1466 – 1469
The White Sheep, 1466–1469
The Aq Qoyunlu, or White Sheep, are a confederation of Turkoman tribes on the upper Euphrates and the Tigris. Their ruler Uzun Hasan takes Diyarbakır (then Amid) from his brother Jahangir in 1452, is married to Theodora, a daughter of Emperor John IV of Trebizond, and receives envoys from Venice from 1463. Jahan Shah, ruler of the rival Kara Koyunlu, or Black Sheep, sets out from Tabriz on 16 May 1466 and advances by Lake Van as far as Muş.
Uzun Hasan on horseback, from a hunting scene painted for him in the 1460s or 1470s, National Library of RussiaWikimedia Commons, unknown Tabriz painter, Public domain (Uzun Hasan on horse, 1460s–1470s, Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasa hunting (detail).jpg)
Talks between the two rulers fail, and in autumn 1467 Jahan Shah decides to wait for spring and withdraws towards his winter quarters. Uzun Hasan falls on his army by surprise near Chapakchur on 30 October or 11 November 1467. Jahan Shah is killed as he flees, and his sons Mirza Yusuf and Mirza Muhammad are taken prisoner. The Timurid ruler Abu Sa'id then answers a call for help from Jahan Shah's son Hasan Ali and marches west in February 1468.
Uzun Hasan cuts the Timurid supply lines through the winter, and when the hungry army comes by Ardabil into the steppe of Mughan, he defeats it at Qarabagh and takes Abu Sa'id prisoner. A Timurid rival, Yadgar Muhammad, has Abu Sa'id executed on 5 February 1469. Uzun Hasan now rules from the upper Euphrates to Fars and Kerman, with Arab Iraq, and moves his capital to Tabriz. In the south the Dulkadir bey Shah Suwar, who takes power in April 1466 with Ottoman backing, fights the Mamluks until they capture him in June 1472.
Uzun Hasan’s inscription on the south iwan of the Friday Mosque of IsfahanWikimedia Commons, Diego Delso, Ghazalyegane, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Uzun Hasan inscription (South iwan of the courtyard of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan).jpg)
Sources
- Abu Bakr Tihrani, Kitab-i Diyarbakriyya (late 15th century).
- John E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire (2nd ed., 1999).
- Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1978).
- İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Anadolu Beylikleri ve Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu Devletleri (1937).
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