strabo (1854). The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes.The first six books by H, C, Hamilton, The remainder by W, Falconer, in three volumes, ol 1, London.
Taschner, F. (1986). “Anadolu”, in: Encyclopedia of Islam. Edited by H. A. R. Gibb, and others, vol 1, Leiden, Brill.
(1980).Anabasis. vol., III, book I-VII, Tran. Carleton L. Brownson, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harward University Press.
Yaqut al-Hamawi, Yaqut ibn Abd al-llah. (2001). Mu'jam al-Boldān. Trans. Alinaghi Monzavi, Vol. 1, Tehran.
Articles
Fazlinejad, Ahmad and Kheirandish, Abdolrasool (2019- 2020). “Trabzon, A Bridge Between East and West (Accompanying rulers A. Fazlinejad 79 with merchants in the late Middle Ages)”, in: Asia Minor Studies, No. 8, Autumn 2019 and Winter 2020, pp. 79-102.
Fazlinejad, Ahmad and Kheirandish, Abdolrasool (2020). “Trebizonds' status in the Anatolian Blockade by Ilkhanids”, in: Journal of History of Islam and Iran, Volume 29, Issue 44 - Serial Number 134, Winter 2020, Pages 71-93.
Foruzani, Seyyed Abu al-ghasem. (2015). "Campaign on Rome, the Lost Wish of Sultan Mahmoud Ghaznavi”, in: seventeen articles (Articles on History, Politics, Literature, Religion and Art). Shiraz.
Johnson, Henry. A. (Mar., 1913). “The Earliest Colonisers of the Euxine Sea.I” An Irish Quarterly Review. Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 788-809.
Fazlinejad, A., Kheirandish, A., & Ahmadi, F. (2022). Black Sea or Sea of Trebizond:
Significance of Trebizond Port in Persians’ knowledge of Black Sea in the Middle Ages. Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History, 13(33), 155-172. doi: 10.22034/jiiph.2022.48298.2254
MLA
Ahmad Fazlinejad; Abdolrasool Kheirandish; Farajollah Ahmadi. "Black Sea or Sea of Trebizond:
Significance of Trebizond Port in Persians’ knowledge of Black Sea in the Middle Ages". Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History, 13, 33, 2022, 155-172. doi: 10.22034/jiiph.2022.48298.2254
HARVARD
Fazlinejad, A., Kheirandish, A., Ahmadi, F. (2022). 'Black Sea or Sea of Trebizond:
Significance of Trebizond Port in Persians’ knowledge of Black Sea in the Middle Ages', Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History, 13(33), pp. 155-172. doi: 10.22034/jiiph.2022.48298.2254
VANCOUVER
Fazlinejad, A., Kheirandish, A., Ahmadi, F. Black Sea or Sea of Trebizond:
Significance of Trebizond Port in Persians’ knowledge of Black Sea in the Middle Ages. Journal of Iranian Islamic Period History, 2022; 13(33): 155-172. doi: 10.22034/jiiph.2022.48298.2254
)