Murad

Sultan Murad (also spelled Sultan-Murad) was the last sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu from 1497 to 1508. After losing his kingdom to the Safavid Shah Ismail I, he fled to Diyar Bakr, where he was eventually killed by Shah Ismail's Qizilbash soldiers at the end of 1514. Reign Civil war in the Aq Qoyunlu realm Born in 1483, he was a son of Sultan Ya'qub Beg and Gawhar-Sultan Khanum, the daughter of the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yasar. Residing in Shirvan, Sultan Murad (who was 7 years old at that time) was summoned by the rebel commanders Ayba-Sultan Bayandur and Qasim Beg Purnak, who wanted to make him the figurehead of their government. When the news reached the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Ahmad Beg (r. 1497), he raised a large army and marched towards the rebels. On 13–14 December 1497, a battle ensured near the city of Isfahan, where the forces of Ayba-Sultan Bayandur and Qasim Beg Purnak defeated the numerically superior army of Ahmad Beg, who was killed. In the spring of 1498, while Ayba-Sultan was on his way to the capital Tabriz to welcome Sultan Murad, he was met by opposition by his officers, whom he subsequently expelled. He then dislodged Sultan Murad's Shirvani escort, and had the latter imprisoned in a fortress near Maragha. In order to strengthen his position more, Ayban-Sultan married Sultan Murad's mother. He now became the strongest person in the Aq Qoyunlu realm once again, and had Alvand Beg enthroned in Tabriz. After Ayban-Sultan was killed in a battle in May–June 1499 with the Aq Qoyunlu prince Muhammadi, Sultan Murad was freed by Ayban-Sultan's brother Güzel Ahmad Bayandur (who govnered Maragha) and cousin Farrukhsad. Together, they fled to Qasim Beg Purnak in the southern Iranian region of Fars. They subsequently deposed the Afshar governor of the provincial capital Shiraz and installed Sultan Murad there.