At the outset of his reign, Ya'qub faced a revolt from the Bayandur princes Alwand Beg and Kusa Haji in
Shiraz and
Isfahan respectively, but both revolts were crushed. The biggest revolt during his reign was that of
Shaykh Haydar, the father of
Ismail I, which resulted in the death of Haydar. In 1480,
Qaitbay, the
Mamluk sultan of
Egypt, sent an army under his
Pechenegs commander Yashbak al-Zahiri to invade
Diyar Bakr. Ya'qub consequently sent an army under Bayindir Beg,
Sulayman Beg Bijan and
Sufi Khalil Beg Mawsilu to counter the army. The two forces
clashed in November of the same year, which resulted in an Aq Qoyunlu triumph and capture of Yashbak al-Zahiri, who was executed a few days later. In the same year, Ya'qub's forces defeated and killed Balish Beg, the commander-in-chief of Syria, who had attempted to conquer Diyar Bakr. of Ya'qub concerning land rights given previously by the deceased
Qara Qoyunlu ruler
Jahan Shah to two sons of Sayyid Ni'matullah. Created in Iran Under Ya'qub, the realm remained the same size as that of his father, and the institutions of realm was strengthened. He retained the same ranks and land-grants that his subjects had received from his father. He did, however, launch a land reform in order to consolidate his realm, creating a stable government. The Aq Qoyunlu used a political system based on the old ''
iqta' (land grants) which had been in use since the pre-Seljuk period. This system, known as the soyurghal
(benefice), had been in use since the time of the Jalayirid Sultanate. It excluded the owner of an iqta'' from taxation, and also made him autonomous. The reform was set in motion by Ya'qubs tutor and
wakil Qazi Isa Savaji. The religious scholar and historian
Fazlallah Khunji Isfahani (died 1521) condemned the abolition of the
soyurghal, claiming that it had disturbed many of the religious scholars in Shiraz. The
Encyclopaedia Islamica considers the truthness of his claim uncertain, stating that; "It must be reiterated that his information on the impact of these reforms mainly refers to
Fars, however it is virtually the only contemporary source on the topic and therefore central to any understanding of it. His stance is clearly partisan since the reforms seem to have adversely affected his relatives." The
qadi (chief judge) of Fars,
Jalal al-Din Davani (died 1502), also opposed the reforms of Ya'qub, which worsened their relations. Together with Abu-Yazid al-Davani and Maulana Muhammad al-Muhyavi, Davani sent letters to Qazi Isa Savaji to protest these reforms. After Ya'qub's death, the land reform was cancelled. Ya'qub became severely ill and died on 24 December 1490 in
Karabakh. A number of scholars believe that he was poisoned by his wife. The leading figures of the confederation installed his eight-year-old son
Baysunghur on the throne to increase their own power. This marked the start of the decline of the Aq Qoyunlu. == Imperial ideology ==