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

meantime, two Safavid khalifs, Şah Ali and Şahkulu attacked Şiran and Alucra, killing
the subaşı. Apart from them, a certain Memiş and Menteş wore the qizilbash tāc in
Kürtün and had the population of the region profess adherence to qizilbashism. After a
while, all these small qizilbash groups came together and intended to capture Trabzon in
the name of the Shah. Nonetheless, they were dispersed by an Ottoman force and forced
to retire to Yukarı Kelkid, where they continued banditry. 1646
Turning back to the adventure of Nur Ali Khalifa, all the contemporary sources
agree on that he was among leading khalifas of Shah Ismail and was commissioned by
the Shah directly to organize the qizilbashes of Rum against the Ottomans. HR states
that “when the Khāqān-i Iskandar-sha’n (Isma’īl) heard of the (state of) revolt in the
land of Rūm, he sent Nur Ali Khalifa Rūmlū to those regions for the purpose of
gathering the devoted Sūfīs together. When Khalifa reached Qarā Hisār, some three or
four thousands horsemen among the Sūfīs of Rūm and the murīds of that region joined
him with their families.” 1647 Taking courage from this support, Nur Ali marched toward
Malatya. On hearing this, Faik Beg, who was the Ottoman governor of Malatya 1648 ,
prepared a small-scale army of three thousand cavalries against qizilbashes. Two armies
met in Tokat. After routing Ottoman cavalries, Nur Ali entered Tokat and read hutbe in
the name of Shah Ismail. Some of the townspeople visited Khalifa and were received
honor. 1649 Then he went to Kazova, where Murad joined him.
1646 TSA, document E 6672. The facsimile copy of this document is published in TNSS, appendix,
document 16. For a summary of the document also see p. 68 in the same work.
1647 Savory, “The Consolidation of Safawid Power in Persia”, Der Islam, 41, 1965, pp. 82-3, recited from
A Chronicle of the Early Safawīs, being the Ahsanu’t-Tawārikh of Hasan-i Rūmlū, vol. I (Persian Text),
ed. C. N. Seddon, Baroda, 1931, p. 134-5. Also see HR, p. 164.
1648 sic
1649 HR, pp. 164-5.
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