THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN ？BRAHIM KAFESO？LU AND OSMAN TURAN AND ITS REFLECTION ON THE FIELD

It can be asserted that Seljukid historiography in Turkey is still in its infancy. The fact that archival documentation for the Seljukid period is limited compared to the Ottoman historiography and this period was accepted as a dark age and indefinite era as being a time space of middle ages. Therefore, these reasons caused the Seljukid historiography to remain in the shadow of Ottoman history writing. Two competent historians in this field, ？brahim Kafeso？lu and Osman Turan, have produced vital contribution by filling important gaps since 1940s to the scholarship which have constituted a model for later historians. However, academic competition and contention emerging between these two scholars during the 1960s negatively affected their productivity and even over time it has exceeded the academic level and turned into a personal discussion. In this article, we will try to explain objectively the sources of the discussion and tension between these two historians and it will be evaluated how these reflections influenced their writings by focusing on their academic texts