Karaman is a city in south central

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, located in Central Anatolia, north of the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar,'' Greek language, Greek'':'' Ταύρος) are a mountain range, mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal reg ...

, about south of

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

. It is the seat of

Karaman Province Karaman Province () is a province of south-central Turkey. Its area is 8,678 km2, and its population is 260,838 (2022). According to the 2000 census, the population was 243,210. The population density is 30 people/km. The traffic code is 7 ...

and Karaman District.İl Belediyesi
, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Its population is 175,390 (2022). The town lies at an average elevation of . The Karaman Museum is one of the major sights. Karaman Main Station

Etymology

The town owes its name to

Karaman Bey Karim al-Dīn Ḳarāmān Beg was a Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman chieftain who ruled the Karamanids in the 13th century. Ḳarāmān Beg's emergence coincides with the defeat of the Sultanate of Rum by the Mongol Empire in 1256 and the tension b ...

, who was one of the rulers of the

Karamanid The Karamanids ( or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman (), was a Turkish people, Turkish Anatolian beyliks, Anatolian beylik (principality) of Salur tribe origin, descended from Oghuz Turks, centered in South-Centra ...

dynasty. The former name ''Laranda'' which in turn comes from the

Luwian language Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – ...

''Larawanda'', literally means "sandy, a sandy place".

History

In ancient times, Karaman was known as Lānda in Hittite and Laranda (). In the 6th century BC it came under

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

rule until 322 BC, when it was destroyed by Perdiccas, a former general of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

, after he had defeated Ariarathes I, king of

Cappadocia Cappadocia (; , from ) is a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey. It is largely in the provinces of Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. Today, the touristic Cappadocia Region is located in Nevşehir ...

. It later became a seat of Isaurian pirates. At some point it was possessed by Antipater of Derbe. It belonged to the Roman and later Byzantine Empires until it was captured by the

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture. The founder of th ...

in the early 12th century. Karaman was occupied by

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

in 1190 and by the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Cilician Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia, was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian ...

between 1211 and 1216. In 1256, the town was taken by Karaman Bey and was renamed Karaman in his honour. From 1275, Karaman was the capital of the

beylik. In 1468 the Karamanids were conquered by the Ottomans and in 1483 the capital of the province was moved to

. Karaman has retained ruins of a Karamanid castle and some walls, two mosques and a

Koran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

school (''

madrasah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...

'') from that age. A

mihrab ''Mihrab'' (, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "''qibla'' wall". ...

from a mosque from Karaman can now be found in the Çinili Pavilion near the Archeology Museum in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. The Karamanslis were Cappadocian Turkomans who fought the Ottomans. Later they integrated into the empire. There was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

for the city. The poet

Yunus Emre Yunus Emre (), also known as Derviş Yûnus (Yûnus the Dervish) (1238–1320) (Old Anatolian Turkish: يونس امره), was a Turkish folk poet and Sufi who greatly influenced Turkish culture. The UNESCO General Conference unanimously passe ...

() resided in Karaman during his later years and is believed to lie buried beside the Yunus Emre Mosque. A small adjacent park is adorned with quotations from his verse, many of them

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

-splattered. In 1222, the

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

preacher Bahaeddin Veled arrived in town with his family, and the Karamanoğlu

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

built a ''madrasah'' to accommodate them. Veled's son was the famous

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

, who married his wife, Gevher Hatun, while his family was living in Karaman. It was here, too, that Rumi's mother died in 1224. She was buried, along with other family members, in the Aktekke Mosque (also known as the Mader-i Mevlana Cami), which Alaeddin Ali Bey had built to replace the original ''madrasah'' in 1370., todayszaman.com When Thomas Jefferson fought Libya's Barbary pirates, he replaced one member of the al-Qaramanli dynasty with another as Pasha.

Notable people

Nestor of Laranda Lucius Septimius Nestor () also known as Nestor of Karaman, Laranda (Νέστωρ Λαρανδεύς), was a Greek poet who lived during the late-second and early-third centuries AD. According to Strabo and Stephanus Byzantinus he was from the La ...

, an epic poet, the father of the poet Peisander.Suda Encyclopedia, §nu.261
/ref> * Peisander of Laranda an epic poet, the son of the poet Nestor.

Karamanlides

The bearers of the Greek name Karamanlis as well as other surnames beginning with "Karaman" are a

toponymic surname A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a surname or byname derived from a place name,

for the town.

Gallery

File:Karaman_Eski_Kütüphane_4722.jpg, Karaman Street view File:Karaman 2144.jpg, Karaman Nefesi Sultan Medresesi monumental entrance File:Karaman 4808.jpg, Karaman Medrese of Nefesi Sultan File:Karaman 2149.jpg, Karaman Hac Beyler Mosque Entrance File:Karaman 4780.jpg, Karaman Haci Beyler Camisi entrance File:Karaman 2199.jpg, Karaman Ibrahim Bey Imareti door File:Karaman 4846.jpg, Karaman Ibrahim Bey Mosque File:Istanbul june 2008 2805.jpg, Ibrahim Bey Mihrab in Çinili Köşk File:Karaman 4856.jpg, Karaman Castle Mosque and surroundings File:Karaman 2230.jpg, Karaman Castle mosque File:Karaman 4768.jpg, Karaman Ak Tekke interior File:Karaman 4862.jpg, Karaman Castle Exterior File:Karaman 4863.jpg, Karaman Castle Interior File:Karaman Museum 2067.jpg, Karaman Museum Can Hasan I Pottery File:Karaman Museum 2063.jpg, Karaman Museum Iconostasis doors File:Karaman Museum 2082.jpg, Karaman Museum Kadın fez süsü File:Karaman Museum 2187.jpg, Karaman Museum Cowry shell adorned objects

Climate

Karaman has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

under

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

(''BSk'') and a

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm to hot summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in central and eastern parts of the three northern-tier continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), typi ...

under the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC), or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC), is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köp ...

(''Dc''), with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Karaman is generally very sunny, with almost 3000 hours of sunshine per year.

Mayors of Karaman

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Hasan Özkaymak ANAP *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Yaşar Evcen SHP, CHP *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Halil İbrahim Gülcan MHP *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Ali Kantürk

AK Party The Justice and Development Party ( , AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Kamil Uğurlu

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Ertuğrul Çalışkan

present The present is the period of time that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with the past, the period of time that has already occurred; and the future, the period of time that has yet to occur. It is sometimes represented as a hyperplan ...

Savaş Kalaycı MHP

References

External links

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Central Anatolia Provincial municipalities in Turkey Populated places in Karaman District Karamanids Lycaonia