TEKELI TURKMANS IN THE SAFEVI STATE

Safavidism, a Sunni sect that originated in Ardabil, evolved into Shi'ism, spread rapidly and became a political organization in a short time. Although many works have been written on this subject, the issue has not yet been revealed in all its aspects. There is a need for detailed studies, especially on the impact of the emergence of the Safavid state on the Ottoman Empire and Anatolian principalities. A review in this sense of the thesis put forward by the late Faruk Sümer about fifty years ago, that Turkmans went to Iran under the pressure of the Ottoman central administration, that the Safavids recruited population from Anatolia with the rebellions that broke out in the Ottoman lands directly at the shah’s discretion, and that the Turkmans who moved to Iran gained a privileged life. When the Turcoman tribes included in the Safavid confederation are considered individually, it is determined that different factors were effective in their participation in the Safavid union. For example, the Tekeli Turkmans lived outside the Ottoman administration, in the lands of the Karamanoglu Principality, during the period when the Safavid sect spread and became a state. Contrary to what is claimed, the Safavid shah was not involved in the beginning of the Shah Kulu Baba rebellion, and it was not their first wish for the Tekeli Turkmans to move into Safavid territory after the rebellion. In fact, considering the losses suffered by the Tekeli Turkmans who went to Iran during the Safavid internal conflicts, they could not have a prosperous life compared to their situation in Anatolia. These findings indicate that the views that explain the migration of Turcoman tribes from Anatolia to Iran with the same reasons and assume that the Safavid state was established thanks to the population migrating from Anatolia contain anachronistic errors. In this sense, examining the relations of the Tekeli Turkmans with the Safavids by comparing contemporary Safavid and Ottoman sources is important in two respects. The first of these is to reveal the ways in which the Tekeli contacted the Safavid sect, the reason for the Shah Kulu rebellion and its outcome, and the situation of the Tekeli people who went to Iran within the Safavid state. The second expected benefit is to consider the other Turcoman tribes that were part of the Safavid confederation separately, through the Tekeli Turkmans example, thus presenting a new research model on Safavidism.
Key Words: Safavidism, Tekeli Turkmans, Sahkulu rebellion, Shah Ismail, Shah Tahmasb, Tekeli disaster