The Selçuk Turks tend to play second fiddle to the fashionable Ottomans, which is a great shame since they were responsible for some truly spectacular architecture that is liberally scattered across Central Anatolia.

The Selçuks were a warrior clan who emerged in Central Asia in the 10th century and moved steadily westwards, grabbing Baghdad from the Abbasids in 1055 before running into the Byzantines at Manzikert (Malazgırt) near Lake Van in 1071. That conflict was one of the turning points in history with the Byzantines defeated and much of Anatolia absorbed into the Great Selçuk Empire.

Such success was not long-lived, however, and that empire speedily crumbled into principalities, one of them, the Selçuk Sultanate of Rum, based in Konya, which remains the Anatolian town with the finest collection of buildings from this era, including the tombs of many of the sultans. 

 

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