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

a messenger to the governor of Sivas and declared that the death sentence of those sufis
arrested during the passage to the other side could be turned into a fine. (Anların gibi
sufilerin siyāseti ta’zir bi’l-mal olmak vech görüldü) This prince also determined the
fine as four hundred akçe for sufis and two thousand akçe for khalifas. But the governor
of Sivas had not put these instructions of the prince into the practice but sent a
messenger to Istanbul to confirm whether or not such a re-arrangement was levied by the
central government.
The existing order was actually the answer of the center to the governor. Bayezid
II reaffirms his former order concerning sufis. He strictly bans any laxity in this issue.
According to his order any sufis, who went to Ardabiloğlu and were detained either
during arrival or during return must definitely be executed. The possession and clothes
of detained sufis would be given to the one who had done the detaining. Bayezid II
warns the governor that he must be careful. No one should excuse any detained sufis for
the sake of money. The sultan repeats his ultimate aims that these sufis will be cut off
from the other side. Lastly Bayezid II instructs the governor of Sivas to report how many
sufis were detained, how they were detained and executed since receiving the present
order. The governor was expected to send this report back via the centre’s returning
messenger. 1004
Approximately ten days later, the central government sent another decree to the
governor of Sivas. As seen in this document, the governor of Sivas had sent spies to the
east in order to scrutinize the state of affairs of Ismail, Murad Han of Akkoyunlu, Ebu’l-
feth Mirza, and the son of Shirvanshah Gâzi Bey. The governor had sent the intelligence
divulged by these spies to Istanbul. At the beginning of the decree it is stated that his
1004 See Ahkām Defteri, p. 8, decree 27.
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