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

monographic work of value. 22 As for the political history of the Ottoman-Safavid
rivalry, Adel Allouche’s monograph 23 and Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont’s works 24
should be referred to. Regarding the ideological dimension of this struggle Eberhard’s
study is the only monographic work. 25
In the Ottoman historiography, qizilbashes usually became the subject of those
studies dealing with the last years of Bayezid II, and the succession of Selim I as well as
his reign. Among modern scholars, Hüseyin Hüsamedin was the first who devoted a
considerable number of pages to qizilbash affairs in Amasya during the opening years of
the sixteenth century. 26 His account, however, includes serious deficiencies in terms of
methodology and approach. First of all, as well-known, he barely refers to his sources.
Furthermore, following the Selim-nāme tradition, he pursues a fanatical pro-Selim stand
in dealing with the struggle between Prince Ahmed and Selim for the throne. Hüseyin
Hüsameddin, following a nationalistic approach of the early twentieth century,
mistakenly depicts Selim as the champion of the Turkish tradition and Ahmed as the
patron of the Persian culture. Then he argues that the Persians supported by Prince
Ahmed spread shi’ism and organized the qizilbash rebellions in the Province of Rum. As
will be delineated in detail, these assertions are clearly contradictive to the historical
facts.
22
Walter Hinz, Irans Aufstieg zum Nationalstaat im fünf-zehnten Jahrhundert, Berlin,Leipzig, 1936.
(Turkish translation: Uzun Hasan ve Şeyh Cüneyd, XV. Yüzyılda Đran’ın Milli bir Devlet Haline Yükselişi,
çev. Tevfik Bıyıkoğlu, Ankara :TTK, 1992.)
23
Allouche Adel, The Origins and Development of the Ottoman-Safawid Conflict, W. Berlin, 1983.
24
Among his number of publications, which can be found in the Bibliography of this study, the following
must be cited here. Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, Les Ottomans, les Safavides et leurs voisins, Istanbul,
1987.
25
Elke Eberhard, Osmanische Polemik gegen die Safawiden im 16. Jh. nach arabischen Handschriften,
Freiburg 1970.
26
Hüseyin Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 3, Đstanbul, 1927.
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