In the 18th and 19th centuries, Karamania (or Caramania) was an

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

used by Europeans for the southern (

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

) coast of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, then part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(current

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). It can also refer to the general south central Anatolian region, whose name is reflected on the modern town of Karaman. It is also the namesake of the larger Karaman Province of Turkey, the historical Karaman Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire, the medieval Turkish Karamanids dynasty and state from the region, and the Karamanlides, a Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christian group originally from the area.

Francis Beaufort and the Term Karamania

In 1811–12,

Francis Beaufort Sir Francis Beaufort ( ; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and naval officer who created the Beaufort cipher and the Beaufort scale. Early life Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Hugu ...

, then the captain of in the British Navy, was tasked with mapping the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. In 1817, he published a book about his services, titled ''Brief description of the south coast of Asia-Minor and of the remains of antiquity. With plans, views, & collected during a survey of that coast, under the orders of the Lords commissioners of the Admiralty, in the years 1811-1812''. In the preface of the book he called the southern coasts of Anatolia as Karamania but he added that although the name was a common name among the Europeans, neither the people nor the government of the

used this name. Turkish translation by Ali Neyzi-Doğan Türker (2002), Akdeniz medeniyetleri Araştırma Enstitüsü,

History

The Karamanids () was a historical dynasty that ruled a state in the region between late 13th and late 15th centuries.Gábor Ágoston; Bruce Masters (2009). Encyclopaedia of the Ottoman Empire. p. 40. . The state was founded by a Turkmen tribe, led by Karaman Bey, and it was finally incorporated into Ottoman realm during the reign of

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

of the

. (''See'' Kasım of Karaman.) The Karamanid state was founded in the southern half of the Central Anatolia. At the zenith of its power it also controlled the central portion of the

coast of Anatolia (roughly

Cilicia Trachea Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Çukurova, Cilician plain (). The re ...

of the antiquity, the eastern half of the modern

Antalya Province Antalya Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. It is located on the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taur ...

and the western half of the modern Mersin Province.) After its territory was annexed by the Ottomans two names from the Karamanid era survived; present city of Karaman (then known as Larende in Central Anatolia) which was the capital city of Karamanids and (up to 1920s) the minority people named Karamanlides. (Although Karamanids were Muslim, Karamanlides were a Turkish-speaking Christian minority of the region who emigrated to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

during the Greek-Turkish population exchange in the 1920s).

Geography

In his book, Sir Francis Beaufort referred to all of the southern coast of Anatolia as Caramania or Karamania. This name referred to a wide region from Yediburun (Mount Cragus) to Ayas (Aegeae) where Beaufort was wounded during a clash. This region is from in the west to in the east, almost lying at the same latitude but spanning a longitude difference of more than 6 degrees which corresponds to about bird's flight. Presently it corresponds to the coast line of three Turkish provinces:

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

Mersin Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...

and Adana. Even at the zenith of their power, however, the Karamanids controlled only one third of this coast.

References

{{reflist Regions of Turkey Mediterranean region, Turkey Anatolia Karamanids Geography of Turkey