8. The relations of Aggoyunlu rulers with feudal aristocracy.

Problem of
weakening the central power. The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms.

One of the greatest rulers of Aq-qoyunlu was Sultan Hasan Bayandurlu. Normally the rulers
of Aqqoyunlu in the 15th century had the padishah title, but Sultan Hasan took the sultan
title to show his equality to Ottoman and Timurids rulers. He was trying to centralize the
power and break the resistance of the military-nomadic nobles. That is why he created the
“Khanunname” where all the rules were established. This was one of the main steps in
financial system and in regulating the taxation system. For strengthening the central power,
he increased the number of cavalry from the settled population. Religious tolerance also
played its role in gaining the power and loyalty. In the 15th century there were these forms
of land ownership: divan (belonged to state treasury), khass (dynastic lands), mulk
(hereditary lands), wagf (belonged to muslim institutions), soyurghal (given for services).
Soyurghal was given for services and passed by inheritance. Soyurghals helped to gain the
respect from Turkic nobility, to win their support. The owners of soyurghals had a lot of
perks as taxation and judicial immunity. In this case, major taxpayers were peasants and
craftsmen. There were nearly 40 types of taxes. The main one was maljahat (1/5 of the
harvest), tamgha and badj were for craftsmen and merchants. Non – muslim population also
payed the jizya tax. Later on, the owners of soyurghals became a problem for the central
power as they were gaining power and declining the Sultan. One of the rulers, Yagub, even
tried to centralize the monarchy by small and medium sized soyurghals but it didn’t help
long termly. He attempted to replace the mongol law with muslim law with cancelling
tamgha. Big soyurghal owners were collecting it as a payment for road traffic in their areas.
That is why this new law concerned them. Eventually Yagub died and his reforms didn’t last
long.