Hossein belonged to the Shamlu tribe, one of the seven Turkoman tribes of the Qizilbash, a Shia militant group, which supported the young Safaviyya leader Ismail I, who had taken refuge in Gilan to avoid the Aq Qoyunlu, a Turkic tribal federation which controlled most of Iran.

[2] In 1500, Ismail came out of hiding and with the aid of the Qizilbash, invaded Shirvan, killing its ruler Farrukh Yassar.

He then appointed Hossein Beg as the vakil of the empire and the commander-in-chief (amir al-umara) of the Qizilbash army.

In 1507, Hossein Beg campaigned in western Iran, where he was ambushed by a group of Kurds and as a result lost 300 men.

[6] In 1512, Hossein Beg, along with the rest of the Qizilbash commanders, betrayed the Safavid vakil Najm-e Sani and left him to die at the Battle of Ghazdewan.