have taken refuge here from iconoclastic persecution in the early 9th century. The area fell from Byzantine control after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 to tribes of Seljuk Turks, only to be returned in 1120 by John II Komnenos.
Following the Fourth Crusade's attack on the Byzantines, the Christian Armenian Kingdom of Ciliciaperiodically held the port, and it was from an Armenian,KirFard, that the Turks took lasting control in 1221 when the Anatolian Seljuk Sultan AlaeddinKayqubadIcaptured it, assigning the former ruler, whose daughter he married, to the governance of the city of Akşehir.Seljuk rule saw the golden age of the city, and it can be considered the winter capital of their empire. Building projects, including the twin citadel, city walls, arsenal, and Kızıl Kule, made it an important seaport for western Mediterranean trade, particularly withAyyubid Egypt and the Italian city-states. AlaeddinKayqubad I also constructed numerous gardens and pavilions outside the walls, and many of his works can still be found in the city. These were likely financed by his own treasury and by the local emirs, and constructed by the contractorAbu 'Ali al-Kattani al-Halabi. AlaeddinKayqubad I's son, Sultan GıyaseddinKeyhüsrev II, continued the building campaign with a new cistern in 1240.
At the Battle of KöseDağ in 1242, the Mongol hordes broke the Seljuk hegemony in Anatolia. Alanya was then subject to a series of invasions from Anatolian beyliks. In 1293, the Karamanid dynasty took control after Mecdüddin Mahmud conquered the city, but their rule was intermittent. Lusignans from Cyprus briefly overturned the then ruling Hamidid Dynasty in 1371. The Karamanids sold the city in 1427 for 5,000 gold coins to the Mamluks of Egypt for a period before General Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1471 incorporated it into the growing Ottoman Empire. The city was made a capital of a local sanjak in the eyalet of Içel. The Ottomans extended their rule in 1477 when they
