Koniyeh is situated at the foot of Mount Taurus (Mannert, vi, 1, p. 195 sq.), upon the border of the lake Trogitis, in a fertile plain, rich in valuable productions, particularly apricots, wine, cotton, flax, and grain. The
Coin of Iconium.
circumference of the town is between two and three miles, and beyond these are subui-bs not much less pop- ulous than the town itself, which has in all about 30,000 inhabitants, but according to others 80,000. The walls, strong and lofty, and flanked with square towers, which, at the gates, are placed close together, were built by the Seljukian sultans of Iconium, who seem to have talcen considerable pains to txhibit the Greek inscriptions, and the remains of architecture and sculptiu'e belonging to the ancient Iconium, which they made use of in build- ing the walls. Tlio town, suburbs, and gardens are plentifully supplied with water from streams which flow from some hills to the westward, and which, to the north-east, join the lake, which varies in size with the season of the year. In the town carpets are manufac- tured, and blue and yellow leathers are tanned and dried. Cotton, wool, hides, and a few of the other raw productions which enrich the superior industry and skill of the manufacturers of Europe, are sent to Smyrna by caravans. The most remarkable building in Koniyeh is the tomb of a priest highly revered throughout Tur- key, called Hazrit Mevlana, the founder of the INIcvlevi Dervishes. The city, like all those renowned for supe- rior sanctity, abounds with dervishes, who meet the passenger at every turning of the streets, and demand paras with the greatest clamor and insolence. The ba- zaars and houses have little to recommend them to no- tice. (Kinneir's Travels in Asia Minor ; Leake's Georj- raphy of Asia Minor; Arundeil's Tour in Asia Minor; Niebuhr, Trav. i, 113, 149 ; Hassel, Erdbeschr. Asiens, ii, 197; Rosenmiiller, Bib. Geog. i, 1, p. 201, 207; Hamil- ton's Researches in Asia Minor, ii, 205 sq. ; etc. For the early and Grecian history of this place, and the fan- ciful etymologies of the name, see Anthon's Class. Diet. s. V.) — Kitto; Winer; Smith.
Iconoclasm, or Ijiagk-breaking {iIkow, ima/je ; K\dZiiv, to break), is a name for the struggle in the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, which, as its name indicates, had for its object the destruction of all images used for worship in the churches. From the age of Constantine the reverence for pictures and im- ages constantly increased, as they were supposed to pos- sess a certain sanctity or miraculous power; and at so early an age as that of Augustine we hear him confess that many had fallen into the superstition of adoring pictures rather than the Deitj'. But the Iconoclastic controversy assumed a more serious aspect in the 8th century, when the emperor Leo III, the Isaurian (717- 741), who, previous to his accession to the throne, had associated much with Jews and Mohammedans, on tak- ing the side of the Iconoclasts in the tenth year of his reign, issued an edict against the use of images in churches. He was influenced, no doubt, by a desire to draw into the Christian Church the Mohammedans and Jews, who, aside from their simple theistic faith, were debarred from joininic the Christians by an aversion to the use of images. But the people — who felt that "it swept away from their churches objects hallowed by devotion, and supposed to be endowed with miraciflous agency; objects of hope and fear, of gratitude and im- memorial veneration" — rose up in masses against the edict, and violent disturbances, especially at Constan- tinople, where the patriarch himself sideil with them, were of daily occurrence. The superior power of the government, however, soon made itself felt, the pictures were destroyed, the insurrectionists slain or banislied, and order restored, after a fearful massacre. Yet, not- withstanding all the penalties which, by order of Leo, were inflicted on the opponents of Iconoclasm, cham- pions in favor of the use of images in churches rose up. Among them was the great John of Damascus (q. v,), who, after adducing the ordinary arguments for images with greater elegance and ingenuity than any other writer of his day, went forth in bitter invectives against the Iconoclasts as enemies of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, " Pictures are standing memorials of triumph over the devil; whosoever destroys them is a friend of
ICONOCLASM
464
IDALAH