TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

patronage of sultans or begs and around palaces, had already been experienced under the
Seljuks of Anatolia. As demonstrated by Ahmet Y. Ocak, the differentiation between the
Turkoman mass and the Anatolian Seljukid elite, who always regarded the latter of
secondary rank calling them ‘Etrāk-i bī-idrāk’ or ‘turks with low capacity of cognition’,
soon turned into alienation, then into antagonism, and finally into a fierce clash. The
Turkoman mass, now deeming Seljukid authority entirely oppressor, rose up, following
messianic-millennialist teaching of Baba Đlyas. It is interesting to note that it was the
mystical followers of Baba Đlyas and the same social segment fought under his banner
that provided the foremost support to the early Ottoman begs. Nevertheless, concomitant
to the consolidation of the Ottoman power, the same story repeated: the high Middle
Eastern Islamic culture in the Anatolian Seljukid palace and cities now moved to the
Ottoman capital. And closely linked to this process, the Turkoman elements were
gradually diffused from the Ottoman official sphere.
It is not surprising to see that most of the ulemā and statesmen in the fourteenth-
century Ottoman realm are described as either ‘coming from Persia (Acem)’ or ‘coming
from Karaman’, one of the centers of Anatolian Seljukid civilization. 289 This fact is
succinctly reflected in a verse of Le’âlî:
Acem’in her biri kim Rûm’a gelir,
Ya vezâret ya sancak uma gelir.
Whoever of the Persians comes to the Ottoman land,
289 See, for example, APZ, pp. 154, 240. The geographic connotation of ‘Karaman’ includes both the town
Lārende and the region ruled by Karaman dynasty before Ottoman annexation. After Mehmed II put an
end to the Karamanid rule the whole region became an Ottoman province and called “Vilāyet-i Karaman”
whose capital was Konya. See J. H. Kramers, “Karaman”, IA, vol. 6, pp. 309-311; “Karaman”, IA, 6, 309-
311; Metin Tuncel, “Karaman”, DIA, 24, 444-447. While Aşıkpaşazāde was writing his history, this was
already happened. So when his context above ‘Karaman’ must be taken as Konya and the high Islamic
cultural basin around.
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