Qādī Īsā al-Sāwajī: an Aqquyunlu qādīʻaskar obedıent to Ibrāhīm al-Gulshanī in the lıght of Menākıb-i Ibrāhīm-i Gülşenī

The aim of this study is to reveal a portrait of Qādī Īsā al-Sāwajī (d. 1491) who served as a qādīʻaskar at the Aqquyunlu Court in the reign of Sultan Yaʻqūb (1478-1490). To achieve this aim we read Menākib-i Ibrāhim-i Gülşenī in comparison with chronicles and tazākir of the time which consist of little knowledge about Qādī Īsā. Ibrāhīm al-Gulshanī who came to Tabriz in the reign of Uzun Hasan, gained the trust of the Sultan and began to receive protection at the Aqquyunlu Court and as a result of this he had some official duties. After meeting the Khalwatī Shaykh, Dede ʻUmar al-Rūshanī, al-Gulshanī became an obedient of his spiritual direction (murīd) and than one of his successors (khalīfa). When Qādī Īsā was concerned, as a scholar belonging to the family of al-Sāwajī which had strong connection with the Aqquyunlu Court, he became the teacher of Sultan Yaʻqūb when Yaʻqūb was a prince (shehzāde). As soon as Yaʻqūb sat on the throne Qādī Īsā had the duty of qādīʻaskar which lasted to his death and his position and prestige at the Court increased day by day. The obedience of Qādī Īsā to al-Gulshanī began to emerge when he learnt his master's influence in his appoitment as a qādīʻaskar. On the other hand al-Gulshanī was interested into Qādī Īsā, because al-Rūshanī had entrusted Qādī Īsā to him. Dede ʻUmar al-Rūshanī was uncomfortable about the anti-Sunnī ideas that were effective in the Court circles and was willing to keep Sultan Yaʻqūb and other statesmen on the Sunnī line. To achieve for this aim, obedience of Qādī Īsā to the Khalwatī order had firstly to be provided. It can be assumed, according to the Menākib, that the mission to al-Gulshanī by his master al-Rūshanī in the Aqquyunlu Court was to keep Qādī Īsā on the Sunnī creed by taking him into the Khalwatī order. It can also be concluded from the stories narrated in the Menākib that the process of excluding the ideas contrast to the Ahl al-Sunnah became evident in this period in which Shiī Safavid political movement had gained power, and al-Rūshanī and thus al-Gulshanī contributed to this process. On the other hand, unlike other sources, the Menākib shows us that Qādī Īsā was competing with other authorities in the Aqquyunlu Court and he did not have the absolute authority which gained at last years of the reign of Sultan Yaʻqūb during the whole period when he was a qādīʻaskar. This absolute authority allowed Qādī Īsā to make an attempt to reform the Aqquyunlu territorial order. But this attempt which led to the rise of opposing voices from inside the Court, including al-Gulshanī, and outside of it brought the end of Qādī Īsā. A month after the death of Sultan Yaʻqūb, on January 1491, Qādī Īsā was executed by his strongest opponent in the Court, namely Sūfī Khalīl.