Battle of Sharur
1501 battle
The Battle of Sharur was fought in 1501 near Sharur, close to Nakhchivan, between the forces of Ismail ibn Shaykh Haydar and the Aq Qoyunlu army of Alvand Mirza. Ismail decisively defeated Alvand, after which the Qizilbash advanced unopposed on Tabriz, the former Aq Qoyunlu imperial capital. The victory was an important step in the establishment of Safavid rule in Iran, and expelled Alvand from Azerbaijan.
Background
During the civil wars that followed the death of Uzun Hasan, the Aq Qoyunlu state became increasingly fragmented. In 1500, Alvand and Sultan Murad concluded a partition agreement under which Alvand was accorded Diyar Bakr, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Mughan, and Arran, while Sultan Murad received Persian Iraq, Kerman, Fars, and Arabian Iraq. This division of the Aq Qoyunlu realm greatly facilitated Ismail's subsequent conquests.
Ismail, who had emerged from his refuge in Gilan in 1499, gathered a substantial body of Qizilbash followers near Erzincan in 1500. Roger Savory gives the strength of this force as 7,000 men drawn principally from the Ustajlu, Rumlu, Takkalu, Dhu'l-Qadar, Afshar, Qajar, and Varsaq tribes. Ismail then campaigned against the Shirvanshahs. Farrukh Yasar was defeated and killed at the Battle of Jabani, and Shirvan passed under Qizilbash control within a few months.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12849799. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1501, 1500 and 1499.
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