1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ak-Shehr

AK-SHEHR (anc. Philomelion), a town in Asia Minor, in the Konia vilayet, situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north side of the Sultan Dagh. Philomelion was probably a Pergamenian foundation on the great Graeco-Roman highway from Ephesus to the east, and to its townsmen the Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the martyrdom of Polycarp. Cicero, on his way to Cilicia, dated some of his extant correspondence there; and the place played a considerable part in the frontier wars between the Byzantine emperors and the sultanate of Rum. It became an important Seljuk town, and late in the 14th century passed into Ottoman hands. There Bayezid Yildirim is said by Ali of Yezd to have died after his defeat at Angora. The place still enjoys much repute among Turks, as the burial-place of Nur-ed-din Khoja. The town has a station on the Anatolian railway, about 60 m. from Afium-Kara-Hissar and 100 m. from Konia.