| Ruler | Reign (CE) | Yrs | Father | Mother | Persian Name | فارسی |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Aq Qoyunlu Rulers1 | ||||||
| Fakhr al-Din Qutlugh | c. 1378–1389 | ~11 | of the Bayandur clan | unknown | Fakhr-al-Dīn Qotlogh | فخرالدین قطلق |
| Qara Yuluk Uthman | 1389–1435 | 46 | Fakhr al-Din Qutlugh | unknownbased at Diyarbakir | Qarā Yologh Osmān | قره یولوق عثمان |
| Ali | 1435–1438 | 3 | Qara Yuluk Uthman | unknown | Ali-ye Qarā Yologh | علی بن قره یولوق |
| Hamza | 1438–1444 | 6 | Qara Yuluk Uthmanbrother of Ali | unknown | Hamze-ye Qarā Yologh | حمزه بن قره یولوق |
| Uzun Hasan | 1453–1478 | 25 | Aligrandson of Qara Yuluk Uthman2 | unknown | Ozun Hasan | اوزون حسن |
| Khalil | 1478 | <1 | Uzun Hasan | unknown | Khalīl-e Ozun Hasan | خلیل بن اوزون حسن |
| Ya’qub | 1478–1490 | 12 | Uzun Hasanbrother of Khalil3 | unknown | Ya’qub-e Ozun Hasan | یعقوب بن اوزون حسن |
| Final Succession Wars4 | ||||||
| Alwand | 1497–1501 | 4 | Yusuf ibn Uzun Hasangrandson of Uzun Hasan | unknowndefeated by the Safavids5 | Alvand | الوند |
1 The Aq Qoyunlu (“White Sheep”) Turkmen confederation, based around Diyarbakir in eastern Anatolia, was a longtime rival of the Qara Qoyunlu (“Black Sheep”) for control of the same borderlands between the Ottoman, Timurid and Mamluk worlds.
2 Uzun Hasan, the dynasty's dominant ruler, destroyed the rival Qara Qoyunlu in 1467 and defeated the Timurid ruler Abu Sa’id in 1469, briefly making the Aq Qoyunlu the strongest power in Iran and eastern Anatolia.
3 Uzun Hasan sought an alliance with Venice against the expanding Ottoman Empire but was decisively defeated by Sultan Mehmed II at the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473. His son Ya’qub presided over a more stable, if diminished, continuation of the state.
4 After Ya’qub's death in 1490 the confederation collapsed into more than a decade of destructive succession wars among his relatives, fatally weakening it just as a new Safavid religious and military movement was gathering strength at Ardabil.
5 Alwand, one of the last competing Aq Qoyunlu princes, was decisively defeated by the young Safavid leader Ismail I at the Battle of Sharur in 1501 — the opening victory of the campaign that founded the Safavid Empire and, within a few years, absorbed the last Aq Qoyunlu territories entirely.