After our trip from Istanbul along the Western Coast via Cannakale (Troy), Izmir (Smyrna), Kuşadasi, Fethiye and Antalya, we headed inland to Konya.
Along the way, the countryside changed dramatically. Gone was the lush greenery of the Mediterranean. In its place was a high, dusty featureless plateau. The vegetation was sparse. The oil refineries were not. Much to my surprise our coach even passed a Mercedes-Benz factory!
We must have travelled for about three hours before we came to Konya, descending down to this bowl of a city as the afternoon drew in. Again, I was surprised. What was this enormous city (its population is about 2.3 million) doing on the edge of this dusty plateau? We had approached from the West. To the East, stretched a desert.
But Konya is a religious center, devoted to Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207-1273) commonly known in the English-speaking world as Rumi, which means that he came from the Eastern Roman Empire. In Turkey, he is known as Mevlana, which means Master.
Due to circumstances mostly beyond his control, Rumi led a peripatetic life. Born in either present-day Afghanistan or Tajikistan to Persian parents, Rumi left at age five when his father moved the family to Samarkand, that fabled city on the Silk Road.
When Ghengis Khan (1162-1227) decided to pounce on Samarkand in February 1220. Rumi and his family set out westwards for Nishapur (now Neyshabur, Iran).
Unfortunately, it did not take long for the Mongol army to catch up with them, and destroy Nishapur in a suitably horrific way in April 1221. And so, Rumi and his family fled to Baghdad, now in Iraq. From Baghdad, they performed the required pilgrimage or hajj to Mecca, finally settling in Laranda (now known as Karaman in Turkiye) for seven years.
On 1 May 1228, when he was twenty-one years old, Rumi finally settled in Iconium (now Konya in Turkiye) where he lived until his death in 1273.. The must-see sight in Konya is Rumi’s tomb, a magnificent structure, which draws visitors to this huge, dusty, out-of-the-way city.
