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

Taceddin Beg, who was the Karaman Beylerbey of Ahmed and commissioned to gather
soldiers around Eskişehir. This document was designed according to the imperial style,
depicting Ahmed as the Ottoman sultan and Musa Beg Turgutoğlu as one of his
commander-governors. 1600
To conclude, archival evidence clearly shows that Turgutoğlu Musa Beg was one
of the most trusted allies of Prince Ahmed. As already mentioned, Ahmed wrote at least
three letters to Musa Beg ordering him as one of his governor-general to join his army.
Turgutoğlu tribe was one of the principal sources of soldiers to which Ahmed resorted
during critical moments of his movement, such as rallying to Istanbul in order to ascend
to the throne, mobilizing his forces against Selim’s army. His first letter dates back to
early August 1511, when he was invited to Istanbul to ascend to the throne. Since the
prince did not trust the Janissaries and kapıkulu soldiers, he took his most trusted allies
with him in this journey. 1601 Likewise, the Janissaries repelled him from the capital city.
Ahmed’s second letter to Musa Beg is dated November 3, 1511, which was just after he
returned from Istanbul. Losing all his hopes in the capital city, Ahmed decided to
1600
The entire text of the document E 3057 in TSA runs,
“(Tuğra of Ahmed)
Fahrü’l-ümerā ve’l-ekābir müstahmim el-me’āli ve’l-mefāhir ‘aziz el-vücūd-ı şerif... el-mahsūs
be-ināyetü’l- .... Turgut ili sancağı beği Musa dāme izzuhu tevki-i ref’-i hümāyun
vāsıl olıcak ma’lum ola ki şimdiki hālde emirü’l-ümerā ve’l-ekābir hāviyyü’l-meāli
ve’l-mefāhirü’l- mahsūs be-’ināyetullahi’l- mu’īn Karaman beğlerbeğisi Taceddin Beğ
dāme ikbaluhuyu ādem koşub ılgar tarikiyle gönderdüm. Eyle olsa
sen dahi yarar ādemler ile gelüb Eskişehir önünde ılgayub
mūmaileyhe yetişesin. Fi’l-cümle bu bābda kat’a te’hir ve terāhir
cāyiz değildir. Gayret demidir yetişmek ardınca olasın.
olasın şöyle bilesin ‘alāmet-i şerife i’timād kılasın.
Tahriren fī evāhir-i āhir-i Rebī lī-sene semān aşer ve tis’a mie (Mid-July 1512)
Be-mahall-i
Çayır-ı Karahisar-ı Sahib.”
1601
“... El-hālet-i hāzihī emr-i ‘āli ile āsitāne-i sa’ādete teveccüh idüb sizin gelmenüz lābüd ve lāzım
olmağın ... karındaşınız oğullarıyla ve akvām ve etbā’ ve size müte’allik yarar ādemleriniz ile te’hir ve
tevakkuf etmeyüb isti’cal gelüb ordu-yı hümāyunuma mülāki olasız! ...” See ULCY2, p. 119, footnote 5.
ULCY refers to the document E 2667 of TSA as the source of this phrase. Nevertheless, E 2667 has a
completely different content. As already discussed before, this must be because of the change of the
catalogue numbers of some documents after ULCY’s study.
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