Political Genealogies in the Sixteenth Century

OS MA NL1 ARAŞT 1RM ALAR 1 VII-VIII l~DITORS İSMAİL OF ~'HIS E . ERONSAL - SPECI AL JSSUE Ca::RISTOPHER FERRARD Ca::RISTINE WOODHEAD :. THE JOURNAL OF OTTOMAN STUDIES VII-VIU ı ı ı ir · İstanbul - 1988 POLITICAL .GENEALOGIES IN ~HE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Barbar(!, Flemming The political implications of the «Oghuzian theme» for all the Turkmen powers in the fifteenth century are by now a familiar theme. After tiıe pioneer studies by Paul Wittek who pointed to a romantic revival of steppe traditions, while acknowledging the political aims which the Oghuzia·n tribal genealogy clearly servedı, Halil İnalcık put ·the Ottoman interest in Oghuzian matters in the perspective of the fateful defeat of _1402. Struggling for the ·survival of their state, the Ottomans ~ad to show themselves the equals of :the Timurid Khans of the East, not o~y to escape the vassalage established by Tiİnur, but also to claim suprema~y over the Turkish principalities in Anatolia2 • John E. Woods, from another angle, made the claims on Oghuz linea:ge more comprehensible by showing that not only the Ottomans, but many competing Turkish dynasties found it necessary to invoke Oghuz genealogies in support of.their claims to the Ioyalties of all the Oghuz Turkmens of Anatolia, Syria, Irak and Iran3 • Recently Cornell H. Fleischer re-emphasized the significance of nQmadic political ·n otions for the Otton:ians in the fifteenth century1• · 1 P. Wittek, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire, ı.ondon; 193-8, and especially the same author's «Yazıji'oghlu 'Ali on the Christi.B:n Turks ()f -the Dobrujaq, BSOAS 14 (1952), 64~-647. , 2 H. İnalcık, «The Rise of Ottoman Histoıiography», in B. ' Lewis and P .- M. Holt (eds.), Historians of the Middle Ea$t, London, 1962, 155-156. 3 J. E. Woods, The Aqqııyunıu. Olan, Oonfederation, Empire. A Stııity in 15tlı/9th centııry Turko-Iranian Politics, Minneapolis & Chicago, 1976, p. 186. . :± C. H. F!eischer, Bııreaıwrat and Inteıze·ctııal in the Otto11ıan E?npire. The Hi.stor-ian MıışJafa AZi (1541-1600), Priİıceton, 1986, p. 275, 277, note 8, and 288. . .~. 124 Even in Mamluk society, where the sultan's or emir's houselıold was he!d superior to the natural familyS, there W J.S a consciousness of the Djingizid Yasa", and the stories of the Oghuzes and the Djingizids were highly valued for their mythical content. As early as the thirteenth century Arabic versions or revisions of .T urkish and Mongol lore were copied and read in Ma.mluk circles'. What had medieval authors written about the Oghuz and Turkish ancestry? Ma.J;ı}nüd al-Kashghari deseribed it as early as 1077 in his encyclopaedic lexicon. It was he, too, who made it serve a political purpose by distinguishing the Oghuz tribe of ~mılt, «to which our present sultans belong», referring to the Seldju).cs8• However, the poılticai genealogies of the fiiteenth century had their origin in the classical account of Oghl.İz history which had beEm writteİı dowiı and disseminated by the llkhanid' minister Façll Allah Rashid al-Din (1247-1318) in his «Compeıidium of Histöries». By claiming descent for ·T urks and Mongols alike from the biblical J apheth as well as from the Turkish national heı;ô Ogliuz, Rashid al-Din had helped to ·consolidate the sultanate of M:apmüd Ghazan '(Ilkhan from 1295 t'o 1304), who had been brought up as a Buddhist but had converted to Islam shortly b·e fore his accession. The ·. uniön of Mongols and Turks under the first Muslim: Ilkhan ·could thus be seen sı-s the.return to an ancient tradition in .which Turks and Mon.. .. gols were ~jted under one ·ruler. ..'Qghuz had con:quered the ·worl<f, ··a nd had died at the age· of :a thousand ·years. According to ·Rashid al-Din, the··kings tracing -~he1r . . . . . . · ·. 5 P. M. Ffolt, «The exalted lineage of RicJwan. Bey», reprinted in the authoı''s ,<Jtu dies iıı the History of the N ear East,' London, 1'973, p. Z26. · 6 Cf. the conflicting views of A. N. Poliak, -ı:The Influence of Chingiz Khan's YiiŞa», BBOAS 10 (1939/19·12), p. 862-876; and D. Ayalon, <ı:The great Yasa of Chinglz Khan», Stucl:ia Islanıica 36 (1972), p. 146-158, and 38 (197S), p. 107-142. 7 . .M. F. KöprUiü, Tı'i1·k . Edebiyatında ille mı'iteSC';VVı/lar, 2nd ~d., p., 213, and F. S ümer, 0!}1ır&icır · {Tii1·kmeıı.!er). Ta1·ihleri, Boy Teşl~·ilatı, Destanlaı·ı,, 2nd ed., Ankara; .1972, p. 377-378;. U . Haaımann, Qı~eZlenst1ıdieıı zıır j1·ühen Manıltıkeıi zeit, Freiburg, 1969, p. 73; U. Haaromann.- «Altun ·J.:Jiin und Cinglz Jjan ·bel den iigyptisç:hen Mamluken:ı> , Deı· Islam; ij1 (1974), passim. S R. Dankoff, Ma~mııiıL al-Ktiigaı·i. Oom11endimrı of .the Tıt?·kish Dialects (Dlwtiıı Lııg<it a t-Tu rk) , I, Harva rd P r iut ing Office, 1982, p. 82, 101-102. .. 125 origin from Oghuz were the descendants of his six sons,. the eldest of whom was Gün .Khan, and whos-e eldest son was !}:ayrı . Rasb.Id al-Din savy- sovereignt)_"_vested in the trlbe of !):ayı. Not only did he provide the first Ghaznawid with a !):ayı pedigree, ·but he incorporated the Seldji.ıks, tİıe ·Khw.arizmshalis and, · significantly, the emerging Turkmen dynasties of the Anatelian marches: the !}:araman·, the Eshrd oghulları, «and other~» 10 • The Ottomans, whom he did not mention, always emphasized their I}:ayı descent11 • At the tum of the fifteentiı century, Timur had claimed to 'be reconstituting the ~mi;ıiİe of the Mongols under the al1Spices of Islam. The notian of Turks ·a nd Mongols joined under the rule of a single pri.ıice had alsa been brought forward by Timti.r's writers in justüication of his policies1~. •· A desire to discover continuity ·permeates the Ottoman restaration after Timur. This is seen in the Ottoman claim to be the suc~essors of 'the Rüm. Seld~1 3 • But there was the Timur probl_ em. Yazıdjıoghlu 'Ali, writing for Murad ll in 1423, tackled it head-on. The"audacious passage as follows, «After his father, !}:ayı was Khanlar Khanı for a long time. 'And according to this custom the gre!ltest padishah ... Sult~ Murad Khan who is the ~ost noble of t~e ~qus·e of 'Osman, is the möst suitable and the m~st worf~y of sovereignty of all the·remaining claı;ıs (uru[s) of the Oghuz Khans, yes, even of the clan- of th·e 'Djingizid Khans, he is· the highest 'in oı~igin and «bone» (a:rıcestry). Therefore it is fitting by .holy law runs 9 K. -Tahn, p ie GeschiC?!ıte der qgıızen iJ-es Ra&liL aiL-Din, Vlenna, 1969, p. 44, 66-68; T. Bayka.ra (ed.), A Zeki ~7eliiLi 7'ogan. Oğuz Destanı. ReşidecZclin O'ğu.z?ıd.mesi, Tercii.me Tahlili., Istanbul, 1972; F . Sümer, Oğuzlar, p. 210-2Ü~ For concepts of ·authority see· O. Turan, «The I~eal of World Dom.in~tlon among the Medieval Turlcs», Sttulia. Isla?nica IV (1955 ) , p. 77 sq. Oghuz's slx sons were Gün, Ay, Yıldız, Gök, Dağ, Deiiiz. Gün's sons were !Çayı, Bayat, Alka evli, Kara evli; Jahn, Geschiclıte, p. 45; Woods,' Aqquyunıu, p. 188. 10 Jahn, Geschichte, p. 66-68. 11 M.F. Köpr.illü, .«<smanlı Impara-torlug-ıt'nun E tnik Men§ei Meseleleri~. Beneten·7 (1943), p (...truncated)