Aq Qoyunlu

The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans (Persian/Azeri: آق قویونلو), was an Sunni^[2] Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and Iran from 1378 to 1508.

History

According to chronicles from the Byzantine Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu were present in eastern Anatolia from at least 1340, and most of their leaders, including the dynasty's founder, Uzun Hassan,^[3] married Byzantine princesses.^[4]

The Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans first acquired land in 1402, when Timur granted them all of Diyarbakır in present-day Turkey. For a long time, the Aq Qoyunlu were unable to expand their territory, as the rival Kara Koyunlu or "Black Sheep Turkomans" kept them at bay. However, this changed with the rule of Uzun Hassan, who defeated the Black Sheep Turkoman leader Jahān Shāh in 1467.

After the defeat of a Ilkhanate leader, Abu Sa'id, Uzun Hassan was able to take Baghdad along with territories around the Persian Gulf. He expanded into Iran as far east as Khorasan. However, around this time, the Ottoman Empire sought to expand eastwards, a serious threat that forced the Aq Qoyunlu into an alliance with the Karamanids of central Anatolia.

As early as 1464, Uzun Hassan had requested military aid from one of the Ottoman Empire's strongest enemies, Venice, however, despite Venetian promises, this aid never arrived, and as a result, Uzun Hassan was defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473, though this did not destroy the Aq Qoyunlu.

When Uzun Hassan died early in 1478, he was succeeded by his son Khalil Mirza (Sultan Khalil), but the latter was defeated by a confederation under his younger brother Ya'qub at the Battle of Khoy in July.^[5]

Ya'qub, who reigned from 1478 to 1490, sustained the dynasty for a while longer. However, during the first four years of his reign there were seven pretenders to the throne who had to be put down.^[6] Following Ya'qub's death, civil war again erupted, the Aq Qoyunlus destroyed themselves from within, and they ceased to be a threat to their neighbors.

The Safavids, who were Shi'i Muslims, began to undermine the allegiance of many Aq Qoyunlu. The Safavids and the Aq Qoyunlu met in battle at Nakhchivan in 1501, and the Safavid leader Ismail I forced the Aq Qoyunlu to withdraw.

In his retreat from the Safavids, the Aq Qoyunlu leader Alwand destroyed an autonomous splinter Aq Qoyunlu state in Mardin. The last Aq Qoyunlu leader, Murad, brother of Alwand, was also defeated by the same Safavid leader. Though Murād briefly established himself in Baghdad in 1508, he soon withdrew back to Diyarbakır, signaling the end of the Aq Qoyunlu rule.

Governance

The leaders of Aq Qoyunlu were from the Begundur or Bayandur Oghuz clan^[7] and were considered descendants of the semi-mythical founding father of the Oghuz, Oghuz Khan.^[8] The Bayandurs behaved like statesmen rather than warlords and gained the support of the merchant and feudal classes of South Caucasus (present day Azerbaijan).^[8]

With the conquest of Iran, not only did the Aq Qoyunlu center of power shift eastward, but Iranian influences were soon brought to bear on their method of government and their culture.^[9] In the Iranian provinces Uzun Hassan maintained the preexisting administrative system along with its officials, whose families had in some cases served under different dynasties for several generations.^[10] There were only four top civil posts, all held by Iranians, in Uzun Hassan's time: those of the vizier, who headed the great council (divan); the mostawfi al-mamalek, who was in charge of the financial administration; the mohrdar, who affixed the state seal; and the marakur "stable master", who looked after the royal court.^[9]

In letters from the Ottoman Sultans, when addressing the kings of Aq Qoyunlu, such titles as Arabic: ملك الملوك الأيرانية‎ "Iranian King of Kings", Arabic: سلطان السلاطين الإيرانية‎ "Iranian Sultan of Sultans", Persian: شاهنشاه ایران خدیو عجم Shåhanshåh Irån Khadiv Ajam "Shahanshah of Iran and Ruler of Persia", Jamshid shawkat va Fereydun råyat va Dårå deråyat "Powerful like Jamshid, flag of Fereydun and wise like Darius" have been used.^[11] Uzun Hassan also held the title Padishah-i Iran "Padishah of Iran",^[12] which was re-adopted again in the Safavid times through his grandson Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty.

Ahmad-beg Aq Qoyunlu

Amidst the struggle for power between Uzun Hassan's grandsons Baysungur (son of Yaqub) and Rustam (son of Maqsud), their cousin Ahmad-beg appeared on the stage. Ahmad-beg was the son of Uzun Hassan's eldest son Oghurlu Muhammad, who, in 1475, escaped to Ottoman Turkey. Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II received Oghurlu Muhammad with kindness and gave him his daughter, of whom Ahmad-beg was born.^[13]

According to Hasan Rumlu's Ahsan al-tavarikh, in 1496-7 a certain Hasan Ali Tarkhani went to Ottoman Turkey to tell Sultan Beyazid II that Azerbaijan and Persian Iraq were defenceless and suggested that Ahmad-beg, heir to that kingdom, should be sent there with Ottoman troops. Beyazid agreed to this idea, and by May 1497 Ahmad-beg faced Rustam near Araxes and defeated him.^[13]

See also

• List of rulers of Aq Qoyunlu

Sources

• Bosworth, Clifford (1996) The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual (2nd ed.) Columbia University Press, New York, ISBN 0-231-10714-5
• Morby, John (2002) Dynasties of the World: A Chronological and Genealogical Handbook (2nd ed.) Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, ISBN 0-19-860473-4
• Woods, John E. (1999) The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire (2nd ed.) University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, ISBN 0-87480-565-1

References