View source for Aq Qoyunlu

{{Short description|Persianate, Sunni-Muslim Turkoman confederation (1378–1508)}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{lang|fa|آق قویونلو}}
| conventional_long_name = Aq Qoyunlu
| common_name            = Aq Qoyunlu
| country                = 
| era                    = Medieval
| status                 = [[Confederation|Confederate]] [[sultanate]]
| legislature            = * ''Kengač'' (legislative)<ref name=iranica>{{cite web|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/aq-qoyunlu-confederation|title=AQ QOYUNLŪ|publisher=Encyclopaedia Iranica|date=5 August 2011|volume=2|pages=163–168}}</ref>
* ''Boy ḵānları'' (military)<ref name=iranica />
| government_type        = [[Monarchy]]
| year_start             = 1348
| event_start            = Siege of [[Trabzon|Trebizond]]<ref name=faruk1>{{TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|title=AKKOYUNLULAR XV. yüzyılda Doğu Anadolu, Azerbaycan ve Irak’ta hüküm süren Türkmen hânedanı (1340–1514)|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/akkoyunlular|author=Faruk Sümer}}</ref>
| year_end               = Summer 1503
| event_pre              = First raid on the [[Empire of Trebizond|Trapezuntine Empire]] by Tur Ali Beg<ref name=faruk1/>
| date_pre               = 1340
| event1                 = Established
| date_event1            = 1378
| event2                 = Coup by [[Uzun Hasan]]<ref name=iranica />
| date_event2            = Autumn 1452
| event3                 = Reunification<ref name=iranica />
| date_event3            = 1457
| event4                 = Death of [[Ahmad Beg]], division of the Aq Qoyunlu<ref name=iranica />
| date_event4            = December, 1497
| event_end              = Collapse of the Aq Qoyunlu rule in Iran<ref name=iranica />
| event_post             = End of the Aq Qoyunlu rule in [[Mesopotamia]]<ref name=iranica />
| date_post              = 1508
| life_span              = 1378–1508<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Melville|title=Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires: The Idea of Iran|page=33|volume=10|year=2021|quote=Only after five more years did Esma‘il and the Qezelbash finally defeat the rump Aq Qoyunlu regimes. In Diyarbakr, the Mowsillu overthrew Zeynal b. Ahmad and then later gave their allegiance to the Safavids when the Safavids invaded in 913/1507. The following year the Safavids conquered Iraq and drove out Soltan-Morad, who fled to Anatolia and was never again able to assert his claim to Aq Qoyunlu rule. It was therefore only in 1508 that the last regions of Aq Qoyunlu power finally fell to Esma‘il.}}</ref>
| p1                     = Qara Qoyunlu
| s1                     = Safavid Empire
| s2                     = Ottoman Empire
| image_map              = Map Aq Qoyunlu 1478-en.png
| image_map_caption      = The Aq Qoyunlu confederation at its greatest extent under Uzun Hasan in 1478
| capital                = {{plainlist|
*[[Bayburt]] ([[Yaylak|summer pastures]])<ref name=iranica />
*[[Kiğı]], [[Palu, Elazığ|Palu]], and [[Ergani]] ([[Kishlak|winter pastures]])<ref name=iranica />
*[[Diyarbakır|Âmid]] (1403 April–1468)
*[[Tabriz]] (1468–January 6, 1478)}}
| common_languages       = {{plainlist|
*[[Persian language|Persian]] (official court language, poetry)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arjomand |first1=Saïd Amir |title=Unity of the Persianate World under Turko-Mongolian Domination and Divergent Development of Imperial Autocracies in the Sixteenth Century |journal=Journal of Persianate Studies |date=2016 |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=11 |doi=10.1163/18747167-12341292 |quote=The disintegration of Timur's empire into a growing number of Timurid principalities ruled by his sons and grandsons allowed the remarkable rebound of the Ottomans and their westward conquest of Byzantium as well as the rise of rival Turko-Mongolian nomadic empires of the Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu in western Iran, Iraq, and eastern Anatolia. In all of these nomadic empires, however, Persian remained the official court language and the Persianate ideal of kingship prevailed.}}</ref>{{efn|...Persian was primarily the language of poetry in the Aq Qoyunlu court.{{sfn|Erkinov|2015|p=62}}}}{{sfn|Erkinov|2015|p=62}}
*[[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] (dynastic, poetry)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lazzarini |first1=Isabella |title=Communication and Conflict: Italian Diplomacy in the Early Renaissance, 1350–1520 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-872741-5 |page=244 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Javadi|Burrill|2012}}}}
| religion               = [[Sunni Islam]]<ref name=Gunter-29/>
| currency               = [[Akçe]]<ref name=numista>{{cite web|url=https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?e=aq_qoyunlu&r=&ct=coin&im1=&im2=&tb=y&tc=y&tn=y&tp=y&tt=y&cat=y&ru=&ca=3&no=&v=&i=&b=&d=&u=&a=&dg=&m=&f=&t=&w=&mt=&g=&se=|title=Coins from the tribal federation of Aq Qoyunlu}}</ref><br/>[[Ashrafi]]<ref name=numista /><br/>[[Dinar]]<ref name=numista /><br/>[[Tanka (coin)|Tanka]]<ref name=numista />
Hasanbegî<ref name=faruk /> (equal to 2 akçe)
| leader1                = [[Qara Yuluk Uthman Beg]]
| leader2                = [[Sultan Murad (Aq Qoyunlu)|Sultan Murad]]
| year_leader1           = 1378–1435
| year_leader2           = 1497–1508
| title_leader           = [[List of rulers of Aq Qoyunlu|Ruler]]
| image_flag             = [[File:راية اوزون حسن.svg|150px]]
| flag_type              = A sanjak (flag) belonging to Uzun Hasan
| image_coat             = Tamga of Bayandur (Aq Qoyunlu version).svg
| symbol_type            = {{nowrap|[[Tamga]] of [[Bayandur]]<br/>used by the Aq Qoyunlu<ref>{{cite book|title=Nomadism in Iran: From Antiquity to the Modern Era|year=2014|author=Daniel T. Potts|page=7|quote=Indeed, the Bayundur clan to which the Aq-qoyunlu rulers belonged, bore the same name and tamgha (symbol) as that of an Oghuz clan.}}</ref>}}
| footnotes              = 
| demonym                = 
| area_km2               = 
}}

The '''Aq Qoyunlu''' or the '''White Sheep Turkomans'''{{efn|{{*}}Also referred to as the '''Aq Qoyunlu confederacy''', the '''Aq Qoyunlu sultanate''', the '''Aq Qoyunlu empire''',<ref name=iranica /> the '''White Sheep confederacy'''.{{indent}}{{*}}Other spellings includes '''Ag Qoyunlu''', '''Agh Qoyunlu''', '''Ak Koyunlu''' or '''Aq Quyunlu'''.{{indent}}{{*}}Also mentioned as '''''Bayanduriyye''''' ('''Bayandurids''') in Iranian<ref>{{cite book|title=Akkoyunlular: siyasal, kültürel, ekonomik ve sosyal tarih|year=2002|page=317|author=Seyfettin Erşahin|language=tr}}</ref><ref name=faruk>{{TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|title=UZUN HASAN (ö. 882/1478) Akkoyunlu hükümdarı (1452–1478).|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/uzun-hasan|author=Faruk Sümer}}</ref> and Ottoman sources.<ref>{{cite book|title=International Journal of Turkish Studies|volume=4–5|publisher=University of Wisconsin|year=1987|page=272}}</ref>{{indent}}{{*}}Also known as '''Tur-'Alids''' in Mamluk sources.<ref name=woods/>{{rp|34}}}} ({{langx|az|Ağqoyunlular}}, {{Lang|az-Arab|آغ‌قویونلولار}}; {{Langx|fa|آق‌ قویونلو}}) was a culturally [[Persianate society|Persianate]],<ref>{{iranica|aq-qoyunlu-confederation}}; "Christian sedentary inhabitants were not totally excluded from the economic, political, and social activities of the Āq Qoyunlū state and that Qara ʿOṯmān had at his command at least a rudimentary bureaucratic apparatus of the Iranian-Islamic type. [...] With the conquest of Iran, not only did the Āq Qoyunlū center of power shift eastward, but Iranian influences were soon brought to bear on their method of government and their culture."</ref><ref name=":2">Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (White Sheep) (1378–1507) and Qaraoyunlu (Black Sheep). They were Persianate Turkoman Confederations of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Azerbaijan."</ref> [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]]<ref name="Gunter-29">Michael M. Gunter, ''Historical dictionary of the Kurds'' (2010), p. 29</ref> [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkoman]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mikaberidze |first1=Alexander |title=Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, vol. 1 |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-Clio |location=Santa-Barbara, CA |isbn=978-159884-336-1 |page=431}} "His Qizilbash army overcame the massed forces of the dominant Ak Koyunlu (White Sheep) '''Turkomans''' at Sharur in 1501...".</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Book of Dede Korkut |date=1972 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=0-292-70787-8 |page=Introduction |edition=F.Sumer, A.Uysal, W.Walker}} "Better known as '''Turkomans'''... the interim Ak-Koyunlu and Karakoyunlu dynasties..."</ref> tribal [[confederation]]. Founded in the [[Diyar Bakr|Diyarbakir region]] by [[Qara Yuluk Uthman Beg]],<ref>Erdem, Ilham. [http://dspace.khazar.org/bitstream/20.500.12323/127/1/Ilham%20Erdem.doc "The Aq-qoyunlu State from the Death of Osman Bey to Uzun Hasan Bey (1435–1456)."] (2008). “The creator of the Aq-Qoyunlu principality founded in the region of Diyarbakır was Kara Yülük Osman Bey, a member of the Bayındır tribe of the Oghuz.”</ref><ref>Pines, Yuri, Michal Biran, and Jörg Rüpke, eds. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eyoNEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA265 the limits of universal rule: Eurasian empires compared.] Cambridge University Press, 2021. "the Aq Qoyunlu, like the Ottomans, began life as a collection of loosely organized band of pastoral nomadic Oghuz raiders in the Diyarbakir region of eastern Anatolia"<br>"the dynasty controlled territory in their eastern Anatolian homelands"</ref> they ruled parts of present-day eastern [[Turkey]] from 1378 to 1508, and in their last decades also ruled [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], much of [[Iran]], [[Iraq]], and [[Oman]] where the ruler of [[Kingdom of Ormus|Hormuz]] recognised Aq Qoyunlu suzerainty.<ref>Potts, Daniel T. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8c3QAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA216 Nomadism in Iran: from antiquity to the modern era.] Oxford University Press, 2014.</ref><ref>Wink, André. [https://books.google.com/books?id=nyYslywJUE8C&pg=PA192 Indo-Islamic society: 14th–15th centuries.] Vol. 3. Brill, 2003.</ref> The Aq Qoyunlu empire reached its zenith under [[Uzun Hasan]].<ref name=iranica />

==History==
=== Etymology ===
The name Aq Qoyunlu, literally meaning "those with white sheep",<ref name="bosworth">{{cite book |last1=Bosworth |first1=C. E. |author1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |title=New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual |date=1 June 2019 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1-4744-6462-8 |pages=275–276 |language=en}}</ref> is first mentioned in late 14th century sources. It has been suggested that this name refers to old totemic symbols, but according to [[Rashid al-Din Hamadani]], the Turks were forbidden to eat the flesh of their totem-animals, and so this is unlikely given the importance of mutton in the diet of pastoral nomads. Another hypothesis is that the name refers to the predominant color of their flocks.<ref name=iranica />

=== Origins ===
{{Main|Bayandur (tribe)}}
According to chronicles from the [[Byzantine Empire]], the Aq Qoyunlu are first attested in the district of [[Bayburt]] south of the [[Pontic Mountains]] from at least the 1340s.<ref name="Eastern Turkey">{{cite book|last1=Sinclair|first1=T.A.|title=Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume I|date=1989|publisher=Pindar Press|isbn=978-0907132325|page=111}}</ref> 
In these chronicles, Tur Ali Beg was mentioned as lord of the "Turks of [[Diyarbakir|Amid]]", who had already attained the rank of [[amir]] under the [[Ilkhan]] [[Ghazan]]. Under his leadership, they besieged [[Trabzon|Trebizond]], but failed to take the town.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Lockhart |editor2-first=Lawrence |title=The Cambridge History of Iran. Volume 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods |date=1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=154 |language=English}}</ref> A number of their leaders, including the [[dynasty]]'s founder, [[Qara Yuluk Uthman Beg]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Minorsky |first=Vladimir |year=1955 |title=The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms (Turkmenica, 11) |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=17 |issue=3 |page=449 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00112376 |s2cid=154166838 }}</ref> married Byzantine [[princess]]es.<ref>Robert MacHenry. ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993, {{ISBN|0-85229-571-5}}, p. 184.</ref>

[[File:Aq Qoyunlu territory (1435, end of 15th century).png|thumb|left|Original territory of the Aq Qoyunlu in 1435 (<small>{{Colorsample|rgba(65, 105, 225, 0.9)|0.6}}</small>), and maximum extent at end of the 15th century (<small>{{Colorsample|rgba(65, 105, 225, 0.4)|0.6}}</small>)]]
By the end of the [[Ilkhanids|Ilkhanid]] period in the mid-14th century, the [[Oghuz (tribe)|Oghuz tribes]] that comprised the Aq Qoyunlu confederation roamed the summer pastures in [[Armenia (region)|Armenia]], in particular, the upper reaches of the [[Tigris]] river and winter pastures between the towns of [[Diyarbakır]] and [[Sivas]]. Since the end of the 14th century, Aq Qoyunlu waged constant wars with another tribal confederation of the Oghuz tribes, the [[Qara Qoyunlu]]. The leading Aq Qoyunlu tribe was the [[Bayandur (tribe)|Bayandur]] tribe.<ref name="bosworth" />

Uzun Hasan used to assert the claim that he was an "honorable descendant of [[Oghuz Khagan|Oghuz Khan]] and his grandson, Bayandur Khan". In a letter dating to the year 1470, which was sent to [[Bayezid II|Şehzade Bayezid]], the then-governor of [[Amasya]], Uzun Hasan wrote that those from the Bayandur and [[Bayat (tribe)|Bayat]] tribes, as well as other tribes that belonged to the "Oghuz il", and formerly inhabited [[Mangyshlak]], [[Khwarazm]] and [[Turkestan]], came and served in his court. He also made the [[tamga]] (seal) of the Bayandur tribe the symbol of his state. For this reason, the Bayandur tamga is found in Aq Qoyunlu coins, their official documents, inscriptions and flags.<ref name=faruk />

;Myth
The Aq Qoyunlu Sultans claimed descent from Bayindir Khan, who was a grandson of Oghuz Khan, the legendary ancestor of [[Oghuz Turks]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Cornell H. Fleischer|year=1986|title=Bureaucrat and intellectual in the Ottoman Empire|page=287}}</ref>

According to Professor [[Geoffrey Lewis (scholar)|G. L. Lewis]]:<ref>{{cite book|author=H. B. Paksoy|year=1989|title=Alpamysh: Central Asian Identity Under Russian Rule|page=84}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|
The Ak-koyunlu Sultans claimed descent from Bayindir Khan and it is likely, on the face of it, that the [[Book of Dede Korkut]] was composed under their patronage. The snag about this is that in the Ak-koyunlu genealogy Bayindir's father is named as Gok ('Sky') Khan, son of the eponymous Oghuz Khan, whereas in our book he is named as Kam Ghan, a name otherwise unknown. In default of any better explanation, I therefore incline to the belief that the book was composed before Ak-koyunlu rulers had decided who their ancestors were. It was in 1403 that they ceased to be tribal chiefs and became Sultans, so we may assume that their official genealogy was formulated round about that date.}}

According to the ''[[Kitab-i Diyarbakriyya]]'', the ancestors of [[Uzun Hasan]] back to the prophet [[Adam#In Islam|Adam]] in the 68th generation are listed by name and information is given about them. Among them is [[Bey Tur-Ali|Tur Ali Bey]], the grandfather of Uzun Hasan's grandfather, who is also mentioned in other sources. But it is difficult to say whether Pehlivan Bey, Ezdi Bey and Idris Bey, who are listed in earlier periods, really existed. Most of the people who are listed as the ancestors of Uzun Hasan are names related to the Oghuz legend and to Oghuz rulers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Makaleler|volume=2|author=İsmail Aka|publisher=Berikan Kitabevi|year=2005|page=291|language=tr}}</ref>

=== Uzun Hasan ===
{{Main|Uzun Hasan}}
[[File:Uzun Hasan on horse, 1460s–1470s, Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasa hunting (detail).jpg|thumb|upright|Likely contemporary portrait of [[Uzun Hasan]] hunting on horse, 1460s–1470s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Basil William |title=Studies in Persian Art |date=1993 |publisher=Pindar Press |isbn=978-0-907132-43-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Th7WAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA20 |p=20 |language=en |quote=No other prince of the time can be credibly associated with this work, and the galloping bearded prince in the center of the composition, we may be permitted to recognize a contemporary portrait of the founder of the White Sheep Turkman power. Uzun Hasan.}}</ref>]]
The Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans first acquired land in 1402, when [[Timur]] granted them all of [[Diyar Bakr]] in present-day Turkey. For a long time, the Aq Qoyunlu were unable to expand their territory, as the rival [[Qara Qoyunlu]] or "Black Sheep Turkomans" kept them at bay. However, this changed with the rule of Uzun Hasan, who defeated the Black Sheep Turkoman leader [[Jahan Shah|Jahān Shāh]] in 1467 at the [[Battle of Chapakchur]]. 

After the death of [[Jahan Shah]], his son [[Hasan Ali (Kara Koyunlu)|Hasan Ali]], with the help of the Timurid ruler [[Abu Sa'id Mirza]], marched on [[Azerbaijan]] to meet Uzun Hasan. Deciding to spend the winter in [[Karabakh]], Abu Sa'id was defeated by the Aq Qoyunlu at the [[Battle of Qarabagh]] in 1469.{{sfn|Eagles|2014}}{{page needed|date=April 2022}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Tihranî |first=Ebu Bekr-i |url=http://lib.az/users/1/upload/files/Mursel_Ozturk._Ebu_Bekr-i_Tihrani._Kitab-i_Diyarbekriyye._2011.pdf |title=Kitab-ı Diyarbekriyye |year=2014 |publisher=Türk Tarih Kurumu |isbn=978-9751627520}}</ref> Uzun Hasan supported a new Timurid ruler in [[Yadgar Muhammad Mirza]], and gave him military assistance in occupying [[greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], and temporarily capture [[Herat]] in July 1470 from [[Sultan Husayn Bayqara]].

Uzun Hasan was also able to take [[Baghdad]] along with territories around the [[Persian Gulf]]. However, around this time, the [[Ottoman Empire]] sought to expand eastwards, a serious threat that forced the Aq Qoyunlu into an [[military alliance|alliance]] with the [[Karamanids]] of central Anatolia.

As early as 1464, Uzun Hasan had requested military aid from one of the Ottoman Empire's strongest enemies, [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. Despite Venetian promises, and the visit of Venetian ambassadors at the court of Uzun Hasan,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barbaro |first1=Giosofat |title=Travels to Tana and Persia, and A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-01081-8 |page=iv |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/travels-to-tana-and-persia-and-a-narrative-of-italian-travels-in-persia-in-the-15th-and-16th-centuries/narrative-of-italian-travels-in-persia/5B69B3898A1F44A1E5FEC23739CF7A57 |chapter=A NARRATIVE OF ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA |quote=He adds that this ambassador was an envoy from Venice, sent by that Republic to solicit the aid of Uzun Hassan against the Ottoman. The personage alluded to by Malcolm must have been M. Josafat Barbaro, the successor of M. Caterino Zeno.}}</ref> this aid never arrived and, as a result, Uzun Hasan was defeated by the Ottomans at the [[Battle of Otlukbeli]] in 1473, though this did not destroy the Aq Qoyunlu.{{sfn|Eagles|2014|p=46}}

In 1469, Uzun Hasan sent the head of the Timurid Sultan, [[Abu Sa'id Mirza|Sultan Abu Sa'id]], with an embassy to the court of the newly ascended [[Qaitbay|al-Ashraf Qaytbay]] in Cairo.{{sfn|Melvin-Koushki|2011|p=193}} With these presents came a ''fathnama'', in Persian, explaining to the Mamluk sultan the events leading up to the Aq Quyunlu—Timurid conflict approximately five months earlier, emphasizing in particular Sultan-Abu Sa'id's plans of aggression toward the Mamluk and Aq Quyunlu dominions—plans that were thwarted by Qaitbay's loyal peer Uzun Hasan.{{sfn|Melvin-Koushki|2011|p=193{{endash}}194, 198}} Despite the negative response from Qaitbay,{{sfn|Melvin-Koushki|2011|p=193}} Uzun Hasan's continued correspondence to the Mamluk Sultanate were in Persian.{{sfn|Melvin-Koushki|2011|p=193}}

In 1470, Uzun selected [[Abu Bakr Tihrani]] to compile a history of the Aq Qoyunlu confederation.{{sfn|Markiewicz|2019|p=184}} The ''[[Kitab-i Diyarbakriyya]]'', written in Persian, referred to Uzun Hasan as ''sahib-qiran'' and was the first historical work to assign this title to a non-Timurid ruler.{{sfn|Markiewicz|2019|p=184}}

Uzun Hasan preserved relationships with the members of the popular dervish order whose main inclinations were towards [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]], while promoting the urban religious establishment with donations and confirmations of tax concessions or endowments, and ordering the pursuit of extremist Shiite and [[Antinomianism|antinomist sects]]. He married his daughter [[Alamshah Halime Begum]] to his nephew [[Shaykh Haydar|Haydar]], the new head of the [[Safavid Iran|Safavid]] sect in [[Ardabil]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=AKKOYUNLULAR – TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/akkoyunlular |access-date=2022-04-11 |website=TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}}</ref>

=== Sultan Ya'qub ===
{{Main|Yaqub (Aq Qoyunlu)}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=450|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| image1   = Sultan_Yaqub_portrait.jpg
| image2   = Shah-nameh (Fateh‘s Album) Tabriz c. 1470-80, (Istanbul, Topkapi, H.2153) Yaqub-bey with attendants.jpg
| footer=Contemporary portrait of [[Yaqub (Aq Qoyunlu)|Sultan Ya'qub]] (detail) with his court, painted in 1478-90 in [[Tabriz]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=John E. |title=The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire |date=1 January 1999 |publisher=The University of Utah Press |location=Salt Lake City |isbn=0-87480-565-1 |page=133, Plate V |url=https://www.academia.edu/91011925/The_Aqquyunlu_Clan_Confederation_Empire |quote=Yaqub and His Court, Shaykhi, Album, 1478-90/883-96, Tabriz, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, H. 2153, fols. 90b - 91a}}</ref>
}}
When Uzun Hasan died early in 1478, he was succeeded by his son [[Sultan Khalil bin Uzun Hasan|Khalil Mirza]] for a few months, but the latter was defeated by a confederation under his younger brother [[Yaqub bin Uzun Hasan|Ya'qub]] at the battle of [[Khoy#History|Khoy]] in July.<ref name= woods>{{cite book|author=Woods, John E.|year=1999|title=The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire|publisher=University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City|isbn=0-87480-565-1}}</ref>{{rp|128}}

Ya'qub, who reigned from 1478 to 1490, sustained the dynasty for a while longer. However, during the first four years of his reign there were seven pretenders to the throne who had to be put down.<ref name=woods/>{{rp|125}} Unlike his father, Ya'qub Beg was not interested in popular religious rites and alienated a large part of the people, especially the Turks. Therefore, the vast majority of Turks became involved in the Safawiya order, which became a militant organization with an extreme Shiite ideology led by [[Shaykh Haydar|Sheikh Haydar]]. Ya'qub initially sent Sheikh Haydar and his followers to a holy war against the [[Circassians]], but soon decided to break the alliance because he feared the military power of Sheikh Haydar and his order. During his march to [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], Sheikh Haydar attacked one of Ya'qub's vassals, the [[Shirvanshah]]s, in revenge for his father, [[Shaykh Junayd|Sheikh Junayd]] (assassinated in 1460), and Ya'qub sent troops to the [[Shirvanshah]]s, who defeated and killed Haydar and captured his three sons. This event further strengthened the pro-Safavid feeling among Azerbaijani and Anatolian Turkmen.<ref name=iranica/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=John E |url=https://millikimlik.az/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/john-e.-woods.-300-yillik-turk-i%CC%87mparatorlugu-akkoyunlular-1993.pdf |title=The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire |publisher=University of Utah Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-87480-565-1}}</ref>

Following Ya'qub's death, civil war again erupted, the Aq Qoyunlus destroyed themselves from within, and they ceased to be a threat to their neighbors.
The [[Safavid dynasty|early Safavids]], who were followers of the [[Safaviyya]] religious order, began to undermine the allegiance of the Aq Qoyunlu. The Safavids and the Aq Qoyunlu met in battle in the city of [[Nakhchivan (city)|Nakhchivan]] in 1501 and the Safavid leader [[Ismail I]] forced the Aq Qoyunlu to withdraw.{{sfn|Thomas|Chesworth|2015|p=585}}

In his retreat from the Safavids, the Aq Qoyunlu leader [[Alvand Beg|Alwand]] destroyed an autonomous state of the Aq Qoyunlu in [[Mardin]]. The last Aq Qoyunlu leader, [[Sultan Murad (Aq Qoyunlu)|Sultan Murad]], brother of Alwand, was also defeated by the same Safavid leader. Though Murād briefly established himself in Baghdad in 1501, he soon withdrew back to Diyar Bakr, signaling the end of the Aq Qoyunlu rule.

=== Ahmad Beg ===
{{main|Ahmad Beg}}
[[File:Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Khalil on horse, 1478. Divan of Hidayat.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Contemporary depiction of [[Sultan-Khalil|Sultan Khalil]], in a miniature from the manuscript of ''Divan of Hidayat'' (1478).<ref name="BWR">{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Basil William |title=Studies in Persian Art, Volume 1 |date=1993 |publisher=Pindar Press |isbn=978-0-907132-43-1 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Th7WAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA20 |language=en|quote=... An exquisite little volume in the Chester Beatty Library (MS 401) containing a rare text in Azarbayjani Turkish of the Diwān of Hidayat. This contains four miniatures each depicting Khalil in some characteristic situation holding court in a garden, giving audience from his palace balcony, on a hawking expedition, and relaxing in a vinery. They are of superb execution, with typical Turkman figures, small, round-faced, and rather child-like, with turbans set high on their heads.}}</ref>]]
Amidst the struggle for power between Uzun Hasan's grandsons Baysungur (son of Yaqub) and Rustam (son of Maqsud), their cousin Ahmed Bey appeared on the stage. Ahmed Bey was the son of Uzun Hasan's eldest son [[Ughurlu Muhammad]], who, in 1475, escaped to the Ottoman Empire, where the sultan, [[Mehmed the Conqueror]], received Uğurlu Muhammad with kindness and gave him his daughter in marriage, of whom Ahmed Bey was born.<ref name="turkmenica458">Vladimir Minorsky. "The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms (Turkmenica, 11)", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London'', 17/3 (1955): 458.</ref>

Baysungur was dethroned in 1491 and expelled from [[Tabriz]]. He made several unsuccessful attempts to return before he was killed in 1493. Desiring to reconcile both his religious establishment and the famous Sufi order, Rustam (1478–1490) immediately allowed Sheikh Haydar Safavi's sons to return to Ardabil in 1492. Two years later, Ayba Sultan ordered their re-arrest, as their rise threatened the Ak Koyunlu again, but their youngest son, [[Ismail I|Ismail]], then seven years old, fled and was hidden by supporters in [[Lahijan]].<ref name=iranica /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sarı |first=Arif |date=2019 |title=İran Türk Devletleri Karakoyunlular Akkoyunlular Safeviler |journal=İnsanlığın Serüveni |publisher=İstek Yayınları}}</ref>

{{Continental Asia in 1500 CE|left|The Aq Qoyunlu and main other polities circa 1500|{{location map~ |Continental Asia |lat=34|N |long=50|E |label=|position=|label_size=|mark=Orange dot (semi-transparent).png|marksize=30}}}}
According to Hasan Rumlu's ''Ahsan al-tavarikh'', in 1496–97, Hasan Ali Tarkhani went to the Ottoman Empire to tell Sultan [[Bayezid II]] that Azerbaijan and Persian Iraq were defenceless and suggested that Ahmed Bey, heir to that kingdom, should be sent there with Ottoman troops. Bayezid agreed to this idea, and by May 1497 Ahmad Bey faced Rustam near [[Aras (river)|Araxes]] and defeated him.<ref name="turkmenica458" />

After Ahmad's death, the Aq Qoyunlu became even more fragmented. The state was ruled by three sultans: [[Alvand Beg|Alvand Mirza]] in the west, Uzun Hasan's nephew [[Qasim Bey|Qasim]] in an enclave in [[Diyarbakır|Diyarbakir]], and Alvand's brother Mohammad in Fars and [[Persian Iraq|Iraq-Ajam]] (killed by violence in the summer of 1500 and replaced by Morad Mirza). The collapse of the Aq Qoyunlu state in Iran began in the autumn of 1501 with the defeat at the hands of Ismail Safavi, who had left Lahijan two years earlier and gathered a large audience of Turkmen warriors. He conquered Iraq-Ajami, [[Fars province|Fars]] and [[Kerman]] in the summer of 1503, Diyarbakir in 1507–1508 and [[Mesopotamia]] in the autumn of 1508. The last Aq Qoyunlu sultan, [[Sultan Murad (Aq Qoyunlu)|Sultan Murad]], who hoped to regain the throne with the help of Ottoman troops, was defeated and killed by Ismail's [[Qizilbash]] warriors in the last fortress of Rohada, ending the political rule of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=iranica />

==Governance==
[[File:Edict of the Aq-Quyunlu ruler Ya'qub, Persia, Dated 19 Jumadi II.jpg|thumb|Edict of the Aq-Quyunlu ruler Ya'qub]]
The leaders of Aq Qoyunlu were from the Begundur or Bayandur clan of the [[Oghuz Turks]]<ref>C.E. Bosworth and R. Bulliet, ''The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual '', Columbia University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-231-10714-5}}, p. 275.</ref> and were considered descendants of the semi-mythical founding father of the Oghuz, ''[[Oghuz Khagan]]''.<ref name="vanderleeuw81">Charles van der Leeuw. ''Azerbaijan: A Quest of Identity, a Short History'', Palgrave Macmillan, {{ISBN|0-312-21903-2}}, p. 81</ref> The Bayandurs behaved like statesmen rather than warlords and gained the support of the merchant and feudal classes of [[Transcaucasia]] (present-day [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]).<ref name="vanderleeuw81"/> The Aq Qoyunlu, along with the Qara Qoyunlu, were the last Iranian regimes that used their Chinggisid background to establish their legitimacy. Under Ya'qub Beg, the Chinggisid ''[[Yassa|yasa]]'' (traditional nomadic laws of the medieval [[Turco-Mongols]] of the Eurasian steppe lands) was dissolved.{{sfn|Lane|2016}}

Uzun Hasan's conquest of most of mainland Iran shifted the seat of power to the east, where the Aq Qoyunlu adopted Iranian customs for administration and culture. In the Iranian areas, Uzun Hasan preserved the previous bureaucratic structure along with its secretaries, who belonged to families that had in a number of instances served under different dynasties for several generations.<ref name=iranica /> The four top civil posts of the Aq Qoyunlu were all occupied by Iranians, which under Uzun Hasan included; the vizier, who led the great council (''[[divan]]''); the ''mostawfi al-mamalek'', high-ranking financial accountants; the ''mohrdar'', who affixed the state seal; and the ''marakur'' "stable master", who supervised the royal court.<ref name=iranica />

Culture flourished under the Aq Qoyunlu, who, although of coming from a Turkic background, sponsored Iranian culture. Uzun Hasan himself adopted it and ruled in the style of an Iranian king. Despite his Turkoman background, he was proud of being an Iranian.{{sfn|Langaroodi|Negahban|2015}} At his new capital, Tabriz, he managed a refined Persian court. There he utilized the trappings of pre-Islamic Persian royalty and bureaucrats taken from several earlier Iranian regimes. Through the use of his increasing revenue, Uzun Hasan was able to buy the approval of the ''[[ulama]]'' (clergy) and the mainly Iranian urban elite, while also taking care of the impoverished rural inhabitants.{{sfn|Lane|2016}}

In letters from the Ottoman Sultans, when addressing the kings of Aq Qoyunlu, such titles as {{langx|ar|ملك الملوك الأيرانية}} "King of Iranian Kings", {{langx|ar|سلطان السلاطين الإيرانية}} "Sultan of Iranian Sultans", {{langx|fa|شاهنشاه ایران خدیو عجم}} ''Shāhanshāh-e Irān Khadiv-e Ajam'' "[[Shah]]anshah of Iran and Ruler of Persia", ''Jamshid shawkat va Fereydun rāyat va Dārā derāyat'' "Powerful like [[Jamshid]], flag of [[Fereydun]] and wise like [[Darius I|Darius]]" have been used.<ref name=AMS>{{cite book|last=Muʾayyid S̲ābitī|first=ʻAlī|title=Asnad va Namahha-yi Tarikhi (Historical documents and letters from early Islamic period towards the end of Shah Ismaʻil Safavi's reign.)|year=1967|publisher=Kitābkhānah-ʾi Ṭahūrī|series=Iranian culture & literature|number=46}}, pp. 193, 274, 315, 330, 332, 422 and 430. See also: Abdul Hussein Navai, ''Asnaad o Mokatebaat Tarikhi Iran'' (Historical sources and letters of Iran), Tehran, Bongaah Tarjomeh and Nashr-e-Ketab, 2536, pp. 578, 657, 701–702 and 707</ref> Uzun Hassan also held the title ''[[Padishah]]-i Irān'' "Padishah of Iran", which was re-adopted by his [[Distaff#Other meanings|distaff grandson]] Ismail I, founder of the Safavid Empire.<ref>H.R. Roemer, "The Safavid Period", in ''Cambridge History of Iran'', Vol. VI, Cambridge University Press 1986, p. 339: "Further evidence of a desire to follow in the line of Turkmen rulers is Ismail's assumption of the title 'Padishah-i-Iran', previously held by Uzun Hasan."</ref>

The Aq Qoyunlu realm was notable for being inhabited by many prominent figures, such as the poets [[Ali Qushji]] (died 1474), [[Baba Fighani Shirazi]] (died 1519), [[Ahli Shirazi]] (died 1535), the poet, scholar and [[Sufism|Sufi]] [[Jami]] (died 1492) and the philosopher and theologian, [[Jalal al-Din Davani]] (died 1503).{{sfn|Langaroodi|Negahban|2015}}

==Culture==
===Architecture===
[[File:Uzun Hasan inscription on the South iwan of the courtyard of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|[[:Commons:Category:Southern iwan of Jameh Mosque of Isfahan|South iwan]] of the courtyard of the [[Jameh Mosque of Isfahan]], with central Uzun Hasan inscription. The iwan was renovated by Uzun Hasan,<ref name="OG30">{{cite book |last1=Grabar |first1=Oleg |title=The Great Mosque of Isfahan |date=1990 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-3027-0 |page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Great_Mosque_of_Isfahan.html?id=B-BmQgAACAAJ&pg=PA20 |language=en |quote=It contains an inscription dated 1475-76, the time of Uzun Hassan, the great ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty, mentioning the sorry shape of this magnificent mosque ( al-jamic al-muni') and the restoration of the ceiling of the iwan.}}</ref> who also had the entire surface decorated with enamel colored tiles.<ref>[[:File:Notice of the Southern Iwan of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan (Aq Qoyunlu portion).jpg|Notice of the Southern Iwan of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan (Aq Qoyunlu portion)]]</ref><ref name="JMB">{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Jonathan Max |last2=Blair |first2=Sheila |title=The Grove encyclopedia of Islamic art and architecture |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford university press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195309911 |quote=The court façade (see fig. 2) was clad with tile revetment; the stunning tile mosaic on the [[:en:qibla|qibla]] [[iwan]], for example, was ordered by the Aqqoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan in 1475–6.}}</ref>]]
Uzun Hassan funded the renovation of mosques in various major centers and smaller towns, and had commemorative inscriptions made to express his support of Islam.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=John E. |title=The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire |date=1 January 1999 |page=106 |url=https://www.academia.edu/91011925/The_Aqquyunlu_Clan_Confederation_Empire|quote=Mosques in major centers such as Arnid and Isfahan, as well as in smaller towns were repaired with funds from Uzun Hasan's personal, legitimately acquired fortune (mal-i halal), and commemorative inscriptions were executed to afford him yet another medium in which to express his support of the Sacred Law and to assert his daims on Muslim loyalties.}}</ref> He renovated and decorated the [[:Commons:Category:Southern iwan of Jameh Mosque of Isfahan|South iwan]] of the courtyard of the [[Jameh Mosque of Isfahan]], where he left a central dedicatory inscription in his name.<ref name="OG30"/> Uzun Hassn decorated the entire surface of the South iwan with enamel tiles colored in cobalt blue.<ref>[[:File:Notice of the Southern Iwan of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan (Aq Qoyunlu portion).jpg|Notice of the Southern Iwan of the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan (Aq Qoyunlu portion)]]</ref><ref name="JMB"/> 

Uzun Hassan also created the [[:Commons:Category:Uzun Hasan Mosque|Uzun Hasan Mosque]] in his capital of [[Tabriz]], a large and splendid mosque with two minarets,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Melville |first1=Charles |title=Historical Monuments and Earthquakes in Tabriz |journal=Iran |date=1981 |volume=19 |page=171 |doi=10.2307/4299714 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42727519/_Historical_monuments_and_earthquakes_in_Tabriz_ |issn=0578-6967 |quote=Both the madrasa and mosque of Uzūn Hasan (Abu 'l-Nasr) were part of a complex of buildings that seem to have been known interchangeably as the ''Naşriyya'' and the ''Hasan Pādshāh''. The Naşriyya was founded in his father's name by Sultan Yaqub in 882/1478 and finished seven years later (Karbalā'ī, I, 91). Yaʻqūb was himself buried there. (...)The latter, founded by Uzūn Hasan, was a superb creation with two minarets (later misused for brutal ends by Tahmāsp, see Iskandar Beg, pp. 111, 160). Though its splendour had faded considerably within a century, it was apparently spared the Ottoman sack of 1635, being described at that time as of beautiful marble work and larger than the [[Blue Mosque, Tabriz|Masjid-i Jahānshah]] (Hajji Khalifa, Jihān-numā, p. 381).}}</ref> where Uzun Hasan and his son Yaqub were buried.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Islam (Vol X) |date=2000 |publisher=Brill |page=45 |url=https://theophanov.com/img/200530110947.pdf |quote=Uzun Hasan died in 852/1477 and was buried in the Nasriyya Madrasa which he had built and which was later to be used for the burial of his son Ya'kub.}}</ref>

[[File:Jameh Mosque of Isfahan 2015 4.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|left|Aq Qoyunlu ''[[mo'araq]]'' tilework at the [[:Commons:Category:Southern iwan of Jameh Mosque of Isfahan|South iwan]] of the [[Jameh Mosque of Isfahan]]]]
Contributions to religious architecture continued under the descendants of Uzun Hasan, as for the [[:Commons:Category:Kushk Gate (Isfahan)|Kushk Gate]] in Isfahan, commissioned under [[Rustam Beg]], son of Uzun Hasan (r.1493-1496).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Golombek |first1=Lisa |last2=Wilber |first2=Donald Newton |title=The Timurid architecture of Iran and Turan (Vol 1) |date=1988 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J |isbn=978-0691035871 |page=389 |quote=A rather lofty portal now spanning a busy street west of the Chahar Bagh once bore a revetment of mosaic faience that was recently remounted in the garden of the Chehil Sutun Museum in Isfahan. According to the inscription, the portal led into a zaviyah, which probably included a prayer hall and mausoleum. The horizontal inscription band names the founder Zayn al-Dawlah va’l-Sa’adah va’l-Din ’Ali Beg Borna, who established the zaviyah at the tomb of his father, which was crowned by a dome, in the year 902/1496-97. It also names the Aq Qoyunlu Rustam, son of Uzun Hasan, as the ruling sovereign (1493-1496). At the end of the inscription following the date in numerals is the signature of the scribe. Mu’in (al-munshi); Godard read “Mu’i/z al-munshi.” The semidome is filled with muqarnas. Panels of mosaic faience are displayed on the side walls of the bay. The wings of the facade have geometric patterns executed in glazed and unglazed terra cotta}}</ref>

====Tilework====
{{see also|Mo'araq|Tabrizi tradition}}
It is thought that the blue-and-white tiles which can be found in the architectural decorations of [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk Syria and Egypt]], or in the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] capitals of [[Bursa]] and [[Edirne]], were created by itinerant artists coming from the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu capital of [[Tabriz]].<ref name="GN"/> The tilework of the [[Dome of the Rock]] in the [[Old City of Jerusalem]] was signed by "Abdallah of Tabriz" under a commission of the Ottoman [[Sultan Süleyman]] in 1545-1552.<ref name="GN"/> The influence of this Tabrizi school was also felt in Istanbul up to the mid-16th century.<ref name="GN">{{cite journal |last1=Necipoglu  |first1=Gulru |title=From International Timurid to Ottoman: A Change of Taste in Sixteenth-Century Ceramic Tiles |journal=Muqarnas |publisher= E.J. Brill |volume=7 |date= 1990|page=137 |url=https://www.archnet.org/publications/3340 |quote=Reflecting local variants of an international Timurid taste, blue-and-white tiles of mostly hexagonal shapes found in Mamluk Syria and Egypt, as well as in the Ottoman capitals of Bursa and Edirne, appear to have been created by artists from Tabriz, the capital of the Qaraqoyunlu and Aqqoyunlu Turcoman dynasties. Compared to the tiles of the Tawrizi (i.e., Tabrizi) complex in Damascus (ca. 1430), the technical perfection of the Muradiye tiles in Edirne suggests that different groups of itinerant potters were at work. Unfortunately, the wholesale destruction of contemporary buildings in Tabriz - the only one to survive is the Blue Mosque (1465), where square blue-and-white under-glaze tiles are used in conjunction with a variety of glazed tiles and mosaic-faience makes the study of this Tabrizi tradition impossible. Its impact was still strong in the Dome of the Rock tiles, signed by Abdallah of Tabriz and produced on the order of Sultan Süleyman between 952 (1545-46) and 959 (1551-52), which combined in the same scheme tile mosaic, cuerda seca, polychrome underglaze, as well as blue-and-white un- derglaze tiles." As we shall see, the influence of this Tabrizi school was also felt in Istanbul up to the middle of the sixteenth century.}}</ref>

The celebrated [[Hasht Behesht Palace (Tabriz)|''Hasht Behesht'' ("Eight Paradises") Palace]] in [[Tabriz]] was also created by [[Uzun Hasan]] and completed by his son [[Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu|Yaqub Beg]].<ref name="SB"/>  It was represented in various manuscripts of the period, such as ''[[Khamsa of Nizami]]'' of 1481 commissioned by Yaqub Beg, and was influential in the development of the ''[[Hasht Bihisht (architecture)|Hasht Behesht]]'' architectural style in Iran, including the [[Hasht Behesht]] in [[Isfahan]].<ref name="REC">{{cite journal |last1=Mirzaie |first1=Masume |title=Recognition the Architectural form of Tabriz's Hasht-Behesht Palace |journal=Bagh-e Nazar, University of Tehran |date=2017 |pages=83–84 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320058409_Recognition_the_Architectural_form_of_Tabriz's_Hasht-Behesht_Palace}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pfeiffer |first1=Judith |title=Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th - 15th Century Tabriz |date=7 November 2013 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26257-7 |page=352 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkVWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA352 |language=en}}</ref>

===Art of the book===
{{see also|Turkman style}}
[[File:Tabriz School Shirin.jpg|thumb|[[Hasht Behesht Palace (Tabriz)|''Hasht Behesht'' Palace]] in [[Tabriz]], started by [[Uzun Hasan]] and completed by his son [[Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu|Yaqub Beg]]. ''[[Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481)]]''.<ref name="SB">{{cite book |last1=Babaie |first1=Sussan |title=Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi`ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (CHAPTER 2 Peripatetic Kings and Palaces: From Tabriz to Qazvin in the Sixteenth Century) |date=2022 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9780748633760 |page=31 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780748633760-009/html?lang=en |quote=Hasht Behesht had been begun by the Aqqoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hasan (1453–78), Romano's Sultan Assambei or Hasan Beg, and completed by his son and successor Yaqub}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balilan Asl |first1=Lida |title=The Physical structure of Tabriz in Shah Tahmasp Safavid's era based on Matrkci Miniature |journal= METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture 36(2) |page=177, 178 note 18 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339304962_THE_PHYSICAL_STRUCTURE_OF_TABRIZ_IN_SHAH_TAHMASP_SAFAVID'S_ERA_BASED_ON_MATRAKCI_MINIATURE |date=2019 |quote=Miniature drawn from Hasht Behesht Palace in 901AH at the time of Uzun Hassan Aq Qoyunlu entitled “Khosro under the windows of Qasre shirin”}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Melville |first1=Charles |title=Historical Monuments and Earthquakes in Tabriz |date=1981 |page=170 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42727519/_Historical_monuments_and_earthquakes_in_Tabriz_ |quote=The Hasht Bihisht (...) a government palace (daulat-khana) of this name, built in 891/1486 in the Bagh-i Sahibabad by the White Sheep Turkomans, though probably on the site of a building founded by Jahanshah.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Golombek |first1=Lisa |last2=Wilber |first2=Donald Newton |title=''The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan'', vol.1 |date=1988 |publisher=Princeton Univ. Pr |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0691035871 |pages=178-179 |quote=At Tabriz, a major garden created by the Aq Qoyunlu ruler, Uzun Hasan, was visited by a Venetian merchant, who gave his impressions in some detail. His visit probably took place between 1460 and 1470. The garden was called the Hasht Behisht, "Eight Paradises,” after its central palace.(...) }}</ref>]] 
Uzun Hasan did not leave many marks in the area of literature. Miniatures became more "provincial" in taste, using bright colors and standardized figures, known as the "[[Turkman style]]".<ref name="AT24"/> His son [[Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu|Yaqub]] however displayed much more sophisticated tastes, which appeared in both calligraphy and paintings. He sponsored an important workshop in [[Tabriz]] at his palace ''Hasht Behesht'' ("Eight paradises"), where numerous artists, poets, calligraphers and painters, produced some of the best manuscripts of the period.<ref name="AT24"/> Their style combined Chinese patterns with Persian repertoire.<ref name="AT24">{{cite book |last1=Tokatlian |first1=Armen |title=Persian treasures in Erevan: a selection of manuscripts from the Matenadaran collection |date=2013 |publisher=Éditions Snoeck |location=Gand |isbn=978-9461611284 |pages=24-25 |url=https://archive.org/details/PersianTreasuresInErevan/page/n23/mode/2up?q=Hasht+Behesht&view=theater |quote=(...) Uzun Hasan (d.1478), who was the first Turkmen to declare himself Sultan. During his reign, patronage of the arts was feeble and subsequently, a provincial taste prevails in Turkmen painting. The use of a bright palette, less individualized figures and monotonous scenes is to be seen to such an extent that these works are designated as the 'commercial Turkmen" brand. Only Aq Qoyunlu Ya'qub b. Hasan Beg (d.1490) shows some greater expertise in the arts of calligraphy and painting during his relatively calm twelve-year tenure. His palace in Tabriz, called Hasht Behesht or Eight paradises, sheltered a promising book workshop, where renowned poets Baba Feghani Shirazi and Bannai, calligraphers Soltan AJi Qa'eni 95 (d.ca.1508),'Abd al-Rahim "Anisi" and Fakhr al-Din Ahmad, along with painters Fazlollah Divana and Shaykh Naqqash deployed their talents. The paintings and drawings produced by artists Shaykh "Ya'qubi" Naqqash and Dervish Muhammad between 1478 and 1490 show Chinese patterns combined with elements of Persian repertoire. Probably the most extraordinary work is the copy of Makhzan al-Asrar of Haydar Tilbe dedicated to Ya'qub Beg, done on Chinese colored paper with gold drawings and paintings attributed to Fazlollah Divana.}}</ref>

====Persian language literature====
The Aq Qoyunlu patronized Persian ''belles-lettres'' which included poets like [[Ahli Shirazi]], Kamāl al-Dīn Banāʾī Haravī, Bābā Fighānī, Shahīdī Qumī.{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=26}} By the reign of Yaʿqūb, the Aq Qoyunlu court held a fondness for Persian poetry.{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=111}} 16th-century [[Azerbaijani literature|Azerbaijani poet]] [[Fuzuli (poet)|Fuzuli]] was also born and raised under Aq Qoyunlu rule, writing his first known poem for [[Alvand Beg|Shah Alvand Mirza]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mazıoğlu |first=Hasibe |title=Fuzûlî ve Türkçe Divanı'ndan Seçmeler |publisher=Kültür Bakanlığı Yayımlar Dairesi Başkanlığı |year=1992 |isbn=978-975-17-1108-3 |language=tr |page=4 |trans-title=Fuzûlî and Selections from His Turkish Divan}}</ref>

Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman Jami dedicated his poem, ''Salāmān va Absāl'', which was written in Persian, to Yaʿqūb.{{sfn|Daʿadli|2019|p=6}}{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=16}} Yaʿqūb rewarded Jami with a generous gift.{{sfn|Daʿadli|2019|p=6}} Jami also wrote a eulogy, ''Silsilat al-zahab'', which indirectly criticised Yaʿqūb immoral behavior.{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=26}} Yaʿqūb had Persian poems dedicated to him, including Ahli Shirazi's allegorical masnavi on love, ''Sham' va parvana'' and Bana'i's 5,000 verse narrative poem, ''Bahram va Bihruz''.{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=26}}

Yaʿqūb's maternal nephew, 'Abd Allah Hatifi, wrote poetry for the five years he spent at the Aq Qoyunlu court.{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=112}}

Uzun Hasan and his son, Khalil,{{sfn|Lingwood|2014|p=87}} patronized, along with other prominent Sufis, members of the Kobrāvi and Neʿmatallāhi tariqats.{{sfn|Lingwood|2011|p=235}} According to the ''Tarikh-e lam-r-ye amini'' by Fazlallh b. Ruzbehn Khonji Esfahni, the court-commissioned history of Yaqub's reign, Uzun Hasan built close to 400 structures in the Aq Qoyunlu region for the purpose of Sufi communal retreat.{{sfn|Lingwood|2011|p=235}}

====Miniatures====
[[File:Flute player under a plum tree.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''Nobles beneath a Blossoming Branch'', [[Shaykhi]], Aq Qoyunlu [[Tabriz]], c. 1470–90.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents |date=14 November 2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-32348-3 |pages=164, 168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBL0DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA164 |language=en}}</ref>]]
The Aq Qoyunlu commissioned numerous manuscripts with lavish miniatures, such as the [[Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481)|''Khamsa of Nizami'' (Tabriz, 1481)]] of [[Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu|Yaqub Beg]], the ''[[:Commons:Category:Topkapı Sarayı Album Hazine 2153|Ya'qub Beg Album]]'' or the more popular ''[[:Commons:Category:Khavaran-nama|Khavaran-nama]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Sheila S. |last2=Bloom |first2=Jonathan M. |title=The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800 |date=25 September 1996 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-06465-0 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mhIgewDtNkC&pg=PA68 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hillenbrand |first1=Robert |title=Shahnama: The Visual Language of the Persian Book of Kings |date=5 July 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-54892-2 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dy4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA25 |language=en}}</ref> Yaqub Beg employed two main master miniaturists, [[Shaykhi]] and Darvish Muhammad, for the illustrations of his manuscripts.{{sfn|Blair|Bloom|1996|p=68}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Three Capitals of Islamic Art |date=2008 |publisher=Sakip Sabanci Müzesi |isbn=978-975-8362-80-6 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Three_Capitals_of_Islamic_Art.html?id=mzpIAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA165 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481)|''Khamsa of Nizami'' (Tabriz, 1481)]] is considered as "the supreme and ultimate fruit of his artistic patronage".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=B. W. |title=Studies in Persian art, vol 2 |date=1993 |publisher=Pindar Press |location=London |isbn=9780907132448 |page=48}}</ref> The pictorial style has been qualified as having "ecstatic intensity".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Canby |first1=Sheila R. |title=The Golden Age of Persian Art: 1501-1722 |date=2002 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=978-0-7141-2404-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&id=Q6i8NQAACAAJ&pg=PA34 |language=en |p=34}}</ref> One of the most famous miniatures added by Yaqub Beg is the ''[[:File:Shaykhi_001.jpg|Bahram Gur in the Green Pavilion]]'', painted by the Herat artist Shaykhi. Compared to the balanced Timurid Herat style of [[Bihzad]] for example, this miniature style uses a much more intense color palette, with acid greens and vivid blues, and abundant vegetation that seems to engulf the protagonists.{{sfn|Blair|Bloom|1996|p=68}}

Another famous painting created under the patronage of Yaqub Beg is that of the [[Hasht Behesht Palace (Tabriz)|''Hasht Behesht'' Palace]] in [[Tabriz]], a palace started by [[Uzun Hasan]] and completed by his son Yaqub Beg. Here, Yaqub's palace in Tabriz is used as the setting for the Classical composition of the romantic scene ''[[:File:Tabriz School Shirin.jpg|Khosrow under the windows of Shirin]]''.<ref name="SB">{{cite book |last1=Babaie |first1=Sussan |title=Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi`ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (CHAPTER 2 Peripatetic Kings and Palaces: From Tabriz to Qazvin in the Sixteenth Century) |date=2022 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9780748633760 |page=31 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780748633760-009/html?lang=en |quote=Hasht Behesht had been begun by the Aqqoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hasan (1453–78), Romano's Sultan Assambei or Hasan Beg, and completed by his son and successor Yaqub}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balilan Asl |first1=Lida |title=The Physical structure of Tabriz in Shah Tahmasp Safavid's era based on Matrkci Miniature |journal= METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture 36(2) |page=177, 178 note 18 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339304962_THE_PHYSICAL_STRUCTURE_OF_TABRIZ_IN_SHAH_TAHMASP_SAFAVID'S_ERA_BASED_ON_MATRAKCI_MINIATURE |date=2019 |quote=Miniature drawn from Hasht Behesht Palace in 901AH at the time of Uzun Hassan Aq Qoyunlu entitled “Khosro under the windows of Qasre shirin”}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Melville |first1=Charles |title=Historical Monuments and Earthquakes in Tabriz |date=1981 |page=170 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42727519/_Historical_monuments_and_earthquakes_in_Tabriz_ |quote=The Hasht Bihisht (...) a government palace (daulat-khana) of this name, built in 891/1486 in the Bagh-i Sahibabad by the White Sheep Turkomans, though probably on the site of a building founded by Jahanshah.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Golombek |first1=Lisa |last2=Wilber |first2=Donald Newton |title=''The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan'', vol.1 |date=1988 |publisher=Princeton Univ. Pr |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0691035871 |pages=178-179 |quote=At Tabriz, a major garden created by the Aq Qoyunlu ruler, Uzun Hasan, was visited by a Venetian merchant, who gave his impressions in some detail. His visit probably took place between 1460 and 1470. The garden was called the Hasht Behisht, "Eight Paradises,” after its central palace.(...) }}</ref>

[[Shaykhi]], one of the main painters at the court of Yaqub, is also well-known for making Chinese-style paintings, to which he sometimes afixed his own signature, such as [[:File:Chinese style scene, Aqqoyunlu Turkmen, signed by Shaykhi, ca. 1480. Tabriz. Topkapı Palace Library, H.2153, fol. 146v.jpg|''Two Young Women in Chinese 
Style Costume Seated on a Sofa'']] or [[:File:Flute player under a plum tree.jpg|''Nobles beneath a Blossoming Branch'']].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents |date=14 November 2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-32348-3 |pages=164, 168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBL0DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA164 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="TAJ200"/> Turkmen artists were generally prompt to experiment with new ideas, including Chinese ones or the works of [[Muhammad Siyah Qalam]], in contrast with the more timid style of the Timurid court.<ref name="TAJ200"/> Another characteristic of Turkmen miniatures, and particularly those of Shaykhi, compared to Timurid ones, is the rise of single-sheet illustrations, meaning that many paintings were no longer devoted to simply illustrating a given text, but were stand-alone artistic endeavours, creating images "of epic size and ambition".<ref name="TAJ200">{{cite book |title=Turks: a journey of a thousand years, 600-1600 |date=2005 |publisher=Royal Academy of Arts ; Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Harry N. Abrams |location=London : New York |isbn=978-1903973578 |page=200}}</ref>

Besides these miniatures in fine court style, there was also a quantity of more prosaic contemporary illustrated manuscripts, using a simpler and more stereotypical artistic idiom, belonging to the [[Turkoman Commercial]] style, and often centered around the city of [[Shiraz]].{{sfn|Blair|Bloom|1996|p=68}}

====Turkic language literature====
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| image1   = Makhzan al-asrar, 1478, Tabriz (in Chaghatai) part of frontispiece.jpg
| image2   = Makhzan al-asrar, 1478, Tabriz (in Chaghatai) miniature.jpg
| footer=''Frontispiece'' and [[Turkman style]] miniature from the [[Chaghatai language]] ''[[:Commons:Category:Makhzan al-asrar, 1478, Tabriz (in Chaghatai)|Makhzan al-asrar]]'', commissioned by Yaqub Sultan in 1478, Tabriz.<ref name="MAA"/>
}}
Uzun Hassan was more of a military man and was not very involved in literary creations. Still, he is said to have translated Prophetic Traditions and made a version of the Qor'an in Turkish.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=John E. |title=The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire |date=1 January 1999 |page=106 |url=https://www.academia.edu/91011925/The_Aqquyunlu_Clan_Confederation_Empire|quote=During these sessions, he discussed Prophetic Traditions with the assembled religious scholars and translated some of them into Turkish. He is also said to have produced a Turkish version of the Qur'an.}}</ref>

[[Sultan Khalil]], is known to have commissioned a rare but refined illustrated manuscript in "Azarbayjani Turkish", the ''Diwān of Hidayat'' ([[:Commons:Category:Divan (Collected Works) of Hidayat, 1478 (CBL, T 401)|Chester Beatty Library, MS 401]]).<ref name="BWR"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Minorsky |first1=V. |title=A catalogue of the Turkish manuscripts and miniatures |date=1958 |publisher=Hodge Figgis, Dublin |pages=xxxi, 1-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25478 |quote= p.xxxi: "The divan of Hidayat (N o. 401), as pointed out in its description, is one of the rare literary works written under the Turcoman dynasty of Aq-qoyunlu: only one other copy of Hidayat's poems is known." pp.1-2: "The Turkish of Amir Hidayat is undoubtedly a ‘southern Turkish’ dialect, as used by Turcoman tribes. Dialectically it belongs to the same class as the divans of Jahan-shah Qara-qoyunlu, Khata’i ( = Shah Isma'il), Fudull, &c. The current designation of this dialect is ‘Azarbayjan Turkish', but it is spoken by the Turkish tribes of Transcaucasia, Persia, as well as those of Eastern Turkey and Mesopotamia." (...) "The divan has considerable poetical merits. Although the author imitates the Persian style, and although there are many Persian elements in his vocabulary, he wields his own tongue with elegance, using peculiar grammatical forms and idiomatic expressions. (...) PROVENANCE. Inscription in rosettes on ff. \b and 2a runs: ‘For the library of the Great Sultan, the Ruler of the Nations, the Arm of the State, of the World and of the Faith, Abul-Fath Sultan Khalil Bahadur Khan, may God prolong his reign.’ The title corresponds to that of the Aq-qoyunlu ruler Khalil, son of Uzun-Hasan."}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clauson |first1=Gerard |title=The Chester Beatty Library. A Catalogue op the Turkish Manuscripts and Miniatures. By V. Minorsky, with an Introduction by the late J. V. S. Wilkinson. pp. xxxvi + 145, 43 plates (3 coloured). Dublin, Hodges Figgis and Co., Ltd., 1958. |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=April 1959 |volume=91 |issue=1-2 |pages=54–55 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00117733 |quote= one, the Divan of Hidayat (one of only two known copies) is in an interesting fifteenth century Turkmen (Ak-koyunlu) dialect.}}</ref> An adaption in [[Oghuz Turk]] of the ''Dīwān'' of [[Ali-Shir Nava'i|‘Alī Shīr Nawā’ī]] (1441-1501), the greatest representative of [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]] literature who was active in the [[Timurid Empire|Timurid court]] in [[Herat]], is also known to have likely been commissioned by Sultan Khalil. It is sometimes called ''[[:Commons:Category:Divan (Collected Works) of Ali-Shir Nava'i (1471, Shiraz)|The Dīwān of the Aq Qoyunlu admirers]]''.{{sfn|Erkinov|2015|pp=[https://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/2791 47–79]}}

Some of the works commissioned by [[Yaqub Aq Qoyunlu|Yaqub Sultan]] were in [[Chagatai language|Chagatai]] (Eastern Turkic), such as a [[:Commons:Category:Divan (Collected Works) of Ali-Shir Nava'i (1480, Sultan Ya'qub, Aq Qoyunlu)|''Divan'' of Ali-Shir Nava'i (1480)]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Selections from the poetry of Mir Ali-shir Nava'i in Turkish, copied by 'Abd al-Rahim al-Ya'qubi, Persia, Aq Qoyunlu, dated 881 AH/1480 AD |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/arts-islamic-world-l15220/lot.69.html |website=Sothebys |language=en}}</ref> or a [[:Commons:Category:Makhzan al-asrar, 1478, Tabriz (in Chaghatai)|''Makhzan al-asrar'' (1478)]] made in Tabriz, "painted with Chinese landscapes, flowering trees, and birds in gold".<ref name="MAA">{{cite web |title=Makhzan al-asrar |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/b7595420-b0c7-013d-4f06-0242ac110004#/?uuid=b7651820-b0c7-013d-807d-0242ac110004 |website=NYPL Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref>

== Administration ==
The Aq Qoyunlu administration encompassed two sections; the military caste, which mostly consisted of [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkomans]], but also had Iranian tribesmen in it. The other section was the civil staff, which consisted of officials from established Persian families.<ref>[http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00068270 V. Minorsky, "A Civil and Military Review in Fars"] 881/1476, p. 172</ref>

==Legacy==
Despite their rivalry, the [[Safavids]] formed in a certain sense the posterity of the Aq Qoyunlu, as shown by the extent of their marital connections: [[Junaid]], hereditary leader of the [[Safavid order]] and grandfather of the future founder of the [[Safavid Empire]] [[Shah Ismail]], married an Aq Qoyunlu princess (Uzun Hassan's sister, [[Khadija Begum|Khadija Khatun]]). Their son [[Haydar Safavi]] also married a daughter of Uzun Hasan, [[Alamshah Halime Begum]], a union out of which was born Shah Ismail.<ref name="CM">{{cite journal |last1=Melville |first1=Charles |title=History: From the Saljuqs to the Aq Qoyunlu (ca. 1000-1500 C.E.) |journal=Iranian Studies |date=1998 |volume=31 |issue=3/4 |pages=476–477 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4311182 |issn=0021-0862 |quote=A long article on the AQ QOYUNLU by R. Quiring-Zoche underlines the essential Turk versus Tajik clash (esp. p. 166) that has been taken to characterize the whole period, particularly in the pioneering studies of Minorsky. Nevertheless, closer analysis might yield a more sophisticated picture than a simple dichotomy between 'men of the sword' and 'men of the pen'. Although the author refers to  the marriage between Uzun Hasan's daughter and [[Haydar Safavi|Sultan Haidar Safavi]], the previous connection with [[Junaid]] is passed over. There is perhaps an insufficient emphasis on the extent to which the Safavids were themselves the posterity of the Aq Qoyunlu, not only in a genealogical sense, but also as heirs to a tribally constituted military elite posing the same problems for stable government.}}</ref> [[Shah Ismail]]'s main wife was [[Tajlu Khanum]], an Aq Qoyunlu princess of the [[Mawsillu]] tribe, giving birth to his successor [[Tahmasp I]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ágoston |first1=Gábor |title=The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe |date=22 June 2021 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15932-4 |page=546, note 29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXALEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA546 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ze’evi |first1=Dror |title=Queens Around the World, 1520–1620: A Century of Female Power |date=5 December 2024 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-031-58634-7 |page=100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ji82EQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |language=en |quote=Tajlu was a princess from the Mawsillu, one of the great tribes comprising the Aq Qoyunlu confederation}}</ref> [[Tahmasp I]]' main wife was [[Sultanum Begum]], also an Aq Qoyunlu princess of the [[Mawsillu]] tribe, giving birth to [[Ismail II]] and [[Mohammad Khodabanda]].<ref>{{cite web |title=ESMĀʿIL II |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/esmail-02/ |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica |quote=Esmāʿil Mirzā (later Esmāʿil II) was the second son of Ṭahmāsp I (930-84/1524-76). His mother, Ḵadam-ʿAli Solṭān Ḵānom, also known as Solṭānom Begum (d. 1002/1594), came from the Mawṣellu, the paramount clan of the left wing of the Aq Qoyunlu tribal confederation.}}</ref> Finally, the Safavids too were heirs to "a tribally constituted military elite" and encountered similar difficulties in forming a stable government.<ref name="CM"/>

==Military==
===Evolution===
[[File:Scene of warfare (51b, detail). Tabriz 1481 (Istanbul, Topkapi H. 762).jpg|thumb|Battle scene from an Aq Qoyunlu miniature of the [[:Commons:Category:Khamsa of Nizami (TSM H762)|''Khamsa of Nizami'' (TSM H762)]]. Tabriz, painted in 1481]]
The military of the Aq Qoyunlu initially reflected their rather loose political structure. Decisions were taken by a council (''kengač'') of amirs and tribal chiefs (''boy ḵānları''), whose decision the sultan had to follow.<ref name="EI AQ"/> A small army largely composed of tribal levies was in charge of securing pastoral lands, and essentially supported themselves through heir own lands and booty. The sultan also possessed a force of personal guards (''ḵawāṣṣ'') provided by various nomadic groups.<ref name="EI AQ">{{cite web |title=AQ QOYUNLŪ |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aq-qoyunlu-confederation/ |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica}}</ref>

Following their surprise victory over the [[Qara Qoyunlu]] confederation, many tribes previously under Qara Qoyunlu control joined the Aq Qoyunlu. The conquering armies of [[Uzun Hasan]] grew tremendously in size, probably exceeding 100,000 men.<ref name="EI AQ"/> Even [[Sultan Khalil]], as Aq Qoyunlu Governor of Fars, is reported to have had a force of 25,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, plus auxiliaries.<ref name="EI AQ"/> The core power of this large military resided in the strength of its cavalry, while the absence of firearms was its principal weakness.<ref name="EI AQ"/>

===Structure===
The organization of the Aq Qoyunlu army was based on the fusion of military traditions from both nomadic and settled cultures. The ethnic background of Aq-Qoyunlu troops were quite heterogeneous as it consisted of 'sarvars' of Azerbaijan, people of Persia and Iraq, Iranzamin askers, dilavers of Kurdistan, Turkmen mekhtars and others.<ref name="Agayev">{{cite book |last1=Агаев |first1=Юсиф|last2=Ахмедов|first2=Сабухи|date=2006|title=Ак-Коюнлу-Османская война|language=Russian|url=https://history.az/pdf.php?item_id=20120924120847192&ext=pdf}}</ref><ref name="Erdem">{{cite journal |last1=Erdem |first1=I.|name-list-style=amp |date=March 1991 |title=[Akkoyunlu Ordusunu Oluşturan İnsan Unsuru] |journal=Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi|language=Turkish |volume=15 |issue=26 |pages=85–92 |issn=1015-1826|url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/219245}}</ref>

{{Tree chart/start}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |Ruler      |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|div|Ruler=[[:Padishah|Padishah (Sovereign)]]|div='''Head of Defence Ministry'''<br/>Tavachi dari}}
{{Tree chart| |,|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|'|!|`|-|-|-|.| | | | |,|'|!|`|-|-|.|}}
{{Tree chart| |RED  | | | | |GREEN    | | |BLUE | | |tav| |kad| |bit| |RED='''Head of Guards'''<br/>Qorchu bashi|GREEN='''Chief commander over army units''' <br/>(Amir al-Umara – Askeri qoshun)|BLUE='''Flag bearer'''<br/>(Emir alem)|tav=Tavachi|kad=Kadi nazir|bit=Amir bitikchi
|boxstyle_RED  =color:white; background-color: #bf212f;
|boxstyle_GREEN=color:yellow; background-color: #006f3c;
}}
{{Tree chart| ,|-|'|`|.| | | | | |!| | |!| | | | | | | | | | |}}
{{Tree chart|bm| |gc| |en| | |ea| | | | | | | | | | | |bm='''Royal bodyguard'''<br/>Boy nuker|gc='''Guards'''<br/>(qorchu)|en='''Engineer corps'''|ea='''Chief Horseman'''<br/>(Emir Ahur)}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |gr | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | |gr='''Garrisons'''|ea='''The superintendent of the hunt'''<br/>Amir-i Shikar}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |gr | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | |gr='''Artillery'''|ea='''Military inspector'''<br/>Ariz-i Lashkar}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |gr | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | |gr='''Road guards'''|ea='''Quartermaster'''<br/>Bukaul-i Lashkar}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |gr | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | |gr='''Regular army'''<br />(Jeri)|ea='''Search units'''<br/>Balarguchi}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | |gr | | |ea|-|-|jan| | | | | | | | |gr='''Nomad units'''<br/>Mir-i el|ea='''Army Inspector'''<br/>Amiri Jandar|jan=Jandar units}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | | |ea='''Head of Food Supply'''<br/>Rikabdar}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea|-|-|jas| | | | | | | | |ea='''Head of Auxiliary troops'''<br/>Yasaul bashi|jas=Yasaul units}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea|-|-|jas| | | | | | | | |ea='''Head of Camping'''<br/>Yurtchu bashi|jas=Yurtchu units}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | }}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea| | | | | | | | | | | |ea='''Messenger'''<br/>Chavush}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | |jas | | | | | | | |jas=Jasus}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea|-|-|'|| | | | | | | | |ea='''Secret agents / spies '''<br/>Sahib Habar}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| |`|-|jag| | | | | | | | | |jag=Jagdiul}}
{{Tree chart| | | | | | | | | | | | | |ea| | || | | | | | | | |ea='''Head of Internal Affairs '''<br/>Eshik Agasi Bashi}}
{{Tree chart/end}}<ref name="Agayev"/><ref name="Erdem" />

== Coinage ==
<gallery>
File:Coin of the Aq Qoyunlu leader Jahangir.jpg|Jahangir's coin, after 1444 AD.
File:Coin of Uzun Hasan, minted in Amed (Amid, Diyarbakır). Obverse.jpg|Uzun Hasan's coin minted in Amid (Diyarbakir), {{c.}} 1453–1478 AD.
File:Coin of Yaqub bin Uzun Hasan, obverse.jpg|Sultan Yaqub's coin, {{c.}} 1479–1490 AD.
File:Gold coin of the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Baysunghur, Tabriz mint.jpg|Baysunghur's coin minted in Tabriz, {{c.}} 1490–1493 AD.
File:Coin of Sultan Rustam (Aq Qoyunlu).png|Sultan Rustam's coin, 1495 AD.
File:Coin of Sultan Ahmad (Aq Qoyunlu).jpg|Sultan Ahmad's coin minted in Tabriz, 1497 AD.
File:Coin of Sultan Muhammed (Aq Qoyunlu).png|Coin of Sultan Muhammad.
File:Coin of Sultan Alvand (Aq Qoyunlu).jpg|Sultan Alwand's coin.
File:Coin of Sultan Murad (Aq Qoyunlu).jpg|Sultan Murad's coin.
</gallery>

==See also==
{{History of Azerbaijan}}
{{Anatolian History timeline infobox}}
{{History of Iran}}
*[[List of rulers of Aq Qoyunlu]]
*[[Turkmen invasions of Georgia]]
*[[Bozulus]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* Bosworth, Clifford (1996) ''The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual'' (2nd ed.) Columbia University Press, New York, {{ISBN|0-231-10714-5}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |first1=H. |last1=Javadi |first2=K. |last2=Burrill|title=Azerbaijan x. Azeri Turkish Literature|date=May 24, 2012 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/azerbaijan-x|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |quote="Among the Azeri poets of the 15th century mention should be made of Ḵaṭāʾi Tabrizi. He wrote a maṯnawi entitled Yusof wa Zoleyḵā, and dedicated it to the Aqqoyunlu Sultan Yaʿqub (r. 1478–90), who himself wrote poetry in Azeri Turkish."}}
*{{cite book |title= Esoteric Images: Decoding the Late Herat School of Painting |first=Tawfiq |last=Daʿadli |publisher=Brill |year=2019 }}
*{{cite book |title=Stephen the Great and Balkan Nationalism: Moldova and Eastern European History |first=Jonathan |last=Eagles |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2014 |isbn=978-1780763538}}
* {{cite journal |first=Aftandil |last=Erkinov |title=From Herat to Shiraz: the Unique Manuscript (876/1471) of 'Alī Shīr Nawā'ī's Poetry from Aq Qoyunlu Circle  |journal=Cahiers d'Asie centrale |volume=24 |year=2015 |pages=47–79 |translator-first=Scott |translator-last=Bean }}
* {{cite encyclopaedia|last=Lane|first=George|title=Turkoman confederations, the (Aqqoyunlu and Qaraqoyunlu)|doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe193|year=2016|encyclopaedia=The Encyclopedia of Empire|pages=1–5 |isbn=978-1118455074 |editor-last1=Dalziel|editor-first1=N.|editor-last2=MacKenzie|editor-first2=J.M.}}
* {{Encyclopaedia Islamica|last1=Langaroodi|first1=Reza Rezazadeh|last2=Negahban|first2=Farzin|year=2015|title=Āq-qūyūnlū|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-islamica/aq-quyunlu-COM_0288}}
*{{cite journal |last=Lingwood |first=C. G. |year=2011 |title=The qebla of Jāmi is None Other than Tabriz": ʿAbd al-Rahmān Jāmi and Naqshbandi Sufism at the Aq Qoyunlu Royal Court |journal=Journal of Persianate Studies |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=233–245 |doi=10.1163/187471611X600404 }}
*{{cite book |title=Politics, Poetry, and Sufism in Medieval Iran |first=Chad G. |last=Lingwood |publisher=Brill |year=2014 }}
*{{cite book |title=The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam: Persian Emigres and the Making of Ottoman Sovereignty |first=Christopher |last=Markiewicz |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1108492140}}
* {{cite journal |title=The Delicate Art of Aggression: Uzun Hasan's "Fathnama" to Qaytbay of 1469 |first=Matthew |last=Melvin-Koushki |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=44 |number=2 (MARCH) |year=2011 |pages=193–214 |doi=10.1080/00210862.2011.541688 |jstor=23033324 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23033324 |url-access=subscription }}
* Morby, John (2002) ''Dynasties of the World: A Chronological and Genealogical Handbook'' (2nd ed.) Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, {{ISBN|0-19-860473-4}}
*{{cite book |title=Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History:Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and South America |volume=7 |editor-first1=David |editor-last1=Thomas |editor-first2=John A. |editor-last2=Chesworth |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-9004298484}}
* Woods, John E. (1999) ''[https://www.academia.edu/91011925/The_Aqquyunlu_Clan_Confederation_Empire The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire]'' (2nd ed.) University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, {{ISBN|0-87480-565-1}}

{{Aq Qoyunlu leaders}}
{{Iran topics}}
{{Iraq topics}}
{{Medieval states in Anatolia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord missing|Asia}}

[[Category:Aq Qoyunlu| ]]
[[Category:Medieval history of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:15th century in Armenia]]
[[Category:Medieval history of Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Medieval Azerbaijan (Iran)]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1378]]
[[Category:1508 disestablishments in Asia]]
[[Category:1378 establishments in Asia]]
[[Category:Medieval history of Iraq]]
[[Category:1370s in the Middle East]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1508]]