“The qebla of Jāmi is None Other than Tabriz”: ʿAbd al-Rahmān Jāmi and Naqshbandi Sufism at the Aq Qoyunlu Royal Court

Abstract

Abstract This article addresses the possibility that members of the Naqshbandi Sufi order exerted a greater influence at the royal court of Yaʿqub b. Uzun Hasan, leader of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty, than previously acknowledged. In order to substantiate this claim, the article cites contemporary and near-contemporary Persian sources, notably theTārikh-eʿālam-ārā-ye amini, theRowzāt al-jenān va jannāt al-janān, and theRashahāt-e ʿayn al-hayāt, each of which attests to the presence of Naqshbandis in the Aq Qoyunlu capital of Tabriz, and notes that the Naqshbandis most closely associated with Yaʿqub shared the distinction of being protégés of the classical Persian poet ʿAbd al-Rahmān Jāmi. In a related vein, the article suggests that it was Jāmi himself, inSalāmān o Absāl, and in a personal letter sent to Yaʿqub from his residence in Timurid Herat, who may have exerted the most significant Naqshbandi influence over the Aq Qoyunlu. The article therefore concludes that the existing historiography, which emphasizes the involvement of the Khalvati order in Aq Qoyunlu affairs, should be revised in order to recognize the probable influence of members of the Naqshbandi order, particularly Jāmi, at the Aq Qoyunlu court.

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