Timur’un Anadolu’daki Ardılları

In 1206, Chinggis Khan, who ascended to the throne with the title of “Chinggis Khan” at a kurultai attended by all tribal leaders, made important administrative, military and social arrangements. In these arrangements, Mongol and Turkish tribes began to take part in the military structure. This situation led to a change in the traditional lifestyle of the tribes. The tribes, clans, lineages and sub-clans that had an important place in the social and administrative structure of the tribes became members of the army. In the early history, the name “Mongol” did not exist as a political name. The most powerful and largest tribe among the tribes was known as “Tatar”. The Tatars, who were at the forefront of the army, both carried their own name to the places they went and became an encompassing name for all Mongol and Turkish tribes under the umbrella of the Mongol Empire. After Chinggis Khan ascended to the throne, he marched on the Kin and Song dynasties of China. He captured Beijing in 1215. With the conquest of Beijing, Chinggis Khan’s fame increased considerably. In the meantime, upon the looting of a Mongol trade caravan in Otrar in the country of the Khwarazmshahs, Chinggis Khan turned his direction west and organized an expedition against the Khwarazmshahs. This expedition provided an important opportunity for the Mongols to spread westward. The Mongols overcame all obstacles in their path and virtually destroyed the Khwarazmshahs. The Mongol commander Chormakan Noyan (ca. 1218-1241), who was at the forefront of this expedition, conquered Iran and the Transcaucasian regions, which would later form the core region of the Ilkhanate and settled in the abundant pastures of Arran and Mugan. Baycu Noyan, who was appointed to replace Chormakan Noyan, began to expand Mongol rule into Anatolia in 1242 and defeated the Seljuk army at Kösedağ in 1243. Following this defeat, the Mongol rule in Anatolia, which would last for about a century, began. In the meantime, the Ilkhanate State (1253-1353) centered in Iran was founded by Hulagu Khan (1256-1353) and Anatolia began to be governed by governors affiliated with the Ilkhanates. It is estimated that an average of over 1 million people came to the Near East and Anatolia, including the troops affiliated with Hulagu and their families. The groups that came to Anatolia and who were mostly referred to as Tatar and Kara Tatar in the sources, began to play a role in the struggles between the Anatolian principalities after the dissolution of the Ilkhanate State (1336). Meanwhile, in the 1402 Battle of Ankara between Ottoman Sultan Yıldırım Bayezid and Timur, the Kara Tatars switched from Bayezid’s side to Timur’s, and Bayezid’s army was dispersed. In the early 15th century, Timur made a call to take the Kara Tatars with him when he left Anatolia. It is understood from Ottoman chronicles and archival records that not all tribes known as Tatar or Tataran responded to this call and some of them remained in Anatolia. The Ottoman chronicles state in the information they provide among the legends that these groups came from early times. However, it is not possible to give a definite date on this subject. What is certain is that the Tatar or Tataran groups that did not obey Timur’s call remained in Anatolia. If we consider that the Tatar tribe in the Mongol Empire was at the forefront of the army in the early dates, that they carried their own name to the places they went, and that this name was used as an encompassing name for all Mongol and Turkish tribes, it is possible to say that the groups known as Tatar and Tataran in Anatolia were also known and recorded with this encompassing name.