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THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Aydin ASLANOV
Ph.D. (Hist.), Associate Professor, Baku Advanced Teacher Training Institute (Baku, Azerbaijan).
THE CAUCASUS IN THE 15TH CENTURY
(600th Anniversary of the Azeri Kara Koyunlu State)
Abstract
The author traces the process that was crowned by the formation of the Kara Koyunlu state (1410-1468) in Southern Azerbaijan 600 years ago. He looks at various aspects of the foreign policy
pursued by Padishah Kara Yusuf and his two sons (Kara Iskender and Jahan Shah) and their relations with the Timu-rids, Jelairids, Shirvanshahs, and Ak Ko-yunlu.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
The 15th century marked a turning point in the long history of Azerbaijan; it shook off the foreign yoke of the Timurids, while the state of the Shirvanshahs (known as a long-living state which spanned 1,000 years between the 6th and 16th century) continued flourishing.
Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu, two tribal confederations which replaced one another and played an important role in the history of the Muslim East (of which Azerbaijan was a part), appeared in the 15th century. At the same time, the Safavids, the sheikhs of Ardabil, fortified their position to play a key role in setting up the vast Azeri Safavid Empire (1501-1736).
In the latter half of the same century, Azerbaijan and the Russian state invigorated their contacts and trade along the Volga and across the Caspian. At that time, Kazan became a place of annual trade fairs which attracted Russian and Eastern merchants. Shamakhy, Baku, Ganja, Tabriz, Ardabil, and Maraga traded with the Russian state on a large scale.
In 1465, Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar (1462-1500) sent his ambassador, Hasan bek, to the Grand Prince of Muscovy Ivan III (1462-1505) with lavish gifts and suggestions about how to better organize trade between the two states.1 In 1466, after successfully completing his talks,2 he returned to Shirvan along with caravans of Moscow and Tver merchants, among whom was Afanasi Nikitin, a merchant from Tver who later gained prominence as a traveler. He reached Derbend, Shamakhy, Baku, Tabriz, and other cities and described his impressions about Shirvan, Iran, and India in his famous Khozhdenie za tri moria (Travels beyond Three Seas).
1 See: Zapiski Vostochnogo otdelenia Imperatorskogo russkogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva, Vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1898, pp. 30-32.
2 See: V.V. Bartold, Mesto prikaspiyskikh oblastey v istorii musulmanskogo mira, Baku, 1926, p. 100.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
The same year, Russia reciprocated with an embassy headed by Vassiliy Panin. The two states did not stop at an exchange of embassies; in 1475, an ambassador of Ivan III, whom Contarini called Marco Rosso, talked to Uzun Khan in Tabriz; in 1499, Shahabaddin, the Shirvanshah's ambassador, went to Moscow where he negotiated a treaty of "friendship and consent."
Liberated from the Mongolian and Timurid yoke, the country entered a period of unprecedented development of the Azeri culture and sciences: the ever-increasing number of poets started writing in their native language; in the 15th century they gained wide popularity in the Middle East.
Imadeddin Nasimi (1369-1417), a great poet born in Shamakhy, enriched Azeri literature with new artistic forms and images. He was one of the first to use the living Azeri language to write ghazals; one of the first humanists, he was accused of free thinking and tortured to death as a heretic in 1417.
Shah Kasim Enver (1356-1434), who used the pseudonym Kasimi, was another outstanding poet. Padishah Jahan Shah of Kara Koyunlu is known for his diwan of poetry in Azeri; his nom de plume was Haqiqi. Hatai Tabrizfs "Yusuf and Zulaikha" and Hagirfs "Layla and Majnun" were very popular throughout the region.
The 15th century gave the world two more great men: Shah Ismail I (1501-1524,) founder of the Azerbaijan Safavid state, who was born on 17 July, 1487, and Muhammad Fuzuli (1494-1556), one of the luminaries of world poetry.
In the 15th century, Azeri scientists wrote numerous works on mathematics, astronomy, and geography that were avidly read by their colleagues in other countries. Seyyid Yahya Bakuvi (14101462) wrote several philosophical treatises under the title of Sharki-gulshani-raz (Commentaries on the Galaxy of Mysteries), as well as numerous works on history and astronomy. Abdurrashid ibn-Saleh Bakuvi, another prominent savant of the 15th century, left a rich legacy of scholarly works on geography, history, and other sciences.
Music reached its peak in the 15th century: songs of Azeri musicians became part of the world's musical legacy. Abd al-Qadir Maraghi (1353-1435) had many mugams, songs, and dance music to his name which were widely popular throughout the Middle East. He was a gifted theoretician who laid the foundations of Azeri folk music.
In the 15th century, Azeri architecture reached unprecedented heights, a breathtaking example of which—the Shirvanshahs' Palace—can be seen in Baku. The tomb of Sheik Safi-ad-din in Ardabil is another outstanding monument of 15th-century Azeri architecture. In 1465, the famous Blue Mosque (Goy Masjid), the walls and the dome of which were inlaid with sky-blue marble and tiles, was built in Tabriz, the capital of Kara Koyunlu. The magnificent palace complex of Hasht Behesht (Eight Paradises) in Tabriz, complete with a palace, libraries, a mosque, a hospital for 1,000 patients, a hippodrome, and a park, dates to the Ak Koyunlu period. Tabriz boasts of the well-known Mosque of Hasan Padishah, the Geyseriyye covered market, and the Nasriyye and Maksudiyyee madrasahs. Azeri architects added numerous magnificent buildings to the architectural treasures of Iran, Asia Minor, and Central Asia.
The Kara Koyunlu Azeri State Begins
In the 12th-13th centuries, nomadic tribes, which later united into the Kara Koyunlu tribal con-federation,3 moved from Central Asia westwards, to Iran, Azerbaijan, and Asia Minor. They were
1 The tribal standard had a black ram (Kara Koyun) on it.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Oghuz Turks, including the tribes of Baharlu, Saadlu, Karamanlu, Alpaut, Jagirlu, Duharlu, Haji-lu, and Agacheri; the tribes of Baharlu and Saadlu were the leaders.
In the 14th century, the tribes of the confederation roamed Western Anatolia; in the 1370s, they settled in Arzinjan and Sivas (Northern Kurdistan). As soon as the Kara Koyunlu confederation gained strength, it began threatening their neighbors.
In the last quarter of the 14th century, the confederation had to fight on two fronts—against Ak Koyunlu4 and the founder of the strongest empire in Central Asia Emir Timur (1370-1405). Kara Koyunlu joined forces with the state of the Jelairids (1341-1431)5 in the south of Azerbaijan; they were too weak to stand up to Timur and his army. In 1392, the Kara Koyunlu tribal confederation was routed, while its leader, Kara Yusuf,6 had to flee the country.
Egyptian Captivity
In the summer of 1394, Kara Yusuf of Kara Koyunlu and Sultan Ahmed Jelairid (who ruled at intervals between 1382 and 1410), in an effort to take revenge, suffered a crushing defeat outside Baghdad at the hands of Timur's generals and sought refuge in Egypt with Mamluk Sultan Barquq (1382-1399).
The sultan, who feared Emir Timur and his expansionist policies, refused to deport the refugees; when he died, his son Faraj (1399-1412), reluctant to quarrel with the formidable conqueror, locked Kara Yusuf and Sultan Ahmed in a fortress. In Egyptian captivity, the two prisoners agreed to divide the spheres of influence, if and when they regained their freedom. Under this agreement, Sultan Ahmed acquired Baghdad, while Kara Yusuf of Kara Koyunlu received Southern Azerbaijan along with Tabriz.
In 1405, as soon as the news about Timur's death reached Egypt, the sultan freed his prisoners, who started gathering troops to realize their plans. While Sultan Ahmed was unable to rally any large number of soldiers under his banners, Kara Yusuf gathered together a fairly large army of volunteers of the Kara Koyunlu tribes, as well as units of the Kurdish emirs of Kurdistan, Asia Minor, and Southern Azerbaijan attracted to him because of his alliance with the ruler of Hilat, Mush, and Hunus Meliq Shams ad-Din, whom he won over to his side by giving him his daughter's hand in marriage. This argument proved strong enough for the Kurdish nomadic lords.
In June 1406, after capturing Baghdad, Kara Yusuf and Sultan Ahmed moved to Tabriz, where Shirvanshah Ibrahim I (1382-1417) had ruled since May 1406.
The National-Liberation Movement in Azerbaijan
The countries and regions of Timur's empire, although consolidated by the iron willpower of the great leader, had little in common economically, which explains why they immediately broke
4 The tribal standard of Ak Koyunlu featured a white ram (Ak Koyun).
5 In September 1359, Sheik Uveis Jelairid (1356-1374) attacked Azerbaijan and captured Tabriz. Azerbaijan became part of the state of Jelairids, with the capital in Tabriz.
6 Kara (black) is a symbol of beauty in Oriental poetry. Other potentates of the same epoch were also called kara (Kara Mahmud, Kara Yusuf, Kara Iskender, Kara Yuluk Osman, and others.
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away from each other after Timur's death early in 1405. Squabbles among the Timurids, the sons and grandsons of Timur, developed into bloody wars, which weakened their grip on Azerbaijan. The time had come to shake off the foreign yoke and unite the country into one state. Inspired by the idea of liberation, people all over Azerbaijan rose bearing arms against the Timurids in Tabriz, Maraga, Ka-rabakh, and elsewhere.
Realizing that the time was ripe, Shirvanshah Ibrahim I took up arms to unify the country under his power. He used the riots to capture Ganja and a large part of Karabakh; many of the influential Azeri feudal lords (such as the ruler of Sheki, Seyyid Ahmed, Emir Yar Ahmed of the Kar-amandy tribe in Karabakh, and ruler of Ardabil Emir Bistam Jagir of the Jagirlu tribe) joined him. Georgia rebelled at the same time, while King Georgy VII (1393-1407),7 according to historian Mirkhond, "sent his ambassadors to express his obedience and subordination to Ibrahim."8 Later, in the summer of the same year, in a battle on the River Kura, they routed Omar Mirza, Timur's grandson.
In the spring of 1406, Tabriz, the largest trade and handicraft center of the time, rose against Abu Bakr, one of the Timurids; the insurgents turned to Shirvanshah Ibrahim I, who, in May, crossed the Arax and entered Tabriz.
The new ruler extended his power to a larger part of Azerbaijan; it looked as if his plan to unify the territory into a single Azeri state could be realized. Joining Tabriz to this state could have been another step in the same direction, but the Shirvanshah was unable to secure a firm footing in this important town: in June 1406, he received news that Sultan Ahmed Jelairid was returning to Southern Azerbaijan. At an obvious disadvantage, Ibrahim I decided to retreat from Tabriz, which was immediately occupied by the much stronger forces of Sultan Ahmed.
Soon, however, his extortionate taxes and cruelty forced the people to open the gates to Sultan Ahmed's enemy, Abu Bakr and his troops, which approached the city just in time.9
The Kara Koyunlu State Appears
This began a long period of struggle over Azerbaijan between the Timurids and Kara Yusuf. In October 1406, he routed Abu Bakr and forced him to flee, but the struggle was not over. On 21 April, 1408, in the village of Sardrud not far from Tabriz, the enemies met for another and, as it turned out, very important battle. Kara Yusuf reigned victorious despite the 20 thousand-strong army Sultan Shah Rukh dispatched to his brother Miran Shah. The Timurids were utterly defeated, Miran Shah was killed. This was the end of the Timurids' dominance in Azerbaijan.
Kara Yusuf's impressive victory shifted all real power to Kara Koyunlu; the new ruler placed his military garrisons in almost all the cities of Southern Azerbaijan. This victory allowed Sultan Ahmed Jelairid to return to Tabriz. The alliance, however, did not survive the much stronger position of one of the partners. The squabble between Sultan Ahmed and Kara Yusuf ended in a bloody battle. Sultan Ahmed, who knew in 1410 that his former ally Kara Yusuf was distracted by his struggle against Kara Yuluk Osman (1394-1434), head of the Ak Koyunlu tribal confederation, attacked Kara Yusuf in Tabriz and captured the city. Not quite sure of his success, Sultan Ahmed Jelairid turned to Shirvanshah Ibrahim I for support, who agreed to help him as the
7 I
8 I.P. Petrushevskiy, "Gosudarstva Azerbaidzhana v XV v.," in: Sbornik statey po istorii Azerbaidzhana, Issue I,
' Son of Bagrat V (i360-i393).
Baku, i949, p. i54.
9 See: Ibid., p. i57.
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less dangerous of the two adversaries. He dispatched a small unit under Prince Kayumars, which arrived too late.
After learning about the Tabriz developments, Kara Yusuf hastened to Southern Azerbaijan and reached Tabriz earlier than Prince Kayumars. On 30 August, 1410, the former allies met on the battle field at Shanbi Hazan not far from Tabriz. Completely routed, Sultan Ahmed fled only to be later caught and brought to Kara Yusuf's camp where he had to abdicate in favor of the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. This sealed his fate: on 31 August, 1410, Sultan Ahmed was strangled and his dead body was tied to a cross.10 This spelled the end of the Jelairid dynasty in Azerbaijan; in 1412, Kara Yusuf captured Baghdad.
This was how the new state of Kara Koyunlu (1410-1468) headed by the Barani dynasty of the Baharlu tribe was founded. It included part of the Azeri land to the south of the Kura, Armenia, Kurdistan, part of Georgia, Iraq, and Western Iran. Tabriz, an ancient Azeri city, became the capital of the new state. Kara Yusuf personally ruled Southern Azerbaijan, while his sons received bit and pieces in other parts of the fairly large state.
Padishah Kara Yusuf
Kara Yusuf (1410-1420) was an outstanding person. Historian Illarion Petrushevskiy wrote about him: "He was a born leader of nomads who knew all their customs and habits; he knew how to force them to obey him. None of the nomadic leaders had equally well-armed or well-fed troops; none knew better how to look after horses. His soldiers were well-known as excellent riders and excellent archers. He was firm and persistent, and he knew how to bridle his passions."11 Though illiterate, Kara Yusuf was an active and ambitious person and an excellent military commander.
The State of Kara Koyunlu and Shirvan
The Shirvan units under Prince Kayumars reached Tabriz when Sultan Ahmed and his troops had already been defeated. Unaware of the recent developments, the prince settled down for the night only to be suddenly attacked by Kara Yusuf; the Shirvan units were surrounded and routed; the prince was taken prisoner.
Shirvanshah Ibrahim I offered a lot of money to get his son back, but Kara Yusuf let the prince go without a ransom: instead the prince carried a letter with him in which Kara Yusuf demanded that Shirvanshah recognize him as the supreme ruler.
Ibrahim's suspicions, which had been aroused by the easy terms on which the prince was released and the effortlessness with which he had been captured, sealed the prince's fate: suspected of high treason, he was executed.
Kara Yusuf, meanwhile, tried to consolidate his power throughout the entire territory of Azerbaijan; he sent an ambassador to Shirvan with the same demand: the Shirvanshah should accept him as
10 See: I.P. Petrushevskiy, op. cit., p. 159.
11 Ibidem.
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his ruler. Ibrahim I, naturally, stuck to his independence, for which he had paid dearly. He had no choice but to start readying for a final battle with his very dangerous opponent. He had Seyyid Ahmed of Sheki and King of Kakhetia Konstantin I (1407-1412)12 on his side. The formidable alliance forced Kara Yusuf to wage war late in 1412.
The battle took place in the month of shaban, 815 AH, that is, between 6 November and 4 December, 1412,13 on the shores of the Kura. Kara Yusuf's army outnumbered that of the Shirvanshah and his allies; they were all surrounded and taken prisoner. Kara Yusuf captured the Shirvanshah, his seven sons, the retinue, the Georgian king, and his many princes and aznaurs.14
They were all brought in front of the mejlis (assembly) of military nobles of Kara Yusuf; the Georgian king and his 300 aznaurs were executed without much ado; rank-and-file Shirvan soldiers were set free without ransom, while the Shirvan nobles, the Shirvanshah among them, were clamped in irons and sent to prison. After routing and plundering the Shirvan cities and villages, Kara Yusuf stole about one million head of cattle.15
In Tabriz, after talking to the Shirvanshah, Kara Yusuf agreed to set the prisoners free for a huge ransom of 1,200 gold Iraq tumans.16 This was not all; the victor demanded that Shirvanshah Ibrahim I part with all the treasures that had been accumulated since the time of Yazdegerd, son of Shahriar, in the treasure troves of his ancestors.17 On top of this, the Shirvanshah became the vassal of Kara Yusuf.
Ibrahim I had no choice but to accept the conditions in exchange for his freedom. According to historian Mirkhond, all the gold and silver vessels, as well as the precious stones that the family had inherited from the Sassanian King Yazdegerd II (438-457), were delivered to Kara Yusuf. This, however, was not enough to pay the ransom.
Things took a different turn: the heads of the merchant and handicraft communities in Tabriz came to the diwan of Kara Yusuf to ask him to accept the ransom in goods. At that time, even wealthy merchants did not always have ready money at hand, while wholesale trade was based on barter. Kara Koyunlu accepted goods totaling 1,200 tumans; later Shirvanshah Ibrahim I repaid the debt.18
Kara Yusuf greeted the ransomed Shirvanshah with great honors; he seated him next to himself at the feast and poured his wine for him himself.
The Shirvanshah had no choice but to recognize Kara Yusuf as his patron in exchange for continued rule of his domains "from the border of Sheki to Derbend." The dependence was purely token; Ibrahim I still ruled his vast state. In the spring of 1413, he and other former prisoners returned home, while the troops of Kara Yusuf left Shirvan.
Ibrahim I died in 1417; his son Halilullah I (1417-1462) ascended the throne. A strong and skilful ruler, he continued the policy of his father; under him the state gradually regained its strength. Halilullah I refused to remain a vassal of the Kara Koyunlu padishahs. So the Shirvanshah established friendly relations with one of the Timurids, namely, Sultan Shah Rukh (1409-1447) who ruled Central Asia and almost the whole of Iran. Sultan Shah Rukh, the most formidable of Kara Yusuf's opponents, took advantage of the opportunity to weaken Kara Koyunlu and split it.
12 Son of Bagrat V, brother of Georgy VII (1393-1407).
13 Some of the authors date the battle to the winter of 1413 (see: V.M. Sysoev, Kratkiy ocherk istorii Azerbaidzhana (Severnogo), Baku, 1926, p. 80).
14 See: Sara hanum Ashurbeyli, The State of Shirvanshahs, Baku, 2006, pp. 212-213 (in Azeri).
15 I. Petrushevskiy wrote that Kara Yusuf stole 1 million head of cattle from Shirvan (see: I.P. Petrushevskiy, op. cit., p. 161). S. Ashurbeyli cites the same figure (see: Sara hanum Ashurbeyli, op. cit., p. 213). According to D. Ibragimov, the conquerors stole over 100 thousand head of cattle (see: D. Ibrahimov, Feodalnye gosudarstva na territorii Azerbaidzhana XV veka, Baku, 1962, p. 29).
16 According to V. Sysoev, the Shirvanshah should have been paid 12,000 gold tumans (see: V.M. Sysoev, op. cit.,
p. 80).
17 See: Ibidem.
18 See: Mirkhond, Rouzat-as-safa, lithograph, Vol. VI, Bombay, 1261 AH, pp. 295-296.
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In 1418, Sultan Shah Rukh, at the head a huge army, moved from Herat to Azerbaijan, where he was defeated. His second march on Azerbaijan was also a disaster. On 17 November, 1420, Kara Yusuf suddenly died at the age of 65. He was buried in Aijish on the shores of Lake Van, next to his ancestors.
Padishah Kara Iskender
The war continued. In May 1421, Kara Iskender, son of Kara Yusuf (1420-1429, 1431-1435), resumed military action against Sultan Shah Rukh and his ally Shirvanshah Halilullah I. On 1 August, 1421, the sides met for a decisive battle in the Alashkert valley at Derbend. This time, the sultan defeated and scattered the army of Kara Iskender; however in the fall of 1421, the sultan pulled his forces out of Azerbaijan.
Padishah Kara Iskender used this opportunity to gather another army and consolidate his position in Tabriz; many of the Azeri emirs accepted him as their leader, which meant that his state survived the military calamities and was restored; Shirvan and Sheki, however, remained independent.
Kara Iskender, an intrepid warrior, did not have the military talents of his father. Three times (in 1427, 1430, and 1434), he tried to conquer Shirvan and failed.19 In 1427, he miscalculated and started a war on two fronts: he attacked Shirvan in an effort to subjugate the Shirvanshah and started a war against Sultan Shah Rukh.
In May 1429, Shah Rukh led his 100 thousand-strong army against Kara Iskender; the Shirvan troops of Halilullah I sided with the sultan. Kara Iskender was defeated at Salmas; the victor captured Tabriz, the capital of Kara Koyunlu. Sultan Shah Rukh preserved the state under Abu Seyyid (14291431), one of Kara Yusuf's sons, who accepted his vassalage and received, in return, a deed granting him the right to rule Southern Azerbaijan, Karabakh, and part of Asia Minor.
The sons of Kara Yusuf were still fighting for power. In 1430, when Timurid's troops had been pulled out, Padishah Kara Iskender showed up in Azerbaijan; in 1431, after murdering Abu Seyyid in a bloody fratricide, he recaptured the throne.
His rule was dotted with feudal riots and internecine squabbles; the economy was failing, while the Padishah plundered Azerbaijan and spent his time feasting.
In an effort to conquer Shirvan in 1434, Kara Iskender once more invaded Northern Azerbaijan, where his army remained for a year, plundering the land and felling orchards and mulberry trees, the linchpin of the country's wealth. The capital, Shamakhy, was ruined; people died in great numbers; the devastation was unrivaled since the Mongol inroads. Shirvanshah Halilullah I continued fighting; he turned to Sultan Shah Rukh for help and maintained relations with him across the Caspian.
In 1435, Sultan Shah Rukh returned to Azerbaijan with an army. Defeated by the Timurid and Shirvan troops, Padishah Kara Iskender fled to Asia Minor. In the fall of 1435, Sultan Shah Rukh led his troops into Tabriz. Power in Kara Koyunlu was transferred to Jahan Shah (1435-1467), another son of Kara Yusuf, who recognized his dependence on Sultan Shah Rukh. In the spring of 1436, the Sultan gave Jahan Shah a deed that granted him the right to rule Southern Azerbaijan.
The fate of Kara Iskender was a sad one; after failing to recapture power with the help of Ottoman Sultan Murad II (1421-1444) and Mamluks of Egypt, he was routed by his brother Jahan Shah and incarcerated in the Alinja fortress, where one night he was stabbed to death in his sleep by his own son. His severed head was sent to Jahan Shah, who organized a lavish burial for his brother-enemy and built a magnificent mausoleum over his grave in Tabriz.
' See: D. Ibrahimov, op. cit., p. 31.
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Padishah Jahan Shah.
The Kara Koyunlu State Becomes Stronger
It was under Padishah Jahan Shah, son of Kara Yusuf, that the state reached the peak of its glory. Unlike his predecessors, he was a well-educated man with an exquisite taste for art. Under the pseudonym Haqiqi, he wrote a diwan of poetry; it was during his rule that Tabriz acquired several outstanding architectural monuments, the best of which was the Blue Mosque (Goy Masjid).
Very much aware of the foreign policy context of the time, Jahan Shah of Kara Koyunlu did not abuse his vassal dependence on the Timurids until the death of Sultan Shah Rukh in 1447. For the same reason, he left the Shirvanshah, an ally of the Timurids, alone. In the 1440s, however, he repeatedly marched on Georgia in alliance with ruler of Ardabil, Sheik Ibrahim Safavid, known as Sheik Shah (1427-1447).
The internecine wars which followed the death of Sultan Shah Rukh gave Jahan Shah a chance to expand his domains in the east and the south. Several times he marched against the Timurids who ruled in Iran. In 1453, he conquered Western Iran; four years later, in 1457, he defeated Timurid General Ibrahim Mirza at Jurjan and entered Horasan; in June 1458, his troops occupied Herat, the capital of the Timurid sultans.
While he was fighting Abu Seyyid Timurid, his own nomadic feudal lords mutinied under the command of his sons Hasan Ali (in Azerbaijan) and Pirbudag (in Baghdad). In January 1459, Jahan Shah had to accept a truce with Sultan Abu Seyyid and, after extracting a huge ransom from the Timurids, retreated.
It took him a long time to sort out the riots of the nomads; late in 1459, he finally restored law and order in his domains; he suppressed the riot of Hasan Ali in Azerbaijan and imprisoned him. After settling scores, he resolved the problem with his other son, Pirbudag, who was captured and executed.
His domains stretched from the Persian Gulf in the south to the Kura River in the north; his state comprised the larger part of Armenia and Persian and Arabian Iraq.
In the west, where Jahan Shah was tied down in a permanent war against the Ak Koyunlu tribal confederation (which had been and remained the worst threat to Kara Koyunlu's continued existence), he was not as lucky. In the 1450s, he lost the larger part of Kurdistan and part of Asia Minor.
By Way of a Conclusion: Kara Koyunlu Routed
Ak Koyunlu, a confederation of nomadic tribes, was an old enemy of the Kara Koyunlu nomads. They lived to the west of the Kara Koyunlu territory and maintained close ties with the Empire of Trebizond; the confederation was headed by oymak Bayanduri, which means that practically all leaders belonged to this oymak.
Uzun Hasan (1468-1478), who skillfully exploited the squabbles among those who contended for the Kara Koyunlu throne, the popular riots, and other internal disturbances in the rival state, achieved a final victory.
In May 1467, the old rivals met for a decisive battle in the Mu§ Valley in Asia Minor. Jahan Shah was defeated and beat a retreat, leaving behind the dead bodies of his soldiers; in November 1467, the Ak Koyunlu troops, which were persistently chasing the enemy, launched a surprise night attack on the village of Chubugjur in Southern Azerbaijan. Taken unawares, the Kara Koyunlu troops put up practically no resistance. This was a complete rout which cost Jahan Shah his life.
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His death intensified the squabbles among the contenders for the throne; in an effort to take revenge on Ak Koyunlu, the Kara Koyunlu emirs freed Hasan Ali (1467-1468) from the Maku fortress and put him on the throne. Uzun Hasan, however, easily defeated what remained of the Kara Koyunlu army led by Hasan Ali in Maranda and occupied Southern Azerbaijan and Karabakh without much trouble. A large part of the Kara Koyunlu tribes joined the Ak Koyunlu tribal confederation.
This was how the history of Kara Koyunlu ended: Ak Koyunlu replaced it in Azerbaijan with the same capital in Tabriz. The Ak Koyunlu state included Armenia, Eastern Anatolia, Arabian Iraq, and almost the whole of Iran. Its power in Southern Azerbaijan and Karabakh lasted from 1468 to 1501.
