Razing Gevele and Fortifying Konya: The Beginning of the Ottoman Conquest of the Karamanid Principality in South-Central Anatolia, 1468

Abstract

This chapter examines the initial Ottoman campaign of conquest of the Karamanid principality with the assault on Gevele, a mountain fortress lying 11 kilometres to the west of Konya, and the seizure of Konya in 1468. It also looks at the establishment of administrative and military control of the fertile agricultural plains as well as over the rich steppe grasslands of the region's northern highlands by the Ottomans on the eve of their conquest of the Karamanid principality in order to reveal an important factor in the conquest of Karaman: Ottoman political involvement in Karamanid internal affairs before the conquest. By interfering in Karaman succession politics, the Ottomans laid the political groundwork by which they were able to establish an administrative and military presence in the hinterland of the more vulnerable stretches of Karamanid territory prior to the Ottoman military conquest. © The British Academy 2009. All rights reserved.