Weakened by the devastating invasions of Tamerlane’s armies, Mesopotamia and western Iran experienced a checkered history during the fifteenth century. In a state of demographic stagnation or downturn, the region was an easy prey for nomadic Turkmen. The Turkmen, however, never managed to build strong states, owing to a lack of sedentary populations (Martinez-Gros 2009: 643). When Tamerlane died in 1405, the Jalāyerid sultan, Ahmad, who had fled Iraq, came back to Baghdad. Five years later, he died in Tabriz (1410) in a battle led against the Kara Koyunlu Turkmen (“[Those of the] Black Sheep”), who took Baghdad in 1412. Their strongest ruler, Jahan Shāh (1430–1467), controlled Iraq, Fars, and Oman. Tabriz, which was taken in 1406, was the capital of the empire.