Proud of their Central Asian heritage and famed for their swift horses and ornate carpets, the Karamanids, with their distinctive helmets and flowing beards, were fearsome figures as they surged over the horizon. Their stronghold was the ancient south-central Anatolian city of Laranda, which they renamed Karaman. (A local breed of sheep is the source of a yogurt that has made the city regionally famous.) Karaman stood at the foot of the Taurus Mountains, near an extinct volcano.
