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

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

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saru renkden ihtirāz olundığı gibi, gökle sarunun Nasārā ile Yahūdiye mahsus<br />

olmuşdur. ... 1707<br />

Apart from the qizilbashes, Ali bin Abdülkerim Halife also calls attention to ışıks<br />

who lived communally in their lodges and wandered. He deems this group inferior to<br />

infidels from a religous point of view. According to him, these ışıks said that ‘our pray<br />

(namaz) was already performed (thus there is no need for us to perform pray)’, and they<br />

prostrated one another, used alcohol and hashish in their food, and were really merciless<br />

and mischievous. Ali bin Abdülkerim Halife advises Sultan Selim to confiscate their<br />

lodges in order to turn into mescids and even to kill them. 1708<br />

Ali bin Abdülkerim Halife’s report clearly shows that a segment of Ottoman<br />

society was in expectation of effective measures both against corruptions within the<br />

governmental mechanism and against ‘religious divergent’ groups. This expectation<br />

made it possible for Selim to undertake a truly ruthless policy against his own subjects.<br />

Giovan Maria Angiolello, who was an eye-witness of events, says that the<br />

Kurdish local rulers governing the borderline region between two empires provoked<br />

Sultan Selim to invade the Safavid Empire. 1709 Şerefhan Bitlisī confirms the invocation<br />

of Kurdish leaders. He states that when Emir Şeref lost Bitlis to the qizilbashes, he<br />

pinned his hopes on the Ottoman sultan who was rumored to have an intention to invade<br />

Iran. Emir Şeref, in collaboration with Idris-i Bitlisī and Muhammad Aga Kelhokî, who<br />

were also among the prominent notables of the region, persuaded 20 Kurdish feudal<br />

lords to support Sultan Selim. Then, they wrote a letter, presenting their loyalty to the<br />

1707 Quoted in TNSS, p. 28.<br />

1708 Quoted in TNSS, p. 29.<br />

1709 See Giovan Maria Angiolello, “A Short Narrative of the Life and Acts of the King Ussun Cassano”, in<br />

NIT, pp. 118-9.<br />

506

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