Building the Sultanate of Rum: Memory, Urbanism, and Mysticism in the Architectural Patronage of 'Ala al-Din Kayqubad (r. 1220-1237)

This dissertation is the first comprehensive study of the architectural patronage of Sultan 'Ala al-Din Kayqubad (r. 1220-1237), often considered the greatest ruler of the Seljuq Sultanate of Anatolia for bringing the realm to its apex through conquests, diplomatic alliances, trade, urban development, and the arts. In addition to the fragmented political, linguistic, and religious composition of medieval Anatolia (known at the time as "Rum" meaning "Roman"), methodological and ideological problems have marginalized the study of the Rum Seljuqs. In this dissertation, along with visual evidence, I study a variety of written sources-from epigraphy to advice literature, hagiographies and mystical treatises-bringing text and context together. By examining a range of commissions, analyzing their inscriptional and decorative programs, and placing them in their historical and geographic contexts, I aim to go beyond the local and situate Kayqubad's architectural legacy in a broader Mediterranean medieval context. In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1204), I argue that Kayqubad furthered a political agenda of consolidation and expansion, taking advantage of Byzantium in exile and competing for the heritage of Rome as Sultan of Rum. Given the dynastic emphasis on their imperial pedigree as descendants of the Great Seljuqs, Kayqubad brought together the Perso-Islamic and Roman past in his self-fashioning for his legitimation as an Islamic ruler of a predominantly Christian land. Kayqubad promoted urban civilization in the cities of Rum through architectural projects such as city walls, urban and suburban palaces, mosques, agricultural establishments, as well as the network of trade routes comprising caravanserais, ports, and bridges. In his palimpsestous walls of Konya, the capital, we see Kayqubad's greatest effort to establish both a civilized and spiritual ideal realm. The ideal state and social stratification described in works of advice manifested themselves in the hierarchical and centralized nature of the Seljuq court and division of labor in architectural patronage. The emphasis on divine kingship through cosmological symbols with mystical celestial symbolism reveals Kayqubad's concern for his own legacy. This was one of many factors that helped transform the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, once a periphery and frontier, into a center of civilization.