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

Even so, it is of no less a probability that in later stages of rebellion he might
have seized the dream of independent suzerainty, or at least he moved independently
from the shah. One feels legitimate in asking the following questions: what was the
ultimate aim of Şahkulu? Was it well-determined from the beginning, or changed
according to the course of events? A close study of contemporary sources leads us to
pursue a second way of perception. Before all, the itinerary of Şahkulu and Ismail’s
treatment of the rebels include clues about changing goals and incentives of Şahkulu. It
seems likely that he initiated the rebellion in the name of the Shah with purely religious
incentives. But parallel to the accumulation of sipāhis and gaining successive victories,
he began to think his own suzerainty. As already delineated the military campaigns of
Şahkulu were mainly led by dismissed sipāhis, who were less affiliated to, if not totally
uninterested in, the qizilbash cause, but among the foremost advisers – especially in
military and political affairs - of him.
If his aim would be to support the Shah, Şahkulu must have proceeded eastward
or toward the qizilbash regions, at least after the battle of Kütahya. But he moved toward
the center of the empire. He turned toward the qizilbash zones and Persia only when he
totally lost his hope to capture the country. According to ‘Āli, when Ali Pasha besieged
them in Kızılkaya, qizilbashes fled from the Karaman side and moved toward the
province of Rūm because they wanted to pass the realm of the Shah. 1395 It seems that
Şahkulu fell under the influence of the sipāhis in his ranks soon after the outbreak of the
rebellion. Under their influence, he tended to pursue the idea of suzerainty on his own
turn and behaved independently from the Shah. The victory over Karagöz Pasha outside
1395 “...Karaman cānibine doğrı inmişler ve çekilüb ‘Âsitān-ı Şāh-ı kerem’ diyū diyār-ı Rūm’a vusūl
bulmuşlar.” ALI, p. 929.
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