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

showed by Uzun Hasan, who never permitted any action that might disturb his nephew
and son-in-law, in proliferation of Haydar’s affairs. 664
When Hasan Beg died in 1478, however, his successors did not maintain warm
relations with the Shaykh. After a short reign of Halil, his brother Yakub usurped the
throne and managed to stay there for about ten years. Yakup Beg was skeptical on
Haydar and his murids. 665 Besides, Haydar, “whose thoughts were dominated by the
desire for the rewards of raids against the infidels” 666 , decided on an incursion in the
direction of Dagistan and Circassia, whose inhabitants were infidels. 667 After taking
counsel with his sufi emirs he dispatched couriers to mobilize his disciples for the Holy
War, or gazā. Accordingly, warriors for the faith, who were fully armed and equipped,
assembled company upon company around his tent. 668 According to Rumlu Hasan, this
664 AA, p. 31.
665 Ross Anonymous relates his hostility as follows: “On account of the hatred he had formerly cherished
in his heart for Sultan Haidar he warned his subjects saying: ‘Woe unto that man who places on his head
the cap of Sultan Haidar.’ He thus became an enemy to the children of Shaykh Safī; and he moreover
issued a decree that the disciples of Shaykh Safī should no longer wear their caps. In thus changing his
former righteous actions for evil and impious deeds, and in opposing this holy race, Sultan Ya’kūb
brought about the ruin of the dynasty of the White Sheep...” See Ross, p. 255. It is interesting to note here
that Anonymous author sees the reason of the decline of Aqqoyunlu Dynasty in their changed attitude
towards the sons of Shaykh Safī. That sort of interpretation, however, traces back to the beginning of
Safavid historiography. Shah Ismail’s historian Khwandamir writes, “… as long as the expansionist
Aqqoyunlu padishahs maintained their devotion to the guiding Safavid house, their fortunes were ever on
the increase, but when they exchanged their devotion and faith for treachery and enmity, in a short while
the firm foundation of their rule crumbled and they were scattered to the winds.” See HS, p. 562.
666 AA, p. 31.
667 According to AA, Haydar did not consider the conduct of Sultan Yakub while deciding to invade
Circassia. Nevertheless, earlier sources have clear indications that he first requested the permission of
Sultan Yakub and obtained the necessary permission as well as a degree addressed to Shirvanshah
ordering him to provide a safe passage through Shirvan. TA says, for example, Haydar first wrote a letter
to Yakub Beg demanding his permission for a gazā on Circassia. Although Sultan Yakub was aware of the
fact that the Shaykh was using gazā simply as a pretext and that his main intention was to find a way of
capturing temporal power, he gave the permission for it was inconvenient for “the king Defender of the
Faith [Sultan Yakub] to impede” holy war. See TA, pp. 68-9.
668 AA, p. 32. Also consider HS, p. 562. Rumlu Hasan gives the numbers of sufi fighters as 6.000. See
Ahsenu’t-tevārih, IX, p. 579. TA, however, gives the number 10.000 and depicts them as “brutal men”
who “from every side streamed into Ardabil and engaged in theft and murder.” TA, p. 67. Faruk Sümer
says that Haydar’s disciples were mainly poor people of Anatolia. See Faruk Sümer, Safevî Devletinin
Kuruluşu, p. 13. KPZ depicts the adherents of his son Ismail in the Teke regions in the same manner. See
KPZ8b, p. 43.
225