Jihān-shāh Qara-qoyunlu and his Poetry (Turkmenica 9)

V. Minorsky

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00105981

Jihān-shāh Qara-qoyunlu and his Poetry (Turkmenica 9)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

V. Minorsky

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Before broaching my subject I should like to explain the reason why a serial number has been added to the title of this article. A list of my publications will be found in the BSOAS., 1953, xiv/3, pp. 69–81, but as a variety of subjects has interested me during my career, readers may be baffled by the seemingly disconnected array of titles. In fact, my original intention was to integrate my studies in separate books, but on seeing that for both material and personal reasons this plan had no chances of success, I decided to take every opportunity for publishing the material collected—not only to solve some definite problems, but also to show the methods which I would have wished to apply to my subjects, in the light of my experience and the observations made in some more developed fields. This underlying preoccupation is what to my mind connects my writings. On the other hand, I should like to draw the attention of users of my ‘ specimens ’ to some particular classes of my studies; in a word, to their serial character.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1954 , pp. 271 - 297

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00105981 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1954

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^{page 271 note 1} Under the influence of the following ā the Persians say now jahān and not jihān.

^{page 271 note 2} Edwards, E., ‘ The books of Sultan Abdul-Hamid ’, The Times, 17 11 1924, p. 17, col. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 1} See Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, GMS., 1943, p. 188.Google Scholar

^{page 272 note 2} In his article Mr. E. Edwards (see above) expressed the hope that a close study of Or. 9493 ‘ may throw light on the political events of those stormy days and, furthermore, reveal some features that will relieve the dark picture of Jahan-shah's character drawn by Prof. Browne ’. The first part of this expectation has proved vain and we are reduced to a more careful sifting of the general sources, but for the second part the very existence of the MS. is a fact full of significance.

^{page 272 note 3} ‘ Ak-koyunlu ’ and ‘ Cihan-şah ’ by my old friend Prof. M. H. Yinanç, and ‘ Kara-koyunlu ’ (1953), by Dr. Faruk Sümer. A great wealth of quotations front very rare sources is found in al-‘Azzāwī, ‘Abbās, Ta’rīkh al-‘Irāq, 2 (1357/1939).Google Scholar As regards the Western outlines see the old Histoire générale des Huns, by Deguignes, , 1757, 1/1, p. 263, and iii, pp. 301–4.Google Scholar The more recent references in Browne, E. G., LHP., 3 (1920), pp. 399–403Google Scholar, and Hinz, W., Irans Aufstieg zum Nationalstaat, 1936, pp. 126–8Google Scholar, are very brief.

^{page 272 note 4} The Turkish authors (F. Köprülu, F. Sümer) read the name with hard vowels, Yїva.

^{page 272 note 5} M. H. Yinanç has rightly pointed out that in the traditional version of the arrival of the Turkmans, ‘ the time of ’ is only a mis-reading for ‘ the time of ’.

^{page 273 note 1} See Babinger, , Schejch Bedr ed-din, der Sohn des Richters von Simāw, 1921Google Scholar (the revolt broke out in Aydīn in 1415–16 and spread to Macedonia).

^{page 273 note 2} See Huart, and Tevfiq, Riza in Gibb Memorial Series, vol. 9 (1909)Google Scholar, and Browne, , LHP., 3 (1920), 365–375.Google Scholar Faḍlullāh, born in 740/1339, was killed by Mīrānshāh in 804/1401. His follower, the poet Nasīmī, was executed in Aleppo in 820/1417.

^{page 273 note 3} Kasrawī, Sayyid Aḥmad, Tārīkh-i pānsad sāla-yi Khūzistān, Tehran, 1313/1934Google Scholar; Caskel, W., ‘ Ein Mahdi des XV. Jahrhunderts ’, Islamica, 4/1, 1929, pp. 49–93.Google Scholar

^{page 273 note 4} Hinz, Irans Aufstieg, passim.

^{page 273 note 5} In his history of Sultan Ya‘qūb, Faḍlullāh b. Rūzbihān most definitely opposes his Aq-qoyunlu patrons to the Qara-qoyunlu stained with heretical influences, see Tārīkh-i Amīnī, Bib. Nationale, ancien fonds persan, No. 101, f. 4a, and Istanbul Fatih, No. 4431, f. 15b. F. Köprülü in his unfinished book Anadoluda Islam, p. 121, speaks of shī‘a influences at Ya‘qūb's court, though they seem to have been isolated exceptions.

^{page 273 note 6} See the rich literature of the Ḥurūfis, the Kalām al-Mahdī of Muḥammad b. Falāḥ (in Kasrawī) and some Ahl-i Ḥaqq documents.

^{page 274 note 1} I am using the dates quoted by A. ‘Azzāwī in his Ta’rīkh al-‘Irāq, though there are some discrepancies in the sources.

^{page 274 note 2} See Taghri-berdi, Ibn, Manhal al-ṣāfī, and the Ta’rīkh al-Ghiyāthī quoted in ‘Azzāwī, 3, 90–1.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 3} ‘Azzāwī, 3, 86 (following the Ta‘rīkh al-Ghiyāthī)Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 4} Other historians call him Isfahān, or Ispand, the latter being the Persian name (in Turkish: üzarlik) of the wild rue used for magic purifications. See the Azarbayjan incantation: üzärlīk-sün havā-sän, hazār därdā dāvā-sän !

^{page 274 note 5} ‘Azzāwī, 3, 91.Google Scholar

^{page 274 note 6} ibid., iii, 129 (following al-Ghiyāthī).

^{page 274 note 7} Tehran, 1268, p. 392b (I am using the pagination added by E. G. Browne in his personal copy).

^{page 275 note 1} See Minorsky in EI.

^{page 275 note 2} ‘Azzāwī, 3, 109.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 3} Majālis, ibid., ‘ he introduced the names of the twelve imams on the coins and in the khuṭba ’. On coins see below, p. 279. The year 820/1417 in ‘Azzāwī (al-Ghiyāthī ?) is wrong: probably *840/1436.

^{page 275 note 4} ‘Azzāwī, 3, 128–9 (1847/1443).Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 5} See Tārīkh-i Qutb-shāhī, Bib. Nat., Supp. persan 174, f. 18b, cf. Cambridge, Christ's College MS., Dd. 4. 10, f. 25a. Shāh Ni‘matullāh Valī was born in 730/1330 and died in 834/1430, see Rieu, , Catalogue of the Persian MSS., 2, 634–5.Google Scholar The Qara-qoyunlu princess was marrīed to his homonymous descendant in the fifth generation, Na‘īm al-dīn Ni‘matullāh II, see Jāmī‘-i Mufīdī, Br. Mus., Or. 210, f. 44a. cf. also al-Husayn Āyatī, ‘Abd, Tārīkh-i Yazd, Tehran, 1317/1938, p. 232.Google Scholar

^{page 275 note 6} See Hinz, loc. cit., pp. 23–32. Junayd, who spent a long time (1449–1456) among the western Turkoman tribes of Anatolia and Syria (‘Āshiq-pāshā-zāde Tārīkhī, ed. 1332/1914, p. 266: yürükde yürürkenGoogle Scholar), was the great organizer of the Safavid followers, among whom the Rūmlu and Shāmlu tribes (‘ those of Anatolia and Syria ’) played a great rôle.

^{page 275 note 7} Probably the same Shaykh Ja‘far.

^{page 275 note 8} See the anonymous history of Shah Ismā‘īl, Cambridge University Library, Add. 200, f. 30a; cf. Ḥabīb al-siyar (Tehran), 3/4, p. 336 (below).Google Scholar

^{page 276 note 1} Münejjim-bashi, (in Turkish), 3, 152.Google Scholar On coins his name appears sometimes as Pīr-Būṭāq.

^{page 276 note 2} Or ‘ came to Tabriz (disguised ?) as a dervish (beggar)’, see below Ghaffārī, p. 296.

^{page 276 note 3} Some time after the advent of the Aq-qoyunlu Ya'qub in 883/1478.

^{page 276 note 4} See Tārīkh-i Turkmāniya, India Office MS. 3022–5H, f. 229b.

^{page 276 note 5} See Minorsky, , ‘ Notes sur la secte des Ahle-Haqq ’, in Revue in Monde Musulman, 40 (1920), p. 66Google Scholar, and Gordlevsky, V. A., Kara-koyunlu (in Russian), Baku, 1927, pp. 5–33Google Scholar (the author visited the district in 1916). The sectarians apply the name ‘ Aq-qoyunlu ’ to their shī'a neighbours!

^{page 277 note 1} Maṭla' al-sa'dayn, ed. Shafī', M., 2, 1148–1184.Google Scholar Only at the moment of the evacuation of Herat did the Turkmans (already defeated by Abū-Sa'īd) begin to plunder the inhabitants, ibid., p. 1184.

^{page 278 note 1} See Tadhkirat al-shu‘arā, ed. Browne, E. G., p. 457.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 2} See Br. Mus. Or. 140, f. 63a.

^{page 278 note 3} I have used the Turkish translation, iii, 153, though the Arabic original, still unpublished, must contain more details, see my Studies in Caucasian History, p. 3, and Sümer, F., Karakoyunlular, loc. clt., p. 305.Google ScholarBrowne, 's translation, LHR., 3, 403Google Scholar, is more literary. It is difficult to assess the amount of ‘ impiety ’ put into these terms. Fisq probably refers to illicit pastimes, chiefly drinking; ilḥād is worse and suggests ‘ heresy ’; zandaqa originally ‘ Manichæism ’, would place the accused outside the pale of Islam. The whole tirade seems to have been influenced by the author of the Lubb al-tawārīkh. On the grades of heresy in Islam see now Lewis, B. in Studia Islamica, 1953, 1, 43–63.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 1} See Nève, F., Exposé des guerres de Tamerlan, etc., Bruxelles, 1840, pp. 144-5.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 2} See Sarre, , Denkmäler persischer Baukunst, Berlin, 1910.Google Scholar

^{page 279 note 3} See Hinz, , ‘ Beiträge zur iranischen Kulturgeschichte ’, ZDMG., 91/1 (1937), pp. 58–60.Google Scholar See also Tarbiyat, M. A., Dānishmandān-i Ādharbāyjān, 1314/1535, pp. 120–1Google Scholar, who says that all the inscriptions of the mosque were made by the calligrapher Ni'matullāh Bawwāb.

^{page 279 note 4} A khānqāh ‘ college ’ seems to have been added to the mosque under Sultan Ya‘qūb Aq-qoyunlu. In the inscription his name is associated with that of his (!) wife Kamāl al-Iḥsān khātūn, daughter of Jihān-shāh, see M. A. Tarbiyat, loc. cit., 121.

^{page 279 note 5} cf. also Lane-Poole, S., Catalogue of Oriental coins in the Br. Mus., 8, 1883:Google Scholar on a coin (No. 9) of Jihān-shāh (struck in Baghdad) the names of the caliphs are obliterated.

^{page 279 note 6} Among the MSS. was the important manual of the Safavid administration (Tadhkirat al-mulūk), which I published in 1943.

^{page 280 note 1} About that time lived the well-known calligrapher Ḥāfiz-Qanbar Sharafī, a slave of Abyssinian origin in the service of Qāḍī Sharaf al-dīn Qumīc. He perished with his master—when an Aq-qoyunlu general took Qum—in 904/1498–9. However, the nisba (al-Isfahānī) makes it a difficulty to identify our Qanbar-‘Ali with Ḥāfiz-Qanbar, on whom see ‘ The Treatise on Calligraphers ’, by Qādī Ahmad (son of Qādī Sharaf's daughter), Russian translation by Zakhoder, B. N., Moscow, 1947, p. 80.Google ScholarNūyīn-i a‘ẓam Ḥājjī Qanbar Jihān-shāhī (i.e. a great amir closely connected with Jihān-shāh) was governor of Yazd about 854/1450, see Āyatī, loc. cit., 205.

^{page 280 note 2} Ghaffārī, Jihān-ārā (Br. Mus. Or. 141, f. 199a), says that Jihān-shāh ‘ by times indulged in writing verse under the nom de plume of Ḥaqīqī ’, and further quotes the chronogram of Jihānshāh's march on Shiraz: Ḥaqīqī kām-i dil yābad zi-Shīrāz (i.e. A.H. 865). See also Tarbiyat, M. A., Dānishmandān-i Ādharbayjān, 1314/1935, pp. 120–1Google Scholar (under Ḥaqīqī); Hekmat, A. A., Jāmī, 1320/1941, p. 34Google Scholar (on Jāmī's relations with Jihān-shāh).

^{page 280 note 3} The poem, consisting of 29 verses, is included in Jāmī's correspondence (majmū‘a-yi munsha’āt). Hekmat, A. A., Jāmi, Tehran, 1320/1941, pp. 34–6Google Scholar, quotes it in full.

^{page 281 note 1} Khwāndamīr, see the biographical excerpts, Rijāl-i Habīb al-siyar, p. 115, says of the well-known poet Shāhi (d. 857/1453): ‘ as he derived his origin from the sarbadārs of Sabzavār, and as he was a shi'a, he adopted the poetical pseudonym of Shāhi ’, i.e. definitely with reference to 'Ali.

^{page 282 note 1} The poet refers to Khusrau and Shīrīn, Majnūn and Layī, and makes ample use of Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj's passion, with its anā 'l-Haqq, gallows, and other accessories. Repetitions are not infrequent.

^{page 282 note 2} See my article in BSOS., 10/4, 1942, pp. 1006a–1053a.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 3} See Köprülü, F., Türk edebiyatï tarihi, 1928, p. 312Google Scholar (on Yünis), and Köprülü, F. in Islam Ansiklopedisi, 2, 130Google Scholar (on Burhan al-din, whose negligence (ihmâl) in his metrics is admitted).

^{page 282 note 4} In his Mīzān al-auzān, Mīr ‘Alī Shīr says that, apart from the quantitative metres, the Turks (especially the Chaghatay Turks) have special metres to which belong the tuyughs. The latter forms consist of two bayts (four hemistiches) in ramal-i musaddas-i maqṣūr, i.e. exactly In each tuyugh the poets try to make a calembour. (Quoted from Melioransky, , ‘ Otrīvki iz divana Burhan ad-din'a ’, in Vostochnīye zametki, 1895, pp. 131–152.)Google Scholar See also a reference to the tuqugh in Navā'ī's other work Muhākamat al-lughatayn; see Quatremère, Chrestomathie en turk oriental, Paris 1841, p. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 282 note 5} Tadhkirat al-shu‘;arā, ed. Browne, E. G., p. 459:Google Scholar Jihān-shāh's letter—twelve lines; Pir-Budāq's answer—eleven lines.

^{page 283 note 1} Only in one quatrain (see below, p. 286, No. 2) one finds some energetic feelings expressed.

^{page 283 note 2} Daulat-shah, loc. cit., 457, says that the Khorasanian poet Maulānā Tūsī came to live under the patronage of Jihān-shāh and Pīr-Budāq.

^{page 283 note 3} But, in the suggested restoration of (84b), is graphically better than

^{page 283 note 4} See Djaferoghlu, A., ‘ 75 Azerbajğanische Lieder ’, in Mitteilungen d. Seminars fūr Orient. Sprachen, Band 32, 1929, 2, 66:Google Scholardävä, dative dävijä.

^{page 284 note 1} For the original text see Annexe I.

^{page 284 note 2} Ḥadīth on God's words in Pre-eternity: ‘ I was a hidden Treasure and I wished to be known ’.

^{page 284 note 3} ‘ To whom does the kingship belong ? ’

^{page 285 note 1} ‘ The night of Nocturnal Journey ’ and ‘ I swear by the Night ’, see the Qor’an, 17Google Scholar and xciv, 1.

^{page 285 note 2} ‘ I swear by the Sun ’, Qor'an, 91, 1.Google Scholar

^{page 285 note 3} Yauma yakūnu al-ḥisāb, Qor'ān, 14, 42.Google Scholar

^{page 287 note 1} Qor';an, 36, 78Google Scholar: ‘ (and he says: Who can) bring to life the bones already rotten ? ’

^{page 287 note 2} Khaṭṭ meaning both ‘ writing ’ and ‘ the down on a youth's cheek ’.

^{page 289 note 1} This should be but the sura xvii is called

^{page 293 note 1} I have used the copy once lent to me by my lamented friend M. Qazvini.

^{page 293 note 2} Some gap in the text: the passage refers to Qara-Yūsuf's father Qara-Muḥammad, who in fact died about that time. According to Siimer, F., Islam Ansiklopedisi, 58 cuz, p. 296Google Scholar, he was killed in April, 1389 (Rabī' I, 791 ?).

^{page 293 note 3} This is wrong. Ashraf ruled in 825–841/1422–1438. The ruler of the time was Faraj (801–8/ 1399–1405), see F. Sümer, loc. cit.

^{page 293 note 4} This is the contemporary spelling of the name.

^{page 293 note 5} Marginal note: ‘ He also seized Sulṭāniya, Qazvīn, Tārom, and Sāva ’.

^{page 293 note 6} Note: ‘The duration of his rule was just over four years.’ Perhaps the annotator refers to the period after the death of Yūsuf's son Pīr-Budāq whom his father recognized as a nominal ruler. However, according to F. Sümer, Pīr-Budāq died in 1418, which reduces to only two years the period of Qara-Yusuf's rule ‘ in his own right’.

^{page 294 note 1} Note: in his tent.

^{page 294 note 2} Note: no one took the trouble to put him in a shroud and to perform the rites (tajhīz).

^{page 294 note 3} Note: finally some of his grooms (akhtāchī) carried his body to Arjīsh and buried it in the ancestral sepulchre. [G. Barbara, Hakluyt series, p. 85, says that in Herzil (Arjish) stood the mausoleum of Giansa (Jihān-shāh's) mother.]

^{page 295 note 1} Note: and captured Fars and Kerman.

^{page 295 note 2} Note: and for six months ruled there independently.

^{page 295 note 3} Note: in 863 [which is contradicted by the chronogram which follows].

^{page 295 note 4} The reference is to biḍ‘ sinīn ‘ some years ’ in the Qorān, 30, 3Google Scholar (sūrat al-rūm). The numeric value of biḍ‘ is exactly 872. This mystic hint at the year, in which Uzun Ḥasan defeated two mighty enemies, struck the imagination of the contemporaries, see Minorsky, , BS0S., 1939, 10/1, 148.Google Scholar

^{page 296 note 1} Note: ‘ It is reported that Jihānshā;h was an unreliable and ill-natured man. Under the slightest pretext he executed (his) amirs. He held the Divine Law in contempt and lived in profligacy and heresy (fisq-va-fujūr). They transported his body to Tabriz and buried it in the Muẓaffariya. His age was 70 years and he had ruled 33 years.’ Consequently Jihānshāh was born in *802 or, with an easier restoration, in *800, for the commentator has probably indicated Jihānshāh's great age only approximately. Cambridge, E. G. Browne MS., G. 10 (13): ‘ he was born in about 808/1405 ’ (?).

^{page 296 note 2} Note: ‘ As for 25 years he had been imprisoned in a fortress, and his mind had become disturbed, he had no political skill; he (got hold) of his father's castles, treasures, and property …’

^{page 296 note 3} Both MSS. have (Jūshīn), but I have no doubt that it is a mis-spelling of, as the famous castle at three farsakhs from Marāgha was called, see Minorsky, Marāgha in El.

^{page 296 note 4} The text is out of order. I tentatively translate the more complete text of the Cambridge MS.

^{page 296 note 5} Ardhāl-va-*akrād.

^{page 296 note 6} The term is unknown. It may be connected with jaul‘ going round ’; jaulī-yi khud ‘ those who go about in the suite ’ ?

^{page 296 note 7} Note: ‘ and humiliated his father's amirs ’.

^{page 296 note 8} Note: when the news that Ḥasan-beg was coming reached Tabriz, Ḥasan-‘Ali intended to fight him and from Tabriz marched to Marand.

^{page 297 note 1} Bar gird-i hhud khandaq zada (?). The Cambridge MS.: bar karda-yi khud khanda zada ‘ laughed at their own achievements ’. The first variant is better. The fact was that the army did not fight and was dealt with by Ḥasan-beg's camp-followers, armed with slings. On the term qulluqchi see Minorsky, , BS0S., 1939, 10/1, pp. 155, 167.Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 2} See Matla‘ al-sa'dayn, ed. Shafi, M.’, 1, 439.Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 3} Moving on his ill-starred expedition against Uzun-Ḥasan.

^{page 297 note 4} The uncle of Shah-Ismā‘īn’s grandfather Shaykh Junayd. See above p. 275.

^{page 297 note 5} Note: again a great number of his clansmen and followers (ulūs-va-aḥshām) gathered round him.

^{page 297 note 6} Note; ‘ In the Lubb (al-tawārīkh) it is reported that it was Oghurlu Muhammad, son of Ḥasan-beg, who took him prisoner and slew him.’

^{page 297 note 7} But the descendants of Iskandar founded a new kingdom in the Deccan, see above p. 276.

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