Editing Sultanate of Rum (section)

== Architecture ==
{{Main|Anatolian Seljuk architecture}}
[[File:Konya citadel (Plate 116b, Voyage de l'Asie Mineure, 1838).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Konya citadel]] (city walls of [[Konya]]), built and decorated by [[Kayqubad I]] in the 1220s, incorporated many Greco-Roman Classical elements for its decoration. [[Léon de Laborde]], 1838]]
Architectural styles of the Sultanate of Rum were rather eclectic. The [[:Commons:Category:Konya citadel|walls of Konya]] in particular, built by [[Kayqubad I]] (r.1220–1237), adopted many western decorative elements, such as a statue of [[Hercules]], a frieze from a Roman sarcophagus, courtly scenes with seated figures in toga, winged deities around the figure of the sun, mixed with inscriptions in Arabic.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yalman |first1=Suzan |title=‘ALA AL-DIN KAYQUBAD ILLUMINATED: A RUM SELJUQ SULTAN AS COSMIC RULER |journal=Muqarnas Online |date=1 January 2012 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=151–186 |doi=10.1163/22118993-90000186 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274996239_'ALA_AL-DIN_KAYQUBAD_ILLUMINATED_A_RUM_SELJUQ_SULTAN_AS_COSMIC_RULER |quote=In some cases—such as the sultan’s well-known city walls in Konya—there appears to be, at first sight, an antiquarian penchant for the “classical” or “Roman” past (fig. 1). (...) Nevertheless, the portrait’s classicizing aspect is important in that it resonates with the use of spoliated classical sculpture in the walls of Konya (fig. 1). (...) Kayqubad’s walls in Konya. (...) above the statue of Hercules was a reused Roman sarcophagus frieze carved in high relief; the latter featured a courtly scene with a seated figure wearing a toga and holding an orb (“a ball, the symbol of the world” according to Kinneir). Above this image was an Arabic inscription and then winged “genies” making offerings to the “sun” (as described by Olivier).}}</ref> It would seem that such symbolism mixing Western and Eastern elements was mostly derived from the influence of the [[Artuqids]], who were adept at combining Classical and Perso-Islamic approaches.<ref name="SY">{{cite journal |last1=Yalman |first1=Suzan |title=‘ALA AL-DIN KAYQUBAD ILLUMINATED: A RUM SELJUQ SULTAN AS COSMIC RULER |journal=Muqarnas Online |date=1 January 2012 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=151–186 |doi=10.1163/22118993-90000186 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274996239_'ALA_AL-DIN_KAYQUBAD_ILLUMINATED_A_RUM_SELJUQ_SULTAN_AS_COSMIC_RULER |quote=As I will argue below, in addition to obvious “Western” links, Kayqubad was also inspired by sources further “East,” such as the Artuqids of Hisn Kaifa and Amid (1102-1232), which combining Classical and Perso-Islamic impulses, seemed better suited as models. In fact, upon closer examination, these pagan/secular Roman imperial (“Western”) signs seemed to be infused with mystical/Sufi (“Eastern”) readings that imbued them with new meaning. Most significant was the emergence of an unexpected undercurrent of light symbolism.}}</ref>

In their construction of [[caravanserai]]s, [[madrasa]]s and [[mosque]]s, the Rum Seljuks translated the Iranian Seljuk architecture of bricks and plaster into the use of stone.<ref>{{citation | chapter = West Asia: 1000–1500 | first1 = Sheila | last1 = Blair | first2 = Jonathan | last2 = Bloom | title = Atlas of World Art | editor-first = John | editor-last = Onians | publisher = Laurence King Publishing | date = 2004 | page = 130 }}</ref> Among these, the ''caravanserais'' (or ''hans''), used as stops, trading posts and defense for caravans, and of which about a hundred structures were built during the Anatolian Seljuk period, are particularly remarkable. Along with Persian influences, which had an indisputable effect,<ref>''Architecture (Muhammadan)'', H. Saladin, ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics'', Vol.1, Ed. James Hastings and John Alexander, (Charles Scribner's son, 1908), 753.</ref> Seljuk architecture was inspired by local Byzantine architects, for example in the [[Gök Medrese, Sivas|Celestial Mosque in Sivas]], and by [[Armenian architecture]].<ref>''Armenia during the Seljuk and Mongol Periods'', Robert Bedrosian, ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times: The Dynastic Periods from Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century'', Vol. I, Ed. Richard Hovannisian, (St. Martin's Press, 1999), 250.</ref> Anatolian architecture represents some of the most distinctive and impressive{{opinion|date=January 2025}} constructions in the entire history of Islamic architecture. Later, this Anatolian architecture would be inherited by the [[Delhi Sultanate|Sultanate of India]].<ref>''Lost in Translation: Architecture, Taxonomy, and the "Eastern Turks"'', Finbarr Barry Flood, ''Muqarnas: History and Ideology: Architectural Heritage of the "Lands of Rum'', 96.</ref>

[[File:Gok_Medresesi1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Gök Medrese (Sivas)|Gök Medrese]] (Celestial [[Madrasa]]) of [[Sivas]], built by a Greek ([[Rûm]]) subject in the periodic capital of the Sultanate of Rum in 1271]]
The largest caravanserai is the [[Sultan Han]] (built-in 1229) on the road between the cities of Konya and Aksaray, in the township of [[Sultanhanı]], covering {{convert|3900|m2|abbr=on}}. Two caravanserais carry the name ''Sultan Han'', [[Sultan Han (Kayseri)|the other one]] being between Kayseri and Sivas. Furthermore, apart from Sultanhanı, five other towns across Turkey owe their names to caravanserais built there. These are Alacahan in [[Kangal]], [[Durağan]], [[Hekimhan]] and [[Kadınhanı]], as well as the township of Akhan within the [[Denizli]] metropolitan area. The caravanserai of Hekimhan is unique in having, underneath the usual inscription in [[Arabic]] with information relating to the tower, two further inscriptions in [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]], since it was constructed by the sultan [[Kayqubad I]]'s doctor (''hekim''), who is thought to have been a [[Conversion to Islam|Christian convert to Islam]]. 

There are other particular cases, like the settlement in [[:tr:Kalehisar, Çorum|Kalehisar]] contiguous to an ancient [[Hittites|Hittite]] site near [[Alaca, Çorum|Alaca]], founded by the Seljuk commander [[Hüsameddin Temurlu]], who had taken refuge in the region after the defeat in the [[Battle of Köse Dağ]] and had founded a township comprising a castle, a madrasa, a habitation zone and a caravanserai, which were later abandoned apparently around the 16th century. All but the caravanserai, which remains undiscovered, was explored in the 1960s by the art historian [[Oktay Aslanapa]], and the finds as well as several documents attest to the existence of a vivid settlement in the site, such as a 1463 Ottoman [[firman]] which instructs the headmaster of the madrasa to lodge not in the school but in the caravanserai.{{Cn|date=January 2021}}

The Seljuk palaces, as well as their armies, were staffed with [[ghilman|ghilmān]] ({{langx|ar|غِلْمَان}}), singular ''ghulam''), slave-soldiers taken as children from non-Muslim communities, mainly Greeks from former Byzantine territories. The practice of keeping ghilmān may have offered a model for the later [[devşirme]] during the time of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Junius P.|author-link=Junius P. Rodriguez|title=The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl01rodr/page/306 306]|year=1997|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-87436-885-7 }}</ref>