Bitlis

Bitlis was a Kurdish emirate in the valley between the Armenian plateau and Mesopotamia, west of Lake Van. In 1337 it was ruled by Dia’ al-Din of the Ruzaki family.

The emir submitted to Timur in 1394. The Aq Qoyunlu took Bitlis after three sieges in the 1470s, but the Motikan retook it in 1494. Between the Safavids and Ottomans, Emir Sheref resisted an Ottoman siege in 1531 and fell in 1533; his son submitted. Bitlis remained a literary centre, home to Sharaf Khan, author of the Sharafname.