Shams al-Dīn Meḥmed I Beg (; died 20 June 1277 or 30 May 1279) was Beg of the Ḳarāmān from 1263 until his death. Ḳarāmān was a Turkish principality in

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 ...

in the 13th century. His father was

Karaman Bey Karim al-Dīn Ḳarāmān Beg was a Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman chieftain who ruled the Karamanids in the 13th century. Ḳarāmān Beg's emergence coincides with the defeat of the Sultanate of Rum by the Mongol Empire in 1256 and the tension b ...

Early life

Meḥmed was the eldest son of Karim al-Dīn Ḳarāmān, the

soubashi The ''soubashi'' (, , ) was an Ottoman gubernatorial title used to describe different positions within Ottoman hierarchy, depending on the context. This title was given to Ottoman timar holders who generated more than 15,000 aspers per annum or t ...

of the region around

Ermenek Ermenek is a town in Karaman Province in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is the seat of Ermenek District.

Mut Mut (; also transliterated as Maut and Mout) was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian language. Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over th ...

Silifke Silifke is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mersin Province, Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,692 km2, and its population is 132,665 (2022). It is west of the city of Mersin, on the west end of the Çukurova plain. ...

Gülnar Gülnar is a municipality and district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,416 km2, and its population is 27,889 (2022). It is south-west of the city of Mersin. Geography The town of Gülnar is inland on a plain high in the Taurus Mo ...

, and

Anamur Anamur is a municipality and district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,430 km2, and its population is 66,846 (2022). It is the westernmost district of that province, bordering on Antalya Province. Anamur contains Anatolia's southernm ...

. Upon Ḳarāmān's death in 1263,

Sultan of Rum The Sultanate of Rum was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. T ...

Kilij Arslan IV Kilij Arslan IV () or Rukn ad-Dīn Qilij Arslān ibn Kaykhusraw (, ) was twice the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm from 1249 to 1254 and later from 1257 to 1266. However, a jarlig issued by Güyük Khan Güyük Khan or Güyüg Khagan, mononymously Gü ...

arrested his children and brother, ''emir-i jandar'' Bunsuz. When Kilij Arslan died in 1266 and Muʿīn al-Dīn Parwāna assumed full power, the latter released Ḳarāmān's children, except for ʿAlī, who was kept in

Kayseri Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...

Reign

Meḥmed and his brothers joined Hatīroghlu Sharaf al-Dīn's revolt against the Mongols. Sharaf al-Dīn granted Meḥmed the lands his father Ḳarāmān formerly ruled over and dismissed Badr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm from that position. Meḥmed further expanded his territory towards the

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 and eliminated the Mongol force of 200 men in

Ulukışla Ulukışla is a town in Niğde Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is the seat of Ulukışla District.

. When Sharaf al-Dīn was killed by the Mongols in 1276, Badr al-Dīn attempted to take revenge on Meḥmed but was defeated by him in Göksu Valley. Next year he allied himself with

Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...

Mamluks Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-sold ...

. In May he captured

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

, the Seljuk capital. But instead of declaring himself as the sultan he supported his puppet

Jimri Jimri ({{langx, tr, Cimri) was a pretender to the Sultanate of Rum, promoted by the Turkmen in the chaos after Baibars’ invasion of Mongol-dominated Anatolia in 1277. He was executed the following year. The pretender’s formal name, ‘Ala al- ...

as sultan, and in turn Jimri appointed him as

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

of the Seljuks on 12 May 1277.Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University page
/ref> As vizier Mehmet issued his famous

firman A firman (; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods such firmans were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The English word ''firman'' co ...

(decree) ordering the

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

to be used instead of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

in government offices. But his service term in Konya lasted only about a month. Hearing news of the approaching Mongol army, both Mehmet and Jimri fled from Konya. But the Mongols chased him, and during a clash in

Mehmet and his two sons were executed in August 1277. He was succeeded by his brother Güneri.

Firman

Mehmet is known as a devotee of the

. During his brief term as a vizier, he issued a

dated 13 May 1277: , :''Şimden girü hiç kimesne kapuda ve divanda ve mecalis ve seyranda Türki dilinden gayri dil söylemeye.''Culture and Tourism Ministry Karaman page
, :''From now on nobody in the palace, in the

divan A divan or diwan (, ''dīvān''; from Sumerian ''dub'', clay tablet) was a high government ministry in various Islamic states, or its chief official (see ''dewan''). Etymology The word, recorded in English since 1586, meaning "Oriental cou ...

, council and on walks speak no language other than Turkish.''

Legacy

The university of

Karaman Karaman is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the seat of Karaman Province and Karaman District.(see

Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University () is a public university in Karaman. History Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University (KMU) is one of seventeen new universities which were established in 2007 by the Turkish Government. However the university’s hi ...

)

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control 1277 deaths Year of birth unknown 13th-century Karamanid rulers Ethnic Afshar people