Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt

Bozkurt was the son of Suleiman, the sixth ruler of the principality of Dulkadir.[4]

Domains of Ala al-Dawla (Aladulia) located between Natolia, Caramania, Armenia, and Turcomania, as depicted by English cartographer John Seller in 1690

Through the end of Sultan Mehmed II's reign, Bozkurt forged an alliance with the Ottomans.[5]

The Dulkadirids faced great diplomatic challenges during Bozkurt's rule, who married his daughter Ayshe to the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II but also declared allegiance to the Mamluk Sultanate, recognizing Sultan Qansuh's sovereignty wtihin his domain.[6] Despite his ties with the Ottomans, Bozkurt rarely acted as a full vassal to Bayezid. In order to prevent Mamluk campaign in Dulkadirid lands in 1484, Bozkurt released the Mamluk governors of Tripoli and Tarsus, who he had imprisoned in an earlier clash in the border region with the Mamluks. In 1486, Bozkurt did not merge his forces with the Ottomans, who were at war with the Mamluks, although the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay had declined Bozkurt's earlier request for peace in December 1485, when the Mamluk forces reached Cilicia.[7] Scholars popularly link Bozkurt's actions to the deterioraton of Ottoman-Mamluk relations, though some regard this view as belittling Bayezid's own share in this diplomatic struggle.[8] Even when the Dulkadirid army finally joined the Ottoman expedition into Cilicia in 1487, Bozkurt contested a direct attack on the Mamluks.[7]

Bozkurt was initially successful in ruling an equidistant buffer state between the Mamluks and the Ottomans, but the political atmosphere of the region became even more complicated with the emergence of Safavid Iran. A decade into his reign, Shah Ismail of the Safavids destroyed the Dulkadirid capital of Elbistan in 1508, which was a threat to Ottoman dominance in Anatolia. Frustrated by Bayezid's inaction against Safavid expansion, Selim I aggressively rose to the Ottoman throne, overthrowing his father, Bayezid, executing three of his brothers along with their children, and defeating Ismail in the Battle of Chaldiran. Threatened by Selim's actions, Bozkurt refused to support the Ottomans in the battle, which was used against him and led to his downfall.[6]

Bozkurt died in the Battle of Turnadağ with the Ottoman Sultan Selim I on the Göksun highlands, where up to 40 thousand Turkmen soldiers were killed.[9] Selim sent Bozkurt's severed head, along with 70 of Bozkurt's allied chiefs,[9] to the Mamluk Sultan Qansuh, which was a threat and hint at the impending downfall of the Mamluks.[10]

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,[4] and another daughter, who was married to the Mamluk commander Uzbek's son.[11] Shāhrukh became the lord of Kırşehir, while Suleiman was the lord of Bozok. Ayshe Khatun married the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II around 1467. Bozkurt's other daughter, Beglu married Sultan Murad of the Aq Qoyunlu after her father refused the Safavid Shah Ismail's request to marry.[4]

Bozkurt married his paternal uncle Rustam Beg's daughter Shamsa Khatun (died 1509).[12]

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