Bozulus, also spelled Boz-ulus or Boz Ulus ( in Turkish), is the name given by the Ottomans to a tribal

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

of predominantly Turcoman tribes that were located in the vicinity of

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

. These tribes were brought into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

following the victory of Sultan

Selim I Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite las ...

over the

Safavids Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

at the

Battle of Chaldiran The Battle of Chaldiran ( fa, جنگ چالدران; tr, Çaldıran Savaşı) took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed Eastern Anatolia and ...

, as well as subsequent Ottoman campaigns in eastern

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

. By the 1520s, if not earlier, the Ottomans had established the Bozulus confederacy. Most of the tribes in the Bozulus stemmed from the Aq Qoyunlu confederacy. In the first half of 17th century, the confederacy gradually dissolved, as a result of the political unrest and the insecurity caused by Iranian military incursions, which resulted with some groups breaking away from the main body and going to western Anatolia.

History

Etymology

The word ''boz'' is found in almost all of the Turkic languages, and appears in Middle Mongol as ''boro''. ''Boz'' has two meanings, first "to break" and second "gray", specifically a color "between white and roan", light gray, ash-colored, light-ashen, whitish, off-whie, skewbald, blue tending towards white, blue-gray, whitish red, etc. Its symbolic significance is not clear. ''Boz'' is used as color symbolism, in connection with a later Oghuz Turks, Oghuz nomadic subdivisions such as ''Boz Oq'' or ''Boz Ulus''.

Population

In 1474, the confederacy had 6,000 households (tents) with 29,000 persons, including 3,000 men, 15,000 women and 11,000 children. According to the Ottoman census dating 1540, the confederacy consisted of 4,994 households, which 4,568 were families, while 462 were ''mücerred'' (bachelors). Turkologist Mustafaev believes that the confederation was large as 23,000 people. Population of Bozulus in the 17th century is estimated to 60,000 people with more than 2 million sheep. Its seasonal migrations covered an area extending from Mardin to Persia and Georgia (country), Georgia. In early 17th century some groups broke off from this confederacy went to western Anatolia and the Balkans, signaling the end of the confederacy in eastern Anatolia. The confederacy started to come to the Karaman and Ankara regions and reached to the Kütahya and Aydın regions by the middle of the 17th century. A community of Bozulus had been settled in Kuşadası whereas some groups had even been settled within the Aegean islands like Rhodes and Kos (''İstanköy'').

References

{{reflist Turkoman tribes Tribes of the Aq Qoyunlu