Konya History

Konya is known as the city of the mystic Sufi poet, Jalaluddin Rumi, and it was also once the capital of the Seljuk Empire. Rumi’s father moved to Konya in 1228, becoming the head of a madrassa. Upon his death, Mavlana Jalaluddin al Rumi, who is known for his Sufi teaching and poetry, took over his duties. Today, his remains are interred in a mausoleum in Konya. The Greek population of the nearby village of Sille were tasked with taking care of the mausoleum, and together, Turks and Greeks coexisted peacefully for hundreds of years until the population exchange of 1922, which saw the Turkish populations of Greece returned to Turkey, and the Greek people in Turkey returned to their homeland, too