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

abandoned in practice their unquestioning obedience to the Shah as their mürşid-i kāmil,
whatever lip-service they might continue to pay to it in theory.” 1966
The second consequence of Çaldıran, which seems to have been fundamentally
changed the development of the ideological and political stand of the Safavid state, was
that in the battlefield of Çaldıran most of the leading qizilbash begs who were chiefly
responsible for the success of Ismail’s early advent (hurūc) died. Among them the most
prominent were Ismail’s vicegerent, vekillü’s-saltanat or grand vizier, Seyyid
Abdülbāki; his kadıasker Seyyid Sadr Şerif; the governor of Bağdad, Hulāfa Beg; the
governor of Herat and Horasan, Lala Beg; the governor of Diyarbakır, Ustacaluoğlu
Muhammed Beg; the governor of Hamedān, Tekelü Kāhi Beg; (Kemnān u Damğān
sahibi) Sultan Ali Beg; the governor of Irak-ı Acem, Pir Budak Beg; the governor of
Fars and Şiraz, Köse Hamza Beg; the governor of Đsfahan, Tursun Beg; korucu-başı Saru
Piri; the governor of Gence, Serdar Beg; the governor of Damğān and Sa’īd Çukuru,
Ağzıdar Beg; the governor of Kazvin and Sultaniye, Kara Sinan; and Seyyid
Muhammed Kemāne 1967 , who was the official-responsible (nākib) of the sanctuary in
Meşhed and known as descending from the Family of the Prophet. 1968
What is of utmost importance to be noted here is that the overwhelming majority
of the grand leaders of the millenarist qizilbash movement deceased in this battle.
Without doubt, the absence of these khans who were famous for their extremist beliefs,
1966 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 61.
1967 On October 21, 1508, when Ismail entered Baghdād, he visited the Shi’ī shrines at Karbalā and Najaf,
where Seyyid Muhammed Kemāne was invested with drum and banner and was made mütevelli of Najaf
as well as governor of certain towns in ‘Iraq-i ‘Arab. See Sarwar, pp. 53-5; Roger Savory, “The
Consolidation of Safavid Power in Persia”, p. 77.
1968 KPZ9, p. 113; HYDR, p. 143; CLZ, p. 242; Lütfi Paşa, p. 230; HR, p. 183; HS, p. 606; AA, p. 70.
Also consider Savory, “The Consolidation”, p. 90; TNSS, p. 61 ; Tekindağ, “Yavuz’un Đran Seferi”, pp.
68-9. h
596