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

Shah Ismail hardly saved his life only by sacrificing a qizilbash for his own life
instead. 1931 The qizilbash army dispersed, some were killed in the battlefield while some
others were taken prisoner. 1932 With only a small force which managed to follow him,
Ismail first retreated to Tabriz, then to Sultaniye. 1933 Selim, perhaps thinking that his
withdrawal was a ruse, did not pursue him. 1934 Ismail’s wife, Taclu Hanım 1935 , who was
the daughter of Hulefa Beg ,the governor of Bagdad, was among the captives. She was
1931 IDRS, p. 179; YSF, p. 62; HYDR, pp. 76-77; CLZ, p. 245; HR, p. 183; HSE4, p. 208. During the fight
Shah Ismail fell down from his horse remaining vulnerable among the Ottoman soldiers. At this critical
moment, one of Ismail’s disciples, called “Hızır”, who resembled a shaykh in appearance stepped forward
and shouted “I am the Shah! I am the Shah!” After he convinced the Ottoman soldiers that he had been the
Shah, Hızır succeeded to attract the attention and helped Ismail to escape on the spot. Some time later
Ismail built a tomb over the grave of Hızır. See HSE4, p. 208. AA’s account is very similar but differs in
detail: “… At the pressing insistence and urgent entreaty of his loyal companions, the Shah was forced to
abandon the field. As he did so, he and his companions clashed with the troop of Ottomans which had
shattered the Safavid center and was returning to his own lines. The Shah broke through their ranks and
continued on his way. En route, his horse sank into a bog, whereupon Kezr Aqa Ostājlū brought up his
own horse and mounted the Shah on it. He then extracted the Shah’s horse from the bog and followed on
behind, later to be received by the Shah at Darjozīn.” See AA, p. 70. AA does not mention what happened
to Hızır Aga then. SLZ, a seventeenth-century Ottoman historian, recites a slightly different version of
this story. See SLZ2, pp. 27-8.
1932 Giovan Maria Angiolello recites an interesting story: “ … one of them [captivated qizilbashes] named
Carbec, before he died, was taken before the Turk, who said to him: ‘O, dog, who art thou, who hast had
the courage to oppose our majesty; knowest thou not that my father and I are vicars of the prophet
Mohamet, and that God is with us?’ The captain Carbec replied: ‘If God had been with you, you would
not have come to fight against my master the Sophi; but I believe that God has taken away his hand from
you.’ Then Selim said: ‘Kill this dog;’ and the captain replied: ‘I know it is my hour now, but you, Selim,
prepare yourself for another occasion, when my master will slay you as you now are slaying me;’ upon
which he was immediately put to death.” See Giovan Maria Angiolello, “A Short Narrative of the Life and
Acts of the King Ussun Cassano”, in NIT, pp. 120-21. Caterino Zeno also recites exactly the same story
giving the name as Aurbec Samper. See Caterino Zeno, “Travels in Persia”, in NIT, pp. 61-2. Tufan
Gündüz, who translated Zeno’s work into Turkish, translates this name as Saru Pīre. See Tufan Gündüz
(trs.), Uzun Hasan – Fâtih Mücadelesi Döneminde Doğu’da Venedik Elçileri. Caterino Zeno ve Ambrogio
Contarini’nin Seyâhatnâmeleri, Đstanbul: Yeditepe Yayınları, 2006, p. 64.
1933 KPZ9, p. 112.
1934 HS, p. 606; HR, p. 183. Also consider Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 42.
1935 CLZ, p. 246; HSE4, p. 212; ALI, p. 1102. Giovan Maria Angiolello also records this event without
mentioning any names. See Giovan Maria Angiolello, “A Short Narrative of the Life and Acts of the King
Ussun Cassano”, in NIT, p. 120.
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