The Ottoman government gave Idris Bitlisi authority to get help from the Kurdish emirs. The Kurdish emirs sent their soldiers to help the Ottomans. In the first half of the 16th century, many important Kurdish soldiers fought against the Safavids' allies in Kurdistan. The Ottoman government made variable allowances for the autonomy of Kurdish emirs and tribes in their own lands. There was also an Ottoman governor in each province. The emirs of Bitlis, Hakkari, and the emirate of Bohtan (Cizre) did not have to pay tax to the Ottoman government. Other tribes did pay tax, but the Ottoman government gave their "Kurdish counties" () as fiefs () to Kurdish tribes' own leaders, who inherited their position. For the Ottoman Empire at this time, the Kurds were useful as allies on the border with the Safavid Empire. The Ottomans had success in getting Kurdish allies, and the Safavids gave the Kurds better treatment in order to get the same result. Some parts of Iranian Kurdistan became parts of the provinces of the Safavid Empire, but others had Kurdish governors who inherited their positions. The Ardalan clan of Sanandaj and the Mukriyani tribes of west Azerbaijan both had Kurdish governors of this kind. The sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, took away the authority of the Kurdish emir of Bitlis, so he and his clan went to the Safavid Empire, where the shah gave them good treatment and gave the emir's grandson education at the royal court. The Safavid government gave the emir's grandson, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, authority for the Kurds at the royal court, and gave him a title: "the high emir of the Kurds" (). However, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi later returned to his grandfather's emirate in Bitlis, defecting from the Safavid Empire to the Ottoman Empire.