Aq Qoyunlu

The Aq Qoyunlu, or 'White Sheep', were a Turkoman tribal confederation that ruled eastern Anatolia, Iraq and much of Iran in the second half of the fifteenth century. They expanded at the expense of Timurid territories in the west. The Safavid leader Ismail I defeated them in the early sixteenth century and took over their lands as the foundation of the Safavid Empire.