Hasankeyf Emirate (1232–1524, ku, Mîrektiya Melîkan) was a
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
emirate
An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...
centered around
Hasankeyf
Hasankeyf ( ar, حصن كيفا, translit=Ḥiṣn Kayfa‘, ku, Heskîf, hy, Հասանքեյֆ, translit=, el, Κιφας, translit=Kifas, lat, Cepha, syr, ܚܣܢܐ ܕܟܐܦܐ, Ḥesno d-Kifo) is a town and district located along the Ti ...
and ruled by descendants of the
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
until its dissolution in 1524. They considered their emirate as the last remnant of the Ayyubid state. The rulers were called melik and continued to lead the emirate from 1232 to 1524 despite invasions and different sovereigns.
The period from the 13th century to the 16th century witnessed the construction of various architectural structures, mostly pertaining to
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ar ...
.
Topographer
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...
Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad
Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad al-Halabi (1217–1285) ( ar, عز الدين بن شدّاد) was an Arab scholar and official for the Ayyubids from Aleppo.
Biography
'Izz al-Din Muhammad b. 'Ali ibn Shaddad al-Halabi, often quoted simply as Ibn Shaddad ...
noted, arguably before 1259, that the emirate had three
madrasa
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...
s, four
hammams,
mausolea
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or Chamber tomb, burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum ...
,
bazaar
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
s,
caravanserai
A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside inn where travelers ( caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes covering ...
s,
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s and
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
s. Around the citadel, there was a town square and fields for wheat, barley and grain growth. However, the living standard took a turn for the worse with the Timurid invasion with most of the local inhabitants fleeing towards the rock caves for safety. Even the
Tigris bridge was unusable in this period. Only after a peace agreement was signed between
Al-Nasir Muhammad
Al-Malik an-Nasir Nasir ad-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun ( ar, الملك الناصر ناصر الدين محمد بن قلاوون), commonly known as an-Nasir Muhammad ( ar, الناصر محمد), or by his kunya: Abu al-Ma'ali () or as Ibn Qal ...
and
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan
Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan (June 2, 1305 – December 1, 1335) (Persian, Arabic: ), also spelt Abusaid Bahador Khan, Abu Sa'id Behauder ( mn, , ''Busayid Baghatur Khan'', ''Бусайд баатар хаан'' / ''Busaid baatar khaan'', in moder ...
in the first part of the 14th century did the emirate prosper again and construction resumed.
The emirate had established several charities which supported educational matters and scholars from the fields of music, poetry and literacy settled in the emirate. Several
emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
s also collected scholarly works and established libraries for research.
History
When
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
reached Hasankeyf, the melik of the emirate was Ashraf who submitted himself fully to the
Timurid Empire
The Timurid Empire ( chg, , fa, ), self-designated as Gurkani ( Chagatai: کورگن, ''Küregen''; fa, , ''Gūrkāniyān''), was a PersianateB.F. Manz, ''"Tīmūr Lang"'', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition, 2006 Turco-Mongol empire ...
. The rule of Melik Ashraf is described as ''long and quiet''. He was succeeded by his son Khalil who had the unanimous support from all tribes of Hasankeyf and he also pleaded his loyalty to the Timurid Empire who was now led by
Shah Rukh
Shah Rukh or Shahrukh ( fa, شاهرخ, ''Šāhrokh'') (20 August 1377 – 13 March 1447) was the ruler of the Timurid Empire between 1405 and 1447.
He was the son of the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who founded the Timurid dynast ...
, the son of Timur. When Shah Rukh was fighting the
Qara Qoyunlu
The Qara Qoyunlu or Kara Koyunlu ( az, Qaraqoyunlular , fa, قره قویونلو), also known as the Black Sheep Turkomans, were a culturally Persianate, Muslim Turkoman "Kara Koyunlu, also spelled Qara Qoyunlu, Turkish Karakoyunlular, Eng ...
in
Van
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
, Melik Khalil also went to pay homage to the Timurid ruler. The rule of Melik Khalil is described as a period of happiness and peace. When Melik Khalil died, he was succeeded by his nephew Khalaf who went to war against the Kurdish tribes of
Cizre
Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Dis ...
. The rule of Melik Khalaf would come to an end when
Uzun Hasan
Uzun Hasan or Uzun Hassan ( اوزون حسن; fa, اوزون حسن; 1423 – January 6, 1478; where ''uzun'' means "tall" in Oghuz Turkic) was a ruler of the Turkoman Aq Qoyunlu state and is generally considered to be its strongest ruler. Ha ...
of the
Aq Qoyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu ( az, Ağqoyunlular , ) was a culturally Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (Wh ...
besieged Hasankeyf. During this besiege, Melik Khalaf was assassinated by a nephew who afterwards opened the gates to the invaders. The nephew did not get to rule the emirate which was handed over to a
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
chieftain
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...
.
The brother of Melik Khalaf, Khalil, who had fled to
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
during the events, returned to Hasankeyf with the assistance of the Shirwi tribe whose chiefs worked as
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
s for the emirate. Various tribes joined Khalil and they triumphed in taking over not only Hasankeyf but also
Siirt
Siirt ( ar, سِعِرْد, Siʿird; hy, Սղերդ, S'gherd; syr, ܣܥܪܬ, Siirt; ku, Sêrt) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of Siirt Province. The population of the city according to the 2009 census was 129,188.
History
Pr ...
from the Aq Qoyunlu. The new Melik Khalil now maintained full independence and he was incomparable with other rulers in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
. Nonetheless, he was taking prisoner during a visit to the Safavid Shah
Ismail I
Ismail I ( fa, اسماعیل, Esmāʿīl, ; July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), also known as Shah Ismail (), was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Safavid Iran, Iran, ruling as its King of Kings (''Shahanshah'') from 1501 to 1524. His re ...
. The
Qizilbash
Qizilbash or Kizilbash ( az, Qızılbaş; ota, قزيل باش; fa, قزلباش, Qezelbāš; tr, Kızılbaş, lit=Red head ) were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the ...
then took control over the emirate and handed over the area to Bejnewi tribe. However, Melik Khalil managed to escape during 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 an ...
in 1514 and united the people of Hasankeyf as he retook Siirt with Hasankeyf. The Bejnewi tribe was not persecuted but received a village in compensation for the killing of the father of their chieftain.
The hereditary rule of the Emirate of Hasankeyf would come to an end with the death of Melik Khalil. The rivalry among his four sons dovetailed with tribal anger resulted in the hand-over of the emirate to
Deli Husrev Pasha
Deli Hüsrev Paşa ( sh, Deli Husrev Paša, tr, Deli Hüsrev Paşa, ) (c. 1495 - 1544) was an Ottoman and Bosnian statesman from the Sanjak of Bosnia. His epithet "deli" means "crazy" in Ottoman Turkish, which was ascribed to him because of h ...
, the Ottoman governor of Diyarbakir. The
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
ultimately dissolved the emirate.
List of rulers
The following is a list of Ayyubid emirs of Hasankeyf:
*
al-Malik as-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub I (1236–1239)
*
al-Malik al-Muazzam Turanshah (1239–1249)
*al-Malik al-Muwahhid Abd Allah (1249–?)
*al-Kamil Abu Bakr Sayf al-Din Shadi
*al-Malik as-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub II (?–1324/1325)
*Ghazi Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (1324/1325–1364)
*al-Malik al-Adil Abu al-Mafakhir Fakhr al-Din Sulayman (1364–1424)
*al-Ashraf Ahmad (1424–1432)
*al-Kamil Abu al-Mahamid Khalil (1432–1452)
*al-Malik Ahmad (1452–1455)
*Khalaf ibn Muhammad (1455–1461)
*al-Malik Ayyub III ibn Ali ibn Muhammad (1461–1462)
:''Aq Qoyunlu occupation'' (1462–?)
*al-Malik Khalil
*al-Malik al-Hasan (?–1525)
See also
*
Emirate of Çemişgezek
Emirate of Çemişgezek (, 13th century–1663) was a hereditary and autonomous Kurdish emirate existing from the 13th century to 1663, centered around Çemişgezek including Mazgirt, Pertek and Sağman. The emirate was populated by both Muslims a ...
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{div col end
Former Kurdish states in Turkey
History of Batman Province
History of Siirt Province
History of the Kurdish people
States and territories disestablished in 1524
States and territories established in 1232
Vassal states of the Ottoman Empire
Ayyubid dynasty