Handsome prince means righteous rule? The Aqquyunlu occupation of Mardin by Ḥamza b. qara ʿUthmān in 835/1432 according to two epigraphic sources

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Leube, Georg:
Handsome prince means righteous rule? The Aqquyunlu occupation of Mardin by Ḥamza b. qara ʿUthmān in 835/1432 according to two epigraphic sources.
In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. (2026) .
ISSN 0041-977X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X26101116

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Abstract

This article reconstructs and contextualizes two inscriptions commemorating the Aqquyunlu occupation of Mardin in 835/1432 at the newly built main gate linking the town to the citadel. Inscription 835 Mardin was formerly displayed on three courses of stones in a framed area surmounting the gate facing the town. The gate collapsed at some point in the twentieth century. Due to the inclusion of its former location in the active military base inside Mardin’s citadel, it is unclear whether some of the stones displaying inscription 835 Mardin still exist among the rubble below its former location. Even before the collapse of the gate, the stones of inscription 835 Mardin had been reset out of their original sequence as documented in a unique photograph taken in 1911, which enables the reconstruction presented in this article. The gate surmounted by inscription 835 Mardin was closed with an inscribed monumental lock that was commissioned immediately after the Aqquyunlu occupation of Mardin. This lock was formerly held as #378 in the collection of the Çinili Köşk of the Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi in Istanbul. Notwithstanding repeated inquiries via email and on site with the administration of the museum, it cannot currently be located and appears to have been lost. Accordingly, the edition suggested in the present article builds on an earlier edition by Halil Etem [Eldem] as checked against additional photographs published in other scholarly publications until 1952 and the reconstructed historical and epigraphic context presented in the present article. Together, both inscriptions constitute a unique and coherent epigraphic programme declaring the commitment of the newly established Aqquyunlu administration to rule in accordance with Islamic normativities and the supra-regional standard of the Timurid ruler Shāhrukh, who is named as qara ʿUthmān’s overlord in both inscriptions.