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The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_001

ii 

Studies on Performing Arts &

Literature of the Islamicate World

Series Editors

Li Guo (University of Notre Dame)

Richard Jankowsky (Tufts University)
Margaret Litvin (Boston University)

Advisory Board

Walter Armbrust (Oxford)

Marvin Carlson (cuny-gc)
Matthew Isaac Cohen (Royal Holloway)
Nacim Pak-Shiraz (University of Edinburgh)
Friederike Pannewick (Marburg)
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Nehad Selaiha (Cairo)
Martin Stokes (King’s College, London)
Andrew Weintraub (University of Pittsburgh)

VOLUME 8

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 iii

The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil

A Seventeenth-Century Persian Popular Romance

Edited and translated by

Barry Wood

LEIDEN | BOSTON
 iv 

Cover illustration: Shāh Esmāʿil leads his men up a mountain to attack the Lors (Chester Beatty Library
MS Per 278, f. 77a). © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wood, Barry, 1970- translator.

Title: The adventures of Shah Esma’il : a seventeenth-century Persian popular romance / by Barry Wood
[translator].
Other titles: ʿĀlamārā-yi Shāh Ismāʿīl. English.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Studies on performing arts & literature of the Islamicate
world ; 8 | Translation of a collection of manuscripts that was edited and published in Iran in 1971 by
its owner, Aṣghar Muntaẓir Ṣāḥib, and published under the title: ʿĀlamārā-yi Shāh Ismāʿīl. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038571 (print) | LCCN 2018042127 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004383531 (Ebook) | ISBN
9789004383524 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Ismāʿīl I, Shah of Iran, 1487-1524--Romances.
Classification: LCC DS292.3 (ebook) | LCC DS292.3 .A4313 2018 (print) | DDC 891/.5532--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038571

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 Contents
Contents v

Contents

Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Notes on Transliteration xxiv

Part 1
The Ancestors of Shāh Esmāʿil
1 The Story of Solṭān Firuzshāh 3
2 The Story of ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ and His Son Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ 5
3 The Story of Salāḥoddin Rashid 7
4 The Story of Seyyed Jebrāʾil 9
5 The Story of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli 16
6 The Battle between Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā and Aybeh Solṭān and the Death
of Solṭān ʿAli 30

Part 2
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. the Torkmāns
7 Shāh Esmāʿil Catches Sight of His Majesty the Lord of the Age 39
8 The Emergence of Shāh Esmāʿil from Gilān and Lāhijān with Seven
People, and the Conquest of Ṭārom 41
9 The Story of the Sons of Rostam Shāh, and of How His Majesty the
Shadow of God Went to Ardabil; the Killing of ʿAli Khān Solṭān 44
10 Alvand Sends ʿOthmān Solṭān to Fight the Shāh, Who in Turn Sends
Qarāpari Qājār; the Latter is Killed, and the Torkmāns are
Defeated 49
11 King Alvand Goes to the Anatolian Emperor and Seeks Help; He Comes
to Iran and is Defeated; His Qualities 57
12 The World-conquering Shāh’s Proposal to Tājlu Begom, the Daughter of
ʿĀbedin Beg Shāmlu, and the Wedding Feast of that Fortunate
Prince 67
vi Contents

13 Birth of the Shadow of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp, in the Village of Ranān

near Eṣfahān 69
14 Shāh Esmāʿil Sends an Army against Solṭān Morād, and that Failure is
Captured 80
15 Solṭān Morād Flees toward Shirāz; Moḥammad Karahi Captures Him
and Sends Him to Shāh Esmāʿil, But He Flees Again 86
16 Solṭān Morād Flees toward Shirāz as Elyās Beg Pursues Him 89
17 Elyās Beg Goes to Dāmghān to Fight Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi and is Killed
by That Man’s Duplicity 92
18 Shāh Esmāʿil Proceeds from Qom towards Firuzkuh and Māzandarān to
Defeat Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi 95
19 ʿAli Kiyā Goes to Take the Pass of Firuzkuh 99
20 Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives at the Fortress of Mārānkuh and Does Battle with
Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, Who is Killed 105
21 Shoʿayb Āqā is Killed by Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi; Moḥammad Karahi
Rebels, Solṭān Aḥmad is Killed, and Yazd is Captured 108
22 His Majesty Arrives at Yazd, and Moḥammad Karahi is Killed 112
23 Shāh Esmāʿil Goes from Yazd to Ṭabas; Tardi Bābā is Killed, and Amir
Kamāloddin Ḥosayn Comes to the Royal Court on Behalf of Solṭān
Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 114
24 ʿAbdi Beg is Martyred at the Hands of Ḥosayn Beg, Son of Ṣārem Khān
the Kurd; Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives, and Ṣārem Khān Flees 126
25 The Conquest of Baghdād by the Qezelbāsh; Bāyrak Solṭān Flees to
Moṣul, and Shāh Esmāʿil Visits Najaf 129
26 The Royal Banners Leave for ʿErāq and Khorrāmābād, Where
Malekshāh Rostam is 137
27 The Shāh and His Army Come to Fight Malekshāh Rostam, Who
Pledges Obedience; Together They Go to Ḥovayzeh to Fight Malek
Fayyāz 140
28 His Majesty Sends Nur ʿAli Khalifeh to the Ṣufis of Rum on His Behalf,
and He Accepts Oaths of Fealty in Tabriz and Diyārbakr 149
Contents vii

29 The Royal Banners Head for Diyārbakr, and Shāh Esmāʿil Does Battle
with ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr 156
30 Shāh Esmāʿil Sends a Letter to ʿAlāʾoddawleh, Who Responds with an
Offer of Peace; His Majesty Returns to Ādharbāyjān 165
31 Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān Come to the Aid of Moḥammadi Solṭān
and are Killed by Qarākhān the Brother of Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu,
Who is Victorious 172
32 On the Nature and Circumstances of Solṭān Salim, Son of Solṭān
Bāyazid of Anatolia 181
33 Qarākhān Attacks Arzenjān, and Moḥammad Khān Sends Solṭān
Bāyazid of Anatolia an Envoy with Women’s Clothing 189
34 Solṭān Bāyazid and Solṭān Qānṣaw, the Ruler of Egypt, Fight against
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr 194

Part 3
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. the Uzbeks
35 Shāhi Beg Khān, Son of Abulkhayr Khān, Makes His Emergence and
Seizes Torkestān from the Descendants of Amir Timur 199
36 Of the Sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā and Their Circumstances, and
How Their Fates were Ruined 207
37 Bābor Pādeshāh Goes to Kābol, While Shāhi Beg Khān Goes to Balkh
and Badiʿozzamān Sets Out to Fight Him 219
38 Shāhi Beg Khān Comes to Dāmghān, Then Returns to Samarqand;
Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā Comes to the Service of Shāh Esmāʿil; Amir
Najm Ii and the Great Commanders Subdue Khorāsān, Entrust It to the
Sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, and Leave 243
39 The Victorious Royal Banners Come to Marv, and the Shāh Plays a Trick
on Shāhi Beg Khān the Ruler of Torkestān, Who is Killed 267
40 Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns from Māzandarān and is Met by the
Shāh; Bārsil Khān, the King of Urgench, Comes to the Foot of the Royal
Throne with Ovays Mirzā and Bābor Pādeshāh; Amir Najm Ii Goes to
Torkestān 290
viii Contents

41 Amir Najm II and His Commanders Head for Torkestān, and Bābor
Pādeshāh Comes to Balkh 308
42 Amir Najm II Arrives at Qarshi; Shaykham Mirzā Mounts a Night
Attack on the Qezelbāsh Encampment; Amir Najm Executes His
Nephew Moḥammad Kāẓem; the Victory of Amir Najm and the Death
of Shaykham Mirzā 314
43 Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes to Balkh; ʿObayd Khān Comes, and Khorāsān is
Seized by an Uzbek Army; Shāh Ṭahmāsp Khān Mirzā Leaves Harāt for
ʿErāq; Shāh Esmāʿil Receives Word that Amir Najm II has been
Killed 330
44 Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns to Iran and to His Majesty, Who Summons an
Army to Conquer Khorāsān and Torkestān; the Kings of Torkestān
Flee 342
45 Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān, the Pādeshāh of the Steppe of
Baghlān, Who Sends his Son Abulkhayr Khān with a Great Army to
Fight Shāh Esmāʿil; Abulkhayr Khān is Killed, and the Uzbek Kings
Flee 358

Part 4
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. Solṭān Salim
46 The Glorious Banners Turn Back to Iran, and His Majesty the Shadow of
God Learns of the Death of Solaymān Mirzā in Tabriz; He Sends an
Emissary to Anatolia to See Solṭān Bāyazid, the Qayṣar of Rum 373
47 Solṭān Salim, the Pādeshāh of Rum, Comes to Iran and Arrives at
Chālderān; the Victorious Banners of the Shadow of God Turn Toward
Him, but the Qezelbāsh are Defeated 381
48 Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā, the Son of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, Rebels and
Goes to Astarābād; ʿObayd Khān Arrives at Balkh with All His
Corruption 408
49 Solṭān Salim Learns of the Theft and Burning of His Supplies by
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr and the Death of Moṣṭafā Pāshā at the Hands
of His Men, Then Goes to Fight ʿAlāʾoddawleh and Kills Him 416
50 Solṭān Salim, the Ruler of Anatolia, Fights Solṭān Qānṣaw, the King of
Egypt, Who is Killed 420
Contents ix

51 Solṭān Morād, the Son of Yaʿqub Pādeshāh Son of Ḥasan Pāshā the
Torkmān, Comes to Conquer Diyārbakr and is Killed by Aḥmad Solṭān
Qājār 425
52 Ghazāli Joins Forces with Solṭān Solaymān to Fight Nur ʿAli Khalifeh,
Who is Killed by the Anatolians 427
53 Solṭān Solaymān Comes to Iran a Second Time, and Ghazāli is Captured
by His Majesty the Shadow of God 428

Part 5
The Later Years
54 Shāh Esmāʿil Learns of the Death of Solṭān Salim and of Solṭān
Solaymān’s Accession to the Throne and Return to istanbul; His Majesty
Leaves Chālderān with the Intention of Conquering Khorāsān 447
55 Jāni Beg Solṭān the Uzbek Comes to Balkh and Fights Kopek Solṭān,
and the Uzbek Army is Defeated; ʿObayd Khān Comes to Harāt and
Returns without Having Attained His Goal; Amir Khān Torkmān, the
Governor of Harāt, Kills Amir Moḥammad and is Deposed; His Majesty
Sends Durmesh Khān to Fight in Harāt 456
56 Durmesh Khān Comes to Harāt, Seizes Amir Khān Torkmān, and Sends
Him to the Royal Court, Then Settles Down to Rule the City 459

Bibliography 469
Index 473
485
x Contents
 Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments xi

Acknowledgments

I have worked on this book for many years, and my debt to various people and
institutions for their help and support has piled up.
I owe a special debt to Wheeler Thackston, not only for teaching me Persian
in the first place, but for his unstinting generosity with his time and knowledge
whenever I have been stuck with some particularly difficult phrase or inscrip-
tion, on this project or any.
I would also particularly like to thank Charles Melville for his interest and
support, including helpful comments and an invitation to a stimulating work-
shop.
I am especially grateful to Sholeh Quinn for all her help and encouragement.
Her evident enthusiasm for my work has been an invaluable support.
I would like to thank the organizers of the several conferences at which I
presented portions of this work, including the DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean
Research Center) “LitCri ’15” conference in Istanbul in 2015 and the “Twenty
Years of Iran and the Caucausus: A Breakthrough” conference in Armenia in
2016, the latter of which could not have happened without the indefatigable
Vahe Boyajian. Thanks as well to Andrew Newman for his organization of a
conference in Edinburgh in 2017.
Institutionally, I would like to thank the editors of Iranian Studies for pub-
lishing not one, but two of my articles related to this project. I am also grateful
to the Chester Beatty Library for granting permission to use the miniature
painting that appears on the cover of the book.
Other people who deserve acknowledgment include Robert Eng, Ulrich
Marzolph, and Abolala Soudavar. Special thanks are due to Peyvand Firouzeh
for sending me her photos of a hard-to-reach manuscript. Thanks as well to
Naciem Nikkhah and Michelle Quay, and especially to Colin P. Mitchell for his
role in helping this project take off. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my
colleagues from the Boğaziçi University Department of Turkish Language and
Literature, notably Erol Köroğlu and Zeynep Oktay.
Finally, my warmest and most personal thanks go to my wife Meltem and
my son Ozan, for all their love and support.
xii Acknowledgments
PrefacePreface xiii

Preface

The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil is a narrative about the charismatic Shāh

Esmāʿil I (1487–1524) and his campaign to establish the Safavid dynasty in Iran.
The tales preserved here are loosely based in historical fact, but leavened with
a great deal of what is apparently folk memory about a pivotal period in Irani-
an history. As such, they are a fascinating window on the way in which people
in early modern Iran formed, transformed, and passed on the memory of a key
figure in their cultural development.
Shāh Esmāʿil, as will become apparent in the pages that follow, was certain-
ly a figure worth telling stories about, and the pseudo-historical account pre-
served here probably has its origins in the tales people passed around in the
wake of his dramatic life.1 These tales would have included the family lore of
the Qezelbāsh, Esmāʿil’s Ṣufi followers, who would have witnessed his deeds up
close.2 This mélange of actual fact, fervent exaggeration, and outright legend
was eventually taken up by the professional storytellers (naqqālān) of the
thriving Safavid coffeehouse sector, in whose hands it continued to develop. At
a certain point in the mid- to late seventeenth century, the tales appear to have
come to the attention of the royal palace, where they found their way into
manuscript form and were even illustrated with miniatures. Interest in the sto-
ries continued after the demise of the Safavid dynasty, as manuscript copies
continued to be produced right into the nineteenth century. It is one of these
late copies that is the basis for the present translation.
The narrative’s debt to the coffeehouse storyteller’s craft is apparent from
the numerous traces of oral performance it bears. Besides the overall register
of the Persian text, which is decidedly informal both tonally and grammatically,3
these traces include the verbal formulae used to change the scene, such as “Lis-
ten to two words about X,” “But we have not mentioned that Y,” and “You shall
hear about Z.” The narrator also occasionally uses popular idioms and prov-
erbs, such as “setting Mobārak free when he’s dead” (equivalent to “shutting

1 Within two decades of Esmāʿil’s death, a Venetian traveler to Iran reported seeing men in
public squares reading aloud from books and relating the battles of heroes of old, including
Shāh Esmāʿil (Membré, Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia, 52). Interestingly, just over the
(linguistic) border, the Shāh Esmāʿil character took on a completely different life of its own in
Turkish folklore, for which see Gallagher, “Transformation.”
2 For a discussion of a history of Shāh Esmāʿil actually based in eyewitness accounts, see
Anooshahr, “The Rise of the Safavids.”
3 Indeed, to the point where I was unable to make much sense of the original text and had to
make an educated guess at a proper translation.
xiv Preface

the barn door after the horse has left”). Popular language is also found in the
form of insults; the Safavids’ enemies are derided as sag “dog,” nāmard “cow-
ard,” nāpāk “filthy (lit. ‘impure’),” and ḥarāmzādeh “bastard.” The naqqāl’s reli-
ance on a store of stock phrases and imagery is attested by their repetition
throughout the text, such as the descriptions of this or that antagonist as being
“like a gloomy demon” or the innumerable instances in which a hero, usually
but not always Shāh Esmāʿil, bifurcates his enemy from scalp to saddle with
one mighty sword-blow. There are numerous insertions of poetic verse, intend-
ed to demonstrate cultural prowess, elevate the register of the narrative, and
earn the respect of the audience.4 There are also knowing asides intended for
the moral improvement of the listener, such as the author’s observations on
how Shāh Esmāʿil grew too proud and was punished. Later manuscripts begin
with an invocation of “the tellers of tales and the transmitters of stories and the
sugar-chewing parrots of fine discourse,” a common opening flourish in popu-
lar tales of the nineteenth century such as Hoseyn-e Kord and Amir Arsalān.5
The tales’ gestation on the coffeehouse circuit is important for our under-
standing of their value as a window on Safavid culture. Since at least the early
seventeenth century, coffeehouses had been the main centers of public enter-
tainment in Iran. They were places to which people of all social levels—includ-
ing, it is even reported, Shah ʿAbbās I (r. 1587–1629) himself—came to hear the
naqqālān ply their trade.6 This trade was not merely the transmission of stories
verbatim, generation after generation. The art of storytelling required its prac-
titioners to continually modify and update their repertoire in a constant and
dynamic reworking of narratives, a process that necessarily had to reflect pop-
ular thinking.7 One reason for this was that the naqqāl had to keep his audi-
ence interested; people were always free to go find another coffeehouse. Part of
it was also that the naqqāl saw it as his task to edify his listeners, as indicated
above, which would have encouraged him to mold his narrative to supply mor-
al lessons the audience would be responsive to. More abstractly, the influence
of common cultural values exerted its own gravitational pull on the storytell-
ers, tugging the changes they made to their narrative in the direction of com-
monly accepted norms of behavior—including, in the case of tales about a
character like Shāh Esmāʿil, nobility, heroism, piety, and the like.8

4 Page, “Naqqāli and Ferdowsi,” 227–28.

5 Marzolph, “Treasury,” 287.
6 Page, “Naqqāli and Ferdowsi,” 19–21.
7 Page, “Professional Storytelling in Iran,” 213.
8 Interestingly, the tradition seems eventually to have come full circle; one scholar notes that
modern Iranian naqqālān believe that Shāh Esmāʿil used storytellers to spread the Twelver
Shiʿi faith (Yamamoto, The Oral Background of Persian Epics, 20–21).
Preface xv

These stories, then, while they have been described (admittedly not without
reason) as “childish and credulous” and “essentially worthless as historical
narrative,”9 are more helpfully understood as exemplifying the voice of the
people.10 In comparison with the florid tomes penned by official Safavid court
historians like Khwāndamir and Eskandar Monshi, The Adventures of Shāh
Esmāʿil is an engaging and refreshing take on Safavid history—the view from
below, as it were.
The stories presented here are found in a group of manuscripts sometimes
collectively referred to as the “Anonymous Histories” (i.e. of Shāh Esmāʿil).11 To
date, I have located twelve manuscripts of these tales in public and private li-
braries around the world (Table 1). The manuscripts vary in their details, some-
times strikingly so. The stories, while clearly springing from the same source,
are often told in different words, with the differences ranging from choice of
adjectives to the phrasing of entire passages. Scenes are described in different
ways, lists of objects (such as gifts) grow and shrink, characters’ names are al-
tered, and so on.12 These differences are likely rooted in the variations in the
stories with which the naqqālān who passed down these tales were working.
Professional storytellers worked from notebooks called ṭumārs.13 A ṭumār, lit-
erally “scroll,” was simply a notebook preserving a given plot line in skeletal
form; the storyteller would memorize the plotline or glance at it during his
performance in the coffeehouse, freely embroidering it with details as he went.
Other storytellers might copy down the story as they heard it and turn that into
their own ṭumār. The storyteller’s apprentices, in turn, were expected to copy
and memorize their own notebooks. In this way the stories grew and devel-
oped as they were passed down over the years, and it was only natural that they
should ramify over time.
Despite the differences in the manuscripts, the general line of the narrative
is consistent. The book begins with stories about Shāh Esmāʿil’s illustrious Ṣufi
ancestors, who establish the Safavid Order in Ardabil. As the Order increases in
power and influence, it attracts the enmity of the powers that be, and by the

9 Morton, “Date and Attribution,” 203.

10 Hanaway, “Iranian Identity,” 150.
11 This is how Morton refers to them in “Date and Attribution.”
12 The character Manṣur Beg Pornāk, for example, is named Zahrāb Solṭān in the version
published by Shokri as ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi. Names can vary even within a single
manuscript; in the present version, for example, the Ottoman emperor is first referred to
as “the Qayṣar” or by name (e.g. Solṭān Salim), but in the middle of the book he becomes
almost exclusively “Khwāndegār,” after which he switches back. I have tried to iron out
these changes to mitigate the distracting effect of such constant changes.
13 For the practices of the naqqālān, see Page, “Naqqāli and Ferdowsi” and Page, “Professional
Storytelling in Iran.” See also the mention in Mahdavi, “Amusements in Qajar Iran,” 490.
xvi Preface

time Esmāʿil is born, things are sufficiently dangerous that the young boy and
his brothers have to go into hiding. Within a few years, Esmāʿil is bidden by the
Commander of the Faithful, the Emām ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb, to make his “emer-
gence” (khoruj), and he takes his place at the head of his devoted followers,
known as “red-heads” or Qezelbāsh after their distinctive headgear. The young
leader embarks on a campaign of conquest and conversion, crowning himself
Shāh and carving out a Twelver Shiʿite state in the teeth of resistance from
Torkmāns, Uzbeks, Ottomans (“Anatolians”), and even Georgians and Ethiopi-
ans. Throughout, the narrator refers to the Shāh with honorific titles such as
navvāb-e ashraf “the Most Noble Ruler,” navvāb-e kāmyāb “the Ruler Who
Achieves His Desires,” and navvāb-e ẓellollāhi “the Ruler [Who Is] the Shadow
of God,”14 while his enemies invariably refer to him as Shaykh-oghli “son of a
shaykh,” a contemptuous reference to his dervish lineage. As the divinely sup-
ported propagator of the True Faith, Esmāʿil enjoys seemingly unstoppable
momentum, even in the face of daunting odds, and his victories mount with-
out cease until his clash with the Ottomans at Chālderān—in reality a disas-
trous, life-changing defeat for the Shāh, here treated as a mere moment of
divine chastisement for his excessive pride, including his failure to say “God
willing.” In addition to this plotline, there are several side narratives describing
the affairs of the Safavids’ enemies. One relates the rise to power of Shāhi Beg
Khān in the vacuum created by the incompetence of the Timurid princes in
Central Asia; another describes the conflict between the Ottoman ruler Bāyazid
and his evil-natured progeny Salim. Eventually, the Shāh is summoned (some-
what abruptly) to the afterlife by his illustrious ancestors, at which point the
throne passes to his son Ṭahmāsp and the narrative ends.15
In the pages of this story, we encounter a welter of details that shed valuable
light on the popular mentality of seventeenth-century Iran, rather than the
upper-class moral and literary strictures guiding the scribes of the royal chan-
cery. Ethnic sterotypes abound, from marauding Kurds and fiercely indepen-
dent Lors to “boorish” (bi-adab) Uzbeks and greedy Turks, one of whom “would
torture his own mother for a dinar.” The author’s caustic religious biases are
particularly apparent, as he misses few opportunities to heap scorn on Sunnis
and highlight the virtues of the Shiʿis. The day is often saved, for example, by
pious and upright Shiʿis who have been concealing their identity from the hos-
tile Sunni population. A host of famous historical individuals pass onstage,

14 Most of these I have simply translated as “His Majesty.”

15 The narrator does his best to make it sound as if Ṭahmāsp is alive and on the throne, but
several clues in the text give away the true date of the tales’ composition. See Morton,
“Date and Attribution”; I have also highlighted such clues in the text of this book.
Preface xvii

enabling us to see them from the popular Iranian point of view; these include
the Asiatic conqueror Timur, the Mughal emperor Bābor, the Uzbek khan
Shaybak (Moḥammad Shaybāni Khān, in the text “Shāhi Beg Khān”), and, of
course, the Ottoman Solṭān Salim, who is, literally from childhood, consistent-
ly shown in the worst light possible. There are also some interesting imaginary
figures, like the putative descendent of Changiz Khān and lord of the steppe,
Qāsem Khān. The narrative is moved ahead in a number of places by super-
natural intervention, including but not limited to dreams, cures, tongue-turn-
ing, and physical punishments (the Pythonesque demise of Solṭān Salim is
probably more amusing than the author intended it to be). Characters rely
heavily on auguries from the stars, animal shoulder-blades, and even a dog-
fight. Fabulous objects of luxury are listed with evident relish, from the stag-
gering wealth of a village headman to the exotic Asiatic gifts sent by the
humbled Uzbeks. Even some of the animals are of interest, whether Shāh
Esmāʿil’s fleet and wise “mare of Manṣur,” the lion that bows to him outside
Baghdad, or the dog he names governor of Kāshān.
The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil, then, is a rich mine of information on how
people in the late- and post-Safavid era thought about the heroic years of the
dynasty’s founding, and particularly revealing of the lenses of religious and
cultural standards through which they viewed the events of those days. To
date, though, these manuscripts have been underutilized by scholars, who
have perhaps been put off by the tales’ patent unreliability as history.16 This is
unsurprising: Even setting aside the clearly supernatural aspects of the narra-
tive, the reader’s belief is strained at nearly every turn by details like the almost
total absence of dates, the numerous anachronisms and clear contradictions of
the historical record,17 the impossible speed with which armies and messen-
gers travel, and so on. There are, however, a number of fronts on which the
“Anonymous Histories” may help us deepen our understanding of Safavid Iran
and its people.
The tales’ complicated relationship with official Safavid historiography is
one area that needs careful analysis. A masterful 1990 paper by A.H. Morton
demonstrated not only that the history text once known as the “Ross Anony-
mous” (British Library, MS Or. 3248) was a late- rather than early-Safavid pro-
duction, but also that its author, Bijan, had been pressured to incorporate

16 This is not to say that these texts have been completely ignored. Sholeh Quinn, for
example, has used them to understand the way in which the history of a certain Sufi order
was creatively altered in Safavid times (“Rewriting Ni‘matu’llāhī History in Safavid
Chronicles,” esp. 210ff.).
17 Readers interested in comparing the historical record may find a comprehensive list of
Safavid histories in Appendix II of Newman, Safavid Iran.
xviii Preface

stories into his narrative that he, as a “serious” historian, found problematic—
stories that Morton showed were part of the “Anonymous Histories” tradition.18
Conversely, the anonymous creators of the “Anonymous Histories” clearly had
their hands on some official histories (as well as hagiographies), but which
sources were they using, and how did they use them? For example, as the edi-
tor of this manuscript notes in his preface, the author of this text helps himself
freely to Ḥasan Beg Rumlu’s Aḥsan al-tavārikh, but there is no similar use of
Khwāndamir’s Ḥabib al-siyar.19 Why? Was it because Ḥasan Beg Rumlu was a
Qezelbāsh, and therefore seen as closer to the actual events, or was it because
Khwāndamir’s intricate prose did not lend itself to this kind of narrative? Per-
haps it is merely a matter of which manuscripts were available to people in the
social class from which the author(s) of this work sprang. It is the task of schol-
arship further to elucidate just how the popular tradition intersects with the
official record, a task which the present translation has hopefully facilitated by
bringing the popular tradition within easier reach.
Another interesting aspect of The Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil is the poetry it
contains. Some of the verses ornamenting the narrative are easy enough to
trace to famous poets such as Saʿdi or Ḥāfeẓ; others come from lesser-known
poets, such as the verses taken from Esmāʿil’s own chosen panegyrist Qāsemi
(via quotation of Aḥsan al-tavārikh); still others are a mystery, such as the vi-
ciously anti-Uzbek poem in Chapter 45. It would be interesting and potentially
informative to explore the sources and nature of the verses the author(s) of
this work chose to incorporate into the text. In his 1990 paper, Morton briefly
mentions the valuable work of a Japanese scholar (Koichi Haneda) who used
the poetic verses Bijan included in the “Ross Anonymous” to narrow down the
date of the manuscript.20 Perhaps similar value may be found in the verses in-
cluded in the present work.
About half of the manuscripts of the “Anonymous Histories” corpus are
dated. Their colophons place them in a range from the 1680s to the 1820s. This
gives some indication of when these stories were in vogue and raises the ques-
tion of just why they were in vogue at this particular time in Iranian history.
A glance at contemporary circumstances suggests an answer. In the years
when these stories begin to appear in manuscript form, the Safavid throne was

18 This would not be the only time when stories crossed the apparently porous boundary
between the public realm and the court. In the nineteenth century, the popular coffee­
house standard Amir Arsalān had its origins in a night-time story related to Nāṣeroddin
Shah Qajar (Page, “Naqqāli and Ferdowsi,” 24; Hanaway, “Amir Arsalān,” 55–56).
19 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb, [xvi–xvii].
20 Morton, “Date and Attribution,” 181 and n. 13.
Preface xix

occupied by Shāh Solaymān (r. 1666–1694).21 Solaymān was no Esmāʿil; inac-

tion, not action, was his forte. Naïve and bibulous, he spent much of his reign
holed up in the harem, where he is known to have preferred entertainment to
actual news, especially bad news. Of this there was plenty, and the military
crisis of Solaymān’s early reign, in which the enervated Safavid state was men-
aced on two fronts (by the Mughals in India and the Uzbeks in Central Asia),
seems to have sparked a desire for tales of the good old days, when the
Qezelbāsh, under the leadership of their invincible Perfect Guide, swept their
enemies before them wherever they turned.22 Needless to say, the widespread
chaos of the years after the fall of the Safavid dynasty can only have increased
the nostalgia for a period of stability and power, and tales like those in The
Adventures of Shāh Esmāʿil must have had quite a bittersweet appeal to the suf-
fering denizens of eighteenth-century Iran. The last dated manuscripts of
these tales appear in the early nineteenth century, when the Qajar dynasty had
come to power and restored a semblance of order to the country. Readers and
patrons in this period may simply have been responding to the stories qua en-
tertainment, although it may also be the case that they liked to hear about the
derring-do of forebears like Qarāpari Qājār (Chapter 10), Maḥmud Beg Qājār
(Chapter 18), and Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār (Chapter 51).
To return to the late Safavid court, the popularity of the “Anonymous Histo-
ries” there explains the genesis of the several illustrated copies, whose paint-
ings are another potentially valuable source of insight into the late- and
post-Safavid period in Iran.23 Taken altogether, the paintings do not follow an
obvious program; the scenes chosen for illustration are fairly evenly distribut-
ed throughout the narrative, suggesting that no body of “must-have” iconogra-
phy had developed, as it had for older works such as the Shāhnāmeh. In fact,
the only incident consistently depicted in every illustrated manuscript of these
tales is the fight between Morād Beg and the Ethiopians,24 a scene evidently
popular for the exoticism of its subject matter. Analysis of individual manu-
scripts, does, however, yield tantalizing clues as to pictorial programs, or at
least preferences. The manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library, for example,
includes five paintings in quick succession depicting the exploits of Bayrām
Khān Qarāmānlu in Central Asia (Chapters 41 and 42), suggesting a particular

21 He is cited in the colophon of the Chester Beatty Library manuscript; see Wood, “The
Tarikh-i Jahanara in the Chester Beatty Library,” 91–92.
22 Matthee, Persia in Crisis, xxiv, 126–28.
23 Here I am including the two illustrated copies of Bijan’s history, mentioned above. For an
examination of illustrated historical manuscripts in the Safavid period in general, see
Melville, “The Illustration of history.”
24 See Chapter 32.
xx Preface

interest in him on the part of the manuscript’s planner(s).25 Conversely, the

British Library’s copy of Bijan’s Jahāngoshāʾi-ye Khāqān has no paintings at all
depicting the Safavids’ struggle with the Uzbeks—an omission which creates a
hundred-page gap between illustrations.26 It may be worth noting that the
thoroughgoing repetitiveness of the narrative likely militated against much va-
riety in illustration, although even this evidently did have its appeal: The pa-
tron of the partially-dispersed manuscript in the Rezā ʿAbbāsi Museum clearly
relished the numerous descriptions in the text, mentioned above, of someone
getting split in half with a single sword-blow, as this appears some eight times
in the manuscript’s twenty-eight paintings.
The various illustrated manuscripts of the “Anonymous Histories” may, in
fact, shed some light on how these tales were being used, at least at court. The
apparent preferences of the patrons of the various illustrated manuscripts, as
well as what we know of late-Safavid court politics, suggest that various fac-
tions in the palace were using deluxe manuscripts of these tales to promote the
storied pasts of their respective families or clans. These factions would include
the Qezelbāsh generally, including those who pushed the stories on Bijan,27
and even a specific group of Qezelbāsh, the Qarāmānlu, who (we may sup-
pose) were moved to commission a copy whose pictorial program emphasized
the deeds of their ancestor Bayrām Khān. Understanding the corpus this way
allows us further to postulate an explanation for a unique late-Safavid manu-
script, the 1697 Jarunnāmeh in the British Library (MS Add. 7801). On this view,
that manuscript could be the palace Georgians’ response to the Qezelbāsh’s
historical boasting; in commissioning an illustrated copy of an epic celebrating
Shāh ʿAbbās’s Georgian commander Emāmqoli Khān, they too got to tout their
own ancestor’s contribution to the greatness of the Safavid state.28 Ideas like

25 Chester Beatty Library MS Per. 278, fols. 191a, 193a, 195a, 197b, and 199b.
26 British Library MS Or. 3248, fol. 149a shows Shāh Esmāʿil confirming the ruler of Lorestān;
the next painting (a Nowruz scene) appears on fol. 199a. The Uzbeks (Shāhi Beg Khān and
his immediate successors) are fought and defeated in the intervening pages.
27 Morton (“Date and Attribution”) interpreted Bijan’s reference to āqāyān to mean the
court eunuchs, but it seems unlikely that the eunuchs would have wanted to hear about
the derring-do of the Qizilbash, a group with whom their relations were strained, to say
the least (Matthee, Persia in Crisis, 30, 60). It is more probable that the āqāyān were
themselves Qezelbāsh (Floor, Safavid Government Institutions, 48, 106), and that in
pushing these stories on the hapless Bijan they were promoting tales that had circulated
amongst their own over the preceding several generations—tales whose germ lay in the
experience of their ancestors who had actually witnessed Shah Isma’il in action, and
whose repeated tellings of the stories grew into the narrative found in the “Anonymous
Histories” corpus.
28 It may also have been satisfying, in the context of Georgian-Qezelbāsh rivalry, to promote
the achievements of ancestors whose rise to power came at the expense of the Qarāmānlu;
Preface xxi

this require further research and documentation, but they do show the inter-
esting possibilities for interpretation opened up by the manuscripts of the
“Anonymous Histories.”
The version I have chosen to translate is the latest dated one, with a colo-
phon stating that it was completed in 1825. The manuscript was edited and
published in Iran in 1971 by its owner, Aṣghar Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb, who chose to
publish it under the title ʿĀlamārā-ye Shāh Esmāʿil. As is clear from Table 1,
there has never been a single agreed-upon title for the group of stories col-
lected here; indeed, another manuscript was published within a year of
Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb’s with a different title, viz. ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi, with the justifi-
cation that that was the name that appeared in the primary manuscript the
editor had used.29 I have chosen to title this book The Adventures of Shāh
Esmāʿil to reflect the original Persian title of the edition I have translated, as
well as to suggest the basic nature of the narrative as essentially a popular ro-
mance centered on the title character.
I undertook to translate this particular edition for two reasons. The first is a
matter of simple chronology: This was the first edition that came into my
hands. I discovered it when I was working on my dissertation on a panegyric
epic celebrating the conquests of Shāh Esmāʿil.30 The second, deeper reason is
that this version of the “Anonymous Histories” is one of the latest, possibly the
very latest. That means that the stories would have had the most time to evolve,
making this version (at least in theory) the richest, most detailed one. As a
matter of fact, the stories had evolved so much that I had to abandon my origi-
nal plan of doing a full-blown critical edition tracing specific differences
among manuscripts; the sheer amount of variation among texts would have
made such an edition utterly unwieldy. In the end, I decided it was valuable
enough simply to make this version available in English, leaving the analysis of
textual variants to other scholars.31
In translating this work, I have tried to capture the spirit of the original Per-
sian as closely as I could, including its occasional departures from an essen-
tially popular tone to the formal, even flowery language the author(s) chose to
use in imitation of more highfalutin chancery prose. I have, however, freely
used a host of English synonyms for Persian terms in the original to mitigate
the sheer repetitiveness of certain words and formulae. In transliterating

Emāmqoli Khān’s father Allāhverdi Khān (who appears in one painting in the manuscript)
replaced the executed Farhād Khān Qarāmānlu in 1598.
29 Shokri, p. xxii.
30 Wood, “The Shāhnāma-i Ismā‛īl.”
31 I have, however, here and there indicated textual variants I found too interesting to let
pass unremarked.
xxii Preface

names, I have tried to stick to a system that allows for the reconstruction of
spelling (thus Dhulqadr rather than Zulqadr), but one that also accurately re-
flects spoken pronunciation, particularly in names of Arabic origin (thus
Badiʿozzamān instead of Badiʿ al-Zamān). I have also sacrificed fidelity of
transliteration to the familiarity of some common words (thus Iran, Kurd, Uz-
bek, Muslim, not Irān, Kord, Ozbak, Moslem). Although I have divided the
book into parts, I have retained the original chapter headings. I have, however,
arranged the text, which was continuous in the manuscript and divided by the
editor into long paragraphs, in shorter paragraphs in order to give it the flow of
a work of fiction; here and there this may result in a “choppy” effect, but I feel
it makes things like conversations easier to read. I have tried to keep footnotes
to a helpful minimum. Occasionally, where technical terms appear that require
explanation, such as qurchi and ātāliq, I have provided the explanation in a
footnote but left the original term in the text rather than substitute an inade-
quate or clumsy English one.
I have translated this book in the hopes that more people will come to an
appreciation of the value of these stories as a record of the mental landscape
of the Persian public in an important period of that country’s history—and,
quite frankly, as a decidedly readable record of their collective memory of a
truly fascinating individual.

Table 1 Manuscripts of the “Anonymous Histories of Shāh Esmāʿil”

No. Title given in MS Date Library

1 ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi 1679 Tehran, Muzeh-ye Rezā ʿAbbāsi, MS

600a
2 Tārikh-e Jahānārā 1683 Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, MS
Per. 278b
3 Tavārikh-e Esmāʿiliyyeh 1693, 1711, Hyderabad, Salar Jung Library, MS
or 1723 Hist. 167c
4 ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi 1714 Private collection (Seyyed
Moḥammad Ṭāheri Shāhāb)
5 ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi 1716-17 or Tehran, Ketābkhāneh-ye Sepāhsālār
1794-95 (Moṭahhari), MS 1514
6 Tārikh-e Esmāʿil 18th cent. London, British Library, MS IOL
1877
7 Tārikh-e Shāh Esmāʿil-e 18th cent. Tehran, Ketābkhāneh-ye Majles-e
Ṣafavi Shorā-ye Eslāmi, MS 9421
8 Tārikh-e Shāh Esmāʿil-e 18th cent. Tehran, Ketābkhāneh-ye Majles-e
Ṣafavi Shorā-ye Eslāmi, MS 635
Preface xxiii

Table 1 Manuscripts of the “Anonymous Histories of Shāh Esmāʿil” (cont.)

No. Title given in MS Date Library

9 ʿĀlamārā 1819 Tehran, Ketābkhāneh-ye Majles-e

Shorā-ye Eslāmi, MS 761d
10 (unknown) 1823-24 Private collection (Aḥmad Khān-
Malek Sāsāni)
11 ʿĀlamārā-ye Shāh 1825 Private collection (Aṣghar Montaẓer
Esmāʿil Ṣāheb)e
12 ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafaviyya ? (effaced) Private collection (the late Ḥosayn
Meftāḥ Farzand)

a This manuscript is partly dispersed. Images of its illustrations, including dispersed ones, may
be found at Eng, “Manuscript M.” Note that I have corrected the date given in Wood, “The
Battle of Chālderān.”
b For an analysis of this manuscript and reproductions (albeit black-and-white) of its illustra-
tions, see Wood, “The Tarikh-i Jahanara in the Chester Beatty Library.”
c The inscription at the end of the manuscript gives the year as simply “5.” This may be inter-
preted as 1105, which would yield 1693 (the date accepted by the cataloguers). If it is intended
as regnal year 5, it could either be 1711 (the fifth regnal year of Bahādor Shāh) or 1723 (the
fifth regnal year of Moḥammad Shāh). I am indebted to Wheeler Thackston for his interpreta-
tion of this inscription.
d Published (with no. 12) as Shokri, ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi.
e Published in 1971 as Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb, ʿĀlamārā-ye Shāh Esmāʿil.
xxiv
xxiv NotesonTransliteration
Notes on Transliteration Preface
NotesOnTransliteration
Notes On Transliteration

Notes on Transliteration

Consonants

Persian English Persian English

‫ب‬�‫ب‬ b ‫�ص‬
‫ص‬ ṣ
‫ب‬
‫پ‬�‫پ‬ p ‫�ص‬
‫ض‬ z
‫ت‬� ‫ت‬ t ‫ط‬ ‫ط‬ ṭ
‫ث‬� ‫ث‬ th ‫ظ‬ ‫بط‬ ẓ
‫ب�ج‬ j ‫عع‬ ʿ
‫ب‬
‫پ�چ‬ ch ‫عغ‬ gh
‫ب‬
‫ح‬
�
ḥ ‫ف‬ �� f
‫ت‬
‫بخ‬ ‫�ق‬
�
kh q
‫دد‬ d ‫كك‬ k
‫ب‬ ‫گ‬
‫دذ‬ dh ‫گ‬ � g
‫رر‬ r ‫لل‬ l
‫برز‬
‫بم‬
z ‫م‬ m
‫ثرژ‬ zh ‫�ن‬ n
‫س‬‫��ص‬ s ‬‫‬ ‬‫و‬و‬ v
‫ث‬
‫ش‬‫��ص‬ sh ‫�هه‬ h
hamza ʾ

Vowels

Long English Short English

َ
‫اا‬ ā ◌َ ‬ ‬ a
‫ی‬‫�ی‬ i,y(ifdiphthong)
i, y (if diphthong) ◌ِ◌َ e
ُ
‫وو‬ u,w(ifdiphthong)
u, w (if diphthong) ◌ُ o
Preface 1

Part 1
The Ancestors of Shāh Esmāʿil

∵
2 Preface
The Story Of Solṭān Firuzshāh 3

Chapter 1

The Story of Solṭān Firuzshāh

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

⸪
The historians of events and the tellers of tales and the sugar-chewing parrots
of fine discourse have related thus: In the time of the Emām who commands
obedience and demands protection, the Emām Musā Kāẓim, who was the hon-
orable ancestor of Solṭān Moḥammad Firuzshāh, Solṭān Seyyed Firuzshāh was
living in the Abode of Right Guidance, Ardabil. God Almighty, by the light of
divine knowledge and the flow of infallible causality, had raised that victorious
and noble prince to a high station. Solṭān Adham Shāh, the son of Ebrāhim
Adham, was king of Iran. In his time, most provinces, such as Ādharbāyjān,
clung to the paths of Sunnism and Christianity, and the true sect of the Twelve
Emāms was hidden.
When the fame of the perfection of Solṭān Firuzshāh had swept the world,
it reached the hearing of the eminent king Solṭān Adham, the son of Solṭān
Ebrāhim. The king’s whole being was taken up with the fervent desire to see
that garden of truth. When he arrived in Ardabil, the noble seyyeds and juris-
prudents and lords and common people all welcomed him. When Solṭān Ad-
ham’s eye fell from afar on the beauty of Solṭān Firuzshāh, the light from the
forehead of that chosen one of God was so resplendent that the world-illumi-
nating sun was as darkest night next to it. He saw his own royal magnificence
pale before the grandeur of that prince, brilliant like the eyes of a div. He was
swept away by the pleasure of beholding that graceful rose, and love penetrat-
ed his heart so much that he opened his arms in mercy and affection and
warmly embraced him. After this, they began to converse, asking each other
about past affairs, then went together to the home of Solṭān Firuzshāh, form-
ing an auspicious conjunction.1 After some small talk, one Solṭān asked the
other:
“What was the purpose of your undertaking such a long journey?”

1 A reference to the astrologically significant “auspicious conjunction” of Jupiter and Venus

(qerān-e saʿdayn).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_002

4 Chapter 1

Solṭān Adham replied: “The fame of your disciples had reached our ears,
and some ignorant and superficial people said, ‘Don’t let Solṭān Firuzshāh
gradually become lord over the land of Iran! It is better to test him, like miners
do, by the touchstone of investigation. If he proves a fraud, purify him with the
fire of wrath, so that by going through a few crucibles he may become genuine.’
No matter how much they repeated their talk about you in secret, though, ha-
tred for you found no way into my heart; rather, perfect happiness befell my
mind. Because of this, I got up and came here, and I was exalted by our meet-
ing. Since not one speck of darkness is ever visible when I look in the mirror of
your face, I would like you to do me a favor: Rule over Iran as a brother, for my
mind is at peace regarding you.”
No matter how much Solṭān Adham importuned him in this way, Solṭān
Firuzshāh kept refusing. Finally Solṭān Adham made him swear an oath to the
holy Emāms, entreating him to accept the province of Ardabil as his fief.
Firuzshāh, because of the oath he had sworn, could not refuse what the
Solṭān was saying, so he accepted.
Then Solṭān Adham took off his jeweled crown and placed it on his
Firuzshāh’s head, saying: “We name you Solṭān Firuzshāh of the Golden Crown
(zarrin-kolāh).”
After that, Solṭān Adham went off to Balkh. Solṭān Firuzshāh of the Golden
Crown provided the people with guidance on the Straight Path until his ap-
pointed time came. When he became ill, he summoned his noble son
ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ, naming him in his will as his heir-apparent. Then he com-
mended himself to God and was joined to His mercy.
The Story Of ʿevaz Al-khavāṣṣ And His Son Moḥammad Al-ḥāfeẓ 5

Chapter 2

The Story of ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ and His Son Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ

ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ succeeded his father, giving the people right guidance and liv-
ing for a long time in Ardabil. He too, like his noble ancestors, was blessed with
a part in the unveiling of hidden secrets. God Almighty granted him a son,
whom he named Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ. In addition to discretion and discern-
ment, he possessed total righteousness and rectitude. One day, when the boy’s
blessed life had reached seven years of age, ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ was giving a lesson
to his pupils when the sound of weeping arose from one side of the house. Ev-
eryone heard it, but no one could see who was doing it. Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ
was sitting at his father’s side, and at that very moment another voice was
heard saying, “O father, they have taken me!”—and Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ dis-
appeared. No matter how much they searched, they could not find him.
ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ wept greatly with his disciples, but to no avail. Finally he said
to them, “I have entrusted my son to God, and I hope that I see him again soon.”
Seven years went by with no news or trace of Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ. One day,
ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ raised his hands in prayer and said, “O Lord, by the sanctity of
Your pure being, send my son back to me.” As he was praying, the sound of a
jinn’s laughter was heard. ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ looked, and his eye fell on the perfect
beauty of his son. The whole house was lit up by the light of the boy’s counte-
nance. And what did ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ see? He saw that his son had a gold crown
on his head, a golden belt around his waist, and a Qorʾān hanging from his
neck. The boy came forward and greeted his father. ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ jumped up,
took his son into his arms, and kissed his face, saying: “O my soul, where have
you been all this time? And what was the weeping then, and the laughter now,
and how did you leave and return? Tell me!”
Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ said, “O father, know that the reason I was taken was
this: The king of the jinns had a seven-year old son, who at that time had gone
missing. All of them were searching for him. Their journey took them here, and
when they saw me, who bore a resemblance to the lost child, the jinns began
weeping. Then the king said, ‘My son used to recite the Qorʾān every day, and I
was kept safe by his recitation. So I will take this boy; if my son is alive, he will
come, and if he is dead, I will keep this boy as my own son.’ Then they took me.
When I went, I saw an old man with a red face and white hair and a royal crown
on his head. I realized that this was the king of the jinn, who had accepted me
as his son. He appointed a teacher for me; every morning and night he would

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_003

6 Chapter 2

indicate that I should recite the Qorʾān. Over time they taught me everything
they knew. Today, as I was going with the king to the Maghreb to see some of
his people, our journey took us through these parts. When we arrived here and
he saw you in prayer, imploring God Almighty, he was overcome with compas-
sion, and he laughed—that was the laughing voice you heard—and allowed
me to go. So here I am, at your service.”
The boy’s father was astonished to hear this. After a while, he too departed
from the realm of this world, and when he died, he bequeathed his position to
his son. To Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ was born Ṣalāḥoddin Rashid.
The Story Of Salāḥoddin Rashid 7

Chapter 3

The Story of Ṣalāḥoddin Rashid

They say that Ṣalāḥoddin Rashid was a man of perfect virtue and piety and
knowledge, and that he donated all his possessions and property to the Mus-
lims, on the path of God. He dressed himself in dervish’s clothing and went to
live in the village of Kalkhurān. There he had a son, whom he named Qotbod-
din Musā. Ṣalāḥoddin, too, bid farewell to this transitory world, leaving his po-
sition to Qotboddin and naming him his heir apparent. To him was born
Seyyed Ṣāleḥ.
Seyyed Ṣāleḥ left Kalkhurān and went to Ardabil. The reason he did so was
this: Word had reached the Christian king and the Georgians of Kārtil—Bagrāt
Khān, the ancestor of Simāyun Khān,1 was king there—that Seyyed Ṣāleḥ was
guiding a great many Christians to the true faith of the Prince of the Apostles.
The king set off with twelve thousand infidels toward Kalkhurān with the in-
tention of killing Seyyed Ṣāleḥ and his followers. This news reached Seyyed
Ṣāleḥ. He and ten thousand disciples and their wives and sons headed for Ard-
abil, where he hid the disciples in the houses of the local people. One month
later, Bagrāt Khān arrived at Kalkhurān and asked people what was going on;
they said, “When they heard you were coming, they went to Ardabil.”
Bagrāt Khān also headed for Ardabil, where he did much killing and plun-
dering. Whenever he saw a Muslim, he would have him killed. For three days
and nights he stayed in Ardabil, devastating the city and its people. On the
fourth day he left the city and stopped on its outskirts. It occurred to Seyyed
Ṣāleḥ to come out and see which of his followers had been killed. It so hap-
pened that when he came out, he bumped into an armed Georgian. That man
saw Seyyed Ṣāleḥ and attacked him, wounding him with his spear before turn-
ing away. At that moment one of the wives of Seyyed Ṣāleḥ’s followers was on a
nearby rooftop, and upon seeing the Georgian attack the seyyed with his spear,
she picked up a brick and hit the Georgian in the head with it, scattering his
brains about. Then she told her husband, who came and picked up Seyyed
Ṣāleḥ and took him home with him. When the other disciples heard the news,
they all came and bound the seyyed’s wound. Seyyed Ṣāleḥ lingered for three
days; he entrusted his position to his son Seyyed Jebrāʾil, placing him on the

1 “Simāyun Khān” may be a reference to Simon II of Kartli, a Georgian at the Safavid court who
was married off to the granddaughter of Shah ʿAbbās I in 1624. See Maeda, “Exploitation of
the Frontier,” 484.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_004

8 Chapter 3

throne of right guidance and passing on his final counsel. Then he was joined
to the mercy of the Almighty.
The Story Of Seyyed Jebrāʾil 9

Chapter 4

The Story of Seyyed Jebrāʾil

They say that Seyyed Jebrāʾil, too, used to call people to the true path. When
thirty years of his noble life had passed, he decided to go on a journey. He went
to Shirāz and walked around in that city dressed as a dervish. When the other
dervishes looked at him, they saw a Turkish dervish whose beauty shone and
flashed with the light of God. So the seyyeds were affectionate toward him, and
when they realized that he was from a noble family, they offered him the head-
ship of the town (kadkhodāʾi). They also selected one of their daughters and
gave her to him. He stayed in Fārs for two years, and God Almighty blessed him
with a son, whom he named Seyyed Ṣāleḥ. At that time a letter came from his
mother that said, “Come to Ardabil so I can see you; if you don’t come, I will
complain about you to your ancestors on the morning of the Resurrection!”
So Seyyed Jebrāʾil got up, obtained permission to leave, and set off for Ard-
abil, where he saw his mother. She said, “I want to make you town leader and
see you have a son.”
He replied, “I have become town leader in Fārs, and God Almighty has
blessed me with a son.”
“I want to make you town leader!” insisted his mother.
Since it was the will of the Almighty Creator that the light of the secrets of
Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq should rise from the “orient” of concealment, Seyyed
Jebrāʾil consented.
In that town there were two young girls, one named Khadijeh and one
named Dawlat. Seyyed Jebrā’il’s mother prayed to God Almighty that she might
see a sign in a dream indicating the one He wanted for her son. In the dream
she saw Dawlat. When she awoke, the marriage proposal was made, and Daw-
lat was wed to Seyyed Jebrāʾil.
After some time, God Almighty, at the best possible moment, brought
Shaykh Ṣafioddin into being.1 When he had reached six years of age, his father
Seyyed Jebrāʾil was joined to the mercy of the Almighty. At the time of his
death, he entrusted his position to Shaykh Ṣafi2 and commanded his disciples
to obey him.
When Shaykh Ṣafi reached fourteen years of age, he resolved to travel to
Fārs. He obtained permission from his mother to go see his brother, thinking

1 Ṣafioddin was born in 650/1252–3.

2 The text has “Abu Esḥāq,” which was Ṣafioddin’s konyeh or nickname.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_005

10 Chapter 4

that perhaps on this journey, by engaging in conversation with the enlightened

and placing the hand of his will on the skirt of happiness, he would polish the
mirror of his heart.
When he left Ardabil, he struck up a conversation with a good-natured old
man, who said, “In Shirāz there is a man who, through extensive self-denial,
has reached the point that he can tell the secrets of the heart. His name is
Shaykh Najiboddin.” Shaykh Ṣafioddin was filled with the desire to see this
shaykh, and he enthusiastically set off for Shirāz. When he arrived there, he
saw that a funeral was coming out of the city; many people had gathered and
were tearing their collars out of grief. He asked what was going on, and they
told him that it was Shaykh Najiboddin who had died. Shaykh Ṣafioddin cried,
“Alas for the long road and great pains!”3 Then he attended the funeral and
burial of Shaykh Najiboddin.
After that, he went to the house of his brother Seyyed Ṣāleḥ. After greeting
him, he asked, “Is there an enlightened master in this city?” “Yes,” replied his
brother. “There is a man named Shaykh Saʿdi, a poet who dresses in woolen
garments.” Shaykh Ṣafi felt like talking to him, so he went to him, greeted him,
and sat down. When he looked, though, he saw that this man showed no signs
of enlightenment, and they spoke for less than two hours. Shaykh Ṣafi then
went outside and asked someone else, who told him about Mawlānā ʿAbdollāh
Shirāzi. So he went to him.
When Shaykh Ṣafi got to the door of the lodge and the eye of the Mawlānā
fell on his beauty, he was put in mind of a Turkish boy. Shaykh Ṣafi came in and
said a greeting.
The Mawlānā replied, “O light of my eyes, who are you and where do you
come from?”
“I have come so that you might be my master (pir) and guide (morshed).”
The Mawlānā laughed and said, “I don’t have the strength or spirit to be your
master and guide. But I will indicate one to you. You should go to Shaykh Zāhed
of Gilān; he is both mounted and riding, whereas I’m just a solid footsoldier!”
When Shaykh Ṣafioddin heard the name of Shaykh Zāhed, he felt a surge of
zeal, and he blessed the Mawlānā. Then he went to see his brother and his
brother’s mother, and after seeing them, he obtained permission to leave for
Ardabil. When he got to his mother’s place in Ardabil, he told her he was leav-
ing; he summoned all his determination, requested provisions from his moth-
er, and set out to find Shaykh Zāhed.
They say that Shaykh Zāhed had nearly a hundred thousand disciples in the
world, of whom twelve thousand were directly serving him and four hundred
were permitted to teach (khalifeh). The moment that Shaykh Ṣafi obtained

3 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb notes (p. 7) that this is the second half of a poetic verse.
The Story Of Seyyed Jebrāʾil 11

leave from his mother and left, it was reflected in the mirror of Shaykh Zāhed’s
mind, and he told his disciples the good news that Shaykh Ṣafi was coming to
their lodge, even describing completely the clothes he was wearing. Three days
later, on the first of the month of Ramazān, Shaykh Ṣafi entered the lodge of
Shaykh Zāhed. It was the hour of prayer, so he got busy praying.
Shaykh Zāhed had a rule that when it was the first of the month of Ramazān,
he would go to his place of retirement, and no one would see him until the
feast of ʿId, as he was engaged in prayer. On that day, he perceived that Shaykh
Ṣafi had come. He said to his eldest son Shaykh Jamāloddin, “Go to the lodge; a
Turkish youth has come wearing such-and-such clothes and is at prayer. Greet
him and tell him your father Shaykh Zāhed is looking for him.”
“It’s not good to invite a strange man into your sanctuary,” Shaykh Jamāloddin
replied.
“Be careful not to let such a corrupt notion enter your mind.”
Shaykh Jamāloddin went out, and when his eye fell upon the beauty of
Shaykh Ṣafi, he realized that his father was right. So he stood in a corner until
Shaykh Ṣafi had finished his prayers; then he approached and said: “O young
man, my father Shaykh Zāhed is looking for you.”
Shaykh Ṣafi replied, “I hear and obey,” then arose and went to have an audi-
ence with Shaykh Zāhed.
They say that when Shaykh Ṣafi’s eye fell on Shaykh Zāhed, he greeted him,
and after returning his greeting, Shaykh Zāhed asked him eighty questions, all
of which he answered. When he got to the eighty-first question, though, he was
helpless; sweat appeared on his forehead, and he hung his head low. Then
Shaykh Zāhed got up, opened his arms and took him to his breast; he kissed his
brow and said, “What’s wrong?”
Shaykh Ṣafi replied, “I have come to be in the presence of a guide (mor-
shed).”
“Welcome,” said Shaykh Zāhed. He gave him a place in that very prayer-cell
where they were, and they worshipped together.
When the feast of ʿId came, Shaykh Zāhed saw that Shaykh Ṣafi was per-
forming much self-denial. He did not think that one should be so ascetic, for
Shaykh Ṣafi had neither sleep nor rest for the whole month of Ramazān, and he
passed each day in fasting, except for the sip of water he had to break his fast.
Shaykh Ṣafi also acted as a close companion to him. This lasted until the eve-
ning of the ʿId holiday, when Shaykh Zāhed placed his head on the ground and
said, “O Lord, I repent; O God, many are the hands higher than other hands.”4

4 Part of a hemistich; Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 10) supplies the other half as, “There are many drunken
elephants [i.e., unstoppable forces] in the world.” This is probably intended to be Shaykh
Zāhed’s admission that his young protegé is unsurpassable in his devotion.
12 Chapter 4

On the day of ʿId, Shaykh Zāhed’s disciples saw him come out of his cham-
ber holding the hand of a Turkish youth. The disciples, overcome with jealousy,
all started talking among themselves. Shaykh Zāhed perceived what was going
on with the light of insight and said, “Don’t have any doubts about this young
man!”
Among the disciples, one Shaykh Ṣāleḥ had a doubt. Shaykh Zāhed per-
ceived this and said, “If you don’t seek the pardon of Shaykh Ṣafi, the earth
won’t accept you when you die.” Shortly thereafter, Shaykh Ṣāleḥ died, and the
earth didn’t accept him; for seven months they carried him to the furthest
reaches of the earth. Finally they brought him to Shaykh Zāhed, who said, “If
Shaykh Ṣafi purifies him, the earth will accept him.” So they brought Shaykh
Ṣāleḥ to Shaykh Ṣafi and asked him to recite the Fāteḥeh for him; then, when
they buried him, the earth accepted him.
Shaykh Ṣafi remained in the service of Shaykh Zāhed, eventually progress-
ing to such a spiritual state that even Shaykh Zāhed became envious. He said to
his disciples, “Be sure to treat this youth with courtesy, for he is the chosen one
of God.”
One night Shaykh Zāhed had a dream in which a cloak was given to Shaykh
Ṣafi from the hidden world. Shaykh Ṣafi, too, had a dream in which they placed
a crown on his head and tied a sword in a red scabbard to his belt. In the dream,
he took the crown off his head, whereupon it turned into the sun, lighting up
the whole world. Then he put the crown back on.
The next morning, he went to Shaykh Zāhed. When Shaykh Zāhed saw him,
he said, “O my son, blessed be this happy thing that has happened to you! Will
you say what happened, or shall I explain?”
“It is up to you,” replied Shaykh Ṣafi.
“It is good news! One of your descendents will be a pādeshāh5 and will
spread the true religion. O my son, if you share this fortune with me, I wonder
what will happen?”
Shaykh Ṣafi replied, “It is up to my guide to decide.”
“Accept my daughter in marriage,” said Shaykh Zāhed. Shaykh Ṣafi did so,
taking Fāṭemeh as his wife.
As they conversed, the disciples began to doubt. That very moment, Shaykh
Zāhed rose from his seat and said, “Peace be upon you, O my son Seyyed
Ṣadroddin Musā!”
“O shaykh, whom are you greeting?” asked his disciples.

5 A term for a sovereign, approximately equivalent to “emperor,” this term is used frequently in
the text.
The Story Of Seyyed Jebrāʾil 13

He replied, “I yearned to see the son who will come from the loins of Ṣafi and
the body of Fāṭimeh; I begged of God Almighty that He might show me the boy
before he comes into the world, and He did.”
Some of the disciples doubted it, so Shaykh Ṣafi said, “I saw him too! Let me
demonstrate it to our friends: When the boy is born, he will have a green mole
on his brow and another on the back of his ear.” And when that jewel from the
casket of happiness came into the world, the signs they had predicted were
correct.
Six years later, as Shaykh Zāhed was nearing death, he told his disciples, “Ac-
cept Shaykh Ṣafi as my deputy if you don’t want to be led off the true path.”
They all replied, “We hear and obey.” Shaykh Ṣafi refused, though, and how-
ever much Shaykh Zāhed importuned him, he wouldn’t accept.
Two more years passed, and this time Shaykh Zāhed was on death’s door.
Once again he called for his disciples and announced his testament thus: “After
me, my place is linked with my son Shaykh Ṣafi.”
Some of them had doubts and said, “From earliest times until now, the place
of the father has been linked to the son. Your son Shaykh Jamāloddin is full of
devotion and piety; wouldn’t it be a shame to give your place to a stranger and
leave your own son disappointed?”
“Beware!” replied Shaykh Zāhed. “Repent and turn back, for you know noth-
ing of this man! By God, my lineage will be honored by the coming of this
worthy one, both in this world and in the world to come. You don’t know how
highly God Almighty regards Shaykh Ṣafi! His sons will be world-conquerors;
they will rise day by day until the time when a representative of the family of
Moḥammad appears and sweeps the whole of unbelief from the face of the
earth. What I am telling you, I reveal to you so that you may know what I am
saying. Now tell me, where is Shaykh Ṣafi?”
They replied, “He is in such-and-such a place, three leagues from here.”
“My son Shaykh Jamāloddin is in his private chamber,” said Shaykh Zāhed.
“There is one wall between us and him, perhaps about thirty cubits’ distance.6
I will call Shaykh Jamāloddin three times; if he comes, I will give him my posi-
tion. If he doesn’t come, I will call Shaykh Ṣafi, and if he comes and answers on
the third call, you will know that it is the order of God Almighty that my posi-
tion is, and shall be, his.”
When those disciples who wanted Shaykh Ṣafi to be the successor of Shaykh
Zāhed heard this, they said, “Now you have released us, and we shall bow in
obedience to the commands of Shaykh Ṣafi.”

6 Thirty dharʿ would be about fifty to eighty feet, depending on which cubit the author meant.
14 Chapter 4

Shaykh Zāhed patiently waited until Shaykh Jamāloddin finished his

prayers. After the final “salām,” Shaykh Zāhed said to his disciples, “Now I’ll call
my son.” He cried out: “O Shaykh Jamāloddin, my son, come here!” No one ap-
peared. He called a second time, more loudly; Shaykh Jamāloddin still didn’t
hear it. Shaykh Zāhed called a third time, even more loudly; no one came.
The disciples said, “It’s uncertain whether Shaykh Ṣafi will hear; if Shaykh
Jamāloddin didn’t hear from thirty paces away, how will Shaykh Ṣafi hear?”
They failed to understand that right guidance and perfection are God’s to
grant.
Then Shaykh Zāhed said, “O my son Shaykh Ṣafi, come here!” He said it a
second time. The third time he said it, a voice saying “Here I am!” came from
the doorway of the lodge, and Shaykh Ṣafi came in with a face like the moon.
One of his feet was wearing a sandal, while the other was bare, and the sandal
was in his hand. “Here I am,” he said, and entered. “What is your order, O
shaykh?”
“O my son, why are you late?”
“It is clear and apparent to the radiant mind that when I heard the first call,
I was at prayer. The second time, I had just finished the prayer, and as I was put-
ting my feet into my sandals, I heard the third call and didn’t have the opportu-
nity to put on my other sandal! So I picked it up and took a step to come to you.”
When the disciples who had doubted witnessed this event, they all got up
and, placing their heads at the feet of Shaykh Ṣafi, became his disciples heart
and soul and asked his pardon.
Some days later, Shaykh Zāhed was seized with a burning fever, and his con-
dition became grave. When all his disciples had gathered, he took the hand of
Shaykh Ṣafi, brought him to the prayer-carpet of right guidance, and sat him
down. He then clothed him in his clothes, bound his belt around his waist, and
whispered some counsel in his ear. Then he gave his disciples a sign; they all
stood up, came up to the shaykh one last time, and renewed their vows of obe-
dience. On the third day Shaykh Zāhed was joined to the mercy of the Lord,
may God bless him.7
Shaykh Ṣafi washed Shaykh Zāhed’s body, performed the funerary prayers,
and buried him. For six years he sat by his grave. After that, he gathered his
disciples and Shaykh Zāhed’s sons and went to Ardabil, where the people wel-
comed them. Shaykh Ṣafi took up residence at his ancestral home and busied
himself with the recollection of God Almighty and with encouraging people in
God’s religion. He said to his disciples, “Even if ten or twenty people were to go
underground, after the prayers they would curse the enemies of the faith.”

7 Shaykh Zāhed Gilāni died in 700/1301.

The Story Of Seyyed Jebrāʾil 15

When Seyyed Ṣadroddin came into being, the signs that had been foretold
on the day of the wedding were all true. Whenever Shaykh Ṣafi was pained, he
would leave his house and go to that place, and feel a little better.
In the end, Shaykh Ṣafi, too, answered the summons of God, saying, “Here I
am.” He turned over his position to his worthy son Ṣadroddin Musā, whispering
his final testament into his ear. The disciples placed Seyyed Ṣadroddin in
Shaykh Ṣafi’s place, and all entered into obedience unto him. Eventually he,
too, came to his end.8 God Almighty blessed him with Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli.

8 Shaykh Ṣafioddin died in 735/1334.

16 Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The Story of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli

They say that after the death of Seyyed Ṣadroddin, Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli suc-
ceeded his father, attaining such a spiritual state that his fame in matters of
asceticism and perfection and discovery of the knowledge of the Unseen
spread to the very horizons. He gathered many disciples, who called him
“Solṭān ʿAli the Black-Clad (siyāh-push)” because he wore a black cloak most of
the time.
It was in the time of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli that Amir Timur Kurgān proclaimed
from the East his campaign of world conquest.1 Starting from Bokhārā, he
determined to seize all of Khorāsān. When he got to the shore of the Oxus,
though, he accidentally dropped his whip into the river. Taking this for a bad
omen, he reined in to a halt.
“O prince, why don’t you go on?” asked his amirs.
“Things have gone wrong for me,” replied Timur. “That was my lucky whip,
and it has now left my hand. I’m not taking another step until I have it again.”
“What!” said the amirs. “Don’t let such a thought enter your mind! How is
the whip going to return to your hand from this river?”
“Would that I hadn’t thought of it,” said Timur, “but if I don’t get this whip
back, I’m not doing another thing.”
The story goes that after they had stood by the shore of the Oxus for an hour,
the eye of the Ṣāḥeb-qerān2 fell upon a man who appeared from the direction
of Mecca. When Timur got a good look, he saw a black-clad dervish walking on
the surface of the river. The dervish approached Amir Timur and said, “Why
are you standing here?”
“O sir,” replied Amir Timur, answering with a couplet, “‘Since it is clear, what
need for explanation?’ My whip has fallen into the water, and I want it back.”
The gentleman in black plunged his hand into the the river, retrieved the
whip, and gave it to Timur. Timur kissed it and touched it to his eye, then said:
“O prince, what kind of man are you? What is your name? Tell me!”
The dervish said: “You will see me twice more: Once in Sar-e Pol, in Zarqān,
and once in Ardabil. My tomb shall be in Jerusalem.” Having said this, he disap-
peared from view.

1 The story of Timur and Khwājeh ʿAli and the uses to which it was put in Safavid Iran are ex-
amined in detail in Horst, Tīmūr und Hōǧä ʿAlī.
2 “Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction,” the title by which writers often refer to Timur.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_006

The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 17

Those who were with the Ṣāḥeb-qerān said, “What kind of man was that,
who brought your whip out of the water and gave it to you?”
Timur said, “Did you see him too?”
“Yes,” they replied.
“I didn’t know what kind of man he was, but I will surely see him again.”
Amir Timur then crossed the river and proceeded on the road to Khorāsān.
When he reached Andijān, old Bābā Sang Kuhi the dervish was there. The
Ṣāḥeb-qerān asked after him and, having learned where he was and being on a
search for a spiritual teacher, he went and saw him. Now when Timur saw
Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli on the Oxus, he had recognized him as his teacher; he had
seen so much perfection in him that he was searching for him, hoping to see
him again. When he saw Bābā Sang Kuhi, he was astonished, for this man did
not have what he sought. For this reason, he just greeted him, and they stood
there looking at each other.
They say that when Bābā Sang Kuhi’s eye fell on the Ṣāḥeb-qerān, he point-
ed to his own breast. Seeing this, Timur praised him, and ordered that several
villages give their crops to him each year, and after him to his sons, as a pious
endowment. Bābā Sang Kuhi’s progeny are honored; they live in Andijān.
Timur knew that Khorāsān is the heart of the earth; it was the sign of Khorāsān
that Bābā Sang Kuhi had made by pointing to his breast.
Timur then bade Bābā Sang Kuhi farewell and departed. In a short time he
had conquered Khorāsān from the kings of Ghur.3 After that he turned toward
ʿErāq.4 When he had conquered it as well, he turned his ambition to Fārs and
eventually arrived at Zarqān. There he was told that cattle and camels were
shying on the bridge, and that no matter how much their owners beat them,
they would not cross over.
Amir Timur went to the bridge, where he saw a dervish. He greeted him. The
dervish returned his greeting. When Timur went forward, he saw Solṭān
Khwājeh ʿAli the Black-Clad wearing his black cloak. Although he had seen him
before, and although Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli had said, “You will see me in Zarqān,”
Timur did not recognize him.
When Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli spotted the Ṣāḥeb-qerān, he jumped up and
threw a stone at him. It hit Timur on the chest. He threw another stone; it hit
Timur on the shoulder and made him writhe with pain. He threw a third stone,

3 By this is probably meant the Karts of Harāt (643–791/1245–1389), who traced their origins to
the Ghurid dynasty.
4 This term occurs frequently in the text. It refers to the western part of Iran, not the modern
(Arab) country of Iraq.
18 Chapter 5

which hit him on the other shoulder. Unable to bear any more, Timur said, “O
dervish, I swear to you by God, that’s enough! The prediction5 has come true!”
Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli tossed the fourth stone aside and said, “O Ṣāḥeb-qerān,
three climes are in your power; this stone was the fourth. If you hadn’t sworn
an oath, I would have thrown it too, but you didn’t accept it. Now go, for of the
four climes of the world, you have three.”
When the Ṣāḥeb-qerān heard this, a sigh arose from his heart. He said,
“Throw the fourth stone—I’ll offer my own eye as the target!”
“It’s too late for that,” said the dervish. “Don’t say another word, for the aus-
picious moment has passed.” Then he turned and went under the bridge. Timur
did not follow him, but went to the top of the bridge. Just then his amirs arrived
and said, “We haven’t seen anyone.”
Amir Timur said, “I swear to God, that was the very dervish in the black
cloak that I know! He said himself, ‘You will see me one more time.’” Comfort-
ing himself with this good news, he turned toward Anatolia.
In Anatolia, Timur’s men captured Solṭān Anas,6 the Qayṣar of Rum, in
battle and brought him before him. Timur made him swear an oath, then said,
“Tell me what you were intending for me; if God had aided you and you had
captured me, what would you have done with me?”
The Qayṣar replied, “O prince, since you made me swear by God to tell the
truth, I was thinking that I would take you, tie a stone to your belly, and throw
you in the sea at Constantinople.”
The Ṣāḥeb-qerān said, “In my heart, this is what I intended: With God’s help,
I would capture you and have you brought to me; then I would rise and take
your hand and give you a place at my side. I would have a three-day feast for
you, and on the fourth day I would give the country of Rum back to you and
return to Torkestān. Since my intention was good, you became my prisoner,
and now I will act according to my intention.”
Then he pardoned the Qayṣar, placed a royal crown on his head, and levied
a tribute on him. Then he left Morghāb in the direction of Georgia.7
Some time thereafter, the news arrived that the kings of Badakhshān had
come from Torkestān and were attacking Samarqand with a great army. Timur
thus left the Caspian region and set off in haste for Torkestān. When he got
there, Timur’s local officials were in dire straits, but he punished the aggressors
and headed for Bokhārā.

5 ḥadith. It is not clear what Timur is referring to.

6 Sic; by this is meant Solṭān Bāyazid I, whom Timur captured at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.
(Qayṣar is one of the titles of the Ottoman Emperor, derived from the Latin Caesar.)
7 The text here has “Torkestān,” but both the Chester Beatty Library manuscript (fol. 11a) and
Shokri’s edition (ʿĀlamarā-ye Ṣafavi, 22) have “Gorjestān,” which makes more sense.
The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 19

After capturing the Qayṣar and levying a tribute on him, Timur went to
Egypt, conquered it, and placed his sons on the throne there. When word
reached the Qayṣar that Timur had gone to Bokhārā, he was glad, and he seized
the opportunity to raise an army and invade Egypt. This news reached Shāhrokh
Mirzā, who immediately sent messengers to Torkestān. When they presented
this news to the Ṣāḥeb-qerān, he once again left and headed for Constantino-
ple via the Qepchāq steppe. When he got there, the Qayṣar had gone to Egypt
with his army.
Timur fell upon the city of Istanbul and did much killing and plundering;
then he seized the Qayṣar’s treasury and set off after him. It happened that the
Qayṣar’s army had surrounded Cairo, and Shāhrokh Mirzā was in a difficult
situation. Timur ordered them to blow the battle-trumpet. When Shāhrokh
heard the sound, he looked and saw the battle-standard of his father. He or-
dered that the gates of Cairo be opened and came out with ten thousand men.
“What has gotten into this son of a Mongol?”8 said the Qayṣar.
His officers replied, “Apparently his father has come.” The Qayṣar let out a
cry and turned his reins so as to get away, but Timur gave no quarter; he cap-
tured the Qayṣar and the Anatolian leaders,9 killing many people and captur-
ing almost a hundred thousand. He clapped them all in chains and turned back
to Iran.
When he came to the vicinity of Ardabil, he learned that there was a dervish
there, a descendent of Shaykh Ṣafi with many followers. The Ṣāḥeb-qerān re-
solved to see him, saying to himself, “If he possesses such perfection, he will
reveal it to me, and I will honor him and become his disciple. If he doesn’t pos-
sess perfection, I will kill him, so that he doesn’t lead the people astray.”
Timur had three conditions in mind: First, that the dervish should not come
out to meet him, nor even move from his place. Second, that he should present
Timur with food that he had never eaten in his life. Third, that he should eat
three methqāls10 of deadly poison and repel it from his body through the power
of his spiritual state. If the dervish fulfilled these three conditions, it would be
sure proof that he was a man of God.
So Timur entered Ardabil, and they brought the news to Solṭān ʿAli the
Black-Clad, saying: “The Ṣāḥeb-qerān has come!”
“Let him come.”

8 The text has qawwālzādeh or “son of a storyteller,” which makes little sense. Shokri
(ʿĀlamarā-ye Ṣafavi, 23) suggests, based on variants in other manuscripts, mogholzādeh,
which is more logical. The Chester Beatty Library copy (fol. 11b) has the homophonous
variant spelling moqolzādeh.
9 Literally “sultans,” salāṭin.
10 About 15 grams.
20 Chapter 5

All the nobles of Ardabil came and entreated him, saying, “Amir Timur is a
proud king; don’t annoy him! It will be best if you go to the outskirts of the city
and greet him!”
Solṭān ʿAli answered, “We have no reason to consult with him. If he has a
reason to consult with dervishes, that is good.”
The nobles and people of Ardabil came again and said, “Timur is at the door
of the lodge!” But Solṭān ʿAli gave the same response.
Finally Timur appeared before him and approached him with a greeting.
Solṭān ʿAli returned the greeting and gestured as if to say, “Have a seat.” Amir
Timur sat down next to him and inquired about his health. An hour went by,
then Solṭān ʿAli ordered that food be served. They brought in a plate of rice
pudding and a loaf of bread. Solṭān ʿAli said, “This is the food of the poor.”
“I’ve eaten lots of rice pudding,” said Timur.
Solṭān ʿAli replied, “Eat it; you’ve never had this before. For this is gazelle’s
milk, and the rice is from Egypt. I planted it in the garden of the lodge. And this
loaf of bread is millet.”
When Amir Timur saw the gaze of Solṭān ʿAli, which he had seen before, he
wanted to flutter around his head like a moth. He praised him in his heart, even
though he was not being courteous to him. His belief in him increased a hun-
dredfold, and he turned to eat. When he had finished, Solṭān ʿAli said, “O amir,
order them to bring the drink you prepared, the one in a crystal goblet!”
The Ṣāḥeb-qerān bowed his head to kiss the dervish’s foot, but Solṭān ʿAli
stopped him and embraced him. Timur said, “God forbid that I should have
behaved so boorishly, seeing how the summit of your spiritual perfection has
been revealed to me!”
Solṭān ʿAli made him swear an oath, and he ordered that they bring the
drink. Solṭān ʿAli clasped the handle of the goblet and drained it. Amir Timur
gasped. He saw the dervish arise and begin to pray; then the poison came out
of his body with his sweat. Timur saw that every drop of poison that dripped
onto the ground burned a hole in the rug and the mat under it and turned
them into ashes. The Ṣāḥeb-qerān bit his finger, beside himself in amazement,
and watched as over the course of two hours as the dervish ejected those two
[sic] methqāls of poison, which, had they been dropped into the sea, would
have killed every creature in it. Then, when his ecstasy was complete, Solṭān
ʿAli came and sat in his place again.
Amir Timur placed his head at Solṭān ʿAli’s feet and said, “Purify me; over-
look my fault; command me to render some service, so that I know you have
forgiven my sin!”
Solṭān ʿAli said, “I forgive your sin, and may God Almighty grant you success
and let you conquer three quarters of the earth.”
The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 21

In the course of their conversation, Timur said, “Was it you who pulled my
whip from the river Oxus?”
Solṭān ʿAli replied, “Yes.”
“Was it you who threw those stones at me at the bridge?”
“Yes.”
As the Ṣāḥeb-qerān recognized Solṭān ʿAli, he placed the hand of devotion
on his skirt and became one of his Ṣufis. He then ordered that they write a let-
ter to his sons, saying “We have made Ardabil and its dependencies a trust
(vaqf) for the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi and his threshold.” He also made an
inscription in his register, saying: “If someone has committed a thousand sins,
let him seek refuge at this threshold, and he will be pardoned.” Then he en-
treated Solṭān ʿAli once more to command him to perform some service for
him.
Solṭān ʿAli said, “We aren’t in need of created things, for our work comes
from the court of the Creator himself; but turn these prisoners over to us.”
“I am indebted to you,” said Timur. Then he ordered that all the prisoners be
handed over to Solṭān ʿAli. The Solṭān freed them all; many became disciples of
the order of Shaykh Ṣafi and stayed in the service of Solṭān ʿAli, while many
others went back to their homelands. Amir Timur was granted permission to
depart and returned to his own land.
Soon thereafter, God Almighty blessed Solṭān ʿAli with a worthy son, whom
he named Jonayd. He strove to have the child educated, and when he was
twenty years old, he sat on the prayer-rug of orthodoxy. Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli
went to visit the house of God, and on his way back, in Jerusalem, he respond-
ed to the divine summons with “Here I am.” When the news of his death
reached Solṭān Jonayd, he went and buried his father there, then returned. The
disciples placed the hand of obedience on his skirt, and for a long time he
guided them on the path of right belief.
At the time, Iran was under the rule of Mirzā Jahānshāh Saljuqi.11 He had
made Tabriz his capital. When the fame of the Ṣufis of the lineage of Shaykh
Ṣafi reached him, he summoned his astrologers and told them to read the stars
of those Ṣufis, saying, “I hear that there is much hubbub around Solṭān Jonayd.
I fear that one of the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi will emerge, and that domin-
ion will be severed from our dynasty and pass instead to the house of Shaykh
Ṣafi. If any harm is going to come to my dynasty from these people, tell me so
that we can defend against them.”

11 Moẓaffaroddin Jahānshāh b. Amir Qarā Yusof Torkmān, the last effective ruler of the Qarā
Qoyunlu.
22 Chapter 5

The astrologers said, “O prince, shall we tell you what our analysis of the
stars has revealed to us, or shall we tell you that which is welcome to hear? The
time is near when one of the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi will emerge and in
short order conquer all of Iran, part of Hendustān, and part of Torkestān; he
will lead a rebellion and change the rite of worship, and with a shining sword
overturn the whole of the country and take it into his possession. He will prop-
agate that new rite and will progress day by day; his state will not decline until
the appearance of the Mahdi; he will strike his sword in allegiance with Him,
and kings will ask to be allied with him and will place themselves in his ser-
vice.”
When Jahānshāh heard this from the astrologers, hatred and enmity toward
the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi took root in his heart. He ordered that a letter
be written to Solṭān Jonayd which said: “When you receive my letter, you had
better send your people far away from you and your attendants, scatter your
followers, and hide in the corner of security, for I am distressed by these Ṣufis
of yours. Do not let the temptation of ignorant agitators speak of ‘emergence’
and put dreams of rule in your heart! Why should a matter which begins easily
end badly, with the blood of many thousands spilt unjustly? If you don’t listen
to my words and abandon these meddlers, it will surely be incumbent upon us
to drive you and your followers away.”
When Mirzā Jahānshāh’s letter reached Solṭān Jonayd, he sought out his dis-
ciples and asked, “What shall we say in response?”
“Write whatever comes to your noble mind,” they replied.
So he wrote in his letter: “May it not remain hidden from the world-adorning
mind of the king of Iran that the thought of the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi is
clearly causing you unease. Be sure to put such whisperings far from your
heart, for the Shayṭān of men is tempting you. Behold, I am a recluse, occupied
with my followers in worship of the beneficent Lord at the tomb of my ances-
tors; the desire for emergence and conquest is not on my mind and has never
been. If your flattering astrologers have made you afraid that one of the de-
scendants of Shaykh Ṣafi will be the one who emerges to conquer, that man is
not me; perhaps he will be one of my sons or grandsons. If the divine decree is
such that one of the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi is going to emerge to conquer, then it
would be inevitable even if the whole world wanted to change it. So be at
peace, and leave us be; I have no enmity toward you. Don’t think about me,
worry about the punishment of the Creator—you know the rest!”
When the response reached Mirzā Jahānshāh, he once more consulted with
his pillars of state. They said, “Solṭān Jonayd is right; he is not one to think of
world domination. Perhaps this matter will come to pass at another time.”
The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 23

Two years after this, hostile people again let it be known that day by day, the
Ṣufis of Ardabil were increasing in number, and if they chose to emerge to con-
quer, they could gather twenty thousand horsemen in Ardabil who would
bring their dependents too. For the followers of the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi were
everywhere, from the Maghreb to Balkh and Bokhārā. Mirzā Jahānshāh be-
came fearful and wrote another letter, saying: “No matter how much we warn
you, you don’t heed us; one would think that you find great delight in this. Get
up and get out of our realm or we shall come to Ardabil and destroy it, and
perhaps even order a general massacre!”
When the letter arrived, Solṭān Jonayd perused it and said to his Ṣufis, “We
have to go; my ancestor the shaykh in the spirit world has said to me, ‘Go to
Diyārbakr, my son, otherwise this tyrannical king will reduce Ardabil to ruins.’
So we must leave. Any Ṣufi who comes along is welcome, but it is up to you.”
All the Ṣufis said, “Our head is under your foot; we are at your service wher-
ever you go.” So they all gathered their dependents and headed off to Diyārbakr.
At the time the ruler of that land was Ḥasan Beg Āq Qoyunlu, who was also
a follower of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli. When he heard that the son of that master
had gone into exile out of fear of Mirzā Jahānshāh and was heading toward
Diyārbakr, he ordered that the elders of the tribe mount up and greet them two
stations’ distance from the city. He, too, went out one station’s distance to wel-
come them, accompanied by his kinsmen. When he saw Solṭān Jonayd from
afar, he dismounted, and the two of them embraced. He also showed great es-
teem for the followers of Solṭān Jonayd. Solṭān Jonayd remained as his guest for
three years, during which time Ḥasan Beg gave him his sister in marriage.
After three years, Solṭān Jonayd gathered his followers and headed back to
Ardabil. The news reached Mirzā Jahānshāh that Solṭān Jonayd had gone to
Diyārbakr, that Ḥasan Beg had given him his sister in marriage, and that Solṭān
Jonayd was now going to Ardabil with his people, having been strengthened by
the power of Ḥasan Beg. Mirzā Jahānshāh therefore ordered his people to raise
an army and fight Solṭān Jonayd.
When Solṭān Jonayd heard this, he gathered twenty thousand Ṣufis and dis-
ciples and set off to conquer the country of Shirvān, saying, “I am going to fight
the Christians.”
Word of this reached Solṭān Khalil, the king of Shirvān, who was a descen-
dant of Anushirvān, that Solṭān Jonayd was coming to conquer Shirvān on the
pretext of going to Circassia. Solṭān Khalil ordered the Shirvānis to raise an
army; he also sent someone to Abulmaʿṣum Khān, king of Ṭabarestān, asking
for assistance. He sent five thousand men. Mirzā Jahānshāh, too, sent five thou-
sand men from Tabriz. Thirty thousand men gathered on the shore of the river
Aras, blocking the road with the intention of fighting Solṭān Jonayd. The battle
24 Chapter 5

got going immediately, and many of the Ṣufis were killed. After much slaughter
and struggle, Solṭān Jonayd became a martyr for the faith12, and his men re-
treated. The Ṣufis gathered Solṭān Jonayd’s body and took it to Ardabil, where
they buried him. They put his noble son, who was named Solṭān Ḥaydar, in his
father’s place on the throne of right guidance and placed themselves at his
service.
When Ḥasan Beg heard that Solṭān Jonayd had been killed, he girded him-
self with bloodlust and set out with twenty thousand Torkmāns for Tabriz. A
great battle took place between Ḥasan Beg and Mirzā Jahānshāh; many people
were killed on both sides until Mirzā Jahānshāh’s army finally broke and turned
tail. Mirzā Jahānshāh himself was captured alive and brought into the pres-
ence of Ḥasan Beg, who indicated that he should be killed. Then Ḥasan Beg sat
himself on the throne in Tabriz and, having established himself there, became
ruler of Iran. He summoned Solṭān Ḥaydar to him and honored him greatly; he
gave him Ardabil again, and strove in his upbringing, and gave him his daugh-
ter, ʿĀlamshāh Begom.
Solṭān Ḥaydar ruled over his followers until one night, in a dream, he saw
the holy Commander of the Faithful and the Emām of the Pious saying to him:
“O my son, soon a son will come forth from your loins who will go forth and
abolish all heresy from the face of the earth. But you must make for your Ṣufis
and disciples a crown with twelve notches (tarak),” and he showed Solṭān
Ḥaydar how to make it. When he awoke, he called the Ṣufis and enjoined each
one to make such a crown and place it on his head. They called that crown the
tāj-e Ḥaydari and nicknamed its wearers “Qezelbāsh” (“Redheads”).
When Ḥasan Beg heard of this, he sent someone to Solṭān Ḥaydar with the
following message: “O my son, send me this garment that you have made for
your disciples so I can see how it is made!”
Solṭān Ḥaydar sent a tāj to Ḥasan Beg Pādeshāh. When he saw it, he picked
it up, kissed it, and put it on his head, telling all his sons to put it on as well.
They all did, except his son Yaʿqub, who refused. No matter how much his fa-
ther pressed him, it was no use; he wouldn’t put it on. He bound the belt of
hostility toward Solṭān Ḥaydar round his waist. After some time, Ḥasan Beg
Pādeshāh bade farewell to life, and Yaʿqub succeeded his father. He became an
enemy to the descendents of Shaykh Ṣafi; out of an excess of jealousy and envy,
he commanded that anyone who put on the tāj-e Ḥaydari again would have
their ears and nose cut off.
When Solṭān Ḥaydar heard this, he realized that Yaʿqub Shāh was his enemy.
So he gathered his disciples and headed for Shirvān to avenge the blood of his

12 Solṭān Jonayd was killed in 1460.

The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 25

father. Yaʿqub Shāh, alerted to this, sent a messenger to Solṭān Khalil, the king
of Shirvān, to say: “Solṭān Ḥaydar is coming to fight you. You know how to take
care of him! Kill his followers. If you do this, I will ally myself with you by ac-
cepting your daughter in marriage.”
Solṭān Khalil responded: “If what you are saying is true, and tomorrow you
won’t blame me for Solṭān Ḥaydar’s death, then send an army to put my mind
at ease.” So Yaʿqub Shāh sent Solaymān Solṭān Bijan-oghli along with ten thou-
sand men. When Solṭān Ḥaydar arrived at the edge of the Kura River, Solṭān
Khalil ordered his son Farrokhyasār to write a letter to Abulmaʿṣum Khān, the
ruler of Ṭabarestān, asking him to send his army.
He raised five thousand troops and came. From the direction of Tabriz, too,
arose a cloud of dust indicating the arrival of Solaymān Solṭān Bijan-oghli the
Torkmān, en route with ten thousand men to join the forty thousand others
already gathered.
When Solṭān Ḥaydar saw the Torkmān army, he said, “The sight of that dust
grieves my heart, for today I must be killed.” Then the Ṣufis arrived. Solṭān
Ḥaydar took his place at the center of the army; he placed Qarāpari Ostājlu on
the right wing and gave the left wing to Ḥosayn Beg Shāmlu. On the other side,
Solṭān Khalil took his place at the center of his army and placed Abulmaʿṣum
Khān on the right wing and Farrokhyasār on the left. Solaymān Solṭān Bijan-
oghli was in the vanguard.
After the troops were lined up, Solaymān Solṭān went forth and sought an
opponent. Solṭān Ḥaydar seized his spear and took to the field; with one blow
of his spear he knocked Solaymān Solṭān off his horse and into the dust of
contempt, then turned and went back into his own ranks. His disciples asked,
“O prince, why didn’t you kill that man?”
“That man will be the one who kills me,” replied Solṭān Ḥaydar.
The humiliated Solaymān Solṭān got up off the ground and retreated into
his own ranks. The Torkmāns said, “Solṭān Ḥaydar showed you mercy; if he had
wanted to, he would have killed you.”
That shameless coward took seven thousand men and got behind the other
troops. Abulmaʿṣum Khān led his own men in an attack from the other direc-
tion, and the battle began to rage as those oceans of soldiery crashed into each
other. Those two bloodthirsty armies13 surged toward Solṭān Ḥaydar; he hurled
himself into the midst of those devious villains, killing nearly three hundred
and sending them to hell. Suddenly Solaymān Solṭān appeared behind him

13 I.e., Torkmān and Ṭabarestāni.

26 Chapter 5

and stabbed Solṭān Ḥaydar in the side with his spear. The Ṭabarestānis then
surrounded him, pulled him from his horse, and killed him.14
When Solṭān Ḥaydar’s disciples learned that he had been killed, they
charged onto the battlefield, killing three or four hundred of the enemy, and
retrieved Ḥaydar’s corpse. Then they headed back to Ardabil.
As Solṭān Ḥaydar was going into battle, he had named his eldest son Solṭān
ʿAli Mirzā as his successor and given him his final counsel. Now, when Solṭān
ʿAli Mirzā heard of his father’s death, he mourned and kept the Ṣufis by him.
The people, too, turned to him for guidance.
Yaʿqub Shāh was glad to hear of the death of Solṭān Ḥaydar. But fate did not
show him mercy, and he soon died and went to hell. Bāysonqor succeeded him
as king, and the Torkmāns all obeyed him. After two years had gone by, Aybeh15
Solṭān, who was his commander-in-chief, had a falling-out with him; he went
to the fortress of Qahqaheh, released Rostam Mirzā, and declared him king.
Rostam Mirzā was the grandson of Ḥasan Beg Pādeshāh.
Bāysonqor learned of these events and raised an army to go fight Ros-
tam Mirzā. Since Rostam Mirzā had Aybeh Solṭān on his side, Bāysonqor was
unsuccessful, and he fled toward Shirvān.16 Aybeh Solṭān took Rostam Mirzā to
Tabriz and made him king. After Rostam Mirzā had ruled for a year, his thoughts
turned to the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi. He ordered that ʿĀlamshāh Begom
and her sons Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, Ebrāhim Mirzā, and Esmāʿil Mirzā be taken to
the fortress of Kalāt and imprisoned. They were there for seven years.
Then Bāysonqor Mirzā, whose mother was the daughter of Solṭān Khalil of
Shirvān, took the army of Shirvān and set out with the intention of fighting
Rostam Pādeshāh. When Rostam Pādeshāh heard about it, he asked the
Torkmāns what they thought should be done.
They replied, “If you want to defeat Bāysonqor, you must send someone to
the fortress of Kalāt, free the sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar, bring them back here, and
show them great respect. This is because Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā is a valiant youth,
and he has thirty thousand Ṣufis for followers. You must give him twenty thou-
sand more men and send them to fight Bāysonqor and drive him away. After
that, taking care of Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā will be easy.”
Rostam Pādeshāh accepted their counsel. He sent someone to release the
sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar and bring them to court. When they arrived, Rostam
Pādeshāh honored them greatly, saying to Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā: “What I did to you

14 Solṭān Ḥaydar was killed in 1488.

15 Consistently spelled “Abiyeh” in the text.
16 The text has “Shirāz,” which does not fit with what happens next. “Shirvān” seems more
likely.
The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 27

is past. God willing, I will strive to make up for it, and you will be my son and
you will rule Iran after me.” He ordered that Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā be decked out
from head to foot in a robe of honor, along with a crown and an aigrette and a
mace and a dagger and a sword studded with jewels and an Arabian horse with
a golden saddle. Then he said, “I give you the name Solṭān ʿAli Pādeshāh—no
longer will I call you ‘Mirzā.’”
When the Ṣufis heard that Solṭān ʿAli had been thus decorated, they came to
him, and within six months’ time, fifty thousand Ṣufis had gathered.
Rostam Shāh then ordered Aybeh Solṭān to gather twenty thousand troops
and join Solṭān ʿAli to go fight Bāysonqor. Rostam Shāh accompanied Solṭān
ʿAli for two days’ journey and returned. Solṭān ʿAli continued on with Aybeh
Solṭān to Ardabil, and after meeting with the attendants and Ṣufis, they headed
for their objective with thirty thousand men.
When Solṭān Khalil heard that Solṭān ʿAli was coming together with Aybeh
Solṭān to fight Bāysonqor, he gathered an army of his own. Bāysonqor raised
thirteen thousand men and crossed the river Kura in the vicinity of Qarābāgh,
seizing the road with the intention of fighting Solṭān ʿAli. The next day
Farrokhyasār, the son of Solṭān Khalil, arrived with a boundless army. The
ranks of battle and strife were formed. Solṭān ʿAli took his place in the center,
gave the right wing to his tutor Ḥosayn Beg and the left to Dadeh Beg Ṭālesh,
and placed Aybeh Solṭān in the vanguard. Farrokhyasār took his place in the
center, gave the right wing to Bāysonqor and the left to the commander Kiyā
Bahman, and placed Kiyā Bahman’s son Kiyā Malek in the vanguard, sending
him and five thousand men onto the battlefield. Aybeh Solṭān responded with
five thousand of his own. The two masses of men flowed into each other, and a
heated battle got under way. Kiyā Malek struck everyone he encountered with
his sword, toppling them and knocking them senseless. The evil eye almost
befell Solṭān ʿAli’s army, but Aybeh Solṭān threw himself into the fray. Splitting
the ranks as he went, he found Kiyā Malek and finished him off with one blow
of his sword. Kiyā Malek’s troops were thrown into confusion and turned tail.
When Kiyā Bahman learned of this, he let out a cry and charged into battle,
driving the vanguard back. Solṭān ʿAli sent his right wing into action, and
Bāysonqor also got on the move. The two armies collided; Kiyā Bahman ran
away, while Aybeh Solṭān was taken prisoner. When Solṭān ʿAli saw how things
were going, he ordered the Torkmān army to turn back, then led his Qezelbāsh
troops into the fray, hurling himself at the Shirvānis. Striking and smiting, slay-
ing and killing, he plunged into their midst. At a certain moment, he spotted
the battle-standard of Bāysonqor and left his own standard behind. No matter
how much the Ṣufis entreated him, he wouldn’t listen; he charged up to the
enemy standard, knocked Bāysonqor off his feet, and turned that standard
28 Chapter 5

upside down. The Shirvāni army turned and fled; Farrokhyasār ran away to
Shirvān. Solṭān ʿAli Pādeshāh, flush with conquest and victory, seized the be-
longings and property of Farrokhyasār and the Shirvānis and headed off to Ta-
briz.
Word of this victory reached Rostam Shāh, who sent his people out to wel-
come Solṭān ʿAli. He himself went as well. When he spotted Solṭān ʿAli, he dis-
mounted from his horse, embraced him, and kissed his forehead. After this, the
two of them mounted up and rode into Tabriz. Solṭān ʿAli was clothed in the
finest robe of honor, and the Ṣufis, too, were treated as they deserved.
After six months had gone by, though, Solṭān ʿAli’s good fortune had passed,
and his enemies became jealous of his position; they seduced Rostam Shāh
with their lies and convinced him to kill that prince and his Ṣufis. So he told his
amirs: “Tomorrow morning I will call a meeting and summon Solṭān ʿAli and
his brothers and Ṣufis to it. As soon as they come in, kill every one of them.
Afterwards, I will order that wherever in Iran a follower of Shaykh Ṣafi is found,
he should be killed.”
That night, one of the nobles went to Solṭān ʿAli and let him know what
Rostam Shāh was up to. As soon as Solṭān ʿAli heard, he gathered his own no-
bles and told them: “Rostam Shāh intends to kill me and all my brothers and
Ṣufis tomorrow.” Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Dadeh Beg Ṭālesh and Qarāpari Ostājlu
and Elyās Beg all said: “May we be sacrificed for you! Why are you just sitting
there? Get up! We’ll go to Ardabil; all the disciples will be there. If Rostam Shāh
wants to fight, we’ll fight him, and if he can’t manage it, we shall be safely on
our own.”
“Good idea,” replied Solṭān ʿAli. “Let everyone with a good horse come with
us, and those who don’t, change their headgear and follow us by a different
road.” He gathered four hundred of the Ṣufis and left in the middle of the night.
The next day, when Rostam Shāh learned that Solṭān ʿAli had taken all his
brothers and his army and gone to Ardabil, he let out a cry and ordered Aybeh
Solṭān to mount up and get moving quickly, saying, “If Solṭān ʿAli should enter
Ardabil, God forbid, it will cost a thousand Torkmān lives to take him back.”
So Aybeh Solṭān gathered five thousand men and marched off, traveling
thirty-one leagues to Ardabil.
Solṭān ʿAli looked behind him on the road and saw a great cloud of dust. He
called Esmāʿil Mirzā to his side and said, “The Torkmān army has arrived, and
today I shall be killed in battle. I want you to avenge my blood and that of your
ancestors on the sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh. This lot has fallen to your auspicious
fortune. May it soon be that you emerge from Gilān with a world-conquering
sword and with it smite unbelief from the face of the earth!” Then he took his
tāj-e Ḥaydari and placed it on Esmāʿil’s head; he bound his own belt around the
The Story Of Solṭān Khwājeh ʿali 29

boy’s waist, then bent down and whispered in his ear the counsel he had inher-
ited from his fathers. He ordered seven men, including Ḥosayn Beg Laleh,
Qarāpari Ostājlu, Abdāl Beg, Dadeh Beg Ṭālesh, and others, to take Esmāʿil
Mirzā, Ebrāhim Mirzā, and Solaymān Mirzā and head for Ardabil and thence
to Gilān, where they should stay with the king of Lāhijān until the time of
Esmāʿil’s emergence.
The brothers said, “Let us be sacrifices for you; rather than let you fall into
the hands of the enemy, let us give up our lives for you!”
Solṭān ʿAli refused. “Listen,” he said; “if not for you, our family would cease to
exist. You will be the brilliant raison d’être of the family.” Then Ḥosayn Beg La-
leh bared his head and kissed Solṭān ʿAli’s thigh and stirrup; but no matter how
much he pleaded, “Let me remain with you,” Solṭān ʿAli kept refusing, saying
only, “You be the tutor of my brothers, and with the upbringing you provide
and the aid of the holy Emāms, this boy will make his emergence.” Then, with
a hundred disappointments, Ḥosayn Beg kissed his foot, gathered up those
princes, and hastened to Ardabil.
30 Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The Battle between Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā and Aybeh Solṭān and the Death of
Solṭān ʿAli

When Aybeh Solṭān arrived, he and five thousand men surrounded Solṭān ʿAli’s
four hundred. After much preliminary back-and-forth, the matter came to
fighting, and the two armies crashed together. The Ṣufis congregated around
Solṭān ʿAli and, clasping their shining swords, attacked the Torkmān soldiers.
In short order they had killed a thousand men. Aybeh Solṭān saw that his army
would soon be defeated, and that coward left his battle-standard and went to
confront Solṭān ʿAli. When he saw him, though, he began to tremble, and he
was about to turn on his heel when Solṭān ʿAli saw that little nobody and
rushed at him. Aybeh Solṭān fled in terror, ordering his soldiers to enter the
battle even as he himself sought to escape, but Solṭān ʿAli was right behind him
shouting, “Coward, I have you; where do you think you’re going?” Aybeh Solṭān
had his shield over his head as he fled; Solṭān ʿAli dealt him such a blow with
his sword that he cleft him from his head down to his saddle and sent him to
hell.
When the Torkmān troops heard about this, they turned their horses to flee;
but then, as they saw Solṭān ʿAli on the battlefield, they charged at him and
made him a martyr. The Qezelbāsh disciples rushed to Solṭān ʿAli, but his pure
soul had already left his body and ascended to highest heaven. With a great cry,
they picked up his body and took it away from the Torkmāns with a thousand
difficulties. They then headed for Ardabil.
When ʿĀlamshāh Begom, Solṭān ʿAli’s mother, heard that he had been killed,
she moaned and wailed and cursed the sons of Ḥasan Shāh, saying: “O Lord,
avenge the unjustly spilled blood of this son of a seyyed on this rebellious, sedi-
tious clan, in the name of Moḥammad and his Family!”
When Rostam Shāh heard the news, though, he was quite jovial and cheer-
ful, not only over the martyrdom of Solṭān ʿAli but also over the death of Aybeh
Solṭān. He ordered that ʿAli Khān Solṭān the Torkmān go to Ardabil, seize the
sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar wherever they were, and send them to him. He also or-
dered that the Qezelbāsh be massacred.
ʿAli Khān Solṭān went to Ardabil, but no matter how hard he looked he could
not find a trace of the Ṣafavid princes. He killed many of Solṭān Ḥaydar’s Ṣufis
and looted their possessions; he killed many of their families on the pretext
that in the recent battle they had been on the side of Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā. In short,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_007

The Battle Between Solṭān ʿali Mirzā And Aybeh Solṭān 31

he wreaked much injustice in Ardabil. He plundered the house of ʿĀlamshāh

Begom so thoroughly that of her worldly possessions, not a dinar remained.
Every donation that the people would give in the name of Shaykh Ṣafi, the Ṣufis
would secretly take by night to her house and entrust to her servants. That is
how the Begom lived.
Meanwhile, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and some companions took the princes and
went to Gilān and Lāhijān, to Amir Kiyā, who was a disciple of Shaykh Ṣafi.
When Amir Kiyā learned of the blessed arrival of the princes, he came to them
and presented them with what was proper to him as their servant. He took
them into the inner sanctum of his house and kept them so safe that no outsid-
ers knew they were there, and every day he engaged them in the reading of the
Divine Word.
Four years went by. ʿAli Khān Solṭān’s spies were on the move all over the
world. One day, one of them entered Lāhijān, pretending to be a follower of
Shaykh Ṣafi and saying to everyone: “I am a sacrifice for the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi!
Would that I knew where they were, so I might kiss their feet!” Finally, one day
somebody responded, “If you are a follower of theirs, and if you are telling the
truth, the sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar are in the house of Amir Kiyā. If you go to him,
you will find them.”
When he had learned where the princes were, the spy did not tarry in
Lāhijān, but went to Ardabil to inform ʿAli Khān Solṭān. He immediately sent
someone to accompany the spy to Rostam Shāh. When Rostam Shāh learned
that the princes were in Lāhijān, he asked his amirs: “Now how should we cap-
ture our enemies?”
They replied, “If the king of Lāhijān were your friend, he would be obliged to
send them as prisoners to you, or to tell you to have someone come get them.
Surely he, too, boasts of being their disciple, for he has hidden them. You must
therefore write a letter to him saying: ‘The talk of some people led me to ruin
the young man who was our kinsman and commander.1 Solṭān ʿAli, too, has
met his fate. Now there is no one I can rely on. I want Solṭān ʿAli’s brothers, who
are like sons to me, to take refuge with me and receive a fatherly upbringing
from me. I have just heard that they have come to you and that you, with me in
mind, have honored them and done good things for them. I am much obliged
to you for this. When you receive this letter, send them to me at once, for I was
and still am very eager to see the children and the friends who serve them.
Don’t let them imagine anything bad; rather, make them hopeful for our royal
affection and send them along, for if God Almighty wills it, I shall be more af-
fectionate than ever when they arrive. Peace.’”

1 I.e., Aybeh Solṭān.

32 Chapter 6

When Rostam Shāh’s letter reached Amir Kiyā, the king of Lāhijān, he was
very happy, but he said to the qurchi2 who had brought it, “I myself don’t know
where they are; perhaps they are in Gilān. Let me look carefully and find them.”
He bade the qurchi be his guest and made him comfortable. Then, in secret, he
held a meeting to which he summoned the princes’ seven companions. He
gave them the letter.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and his companions said, “O prince, what do you think?”
Amir Kiyā said, “I am glad he wrote me such a letter; perhaps he is telling the
truth.”
“Beware!” they replied. “Rostam Shāh would pay a thousand tumāns for
each drop of our blood and the princes’! You are a naive man; Rostam Shāh
wrote this deceitful letter to fool you. Don’t fall for it! Write in reply, ‘We haven’t
had such good fortune that those Jupiters of the apogee of felicity should rise
in our house, enabling us to render them service. I swear by the dear royal head
that the sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar are not with me, nor can I say that they have
come to Gilān. Let your princely mind be at ease; I won’t receive any of your
friends without your permission.’”
The faithful men spoke thus. Amir Kiyā agreed and wrote the reply, then
gave it to the qurchi and sent him on his way. When the qurchi reached Rostam
Shāh, he told him that Amir Kiyā had said he didn’t know where the princes
were, that people must have been lying to Rostam Shāh. Rostam Shāh accepted
this.
Four years later, Ebrāhim Mirzā said: “O my brothers, I want your leave to go
to Ardabil and see my mother.” Esmāʿil Mirzā said, “O my brother, don’t pro-
voke cruel fate! Don’t let ʿAli Khān Solṭān catch you and kill you, or send you to
Rostam Shāh! Don’t burn our hearts any more; have pity on our old mother!”
Ebrāhim Mirzā replied, “O my brother, I will take off my tāj and wear a
Torkmān headdress; no one will know who I am!”
Esmāʿil Mirzā then went to Amir Kiyā. He sought his advice and was told,
“We must consult the word of God. If it gives permission, let him go; if not,
not.”
Mollā Zaynolʿābedin Rashti, the princes’ teacher, consulted the Qorʾān. It
said Ebrāhim Mirzā could go to Ardabil. So Ebrāhim Mirzā left for Ardabil with
a Gilāni as his companion. When he got to Ardabil, he went to see his mother.

2 The qurchi corps was the royal guard in Safavid times. The term comes from the Mongol word
for “quiver bearer.” The exact date and circumstances of the corps’ formation in Safavid Iran
is unclear. A good introduction to the qurchis may be found in Haneda, “Safavid Royal Guard”;
see also Floor, Safavid Government Institutions, 137ff. (Floor notes that the appearance of the
term in the present story may be an anachronism.)
The Battle Between Solṭān ʿali Mirzā And Aybeh Solṭān 33

Having heard that he had come, the Ṣufis there would visit him by night, falling
at his feet and serving him.
Six months passed, and once again someone told Rostam Shāh that the sons
of Solṭān Ḥaydar were known to be in Gilān, and that Amir Kiyā knew it. Ros-
tam Shāh therefore wrote Amir Kiyā a threatening letter, saying: “Why do you
discount our longtime relationship and keep my enemies in your house? If you
send them to me this time, you will be my friend as before—but if not, I will
send someone with an endless army that will burn all the trees of Lāhijān and
put everyone in Gilān to a general massacre! When you get this letter, you had
better send them to me right away, for I am eagerly anticipating them.”
When Amir Kiyā got this letter, he was afraid and consulted with his com-
panions. “Rostam Shāh,” he said, “has sworn to kill everyone in Gilān if we don’t
send the Ṣafavid princes to him.”
The Gilānis replied, “We must turn them over to Rostam Shāh’s agents; we
cannot turn our backs on the king of Iran!”
Amir Kiyā, thoughtful, went to his harem. He was of a mind to give the
princes to Rostam Shāh’s agent. At that moment he became extremely drowsy,
so he lay down and went to sleep. In the world of sleep, he saw the pure light of
the Commander of the Faithful, who appeared before him and said: “O Amir
Kiyā, what are you thinking? You want to give my sons to the enemy? Take care
and don’t do this indecent thing, or on the Day of Judgment you will be
ashamed before the Prophet and me!”
Amir Kiyā awoke in terror, and he got up to go to the princes and kiss their
hands and feet. When he got to the door of the room where Esmāʿil was stay-
ing, he heard someone saying to the prince: “Who told you that Amir Kiyā
wants to hand you over to Rostam Shāh’s agent?” The prince replied, “O great
ancestor, may I be a sacrifice to you! A maidservant told me that it seemed that
Amir Kiyā was afraid and wanted to give us to Rostam Shāh’s attendants when
day breaks.” A moment later, Esmāʿil said, “O prince, is it time for my emer-
gence?” The voice replied, “Yes, the time is almost here.”
When Amir Kiyā heard this, he said, “O child, open the door!”
The prince, who was sleeping, awoke and said “Who’s there?”
Amir Kiyā said, “It’s me.”
The prince opened the door and said, “How strange! What are you doing
here in the middle of the night? You haven’t come to give us to the servants of
Rostam Shāh, have you?”
Amir Kiyā said, “May I be a sacrifice to you; may the day never come when I
would do that! Tell me, who were you talking to? No matter how I look, I don’t
see anyone in the room!”
34 Chapter 6

The prince replied, “I was talking to the holy Commander of the Faithful; he
said what you heard.”
Amir Kiyā said, “May I be a sacrifice to you! Just now in my sleep he com-
mended me to you! I have come to kiss your blessed feet and to seek forgive-
ness for my error!” The prince praised him, and Amir Kiyā told him what the
Commander of the Faithful had said to him.
In the morning, Amir Kiyā went to his court and summoned his envoy. He
said, “Go to Rostam Shāh and give him our greeting, then tell him, ‘What you
have heard is mistaken; what evil could befall us from the family of Ḥasan
Pādeshāh that would make us shelter and protect their enemies?’ Also say, ‘If it
comes out once in the next hundred years that I had information about the
sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar, I will have sinned against your court.’” The envoy went
to Rostam Shāh and told him what he had been told to say.
Some time later, yet again someone from among Amir Kiyā’s retinue went to
Rostam Shāh and said, “The sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar are somewhere around
Amir Kiyā, and he definitely knows about it.” Rostam Shāh was inflamed with
anger. He said to Qāsem Beg Torkmān, “Take thirty thousand Torkmāns to
Lāhijān, seize the princes from Amir Kiyā, and bring them back to me. If Amir
Kiyā won’t give them up, stay there and send word to me!”
Qāsem Beg went to Lāhijān and showed Amir Kiyā Rostam Shāh’s order,
which said: “Don’t vex us any more! Hand over the sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar to
Qāsem Beg without delay, so that he can bring them to us. If you don’t, I will
personally come to Gilān, plunder it from one end to the other, and order a
general massacre!”
Amir Kiyā was petrified when he read this. He told Qāsem Beg, “I will search
thoroughly; it may be that they are in Gilān and we haven’t heard about it.” He
also treated Qāsem Beg with great affection. But he was unable to tell the
princes that Qāsem Beg had come for them. Then Ḥosayn Beg Laleh learned of
it and went to the princes.
“Judgment belongs to God, the One, the Omnipotent,”3 they said; “whatever
God Almighty decrees, shall be.”
But when night fell, once again the Commander of the Faithful appeared to
Amir Kiyā in his sleep and said: “After ten days, summon Qāsem Beg and tell
him, ‘I have sent someone to search this land house by house, village by village,
and no one has seen any sign of the sons of Solṭān Ḥaydar. If you don’t believe
me, I’ll swear an oath that they are not on the land of Gilān.’ In the meantime,
you must tie a rope between two large trees and suspend the princes in a bas-

3 Qorʾān 14: 48.

The Battle Between Solṭān ʿali Mirzā And Aybeh Solṭān 35

ket there; then put your hand on the word of God and swear that they are not
‘on the land of Gilān.’”
Ten days later, Amir Kiyā did what the Commander of the Faithful had told
him, summoning Qāsem Beg and swearing the oath. Qāsem Beg returned to
Rostam Shāh.
When the blessed life of Shāh Esmāʿil reached twelve years, he said, “O Amir
Kiyā, it is time for me to emerge.”
Amir Kiyā said, “May I be a sacrifice to you; you must be patient!” The prince
agreed. After a short time, the news came that Rostam Shāh had died.4 Amir
Kiyā rejoiced to hear it.
When the blessed years of Shāh Esmāʿil’s life reached thirteen, Amir Kiyā
said to him: “Rostam Shāh has died; God willing, the time has come for your
‘emergence.’”

4 Rostam Beg was overthrown and killed in 1497.

36 Chapter 6
The Battle Between Solṭān ʿali Mirzā And Aybeh Solṭān 37

Part 2
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. the Torkmāns

∵
38 Chapter 6
Shāh Esmāʿil Catches Sight Of The Lord Of The Age 39

Chapter 7

Shāh Esmāʿil Catches Sight of His Majesty the Lord of the Age

They say that in the city of Constantinople, in Rum, there was a dervish named
Dadeh Moḥammad, a disciple of Ḥājji Bektāsh Vali. Through great austerity,
this dervish had polished the mirror of his heart, and he had nearly two thou-
sand disciples. One of them was a dervish named Dadeh Ḥasan. He wanted to
visit the Kaʿbeh, so he came and sought leave from Dadeh Moḥammad, who
said: “I grant you leave. But when you have finished the pilgrimage, you shall
visit the holy shrines in ʿErāq.1 From there you will go to Tabriz, where a king
descended from saints will have emerged; that very day he will strike coins and
recite the khoṭbeh and play polo in the public square of Tabriz. Go to him and
pass on our greetings. Give him, too, this two-colored ribbon for him to tie to
his crown, and give this bell to him to tie to his horse’s neck on the day of
­battle.”
So the dervish left on his pilgrimage. When he had finished it, he headed for
Baghdād, but on the way he became separated from his caravan and could not
find them no matter how he searched. He wandered about, some say for one
day, some say for three days, but he got nowhere. His tongue hanging out of his
mouth from thirst, he fell to the ground, expecting to die.
Suddenly he saw a young Arab riding an Arabian horse. The youth ap-
proached and said “Get up, for there is a settlement nearby.” The dervish indi-
cated that he didn’t have the strength to go on. The young Arab took his hand,
and when that hand touched his own, the dervish felt all his strength return.
He mounted in front of the youth and they started riding towards a little hill.
When they got to the top of the hill, the dervish saw, on the other side, a field
of verdant grass, with roses and tulips growing as far as the eye could see, and
brocaded satin tent-pavilions erected atop it. “What is this place?” asked the
dervish. “No one has spoken of such a place in the desert of Mecca or Najaf!
What is this army, and who is its leader?”
The Arab youth said, “You shall learn. Come, for the king is looking for you.”
They continued until they arrived at the entrance to a royal tent whose
dome rivaled the moon and stars. When the dervish entered the tent, he saw a
wondrous court. There was an elevated throne, upon which a veiled youth was
seated; around the throne were arranged golden chairs, on which the com-
manders of that prince’s army were seated. The Arab youth greeted the prince

1 I.e., Najaf and Karbalā.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_008

40 Chapter 7

with his hand on his breast; then, when the prince had returned the greeting,
he told the dervish to sit down and ordered that food be brought. The dervish
had never eaten nor even seen such food in his life.
When he had finished eating, he saw a group enter bringing a boy of thir-
teen or fourteen; he had ruddy cheeks and dark grey eyes, and a red crown was
on his head. The Arab youth greeted him and stood with his hand on his breast.
The prince on the throne said, “O Esmāʿil, it is time for you to make your emer-
gence.”
The boy replied, “As His Majesty the Master of the Command wishes.”
The prince said, “Come forward,” and the boy stepped forward. The prince
gripped his belt, and three times he picked him up and put him down again;
then with his own blessed hand he fastened the belt and placed a crown on his
head. He took his dagger-belt and tossed it in front of the dervish, saying, “Pres-
ent the two-colored ribbon and the bell, for this is the very person of whom
Dadeh Moḥammad spoke.” He then asked for his sword from his attendants
and bound it to the youth’s waist. They said, “O child, you may depart,” and they
recited the Fāteḥeh for him. Then he told the Arab youth to take the dervish
back to his caravan.
The Arab youth accompanied the dervish for a ways, then said, “That cara-
van is yours.” The dervish looked and saw his caravan. He said, “O young Arab,
for the love of God, tell me: Who was that prince, and who was that boy?”
The Arab replied, “O dervish, haven’t you realized it yet? That prince was the
Master of the Command, and the boy was His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil the son of
Solṭān Ḥaydar, whom the prince gave permission to emerge!”
When the dervish heard this, he said, “You must take me back to him so that
I can kiss his feet and tell him my wish and perhaps enter into his service!”
The Arab said, “You cannot go back to him, but wherever you are, just make
your wish, and it will be granted.”
When the dervish looked again, the Arab had disappeared; he went back
atop the hill, but could not see any trace of the verdure or pavilions. He cried
out, but then he saw that his caravan was leaving him behind again, so he had
no choice but to run after it.
The Emergence Of Shāh Esmāʿil 41

Chapter 8

The Emergence of Shāh Esmāʿil from Gilān and Lāhijān with Seven People,
and the Conquest of Ṭārom

They say that when the Master of the Command bound his belt around
Esmāʿil’s waist and gave him permission to make his emergence, Esmāʿil gath-
ered those seven Ṣufis of pure faith and left Lāhijān. They had just reached
Ṭārom when they were met by seventy disciples who had received the notice
that Esmāʿil had sent them announcing that the time for his emergence had
come. When they reached the outskirts of Ṭārom, they asked around, and a
hundred and twenty more people gathered.
The news reached Ḥosayn Solṭān Torkmān, ruler of Ṭārom, that Shāh Esmāʿil
had emerged, and that it was he who had come. Ḥosayn Solṭān gathered seven
hundred people and came four leagues out of Ṭārom, intent on battle. Esmāʿil
did not know he was coming; Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and six men were with him
one league further down the road. They had gone into a field to do some hunt-
ing when they noticed a cloud of dust. They looked and saw Ḥosayn Solṭān
approaching with seven hundred men.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh said to Esmāʿil, “May I be a sacrifice to you! Before they
can surround us, come, let us run back and join up with the Ṣufis, and perhaps
find a way out of this.”
Esmāʿil replied, “O my tutor, my emergence has just begun. If I turn my face
away from the enemy, it won’t be a good omen. We shall stand our ground; God
Almighty will help us to victory, so be at ease.” The Ṣufis of pure faith had no
choice but to stand behind him as seven hundred men formed their ranks fac-
ing them.
Ḥosayn Solṭān sent a messenger to ask, “Who are you?”
Esmāʿil replied, “Tell Ḥosayn Solṭān that I am Esmāʿil Mirzā, who have just
made my emergence at the behest of the Holy Emāms. If you come and swear
fealty to me, I will elevate you to high rank; if you choose to fight, well and
good!”
The messenger brought this reply to Ḥosayn Solṭān, who gave a prayer of
thanks and said, “Look how helpful my fortune is—this boy is both aggressive
and alone!” Ḥosayn Sulṭān’s brother spurred his horse forward and hurried to
confront the young Shāh. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh obtained Esmāʿil’s permission to
fight him, and after much back-and-forth, Laleh killed his man. Ḥosayn Solṭān
cried out, fearing that the Qezelbāsh would bring up the rear and create a

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_009

42 Chapter 8

problem for him. His seven hundred men then took to the field and surround-
ed Esmāʿil and his companions. But Shāh Esmāʿil drew the sword of the Master
of the Command from its scabbard and hurled himself at that flock of cowards;
everyone he encountered was knocked off his feet with a single Ḥaydar-worthy
blow.1 He made his way to Ḥosayn Solṭān and, after urging much advice on
Ḥosayn Solṭān, which the latter rejected, he struck him such a blow on the top
of the head that he split him in two down to his belt.
In the meantime, the other Qezelbāsh Ṣufis had arrived, and they hurled
themselves at those Torkmāns, killing four hundred of them. All those who
said “ʿAli is the Friend of God!” were accepted into service; the rest were killed.
Then they entered Ṭārom as victorious conquerors. There, they met with two
hundred soldiers, each one with two horses and armed to the teeth.
When Shāh Esmāʿil had thus taken possession of Ṭārom, he headed for
Khalkhāl. He fought and defeated its ruler as well. He stayed a few days in
Khalkhāl, then he and his army, which had reached one thousand five hundred
men, turned from there toward Ardabil.
A messenger brought the news of Esmāʿil’s emergence to ʿAli Khān Solṭān.
ʿAli Khān ordered that the messenger be clapped in chains, then summoned
his nobles and said, “If the local Ṣufis hear that Esmāʿil Mirzā has emerged,
they and the people of this city will rise against us until he arrives. Thus tonight
we must go with the people of Ardabil outside the city on the pretext of a hunt,
so that most of the population doesn’t hear the news. Esmāʿil and his men are
down in the valley of Qarādareh, where we must cut them off.” The decision
was thus made. That day he prepared the weapons and sent someone to block
the road from Gilān so that no one could come and give the disciples of the
Ṣafavid Order the news.
But the attendant to one of the Torkmān nobles was also a Ṣufi disciple of
the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi. When he learned what was being planned, he went by
night to the house of the late Solṭān Ḥaydar and ʿĀlamshāh Begom, the mother
of Shāh Esmāʿil. He told her of Esmāʿil’s emergence, and of his coming to Ard-
abil, and of how ʿAli Khān Solṭān had found out about it.
When ʿĀlamshāh Begom heard all this, she let out a cry and said: “Quick, go
to my son and tell him, ‘The time for him to come is not yet here—all the
Qezelbāsh have gone to summer-quarters and no one is in the city! You must
be patient for six more months, to allow them to return; then you can sneak up
on the city and perhaps take it. But you must do it quickly.’”
“I owe you a lifetime of debt,” said that Ṣufi, and that night, as the Torkmān
army was leaving the city, he left too. He got to Qarādareh at prayer time and

1 In phrases like this, “Ḥaydar” refers to ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb.

The Emergence Of Shāh Esmāʿil 43

told Ḥosayn Beg Laleh that ʿAli Khān Torkmān was coming. Ḥosayn Beg went
at once to tell Esmāʿil.
Esmāʿil said, “What should we do now?”
“ʿĀlamshāh Begom is right,” Ḥosayn Beg and the Ṣufis replied; “now is not
the time to go to Ardabil.”
“Given that I received leave to emerge from the Lord of the Age,” retorted
Esmāʿil, “why should it not be time to go to Ardabil?”
Ḥosayn Beg said, “Your emergence is blessed. Approach from another direc-
tion, and if God Almighty wills it, in a short time you will take Ardabil.” Esmāʿil
was satisfied with this; he and those five hundred men turned and headed back
to Ṭārom. He was gone by sunrise, and when the Torkmān army arrived at mid-
morning, they didn’t know which road he might be on. In the meantime Esmāʿil
and his men went to Ṭārom, where they decided to spend the winter.
44 Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Story of the Sons of Rostam Shāh, and of How His Majesty the Shadow
of God Went to Ardabil; the Killing of ʿAli Khān Solṭān

When Rostam Shāh died, four sons survived him. The Torkmān amirs made the
eldest, who was named Maqṣud Mirzā, their king. He ordered that a young goat
be roasted.
Yusof Mirzā, one of Rostam Shāh’s other sons, went to the elders of the Qarā
Qoyunlu tribe and said, “My older brother is crazy, but kingship requires rea-
son and judgment. If you kill him and make me king, I won’t even drink water
without your approval.” So the elders hoisted him up and brought him into the
court to place him on the throne. The king, Maqṣud, said, “O friends, what are
you doing?” The amirs drew their swords and cut him to pieces, then placed
Yusof Mirzā on the throne.
Alvand Mirzā was the third brother. When he heard that Yusof Mirzā had
pledged his loyalty to the Qarā Qoyunlu tribe and that they had made him
king, he went to the Āq Qoyunlu tribe and started to weep and lament, saying,
“My elder brother was entitled to the throne, but they have killed him! If you
make me king, whatever he does for the Qarā Qoyunlu tribe, I will do twice as
much for you.”
They replied, “Ḥasan Pādeshāh was one of our tribe. How dare they try to vie
with us?” Then they hoisted up Alvand Mirzā and brought him into the court.
Yusof Mirzā was just saying, “Bring the goat that my brother had wanted to
roast,” when the amirs killed him; the roast was thus again delayed. Alvand
Mirzā placed the royal crown upon his head and took his place on the throne
of Ḥasan Pādeshāh.
Word reached Solṭān Morād, the fourth brother, that events had transpired
this way. He went to the elders of the Qarā Qoyunlu and started weeping and
lamenting, saying, “You handed my brother over to be killed!” He importuned
them so much that they said, “We shall make you king in your father’s place.”
So they hoisted him up and headed for the court. Two brothers had already
been killed at the foot of the throne.
Alvand said, “Bring the roast, for I fear that my brother’s fate may repeat it-
self.” At that moment a great commotion was heard at the entrance to the
court. He said, “What’s going on?” They told him. Alvand had had the foresight
to post a thousand men of the Āq Qoyunlu at the entrance, and when he
learned that three thousand Qarā Qoyunlu were on the way, he ordered his

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_010

The Story Of The Sons Of Rostam Shāh 45

men to keep watch; he also sent someone to tell to the elders of the Qarā
Qoyunlu to send a few men for him to parley with.
Solṭān Morād said, “Let a few Āq Qoyunlu come to us; we too shall send a
party.”
It was thus decided, and some high-ranking Qarā Qoyunlu went to Alvand
Solṭān. Alvand said to them, “O friends, what are you thinking? Of the descen-
dants of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, only two of us remain; do you want us to kill each
other and have rule pass to the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi?”
“What shall we do?” they asked.
Alvand said, “We two brothers shall divide the realm into two parts. I, who
am the elder brother, shall sit in our father’s place, while my brother shall go to
Shirāz and have as his portion all of Fārs and Yazd and Kermān and Eṣfahān
and Kāshān and Qom and Qazvin and Hamadān and Kohgiluyeh. For my part,
I shall have as my portion this part of Ādharbāyjān and Ardabil and Shirvān
and Qarābāgh and Yerevan and Diyārbakr.”
The Torkmān amirs agreed to this, and both they and the elders swore fealty
to each brother. They laid out a feast, and each of the brothers got to eat the
roasted goat. Then Solṭān Morād left for Shirāz, and Alvand took his place on
the royal throne.
Meanwhile, the news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil had emerged and advanced
as far as the vicinity of Ardabil. When ʿAli Khān Solṭān learned of this, he raised
an army and headed out to intercept him; but he returned without fighting,
since word had it that Shāh Esmāʿil had gone back to Gilān and would come
back another time.
Alvand Pādeshāh was glad at this and sent a robe of honor to ʿAli Khān
Solṭān. Fear of Esmāʿil had shaken him badly, though, so he ordered that an
army assemble at Tabriz.
Now Esmāʿil was passing the time at Ṭārom, and when Nawruz came, he put
the foot of happiness in the stirrup and set out for Ardabil. When he entered
the city, he and his army poured down on the houses of the Torkmāns. As soon
as the population heard that he had arrived, they all got together, drew their
swords, and killed the Torkmāns en masse. They surrounded and besieged ʿAli
Khān Solṭān’s house, trapping him and his ten thousand Torkmāns. The Ṣufis of
Ardabil broke in, seized ʿAli Khān Solṭān, and brought him as a prisoner to
Shāh Esmāʿil, who said to him, “I will make you commander of my army on the
condition that you curse the enemies of the Faith and say, ‘I witness that ʿAli is
the Friend of God.’”
That accursed one refused, so Esmāʿil ordered that every household gather a
pile of firewood and bring it. A great bonfire was built, into which he threw ʿAli
Khān Solṭān and anyone who would not say “ʿAli is the Friend of God.”
46 Chapter 9

With that business finished, he found his mother and brother, appointed
seven thousand men to guard them, and left for Diyārbakr with seven thou-
sand others. As he approached the river Aras, he was told, “A descendant of
Mirzā Jahānshāh Bārāni, Solṭān Ḥosayn, is here with twenty thousand
Torkmāns of the Dhulqadr. He is the ruler of this region, and every year he pays
tribute to the king of Iran.”
When Solṭān Ḥosayn heard that Shāh Esmāʿil had made his emergence and
come to the river Aras, he said to the elders of his tribe: “O friends, I want to
emerge, and now Shāh Esmāʿil has done it and come here. What do you say?”
They said, “O prince, you must welcome him and show him great hospitality
and, as a trick, invite him to be your guest. Then place poison in his food and
do him in. If his men then follow you, so much the better; otherwise, kill them
all.” Solṭān Ḥosayn agreed to this plan.
When Shāh Esmāʿil approached the country of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bārāni, Solṭān
Ḥosayn ordered his whole army to go out to welcome him and be at his service;
he himself even rode out a league to greet him. Approaching His Majesty,
Solṭān Ḥosayn said: “We have been watching and waiting for the emergence of
this prince for quite some time! It is most gracious of him to have come in this
direction. I, the least of men, have twelve thousand men in my army, and along
with them, I am at your service. When we have killed Alvand Shāh and Your
Highness is on the throne of power, I shall be like a slave in your service. Now I
desire that you adorn the house of this humblest one with the joy of your ar-
rival.”
Shāh Esmāʿil was very pleased to hear this. He said, “Today let us rest from
the travails of the road. You go home too, and God Almighty willing we shall
see each other tomorrow.” Then he went back to his royal tent.
Solṭān Ḥosayn said to his amirs, “I can’t tell the nature or kind or disposition
of this prince! I shall make preparations however you tell me to.” The amirs told
him how to prepare things.
The next day, Solṭān Ḥosayn went to the entrance of Esmāʿil’s royal tent and
said obsequiously, “My lord must grant me a visit!” The amirs brought this re-
quest to the attention of Esmāʿil. He sought out his nobles and told them, “Go
to this man’s house and test his good intentions. If he seems genuine, let me
know. Otherwise let us be wary of him, for I don’t detect any whiff of sincerity
in this man.”
So Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and seven other men went to Solṭān Ḥosayn’s house. In
conversation with him, they talked about the qualities of the Shāh and his fore-
fathers, and they related what they had undergone with His Majesty. They no-
ticed that Solṭān Ḥosayn was not happy at all to hear about it.
The Story Of The Sons Of Rostam Shāh 47

Afterward, Solṭān Ḥosayn again sent someone to Shāh Esmāʿil requesting

the honor of a visit. When he arrived, Esmāʿil was asleep, and in the world of
sleep, he saw the pure light of the Commander of the Faithful. “O my son,” said
ʿAli, “don’t go to the feast that Solṭān Ḥosayn Bārāni has prepared; he wants to
destroy you and your companions by poisoning your food. Tonight you must
decamp and move on; that way you will retain the upper hand.” Esmāʿil then
awoke to the news that Solṭān Ḥosayn’s messenger was waiting. His Majesty
sent back a message that said, “We are indisposed and can’t come. Today you
can chat with Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and my other friends; tomorrow we shall be
together.”
The messenger brought this message back to Solṭān Ḥosayn, who said to
himself, “Tomorrow I shall take care of him.”
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and his companions then went to the Shāh. “O friends,” he
told them, “this man wants to destroy us with poison. The holy Commander of
the Faithful told me so.”
“May we be a sacrifice to you!” they said. “We didn’t trust him either.”
Esmāʿil said, “Tonight we will decamp.” And when night fell, they packed up
and headed for Qarābāgh.
Day broke, and Solṭān Ḥosayn learned what had happened. “I won’t let him
get away!” he said. He gathered eight thousand men and pursued Shāh Esmāʿil
and his men to the edge of the river Aras, where His Majesty had alighted.
When he heard that Solṭān Ḥosayn was coming, he and his troops mounted up
and rode into battle. Solṭān Ḥosayn’s army was defeated in the first assault; a
great many of his troops were killed, and he himself turned to flee. Shāh Esmāʿil
pursued him for almost two leagues, and when he drew near enough, with one
blow of his murderous spear he knocked the man out of his saddle and into the
dustbin of fortune. He cut off his head and took his weapons; then he turned
around and saw Ḥalvāchi-oghli arriving. Esmāʿil praised him, then mounted
Solṭān Ḥosayn’s head on his spear and handed it to him. Then they went back
to the battlefield.
By the time they arrived at the royal encampment, the Ṣufis had defeated
Solṭān Ḥosayn’s army, killing four thousand men and granting quarter to those
who professed that “ʿAli is the Friend of God.” When Esmāʿil saw this, he fell
upon the tribe and possessions of Solṭān Ḥosayn, plundered them completely,
and gave it all out to the Ṣufis of clear faith. Then they went off to fight
Farrokhyasār.
When Farrokhyasār heard that it was Shāh Esmāʿil who was coming, he or-
dered his troops to go and guard the shore of the river Kura, lest Esmāʿil bridge
it. Three thousand men set off. Esmāʿil, for his part, ordered Qarāpari to take
twelve thousand men and go to the river Kura and build a bridge for him.
48 Chapter 9

When Qarāpari arrived at the river and saw the army of Shirvān waiting at
the water’s edge, he knew he could not build a bridge. He sent word of this to
Shāh Esmāʿil. His Majesty came in person and surveyed the situation, then
placed his trust in the Creator and hurled himself and his army into that im-
mense river. When they emerged, the water had not claimed a single soldier.
They thanked God and started the battle, and within a short time, they had
defeated the Shirvāni army and killed every one of them.
When Farrokhyasār heard that Esmāʿil had crossed the river and defeated
his army, he mounted up along with twenty thousand men, rode for six leagues,
and began a battle with the Qezelbāsh. Immediately his army met with defeat;
they were killed en masse. The ever-fortunate Shāh Esmāʿil caught up to
Farrokhyasār and slew him with a blow of his shining sword. The defeated
army turned and fled to Shamākhi. His Majesty then entered the city of Shirvān
and took his place on the royal throne.
News of this reached Shaykh Shāh, the son of Farrokhyasār, and he was
struck with fear. He sent his property and treasury to the fortress of Golestān,
then betook himself and his army and people to Mount Alborz. Word soon got
around that he had done these things, and Shāh Esmāʿil ordered Qarāpari to
take four thousand men and besiege the fortress of Golestān.
Having arrived at the foot of the fortress, Qarāpari saw that capturing it
would be a problem. He made camp and wrote a petition to the Shāh. When
his petition reached His Majesty, he went himself to the foot of that fortress.
He ordered that they write a letter to Khosraw, the servant of Shaykh Shāh,
who was the porter of the castle: “We have come in majesty and glory, and you
must hand this fortress over to us without any further trouble; if you do, I will
raise you to the pinnacle of fortune.”
When the messenger went back into the fortress and the porter read the let-
ter, he became angry and gave the emissary a vigorous tongue-lashing. The em-
issary said, “Fear the day when you are taken with bound hands into the
presence of the Shāh, and His Majesty is overcome with rage and tongue-lash-
es you!” This annoyed that ill-bred slave, and he ordered that they beat the
emissary. They thrashed him so badly that they killed him; then they suspend-
ed his corpse from the rampart of the fortress.
When Esmāʿil heard what had happened, he ordered that Qezelbāsh to sur-
round the fortress, cut off its water and supplies, and capture it by force. Shaykh
Shāh’s porter Khosraw was punished and the property of those in the fortress
distributed among the Qezelbāsh ghāzis; then Esmāʿil set off for Shamākhi.
When Alvand Shāh got wind of this, he let out a cry and ordered his army to
assemble. With that accomplished, he headed to Shirvān with thirty thousand
men.
Alvand Sends ʿothmān Solṭān To Fight The Shāh 49

Chapter 10

Alvand Sends ʿOthmān Solṭān to Fight the Shāh, Who in Turn Sends
Qarāpari Qājār; the Latter is Killed, and the Torkmāns are Defeated

Upon hearing that Alvand Pādeshāh was coming, His Majesty the Shāh said:
“Good! He has made our road shorter!” Meanwhile, Alvand Pādeshāh gave
ʿOthmān Solṭān ten thousand men and sent him out at their head. When the
news of this reached the foot of His Majesty’s throne, his amirs went to him to
tell him that he needed to appoint a commander. Qarāpari Qājār stood up and
said, “Give this meanest of slaves leave to do it!”
The Shāh said, “You will stay in place of my father; I will send someone else.”
Qarāpari repeated: “May I be a sacrifice to you! In my old age, I want to dye
this white beard with blood on the path of religion.” Esmāʿil thus gave him the
command, and he in turn raised five thousand men and set off along with Elyās
Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli.
When those two vengeance-thirsty armies met, ʿOthmān Solṭān arranged
his troops, then gave his son Moḥammad Solṭān three thousand men, saying:
“After the battle begins, you attack the Qezelbāsh army from the rear. Do what
you can, and don’t shirk!” Then he rode off. Meanwhile, Qarāpari was saying to
Ḥalvāchi-oghli: “O son, you take up position at the foot of the battle-standard;
I shall go out as the vanguard.”
Ḥalvāchi-oghli said, “You are a seventy-year-old man! I am young and in the
prime of life; how shall I stay here below the battle-standard?” No matter how
much he protested, though, Qarāpari would not listen; he said, “I know the
enemy will attack us from behind; you stay at the battle-standard.” Then
Qarāpari rounded up his men and set out to fight ʿOthmān Solṭān.
The battle began. Ḥalvāchi-oghli saw a cloud of dust; it was Moḥammad
Solṭān attacking with three thousand men, so he rode off to fight. It did not
take long to defeat the Torkmāns; in the first clash the Qezelbāsh killed two
thousand men. In the midst of the fighting, Ḥalvāchi-oghli spotted Moḥammad
Solṭān trying to flee back to his father, so he readied his spear and set off in hot
pursuit. At that moment Qarāpari saw him and said, “O son, what on earth are
you doing? Why are you leaving the battle-standard?”
Ḥalvāchi-oghli replied, “O father, Moḥammad Solṭān, the son of ʿOthmān
Solṭān, attacked the rear of our army with three thousand men; with the help
of God I defeated them and killed two thousand of them, but now he is fleeing,
so I am following, and I have brought the battle-standard.”

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50 Chapter 10

Qarāpari offered him his prayers. Just then ʿOthmān Solṭān arrived; Qarāpari
said, “You reckless old man, you have caused all this trouble! Come, so that I
may take you to Shāh Esmāʿil and entreat him to forgive your sin, that you may
find happiness.” ʿOthmān Solṭān rebuffed him, so Qarāpari said to Ḥalvāchi-
oghli, “Get on the heels of your enemy!”
As he moved to go, from one side Moḥammad Solṭān appeared and started
chasing Qarāpari. He thrust his spear at him and hit him in the side so hard
that he was knocked off balance. ʿOthmān Solṭān then came up and struck him
on the shoulder with a sword, and he went down. ʿOthmān Solṭān was intend-
ing to cut his head off when the Qezelbāsh realized what was happening and
rushed as a group to Qarāpari.
Ḥalvāchi-oghli was on the lookout for Moḥammad Solṭān but was unable to
find him. As he went around, he knocked all he encountered off their feet with
a single blow each. Then the sound of commotion amongst the Qezelbāsh
ranks reached him. He rushed over and saw that Qarāpari was wounded, fallen
amidst dust and blood. Ḥalvāchi-oghli gave a shout, then jumped down from
his horse and placed his head by Qarāpari’s. After a bit, Qarāpari regained con-
sciousness and opened his eyes; seeing Ḥalvāchi-oghli, he said, “O son, these
two cowards have killed me unjustly. Avenge me on them!”
Ḥalvāchi-oghli said, “I owe you for this!” He jumped on his horse and
plunged, alone, into the enemy ranks, killing men left and right until he reached
Moḥammad Solṭān; then he brought his sword down on that coward’s head so
hard that it split him down to his belt and sent him to hell. Ḥalvāchi-oghli cut
off his head and brought it to Qarāpari. Then he rode off again, caught up to
ʿOthmān Solṭān, and with one blow of his shining sword he annihilated that
luckless man. He cut off his head and returned to Qarāpari’s side.
When Qarāpari saw the heads of his two enemies, he said: “O son, tell His
Majesty the Shāh that I am his slave, that death did not grant me time to
glimpse once more his perfect beauty. Tell him not to withhold pity from my
people.”1 With that he commended his soul to God. Ḥalvāchi-oghli said,
“Don’t let the Torkmān army get away—kill them over the blood of Qarāpari!”
The whole Qezelbāsh army leaped up and hurled themselves at the
Torkmāns. They killed five thousand of them and put to flight the rest, who
abandoned their tents and baggage and ran back to Alvand Shāh. Ḥalvāchi-
oghli and the Qezelbāsh army plundered the Torkmān camp and sent it back
to Shāh Esmāʿil.
When His Majesty heard of this victory, he was happy; but he was very sor-
rowful at the death of Qarāpari and wept. He ordered that his commanders go

1 Here may be meant the Qājār clan.

Alvand Sends ʿothmān Solṭān To Fight The Shāh 51

out to receive the body, which they went out to do. When they drew near to it,
they got under it to carry it. Shāh Esmāʿil, too, rode out to the corpse and joined
them. He then ordered that the body be taken to Ardabil and buried at the feet
of Solṭān Ḥaydar. Then the army decamped and set off to go fight Alvand Shāh.
When Alvand heard of the army’s defeat and the deaths of ʿOthmān Solṭān
and his son Moḥammad Solṭān, he was filled with fear and gave orders to
march. When he had gone three days’ travel, the news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil
was two leagues away. Alvand then ordered that a letter be sent to Shāh Esmāʿil
that read as follows:
“Since God Almighty has foreordained that you should set foot on the bat-
tlefield of emergence, praise be to Him that of all the sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh,
you are related to me. Why don’t we strive to assist you? This course that you
have undertaken is not befitting those who are related, and in addition, we
have no quarrel with you. Since you have, in your thirst for vengeance for your
ancestors, killed Farrokhyasār and taken over Shirvān, we shall also give you
Ardabil. There are many foreign lands beyond it; go wherever you wish, and
whenever you need assistance, let us know and we shall come. Do not attribute
this offer to weakness on our part; I am better acquainted with peace than with
war, but if pride keeps you from putting forth the step of peace, that is just as
well, for we have readied twenty thousand men, and whatever God Almighty
decrees, we shall be satisfied with and thankful for it.”
When Alvand Shāh’s letter passed under the alchemical gaze of His Majesty,
he ordered that a response be sent thus:
“The sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh have visited much uncivility and disrespect
and brutality upon the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi without reason. Despite all this, we
have put aside the blood of our grandfather and father, and we have no design
on rule or kingship. I want only to propagate the religion of my forefathers and
ancestors, the Immaculate Emāms. As long as I have life in my body, I shall
strike with my sword on the path of God and the Prophet and the True Faith,
until God on high is satisfied. You must, with sincerity and honest faith, place
your hand on the skirt of the holy Emāms and turn your tongue to the invoca-
tion ‘ʿAli is the Friend of God’ so that you may find happiness in both worlds
and capture the polo-ball of felicity on the playing-field of kingship. Then, in
every land that I conquer, I will have coins struck and the khoṭbeh recited in
your name, and I will recognize you as my elder brother. If, out of unhappiness,
you do not accept this good fortune, so be it; come, and I will take my brother’s
sinless blood from you! It is up to you; let us know which is satisfying to you.
Peace.”
When Alvand received this letter, he wrote in reply: “Never will I do this! I
will fight! Be sure to finish whatever you start!”
52 Chapter 10

The next day those two seas of soldiery arose and formed ranks. Ḥalvāchi-
oghli was the vanguard; he hurled himself and that his army at the Torkmāns.
If all the events of the battle were written down, it would be extremely long;
suffice it to say that by the grace of God Almighty and with the help of the Im-
maculate Emāms, Alvand’s army was defeated quickly, and eighteen thousand
of his men were killed that day. At last Shāh Esmāʿil reached his Alvand’s bat-
tle-standard and broke it in two. He asked about Alvand and was told: “When
the victorious banners of the Qezelbāsh became apparent, he turned and fled!”
The Torkmāns, too, when they saw their battle-standard broken in two, turned
and fled to Ganjeh.
Flush with victory, Shāh Esmāʿil then went to Tabriz and established himself
in Alvand’s royal palace, where the Qezelbāsh troops appeared before him and
presented the heads and prisoners and loot they had collected. When this had
finished, it occurred to his blessed mind that God forbid, Alvand might go and
get help and come back to fight again and drag matters out. That very day,
therefore, he decamped and set out in pursuit of Alvand.
Alvand, having fled to Ganjeh, was wondering where he ought to go. Finally
he decided to go to Diyārbakr and Qarāḥamid, to the court of ʿAlāʾoddawleh
Dhulqadr. So he set out from Ganjeh in the direction of Qarāḥamid and
Diyārbakr.
The next day, Shāh Esmāʿil entered Ganjeh and was told that Alvand had
fled. So he entrusted Ganjeh to the Qezelbāsh amirs, took a few men, and has-
tened down the road to Tabriz.
When the victorious banners arrived at Tabriz, all the people of the city
came out to welcome them. They strewed platefuls of gold before His Majesty
and brought him to the residence of Ḥasan Pādeshāh. At an auspicious hour,
Esmāʿil took his place on the throne. The khoṭbeh was recited in his name, and
coins were struck bearing the glorious name of the holy Commander of the
Faithful. Alvand’s treasury was confiscated and distributed to the Qezelbāsh.
The Qezelbāsh officers said to Shāh Esmāʿil, “We hear many people saying,
‘We don’t want a Shiʿi pādeshāh! Since the time of the holy Prophet until now,
no one has recited the Shiʿi khoṭbeh over us!’ What if, God forbid, the people
and army turn on us? We must think ahead!”
His Majesty replied, “I am aided by the holy Emāms, and I fear no one! If
anyone so much as says a word, I shall, with the permission of God Almighty,
draw my sword and leave not one person alive! On Friday, God willing, I shall
go to the pulpit myself and recite the khoṭbeh!” On reflection, though, he real-
ized that his commanders were right.
That night, while he slept, the holy Commander of the Faithful said to him,
“O son, don’t let your mind be disturbed. On Friday, tell the Qezelbāsh to put on
Alvand Sends ʿothmān Solṭān To Fight The Shāh 53

all their battle-gear, and have one of them stand between every two of the peo-
ple of Tabriz. Then recite the Shiʿi khoṭbeh, and if anyone wants to make a
move, let the Qezelbāsh kill him. Recite the khoṭbeh according to this plan.”
Esmāʿil awoke and ordered Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Ḥalvāchi-oghli to bring
the senior officers. When everyone had gathered, His Majesty related his dream
to them. They all said, “By God, it shall not happen except in this way!”
When Friday came, Shāh Esmāʿil went to the congregational mosque of Ta-
briz. He ordered Mawlānā Aḥmad Ardabili, who was one of the Shiʿi nobles, to
ascend the minbar. Then Esmāʿil drew his world-conquering sword and, like a
blazing sun, went up as well. Mawlānā Aḥmad began to recite the Shiʿi khoṭbeh.
A confused hubbub arose. But one-third of the crowd gave thanks to the Al-
mighty, and as for the rest of the people, anyone who wanted to move from his
spot was unable to do so, as the Qezelbāsh surrounded them.
When the khoṭbeh was read, Esmāʿil, drawn sword in hand, ordered that ev-
eryone curse the first three Caliphs, saying that anyone who refused would be
killed. So all the people performed the ritual cursing; they cursed Abu Bakr and
ʿOmar and ʿOthmān and said, “May it [i.e. the cursing] be more and not less!”
Then that prince of good fortune mounted his steed and rode to the palace; a
devoted dervish with battle-axe in hand walked before him, performing the
ritual cursing, until His Majesty sat on the royal throne. He ordered that letters
be sent far and wide saying that all who obeyed him and performed the ritual
cursing would be granted autonomy; otherwise the Qezelbāsh Ṣufis would
separate their heads from their bodies.
When this letter reached the rulers and people of every region, many obeyed
and cursed the first three Caliphs. Some fled, though, to Solṭān Morād in Fārs,
and some went to Alvand Shāh in Qarābāgh and Qarāḥamid.
Shāh Esmāʿil, having established himself in Tabriz, now ordered that a letter
be sent to Solṭān Morād, along with a crown and a robe of honor for him. The
letter said: “We have dubbed you Morād the Failure (nāmorād), but if you re-
cite the khoṭbeh and strike coins in our imperial name, we won’t have a prob-
lem.”
Solṭān Morād heard that he had been granted security, and that they had
brought a crown and a robe of honor. He happily accepted the letter and robe;
he put on the robe and both struck coins and recited the khoṭbeh in the name
of His Majesty the Shāh.
Alvand Pādeshāh, for his part, had gone to Diyārbakr after his defeat at the
hands of the Qezelbāsh. When ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr heard that Alvand was
coming, he ordered that he be welcomed, and Alvand entered the city with a
display of great pomp.
54 Chapter 10

Now ʿAlāʾoddawleh had reached a high rank as one of Ḥasan Pādeshāh’s at-
tendants. The cause of this, briefly, was as follows. ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s ancestor
Sobḥān Beg had, for some reason, fled and come to Ḥasan Pādeshāh, asking to
join his retinue. After much service, he requested that Ḥasan Pādeshāh bestow
on him that important frontier region. He implored him so much that Ḥasan
Shāh made him the elder of one of the Dhulqadr clans and sent him there.
Sobḥān Beg showed affection to the whole Dhulqadr tribe and ingratiated
himself with everybody. Gradually he gathered power and became ruler of that
whole region. Eventually he died, and his son Yaʿqub—nicknamed ʿAlāʾod­
dawleh—became ruler of the Dhulqadr in his father’s stead. By acting as his
father did, he became ruler over the whole region. In trickery and guile and
deceit he could have taught the accursed devil himself. He was so crafty a ruler
that he collected tribute from both the ruler of Anatolia and the king of Egypt,
Qānṣaw.
One of his schemes was as follows. Whenever the king of Anatolia sent an
emissary to him, ʿAlāʾoddawleh would dress up some of his attendants in the
clothes of Egyptian dervishes, write a fake letter from the king of Egypt, and
give it to them along with some gifts. He would then sit in his court and sum-
mon the Anatolian emissary, then also summon the Egyptian “emissary.” He
would ask the “emissary” about events, then ask for the letter. The “emissary”
would hand it over, and ʿAlāʾoddawleh would order his chief minister to read it.
When the minister read it, it said: “May it not remain hidden from the mind of
ʿAlāʾoddawleh that we have heard of your magnificence and greatness, and
how eighty thousand members of the house of Dhulqadr are under your com-
mand. Should you choose to raise an army, I, as your servant, will also raise an
army in your service; let us go to the Qayṣar of Rum and overthrow him! It will
be a tremendous favor and blessing to me, and whatever your agents collect on
such a campaign, I will forward to you. For now, I have sent you these paltry
gifts; I hope they meet with your approval.”
After the letter had been read out, a thousand men would bring out nearly a
hundred thousand tumāns in cash as well as goods of gilt brocade and satin
and other things. When all the gifts had been presented, ʿAlāʾoddawleh would
suddenly get upset, seize the letter, and throw it away, saying: “O emissary, tell
Qānṣaw Pādeshāh, ‘You are trying to fool us with your gold! We have no need of
gold; the Qayṣar’s power and treasury are mine. Don’t pull such a stunt again!”
And when an emissary came from Qānṣaw, he again dressed up his people and
put on the same act. For almost forty years he collected tribute from those two
great rulers.
Alvand Sends ʿothmān Solṭān To Fight The Shāh 55

To return to our story: When Alvand saw ʿAlāʾoddawleh, he prostrated him-

self before him and went to kiss his hand. ʿAlāʾoddawleh was pleased at this; he
took Alvand into his arms and said, “I give you my daughter.”
“You are as a father to me,” Alvand replied. “I come to ask for support from
the Dhulqadr; I request twenty thousand troops from you, for Shaykh-oghli has
wronged me.” He explained what had happened.
ʿAlāʾoddawleh summoned the Dhulqadr elders and said, “Alvand Shāh is the
grandson of Ḥasan Shāh. He asking for your support, and you must help him
achieve his aim.”
“We shall do what you command,” came the reply.
“You must raise twenty thousand troops and go with him to repel Shaykh-
oghli,” continued ʿAlāʾoddawleh.
“We gladly obey,” they said.
So ʿAlāʾoddawleh selected twenty thousand men and sent them, along with
the leaders of the Dhulqadr tribe, to accompany Alvand Shāh.
When Shāh Esmāʿil heard that Alvand was coming with twenty thousand
men, he ordered a review of his troops. Twelve thousand Qezelbāsh presented
themselves, and His Majesty said to them, “We must go out and give
ʿAlāʾoddawleh a proper welcome!” When the news arrived that Alvand was on
his way there via the road from Dāmghān, the royal army set out from Tabriz on
the Van road.2
Word reached Alvand that the Ṣafavid army had set out for Van and was thus
going by another road, so he ordered his troops to decamp and head for Tabriz.
They entered the city at sunrise. When he was told that the people of Tabriz
had welcomed Shāh Esmāʿil and become Shiʿi, it was too much for him; he or-
dered his army to massacre the population, and before you knew it seven thou-
sand Tabrizis had been killed.
When news of this spread to the population at large, people blocked roads,
and Ḥalvāchi-oghli, whom Shāh Esmāʿil had left in Tabriz as a precaution, took
the young men of Tabriz up on the rooftops along with the gholāms3 and qur-
chis, whence they began pelting Alvand’s men with arrows and musket-balls.
However much Alvand and the Torkmāns tried to break through and capture

2 The text has Dun; Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb’s footnote (p. 64) indicates that the original manuscript
has Dān. A comparison with Shokri and the Chester Beatty Library copy suggests that this is
a misreading for Vān. If ʿAlāʾoddawleh is coming via Dāmghān, i.e. from the east, it is not clear
why Esmāʿil would take his troops on the road to Van, which is to the west of Ardabil.
3 Gholāms are slave-soldiers, a venerable institution in the Islamic world but an anachronistic
reference here. The term appears numerous times in the story, but the Safavids did not come
to use gholāms on a significant scale until the reign of Shāh ʿAbbās I (r. 1587–1629). See Floor,
Safavid Government Institutions, pp. 166ff.
56 Chapter 10

His Majesty’s brothers, they couldn’t do it. The Qezelbāsh kept giving cries of
manliness. A whole day passed like this; all the people of Tabriz turned Shiʿi,
and they helped and supported Ḥalvāchi-oghli. Those who remained Sunni
knew that Alvand was no match for the Shāh, and they held back.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil was hurrying down the road. On the second night,
he had a dream in which he saw fierce dogs surrounding his harem; Ḥalvāchi-
oghli and his gholāms and attendants were on the roof throwing rocks at them.
His Majesty awoke and ordered his army to march, saying, “Alvand has gone to
Tabriz by a different road!” The troops set out to return, entering Tabriz four
days later. Alvand could put up no resistance to that great prince, and he turned
his reins to flee for Diyārbakr.
Shāh Esmāʿil drew the blood-spilling sword of the Master of the Command
and plunged into the midst of the Dhulqadr troops, killing and slaughtering.
The Dhulqadr troops, thinking that the evil-natured Alvand was still in the
battle, tried to hold their ground, and in a short time a thousand of them were
killed. Finally one of them said, “Who are you fighting this battle for? Alvand
has taken a group of Torkmāns and run away!”
When the soldiers realized that Alvand had fled, they sought quarter. Shāh
Esmāʿil said, “Security is in faith; whoever confesses that ʿAli is the Friend of
God shall have security.” Then a thousand of them converted; out of twenty
thousand men, three thousand fled in pursuit of Alvand. Alvand headed for
Diyārbakr, then, when he got to Anatolia, he continued on to see the Qayṣar in
Constantinople. Those three thousand Dhulqadr soldiers—some naked, some
on foot—went to ʿAlāʾoddawleh and explained to him what had happened.
When ʿAlāʾoddawleh realized that Alvand had gone to Anatolia, he said, “If he
had come back here, I would have given him another army.”
King Alvand Goes To The Anatolian Emperor For Help 57

Chapter 11

King Alvand Goes to the Anatolian Emperor and Seeks Help; He Comes to
Iran and is Defeated; His Qualities

So Alvand went to Anatolia. News of this reached the Solṭān, who ordered his
grand vizier and a few pāshās to go out and meet him. When Alvand entered
the imperial court, he prostrated himself. The Solṭān was pleased at this cour-
tesy; he asked about Alvand’s circumstances, and Alvand explained all his ad-
ventures. To make a long story short, the Anatolians held on to him for six
months, then gave him a hundred and twenty thousand men and sent him
along to Baghdād.
But we have not related how when Alvand was defeated in Ganjeh, he went
to Diyārbakr. From there he sent a letter to his cousin, who was named Bāyrak
Solṭān and was governor of Baghdād. Alvand’s letter said, “Think about our
family ties, then gather some troops and hurry here to help me!” Bāyrak wrote
back saying he couldn’t come. Alvand sent another messenger; Bāyrak, defiant,
still wouldn’t come.
Now, when Alvand went to Baghdād, he said, “O uncle [sic], come with me;
raise an army so we can get going. I am summoning my brother Solṭān Morād
as well, for he has thirteen thousand men, and your and my army will become
two hundred thousand men strong [sic!]. Then it will be easy to take care of
Shaykh-oghli.”
Bāyrak Solṭān conferred with his nobles. “Be careful!” they said. “Don’t fall
for Alvand’s trickery. He is no match for the Pādeshāh of Iran! He wants a pre-
text for you to leave Baghdād so that he can seize it and massacre the popula-
tion.”
Bāyrak Solṭān realized that they were right. He ordered that Alvand be given
gifts and said, “Tell him that my advisors do not consent to going to war with
Shaykh-oghli.”
Some spies brought the news of Alvand’s doings in Baghdād to the attention
of Shāh Esmāʿil. He ordered that decrees be sent to the Qezelbāsh clans of the
Ostājlu and Shāmlu, as well as those in Ganjeh, Shirvān, and Qarābāgh, order-
ing them to gather troops and come to the world-sheltering royal court. In a
short time fifteen thousand soldiers arrived there.
Then His Majesty said, “I want someone to go to Solṭān Morād ‘the Failure’
and see what he is up to; will he help us, or will he go to aid his brother Alvand?
In the event that he wants to come to our royal service, tell him, ‘You are fine as

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_012

58 Chapter 11

you are, for we need no help—our help comes from the Almighty.’ If he wants
to help his brother, tell him, ‘We are not concerned about the magnitude of our
enemies’ armies; even if your brother brings a hundred and twenty thousand
men to fight against us, you might as well come with your thirteen thousand!
We have no fear, for our heart is strengthened by the Khaybar-conquering arm
of the Commander of the Faithful!1 We gave you security because we did not
want the sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh to be wiped out all at once. But you know
best; do what is to your own advantage.’” So a letter was written saying all this.
Qanbar Āqā the tutor (laleh), a slave who had been purchased by Solṭān
Ḥaydar and was now seventy years old and a widely experienced man, said:
“May I be a sacrifice to you! Solṭān Morād has been trampled by fate and is
distraught; perhaps he does not have a compassionate advisor to advise him on
the path of friendship. His attendants are all seekers of evil and stirrers of strife,
who want war so that they can do him a service and thereby come to power,
and even if anyone wanted to give him sound advice, they could not do it for
fear of him. Perhaps the cause of this is that Solṭān Morād has thought that he
should be a friend to the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi. Why don’t I go and advise him?
Another reason is that the Twelver sect is on the march, and no one will be his
advisor; if Your Majesty orders it, I will go and advise him and wake him from
the sleep of his carelessness. Perhaps he will find success through my counsel.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “O Qanbar Āqā, you are my tutor and like a father to me. I
am afraid lest Solṭān Morād, thanks to the temptations of the ignorant, do you
an irreparable injury.”
“In this day and age,” replied Qanbar Āqā, “kings do not kill emissaries, espe-
cially since Solṭān Morād has declared his obedience to you and is under your
protection.” So His Majesty gave Qanbar Āqā permission to go, and he left for
Fārs with forty men.
When he arrived at the court of Solṭān Morād, Qanbar Āqā took his place as
per the custom of the emissaries of emperors, and Solṭān Morād honored him
greatly. Qanbar Āqā gave Solṭān Morād the letter he had brought; Morād or-
dered that much gold be strewn on the letter and that food and drink be
brought. Then he said, “Qanbar Āqā, isn’t it strange for His Majesty the Shāh to
send you as his emissary?”
Qanbar Āqā replied, “Since I am a trusted confidant and long-time tutor to
that prince, he has given me much in the way of advice and messages for me to
give you. This is why he sent me.”
Solṭān Morād read the letter, then said: “The Shāh wants me out of the way
because he thinks an opportunity has presented itself. That’s why he is not

1 A reference to the Battle of Khaybar in 628 AD, in which ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb played a crucial role.
King Alvand Goes To The Anatolian Emperor For Help 59

coming to fight me now. He has been worried about Alvand; he thought that
until he took care of Alvand, I wouldn’t make a move. He used to call me ‘Morād
the Failure,’ and I used to obey him out of my own best interest, waiting until I
received news of my brother Alvand and saw which way the wind was blowing.
I have heard that the emperor of Anatolia has been kind enough to give my
brother a hundred and twenty thousand men; I hear that each one is like roar-
ing thunder and a terrible dragon, and that even if the Qezelbāsh and their
pādeshāh were the Pleiades in the sky, these soldiers would burn them up with
a blow of their well-watered swords. Why should I pass up such an opportunity
to become pādeshāh myself? I should not be someone else’s attendant. O Qan-
bar Āqā, by the house of Shaykh Ṣafi, which choice is better? Tell me that I may
know!”
“O prince,” Qanbar Āqā said, “I have heard what you have said. Now you lis-
ten to what I have to say.
“Keep in mind the upshot of what His Majesty has written, and let there be
no cooperation with your brother! The Shāh knows best your best interest, for
he could have come and seized and bound you, but he hasn’t; he has just called
you ‘Morād the Failure.’ Moreover, he is not looking for help from anyone; he
has made his emergence on behalf of God and the Emāms so that he may
propagate the Twelver sect with the help of the Almighty. If someone is spurred
to action by the Lord Himself, why should he care even if the whole world is
against him? Since His Majesty has shown kindness toward you and does not
want you to burn in the fire your brother has kindled and does not want the
sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh to be wiped out all at once, he has sent this word to
you. He has nothing in mind but your welfare.”
To Qanbar’s clear statement Solṭān Morād replied thus: “Tell your lord, ‘If
you want the truth, I am your enemy, and no one wants to see his enemy alive
on this earth! You watch—my brother shall come from one direction and I
from the other, and we shall annihilate you, and after that we know what to do
with the children and families of the Qezelbāsh!’”
Qanbar Āqā could bear no more; he said to himself, “Come, strew your soul
on the path of your master!” Then he said to Solṭān Morād, “Churl! Fear the day
on which they drag you in front of the Perfect Guide and he asks you what has
happened; you will hang your head in shame, unable to answer, and he will
order for you whatever punishment he sees fit!”
This annoyed Solṭān Morād, and he ordered that Qanbar Āqā be taught a
lesson. His men trampled him under their kicks, killing him. All the people in
Qanbar Āqā’s retinue were killed as well. Five or six escaped, though, and they
made their way back to Shāh Esmāʿil and described what had happened.
60 Chapter 11

His Majesty exclaimed, “If I don’t avenge the blood of my tutor, I will be a
coward!”
Meanwhile, as Alvand and his Anatolian contingent approached Baghdād,
Bāyrak Solṭān and his people saw that army and were petrified with fear. The
pāshās approached the foot of the citadel and delivered a message for Bāyrak
Solṭān which said, “Get up and come to our service, or you know what will hap-
pen!”
Bāyrak Solṭān replied, “Baghdād belongs to the His Majesty the Shāh; it is
not mine to give to anyone. Now you are going to fight that prince; if you defeat
him, the whole world will be yours; if not, he will take Anatolia from you. So
you go, and when you come back, I will do as you order.”
When this message reached Moṣṭafā Pāshā, the commander of the army of
Anatolia, he realized that Bāyrak Solṭān was right. If they fought and took
Baghdād, they would have wasted their time, and would not be able to return
to Ādharbāyjān.
Alvand sent another message, saying: “If you won’t come yourself, send
some of your army to come with us.”
Bāyrak sent back a response saying, “You are taking all these soldiers to fight
twelve thousand Qezelbāsh, so you don’t need my small army.”
When Moṣṭafā got this message, he ordered his troops to move out, saying
that they would take their revenge another time. They headed for Hamadān.
When they got to the emāmzādeh of Sahl ʿAli,2 Shāh Esmāʿil was in Solṭāniyeh.
When Alvand got to Baghdād, he sent a messenger to Solṭān Morād saying:
“Raise an army and come this way; we have an engagement in Hamadān.”
Solṭān Morād thus ordered Esfandiyār Beg to take his cannons and go ahead
one day’s journey. He himself mobilized the army of Fārs and headed for
Hamadān.
Esfandiyār Beg set off with the cannons and got as far as Eṣfahān. From
there, spies reported his movements to Shāh Esmāʿil, who said: “I want one
man to go capture the cannons from Esfandiyār Beg and bring them here.”
Elyās Beg was about to take a step forward when Shāh Esmāʿil’s brother
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā stood up and said, “If His Majesty gives me permission,
I will go and bring the cannons to his celestial court.”
The Shāh had seen Elyās Beg stir, so he said to Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, “Take
fifteen hundred men and go with Elyās Beg.” They left, and by the time they
reached Eṣfahān, the cannons had been moved to Jorfādeqān.3
By coincidence, on the day when the cannons were going to Jorfādeqān, the
governor of that place invited Esfandiyār Beg to a banquet. Esfandiyār Beg

2 The emāmzādeh of Sahl b. ʿAli is in Sarband (Shazand), in the Markazi province of Iran.
3 Also called Golpāyegān, a town about 116 miles northwest of Eṣfahān.
King Alvand Goes To The Anatolian Emperor For Help 61

ordered that the cannons keep moving, saying, “I will catch up later.” He kept a
thousand of his soldiers with him and told the rest to get moving and accom-
pany the cannons. They were not afraid of anything happening, since they
were in the middle of their own country.
Esfandiyār Beg stayed in the city that night, riding out the next day. He went
one day’s journey, but the cannons did not arrive. “They will arrive,” he said.
But they also failed to arrive on the second and third days of his journey. On the
fourth day, at the time of morning prayer, Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and Elyās Beg
and their troops surrounded the cannons, and in the battle that ensued, they
killed many of the Torkmāns. They seized the cannons and other weapons
from the defeated Torkmān army.
Some people took this news four leagues to Esfandiyār Beg. He cried out and
took his thousand men back to cut off the Qezelbāsh on the road and retrieve
the cannons. When he met the Qezelbāsh army, fighting broke out. Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā joined the fray, and with a blow of his spear he knocked
Esfandiyār Beg off his horse. He then ordered that Esfandiyār Beg’s hands be
bound and that he be hurled in front of the gun-carriage. After killing and
wounding many people, the Qezelbāsh got moving again. When they got to
Darjazin,4 they sent a runner to bring the news to Shāh Esmāʿil.
When His Majesty received the news of this victory, he praised Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā and sent him a robe of honor along with a horse and a saddle
and a crown studded with jewels; he also sent a robe of honor to Elyās Beg. He
ordered them to go to Hamadān and meet him there.
Solṭān Morād, when he heard of the defeat of the Torkmāns, realized that he
was out of options and went to Hamadān. As he approached Alvand Shāh’s
encampment, Alvand, hearing that he had come, mounted up along with
Moṣṭafā Pāshā, the Anatolian commander, as well as Qānisā Pāshā5 and the
captain of the Janissaries and the rest of the nobles, and they all went out to
welcome Solṭān Morād and lead him into the camp.
Shāh Esmāʿil left Solṭāniyeh and set up his royal encampment six leagues’
distance from the Anatolians’ camp. He ordered Elyās Beg into the vanguard,
told Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā to take his place at the head of the cannons, and
gave Ḥosayn Beg Laleh command of the main body of the army.
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā brought the cannons forward three leagues and got to
work. Hearing of this, Alvand thought to himself, “I should take ten thousand

4 A village near Hamadān (not to be confused with another Darjazin in Semnān province).
5 The text here has “Qānisā Pādeshāh of Egypt,” which could mean the Mamluk ruler Qānṣawh
al-Ghawri of Egypt (r. 1501–1516), but that is unlikely, even for this story. The author does
consistently mix up the terms pāshā and pādeshāh.
62 Chapter 11

men and seize the cannons back. Perhaps we could capture Shaykh-oghli’s
brother and kill him; then Shaykh-oghli would be sick at heart, and it would be
easy to take care of him.” He asked Solṭān Morād what he thought.
“We don’t know whether Shaykh-oghli sends his brother out alone,” said
Solṭān Morād.
Alvand then asked Moṣṭafā Pāshā, who said: “Be patient tonight; tomorrow,
when our whole army is assembled, what will Shaykh-oghli be able to do
against that sea of soldiers?”
“You are right,” replied Alvand, “but if his brother were to be captured and
killed, Shaykh-oghli would be debilitated.”
“You know the affairs of this region better than I; if you deem it necessary to
go, then go.”
“I have ten thousand men; you send ten thousand Janissaries, and perhaps
we can finish him off with gunfire.”
So Moṣṭafā Pāshā ordered Delāvar Pāshā to take ten thousand Janissaries
and go with Alvand.
Meanwhile, Elyās Beg and Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā had arrived; they ordered
the artillerymen to load the cannons and surrounded them with their backs to
them. Then they sent a spy to the camp of the army of Rum.
Elyās Beg said, “I know that tonight the army will attack us. If and when they
come, we must leave the cannons and join the battle. Let the men fire the can-
nons on my order.”
At that moment the spy brought the news that twenty thousand Torkmāns
and Anatolian soldiers were on their way. Elyās Beg therefore ordered the
troops to prepare for battle. As Alvand approached the Ṣafavid position,
Kayqobād Beg Pornāk and Qāzi Khān Beg Takkalu turned to face the Qezelbāsh
troops, and Alvand and Delāvar Pāshā set their troops in formation and waited.
Elyās Beg sent his devouring lions into that herd of foxes, and in whichever
direction he attacked, he piled up corpses. With blows of his spear he knocked
whole groups of men off their feet. Kayqobād Beg Pornāk, on the other side,
also emptied many saddles with his blood-dripping sword. He finally encoun-
tered Elyās Beg, and after several attacks, Elyās Beg brought his sword down on
Kayqobād Beg’s head so hard that it split him in half down to his saddle. He
then saw Delāvar Pāshā coming. From another direction, too, Qāzi Khān was
approaching. Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, seeing that Elyās Beg was face-to-face
with Delāvar Pāshā even as Qāzi Khān was also bearing down on him, cried out
to warn him and quickly ran to help, striking Qāzi Khān in the mouth with his
sword and casting half his head onto the ground.
The battle had grown heated on both sides when Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and
Elyās Beg decided to withdraw from the battlefield. The Anatolian army went
King Alvand Goes To The Anatolian Emperor For Help 63

to pursue them, and just as they did, Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā gave the order to
fire the cannons. The Qezelbāsh fired into the heart of the Anatolian ranks, and
two thousand men were burned to ashes.
Seeing those brave men of the age, Alvand said to his own troops: “No one
can call you men! Truly, manliness ends with the Qezelbāsh!”
Moṣṭafā Pāshā thought to himself: “God forbid things should continue to go
this way!” So he ordered Jaʿfar Pāshā to raise ten thousand men and follow him.
Jaʿfar Pāshā raised the men and came, and after taking stock of the situation, he
too joined in the fighting.
Now, after Shāh Esmāʿil had dispatched Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and Elyās Beg
with the army and cannons, he had told the rest of his men that they would set
off in the morning. But then he thought to himself, “God forbid Alvand should
hear that my brother has brought the cannons; he will send an army to seize
them!” The mind of His Majesty, which was a mirror of the Unseen, told him to
decamp and get on the move, so he and his commanders quickly set off.
They had gone two leagues when they saw the dust of battle rising high in
the air. Esmāʿil conferred with his commanders, saying, “What should we do
now?”
“It is up to His Majesty,” they replied.
So the Shāh drew the sword of the holy Master of the Command and charged
at the enemy. Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and Elyās Beg had gotten into a tight spot
when Shāh Esmāʿil spotted the battle-standard of Alvand. He charged into the
midst of the Anatolians, splitting their ranks, and made his way to the battle-
standard. When Alvand’s eye fell upon the blessed countenance of His Majesty,
he cried, “It can’t be that this youth is Shaykh-oghli!” Esmāʿil swung his
Dhulfeqār-colored sword and smote Alvand such a blow on the shoulder that
the blade came out underneath his armpit. Alvand fell from his horse, and his
battle-standard toppled over. The Anatolian army broke. Shāh Esmāʿil caught
up to Jaʿfar Pāshā and killed him too. The army of Torkmāns and Anatolians,
denied their goal, turned to flee.
When Solṭān Morād heard that his brother had been killed, he welcomed
the good news and didn’t give Alvand a second thought.
The Qezelbāsh cut Alvand’s head off, after which Shāh Esmāʿil ordered them
to sew it back onto the body and send it to Tabriz. Then he busied himself with
the preparation of the troops.
Moṣṭafā Pāshā and Qānisā Pāshā were sorely afraid; they said, “Our emperor
sent an army in vain! Who knows if we will escape alive from Shaykh-oghli?”
Nevertheless, they got to work with the preparation of their troops.
The Shāh gave thanks to the beneficent Lord, then issued orders that anyone
who had a weak horse should get a horse from the royal stable, and that who-
64 Chapter 11

ever did not have a weapon should be given one from the arsenal. He also be-
stowed favors on whoever had earned them.
That night, the heads of the vengeance-thirsty did not touch the pillow of
rest. When the Grand Luminary, the sun of the earth, brought its head out of
the door of the constellation of Cancer, the immeasurable Anatolian army
headed onto the battlefield. Moṣṭafā Pāshā took his place as commander at the
center of the army; he gave the right wing to Yaʿqub Pāshā and the left wing to
Dāvod Pāshā, and arranged the troops in five brigades. Qānisā Pāshā took com-
mand of the first brigade, and Solṭān Morād took his place in the last one; the
rest of the brigades were set in order. Shāh Esmāʿil now gave orders that the
cannons not be used in the battle.
When the troops were arranged on both sides, His Majesty said, “We must
all move at once.” So when the vanguard got under way, he ordered the whole
army to charge at the faithless Anatolians, swords drawn and spears in hand.
Moṣṭafā Pāshā ordered the troops and the captain of the Janissaries into battle;
those heathens, out of fear for their lives, started firing their guns. Shāh Esmāʿil
put his shield over his head and hurled himself at the blazing guns of the Ana-
tolian vanguard, and with his well-watered sword he extinguished the fire-
works. Then he turned to fight the second enemy brigade, and a battle of the
utmost difficulty ensued.
Esmāʿil and his valiant cuirass-wearing supporters came boiling and roaring
into battle, attacking the center of the brigade with sword and shield. The en-
emy army could not withstand the impact of those lion-hunting warriors, and
they broke and ran. The brave Qezelbāsh drove them from the battlefield with
blows of their blood-drinking swords, then turned to fight the third brigade,
which was led by the captain of the Janissaries and Qānisā Pāshā. They had
cannons with them. When the Shāh saw the cannons, he said, “The cannons
are here!” and veered off to the left, attacking the Anatolians from a different
direction, whence he killed and wounded many of them.
When the captain of the Janissaries saw this, he ordered that the cannons be
fired. Shāh Esmāʿil and his troops threw themselves on the ground, and the
cannons fired over their heads. The earth became turbid and dark from the
dust and dirt and smoke and gunpowder. After this the Shāh and his men at-
tacked the Anatolians, killing and wounding a great many of them. The enemy
soldiers, too, knocked many of the Qezelbāsh Ṣufis off their feet with rifle shots.
They took aim at His Majesty many times, but missed each time. The steed of
battle pranced around on the battlefield of vengeance; it threw a great many
from the saddle, dyed red as a ruby of Badakhshān with the blood of the killed.
King Alvand Goes To The Anatolian Emperor For Help 65

The helmets all became red;

The ruby-wine of the proud became blood.
The world became like a sea of blood
Whose waves knocked over the helmet of the heavens.

When the Anatolians saw the victory of the Qezelbāsh, they all at once turned
and fled. Qānisā Pāshā fled with them. On their tail came Shāh Esmāʿil with an
army whose number no one can count and a gracefully strutting multitude
which the pen refrains from enumerating, as well as archers who could knock
a gnat from the pinnacle of the heavens with one bow-shot, and spear-carriers
who could spear a fish in the depth of the ocean on a dark night, and brave
warriors who considered the day of battle as their wedding-night,

Fearless ones who abducted a planet from the heavens at spear-point

Like sparrows plucking millet-seeds from the earth with their beaks

—all these came after Qānisā Pāshā.

That lion fled from the grove

Away from the cries of those brave lion-tossers.
The commander of Iran, on a dun-colored steed,
Did not stand still until he was before a fearful heart.

Moṣṭafā Pāshā started to tremble like a pool of mercury out of fear; out of
dread of the arrows of the attacking lions, which find their mark even if it is the
eye of a snake, he shook with agitation like a fish on dry land, and out of terror
of the arrows which move like serpents, his men started casting off their mail
like snakes shedding their skins.
Shāh Esmāʿil caught up to Qānisā Pāshā and struck him on the belt with his
world-burning sword, slicing him in half like a cucumber. Then he turned to
confront the Anatolian army.
Moṣṭafā Pāshā, having witnessed His Majesty dealing such a blow, pulled up
his reins and fled. When Solṭān Morād saw these events, he had not yet readied
the third brigade; he headed for Jorfādeqān by a secret road, and Shāh Esmāʿil
turned to pursue Moṣṭafā Pāshā.
Seeing their commander’s battle-standard topple, the Anatolians fled pell-
mell, and the Qezelbāsh gave a cry of manliness. Esmāʿil told them, “Don’t let
up! I will keep after their wicked commander lest he get away!”
When Moṣṭafā Pāshā had gotten to within half a league of his encampment,
he saw that the Shāh’s dragon-headed standard was catching up to his own
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army with utmost speed. He said to his troops, “It is Shaykh-oghli who is com-
ing! Scatter!” They broke up into small groups and turned tail on the road to
Rum.
But His Majesty the Shāh spotted the Anatolian banners from afar and
caught up to Moṣṭafā Pāshā, who realized that he would have no more chances
to flee. So he pulled up the reins of resistance and said, “O Shaykh-oghli, has
your doom brought you here?” With that, he pulled from his pocket a small
gun; he pointed it at His Majesty’s benevolent breast and fired. The ball hit the
edge of his Qezelbāsh tāj with no damage. Esmāʿil then thrust his spear into
Moṣṭafā Pāshā’s belt and threw him to the dust. Again Moṣṭafā Pāshā fired his
gun, and again it missed His Majesty. Shāh Esmāʿil then knocked him down
from the saddle of life into the dust of death with a blow of his spear and a cry
of “O ʿAli!”
Just then Durmesh Khān arrived, and Esmāʿil ordered him to cut that foul
evildoer’s head off, which he did. They mounted the head on a spearpoint and
turned their swords to his army. Many of the enemy fled; some became fodder
for the swords of the Qezelbāsh; some said “ʿAli is the Friend of God” and thus
obtained safety. The Qezelbāsh plundered the Anatolians’ tents and baggage.
Shāh Esmāʿil took personal possession of the treasury and the cannons, and
distributed the rest among his victorious troops. In one fell swoop the
Qezelbāsh had arrived at riches, so that every indigent qurchi became the own-
er of three or four fully laden camels.
Shāh Esmāʿil decamped and set out in pursuit of Solṭān Morād. When he
reached the town of Jorfādiqān, the people came out to welcome him and in-
dicated that they were ready to sacrifice their lives in his service. His Majesty
asked about Solṭān Morād. “‘The Failure’ has gone to Eṣfahān,” he was told.
In that same town, there came from the court of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā a
Chaghatāy named Jamshid at the head of a hundred horsemen. He kissed the
royal feet and presented gifts, then handed His Majesty a letter from Solṭān
Ḥosayn Mirzā. When Shāh Esmāʿil looked, he saw that Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā
had just written a short note. His Majesty exclaimed, “Apparently we are not
worthy of a royal letter, for Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā has only written a brief note!”
He thus ignored the emissary, turning to decamp and head for Hamadān.
En route they arrived at a great river. The Shāh and his amirs and troops
plunged into the water and made the crossing, but Jamshid Beg stood trem-
bling at the edge of the river.
“Dog of an emissary,” said Esmāʿil, “why are you standing there?”
Jamshid Beg replied, “Our horses are but draught-horses, while yours are
fleet; they can cross the water like ships!”
“You have my permission to leave,” said the Shāh. The emissary prostrated
himself and went off via the Kāshān road to return to Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā.
The World-conquering Shāh’s Proposal To Tājlu Begom 67

Chapter 12

The World-conquering Shāh’s Proposal to Tājlu Begom, the Daughter of

ʿĀbedin Beg Shāmlu, and the Wedding Feast of that Fortunate Prince

After defeating the malevolent Torkmāns, Shāh Esmāʿil went to Hamadān and
busied himself with restoring justice to the oppressed. One day his trusted
companions let it be known that ʿĀbedin Shāmlu had a daughter of unsurpass-
able beauty and coquetry and courage and daring. Again and again she would
wrestle her brother Durmesh Khān and throw him to the ground.
When His Majesty heard this, he sent someone to ʿĀbedin Beg to ask for the
girl’s hand in marriage. ʿĀbedin Beg replied thus: “I am the lowest slave, and my
daughter is the slave-girl, of His Majesty. Whoever he gives her to, I will be ex-
alted. But this daughter of mine has vowed that only whoever defeats her in a
fight with spear and sword, or pins her in a wrestling match, shall be her hus-
band. I shall tell her of the Shāh’s proposal.”
When he did, she said: “O father, what was your reply?”
ʿĀbedin Beg told her what he had said.
“You spoke well,” the girl said, “but if someone comes again, tell him you
spoke with your daughter and she said, ‘I am a slave of His Majesty. I had laid
down these conditions, but my prowess1 is not such that I may tussle with the
world-conquering Shāh. I do, though, want His Majesty to lay down the condi-
tion that he will not prohibit me from doing battle, and that whenever he goes
out to fight the enemy, he will give me leave to put on armor and go out to fight
the enemy as well.’”2
ʿĀbedin Beg went to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh with his daughter’s message, which
Ḥosayn Beg passed on to the Shāh. That prince accepted her terms; he addi-
tionally stipulated that she be named mistress of the harem and that she not
refuse any request he made of her.
His Majesty then sought out the scholars and learned men, such as the cler-
ic Aḥmad Ardabili, and at an auspicious hour he took the daughter of ʿĀbedin
Beg into the harem. When he unveiled her—when was hearing ever like see-
ing? What he saw was a hundred times better than what he had heard about

1 The text has jamāl (beauty), but Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb clarifies (p. 634) that this is probably a term
used by wrestlers.
2 Both the Chester Beatty Library manuscript (fol. 85b) and Shokri’s edition (ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi,
149) mention Tājlu Begom’s great beauty, but only this text mentions her warlike nature. For
the trope of warrior women in Persian folklore, see Perry, “Blackmailing Amazons and Dutch
Pigs,” 158ff.

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68 Chapter 12

her. He said, “I will call you Tājlu Begom [‘the Crowned Lady’].” Then he or-
dered that preparations for a wedding feast be made and that all the great
amirs and high-ranking vazirs be given royal robes of honor and suitable gifts;
he also gave the qurchis and gholāms and the rest of his attendants their salary
and bonuses twice over.
That winter they passed in joy and mirth in Hamadān. When Nawruz ar-
rived, they decamped and headed for Jorfādeqān and Eṣfahān.
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 69

Chapter 13

Birth of the Shadow of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp, in the Village of Ranān near
Eṣfahān

Shāh Esmāʿil departed Hamadān and arrived at the village of Ātashgāh, near
Eṣfahān. He ordered that his men set up camp at the edge of the Zāyandeh
River. When he alighted, though, he ordered that the eunuchs and some of the
troops take his harem and move on, saying, “God willing, our imperial majesty
shall catch up later.” It was evident to His Majesty that the queen’s time of
childbirth was drawing near, and he intended for her to get nearer to the city.
The eunuchs took Her Majesty and set off. While they were en route, a storm
picked up, with wind and rain and lightning. Meanwhile, Her Majesty, sitting in
her litter, felt her labor pains begin. Night fell, and a strange thing happened.
When they were two leagues from Eṣfahān, the queen said, “Since the night is
rainy and the pain of labor is increasing, we had better stop at some town or
village in the area and see to the childbirth.”
So the eunuchs sent people in every direction, and one came back to report
having seen a light nearby. “It must be a village,” everyone said. They set off and
entered the village of Ranān, but no one appeared to greet them. They called
out, thinking perhaps someone would come out.
Now the village head of Ranān was a Sunni and a mean person. When he
heard the voices, he came out of his house and surreptitiously took a look. He
saw that a large group with many litters was standing in the middle of the vil-
lage, crying out. He thought to himself, “This is certainly either the harem of
the Qezelbāsh nobles, or the harem of the Shāh. They are heretics and will
curse the first three Caliphs.” So he ran away to his garden, and they remained
there in the village center, lost and rain-soaked.
But Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, who was a Shiʿi and a true-blue servant of the Commander
of the Faithful, had much wealth and property. He came out of his house in the
middle of the night to go to the mosque and saw many camels with numberless
litters, standing distressed in the village center, their eunuchs riding around
aimlessly. Ra⁠ʾis Yusof said, “O friends, who are you? What do you want? Why
are you so distressed?”
They replied, “We want to find the house of the village head. This is the hon-
orable harem of His Majesty the Shāh, which has come here to stop for the
night.”
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof said, “Although my house is not fit to receive you, since it is rain-
ing, please do honor me by coming.”

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70 Chapter 13

When they entered the house of Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, they saw a wondrously lofty
building. Her Majesty entered the harem, and Ra⁠ʾis Yusof’s mother and wives,
all dressed in gold brocade, came and placed themselves at her service. Within
the hour Ra⁠ʾis Yusof sent two or three Georgian slave girls and two eunuchs
with some rolls of gold brocade and many bejewelled items worth nearly a
thousand tumāns as gifts.
The pain of childbirth had rendered Her Majesty faint to a degree, though,
and she could not turn to look at these things. Ra⁠ʾis Yusof’s mother, however,
was quite experienced in midwifery, and she said to Her Majesty, “This humble
one has a certain amount of experience—the blessed Begom is about to give
birth.”
“Yes!” replied Her Majesty.
And in that hour, by the perfect power of God, the world-illuminating sun,
His Most High Majesty Shāh Ṭahmāsp (may God lengthen his rule!) set foot on
the surface of the world and came into being. God placed the queen on her
throne, and His Majesty on his, and the world was made glad. Her Majesty gave
an order that no one from the harem should bring the news to the outside until
day had come.
When morning broke and the queen had been so well served by the master
of the house, she wrote a letter describing how she had come to the village of
Ranān, and how the Sunni village head had fled, and the service of Ra⁠ʾis Yusof
and the birth pangs and the birth of His Majesty the Shadow of God, Ṭahmāsp.
She imprinted her seal on the letter, then rubbed the blessed hand of Shāh
Ṭahmāsp with saffron and wrapped him in a white cloth. Then she said to Ra⁠ʾis
Yusof’s mother, “Tell your son to take this letter and bring it to the royal en-
campment; there he must give it to my brother Durmesh Khān, who will take
it to His Majesty the Shah.”
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof’s mother took the letter and went to tell her son what the queen
had told her. Ra⁠ʾis Yusof then set out for His Majesty’s encampment.
In the meantime, Shāh Esmāʿil had become a bit troubled over his harem’s
leaving in such cold and rainy weather. Thanks to divine inspiration, he was
eagerly expecting the joyful news of the birth of the prince, but that night the
news did not arrive. In the morning he asked Durmesh Khān about it. He re-
plied that no word had arrived yet.
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof soon arrived at the entrance of Durmesh Khān’s tent. When he
asked for him, he was told that he was in the presence of the Shāh. He then
went to the court and asked one of the servants to get Durmesh Khān’s atten-
tion. The servant went and whispered to Durmesh Khān, “Someone is standing
outside looking for you.”
Shāh Esmāʿil asked Durmesh Khān, “What is he saying?”
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 71

Durmesh Khān told His Majesty what the servant had said.
Shāh Esmāʿil told the servant to bring the man in. The servant went out and
led Ra⁠ʾis Yusof into the court. His Majesty turned his alchemical gaze on him
from afar, then said to Durmesh Khān, “We are glad to see this man coming; he
must have brought good news.”
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof stepped forward, offered a prayer of praise, and prostrated him-
self, then handed his letter to Durmesh Khān. When he, in turn, saw the seal of
Tājlu Begom, he gave it to the Shāh. His Majesty read it, and the news of the
birth of Shāh Ṭahmāsp heaped joy upon joy for him. Beaming with utmost
happiness, he treated Ra⁠ʾis Yusof with great friendship and kindness, ordering
that he be clothed from head to foot in a robe of honor and given a horse with
a gilded saddle and trappings. All the royal lands in the village of Ranān he gave
to Ra⁠ʾis Yusof as a fief. He wrote a royal edict and gave it to him, saying, “O Ra⁠ʾis,
you are free to leave; go home and make preparations, for God Almighty will-
ing, we shall be your guests tomorrow morning.” He then told a qurchi, “Go to
the village, seize that Sunni village elder, and keep watch over him until we ar-
rive.”
The qurchi went to Ranān and asked about that elder. Someone said that he
was in such-and-such a garden, and the people accompanied the qurchi there
and handed the man over.
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof put on his robe of honor, mounted his new horse, and entered
the village. The people there said, “His Majesty has shown wondrous kindness
to the Ra⁠ʾis!”
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof told Tājlu Begom all about the kindness that His Majesty had
shown him. She was very happy and fell to praising her royal husband.
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, for his part, made preparations and arrangements for a feast. He
laid out carpets of brocaded Chinese velvet and red silk all the way from Ranān
to the village of Ātashgāh, which was almost two leagues away. He also pre-
pared twelve tables of gifts, each of which had twelve bolts of gilt brocade fab-
ric, and twelve garments woven with gold thread. On each table he placed
fifteen hundred gold coins and five hundred porcelain vessels and a hundred
bows and a hundred Egyptian swords and thirty slings and a hundred coats of
mail. He also prepared twelve Georgian slave-boys and twelve virgin slave-girls
and ten Indian eunuchs and fifty wild horses of Syria and Central Asia and
three hundred camels and ten mules.
That afternoon, when Shāh Esmāʿil rode up and saw the royal carpets, he
was astonished. Drawing closer, he saw Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, who had taken his sons
with him to welcome His Majesty and prostrate themselves. He said, “These
are slave-sons of His Majesty!” Then he brought out all those gifts, along with
twelve trays of jewels which were worth nearly thirty thousand tumāns. Shāh
72 Chapter 13

Esmāʿil was amazed at the magnanimity of one villager. His amirs, too, praised
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof. The Shāh, in a gem-scattering utterance, said, “O Ra⁠ʾis, you are like
a father to me, and your house is like home.”
When His Majesty entered Ra⁠ʾis Yusof’s house, he saw a wondrous building,
built like the highest paradise and bedecked with carpets. He took his place on
the throne there. When it came time to eat, servants brought out five hundred
trays of different kinds of food, along with various types of brocaded and deco-
rated tablecloths and silver and porcelain trays. Everyone present was gripped
with amazement, wondering with astonishment where a peasant had gotten
all this wealth.
When the meal was finished, Shāh Esmāʿil said to Mir Moḥammad, “I want
astrologers to examine the horoscope of this fortunate man’s birth.” Mir
Moḥammad replied, “In the city of Kāshān, there is a man whom they call
Mawlānā Naṣir. In the whole world he has no peer in the art of astrology. Order
that he be brought to your presence.”
So His Majesty assigned someone to hurry to Kāshān and bring back
Mawlānā Naṣir. Then he remarked, “It is some years since we heard news of
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, the uncle of Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, and learned of his adventures.”
ʽĀbedin Beg said, “Ra⁠ʾis Yusof must have heard of the affairs of Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh;
let him tell about it.”
“O father,” said Shāh Esmāʿil, “sit down and relate it, for you know his affairs
well.” Now Ra⁠ʾis Yusof was a good man, a seeker of knowledge, and he could
expound with eloquence. So he knelt in respect and spoke as follows.
[Ra⁠ʾis Yusof’s Tale]
Ḥasan Pādeshāh Torkmān ascended the throne with the help of the house
of the saintly Shaykh Ṣafi and decided to take Eṣfahān. When he got to the
outskirts of Eṣfahān, though, the governor there defiantly came out of the city
at the head of an army. A battle of the utmost severity took place between the
two forces. Since the rear part of Ḥasan’s army had not arrived yet, he was de-
feated in the first clash; but after a time, reinforcements arrived and he was
victorious.
The governor of Eṣfahān fled to the gate of Zoroaster. The people said, “We
do not have the power to hold a fortress,” and closed the gate on him. When he
realized that the Torkmān army was closing in behind him, he fled to another
place.
Ḥasan Pādeshāh then took possession of Eṣfahān, seating himself on the
throne. After that, he told his wife and daughter to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
He did not want it known that his wife and daughter were going away, so he
dressed them and their attendants as merchants. They set out and arrived at
the village of Ranān, where they alighted at Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh’s home. No one knew
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 73

that this was the royal harem; when anyone asked them, “Where are you from?”,
they answered, “We are merchants going on pilgrimage to Mecca.” Anyway,
they stayed for a month in Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh’s home.
Now Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh had a lot of property, and in watermelon season his land-
lord insisted that each day he bring a load of watermelons to the city and sell
them. For two days he had not sold any. On the third day of selling, he found
himself at the lodge of Shaykh Maqṣud Zāri. He heard that the disciples at the
shaykh’s tomb were holding a zekr ceremony in his retreat room. Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh
arrived riding his donkey. He noticed that the noise of the ceremony had grown
loud. He tied his donkey and entered the shaykh’s mausoleum.
Hearing the sound of the zekr, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh was overcome with delight and
pleasure, and he patiently waited until the chanting had finished. Then the
lead dervish said, “O friends, you have enjoyed watching the dervishes, and
they are hungry. Does any of you feel inclined to purchase some ground sesa-
me and grape syrup for the dervishes to eat for lunch? We will pray and recite
the Fāteḥeh for him, and the Lord of the World will give him half of Eṣfahān as
a reward.”
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh stepped forward and said, “With your leave, I will perform this
service.”
“Very good,” said the lead dervish.
Barakeh immediately went and got three bowls of ground sesame and grape
syrup and three maunds of bread. He brought it in to them. When they had
eaten, they raised their hands in prayer, recited the Fāteḥeh, and said: “Ra⁠ʾis
Barakeh, may God bless your life and property.” Then Barakeh left. When he got
home, his mother said: “The landlord says to give him five hundred dinars from
the sale of the watermelons so he can buy himself a shirt.”
Barakeh said, “Very well; tomorrow I will sell the watermelons and do what
the landlord said.” His mother said nothing more.
The next day, Barakeh gathered up his watermelons and headed for the city.
Divine inspiration had lit a spark in his heart, so he said to himself: “I should go
to the Mārnān bridge; people do much business there.” He went and stood in a
nook of the bridge. A Mongol1 came and was trying to pull Barakeh’s goods off
his donkey when a white-bearded dervish arrived at the bridge. He looked at
Barakeh square in the eye and perceived a rare quality. It is agreed that when
dervishes of utmost spiritual attainment look at a person, their own perfection
makes that person’s qualities apparent to them.
When that dervish found that this watermelon-seller had rare qualities ap-
parent in his eyes, he said to himself: “Now, come and see if you have seen

1 Literally, “an Asian” (āsyāʾi).

74 Chapter 13

correctly or not.” Then he said to Barakeh, “O young watermelon-seller, the

mouths of dervishes have lost their taste, and their throats are dry. If you have
a sweet melon, give it ‘on the path of God,’ for I haven’t eaten any sweet water-
melon this year.” Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh immediately picked up a watermelon, cut it
with a knife, and gave it to the dervish.
It so happened that the watermelon was very sweet, but the dervish said,
“It’s inedible.”
Barakeh said, “O king of dervishes, let me cut another one.”
The dervish tasted it and said, “This isn’t what I want.”
Each time he said, “It’s not right,” Barakeh would cut up another watermel-
on, and this continued until he had cut up forty of his watermelons and only
one remained. When he cut that one, the dervish said, “You should have cut
this one first!”
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh said, “Let it not be the first, but last; praise God that the sweet
watermelon fell into the hands of dervishes!”
When that enlightened dervish realized that he had perceived Ra⁠ʾis Bara-
keh’s quality correctly, he was glad. He said, “You’re about to leave, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” replied Barakeh.
The dervish said, “What will you do with the watermelon?”
“Let it wet the lips and mouth of a passerby.”
The dervish said, “It is sweet; you can sell it.”
“It is an offering for the dervishes.”
The dervish said, “Since you have great affection for dervishes, I will come to
your house tonight, and tomorrow I will pray for you and be on my way.”
So Barakeh took the dervish and brought him to his home. His mother said,
“O son, have you brought the five hundred dinārs?”
“The man who took the watermelons promised to pay tomorrow,” said Ra⁠ʾis
Barakeh. He then said, “I want you to serve this dervish from your heart and
soul, for his kind are the pādeshāhs of the kingdom of poverty.” At once she
cooked a chicken, served it to the dervish, and honored him greatly.
Then the dervish said, “Do you have any copper in the house that I could tin
for you?”
Barakeh said, “We do, but I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
The dervish said, “Have it brought out.”
So they brought seven maunds of copper. The dervish heated it all up and
added a potion to it. Then he said, “I have added a potion to this copper and
turned it to gold. You must spend it in such a way that no one is reckless. Bor-
row three tumāns from somewhere and start a business; God Almighty willing,
you will reach a point where there is no one in Eṣfahān as wealthy as you.” He
then offered some admonitions and left.
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 75

Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh supposed that the dervish was speaking figuratively, but in the
morning he looked at the copper and saw that it had all turned to gold. He gave
thanks to the Almighty Creator, then sold three acres (jarib) that he owned and
rented some gardens, and by God’s will he harvested twice as many crops as
before. He also began to buy property and engage in trade.
His wealth had just reached a hundred tumāns when the wife of Ḥasan
Pādeshāh came to his house. When it was time to leave, they said to him, “O
Ra⁠ʾis, come with us! We feel comfortable with you, and we happen to be per-
forming the pilgrimage.”
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh said, “I will come on the condition that I pay the expenses
myself.” They wanted to pay his expenses for him on the way, but he refused.
The Pādeshāh’s wife called the Ra⁠ʾis “father,” and his daughter called him
“brother.” After they set off, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh was of such service en route that ev-
eryone was put to shame; they said, “O Lord, grant us this much success, that
when we get back to Ḥasan Pādeshāh we make up for the favors of this man!”
On the return from Mecca, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh took leave of the others in Hamadān
and went back to Eṣfahān, while Ḥasan’s harem continued on to Tabriz. When
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh got back home, he began to engage in trade, buying and selling,
and in time he reached a worth of a thousand tumāns.
A year later, Ḥasan Pādeshāh left Eṣfahān for Tabriz. His harem-women
came out to meet him. After exchanging greetings, they spoke very highly to
him of the services of Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh. The Pādeshāh said, “He didn’t realize who
you were, did he?” They said he didn’t. Their effusive praise led Ḥasan to say,
“This year we will set up winter-camp in Eṣfahān; I want to see what sort of
man this person is.”
So Ḥasan Pādeshāh set out for Eṣfahān. He was met by the important men
and nobles of the city upon his arrival, after which he entered the city. He
alighted at the royal edifice of Khwāju; the gate of Ḥasanābād has its renown
because of his name. A few days later, Ḥasan Pādeshāh ordered that the people
of the nine districts of Eṣfahān present themselves. When everyone had gath-
ered, he asked, “Which one is Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh of Ranān?”
“He is not among us,” they said.
Ḥasan said, “Let them saddle up a horse of ours and bring him here.”
Someone went and brought back Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, who entered the court and
prostrated himself. Ḥasan embraced him fondly, then gave him a place in his
assembly with an order that all the elders of the nine districts of Eṣfahān be
subject to his command. At that moment a palace eunuch entered and said
that the queen was looking for Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, whom she called “father.”
Ḥasan Pādeshāh said, “O Ra⁠ʾis, your daughter is always longing to meet you,
and now she wants to see you.”
76 Chapter 13

Ra⁠ʾis said, “I don’t have a daughter!”

“You do!” replied Ḥasan Pādeshāh. “You must go and see her!”
The eunuch took Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh out of the assembly. Ra⁠ʾis thought, “Where
are they taking me? I don’t have a daughter; may it not be shown otherwise!”
When he got to the door of the harem, however much they told him to go in, he
kept saying, “You want to hand me over to be killed! I don’t have a daughter!”
They kept saying, “You do! Come in and look; if you don’t have a daughter, no
one will give you any trouble.”
Finally, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh entered the harem and saw a group of slave-girls
standing there. The poor man didn’t take his eyes off the tops of his feet. He
approached his “daughter”; when he saw her, he didn’t recognize her, but he
was struck with affection for her. The king’s wife also came and greeted him,
saying, “O my ‘father’ Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, lift your head, for in this world and the
next you will be my true father, and you don’t even recognize us! We are your
companions from the road to Mecca!” Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh lowered his head and of-
fered his services.
“O father,” continued the queen, “I want you to be in charge of my proper-
ties; engage in trade, and everywhere they sell property, buy it for me, and be
my proxy.” They also gave him a robe of honor.
Just then Ḥasan Pādeshāh entered the harem. Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh arose and pros-
trated himself. The Pādeshāh said, “May God bless you, O Ra⁠ʾis, for you have
rendered much service to the people of this harem. You are a good man. This
time our coming to Eṣfahān was specifically to see you.” Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh pros-
trated himself again and offered a prayer of praise. It was ordered that the rents
on royal properties be collected for him, and that the offices of magistrate and
minister and governor and other offices be given to Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh. The pious
foundations of Ghāzān Pādeshāh were handed over to the Ra⁠ʾis to administer.
Then they gave him a robe of honor and gave him leave to go. Ḥasan Pādeshāh
later left for Tabriz.
Ḥasan Pādeshāh eventually took leave of this world, and kingship passed to
Yaʿqub Pādeshāh. In those years, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh accumulated glory and esteem.
Under Rostam Shāh, though, Hājji Kusaj Bāyandori was governor, and in those
days, out of envy of Shiʿism, all the nobles were inimical to Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh.
By chance there was a Shiʿi jurisprudent in Eṣfahān, and Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh had
enlisted him to leave all his properties to a pious endowment for the Fourteen
Immaculate Ones. A Sunni elder named Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak, perceiving the mean-
ing of this, went and told the governor: “Rostam Pādeshāh knows that Ra⁠ʾis
Barakeh is a heretic. If the opportunity presents itself, you should kill him. As
long as you are alive, Rostam won’t fire you as governor of Eṣfahān, and besides
that, you can take several thousand tumāns of Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh’s property.”
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 77

Even as the foul Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak was persuading him of this, the governor was
also seeking a pretext. Then someone named Ḥasan gave a message to Ra⁠ʾis
Mobārak saying, “You are always looking for an excuse to kill Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, and
there is none better than this: He has just turned approximately ten thousand
tumāns of his property into a pious endowment for the Fourteen Immaculate
Ones.”
When Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak heard this, he went to the governor and explained the
situation.
Hājji Kusaj, the governor, said: “Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh cannot be killed solely on the
basis of this report, not until his heresy becomes manifest.”
Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak said, “I’ve got proof. Summon him tomorrow and ask him,
‘What were you doing at that Shiʿi judge’s house two days ago, and what docu-
ment did you have stamped?’ When he shows you the document, it will be evi-
dent to you that he is a heretic and that you should kill him. You will both gain
spiritual merit and confiscate his property for the king.” They decided to do
this.
It so happened that someone brought word of this to Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh, who was
seized with great fear. At once he dedicated a thousand tumāns to a pious
foundation for Ṭalḥeh and Zubayr, wrote a document certifying it, and brought
it to the judge.2 Explaining the situation, he had the document stamped,
brought it home, and put it among his papers.
The governor then sent for Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh. When he presented himself, they
did not honor him; instead, the governor said, “O Ra⁠ʾis, you are a heretic! Peo-
ple used to tell me this, but I refused to accept it. Now, though, it has become
apparent to us that what they were saying about you is true. What document
did you have at the judge’s house for stamping?”
Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh said, “The document is ready; order your men to retrieve it.”
“Very well,” said the governor, “let them go and bring it.”
Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak said, “There is no better pretext than this. The judgment must
be to take him to the gallows! He has neither paper nor document!”
The governor said to his attendants, “Take this heretic and hang him by the
neck!” Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak gave each of the attendants some gold, saying, “Be quick,
for this man is a heretic and our enemy.” The attendants’ eyes grew wide at the
sight of that gold; then they dragged that devoted servant of the Commander
of the Faithful to the gallows and hanged him.

2 Ṭalḥeh and Zubayr were companions of the Prophet Moḥammad. After the assassination of
ʿOthmān, they fought against ʿAli at the Battle of the Camel in December 656. Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh
is trying to cover his tracks by appearing to be a devout Sunni.
78 Chapter 13

Afterward, when the documents stamped by the judge were brought to the
governor and he looked at them, he was embarrassed. He said, “A wrong has
taken place. Bring Ra⁠ʾis so that I may apologize to him, for he has been a faith-
ful Sunni all along!” When the attendants went, though, they saw that Ra⁠ʾis
Barakeh had already been executed. They brought the news to the governor,
who let out a cry and ordered that a mount be readied. He rode to the gallows
and killed ten of his own attendants there. Then he ordered that someone go
get Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak and hang him by the neck in place of Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh.
Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak, though, took a considerable sum of money and gave it to the
governor, saying, “Don’t worry; I will answer for this to the Pādeshāh.”
When Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh had thus met his fate, this poor slave [Ra⁠ʾis Yusof, wrap-
ping up the story] took the deeds for the pious endowments and went to Ta-
briz. The events of Kudeh Aḥmad occurred,3 and I went to him and gave him
the documents. He ordered that no one should molest me and said, “I will go to
Eṣfahān myself to render justice.” I went to Eṣfahān as well, and when the His
Majesty so commanded, I presented my case.
[Here ends the tale of Ra⁠ʾis Yusof.]
Shāh Esmāʿil was very sad to hear all this. “God willing,” he said, “I will avenge
the blood of this blameless Shiʿi on the Torkmāns and Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak!” Then he
ordered that that which was imperial property be determined from the records
of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, and that they write a decree that Ra⁠ʾis Yusof was granted
royal authority over such land, and that the station he had held in the time of
Ḥasan Pādeshāh be determined and given back to him. His Majesty also gave
him another robe of honor and stayed in his house every day he was in town.
The Shāh’s astrologers announced that it was an auspicious hour, and that
they should present the newborn prince of the world to His Majesty’s alchemi-
cal gaze. They brought Mawlānā Naṣir of Tus, and after prostrating himself, he
cast a horoscope for the blessed birth of the prince of the world: “This prince
will be the ruler of the land of Irān; for nearly twenty-five years he will wield his
sword in the service of the faith, and the mighty ruler of Anatolia will bend his
head in obedience to him. For thirty years the swords of the Qezelbāsh will
remain in their scabbards. Because of his justice, in the time of his reign there
will be no fraud and no lawlessness. His sons will be many.”
Shāh Esmāʿil gave Mawlānā Naṣir the astrologer a robe of honor and a re-
ward. A week passed after the joyous birth, and people lit candles and lamps
that night, saying, “Let His Majesty choose the name for this precious child; we
shall call him by just that name.” That night, in the world of sleep, Esmāʿil saw

3 I.e., the overthrow of Rostam Beg, mentioned above. (Rostam Beg was deposed by his cousin
Kudeh (Gövde, “dwarf”) Aḥmad.)
Birth Of The Shadow Of God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp 79

the perfect beauty of the holy Lion of God, the victorious ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb, and
asked him what name to choose. “Name your son Ṭahmāsp,” came the answer.
When the Shāh awoke, he named that noble boy Shāh Ṭahmāsp, in accordance
with the order of the Commander of the Faithful.
After that, His Majesty packed up and headed for Eṣfahān. Solṭān Morād, in
the meantime, having gained no success, had closed the gate of rule on himself
and walled himself up in a fortress of apathy and libertinism. Since he had
behaved so boorishly earlier, when they sent Qanbar Āqā to admonish him and
he had rebuffed him, His Majesty’s commanders said, “It will be better if you
again send an ambassador to enjoin Solṭān Morād to come serve you.” Since
the heart of that prince was like a world-revealing mirror, though, he said,
“Solṭān Morād does not profit from guidance; admonitions will be of no use
with him.”
80 Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Shāh Esmāʿil Sends an Army against Solṭān Morād, and that Failure is
Captured

When His Majesty reached the gate of Ḥasanābād, Solṭān Morād had closed
the gate, taken his money, property, and harem out of Eṣfahān, and gone to the
village of Tabarrok. Upon leaving, he had entrusted the nine gates of the city to
the people, while Ḥājji Kusaj (also known as Aḥmad Bāyandori), who was
Solṭān Morād’s right-hand man and governor of Eṣfahān, kept the gate-keys.
But the Shāh sent someone to the nobles and luminaries and seyyeds (in
particular the seyyeds at the Ḥosayniyeh of Mirzā Moḥammad, son of Mirzā
Ashrafoddin) and village headmen of Eṣfahān, asking them: “If the Torkmāns
are our enemies, will you too disobey us?”
They replied, “We cannot come out for fear of Ḥājji Kusaj, but otherwise our
heads and souls and property belong to the attendants of His Majesty the
Shāh.”
The messenger returned and passed on what they had said to Shāh Esmāʿil.
Esmāʿil was about to order a direct attack, but then he thought to himself:
“They have put Eṣfahān under a spell; this won’t get anywhere.” So he ordered
that entrenchments be built and a siege begun.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Morād had forbidden anyone from taking provisions to
the Ṣafavid camp, and supplies had grown very short there. Realizing this, His
Majesty sent someone to go fetch Ra⁠ʾis Yusof again. When he arrived, the Shāh
said to him, “O father, our troops are quite worn out by the lack of provisions.”
Ra⁠ʾis Yusof said, “This poor one thought they would bring provisions from the
surrounding villages; otherwise, I would never have let the Qezelbāsh suffer
trouble and want!”
Then Ra⁠ʾis Yusof brought some stores of wheat and barley and other food
and heaped them all on top of each other, to praise and thanks from the Shāh.
After that, His Majesty said, “O father, why aren’t the people of the city districts
bringing us provisions?” Ra⁠ʾis Yusof replied, “Because Solṭān Morād has banned
it, and those foolish people believe that Your Majesty will leave having failed to
conquer Eṣfahān. If you wish, command me to send someone to tell them the
news that you’re not leaving and to bring them into your service.”
He sent one of his people to the heads of the outlying villages to say to them:
“O witless ones, you really don’t have any sense, do you? This prince of Islam
will seize the world. What are you thinking? You’d better all get up, lower your

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_015

Shāh Esmāʿil Sends An Army Against Solṭān Morād 81

heads in humility, and come to his service, lest there be retributions and you be
without honor after the conquest!”
Those village heads saw the messenger of Ra⁠ʾis Yusof and heard what he had
to say, and within an hour, they humbly declared their obedience to the world-
subordinating court, and each one of them begged forgiveness for his error.
The siege stretched out to four months. Inside the city, provisions had grown
very scarce, and the people and the army were crying out. Solṭān Morād said to
the brother of Ḥājji Kusaj, “Make a proclamation saying, ‘Woe to anyone with
extra food who fails to bring it to the field and sell it, for he will be punished!”
The proclamation yielded no results, though, so Solṭān Morād ordered that his
men go into every house and seize any provisions they found.
The people of the district of Karrān went to the house of Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli,
the head of that district, who was a true-blue Shiʿi, a follower of the holy Com-
mander of the Faithful. They told him, “They are coming to take away our
grain!”
Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli said, “Put your minds at rest, for I have an idea.”
When a group of Torkmāns came to check the houses, Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli said,
“Go check some other districts today; let us look once more to see whether
anyone here has provisions.” The Torkmāns agreed to this. Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli
was wondering how to let Shāh Esmāʿil into the city.
When night fell, Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli appeared in the world of sleep in the pres-
ence of the holy Commander of the Faithful, who said: “O Ra⁠ʾis, open the gate
for my son tomorrow night.” Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli signaled his acceptance, then
woke up. He called that group of Shiʿi village heads back to his house and re-
lated his dream. They were overjoyed. Then he said, “O friends, I cannot think
how what the holy Commander of the Faithful has ordered will work; but he
will have a plan to take the city, and the man who takes it will be a Twelver
Shiʿi.” He added, “Tomorrow I will go have a chat with Ḥājji Kusaj to see how
things are shaping up.”
That same night, Solṭān Morād dreamed that he went atop the gate of
Ḥasanābād and looked out over the Qezelbāsh encampment. Two roaring li-
ons, each like the burning sun, came running toward the citadel; when they
reached the edge of the moat, they leaped over it and landed on top of the
citadel tower. One went to the home of Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli, while the other came
chasing after him. Then Ḥājji Kusaj showed up, and the lion tore his head off.
Solṭān Morād awoke in fright, and the next day he related this dream to Ḥājji
Kusaj, saying, “Let it be known that Shaykh-oghli must not enter the citadel.
Guard the gate of Seyyed-Aḥmadiyān closely, and take care of preparations
inside the fortress.” Ḥājji Kusaj left the fortress and left the key with Solṭān
82 Chapter 14

Morād; he took the keys to the city gates for himself and ordered the people in
various districts to keep watch over their own gates.
When morning came, Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli and the Shiʿis were thinking of how
they were going to open the gates to the Qezelbāsh that night. However much
they racked their brains, though, nothing occurred to them.
At mid-morning, Ḥājji Kusaj emerged from the citadel and went around the
city’s neighborhoods. When he reached the neighborhood of Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli,
he spotted him and said, “It is the order of Solṭān Morād that tonight one per-
son from each house must come with the Torkmāns and stand watch over the
gates.”
Hearing this, Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli said in his heart: “O holy Commander of the
Faithful, you do send aid!” Then he said to Ḥājji Kusaj, “This poor one will bring
a hundred men to the watch tonight.”
Ḥājji Kusaj said, “Whatever you do, the expense is on you.”
Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli gathered the district leaders and conferred with them.
Later, when evening fell, he reviewed three hundred men and came to the
watch; the rest, thirty or forty men, remained so they could come if news ar-
rived. Ḥājji Kusaj was about to leave1 when Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli asked, “Where are
you going?”
“To say my evening prayers; then I’ll come back,” he replied.
The Ra⁠ʾis said, “There is a mosque right here for you to pray in.”
Ḥājji Kusaj went in to pray. At that moment Ra⁠ʾis ʿEnāyat, Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli’s
nephew, arrived with his men. When he saw Ḥājji Kusaj there, he prostrated
himself in gratitude. Ḥājji Kusaj said, “My God, this is excessive zeal. You must
strive to keep the heretics from entering the city, for a few days hence the army
of Fārs is coming to help us eject them from our doorstep!” When he saw Ra⁠ʾis
ʿEnāyat, though, he was frightened; he said to himself, “What idiocy have you
committed?” He was backing away when Ra⁠ʾis ʿEnāyat said, “Seize this dog!”
They took Ḥājji Kusaj and bound his hands, then locked him in Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-
ʿAli’s cow-shed. They killed his ten men and took the key to the city-gates from
him. Ra⁠ʾis ʿEnāyat then wrote a letter and tied it to an arrow, saying, “Let them
go behind the Qezelbāsh lines and shoot the arrow at Durmesh Khān’s enclo-
sure.” When they had shot the arrow, one of the Qezelbāsh gholāms picked it
up and brought it to Durmesh Khān. When he read it, he went to Shāh Esmāʿil,
who read it and said, “Set up an ambush!”
Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli and two hundred Torkmāns were behind the city gate,
keeping watch. Just then the ra⁠ʾis thought of a ruse. He told one of his men to
go outside and come back in a frantic rush, crying, “The Qezelbāsh have

1 A sentence is missing here.

Shāh Esmāʿil Sends An Army Against Solṭān Morād 83

attacked and are fighting with Ḥājji Kusaj!” When he pulled this trick, Ra⁠ʾis
Ḥosayn-ʿAli and the two hundred Torkmāns who were guarding the gate all ran
off at once. Then Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli went back, opened the gate, and went out-
side the walls. Durmesh Khān saw him coming out of the gate; he immediately
led his troops inside and ordered them to sound their trumpets. When the
sound of the Qezelbāsh trumpets reached the ears of the Torkmāns, most of
them fled; some stayed to fight, but most of those were killed.
The next day, Shāh Esmāʿil entered Eṣfahān in pomp and glory. Seyyeds,
nobles, judges, shaykhs, pillars of state, luminaries, district heads—all came to
pay respect to him and, prostrating themselves before that world-seizing sov-
ereign, hailed him and saluted him.
Solṭān Morād had remained holed up in the citadel with the workshop la-
borers. When he heard this news, he realized that things had gotten out of his
control. He thought about fleeing, asking himself how he could get to Fārs and
raise another army in order to come back and try his hand at battle once more.
As word spread of Esmāʿil’s entry into Eṣfahān and the surrounding regions,
all the people there came to hail and salute him. When Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli and
Ra⁠ʾis ʿEnāyat arrived to kiss his feet, His Majesty treated them with great affec-
tion and praised them highly. Ra⁠ʾis Yār Aḥmad Khuzāni came shortly after-
ward, bearing an offering of twelve thousand maunds of grain. Then Shāh
Esmāʿil asked, “Isn’t Solṭān Morād going to come out of the citadel?”
“He has no other choice,” people said; “he will come out.”
Meanwhile, Maryam Begom, the daughter of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, saw that
Solṭān Morād was wracked with anguish over this catastrophe. “Put your mind
at ease,” she said, “for I will go to Shaykh-oghli and plead with him on your be-
half.”
“I have no hope that he will pardon my offenses,” replied Solṭān Morād,
“since I killed his tutor Qanbar Āqā and I know that he is exceedingly angry
with me.”
Maryam Begom consoled him a lot. She sent a message to Durmesh Khān
saying, “Have the roads blocked off,2 for I wish to kiss the feet of the benefac-
tor of the world’s inhabitants.”
Durmesh Khān went to His Majesty and told him this. It was duly ordered
that the roads be blocked and that Maryam Begom be brought.

2 The term used is qoroq, a preventative embargo which “entailed a ban on all men beyond age
six to be in the vicinity of the route taken by the ruler and his entourage” (Matthee, “From the
Battlefield to the Harem,” 101). The qoroq was a later-seventeenth century phenomenon, an-
other indicator of the date of this text.
84 Chapter 14

Since the Shāh was Maryam Begom’s nephew,3 when she arrived, she kissed
the hands and feet of that Khosraw of the age and thanked him profusely. He
also embraced her and asked her many questions. After much conversation, he
said, “O aunt, have you come to see me or to plead for Solṭān Morād?”
“May I be a sacrifice to you,” she replied; “I came for both reasons, may I not
tell a lie. I swear by your dear royal head that Solṭān Morād is indeed a fail-
ure—you yourself have given that nickname to his fortune. What can he pos-
sibly do now? You are that king of such good fortune that the simurgh itself is
your prey. I want you—for my own sake as well as that of your late grandfather
Ḥasan Pādeshāh, and also out of respect for the Pivot of Religion and of the
Perfected Mystics, the Shaykh of Saints, the holy Shaykh Ṣafioddin—to pardon
his sin, and to do this favor for me.” She said this and fell at His Majesty’s feet.
“O dear aunt,” Shāh Esmāʿil said, “why are you disgracing yourself so? Solṭān
Morād is a weak-minded man of no sense; if he had any sense, he would have
known enough to welcome me and appreciate my beneficence. But he didn’t;
he rebelled against me and killed my tutor Qanbar Āqā, leaving no place for
peace. How can we forgive him all this?”
“As you say, he has no sense; by your mercy, forgive him, for of the sons of
Ḥasan Pādeshāh, only he is left. Don’t cut off this link with your kin, for it is not
good.”
Esmāʿil said, “I am astonished at my aunt that she is saying such things about
the foolish Solṭān Morād. The man has a deep-rooted grudge against the im-
maculate Emāms in his heart. My purpose in ‘emerging’ is to spread the faith of
the Emāms. If Solṭān Morād curses the enemies of the faith, if he comes to me
and curses the first three Caliphs and proclaims ʿAli to be the Friend of God, I
will grant him rule from the banks of the Qezel Owzan4 to Bandar ʿAbbās and
Bandar Kong, on the condition that he strikes coins and recites the khoṭbeh in
my name. In the name of God, go and tell him this. If he accepts, what could be
better?”
Then his aunt bade him farewell and was granted leave to depart. She went
to Solṭān Morād. When he saw her, he said, “The news had better be good!”
She told him, “Shaykh-oghli comes from the lineage of the holy Commander
of the Faithful and has a merciful heart. He has pardoned your sin and given
you rule over all of Fārs province—on the condition that you go to him and
curse the first three Caliphs.”

3 Shāh Esmāʿil’s mother was named Martha (Ḥalimeh Begom). Whether she had a sister named
Maryam is unknown.
4 A river in northwestern Iran, a tributary of the Sefid Rud.
Shāh Esmāʿil Sends An Army Against Solṭān Morād 85

When Solṭān Morād heard this, he said, “My own aunt has gone and done
such a thing! Would that you had not gone!”
“My dear,” she said, “this is the right thing to do.”
Solṭān Morād rounded on her, saying, “You too have become a heretic! I will
accept being killed, but I will not curse the Noble Companions!”
“You are truly unfortunate. The Shāh said that you would not accept; I see he
was right.”
Solṭān Morād saw that his aunt was vexed, so he said, “Since you have gone
and undertaken this, I will go to him.”
“O dear nephew, don’t risk eternal torment; this is the true religion.”
“For three days I will prepare gifts to bring,” said Solṭān Morād, “and on the
fourth day I will go to him.”
Maryam Begom then related to Shāh Esmāʿil what had happened and told
him that Solṭān Morād was going to present himself at court.
Solṭān Morād then slipped into the workshop of trickery and deceit, decid-
ing that he had to make a hole in the wall of the citadel and head for Shirāz. So
he told some of his attendants, and in the middle of the night they made a hole
in the wall of the citadel, escaped the city, and headed for Fārs.
The next afternoon they brought the news to Shāh Esmāʿil that Solṭān
Morād was gone. His Majesty was most regretful at this. He summoned Mary-
am Begom and said, “O aunt, you have let Solṭān Morād go for nothing, and
now much blood will be spilled before he is caught.”
“I am embarrassed,” Maryam Begom replied. “That rascal is not worthy of a
crown and a throne—he wants rather a winding sheet and a coffin!”
Then the Shāh decamped and set out to pursue Solṭān Morād in the direc-
tion of Shirāz.
86 Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Solṭān Morād Flees toward Shirāz; Moḥammad Karahi Captures Him and
Sends Him to Shāh Esmāʿil, But He Flees Again

Solṭān Morād fled toward Shirāz until he reached Dasht-e Arzhan. Oghurlu
Moḥammad and Abulfatḥ Beg had captured the province of Fārs, but Yaʿqub
Khān and Shaykh Ḥasan Beg Bāyandori fought with them near Juyom and de-
feated them, seizing Fārs for Solṭān Morād. When Solṭān Morād arrived, they
went out to greet him and joined him right then and there.
After a few days the news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil and his army were head-
ed their way. Then a group of Qarā Qoyunlu and Bāyandori picked up Solṭān
Morād and headed by another road to Shirāz and Abarqu. Solṭān Morād or-
dered that Moḥammad Karim Karahi, the head of the village of Hazār Khānvar,
go to Shirāz to equip an army and make preparations.
Solṭān Morād soon drew near Abarqu, and Moḥammad Karim went out to
meet him and led him into Abarqu.
When Shāh Esmāʿil heard that Solṭān Morād was in Abarqu, he made his
way there and set up camp outside the citadel. Moḥammad Karahi climbed the
tower of the fortress in order to size up the enemy forces; when he looked, he
saw an army that stretched from one horizon to the other, and he quaked with
terror. He came back down and conferred with his tribal grandees, saying, “Giv-
en the size of the Qezelbāsh army I have just seen, we do not have the power to
land one blow on that army of the Pādeshāh who is the refuge of religion! We
have to think of something!”
After deliberations, it was decided to seize Solṭān Morād and take him in
fetters to the court of the Shāh. Moḥammad Karahi gathered his whole entou-
rage and fell upon Solṭān Morād, killing many of his men and making him a
prisoner. Realizing what was happening, most of his officers fled to Shirāz.
Then Moḥammad Karahi took Solṭān Morād, opened the citadel gate, and
headed for the court of Shāh Esmāʿil. There, courtiers brought the news of the
arrival of Moḥammad Karahi and the seizure of Solṭān Morād to the attention
of His Majesty.
The Shāh ordered that Solaymān Āqā, a Ṣufi from Anatolia, clap Solṭān
Morād in chains and watch over him, as there would be a tribunal the next
morning. Moḥammad Karahi kissed the royal feet, and Esmāʿil praised and re-
warded him.

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Solṭān Morād Flees Toward Shirāz 87

Solaymān Āqā said to his prisoner, “It is the order of His Majesty that I put
chains on your neck and feet—don’t take it personally.” He took the chains and
put them on Solṭān Morād.
Solṭān Morād said, “If you are generous to me, I will give you a memento that
will bring good fortune to seventy generations of your descendants.”
Now Solaymān Āqā was a greedy Turk, one who would torture his own
mother for a dinar. It happened that Solṭān Morād had one of the armbands
which had come down to Ḥasan Pādeshāh from Amir Timur Kurgān; it was
worth fifty thousand tumāns. Solṭān Morād gave it to Solaymān Āqā, and the
eyes of that supposed Ṣufi lit up when he saw all those jewels. He removed the
chains, gave Solṭān Morād a steed which was as swift as the wind, and sent him
off toward Shirāz. That hypocrite did this deed early in the night; later, when
midnight came, he broke the chains, let out a shout, and went to Ḥosayn Beg
Laleh and Najm Rashti, crying, “Solṭān Morād has escaped!” They expressed
great regret, saying, “Think about your own situation, for His Majesty will not
let you get away with this.”
In the morning, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh informed Shāh Esmāʿil of the escape of
Solṭān Morād. Esmāʿil was furious and ordered his men to seize Solaymān Āqā.
“You interloper!” he said to him. “You set Solṭān Morād free from his chains,
and now you have come here and are lying about it!” Then he repeated to him
everything he had been told.
Shāh Esmāʿil then said, “O impostor, did you take Solṭān Morād’s armband
and free him from his chains?” Solaymān Āqā was about to deny it when
Esmāʿil ordered that the guards strip the armband from his arm. When the
Ṣufis saw this miracle, they all prostrated themselves and said, “Truly, he is the
son of Mortazā ʿAli; this is how the Perfect Guide must be!” The hypocrite
Solaymān Āqā was then put to death.
Just then Manṣur Beg Pornāk arrived from Shirāz. He prostrated himself and
kissed the royal feet. The Shāh asked him, “Manṣur Beg, where are you coming
from?” He replied, “When the news arrived that Moḥammad Karahi had cap-
tured Solṭān Morād and entrusted him to the servants of the royal court, this
least of your slaves came to greet the army which is the refuge of victory, and to
come serve Your Majesty in Fārs. Word has spread of the capture of Solṭān
Morād, so most of the Āq Qoyunlu Torkmāns have scattered, and none of them
remain in Shirāz.”
“Didn’t you see Solṭān Morād as you were on the Shirāz road?” asked Shāh
Esmāʿil. When Manṣur Beg heard this, the color drained out of his face and he
staggered backward.
Esmāʿil said, “What’s the matter with you?”
88 Chapter 15

“When Solṭān Morād goes to Shirāz and hears that I have come out to wel-
come His Majesty, he will plunder my house and property and children!”
The Shāh comforted Manṣur Beg and ordered Elyās Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli to
gather three thousand men and hasten with Manṣur Beg to Shirāz, saying, “We
will follow close behind.”
Solṭān Morād Flees Toward Shirāz As Elyās Beg Pursues Him 89

Chapter 16

Solṭān Morād Flees toward Shirāz as Elyās Beg Pursues Him

When Solṭān Morād entered Shirāz, Abulfatḥ Beg Rāvandi and Qāzi Ghaybi
and the amirs of the Āq Qoyunlu, upon learning of it, came to him and asked
him about the reason for his capture and imprisonment and escape. He ex-
plained to them everything that had happened. They also told how Manṣur
Beg had gone out to welcome Shāh Esmāʿil.
Solṭān Morād was incensed to hear this. He ordered that the Torkmāns and
Āq Qoyunlu go to Manṣur Beg’s house and plunder whatever was there in the
way of money and property and bring it to his superintendent.
When news of this order reached the Pornāk clan, they said to each other,
“Shāh Esmāʿil will arrive in Shirāz a few days hence; why don’t we harry the
Torkmāns so that tomorrow we might be taken into the service of His Majes-
ty?” Nearly seventy or eighty Pornāk nobles then gathered their families and
went to the house of Manṣur Beg. The elders of the tribe brought several days’
provisions, and they barricaded themselves inside the house.
The Torkmāns and the Āq Qoyunlu then arrived, and the two sides started
fighting. After some exchanges of arrows and musket-shots, word of the clash
reached Solṭān Morād, who said, “The people of Shirāz have taken the side of
the Sh‫‏‬āh and gone up to the top of Manṣur Beg’s house! Bring ladders from four
directions and take his people into custody!”
Word of this development quickly spread. The local leaders of Shirāz sent a
message to Solṭān Morād saying, “Why are you handing us over to a massacre?
If you yourself fled without fighting the Pādeshāh of Iran, how are we going to
fare in this conflict? First you should think of fighting with that prince; then
you can order us to do this! Manṣur Beg’s house and kin aren’t going anywhere.”
Solṭān Morād was astonished to receive this message. He was about to
mount up and go to Manṣur Beg’s house to punish the Pornāk himself when
the elders sent another messenger to say, “Have the Torkmāns pull back from
Manṣur Beg’s house. If they don’t, we will tie you up and send you, just as
Moḥammad Karahi did, to welcome Shāh Esmāʿil!”
This frightened Solṭān Morād, and he started to think about fleeing. He or-
dered the Torkmāns to withdraw from Manṣur Beg’s house.
Soon thereafter, spies brought word that Elyās Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli was head-
ing in their direction with three thousand men. When Solṭān Morād heard this
news, he had no hope but to take off with his nobles and family in the direction
of the fortress of Salāsil.

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90 Chapter 16

The next day, Elyās Beg and Manṣur Beg reached the Allāhu Akbar pass.
Manṣur Beg was preoccupied with thoughts of his wife and children, as no one
was coming whom he could ask for news of them. He thought to himself, “I
know for certain that they have all placed themselves on the path of the House
of Shaykh Ṣafi; surely none of them will regret it.” But he still kept an eye out,
hoping someone would approach whom he could ask about them.
Elyās Beg realized what Manṣur Beg was thinking; he told him, “Don’t let
your mind be troubled. If anything happens to dishonor you, don’t consider me
a man.”
“I know what an evil character Solṭān Morād is,” Manṣur Beg replied. “Out of
anger over his own treasury, he will ruin my own and take my wife and child
prisoner.”
Meanwhile, however, Manṣur Beg’s family had sent someone to explain
what had happened and say, “Come, for the Torkmāns have gathered up Solṭān
Morād and fled!”
Thus, as Manṣur Beg was conversing with Elyās Beg, they saw someone ap-
proaching on foot. The footman reached Manṣur Beg and told him what had
happened. When Manṣur Beg heard the news he prostrated himself in grati-
tude and loosened his tongue in praise of the House of Shaykh Ṣafi. Then they
entered the city. When the people saw Manṣur Beg and Elyās Beg, they hailed
them; Manṣur Beg saluted them as well and praised them highly, saying, “O
friends, prepare offerings; you must arrange a welcome for the world-conquer-
ing Shāh such as no city has ever seen before!”
So the leaders of Shirāz prepared gifts and carpets to spread in the street.
When Shāh Esmāʿil drew near the city, the people—old and young, plebeian
and noble—came out to welcome him, spreading carpets in the street and pre-
senting gifts. The nobles and seyyeds of the city kissed the feet of the Shāh, and
he blessed them with favors. At a most auspicious hour, he entered the city and
settled in the palace of Solṭān Morād. He asked the city leaders about Solṭān
Morād, and they told him that he had gone toward Baghdād by way of Shush-
tar.
His Majesty was thus fortunate and successful enough to embrace Shirāz as
his bride without the interference of any rivals.

The rose-garden of Shirāz was without a thorn

Such a treasure, with no snake’s fang!
A precious garden whose fruit had bloomed
With neither closed gate nor gardener at the door.
The homā-bird of fortune and happiness cast the shadow of felicity on that
region, and the sun of royal countenance ennobled and honored that august
Solṭān Morād Flees Toward Shirāz As Elyās Beg Pursues Him 91

place; the herald of the heavenly sphere brought word of the victorious con-
quest to the hearing of the world’s creatures and found freedom from care.
Then it came to the attention of the Shāh that Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, the gover-
nor of Māzandarān, had invaded Dāmghān and Tehrān and Varāmin at the in-
stigation of Solṭān Morād and plundered the property of the Shiʿis there before
returning.
Hearing this news, the Shāh ordered Elyās Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli to gather the
victorious Qezelbāsh troops and go to that region to punish those ruffians with
an eloquent chastisement. Elyās Beg kissed his feet and set off, and the Shāh
busied himself with feasting and hunting.
92 Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Elyās Beg Goes to Dāmghān to Fight Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi and is Killed by
That Man’s Duplicity

Elyās Beg set off for Dāmghān, his home province, with three hundred men.
Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi had plundered the region and headed for Rostamdār,
turning the property he had plundered over to Solṭān Morād. He was still in the
vicinity, though, so Elyās Beg set off in pursuit of him and his odious bunch. He
caught them by surprise and killed many of them, taking back the plundered
goods and chattel and other things they had, then went to Varāmin. Solṭān
Morād sent the news of this to Ḥosayn Kiyā, who promptly gathered the de-
mon-like armies of Māzandarān and Rostamdār and didn’t slow down until he
reached the fortress of Varāmin.
When Elyās Beg heard he was coming, he took the three hundred men who
had accompanied him and four hundred more who were in the fortress, and
having gathered these seven hundred men, he opened the gates and gave bat-
tle. In the first assault he dealt such a blow to the army of Ḥosayn Kiyā that it
broke. At this time Solṭān Morād arrived with twenty thousand men of his own
and joined the battle. Elyās Beg, that bravest man of the age, hurled himself at
that enormous army and killed many of them. Since two hundred men out of
those seven hundred remained in the fort, and fighting twenty thousand men
with five hundred was futile, Elyās Beg gathered his army and beat a retreat
into the fortress.
Since Ḥosayn Kiyā was a Māzandarāni, he was ignorant enough to think: “I
will not move from this place until I have killed Elyās Beg, lest people say,
‘Ḥosayn Kiyā fought Elyās Beg with twenty thousand men and was defeated,
even though Elyās Beg only had five hundred men!’”
The result was that Ḥosayn Kiyā settled at the foot of the fortress with a
great army. After two or three days, Elyās Beg took a force of a hundred and
fifty men and made a night-attack on the encampment of Ḥosayn Kiyā. In the
fighting, they killed fifty men and wounded many more, then went back inside
the fortress. The report of this defeat burned the very soul of that dog Ḥosayn
Kiyā, and he became more vigilant. On the third night Elyās Beg again left the
fortress by the back road; he threw himself into the midst of the enemy army,
shouting that he was such-and-such Mirzā so as to frighten and confuse them.
He and his men did some killing and capturing, and as the enemy were mount-
ing their horses and lighting their torches, they slipped away and entered the
fortress by a different road.

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Elyās Beg Goes To Dāmghān 93

The next morning, Ḥosayn Kiyā sent someone off with orders to find out
who this man was who, whenever he went out into the desert, left no trace of
his army. Solṭān Morād said, “As God is my witness, this is Elyās Beg’s doing.” In
the end, Elyās Beg made four night-attacks on those dogs and left many of
them dead.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil departed from Shirāz, and the fortunate and fe-
licitous banner of that prince rose over Qom; the sun of His Majesty sent flash-
es of light all across the land, and the wise men and leaders of the region turned
toward his world-sheltering court to be ennobled by the favors of the royal
beneficence. Word of His Majesty’s arrival in Qom reached Ḥosayn Kiyā, who
was seized with fright and bewilderment. He conferred with his amirs and
Solṭān Morād and said, “They say that Shaykh-oghli has come to Qom! Until I
have taken care of Elyās Beg, I am not leaving; I cannot abandon Rostamdār
without achieving my aim, or the shame of it will remain in the Cholāvi family.”
Solṭān Morād said, “The solution is to pretend to open the door of peace and
reconciliation. Elyās Beg is naïve; he will probably fall for it and come out of
the fortress. Since you insist on killing him, isn’t this the best way to go about
it?”
“If you manage to get him to come out of the fortress, I will be indebted to
you,” said Ḥosayn Kiyā. Then he ordered that a letter be written to Elyās Beg
saying:
“We have heard that the Shāh has grown impatient with us, that his blessed
mind is vexed with us, and that he has sworn to go to Māzandarān and
Rostamdār to tear up the trees of that region by the roots—to say nothing of
what will happen to the people! In any case, we do not have the dominating
power of that sovereign, and if you intercede and establish the foundations of
peace and friendship between us and His Majesty, we shall be indebted to you,
O lion of the forest of valor. Moreover, I want to present gifts to His Majesty; tell
me what is worthy so that I may supply it. Some say that in such a meeting, we
should speak as if he is treading on our eyes; it would not be unlike his other
favors.”
The letter was written and sent in the hands of a silver-tongued emissary.
When he entered the fortress and was brought into the presence of Elyās Beg,
he related the message in tones of humility and submission.
Elyās Beg, in his naïveté, believed those lies of theirs, and the next day he left
the fortress with thirty or forty men and went to the court of Ḥosayn Kiyā. He
was greeted with much warmth and affection. In a flattering voice, Ḥosayn
Kiyā said, “O sir, the weather is very hot; God forbid your noble person should
become ill!” Elyās Beg demurred, but that Ḥosayn Kiyā swore by the blessed
head of the Shāh that they should undress.
94 Chapter 17

So Elyās Beg the Ṣufi and some of the Qezelbāsh elders took off their armor
and belts. Ḥosayn Kiyā then ordered that food be brought. As they were eating,
Ḥosayn Kiya’s men poured into the room with drawn swords and killed Elyās
Beg and his companions. When this was done, Ḥosayn Kiyā returned to
Rostamdār and Māzandarān and sent Solṭān Morād to the fortress of Firuzkuh.
When this horrible news reached the royal hearing in Qom, the Shāh was
greatly upset. He vowed, “I will burn Ḥosayn Kiyā in fire, just as he has burned
my heart!”
In the season of spring, when the painter of Time had made the surface of
the earth into the envy of the picture-gallery of China, the beautician of divine
power decorated the cheek of the tulip with drops of dew.1

The breeze of Nawruz scattered its musk

As the rose and its bud became beautiful and soul-refreshing.
The tree was ornamented with leaves and fruit
And the king of flowers ascended his throne.
The touch of the breeze caused the leaves to tremble,
Making the cypress attract the eye.

1 At this point the narrator’s Persian becomes much more formal and elaborate, including copi-
ous insertions of poetry. This is because much of the text from here until Chapter 21 has been
lifted from Ḥasan Beg Rumlu’s chronicle Aḥsan al-tavārikh (Rumlu, 993–1002).
Shāh Esmāʿil Proceeds From Qom 95

Chapter 18

Shāh Esmāʿil Proceeds from Qom towards Firuzkuh and Māzandarān to

Defeat Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi

When Shāh Esmāʿil left the city of Qom, he issued orders that the Qezelbāsh
head for the fortress of Golkhandān and Firuzkuh in order to evict that odious
bunch. They were also to turn their reins toward the road to Varāmin and Rayy
and purify that plain of the existence of the enemy. After that victory, they
were to display the fortress of Golkhandān to the alchemical gaze of the Shāh,
and then celebrate the feast of Ramazān in its shadow with him. The Shāh also
ordered that the implements of war be prepared and that the men set off for
the conquest of that celestial fortress.
However much Ḥosayn Kiyā’s nephew Kiyā Sohrāb, the porter of the fortress
of Rostamdār, struggled and toiled against the Qezelbāsh, pouring arrows and
musket-shots and fire and ashes onto their heads from atop the fortress, those
soldiers of the Lord of the Age fixed their hearts on abiding excellence and
marched on. The victorious ghāzis poured forth the fire of battle from every
direction, and every one of that villainous multitude who raised their head
from the fortress had their their gaze transfixed by a soul-burning arrow. The
men in the fortress, fearing for their lives, rained down stones and arrows and
musket-shots from atop the fortress. His Majesty the Shāh, too, turned toward
that fortress like the burning sun, his sword flashing.
In a short time the Qezelbāsh warriors had climbed up the tower of the for-
tress and Shāh Esmāʿil had reached its gate. Esmāʿil smashed in the four beams
of the gate with a blow of his sword; he set his blessed foot inside the fortress,
and his diamond-colored blade began strewing heads. The inhabitants of
Rostamdār begged for quarter, but Esmāʿil ordered that not a single one of
them be spared, and all of them, old and young, burned in the fire kindled by
that hero of the age. His Majesty also commanded that the victorious Qezelbāsh
raze that fortress to the ground, that fortress which had been as lofty as the
celestial sphere and famous for its impregnability.

What mercy is the high wall of any fortress

When the hand of calamity lays it low?
There fatefully appears atop its ramparts
An angel, perched thereupon like a dove.
A band devoid of intelligence and sense
Beat the drum of rebellion therein.

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96 Chapter 18

After these preliminaries, the Qezelbāsh set off in the direction of Firuzkuh,
and for the whole length of the journey many of the luckless people of that
region were presented to the swords of those victorious warriors. It was a
Thursday in the month of Shavvāl when they finally approached the fortress. It
was like the finial atop the brilliant round minaret of the earth, as strong as the
wall of Eskandar.

Its countenance was rubbed so bright by the sky

That the sun itself turned its face away.

The porter of that fortress was ʿAli Kiyā Zamāndār. He entertained thoughts of
opposition and displayed an inclination to war and the battlefield.

His ill fortune turned him off the right road;

The strength of a fortress did not keep him from falling into a well.
The height of the citadel deceived him;
It would throw him upside-down into the depths.
He did not realize that the height of a mountain
Is nothing compared to the celestial sphere.

When news of ʿAli Kiya’s preparations for battle reached Shāh Esmāʿil, his
blessed face changed expression. He commanded that the instruments of siege
and battle be readied, and ordered the renowned amirs and the army to en-
circle that fortress and to let fly with the thumb-ring of wrath the liver-piercing
arrows of punishment. The army of Rostamdār, too, made ready for battle, and
from morning to evening they fed the flames of war and strife. The fire of war
and killing burned and blazed. His Majesty personally strove mightily in that
battle, and it is well known that he loosed a thousand shafts at the enemy from
his blessed thumb-ring that day.
After three days of fighting, it was ordered that more implements of attack
be readied. ʿAli Kiyā wanted someone to go to one of the favorites of the royal
court to ask for quarter, but the Rostamdāris forbade it. He began to regret his
choices.
The honorable Najm Rashti, who was one of the favorites at the Shāh’s lofty
court, approached his glorious sovereign and said: “We must send someone to
ʿAli Kiyā to advise him that he should admit defeat graciously and come down
from the fortress.”
“I will not grant clemency to a single person,” retorted the Shāh, “even one
who submits obediently, on account of the blood of Elyās Beg! You can send
someone yourself to advise him.”
Shāh Esmāʿil Proceeds From Qom 97

So Najm wrote a few carefully crafted words to ʿAli Kiyā thus: “Why are you
burning yourself with the fire of Ḥosayn Kiyā in this way? There is no quarrel
between you and the Qezelbāsh. The quarrel we have is with Ḥosayn Kiyā
Cholāvi on account of the blood of Elyās Beg. Beware, a thousand times be-
ware; heed my words and show mercy on yourself and your men! Don’t let the
strength of this fortress fool you into taking the wrong path, for with one attack
the Qezelbāsh will level it to the ground.”
When ʿAli Kiyā received this letter, he wrote in reply: “That which you have
written is all reasonable. Let fate decide. Salutations.” And he sent the messen-
ger on his way.
Amir Najm read ʿAli Kiya’s reply, then ordered that the preparations for the
next attack be completed. The Qezelbāsh, though, were fed up with attacking
that way, and they forced their will on Amir Najm.
Now when Shāh Esmāʿil surveyed that fortress, he realized that his whole
army would be killed if he kept up this battle; thus, seeing no advantage in at-
tacking, he ordered his troops to pull back. Then he raised his hands in prayer
and appealed with cries and lamentations to the court of the Judge of Needs.
At that moment he fell into a trance, and in that state between sleep and wake-
fulness one of the Immaculate Emāms said to him: “O son of ours, order a
group of soldiers to attack the fortress from behind the mountain, and you
yourself stay with the rest of the army at the base of the fortress. When the
defenders of the fortress see that the attack is coming from the direction of the
mountain, they will go all together to fend off the Qezelbāsh ghāzis, leaving no
one behind to keep watch. You will then be able to enter the fortress without a
worry.”
When His Majesty awoke from his trance, he described his vision to his top
commanders, who all prostrated themselves in gratitude. After some delibera-
tion, it was agreed that Bayrām Khān Qarāmānlu should gather three thousand
men and head for the western end of the mountain at night, on the condition
that no one be told what he was doing. They figured that it would take three
days to get from the road behind the mountain to the base of the fortress, and
decided that when they reached the top of the mountain, they would light a
fire to signal the Qezelbāsh.
Before the troops could turn their attention to the rear of the mountain,
though, one of the towers of the fortress spontaneously crumbled and col-
lapsed. Seeing it fall to the ground, the lion-hunting Qezelbāsh ghāzis rushed
over to attack. The fortress’s inhabitants poured rocks and arrows and shots on
their heads, but whenever a Qezelbāsh was felled by an arrow or shot, another
one would pull the dead man away and rush forward in his place. Finally
Maḥmud Beg Qājār, who had excelled all the others in fighting, reached the top
98 Chapter 18

of the rampart and scattered the Rostamdāris. The other Qezelbāsh broke into
the outermost section of the fortress by their own power. The Rostamdāris,
fearing for their lives, took sanctuary in the innermost part of the fortress, over-
come with boundless fear and struck dumb with terror.
Then Bayrām Khān and his men ascended to the top of that section of the
fortress and started a great fire. When Shāh Esmāʿil learned that Bayrām Khān
had set a fire, it was decided that the Qezelbāsh forces should prepare to seize
the fortress. Two days later, the assault began. It was decided that they should
focus on the water-source of the fortress. The Qezelbāsh youths gave a cry of
manliness, and the redoubtable Bayrām Khān killed many of the enemy.
Seeing himself surrounded by calamity on every side, ʿAli Kiyā began to tear-
fully entreat Amir Najm Zargar, placing the hand of submission on his skirt. He
sent him a messenger with this message: “With a sincere heart I curse the en-
emies of the Faith and the state and declare myself a Shiʿi follower of the Com-
mander of the Faithful and the lowest slave of the world-conquering Shāh.
Beseech His Majesty to forgive this helpless one, and as long as I live, I will de-
vote myself to serving him.”
Amir Najm read ʿAli Kiyā’s message, then brought it to Shāh Esmāʿil. His
Majesty accepted the intercession of Amir Najm and forgave ʿAli Kiyā and his
followers. ʿAli Kiyā, trembling and afraid, emerged from hiding, kissed the royal
foot, and surrendered the key to the fortress. The Shāh showed royal mercy and
forgave his errors out of kind feeling. A group of ʿAli Kiya’s men who rebelled
and refused to seek security in faith were quickly killed by the Qezelbāsh.
ʿali Kiyā Goes To Take The Pass Of Firuzkuh 99

Chapter 19

ʿAli Kiyā Goes to Take the Pass of Firuzkuh

After conquering the fortress of Firuzkuh, Shāh Esmāʿil attended to the affairs
of the humble, then headed for the fortress of Estā with the Qezelbāsh army.
That fortress was at the peak of a high mountain, and its fortifications were
famous throughout the whole world.

Its edifice like the stone hearts of the pitiless;

Its gate shut tight like a miser’s door.
Its summit surpassed highest heaven;
It was surrounded by a moat like the Pleiades.
The shore of that moat was the threshold of annihilation;
From there to the realm of nothingness was but one step!
It was so deep that one could not find
A ray from the sun or the moon therein.
When Kiyā learned that the Shāh was coming
He sought refuge from his dread inside that fortress.

When the world-conquering Shāh captured the fortress of Firuzkuh and ʿAli
Kiyā kissed the royal foot in submission, all those from his army who cursed
the enemies of the Faith found safety and were honored with the Qezelbāsh
tāj. Some of them, however, fled to Ḥosayn Kiyā and told him what had hap-
pened.
Ḥosayn Kiyā was astonished that his brother ʿAli Kiyā had become a Shiʿi. He
ordered his troops to go to the pass of Firuzkuh and fortify the road there so
that the Qezelbāsh would not be able to get through.
When Shāh Esmāʿil learned of this, it was decided that Bayrām Khān should
take his army to hold the pass. ʿAli Kiyā said, “By the Shāh and the Twelver
Faith, I have renounced my brother and pledged my soul as a disciple and a Ṣufi
of the Ṣafavid House. I tell you that this army you have designated to go to seize
the pass of Firuzkuh cannot take it; indeed, all of the Qezelbāsh and the armies
of the entire world could not pass by ten of the men who are at the head of that
pass! But this humble one, who is a sacrifice to the dust at the feet of the Shāh,
will go to the head of that pass under the ruse that I have fled. I will tell my
brother that His Majesty has gone to the fortress of Estā with the Qezelbāsh
army, and I will offer to guard the pass myself. One of two things will happen:
Either he will fall for the trick and leave, or he will seize me and—if he doesn’t

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_020

100 Chapter 19

kill me—he will clap me in chains. I will go to do this if His Majesty consents
to it.”
Shāh Esmāʿil looked at ʿAli Kiya’s inner self with his alchemical gaze and saw
that the mirror of his mind was clear. He said, “Go, God willing, and may it turn
out as you have said.”
ʿAli Kiyā said, “For this task I will require a pretext.”
“What is your idea?” asked the Shāh.
“I will saddle up,” ʿAli Kiyā replied, “and, on the pretense that I am fleeing,
ride toward Māzandarān. His Majesty should order an army to pursue me.
When they have come and caught me, they will bring me into your presence,
upbraiding and berating me. I will say, ‘What do you want from us? You have
taken our land of a thousand years’ inheritance; leave us alone!’ When I have
given this insolent response, order that I be taken to the public square and
punished. At that point, Amir Najm should plead for clemency on me, asking
that I be clapped in chains and taken to the fortress of Alamut rather than ex-
ecuted. When we have gone one day’s journey, the guards should allow me to
slip my bonds; I will then run to Ḥosayn Kiyā and pay him respect, and he will
listen to everything I say.”
The Shāh listened to this plan, then praised ʿAli Kiyā and accepted his idea.
Everything was done as he had said.
Spies brought the news of ʿAli Kiya’s apparent capture and escape to Ḥosayn
Kiyā. When he heard it, he said, “O friends, didn’t I tell you that ʿAli Kiyā would
never renounce the faith of his fathers and ancestors? Now I need someone to
go through mountains and forests to rescue him from his captivity and bring
him to me. Whoever brings ʿAli Kiyā here will have any request granted.” Two of
the local vagabonds volunteered and set forth to rescue ʿAli Kiyā.
When the guards had gone a certain distance with ʿAli Kiyā, these two men
caught up with him. One of them looked and saw that no one was near ʿAli
Kiyā, and that the five or six men who were with him were occupied with vari-
ous things. The two vagabonds hurried over to ʿAli Kiyā, removed his fetters,
and spirited him away to the pass via a secret road.
When Ḥosayn Kiyā saw his brother, he embraced him and kissed his face
and treated him with great affection, saying, “O brother, what do you think of
Shaykh-oghli?”
“He is quite fearless,” ʿAli Kiyā replied, “but what can he do against us? If he
sat at the foot of this pass for a hundred years he couldn’t get through to
Māzandarān! Our men hold the pass of Firuzkuh fast, so there is no need to
worry.”
“We will leave and entrust Kiyā Sharaf to watch the pass,” Ḥosayn Kiyā said.
“Let it be so,” said ʿAli Kiyā.
ʿali Kiyā Goes To Take The Pass Of Firuzkuh 101

The news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil was on the move toward Semnān and
Hazār Jarib. Ḥosayn Kiyā wanted to get under way as well. ʿAli Kiyā said, “Kiyā
Sharaf is an ignorant man, and I am worried about him. You should either stay
here or give me permission to stay with a thousand men.”
Ḥosayn Kiyā said, “O my brother, Shaykh-oghli has gone off in another direc-
tion. Kiyā Sharaf will stay here as a precaution, and we will leave.”
“O my brother,” ʿAli Kiyā replied, “Shaykh-oghli is playing a trick on us. He
will go a certain distance and then turn back. He knows that taking the pass
and valley of Firuzkuh is of the utmost difficulty, so this time he is trying a
ruse.”
After much back-and-forth, ʿAli Kiyā won the argument, and he remained
with three thousand men to guard the pass while Ḥosayn Kiyā rode off. But
when they had gone a league or two, Kiyā Sharaf said to Ḥosayn Kiyā, “Grant
me permission to go back to ʿAli Kiyā and stay with him; God forbid, Shaykh-
oghli may have promised him rule over Māzandarān!”
Ḥosayn Kiyā said, “The same thought has occurred to me.” So the two of
them turned back when they had gone about four leagues along the road.
ʿAli Kiyā knew, though, that Kiyā Sharaf would have such an idea and would
make Ḥosayn Kiyā regret going. So wrote a few words and sent them with a
runner to Bayrām Khān, telling him to come just as soon as he received the
message, for Ḥosayn Kiyā had left and they should make the most of the op-
portunity.
Bayrām Khān was half a league from the valley of the pass, while Mirzā
Moḥammad Ṭālesh was in another valley, and Durmesh Khān was lying in am-
bush with six thousand men. ʿAli Kiya’s messenger arrived with the news for
Bayrām Khān; he, in turn, told it to his men, and they all mounted up and head-
ed for the pass. ʿAli Kiyā was then told that a group of men had all jumped on
their horses and were coming after them, and another group after them in
turn—it was as if it was a whole army. ʿAli Kiyā said, “It is surely the Torkmāns
who have rebelled against the Qezelbāsh and are in the service of Ḥosayn
Kiyā.” As it happened, there were three hundred men who had come and taken
the pass unopposed.
ʿAli Kiyā went to Bayrām Khān and found out that the news had just arrived
that Ḥosayn Kiyā had turned around and was on the way there. Frightened, ʿAli
Kiyā asked Bayrām Khān, “Where is your army? They are late!”
Bayrām Khān replied, “They will arrive now.” And as soon as he said this,
Durmesh Khān arrived with six thousand men and ascended the mountain.
Ḥosayn Kiyā had just arrived with a great army; when he saw the victorious
Qezelbāsh troops from afar, a cry burst forth from his breast, and Kiyā Sharaf
said, “ʿAli Kiyā knew this would happen!”
102 Chapter 19

Ḥosayn Kiyā inquired into the situation, asking how many men had come.
They told him six thousand men had ascended the mountain. Ḥosayn Kiyā was
getting ready to go fight them when he was informed that it was Shāh Esmāʿil
who had arrived with his army. Ḥosayn Kiyā, amazed and confounded, dropped
thoughts of battle and retreated to the fortress of Awlād with a hundred ago-
nies and disappointments.
When Shāh Esmāʿil arrived and saw the narrowness of the pass, he praised
and blessed ʿAli Kiyā highly, and as a result of his blessings, ʿAli Kiyā’s descen-
dants ruled over Māzandarān for some time. Then His Majesty set off for that
region.
When Ḥosayn Kiyā arrived at the fortress of Awlād, Kiyā Sharaf told him,
“There are not enough provisions around here to meet the needs of our men. If
you take half the troops and go to the fortress of Mārānkuh, leaving the other
half here with me, I can hold the road against Shaykh-oghli. At any rate, this
seems to be the best plan.” Ḥosayn Kiyā agreed, and took half his forces to the
fortress of Mārānkuh. Kiyā Sharaf remained in the fortress of Awlād.
When the Shāh’s army arrived at the foot of the fortress of Awlād, they
stopped in the midst of the valley. ʿAli Kiyā said to Shāh Esmāʿil, “If you send
one of your servants to Kiyā Sharaf with a letter offering good counsel, he
might come to the right path, accept your guidance, and join the court in your
service. I myself will send someone to him with words of conciliation, for the
interest of the realm lies in this.”
It was then ordered that Moḥammad Beg, the son-in-law of Mirzā Moḥam­
mad Ṭālesh, bring the royal letter to Kiyā Sharaf. When Kiyā Sharaf read it, he
saw that they had written thus: “A notice to Kiyā Sharaf: ʿAli Kiyā, your young
uncle, has found the true and correct path, and he has befriended the Emāms
and cursed the first three Caliphs. If you, too, enter our royal service and adopt
the true path and the right religion of the Twelve Emāms, which ennobles men
in both this world and the hereafter, we shall make ʿAli Kiyā ruler of Māzandarān,
allow you the prestige of being our servant, and grant you whatever favors you
may wish. Know, though, that when I catch Ḥosayn Kiyā, God willing, I shall
burn him alive in revenge for Elyās Beg and as a warning to others. You, too,
shall suffer assorted punishments if you disobey. But if you enter our royal ser-
vice, you shall be exalted in both this world and the next.”
When Kiyā Sharaf finished reading this, he looked around at the men of
Rostamdār. They all said, “Our loyalty is to Ḥosayn Kiyā; we will not do this
thing.” No matter how much the emissary tried to dissuade and advise them,
no matter how much he tried to guide Kiyā Sharaf and his companions with
the counsel of ʿAli Kiyā, it was useless; they would not listen at all.
ʿali Kiyā Goes To Take The Pass Of Firuzkuh 103

The messenger thus returned to the Shāh and described what had hap-
pened. His Majesty and his army mounted up and crossed the narrow pass one
by one, like the chain of night and day:

Those battle-hardened wearers of tiger-skin

Set foot on the lofty mountain.

A group of demon-like soldiers from Rostamdār stepped forward with the foot
of strife to light the flame of battle and slaughter.

First they took daggers in hand

And overwhelmed myriad opponents.
The warriors drew their swords
And a cry arose from those demons.
Bones shattered under hurled stones
And bodies broke under sharp arrows.

Then the renowned Qezelbāsh commanders—including ʿAbdi Beg Tofāchi-

bāshi with a group of Shāmlu, Bayrām Beg the Shāh’s vizier, and other champi-
ons—drew the blade of battle from the scabbard of vengeance and gave battle
with cries of manliness. ʿAbdi Beg Shāmlu was wounded by an arrow, but since
that narrow pass was not a field of blood-drinking swords, the enemy champi-
ons could not steal away the polo-ball of victory that they desired.
Now on that battlefield the warriors of the victorious Ṣafavid House num-
bered no more than two hundred, while their foes ready for battle at the head
of the bridge of the fortress exceeded three thousand. When they first saw the
small size of the Qezelbāsh army, they wanted to rush out to attack them, but
Esmāʿil and his men took the battle to them, and having seen even a little bit of
the bravery of the Qezelbāsh and felt the sharpness of their swords, they real-
ized that their pain was for nought and their struggle was fruitless. They turned
to flee and ran pell-mell back to the fortress.
When that group which was fighting the Qezelbāsh commanders became
aware of the retreat, they scattered like the stars of the Great Bear, and the
commanders joined up with the troops of the Shāh. After that the army alight-
ed at the shore of the river Chel-rud,1 where they set up pavilions and tents.
When Kiyā Sharaf saw himself engulfed by disaster, he placed his hand on the
skirt of helplessness, asked ʿAli Kiyā to intercede on his behalf, and begged for
royal forgiveness with many gifts. He came down from the mountain fortress

1 Chel-rud is a village in Māzandarān province in Iran.

104 Chapter 19

and kissed the dust of the world-sheltering royal court, where he received a
robe of security.
In accordance with the decree of fate, the Qezelbāsh destroyed that fortress
and cast it out of the realm of inhabitedness. They then set off for Mārānkuh,
bearing down on Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, and after a long journey they arrived at
the foot of his fortress. Surveying it from every angle, they saw that the sun’s
shining beams reflecting off its peak in the highest heavens. A great blue river
also flowed into it.
Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives At The Fortress Of Mārānkuh 105

Chapter 20

Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives at the Fortress of Mārānkuh and Does Battle with
Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, Who is Killed

The Shāh arrived at the foot of the fortress of Mārānkuh and observed that two
rivers came from two directions and flowed together at the foot of the moun-
tain. The lion-hunting Qezelbāsh ghāzis approached the moat and formed
ranks. Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholavi’s men, meanwhile, climbed up into their towers
and ramparts and rained arrows, musket-balls, and rocks on the heads of the
besiegers. The Qezelbāsh’s spears stitched the enemy’s helmets onto their
heads, and their stone-splitting arrows ignited soul-burning flames as they
flew through the air; the roar of their cannons brought the sound of death to
the hearing of the brave, the sound of their artillery caused the bodies of cham-
pions to quake, and their musket-balls released souls from their admixture
with the body.
Eventually, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh was ordered to withdraw his men from battle,
since it was proving futile. From atop the fortress came the sound of raucous
shouting. The sound of those voices infuriated Shāh Esmāʿil; he was about to
return to battle, but his commanders told him, “This fortress must be con-
quered with thought and planning; it is not possible through combat alone.
The enemy will not surrender until their food and water run out; otherwise
there is no way.”
When night fell, the Shāh raised his hands to the court of the Judge of Needs
and prayed for guidance in conquering the fortress. Then he fell asleep. As he
slept, the Commander of the Faithful appeared in his dream and said, “When
morning comes, go to the place where the river Chel-rud divides. There will be
a mark on the ground. Order your men to dig there, for it is the wellspring.
When Jāmāsp the Wise1 built this fortress and brought water to it from this
source, he filled this wellspring with dirt and rocks. Your men will have to clear
it out and divert the river to its original course. The besieged will be brought to
their knees by lack of water and will give up the fortress.”
When Esmāʿil awoke, he summoned Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Amir Najm and
some of the other commanders and told them of his dream. In the morning,
they mounted up and went to the river. There they saw mark which the Com-
mander of the Faithful had described on the ground. The Shāh ordered every-
one to start digging.

1 The vizier of king Goshtāsp, long renowned in Iranian legend for his wisdom.

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106 Chapter 20

Some of them came to him and said, “Picks and shovels are of no use on
such rocky ground. Breaking this stone will be very difficult and cannot be
done quickly.”
Esmāʿil replied, “In earlier days the river used to flow from here, but Jāmāsp
the Wise, the ruler of Māzandarān, made a fortress out of the mountain you
see before you by order of Goshtāsp. He made the water encircle the mountain,
diverting the water around it by ordering his men to fill up this spot. We must
clear it out!” He took a shovel and struck the ground so hard that the shovel
sank into the stone. Then the commanders and their troops grabbed shovels
and pickaxes and got busy digging, tearing the ground up piece by piece. They
worked until night and cleared out two hundred cubits of earth from that spot.
In total, they toiled there for seven days. Ḥosayn Kiya’s men, up in the fortress,
shouted jeers at them, but the Shāh bore it and kept working according to the
plan of his noble mind, which was to clear out that wellspring entirely and di-
vert the river back to its old course. All the while, the men in the fortress kept
crying out, “You have troubled yourselves for nought! You have failed!”
By sunset of the seventh day, Esmāʿil’s men had diverted the river. At midday
the next day, the men came out from the fortress to fetch water, but there was
no water left at all in that great riverbed. When the men inside the fortress real-
ized what had happened, they were aghast and cried out, “What a disaster has
befallen us!” Ḥosayn Kiyā, for his part, fell into a panic, and no matter how he
racked his brains, he could not see a way out of his predicament. Then, when
morning came, cries of thirst arose among the men of the fortress. All the sol-
diers and inhabitants of the fortress came together to decide what to do. Fi-
nally, they hit on the idea that they should seize Ḥosayn Kiyā and deliver him
bound to Shāh Esmāʿil; perhaps this would deliver them from their difficulty.
So the soldiers pounced on Ḥosayn Kiyā unawares and bound him fast, then
opened the door of the fortress and delivered him to the Shāh. The Qezelbāsh
ghāzis then ignited the fire of battle and captured the fortress. Most of the men
inside tasted the sherbet of death.

They put the sword to the men in the citadel;

Death came out from the tower ramparts.
Each evil-natured head rolled like a ball;
The streets became a blood-inundated river.
So many souls went up to the sphere
That the moon was drowned in the sea of them.

Nearly ten thousand men from among the Rostamdāris and the relatives of
Ḥosayn Kiyā Sātelmesh and others were killed in one assault of the Qezelbāsh
Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives At The Fortress Of Mārānkuh 107

ghāzis. Solṭān Morād and Jahānshāh Shāmlu fled to Khorāsān, and Ḥosayn
Kiyā was imprisoned in an iron cage like an owl. When his companions am-
bushed him, he had inflicted a wound on himself, but did not finish the job.
Shāh Esmāʿil distributed the money and property of Ḥosayn Kiyā as booty
among the Qezelbāsh ghāzis. Then they razed that fortress to the ground. The
rebels of the region were punished, and a governor and superintendents and
an overseer were appointed for all of Māzandarān. His Majesty and his men
decamped and rode back to Firuzkuh, leaving from there in turn to conquer
the fortress of Estā. On the third of Dhulḥejjeh the royal army left Estā and
headed for Rayy and Sāvojbolāgh. In Ayvān al-Ra⁠ʾs al-Vādi, which is known as
Gonbad-e Kabud, Ḥosayn Kiyā inflicted another wound on himself. His body
was turned over to the crows, and his spirit abandoned the cage of his body.

Fit for a cage, his breast torn open,

In that cage he fell into abject destruction.

By the most extraordinary of happy coincidences, Ḥosayn Kiyā had killed Elyās
Beg at exactly this spot, eliciting divine punishment, and it was just here that
the bird of his spirit flew to hell.
Now the governor of Sāvojbolāgh and of the fortress of Rawsand was Amir
Sohrāb Kiyā Cholāvi. He came to the world-sheltering royal court to seek royal
favor, then went home. Shāh Esmāʿil left that place and went to the summer-
pasture of Kharraqān. The inhabitants and porter of the fortress of Estā went
to the royal court; there they joined up with the Qezelbāsh army, which Esmāʿil
led back to Sāvojbolāgh. There he learned of the rebellion of Moḥammad Kara-
hi.
The Shāh made ʿAli Kiyā governor of Māzandarān and presented him with a
royal robe of honor; then he gave him permission to return to his homeland.
He elevated Maḥmud Khān Daylami to a co-viziership with Amir Zakariyā, and
returned the office of chief religious official to Qāzi Mir Moḥammad Kāshi.
Qāzi Mir Ḥosayn Yazdi angered the Shāh with his unseemly behavior, and the
pages of his life were scattered to the wind of annihilation. One of his literary
compositions was the Ḥāshiyeh-ye Shamsiyyeh.2

2 These last events are irrelevant to the narrative; the scribe has unthinkingly copied Rumlu’s
chapter, as indicated above, to the very end.
108 Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Shoʿayb Āqā is Killed by Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi; Moḥammad Karahi Rebels,

Solṭān Aḥmad is Killed, and Yazd is Captured

When Solṭān Morād, fearing Shāh Esmāʿil, fled Yazd for Harāt, Khwājeh Solṭān
Aḥmad Sāruʾi, his vizier, took control of Yazd. Then, Esmāʿil handed that city
over to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, who in turn made Shoʿayb Āqā its governor. His Maj-
esty ordered Shāh Taqioddin Moḥammad Eṣfahāni to go to Yazd and try to turn
Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi back from his position of rebellion and contrariness and
bring him back to obedience.
Shāh Taqioddin did his job well, laying firm foundations of reconciliation
between Solṭān Aḥmad and Shoʿayb Āqā. Solṭān Aḥmad made a binding prom-
ise that in his entire lifetime he would not stray from the path of devotion to
Shāh Esmāʿil, and he placed himself in obedience to Shoʿayb Āqā. Shoʿayb
Āqā then took his place at the head of the government of Yazd and began to
manage city affairs.
After a short while, though, Solṭān Aḥmad broke his pledge; he and a group
of men ambushed Shoʿayb Āqā in the bath and killed him, and he took over the
city as an independent ruler. News of this reached Moḥammad Karahi, who
quickly left Abarqu for Yazd. He entered the city in the middle of the night,
seized Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi, and killed him. He took control of the city and
raised the banner of sovereignty. To make a long story short, he was so over-
come with love of rank that he forgot his obligation to the Shāh and crossed
the line of disobedience and rebellion.
When the news of his insubordination reached the royal hearing in
Sāvojbolāgh, Shāh Esmāʿil set off with his army in the month of Rajab to con-
quer Yazd. Then Moḥammad Karahi, who had assumed total independence in
Yazd, sent someone to Shāh Neʿmatollāh with the message, “Give your daugh-
ter to me, and you shall have twenty thousand Karahi slaves like me.”
Shāh Neʿmatollāh replied, “The decision lies with her mother. If she deems
it acceptable, what objection can I raise?”
When this answer reached Moḥammad Karahi, he said to his men, “Go and
bring our blessing to Shāh Neʿmatollāh. Tell him ‘You are right; I should have
just taken the girl by force, marrying her after you begged me to so and did me
many favors. You are making these kinds of excuses because I have shown re-
spect to your descent from the Prophet!’”
Hearing this message, Shāh Neʿmatollāh grew fearful, saying, “Heaven forbid
that he do such a thing!” So he sent someone to Moḥammad Karahi to say: “We

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Shoʿayb Āqā Is Killed By Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi 109

have not given you an answer; we have just said the decision lies with the girl’s
mother. In truth, she is the one to talk to about this.”
Moḥammad Karahi was happy to hear this hopeful news. He ordered that
all the goldsmiths of Yazd get together to make golden wares for the girl. The
next day he dispatched the elders of the Karahi clan to Shāh Neʿmatollāh, tell-
ing them to obtain the permission as was done in those days, by bringing the
golden wares, securing the consent of the daughter, and sealing the marriage.
Shāh Neʿmatollāh, at a loss, fell into thought. Then he said to the elders, “By
the grace of God, you have everything you wanted. Even if the gold is still being
prepared, we shall still want it. In the end, though, we want a one-month delay
to arrange everything and have the marriage. Then Moḥammad Karahi will be
our son.”
Upon receiving this reply, Moḥammad Karahi thought to himself, “I must be
patient.” But some slanderers came to him and said, “It’s not a given that he will
give his daughter to you, and as for this delay he has asked for, it is just to give
the Qezelbāsh army time to come. Don’t give it to him! If in the next two or
three days you seize his daughter, so much the better; Shāh Neʿmatollāh will
take your side. If you do not, you will have the Qezelbāsh army to deal with.”
Moḥammad Karahi got up and went to the house of Shāh Neʿmatollāh, say-
ing, “O Shāh, why do you not accept me as your slave and turn your daughter
over to me in marriage? If you are going to give her to me, good. If not, do not
do anything to rebel against me.”
Shāh Neʿmatollāh was again astonished; he said, “There is no wrongdoing in
what we have said! Everything requires patience. You must have patience until
everything is prepared.”
Moḥammad replied, “I will come again in three days, and I want the girl
then.”
Shāh Neʿmatollāh pleaded with him and got him to agree to ten days. But
when Moḥammad left and Shāh Neʿmatollāh went back inside his house, the
girl’s mother saw him all distressed and asked him the reason. He told her the
story from beginning to end.
That woman said, “On the first day he asked for the girl, why didn’t you send
someone to the Pādeshāh of Iran? For that prince comes to the aid of all who
beseech him.” Shāh Neʿmatollāh realized that she was right, and that very min-
ute he wrote a petition and sent it to His Majesty the Shāh.
When the ten days’ term was up, Moḥammad Karahi ordered that all the
nobles and judges and scholars and village leaders come together. Food was
served, and he ordered that the wedding sermon be pronounced.
Shāh Neʿmatollāh was despondent. He pleaded with a judge, saying, “Tell
him that today is not opportune and that tomorrow is much better.” Moḥammad
110 Chapter 21

Karahi said, “Pronounce the sermon! It is always the opportune moment for a
good deed; you are just making excuses! By God, send them to bring the girl!”
When word of this reached the members of the harem, the girl’s mother
sent someone to Moḥammad Karahi to tell him, “Today we are painting figures
on the girl’s hands and feet with henna. Be patient for today; tomorrow we
shall send the girl to you.” Moḥammad Karahi had no choice but to resign him-
self to waiting.
Shāh Neʿmatollāh’s servant entered Eṣfahān on the tenth day of Moḥammad
Karahi’s delay. When he reached the gate of Ḥasanābād, he fell down uncon-
scious. News of this was brought to the Shāh, who ordered that he be bled.
When he came to his senses, the servant produced his master’s petition and
told his story from beginning to end.‬‬
Esmāʿil then dictated a response thus: “God Almighty willing, our imperial
majesty will enter the city of Yazd in ten days.” The servant was overjoyed at
this good news and made it back to Yazd in eight days. He went to Shāh
Neʿmatollāh and gave him the royal letter, telling him what had happened.
Shāh Neʿmatollāh praised the servant and rejoiced, for the Shāh was going to
arrive soon.
But one of Shāh Neʿmatollāh’s people went to Moḥammad Karahi and said,
“Why don’t you take the girl? Shāh Neʿmatollāh was delaying because he had
sent a messenger to Shāh Esmāʿil; the messenger has come back with the news
that the Shāh is coming on his heels and will be here tomorrow or the day af-
ter!”
Hearing this, Moḥammad Karahi ordered his men to seize Shāh Neʿmatollāh
and drag his daughter by force out of the house. The elders of the tribe said to
him, “Just be patient tonight and look into the matter tomorrow—if his ser-
vant really has gone and come back, do what you will, but if it is a lie, you will
surely be ashamed to have acted this way!”
Moḥammad Karahi relented, realizing that if the populace of Yazd grew dis-
satisfied with him they would not let him live.
It happened that one of his attendants was a Qezelbāsh, a faithful Ṣufi.
When he heard the goings-on, he went by night to Shāh Neʿmatollāh’s house to
tell him what had happened. Shāh Neʿmatollāh praised him, awarded him a
sum, and asked him to join his retinue. That very night, he gave everything he
had to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, packed up his belongings, and
headed for Maybod, to the house of Khwājeh Moḥammad Qāsem Maybodi.
In the morning, the news reached Moḥammad Karahi that Shāh Neʿmatollāh
had fled and likely gone to Eṣfahān, though no one was sure. Moḥammad
Karahi’s heart burned with anguish; he went to the elders of the tribe and pro-
tested, saying, “Last night you would not let me claim what is rightfully mine.
Shoʿayb Āqā Is Killed By Solṭān Aḥmad Sāruʾi 111

Now how will I get it? It is gone!” He sent people in all directions to find news
of where Shāh Neʿmatollāh might have gone, and he eventually learned that he
had gone in the direction of Maybod.
Moḥammad Karahi immediately raised five thousand men and headed for
Maybod, where he surrounded the household of Khwājeh Moḥammad Qāsem.
He sent someone inside to Shāh Neʿmatollāh to say, “It was futile coming here
without giving your daughter to us, trying to get the people of Yazd to say that
Moḥammad Karahi is harassing and tormenting one of their elders! Just get up
and come join us, and we will go back to Yazd.”
Shāh Neʿmatollāh said, “Tell Moḥammad Karahi, ‘You give us no assurance
as to why we should pay up1 and give our daughter to you! We have brought the
girl here to get reimbursed.”
No matter how much Moḥammad tried to coax him out of the house, Shāh
Neʿmatollāh would not agree to come out. So Moḥammad ordered that the
perimeter of the house be torn down, and that battle begin. The nobles of May-
bod stood their ground, raining arrows and musket-shots down on Moḥammad
Karahi’s men and killing fifty or sixty of them. Moḥammad Karahi swore to
himself that the next day he would cover his head with a shield and not stop
fighting until he had taken the girl.
But when morning broke, word came from Yazd that Shāh Esmāʿil would
arrive there that very day. This news stunned Moḥammad Karahi, who hurried
back to Yazd, abandoning his horses and tents and tent-enclosures. Shāh
Neʿmatollāh took possession of all these things, sending some of them as trib-
ute to the Shāh and keeping some to present later as gifts. As for Moḥammad
Karahi, when he arrived at Yazd, he prepared the towers and fortifications and
waited.

1 kārsāzi namudeh
112 Chapter 22

Chapter 22

His Majesty Arrives at Yazd, and Moḥammad Karahi is Killed

Shāh Esmāʿil and his world-conquering army arrived on the outskirts of Yazd in
a season so hot that the very souls of the brave were scorched.1 The flames of
hell were manifest in the air, and swords melted like candle-wax in their scab-
bards from the fury of the heat. The Qezelbāsh formed ranks around His Maj-
esty, and fighting flared up on both sides. With blows of sword and musket-ball
they turned the brains of valiant men into mush and the breasts of lions into
beehives.

The arrows of the champions with bows like Rostam’s

Flew to heaven like prayers.
On that battlefield the wounds inflicted by arrows
Removed men from the sight of sun and moon.
So many were the heads fallen atop each other
That they piled up higher than the celestial sphere.
In that melee, the fortress’s forty-cubit wall
Became as if latticed with arrows.

In short, the men drew the sword of vengeance and battle and hoisted the stan-
dards of war and strife. In the midst of all this, the Qezelbāsh burst into the city
and killed a great number of the Karahi. Moḥammad Karahi himself fled to a
tall tower known as the Naqqāreh-khāneh and barricaded himself therein, for-
getting the glorious verse: “Wherever you are, death shall overtake you, though
you be in lofty towers.”2
After he had been there a while, it was ordered that a great mass of firewood
be set alight at the foot of the tower he was in. To flee the flames and smoke,
Moḥammad Karahi made a hole in the wall, and he was about to escape
through it when Qezelbāsh ghāzis on ladders seized him and two other people.
It was ordered that he be put in an iron cage, like Ḥosayn Kiyā.

They spurred the steed of wrath atop his head;

They made him like a bird, a prisoner of a cage.

1 In this chapter, the narrator has again used Ḥasan Beg Rumlu for his text (Rumlu, 1004­–5).
2 Qorʾān 4:78.

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His Majesty Arrives At Yazd 113

The cage became a trap of calamity for his body,

A prisoner in an iron jail.

Then it was ordered that honey be smeared all over his body so that that fool-
ish man would be stung by bees. He was kept that way for a while, until Shāh
Esmāʿil returned from his assault on Ṭabas. Then he and ʿAbdi Beg [sic] were
burned in the public square in Eṣfahān.
114 Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Shāh Esmāʿil Goes from Yazd to Ṭabas; Tardi Bābā is Killed, and Amir
Kamāloddin Ḥosayn Comes to the Royal Court on Behalf of Solṭān Ḥosayn
Bāyqarā

While Shāh Esmāʿil was busy besieging Yazd, Amir Kamāloddin Ḥosayn Ṣadr
came to the royal court, sent as an envoy by Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā Bāyqarā. He
kissed the royal foot and passed the letter he had brought under the alchemical
gaze of the Shāh. Since the contents of that letter were not befitting to his royal
grandeur, His Majesty cast a compassionate glance at Amir Kamāloddin
Ḥosayn and said, “My dear envoy, Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā looks on our imperial
person with the eye of contempt. He has addressed us as ‘Mirzā’; is it because
he does not think us fit for kingship? God Almighty willing, let him petition us
humbly.”
“This is the fault of Solṭān Husayn’s vizier Mir ʿAli Shir,”1 said the envoy,
“since in the Chaghatāy language they say mirzā for ‘ruler.’ But Your Majesty
knows best.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said to Amir Najm Rashti, “I am entrusting the envoy to you;
show him hospitality. Also, take the leftover heavy baggage from here to
Eṣfahān, for I am going to go hunting for forty days in Ṭabas—although the
thought of conquering Khorāsān has also occurred to me.”
On the first day of the month of Shaʿbān, His Majesty set off with his victori-
ous troops on the desert road to Ṭabas. They traveled so quickly that the fleet-
footed steed of the wind could not even catch the dust of his horse’s hoof. Soon
they arrived in the vicinity of the city. Tardi Bābā was with Amir Moḥammad
Vali Beg, the local governor, and when he learned of the advent of the glorious
Ṣafavid banners, he hastened into the citadel. The victorious Qezelbāsh poured
into Ṭabas, bowling over everyone they encountered and killing almost seven
hundred people. Shāh Esmāʿil said, “We must seize Solṭān Morād!” and his men
launched an attack, hoping to get him.
Now Tardi Bābā had a black slave whom he had reared and brought up since
childhood. When the Qezelbāsh attack began, that slave thought to himself:
“Since the Qezelbāsh are pouring in and will soon order a general massacre,
perhaps if I perform a service for them I will be delivered from this danger, and
His Majesty the Shāh will grant me a reward.” So he forgot forty years’ worth of
support, drew his sword, and killed Tardi Bābā. He cut off his head and brought

1 ʿAli Shir Navāʾi’s presence in the story is anachronistic, since he died in 906/1500–01.

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Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 115

it to Shāh Esmāʿil, saying, “I have killed my master, who looked after me for
forty years, as a service to Your Majesty in the hopes that you will elevate me to
high rank.”
Shāh Esmāʿil praised the slave, thinking that this was the head of Solṭān
Morād. He asked if it was.
The slave replied, “Solṭān Morād was dismissed from government three
months ago. Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, when he learned that Your Majesty was
vexed with Solṭān Morād, said, ‘God forbid that, because Solṭān Morād is here,
the Shāh should an army which will be the ruin of this land!’ He sent Solṭān
Morād and seven thousand Torkmān households to the fortress of Ghuriyān,2
where they still are. This is the head of my master, Tardi Bābā.”
Hearing all this, Shāh Esmāʿil asked in exasperation, “These men were fight-
ing are not Solṭān Morād’s? He is not even here?” In his anger, he had that slave
killed. He then ordered that everyone in the Qezelbāsh army release any locals
they had captured.
The army then decamped for Ghuriyān, where they arrived like a thunder-
bolt. Solṭān Morād had made camp a league’s distance from the fortress; the
Qezelbāsh fell upon his army from four directions and, drawing their swords,
slaughtered a number of his men. All together they attacked Solṭān Morād, kill-
ing him, and they divided his goods and property as booty among themselves.
After this, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered that camp be set up and said, “We shall remain
here until we see what news arrives of Solṭān Ḥosayn.”
Now when Vali Beg saw that His Majesty had pitched camp at Ghuriyān, he
hastened to Harāt and went to Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, whom he told of Shāh
Esmāʿil’s coming to Ṭabas. All the color drained out of Solṭān Hoṣayn’s face.
Then he summoned Mir ʿAli Shir and said, “This came about after you wrote
‘Mirzā’ to the Shāh! You have to go right now and make this up to him!” Solṭān
Ḥosayn was in the middle of this when the news arrived from Ghuriyān that
Esmāʿil and the Qezelbāsh had killed five or six thousand Torkmāns and plun-
dered their goods, and that they were probably going to come to Harāt.
Upon hearing this, Solṭān Ḥosayn paled again and was stupefied, wondering
what to do and cursing Mir ʿAli Shir. Meanwhile, the people of Harāt gathered
together and a tumult arose, with the populace thinking of gathering provi-
sions in preparation to resist a siege. A great confusion took place. In the midst
of all this, Solṭān Ḥosayn sought the counsel of his amirs as to what course to
take.

2 A city on the Harirud River in the Harāt province of present-day Afghanistan. It was formerly
known as Fushanj or Bushanj.
116 Chapter 23

Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk said, “Obviously this newly emerged sovereign is ir-

ritated by your writing ‘Mirzā’ to him. If I offer something for you to write to
him, perhaps he will show mercy and leave.”
“Write in our name whatever you think is best,” said Solṭān Ḥosayn; “per-
haps if we humble ourselves, he will go back whence he came.”
So Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk told the scribe Mirzā Loṭfollāh to write a petition
as follows: “From the sincere supplicant Solṭān Ḥosayn, to the summit of man-
kind, righteous ruler of exalted titles, heavenly sphere with the moon for his
stirrup, renowned and victorious as the sun, rose of the meadow of Khalil3 and
cypress of the grove of Esmāʿil, fruit of the garden of ʿAbdolmoṭṭaleb,4 flashing
crown of Hāshem b. ʿAbd Manāf,5 king who eschews arrogant boasting when
tipsy with the wine of the verse ‘The hand of God is above their hands’6 on the
day of battle, luster of the eye of the Shaykh of Perfect Mystics and Axis of the
Saints, Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq al-Musavi al-Ḥosayni, heart-ravishing progeny
of the Solṭān of great and saintly shaykhs, Solṭān Jonayd; pearl of the royal
jewel-box blessed by the gaze of the Creator and the Immaculate Emāms,
quickener of the faith of the Twelve Emāms, light of the eye of the Solṭān of
Solṭāns of powerful shaykhs, true-believing son of Solṭān Ḥaydar, ornamented
with the crown and throne of the Kayānian kings, heir to the realm of Solomon
and the crown of Alexander, exalted Pādeshāh, shadow of God in the two
worlds, Abulmoẓaffar and Abulmanṣur Shāh Esmāʿil Bahādor Khān: It is our
hope that the shadow of that prince’s justice will continually remain on the
summit of rulership for many years and countless ages, in the name of
Moḥammad and his most glorious Family. Let it not be concealed from the
mind of that sun of the firmament of manliness and chivalry and bravery and
generosity that the glory of the blessed advent of that infallible prince in the
region of Khorāsān made Spring itself envious, and the hearing of that good
news brought joy and cheer and happiness to the soul of the earth. If that ex-
alted Pādeshāh has released the royal falcon of the zenith of fortune with the
intention of the conquest of the region of Khorāsān, know that you are that
great-winged royal falcon whose least prey is the eagle, while I am that weakly
finch which is incapable of flight. What is a puny ant in the retinue of the court
of Solomon, or the flight of an eagle next to the magnificence of the great-
winged royal falcon! Fate has made me poor and abject and frail, and if you
show clemency to my old age and broken-heartedness, it is certain that you

3 I.e., the prophet Ebrāhim.

4 Grandfather of the Prophet.
5 Great-grandfather of the Prophet.
6 Qurʾān 48:10.
Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 117

will see it reflected in the celestial sphere. It is uncertain whether I will be

granted another bag of flour from the grinding of the millstone of the heavens,
and I have no son who can rule after me. Since I am averting my eye from the
glory of the blessed advent of Your Majesty, ennoble the land of Khorāsān with
your presence, order your lofty retinue to make their confiscations, and out of
your charity leave a piece of bread for those who remain behind and give them
a place in the shelter of your protection. No one else would leave Khorāsān on
account of these words. For I know for certain that you are the scion of that
saint who renounced the world. Your Eminence must give the province of
Khorāsān to this old slave of his and return to his capital. This poor one fully
intended to promulgate the sect of the Twelve Emāms, but such was not my
fate; God Almighty gave that power to you. Praise God that you have had
achieved success, and you are striving to propagate the Twelver faith. This is
what we have to say; God Almighty willing, at the time of the royal visit, this
letter will be presented. It is not overly eloquent. Peace.”
When the letter was finished, Solṭān Ḥosayn said to Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk,
“Take this and hurry to that prince. I will stay behind to prepare gifts and then
come myself. If he accepts it and is kind enough to leave Khorāsān to me, you
must let me know, for then I must send what is appropriate in the way of gifts.”
He then added, “We must not present the letter with hands otherwise empty!”
And he gave him nine horses with bejewelled saddles and bridles, each of
which had been made from one kind of jewel, and twelve saucers7 made of
gold and variegated jewels, and twelve rubies of Badakhshān, along with fifty
judges and seyyeds to accompany him. Then he sent them along.
Now Shāh Esmāʿil had arrived at Ghuriyān and was waiting to see what
news would come from Harāt. On the sixth day Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk en-
tered the Ṣafavid camp, where a remarkable army was spread out before him.
He saw that the troops had seized almost two leagues of the road; their tents,
made of satin and velvet woven together, each had a dome like the dome of the
heavens, all decorated and ornamented. At the door of every qurchi’s tent was
a tether with seven or eight swift horses and mules tied to it, and one or two
she-camels as well. The qurchis’ attendants were youthful men who, if given
work to do, could empty two or three saddles.
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk stood there awestruck, saying to himself, “God be
praised! It was just a short time ago that that prince emerged from Gilān with
seven Ṣufis, having no treasure or army, and in such a short time he has over-
taken so many great rulers and achieved such magnificence!” Thus praising

7 naʿlbaki
118 Chapter 23

God, he continued to ride his horse until he came up to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and
ʿAbdi Beg Shāmlu and announced his mission.
The two of them considered the Khwājeh, then took him to the royal court.
When he came before the blessed residence, he saw nearly two hundred fleet-
footed horses with bejewelled gold saddles, their grooms and footmen stand-
ing by in beautiful dress; he saw a tent-enclosure of colossal size with the Ṣufi
amirs all in crowns and turbans and jeweled turban-ornaments, sparkling like
the stars of Orion. You would have said it was the Pleiades themselves that they
had arranged in one place. One of the amirs, ramrod-straight like a cypress tree
and with cheeks like the blazing sun and mustaches extending to behind his
ears, stood dressed all in gold brocade; stuck in his belt were a jewelled sword
and dagger, each of which had performed fearless deeds in battle. In the mid-
dle of the court, Khwājeh Neẓā­molmolk saw the royal throne of Ḥasan
Pādeshāh, and on it sat the world-conquering Shāh Esmāʿil. Durmesh Khān
Shāmlu, in splendid garments, stood by the Shāh’s side with a bejewelled mace.
Musicians sat on one side of the court, busy with their playing. The whole gath-
ering was adorned like the loftiest heaven.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh took the Khwājeh and led him to the presence of the
Shāh, where he kissed the royal foot and stood facing His Majesty. Esmāʿil said,
“Now that you have come, sit at the foot of the royal throne.” When the Khwājeh
sat down, he regained some of his composure. The gifts he had brought were
carried in, and Esmāʿil expressed his appreciation. Then drinks and various
foods were brought, and a meal was served; they set the table and recited the
Fāteḥeh and cursed the enemies of the Faith. The Khwājeh joined in, saying
loudly, “May the cursing be more and not less!” This pleased the Shāh greatly;
he said, “O Khwājeh, did you just now say ‘May it be more,’ or something else?”
The Khwājeh said, “By the most noble and blessed head of the Shāh, I swear
to you that Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā is also a dyed-in-the-wool Shiʿi, a slave of
the Commander of the Faithful, and the people of Harāt are mostly Shiʿis too.”
Esmāʿil said, “Solṭān Ḥosayn is hale and hearty; was he not disturbed by our
coming to this region?” The Khwājeh took out his petition and extended it. His
Majesty took three steps forward and took the letter from the Khwājeh, order-
ing that he be showered with gold.
When he perused the letter, Shāh Esmāʿil’s color changed and his eyes filled
with tears. He said, “O friends, time is the abode of revenge; if we do not show
pity to Solṭān Ḥosayn today, we will surely stumble later on.” Then he said to
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk: “I swear by God and by the pure spirit of the Prophet
and his Family that I bear in my heart no grudge whatsoever toward Solṭān
Ḥosayn, and it is clear that there will be no vexation in his heart over us.
Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 119

I promise by God that as long as Solṭān Ḥosayn is alive, or his descendants rule
over Khorāsān, we will be obliged to offer any aid that they may request. Solṭān
Ḥosayn is like a father to me; I will be exalted if he will accept me as his son.
The reason I came to these parts was to punish and chastise the treacherous
Solṭān Morād, who became a prisoner of his own retribution. Otherwise such
incivility would not have taken place anywhere near Solṭān Ḥosayn.”
His Majesty then dictated a letter for Solṭān Ḥosayn which said: “The sincere
petition of the supplicant Esmāʿil to the summit of mankind, the excellent
ruler of lofty titles and fine manners, greatest of the renowned crown-wearing
khāqāns, the mighty Solṭān, pearl of the jewel-box of princeliness and orna-
ment in the crown of world-rule, rose of the meadow of the Changizids and
radiant jewel of the Kurgān,8 progeny of the house of Mirānshāh and successor
of the line of Abu Saʿid Khān, the eye and lamp of the solṭāns of the age, pos-
sessor of throne and crown, Pādeshāh of the age, adornment of the crown of
the Kayānis and light of the crown of the Khosraws, sun of the heavens of 
nobility and Jupiter of the sphere of felicity, illuminator of crown and throne,
ornament of throne and crown, Ṣāḥeb-qerān of the realm of the world, foun-
tainhead of overflowing divine bounties, Khāqān son of the Khāqān and Solṭān
son of the Solṭān Manṣur Bahādor Khān, may God lengthen his reign and his
justice and his beneficence. I hope that the Lord of Glory is keeping my ‘local
father’ under his preservation and protection, in the name of Moḥammad and
his most excellent Family. Having presented my sincere reverence, let me re-
port that we came to Ṭabas in order to administer chastisement and punish-
ment to Solṭān Morād Torkmān. A slave of Tardi Bābā told us where that evil
man had gone, but he also slew his master unjustly. When we learned that
Solṭān Morād had gone to Ghuriyān, I knew it was necessary to punish him,
and that is why I came to this region. Now we have punished Solṭān Morād and
killed him, and it was the intention of our royal mind to chastise Mir ʿAli Shir
as well. On the recommendation of our lofty companions, however, we have
decided to overlook his misdeed, and we will now, God Almighty willing, re-
turn to our own domain. Let your noble mind rest assured that Khorāsān will
remain with you and your descendants, and should they ever require our aid,
they need only say so and it will be given to them.” Esmāʿil then ordered Manṣur
Beg Qepchāq to take twelve Arabian horses with bejewelled saddles and jewel-
encrusted crowns and turbans and turban-ornaments, worth twelve thousand
tumāns in all, and go with Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk.

8 I.e., Timur.
120 Chapter 23

The Khwājeh said, “The royal army should spend a few days hunting and
sporting, for the gifts of the Solṭān will be coming. I will also be at the service
of the companions of the Shāh.”
Meanwhile, a great tumult had erupted among the people of Harāt; they
wondered in anguish what would happen, what calamity would befall them.
Solṭān Ḥosayn, too, was sick with worry, saying to himself, “The Pādeshāh of
Iran will surely not refrain from seizing the realm of Khorāsān!” He also
thought, “He is a scion of the family of the Immaculate Emāms, in whose eyes
this world and all that is in it have no more substance than a bit of straw! It is
not unlikely that he holds a grudge against Khorāsān!” He brooded and worried
for hours. At last he sent spies to the Ṣafavid encampment, stipulating that
whoever brought the news that the Qezelbāsh army had left for ʿErāq would be
made governor of Harāt for three years and receive a gift of fifty tumāns and a
full-length robe of honor.
When Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk observed the kindness and generosity of
Shāh Esmāʿil, though, he wrote a letter to Solṭān Ḥosayn which he handed to a
messenger to take, saying, “Hurry, for the Solṭān is worried.” The messenger
sped off to Harāt as fast as he could. Arriving at the court of Solṭān Ḥosayn, he
prostrated himself in obeisance and presented the letter to the Solṭān, saying,
“I have brought good news.”
“The Qezelbāsh army hasn’t left for ʿErāq, has it?” asked Solṭān Ḥosayn.
“They were about to leave when Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk told the Shāh to
stay and do some hunting for two or three days until the Solṭān’s gifts arrive.”
Solṭān Ḥosayn then read the Khwājeh’s letter and felt joy upon joy. His
cheeks glowed with excitement, and he praised Shāh Esmāʿil loudly. Presently
he ordered that proper gifts of all kinds be gathered. Nearly seventy tumāns of
jewels and textiles and golden wares and sable and brocade and goods from
China and Cathay and musk and male and female slaves (Qalmāq and Russian
and Georgian and Charkas) and Georgian and Indian eunuchs and food and
drink were sent to the Shāh.
When Shāh Esmāʿil saw the gifts of Solṭān Ḥosayn, he was full of admiration.
After ten days, he sent Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk back to Harāt in the company of
Manṣur Beg, himself returning on the road to Ṭabas in fortune and felicity, vic-
tory and glory.
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk and Manṣur Beg reached the outskirts of Harāt.
Hearing that Shāh Esmāʿil had sent him a robe of honor, Solṭān Ḥosayn sad-
dled up and rode out of the city to greet the two men. When he met them, he
put on the robe of honor and placed a shining crown on his head. He heaped
glory and veneration on Manṣur Beg, asking about the Shāh and inquiring into
the qualities of the Qezelbāsh army. After that, he accompanied the men into
Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 121

Harāt. Solṭān Ḥosayn was on top of the world with happiness, since he had re-
tained possession of Khorāsān. He brought Manṣur Beg to his court and held a
magnificent royal assembly in his honor, examining the splendid gifts sent by
His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil and showing exemplary hospitality.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil was on the road to Ṭabas. He entered Eṣfahān after
traveling for fourteen days. Amir Kamāloddin Ḥosayn kissed the royal foot and
asked how the Shāh’s hunting expedition had gone. “Our imperial person
wished to chastise Mir ʿAli Shir,” His Majesty replied, “but in the end we showed
clemency toward him.” Then he ordered that Kamāloddin Ḥosayn be given
Solṭān Husayn’s petition. When he read its contents, he placed his head at the
feet of the Shāh and said, “All this is by the hand of God!” After a few days,
Esmāʿil granted Kamāloddin Ḥosayn leave and sent him back to Harāt.
One day, the Shāh was enjoying some hunting on the banks of the Zāyandeh-
rud. As he did, his alchemical gaze fell upon a young man who was greater in
stature than all the others. Esmāʿil sought him out and asked, “Who are you,
and where are you from?”
The youth replied, “I am from Eṣfahān and my family comes from Div-
salām.”
The Shāh had heard about Div-salām. He then asked, “What is your occupa-
tion in this city?”
“I am a tenant-farmer; I grow barley.”
Shāh Esmāʿil asked, “Will you join my service?”
The young man inclined his head and said, “I am the least of your slaves.”
The Shāh made him an attendant at court, saying, “We have made you the
chief footman,” and granted him a brocaded robe of honor.
Shāh Esmāʿil noticed that this young man was extremely fleet of foot. In-
deed, in a race even an Arabian steed could not catch him. So, for a test, His
Majesty had Manṣur Beg’s mare run against him, but the youth took off like a
shot and the horse could not pass him. The Shāh was most pleased with his
quickness, and also with his valor, for he was so strong that he could lift the
most powerfully-formed men from their saddles and hurl them to the ground.
Some he even took in his arms and ran carrying them.
At this time a messenger arrived from Tabriz with a message from Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā stating that the Ṣārem Khān the Yazidi Kurd had raised a great
army and was headed for Tabriz.
“Who is Ṣārem Khān the Kurd?” asked Shāh Esmāʿil.
“Ṣārem Khān is one of the calamities of the age,” replied Ḥosayn Beg Laleh.
“They say he is a hundred and ten years old and has seventy sons. None can
match his bravery, and he has forty thousand households of Yazidi Kurds under
122 Chapter 23

his command. He heard of the rebellion of Moḥammad Karahi and is leading

an army toward Tabriz.”
It was ordered that Sāru ʿAli Beg, the keeper of the royal seal, take three
thousand Qezelbāsh and go fight. He kissed the royal foot and hurried off, ar-
riving in Tabriz twelve days after leaving Eṣfahān. Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā re-
viewed a thousand of his own men and the Qezelbāsh and was intending to go
fight Ṣārem Khān when the news came that Ṣārem Khān had gotten as far as
the village of Ṣufiyān Kandi.9 Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā said, “Since Tabriz has no
citadel, if they enter the city, it will be a great disaster. We must go out to meet
them.” Sāru ʿAli Beg said, “It is as the prince has said.”
So the prince and Sāru ʿAli Beg and their army set out. They arrived in Salmās
just as Ṣārem Khān the Kurd arrived with his army. Seeing twelve thousand
Qezelbāsh facing off against his own, he deemed this a paltry number and or-
dered that the war-drums be beaten. The ranks of war and killing were arrayed.
Now Ṣārem Khān had a son named Sāru Khān, a man of powerful stature,
without peer in valor. He leaped upon his mount and sought combat on the
battlefield. One of the Torkmāns entered the fray, but Sāru Khān felled him
with one blow of his club. Another soldier approached and was slain the same
way. That Yazidi Kurd killed ten Qezelbāsh, and no one wanted to venture onto
the battlefield against him.
When Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā saw that nobody wanted to go fight, he himself
leaped onto his mount to ride onto the battlefield. Sāru ʿAli Beg urgently be-
seeched the prince to let him fight, but he did not listen, and even as Sāru ʿAli
Beg was speaking, Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā gave his stone-splitting spur to his
horse and took off for the battlefield. When the eye of Sāru Khān the Kurd fell
upon the beauty of that prince, he saw that he was a man of extraordinary
comeliness. He said, “O youth, is there no one else among the Qezelbāsh to
come onto the battlefield? Come, I will take you to my father and elevate you
to a high rank.”
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā said, “Take this!” and drew his sword. “So be it,” said
the Kurd, “but I cannot slay this young man; I must capture him alive.” At that
moment the prince of the earth, with a great cry, struck with his sword at the
top of the Kurd’s head. As Sāru Khān raised his shield, Solṭān Ebrāhim struck
him under his arm; all his guts came spilling out and he tumbled off his horse.
When the army of Ṣārem Khān the Kurd saw this blow, they at once charged
at Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā. He would have felt shame if he fled, so he turned his
face to that vengeance-seeking army. They surrounded that prince, but every-
one he struck on the head with his sword was split down to the breastbone,

9 Ṣufi Kandi is a village near Khoy, in West Āzarbāyjān Province in Iran.

Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 123

and he ended up killing twenty-six renowned Kurdish warriors. Sāru ʿAli Beg
and Mantash Khān killed a number of men themselves. The battle grew fierce,
and a number of men were killed or wounded. As evening drew near, the war-
riors withdrew from the battlefield and returned to their positions.
When the news of the death of Sāru Khān reached Ṣārem Khān, he rent his
collar in anguish, crying: “Today they brought me the news late; I was about to
see the brother of Shaykh-oghli, but it did me no good. Tomorrow I will seek
him out on the battlefield and bring this seven-maund battle axe down on his
head!”
Ṣārem Khān’s men arose at dawn and began forming their ranks, with Ṣārem
Khān placing himself at the center. Like a gloomy demon, with his white beard
flowing down to his navel, he put his black cuirass and breastplate on his chest
and his helmet on his head. Then he headed for the field of battle like a crazed
elephant. His son Qaplān Beg said, “O father, by the spirit of Moʿāviyeh,10 I beg
you to let me go into battle to kill the murderer of my brother; he will be too
afraid to come out to fight you.”‬‬
“O my son,” said Ṣārem Khān, “you have sworn quite an oath before me!
I give you leave to go fight.”
So Qaplān Beg charged onto the battlefield and roared, “Where is the broth-
er of Shaykh-oghli? Let him come out and fight!” Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā spurred
forth his steed and charged at Qaplān Beg. After some initial taunts and insults,
they began their struggle. Qaplān Beg drew his sword and lunged at Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā, but that lion of the forest of bravery fended off the blow by
raising his shield over his head. Qaplān Beg took another swing at him, but
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā smashed him on the wrist with his iron mace so hard
that he shattered the Kurd’s hand and sword-pommel both. Qaplān Beg tried
to turn to escape, but the prince dealt him another mace-blow which crushed
his shoulder. The Kurd lost consciousness and tumbled from his mount. Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā spurred his horse forward and trampled the bones of Qaplān
Beg under its hooves.
Ṣārem Khān now came galloping in pursuit of Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, now
joined by Sāru ʿAli Beg as well. “O youth,” said Ṣārem Khān, “you have killed two
sons of mine, any single hair of whose heads were worth a hundred of you!”
“Hell is waiting for the three of you to come together!” retorted the prince.
Ṣārem Khān could bear no more. He reached for his quiver, took out his
ivory bow, and nocked an arrow, aiming at the prince’s chest. Solṭān Ebrāhim

10 I.e., the first Umayyad Caliph (r. 661–680), who rose to power at the expense of ʿAli b. Abi
Ṭāleb and is for this reason reviled by Shiʿis.
124 Chapter 23

Mirzā, though, dove forward, and the arrow missed him and fell to the ground.
The prince then sat straight up in his saddle again.
Ṣārem Khān bit his hand in frustration and nocked another arrow. Realizing
that Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā would repulse it, he paused, then let fly. Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā flattened himself in the saddle to let the shot pass over him;
then he straightened up into a manly posture again. The Kurd loosed another
arrow, which also missed. The prince then went to bring his sword down on
Ṣārem Khān’s head, but the latter lifted his shield to ward off the blow. Ṣārem
Khān then came in close, grabbed Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā by the wrist, and
wrenched his sword out of his hand. He raised it high, and when Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā lifted his shield over his head, he brought it down on the
prince’s shield so hard that the impact shattered everything down to the roots
of his hair. Sāru ʿAli Beg now came up and blocked Ṣārem Khān’s way, hooking
his sword-belt with his spear, but the Kurd, using the prince’s own sword, sliced
that spear in two. Sāru ʿAli Beg and his companions then gripped their swords
and attacked Ṣārem Khān so fiercely that they nearly took his head off. Sāru ʿAli
Beg’s sword-point hit Ṣārem Khān squarely in the head, and blood came gush-
ing out. That foul one, enraged, struck Sāru ʿAli Beg such a blow with his sword
that he split him from stem to sternum.
Mantash Beg grabbed the wounded prince and set off for Tabriz. The Kurds
pursued the Qezelbāsh and began to assault and plunder their camp. Ṣārem
Khān kept shouting, “I am wounded and cannot keep up! Stop!” But it was to no
avail. Four leagues outside of Tabriz, Mantash Beg encountered ʿAbdi Beg
Shāmlu, who was there with six thousand men.
Now after Shāh Esmāʿil had dispatched Sāru ʿAli Beg, he had had a dream in
which Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā fell into a sea of blood; Sāru ʿAli Beg tried to pull
him out, but he too fell in. Both of them were thrashing about when Mantash
Khān Ostājlu arrived and grabbed the hand of the prince and pulled him out.
Sāru ʿAli Beg, however, drowned in the sea of blood. Mantash and the prince
had gone a little way when they came to a great river, and ʿAbdi Beg brought
them across.
When Shāh Esmāʿil awoke, he related his dream to his commanders. The
next day he set off in the direction of Tabriz.
When he stopped off in Qazvin, he received the news that Kiyā Ḥosayn, the
brother of Kiyā Mirzā ʿAli, who was the viceregent and deputy of Kiyā Moẓaffar
the son of Kiyā Mirzā ʿAli, had deviated from the path of service and was in-
tending to conquer the province of Lāhijān.
The Shāh thought for a long time; then he ordered that ʿAbdi Beg take six
thousand men and go to Tabriz. “I myself,” he said, “will go to Rasht and
Lāhijān.”
Shāh Esmāʿil Goes From Yazd To Ṭabas 125

Some of the amirs suggested that it would be better for him to go to Tabriz,
since Ṣārem Khān the Kurd had come with a great army and it was unknown
whether Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā would be able to drive him off. His Majesty real-
ized that his commanders were right. He was getting ready to head for Tabriz
when a messenger arrived with a note from the spy that Esmāʿil had sent to
Rasht. It said that a group of Torkmāns had chosen to follow the attendant of
Alvand Pādeshāh, who had come to Gilān, and Kiyā Ḥosayn had rebelled along
with them. They intended to plunder Gilān and head for Qazvin. The Torkmāns
numbered some ten thousand households, and most of them trusted in Kiyā
and had it in mind to plunder Lāhijān as well. But then their spies brought
word that Shāh Esmāʿil was on his way to Gilān. Kiyā Ḥosayn hurried to Fuman
and went to the house of Mirzā Zaynolʿābedin. He made him his intermediary,
and together they went to kiss the Shāh’s royal foot.
Zaynolʿābedin took a Qorʾān that was written in the blessed handwriting of
the Emām Ḥasan and brought it to His Majesty. When the Shāh saw that Qorʾān
he leaped up, praising the Word of God; he gave Mirzā Zaynolʿābedin a place
close to his throne and asked him questions. Soon the aforementioned Mirzā
said, “I have brought this Qorʾān as my intercessor; you must forgive Kiyā
Ḥosayn his mistake.” After discussing it, the Shāh said, “I forgive Kiyā Ḥosayn,
but he must seize every one of those Torkmāns who led him astray and send
them to my royal court.”
Kiyā Ḥosayn said, “I have put many of them to death, and clapped many
more in chains and brought them to you.” So, having punished that group and
granted a robe of command to Kiyā Moẓaffar [sic], Esmāʿil left that very day for
Tabriz.
126 Chapter 24

Chapter 24

ʿAbdi Beg is Martyred at the Hands of Ḥosayn Beg, Son of Ṣārem Khān the
Kurd; Shāh Esmāʿil Arrives, and Ṣārem Khān Flees

Back when Shāh Esmāʿil left for Gilān, he had dispatched ʿAbdi Beg Shāmlu
and his son Durmesh Khān to the aid of Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā. In the mean-
time, Mantash Solṭān picked that prince up, wounded, and started off for Ta-
briz. When he got to within four leagues of the city, he saw that dust was rising
from the plain, and he was most astonished. At that moment they brought him
word that it was ʿAbdi Beg coming to help him. Mantash Solṭān was overjoyed.
When ʿAbdi Beg arrived and heard of the wounding of Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā,
he became worried. He examined the wound and saw that it had become in-
flamed to such an extent that Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā had fallen unconscious.
Now Ṣārem Khān was wounded as well, but he had kept moving along with-
out taking any heed of it. As he was approaching Tabriz, his men informed him
that ʿAbdi Beg had come. Ṣārem Khān laughed, saying, “He has made our jour-
ney shorter!”
Both sides sent forth their vanguards, and when dawn broke, those two
oceans of soldiery surged forward and fought with such manliness that an an-
gel stuck his head through a small window in the heavens to watch. The battle
became thick, and a number of men were killed. In the fighting, ʿAbdi Beg
emptied a number of saddles of their owners. But at that moment Ḥosayn Beg,
the son of Ṣārem Khān, managed to shoot an arrow into the side of ʿAbdi Beg,
who fell writhing from his mount. Seeing this, Durmesh Khān spurred his own
horse and dealt such a sword-blow to the top of Ḥosayn Beg’s head that he split
him down to the navel.
When Ṣārem Khān saw his son thus killed, he charged after Durmesh Khān
and struck a blow with his sword that split Durmesh Khān’s shield in two and
sank the blade the depth of two fingers into the Khān’s head.
With ʿAbdi Beg dead and Durmesh Khān wounded, the Qezelbāsh lost heart.
Durmesh Khān, though, realized that if he retreated, not a single man would
escape with his life. So he bound up his head wound and took command, and
the Shāmlu champions, with a roar of manliness and valor, formed their ranks
all around him. Ṣārem Khān the Kurd now plunged into the fray like some un-
stoppable calamity, putting an end to whomever he struck with his blade.
Mantash Solṭān saw that there was no one left to stop Ṣārem Khān, who was
making his way to the Ṣafavid battle-standard. “If he reaches Durmesh Khān,”
thought Mantash Solṭān, “he, who is full of zeal, will not flee, even though he is

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ʿabdi Beg Is Martyred At The Hands Of Ḥosayn Beg 127

wounded.” As he was thinking this, he saw that Ṣārem Khān had reached the
battle-standard and had killed several men. Mantash Solṭān, left without op-
tions, spurred his steed forward and charged at Ṣārem Khān, shouting: “O you
shameless infidel, what infamy are you up to?”
Ṣārem Khān looked up and saw a young man of lofty stature and mighty
arm; he asked, “What kind of man are you, and what do they call you?”
Mantash Solṭān replied, “They call me Mantash Solṭān.”
Ṣārem Khān wrested Mantash Solṭān’s spear from his hand, then grabbed
his sword and struck a terrible blow under Mantash Solṭān’s armpit.
The Qezelbāsh were thunderstruck to see Mantash Solṭān wounded. They
lifted their hands to the court of the Judge of Needs and began to pray, be-
seeching Almighty God for aid and assistance. At that very moment the Divine
Authority showed its power, and the dragon-headed pennants of the world-
conquering Khāqān, Shāh Esmāʿil, appeared above the dust of the road. The
Shāh hurled himself into that sea of soldiery, and whoever he struck with his
sword was split down to his chest. He took Manṣur Beg’s mare by the bridle and
dispatched many a brave Kurd to the abode of perdition. In that melee, the
Shāh’s lion-hunting champions of Rostam-like ferocity smashed the Kurdish
forces and killed a great many of them.
Then His Majesty spotted the battle-standard of Ṣārem Khān. He headed
toward it, striking and smiting and slaying all the way. Ṣārem Khān saw from
afar how the Shāh fought to get to the battle-standard. When he saw his own
face reflected in the mirror of Esmāʿil’s sword, he turned the reins of flight to-
ward the plain and headed like the wind of Ṣarṣar down the road of retreat. The
Kurdish army, seeing him flee, lost all the strength to resist and fled as well.
Since the Shāh did not want, on principle, to pursue that defeated army, he
advanced to the edge of the camp of Ṣārem Khān the Kurd. A magnificently
arrayed encampment greeted his gaze. He told the Qezelbāsh to plunder the
camp, and in one hour they had stripped that amazing site bare. His Majesty
then ordered Bayrām Khān Qarāmānlu and Kholāfeh Beg and Ḥosayn Beg La-
leh to gather the Qezelbāsh, pursue that wretched group of Kurds, and plunder
their land. He himself was quite a bit ill at ease over the wounding of Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā, and he returned to Tabriz.
When the renowned khāns reached the homeland of Ṣārem Khān the Kurd,
the Qezelbāsh set about plundering and burning houses and killing and raid-
ing, bringing utter ruin to the whole region. They kept it up until they reached
the foot of the mountain of Qalʿeh Jabāl, to which Ṣārem Khān had fled. They
launched an attack on the fortress. In the middle of it, someone called down
from atop the mountain, “Let the Qezelbāsh amirs back up, for Ṣārem Khān
wishes to come out and fight!” So the amirs waited, and Ṣārem Khān came
128 Chapter 24

down from the top of the mountain. A ferocious battle ensued, in which many
men were killed on each side. The captain tasted the sherbet of martyrdom in
that battle, and the Qezelbāsh amirs returned to their camp without having
attained their goal.
The Conquest Of Baghdād By The Qezelbāsh 129

Chapter 25

The Conquest of Baghdād by the Qezelbāsh; Bāyrak Solṭān Flees to Moṣul,

and Shāh Esmāʿil Visits Najaf

When Shāh Esmāʿil got back to Tabriz, Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā’s wound was on
the mend, and he was feeling better. His Majesty’s confidence returned, and he
busied himself with administering justice to his subjects. But one night he had
a dream in which the holy Commander of the Faithful said, “O my son, why are
you remiss in conquering Baghdād?”
When His Majesty awoke, he related this dream to his commanders. Dur-
mesh Khān was in the royal palace; Esmāʿil summoned him and ordered him
to pack up the tents of state and march off to Baghdād. When the rank-and-file
Qezelbāsh heard about this, they were overjoyed, and the next day that world-
conquering army mounted their horses and set off in the direction of Baghdād.

They made haste, that magnificent sea-flood

In the wake of which mountain and plain are made level.
So many troops set out for Baghdād
That the whole earth became the royal road.

After a long journey, on the twenty-fifth of Jomādā II [of the year 914]1, the
Ṣafavid army arrived at Māhidasht, on the outskirts of Baghdād.
When Bāyrak2 Solṭān learned that the Qezelbāsh were bearing down on
Baghdād, he was distraught. He decided to hole up in the citadel and hoard
supplies, a rebel against the royal court.
Meanwhile, back at Māhidasht, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered Ḥosayn Beg Laleh to
take six thousand men and go to Baghdād, thinking that they could coax Bāyrak
Solṭān out of the citadel and thus avoid a battle. So they went, stopping outside
Qarāpu. An emissary was sent to advise Bāyrak Solṭān with a brief letter which
read: “Let Bāyrak Solṭān be informed that the majestic royal banners are com-
ing to this region. It is not proper that you have shut yourself in the citadel and
prepared for a defense; you must show obedience. Come out of the citadel, and
as soon as you declare obedience to His Majesty, who is the propagator of the

1 October 20, 1508.

2 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb points out (p. 161) that both Bijan and Khwāndamir refer to this individual
as Bārik. He is also Bārik in the Chester Beatty Library manuscript.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_026

130 Chapter 25

religion of the Twelve Emāms, you will be made ruler of Arabian ʿErāq. If not,
prepare for battle. Whichever course you prefer is fine with us.”
Bāyrak Solṭān read Ḥosayn Beg Laleh’s message and said: “They are unjust,
these Qezelbāsh, who took the whole of Iran from us; one sole Baghdādi re-
mains in possession of the patrimony of the sons of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, and they
can’t bear to see that? The response to their letter is war.” He explained his an-
swer to the emissary.
Now Seyyed Moḥammad Kamuneh was present with Bāyrak Solṭān for this
encounter. After the emissary left, he said to Bāyrak Solṭān: “You should treat
the Pādeshāh of Iran with more courtesy.”
Bāyrak, that evil-natured one, replied, “You too speak as one with the
Qezelbāsh; I know that you have always been a schismatic!”
He ordered that they seize Seyyed Moḥammad and throw him into prison,
for he was a devotee of the noble House of the Commander of the Faithful.
Then the ignoramuses of that city approached Bāyrak Solṭān and said, “Let
us take care of Ḥosayn Beg Laleh before Shaykh-oghli gets here; then, when
Shaykh-oghli comes, he can be dealt with in no time.” The vile Bāyrak accepted
this idea. He gathered his men and left the fortress to array his troops opposite
the army of Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, who also mounted up along with his men and
charged forth to join the battle. The fighting had been raging for a while when
the dragon-headed banners of the world-conquering Shāh appeared from the
plain. The Shiʿis of Baghdād saw the Shāh’s pennants from the city ramparts,
and the servants and followers of Seyyed Moḥammad Kamuneh poured into
Bāyrak’s prison, where they killed several guards and freed the Seyyed from his
captivity.
Seyyed Moḥammad told them to show love for the Shāh and seal the gate of
the fortress. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh was just giving a cry of manliness when Shāh
Esmāʿil arrived; behind him came his renowned commanders, riding hard with
their heads down in the manes of their horses. With all the dust and dirt in the
air, Bāyrak did not see the banner reading “Help from God”; he only realized
what was happening when he heard the sound of the Shāh’s royal trumpet ris-
ing from the gate of the city. Shaken to his core, Bāyrak ordered his troops to
stop fighting and head for the city and its fortress. When they arrived at the
gate, however, he saw Seyyed Moḥammad, and his heart sank. He said, “O
Seyyed, open the gate! The Qezelbāsh are coming!”
“Wretch!” Seyyed Moḥammad replied, “His Majesty the Commander of the
Faithful has deposed you from rule. Go wherever you wish!”
No matter how much Bāyrak pleaded, it was to no avail. The Seyyed said,
“Shoot this villain with an arrow!” Then Bāyrak said, “O Seyyed, send my harem
out to me.” The Seyyed replied, “Your harem and your possessions are now the
The Conquest Of Baghdād By The Qezelbāsh 131

property of the Pādeshāh of Iran.” Bāyrak saw that the Seyyed was not going to
relent, so he turned and went down the road to Moṣul with some Pornāk fol-
lowers.
Once Shāh Esmāʿil realized that Bāyrak had fled, he ordered that the Pornāk
be annihilated, and his lion-hunting ghāzis killed a great many of that clan.
Seyyed Moḥammad Kamuneh came and kissed the royal foot. Esmāʿil praised
him highly and asked him about Bāyrak, and the Seyyed told him that he had
fled toward Moṣul. “Keep abreast of Bāyrak’s doings until we return,” His Maj-
esty told him. Then he set off with his victorious troops on the trail of Bāyrak
and the Pornāk.
When they got to the bank of the Tigris, they saw that the bridge had been
destroyed on the orders of Bāyrak. The Shāh cried, “Whoever is one of us, let
them get in the water and follow me!” At once all the Qezelbāsh plunged into
the water, and all twelve thousand of them made it out of the water safely.
Then Esmāʿil said, “Look closely; is there anyone the water did not support?”
The Qezelbāsh looked, and it turned out that the river had indeed carried off
one man. When they told the Shāh, he said, “He was not one of our troops; he
was a Sunni for sure. Bring him here!” They brought the body, and upon inves-
tigation they discovered that he was from the army of Bāyrak; originally a Ya-
zidi Kurd, in the midst of the battle he had gotten mixed up in the ranks of the
Qezelbāsh and could not return to his own side. The hapless man had drowned
when he entered the river. The Shāh and his men, though, had made it across
safe and sound. They now continued their pursuit of Bāyrak.
Bāyrak, like the endlessly turning spheres, could find no rest. He and fifty
lords of the Pornāk kept driving their horses with all speed toward Moṣul. After
riding for twenty-four hours, they spent the night by the bank of the Euphrates.
But Shāh Esmāʿil had also made camp by the riverbank, and when dawn
broke he, along with Durmesh Khān, Amir Najm Rashti, Yār Aḥmad Khuzāni
the superintendent of the expenses of the royal household, and five or six oth-
ers saw Bāyrak and sixty other men on the bank of the river. Those men also
saw the Shāh and his companions. Bāyrak said, “Somebody go and capture
those men and bring them to us! Surely they have followed us!” Fifteen brave
Pornāk mounted up and headed for the Shāh’s party. Seeing this, His Majesty,
charged as well and killed all those men on the first pass. The stunned Bāyrak
said, “I suspect that that man is Shaykh-oghli!”
He and his sixty men then mounted up and attacked Shāh Esmāʿil. His Maj-
esty gave a cry of bravery and waged with those men such a battle that people
would have forgotten the story of Rostam’s seven deeds in Māzandarān. Then
the Qezelbāsh army arrived and joined in the fray. Bāyrak sent his own army
into battle, but he himself fled with ten men such that no one saw them.
132 Chapter 25

Shortly the Pornāk army was defeated, but no matter how much Shāh Esmāʿil
looked around, he could not spot any sign of Bāyrak. By the time evening came
it was apparent that he had escaped. Out of those Pornāk, all those who with
heart and soul became partisans of the holy Commander of the Faithful found
security; the rest were killed.
Shāh Esmāʿil then returned to Baghdād, where Seyyed Moḥammad Ka-
muneh brought all the Shiʿis of the city out to greet him. His Majesty entered
Baghdād in fortune and felicity, flush with conquest and victory, and when he
dismounted, the khoṭbeh was proclaimed in the name of the Twelve Emāms,
and the populace began to curse the first three Caliphs. Then the Shāh granted
trusteeship over Najaf and part of Arabian ʿErāq to Seyyed Moḥammad Ka-
muneh, who was one of the noble seyyeds of the people of ʿErāq; the govern-
ment of Baghdād and its dependencies he bestowed upon Khādem Beg, the
amir-e divān, and gave him the title khalifeh al-kholafā.3
Shortly thereafter, word reached the royal hearing that in those parts there
was a forest inhabited by a fierce lion that was causing the people great suffer-
ing, as they could neither pass through that region nor put up any resistance.
So Shāh Esmāʿil and the champions of the age girded themselves to repel that
lion and set off after it. His Majesty himself encountered it, and when he ap-
proached that terrible beast he laid it low in the dust of annihilation with one
arrow-shot.

A cry arose over the earth from the heavens:

“Praise his hand and arm a hundred times!”

When Esmāʿil had slain that lion, he proceeded to the desert around Sib, where
he killed two more lions. He then went to the tomb of Salmān-e Fārsi. As he
approached, he was told that yet another fierce lion was blocking the road, and
no one could resist it. So Esmāʿil headed there. His leading officers had gone
ahead of him, but when Esmāʿil saw the lion, he spurred his steed and charged
past them.
All the officers fell to the ground and said, “In all our lives we have never
seen such a lion! God forbid that the evil eye strike you!”

3 This was the administrative head or “chief Ṣufi” of the Safavid order, later incorporated into
the Safavid government hierarchy. For the history and functions of this position, see Floor,
“The Khalifeh al-kholafa,” 51–86. Khādem Beg Ṭālesh was indeed the first khalifeh al-kholafā
of the Safavid state, as attested by Ḥasan Rumlu (Floor, “The Khalifeh al-kholafa,” 55).
The Conquest Of Baghdād By The Qezelbāsh 133

“Don’t you worry,” replied the Shāh; “entrust us to the protection of the verse
‘The Hand of God is above their hands,’ for the Lord of Lords keeps his seventy-
times merciful gaze on his servants at all times. Observe!”
When that lion saw Shāh Esmāʿil, it came forth and made a motion with its
head. His Majesty said, “O cat of the King of Men, you want me to pay a high-
way-toll! I am happy to obey.” He looked back and summoned Durmesh Khān,
telling him, “Have them prepare some ox-heads and mutton.”
When that was done, the Shāh said, “Take it to the entrance of the lion’s
grove and leave it there, then come back.”
Durmesh Khān did so. As he went forth, he saw two more lions, one large
and one small. When the first lion saw that someone had come and left ox-
heads and mutton at the entrance of its grove, that wise beast bowed its head
in obedience to the Shāh and turned back around. The other lions waited until
the first one had returned to the forest, then all of them took the ox-heads and
mutton and left together.
Shāh Esmāʿil left that place and continued traveling until he reached that
place which is the heavenly dome of the Victorious Lion of God, triumphant
over all victors, the manifestation of miracles and wonders, Emām of East and
West, son of the uncle of the Prophet and gateway of Shabbir and Shabbar,4
cupbearer of the fountain of Kawthar, His Majesty the Commander of the
Faithful Ḥaydar ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb. When His Majesty saw Najaf in the distance,
he dismounted and put his face in the dust, crying with love and joy. All of the
amirs and Qezelbāsh threw themselves to the ground, and after prostrating
themselves, every Qezelbāsh, young and old, turned their minds and tongues
to eloquent praise of Almighty God. Then they went with bare heads and feet
toward the city. When they got to within two leagues’ distance of it, the resi-
dent seyyeds and reciters brought out the banners of the King of Saints. Seeing
them, Shāh Esmāʿil fell to the ground and bowed his head; then he placed the
blessed banner of the King of Saints on his shoulders and went forth with bare
head and bare feet, saying, “O ʿAli! O ʿAli!”
When he approached the tomb at Najaf, His Majesty placed his head on the
threshold, made his entreaty to God, and fell completely senseless for an hour.
The door of the tomb was shut fast, and a crowd of people stood waiting in the
hot sun until the Shāh regained consciousness. He then stood up and began
walking through the city. He arrived at the tomb-complex of the Commander
of the Faithful and Lord of the Believers, where he proceeded from one door to
the next, rubbing the dust of each threshold on his eyes as the tutty of the
hopeful.

4 I.e., Ḥosayn and Ḥasan.

134 Chapter 25

Finally he came to the door of the blessed enclosure. “Stay here,” he told
Durmesh Khān, “and let no one in until I have explained my situation to our
lord. When I come out, then I will permit people to come in.” So Durmesh
Khān stood watch with a jewelled scepter in his hand.
His Majesty entered the sacred enclosure of the Victorious Lion of God, ʿAli
b. Abi Ṭāleb, closed the door, and fell at the foot of the blessed shrine. His amirs
waited outside with great anticipation‬.‫ ‫‬Nearly three hours went by, but the
Shāh had still not emerged. They began to think, “God forbid that someone was
hiding in the enclosure and attacked His Majesty when he fell unconscious!”
They said to Durmesh Khān, “Go inside and find out what’s going on.” Durmesh
Khān was about to go inside and see when Seyyed Moḥammad Kamuneh said,
“O friends, there is no need to feel anxious! Whenever someone is a guest in
someone else’s house, that person protects him. If he who has emerged to fight
on behalf of the faith of the Twelve Emāms is a guest inside the sacred enclo-
sure of his great ancestor the Lion of God and son-in-law of the Prophet, surely
he is being kept under protection from the evil of his enemies.”
Eventually, five hours had gone by with no sign of the Shāh. Durmesh Khān
could endure no more; quietly he stepped over to the door and put his ear to it.
He heard Esmāʿil’s voice making requests, asking questions, and hearing an-
swers. Then the voice said, “Durmesh Khān, go back, for I will come out.” Dur-
mesh Khān went back and told the good news to his friends.
After three more hours, Shāh Esmāʿil emerged from the sacred enclosure.
When the eyes of the amirs beheld the beauty of that candle of the feast, they
realized that he had received a blessing, and that his stature and authority had
increased a hundred times. Bābā ʿEshqi the tabarrāʾi recited in a loud voice an
ode he had composed to the Shāh’s majesty. He was rewarded with an imperial
robe of honor and a hundred tumāns of gold.
The renowned amirs kissed the threshold of the holy King of Saints, and
Esmāʿil ordered that silken carpets with braided fringes be spread out and that
rugs for sitting be set around that blessed and illumined tomb. They hung bro-
caded curtains and set up candlesticks of gold and silver and spent several days
in that noble place, busying themselves with prayer and pilgrimage rites. Shāh
Esmāʿil granted the guardians of that threshold a pension and a fief.
After that, His Majesty departed and went to the tomb of Ḥosayn,5 where
he performed the necessary rites of visitation and stayed for a day and a night.
Having received a blessing, he went from there to Sāmarrā, where he per-
formed the rites of pilgrimage and obedience and did many favors for the
seyyeds there. From there he turned to Baghdād. As he was crossing the Tigris,

5 In nearby Karbalā.
The Conquest Of Baghdād By The Qezelbāsh 135

he suddenly saw two mounted Qezelbāsh hurrying in his direction. When they
reached him, they said, “Your Majesty has said that you would give a horse with
saddle and trappings to whoever brought you news of a lion. Well, half a league
from here, in a grove of tamarisk-trees, there live fifty lions!”
His Majesty left his companions and headed off to fight. Upon reaching the
tamarisk-grove, he gave a shout, and a lion came out the likes of which had
never been seen. Esmāʿil spurred his horse forward but noticed that it was shy-
ing, even though it had seen many lions and had carried the Shāh into battle
against fifteen of them. Given the horse’s hesitation, there was no time to nock
an arrow, and just then the lion leaped forward and landed at the feet of the
horse. With another leap it landed its claws on Esmāʿil’s belt and saddle-pom-
mel, intending to reach his head. His Majesty seized its neck with one hand
and grasped his dagger-handle with the other, while his horse opened its
mouth and bit the lion on the thigh so that it could not climb up any further.
Esmāʿil struck the lion’s flank with his dagger so hard that it sank in to the hilt,
and the beast fell to the ground. His Majesty’s amirs raised their hands in
prayer in praise of what they had just seen, saying, “Hail to the hands and arm
of ‘The Hand of God is above their hands’!”6 and pledging to give alms. His
Majesty ordered that they skin the lion and stuff it with straw. Then he set off
for Baghdād.
Now Shāh Esmāʿil paid a visit to the shrine of Kāẓemayn, where he made
plans for a great building on that lofty dome. He also broke open the grave of
Abu Ḥanifeh,7 exhumed his bones, and buried a dog in his place. After that,
he turned the government of Baghdād over to Khādem Beg, the khalifeh al-
kholafā, and made him elder of twelve thousand Ṣufi households, thereby ele-
vating him to the highest zenith. He was one of the seven Ṣufis who lay hidden
in the forests of Gilān for seven years, until the emergence of His Majesty the
Shāh.
Those seven men had, at the behest of Solṭān Ḥaydar and Solṭān ʿAli, taken
the young Esmāʿil from Ardabil to Gilān. All seven were close companions; on
behalf of the Qezelbāsh they abandoned wives and children and property and
placed themselves on that road, knowing that they would end up as martyrs
and that on the morn of the Last Judgment they would be vindicated. Although
those first loyal Ṣufis did achieve the status of martyrs, Shāh Esmāʿil showed
the utmost affection to their sons and elevated them to high rank. For example,
he promoted Amir Ḥasan Beg, the son of Elyās Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli, to three

6 Qorʾān 48: 10.

7 A prominent Sunni jurisprudent (699–767), who founded the Ḥanafi school of Islamic law.
The reason for Esmāʿil’s hostility to him, other than his Sunnism, is unclear.
136 Chapter 25

high offices: viceregency of the ishik-āqāsi-bāshi,8 command of the shekār-

bāshi,9 and master of ceremonies of the celestial court.10 He also promoted
Rostam Beg, son of Qarāpari, to governor of Qarābāgh and its environs.
The names of the seven Ṣufis who were at the service of His Majesty during
his emergence from Gilān and Lāhijān were as follows. First, Dadeh Beg. Sec-
ond, Qarāpari. Third, Khādem Beg. Fourth, Abdāl Beg. Fifth, Bayrām Beg. Sixth,
Sāru Qureh the qurchi-bāshi. Seventh, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh.
After these decisions regarding the superintendents of the holy shrines and
governors of the city of Baghdād, Shāh Esmāʿil left for ʿErāq.

8 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 638): “The ishik-aqasi-bashi was head of all the attendants and ushers
and doormen and heralds at the royal court, responsible for the organization of the Shāh’s
assemblies.”
9 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 639): “The holder of this rank was in charge of the Shāh’s hunting
affairs and was also called the qushchi-bashi. Under his command nearly a thousand men
looked after the Shāh’s hunting equipment and weapons and the training of his falcons,
leopards and hunting dogs.”
10 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 639): “The master of ceremonies was chosen from among the most
noble of the amirs, who never numbered more than eight or nine men. They carried out
the duties of modern aides-de-camp.”
The Royal Banners Leave For ʿerāq And Khorrāmābād 137

Chapter 26

The Royal Banners Leave for ʿErāq and Khorrāmābād, Where Malekshāh
Rostam Is

The world-conquering Shāh left Baghdād and came to the environs of Khor­
rāmābād. There, messengers brought the news of the victorious royal banners
to Malekshāh Rostam, who was a committed partisan of the holy Commander
of the Faithful and had never pretended otherwise.
Now they say the Lors are called “ʿAbbāsi” for a couple of reasons. One is that
people say that they descended from ʿAbbās, the son of the uncle of the Proph-
et. The other is that the wealth of their court, in the time of the ʿAbbāsid ca-
liphs, belonged to the kitchen of the family of ʿAbbās. Clearly this second
reason is truer.
Anyway, despite his Shiʿism, Malekshāh Rostam fell into misfortune and
closed the door of happiness on himself. He told Malekshāh Moḥsen to take
fifteen thousand Lor footsoldiers and horsemen and seize the entrance to
such-and-such a valley. “Do not let the Qezelbāsh pass,” he said, “and whatever
goods of theirs you capture, you can keep.”
Malekshāh Moḥsen gathered an army and seized the entrance to the valley
that Malekshāh Rostam had mentioned.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered Ḥasan Beg to pack up the tents of state
and head out for Khorrāmābād. When Ḥasan Beg arrived at the entrance of the
aforementioned valley with the royal tents in tow, he was told that a group of
Lors had seized the valley entrance and there was no way to pass. So Ḥasan Beg
went to the foot of a mountain outside the valley and ordered that the tents of
state be set up. He also sent word to Malekshāh Moḥsen that his people had
come and alighted there.
Malekshāh Moḥsen sent a messenger to say, “What are you doing there? If
you are inclined to fight, let us know; otherwise, why don’t you leave?”
Ḥasan Beg said, “We have heard that you have seized the entrance to the
valley and are not letting anyone through.”
“We have indeed come,” Malekshāh Moḥsen replied, “and if you have de-
signs on our territory, we will not move or let you pass. If you do not have any
business with us, come and pass by the road you took to get here.”
Now Ḥasan Beg may have been ignorant, but he was experienced. He real-
ized that if the Lors held the entrance to the valley, attacking them would be
fruitless. So he said, “We have no quarrel with you.”

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_027

138 Chapter 26

Malekshāh Moḥsen the Lor sent someone to say, “As long as you have no
intention of fighting us, go ahead and pass.”
Ḥasan Beg said, “If you are telling the truth, order your army to go four or
five leagues’ distance from the mouth of the valley so that our men will feel
secure and can pass through.”
Malekshāh Moḥsen ordered his troops to follow one league behind him.
Then Ḥasan Beg mounted up along with his army and entered the valley.
When Malekshāh Moḥsen had gone the distance of one league, the worldly-
wise elders of the Lors said to him, “God forbid that they should intend to fight
us, and we have given away the valley! You cannot get supplies, but they can,
since they hold it!”
Malekshāh Moḥsen realized that they were right, and he regretfully turned
back. When he had gone a little way, he saw that the Qezelbāsh had set up their
tents on both sides of the valley. He gasped, “You see how they have played a
trick on us!”
The Lor elders reproached him, saying, “Now it is no use fighting—they con-
trol a wide area, and from atop their swift horses they can wipe our footsoldiers
off the face of the earth with their spears!”
Malekshāh Moḥsen rebuffed them and charged ahead, saying, “We shall
fight!” Ḥasan Beg, who had mounted up along with his army and entered the
valley, turned to repulse the Lor assault. In the first and second clashes, he and
his men knocked some five to six hundred men off their feet, and the Lors
abandoned their attack. Then the Lors said, “The Qezelbāsh have tricked us,
and there is no use fighting them. Our best hope is in a chase. Come along; we
shall let them follow us for a few leagues. Then we will turn and intercept them
and take care of them with blows of rocks thrown from the summit of the
mountain!” Malekshāh Moḥsen saw that they were right, and they rode off.
When Ḥasan Beg heard that the Lors had ridden off, he sent a spy to ascer-
tain whether they had really left or not. The spy went and followed them close-
ly. He sent word that they had gone ten leagues. So Ḥasan Beg set off in pursuit.
The Qezelbāsh elders said to him, “We had better not go, for their purpose is to
maneuver us into a tight spot and attack us.” But Ḥasan Beg would not listen.
When they had gone along the road for four or five leagues, from atop the
mountain the sound of Lor trumpets and war-drums rose up, and the Qezelbāsh
realized that the Lors had played a trick on them. The Lors poured into the val-
ley from one side and cut off the road. The two sides began to fight. Many of the
Qezelbāsh suffered broken heads and limbs, and some were killed; but the Lors
did not lose a single man.
The Royal Banners Leave For ʿerāq And Khorrāmābād 139

Then Yaʿqub, the nephew of Ḥasan Beg, who at fourteen years old was al-
ready a brave and valorous young man, said, “Come on, let us beat a retreat!
The Qezelbāsh will be ruined!”
Ḥasan Beg said to him, “Beware lest you do anything shameful! What mat-
ters in this world and the next is honor!”
“I haven’t said we should run away, have I?” replied Yaʿqub. “I am saying we
should first retreat a ways down the road, just enough to get out of this narrow
part of the valley; then we will turn around and resume the battle, and we will
be avenged!”
“Good idea!” said Ḥasan Beg. So they switched from attack to retreat, and
turned as if in flight.
When the Lors saw the Qezelbāsh turn around, they charged down from the
mountain to plunder their goods. As soon as they reached open ground, the
Qezelbāsh poured down upon them, slashing and smiting, and in a short time
they killed four thousand Lors. Ḥasan Beg, delighted at this victory, immedi-
ately wrote a proclamation and sent it to the Shāh, claiming the victory in the
name of Yaʿqub.
When this proclamation reached His Majesty, he praised Yaʿqub Beg and
bestowed on him the name Yaʿqub Solṭān. He also presented Ḥasan Beg and
Yaʿqub Solṭān with robes of honor and horses and saddles and jeweled bridles.
Then he sent Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh with two thousand men to aid Ḥasan
Beg.
Meanwhile, when Malekshāh Moḥsen heard for the first time that some of
the Qezelbāsh had been wounded or killed, he immediately wrote the good
news to Malekshāh Rostam, saying, “We have brought such misfortune to the
Qezelbāsh that no one will ever know whether any one of them could emerge
from such a whirlpool of calamity!”
Malekshāh Rostam had been thinking that he should raise a large army and
go aid Malekshāh Moḥsen. But when he heard this news, he rejoiced and sent
only a few men. He also sent a robe of honor for Malekshāh Moḥsen.
Malekshāh Moḥsen, though, had fled in such haste that he could not even
put on his shoes. Ḥasan Beg intended to pursue him, but then he thought, “Our
army is quite small. If help arrives, though, we will leave the valley and head for
the plain.”
The next day Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh arrived with two thousand qurchis.
Ḥasan Beg, pleased to have the help of this army, set out right away on the heels
of the Lors.
140 Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The Shāh and His Army Come to Fight Malekshāh Rostam, Who Pledges
Obedience; Together They Go to Ḥovayzeh to Fight Malek Fayyāz

Malekshāh Rostam had been riding for three days when the defeated Lors
came to him in a distressed state with many wounded men. The elders ex-
plained for him how the battle had turned out. Malekshāh Rostam bit the fin-
ger of amazement, saying, “Sometimes war turns out in victory, and sometimes
in defeat.”
The Qezelbāsh army soon arrived, and the two sides arrayed their troops for
battle. Malekshāh Rostam fretted about what to do; they had lost the moun-
tain, and his army could not fight on the plain. At last, he was forced to decamp
and gather all his tents and herds and flocks and troops and flee for the moun-
tain of Ṣad Marreh.
When Ḥasan Beg heard the news of Malekshāh Rostam’s retreat, he passed
it on to Shāh Esmāʿil. His Majesty brought his troops and settled them in the
encampment with the vanguard. Ḥasan Beg kissed the royal foot and present-
ed the Shāh with the booty that had been seized from the Lors. The Shāh
praised him and gave gifts to those of the Qezelbāsh who had shown valor, to
each according to his merit. Then they packed up and set off in pursuit of
Malekshāh Rostam.
When they arrived at Khorrāmābād, the whole population came out to
prostrate themselves and offer gifts and tribute. Shāh Esmāʿil asked about
Malekshāh Rostam, and they told him that he had taken his following and
gone to Ṣad Marreh Mountain. So the Shāh set off and went to the foot of Ṣad
Marreh.
When His Majesty looked at it with his truth-perceiving gaze, he saw a
mountain of lofty height. The Lors had taken their retinue and materiel up
there without losing any of it. There were many rushing waters as well.
Malekshāh Rostam had pitched his tents in such a fortress-like setting.
When the hour came to beat the war-drum and the sound of drums came
from atop the mountain, the Shāh said, “This man is a Shiʿi; why is he fleeing
from us?”
His amirs told him that from the days of the Commander of the Faithful
until their own time, the Lors had recognized no master, and that was why they
were being so defiant. So the Shāh wrote a letter to Malekshāh thus:
“It has come to our attention that the protectors of these parts have been,
since the time of the family of ʿAbbās until now, Shiʿis and slaves of the holy

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_028

The Shāh And His Army Come To Fight Malekshāh Rostam 141

Commander of the Faithful, and that they have gloried in that servitude in the
face of all kings, since it is unthinkable that a slave of ʿAli should honor any
other king. But it is evident and clear to you that my lineage culminates in that
holy one. Given that lineage, why are you keeping aloof from us? We do not like
fighting with another slave of the Commander of the Faithful and causing him
harm. Up until now there has been no sovereign of that lineage for you to obey,
so you have been in the right, since you are a Shiʿi and know no conciliation
with non-Shiʿis. But according to reason and wisdom, when you heard the clar-
ion call of the news of my emergence, you should have risen and come to my
world-protecting court to fight with us on the path of the true religion of the
Commander of the Faithful against its enemies, that the blessings of both
worlds might revert to us. In addition, praise and gratitude be to God that we
have been so successful as to take permission and guidance for our emergence
from the Immaculate Emāms and their descendants, and we are rendering
their enemies nonexistent. So do not let your Shiʿi zeal lead you to turn the
Lors away from hospitality and toward war.”
Shāh Esmāʿil gave this letter to Farrokh Āqā, a slave of Solṭān Ḥaydar, and
sent him off. When Farrokh Āqā arrived at the foot of Ṣad Marreh mountain,
word was sent to Malekshāh Rostam that an emissary from the Qezelbāsh had
arrived. “Let him come,” he said. Farrokh Āqā came in, said a greeting, and pre-
sented the letter. Malekshāh Rostam read the letter, then said, “Convey our
blessing to the Shāh of Iran, and tell him this: You never heard of our Shiʿism
until you came here. Now you have done us the favor of learning of it and are
asking for obedience. We shall obey you heart and soul, but as far as our money
and property are concerned, let no one lay a hand on us. As it is said:

Go, cast this net at another bird

For the nest of the phoenix is lofty indeed.1

“You are troubling yourself for naught!”

Upon hearing this response, Farrokh Āqā tried to talk sense into Malekshāh
Rostam, but it was no use, and his answer remained war. Farrokh Āqā returned
and delivered the responses of Malekshāh Rostam to the Shāh.
Esmāʿil ordered his men to ready their implements of attack. The next day
he mounted up and led his army of footsoldiers to the mountain. Above them,
the Lors hid behind huge rocks and prepared their bows and arrows. The battle
got under way. The righteous Qezelbāsh leaped like panthers from one stone to
another, fending off the onslaught of projectiles. They made their way up the

1 From the Divān of Ḥāfeẓ (ghazal no. 428).

142 Chapter 27

mountain in such a way that if a father were to fall, his son would step on him
on the way up, and if the son were to fall, the father would do the same.
In short, both sides fought manfully, each dealing mighty blows to the other.
Shāh Esmāʿil dismounted, hoisted his broad-rimmed shield over his head like
the blazing sun, and with sword and shield fought his way toward that moun-
tain fortress. He ascended, fighting the whole way, until he reached a place
where he saw Malekshāh Rostam furiously shooting the last of his arrows. See-
ing the Shāh coming, Malekshāh Rostam shot four or five arrows at him, but
His Majesty fended them off and forged on until he reached the base of
Malekshāh Rostam’s rocky throne. Esmāʿil leaped up and, opening up his leop-
ard-like hand, seized Malekshāh Rostam’s boot-strap and pulled him down,
then hoisted him up in the air.
Malekshāh Rostam, realizing that he was a prisoner, cried out, “O great and
fortunate prince, who lifts something up does not throw it away; I have been
testing you!”
Esmāʿil then put Malekshāh Rostam back down and allowed him to kiss the
royal foot. He swore fealty to the Shāh, saying, “I will be your slave for as long as
I am alive.”
Thereupon the armies of the Lors and the Qezelbāsh ceased fighting, and
the elders of the Lors came to kiss the dust of the royal court. Malekshāh Ros-
tam said, “I entreat His Majesty and the Qezelbāsh to be my guests for three
days.” Shāh Esmāʿil accepted, and Malekshāh Rostam appointed a cook for
each Qezelbāsh qurchi, as a host to fetch whatever was necessary for their
guests.
Shāh Esmāʿil and Malekshāh Rostam now mounted up and went to the lat-
ter’s home, where he organized a royal feast. At one point he presented his
guest with a thoroughbred mare. “What sort of mare is this?” asked Esmāʿil.
“They call it Moshaʿshaʿi,” replied Malekshāh Rostam.
“Is Moshaʿshaʿ a tribe?” asked His Majesty.
“Yes. In the south there is a region called Ḥovayzeh. There is a group of Arabs
there who used to adhere to the faith of divine ʿAli [din-e ʿAli-Allāhi]. Now a
man has arisen among them whom they call Malek Fayyāz Moshaʿshaʿi; like
Pharaoh, he claims to be divine, and they worship him. This breed of horse is
found there, but if anyone goes there and asks for one, they will not sell him
one for anything. Groups of Lors who travel in the area steal them and bring
them back here. And now, since the Shāh has helped us, they have brought this
mare to him.”
Shāh Esmāʿil heard all this and grew angry. Without even looking at the
mare, he berated Malekshāh Rostam, saying, “Why haven’t you gone and waged
war on that villain in order to punish him?”
The Shāh And His Army Come To Fight Malekshāh Rostam 143

“How can I?” Malekshāh Rostam replied. “Malek Fayyāz is a tyrant with a
hundred thousand Arabs behind him, whereas I have no more than thirty
thousand men.”
Esmāʿil said, “Since you are his neighbor, we will bring this enemy of God to
punishment together.”
Then Malekshāh Rostam said, “His Majesty has promised me three days,
honoring me greatly. There is much good hunting in this area. Whenever you
give the order, the Lors will gather prey together in one place so that the Shāh
may busy himself these three days with hunting.2 It will be the epitome of
favors, and on the fourth day this slave of yours will be in the vanguard of the
army of victorious banners.”
After much importuning, Shāh Esmāʿil consented. Then gifts were brought
under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh: jewels, horses, mules, camels, horse-
trappings of gold and silver bedecked with jewels, saddles, ornamented bri-
dles—all in quantities such as had never been found in the treasury of any
ruler.
His Majesty praised Malekshāh Rostam greatly and treated him affection-
ately. Then almost a thousand plates of various kinds of food were brought in
on silver and china plates. Esmāʿil was well pleased with his host’s manners.
Two or three days were spent serving the Shāh in this way. Then, when the Lors
had collected gazelles and other beasts for a hunt, they announced that every-
thing was ready.
Just then, though, a leopard from the mountain of Ṣad Marreh entered the
hunting-ground and attacked those who were hunting, killing fifteen of them.
Malekshāh Rostam told this to Shāh Esmāʿil, who said, “I promise to grant a
horse to whoever brought this good news!” Leaping onto his horse, he added,
“No one is to follow me except the one who brought the news.”
Malekshāh Rostam approached and said, “Grant this slave permission to be
at your service.” But Esmāʿil refused and headed for the hunting-ground.
The leopard emerged from the midst of the valley and jumped up, roaring,
onto a hillock; had any man approached, the leopard would have jumped on
him and torn his head off. At that moment His Majesty arrived. When the leop-
ard saw him coming, it gave a roar and leapt toward him. As it did so, the Shāh
loosed an arrow that struck it in the forehead, shot out the other side, and
stuck into the earth. The leopard hit the ground writhing.
Malekshāh Rostam and the Qezelbāsh amirs then entered the hunting-
ground and joined the Shāh. His Majesty turned his attention to hunting and

2 The text says “hunting zangul,” a term which appears several times in the text. It appears to
be a shortening of zanguleh-bāl, “little bustard” (Tetrax tetrax), a gamebird native to West Asia.
144 Chapter 27

hurled many beasts into the dust of annihilation. He then gave permission to
Malekshāh Rostam and the Qezelbāsh officers to begin, and they too killed a
great quantity of prey. When they left the hunting-ground, the royal encamp-
ment was packed up and set off on the Kohgiluyeh road in the direction of
Ḥovayzeh.
The next day, Shāh Esmāʿil, along with his officers, Malekshāh Rostam,
twelve thousand Qezelbāsh troops, and thirty thousand Lors mounted up in
Khorrāmābād and set off to do battle with Malek Fayyāz the Arab.
Malek Fayyāz’s spies reported to him, saying, “Shāh Esmāʿil and Malekshāh
Rostam have united and are coming to attack you.” Hearing this, Malek Fayyāz
was seized with terror; he said, “Malekshāh Rostam has put Shaykh-oghli up to
this!” He sent someone to alert his army.
When the troops had assembled, seventy thousand men passed in review,
and this put Malek Fayyāz’s mind at ease. He traveled one day’s journey from
Ḥovayzeh and appointed his brother Solṭān Moʿannā3 as general of the army.
He also sent Noʿm b. Noʿmān, his commander-in-chief, with Solṭān Moʿannā,
providing them with thirty thousand Arab troops. Then he sent them along,
himself staying behind with forty thousand men.
Noʿm b. Noʿmān had gone one league ahead of Solṭān Moʿannā when he
came to a waystation and asked the locals about the Qezelbāsh army.
“We hear that they will arrive tomorrow,” they said.
Spies brought word to Shāh Esmāʿil that Malek Fayyāz had sent out his com-
mander. Malekshāh Rostam said to His Majesty, “Since Malek Fayyāz has sent
his attendants ahead, it would be best if I, who am one of the attendants of this
court, raise an army and go out to meet them.”
Shāh Esmāʿil liked this idea. He ordered that Malekshāh Rostam and twenty
thousand Lors, along with Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and five thousand Qezelbāsh, go
out to meet Solṭān Moʿannā and Noʿm b. Noʿmān. Malekshāh Rostam and
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh traveled for one day before reaching the place where the
Arab army was.
The next day, those two seas of soldiery arrayed their ranks against each
other. Solṭān Moʿannā took his place at the center of the army, with Noʿm in the
vanguard; Malekshāh Rostam entered the field, and the battle began. Noʿm was
on the verge of defeat when Solṭān Moʿannā charged in from the center; then
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh joined the fighting, and the battle became thick as the two
sides poured into one another.

3 Moʿannā, “careworn, oppressed,” seems more likely a reading of m.ʿ.n.ā. than maʿnā,
“meaning.”
The Shāh And His Army Come To Fight Malekshāh Rostam 145

There was much striking and smiting, killing and slaughtering. Malekshāh
Rostam, like a fierce lion, piled up bodies whichever way he turned. Noʿm
blocked Ḥosayn Beg Laleh’s path, drew his sword, and struck at him, but just
then Malekshāh came up and hit Noʿm with his spear, and Noʿm had to aban-
don his attack. The Lors showed great devotion in that battle. Ḥosayn Beg La-
leh knocked Noʿm’s brother off his horse with a spear-blow, but at that moment
Moʿannā arrived and rescued him. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh then knocked that Arab
down and thrust his spear into his chest, killing him. Malekshāh Rostam also
killed Noʿm, and the fighting became extremely hard.
Then the Qezelbāsh and Lor reinforcements arrived, shouting “O ʿAli! O
ʿAli!” They rushed onto the battlefield and killed almost five thousand Arabs.
Defeated, the Arabs turned and fled. At that moment Malek Fayyāz arrived
with a boundless army; when he heard of the deaths of his commanders and
the defeat of his army, he let out a cry of anguish. He gathered up the remnants
of the defeated troops and sent them together with the army he had brought
onto the battlefield, where they crashed into the armies of the Qezelbāsh and
the Lors and killed many of them.
The Qezelbāsh and Lors, though, exhibited great zeal and firmly planted the
foot of bravery, and they did not yield the battlefield:

Come, O heartless one who has abandoned your work

And stayed behind the wall out of fear for your soul;
Be brave, for the battlefield belongs to the brave—
If a fox falls bravely, it is a lion.
How well have brave men said:
Put a foot forward and a hand out;
With the hand you become more than anyone else
And with the foot you leave everyone else behind.

As for the Arab army facing them, they had no fear of them, but were saying:

It is the day of battle, battle must be fought;

The struggle for fame or shame must be waged.
We must fight these fox-headed dogs
In the manner of lions and leopards.

Giving cries of manliness and virility, they sent a great number of those faith-
less ones to hell. Many Qezelbāsh, though, were wounded. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh
looked heavenward and began to pray, asking for victory. His prayers were
heard, for the breeze of triumph brought good news to the ears of the victori-
146 Chapter 27

ous ghāzis from the direction of the plain as the banners of His Majesty Shāh
Esmāʿil all at once became visible. When the eyes of those infidels caught sight
of the flag inscribed “Help from God and speedy victory,”4 they understood the
meaning of the verse “When the earth shakes,”5 and they were stricken with
panic.
Shāh Esmāʿil surveyed the situation and realized that Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and
Malekshāh Rostam were in dire straits. Spurring his horse, he grasped the han-
dle of his well-watered sword and struck the heads of those ill-starred ones; he
split that sea of soldiery in two with blows of his blade—indeed, you would
have thought a fierce lion had fallen upon a group of foxes, utterly routing
them.
Naʿim the Arab, the son-in-law of Malek Fayyāz, was knocking everyone
who dared fight him out of their saddle and onto the ground. Seeing this young
man splitting the heads of the Arabs with his sword, Naʿim approached him
and tried to thrust his spear into His Majesty’s waist. Esmāʿil, though, swung
his sword and split the spear in two like a reed. Naʿim tried to grab the handle
of the sword, but Esmāʿil granted him no quarter and split him from skull to
sternum with that very blade. He then turned to the Arab army and was dis-
playing his virility when the champion Moḥsen the Arab, one of the bravest
men in the land, blocked his path. Esmāʿil reached out with his leopard-like
grasp and yanked him off his saddle, leaving him to one of the Shāmlu soldiers.
He then busied himself again with combat.
Malekshāh Rostam and the renowned Qezelbāsh commanders, giving cries
of manliness, inflicted defeat on those Arabs, dispatching many of them to the
abode of perdition. Malek Fayyāz, seeing all too clearly what was happening,
was stunned and panic-stricken. He gathered a group of those closest to him
and turned tail toward Ḥovayzeh. His army, realizing that he had fled, turned
to follow him and scattered in the desert.
When Shāh Esmāʿil learned of the retreat of Malek Fayyāz, he set out and
followed him for almost two leagues, but since the latter’s horses were swift
Moshaʿshaʿi steeds, he got away. His Majesty returned, and the next day he set
out for Ḥovayzeh in pursuit of that miserable band.
Malek Fayyāz, warned that Shāh Esmāʿil was coming, entered Ḥovayzeh.
The Arab amirs said: “We, who are in command here, have to think that this
pādeshāh will pursue us as well. The prudent thing to do is to raise an army and
betake ourselves to the Arabian desert to wait until he has come to Ḥovayzeh,
appointed a governor, and gone again. Then, when he has left these parts, we

4 Qorʾān 61:13.
5 Qorʾān 99:1.
The Shāh And His Army Come To Fight Malekshāh Rostam 147

will emerge from the desert and give our reply.” Malek Fayyāz agreed to this,
and they set off for the desert.
Esmāʿil, moved by divine inspiration, said: “God forbid that the faithless
Malek Fayyāz should escape into the desert!”
“If you give the order,” Malekshāh Rostam said, “this slave will scout out the
desert road for Your Majesty.”
Esmāʿil ordered him to go. Thus, in the middle of the night, Malekshāh Ros-
tam gathered his Lor troops and, along with five thousand Qezelbāsh, set off
with a local guide on the road to the Ḥovayzeh desert. When they got within six
leagues of the city, he stopped and ordered five thousand Lors to scatter left
and right.
When Malek Fayyāz’s spies informed him of this, he exclaimed, “It is
Malekshāh Rostam who brought the Qezelbāsh against us; it was not enough
for him to have cut us off again! Very well; now that he has Shaykh-oghli for a
protector, Malekshāh has become like Rostam himself. Whoever brings him to
me shall receive from me whatever he wants!”
The Arab nobles replied, “Send the spy to find out whether this report is
true. It will be easy to bring him in.”
The spy returned with word that it was indeed true. So Malek Fayyāz set off
with a great army in the direction of Malekshāh Rostam.
Now when Shāh Esmāʿil had sent Malekshāh Rostam into the desert, he had
placed Ḥosayn Beg in the vanguard and ordered him to take five thousand men
ahead, saying that his own royal banners would bring up the rear.
Soon Malek Fayyāz encountered Malekshāh Rostam, and both sides arrayed
their troops for battle. The Lor and Qezelbāsh forces poured into the midst of
the Arabs and branded them with defeat. They did not spare themselves, but
kept smashing and slashing in all directions; they were so mixed together that
no one knew who was who, and they would even strike each other. A great
many were killed or wounded. In the battle, Malekshāh Rostam performed
such deeds as even the Rostam of legend had not done fighting the demons of
Māzandarān. But the Arabs were mounted on Moshaʿshaʿi mares and wielded
armor-piercing spears, and with great injustice they inflicted many wounds on
him. He feared that the Lors would choose to flee while he was so badly wound-
ed, so to give heart to them he cried out, “Be brave, for the Shāh is coming with
the Qezelbāsh!”
Just as things were at their worst, and it looked as if the evil eye would fall on
them, at that moment God Almighty sent aid, and Ḥosayn Beg and his five
thousand Qezelbāsh arrived. Invoking blessings upon Moḥammad and his
Family, they leapt into the fray, killing and wounding many. In their wake the
banner of “Help from God” appeared, and Shāh Esmāʿil, with the sword-handle
148 Chapter 27

of the Lord of the Age in his hand and “O ʿAli!” on his lips, turned to that odious
group. With his jewel-like blade he beat them down, slashing and killing and
striking. He was making his way toward the center of the enemy army when
this thought occurred to his blessed mind: “God forbid that Malek Fayyāz
should again slip off into the desert!” So he changed the direction of his attack
and made his way to the base of the enemy battle-standard.
Malek Fayyāz saw Shāh Esmāʿil coming, but he did not recognize him; he
just saw a Qezelbāsh youth unceremoniously dispatching Arabs with his
sword. He approached him and aimed his spear at the royal chest. Esmāʿil par-
ried it and sent his own spear into Malek Fayyāz’s belly such that the point
went through that unbeliever’s backbone and knocked him out of his saddle.
He hit the ground so hard that he broke all his bones.
Seeing what had just happened, the Arabs turned tail and fled. Solṭān
Moḥsen, the son of Malek Fayyāz, learned of the death of his father and led a
group of his men and the Arab officers in flight toward Ḥovayzeh. Some of the
remaining Arabs received security by converting to Shiʿism and kissing the
royal foot. Flush with victory, Shāh Esmāʿil set off for Ḥovayzeh, where the vic-
torious ghāzis plundered the goods of the Arabs and distributed them as priz-
es. Malek Fayyāz’s treasury and possessions were seized for supervision.
His Majesty was then told that one Solṭān Vahhāb, a relative of Malek Fayyāz,
was in town; he was a Shiʿi and a dyed-in-the-wool follower of the holy Com-
mander of the Faithful. Esmāʿil sought this man out, and when he had kissed
the royal foot, he was granted the governorship of Ḥovayzeh and dignified with
a robe of honor.
His Majesty spent a few days there and then headed back to Tabriz and
Diyārbakr.
His Majesty Sends Nur ʿali Khalifeh To The Ṣufis Of Rum 149

Chapter 28

His Majesty Sends Nur ʿAli Khalifeh to the Ṣufis of Rum on His Behalf, and
He Accepts Oaths of Fealty in Tabriz and Diyārbakr

It occurred to the royal mind that he should send a true-believing Ṣufi to the
Ṣufis of pure mind who lived in the lands of Anatolia. This task fell to Nur ʿAli
Khalifeh, who was ordered to take a letter to the Ṣufis of Rum which read as
follows:
“A proclamation to the pure-believing Ṣufis of this lofty and sublime lineage
living in Rum: At this time, in accordance with the command of the Immacu-
late Emāms, Our Majesty has brought out the Moḥammadan kettledrum and
the tympanum of ‘ʿAli is the Friend of God’ and made his emergence, promot-
ing the sect of the Twelve Emāms and casting many Sunni and infidel kings
and rebels into the dust of annihilation. We have been, and continue to be,
diligent in the way of truth, and now we have sent Nur ʿAli Khalifeh, who comes
from generations of partisans of the Shāh of Men, to your region on our royal
behalf. It is incumbent upon pure-minded Ṣufis of this lofty lineage to recog-
nize him as khalifeh al-kholafā, to admit his absolute authority, and not to reb-
el against him. If anyone should disobey him, it will be as if he had rebelled
against my own royal authority.” Shāh Esmāʿil gave this letter to Nur ʿAli Khal-
ifeh, who kissed the royal foot and set off on his journey.
When Nur ʿAli Khalifeh arrived in Rum with this news, almost ten thousand
Ṣufis crowded around him. They took the letter from him and rubbed it on
their eyes like pilgrims. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had also brought the Shāh’s shoe for
them; they kissed it and rubbed it on their eyes, saying, “How fortunate you are,
who catch the glance of the Perfect Guide every day!” Then they opened the
letter and strewed much money around; it almost came to the point where
they strewed their own souls. After the letter was read aloud, all of them
jumped up at once, some kissing Nur ʿAli’s feet and some kissing his hands;
they said, “If it is the order of the Perfect Guide that we serve you, we shall
lower our heads for you to tread upon!”
Four thousand Ṣufis and sons of Ṣufis simultaneously swore fealty to Nur ʿAli
Khalifeh, and in a short time an abundant retinue gathered for him there in
Anatolia, to such an extent that soon fifty thousand people had come together
around him.
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh then decided to leave. Seeing that a large and growing
crowd had gathered, he said to them, “Go to your homes until such time as we

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_029

150 Chapter 28

seek you out; then come.” Then he gathered a thousand Ṣufi households and
set off together with them.
When they reached the vicinity of Aleppo, word of their arrival was brought
to Fāyeq Pāshā, the city’s governor. Fāyeq Pāshā gathered his troops and went
out to meet Nur ʿAli Khalifeh with the intention of fighting him. When they
met, the two armies arrayed their ranks opposite each other; then the fighting
began. They poured into each other and the battle became intense. The pure-
hearted Ṣufis fell upon the Sunnis like terrible dragons and defeated the army
of Fāyeq Pāshā. The Anatolians broke into flight, and the Ṣufis plundered and
seized all their goods.
The people of Aleppo came out of the citadel with gifts and tribute for Nur
ʿAli Khalifeh, who read the khoṭbeh in the blessed name of the Shāh and or-
dered that a coin be struck in His Majesty’s name. He did not disturb anyone’s
belongings. Then he went to the Friday bazaar1 and stopped in the home of
Jāberi.2
Shāh Esmāʿil left Hovayzeh and soon arrived in Tabriz, control of which he
handed over to Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu. He then headed for Diyārbakr.
When he reached the edge of the river Barjuk,3 he seized the fortress there
and entrusted it to Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār, turning then toward Moṣul. News of
the impending arrival of the victory-inscribed royal banners was brought to
Amir Khān Torkmān, the governor of Moṣul, who panicked, not knowing what
to do.
When His Majesty the Shāh arrived, he told Durmesh Khān, “Write a few of
your own words to Amir Khān advising him that he should come in obedience
to the royal court. It occurs to us that we should have in our administration
some Torkmān amirs.”
In accordance with the royal order, Durmesh Khān wrote thus:
“May it not be hidden from the lofty mind of the amir of amirs, Amir Khān,
governor of Moṣul, that at this time the glorious royal banners of the Shāh have
come to this region with the intention of taking Moṣul. The royal sun of for-
tune and felicity is rising and illuminating the horizon of the world. Since the
Khān’s ministers are acquainted with the parents of this least one, listen to
this: In spite of my Shāmlu roots, I have zealously grasped the royal skirt. Why
should the management of this royal court proceed without the Torkmāns? I
have repeatedly heard His Majesty say, ‘Why are the Torkmāns keeping their

1 Here referred to as ādineh bāzāri.

2 Sic; it is unclear who is meant here. This could also be translated as “the house of a bone-setter,”
but this seems unlikely.
3 Sic; I have been unable to determine which river is meant here.
His Majesty Sends Nur ʿali Khalifeh To The Ṣufis Of Rum 151

distance from me?’ In any case, let the Khān of elevated station come faithfully
to the court which resembles the heavenly throne; it is certain that His Majesty
will grant you a place in the shade of his favor, along with your followers and
helpers. I guarantee that your mind should be at ease regarding everything. If
you do not, let it happen another way, and don’t blame us. There are not too
many reasons to vouch for you. May your days turn out as you desire. Peace.”
Meanwhile Amir Khān was feeling helpless, seeing no way out of his pre-
dicament except submission. He thought to himself, “Heretofore no one, nei-
ther Āq Qoyunlu nor Qarā Qoyunlu, has submitted, but if I do, there is hope
that I will obtain honor in the service of this sovereign.” Just then a messenger
came and gave him Durmesh Khān’s letter. When he read it, he knew what to
do. He wrote a few words in response to Durmesh Khān thus:
“May it not be hidden from the mind of the sublime Khān and the amirs of
Iran that this slave has not dreamt, nor will ever dream, of disobeying or of
exempting myself from obedience to the lofty royal court. I invite that exalted
sovereign to stay here a few days and hunt, that this meanest one might proffer
gifts and be ennobled by entry into His Majesty’s service.”
Then he presented Durmesh Khān’s messenger with a robe of honor and
sent someone along with him. After five leagues or five days’ journey from
Moṣul, Amir Khān’s message reached Durmesh Khān, who showed it to Shāh
Esmāʿil. The Shāh then occupied himself with hunting.
Shortly some of his officers soon came and told him, “There is a fortress in
these parts which is governed by Qāsem Beg Pornāk. It is best if we bring him
to obedience before Amir Khān arrives.”
So the glorious royal banners headed for that fortress. When Qāsem Beg got
word that the Ṣafavid forces were headed his way, he did not resist, but fled
instead. Shāh Esmāʿil added that fortress to the dominion of Moḥammad Khān
Ostājlu. Then the news arrived that Amir Khān was on his way with his sons
and much tribute.
Esmāʿil ordered Bayrām Khān Qarāmānlu, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, Dadeh Beg
Ṭālesh, Khādem Beg, Manṣur Beg Qepchāq, Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli, and
Durmesh Khān to go out and greet Amir Khān and to bring him back with
honor and hospitality and the utmost respect. The amirs had gone one league
when His Majesty said to Farrokh Āqā, “Take the royal seal and go out to meet
Amir Khān, bringing the good news that I have named him my seal-keeper and
‘pillar of the state.’” Farrokh Āqā hurried off.
Meanwhile, Amir Khān was proceeding with a heavy heart, thinking to him-
self: “Will I receive honor in the service of the Shāh?” The reason for his worry
was that His Majesty had been sorely vexed by the Torkmāns. Just then the
Shāh’s commanders arrived. They all dismounted, and Amir Khān dismounted
152 Chapter 28

as well. First he embraced Durmesh Khān, then one by one he did the same for
the other commanders, who then re-mounted. Amir Khān was just congratu-
lating himself on this regal favor when Farrokh Āqā arrived; he placed the
Shāh’s royal seal on a golden tray and presented it to Amir Khān, informing
him of the good news of his appointment as seal-keeper to His Majesty. Dur-
mesh Khān took the royal seal and hung it around Amir Khān’s neck, and the
amirs all congratulated him. When he was brought before the Shāh, Amir Khān
kissed the ground of service and opened his mouth in a rubāʿi of praise, thus:

O Shāh of mind like solar sphere,

In your time kings are gripped with fear.
Your rule’s a bequest of the Shāh of Najaf;
His praise, your helper and vizier.
May your rule last and never fade away;
May Ḥaydar bring your cup on Judgment Day.

He then kissed the royal foot. Shāh Esmāʿil treated him royally, asking him to
come sit by the lofty throne. After eating, they talked about many subjects.
Then Amir Khān stood up and said, “This slave wishes that His Majesty would
bestow the governorship of Moṣul on someone else, for I wish to rub the dust
of his royal mount’s hooves on my eyes in his service.”
Esmāʿil was pleased at Amir Khān’s words and said, “Appoint one of your
sons or brothers to rule in your stead, and come serve the royal court.”
Amir Khān spoke again, saying, “I do not want this, for I am fed up with my
brothers and even my sons. It has fallen to the house of ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb to en-
trust this region to someone.”
The Qezelbāsh amirs pointed out that Qāytmaz Beg, Amir Khān’s brother,
had a fortress in the area, but he had not come to kiss the royal foot.
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Since he is the brother of Amir Khān, we will let him
keep it; but he must come to the royal court so that we may give him a robe of
honor and release him to go back to the fortress.”
“He is quite vicious and evil-natured,” said Amir Khān. “I fear that he will
reveal some sort of treachery that will bring shame to this least one. It would
be better if someone were sent to defeat him.”
“Someone should go and admonish him first,” replied Shāh Esmāʿil. “If he
joins our royal service, so much the better; if not, we will send someone to
teach him a lesson.” He then wrote a letter of counsel with promises and threats
and gave it to a qurchi, whom he sent off.
Qāytmaz Beg was unhappy to learn that the qurchi was coming; behind the
scenes, he spread a bunch of lies.
His Majesty Sends Nur ʿali Khalifeh To The Ṣufis Of Rum 153

The qurchi entered the fortress and approached Qāytmaz Beg, presenting
Esmāʿil’s letter and message. Qāytmaz told him, “You go, and I will come later.”
The qurchi replied, “His Majesty intends to go to Diyārbakr; come, let us
enter his presence together.”
Qāytmaz became agitated, saying, “Listen, you, do you think I am just some
servant that you can push around? I will come when I wish to, and not before.”
The qurchi tried to reason with him, but the more he spoke with the man,
the more he realized that Amir Khān had been right about his evil nature. He
went back and described his encounter to Durmesh Khān, who told it to the
Shāh. His Majesty said, “Qāytmaz Beg is sulking because we have exalted Amir
Khān among the Torkmāns. If you can get him to submit, do so, so that there
will be no need for war.”
So Durmesh Khān sent another emissary to Qāytmaz, but he still would not
budge. Amir Khān said, “I know his evil nature. He will not come unless you get
the better of him by some ruse.” Durmesh Khān then told the Shāh to put Amir
Khān in command of a group of Qezelbāsh and send him to punish Qāytmaz.
Amir Khān took his troops to the foot of the fortress, and Qāytmaz Beg was
informed that they had come. Qāytmaz Beg was struck with fear, for he did not
have the supplies to mount a siege-defense. He regretted what he had done,
and he sent someone to Amir Khān to say, “Come; since I have seen you, I will
come out.”
After receiving this message, Amir Khān composed a few words in reply
thus: “O my ill-starred brother, do not ensnare yourself in the trap of calamity;
do not give us a bad name. The Shāh is finally showing favor to the Torkmāns;
why are you spoiling everything so? Come out of the fortress so that we can
both go together to kiss the feet of His Majesty, for today his attendants enjoy
rule of the world.”
When Qāytmaz got this message, he had no choice but to come out of the
fortress. He went to Amir Khān, who gave him some advice. Then Qāytmaz
said, “O brother, you go on ahead; I need to collect things to bring as tribute,
then I will come.”
Amir Khān agreed and left for the royal court.
A few days later, Qāytmaz set off for the Shāh’s encampment. When word
arrived that he was on his way, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered his officers to go out to
meet him; he also told Amir Khān, “You go with them, lest your brother be
anxious.” He added, “We have appointed Qāytmaz as royal seal-keeper. You
shall be tutor to Ṭahmāsp Mirzā as well as viceregent and ‘pillar of the state.’”
Amir Khān kissed the royal foot and sent the royal seal to Qāytmaz Beg. That
wretch kissed the seal with revulsion and hung it round his neck.
154 Chapter 28

Amir Khān asked not to be sent out with the welcoming committee, but
Esmāʿil said, “You have to go. We have also told Durmesh Khān to go, so that
everybody’s mind will be at ease.” So they mounted up together and went out.
When the amirs reached Qāytmaz, they showed humility and affection, but
that rascal did not show his face to any one of them, which irked them. Then
Amir Khān arrived and expected his brother to dismount for him, but out of
spite and malice Qāytmaz Beg only bobbed his horse’s head. At this Amir Khān
grew angry and said: “You miscreant! What kind of arrogance is this? Today the
kings of the earth are grateful to drape the mantle of submision to the Shāh
over their shoulders and serve him. Yet you, you miserable man, are ashamed
to go to him?”
“Yes!” said Qāytmaz. “What good has come from this house to the sons of
Ḥasan Pādeshāh? You may praise them, but they have made the sons of Ḥasan
Pādeshāh and all the Torkmāns homeless! What other favors will they do for
us?”
These words struck Amir Khān like a thunderbolt. He said, “Were I not afraid
of His Majesty’s displeasure, I would split you in half!”
At that moment Durmesh Khān arrived, leading his horse forward in a ges-
ture of respect. But that coward Qāytmaz Beg would not face him. This angered
Durmesh Khān; he raised his horse’s head, but Qāytmaz still would not face
him. Bayrām Khān came too, turning his horse toward Qāytmaz and saying,
“This is bad, for the Shāh has shown utmost favor toward you!”
Qāytmaz snapped at him: “He stole his rule from us and overthrew the sons
of Ḥasan Pādeshāh; what has he not done to extinguish our ancestral house?”
Greatly perturbed, Bayrām Khān went over to Durmesh Khān and said,
“Amir Khān was right—this man is insane!”
When Amir Khān heard these words from Qāytmaz, he could control him-
self no longer; he grasped his sword and spurred his horse forward. Durmesh
Khān tried to stop him, but Amir Khān struck Qāytmaz such a blow on the
head that he split right down to his navel, and fell writhing from his horse.
“Well done!” cried Bayrām Khān, who rode ahead of the others to Shāh Esmāʿil
and told him what had happened. His Majesty sent a royal robe of honor and a
horse with a jewelled saddle and bridle to Amir Khān.
Amir Khān put on the robe and presented himself to the Shāh, who said,
“What good does it do to kill such a man?”
Amir Khān said, “That wretch was a traitor to this house; he got his just des-
serts.”
“I have entrusted control of Qāytmaz’s fortress to one of your sons.”
His Majesty Sends Nur ʿali Khalifeh To The Ṣufis Of Rum 155

“His Majesty had better not leave any Torkmāns here, for they are obstinate
and insubordinate, and God forbid those ignoramuses should do anything that
would bring shame to this least one.”
So Shāh Esmāʿil sent a letter to the sons of Amir Khān saying that no one
would have dominion over them. Amir Khān kissed the royal foot and sent one
of his sons to the fortress. Since events in that region had come to an end, His
Majesty set off in the direction of Diyārbakr.
156 Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The Royal Banners Head for Diyārbakr, and Shāh Esmāʿil Does Battle with
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr

Now when Solṭān Morād escaped from Shāh Esmāʿil’s prison, he went to
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr. When ʿAlāʾoddawleh heard he was coming, he sent his
sons and some of the Dhulqadr commanders out to meet him. Having met
him, they brought him to the court, where Solṭān Morād beheld an old man as
tall as a tower, wearing a crenellated crown and sitting atop a golden throne.
Solṭān Morād prostrated himself. ʿAlāʾoddawleh was pleased at this deference,
since, he thought, this was the rightful king of Iran. ʿAlāʾoddawleh welcomed
Solṭān Morād and ordered that a seat be brought out for him. He sat down, and
ʿAlāʾoddawleh treated him kindly and asked about his situation.
Solṭān Morād tore at his breast and cried, “I seek justice from Shaykh-oghli,
who has uprooted the house of Ḥasan Pādeshāh!”
“Do not grieve,” ʿAlāʾoddawleh replied. “Since our family owes a great deal to
Ḥasan Pādeshāh, we shall raise you to eminence. Moreover, we had wished to
bequeath our daughter to Alvand Pādeshāh, but since he has been killed, we
shall give her to you.”
Solṭān Morād prostrated himself again, and ʿAlāʾoddawleh ordered that a
time be fixed for his daughter to be pledged to Solṭān Morād. After that, he
commanded the Dhulqadr and Torkmāns to prepare for a military review.
When everyone had come together for the review, they counted a hundred and
twenty thousand men. Solṭān Morād gathered this army and headed for
Ādharbāyjān.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil had left Moṣul and made the journey to Tabriz.
From there he sent out spies in all directions to ascertain whether his enemies
were approaching. Some spies returned from Diyārbakr with word that
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr had given a hundred and twenty thousand men to
Solṭān Morād, who was on his way to Ādharbāyjān.
His Majesty ordered the Qezelbāsh troops to ready themselves to move out.
With twelve thousand lion-hunting Qezelbāsh he set off for Diyārbakr. When
they reached the fortress of Barjuk, which was under the control of ʿAbdāl
Solṭān the Torkmān, Esmāʿil ordered that a letter be sent to ʿAbdāl Solṭān which
said:
“Since the glorious royal banners have arrived at this fortress, let its leader
come out, accept the Twelver sect, and curse the enemies of the faith, rather
than place hope in the loftiness of the fortress; your obedience will profit you

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_030

The Royal Banners Head For Diyārbakr 157

in this world and the next. If you come to kiss our royal foot, we shall elevate
you to high station. If not, you know what will happen.”
When ʿAbdāl Solṭān got the letter, he sought out his elders and nobles, ask-
ing them, “What do you advise?”
They replied, “We are your attendants; whatever you command, we shall
obey it.”
ʿAbdāl Solṭān said, “I know how to obey better than how to fight.” So he re-
ceived the Ṣafavid embassy with kindness and respect, saying, “I am a slave of
that royal household, and in the morning I shall bring tribute and come to kiss
the dust of that heavenly court.”
The embassy returned to Shāh Esmāʿil and reported what had happened.
The next day ʿAbdāl Solṭān came out of the fortress, his sword hanging from his
neck,1 with many gifts of jewels and countless items of tribute. These he
brought to the world-sheltering court, where he kissed the royal foot. Shāh
Esmāʿil ordered that they remove the sword from his neck and place it on his
belt. He praised ʿAbdāl Solṭān and gave him a robe of honor, and also honored
many of his amirs. Then he said, “We are entrusting control of this fortress to
you; you had better get busy with governance.”
ʿAbdāl Solṭān said, “I desire to be in the victorious royal stirrup, with my
head under the hoof of His Majesty’s steed.” Shāh Esmāʿil was pleased at this
and brought him along to Diyārbakr. They stopped two days’ distance from
there, for Solṭān Morād and his army had also reached the same place.
Word of the arrival of the Ṣafavid army was sent to ʿAlāʾoddawleh. When he
got the news, he sent a letter to Shāh Esmāʿil which said:
“We have heard that you are a man and bear a trace of the men of this world.
Now you have emerged and taken Iran from the family of Ḥasan Pādeshāh.
Since you are part of this lineage and not an outsider, such ruthlessness is not
right. If you become as brothers with Solṭān Morād and divide the territory you
possess into two parts between you, no enemy will be able to threaten you. I
have eighty thousand men of the Dhulqadr and will be your ally; if you need
troops, let me know and I will help you. Peace is better than war. But if you ig-
nore and reject my advice, I will teach you a lesson that will serve as an exam-
ple to other louts.”
When the letter was ready and ʿAlāʾoddawleh was about to send someone to
deliver it, his son Sāru Aṣlān said, “O father, I will go to the court of Shaykh-
oghli as an emissary. If possible, I will serve you by taking care of him through
combat right there, otherwise I will come back with his response.”

1 This image recurs frequently in these pages; it was a custom signifying surrender (Floor,
Safavid Government Institutions, 277).
158 Chapter 29

ʿAlāʾoddawleh thought to himself, “Perhaps he can take care of this business

and get us off the hook.” So he sent Sāru Aṣlān as his emissary, accompanied by
twelve thousand men. When they got near the Shāh’s royal encampment, the
news was delivered to Shāh Esmāʿil that “Sāru Aṣlān, the son of ʿAlāʾoddawleh
Dhulqadr, is coming as an emissary along with twelve thousand mounted
men.”
“That ignorant boy is clearly up to something,” said Shāh Esmāʿil. He ordered
the Qezelbāsh to take up arms and saddle their horses in preparation.
Sāru Aṣlān arrived at the royal court and saw a young man seated at the en-
trance who could have inhaled him and his whole army at one go. He ordered
his troops to stay mounted and remain outside as he entered the court with
forty men. When his eye fell upon Shāh Esmāʿil, he saw a face like a lion’s, and
he fell to the ground in prostration that very instant. A chair had been set up
opposite His Majesty, and Sāru Aṣlān sat down. As soon as he had recovered his
composure, he presented the letter to be read out.
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Bring our blessings to your father, and tell him this: Rul-
ership has been severed from the family of Ḥasan Pādeshāh and has passed to
his daughter’s son. Calamity befell them, and it will also afflict anyone who gets
too close to them. We have made our emergence on behalf of Almighty God
and the Rightly-Guiding Emāms in order to scour the world clean of the people
of tyranny. If Solṭān Morād pronounces the words ‘There is no God but God
and ʿAli is His Friend,’ we shall make him our partner in faith and power and
divide all the territory we have accumulated into two portions with him. And if
you, ʿAlāʾoddawleh, also partake in this, you shall be in the security of Almighty
God and keep your hereditary land as well as that which you have conquered
yourself, and we shall have no quarrel with you. If not, though, the disaster
which befell the house of Ḥasan Pādeshāh will overtake you as well.”
When Sāru Aṣlān heard this, he began to quake from head to toe; his very
soul felt trapped in a cage, and he could not say a word in reply. He obtained
leave from the Shāh and departed.
When he reached ʿAlāʾoddawleh, he was asked, “What happened? What was
Shaykh-oghli’s reply?”
“O father,” he replied, “something extraordinary has happened to me, and I
have laid eyes on a wonder of gallantry. It would be best if you treat this youth
with courtesy, for I was shown the utmost hospitality.” And he related what he
had seen.
ʿAlāʾoddawleh said, “O my son, you were not afraid of Shaykh-oghli, were
you?”
Sāru Aṣlān replied, “If you had seen what I saw, you too would have been
afraid.”
The Royal Banners Head For Diyārbakr 159

At this ʿAlāʾoddawleh grew angry and left. He then ordered his forces to join
with those of Solṭān Morād and gave orders that the war-drum be beaten at
once.
When word of the approach of ʿAlāʾoddawleh reached the royal encamp-
ment, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered that his own war-drum be beaten, and the two
armies began to prepare for battle.
Half the night had passed when Esmāʿil said to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, “Tonight
I want to walk around in the Qezelbāsh camp.” He and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh set off
touring the camp market. At the door of every tent they stopped at, they saw
Qezelbāsh youths engaged in luxurious enjoyment and preparing their imple-
ments of war, and however much His Majesty expected to hear his men saying
they needed things, he never did. He gave many thanks, saying, “Praise God
that no one is lacking for anything!”
On the way back, they heard a loud ruckus coming from one tent. His Maj-
esty and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh went toward the noise and saw that a group of men
whom Esmāʿil had raised to high rank were sitting together drinking wine. His
Majesty said angrily to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, “You mean to tell me there is wine in
my camp?”
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh replied, “They are simple Qezelbāsh; since tomorrow
there will be battle, they are making the most of the night and enjoying them-
selves.”
Shāh Esmāʿil stopped to observe this gathering. Suddenly one officer turned
to his fellows and said, “Tomorrow I intend to drive myself to the battle-stan-
dard of ʿAlāʾoddawleh, seize him alive, and bring him to His Majesty!” Another
one said, “The Shāh has no need of you! By the power of the sword of the Mas-
ter of the Command, he shall grant the enemy no quarter; he splits his foes
from stem to sternum, and if he wishes to take them alive, he does so.” Then a
third one said, “We wield the swords, but the Shāh takes the glory!” The others
exclaimed, “You unworthy Ṣufi! Why do you speak blasphemy? What power do
our swords have? The true sword is the sword of the Shāh, which he wields like
Dhulfeqār! What is a dust-mote compared to the sun?”
Hearing this, Shāh Esmāʿil was incandescent with rage. He was on the verge
of bursting in on that gathering to punish that unworthy Ṣufi when Ḥosayn Beg
Laleh said, “It’s the wine talking; they are not themselves, they’re just bluster-
ing.”
Esmāʿil said, “Tomorrow it will be evident who wields the sword, I or they!”
Then he left, fuming at the Qezelbāsh. As great men have said:
160 Chapter 29

One young whelp at a gathering

Can greatly rankle the mind of the wise.2

The next day, those two armies surged into action. ʿAlāʾoddawleh took his place
at the center of his troops; he gave Solṭān Morād a place at his side and sent
nine of his sons to the left and right wings. He divided his hundred and twenty
thousand men into five brigades and made sure they were at the peak of order.
Shāh Esmāʿil, for his part, took his place at the center of his victorious army,
and the banner of “Help from God and speedy victory” rose like the sun. His
Majesty placed Abdāl Beg in the right wing and on the left he placed Dadeh
Beg Ṭālesh, while in the vanguard he placed Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli.
When the ranks were ready and the Qezelbāsh youths were waiting to see
whom His Majesty would send into the field, they noticed that his blessed
complexion was ablaze with anger. “O Qezelbāsh!” he cried. “You who sit
around saying, ‘On the day of battle we fight, but the Shāh takes the glory’—
well, here is the battlefield and here is the sword; whoever goes onto the battle-
field, good luck to him!”
When they heard this, the Qezelbāsh were ashamed. “What liar could have
said such a thing?” they asked. The commanders, chagrined, shook their heads,
asking, “Who could have had the temerity to say such a thing?”
“That is exactly what he said,” retorted the Shāh.
Then the vanguard of ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s army entered the battlefield, and
Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli set off with the Ṣafavid vanguard to fight. A number
of men on both sides were killed or wounded, and the armies pulled back. For
three days the two armies clashed on the battlefield, but neither could defeat
the other.
Finally, on the third day, Shāh Esmāʿil said, “O Qezelbāsh! Now it is clear who
does the fighting, me or you! You have been fighting for three days and have
accomplished nothing!” He summoned Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and selected
two thousand men from among the Qezelbāsh, saying, “Anyone besides these
two thousand men who even takes a step shall be an enemy of the house of
Shaykh Ṣafi and unworthy to be a Ṣufi.” The Qezelbāsh all stood in their places
without moving a muscle.
Shāh Esmāʿil entrusted himself to the God of the eighteen thousand worlds,
then drew his world-conquering sword from its scabbard and charged onto the
battlefield, where he killed a number of the enemy vanguard. Solṭān Ebrāhim
Mirzā, too, rushed to the forefront of the army. They killed or wounded many
of the enemy, who retreated in defeat to their brigade. Shāh Esmāʿil pursued

2 From the Golestān of Saʿdi (chapter 2, tale no. 5).

The Royal Banners Head For Diyārbakr 161

them, defeating the first brigade and chasing them back to the second. The
marketplace of strife and chaos did a brisk business as Esmāʿil split in two ev-
eryone whom he struck with his sword. Finally, after breaking through several
brigades, he drove on to the final brigade, where ʿAlāʾoddawleh and Solṭān
Morād were, killing and wounding as he went.
ʿAlāʾoddawleh said to Solṭān Morād, “Do you see that Qezelbāsh youth and
the havoc he is wreaking?”
Solṭān Morād looked and, recognizing the Shāh, said, “I have seen him many
times; this young man whom you see is none other than Shaykh-oghli. There is
no place for us here now; we had better follow the army in retreat.”
Shāh Esmāʿil, having defeated that army, made his way to the base of its
battle-standard. Since he did not see ʿAlāʾoddawleh or Solṭān Morād, he asked
where they were. He was told, “When your insignia appeared, they and their
men retreated.” Then His Majesty overturned the Dhulqadr battle-standard.
When the Qezelbāsh saw the enemy banner thus overthrown, they leaped
from their places and rushed at the enemy troops, defeating them through the
grace of the Creator of the world. The army of the Dhulqadr scattered in re-
treat.
Seeing this, ʿAlāʾoddawleh and Solṭān Morād ran away along the road lead-
ing to the fortress of Darnāgawhar. After they had left, Shāh Esmāʿil entered the
camp of ʿAlāʾoddawleh in glory and victory, fortune and felicity, and his victori-
ous troops set about plundering the goods and possessions of the Dhulqadr
and Torkmān armies.
When Shāh Esmāʿil had ascertained that ʿAlāʾoddawleh had fled to the for-
tress of Darnāgawhar, he granted governorship of Diyārbakr to Moḥammad
Khān Ostājlu and set off with his troops after ʿAlāʾoddawleh and Solṭān Morād.
He ordered Ḥosayn Beg Laleh to take two thousand men as far as the river
Darnā and not to let the enemy establish a crossing. Ḥosayn Beg went and set
up camp there.
Now when ʿAlāʾoddawleh reached the fortress of Darnāgawhar, he told his
son Sāru Aṣlān to take two thousand men and go to the shore of the river Darnā
to prevent “Shaykh-oghli’s” army from crossing. But when Sāru Aṣlān got to the
river with his army, he saw that the Qezelbāsh had already arrived and set up
their encampment on the other side. So he ordered his own men to set up their
camp.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, out of caution, assigned four thousand Qezelbāsh to pa-
trol the shore, telling them to alert him if the enemy made a move.
After twenty days had passed, Sāru Aṣlān had a dream in which he saw that
it was necessary to launch a surprise night-raid on the Qezelbāsh. So in the
middle of the night he had his men prepare a boat, and once across the river,
162 Chapter 29

they drew the sword of vengeance and fell upon their enemies. A great tumult
broke out, and the Qezelbāsh, jerked awake, were at a loss as those villains laid
them low with their swords. Initially caught unawares, those four thousand
Qezelbāsh soon realized that the army of Sāru Aṣlān had crossed the river and
were attacking their camp.
Now when Ḥosayn Beg Laleh heard the tumult, he thought: “If the enemy
were on the march, surely a little bird would have told me.” So he thought noth-
ing of it. Just then, though, word arrived that Sāru Aṣlān was raiding the
Qezelbāsh camp, and he let out a cry. He had no choice but to jump on his
horse and ride into the camp, striving mightily to get the Qezelbāsh to mount
up and shouting, “Our only hope is to flee!” He thought this because many of
the Qezelbāsh were wounded and many had run away; some were stupefied
with panic.
The enemy was fully armed and ready for battle, and they rampaged through
the camp wreaking havoc with their swords. As the Qezelbāsh prepared to re-
treat, they saw that the army of the Dhulqadr had surrounded them, and
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh realized that it was useless to flee—the whole army was go-
ing to be killed. Nevertheless, they fought to escape until dawn broke. Ḥosayn
Beg and the Qezelbāsh managed to break through one wing of the Dhulqadr
forces, and they headed for the royal camp.
It happened that Ḥosayn Beg got separated as he fled. When Sāru Aṣlān saw
the Qezelbāsh army getting away, he cried to his men, “Don’t let them escape!”
and rode off to find Ḥosayn Beg. Spotting an old man in jewelled clothing flee-
ing alone on a swift horse, he said to himself, “Surely this is a Qezelbāsh com-
mander!” He spurred on his horse, charged ahead, and thrust his spear into the
links of Ḥosayn Beg’s belt, pulling that elderly Ṣufi from his saddle. Sāru Aṣlān
was about to dismount and behead him, but as fortune would have it, a servant
of Ḥosayn Beg’s named Fulād Beg was nearby. Seeing his master thrown from
his horse, he rushed over to help. He helped Ḥosayn Beg back into his saddle
and said, “You go, and will I cover your escape; if I am killed, may you and His
Majesty prosper!”
Sāru Aṣlān saw a young Qezelbāsh helping the old man mount up and get
away. He said, “Young man, that wasn’t your father, was it?” Fulād Beg replied,
“That was the tutor (laleh) of His Majesty the Shāh!”
When Sāru Aṣlān heard the word laleh, he spurred his horse, saying to him-
self, “Who cares about this young Qezelbāsh? I have to take care of Ḥosayn Beg
Laleh!” He took off in pursuit of him, but Fulād Beg shot an arrow at his horse
which knocked it right off its feet. Sāru Aṣlān was left standing. Fulād Beg was
advancing to knock him down as well when a group of Dhulqadr soldiers ar-
rived. They formed a ring around Sāru Aṣlān, protecting him as they helped
The Royal Banners Head For Diyārbakr 163

him mount another horse. Then he said to Fulād Beg, “You have let my prey
escape from my grasp; now I will punish you for it!”
Fulād Beg saw two or three Dhulqadr troops dismount at the command of
Ṣāru Aslān. So he hurried over to his Arabian mare, jumped into the saddle,
and knocked those men off their feet. Then he sped away.
Sāru Aṣlān bit his fingers in amazement, saying, “These Qezelbāsh are amaz-
ing!” Then he returned to the Qezelbāsh camp, where he entered the tent of
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh. The Dhulqadr were busy plundering and dividing up the
goods of the Qezelbāsh; they gave that which had belonged to Ḥosayn Beg La-
leh to Sāru Aṣlān.
The royal encampment had been erected some four leagues from the river
Darnā. That night one of the Ṣufi youths went there to bring the news of the
attack of Sāru Aṣlān and the flight of the Qezelbāsh. The news was brought to
the attention of Shāh Esmāʿil right away.
Esmāʿil was shocked. “God forbid that Ḥosayn Beg Laleh have been killed!”
he said. That very hour he and the royal army mounted up and headed for the
river Darnā. They had gone a ways when Ḥosayn Beg Laleh appeared. After
kissing the royal foot, he told His Majesty about Sāru Aṣlān’s night-raid. Esmāʿil
said, “O my tutor, don’t be unhappy; sometimes fighting results in victory,
sometimes in defeat.” Then he rode off.
When he reached the camp of the Dhulqadr, where Sāru Aṣlān had seated
himself in Ḥosayn Beg Laleh’s tent, His Majesty ordered that the war-trumpets
be sounded. He and the Qezelbāsh surrounded the enemy and, drawing their
swords with shouts of manliness, they fell upon the Dhulqadr, killing and
wounding a great number.
When Sāru Aṣlān realized what was happening, he mounted his horse and
hastened to the shore of the river, where the Dhulqadr had left their boat. A
group of his men had just caught up with him when he crossed the river, scut-
tled the boat, and ran off to join ʿAlāʾoddawleh. The Dhulqadr, left behind and
terrified of Shāh Esmāʿil, jumped into the river and were drowned.
At daybreak, one of Sāru Aṣlān’s men went into the presence of ʿAlāʾoddawleh.
There he announced a victory, and they beat the drums to signal the good
news. But in the afternoon the news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil had fallen upon
Sāru Aṣlān and defeated him, and that many of the Dhulqadr had been killed;
Sāru Aṣlān had fled, and now here he was!
ʿAlāʾoddawleh rebuked the Dhulqadr troops, saying, “What happened to
your nerve? Whenever you fight, you are defeated and run away!”
After defeating Sāru Aṣlān, Shāh Esmāʿil prepared some boats and crossed
the river Darnā with his troops, soon arriving at the foot of Mount Darnā.
When they looked they saw a mountain as lofty as the inclinations of the
164 Chapter 29

noble, whose peak brushed up against the celestial sphere itself. A fortress of
utter impregnability had been built on its peak, with but one road leading up
to it. Shāh Esmāʿil regretted coming to this place, since it was in Anatolia and
taking that fortress was going to be difficult.
Shāh Esmāʿil Sends A Letter To ʿalāʾoddawleh 165

Chapter 30

Shāh Esmāʿil Sends a Letter to ʿAlāʾoddawleh, Who Responds with an Offer

of Peace; His Majesty Returns to Ādharbāyjān

When Shāh Esmāʿil arrived at the foot of Mount Darnā with his army and
looked up at the fortress, he ordered that a few words be written to ʿAlāʾoddawleh
thus: “O ʿAlāʾoddawleh, the feckless Solṭān Morād is a sinner against my celes-
tial court. He has slipped the bonds of royal service and taken refuge with you.
You, too, will be scorched by the fire of that half-burned failure. Bind him in
fetters and chains, place a pillory around his neck, and send him to our world-
sheltering court. We will accept him as a guarantee; then you go back to your
affairs, and we shall return whence we came. Unless you think of another way,
know with certainty that until we bring you out and remove the head of Solṭān
Morād the Failure from the fortress of his body, we shall not leave the foot of
this fortress. Keep the rest in mind. Peace.”
When Shāh Esmāʿil’s letter reached ʿAlāʾoddawleh, he studied its contents
and saw that His Majesty was dead set on seizing Solṭān Morād. He ordered
that a letter of reply be written thus:
“May it not be hidden from the world-conqueror, the breaker of the necks of
the obstinate, the divinely chosen scion of the Commander of the Faithful that
nowadays I have a name among the kings of the earth. Due to the temptation
of some seditious ones, I have fought with your attendants, and handed over
eighty thousand Torkmāns and Dhulqadr to destruction. Having realized that
God has chosen you from among men, and that none can resist those who have
been chosen by the Lord of the World, I withdrew to the summit of this moun-
tain. If Your Majesty’s attendants leave me be, I vow that from now on I will
venture no further than the shore of the river Darnā. I grant Diyārbakr to your
slaves and withdraw my claim to it. Further, regarding your command to hand
over Solṭān Morād, today it is clear to all that only he remains from among the
heirs of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, the rest of whom have bent before your sword. He
has sought refuge with me and is now my son-in-law. I entreat you by the grave
of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, whose descendant you are too, to forgive him this time,
and to turn him over to me. I guarantee that henceforth if he makes a move, I
will have sinned against your royal court. I leave the rest up to you. Peace.”
When ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s letter came under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh,
His Majesty said: “Let ʿAlāʾoddawleh make a vow by Almighty God that when
our royal banners depart for Iran, he and his army will not attack us, and that

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_031

166 Chapter 30

he will not go further than the river Darnā. If he does so, I shall grant him secu-
rity; if not, not.”
When ʿAlāʾoddawleh heard this news, he made the vow, wrote it down, and
sent it to Shāh Esmāʿil.
His Majesty granted the governorship of Qarāḥamid to Moḥammadi Solṭān
the Torkmān, but the latter’s brother came to him and said, “I do not think
Moḥammadi Solṭān is trustworthy.” So Esmāʿil gave the fortress of Barjuk to the
brother and turned control of Qarāḥamid over to someone else.
But Moḥammadi Solṭān was still in Qarāḥamid when Shāh Esmāʿil set off in
triumph to return to Tabriz and Ādharbāyjān. Two months later, Moḥammadi
Solṭān the Torkmān turned traitor, just as his brother had said he would. He
struck coins in the name of ʿAlāʾoddawleh and pronounced the khoṭbeh in the
name of the Three Companions.1 He sent someone to ʿAlāʾoddawleh with this
message: “I have done thus with the coins and the khoṭbeh and seized
Qarāḥamid for you. Moḥammad Khān is in Diyārbakr with six thousand
Ostājlu troops; when he gets word of this, he will attack us. Come and help us,
it is urgent!”
When ʿAlāʾoddawleh got this message, he closed the door of well-being on
himself and sent his sons Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān to Qarāḥamid at the
head of sixteen thousand men. News of the perfidy of Moḥammadi Solṭān now
reached Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu; at once he readied six thousand Ostājlu
troops and set off from Diyārbakr for Qarāḥamid. They arrived at the foot of
the citadel, and Moḥammad Khān wrote a letter to Moḥammadi Solṭān thus:
“Apparently you do not fear the wrath of the Shāh, since you have done this!
Your brother had warned that you have no share in the good name of this
house, but His Majesty did not listen and entrusted you with this region. Give
up this vain dream! His Majesty has not yet heard of this affair, but if he does, I
can smooth things over, so that he will look on you with kindness.”
After he read this letter, Moḥammadi Solṭān wrote in reply: “Well, aren’t you
observant, O noble Khān! Although our forefathers served the house of Ḥasan
Pādeshāh for many years, now we have forgotten them all and we serve their
enemies—and as if that weren’t enough, we have changed our religion, hereti-
cally turning our backs on the noble Companions of the Prophet. I don’t like
this! Moreover, king ʿAlāʾoddawleh will not let you be governor here; let Shaykh-
oghli come to you himself. He has delivered you to destruction! If you are a true
man, you will sit at the foot of this fortress for another twenty days.”
When he read this, Moḥammad Khān was incensed. He ordered his men to
surround the fortress and make thorough preparations for siege warfare.

1 I.e., the first three Caliphs.

Shāh Esmāʿil Sends A Letter To ʿalāʾoddawleh 167

Now when Solṭān Salim noticed what the Qezelbāsh were up to, he thought
to himself that if ʿAlāʾoddawleh were to fall, they would be in a position to con-
quer all of Anatolia. He wrote a letter to ʿOthmān Pāshā saying: “Take twelve
thousand men and attack Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār; perhaps with him out of the
way, the whole Qezelbāsh army will be defeated.” Word was brought to Aḥmad
Solṭān that ʿOthmān Pāshā was going to attack him with twelve thousand men.
Aḥmad Solṭān gathered his army and told them, “Every man take two hors-
es, for I want to make such a night-raid that they won’t even think of trying this
again!” The whole army was of one spirit, reciting the verse, “Wherever our
commander goes, there we will follow him!”2 All of them took two horses and
they left the fortress, sending spies ahead as they did.
The Anatolians were holed up three days’ journey from the fortress. Aḥmad
Solṭān and his men covered those eighteen leagues as quickly as if they were
twelve and hid behind a mountain. ʿOthmān Pāshā ordered spies to go out and
obtain information while he stayed behind, calm and defenseless. At that mo-
ment Aḥmad Solṭān ordered his Qezelbāsh to attack, and they hurled them-
selves against those twelve thousand Anatolians. Leaping into action, they
surrounded ʿOthmān Pāshā’s tent, cut his head off and mounted it on the point
of a spear, then plunged with swords drawn into the main part of the Anatolian
army. The Anatolians were so overwhelmed that every one of them who spot-
ted a horse got on it and fled to Arzenjān. The Qezelbāsh victory in this hour
was a blessing from the Immaculate Emāms.
Aḥmad Solṭān plundered the Anatolians’ tents and possessions and headed
to the fortress with six thousand enemy heads. In the late afternoon, when
Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu was coming from Diyārbakr on his mission of assis-
tance, Aḥmad Solṭān ordered his men to bring the Anatolians’ heads out to
him, and he came along to welcome him as well.
When the Khān saw this display of virility, he praised Aḥmad Solṭān highly.
Aḥmad Solṭān described the battle for him, and the Khān said, “You are truly
outstanding! Indeed, you are just as His Majesty told me; he has said repeat-
edly, ‘If Aḥmad Solṭān were not so impatient, I would place him at the head of
my army in battle, but he is rash.’”
Anyway, Aḥmad Solṭān hosted the Khān for three days and presented many
gifts. On the fourth day the Khān was thinking of going to make summer-camp
in the narcissus fields when word came from Diyārbakr that once more the
sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr had come to Qarāḥamid with thirty thousand
men. The Khān said, “Even though my uncle Maḥmud Beg is in the fortress, I

2 This is a robāʿi hemistich in the original.

168 Chapter 30

don’t know whether he can manage them,” and he immediately mounted up

and took to the road toward Qarāḥamid.
Meanwhile, the Khān’s brother Qarākhān was coming out and winning vic-
tories all by himself. Twenty days later, the Khān arrived face-to-face with the
Qezelbāsh and Dhulqadr armies.
Moḥammadi Solṭān, seeing that his situation would be difficult until
ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s army arrived, wrote a letter to Eskandar Khān the Maḥmudi
Kurd3 saying: “The Qezelbāsh army has surrounded the fortress of Qarāḥamid,
and I am in a tight spot. If they take Qarāḥamid, they won’t leave you alone
either. Raise an army and come here to make a night-raid on the Qezelbāsh. If
I come out from the fortress as well, maybe we can take care of them together.
After we drive them off, you will get much booty in the way of colorful tents
and swift Arabian horses and mules and camels and Georgian slaves all be-
decked with jewels; you will enjoy great renown!”
When Eskandar Khān heard that so much free booty was at the foot of
Qarāḥamid with so few Qezelbāsh to guard it, his greed was aroused. He
rounded up seven thousand Maḥmudi Kurds and set off for Qarāḥamid.
But the holy Commander of the Faithful appeared to one of the Kurds in a
dream and said: “You must go to the governor of Diyārbakr, who is at the foot
of the fortress of Qarāḥamid, and tell him that the army of Eskandar Khān is
coming. He will make you one of his attendants and raise you to a high posi-
tion. Perhaps also I will give you repose in this world.” So that Kurd fell behind
the army, then slipped away and rode toward Qarāḥamid. When he reached
the Qezelbāsh camp he approached one of them and said, “I have things to say
to the Khān which I must tell him in private!”
That Qezelbāsh went to Moḥammad Khān and said, “A Kurd has arrived say-
ing such-and-such.”
The Khān invited the Kurd in and granted him an audience. “Yours is a won-
drous sect,” said the Kurd. “As one of its blessings, your lord has put the inten-
tion in my heart to abandon Eskandar Khān and come here with news for you.”
“What news do you have?” asked the Khān.
“Know and be aware of this, that I am one of Eskandar Khān’s attendants,
and my story is as I have told you. In any case, Eskandar Khān will make a
night-raid upon you tonight with seven thousand men. I find it a pity that
young men such as you should be destroyed at the hands of their enemy.”
Moḥammad Khān said, “Keep an eye on this man,” and when night fell, he
ordered the Qezelbāsh to leave their tents and head into the wilderness.

3 This seems to be in opposition to the “Yazidi Kurds” (kord-e yazidi) with whom the Safavids
fought in an earlier chapter.
Shāh Esmāʿil Sends A Letter To ʿalāʾoddawleh 169

Then Eskandar Khān and his great army arrived and fell upon the Qezelbāsh
camp, but when they looked around, they didn’t see anyone there. “Clearly the
Qezelbāsh heard we were coming and fled!” said Eskandar Khān. He rode over
to the tent of Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu and dismounted. The Kurdish soldiers
confidently entered the Qezelbāsh tents and took what they found there. They
had loaded up their horses and were about to leave when from all directions
the sound of the Qezelbāsh war-trumpets reached Eskandar Khān’s ears. He
ran out of his tent in a panic, only to hear the clashing of swords all around
him. Realizing that it was useless to stay any longer, he turned to run away. He
got as far as the camp market before the Qezelbāsh recognized him and dealt
him two or three sword-wounds, but he managed to get away with only these
injuries. He looked back as he fled and saw the Qezelbāsh troops with their
swords in their hands, splitting the heads of the Kurds until they saw that they
had killed four thousand men and that the rest of them were running away, a
great many of them wounded.
Moḥammadi Solṭān heard the commotion and sent someone to see what
was going on. That person reported that the Kurds had attacked the Qezelbāsh,
who were running away. Moḥammadi Solṭān said, “Moḥammad Khān is not
the kind of man to run away from an army of Maḥmudi Kurds—he must have
played a trick!” So he did not leave the fortress.
After some time, the sound of Qezelbāsh war-trumpets sounded. Moḥam­
madi Solṭān said, “Go see what this means!” Someone went and returned with
the news of the flight of the Kurds, explaining what had happened. Moḥammadi
Solṭān said, “Now I know that Moḥammad Khān is a true man. He would not
flee before the Kurdish army.”
The Qezelbāsh ghāzis brought the heads of the Kurds to Moḥammad Khān,
and when they counted them, they saw that four thousand men had been
killed. Then Moḥammad Khān sent for the Kurd who had brought the warning
and asked him how many men had been in the army he was with.
“Seven thousand men,” he replied.
The Khān said, “I won’t let any of them get away!” He left Qarākhān encamp-
ed at the foot of the fortress with three thousand men and gathered another
three thousand to go pursue the Kurdish army.
The next day, when the Kurds were in a meadow, grazing their horses and
resting their many wounded on their shields, Moḥammad Khān and Qezelbāsh
sprang upon them with cries of “Hu! Hu!”4 A thousand Kurds became prey for
their well-watered blades, while the rest took to their heels and fled. When
Moḥammad Khān had returned to Qarāḥamid, he sought out his Kurdish

4 I.e., He (God)!
170 Chapter 30

informant and showed him great affection, granting him a thousand tumāns
and making him his attendant. He also promised him to bring him to Shāh
Esmāʿil, who would in turn make him his attendant. The Kurd, for his part, be-
came a true-believing Shiʿi and cursed the enemies of the faith. “What is your
name?” Moḥammad Khān asked him.
“Aḥmad Khān,” replied the Kurd.
Moḥammad Khān said, “I give you the name Aḥmad Solṭān.” Then he asked
him, “Do you believe there is a road nearby which we could take to get to the
homeland of Eskandar Khān before he does?”
“The desert road will do it,” said Aḥmad Solṭān, “but we need to gather provi-
sions.”
So Moḥammad Khān ordered that provisions be gathered; then they set off
on the desert road to the lands of the Yazidi [sic] Kurds.
Now when Eskandar Khān fled, he appointed a spy to see whether
Moḥammad Khān would follow him or go home. The spy reported that
Moḥammad Khān had returned to his camp, unaware that he was going to set
off on the desert road. Eskandar Khān was relieved and left to return to his
homeland.
Moḥammad Khān hurried down that road, covering fifty leagues in three
days. The Kurds had pitched their black tents in a meadow and were sitting in
them when Moḥammad Khān and his troops arrived. They drew their swords
and tore into the tents of the Kurds, killing many. The rest scattered, fled into
their citadel, and shut the door tightly.
Since Moḥammad Khān realized that taking that fortress would be difficult,
he took the Kurds’ wives and children prisoner; he also plundered what there
was in the way of goods and possessions, horses and mules and cattle and
sheep. Then he set off for home again. He had gone twelve leagues along the
road when he spotted the wounded Eskandar Khān coming with seventy or
eighty thousand men. Upon seeing the Qezelbāsh army, Eskandar Khān asked
what it was; he was told that it was Moḥammad Khān, returning from plunder-
ing the Kurdish land. Eskandar Khān realized that he did not have the strength
to resist Moḥammad Khān, so he ordered his men to disperse.
“Don’t let them get away!” cried Moḥammad Khān. His troops set off in pur-
suit, and although Eskandar Khān escaped, a great many of his men were killed
or wounded, and the rest ran away. Moḥammad Khān and the Qezelbāsh then
plundered what the Kurds had left behind and brought it to the foot of the
citadel of Qarāḥamid. Moḥammadi Solṭān Torkmān went to the top of the for-
tress and looked around, asking, “What happened?”
“Moḥammad Khān has chased off Eskandar Khān and plundered the Kurds,”
he was told.
Shāh Esmāʿil Sends A Letter To ʿalāʾoddawleh 171

At this, Moḥammadi Solṭān sent a petition to ʿAlāʾoddawleh which read:

“What paltry compassion you are showing me! Loyal to you, and dependent on
the Dhulqadr army, I have abandoned the rebellion and sedition of Shaykh-
oghli; why do you not send troops to drive Moḥammad Khān away from here?”
When the messenger carrying this petition got to the bank of the river
Darnā, he saw that the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh, Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān, had
arrived there with sixteen thousand men. He gave the petition to them, and
when they had read it, they wrote in response, “We shall arrive on such-and-
such day. You defend the fortress like a man, for we are on our way.” When
Moḥammadi Solṭān got this news, he cheered up.
172 Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān Come to the Aid of Moḥammadi Solṭān and are
Killed by Qarākhān the Brother of Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu, Who is
Victorious

Prior to all this, Moḥammad Khān had sent spies to the fortress of Darnā. Now
the spy reported the news that the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh, Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru
Qaplān, were on the way with sixteen thousand men. Expecting them to arrive
at the fortress together with the army of the Dhulqadr in ten days, Moḥammad
Khān left the foot of the fortress and retreated some distance.
When Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān arrived, they ordered that the war-drums
be beaten. Moḥammad Khān did the same. The next day, the two great armies
arrayed themselves opposite each other.
The first man to head into battle was Sāru Qaplān; he rode onto the battle-
field and roared, “O Moḥammad Khān, I have heard that when you are drunk
you say, ‘I have attained my fortunate rank with blows of my sword.’ Well, come
out and let me see just how skillful you are!”
Moḥammad Khān was about to go onto the battlefield when Qarākhān said,
“O my brother, you are the commander of this army; with your permission I
will go onto the battlefield and bring this man back as a prisoner.”
Moḥammad Khān replied, “Didn’t you hear that it is me he is challenging?”
Without even letting him finish, Qarākhān turned the reins of his steed to-
ward the battlefield and rode straight toward Sāru Qaplān. When Sāru Qaplān
saw him, he said, “Are you Moḥammad Khān?”
“Yes!” replied Qarākhān. “You challenged me!”
“What are you standing around for?” asked Sāru Qaplān. “Have at you!” And
they started to fight. They battled each other for two full hours; they fought
with spears and bows and arrows, finally drawing their diamond-hued blades
for close combat. But they were so wrapped in iron and steel that swords were
of no use. Then Qarākhān thought, “A sword will have no effect on the body of
this demon-like man. I must strike him on the back of the neck; perhaps that
will work.” The same thought had just occurred to Sāru Qaplān when Qarākhān
struck such a blow to his neck that it split his head from his body like a cucum-
ber, and he fell to the ground.
A cry of “Allāhu akbar!” went up from the Qezelbāsh. Sāru Aṣlān rent his
collar in grief and charged onto the battlefield, followed at once by the Dhul-
qadr army. Moḥammad Khān also leaped into action and the battle became
thick in an incredible uproar. Sāru Aṣlān gave a great cry, and Qarākhān turned

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_032

Sāru Aṣlān And Sāru Qaplān Come To The Aid Of Moḥammadi Solṭān 173

to face him. After some preliminary insults and swordplay, Qarākhān struck
Sāru Aṣlān a blow that cut him in two at the waist.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Khān and the Qezelbāsh were going about smiting
and striking and slaughtering, and when Sāru Qaplān and Sāru Aṣlān had both
been killed, the Dhulqadr and Torkmān armies broke, fled pell-mell, and scat-
tered. They left their tents and possessions where they stood but took the bod-
ies of Sāru Qaplān and Sāru Aṣlān with them. The defeated troops headed for
the river Darnā with a thousand calamities, crossing the bridge to bring the
news to ʿAlāʾoddawleh. The Qezelbāsh pursued them, killing many. Then they
returned.
Moḥammad Khān and his victorious troops thoroughly plundered the pos-
sessions of the Dhulqadr. Then they returned in triumph to the foot of the
fortress of Qarāḥamid.
When the despicable Moḥammadi Solṭān saw how things had turned out
with the battle, his thoughts turned to flight. The inhabitants of the fortress
found out about this, and they said to each other: “If this Torkmān flees,
Moḥammad Khān will surely kill us all; we have to mollify the Qezelbāsh by
opening the fortress gate and letting them in.”
So the nobles and local leaders wrote a petition which they gave to someone
to take down from the fortress and give to Moḥammad Khān. When the mes-
senger arrived and gave him the message, Moḥammad Khān read it and said,
“If they don’t open the gate, I will kill all of them!” Then he told the messenger,
“Take this message back to your people: Tonight the Qezelbāsh will lie in wait,
and they should open the gate for them.”
The messenger replied, “I cannot go. They will open the gate; that is what
they sent me to tell you.”
Moḥammad Khān ordered a group of Qezelbāsh to lie in wait that night. In
the middle of the night, the conspirators in the citadel seized the Torkmān
troops from their houses while they were sleeping and tied them up. Then they
went to the house of Moḥammadi Solṭān and took him prisoner as well. Hav-
ing gathered all these prisoners, the conspirators opened the fortress gate and
brought them to Moḥammad Khān. Finding himself seized and turned over to
Moḥammad Khān, Moḥammadi Solṭān realized what a mistake he had made
and lost all hope.
“You cowardly wretch,” said Moḥammad Khān, “what have you done by
turning away from the house of Shaykh Ṣafi, and what are you going to do
now?”
“Do what you will,” Moḥammadi Solṭān replied, “for I have an ally in
ʿAlāʾoddawleh, who will avenge my blood on you.”
174 Chapter 31

Moḥammad Khān said, “I was thinking of sending you to His Majesty the
Shāh, who might have forgiven and freed you out of respect for your brother.
Now, though, I see you are unworthy of life.” And he ordered that Moḥammadi
Solṭān’s head be struck off and be sent to the Shāh along with the heads of the
sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh. After that, he left Qarākhān with a thousand men in the
fortress of Qarāḥamid and set off for Diyārbakr.
Meanwhile, the Dhulqadr troops had taken the biers of the sons of
ʿAlāʾoddawleh and headed for the fortress of Darnā. The news reached that for-
tress that the Dhulqadr army was on its way back. But no one dared tell
ʿAlāʾoddawleh that his sons had been killed. ʿAlāʾoddawleh asked, “Did they kill
Moḥammad Khān, or are they bringing him alive?”
“We don’t know what happened,” they replied.
The next day word came that the army was one day away. ʿAlāʾoddawleh told
his sons to go out and welcome their brothers. So they, along with the Dhul-
qadr elders, mounted up and went out. After a day’s journey, they met up with
the Dhulqadr troops. As the biers of Sāru Aṣlān and Sāru Qaplān came into
sight, it became clear what had happened. They rent their collars and poured
dust on their heads in grief and turned back to the fortress of Darnā.
When ʿAlāʾoddawleh learned the terrible news, he let out wails and cries;
then he swore an oath, saying, “I shall not rest until the killers of my sons are
captured. I collect tribute and taxes from two mighty kings, and today I shall
extract it from the sons of Shaykh Ṣafi as well!” Then he reviewed thirty thou-
sand troops from the Dhulqadr army in preparation for moving against
Moḥammad Khān.
His sons said to him, “In your grief you have dropped the thread of state, and
you do not know what you are doing. Who is Moḥammad Khān that you should
go fight with him? We shall go and bring him as a prisoner to you.”
ʿAlāʾoddawleh said, “I am afraid lest treacherous fortune lay scars upon my
scars.” Then he said, “I grant you two brothers leave; now go.”
His sons Ardavān and Kurshāhrokh set off with thirty thousand men to fight
Moḥammad Khān and Qarākhān. They set up camp outside the fortress of
Qarāḥamid. Hearing of this, Qarākhān was about to go out and fight them; but
then he thought to himself, “No commander under siege has to go out and face
a great army with a few men.” So he gave orders to prepare for a siege-defense.
When he was ready, he went up on top of the fortress tower and saw a number-
less army whose tents surrounded the fortress base for nearly a league.
Ardavān Beg and Kurshāhrokh wrote a letter to Qarākhān which read thus:
“Why are you going to the trouble of a siege-defense? If you are expecting
help from your brother, thinking he will come here and fight, know that when
he hears about our sea-churning army, he will abandon Diyārbakr and flee to
Sāru Aṣlān And Sāru Qaplān Come To The Aid Of Moḥammadi Solṭān 175

Tabriz, and then what will you do against this host, which is as strong as a
mountain? Get up and come to us with your sword against your neck, so that
we may take you to our father; we shall plead on your behalf that the battle
went this way by Divine decree, and he will spare you. Otherwise, we shall take
this fortress by force, and put you and those thousand Qezelbāsh to death. You
know the rest.”
When Qarākhān received their emissary and letter, he told the emissary,
“Tell the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh this: You should think about yourselves! God
willing, my brother Moḥammad Khān will come here and seize you in battle,
clap you in chains, and send you to the Shāh. And after that he will go to the
fortress of Darnā, plunder it, destroy your crown and throne, and bring your
father in chains to His Majesty’s royal court.”
The emissary left Qarākhān and told the brothers what had happened.
When they heard it, they said, “On penalty of having their wives forbidden to
them,1 at dawn everyone will head for the fortress with sword in hand!”
The next day those two brothers and the Dhulqadr army marched with their
shields over their heads toward the fortress.
Prior to this, Qarākhān had said, “If those thirty thousand men should at-
tack, this sky-high fortress will be leveled to the ground in an instant.” So he
ordered his men to prepare sacks of gunpowder and heavy stones and pots of
oil and little pouches full of nails and gunpowder. The Dhulqadr army ap-
proached the fortress, and they gotten as far as the moat when those thousand
Qezelbāsh began shooting from the battlements. With blows of arrows and
gunshot they killed or wounded a number of the enemy. The Dhulqadr rushed
at the fortress, but Qarākhān ordered that the heavy stones be hurled down
from on high, scattering the brains of many men. After that, they set the bags
of gunpowder alight and cast them down among the enemy, blasting many of
them. The smoke of the gunpowder darkened the face of the whole earth as
Ardavān Beg, too, was incinerated.
More than half of the Dhulqadr army had been burned and wounded when
they retreated from the fortress and headed back to their camp. Kurshāhrokh
asked about Ardavān Beg; when he learned that his brother had been burned
to death, he tore his collar and cried out in grief. But there was nothing to be
done. Someone was sent to ʿAlāʾoddawleh to ask for assistance, prompting
ʿAlāʾoddawleh to send his son Moḥammad Khān at the head of twenty thou-
sand men.

1 The term used is zan-ṭalāq, meaning an oath sworn to the effect that should the oath-taker
fail in a declared undertaking, his wife is considered legally divorced and thus morally forbid-
den to him.
176 Chapter 31

Moḥammad Khān left the fortress of Darnā with his troops and marched to
the fortress of Qarāḥamid, where he joined his brother’s encampment. Two
days later, Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu came to the region of Qarāḥamid from
Diyārbakr with six thousand men. When word of his approach reached
Qarākhān, he sent a message to Kurshāhrokh saying, “You see, my brother
Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu has come! You had better leave the foot of the for-
tress and beat a retreat, for we are coming out to fight you!”
Kurshāhrokh, hearing that Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu had come, saw no op-
tion but to withdraw from the fortress. The next day the Khān arrived and set
up camp facing the Dhulqadr army with his back to the fortress.
Moḥammad Khān Dhulqadr decided to send an emissary to Moḥammad
Khān Ostājlu, and he wrote a letter that read:
“May it not be concealed from the lofty mind of that wise Khān, that virile
champion, Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu, that you laid low two of our brothers by
trickery and deceit, and that your brother Qarākhān killed a third with fire.
Now our father has sent us brothers to avenge the blood of the others and not
to let a single Qezelbāsh escape with his life. However, considering the ins and
outs of the matter and the turning of the fickle celestial sphere, there is noth-
ing in the world better than goodness. We have thus granted you security on
the condition that you leave Diyārbakr and return to your pādeshāh. If you do
not, think twice, for even if you were a mountain of steel, you still would not
escape this army alive, and once we have mastery of you, bad things will hap-
pen. Peace!”
Then he gave the message to an emissary and sent him to Moḥammad Khān
Ostājlu. The emissary went to the Qezelbāsh encampment and presented the
letter to Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu, who read the letter and ordered that a re-
sponse be written thus:
“Since you, too, are desirous of leaving a good name in this world, you must
submit your plans to the scrutiny of Him who is the guide of the kingdoms of
knowledge and awareness, consult with Him regarding the prudence of the
matter you and your army are undertaking, and perceive well what He says
regarding affairs in this world and the next! For today the affairs of the world
are no more than a dream, and whoever binds his heart to a dream will end up
with naught but wind in his grasp; greed and avarice ‘are not the eye of the
hopeful.’2 A man must act so that when they take him to the marketplace of
eternity and his goods are counted up under the eyes of those there, he may
sell them at whatever price he likes. So be careful not to do anything that will

2 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (pp. 640–41) says this sentence is probably missing one or more words, as it
is “feeble” (sost).
Sāru Aṣlān And Sāru Qaplān Come To The Aid Of Moḥammadi Solṭān 177

leave you with nothing but regret. Since you breathe the air of civility and gen-
erosity and have cast a glance at the good and evil of your deeds, you have seen
that if the Lord of the World so pleases, he directs you where you will to go, and
if He does not wish it, you must not take a step! Accordingly, when they say,
‘Our father has ordered that we kill all the Qezelbāsh to avenge our brothers,’
this is false and unjust. Be aware that in this matter success will not be your
friend. If your brothers raised an army with the goal of killing Muslims and
killed many innocents, certainly Almighty God brought about events to punish
them for their intentions. What is more, your brothers entered battle with thir-
ty thousand men and were defeated and killed by a mere five thousand, who
encountered no obstacles and none of whom were caught unawares to be
killed in an unmanly fashion, letting you draw the sword of vengeance. This in
itself is proof that whoever sets foot on the path of war will be killed in the end.
As for what you said about ‘granting us security,’ granting security is the way of
true men. When true men grant security, they have done battle with the enemy
and defeated them, taking them prisoner and binding their hands and holding
power of life and death over them. Then, showing generosity, they do not kill
them, but forgive them. You have not done any of these things to us; how then
can you ‘grant us security’? What nonsense! Have you not heard the verse of
Ferdawsi (God’s mercy be upon him!), who said:

The messenger said, ‘O master of Rakhsh,

Do not release the gazelle you haven’t caught!’

“Moreover, conquest and victory do not come from the size of an army, but
from strength and power and the support of the Lord of the World. The armies
of unbelief have ever been vast and innumerable, but the armies of Islam have
defeated them despite their small size. If in fact you are speaking truthfully and
are doing us a good deed, let me describe success for you. Know that success is
to place the hand of desire on the skirt of the King of Rule and Commander of
the Faithful with sincerity and true belief, and to do battle with his enemies
and those of the state and faith. If you are killed, you will have earned the lofty
title of martyr, and when you kill, you will have performed the holy duty of ji-
had. If you desire what I have described, if you desire success, I guarantee that
I will take you to His Majesty the Shāh, and he will elevate you to high rank in
both this world and the next. If you value success you will listen with approval
to what I have said; if not, prepare for war, and see what God Almighty grants
in the way of victory and conquest. Peace.”
He then gave the letter to the emissary and sent him off. The emissary re-
turned to Moḥammad Khān Dhulqadr and presented the letter to him. When
178 Chapter 31

he had read it, he and his men said to each other, “We always said they were
ingenuous Turks, easily fooled. Look at the response they wrote to us, as if they
had been in the business of fighting for a hundred years.” Then Moḥammad
Khān Dhulqadr ordered that the war-drums be beaten.
The next day those two great armies arose and arrayed themselves in ranks
on all sides. Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu raised his head to the heavens and said,
“O Lord of the World, you know that our heart inclines toward Your favor, and
that we are in the right. This group is wronging us; I ask You for help.”
At that moment the dogs of the Dhulqadr army, who numbered nearly two
thousand, poured baying onto the battlefield. When the dogs of the Qezelbāsh
saw them, they too rushed into the fray, though they were no more than two or
three hundred. As those two canine armies began to fight, Moḥammad Khān
Ostājlu turned to his brother Qarākhān and said, “If victory is to be ours today,
our dogs will defeat those of the Dhulqadr; if they do not, then victory belongs
to them.”
Moḥammad Khān Dhulqadr and Kurshāhrokh had also had the same idea,
and as those two armies of dogs clashed, they watched the fighting. The dogs of
the Qezelbāsh grouped themselves together and hurled themselves into the
midst of the Dhulqadr dogs, tearing four or five hundred of them to pieces. The
Dhulqadr dogs were unable to resist, and they fled the battlefield yelping.
The two Dhulqadr brothers saw the slaughter of their dogs and took it as a
bad omen, turning pale as they watched. Moḥammad Khān Dhulqadr ordered
his archers to open fire on the hounds. Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu turned again
to heaven and said, “O God, thanks be to You, for victory and conquest are Your
blessing; whether the combatants be dogs or men, You grant them victory.”
Then he said to Qarākhān, “O brother, be of good cheer, for God willing, we
shall be triumphant.”
“I am confident in the rule of His Majesty the Commander of the Faithful!”
replied Qarākhān.
Then, as the Dhulqadr entered the battlefield, Qarākhān roused a thousand
men and joined the fray. He hurled himself against the enemy vanguard and in
one fell swoop scattered them in all directions. Thereupon Moḥammad Khān
Dhulqadr entered the battle. In the course of the fighting, he and Qarākhān
came across each other, and after some back-and-forth, Qarākhān gave a shout
of “O ʿAli!” and struck his enemy on the head with such a sword-blow that he
split down to his chest and fell writhing from his mount. In the end, the Dhul-
qadr army were defeated, with many of them killed and wounded; the drums
were sounded to signal a retreat, and they left the battlefield. Kurshāhrokh was
beside himself over the death of his brother; he realized, despondent, that for-
tune had withdrawn its favor from the Dhulqadr.
Sāru Aṣlān And Sāru Qaplān Come To The Aid Of Moḥammadi Solṭān 179

The next day those two armies again stirred and arrayed their ranks. Now in
the midst of the Qezelbāsh army there was a young man from the Ostājlu clan.
He was a fresh recruit and an unfortunate, woebegone man; there was no
Qezelbāsh more pitiable than he.
At that time, it was the custom among the Qezelbāsh that the more skill a
man showed on the day of battle, the more glory he earned in the service of the
Shāh—it was not a matter of one’s lineage and origins; even if he had them, it
was superfluous—and he would be raised to high station. If even a stable-boy
showed valor in battle, he would be accepted as a soldier, and if he was yet
braver, he would be given a position of authority.
Anyhow, this new recruit was standing in the last rank wearing tattered
clothes and a worn-out tāj. He said to himself: “If you want to be delivered from
this sad state, go onto the battlefield and perform feats of daring before these
soldiers. Perhaps God Almighty will save you and you can get a piece of bread
to eat.” So he spurred his horse, rode up to Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu, and said,
“Take a look at me; I may not look like much, but our God is great. I want you
to give me permission to me to go to Kurshāhrokh and fight him. For my name,
too, is Kurshāhrokh. Let the two of us Kurshāhrokhs do battle—I am hopeful
that God Almighty will make me victorious.”
Moḥammad Khān listened to what the youth said, seeing it as a good omen.
He said, “God willing, the house of the King of Men will help you.”
So Kurshāhrokh Ostājlu went onto the battlefield and caught up to
Kurshāhrokh Dhulqadr. The latter looked and saw a man blind in one eye, like
himself,3 in a filthy condition and wanting to fight with him.
“You buffoon,” he said, “what business do you have on the field of battle?”
The young Qezelbāsh retorted, “And who might you be?”
“I am Kurshāhrokh son of ʿAlāʾoddawleh.”
“And I am Kurshāhrokh Ostājlu.”
After much back-and-forth, they began to fight. Kurshāhrokh Ostājlu
reached out and grabbed his enemy’s belt, and with a cry of “O ʿAli!” he hoisted
him out of the saddle, casting him to the ground so hard that all his bones
broke. He then sat on his chest and prepared to cut his head off, but Kurshāhrokh
Dhulqadr gave up and pleaded with him, so he bound his hands and led him
away a prisoner.
The Dhulqadr army said amongst themselves, “This cannot be!”
The elders among them said, “Be patient—if you jump up and attack, that
Qezelbāsh will cut Kurshāhrokh to pieces!”

3 Kur means “blind.”

180 Chapter 31

Kurshāhrokh Ostājlu brought his defeated namesake to Moḥammad Khān

Ostājlu, who had watched their fight and seen how the young Qezelbāsh had
captured his man. Moḥammad Khān praised him and said, “From now on, you
shall be called Kurshāhrokh Solṭān!” He presented him with a robe of honor
and a tent and horse-trappings. Kurshāhrokh Solṭān said, “Give me Kurshāhrokh
and his belongings as well.” The Khān did so.
Now when Kurshāhrokh Dhulqadr was taken to Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu,
the Dhulqadr army came together and swore, on pain of having their wives
forbidden to them, that they would go to Moḥammad Khān’s battle-standard
and rescue Kurshāhrokh. They got ready and headed onto the battlefield. A spy
reported this to Moḥammad Khān, who ordered that Kurshāhrokh’s head be
cut off and mounted on a spear. When the fighting began and the Dhulqadr
saw the head, they abandoned their tents and possessions and took to flight,
retreating to the fortress of Darnā. Of the army of the Dhulqadr, eight thou-
sand five hundred had been killed.
After the battle, Moḥammad Khān wrote a proclamation about the victory
and sent it to Shāh Esmāʿil, along with the heads of the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh
and others who had been killed. His Majesty praised Moḥammad Khān and
sent him and Qarākhān robes of honor as well as horses with jewelled reins,
tājes and turbans, and dagger-belts encrusted with precious stones. He also
ordered robes of honor for most of the Ṣafavid elders and dubbed Kurshāhrokh
“Shāhrokh Solṭān” in accordance with Moḥammad Khān’s request. The royal
hand also wrote a letter to Moḥammad Khān that said, “If ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhul-
qadr and his villainous army come in your direction, let us know, and we shall
come with our victorious royal banners to punish him.”
When the royal letter and gifts reached Moḥammad Khān, he put on his
robe of honor and dispatched a spy to the fortress of Darnā to find out what
ʿAlāʾoddawleh was up to.
But earlier, when the defeated Dhulqadr army had reached the fortress of
Darnā, they told ʿAlāʾoddawleh what had happened. Upon hearing that his
sons had been killed, he rent his collar in grief and went into mourning. After
that, he and his entire army dressed in black.
On The Nature And Circumstances Of Solṭān Salim 181

Chapter 32

On the Nature and Circumstances of Solṭān Salim, Son of Solṭān Bāyazid of

Anatolia

Solṭān Bāyazid had no son, so he used to pray to the Almighty Creator and ask
for one, in order that the crown and throne of the house of ʿOthmān should not
pass to someone else after him. He made many promises to God on this matter
at the shrine of Ḥājji Bektāsh Vali, whose devotees would comfort him.
It so happened that he had a female slave who had been brought from Cir-
cassia. She was one of his favorites, very beautiful, and she became pregnant.
When the pregnancy came to term, she bore Solṭān Salim.1 Solṭān Bāyazid
was happy and hopeful when he saw him, and he gave many gifts to the Bek­
tāshi dervishes.
When the child was seven years old, though, the Solṭān noticed that he was
very bad-tempered and disrespectful. Like a poisonous snake, he used to con-
tinually torment the inhabitants of the harem with the venom of his rage.
Bāyazid was much troubled by this; he saw no trace of compassion in the boy
at all, and he used to turn his face away from him.
Finally, one day Salim killed two slave-girls of whom the Solṭān had been
very fond. Hearing of this, Bāyazid was beside himself, and he ordered that
Salim be given fifty lashes. At the last moment, the boy’s nurse pleaded with
Bāyazid and escorted him out of the harem. He returned to his court with a
heavy heart. The grand vizier asked what was the matter. The Solṭān com-
plained about Salim, saying, “I can see what kind of heart that bastard has. God
Almighty didn’t create any mercy in him. Every time I see him my body trem-
bles; it’s as if he were my murderer.”
As much as the grand vizier tried to remove the rancor from the Solṭān’s
heart, the man was so aggrieved that the grand vizer could elicit no compas-
sion from him.
One day, when the boy was ten, the astrologers came to court. The Solṭān
wanted them to analyze his situation and predict what would happen between
him and his son; the boy was vexing him, but what would the final outcome
be? He said to the astrologer, “Forecast this: I have my eye on a certain some-
one; how is his heart inclined toward me? If I elevate him to high rank and treat
him as a friend, will he betray me?”

1 Solṭān Salim was born in 875/1470–71.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_033

182 Chapter 32

The astrologer did not understand that Solṭān Bāyazid meant the situation
between himself and his son, and after much deliberation, he reported thus:
“Your Majesty must be careful not to place any trust in the person you men-
tioned, for if he finds an opportunity, he will visit copious torment on you.”
The Qayṣar said, “That makes it clear; now I know for certain how things
are.” When he returned to the harem, he had resolved on blood. He sought out
Salim, mace in hand, and struck him a mighty blow with it, so that even though
he was not killed, the boy fell senseless. Although the people of the harem
doubted that Salim was dead, the Qayṣar believed he was, and he told them to
take him out and bury him.
When they had taken Salim out of the Solṭān’s sight, they bled him until he
opened his eyes. Rejoicing, they told him to close his eyes while they thought
of how to save him; then they concealed him. At that time there were four
[recently deceased] gholāms who were ten years of age. They fetched one,
wrapped him in a white sheet, and brought him into the garden to wash him.
Then they buried him in the graveyard.
The Qayṣar was dejected; he had three daughters, but no other sons. He did
have nephews. He said, “If God does not grant me another son, I shall give my
daughters to one of my nephews and make him my heir apparent.” Only the
Qayṣar’s wife, sister, and two female slaves knew the truth of the situation; no
one else did. For seven years, they looked after young Salim, who stayed in the
harem disguised in girl’s clothes.
One day Solṭān Bāyazid came into the harem with his sister and some of the
other princesses. He strode in and told two of the female slaves to wrestle each
other. They gripped each other and prepared to begin. Now as it happens, one
of them was the disguised Solṭān Salim. He seized his opponent, picked her up,
and threw her. Seeing that this girl wrestled like a man, the Qayṣar ordered her
to be brought over to him. When she stood in front of him, he said: “This is no
girl—this is a man!”
Everyone came forward for a better look. The Solṭān’s sister said, “May I be a
sacrifice to your sight! This is Solṭān Salim!”
All the color ran out of Solṭān Bāyazid’s face. He was stunned at the sight of
this youth of eighteen, whom he had previously tried to kill. The boy had now
grown to maturity, and his face was like the brilliant sun. Salim came forward
and kissed his father’s foot. Word spread through Istanbul of the secret scheme
that had kept Salim alive. The grand vizier heard about it and came to the
Solṭān to explain what had happened, saying, “May it be for the best; God has
apparently wished that the boy should live, and that the royal house should
shine again. Let them beat the palace kettle-drums.” The drums were sounded,
On The Nature And Circumstances Of Solṭān Salim 183

and Solṭān Bāyazid mounted his horse to go to the main mosque. The people
of Istanbul were happy to see the strapping young Solṭān Salim.
When Salim reached the age of twenty-five, Solṭān Bāyazid was told that
several letters had been written to the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh, that they had
been sent to attack the Qezelbāsh at Diyārbakr, and that they had been killed.
Upon learning that the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh had been killed, Salim took thirty
thousand men and went to Arzenjān, part of which he plundered.
Word reached Khān Moḥammad Khān that Salim was rampaging through
the region. Vexed, the Khān sent for Morād Beg Ostājlu. At that time he was in
the fortress of Barjuk, which belonged to Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār. Gathering three
hundred men, he set off to aid Khān Moḥammad Khān. It was a journey of
three days, and when they had traveled for one day, they found themselves in a
lush, verdant meadow. “Today let us do some hunting here,” said Morād Beg,
“and tomorrow or the day after we will set off on the road again.” The Ostājlu
said, “As you wish.”
Now leave them to their hunting and listen to a few words about Solṭān
Qānṣaw, the ruler of Egypt:
At one of his assemblies, the topic of conversation turned to courage. Even-
tually the subject of the sons of ʿAlāʾoddawleh came up, and how they had been
killed by Khān Moḥammad Khān. At this, the conversation turned to “Shaykh-
oghli.” Now one of Solṭān Qānṣaw’s Ethiopian slaves was present, and drunk to
boot. He said, “If I were to spot Shāh Esmāʿil, I would yank him off his horse
and drag him into the presence of the Solṭān!”
As fate would have it, one of the Ṣufis of the lineage of Shaykh Ṣafi was also
present at that assembly. He could not let such talk pass. He said, “Beware, for
no one can best that prince in swordfighting, strength, chivalry, or courage!
None comes away from battle with him in one piece, but is certainly defeated!”
The Ethiopian, upon hearing this, retorted, “If he were here I would tear him
up like a linen shirt!”
Once more that Ṣufi said, “Why are you boasting thus, Ethiopian? You have
never seen Shāh Esmāʿil Bahādor Khān. He is the shadow of God on earth. He
has several thousand slaves with rings in their ears, dyed-in-the-wool faithful
to him. One of them is Khān Moḥammad Khān Ostājlu, the governor of
Diyārbakr. Were anyone to come to grips with him, he would find out what the
fortitude and courage of that holy shaykh is like!”
At this point that Ethiopian, in the presence of Solṭān Qānṣaw, was buffeted
by waves from the ocean of rage and said, “I’m going to cut off the head of Khān
Moḥammad Khān, hang it from my saddle-straps, and bring it to Solṭān Qānṣaw
so that he will see what the courage of his slaves is like!”
184 Chapter 32

Solṭān Qānṣaw was afraid of this slave of his, and sought a pretext to under-
mine him. When he heard what the slave said, he asked him, “O ugly man, why
are you bragging thus?”
The slave replied, “By the head of the Solṭān, I swear that I am not bragging,
and that I am going.”
“If you do go,” Solṭān Qānṣaw said, “and are able to live up to all this talk,
I will elevate you to high rank, and make you the leader of thirty thousand
Ethiopian slaves.”
When the black man heard this, he leaped up, gathered three hundred of his
Ethiopian dependents, and prepared to set off. Each one of them was like a
ferocious dark demon, as tall as the turning heavens, with a curved Kurdish
dagger stuck in his belt. That slave in charge of them, whose name was Ṣaʿdān,
was the size of two of any of them. They got on their mountain-sized horses,
and Solṭān Qānṣaw said: “How wonderful it is when with one ‘wink’ you get
two results: Either he’ll get the job done, or he’ll be killed!”
The Ethiopians left Egypt and made their way to Aleppo, where the local
governor hosted them for three days. After that, a guide accompanied them as
far as the banks of the river Barjuk. They arrived in the evening. At that hour,
Morād Beg was out hunting; he saw dust rising from a given direction and said
to one of his men, “Go and look; it is surely the Dhulqadr, for I don’t think there
are any other enemies in these parts.”
The scout went forth. When he got close, he saw the banners of the black
slaves. He turned his horse around and went back to Morād Beg, to whom he
said, “I estimate there are about three hundred men.”
Many of the men said, “We aren’t equipped for war; right now isn’t the best
time for us to fight. Let us go back to Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār.”
Morād Beg replied, “If we do that, we won’t be able to show our faces at any
court! We have no choice but to fight.”
At that moment Ṣaʿdān, the slave of Qānṣaw, arrived. He sent an Ethiopian
out to scout out the situation. That slave mounted his awe-inspiring horse, like
a black mountain atop another mountain, and rode forth.
“What kind of man are you?” asked Morād Beg. “Tell us about your business
here, and we will explain our own.”
The Ethiopian explained what he and his men had come for. Morād Beg re-
plied, “Then it’s war!” This was communicated to Ṣaʿdān, who immediately
leaped upon his mountain-like horse and charged onto the battlefield issuing
challenges.
Morād Beg said, “Someone go do battle with that black man so that I can see
how he fights.” A young man went off; he was still fifty paces away from Ṣaʿdān
when the Ethiopian took out the ring from his belt and swung it round his head
On The Nature And Circumstances Of Solṭān Salim 185

on his fingertips.2 It struck the youth on the base of the ear like a lightning
bolt, knocking half his head off. He fell writhing to the ground.
Seeing this, Morād Beg grabbed his spear and spurred his horse onto the
battlefield. Again the Ethiopian hurled his ring. Morād Beg, though, lay back in
his saddle, and the ring flew past his chest; he then sat upright in the saddle
again. Ṣaʿdān threw once more, but Morād Beg dodged it in another way. Then
he spurred his mount toward his opponent. As Morād Beg got near, he saw that
astonishing demon-like man. He greeted him, and the Ethiopian responded
with majesty and dignity. Morād Beg said, “What enmity do you have toward us
that you are attacking us so far from home? Surely there is a reason that you
came to these parts.”
Ṣaʿdān replied, “At the court of the Solṭān, the bravery of the Qezelbāsh
came up, and they said how Khān Moḥammad Khān had killed the sons of
ʿAlāʾoddawleh and done this and done that. I decided to come to Diyārbakr to
invite Khān Moḥammad Khān onto the battlefield so that I could seize him
and take him back to Egypt. And now here I am facing you.”
“I am a slave of Khān Moḥammad Khān,” Morād Beg said. “Fight me; if you
come out ahead, then go and fight my lord.” He aimed his spear at Ṣaʿdān’s
chest, but the Ethiopian struck out his hand and grabbed the end of it. With a
deafening roar, he tore it from Morād Beg’s hand and cast it aside. He did not
reach for a weapon of his own, instead seizing Morād Beg’s collar with a hand
like the bough of a plane-tree, intending to lift him from the saddle.
Morād Beg said to himself, “Come on, you coward! Don’t just hand yourself
over to this demon! Rather, seek refuge in God and put your sword to work!” As
the Ethiopian reached out to lift him from the saddle, he struck with his sword
at the giant’s naked armpit and split him like a ripe cucumber. Ṣaʿdān tumbled
out of his saddle and fell to the ground.
When the other black soldiers saw this blow, they cried, “Alas! Futile bravery
does not bring one renown!” and turned their reins to flee. Morād Beg rode af-
ter them; he slew a hundred and eighty of those Zangis and captured twenty of
them alive. The rest he drove into the wilderness.
Morād Beg cut off the head of Solṭān Qānṣaw’s slave Ṣaʿdān and mounted it
on his spear. The heads of the others he and his men loaded onto their horses.
Altogether they took the black head of that Ethiopian, as well as his buckle and
gold collar-chain and the ring he had thrown and horse-trappings and dagger-
belts and other goods and property; they loaded them onto the backs of their

2 It is not clear just what Ṣaʿdān is doing here. Ḥalqeh means “ring,” but whatever weapon this
is supposed to be, it is unknown to me.
186 Chapter 32

horses. They also took the reins of those Egyptian horses and clamped the
twenty captives in pillories and took them all to the fortress of Barjuk.
Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār came out a league to greet them. At the same time, he
sent a messenger to Diyārbakr to see Khān Moḥammad Khān with this mes-
sage: “Morād Beg was coming with a hundred men to find the Khān and had
stopped to hunt in such-and-such a place. Three hundred Ethiopians had come
with the intention to attack Diyārbakr and drag Khān Moḥammad Khān back
to Solṭān Qānṣaw. They encountered Morād Beg, who killed their leader Ṣaʿdān
as well as a hundred and eighty of the others; he also captured twenty others,
whom he sends in chains to you.”
Khān Moḥammad Khān rejoiced when he heard this. He said, “Let all who
love the Perfect Guide go out to welcome Morād Beg.” Everyone who was in
Diyārbakr went out. The Khān also ordered that the kettledrums be brought
out and that the official trumpets be blown in welcome. A royal robe, a tāj and
turban with bejewelled turban-ornaments, a gilt brocade vest that Shāh Esmāʿil
had bestowed upon the Khān, ornamented swords and daggers, horses with
gilded saddles and a promotion to the rank of Solṭān—all this, not to mention
clothes made of cloth woven with gold and gilt-brocade shirts, was brought out
to Morād “Solṭān” with great pomp.
When the returning Qezelbāsh entered the city itself, the people quaked
with astonishment when they witnessed the enormity of those Ethiopian pris-
oners, dreading them even though they were in pillories. Everyone heaped
praise upon Morād Solṭān as he made his way to the Khān’s court. There the
Khān saw the head of Ṣaʿdān, big as a cauldron, with disheveled hair and great
round eyes in a huge face. Morād Solṭān brought that head and tossed it to the
ground at the feet of the Khān. Khān Moḥammad Khān praised him highly and
granted him another robe of honor then and there. Then they interrogated the
captives, who explained everything for the Khān from beginning to end. Those
of them who became Shiʿis became the Khān’s attendants, but ten of them,
who refused, were clapped in chains and pillories and sent, along with Ṣaʿdān’s
head and some of the plunder, to the Shāh in Tabriz.
When they got to Tabriz, the Shāh had left for Eṣfahān, so they set off for
Eṣfahān after him and finally entered his royal presence. He freed those ten
captives from their fetters and gave them robes of honor, saying, “If you go, God
be with you; if you stay, I shall make you my attendants.”
Seven of them, seeing this display of generosity and chivalry, accepted to be
taken into the Shāh’s service. Each of them received three hundred tumāns in
gold so that they could buy themselves accoutrements and join the royal en-
tourage. The three who did not accept were each given three hundred tumāns
and set free.
On The Nature And Circumstances Of Solṭān Salim 187

When they got back to Egypt, they told Solṭān Qānṣaw what they had seen.
“If they didn’t have this sort of valor,” he said, “how could twelve thousand men
fight one, even two hundred thousand men and still come out ahead?” The
three spent a long time describing the Shāh, and Solṭān Qānṣaw, who was se-
cretly developing affection and friendship for His Majesty, said to himself: “I
must send an eloquent messenger to Shaykh-oghli to make my friendship evi-
dent and apologize for this incident.” He called for a black slave and told him,
“This dynasty is very great and noble.” Then he selected gifts of all sorts from
Egypt and North Africa and Anatolia and Europe3 and Zanzibar as an offering.
When all the preparations were in order, he sent the envoy off.
Now leave the envoy on his travels and hear about the Khān’s messenger.
When His Majesty the Shāh dismissed Khān Moḥammad Khān’s messenger, he
sent along an ankle-length robe of honor for his master.
When Khān Moḥammad Khān forcibly seized Diyārbakr from ʿAlāʾoddawleh
Dhulqadr, Solṭān Salim wrote to his frontier commanders and governors say-
ing, “The Qezelbāsh have taken Diyārbakr; I want you to go attack it.”
They responded, “If you are right, send us a royal order so that we can attack
and pillage; if we can, we shall conquer the territory.”
Salim explained the situation to his father the Qayṣar. “O my son, beware!”
he replied. “Take care not to start any trouble with Shaykh-oghli, for enmity
with his house is bad news. Since he set foot on the path of emergence, he has
met with conquest and victory in every direction he has turned. The astrolo-
gers have forecast the greatest success for him.”
Salim, however, grew annoyed with his father. He himself went off, conduct-
ed raids in the vicinity of Barjuk, and returned. Khān Moḥammad Khān in-
tended to saddle up and pursue him, but that night he was ill with a fever. He
ordered his men to go to Qarāḥamid and fetch his brother Qarākhān. They did,
and Qarākhān raised an army and attacked Salim’s territory of Arzenjān; he left
it in such ruins that no place was left habitable. It happened like this.
When Qarākhān came, he went into his brother’s presence and bowed.
Khān Moḥammad Khān said, “O my brother, now it is twice that this coward
has come, and both times he has seized many prisoners and looted the belong-
ings of the people. I want to punish him, but I am sick and cannot go. I want
you to go and inflict such a blow on the Qayṣar’s brazen son that he never
comes to plunder here again.”
“Of course!” Qarākhān replied. “If Salim has left, should I pursue him?”

3 Farang.
188 Chapter 32

“No,” said Khān Moḥammad Khān, “you should just plunder the area around
Arzenjān and return.” He gave Qarākhān ten thousand men and sent him off.
He told Aḥmad Solṭān to lead the vanguard. Twelve thousand men thus went
off to attack Arzenjān.
Qarākhān Attacks Arzenjān 189

Chapter 33

Qarākhān Attacks Arzenjān, and Moḥammad Khān Sends Solṭān Bāyazid of

Anatolia an Envoy with Women’s Clothing

Qarākhān took that army across the river Barjuk, and wherever they went, the
people took their sons and daughters up into the mountains, fearing the swords
of the Qezelbāsh. The Qezelbāsh plundered their wealth and property and
flocks and herds. When they got to within five leagues of Arzenjān, they sent
word to the ruler there that Qarākhān was on his way with an ocean-like army
to invade the place.
It had been two days since Salim had left. The pāshā of Arzenjān told his
men to go out and tell everyone in the region to come quickly, lest the Qezelbāsh
attack. Everyone who had a horse went out and spread the word far and wide
that soldiers should come from the frontiers to the aid of Arzenjān; if they
would remain at the foot of the fortress for a while, the army could come to the
aid of the inhabitants and keep them out of danger.
When Qarākhān arrived in front of the fortress of Arzenjān, he saw that they
had shut its gates tightly and filled the moat with water. He left six thousand of
his men to keep watch, and sent six thousand more with Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār,
telling him to go plunder Tuqāt. Aḥmad Solṭān went there and seized numer-
ous cows and sheep and boys and girls over the course of fifteen days. After
that he headed off to Diyārbakr, laden with countless prisoners and plunder.
Khān Moḥammad Khān, meanwhile, had recovered from his fever by the
time Aḥmad Solṭān arrived with all that booty. The Khān took a fifth of it, and
they also set some of it aside for the Perfect Guide, Shāh Esmāʿil. They sent the
boys of Yusof-like beauty and the girls with glowing cheeks to the court which
is the center of the world, and the remainder they kept for the Qezelbāsh.
Now the people of that frontier region sent word to the Qayṣar that Qarākhān
had come and shown such daring in retaliation for Solṭān Salim’s raid, turning
all of Arzenjān upside down. The Qayṣar cried out and rounded on Salim, say-
ing, “You have ensnared yourself in the wrath of God—what am I going to do
with you? Thanks to your evil fate, thousands of ‘sons of the Solṭān’ have been
carried off!1 Who knows if you will get one in ten of them out of Diyārbakr?
Your misfortune has laid all of Arzenjān low.”
Solṭān Salim said, “The affairs of world-rulers are such that they kill our peo-
ple and we theirs, until the affair reaches its end.”

1 Probably meaning “Ottoman subjects.”

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190 Chapter 33

Meanwhile, Moḥammad Khān had all of Diyārbakr in his power. Yet his am-
bition was not stirred, since he had a son-in-law’s loyalty to the Shāh. Wherever
that valor and that army turned, conquest and victory came out to greet them.
It occurred to Moḥammad Khān that he should teach the Qayṣar a lesson, so
that henceforth he would prevent his son from daring to do such things again.
He sent for Morād Beg, whom he had surnamed “Solṭāni.” Morād Beg came and
said, “May I be a sacrifice to you! What is the lofty command?”
Moḥammad Khān said, “You shall go to the assembly of the Qayṣar of Rum.
Do not worry about the wicked Salim, but present to the Qayṣar what I give you
without fail. If you remain alive, come back; if you are killed, you shall achieve
that which you desire, seek, and wish for, as do all Ṣufis.”
Morād Beg said, “In the name of God, as the Khān orders.”
“You are indeed honorable,” the Khān replied.
As he had been commanded to, Morād Beg made preparations, gathering
thirty brave and highly experienced Ostājlu men. After ten days he reported to
the Khān with those men, all decked out in splendid clothing and bejewelled
turbans.
“May God’s compassion go with you,” said the Khān. Then he said, “Have
them bring it in!” They brought a bundle of superb brocade whose contents no
one knew. The Khān told Morād Beg, “When you have entered the Solṭān’s
court and the feasting has ended, he will ask you for a letter. You will stand up
with the bundle in your hand, go up to the Qayṣar, and say, ‘The letter is in here,
along with a humble little gift.’ Then you will sit back down.”
“As the Khān orders,” said Morād Beg. He then took the bundle and set off.
Some days later, word reached the Qayṣar that an envoy was coming. Think-
ing the envoy was surely sent by “Shaykh-oghli,” they went out to greet him.
How could they suspect that Khān Moḥammad Khān had sent him! Surely
none but Shāh Esmāʿil Bahādor Khān had any business sending an envoy to the
Qayṣar. No pādeshāhs sent envoys to the Qayṣars of Rum; rather, they dis-
patched messengers.2 The Qayṣar who sent an envoy to Iran was Solṭān
Solaymān, who sent his companion Senān Pāshā as an envoy, along with two
hundred thousand ashrafis and numberless gifts, to commemorate the acces-
sion of Shāh Ṭahmāsp. In a word, the Anatolians never sent any other envoys to
Iran or Turan. The Europeans sent an envoy, and look what news they sent with
him.

2 The word used in the text is chāvush, which Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 641) glosses as a Turkish word
for the messenger that one sovereign sends to another of greater rank. Sending an envoy (ilchi)
would thus imply equality between the two rulers.
Qarākhān Attacks Arzenjān 191

Anyway, the Anatolians came out to meet Morād Beg and escorted him into
the royal compound. After three days they prepared the Qayṣar’s court and
brought Morād Beg in. No one knew yet that he was the envoy of Khān
Moḥammad Khān. When the feast was cleared away, the Solṭāns and pāshās of
Anatolia all sat in their places and waited to see what Shāh Esmāʿil could have
written. Solṭān Salim, too, waited with bated breath to see what it could be.
Morād Beg was a wise and prudent man; he said to himself, “However it may
be, the Qayṣar is the Solṭān of the Two Continents and Lord of the Two Seas,
Servant of the Two Noble Shrines and Second Alexander; I must give him the
bundle in secret, as it is not good to do it in sight of all.” He stood up and placed
that bundle at the foot of the Qayṣar’s throne, saying, “This is a gift that Khān
Moḥammad Khān, governor of Diyārbakr, has sent with his petition. Let the
Qayṣar open the bundle in private. What happens next is in the hands of that
sovereign.”
When the Solṭān heard this, he realized that it was not good news. He or-
dered the attendant to take the bundle away. Then he dismissed Morād Beg,
who exited the court and went back to where he was staying. When the Qayṣar
went into his private quarters and opened the bundle, he saw a woman’s head-
dress and mantle and veil and anklet and blouse and dress, together with a
letter which read: “Let it be known to the Qayṣar and his son Salim that if you
do not come and fight face-to-face, you or your son, then you should sit in the
harem wearing these clothes and not call yourself a man any longer!”
The Qayṣar felt faint; he said, “May God have mercy on that Qezelbāsh
youth, who did not open this bundle at court and did not disgrace me in view
of the solṭāns and pāshās of Anatolia! I know that that crazy lord of his must
have told him not to do so. God bless you, tomorrow I am going to rescue you
from the grave!” He was very happy that Salim had not seen it. Then he said to
his attendant, “If I hear that you mentioned this to Salim or anyone else, I will
tear you limb from limb.”
“How could I say anything?” replied the attendant.
When the Qayṣar returned to the court, Salim asked him, “O father, what
was it?”
The Qayṣar replied, “O my dear, your father will tell you, but at the right
time.”
“Was it a letter from the Shāh or a petition from the Khān?” asked Salim.
“No letter came from the Shāh,” replied the Qayṣar. “Khān Moḥammad wrote
a message from the Shāh in the form of a petition.”
Salim said, “Don’t tell me the Shāh was unaware of this envoy, that Khān
Moḥammad Khān sent him on his own initiative, and that this mere servant
192 Chapter 33

dared to do such a thing as have us show honor to his envoy! If that is the case,
say the word, and I will go tear that envoy limb from limb!”
“No, my son,” replied the Qayṣar, “Khān Moḥammad Khān does not have
such power; the envoy was not sent on his behalf.” Salim believed him.
The next day, the Qayṣar sent for the envoy of “Shaykh-oghli.” A group went
and said curtly, “Envoy, get up! The Solṭān wants you!”
Morād Beg knew that the Qayṣar was going to rip him apart. Resigned to his
fate, he got up and went to the court with five of his men. When they arrived,
he said to them, “If they kill me and come to kill you, put up such a fight that
you redeem your own blood.” Then, as he entered the court, he prostrated him-
self and approached the throne, facing the Qayṣar such that if he issued an
order for anyone to kill him, he could reach his sword and fight.
“Envoy,” said the Qayṣar, “sit down.”
Morād Beg prostrated himself again and then sat down, looking at the
Qayṣar.
The Qayṣar made a sign at him with the corner of his eyebrow as if to say,
“Don’t worry! You are of good character; you fulfilled your mission elegantly,
without disgracing me.” Then he said, “O envoy, go to Khān Moḥammad Khān
and tell him that Shaykh-oghli had complained about my son, and Khān
Moḥammad had written a petition to us as well stating that he would not take
the two or three raids that the frontier soldiers had made on Salim’s orders as a
pretext for vengeance, but the Qayṣar should prevent his son from making
such raids anymore. Let it be thus. Our other attendants will keep him in line,
and we will not allow him to take such actions.” He also had them bring a robe
of honor for Morād Beg. Then he dismissed him, saying that Salim should not
find out he was leaving, lest he try to stop him.
Morād Beg put on the robe of honor, then, having been dismissed, he left for
Diyārbakr. When he arrived at the court of Khān Moḥammad Khān, he related
all that he had done and said and heard.
Khān Moḥammad regretted what he had done, and was worried lest the
Shāh hear of it, for he would surely be upset. He was still thinking about it
when Morād Beg explained how the bundle had been taken out to be opened,
and thus hidden from the Qayṣar’s son. The Khān praised Morād Beg highly for
this.
But it happened that six months later, Solṭān Salim realized that his father
was hiding something from him. He said to himself, “Surely Shaykh-oghli’s ser-
vant sent that letter and bundle on his own initiative.” He went to his father’s
attendant and said, “Boy, you know that my father has no other son but me,
and he has become old. Tomorrow, when I become Solṭān, I will make you a
high-ranking pāshā if you tell me what I want to know.”
Qarākhān Attacks Arzenjān 193

The attendant said, “He didn’t show the letter to me; it was in Persian script,
and the Qayṣar read it, but he did not tell me what it said. When he read it, I
couldn’t tell whether he was wounded or happy.”
“Tell me the truth,” said Salim; “what was in the bundle?”
The attendant replied, “He opened the bundle himself, and put the contents
in a trunk; I don’t know what they were.”
Salim said, “You are lying!” But no matter how much he demanded that the
boy tell him the truth, he kept refusing. Finally, Salim drew his dagger and
lunged at him, saying, “I swear, if you don’t tell me, I’ll cut your head off!”
When the boy saw that he was going to be killed, he said, “If I tell you, your
father will kill me.”
Salim said, “I will put you somewhere where my father cannot reach you.”
So the boy told him everything. Salim handed him over to one of his own
attendants, then got up and went to his father’s court, where he sat angry and
brooding.
“O my son,” the Qayṣar said, “where have you been, and why are you upset?”
Salim replied, “How could I not be upset at your incompetence? Khān
Moḥammad, the servant of Shāh Esmāʿil, had no business sending you an en-
voy! How will we erase this dishonor?”
The Qayṣar said, “O my son, keep your voice down!”
Salim completely lost control of himself and shouted so loudly that all the
officials heard, and a great tumult broke out in the court. You shall hear what
Salim did to his father.
194 Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Solṭān Bāyazid and Solṭān Qānṣaw, the Ruler of Egypt, Fight against
ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr

When Solṭān Bāyazid, the Qayṣar of Rum, learned of the collapse of ʿAlāʾod­
dawleh Dhulqadr’s fortunes, the death of his sons, and everything else that had
happened, he said, “What a disaster the scions of Shaykh Ṣafi have brought
upon the hapless ʿAlāʾoddawleh! We should offer him help and cooperation.”
“May that double-dealing wolf suffer even more!” said the grand vizier when
he heard this. “O prince, I have heard an amazing thing about him. They say
that the tribute he has been collecting every year from you and Solṭān Qānṣaw
has been accomplished by trickery, in this way: Whenever an emissary would
come to him from Solṭān Qānṣaw, he would write a letter in your name, dress
up one of his men as an Anatolian, and give the letter to him. Then when that
man entered the court, he would read it in a loud voice: ‘If you send us forty
thousand men so that we can go fight and defeat Solṭān Qānṣaw, we will send
you eighty thousand tumāns every year.” ʿAlāʾoddawleh would then say, ‘I do
not want your gold! Solṭān Qānṣaw sends me twice that amount every year!’
And when our ambassadors went to him, he would do the same thing. In this
way, through guile and trickery he took tribute from two rulers.”
The Qayṣar was enraged, saying, “We must make him pay for this!” He or-
dered that a letter be written to Solṭān Qānṣaw thus: “In today’s world, there is
no ruler like you or me. ʿAlāʾoddawleh, who is holed up in the fortress of Darnā,
has been collecting tribute from us by trickery this whole time. Now the army
of the Qezelbāsh has rendered him helpless, so it is time to prepare to take
back from him that which he has been taking from us all this time.”
When Solṭān Qānṣaw read the letter, his avarice stirred within him, and he
took forty thousand men and headed for the fortress of Darnā. Solṭān Bāyazid,
too, raised sixty thousand men and went there. In this way those two great
pādeshāhs, for each of whom an entire clime was too small, came together in
one tent.
Spies reported this to ʿAlāʾoddawleh, who first laughed and then burst into
tears. His men asked him what the laughing and weeping meant.
He replied, “I laughed at the topsy-turvy celestial sphere, for these two
pādeshāhs used to send me regular tribute, but now, upon hearing that the
Qezelbāsh have driven us here, they have seized the opportunity to come and
take back what they had been giving me for so long. I wept at the faithlessness
of this inconstant world, which raises a man to daily greater heights when it

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Solṭāns Bāyazid And Qānṣaw Fight Against ʿalāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr 195

lifts him up, and casts him into the dust at one blow when it wheels around.
But that which the Qezelbāsh have brought upon me, I will bring upon the
heads of these two pādeshāhs; I may have been defeated by the Qezelbāsh, but
I haven’t been by the solṭāns of Anatolia or Egypt, and I won’t be.” Then he
swore an oath, saying, “I am going out in the very clothes I am wearing, and
I will not return until I have captured these two alive and cast them on the
ground before me—the Qayṣar in Istanbul, and Solṭān Qānṣaw in Cairo—for
punishment!” He called for his son Maʿṣum Beg and said, “O my dear son, today
the stars appear to me to be in your favor. You stay in the fortress and keep an
eye out, for I am going to do battle with these two wretches who have taken the
opportunity to come; I will take care of them and then return. If my fate is to
be killed or captured by them in battle, you get yourself to Khān Moḥammad
Khān, who is governor of Diyārbakr, and have him send you to the service of
the king of justice and mercy, the pādeshāh of Iran, Shāh Esmāʿil, so that our
dynasty is not snuffed out all at once. Let that pādeshāh know of your situa-
tion.”
Having made this testament to Maʿṣum Beg, ʿAlāʾoddawleh hurried off to
fight the Qayṣar and Qānṣaw. Four leagues from the fortress of Darnā he en-
countered them, and he set up camp face-to-face with the armies of Anatolia
and Egypt. Then Solṭān Bāyazid, the Qayṣar, said to Solṭān Qānṣaw, “We have
heard that Shaykh-oghli defeated the army of ʿAlāʾoddawleh, then immediately
raised an army and came to fight us. God forbid we should be unable to over-
come this man, or we will be shamed before the pādeshāhs of the earth.”
“Fortune has abandoned him,” Qānṣaw replied; “he will be killed in this
battle. Don’t worry, we heard it from the astrologers.”
The Qayṣar said, “At any rate, let us tell him that if he is killed, we should not
have to answer for it on Judgment Day.”
“It is your prerogative,” replied Qānṣaw.
So the Qayṣar ordered that a letter be written thus, in both his own language
and the language of Qānṣaw:
“Let it not be concealed from the lofty mind of that dear father, the tribute-
taking pādeshāh, ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr, that you are a man of worldly expe-
rience, one who has tasted the good and bad of fickle fortune; you know that
these things which have happened to you could only happen at the pleasure of
God Almighty, and there is no escape from death. No one can struggle with the
celestial sphere. It is likewise fated that for all who set foot on this dusty sphere,
if they raise their head to the heavens, they will wind up one with the dirt.

Even if your head reaches sun and moon

You end up as dust underneath dust.
196 Chapter 34

“All, too, who scatter seeds of labor in this green field of the heavens reap ex-
actly that which they sow; it is well known that good leads to good and evil to
evil. That being said, do you have any idea what you have done to us over these
eighty [sic] years, what you have taken either by force or by fraud and decep-
tion! Today, therefore, fate has roused us to avenge past wrongs, and to take
from you in justice what you took from us by fraud. However, since at this time
your fate has taken a turn and the heavens have trampled you underfoot, it
would be far from chivalrous for us to come torment you as well. You know
what you have taken from us; give it back in the name of satisfying your debt,
and if you choose to fight the Qezelbāsh again and need help, let us know and
we will send forces to aid you. Peace.”
The emissaries of the Qayṣar and Qānṣaw took the letter to ʿAlāʾoddawleh.
When they entered his court, they saw him sitting on his throne wearing a ter-
rifying expression. They came forward and greeted him with prayers and
praise, then placed the letter on the ground before his throne.
After ʿAlāʾoddawleh examined the letter, he furiously ordered that it be torn
up and thrown away. To the emissaries he said, “Go and tell your masters, ‘God
willing, you will be captured alive tomorrow and carted off to Istanbul and
Cairo, and in the middle of those cities I will punish both pādeshāhs!’ That is
my answer; now go and bring it back.”
The emissaries went back and reported this. The Qayṣar and Qānṣaw were
filled with dread when they heard it, but the next day, they both arrayed their
troops and joined the battle. Many on both sides were killed and wounded, and
in the end they abandoned the fight and returned to their respective camps.
The Qayṣar, when he quit the battle, saw that his well-being lay in flight. He
and Qānṣaw both packed their things in the middle of the night, and then each
went back to his own land. In the morning, when word of their flight reached
ʿAlāʾoddawleh, he ordered that the goods they had left behind be distributed
among the Dhulqadr. Then he returned to the fortress of Darnā to see what
Fate would bring next.
Solṭāns Bāyazid And Qānṣaw Fight Against ʿalāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr 197

Part 3
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. the Uzbeks

∵
198 Chapter 34
Shāhi Beg Khān Makes His Emergence 199

Chapter 35

Shāhi Beg Khān, Son of Abulkhayr Khān, Makes His Emergence and Seizes
Torkestān from the Descendants of Amir Timur

Now Shāhi Beg Khān, who was a descendant of Changiz Khān, was living in his
ancestral Torkestān, but had no realm or government of his own; all of
Torkestān was ruled by the descendants of Amir Timur Kurgān. One day, Shāhi
Beg Khān heard that Solṭān Aḥmad Khān the son of Abu Saʿid Kurgān, who
had been ruler of the capital Samarqand, had died, and his son ʿAli Mirzā had
taken the throne; likewise, ʿOmar Shaykh Mirzā Kurgān, the ruler of Andijān,
had died and left the throne to his son Bābor Mirzā. Shāhi Beg Khān, seeing
Torkestān in such a situation, single-mindedly set his aim on taking power. He
wrote a missive to Qāsem Khān, the ruler of the Qepchāq steppe, which read
thus:
“A notice to the great Khān, viceregent of Changiz Khān: Until now the sun
of the fortune of the sons of Changiz Khān has been hidden behind the cloudy
veil of inconstant fortune; but now, praise be to God, this dynasty’s dark night
has given way to bright morning, and, God willing, a ray of Changizid light is
rising on the eastern horizon. Once more the world will become the envy of
highest paradise for the felicity of this house’s fortune. The situation of the
pādeshāhs of Torkestān having turned out as it has, this sincere one has taken
in mind the intention to make his emergence. It is requested that the great
Khān, the viceregent of Changiz Khān, honor this supplicant with twelve thou-
sand men, that I might overcome the army now gathered against me and go to
Samarqand to seize the capital from the sons of Amir Timur, and thence to
Andijān to wrest it from Bābor Mirzā the son of ʿOmar Shaykh. Thus, through
the favor of the great Khān, let the sons of Changiz Khān be returned to their
hereditary rule.”
When Shāhi Beg Khān’s letter reached Qāsem Khān, the ruler of the Qepchāq
steppe, his request met with favor, and the aid he had asked for was sent. There-
upon Shāhi Beg Khān left his home with twenty thousand men and headed for
Samarqand. As he neared the city, word of his approach got to Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā,
the ruler there. He alerted the Chaghatāy army and also told Yaḥyā Khwājeh,
who was his ātāliq.1 When he heard this news, the ātāliq did not bother making

1 An ātāliq was, in post-Mongol Central Asia, originally the guardian and tutor of a young prince;
eventually the word came to mean the chief counselor and confidant of a ruler (Bregel,
“Atali̊ḳ”). Due to the specific meaning of this term, which appears often in this text, I have left
it untranslated, as I have with terms like “pādeshāh.”

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200 Chapter 35

any preparations to gather troops, as he was too proud. Then, when Shāhi Beg
Khān arrived with his twenty thousand men and camped outside Samarqand
and its citadel, the Solṭān said to Yaḥyā Khwājeh, “The enemy has arrived and
surrounded us! How can you be so negligent? Why aren’t you gathering any
troops?”
“You have no need to do battle with Shāhi Beg Khān,” Yaḥyā Khwājeh re-
plied. “Watch how I defeat his army and then laze about for a month.”
Shāhi Beg Khān, presently seeing that no one was coming out of Samarqa-
nd, ordered his men to prepare to attack the city.
Yaḥyā Khwājeh made a proclamation in the city that soldiers and everyone
else should all get ready and arm themselves with a large cudgel. Nearly a hun-
dred thousand men did so, and they streamed out of the city and straight into
the ranks of Shāhi Beg Khān’s army. By the time Shāhi Beg Khān realized what
was happening and mounted his horse, two thousand of his men had had their
brains smashed in, and nearly half again had been robbed of their goods. Shāhi
Beg Khān was about to flee in a panic when Yaḥyā Khwājeh ordered his people
to stop fighting and return to the city. Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, who had been observ-
ing the battle from atop the citadel, was very happy, and his mind was again at
ease. When Yaḥyā Khwājeh returned to the city and came to him, the Solṭān
embraced him and kissed his forehead, saying, “I have no one other than you!”
But Shāhi Beg Khān summoned his advisers and said, “Did you see what that
bunch did to us?” He said to his brother Maḥmud Solṭān, “Take six thousand
crack troops and lie in wait in such-and-such a garden during the battle. This
time, when the people come out of the city to fight, I will intercept them, and
as we fight, I will turn to flee toward the desert. They will rush to our tents to
plunder them; when have done so and mean to return, you come out of your
hiding place, and don’t be neglectful: Leave not a single one of them alive!”
Maḥmud Solṭān gathered his men and went off to hide in ambush. When
two days had passed, Yaḥyā Khwājeh again gathered an army of ruffians and
came out of the city to attack. Shāhi Beg Khān fought them for a while, then
turned around and fled.
When Shāhi Beg Khān ran off, the people of the city hooted for joy and,
thinking they were free of him, charged into the midst of his encampment,
seizing what they could. The footmen were on their way back to the city with
the loads on their shoulders when at that moment Maḥmud Solṭān came out
of hiding and cut them off, raining arrows upon them. Yaḥyā Khwājeh and the
people of the city were shocked and dumbfounded and could find no route of
escape.
Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā was watching from the citadel, though, and seeing his
ātāliq and his men got caught in that trap, he took ten thousand troops, left the
Shāhi Beg Khān Makes His Emergence 201

city, and forced open an escape path for Yaḥyā Khwājeh and his people. They
hurried back into the city and shut the gate fast behind them. But everyone
who had survived was wounded, and the dead numbered nearly fifty thousand.
Shāhi Beg Khān came back and returned to his encampment, but no matter
how much he tried to find a way into the city, he found it impossible. He sent a
messenger to Yaḥyā Khwājeh to say, “Open the gate and I will grant you secu-
rity. If you don’t, when I get my hands on you I won’t leave a single person
alive.”
Yaḥyā Khwājeh said, “Tell the Khān that these preliminary skirmishes were
the workings of fate; what else could have happened to make us fight with you?
At any rate, make yourselves at home, for in three months it will be winter, and
by the first day of Sagittarius the stones on this plain will have turned to lime
from the cold. But, praise God, we have provisions for ten years, and we will not
suffer. Nor will we come out to fight you; God Almighty willing, the cold will
teach you such a lesson that you won’t need any trouble from us.”
The message was relayed to Shāhi Beg Khān, who realized that Yaḥyā
Khwājeh was right. But he said to himself, “Perhaps we can conquer the city in
the next three months.” So he went to the foot of the citadel and set to laying
siege.
Yaḥyā Khwājeh then wrote a letter to Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi, the gov-
ernor of Bokhārā: “Shāhi Beg Khān has come with a great army and has sur-
rounded Samarqand and its citadel. When you get this letter, raise your army at
once and come here with all haste.”
When this letter reached Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi, he gathered twenty
thousand troops from around Bokhārā and set out for Samarqand. Shāhi Beg,
hearing of this development, said to his nephew ʿAbdi Beg, “Take eight thou-
sand men and go scatter the Chaghatāy army. Don’t let them come here!” ʿAbdi
Beg set off, and when he reached the fortress of Uzun Saqal, the army of
Bokhārā was just arriving from the direction of the fortress of Div to set up
camp.
When the banners of ʿAbdi Beg’s army appeared in the distance, the gover-
nor of Uzun Saqal came out to welcome him. He offered the key to the fortress
to ʿAbdi Beg, and he in turn accepted it, seeing the taking of the fortress as a
good omen. Then he said, “Since the Bokhārā forces have arrived with their
horses fatigued from the journey while our horses are fresh, now is the time to
attack.” He ordered his army to mount up for battle.
When Moḥammad Bāqer learned of this, he too ordered his men to get in
the saddle and form ranks, and the battle began as the two armies crashed to-
gether. Although at first the Bokhāris showed great manliness and killed many
of ʿAbdi Beg’s men, they had just come from traveling and their horses were
202 Chapter 35

tired, so at the end of the day they were defeated; four thousand of them were
killed, and the rest gave up the fight, leaving their tents and pavilions where
they were and retreating as night fell.
As soon as ʿAbdi Beg heard about the Bokhāris’ flight, he roused his men to
pursue them. Moḥammad Bāqer, frightened by their approach, fled into his
fortress and shut the gate. ʿAbdi Beg surrounded the fortress and ordered his
men to attack it. Moḥammad Bāqer was at the end of his rope; he knew that he
would not be able to resist. So he escaped through a gap in the wall of the for-
tress2 and fled with his army back to Bokhārā. When they had entered the
city, they picked up their households and belongings and escaped to Balkh and
the court of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā Bāyqarā.
ʿAbdi Beg sent a message to Shāhi Beg Khān saying, “I have set off for
Bokhārā, but until you arrive, the people there will not let me in.” Hearing this
good news, Shāhi Beg Khān praised ʿAbdi Beg highly and immediately turned
his army in the direction of Bokhārā.
When ʿAbdi Beg got to Bokhārā, the people there intended to mount a siege-
defense. But when Shāhi Beg Khān arrived as well, they knew that it was no
use, and they went out to greet him with much tribute. Shāhi Beg Khān told the
people to gather in the Friday mosque and pronounce the khoṭbeh in his name.
He then named his brother Maḥmud Solṭān governor of the city, and they
spent the winter there.
As soon as spring began, he set off with the intention of conquering Samar-
qand. The people there heard he was coming and shut the city gates. Shāhi Beg
Khān arrived and surrounded the city; then he sent someone to Yaḥyā Khwājeh
to intimidate him, but Yaḥyā Khwājeh was not intimidated and gave an an-
swer.3
Yaḥyā Khwājeh, though, saw that Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā was petrified, and it oc-
curred to that treacherous man that now was the time to propose marriage to
the Solṭān’s mother, who was named Qotloqnegār Khānom. He said to himself,
“If the Solṭān betroths her to me, I will be blameless no matter what I do to
him; if not, I will make trouble and ruin everything.” So he sent someone to the
Solṭān to announce the marriage.
When he heard the news, Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā was enraged. He went in tears to
tell his mother. That woman of Changizid lineage said, “Yaḥyā Khwājeh spoke
out of place; why should you be upset? He will not fight on your behalf. Tomor-
row give an order that they should open the treasury and give a raise to the

2 Literally, “he split the wall of the fortress” (shekāfteh).

3 The meaning of this sentence is obscure; for the word “forbid” (manʿ) I have substituted the
word “intimidate.”
Shāhi Beg Khān Makes His Emergence 203

army; then tell them to pull themselves together and capture Shāhi Beg Khān
and bring him bound to your presence.”
Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā made plans to do so, but word reached his ātāliq, who said,
“O my son, what are you up to? I have finally figured out what needs to be
done.” The Solṭān did not reply. So Yaḥyā Khwājeh ordered the people to gath-
er, saying, “I am going to attack Shāhi Beg Khān.”
Shāhi Beg Khān, in the meantime, had gotten wind of Yaḥyā Khwājeh’s in-
tention to marry the Solṭān’s mother. He called ʿAbdi Beg and said, “A curious
situation has arisen regarding Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, his ātāliq, and his mother. We
should take advantage of it.” So he ordered that a letter be written thus:
“To the descendant of the Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction: It has come
to our attention that your faithless ātāliq Yaḥyā Khwājeh wishes to unite with
your mother and thereby to take a step onto the carpet of Solṭān Aḥmad Khān.
But he does not realize that you cannot pair a snake with a peacock, nor is
there a place for the carrion-eating vulture in the eagle’s nest. Do not let your
dynasty suffer such a disgrace! I vow by the pure soul of Changiz Khān that if
you betroth the Begom to me, I will violate none of your rights, and you will be
as a son to me. Indeed, I will put your name into the khoṭbeh and the coins of
this realm, and as for that traitorous one who is pushing you aside, I will punish
him. If you do not believe me, let a trusted servant come to us and I will make
the oath in his presence so that your mind may be at ease.”
Shāhi Beg Khān also wrote a letter to the Begom saying, “If you accept me in
marriage, I will make you queen of all Torkestān.”
When the letter reached that ignorant naif Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, he told his
mother. Both of them were satisfied with Shāhi Beg Khān’s offer. In the middle
of the night, before Yaḥyā Khwājeh could learn of the plan, the Solṭān and his
mother took some female slaves and eunuchs and went to Shāhi Beg Khān’s
camp. He received them with affection and hospitality.
When Shāhi Beg Khān’s wife realized what was going on, though, she said to
herself, “If he marries her, he will make her queen of Torkestān!” She called her
son Najib Solṭān and spoke to him, telling him, “You must go right away to the
tent of Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā and kill him; I myself will kill his mother.” In short, she
killed her and he killed him.
That very night Shāhi Beg Khān rode into the city. Before he knew it, Yaḥyā
Khwājeh heard kettledrums and the cry: “This realm belongs to Shāhi Beg
Khān!” Then someone came in to tell him that Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā and his mother
had been killed, and that the Solṭān’s head had been mounted on a spear. Yaḥyā
Khwājeh cried out in anguish, and he would have thrown himself from the roof
of the citadel had the people not prevented him. He went to Shāhi Beg Khān,
pleading for clemency.
204 Chapter 35

When Shāhi Beg Khān took possession of Samarqand, which was the capi-
tal, he left its government in the hands of his nephew Fulād Khān, also making
Khwājeh Abulkhayr the local leader. He made this recommendation to Fulād
Khān: “Show honor to Khwājeh Abulkhayr, for if he is not content, he will not
let you rule a single day in Samarqand.” Then Shāhi Beg Khān set off for Andijān
with the intention of fighting Bābor Pādeshāh.
But after Shāhi Beg Khān had left, Fulād Khān began to act intemperately
and unjustly, stubbornly continuing to do everything Khwājeh Abulkhayr for-
bade him to. The Khwājeh said to the elders, “This man has crossed the bound-
aries of unruliness, and does not listen to what we say. What do you say about
the justice of the sons of Amir Timur, such as Bābor Pādeshāh?”
They replied, “We always have been, and still are, content with and thankful
for their justice.”
So Khwājeh Abulkhayr and the elders wrote a petition of supplication to
Bābor Pādeshāh, which they gave to Khwājeh ʿAbdollaṭif to deliver. He had
reached a distance of one league from Andijān when word of his coming
reached Bābor, who sent his brother Nāṣer Mirzā to welcome him. Bābor him-
self also went out to greet the Khwājeh, whom he showed great affection and
brought into his house. After some pleasantries, Khwājeh ʿAbdollaṭif presented
the letter written by Khwājeh Abulkhayr and the elders. Bābor Pādeshāh read
it and carefully considered its contents; then he left his younger brother
Yādegār Mirzā in charge and took Nāṣer Mirzā and twelve hundred men off to
Samarqand.
Khwājeh Abulkhayr came out to greet him, and Bābor embraced him. Then
the elders and the people of the city came to see him, calling out blessings and
praise. That very night they went out and attacked Fulād Khān. A difficult bat-
tle ensued, in which six thousand of Fulād Khān’s men were killed. He took the
remainder of his army and fled in the direction of Bokhārā. Bābor Pādeshāh
then ascended to the throne of rulership in Samarqand and had his name add-
ed to the khoṭbeh and coinage. He took possession of the treasury and began to
rule with justice and equity.
Fulād Khān fled to Bokhārā and went to Shāhi Beg Khān to explain what had
happened. Shāhi Beg Khān was furious; he rallied his troops and headed for
Samarqand. Bābor Pādeshāh got word of his approach and left the city with an
army. The ranks were arrayed and a pitched battle got underway in which
Bābor Pādeshāh’s army killed eight thousand of Shāhi Beg Khān’s men; the re-
mainder, defeated, turned and fled.
The people and army of Samarqand plundered the belongings of the enemy
army, and Bābor Pādeshāh set off in pursuit of Shāhi Beg Khān. Shāhi Beg Khān
sent a spy to ascertain how many men Bābor had with him, and the spy
Shāhi Beg Khān Makes His Emergence 205

reported back that there were no more than twelve hundred men. As they say,
“When death comes for the hunted, it comes also for the hunter.”4
Shāhi Beg Khān ordered his troops to form ranks, and Bābor Pādeshāh too
told his soldiers to steel themselves for battle. In the first two attacks, four
thousand of Shāhi Beg Khān’s men were killed, and once again he turned to
flee, heading for the plain. Bābor Pādeshāh, throwing caution to the wind, gave
pursuit. The two armies arrived at the shore of a river. Bābor Pādeshāh crossed,
saying, “The deer cannot escape the talons of the lion!” Shāhi Beg Khān cried
out, “Generosity means granting security!” The way they were going, though,
no security was going to be granted.
To make a long story short, Shāhi Beg Khān fled for eight leagues, but Bābor
Pādeshāh would not give up the chase. Now Shāhi Beg Khān had a fortune-
teller5 with him; he asked him, “Tell me, does our star come out of danger, or
what happens?”
The fortune-teller said, “Bābor Pādeshāh will flee before you; you will go af-
ter him and capture the city of Samarqand.”
“We could not capture Samarqand with twenty thousand men,” the Khān’s
ātāliq said; “how will we do it with three thousand?” Shāhi Beg Khān, though,
trusted in the fortune-teller’s word. He turned around and gave ferocious battle
to Bābor Pādeshāh, finally defeating him. Bābor turned and fled toward Samar-
qand, arriving seven days later.
“Open the gate!” he cried.
The people of the city said, “Fortune has turned its back on you—if it hadn’t,
you would have defeated Shāhi Beg Khān so badly that there would have been
no need to chase him! Now the realm and city and rule are Shāhi Beg Khān’s.”
Bābor Pādeshāh, disappointed a thousand times over, turned and left down
the road to Andijān.
Later, when Shāhi Beg Khān arrived, the people of Samarqand welcomed
him into the city. Establishing himself at court, he ordered the Khwājehs and
elders to present themselves. Nearly a hundred people came. Shāhi Beg Khān
killed ten of them, and he forced the rest to pay a fine. Khwājeh Abulkhayr
tried to flee, but was caught outside the city and brought back. When Shāhi Beg
Khān saw him, he said, “One beard has gone and another appeared; tell me,
what happened?”6

4 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 261) attributes this hemistich to the poet Jāmi, but I have been unable to
verify this.
5 Literally, a reader of animal shoulder-bones (shāneh-bin), i.e. a practitioner of sca­pulim­ancy.
6 Apparently, the Khwājeh had shaved his beard in order not to be recognized.
206 Chapter 35

The Khwājeh replied:

That candle which God has kindled—

Those who blow on it get their beards singed off.7

Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Heretic! Would you try to undo me through fraud and
trickery again?” He ordered the Khwājeh to be executed; then he began to rule
over Samarqand in complete independence.

7 This well-known verse is of uncertain attribution.

Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 207

Chapter 36

Of the Sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā and Their Circumstances, and How
Their Fates were Ruined

Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā Bāyqarā was established in Harāt in enjoyment and satis-
faction. He was told in detail the story about His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil, who
had gone to Ṭabas with the intention of conquering Harāt because of
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s mistake in siding with Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, and how
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk went to see His Majesty the Shāh, who, reassured
about Badiʿozzamān’s blunder, changed his mind and decided to return home.
Solṭān Ḥosayn was irritated at Badiʿozzamān’s behavior, and he sent someone
to tell him, “If you engage in this kind of thing again, I will punish you!”
In reply, Badiʿozzamān wrote, “The Solṭān is afraid of Shaykh-oghli, but we
are not.”
The Solṭān’s mind was still not at ease regarding Badiʿozzamān, and he
thought of summoning him on a pretext. He asked his wife Khadijeh Begom
what she thought was best. She said, “You must write him a few words saying,
‘My days are drawing to a close, and I want to make you my heir-apparent.
Come at once.’ That should get him to come—as long as Mir ʿAli Shir doesn’t
get wind of it.”
The Solṭān praised her, then wrote the letter and sent it off. Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā duly set off for Harāt. Then Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā wrote to his son
Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā, who was governor of Yazd, telling him to raise an
army and head for Astarābād.
When Badiʿozzamān Mirzā approached Harāt, the Solṭān ordered that peo-
ple go forth to greet him. Mir ʿAli Shir and Neẓāmolmolk and Ṣadroddin
Khwājeh and Sharafoddin Khwājeh and most of the nobles went out. When
they reached the company of the prince, Mir ʿAli Shir made a signal to him that
meant, “You idiot, why have you come?”
The prince realized that the Solṭān’s summons had been a trick. He started
to turn back, but Mir ʿAli Shir said, “Now you must be patient so that I can send
you away with intelligence and caution.” Then they went into the presence of
the Solṭān and kissed his foot. The Solṭān, though, turned his face away and
said, “Go stay at Mir ʿAli Shir’s house.”
Now when Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā reached the outskirts of Astarābād,
Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā the son of Badiʿozzamān sent someone to him to
say, “Turn back, or you will be killed for nothing.” Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā
had to turn around and head toward Dāmghān.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_037

208 Chapter 36

Mir ʿAli Shir, in the meantime, had prepared Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, who got
up in the middle of the night without Mir ʿAli Shir knowing it and left for
Astarābād. Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā, for his part, left Dāmghān and went to
the court of Shāh Esmāʿil, where he was ennobled by kissing the royal foot. His
Majesty showed him great affection and granted him the regions of Sāveh,
Āveh and Qom.
Now Badiʿozzamān Mirzā became alarmed lest Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā
take the throne with the aid of Shāh Esmāʿil when Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā died.
Accordingly, he decided to invade ʿErāq; he joined forces with Ḥosayn Kiyā
Cholāvi, and they went toward Tehrān. Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā went from
Sāveh to Qom, while Shāh Esmāʿil arrived in Eṣfahān with the intention of con-
quering Khorāsān. Badiʿozzamān and Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi turned back from
Tehrān. It was at this time that Shāh Esmāʿil journeyed from Yazd to Ṭabas and
received Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk in Khwāf, after which he forgave the trans-
gressions of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Mir ʿAli Shir and then went back home.
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk went to Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā and said, “God forbid
that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā should do anything that would be cause for more
shame.”
Solṭān Ḥosayn sent someone to Shāh Esmāʿil asking him to dismiss Moḥam­
mad Ḥosayn Mirzā and give Astarābād to him, upon which Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā would leave for Balkh. With this agreement done, he sent a letter to
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā saying, “I have named you my heir-apparent, on the con-
dition that you leave Astarābād and go to Balkh.”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was delighted to learn this. But the next day a letter
arrived from Mir ʿAli Shir which said, “When you leave for Balkh, don’t leave
Astarābād unattended; rather, leave Moḥammad Moʾmen there with orders
not to let Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā in. In fact, if possible, he should kill him.”
Grateful for Mir ʿAli Shir’s advice, Badiʿozzamān left orders with Moḥammad
Moʾmen Mirzā and set off for Balkh.
Now when Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā asked Shāh Esmāʿil to dismiss Moḥammad
Ḥosayn Mirzā, His Majesty did so, and Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā left for
Astarābād. Then a letter from Badiʿozzamān Mirzā reached Moḥammad
Moʾmen Mirzā saying, “I have entered Balkh and taken an oath of loyalty from
the people here; I have also sent someone to Qandahār to demand fealty from
Amir Dhunnun Arghun, and I have summoned Amir Khosraw Shāh. Now you
must carry out your orders; go out to greet Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā and then
kill him that very same day.”
As Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā was approaching Astarābād, Moḥammad
Moʾmen Mirzā went out to greet him. During their meeting, Moḥammad
Moʾmen Mirzā drew a dagger and stabbed Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā in the
Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 209

side, killing him. He then seized his possessions, entered the city, and took
power.
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā was grieving at this news when word arrived from
Balkh that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was rebelling and intended to seize Harāt. The
Solṭān summoned Mir ʿAli Shir and ordered that he be executed.
Mir ʿAli Shir entered in desperation, pleading for his life. He promised to
bring Badiʿozzamān Mirzā to the Solṭān, so he went to Balkh. Upon hearing
that he had come, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā went out to greet him. When the two
came together, Mir ʿAli Shir dismounted and paid his respects to the prince,
who was ashamed, since Mir ʿAli Shir had been his tutor for so long. He stepped
forward and kissed Mir ʿAli Shir’s hand, and the two went together into the city.
Mir ʿAli Shir gave much guidance to the prince and advised him to go to the
Solṭān, which the prince accepted.
Now Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā had another son by his wife Khadijeh Begom,
named Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā, as well as a daughter named Gawhar Shād Be-
gom, who had built many madrasas and dervish-lodges in Harāt.1 She had
ordered that a dome be built on which nearly thirty thousand tumāns were
spent, intending that the bones of Emām Rezā be transferred there from Mash-
had. But when the Emām Rezā appeared to her in a dream saying, “Your offer-
ing has been accepted,” she abandoned her plans and spent her days granting
favors to the meritorious.
When Khadijeh Begom learned of the death of Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā,
she went to the Solṭān and said, “In the event that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā comes
back from Balkh and Moḥammad Moʾmen from Astarābād, and the two of
them make an attack on you, what will you do?”
“What do you advise?”
“You must give rule over Astarābād to Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā; that way he
will go there and kill Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā, and Badiʿozzamān Mirzā will
no longer have any assistance or help.”
She succeeded in talking him into it, and he wrote a decree turning Astarābād
over to Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā. He also wrote a letter to the Torkmāns, saying:
“It had been our wish to declare a general massacre of you, but in the end, we
have forgiven your transgression. Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā is on his way there;
you must submit to him and be obedient to him. Should Moḥammad Moʾmen
Mirzā put up resistance, send him to me.”
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā headed for Astarābād. When he had come within
one day’s journey of the city, Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā prepared an army to

1 The author may be conflating this woman with Timur’s daughter-in-law Gawhar Shād, who
died nearly fifty years before the time period being talked about here.
210 Chapter 36

kill him and went out in greeting. Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā, for his part, told his
advisers, “When Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā dismounts, we will do so as well,
and when he is engrossed in conversation with me, kill him.” Then, when they
came together and Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā dismounted intending to kill
his brother, Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā’s people drew their swords and cut him to
pieces. Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā entered Astarābād and established himself on
the throne there.
Meanwhile, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Mir ʿAli Shir had gone three days’ dis-
tance from Balkh when word reached them of the murder of Moḥammad
Moʾmen Mirzā. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā said to Mir ʿAli Shir, “You set me up—you
have come to deceive me and deliver me to be killed, just as you did with
Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā!”
Mir ʿAli Shir swore that he didn’t know what the prince was talking about.
The prince said, “What’s the point? If you had not been my tutor, I would kill
you right now. For the moment, though, I forgive you. Now go away; you shall
see what I do to the Solṭān and to you!” He sent Mir ʿAli Shir away in humilia-
tion and returned to Balkh.
When the news of the death of Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā reached Solṭān
Ḥosayn, he was disconsolate. Then Mir ʿAli Shir returned and told him what
had happened. The Solṭān had no choice but to gather an immense army and
set off to fight Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. He left Harāt and, as he was nearing Marv
after a long journey, he learned that Amir Dhunnun Arghun had gathered ten
thousand men and was on his way to assist Badiʿozzamān, who himself was
heading in that direction at the head of an army of twenty thousand men.
Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk said, “This sort of strife, this conflict between father
and son, will be the cause of much disrepute and shame for this house. If the
Solṭān orders me to, I will go to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and talk some sense into
him.” The Solṭān dismissed him, and the Khwājeh set off to go see Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā.
When the prince heard the Khwājeh was coming, he sent a group of nobles
to greet him. They brought him into the prince’s presence. When the Khwājeh
saw the prince, he got down on his knees and bowed to him. Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā rose from his place and brought the Khwājeh over next to him, convers-
ing with him about many things. Then the conversation turned to the matter at
hand. The Khwājeh sought to dissuade him from fighting, proffering much ad-
vice and counsel. His words made an impression on the prince, who said,
“Since your learning privileges you over us, we will not go against what you say.”
He then sent Amir Dhunnun to Balkh and accompanied the Khwājeh to the
presence of his father the Solṭān.
Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 211

Mir ʿAli Shir, however, had in the meantime written something and given it
to someone whom he sent off, telling him, “Should the prince head for Harāt,
when he gets within a day’s journey, go and give this to him.” Then, when the
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk came along, the messenger
delivered the letter to the prince. When he read it, he saw that Mir ʿAli Shir had
written: “Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk has come to deceive you and bring you to the
Solṭān so that he can kill you and put an end to this problem. Don’t fall for his
trick, or you’ll be killed. Since you were generous to me and let me go free, I am
not being ungrateful but am giving you this warning. Peace.”
What Mir ʿAli Shir really thought was that if the Khwājeh brought the prince
to the Solṭān, the Solṭān’s esteem for him would increase greatly, leaving Mir
ʿAli Shir without any credit at court.
Anyway, when Badiʿozzamān Mirzā read the letter, an evil smoke rose from
his brain; he tore up the letter and said to the Khwājeh, “O unjust man, what
have we done wrong that you should come and deceive us, wishing to hand us
over to be killed?”
“I swear that what they have written to you is completely wrong!” the
Khwājeh said. “This is due to the envy that Mir ʿAli Shir has for me. The Solṭān
has no intention of killing you; that is an absurd fantasy.”
“My mind is not at ease regarding my father,” replied the prince. “This letter
may have some truth to it. Because of your learning, I forgive you. Now go to
Marv.”
The Khwājeh had no choice but to go. He returned to the Solṭān’s court and
explained what had happened. The Solṭān summoned Mir ʿAli Shir and asked
him, “What was it that you wrote and sent to the prince?”
Mir ʿAli Shir denied any wrongdoing, saying, “The Khwājeh made the prince
regret coming, and now he is slandering me! If the prince had come, he would
have been delivered from being killed. Since he has done this unfortunate
thing, though, you must take some troops and go punish him.”
So the Solṭān ordered a review of his troops, then took three thousand of
them and formed them into units. He then left the citadel of Marv and headed
for Balkh. They were six days from Balkh when Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, together
with Amir Dhunnun and Amir Khosraw Shāh and thirty thousand troops, ar-
rived at the same place. Once more the Solṭān wrote to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā,
saying, “O my unfortunate and shameless son, take those who have tricked you
into wishing to fight against us, bind their hands, and send them to us. Other-
wise, tomorrow we will hang both them and you on the gallows!”
The prince received the letter and, in response, wrote a letter in which he
promised to fight. This he sent with a messenger.
212 Chapter 36

The next day, those two seas of soldiery confronted each other in serried
ranks. From the Solṭān’s army ʿAbdi Beg Chaghatāy went out in the vanguard
onto the battlefield; from Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s side, Shojāʿ Beg the son of
Amir Dhunnun sallied forth to meet him. The two groups crashed together and
began to fight manfully. But the Solṭān’s army had gone somewhat soft, and the
Solṭān himself left his litter, mounted up, and charged onto the battlefield. Just
then a powerful wind came up and blew dust into the eyes of the enemy, so
that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s army was defeated and forced to flee down the road
to Qandahār.
The Solṭān left that place and headed for Balkh. When he reached the cita-
del there, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s uncle shut the gate and hunkered down for a
siege. No matter how many people went to reason with him, he would not lis-
ten and remained stubbornly in a defensive position.
Two months went by, and the provisions inside the citadel were beginning
to run low; but although he regretted his actions, he had no one to act as inter-
cessor with the Solṭān. Now the wife of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was pregnant, and
at that particular time God Almighty blessed her with a son. The prince’s uncle
thought to himself, “What better intercessor could there be than this child?” So
he took that innocent seven-day old child along with much tribute and went,
his sword hanging from his neck, out of the citadel.
When he reached the presence of the Solṭān, the Solṭān told him to remove
his sword from his neck and bring the child forward. The Solṭān looked at the
boy, then said, “I hereby revoke Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s claim to the throne and
name this child Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā.” He made Khwājeh Moḥammad
Balkhi the boy’s tutor, then left Balkh and headed for Harāt. When he entered
the city, he ordered that Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā be officially named his succes-
sor and sent to Astarābād.
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was in Qandahār, and when he heard of all this, said to
Amir Dhunnun: “You see how malicious my father is? He ordered the death of
a youth like Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā, then took my seven-day old son from
me. Now he has cut me off and made my brother, who is younger than me, his
heir-apparent!”
Amir Dhunnun saw Badiʿozzamān Mirzā weeping, and his heart burned
with sympathy. Consoling the prince, he said, “Don’t grieve, for I shall place you
on the throne of rulership.”
The prince replied, “You shall be as a father to me, and I shall never abandon
you.”
Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 213

Amir Dhunnun sent a spy to report back when the Solṭān left in the spring-
time to go to the hunting-grounds of Asafzār2 with his boon-companions and
poets. Springtime came, and the Solṭān took three hundred of his boon-com-
panions and poets, along with a hundred soldiers, and left Harāt to do some
hunting. They had set up their tents and pavilions in the plain of Asafzār when
that spy reported back to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā that the Solṭān had come. The
prince and Amir Dhunnun left Shojāʿ Beg in charge of Qandahār, gathered
fourteen thousand men from the army there, and set off.
When they got to Asafzār, Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā, Badiʿozzamān’s brother,
was in the citadel there with fifteen thousand men. Realizing that it was
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā come to fight against the Solṭān, he grew fearful, and that
very hour he sent two or three men to Asafzār to warn his father. He then bar-
ricaded himself in the citadel. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā arrived and called out, “O
brother, open the gate and swear loyalty to me! I will send you to Balkh and
return after taking care of our father.”
Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā went to the top of one of the citadel towers and greet-
ed him; then he turned him down, saying, “In the end this will come to no
good, and God Almighty will exact revenge for it.”
“Never mind your advice,” his brother retorted, “open the gate! If you don’t, I
will take the citadel by force and not leave you alive!”
Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā refused again, and a battle got under way. That day
the fortress remained unconquered, but fighting continued the next day, and
in the end, Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā fought at the foot of the citadel for three days
without making any headway. A messenger of his went to the Solṭān and re-
ported the turn of events. The Solṭān sent someone to Harāt to see Mir ʿAli Shir
and someone else to the fortress of Māruchāq to see Ḥaydar Ḥosayn Mirzā. Mir
ʿAli Shir was told to stay in Harāt and to entrust the army to the commander
ʿObayd Beg, who was to set off at once.
In the meantime, the Solṭān had built a fortress-like bath-house on that
plain; he ordered his men to dig a moat around it, and he set a sentinel to
watch while he and his boon-companions and poets sat in conversation inside.
No matter how much his wise advisers and assembly-mates bemoaned the in-
security of the bath, saying, “Conquering it would be utterly easy; we should
decamp for Harāt, for it would be better for everyone to be within a league’s
marching-distance of the army,” the Solṭān would always reply, “O friends, it
seems better to us to be killed than to flee before that lot.” However much they
pleaded, they got nowhere, and so they busied themselves with conversation.

2 Near Harāt.
214 Chapter 36

When Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā had been at the foot of the citadel of Asafzār
for three days. Amir Dhunnun said to him, “O prince, we have rebelled in vain.
We marched here in order to capture the Solṭān. If you seize your father, all the
world will be yours, and your brothers will obey you. Remaining here will just
be pointless suffering.” The prince realized that it was useless to stay, so he
packed up and left.
When the Solṭān’s messenger delivered his letter to Mir ʿAli Shir, the Mir sent
forth ten thousand troops. Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā, too, left a hundred men in
the citadel and set off with four hundred others in pursuit of his brother.
In the meantime, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā had reached the plain where the
Solṭān’s fortified bath-house was. As the Solṭān began to pray for help, Ḥaydar
Ḥosayn Mirzā arrived from the direction of Māruchāq with four thousand men
and started the battle. His forces fought valiantly, but the evil eye had almost
fallen upon the army of Māruchāq when ten thousand men arrived from Harāt
and hurled themselves into the fray on their side. Then Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā,
too, arrived and joined the battle. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Amir Dhunnun
could no longer keep up their resistance and were defeated. A great many of
their men were killed, and Badiʿozzamān Mirzā himself took two hundred of
his men and fled toward Qandahār.
He sent someone to Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā to say, “If you befriend me and make
me Pādeshāh, oh what favors I will do for you!”
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “My father is treating him badly.” He wrote a note to
his brother which said, “We have written to Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā on this very
matter. Write him a short letter and let him know that it is urgent.”
When the brothers’ letters reached Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, he read: “Our fa-
ther is being unjust toward Badiʿozzamān Mirzā by making Moẓaffar Ḥosayn
Mirzā his heir-apparent. If today we do not come to our brother’s aid, it will be
unmanly of us!” He, too, was overcome by envy and ambition. That very hour
he ordered coins struck, and the khoṭbeh recited, in his own name, and he sent
someone to Marv to tell Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā to do the same. This he did. When
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā heard of all this, he was very happy.
When news of these developments reached the hearing of the Solṭān in
Harāt, he cursed his sons. (You might say that the arrow of the Solṭān’s prayer
reached its mark, for after his death they all rebelled against each other and
died ignobly.)
Then the Solṭān left Mir ʿAli Shir in Harāt and took an army to Marv. They
rode up to the gate of the citadel there, where Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā had prepared
the towers and walls for a siege. But withstanding a siege requires a great deal
of provisions, and Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā had not seen to that. In a panic, he con-
sulted with his advisers, who said, “Since Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā has been pru-
Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 215

dent, you must send someone to him to let him know about our problem;
perhaps he can do something.” So they sent someone out under cover of night
to tell Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, “We took courage from your words and are fighting
with our father, so it would be most unchivalrous if you were to withhold aid
from us now. Gather an army and come with provisions, for our situation has
become desperate.”
When Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā received this message, he—being an intelligent
and clever young man—wrote back: “I will prepare ten thousand men and
send them to you with provisions. Right now, though, the prudent thing to do
is to find your mother and get her to intercede for you. Have her tell the Solṭān
that she is afraid to leave the citadel. When he takes pity on her, have him go to
Harāt. I will pick up Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, and on Nawruz I will go to the Solṭān
and make him pleased with me. He will then will return. After he leaves, I will
hasten to you, and if you wish, [I] will follow him and [he] will come with no
problem.”3
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā rejoiced to receive this message. He sent someone to the
Solṭān to summon his mother. The Solṭān sent her to the fortress. When the
Mirzā saw his mother he started to cry. His mother stopped him, saying, “What
is this ignorance you are displaying? In the end you shall reap what you have
sown. Get up and go kiss your father’s royal foot, and perhaps he will pardon
you.”
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “O mother, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to go
to my father. I sent for you to ask you to go to him and plead on my behalf that
he go to Harāt; God Almighty willing, after Nawruz I will take Kopek Ḥosayn
Mirzā and bring him to him.”
His mother said, “The Solṭān will not be satisfied until you come yourself.”
In the end, the Mirzā’s mother acquiesced, and Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā supplied
her with many gifts and sent her back to the Solṭān. She told him what had
happened, but he was not satisfied. At that moment a message arrived from
Mir ʿAli Shir which said, “Who are these two fools that you should go out and
fight against them? Also, I have received word that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and
Amir Dhunnun have gathered fifteen thousand men and surrounded Harāt. I
do not have the power to stand and fight against them. The Solṭān himself
must come back!”
When the Solṭān heard this, he began to weep. His amirs said, “With all the
pleasure and relaxation that Your Highness has had, it is not good to weep at
one little event; you must just be patient.”

3 This paragraph is full of ambiguities. The translation is tentative.

216 Chapter 36

The Solṭān replied, “O my friends, I am not weeping for myself, but rather for
these unfortunate sons of mine, for after me what will happen to them? They
are unwise and incapable of rule.” He had no choice but to leave for Harāt.
As soon as he had gone, Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā went to the citadel. Ebn
Ḥosayn Mirzā had sent someone to the Solṭān’s camp to see whether he was
leaving with his army and equipment or whether he had scattered his army
and was leaving with his boon-companions. Word came back that the army
was going on ahead and the Solṭān, along with his companions and poets and
artisans, was following behind them.
Hearing of this, Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “Now is our chance! We must go!”
But Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, who was wiser, said, “O my brother, it is not good to
trouble our father any further; God Almighty will take revenge on us. We must
abandon this intention.”
At this Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “We must not let the opportunity slip by—
we must kill our father and make our brother Pādeshāh!”
Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “Rule comes from God, and no one can achieve it
by force.” But no matter how much he insisted, it was useless. Finally he said,
“Since you will not listen to a word I say, I am going back to my own citadel.
Have it your way.”
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “I will not let you go!”, and when Kopek Ḥosayn
Mirzā tried to leave, Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā ordered that he be seized and impris-
oned. He himself set off with an army after his father.
The Solṭān had gone three days’ journey when he received word that Ebn
Ḥosayn Mirzā was on his way with his army to do battle. Enraged, the Solṭān
ordered Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā to take five thousand men, cut that villain’s
head off, and bring it back.
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā arrayed his troops across from Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā’s
and prepared to head into battle. No matter how much his advisers pleaded
with him, it was no use; he rode onto the field, and so did Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā.
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā stretched out his hand and seized his brother’s belt, jerking
him from the saddle and casting him to the ground. He drew his sword to strike
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā’s head off, but his advisers intervened, calling out,
“Think of the Solṭān’s hatred and wrath if you kill your brother! Chain him up
and send him to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, who will know better whether to im-
prison him or kill him!” So Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā clapped Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirza
in chains and went to the citadel of Marv with two hundred men. Moẓaffar
Ḥosayn Mirzā’s army then returned to Solṭān Ḥosayn, where they told him
what had happened.
Of The Sons Of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā 217

Then the Solṭān came out of his litter and, mounting his horse, he raised
high his banner. Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā had come, but he sat there on his mount
like the iron wall of Eskandar.
When Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā imprisoned Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, he had con-
cealed him from his army, telling them he had set him up in Marv as his lieu-
tenant; he then took on his troops as a supplement to his own. Now some of
them came and said, “God forbid that this man should have taken our leader
and thrown him in prison! He has to take us back to Marv. If our leader is really
there as his lieutenant, we will seek leave for him to go into battle, and if he is
in prison, we will rescue him.”
So five hundred men went to the city, and when they figured out what was
going on, they poured into the prison and released Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā. In
addition, a thousand of the Solṭān’s Ṣufis came and pledged their allegiance to
him. Then Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā took his troops and those thousand men and
set off in all haste to pursue Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā.
When they had gone one or two days’ journey, they saw two hundred men
on the road with Ebrāhim Solṭān Tarkhān, who had chained up Moẓaffar
Ḥosayn Mirzā by the neck and was taking him to the citadel of Marv. He said,
“Unchain him, you traitor!”
Ebrāhim Solṭān Tarkhān replied, “This is Ebn Ḥosayn’s prisoner; who can
save him?”
Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā struck him on the shoulder with the back of his sword-
blade, saying, “Get your hands off, for you are going to be killed!”
Ebrāhim Solṭān Tarkhān released his man. Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā removed
the chain from his brother, put it on Ebrāhim Solṭān’s neck, and set off. He
reached the place his father was at a time when the Solṭān had not gone onto
the battlefield, and that Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā had fought against him and killed a
number of his men. When the soldiers looked up and saw the banner of Kopek
Ḥosayn Mirzā, they said to themselves, “It is not prudent to stay here any lon-
ger—we had better flee!” Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā came and reported all that
had happened; then he said, “Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā is bringing notice of his
loyalty; the Solṭān need not be troubled.”
When the Solṭān looked, in the distance he saw Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā, who
first prostrated himself, then jumped on his horse and rode onto the battle-
field. When he reached Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā, he said, “Wretch! What have you
done?” In a flash he thrust his spear into Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā’s waistband and
lifted him from the saddle, then cast him to the ground. He bound his hands
and brought him before the Solṭān, saying, “O prince, the two of us are sinners
against this court. With your permission, let us kiss the royal feet. If not, then
punish us. The decision is up to you.”
218 Chapter 36

The Solṭān blessed him and embraced him and kissed his forehead. He said,
“I turn Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā over to you.” Then he dismissed his sons to go back
to their own cities. He himself returned to Harāt. When this news reached Mir
ʿAli Shir, he ordered that the drums be beaten to sound the good news.
Meanwhile, one of Badiʿozzamān’s spies came as well bearing the news of
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā; he said, “The prince said that it is obviously not God’s will
that you should come to rule in this region,” and explained what had hap-
pened. So Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Amir Dhunnun left and headed to
Qandahār.
Mir ʿAli Shir, for his part, opened the gate and went out to welcome the
Solṭān. When he approached him, he bowed his head low and made a move to
dismount, but the Solṭān said, “Stay in the saddle where I can see you.” He rode
closer and tried to kiss the Solṭān’s hand, but the Solṭān just sat in the saddle
without saying a word. They went into the city like this. Early that night Mir ʿAli
Shir surrendered his soul to the Creator.4 When the Solṭān heard about it, he
lamented him greatly; he ordered that his body be brought to the praiseworthy
and pleasing gardens of the holy Emām Rezā and buried there. This was done,
and thereafter the Solṭān entered Harāt and got down to the business of plea-
sure and easy living.

4 Mir ʿAli Shir Navāʾi died in 906/1501.

Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 219

Chapter 37

Bābor Pādeshāh Goes to Kābol, While Shāhi Beg Khān Goes to Balkh and
Badiʿozzamān Sets Out to Fight Him

When Bābor Pādeshāh left Andijān for Jirān, Shāhi Beg Khān took thirty thou-
sand men and followed him. Hearing of this, Bābor turned toward Samarqand
and sent an envoy ahead to ask the nobles there, “Will you welcome us, or
should we go into exile?”
They responded, “We are afraid of Shāhi Beg Khān. You had better go some-
where else; we shall turn Samarqand over to you at another time.”
When Bābor received this message, he and seven thousand men gathered
up their encampment and traveled until they reached Kābol. Amir Dhunnun’s
son Shojāʿ Beg, who was governor there, shut the city gate against him and
would not let him in, nor would he send anyone out to him. Bābor then sent
someone to Harāt with a short message to Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā which said,
“We have decided to go to Hendustān and have arrived at Kābol, but Shojāʿ Beg
has closed the gate on us and will not let us in. Do not forget us in your prayers.”
When Solṭān Ḥosayn received this message, he was greatly moved by it. He
ordered that a message be sent to Shojāʿ Beg saying, “Give Kābol to Bābor
Pādeshāh as a gift and head for the region of Dāvar,1 and I shall assign an-
other region to you.” He also gave Bābor’s envoy a robe of honor and sent along
with him thirty swift horses with saddles and bridles and fifteen thousand
tumāns and many fine textiles for Bābor, asking for his forgiveness.
When the envoy returned to Bābor, he presented the Solṭān’s gifts to him
and showed him the letter. Bābor read it and sent it along to Shojāʿ Beg. Shojāʿ
Beg read the Solṭān’s letter, but rejected it and rebelled.
Bābor sent another messenger to rebuke him, saying, “If it is not contrary to
the wish of the Solṭān, I will take the city by force and punish you.”
Still Shojāʿ Beg would not obey, so Bābor ordered his men to launch an at-
tack on the city. Shojāʿ Beg and his men mounted the tops of the battlements,
raining arrows and stones down on the attackers. It was no use, though, and
the Chaghatāy army had forced its way to the city gate when Shojāʿ Beg sent a
messenger to Bābor to ask for quarter. In accordance with the wishes of the
Solṭān, Bābor forgave him and ordered his troops to stop fighting. Shojāʿ Beg
prepared many gifts and came out of the citadel; he went to Bābor and kissed

1 Modern Qandahār.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_038

220 Chapter 37

his feet, asking pardon for his offenses. After that, he was dismissed and head-
ed for Qandahār and the region of Dāvar, and Bābor entered Kābol.
When Shāhi Beg Khān heard that Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā had given Kābol to
Bābor, along with many fine gifts, hatred of the Solṭān took root in his heart. He
took thirty thousand men and set off with the intention of conquering Balkh.
The Solṭān, hearing of this, sent a short message to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā in
Qandahār, saying, “We have heard that Shāhi Beg Khān intends to conquer
Balkh. As soon as you get this message, raise an army and come here, and after
we have met with each other, we will go to Balkh to repel him.”
Badiʿozzamān received his father’s message and sent off his reply, to which
the Solṭān consented.2 Then Badiʿozzamān and Amir Dhunnun gathered
their troops and went together to Harāt. When they reached the vicinity of the
city, the Solṭān ordered that they be greeted and brought to the court. There
they kissed the royal foot and presented the Solṭān with the claim they had,
which he granted. Then the Solṭān sent them along with a boundless army off
to Balkh, where they entered the city.
Now Shāhi Beg Khān, who had sought help from every source and gathered
nearly forty thousand men, also headed for Balkh. When he reached its citadel,
Badiʿozzamān shut the gate fast and prepared to withstand a siege. He sent
someone to the Solṭān with this message: “Shāhi Beg Khān has surrounded the
citadel of Marv [sic!] with forty thousand men. Come yourself, for I do not have
the strength to resist him.”
When this message reached the Solṭān, he gathered a force and set off. As
soon as Shāhi Beg Khān learned that he was on his way, he summoned his
soothsayer and asked, “What have you seen of our battle with the Solṭān?” The
soothsayer replied, “You had better make peace.” Hearing this, Shāhi Beg Khān
decamped from Balkh and went to Bokhārā. The Solṭān, in turn, learned of this
while en route and turned back to Harāt.
A year later, though, Shāhi Beg Khān again raised an army and went back to
Balkh, surrounding the citadel there. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā informed the Solṭān
that he had come, to which the Solṭān replied: “Try to hold out, as this time our
army is not present at court; God willing, I will gather some troops and come.”
So Badiʿozzamān Mirzā prepared the ramparts and withstood the siege with
manliness. Shāhi Beg Khān launched an assault on the citadel and the battle
began. The world became black from all the smoke and gunpowder, and four
thousand Uzbek soldiers were killed. Overcome with fear, the Uzbeks retreated
from the citadel and returned whence they had come. Shāhi Beg Khān, beside

2 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 281) notes that Badiʿozzamān’s demands have been left out, but he sur-
mises that they included mentioning his name in the khoṭbeh.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 221

himself, retreated as well. The Uzbeks reported that taking the fortress would
be a problem. “The thing to do is this,” Shāhi Beg Khān replied; “Moḥammad
Bāqer Divānbegi3 fled from us into that fortress; if someone can take a mes-
sage from us to him, surely he will be able to do the trick.”
Jānvafā Mirzā, Shāhi Beg Khān’s nephew, said: “I have a footman who can get
himself into the citadel.” Shāhi Beg Khān told him to write a letter to Moḥammad
Bāqer Divānbegi saying: “If you open the citadel gate to us and let us enter,
know with certainty that we will bestow rule over Balkh upon you, and your
rank will be closer to our own than anyone else’s. If you don’t do this, we will
seize the citadel by force and inflict incomparable punishments upon you.
Peace.” Then he gave the message to the footman.
Now the footman used to dress up in Chaghatāy clothing and walk around
the citadel, so he knew of a little crevice in its wall. At night he entered the
citadel through it, hiding in a corner until morning. Then he went to
Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi and passed the letter to him in private.
Moḥammad Bāqer read it and said, “If I hand Badiʿozzamān Mirzā over to
be killed, or if I imprison the one who captured him, will the Khān really do
what he has said?” He wrote this in a message to Shāhi Beg Khān, saying to the
footman, “From now on, His Highness the Khān need not send anyone when
he wants to write something to us. Let him tie the message to an arrow and
shoot it into such-and-such tower.”
The footman left the citadel and reported what he had heard. Shāhi Beg
Khān wrote another message to Moḥammad Bāqer saying, “Whoever does not
carry out what he has said and written to you is an oathbreaker.” In accordance
with Moḥammad Bāqer’s instructions, he shot the message into a certain tow-
er.
Moḥammad Bāqer then sent a reply saying, “Tonight Badiʿozzamān Mirzā is
making the rounds of the fortifications; when he gets to my tower, if possible I
will seize him, and if not I will dispatch him. You hide in ambush and then
come.”
Then Moḥammad Bāqer went to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and said, “My mind is
not at ease regarding Shāhi Beg Khān. God forbid anyone should be thinking of
teaming up with him; you know how an infidel imagines everything according
to his own faith. It would not be a bad idea for you to visit the towers at night.”
“Good idea,” said Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. “From now on, I will come.” When
night fell, the Mirzā went from the ʿOkkāsheh gate to the roof of the tower.
When his torch became visible, Moḥammad Bāqer explained to his son the

3 Governor of Bokhārā; see Chap. 35.

222 Chapter 37

deal he had made with Shāhi Beg Khān, saying, “When the Mirzā gets here, if
we can seize him alive, we will, and if not, we will kill him. Be on guard.”
As Badiʿozzamān Mirzā went from tower to tower, he gave heart to the peo-
ple there by giving out goblets of wine and bestowing gifts. When he reached
the tower before the one where Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi was waiting,
though, he tarried a while. ʿAlijān, the son of Moḥammad Bāqer, said, “O father,
the Mirzā has done quite a bit of walking; God forbid he should head back! I
will go to him; perhaps I can find some way to bring him back here.”
“O my son, do go,” Moḥammad Bāqer replied, “and be sure to bring him here,
for Shāhi Beg Khān is waiting.”
So ʿAlijān went to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, who said, “What news do you have
from Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi?” ʿAlijān smiled and said, “He is busy pray-
ing for your well-being!”
The Mirzā thought to himself that there had to be something behind that
smile. So he ordered that some goblets of wine be given to him and he showed
ever more affection for him, even granting him a robe of honor. Then he sat
him down before him and said, “O ʿAlijān, I want you to speak truthfully: what
was that smile all about?”
ʿAlijān came clean and explained everything. Astonished, Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā said, “What should we do now?”
ʿAlijān said, “If the Mirzā does not go to that tower, they will suspect me.
Come there with me, and when my father sees you he will approach to kiss
your hand; at that moment I will come up behind him and kill him.”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā kissed ʿAlijān’s forehead and presented him with his
own sword, saying, “Let the three hundred men in this tower come behind us.”
Then he dismissed ʿAlijān, who went on ahead to his father.
When he arrived, he said, “You’d think the Mirzā’s hour of death had come,
for this very night he has given me his sword.”
Moḥammad Bāqer said, “Praise be to God! I was just thinking that if he had
a sword in hand, it would be impossible to capture him. Now, though, it is clear
that fortune has abandoned him.”
Just then Badiʿozzamān Mirzā arrived. Moḥammad Bāqer saw that he had
three or four men with him, and the three hundred men bringing up the rear
were visible in the distance. Immediately Moḥammad Bāqer sprang forward
and thrust his hand into the Mirzā’s belt, saying, “Hands up, for Shāhi Beg Khān
summons you!”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā burst out laughing. Moḥammad Bāqer was ordering
his men to tie him up when ʿAlijān struck from behind with that sword and
sliced his own father’s head clean off, sending it falling to the ground. As the
Mirzā praised him, the three hundred men arrived and killed a group of
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 223

Moḥammad Bāqer’s men who had witnessed what had happened. They hung
their heads from the towers of the citadel.
When the commotion reached Shāhi Beg Khān in his hiding-place, he con-
fidently and quickly set off for the fortress. But Badiʿozzamān Mirzā ordered
the archers to open fire, and the hail of arrows killed many of his men. Realiz-
ing that Moḥammad Bāqer had been killed, Shāhi Beg Khān returned to his
camp, where he kept up the siege for two more months without success.
Word had spread that the Solṭān was coming, and Shāhi Beg Khān was won-
dering whether he should fight him or make peace, when the news came from
Samarqand that Qāsem Khān, lord of the steppe of Baghlān, had sent his son
Abulkhayr Khān with eighty thousand men to Tāshkand, which he had seized,
and that he was now heading for Samarqand. Since Shāhi Beg Khān was friends
with Qāsem Khān, he was astonished and did not know the reason for what
was happening. Then someone told him, “You had promised Qāsem Khān that
you would strike your coins in his name and have his name mentioned in the
khoṭbeh before your own, but you have not fulfilled your promise; perhaps this
is the reason.” So Shāhi Beg Khān lifted his siege of Balkh and left for Bokhārā.
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā sent a messenger to Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā to tell him
that Shāhi Beg Khān had lifted his siege and was on his way to Bokhārā, so
there was no need for the Solṭān to come to Balkh. When he received this mes-
sage, the Solṭān ordered his men not to go anywhere, for they were going to go
to Torkestān.
Shāhi Beg Khān reached Samarqand before Abulkhayr Khān and asked for
news of him. They told him that Abulkhayr Khān was busy at the hunting-
grounds of Afrāsiyāb with the Uzbek elders. He said, “We must sneak up on
him and give him a taste of his own medicine.”
It was forty days’ journey from Samarqand to Tāshkand, so Shāhi Beg Khān
gathered sixty thousand men from Samarqand and set off. When they arrived
in the vicinity of the hunting-ground, by chance Abulkhayr Khān was out with
his eighty thousand men, most of whom were busy hunting with the falcons on
their wrists. Shāhi Beg Khān sounded his war-trumpets. Upon being alerting by
his men to what was happening, Abulkhayr Khān gave the order to fire a volley,
and those eighty thousand soldiers together launched their arrows against the
Uzbeks. Forty thousand men were killed, and Shāhi Beg Khān turned tail and
fled.
Abulkhayr Khān set off in hot pursuit. Once again battle was joined, and this
time eight thousand Uzbeks were killed. In that battle, Abulkhayr Khān was
wounded in the arm by an arrow. Still, Shāhi Beg Khān retreated again and
headed for Samarqand. Having evacuated it, he turned toward Bokhārā, in-
tending to go to Jirān; but then the news arrived that Abulkhayr Khān was
224 Chapter 37

wounded and had returned to the steppe. So Shāhi Beg Khān returned to Sa-
marqand.
When word reached Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā Bāyqarā in Harāt that Shāhi Beg
Khān had been defeated, he said, “We shall go to Bokhārā to fight the vile Shāhi
Beg Khān!” He left Badiʿozzamān Mirzā in Harāt and summoned his other five
sons along with his army and set off. When they had gone one or two days’
journey, he summoned Badiʿozzamān Mirzā from Harāt and put him in the
vanguard, sending him ahead with ten thousand men while himself bringing
up the rear with twenty thousand men.
After three days, though, the Solṭān’s health took a turn for the worse, and a
messenger was sent to fetch Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. When he arrived, he saw
that the Solṭān was on death’s door, and he began to weep and lament. The
Solṭān opened his eyes and said, “O Badiʿozzamān, it is time to bid farewell; you
are all who survive me. If your brothers act foolishly and rebel against you, do
not fail to show compassion and kindness toward them. Although I know that
none of my house shall remain, that you shall end up in exile, and that Shāhi
Beg Khān will kill most of your brothers, he himself will meet death at the
hands of Shāh Esmāʿil, the Pādeshāh of Iran.” Finally, the Solṭān left his testa-
ment and words of advice for all of his sons, after which he surrendered his
soul to God.4

Whether you remain a hundred years or a hundred thousand,

You must eventually flee this world.

They gathered up the Solṭān’s body and headed back to bury it. After mourning
the Solṭān, the elders went to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and placed him on the
throne, wishing him well.
At this point Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā went to his mother and told her what
had happened. She said, “Your father made you his heir-apparent first! Take the
letter in which he did so and make your claim against the Mirzā. If he shares
power with you, that will be for the best; if not, well, as long as you give more
largesse and bigger salaries to the army, you will rule. If your treasury isn’t
enough, I will give you mine.”
So Moẓaffar Ḥosayn began to make accusations against Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā. Some of the Chaghatāy army sided with Badiʿozzamān, while others
took Moẓaffar Ḥosayn’s side. At last the matter came to a head and fighting
broke out. The elders said, “While the late Solṭān was alive, he himself pro-
nounced Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s name in the khoṭbeh, and he struck his name

4 Solṭān Ḥosayn (Mirzā) Bāyqarā died in 911/1506.

Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 225

on the coins of the realm. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā should therefore have the
throne; let Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā be his lieutenant. God forbid that you had
drawn swords against each other the time Shāhi Beg Khān was waiting in am-
bush—the enemy would have seized his opportunity at your expense!”
After some negotiations, it was decided that since Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was
the older brother, he would take the throne and Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā would
be his viceregent, and they would rule together. They had gotten down to rul-
ing and easy living when news of this reached the other brothers. Each one
said, “If they have decided to share our father’s position, they should also read
my name in the khoṭbeh and strike it on coins, or otherwise they should take
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā’s name out of both! If they won’t do either, I will pro-
nounce the khoṭbeh and strike coins in my own name!”
Thus those ignorant ones took a hatchet to the tree of their own fortune;
they pronounced the khoṭbeh and struck coins in their own names, each rebel-
ling against the others.
News of the death of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā Bāyqarā and of the quarreling of
his successors reached Shāhi Beg Khān just as he had decided to go to Khorāsān.
Then someone came to tell him, “Jāni Beg Solṭān, your cousin, has set out from
Andijān and seized the region of Kand,5 and an army of steppe soldiers has
marched on Samarqand.” So Shāhi Beg gathered twenty thousand men and
headed for Samarqand.
When he got there, the army of the steppe had surrounded the citadel, and
ʿObayd Khān was also at the gate. Seeing this, Shāhi Beg Khān entered the bat-
tle; many were killed or wounded, but in the end, the army of Shāhi Beg Khān
was defeated, and he had no choice but to retreat a league’s distance. He had
decided to return home when the news of his retreat reached ʿObayd Khān in
the citadel. ʿObayd Khān at once sent a message saying, “God forbid you should
go home when I, too, have left the citadel. If I am defeated, I will leave for
Bokhārā; should we win there, we shall have our domain.” Shāhi Beg Khān ac-
cepted this and left.
Thereupon Shāhi Beg Khān sat down to think and said to himself, “At this
point there is no defeating the army of the steppe or Jāni Beg Solṭān, who has
emerged from Andijān to take power. Now I must plan some scheme to get Jāni
Beg to obey me.” So he ordered that a letter be written to him thus:
“O cousin, such conflicts between relatives are pointless. Enemies from all
four directions have been and are victorious; you and I cannot achieve rule in
this place. If you have your mind set on power, you have to seize territory from
your enemy and rule it. Rule over this region is rightfully yours. Now, listen to

5 Probably meaning Khojand, now in the north of Tajikistan.

226 Chapter 37

my words in friendship and bring your army here; together we will fall upon
Balkh and wrest it from Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. Then you can take possession of
it and go on to Khorāsān, where what you seize will belong to you. Why must
there be conflict and strife between us? If you want assistance, just let me
know, and if I get into trouble, you send help to me.”
When this letter reached Jāni Beg Solṭān, he thought to himself, then said,
“Shāhi Beg Khān is right.” He summoned twenty thousand troops from his
army and set off. When he reached Shāhi Beg Khān, he bowed down and paid
homage to him, and Shāhi Beg Khān rose from his place and kissed his face.
Seating Jāni Beg Solṭān next to himself, he swelled with pride and kept saying
how his coming was sufficient to make him happy. Then the two of them joined
their forces and decamped for Bokhārā. After entering the city, they sent a spy
off to Balkh, then sat down to pass the winter in the city. On the first day of
spring, they headed to Balkh themselves.
When they had crossed the Oxus river, spies brought word of their arrival to
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. Panic seized him, for he had no one to rely on to hold
Balkh. After much reflection, he sent a messenger to Bābor Pādeshāh with a
letter describing the advent of Shāhi Beg Khān which said: “O my brother, as
soon as this message reaches you, gather your men and hasten here; rule over
Balkh is yours by right. I will send Yādegār Mirzā6 to Kābol.”
When Bābor read this letter, he was grateful, and within the hour he had
gathered twelve thousand troops and left the Hindu Kush en route to Balkh.
Shāhi Beg Khān learned that Bābor Pādeshāh was on his way. He said to Jāni
Beg Solṭān, “O my brother, Bābor Pādeshāh is a courageous and experienced
man, and his army is large. We had better go back whence we came. Let Bābor
Pādeshāh and Badiʿozzamān arrive and see that we have gone; then they too
will turn back, and we will take our army, seize Balkh, and entrust it to you.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān agreed to this, and they left.
Now when Badiʿozzamān Mirzā entered Balkh and learned that Shāhi Beg
Khān was gone, he regretted promising Balkh to Bābor Pādeshāh. So he turned
it over to ʿAlijān Beg, the son of Moḥammad Bāqer Divānbegi, and then left for
Harāt.
Shāhi Beg Khān’s spy brought him word of these happenings, and three
months later he returned to Balkh, together with Jāni Beg Solṭān, at the head of
a great army. When they reached the shore of the Oxus, spies reported it to
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. Again he was struck with anxiety, and again he wrote a
letter to Bābor Pādeshāh saying: “Once more Shāhi Beg Khān is headed for
Balkh. Move quickly, for the city is your inheritance.”

6 Bābor’s brother.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 227

When Bābor Pādeshāh received this letter, he said, “Again the Mirzā is ‘set-
ting Mobārak free when he’s dead’!”7 He wrote in reply: “We are unable to go at
this time.” Badiʿozzamān then wrote another letter to Bābor saying, “Since you
cannot go to Balkh, come to Harāt, so that we can do the prudent thing and
join forces.”
Bābor Pādeshāh, seeing no other choice, gathered his army and headed to
Harāt. He sent messages to his brothers in Astarābād and Marv and holy Mash-
had and Semnān and Dāmghān, but those ill-starred ones refused to come.
Now ʿAlijān Solṭān sent a petition to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā saying, “Shāhi Beg
Khān has besieged Balkh and I do not have the power to resist; come with all
haste!”
Badiʿozzamān wrote in reply, “Hold the fort for three more months—we will
gather an army and come. Let your mind be at ease, for no one has ever taken
the fortress of Balkh and no one is going to do it now.”
When ʿAlijān heard this, that foolish man opened the gate of the city and
went to Shāhi Beg Khān, to whom he showed obedience and service. But Shāhi
Beg Khān said to him, “Wretch! I would have taken this fortress in the first days,
but you, out of love for the Chaghatāy, murdered your own father, got my sol-
diers killed, and gave us a bad name!” He ordered that ʿAlijān be put to death.
Then he entered Balkh and turned its government over to Jāni Beg Solṭān; he
himself sat sovereign on the throne of power there, waiting to see what news
would come from Harāt.
When news of the capture of Balkh reached Bābor Pādeshāh in Harāt, he
was alarmed. He left with his army for Kābol, and most of the local soldiers also
scattered when they heard the news. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā stayed behind in
Harāt with twelve thousand men and sent someone to Amir Dhunnun with a
message saying, “Will you neglect me like the others have, or will you come to
my aid? Anyway, raise an army and come here as quickly as you can!”
So Amir Dhunnun gathered ten thousand men and came to Harāt. Ebn
Ḥosayn Mirzā and Ḥaydar Ḥosayn Mirzā and all their troops came as well. To
make a long story short, twenty thousand soldiers gathered in that city.
Shāhi Beg Khān spent the winter in the fortress of Balkh, and when spring
came, he set out with a boundless and innumerable army, intending to con-
quer Khorāsān. He told ʿObayd Khān to take his own men and follow along.
When he reached Jijaktu,8 the guardian turned over the key to the fortress
without a fight. Shāhi Beg Khān then decamped and set off for Harāt.

7 Per Steingass, an idiom for doing something foolish. Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 291) compares it to
the saying “to spill the lamp oil, then dedicate it to the shrine.”
8 Or Chāchaktu, a fortress near Tāleqān in present-day northern Afghanistan.
228 Chapter 37

Before going to Jijaktu, though, Shāhi Beg Khān had appointed as his envoy
and spy one Mollā Maḥmud, who had no peer in deviousness. He sent him to
Harāt to ascertain how serious the estrangement between Badiʿozzamān Mirzā
and Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā was, as well as what the reason was for Bābor
Pādeshāh’s leaving—i.e. whether his departure was a clever ruse and he would
come back from the Hindu Kush when Shāhi Beg Khān arrived, or whether he
had left because he was truly angry with the Mirzās. “Find all this out and re-
turn as speedily as possible,” he told him, “for I am waiting.”
Mollā Maḥmud said, “I have had a dream and fear that the Mirzās will put
me to death in Harāt.”
“Put your mind at ease,” Shāhi Beg Khān replied, “for they do not have the
authority to put an envoy of ours to death.”
So Mollā Maḥmud took ten men and headed for Harāt. When he entered the
city, he saw an amazing thing: All the people were despondent, so afraid that
they were not even speaking to one another. When he arrived at court, he did
not see any of the nobles or amirs or activities or manners or ceremonies that
he had seen in the time of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā.
Anyway, he stepped into the court and saw the two princes seated atop jew-
elled chairs; each one’s amirs had taken their places on one side, and the ush-
ers, jewelled staffs in hand, were keeping an eye on their respective amirs. Then
Mollā Maḥmud stepped forward to prostrated himself in homage, and when
he stood up, two people took his hands and pulled him—one was telling him
to kiss Badiʿozzamān’s foot, the other to kiss Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā’s! The
baffled Mollā did not know what to do. Then it occurred to him that since
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was the elder brother, he should kiss his foot first; but the
attendants of Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā dragged him over and made him kiss his
foot, after which he kissed Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was dis-
pleased with this, and rancor set into his heart.
Mollā Maḥmud then took his place in the assembly and brought out his let-
ter. Ten attendants stepped forward to take it; Mollā Maḥmud placed it in the
hand of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s chief attendant. When Badiʿozzamān Mirzā had
read it, he handed it to Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā. He read it too, then said that it
should be read out loud, which his vizier did. Shāhi Beg Khān had written thus:
“Let it not be concealed from the minds of the princes of the Kurgān’s lin-
eage that we have set our intention on blessed Mecca and Medina. Those dear
princes must make preparations for a welcome-feast for me; then I will have no
designs on their hereditary dominion. I will conquer some territory and en-
trust it to Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā, for Khorāsān is not fit for the two of them to
rule jointly, and I will take over the matters of striking coins and having the
khoṭbeh recited. Since today I am the Caliph of the age and the successor of the
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 229

noble Caliphs of old, if you show obedience it will cause Islam and the Tradi-
tions of the noblest among men [i.e. Moḥammad] to increase, and Islam will
become newly powerful. God forbid that you should heed the counsel of in-
triguers and not take part in this, turning your minds instead to disobedience,
for your fortune will surely decline. Peace.”
The letter had just been read out when Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s spy, newly re-
turned from Balkh, entered the court and presented his master with a letter of
his own. It read as follows: “Be aware that Shāhi Beg Khān has sent Mollā
Maḥmud as a spy in order to ascertain your situation and bring word back to
him!” Badiʿozzamān Mirzā immediately ordered that Mollā Maḥmud be seized
and hanged by the neck.
“What for?” asked Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā.
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā showed him the letter. Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā smiled,
saying, “It goes without saying that envoys are the spies of their lords. Anyway,
no ruler ever executes an envoy, especially not the envoy of Shāhi Beg Khān,
lest he gain a pretext to attack us.”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā said, “I will kill this envoy myself to show Shāhi Beg
Khān that we are not afraid of him!”
“O my brother,” said Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā, “that is not a good idea. Since
you are serious about it, order that he be imprisoned. If he is in fact a spy, is it
better to have him in chains or to kill him?”
But Badiʿozzamān Mirzā would not listen, insisting that it was necessary to
kill the envoy, while Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā said that he should imprison him.
To make a long story short, they pulled Mollā Maḥmud this way and that until
he died from the strain. Everybody thought he had just fainted, but then
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā’s attendants said, “Let them take that dead man and
put him in chains; that way the matter is taken care of.”
One of Mollā Maḥmud’s attendants disguised himself and made his way to
the presence of Shāhi Beg Khān to describe what had happened. Even though
Shāhi Beg Khān was furious, he started to laugh and said, “Has any house ever
had such ignoble progeny? Of the ten sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, not one is
intelligent enough to rule for a single year.” But since winter had not yet ended
entirely and he was unable to set off, he waited for spring to come.
One man, tired of the cruelty of Shāhi Beg Khān’s attendants, gathered his
belongings and left for Harāt. There he went to the court of Solṭān Ḥosayn
Mirzā, but he saw no one there. He asked someone what was going on, saying,
“Why is there no one around?”
That man let out a sigh and said, “O sir, on account of the envoy of Shāhi Beg
Khān, the two brothers grew peevish; one would say to the other, ‘You take
over, since what I say carries no weight,’ and the other would say, ‘I have no
230 Chapter 37

business ruling, since you pay no attention to what I say anyway!’ Now it has
been ten days since each of them retired to his harem in a huff.”
“Where are Badiʿozzamān’s quarters?” asked the visitor.
The man indicated with a gesture.
The visitor went to the door and called out, “Why have you brought shame
to the name of Solṭān Ḥosayn?”
Someone came to the door and said, “The Mirzā says for you to go to the
king’s house, for he is not the king.”
In the end, the visitor went twice to both princes’ quarters and received the
same answer each time. He cursed the court elders and turned to go; but as he
was leaving, the elders said, “O brother, we too are puzzled and distressed at
the princes’ behavior; we too go to their houses and hear the same things you
heard.”
After this the elders gathered at the door of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s quarters
and wrote a sharply worded petition. He came out and they talked to him a bit.
Then they sent someone to fetch his brother and they all sat in the court say-
ing, “What shall we do? Should one more of us leave?”
“We must send someone to find Amir Dhunnun and Bābor Pādeshāh and
tell them to raise their armies and cut Shāhi Beg Khān off at the river Morghāb,”
said Badiʿozzamān Mirzā.
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “By God, it’s not even a month until spring be-
gins!” So they prepared their armies and set up their tents and pavilions out-
side the city of Harāt. They also sent letters to Ḥaydar Ḥosayn Mirzā and
Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā and Qāsem Ḥosayn Mirzā and Hādi Ḥosayn Mirzā and
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā and Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā. But all of them wrote back with
excuses and did not come.
Amir Dhunnun then arrived with his twenty thousand men. Bābor Pādeshāh,
though, had not yet come when word arrived that Shāhi Beg Khān was on his
way with forty thousand men, having crossed the river Morghāb, conquered all
of the region of Balkh, and placed Jāni Beg Solṭān in charge there lest Bābor
Pādeshāh invade from Kābol.
Amir Dhunnun said, “It is a good thing that Jāni Beg Solṭān has not come,
but we must write to Bābor Pādeshāh telling him to turn back if he has left and
stay in Kābol, for if he comes Jāni Beg Solṭān will come as well.” They wrote a
letter saying this to Bābor Pādeshāh. When he received the letter, he realized
his situation, and he turned to head back to Kābol.
The Mirzās, together with Amir Dhunnun, gathered their troops and set off
for the river Morghāb, where Shāhi Beg Khān was. There they set up their tents
and pavilions and waited.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 231

Shāhi Beg Khān took three hundred of his most renowned champions and
headed out to observe the Khorāsāni forces. Half a league from the camp there
was a little hill; he went up on top of it and asked a spy about the enemy army
and commanders. In the center of the Khorāsāni camp he saw a remarkable
tent whose dome rose to the very heavens. The spy reported that it was for-
merly the tent of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, which Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was now
using.
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “I have heard about this tent. It was sewn in Anatolia
from European satin; the artists wove images of different sorts of trees and
pictures of wild animals and birds into its interior on their looms, and a hun-
dred and forty thousand tumāns were spent on it. It came to be known by the
name Eftaḥ,9 because whenever Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā went on campaign with
this tent, he was never defeated, but always conquered.”
Shāhi Beg Khān was seized with a powerful desire to possess that tent. He
said, “Tomorrow I want one champion to go with a thousand men and sur-
round that tent; when we are returning from the morning’s fighting, he shall
seize the tent, along with the things inside and the jeweled thrones, and set all
of it up in our camp.”
Maḥmud Solṭān, Shāhi Beg Khān’s brother, volunteered, saying, “I accept
this task, and I will not rest until that tent is in my hands.”
Shāhi Beg Khān praised him and said, “If you fulfill this pledge, I will give
you Bokhārā.” Maḥmud Solṭān repeated what he had said.
Now Amir Dhunnun Arghun had a spy from the Uzbek steppe, one who was
familiar with everyone in the Uzbek army and was an attendant of Shāhi Beg
Khān. Once a year he would go to Amir Dhunnun, take a hundred tumāns, and
write down everything that was happening in that region and send it to Amir
Dhunnun via his own spies. Now, hearing the arrangement that had just been
made between Shāhi Beg Khān and Maḥmud Solṭān, the spy seized his oppor-
tunity. He hurried to Amir Dhunnun and told him what had happened.
Amir Dhunnun was at the edge of the encampment; he selected five hun-
dred brave men and gathered them together near himself so that during the
battle they would not get separated. He told them to mount their horses; then,
when they had amassed on the riverbank, he shouted: “O Shāhi Beg Khān, you
who have come to this place and chosen the tent of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā for
yourself: What business do you have talking about the tent of Solṭān Ḥosayn
Mirzā? Come on, then! You have six hundred men and I have five hundred. You
call yourself the Caliph of the Age and the Emām of the Time; well, an emām
must be braver than any other man, and I am but a slave of the Solṭān. If you

9 Arabic for “conquer!”

232 Chapter 37

have any shame, pay no heed to what I am saying and come down from that hill
so that I can show you how one acts like the Emām of the Time!” Having said
this, he turned to face the hill.
Hearing this, Shāhi Beg Khān was about to flee, but Maḥmud Solṭān said to
him, “You have the fortune to be the Emām of the Time! Who is that man that
you should flee from the likes of him? Stay right here, and I will take four hun-
dred men to fight with him and kill him.” So Shāhi Beg Khān stayed on top of
the hill with a hundred men while Maḥmud Solṭān descended with four hun-
dred others.
Amir Dhunnun sent someone to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā to tell him what had
happened with Shāhi Beg Khān; he added, “You have to come so that you arrive
just as he is looking around for help.”
Amir Dhunnun himself went to intercept Maḥmud Solṭān, and in the first
assault Arghun’s men killed a number of the Uzbeks. Maḥmud Solṭān turned
back toward the hill and Amir Dhunnun spurred his horse to pursue him, but
a group of Uzbeks cut him off so that whichever way he tried to go, he met with
a hail of their arrows. Finally he made a break for the hill. Maḥmud Solṭān, rid-
ing hard, cried out, “O brothers, come up here!” Amir Dhunnun saw that
Maḥmud Solṭān was about to escape, so he took out his bow and nocked an
arrow. He loosed an arrow that struck Maḥmud Solṭān in the back so hard that
the point came out his chest and he tumbled headlong from his horse.
Amir Dhunnun returned to his encampment and saw that each one of his
troops had mounted an enemy head on the point of his spear and was keeping
watch. But when he looked toward Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s camp, he noticed
that no one was visible. Furious, he told a young soldier of his, “Go over to that
miserable prince and tell him this: ‘As long as you mount up today, you will
carry off the ball from the polo field of fortune—but if you don’t, tomorrow
when the blazing sun rises, your head, too, will be separated from you! If you
want to rule Khorāsān and Torkestān, get on your horse and come, for Shāhi
Beg Khān will surely flee the moment you make your appearance. God willing,
we will capture and kill him! So gather your men and come!’”
When the messenger arrived, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā said, “Tell that man this:
‘Where did you get the courage to charge out and do battle with Shāhi Beg
Khān? For our part, we have decided to seek peace tomorrow.’ Go tell him to go
home, we don’t want to fight!”
The messenger returned and passed on this response. Amir Dhunnun sent
someone with another message saying, “I have killed Shāhi Beg Khān’s brother,
and he is afraid; he will probably run away as soon as you mount your horse!”
Again the messenger came and passed on the message. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā
said, “It is getting late, and night will fall soon. Let him return from battle; we’ll
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 233

fight in the morning.” And he was happy about the death of Shāhi Beg Khān’s
brother, but did nothing about it.10
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā said, “O brother, Amir Dhunnun has dealt a terrible
wound to Shāhi Beg Khān’s heart. Order the army to saddle up, for Amir Dhun-
nun has been left to fight alone.” But the hapless Badiʿozzamān Mirzā would
not listen.
When Amir Dhunnun heard of this, he said, “God’s curse be upon you, you
cowards of this earth! May you be sacrifices to the tomb of Solṭān Ḥosayn, for
after fire comes ashes, and you are lower still than ashes.” Turning to his com-
rades, he said, “I have never turned my back on the enemy, except Solṭān
Ḥosayn, who showed me hospitality. I know that tomorrow Shāhi Beg Khān is
going to kill every one of us; it would seem that tonight we are alive through
cowardice!”
His whole army roared the profession of faith and charged off after Shāhi
Beg Khān, hurling themselves at those forty thousand Uzbeks. First they un-
horsed them with spears, then, when their spears broke, they drew their well-
watered swords and killed even more of them. Shāhi Beg Khān was just saying,
“God forbid that Badiʿozzamān should come now!” when the spy he had sent
brought the news of Badiʿozzamān’s cowardice. Those forty thousand Uzbeks
then surrounded Amir Dhunnun’s army, who gave a roar of manliness and
plunged into their task; giving up all hope of life, they drove into the heart of
the Uzbek army and annihilated a large number of them.
Amir Dhunnun thought with regret, “Why didn’t I send someone to find ten
thousand more of my troops, who could come without needing permission
from Badiʿozzamān?” However much he thought, though, the opportunity was
gone, and he leaped back into battle.
He had killed seven thousand Uzbeks, and the Uzbek army was about to
break, when Shāhi Beg Khān ordered his men to unleash a volley of arrows.
The Uzbeks bent their bows and so did Amir Dhunnun’s army, showing great
courage. But four hundred of Amir Dhunnun’s men were killed, and he himself
was shot so full of arrows that their feathers made him look like an eagle. He
kept striving and fighting on, though, until an Uzbek surprised him and shot
him in the chest with an arrow, knocking him from his horse. A hundred of his
men picked up his body and fought their way through the Uzbek flank to bring
it back to their camp.
When Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā heard that Amir Dhunnun had been killed,
he said, “O my brother, it’s as if our father’s curse on us has borne fruit.”

10 I have taken a snippet from Shokri (ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi, 249) to make this sentence make
slightly more sense.
234 Chapter 37

Badiʿozzamān replied, “If Amir Dhunnun could kill seven or eight thousand
Uzbeks with his small army, then if God Almighty wills it, we will not let a sin-
gle Uzbek escape alive!” Then he roused his troops and ordered that the war-
drums be beaten.
Shāhi Beg Khān summoned the leaders of his army and said, “I want to cap-
ture those two ignorant fools by a ruse.”
ʿObayd Khān, Shāhi Beg Khān’s nephew, said, “I will go in the vanguard!”
Shāhi Beg Khān replied, “Tonight you must take three thousand men and
take our battle-standard to a hiding-place half a league away. When the fight-
ing reaches its peak, hoist the battle-standard and come, crying, ‘Fortune is
Shāhi Beg Khān’s, and the sword is Jāni Beg Solṭān’s!’ When the Chaghatāy
army sees you, they will think that Jāni Beg Solṭān has come, and they will col-
lapse into defeat.”
ʿObayd Khān accepted this plan, and they sent ʿAbdollāh Solṭān forth. In the
morning, Shāhi Beg Khān mounted his horse and ordered his troops to form
ranks, and Badiʿozzamān Mirzā also got his army in line. The two armies’ van-
guards advanced onto the field and began to fight.
Now if the leader of the Khorāsānis had been an experienced soldier, Shāhi
Beg Khān and the Uzbeks would have had no business tangling with his army.
As it happened, though, the leaders were two hopeless ignoramuses who had
neither fought anyone nor even seen fighting, and they had no idea what to
order whom to do.
Leading the vanguard of the Uzbek army was Biyāqu Bahādor, a powerful
and experienced old man who had seen and fought many great battles. He
charged onto the battlefield with five thousand men, and in the first skirmish
the Chaghatāy army was knocked back on its heels and retreated. Biyāqu
Bahādor took off in pursuit of them, and the Uzbek army, having forced them
away from the bulk of their troops, unleashed a hail of arrows and killed a great
number of them. Ḥaydar Ḥosayn Mirzā fought bravely, knocking ten or twelve
men from their saddles, and he was about to chase down and defeat Jānvafā
Mirzā when an Uzbek shot him with an arrow that hit him in one side and
came out the other, and he fell writhing from his saddle.
The army was still fighting valiantly when from the direction of Balkh a
great dust cloud became visible. Everyone said, “This dust surely indicates a
hundred thousand men.” Thereupon the army of Khorāsān was stricken with
fright and panic. A spy came to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Moẓaffar Ḥosayn
Mirzā to tell them that the dust cloud was Jāni Beg Solṭān, the governor of
Balkh and of Bokhārā, and Moḥammad Timur Khān, the son of Shāhi Beg
Khān, coming with a boundless army to aid the Uzbeks.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 235

When they heard this, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā said
to each other, “The Uzbek solṭāns surely each have twenty thousand men, in
addition to the forty thousand men fighting right now.” Badiʿozzamān, gripped
with fear, said to his brothers, “I myself will go onto the battlefield and fight.”
This he did, but after an hour he turned his reins away from the battle and to-
ward Astarābād. Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā, too, joined the fray, but when he saw
that the place of the battle-standard was empty, he asked, “Where has the
Mirzā gone?” He then took three thousand men of his men and headed for
Astarābād.
So much dust and dirt was in the air that it turned the earth dark and gloomy,
like the hearts of the cruel, yet the Khorāsāni soldiers gave a cry of bravery and
kept fighting.
News of the flight of the two Mirzās reached Shāhi Beg Khān, who sent
someone to the soldiers of Khorāsān to say, “You are indeed honorable, and I
will know what to do with you afterward! Of your leaders, though, two have
been killed and the other two have turned and fled; why, then, are you still
fighting?” But the Khorāsāni army would not listen, saying, “Shāhi Beg Khān is
deceitful and is trying to trick us!” For they had realized that the army which
had come from the direction of Balkh was just a ruse of Shāhi Beg Khān’s, and
if the cowardly Mirzās had stood their ground and not fled, that ruse would not
have worked. As it happened, when the elders of the Khorāsāni army discov-
ered that the Mirzās had indeed fled, they saw no alternative but to stop fight-
ing.
Then Shāhi Beg Khān came and took his place atop the throne of Solṭān
Ḥosayn Mirzā, ordering that a proclamation be circulated throughout his en-
campment: “The trouble between the Uzbeks and the Khorāsānis is over. All
those who choose to serve our lord shall do so, and all those who do not choose
it, shall not be molested.” He then ordered Badiʿozzamān’s cupbearers to pass
around wine. When he had drunk a few goblets, he told Biyāqu Bahādor to
hasten to Harāt and bring the news of his conquest to the nobles and people
there. He also told him to place Khadijeh Begom, Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā’s wife,
and Gawhar Shād, his daughter, in a gilded litter and bring them back to him.
Biyāqu Bahādor gathered two hundred men and set off with all speed. The
news of Shāhi Beg Khān’s conquest and the flight of the cowardly princes had
not yet reached Harāt when Biyāqu Bahādor reached its gate and asked the
man there about Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā’s harem.
“What business do you have with the Solṭān’s harem?” the gatekeeper re-
plied.
“That’s for me to know,” said Biyāqu Bahādor.
236 Chapter 37

The gatekeeper said, “You are a ruffian and an enemy! If you don’t tell the
truth, I swear by the Four Pure Friends11 that not only will I not show you, I
will cause trouble for you!”
“Shāhi Beg Khān has sent me to bring the news of his victory to the people
of Harāt, and to bring Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā’s wife and daughter back to him.”
“The Solṭān’s sons haven’t been killed, have they?” asked the gatekeeper.
“Yes. Some were killed, and some ran away.”
Then the gatekeeper, since he was one of the foster-children of Gawhar
Shād,12 showed Biyāqu Bahādor the road to the city madraseh. He himself
hastened to the door of the Solṭān’s harem and said, “O friends, let me in quick-
ly, for I have an urgent message, and if you are negligent, you will lose time!”
They let him in, and one of them went to the Begom, saying, “This man has
come saying he has got an urgent message he must give you himself.”
The Begom went behind a curtain; then the chaperone said, “Whatever
message you have, deliver it. The Begom is behind the curtain.”
The gatekeeper prostrated himself and said, “This slave is one of the foster-
children of the Begom; I have come a league’s distance to tell you this.” Then he
related what Biyāqu Bahādor had told him.
The Begom let out a cry and began to weep and wail, but the gatekeeper told
her, “Time is short—crying is of no use! Save yourself, so that you do not fall
into the hands of the Uzbeks!”
Those two chaste royal ladies said, “Do not let Biyāqu Bahadur’s eye fall
upon our corpses!” Then they told their attendants, “Bury us in the place that
we have chosen as our grave.” They gave some jewels to the gatekeeper, then
each killed herself with a dagger. The inhabitants of the harem all began to
weep and wail.
Meanwhile, Biyāqu Bahādor had gone to the city madraseh, where he had
learned what he wanted to know. He made his way to the entrance of the ha-
rem. There, hearing the cries of grief from within, he asked someone what was
going on. When he was told what had happened, he was afraid and said to
himself, “Shāhi Beg Khān is going to kill me! I should tell him that a spy arrived
here from the battlefield and told them everything before I could come, and
then they did this thing.” Then he told the people of Harāt about the victory
and advent of Shāhi Beg Khān.
After that, he returned to camp, where he told Shāhi Beg Khān the story he
had made up. Shāhi Beg Khān was very unhappy. Jāni Beg Solṭān then piped
up: “The Chaghatāy will not forget their spite for us. We have watched them

11 I.e., the first four Caliphs.

12 Literally “one who has eaten her salt,” thus probably a recipient of her charity.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 237

rule all of Torkestān for many years, and now that kingship has passed to the
sons of Changiz Khān, their ears have become deaf to the kettle-drum of our
rule, and they will do whatever they can to ruin you.” So much did this devilish
man work his slanders that Shāhi Beg Khān boiled with rage and said, “I swear
that if any of that bunch fall into my hands and I do not kill them, I shall have
become an enemy of the Four Pure Friends!” And in keeping with this oath, he
killed a great many of the Chaghatāy nobles.
At last, Shāhi Beg Khān decamped and set off for Harāt. When he reached
the outskirts of the city, he said, “Whatever was the custom for welcoming
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, let the people of the city do the same for me.”
So the people of the city, soldiers and civilians, all came out of the city and
formed two ranks. Now there was a certain platform that had belonged to
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā which was pulled by several horses and camels and bulls
and which they called “The Carpet of Pleasure.” Various musicians and story-
tellers and pale-legged cupbearers carrying fine wine used to gather on it and
engage in conversation; the platform would then be brought out like this be-
fore the Solṭān, who would happily enter into discourse with poets and boon-
companions and scholars. Now, in accordance with the custom of the time of
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, the platform was brought out of the city, and when Shāhi
Beg Khān saw it, he was most pleased. He praised it and said to himself, “Fate
has cast such a city into our hands without trouble or strife! Perhaps the ‘ap-
pointed time’ will grant a delay and let us enjoy sound health and pleasant
living here—or perhaps a powerful enemy will appear who will cast us into
exile.”
Just then a child began to recite a quatrain. Shāhi Beg Khān, resolving to
take an augury from it, turned and ordered the people to be silent. Everyone
held their breath as the child said:

Each day someone comes in through the door, saying: Here I am,
And to the world he shows himself, saying, Here I am!
Just when the world’s affairs are firm and steady for him,
Suddenly through the door comes Death, saying: Here I am!

When the quatrain was finished, the people went into an uproar and began to
harass the child. Shāhi Beg Khān was also shaken; he seized the tambourine
the child was holding, then smashed him on the head with it, striking the poor
boy dead. He entered the city in a fury and ordered the nobles of Harāt to as-
semble in the Friday mosque. He went as well, reciting the royal khoṭbeh and at
prayer time leading the people in prayer himself.
238 Chapter 37

The prayers were performed, and the preacher ascended the minbar. He
praised God Almighty and His Prophet as well as the Four Friends, after which
he began to praise Shāhi Beg Khān, saying: “May there be many years and
countless centuries of the shadow of justice of the Khān, the Afrāsiyāb of the
age, inheritor of the realm of Changiz Khān, the Khān son of the Khān, the
Solṭān son of the Solṭān, Caliph of the Merciful, source of security and safe-
ty”—and, just as he was about to say “Shāhi Beg Khān son of Abulkhayr Khān
son of Budāq Khān, descendent of Changiz Khān,” the scribes of the Unseen
and the all-knowing heralds of the Absolute turned his tongue, and what he
said was: “Shāh Esmāʿil Safavi al-Musavi al-Ḥosayni Bahādor Khān, Shadow of
God, may He prolong his rule!”
When Shāhi Beg Khān heard this, it was as if a hundred thousand swords
and daggers had pierced his liver. The people cried out to the preacher, “What
has happened to you? What are you saying? Who is lord of this realm, and what
is this name that you have let slip from your tongue?”
The preacher swore that he had no idea what had gotten into him, and that
he had not said it knowingly. Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Heretic! What, did they
send this name to your tongue from the Unseen? And will I not achieve king-
ship in this realm? You are a heretic, and Shaykh-oghli has paid you well! The
people of Harāt have duped you into making this oath before us!”
The people of Harāt, who were Sunnis, swore that that preacher was a Mus-
lim and that he had spoken unknowingly and made a slip of the tongue.
Even though Shāhi Beg Khān knew that those words had been placed in the
mouth of the preacher by the Unseen, and that the people were speaking the
truth, for the moment he deemed it advisable to have him killed; he also com-
manded the Uzbek army to plunder all the bazaars of Harāt. Then he sent let-
ters to the ends of Khorāsān ordering all the princes and governors to come to
his royal court without delay. “All those who do not obey,” he added, “let their
heads be sent to us!” He also ordered that a letter with the following contents
be sent to Shāh Esmāʿil:
“Let it not remain concealed from the mind of Esmāʿil Mirzā, governor of
ʿErāq, that at this time our imperial majesty has entered Harāt intending to go
hunting. Our royal mind has conceived the intention of visiting honorable
Mecca and noble Medina, so wherever our majesty may pass in ʿErāq, if the
bridge is out or the road uneven, let that refuge of sovereignty repair them so
that our almighty army may pass with ease.

We do not covet the ruined kingdom of ʿErāq;

As long as we reach Mecca and Medina, it is of no account to us.
Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 239

“The eye of our sublime royal desire shall be on Egypt and Damascus and Alep-
po; what are ʿErāq and Ādharbāyjān, that our sea-churning army should intend
to journey to ruined ʿErāq and desert Arabia? Furthermore, we command that
that governor prepare provisions and supplies at each stopping-station and
show hospitality to us, and when his welcome has proven satisfactory to our
royal temperament, we shall exalt him with precious robes of honor and be
content with sundry kindnesses to him. Let the urgency of this matter be
known, and let there be no delay!”
Then he summoned a lowly Uzbek and told him, “Take this letter to
Ādharbāyjān and give it to Esmāʿil Mirzā, governor of ʿErāq. Get his response
and come back quickly.”
The Uzbek took the letter and set off. Upon reaching the gate of Tabriz, he
went unannounced to a corner of the paradise-like court, where he was spot-
ted by His Majesty the Shadow of God. The Shāh said to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh,
“That Uzbek standing over there is a messenger from Shāhi Beg Khān!”
The great amirs were astonished as the Shāh beckoned to the Uzbek and
said, “Welcome, brother!”
The Uzbek made a movement at which everyone burst out laughing; over-
whelmed by the magnificence of the royal court, he stood awe-struck, rooted
to the spot. The Shāh said, “O brother, give us the letter which Shāhi Beg Khān
has sent to us.”
The Uzbek placed Shāhi Beg Khān’s letter under the alchemical gaze of the
Shāh. When His Majesty had read it, he smiled and wrote on the back of it thus:

Whoever is not a slave of ʿAli in his heart,

Even if he takes a hundred thousand Meccas, it is of no account.

Then he gave that Uzbek a robe of honor and sent him on his way. After that he
packed up and set off for Solṭāniyeh. Meanwhile, Shāhi Beg Khān made his
sons ʿObayd Solṭān and Moḥammad Timur Khān generals and sent them to
Astarābād.
When news of the Uzbek army reached Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, he went to the
foot of the caliphal throne of the Shāh in Solṭāniyeh. Shāh Esmāʿil commanded
his officers to welcome him. This they did, bringing him with the greatest hon-
ors into the heavenly royal court. The Mirzā prostrated himself and was about
to kiss the royal foot when the Shāh embraced him and sat him down near his
own blessed seat. He asked Badiʿozzamān Mirzā about his battles and his dif-
ficult journey. Then he said, “When Shāhi Beg Khān came to Balkh you should
have let us know, so that we could have sent our victorious army to scatter him
and the Uzbek army like the stars of the Great Bear!”
240 Chapter 37

The Mirzā apologized, and out of compassion, the Shāh ordered that his
daily expenses be taken care of.
Meanwhile, Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā had gone to the Torkmān lands and
raised an army which he took into battle against ʿObayd Solṭān. After a short
struggle, the Uzbek army destroyed the entire army of the Mirzā, who was him-
self killed as well. ʿObayd Solṭān gave Astarābād to Khwājeh Moẓaffar Tupchi
and set off for Sabzevār.
When Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā learned that the Uzbek army was on its way, he
sent someone to holy Mashhad to inform Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā that ʿObayd
Solṭān was coming. He, too, gathered his army and set out. Ten days later
ʿObayd Solṭān arrived at Sabzevār, where Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā and his forces
smashed the Uzbeks and forced them into retreat. But ʿObayd Solṭān himself
came onto the field, rallied his forces and attacked Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā. The
latter was captured and brought to ʿObayd Solṭān, who ordered him executed.
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā, who had killed many Uzbeks, fell into the hands of Biyāqu
Bahādor and was also killed.
ʿObayd Solṭān took his army and entered the city of Sabzevār, where he took
possession of all the Mirzā’s property, killing a great many people in the pro-
cess. Then he sent a messenger to Shāhi Beg Khān to describe the battle and his
victory, adding, “Three of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā’s sons have taken ten thousand
soldiers and are gathered in wait at Dāmghān and Semnān. Let me go there,
lest the Qezelbāsh army come from Rayy and bad things happen. There are
some fortresses on the road which will be difficult to capture, so it would be
best if His Majesty the Khān were to come himself so that we could join forces
and go with him.”
When ʿObayd Solṭān’s letter reached Shāhi Beg Khān, the Khān gathered a
boundless army and set off from Harāt for Dāmghān.
Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā, the son of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā,13 received
word that Shāhi Beg Khān and ʿObayd Solṭān were coming to Dāmghān, and he
was filled with dread. He gathered his brothers and the city elders and said to
them, “The citadel of Dāmghān is difficult to capture. You close the gate of the
citadel and prepare to withstand a siege, and I will go to my father to raise an
army of Qezelbāsh and come back quickly.” Then he left the citadel and set off
for Ādharbāyjān, where the army of celestial grandeur was camped in Tabriz.
Now at that time the blessed constitution of the Shāh was afflicted with a
melancholic illness which had become serious. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā tried to
raise an army of Qezelbāsh, but it was not possible. Day by day the Shāh’s con-
dition worsened, to the point where all the doctors gave up trying to treat him.

13 Actually his brother; both were sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā.

Bābor Pādeshāh Goes To Kābol 241

Amir Najm Zargar went to His Majesty’s bedside and saw that the light in
the blessed royal pupils was not like that of the living. Astonishment seized
him, and in shock he went outside. His Majesty’s officers asked about the con-
dition of the Shāh, and he said, “I do not know what dust Fate will heap on our
heads; right now, I will go with you to observe.” Together with the officers he
went to the royal bedside, and they lifted their hands in prayer to the Lord of
the World to ask for a speedy recovery for His Majesty.
Shāh Esmāʿil opened his eyes and said, “What has gotten into you? Leave me
to the Lord of All the Believers!” He motioned for them to go outside and pray.
All the great amirs left the royal bedside except Amir Najm, who stayed.
Again the Shāh opened his eyes and said, “O Najm, why have you stayed?”
“May I be a sacrifice to you!” Amir Najm replied. “I want to pray for you.
Since Your Majesty is the spreader of the lofty Twelver sect, say ‘Amen’ when I
finish, so that God Almighty, out of respect for your ‘Amen,’ will grant my prayer
this very hour and bestow a speedy recovery on you.”
The Shāh said, “O Najm, pray and I will say ‘Amen.’”
Amir Najm then lifted his hands in prayer and said, “O Lord, His Majesty has
begun to spread the sect of the Twelve Emāms, but it is still not securely estab-
lished, and Shāhi Beg Khān, the Sunni, has his eye on the realm of Iran. If our
Shāh is not there, the true faith will fade away. If the life of His Majesty has
reached its end, and this slave’s own life is to remain, then I offer my own life as
a sacrifice to his, in the name of Moḥammad and his Family. Take my soul, and
send a speedy recovery to His Majesty!”
The Shāh added, “Amen.”
The Creator of the World answered the prayer of Amir Najm; sweat began to
pour from the blessed brow of His Majesty, and after an hour he opened his
eyes and said to Amir Najm, “God Almighty has answered your prayer and re-
stored me to health.”
“Praise and thanks be to God!” said Amir Najm. “I have achieved my desire,
and sacrificed my soul to the Perfect Guide on the path of Ṣufism.”
Shāh Esmāʿil got up out of bed, then sat down and said, “O Najm, you were
just praying, weren’t you?”
Amir Najm replied “Yes,” and he explained what he had done.
Shāh Esmāʿil looked at him and saw the sign of death upon him. He said, “O
Najm, although God Almighty has answered your prayer and restored me to
health, you are going to depart and leave me an orphan.”
He sent for his commanders, who came running in alarm; but when they
saw their Shāh restored to vigorous health, they gathered around him. His Maj-
esty said, “What use is it to show interest in me now? You should have done this
242 Chapter 37

when I was in my agony, sacrificing yourselves for me like this true-blue Ṣufi!”
He explained the prayer that Amir Najm had made.
The commanders looked at Amir Najm and, seeing that his appearance had
changed and that he was oblivious to his surroundings, they all praised him.
And after an hour Amir Najm surrendered his soul to God and hastened to the
garden of Paradise.14 Shāh Esmāʿil then commanded that all the religious
scholars and learned men of Tabriz come and take Amir Najm’s body with the
fullest respect. After prayers and the ritual washing, it was ordered to take the
body to holy Najaf and bury it there.
Now Amir Najm Zargar had been in the Shāh’s service since His Majesty’s
first emergence and had shown exemplary valor, and the Shāh was determined
that his name should always be known in the city; but he had left no sons to
call “Amir Najm.” So His Majesty summoned the officer Yār Aḥmad Khuzāni
Eṣfahāni, one of the wisest men of the age, whom he had honored with the job
of collecting debts from the Well-Protected Lands; he now elevated him to the
absolute authority of viceregency, saying, “In order that the name of Amir
Najm Zargar shall not fade from our royal mind, we have commanded that
from this moment the officer Yār Aḥmad shall be called Amir Najm II.”

14 Amir Najm Zargar died in 915/1509–10.

Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 243

Chapter 38

Shāhi Beg Khān Comes to Dāmghān, Then Returns to Samarqand;

Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā Comes to the Service of Shāh Esmāʿil; Amir
Najm II and the Great Commanders Subdue Khorāsān, Entrust It to the
Sons of Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, and Leave

When Shāhi Beg Khān arrived at Dāmghān, he ordered the Uzbek army to sur-
round the citadel and attack it every day. He was unable to capture the citadel
or the people in it, though, and he withdrew into the deep thought.
Now back when Abulkhayr Khān was defeated and wounded outside Sa-
marqand, he had retreated to the steppe of Baghlān and gone to Qāsem Khān,
to whom he explained what had happened. Qāsem Khān was quite upset at
this, but he decided to wait for Abulkhayr Khān’s injury to take a turn for the
better. Then he ordered him to raise an army and head for Samarqand.
When news of this reached Shāhi Beg Khān at Dāmghān, he was stricken
with panic; he said to himself, “If I lift my siege and retreat, the Qezelbāsh will
belittle me, but if I stay, I will have difficulty capturing this citadel, and in the
meantime Abulkhayr Khān will lay waste to all of Torkestān.”
After much deliberation, he ordered that a letter be written to Ebn Ḥosayn
Mirzā and Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā thus: “I will not move from this place
until I have taken the citadel. If the two of you come out from inside and join
me, I will treat you as my own sons and give each of you a province to rule. I
swear by the Lord of the World that I will not kill you. Now come out and has-
ten to our royal court, your blessings of this world and the next depend on it.”
Those two dolts were also tired of withstanding the siege, and they had al-
ready decided to send a letter to Shāhi Beg Khān seeking quarter. So they were
very happy when his letter arrived. They immediately descended from the cita-
del and went before Shāhi Beg Khān on bended knee, prostrating themselves
before him. Shāhi Beg Khān took pity on them, saying to ʿObayd Solṭān, “I will
not kill these two; we will take them to Torkestān and give them a morsel of
bread.”
“One must kill his enemy,” ʿObayd Solṭān replied, “or else he will kill you!”
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Right now it would be uncivil to kill them.” He en-
trusted the citadel to one of his confidants, then decamped and set off for
Harāt. When he arrived, he handed it over to Jānvafā Mirzā and proceeded to
Samarqand. He released Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā at the first station along the way,
then let Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā go at the third. Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_039

244 Chapter 38

headed in the direction of ʿErāq and then went to Tabriz, where he kissed the
royal foot and described to His Majesty what he knew about Shāhi Beg Khān
and his intentions.
Upon learning that Shāhi Beg Khān was en route to Samarqand, Shāh
Esmāʿil ordered Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli and Mirzā
Moḥammad Ṭālesh and Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Bayrām Khān Qarā­
mānlu, along with Amir Najm II, the commander-in-chief of the army, to take
twelve thousand men from among the lion-hunting youths of the Qezelbāsh
and the noble prince Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and head for Khorāsān in order to
purify it of the contamination of the vile Uzbeks and place that prince on his
hereditary throne in Harāt, before returning home. At a most auspicious hour
they kissed the royal foot and set off for their destination.
When that army of celestial majesty stopped at Firuzkuh, Amir Najm II said
to the great commanders, “O friends, up until today you and I have been broth-
ers and companions; now, though, I am the deputy and lieutenant of His Maj-
esty the Perfect Guide. This is the first enemy territory we are going to enter. It
will be best if you show me respect and obedience, and behave in such a way
that both friend and foe can take an example from us.”
The commanders all replied, “We shall obey every order to the letter; let
your noble mind be entirely at ease.” Then they decamped and set off for
Astarābād.
In Astarābād, Khwājeh Moẓaffar got wind of the coming of the Qezelbāsh
and their commander. He said to his soldiers and advisors, “I am going up such-
and-such a hill to catch sight of the Qezelbāsh army and their commander. If I
discern any manliness in them, we shall submit to them.” Then he went up the
hill and hid behind a large rock.
He looked and saw those twelve thousand Qezelbāsh on their horses, each
of them like a mountain atop another mountain, and when he laid eyes on
Amir Najm in all his glory and power, his every limb trembled. He realized that
this army was the equal of any on earth, and that none could stand up to it. He
came out from behind the rock and stood up. Amir Najm spotted him and said,
“Bring that man here!” Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli stepped forward to do the job.
When Khwājeh Moẓaffar saw how magnificent he looked, he said, “O youth, I
swear by God that you must be one of the Shāh’s commanders. What is your
name?”
Ḥasan Beg told him his name, then asked him, “Who are you and why have
you come here?”
Khwājeh Moẓaffar told him his name and the reason he was there. Perceiv-
ing who he was, Ḥasan Beg picked him up and took him back to the Qezelbāsh
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 245

camp. He brought him to Amir Najm II and said, “This is Khwājeh Moẓaffar. He
has come to greet the royal attendants.”
Amir Najm told him to step forward. This Khwājeh Moẓaffar did, uttering
prayers and praise, but he did not dare to look up. Amir Najm said, “O Khwājeh,
you haven’t come in order to spy on us, have you?”
“Yes,” replied Khwājeh Moẓaffar. “When the Uzbek army in these parts heard
of the fame of the retinue of royal attendants, they decided they wanted to
fight. I said I would go take a look at the Qezelbāsh army, for it would be clear
after one glance whether we were their equals or not. In any case, I beg the
permission of the royal attendants to go into the city to prepare gifts and a
proper welcome for them, after which I will return here.”
Amir Najm dismissed him. Khwājeh Moẓaffar went into the city and ad-
dressed the Uzbek troops thus: “O friends, we are no match for that army. All of
you, pick up and leave for Harāt.”
Having sent the army on its way, he and the people of the city prepared
many gifts and brought them out in welcome. Amir Najm and the the army
whose watchword is victory entered the city, and Khwājeh Moẓaffar spent
three days hosting them and showing himself obedient. After that, Amir Najm
turned control of Astarābād over to Faridun Mirzā, then decamped and set off
with his army in the direction of Semnān and Dāmghān and Sabzevār and
Nishābur. When the Uzbek governors in those cities and citadels heard he was
coming, most of them fled toward Harāt, but a number of them stood their
ground, remaining as fodder for the swords of the lion-hunting Qezelbāsh war-
riors.
Amir Najm now left Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā in charge of Nishābur and left for
holy Mashhad. The governor there, too, turned tail, and Amir Najm, his offi-
cers, and his ever-victorious army entered the holy city. After making a visit to
the sepulchre of the saintly Emām Rezā, Amir Najm bestowed the governor-
ship of that province on Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā and left for Harāt.
The army of celestial majesty now entered Jām. Jānvafā Mirzā heard of this,
and he, too, chose to flee Harāt and head for Balkh. Thus it was that Amir Najm
and his eminent commanders accompanied Badiʿozzamān Mirzā into Harāt to
a welcome greater than any ever seen. Once again Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, thanks
to the support of His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil and the divine favor of the Com-
mander of the Faithful, sat upon his hereditary throne and occupied himself
with luxury and enjoyment.
After a while, the ocean-churning Qezelbāsh army thought once more of
going to ʿErāq. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā said to Amir Najm, “It was through the fa-
vor of His Majesty the Shāh that his lofty attendants took my hereditary throne
and entrusted it to me. If he would be so kind as to take my hereditary
246 Chapter 38

dominion of Qandahār, which is currently in the possession of the sons of

Amir Dhunnun, and entrust that to me as well, it would be the greatest of fa-
vors, since thanks to His Majesty, I have no enemies anymore except them.”
Amir Najm had just consented to this when the news arrived that Bābor
Pādeshāh, having heard of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā’s coming from ʿErāq to
Khorāsān to take his ancestral lands, had also raised an army and was heading
for Qandahār in support of the Mirzā.
When Shojāʿ Beg, son of Amir Dhunnun, heard that Bābor Pādeshāh was
coming to Qandahār with an army, he too gathered twelve thousand men from
the army of Arghun and set out from the citadel. He encountered Bābor Pāde­
shāh two days’ distance from the city, and those two mighty armies arrayed
themselves facing each other. Bābor Pādeshāh’s troops moved first, plunging
into the ranks of the army of Arghun; the battle was fierce, but the breeze of
victory blew on Bābor Pādeshāh’s army, and defeat befell the army of Arghun.
Shojāʿ Beg, seeing what was happening, chose flight, and he headed back to
the citadel. Yādegār Mirzā, the brother of Bābor Pādeshāh, took an army in
pursuit, and a great battle took place outside Qandahār in which many were
killed and Moḥammad Moqim Mirzā, the brother of Shojāʿ Beg, was taken pris-
oner. Then Bābor Pādeshāh came riding up, and, having witnessed the valor of
Yādegār Mirzā, gave him the title Jahāngir Mirzā.
As for Shojāʿ Beg, when he saw his army defeated and his brother taken pris-
oner, he fled from that place and headed for Zamindāvar. When he got there,
he sent a messenger to Bābor Pādeshāh and Yādegār Mirzā with this message:
“I leave my property and treasure lawfully to you, on the condition that you
show generosity and release my brother and family and send them here.”
Bābor Pādeshāh received this message and wrote back that he deemed it
advisable to execute Moḥammad Moqim, who had been wounded, and not to
send his harem back to Shojāʿ Beg.
Learning of this, Shojāʿ Beg gathered his soldiers and left Zamindāvar for
Balkh, from there heading on to Bokhārā. Then Amir Najm said to Badiʿozzamān
Mirzā, “Until now, Qandahār has been in the hands of a stranger; now, though,
it belongs to Bābor Pādeshāh, who is your cousin. Do the right thing and sup-
port each other.”
Then Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, with great hospitality and ceremony, made a gift
of many jewels and textiles and treasures to the Ṣafavid commander, who after-
wards decamped his victorious troops and set off for ʿErāq. The Mirzā accom-
panied them for two days’ journey, then returned to Harāt to take up his rule.
Bābor Pādeshāh, in the meantime, entrusted the region of Qandahār to his
brother Jahāngir Mirzā and set off himself for Kābol.
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 247

As this was happening, Jānvafā Mirzā had fled Harāt for Samarqand, and
when he came before Shāhi Beg Khān, he related all that had happened in
Khorāsān, at which Shāhi Beg Khān let out a great sigh. Just then word arrived
that Abulkhayr Khān had gotten to within five days’ journey of Samarqand.
Terrified, Shāhi Beg Khān betook himself to the citadel and ordered that
earthenworks be built. The people had prepared to withstand a siege when
Abulkhayr Khān arrived with a boundless army; he came right up to the base
of the citadel and set up his tents and pavilions there. Shāhi Beg Khān con-
sulted with the Uzbek elders, asking them if he should do battle with Abulkhayr
Khān or sue for peace.
“Peace will be better than war,” they responded.
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “It’s possible to test his nature. I will appoint an emis-
sary and send him to Abulkhayr Khān to bring up the topic of peace. If he ap-
proves of it, the emissary will let us know, and if not, we will prepare for war.”
So an emissary went to Abulkhayr Khān and brought up the topic of making
peace. Now Abulkhayr Khān was a wise man; he said to the emissary, “Tell
Shāhi Beg Khān, ‘You had promised my father the Great Khān that when you
became ruler of Torkestān you would strike coins in his name and recite his
name in the khoṭbeh before your own. You have broken your promise and
strayed off the road of trust. If you really want peace, come before me and re-
new your former promise, and send offerings to the court of the Great Khān
every year. Then you can rest easy as ruler of all Torkestān, and if anyone should
wish to quarrel or fight with you, they will receive an answer from the Great
Khān.’”
He then dismissed the emissary, who returned to Shāhi Beg Khān and re-
lated what had been said. Shāhi Beg Khān decided to acquiesce; he went to
Abulkhayr Khān, they sized each other up, and Shāhi Beg Khān renewed the
promise he had made before. Then Abulkhayr Khān decamped and went back
to the steppe of Baghlān, and Shāhi Beg Khān, intending to conquer all of
Khorāsān, left Samarqand and went to Bokhārā. There Shojāʿ Beg came before
him and explained how he had fought against Bābor Pādeshāh.
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Don’t let yourself be upset by it, for I will give you rule
over all of Qandahār.” Then he left and went on to Balkh.
When he reached the outskirts of the city, Jāni Beg came out to greet him,
bringing offerings and spreading carpets of welcome. They entered Balkh to-
gether, and Shāhi Beg Khān stayed there for three days. Then he left, and to-
gether with Shojāʿ Beg he headed for Qandahār. When they had gone through
the Hindu Kush pass, Shāhi Beg Khān said to Shojāʿ Beg, “What are you think-
ing?”
248 Chapter 38

Shojāʿ Beg replied, “When Jahāngir Mirzā hears that His Majesty the Khān is
coming to Qandahār, he will turn tail and flee. You had better command me to
take five thousand men and go on ahead, because when he hears that I am
coming with five thousand men, he will come out from the citadel, and the city
will be taken easily.”
Shāhi Beg Khān approved of this strategem and sent Shojāʿ Beg off to gather
his five thousand men and proceed on to Qandahār.
When Jahāngir Mirzā learned that Shojāʿ Beg was coming, he ordered that
the treasure he had plundered in Qandahār be sent to Kābol. The news came
again that Shojāʿ Beg would enter the city at dawn with five thousand troops.
So Jahāngir Mirzā raised five thousand troops of his own and left the citadel.
When his army met that of Shojāʿ Beg, he fearlessly leaped into the fray. Two
thousand enemy soldiers had been killed when Shojāʿ Beg lost heart and fled.
After three days he met up with Shāhi Beg Khān, to whom he explained
what had happened. “Don’t go to pieces,” said Shāhi Beg Khān; “I myself will
take care of Jahāngir Mirzā!” He hurried off, and when he had reached the foot
of the citadel of Qandahār, he ordered his army to surround it. Jahāngir Mirzā
went out on one of the towers of the citadel, saw sixty thousand of Shāhi Beg
Khān’s soldiers, and realized that he did not stand a chance against them. So he
sent a messenger to Shāhi Beg Khān along with some swift Arabian horses; his
message said, “If His Majesty the Khān grants us security, we will turn the cita-
del over to his attendants and leave for Kābol.”
The messenger went with the offerings and that message to Shāhi Beg Khān,
who was pleased with the horses and agreed to forgive and release Jahāngir
Mirzā. The messenger returned to Jahāngir Mirzā with that news. Jahāngir
Mirzā gathered up his possessions and troops, left the citadel, and headed for
Kābol.
When Shāhi Beg Khān heard that Jahāngir Mirzā had left, he said, “We had
heard that Jahāngir Mirzā was a valiant man. Bring him here so that he may
enter our tent and bow before us.” So someone went to Jahāngir Mirzā and told
him that the Khān had summoned him.
Jahāngir Mirzā said to his troops, “You keep on going; I am going to Shāhi
Beg Khān. If he grants me security and releases me, I will rejoin you, but if he
kills me, let my brother Bābor Pādeshāh be well, and pass on my prayers to
him.”
Then he returned to Shāhi Beg Khān’s court and bowed and made obeisance
to him. The Khān inquired about his situation. Jahāngir Mirzā answered all his
questions in a courteous manner, and Shāhi Beg Khān, pleased with his de-
meanor, presented him with a robe of honor. Then he said, “ʿObayd Solṭān will
send someone to capture this man.” So he sent him off in the company of two
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 249

trusted Uzbek soldiers, telling them, “Don’t let ʿObayd Solṭān bother the Mirzā.”
Then he said to Jahāngir Mirzā, “Pass our prayers on to Bābor Pādeshāh, and
tell him that we have intentionally bypassed Kābol and left it to him. If he acts
friendly toward us, he will ever be at ease in the shade of our royal protection.”
Jahāngir Mirzā expressed his good wishes to Shāhi Beg Khān and left. In
Kābol, he had an audience with Bābor Pādeshāh, and he passed on Shāhi Beg
Khān’s message. Bābor Pādeshāh was reassured by it.
Some days later, Shāhi Beg Khān left Qandahār and set off for Harāt. Hearing
of this, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā called together the nobles and elders of the army
and all the populace and said, “O friends, what advice do you have? What is to
be done?”
They said, “O Mirzā, you and we are not strong enough to resist Shāhi Beg
Khān. You must go to the Shadow of God, Shāh Esmāʿil. That is all we can think
of.”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā knew that they were right. So he gathered three thou-
sand men and set off in the direction of ʿErāq. When he reached holy Mashhad,
he said to Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā,1 “I am going to see Shāh Esmāʿil to seek his help.
I will be back in forty days. Take precautions and prepare to withstand a siege.”
To sum things up, Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā stayed in holy Mashhad […].2 “Tie up
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and bring him out to welcome us. If he has fled, send out
a party to capture him, wherever he may be, and bring him back.”
ʿObayd Solṭān gathered his troops and set off, and when he reached the out-
skirts of Harāt, the elders of the city came out to meet him. He asked them
about Badiʿozzamān Mirzā.
They replied, “He went off yesterday in the direction of Astarābād.”
Sorely regretful, ʿObayd Solṭān entered the city, intending to leave that very
hour. But the elders said to him, “You came in haste and must be tired. Take
some time to rest, have something to eat, then leave after that.” Their aim was
to buy Badiʿozzamān Mirzā time to get out and find safety.
ʿObayd Solṭān thus stayed in Harāt. The next morning, Shāhi Beg Khān en-
tered the city and asked about Badiʿozzamān Mirzā. He was told, “It is now
three days since he left for Astarābād; he is probably there by now. But Ebn
Ḥosayn Mirzā is in holy Mashhad.” So Shāhi Beg Khān entrusted ʿObayd Solṭān
with the capture of Mashhad.
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā left the city in an effort to escape, but ʿObayd Solṭān got
wind of it and sent people in all directions to catch him. In the end, Ebn Ḥosayn
Mirzā was brought back to face ʿObayd Solṭān, who had him put to death. Then

1 Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā was killed by Biyāqu Bahādor earlier in the story.
2 There is a gap in the text here.
250 Chapter 38

he took possession of Mashhad, handed it over to a lieutenant, and left for

Astarābād.
When Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā learned that ʿObayd Solṭān was on his way,
he fled in the direction of ʿErāq. ʿObayd Solṭān came to Astarābād and seized
the whole region. Then he returned to Shāhi Beg Khān and reported on what
he had done.
Shāhi Beg Khān, seeing all of Khorāsān in his possession, felt the breeze of
pride blowing through the palace of his mind. He said, “I must send a messen-
ger to Shaykh-oghli telling him to take everyone who fled from me and hand
them over in chains to my lieutenants, and to pronounce the khoṭbeh in my
name. If he doesn’t, I will go to Iran, lay waste to the whole land, kill the sons of
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, and proceed on to Mecca!” He appointed an emissary
and sent him on his way.
Then he said to Jānvafā Mirzā and Biyāqu Bahādor, “I want to rouse Shaykh-
oghli from the sleep of negligence. Gather ten thousand Uzbek soldiers and
take the Ṭabas road to Yazd and Kermān. Pillage the land, seize all the women
and children and treasure, then return here; let Shaykh-oghli know that the
Uzbeks, too, know how to invade and plunder!” So Jānvafā Mirzā and Biyāqu
Bahādor assembled an army and set off for Ṭabas.
Now Moḥammad Khān Afshār was in Kermān with five hundred troops. By
the time he learned that the Uzbeks were coming, they had killed a great num-
ber of the people of the city and army. In his shock, he wanted to run away, but
just then Biyāqu Bahādor came up and killed him with a single arrow. The Uz-
beks then pillaged the city. After that they asked about the Afshār tribe and
were told, “They have gone to their summer encampment, six leagues from
here.”
Jānvafā Mirzā said to Biyāqu Bahādor, “I am taking six thousand men off to
plunder Yazd. You go after the Afshārs. Pillage their belongings and take their
wives and children prisoners, then come back to the city and wait until I re-
turn.”
Biyāqu Bahādor replied, “In Yazd, the whole populace is an army; I don’t
think it is advisable for you to go there.”
Jānvafā Mirzā spoke up, saying, “I have learned that Musā Beg Shāmlu, the
attendant of Shaykh-oghli’s tutor Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, is the governor of Yazd
and has no more than three hundred Qezelbāsh with him.”
Hearing this, Biyāqu Bahādor said, “Then go, but be careful and come back
quickly.”
Now there were a number of Afshārs in the city. On the night when the Uz-
beks came and killed Moḥammad Khān, they went to where the Afshārs were
gathered and told the elders of the tribe what had happened. They in turn sent
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 251

someone to Yazd to warn Musā Beg and Shāh Neʿmatollāh, secured their pos-
sessions, and fled with their wives and children. The next day Biyāqu Bahādor
arrived in that place and plundered what he could find; then he returned to
Kermān, stopping in every village and settlement on the way to pillage it and
seize its women and children.
Jānvafā Mirzā, for his part, had marched off to Yazd. When he reached the
city gate, he found it locked, with a number of people gathered on the ram-
parts. Jānvafā Mirzā looked them over, then dismounted right where he was.
He sent a messenger to Shāh Neʿmatollāh with a message saying: “When
Shaykh-oghli came to Ṭabas, he killed the governor. We have now come for
your governor. We have nothing against the populace, so if you hand over the
governor, we will leave; if not, we will take possession of this city by force and
leave not a single person alive.”
When this message reached Shāh Neʿmatollāh, he wrote a reply saying:
“There are currently a thousand royal Qezelbāsh troops in this city. How, then,
am I supposed to seize the governor whom His Majesty himself has installed
and hand him over to you?”
Thereupon Jānvafā Mirzā ordered an assault on the citadel. But the city
watchmen, young musketeers from Bāfq, opened fire and shot dead many of
the attacking Uzbeks. Realizing that his assault would get nowhere, Jānvafā
Mirzā called it off and ordered his troops instead to plunder the environs of the
city and raze the whole region all the way to the outskirts of Nāʾin.
Shāh Neʿmatollāh and Musā Beg wrote a petition regarding the Uzbek at-
tack and sent it with a messenger to the foot of the caliphal throne of Shāh
Esmāʿil. The world-traversing royal army had dismounted in the meadows of
Solṭāniyeh when the messenger arrived and placed the petition under the al-
chemical gaze of the Shāh. Seized with rage, His Majesty said, “I want a young
man who will go to Yazd and Kermān, seize Jānvafā Mirzā and Biyāqu Bahādor,
and bring them back to this exalted court, and who will also take from them all
that they have stolen from the Muslims and return it to its rightful owners!”
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, the Shāh’s brother, said: “If His Majesty orders it, I
will undertake this task.”
Shāh Esmāʿil sent Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli and five thousand soldiers to
accompany Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, telling them: “If the Uzbeks have also gone
to Ṭabas, then capture them.” He also ordered the Qezelbāsh troops to take two
horses each. Then he told Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and Ḥasan Beg to make their
preparations. They did so, then kissed the royal foot and set off on the Nāʾin
road in the direction of Yazd.
Jānvafā Mirzā, meanwhile, had settled in at the foot of the citadel of Yazd
and sent his forces off to plunder. They looted the people of the frontier region,
252 Chapter 38

Arab nomads and others, and killed a host of them. Most of the people there
packed up their houses and belongings and fled, while many were captured.
The banner of oppression had been raised over them.
Hearing of all this, Shāh Neʿmatollāh wept bitterly. He said to Musā Beg, “I
am afraid that the Uzbek army will take the captive Muslims and their belong-
ings and leave. Even if our petition has reached His Majesty and he has decided
to send us help, it will take twenty-six days for the Qezelbāsh to get here, and
who knows if the Uzbeks will still be here? We must play a trick so that they
stay until the Qezelbāsh arrive.”
Musā Beg replied, “Tomorrow we will bring up the subject of the Uzbeks at
the council of deliberation. You must say, ‘Jānvafā Mirzā is a man of great brav-
ery, and he will not let go of this region easily. Why should we give over the
entire population to murder and plunder at his hands? I will levy a tax of one
tumān on every household and send it to him, so that he harasses the people
that much less.’ Then I will say, ‘Will you take money from the Shāh’s people
and give it to his enemies? I am governor of this city, and I will not let that hap-
pen!’ You and I will argue, and the Torkmāns of the city, who are Sunnis, will
write the news of this down, tie it to an arrow and shoot it into the Uzbek
camp. Jānvafā Mirzā will be overcome with avarice and will send someone to
you. You must greet him and ask for ten days’ respite; tell him, ‘Send some Uz-
beks to collect the money, and we will send it quickly.’ When they come, you
should go with them every day to collect the tax, each day making up a pretext
why people should give you the money.”
Shāh Neʿmatollāh praised Musā Beg, and the next day, during the council,
Musā Beg stood up as planned and said, “If I don’t hand you over to be killed,
then I am a coward!” And Shāh Neʿmatollāh retorted, “Do what you wish—I,
for one, am afraid of Jānvafā Mirzā and the Uzbeks!”
As expected, the Torkmāns of the city sent word of this into the Uzbek camp.
Jānvafā Mirzā chose an Uzbek and said, “Go to Shāh Neʿmatollāh and tell him
that if he pays us protection money, we will leave off killing and looting in this
city and province and go back whence we came, and if he doesn’t, we will mas-
sacre everyone in the region!”
The messenger went to Shāh Neʿmatollāh and gave him this message. Shāh
Neʿmatollāh wrote in reply, “Yesterday I quarreled with the local governor. I am
a reasonable man, and he is a Turk who knows nothing. These days, who can go
up against Shāhi Beg Khān? I, for one, am grateful and will levy a tax; whatever
you want, I will pay. But let Jānvafā Mirzā send some men to help act as tax-
collectors.” Then he gave the messenger a robe of honor and sent him back to
report to Jānvafā Mirzā.
Jānvafā Mirzā asked, “How many households are there in the city?”
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 253

“I asked Shāh Neʿmatollāh,” replied the Uzbek messenger. “He said that in
the beginning there were twenty thousand, and now there are even more.”
Then Jānvafā Mirzā ordered Qushqar Bahādor to take two men and send
them to Shāh Neʿmatollāh to help collect the tax of one tumān on every house-
hold. He also sent someone to order the Uzbek army to stop their pillaging.
Even though he knew that there were no more settlements to plunder, he was
still grateful to Shāh Neʿmatollāh. When Qushqar Bahādor entered the city,
Shāh Neʿmatollāh showed him great affection and asked for ten days of respite.
Meanwhile Biyāqu Bahādor sent a message to Jānvafā Mirzā saying, “Staying
here and delaying this long is a bad idea. Shaykh-oghli’s capital is close by; God
forbid the Qezelbāsh should come and turn our luck to the worse! I hear you
have gathered endless loot; pack it up and hurry in this direction.”
Jānvafā Mirzā wrote back saying, “Shāh Neʿmatollāh of Yazd is collecting
protection money to give us. We will have it in two or three days, and then we
will come.”
Reading this, Biyāqu Bahādor wrote again saying, “By the heads of the dear
family of the Great Khān, I implore you to cast aside your vain desires! The mo-
ment you get this message you must get moving. There is no point in staying
longer.”
Jānvafā Mirzā wrote a reply saying, “I will come.”
When the day of the deadline came, Shāh Neʿmatollāh prepared wine and a
feast and music for Qushqar Bahādor, and sent him an envoy with about a
thousand tumāns, saying, “This is but a tenth of what is coming to you.”
When Qushqar Bahādor saw the thousand tumāns, he praised Shāh Neʿma­
tollāh’s envoy and forgot all about the deadline, busying himself instead with
pleasant conversation. Jānvafā Mirzā sent a message to him saying, “Gather the
money and come!”
He replied, “They have sent the tax in cash and goods, but it’s not all here
yet; I will come when it is.”
Again Biyāqu Bahādor prodded Jānvafā Mirzā, who wrote back, “There is no
need to be so worried. There is no one in this region, and Shaykh-oghli is in
Ādharbāyjān; by the time he sends any help, we will be back in Khorāsān. Be at
ease.”
Now Biyāqu Bahādor was an old soldier who had long served in the wars of
kings, especially in the time of Solṭān Abu Saʿid.3 He had fought against
Ḥasan Pādeshāh and made many saddles empty. He knew that the Qezelbāsh
army would come, and that it served no purpose to stay in that region. So he

3 A Timurid prince, defeated by the Āq Qoyunlu in 1469.

254 Chapter 38

again sent a message to Jānvafā Mirzā saying, “You are deluded! Waste no time
and hurry back here—remaining where you are is of no use!”
Jānvafā Mirzā once more sent someone to fetch Qushqar Bahādor to say,
“Take what is ready and come back.” Qushqar Bahādor started to treat Shāh
Neʿmatollāh with severity, but the latter brought five hundred tumāns to him
and said, “The people have no gold and have to borrow the money. Go to
Jānvafā Mirzā and talk to him.” This Qushqar Bahādor did, and since Biyāqu
Bahādor’s attendants were present and Jānvafā Mirzā didn’t want him to hear
such talk, he had no choice but to relent.
So Qushqar Bahādor went back to the city and busied himself with drinking
wine. The next day Jānvafā Mirzā sent another messenger to chastise him.
Qushqar Bahādor threatened Shāh Neʿmatollāh, who apologized and said,
“I will finish the job in the morning.”
The following day Jānvafā Mirzā loaded up all his prisoners with baggage
and said, “Today the schismatics will give us the gold they owe. If they do, we
will leave. If not, I will attack the city and kill everyone in it!”
When the people saw those troops approaching the city, they turned their
faces to heaven and began to pray. At that moment God showed mercy on
them, for from the direction of ʿErāq a great cloud of dust appeared and five
flags, indicating five thousand men, became visible. When Solṭān Ebrāhim
Mirzā and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli saw the Uzbek army, they hurled them-
selves at it. Jānvafā Mirzā also charged into battle.
When Musā Beg saw the Qezelbāsh army, he came out of the fortress with
his troops and poured them on the Uzbeks, killing many of them. Then a young
Qezelbāsh from the Qājār clan approached Jānvafā Mirzā and, not recognizing
him, jammed his spear into the man’s belt, lifted him from his saddle, and
threw him to the ground. The youth leaped down from his horse and sat on his
prisoner’s chest, and he was about to cut his head off when Jānvafā Mirzā said,
“O young man, please God, don’t kill me, for I am Jānvafā Mirzā, the leader of
this army.” Recognizing that name, the youth tied Jānvafā Mirzā’s hands and
led him off.
When the Uzbek army got word that Jānvafā Mirzā had been captured, they
abandoned their goods and treasure and fled in defeat toward Kermān.
The people of Yazd now raised a hue and cry, saying, “The Uzbeks have taken
our property and our sons and daughters!”
“What good does it do to shout about it now?” Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā said.
“You should thank and praise God Almighty. Let everyone who wants his prop-
erty and children ask us for them.” He handed Jānvafā Mirzā over to Shāh
Neʿmatollāh and left Yazd with his men in pursuit of the Uzbeks.
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 255

The population of Kermān was powerless under the hand of the Uzbeks.
That army with no support oppressed the people greatly; they seized their
property and women and children by force and went about doing as they
pleased. They gathered countless sheep and horses and mules and cows and
camels and were waiting for Jānvafā Mirzā’s arrival when those Uzbeks who
had fled from Yazd found Biyāqu Bahādor; they told him about the coming of
the Qezelbāsh army and the defeat of the Uzbek troops and the capture of
Jānvafā Mirzā.
Then Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli and the divinely
supported Qezelbāsh army arrived at Kermān. Hearing the news, Biyāqu
Bahādor went out to battle alongside the Uzbek army. But the Qezelbāsh forces
killed a great many in their first attack, and the Uzbeks were defeated. Observ-
ing this catastrophe, Biyāqu Bahādor decided on flight and, abandoning all his
goods and property, he gathered his troops and fled toward Khorāsān. The
Qezelbāsh army, hot on his heels, killed many more Uzbeks, and after chasing
them for two days and killing eight thousand men, they turned around and
went back to Kermān.
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā returned all the property that the Uzbeks had stolen
from the people of Kermān to its rightful owners. After staying in Kermān for a
few days, the Qezelbāsh went to Yazd and turned over to the Muslims there the
goods they had seized from the Uzbeks. Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā then clapped
Jānvafā Mirzā in chains and set off for ʿErāq. When they reached the royal en-
campment, they wrote a petition to His Majesty the Shadow of God.
When the petition had passed under his alchemical royal gaze, the Shāh
summoned his great amirs and Qezelbāsh soldiers and welcomed Solṭān
Ebrāhim Mirzā. He and Ḥalvāchi-oghli took Jānvafā Mirzā before the Shāh and
kissed the royal foot. When he came into the royal court, Jānvafā Mirzā had a
frightened expression; he did not look around, but kept his head lowered. The
Shāh turned to him and asked about his coming to Iran, but he did not reply. So
His Majesty commanded that his chains be removed and that he be treated
with hospitality. Then Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā related all the details of the war
with the Uzbeks. The Shāh treated him and Ḥalvāchi-oghli affectionately, and
they got down to feasting and merriment.
Meanwhile, Biyāqu Bahādor had fled and gone to Shāhi Beg Khān, to whom
he explained what had happened. Shāhi Beg Khān was displeased. “It would
have been better for you to have been killed,” he said, “than for you to hand
Jānvafā Mirzā over to the schismatics and then bring me the news about it!” He
then ordered that a letter be written to “Shaykh-oghli” that said:
“Let it be known to Esmāʿil Mirzā, governor of ʿErāq, that we have informed
you several times that we expect you to repair the broken bridges and roads of
256 Chapter 38

ʿErāq, to provide contributions and necessities for our sea-churning royal army
at every waystation, and to demonstrate your willingness to serve us. But no
word has come to our royal hearing from you. At any rate, when you have done
as we have commanded, strike coins and pronounce the khoṭbeh in our name,
and when are satisfied, we will bestow the government of ʿErāq on you. If you
do not, we will order various punishments for you. Peace.” He then gave the
letter to an Uzbek and sent him off.
When that emissary reached the Shadow of God, he kissed the royal foot
and the letter was read out. His Majesty smiled and turned the emissary over to
the royal steward. Then he turned to Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji, who was the leading
jurist of the age, and said, “Shaykhzādeh, take Jānvafā Mirzā and this letter to
Shāhi Beg Khān, then return with his reply.” He then had a letter written which
read:
“May it not be hidden from the radiant and luminous mind of the great
Khān, the Solṭān of the Age and successor of the lineage of Changiz Khān, au-
tonomous ruler of all Torkestān and Khorāsān, Shāhi Beg Khān, that a couple
of words he has deigned to write about the repair of bridges and roads have
just come to us. O exalted one, the bridges and roads and provisions and neces-
sities are ready at every waystation in expectation of your arrival. However, an
army of Uzbeks led by Jānvafā Mirzā and Biyāqu Bahādor has attacked Yazd
and Kermān, plundering the goods of the Muslims and killing a number of
them. This is contrary to the law of the Prophet, and it is incumbent upon the
worthy Khān to forbid this and not to allow the blood of Muslims to be spilled
unjustly. Surely Fate will punish the Khān for this! With that behind us, friend-
ship may be established between us. If not, whatever the Creator has decreed
will become apparent. Peace.”
Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji took Jānvafā Mirzā to Shāhi Beg Khān in Harāt. When
the Khān saw Jānvafā Mirzā, he said to the Uzbek grandees, “I told you before
that Shaykh-oghli didn’t have the power to kill Jānvafā Mirzā!” All the grandees
nodded in agreement. Then Shāhi Beg Khān asked Jānvafā Mirzā about what
had happened. He realized, though, that the emissary accompanying him was
one of the scholars of the age, and he ignored him.
Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji, looking over this strange and forbidding person, said to
himself, “O God, protect the Shāh and the people of Iran from the evil of this
nasty man!”
Then, after eating and drinking, Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji took out the letter he
had brought. The foul Shāhi Beg Khān imperiously seized it and handed it to a
clerk, who read it aloud. Shāhi Beg Khān burst out laughing and said, “Friends,
listen to this! Am I dreaming? What is Shaykh-oghli thinking?” He gathered all
the nobles of Torkestān and said, “I have it in mind to visit Mecca; I told this to
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 257

Shaykh-oghli several times, and still he writes an unseemly letter such as this!
It is clear that the services I demanded have not been performed.”
Then he said to Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji, “Tell Shaykh-oghli, the governor of
ʿErāq, ‘Since you are always begging and pleading in your letters, we have felt
pity for you and decreed that you may rule for a few days under the shadow of
our protection. Earlier, we ordered you to repair the ruined bridges and bro-
ken-down roads and to prepare lodging and provisions at each of the waysta-
tions there so that our sea-churning royal army might traverse the land with
ease. So what sort of petition is this that you have sent our world-commanding
court?!’”
Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji said, “Slaves like myself do not have the authority to
speak to the Shāh in this way. The Khān should write this message down and
send it with a person he trusts.”
So Shāhi Beg Khān wrote a letter and gave it to his companion Tājlu Bahādor,
sending him along with Shaykhzādeh Lāhiji to the court of Shāh Esmāʿil.
When the two men entered the royal encampment, they were honored by
kissing the royal foot. Then Tājlu Bahādor presented the letter to the blessed
royal gaze. When the letter was read out, His Majesty was incensed, and he or-
dered that a few words be composed in reply: “You commanded us to repair
roads and bridges and prepare lodgings and provisions. These have all been
ready for a long time; what is the reason you have not come? At any rate, we
have informed you, and are ourselves on the way to welcome you.” He then
sent Khalil Āqā Ṣufi along with Tājlu Bahādor to deliver the message. When the
two men had left, His Majesty decamped for Tabriz, intending to continue on
to Khorāsān.
Khalil Āqā and Tājlu Bahādor had gone as far as the bridge of Korpi4 when
Khalil Āqā saw Biyāqu Bahādor waiting there together with three hundred Uz-
beks. Khalil Āqā said to himself, “The Uzbeks can only have come here for pur-
poses of guile and trickery.” He asked Tājlu Bahādor about it, and he replied, “I
don’t know, but apparently the Khān has sent them to guard the road.”
At nightfall, Khalil Āqā went down the road. He went up to an Uzbek and,
putting his hand on the hilt of his sword, said, “I am going to ask you a ques-
tion. If you answer truthfully, I will give you this fistful of gold, and if not, I’ll kill
you.”
When that Uzbek heard the word “gold,” he said, “Ask away.”

4 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 645) explains that this was a stone bridge which marked the border be-
tween ʿErāq and Khorāsān. The name pol-e korpi seems to derive from pol and köprü, which
mean “bridge” in Persian and Turkish respectively. Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb notes that he has here
corrected the scribe’s original kupri to korpi.
258 Chapter 38

Khalil Āqā said, “Tell me the truth: Why have you come here?”
The Uzbek replied, “Shāhi Beg Khān went with forty thousand men to fight
for Ghur and Gharjestān5 and the Timurid lands, but he was defeated, and of
those forty thousand men only fourteen thousand are left. He fled with them
into Harāt and said, ‘God forbid any spy should bring this news to Shaykh-
oghli!’ That’s why he sent Biyāqu Bahādor to prevent anyone passing from
Khorāsān to ʿErāq.”
When the Uzbek had finished telling him this, Khalil Āqā killed him and
went back the way he had come without letting anyone see him. That very
night he wrote what he had learned in a letter, which he gave his messenger-
boy to take across the desert to the Shāh. The messenger-boy brought it to Qa-
zvin, where he presented it to the alchemical royal gaze. Shāh Esmāʿil then left
Qazvin for Tehrān.
Meanwhile, Khalil Āqā and Tājlu Bahādor had left and moved on to Harāt,
where they went before Shāhi Beg Khān and presented the letter. When it had
been read out, Khalil Āqā said, “The Perfect Guide and scion of the Command-
er of the Faithful says, ‘You have said several times that you were going to Mec-
ca, but you have always found reasons to put it off. Now we are coming to greet
you and are on our way there. Do not say we have to let you know anymore.’”
Shāhi Beg Khān was furious when he heard this. He ordered that Khalil Āqā
be bound and imprisoned.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil had departed Tehrān, and when he reached Khwār,
he told Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli to take three hundred men and go to the
Korpi bridge. Biyāqu Bahādor got wind that the Qezelbāsh were coming and
set out for battle. Ḥalvāchi-oghli fought bravely and killed four hundred Uz-
beks, and Biyāqu Bahādor fled to Semnān with a few remaining men.
Ḥalvāchi-oghli took the heads of the Uzbeks he had killed and brought them
to Shāh Esmāʿil, who praised him. The Shāh then commanded Mirzā Moḥam­
mad Ṭālesh to take a thousand men and bring back Seyyed Moḥammad, the
governor of Semnān, who was also Shāhi Beg Khān’s son-in-law. Mirzā Moḥam­
mad Ṭālesh left as soon as he was ordered, and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh was com-
manded to follow behind him with two thousand men.
Biyāqu Bahādor reached Semnān and told Seyyed Moḥammad what had
happened, saying, “There’s no use staying here—come, let us go to the Khān!”
“I have often heard Shāhi Beg Khān say, ‘Biyāqu Bahādor is the Rostam of
Torkestān,’” scoffed Seyyed Moḥammad. “If he were here now, he would see
how ‘Rostam’ has turned pale with fear!”

5 A region east of Harāt, not to be confused with Georgia (Gorjestān).

Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 259

“I have seen how the Qezelbāsh fight,” retorted Biyāqu Bahādor, “and you
will find out as well!” He said this and left.
When Seyyed Moḥammad heard that Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh was on his
way with a thousand men, he said to himself, “If I flee without a fight, I will
never have the Khān’s confidence again.” He then gathered seventeen hundred
Uzbek soldiers and headed out from the city. After going four leagues, they
encountered Mirzā Moḥammad, and the battle began. Mirzā Moḥammad
Ṭālesh fought manfully, killing eight hundred Uzbeks before Seyyed Moḥam­
mad turned and fled back to Semnān. There he grabbed his possessions, gath-
ered his family and those of other Uzbeks, and left. The people of Semnān
ganged up on them, and they had begun fighting with them when Mirzā
Moḥammad Ṭālesh arrived and killed a number of Uzbeks. Seyyed Moḥammad,
fleeing with a hundred men and a thousand calamities, headed for Dāmghān.
Mirzā Moḥammad sent the heads of the defeated Uzbeks to the Shāh and set
off in pursuit of Seyyed Moḥammad.
When Mirzā Moḥammad’s message reached Shāh Esmāʿil and it became
known that the Mirzā was chasing Seyyed Moḥammad, His Majesty ordered
Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli to follow after Mirzā Moḥammad and stop him
wherever he found him. Ḥalvāchi-oghli set off, and when he caught up to Mirzā
Moḥammad near Dāmghān, he told him, “The Perfect Guide’s command is
that we stop here until he arrives.” They waited while Shāh Esmāʿil went to
Semnān, where he looked into the situation of the poor and weak and gave out
many gifts and fiefs. After that, he proceeded to Dāmghān.
When Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh had kissed the royal foot, the Shāh said,
“We gave you orders, and you went and rushed into something different! You
are out of line!” Mirzā Moḥammad hung his head in shame.
His Majesty marched on, and when he reached the foot of the citadel of
Dāmghān, Rostam Bahādor and twelve thousand men inside the fortress pre-
pared to withstand a siege. Shāh Esmāʿil ordered the Qezelbāsh to surround
the citadel and besiege it by starting to build a wall around it. This the Qezelbāsh
did like men, even as the Uzbeks occasionally came out to fight.
Eventually the situation of the besieged became dire, and one night Rostam
Bahādor, Shāhi Beg Khān’s cousin Mahdi Khwājeh, and several others slipped
through the wall where the qurchi-bāshi Dadeh Beg was on guard and fled.
Realizing what had happened, the other guards captured three Uzbeks and
brought them to Dadeh Beg, telling him that Rostam Bahādor and Mahdi
Khwājeh had escaped.
Dadeh Beg said, “Alas! I have committed conduct unbecoming a Ṣufi and
shall be killed for it!” He immediately set off in pursuit of Rostam Bahādor and
Mahdi Khwājeh.
260 Chapter 38

Word of this reached Durmesh Khān. He said, “If Mahdi Khwājeh gets away,
that qurchi-bāshi will lose our trust,” and he too mounted his horse and set off.
At a crossing in the road, he saw that the Uzbeks had gone off on the other
road. “The Uzbeks are lost!” he said to himself. He charged down the road the
Uzbeks had traveled and caught up with them within one league of Mazinān.
Rostam Bahādor escaped, but Durmesh Khān caught Mahdi Khwājeh and
brought him back. En route he saw Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and turned
Mahdi Khwājeh over to him. They then went back to camp.
The next day, Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi brought Mahdi Khwājeh to the
Shāh. His Majesty said, “It makes no sense to sleep like a man in one’s tent at
night and now to bring a prisoner.6 I can tell from the color of your face that
that you didn’t capture this Uzbek.” At this point Durmesh Khān came in. The
Shāh said, “The color of his face tells me that he captured this prisoner.” Then
he told him, “O Durmesh Khān, take your prisoner from this qurchi-bāshi.”
Durmesh Khān took Mahdi Khwājeh and brought him forward.
His Majesty said, “Noble sir, if you do one thing for me, I will grant you the
whole region of Khorāsān.”
Mahdi Khwājeh replied, “If you are going to have me become a heretic, don’t
say anything, for I won’t accept.”
Hearing this, the Shāh was infuriated, and he ordered that Mahdi Khwājeh
be killed. Durmesh Khān duly carried out the order.
Now all the Uzbeks remaining in the citadel came out at once in an attempt
to flee. The Qezelbāsh warriors killed many of them, but a few got away.
Dāmghān now reverted to the possession of the victorious Ṣafavid state.
Shāh Esmāʿil now commanded that a royal order be written to Āqā Rostam,
the ruler of Māzandarān, which read:
“We have just entered Dāmghān en route to Khorāsān with the intention of
fighting Shāhi Beg Khān. When this royal letter reaches you, gather the div-like
soldiers of Māzandarān and send them to our world-commanding court. God
willing, with the aid of the Creator and the blessed Emāms, the sea-churning
Qezelbāsh army will take care of Shāhi Beg Khān, and the region of Khorāsān
and Torkestān will come under the domain of our conquering dynasty. If you
help, we shall grant you rule over all of Māzandarān; if you neglect us, we shall
chain you up in a cage and burn you in the fire of our wrath, just as we did
Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi.”

6 Shāh Esmāʿil uses the Turkish word dustākh.

Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 261

When this letter reached Āqā Rostam, he wrote in reply, “We have not an-
swered, nor do we answer, to any ruler. Our hand is on the skirt of Shāhi Beg
Khān, and who has the power to oppose one like him?”
When the envoy returned and read out what Āqā Rostam had written, Shāh
Esmāʿil was speechless with anger, and he determined to go to Māzandarān to
punish Āqā Rostam for it. His commanders, however, pointed out that His Maj-
esty was presently on a campaign to fight Shāhi Beg Khān; first he should repel
the Uzbeks, then, God willing, after that auspicious victory, the Shāh could
choose what to do. So His Majesty canceled his plan to go to Māzandarān.
After that, the imperial army headed for Basṭām and Mazinān. The Shāh
then ordered Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli and Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh to take
two thousand soldiers and go ahead to Sabzevār. This they did.
Now in the time of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā and Ḥasan Pādeshāh, there lived
in the region of Jabal ʿĀmel in Anatolia7 a man named Seyyed Mokhtār, a dyed-
in-the-wool partisan of the Twelve Emāms. He had heard that in Harāt, Solṭān
Ḥosayn Bāyqarā was intending to propagate the Shiʿi faith. So Seyyed Mokhtār
gathered forty households of his people, packed up, and set off.
When they had gotten as far as Sabzevār, they heard tell that one day Solṭān
Ḥosayn had called all the people of Harāt to the city’s Friday mosque, intend-
ing to have the khoṭbeh pronounced in the name of the sacred Emāms. When
the preacher mounted the pulpit and began the khoṭbeh, though, the people of
Harāt rose up before he had even finished, dragged him down, and tore him to
pieces. The stunned Solṭān Ḥosayn said to Mir ʿAli Shir, “The people of Harāt
were, and still are, shameless and insubordinate! We must punish them in
great numbers!”
Mir ʿAli Shir said, “If His Majesty so wishes, but the royal mind must not be
troubled with such thoughts.” In the end, though, Solṭān Ḥosayn was not able
to put his pious intention into action.
Hearing this, Seyyed Mokhtār was overcome with sadness and turned to
pray in the direction of Mashhad, saying, “O holy Emām Rezā, I have come
from Jabal ʿĀmel to this region in the hope of spreading the sect of the Twelve
Emāms, but now that I have heard this news, I have lost hope. I can neither stay
in this place nor leave. O Emām of outsiders, O stranger to the dust of Khorāsān,
I too have become an outsider and a lost stranger. Show me the way.”
At that moment Seyyed Mokhtār fell asleep, and in his dream Emām Rezā
appeared and said, “O Seyyed, take your people and settle in Sabzevār. Write a
letter to Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā saying we command him to leave the region of
Sabzevār to you as an income support. It is not possible for him to spread the
holy sect of the Twelve Emāms, but be patient, for in seventeen years one of

7 The text has “Rum,” i.e., Anatolia; Jabal ʿĀmel is in fact in southern Lebanon.
262 Chapter 38

our sons will do so and will come to this region. Then you will hear the khoṭbeh
pronounced in our name.”
Seyyed Mokhtār awoke saying “O Emām, O Emām!” He wrote the letter the
Emām had told him to and sent it to Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā. After he read it,
Solṭān Ḥosayn wrote an order turning the income of Sabzevār over to Seyyed
Mokhtār and his people. Many people visited and were affected by that wise
man, and they all grew in service and devotion to him. Seyyed Mokhtār himself
thought about the seventeen years, and he counted the days in expectation.
When there were but three or four years remaining, the renown of the
spread of Twelver Shiʿism and the accession of Shāh Esmāʿil reached his ears,
and at last the clamor of the royal retinue was heard nearby, with the flight of
the Uzbeks witnessed as well. And when Seyyed Mokhtār did the reckoning, he
realized that it was the seventeenth year. He summoned everybody in Sabzevār
and told them, “The conversion of this region to Shiʿism has become apparent
to all, and now the scion of the Commander of the Faithful, the spreader of the
Twelver faith, is coming! We slaves have no gifts worthy of the Shāh; we have to
get together, kill the Uzbeks before the King of the Shiʿis arrives, and take their
heads as a gift to His Majesty!” All the people agreed and swore allegiance to
him.
A local Sunni heard about this and went to Seyyed Khwājeh, the ruler of
those parts, to tell him about it. But Seyyed Khwājeh said, “If we attempt retri-
bution before he has done anything, he will say these stories were made up by
his enemies and that the law clearly shows that he has committed no fault.”
Just then an Uzbek confidant of Seyyed Khwājeh came and told him about
Seyyed Mokhtār and the people of Sabzevār. Seyyed Khwājeh gave orders that
three thousand Uzbek soldiers should plunder the city and kill its inhabitants.
Seyyed Mokhtār got wind of this and told the people of Sabzevār to climb up
on the rooftops and attack the Uzbeks with arrows and muskets and stones.
The people fought bravely, but the accursed Uzbeks’ attack was overwhelm-
ing. The situation had become dire for the Sabzevāris when Ḥosayn Beg Laleh
and Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh arrived with two thousand Qezelbāsh to join the
battle. Seyyed Mokhtār ordered that the Nishābur Gate be shut, and when two
thousand five hundred Uzbeks had been killed, Seyyed Khwājeh had no choice
but to abandon his possessions and flee through another gate with five hun-
dred men in the direction of Nishābur.
When they arrived there, Seyyed Khwājeh went to his cousin Seyyed Hādi
and said, “If we stay here tonight, we will surely be killed by the Qezelbāsh to-
morrow.” So Seyyed Hādi joined up with the Uzbek army and set off with
Seyyed Khwājeh for Mashhad.
Seyyed Mokhtār gathered up the heads of the dead Uzbeks and went with
the seyyeds and people of Sabzevār to welcome the Shāh. After they had kissed
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 263

the royal foot, Shāh Esmāʿil embraced Seyyed Mokhtār and treated him kindly,
and Seyyed Mokhtār related the dream he had had. The Shāh then bestowed
the governorship of Sabzevār on him.
Two days later His Majesty moved on to Nishābur and spent two or three
days there. Then he proceeded to Mashhad. Now the fleeing Uzbek soldiers
had reassembled in Mashhad, and when they heard that Shāh Esmāʿil was in
Nishābur, Jānvafā Mirzā and Mahdi Khwājeh and Hādi Khwājeh and others,
along with the Uzbek grandees, sacked that pleasant garden of a city and left
for Harāt.
Now when His Majesty the Shāh reached Ṭoroq, his two royal eyes alighted
upon the blessed dome of the holy Emām of Jinns and Men, Emām Rezā, and
the entire Qezelbāsh army was united with him in adoration. All together they
prostrated themselves, then began walking the road to that sacred threshold,
everywhere crying “O Lord, O Lord.” The seyyeds and attendants of that blessed
shrine brought the standard of Emām Rezā out in welcome, and Shāh Esmāʿil
and his officers put it on their shoulders. The seyyeds of Mashhad were enno-
bled by kissing the royal foot, and His Majesty traversed those four8 leagues
with his renowned commanders.
When the news reached the royal hearing that the accursed Uzbeks had car-
ried off all the carpets of the blessed shrine, as well as its gold candles and ex-
quisite silver vessels, he said to Amir Najm II, “Tonight you must furnish the
sacred shrine, for we cannot stand to see this holy place in disorder. God will-
ing, tomorrow we will be ennobled by kissing the threshold of our great ances-
tors.” He also commanded that lamps and candlesticks be fashioned of gold
and silver. Amir Najm II did as he was ordered.
Shāh Esmāʿil thus entered the city, and the next day, with a thousand hopes
and needs, he came to the sacred precinct. When he reached the courtyard, he
rubbed his forehead in the dust with cries and lamentations, then entered the
sacred enclosure and turned his face to the holy tomb in supplication, saying:

One circumambulation of the tomb of Solṭān ʿAli Musā al-Rezā

Is equivalent to seven thousand seven hundred and seventy pilgrimages
to Mecca.

After visiting the tomb, the Shāh and his retinue became as poor and humble
servants of the radiant sacred precinct, remaining in Mashhad for three days
before the thought of going to Harāt to fight Shāhi Beg Khān again entered the
royal mind. The Shāh’s commanders said to him, “May some of the royal affairs

8 Actually, two.
264 Chapter 38

which profit the eternal faith and state be herein: It is incumbent upon us to
say that since His Majesty the Shāh has marched all the way from Ādharbāyjān
to holy Mashhad, the horses and camels and cattle of the Qezelbāsh army have
become pitifully scrawny, and many of them have died. Shāhi Beg Khān, mean-
while, has become ruler of all of Torkestān and Khorāsān, and he will be better
prepared for battle. Thus it would be neither unreasonable nor shortsighted for
His Majesty to command that the royal troops stay in Mashhad and make prep-
arations before continuing the campaign.”
When Shāh Esmāʿil heard his commanders’ advice, he smiled and said, “O
ghāzis and Ṣufis, what you have said is indeed prudent. But in the end, I see
myself as a servant of the court of the Immaculate Emāms, and what I have
done up until now has been by their orders. Now, too, they have sent me to
fight Shāhi Beg Khān, and if this is concealed from you, I will reveal it for you.”
Then he said, “I will write a petition concerning the battle with Shāhi Beg
Khān, and in your presence I will place it on top of the gravestone of the holy
Emām Rezā. Then I will close and lock the door of the tomb, and you stand
guard over it. The next day we will open the door together and inspect the peti-
tion, and if the holy Emām gives us leave, we will go fight, and if not, we will
return to Ādharbāyjān.”
His Majesty then ordered that this be written: “Petition of the loyal servant
Esmāʿil and all his men: The Qezelbāsh beseech this celestial court, toward
which all beings prostrate themselves, and say that they have resolved to do
battle with Shāh Beg Khān. If victory is to be theirs, they will fight, but if they
are required to wait until another time, they will return home.”
Then they placed the petition on the gravestone and left, placing a seal on
the door. The next day Shāh Esmāʿil and his commanders removed the seal and
entered the shrine. When they picked up the petition, they saw this written in
the blessed script of the holy Emām: “We command you to do battle. Go, and
victory will be with you.”
When they read this, Shāh Esmāʿil and his commanders prostrated them-
selves, rubbing their foreheads in the sacred dust of the shrine and raising their
voices in entreaty. Then they left the shrine smiling and joyful. The command-
ers praised His Majesty the Shāh and vowed never again to address him in such
an unbecoming manner. Esmāʿil then sent his tent-equipage ahead to Harāt
and left Mashhad.
Meanwhile, in Harāt, Biyāqu Bahādor went to Shāhi Beg Khān and said,
“Shaykh-oghli will surely come to Khorāsān.” Then he sent word to ʿObayd
Khān and his own son Moḥammad Timur Khān and Bārsil Khān the governor
Shāhi Beg Khān Comes To Dāmghān 265

of Urgench9 and the other commanders in Torkestān, saying, “When you get
this letter, raise your army and come with all haste to our court, for Shaykh-
oghli covets Khorāsān. Indeed, he has taken possession of some cities and
towns that used to be under the control of our agents, and now he has his eye
on Harāt. Peace.”
The next day, word reached Shāhi Beg Khān of Shāh Esmāʿil’s capture of
Semnān—just as, day by day, word kept coming of his capture of Dāmghān
and Mazinān and Sabzevār and Nishābur. Shāhi Beg Khān was afraid and did
not know what to do.
“What is the use now?” Jānvafā Mirzā told him. “This is a conflagration that
you yourself kindled!”
Shāhi Beg Khān replied, “The reason for my fear is this: I am afraid that the
rulers of Torkestān will hold back, and I will be killed at the hands of Shaykh-
oghli!”
Then word came that Shāh Esmāʿil and the victorious Qezelbāsh army had
entered holy Mashhad. Shāhi Beg Khān was overcome with terror; he sought
out the elders of the Uzbek army and said to them, “Shaykh-oghli is approach-
ing! What are we to do about the Qezelbāsh?”
They replied, “If the rulers of Torkestān hold back when Shaykh-oghli comes,
we have no hope of resisting the Qezelbāsh. The Khān should head for
Torkestān, for Harāt and Khorāsān aren’t going anywhere—after the Qezelbāsh
take Khorāsān, they will leave for ʿErāq, and then the Khān can come back
again to seize Khorāsān.”
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “I have sent some harsh messages to Shaykh-oghli to
draw him out; if I flee without fighting him, it will be harmful to my dynasty.”
Just then the news arrived that the Qezelbāsh had arrived at Jām. Shāhi Beg
Khān practically collapsed with fright, at which Jānvafā Mirzā said, “This much
anxiety will not do. You must send a letter to Shaykh-oghli saying, ‘We are
bringing our sea-churning royal army to Marv, where we have an appointment
with you.’ Perhaps Shaykh-oghli will be afraid and won’t come, and even if he
does, Torkestān is close by. Besides, the fortress of Marv is quite strong and can-
not be taken by force. You should take up your position there and send some-
one to bring back ʿObayd Khān and the amirs of Torkestān.”
Shāhi Beg Khān praised Jānvafā Mirzā and sent the letter to Shāh Esmāʿil. He
then sent Jānvafā Mirzā to Harāt as his representative, saying, “If Shaykh-oghli
comes to Harāt, hold the fort until ʿObayd Khān and Moḥammad Timur Khān
arrive, for we will send them to your aid.” Then Shāhi Beg Khān took his army
and harem and belongings and set off for Marv.

9 This city had, in reality, been comprehensively razed by Timur in 1388.

266 Chapter 38

When Shāhi Beg Khān’s letter passed under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh,
His Majesty said to Durmesh Khān, “In Dāmghān, we entrusted to you the gov-
ernment of Harāt. Now we want you to go there and seize Jānvafā Mirzā, ap-
point someone to rule on your behalf, then return to the royal encampment.”
Durmesh Khān replied, “I swear by the blessed head of the Perfect Guide
that even if you were to grant me rule over the entire earth, I would view one
moment in the victorious stirrup of His Majesty the Shadow of God as a thou-
sand times better than such rule. I will not choose to be separated from the
Perfect Guide; God willing, I will only enter Harāt after our return from Marv.”
Shāh Esmāʿil accepted what Durmesh Khān said. Together they left Jām and
headed for Marv. When they came within two days’ journey of the city, the
Shāh said, “Some Ṣufi must take our royal camp-equipage to the foot of the
fortress of Marv and set it up without fear of Shāhi Beg Khān’s arrogance.”
Dāneh Moḥammad Solṭān, the father of Akhi Solṭān and ʿalamdār-bāshi,10
piped up: “I went to war in the time of the late Solṭān Jonayd and Solṭān ʿAli
Mirzā, wielding my sword on the path of the faith and the state of this caliphal
dynasty in battles with the Torkmāns and the Shirvānis. It has always been my
wish to be martyred as a Ṣufi, and now I beg that the Perfect Guide command
this old slave to perform such a service, that I might perhaps reach the end I
desire.”
The Shāh praised him and gave him permission to go. So Dāneh Moḥammad
Solṭān took seven hundred Shāmlu youths, collected the blessed royal camp-
equipage, and set off for Marv. When he had gone, His Majesty commanded
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh and his men to go after him, and after Mirzā
Moḥammad had gone, Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli and five hundred men went
on after them. Finally, Shāh Esmāʿil and the great amirs and the rest of the
army set off the next day for the fortress of Marv and Shāhi Beg Khān.

10 This official was charged with carrying the Shāh’s royal standard. See Floor, Safavid
Government Institutions, p. 263.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 267

Chapter 39

The Victorious Royal Banners Come to Marv, and the Shāh Plays a Trick on
Shāhi Beg Khān the Ruler of Torkestān, Who is Killed

Shāhi Beg Khān left Harāt and arrived at Marv. He ordered that the fortress gate
be shut tight and that the towers and walls be readied. He also had parasols of
brocaded satin placed atop the towers, then set up some chairs and sat down
to watch the desert road.
Meanwhile, in Harāt, Jānvafā gave in to his fear and took his troops down the
desert road to Marv to join Shāhi Beg Khān. Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Why have
you left Harāt and come here?” “Shaykh-oghli aims to do battle with the Khān,”
Jānvafā Mirzā said in reply. “If we defeat the Qezelbāsh, Harāt and all of
Khorāsān will be ours; but if Shaykh-oghli defeats us, Khorāsān in its entirety
will be his. It will be better if I am at the service of the Khān.”
Shāhi Beg Khān agreed. Just then a spy came with news, saying that “Shaykh-
oghli has crossed the river at Maḥmudābād1 with the intention of coming
this way, and Dāneh Solṭān the ʿalamdār-bāshi is bringing the camp-equi-
page—it is he who has arrived at the foot of the citadel.”
Shāhi Beg Khān saw from atop the citadel that Dāneh Solṭān was coming
with seven hundred Qezelbāsh and the Shāh’s camp-equipage and was going
to set it up at the foot of the citadel. He said to Jānvafā Mirzā, “It has been a
while since we have witnessed a battle between the Qezelbāsh and the Uzbeks.
Take twelve thousand men out to fight this little Qezelbāsh army, so that I can
observe their methods of combat.”
Jānvafā Mirzā demurred, saying, “I have fought my share of battles with the
Qezelbāsh. Now let Tājlu Bahādor and Sāru Oghlān beg to fight them in front
of the Khān so he can watch.”
Shāhi Beg Khān gave Tājlu Bahādor and Sāru Oghlān three thousand men
and sent them out to fight. They and their men went out the city gate and lined
up opposite the Qezelbāsh in preparation for battle.
Now when Dāneh Solṭān saw the Uzbek army coming, he sought out his son
Akhi Solṭān and delivered his testament to him, saying, “One must sacrifice
oneself in the service of the Perfect Guide. Don’t spare yourself in anything you
do, for I know what we have seen from this caliphal house in the way of mu-

1 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 353) explains that this means the river at the village of Maḥmudi, which
is three leagues from Marv.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_040

268 Chapter 39

nificence and wonders. Now you must hold onto my battle-standard, for I
know that I will be killed in this battle.”
Having said this, he seized his spear and hurled himself into the midst of the
Uzbeks. Whenever he thrust his spear into someone’s side, it came out the
other side, and wherever the Shāmlu youths struck with their own, they lifted
the Uzbeks from their saddles and hit another on the top of the head, killing
two men with a single blow. To make a long story short, in the second and third
attacks, they killed twelve thousand Uzbeks with blows of their spears, and
when Tājlu Bahādor saw such manliness on the part of the Qezelbāsh, he bit
the finger of amazement.
Just then Sāru Oghlān cornered Dāneh Solṭān, saying, “O heretic, what were
you like as a youth that in your old age you tyrannize people so?” He placed his
hand on an arrow and loosed it, but Dāneh Solṭān dodged it and grabbed his
spear. Jānvafā Mirzā was just saying to Shāhi Beg Khān, “Watch how Sāru
Oghlān and that old Qezelbāsh fight each other,” when Dāneh Solṭān took that
very spear and struck Sāru Oghlān in the side with it. It came out the other side
of him. Straining mightily, Dāneh Solṭān then lifted Sāru Oghlān from the sad-
dle and threw him to the ground. All his bones came out, and he became like
tutty; Dāneh Solṭān then had his horse trample on the corpse.
Seeing that blow, Shāhi Beg Khān said to Jānvafā Mirzā, “You were right not
to go fight the Qezelbāsh! You’d think that bunch were not human!”
Mahdi Ātāliq and Rostam Bahādor and Nur Moḥammad Solṭān now each
raised their troops and sallied forth from the citadel. Of the army of Tājlu
Bahādor seven hundred men remained alive, and those were wounded. They
hurled themselves into the fight with the Qezelbāsh. Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh
with his army, and behind him Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli with two thousand
more men, also joined the fray. They had killed most of those Uzbeks when Juʾi
Bahādor surprised Dāneh Solṭān and shot him in the chest with an arrow. It
went right through him and he fell to the ground.
When Akhi Solṭān saw this, he said to Juʾi Bahādor, “O coward, do you shoot
arrows at real men unawares? How can I let you live?” And he swung his sword
at Juʾi Bahādor’s head such that it split him down to his sternum and he tum-
bled from the saddle.
The Qezelbāsh troops gave a cry of manliness, and they had killed six thou-
sand Uzbeks when the dragon-headed royal standard bearing the slogan “Help
from God and speedy victory”2 became visible. When the Uzbeks saw this,
they fled toward the citadel. The Qezelbāsh pursued them, killing two thou-
sand of them. Akhi Solṭān, seeking retribution for his father, killed eighty men.

2 Qorʾān 61:13.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 269

As the Uzbeks crossed the wooden bridge to enter the citadel of Marv, the
Qezelbāsh rushed to kiss the Shāh’s royal foot with cries of “O God, O God!” and
“O ʿAli, the Friend of God!”
Since Akhi Solṭān was bareheaded, Shāh Esmāʿil gave him a jewelled Ṣafavid
tāj and turban worth five thousand tumāns, placing it on his head with his own
royal hand. The Shāh also gave him gifts in consolation. Then he set up camp at
the foot of the citadel of Marv.
When Shāhi Beg Khān witnessed this battle, he was greatly afraid. He real-
ized what sort of lions the Qezelbāsh were, and that the Uzbeks were no match
for them. He ordered his men to fortify the citadel and prepare to withstand a
siege.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil spent three days exerting his royal mind in plan-
ning a ruse. On the fourth day, he ordered that a letter be written to Shāhi Beg
Khān which included praise and reverence to the Creator of the world as well
as a description of the Prophet and the pure Emāms, then continued thus:
“Let it not be concealed from the exalted mind of the king of Torkestān that
so much pride and haughtiness and arrogance have blown through your brain
that you wrote me every day to repair the broken bridges and ruined roads in
ʿErāq and to arrange for provisions at every waystation because you intended
to go to Mecca. By our royal order, all the necessary arrangements have been
made. But we have waited and waited, and no sign of your ill-starred retinue
has appeared. We have come out to welcome the scion of Changiz Khān, hop-
ing perhaps to meet at one of the waystations, but it has not been possible.
Now that lofty descendant of the line of Changiz Khān has crawled into a cor-
ner of the citadel of Marv in fear of the lion-hunting forces of the day of battle
and is not coming out. The men of the world, and especially kings of renown
and honor, must not regret what they have commanded, but must strive until
Judgment Day to fulfill it. At any rate, let the king of Torkestān come out and
kiss our royal foot, and we will forgive and overlook his offenses. If not, the li-
on-hunting Qezelbāsh and Ṣufi youths will overrun these sky-high walls with
their well-watered swords, and then what good will the citadel do you? Peace.”
A messenger went to the fortress and delivered this letter to Shāhi Beg Khān.
When he had read it, he said to the messenger, “Tell Shaykh-oghli, ‘Since you
heard that the mighty army of Torkestān had not come, you have made the
most of the opportunity and come to us. At any rate, everyone knows best how
to look after his own affairs, and leading an army requires much knowledge
that you do not yet understand. If you wait down there for another month, I
know that your manliness will be indisputable.” He dismissed the messenger,
who went back to the Shāh and reported what Shāhi Beg Khān had said.
270 Chapter 39

His Majesty said, “If we leave him alone, people will come to his aid from
Torkestān. This is how it’s going to be.” He then commanded that an attack be
readied. He assigned officers to various sections of the siege-wall and divided
the tasks among his soldiers.
Now Kucham Bahādor, the brother of Tājlu Bahādor, went to Shāhi Beg
Khān and said, “I want to lead a night-raid on the Qezelbāsh. We may be victo-
rious.”
“Just extricate me from this shame and dishonor and clear my name,” Shāhi
Beg Khān replied, and he gave him five thousand men. Kucham Bahādor left
the citadel with his Uzbek troops in the middle of the night.
That night, Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh was on night-watch for the Qezelbāsh,
and he had sent a man to the citadel gate in the hopes of capturing a spy. When
that man came near the citadel, he saw a large group of Uzbeks leaving it. He
hurried back to tell Mirzā Moḥammad what he had seen. The Mirzā sent some-
one to inform the troops, and a great hubbub arose among them.
When he heard all the noise, Shāhi Beg Khān said to Kucham Bahādor, “If
you can’t get the job done, why did you accept command?”
Kucham Bahādor said, “Tomorrow on the field of manliness I will prove my-
self to you.”
Shāh Esmāʿil heard about the Uzbek night-raid. In the morning Kucham
Bahādor left the citadel with an Uzbek army and arrayed the troops for battle.
When he saw the Qezelbāsh forces assembled in one place, he placed ten thou-
sand men in their ranks, then advanced with two thousand men to the left
flank, with the river in the center.
As it happened, the army of Ṭālesh was there, and word reached Mirzā
Moḥammad Ṭālesh that the Uzbeks were coming out of the citadel. He ordered
his army to suit up and be prepared in case His Majesty the Shāh should com-
mand that they go into battle. Suddenly the Uzbeks attacked the tents of the
Ṭālesh. When he realized what was happening, Mirzā Moḥammad was there
with two hundred men; the others were scattered around the camp-market-
place. There was no time to put on any armor, so they grabbed their swords in
their state of undress and plunged into the Uzbek ranks. In the first attack they
killed two hundred Uzbeks, but the clash grew larger.
Seeing the Qezelbāsh acting so bravely, Kucham Bahādor turned and made
his way to the front of his troops. Mirzā Moḥammad bared his hands and went
in pursuit, calling out encouragement to his own men as he did: “Do not fear,
for that dragon-headed battle-standard is the Shāh’s, and he will send help to
us and you!” He rolled up his sleeves and was showing the measure of his valor
when word reached the royal hearing of the Uzbek army’s fighting against
Mirzā Moḥammad and his outnumbered Qezelbāsh. His Majesty jumped on
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 271

his horse and ordered Durmesh Khān and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli to take a
Qezelbāsh army and go to the aid of Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh.
Mirzā Moḥammad and sixty of his men were now naked to the waist, but
they had split the ranks of twelve thousand Uzbeks and blocked off the fortress
bridge. Durmesh Khān and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli now arrived. With the
entrance to the citadel blocked, the Qezelbāsh surrounded the Uzbeks. Mirzā
Moḥammad killed close to sixty or seventy men all by himself. In all, eight
thousand Uzbeks were killed, and the four thousand or more wounded ones
had no choice but to turn and flee toward Torkestān.
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh intended to go in pursuit, but Shāh Esmāʿil
stopped him. And although all the blood in Mirzā Moḥammad’s body had con-
gealed, His Majesty took him in his arms and kissed his forehead and placed
his own jewelled tāj atop his head. He also gave him a graceful parade-horse
with a jewelled saddle, and he gave all the Ṭālesh soldiers robes of honor and
bestowed favors on them.
Now when Shāhi Beg Khān saw the battle of the Qezelbāsh and Uzbeks from
atop the citadel and witnessed the bravery and manliness of the Qezelbāsh, he
quaked with fear and said, “Seal the fortress tight, and don’t venture outside
again; be patient until ʿObayd Khān and the kings of Torkestān arrive!”
At the foot of the citadel, the Qezelbāsh were quite busy, sometimes build-
ing siege-walls and sometimes engaging in pleasure and merriment. Shāhi Beg
Khān was cornered by sorrow, and every day that no army showed up from
Torkestān passed like a year for him. His wife Moql3 Khānom, seeing that he
was terrified, said, “O Khān, if the men find out that you are so frightened, no
one will go into battle. You must give them encouragement and fire up their
spirits.”
Just then the Uzbek elders and ātāliqs arrived and said, “There are now thir-
ty thousand of us in this fortress, and we have no more than one day’s worth of
supplies. If His Majesty the Khān were to go to Torkestān and join forces with
ʿObayd Khān and the kings of Torkestān, he could immediately return and
overwhelm Shaykh-oghli while he is still in Khorāsān. If not, the Uzbek army
will not be ready; we must assemble the troops and head back to Torkestān on
the first day of spring.”
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Yes, that is what we will do.” He then went to Moql
Khānom to solicit her opinion. She said, “By God, O caliph of the age, if you
don’t do anything, the shame will remain on the Changizid line until dooms-
day.” She also said other things that stung him. Shāhi Beg Khān then turned to

3 Spelled m.q.l. in the text; the transliteration is a guess (moql is bdellium, a tree with a fragrant
resin).
272 Chapter 39

the elders and ātāliqs and said, “We must wait a few days longer until the
Torkestān army arrives.”
The Qezelbāsh had been at the foot of the citadel for a few days when some-
one arrived from the retinue of Bārsil Khān in Urgench with a letter to the Shāh
that read as follows:
“A petition from the least slave of the threshold of the hope of all creation,
Bārsil, to the summit of those who stand with guardian angels. Shāhi Beg Khān
wrote to this slave that he was raising an army and going to Marv. This least
one, for various reasons, has raised an army along with five thousand men and
crossed the Oxus with the intention of going to Bokhārā to link up with ʿObayd
Khān and thence to Balkh, where we will join Jāni Beg Solṭān and head to-
gether to Marv. Should the attendants of the monarch whose stirrup is the
heavens command anything until we arrive in Marv that will take care of Shāhi
Beg Khān, that will be better. The rest is up to Him, the Highest.”
When he had examined the letter, Shāh Esmāʿil gave a robe of honor to
Bārsil Khān’s envoy and told him, “Go back through the desert and pass on our
greetings to your master; then say, ‘God’s mercy be upon you, and as for what
you have written, God willing, the best possible responses will be made.’”
Then, when Bārsil Khān’s man had left, His Majesty summoned his greatest
commanders, like Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Amir Najm II and Durmesh Khān and
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh and Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Manṣur Beg
Ḥalvāchi-oghli and said, “Sixty thousand Uzbeks crossed the Oxus twenty days
ago, and according to the orders Bārsil Khān sent, they will be here in a week.
What do you advise?”
The commanders each presented their advice, but His Majesty was not sat-
isfied with any of their ideas. He said, “O ghāzis, I will present this matter to my
lord, the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him!). Whatever he orders
will be carried out.”
Shāh Esmāʿil went to sleep with this intention in mind. In his dream, the
Commander of the Faithful said to him, “O my son, do not be troubled.

Entrust yourself to me, and your enemy to Dhulfeqār,

Then see what the true King4 does!

“In the morning,” he continued, “start a rumor that the Anatolians have seized
Ādharbāyjān and you are going back there. Then pack up and leave. You will
not have gone even six leagues before Shāhi Beg Khān comes in pursuit. He will
be killed, and victory will be yours.”

4 Shāh-e velāyat.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 273

When he awoke, the Shāh summoned his commanders and told them what
the Commander of the Faithful had said. All of them fell to the ground and
prostrated themselves in thanks. Then a letter was written over the signature of
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā which read: “Solṭān Salim and 120,000 Anatolian troops
have entered Tabriz. We have fled to Ardabil. His Majesty should come as soon
as he gets this letter, for Solṭān Salim intends to conquer Ardabil.”
Shāh Esmāʿil gave this message to a runner and told him, “Tonight, go three
leagues and wait there. Then, tomorrow morning, come back to camp.” He
then told the Qezelbāsh, “In the morning, pack up what you can use and leave
the rest here. When we tell you to move out, move out.” His Majesty made sure
everything was in order for his stratagem to work, and the next day he ordered
the Qezelbāsh army to get themselves ready and move out.
Shāhi Beg Khān was sitting on the roof of a tower, watching the Qezelbāsh
with his wife Moql Khānom. They saw a cloud of dust arise in the distance, and
when it got closer, they noticed a young Qezelbāsh who had wrapped himself
in white linen. He entered the Qezelbāsh camp and was escorted to the pres-
ence of the Shāh. Within the hour someone went to the Qezelbāsh at the foot
of the citadel and frantically gathered them up and brought them back to the
Shāh. A moment later they all went to their tents.
Shāhi Beg Khān said to Moql Khānom and Jānvafā Mirzā, “A strange tumult
has arisen among the Qezelbāsh.”
Jānvafā Mirzā said, “We have a spy in the Qezelbāsh camp; he will bring
news.”
An hour later, a messenger came to the city gate claiming to have been sent
by His Majesty the Shāh. The gate was opened and he was brought to Shāhi Beg
Khān. After paying his respects, the messenger said:
“The Shāh sends his greetings, and says, ‘At this time word from Tabriz has
reached our royal hearing that Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā has taken up arms in re-
bellion.5 We are unable to stay at the foot of this citadel any longer. If the
Khān is prepared for war, let him come out, and let whatever is foreordained
come to pass. If not, since our victorious royal army is going off on an expedi-
tion, it is a condition of chivalry and justice that the Khān prevent his army
from pursuing us. Either way, we will be much obliged. Henceforth we have no
quarrel with you; in accordance with the mandate existing in the time of Solṭān
Ḥosayn Mirzā, the land between here and the Korpi bridge shall belong to you,
for we have no claim to Khorāsān. This is also in accord with the intention of
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, for when he gave shelter to the family of Shaykh Ṣafi, he

5 As Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb notes, this is inconsistent with the ruse that was agreed upon just a few
lines previously.
274 Chapter 39

asked me to seize his hereditary kingdom and return it to him. Now the emi-
nent Khān has written to us somewhat disrespectfully. But at any rate, if he
wishes to fight, let him announce a battle, and if not, let him proclaim that we
are free to go.”
When Shāhi Beg Khān heard these words, he was giddy with joy. He said to
the Shāh’s messenger, “Tell your lord, ‘Behold, the army of Torkestān will soon
arrive. If we deem it in our interest, we will fight a battle with you, and if not,
we will do whatever occurs to our royal mind. You may have no quarrel with us,
but we have plenty with you.’”
He dismissed the messenger, who returned to Shāh Esmāʿil and reported
what he had heard. His Majesty immediately rolled up all his tents and mate-
riel and loaded it onto pack animals. He then ordered some worn-out tents and
useless things put to the torch, and the smoke turned the heavens black.
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “Now what is all that smoke?”
At that moment a spy came in. “What news from the Qezelbāsh camp?” the
Khān asked him.
“The Khān’s good luck has done its work!” replied the spy. “Solṭān Salim, the
son of Solṭān Bāyazid, has gone to Diyārbakr and killed Moḥammad Khān, the
military commander, and his brother Qarākhān, the governor of Qarāḥamid.
He has also seized all of Ādharbāyjān, and Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā has fled from
Tabriz to Ardabil with his household. The Qezelbāsh have heard this news and
are all wailing and crying; in fact, since breakfast, close to two or three thou-
sand men have left, and it is only midday. Shaykh-oghli has remained with
some of his troops, but it is clear that he will leave by nightfall. A calamity has
befallen the Qezelbāsh! By the blood of the Four Friends, may the enemies of
the Khān always end up in such helplessness and disorder!”
With mounting glee, Shāhi Beg Khān then asked, “What is this smoke?”
The spy replied, “They are burning their excess materiel lest it fall into the
hands of the Muslims.”6
Shāhi Beg Khān turned to Jānvafā Mirzā and said, “One would have thought
that the Qezelbāsh were playing a trick. But what else can all this chaos and
burning of materiel mean?”
Jānvafā Mirzā said, “You still haven’t learned what the Qezelbāsh are like.
When they realized that the citadel is sturdy and cannot be taken quickly, and
that the army of Torkestān is about to arrive, they played this trick hoping that
you would come out of the citadel to fight. I swear by the hospitality of the
Khān that that bunch does not fear you, and my heart tells me that the news
they are giving you is false. The reason is that the Qayṣar of Rum used to pay

6 I.e., Sunnis.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 275

tribute to ʿAlāʾoddawleh, and Shaykh-oghli snuffed out that dynasty; what pow-
er does the Qayṣar have to invade his lands?”
“The Qezelbāsh are fleeing!” Moql Khānom said. “If they had a handle on
their situation, they would not have revealed this secret. What is the meaning
of this rumor? It is not a trick; this should be clear from the burning of the
tents.”
Shāhi Beg Khān said, “The Uzbeks should get their armor on and prepare for
battle. Tomorrow we will set out and leave not one Qezelbāsh alive.”
“Whoever has a good horse should set out in front,” added Moql Khānom,
“for whoever kills the Qezelbāsh in the rear will reach Shaykh-oghli that much
sooner.”
“The Qezelbāsh will depart as soon as night falls,” said Jānvafā Mirzā. “Set
out in pursuit at the end of the night.”
Shāh Esmāʿil, in fact, set off in the middle of the night. He said to Ḥosayn
Beg Laleh, “After prayers, they will leave the citadel. You must lie in wait, and as
soon as they cross the river, you go and destroy two or three supports of the
bridge of Maḥmudābād, then turn back to the desert and hasten back to our
camp.” Ḥosayn Beg Laleh went to set up his hiding-place.
Shāhi Beg Khān now gathered thirty thousand Uzbeks and marched out
from the citadel. At sunrise they crossed the bridge, and when they had gone
half a league, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh came out of hiding, destroyed the bridge, and
returned to the royal camp.
When His Majesty the Shāh had gone four leagues from the citadel, he told
Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Amir Khān Torkmān, “Take the battle-stan-
dard and five hundred men and follow us at a slow pace. When Shāhi Beg
Khān’s forces appear, show yourselves to him, then lower the battle-standard
and hasten to join us.” Then he proceeded onward.
Now when Shāhi Beg Khān and his men spotted the flag of “Help from God
and speedy victory” with five hundred men accompanying it, the Khān said to
Jānvafā Mirzā, “That’s the battle-standard of Shaykh-oghli. And you were tell-
ing me not to leave the citadel! We won’t get a better opportunity than this.
Why would I let them get away?”
Jānvafā Mirzā smiled and said, “The truth of what I said will soon become
apparent.”
Shāhi Beg Khān paid him no heed, but spurred his horse and galloped off.
When Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Amir Khān Torkmān spotted the
banners of the Uzbek army, they lowered their own standard and rode off.
They sped down the road with Shāhi Beg Khān in hot pursuit. The air around
the Qezelbāsh army grew dark with dust, but Shāhi Beg Khān’s horses were not
to be outrun. Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Amir Khān Torkmān finally
276 Chapter 39

caught up to Shāh Esmāʿil, with whom they raised the dragon-headed standard
of the Ṣafavid army and arrayed the Qezelbāsh in their ranks.
The dust had barely settled when Shāhi Beg Khān arrived with his own army,
only to see the world-conquering Shāh waiting for him with twelve thousand
Qezelbāsh lined up like Alexander’s wall. When he saw this, Shāhi Beg Khān
was stunned; he said to Jānvafā Mirzā, “What army is this?”
Jānvafā Mirzā replied, “This is the army of my doom and yours. Shaykh-ogh-
li has stolen a march on us and prepared his forces. Now do you understand
that this was a ruse which has drawn you out of a sturdy fortress and onto an
open plain?”
Shāhi Beg Khān was thunderstruck. He sought out his advisors and said, “Do
you see what sort of trick Shaykh-oghli has played to lure us out of the citadel
into a trap?”
They replied, “What’s done is done. Now don’t be afraid, but entrust yourself
to the Four Friends. We will do battle, for we are in the right, while this bunch
are a deviant sect and will never overwhelm us. Why are you wilting thus?
Guard the battle-standard well!”
The Khān was greatly encouraged. The Uzbeks soon arrived and got into
formation. The Khān now gave three thousand men to Jānvafā Mirzā and or-
dered him onto the battlefield, but Jānvafā Mirzā went behind his men and
remained there, sending his own troops onto the battlefield. Then the lion-
hunting Qezelbāsh ghāzis came forth and the battle got underway. It was not
even three hours before they uprooted the Uzbeks’ right flank and killed a
great many of them.
Shāhi Beg Khān sent someone to Jānvafā Mirzā to say, “What are you doing?
You have poured dust on your own head and handed over three thousand Mus-
lims to the heretics to be killed!”
Jānvafā Mirzā said to the messenger, “Go to the Khān and say, ‘You poured
dark dust on your own head when you listened to your wife and sent this army
against the blades of the Qezelbāsh! Whoever does what his wife says is even
less than she is!’”
Just then the lion-hunting Qezelbāsh ghāzis poured into the midst of the
Uzbek army. Shāh Esmāʿil, too, drew the sword of the Lord of the Age and was
smiting the Uzbek soldiers on the head when his alchemical gaze fell upon the
calamity-tainted standard of Shāhi Beg Khān. The Uzbeks were defeated, and
the Qezelbāsh drove them from the battlefield. Seeing this, Shāhi Beg Khān,
too, chose flight.
Shāh Esmāʿil, though, did not take his eye off the Uzbek battle-standard.
When he reached it, though, he did not see Shāhi Beg Khān, so he asked where
he was and was told, “That is the Khān’s standard there, moving toward
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 277

Maḥmudābād.” His Majesty clove the Uzbek standard and its holder in two
with his world-seizing sword and set off in pursuit of Shāhi Beg Khān.
When Shāhi Beg Khān reached the river at Maḥmudābād, he saw that two
supports of the bridge had been destroyed. He turned every which way in
shock. Looking behind him, he saw the dragon-headed battle-standard of the
Shāh moving quickly toward him. He had no choice but to ride into the water
in the hopes of escaping. In the distance, he saw a number of Uzbeks entering
a fortress, so he turned in that direction.
As it happens, while riding, he fell into a marsh, and his men suffered a thou-
sand difficulties pulling him out. For in the middle of that marsh there was a
whirlpool such that a hundred thousand men could fall into it and be annihi-
lated. A number of Solṭān Sanjar’s soldiers drowned in that whirlpool once, so
Solṭān Sanjar ordered that a wall be built around it. In the meantime, though,
one side of that wall had become ruined, and almost a hundred fleeing Uzbeks,
seeking shelter but unaware of the whirlpool, rode in and drowned in the sea
of annihilation.
Anyway, Shāhi Beg Khān, fearing the blade of Shāh Esmāʿil, rode into that
marsh, and he and his horse sank into it. Shāh Esmāʿil arrived and dug his spurs
into the mare of Manṣur Beg, intending to ride toward Shāhi Beg Khān. That
wise and blessed steed, though, planted its fore and hind legs firmly on the
ground and stood as motionless as the pole star. His Majesty was shouting at it
to move when he heard the voice of someone behind him saying, “Do not go
further! You are in danger!” When he turned to look, he saw no one there.
Shāhi Beg Khān, meanwhile, had sunk so deep into the marsh that only his
head and his horse’s ears were showing. Shāh Esmāʿil said to himself, “O Lord,
this is that very tyrant who acknowledged no one else on earth; now fate has
cast him into the whirlpool of calamity.” Shāhi Beg Khān now saw himself as a
pitiful little fox held prisoner in the gulf of misfortune, and His Majesty as a
fierce lion.
Shāh Esmāʿil looked and saw ʿĀdi, the groom of the mare of Manṣur Beg,
coming. He said to him, “O ʿĀdi, where have you been that you are arriving here
now?”
The groom replied, “This slave had mounted a mule and gone to the battle-
field, thinking I could make a little profit, when all of a sudden I heard a voice
in my ear saying, ‘O ʿĀdi, go to the Shāh!’ When I heard that voice, I left my
mount and asked around as to which direction His Majesty had gone in. They
pointed me in this direction, and when I saw the royal crown from afar, I came
to help you.”
“How will you pull this dog out of the marsh?” asked Shāh Esmāʿil.
278 Chapter 39

“I have a lasso,” said ʿĀdi, “which I will throw around his neck to pull him
out.”
He threw the lasso around Shāhi Beg Khān’s neck and, pulling and pulling,
got him out of the muck. Shāhi Beg Khān fell to the ground before the Shāh and
began to plead in wretchedness and defeat. Shāh Esmāʿil said to him, “Since
you were intending to go to Mecca but broke your word, that blessed house has
put your punishment right here in your lap.”
Then His Majesty commanded ʿĀdi the groom to separate Shāhi Beg Khān’s
head from the fortress of his body. He also cut off his hands and feet, and they
took them back to the royal encampment.7 The Shāh was affected by pride;
he swelled up to think that he had killed such a man as Shāhi Beg Khān.
During the battle, Durmesh Khān had ridden up to Jānvafā Mirzā and, not
realizing who he was, killed him. A great many Uzbeks were killed in that bat-
tle; four hundred solṭāns of the lineage of Changiz Khān were killed, and many
of those who remained alive fled and tried to get back to Marv. Since the bridge
was destroyed, though, it was impossible for them. Some of them hurled them-
selves into the water and drowned in the sea of annihilation; most of them
scattered in the desert and headed back toward Torkestān. Of the thirty thou-
sand men who had accompanied Shāhi Beg Khān, around two thousand made
it out of there alive, most of them wounded, and they headed for Balkh with a
thousand difficulties.
Now Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud, Shāhi Beg Khān’s vizier, had thrown himself
in the water and made it back to Marv. From there, he noticed a great cloud of
dust rising from the desert. He sent someone to investigate and learned that
ʿObayd Khān was coming from Balkh with ten thousand men, and that three
days later the other kings of Torkestān would arrive.
ʿObayd Khān arrived at the foot of the fortress and saw that the gate was
shut fast. “Open the gate!” he cried.
Khwājeh Maḥmud went to the top of the wall, and ʿObayd Khān called up to
him, “What news do you have of Shāhi Beg Khān?”
“Shāhi Beg Khān and the entire Uzbek army have been killed at the hands of
the Qezelbāsh,” Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud replied.
ʿObayd Khān gave a cry and said, “Open the gate so that I can take Shāhi Beg
Khān’s harem and treasury back to Torkestān before the Qezelbāsh arrive, lest
the Khān’s honor be lost!”
Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud said, “ʿObayd Khān, let me tell you the truth: Right
now this fortress belongs to the pādeshāh of Iran, and out of fear of him, I can-

7 Shāhi Beg Khān was killed at the Battle of Marv in 1510, although his demise came when he
became trapped in a cul-de-sac rather than a literal quagmire.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 279

not give you the treasury. Now you go away, lest the Qezelbāsh come and trou-
ble break out.”
ʿObayd Khān, though, stood his ground and kept insisting. When he saw that
it was pointless, he said, “O Khwājeh, you are right about the treasury, but
Shaykh-oghli pays no regard to established ways,8 so give the Khān’s harem to
me!”
Since Khwājeh Maḥmud had been raised at Shāhi Beg Khān’s expense, he
thought for a bit, then said to himself, “I will hand over Moql Khānom, but
nothing else.” To satisfy ʿObayd Khān he said, “I’m doing this for your sake.”
Moql Khānom was told, “ʿObayd Khān is looking for you.”
“I’ve been looking for him too,” she replied. “Quick, send me on my way be-
fore the Qezelbāsh get here.” So they opened the gate of the fortress and
brought her outside, where they handed her over to ʿObayd Khān. When he
saw Moql Khānom, he was dazzled by her beauty and charm, and he said to
himself, “If only Shaykh-oghli had killed Shāhi Beg Khān ten years ago!” Then
he took Moql Khānom and set off in all haste for Bokhārā.
The next day, as Moḥammad Timur Khān was approaching the fortress, he
asked an Uzbek fugitive what was going on and learned that his father had
been killed and the Uzbek army defeated. Stunned and afraid, Moḥammad
Timur Khān then proceeded to the fortress, where Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud
was atop the tower. Moḥammad Timur Khān asked again about his father, and
Khwājeh Solṭān related to him what had happened. He said to the Khwājeh,
“What should we do now?”
The Khwājeh said, “You must quickly get yourself to Torkestān, for the
Qezelbāsh army will be here any moment.”
Moḥammad Timur said, “I have come here with seventy thousand men; if
we turn back, no one will have confidence in me again.”
The Khwājeh said, “It is up to you, O prince.”
Just then a cloud of dust became visible in the desert, and Jāni Beg Solṭān
arrived with an army of Uzbeks, roaring and shouting. Jāni Beg Solṭān offered
his condolences to Moḥammad Timur Khān on the death of his father, then
asked, “What are you thinking now, and why don’t you go into the fortress?”
“The Khwājeh will not let us enter the fortress,” replied Moḥammad Timur
Khān.
Jāni Beg Solṭān turned to the Khwājeh and said, “You were vizier to the
Khān; why have you then closed the gate to his son?”
The Khwājeh said, “Don’t you know Shaykh-oghli at all? He sent someone
here to tell us that if we hand over the citadel to the Uzbeks, he will order the

8 chashm bar sirat-e kasi nadārad

280 Chapter 39

massacre of everyone in the city. You go take care of Shaykh-oghli and the
Qezelbāsh; then I will again be that old slave of yours I once was.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “If you won’t let us into the fortress, at least
hand over my father’s treasury and harem so that I may fight Shaykh-oghli and
avenge my father’s blood!”
“Your father’s treasury now belongs to Shaykh-oghli,” the Khwājeh said; “as
for his harem, ʿObayd Khān has taken it.”
“You heretic!” cried Moḥammad Timur Khān. “Why would you give it away?”
The Khwājeh said, “I didn’t give it away—Moql Khānom had been looking
for ʿObayd Khān for a long time and was content to leave, so she went with him
to Bokhārā.”
Then Bārsil Khān, too, arrived with his army. The three Uzbeks consulted
with each other and decided that since there was no use in staying, Bārsil Khān
would go to Urgench with his army and Jāni Beg Solṭān to Balkh with his own,
while Moḥammad Timur Khān headed to Bokhārā to retrieve his mother.
Shāh Esmāʿil, meanwhile, left the battlefield in triumph and glory. When he
reached the riverbank at Maḥmudābād and saw the remains of the Uzbek
army and the prisoners and booty that had fallen into the hands of the victori-
ous ghāzis, he gave out gifts according to the merit of each recipient. The ru-
ined bridge was then repaired, and His Majesty had just crossed it when a spy
arrived to warn him of the arrival of the armies of Torkestān. His Majesty said
to his commanders, “My Lord has guided us up until now, and God willing, we
will take care of this bunch as well.”
They had gone down the road a ways when another spy arrived with the
news that the armies of Torkestān had all returned to their own lands. Shāh
Esmāʿil was very sorry to hear this and said, “We must move quickly; maybe we
can catch up to them near Marv.” They marched and reached the foot of the
citadel, but there was no sign of the Uzbeks. Then they saw Khwājeh Solṭān
Maḥmud and the inhabitants of the citadel coming out, each strewing a plate
of gold in the path of His Majesty in welcome. Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud came
to kiss the ground before the Shāh, who asked him about the kings of Torkestān
and their armies. The Khwājeh told him what had happened and said, “I gave
Shāhi Beg Khān’s wife Moql Khānom to ʿObayd Khān when we realized that
His Majesty the Shāh has no regard for established ways. Because of this, I have
acted wrongly.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “I should order that you be killed, but since you did not
allow the Uzbeks to enter the citadel, I will allow you to live.” He ordered that
the Khwājeh be imprisoned. Then he asked his commanders what they thought
about going to Torkestān to attack the kings there.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 281

“We slaves said in Mashhad that we would not interfere anymore; whatever
occurs to the blessed royal mind, we will carry out obediently,” they replied.
Shāh Esmāʿil then said to Bayrām Khān Qarāmānlu, “Take five thousand
men and go to Balkh. If Jāni Beg has evacuated the citadel by the time you get
there, enter it and hold it; otherwise, God willing, we will come and conquer it
and hand it over to you.”
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān had left Marv for Bokhārā to get his
mother. When he got to the foot of the citadel of Bokhārā, he told his soldiers
to dismount while he rode up to the city gate and sent someone to bring out
ʿObayd Khān. When the latter came out and saw Moḥammad Timur Khān on
horseback, he bowed courteously and said, “O prince, where have you been,
and why aren’t you dismounting?”
Moḥammad Timur Khān replied, “I will. Right now, you send someone to
fetch my mother and hand her over to me so that this shame passes from our
family. After that, I will be your friend.”
“Your mother hasn’t been carried off by a rebel,” said ʿObayd Khān. “I tricked
Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud and took your mother so that she would not fall into
the hands of the Qezelbāsh and Shaykh-oghli and thus bring a bad name to the
Changizid family. She is here.”
ʿObayd Khān was being soothing and affable because he did not want
Moḥammad Timur Khān to lose heart. The latter was impatient, though, so fi-
nally ʿObayd Khān said, “Your mother is queen of all Torkestān and can choose
for herself what to do. She is sitting high atop the citadel and sees you. Send
someone to her; if she wants a husband, I have arranged it, and if she wants her
son, let her come down to you.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān sent a messenger-boy to Moql Khānom with this
message: “You have a son like me; what use will another husband be to you?
Beware lest you sully our name. Get down here with me.”
The young man went to Moql Khānom, prostrated himself, and delivered
this message. Moql Khānom said, “Tell my son, ‘If ʿObayd Khān hadn’t brought
me out of the citadel of Marv, Shaykh-oghli would have handed me over to
some servant. Since he has established such a right over you and saved your
honor from the hands of the enemy, chivalry requires that you let me remain
with him. ʿObayd Khān is an intelligent man; he will be your tutor and make
you king of Torkestān. Don’t think this isn’t a good thing.’” The messenger went
and reported this to Moḥammad Timur Khān, who was so enraged that he
killed him.
ʿObayd Khān, who did not want fighting to break out, left the citadel and
went irritably to Moql Khānom. Moql Khānom asked, “Why are you so out of
sorts? Just order your men to have him killed!”
282 Chapter 39

ʿObayd Khān, ashamed, said nothing. At this, Moql Khānom shouted, “I will
give a reward to whoever brings me the head of Moḥammad Timur Khān!”
Hearing the word “reward,” the Uzbek soldiers jumped up, but ʿObayd Khān
said to them, “Do not kill Moḥammad Timur Khān! Just kill some of his troops;
perhaps he will take fright and leave.”
So the Uzbek soldiers got up and marched out toward Moḥammad Timur
Khān. Seeing this, he went to his advisors and said, “Do you think we should
fight?”
Realizing that he was afraid, they replied, “Don’t vex your mother. Know that
a Qezelbāsh would have carried her off if not for ʿObayd Khān, who is a brave
and accomplished man.”9
In the end, the elders made peace between Moḥammad Timur Khān and
ʿObayd Khān, and Moḥammad Timur Khān took his army and went off to Sa-
marqand. ʿObayd Khān said to Moql Khānom, “Come, let us busy ourselves
with leisure and enjoyment,” and they got down to pleasant conversation.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil said to his commanders, “When we were thinking
of invading Khorāsān and had stopped in Dāmghān, we sent someone to Āqā
Rostam, the ruler of Māzandarān, to tell him to raise an army and join our vic-
torious expedition, and to say that when we had removed Shāhi Beg Khān, I
would bestow upon him the whole region of Māzandarān. In reply, though, he
said he did not have the power to fight the ruler of Torkestān, and that he did
not recognize the pādeshāh of Iran, his hand being placed instead on the skirt
of Shāhi Beg Khān. When our messenger returned and presented this message
to us, we resolved to go back to Māzandarān and punish Āqā Rostam, but since
we were intent on invading Khorāsān and seizing Shāhi Beg Khān, we dropped
the matter. Now, though, I want a true-blue Ṣufi Qezelbāsh, one who takes
heed of neither the royal pomp nor the greatness of Āqā Rostam, king of
Māzandarān, nor of the vultures of his army, and who will take the severed
hand of Shāhi Beg Khān to Māzandarān and throw it in the lap of Āqā Rostam
with the message, ‘The world-conquering Shāh says that you had said your
hand was on the skirt of Shāhi Beg Khān; it seems your hand has not reached
his skirt, but here is his hand on yours!’ Deliver this message and return.”
When the Qezelbāsh heard this, no one wanted the mission and no one
spoke up. Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh, though, leaped up and said, “Since the
first day of the Shāh’s blessed emergence, I have made my soul a sacrifice for
the Perfect Guide on the path of Ṣufism. Day and night I have longed to achieve
my desire. If it is so commanded, this slave will gratefully carry out this task in
a way that His Majesty will praise when he hears about it.”

9 I have reconstructed a decidedly incongruous sentence.

The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 283

“Don’t worry,” said Shāh Esmāʿil; “if God wills it, you will return to our royal
service safe and sound.”
“If there is any hope that I will live to return to the service of the Perfect
Guide, I ask that His Majesty give this least one the mare of Manṣur Beg for the
journey. I have no other wish.”
The Shāh replied, “If I refuse, people will say, ‘If there had been any hope of
surviving, why wouldn’t the Perfect Guide have granted the use of his mare? He
will surely be killed on this journey.’ So I will grant you my mare for this mis-
sion. I hold every single hair of you true-blue Ṣufis dearer than a thousand such
horses.”
Mirzā Moḥammad fell to the ground in prostration and gratitude, and all
the Qezelbāsh opened their mouths in prayer and praise of the Shāh. His Maj-
esty ordered that Mirzā Moḥammad be given weapons, including the helmet
and mail of the late Solṭān Ḥaydar, the sword of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, and the bow
of Yaʿqub Pādeshāh. Mirzā Moḥammad donned all those arms and stood be-
fore the Shāh like the Rostam of legend. After various blessings, he kissed the
royal foot and left the citadel of Marv for Astarābād with a single runner in tow.
Now Āqā Rostam’s capital was the city of Sāri. At that time he had gone for
the festival of Āb-pāshān10 to the town of Tāhān,11 which the late Shāh ʿAbbās
(God have mercy on him) built up into a great city which he called Faraḥābād.12
Āqā Rostam was busying himself with observing the sea and drinking wine
with Alvand Div and Shamsoddin Div, the general of Māzandarān, and Sohrāb
Div his deputy, who bore a steel hand and was called Steel Sohrāb.
As they sat talking, the topic of Kay Kāvus and the coming of the legendary
Rostam came up. Āqā Rostam said, “If Kay Kāvus and Rostam were to come to
Māzandarān in my own time, you know what the Rostam of Māzandarān
would do to the Rostam of Sistān!” He was saying this sort of thing and quaffing
goblets of wine with the divs of Māzandarān, and everyone was talking about
how powerful his own arm was.
Now on the day of the festival of Āb-pāshān, it was the custom of the people
of Māzandarān to go to the edge of the sea, where all the nobles and people of
Māzandarān, including the soldiery, would put on colorful coats and people of
each class would splash water on each other and arrange a feast. Āqā Rostam
had come out of his palace to watch all this.

10 Per Steingass, this is the name of a Persian festival “on which occasion each one sprinkles
rose-water on his neighbour.”
11 Called Ṭāḥuneh in the text.
12 This reference to “the late Shāh ʿAbbās,” who died in 1629, is one of several in-text clues as
to the date of composition of this manuscript.
284 Chapter 39

Meanwhile, Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh was en route from Astarābād, and at

that moment he had reached the bank of the river Tajan.13 He called out, “O
people of Māzandarān! I am an envoy of His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil Bahādor
Khān! Bring a boat so that I can cross!”
When the people heard his voice, they brought the news to Āqā Rostam,
saying, “A Qezelbāsh youth has come from Astarābād; he is riding on a white
mare with tassels and is armed to the teeth. He has a runner in tow and says
that he is an envoy of Shāh Esmāʿil.”
When Āqā Rostam saw Mirzā Moḥammad with those weapons and that
horse, he said, “It seems a pity that this mare should drown in the river, for
otherwise I would have killed the envoy. Besides, I want to hear his message; I
suspect that Shāh Esmāʿil has been defeated by Shāhi Beg Khān and wants my
help—he is just that type of youth.”14
He ordered that a fisherman’s skiff be sent over. Then he thought better of it
and said, “It will be humiliating for this envoy to fall into the water. When he
falls in and his equipment gets totally ruined and the water is up to his neck,
I will order swimmers to go pull him and his mount out of the water.” So he had
one of his men cry out to Mirzā Moḥammad, “There is a crossing there! Plunge
into the water!”
Mirzā Moḥammad realized that they were playing a trick. He said to him-
self, “It won’t be more than the crossing at Baghdād, and anyway, what will this
river be in the face of the power of this mare?” Placing his trust in the Almighty,
he said to the mare, “O prudent steed, do not embarrass me in front of every-
one,” and he spurred her into the water. When Āqā Rostam saw that mare brav-
ing the waters, he said, “This youth is not worthy of that horse! Shāhi Beg Khān
may have been worthy of mounting such a steed, but no one else is!” Āqā Ros-
tam was on Shāhi Beg Khān’s side because the Khān had maneuvered Āqā Ros-
tam, through trickery and intimidation, into engaging his daughter to
Moḥammad Timur Khān.
Anyway, Āqā Rostam praised that mare highly, and Mirzā Moḥammad
crossed the water safely to the other side as the sound of applause rose from
the people. Mirzā Moḥammad’s runner, however, had had to swim across, so
Mirzā Moḥammad threw his lasso toward him; he grabbed the end of it and
was pulled out.
Mirzā Moḥammad now came to the court of Āqā Rostam. He entered his
presence, said his greetings, and then said: “O Āqā Rostam, ruler of Māzandarān,
lend an ear and listen! The Perfect Guide and Perfected Master, Shāh Esmāʿil

13 A river running through Māzandarān near Sāri (called Tajineh in the text).
14 I have done my best with another confusing sentence.
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 285

al-Ṣafavi al-Musavi al-Ḥosayni Bahādor Khān, heir and viceregent to the Lord
of the Age, conqueror of Diyārbakr and Shirvān, killer of the Caliph of the era
and successor to Changiz Khān Shāhi Beg Khān the king of all Torkestān and
Khorāsān, says, ‘When we were planning to conquer Khorāsān, we told you to
raise an army and come to our royal court so that we could take care of Shāhi
Beg Khān; after that, we would grant you rule over all Māzandarān, after which
you would busy yourself with pleasure and luxury in your hereditary domains.
You responded by telling us that your hand was on the lap of Shāhi Beg Khān.
Since your hand did not reach his lap, here is the hand of Shāhi Beg Khān in
your own accursed lap!” He spoke these words and then stepped forward and
tossed Shāhi Beg Khān’s hand into Āqā Rostam’s lap.
When Āqā Rostam saw that hand, he picked it up and saw the ring with
Shāhi Beg Khān’s name engraved on it. Seeing this, he cried out and fell over
backward. Sohrāb Div and Kāmrān Div and the others rushed to Āqā Rostam to
see what was going on. Now a Shiʿi from Astarābād happened to be present; he
said to Mirzā Moḥammad, “What are you standing there for? You won’t get a
better opportunity now that the ‘Divs’ of Māzandarān have all gathered around
their king. Mount your mare and cross the river! If you make it out of here alive,
you will leave a name that the world will repeat forever!”
Mirzā Moḥammad said, “By the blessed head of the Shāh! Who does this
Māzandarāni think he is, talking to me this way?” But he realized that the man
was right, so he left Āqā Rostam’s court, went back to his mare, and got in the
saddle.
Now they had brought the horse of Sohrāb Div, who was leaving in a very
drunken state. Mirzā Moḥammad told his runner to mount that horse and fol-
low him. The runner mounted up and they proceeded into the water. The cur-
rent knocked over Sohrāb’s horse, but Mirzā Moḥammad grabbed the hand of
his runner and pulled him out of the water. Someone ran to tell Sohrāb, “The
Qezelbāsh envoy has crossed the river and escaped!”
He said to Alvand Div, “The king is not going anywhere; bring that envoy
back here! Should he get away alive, God forbid, people everywhere will say
that Āqā Rostam, the king of Māzandarān, was so lily-livered that as soon as he
saw the severed hand of Shāhi Beg Khān and heard Shaykh-oghli’s threats, he
went to pieces!”
Sohrāb Div went out to find a horse, but he was told, “That’s your horse, the
one the envoy’s runner rode into the water!” Since the road was within earshot,
Sohrāb Div shouted, “O you beard-shaving Qezelbāsh rascal! Stay where you
are, for here I come!”
286 Chapter 39

Mirzā Moḥammad said to his runner, “You go on ahead while I see what this
bunch is talking about.” The runner went ahead as Mirzā Moḥammad called
out, “O demon, what is your name?”
The reply came, “My name is Sohrāb Div. What trick have you pulled on Āqā
Rostam?”
Mirzā Muhamad said, “There were five hundred of you present at Āqā Ros-
tam’s court when he lost his nerve and died.”
They hurled insults back and forth for a while. Then Sohrāb Div turned
around to see the whole court lamenting loudly. He went to Alvand Div and
said, “That mare the Qezelbāsh was riding—no deer can catch it! Your horse
surely won’t!”
Mirzā Moḥammad called out, “Even if a hundred of you come, I won’t turn
away.”
Alvand Div said, “You go ahead; we have no quarrel with you. Since you have
shown valor, it would be a disgrace to kill you in an unmanly fashion.” Then
Sohrāb Div and Alvand Div went back and placed Āqā Moḥammad, the son of
Āqā Rostam, on the throne of Māzandarān.
Mirzā Moḥammad returned from Māzandarān to Astarābād, where Khwājeh
Moẓaffar received him and praised him, and after a few days he set off for Marv
with his equipment in tow and someone to accompany him.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil had taken his place on the throne of rule in Marv.
A post-carrier now arrived from Diyārbakr with a letter from Khān Moḥammad
Khān Ostājlu which read: “Since this least slave has had a dire illness, Solṭān
Salim, the son of Solṭān Bāyazid the Qayṣar of Rum, came to Diyārbakr without
his father’s leave and plundered the border regions. He carried off much of the
people’s property to Āmāsyeh. This slave was most afflicted, and Qarākhān,
too, suffered in the citadel of Qarāḥamid. But we were unable to pursue him.
God’s command is highest.”
When this letter had passed under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh, he said,
“If Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh had been here, I would have sent him as an envoy
to the Qayṣar of Rum. Now I want an experienced man to bring a letter to the
court of the Qayṣar, along with the head of Shāhi Beg Khān. Undaunted by the
Qayṣar’s majesty and power, he should toss the head of Shāhi Beg Khān into his
lap, then present my message to him and return with the reply.”
Khalil Āqā Ṣufi jumped up and said, “This old slave will undertake this mis-
sion.”
“You spent time as a prisoner of Shāhi Beg Khān and suffered greatly,” said
His Majesty. “I will send someone else.”
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 287

“Everything I suffer on the path of His Majesty will be a blessing,” insisted

Khalil Āqā. “I have my mind set on this mission; I ask the Shāh to distinguish
this old slave by granting it to him.”
Then Shāh Esmāʿil gave the head of Shāhi Beg Khān to Khalil Āqā in a box
full of Badakhshāni rubies taken from Shāhi Beg Khān’s treasury and said,
“When you have tossed Shāhi Beg Khān’s head into the Qayṣar’s lap, present
him with this jewel-box as a gift.”
Amir Najm II said, “You should really send the armlets of Shāhi Beg Khān.”
So His Majesty gave Khalil Āqā the armbands of Shāhi Beg Khān, which
were encrusted with eighteen diamonds and rubies and emeralds and en-
graved with the name of Changiz Khān, and each stone of which was worth the
income of an entire city. He also gave him a robe of honor. Khalil Āqā kissed
the royal foot and set off for Istanbul.
When he reached the shore at Üsküdar,15 word was brought to the Qayṣar
that an envoy had come from Shaykh-oghli. The Qayṣar ordered that he be
admitted to court.
Khalil Āqā crossed the water in a ship and was met by a group sent by the
Qayṣar, including someone meant to act as his host, who brought him to a pre-
determined place. The Qayṣar said to his grand vizier, “Do you have any idea
why Shaykh-oghli’s messenger has come?”
The grand vizier replied, “I asked, and he answered that he has brought a
letter for the Solṭān, and that he will leave once he has handed it over to the
Solṭān’s agents and taken the reply.”
The next day, the Qayṣar ordered the court to assemble. When all the Anato-
lian officials had taken their places, Khalil Āqā was summoned. He entered the
assembly, paid his respects, and produced the letter. Solṭān Bāyazid took it
with both hands and placed it on his knees out of respect.
Someone brought word to Solṭān Salim that the envoy had been admitted
into the court. Solṭān Salim came out and entered the assembly. All the Anato-
lian grandees rose and bowed before him as he went up to the throne and seat-
ed himself right next to his father. When Khalil Āqā saw him, his whole body
started to tremble; he looked upon this remarkable, ill-tempered youth and
realized that it was Solṭān Salim. He lowered his brow as his gesture of respect.
At this, Solṭān Salim again grew angry; he had expected prostration and sub-
mission, and he took Khalil Aqa’s contempt to heart. So he asked his father,
Solṭān Bāyazid, “What message has this heretic brought, and what does he
have in his lap?”
“I don’t know,” replied Solṭān Bāyazid.

15 A tentative suggestion for the text’s “Ashku.”

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“If he has brought a gift,” continued Solṭān Salim, “why hasn’t he given it to
one of the attendants?”
Khalil Āqā realized that he was the subject of Solṭān Salim’s conversation
with his father, and that Solṭān Salim wanted him to deliver his message before
he had even had a chance to sit down. So he said, “O Qayṣar of Rum, the Perfect
Guide and just king who relies on the Immaculate Emāms has sent a message
in his own words for me to present. If you grant permission, I will relate it.”
“Speak,” said the Qayṣar.
Khalil Āqā said, “My Perfect Guide says, ‘Convey my prayers to the Qayṣar of
Rum, Solṭān Bāyazid, and tell him that I, by the grace of the Lord of the world
and with the help of the Immaculate Emāms, emerged from Gilān with seven
Ṣufis and have now, by the favor of the Eternal God, conquered from the gates
of Balkh to the banks of the river Darnā with blows of my diamond-edged
sword. The scion of Changiz Khān, Shāhi Beg Khān, whose ignorance and pride
led him to talk grandiosely, placed the foot of loutishness on the field of brav-
ery, and now I have cut off his head, stuffed it full of straw, and sent it to you. If
you, too, do not leave the foot of loutishness wrapped in your skirt, but instead
mount the steed of arrogance and come to plunder our land, we will cut off
your head the way we did this one and send it to the Shāh of lofty mind with a
hundred ornaments.’”
Having said this, Khalil Āqā took the straw-filled head out from under his
skirt and tossed it into the lap of Solṭān Bāyazid. He added, “If His Majesty’s
sublime mind determines that anyone else is thinking about insubordination,
I will cut off that man’s head and send it to the emperor of China, and should
he cross us as well, we will free his head from the burden of his body and send
it to the king of Portugal! In short, tell your son Solṭān Salim that he should take
care not to show any more such discourtesy, for it is not good.” Then he took
out the casket containing Shāhi Beg Khān’s armbands and said, “My master
says that since the treasury of Shāhi Beg Khān has passed into the keeping of
our conquering house, we are sending a modest little trifle to you as a gift.”
As Khalil Āqā was speaking these harsh words, Solṭān Salim grew increas-
ingly irritated. Finally, he said, “O father, what sort of ill-mannered behavior is
this that this heretic of an emissary has committed here before us? He must be
killed!”
Solṭān Bāyazid replied, “O my son, this is no stain on our dignity. In fact, it
just goes to show the loftiness of our station that Shaykh-oghli is throwing at
our feet the head of Shāhi Beg Khān, ruler of all Torkestān. Why should we get
upset over it?”
The Victorious Royal Banners Come To Marv 289

Solṭān Salim said, “O father, if you give me permission, I will kill this emis-
sary, and if not, I will kill myself!” Seizing a golden battle-axe, he shouted at
Khalil Āqā, “Take this!” and raised his arm to bring down a blow.
Khalil Āqā said to himself, “If I just stand here, they will kill me.” So he drew
his sword just as the axe came down, striking it on the handle so hard that it
split in two. Then he said, “If I were not in the presence of Solṭān Bāyazid, I
would have struck you on the belt and split you in half like a ripe cucumber!”
Solṭān Salim, enraged, said to those assembled, “If you don’t kill this heretic,
I will kill all of you!” The Anatolians all got up from their seats and started for
Khalil Āqā. The elders knew that Solṭān Bāyazid did not approve of all this,
though, and they stayed their hands. The others, however, attacked Khalil Āqā.
He did not hold back, but killed twenty-four renowned Anatolian nobles with
blows of his sword.
No matter how much Solṭān Bāyazid tried to stop the fighting, it was no use.
At last, the Anatolians joined for a concerted attack on Khalil Āqā and killed
that manly Ṣufi, cutting him to pieces. They then turned to attack his atten-
dants, but Solṭān Bāyazid said, “You wanted to kill the emissary, and you have.
These, though, are his attendants; what fault have they committed? Besides
which, the emissary himself had not done anything wrong either, but just de-
livered his master’s message!”
When Khalil Āqā was killed, Solṭān Salim felt sorrow and remorse. Not
knowing what to do, he said, “O father, you are upset about the killing of the
emissary of Shaykh-oghli. Let me bring down on his head a disaster that people
will talk about for ages!” Then he wrote an order to be spread abroad, ordering
the army to assemble for battle with the Qezelbāsh.
290 Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns from Māzandarān and is Met by the

Shāh; Bārsil Khān, the King of Urgench, Comes to the Foot of the Royal
Throne with Ovays Mirzā and Bābor Pādeshāh; Amir Najm II Goes to
Torkestān

The world-conquering Shāh was seated on the throne of rule in Marv when
word arrived that Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh had returned from Māzandarān
and would come to kiss the royal foot the next day. So His Majesty ordered all
his great commanders to go out to greet him. These included Amir Najm II,
who had been ennobled with the post of viceregent with full independence to
make all financial and royal decisions1 and who wore the seal of plenipoten-
tiary power around his neck.
All the famous amirs welcomed Mirzā Moḥammad and accompanied him
into the presence of the Shāh, where he was ennobled by kissing the royal foot.
He related to the royal hearing what had happened on his journey to
Māzandarān and back, and when His Majesty heard how Āqā Rostam’s heart
had failed, he gave thanks to Almighty God and praised Mirzā Moḥammad,
bestowing various favors on him.
A few days later, His Majesty had just indicated his desire to go to Balkh
when Bārsil Khān, the ruler of Urgench, arrived and kissed the royal foot. Shāh
Esmāʿil treated him most kindly and asked him about things in that part of the
world. Bārsil Khān spoke thus: “I raised an army and set out from Balkh for
eastern lands. My uncle Sharif Ṣufi Pādeshāh headed for Samarqand in tandem
with Moḥammad Timur Khān. This least one went to eastern lands and struck
coins in the name of His Majesty the Shāh; I also pronounced the Twelver
khoṭbeh in the Friday mosque—but when word of this reached Sharif Ṣufi in
Samarqand, he took an army from Moḥammad Timur Khān and brought it
against me. Hearing that they were coming, I raised three thousand men from
the city and went out to greet them. When we met, I was quite submissive,
which may have been a mistake. He spoke of nothing but killing and binding
and then fixed his mind on war. Since I realized that my little army was no
match for his, I sent two thousand men to man the fortress and, full of hope,
brought a thousand men to kiss your royal foot. I promised my men twenty-five
days; if I do not come on the twenty-fifth day, they are to turn the city over to
Sharif Ṣufi and set themselves free.”

1 Reading the first va as an ezāfeh, thus sāheb(-e) koll-e ekhtiyār-e molki-o māli.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_041

Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 291

Shāh Esmāʿil appointed Amir Najm II commander, and he and Mirzā Mo­
ḥam­mad Ṭālesh and Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli gathered six thousand troops to
accompany Bārsil Khān to Urgench in order to punish Sharif Ṣufi and return
the city to Bārsil Khān. First, though, His Majesty spent three days with Bārsil
Khān in luxury and entertainment. On the fourth day Bārsil Khān, Amir Najm
II, and the other commanders kissed the royal foot and were given permission
to go.
Bārsil Khān and Amir Najm II left, and when they arrived at Urgench, Shar-
if Ṣufi had already launched an attack on the fortress. One of his spies brought
the news that Bārsil Khān was coming with a Qezelbāsh army. Sharif Ṣufi
thought it best to keep trying, thinking perhaps he could seize the citadel be-
fore the Qezelbāsh showed up. Just then the victorious Qezelbāsh warriors ar-
rived and hurled themselves against those twelve thousand Uzbeks of the
desert. The battle grew heated as many were killed and Sharif Ṣufi’s army head-
ed for defeat. Sharif Ṣufi himself came onto the battlefield, hoping to rouse his
troops to fight, but an arrow hit him out of nowhere and killed him. His men,
upon hearing this news, broke and fled in all directions. In the end, six thou-
sand Uzbeks were killed. Once more, thanks to the favor of Shāh Esmāʿil, Bārsil
Khān became ruler of Urgench, and after a few days, he brought out many
worthy gifts and sent them along to the exalted royal court with Amir Najm II
and his companions, who went and presented them to His Majesty.
The Shāh had it in mind to send his advance camp to Balkh, but word ar-
rived that Ovays Mirzā, the nephew of ʿOmar Shaykh Mirzā, king of Badakhshān,
was en route to the royal court.
Ovays Mirzā heard that Shāhi Beg Khān, who was the enemy of the house of
the Ṣāḥeb-Qerān,2 had been killed by one of the slaves of the Shāh at Marv.
He went to his uncle Bābor Pādeshāh and said, “Haven’t you gone to Shaykh-
oghli?”
Bābor replied, “I’m afraid that if I go to him, he will not pay the proper re-
spect.”
Ovays Mirzā said, “Well then, I’ll go. If he is properly respectful, I will inform
you that they can come to you, and if not, I will come myself.”
Ovays Mirzā left Kābol, and when he had gotten within four leagues of Marv,
he wrote a petition to Amir Najm II, which he sent with a messenger. When the
messenger got to Amir Najm, he read the message, which went thus: “I have
come to place my head in the dust in service to the Shāh. If I am accepted and
brought to his court, let me be exalted by kissing the royal foot.”

2 I.e., the descendants of Timur.

292 Chapter 40

Amir Najm was pleased at the fact that the descendants of Timur himself
were coming to him as refugees, and an affection for Ovays Mirzā quietly grew
in his heart. He went to the Shāh and related to him what had happened. His
Majesty was very pleased and said, “We must go greet him.”
“Although the scion of such a family is worthy of welcome by yourself, I will
go if you command it,” said Amir Najm.
The Shāh ordered him and the noble amirs to go welcome Ovays Mirzā, so
they all saddled up and left. After riding the distance of one league, they sent
some Qezelbāsh on ahead. When those Qezelbāsh reached Ovays Mirzā, he
saw Amir Najm in the distance, alone and sovereign, and thought he was the
Shāh himself. They told him Amir Najm II was the Shāh’s lieutenant, who had
been sent to greet him, and added, “Amir Najm has full freedom of action as
regards the king and army of Iran; one must conduct oneself with decorum
around him.” They were just saying this when Amir Najm arrived.
Ovays Mirzā quickly went forth and greeted him. Amir Najm said, “Wel-
come, welcome!” in return; he was pleased at Ovays Mirzā’s manners, and his
affection for him grew. When the two men approached each other, Ovays Mirzā
was about to dismount, but Amir Najm told him, “By the blessed head of the
Shāh, don’t dismount.”
Ovays Mirzā said, “I won’t, on the condition that you come forward and we
see one another as father and son.”
Amir Najm went forward and embraced Ovays Mirzā, and the two of them
went together to see the Shāh.
When Ovays Mirzā entered the paradise-like royal assembly, he bowed and
prostrated himself and kissed the royal foot. Shāh Esmāʿil was pleased with the
Mirzā’s knowledge of etiquette and gave him a seat near the royal throne. He
asked him about Bābor Pādeshāh, and Ovays Mirzā said, “He, too, will come to
the royal court in a few days.”
Amir Najm interjected, “Ovays Mirzā’s realm is Badakhshān, and in his en-
thusiasm to serve the Shāh, he has traversed many places on his journey to
come kiss the royal foot. Bābor Pādeshāh, on the other hand, is practically
around the corner, and he has yet to come! This prince’s loyalty to the slaves of
the Shāh is greater.” Amir Najm’s aim was to obtain some workshops and tents
for the Mirzā.
His Majesty asked, “You mean he has come with a sense of urgency?”
“By the blessed head of the Shāh, he has,” Amir Najm replied.
His Majesty then ordered that Ovays Mirzā be provided with workshops and
tents and whatever else was necessary. Then he said, “Ovays Mirzā, are you go-
ing to place a Qezelbāsh tāj on your head?”
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 293

“Is there anyone who does not place the crown of the Shāh’s fortune on his
head?” Ovays Mirzā replied.
“The tāj has much significance,”3 said the Shāh.
“I have accepted that significance in the presence of Amir Najm while on
the road.”
“It is true,” said Amir Najm. “The Mirzā is a faithful slave of the Commander
of the Faithful.”
So they brought a jeweled tāj for Ovays Mirzā, who, on a signal from Amir
Najm, bared his head so the Shāh could place the tāj there with his own blessed
hand. They also gave him a robe of honor. The Shāh’s blessed heart swelled
with indescribable affection for Ovays Mirzā. After bestowing favors upon him,
the Shāh released the Mirzā, who went and settled in a pavilion His Majesty
had presented him with.
The next day, Ovays Mirzā wrote a few words and sent someone to bring
them to Bābor Pādeshāh. The letter read: “When you receive this message,
come quickly! I wish I had come to the Shāh’s court earlier.”
When Ovays Mirzā’s message reached Bābor Pādeshāh, he immediately left
Kābol for Marv in full pomp and glory. News of his arrival was brought to Shāh
Esmāʿil, who sent Amir Najm II and all the eminent amirs out to welcome him.
They rode out, only to notice that Bābor Pādeshāh was puffed up with arro-
gance.
As Amir Najm came riding up, Bābor Pādeshāh asked, “Who is this man who
is coming with such authority?”
He was told, “It is Amir Najm II, the fully sovereign viceregent to His Ma­
jesty.”
“He is nothing more than a peasant!” said Bābor Pādeshāh.
When Amir Najm arrived and made his greeting, Bābor answered with con-
tempt. The reason for this was that he had expected Amir Najm to dismount
and kiss his hand or bow his head, but he had done none of these things and
had shown no respect. Anyway, the two of them went together to see His Maj-
esty.4 Bābor Pādeshāh bowed and prostrated himself, then stood up; at this,
Shāh Esmāʿil realized that Bābor Pādeshāh had his own authority and expecta-
tions. So he shifted a little on his throne and then sat down again. He treated
Bābor Pādeshāh with great kindness, then ordered that he be given a place
near the royal seat. Ovays Mirzā was placed in a rank below Bābor Pādeshāh’s—

3 I.e., as an indicator of one’s Shiʿism.

4 This meeting, and all subsequent ones between the two, are purely fictional; Bābor never met
Shāh Esmāʿil in person.
294 Chapter 40

but Amir Najm II gave him a signal to say, “O my son, don’t worry, I will elevate
you to the highest status.” That assembly passed in feasting and merriment.
The next day, Shāh Esmāʿil asked his amirs, “Do you think it is advisable to
give Bābor a Qezelbāsh tāj?”
They replied, “Let Ovays Mirzā ask him in confidence; if he says it is accept-
able, we should give him one.”
When Ovays Mirzā mentioned it to Bābor Pādeshāh, Bābor said, “Why
shouldn’t we place the crown of fortune on our head? It is up to the king.”
The next day, when all had gathered for an assembly, His Majesty ordered
that another crown be brought, and he lifted the crown from his own blessed
head and placed it on Bābor’s. Bābor prostrated himself and put the crown on
again. Shāh Esmāʿil was most pleased; he said, “If God Almighty wills it, we will
conquer all of Torkestān—including Samarqand, which was the capital of the
Ṣāḥeb-Qerān himself—and give it to you.” Then he commanded that the
camp-equipment be sent to Balkh.
When Jāni Beg got wind of this, he consulted with his sons on whether to
fight or flee. They said, “If we flee, where will we go? A man like Shāhi Beg Khān
took Balkh with a thousand difficulties and left it to us; how can we just let it go
for nothing?” In short, then, they decided to fight.
The Ṣafavid camp soon arrived at the foot of the citadel of Balkh. Jāni Beg
Solṭān emerged from the fortress with twenty thousand men, and when the
Shāh arrived with the rest of his sea-churning army, the ever-victorious
Qezelbāsh poured into the center of the Uzbek forces and the battle got under
way. On the first attack five or six thousand Uzbeks were killed. Jāni Beg, real-
izing he had lost, fled back to the fortress and set the gates fast, preparing to
withstand a siege.
Shāh Esmāʿil, flush with victory, dismounted at the foot of the citadel, and
the tents and tent-enclosure were erected. Jāni Beg Solṭān wrote letters to the
kings of Torkestān imploring them to come to his aid. ʿObayd Khān wrote back
saying, “You look to yourself and your own affairs; no help will come from us.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān also replied, “If you can fight, fight; if not, leave the
citadel and flee.”
When Jāni Beg received these replies, he held a consultation with his sons.
He said to them, “Since we have just fought with Shaykh-oghli, if we ask him for
quarter, who knows if he will give it? We must flee toward Torkestān.” So a
month later, they abandoned their possessions, placed their wives and chil-
dren on horseback, and left the citadel in the middle of the night on the road
to Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān.
The next day, the people of Balkh gathered offerings and, hanging their
swords around their necks, exited the citadel, and went to the royal encamp-
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 295

ment, where they presented to the royal hearing the news that Jāni Beg Solṭān
had fled. The Shāh ordered Durmesh Khān to go in pursuit. Then he recalled,
“We ourselves ordered that a defeated army should not be pursued; why should
we violate proper procedure?” So he regretted it. He then told Bayrām Khān, “I
am granting rule over Balkh to you.”
Bayrām Khān kissed the royal foot and entered the citadel, where he confis-
cated Jāni Beg Solṭān’s property and handed it over to the royal superinten-
dent; the property of the other Uzbeks he distributed among the Qezelbāsh.
Then he busied himself with governing the city.
Now Bābor Pādeshāh was thinking that the Qezelbāsh would conquer the
rest of Torkestān for him. Since Shāh Esmāʿil was the world-reflecting mirror,5
he ordered Amir Najm to take the military camp and set it up near Torkestān.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān sent someone to ʿObayd Khān to say,
“Come here; we need to come up with something, for behold, Shaykh-oghli is
coming.” ʿObayd Khān thus made the journey and entered Samarqand. At the
same time, someone had come on behalf of Jāni Beg Solṭān with this message:
“Today we have no land to call our own! If you provide us with one, that will be
best, but if you don’t, we will rise up in rebellion and come drag you out of Sa-
marqand.”
When he heard Jāni Beg Solṭān’s message, Moḥammad Timur Khān said to
ʿObayd Khān, “What will we do about this?”
Moql Khānom piped up, “I have an idea. You should hand over Tāshkand to
Jāni Beg Solṭān, and ʿObayd Khān should give him the region of Oṭrār. That way
he will be friends with you, and together you can take care of your common
enemy.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān accepted this counsel, and they
sent the keys to those two citadels along to Jāni Beg Solṭān. He, in turn, sent his
son Qarā Kaskan to Tāshkand, himself taking up residence in Oṭrār.
When they learned that Shāh Esmāʿil had promised all of Torkestān to Bābor
Pādeshāh and intended to come conquer it, Moḥammad Timur Khān and
ʿObayd Khān were astounded and sent someone to summon Jāni Beg Solṭān.
They were consulting on the subject of war with the Qezelbāsh when Moql
Khānom said, “I have a very good idea for you. Each of you must prepare lots of
gifts for Shaykh-oghli and write a petition to him, then send someone to en-
treat him, saying, ‘Since His Majesty the Shāh has killed Shāhi Beg Khān, it is a
fact that this entire region belongs to him, and that he will assign each of its
lands to one of his servants. We slaves, too, were and are among the servants of
His Majesty; we will strike coins and recite the Friday prayer in the blessed

5 And thus knew Bābor’s thoughts.

296 Chapter 40

name of the Twelve Emāms, and we will place the saddle-cloth of obedience to
the Shāh on our backs and serve him. Now based on the generosity inherent in
His Majesty’s blessed nature, we ask that he accept us as his slaves and not ex-
pel us from our hereditary lands, so that we might have gratitude in our hearts
for this greatest of gifts and strive in the path of obedience and servitude. His
command is above all others.’”
Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān and all the ātāliqs and elders
praised Moql Khānom for this advice, and they gathered together gifts as fol-
lows: Qerqez and Ḥeṣāri horses6 and Qerqez musk and Chinese tea7 and
Chinese [?]8 and zedoary9 and China rhubarb and sable pelts and Chinese
bows and Chinese satin and bangles10 and European rubies and Chinese and
Kalmyk slave-girls and many other wondrous gifts. They gathered these and
wrote a petition worded as described above. These they sent with some ātāliqs
to the royal court.
Meanwhile, the Shāh had ordered that a bridge be constructed so that the
Qezelbāsh might cross the Oxus. The engineers were busy doing this when the
ātāliqs arrived at the river. News of this was brought to the royal hearing, after
which the ātāliqs were admitted to the royal encampment and brought into
the presence of His Majesty, where they were dignified by kissing the royal
foot.
When the Torkestāni kings’ letters were read out, Shāh Esmāʿil was about to
say, “There is no peace between us; let them prepare for war!” when Amir Najm
noticed this and, ignoring Bābor Pādeshāh, said, “His Majesty should make
peace with the kings of Torkestān, for if he refuses reconciliation and sets his
mind on war, they will abandon their lands and run away, only to seize the op-
portunity to take back their hereditary dominions as soon as the royal army
goes back to Iran. If instead the kings of Torkestān hang the sword of obedi-
ence from their necks and pay taxes and tribute without any fighting or quar-
reling, then they will be known as servants of the Shāh. Peace will be better.
Afterwards, if they do not follow the straight road of obedience and service—if
there should appear any fault in their subservience—His Majesty can again
teach them a lesson and punish them.”
Amir Najm argued so convincingly that the Shāh decided to accept peace.
He allowed the gifts the ātāliqs had brought to be presented to him, and they
satisfied him. He said, “Even though I have not the slightest faith in the word of

6 This is a guess for the text’s araniyān.

7 Spelled chāhi in the text.
8 The text has t.t.r.v.y., which I have been unable to decipher.
9 māh-parvin: White turmeric, a kind of medicinal plant.
10 khalkhāl
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 297

the Uzbeks, if they plant their foot firmly in obedience to me, I will treat them
kindly as well. But if they try to cross the river Oxus again, I will order the
Qezelbāsh to annihilate them.”
The ātāliqs replied, “If any Uzbeks cross the Oxus with hostile intent, order
the Qezelbāsh to annihilate them; the blood of all the Uzbeks shall be lawful to
you.”
Then His Majesty released the ātāliqs and ordered that the royal camp-equi-
page be sent ahead to Khorāsān.
Bābor Pādeshāh, seeing that this development was taking shape due to
Amir Najm II’s inattention to him, said, “Your Majesty had promised all of
Torkestān to me, but the kings of Torkestān pulled this trick and you, with un-
characteristic charity, have granted them security. Even though the word of the
Shāh, as a scion of the Commander of the Faithful, is trustworthy, the word of
the Uzbeks won’t last a year. If His Majesty grants me authority to do so, I will
wage war on them as soon as they cross the river.”
It was therefore ordered that an edict be written thus: “Should the kings of
Torkestān ever deviate from their pledged word, the Shāh shall grant the region
of Torkestān from the Oxus to the desert of China to Bābor Pādeshāh the de-
scendant of the Ṣāḥeb-Qerān, and it shall belong to his attendants.” This edict
was handed to Bābor and he was permitted to leave for Kābol. Ovays Mirzā was
granted the title of Khān Mirzā and the province of Badakhshān, and he, too,
was dismissed. It was also decreed that he remain in the Shāh’s service, so a
delegate was appointed to Badakhshān in his place.
Then His Majesty set off for Khorāsān. When he reached a point three days’
journey from Harāt, he ordered that an edict be written to the elders and lead-
ers of Harāt regarding the good news of the approach of His Majesty and tell-
ing them to prepare provisions for the world-conquering royal army with a
welcome performed according to the customs of the time of Solṭān Ḥosayn
Bāyqarā. This edict was to be given to an experienced officer to deliver.
Amir Najm said to the Shāh, “I have a servant named Qolijān. He is experi-
enced and prudent. If you give him this task to perform, he will be able to ac-
complish it.”
“He must present himself for service,” His Majesty replied.
When Qolijān arrived, Shāh Esmāʿil asked him, “O Qolijān, are you a friend
to the Sunnis or an enemy?”
Qolijān responded, “Amir Najm knows how much I love the Sunnis!”
“His love for the Sunnis,” added Amir Najm, “is such that if he killed a thou-
sand of them a day every day, he wouldn’t hold back if even more showed up.”
So the royal edict was written and given to Qolijān, who took three men and
left for Harāt at a courier’s pace. When he got close to the city, he said to one of
298 Chapter 40

the locals, “Go to the city and tell the head watchman11 and the mayor12 and
the shaykholeslām13 and the local leaders14 that Qolijān, a servant of Amir
Najm II, has brought an edict from the world-conquering Shāh, and that they
should come out to receive it.”
That man went to the city and told this to the head watchman, the mayor,
the shaykholeslām, and the others. They all ignored it and remained inside the
city, saying, “Let some people from the bazaar go instead.”
Qolijān arrived at the city gate, only to see no one there. He asked people
what was going on, saying, “Didn’t someone come to the city two hours ago
bearing news?”
“Yes,” they replied. “A man came saying he had been sent by the servant of
Amir Najm II, Qolijān Beg, who was carrying an edict from the Shāh, and that
he was to give this news to the people of the city.”
Qolijān, realizing that people had indeed heard the news, entered the city
through a different gate. He made his way to the marketplace, where he saw
Pahlavān Moḥammad, the head watchman, sitting on a chair. Spurring his
horse forward, Qolijān said, “O watchman! Did no one come to you to tell you
to go out and greet one carrying a royal edict?”
Pahlavān Moḥammad replied, “Someone came, and we said some other
people should come. You certainly got here quickly.”
“At least get up and show me the way to the mosque,” said Qolijān.
Pahlavān Moḥammad got down from his seat with a contemptuous air.
Qolijān grabbed his sword and struck the man on the neck such that his head
flew off. He then told someone to mount the head on a stick and carry it before
him. When the people of Harāt saw what was going on, they gathered together
and followed him.
The mayor heard the news and came running to pay his respects. Qolijān
said to him, “O Sunni, why did you not come out to receive the royal edict?”
The mayor was so terrified he was unable to answer. The crowd pushed him
forward, and when they entered the mosque, Qolijān said, “Make a proclama-
tion throughout the city saying, ‘Woe to any of the local leaders and the
shaykholeslām and the shaykhs who do not present themselves at the mosque
right now!’”
When all the people of Harāt had come to the mosque, Qolijān commanded
that they strew gold before the royal edict, which was then read out to them.

11 aḥdās
12 kalāntar
13 Title of a high religious official.
14 kadkhodāyān
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 299

He then ordered that the khoṭbeh as well be pronounced in the name of Shāh
Esmāʿil. This was done. Then he said, “You must also curse the first three Ca-
liphs and the enemies of the faith and the state.” The judge and preacher re-
fused, and both of them were immediately executed. A murmur arose from the
crowd. Qolijān then said to the mayor, “If you want me to overlook your of-
fense, you must curse the first three Caliphs.”
“What did he just say?” the mayor exclaimed.
So he, too, was killed. Qolijān now said to the shaykholeslām, “I will not for-
give you until you curse the heresy of the first three Caliphs.” After much be-
seeching, the man decided to bring five thousand tumāns as a gift to encourage
forgiveness. When the money had been presented, though, Qolijān struck the
shaykholeslām on the neck with his sword and killed him. Then Qolijān said, “I
will give one tumān to every man who curses the first three Caliphs.”
The city’s Shiʿis got word of this and started cursing the first three Caliphs.
Each one received one tumān. When he had given all five thousand tumāns
away, Qolijān said, “Let them prepare the city for a welcome such as was done
in the days of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā—no, an even better one!”
Over the next three days they prepared the city. During those few days,
Qolijān killed a number of Sunni leaders with his own hands, and the terrified
people of the city loudly cursed the first three Caliphs. They were so frightened
of Qolijān that they went to pieces whenever they saw him.
In short, they prepared the city to welcome the Shāh and laid out carpets for
him. On the fifth day after Qolijān’s arrival, His Majesty arrived outside the city
in pomp and glory. When he heard of this, Qolijān gathered all the people of
the city and surrounding neighborhoods15 into groups and brought them out
to greet Shāh Esmāʿil. Qolijān approached and prostrated himself before his
Shāh. Seeing so many people performing ceremonies, His Majesty praised
Qolijān Beg. Then the nobles of Harāt and selected children came to greet him,
reciting suitable poetry, while in the middle of the road people formed groups
in which they danced and sang. It all made for an amazing hubbub. All this
pleased the Shāh’s royal nature; he said, “We had heard about how elegantly
Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā used to enter the city, but the people of Harāt, God
bless them, had outdone themselves this time.”
The people of Harāt sang the Shāh’s praises this way: “May God and
Moḥammad and ʿAli and his eleven heirs protect the Pādeshāh, shelter of the
world.”
Qolijān Beg told Amir Najm how he had treated the people of the city. Amir
Najm straightaway went to the Shāh and said, “Most of these people are

15 bolukāt
300 Chapter 40

Sunnis; they are praising you thus because Qolijān told them to.” And he relat-
ed all of what Qolijān had told him. Shāh Esmāʿil laughed and called for
Qolijān, saying, “Tell me what happened.” Qolijān came forward and explained
everything. His Majesty smiled and said, “You did a wondrous thing, killing the
shayk­holeslām and giving his gold to the Shiʿis. I am giving his property to you.”
Qolijān said, “It will be better if his sons convert to Shiʿism and His Majesty
shows them favor. Otherwise the Sunnis will say, ‘The Qezelbāsh find excuses
to kill us just to get money.’”
At this Shāh Esmāʿil was most pleased, and he gave five hundred tumāns to
Qolijān as a gift. After that, the nobles of Harāt kissed the ground before the
Shāh.
His Majesty then went into the buildings of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā, reciting
the Fāteḥeh for the Solṭān’s soul. He found the buildings pleasingly ornate, and
he realized that Solṭān Ḥosayn was a man of excellent character. Then he de-
cided to spend the winter in Harāt and depart on the first day of spring.
Shortly thereafter, Khān Mirzā received a message from Badakhshān that
said, “Qarā Kaskan Bahādor, the son of Jāni Beg Solṭān, has set out from
Tāshkand and seized Badakhshān from your men there!” Shocked, Khān Mirzā
went to Amir Najm. The latter, seeing him so distraught, asked him what the
matter was. Khān Mirzā told him about Badakhshān. Amir Najm said, “O my
son, this is nothing to get worked up over. This very hour I will ask His Majesty
to write to Bayrām Khān, the governor of Balkh, telling him to seize back
Badakhshān as well as Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān for your men.”
Khān Mirzā was reassured, and the two sat down to converse. After an hour,
Amir Najm II went to the Shāh and explained the situation in Badakhshān. It
was then ordered that a royal letter be composed to Bayrām Khān Qarāmānlu
ordering him to take Badakhshān and Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān from Kaskan Bahādor
by force and turn them over to the representatives of Khān Mirzā, after which
he was to report to the royal court so that the Shāh could send along Khān
Mirzā himself.
When Bayrām Khān received these orders, he dispatched his son-in-law Āqā
Moḥammad Shirāzi to Badakhshān along with five thousand men. After much
fighting, they captured the city, and Kaskan Bahādor fled. Badakhshān was
turned over to Khān Mirzā’s men, and Bayrām Khān wrote a report to the Shāh.
Between the Shāh’s orders and Bayrām Khān’s report, it had taken forty days to
recapture Badakhshān.
When Bayrām Khān’s report reached the royal court, Shāh Esmāʿil dismissed
Khān Mirzā, presenting him with a robe of honor, a horse with a jeweled sad-
dle, and a Qezelbāsh tāj and turban before sending him on his way.
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 301

Soon afterwards, Bābor Pādeshāh wrote a petition to His Majesty which

said: “Since the faithless and perfidious Uzbek kings have dared to seize
Badakhshān from Khān Mirzā, who is attached to the royal court, they have
become a threat. I ask that His Majesty send a few Qezelbāsh troops to this
least of his slaves while I raise some Chaghatāy troops of my own. Then, by the
favor of the world-conquering Shāh and the might of the Khaybar-seizing arm
of the Commander of the Faithful, I shall cleanse Torkestān of the stain of the
perfidious Uzbeks and return that region to the representatives of your con-
quering House. Let it be clear to the kings of Torkestān how much generosity
and kindness His Majesty has shown to his enemies up until now, and that the
attendants of the court which is the refuge of all Creation can also take their
lands by force.”
When Shāh Esmāʿil read this petition, he ordered ʿAli Shokr Beg the Bahārlu
Torkmān and Zaynal Khān Shāmlu and Moḥammad Solṭān Ṣufi-oghli to take
five thousand men and go join Bayrām Khān in Balkh. From there Bayrām
Khān was to take command of his army, join it to Bābor Pādeshāh’s, and head
for Bokhārā and Samarqand, handing over to Bābor Pādeshāh all the regions of
Torkestān that they conquered and returning home when Bābor Pādeshāh re-
leased him.
Accordingly, the Qezelbāsh troops left for Balkh. Bābor Pādeshāh headed
there as well with twenty thousand Chaghatāy soldiers. A few days after the
two armies entered Balkh, they set off for Torkestān and crossed the Oxus.
They conquered Shavarqān16 after much fighting, and after killing and plun-
dering, they continued on with the intention of conquering Torkestān.
When ʿObayd Khān and Moḥammad Timur Khān got word that Bābor
Pādeshāh and the majestic Qezelbāsh army had seized and plundered
Shavarqān and were en route to Samarqand, the two men were stunned. They
gathered their men and summoned Jāni Beg Solṭān.
Bābor Pādeshāh said, “Samarqand must be conquered, and Bokhārā shall be
ours as well.”
After seizing two or three more towns, they headed in the direction of Sa-
marqand. When they got near, the kings of Torkestān were encamped outside
the city with sixty thousand men, right in front of the Qezelbāsh-Chaghatāy
army.
The following day, when the troops on both sides had been arrayed, Bayrām
Khān told the Qezelbāsh, “Never mind the Chaghatāy soldiers—fight on your
own!” The Chaghatāy army took this hard, and when the battle got under way,
they didn’t budge. Bayrām Khān and the Qezelbāsh threw themselves at the

16 Sheberghān, Afghanistan.
302 Chapter 40

Uzbeks with no support and were overwhelmed. Bābor Pādeshāh said to his
men, “O friends, why are you standing there? Get into the battle!”
They replied, “The Qezelbāsh ignored us and went off to fight. Wherever
they go, they want to stand out and to make a great name for themselves. Well,
now they are on the battlefield. If they win, so much the better, and if they are
defeated, we will go out and take the victory.”
No matter how much Bābor Pādeshāh told them to get out and fight, no one
listened to him and no one moved a muscle. Finally, Bābor Pādeshāh himself
saw no choice but to spur his horse and sally forth. Khwājeh Dustam Bahādor
the ātāliq followed him with ten thousand Chaghatāy troops to attack the Uz-
beks. Bayrām Khān and the Qezelbāsh, with cries of manliness, kept on strik-
ing and wounding and killing the foe.
Only two hours were left in the day when the Uzbeks were defeated and the
kings of Torkestān chose flight and ran from the battlefield. The Qezelbāsh had
killed ten or twelve thousand Uzbeks. Bayrām Khān triumphantly seized all
the fugitive kings’ property, and he and Bābor Pādeshāh set off for Samarqand,
where the nobles of the city came out to greet them with prayers and praise.
They entered the citadel and went to the mosque, where the khoṭbeh was pro-
nounced in the blessed name of Shāh Esmāʿil. Coins were also ordered struck
in his name.
Bābor Pādeshāh said, “O people of Samarqand, know that I am the viceroy
and deputy of the Shāh of Iran in this kingdom.” To Bayrām Khān he said,
“Command that a royal edict issued on the subject of my rule be read out so
that the people know that I am the agent of His Majesty.” This was done, after
which Bābor Pādeshāh took the edict, touched it to his head, and sat on the
throne of Moḥammad Timur Khān.
Now Bayrām Khān’s plan was to take the Qezelbāsh army and head to
Tāshkand, but Bābor Pādeshāh said, “Don’t go to the trouble; after this blow,
the Uzbeks will clear out of both Tāshkand and Bokhārā.”
Shortly thereafter, a petition arrived from the people of Bokhārā which said
that ʿObayd Khān and Moḥammad Timur Khān, fearing the Qezelbāsh, had
fled in the direction of the steppe of Baghlān, leaving Bokhārā vacant; the peti-
tion thus requested that someone be sent to take over the government there.
So Bābor Pādeshāh sent Mahdi Khwājeh, his divānbegi,17 to Bokhārā along
with two thousand Chaghatāy troops. To make a long story short, in every place
from the edge of the Qepchāq steppe to the shore of the Oxus River, all the
Uzbek rulers were overcome by fear of the sea-churning army of the Qezelbāsh

17 A high-ranking official, akin to a minister of justice.

Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 303

and abandoned their lands, fleeing to far-off places. All the people of that re-
gion turned to Bābor Pādeshāh, who appointed people to rule them.
Two months later, some arguments broke out between the Qezelbāsh and
the Chaghatāy, who could brook the presence of the Qezelbāsh no longer.
Bābor Pādeshāh had no choice but to tell Bayrām Khān, “Thanks to the blessed
favor of the Shāh and your own efforts, this region has come under my rule.
God forbid that His Majesty should have to wait for the Qezelbāsh to come
home, or that he should think that I am holding you here out of greed. You
need to take the Qezelbāsh back to his court.”
Bayrām Khān, Zaynal Khān, and ʿAli Shokr Beg Torkmān replied, “The kings
of Torkestān have not yet found themselves a place to settle, and no one knows
what they have in mind. You yourself are not yet completely established in this
region, and the Uzbek army and people are not to be trusted. We need to stay
here for another year, until the kings of Torkestān settle somewhere. Then you
can send us back.”
But since the mint of fate had not struck the coin of rulership over Torkestān
in his name, and since the star of his fortune was Saturn, Bābor acted unwisely.
No matter how much the Qezelbāsh officers pressed him, he would not con-
sent, and he sent them and their troops home. He gave Bayrām Khān and the
amirs much treasure, and every one of the Qezelbāsh was also well taken care
of. He also prepared gifts for His Majesty the Shāh, including slave-boys and
slave-girls and fine textiles and jewels and gold coins and more. The great amirs
he provided with appropriate gifts. Then, praising Bayrām Khān highly, he sent
them all away.
They headed for Khorāsān. Bayrām Khān stopped in Balkh, whence he sent
Zaynal Khān and ʿAli Shokr Beg and Moḥammad Solṭān Ṣufi-oghli along with
the Qezelbāsh army to the Shāh’s court. There they presented Bābor Pādeshāh’s
petition and gifts. His Majesty asked what had happened, and when they told
him, he prostrated himself in thanks, weeping and praying to the divine Judge
of Needs: “O God, all this is due to your favor and power and kindness; other-
wise how could the Qezelbāsh have conquered all of Torkestān with only five
thousand men?” Then, some time later, he left for Astarābād in pomp and
glory.
Meanwhile, ʿObayd Khān had fled with his harem to the edge of the steppe
of Baghlān. He was distraught and confused. He wrote a petition to Qāsem
Khān, the lord of the steppe of Baghlān, describing his defeat and distress.
Qāsem Khān wrote back saying, “Stay there. In the summer, your plea will be
considered.”
When ʿObayd Khān heard that Bābor Pādeshāh had dismissed the Qezelbāsh
and that they had gone to Khorāsān, he immediately took five thousand men
304 Chapter 40

and attacked Bokhārā. He plundered the surrounding region, then went back
to the desert. Mahdi Khwājeh brought this news to Bābor Pādeshāh. Since he
had not yet gotten settled in in Torkestān, Bābor took three thousand men and
marched off in haste to Bokhārā. When they arrived there, they asked about
ʿObayd Khān and were told that he was thirty leagues away.
Bābor took his three thousand men and went out to fight him. The two
armies faced off against each other, and ʿObayd Khān’s five thousand well-
armed men launched themselves at the enemy. This time the Chaghatāy forces
used the fighting skills they had withheld from the Qezelbāsh; they fought
against the Uzbeks extremely well and defeated them. ʿObayd Khān took his
army and fled as Bābor Pādeshāh heedlessly gave pursuit.
When the chase had gone on for three stations’ distance, ʿObayd Khān said,
“We’ve gotten ourselves killed for nothing; we don’t have the strength to run
any more, and these people won’t even allow us the opportunity to eat any-
thing. You would think they learned this behavior from the Qezelbāsh!” He
then sent someone to Bābor Pādeshāh to say, “We have no quarrel with you;
what do you want from us? It’s as if it’s written on the tablet of fate that calam-
ity goes along with the descendants of Shaykh Ṣafi, and there’s no getting away
from the decree of fate. Now leave us alone and let us go off somewhere.”
Bābor Pādeshāh replied to the messenger, “Tell ʿObayd Khān that I’m not
leaving until I have his head.”
When ʿObayd Khān heard this, he said, “Henceforth life is of no account; we
must wage war with no thought of survival.” But out of his five thousand men,
two thousand had gone to wait in a certain ditch. He sent two thousand others
to face the Chaghatāy army and ordered them to fight and, if the battle went
badly, to flee to that ditch until he and the thousand men with him could join
them and perhaps find a way out.
The troops were arrayed once more and crashed into each other yet again.
The Uzbeks were unable to resist and turned to flee. Bābor Pādeshāh, who usu-
ally went onto the battlefield himself, this day instead remained motionless by
the battle-standard; it was as if he had had a premonition. When ʿObayd Khān
saw his men fleeing, he came out of his hiding place all at once like the hour of
doom and charged toward Bābor Pādeshāh. Bābor saw ʿObayd Khān coming
with a thousand men and fought as bravely as he could with his own four hun-
dred. A second and third and fourth attack were mounted, and Bābor’s men
killed a hundred of ʿObayd Khān’s each time. The Chaghatāy army killed a
great many Uzbeks on that battlefield, cutting off their heads and bringing
them to Bābor Pādeshāh. Not seeing him anywhere, though, they turned and
went in the other direction.
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 305

His army having fled, ʿObayd Khān hit himself on the head with both hands
and said, “O friends, what a disaster these Qezelbāsh are! And the Chaghatāy,
who were so reluctant to fight when they were among you, have withheld so
much fighting skill and bravery from you!” Then he, too, fled.
Bābor Pādeshāh took the reins and gave pursuit. As he did, he fell from his
horse and badly injured his foot. Hearing of this, ʿObayd Khān took sixty men
and rushed back to kill him. They attacked as Bābor was being put back in the
saddle and killed a number of Chaghatāy. Bābor was trapped.
Just then, though, two thousand Chaghatāy arrived, each of whom was car-
rying the severed head of an Uzbek. ʿObayd Khān cried, “You see, we are done
for!” and figured it was time to lower his battle-standard. When the Chaghatāy
soldiers saw ʿObayd Khān’s battle-standard turn upside-down, Bābor was in
the rear due to his injury. The Chaghatāy now turned to attack ʿObayd Khān.
He had lodged himself in a narrow defile and was killing one by one the sol-
diers who came toward him. When they realized that a thousand of their men
had been killed, the Chaghatāy decided to turn and leave.
When word of this reached Bābor Pādeshāh, he decided to retreat as well,
and he took a thousand wounded men back to Bokhārā. Most of the rest of his
men headed for Samarqand. When he reached the outskirts of Bokhārā, the
Chaghatāy soldiers said, “You need to go to Samarqand, for ʿObayd Khān has
entered the citadel of Bokhārā and killed Mahdi Khwājeh the ātāliq. He has
also sent someone to the fortress of Qarālān, looking to raise his own army and
bring it to Samarqand.” Bābor realized that it would be fruitless to go to Samar-
qand. Moḥammad Timur Khān, meanwhile, arrived in Samarqand, then sent
someone to Jāni Beg Solṭān telling him to go to Oṭrār and send Qarā Kaskan to
Tāshkand. Thus it was that each of the Uzbek kings reconquered his kingdom.
Now a year previously, when Bābor Pādeshāh and the Qezelbāsh command-
ers had subjugated Torkestān together and they had entrusted it to him, he had
sent gifts along with them to the major-domo of the palace. When the Shāh
saw the gifts, he ordered that a tāj and jeweled turban, along with a jeweled
saddle and horse-trappings as well as a jeweled belt and dagger and a diamond-
like battle-axe which Solṭān Bāyazid had sent as a gift, all be set aside for Bābor
Pādeshāh. The value of all these things was 54,000 tumāns. His Majesty told
Amir Najm II, “I am giving these gifts to you; you give them to someone you
trust and tell that person to bring them to Bābor Pādeshāh.”
Amir Najm replied, “Bābor Pādeshāh is not of such a rank that I should go
myself; if it is so ordered, I will send Qolijān in my stead, and whatever Bābor
Pādeshāh gives in gratitude, I will let Qolijān keep it, for he suffered and toiled
much during the Torkestān campaign.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “I leave it to your favor; give it to whomever you wish.”
306 Chapter 40

So Qolijān borrowed two thousand tumāns, gathered his provisions and at-
tendants, and set off for Torkestān. When he was three days’ journey from Sa-
marqand, he sent word to Bābor announcing his arrival. Bābor, wearing a tāj
and robe of honor, came out three leagues’ distance to welcome him. They
entered Samarqand together, and Bābor treated Qolijān as an honored guest.
A month later, Qolijān went to Bābor Pādeshāh and requested permission to
leave. Realizing that he was in the employ of Amir Najm, Bābor wanted to sup-
ply him, and he ordered that Qolijān Beg be given a thousand tumāns. Qolijān
refused to accept it and instead supplied himself by borrowing from the city’s
tradesmen. He set off for Balkh, where he met with Bayrām Khān and ex-
plained what he was doing. Bayrām Khān gave him five hundred tumāns and
sent him on his way.
Finally, Qolijān came back to Amir Najm and told him everything that had
happened. Amir Najm was displeased at Bābor Pādeshāh’s way of doing things,
and hostility towards him began to grow in his heart.
A year later, after Bābor Pādeshāh had lost the battle for Torkestān and fled,
upon reaching Kābol he sent a petition to Shāh Esmāʿil which said: “Since emi-
nent kings lift up their inferiors and do not throw them down again, and since
this least one has, out of carelessness and thoughtlessness, let Torkestān slip
out of my hands, it would not be far from His Majesty’s favors and goodness
and generosity to command that a servant of the celestial court come here
with a mighty army to seize this region once more—by the favor of His Maj-
esty and the aid of the Twelve Emāms (peace be upon them)—and entrust it
to this slave.”
When he read this, Shāh Esmāʿil boiled with anger.18 He dictated a response
which read, “May it not be hidden from the fraternal mind of Bābor Pādeshāh
that your letter has arrived and its contents have been understood. Do not be
perturbed; God willing, on the first day of spring our highest-ranking com-
mander will set off for Balkh at the head of an army like doomsday. His orders
will be to send the Uzbeks from the steppes of Qepchāq and Cathay19 and
Khotan to the steppes of annihilation, to level that region to the ground, and,
having conquered it, to entrust it to your representatives and return home. You
raise an army and get to Balkh so that they can head for Torkestān in your ser-
vice.”
When he received this letter, Bābor Pādeshāh was delighted. Meanwhile,
Shāh Esmāʿil said to Amir Najm II, “I am giving you command over this cam-
paign. Go to Torkestān with Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh

18 At the Uzbeks, it would seem.

19 kheṭā
Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh Returns From Māzandarān 307

and Valijān Solṭān Afshār and Zaynal Khān Shāmlu and Bayrām Khān
Qarāmānlu the governor of Balkh and and Moḥammad Solṭān Ṣufi-oghli and
Mirzā Moḥammad Solṭān the son-in-law of Bayrām Khān and Shaykh
Shāhaboddin and Mir Sharafoddin Ṣadr at the head of twelve thousand
Qezelbāsh and, from the shore of the Oxus to the steppes of Qepchāq and
Baghlān, cut off the head of any king or governor who even thinks of insubor-
dination. Conquer and subjugate the entire region, then hand it over to Bābor
Pādeshāh. Do whatever you think is required, for no excuses will be accepted.”
Amir Najm replied, “Since His Majesty has given this task to his servant, I
will establish for him in Torkestān such fame that people will talk about him
for years. But if the Qezelbāsh undertake all the struggle and hard work to con-
quer the region, why must we then hand it over?”
“We have granted rule over Torkestān to Bābor Pādeshāh to leave a mark on
the face of time,” Shāh Esmāʿil said, “for a good name is a boon to the world.” He
then recited the verse: “‘I need fame, for my body belongs to Death.’”20
Again Amir Najm spoke. “Bābor Pādeshāh is incompetent.21 Several times
he has lost control over Torkestān out of foolishness. If you so command it, I
will give rule over Torkestān to Khān Mirzā.”
The Shāh was silent, then said, “Give Samarqand and Bokhārā to Bābor, and
let us see how it turns out.”
“I will give rule to whomever I deem worthy of it,” said Amir Najm, and His
Majesty agreed to this.

20 From Ferdawsi’s Shāhnāmeh (the battle between Rostam and Esfandiyār).

21 Literally: crazy (divāneh).
308 Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Amir Najm II and His Commanders Head for Torkestān, and Bābor
Pādeshāh Comes to Balkh

Amir Najm, noting the state of the Qezelbāsh’s provisions, distributed several
years’ worth of salaries as well as gifts. He prepared such an army that anyone
who saw it would have said, “If Amir Najm doesn’t conquer China itself with
this army, it’s his own fault.” When everything was ready, at an auspicious hour
Amir Najm and the Qezelbāsh commanders kissed the royal foot, after which
the Shāh gave out commissions and sent the army on its way from Harāt to-
ward Balkh. When Bayrām Khān learned that they were on the outskirts of that
city, he went out to greet them at the head of his own army. He prostrated him-
self before Amir Najm, who embraced him. Together they entered Balkh, where
Bayrām Khān provided abundant hospitality and service.
Bābor Pādeshāh, hearing that Amir Najm had reached Balkh with such an
army, raised an army of fifteen thousand Chaghatāy and headed there himself.
When he got within one league of the city, the people came out to greet him,
and when he approached the city gate, Amir Najm and a group of Qezelbāsh
mounted up and rode out as well.
When they met, Amir Najm refused to acknowledge Bābor Pādeshāh. Bābor
Pādeshāh couldn’t do anything about it, though, since he knew the reason
Amir Najm had come was to conquer Torkestān and give it back to him. He
greeted Amir Najm and received a reply. Amir Najm, too, was duty-bound; he
dismounted, as did Bābor Pādeshāh, and they embraced each other, acting as
if the obvious enmity between them did not exist. Then they mounted up
again and entered Balkh, where they engaged in conversation.
Two or three days later word came that Khān Mirzā was coming. Amir Najm
rode out five or six leagues to greet him. Seeing him from afar, Khān Mirzā dis-
mounted; when he got closer, Amir Najm did as well, and they embraced each
other. After some conversation and affection, they entered Balkh together,
where they busied themselves with pleasure and enjoyment.
Two days later Amir Najm said, “I want someone to volunteer to be the van-
guard for this expedition.” Bābor Pādeshāh was alarmed and said to himself,
“God forbid he should give the vanguard to Khān Mirzā, for it is the mark of
rulership over Torkestān!” He said to Amir Najm, “Take my ātāliq Khwājeh
Kalān as vanguard for this expedition.”
Amir Najm replied, “On the condition that he be executed if he is defeated
or flees.”

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Amir Najm Ii And His Commanders Head For Torkestān 309

“Agreed,” said Bābor Pādeshāh. He gave five thousand men to Khwājeh

Kalān and sent him on. He got to the shore of the Oxus, but finding no bridge
there, he continued along the road to Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān.
Now when Hādi Khwājeh got the news that Amir Najm was coming to
Torkestān and had sent a vanguard to Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān, he said to his ātāliq,
“We must frighten off this army before they arrive. You hold the fort; I will lead
a night-raid on these people.”
The ātāliq said, “I will come as well.”
They raised an army of three thousand men and set out from the citadel.
Hādi Khwājeh took two thousand men and went in one direction, while the
ātāliq went with a thousand men in the direction of the sunset. After going
four leagues, they encountered Khwājeh Kalān. The ātāliq sent someone to
Khwājeh Kalān to say, “Night is near, and tomorrow we will fight. Tonight,
though, be at ease.”
Khwājeh Kalān believed this; he said, “A thousand men have come to fight
us.” He then went to within one league of the citadel and made camp. The
ātāliq took his thousand men and came to the foot of the citadel. Khwājeh
Kalān sent a lookout to the citadel while he himself slept on the bed of tran-
quility. Hādi Khwājeh then took his men and fell upon the Chaghatāy army in
the middle of the night, hacking and slashing. Two thousand of the Chaghatāy
soldiers had been killed by the time Khwājeh Kalān even realized what was
happening. Overwhelmed, he fled, and Hādi Khwājeh took his supplies and
tents into the citadel.
Amir Najm was four leagues away from Ḥeṣār when he learned of the defeat
of his vanguard and the flight of Khwājeh Kalān. He seethed with displeasure.
He sent for Khwājeh Kalān, who was Bābor Pādeshāh’s ātāliq, and said to Bābor
Pādeshāh: “Yesterday I was about to appoint a Qezelbāsh, but you spoke up in
the midst of all these officers and I didn’t want to reject your proposal. Obvi-
ously you have no mettle! If the Qezelbāsh had failed this badly, I would have
cut off all their noses and ears, but you are still allowing this man to live?” Just
then they brought in Khwājeh Kalān. Amir Najm berated him, then ordered
that he be paraded through the camp on a camel with his belly slit open as a
lesson to the others.
When they took Khwājeh Kalān outside to mutilate him, Bābor Pādeshāh
said to everyone, “Plead that Khān Mirzā and the Qezelbāsh commanders rise
up and intercede!” Amir Najm then said, “Since the Khwājeh is the ātāliq of
Bābor Pādeshāh and you are interceding for him, I pardon him for you and
Bābor. But don’t let anyone get any ideas, for I swear by the blessed head of the
Perfect Guide that from now on I will kill anyone who loses or flees a battle.
Bābor Pādeshāh’s men lacked merit and could not get the job done.” Then he
310 Chapter 41

said to Zaynal Khān, “I am making you leader of the vanguard. But don’t do
what the Chaghatāy did, or I will have you mutilated.”
Zaynal Khān gathered two thousand men and set off. When he reached
Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān, he saw that the Uzbeks had hung the heads of the defeated
Chaghatāy soldiers on the tower of the citadel and shut the gate fast. The Uz-
beks themselves were holed up in the towers. Zaynal Khān dismounted and
made camp right there. Soon Amir Najm arrived with the amirs and the
Qezelbāsh army, and when he saw the Chaghatāy heads, he said to Bābor
Pādeshāh, “Doesn’t it burn your heart to see how these people have strung up
the heads of your men on the towers?”
“The business of war is sometimes defeat and sometimes victory,” Bābor re-
plied.
Amir Najm ordered the Qezelbāsh and others to attack the citadel. The situ-
ation of the besieged became difficult, and no matter how Hādi Khwājeh1
fought, it was no use. Finally, he had no choice but to send someone to Amir
Najm to ask for quarter. Amir Najm ordered his men to stop fighting, and Hādi
Khwājeh and his ātāliqs and elders came out to him with their swords hanging
around their necks.
Amir Najm told them to lay their swords down and stand there. He said to
Hādi Khwājeh, “What did the Chaghatāy do wrong that you killed two thou-
sand of them and hung their heads on the towers?”
Hādi Khwājeh replied, “That’s how war is. A mistake was made.”
“Are you saying it was your fault?” asked Amir Najm.
“Yes.”
Amir Najm said, “Since you admit it, let your head be cut off!” This was done.
Then he said to the ātāliq, “You dotard! Hādi Khwājeh was ignorant and had
heard little of such things from you, who were supposed to advise him. Why
didn’t you stop him?” And he ordered that the ātāliq be executed, along with
nine thousand Uzbeks who were in the citadel.
A disaster was becoming apparent, and the people of the city were beside
themselves, thinking that Amir Najm would order a general massacre. So they
gathered twelve thousand tumāns of gold and came out of the city in welcome,
saying, “We, the population, are not at fault. We have brought you this money
to convey our good will.”

1 At this point in the text, the narrator suddenly starts referring to this individual as Hādi Solṭān.
I have changed these to Hādi Khwājeh for the sake of consistency with the previous
paragraphs.
Amir Najm Ii And His Commanders Head For Torkestān 311

“I pardon you,” said Amir Najm, “but from now on, if it becomes apparent
that the populace is in cahoots with the army, no matter what fortress they are
in, I will massacre that population, divide up the property of the Uzbek sol-
diers, and distribute it among the Qezelbāsh.” Then he said to Khān Mirzā,
“Badakhshān is nearby, but the income from Badakhshān will not suffice for
you, so I am adding this region to contribute to your expenses.” After that, hav-
ing entrusted all of Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān to Khān Mirzā, he said to Bayrām Khān,
“I am naming you head of the vanguard.”
Bayrām Khān asked, “By what road do you order us to proceed?”
“I have no information about the roads,” answered Amir Najm. “How many
are there?”
The amirs said, “Bābor Pādeshāh knows these roads better. We should go on
the one he advises taking.”
Bābor Pādeshāh then said, “One road goes east, which requires one to cross
the river to Shavarqān; from there it goes to Bokhārā and on to Samarqand.
There are six great fortresses on the road. There is another road going from the
one we have come on to Samarqand, and it is near. But Bokhārā is in another
direction, and that road has three or four great and secure fortresses; without
seizing them, passage is impossible. If we return on the road we have come on,
Samarqand is close.”
Amir Najm said, “You should have said all this back in Balkh. Now we’ve
come nine days’ journey, and we are supposed to turn around and say that it’s
too far? Whatever the case may be, we are going to continue on the road we’ve
come on, God willing.” No one else said anything; they recited the Fāteḥeh.2
Bayrām Khān gathered five thousand men and set off in the vanguard in the
direction of Samarqand. Amir Najm followed behind him. Bayrām Khān told
his son-in-law Āqā Moḥammad Shirāzi to take two thousand men and order
them to consistently stay ahead two leagues.
Meanwhile, Fulād Solṭān, the governor of the fortress of Dāvar, heard that
the Qezelbāsh were on their way, having taken the fortress of Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān
and executed Hādi Khwājeh, the nephew of ʿObayd Khān, along with nine
thousand Uzbeks. Fulād Solṭān grew thoughtful. His Uzbeks told him, “Our for-
tress is strong; we shall shut it fast and hole up inside.”
Fulād Solṭān replied, “The proper thing is for servants to strive to accom-
plish something in the service of their master. I have no business withstanding

2 Per Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb (p. 647), this is a metaphor, used idiomatically in Ādharbāyjān, for an-
nouncing the end of a discussion.
312 Chapter 41

a siege; I will go fight the Qezelbāsh on the road and not go to my lord empty-
handed.” He took nine thousand men and left the fortress.
When they had gone half a league, Āqā Moḥammad came into view. Āqā
Moḥammad, too, when he saw the Uzbek soldiers, sent someone to Bayrām
Khān to say, “Nine thousand Uzbek horsemen are on the way. Hurry this way!
In fact, take a road that brings you behind the enemy. That way we won’t let a
single one get away alive.”
Bayrām Khān positively bloomed with happiness and rushed with all speed
to join Āqā Moḥammad. Fulād Solṭān arrived as well, and the two armies at-
tacked each other. Not even half an hour had passed when the Uzbeks turned
and fled, among them Fulād Solṭān. The Qezelbāsh pursued them, killing two
hundred of them and capturing five hundred before returning. Bayrām Khān
ordered his men to mount the heads of the Uzbeks on their spears; then he told
Āqā Moḥammad to take these heads, along with the prisoners, to Amir Najm.
Āqā Moḥammad did this, and when he reached Amir Najm, the latter
praised him and said to Bābor Pādeshāh, “This is how a servant should be,
gathering heads and coming to present them—not like your Khwājeh Kalān!”
Bābor Pādeshāh was ashamed and sick of the whole affair.
The heads were put on display, after which Amir Najm presented a robe of
honor to Āqā Moḥammad, sending one as well to Bayrām Khān. He then or-
dered Āqā Moḥammad to kill those five hundred Uzbek prisoners and proceed
onward.
When he got to the outskirts of the fortress, Bayrām Khān welcomed him.
The people of the fortress, too, presented the key to the fortress to Amir Najm,
before whom they prostrated themselves. Amir Najm took the key and sent it
to Khān Mirzā, saying, “This region belongs to you.” Bābor Pādeshāh said noth-
ing, but packed up and headed for the fortress of Qarshi.
Now Shaykham Mirzā, the son-in-law of Moḥammad Timur Khān, was gov-
ernor of that fortress. When he got word that Amir Najm was coming, he or-
dered the people inside to assemble. When they had, he said, “O friends, what
would you do? Will you help us withstand a siege, or would you have the popu-
lace turn heretic and see them abandon the first three Caliphs?”
They replied, “This is a great city, and you possess a strong fortress that can-
not be taken by force. We have a year’s worth of provisions, and there are twelve
thousand fighting men here. Three or four thousand people have fled those
two fortresses that the Qezelbāsh have just taken and come here, and we also
have nearly three hundred thousand male subjects inside the fortress. All these
men, along with their wives, will stand in the towers and annihilate the
Qezelbāsh with a rain of stones and arrows.”
Amir Najm Ii And His Commanders Head For Torkestān 313

Then Shaykham Mirzā ordered that a Qorʾān be brought and that everyone
swear on it that they would fight until every one of the army and populace was
killed. Then, resolved to withstand the siege, they shut the city gates fast and
flooded the moat. Soon Amir Najm, Bābor Pādeshāh, the great amirs, and the
victorious Qezelbāsh troops arrived at the foot of the citadel of Qarshi and set
up camp, prepared to fight.
314 Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Amir Najm II Arrives at Qarshi; Shaykham Mirzā Mounts a Night Attack on

the Qezelbāsh Encampment; Amir Najm Executes His Nephew Moḥammad
Kāẓem; the Victory of Amir Najm and the Death of Shaykham Mirzā

When Amir Najm arrived at Qarshi, he looked over the fortress with care. It
seemed unusually strong. So he ordered that a letter be written to Shaykham
Mirzā and the inhabitants of the fortress which read thus: “Open the gates of
the citadel to us, and we will grant you security and depart. If you do not, and
you resist our siege, know for certain that upon seizing the city from you by
force we will not leave a single one of you alive. You know the rest.”
When Shaykham Mirzā received this letter, he wrote a reply that said: “If we
were afraid of such words, we would come out right away and not resist. But
there is no trust to be put in your covenants and conditions, for you gave secu-
rity to Hādi Khwājeh, and when he emerged from his fortress, you put him and
his people to death. So as long as we have breath in our bodies, we will fight
against you.”
When Amir Najm read this message, he ordered his army to surround the
citadel and set up walls. This was done, and the various sections were assigned
to different men. Then the battle began. From above and below the citadel they
shot arrows and bullets at each other.
Realizing that the fight was going nowhere, Amir Najm ordered his troops to
cease fire and busy themselves with the siege-walls. They had been working for
an hour when Shaykham Mirzā, atop the tower, saw that the wall of Dadeh Beg
the qurchi-bāshi was coming along well and said to the elders, “Tonight we will
mount a night-attack on that wall.” As it happened, Dadeh Beg had been lead-
ing efforts on the wall every night. That night, Amir Najm went to the wall and
gave him this order: “Stay alert and don’t caught unawares, lest Shaykham
Mirzā come out for a night-attack and you give the Qezelbāsh over to be killed
by him.” After giving his orders, he returned to his position.
Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi, though, had been working on his wall for sev-
eral nights without sleep. “Tonight we’re going to take a rest,” he said. He named
Eskandar Beg as his deputy and returned to his tent to rest. Eskandar Beg,
though, sent someone to fetch wine, and he got busy drinking within the walls.
The qurchis, too, started drinking, and they and Eskandar Beg all got blind
drunk. The torches went out, but nobody was sober enough to re-light them.
Shaykham Mirzā said to himself, “We must attack that wall tonight!” He
gathered two thousand Uzbeks and led them out of the citadel. They fell upon

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Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 315

the qurchis’ section of the siege-wall, and by the time Eskandar Beg realized
what was happening, three hundred Qezelbāsh youths had been killed and the
Uzbeks had gone back into the fortress. They hung the heads of the dead
Qezelbāsh atop the tower.
Amir Najm was furious when he heard about this. He dressed in red from
head to toe and went to his assembly, where he ordered Dadeh Beg to present
himself. When Dadeh Beg arrived, Amir Najm told him, “You good-for-nothing!
Were you dead tonight when I told you to be careful and not leave the walls
unattended?” He then ordered that a gallows be erected in the camp, then
mounted his horse and drove the bound and bare-headed qurchi-bāshi ahead
of him toward it.
All the Qezelbāsh were stunned and did not know what to do. They said to
each other, “The man is blinded by rage, but he will regret it later!” They asked
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh to intercede, but he said, “I have no such right, and I know
that he will not take me seriously.” No matter which officer they asked, no one
had the courage to intercede.
They went and told Bābor Pādeshāh. He got on his horse and arrived just as
they were tying the rope around the qurchi-bashi’s neck and were about to kick
the stand out from under him. Bābor Pādeshāh went forward and said, “O com-
mander, I swear on the blessed head of your Perfect Guide that since the peo-
ple in the fortress have all come out on top of the walls and are watching,
rather than embarrassing me in the middle of friend and foe, you should ac-
cept my intercession and pardon this old man’s fault.” At this he bared his head
and came forward to kiss Amir Najm’s hand.
“Bābor Pādeshāh,” Amir Najm said, “if I do not execute this qurchi-bāshi, my
authority will not be respected in the camp.”
In the end, though, Bābor Pādeshāh begged so much that Amir Najm was
ashamed and said, “O Dadeh Āqā, I will let you off the hook and pardon you at
Bābor Pādeshāh’s behest. But for the rest of this campaign, if you let up even a
little bit, I swear by the blessed head of the Shāh who is the refuge of the world
that I will grant you a shorter period of safety than it takes a bird to dip its beak
into water.” Then they took Dadeh Beg down from the gallows.
The Qezelbāsh commanders said, “Since you have treated the qurchi-bāshi
so contemptuously, you should order that he be given a robe of honor.”
“I will,” replied Amir Najm, “if from now on he exerts himself enough to
make up for this mistake.” Then he ordered that Eskandar Beg be brought and
hanged.
Meanwhile the people in the citadel had all come out to take in the specta-
cle. The Qezelbāsh raised a shout, saying, “You there, hooray for that day when
316 Chapter 42

Amir Najm lays his hands on you and is overcome by wrath! No one among you
will be able to intercede, and none of you will be left alive!”
Night fell. Shaykham Mirzā again gathered his forces and attacked the wall
of Ḥosayn Beg Laleh. Ḥosayn Beg was prepared to fight, though, and they
struck back at the Uzbeks. They had killed six hundred men when Shaykham
Mirzā turned and fled back to the citadel. When morning came and Amir Najm
was informed, he went to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh’s wall. Seeing all those dead Uz-
beks, he said to Ḥosayn Beg, “God’s blessing be upon you! I gave you a thousand
tumāns, and you paid me back with five thousand! This is what we had pre-
pared; divide up the money among all those who took part in this battle, saving
the shares of those who were killed for their inheritors.”
Two or three more nights passed. Shaykham Mirzā said, “I know that the
Qezelbāsh are on their guard, but I can’t do anything about it. I must go to at-
tack Amir Najm’s wall; perhaps I can win a victory over him, and show him
what discipline really means!” Then he gathered a thousand men and sallied
out from the citadel.
Now Amir Najm had entrusted his wall to his nephew Moḥammad Kāẓem,
who was working there with some Eṣfahāni youths. That night, Moḥammad
Kāẓem thought that he should go to his tent and get some rest. He did, and af-
ter one watch of the night had gone by, the Uzbeks attacked Amir Najm’s wall.
By the time Moḥammad Kāẓem realized what was going on, seventy or eighty
Eṣfahāni youths had been killed. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and Dadeh Beg realized
from the tumult what was happening, and they attacked the Uzbeks, killing
seven hundred of them. Shaykham Mirzā and three hundred men fled back
into the citadel.
The clamor of battle woke up Amir Najm. He said, “It seems the Uzbeks have
come out of the citadel again tonight.”
“Yes,” his men answered.
He ordered someone to go and see whose wall had been attacked and what
the outcome had been.
Someone went, then came back to report, “It was your wall.”
Amir Najm asked, “Who won?”
No one answered.
Amir Najm said, “I hope to God that that coward Moḥammad Kāẓem did not
bring any shame upon us! We’d better go to the wall and see what has hap-
pened.”
Then morning broke, and he went to the wall to ask Moḥammad Kāẓem
about it. Moḥammad Kāẓem said, “Last night I had just gone to change my
clothes when a thousand Uzbeks came to the wall, and before I knew it, they
had killed seventy or eighty Eṣfahānis.”
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 317

Amir Najm was beside himself with anger. He ordered that his nephew be
seized, and no matter how much Moḥammad Kāẓem begged and pleaded,
Amir Najm turned a deaf ear. He brought him to the gallows, where he ordered
that Eskandar Beg’s body be taken down and that one such as Moḥammad
Kāẓem, who was like the shining sun, be hanged by the neck.
Word of this spread, and the amirs went to tell Bābor Pādeshāh to intercede
again. But when Bābor Pādeshāh arrived at the gallows, Moḥammad Kāẓem
was already dead. Bābor cursed Amir Najm and went back to his tent.
When Amir Najm saw Moḥammad Kāẓem hanging there, dead, he was filled
with regret. Tearing his collar and pouring dust over his head, he kept weeping
and asking every Qezelbāsh he saw, “Where is Moḥammad Kāẓem?” He repeat-
ed, “I will go myself to the edge of the citadel’s moat and let Shaykham Mirzā
kill me—perhaps then my grief will ease!”
The officers and troops felt sorry for him and said to each other, “We must
do something to soothe Amir Najm’s heart.” So they gathered some ladders and
swarmed altogether in unison like ants or locusts against the citadel walls.
However much they tried, though, they could not progress further.
Then Bayrām Khān saw that the citadel was not falling and that Amir Najm
was going to die of his grief. So he said to the Qezelbāsh and their officers, “You
be diligent in battle, for I have a plan.” He led a group of men and forced his way
into the fortress;1 then, grasping the hilts of their swords, they beat back the
Uzbeks who rushed to block their way. From every direction the Qezelbāsh
poured into the fortress. Amir Najm came as well, and he turned the gate over
to the great amirs, saying, “Don’t let even a suckling infant get away!” Then the
cry went up: “Begin a general massacre!” The Qezelbāsh and Chaghatāy troops
surged forward and killed so many people that blood ran out the gates of the
city. Amir Najm commanded that no one be left alive.
It so happened that there was a district of Qarshi inhabited by four or five
thousand Chaghatāy. A few of their local leaders went to Bābor Pādeshāh and
said, “We are Chaghatāys; intercede on our behalf with Amir Najm, for we are
going to be killed!”
Bābor Pādeshāh went to Amir Najm to intercede, saying, “The people of this
district are all Chaghatāys; they are innocent and relatives of mine.”
Amir Najm retorted, “In that case, why didn’t they write you a letter? For my
part, I have sworn to leave no one in this fortress alive, so as to avenge
Moḥammad Kāẓem’s blood, and I will not break my vow.” Then he told Bayrām
Khān to go first to the Chaghatāy neighborhood and kill everyone there.

1 Presumably over a ladder, although the text is silent about the means.
318 Chapter 42

At this, Bayrām Khān’s veins and bones filled with fire; he trembled like
quicksilver and cursed Amir Najm, saying, “There will come a day when you,
too, will fall prisoner to calamity.” Then he killed all the Chaghatāys.
Now there were five or six thousand descendants of Emām Rezā living in
that citadel, and at that moment they had fled in terror to the Friday mosque.
They sent someone to the Qezelbāsh ṣadr2 Mir Sharafoddin to say, “You are a
seyyed, and we are also descendants of the Prophet of God. Come to our aid!”
Mir Sharafoddin went to Amir Najm and said, “Pardon these seyyeds for our
sake.”
“I do not acknowledge Sunnis as seyyeds,” retorted Amir Najm. “If they had
been Shiʿis, then one of them should have come before you and me in the first
place. Where are they now?”
“They have taken refuge in God’s house,” replied Mir Sharafoddin, “and are
praying together in the Friday mosque.”
Amir Najm himself went to that mosque and put to death all those seyyeds,
along with their wives and children, even as they were prostrating themselves.
In short, he ordered so much killing and plundering in Qarshi that no one re-
mained in that district.3 “My heart has found a measure of comfort in recom-
pense for the massacres which Changiz Khān and Amir Timur committed in
Iran,” he said afterward. Then he ordered that Shaykham Mirzā be brought to
him in chains and then hanged like Moḥammad Kāẓem. No matter how much
Shaykham Mirzā begged and pleaded, it was of no use, and he was killed.
After that, all the property of the Uzbeks and the people of Qarshi was given
as gifts to the Qezelbāsh, who distributed it equitably. Amir Najm said, “Since
you fought this battle like men, I too gave and give you these gifts like a man.”
They stayed in Qarshi for ten more days, then left for Bokhārā.
When ʿObayd Khān, over in Bokhārā, heard that the Qezelbāsh had commit-
ted all that killing and plundering in Qarshi, he wept bitterly. He saw no choice
but to pack up and leave for the steppe.
Soon after, when Amir Najm got within three leagues of Bokhārā, he said,
“The people of Bokhārā still haven’t come out to welcome us! He said to Qolijān
Beg, “You need to go to Bokhārā and collect three thousand tumāns from the
people there as a goodwill gift before we enter the city.” As Qolijān was about
to leave, the nobles and local leaders of Bokhārā came out in welcome, bearing
many gifts they had collected for Amir Najm. After paying their respects and
presenting the gifts, the subject turned to the goodwill gift Amir Najm had

2 A government-appointed religious official, responsible for managing religious endowments

as well as the morals of his subordinates. See Floor, “The ṣadr,” 461–500.
3 Here the text plays on the words dayyār (inhabitant) and diyār (region).
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 319

demanded. Amir Najm said, “I have given an order, and orders are not rescind-
ed.”
The local leaders, realizing that this “gift” was really plunder, brought three
thousand tumāns to Qolijān Beg, who praised God.
Then, at an auspicious hour, Amir Najm and his commanders entered the
city of Bokhārā. They went to the mosque and pronounced the khoṭbeh in the
blessed name of the Shāh, and they ordered that coins be struck in his name as
well. For a period of forty days they remained in Bokhārā, and many of the
Qezelbāsh soldiers had a chance to rest and recover.
Since Amir Najm had witnessed the courage and manliness of Bayrām Khān
in battle, qualities which had resulted in the capture of the city, he gave him a
fine royal robe of honor, saying, “You are the staunchest Qezelbāsh I know. You
did and will put your life on the line for me. Since you fought out of a desire to
avenge Moḥammad Kāẓem, I am making you my relative by pledging
Moḥammad Kāẓem’s sister to you in marriage.” Then he gave him a son-in-
law’s robe of honor. Bayrām Khān prostrated himself and paid his respects.
Amir Najm brought him close and embraced him, and Bayrām Khān kissed his
hand. Amir Najm then named Bayrām Khān leader of the army’s vanguard.
Then they left Bokhārā and headed for Samarqand. Bayrām Khān gathered
six thousand men and set off for the fortress of Miyān Kolā, which was on the
way. When ʿAbdollāh Solṭān, ʿObayd Khān’s cousin and governor of Miyān
Kolā, heard that the Qezelbāsh had left Bokhārā and were on their way, he
prepared the towers and fortifications and hunkered down in anticipation of a
siege.
Bayrām Khān stormed up to the base of the fortress. But it had snowed a
great deal, and the weather was bitterly cold. Looking over the fortress, Bayrām
Khān realized that ʿAbdollāh Solṭān had shut the place tight and was ready to
withstand a siege. He alighted in the snow and sent someone to ʿAbdollāh
Solṭān with this message: “The Qezelbāsh warriors have come, but their tents
and baggage-train have lagged behind and they are suffering in the snow. If you
open the gate and give us shelter, we promise to intercede on your behalf with
Amir Najm to let you retain control of this fortress.”
When the messenger went to ʿAbdollāh Solṭān and delivered this message,
the Uzbek soldiers all shouted at him, “We asked the Four Pure Friends to let
this cold destroy you; do you think we’re going to turn around and give you
shelter? We don’t ever want to see a Qezelbāsh face!” The ignorant ʿAbdollāh
Solṭān listened to them and refused to open the fortress gate. The messenger
returned to Bayrām Khān and told him what had happened.
Bayrām Khān replied, “Our God is generous; we shall remain here until our
tents and baggage arrive.” But the helpless Qezelbāsh could only grasp their
320 Chapter 42

horses’ bridles; hungry and thirsty and without fodder for their mounts, they
stayed on that plain.
ʿAbdollāh Solṭān, atop the fortress tower, noticed the state the Qezelbāsh
were in. When night fell, he gathered five hundred men and led them out of the
fortress, intending to make a raid. Āqā Moḥammad Shirāzi was on scout duty
for the Qezelbāsh when the Uzbeks attacked. The fighting started, and the
Qezelbāsh warriors gave the Uzbeks no quarter. ʿAbdollāh Solṭān tried to en-
courage his troops to fight, but the Qezelbāsh had already killed three hundred
Uzbeks. Bayrām Khān learned of this and surrounded the Uzbeks, killing
ʿAbdollāh Solṭān and every single one of his five hundred men.
Then Bayrām Khān said, “If we don’t find a way to get into the fortress to-
night, our troubles will come to a head tomorrow.” Thus at midnight they went
through the gate, which was still open, and entered the fortress.4 There they
settled in the houses of the Uzbeks, whom they sent outside onto the plain as
prisoners. The next day the heads of the Uzbek dead were sent to Amir Najm
as a welcoming gift. He, in turn, raised an army and headed for the fortress of
Uzun Saqal. When the governor there heard that the Qezelbāsh were coming,
he fled for Samarqand, leaving the fortress empty.
Meanwhile, ʿObayd Khān, Moḥammad Timur Khān, and all the ātāliqs and
elders and local rulers of Torkestān were gathered in Samarqand. Every day
they held a council to discuss the war with Amir Najm, saying to each other,
“Who will be the one to come face to face with this agent of doom today? It’s as
if fate has sent this calamity to Torkestān to make up for the massacres of
Changiz Khān and Amir Timur Khān. The retaliation is just and the fury isn’t
phony; at least it seems that’s how it is.”
When ʿObayd Khān heard that Bayrām Khān was within forty days’ journey
of Samarqand, he said to Moḥammad Timur Khān, “We need to get out of the
city.”
“Are you crazy?” Moḥammad Timur Khān replied. “Where are we going to
take our families and three thousand Uzbek households?”
ʿObayd Khān said, “We will go toward the steppe. You send for someone to
take your harem away, lest the Qezelbāsh not leave us the opportunity.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān had just agreed to this when Fulād Solṭān arrived,
fleeing the Qezelbāsh. Moḥammad Timur Khān told him to gather his harem
and head for the steppe. This he did. Then Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “I am
going to raise twelve thousand Uzbeks and head out to fight Bayrām Khān. If I

4 In the Chester Beatty Library manuscript (fol. 193b), this oddity occurs because the Uzbeks
manning the gate mistake Bayrām Khān for ʿAbdollāh Khān.
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 321

manage to take care of him and defeat his army, Amir Najm won’t be a problem
anymore. And if I am defeated, I will let you know.”
ʿObayd Khān and Moql Khānom tried to stop him, saying, “You are no match
for Bayrām Khān! Don’t get your men killed for nothing!” But Moḥammad
Timur Khān just said, “I am a son of Shāhi Beg Khān; should I give up my an-
cestral land and run away?”
Thus ignoring them, he gathered his twelve thousand Uzbeks and set out
with the intention of fighting Bayrām Khān. He encountered the Qezelbāsh
army making camp one station away from Samarqand, and he quickly seized
the opportunity to start a battle. Bayrām Khān rode onto the battlefield with
his lion-hunting troops and the two armies crashed into each other. In the first
and second and third attacks, three thousand Uzbeks were cast into the dust of
annihilation. Then Moḥammad Timur Khān himself entered the fray. In the
chaos of battle his horse was felled, and his brother Abu Saʿid Khān was
wounded. Eight thousand Uzbeks were killed and the rest turned to flee, scat-
tering in all directions.
Moḥammad Timur Khān’s leg was trapped under his crippled horse, and he
lamented and feared that the Qezelbāsh would kill him. A while later, when
the Qezelbāsh had decamped, a local person came walking among the fallen
Uzbek soldiers, hoping to find goods to take home. He spotted Moḥammad
Timur Khān, his king, trapped under his horse and unable to get free. That
person extricated Moḥammad Timur Khān and brought him to his own neigh-
borhood, where they bumped into Abu Saʿid Khān. So the two brothers ended
up going to the local district together.
Four thousand Uzbeks who had fled the battle headed for Samarqand,
where they reported to ʿObayd Khān the loss of the battle and the disappear-
ance of Moḥammad Timur Khān and Abu Saʿid Khān. ʿObayd Khān was filled
with dread and confusion. He gathered his harem and troops and, with a hun-
dred sighs and regrets, fled Samarqand for the steppe.
Meanwhile, Bayrām Khān sent the heads of the defeated Uzbeks to Amir
Najm as a gift, along with this message: “We are going in pursuit of ʿObayd
Khān and Moḥammad Timur Khān; hopefully we will capture them, and this
war will be short.”
When Amir Najm saw those heads and read Bayrām Khān’s message, he was
filled with joy. He sent Bayrām Khān a royal robe of honor and a jeweled turban
and Qezelbāsh tāj. Then he, too, set off with his vast army in pursuit of the
Uzbek kings, lest they regroup at Samarqand and something bad happen to
Bayrām Khān.
When the great amirs and the Qezelbāsh troops saw that Amir Najm had
sent all those robes and trappings to Bayrām Khān, insofar as they were rivals,
322 Chapter 42

they were overcome with jealousy and said, “You’ll see what happens; our con-
tributions go unrecognized, while whatever happens is credited to Bayrām
Khān and our service and struggle are seen as useless.”
When they got within five leagues of Samarqand, Bayrām Khān gathered
the people of the city and went out to welcome them. When asked what had
happened to Moḥammad Timur Khān and Abu Saʿid Khān, Bayrām Khān re-
plied, “They fled the battle, and since then no trace of them has been seen.”
Then they all entered the city of Samarqand together. Bayrām Khān went to
the mosque of Amir Timur, the Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction, and pro-
nounced the khoṭbeh in the blessed name of the Shāh, also ordering that coins
be struck in the royal name as well. Then they settled down to stay in Samar-
qand until it became clear where the kings of Torkestān had gone and what
they were planning.
Bābor Pādeshāh was upset to see that Amir Najm had conquered all of
Torkestān but was not giving him the royal edict of rule that had been ordered.
Noticing this, Amir Najm said to him, “All of Transoxiana belongs to you; don’t
worry your noble mind about it. Since the Uzbeks have twice treated you in an
uncouth and inappropriate manner, when we have killed ʿObayd Khān and
Moḥammad Timur Khān, God willing, the royal edict will be given to you.”
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān and Abu Saʿid Khān were in the outer
district nursing their wounds. The locals came to them and said, “We were and
are your slaves. You are the apple of our eye. But God forbid that any of the
heretics should discover that you are here and tell Amir Najm, for he will take
it out on us.”
The two kings replied, “We have sent word of our situation to ʿObayd Khān,
and we can’t go anywhere until we’ve heard back from him.”
A few days later a letter came which he had written; it said, “O friends, have
you lost your minds? You are staying seven leagues from Samarqand, where
that evil demon Amir Najm has settled himself, and you are not going any-
where? At any rate, when you get this message, waste no time coming to me so
that we can think of what to do about this yokel.”
When he read this message, Moḥammad Timur Khān was alarmed. He
chose four hundred men from among the locals and went with them to ʿObayd
Khān. As they set off, though, one of them thought to himself, “God forbid that
Amir Najm should learn that we have been looking after Moḥammad Timur
Khān—he will come massacre our whole district!” So that person went to Amir
Najm and told him everything that had happened.
Amir Najm said, “O Sunni, after four months of looking after Moḥammad
Timur Khān, you now come to tell me you’ve sent him on his way?” He told
Zaynal Khān to go to that district and massacre the population. To Bayrām
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 323

Khān he said, “Take six thousand men and pursue Moḥammad Timur Khān to
Tāshkand. We will follow behind.” Bayrām Khān did as he had been command-
ed.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān and Abu Saʿid Khān had arrived at
one of the fortresses of that region. When the people saw their king, they fell
upon them, kissing their hands and feet. Moḥammad Timur Khān asked for a
piece of bread. At that moment a spy arrived to say that Amir Najm had learned
of the two men’s sojourn nearby and had sent Zaynal Khān to massacre the
population there, and that it was Bayrām Khān who was chasing them. Strick-
en with anxiety, Moḥammad Timur Khān was unable to eat his bread and left.
Bayrām Khān arrived, and when he realized that Moḥammad Timur Khān had
been there, he set off in haste to pursue him.
When he saw the dust raised by the Qezelbāsh army appear in the distance,
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “O friends, the Qezelbāsh have arrived. We will
not be able to make it to join ʿObayd Khān. You hasten to the steppe and scatter
there. Any one of you who makes it to Tāshkand, tell ʿObayd Khān that we have
gone to the steppe of Baghlān and Qerqez.” Then he turned his reins and left.
When those four hundred Uzbeks scattered in the steppe, one young Uzbek
was captured by a Qezelbāsh, who took him to Bayrām Khān. They interrogat-
ed him, and he said, “Moḥammad Timur Khān and Abu Saʿid Khān have gone
in the direction of the fortress of Baghlān and Qerqez.” Bayrām Khān sent
someone to Amir Najm to tell him this. Then he set off in pursuit again.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān and his brother had made it to the
fortress of Baghlān. When the people inside saw their king, they sang out
prayers and praise, saying, “By God, the Four Pure Friends have brought you to
this fortress! Enter with peace of mind. When the first of Qaws5 comes, it is so
cold here that stones turn to ashes.” Moḥammad Timur Khān ordered the for-
tress gate shut fast and settled down to stay.
When Bayrām Khān had marched for twenty days, he arrived at the base of
the citadel and looked the place over. He saw a wondrous fortress hewn from
alabaster, whose top touched the very Milky Way. Demoralized, he dismounted
and made camp.
Amir Najm, who was following behind him, also approached. Bābor Pāde­
shāh said to him, “You, sir, know nothing about this kingdom; you had better go
back whence you came. The reason is that they have carved this fortress from
stone, and tunnels and siege-walls will be of no avail. A month from now the
very ground here will split from the severity of the cold, and there are no provi-
sions to be found anywhere. I know for a fact that Qāsem Khān, the lord of the

5 I.e., the first of the month of Āzar, or 22 November.

324 Chapter 42

steppe, is going to send an army to the aid of Moḥammad Timur Khān, and
when he does, it will be the end of us. So the choice is yours. If you conquer this
land for this servant of yours, I will value a single poor Qezelbāsh more than
rule over all of Torkestān.”
Amir Najm replied, “You should have said all this back in Samarqand. You
are telling me this now that we have been traveling for two months and come
all the way to the base of the fortress?”
Amir Najm then looked over the fortress and realized that Bābor had spoken
out of good will. He regretted having come, but he saw no other option than to
stay. The Qezelbāsh commanders were trying to convince him otherwise when
suddenly a loud argument broke out atop the fortress tower. Amir Najm, that
peasant, lost his temper and shouted, “You in the fortress! I will bring such a
calamity down on you that people will talk about it for ages!” The commanders
said to him, “Since you won’t listen to our pleas, we need to think about provi-
sions, because this fortress cannot be taken by force.”
Amir Najm summoned Bayrām Khān and said, “The Chaghatāy say that
there is plenty of food in Kuhestān, where the Qerqez are. If the king of the
Qerqez doesn’t block the valley road, we can take our provisions from there.
Now I expect that you will show manliness and bring the provisions here so
that the men do not suffer and we can get out of this mess.”
Bayrām Khān took eight thousand Qezelbāsh and four thousand Chaghatāy
and set off in the direction of the Qerqez for provisions. When they reached
Kuhestān, word was brought to the king of the Qerqez that the Qezelbāsh had
come to take his food. The king said, “Usually it is the Uzbeks who come; now
the Qezelbāsh of ʿErāq have come to seize food from us!” At once he raised ten
thousand Qerqez soldiers and set off. Giving the Qezelbāsh no thought what-
soever, they left the valley and reached the open steppe. There they spotted ten
thousand Qezelbāsh, with two thousand more in the vanguard.
The king of the Qerqez said, “What kind of army is this? We don’t even need
to form our ranks!” Without even forming any ranks, he drew his sword, and
the two armies crashed into each other.
The marketplace of death did brisk business that day, and when the Qerqez
king saw that four thousand of his men had been killed and the rest were turn-
ing tail, he too chose flight, saying, “These Qezelbāsh are a wondrous group,
and it was folly for us to come fight them! No one in the world is a match for
them! We must seize the entrance to the valley so that perhaps we can have
some success.” He retreated and had seized the valley entrance when Bayrām
Khān, that hunter of lions, arrived there with the army whose watchword is
victory. A great battle took place in which many were killed on both sides.
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 325

In the end, the Qerqez army was defeated and fled. Many provisions fell into
the hands of Bayrām Khān, who sent them to Amir Najm. He then went in
pursuit of the Qerqez king, and after a battle in which he killed many of the
enemy, he seized the king and bound him under guard.
Meanwhile, Amir Najm’s army had run out of rations. On the first of the
blessed month of Ramazān, the great amirs and Qezelbāsh soldiers came to
Amir Najm and said, “It is Ramazān, and we have no food. We need to think of
something.”
“Be patient for a day or two,” Amir Najm replied. “Bayrām Khān will send
food.”
Just then Bayrām Khān’s letter arrived, along with the provisions he had
sent. The letter said: “I have seized the king of the Qerqez, who have agreed to
send us forty thousand donkey-loads of provisions in exchange for getting their
king back.” Amir Najm was astounded; he ordered that drums be beaten to an-
nounce the good news and the provisions distributed among the soldiers. In
response to Bayrām Khān, he wrote, “Take the Qerqez king and bring him to
my presence, and they will bring the provisions.” So Bayrām Khān left with the
Qerqez king for Amir Najm’s encampment.
When word of this reached Moḥammad Timur Khān in his fortress, he sent
someone to the Qerqez people with this message: “Do not, I repeat a thousand
times, do not give provisions to the Qezelbāsh! ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg
Solṭān have gathered sixty thousand men in Tāshkand and will come to our aid
on the Ramazān holiday. Your king is not going anywhere. If you do give them
provisions, then even the armies of the whole world gathered together will not
be able to handle this bumpkin.” This message reached the Qerqez people just
as they had loaded forty thousand loads of food onto pack animals and sent
them off to the Qezelbāsh encampment. To make a long story short, they called
back the caravan and retreated into their citadel.
When Amir Najm learned of this, he plotted with Bayrām Khān, saying, “I
am going to order the execution of the king of the Qerqez. You intercede on his
behalf; if we spare his life, he may tell his people to send the provisions.” So
Amir Najm gave the order, and Bayrām Khān interceded as planned—but to
absolutely no avail. The Qezelbāsh camp was so beset by famine that the weak-
ened soldiers had to kill and eat all the horses and camels they had. Two or
three days passed with Amir Najm unable to remedy the situation; he was
stuck in an awful predicament.
Moḥammad Timur Khān, in the meantime, got word of the situation of the
Qezelbāsh. He sent someone to ʿObayd Khān to say, “The Qezelbāsh are stuck
in this situation. If you attack them now, we may have some success. If not,
326 Chapter 42

they will get themselves to Samarqand, and it will be impossible to pry

Torkestān from their grasp. You must, you must attack them!”
When this letter reached ʿObayd Khān, he teamed up with Jāni Beg Solṭān.
They raised sixty thousand men and set off. Amir Najm was told that the Uzbek
army was approaching and would arrive the next day.
Looking at the Qezelbāsh, Amir Najm saw that none of them had the
strength to walk down the road, let alone fight a battle. Then Bābor Pādeshāh
said, “O Amir Najm, the world is full of wealth, but the soul needs good health.
Come, be satisfied with getting to Samarqand, for tomorrow it will be difficult
for this exhausted army to fight the Uzbeks of the steppe. God forbid they
should be defeated and killed to a man!”
Amir Najm replied, “I am not one who flees before an enemy army! If I am
killed, it will still be better than having such a disgrace associated with me.
Now that I have been tried this much by fortune, if the Uzbeks hear my name,
it will put a dent in their boldness. Tomorrow I will attack the well-fed Uzbeks
with this hungry army, and things will turn out as God Almighty has predeter-
mined.”
No matter how much Ẓahiroddin Moḥammad Bābor Pādeshāh tried to con-
vince him, Amir Najm would not listen. Dadeh Beg and Valijān Solṭān and all
the high-ranking commanders said, “We are on our last legs; how can we fight
for you?” But Amir Najm still would not listen.
In the end, no one except Bayrām Khān was willing to fight. Still, even
though ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān and the other Uzbeks knew what tor-
ments the Qezelbāsh were suffering, they kept saying, “O God, let them run
away without fighting, for if (God forbid) they mount their swift horses and
take up their spears, they could hoist Mount Alborz on the tips of those spears.”
Bābor Pādeshāh said to Khwājeh Kalān, “It is us that the ʿObayd Khān and
the Uzbek army hate. If we flee now and get ourselves to safety, we will be all
right; if not, we will be killed within the next hour.” So they packed up their
tents and belongings and fled along with the Chaghatāy army.
When Moḥammad Timur Khān saw ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān at the
foot of the citadel with sixty thousand men, he too raised an army and emerged
from the fortress to join them. When the two armies came together, ʿObayd
Khān said, “Thanks be to God that I have seen you alive once more, and you
have emerged safely from your battle with this dragon.”
The next day, the ranks of battle were arrayed. ʿObayd Khān brought
Moḥammad Timur Khān to the base of the battle-standard and gave him a
place there. He also placed Jāni Beg Solṭān’s son in the vanguard. The two
armies came onto the battlefield and a fierce battle got underway. In the fight-
ing, Jāni Beg Solṭān’s son was killed by Bayrām Khān. But the Uzbek soldiers,
Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 327

like ants and locusts, just kept coming, attacking the weak and hungry
Qezelbāsh. In the end, nearly twenty thousand Qezelbāsh were killed, and of
those who remained, it was the Qarāmānlu who kept fighting.
Khān Mirzā kept fighting until afternoon, but Amir Najm saw that no escape
from this battle was possible; he was going to have to get killed. He said to Khān
Mirzā, “O my son, you have acquitted yourself well and fulfilled your obligation
from son to father. Now, by the holy Commander of the Faithful, I implore you
to move off to one side, for I see no hope of escape for myself.”
“I do not doubt that after this things will be tough for me, too,” Khān Mirzā
replied.
Amir Najm saw that there was nothing more he could do. Along with a thou-
sand Eṣfahānis and the rest of the Qezelbāsh, who gathered round him despite
all that listlessness and chaos, he turned to the battlefield and set to piling up
dead enemies. Bayrām Khān and his vanguard of five thousand fought like
men until midday, so much so that they killed fourteen thousand Uzbeks, also
losing a lot of their own men. Finally the Uzbek army made an attack on him
all at once and killed that hunter of lions. They cut his head off and stuck it on
the end of a spear. Amir Najm ordered ʿAlijān Solṭān, the brother of Bayrām
Khān, to go onto the battlefield despite his weakness and hunger and kill every
single Uzbek; but the Uzbek army charged and killed him as well.
If the Qezelbāsh commanders had not treated Amir Najm unjustly, the Uz-
beks could never have defeated the Qezelbāsh! But just then Khān Mirzā also
turned and fled. Amir Najm turned his head toward the glorious Kaʿbeh and
gave thanks, prostrating himself. Then he said, “O Perfect Guide, I am finally
shedding my blood in your service!” With the profession of faith on his lips, he
hurled himself into that sea of soldiery, killing nine men with his spear. He
then took up his bow and annihilated a number of Uzbeks. When he ran out of
arrows, he drew the sword of the world-conquering Shāh and, on the lookout
for ʿObayd Khān’s battle-standard, struck and killed everywhere he went.
The Uzbeks were just mounting an attack when Amir Najm’s horse got its
hoof caught in a mouse-hole, and that mighty and skillful general, the likes of
whose chivalry and worthiness will not be seen in a thousand ages, tumbled
from the saddle. Several Uzbeks rushed upon him, seized him, and bound his
hands. When the Qezelbāsh saw his battle-standard upturned, they broke and
fled in defeat.
When ʿObayd Khān heard that Amir Najm had been captured and that the
Qezelbāsh had fled, he said to his fellow kings, “I am entrusting the wealth of
the Qezelbāsh to a trustworthy person and going in pursuit of them myself.”
They balked at this, saying, “The Qezelbāsh are not the sort of men one can
pursue!”
328 Chapter 42

Then the Uzbek army plunged into the Qezelbāsh camp. Moḥammad Timur
Khān came with his men to the tent of Amir Najm and plundered it, while Jāni
Beg Solṭān took Bayrām Khān’s tent and ʿObayd Khān took Zaynal Khān’s and
Abu Saʿid Khān took Ḥosayn Beg Laleh’s. In short, the Uzbek solṭāns seized the
tents of the Qezelbāsh khāns and plundered them. After that, they assembled
before Moḥammad Timur Khān and sent for Amir Najm.
Amir Najm was brought before them with his hands bound. ʿObayd Khān at
once stood up, put his hand on Amir Najm’s neck, and kissed his forehead, say-
ing, “By God, you are truly a valiant man and a noble lion!” He wanted to give
an order that Amir Najm be freed and given a place in the assembly, but then
he thought again and sat back down.
Amir Najm, despite his zealotry, bowed his head toward Moḥammad Timur
Khān. Seeing Jāni Beg Solṭān with his white beard, he nodded his head in his
direction as well. He did not acknowledge anyone else, but stood in that as-
sembly looking at no one.
ʿObayd Khān was cut to the quick, and he said, “Bumpkin! What do you
think of yourself now? Do you realize what injustices you have perpetrated in
Torkestān? What was the fault of the people of Qarshi that you killed so many
thousands of Muslims?”
Amir Najm replied, “Kingship and command are one and the same. If
Moḥammad Timur Khān is king, then this assembly answers to him. I don’t
know if you are king, but if the situation were reversed and they had brought
you to me, I would not have offered you safety, but would have had you execut-
ed.”
This response infuriated ʿObayd Khān. He reached for the hilt of his sword
and dealt Amir Najm such a blow on the neck that his head sprung free from
the stronghold of his body.6
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “You clod, one does not kill a man whose
hands are bound! That was an absurd thing to do!”
ʿObayd Khān replied, “Given that they brought him in bound and he said
such things, if we had led that peasant go, he would have become a calamity
and gone once more to wreck the lives of the people of Torkestān.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “ʿObayd Khān, you may have killed this man
now, but you will see what disasters Shaykh-oghli will bring on our heads and
those of the people of Torkestān in vengeance for him. If we had honored him
and sent him back to the service of Shaykh-oghli, Shaykh-oghli would have
been grateful, and there would have been peace between us.” Everyone agreed
with Moḥammad Timur Khān.

6 Amir Najm II was killed in 918/1512.

Amir Najm Ii Arrives At Qarshi 329

“You are right,” said ʿObayd Khān. “But I could not bear any more, so I did
what I did. Since I have acted thus, we must fix the skirt of zeal firmly round the
waist of ambition and put forward the foot of determination by wresting
Khorāsān from the possession of the Qezelbāsh.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “We have suffered so much and still not taken
Khorāsān; when Shaykh-oghli marches out of Iran against us we will have to
flee with a thousand disappointments and give up this land—if we live! What
good is that?”
The Uzbek solṭāns said, “We will take our men and conquer that region. If
Shaykh-oghli invades, we will abandon the cities and pull back.” Then they set
to distributing the booty seized from the Qezelbāsh among themselves.
Moḥammad Timur Khān then said, “I am going to Samarqand now.” ʿObayd
Khān, for his part, went to Bokhārā. Jāni Beg Solṭān said, “I will go to Balkh. If I
seize it from Ḥosām Beg, I will not need any assistance from you. If it turns out
otherwise, I will let you know. I do think, though, that Ḥosām Beg has aban-
doned Balkh and left.” Then Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān left for
Samarqand and Bokhārā and Jāni Beg Solṭān left for Balkh.
330 Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes to Balkh; ʿObayd Khān Comes, and Khorāsān is Seized
by an Uzbek Army; Shāh Ṭahmāsp Khān Mirzā Leaves Harāt for ʿErāq; Shāh
Esmāʿil Receives Word that Amir Najm Ii has been Killed

When Ḥosām Beg, the son of Bayrām Khān, crossed the Oxus, he went to Balkh
and ordered that the households of the Qezelbāsh who had been killed in the
battle pack up and head to Khorāsān. He himself and the three hundred men
he had brought with him stayed in Balkh. The people of Balkh said to Ḥosām
Beg, “This is how it is: Jāni Beg Solṭān has no lands of his own, but he feels he
has a right to this region, and he will come; he will not let such an opportunity
slip away. Right now the prudent thing for you to do is take your family and
belongings and head for Khorāsān.”
Ḥosām Beg said, “I know that even if every one of the Qezelbāsh who aban-
doned Amir Najm were a Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, the Perfect Guide would still ban-
ish them from his royal sight. My father may have sent me, and I may have been
released from the service of Amir Najm, but I am still not safe from the wrath
of the Shāh. Now I say I am going to do the manly thing and hold on to Balkh;
perhaps His Majesty will pardon our failing and let bygones be bygones. Also, I
have no doubt that even as the Uzbeks have killed the great and glorious Amir
Najm and many thousands of Qezelbāsh and are crossing the river Oxus in fear
of the Shāh, if we foolishly abandon Balkh and leave, they will surely come and
seize it. As long as the Uzbeks have not come to Balkh, we dare not abandon it.”
When fifteen days had passed since the evacuation of the Qezelbāsh fami-
lies, Ḥosām Beg learned that Jāni Beg Solṭān had crossed the Oxus and was
heading toward Balkh. Ḥosām Beg ordered that any provisions in the vicinity
of Balkh be brought for the Qezelbāsh army. During this time, four hundred
Qezelbāsh who had fled from Amir Najm’s army entered Balkh and joined up
with the fifteen hundred men already there.
Ḥosām Beg then wrote a message describing what had happened with Amir
Najm, his death, the flight of the Qezelbāsh, the imminent arrival of Jāni Beg
Solṭān in Balkh, and the intention of the Uzbek kings to possess Khorāsān, and
he sent it to His Majesty the Shāh. He also sent word to the commanders of
Khorāsān telling them to make preparations and be vigilant, for the Uzbeks
were coming.
Twenty days later, Jāni Beg Solṭān and an endless army arrived before the
citadel of Balkh, with a thousand wounds to the heart of Bayrām Khān. The

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_044

Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 331

reason for this was that all of Bayrām Khān’s possessions and treasure were in
Balkh, including a Kalmyk slave-girl of his named Māhruy. When he fled, she
was ill, and he could not take her. Now Bayrām Khān was lost, and when Ḥosām
Beg had sent the Qezelbāsh households out of Balkh, she had ended up with
Jāni Beg Solṭān.
When Jāni Beg Solṭān arrived at the base of the citadel, Ḥosām Beg said to
the Qezelbāsh, “Why have you held on to your households and not sent them
away? Our situation is getting desperate; what are you going to do, and how are
you going to get these people out of here?”
Those three hundred men replied, “If the Uzbeks display humanity and give
us quarter, we will go; if not, we will kill them and run for it.” Then Ḥosām Beg
shut the fortress gate fast in preparation for a siege.
Jāni Beg Solṭān and his fourteen thousand men at the base of the citadel
spent three days feigning negligence and saying nothing. On the fourth day he
sent someone to Ḥosām Beg to say, “Take your men and your provisions and go
to Iran; do not let yourselves be killed for nothing. But your property is ours by
right—leave it where it is, so that justice may be done. We are feeling merciful
toward you.”
The messenger went to Ḥosām Beg and delivered this message. Ḥosām Beg
told him, “Convey our prayers to Jāni Beg Solṭān and tell him, ‘It is apparent to
all in this world that, praise God, you realize what sort of men we would be if
we let ourselves be taken prisoner by you. I will not hand Balkh over to you eas-
ily. Should you take it by force, then you will be in charge.’”
When he got this message, Jāni Beg Solṭān ordered the Uzbek army to sur-
round the citadel. But the Uzbeks could not dislodge a single brick from that
fortress.
When ʿObayd Khān reached Bokhārā, he learned that Jāni Beg Solṭān had
not yet taken Balkh. “Ḥosām Beg has not yet quit Balkh and handed it over to
Jāni Beg Solṭān?” he asked.
“Ḥosām Beg is withstanding the siege,” his men replied.
ʿObayd Khān raised twenty thousand men, crossed the Oxus, and proceeded
to Balkh. Up to that time the people of Balkh had been helping Ḥosām Beg
with no concern for themselves. But when they learned that ʿObayd Khān was
coming and was going to take the citadel, they abandoned him.
Jāni Beg Solṭān went to ʿObayd Khān’s tent and said, “O lord, what must I do?
Wherever I go, you follow behind me and foul everything up!”
ʿObayd Khān replied, “May God not have wished for me to foul things up for
you; you are as a father and elder to me. But you must leave Balkh to me. Per-
haps on another day I will conquer Harāt and you will go to Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān
and Tāshkand.”
332 Chapter 43

“I have lost all my material and provisions here at Balkh,” Jāni Beg Solṭān
said. “You seize the city for me; I will go to Harāt, which I will seize and hold for
you.”
“Good idea,” replied ʿObayd Khān. “Go there; hopefully the governor of
Harāt has not heard of the defeat of Amir Najm and thought to gather provi-
sions in preparation for a siege.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān gathered his troops and left for Harāt. ʿObayd Khān then sent
a messenger to Ḥosām Beg with this message: “You are troubling yourselves for
nothing by holding out in this fortress, and you’ve troubled us as well. Hand
over the citadel to us and leave in peace now, for after I take it by force I will not
pardon you.”
Ḥosām Beg said to the messenger in reply, “Convey our prayers to your mas-
ter and tell him, ‘I have sent a petition to His Majesty the Shāh. Until I receive
an answer, I am not handing this citadel over to anyone. Your threats do not
perturb me. Do not blame yourself for whatever happens.”
The messenger left the citadel and brought this message to ʿObayd Khān. He
knew that he could not fool Ḥosām Beg. But he was the biggest trickster in the
world, so he ordered that one letter be written to Ḥosām Beg and quite another
to the leaders of the people of Balkh. He told the messenger, “This time you are
going with a letter I have written to the local leaders of Balkh. You must give
this to one of them in secret and then leave.”
Once more they told Ḥosām Beg that another messenger was coming. Since
Ḥosām Beg was clueless, he believed the ruse and ordered that the gate be
opened. The messenger entered and delivered the first letter to Ḥosām Beg,
then surreptitiously handed ʿObayd Khān’s other letter to the gatekeeper on his
way out. That man brought that letter to the local leaders and lords and read it.
It said:
“O lords and leaders of Balkh, why are you resisting our efforts to take the
city? If this city is taken by the (true) Muslims, it will be better for you, better
than if it were to remain in the hands of schismatics who every day desert the
first three Caliphs. At any rate, if you show friendship to us and find some way
for me to take the citadel, you will find happiness in our favor. If not, I swear by
the Four Pure Friends that when I forcibly seize this city from the Qezelbāsh, I
will order that every single person in Balkh be massacred.”
The people were frightened by ʿObayd Khān’s threatening message and
abandoned Ḥosām Beg. They wrote a letter to ʿObayd Khān saying, “We do not
know what to do. The Qezelbāsh have two thousand men in the citadel and
have taken control of the gates from us. We will do whatever the Khān com-
mands.” They tied the letter to an arrow and shot it into the Uzbek camp, where
someone picked it up and brought it to ʿObayd Khān.
Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 333

He read it with delight, then ordered that another message be sent to the
lords of Balkh which read, “You have done well. What I expect of you is this:
Cut off supplies to the Qezelbāsh and tell them you have no more. That is all
you need to do.” The message was tied to an arrow and fired into the citadel.
After the lords and leaders of Balkh had read that message, the shopkeepers
came up with the plan of distributing their goods among their own houses by
night so that the next day they could close their shops and sell nothing to the
Qezelbāsh.
The next day, when the Qezelbāsh came to the bazaar, they saw that the
doors of the bakeries and other shops were closed. They grabbed some bakers
and greengrocers and threatened them, saying, “Open your shops and give us
provisions!” The merchants fled the Qezelbāsh and complained to the local
leaders, who went to Ḥosām Beg and cried that there was no more food to be
found in the city and the Qezelbāsh were sorely oppressing the people.
Ḥosām Beg saw that the people of Balkh had taken ʿObayd Khān’s side, and
he saw no remedy save leaving. He said to the locals, “Give us enough provi-
sions to make it to Kābol; there we will procure enough to get us to Harāt.”
“Even though we have no food, we will scrape together some for you,” came
the reply.
Ḥosām Beg then said to his companions, “The Uzbeks are full of hatred for
us. We must now kill our own sons [sic!], put our wives on horseback, and find
a way to leave the citadel by strategem, lest the property of the Qezelbāsh fall
into the hands of the Uzbeks.”
The local leaders of Balkh wrote a message to ʿObayd Khān, tied it to an ar-
row, and shot it into the Uzbek camp. It said, “Out of friendship for you and the
Four Pure Friends, we have made ourselves prisoners of Shaykh-oghli’s wrath.
We have cut off supplies to the Qezelbāsh, but they plan to leave for Kābol on
Friday night.”
ʿObayd Khān said, “The Qezelbāsh have had a novel idea—since Kābol is
close, they’re going there.” He ordered the Uzbek army to go to the gate of
Kābol and stand guard there.
Ḥosām Beg and the Qezelbāsh made their preparations, and on Tuesday
night, those three hundred men packed up their households and killed their
sons, and when one watch of the night had passed, they placed their wives on
horseback. Each of them loaded one horse with provisions and mounted up
himself, and they opened the gate which the Uzbeks had abandoned, heading
with two thousand Qezelbāsh on the Fāryāb road to Khorāsān.
The next day, when the people of Balkh learned that the Qezelbāsh had left,
they left the citadel and went to inform ʿObayd Khān. He said, “You wrote that
the Qezelbāsh were going to leave on Friday night, and now you come to tell
334 Chapter 43

me that they have left the citadel already?” He added, “First let me catch the
Qezelbāsh army, then I will decide what to do with you!” The people swore that
they had no idea, and that the Qezelbāsh had tricked them.
ʿObayd Khān said, “I want a man who will pursue the Qezelbāsh, capture
them, and bring them back to me.” None of his warriors were willing to fight
the Qezelbāsh, so no one responded. ʿObayd Khān resolved to go after them
himself. Then Biyāqu Bahādor spoke up: “If the Khān so orders it, I will go.”
ʿObayd Khān said, “Two things are preying on my mind. One is that I fear
that Jāni Beg Solṭān is hiding an army somewhere around here, waiting to seize
Balkh for himself when I leave. The other is this—who is Ḥosām Beg that I
should run after him? If you go, though, my mind will be at ease. Summon five
thousand men to accompany you, and be on the alert. Maybe you should am-
bush them while they are sleeping, since by day they will all be armed and
ready. Definitely do not do battle with them during the daytime.”
“The Khān must know,” said Biyāqu Bahādor, “that I have fought with the
Qezelbāsh several times and know their ways.”
ʿObayd Khān replied, “I want you to fight just as you did when you fought
Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli at the Korpi Bridge.” Biyāqu Bahādor said, “Don’t be
concerned; God willing, I will take all the Qezelbāsh prisoner and bring them
to you in chains.” And he led those five thousand illustrious Uzbek warriors off
in pursuit of Ḥosām Beg.
Now when Ḥosām Beg left the citadel of Balkh, he told two or three men to
take some provisions and baggage and go towards Kābol for the length of five
leagues, then to turn around and come back. Those two or three men did just
as they had been ordered; they went and turned around and came back to
Ḥosām Beg.
Biyāqu Bahādor left the citadel and, finding the trail those Qezelbāsh had
left, he said, “They have surely gone to Kābol!” And he hurried off in that direc-
tion. When he had gone ten leagues, he encountered a caravan coming from
Kābol. He asked them for information and they said, “We have not seen anyone
on this road.”
“They must have taken another road,” said Biyāqu Bahādor.
To make a long story short, he spent two days going back and forth on that
mountain. When he realized that the Qezelbāsh had taken the road to Fāryāb,
he turned his reins and proceeded down that road.
When Ḥosām Beg left the citadel, he began to pray thus: “O Emām Rezā, we
are strangers in this land, just as you are; other than you, I have neither help
nor helper.” Having said that, he led the Qezelbāsh down the road to Fāryāb
with all haste.
Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 335

When they got near Fāryāb, Ḥosām Beg’s nephew Āqā Aḥmad, the son of
Āqā Moḥammad the governor of Fāryāb, was in Āqā Moḥammad’s house. He
got word that Ḥosām Beg had arrived and went out to welcome him, then
brought them into the city and organized a feast for them. He asked about the
Uzbek army, and Ḥosām Beg filled him in.
Āqā Aḥmad asked, “Why hasn’t the Uzbek army come hot on your heels?”
Ḥosām Beg replied, “We arranged this ploy and left; perhaps my lord the
Emām Rezā will turn their reins in another direction.”
Āqā Aḥmad then saw to their provisions, and they left the citadel of Fāryāb
fully loaded. They were nearing the Morghāb river when Biyāqu Bahādor ar-
rived with three thousand men; two thousand more were bringing up the rear
on skinny horses.
When he spotted the dust raised by the Uzbek army, Ḥosām Beg said to Āqā
Aḥmad, “Take your supplies and head for the banks of the Morghāb; I will in-
tercept the Uzbeks on the road.” Āqā Aḥmad took five hundred Qezelbāsh and
sped in all haste to the edge of the river, where he sent the Qezelbāsh equip-
ment across the water. Āqā Moḥammad saw that Ḥosām Beg was late, so he
sent two hundred men along with their equipment across the river and himself
turned around with three hundred men to rejoin Ḥosām Beg.
Since the Uzbeks had been riding hard night and day, they were exhausted,
and when they finally saw the dust raised by the Qezelbāsh army, they rejoiced.
They sent a messenger to Ḥosām Beg to tell him that it was Biyāqu Bahādor
who was coming after him with three thousand men.
“O friends,” Ḥosām Beg said, “Biyāqu Bahādor is a veteran cavalryman who
has fought and defeated many. He possesses both courage and leadership. But
our horses are fat and strong, while theirs are tired-out old pack horses, and
our hope is with the strength of the divinely supported arm of ʿAli, the Friend
of God. So do not worry. I do know, though, that ʿObayd Khān will send six
thousand Uzbeks to fight two thousand Qezelbāsh.”
When Biyāqu Bahādor arrived, he sent a messenger to Ḥosām Beg inviting
him to bring his horses and do battle. Ḥosām Beg did not even look at the mes-
senger, but struck like a sudden calamity with those fifteen hundred Qezelbāsh,
breaking the Uzbek ranks in the first attack and killing a great many of them.
No matter how much the enemy tried to find their footing and put up a fight,
they could not manage it. Biyāqu Bahādor even killed several of his own Uz-
beks, saying, “Don’t you flee! Two hundred of you gather round me and watch
how I fight!” They had barely registered this order when Ḥosām Beg attacked
Biyāqu Bahādor and struck him such a blow on the top of his head that he split
him down to the navel. He then turned to the Uzbek army as the Qezelbāsh
gave cries of manliness.
336 Chapter 43

In the end, they killed all three thousand of those Uzbeks. They then gath-
ered up Biyāqu Bahādor’s head and horse and weapons. Ḥosām Beg intended
to proceed to Harāt, but when he learned that Jāni Beg Solṭān had Harāt sur-
rounded, he headed down the road to Māruchāq instead.
Now when the Qezelbāsh commanders abandoned Amir Najm to his doom,
Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi was first to go; he took an Uzbek as his guide and
left on the Bokhārā road before Amir Najm was killed. Arriving at Marv, he
gathered up the remaining Qezelbāsh and their supplies and left for Astarābād.
Moreover, when the Qezelbāsh were in dire straits in the battle, Amir Najm
had sworn to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, “By the head of the Perfect Guide, I am releas-
ing you from duty. Your presence here is no longer useful, and you are going to
be killed. Go to His Majesty and tell him I am his slave.” The desperate Ḥosayn
Beg Laleh said, “Very well, I will go,” but he stayed until Amir Najm was killed.
Then an Uzbek who knew the Qepchāq steppe and desert took them away.1
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh took some yuzbāshis and a hundred Qezelbāsh and went to
Harāt.
Now when His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil conquered Khorāsān and then re-
turned to ʿErāq, he left authority and guardianship over Ṭahmāsp Mirzā in the
hands of Ḥosayn Beg Laleh. He also left rule over all of Khorāsān to Ṭahmāsp
Mirzā, saying, “Henceforth let no one call him ‘Ṭahmāsp Mirzā,’ but rather
‘Shāh Ṭahmāsp.’” This much power was invested in him when he was six
months old. When the prince turned three, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered that he be
brought to Harāt, which was done. No king has ever ruled at the age of six
months, other than Shāh Ṭahmāsp and Shāh ʿAbbās, to whom Shāh Ṭahmāsp
gave rule over all of Khorāsān when he was six months old.2
When Shāh Ṭahmāsp came to Harāt, it was ordered that Ḥosayn Beg go to
Torkestān with Amir Najm. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh appointed his cousin Musā Beg
as viceregent-tutor to Shāh Ṭahmāsp and left for Torkestān. Later, when Ḥosayn
Beg Laleh returned to Harāt, he went to Shāh Ṭahmāsp. He had been gone on
campaign for a year and a half. The prince asked him how it had gone, and
Ḥosayn Beg described for him what had happened.
A few days later, word arrived that the Uzbeks had prepared for war and
were headed for Harāt. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh ordered that provisions be gathered
within the city and citadel. As it happened, that year the harvest had been
quite meager, and the weak and poor of Harāt were in increasing distress. After
ten more days, the news came that Jāni Beg Solṭān was going to arrive the next

1 Here the text is defective.

2 Ṭahmāsp was two years old when he was made nominal ruler of Khorāsān. Young ʿAbbās I was
also installed at Harāt in 980/1572–73, when he was only about one and a half years old.
Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 337

morning, bent on seizing Harāt. Ḥosayn Beg ordered that the city gates be
walled up with earth.
Jāni Beg Solṭān soon arrived with his five thousand Uzbeks and set up camp
all around the citadel. The next day he sent a messenger to the Qezelbāsh com-
manders with this message: “You have shut the citadel gate in vain, thinking I
will just wander off. Those Qezelbāsh commanders who went into battle with
Amir Najm have all been killed along with their army, and no one will be left
alive here either. You are no match for these Uzbeks. When I take the citadel by
force and capture you all, I will order a general massacre. If you hand over the
city peacefully and become Sunnis and ask nicely, I will make you my atten-
dants; if not, I will gather up your wives and sons and give them to my lord,
ʿObayd Khān.”
When the messenger entered the citadel, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh admonished his
men not to let the messenger talk to anybody en route, lest discord break out.
The messenger arrived, and when he entered the citadel and saw the royal
prince, he began to tremble like a leaf and prostrated himself. Then he deliv-
ered his message.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh said, “Even if all the Qezelbāsh commanders get killed, if
God Almighty wills it, let the head of the Perfect Guide be safe, for when he
places the foot of happy fortune in the stirrup of victory, he will turn all of
Torkestān upside down. We will not hand this citadel over to anyone; our an-
swer to this message is war!”
The messenger returned and reported to Jāni Beg Solṭān what had hap-
pened. He said, “The son of Shaykh-oghli is in the citadel, and they have no
provisions. If we must defeat this bunch based on their lack of food, so be it; if
not, no one can do it.” Jāni Beg Solṭān attacked the citadel two or three times,
but without success, and he remained camped at its base.
When ʿObayd Khān received word that Biyāqu Bahādor and his Uzbek army
had been killed, he was stunned. He punished the citizens of Balkh, then hand-
ed control of the city over to Moḥammad Solṭān as he himself left with twenty
thousand men, intent on seizing Harāt and all of Khorāsān.
In the meantime, Jāni Beg Solṭān attacked Harāt again, and the Qezelbāsh
again fought him off, killing four thousand Uzbeks in the process. Jāni Beg
Solṭān, though, dug in his heels and kept fighting. Just then, ʿObayd Khān and
his twenty thousand men arrived. Jāni Beg Solṭān and ʿObayd Khān saw each
other and sought to fill each other in. ʿObayd Khān asked, “Which of the
Qezelbāsh commanders and local leaders are inside the citadel?”
Jāni Beg Solṭān replied, “Of the local leaders, Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin and
Khwājeh ʿImādoddin, and of the Qezelbāsh, Zaynal Khān Shāmlu the governor
338 Chapter 43

of Astarābād, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, and Shāh Ṭahmāsp the son of Shaykh-oghli.
These four [sic!] individuals have closed the four gates and are inside.”
ʿObayd Khān first sent a messenger, but the reply he got was battle. On the
third day he launched an assault on the fortress. Jāni Beg Solṭān, fighting hard,
focused on the gate held by Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin. The Uzbeks fought man-
fully; they pressed as far as the edge of the citadel moat and then made an at-
tack that crossed it, bringing them to the gate. They were on the verge of
breaching the gate when Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin said to himself, “This shame
will cling to generations of Harātis; people may say, ‘Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin of
Harāt knowingly handed over the prince to the Uzbeks to be killed,’ but no one
will say, ‘The Uzbeks took the citadel by force.’ In fact, they are even now say-
ing, ‘Since the people of Harāt used to be Sunnis, they connived with the Uz-
beks to committ this heinous act.’”
He then ordered that the first gate, which a group of Uzbeks were about to
breach, be opened, and he and two thousand Harātis descended through the
first and second gates and caught the Uzbeks in a storm of swords. They also
threw heavy stones down on the Uzbeks’ heads from atop the citadel, killing
many. The Uzbeks retreated and tried to send for help. Since there was no way
out of that space between the gates, all the Uzbeks were killed, and the people
of Harāt shut the gates fast once more.
When Ḥosayn Beg first heard that the Uzbeks had nearly breached the city
gate, he ordered that the prince prepare to leave. Four hundred men got armed
and ready and mounted up so that the next time the Uzbeks attacked, they
could open the ʿErāq Gate and make their escape. News of this reached Zaynal
Khān, who sent someone to Ḥosayn Beg Laleh to say, “Surely you won’t do this!
If God does not intend for the Uzbeks take the citadel, we can hold out for six
more months and protect the prince from the enemy in the Nārin-qalʿeh until
His Majesty arrives in glory.” Ḥosayn Beg realized that Zaynal Khān was right.
Just then word came of how Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin had acted with such
valor. Ḥosayn Beg went to the rear of the gate and saw that nearly two thou-
sand five hundred Uzbeks had been killed inside the citadel, and that a mob
had stripped the corpses naked and stolen all their clothes.
Meanwhile, Jāni Beg Solṭān had gone back to join the assembly of ʿObayd
Khān, having given up hope of taking Harāt. ʿObayd Khān said to him, “All our
fighting will have been for nought; we have to think of a way for Moḥammad
Timur Khān to come and seize the city in the imperial glory of the Ṣāḥeb-
qerān, Timur. You must go to Oṭrār and give Tāshkand to Qarā Kaskan Solṭān,
for we shall not rule over Harāt.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān, though, was fighting as hard as he was because he hoped to
attain rule over Harāt. He realized that ʿObayd Khān intended to take over the
Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 339

city himself, and that what ʿObayd Khān was saying was an excuse—he was
actually going to seize the city on his own, being one of the chief tricksters of
the human race. It was necessary to think of something. So Jāni Beg Solṭān said
to him, “Right now you have the upper hand, but if Moḥammad Timur Khān
had been in command, he would not have done all this raiding back and forth.
All the trouble and pain we are suffering is due to the fact that Moḥammad
Timur Khān is not in command. Now we will be patient until fate is a little
kinder to us.”
ʿObayd Khān realized that Jāni Beg Solṭān had been through a lot lately. He
said, “We do not want you to suffer trouble and pain. Since you are opposed to
leaving, stay here so that we see where matters will end up.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān knew that ʿObayd Khān was not speaking from the heart. It
occurred to him to go confer with Qarā Kaskan Solṭān, who said, “We must go
to Balkh, the region which Shāhi Beg Khān left to us in exchange for Samarqa-
nd, seize it from ʿObayd Khān’s representative, and rule it ourselves.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān accepted this filial advice and went back to ʿObayd Khān,
saying, “I have thought about what you said, and you are right. I will go.”
ʿObayd Khān was deceived; he did not imagine that after Jāni Beg Solṭān got
to Balkh, he would not let go of it. They bade each other farewell, and Jāni Beg
Solṭān took his troops and left for Balkh. When he entered the citadel there, he
expelled ʿObayd Khān’s representative and began to rule Balkh in complete
independence.
After Jāni Beg Solṭān had departed for Balkh, ʿObayd Khān confidently
launched another attack on Harāt. The situation of the people inside had be-
come grim; their supplies were low, and they had turned to eating the meat of
horses and camels and mules. One day, the hungry Ḥosayn Beg Laleh went to
sit in the presence of Shāh Ṭahmāsp. He saw that Bābā ʿEshqi the tabarrāʾi had
begun his ritual cursing and was coming his way. When he came close, Ḥosayn
Beg Laleh said, “O Bābā ʿEshqi, we are so hungry that we don’t have the energy
to say, ‘May it be more.’”3
“Let me go and get you some food,” said Bābā ʿEshqi. That very night he took
his son and went to a village, where he loaded four small horses with grain. All
night he bravely traveled, and whenever anyone asked what he was carrying
and where he was going, he said, “I am carrying grain for So-and-So Bahādor.”
When he got near the city gate, though, the Uzbek soldiers got wind of what he
was up to, and they seized him. They brought him to ʿObayd Khān, who or-
dered that he be torn limb from limb in front of the people of Harāt. The Shiʿis

3 The proper response to the tabarrāʾi’s call “A hundred thousand curses on the enemies of the
faith!” was “May it be more and not less!”
340 Chapter 43

of the city were upset by the killing of Bābā ʿEshqi, and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh be-
came very pensive.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp said, “O my tutor, why are you so gloomy?”
“Why shouldn’t I be gloomy?” Ḥosayn Beg replied. “The Uzbek army have
surrounded us like a finger-ring, and several thousand people inside the citadel
are close to starvation.”
The prince said, “O my tutor, don’t grieve. Tonight I will pray and tearfully
cry out to the court of the Divine Unity; perhaps the holy Commander of the
Faithful will help us overcome this misfortune.”
“Truly, you possess the authority of the innocent,” said Ḥosayn Beg Laleh.
“Should you pray, it will surely be answered.”
When that prince of Ṣafavid Ḥosaynid Musavid lineage prayed, the arrow of
his prayer hit the mark of reply, and that very night, word reached ʿObayd Khān
that Jāni Beg Solṭān had seized Balkh for himself and expelled ʿObayd Khān’s
representative. The astonished ʿObayd Khān had no choice but to pack up and
head for Balkh. The next morning the people in the citadel learned of his de-
parture; rejoicing, they opened the city gates and went out to the countryside,
where they gathered lots of food. They brought it back to the citadel and
thanked God on high.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān, determined to conquer Khorāsān,
had gathered forty thousand Uzbek soldiers and marched out from Samarqa-
nd. When he came within six days’ journey of Harāt, he encountered ʿObayd
Khān on the road. He asked him what was going on. ʿObayd Khān replied, “Jāni
Beg Solṭān has seized Balkh and done such-and-such.”
“He has done well!” replied. Moḥammad Timur Khān. “He is a scion of Chan-
giz Khān and our elders; it would not be generous of us to overreact. Your uncle
Shāhi Beg Khān gave him Balkh in exchange for Samarqand, and even though
he was not happy to be in or possess Balkh, he did not demand a greater realm.
Why should we give him trouble over it now? Right now I am coming to work
with you to conquer everywhere from Mashhad to the Korpi Bridge on your
behalf, after which you won’t have any issues with Jāni Beg Solṭān anymore.”
ʿObayd Khān therefore returned to Harāt at the side of Moḥammad Timur
Khān. The Qezelbāsh spies who had followed ʿObayd Khān now went back and
reported that the two Uzbek commanders were on their way to Harāt along
with sixty thousand soldiers. Upon hearing this news, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh said,
“O friends, we have to scatter, for the affair is lost.”
So Zaynal Khān went to Astarābād, and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh gathered up Shāh
Ṭahmāsp and his household, as well as Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin, Khwājeh
ʿImādoddin of Harāt, and a few others, and they all left the citadel and set off
for Sistān, loudly cursing the first three Caliphs. Two days after they left, the
Jāni Beg Solṭān Goes To Balkh 341

Uzbek army arrived at Harāt. The people of the city came out to greet them.
ʿObayd Khān ordered that they should first bring to him two thousand schis-
matics and their leaders so that he could punish them.
The people of Harāt replied, “They have left for ʿErāq along with the
Qezelbāsh.”
ʿObayd Khān wanted to go in pursuit, but Abu Saʿid Khān said, “O uncle, you
stay here and I will go. I will capture the son of Shaykh-oghli, along with those
who have fled, and bring them to you.” Then he gathered two thousand blood-
thirsty Uzbeks and set off in pursuit of the prince.
When Shāh Ṭahmāsp and his tutor and friends got within three days of
Sistān, Malek Maḥmud, the governor of that region, learned that they were
coming. He gathered together loads of food and supplies and came out to greet
the prince. After prostrating himself and kissing the royal foot, he led them
into the city, where he pledged his obedience and prepared a banquet.
A day later the Qezelbāsh exchanged their horses, which had become skin-
ny and weak on the journey, for good mounts. They could not stay for fear of
the Uzbeks, although despite their hunger and the lack of horses and the
stresses of the journey, those three thousand Qezelbāsh would have been a
match for thirty thousand Uzbeks. Ḥosayn Beg Laleh kept saying, “Our busi-
ness is war; we don’t want the Uzbeks to come in force and, God forbid, take
such a prince as this from us!” And they marched off.
When Malek Maḥmud was relieved from duty guarding Shāh Ṭahmāsp, he
returned to the citadel. Later, when Abu Saʿid Khān arrived in Sistān with his
limitless army and demanded to know where the Qezelbāsh were, Malek
Maḥmud, showing conduct worthy of a Ṣufi, swore an oath, saying, “The
Qezelbāsh did not come by this road and did not enter the citadel. Rather, they
left by that road.” He did this out of worry that the prince and the Qezelbāsh
might be captured by the Uzbeks. So Abu Saʿid Solṭān, taking Malek Maḥmud
at his word, turned around and went back to Harāt.
342 Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns to Iran and to His Majesty, Who Summons an Army
to Conquer Khorāsān and Torkestān; the Kings of Torkestān Flee

Shāh Ṭahmāsp left Sistān and entered Yazd along with Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and
the rest of the Qezelbāsh army. From there they marched to Eṣfahān, which
they entered without attracting any attention. They went to the blessed royal
palace and asked about His Majesty the Shāh. “He is in the Naqsh-e Jahān Gar-
den,” they were told, “in the Pavilion of the Mahdi. But something is disturbing
his blessed nature.”
The prince’s commanders and companions stood outside while the prince
himself entered the harem. When the harem’s inhabitants saw him, they began
to give thanks with prayers and praise. Tājlu Begom, upon seeing her precious
son, embraced him. But Ṭahmāsp did not pay attention to his mother; rather
he went to his father and rubbed his face on the soles of His Majesty’s feet,
thanking Almighty God. Shāh Esmāʿil was lying on the bed unable to move, but
when he saw his dear son, he said, “O my soul, now that I have seen your face,
my ebbing life has returned to me, and I feel signs of vitality stirring within me.
Come closer!”
The prince was just going to embrace his father when His Majesty, with a cry
of “O ʿAli, help!”, sat up and clasped the boy in his arms like his very soul. He
added, “You have done well to come here. Khorāsān isn’t going anywhere.”
Then, when the Shāh had thus laid eyes on the pearl of the casket of regency,
the One Who is without beginning or end changed his state to one of health,
and saying “O ʿAli, Friend of God,” His Majesty jumped out of bed, took his son’s
hand, and left the harem.
When the Qezelbāsh commanders heard that Shāh Ṭahmāsp had come with
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, they all went to the gate of the palace. There they saw
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh, who asked Durmesh Khān what was bothering the Shāh.
Durmesh Khān replied, “His Majesty had become so ill that all the doctors and
learned men were at a loss. For the last two or three days he has been praying
to the holy Commander of the Faithful and has gotten a little better. He has not
come out of the harem for a long while, though, and we earnestly wish to at-
tend to him and show him our devotion.”
Just then Shāh Esmāʿil emerged from the harem holding the hand of his son.
When the commanders and Qezelbāsh saw His Majesty, they erupted in tu-
multuous celebration. Then Durmesh Khān stepped forth and embraced the

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_045

Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 343

Shāh, and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh fell to the ground and wept bitterly. Shāh Esmāʿil
said, “O my tutor, what did you do to Najm II?”
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh replied that Fate had betrayed Amir Najm, and he de-
scribed what had happened.
“Fate did not betray him as much as you all did!” snapped the Shāh.
Ḥosayn Beg Laleh said, “My loyalty to Amir Najm was and is plain to the
Perfect Guide.”
“I don’t mean you personally,” the Shāh replied. “But a hundred pities on
Najm II! I gave him orders instructing him that if the day should come when
we are not around, he should rest assured as regards Iran and its sons and ser-
vants.

What happens is not what I want;

What happens is just what God wants.”

Ḥosayn Beg said, “My heart will never heal from the wound caused by the
death of Amir Najm. But such were the strength and power and bravery and
intelligence and sagacity and ingenuity and wisdom that the Lord of the world
gave to that rustic that if he had been on the throne, he would have tossed
aside all the other kings of the world.” Then he related all the details of his ex-
pedition; he told His Majesty of the near-hanging of Dadeh Beg the qurchi-
bāshi, of how Bābor Pādeshāh intervened on his behalf, and of how Amir Najm
rebuffed him and then consented to a pardon after much pleading; he told of
the near-hanging of Eskandar and of the actual hanging of Najm’s nephew
Moḥammad Kāẓem, and of everything that had transpired in the following
days. The Shāh was most sorrowful. He said, “May God forgive everything he
did, for he was as a father to me. A ‘second star’1 has left us to be made a star
and planet; there is no ‘third star,’ nor will there ever be.”
Seeing the Shāh so unhappy and pensive, Ḥosayn Beg Laleh showed some
tenderness toward him and offered compassionate counsel, saying, “Even if
the Qezelbāsh are somewhat at fault, it is Bābor Pādeshāh who initially caused
the flight and defeat of the army. He wronged Amir Najm and his men. Other-
wise, the Uzbeks could never have stumbled into a victory in a confrontation
with the Qezelbāsh.”
Shāh Esmāʿil replied, “Henceforth I will cut off the nose and ears of anyone,
whether soldier or commoner, who lets the name ‘Bābor Pādeshāh’ pass his
lips. God forbid that man should be a descendant of Timur!” He talked much in
this vein.

1 The literal meaning of najm-e thāni.

344 Chapter 44

Then Ḥosayn Beg Laleh related how ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān had
come to Harāt, how Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin of Harāt had fought manfully, how
supplies had run low, and how the two Uzbek khāns had retreated from Harāt
and then returned with Moḥammad Timur Khān, after which the prince and
Qezelbāsh had fled to the presence of His Majesty. The Shāh praised the
khwājehs of Harāt, then commanded that a house be appointed to them and
that they be granted ten times the amount of furnishings and possessions that
they had had in Harāt. It was also commanded that the great amirs praise and
honor and take care of them. Then he gave them lavish robes of honor and
brought them into the harem.
The next day, the Shāh proceeded in pomp and glory to the royal palace,
where the great amirs gathered in his presence. His Majesty said, “Praise and
thanks be to God, and may the holy Commander of the Faithful aid us. Glory to
the name of the Lord, who has deemed us worthy of a cure from his treasury in
the Unseen and changed our suffering to health!” Then he ordered that a royal
decree be written to the various protected realms of Iran, commanding that
troops assemble in Solṭāniyeh on the first day of spring for a campaign to con-
quer Khorāsān and Torkestān. These were written and stamped with the Shāh’s
sun-like seal, then dispatched with runners.
Meanwhile, Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān had taken Harāt,
and Moḥammad Timur Khān established himself there. The local Sunnis
pointed out the Shiʿis one by one, and the Uzbeks killed many of them.
Now four thousand Qezelbāsh had fled Amir Najm’s side and gone from
Torkestān to Bādghis, near Harāt. When the people of Bādghis realized this,
they killed a great many of them; a few of them, though, perhaps a thousand,
managed to escape and get themselves to Astarābād with a thousand troubles.
That is when ʿObayd Khān summoned his men and betook himself to holy
Mashhad.
When the governor of Mashhad heard that ʿObayd Khān was on his way, he
abandoned the city and headed for ʿErāq. ʿObayd Khān, unperturbed, entered
Mashhad, where he killed most of the city’s Shiʿis as well as the attendants of
the holy Emām Rezā. In the end, then, ʿObayd Khān once more took possession
of the region from holy Mashhad to the Korpi Bridge and settled down to rule
it.
Before the Nawruz holiday, His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil left Eṣfahān and pro-
ceeded in pomp and glory down the Kāshān road. After a long journey he
alighted in Solṭāniyeh, where he passed the Nawruz holiday with pleasure and
enjoyment. Once the victorious army had assembled, when two months and
two days had passed since world-illuminating Nawruz, he set off with twelve
thousand Qezelbāsh with the intention of conquering Khorāsān and Torkestān.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 345

It was commanded that Mirzā Moḥammad Ṭālesh take the Shāh’s camp-equi-
page ahead, and Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān, the governor of Shirāz, were
given five thousand men and told to go ahead as the vanguard. They kissed the
royal foot and set off to do their duty.
When the Uzbek governors learned that the royal army and its vanguard
were on the move, they abandoned every city from Semnān to Mashhad and
flocked to gather around ʿObayd Khān in Mashhad.
Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān arrived in Semnān and, finding it empty, occu-
pied it. To make a long story short, they proceeded to Sabzevār and Nishābur,
then went on to Mashhad, where they set up camp outside the gate. When
ʿObayd Khān learned that they had arrived and realized that they had only five
thousand men with them, he brimmed over with courage and exited the cita-
del at the head of twenty thousand Uzbeks. Both sides arrayed their forces for
battle.
The first attack began, and the battle got underway as the two armies
crashed into one another and the Qezelbāsh gave a cry of manliness. When
ʿObayd Khān saw that four thousand of his Uzbeks had been killed, he was
stunned; then that world-class scoundrel thought to himself, “If you want to
escape with your hide, you’d better say ‘I’m off to the battlefield’ and sneak off
alone without the troops finding out.” This he did, after which he fled to Harāt.
Seeing his standard upturned, the Uzbeks had no choice but to fight, and
many of them were killed or captured; the remainder fled the battlefield. Div
Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān reached the foot of ʿObayd Khān’s standard and asked
where he was, and they learned that he had fled at the beginning of the battle.
They entered Mashhad in triumph and sent the heads of the Uzbeks who had
been killed, as well as the nobles who had been captured, to the court of His
Majesty the Shāh.
Shāh Esmāʿil brought glory to every place he passed through, and finally
stopped in Sabzevār. There he passed under his alchemical gaze the petition
that Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān had sent along with the Uzbek heads and
prisoners. “Which of the prisoners is ʿObayd Khān?” he asked.
He was told, “These thirty sons of the Uzbek solṭāns were all captured ex-
cept the devious ʿObayd Khān, who slipped away as soon as the battle began.”
The Shāh said, “I had said that even if they brought Moḥammad Timur Khān
and his brother and all the Uzbek princes to me, their service will not avail us
any as long as the root of corruption is not seized.” He ordered that the Uzbek
prisoners be clapped in chains and imprisoned. Then he said to Qarāpir Solṭān
Qājār, “I knew that Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān would not get the job done. I
am granting command of the army to you; take eight thousand men to Harāt,
seize Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān, and bring them to me.”
346 Chapter 44

Qarāpir Solṭān kissed the royal foot. Then he gathered his men and left for
Harāt.
Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān, meanwhile, believed that they had rendered
His Majesty a service, and they were expecting robes of honor and decrees of
favor. Then someone brought them this news: “His Majesty has cashiered the
two of you for not capturing ʿObayd Khān. He has made Qarāpir Solṭān com-
mander and sent him to fight the Uzbeks, and he is coming this way.”
Div Solṭān was dismayed, and Khalil Solṭān said, “What could have we done
wrong?”
“The Shāh is right,” said Div Solṭān. “For ʿObayd Khān is the root of all trou-
ble in Khorāsān, and the astrologers have foreseen that ʿObayd Khān will come
to Khorāsān numerous times, and that he will sow strife and corruption.”
“What should we do now?” asked Khalil Solṭān.
“We had better go in pursuit of ʿObayd Khān and get something accom-
plished. Otherwise we will never enter the presence of the Perfect Guide again.”
So they set off for Harāt.
Now when ʿObayd Khān fled the battle and headed on his own toward Harāt,
his horse died three leagues from the city, and he had to walk the rest of the
way with a thousand difficulties. That day, Moḥammad Timur Khān had left
Harāt and was hunting in the countryside there. In the distance, he saw some-
one staggering along. “Someone to go and see who that is,” he said; “the sight of
him fills me with dread.”
A horseman rode off, and when he reached ʿObayd Khān, he recognized him
and dismounted to pay his respects. After they had spoken some, he put ʿObayd
Khān in the saddle, and they set off with him walking in front. When
Moḥammad Timur Khān looked and saw them coming, he said, “Has our man
done things the Uzbek way? Someone else go over there and quickly bring
back some information.” Another man got on his horse and galloped over to
the pair, then back to report that it was ʿObayd Khān coming in such a wretch-
ed condition. Moḥammad Timur Khān heaved a great sigh, then spurred his
horse over to where ʿObayd Khān was. He said, “O Khān, what disaster has hap-
pened? Where has the Uzbek army gone?”
ʿObayd Khān explained to Moḥammad Timur Khān what had happened. He
said, “It is folly to stay here, for the Qezelbāsh army is on its way! We have to
think of something!” Together they hurried into Harāt, where they decided
that the prudent thing to do was to leave. So they packed up their households
and their possessions and left Harāt on the Gharjestān road on the way to Sa-
marqand and Bokhārā.
When they got to Gharjestān, Malek Neẓāmoddin Ghuri came out to greet
Moḥammad Timur Khān. He paid his respects and asked why he had come.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 347

They explained everything to him, and he said, “If you quickly come help me, I
will go to Harāt and hold the city until you return.”
Moḥammad Timur Khān replied, “If you hold on to Harāt for three months
and don’t let anybody take it, I will bring you the army of all of Torkestān.”
“I will hold it for six months,” said Malek Neẓāmoddin.
Moḥammad Timur Khān praised him and left for Bokhārā and Samarqand
with ʿObayd Khān. The foolish Malek Neẓāmoddin gathered four thousand
men and entered Harāt with them. The people of Harāt, though, turned their
backs on him. “O you heretics,” he said, “Moḥammad Timur Khān has sent me;
I didn’t come on my own!” Thereafter, out of fear of Moḥammad Timur Khān,
the people saw no option but to obey.
They said, “There is not enough food to go around,” but Malek Neẓāmoddin
replied, “The Khān will send some from Ghur and Gharjestān.” A few days later,
a lot of food did arrive from Ghur and Gharjestān, and they brought it into the
city. Malek Neẓāmoddin busied himself getting important affairs in order and
settled down contentedly in Harāt.
In the meantime, Qarāpir Solṭān and his eight thousand men had marched
as far as Mashhad, then continued riding. When they came within four leagues
of Harāt, Qarāpir Solṭān learned that Malek Neẓāmoddin, the governor of
Ghur and Gharjestān, was occupying Harāt with four thousand men. So
Qarāpir Solṭān made camp where he was and wrote a letter to His Majesty the
Shāh, waiting for a response before continuing on.
Now Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān had arrived in Jām when word arrived that
Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān had left Harāt and were heading for
Samarqand, and that Malek Neẓāmoddin had entered Harāt with four thou-
sand men. Div Solṭān said to Khalil Solṭān, “His Majesty has pitted Qarāpir
Solṭān against us. The worst thing we can do is to stay here and do nothing. We
must go fight Malek Neẓāmoddin with trust in our God.”
So they left Jām, and when they had come within one day’s journey of Harāt,
Div Solṭān said to Khalil Solṭān, “If we both go with this army, they will not
open the city gates. You need to take five hundred men to the base of the cita-
del and say, ‘Div Solṭān sent us here to take over the fortress when he learned
that Moḥammad Timur Khān had left.’ When Malek Neẓāmoddin sees you
with just five hundred men, he will swallow the ruse and come out to fight.
That’s when you must turn and flee in this direction; perhaps God Most High
will provide a way for you and me to clear our names.”
Khalil Solṭān took five hundred men and set off. When they got to the foot of
the citadel of Harāt, he cried, “Open the gates! God forbid the Uzbeks should
come!” He continued his urging while word was brought to Malek Neẓāmoddin
348 Chapter 44

that five hundred Qezelbāsh had come and were shouting “Open the gates!”
“Clearly they don’t know you are here,” he was told.
Malek Neẓāmoddin said:

Fortune is that which comes to the bosom without the heart’s blood.2

He then went to the Sunni community and asked, “How big an army should we
take out to fight?”
They replied, “These four thousand Ghuri soldiers won’t be able to manage
the Qezelbāsh. You’d better take everybody.”
So Malek Neẓāmoddin raised his army and sallied forth from the citadel to
confront Khalil Solṭān, who promptly turned his men around and fled. Malek
Neẓāmoddin went in pursuit of them, and when they had ridden a distance of
three leagues and their horses were exhausted, Div Solṭān and his men leaped
out in ambush and charged into that army of Uzbeks, attacking them violently
from two directions. When three thousand Uzbeks had been killed, Malek
Neẓāmoddin admitted defeat and fled in the direction of Gharjestān with the
remaining one thousand men.
Div Solṭān sent Khalil Solṭān to take control of the citadel of Harāt, while he
himself took off in pursuit of Malek Neẓāmoddin. After chasing him for eight
or nine leagues, he caught up to him and plunged into his army, killing those
thousand men as well as Malek Neẓāmoddin himself. Then he set off for Ghur
and Gharjestān. When he got there, he put to death every one of the men and
women and children of that city and plundered their property. He also seized
Malek Neẓāmoddin’s harem and treasury and took them back to Harāt.
Meanwhile, His Majesty the Shāh had left Sabzevār. When he got to Ṭoroq,
outside Mashhad, the royal army set up camp, and Shāh Esmāʿil and all the
Qezelbāsh proceeded on foot for the remaining three leagues,3 weeping and
calling out “O Emām!” They entered the sacred enclosure of the Emām Rezā
and, after kissing the dust of that blessed threshold and paying a visit to that
luminous resting-place, they returned to camp.
His Majesty asked about Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān. He was informed that
when they heard that they had been cashiered and Qarāpir Solṭān promoted to
commander, they had gone in pursuit of Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd
Khān, thinking that perhaps they could capture them and in this way get the
Shāh to overlook their transgression.

2 Divān of Ḥāfeẓ, ghazal no. 74.

3 Earlier in the story, the distance from Ṭoroq to Mashhad was said to be four leagues. In reality,
it is two.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 349

“There are forty thousand Uzbeks in Harāt,” said the Shāh; “God forbid that
something bad should happen to Div Solṭān, as that would be an ill omen in-
deed!” He ordered that the forward encampment be sent to Harāt. When he
himself had traveled for a day or two, a letter arrived at the royal court from
Qarāpir Solṭān describing how Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān had
left Harāt and how Malek Neẓāmoddin had come and established himself
there, awaiting orders.
When this letter passed under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh, His Majesty
said to himself, “Qarāpir has carried out his duty.” Preoccupied with Harāt, he
proceeded onward, and he had stopped in Jām when he received the letter of
Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān, along with the heads of the Uzbeks and the news
of the flight of Malek Neẓāmoddin. His Majesty praised his two commanders,
saying, “O friends, manliness and cowardice are separated by a single step.” He
then ordered that Div Solṭān and Khalil Solṭān be sent robes of honor and
crowns and turbans and horses and swords and horse-trappings. Then he left
Jām for Harāt.
When he approached that city, Khalil Solṭān emerged with a group of no-
bles and local leaders and common people, and they had just kissed the ground
at the Shāh’s feet when a huge cloud of dust was seen on the horizon. Shāh
Esmāʿil asked someone to find out what it was.
Someone went and hurried back to say, “It is Div Solṭān! He went in pursuit
of Malek Neẓāmoddin of Ghur, killed him and his Uzbek army, then went to
Gharjestān to carry out a general massacre and bring back Malek Neẓāmoddin’s
harem and treasury. Look, here he comes now!”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “All who love me, go and welcome Div Solṭān.”
All the great commanders and Qezelbāsh and Harātis went out and gave Div
Solṭān a hearty welcome; then they brought him into the presence of His Maj-
esty, where he kissed the royal foot. The Shāh praised him and ordered another
robe of honor for him, showing him special favor. He then entered Harāt and
turned his attention to the affairs of the city’s poor and destitute and down-
trodden. Shortly after, Dadeh Beg the qurchi-bāshi arrived at the royal court
from Astarābād. When he entered Harāt and kissed the carpet beneath the
royal feet, His Majesty said to him, “O you treacherous non-Ṣufi! What are you
doing here?”
“I have erred,” said Dadeh Beg, “but the Perfect Guide is generous.”
The Shāh replied, “It is a pity that such whiskers should pass for a beard on
that face of yours!” He ordered Dadeh Beg’s whiskers shaved completely off
and rouge and white paint daubed on his face. Then they dressed him in wom-
en’s clothes, mounted him backward on a donkey, and paraded him through
Harāt. After that, the Shāh commanded that he be taken around all the regions
350 Chapter 44

of Iran so as to teach others a lesson. After being paraded around Harāt, though,
Dadeh Beg wrote a petition to His Majesty that said, “By the charity of the
blessed Commander of the Faithful, do not parade this fault-filled slave out
around the world more than this! Having sacrificed my blood for you, I have no
more desire to live.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “I swear to God that I had intended to kill this faithless
man. But he served me for a long time during our battles in Gilān, so I have
changed my mind. Let him be removed from here and taken to Ardabil, and let
him stay there and not come to our royal court anymore.” So Dadeh Beg was
taken away.
Later it was made known to the Shāh that when four thousand Qezelbāsh
had abandoned Amir Najm II and escaped the sword of ʿObayd Khān, they had
gone to Bādghis, where the local people had slaughtered them to a man, leav-
ing none alive. The Shāh, in his wisdom, knew that there was a Bādghisi spy in
his camp who was going to report back anything His Majesty said, so he an-
nounced, “All those who abandoned Amir Najm in battle are unworthy Ṣufis,
expelled from my court. It was proper that they be killed.”
When the spy heard this from the people in the royal encampment, he went
back to the people of Bādghis to bring them the news that the Shāh did not
begrudge the deaths of the Qezelbāsh. They had been planning to abandon
Bādghis and scatter, but when they heard this, they breathed a sigh of relief
and stayed home.
Later, though, His Majesty ordered Div Solṭān to take ten thousand Qezel­
bāsh and go by an unexpected route to make a night-attack on the people of
Bādghis. He told him to kill all the men, take the women and children prisoner,
and plunder all their belongings to bring back to the Shāh.
Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot and rounded up ten thousand men. They left
Harāt as soon as night fell, and just after midnight they gathered together and
poured down on the heads of the Bādghisis.
If the people of Bādghis had split up and scattered, the Qezelbāsh would not
have been able to lay a finger on them. This is because that region is covered
with grass as high as a spear; the Bādghisis would have hidden in ambush in
the grass, and when anyone came to get them, they would have sneaked up and
killed him with bow and arrow. That is why the kings of Torkestān and Khorāsān
have never conquered them up to this time.
Anyway, when the people of Bādghis learned that the Qezelbāsh had sur-
rounded them, they were helpless. Div Solṭān and the Qezelbāsh crashed into
their midst, killing all the men, taking the women and children prisoner, and
plundering their belongings. After ten days, Div Solṭān returned to the Shāh
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 351

and kissed the royal foot. All the great commanders reported what an amazing
service Div Solṭān had rendered; it was as if God were watching over him.
“Yes,” said Shāh Esmāʿil, “I am going to promote him.”
Now back when Bābor Pādeshāh fled the battlefield, abandoning Amir
Najm, he went to Kābol. He sent a spy to Iran, who was to return and report on
what the Shāh said when he learned of the death of Amir Najm and the flight
of Bābor. The spy did so, telling Bābor, “When they told the Shāh about your
flight, he commanded that from now on anyone who lets your name pass his
lips will have his tongue cut out and his nose and ears cut off.”
Bābor Pādeshāh began to brood when he heard this. He did not know what
to do. Then, when he heard that His Majesty was coming to Kābol, he was
stunned, and he resolved to abandon the city and go to India to join Solṭān
Ebrāhim Pādeshāh, the son of Solṭān Shaykh Bahlul.4 He also sent someone
to Khān Mirzā in Badakhshān to say, “We have made this decision; what advice
can you offer?”
Khān Mirzā wrote back saying, “Beware, a thousand times beware! Don’t do
it, or fortune will abandon our dynastic house! For I have heard from the as-
trologers of Torkestān and the soothsayers5 of Badakhshān that the house of
the Ṣāḥeb-qerān will be elevated to high rank by the light of the family of
Shaykh Ṣafi. You really need to go to the Shāh, no matter what has been de-
creed. Since you will be going in reliance on the generosity of His Majesty, he
will—in spite of the fact that a commander like Amir Najm (who had no peer
in this world or the next) fought for you, and you knowingly handed him over
to his death—again honor you and raise you to a high station. In short, put
aside your concern for self, hang your quiver and sword from your neck, and
make your way to the court of the world-conquering Shāh; I will be right be-
hind you.”
Upon reading Khān Mirzā’s letter, Bābor Pādeshāh realized that going to see
the Shāh would be better than running away. So, begging pardon for his limit-
less faults, he set out for the royal court.
When he got to Harāt, he entered the city unnoticed and with no announce-
ment. The Shāh was seated in majesty upon the throne of state when Bābor
entered the court with his hands clasped, his sword and quiver hung around
his neck, and his mouth open in prayer and praise. He stood before Shāh
Esmāʿil and said, “I am disgraced and ashamed by my despicable actions. Let

4 A reference to Solṭān Ebrāhim Lodi, Solṭān of Delhi from 1517 to 1526. He was the last scion of
the Lodi dynasty founded by Bahlul Khān Lodi.
5 Scapulimancers, shāneh-binān.
352 Chapter 44

His Majesty command that this sinful slave be given a disciplinary beating,6
after which I will explain to the Perfect Guide the truth of the wrong I have
committed.”
When the Qezelbāsh commanders saw Bābor Pādeshāh in such a state, they
all fell to praying and supplicating the divine court of the Judge of Needs, say-
ing, “This Bābor Pādeshāh is a descendant of Timur, the Ṣāḥeb-qerān, and he
has come to the lofty court of the Shāh just like a sinner, though he has com-
mitted no sin! He has hung his sword and quiver around his neck and is stand-
ing there firmly, like one who has won a victory. O God, do preserve him!” Shāh
Esmāʿil, too, who had inherited compassion and benevolence from his glorious
ancestors, rose from his seat and placed his blessed hand on Bābor Pādeshāh’s
neck. He kissed his forehead, removed the sword and quiver from his neck, and
embraced him. Then he sat him down beside him, in the place that had always
been his, and said to him, “The way you have come here, even if you had killed
my own son, I would have forgiven you. Nevertheless, it is only just to admit
that in all of Torkestān and Iran there is none to be found like Amir Najm these
days, nor will there ever be.”
“What the Perfect Guide says is true,” replied Bābor Pādeshāh. “But what
happened to Amir Najm was due to his own arrogance. Surely some of the
great commanders and Qezelbāsh who were at the battle with him are present
at His Majesty’s court; let them come forward, so that I may explain to them
how many times I implored Amir Najm to realize that ‘one cannot go to
Tāshkand Mountain.’7 But he would not listen, and things turned out as they
did. May God keep the Shāh safe! Every slave of his whom he has promoted and
favored will be equal to a hundred Najms, for his position and power were not
his own, but arose out of the attention and support of His Majesty.”
Then he turned to making conversation, and the Shāh bestowed a robe of
honor upon him. A few days later, Khān Mirzā also arrived at the royal court
from Badakhshān to kiss the royal foot. He also told His Majesty the whole
story about Amir Najm and that battle.
After the royal entourage had been in Harāt for three months, His Majesty
the Shadow of God, at an auspicious hour, departed the city and set off in the
direction of Torkestān with Bābor Pādeshāh and Khān Mirzā. Div Solṭān was
appointed to the vanguard. When they crossed the Morghāb River, Jāni Beg
Solṭān, in Balkh, got wind of their coming. He was greatly distressed and aban-
doned Balkh, running off in the direction of Bokhārā and Samarqand. Shāh
Esmāʿil appointed governors to every fortress in those parts, and when he ap-

6 chub-e ṭariq. For this ritual, see Morton, “The Chub-i tariq.”
7 This is opaque, but apparently an idiom meaning to attempt something impossible.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 353

proached Balkh, the people came out to welcome him with copious gifts, kiss-
ing the ground as they passed under his gaze.
His Majesty told Div Solṭān, “Since you have shown manliness and served
me well on this campaign, I am granting you all the land from the shore of the
Oxus to Andijān, and I am making you governor of Balkh.”
Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot, and the Shāh entered Balkh in pomp and
glory. There he stayed for a month, making preparations for an expedition to
Torkestān. Then he left along the road to Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān.
When he got near that city, Fulād Solṭān, the governor, who was the bravest
among the descendants of Changiz Khān and a matchless archer, was in the
citadel with twelve thousand Uzbeks. Hearing that Shāh Esmāʿil was approach-
ing, he consulted with the elders of the city. “Battle with Shaykh-oghli is impos-
sible,” they said; “you must flee Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān for somewhere else.”
Fulād Solṭān replied, “Let me try my hand against Shaykh-oghli, so that my
name will be remembered through the ages.” He thus did not heed their advice,
but rather hastened to his appointed hour, as the noble verse has it.8
When Shāh Esmāʿil set up camp at the foot of the citadel with that sea-
churning army of his, he thought of Amir Najm, and he said to Bābor, “The di-
saster that befell the Qezelbāsh at the hands of the Uzbeks has never happened
to anyone in the world, particularly to such a general, whom I myself trained,
and whose like will not shine in the world again even if the celestial sphere
turns for a thousand years. You gave such a jewel away for free, placing it before
the enemy with no dread of our princely person. For if the Uzbek kings had
heard that Amir Najm was coming, they would have abandoned their positions
and fled.”
Bābor Pādeshāh hung his head in shame and said nothing.
Shāh Esmāʿil turned to examine the citadel of Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān and saw
that it was a wondrous fortress whose battlements extended beyond the reach
of the stars themselves. He told one of the qurchis to go to the citadel with this
message for Fulād Solṭān: “If you open the fortress gate and come to my ser-
vice, I will make you governor of this city. If not, once I get a hold of you all, I
will order a general massacre.”
When this message was brought to Fulād Solṭān, the people of the citadel
said to him, “That Amir Najm was but one of Shaykh-oghli’s servants, and look
at the havoc he wreaked on us; how, then, can we fight with Shaykh-oghli him-
self? We cannot fight, and we cannot withstand a general massacre. Someone

8 Qorʾān 29:53 (“And they urge you to hasten the punishment. And if not for [the decree of] a
specified term, punishment would have reached them”).
354 Chapter 44

has to go to Shaykh-oghli and save the population from slaughter. You had bet-
ter go out there.”
Fulād Solṭān retorted, “What are you and your people to me? Shaykh-oghli’s
messenger knows that you are all my subjects. What is more, I am not going to
resist a siege by Shaykh-oghli. Rather, tomorrow I will go out alone and seek
him out, and either I will finish him off with one arrow and make this conflict
short, or I will become one of the many thousands of Uzbeks killed by his
hand.”
The messenger returned and reported what Fulād Solṭān had said. The next
day, Shāh Esmāʿil suited up for battle and went out to the foot of the citadel,
ready to fight. Fulād Solṭān asked someone, “Who is that on the battlefield?”
“Shaykh-oghli himself has come out,” came the reply.
Fulād Solṭān, too, suited up, armed himself, and sallied out from the fortress.
When he got to the battlefield, after much preliminary talk, he fired three ar-
rows at His Majesty the Shāh. The Shāh dodged them all, then loosed a single
arrow of his own. It hit Fulād Solṭān in the chest so hard it came out the back,
and he fell into the dust of annihilation. His Majesty then went to the foot of
the citadel and commanded that the gate be opened. He entered the fortress in
triumph at the head of his great commanders and Qezelbāsh troops. The ten
thousand people inside the citadel presented themselves for service, and the
Shāh forgave their offenses.
After a few days, Shāh Esmāʿil resolved to go to the fortress of Baghlān. Then
someone told him, “Nearby there is a valley full of roses and tulips. Whenever
it rains, the drops sit like dew atop the tulips, and it is a wonder of the moun-
tains and plains.” Shāh Esmāʿil was struck with the desire to visit that valley, so
he and Bābor Pādeshāh and Khān Mirzā and Div Solṭān and Durmesh Khān
and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh and the refuge of seyyeds Mir Sharafoddin Ṣadr all went
off on a hunting trip.
When they entered that meadow, Shāh Esmāʿil spurred his horse toward the
rocky mountain, and its hoof slipped on a stone; His Majesty was thrown from
the saddle and knocked unconscious. His officers gathered around him, but no
matter how much they pressed and rubbed his limbs, he did not come to.
Seeing the situation, Div Solṭān commanded that no one reveal this secret,
and he forbade anyone from entering the royal encampment. They picked up
His Majesty and somehow brought him into Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān without anyone
being privy to what had happened other than those who had been there. They
bled his royal person, but to no avail. They held a mirror up to his nose to make
sure was alive, and it did fog up, but they were beside themselves and did not
know what to do.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 355

In the end, the Shāh lay unconscious for more than three days. On the fourth
day, though, all at once he opened his blessed eyes, said “O ʿAli, help,” and sat
bolt upright. His officers gathered around him and said, “Nothing we tried was
of any use—how is it that Your Majesty has, God be praised, come back to
health?”
Shāh Esmāʿil replied, “I had no idea where I was until just now, when the
holy Commander of the Faithful came to my bedside, rubbed his sacred hands
all over my body, and blessed me with a cure. He then said to me, ‘Show your-
self to your Ṣufis, for things are getting out of hand.’ And out of love for him, I
opened my eyes.”
When the Qezelbāsh learned about this event, they beat the drum of joy.
Everyone was overcome with love and enthusiasm for the Shāh. His Majesty, to
set his troops’ minds at ease, mounted his horse and rode a little bit before
coming back.
Now Solaymān Mirzā, the son of Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, was back in Ardabil at
this time.9 He had gathered power into his own hands, and smoke from the
lamp of rule had settled over his brain; he thought, “Why shouldn’t they call me
the ‘Perfect Guide’?” This thought would not leave him alone, and he secretly
let some ignorant, seditious people in on it. They egged him on, telling him he
had to make his own “emergence” as leader. He kept demurring, saying, “After
my uncle, Shāh Esmāʿil, the throne will pass to Shāh Ṭahmāsp, and if I ‘emerge’
while he is still alive, who knows if we can pull it off.” But those empty-headed,
silly, malicious people told him, “If you promise us that you will look after us
once you have taken power, we will arrange your ‘emergence’ in a way that
guarantees success.” So the prince promised them this, saying, “I will grant you
whatever office you desire.” Those “friends” swore loyalty to the prince and be-
gan waiting for their opportunity.
When Shāh Esmāʿil left Eṣfahān on his campaign to conquer Khorāsān and
Torkestān, Solaymān Mirzā sent to His Majesty as a spy Manuchehr Beg, the
servant of Qezel Moḥammad Torkmān, who was himself at the time Solaymān
Mirzā’s own servant. Now when the Shāh fell from his horse in that valley near
Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān, various stories went around that made many people believe
that, God forbid, His Majesty was dead. When he heard these reports, Manu­
chehr Beg rejoiced and hurried back to Ardabil as quickly as he could. He se-
cretly told Solaymān Mirzā that such-and-such had happened to Shāh Esmāʿil
and that he had died.

9 This is a mistake by the author(s); Solaymān Mirzā was the son of Solṭān Ḥaydar, and thus
Shāh Esmāʿil’s brother.
356 Chapter 44

“Ready your Ṣufis,” he said, “for you must now reveal to the world what has
been on your mind, and time is running out!”
Solaymān Mirzā then went to the blessed tomb of Shaykh Ṣafi to tell the el-
ders and his companions what he had planned. When they presented them-
selves, Solaymān Mirzā said, “Fate has brought this about, and God Almighty
willing, we will be successful.”
The elders flatly refused to go along. Rebellious ignoramuses, however, did
accept it, and in three days eighteen thousand men came to join Solaymān
Mirzā. He took all the gold vessels from the tomb of Shaykh Ṣafi and melted
them down to make coins struck in his own name, which he distributed to his
soldiers. Then they left Ardabil and marched for Tabriz.
When word of this reached Aḥmad Solṭān Shāmlu, who was not only gov-
erning Tabriz on behalf of Solaymān Mirzā, but was also his tutor and paid his
expenses out of the income of Tabriz, he gathered the people of Tabriz, such as
the Shāhi-sevens, and went out to welcome the Mirzā. They had traveled two
days’ journey down the road when Solaymān Mirzā appeared at the head of a
boundless army. He said to Manuchehr Beg, “Aḥmad Solṭān has come out to
welcome us; you go out to welcome him as well.”
Manuchehr Beg approached Aḥmad Solṭān, greeted him, and said, “Good
heavens, Solṭān, how quickly you have come out to greet the Pādeshāh!”
“What Pādeshāh?” asked Aḥmad Solṭān.
“Solaymān Mirzā!” replied Manuchehr Beg, and he explained that such-and-
such had happened to Shāh Esmāʿil.
Aḥmad Solṭān said, “You turncoat, how is it that this news has not reached
Tabriz, which is the capital, yet it reached you in Ardabil?” He reached for his
sword, but Manuchehr Beg fled back to Solaymān Mirzā and told him what
had just happened.
“Our ‘emergence’ is just beginning,” said the Mirzā; “if we don’t take care of
Aḥmad Solṭān, we will be finished before we’ve begun.” He spurred his horse
forward and approached Aḥmad Solṭān, and just as Aḥmad Solṭān was about
to admonish him, the Mirzā brought his sword down on his head, splitting him
in two down to his saddle and sending him writhing to the ground. When the
people of Tabriz saw this sword-blow, they turned to flee and hurried back to
Tabriz. Solaymān Mirzā followed them there with his great army in tow.
Mantash Solṭān, the brother of Sāru Pireh the qurchi-bāshi, who had been
ordered into service by Shāh Esmāʿil, was still at work in Ādharbāyjān and Ta-
briz, and since he was the brother of the qurchi-bāshi, the people of Tabriz and
the local Ṣufis rallied around him. Thus when Solaymān Mirzā entered Tabriz,
he and many of his men were killed in a hail of stones. Solaymān Mirzā’s body
Shāh Ṭahmāsp Returns To Iran And To His Majesty 357

was sent to Ardabil, ‌Manuchehr Beg was arrested, and Qezel Moḥammad
Torkmān was executed, after which the uprising died down.
Meanwhile, His Majesty the Shāh, having recovered his health, had left
Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān for Bokhārā and Samarqand. Jāni Beg Solṭān fled Balkh and
went to ʿObayd Khān to tell him what was happening, and ʿObayd Khān, too,
abandoned Bokhārā and headed for Samarqand.
Upon reaching Moḥammad Timur Khān, they said, “What are we to do?
Shaykh-oghli has sworn to avenge the death of Najm II—he will massacre all
of Torkestān, nay the entire steppe, just like Changiz Khān’s massacres of old!
We must head for China or beyond, so that no one knows where we are! If we
don’t, it will be our mistake!”
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “Why don’t we go to our cousin, Qāsem Khān
the Pādeshāh of the steppe, who is obeyed by all the kings of China and be-
yond?”
“Should all of us go, or just one of us?” asked ʿObayd Khān.
Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “Jāni Beg Solṭān is an old man, and Qāsem
Khān has praised him a lot behind his back, being pleased by his manners and
finding him a fine character. If he goes with gifts we present in supplication,
perhaps Qāsem Khān will think to send him back with an army with which we
can take care of Shaykh-oghli.” After consultation and deliberation, Jāni Beg
Solṭān took innumerable precious gifts, along with a petition from Moḥammad
Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān explaining their predicament and their com-
plaints about the Qezelbāsh, and set off to find Qāsem Khān, the Pādeshāh of
the steppe.
358 Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān, the Pādeshāh of the Steppe of
Baghlān, Who Sends his Son Abulkhayr Khān with a Great Army to Fight
Shāh Esmāʿil; Abulkhayr Khān is Killed, and the Uzbek Kings Flee

Jāni Beg Solṭān traveled a great distance, and when he reached the steppe,
Qāsem Khān was informed that he was coming to see him. Qāsem Khān sent
some local elders to receive him, and they brought him to the court with great
honors.
Jāni Beg Solṭān looked at Qāsem Khān and saw that he was like a gloomy
demon. He was sitting upon the Changizid throne, which was made of gold
and fashioned in a novel way, with its four corners made in the likenesses of a
lion, a leopard, a tiger, and a dragon. He wore Changiz Khān’s jeweled crown,
which was worth nearly seventy thousand tumāns, and he had bright white
eyes, bushy eyebrows, and long moustaches. Several very long hairs had also
grown from his chin, including three big hairs, one of which reached down to
his right breast, one to his left, and one all the way down to his navel. This was
a sign of his status as a Changizid, as every descendant of Changiz Khān with
such hairs was entitled to rule.
Twelve hundred commanders sat on thrones; Birum Ātāliq, Qāsem Khān’s
lieutenant, sat to his left, while Abulkhayr Khān knelt properly on a jeweled
throne to his right. Abulkhayr Khān wore an Uzbek turban with a saffron-
fringed wrap around it and a jeweled aigrette stuck in it. Around the court were
seated the other commanders of Eastern countries and Torkestān up to the
Volga River, which borders the steppe on the north, and on the western side
extends to the steppe of a thousand and one meadows of Scythia,1 which is
the beginnning of Āq Jirān2—there are many Chinese deer there with most
fragrant musk—and, to the east, to the edge of the steppe of Tāshkand-kuh
and Barkand3, which is the southern border of the steppe and has nearly a
thousand cities and towns. Their governor is appointed by Qāsem Khān. Half
the population is infidels and half Muslims.
Jāni Beg Solṭān, seeing such an august assembly, bent his knee and pros-
trated himself before Qāsem Khān. After offering prayers and praise, he bowed
in the direction of Abulkhayr Khān as well and then presented the letter of

1 kheṭā
2 avval-e āgh-jirān (Tk. “White Deer”)
3 Possibly meaning Yarkand, today a predominantly Uyghur city in Xinjiang.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_046

Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 359

submission of Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān to Qāsem Khān.

Qāsem Khān told Birum Ātāliq to take Jāni Beg Solṭān’s hand and place it un-
der his own. Once everyone was seated and Jāni Beg Solṭān’s gifts and tribute
had been presented, food and drink were served. Qāsem Khān inquired of Jāni
Beg Solṭān how the battles against the Qezelbāsh were going. Jāni Beg Solṭān
explained everything that had happened, beginning with the coming of Amir
Najm II and the massacre he committed in Torkestān and the oppression of
the Uzbeks by the Qezelbāsh; he finished by telling how His Majesty the Shāh
was now on his way.
Qāsem Khān fairly boiled over with zeal. “I will bring such a disaster down
on the heads of Shaykh-oghli and the Qezelbāsh,” he said, “that afterwards no
king will ever dream of attacking Torkestān again! Until now I had not known
of the plight of the Uzbeks and of the excesses committed by the Qezelbāsh
against them. That feckless ignoramus Moḥammad Timur Khān has brought
this shame upon the house of Changiz Khān! After Shāhi Beg Khān, no one has
appeared who could hold his place.” He then added, “Although the thread of
fortune has slipped from the hand of the Uzbeks through the foolishness of
Moḥammad Timur Khān, I will send my son Abulkhayr Khān, who is even
more courageous than I am, with an army, and they will make short work of
Shaykh-oghli and the Qezelbāsh before they cross the Oxus.”
Jāni Beg Solṭān broke out in prayer and praise, saying, “We have no asylum
nor refuge save the court of Changiz Khān, to which we have always come!
What business do the people of Harāt have trying to come to Samarqand and
the realm of the Qerqez and the fortress of Baghlān?”
Qāsem Khān then said, “Let every household on the steppe present one
man.” Seven hundred thousand men soon came and stood before Qāsem
Khān’s tent. For at that time Qāsem Khān had set up his summer-camp on the
banks of the river Volga, where there are many meadows and running streams,
and Qāsem Khān’s subjects would come there annually.
Anyway, those seven hundred thousand appeared before Qāsem Khān, who
selected from among them a hundred and sixty thousand men. These he com-
manded to be equipped with weapons and Qerqez horses. To Abulkhayr Khān
he said, “O my son, I want you to capture Shaykh-oghli and bring him before
me, so that I may see where this youth of twenty-five years got so much power
and ability that he drove ʿObayd Khān from the battlefield several times using
the art of trickery and deceit, and killed Shāhi Beg Khān and sent his head to
the Qayṣar of Rum and his hand to Rostam Pādeshāh of Māzandarān. By God,
such a man is something worth seeing.”
360 Chapter 45

Abulkhayr Khān replied, “If I do not ride right up to Shaykh-oghli’s battle-

standard, lift him from his saddle like a child, and bring him to you, may I not
be the son of Qāsem Khān!”
“The outcome is certain,” said Qāsem Khān. “If you capture Shaykh-oghli
and appoint a ruler over all of Torkestān, I know that you will be my son and
that one day you will be the successor of Changiz Khān.”
Then he sent robes of honor to Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān
and dismissed Jāni Beg Solṭān, who left with Abulkhayr Khān and that steppe
army. Those vengeful troops marched for day after day until they reached
Tāshkand. Then someone went to Shāh Esmāʿil with the news that Abulkhayr
Khān had arrived in Tāshkand, intent on war. “He is coming this way with a
hundred and sixty thousand men!”
His Majesty’s blessed mind was untroubled. “We rely on the favor and sup-
port of the Creator of the world,” he said. He had decided to set off from the
citadel to welcome that evil group with battle when Durmesh Khān said, “Let
it be ordered that the court astrologers read the horoscopes of His Majesty and
Abulkhayr Khān, so that from the rotation of the cerulean sphere we may dis-
cern the outcome of the battle, whom the constellations are addressing, who
will be defeated and who victorious, and for whom things will turn out better.”
His Majesty gave the order to his astrologers, who made their observations
and examined the truths and fine points and particulars and figures and quali-
ties of the four elements and the movements of the points of birth and the
outcomes of difficulty and the strengths and weaknesses of those two lofty
monarchs. They saw that the chess-pieces of Abulkhayr Khān would be routed
on the board of Time, that Shāh Esmāʿil would capture his rook on the field of
battle and strife, and that His Majesty would checkmate that gloomy demon
with a predestined clever move4 such that no matter how deeply he plunged
into the sea of anxiety and longing for salvation, Abulkhayr Khān would find
that the way off that chessboard of confusion, the road of happiness known to
all wise people, was closed to him other than by way of retreating back across
the Oxus.
Then His Majesty the Shadow of God ordered the Qezelbāsh to cross the
Oxus and make camp.
Meanwhile, in Bokhārā, Abulkhayr Khān heard that Shāh Esmāʿil had been
alerted to his approach and had led his Qezelbāsh out of the citadel of Ḥeṣār-e
Shādmān and toward Balkh. Abulkhayr Khān thus also left for Balkh. When he
reached the shore of the Oxus, he asked where the Qezelbāsh army was. They
told him it was camped seven leagues away.

4 pilband-e ajal
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 361

Hearing this news, ʿObayd Khān and Moḥammad Timur Khān and Jāni Beg
Solṭān were astonished and looked preoccupied. Abulkhayr Khān said, “What’s
the matter with you?”
They replied, “We are petrified at the thought of Shaykh-oghli and of what
kind of boldness and bravery God has bestowed upon him. We had thought
that when he heard that you have a hundred and sixty thousand men with you,
and that we have sixty thousand of our own, he would flee Torkestān and per-
haps even Iran. Yet despite the small army he has with him, he takes no ac-
count of you and your whole army, and he has planted himself right in our
path; just think about it!”
Abulkhayr Khān replied, “This is neither boldness nor bravery; it is, rather,
madness that makes him have no fear in his heart. Even if it isn’t, you say that
he has twelve thousand men with him; how can twelve thousand Qezelbāsh do
battle with two hundred and twenty thousand men? So be aware that this is
not courage, but lunacy.”
But ʿObayd Khān, Moḥammad Timur Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān had all per-
sonally witnessed combat with the Qezelbāsh, and they knew that these words
would end up meaning nothing. They thought to themselves, however, and
said, “Perhaps the deceitful heavens will, in the course of the turning of the sky
and the bright moon, reveal to us one more time the image of the bride of rul-
ership in its full beauty and allow us to take her in our arms.” No matter how
much they turned this thought over in their minds, though, they kept getting
more and more anxious and heartsick and uneasy.
When Abulkhayr Khān and his boundless army arrived at the shore of the
Oxus, a Qezelbāsh officer who had been appointed to guard the bridge sent a
messenger to His Majesty the Shāh to say, “Abulkhayr Khān and the Uzbek
khāns have reached the shore of the Oxus at the head of endless troops. What
do you command? Should we destroy the bridge and pull the ferryboat out of
the water, or leave things as they are?”
When this message passed under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh, His Maj-
esty summoned his commanders to solicit their advice. Each one gave his own
opinion. The Shāh then said, “We find thought of destroying the bridge and
ferryboat shameful. For they will find some other way to cross the river, but our
name will remain disgraced for having acted thus out of fear.” He then ordered
that the bridge be left in place and the ferryboat be placed in front of the Uz-
bek army, so that they might cross the river with ease. Thus Abulkhayr Khān
and his troops did cross the Oxus there, advancing thereafter to within three
leagues of the royal encampment, where they set up their tents.
ʿObayd Khān thought deeply. He had a runner named Ḥasan who was ex-
pert in reading auguries from shoulder-blades. ʿObayd Khān summoned him
362 Chapter 45

and said, “O Ḥasan, I want you to perform an augury and tell me how this battle
will turn out. Who will be defeated, and who will carry the ball of victory from
the field?”
Ḥasan did so. He examined the shoulder-blades and said, “If you want the
truth, Abulkhayr Khān will live for three more days; on the fourth day he will
be killed by Shaykh-oghli, and many Uzbeks will also be killed. You yourself
will flee. This year you have a great calamity in store for you, but you will make
it through. After this, there is good news: You will conquer from the edge of
China and Khotan all the way to the Korpi Bridge and rule as a great king.”
ʿObayd Khān, caught between fear and hope, went to Abulkhayr Khān and
said to Birum Ātāliq, “What do you think about sending an emissary to Shaykh-
oghli? Will it be in vain?”
Birum Ātāliq replied, “It is for the Great Khān to command.”
After deliberation, it was decided to send an emissary. A letter was written
to the Shāh on the subject of war and peace, and the emissary was sent off with
it.
When he reached Shāh Esmāʿil and presented the letter, His Majesty said in
response, “The son of the Khān of Torkestān and successor of Changiz Khān
may boast about sword-blows, but we glory in the fist that uprooted the door of
Khaybar, the master of the workshop of the Lord of the Worlds—in other
words, the holy Commander of the Faithful, ʿAli (peace be upon him). We care
not a whit for this army of yours. The answer to this letter is battle.”
The emissary returned and presented this news to Abulkhayr Khān, who
ordered that the battle-drums be beaten. There were forty-one drummers and
standard-bearers in that army, and all of them started beating their drums.
Shāh Esmāʿil, too, ordered that the drum of Shāhi Beg Khān be beaten along
with his own royal one.
When Shāh Esmāʿil defeated Shāhi Beg Khān, he confiscated all his work-
shops. In the middle of the drum-house was a drum made of seven metals.5 It
was so big that men had to climb up on a stool to beat it, and its sound could
be heard four leagues away. Among the Qezelbāsh it was known as the drum of
Shāhi Beg Khān.
When they started beating that drum, Abulkhayr Khān said, “What could
that sound be?”
Moḥammad Timur Khān sighed and said, “That is the sound of the drum of
my father, Shāhi Beg Khān, which is in the hands of Shaykh-oghli.”

5 haft-jush: “A metal compounded of iron, antimony, lead, gold, tin, copper, and silver”
(Steingass).
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 363

Abulkhayr Khān said, “We need to bring some gifts back from here to the
Great Khān, and that drum will be one of them. They can beat it whenever we
want to summon the army of the steppe quickly. Another gift will be Shaykh-
oghli’s ‘mare of Manṣur Beg,’ which is worthy of the Great Khān.”
The heads of those seekers of vengeance did not find the bed of rest that
night. When the first light of dawn became visible in the east, each of those
two seas of soldiery stirred from its place with the intention of killing the other.
The ranks of battle had just been drawn up facing each other when ʿObayd
Khān went to Abulkhayr Khān and implored him thus: “I will stay behind your
brigade, and if Shaykh-oghli attacks you, I will come to your aid.”
Abulkhayr Khān burst out laughing and said, “You’re not afraid, are you?
Don’t worry, I will go into battle myself.” Then he placed ʿObayd Khān behind
his brigade.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil placed Durmesh Khān on his right flank and Sāru
Pireh the qurchi-bāshi on his left. He also sent Div Solṭān forward in the van-
guard and took his own place in blessed good fortune at the center of that
victorious army, like Jupiter in the auspicious conjunction. It then occurred to
his royal mind that he should examine the enemy army. So he and Ḥosayn Beg
Laleh and a few others climbed a hill to get a look. Their eyes were met with an
amazing bloodthirsty horde, which stretched for nearly four leagues.

Each of them a fierce wolfcub

That stole the ball from a rapacious lion!
You would think they were formed from rage itself—
Each of them quick to anger and slow to conciliation.
From another direction, the audacious Uzbeks
Arrived like roaring lions.
All had green eyes and yellow cheeks,
Azure impressed on amber.
The pages of their cheeks in no need of lines,
Their chins longer than their beards.
Full of wrinkles, their eyebrows full of hair,
Their eyes hidden under those eyebrows.
Each of them owl-eyed and demon-faced,
Each of them with evil eyes and evil nature.
Each of them with a hairless face;
Nothing on their faces but the dust of calamity.
364 Chapter 45

All of them made of string6 from head to toe,

All of them lumbering old men resembling the dead.
Each of them like a dog, the whole group dogs by nature,
Each of them demon-faced, all sons of pigs.
Their two front teeth like the fangs of a boar,
Their mouths hanging open like caves.

As Shāh Esmāʿil looked over such a horde, he began to pray, saying, “O God, I
have not even the strength of an ant. These affairs have come about through
Your power; by the right of Moḥammad and his Family, grant victory to this
Your weak servant and the army of the Qezelbāsh.” He prostrated himself,
weeping profusely.
When he raised his head, by the power of God and with the help of the Im-
maculate Emāms, he found himself once more full of might and majesty; he
foresaw the defeat of the enemy army and the victory of his own, and with a
heart full of gladness he returned and took his place at the base of the standard
that read “Help from God and speedy victory.”
Abulkhayr Khān had been wondering as well. He, too, ascended a hill, and
when he looked over, he saw that a small [sic] army of some thirty thousand
men had arrayed itself in the service of the Shāh. He started to laugh. “It’s a
pity,” he said, “that ʿObayd Khān is not here to see this. Why would anyone be
afraid of such a handful of rubbish? This very hour I will attack their center all
by myself, haul Shaykh-oghli out of his saddle, and throw him to the ground at
the foot of the standard of Changiz Khān.”
Abulkhayr Khān then returned to his place at the foot of his battle-standard.
He ordered that a vanguard of thirty thousand men assemble and head onto
the battlefield. This was done. Div Solṭān, too, took the Qezelbāsh vanguard
onto the field. These two forces crashed into each other, and in the first clash
the army whose watchword is victory uprooted the Uzbeks and killed a great
number of them. Then the Qezelbāsh vanguard turned and went back to the
main body of the army.
When Birum Ātāliq witnessed this, he took forty thousand men onto the
battlefield, where Durmesh Khān attacked him with five thousand men. Alp
Ātāliq then attacked from the left flank, and Sāru Pireh the qurchi-bāshi also
went into action. The Qezelbāsh army, that refuge of victory, collided with the
ill-starred Uzbeks, and the bazaar of souls did brisk business.

6 This is a tentative reading of what looks like sarashteh ze nakh (sarashteh zanakh makes even
less sense).
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 365

Shāh Esmāʿil was observing the fighting when a tremendous wind picked up
and there appeared a cloud of dust like twelve7 towers.8 That dust settled
on the Uzbek army. His Majesty placed his hand on the hilt of the sword of the
Master of the Command and, crying “God is great!” and “O ʿAli, help!” he hurled
himself into the midst of the enemy troops. Everyone he struck with his sword
was cut in two like a ripe cucumber. The Qezelbāsh gave cries of manliness,
and within a short time they had killed sixty thousand Uzbeks.
Seeing that cloud of dust, Abulkhayr Khān said, “What happened?” Then
the news arrived that Birum Ātāliq had been killed by Durmesh Khān, that the
Qezelbāsh had killed a great many Uzbeks, and that the battle was nearly lost.
Abulkhayr Khān was stunned. He made up his mind to head onto the battle-
field himself, but the ātāliqs and elders said, “You would hand us over to the
Great Khān to be killed! No one is a match for the good fortune of Shaykh-
oghli. Half the army has been killed, and the Qezelbāsh have gone a half league
past our right and left flanks!”
When the dust settled a little, the Qezelbāsh banner of “Help from God and
speedy victory” had come near, but the elders prevented Abulkhayr Khān from
going to fight. Finally there was nothing he could do but turn to flee. As he did,
Shāh Esmāʿil drew the sword of the Master of Command, spurred on the mare
of Manṣur Beg, and shouted: “O you stubborn Turk, where do you think you’re
going?”
Abulkhayr Khān turned his head and saw that His Majesty the Shāh was ap-
proaching in glory and majesty, sword in hand. He didn’t even have time to
think before the Shāh, crying out, “O ʿAli, help!”, brought his sword down on
Abulkhayr Khān’s head such that he split him in half all the way down to his
belt. Abulkhayr Khān fell writhing from his horse. The Uzbeks of the steppe
were routed, and they left their tents and baggage and equipment where they
were as they scrambled to escape.
Since ʿObayd Khān knew from his shoulder-blade augury what was coming,
he had planned ahead, together with Moḥammad Timur Khān and Jāni Beg
Solṭān, and when the panic set in, they quickly gathered their men to escape.
There were still thirty thousand Uzbeks of the steppe left behind when the
three of them crossed the Oxus and destroyed the bridge. Shāh Esmāʿil, mean-
while, had Abulkhayr Khān’s head cut off and mounted on a spear.

7 This word is illegible in the manuscript and was reconstructed by the editor.
8 At this point in the Chester Beatty Library manuscript (fol. 209b), Esmāʿil has a vision of a
youth riding a camel onto the battlefield from the direction of Mashhad; the Qezelbāsh try to
prevent the Shāh from fighting, but he says “That [man on camelback] is my lord the Emām
Rezā!”
366 Chapter 45

Eighty thousand Uzbeks had been killed and eighty thousand others wound-
ed. When they saw the head of Abulkhayr Khān, they all fled in different direc-
tions. His Majesty took all the tents and baggage and equipment of the dead
and escaped Uzbeks and divided it as booty among the victorious Qezelbāsh
troops.
When Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān (along
with ʿObayd Khān’s wife Moql Khānom, who always traveled with him) had
crossed the Oxus, they stopped for a consultation. The elders and ātāliqs sat
down with them. Moḥammad Timur Khān said, “We had placed our hopes in
Abulkhayr Khān and the army of the steppe, thinking they would be able to
accomplish something! Given that Shaykh-oghli can defeat such an army and
kill so warlike a man as Abulkhayr Khān, if we go back to Qāsem Khān, he will
not offer any more help.”
ʿObayd Khān said, “Jāni Beg Solṭān is our elder. Perhaps he has thought of
something.” “The only thing to do,” Jāni Beg Solṭān said, “is to give up on
Torkestān and return to the steppe. Maybe an opportunity will arise to return
to our hereditary domains.” ʿObayd Khān agreed completely, and they decided
to do that.
At last, ʿObayd Khān related the consultation to Moql Khānom, and she
said, “If you are willing to admit that I am cleverer than you are, I have an idea
to make Shaykh-oghli forget about you, and to let you hold on to the land and
army and treasury.”
ʿObayd Khān said, “Whatever it is, Moḥammad Timur Khān and I accept it,
as will Jāni Beg Solṭān.”
Moql Khānom said, “You have to send three hundred men from the steppe
to Bokhārā to place Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim Naqshband, who traces his lineage
back to Khwājeh Bahāʾoddin Naqshband, on a litter, then have them bring him
here quickly. Let them write the letter I dictate, and let them gather together
lots of gifts and send them to Shaykh-oghli along with Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim
Naqshband. I guarantee that Shaykh-oghli will make peace with you.”
“Shaykh-oghli will never trust our word again,” ʿObayd Khān said.
“What I am describing will win his trust,” Moql Khānom replied.
So ʿObayd Khān left the harem and explained to Moḥammad Timur Khān
and Jāni Beg Solṭān what Moql Khānom had recommended. They agreed to it.
A letter was thus written to Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim and a messenger dispatched
to deliver it to him.
Later, when Moḥammad Timur Khān and ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān
heard that Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim was on his way, they all went out four leagues
to greet him. When they saw him from afar, a ruby-cheeked old man aglow
with piety, they got down and begged his pardon for their sins, kissing his hand.
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 367

Then they got on their horses and all headed into their camp. There was much
grumbling about “Shaykh-oghli” and his auspicious fortune, as well as about
their own retreat and the death of Abulkhayr Khān, after which they said:
“Now we implore you to go to Shaykh-oghli and find a way to get him to accept
a truce, return to us these ancestral lands of ours, and let us be.”
“I will go,” Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim replied. “Shaykh-oghli honors me as an el-
der and will accept what I say. But I fear that you are not being honest, and that
you will bring shame on me in the end.”
They said, “We are much obliged to you, and if you get Shaykh-oghli to settle
with us in this way, we will swear to whatever you wish.”
The Khwājeh invoked the glorious Divine Word and made the three swear
an oath. Having thus put his mind at ease, he told them to write the petition
and prepare the gifts. He also gathered three hundred elders and ātāliqs along
with two hundred camels loaded with fabrics from China and Khotan and
Bokhāri wares and jewels from Badakhshān and pearls from Oman and sundry
treasures as well as the letter from the Uzbek kings. Then he set off.
When His Majesty the Shāh learned that ʿAbdorraḥim and the ātāliqs were
coming, he ordered some officers and Qezelbāsh to go out one league to meet
them. They escorted the Khwājeh to the royal court with full honors, and Shāh
Esmāʿil realized that this man held a special status among the Uzbeks. The
Khwājeh paid his respects and prostrated himself, then came forward to kiss
the foot of the royal throne—but the Shāh stopped him, placing his blessed
hand on his head and offering him a seat near the throne. The ātāliqs, too,
kissed the dust of the royal court. Then they lined up in rows and passed their
gifts under the alchemical gaze of His Majesty. The Shāh asked the Khwājeh
about all this, and he answered by saying, “Our kings present you with this and
that.” Finally, he mentioned the story of the three Uzbek rulers and produced
their letter. His Majesty ordered that Mir Moḥammad Hādi Shirāzi, the court
secretary, read it out in a loud voice. The letter said:
“A petition from the weak and hopeless slaves Moḥammad Timur Khān,
ʿObayd Khān, and Jāni Beg Solṭān, the descendants of Changiz Khān, to the
pinnacle of the servants who adorn the crown of the Kayānids and the orna-
ment of the crown and throne of Khosraw, the first fruit of the meadow of
fortune and felicity, the sun in the sky of liberality and honor, the highest heav-
en of manliness, the world-illumining sun of dominion, the Jupiter at the sum-
mit of happiness, he who steals men’s souls with his blade and arrows, lion of
the forest of battle and conflict, crocodile in the sea of existence, mother lode
of generosity, bloom on the pasture of kingship, unique gem of world-rule,
guide on the road of Holy Law and obedience to it, propagator of the true sect
of the Twelve Emāms and the successors of the family of the King of Authority,
368 Chapter 45

leader on the path of guidance, mightiest pillar of justice and equity, broad-
winged falcon of religious leadership, king of the true faith: These errant slaves
hope that it will not be far from that Shadow of God’s generosity and goodness
to place them in the shadow of your protection, grant them deliverance from
their distress, and bestow on them their ancestral kingdoms. His command is
highest.”
After the petition was read out, the fact that the royal scions of Changiz
Khān had written such a letter out of distress and hopelessness, as well as the
humanity and goodness that Shāh Esmāʿil had inherited from his pure ances-
tors, made His Majesty think that he ought to withdraw his claim to the Uz-
beks’ hereditary lands, so that his justice and generosity would be remembered
through the ages. He therefore said to Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim, “It is more obvi-
ous than the sun is to the inhabitants of the earth how many times the sup-
porters of our conquering royal dynasty have seized Torkestān and selflessly
turned it over to Bābor Pādeshāh. Were I covetous of ruling Torkestān, I would
have entrusted it to one of my attendants, but my wish is to have a good name
that will endure in the world, and that is what matters right now. Since you
have listened to the discourse of great kings, you have undertaken to bear the
affairs of this house, so I will agree to your request for the sake of your venera-
ble mind—but only on the condition that the past and present root of the
corruption in Torkestān, namely ʿObayd Khān, come into my royal presence
accompanied by Moḥammad Timur Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān and swear be-
fore me an oath in the name of Almighty God Himself that if they break their
pledge, they will become enemies of God, and if they take one step over the
Oxus with evil intentions or the desire to conquer Khorāsān, their wives will be
forbidden to them. If they swear this, I will withdraw my hand from them and
from Torkestān and treat them favorably.”
Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim replied, “Perhaps it has reached His Majesty’s royal
hearing that the Uzbeks, whether the royal descendants of Changiz Khān or
the others, may not violate my counsel. Before I came, I said to them exactly
what His Majesty has just said, and they swore just such an oath, which they
wrote down and which I have brought.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Then I will return whence I came.”
Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim told a few of his close fellow Naqshbandis to go tell
Moḥammad Timur Solṭān and ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān that if they did
not come in person, their request for peace would go nowhere.
So the messengers went to them and told them what had been decided.
Moḥammad Timur Khān was seized with fright and could not bring himself to
go, but ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān hung their heads and went to kiss the
royal stirrup of His Majesty the Shadow of God. The Shāh took a measure of
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 369

them with his gaze; he found Jāni Beg Solṭān to be sincere, but he saw that
ʿObayd Khān was utterly contemptible and impudent and duplicitous, and His
Majesty regretted having offered him pardon.
They all took their seats, and after some preliminary talk, ʿObayd Khān and
Jāni Beg Solṭān swore the oath the Shāh required. And in truth, as long as His
Majesty was alive, they never again went to Khorāsān with dreams of plunder
and conquest.
Shāh Esmāʿil presented ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān with royal robes of
honor as well as horses and jeweled saddles and belts and daggers and swords.
To Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim he also gave a robe of honor, and to most of the
ātāliqs as well. He also ordered that one be made for Moḥammad Timur Khān,
with a message saying that if he came to the royal court in sincerity and friend-
ship, he would be granted anything he wished.
A few days later, His Majesty commanded that an official deed of rulership
over Torkestān be written up in the name of Moḥammad Timur Khān and
ʿObayd Khān and Jāni Beg Solṭān. It was adorned with the royal stamp and
handed over to them on the condition that they send a letter of submission
and tribute9 and gifts to the world-protecting court every year. Then His Maj-
esty dismissed them, and they kissed his royal foot and went back to Torkestān.
Shāh Esmāʿil then said to Bābor Pādeshāh, “It would seem your star is Saturn
over Torkestān, but it will be Jupiter over India.”10
Bābor Pādeshāh replied, “By God, His Majesty belongs to a family rooted in
authority and religious leadership.” Then he added in amazement, “I say this
because a while ago, one of the yogis of India—who are like astronomers and
shoulder-blade readers and astrologers—said to me, ‘Don’t strive so hard to
take Torkestān; the lamp of the Chaghatāy will shine in India through the favor
of the family of the leader of perfected mystics, Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq al-
Musavi, and it will produce many generations of kings of India.’”
Shāh Esmāʿil then ordered ʿAli Shokr Khān Bahādor, the son of Awbarām
Khān, and some other commanders to take twelve thousand lion-hunting
Qezelbāsh youths and go with Bābor Pādeshāh to India, conquer the whole
land, and entrust it to him, then return to the royal court. His Majesty pre-
sented Bābor Pādeshāh and the commanders and officers with royal robes of
honor; then they kissed the royal foot and set off for India. This story is told in
detail in the Tārikh-e Akbari.11

9 bārkhāneh
10 Saturn is inauspicious, whereas Jupiter is highly auspicious.
11 I.e., the Akbarnāmeh, a history of the Mughal emperor Akbar by Abulfazl ʿAllāmi (d. 1602).
370 Chapter 45
Jāni Beg Solṭān Reaches Qāsem Khān 371

Part 4
Shāh Esmāʿil vs. Solṭān Salim

∵
372 Chapter 45
The Glorious Banners Turn Back To Iran 373

Chapter 46

The Glorious Banners Turn Back to Iran, and His Majesty the Shadow of
God Learns of the Death of Solaymān Mirzā In Tabriz; He Sends an
Emissary to Anatolia to See Solṭān Bāyazid, the Qayṣar of Rum

Shāh Esmāʿil set off in pomp and glory from the shore of the Oxus and headed
for ʿErāq. He had been traveling for two days when a messenger rode up from
the direction of Tabriz and passed under the Shāh’s alchemical gaze a letter
from Mantash Solṭān which related how Solaymān Mirzā had made an “emer-
gence” at the head of an army and been killed. His Majesty was upset to hear of
the death of the Mirzā, but he continued to travel, enjoying contentment and
delight wherever he stopped.
As His Majesty approached Tabriz, Mantash Solṭān was informed of his ar-
rival, and he came out with the whole population of the city to welcome the
Shāh. He had just kissed the royal foot when Shāh Esmāʿil upbraided him and
ordered that he and everyone else involved in the killing of Solaymān Mirzā be
clapped in chains and thrown in prison. His Majesty then entered the city and
busied himself with dispensing justice to the weak and poor.
Shortly thereafter, a letter arrived from Khān Moḥammad Khān in Diyārbakr.
It said, “Solṭān Salim and Moṣṭafā Pāshā brought a great army with the inten-
tion of plundering Qarāḥamid, but Qarākhān got wind of it and intercepted
them. A great battle took place, in which—thanks to the imperishable good
fortune of His Majesty—Qarākhān managed to kill ten thousand of the enemy.
A few managed to escape with Solṭān Salim and Moṣṭafā Pāshā back to Anato-
lia.”
Shāh Esmāʿil was furious when he read this. He ordered that a royal decree
be sent to Khān Moḥammad Khān stating that henceforth, should Salim try it
again, His Majesty himself should be notified at once. He then wrote a letter to
Solṭān Bāyazid, the Qayṣar of Rum, and named his attendant Solaymān as em-
issary. Various gifts were gathered from among the belongings of Abulkhayr
Khān, including a fragment of the Changizid battle-standard and the jeweled
turban-ornament of Abulkhayr Khān, stained with his blood; Shāh Esmāʿil
gave these to Solaymān and dispatched him to Solṭān Bāyazid with several
messages to deliver as well. Solaymān kissed the royal foot, took the gifts, and
set off.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_047

374 Chapter 46

When Solaymān reached Üsküdar,1 Solṭān Bāyazid was informed that an

emissary was on the way from Shāh Esmāʿil. Gripped with fear, Solṭān Bāyazid
sent one of his men to meet the emissary, telling him, “If he has brought a
harsh message, come tell me in private.” Then he sent a group out to meet
Solaymān and escort him into the royal court. Solaymān prostrated himself
and paid his respects. He was given a place to sit, and after food and drink were
served, he presented Shāh Esmāʿil’s letter to the Qayṣar. It read:
“To the Solṭān of the two continents and the two seas, the servant of the two
holy places,2 Solṭān Bāyazid the Qayṣar of Rum and ruler of the lands of Ana-
tolia: As much as we wish that the foundations of friendship and the ancient
pact between us should remain unbroken, once more there have been and
continue to be reprehensible actions on the part of Solṭān Salim toward our
royal servants. Our servants, aware of the glory of the ruler of Anatolia, have
stayed their hand, as they do not take him lightly. Let him prevent Solṭān Salim
from doing something like this again. If he is not restrained, we shall order that
he be seized and flogged3 at the foot of the minarets of Diyārbakr, which is
where we punish people. Recently we made an expedition to Torkestān, where
Abulkhayr Khān, the son of Qāsem Khān, lord of the steppe, in alliance with
the scions of Changiz Khān, brought an army of two hundred twenty thousand
men to fight with us; with the support of the Lord of the Worlds and the aid of
the Immaculate Emāms, we made sure that not one man left the battlefield
unscarred by our victorious sword. We have sent the turban-ornament of
Abulkhayr Khān and a fragment of the Changizid battle-standard as gifts to
you.”
This letter was read out, and Solaymān presented the bloody turban-orna-
ment and the fragment of the battle-standard to Solṭān Bāyazid.
When Solṭān Salim saw that the turban-ornament was still red with blood,
he burned with rage and said to his father Solṭān Bāyazid, “You apathetic cow-
ard! You are the Pādeshāh, the ruler of the lands of Rum! What is it that makes
you so afraid of Shaykh-oghli?” He then turned to Solaymān the emissary and
said, “Tell your master not to be so coquettish. We will do what we do, and don’t
you make any mistakes.” The emissary was then dismissed.

1 The text has something like Askuyeh. I have consistently translated this as “Üsküdar,” although
it is not clear that this is the intended meaning.
2 This is an anachronism, as the Ottomans did not conquer Mecca and Medina until 1517, years
after the death of Bāyazid.
3 qilugheh (?): apparently a word meaning some kind of punishment.
The Glorious Banners Turn Back To Iran 375

Some time later, with the help of Grand Vizier Rostam Pāshā4 and the leader
of the Janissaries, Solṭān Salim seized his father Solṭān Bāyazid and threw him
in prison. He then struck coins and had the khoṭbeh pronounced in his own
name, ordered a military review, and sought the advice of his commanders.
News of the imprisonment of Solṭān Bāyazid reached his son Solṭān Aḥmad,
who was governor of Āmāsyeh. Solṭān Salim then conferred with his officers
and decided to have his father killed, spreading the rumor that Solṭān Bāyazid
was an opium addict and the cause of his own ruin.
When word of the death of his father reached Solṭān Aḥmad in Āmāsyeh, he
resolved to raise an army and fight his brother. Solṭān Salim was alerted to this
and, realizing that it would be very difficult to fight Solṭān Aḥmad, he became
pensive. He sought the advice of Rostam Pāshā to help him think up a way to
deal with Solṭān Aḥmad.
Rostam Pāshā said, “I have an idea: You have to let yourself be slighted and
abused a bit. As great men have said, for the sake of one rose we have to put up
with a hundred thorns.”
Solṭān Salim replied, “Since I want to hold the tulip-colored bride of power
tightly in my embrace, I must expose myself to those hundred thorns.” All the
lords of Anatolia gathered together and decided it would be best to pretend to
imprison Solṭān Salim. Then they would summon Solṭān Aḥmad, and when he
showed up, they would kill him.
So the leader of the Janissaries seized Solṭān Salim and put him in prison.
The lords of Anatolia together wrote a letter to Solṭān Aḥmad indicating that
Solṭān Salim had been imprisoned and wishing blessings on the reign of Solṭān
Aḥmad. This letter they sent to Āmāsyeh. When that foolish naïf received it, he
placed his faith in what its authors had said, especially the Grand Vizier, Ros-
tam Pāshā. He hurried to Istanbul, and when he got to Üsküdar, he sent along
to the pāshās telling them to send someone to welcome him.
Rostam Pāshā replied, “There is no need for an official welcome; our busi-
ness is to install you on the throne. Come quickly!”
The credulous Solṭān Aḥmad got this letter and set off. When he entered the
royal court, Rostam Pāshā kissed his foot—upon which Solṭān Salim drew his
sword and killed him, seating himself on the throne of state.
Back in Āmāsyeh, when Solṭān Aḥmad’s son Solṭān Morād learned that his
father had been killed, he ordered that coins be struck and the khoṭbeh pro-
nounced in his own name. He sent someone with a letter to Rostam Pāshā

4 Frequently, as here, the text has “Pādeshāh” when what is clearly meant (given the Ottoman
context) is “Pāshā.” I have corrected these without comment.
376 Chapter 46

which said, “If I do not rend you limb from limb and make your wives and sons
my slaves, may my own wife be forbidden to me!”
The messenger delivered this letter to Rostam Pāshā, who said to Solṭān Sa-
lim, “Our intention was to go and fight Shaykh-oghli, and now this has hap-
pened!”
“Solṭān Morād is nothing much,” replied Solṭān Salim. “I will send Delāvar
Pāshā and Shahbāz Pāshā to bring him to me in chains.” He then dispatched
the pāshās along with thirty thousand Anatolian soldiers.
When Solṭān Morād got word of this, he asked the people of Āmāsyeh for
their advice. One of his soldiers said, “We are not worried about their army,
even if Rostam Pāshā himself comes.”
Solṭān Morād thus ordered a military review, and soon twenty thousand
men had gathered before him. He led them out to give the approaching pāshās
a welcome. When the pāshās heard this, they quailed before him and turned to
flee back whence they came. Solṭān Morād gave pursuit, though, and soon the
two armies were fighting. Delāvar Pāshā was killed and Shahbāz Pāshā wound-
ed. He fled and dragged himself back to Rostam Pāshā and Solṭān Salim to tell
them what had happened.
Rostam Pāshā said to Solṭān Salim, “If you want your nephew taken care of,
I have to go myself.”
“You know best,” replied Solṭān Salim. So Rostam Pāshā took a hundred
thousand Janissaries and footsoldiers and mercenaries and marched off to
Āmāsyeh.
When Solṭān Morād learned of this, he did not know what to do. He imme-
diately penned a letter to Shāh Esmāʿil which said, “If His Majesty takes pity
and comes now in fortune and felicity to befriend and help this humble ser-
vant, this least one promises to turn Anatolia over to him as a gift and to act as
one of his representatives here. This is because the father of this least one was
one of the Ṣufis of the lineage of Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq, and this slave, too,
was and is among the friends and devoted Ṣufis of that house.” He sent a cou-
rier to hasten with this letter to Eṣfahān.
When Shāh Esmāʿil read it, he was delighted, and he ordered that a reply be
sent to Solṭān Morād which read as follows: “I will send Nur ʿAli Khalifeh Rum-
lu to you with an army that will annihilate your enemy with blows of its swords.
If the Qayṣar himself comes to fight you, let us know quickly, and we will get
underway as well, and whatever is behind the veil of the Unseen will become
evident.” Then he dismissed Solṭān Morād’s courier, who departed.
Rostam Pāshā got to within eight leagues of Āmāsyeh and stopped. Solṭān
Morād emerged with a great army to face him. The next day the armies took
their positions; the vanguards of both sides charged onto the field, and the
The Glorious Banners Turn Back To Iran 377

battle began. Many of Rostam Pāshā’s men were killed. Rostam Pāshā himself
entered the fray, and Solṭān Morād rode onto the battlefield as well. Rostam
Pāshā said to him, “Take this, you bastard!” and reached for his sword. Solṭān
Morād was quicker, though, and he struck such a blow on Rostam Pāshā’s head
that he split him down to his liver. Rostam Pāshā tumbled writhing from his
horse. His army was defeated; twenty thousand of his men were killed, and the
remaining ones turned and fled.
Solṭān Salim was stunned to learn that Rostam Pāshā had been killed. He
ordered Moṣṭafā Pāshā to lead a hundred thousand men to Āmāsyeh, which he
did. Meanwhile, Solṭān Morād was waiting for a letter, hoping that Shāh Esmāʿil
would come. Then he received His Majesty’s reply to his letter.
Shāh Esmāʿil told Nur ʿAli Khalifeh to take five thousand men and hurry, for
Solṭān Morād was waiting. He granted all of Ādharbāyjān to Nur ʿAli Khalifeh
and also told him that any Anatolian territory he conquered with blows of his
sword would be his to keep. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh then set off.
Upon learning that Grand Vizier Moṣṭafā Pāshā was coming, Solṭān Morād
once again felt unsure of what to do. He had just organized his troops when
Moṣṭafā Pāshā sent a messenger bearing a few words to the people of Āmāsyeh.
“Is no one among you in his right mind? Why are you not anxious about how
things will turn out for you? Anyway, what is past is past, but if you continue to
support Solṭān Morād, the Qayṣar will order the extermination of all of you.
You can choose otherwise!”
When these words were read out to the people of Āmāsyeh, they gave in to
their fear. Thus, when Moṣṭafā Pāshā drew near to the city, Solṭān Morād was
backed into a corner. He took thirty thousand men and marched out the city
gate, but after a long and bloody battle, his army was defeated and he fled back
to Āmāsyeh. He tried to get into the citadel, but the people inside would not
open the gate. No matter how much Solṭān Morād implored them, they just
replied, “We common folk are no match for the Pādeshāh of Rum!” Finally, af-
ter much back-and-forth, they turned his harem over to him and he left.
Moṣṭafā Pāshā then entered Āmāsyeh and reported the flight of Solṭān Morād
and the capture of Āmāsyeh to the Qayṣar.
When this report reached Solṭān Salim, he became pensive; he thought to
himself, “Shaykh-oghli has always dreamed of taking vengeance on us. Now
Solṭān Morād has fled; he will go to Iran, and things will get difficult.” So he
wrote to Moṣṭafā Pāshā, saying, “Go in pursuit of Solṭān Morād. If and when he
reaches Diyārbakr, seize him and send him to my court. I don’t want to hear
any excuses.”
Moṣṭafā Pāshā sent Shahbāz Pāshā ahead with ten thousand men. He him-
self brought up the rear. Shahbāz Pāshā caught up to Solṭān Morād in a
378 Chapter 46

meadow,5 and a great battle broke out in which a great number of Shahbāz
Pāshā’s men were killed. Shahbāz Pāshā himself was wounded and fled along
with five hundred men back to Moṣṭafā Pāshā, to whom he explained what had
happened. He said, “If Solṭān Morād makes it to the Qezelbāsh army and re-
turns with them, Solṭān Salim will not be able to handle him anymore—unless
you yourself reach him and find a way to capture him.”
Moṣṭafā Pāshā gave ten thousand men to Moḥammad Pāshā, the governor
of Tripoli,6 and dispatched him to go fight Solṭān Morād, while he himself
came behind with his thirty thousand men.
Now when Solṭān Morād won that victory, he knew that the enemy would
come in pursuit of him. So he got moving. He sent his runner ahead, telling
him, “Tell every Qezelbāsh in the region to take up arms and come to my aid.”
After one day, the runner spotted five thousand Qezelbāsh, each with a
Ḥaydari tāj on his head and a spear in his hand. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh, in turn, saw
the runner and told his men to bring him into his presence. They did so, and he
asked him what was going on. The runner explained what had happened to
Solṭān Morād.
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh bit his fingers in amazement. He said, “Solṭān Morād has
shirked his duty; there was no need for him to leave Āmāsyeh.” He then told the
runner, “Go quickly to Solṭān Morād and convey to him our prayers. Then tell
him that our noble Shāh has sent us along with five thousand true-blue Ṣufis to
help him. He should stay where he is until I arrive.” Then the runner left.
In the meantime, Solṭān Morād got word that on the afternoon of the fol-
lowing day Moḥammad Pāshā, the governor of Tripoli, would arrive with ten
thousand men. Solṭān Morād had no strength left, and his horses were on their
last legs as well. As he stood there, staggering, he saw a runner coming from the
direction of Iran.
“By God,” he said, “the sight of this runner has brought me joy.”
The runner approached, bowed his head, and presented Nur ʿAli Khalifeh’s
message in its entirety. Solṭān Morād said, “It is not my fault that I left Āmāsyeh;
the people shut the gate in my face and would not let me in.” Then he told his
companions not to worry, for the messenger had brought such news.
As evening approached, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh and his five thousand Rumlu Ṣufis
arrived. Solṭān Morād went out to greet them. As he drew near, Khalifeh bowed
his head and went to kiss Solṭān Morād’s hand, but Solṭān Morād would not

5 Text has alangi, which the editor translates in a note as “meadow.” Steingass has “an entrench-
ment; a wall of defence; a garrison; a besieging party.”
6 Ṭarāblos, presumably Tripoli in Lebanon. This is another anachronism, as the Ottomans had
not yet conquered this region at the time these events are supposedly taking place (they took
the city in 1551).
The Glorious Banners Turn Back To Iran 379

allow it. The two men got acquainted, and after they had sat down and con-
versed for a while, Khalifeh asked, “Why have you left Āmāsyeh?”
Solṭān Morād explained his situation.
“Now what do you have in mind?” Khalifeh asked.
“I intend to enter the service of His Majesty the Shadow of God,” said Solṭān
Morād.
Khalifeh replied, “If you stop in this border region, I—by the power of the
might of the arm of ʿAli, the Friend of God—will, God willing, make you
Pādeshāh of the whole of the realm of Anatolia.”
Solṭān Morād said, “The reason I came is to be a servant to the Perfect
Guide.”
“You have come with no preparation,” said Khalifeh. “Be patient and get
ready before you leave. Moḥammad Pāshā’s army has already arrived and set
up their encampment.”
Then Khalifeh appointed the Rumlu Ṣufis to the vanguard. The next day,
those two armies arose and arranged their men in ranks. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh told
Solṭān Morād, “Since you have been riding hard with your army, stay with the
battle-standard. The Qezelbāsh will rout the enemy within an hour with the
support of the Lord of the World.” He placed two thousand Qezelbāsh at the
foot of the battle-standard, then took three thousand others and headed into
battle.
Moḥammad Pāshā, too, led his Anatolian troops forward. Killing men left
and right as he struck with his sword, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh scattered the enemy
soldiers until he reached the foot of their battle-standard. He killed Moḥammad
Pāshā and broke his battle-standard in half. The Anatolians, seeing that they
were defeated, chose to flee. The Qezelbāsh killed a great many of them and
chased the others back to their encampment, where they killed six thousand
more; the wounded survivors ran off in retreat. The victorious Qezelbāsh plun-
dered their belongings and baggage and tents, much of which belonged to
Solṭān Morād, since the Anatolians had seized it in Āmāsyeh. The Qezelbāsh
took it all back to Solṭān Morād.
Solṭān Morād praised Nur ʿAli Khalifeh highly, then asked, “Why have the
Qezelbāsh not given chase?”
“The Perfect Guide commands us not to pursue a defeated army,” replied
Khalifeh.
Then every bit of Solṭān Morād’s property that Khalifeh had seized from the
Anatolians was returned to him. They then left that place and proceeded to the
fortress of Kamākh,7 which they seized by force, and since it was winter, they
made their winter camp there.

7 Kemah, near Erzincan.

380 Chapter 46

As winter was coming to a close, Solṭān Morād said, “I must go to the service
of the Shāh.” Nur ʿAli Khalifeh saw to it that Solṭān Morād had provisions; then
he sent him to the royal court via the Kordestān road. Solṭān Morād made the
journey, and when he got to the vicinity of Eṣfahān, news of his arrival was
brought to His Majesty the Shāh. The high commanders and Qezelbāsh troops
were ordered to go out and greet him and bring him into the city with all hon-
ors.
When Solṭān Morād reached the garden and complex of Naqsh-e Jahān,8
Shāh Esmāʿil came to the garden gate to welcome him. He kissed Solṭān Morād
on the forehead, took him by the hand, and embraced him. He gave him a seat
and said, “God willing, I will make you the Pādeshāh of the entirety of Anato-
lia.”
Solṭān Morād replied, “It is ‘more apparent than the sun itself’ that all those
in need who seek refuge at this court will find their worldly and otherworldly
affairs taken care of.”
Realizing that Solṭān Morād was a dyed-in-the-wool Shiʿi, Shāh Esmāʿil
placed the jeweled crown of Solṭān Jonayd on his head, dressed him in fine
Qezelbāsh raiment, and ordered him bedecked in jewels. He also presented his
attendants with opulent gifts. After a few assemblies, at which they busied
themselves with enjoyment and delight, His Majesty said, “There are forty days
left until Nawruz. After we pass the holiday in this happy and auspicious place,
on the first day of spring9 we will order a military review of the Qezelbāsh in
Tabriz and gather even more men. If Solṭān Salim decides to come to us, so
much the better; if not, together with you we will set off and, first conquering
Tuqāt, we will go and fight with Solṭān Salim on the shore at Üsküdar.”
Thus, after Shāh Esmāʿil had celebrated world-illumining Nawruz with
feasting and merriment in Eṣfahān, he set out at an auspicious hour together
with Solṭān Morād and the high-ranking commanders of the victorious
Qezelbāsh army on the road to Jorfādeqān. When they reached Hamadān,
though, Solṭān Morād came down with a serious illness, which became so se-
vere that he showed signs of imminent death. Shāh Esmāʿil was upset at this
and said, “Since the water and air of Eṣfahān agreed with Solṭān Morād, he
needs to be taken back there.” They put Solṭān Morād on a litter and brought
him back to Eṣfahān. There His Majesty busied himself with feasting and
­hunting.

8 Possibly an anachronistic reference to the city’s famous Maydān-e Shāh (also known as the
Maydān-e Naqsh-e Jahān).
9 Text has Ḥamal (Aries).
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 381

Chapter 47

Solṭān Salim, the Pādeshāh of Rum, Comes to Iran and Arrives at

Chālderān; the Victorious Banners of the Shadow of God Turn Toward Him,
but the Qezelbāsh are Defeated

Solṭān Salim, in Istanbul, heard the news of the coming of Nur ʿAli Khalifeh to
the aid of Solṭān Morād, the death of Moḥammad Pāshā, and the departure of
Solṭān Morād for the caliphal court of the Shadow of God. He thought deeply.
Since it was winter, and therefore not possible to go on campaign, he appoint-
ed an emissary and sent him off with a letter to His Majesty the Shāh. Shāh
Esmāʿil was still in Eṣfahān when Solṭān Salim’s messenger arrived and pre-
sented the letter, which read:
“Let it not remain hidden from ‘Shaykh-oghli,’ Shāh Esmāʿil, that my royal
father was spineless. You once sent him the head of Shāhi Beg Khān the ruler
of Torkestān, and once a fragment of Changiz Khān’s flag, and once the turban-
ornament of Abulkhayr Khān, and you frightened him with this deceitful trick-
ery. He, in his senility and haplessness, was afraid of these silly things. Appalled
at this, I have deposed him and placed myself on the throne of the Qayṣars. I
have resolved to take revenge on you for past wrongs. At any rate, since my
nephew Solṭān Morād has now fled from my attendants and come to you, the
right thing is for you to clap him in chains and send him to me, as well as to
order that your representative in Diyārbakr, which is our royal inheritance, join
our royal servants, so that the foundation of friendship between us may be
strengthened and not turn into enmity. If not, prepare for war, for my sea-
churning Anatolian army will come to Iran.”
When Solṭān Salim’s emissary arrived in Eṣfahān to kiss the royal threshold,
the letter was read out. Seething with anger, His Majesty the Shāh ordered that
a response be written thus:
“Solṭān Salim the unhappy parricide, Pādeshāh of little ʿOthmān’s Anatolia,1
has written some irrelevant words which have passed under our alchemical
gaze on the topics of his father’s senility and the sending of the head of Shāhi
Beg Khān, the fragment of Changiz Khān’s flag, and the turban-ornament of
Abulkhayr Khān, as well as the fright they caused. The refuge of the sultanate,
your father, was a happy and prudent man; he knew that whoever defied Our
Imperial Highness would be laid low in the dust. Now that the breeze of arro-

1 Pādeshāh-e Rum-e ʿOthmānjoqi (Tk. Osmancık?): I read this, quite tentatively, as a contemp-
tous reference to Osman, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_048

382 Chapter 47

gance has begun to blow through your brain, may God Almighty will it that I
take your infernal head by the power of the Khaybar-smashing arm of the
Commander of the Faithful and send it to the king of Portugal. You have said
that I should turn Diyārbakr over to your servants, and that it is your hereditary
possession. Diyārbakr was not your father’s when I took it; it had been seized
by ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr, a descendant of Ḥasan Pādeshāh, and by the blows
of my world-burning sword I seized it from him—ʿAlāʾoddawleh, to whom your
ancestors used to pay taxes and tribute! You cannot lay a claim to the lands of
Ḥasan Pādeshāh to compete with my own. As for sending Solṭān Morād to you,
he has taken refuge at my court, as other kings of the earth have done and shall
do. He has become my guest, and no one kicks a guest out of his house. Since
you have decided to pursue this course, perhaps you and I will meet. Peace.”
He then gave the emissary leave to depart, which he did. When he reached
Istanbul, the emissary gave the Shāh’s response to Solṭān Salim and told him
what had happened. Solṭān Salim’s temper flared, and he ordered that prepara-
tions be made and the army be gathered. “I will go to Iran and destroy Shaykh-
oghli!” he said.
His mind was fixed on this plan, but his mother said, “O my son, haven’t you
realized what kind of war Shaykh-oghli wages? They say he will fight against
any king. He draws his sword and fights even harder than his own men, and
however many arrows and musket-shots and spears and swords and cannons
may be aimed at him, such implements of war have no effect on him, because
he is aided by the Immaculate Emāms. How will you fight against such a
Pādeshāh? Do you perhaps have a champion who can go onto the battlefield
alone, seek him out, and take care of him?”
Solṭān Salim said, “A warrior by the name of Malquch-oghli2 has come to
our service from Europe and converted to Islam. I will summon him and ask
him to go onto the battlefield and remove Shaykh-oghli from it with one blow.”
He sent someone to find Malquch-oghli, and he himself saw to the prepara-
tion of the army. They set off for Iran on the first day of spring. When they got
to Üsküdar, Solṭān Salim asked his grand vizier, “Which road would it be better
to take?”
The vizier replied, “It will be better to go through the region of Ādharbāyjān,
the reason being that Nur ʿAli Khalifeh is on that road. He has been insolent to

2 The text has “Awtak-oghli.” In some other manuscripts he is called “Atak-oghli.” The individual
referred to is clearly the Ottoman champion Malquch-oghli, who appears in numerous Safavid
sources, so I have used this name. At the actual battle, there were two brothers Malquch-oghli,
both of whom were killed. For information on this family, see Leiser, “Malḳoč-Og̲ h̲ullari̊.”
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 383

the servants of the Qayṣar; if we seize him and punish him, it will be an exam-
ple to the others, and it will also cut Shaykh-oghli to the quick.”
While still in Üsküdar, Solṭān Salim sent another emissary on the subject of
Solṭān Morād to the court of His Majesty the Shāh. Then he set off on the road
to Ādharbāyjān.
When word reached Nur ʿAli Khalifeh that Solṭān Salim was coming, he
sought the counsel of his friends and said, “Fighting the Qayṣar of Rum with
five thousand men is out of the question. We must evacuate this place and go
to the court of His Majesty the Shāh.”
After much reflection, though, he changed his mind and chose the path of
zeal and manliness and bravery, which was natural to him. He said, “I will not
fear the Qayṣar and run away without victory. I will fight a battle with him!”
Then he sent off his camp-equipment and baggage to Tabriz, and settled in to
wait for the arrival of the Qayṣar.
Now when Solṭān Salim reached the outskirts of Ādharbāyjān, he gave forty
thousand troops to his second vizier, Rāstān Pāshā, and sent them ahead in the
vanguard. Upon learning that they were coming, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh and five
thousand Rumlu Ṣufis cut off Rāstān Pāshā, plunged into the midst of the Ana-
tolian troops, and began a pitched battle.
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh and the Qezelbāsh army put their valor on display, and in
a short time they had killed ten thousand Anatolian soldiers. Stunned, Rāstān
Pāshā and the remnant of his army turned to flee, but Nur ʿAli Khalifeh would
not give up the pursuit. He chased them for three or four leagues, killing or
wounding the lot of them.
Then the banners of the Qayṣar’s army became visible. When the Qayṣar
saw Nur ʿAli Khalifeh and his men from afar, he peered at them intently and
sent someone to find out about them. He came back to tell the Qayṣar of the
defeat of Rāstān Pāshā and the killing of the soldiers in the battle with Nur ʿAli
Khalifeh. Nur ʿAli, too, realizing that the Qayṣar was on his way, headed back to
where he had come from.
When the Qayṣar learned what had happened, he wondered whether he
should go fight with Nur ʿAli Khalifeh or what his lead general suggested. At last
he determined to pack up and head for Ādharbāyjān. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had no
choice but to go back to Shāh Esmāʿil.
Solṭān Salim appointed Moḥammad Chāvosh as his emissary, writing a let-
ter to Shāh Esmāʿil that said: “Three times now we have sent messengers to you
to inform you that we will come to Iran with the intention of fighting you. Now
we have gotten on the move and stopped in the outskirts of Ādharbāyjān,
whence we have sent Moḥammad Chāvosh to you. The right thing to do is to
clap Solṭān Morād in chains, send him to us, and withdraw your claim to our
384 Chapter 47

hereditary lands, namely Diyārbakr, lest the friendship between us turn to en-
mity. Otherwise our appointment will be in Tabriz. Choose whichever pleases
you. Send us your letter of response with Moḥammad Chāvosh quickly.”
When Moḥammad Chāvosh reached His Majesty the Shāh, he presented the
letter, and when the Shāh saw what it said, his blessed mind was a bit per-
turbed, because his men were not prepared yet. He sent this as his reply: “Obvi-
ously, Fate has granted Solṭān Morād no security, and his appointed hour is
near. As for Diyārbakr, our answer is just what we told you. Now since you have
stopped in our own ancestral territory, do us a favor and make yourself at
home; God willing, we will come to serve you, and whatever He has decreed
will become apparent.” Then he gave Moḥammad Chāvosh his leave and sent
him on his way.
But we have not mentioned that when Solṭān Salim sent the first messenger,
that one was called Qāzi Chalabi, and he was one of the most learned religious
scholars in Anatolia. Now Solṭān Salim had heard that in the time of his fa-
ther’s reign, when Shāh Esmāʿil had been on the throne for seven years, he had
gone to Baghdād and conquered it, whereupon he dug up the bones of Abu
Ḥanifeh, burned them, and buried a dog in their place.3 When word of this
reached Solṭān Bāyazid, the scholars of Anatolia gathered at the Qayṣar’s pal-
ace gate, throwing dust on their heads and shouting, “Islam has been cast aside!
Shaykh-oghli has oppressed our rights! Because of the shame of this hideous
act, if we do not do something about it, the Great Emām, Abu Ḥanifeh, will
despise us and the Pādeshāh as well!”
When Solṭān Bāyazid heard this, he said, “Why is it that we should protest
on behalf of the Great Emām? He will do it himself.” This reply placated the
people, and Solṭān Bāyazid dropped the matter.4
When Solṭān Salim became Pādeshāh, he sent a messenger with a letter he
had written on this subject, saying, “What is this vile act you committed?
What’s more, you keep reviling the first three Caliphs—they who in life had
the honor of attending on the Refuge of Apostleship, and who in death lie near
the grave of that leader of the world. You are an infidel and a heretic when it
comes to the subject of those three caliphs! Surely it is apparent to you that if
the two5 great caliphs had not been worthy to be near the grave of the Proph-
et, the whole world would not have come to a consensus that they were, and if
they had made even a small error, wouldn’t some other group have prevented

3 Related in Chapter 25.

4 Here I have omitted a sentence (“Today it is necessary for you to seek revenge for this talk and
chastise Shaykh-oghli with punishment”) because it is unclear who is speaking, to whom, and
when.
5 Per Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb, here Abu Bakr and ʿOmar are meant.
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 385

it? If anyone had perfect understanding, one would be able to grasp the thread
of this thought, whereas no one has either end of it. One other thing: The sect
you have established is false, as can be seen from the chronogram thereof
(madhhab-e nāḥaqq).”6
The Perfect Guide was much afflicted when he heard this. He turned to his
adviser, the Qāzizādeh Lāhiji, and said, “This ‘false sect’ chronogram has me
quite vexed.”
The Qāzizādeh replied, “You must summon Shaykh ʿAli the Arab to see what
he thinks.”
When Shaykh ʿAli arrived at court, they sat him down and told him what the
emissary had said. Shaykh ʿAli said, “Let me answer all three of the points he
has raised, so that His Majesty may be satisfied. Perhaps the enemy will be
satisfied as well.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “First tell me, so that I know my mind will be free of this
anxiety.” So Shaykh ʿAli explained his answers to His Majesty, who was cheered
by them and said, “My heart would have been sickened if you had not told me
these answers.”
The next day, His Majesty mounted his horse and went off with the emissary
and the religious scholars for a three-day hunting trip. When they got to the
area where Qaydār the Prophet (son of Esmāʿil, son of Ebrāhim the Friend of
God) is buried, the Shāh asked, “What is that dome?”
“It is the dome of the shrine of the prophet Qaydār,” came the reply.
The Perfect Guide told all the scholars, as well as Qāzi Chalabi, to dismount
and go on a pilgrimage to the shrine with him. Just as they finished, a runner
came up carrying the body of one of the Shāh’s hunting-dogs, which he showed
to His Majesty.
“This isn’t our dog, is it?” asked Shāh Esmāʿil.
“Yes, it is,” replied the runner. “Durmesh Khān’s horse kicked it and it died.
We are sorry for your loss.”
His Majesty looked crestfallen. “I saw great wisdom in this dog,” he said,
“such as human beings do not possess.” He ordered that they bring a brocade of
gold and silk and wrap the dog in it; then he told them to break open the side
of Qaydār’s tomb and bury the dog inside. Everybody gasped in shock—Qāzi
Chalabi even thought they would have to bury him as well.
The Shāh turned to his scholars and said, “Pour dust on your heads and
obey!”

6 The date yielded by the chronogram madhhab-e nāḥaqq (“false sect”) is indeed 906, or the
(Hijri) year in which Shāh Esmāʿil emerged to take power.
386 Chapter 47

Qāzizādeh Lāhiji got to work with even more earnestness than the others.
When it was finished, the world-sheltering Shāh emerged from the tomb,
mounted his horse, and rode off to the hunting-ground, while the scholars re-
turned to the royal encampment.
Qāzi Chalabi said to himself, “Come now, let us ask these ʿolamā: They are
supposedly (God forbid!) scholars of the true religion of the Prophet of the End
of Time, so how could they have done such a thing?”
He asked someone, and the man responded, “When the Perfect Guide gives
a command, what else can we do? We recognize that reward and punishment
belong to him.” When he asked some of the Qezelbāsh, he got the same answer.
He asked the scholars, and they said, “We, too, did this at the order of the Shāh.”
Qāzi Chalabi thought to himself, “What a shameless bunch these people
are!” He was very unhappy and upset, but he put on a happy face.
Finally Shāh Esmāʿil returned from the hunt to the army-camp, and when
they got to Solṭāniyeh, Qāzi Chalabi went to the royal court and said, “Now that
you have had a chance to think about how to answer the points I have raised,
tell me, so that I may go.” They took him into the presence of the Shāh. There
he bowed his head and went to take his place in the assembly, where all the
religious scholars and commanders were seated by rank.
“Raise your points again,” the Shāh said.
Qāzi Chalabi asked, “Why did you bury a dog in place of Abu Ḥanifeh?”
“Because we place no credence in him,” replied Qāzizādeh Lāhiji. “He was
neither a seyyed nor an emāmzādeh, nor did he have any kind of pedigree or
lineage. We recognized him as a dog, and were jealous that a dog of the Sunnis
should have this grave and crypt, while a dog of the Shiʿa had none such. We
removed the Sunni dog and replaced it with our own! Had he been an Emām
and in the right, we would have had to be punished for this, and had he had
esoteric inner knowledge, raising this question would have been a simpler
matter.
“Now about your second point,” he continued, “the chronogram you came
up with: We put together a chronogram to answer you, for this is a matter of the
truth of our faith. The Immaculate Emāms put the idea for this chronogram in
our heads. If there is any justice, you will have to follow this sect, for it came to
us from the Emāms. But since you have no intelligence and are blind to the in-
ner truth, to both the outer and inner truth, how is it a sin on our part? Ours
is not the false sect (madhhab-e nāḥaqq) but the true one (madhhab-e
bā-ḥaqq)!”7

7 This is clever enough, but the change of a letter changes the date yielded by the chronogram,
spoiling it. Shokri’s edition (ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi, 481) preserves what was probably the original
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 387

When Qāzi Chalabi heard this, he turned pale and looked glum. He lowered
his head as Shāh Esmāʿil said, “You have seen the truth of ‘the true sect’—look
how it has drained the color from your face. What happened?”
“This ‘true sect’ business has become taxing,” said Qāzi Chalabi. “What do
you say to my third point, about burying the dog in the shrine of Qaydār?”
Qāzizādeh Lāhiji said, “We imagine that you saw it right then; how witless
are you?”
“What exactly is the reply of the Shiʿi scholars?” asked Qāzi Chalabi.
“Did His Majesty not command that we bury that dog near a prophet of
God?” said Qāzizādeh Lāhiji. “It was to answer you that the Perfect Guide did
this. Otherwise, no one in ancient or modern times has committed such a hei-
nous act. In fact, they immediately dug up the dog and removed it.”
“What was the purpose of doing that?” asked Qāzi Chalabi.
Qāzizādeh Lāhiji replied, “Can there be a better reason than this, that the
Perfect Guide is now Pādeshāh? He gave an order saying, ‘Bury the dog near a
prophet of God.’ We all knew it was a heinous and most evil act, but for the sake
of pleasing the Shāh we did it, for we are the ʿolamā of the (Islamic) nation;8
we dug up the ground and obeyed His Majesty so that he would be satisfied
with us and we might obtain a high position near him. When the caliph Abu
Bakr died, ʿOmar was caliph, and he gave orders that he be buried in a certain
place. This was done. When ʿOmar died, ʿOthmān was ruler, and he too com-
manded the burial. When ʿOthmān died, no one had the authority to order
anyone to bury him there. Why didn’t people reach a ‘consensus’9 to bury
him near that light of Moḥammad’s eye? Instead, they threw him in the Jewish
graveyard! That is our third answer.”
Qāzi Chalabi crumpled. You would have thought they had placed steel
combs on him from head to foot and flayed him. When he stood up, he was
given permission to leave, and he returned to the Qayṣar to deliver the mes-
sage. That very day the Anatolian ʿolamā broke out their camp-gear and said,
“We are coming on the campaign as well!” The Shiʿis of Anatolia rejoiced, and
the enemies of the House of ʿAli were blind with grief and rage.
Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil left Hamadān for Tabriz. When he arrived there,
the call went out for fighting men to hasten to court and join the victorious
army. His Majesty then left Tabriz and set out to prepare a welcome for the
Qayṣar. Upon reaching the plain of Chālderān, he said, “This is the place we

solution: The Qāzizādeh simply reads the letters of the chronogram in Arabic rather than
Persian. This gives madhhabunā ḥaqq, “Our sect is truth.”
8 ommat
9 ejmāʿ. The narrator may be mocking the Sunni notion of consensus in matters of faith.
388 Chapter 47

will do battle. Let the army prepare, and let whatever God Almighty has fated
come to pass.”
The Shāh, however, was being a bit arrogant. What did not occur to him was
that this was war with the Ottoman Solṭān and the army of Anatolia. The
Qezelbāsh, too, had the breeze of haughtiness blowing through their brains in
wanting to fight the Anatolians in this location.
In just a few days, eighteen thousand men gathered at the majestic encamp-
ment of the Shāh. Solṭān Salim and wave upon wave of his own soldiers had
arrived at the plain of Chālderān. In one of the way-stations, too, Malquch-
oghli had come to the service of the emperor, bringing along with him a num-
berless army. Solṭān Salim welcomed him with praise, and they got to work
setting up camp.
Now when the Solṭān set up camp at Chālderān with his limitless army, the
Qezelbāsh forces had not yet arrived.10 His Majesty the Shāh summoned the
commanders Khān Moḥammad Khān, his brother Qarākhān, Durmesh Khān,
Mantash Solṭān and Ḥosayn Beg Laleh for a council of war. He asked them,
“What do you advise?”
Khān Moḥammad Khān said, “It is unthinkable to fight the entire army of
Anatolia with only eighteen thousand men! This slave sees the welfare of the
state in the necessity to retreat to Mount Sarkash11 and wait to gather more
forces. If the Solṭān holds back as well, when we have gathered a powerful army
we will attack him; if not, he will turn toward Tabriz, and when he enters the
city, the population will all be partisans of the Shāh. It will be easier to fight
him in the city in cooperation with them.”
His Majesty did not answer, but looked at Durmesh Khān. Durmesh Khān
said to Khān Moḥammad Khān, “It’s amazing to hear you say such unmanly
things! And I used to think you were brave! Who are the Solṭān and his army
that we should turn our backs on them and flee? We shall fight them like the
heroes of the world we are and turn their day black. However great his fortune
may be, the Lord of the world has granted His own fortune to the Perfect
Guide.”
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh seconded the opinion of Durmesh Khān. “That’s exactly it,”
he said.
So Shāh Esmāʿil ordered that the battle-drums be sounded. When Solṭān
Salim heard the sound of the battle-drums, he ordered that his own be sound-
ed, and that night the heads of the vengeance-minded found no rest.

10 Sic; this seems to be the reverse of the situation.

11 Shokri (ʿĀlamārā-ye Ṣafavi, 484) has “Mount Narkash,” which is an actual mountain east
of Tehran.
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 389

The next day, the Solṭān ordered that his grand vizier gather and array the
troops in rows of a hundred thousand men each. Then the Solṭān ordered
Malquch-oghli to take three thousand men ahead in the vanguard. Malquch-
oghli proceeded with those men onto the battlefield. Shāh Esmāʿil, too, was
arraying his troops into three rows. He saw that Malquch-oghli had come onto
the battlefield and would be looking for him, so he placed Solṭān Ebrāhim
Mirzā and the Shiʿi religious officials and scholars in the center, underneath
the banner that read “Help from God,” himself going up on top of a hill.
He was surveying the Solṭān’s army when he spotted Malquch-oghli on the
battlefield searching for him. Just as Malquch-oghli gave a shout, from one end
of the battlefield there appeared a veiled figure in panther-skin armor, all
wrapped in iron and steel and silver and gold. Spear in hand, this figure rode a
leaping steed onto the battlefield, took one look at Malquch-oghli, and realized
that here was one powerful bastard. Malquch-oghli asked, “Why is Shaykh-
oghli wearing a veil?”
The figure replied, “I put on a veil so that your unlucky blue eyes don’t see
my face!”
“If you are not Shaykh-oghli,” said Malquch-oghli, “then go away so that I
can search for him.”
They were talking like this when Shāh Esmāʿil Bahādor Khān appeared on
the eastern horizon, like the shining sun. His royal eye fell on Malquch-oghli,
and he was pleased with what he saw. He turned toward the veiled figure to say
“Go back”; the figure bowed and left, pulling up the reins and falling into line in
front of the wing led by Durmesh Khān.
His Majesty the Shāh came down from the hill toward the battlefield, while
the Solṭān climbed a hill near his own army to watch the Qezelbāsh army. He
saw just a few troops in a three-row formation. Malquch-oghli had himself
gone to the battlefield and was searching for His Majesty the Shāh.
The Solṭān said, “What a strange man this Shaykh-oghli is, who has come
with this modest army to fight against so many thousands of horsemen and a
pādeshāh like myself.” Then he was struck with a feeling of pity, so he sent a
message to Shāh Esmāʿil which said:
“What I have heard of your deeds is true—indeed you are a virile man, no-
ble as a lion. The reason I thought of this is that I figured that you had surely
gathered a great army to fight against me. Now that I have looked over your
forces, though, I have realized that you do not rely on the army, but rather on
the help of God Almighty. At any rate, we hereby grant you permission to with-
draw, and we bestow the realm of Iran on you. We are leaving to return to Istan-
bul. Farewell.”
390 Chapter 47

When the emissary brought this message to Shāh Esmāʿil, His Majesty told
him to take this message to the Solṭān: “You can bestow Iran when you have
conquered it! Right now it is in the possession of the lords of our conquering
imperial state. As Ferdawsi of blessed memory put it,

The messenger said, ‘O fortunate lord,

Don’t turn loose the deer you haven’t captured!’12

“Now the conflict between Our Majesty and the Solṭān has come to this: Swords
must be drawn, and the unmanly sorted out from the manly!”
The emissary returned to the Solṭān and delivered the news that it would be
war. The Solṭān told him to return to “Shaykh-oghli” and say, “Since you will
definitely fight, I leave the choice of warfare up to you. Let me know the mode
of battle you choose, and I will act accordingly.”
This message was taken to Shāh Esmāʿil, who said, “Any mode of battle will
do. If you have decided to see the unmanly sorted out from the manly, give or-
ders that no one fire their cannons.”
The Solṭān thus gave orders that anyone who fired a cannon would find his
wife forbidden to him. An oath was sworn to this effect, and someone brought
word of the agreement to Shāh Esmāʿil.
Now when Shāh Esmāʿil saw Malquch-oghli on the battlefield looking for
him, he went out there himself, and after some initial verbal exchanges, the
two men began to fight with spears. This went nowhere, so Malquch-oghli
grabbed his sword and aimed a blow at the sky-rubbing top of the Shāh’s head.
His Majesty was quicker, though; he seized the sword of the Master of the
Command and smote Malquch-oghli on the head such that his Dhulfeqār-like
blade flashed in the middle of the man’s saddle. Malquch-oghli writhed as he
was split in half. Having witnessed Shāh Esmāʿil’s sword-blow, the Anatolian
army sat there stunned as His Majesty left the battlefield and returned to the
center of his own army.
Solṭān Salim now sent another vanguard of thirty thousand men to the bat-
tlefield. Sāru Pireh the qurchi-bāshi led five thousand Qezelbāsh against them.
The battle got under way, and the victorious Qezelbāsh troops drove the Ana-
tolians from the field with blows of their swords, killing a great many of them.
Then the Solṭān sent forth his right wing to pursue Ṣāru Pireh’s men. Durmesh
Khān came to their aid, after which Moṣṭafā Pāshā brought innumerable troops
into the fray. The battle became thick; mud and dust rose to the azure heavens,
and it began to rain souls. Shāh Esmāʿil, with an army of three thousand offi-
cers13 and four thousand Ṣufis of the Rumlu clan, hurled himself into battle

12 From the Shāhnāmeh (the story of the khāqān of China).

13 khāṣṣān
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 391

against the Solṭān with a cry of manliness. Yet however much His Majesty
looked for the dust that always used to rise behind the fighting Qezelbāsh to
indicate victory, there was no sign of it.
Shāh Esmāʿil plunged into the midst of the Anatolians, driving them back
with blows of his world-conquering sword. Nur ʿAli Khalifeh also drove himself
through the enemy ranks, while elsewhere Khān Moḥammad Khān and the
Ostājlu clan fought manfully as well. They killed fifty thousand Anatolians and
worked miracles worthy of the Last Judgment. The Anatolian soldiers, fearing
the Qezelbāsh swords, fled back behind their cannon-emplacements.
The grand vizier said, “This army will ruin the House of ʿOthmān!” Then he
said to Solṭān Salim, “Order them to fire the cannons! The situation has gotten
out of hand!”
“I swore an oath that the cannons would not be fired,” the Solṭān replied.
“You may have sworn an oath,” said the grand vizier, “but I didn’t!” He then
ordered his men to fire the cannons. Since the Anatolians and Qezelbāsh were
all mixed together, twenty thousand Anatolians and seven thousand Qezelbāsh
were at once ripped from the ground and turned into ashes. Khān Moḥammad
Khān and a thousand of his men continued to fight bravely, but the cannons
opened fire again, and he and three hundred men were obliterated.
Then, even as the smoke of gunpowder was turning the world dark, Shāh
Esmāʿil took three hundred men and drove himself toward the chains linking
the gun-carriages. At that point the veiled figure from earlier arrived to join
that leaderless group of seven hundred men and saw, upon looking around,
that the enemy had surrounded a group of Qezelbāsh with no one to lead them
out. Shāh Esmāʿil sliced through the cannons’ chains and freed them. Another
seven hundred men from Khān Moḥammad Khān’s group had been left with-
out a commander when the enemy killed him; His Majesty freed them from
the chains as well. Fighting hard, he pushed toward the cannons and cut the
chains.
A great number of enemy soldiers surrounded him, but he and seven com-
rades fought their way back toward their own lines to avoid any more cannon-
fire. The Anatolians gave chase. Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā Afshār cut them off and, after
a fight, was taken prisoner. They were about to kill him when he cried, “I am the
king of Iran! If you take me into the presence of the Solṭān, he will reward you!”
He lied about his name and became a prisoner of the Anatolians so that they
would stop their pursuit of Shāh Esmāʿil.
He was then brought into the presence of Solṭān Salim. When Solṭān Salim
saw Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā, he said, “That is Shaykh-oghli!” and began to castigate
him. Then, though, he said, “I suspect this may not be Shaykh-oghli. Let Qāzi
Chalabi come and see him.” When the Qāzi came, he said, “It is Shaykh-oghli.”
392 Chapter 47

The Solṭān was just putting his mind at ease when suddenly the Shāh with a
heart like Rostam’s and a nature like Esfandiyār’s appeared, his shirt red with
the blood of the enemy, intent on killing the Qayṣar. The Qezelbāsh were fated
to be struck by the evil eye, though, lest they get heads full of notions. This is
because they always used to say Özüdür, that is, “It is the Commander of the
Faithful himself who has come! He has never been defeated in battle, for his
blessed body is immune to arrow or sword!”
Anyway, His Majesty was in battle when he heard an enemy soldier saying,
“Shaykh-oghli has been captured and taken to the Solṭān!” He said to himself,
“God forbid this rumor should spread, or the Qezelbāsh will break into flight
and the Solṭān will advance into Iran with no worries.”
So he fought his way through the Anatolian ranks and said to Solṭān ʿAli
Mirzā, “You scoundrel! Did you say ‘I am the Shāh,’ or did they pin that title on
you?” Then he said, “O Solṭān Salim, you have broken your promise and fired
the cannons; you have been faithless to your own word and become an oath-
breaker. You have lost this world and the next! And that man they have brought
to you is one of my servants!” Hand on his sword, he turned to face the enemy,
and in short order he had bowled over forty thousand of the Solṭān’s leading
pāshās right in front of him. As Shāh Esmāʿil was heading back toward his own
lines with Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā in tow, though, the Anatolians started firing their
rifles in his direction, and Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā was hit and fell.
Just then Nur ʿAli Khalifeh arrived to help, and together he and His Majesty
fought their way back through the enemy ranks with a thousand difficulties.
Then the Shāh asked Nur ʿAli Khalifeh, “Do you have any news of our battle-
standard?”
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh said, “Solṭān Solaymān, the son of Solṭān Salim,14 reached
the foot of the standard and killed your minister of state along with the chief
religious official and scholars and five hundred others, but Akhi Solṭān escaped
with the battle-standard.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “If we had a trumpet, we could rally some of our scattered
troops.” So Nur ʿAli Khalifeh found a trumpet and brought together five hun-
dred Qezelbāsh.
Then word came that Durmesh Khān and his men were surrounded and on
the verge of being overrun. His Majesty hurled himself back into battle, rescu-
ing Durmesh Khān and killing a number of Anatolians. He also saved Qarākhān.
As he did, he said, “Today the Blessed Emāms have not come to our aid; we can
do no more. Head for Tabriz, and I, God willing, will be right behind you.”

14 The future Ottoman emperor Süleyman is not usually said to have been present at
Chālderān.
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 393

His Majesty then dismissed half the army, taking the other half to retrieve
any Qezelbāsh who might still be on the battlefield. That is when his eye fell
upon a figure wearing a veil. She was on the verge of being captured; she had
killed thirty Anatolians, and seventeen others were hot on her heels. She was
beating a fighting retreat when the Shāh caught up to her with sixty men.
When she saw the Shāh, she said, “May I be a sacrifice to you! I heard that they
had captured you and taken you to the Solṭān, so I came out to fight to the
death.”
“Now that you have seen me,” said His Majesty, “leave the battlefield in
safety.”
When Solṭān Salim heard about this figure in a veil, he sent five thousand
men after her, saying, “That is Shaykh-oghli’s wife! Her name is Tājlu Khānom.
Go capture her and bring her to me in one piece!”
Shāh Esmāʿil headed them off and engaged them in battle. He had over-
thrown a thousand of them when a force of twelve thousand Anatolians
crashed into the Qezelbāsh ranks. His Majesty could do nothing but flee with
one or two men as a few more brought up the rear. Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā15 stood
his ground as the Shāh escaped.
Now there was a bog one league from the battlefield, and His Majesty’s horse
sank into it as he fled. No matter how much he struggled, he could not free
himself. So he began to pray, lamenting and entreating the court of the Judge
of Needs.
Just then Khalil Khān Dhulqadr arrived, fleeing the battle. Realizing that it
was the Shāh stuck in the bog, he chose to hold his own life dear, and rather
than going to help His Majesty, he instead spurred his horse and left.
Shāh Esmāʿil began to despair of help from anyone, so he placed the hand of
supplication on the skirt of the Commander of the Faithful and began to recite
an ode in praise of him. He had gotten through thirty-five verses when he spot-
ted Khezr Āqā the stable-boy coming to his aid mounted on a young mule.
When the Shāh had come to Chālderān to do battle, Khezr Āqā had come too,
hoping to get his hands on some loot. In the late afternoon, as the dust was set-
tling, he headed for the royal encampment and, as fate would have it, he hap-
pened upon the Shāh in the bog.
The Perfect Guide saw someone approaching from afar; when he came
nearer, he saw that it was his stable-boy. “O Khezr!” he cried.
Khezr spotted the Shāh, leaped down from his mule, and said, “May I be a
sacrifice to you! What are you doing here?”

15 Sic; perhaps this is a slip for Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā, Shāh Esmāʿil’s brother, since Solṭān ʿAli
Mirzā (Afshār) was felled by Ottoman musket-fire a few lines previously.
394 Chapter 47

“Don’t come any closer!” said the Shāh. “Take your lasso and throw one end
over here.”
Khezr did as His Majesty said and pulled him free.
Then Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Stay here while I go and send the Qezelbāsh to
bring back the mare of Manṣur Beg. She is a great part of my fortune.”16
“May I be a sacrifice to you!” said Khezr. “I will bring back your mare!”
“If you do,” His Majesty replied, “I will elevate you to a position of authority.”
Then, like the shining sun rising again after a period of decline, Shāh Esmāʿil
headed for Tabriz, where seven hundred Qezelbāsh were waiting. They sent
someone to the Anatolian encampment to get news of the Perfect Guide and
if, God forbid, they had captured His Majesty, to send for Shāh Ṭahmāsp and
take revenge on Solṭān Salim for the royal blood he had spilled.
In the meantime, though, Shāh Esmāʿil was rescued and Khezr Āqā the sta-
ble-boy showed up with the Shāh’s mare, and they set off for Tabriz. When they
had gone down the road three leagues, they met a group of Qezelbāsh who
were there as well. They did not know where the Shāh was, and they had stayed
where they were in their confusion. When they saw His Majesty, they came to
him giving thanks and kissing the dust at his feet.
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “We have had some difficulties, but—praise and thanks
be to God—we have weathered them. It was the evil eye that struck the army
of the Qezelbāsh, but God willing, all will turn out for the best.” Then he left for
Tabriz, where the people of the city came out to greet him, giving thanks. His
Majesty spent one night there and then left for Sarāb.
Now since he had imprisoned Badiʿozzamān Mirzā in Shamb-e Ghāzān,17
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Since Shamb-e Ghāzān is on this road, Badiʿozzamān Mirzā
will have been informed of the defeat of the Qezelbāsh, and his heart will be
glad.” So His Majesty ordered that they take the Mirzā along as well.
When sent for, the Mirzā replied, “Let the Shāh come in person, and I will
follow him.”
So His Majesty paid no more attention to him, but went on his way. En route,
Durmesh Khān and Qoli Khān said to their Guide, “By the Lord of the World,
we swear that Badiʿozzamān Mirzā will go to the service of Solṭān Salim.”
The other commanders said, “If such an idea has occurred to him, he must
be punished.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “There are no grounds for punishment before sin has oc-
curred.” Then he said, “I do not know what has happened to my harem or where

16 My attempt to translate dawlat besyār ast.

17 A district of Tabriz, so called because of the endowments built there by the Ilkhanid ruler
Ghāzān Khān.
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 395

it has gone.” He brooded for a while, then said to Durmesh Khān, “They must
be somewhere! Find out some news and bring my harem here!” So Durmesh
Khān took three hundred people and rode off.
Now when the women and attendants of Shāh Esmāʿil’s harem had gotten
word of the Qezelbāsh defeat, they had gathered in a group and mounted their
horses, but they did not know which way to go, for the Anatolian army had
seized the whole plain. After going two leagues, they came within sight of a
high mountain. The harem-attendants took the women and led them along a
treacherous path to the mountaintop, where they made camp. They ran out of
food in a day, but could not go anywhere for fear of the Anatolians. They began
to wail and pray.
During the battle, too, the Shāh’s hunting-dog had gotten separated, and it
had gone up that mountain with the people of the harem. Now it went back
down to the plain. Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn Eṣfahāni, the vizier of Durmesh Khān,
was at this time bringing his master’s baggage-train from Harāt, and he had no
idea about the battle or the defeat the Qezelbāsh had suffered. When he
reached the plain of Chālderān, he saw the Shāh’s dog and recognized it. The
dog came to him, then went up the path to that mountain, repeatedly turning
around and looking back at the Mirzā.
“By God, this dog knows something I don’t!” said Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn.
So he set off to follow it, and when he reached the top of the mountain, he
spotted the harem-attendants of His Majesty. He asked them what had hap-
pened, and they filled him in. He gave Durmesh Khān’s baggage-train to the
people of the harem. Afterward, he gathered them up in the middle of the
night and brought them to Marāgheh.
When dawn broke, Durmesh Khān saw them and was overcome with joy
beyond measure. He took them to His Majesty in Sarāb. Shāh Esmāʿil was very
happy as well, and afterward they told him the story of how the dog had guided
Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn. His Majesty praised the dog highly and bestowed on it the
title Khandān Khān (“Laughing Khān”). He also had a golden collar made for it
and named it the governor of Kāshān.
Now when Khalil Khān Dhulqadr had taken his fifteen hundred men and
fled the battlefield, he had come upon the Shāh in the bog, but no matter how
much His Majesty called out to him, he would not take on the responsibility of
saving him; rather, Khezr Āqā had come and pulled the Shāh out. In exchange
for this service, His Majesty turned Darābjerd18 over to Khezr Āqā.
Shāh Esmāʿil now went to Durmesh Khān and asked about his royal atten-
dant, Solaymān Beg.

18 Present-day Darāb, in Fārs province.

396 Chapter 47

“May I be a sacrifice to you!” said Durmesh Khān. “How is it that of all things,
the first question you ask is about Solaymān Beg?”
“I attacked the Anatolians seven times,” said His Majesty. “Five times Akhi
Solṭān was with me, and seven times Solaymān Beg. When seven men were all
that were left to face the enemy, and Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā Afshār sacrificed himself
so I could escape, I saw Solaymān Beg holding his ground in battle. Otherwise
I don’t know what happened to him.”
When the Shāh reached Sarāb, Solaymān Beg turned up, and he reported to
His Majesty’s service. The Shāh said, “O Solaymān, go to Shirāz and bring back
the head of Khalil Dhulqadr. I bestow his possessions on you, along with the
governorship of Fārs.”
“May I be a sacrifice to you!” came the reply. “Now, when the Anatolians are
attacking us, how can I separate myself from my Perfect Guide? This is not fit
conduct for a Ṣufi.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “The foundation of Ṣufi conduct is heeding what is said.”
At this, Solaymān bowed his head. Then he obeyed his orders and prepared
to set off for Shirāz. “Make haste, and don’t let him enter Shirāz,” added the
Shāh.
Khalil Khān had arrived ten days previously. He was filled with profound
regret, and he was thinking about returning when Solaymān Beg arrived. Khalil
Khān welcomed him and asked him for news of Shāh Esmāʿil. “Praise God,”
said Solaymān Beg, “he is hale and hearty. He has sent me to retrieve you and
your men. But he has also commanded me to give you a ceremonial beating,19
so order that a stick be brought.”
“So be it,” said Khalil Khān. He sent for a stick and lay down to accept the
beating.
“Get up,” said Solaymān Beg; “His Majesty said not to embarrass you in front
of your troops, but to give you twelve strikes in private.”
“May I be a sacrifice to him,” replied Khalil Khān, “since he has shown this
kindness to me.” So the two of them went into another room so that Khalil
Khān could lie down there.
Then Solaymān Beg said, “Don’t lie down.” He showed His Majesty’s order to
Khalil Khān, who saw that it was his death warrant. He said, “If I do not cry out
or alert my sons, but give you my head to take to our Perfect Guide, let it be so
that that you provide for my sons.”
Solaymān Beg said, “I promise that I will take this very place of yours from
the Shāh for your sons.”

19 For this ritual, mentioned previously, see Morton, “The Chub-e tariq.”
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 397

“Then strike at my neck,” said Khalil Khān, “and may the Perfect Guide be
satisfied with me.”
He raised a finger and recited the profession of faith. Solaymān Beg cut off
his head, then emerged from that room with the head in one hand and the
Shāh’s order in another. Khalil Khān’s sons and kinsmen cried out, “What have
you done?”
“Friends,” he replied, “it was the command of the Shāh. Khalil Khān himself
read it and realized that he had sinned, so he was content to be killed. If he
hadn’t been, he would have cried out to summon you. By giving his head will-
ingly, he has provided bread for you: I am turning your property, which the
Shāh promised to me, back over to you. Mount up, ʿAli Khān Solṭān, and follow
me with your troops in tow, for I am going in order to bring the Shāh’s favor
down on you.”
ʿAli Khān Solṭān tried to tell Solaymān Beg that “Ten thousand tumāns of
our gold are yours for the taking,” but Solaymān Beg would not accept it. He
said, “After a long time, the Shāmlu have dealt with the Dhulqadr; by the dear
head of the Perfect Guide, I will not accept a single dinar!” Then he took that
head and rode off to Tabriz.
In Tabriz, he was told that Shāh Esmāʿil had gone in pursuit of Solṭān Salim,
so he, too, kept going until he reached His Majesty, to whom he related all that
had happened from beginning to end. The Shāh asked, “Since you saw that he
was content to die, why did you kill him?”
“May I be a sacrifice to you,” replied Solaymān Beg, “give compensation to
his sons.”
“Solaymān Beg,” said His Majesty, “is very generous.”
Solaymān Beg said, “May I be a sacrifice to you! A servant ought to have a
little sign from his master.”
The Shāh replied, “As part of the the compensation for the property of Khalil
Khān, we have given Urmia to you. It has an income of four thousand tumāns.”
Solaymān Beg prostrated himself before His Majesty and left for Urmia.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Salim had left Chālderān with his troops and headed for
Tabriz. When they reached the outskirts of the city, the people came out to
greet him. He entered the city and went to the mosque of Ḥasan Pādeshāh,
where he ordered the Qezelbāsh preacher to pronounce the khoṭbeh in the
Sunni manner. All the people of Tabriz gathered in the mosque.
The preacher arrived and began to say the khoṭbeh, and when he got to the
name of the sovereign, he meant to say “Solṭān Salim, the emperor of Anatolia,”
but instead he said “Shāh Esmāʿil Ṣafavi al-Musavi Bahādor Khān.” The Anato-
lian officers wanted to punish him for this insult, but Solṭān Salim ordered
398 Chapter 47

them to leave him alone, since the man’s tongue was accustomed to pronounc-
ing the name of “Shaykh-oghli.” This gave the people of Tabriz some hope.
Solṭān Salim remained in the city. Badiʿozzamān Mirzā soon came to see
him; he showed him great honor and affection and, forgetting the hospitality
the Shāh had shown him, told many lies about His Majesty. The Solṭān kept
telling him, “When we have taken possession of Iran in its entirety, we will
make you ruler of the land.”
But there was a famine gripping Tabriz, and nothing was obtainable.20 The
Anatolian troops, too, treated the people unfairly. The people of the city thus
assembled, crying out, at the Solṭān’s door. He, too, was worried about the fam-
ine and lack of provisions.
In the short time that Shāh Esmāʿil had been in Sarāb, seven thousand men
had assembled at the royal camp. His Majesty took that army and headed for
Tabriz. Solṭān Salim was stunned to learn of this, saying, “This famine is a trap!
Shaykh-oghli is preparing revenge for what we did to him and his army at
Chālderān!” Then he left Tabriz, along with Badiʿozzamān Mirzā.
Some three or four thousand Anatolians stayed behind in Tabriz, and when
news of the Shāh’s impending arrival reached the city, the population ganged
up and killed them, gathering up their heads and bringing them out in wel-
come to His Majesty. They kissed the dust before him, and then he entered
Tabriz and settled back in. He bestowed the governorship of Diyārbakr upon
Qarākhān, gave him Khān Moḥammad Khān’s wife as a gift, and gave him leave
to go.
The Solṭān and his army soon reached the fortress of Varsāq. Yusof Khalifeh,
the governor, and two of his brothers shut the gate and prepared to withstand
a siege. The Anatolians told Solṭān Salim that the inhabitants of the fortress
had lots of supplies. Solṭān Salim therefore sent someone to Yusof Khalifeh
with this message: “We have taken care of Shaykh-oghli and seized Tabriz, ap-
pointing our own governor there. Now open the gate and come into our royal
service; you can be one of our attendants.”
Yusof Khalifeh replied, “If you are telling the truth, the Perfect Guide has
fled, the proof of which would be that His Majesty would not have taken Tabriz
from you. In such case, I would certainly become your servant—but if not,
not.”
When Solṭān Salim heard this message, he asked for the advice of his grand
vizier, who said, “Our troops have no provisions, whereas this fortress has plen-
ty. One cannot pass up a fortress like this, which is close to Tabriz. They say

20 A reference to the Safavids’ scorched-earth tactics, aimed at starving out the Ottoman
invaders.
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 399

there are three hundred soldiers inside and five thousand households. If we do
not take it, we will be in a bad situation.”
The lack of provisions had the Solṭān in a bind. He ordered his troops to sur-
round the fortress and mounted an attack the next day, but it was unsuccessful.
Then he ordered that the cannons be readied. When those inside the fortress
learned of this, they went to Yusof Khalifeh and said, “They are setting up their
cannons! You will get us all killed! Think of something to save us from the Ana-
tolians before their guns clear out this fortress!”
Yusof Khalifeh replied, “If the Solṭān does not move off tomorrow, I will do
whatever you say.”
Yusof Khalifeh consulted with his brother, who said, “Tomorrow morning
the Solṭān will seize us and put us all to death.”
So, after nightfall, Yusof Khalifeh, his brother, and his two sons armed them-
selves, left the fortress, and entered the Solṭān’s camp, moving so stealthily that
no one noticed them. They made it to the back of the Solṭān’s tent, where two21
of them stayed outside and two of them entered the tent and drew their swords.
At this, Solṭān Salim woke up. They were about to kill him when he began to
beg and plead, swearing that when morning broke, he would pack up and
leave. Yusof Khalifeh and his comrades took the Solṭān’s sword and jeweled
dagger and returned to the fortress, convinced they had taken care of things.
After they left, though, the Solṭān emerged from his tent and berated his
guards. Then he summoned his grand vizier and told him what had happened.
“I swore an oath promising to pack up and leave in the morning,” he explained.
The grand vizier said, “If you leave without seizing this fortress and punish-
ing the Qezelbāsh, they will send your sword and dagger and quiver to Shaykh-
oghli, who will certainly send an emissary to taunt you with them. This will
bring shame and dishonor on the House of ʿOthmān. If you did swear such an
oath, order that the army pack up, but I am not going anywhere until I have
captured this fortress and put its inhabitants to death.”
In the morning, therefore, the grand vizier aimed seven hundred cannons,
large and small, at the fortress and gave the order to open fire. The very founda-
tions of the fortress shook, sending Yusof Khalifeh into shock. Once more the
cannons fired, destroying a long section of the walls of the fortress.22 Then the
Anatolian troops mounted their attack.
The Qezelbāsh and other inhabitants of the fortress went to the breach in
the walls to join the fray, but no matter how hard they fought, it was useless; the

21 The text says three men stayed outside and two went inside, which makes five men—one
more than was just mentioned.
22 The text says “sixty zarʿ.”
400 Chapter 47

attacking Anatolians kept pouring into the fortress. They were on the verge of
a general massacre when the people went up on the roof and killed six thou-
sand Anatolians by throwing rocks down on them. Since the enemy had no
ladders to climb, they beat their hands and feet at the walls in vain.
Yusof Khalifeh and a few others went up on the roof of the Friday mosque
and shouted, “O Solṭān Salim, you have broken your oath! After this, God’s
Qorʾān will be your enemy!” Then Solṭān Salim entered the fortress, but he for-
bade his grand vizier from doing so; that Sunni had insisted on war, and he
wouldn’t have relinquished control of the spoils.
The holy Commander of the Faithful appeared to Shāh Esmāʿil in a dream
and said, “O my son, hasten to the fortress of Varsāq, for Solṭān Salim has put
the soldiers and people there in dire straits, and if you hold back, he will put
them all to death.” His Majesty took the nine thousand Qezelbāsh who were
with him and set off at once.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Salim’s grand vizier had killed a great many soldiers and
commoners. The remainder were in a terrible plight, and they fell to praying
and lamenting and crying out to the Judge of Needs. Then the people hiding
behind the mosque saw the banners of “Help from God and speedy victory”
appear in the distance and raised their voices in a shout of joy.
The Anatolians and their Solṭān had just realized what was going on when
the world-conquering Shāh arrived. He drew his sword and hurled himself into
the midst of the enemy at the head of nine thousand lion-hunting Qezelbāsh.
Many Anatolians were slain. Yusof Khalifeh and the people of the fortress
joined the fighting as well, and they killed many Anatolian pāshās, including
the grand vizier. They drove the Anatolians out of the fortress, and Solṭān Salim
turned in flight, taking many of his possessions and cannons and other things
with him. The victorious Qezelbāsh kept what remained.
His Majesty the Shāh now entered the fortress in glory. Yusof Khalifeh kissed
the royal foot and presented him with the heads of the grand vizier and other
pāshās. He also presented Solṭān Salim’s weapons as a gift and explained what
had happened that night. Shāh Esmāʿil praised Yusof Khalifeh highly. He then
ordered that an emissary take the Solṭān’s weapons and go in pursuit of him.
“When you reach him,” he said, “Say to him, ‘All of this struggle and bloodshed
has been for this dagger, but you still weren’t up to the task. We are sending it
back to you on the condition that you not be so careless in the future.’” He then
dispatched the emissary, and a few days later he set off in pomp and glory for
Diyārbakr.
When Solṭān Salim heard that Qarākhān had gone to Diyārbakr, he sent
Ḥasan Pāshā in pursuit with ten thousand men, saying, “Don’t let them enter
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 401

the citadel, or it will become a difficult business.” Ḥasan Pāshā gathered his
troops and left.
A spy brought the news to Qarākhān that Ḥasan Pāshā was coming to fight
him with ten thousand men. Qarākhān hurried out and, finding himself in the
middle of a valley after four days’ journey, he set up an ambush and lay in wait.
Shortly the unwitting Anatolians arrived, and when all of them were in the val-
ley, Qarākhān and four thousand men emerged from their hiding-places and
poured down on the enemy, slaughtering them as if a general massacre had
been declared. Having left not even one man alive, Qarākhān and his men cut
their heads off and built them into a tower. On the tower they stuck a note that
read, “This is one of the deeds of Qarākhān Ostājlu.” Then they gathered up the
Anatolians’ horses and weapons and left.
Now when Khān Moḥammad Khān had first gone to serve and fight for His
Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil, he had named Aḥmad Chalabi as his deputy. Aḥmad
Chalabi, however, was a Sunni, and when he heard that Solṭān Salim had
fought with the Shāh at Chālderān and that the evil eye had brought defeat to
the Qezelbāsh and death to Khān Moḥammad Khān, he was overjoyed. The
Shāh’s sister, as it happens, was Khān Moḥammad Khān’s wife, and when she
heard about the death of her husband, she gave a cry and sent someone to
Aḥmad Chalabi to tell him to make preparations to take her to Tabriz, lest the
honor of the royal ladies fall to the Solṭān and the Anatolians. But Aḥmad Cha-
labi replied saying, “I do not have the authority to move you until Solṭān Salim
gives the order. When he comes, then I will do whatever he says.”
Seeing no way out, Her Highness wrote a short note and gave it to a runner
to bring to His Majesty’s royal camp, telling him, “If (God forbid) the Shāh is
not there, tell the Qezelbāsh commanders to think of something to help us,
and if His Majesty is alive and well, tell him to come quickly, for Aḥmad Chal-
abi has these notions and is going to hand us over to the enemy.”
The runner left and set off for Ādharbāyjān. He had been going for two days
when he encountered Qarākhān, for which he gave thanks and praise.
Qarākhān asked him about the situation in Diyārbakr. The runner told him
everything and showed him the note Her Highness had written.
Qarākhān, astonished, told the runner, “Hurry back and open the gate at an
opportune time, for tonight we will enter, God willing.”
So the runner went back and told Her Highness the good news that the Shāh
was alive and that Qarākhān was on his way. “He will enter the citadel tonight,”
he said.
The Begom said, “But the gate is under the control of a Sunni! You must
make a hole in the wall of the fortress so that Qarākhān can get in.”
402 Chapter 47

So they told the runner to go inform Qarākhān about the gate and the open-
ing of a hole in the wall. The runner took his instructions and left.
Qarākhān went the distance of one league, then placed his men in ambush;
he himself took three men to see if they could open the gate. They had gone a
ways when they bumped into the runner, who told them what the Begom had
told him. This news cheered Qarākhān. He continued on to the fortress, en-
tered the citadel through the hole, then gathered his people together, opened
the citadel gates, and let his army enter.
As soon as Aḥmad Chalabi learned that Qarākhān and his men had entered
the citadel, he fled down the road to Kamākh that very night.
The next morning, all the people of the citadel came to Qarākhān with
praise and thanks on their lips.
Now when Solṭān Salim left Varsāq, he intended to go via the Kordestān
road through Van and Erzurum. But then he received word from Aḥmad Chal-
abi recommending he take the road through Diyārbakr, explaining as well that
“Shaykh-oghli’s” sister and the Qezelbāsh harem were there, and that Aḥmad
Chalabi would hand the citadel over to the servants of the Solṭān.
So Solṭān Salim went via the road through Diyārbakr. When he reached that
city and made himself known, though, he was told that Qarākhān had entered
the citadel and that Aḥmad Chalabi had fled for Kamākh. The Solṭān made
camp and sent an envoy to Qarākhān with this message: “Open the gate and
come obediently into my service, and I will deem you worthy to remain as gov-
ernor of this region. If you refuse, I will pound this fortress into the ground
with cannon-fire and arrange a punishment for you.”
In reply, Qarākhān wrote, “We are a Ṣufi and a servant of His Majesty Shāh
Esmāʿil, and we have never done such things, nor will we. The Solṭān had better
depart this place, for His Majesty the Shāh and his banner inscribed ‘Help from
God’ will soon arrive; the Solṭān has no power to oppose that ruler and will
surely flee, which will give him a bad name.”
After reading Qarākhān’s message, Solṭān Salim ordered his troops to orga-
nize the task of building siege-walls and get to work. They sprang up and got
busy with their tasks. Every night Qarākhān would come out of the fortress and
attack the siege-works, killing the enemy in great numbers. This destroyed
their sense of security and left them desperate.
Solṭān Salim then commanded the Janissary captain to bring the cannons.
However, Aḥmad Chalabi’s kinsman Moḥammad Chalabi was in the citadel,
and he had a father-in-law in the Solṭān’s service. He sent a spy to Moḥammad
Chalabi to say, “You have to surrender the citadel by any means necessary, for
Qarākhān is killing off our entire army!”
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 403

So Moḥammad Chalabi wrote a message that read, “Send some men under
cover of night; we will open a hole in the tower so that the servants of the
Solṭān may enter the citadel.”
Solṭān Salim then told Fatḥollāh Pāshā and Sharif Pāshā to take ten thou-
sand men and lie in wait by the citadel.
Now Qarākhān did the rounds in the fortress towers three times a night. In
the tower where Moḥammad Chalabi was, there were a hundred Qezelbāsh
and a hundred locals. Moḥammad Chalabi and the people of the city were col-
laborators, so on this particular night they said to the Qezelbāsh, “You sleep
until midnight, and then we will sleep from midnight until morning.” The
Qezelbāsh agreed to this and went to sleep.
One Qezelbāsh youth, though, said to himself, “These people are Sunnis.
They are probably up to something.” So he pretended to sleep. An hour later, he
saw that that group had brought ropes and were intending to pull the Anato-
lians up the tower. He quietly made his way to the sleeping Qezelbāsh and
woke them up. They then asked the people of the city, “What are all these
ropes?”
“Some of us are going to make an attack,” they replied.
“There’s no need for you to be here any longer,” said the Qezelbāsh. “Be-
gone!”
“As long as you are content,” said the people, “why should we suffer from
lack of sleep and other torments?” Then they descended from the tower.
Moḥammad Chalabi said to them, “O friends, we have to come up with a plan
to let the Solṭān into the fortress tonight, else we will lose the opportunity.”
Someone said, “My house is next to the tower; we could make a hole in the
fortress wall there.” So they all went to that man’s house, and that night they
made a hole in the wall and sent word of it to Fatḥollāh Pāshā and Sharif Pāshā.
The Anatolians had left their hiding-place and entered the city when one of
the city leaders, who was a Twelver Shiʿi, went to Qarākhān and told him all
about the coming of those pāshās. Qarākhān was shocked, but he collected his
wits, went to the breach in the wall, and began to fight. From the top of the
citadel, too, people rained down arrows and musket-shots, and nearly two
thousand Anatolians were killed. They managed to seize the tunnel-mouth
from the enemy and kill the hundred men who were the cause of this trouble.
They hung their heads from the tower of the citadel and went back to resisting
the siege.
When Solṭān Salim saw such manliness on Qarākhān’s part, he quickly dis-
patched someone to hasten to put the cannons in place. Qarākhān, too, wrote
a letter describing the arrival of the cannons and the defeat of Fatḥollāh Pāshā
404 Chapter 47

and sent it to Shāh Esmāʿil. In it, he wrote, “His Majesty must deign to come, for
this slave does not have the power to hold off the Solṭān.”
The Shāh, in the meantime, had arrived in the valley where Qarākhān had
fought the Anatolians and made a tower of their heads. When he saw those
towers, he asked about them, then praised Qarākhān, and he was just riding off
when Qarākhān’s letter arrived. After reading it, His Majesty set off at a gallop.
Solṭān Salim’s artillery arrived at the foot of the citadel. The Solṭān ordered
his commander to aim all his guns, large and small, at the fortress and open
fire. At that very moment, His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil appeared with his great
commanders and victorious army. When he learned of this, the frantic Solṭān
ordered his troops to pack up and leave, saying, “It is no use staying here any
longer!”
The Solṭān’s army was packing up camp when Qarākhān got wind of it. He
came out of the citadel and attacked the enemy’s artillery emplacement, kill-
ing several soldiers and seizing two large cannons and ten smaller guns. The
Anatolians fled, leaving most of their baggage and belongings in place. Shāh
Esmāʿil entered the fortress in glory, where he distributed the enemy’s posses-
sions among the Qezelbāsh as gifts. Qarākhān came to kiss the royal foot and
received praise and favors from His Majesty. Afterwards, they told the Shāh
that it would be best if he went to Qarāḥamid to do some hunting, for the no-
madic tribes23 who lived around there had all fled in terror up the mountains
lest the Solṭān plunder their property and possessions. Shāh Esmāʿil spent
three days in Diyārbakr and then headed off toward Qarāḥamid.
When His Majesty got to the foot of the fortress of Kamākh, Aḥmad Chalabi
wrote a message to him saying, “Several times Solṭān Salim wrote to this slave
telling me to seize the Qezelbāsh harem and take it to him, saying he would
then turn Diyārbakr over to me. This least one refused, but a bunch of seditious
people slandered me to Qarākhān, so I have sought refuge in this citadel out of
fear. I request that His Majesty not expel this servant from the House of the
Commander of the Faithful, but that he grant me this fortress. If he does, every
year I will send tribute to the representatives of Qarākhān as his subordinate.”
When Chalabi’s letter was passed under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh, His
Majesty took no heed of the error of that ungrateful one, but rather chose to
look the other way and pardon him on account of his previous service. He had
a decree written that made Aḥmad Chalabi lord of that fortress and subordi-
nate of Qarākhān, then sent it to him.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Salim, realizing that His Majesty the Shadow of God was
hot on his heels, headed for Āmāsyeh without stopping. Shāh Esmāʿil

23 ilāt
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 405

understood that the Solṭān was on his way to Āmāsyeh, so he turned around
and went back to Tabriz. He also sent a wedding-robe and an official edict to
Qarākhān.
Now when Solṭān Salim reached Āmāsyeh, he gave four treasuries’ worth of
cash to Moṣṭafā Pāshā, saying, “Buy lots of provisions, for on the first day of
spring we will set off for Iran, then go from there to Istanbul.”
Qarākhān, meanwhile, began his wedding-feast and sent someone to the
fortress of Kamākh to invite Aḥmad Chalabi. The latter sent his apologies, say-
ing he was unable to come. So Qarākhān finished his wedding-feast and dis-
tributed robes of honor worth thirty thousand tumāns among four thousand
Qezelbāsh. Thereafter he wished to bring Aḥmad Chalabi over, so he again sent
someone to invite him. Aḥmad Chalabi, realizing that Qarākhān would not ac-
cept another apology, sent someone to Moṣṭafā Pāshā with this message: “The
fortress of Kamākh belongs to the representatives of the Solṭān, but the heretic
Qarākhān is harassing me. Quick, come here and I will turn the fortress over to
you!”
Upon receiving this message, Moṣṭafā Pāshā gave command to Afsarandish
Pāshā and sent him, Rubāl the Frank, his own son Guzal Pāshā, and ten thou-
sand Anatolian soldiers to Kamākh. When they got there, they entered the for-
tress.
Qarākhān was most upset to learn of this. He summoned Aḥmad Solṭān
Qājār, joined his own army to his, and marched off. When they arrived at
Kamākh, Moṣṭafā Pāshā’s son Guzal Pāshā came out of the fortress at the head
of ten thousand men, and a battle erupted between Qarākhān and the Anato-
lians. In no time Qarākhān and his lion-hunting Qezelbāsh had killed five
thousand of the enemy. Guzal Pāshā and the other commanders fled with the
remnant of their army toward Āmāsyeh, where they told Moṣṭafā Pāshā what
had happened. Qarākhān and his army secured the fortress and waited.
Then Moṣṭafā Pāshā again sent his commanders with fifteen thousand men,
and he himself brought up the rear with fifteen thousand more men. When
word of this reached Aḥmad Chalabi, he sent someone to Qarākhān to say,
“Withdraw from the fortress, for we are coming to fight you.”
Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār said to Qarākhān, “If he’s sent this sort of message, it’s
certain that the Anatolians will come to help him.” So Qarākhān and his army
withdrew.
Then Moṣṭafā Pāshā arrived with his commanders and thirty thousand men.
Aḥmad Chalabi came out and waited at the foot of the fortress to welcome
them. He also sent someone to Qarākhān with this message: “Aḥmad Chalabi
is a servant of His Majesty Solṭān Salim! Why are you fighting with him? If you
406 Chapter 47

agree not to harass or attack him anymore, we will make peace; if not, be ready
for battle.”
Qarākhān said, “Aḥmad Chalabi was one of Khān Moḥammad Khān’s ser-
vants, and now he has turned traitor! I want to punish him as a lesson to the
others.” He thus replied to Aḥmad Chalabi that his answer was war.
That night, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh arrived from Ādharbāyjān with four thousand
men and entered Qarākhān’s encampment. The Qezelbāsh were overjoyed to
see him. Meanwhile, Shāh Esmāʿil, back in Ādharbāyjān, had a dream in which
he was told, “You must go to Diyārbakr; if you fail to help them, the Qezelbāsh
will be in severe trouble.” In the morning, therefore, His Majesty set out in
haste, sending someone ahead to Qarākhān to tell him to delay the battle until
he arrived.
When Nur ʿAli Khalifeh entered Qarākhān’s camp, he said to him, “Why do
you keep postponing the battle? You should have started to fight by now!”
Qarākhān replied, “The Perfect Guide sent a message telling me not to fight
until he himself got here.”
Eight days later, though, Moṣṭafā Pāshā ordered the battle-drums be beaten,
and Qarākhān had no choice but to order his own drums be beaten as well. The
next day, those two seas of soldiery arrayed their ranks, and the battle got un-
derway. Many were killed on both sides. Moṣṭafā Pāshā’s son Guzal Pāshā, with
a cry of manliness, killed a great number of Qezelbāsh.
Qarākhān was just riding toward Guzal Pāshā when Shāh Esmāʿil arrived
with his victorious army. His Majesty drew his sword and hurled himself into
the ranks of the Anatolians. He called out to Qarākhān, telling him not to kill
Guzal Pāshā just yet. Qarākhān, though, did not understand what the Shāh had
said, and he rode over to Guzal Pāshā and struck him in the face with such a
sword-blow that his head split open and he fell writhing to the ground.
Shāh Esmāʿil then came up, but when Qarākhān went to kiss the royal foot,
His Majesty turned away, cursing him openly in exasperation. Both men turned
back to face the Anatolians, and at that very moment a musket-shot from the
enemy side struck Qarākhān and knocked him off his feet. Realizing what had
happened, Shāh Esmāʿil killed the man who had fired the shot, then went back
to where Qarākhān was and cradled his head in his skirt. Qarākhān opened his
eyes and spoke his last will and testament, bequeathing his earthly possessions
to the Shāh. He then passed into the mercy of God. Shāh Esmāʿil, incandescent
with rage, ordered that every single Anatolian soldier be killed.
When Moṣṭafā Pāshā saw which way the battle was going, he turned to flee.
The Qezelbāsh warriors gave a cry of manliness and killed nearly twenty thou-
sand Anatolians, and Moṣṭafā Pāshā fled with the survivors toward Āmāsyeh.
Shāh Esmāʿil gave out all the abandoned baggage and property to the Qezelbāsh,
Solṭān Salim Comes To Iran 407

then entered the fortress in triumph. He ordered that Aḥmad Chalabi be torn
limb from limb and the pieces hung from the fortress towers.
His Majesty remained there for a few days, then turned the fortress over to
Solaymān Beg, the cousin of Qarākhān, and left for Diyārbakr. There he made
Qarākhān’s three-year old son ʿAbdollāh Khān governor of all Diyārbakr, and
he made Qarākhān’s cousin Maḥmud Solṭān the tutor and viceregent of
ʿAbdollāh. Then, his mind at ease, he left in pomp and glory and headed back
to Tabriz.
408 Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā, the Son of Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, Rebels and

Goes to Astarābād; ʿObayd Khān Arrives at Balkh with All His Corruption

When Shāh Esmāʿil was defeated at Chālderān and went to Tabriz, Moḥammad
Zamān Mirzā thought to himself that he would never get a better opportunity
than this, and that he had better get himself to Khorāsān to take power. Thus
he abandoned the Shāh’s service and went to Astarābād,1 where he joined up
with the Torkmāns. “‘Shaykh-oghli’ has been killed in battle,” he told them. “If
you promise me loyalty and support, when I am on the throne I will refuse
nothing you request!”
Then one Qāzi Khān, the leader of the Torkmāns, swore loyalty to him, and
together with twenty thousand Torkmāns, he and Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā
moved against Pir Ghayb Khān, the governor of Astarābād. When Pir Ghayb
Khān learned of the battle of Chālderān and the coming of Moḥammad Zamān
Mirzā and the Torkmāns, he saw no option but to pack up his household and
leave for Dāmghān.
The story of the battle of Chālderān, along with the lies of the people, now
spread throughout Khorāsān and Torkestān, so much so that most of the peo-
ple would have sworn that His Majesty the Shāh had been killed in battle. It got
to the point where the Uzbek kings once again entertained notions of invading
Khorāsān.
Jāni Beg Solṭān raised thirty thousand troops from Oṭrār and marched on
Balkh; then he sent a message to ʿObayd Khān in Bokhārā saying, “Hurry and
bring an army over here!” ʿObayd Khān then sent someone to summon
Moḥammad Timur Khān, who in turn consulted with Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim.
The Khwājeh forbade him from participating, but Moḥammad Timur Khān
broke his vow and accepted ʿObayd Khān’s summons. Then ʿObayd Khān took
thirty thousand men of his own and headed for Balkh.
Jāni Beg Solṭān and the Uzbeks soon arrived at Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān. The gov-
ernor of the fortress, Mahdi Ātāliq, shut the door fast and prepared to with-
stand a siege. He then sent someone to Balkh to warn Div Solṭān about the
coming of Jāni Beg Solṭān and the Uzbeks.
In reply, Div Solṭān wrote: “Hold on for ten more days; God willing, I will
raise an army and come.” Then he appointed Mahdi Khān, the son of ʿAli Shokr
Khān, as his viceregent in Balkh, gathered some troops, and left.

1 Modern Gorgān.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_049

Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā Rebels And Goes To Astarābād 409

When he arrived at Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān and Jāni Beg Solṭān learned of it, Jāni
Beg Solṭān ordered his Uzbeks to form their ranks. Div Solṭān did the same.
They were just about to start the battle when ʿObayd Khān arrived with thirty
thousand men and lined up on one side.
When Div Solṭān saw those fifty thousand soldiers, he sent someone to
ʿObayd Khān with this message: “You swore an oath, on penalty of having your
wives forbidden to you, that you would never again cross the Oxus to fight the
Qezelbāsh. So what is this trouble you are stirring up?”
ʿObayd Khān replied, “We swore that we would not cross the river to invade
as long as Shaykh-oghli was alive. But now he has fought the Solṭān of Anatolia
at Chālderān and been killed, and the Solṭān now rules Iran. If we wait around,
the Solṭān will send an army to Khorāsān and Torkestān to seize our ancestral
lands.”
Div Solṭān then sent someone to ʿObayd Khān to say, “Such talk is barefaced
lies. We have heard nothing about these events; if (God forbid) they really had
happened, some of the Qezelbāsh commanders would surely have come to tell
us about them. How could you have heard about it before we did? And why
must this be the cause of strife and battle, in which many will be killed on both
sides? Be patient, and if this news turns out to be true, we still have no quarrel
with you; we will return this land to you and be on our way.”
ʿObayd Khān’s reply was: “If you didn’t get the news, that’s not our fault. Ev-
eryone is saying that Shaykh-oghli is dead. You had better hand over our land.
If not, get ready to fight!”
Realizing that the Uzbeks were bent on war, Div Solṭān sent his vanguard
onto the battlefield, and when the fighting really got under way, he himself
went too. The Qezelbāsh and Uzbek armies crashed into each other with cries
of manliness. Div Solṭān made his way to the foot of Jāni Beg Solṭān’s battle-
standard, fighting through a rain of arrows; from there he then made his way to
the battle-standard of ʿObayd Khān, killing many Uzbeks on the way. The Uz-
bek army was about to break when ʿObayd Khān ordered his men to come to-
gether and concentrate their fire on Div Solṭān and his Qezelbāsh. Div Solṭān
and his horse were struck by many arrows, and he and a thousand Qezelbāsh,
most of them wounded, abandoned the battle and headed for Fāryāb.
There, the governor, Div Solṭān’s son-in-law Moḥammadi Khān, asked what
had happened. Div Solṭān told him everything, and Moḥammadi Khān said,
“The Perfect Guide urgently needs to know about this situation, so that he can
bestow favors on you.”
Div Solṭān replied, “You are not a real Ṣufi, are you! These things are not
concealed from the Perfect Guide.”
410 Chapter 48

Then they started pulling the arrows out of Div Solṭān’s armor and the ar-
mor of his horse; they counted a hundred and eighty of them, but God Al-
mighty had not allowed a single one to harm him or his steed, except for one
arrow which had grazed his knee. Someone put all those arrows in a box and
said to Moḥammadi Khān, “I will go to His Majesty. You gather provisions for
the Qezelbāsh and follow along. The center to aim at is the citadel of Balkh;
whoever possesses it will command many followers.” Then they took the box of
arrows and set off on the road to Khorāsān and ʿErāq.
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā and Qāzi Khān Torkmān had by now raised an
army and gone together to Astarābād. Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli then wrote a
letter to Shāh Esmāʿil saying that Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā had seized
Astarābād and was stirring up trouble in Khorāsān.
When Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-oghli’s letter passed under the alchemical gaze of
His Majesty, he said, “I have a funny feeling about Div Solṭān. God forbid the
treacherous Uzbeks should make a move based on these false rumors.” He left
Tabriz and went in pomp and glory to Solṭāniyeh. There he promoted the offi-
cer Pasand Beg to the vanguard and sent him to Astarābād at the head of seven
hundred men, telling him, “Since Pir Ghayb Khān is in Dāmghān and Semnān,
pick him up and go to Firuzkuh until I arrive.”
Pasand Beg kissed the royal foot and set off. When he reached Khwār, he
spotted a footsoldier in the valley. The soldier looked, and when he saw that
the Qezelbāsh were coming, he headed in the other direction. Pasand Beg or-
dered him seized and brought before him. When he questioned him, though,
the soldier lied. Pasand Beg said, “Tell the truth or I will kill you!” and drew his
sword, preparing to bring it down on the man’s head.
“Don’t kill me!” said the soldier. “I will tell the truth. I am a spy of Moḥammad
Zamān Mirzā, and I am going to Istanbul to meet Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and give
him a letter that Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā wrote to him, then return with the
answer.”
Pasand Beg sent the man and his letter to Shāh Esmāʿil and continued on
toward his destination.
When Shāh Esmāʿil read the letter, he saw that it said: “I have seized
Astarābād in the name of my father and the Solṭān, and I am now intending to
take Khorāsān. Let the Solṭān deign to come by the Shirvān road and conquer
that region, then comes via the desert or sea to Astarābād; since Shaykh-oghli
is in Ādharbāyjān, we have a good chance of sweeping that handful of rubbish
out of the way and taking over all of Iran. Then the Solṭān can give me Khorāsān,
which is my ancestral land.”
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā Rebels And Goes To Astarābād 411

After reading this, Shāh Esmāʿil said, “So, Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā takes
me for a handful of rubbish!” He also commanded that a robe of honor be sent
to Pasand Beg.
When Pasand Beg received it, Pir Ghayb Khān said, “If His Majesty gives a
robe of honor for just a little service, he will surely give all sorts of gifts for an
even greater service. We must hasten to Astarābād. Since the people there are
all Twelver Shiʿis, perhaps we can capture Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā and send
him to the Perfect Guide.”
So Pir Ghayb Khān led twelve thousand seven hundred Qezelbāsh out of
Firuzkuh. They marched hard, arriving at Astarābād on the third night. When
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā heard the blast of Qezelbāsh trumpets, he was
stunned. The Torkmān army had barely gotten to its feet when the lion-hunt-
ing Qezelbāsh killed four thousand of them. Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā was
forced to flee with a thousand men, hoping to make it to Harāt.
He had gone a short distance when Khwājeh Moẓaffar Tupchi caught up to
him with a thousand men and started fighting. Pasand Beg then came up be-
hind them with his own army and put his sword to the Torkmāns such that a
thousand of them were killed. Only Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā and two others
remained; they mounted parade-horses and beat a retreat. Pasand Beg then
collected the Torkmāns’ heads and returned, first to Bokhārā and then to
Astarābād.
A few days later he installed Pir Ghayb in Astarābād, gathered up all the
Torkmān heads, and headed for the royal court. When he entered the presence
of the Shāh, he kissed the royal foot and described everything that had hap-
pened, presenting the Torkmān heads as he did. His Majesty at once named
him Pasand Solṭān and ordered that a robe of honor be sent to Pir Ghayb; he
also made Pasand Solṭān governor of Mashhad and promoted his brother to
the rank of yuzbāshi.2 After some time, the Shāh left Solṭāniyeh for Tabriz.
Now when Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā fled, he could not reveal his name in
Khorāsān or anywhere else, lest people take him prisoner and hand him over
to Zaynal Khān. He made his way to Gharjestān. There lived one Ardavān, one
of the people of Firuzkuh. After His Majesty the Shāh’s first “emergence” and
battle with Ḥosayn Kiyā Cholāvi, Ardavān had fled and established a strong-
hold in the mountains of that region. When Div Solṭān had killed Malek
Neẓāmoddin, the governor of Gharjestān, no one was there to replace him, so
Ardavān had come down from the mountains and taken Gharjestān for him-
self, calling himself Ardavān Shāh. He knew, though, that he lacked the power
of a true king.

2 An officer commanding one hundred men; see Floor, Safavid Government Institutions, p. 151.
412 Chapter 48

Then Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā arrived in Gharjestān, intending to go on to

meet Bābor Pādeshāh. Ardavān Shāh went to meet him. Moḥammad Zamān
Mirzā related what had happened to him, and Ardavān Shāh said, “There is no
need to go to Kābol. Stay here; there are seven thousand men here, and when
Fate offers us the opportunity, we will take Harāt, and from there we will ad-
vance step by step.”
So Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā stayed in Gharjestān, and before long, nearly
ten thousand men had gathered around him. He and Ardavān Shāh took those
ten thousand men and set off to conquer Harāt. Word of this reached Zaynal
Khān Shāmlu, the tutor to Shāh Ṭahmāsp. Hearing the terrible news, Zaynal
Khān shut the gate of the citadel and prepared to withstand a siege. Soon
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā arrived with his army and surrounded the city. But
no matter how much they attacked it, they made no headway whatsoever.
At that point Div Solṭān, who was in the vicinity of Harāt, heard that
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā had come to the city. He sent someone from the
area to Zaynal Khān with this message: “You didn’t lock the gate out of fear of
those ten thousand men, did you? Open the gate and come out with seven or
eight hundred men so that, God willing, we can defeat them.”
In reply, Zaynal Khān wrote: “Div Solṭān can do as he wishes; don’t let him
come help us.”
So Div Solṭān left and went to see the Shāh. After kissing the royal foot, he
told His Majesty about the coming of Jāni Beg and ʿObayd Khān and what had
happened. He also showed him the arrows he had brought that had been
pulled out of his armor. The Shāh praised him highly and presented him with
a robe of honor for every arrow.
Div Solṭān then said, “I installed ʿAli Shokr Khān’s son Moḥammadi Khān
and a group of Qezelbāsh in Balkh before coming here. Give this slave some
help so that we can rescue him from the Uzbeks.”
“I will not send you to Balkh again,” said His Majesty; “instead, I am making
you commander-in-chief of Iran3 and governor of Diyārbakr from the edge of
the river Darnā all the way to Khoy and Salmās—on the condition that the tax-
revenues of Diyārbakr be contributed daily to ʿAbdollāh Khān, the son of
Qarākhān. Since Moḥammad Solṭān is an old man and has no business being
in that region, I am making you ʿAbdollāh Khān’s tutor so that you can educate
him.”

3 sepahsālāri-ye irān: This is an anachronism, as this term was not in use in Safavid Iran in the
days of Shāh Esmāʿil (the term amir al-omarā was used up to the time of Shāh ʿAbbās I). For
a history of the rank, see Floor, Safavid Government Institutions, 17ff. Floor, in fact, cites (p. 17)
the present text as evidence of the use of this term in the sixteenth century, but in my opinion
this narrative is too problematic to be used with confidence as a primary source.
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā Rebels And Goes To Astarābād 413

The Shāh then gave Div Solṭān a Qezelbāsh tāj and turban and a horse and a
jeweled saddle and a royal robe of honor and released him to go to Diyārbakr.
After kissing the royal foot, Div Solṭān left.
Now back when Jāni Beg Solṭān and ʿObayd Khān were besieging Balkh,
they had sent a spy to Iran to bring back some news. The spy came back and
reported that Shāh Esmāʿil was alive and well and in Tabriz. Jāni Beg Solṭān and
ʿObayd Khān, dumbfounded, abandoned their siege and headed back to their
own lands.
ʿObayd Khān had just crossed the Oxus when he was brought the news that
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā and Ardavān Shāh had raised an army and were
marching on Harāt; he, too, turned back and headed for Harāt. When he
reached Gharjestān, Zaynal Khān got word that he was coming. Since he had
no provisions at all, Zaynal Khān was forced to take Shāh Ṭahmāsp, pack up his
household, and head for ʿErāq and Ādharbāyjān.
Before ʿObayd Khān came, though, Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā, having failed
to make any headway, left Harāt for Balkh. When he arrived, a group of Sunnis
opened the gate in the middle of the night and let him and his men enter.
Moḥammadi Khān barricaded himself inside the inner citadel, but after two
months of resistance, he sent someone to Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā to say,
“The citadel is yours. Give us permission to leave.”
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā replied, “You have our permission to go, on the
condition that you leave your belongings where they are, gather the Qezelbāsh
women, and go.”
Moḥammadi Khān agreed to this, and since the Uzbeks had seized the road
to Khorāsān and ʿErāq, he took the women of the Qezelbāsh households and
Div Solṭān’s harem and headed toward Kābol.
Upon learning that Moḥammadi Khān was on his way, Bābor Pādeshāh or-
dered his people to welcome him and bring him into the citadel. Moḥammadi
Khān’s father ʿAli Shokr Khān, who had gone to India with Bābor Pādeshāh,
was overjoyed to see his son. Bābor, too, showed Moḥammadi Khān much hon-
or and affection and gave him the daughter of one of his relatives. He kept
Moḥammadi Khān with him, and as for the wives of the Qezelbāsh and Div
Solṭān’s harem he had brought with him, he made sure they were taken care of
and sent them under guard back to Iran.
Since Bābor Pādeshāh knew that Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā was no match
for Jāni Beg Solṭān and ʿObayd Khān, his ambition was stirred as well. He raised
an army and marched on Balkh. When he got there, though, Moḥammad
Zamān Mirzā got word of his arrival and ordered that the gates be locked and
preparations begun to withstand a siege.
414 Chapter 48

Ardavān Shāh was well aware that Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā stood no
chance against Bābor Pādeshāh. That night, during their drinking-bout,
Ardavān Shāh said, “O Mirzā, we are no match for Bābor Pādeshāh. If you go to
him with your sword hanging from your neck in submission, there is a chance
he will give Balkh back to you and treat you well.”
Such talk displeased the Mirzā, who said to himself, “God forbid Ardavān
Shāh should do such a thing himself!” So he had Ardavān Shāh killed.
When Ardavān Shāh’s brother Arslān saw his brother dead, that same night
he sent someone to Bābor Pādeshāh, then opened the gates and had him
brought in. Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā, seeing what had happened, grabbed his
belongings and headed for Gharjestān.
Bābor Pādeshāh gave chase, and when he caught up to Moḥammad Zamān
Mirzā at Gharjestān, a heated battle broke out between the two. In the middle
of the fighting, an unknown person struck Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā with his
sword and cut off two of his fingers. They took him prisoner, binding his hands
and bringing him bare-headed to Bābor Pādeshāh.
Seeing him in such a state, Bābor Pādeshāh remembered the benevolence of
Solṭān Ḥosayn Mirzā, and he ordered Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā’s hands un-
bound. He took off his bracelet and placed it on the man’s head, saying, “O
luckless Mirzā, I will make you my son-in-law and turn Balkh over to you, pro-
vided that from now on you remain faithful and abandon this rebelliousness.”
So Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā swore an oath that henceforth he would be a
trustworthy servant to Bābor Pādeshāh and not deviate from the path of obedi-
ence. Bābor Pādeshāh heaped honors on him and turned Balkh over to him,
himself returning to Kābol.
Now when ʿObayd Khān seized Harāt, he sent someone to fetch Moḥammad
Timur Khān, and when he came, ʿObayd Khān entrusted Harāt to him and left
for Mashhad. Hearing that ʿObayd Khān was bringing twenty thousand Uzbeks
to fight him, Pasand Beg entrusted the furnishings of the holy shrine to some-
one, then gathered a thousand Qezelbāsh and set off to find His Majesty the
Shāh.
ʿObayd Khān came and seized Mashhad. From there he went to Nishābur
and Sabzevār. In short, he conquered every place up to the Korpi Bridge, ap-
pointing governors as he did. Then he returned to Mashhad and installed him-
self there. He then sent out a spy with instructions to inform him should Shāh
Esmāʿil make a move toward Khorāsān.
Meanwhile, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had heard that Solṭān Salim had sent three
treasuries to Moṣṭafā Pāshā in Āmāsyeh to use for purchasing supplies in prep-
aration for a campaign in Iran. His ambition stirred, Nur ʿAli Khalifeh gathered
three thousand youths of the Rumlu Qezelbāsh and led them on a forty-one
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā Rebels And Goes To Astarābād 415

day march. When they had come within one day of Āmāsyeh, Moṣṭafā Pāshā
got wind of it and headed out of Āmāsyeh with his army to “greet” them. Nur
ʿAli Khalifeh realized this and led his men down a little-known road. They took
two of the Solṭān’s treasuries and headed back to Ādharbāyjān with them.
When Moṣṭafā Pāshā learned what had happened, he was beside himself; he
was about to chase after the Qezelbāsh, but the Anatolian troops would not let
him. Fearing the wrath of the Solṭān, Moṣṭafā Pāshā had no choice but to buy
his provisions with the leftover treasury. He bought fewer supplies than he had
planned and put them in store-houses.
When Nur ʿAli Khalifeh brought those two treasuries, which were worth
three hundred thousand tumāns, to Ādharbāyjān and delivered them to Shāh
Esmāʿil, His Majesty had a royal robe of honor made for him.
The news of Khalifeh and the treasuries reached ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr.
He, too, was moved by greed, and he ordered his astronomers to consult their
astrolabes and see whether he, too, could steal provisions from Moṣṭafā Pāshā
or not.
The astronomers checked and said, “You will seize provisions and kill
Moṣṭafā Pāshā; the Solṭān of Anatolia will come to fight you, and even if you
don’t go and never have anything more to do with the Qezelbāsh, a battle will
occur between you and the Anatolians.”
“The Solṭān of Anatolia!” ʿAlāʾoddawleh scoffed. “He whose father used to
pay me tribute is coming to fight me?” He ordered that his commanders gather
four thousand camels, and along with eighty thousand men of the Dhulqadr,
each of whom had ten or twenty camels, they set off for Āmāsyeh.
It was night when they arrived. Five thousand Anatolian soldiers were sur-
rounding the citadel on guard-duty; ʿAlāʾoddawleh ordered that they all be
killed. Then the Dhulqadr fell upon the store-houses, loaded their camels with
provisions, and left.
When morning broke, Moṣṭafā Pāshā learned what ʿAlāʾoddawleh had done.
He rushed out with an army of twenty thousand men and attacked the Dhul-
qadr, but in the battle he and a great number of Anatolians were killed.
ʿAlāʾoddawleh seized the remaining treasury, then ordered his men to set the
store-houses on fire before they left. After many of the supplies had burned up,
though, the people of the city put the fires out, and enough provisions re-
mained that there was enough to sustain the whole Anatolian army for five or
six months. The reason for this was that Solṭān Salim had told them to store up
enough supplies that his army could campaign in Iran for seven years without
needing any more. Thank God his desire did not come to pass.
416 Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Solṭān Salim Learns of the Theft and Burning of His Supplies by

ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr and the Death of Moṣṭafā Pāshā at the Hands of
His Men, Then Goes to Fight ʿAlāʾoddawleh and Kills Him

When Solṭān Salim learned that Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had seized his treasuries, he
said, “Never mind the supplies; treasuries are a simple matter. Have them take
another treasury and buy their provisions.” Someone told him that Moṣṭafā
Pāshā had bought supplies with the treasury he had and was buying more with
substantial sums he had borrowed. Some time later, too, a petition from
Moṣṭafā Pāshā to the Solṭān arrived which said, “I have bought enough supplies
to last the army five years, and I have put it all in storage. Should the Solṭān
desire to do battle with the Qezelbāsh, let him come and we shall take our re-
venge on Shaykh-oghli for what Nur ʿAli Khalifeh has done.”
Solṭān Salim was in the midst of a sea battle with the Franks when Moṣṭafā
Pāshā’s petition came. He thus made a disingenuous truce with the Franks.
Then, when he reached dry land, the news arrived that ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqa-
dr had gone to Āmāsyeh, burned the provisions, and killed Moṣṭafā Pāshā.
Solṭān Salim was beside himself; he said to Badiʿozzamān Mirzā, “What a
bunch of opportunists!”
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā replied, “The Solṭān must go to ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqa-
dr and demand back the provisions, along with what he has been taking from
your father and Solṭān Qānṣaw all this time by trickery and deceit, and then
punish him.” So they went and wintered in Āmāsyeh.
On the first day of spring, they packed up and moved off toward Ādharbāyjān.
There they seized Nur ʿAli Khalifeh as punishment for his deeds, and they took
back the treasuries he had captured. The Solṭān was satisfied with this, and he
headed back to Āmāsyeh. When he reached the outskirts of the city, the people
came out to greet him.
The Solṭān asked, “Are there enough provisions left to supply the army for
the winter?”
“More than enough remains in the store-houses,” replied the people.
So Solṭān Salim took his entire army—which was a hundred thousand
men—and distributed their salaries and gifts. Then they prepared themselves
and marched off with to attack ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr.
When this news reached ʿAlāʾoddawleh, he summoned the elders of the
Dhulqadr and said, “O friends, observe the faithlessness of the celestial sphere.
Solṭān Salim, whose father Solṭān Bāyazid used to pay me tribute, is coming to

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_050

Solṭān Salim Learns Of The Theft And Burning Of His Supplies 417

fight against me, seeing me without friends or allies. It is sheer zealotry. Don’t
do anything to get the army killed!”
“Put your mind at rest,” replied the elders, “for we will omit nothing required
for service and obedience.”
Solṭān Salim arrived with his army outside the citadel of Darnā. The next
day he wrote a couple of words and gave them to an emissary to bring to
ʿAlāʾoddawleh. The emissary was brought into ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s court, and after
paying his respects, he presented the letter, which read:
“May it not be hidden from our dear father ʿAlāʾoddawleh that all these years
you have been inflicting injustice on my great progenitor Solṭān Bāyazid by
taking eighty thousand gold tumāns a year from him under the name of trib-
ute. Despite this, when we heard that Shaykh-oghli had fought with you and
killed nine of your sons, to avenge your loss we gathered a boundless army and
did battle with Shaykh-oghli at the plain of Chālderān, where we defeated him.
He was made a prisoner of his own injustice toward you. When we returned
home, many people told us, ‘You should next go to ʿAlāʾoddawleh and exact
revenge on him for past wrongs.’ ‘He is an old man now,’ we replied, ‘and a
Sunni like us, and the Qezelbāsh have caused him great anguish.’ Out of re-
spect for your white beard, we left you alone and returned to Üsküdar, where
we ordered that a few years’ worth of provisions be bought for the Anatolians,
so that upon our return from fighting the Franks, we might conquer all of Iran
and force Shaykh-oghli to quit the country. Now you have blithely come and
carried off all the provisions you could manage, and you have burned the rest.
No one can burn the favor of Almighty God; you shall be made to regret what
you have done. Now that I have come to this region, the proper thing for you to
do is to return to me all that you have taken from my father over all this time,
both in cash and in kind. You must also send back to Āmāsyeh what you car-
ried off, on the same camels you took it with, then put it back in storage and
show me a receipt from the store-house manager. That way, the basis for friend-
ship between us will be strong, and we will be as father and son. If not, be
prepared for war.”
When this letter was read out, ʿAlāʾoddawleh was furious, and he tore the
letter to pieces. He said fiercely to the emissary, “Tell Solṭān Salim we have an
appointment on the battlefield tomorrow!”
The emissary returned and told Solṭān Salim what had transpired. Then the
drums of war were beaten, and the next day those two vast armies set into mo-
tion. The battle immediately became thick, but the Dhulqadr army was strong,
and they chased the Anatolians a league’s distance.
ʿAlāʾoddawleh took part in the fighting as well, and he was close to making it
to the foot of the Solṭān’s battle-standard when his horse stumbled in a
418 Chapter 49

mouse-hole and he fell to the ground. The Anatolians gathered round him, and
so did the Dhulqadr, but the former were more numerous; they killed
ʿAlāʾoddawleh and brought his head back to Solṭān Salim. The Solṭān ordered
that the head be mounted on a spear and the battle-drums sounded to an-
nounce that the Dhulqadr had been defeated. Most of them were killed, al-
though some fled to join Solṭān Morād the son of Ḥasan Pādeshāh.1 These
escaped to the fortress of Darnā and holed up in expectation of a siege.
Solṭān Salim went triumphantly to the foot of the fortress and set up camp.
He ordered that a few words be written to Solṭān Morād thus: “As soon as you
have read this letter, come at once to our world-sheltering court, for I have de-
cided that once I have conquered Iran, I will name you my viceroy and turn the
country over to you. Otherwise, I will mount your head on a spear like I did that
of ʿAlāʾoddawleh.”
So Solṭān Morād loaded all of ʿAlāʾoddawleh’s treasuries and jewels and
goods and items from his workshops onto camels and brought them to the
Solṭān, prostrating himself and paying his respects to him. Solṭān Salim, in
turn, treated him with great affection.
After sitting at the base of the citadel of Darnā for forty days, Solṭān Salim
named Solṭān Morād’s two sons, Solaymān Beg and Ḥasan Beg, as his viceroys
there; then he took Badiʿozzamān Mirzā and Solṭān Morād and went with
them and his army back to Istanbul. Āmāsyeh he turned over to Farhād Pāshā
with orders to prepare a supplies for a campaign of several years in Iran, which
the Solṭān planned to undertake once he had conquered the fortress of Manān,2
which was in the middle of the sea and under the control of the Franks. Solṭān
Salim then went to Istanbul and from there to Manān.
Now when news of Solṭān Salim’s impending arrival reached Khayroddin
Pāshā, who was governor of Aleppo on behalf of Solṭān Qānṣaw of Egypt, he
ordered that the city’s moat be filled with water and the gate shut fast, and he
began preparations to withstand a siege. He also sent a messenger to Solṭān
Qānṣaw to inform him that the Anatolian ruler was on his way to Aleppo. Soon
Solṭān Salim arrived and besieged the citadel with his immeasurable army.
When Solṭān Qānṣaw heard the news, he named Ramazān-oghli command-
er and paid the salaries of a hundred thousand soldiers, whom he ordered to
get prepared and march off to Aleppo. He did the same as well. He also sent
someone to Khayroddin Pāshā with the news. Khayroddin Pāshā had an ex-
tremely skillful astrologer with him whom he told to forecast the outcome of

1 In fact, his nephew.

2 The text has m.n.ā.n. I am unable to identify this toponym.
Solṭān Salim Learns Of The Theft And Burning Of His Supplies 419

the battle with Solṭān Salim, as well as Solṭān Qānṣaw’s fortune vis-à-vis his
Anatolian rival.
After his investigations, the astrologer reported thus: “You should make
peace with the Solṭān of Anatolia. This is because his fortune has reached its
apex and will remain there, while that of Solṭān Qānṣaw is at its nadir and will
not recover.”
Solṭān Salim looked over the fortress of Aleppo and realized that conquer-
ing it would be a problem. He sorely regretted coming, and he wondered
whether he should find a way to make peace and return home. Then Khayrod-
din Pāshā turned on his master, sneaking out alone and unnoticed one night to
go into the presence of Solṭān Salim. There he swore allegiance to him and
said, “You mount an attack tomorrow, and I will turn the fortress over to your
representatives. Then I will flee by a different road and make my way to Solṭān
Qānṣaw, whom I will bring here to be killed by your men.”
Solṭān Salim was well pleased at this. He showed utmost honor and affec-
tion to Khayroddin Pāshā, then gave him leave to go.
The next day Solṭān Salim saddled up and led an assault on the fortress.
While this was going on, Khayroddin Pāshā rode off out another gate and head-
ed off to Egypt. Solṭān Salim entered Aleppo and looked around at the won-
drous fortress and its siege-defenses.
Khayroddin Pāshā rode for three days and finally arrived in Cairo. He went
to Solṭān Qānṣaw and told him about Aleppo. Solṭān Qānṣaw said, “Since you
have left your wife and son there and come here to serve me, I will elevate you
in power and rank to the highest level.” After that, he headed slowly but steadi-
ly toward Aleppo. Five days’ journey from the city, he stopped to wait for
Ghazāli the Arab.3 Ghazāli arrived with his army two days later, and Solṭān
Qānṣaw told him the story of Solṭān Salim’s capture of the city. Then the two of
them packed up and headed for Aleppo.

3 Jānbirdi al-Ghazāli was originally a Mamluk governor who defected to the Ottomans when
they invaded Syria in 1516. He later rebelled against them in a bid for autonomy and was killed
in 1521.
420 Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Solṭān Salim, the Ruler of Anatolia, Fights Solṭān Qānṣaw, the King of
Egypt, Who is Killed

By the time word reached Aleppo that Solṭān Qānṣaw and Ghazāli were com-
ing, Solṭān Salim had already finished getting his forces prepared. Solṭān
Qānṣaw and Ghazāli arrived three days later and set up camp outside the city
gate. For three days neither side made a move.
On the fourth day, both sides sounded their battle-drums, and both of those
seas of soldiery surged into each other. The fighting became fierce, and the
great commanders of the Egyptian army entered the battle as well. Solṭān
Qānṣaw was with his battle-standard, along with several select men and Khay-
roddin Pāshā, when Khayroddin Pāshā saw his chance. He struck Solṭān
Qānṣaw a surprise blow on the neck and severed his head from his body.1
Khayroddin at once picked up Solṭān Qānṣaw’s head and brought it to
Solṭān Salim, who praised him highly and ordered that the head be mounted
on the point of a spear. Then the Anatolians began to shout: “O army of Egypt,
here is the head of Solṭān Qānṣaw, the Pādeshāh of Egypt—now who are you
fighting for?”
Now Ghazāli and a group of Arab youths had split off from the two hundred
thousand-man strong Egyptian army, and they had killed a great many of the
enemy together. They had almost reached the battle-standard of Solṭān Salim
when they heard the Anatolians taunting them. Ghazāli realized that Khayrod-
din Pāshā was the traitor. He asked an Anatolian about it, and the man said,
“Yes, Khayroddin Pāshā has killed his lord!”
Ghazāli was stunned. Tearing his collar in grief and rage, he said to the Arab
army, “I swear to God that if you hold back in battle and do not follow me, I will
kill every one of you!”
So his soldiers gathered together and hurled themselves as one at the ene-
my. They had killed a great many men when Solṭān Salim said, “Clearly Ghazāli
does not know that Solṭān Qānṣaw has been killed!” Then one of his men
brought forth the head of Solṭān Qānṣaw and said “O Ghazāli, this is the head
of Qānṣaw, the ruler of Egypt! Who are you fighting for now?”
At this, Ghazāli was filled with fury, and he and his Arabs plunged into the
midst of the Anatolian army with cries of manliness. Solṭān Salim then ordered

1 Solṭān Qānṣawh al-Ghawri, the second-to-last Mamluk sultan, died in battle with Solṭān Salim
in August 1516.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_051

Solṭān Salim Fights Solṭān Qānṣaw 421

the Janissaries to knock them off their feet with musket-shots. Ghazāli, though,
drove straight at the Janissaries and killed nearly ten thousand of them. Solṭān
Salim was left defenseless; he hurried to the rear of the cannon-emplacement
and ordered that the guns be fired. The Anatolians and Arabs were all mixed
together, so when the guns were fired, three thousand of the former and four
thousand of the latter were killed.
Ghazāli saw that further effort would be fruitless, so he retrieved the body of
Solṭān Qānṣaw and brought it back to Cairo. Out of a hundred thousand men
in the Egyptian army, twenty thousand were killed in that battle.
When Ghazāli entered Cairo, he made Solṭān Qānṣaw’s nephew Thamāni
Khān the new king. He also made Ramazān-oghli military commander. He told
them, “If the Anatolian emperor comes, you must not fight him until I have
arrived. The Arabs of Yemen will have heard that Solṭān Qānṣaw has been
killed, and God forbid they should gang up and seize the three hundred for-
tresses that our representatives hold there.” Then he took five thousand Arab
soldiers and left for Yemen.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Salim had left Aleppo and gone to Damascus. He con-
quered it as well and turned it over to Ghazāli’s son, Ghazāli-oghli. He sent an
imperial robe of honor to Ghazāli [sic] and was intending to head on to Cairo.
But the nobles of Damascus told him, “It takes a month to get from here to
Cairo, and you have to cross the desert. Each waystation has just one well, and
supplies are impossible to come by. You and your ocean-like army cannot cross
the desert this way, for your men do not have enough camels and pack-animals
to carry supplies to last a month. More to the point, the camels and pack-ani-
mals cannot travel this road.”
Solṭān Salim replied, “On this campaign, let the high- and middle-ranking
officers bring no servants, and let them not carry too many tents. In fact, let
there be one tent for every ten people. Let every two people have one camel
between them. When spring begins, there will surely be rain and plenty of wa-
ter.”
Then he ordered the desert Arabs to bring camels and take payment from
the commander. The Arabs brought camels, and the Anatolian commander
bought nearly two hundred thousand of them. They loaded the camels with
supplies and set off from Damascus with two hundred thousand men on the
desert road to Cairo.
When they reached the outskirts of the city, Thamāni Khān was informed.
“Shut the city gates tightly and prepare to withstand a siege,” he said, “for the
enemy has arrived at the foot of the citadel with a sea-churning army.”
The commander Ramazān-oghli felt brave. He said to Thamāni Khān, “Why
must we shut the gate? Let us go out and capture the Solṭān in battle. When
422 Chapter 50

Ghazāli comes back, the deed will be done, and he will be grateful to you and
me and take credit for himself.” Finally Ramazān-oghli whispered in Thamāni
Khān’s ear so much that he was taken in by it and decided to go out and fight.
He sent a messenger to Solṭān Salim to say, “Have your army pull back, for we
intend to come out and do battle with you!”
Looking over the citadel of Cairo, Solṭān Salim saw a fortress whose top
touched the celestial sphere itself. He realized that capturing it would be a
problem, and he was apprehensive as well because all his camels had died in
the desert and he was out of supplies. Thus, when Thamāni Khān’s messenger
came and delivered his message, Solṭān Salim was jubilant. He ordered his
troops to fall back. Thamāni Khān then emerged from the citadel and com-
manded that four thousand large and small cannons be brought out from the
city and aimed at the Anatolian army. The two sides began to fight, but Solṭān
Salim did not have the bravery to come forth.
Now one of Solṭān Salim’s servants was Egyptian and had worked for some
time as Solṭān Qānṣaw’s artillery commander. For various reasons, he had fled
Cairo and gone to Istanbul, where he had entered the service of Solṭān Salim
and come along on this campaign. He scrutinized the Mamluks’ cannons and
realized that the enemy had not set up their guns’ sights.2 He went to Solṭān
Salim and said, “The Solṭān’s fortune has reached its utmost peak!” He then
explained the situation with the cannons, saying, “If they fire their guns, it will
have no effect. Take your place behind your own guns and give the order to
open fire.”
Solṭān Salim was delighted to hear this. He went to his cannon-emplace-
ment and ordered them to open fire. Seventy thousand Egyptians were killed,
and the stunned Thamāni Khān had no choice but to take flight and head back
into Cairo. Solṭān Salim sent Ebrāhim Pāshā and Shahsovār Pāshā and Shahbāz
Pāshā in pursuit at the head of a vast army, himself entering the city. Half of the
city was now under occupation, and half was still under the control of Thamāni
Khān.
Thamāni Khān said to Ramazān-oghli, “The troops are rattled; we are in a
tough spot.”
Ramazān-oghli then spread the word throughout the city that everyone
who could get their hands on weaponry should prepare to fight the Anatolians
or face punishment.
The next day, all the Cairenes, nearly a hundred thousand strong, armed
themselves for battle and came outside. Seeing what was happening, Solṭān

2 Following Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb’s explanation (p. 650) of the obscure term maymunak.
Solṭān Salim Fights Solṭān Qānṣaw 423

Salim said, “Until they take the main gate, they will have to stay outside.” His
pāshās thus blocked the gate.
The battle got under way. Many died on both sides, including Thamāni
Khān, who was killed by musket-fire. In the end, Solṭān Salim killed forty thou-
sand Cairenes and confidently settled down to occupy Cairo. Just then they
brought word to him that Ghazāli the Arab had arrived on the outskirts of the
city and was intent on battle. The Solṭān was struck with fear. He ordered that
they bring Thamāni Khān’s head out to “greet” Ghazāli, hoping that when he
realized that Thamāni Khān had been killed, he would lose his will to fight.
So they sent Thamāni Khān’s head on to Ghazāli, who wept bitterly when he
saw it. “Solṭān Salim thinks that having seen this head, I will not fight,” he said.
“But if God wills it, I will get even with him for the death of Thamāni Khān.”
He sent this message on to Solṭān Salim, who, when he heard it, said: “Bravo
to a leader who displays the loyalty of a real man!”
Now Badiʿozzamān Mirzā had conceived a desire to rule Egypt. He said to
Solṭān Salim, “Give me permission to go fight Ghazāli; I will take him prisoner
and bring him to you.” Solṭān Salim granted his request, and Badiʿozzamān
gathered an army and went out toward Ghazāli’s encampment.
The battle began when the two sides met. The fighting became thick, and
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā was killed unawares by one of Ghazāli’s men. His troops
turned tail and fled back to Solṭān Salim, to whom they reported what had hap-
pened. The Solṭān was even more fearful now.
Khayroddin Pāshā was dismayed at this and said, “If you could take care of
one such as Solṭān Qānṣaw, then what is this impudent Arab to you?”
Solṭān Salim retorted, “If you can subdue him either by force or by persua-
sion, then go ahead and do so.”
Khayroddin Pāshā accepted, and he set off at the head of thirty thousand
men. As he approached, Ghazāli got word of it and ordered that the battle-
drums be beaten. Khayroddin Pāshā had no choice but to order that his own
drums be beaten as well. The two armies got underway and began to fight.
Ghazāli plunged into the thick of it himself and fought his way to Khayroddin
Pāshā, to whom he said, “You two-faced bastard, do you know what kind of
treachery you have committed?” He thrust a spear into Khayroddin’s side and
hoisted him from the saddle, then turned him upside down and cast him onto
the ground, killing him. Ghazāli’s men then killed many of his soldiers; many
of the rest, who were Egyptian, hastened to join Ghazāli, while the others fled
back to Solṭān Salim and told him what had happened.
Solṭān Salim said to Ebrāhim Pāshā, “Go to Ghazāli and tell him this: ‘We
have no quarrel with you. That traitor Khayroddin Pāshā killed Solṭān Qānṣaw,
424 Chapter 50

and now you have punished him for it. Since your loyalty and manliness have
become clear to me, I am bestowing rule over Egypt upon you.”
Ebrāhim Pāshā went to Ghazāli and gave him Solṭān Salim’s message.
Ghazāli thought that Solṭān Salim was surely mocking him when he said he
was bestowing Egypt upon him. So he said, “If the Solṭān is being sincere, let
him order his army to leave Cairo.”
Ebrāhim Pāshā returned and related to Solṭān Salim what Ghazāli had told
him. Solṭān Salim appreciated this, and that very hour he ordered his men to
pack up, leave Cairo, and make camp outside the city.
When word of the evacuation reached Ghazāli, he, too, appreciated it, and
he brought his army into the city. After three days, Ghazāli and his troops hung
their swords around their necks and came out of the city to go to see the Solṭān.
Solṭān Salim came out of his tent to greet them and showered them with ben-
efits and hospitality. Embracing Ghazāli, he said, “Praise and thanks be to God
that I have found a real man in this world!” He then brought him to his court,
and they passed the time in conversation and enjoyment.
Some days later, Solṭān Salim decided to leave. Ghazāli said, “My forefathers
never ruled. Give Egypt to Solṭān Solaymān and appoint Ramazān-oghli lieu-
tenant on his behalf, for Egypt was the possession of our lord Solṭān Qānṣaw,
and ruling in place of one’s lord is improper and unmanly.”
Praising Ghazāli highly, Solṭān Salim accepted this proposal, and thereafter
he gave Egypt to Solṭān Solaymān and made Ramazān-oghli his lieutenant.
Then he took Ghazāli with him back to Istanbul. From there he went to Mecca
and Medina, and after conquering them and making a pilgrimage, he headed
back to the lands of the Franks to conquer Venice. After conquering Venice and
Rhodes,3 he left the sea and sent someone to Farhād Pāshā in Āmāsyeh, say-
ing, “If all the necessary supplies have been purchased, have them inform us,
for on the first day of spring we are going to set out to conquer Iran.”
Farhād Pāshā sent back a message saying, “We have enough provisions to
supply the Anatolian army for four years, and we have placed it all in store-
houses.”

3 jazireh-ye farang
Solṭān Morād Comes To Conquer Diyārbakr And Is Killed 425

Chapter 51

Solṭān Morād, the Son of Yaʿqub Pādeshāh Son of Ḥasan Pāshā the Torkmān,
Comes to Conquer Diyārbakr and is Killed by Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār

While Solṭān Salim was thinking of attacking Venice, Solṭān Morād said to him,
“Diyārbakr has nothing resembling a governor. Maḥmud Solṭān is an old man,
and ʿAbdollāh Khān is an ignoramus. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for the Solṭān
to command me to raise an army, go to Diyārbakr, conquer it, and supply him
with provisions as well, all before he returns from Venice.”
So Solṭān Salim sent Solṭān Morād along, and he himself went to Venice.
Solṭān Morād gathered fourteen thousand Torkmāns and Dhulqadr and head-
ed for Diyārbakr. He soon arrived outside the fortress of Kharput,1 whose
governor was the son of Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār.
When Aḥmad Solṭān’s son heard the news that Solṭān Morād had come, he
wrote a letter on the subject to his father which said, “If you can’t come, send
someone to get help from Nur ʿAli Khalifeh.”
Aḥmad Solṭān replied, “There is no need to send anyone to Nur ʿAli Khalifeh.
Hold the fort for a bit; God willing, I will arrive shortly after this letter.” Then he
gathered seven hundred men and set off.
The previous day, Solṭān Morād had arrived outside Kharput, and the next
day, when Aḥmad Solṭān arrived, he was waiting there as well. Aḥmad Solṭān
came storming in with his men and, without wasting any time on formalities,
drove straight into the center of Solṭān Morād’s army, killing many of them.
Aḥmad Solṭān fought all the way to the foot of Solṭān Morād’s battle-standard,
and, to make a long story short, killed him. Someone else also captured his son.
They killed three thousand of his men, and the rest fled. Aḥmad Solṭān’s men
took Solṭān Morād’s son and headed for the fortress of Darnā.
After Aḥmad Solṭān had taken possession of the goods and property of
Solṭān Morād and the Torkmān and Dhulqadr armies, he sent to His Majesty
Shāh Esmāʿil the head and ring-wearing hand of Solṭān Morād. With them he
sent a letter that read, “If people say that this is not the head of Solṭān Morād,
his hand and its ring will be my witness.”
When Aḥmad Solṭān’s letter and the head and hand of Solṭān Morād passed
under the alchemical gaze of the Shāh, His Majesty felt a pang of sorrow and
said, “O crooked fate, you have never been true to anyone, nor will you.” Then
he had a robe of honor sent to Aḥmad Solṭān and his son.

1 In the text, Fartut. Harput is now part of Elaziğ, Turkey.

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426 Chapter 51

When Solṭān Salim returned to Istanbul from the land of the Franks, he
spent most of his time in council talking about Iran and Shāh Esmāʿil. “Ghazāli
will take care of him,” he kept saying. Ghazāli, though, remained aloof. Finally,
Solṭān Salim asked, “Won’t you say anything about Shaykh-oghli?”
“What can I say about one who made his emergence to power with the sup-
port of God Almighty?” repled Ghazāli. “If I speak in favor of you, I may have no
chance against him.”
“Candor is part of manliness,” observed Solṭān Salim. Then he named as
commander his son Solṭān Solaymān, saying, “If you sort out Nur ʿAli Khalifeh,
then don’t worry about Shaykh-oghli, because you will be able to take care of
him quickly.”
Ghazāli then requested that Solṭān Salim assign some pāshās to duty. The
Solṭān named Farhād Pāshā, then said, “I am still worried about the Franks,
otherwise I would follow along behind you.” Ghazāli assured him that his com-
ing was not necessary.
Ghazāli Joins Forces With Solṭān Solaymān 427

Chapter 52

Ghazāli Joins Forces with Solṭān Solaymān to Fight Nur ʿAli Khalifeh, Who
is Killed by the Anatolians

Ghazāli set off with Solṭān Solaymān and the Anatolian army and headed to-
ward Ādharbāyjān. A spy brought this news to Nur ʿAli Khalifeh. Nur ʿAli Khal-
ifeh selected a hundred men and appointed Ṣufiyān Khalifeh as his lieutenant
and deputy and said to him, “I pledge my daughter to you; if I am killed or cap-
tured in this battle, be a manly successor to me.” Then he drew up his last will
and testament, gathered his men, and set off.
They had been on the road for twenty days when they encountered Ghazāli
and Solṭān Solaymān. A great battle broke out. Ghazāli was astonished, saying,
“I have never yet seen anyone as manly as these Qezelbāsh!”
During the fighting, Nur ʿAli Khalifa’s horse stumbled. Some Anatolian came
up and dealt him a mortal wound, and he fell writhing from his horse. Ghazāli
ran up and killed that man, then took Nur ‘Ali’s head and cradled it in his lap.
“Gallant hero,” he said, “tell me whatever you desire or wish, and I will grant it
with a grateful heart.”
Nur ʿAli Khalifeh said, “I longed to do battle with you; praise be to God that
I have been martyred, but a hundred times alas! that I will bring my wish to the
grave without witnessing your battle with the Perfect Guide. As my last re-
quest, I ask you not to enter this citadel, and if the Anatolian army brings you
there, not to fight the inhabitants, but to let them leave the citadel and go to
His Majesty.” Ghazāli agreed to this. Then Nur ʿAli Khalifeh surrendered his
pure soul to God. Ghazāli was most sorrowful as he ordered Khalifeh’s men to
take his body back to Ādharbāyjān.
Then Farhād Pāshā said, “We must now take the citadel and retrieve the
treasuries of Solṭān Salim that Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had seized.”
“Nur ʿAli was a chivalrous man,” replied Ghazāli, “and he entrusted me with
a last wish, to which I agreed, that I would leave his people alone and not at-
tack their fortress. Even if there are a hundred treasuries in his fortress, I am
leaving this place. Besides, the Qezelbāsh have sworn that Nur ʿAli Khalifeh
sent the treasuries on to Shāh Esmāʿil, and that none remain inside the citadel.”
Ghazāli then left for Āmāsyeh, whence he sent this news on to Solṭān Salim.
When Solṭān Salim was informed that Nur ʿAli Khalifeh had been killed, he felt
reassured about the invasion of Iran, so he again commanded Solṭān Solaymān
and Ghazāli to take fifty thousand men and march to Diyārbakr, saying that he
himself would follow behind them.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_053

428 Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Solṭān Solaymān Comes to Iran a Second Time, and Ghazāli is Captured by

His Majesty the Shadow of God

When word arrived at the royal court that Solṭān Salim had killed Solṭān
Qānṣaw and taken Ghazāli the Arab into his service, Shāh Esmāʿil wrote a royal
edict naming Div Solṭān his deputy and granting him supreme command of
the army as well as the governorship of Diyārbakr province. His Majesty then
dismissed him and sent him on his way there.
Div Solṭān had been in Diyārbakr for four years [sic] when spies brought
him the news that Solṭān Solaymān and Ghazāli were on the way. Div Solṭān
then wrote a letter describing the situation and sent it to Shāh Esmāʿil. In reply,
His Majesty sent back a message which read, “When the enemy enters
Diyārbakr province, postpone the battle, for we are coming there hard on the
heels of this royal letter.” He then set off along with eighteen thousand men
who were already prepared and in the saddle.
When Solṭān Solaymān, Ghazāli, and the Anatolian army crossed into
Ādharbāyjān, Ṣufiyān Khalifeh sent someone to Div Solṭān asking what he
wanted done. Div Solṭān responded that he believed it was best if he evacuated
his citadel, packed up the households and belongings, and went to Diyārbakr.
So Ṣufiyān did so.
Ghazāli soon arrived with his army and took possession of the citadel; from
there he proceeded to take the fortress of Kharput as well. To make a long story
short, every citadel they went to had already been evacuated in accordance
with the orders of the Shāh, and the governors of those citadels had gone to
gather in Diyārbakr. Whenever Solṭān Solaymān and Ghazāli seized a fortress,
they would send a letter to Solṭān Salim announcing their “victory.” Solṭān Sa-
lim wanted to send pāshās and install them as governors in the various cita-
dels, but Ghazāli told him, “Appointing governors is not proper until we have
taken Diyārbakr.”
When they reached Qarāḥamid, Aḥmad Solṭān sent someone to Div Solṭān
stating his intention to fight. Div Solṭān sent a reply that said, “His Majesty the
Shāh has ordered that we refrain from fighting until he arrives. But it is up to
you whether or not to listen to the orders of the Perfect Guide!”
Aḥmad Solṭān saw no choice but to leave Qarāḥamid and go to Diyārbakr,
after which Ghazāli and Solṭān Solaymān arrived and seized the place. All in
all, there were forty-two citadels in the hands of the Qezelbāsh, and as they
evacuated each one without a fight, the Anatolians took over all of them.

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Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 429

Div Solṭān kept saying, “O friends, does the enemy know that the Perfect
Guide has given us an order not to fight? They have conquered the whole re-
gion, and there is no way to get rid of them now.”
Ghazāli, having conquered all those fortresses, at first boasted to himself
that the Qezelbāsh had no business thinking they were any kind of match for
him. But then he thought, “The refusal of the Qezelbāsh to fight is surely not
without cause.” Thus, when he was three days’ journey from Diyārbakr, he sent
a spy ahead to establish for certain why the Qezelbāsh were not coming out to
fight, but were abandoning their fortresses and going to Diyārbakr. In the
meantime, he and Solṭān Solaymān waited right where they were.
The spy penetrated Div Solṭān’s camp, where he saw Div Solṭān sitting
alongside the Qezelbāsh amirs like a gloomy demon outside the citadel of
Diyārbakr; he was saying that he wanted to go to Qarāḥamid and fight Ghazāli
and the Anatolians, but couldn’t. Just then a runner came from the Shāh’s royal
camp with a message for Div Solṭān. It said that His Majesty had ordered him
not to fight if Ghazāli came, and even if they were spearpoint-to-spearpoint
with the enemy, to stop fighting upon receipt of this letter and to wait for His
Majesty’s arrival.
Div Solṭān said, “Our enemies do not know that the Perfect Guide has or-
dered me not to fight; they will think I am afraid of them!” Much distressed, he
gathered his men and went into the citadel.
The spy then returned to Ghazāli and reported what he had seen and heard.
Ghazāli said, “I have heard, and know for myself, that the Qezelbāsh quail be-
fore no one in the world, and that God Almighty created no fear in their hearts.”
He then packed up and moved with his men to within three leagues of
Diyārbakr, where he made camp.
When Div Solṭān received word that they had come, he emerged from the
citadel with the mighty Qezelbāsh army and set up his tents and encampment
directly opposite the enemy army. Ghazāli then said, “I want to observe the
Qezelbāsh and Div Solṭān from afar.” He went with a few men to the top of a
hill and began to watch. Div Solṭān, as well, took Aḥmad Solṭān and some of
the Qezelbāsh solṭāns and went to the top of a different hill to observe the
Anatolians.
Ghazāli then said to someone, “Isn’t that Div Solṭān observing the troops
from that hill?” He left by himself to go to Div Solṭān. When Div Solṭān saw
Ghazāli coming toward him, he said, “If this Arab is coming to fight me, I
should flee and say that the Perfect Guide forbids me to fight him and will not
accept it if I do.” He thus began walking over to Ghazāli.
When the two men came near to each other, Div Solṭān beheld a wondrous
Arab youth, next to whose valor he saw himself as but a goldfinch standing
430 Chapter 53

beside a lion. He had only just laid eyes on him when Ghazāli came forward
and greeted him. Div Solṭān was ashamed and said (as great men have said):

When the proud show humble courtesy, it is good breeding;

If a beggar is humble, it is only because it is his nature.1

To make a long story short, after much conversation, they agreed not to fight
for another week; the two armies would remain where they were until then.
The two men then returned to their respective camps.
When the appointed date arrived, Ghazāli ordered that the war-drums be
beaten. Div Solṭān said to his men, “O friends, tomorrow morning there will be
a battle, but our sovereign has not joined us yet. I don’t know what to do.”
At that very moment someone came with the good news that His Majesty
the Shāh was about to arrive in pomp and glory. This news cheered Div Solṭān
greatly, and he ordered that the war-drums be beaten and distributed pay and
equipment to the troops.
Morning came. Each of those armies of doomsday stirred from its place, and
the ranks of battle and strife were arrayed. Ghazāli proceeded to the battle-
field, and Div Solṭān could not but do the same. Just then the battle-flag of
“Help from God and speedy victory” appeared in the distance. The Qezelbāsh
officers went out to welcome their Shāh and kiss his royal feet. His Majesty
then joined them in returning to their positions. He stopped his horse at the
edge of the battlefield and waited.
When Ghazāli looked in Shāh Esmāʿil’s direction, a feeling of complete de-
votion filled his heart; he said to himself, “Is this Shaykh-oghli, who has come
to do battle with you, and is that his servant standing in the battlefield waiting
to fight?” He rode up to Div Solṭān and, holding his spear in his hand like a
cane, he struck him on the shoulder so hard that Div Solṭān’s feet came out of
their stirrups. He fell to the ground, and a great clamor went up.
Seeing this kindled Shāh Esmāʿil’s wrath, and he charged onto the battle-
field. When Ghazāli saw him coming, he turned to face him and said, “Are you
here to fight or to give advice?”
Shāh Esmāʿil replied, “Here comes my first piece of advice; if you don’t hear
it, you will surely see it!”
Ghazāli then said to himself, “Truly Shaykh-oghli is a scion of the Com-
mander of the Faithful!” And even though he had become a devoted servant

1 From Saʿdi’s Bustān, with slight alterations; cf. Bustān-e Shaykh Moṣlehoddin Saʿdi Shirāzi
(Tehran: Alhoda, 1371), p. 15.
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 431

and Ṣufi of His Majesty, he wanted very much to demonstrate his bravery to
him. So he said, “O Shaykh-oghli, I would engage in spear-play with you.”
Shāh Esmāʿil agreed to this and snatched up his spear. Ghazāli picked up his
own, and they began to fight. Shāh Esmāʿil thrust his spear into Ghazāli’s belt-
loop and, with a cry of “O ʿAli, help,” he lifted him from the saddle, as big and
brave as he was, and hurled him to the ground.
“Bind his hands,” he said to Div Solṭān.
Div Solṭān was about to tie Ghazāli’s hands behind his back when His
Majesty said, “Tie his hands in front of him, for he is one of my Ṣufis.”
At this, Ghazāli said to himself, “The Perfect Guide is telling the secrets of
my heart!”
Shāh Esmāʿil then said to Div Solṭān, “Take Ghazāli to my tent and watch
over him with respect. I will return after I capture Solṭān Solaymān.” Ghazāli
cried out, “This slave has a couple of words to offer! I have heard that the Per-
fect Guide has never attended to a defeated soldier, and now he has ‘taken
shelter in my bravery’ and come to me. Now, in the name of the holy Com-
mander of the Faithful, and as a sacrifice to your own blessed head, let this
least of your servants take the blame for the wrongs of Solṭān Solaymān and
the Anatolians.”
Shāh Esmāʿil replied, “We had something else in mind, but now we will par-
don their offenses in your name.” Then he returned to his glorious royal court.
Ghazāli was brought, hands bound, in His Majesty’s train.
The Shāh said to him, “O Ghazāli, I am obviously not unaware of the fact
that you are a devoted Ṣufi, but I will only accept it when you curse the ene-
mies of the Commander of the Faithful and take the immaculate Emāms as
your friends.”
Ghazāli at once cursed and reviled the enemies of the Faith and proclaimed
his friendship with the Emāms. Shāh Esmāʿil then removed the blazing crown
from his own blessed head and placed it on Ghazāli’s. He also presented him
with a royal robe of honor.
Now when Solṭān Solaymān saw what had happened with Ghazāli, he re-
turned to Āmāsyeh with a thousand disappointments. As for the forty-two cita-
dels they had taken from the Qezelbāsh, the Anatolians abandoned them and
returned home, and the Qezelbāsh solṭāns all went back and retook their re-
spective fortresses.
After that, the Shāh told Ghazāli, “I hereby grant you Shushtar and Ho­vayzeh
and Dezful and Kuh-e Kiluyeh all the way to Bandar ʿAbbās, and from there to
the edge of the Strait of Baṣra and to the border of Lār and Shirāz, which was
once the seat of four pādeshāhs.” Ghazāli kissed the royal foot and was hon-
ored with splendid robes of honor and a Qezelbāsh tāj and turban and a belt
432 Chapter 53

and a jewelled sword. He then was installed in that region, and now, when
these pages are being written—which is the year 1086 [1675–76]—the descen-
dants of Ghazāli are still the ruling governors there.
Now back when Solṭān Salim heard about the successive victories of Ghazāli
and Solṭān Solaymān and their conquest of numerous citadels, he swelled up
with pride and was confident that he would conquer Iran. Now, though, as he
learned about Ghazāli’s capture, his conversion to Shiʿism, and his decision to
become a servant of the Shāh, as well as about His Majesty’s bestowal upon
him of a region of four pādeshāhs, Solṭān Salim was driven to the limits of an-
guish and agitation. “What kind of fortune is this that God Almighty has
granted to Shaykh-oghli?!” he said.
He then inquired into the forty-two citadels his men had taken and was told
that the Qezelbāsh had taken them back. Solṭān Salim thought deeply for a
while; then he ordered that a letter be written to Ghazāli’s son Ghazāli-oghli
that read, “Your father has betrayed us and gone over to the service of Shaykh-
oghli. When you get this letter, come to the court of the House of ʿOthmān and
we will give your father’s place to you. You will drown in our benevolence, and
your father will envy the favors we grant you.”
When Ghazāli-oghli received this letter, he wrote in reply, “When my father
was in the service of Solṭān Qānṣaw, my heart was penetrated by love for the
house of Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq. Now my father is a Ṣufi and a true-blue Shiʿi,
a partisan of the Commander of the Faithful in the service of the Perfect Guide.
How, then, can I come to you?” He gave this message to the Solṭān’s messenger
and left.
Ghazāli himself, too, wrote to his son thus: “O my son, in recent times we
had truly gone astray; praise and gratitude be to God that we have now, via the
Perfect Guide, gotten securely onto the path of the lawful rite of the ʿAlid house.
Now then, when you get this letter, gather all the Arabs and their families and
set off to join the court of the scion of the Commander of the Faithful.” Shāh
Esmāʿil, too, wrote few words in his own blessed hand to Ghazāli-oghli and the
Arab tribes.
Upon receiving these messages, Ghazāli-oghli summoned all the Arab gran-
dees and enticed them with the two letters. When the grandees saw the hand-
writing and royal seal of His Majesty the Shāh, they all prostrated themselves,
then took that blessed writing and rubbed it on their eyes.
“Are you Ṣufi followers of the Perfect Guide?” asked Ghazāli-oghli.
They replied, “We have never seen His Majesty. We inherited our devotion to
him from our fathers.” And they immediately went and retrieved a set of
Qezelbāsh tājes, which they placed on their heads.
Ghazāli-oghli said, “How did you hear about this from your fathers?”
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 433

They explained, “When our fathers were in the service of Solṭān Anas [i.e.
Bāyazid I] of Rum,2 Amir Timur rose to power and came to this region. He
fought against Solṭān Anas, and in the battle both the Solṭān and our fathers
were captured. Amir Timur vowed he would take the Solṭān and our fathers to
Samarqand and to place them all in servitude there. But then he left this region
and went to Ardabil, and there he met Seyyed Khwājeh ʿAli the Black-Clad. The
Khwājeh treated him nobly, and in turn, Amir Timur placed his hand on the
Khwājeh’s skirt in devotion and made himself one of his servants. ‘O guide,’ he
said, beseeching him, ‘command this slave to perform a service.’ The Khwājeh
refused, but after much imploring, he finally said, ‘You must release the Anato-
lian prisoners and Solṭān Anas.’ Amir Timur did so, turning them over to the
Khwājeh, who in turn freed them from servitude and let them go. Thereafter
our fathers put the ring of bondage to the Khwājeh in their ears. Since then,
generation after generation has passed down this trust to their sons: ‘Do not lift
your hand from the skirt of this exalted house, and you will be honored in this
world and the next.’ We are all Ṣufi-born sons of this lofty dynasty.”
“What must I say to become a Ṣufi as well?” asked Ghazāli-oghli.
“First you must befriend the People of the House of the Prophet,” they re-
plied.
“Who are the enemies of the House of the Prophet of God?”
“Abu Bakr and ‘Omar and ʿOthmān, may God curse them.”
Ghazāli-oghli then cursed the enemies of the Faith and, with the hand of
trust, he grasped the strong rope of the Immaculate Emāms. He had a Qezelbāsh
tāj sewn for himself and was about to put it on his head when the Arab gran-
dees said, “Given this oath you have sworn, the Solṭān will never let us go back
to Iran. We need to migrate to Diyārbakr, which is the land of the Qezelbāsh.
After that, you are free to do as you choose.” Ghazāli-oghli agreed to this, and
they all got busy preparing to move.
Solṭān Salim had appointed a spy with orders to let him know if Ghazāli-
oghli ever decided to make a move. Now, when the spy learned that Ghazāli-
oghli and the Arabs were getting ready to move, he hurried back to the Solṭān
to report it. Solṭān Salim then wrote several letters to his commanders in the
area, telling them to prevent Ghazāli-oghli from leaving and to fill him with
hope of promises from the Solṭān. Failing that, they were to kill his men and
bring him back in chains as a prisoner to the imperial court.
Meanwhile, Ghazāli-oghli had made his preparations and set off with twelve
thousand Arab households. They had traveled three days from Damascus when
Ghazāli-oghli said to the Arab grandees, “You need to drop some baggage and

2 See Chapter 5.
434 Chapter 53

travel faster, for we have a battle with the Anatolians before us.” So they left
some possessions behind and kept moving.
As they were approaching Aleppo, word reached the son of Khayroddin
Pāshā, who was called Khayroddin II, that they were coming. He came out of
the city at the head of thirty thousand men and demanded that Ghazāli-oghli
present a letter from the Solṭān justifying his presence.
Ghazāli-oghli said, “I am going to join my father. You may desire battle, but
we do not, for we have benefited from the Solṭān’s hospitality and should not
draw our swords against him, lest people call us ungrateful. Now do not block
our way, but let us go. If you don’t, we are not concerned about this army of
yours.”
Khayroddin II refused, and a great battle immediately broke out, such that
in two hours seven thousand Anatolians were killed and Khayroddin II fled
back to the city in defeat. He wrote to Ramazān-oghli of Egypt, saying, “We
fought with Ghazāli-oghli, but we accomplished nothing and had to return to
the city. Hurry and raise an army and come before they get away and the House
of ʿOthmān is left with this shame.” Ghazāli-oghli, in the meantime, packed up
and left.
When Ramazān-oghli received Khayroddin II’s letter, he gathered thirty
thousand men of his own, slaves and desert-dwelling Arabs, and made his way
to Aleppo. There he picked up Khayroddin II and together they went in pursuit
of Ghazāli-oghli.
When Ghazāli-oghli learned that they were coming, he began to fret, fearing
the loss of his harem. He then asked his advisors whether there was a secure
fortress around to which they could send their households and treasure. They
replied, “Three days’ distance from here there is a fortress called Zamāt. It will
be best if we capture it by a clever trick rather than by force.”
“Then we must come up with a plan,” Ghazāli-oghli replied.
Some experienced men said, “We will send some of our people in the guise
of tradesmen; you lie in wait.”
The “tradesmen” then went to the fortress. It so happened that the arrow of
their intention hit its target, and within a short time they had captured the
fortress. Ghazāli-oghli went with his army and expelled the fortress governor
and three hundred of his men, then moved his own possessions in and settled
down to rule there.
Upon learning that Ghazāli-oghli had captured the fortress of Zamāt,
Ramazān-oghli gathered forty thousand men and marched them there.
Ghazāli-oghli readied his own troops and went out one league to meet the en-
emy. To his men he said, “We have gone out this far from the fortress so that you
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 435

do not pin your hopes on its walls. Know that we must fight like men, and our
battlefield shall be this very spot.”
Then Khayroddin II and Ramazān-oghli arrived and inquired as to the situ-
ation. They were told, “Ghazāli-oghli has come to fight.” Khayroddin II and
Ramazān-oghli replied, “They have moved into the fortress of Zamāt so that
their women will not fall into anyone else’s hands if they are defeated in battle.”
They then made camp. Each of them separately sent Solṭān Salim’s letter of
enticement to Ghazāli-oghli, but he refused each attempt, and the matter
came down to battle.
Ghazāli-oghli and his twelve thousand mounted Bedouin Arabs plunged
into the Anatolian ranks, and within a short time they had killed eighteen
thousand enemy soldiers. Ramazān-oghli was taken prisoner, while Khayrod-
din II fled, wounded, with the remnants of his army. Ghazāli-oghli plundered
the Anatolians’ belongings and returned to the fortress.
News of these events reached Solṭān Salim. He wrote to Dhulfeqār Pāshā,
the governor of Āmāsyeh, saying, “Take a mighty army, seize Ghazāli-oghli
wherever he may be, and send him to my court.” Then he ordered Farhād Pāshā
and Shahsovār Pāshā to go to Zamāt with eighty thousand men.
Dhulfeqār Pāshā gathered his men and marched off. He quickly arrived at
the foot of the fortress and setting up camp. For three days no one said a word.
After three days, Dhulfeqār Pāshā sent someone to Ghazāli-oghli with this
message: “Why have you disobeyed the Solṭān and behaved so boorishly?”
Ghazāli-oghli replied to this message with battle. In other words, he emerged
from the fortress and fighting broke out between his men and the Anatolians.
After much slaughter, the enemy was defeated; nearly ten or fifteen thousand
men were killed, and the survivors turned and fled.
Now one Dhulqadr Pāshā, who had come to the battle with Dhulfeqār Pāshā,
was captured by Ghazāli-oghli, who later released him and sent him on his
way. When he reached the shore of the river Darnā, he spotted Farhād Pāshā
and Shahsovār Pāshā there, and he explained to them what had happened.
Farhād Pāshā said, “I will get even with him for you by capturing him in
battle and sending him as a prisoner in chains to the court of the Solṭān!”
Shahsovār Pāshā added, “Say, ‘God willing’!” Then they packed up and got
moving.
Ghazāli-oghli got word that the pāshās were coming. He intended to go
forth and fight them, but the Arab elders said, “God be praised, we have suffi-
cient provisions to hold out. The fortress is strong, and these hundred thou-
sand powerful men will have to besiege it with great effort before we feel the
effects. After that, go out to fight, and let whatever God has decreed come to
pass.” Ghazāli-oghli agreed to this.
436 Chapter 53

Farhād Pāshā and Shahsovār Pāshā soon arrived with their mighty army and
set up camp at the foot of the fortress. They laid siege to it for three months
without achieving any progress. Their provisions ran out, and it reached the
point where the soldiers were making do with the meat of camels and horses.
Farhād Pāshā said, “Obviously some of the men are not willing to capture
Ghazāli-oghli; they are collaborating with Shaykh-oghli.”
Dhulqadr Pāshā realized that Farhād Pāshā meant him, so he just said, “You
are right. We have been sitting here for three months in vain. Tomorrow morn-
ing, we must make an assault on the fortress and upend it entirely.”
Farhād Pāshā praised him, but in their hearts the two men were not being
sincere with each other. Still, they decided to make the assault, and they made
preparations for it.
Dhulqadr Pāshā wrote a note about the impending attack, attached it to an
arrow, and shot it over the wall into the fortress. It said, “Fate has slandered us
for our friendship with the House of Shaykh Ṣafi and you. Tomorrow they are
going to launch an assault on the fortress. Our troops will deliberately aim
their arrows too high; you watch out for our men when you rain down arrows
and musket-shots.”
Someone found the arrow and delivered the message to Ghazāli-oghli.
Pleased, he issued an order forbidding his men to fire on the troops of Dhul-
qadr Pāshā. When morning came, he ordered five thousand men to stay and
fight from the top of the fortress. He then led the rest out the front gate and,
with a cry of manliness, they began to fight, killing almost ten thousand Anato-
lians.
The two sides fought until afternoon, and sixty or seventy thousand of
Ghazāli-oghli’s men were killed. By Dhulqadr’s orders, though, his men secret-
ly turned their swords on the Anatolians as well, and they killed most of them.
As the day ended, Ghazāli-oghli went back inside the fortress, shut the gate
fast, and got back to withstanding the siege.
Farhād Pāshā said, “Today Dhulqadr Pāshā’s troops killed more Anatolians
than Arabs!”
“What arrant nonsense!” Dhulqadr Pāshā retorted. “We would never lend
assistance to schismatics!”
The next day, the Anatolians once more launched an attack on the fortress.
Ghazāli-oghli meant to go out and fight, but the Arab elders held him back,
first killing many Anatolians with gunfire from the rooftop. Only after that did
Ghazāli-oghli launch his attack. His troops charged at the Anatolians, plunging
into the midst of the enemy ranks and fighting courageously. They moved to-
ward the side where Dhulqadr Pāshā’s men were. This day, Dhulqadr Pāshā’s
men were unable to kill Anatolians, but they were not worried about Ghazāli-
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 437

oghli, sure that he would have no quarrel with them. Ghazāli-oghli did indeed
charge right past them, where he killed nearly seven thousand more of the
enemy. Khayroddin II was wounded and carried off the battlefield on a litter in
the direction of Aleppo. Ghazāli-oghli called off the fighting and went back
inside the fortress. Farhād Pāshā later wrote a petition to Solṭān Salim on the
subject of the battle in which he explained what had happened and blamed
Dhulqadr Pāshā for the defeat.
Ghazāli-oghli, meanwhile, back inside the fortress, was looking after his
men. Noticing that supplies were low, he said to himself, “If the House of
Shaykh Ṣafi is in the right, and if what people say about it is true, then the Ana-
tolians will be gone in three days. This is because this may be Anatolia, but we
have no shelter and no refuge save in the Almighty and in the house of the holy
Commander of the Faithful.” And three days later, through the power of the
Creator, the Anatolians were filled with fright and packed up and left for no
apparent reason.
Ghazāli-oghli gave thanks to God and was completely confirmed in his faith
in the House of Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq. He got ready and, a week later, set out
on the road to Ādharbāyjān along with his Arab troops. They met with no ob-
stacles, and when the first day of spring came, they had reached the shore of
the river Darnā. The water was exceedingly high, and the Anatolians had de-
stroyed the bridge and wrecked the ferry-boats, so there was no way to get
across.
Ghazāli-oghli fell to praying to the Judge of Needs; he implored the Com-
mander of the Faithful and the House of Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq to help him.
Then he said, “We must wait here until the water level recedes somewhat; per-
haps then we will be able to cross.”
Three days later, a letter from Dhulqadr Pāshā in Darnā fortress arrived. It
said, “It does you no good to sit there patiently. The Anatolians have destroyed
the boats by order of Solṭān Salim. Order your men to follow you as you take
ten thousand men to the fortress of Bayāneh, which is controlled by Eskandar
Khān. Keep going, for Eskandar Khān has tied up some boats on the shore of
the Darnā. You can cross the river in them.”
Ghazāli-oghli was greatly cheered by this news. He gathered ten thousand
men and ordered the rest of the army to bring up the rear. They set off and
when they arrived, they found the boats ready. Ghazāli-oghli crossed the river,
then his men came behind him. In short, they all got across the river. Once
across, Ghazāli-oghli immediately sent word to His Majesty Shāh Esmāʿil and
to his own father, Ghazāli.
Meanwhile, in Qarāḥamid, Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār learned that Ghazāli-oghli
was coming. He came out to greet him, leading him into the city with utmost
438 Chapter 53

honors and respect. After much feasting and ceremony, Aḥmad Solṭān accom-
panied him for the first day of his journey onward. When Ghazāli-oghli and his
people had come within three days’ journey of Diyārbakr, ʿAbdollāh Khān got
wind of their arrival. ʿAbdollāh Khān, now eleven years old, put on his
Qezelbāsh crown and turban and went out to meet Ghazāli-oghli like a fierce
lion. He brought him into Diyārbakr with full honors, and they got busy feast-
ing. They then sent a letter to Shāh Esmāʿil.
His Majesty, along with his commanders and eighty thousand men, had
been waiting for Solṭān Salim at the plain of Chālderān for some time.3 The
letter that Ghazāli-oghli had sent from the shore of the river Darnā now ar-
rived; the Shāh had just ordered that a letter be written to ʿAbdollāh Khān in
Diyārbakr when the latter’s message arrived at the foot of His Majesty’s caliph-
ate-sheltering throne.
Shāh Esmāʿil told Div Solṭān to prepare a reception, then sent royal robes of
honor to Ghazāli-oghli and the Arab elders. Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot and
said, “Ghazāli-oghli is not worthy of being met by me, who am commander-in-
chief of Iran.”
“That Ṣufi is a son to me,” replied the Shāh. “He swore allegiance to me with-
out even having seen me. I should be going out to greet him myself, but instead
I am sending you.” Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot once more as the Shāh add-
ed, “Let the boy ʿAbdollāh Khān join Ghazāli-oghli as well in coming to our
royal court.”
So Div Solṭān set off, and when he reached the place where Ghazāli-oghli
was, he received him as ordered. Then Ghazāli-oghli and the Arab elders put
on the robes of honor Shāh Esmāʿil had sent them, and together with Div
Solṭān and ʿAbdollāh Khān and Maḥmud Solṭān and the Arab soldiers, they all
headed to the world-sheltering royal court.
Now Ghazāli-oghli had kept careful tabs on his expenses, as well as those of
his twelve thousand soldiers, and over the entire journey no one had been able
to spend even a dinar on rest or entertainment. All the way from Diyārbakr to
Chālderān, they had spent nearly twenty thousand tumāns of their money on
the immediate needs of Ghazāli-oghli and the army. Therefore, when they got
to within four leagues of Shāh Esmāʿil’s royal encampment, Div Solṭān wrote a
petition explaining the situation to His Majesty, and when the Shāh read it, he
sent the entire Qezelbāsh army out to welcome them. His Majesty himself also
went forth with the intention of going on a hunt; he took Ghazāli with him,
and they got busy hunting together.

3 Expecting a rematch, apparently.

Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 439

When Ghazāli-oghli and the Arabs saw what kind of welcome was being of-
fered to them, they all planted a fresh sapling of love for the House of Shaykh
Ṣafioddin Esḥāq in their hearts and rejoiced. As they drew near, Shāh Esmāʿil,
out hunting, sent his commanders to greet them. To Ghazāli he said, “Send one
of the Arabs to your son to tell him to come to me with the Arab elders, and we
will head off to the royal encampment together.”
When the messenger reached Ghazāli-oghli and told him what His Majesty
had said, Ghazāli-oghli said, “Let the soldiers pack up and head for the royal
court.” He himself gathered the elders and was about to go when the troops
and people of the harem and servants all cried out, “We do not have the
strength to go anywhere without first going to the Perfect Guide!”
Ghazāli-oghli said, “The Perfect Guide has ordered thus!” But the Arabs were
all fired up with enthusiasm and left without Ghazāli-oghli’s permission, say-
ing, “If you prevent us from seeing the Perfect Guide, we will turn around and
leave.”
“O friends,” said Ghazāli-oghli, “you are free to choose.”
In the end, Ghazāli-oghli and his soldiers and dependents and household-
members all went together to see His Majesty the Shāh. Over at the hunting-
ground, Ghazāli saw a huge cloud of dust rising; you would have said a hundred
thousand warriors were approaching. He asked an Arab what was going on.
The man explained what had transpired between the Arabs and Ghazāli’s son,
and said that they were all coming to see the Perfect Guide.
Shāh Esmāʿil then asked what that Arab had said, and Ghazāli told him. His
Majesty then said:

If there is no attraction on the part of the beloved,

The hapless lover’s efforts will be in vain.

Shāh Esmāʿil then approached Ghazāli-oghli. When he drew near, Ghazāli-

oghli and the Arab elders all dismounted and prostrated themselves; they also
circumambulated His Majesty three times. Ghazāli-oghli was going to kiss the
royal foot, but Shāh Esmāʿil stopped him, and as that youth passed under his
alchemical gaze, he observed how wondrously manly he was.
The Shāh was going to dismount himself, but Ghazāli came forward and
said, “By God, do not dismount, for this lad is one of His Majesty’s servants.”
Shāh Esmāʿil treated Ghazāli-oghli with affection and asked him about the dif-
ficulties of his journey. Ghazāli-oghli told His Majesty everything that had hap-
pened. Then Ghazāli dismounted and allowed the Arab elders to kiss the royal
foot, after which His Majesty turned his attention to them and offered them
comfort.
440 Chapter 53

In the end, all the Arab soldiers and the people of the harem and their chil-
dren and servants treated their visit to the Shāh like a pilgrimage. His Majesty
put their beliefs to a test, which they passed with flying colors. Afterwards, they
left the hunting-ground and returned in pomp and glory to the felicitous royal
court. There Shāh Esmāʿil asked Ghazāli-oghli about Solṭān Salim, and Ghazāli-
oghli told him what he knew about the sieges and the battles and the favor
done for him by Dhulqadr Pāshā. His Majesty showered praise on him. A few
days later he ordered the Arab soldiers to take their families and go to Shushtar
and Ḥovayzeh, while Ghazāli-oghli and his son and family were to remain.
It had occurred to the oceanic royal mind that Solṭān Salim would likely not
invade Iran that year. So he sent a spy to gather information, thinking that if
Solṭān Salim was in Āmāsyeh, His Majesty would order emergency prepara-
tions in Ādharbāyjān, and if not, he would release the royal army from duty.
The spy went to Āmāsyeh and returned with the news that the Solṭān was in
Istanbul, and also that Valad Khān Beg, the son of Dhulqadr Pāshā, had re-
viewed his troops and was on his way to His Majesty’s royal court. The Shāh
asked the spy whether he knew why Valad Khān was coming.
The spy then related the following story:
After Ghazāli-oghli went to the world-sheltering royal court of the Shāh,
Solṭān Salim commanded Farhād Pāshā and Shahsovār Pāshā and Dhulqadr
Pāshā to go and seize him, and after the fighting and Dhulqadr Pāshā’s show of
affection to Ghazāli-oghli and the subsequent defeat of the Solṭān’s pāshās and
their army, Ghazāli-oghli was taken to the royal court, which stories he himself
has explained in detail.
In the wake of all that, Farhād Pāshā wrote Solṭān Salim a letter complaining
about Dhulqadr Pāshā, and the Solṭān wrote back telling Farhād Pāshā to kill
Dhulqadr Pāshā and bring his head to the Ottoman court. Farhād Pāshā re-
ceived this letter, but he was unable to kill Dhulqadr Pāshā out in the open, so
he wrote him a short letter saying, “They have informed Solṭān Salim of the
mistake Khayroddin II made in fighting Ghazāli-oghli, leaving in a huff as he
did. The Solṭān wants me to go with you to Aleppo, kill Khayroddin II, and stay
there to await further orders.”
Having received this letter, Dhulqadr Pāshā was preparing to go when his
son Valad Khān said, “What Farhād Pāshā is doing is laying a trap! You know
what things you did during the battle with Ghazāli-oghli; undoubtedly Farhād
Pāshā has complained about you to the Solṭān.”
“I have done nothing wrong,” Dhulqadr Pāshā replied; “I will go so that no
one gets suspicious.”
“As God is my witness,” insisted Valad Khān, “Farhād Pāshā will kill you!”
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 441

Dhulqadr Pāshā then sent a messenger to Farhād Pāshā to ask him to come
to them, and after a few days together, they could visit the topic of the letter of
Solṭān Salim and put into effect what it commanded. When he got this mes-
sage, Farhād Pāshā sent his own messenger with the reply that Dhulqadr Pāshā
should hurry up and come to him, for he was desperate to meet with him, and
it was only proper that the obligation to come fell on him who needed to be
seen.
Dhulqadr Pāshā, who was something of a simpleton, accepted this reason-
ing and set off. When he arrived, they first spent some time discussing the jour-
ney, and Dhulqadr Pāshā mentioned how his son Valad Khān had tried to stop
him. Farhād Pāshā’s enmity toward Valad Khān now came to the fore. The next
day, he pretended to be ill and sent someone to Dhulqadr Pāshā to say, “I had
intended to come see you, but my ailments have gotten the better of me. Won’t
you come here so that we can converse?” So Dhulqadr Pāshā and ten or fifteen
of his men showed up at Farhād Pāshā’s tent. Farhād Pāshā said, “Solṭān Salim
has sent a letter that must be read in private.” Dhulqadr Pāshā thus sent all his
men outside. All at once Farhād Pāshā produced Solṭān Salim’s letter demand-
ing Dhulqadr Pāshā’s death, at which his men rushed into the tent and killed
Dhulqadr Pāshā.
When Valad Khān learned of his father’s death, he was just on his way to
arm himself and mount his horse when Farhād Pāshā and his army came
crashing down on him and they all began to fight. Valad Khān fought valiantly,
but since the Anatolians were too many to count, he was in a tight spot. He was
forced to abandon all his baggage and possessions and flee with his household
in the direction of Qarāḥamid. He sent someone ahead to Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār
to say, “I intend to go to the court of the Shāh, for such-and-such has befallen
me. Farhād Pāshā will be right behind me. Raise an army and come help me!”
When this message reached Aḥmad Solṭān, he immediately raised an army
and marched off. Meanwhile, Farhād Pāshā sent two of his generals in pursuit
of Valad Khān, then gathered his own men and brought up the rear. When Va-
lad Khān reached the shore of the river Pareh-juk, the troops sent by Farhād
Pāshā caught up to him. They had surrounded him when Aḥmad Solṭān Qājār
arrived with his men and fighting broke out. To make a long story short, Aḥmad
Solṭān defeated the Anatolians, and Valad Khān made it to Qarāḥamid before
Farhād Pāshā could catch him.
The spy had just finished presenting this story to the royal hearing when
Aḥmad Solṭān’s report on the situation arrived at the foot of the throne. Shāh
Esmāʿil ordered a reply written in which Valad Khān was summoned to the
royal court. Aḥmad Solṭān provided Valad Khān with supplies and sent him on
his way.
442 Chapter 53

Valad Khān reached the Shāh’s court and kissed the royal foot, and Ghazāli-
oghli told His Majesty all about Valad Khān’s father Dhulqadr Pāshā, saying, “If
it weren’t for the favor shown us by Dhulqadr Pāshā, these slaves would not
have been able to come to the royal service, for we would have been prisoners
of the Anatolians.” Then Valad Khān presented all kinds of gifts to His Majesty
the Shāh, who said, “O Valad Khān, you said Farhād Pāshā pillaged all your bag-
gage and carried it off. Where, then, did you get all these gifts?”
Valad Khān replied, “When we were coming to the court of the Perfect
Guide after being looted by Farhād Pāshā, we came across a caravan of Franks
and Anatolians and Hindus and Persians. We drew our swords and killed every-
one but the Persians, then seized their goods.”
Shāh Esmāʿil was terribly disturbed to hear this. “What outrageous thing
have you done to those people?” he demanded. He was getting ready to punish
Valad Khān when Ghazāli-oghli said to his father, “If it hadn’t been for this
man’s father, we would have fallen into the hands of the Anatolians. You have
to intercede on his behalf!”
So Ghazāli stood up and beseeched His Majesty, saying, “Valad Khān thought
that the property of infidels would be lawful for the partisans of the Com-
mander of the Faithful. Now this slave implores you to overlook the fault of
that servant.”
After much discussion, Shāh Esmāʿil spared Valad Khān for Ghazāli’s sake.
But he demanded a list of everyone in Valad Khān’s army who had killed peo-
ple in the caravan. After Valad Khān wrote it, His Majesty ordered them all put
to death.
Meanwhile, Solṭān Salim had moved out from Istanbul at the head of a co-
lossal army and marched as far as Āmāsyeh, where he prepared his troops with
ample provisions. They all set off with the intention of invading Iran and doing
battle with Shāh Esmāʿil. They had gone two days’ journey when they reached
a spot where the mountains touched the sky and the ground was like the gar-
den of Eram, full of roses and tulips and violets. There were also various kinds
of wild animals and birds to hunt in those hills. Solṭān Salim liked that place
very much, and he decided to send Solṭān Solaymān and five thousand men
ahead in the vanguard while he himself stayed behind for ten days to enjoy
himself.
At the end of those ten days, he decided to go hunting one last time. As he
formed the intention to do one last hunt in that place, Fate heard him at last
and said, as it prepared to overwhelm him, “Yes. It will be the first and last thing
you do.”
Solṭān Salim took a few officers and companions and went off to hunt
with a sparrowhawk. After catching many partridges, Solṭān Salim once more
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 443

launched the sparrowhawk after a partridge in the hills, and the partridge flew
up the mountain with the sparrowhawk in hot pursuit. Solṭān Salim, too, dis-
mounted and ran like a madman up the mountain. Just then he thought to
himself, “After I conquer Ādharbāyjān and enter Ardabil, as revenge for the
destruction of the tomb of the great Emām Abu Ḥanifeh, I will raze the tomb
of Shaykh Ṣafi and plow it under.”
He was just thinking this as he went, when suddenly a white lion appeared
and charged at him. The terrified Solṭān meant to run away, but he got stuck
and found himself unable to move.
At that moment the Janissary commander appeared and saw that the Solṭān
was pale as a ghost and shaking like a leaf. “O Solṭān, what is happening to
you?” he asked.
Solṭān Salim replied, “A white lion attacked me!”
No matter how much the Janissary looked around, he saw no lion. Then he
asked, “What thought had just occurred to you?”
Solṭān Salim said, “I was thinking that when I get to Ardabil, I’m going to
destroy the tomb of Shaykh Ṣafi.” And just as he said this, he fainted and fell off
the mountain. All his bones were smashed, and he gave up the ghost.4
Then the pāshās who were with him said, “If the troops learn of this, they
will likely start to fight with each other. We must be patient and bring the body
into camp at night.” So they waited there, and when night fell, they brought the
body to the royal tent and sent for the grand vizier. After asking his advice, they
sent Qarājeh Pāshā to find Solṭān Solaymān.
It was still night when Qarājeh Pāshā caught up to Solṭān Solaymān and
prostrated himself before him. Solṭān Solaymān said, “In my dream, I saw my
father atop a mountain; he plucked a rose and gave it to me, then disappeared
from my sight. And when I woke up, I saw Qarājeh Pāshā prostrating himself
before me.”
Qarājeh Pāshā told Solṭān Solaymān of the death of his father. Then, in the
blink of an eye, he took him five leagues back to their camp. There, the grand
vizier and the Anatolian pāshās seated Solṭān Solaymān on the throne and or-
dered the drums beaten to announce the good news. The Anatolian soldiers,
thus alerted, prostrated themselves in submission before their Solṭān. They
then packed up and took the corpse of Solṭān Salim back to Istanbul.

4 Solṭān Salim died in 1520.

444 Chapter 53
Solṭān Solaymān Comes To Iran A Second Time 445

Part 5
The Later Years

∵
446 Chapter 53
Shāh Esmāʿil Learns Of The Death Of Solṭān Salim 447

Chapter 54

Shāh Esmāʿil Learns of the Death of Solṭān Salim and of Solṭān Solaymān’s
Accession to the Throne and Return to Istanbul; His Majesty Leaves
Chālderān with the Intention of Conquering Khorāsān

When Solṭān Salim went to Āmāsyeh and headed from there to Iran, Shāh
Esmāʿil received daily updates on his progress. His Majesty was busily attend-
ing to the supplying of his victorious army in expectation of battle. Then a
runner arrived with the news that Solṭān Salim had fallen off a mountain and
died, and that his son Solṭān Solaymān had acceded to the Ottoman throne
and was heading back to Istanbul.
Upon hearing this news, Shāh Esmāʿil said, “Praise be to God that our army
is prepared and our enemy is wandering lost. Now it is the Anatolians’ turn! If
we attack them now, though, people will call us opportunistic. In any case, too,
it has now been two years since the treacherous Uzbeks seized Khorāsān, and
repelling them is our royal duty.” So at an auspicious hour he and his men
packed up and marched out of the plain of Chālderān in pomp and glory.
When they entered Qazvin, the Uzbek governors of the region, having heard
that the royal retinue was on the move in their direction, abandoned every city
from the Korpi Bridge to Mashhad and fled.
His Majesty then left Qazvin and marched off toward Khorāsān. At that
time, ʿObayd Khān was in Mashhad and Moḥammad Timur Khān was in Harāt.
Hearing that the Shadow of God was coming their way, they were gripped with
fear of the blow the royal retinue would deal them, and they packed up and
fled toward Transoxiana and Torkestān. Shāh Esmāʿil arrived in Mashhad and,
after performing a pilgrimage to the sacred shrine of Emām Rezā, he left and
went to Harāt.
Now when Bābor Pādeshāh observed that the Uzbeks had come and cap-
tured Khorāsān, and that His Majesty the Shāh was busy fighting with Solṭān
Salim and had been for some time, he thought to himself that His Majesty was
tangled up in battle with the Anatolians and would not be able to come to
Khorāsān very quickly. He thus began to covet Qandahār in his heart. He gath-
ered an army and set off for that city.
When word of Bābor Pādeshāh’s imminent arrival reached Shāh Esmāʿil’s
appointed governor of Qandahār, Shojāʿ Beg the son of Amir Dhunnun, he shut
the city gates fast and prepared to withstand a siege. Bābor Pādeshāh arrived
with Chaghatāy troops and surrounded the citadel.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_055

448 Chapter 54

To make a long story short, Bābor Pādeshāh besieged Qandahār for two
years. No matter how many times he attacked, he was unable to take the for-
tress. Then the news arrived that Shāh Esmāʿil and the Qezelbāsh were on cam-
paign with the intention of conquering Khorāsān, and that they were presently
in Qazvin. Bābor Pādeshāh had no choice but to abandon his siege and go back
to Kābol.
Shāh Esmāʿil presently arrived in Khorāsān. Shojāʿ Beg turned Qandahār
over to Moḥammad Bāqi Khān the Chaghatāy and went with a few nobles to
see His Majesty, intending to complain about Bābor Pādeshāh to him. The very
day Shojāʿ Beg left Qandahār, Moḥammad Bāqi Khān the Chaghatāy sent
someone to Bābor Pādeshāh to say, “Shojāʿ Beg has gone to Khorāsān, so this
slave is making a gift of Qandahār to you. Send someone to take it over.” Bābor
Pādeshāh thus sent a trusted Chaghatāy to Qandahār to take over the city in his
name.
When Shojāʿ Beg was within a day’s journey of Harāt, someone came to tell
him of the capture of Qandahār. Shojāʿ Beg then went into the city, kissed the
royal foot, and explained to His Majesty what had happened in Qandahār and
what Bābor Pādeshāh had done. Shāh Esmāʿil boiled with anger; he ordered his
minister Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn to take down some words from his royal tongue
for Bābor Pādeshāh as follows:
“What kind of behavior is this? One time you go to Balkh and, having seized
the city, you hand it over to Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā, the treacherous rebel.
Another time you raise an army and come to Qandahār. Now you send some-
one to seize Qandahār while the royal servant Shojāʿ Beg is away. Shojāʿ Beg
was about to relate all these offenses to the Shāh, but a sincere friend stopped
him, for if His Majesty hears about them, he will be most vexed with you. The
path of friendship requires you to hand Qandahār back over to Shojāʿ Beg’s
representatives, then come to the royal court to beg forgiveness for your errors
before going home again.”
On His Majesty’s order, Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn wrote these things down and
sent them to Bābor Pādeshāh. When Bābor Pādeshāh read the letter in Kābol,
the thought of receiving a thrashing from Shah Esmāʿil sent him into a panic.
At a loss, he sought out his brother Nāṣer Mirzā to consult him on whether to
obey the Shāh or rebel against him.
Nāṣer Mirzā said, “O my brother, I was once conversing with a yogi, and
I said to him, ‘Twice now the Pādeshāh of Iran has captured Torkestān and
handed it over to us, and he himself said that there was never a two that did not
become three. Now you work your geomancy and astrology and tell me: Will
my brother Bābor Pādeshāh receive Torkestān a third time?’ The yogi said, ‘The
Shāh could seize Torkestān and give it to Bābor Pādeshāh a thousand times,
Shāh Esmāʿil Learns Of The Death Of Solṭān Salim 449

but even if Bābor had a hundred thousand troops in his capital, he still would
have no share in rule over Torkestān. However, with the aid and support of the
Pādeshāh of Iran, Hendustān will come into your possession. You should there-
fore go into the royal presence of the Shāh, for I know for certain that the lamp
of the dynasty of the Ṣāḥeb-Qerān1 will be lit by the spark of the Pādeshāh of
Iran.’”
So Bābor Pādeshāh gathered numerous gifts and set out from Kābol. When
he got within a day’s journey of Harāt, news of his arrival was brought to Shāh
Esmāʿil, who said, “As boorishly as he may have acted, let the Qezelbāsh go out
to greet him.” This they did, and Bābor Pādeshāh was led into the royal pres-
ence, where he prostrated himself and kissed the royal foot. He then said, “I
know I have caused His Majesty’s mind to be troubled, but I beseech him to
find it within himself to forgive the errors of this slave.”
“If you have a valid excuse, I will forgive you,” replied the Shāh.
Bābor Pādeshāh then said, “When Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā seized Balkh, I
realized that he would be no match for ʿObayd Khān or Jāni Beg Solṭān. I thus
went to Balkh and seized it right back so that the Uzbeks would know that if
they wanted that city, they would have to come take it from me. My underlying
intention was to act on behalf of Your Majesty’s servants; if you appoint some-
one to govern there, I will hand over the keys to the citadel. The reason I seized
Qandahār was so that the Uzbeks would not come there.”
Seeing Bābor Pādeshāh squirming like this, Shāh Esmāʿil decided to look the
other way and pardon his faults. He ordered that someone be sent to Balkh to
tell Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā to quit the fortress and go to Kābol. He then said
to Mantash Solṭān, “I am bestowing the region of Balkh on you.” Mantash
Solṭān kissed the royal foot in gratitude and obedience.
Bābor Pādeshāh wrote a couple of words to Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā tell-
ing him to to send back the key to the citadel and then leave for Kābol.
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā wrote back saying, “I have chosen to serve you, and
now I am supposed to send you the key to the citadel?” Then someone came to
tell him that the Shāh had ordered Mantash Solṭān to come to Balkh and take
it by force, then seize that scoundrel and return him in chains to the royal
court.
Bābor Pādeshāh again sent someone to Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā to say, “I
know that you and I cannot overcome the Qezelbāsh army. So before it comes
to that, leave the citadel and go to Kābol, then wait there until I come.”
Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā had no choice but to leave Balkh and set off for
Kābol. Mantash Solṭān then went to Balkh and got down to the business of

1 I.e. the Mughal dynasty, who were descended from Timur.

450 Chapter 54

governing the city. Bābor Pādeshāh also sent someone to Qandahār to turn the
citadel over to Shojāʿ Beg.
When Bābor Pādeshāh had done these things, Shāh Esmāʿil said, “O Bābor
Pādeshāh, it occurs to me that Fate has not carved the royal seal of Torkestān
in your name. If I give you an army and you go to Hendustān, your request for
help in attaining rule will bear fruit. We have told you this before and given you
troops, but you have been negligent.”
“His Majesty is truly a scion of the holy Commander of the Faithful,” replied
Bābor Pādeshāh, “for he perceives true reality.” He then told the Shāh what
Nāṣer Mirzā and the yogi had said.
Shāh Esmāʿil then ordered Khalil Khān Qājār and ʿAli Shokr Khān Torkmān
to take twelve thousand Qezelbāsh and accompany Bābor Pādeshāh to
Hendustān, where they were to seize the country from the Afghans and Luli,2
turn it over to Bābor Pādeshāh, and then return to the world-commanding
royal court. Bābor Pādeshāh and the Qezelbāsh officers kissed the royal foot
and, after arranging provisions for the journey to Hendustān, they set off for
that land.
After they left, Shāh Esmāʿil turned over the government of Harāt province
to Amir Khān Torkmān, at the same time naming him tutor to Shāh Ṭahmāsp.
He then appointed regional and city governors for Khorāsān. Finally he left
Harāt for ʿErāq. When he reached Qazvin, he received word that Shaykh Shāh,
the son of Farrokhyasār (who had been on the run from the world-conquering
royal sword for eighteen years), was living in the forests on the Caspian Sea. He
had recently raised a small army and made a surprise entry into Shirvān, expel-
ling the governor and seizing the province for himself. When he heard this
news, Shāh Esmāʿil decided to go to Shirvān.
Just then, however, word arrived from Qarābāgh that Manuchehr Khān and
Alvand Khān, the kings of Bāsh Āchuq, Kārtil, Zagam, and Kakhetia,3 had
made an alliance and plundered Qarābāgh, leaving the place in ruins. They had
planned to proceed to Ardabil, but when they learned that the Shāh had re-
turned from Khorāsān to Qazvin, they went back to their own country.
Upon hearing this news, His Majesty the Shadow of God dispatched Div
Solṭān and fifteen thousand troops to Georgia, while he himself headed off to
Shirvān.
In Kārtil, meanwhile, Manuchehr Khān learned that Div Solṭān was on the
move. He sent a messenger to inform Alvand Khān and Qorqoreh Khān of this.

2 Sic, probably for Lodi, i.e. the Lodi dynasty of India (or for Bahlul, the founder of that dynasty).
Bābor defeated Ebrāhim Lodi in 1526.
3 I.e., most of Georgia.
Shāh Esmāʿil Learns Of The Death Of Solṭān Salim 451

They, in turn, raised troops to come aid Manuchehr Khān. The three of them
then came together to sit and discuss the imminent arrival of Div Solṭān. Al-
vand Khān, as if possessed by demons, said, “I will summon Div Solṭān onto the
battlefield and, with this twenty-maund mace I have fashioned of silver, I will
knock him on the head so hard that both he and his horse will go limp!”
“Don’t you worry about Div Solṭān,” Qorqoreh Khān added, “for defeating
him is my job.”
Anyway, after some conversation and deliberation, they decided to make a
sneak attack on Div Solṭān’s encampment and raze it to the ground. Now one
of Div Solṭān’s spies was in the Georgian camp; he overheard this and brought
the news back to Div Solṭān, saying, “The Georgian kings will attack you in
three days.”
Div Solṭān and the Qezelbāsh had taken off their armor and were resting
when all of a sudden the Georgians appeared out of nowhere and attacked
them. Ten thousand Qezelbāsh held their ground and fought back. Div Solṭān
and his men grabbed their weapons and led an attack which killed a great
many Georgians. Then, in the midst of the battle, he cornered Manuchehr
Khān and knocked him writhing from his horse with one blow of his sword,
after which he chained him up and handed him over to a Qezelbāsh.
At that moment Alvand Khān came charging up, mace in hand, laying low
whomever he hit it with. He took aim at Div Solṭān, who stepped forward,
seized Alvand Khān’s wrist, and wrested the mace from his grip. Div Solṭān
then swung his sword at Alvand Khān’s head, but the Georgian jumped back-
wards and the sword hit his horse, sending it tumbling to the ground along
with its rider. The Georgians then came charging ahead and pulled Alvand
Khān off the battlefield. They had been defeated, with two thousand dead. Al-
vand Khān and Qorqoreh Khān gathered their men and retreated with a thou-
sand afflictions.
Div Solṭān returned in triumph to his camp. He at once wrote a letter de-
scribing the capture of Manuchehr Khān and the flight of Alvand Khān and
Qorqoreh Khān and sent it to the royal court along with the heads of the de-
feated Georgians.
Div Solṭān then summoned Manuchehr Khān into his presence. When he
was brought, Div Solṭān rose to greet him, ordered him unbound, and seated
him on his own chair; he then knelt politely opposite him. Manuchehr Khān
was much pleased by the civility and manners of Div Solṭān and said to him-
self, “How amazingly chivalrous the Qezelbāsh are!” Then, after some conver-
sation with Div Solṭān, Manuchehr Khān asked about the blessed person of
His Majesty the Shadow of God, and Div Solṭān described some of his pure and
praiseworthy qualities. This was sufficient to bring Manuchehr Khān around to
452 Chapter 54

the right and true path, and he turned away from infidelity and chose Islam.
Div Solṭān wrote a letter to the Shāh describing this. When the letter passed
under the Shāh’s alchemical gaze in Qarābāgh, he commanded that Div Solṭān
bring Manuchehr Khān to his royal court.
When Div Solṭān and Manuchehr Khān arrived at court, they kissed the
royal foot, and the Shāh presented Manuchehr Khān with a robe of honor and
a Qezelbāsh tāj and turban. His Majesty then granted him governorship over
all of Georgia. A few days later, he gave Manuchehr Khān permission to leave,
having himself decided to go to Shirvān. Manuchehr Khān said, “Give Div
Solṭān permission to come with this slave to Georgia, for I cannot go there
alone at this time.”
So Shāh Esmāʿil sent both Manuchehr Khān and Div Solṭān to Georgia with
some troops.
Since winter was approaching, His Majesty made camp in Qarābāgh and
postponed his departure for Shirvān until the first day of spring. In the mean-
time, Manuchehr Khān and Div Solṭān went to Tbilisi.
Meanwhile, Qorqoreh Khān had raised twenty thousand Georgian horse-
men and eighteen thousand infantrymen, and he brought them to Tbilisi. This
army was approaching the citadel when Div Solṭān got word of it. He sallied
forth with his own troops, and a great battle ensued. Seven thousand Geor-
gians were killed, and Qorqoreh Khān was wounded and fled; the remaining
soldiers beat a retreat to their own country.
Div Solṭān had been in Tbilisi for a month when a message arrived saying
that his household, which had been in Balkh before being taken to Kābol by
Moḥammadi Khān the son of ʿAli Shokr Khān, had now been sent to Qarābāgh
by Bābor Pādeshāh.
Since Div Solṭān wished to see his sons, Manuchehr Khān gave him permis-
sion to leave. When Div Solṭān arrived at the royal court, the Shāh asked him
why he had come.
Div Solṭān explained the reason for his coming, and the Shāh released him
to go home.
Now when Div Solṭān left Tbilisi for Qarābāgh, Alvand Khān wanted to find
a way to trick Manuchehr Khān. He thus sent someone to him to say: “You used
to be a sensible man; how is it that you have sworn allegiance to Shaykh-oghli
and become a Muslim? I, for one, will not abandon my faith. But it would not
be a bad thing if you were to write a petition on our behalf to Shaykh-oghli ask-
ing him to forgive our fault and give us back our country.”
Manuchehr Khān wrote in reply: “If Alvand Khān wants us to present a peti-
tion on his behalf to His Majesty the Shadow of God, he must come here so we
can discuss it in each other’s presence.”
Shāh Esmāʿil Learns Of The Death Of Solṭān Salim 453

When this reply reached Alvand Khān, he gathered his troops and set off.
When he reached the citadel of Tbilisi, Manuchehr Khān came out to welcome
him with respect. Then they went into the citadel to converse. As food was be-
ing served in the assembly, Alvand Khān gave a signal, and his men pounced on
Manuchehr Khān and tied him up. Alvand Khān was about to tell his men that
they should kill Manuchehr Khān when the priests said, “If you kill Manuchehr
Khān, Shaykh-oghli will massacre the whole country of Georgia! Command
that he be bound and kept in prison, and let us see what happens.”
So Alvand Khān clapped Manuchehr Khān in chains and took over the land
of Kārtil, settling into the citadel of Tbilisi.
When word of this reached Shāh Esmāʿil, His Majesty told Div Solṭān, “You
must seize Alvand Khān and bring him to the royal court. I will not forgive you
if he escapes or does not come.”
Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot and set off for Tbilisi at the head of an army.
When Alvand Khān was told that he was coming, he picked up his belongings
and fled from the citadel, fearing the blows of Div Solṭān’s sword.
Div Solṭān arrived in Tbilisi and found the citadel empty. He appointed a
porter4 and sent a report to Shāh Esmāʿil. Then he set off with his troops in
pursuit of Alvand Khān.
When Alvand Khān reached Zagam,5 he sent his wives, as well as
Manuchehr Khān’s harem, to the fortress of Qarlānqush, himself heading for
Mount Elbrus,6 where he set up camp. Div Solṭān, in hot pursuit, arrived at the
foot of the mountain and was intending to storm it when Alvand sent someone
to say, “We have left Georgia to you and taken refuge here. What else do you
want from us?”
“I want Manuchehr Khān from you,” wrote Div Solṭān in reply.
The messenger took this message back, and Alvand Khān returned
Manuchehr Khān to Div Solṭān. Div Solṭān then said, “I want the Khān’s house-
hold as well.” These were returned, too. Then Div Solṭān said to Manuchehr
Khān, “Take your household and go to Tbilisi now; I’m not leaving until I have
Alvand Khān in hand.”
Manuchehr Khān gathered his household and went to Tbilisi. When he
reached the foot of the fortress, a Georgian named Dāvod, the porter of the
fortress, came out to greet him and led him and his family inside. There he

4 kutvāl
5 There are three references to this place in this chapter. For each, the text has “Tarkam,” which
is likely a misreading of Zagam.
6 The text simply has Alborz. I have chosen to interpret this as Mount Elbrus due to that moun-
tain’s proximity to Georgia.
454 Chapter 54

handed over the treasury and put on the belt of submission. Manuchehr Khān
left his family there and went out to raise an army to aid Div Solṭān.
When he arrived back at the mountain, Div Solṭān had mounted an attack
and started a big battle, killing many men. Div Solṭān reached the top of the
mountain and fought his way to Alvand Khān. Cornered, Alvand Khān came
up and aimed a sword-blow at Div Solṭān, who ran forward, grabbed Alvand
Khān’s wrist, and tore the sword from his hand. Div Solṭān then tied up Alvand
Khān and handed him over to a Qezelbāsh, after which he returned to the
fighting and inflicted defeat on the Georgians, who scattered in retreat.
Div Solṭān now brought the captive Alvand Khān to the court of the Shāh,
where he kissed the royal foot. Shāh Esmāʿil treated Alvand Khān well for some
time, then released him with a royal robe of honor and sent him back to Za-
gam.
Hearing about the kindness meted out to Alvand Khān, Qorqoreh Khān, too,
went to the royal court. He was also treated with affection and sent back to
Bāsh Āchuq with a robe of honor.
Shāh Esmāʿil then packed up and left for Shirvān. When he reached the river
Kura, people brought word to Shaykh Shāh that the royal retinue was on the
way. He consulted with his nobles, who said, “Today, Shaykh-oghli is the Caliph
and the guide on the path of the true faith. Anyone who quarrels with him,
quarrels with his own fortune and well-being. You must welcome him and
obey him.”
Shaykh Shāh thus gathered his nobles and went to the Shāh’s world-shelter-
ing court with his sword hanging from his neck. When he had kissed the royal
foot, His Majesty said to him, “It had occurred to me that if Shaykh Shāh were
to come as a supplicant to my court, I would not exclude him from this house,
but would elevate him to high rank.”
Shaykh Shāh replied, “Since His Majesty is going to elevate this slave to high
rank, I have an offering he must accept.”
“I accept your offering,” said Shāh Esmāʿil. Tell me what it is.”
“This slave has a daughter whom I have vowed to the Perfect Guide as a
slave-girl and bride.”
The Shāh agreed to this. Shaykh Shāh then spoke again, saying, “I beseech
the Perfect Guide to command that the expenses of the wedding come out of
my own pocket.”
“You have been living in the forest for some time,” replied Shāh Esmāʿil, “so
you clearly have nothing.”
Shaykh Shāh said, “I have some buried treasure which I have vowed to use
for this wedding.”
Shāh Esmāʿil Learns Of The Death Of Solṭān Salim 455

In the end, Shaykh Shāh did pay for the wedding expenses. He betrothed his
daughter to the Shāh, and they busied themselves with leisure and merriment.
Two months later, Manuchehr Khān wrote to the Shāh saying, “Alvand Khān
has betrayed me and even harbors the intention of killing me. I am writing out
of necessity.”
His Majesty said, “I had thought that I should massacre Alvand Khān and
the whole Georgian army, but I forgave his transgressions out of generosity and
released him. Now he is back to his churlish ways again. That infidel just won’t
stop trying. Since my glorious ancestor Seyyed Ṣāleḥ was killed by Bagrāt
Khān,7 it is now time to take revenge for the blood of that martyr from these
pagans.” So the Shāh left Shirvān for Zagam, where he ordered a general mas-
sacre of the Georgians. Alvand Khān escaped and made for Bāsh Āchuq. His
Majesty, having exterminated the Georgian army, was now reassured about
that frontier, and he headed off for Solṭāniyeh.

7 I.e., the ancestor of Alvand Khān. See Chapter 3.

456 Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Jāni Beg Solṭān the Uzbek Comes to Balkh and Fights Kopek Solṭān, and the
Uzbek Army is Defeated; ʿObayd Khān Comes to Harāt and Returns
Without Having Attained His Goal; Amir Khān Torkmān, the Governor of
Harāt, Kills Amir Moḥammad and is Deposed; His Majesty Sends Durmesh
Khān to Fight in Harāt

False rumors from ʿErāq had reached Jāni Beg Solṭān and ʿObayd Khān in
Torkestān, so Jāni Beg Solṭān conceived a desire to possess Balkh. He went
around raising an army and set off for Balkh, where Kopek Solṭān got wind of
it. He gathered six thousand troops and went to the Oxus to give Jāni Beg Solṭān
a proper welcome. When Jāni Beg Solṭān arrived with his twenty thousand Uz-
beks, a great battle broke out between the two armies. The Qezelbāsh inflicted
a defeat on the Uzbeks, killing nearly twelve thousand of them, and Jāni Beg
Solṭān fled in the direction of Oṭrār. Afterwards, Kopek Solṭān took his victori-
ous Qezelbāsh troops back to Balkh.
Now when ʿObayd Khān heard that Jāni Beg Solṭān had gone to Balkh, he
gathered his own army and headed for Harāt. There, Amir Khān Torkmān shut
the main gate fast and turned the other gates over to his confidants, entrusting
the Khosh gate1 to Amir Moḥammad, the son of Amir Yusof and ṣadr of
Harāt. The reason for this was that when Amir Moḥammad was Shāh Ṭahmasp’s
physician and teacher, he had given a large bribe to Amir Khān, saying the po-
sition of chief religious official should be given to him. But the minister Mirzā
Shāh Ḥosayn had a past record of service to Amir Moḥammad’s father Amir
Yusof, so the position was granted to him.2 Now, during the siege, that hap-
less seyyed said, “I am a man who pursues knowledge; I know nothing about
the conduct of war and siegecraft!” Amir Khān just said, “You have to hold this
gate, along with the other local leaders.”
Then that poor seyyed, not knowing what else to do, sought out the local
Shiʿi leaders and said, “O friends, stand by me and come to my aid, for this Turk
has a longstanding enmity towards me and holds a grudge.” None of them
would have failed to help Amir Moḥammad.
When ʿObayd Khān arrived at the foot of the citadel, he asked who was hold-
ing the four gates of the city. People explained everything to him. When he
heard that Amir Moḥammad, the chief religious official, was in charge of the

1 The eastern gate of Harāt is the Kushk or Khushk Gate.

2 This section of the text seems confused.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_056

Jāni Beg Solṭān The Uzbek Comes To Balkh And Fights Kopek Solṭān 457

Khosh gate, he was delighted, and he said, “Attack the Khosh gate!” The Uzbeks
hurled themselves against the gate and fought hard.
They had begun to make headway when that luckless seyyed, feeling him-
self cornered, struck his head on the inside of the gate, saying, “O ʿAli, Friend of
God, do not let the Sunnis say that this seyyed colluded with ʿObayd Khān and
handed over the citadel to the Uzbeks without a care. Since Shāh Ṭahmāsp is
within the citadel, if the Uzbeks (God forbid!) capture it, they will kill him in
revenge for the blood of Shāhi Beg Khān.” Then he said to his companions, “O
friends, show manliness today to please God and to avoid shame.” The people
of the city, too, gave a cry of valor. Briefly put, they fought so hard that they
killed four thousand Uzbeks and drove them back from the gate.
ʿObayd Khān said, “If we cannot take one gate from a seyyed, how are we
going to fight Amir Khān tomorrow?” And that very night he packed up and
headed back to Torkestān.
Amir Khān wanted to ruin that poor seyyed, but at that time it was not pos-
sible. He was thinking about it when two Sunnis said to Amir Khān and the
tutor of the prince, “You must forge a letter with the seal and signature of
Seyyed [sc. Amir] Moḥammad, with a message on the overleaf from ʿObayd
Khān. Make it look like Seyyed Moḥammad wrote, ‘On such-and-such a night I
will open the gate to you, and you will come out of hiding and enter the city.’ If
you can do this, you can have him executed.”
In the end, Amir Khān was fooled, and after having the forgery produced, he
took it and summoned Seyyed Moḥammad, saying, “Why did you send such a
letter to ʿObayd Khān?” He ordered that hapless seyyed seized and thrown in
prison, and that night they strangled him. The next day, though, Amir Khān
regretted what he had done, and he did not concern himself with Seyyed
Moḥammad’s property anymore.
Seyyed Moḥammad’s sons and the people of Harāt, though, wrote a detailed
report of what had happened and sent it to the royal minister Mirzā Shāh
Ḥosayn. When he learned about the event, he was greatly upset and disturbed.
He went to His Majesty the Shāh and told him about it.
“You are the fortunate Pādeshāh and propagator of the Twelver Shiʿi sect,”
he said. “The faithless Amir Khān Torkmān has executed the chief Twelver Shiʿi
of Harāt for no apparent reason. You must summon him and determine the
facts. If Seyyed Moḥammad did commit a wrong, then he was imprisoned just-
ly as punishment for his deed, and if not, you must command that, by the judg-
ment of God and the Prophet, Amir Khān is to be handed over to the sons of
Seyyed Moḥammad and killed as a lesson to the other slaves of the royal court.”
He added, “You must entrust the region of Harāt to an experienced man who
will protect the people there from the attacks of the Uzbeks.”
458 Chapter 55

“I will entrust it to whomever you recommend,” said Shāh Esmāʿil.

The Mirzā replied, “Durmesh Khān is a man among men; his chivalry is well-
known. But it is up to His Majesty.”
Shāh Esmāʿil thus bestowed the governorship of Harāt on Durmesh Khān,
also naming him tutor to Shāh Ṭahmāsp. Durmesh Khān kissed the royal foot
and was dismissed with orders to go bring Amir Khān to the royal court. Mirzā
Shāh Ḥosayn recommended to Durmesh Khān that he should raise a force of
three hundred Shāmlu Qezelbāsh when he got to Mashhad, then march and
seize Amir Khān before he got wind of it, with the rest of the army bringing up
the rear. Durmesh Khān then bade Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn farewell, gathered his
men, and headed off to Harāt.
Durmesh Khān Comes To Harāt 459

Chapter 56

Durmesh Khān Comes to Harāt, Seizes Amir Khān Torkmān, and Sends
Him to the Royal Court, Then Settles Down to Rule the City

Amir Khān regretted having killed Seyyed Moḥammad, so he summoned his

astrologers and asked them what his horoscope showed in the way of good and
bad fortune. They told him, “You will be dismissed from office and sent to His
Majesty the Shāh.”
Amir Khān thought to himself, then said, “I’d better take the prince and go
to Ghuriyān.”1 Now the Shiʿis and people of Harāt knew he was thinking this,
so they wrote and sent a letter to the Shāh describing Amir Khān’s flight and
abduction of the prince.
The runner carrying this message had gone two days’ journey from Harāt
when he met up with Durmesh Khān and gave it to him. Durmesh Khān read
what it said and set off with his men in the direction of Ghuriyān. When they
got there, Durmesh Khān went to meet Amir Khān; he kissed the prince’s royal
feet, then said to Amir Khān, “The Shāh says that the heinousness of that Sunni
seyyed’s deeds was obvious to him, and His Majesty has sent you a robe of
honor for having him executed.”
Amir Khān was pleased at this development, and he returned from Ghuriyān
to Harāt together with Durmesh Khān and the prince. When they entered the
city and reached the Chārsu Bazaar, Durmesh Khān ordered that the Shāh’s
edict be read out.
It read as follows: “We grant the governorship of Harāt and the status of tu-
tor to Shāh Ṭahmāsp to Durmesh Khān, and we order him to seize Amir Khān
Torkmān, clap him in chains, and send him with Zaynal Khān to our royal
court as a prisoner.”
Zaynal Khān then took Amir Khān and left Harāt for the court of the world-
conquering Shāh. When they arrived at Sāvojbolāgh and kissed the threshold
of the court to which all Creation bows, news that they had come with Amir
Khān in tow was brought to the attention of His Majesty, who said, “Do not let
them bring him into my sight, lest I kill him over the death of that poor seyyed
myself!” Then he commanded that Amir Khān be taken to Qazvin and thrown
in prison.

1 See Chapter 23 for this city.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_057

460 Chapter 56

Zaynal Khān thus sent Amir Khān to Qazvin, and some time later His Maj-
esty left Sāvojbolāgh and went to Qazvin as well. After arriving there, he re-
mained for three months.
Amir Khān, in the meantime, realized that the Shāh was not going to call for
him. One day he sneaked out of his confinement and made his way to the Che-
hel Sotun palace of Qazvin, where His Majesty just happened to be that day.
When Shāh Esmāʿil’s eye fell upon Amir Khān, he turned his face away. Amir
Khān said, “I killed Seyyed Moḥammad because of a letter he had written to
ʿObayd Khān.” He then produced the letter he had forged and showed it to His
Majesty.
As the Shāh examined the letter, compassion for Amir Khān crept into his
mind, and he decided to pardon him. Turning to Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn, he said,
“We wrongly deposed Amir Khān based on what you told us. He has got a letter
with the seal and signature of Seyyed Moḥammad, which the seyyed wrote to
ʿObayd Khān offering to give up the citadel.”
Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn replied, “Amir Khān and I are going to curse each other.
If that letter was truly signed and sealed by Seyyed Moḥammad and Amir Khān
killed him justly, then may the holy Commander of the Faithful be an enemy to
me! And if Amir Khān forged it unbeknownst to Seyyed Moḥammad, then may
the holy Commander of the Faithful become his enemy this very day!”
“God willing, may it be so!” said Amir Khān, accepting the challenge. Imme-
diately he was struck with unbearable pain in his abdomen and fell to the
ground. They took him home, and he died that very evening. Shāh Esmāʿil real-
ized that Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn had been in the right.
The royal groom Shāhqoli then said to himself, “This peasant of a Mirzā has
belittled and humiliated the Torkmāns in the eyes of His Majesty. God willing,
I will kill him.” All the Torkmāns of Iran swore fealty to Shāhqoli and took him
as their leader, intending to make him the elder of their community.
Shortly thereafter, Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn said to the Shāh, “Since the Torkmāns
have no elder, give that office to Amir Khān’s son Kadāʾi Khān. This would be in
keeping with the Perfect Guide’s generosity.”
“That man is ignorant,” replied Shāh Esmāʿil, “and has not reached the stage
where he could be an elder.”
When His Majesty spoke this way, Shāhqoli thought that it was the Mirzā
who had put him up to it, and the enmity of the Torkmāns toward the Mirzā
grew even stronger. But Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn felt no hostility or enmity toward
anyone, least of all the Torkmāns.
Shāhqoli called the Torkmāns together and told them that Mirzā Shāh
Ḥosayn had engaged in much cheating and embezzlement of the royal financ-
es, and that he had to be brought to account. The Mirzā heard about this, and
Durmesh Khān Comes To Harāt 461

he wrote a report of his expenditures and brought it to the Shāh, saying, “This
slave gave the sum of fifty thousand tumāns from the royal treasury to the peo-
ple, and I have the documentation right here.”
Shāh Esmāʿil said, “I am granting you complete discretion over the royal
funds,” and he gave him one of his own royal robes of honor as he dismissed
him. Shāhqoli realized that in these matters he could not lay a finger on the
Mirzā.
Then the Mirzā decided to rouse Shāhqoli a little. He said to Shāh Esmāʿil,
“Shāhqoli has been master of the royal stirrup for twelve years. We should
check his finances.”
“The accounting of royal finances is done by you, O minister,” His Majesty
replied. “There is no need to tell me about it.”
Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn then ordered an audit of Shāhqoli’s expenses. When this
was done, it was discovered that Shāhqoli had a deficit of seventeen thousand
tumāns in cash and kind. The Mirzā reported this to the Shāh, who appointed
an officer to beat the money out of Shāhqoli with a stick and turn it over to the
royal treasurer. The officer took Shāhqoli outside and was tying him to a tree
when Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn came out of the palace on his way home. Seeing the
Mirzā, Qoli cried, “O Mirzā, help!”
The Mirzā turned to Shāhqoli and said, “I swear to God that I have done no
wrong, but you have. Now that you are in need of help, though, I am going to
give you this gift of good will.” He paid off Shāhqoli’s debt out of his own funds,
giving it in cash and kind to the collector himself. He then gathered up Shāhqoli
and brought him to his home, saying, “Don’t worry; I will tell His Majesty every-
thing and get him to reinstate you as master of the royal stirrup.”
Shāhqoli heaped blessings on the Mirzā and left his house to go to his own.
He then said to the Torkmān elders, “This peasant is afraid of us—that’s why
he paid us that kind of tribute money.”
The Mirzā heard about this and said, “This groom is certainly rough around
the edges. If I did such a thing as he says, no one would talk about it so. My
enemies have said it out of envy; it wasn’t him.”
The next day the Mirzā took Shāhqoli and brought him to Shāh Esmāʿil, say-
ing, “Your groom has paid back his debts like a man. Now I beseech you to give
him his position back.” This the Shāh did, and Shāhqoli kissed his royal feet.
Afterwards, Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn said to Shāhqoli, “From now on, don’t be-
lieve rumors.”
Shāhqoli said to himself, “This peasant has put me in a big debt of gratitude;
perhaps I shouldn’t kill him.” The following afternoon, though, Shāhqoli was
knocked off the path of virtue by Satan, for when he saw the Mirzā, he went up
behind him and stabbed him in the back so hard that the blade came out his
462 Chapter 56

chest. As he did, he cried, “The Perfect Guide ordered me to kill this traitor!”
The Torkmāns then swarmed around the Mirzā and tore him to pieces.
Shāhqoli rued his action, realizing that His Majesty the Shāh would kill him
in revenge for the blood of the Mirzā. He went home, gathered some jewels
and gold coins, and rode off toward Gilān. When he reached the shore of the
Caspian Sea, he boarded a boat going to Shirvān.
When Shāh Esmāʿil learned that Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn had been murdered, he
said, “If the Qezelbāsh do not catch Shāhqoli, don’t let them show their faces at
court—they will be no Ṣufis to me!” Thereupon a group of Qezelbāsh mounted
their horses and rode off to all ends of the realm. They could not find Shāhqoli,
though, so they came back. His Majesty then ordered that Shāhqoli’s wives and
sons be stripped naked and turned out of their house, and that his money be
given to the sons of Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn.
Meanwhile, in Shirvān, Shāhqoli went to the court of Shaykh Shāh, hoping
that he would intercede for him with Shāh Esmāʿil. When he got there and
Shaykh Shāh learned of the shameful deed he had committed, though, that
ruler cursed him and sent him back to Shāh Esmāʿil with chains around his
neck.
When Shaykh Shāh’s man delivered Shāhqoli, Shāh Esmāʿil ordered that he
be executed by the sons of Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn. Afterward, he was thinking of
appointing the Mirzā’s eldest son to his father’s position, but that boy said,
“This slave cannot carry out the duties of this office, because if I confiscate
funds and take the side of the servants of His Majesty, the Qezelbāsh will be-
come my enemy and things like this will happen. But if I leave the public funds
alone and take the side of the Qezelbāsh, I will be unfaithful to my royal pa-
tron. I have a small piece of bread set aside to give as alms in the name of His
Majesty, and I will busy myself with prayers for his royal person.”
Shāh Esmāʿil therefore bestowed the office of finance minister upon
Khwājeh Jalāloddin Jahānshāhi. After that, he left Solṭāniyeh in pomp and glo-
ry and headed to Shirvān, intending to do some hunting there.
When the royal camp reached Shirvān, Shaykh Shāh came out to welcome
His Majesty and kissed the royal foot. The Shāh entered Shirvān and said, “I
want to go hunting. Shaykh Shāh therefore appointed someone to round up a
great many people and prepare a great hunt. This was done, and someone
brought the news to Shaykh Shāh, who passed it on to Shāh Esmāʿil. His Maj-
esty announced his intention to go out to the hunting-ground the next morn-
ing.
That very night, though, the Shāh had a dream in which he saw his father
Solṭān Ḥaydar saying, “O my son, come to us, for we are awaiting your arrival.”
Upon waking up, Shāh Esmāʿil put on a white garment and spent the rest of
Durmesh Khān Comes To Harāt 463

that night engaged in fervent prayer and lamentation. In the morning, he left
his chambers wearing the same white garment and went to his royal tent to
rest.
When his great commanders entered and saw him dressed thus, they asked
the reason for it, and His Majesty told them, “I was commanded to do so in my
dream. Clearly, my journey to the afterlife is nigh, and the hunt will have to be
cancelled.” He told someone to go dismiss the hunters and prepare for the jour-
ney to Ardabil. They then left Shirvān.
Shāh Esmāʿil said to Olmeh Solṭān, “Run to Harāt and quickly bring back
Shāh Ṭahmāsp to our world-sheltering royal court.” Olmeh Solṭān kissed the
royal foot and hurried off to Harāt, bringing Shāh Ṭahmāsp to the royal court
before Shāh Esmāʿil had even entered Ardabil.
Shāh Ṭahmāsp approached his father and had just kissed the royal foot
when His Majesty burst into tears and drew the boy affectionately to his breast.
The Qezelbāsh officers asked, “What is the reason for this weeping, which has
left us drained of strength?”
Shāh Esmāʿil replied, “I emerged from Gilān to aid the Immaculate Emāms
when I was fourteen2 years old. I have conquered from the border with China
to the border with Aleppo and the shore of the river Darnā; I have killed men
such as ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhulqadr, with his ancient majesty, and Shāhi Beg Khān,
ruler of all Torkestān. Now I fear that all my toil and trouble will have been in
vain, that this boy here will not be able to carry on as ruler of Iran. Those obsti-
nate ones who have fled from my sword into mountains and caves will come
out of hiding to make trouble for the Qezelbāsh when I am gone. Even though
my trust is in the hand of my lord the Hand of God and holy Commander of the
Faithful, as well as the Immaculate Emāms, I see no man among the Qezelbāsh
who can be Shāh Ṭahmāsp’s deputy and maintain the well-being of the faith
and the state.”
He spoke thus for a while, then cursed Shāhqoli and said, “If Mirzā Shāh
Ḥosayn had been alive now, nothing would have bothered me, for he was the
genuine article, faithful and true, and all the time he served me as my minister,
he never did a single thing I found odious. Now, though, however much I think
about it, I see no Qezelbāsh suitable for the role of deputy other than Div
Solṭān.”
Then he said to Div Solṭān, “I am making you deputy of my son Shāh
Ṭahmāsp. You must serve with unconditional authority for seven years, during
which time all the commanders and Ṣufis of the Qezelbāsh will obey your com-
mands and prohibitions, on the condition that you show them kindness and

2 In fact, twelve.
464 Chapter 56

affection and not upset them. When my son reaches the age of eighteen, you
will no longer give orders on his behalf, but will advise him well and turn au-
thority over to him.”
Div Solṭān kissed the royal foot in gratitude and acceptance. Shāh Esmāʿil
then turned to the Qezelbāsh commanders and soldiers and said, “The way of
the Ṣufi means abandoning discord and practicing unity. The enemy cannot
attack from all four directions at once, and as long as you have unity, no king
can even think of fighting the Qezelbāsh, for they have all come to fear you.” He
gave much more such advice to his officers and the Qezelbāsh.
His Majesty then came down with a mild fever, which worsened over the
next two or three days to the point where he had to perform his prayers sitting
down and his officers had to assist him. His Majesty then said, “I will be your
guest for three more days, for the holy Commander of the Faithful has told me
in a dream, ‘Place Shāh Ṭahmāsp on the throne and make him your successor,
for among my sons no one shall be worthy of rule except him.’”
Then Shāh Esmāʿil summoned all the commanders and elders of the ever-
victorious Qezelbāsh army and placed the crown on the head of Shāh Ṭahmāsp;
with his own blessed hands he fastened the boy’s belt and attached the sword
of the Master of the Command to it. Then he whispered admonitions into his
ear and pronounced the khoṭbeh in his name. By the third day, the Shāh was
suffering greatly, and he bade farewell to all his commanders, telling them to go
outside and leave him alone.
The commanders left, and His Majesty said to Shāh Ṭahmāsp, “O my son,
you leave too.”
“I cannot leave you alone now,” the boy replied.
At that moment Shāh Esmāʿil lost consciousness and collapsed. Shāh
Ṭahmāsp approached his great father and saw that he had commended his
soul to the Creator and flown off to highest heaven.3

For we belong to God and to God we shall return.4

Shāh Ṭahmāsp wept and tore his collar. He had just thrown his royal crown on
the ground when Div Solṭān and the other commanders learned of this heart-
burning and frightful event. They threw their own tājes on the ground and tore
their collars, heaping dust on their heads. So much consternation broke out in
the Qezelbāsh ranks that it was as if that day was Doomsday itself.

3 Shāh Esmāʿil died the night of 19 Rajab 930/23 May 1524.

4 Qorʾān 2:156.
Durmesh Khān Comes To Harāt 465

Later, the chief of the religious scholars washed and perfumed His Majesty’s
blessed body and took it to Ardabil, where they buried it in the vicinity of the
tomb of his great ancestor Shaykh Ṣafioddin Esḥāq and immersed it in the Di-
vine mercy.

The ruins of the world were a torment to him;

He hid himself in the ground like a treasure.5

His noble life had lasted thirty-eight years, and his reign lasted twenty-four
years. He led his life among both nobles and the downtrodden on the path of
justice and compassion. Out of fear of Shāh Esmāʿil, none of his soldiers
opened the doors of oppression and deceit to the people. The regions con-
quered by the lords of victory in the days of the rule of His Majesty were all of
Persian ʿErāq, all of Khorāsān up to the Oxus, Fārs, Kermān, Khuzestān,
Ḥovayzeh, and—at some times—all the realm of Diyārbakr; these were all
added to the original territory of Ādharbāyjān. On the battlefield, His Majesty
was a dagger-wielding lion, and at the banquet-table he was a jewel-raining
cloud. He was so liberal that gemstones and plain rocks were equivalent in his
eyes. In all his battles he was out in front, leading the Qezelbāsh. He was never
wounded in battle, for he was under the care and protection of the Lord of
beneficence. Most of the time there was not even one dinar in the royal trea-
sury, because he had given it all away. His Majesty was completely given over to
hunting birds and all sorts of prey, especially lions that had been selected espe-
cially for him. During his reign, he fought and won five or six great battles with
other kings:
The first with Farrokhyasār, king of Shirvān, in Chubāni. The second with
Alvand, king of Nakhchevān. The third with Solṭān Morād in ʿAli Bulāqi in
Hamadān. The fourth with Shāhi Beg Khān in Marv. The fifth with Solṭān Sa-
lim, the Ottoman emperor, at Chālderān. The sixth with ʿAlāʾoddawleh Dhul-
qadr on the shore of the river Darnā. Other battles took place with the kings of
Torkestān and others, as described in these pages.
Shāh Esmāʿil had four male children. The first was Shāh Ṭahmāsp, the Shad-
ow of God. The second was Sām Mirzā. The third was Āqāsi Mirzā.6 The
fourth was Alqās Mirzā, who is also called Abulfatḥ and Bahrām. His Majesty
also had five daughters. The first was Khānsetti Begom. The second was

5 Beginning with this verse, most of what follows is copied from Aḥsan al-tavārikh (cf. Rumlu,
1133–36).
6 Here the scribe seems to have gotten confused while copying from another manuscript. “Āqāsi
Mirzā” is clearly a misreading of Alqās Mirzā, while the next name on the list should read
“Abulfatḥ Bahrām Mirzā” (Rumlu, 1134).
466 Chapter 56

Parikhān Khānom. The third was Mohandes Bānu Begom. The fourth was Far-
angis Begom. The fifth was Shāh Zaynab Khānom.7
Those who died this year and passed from the abode of annihilation to the
abode of permanence include, especially, the world-conquering inhabitor of
the highest realm.8 The second was Qāsem Khān, the lord of the steppe and
the Qepchāq and Baghlān regions and descendant of Changiz Khān. After
Qāsem Khān, Ḥaqq Naẓar Khān became ruler of the Qepchāq steppe in the
place of his father. The third was Shaykh Shāh, son of Farrokhyasār, after whom
Solṭān Khalil, in accordance with the command of Shāh Ṭahmāsp, took his
place on the throne of rule in Shirvān. Khwājeh Jalāloddin, who was elevated
to the post of minister of finance after Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn, wrote the following
verse describing his sadness over the Mirzā’s absence:

O my light that dazzles the eyes of the world,

You have gone, and what a black night my day has become.

After the death of Shāh Esmāʿil and the auspicious accession of Shāh Ṭahmāsp,
the Khwājeh was named to the same post, but his relationship with Div Solṭān
was corrupted by the words of seditious gossipers, and finally it ended up that
the Khwājeh was cast into a fire and burned to death. That is when he recited
this verse pertinent to his situation:

I bought a house on Calamity Street, and it caught fire;

Anyone who buys a house on that street gets this.

That is to say, they burned the Khwājeh. Anyway, after the terrible event involv-
ing Shāh Esmāʿil in the year 930/1524, His Majesty the world-ruling One Sup-
ported by God, Shāh Ṭahmāsp al-Ṣafavi al-Musavi al-Ḥosayni Bahādor Khān, the
Shadow of God on the Two Worlds9 took the throne in an auspicious coronation,
and the inhabitants of the world were filled with fresh joy and immeasurable
happiness. God Almighty willing, he will be protected from the gaze of the
wicked by the Lord of Beneficence.
By order of the title-page of the album of humanity and concluding verse of
the ode of ability, sun of the sky of faithful trust and luminous full moon of the
heavens of munificent liberality, fresh sapling of the meadow of kindness,

7 Rumlu lists Esmāʿil’s daughters’ names as follows: Khānesh Khānom, Parikhān Khānom,
Mahin Bānu Solṭānom, Farangis [Khānom], and Shāh Zaynab Khānom (Rumlu, 1134).
8 Meaning Shāh Esmāʿil.
9 Montaẓer Ṣāḥeb says (p. 626) that in his manuscript, the text in italics is in thuluth script and
has a red line drawn over it.
Durmesh Khān Comes To Harāt 467

swaying cypress of chivalry, possessor of understanding and discernment,

bearer of subtlety and acuity, rose of the garden of Moṣṭafā and cypress of the
riverbank of Mortazā, fifth exalted issue of the holy Family of the Cloak, I mean
the noble one of lofty rank and abode of glory and felicity like unto Mercury,
progeny of the most exalted seyyeds, Mirzā Ebrāhim the successor of the late
Mirzā Maʿṣum, who dwells in eternal peace—this noble history and elegant
text named ʿĀlamārā was scrawled by the broken pen of him whose feet are
blistered by the desert of grief and distress, who sits in the corner of the her-
mitage of concern and confusion, who hopes for the favor of the merciful God,
Ebn Moḥammad Jaʿfar Ḥasan al-Musavi, on the twentieth of Dhulqaʿdeh 1240.10
God willing, he will read it in the best way, by Moḥammad and his pure Family.

10 July 5, 1825.
468 Chapter 56
 Bibliography
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Index Index 473

Index

Abarqu 86, 108 ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb 24, 33, 34, 35, 42n, 47, 52, 58,
ʿAbbās (uncle of the prophet 77n, 79, 81, 87, 105, 129, 133, 134, 140, 141,
Moḥammad) 137, 140 142, 152, 168, 177, 178, 239, 245, 272, 273,
ʿAbbās I, Shāh 283, 336, 412n 293, 299, 301, 327, 335, 340, 342, 344,
Abdāl Beg 29, 136, 160 350, 355, 362, 379, 382, 392, 393, 400,
ʿAbdi Beg 201–203 431, 432, 437, 442, 450, 457, 460, 463,
ʿAbdollāh Khān 407, 412, 425, 438 464, 467
ʿAbdollāh Solṭān 234, 319, 320 ʿAlijān 222, 226, 227
ʿAbdolmoṭṭaleb (grandfather of the prophet ʿAlijān Solṭān 327
Moḥammad) 116 Allāhu Akbar pass 90
Āb-pāshān 283 Alp Ātāliq 364
Abu Bakr (Caliph) 387, 433 Alqāsp Mirzā 465n
Abu Ḥanifeh 135, 384, 386, 443 Alvand (Āq Qoyunlu) 44–46, 48, 49, 51–53,
Abulkhayr Khān (father of Shāhi Beg 55–57, 59–63, 125, 156, 465
Khān) 238 Alvand Div 283, 285, 286
Abulkhayr Khān (son of Qāsem Khān) 223, Alvand Khān 450–455
243, 247, 358–367, 373, 374, 381 Āmāsyeh 286, 375–379, 404–406, 414–418,
Abulmaʿṣum Khān 23, 25 424, 427, 431, 435, 440, 442, 447
Abu Saʿid 119, 199, 253 Amir Khosraw Shāh 208, 211
Abu Saʿid Khān 321–323, 328, 341 Amir Kiyā 31–35
Adham, Solṭān 3, 4 Amir Moḥammad (ṣadr of Harāt) 456, 457,
Ādharbāyjān 3, 45, 60, 156, 166, 239, 240, 459, 460
253, 264, 272, 274, 311n, 377, 382, 383, Amir Najm (Najm Zargar Rashti) 87, 96–98,
401, 406, 410, 413, 415, 416, 427, 428, 437, 100, 105, 114, 131, 241, 242
440, 443, 465 Amir Najm ii (Yār Aḥmad Khuzāni
ʿĀdi 277–278 Eṣfahāni) 242, 244–246, 263, 272, 287,
Afghans 450 290–300, 305–328, 330, 332, 336, 337,
Afrāsiyāb (legendary figure) 238 343, 344, 350–353, 357, 359
Afrāsiyāb (name of a hunting-ground) 223 Amir Yusof 456
Afsarandish Pāshā 405 Amir Zakariyā 107
Afshār (Qezelbāsh clan) 250 Anas, Solṭān (i.e. Ottoman emperor Bayezit
Afshār, Moḥammad Khān 250 I) 18, 19, 433
Afshār, Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā 391–393, 396 Anatolia, Anatolians 39, 56, 57, 60, 63–66,
Afshār, Valijān Solṭān 307, 326 149, 150, 164, 167, 187, 190, 191, 194, 195,
Aḥmad Solṭān 170 231, 261, 272, 273, 287, 288, 373–377,
Akbar (Mughal emperor) 369n 379–381, 383, 384, 387, 388, 390–401,
Akhi Solṭān 266–269, 392, 396 403–406, 415, 417–422, 424, 427–429,
ʿalamdār-bāshi 266, 267 431, 433–437, 441–443, 447
ʿĀlamshāh Begom 24, 26, 30, 31, 42, 43 Andijān 17, 199, 204, 205, 219, 225, 353
Alamut 100 Āqā Aḥmad 335
Alborz, Mount 48, 326 Āqā Moḥammad (governor of Fāryāb) 335
Aleppo 150, 184, 239, 418–421, 434, 437, 440, Āqā Moḥammad (son of Āqā Rostam) 286
463 Āqā Rostam 260, 261, 282–286, 290, 359
Alexander 116, 276 Āq Jirān 358

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004383531_059

474
Āq Qoyunlu 44, 87, 89, 151
Arabs 39, 40, 143–148, 252, 420, 421, 423, 429,
432–440
Arabia 239
Aras River 23, 46, 47
Ardabil 3–5, 7, 9, 10, 14, 19, 20, 22–24, 26,
28–32, 42, 43, 45, 51, 135, 273, 274, 350,
355–357, 433, 443, 450, 463, 465
Ardabili, Mawlānā Aḥmad 53, 67
Ardavān Shāh 411–414
Arghun, Amir Dhunnun 208, 210–215,
218–220, 227, 230–234, 246
Arslān (brother of Ardavān Shāh) 414
Arzenjān 183, 187–189
Asafzār 213, 214
Astarābād 207–210, 212, 227, 235, 239, 240,
244, 245, 249, 250, 283–286, 303, 336,
338, 340, 344, 349, 408, 410, 411
astrologers 22, 78, 181, 182, 187, 195, 346, 351,
360, 369, 418, 419, 459
ātāliq 199, 200, 203, 205, 271, 272, 296, 297,
302, 308–310, 320, 365–367
Ātashgāh (village) 69, 71
Āveh 208
Awbarām Khān 369
Awlād (fortress) 102
Aybeh Solṭān 26–28, 30
Ayvān al-Ra⁠ʾs al-Vādi (i.e. Gonbad-e
Kabud) 107
Bābor Mirzā (Pādeshāh) 199, 204, 205, 219,
226–228, 230, 246–249, 291–297,
301–313, 315, 317, 322–324, 326, 343,
351–354, 368, 369, 412–414, 447–450,
452
Badakhshān 18, 64, 117, 287, 291, 292, 297,
300, 301, 311, 351, 352, 367
Bādghis 344, 350
Badiʿozzamān Mirzā 207–216, 218, 220–230,
232–235, 239, 240, 244–246, 249, 273,
394, 398, 410, 416, 418, 423
Bāfq 251
Baghdād 39, 57, 60, 90, 129–131, 134–137, 284,
384
Baghlān 223, 243, 247, 302, 303, 307, 323, 354,
359, 466
Bagrat Khān 7, 455
Bahrām Mirzā 465n
Index
Balkh 4, 23, 202, 208–213, 220, 221, 223, 226,
227, 229, 230, 234, 235, 239, 245, 246,
247, 272, 278, 280, 281, 288, 290, 291,
294, 295, 300, 301, 303, 306–308, 311,
329–334, 337, 339, 340, 352, 353, 357,
360, 408, 410, 412–414, 448, 449, 452,
456
Balkhi, Khwājeh Moḥammad 212
Bandar ʿAbbās 84, 431
Bandar Kong 84
Bārāni, Solṭān Ḥosayn 46, 47
Barjuk River 150, 156, 166, 183, 184, 186, 187,
189
Barkand 358
Bārsil Khān 264, 272, 280, 290, 291
Bāsh Āchuq 450, 454, 455
Baṣra 431
Basṭām 261
Bāyandori 86
Bāyandori, Ḥājji Kusaj 76, 77, 80–83
Bāyandori, Shaykh Ḥasan Beg 86
Bayāneh 437
Bāyazid, Solṭān 181–183, 187, 191–195, 274,
286–289, 305, 373–375, 384, 416, 417
Bāyqarā, Solṭān Ḥosayn 66, 114–121, 202,
207–220, 223–225, 228–231, 233,
235–237, 240, 250, 261, 262, 273, 297,
299, 300, 414
Bāyrak Solṭān 57, 60, 129–132
Bayrām Beg 103, 136
Bāysonqor (son of Yaʿqub Shāh) 26, 27
Bijan-oghli, Solaymān Solṭān 25
Birum Ātāliq 358, 359, 362, 364, 365
Biyāqu Bahādor 234–236, 240, 250, 251,
253–259, 264, 334–337
Bokhārā 16, 18, 19, 23, 201, 202, 204, 220,
223–226, 231, 234, 246, 247, 272,
279–281, 301, 302, 304, 305, 307, 311, 318,
319, 329, 331, 336, 346, 347, 352, 357, 360,
366, 367, 408, 411
Budāq Khān 238
Bulāqi, ʿAli 465
Cairo 19, 195, 196, 419, 421–424
cannons 60–64, 66, 105, 382, 390–392, 399,
400, 402–404, 421, 422
“Carpet of Pleasure” 237
Caspian Sea 450, 462
Index
Cathay 120, 306
Chaghatāy 66, 114, 201, 219, 221, 224, 227, 234,
236, 237, 301–305, 308–310, 317, 318, 324,
326, 369, 447, 448
Chaghatāy, ʿAbdi Beg 212
Chalabi, Aḥmad 401, 402, 404–407
Chalabi, Moḥammad 402, 403
Chalabi, Qāzi 384–387, 391
Chālderān 387, 388, 393, 395, 397, 398, 401,
408, 409, 417, 438, 447, 465
Changiz Khān 199, 203, 237, 238, 256, 269,
278, 285, 287, 288, 318, 320, 340, 353,
357–360, 362, 364, 367, 368, 374, 381,
466
Charkas (Circassia) 120, 181
Chārsu Bazaar (Harāt) 459
Chāvosh, Moḥammad 383, 384
Chehel Sotun (palace in Qazvin) 460
Chel-rud River 103, 105
China 120, 288, 296, 308, 357, 362, 367, 463
Cholāvi, Amir Sohrāb Kiyā 107
Cholāvi, Ḥosayn Kiyā 91–94, 97, 99–102,
104–107, 112, 207, 208, 260, 411
chronogram 385, 386
Chubāni 465
chub-e ṭariq 352, 396
Commander of the Faithful see ʿAli b. Abi
Ṭāleb
Constantinople 39, 56
Dadeh Ḥasan 39, 40
Dadeh Moḥammad 39, 40
Damascus 239, 421, 433
Dāmghān 55, 91, 92, 207, 208, 227, 240, 243,
245, 259, 260, 265, 266, 282, 408, 410
Dāneh Moḥammad Solṭān 266–268
Darābjerd 395
Darjazin 61
Darnā 163, 165, 172, 174–176, 180, 194, 196, 417,
418, 425, 437
Darnā River 161, 163, 165, 166, 171, 173, 288,
412, 435, 437, 438, 463, 465
Darnāgawhar 161
Dasht-e Arzhan 86
Dāvar 219, 220, 311
Dāvod (Georgian porter) 453
Dāvod Pāshā 64
Daylami, Maḥmud Khān 107
475
Delāvar Pāshā 62, 376
Dezful 431
Dhulfeqār 63, 159, 390
Dhulfeqār Pāshā 435
Dhulqadr 46, 54–56, 156, 158, 161–163, 165,
168, 171–176, 178–180, 184, 196, 272, 397,
415–418, 425
Dhulqadr, ʿAlāʾoddawleh 52–56, 156–161, 163,
165–168, 171–175, 180, 183, 185, 187,
194–196, 275, 382, 415–418, 463, 465
Dhulqadr, ʿAli Khān Solṭān 397
Dhulqadr, Ardavān 174, 175
Dhulqadr, Khalil Khān 393, 395–397
Dhulqadr, Kurshāhrokh 174–176, 178–180
Dhulqadr, Maʿṣum Beg 195
Dhulqadr, Moḥammad Khān 175, 176, 178
Dhulqadr Pāshā 435–437, 440–442
Div (fortress) 201
Divānbegi, Moḥammad Bāqer 201, 202,
221–223, 226
Div-salām 121
Div Solṭān 345–354, 363, 364, 408–413,
428–431, 438, 450–454, 463, 464, 466
Diyārbakr 23, 45, 46, 52, 56, 57, 148, 150, 153,
155, 156, 158, 161, 165–168, 174, 176, 183,
185–187, 189–192, 195, 274, 285, 286, 373,
374, 377, 381, 382, 384, 398, 400–402,
404, 406, 407, 412, 413, 425, 427–429,
433, 438, 465
dogs
Buried in place of Abu Ḥanifeh 135, 384
Buried in tomb of the prophet
Qaydār 385, 387
Fight between Qezelbāsh dogs and
Dhulqadr dogs 178
Rescue of Shāh Esmāʿil’s harem 395
Ebn Ḥosayn Mirzā 214–218, 227, 230, 240,
243, 245, 249
Ebn Moḥammad Jaʿfar Ḥasan al-Musavi
(calligrapher of the manuscript) 467
Ebrāhim (prophet) 116n, 385
Ebrāhim Pāshā 422–424
Eftaḥ (tent of Solṭān Ḥosayn Bāyqarā) 231
Egypt, Egyptians 19, 183–185, 187, 195, 239,
419–424, 434
Elbrus, Mount 453
476 Index

Emāms 41, 51, 52, 97, 102, 116, 117, 120, 132, 141, Faraḥābād 283
149, 158, 167, 260–262, 264, 269, 288, Farangis Begom 466
295, 306, 364, 367, 374, 386, 392, 431, Farhād Pāshā 418, 424, 426, 427, 435–437,
433, 463 440–442
ʿErāq (i.e. Western Iran) 17, 39, 120, 136, 208, Faridun Ḥosayn Mirzā 213, 214, 230
238, 239, 244–246, 249, 250, 254–258, Faridun Mirzā 245
265, 269, 324, 336, 338, 341, 344, 373, Farrokh Āqā 141, 151, 152
410, 413, 450, 456, 465 Farrokhyasār 25, 27, 28, 47, 48, 51, 465, 466
Erzurum 402 Fārs 9, 17, 45, 53, 58, 60, 82–87, 396, 465
Eṣfahān 45, 60, 66, 68, 69, 72, 74–76, 78, 80, Fāryāb 333–335, 409
110, 114, 121, 122, 186, 208, 316, 342, 344, Fatḥollāh Pāshā 403
355, 376, 380, 381 Fāyeq Pāshā 150
Eṣfahāni, Mirzā Shāh Ḥosayn 395, 448, Ferdawsi 177, 307n, 390
456–458, 460–463, 466 Firuzkuh 94–96, 99–101, 107, 244, 410, 411
Eṣfahāni, Shāh Taqioddin Moḥammad 108 Firuzshāh, Solṭān Moḥammad 3, 4
Eṣfahāni, Yār Aḥmad Khuzāni 83, 131, 242 fortune-teller 205, 220, 351
see also Amir Najm ii Four Pure Friends (i.e. the first four Ca-
Esfandiyār 392 liphs) 236–238, 274, 276, 319, 323, 332,
Esfandiyār Beg 60, 61 333
ʿEshqi, Bābā 134, 339, 340 Fourteen Immaculate Ones 76, 77
Eskandar Beg 314, 315, 317, 343 Franks 416–418, 424, 426, 442
Eskandar Khān (governor of Bayāneh Fulād Beg 162, 163
fortress) 437 Fulād Khān 204
Eskandar Khān (the Maḥmudi Kurd) 168– Fulād Solṭān (governor of Dāvar) 311, 312,
170 320
Esmāʿil (prophet) 116 Fulād Solṭān (governor of Ḥeṣār-e
Esmāʿil, Shāh 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 40–42, Shādmān) 353
45–48, 50–53, 55–57, 59–61, 63–67, Fuman 125
69–72, 78, 79, 81–87, 89, 91, 93, 95–103,
105–115, 117, 118, 120, 121, 124–127, Ganjeh 52, 57
129–135, 137, 140–144, 146–148, 150–161, Gawhar Shād Begom 209, 235, 236
163–166, 170, 174, 177, 180, 183, 186, 187, Georgia 18, 258n, 450, 452, 453
189–193, 195, 207, 208, 224, 238–241, Georgians
244–246, 249, 251, 252, 255–264, 265, Raid on Ardabil 7
266, 269–278, 280–287, 290–303, Priests 453
305–308, 319, 322, 330, 332, 336, Slaves 70, 71, 120, 168
342–355, 357, 359–369, 373, 374, Rebellion against Shāh Esmāʿil 450, 451,
376–381, 383–398, 400–402, 404, 454, 455
406–408, 410–415, 425–432, 437–442, Gharjestān 258, 346–349, 411–414
447–455, 457–466 Ghaybi, Qāzi 89
Sister 401, 402 Ghazāli (Arab commander) 419–424,
Daughters 465–66, 466n 426–432, 437–439, 442
Estā 99, 107 Ghazāli-oghli 421, 432–440, 442
Ethiopians 183, 184, 186 Ghāzān 76, 394n
eunuchs 69, 70, 75, 120 gholām 55, 56, 68, 82, 182
Euphrates 131 Ghur 17, 258, 347, 348
Europe (farang) 187, 190, 231, 296, 382 Ghuri, Malek Neẓāmoddin 346–349, 411
ʿEvazolkhavāṣṣ 4, 5 Ghuriyān 115, 117, 119, 459
Index
Gilān 10, 29, 31–35, 42, 45, 117, 125, 126, 135,
136, 288, 350, 462, 463
Golestān (fortress) 48
Golkhandān 95
Golpāyegān see Jorfādeqān
Gonbad-e Kabud 107
Gorgān 408n
Goshtāsp 105n, 106
grand vizier 181, 194, 287, 375, 382, 389, 391,
398–400, 443
Guzal Pāshā 405, 406
Hādi Ḥosayn Mirzā 230
Hādi Khwājeh 263, 309–311, 314
Ḥāfeẓ 141n, 348n
Ḥalvāchi-oghli, Elyās Beg 28, 47, 49, 50, 52,
53, 55, 56, 60–62, 88–94, 96, 97, 102, 107,
135
Ḥalvāchi-oghli, Ḥasan Beg 135, 137–140, 151,
160, 244, 251, 254, 255, 258, 259, 261, 266,
268, 271, 291, 334, 410
Ḥalvāchi-oghli, Manṣur Beg 272
Hamadān 45, 60, 61, 66–69, 75, 380, 387, 465
Ḥaqq Naẓar Khān 466
Harāt 108, 115, 117, 118, 120, 121, 207, 209,
211–216, 218–220, 224, 226–230,
235–238, 240, 243, 244, 245, 247, 249,
256, 258, 261, 263–267, 297–300, 308,
331–333, 336–341, 344–352, 359, 395,
411–414, 447–450, 456–459, 463
harem 67, 69, 70, 75, 76, 110, 130, 181, 182, 235,
236, 246, 278, 279, 342, 348, 394, 395,
402, 404, 413, 434, 440, 453
Ḥasan (Shiʿi Emām) 125, 133n
Ḥasanābād gate (Eṣfahān) 75, 80, 81, 110
Ḥasan Beg (son of Solṭān Morād Āq
Qoyunlu) 418
Ḥasan Beg Āq Qoyunlu (Ḥasan
Pādeshāh) 23, 24, 34, 44, 45, 51, 52, 55,
59, 72, 75, 76, 78, 84, 87, 118, 130, 154,
156–158, 165, 166, 253, 261, 283, 382, 397
Ḥasan Pāshā 400, 401
Hāshem b. ʿAbd Manāf 116
Ḥaydar (Shāh Esmāʿil’s father) 24–26, 31, 32,
40, 42, 51, 58, 116, 135, 141, 283, 355n, 462
Ḥaydar Ḥosayn Mirzā 213, 214, 227, 230, 234
Hazār Jarib 101
Hazār Khānvar 86
477
Hendustān 22, 120, 219, 351, 369, 449, 450
Ḥeṣār-e Shādmān 294, 300, 309–311, 331,
353–355, 357, 360, 408, 409
Hindu Kush 226, 228, 247
Hindus 442
Ḥosām Beg 329–336
Ḥosayn (Shiʿi Emām) 133n, 134
Ḥosayn Beg 126
Ḥosayniyeh 80
House of ʿOthmān (i.e. the Ottoman
dynasty) 181, 391, 399, 432, 434
Ḥovayzeh 142, 144, 146–148, 150, 431, 440,
465
India see Hendustān
ishik-āqāsi-bāshi 136
Istanbul 182, 195, 196, 381, 382, 389, 405, 410,
418, 422, 424, 426, 440, 442, 443, 447
Jabal ʿĀmel 261
Jāberi 150
Jaʿfar Pāshā 63
Jahāngir Mirzā 246, 248, 249
Jahānshāhi, Khwājeh Jalāloddin 462, 466
Jahānshāh “Saljuqi” (i.e. Qarā Qoyunlu) 21–
23
Jām 245, 265, 266, 347, 349
Jamāloddin, Shaykh 11, 13, 14
Jāmāsp the Wise 105, 106
Jāmi 205n
Jamshid Beg 66
Jāni Beg Solṭān 225–227, 230, 234, 236, 247,
272, 279–281, 294, 295, 300, 301, 305,
325–332, 334, 336–340, 344, 352,
357–361, 365–369, 408, 409, 412, 413,
449, 456
Janissaries 61, 62, 64, 375, 376, 402, 421, 443
Jānvafā Mirzā 221, 234, 243, 245, 247,
250–256, 263, 265–268, 273–276, 278
Jerusalem 21
Jijaktu 227, 228
jinn 5, 263
Jirān 219, 223
Jonayd (Shāh Esmāʿil’s grandfather) 21–24,
116, 266, 380
Jorfādeqān 60, 65, 66, 68, 380
Juʾi Bahādor 268
Jupiter 3n, 32, 119, 363, 367, 369
478 Index

Juyom 86 246, 247, 250, 253, 255–258, 260, 261,

264, 265, 267, 271, 273, 282, 285, 297,
Kaʿbeh 39, 327 303, 329, 330, 333, 336, 337, 340, 342,
Kābol 219, 220, 226, 227, 230, 246, 248, 249, 344, 346, 350, 355, 369, 408–411, 413, 414,
291, 293, 297, 306, 333, 334, 351, 412–414, 447, 448, 450, 465
448, 449, 452 Khorrāmābād 137, 140
Kadāʾi Khān 460 Khosh (i.e. Kushk or Khushk, gate in
Kakhetia 450 Harāt) 456, 457
Kalāt 26 Khosraw (legendary king of Iran) 367
Kalkhurān 7 Khosraw (porter of Golestān fortress) 48
Kalmyk 296, 331 Khotan 306, 362, 367
Kamākh 379, 402, 404, 405 Khoy 122n, 412
Kamāloddin Ḥosayn Ṣadr 114, 121 Khuzestān 465
Kāmrān Div 285 Khwāf 208
Kamuneh, Seyyed Moḥammad 130–132, 134 Khwājeh ʿAbdollaṭif 204
Kand 225 Khwājeh Abulkhayr 204–206
Karahi, Moḥammad Karim 86, 87, 89, Khwājeh Dustam Bahādor 302
107–112, 121 Khwājeh Ghiyāthoddin 337, 338, 340, 344
Karbalā 134n Khwājeh ʿImādoddin 337, 340
Karrān 81 Khwājeh Kalān 308, 309, 312, 326
Kārtil 7, 450, 453 Khwājeh Neẓāmolmolk 116–120, 207, 208,
Kāshān 45, 66, 72, 344, 395 210, 211
Kāshi, Qāzi Mir Moḥammad 107 Khwājeh Solṭān Maḥmud 278–280
Kay Kāvus 283 Khwāju (royal building in Eṣfahān) 75
Kāẓemayn 135 Khwār 258, 410
Kermān 45, 250, 251, 254–256, 465 Kiyā Bahman 27
Khādem Beg 132, 135, 136, 151 Kiyā Ḥosayn 124, 125
Khadijeh Begom 207, 209, 215, 224, 235 Kiyā Malek 27
khalifeh al-kholafā 132, 135, 149 Kiyā Mirzā ʿAli 124
Khalifeh, Nur ʿAli 149, 150, 376–383, 388, 391, Kiyā Moẓaffar 124
392, 406, 414–416, 426, 427 Kiyā Sharaf 100–103
Khalifeh, Yusof 398–400 Kiyā Sohrāb 95
Khalil Solṭān (governor of Shirāz) 345–349 Kohgiluyeh 45, 144
Khalkhāl 42 Kopek Ḥosayn Mirzā 214–217, 230, 240
Khandān Khān (dog) 395 Kopek Solṭān 456
Khān Mirzā see Ovays Mirzā Kordestān 380
Khān Moḥammad Khān see Ostājlu, Korpi bridge 257, 258, 273, 334, 340, 344,
Moḥammad Khān 362, 414, 447
Khānsetti Begom 465 Kucham Bahādor 270
Kharput 425, 428 Kudeh (Gövde) Aḥmad 78
Kharraqān 107 Kuh-e Kiluyeh 431
Khayroddin Pāshā 418–420, 423, 434 Kuhestān 324
Khayroddin ii 434, 435, 437, 440 Kuhi, Bābā Sang 17
Khezr Āqā 393–395 Kura River 25, 27, 47, 454
Khojand 225n
Kholāfeh Beg 127 Lāhijān 29, 31, 33, 34, 41, 124, 125, 136
Khorāsān 16, 17, 107, 114, 116–121, 208, Lāhiji, Qāzizādeh (also Shaykhzādeh) 256,
225–228, 231, 232, 234, 235, 238, 244, 257, 385–387
Index 479

Laleh, Ḥosayn Beg 25, 27–29, 31, 32, 34, Marv 211, 214, 216, 217, 220, 227, 265–267,
41–43, 46, 47, 53, 61, 67, 87, 105, 108, 118, 269, 272, 278, 280, 281, 283, 286, 290,
121, 127, 129, 130, 136, 144–147, 151, 159, 291, 293, 336, 465
161–163, 239, 244, 258, 262, 272, 275, 306, Maryam Begom 83–85
315, 316, 328, 330, 336–344, 354, 363, 388 Mashhad 209, 227, 240, 245, 249, 250,
Lār 431 261–265, 281, 340, 344, 345, 347, 348, 411,
Lebanon 261n 414, 447, 458
leopard 143 Master of the Command (title of the occulted
lions 132, 133, 135, 443 Twelfth Emām, Moḥammad al-Mah-
Lodi, Bahlul Khān 351n, 450n di) 40, 41, 56, 63, 159, 365, 390, 464
Lord of the Age 43, 148 Maybod 110, 111
Maybodi, Moḥammad Qāsem 110, 111
Lors 137–145, 147
Māzandarān 91–94, 100–102, 103n, 106, 107,
Luli (i.e. Lodi dynasty) 450
131, 147, 260, 261, 282–286, 290
Mazinān 260, 261, 265
Maghreb 6
Mecca 39, 72, 73, 75, 76, 228, 238, 239, 250, 256,
Mahdi Ātāliq (governor of Ḥesār-e
258, 269, 278, 374n, 424
Shādmān) 408 Medina 228, 238, 374n, 424
Mahdi Ātāliq (Uzbek officer) 268 Mercury 467
Mahdi Khān 408 Mir ʿAli Shir (Navāʾi) 114, 115, 119, 121, 207–211,
Mahdi Khwājeh (cousin of Shāhi Beg 213–215, 218, 261
Khān) 259, 260 Mir Moḥammad 72
Mahdi Khwājeh (divānbegi of Bābor Mir Sharafoddin Ṣadr 307, 318, 354
Pādeshāh) 302, 304, 305 Mirzā Ebrāhim 467
Māhidasht 129 Mirzā Loṭfollāh 116
Maḥmudābād 267, 275, 277, 280 Mirzā Maʿṣum 467
Maḥmudi Kurds 168–170 Mirzā Moḥammad 80
Maḥmud Solṭān (brother of Shāhi Beg Mirzā Moḥammad Solṭān 307
Khān) 200, 202, 231, 232 Mirzā Zaynolʿābedin 125
Maḥmud Solṭān (cousin of Qarākhān Khān Miyān Kolā 319
Ostājlu) 407, 425, 438 Moʿāviyeh 123
Māhruy 331 Moḥammad 77n, 108, 116, 119, 147, 229, 269,
Malek Maḥmud 341 299, 364, 387, 467
Malekshāh Moḥsen 137–139 Moḥammad al-Ḥāfeẓ 5
Malekshāh Rostam 137, 139–147 Moḥammad Bāqi Khān the Chaghatāy 448
Malquch-oghli 382, 388–390 Moḥammad Beg 102
Mamluks 420n, 422 Moḥammad Ḥosayn Mirzā 207–209, 240,
Manān 418 243
Mantash Solṭān 356, 373, 388, 449 Moḥammadi Khān 409, 410, 412, 413
Manuchehr Beg 355–357 Moḥammad Kāẓem 316–319, 343
Moḥammad Moʾmen Mirzā 207–210, 212
Manuchehr Khān 450–455
Moḥammad Moqim Mirzā 246
Maqṣud Mirzā 44
Moḥammad Pāshā 378–380
Marāgheh 395
Moḥammad Solṭān 49–51
Mārānkuh 102, 104, 105
Moḥammad Timur Khān 234, 239, 264, 265,
“mare of Manṣur Beg” 121, 127, 277, 283, 284, 279–282, 284, 290, 294–296, 302, 305,
286, 363, 365, 393, 394 312, 320–326, 328, 329, 338–340,
Mārnān bridge 73 344–347, 349, 357, 359–362, 365–369,
Māruchāq 213, 214, 336 408, 414, 447
480 Index

Moḥammad Vali Beg 114, 115 320–323, 325–329, 331–335, 337–341,

Moḥammad Zamān Mirzā 212, 245, 250, 344–347, 349, 350, 357, 359–369, 408,
408, 410–414, 448, 449 409, 412–414, 447, 449, 456, 457, 460
Mohandes Bānu Begom 466 ʿObayd Solṭān 239, 240, 243, 248–250
Moḥsen the Arab 146, 148 Oghurlu Moḥammad 86
Mollā Maḥmud 228, 229 Olmeh Solṭān 463
Moql Khānom 271, 273, 275, 279–282, 295, Oman 367
296, 321, 366 ʿOmar (Caliph) 387, 433
Morghāb River 18, 230, 335, 352 ʿOmar Shaykh Mirzā 199, 291
Mortaẓā see ʿAli b. Abi Ṭāleb Ostājlu (Qezelbāsh clan) 57, 166, 179, 183,
Moshaʿshaʿ 142 190, 391
Moshaʿshaʿi, Malek Fayyāz 142–148 Ostājlu, Kurshāhrokh 179, 180
Moṣṭafā see Moḥammad Ostājlu, Mantash Khān 123, 124, 126, 127
Moṣṭafā Pāshā (Ottoman officer assisting Ostājlu, Moḥammad Khān (Khān
Alvand) 60–63, 65, 66 Moḥammad Khān) 150, 151, 161,
Moṣṭafā Pāshā (Ottoman officer assisting 166–180, 183, 185–193, 195, 274, 286, 373,
Solṭān Salim) 373, 377, 378, 390, 405, 388, 391, 398, 401, 406
406, 414–416 Ostājlu, Morād Beg 183–186, 190–192
Moṣul 131, 150, 156 Ostājlu, Qarākhān Khān 168, 169, 172–176,
Moẓaffar Ḥosayn Mirzā 209, 210, 212, 214, 178, 180, 187–189, 274, 286, 373, 388, 392,
216, 217, 224, 225, 228–230, 233–235, 240 398, 400–407
Mughal dynasty 449n Ostājlu, Qarāpari 25, 28, 29, 47, 48, 136
Musā, Qotboddin 7 ʿOthmān (Caliph) 77n, 387, 433
Musā, Ṣadroddin 12, 15 ʿOthmān Pāshā 167
ʿOthmān Solṭān 49–51
Naʿim the Arab 146 Oṭrār 295, 305, 338, 408, 456
Nāʾin 251 Ovays Mirzā (Khān Mirzā) 291–294, 297,
Najiboddin, Shaykh 10 300, 301, 307, 308, 311, 312, 327, 351, 352,
Najib Solṭān 203 354
Najaf 39, 132, 133, 152, 242 Oxus River 16, 226, 272, 296, 297, 301, 302,
Nakhchevān 465 307, 309, 330, 331, 353, 359–361, 365,
Naqshband, Khwājeh ʿAbdorraḥim 366– 366, 368, 373, 409, 413, 456, 465
369, 408
Naqshband, Khwājeh Bahāʾoddin 366 Pahlavān Moḥammad 298
Naqsh-e Jahān garden (Eṣfahān) 342, 380 Pareh-juk River 441
Narkash, Mount 388n Parikhān Khānom 466
Nāṣer Mirzā 204, 448, 450 Pasand Beg 410, 411, 414
Naṣir, Mawlānā 72, 78 Perfect Guide (epithet of Shāh Esmāʿil) 59,
Nawruz 45, 68, 215, 344, 380 87, 149, 186, 189, 241, 244, 259, 266, 267,
Neʿmatollāh, Shāh 108–111, 251–254 282–284, 288, 309, 315, 327, 330, 336,
Neẓāmolmolk 207 337, 343, 346, 349, 352, 355, 379,
Nishābur 245, 262, 263, 265, 345, 414 385–388, 393, 394, 396–398, 406, 409,
Noʿm b. Noʿmān 144, 145 411, 427–429, 431, 432, 439, 442, 454,
Nur Moḥammad Solṭān 268 460, 462
Pir Ghayb Khān 408, 410, 411
ʿObayd Beg 213 Pornāk 89, 131, 132
ʿObayd Khān 225, 227, 234, 264, 265, 271, 272, Pornāk, Kayqobād Beg 62
278–282, 294–296, 302–305, 311, 318, Pornāk, Manṣur Beg 87–90
Index 481

Pornāk, Qāsem Beg 151 Qepchāq, Manṣur Beg 119–121, 151

Portugal 288, 382 Qerqez 296, 323–325, 359
Qezelbāsh 24, 30, 41, 42, 48–50, 52, 53, 55,
Qahqaheh 26 56, 59–61, 63–66, 69, 78, 80–83, 86, 91,
Qājār (Qezelbāsh clan) 254 94–99, 101, 103–107, 109, 110, 112, 114, 115,
Qājār, Aḥmad Solṭān 150, 167, 183, 184, 186, 120, 122, 125–131, 133–135, 137–145, 147,
188, 189, 405, 428, 429, 437, 438, 441 148, 152, 153, 156, 158–163, 167–169, 173,
Qājār, Khalil Khān 450 175–179, 183, 185–187, 189, 194–196, 240,
Qājār, Maḥmud Beg 97, 167 243–245, 250–255, 258–260, 262–265,
Qājār, Qarāpari 49, 50 267–276, 278–286, 289, 291, 292,
Qājār, Qarāpir Solṭān 345–347, 349 294–297, 300–305, 307–321, 323–337,
Qalʿeh Jabāl 127 341–346, 348, 349, 350, 352–355, 357,
Qalmāq 120 359–362, 364–367, 369, 378–380, 383,
Qanbar Āqā 58, 59, 79, 83, 84 386, 388–395, 399–406, 409–418,
Qandahār 208, 212–214, 218, 219n, 220, 427–432, 438, 448–451, 454, 456, 458,
246–249, 447–450 462–465
Qānisā Pāshā 61, 63–65 Qezel Owzan River 84
Qānṣaw 54, 61n, 183, 184, 186, 187, 194, 195, Qolijān 297–300, 305, 306, 318, 319
196, 416, 418–424, 428, 432 Qoli Khān 394
Qaplān Khān 123 Qom 45, 93–95, 208
Qarābāgh 27, 45, 47, 53, 57, 136, 450, 452 Qorʾān 32, 125, 313, 400
Qarādareh 42 qoroq 83n
Qarāḥamid 52, 53, 166–170, 173, 174, 176, 187, Qorqoreh Khān 450–452, 454
274, 286, 373, 404, 428, 429, 437, 441 Qotloqnigār Khānom 202
Qarājeh Pāshā 443 qurchi 32, 55, 66, 68, 71, 117, 139, 142, 152, 153,
Qarā Kaskan 295, 300, 305, 338, 339 314, 315, 353
Qarālān 305 Qushqar Bahādor 253, 254
Qarāmānlu 327
Qarāmānlu, Bayrām Khān 97–99, 101, 127, Ra⁠ʾis Barakeh 72–78
151, 154, 244, 281, 295, 300–303, 306–308, Ra⁠ʾis ʿEnāyat 82, 83
311–313, 317–328, 330, 331 Ra⁠ʾis Ḥosayn-ʿAli 81–83
Qarāpu 129 Ra⁠ʾis Mobārak 76–78
Qarā Qoyunlu 44, 45, 86, 151 Ra⁠ʾis Yusof 69–72, 78, 81
Qarlānqush 453 Ramazān 11, 95, 325
Qarshi 312–314, 317, 318, 328 Ramazān-oghli 418, 421, 422, 424, 434, 435
Qāsem Ḥosayn Mirzā 230 Ranān 69–72, 75
Qāsem Khān 199, 223, 243, 247, 303, 323, Rashid, Ṣalāḥoddin 6, 7
357–360, 366, 374, 466 Rasht 124, 125
Qaws 323 Rashti, Molla Zaynolʿābedin 32
Qaydār 385, 387 Rashti, Najm Zargar see Amir Najm
Qayṣar (title of Ottoman emperor) 18, 19, Rāstān Pāshā 383
54, 56, 182, 187, 189–196, 274, 275, Rāvandi, Abulfatḥ Beg 86, 89
286–288, 359, 373, 374, 376, 377, 381, Rawsand 107
383, 384, 387, 392 Rayy 95, 107, 240
Qāytmaz Beg 152–154 Rezā (Shiʿi Emām) 209, 218, 245, 261–264,
Qazvin 45, 124, 125, 258, 447, 448, 450, 459, 318, 334, 335, 344, 348, 447
460 Rhodes 424
Qepchāq 199, 302, 306, 307, 336, 466 Rostam 127, 131, 147, 258, 283, 392
482 Index

Rostam (Āq Qoyunlu) 26, 28, 30–35, 44, 76, Sarkash, Mount 388
78n Ṣarṣar 127
Rostam Bahādor 259, 260, 268 Sāru ʿAli Beg 122–124
Rostam Beg 136 Sāru Aṣlān 157, 158, 161–163, 166, 171–173
Rostamdār 92–98, 102, 103 Sāruʾi, Solṭān Aḥmad 108
Rostam Pāshā 375–377 Sāru Khān 122, 123
Rubāl the Frank 405 Sāru Oghlān 267, 268
Rum see Anatolia Sāru Pireh (qurchi-bāshi) 356, 363, 364, 390
Rumlu (Qezelbāsh clan) 378, 379, 383, 390, Sāru Qaplān 166, 171–173
414 Sāru Qureh (qurchi-bāshi) 136
Rumlu, Ḥasan Beg 94n, 107n, 112n, 465n, Satan 461
466n Saturn 303, 369
Russia 120 Sāveh 208
Sāvojbolāgh 107, 108, 459, 460
Sabzevār 240, 245, 261–263, 265, 345, 348, Scythia 358
414 Semnān 101, 227, 240, 245, 258, 259, 265, 345,
Ṣaʿdān 184–186 410
Saʿdi 10, 160n, 430n Senān Pāshā 190
Ṣad Marreh 140, 141, 143 Seyyed-Aḥmadiyān gate (Eṣfahān) 81
ṣadr 318, 456 Seyyed Hādi 262
Ṣadroddin Khwājeh 207 Seyyed Jebrāʾil 7, 9
Ṣafi, Shaykh (Ṣafioddin Esḥāq) 9–15, 72, 84, Seyyed Khwājeh 262
116, 160, 173, 174, 183, 194, 273, 304, 351, Seyyed Moḥammad (ṣadr of Harāt) see
356, 369, 376, 432, 436, 437, 439, 443, Amir Moḥammad
465 Seyyed Moḥammad (son-in-law of Shāhi Beg
Ṣāḥeb-Qerān (“Lord of the Auspicious Khān) 258, 259
Conjunction”) 16–21, 119, 291, 297, Seyyed Mokhtār 261–263
338, 351, 352, 449 Seyyed Ṣāleḥ 7, 9, 10, 455
Sahl b. ʿAli, emāmzādeh of 60 Shahāboddin, Shaykh 307
Salāsil 89 Shahbāz Pāshā 376, 377, 378, 422
Ṣāleḥ, Shaykh 12 Shāhi Beg Khān 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204,
Salim, Solṭān 167, 181–183, 187, 189–193, 273, 205, 206, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225,
274, 286–289, 373–378, 380–384, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234,
388–394, 397–405, 409, 410, 414–428, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 243,
431–435, 437, 438, 440–443, 447, 465 244, 247, 248, 249, 250, 252, 255, 256,
Salmān-e Fārsi 132 258, 259, 260, 261, 263, 264, 265, 266,
Salmās 122, 412 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275,
Samarqand 18, 199–202, 204, 205, 219, 276, 277, 278, 279, 282, 284, 285, 286,
223–225, 243, 244, 247, 282, 290, 294, 287, 288, 291, 294, 295, 321, 339, 340,
295, 301, 302, 305–307, 311, 319–322, 324, 359, 362, 381, 457, 463, 465
326, 329, 340, 346, 347, 352, 357, 359, Shāhi-seven 356
433 Shāhnāmeh 307n
Sāmarrā 134 Shāhqoli 460, 461, 462, 463
Sām Mirzā 465 Shāhrokh Mirzā 19
Sanjar, Solṭān 277 Shahsovār Pāshā 422, 435, 436, 440
Sarāb 394–396, 398 Shāh Zaynab Khānom 466
Ṣārem Khān the Kurd 121–127 Shamākhi 48
Sāri 283 Shamb-e Ghāzān 394
Index
Shāmlu (Qezelbāsh clan) 57, 103, 126, 146,
150, 266, 267, 397, 458
Shāmlu, ʿAbdi Beg (Tofāchi-bāshi) 103, 118,
124, 126
Shāmlu, ʿĀbedin Beg 67, 72
Shāmlu, Aḥmad Solṭān 356
Shāmlu, Durmesh Khān 66, 67, 70, 71, 82, 83,
101, 117, 118, 126, 129, 131, 133, 134,
150–154, 260, 266, 271, 272, 278, 295, 342,
354, 360, 363–365, 385, 388–390, 392,
394–396, 458, 459
Shāmlu, Jahānshāh 107
Shāmlu, Musā Beg 250–252, 254, 336
Shāmlu, Zaynal Khān 301, 303, 307, 310, 322,
323, 328, 337, 338, 340, 411–413, 459, 460
Shamsoddin Div 283
Sharafoddin Khwājeh 207
Sharif Pāshā 403
Sharif Ṣufi Pādeshāh 290, 291
Shavarqān 301, 311
Shaykh ʿAli the Arab 385
Shaykham Mirzā 312–314, 316–318
Shaykh-oghli (derogatory nickname for Shāh
Esmāʿil) 55, 57, 62, 63, 65, 66, 81, 83,
93, 100–102, 123, 130, 131, 144, 147, 157,
158, 161, 166, 171, 183, 187, 190, 192, 195,
207, 250, 251, 253, 255–258, 264, 265,
267, 269, 271, 274–276, 279–281, 285,
287, 288, 291, 294, 295, 328, 329, 333,
337, 338, 341, 353, 354, 357, 359–367, 374,
376, 377, 381–384, 389–393, 398, 399,
402, 408–410, 416, 417, 426, 430–432,
436, 452–454
Shaykh Shāh 48, 450, 454, 455, 462, 466
shekār-bāshi 136
Shirāz 9, 10, 45, 85–90, 93, 345, 396, 431
Shirāzi, Āqā Moḥammad 300, 311, 312, 320
Shirāzi, Mawlānā ʿAbdollāh 10
Shirāzi, Mir Moḥammad Hādi 367
Shirvān 23, 24, 26, 28, 45, 48, 51, 57, 266, 285,
410, 450, 452, 454, 455, 462, 463, 465,
466
Shoʿayb Āqā 108
Shojāʿ Beg 212, 213, 219, 246–248, 447, 448,
450
shoulder-bone readers (scapulimanc-
ers) 205n, 351n, 361, 362, 369
Shushtar 90, 431, 440
483
Sib 132
Simāyun Khān 7
Sistān 283, 340–342
Siyāh-push, Solṭān Khwājeh ʿAli 15, 17, 18, 20,
21, 23, 433
Sobḥān Beg 54
Sohrāb Div 283, 285, 286
Solaymān Āqā 86, 87
Solaymān Beg (attendant of Shāh
Esmāʿil) 373, 374, 395–397, 407
Solaymān Beg (son of Solṭān Morād Āq
Qoyunlu) 418
Solaymān Mirzā 29, 355, 356, 373
Solaymān, Solṭān 190, 392, 424, 426–429,
431, 432, 442, 443, 447
Solomon 116
Solṭān Aḥmad 375
Solṭān Aḥmad Khān 199, 203
Solṭān ʿAli 26–28, 30, 31, 135, 266, 355
Solṭān ʿAli Mirzā 199, 200, 202, 203
Solṭān Ebrāhim Mirzā 26, 29, 32, 60–63,
121–127, 129, 160, 251, 254, 255, 273, 274,
389, 393n
Solṭān Ebrāhim Pādeshāh (i.e. Lodi) 351
Solṭāniyeh 60, 61, 239, 251, 344, 386, 410, 411,
455, 462
Solṭān Khalil 23, 25, 26, 466
Solṭān Moʿannā 144, 145
Solṭān Morād (Āq Qoyunlu) 44, 45, 53,
57–66, 79–94, 107, 108, 114, 115, 119, 156,
158–161, 165, 418, 425, 465
Solṭān Morād (Ottoman prince) 375–384
Solṭān Vahhāb 148
Ṣufi, Khalil Āqā 257, 258, 286–289
Ṣufi-oghli, Moḥammad Solṭān 301, 303, 307,
337, 412
Ṣufiyān Kandi 122
Ṣufiyān Khalifeh 427, 428
Sunnis, Sunnism 69–71, 76, 131, 149, 150, 238,
241, 252, 274n, 297–300, 318, 322, 337,
338, 344, 348, 386, 387n, 397, 400, 401,
403, 413, 417, 457, 459
Ṭabarestān 23, 25
Tabarrok 80
Ṭabas 113–115, 119–121, 207, 208, 250, 251
Tabriz 21, 23–26, 28, 39, 45, 52, 53, 55, 56, 63,
75, 76, 78, 121, 122, 124–127, 129, 148, 150,
484 Index

156, 166, 175, 186, 239, 240, 242, 244, 257, Torkmān, Amir Khān 150–155, 275, 450,
273, 274, 356, 373, 380, 383, 384, 387, 388, 456–460
392, 394, 397, 398, 401, 405, 407, 408, Torkmān, Ḥosayn Solṭān 41, 42
410, 411, 413 Torkmān, Moḥammadi Solṭān 166, 168–171,
Tāhān 283 173, 174
Ṭahmāsp, Shāh 70, 71, 79, 153, 190, 336–342, Torkmān, Qāsem Beg 34
355, 394, 412, 413, 450, 456–459, Torkmān, Qāzi Khān 408, 410
463–466 Torkmān, Qezel Moḥammad 355, 357
Tajan River 284 Torkmāns 24–27, 30, 42–46, 49, 50, 52, 55,
tāj-e Ḥaydari 24, 28, 32, 66, 99, 179, 186, 269, 56, 61, 67, 72, 78, 80–83, 87, 89, 90, 101,
271, 292–294, 300, 305, 306, 321, 378, 413, 115, 122, 125, 150, 151, 153–156, 165, 173,
431–433, 438, 452, 464 209, 237, 240, 252, 256, 266, 408, 411,
Tājlu Bahādor 257, 258, 267, 268, 270 425, 460–462
Tājlu Begom (Khānom) 67–71, 342, 393 Ṭoroq 263, 348
Takkalu, Qāzi Khān Beg 62 Transoxiana 322, 447
Ṭālesh 270, 271 Tupchi, Khwājeh Moẓaffar 240, 244, 245,
Ṭālesh, Dadeh Beg (qurchi-bāshi) 27–29, 286, 411
136, 151, 160, 244, 259, 260, 272, 275, 306, Tuqāt 189, 380
314–316, 326, 336, 343, 349, 350 Turks 87, 252, 365, 456
Ṭālesh, Mirzā Moḥammad 101, 139, 244, 258, Tus 78
259, 261, 262, 266, 268, 270–272,
282–286, 290, 291, 345 Urgench 265, 272, 280, 290, 291
Ṭalḥeh 77 Urmia 397
Tardi Bābā 114, 119 Üsküdar 287, 374, 375, 380, 382, 383, 417
Tarkhān, Ebrāhim Solṭān 217 Uzbeks 220, 221, 223, 231–235, 238–240,
Ṭārom 41–43, 45 243–245, 247, 250–263, 265, 267–272,
Tāshkand 223, 295, 300, 302, 305, 323, 325, 275–280, 282, 291, 294, 295, 297,
331, 338, 352, 360 301–306, 310–312, 314–324, 326–341,
Tāshkand-kuh 358 343–349, 353, 354, 358, 359, 361, 362,
Tbilisi 452, 453 364–368, 408–410, 412–414, 447, 449,
Tehrān 91, 208, 258 456, 457
Thamāni Khān 421–423 Uzun Saqal 201, 320
Tigris 131, 134
Timur 16–21, 87, 119n, 199, 203, 204, 209n, Valad Khān 440, 441, 442
291n, 292, 318, 320, 322, 338, 343, 352, Vali, Ḥājji Bektāsh 39, 181
433 Van 55
Torkestān 18, 22, 199, 203, 223, 232, 243, 247, Varāmin 91, 92, 95
256, 258, 260, 264, 265, 269–272, 274, Varsāq 398, 400, 402
278–282, 285, 288, 294–297, 301–309, Venice 424, 425
320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 336, 337, 344, Venus 3n
347, 350–353, 355, 357–362, 366, 368, Volga River 358, 359
369, 374, 381, 408, 409, 447–450, 456,
457, 463, 465 Yādegār Mirzā 204, 226, 246
Torkmān, ʿAbdāl Solṭān 156, 157, 158 see also Jahāngir Mirzā
Torkmān, ʿAli Khān Solṭān 30, 32, 42, 43, 45 Yaḥyā Khwājeh 199–203
Torkmān, ʿAli Shokr Beg 301, 303, 369, 412, Yaʿqub (nephew of Ḥasan Beg Ḥalvāchi-
413, 450 oghli) 139
Index 485

Yaʿqub (son of Ḥasan Āq Qoyunlu) 24–26, Zagam 450, 453–455

76, 86, 283 Zāhed Gilāni, Shaykh 10–14
Yaʿqub Pāshā 64 Zamāndār, ʿAli Kiyā 96–103, 107
Yarkand 358n Zamāt 434, 435
Yazd 45, 108–112, 114, 207, 208, 250, 251, Zamindāvar 246
253–256, 342 Zangis see Ethiopians
Yazdi, Qāzi Mir Ḥosayn 107 zan-ṭalāq 175n
Yazidi Kurds 121, 122, 124, 127, 131, 170 Zanzibar 187
Yemen 421 Zāri, Shaykh Maqṣud 73
Yerevan 45 Zarqān 17
yogis 369, 448, 450 Zāyandeh River 69, 121
Yusof Mirzā 44 Zoroaster, gate of (Eṣfahān) 72
yuzbāshi 336, 411 Zubayr 77