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

community within the Ottoman Empire significantly shifted from tribal-nomads to
sedentary villagers.
Nevertheless, although being the overwhelming color, this is not the whole
picture. It would not be true to argue that the dissemination of the qizilbash message
among sedentary people was a phenomenon of the post-Çaldıran period. Contemporary
sources make frequent references to villagers and townspeople somehow adhered to the
qizilbash movement at least by the year 1510 and onwards especially in the province of
Rum, in the context of the intense qizilbash uprisings. Even some discontent Ottoman
officials such as the timar holders and qādis supported these uprisings. 2011 Especially in
the Province of Rum, the number of non-tribal ‘qizilbashes’ increased dramatically. One
may assure two possible reasons for this: first of all, in the first decade of the sixteenth
century, the Province of Rum was ruled, nearly independently, by Prince Ahmed, whose
vague policy regarding to the qizilbash issue is already delineated.
The analysis in chapter VI showed that one should not totally ignore the claim
put forward by the Ottoman historians that Ahmed established good relations with the
qizilbashes simply to gain their military support in his struggle with Prince Selim. On
the other hand, it seems that the official interest in the military potency of the qizilbashes
somehow facilitated the legitimacy of qizilbashism within the public sphere. 2012
2011 A detailed analysis of the role of timar holders in the Shahkulu rebellion and their incentives is already
made in chapter VI. There are some occasional indications in the contemporary sources to the ‘somehow’
affiliation of state officials to the qizilbash movement. The qādi of Bolu, for example, lost his life because
of his connection with the Safavids. As recited by Haydar Çelebi in Feridun Beg’s Munşe’āt
(Münşe’ātü’s-selātin, I, Istanbul, 1274/1858, p. 497): “…Yiğirminci günde (20 Rebī II, 924/May 1, 1518)
Bolu kadısı Mevlāna Đsa’nun Erdebil cānibiyle mu’āmelesi olmağın salb olunmak emr olunub Hüseyn ve
Đskender nām kapucular gönderildi. Anlar dahī mezkūrı Merzifon’da bulub ‘ale-mele’i’n-nās salb
eylediler.” Cited and quoted in Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, “Etudes Turco-Safavides, III. Notes et
documents sur la revolte de Sah Veli b. Seyh Celal”, Archivum Ottomanicum, VII, 1982, p. 24.
2012 For an exaggerated account of how qizilbashism attained popularity and ‘official’ acceptance in the
Province of Rum under Prince Ahmed, see Amasyalı Abdizāde Hüseyin Hüsāmeddin, Amasya Tarihi, vol.
III, Đstanbul, 1927, pp. 240-272.
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