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

Abdi Beg Shamlu with 200 and 300 fighters from their tribes respectively. 883 An
anonymous history of Shah Ismail recounts the agglomeration of qizilbash tribes in
Erzincan as follows,
After Ismail’s arrival to Erzincan, chiefs of the tribes, and leading sufis and
khalifas of the family of the Imām from Syria, Anatolia, Karaman, and from the
region around Erzincan came to the royal court. Day after day the number of
gāzis augmented… After sufis from diverse regions arrived, the tribes
assembled; and the tribes of the Shamlu, the Ustaclu, the Rūmlu, the Tekelu, the
Dulkadir, the Afshar, the Varsaq, and the sufis from Karacadağ, as well as
Muhammad Beg Ustaclu with 200 men from his clan and ‘Abdi Beg Shamlu
with 300 men from his clan, had the honor of kissing the noble feet. Among them
the Seigneur of the fortunate conjunction chose 7.000 young sufis 884 who had the
same sentiment and the same objective. 885
The point of eminence to be stressed here is that except the Shamlu, which was
from northern Syria-eastern Anatolia, and the Qajar from Azerbayjan 886 , these tribes
were all from Anatolia; and almost all were nomadic Turkomans. 887 Among the
seventeen prominent qizilbash āmirs marching on Shirvan, records Safavid sources,
there were two Shamlu, two Ustaclu, two Karamanlu, one Bayburdlu, one Hınıslu, one
Tekelu, one Çekirlu, one Qajar, one Dulkadirlu, and five Afshar. 888 During the campaign
883
HR, p. 51. Also consider Sarwar, p. 35. HS interestingly does not mention the reinforcement of
Ismail’s army by the sufi fighters from these prominent qizilbash tribes in Erzincan. He narrates as if
Ismail headed towards Shirvan after spending two months in Sarukaya.
884
This phrase is very interesting. If we rely of this account, the number of qizilbashes summoned in
Erzincan pastureland was greater then 7000. But Ismail and his prominent amirs chose among them those
who were most alike fighters. The anonymous history also underlines the focused sentiment and
ideological alignment of these fighters.
885
Quoted in Haneda, Le Châh et les Qizilbāš, pp. 63-64. This is the anonym history housed in British
Library, Or. 3248, and is used by Denison Ross (Denison E. Ross, “The early years of Shah Ismail,
founder of the Safavi Dynasty”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, XXVIII, 1896, 249-340.). But Ross
did not publish this part of the manuscript in his article.
886
See Tarīh-i Kızılbaşān, pp. 56-7. Nonetheless, as indicated above their origin was central Anatolia,
namely Boz-ok region.
887
As Roemer determines, “on the whole, the non-Turkish Qizilbash [including Persian men of pen such
as Najm-i Sani and Najmu’d-din Gilānī] were not only in the minority, but were even rare exceptions.”
See Roemer, “The Qizilbash Turcomans”, p. 29. For further reading on the origins of these tribes see
Faruk Sümer, Safevî Devletinin Kuruluşu, especially pp. 43-56. Also compare Savory, “The Consolidation
of Safawid Power in Persia”, p. 92.
888
Aubin, “L’avènement des Safavides”, p. 11. Efendiev recites the names of these amirs from Futuhāt-ı
Şāhī as follows, Abidin Beg Shamlu, Husayn Beg Lala Shamlu, Muhammad Beg Ustaclu, Ahmed Beg
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