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See also: Asia Minor, the last of the Phrygian See also: land towards See also: Lycaonia, was commonly reckoned to
Lycaonia in the See also: Roman See also: time, but retained its old Phrygian connexion and population to a comparatively See also: late date
.
Its natural surroundings must have made it an important See also: town from the beginning of organized society in this region
.
It lies in an excellently fertile plain, 6 m. from the Pisidian mountains on the west, with mountains more distant on the See also: north and See also: south, while to the See also: east the dead level plain stretches away for hundreds of See also: miles, though the distant view is interrupted by See also: island-like mountains
.
Streams from the Pisidian mountains make the land on the south-west and south of the city a garden; but on the east and north-east a See also: great See also: part of the naturally fertile See also: soil is uncultivated
.
Trees grow nowhere except in the gardens near the city
.
Irrigation is necessary for productiveness, and the See also: water-supply is now deficient
.
A much greater supply was available for See also: agriculture in See also: ancient times and might be re-introduced
.
Originally a Phrygian city, as almost every authority who has come into contact with the population calls it, and as is implied in Acts xiv
.
6, it was in a See also: political sense the chief city of the Lycaonian tetrarchy added to the Galatian country about 165 B.C., and it was part of the Roman province See also: Galatia from 25 B.C. to about A.D
.
295
.
Then it was included in the province See also: Pisidia (as See also: Ammianus See also: Marcellinus describes it) till 372, after which it formed part of the new province Lycaonia so long as the provincial division lasted
.
Later it was a See also: principal city of the theme of Anatolia
.
It suffered much from the Arab raids in the three centuries following A.D . 66o; its capture in 708 is mentioned, but it never was held as a city of the caliphs . In later Roman andSee also: Byzantine times it must have been a large and wealthy city
.
It was a metropolis and an archbishopric, and one of the earliest See also: councils of the See also: church was held there in A.D
.
235
.
The ecclesiastical organization of Lycaonia and the country round
See also: Iconium on all sides was See also: complete in the early 4th century, and monuments of later 3rd and 4th century See also: Christianity are extremely numerous
.
The See also: history of Christian Iconium is utterly obscure
.
The city was thrice visited by St See also: Paul, probably in A.D
.
47, 50 and 53; and it is the principal scene of the tale of Paul and See also: Thecla (which though apocryphal has certainly some See also: historical basis; see THECLA)
.
There was a distinct Roman See also: element in Iconium, arising doubtless from the presence of Roman traders
.
This was recognized by See also: Claudius, who granted the honorary title Claudiconium, and by See also: Hadrian, who elevated the city to the See also: rank of a Roman colony about A.D
.
130 under the name Colonia Aelia Hadriana See also: Augusta Iconiensium
.
The See also: period of its greatest splendour was after the See also: conquest by the Seljuk See also: Turks about 1072-1074
.
It soon became the capital of the Seljuk See also: state, and one of the most brilliant cities of the See also: world
.
The palace of the sultans and the mosque of See also: Ala ed-din Kaikobad formerly covered great part of the Acropolis See also: hill in the
See also: northern part of the city
.
Farther south there is still the great complex of buildings which See also: form the chief seat of the Mevlevi dervishes, asect widely spread over Anatolia
.
Many other splendid mosques and royal tombs adorned the city, and justified the See also: Turkish proverb, " See all the world; but see See also: Konia." The walls, about 2 m. in circumference, consisted of a core of See also: rubble and concrete, coated with ancient stones, inscriptions, sculptures and architectural See also: marbles, forming a striking sight, which no traveller ever examined in detail
.
Beyond the walls extended the gardens and villas of a prosperous See also: Oriental population, especially on the south-west towards the suburb of Meram
.
When the Seljuk state broke up, and the Osmanli or See also: Ottoman See also: sovereignty arose, Konia decayed, its population dwindled and the splendid early Turkish buildings were suffered to go to ruin
.
As See also: trade and intercourse diminished Konia See also: grew poorer and more ruinous
.
The walls and the palace, still perfect in the beginning of the 19th century, were gradually pulled down for See also: building material, and in 1882 there remained only a small part of the walls, from which all the See also: outer stones had been removed, while the palace was a ruin
.
At that time and for some years later a large part of Konia was like a city of the dead
.
But about 1895 the advent of the Anatolian railway began to restore its prosperity
.
A See also: good supply of drinking water was
brought to the city by Ferid See also: Pasha, who governed the vilayet ably for several years, till in 1903 he was appointed See also: Grand See also: Vizier
.
The sacred buildings, mosques, &c., were patched up (except a few which were quite ruinous) and the walls wholly removed, but an unsightly fragment of a palace- tower still remained in 1906 . In 1904—1905 the first two sections of theSee also: Bagdad railway, 117 m., to Karaman and Eregli, were built
.
In the city there is a branch of the Ottoman See also: bank, a See also: government technical school, a French Catholic See also: mission and a school, an Armenian See also: Protestant school for boys, an See also: American mission school for girls, mainly Armenian, and other educational 'establishments
.
The founder of the Mevlevi dancing dervishes, the poet Mahommed Jelal-ed-Din (See also: Rumi), in 1307, though tempted to assume the See also: inheritance along with the See also: empire of the Seljuk sultan Ala ed-din Kaikobad III., who died without heirs, preferred to pass on the power to See also: Osman, son of Ertogrul, and with his own hands invested Osman and girt him with the sword: this See also: investiture was the legitimate beginning of the Osmanli authority
.
The heirs of Jelal-ed-Din (Rumi) were favoured by the Osmanli sultans until 1516, when See also: Selim was on the point of destroying the Mevlevi establishment as hostile to the Osmanli and the faith; and though he did not do so the Mevlevi and their chiefs were deprived of influence and dignity
.
In 1829 Mahmud II. restored their dignity in part, and in 1889 Abd-ul-Hamid II. confirmed their exemption from military duty
.
The See also: head of the Mevlevi dervishes (Aziz-Effendi, Hazreti-Mevlana, Mollah-Unkiar, commonly styled simply Chelebi-Effendi) has the right to gird on the sultan's sword at his investiture, and is master of the considerable revenues of the greatest religious establishment in the empire
.
He has also the See also: privilege of corresponding See also: direct with the See also: caliph; but otherwise is regarded as rather opposed to the Osmanli administration, and has no real power
.
Iconium is distant by See also: rail 466 m. from the Bosporus at Haidar-Pasha, and 389 from See also: Smyrna by way of Afium-Kara-See also: Hissar
.
It has recently become the seat of a considerable manufacture of carpets, owing to the cheapness of labour
.
The population was estimated at 44,000 in 1890, and is now probably over 50,000
.
Mercury mines have begun to be worked; other minerals are known to exist
.
(W . M . |
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