Mehmed of Dulkadir

Nasir al-Din Mehmed Beg (Nasireddin Mehmed Bey; before 1362 – October 1442) was the ruler of Dulkadir from 1399 until his death. He came to power with the intervention of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I ((r. 1389 – 1402)) amidst the internal struggles within the Dulkadirids and forced his cousin Sadaqa to flee from Elbistan, the capital. During the Ottoman Interregnum (1402–13), Mehmed supported Bayezid's son Mehmed Chelebi, who became the new sultan succeeding his father. While Nasir al-Din Mehmed was involved in sporadic clashes with the Mamluks, he enjoyed peace with them towards the end of his reign, marrying his daughter to the Mamluk Sultan and commissioning the construction of madrasas and other buildings in regions outside his control, such as in Jerusalem.

Early life and background
Mehmed's grandfather, Zayn al-Din Qaraja was one of the Turkmen lords, or begs, dwelling in southern Anatolia and northern Syria in the early fourteenth century who were granted the right to administer part of the region by the Mamluk Sultanate. Qaraja eventually revolted and was executed by the Mamluks in December 1353. His sons and successors, Ghars al-Din Khalil ((r. 1353 – 1386)) and Shaban Suli ((r. 1386 – 1398)) similarly were in a continuous conflict with the Mamluks and would both be assassinated on the orders of the Mamluk Sultan Barquq ((r. 1382 – undefined)). Following the demise of his father, Khalil, Mehmed rejected the authority of his uncle, Suli. Sponsored by Barquq, Mehmed defeated and forced his ruling uncle to flee to Develi with the aid of the Mamluk governor of Sis in the summer of 1389. Suli later joined the rebellion led by the Mamluk governors of Malatya and Aleppo, Mintash and Yalbugha al-Umari. In this struggle, Mehmed continued to support Barquq, and along with his uncle, Sarim al-Din Ibrahim, marched on the governor of Besni, Toman Timur, who was the brother of Mintash.

Upon the murder of Shaban Suli in 1398, his son Sadaqa inherited the throne and traveled to Cairo to receive the manshūr (the diploma to rule) from the Mamluks. When Sadaqa returned to Elbistan, Mehmed challenged his authority starting a bloody fight between the two. Mehmed likely sought help from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, who had recently established control over the lands formerly under the sovereignty of Kadi Burhan al-Din, who died in 1398. He was installed by Bayezid I ((r. 1389 – 1402)) on 2 August 1399, who forced his rival cousin who previously held the throne, Sadaqa, out of Elbistan. Bayezid's involvement in the Dulkadirid succession marked the beginning of the Ottoman–Mamluk rivalry, during which Dulkadir formed a buffer region.

Reign
While Mehmed had intermittent conflicts with the Mamluks, he maintained stable relations with the Ottomans. Contrary to his uncle, Shaban Suli, Mehmed was fiercely against Timur, a Turco-Mongol leader who was, at the time, conquering vast portions of West Asia. After having besieged Sivas in 1400, Timur attempted to ransack Elbistan in response to an earlier robbery by the Turkmens, who escaped to the mountains when he arrived. During his return from the Syrian campaign in early 1401, Timur ordered an offensive on the Dulkadir kishlak near Tadmur and caught up to 200 thousand sheep. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid faced a major loss and subsequent imprisonment by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in July 1402.

Following the battle, the Ottoman realm was ravaged by the Ottoman Interregnum (1402–13), a civil war among Bayezid's claimant sons, ignited by his capture by Timur and death in 1403. Mehmed supported Mehmed Chelebi, who had gained direct control of Rum Eyalet, which were formerly the lands under the sovereignty of Kadi Burhan al-Din and bordered the Dulkadirids. Nasir al-Din Mehmed established a firm relationship with Mehmed Chelebi by marrying his daughter Emine Hatun to him and having his son Suleiman fight against Mehmed Chelebi's rival sibling Musa Chelebi in the spring of 1413. Mehmed Chelebi was successfully enthroned as the new head of the Ottomans. An unexpected retreat by the Timurid forces in Syria resurrected the internal struggles within the Mamluks, such as the revolts of Tanriverdi and Demirtash, the former Mamluk governors of Aleppo and Damascus, respectively. Nasir al-Din Mehmed took advantage of the unrest by seizing control of Darende, while Malatya was captured by an allied chieftain, Muhammad bin Kopek. In November 1411, Mehmed was granted control of Aintab as a reward for his support of al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh ((r. 1412 – 21)), who would triumph in claiming the Mamluk throne initially occupied by an-Nasir Faraj ((r. 1399 – 1412)). Mehmed's brother Ala al-Din Ali was previously made the city's governor in July 1402 as an appreciation for his part in the restoration of an-Nasir Faraj's authority in Aleppo, the former Mamluk governors of Aleppo and Damascus. However, Ali had lost control of Aintab before when Mehmed received the city, and in 1414 and the spring of 1417, al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh conversely led two expeditions against the Dulkadirids, the first of which retook Aintab and Darende (which was lost after), and Ala al-Din Ali joined the latter. The Mamluks then trusted Ali and his son Hamza with the administration of Elbistan and Marash, respectively. This lasted a short period as Mehmed reinstated Dulkadirid rule in Elbistan, but afterwards, Mehmed sought more amicable relations with his relatives and the Mamluks. He appointed his brother Ali as the governor of Marash and participated in the Mamluk campaign against the Karamanids in 1419, which earned him the city of Kayseri in April the same year.

Mehmed built many madrasas in and outside his realm, including the Nasiriyya or Hatuniyya Madrasa in Kayseri and Ghadiriyya in Jerusalem north of the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque. Other examples of his architectural legacy were erected in Aintab, Marash, and outside of Aleppo. Through the orders of Barsbay ((r. 1422 – 38)), Nasir al-Din Mehmed regained Aintab and Darende, which Ali had been reassigned as the governor of by the previous Mamluk ruler Sayf al-Din Tatar ((r. undefined – undefined)). Although Ali kept Marash, he would soon be executed by Barsbay in June 1426. His son Hamza briefly controlled Marash but would be succeeded by Mehmed's son Fayyaz. Barsbay additionally revoked the administration of Malatya held by Tughrak, Mehmed's cousin's son, and instead dispatched him to administer Homs in inner Syria.

In May 1429, Mehmed lost Harpoot to the Aq Qoyunlu, who parried his and the Mamluk forces' attempt to capture Amid in May 1433. The Mamluks started favoring deceased Ali's son Hamza and replaced Mehmed's son Fayyaz with him as the ruler of Marash in December 1434, while imprisoning Fayyaz in Cairo. Mehmed shortly sent his wife Khadija Khatun there in a diplomatic mission that succeeded in allowing Fayyaz's return to his former position in Marash but also ensure the continuation of Suleiman's tenure in Kayseri, which Ibrahim II of Karaman was trying to obtain control of by negotiating with the Mamluks. This did not prevent Kayseri's fall to the joint attack conducted by the Karamanids, Ramadanids, as well as others that enacted direct Mamluk administration in July 1435. Parallel to the worsening relations with the Mamluks, Mehmed favored the Mamluk rebel, Janibeg al-Sufi, and arranged the marriage of his daughter, Nafisa Khatun, and Janibeg. Barsbay executed Hamza in October 1436 and initiated two campaigns against Janibeg and Mehmed, which, although futile, caused severe damage in Elbistan. By early 1437, Suleiman returned to governing Kayseri with the intervention of the Ottoman forces.

During the period between Barsbay's death in 1438 and that of Mehmed, Mamluk relations took a positive turn. On 31 March 1440, widowed Nafisa Khatun married Jaqmaq ((r. 1438 – 53)). As part of the dowry, Mehmed was paid one million dinars. Moreover, Harpoot was back in Dulkadirid hands when the Mamluks ended the city's ten years of Aq Qoyunlu rule. Mehmed died in October 1442 over eighty years old. The throne was inherited by his son Suleiman Beg.

Family
Mehmed married with Kadi Burhan al-Din's daughter, Khadija Khatun, corresponding to his father's earlier alliance with Kadi Burhan al-Din. His sons included his successor Suleiman, Rustam, Dulkadir, Davud, Feyyaz, while his daughters were Emine and Nefise Hatun. Historian Refet Yinanç listed an additional daughter named Misr; however, Margaret Venzke noted that a waqf identified her as the son of Suleiman (therefore Mehmed's granddaughter). Nevertheless, Venzke suggested the possibility that there were two different women in the same family.

Mehmed married his daughter Emine Hatun to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I and Nefise Khatun to the Mamluk Sultan Jaqmaq, after she was widowed from her earlier marriage with the Mamluk rebel Janibeg al-Sufi.