The Aq-qoyunlu And Land Reforms

V. Minorsky

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00112376

The Aq-qoyunlu And Land Reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

V. Minorsky

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

THERE still remain many interesting and important problems connected A with, the emergence in the 14th century of the Turkman federations of the Qara-qoyunlu (780–874/1378–1469) and Aq-qoyunlu (780–908/1378–1502). The roots of the Persian risorgimento under the Safavids (1502–1722) go deep into this preparatory period. On the internal policy of the Qara-qoyunlu our documentation is still insufficient. Having succeeded the Jalayirs the Qara-qoyunlu must have inherited the administrative pattern evolved under the Mongol il-khans.1

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , October 1955 , pp. 449 - 462

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00112376 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1955

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 449 note 1} See especially the very illuminating data of Rashid al-dīn's Tarīkh-i Ghāzānī, ed. K. Jahn (and also available in good Russian translation by Arends, 1946). See also Minovi and Minorsky, ‘ Nasīr al-dīn Tūsī on Finance’, BSOAS, 1941, x, 3, 755–89.

^{page 449 note 2} Minorsky, ‘ A soyurghal of Qāsim Aq-qoyunlu (903/1498) ’, BS08, 1939, IX, 4, 927–60.

^{page 449 note 3} Lubb al-tavārīkh, Br. Mus. Or., 140, f. 63v: ‘ until now [Shah Tahmāsp’s time] his regulations (‘amal) concerning the organization of finance (istīfā-yi māt) and the collection of the governmental fees (huqūq-i dīvūni ?) has been a law (qānūn)'. See Sharafnāma, n, 120, Tadhhirat al-mulūk, f. lOr. Quoted in Minorsky, ‘ A Civil and Military Review in Fars in 881/1476 ’, BS08, 1939, x, 3, 142.

^{page 450 note 1} Published by Prof. Ömer Lütfü Barkan in Tarih vesikalari, 1941, I, 2, 91–106, and 3, 184–97, and digested in a clear résumé by W. Hinz in ZDMG, 1950, Bd. 100, Heft 1, 177–201.

^{page 450 note 2} Still unpublished. The author ‘Abdullāh b. Fathullāh al-Baghdādi al-Ghiyāthi was still alive in 891/1482. The passage on Uzun Hasan’s reforms is quoted in ‘Abbās al-‘Azzāwi’s Ta’rīkh al-'Irāq, in (1357/1939), 254. On the author, ibid., n, 110. See B. Lewis, in BSOAS, xvi, 3, p. 599.

^{page 450 note 3} The non-Islamic levy, originally the octroi and later a kind of capital levy, see ‘ Nasīr al-dīn Tūsī on Finance ’, p. 781; under the Mongols the tamgha levy amounted to 1: 240 of the capital; cf. Barthold, ‘ Inschrift der Manuče Moschee ’, German trans, by Hinz, ZDMG, 1951, Bd. 101, p. 263.

^{page 450 note 4} Thus apparently fixing the rate at 1:20. Even at this diminished rate it would be twelve times the rate of Mongol times The text, as given in ' Azzāwī, is not quite clear:

^{page 451 note 1} I have used both the Paris MS. (Bibl. Nat., ancien fonds persan, No. 101) and the Istanbul MS. (Fatih 4431), of which Prof. Hinz most kindly lent me the photographs. I have prepared a detailed analysis of the contents of this remarkable work which I hope will see light some day.

^{page 451 note 2} Storey, Persian Literature, 1, 1, 300.

^{page 451 note 3} The original report occupies in the Paris MS. £F. 159a–170a and 179b–194a; in the Fatih MS. ff. 177a–191b and 199a–212b.

^{page 452 note 1} Parvānachī is the official concerned with parvānas, lit. ‘ fly-leaves ’, i.e. correspondence and orders of appointments, apparently not of the highest level. This may have been the original rank of Najm.

^{page 452 note 2} Abwāb-i kifāyat. In Nasīr al-dīn Tūsi's treatise on finance, the term is explained as revenue from bringing dead lands to cultivation, from mines, fisheries, purchased land, etc. In my commentary I tentatively translated the term as ‘; lawful exertions and prosecutions’, but it may have had a more general use.

^{page 452 note 3} Octrois, municipal levies. See Barthold, Nadpis na mecheti Manuche, 1911, p. 34 (Germ, transl. by Hinz, ZDMO, 1951, Bd. 101). See especially Nasīr al-dīn Tūsī's treatise, p. 781, where tamghā refers also to a kind of capital levy (amounting to 1: 240).

^{page 452 note 4} The text of Fadlullāh bristles with technical terms which still admit only of an approximate interpretation. Etymologies are here of little help and the phraseology of the manuals of accountancy admits of various interpretations.

^{page 452 note 5} Perhaps the vazīr of finance but rather the director and inspector of the Chancery. Each department had a vazīr and a mushrif.

^{page 452 note 6} Masālib ‘ public weal, state needs ’, cf. Sa‘dl, Gulistān, I, story 32; masīlib-i mamālih ‘ state affairs ’. cf. also Nasīr al-dīn Tūsī, pp. 774 and 779.

^{page 452 note 7} The expenditure on the army belonged to the masīlib-i pādshāhī ‘ state interests ’, see Nasir al-dīn's treatise, p. 777.

^{page 453 note 1} This is not a geographical place but rather a settlement of traders and artisans attached to the royal camp.

^{page 453 note 2} Officials, originally attached to the Royal Table, but in fact having the functions of executive officers. This is an example of how offices and titles changed their purpose. [In Mongol the term would be * böke'ül.]

^{page 453 note 3} Soyurghāl is the tenure of lands assigned to the beneficiary by the State. The kharjī class may have been the grants issued to defray the expenses of a dignitary or an amir rendering some services. The hashvi class may have been those issued as a mere favour. However, from the point of view of pure accountancy, Hinz (Die Welt des Orients, 1949, p. 315) opposes the terms bāriz and ashv as referring respectively to items ‘ mit Errechnung des Endzahlenproducts ’ and those without such evaluation. I wonder whether this interpretation would apply in our case.

^{page 453 note 4} Raf‘, here definitely in the sense of ‘ elevation ’ and not of ‘ suppression ’.

^{page 453 note 5} Prima facie this term refers to ‘ immunities ’.

^{page 453 note 6} See below, p. 455, n. 6.

^{page 453 note 7} A well-known family of noblemen of Isfahan.

^{page 453 note 8} Consequently herds and flocks were also registered. The non-Islamic qopchur was originally a levy on flocks and herds, before the term acquired a more general meaning. See on the shaky terminology ' Naīr al-din ’, pp. 783āl al-dīn Muhammad b. As'ad Davānī, author of the Akhlāq-i Jalālī (830–908/1427–1502), see Minorsky, ‘ Civil and Military Review’, BSOS, x, 1, 1939, 144.

^{page 454 note 1} the small holders who had bought their lots could not have done

^{page 454 note 2} The meaning is apparently that the small holders who had bought their lots could not have done so if Öljeytu's waqf really existed.

^{page 454 note 3} 3 On him see below, p. 458

^{page 454 note 4} Sultan Ya‘qūb died on 14 September, 1490. Despite Fadlullah's detailed description of the course of his illness the circumstances of his death are not quite clear, see Lārī, Mir’āt al-adwār, Br. Mus. Add. 7650, f. 229b, the Italian merchant, Hakluyt Society, 1873, pp. 183^, and the Georgian Chronicle, trans. Brosset, n, 329, according to whom the Sultan was poisoned.

^{page 454 note 5} The author promises to illustrate his narrative with the story of the shaykhs of Sāva (qudāt-i Sāvajīya) (MS. Fatih, fol. 199a) and (fol. 191a) refers to Part II of his work which apparently was never written.

^{page 455 note 1} See above, p. 454, note 4.

^{page 455 note 2} MS. Fatih, f. 195a: the summer quarters of the court were at Sahand in 895/1490.

^{page 455 note 3} Mā-adar-i abvāb-i taqabbulāt. See Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 176, where I suggest for taqabbulāt some contracts accepted from the government. A. K. S. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, 1953, 441: ‘ taqabbul (?) some kind of levy made when a taxpayer agrees to the assessment fixed by the revenue officer (Aq-qoyunlu) ’. The text on which this explanation is based is not indicated.

^{page 455 note 4} This indicates the purpose of the government: to collect the revenue and, out of it, to pay the salaries and stipends instead of remunerating the claimants in grants and assignments on lands.

^{page 455 note 5} Tama‘/un fī wajhi ’llah, instead of t.m‘r wajh fi ’llah, as twice in the text ?

^{page 455 note 6} The former of whom died in 371/982 and the latter in 606/1209, see Shadd al-izār, ed. M. Qazvīnī, pp. 38–46 and 243–7.

^{page 455 note 7} In the central part of Persian Iraq. If there is no mistake in the text, the number of oxen is not impressive. About 1620, the mutavalli of the sanctuary of Ardabil had 650 pairs of oxen to lend to his share-croppers, see Silsilat al-nasab, pp. 113–4.

^{page 456 note 1} In the story of the hermit the latter has even the same weakness for poetry as Qāī 'Isa and imagines himself a MutanabbI and an Abū-Nuwās.

^{page 456 note 2} ‘ With big sticks.’ The argument (‘ let sleeping dogs lie ’) is specious but the hint at the situation obtaining in Persian Iraq is very interesting.

^{page 456 note 3} Vujūh-i tafāvut, apparently the difference between the old assessment and the increased value of the estate.

^{page 456 note 4} On the opposition between the state (mamālik) administration and the demesnes (khāa, injū) see Tadhkirat al-mvlūk, p. 24. The ‘ seals ’ were the various registration fees collected by the keepers of the seals, ibid., § 98.

^{page 457 note 1} Is this some particularly venomous hint at Qāī 'Īsā ?

^{page 457 note 2} In 614/1217. In the text ‘ Khwārazm-shāh’ is mis-spelt as the Mongol general ‘ Chormaghun ’ (f. 211 b).

^{page 457 note 3} See Naīr al-dīn Tūsī in Juvayni, in, 290.

^{page 457 note 4} In 895 Ramadan began on 19 July 1490.

^{page 457 note 5} The ‘ past qāī’ (māī-yi māī) as he rather unceremoniously calls him after his death.

^{page 457 note 6} See also Lari, f. 229a, on ‘ colleges and retreats (biqd‘-va-savami’) ’ resounding with pious recitations at the time of Sultan Ya 'qub.

^{page 457 note 7} This would suggest that the grants had to be confirmed by each new king. See below Sultan Ahmad's refusal to do so, p. 459.

^{page 457 note 8} According to Fadlullah (MS. Fatih, f. 190a) Shaykh 'AH was tortured in Shiraz by Qasim Pornak and died some time after.

^{page 458 note 1} I very much regret that, despite my endeavours, Prof. I. P. Petrushevsky's ‘ Internal Policy of Ahmad Aq-qoyunlu ’, published in Izv. Azarbayjan. Filiala Akad. Nauk, 1942, No. 2, has remained inaccessible to me. On the other hand, a parallel study may prove its utility, as when the decipherment of a difficult document is checked by communicating it to two independent scholars.

^{page 458 note 2} See Ghaffari, f. 192a.

^{page 458 note 3} This little-known episode can be considered as a prelude to Sultan Selim's campaign against Shah Isma'il in 1514.

^{page 458 note 4} Perhaps *Ay-apa ? This venturesome man, particularly responsible for the disruption of the Aq-qoyunlu kingdom, belonged to a collateral side branch of the ruling Bayundur clan. His personal name was Ibrahim b. Dana, (or Dana) Khalil b. Kur-Muhammad b. Qara-'Othman, whereas Uzun-Hasan was son of 'Ali, son of Qara-'Othman. Ayba-sultan is usually mentioned in conjunction with the Qajar troops. The Qajar clan emerges for the first time at this period.

^{page 458 note 5} According to Mir Yahya, f. 66a, in Dhul-Hijja 902/July 1497.

^{page 459 note 1} Mentioned above in connexion with Qadi ‘Isa’s commission.

^{page 459 note 2} Khwandamir, iii/4, p. 334, calls this place K.hyz (or Kyhaz)olang. In Mongol oläng means ‘ grass, meadow ’. The first part of the name should be restored probably as Keher, in Mong. ‘ desert, steppe ’, see Kashld al-din, ed. Berezin, VII, 233: keherön Bayavut, and Ibn Muhanna's lexicon, ed. Kilisi Rif at, p. 217:, cf. N. Poppe, Muqaddimat al-adab, Moscow 1938, p. 439. It is curious that about A.D. 1497 Mongol toponymy should have been still remembered in Central Persia. [Original Mongol: keger.]

^{page 459 note 3} Mir Yahya gives 18 Rabi II 903/14 December 1497, while Ghaffari, f. 194b, omits the day of the month.

^{page 459 note 4} Habib al-siyar (written after 930/1524), in/4, p. 334, line 26.

^{page 459 note 5} Ikhrajat are occasional ‘ disbursements ’ borne by the population, for example, in connexion with the arrival of official travellers; shiltaq ‘ a pretext’, a still more arbitrary levy. See Minorsky, ‘ A soyurghal ’, BSOS, ix, 4, 1939, 946–7.

^{page 459 note 6} *Qalam-i ibtal (printed: qm).

^{page 459 note 7} Lubb al-tavarikh, Br. Mus., Or. 140, f. 66a

^{page 460 note 1} Absan al-tavarikh, ed. Seddon, p. 16. The editor was unaware of the fact that vol. xi of Hasan Rumlu's history (covering the years 807-99/1405–95) has also survived, see Storey, Persian Literature, I, 1, pp. 306–7.

^{page 460 note 2} Qanun-i 'addlat, possibly ‘ a just assessment’.

^{page 460 note 3} Meaning: the tribal Aq-qoyunlu chiefs.

^{page 460 note 4} The mother of his father Oghurlu-Muhammad was a Kurdish lady. Ahmad was the son of an Ottoman princess. The sobriquet govde, or govdeje means in Turkish ‘ a small trunk, a dwarfish person ’.

^{page 460 note 5} Jihan-ara, Br. Mus., Or. 141, f. 194b. This author substitutes the term tiyuL for aydlat which Mir Yahya uses with regard to Sultan-Ayba's appointment to Kerman. [Tiyül (northern Turkish: tiyish) from Turkish tiy-mek (Ottoman deg-melc): ‘ what reaches somebody, falls to his lot ’. The Persians pronounce toyul.]

^{page 461 note 1} Mir 'at al-advar, Br. Mus., Add. 7650, f. 230b. Lari was a sunnite Persian who lived in India and finished his days in Turkey (in 979/1572). [On him see Babinger, GOW, 94; Storey, Persian Literature, 117; cf. Afcsan al-tavarikh, 454, under the year 980.].

^{page 461 note 2} Lane, I/7, 2699: ‘madir, one who plasters his watering-trough, or tank with his ordure, in order that no one besides himself may water at it’. cf. Lisan al-'arab, III, 536, where this dishonouring practice is connected with the Banii-Hilal.

^{page 461 note 3} He was not only the son of an Ottoman princess but himself was married to a daughter of Sultan Bayazid. See M. H. Inane, Ak-koyuidu, in Islam Ansiklopedisi

^{page 461 note 4} Did he come with Amad-beg from Turkey ? Could he have had any connexion with the Hurufi sect whose important branch were the Nuqtavi ? See on them the recent works of Sadiq Kiya, Nvqtaviyan yd Pasl-khaniydn, 1320/1941 (there are no data on their history between 831/ 1427 and 973/1565), and H. Ritter, in Oriews, 1954, vii, 1, pp. 6, 40. The very name of the shaykh, A'la, is strange and even suggestive.

Article contents

The Aq-qoyunlu And Land Reforms

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests