Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

The First Crusade passes Konya, 490/1097

الصليبيون يعبرون قونية سنة ٤٩٠هـ

1097 CE · 490 AH

Konya

In 1097 the army of the First Crusade passed through Konya (Iconium) on its march across Anatolia; it found no serviceable fortifications there but drew benefit from the gardens around the town. In the centuries of the Arab invasions the place had been a Byzantine military base that the raiders tended to circumvent 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
Region
Anatolia

In time

1080109011001110
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks

In space

Konya

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Crusades

Summary

In 1097 the army of the First Crusade passed through Konya (Iconium) on its march across Anatolia; it found no serviceable fortifications there but drew benefit from the gardens around the town. 1

A Byzantine base

In the centuries of the Arab invasions Konya had been a Byzantine military base which the raiders deliberately circumvented, in favour of Tarsus or of Cappadocia by the northern routes; this is why the town is so seldom mentioned in the military histories. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Occurred at
Konya

People and things also explored

The German King's Campaign and His Drowning· Battle of Konya (1832)· Baha al-Din Walad dies; Rumi succeeds him· Death of Rukn al-Din Sulayman II of Rum· Kaykhusraw I's restoration to the Rum Sultanate (600 AH)· The Ince Minareli Medrese is built at Konya, c. 663/1264· The Karamanids occupy Konya and install Jimri, 675/1277· The Karatay madrasa is built at Konya, 649/1251

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 5.1 p. 287
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The First Crusade passes Konya, 490/1097”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/crusaders-pass-konya-490/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · Help complete it · JSON

Wing

Time

Eras, timelines, this day in history, any year in the Islamic world. Related

The German King's Campaign and His Drowning

In 586, after the Muslim king's taking of Jerusalem alarmed him, the king of the Germans set out — a kind of Franks, the most numerous and fiercest of them — and took the road through Constantinople. The Byzantine ruler sent to Saladin to warn him and promise that he would not let him cross. When the Germans arrived, Saladin could not stop them because of their numbers, but he cut off their supplies, and provisions ran short until they crossed the strait into the realm of Qilij Arslan ibn Mas'ud the Seljuk. The Turkmen rose against them, harrying them and killing any who fell behind; it was winter, the snow lay deep, and cold, hunger and the Turkmen destroyed them. When they neared Konya, Qutb al-Din Malikshah ibn Qilij Arslan came out to block them but had no strength against them. They sent to Qilij Arslan saying they had not come against his lands but against Jerusalem; he allowed his subjects to sell them food and handed over more than twenty emirs as hostages. The German king marched to the land of the Armenians, whose ruler Lafun supplied them with food, then moved toward Antioch and camped by a river on the way, where the king went in to bathe and drowned in a spot where the water reached only to a man's waist. His son succeeded him and marched on Antioch, but the followers quarrelled: some stayed behind and some made a brother of the king their ruler. The force that went on, numbering over forty thousand, was struck by plague and death until it reached Antioch looking as though it had been dug out of graves; only about a thousand men were left, who took ship to the Franks at Acre.