Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt

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Bozkurt Beg
  • Sultan
  • Malik al-Adil
  • Nur al-Dawla
  • Ghawth al-Millah
  • Husam al-Din
  • Emir al-Muminin[1]
Bozkurt Beg in a miniature by Mo'en Mosavver in Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Shah Ismail (1676)
Reign1480–1515
PredecessorShah Budak
SuccessorAli
Died13 June 1515
ConsortShamsa Khatun (d. 1509)
IssueShāhrukh
Turak
Suleiman
Ayshe
Beglu (or Benlu)
Erdivane
Saru Kaplan
Mehmed
Ahmed
Wife of a Mamluk commander's son
Royal houseDulkadir
FatherSuleiman
ReligionIslam

Alā al-Dawla Bozkurt Beg (

Dulkadirids
from 1480 to 1515.

Early life and background

Bozkurt was the son of

principality of Dulkadir.[3]

Reign

Shortly after Bozkurt rose to power, Mehmed II passed away unexpectedly, possibly amidst the preparations for a campaign against the Mamluk Sultanate. To avoid clashes with the Mamluks, Bozkurt pledged allegiance to the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay (r. 1468–96), who then imprisoned Shah Budak in the Citadel of Damascus. Bozkurt attempted to simultaneously maintain amicable relations with the new Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512). While trying to extinguish the revolt led by his claimant brother, Cem Sultan, in Konya, Bayezid II requested Bozkurt to find Cem, who potentially passed through Bozkurt's realm. Bozkurt was unsuccessful in catching Cem, who managed to escape to Egypt. Cem later returned to Anatolia and allied himself with Kasım of Karaman to overthrow Bayezid II. Bozkurt started pursuing him once again in June 1482, accompanied by Iskender Pasha. Bozkurt met with Bayezid II in Laranda informing him of the failure to restrain Cem, who found refuge with the Knights of Rhodes. Bozkurt thus returned to his country in July.[4] Following Cem's escape, a population of Muslims and Christians from Karaman, governed by Bayezid's son Abduallah, migrated to the Dulkadirid domains causing a dispute over taxation with the Ottomans. It is known that Bayezid II intervened in the issue, although the exact outcome is unknown but presumably preserved peace between the two sides.[5]

In response to the attack against the Ottomans by Cem Sultan, who was harbored by the Mamluks, Bozkurt laid siege to Malatya in July 1483. Qaitbay sent the Mamluk forces from Syria to capture Bozkurt, who vanquished them near Elbistan in February 1484. Qaitbay mobilized the military in Egypt, which marched north in May 1484 with emir al-silah Timraz as its leader. Bozkurt demanded help from Bayezid II, who tasked Yakub Pasha to deal with the Mamluks, who had pillaged Marash and were nearing Elbistan.[5] A bloody battle took place there on 23 September 1484 resulting in an Ottoman–Dulkadirid victory. Varbash, the governor of Aleppo, was beheaded by Bozkurt, Almas, the governor of Safed, died in battle, and Aynal and Korkmaz, the governors of Tripoli and Tarsus, respectively, were both captured. Bozkurt persuaded Yakub Pasha to attempt to seize Malatya, which Bozkurt was initially unsuccessful. There, the Ottoman forces were flanked by Timraz, with many casualties, although Yakub Pasha was able to flee.[6]

Domains of Ala al-Dawla (Aladulia) located between Natolia, Caramania, Armenia, and Turcomania, as depicted by English cartographer John Seller in 1690

The Dulkadirids faced great diplomatic challenges during Bozkurt's rule, who married his daughter Ayshe to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II but also declared allegiance to the Mamluk Sultanate, recognizing Sultan Qansuh's sovereignty within his domain.[7] Despite his ties with the Ottomans, Bozkurt rarely acted as a full vassal to Bayezid. In order to prevent Mamluk campaign in Dulkadirid lands in 1484, Bozkurt released the Mamluk governors of Tripoli and Tarsus, who he had imprisoned in an earlier clash in the border region with the Mamluks. In 1486, Bozkurt did not merge his forces with the Ottomans, who were at war with the Mamluks, although the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay had declined Bozkurt's earlier request for peace in December 1485, when the Mamluk forces reached Cilicia.[8] Scholars popularly link Bozkurt's actions to the deterioraton of Ottoman-Mamluk relations, though some regard this view as belittling Bayezid's own share in this diplomatic struggle.[9] Even when the Dulkadirid army finally joined the Ottoman expedition into Cilicia in 1487, Bozkurt contested a direct attack on the Mamluks.[8]

Bozkurt was initially successful in ruling an equidistant buffer state between the Mamluks and the Ottomans, but the political atmosphere of the region became even more complicated with the emergence of

Shah Ismail of the Safavids destroyed the Dulkadirid capital of Elbistan in 1508, which was a threat to Ottoman dominance in Anatolia. Frustrated by Bayezid's inaction against Safavid expansion, Selim I aggressively rose to the Ottoman throne, overthrowing his father, Bayezid, executing three of his brothers along with their children, and defeating Ismail in the Battle of Chaldiran. Threatened by Selim's actions, Bozkurt refused to support the Ottomans in the battle, which was used against him and led to his downfall.[7]

Downfall and death

Bozkurt died in the Battle of Turnadağ with the Ottoman Sultan Selim I on the Göksun highlands, where up to 40 thousand Turkmen soldiers were killed.[10] Selim sent Bozkurt's severed head, along with 70 of Bozkurt's allied chiefs,[10] to the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh, which was a threat and hint at the impending downfall of the Mamluks.[11]

Miniature from Tadj ut-Tewarikh depicting the moment Bozkurt's severed head is presented to Selim I

Family

Bozkurt's sons were Shāhrukh, Turak, Suleiman, Erdivane, Saru Kaplan, Mehmed, Ahmed. His daughters included Ayshe Khatun, Beglu (or Benlu) Khatun,[3] and another daughter, who was married to the Mamluk commander Uzbek's son.[12] Shāhrukh became the lord of Kırşehir, while Suleiman was the lord of Bozok. Ayshe Khatun married the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II around 1467. Bozkurt's other daughter, Beglu married Sultan Murad of the Aq Qoyunlu after her father refused Shah Ismail's request to marry her.[3]

Bozkurt married his paternal uncle Rustam Beg's daughter Shamsa Khatun (died 1509).[13]

Notes

  1. ^ referred to as Aladul by 16–18th-century European sources[2]

References

  1. ^ Yinanç 1989, p. 106.
  2. ^ Carrafa 1572, p. 16; Dryselius 1694, p. 101; Krusínski 1728, p. 17.
  3. ^ a b c Venzke 2017.
  4. ^ Yinanç 1989, p. 80.
  5. ^ a b Yinanç 1989, p. 81.
  6. ^ Yinanç 1989, p. 82.
  7. ^ a b Peirce 2003, p. 24.
  8. ^ a b Har-El 1995, p. 194.
  9. ^ Muslu 2014, p. 113.
  10. ^ a b De Giorgi & Eger 2021, p. 489.
  11. ^ Melvin-Koushki 2011, p. 194.
  12. ^ Fleet & Faroqhi 2012, p. 155.
  13. ^ Yinanç 1989, p. 121.

Bibliography