emirate · Anatolia and the Levant

Candarids

1291 CE – 1461 CE · capital Kastamonu

A long-lived Turkish beylik of the Black Sea region, ruling Kastamonu and Sinop until the Ottomans took it in 1461.

Origins

Shams al-Din Yaman Candar, a Turkish commander in Ilkhanid service, was granted the district of Eflani in the 1290s. His son Suleyman Pasha took Kastamonu from the Chobanids of Kastamonu in 1309 and Sinop from the Pervaneids around 1322.

Rule and society

The beylik controlled the copper mines of Kure and the port of Sinop, which traded with Genoese colonies across the Black Sea. Ibn Battuta stayed in Kastamonu in the 1330s. The rulers patronised Turkish literature and built mosques in Kastamonu. Under Isfendiyar Bey, after whom the family was also called, they survived the Ottoman advance by alliances and ceding territory.

Decline and legacy

Bayezid I annexed Kastamonu in 1392, but Timur restored the family in 1402. Mehmed II took Sinop from Ismail Bey in 1461 on the way to Trebizond, ending the beylik.

Lineage

Chobanids of Kastamonu 1211 CE – 1309 CECandarids

Connections (3)

Candarids was a vassal of Ilkhanate1291 CE – 1335 CE
Pervaneids was conquered by Candarids1322 CE
Candarids was conquered by Ottoman Empire1461 CE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Candarids. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/candarids
MLA: “Candarids.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/candarids. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Candarids.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/candarids.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Candarids’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/candarids (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻