Uzun Hassan

Who was Uzun Hassan?

Uzun Hasan or Hassan, Sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty, or White Sheep Turkmen. Hassan was ruler of Iran which included also parts of present-day Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia between 1453 and 1478.

Timur appointed his great-grandfather, Kara Yülük Osman, as a governor of Diyarbakır, with the cities of Erzincan, Mardin, Roha, and Sivas. Jahan Shah of Kara Koyunlu was eventually defeated by Uzun Hasan of Aq Qoyunlu in a battle near the sanjak of Çapakçur in present day eastern Turkey on October 30, 1467. Upon the defeat of Jahan Shah, Timurid ruler Abu Sa'id Mirza answered Jahan Shah's son's request for aid, taking much of Jahan Shah's former land and going to war with Uzun Hasan despite the latter's offers of peace. Uzun Hasan then ambushed and captured Abu Sa'id at the Battle of Qarabagh, whereupon he was executed by Yadgar Muhammad Mirza, a rival.

In 1463, the Venetian Senate, seeking allies in its war against the Ottomans, sent Lazzaro Querini as its first ambassador to Tabriz, but he was unable to persuade Uzun Hassan to attack the Ottomans. Hassan sent his own envoys to Venice in return. In 1471, Querini returned to Venice with Hazzan's ambassador Murad. The Venetian Senate voted to send another to Persia, choosing Caterino Zeno after two other men declined. Zeno, whose wife was the niece of Uzun Hassan's wife, was able to persuade Hassan to attack the Turks. Hassan was successful at first, but there were no simultaneous attack by any of the western powers.