The Aq Qoyunlu, also known as the White Sheep Turkomans, were an Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled Azerbaijan, Armenia, eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and most of Iran from 1378 to 1501 after the collapse of the Qara Qoyunlu and before the rise of the Safavids. By 1478, they ruled almost all of Persia and Mesopotamia.
History[]
The Aq Qoyunlu Confederation at its height in 1478
The Aq Qoyunlu dynasty was founded in 1402 when Timur gave lands around Diyarbakir in Turkey to the White Sheep Turkmen, who were first seen in the mountains of Pontus in Asia Minor in the 1340s. Qara Osman, the first ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu, married princesses of the Byzantine Empire and became a powerful warlord, but the Aq Qoyunlu were frequently held in place by the Qara Qoyunlu Turkmen. In 1467, Uzun Hassan managed to defeat the Qara Qoyunlu leader Jahan Shah and take Baghdad and other lands along the Persian Gulf, and the Aq Qoyunlu Confederation expanded rapidly. At 1473, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Aq Qoyunlu at the Battle of Otlukbeli despite the Turkmen's support from the Republic of Venice, and Uzun Hassan's death in 1478 led to civil war. In 1501, the Shi'ite Safavids rebelled and defeated the Aq Qoyunlu at Nakhchivan, and the Safavids conquered much of the disintegrating Aq Qoyunlu confederation, while the Ottomans took over other parts.