The lives of some princes of the Ottoman dynasty fit into a few lines of the record. A year of birth, a date of death, and between them a rebellion, a flight into exile and a family left behind. Şehzade Murad is one of these princes, yet Amasya's own historian thought him worth more than a few lines. He was born in Amasya, grew up at his father's court, governed the city for a short time, was then forced to flee it, and died far from home, in Iran. That, at least, is what most sources say. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), however, maintains that years later he returned to Amasya in the guise of a dervish, that he went on haunting Selim, and that he may even have fought one last time beneath the walls of Amasya. His name is often confused with the better-known Murads of the dynasty, Murad II and Murad III; yet this Murad never sat on the throne. He was the son of Şehzade Ahmed, son of Bayezid II, and his story has to be read from within the succession struggle that engulfed Anatolia in the last years of his grandfather Bayezid, and, in Amasya, from within a sectarian conflict that split a city in two.

Who He Was, and Who He Was Not

Şehzade Murad (Prince Murad) was the son of Şehzade Ahmed, son of Bayezid II. His birthplace is given as Amasya and his year of birth, in most sources, as 1495. Amasya was the city where his father Ahmed had served as sanjak governor since 1481; Murad was therefore born in the orbit of a princely court on the banks of the Yeşilırmak. His mother is unknown. No record of a concubine or wife of Murad has come down to us, and the mothers of his children are not named either.

His name was shared by many members of the Ottoman house. Murad II (d. 1451) and Murad III (d. 1595), who both reigned, are different people. Amasya's history also knows another prince of the same names: according to Hüsameddin, Şehzade Ahmed, son of Murad II, likewise died while governor of Amasya in the late 1430s and was buried at Narlı Bahçe. The two Ahmeds and the two Murads are therefore easily confused in local tradition. Among the sons of our Murad's father, Şehzade Ahmed, are also counted Süleyman, Alaeddin, Osman, Ali, Mehmed and Kasım. Ahmed was the second eldest son of Bayezid and, after the death of his elder brother Abdullah in 1483, became the eldest of the surviving sons.

Murad's place among his brothers is itself a matter of dispute. Modern compilations put Süleyman and Alaeddin first; Hüsameddin, by contrast, explicitly calls Murad Ahmed's "eldest prince" and presents Alaeddin as the second son. Another piece of information he reports also unsettles the year of birth. According to him, in the hijri year 896, that is, 1490-1491, a great circumcision feast was held in Amasya for Ahmed's sons Murad and Alaeddin. Since a child born in 1495 could not have been circumcised in 1490, either this date or the birth year of 1495 must be wrong. It may be supposed that Murad was born before 1490, but this is an inference, and no document is at hand to confirm it.

His Grandfather and Father: Bayezid and Ahmed

The dynasty into which Murad was born lived under an order in which the throne did not pass automatically from father to eldest son. Every prince was in principle a candidate for the throne, and for this reason Ottoman princes were sent to Anatolian sanjaks to learn the business of government. Ahmed was one of the princes appointed to the sanjak of Amasya. Although he held no official title, he was generally regarded as heir apparent in the last years of his father's reign. Even a qasida written in Amasya praises him as "velîahd-ı saltanat", heir to the sultanate. The support of the grand vizier Hadım Ali Pasha played an important part in this. Ahmed was also known as a poet and a scholar and as a patron of artists; figures such as the poet Mihri Hatun belonged to his circle.

Ahmed had two half-brothers: Korkut, stationed in Antalya, and Selim, stationed in Trabzon. There was a custom whereby, when a sultan died, the prince who reached Istanbul first gained the right to take the throne, and in this respect Ahmed, whose sanjak lay nearest to Istanbul, was fortunate. Selim's son Süleyman had been given the sanjak of Bolu, but on Ahmed's objection Süleyman was transferred to Kefe (Caffa). Selim saw this as a veiled hostility on his brother's part, demanded a sanjak in Rumelia and, with the backing of the Crimean khan Meñli Giray, obtained the sanjak of Semendire (Smederevo). Yet instead of going to Semendire he chose to remain close to Istanbul. Bayezid regarded this as disobedience and defeated Selim's forces in August 1511; Selim withdrew to the Crimea.

Ahmed's family was a large household. Ahmed is reported to have had at least seven consorts, four of whom are known as Sittişah, Gülçiçek, Bülbül and Feraşad Hatun. The name Bülbül points to a confusion here: Hüsameddin and other sources give Bülbül Hatun as Ahmed's mother, not as his consort. According to Hüsameddin, in 1511 Bülbül Hatun endowed her properties to the mosques, schools and soup kitchens she had built in Amasya and Lâdik; this is the trace Murad's grandmother left in the city. Sittişah Hatun was the mother of Şehzade Osman; Gülçiçek Hatun was buried in Amasya. Ahmed's daughters Kamerşah, Fatma, Fahrihan and Hanzade were married between 1508 and 1516 to statesmen connected with the dynasty. Ahmed's own tomb is in the Muradiye complex in Bursa.

A Prince at the Amasya Court

General histories say almost nothing about Murad's childhood and early youth. The information Hüsameddin gathered from Amasya's records, however, fills part of this gap. According to him, Murad's teacher in Amasya was a scholar named Mevlânâ Hızır bin İdrîs. He also had close friends at his father's court: Sofizâde Mehmed Ağa, son of Ahmed's chief usher Abdî Ağa, was Murad's "hemdem", his closest companion, and knew him very well. Years later, when it became necessary to establish whether Murad was dead or alive, this friendship would take on an unexpected importance.

In Hüsameddin's account the circumcision feast of 1490-1491 is also the beginning of a quarrel that shook Amasya. During the feast, the attempt of Ahmed's tutor Birgilizâde Mustafa Efendi to put himself above the city's senior scholars led the mufti Cemâloğlu Ali Çelebi to walk out of the gathering. The dispute spread from the ulema to the beys, and fights broke out among the beys and aghas. In its wake the other princes then in Amasya were sent to other sanjaks; Selim went to Trabzon, Korkut to Saruhan, and Ahmed was left alone in the city. Murad's name thus enters the history of Amasya through a princely wedding feast and the court rivalry that followed it.

Hüsameddin describes a later feast on the basis of a Persian qasida written at Ahmed's court. The qasida shows that four sons of Ahmed were known: Murad, Alaeddin, Süleyman and Osman. Hüsameddin believes that by this time Murad and Alaeddin were married, and that those circumcised were the younger brothers Süleyman and Osman along with grandsons. Among these grandsons he counts Murad's sons Mehmed and Kasım. Modern compilations, on the other hand, give Murad's sons as Mehmed and Mustafa. The appearance of Kasım in Hüsameddin as Murad's son may stem from a confusion with Ahmed's son Kasım; this too is an inference.

The Figânî Affair

The most dramatic event to shed light on Murad's circle is the death of the poet Figânî. According to Hüsameddin, the poet Figânî İshâk Çelebi bin Mehmed Çelebi, descended from the Torumtay line, one of Amasya's old families, was the musahib, the intimate companion, of Şehzade Murad. In those years Shah Ismail's capture of Erzincan and his advance towards Tokat had delighted the Persian and Shiite circles in Amasya, and scuffles had broken out in the city between them and the Sunni population. To bring this situation to Ahmed's attention, Figânî composed a destan in the manner of a satire mocking the Shiites and the Persians, and it came to be recited among the people. According to Hüsameddin, the Persian faction, together with a person Ahmed trusted above all others, fabricated a slander that Figânî harboured ill intentions towards Murad, and made the prince believe it. Figânî was hanged without any inquiry in Shawwal of the year 912, that is, early in 1507.

The affair left a deep wound in Amasya. The kadı of Amasya, Muslihzâde Abdurrahman Efendi, who was related to Figânî, could not bear this grief and the reproaches of the people; he fell ill and died, and his sons, unable to remain in Amasya, fled to Trabzon to join Selim. Hüsameddin also writes that the mufti Acem Sinan Efendi was thought to have carried the slander to Ahmed. In his eyes the Figânî affair was the first great rupture in Ahmed's standing with the people. Hüsameddin believes that a quatrain by Çeşmî Çelebi of Amasya, found in a biographical anthology of poets that came into his hands in Amasya, was written for Figânî. Of Murad's own attitude in this affair, nothing is known.

A Divided City

Murad's youth coincided with the years in which Amasya was split in two by Safavid propaganda. Hüsameddin describes at length how a Persian, Shiite-leaning group steadily gained power at Ahmed's court. At its head stood Mîr Gıyâseddîn of Shiraz, and the seyyids known in the city as the "Seven Emirs", or simply the "Seven", held considerable influence. Early in the hijri year 914 (1508), Shah Ismail's khalifa Nûreddîn Ali of Mardin came to Amasya, presented the shah's letter and gift to Ahmed, and passed on to Mîr Gıyâseddîn the instructions given to the Shiites. Hüsameddin regards this Nûreddîn Ali as one and the same person as the famous Şahkulu; modern research, however, treats Şahkulu, who rose in revolt in the Antalya region, and Nur Ali Halife, who entered Anatolia in 1512, as different people. Hüsameddin's naming in this section should therefore be read with care.

Early in 915 (1509) a bloody clash broke out in Amasya between Sunnis and Shiites. Remarks about the Companions of the Prophet made by Halil Ağa, steward of Mîr Gıyâseddîn, had started the fight; many people died on both sides, and the city's warden Bâlî Bey stopped the clash only with great difficulty. For the same year Hüsameddin lists the members of Ahmed's divan: the vizier Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha, the chancellor and poet Münîrî Çelebi, the chief usher Abdî Ağa and the others. Murad grew up within this divan. Amasya men close to Selim, meanwhile, were fleeing one after another to Trabzon. Hüsameddin's own judgement of Ahmed is harsh: in his view the prince could never see that those directing the Shiite organisation were in his own palace. This verdict also reflects the author's nationalist and Sunni outlook and should be read as such.

In the Shadow of the Succession Struggle

Murad's early youth coincided with the last period of Bayezid II's reign. Bayezid had grown old, and the question of which of his sons would succeed him hung over Anatolia. This struggle, stretching from 1509 to 1513, is remembered in Ottoman history as the war of succession between Ahmed, Selim and Korkut. Ahmed was regarded as Bayezid's favourite; Selim, for his part, was coming to the fore with the support of the Janissaries and of Rumelia. Fearing that Ahmed might depose him, Bayezid did not allow his son to enter Istanbul; according to some views, the Janissaries themselves closed this road out of loyalty to Selim.

On one side of this rivalry stood the Safavid state. Shah Ismail knew the influence he had over the Qizilbash Turkmen communities of Anatolia and wished to profit from the division within the Ottoman house. Ahmed regarded the Safavids as politically more moderate and accommodating, and Shah Ismail in turn sympathised with Ahmed's attempt to take the throne among Bayezid's sons. In 1511 the Şahkulu rebellion had broken out in the region of Antalya. Şahkulu led Turkmens who had been set in motion by the influence of Safavid missionaries, and he was trying to build on Ottoman soil a counterpart to the movement Shah Ismail had launched a few years earlier. Korkut's caravan was attacked on its way from Antalya to Manisa, and the beylerbey of Anatolia, Karagöz Ahmed Pasha, was defeated and killed. It is reported that instead of fighting Şahkulu, Ahmed tried to win the soldiers over to his own cause, that this caused discontent among the troops, and that the death during the rebellion of his most important supporter, Hadım Ali Pasha, weakened Ahmed's position.

Governor of Amasya

Murad's place in the government of Amasya is described in greatest detail by Hüsameddin. In the hijri year 916 (1510-1511), when Ahmed set out from Amasya with an army of twenty thousand, together with his vizier Sinan Pasha, the warden Bâlî Bey and the commander of the sipahis Hacı Şâdî Bey, to march against the Qizilbash bands, he left his son Murad in the city as "vekîl-i saltanat", his deputy. The alaybeyi Acem Alizâde Hamza Bey served as warden of the province. Ahmed returned from this campaign defeated, his entire baggage plundered. Then the grand vizier Hadım Ali Pasha, sent by Bayezid, pitched camp on the plain of Geldiklan near Amasya, and in Rebiülahir 917 (1511) was defeated at Gökçay in the Bozok region. According to Hüsameddin, Ali Pasha, gravely wounded, was carried to Amasya in a litter, died a few days later and was buried in the Kurdboğan Türbe.

Hüsameddin writes that after this defeat, instead of defending Amasya, Ahmed handed the governorship to "his eldest prince Murad Bey" and set out for Istanbul in the hope of taking the throne. The date is the beginning of Zilhicce 917, that is, February 1512. Murad's lala and the manager of his affairs became Yahşî Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha of Amasya's old Sunkur family; Bâlî Bey remained warden. Modern sources also associate Murad with the sanjak of Amasya in 1511-1512; the date Hüsameddin gives agrees with this range and indicates that Murad governed the city in his father's place rather than alongside him. A compilation on Ahmed's descendants, however, states that Murad was sanjak governor of Bolu; this makes the Amasya appointment partly contradictory, and since no other document is at hand, no decision can be reached.

Murad's governorship began at a grim moment. According to Hüsameddin, the Qizilbash forces had grown to more than thirty thousand and were striking the region of Tokat. The greatest threat to Amasya, however, was Zünnûn Halife, son of Halil Bey, one of the chiefs of the Cafarlu tribe in the Varay area, who had grown powerful enough to dominate the districts of Varay, Mecidözü and Turhal. In Muharrem 918 (early March 1512), mourning rites were held around Amasya. On the tenth day of Muharrem Zünnûn fell upon the city without warning with some ten thousand men. According to Hüsameddin, Murad and his lala Ahmed Pasha defended Amasya with all their strength, but Shiites inside the city who had passed as Sunnis suddenly came out into the open and helped the attackers from within. The defenders, the notables and the Sunni population were forced to abandon the city and withdraw to its surroundings. Zünnûn became master of Amasya on 15 Muharrem 918 (early April 1512); he first granted quarter, and the next day had the houses plundered.

The Loss and Recovery of Amasya

Forced out of the city, Murad, according to Hüsameddin, wrote to his father describing the situation in Amasya and asking for help. Meanwhile the recovery of the city was the work of a native of Amasya, Yahşî Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha. Members of Amasya's old families, Burak Beyzâde Hüseyin, Hacı Beyzâde Mehmed, Yörgüç Paşazâde Enis Bey and others, gathered around him. The beys of Samsun, Lâdik, Köprü and Merzifon came with their troops. Ahmed Pasha first crushed one by one the bands of Zünnûn that had scattered to plunder the villages, then besieged the city and, after a bloody fight, entered Amasya on 1 Rebiülevvel 918 (mid-May 1512). Zünnûn escaped with only a handful of men.

By this time everything had changed in Istanbul. Selim had taken the throne on 7 Safer 918 (24 April 1512) with the support of the Janissaries; Bayezid had abdicated and died shortly afterwards on the road to Dimetoka. Selim appointed Mustafa Pasha, one of his trusted men, as beylerbey of Amasya. When Mustafa Pasha arrived with a strong force, Yahşî Beyzâde and the other beys submitted at once and handed over the city and the citadel. Hüsameddin records this moment in a single sentence: "Şehzâde Murâd Bey, can korkusuyla pederinin yanına kaçıp gitdi" (Prince Murad Bey, in fear for his life, fled to his father). Murad's governorship of Amasya thus ended after a few months; the man who had recovered the city and the man who surrendered it was his own lala.

On hearing that Selim had taken the throne, Ahmed left Alaeddin in Bursa and turned back towards Amasya. According to Hüsameddin, in Rebiülahir 918 (June 1512) Ahmed came by way of Niksar, took Amasya by surprise and proclaimed his sultanate in the city; he had the Friday sermon read in his name, made Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha his grand vizier and had the palace and citadel wrecked by the rebels repaired. According to Hüsameddin, the name of the castellan Mustafa Bey, who carried out the repair, is carved together with the date 918 on the inner face of the citadel gate. Where Murad was during this second Amasya period, and what role he took on, Hüsameddin does not say.

Nur Ali Halife and the Qizilbash Crown

From this point on, the story told by modern sources takes a different direction. Wishing to profit from the turmoil the Ottoman state was in, Shah Ismail sent Nur Ali Halife into Ottoman territory to recruit as soldiers the Qizilbash who had been unable to come into his service. Nur Ali came to Şebinkarahisar and proclaimed the Shah's command; three or four thousand sipahis gathered around him with their families. The emptied villages appear in the Ottoman tax registers. With this force Nur Ali took Malatya and then marched on Tokat. The people of Tokat declared their allegiance, and the Friday sermon was read in the city in the name of Shah Ismail.

When Nur Ali Halife left Tokat and reached Kazabad in the Tokat region, Şehzade Murad joined him with an army of about ten thousand men. It is reported that on the same occasion Murad put on the Qizilbash crown. For an Ottoman prince this was a grave step: he had bowed his head to the crown that was Shah Ismail's emblem, and on the Ottoman side the act could be counted as open rebellion. For Shah Ismail, Murad was a candidate who could be used to mobilise opposition against Selim. Hüsameddin does not mention this alliance. In his narrative it may seem strange that Murad, who a few months earlier had defended Amasya against the Qizilbash, should join those same Qizilbash as his father's cause collapsed; but the two accounts do not exclude each other. It may be supposed that Murad first resisted the Qizilbash raid as an Ottoman prince and, after Selim's accession, saw his only way out in Shah Ismail. This is an inference.

According to information Selim received from his spies (December 1512 to January 1513), Shah Ismail was to conquer Anatolia, give the beylerbeylik of Rum to Murad and leave the remaining lands to the Qizilbash. Since, according to Hüsameddin, the seat of the beylerbeylik of Rum was then Amasya, it may be supposed that this promise meant giving Murad back the city of his birth. The information is reported as an allegation and, coming as it does from Selim's own spies, should be read with caution. The Safavid support promised to Murad did not materialise. When Nur Ali Halife came back to Tokat with Murad, the people refused to let them in; they then set the town on fire and turned towards Niksar. Here Murad parted from Nur Ali Halife and went to Shah Ismail. This crossing is dated to the autumn of 1512. It is also reported that Murad's son Mehmed was killed in Amasya at about the same time.

Nur Ali Halife then besieged Çemişgezek; the town surrendered without resistance. He is said to have mistreated the leading men of the Melkişli tribe and the population and to have killed many people. On his way to Erzincan he learned that the Ottoman vizier Sinan Pasha was following him with an army, and he defeated Sinan Pasha in a battle at Eyüyazı. After this victory he returned to Erzincan. Selim charged Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha with taking Çemişgezek from the Safavids; in June 1515 Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha routed Nur Ali at the Tekir pasture in the Ovacık area, Nur Ali was killed and the rebellion was put down. Murad was not at Nur Ali's side in this final stage. There is a difference of detail among the accounts of the path Murad followed: some say he left Nur Ali and went directly to Shah Ismail, others say in general terms that he took refuge with the Safavids. It is also reported that Murad, together with Nur Ali Halife, fought Ottoman forces around Tokat and Sivas.

The Family's Catastrophe

Ahmed's last campaign began in Amasya. According to Hüsameddin, the prince, trusting letters of loyalty from statesmen in Istanbul, raised troops, borrowed money from Amasya's notables and wealthy men and set out from Amasya on 20 Shawwal 918 (late December 1512). Among these letters were forged invitations written on Selim's instructions. The two brothers met near Yenişehir; Ahmed was defeated, fell from his horse while fleeing, was captured and strangled. The date of his death is given differently in the sources. Modern research places the battle in April 1513; the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi gives 15 April 1513, some compilations 24 April. Hüsameddin, however, writes that he saw in the Bursa court registers that Ahmed's body arrived in Bursa on 19 Zilhicce 918, that is, at the end of February 1513, and tries to correct the date 919 given in the "Türkiye Târîhi".

After Ahmed's defeat his sons scattered. In Hüsameddin's brief words, "Şehzâde Murâd Bey Îrân'a, Alâ'eddîn ve Kâsım Beyler Mısır'a firâr etdiler" (Prince Murad Bey fled to Iran, Alaeddin and Kasım Beys to Egypt). The fate of those who stayed in Amasya was bitter. On the day Şâdî Pasha of Amasya, whom Selim sent as beylerbey of Amasya, arrived in the city, the princes present in Amasya, above all Ahmed's son Osman, were strangled; Ahmed's daughters, consorts and concubines were sent to Bursa. Modern compilations state that Osman was killed in Amasya on 14 April 1513 and buried in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque; the date Hüsameddin gives falls a few weeks earlier. Murad's sons Mehmed and Mustafa were also killed in Amasya on Selim's orders; Mehmed is recorded as killed in September or October 1512, Mustafa on 14 May 1513. His brothers Ali and another Mehmed were also among those killed by Selim in 1513.

An investigation then began in Amasya. A commission made up of the new kadı, the mufti and the administrator of the sultanic endowments examined for days what had happened in the city and sent its records to Selim in the form of a book. Under a decree that arrived in 919 (1513), more than fifty people were executed; Ahmed's physician Kutb-ı Şirvânî was hanged and Mîr Gıyâseddîn was thrown into the dungeon of Amasya citadel. Ahmed's sheikh, Gümüşlüzâde Pîr Muhyiddîn Mehmed Çelebi, was imprisoned in Yedikule, and his teachers and companions were exiled to various towns from İskilip to Tire. The chancellor Münîrî Efendi is said to have died of fear during the investigation. The court circle in which Murad had grown up was thus dispersed within a few months.

In Safavid Lands

Murad was granted asylum in Safavid territory. It is also reported that Shah Ismail placed Murad at the head of the province of Fars; the sources at hand do not elaborate on the nature of this post. After Ahmed's death, Shah Ismail wished to make use of Murad, supporting him as a claimant to the throne in order to mobilise opposition against Selim. Another link in the family story is Murad's sister Fatma Sultan. Fatma Sultan, widow of Sultanzade Mehmed Bey, followed her brother Murad to Iran in 1512 and there joined Shah Ismail's harem. Of Ahmed's other sons, Süleyman and Alaeddin had died of plague in Cairo in 1513 and were buried in the Havşi Sultan Mosque. Kasım was killed in Cairo in 1518 on Selim's orders.

The support Shah Ismail gave to Selim's rivals, first to Ahmed and then to Murad, is counted among the causes of war that led to the Battle of Chaldiran (1514). Selim took harsh measures against the Qizilbash partisans in Anatolia; the political climate that followed the Şahkulu rebellion prepared the ground for this severity. Chaldiran cannot be explained by Murad's story alone, and there is no document showing that Murad actually took part in the battle. According to Hüsameddin, Selim inspected his army at Sivas on the way and weeded out the Qizilbash sympathisers within it; after Chaldiran he spent the winter in Amasya and had two of the envoys Shah Ismail sent to sue for peace imprisoned in Amasya citadel.

Return to Amasya in a Dervish's Guise

The least known part of Murad's story is the secret return that Hüsameddin relates on the basis of Amasya's records and of Solakzâde. According to Hüsameddin, in 922 (1516), while the beylerbey of Amasya, Mehmed Pasha, and the troops of the province had gone on the Egyptian campaign, Şehzade Murad, who had fled to Iran, came to Amasya disguised as a dervish and stayed for some time in the house of Sabuncuoğlu İbrâhim Çelebi, one of the city's wealthy men. Then he slipped away secretly and held long talks with Ahmed's partisans. In the same period the Qizilbash leaders called Celâl and Zünnûn rose again and struck the surroundings of Amasya with some ten thousand men. The Qizilbash bands advanced as far as the Ferhad gorge; cannon and archers placed on both sides of the gorge held them back for a while. At the end of Shawwal 922 (November 1516) they entered the city, but suffered heavy losses from the resistance of the people of Amasya and the attack of beys who came to the rescue from outside, and withdrew.

Sabuncuoğlu İbrâhim Çelebi is described separately in Hüsameddin's biographical section. Coming from Amasya's famous family of physicians and pharmacists, İbrâhim Çelebi was a descendant of Hekim Hacı İlyas Çelebi and had made a fortune in trade. Because he was among Şehzade Ahmed's intimates he was investigated at Selim's accession and released after a year. In this section Murad's stay at his house is dated to 923 (1517); in two places of the same work the date differs by a year. When the rumour reached Selim's ears, İbrâhim Çelebi again came under pressure. It is also written that he appears in Solakzâde's history as "Sabuncu Hoca İbrâhim Çelebi" and that he died in Amasya around 930 (1523-1524).

The Head Severed at Karahisar

In Safer 924 (February 1518) word spread that Murad had come from Iran and proclaimed himself sultan in the region of Karahisâr-ı Şarkî, that is, Şebinkarahisar, and that many people had sworn allegiance to him. According to Hüsameddin, this rumour greatly alarmed Selim. The sultan ordered Şâdî Pasha, beylerbey of Amasya, to go to Karahisar in person and find out the truth. Şâdî Pasha took with him Sofizâde Mehmed Ağa, Murad's childhood friend. Many rebels were seized and shown to Mehmed Ağa. In the end the head of a man resembling Murad was cut off and sent to Istanbul. Selim had it shown to people who had known the prince and, after confirmation, had it buried in the Karacaahmed cemetery in Üsküdar. Sofizâde Mehmed Ağa was taken into the palace and enrolled among the tasters; from then on he was called "Belâlı Mehmed Ağa", Mehmed Ağa of the Ordeal.

The rumour nonetheless did not die down. The version Solakzâde gives is somewhat different: according to him, four years after his flight to Iran Murad came to Amasya in a dervish's guise, fell ill, was taken through a farrier into the care of Sabuncuoğlu İbrâhim Çelebi and recovered, then went to Üsküdar and died there. According to Hüsameddin, when Selim grew suspicious of the rumour, he had those who knew the grave found, had the head exhumed and had that farrier brought from Amasya to be shown it. The farrier, by Hüsameddin's guess in order to reassure the sultan, confirmed that the head was Murad's. Sabuncuoğlu İbrâhim Çelebi, too, was dragged as far as Üsküdar to identify the head, and saved himself by testifying, together with another man from Amasya, that it belonged to Murad.

Hüsameddin's own verdict is clear. He accepts as true that Murad came to Amasya in 922, received protection from Sabuncuoğlu and claimed the sultanate in the Karahisar region; but he considers it false that his head was cut off in 924 or that he died in Üsküdar. In his view Selim's suspicion was well founded. This also conflicts with the 1519 date of death given by modern sources: if Murad died in Iran in 1519, the head severed at Karahisar in 1518 cannot have been his. On this point the two accounts agree that the head did not belong to Murad. The article on Selim in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi likewise counts "the activities of his nephew Şehzade Murad", alongside the Şah Velî rebellion, among the causes of the unrest on the eastern frontier in the spring of 1519; Murad's name, then, was still in Selim's calculations in 1519.

Differing Accounts of His Death

According to modern compilations, Murad died of natural causes on 16 October 1519; if 1495 is accepted as his year of birth, he was about twenty-four. Kashan or Isfahan is given as the place of death; this discrepancy between the sources has not been resolved. A compilation on Ahmed's descendants, however, states that Murad died in Ardabil and was buried beside Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili. This information cannot be reconciled with the other two.

Hüsameddin reaches an entirely different conclusion. He relies on the colophon at the end of a copy of the Mesâbîh registered as no. 1189 in the Fatih Library. According to this colophon, the book was written by "İbn Mevlânâ Hızır Lütfullâh" on Thursday, 20 Rebiülahir 930, that is, at the end of February 1524, for "Sultan Murad bin Gaybullâh bin Zâhir bin Tâhir ed-Dîvzânâvî". Hüsameddin reads these names as veiled allusions: "Gaybullâh" would stand for the late Ahmed, "Zâhir" for Bayezid II, "Tâhir" for Mehmed the Conqueror. He connects the nisba "Dîvzânâvî" with Dîvzânâ, the old name of the village of Zana north-east of Amasya; according to endowment records, Ahmed had a farm and a mosque there. He believes that Lütfullâh, the copyist, was the son of Mevlânâ Hızır bin İdrîs, Murad's teacher in Amasya. If this reading is correct, Murad was still alive in 1524.

Hüsameddin goes further still. He links the Qizilbash uprisings that continued throughout the 1520s around Amasya and Sivas, together with the phrase found in the records, "the rebels, or the followers of Sultan Murad", to a secret organisation directed by Murad. He "supposes" that Murad was personally at the head of the raid that fell upon Amasya before dawn in Zilhicce 940 (June 1534), when the sanjak governor Mehmed Bey, known as "Deli Pervâne", was besieged in his house and killed; and, observing that nothing more was heard afterwards, he writes that Murad may have been killed in this fight. The author presents these views as his own opinion, with phrases such as "it seems to me" and "I suppose". None of them is proven by documents, and they find no counterpart in modern research. They are nonetheless valuable for showing how long Murad's name lived on in Amasya's local memory.

His Effect on the Administration of Amasya

Murad's real trace in the history of Amasya may have been left in the city's administrative standing. According to Hüsameddin, the activity of Murad's partisans, concentrated around Sivas, Darende and Arapkir, made Sivas important. For this reason, in Cemaziyelevvel 924 (May 1518), the seat of the beylerbeylik of Rum was moved from Amasya to Sivas. Şâdî Pasha became beylerbey of Sivas, while Amasya became the seat of a sanjak, and Keyvanoğlu Rüstem Bey, known as "Uzun Rüstem Bey", was placed at its head. Drawing on old account books, Hüsameddin adds that while Amasya was the seat of the province it had nineteen zeamets and four hundred and twenty-nine timars, that when it became the seat of a sanjak only a small reduction was made in the governor's salary, and that Amasya was regarded as the first sanjak.

In the following years, too, strong governors were sent to Amasya. Early in 925 (1519), because "the rebels, or the followers of Sultan Murad" were pressing Amasya hard, Ahmed's former vizier Yularkısdı Sinan Pasha became mutasarrıf and warden of Amasya; in 927 (1521) he was killed in an ambush near Mecidözü. The vizier of Murad's father had lost his life fighting bands said to be acting in Murad's name. The phrases linking these bands to Murad are Hüsameddin's own interpretation; the appointments and dates, on the other hand, are information he reports from Amasya's records.

His Place in Amasya's Memory

No tomb, fountain, mosque or street name associated with Şehzade Murad is known in Amasya. Nor is his grave in Amasya; it is accepted that he died in Iran, in Safavid territory, and the sources agree that the head buried in the Karacaahmed cemetery in Üsküdar was not his. His trace in Amasya consists of its being the city of his birth, the sanjak he briefly governed and defended, the place where his children were killed, and the local traditions Hüsameddin collected. Amasya, the city of princes, holds both the birthplace of this story and its most bitter scenes.

Historiography has generally given more space to the princes of the winning side. Murad remained on the losing side, and for this reason he became one of those figures usually mentioned in Ottoman narratives in a single sentence. Hüsameddin's pages, by contrast, look at him through Amasya's eyes: a life that began with wedding feasts, was broken by a Qizilbash raid, and then went on in a dervish's cloak and a rumour. Part of these pages rests on documents and part on the author's own opinion, and the distinction between the two is left to the reader's attention.

Chronology

1490-1491 (AH 896): According to Hüsameddin, a circumcision feast was held in Amasya for Murad and Alaeddin.

1495: Year of birth given in most sources (Amasya).

1507 (AH 912, Shawwal): Murad's companion, the poet Figânî, was executed in Amasya.

1510-1511 (AH 916): While Ahmed was on campaign, Murad remained in Amasya as his deputy.

1512 (early Zilhicce AH 917): According to Hüsameddin, became governor of Amasya.

1512 (Muharrem AH 918): Zünnûn Halife raided Amasya; Murad was forced to leave the city.

1512 (24 April): Selim I took the throne.

1512 (May): Yahşî Beyzâde Ahmed Pasha recovered Amasya; when Selim's beylerbey arrived, Murad fled to his father.

1512: Joined Nur Ali Halife's Anatolian campaign and put on the Qizilbash crown.

Autumn 1512: Crossed into Safavid territory; his son Mehmed was killed in Amasya at this time.

1513 (14 April): His brother Osman was killed in Amasya (Hüsameddin gives an earlier date).

1513 (April): His father Ahmed was defeated at Yenişehir and killed (according to Hüsameddin, February 1513).

1513 (14 May): His son Mustafa was killed in Amasya.

1514: Battle of Chaldiran.

1515 (June): Nur Ali Halife was defeated by Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha in the Ovacık area and killed.

1516-1517 (AH 922/923): According to Hüsameddin, came to Amasya disguised as a dervish and stayed in the house of Sabuncuoğlu İbrâhim Çelebi.

1518 (February-March): Rumour that he had proclaimed himself sultan at Karahisâr-ı Şarkî; the head of a look-alike was cut off and buried in Üsküdar.

1518 (May): The seat of the beylerbeylik of Rum was moved from Amasya to Sivas.

1519 (16 October): According to modern sources, died in Kashan or Isfahan (in another account, in Ardabil).

1524 (February): According to Hüsameddin, date of the colophon of the Mesâbîh copy thought to have been written for Murad.

1534 (June): Raid on Amasya; in Hüsameddin's opinion, Murad's last action.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Feridun Emecen, "Selim I", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 36, Istanbul 2009, pp. 407-414 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Other sources

  • "Şehzade Murad (Şehzade Ahmed'in oğlu)", Turkish Wikipedia (tr.wikipedia.org); the article draws on Savory (2007), Savory and Karamustafa (1998), McCaffrey (1990), Faroqhi and Fleet (2012), Yelçe (2009) and Al-Tikriti (2004). tr.wikipedia.org
  • "Şehzade Murad (son of Şehzade Ahmed)", Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org). en.wikipedia.org
  • "Şehzade Ahmed (son of Bayezid II)", Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
  • "Nur Ali Halife İsyanı", Turkish Wikipedia (tr.wikipedia.org).
  • "Şahkulu rebellion", Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
  • "Ottoman Civil War (1509-1513)", Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).

Online sources