Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt

Bozkurt was the son of Suleiman, the sixth ruler of the principality of Dulkadir.[1]

Dulkadir was a semi independent beylik under the sovereignty of the Mamluk Egypt. The beylik was located around Kahramanmaraş and Elbistan, which made the beylik a buffer territory of the Mamluks against the Ottoman Empire. After the former bey Şahsuvar was executed in Cairo by the Mamluks, Shah Budak was appointed as the bey. But his brother Bozkurt was waiting for his chance.[2]

Bozkurt took control of the beylik in 1480 by the support of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Being cautious not to antagonise the Mamluks, he followed a balanced policy between the two great powers. One of his daughters, Ayşe Hatun, married to the Ottoman prince Bayazid (Bayazid II, the future sultan of the Ottomans).

Bozkurt captured the city Diyarbakır from the Ak Koyunlu Turkmen dynasty. But he was not successful against Ismail I of the Safavids in Iran. When Ismail stormed his capital Elbistan, he had to move the capital to Maraş, today Kahramanmaraş.[2]

In 1481, Bayazıt II rose to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. During the civil war between Bayazıt II and his brother Cem, Mamluks supported Cem and the uneasy peace between the two powers ended. Ottomans tried to control Çukurova, Cilicia of the antiquity, a region to the southwest of Dulkadir territory and under the control of Ramadanids, another buffer principality. But they were defeated by the Mamluks. Influenced by the Mamluk victory, Bozkurt gave up his balanced policy and began hostilities against the Ottomans. In 1486, he defeated an Ottoman force under the commandship of Skender Pasha. However, Mamluks were not able to defeat Ottomans to the north of the Taurus Mountains and following a stalemate, the war ended in 1491.[3]

In 1512, Selim I, nicknamed "the Inflexible" or "the Grim", became the Ottoman Sultan. In 1514, during his campaign to Iran, Bozkurt's reluctance to allow safe pass for the Ottoman forces caused a problem. In 1515, before starting a war against the Mamluks, he decided to end the Dulkadir Beylik as well. He sent Hadim Sinan Pasha, his future grand vizier, to Dulkadir territory. In a battle called the Battle of Turnadağ, Sinan Pasha defeated Dulkadir army. Bozkurt as well as his sons were killed.[4]

Miniature from Tadj ut-Tewarikh depicting the moment Bozkurt's severed head is presented to Selim I

Bozkurt's sons were Shāhrukh, Turak, Suleiman, Erdivane, Saru Kaplan, Mehmed, Ahmed. His daughters included Ayshe Khatun, Beglu (or Benlu) Khatun,[1] and another daughter who was married to the Mamluk commander Uzbek's son.[5] Shāhrukh became the lord of Kırşehir, while Suleiman was the lord of Bozok. Ayshe Khatun married the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II around 1467. Although disputed, she is popularly believed to have been the mother of Selim I, making Bozkurt the maternal grandfather of the ninth Ottoman sultan. Bozkurt's other daughter, Beglu married Sultan Murad of the Aq Qoyunlu after her father refused to give her to Shah Ismail of the rising Safavids.[1]

• Fleet, Kate; Faroqhi, Suraiya N., eds. (12 November 2012). The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 2, The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316175545.
• Yücel, Yaşar; Sevim, Ali (1990). Türkiye Tarihi Vol I. istanbul: AKDTKTTK Yayınları.
• Yücel, Yaşar; Sevim, Ali (1990). Türkiye Tarihi Vol II. istanbul: AKDTKTTK Yayınları.
• Jorga, Nicolae (2009). Geschichte des osmanischen. İstanbul: Yeditepe yayıncılık. ISBN 978-975-6480-19-9.
• Venzke, Margaret L. (2017). "Dulkadir". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Stewart, Denis J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. III. E. J. Brill.