This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Karim al-Din Karaman" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Karim al-Dīn Ḳarāmān Beg was aTurkoman chieftain who ruled theKaramanids in the 13th century. Ḳarāmān Beg's emergence coincides with the defeat of theSultanate of Rum by theMongol Empire in 1256 and the tension betweenKaykaus I and his rival brotherKilij Arslan IV, which allowed local lords living along the boundaries of the state to exercise some autonomy.^[1]

He was the son ofNûre Sûfî Bey, aTurkish leader fromArran, who established himself in theTaurus Mountains nearLarandia and who became aSeljuk vassal. Some time before 1256, Karaman Bey officially succeeded his father (who had already left him the effective power several years prior in order to pursue a life in seclusion). In about 1260 Karaman makes his first appearance in theIsaurian-Cilician Taurus regions.

Although the points of detail can probably never be determined, it can be accepted that Karaman started life as a woodcutter and timber merchant who brought supplies from the western Taurus to the little town of Laranda.^[2]

In the struggle betweenIzz al-Din Kaykaus (1246-1260) and his rivalKilidj Rukn al-Din Arslan IV Karaman supported the first. But Kilidj Rukn al-Din Arslan with the help of Parvaneh (Parvana) Sulayman Muin al-Din who was the one who had the real power, andthe Mongols, managed to eliminate most of the hostile emirs or begs, but could not capture or kill Karaman and thus, tried to appease him by granting himLarandia andErmenek and by giving his brother Buñsuz the position of amir djandar inKonya. The fall of Izz al-Din is said to have been one of the causes and possibly was the occasion of or pretext for his uprising. Izz al-Din was regarded, relatively speaking, as an ally of the Turcomans against the Mongols, and the efforts of Rukn al-Din to win the support of the Karamanids were in vain.

Karaman Bey expanded his territories by capturing castles inErmenek,Mut,Ereğli,Gülnar, Mer andSilifke. The year of the conquests as indicated in the Encyclopedia of Islam (vol. IV, page 643) is 1225, during the reign of Ala al-DinKaykubadh I (1220-1237), which seems excessively early. Karaman Bey's conquests were mainly at the expense ofthe Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (and perhaps at the expense of Rukn al-Din Kilidj Arslan IV, 1248-1265). He fought againstthe Armenians on the Isaurian-Cilician borders to such extent thatKing Hethum I (1226-1269) had to place himself voluntarily under the sovereignty ofthe great Khan, in order to protect his kingdom fromMamluks andSeljuks (1244). KingHethum I had to intervene several times, and succeeded in repulsing Karaman.

He founded hisbeylik which was already semiautonomous during his father's reign. TheSeljuks, who were their nominal suzerains, were defeated by theMongols and the Karamans had no problem to settle in the northern slopes of theToros Mountains close toKonya, the Seljuk capital. The Seljuk Sultan, afraid of the Karamans increasing power, gave him some towns asikta ( fief) . The city ofKaraman (ancient Larende) bears his name. Karaman fought against theArmenian Kingdom of Cilicia and expanded his territory.

Good relations between the Seljuqs and the Karamanids did not last. In 1261, on the pretext of supportingKaykaus II who had fled to Constantinople as a result of the intrigues of the chancellor Pervâne, Karaman Bey and his two brothers, Zeynül-Hac and Bunsuz, marched toward Konya, the capital of Seljuqs, with 20,000 men. A combined Seljuq and Mongol army, led by the chancellor Mu'in al-Din Suleyman, the Pervane, defeated the Karamanid army and captured Karaman Bey's two brothers.

In 1261Kılıç Aslan IV of Seljuks more or less regained strength after his elder brother took refuge in theByzantine Empire. He began punishing rebellious tribes. Seeing this restoration as a threat to his beylik and anticipating a blow from the sultan, Karaman Bey took initiative by a surprise attack to Konya. But he was defeated in the battle of Gevele (west of Konya). Both of his brothers were killed and he escaped to his territory. It is believed that he died shortly after the battle.^[3] He was succeeded byMehmet I.

According to the Armenian chroniclers, in one of the battles against king Hethum at the fort Meniaum (probably Mennan near Ermenek) his brother Buñsuz and his brother-in-law were killed (information which is in contradiction to other sources that say that Buñluz who was amir djandar in Konya was jailed after the death of Karaman), and he himself was wounded and died shortly after, about 1262. Also, some of his children and members of his family were taken prisoners and held in the Gevele fortress nearKonya. The central authority was to some extent re-established, at least in Ermenek, where, until 1276, an official Seljukid governor held office without any recorded difficulties.

Karaman is supposedly buried in Nalkasun near Ermenek, but according to the inscription on the tomb, it belongs to his son Mehmed. He was buried inBalkusan (now a village inErmenek district ofKaraman Province)^[3] His children were freed by Pervane Muin al-Din Sulaymab upon Sultan Kilidj Arslan IV's death in 1265, except his second son, Ali Beg who remained as hostage in Kayseri. Mehmed would regain power in 1276 inErmenek.

His sons wereShams al-Dīn Meḥmed, ʿAlī, Tānū, Maḥmūd, Zakariyyā, and Güneri.^[1]

• Claude Cahen,Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history c. 1071-1330; trans. J. Jones-Williams. New York: Taplinger, 1968; pp. 281-2.
• H. Konyale,Karaman tariki. Istanbul, 1967
• Sümer, Faruk (2012)."Ḳarāmān-Og̲h̲ullari̊". In Bearman, P.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. II. E. J. Brill.

• History of Karaman Province
• 13th-century Karamanid rulers
• Ethnic Afshar people
• 1261 deaths

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from December 2012
• All articles needing additional references
• Year of birth unknown