Capture of Herat (1458)
The Capture of Herat (1458) refers to the Qara Qoyunlu capture of the Timurid Empire capital city of Herat for several months, from June to December 1458.
| Capture of Herat (1458) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Qara Qoyunlu–Timurid War (1452–1459) | |||||||||
 Maximum extent of Qara Qoyunlu territory ( ) in 1458 under Jahan Shah, including the eastern city of Herat | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Qara Qoyunlu |
 Timurid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Jahan Shah Pir Budaq |
Abu Sa'id Mirza | ||||||||
Background
[edit]The Qara Qoynulu expansion into central Iran started with the death of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh in 1447. As the Timurid Empire was embroiled in uncertainty and succession struggles, Jahan Shah managed to capture the cities of Sultaniya, Hamadan and Qazvin.[1] The death of the Timurid Governor of Persia and Fars Sultan Muhammad in 1451/52 further weakened Timurid control, allowing Jahan Shah to occupy and annex Qum, Isfahan, Abarquh and Shiraz from August 1452, and Yazd in 1453.[2]
Jahan Shah was accompanied by his son Pir Budaq in these campaings, who became the new Governor for the regions centered around Shiraz and Isfahan.[2]
Occupation of Herat
[edit]_in_battle_against_Timurid_forces_(right)._1430_Shahnama,_Bodleian_Library,_ms._Add_176,_folios_6r-7v.jpg)
With the 1457 death in Mashhad of the Timurid Governor of Central Iran Abul-Qasim Babur Mirza, Timurid authority crumbled in Khurasan. Qara Qoyunlu forces advanced towards Herat, the capital of Khurasan, forcing the Timurid prince ʿAlaʾ al-Dawla b. Baysunghur to retreat with his troops, as he was confronted with a much larger Qara Qoyunlu force.[2] Jahanshah entered the city of Herat on June 28, 1458.[2]
Pir Budaq rejoined his father in Herat a few months later, on October 27, 1458.[2] Meanwhile, the Timurid Emperor Abu Saʿid (r. 1452–69) was consolidating his forces to retake the capital. Jahan Shah's position was weakened when news emerged that his rebellious son Husayn ʿAli has escaped from emprisonnement in Maku, and was raising an army.[2]
Jahan Shah negociated with Abu Saʿid, a peace treaty was signed, and Jahan Shah restored the entire province of Khurasan to the control of the Timurids under Abu Saʿid.[2] Abu Saʿid reentered the city of Herat on December 22, 1458.[2] Abu Saʿid further reinforced his control by eliminating Timurid rivals, particularly the sons and grandsons of Baysunghur.[2]
Sultan Husayn, an ally of Abu Saʿid based in Khwarazm, continued to reclaim some territories from the Qara Qoyunlu, capturing Gurgan.[2]
Artistic influences
[edit]
Jahan Shah's son Pir Budaq, as Qara Qoyunlu Governor of Fars and Baghdad, was to become extremely active in the production of refined manuscripts.[4] The fact that Pir Budaq had accompanied his father Jahan Shah during the several-months occupation of Timurid Herat in 1458, may have given him the opportunity to get acquainted to the Timurid "art of the book" and to Timurid court artists.[5] For example, Pir Budaq is documented to have brought back from Herat a Timurid Khamsa of Nizami (H.762), which was later expanded by the Aq Qoyunlu in Shiraz and Tabriz. Under Pir Budaq, several innovations were made in the calligrapgy of nasta'liq writing, and manuscripts were finely illustrated along Khorasan pictorial conventions.[4]
Qara Qoyunlu architecture is often richly decorated, but the tilework designs of the Blue Mosque in Tabriz, completed in 1465, are particularly innovative, and may have been influenced by architects from the Timurid capital of Herat having moved to Tabriz following the 1458 capture of the city.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Roxburgh, David J. (1 January 2014). Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture (“Many a Wish Has Turned to Dust”: Pir Budaq and the Formation of Turkmen Arts of the Book). Brill. pp. 181–182. doi:10.1163/9789004280281_010.
The balance of power between the Qaraqoyunlu and Timurid houses ended with Shahrukh's death in 1447. Jahanshah lost no time in marching on and capturing Sultaniyya, Hamadan, and Qazvin, steadily taking in Timurid territories.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Roxburgh, David J. (1 January 2014). Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture (“Many a Wish Has Turned to Dust”: Pir Budaq and the Formation of Turkmen Arts of the Book). Brill. pp. 181–182. doi:10.1163/9789004280281_010.
- ^ Soucek, Priscilla (2000). "The Theory and Practice of Portraiture in the Persian Tradition". Muqarnas. 17: 105. doi:10.2307/1523292. ISSN 0732-2992.
The double-page battle scene in which Ibrahim Sultan, on the right, is shown confidently leading his troops toward a Turkman force, on the left, headed by Iskandar b. Kara Yusuf, who turns back biting his finger in consternation (figs. 3-4). This image is the frontispiece for a copy of Firdawsi's Shāhnāma and is thus not accompanied by any explanatory text, but it does correspond to descriptions of a battle that occurred on April 1429 which are contained in Timurid historical sources. Although neither of these key figures is labeled, each of them would have been recognized by a contemporary viewer because of this event's notoriety.
- ^ a b Tokatlian, Armen (2013). Persian treasures in Erevan: a selection of manuscripts from the Matenadaran collection. Gand: Éditions Snoeck. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-9461611284.
Jahanshah's constant struggle for leadership with rival Aq Qoyunlu Turkmen confederation shackled his artistic projects with the exception of the Muzaffariya in Tabriz, also called the Blue Mosque. (...) These subtle, jewel-like decors of the Blue Mosque epitomize the manuscript frontispieces made in Herat. A different situation occurs with Pir Budaq (d.1467) the eldest son of Jahanshah and consecutive governor of Fars and Bagdad, who was a dynamic patron of the arts. His first Shiraz kitabkhana was under the supervision of Shaykh Mahmud al-Heravi. Afterwards in Bagdad, Pir Budaq worked with several artists such as calligraphers Fakhr al-Din Ahmad Katebi and 'Abd al-Rahman Khawarazmi who created an innovative approach to nasta'liq writing. The finely illustrated manuscripts, produced between 1456 and 1466, reflect Pir Budaq's own taste through Khorasan pictorial conventions".
- ^ Balafrej, Lamia (2019). The making of the artist in late Timurid painting. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-1474437431.
Jahanshah Qara Qoyunlu, the Turkmen ruler of Western Iran, however, briefly occupied Herat in 1458. His son Pir Budaq participated in the attack. He may have become acquainted with Timurid manuscripts during this episode.
- ^ Golombek, Lisa; Wilber, Donald Newton (1988). The Timurid architecture of Iran and Turan (Vol 1). Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0691035871.
The Turkman monuments of central Iran, from the second half of the fifteenth century, are often richly decorated, but show none of the innovative design that appears in the mosque of Jahanshah's daughter (popularly called the Blue Mosque) at Tabriz, capital of the Qara Qoyunlu. Jahanshah probably had attracted architects of the late Shah Rukh from Herat to his own imperial city.