This paper will demonstrate that members of the Naqshbandi Sufi order exerted a greater influence at the court of sultan Ya'qub (d. 1490), leader of the Aq Qoyunlu dynasty from 1478-1490, than previously acknowledged. Among the few investigations into religious figures attached to the Aq Qoyunlu court, most have focused on members of the Khalvati Sufi order, specifically Dada 'Umar Raushani (d. 1487) and his spiritual heir, Ibrahim Gulshani (d. 1534), at the expense of other influential Sufis. This paper suggests that despite its reputation as the un-official Sufi order of the Timurid dynasty in Herat, the Naqshbandi brotherhood and its representatives in Tabriz, namely Sun' Allah Kuzakunani (d. 1523), were involved in the religious and political activities of the Aq Qoyunlu state. In order to substantiate this claim, the paper cites contemporary Persian sources, including the Tarikh-i 'alam-ara-yi amini, Rauzat al-jinan wa jannat al-janan, Rashahat-i 'ain al-hayat, and several literary anthologies, and concludes that the Naqshbandis most closely associated with Ya'qub shared the distinction of being "disciples" of the classical Persian poet 'Abd al-Rahman Jami (d. 1492). This paper also seeks to demonstrate that ironically, it was Jami, writing letters and poetry to Ya'qub from his residence in Timurid Herat, who exerted the most lasting Naqshbandi influence over the Aq Qoyunlu court. In order to substantiate this claim, the paper cites Salaman va Absal, an allegorical romance Jami addressed to Ya'qub and the allusions it contains to Naqshbandi spiritual techniques, as evidence that Jami, perhaps in concert with Naqshbandis at the Aq Qoyunlu court, sought to persuade Ya'qub to become a Sufi adept. A case will then be made to suggest that on account of himmat, a technique Naqshbandis believe enables their shaikhs to transmit spiritual guidance to disciples without being physically present, Jami may have been Ya'qub's "virtual" spiritual master. The paper therefore concludes that the conventional view that the Naqshbandi order was not involved in Aq Qoyunlu affairs is no longer tenable, and the overall impact of Sufi mysticism on the politics and personalities of the Aq Qoyunlu court of Ya'qub needs to be understood more broadly.