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

his enemies with 300 qizilbash devotees 782 , who had joined him en route. Although the
qizilbashes fought with utmost bravery 783 , the unequal fight ended with the absolute
defeat of Sultan Ali, who fell in the battlefield. 784 His body was brought to Ardabil and
buried nearby his ancestors. 785
5.1.2. Ismail in Concealment
Following Sultan Ali’s death Ayba Sultan started a cruel investigation in Ardabil and the
surrounding region to capture Ismail and Ibrahim. 786 In spite of the heavy persecution
some devotees of the Safavid house, the Dulkadir tribe and some other Turkoman tribes,
hid Ismail in their houses for a while. 787 After a short span of time, however, the heavy
pressure by the Akkoyunlu governor of the city made it impossible for Ismail to hide in
you will come out of Gīlān with a world-conquering sword like a burning sun, and eliminate the color of
Idolatry from the face of the world forever.’ So he took Haydar’s crown, placed it on Ismail Mirza’s head
and, fastening his own turban to his waist, whispered to him the advice inherited from his ancestors. Then
he appointed seven of his best devotees and amirs called: Husayn Beg Lala, Qara Pīrī Qajar, Abdāl Beg,
Dada Beg Talish, Khādim Beg, Bayram Beg, and Sari Ghūra qūrchī-bashī, to take Ismail Mirza, Ibrahim
Mirza and Suleyman Mirza to Ardabil and from there to Gīlān to stay there in the service of Padishah of
Lāhijan until the time of the rising, while he himself stayed where he was to bar the road to Ayba’s troops
until he was killed.” Quoted in Muhammad Karim Youssef-Jamālī, The Life and Personality of Shāh
Ismā’īl I (1487-1524), Ph.D. dissertation, University of Edinburgh, 1981, p. 79. ‘Ālam-ārā-yi Shah Ismail
is an anonymous history of Shah Ismail, which occasionally does not refrain of pointing open criticism
towards Shah Ismail. It has been edited by A. Montazer-Sāhib basing on a manuscript in his private
possession (Tehran, 1349). The content of the work is similar to that published by Sir Denison Ross,
which is known as Ross Anonymous. For furher details see Youssef-Jamālī, pp. XXXV-XXXVI.
782
AA says 700. See AA, p. 39.
783
As Browne determines, the valor and devotion of qizilbash-sufis is testified by contemporary European
writers as forcibly as the Safavid historians. One frequently comes across the phrase “The Suffaveans
fought like lions” in the pages of the Venetian travelers. See BRW, pp. 50-51.
784
Ross Anonymous and HR report the battle in a slightly different manner. To him, at the beginning of
the fight Ayba Sultan drove some of his forces into the battlefield but he himself lay in ambush. In the first
phase of the battle the qizilbashes proved victorious. But when they started to gather booty Ayba Sultan
attacked them and defeated them. See Ross Anonymous, pp. 262-3; HR, p. 4.
785
HR, p. 5; Ross Anonymous, p. 263; AA, p. 39. Sarwar, pp. 28-9. According to HT, this event occurred
in the end of 898 (August 1493).
786
During this time Ismail was only seven years old. He was born on July 17, 1487, one year before the
death of his father on July 1, 1488. He was, with his brothers and mother, imprisoned by the orders of
Yaqub Mirza in March 1489, and released by the orders of Rüstem Beg in August 1493. And in the
summer of 1494, he was a fugitive wanted by Rüstem Beg. See Sarwar, p. 30.
787
Ross Anonymous and HR gives a detailed account of this persecution and how Ismail was protected.
See Ross Anonymous, pp. 283-5; HR, pp. 5-7.
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