Alqas Mirza

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Alqas Mirza ( Persian القاس میرزا; * March 15, 1516 in Karabakh ; † 9. April 1550 in the fortress Qahqaha at Tabriz ) was a Safavid prince ( Mirza ) and competitor of his half brother Tahmasp I. Alqas Mirza was the second son of the first Safawidenschahs Ismail I. His first military experience he had at the age of twelve years Made in 1528 at the victorious battle of Jam against the Uzbeks. Immediately after Ismail's death in 1524, the Kizilbash took control of the state, and rivalries broke out within the various Turkoman tribes. Alqas Mirza supported his brother and heir to the throne Tahmasp I in the following civil war, which ended in 1533 with the execution of the Kizilbasch Husayn Chans. In 1532/33 Mirza was appointed governor of Astarabad on the Caspian Sea , but was still under the tutelage of Badr Khan Ostadschlu because of his young age. Later, in 1534/35, Alqas Mirza led a force against the Ottomans who had taken advantage of the unrest and invaded the Safavid Azerbaijan and Iraq. A few years later, Alqas Mirza and Badr Khan Ostadschlu were sent to the Caucasus against the rebellious Shirvan Shahs , who had only recently been subjugated by Ismail, and at the end of 1538 appointed Governor of Shirvan himself .

rebellion

The reasons for Alqas Mirza's uprising in 1546 are not clear. The various explanations suggest that Alqas Mirza killed a certain Begogli Ostadschlu who had the Shah's permission to marry Alqas Mirza's widowed mother, or that he was urged by supporters of Gazi Khan Takalu after Takalu was executed by the Shah was. Nonetheless, Alqas Mirza sent his family to the royal court in May / June 1546 to ask for mercy and to show his loyalty. Tahmasp sent a delegation demanding obedience and support from Alqas Mirza for a campaign against Georgia. But Alqas Mirza was defeated by the Circassians during the Georgian campaign and was given command of Derbent . Here Alqas Mirza openly rebelled against his brother by minting coins in his own name and having his name read out in the Chutba . Tahmasp broke off his war and marched against Derbent, which he captured in the spring of 1547. Alqas Mirza had already fled to Crimea without his family and with only a few followers .

From the Crimea, which was an Ottoman vassal, Alqas Mirza went to Istanbul to meet up with Sultan Suleiman I meet. Alqas Mirza asked for help to conquer the Iranian throne and assured that he had enough support in Iran. He even held out the prospect of changing his denomination from Iranian Shi'a to Sunniism . The Ottomans would then have an ally on the Iranian throne.

Alqas Mirza during an audience with Sultan Suleyman. Miniature from the factory Süleymanname.

The Sultan quickly assembled a force for a campaign and sent Alqas Mirza with her to Erzurum in the east. The Sultan met him with his army in Choi and together they occupied the Iranian capital Tabriz on July 27, 1548. But Tahmaps had previously devastated and abandoned it. Alqas Mirza also did not receive the announced broad support, which made the Ottomans doubt his honesty. Just four days later, the Ottomans withdrew to Van because of poor supplies and the weather . Before the Sultan there was a dispute between Alqas Mirza and the Ottoman Grand Vizier Riistem Pasha about the bad outcome of the campaign. Alqas Mirza received food and 600 men to independently conduct operations on Iranian soil. At the beginning of October 1548, Alqas Mirza crossed the border at Qasr-e Shirin . After Hamadan , he attacked and looted Qom and Kashan , but was unable to do anything before Isfahan . Before the royal troops Alqas Mirza evaded via Fars in the south to Khuzestan . Under great pressure and after unsuccessful actions, Alqas Mirza had to retreat to the Ottoman Empire via Dezful on January 19, 1549 .

In Mandali , Alqas Mirza went through his options and sent a negotiator with looted royal treasures to Tahmasp in order to regain his old position in Shirvan. In the meantime he went on pilgrimages to holy Shiite sites in al-Kazimiyya , Najaf and Karbala , which further discredited him in the eyes of the Ottomans. Without fixed abode he tried in the Kurdish lords of Shahrizor under get what was denied by Biga Ardalan. Meanwhile, Tahmasp started negotiations from Qazvin towards Shahrazor. Alqas Mirza then released his nephew Badi-al-zaman Mirza. Sultan Suleyman finally broke with Alqas Mirza at the insistence of Rustem Pascha and sent troops to Shahrazor himself. Alqas Mirza fled the Ottomans to Marivan in September . Surrounded by his brother's troops, Alqas Mirza surrendered with 21 other people on October 1, 1549.

Knowing that Alqas would never be truly loyal to Mirza, Tahmaps had him locked up in the fortress of Qahqaha near Tabriz. Six months later on April 9, 1550, he was thrown from the fortress wall by several men in revenge and thus killed.

Alqas Mirza in the Ottoman Empire

During his stay in Istanbul, Ottoman miniature painting experienced a boost from him. In his entourage the prince had the book illustrator and librarian Aflatun Schirwani and valuable manuscripts whose Iranian style was superior to that of the contemporary Ottoman. With the help of Shirvani, Fetullah Arif Çelebi prepared a five-volume work on the Ottoman sultans in the style of the Iranian shahnamah . In 1558 the finished work Şahname-ı Ali-i Osman was presented to the Sultan. Alqas Mirza sent some illustrated books to Istanbul from his booty in Iran.

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personal data
SURNAME Alqas Mirza
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Safavid prince and insurgent
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1516
PLACE OF BIRTH Karabakh
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1550
Place of death at Tabriz