OZTURKLER

Some of the Ottoman chroniclers had stated that Yavuz Selim had annihilated some of the Shiite people composed of forty thousands of people that he had considered as dangerous people before his famous military expedition and he also had arrested some of them. It is absolute that these statements of the Ottoman chroniclers are exaggerated. The annihilation or the arrest of people with this extreme number would have constituted a very important problem. As it can be observed in the archive documents pertaining to the further periods, those who were active among the Shiite people were killed, arrested or exiled. We know that pursuant to the incident of Shah Kulu, Bayezid II had exiled all or some of the Shiite people who had stayed in Teke to the regions of Modon and Koron that were newly conquered.

The same language was spoken in both the Ottoman and Safevi armies that came face to face in Çaldiran that was located in the Southeast of the city of Hoy in Iran. Most of them were the children of the same country, same region and sites and even the same nomad groups. Both sides had fought with the exclamations of “Allah Allah”. The number of the Shah Ismail’s army was much lower than that of the army of Sultan Selim. In addition, Safevi army was deprived go firearms. However, the heavy Ottoman army had come from a region with the distance of three-month journey and they had walked for days in a bare and rough plain without even green pastures that were in ruins under the red-hot son of July. Most of the valuable emirs of Shah Ismail were killed in the battlefield. The principal emir was Ustacaoglu Muhammed Han who commanded the left wing of the Safevi army. The other emirs were the Saru Pire from Ustacalu who was the Chief Guard, in other words, the commander of the Brigades of Guards, the chief grape-juice maker, Pîre (or Pîr) Bey, Lala Hüseyin Bey from Damascus, Afshar Sultan Ali Mirza, Turkmen Veli Can Bey (from the Kazaklu nomad group) and Mir Abdülbaki, Mir Seyyid Şerif and Seyyid Muhammed Kemûne idiler. The greatest emirs of Shah Ismail who had saved their lives were Durmuş Han from Damascus, Anatolian Nur Ali Caliph, the Chief Butler Ustacalu Çayan Sultan, Kara Bey and Ulaş Bey who were the brothers of Ustacalu Muhammed Han, and Zülkadr (Dulkadir) Halil Sultan (his original name was Emet), etc.

As it is known, the purpose of Yavuz Selim was to eradicate the Safevi State totally rather than blowing a powerful strike against this state. However, he encountered the unexpected resistance of the statesmen and particularly the Janissary societies. It is really bewildering that we do not have any evidence about the protection of the scholars and the actual strong support of the conservative scholars of Muslim theology. Therefore, this great idealist ruler who lived for only the accomplishment of great works died before reaching this target of him.

As for our hero, Shah Ismail; he was not sure of the victory. Therefore, he did not want to encounter with Selim. To this effect, he replied the harsh and provocative letters of the Ottoman ruler in a soft and kind manner. In one of the letters that he had sent in reply, Shah had stated that there were two factors that prevented him from making a counterattack against Anatolia. He had indicated that most of the Anatolian people were the disciples of his ancestors and that the other factor was the deep love and affection that he felt for the dynasty that had been known with holy wars from of old.

The defeat of Çaldiran caused a deep spiritual depression for the Safevi ruler who had won great and successive victories. In the course of a conversation among Kanuni Suleyman, the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha and the father of the Ottoman chronicle, Hoca Sadeddin, it was explained that he could stand the sorrow and grief of the defeat more than his grandfather did due to his addiction to drinks. According to the miniatures, we know that Shah Ismail would drink alcoholic drinks with his beys with long moustaches and shaved Turkmen faces even before the war.

Pursuant to the defeat of Çaldiran, Shah Ismail did not perform any significant work and he tried to establish a state of peace with Selim in order to prevent him from organising a new military expedition. Actually, his commanders had shown the best resistance against the Ottoman forces that set in motion in order to conquer the regions in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. Before Çaldiran War, the Ottoman-Safevi border was passing through Suşehri connected to Sivas. From this point, it followed the Euphrates River until the beginning point of the Mameluke-Safevi border. Divriği, Darende, Malatya and Ayintab were the border cities of the Mameluke State while the fortified castle of Kemah and Harput and Urfa were the border cities of the Safevi State. The Mameluke State had had such a long borderline with the Safevi State and their people and the people of both Egypt and Syria were the conservative Sunnite people. However, despite all these characteristics, they remained indifferent to the activities of Shah Ismail and the Turkmens who got in the service of him. In the way of return, Yavuz Selim conquered the fortified castle of Kemah that was considered as the key of Anatolia. The commander of the castle was Varsak Muhammed. Muhammed Bey did not give in and he fought with three hundreds of Varsak people until he died. Pursuant to the capture of Kemah, Selim assigned his former colonel, Biyikli Mehmed who was an Akkoyunlu Turk with the charge of the conquest of the Eastern Anatolia. Biyikli Mehmed totally defeated the Anatolian Nur Ali Caliph that was Shah’s governor of Erzincan in the region of Ovacik (Tekir summer pasture) that is connected to today’s Tunceli in a crushing manner (June 1515). Nur Ali Caliph and Ulaş and Yalaş Beys were killed. Varsak Yusuf who was the former commander of Kemah and Aygut Oglu ran away. We have studied in the previous paragraphs that the Anatolian Nur Ali Caliph had benefited from the struggles between Sultan Ahmed and his sons against Selim and he caused revolt of the Shiite people of Sivas, Tokat and Amasya and he also had taken most of these people to Safevi State together with him.

According to some of the Safevi chroniclers and Lutfi Pasha and Hoca Sadeddin among the Ottoman chroniclers, Diyarbakir Governor, Ustacalu Muhammed Han had written fearless letters to the Ottoman ruler and he caused him to organise a military expedition and also that he had encouraged the Shah to fight with Selim. We cannot state the degree of the accuracy of these allegations. However, Muhammed Han had proposed to attack the enemy without giving them any opportunity to rest in the course of a consultation assembly that had gathered upon the penetration of the Ottoman army into Çaldiran savanna. However, Durmuş Han from Damascus that had a much more influence over Shah told him that “You are only domineering in Diyarbakir” and he had refused his reasonable proposal. Upon the death of Muhammed Han in the war, Shah Ismail gave Diyarbakir to Kara Bey who was the brother of Muhammed Han. Kara Han who was married with the sister of the Shah tried his best in order to establish dominion in Diyarbakir together with his brothers, Ulaş and Suleyman Beys. However, he was defeated by Biyikli Mehmet Pasha that had firearms in his army in the war that took place in the plain of Dede Kargin near Mardin and he was shot with a bullet and lost his life. As a result of the Dede Kargin victory, the Ottoman State had established definite dominion nearly in the entire Southeastern regions. Therefore, the union of Turkey in that direction was established.

Yavuz Selim died in the year of 1520. He was the first ruler among the Ottoman rulers who had undertaken big ideals for them. However, he had led a modest life during his entire sultanate years. With a single military expedition, he had annihilated and eradicated the conceited Mameluke people that had defeated his father’s army. Therefore, he had annexed some regions of Anatolia such as Çukurova, Divriği, Malatya, Antep and Antioch and also the countries of Syria, Egypt and Hedjaz to his country. Thus, the borders of the empire extended towards Southeastern Iraq. Shah Ismail recognised the conquest that had been accomplished by him and he continued to send envoys in order to establish a state of peace with him. However, all these events did not prevent him from his main purpose oriented towards the eradication of the Shiite state. To this effect, the Persian merchants were arrested and their properties were confiscated as ordered by him. Actually, these merchants exported firearms and the experts that manufacture and use these firearms to Iran as well as the exportation of the metals such as iron, copper, gold and silver. The trade with the Ottoman countries had constituted an important source of income for the Safevi State. However, this very appropriate precaution of Selim like the annihilation of these envoys was criticised by his son Kanuni Suleyman and his vizier, Ibrahim Pasha. It has been known that Kanuni set free all the Iranian merchants that had been arrested as soon as he ascended the throne. Yavuz Selim could not reach to his main target upon his unexpected death. His idealist spirit did not have any influence over his staff officers, scholars of Muslim theology and even his son.

On the other hand, the founder of the Safevi State felt relived with a short break upon the death of Selim. The great danger that posed a threat for the existence of both himself and his state had vanished. Besides the realities about the disciples of Shah Ismail had withstood all sorts of sacrifices including death and the appropriate political situations, he had founded a state that represented a sect that could be severely criticised at a very young age of 13. This actually is a sufficient evidence showing that he was a great character. He was a very courageous person that liked discipline in all his works and he was a talented organiser and a well-educated ruler. While he shot arrows in the public square of Tabriz with his beys, the poets would sing folk songs that praised his courage and bravery in accompaniment of their one-stringed guitars like in Kanturali Epic in Dede Korkut Epics. According to an Italian observer, Ismail disliked his disciples to consider him from the view of God. Pursuant to Caldiran War, Shah Ismail had assigned the Chief Butler Ustacalu Muhammed Bey to the bey governorship office and he named him with the title of Çayan Sultan. Çayan Sultan died in the years of (1522-1523). Then, his son, Bayezid replaced him with the same office; however, he died in the following year (1523-1524). Therefore, Anatolian Div Sultan was assigned as the emir of the staff officers.