Kara Koyunlu

Kara Koyunlu
Black Sheep Turkmen قراقویونلو
← 1375–1468 →
Kara Koyunlu flag
Kara Koyunlu of the Turkomans, lighter blue shows their greatest extent in Iraq and Arabian East Coast for a small period of time
Capital		Tabriz
Languages		Oghuz languages, Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Kurdish languages
Religion		Shia Islam[1]
Government		Monarchy
Ruler
•	1375–1378	Bairam Xwaja
•	1467–1468	Hasan 'Ali
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Established	1375
•	Disestablished	1468
Today part of		Armenia  Azerbaijan  Georgia  Iran  Iraq  Russia  Turkey
Warning: Value not specified for "common_name"

The Kara Koyunlu or Qara Qoyunlu, also called the Black Sheep Turkomans (Turkmen: Garagoýunly türkmenler, Persian: قرا قویونلو‎‎), were a Shi'i^[2] Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled over the territory comprising present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia (1406), northwestern Iran, eastern Turkey, and Iraq from about 1375 to 1468.^[3][4]

The Kara Koyunlu Turkomans

The Kara Koyunlu Turkomans at one point established their capital in Herat in eastern Iran,^[5] and were vassals of the Jalairid Sultanate in Baghdad and Tabriz from about 1375, when the leader of their leading tribe, ruled over Mosul. However, they rebelled against the Jalayirids, and secured their independence from the dynasty with the conquest of Tabriz by Qara Yusuf. In 1400, the armies of Timur defeated the Kara Koyunlu, and Qara Yusuf fled to Egypt seeking refuge with the Mamluk Sultanate. He gathered an army and by 1406 had taken back Tabriz.

In 1410, the Kara Koyunlu captured Baghdad. The installation of a subsidiary Black Sheep line there hastened the downfall of the Jalayirids they had once served. Despite internal fighting amongst Kara Yusuf's descendants after his death in 1420, and the increasing threat of the Timurid dynasty, the Qar Qoyunlu maintained a strong grip over the areas they controlled.

Jahān Shāh

Jahan Shah made peace with the Timurid Shahrukh Mirza; however, this soon fell apart. When Shahrukh Mirza died in 1447, the Black Sheep Turkomans annexed portions of Iraq and the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula as well as Timurid-controlled western Iran. Though much territory was gained during his rule, Jahān Shāh's reign was troubled by his rebellious sons and the almost autonomous rulers of Baghdad, whom he expelled in 1464. In 1466, Jahan Shah attempted to take Diyarbakır from the Ağ Qoyunlu ("White Sheep Turkomans"), however, this was a catastrophic failure resulting in Jahān Shāh's death and the collapse of the Black Sheep Turkomans' control in the Middle East. By 1468, at their height under Uzun Hassan (1452–1478), Aq Qoyunlu defeated the Qara Qoyunlu and conquered Iraq, Azerbaijan, and western Iran.^[6]

Kara Koyunlu rule

Armenia

Armenia fell under the control of the Kara Koyunlu in 1410. The principal Armenian sources available in this period come from the historian Tovma Metsopetsi and several colophons to contemporary manuscripts.^[7] According to Tovma, although the Kara Koyunlu levied heavy taxes against the Armenians, the early years of their rule were relatively peaceful and some reconstruction of towns took place. This peaceful period was, however, shattered with the rise of Qara Iskander, who reportedly made Armenia a "desert" and subjected it to "devastation and plunder, to slaughter, and captivity."^[8] Iskander's wars with and eventual defeat by the Timurids invited further destruction in Armenia, as many Armenians were taken captive and sold into slavery and the land was subjected to outright pillaging, forcing many of them to leave the region.^[9] Iskander did attempt to reconcile with the Armenians by appointing an Armenian from a noble family, Rustum, as one of his advisers.

When the Timurids launched their final incursion into the region, they convinced Jihanshah, Iskander's brother, to turn on his brother. Jihanshah pursued a policy of persecution against the Armenians in Syunik and colophons to Armenian manuscripts record the sacking of the Tatev monastery by his forces.^[9] But he, too, sought a rapprochement with the Armenians, allotting land to feudal lords, rebuilding churches, and approving the relocation of the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church's Catholicos to Etchmiadzin Cathedral in 1441. For all this, Jihanshah continued to attack Armenian towns and take Armenian captives as the country saw further devastation in the final years of Jihanshah's failed struggles with the Aq Qoyunlu.^[10]

Mausoleum of Turkmen emirs

One of the most prominent monuments built by Black Sheep dynasty remains today in the vicinity of the Armenian capital, the Mausoleum of Kara Koyunlu emirs. Turkmenistan and Armenia both contribute to the restoration and preservation of this medieval piece of architecture.

Gallery

• 

  «Erivan tower». 1838

• 

  Graveyard in Argavand, fragment in Arabic.

• 

  Graveyard in Argavand, fragment in Arabic.

See also

• List of rulers of Kara Koyunlu
• Turkmen invasions of Georgia
• List of Shia Muslim dynasties

Notes

1. Quiring-Zoche, R. "AQ QOYUNLŪ". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 2009-10-29.

   The argument that there was a clear-cut contrast between the Sunnism of the Āq Qoyunlū and the Shiʿism of the Qara Qoyunlū and the Ṣafawīya rests mainly on later Safavid sources and must be considered doubtful.

2. Elgood 1995, p. 114.
3. Hovanissian 2004, p. 4.
4. Encyclopædia Britannica. "Kara Koyunlu". Online Edition, 2007
5. Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave Macmillan. 2005 ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.23
6. Stearns, Peter N.; Leonard, William (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History. Houghton Muffin Books. p. 122. ISBN 0-395-65237-5.
7. Kouymjian, Dickran (1997), "Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Migration under Shah Abbas (1604)" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian, New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 4. ISBN 1-4039-6422-X.
8. Kouymjian. "Armenia", p. 4.
9. Kouymjian. "Armenia", p. 5.
10. Kouymjian. "Armenia", pp. 6-7.

Works cited

• Elgood, Robert (1995). Firearms of the Islamic World: In the Tared Rajab Museum, Kuwait. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-85043-963-9.
• Kouymjian, Dickran (2004). "Armenia from the fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the forced emigration under Shah Abbas". In Hovannisian, Richard G. The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6421-2.

Further reading

• Bosworth, Clifford. The New Islamic Dynasties, 1996.
• (Armenian) Khachikyan, Levon. ԺԵ դարի հայերեն ձեռագրերի հիշատակարաններ, մաս 1 (Fifteenth Century Armenian Colophons, Part 1). Yerevan, 1955.
• Morby, John. The Oxford Dynasties of the World, 2002.
• Sanjian, Avedis K. Colophons of Armenian manuscripts, 1301-1480: A Source for Middle Eastern History, Selected, Translated, and Annotated by Avedis K. Sanjian. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.