Yaqub Beg

Yaqub b. Uzun Hasan , commonly known as Sultan Ya'qub (; ) was the ruler of the Aq Qoyunlu from 1478 until his death on 24 December 1490. A son of Uzun Hasan, he became the ruler of the dynasty after the death of his brother Sultan Khalil. The borders of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty remained stable during his reign. In his book Tarikh-i Alam-ara-yi Amini, Fazlallah Khunji Isfahani praised him as a decent successor of Uzun Hasan. Ya'qub received praise from other historians for supporting poets and scientists.

Origins Yaqub Beg was the son of Uzun Hasan and Seljuk Shah Begum, a daughter of Kur Muhammad Bayandur. He had an older full brother, Khalil Mirza Beg, and a younger full brother, Yusuf Beg. On 6 January 1478, his father died and his brother Khalil proclaimed himself sultan. He exiled both of his brothers and killed his half-brother Maqsud Beg, son of Despina Khatun, a Byzantine princess. Another half-brother, Ughurlu Muhammad, whose mother was a daughter of Dawlatshah Beg Bulduqani-Mardasi, escaped to Constantinople, to the court of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, where he married his daughter Gevherhan Hatun. This caused civil war to break out between Khalil and his family.

Literature The Hasht Behesht Palace in Tabriz, started by Uzun Hasan, was completed by his son Yaqub Beg. Khamsa of Nizami (Tabriz, 1481), commissioned by Yaqub Beg. Ya'qub's court included several distinguished poets, such as Baba Fighani Shirazi, Ahli Shirazi, Kamal al-Din Bana'i Haravi, and Shahidi Qumi. Another distinguished poet, Hatefi, who was a nephew of the poet Jami, spent five years at Ya'qub's court. Khatai Tabrizi, an Azeri poet of the 15th century, dedicated a mathnawi entitled Yusof wa Zoleykha to Sultan Ya'qub, and Ya'qub even wrote poetry in the Azerbaijani language. Baba Fighani Shirazi dedicated a ceremonial ode (qasida) to Ya'qub, and also a eulogy after the latter's death.