The Jalayirid Hidden King and the Unbelief of Shāh Mohammad Qara Qoyunlu

Abstract

This article provides an account of the transfer of power from the Jalayirids to the Qara Qoyunlu in ʿErāq al-ʿArab (Iraq) and the religio-political history of the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty with a particular focus on the reign of Shāh Mohammad b. Qara Yusof, the Qara Qoyunlu ruler in Baghdad between 1411/814 and 1433/836. Contemporary historians accused Shāh Mohammad of unbelief and apostasy. The article argues that the reports on his conversion to Christianity might be an indication for the existence of a form of Islamic piety that involved the veneration of Jesus. Unlike the veneration of ʿAli b. Abi Tāleb and his descendants, the veneration of Jesus among the Turkmens of the fifteenth century is an understudied topic. This article is a contribution to the debate on the issue of the so-called “Turkmen religiosity,” which is often considered the wellspring of non-mainstream religious movements in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.