ʿALĪ B. OWAYS, Jalayerid prince usually known as Šāhzāda Shaikh ʿAlī, one of the five sons of Oways I (r. 575-76/1356-74). In 776/1374 the dying Oways made his son Ḥosayn co-sovereign (on coins) and heir, condoned the murder of his eldest son, Ḥasan, and gave ʿAlī Baghdad. Esmāʿīl, son of Oways’ minister, Zakarīyāʾ, and governor of Baghdad, imprisoned ʿAlī’s atabeg and stayed in power until 780/1378-79, when ʿAlī obtained Esmāʿīl’s assassination. Threatened by Sultan Ḥosayn (whose Baghdad coinage was interrupted in 781/1379-80), ʿAlī’s associates summoned Pīr-ʿAlī Bādak (Tārīḵ-egozīda, pp. 721, 722) or Bādīk (Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū), a former Jalayerid commander; but they were driven away to his Šūštar stronghold by Ḥosayn and his general, ʿĀdel, in the winter of 781/1379-80. ʿĀdel attacked Šūštar late in 782/1381, but ʿAlī survived by threatening submission to the Muzaffarid Shah Šoǰāʿ (r. 765-86/1364-84) and by renouncing Baghdad. In 784/1382 Aḥmad b. Oways murdered Ḥosayn and was then attacked by another brother (Bāyazīd) with ʿĀdel, and by ʿAlī and Pīr-ʿAlī. Aḥmad subverted ʿĀdel’s troops but lost Tabrīz to Pīr-ʿAlī. Later, Aḥmad and Qara Moḥammad Qara Qoyunlū defeated and killed Pīr-ʿAlī and ʿAlī b. Oways.
Bibliography:
Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, Ḏayl-e Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ-e Rašīdī, ed.
Ḵ. Bayānī, Tehran, 1350 Š./ 1971, pp. 245, 257-62, 267-70.
This account is abridged and altered by Ḥabīb al-sīar (Tehran) III, pp. 242-47.
Zambaur’s information is unreliable.
For Jalayerid coins, see A. Markov, Katalog Dzhelairidskikh Monet, St. Petersburg, 1897.
(J. M. Smith, Jr.)
Originally Published: December 15, 1985
Last Updated: August 1, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 8, pp. 853-854
J. M. Smith, Jr., “ʿALĪ B. OWAYS,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/8, pp. 853-854, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ali-b-26 (accessed on 30 December 2012).