Land Reform and Regicide in Late Fifteenth-Century Iran

This article examines appendices to an unpublished, miscatalogued falconry manual titled Bāznāmah . Composed by Sarbandi, an avian veterinarian attending the Aqquyunlu court, these addenda were completed early in August 1491, eight months after the death of the Aqquyunlu ruler, Yaʿqub (r. 1478–1490). Covering events from 1489 to 1491, Sarbandi’s account sheds light on aspects of bureaucratic responses to dynastic crises. This study focuses on two key episodes: the centralizing reforms launched by ʿIsa Savaji (d. 1491), often viewed as a return to Islamic norms, and the regicide of December 1490. By placing this overlooked narrative in dialogue with conventional primary sources—chronicles, normative administrative texts, biographical dictionaries, and archival records—and published literature, this article rethinks the dominant account that underscores the Islamic roots of the late Aqquyunlu reforms, emphasizing their Ilkhanid origins instead. The edited text of the appendices to the Bāznāmah , along with their translation, is included

Asian studies · Bureaucracy · Islam · Land reform · Narrative · Normative · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Islamic Studies and History · Medieval History and Crusades