Darülmülk Konya
It is estimated that the first settlement of the city, which is unknown by whom and how it was founded, was Alaeddin Hill, which is a small hill. It is stated that the name Konya comes from the Phrygian word Kawania, which turned into Konion, and was later called Ikonion/Ikonium in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
In the works of Islamic geographers, the name of the city is mentioned as Kūniye (قونية(. This spelling style was also adopted by the Turks and it was pronounced as Konya. However, the phrase “Kavâniyye, which they call Konya” in Saltuknâme, which also contains information from the 13rd century, draws attention. Also besides Iconium, it has also been mentioned as Conia, Conium, Como, Cunnyo and Konn in Western sources since the 11th century
There is not much information about the ancient history of Konya, which is a very old settlement and has traces of settlement from the Ancient Ages around it. It is thought that this place remained under Hittite rule, then came under Phrygian rule, and was then captured by the Lydians. In the mid-6th century BC, the city remained under Persian rule. Xenephon, who passed through here with Greek soldiers (tens of thousands) during the rebellion of Kurus, the son of Darius II, mentions Konya as the easternmost city of the Phrygians. In the second half of the 4th century BC, it passed into the hands of the Alexander Empire, after his death, to the Seleucids, and then to the kings of Pergamon. After the death of Attalos III, it joined the Roman Empire. It is stated in Roman sources that the city gained increasing importance at this time. During the spread of Christianity, the residence of the apostle Paul here gave the city a sacred importance. Konya, which became an Eastern Roman city after the Roman Empire was divided into two, became the target of Arab armies from the mid-seventh century. During the Umayyad period, Mervan b. Muhammad conquered Konya (105/723-24). During the Abbasid period, Tarsus Emir Ebû Thabit was captured during an expedition in 287 (900) and was imprisoned in Konya Castle for a while, then sent to Istanbul with a group of Muslims (Taberî, X, 76). Seven years later, Abbasid forces organized an expedition to Konya and destroyed the city. Thereupon, Byzantine Emperor Leo VI. sent an envoy to Caliph Müktefî-Billâh and asked for the damages to be covered (İbnü’l-Esîr, VII, 552). During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Mutî’- Lillâh, an Islamic army set out from the garrison in Tarsus in Shawwal 352 (November 963) and returned by making an expedition to Konya (İbnü’l-Esîr, VIII, 547). However, this dominance was temporary. There have been no raids here since the second half of the tenth century.
The Turks first appeared in front of Konya in 1069 with the Seljuk commander Afşin. But the Turkish conquest took place after 1071, probably in 1073. It is rumoured that the conquest of Konya took place in the evening when Turkish soldiers entered the city among the cattle brought into the city and opened the castle gate. After the conquest, some people in the castle were evacuated. They went to Sille and settled there. The castle was reworked, leaving only the main entrance in the north in place. About fifty Turkish families were settled in the vacant northern part.
Konya Castle was an important military fortification that protected the interior of the country in this early period. The armies participating in the First Crusade followed the Akşehir-KonyaEreğli Road from Dorylaion and descended to Antakya via Maraş and Göksu. After the Seljuks surrendered Iznik to Byzantium on June 19, 1097, Konya was chosen as the capital city by the Seljuk ruling family. The defense of the castle was strengthened, and the number of soldiers was increased. Thus, Konya entered an important development process as the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk State, which survived the First Crusade. The second army, consisting of French under the command of Guillaume II, Count of Nevers, who participated in the Crusades of 1101, was attacked by the Turks along the way, but eventually managed to reach Konya. They saw that the city with strong walls was defended by a strong Turkish garrison, and although they attacked the walls throughout the day, they left the city without getting any results.
During the reigns of Seljuk Sultan Mesud and Kılıcarslan II, Konya ceased to be a town and became a crowded city. After Byzantium’s hope and dream of taking back this place was destroyed in the Battle of Myryokephalon in 1176, Konya faced the danger of the Crusaders. German Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, who participated in the Third Crusade, defeated Kutbüddin Melikşah, the son of Kılıcarslan II, on 17 May 1190 and entered Konya, which had been evacuated by the sultan. He committed looting and destruction in the city. But he did not stay here long and continued on his way. A source describing these events states that Konya was as big and rich as the city of Cologne in Germany at that time.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Konya was the scene of the sultanate conflict between the sons of Kılıcarslan II. Konya experienced a bright period during the reigns of Izzeddin Keykavus I and Alaeddin Keykubad I, who ascended to the throne after the death of Gıyâseddin Keyhusrev I. The new construction movement initiated by İzzeddin Keykâvus I continued at an accelerated pace during the reign of his brother Alaeddin Keykubad I. New neighborhoods were added to the city of Konya.
The growth of the city of Konya, known as “Dârülmülk” during the time of the Anatolian Seljuks, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries left the old defence order ineffective. Thereupon, 4 km long new walls and bastions were built around the city of Konya (1221). A new inner castle (Ahmedek, Zindankale) was built in the western part instead of the castle on Alaeddin Hill, which lost its importance because it was in the middle of the walls. This development movement was effective in the physical conditions and social life of the city until the mid-19th century. Residential districts, bazaars, city walls and other features of the city of Konya were created according to the new physical situation in the second quarter of the 13th century. The gates of the city were named according to the city reached by the road starting from there: such as Antalya, Larende, Aksaray gates. The name of the Ladik Gate, which opened to the north, would later be changed to the Istanbul Gate. Among the new people who came to settle in the city of Konya, there were mostly Turkmens, but also some Christians. They mostly stayed in the inns named after them, paying a fee. Greeks had been living in their own neighbourhoods in the inner castle since the conquest of the city. Konya’s most lively and crowded period is in the mid-13th century. Meanwhile, it is estimated that the city has a population of approximately 60,000, of which, at best, 10% is non-Muslim.
The defeat in the Battle of Kösedağ in 1243, followed by the Battle of Sultanhanı in 1256, and the political consequences of Hülâgû’s arrival in the Near East in 1258 did not affect Konya much economically and socially. In these years, Konya was almost an international trade city as the centre of a powerful Asia Minor state. However, the events that would result in Izzeddin Keykavus II taking refuge in Byzantium marked the beginning of a new political era in Konya.
