Qara Qoyunlu
The Qara Qoyunlu ( Ottoman and Persian قراقویونلو; Turkmen Garagoýunly - "[those] with black mutton") were a Turkmen tribal federation in Eastern Anatolia , Azerbaijan and large parts of Iraq and Iran (approx. 1380-1469). Tabriz can be regarded as the capital .
Beginnings
The name of the tribal confederation is possibly derived from the totem animal , in other opinion rather from the predominant color of the sheep herds. This tribal state was formed by the Yıva , Döğer , Afşar and large parts of the other Oghusian tribes. Their area joined the area of the Aq Qoyunlu ( Diyarbakır District) in the east . The center was Argis (today Erciş in the province of Van ) on Lake Van , the influence to the north extended to Erzurum , south to Mosul . The ruling clan were the Baharlu (a name as Barani is not clearly clarified) under Bairam Hoga († 1380) and two brothers. It is fairly certain that the clan is related to the village of Bahar near Hamadan , where an influential Turkmen family sat before the Mongol storm.
The rise of the Turkmens in the 14th century is related to the decline of any state authority after the fall of the Ilkhanate .
In the spring of 1366 the Jalairide Uwais (ruled 1356-1374) moved against Bairam Hoga and beat him at Mus . After that Bairam Hoga was under the suzerainty of the Jalairids, but managed to get Argis, Mosul, Singar and some places in Transcaucasia to himself until his death in 1380 . Because of this, Uwai's successor Husain (r. 1374–82) went back to the field in 1376 against Bairam Hoga, who was advancing eastward from the Erzurum area.
Rise and confrontation with the Timurids
Bairam Hodscha's successor was his son or nephew Qara Muhammad (r. 1380-1389). Qara Muhammad was the founder of the Qara Qoyunlu power, according to conventional wisdom. He ousted other Turkmens: the Döğer tribe under Salim, the Ortoqids in Mardin and the Aq Qoyunlu. Serious danger loomed when the conqueror Timur Lenk conquered western Iran in 1386 and then threatened the Turkmens. Qara Muhammad occupied Tabriz and fell fighting rivals in the spring of 1389.
Qara Muhammad's son Qara Yūsuf (r. 1389-1420) fled from Timur Lenk to the Ottomans Bayezids I. His admission negatively influenced the relations between Timur Lenk and the Ottomans and was a pretext for the battle of Ankara (1402). In the same year Qara Yūsuf returned and then fled to Syria , where he was arrested and almost executed for his previous attacks. Only with Timur's death in 1405 did his persecution end.
In the following years, his personal following quickly increased again and so he was able to prevail in 1408 at Tabriz against the Timurid princes of western Iran ( Mīrān Shāh and son Aba Bekr). Relations with the Jalairid Ahmad (ruled 1382–1410) were initially peaceful, as both rulers were threatened, temporarily imprisoned together and thus forced to stake out their interests. As a result, Mesopotamia was Ahmad's area of interest and Azerbaijan was Qara Yūsuf's. Ahmad broke the agreement and advanced into Tabriz, but was beaten and executed. In the following year, 1411, Qara Yūsuf's son Muhammad was able to conquer Baghdad and establish himself there under the suzerainty of his father.
Finally, Qara Yūsuf's increase in power at the expense of the Timurid princes, their head Shāh Ruch (ruled 1407-47), became too much; he went to the field against him. Shortly before the dispute, the terminally ill Qara Yūsuf (1420) died and his disagreed descendants were no match for Timurid politics. The Timurids attacked three times successfully and favored the internal conflicts, so that Qara Iskander (r. 1420–1435, † 1438) could only hold the state together to some extent. Shāh Ruch set Abu Saʿīd as ruler in Tabriz; however, this was defeated by Qara Iskander (1429/31). After that, Shāh Ruch brought Jahān Shāh (ruled 1435–1467) to power in 1434/5, who was able to reunite the state and increase the property of the house again.
Jahan Shah
Under Jahan Shah the empire reached its climax. With the death of Shah Ruch in 1447 he was finally able to shake off the suzerainty of the Timurids and conquer large parts of Iran around 1452. With Herat , the capital of the Timurids in Khorasan even fell briefly into his hands in 1458 .
Jahan Shah is mostly described as a greedy tyrant, unreliable, evil and relentless. All kinds of cruelty and debauchery (e.g. opium intoxication ) also occur. Against this background one can see the arguments with his sons, from whom Hasan GefängnisAlī fled the prison in Maku and instigated an uprising when Jahān Shāh had just conquered the Timurid capital Herat (1458). Another son, Pīr Budaq, rebelled in Baghdad in 1466 and was only killed after a long siege. Jahān Shāh differs from its predecessors in terms of cultural merits, e.g. B. the Blue Mosque in Tabriz has been preserved from him, as well as a literary collection that suggests a certain education. It is also questionable whether the negative image of Jahān Shāh is exaggerated, since the Timurid court chronicler, of all people, praises his caring and just government in Tabriz.
The aging "Sultan and Chāqān" could not defeat the Aq Qoyunlu Uzun Hasan : his troops had been routed when they tried to prevent Uzun Hasan's accession to the throne. Uzun Hasan, like his brother before him, saw himself forced to submissive formulations to the address of the far more powerful Jahān Shāh, but ultimately had more success: in a sudden attack he forced the recklessly operating Jahān Shāh to flee, on which he was murdered (November 1467). Jahan Shah apparently wanted to march against Uzun Hasan, but broke off the campaign because of the early onset of winter and set out on the way home too carelessly.
After that, Jahān Shah's sons Hasan ʿAlī and Abū Yūsuf were deposed by the Aq Qoyunlu. Uzun Hasan defeated the Timurid ruler Abū Saʿīd, who rushed in their favor (1469). The black mutton now formed a special department in the new " white mutton state ".
List of rulers of the black mutton
- Bairam Hodscha (ruled approx. 1366-1380)
- Qara Muhammad (r. 1380-1389)
- Qara Yūsuf (ruled 1389–1420)
- Qara Iskander (r. 1420-1435, † 1438)
- Jahān Shāh (r. 1435-1467)
- Hasan ʿAlī and Abū Yūsuf (ruled 1468–1469)
literature
- Hans Robert Roemer: Persia on the way to modern times. Iranian history from 1350-1750. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989 (Also as: (= Beirut texts and studies. Vol. 40). Steiner, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-515-05114-7 ).