Timeline
The Kara Koyunlu or Qara Qoyunlu, also called the Black Sheep Turkomans were a Muslim Turkoman monarchy that ruled over the territory comprising present-day Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, northwestern Iran, eastern Turkey, and northeastern Iraq from about 1374 to 1468.
They were vassals of the Jalairid Sultanate in Baghdad and Tabriz from about 1375 when the leader of their leading tribe ruled over Mosul. However, they rebelled against the Jalairids, and secured their independence from the dynasty with the conquest of Tabriz by Qara Yusuf. In 1400, Timur defeated the Kara Koyunlu, and Qara Yusuf fled to Egypt, seeking refuge with the Mamluk Sultanate. He gathered an army and by 1406 had taken back Tabriz.
In 1410, the Kara Koyunlu captured Baghdad. The installation of a subsidiary Kara Koyunlu line there hastened the downfall of the Jalairids they had once served. Despite internal fighting among Qara Yusuf’s descendants after his death in 1420 and the increasing threat of the Armenian separatists and Ajam, Kara Koyunlu later broke up due to series of different Armenian revolts.
Brief History
Rulers
- Bey Bayram Khwaja (1374 – 1378 C.E.)
- Bey Qara Muhammad Turemish (Nephew of Bairam Khwaja) (1378 – 1388 C.E.)
- Bey Qara Yusuf Nuyan ibn Qara Muhammad (1388 – 1399 C.E.)
- Amir Timur invades Kara Koyunlu (1400 – 1405 C.E.) ()
- Bey Qara Yusuf Nuyan ibn Qara Muhammad (1405 – 1420 C.E.)
- Bey Qara Iskander ibn Yusuf (1420 – 1436 C.E.)
- Bey Ispend bin Yusuf (1420 – 1445 C.E.)
- Bey Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf (1436 – 1467 C.E.)
- Bey Hasan Ali ibn Jahan Shah (1467 – 1468 C.E)