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80-751: Qizilbash or Kizilbash were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Azerbaijan , Anatolia , the Armenian highlands , the Caucasus , and Kurdistan from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty in early modern Iran . By the 18th-century, anyone involved with the Safavid state—militarily, diplomatically, or administratively—came to be broadly referred to as "Qizilbash". It

160-586: A common lifestyle, language, faith, and animosity towards the Ottomans. In the 15th century, Ardabil was the center of an organization designed to keep the Safavi leadership in close touch with its murids in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Eastern Anatolia, and elsewhere. The organization was controlled through the office of khalīfāt al-khulafā'ī who appointed representatives ( khalīfa ) in regions where Safavi propaganda

240-563: A force of 30,000 Aq Qoyunlu under Alwand Mirzā and conquered Tabriz . This was the beginning of the Safavid state. By 1510, Ismail and his Qizilbash had conquered the whole of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan , southern Dagestan (with its important city of Derbent ), Mesopotamia , Armenia , Khorasan , Eastern Anatolia , and had made the Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti his vassals. Many of these areas were priorly under

320-650: A large tribal confederation called Oghuz Yabgu in the 8th century A.D. This polity, whose inhabitants spoke Oghuz Turkic, occupied an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia. The Seljuqs appeared in the beginning of the 11th century in Mawarannahr . Muslim Oghuz people, generally identified as Turkmens by then, rallied around the Qinik tribe that made up the core of the future Seljuq tribal union and

400-623: Is Ibadi , which differ from both of these groups on a few key points. Several ultra-orthodox groups such as the Wahhabis , in turn, see themselves as the only truly orthodox groups within Islam. According to Philip Hitti , during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates there was a marked tendency among several quite unrelated heterodox groups to affiliate themselves with the Shiites, particularly

480-552: Is ol in modern Turkish . The Book of Dede Korkut is considered an Oghuz masterpiece. Other prominent works of literature produced during the High Middle Ages also include the Oghuzname , Battalname , Danishmendname , Köroğlu epics, which are part of the literary history of Azerbaijanis, Turks of Turkey, and Turkmens. The Book of Dede Korkut is a collection of epics and stories bearing witness to

560-621: Is addressing them. According to the 1992 census, there were 85,773 Shiites in Bulgaria. Between the late seventeenth century and 1822, the term "Qizilbash" was also used in Ottoman administrative documents to identify Twelver (Imami) Shiites in what is today Lebanon. The Ottomans were aware they had no link to the Anatolian or Iranian Qizilbash, employing the term only as a means to delegitimize them or justify punitive campaigns against them. In

640-480: Is also one of the known ancient languages within the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, along with old Ottoman. It displays certain characteristics peculiar to eastern Oghuz languages such as modern Turkmen and Khorasani Turkic languages, rather than western Oghuz languages such as Turkish or Azerbaijani . Such Old Anatolian Turkic features as bol- "to be(come)", also present in modern Turkmen and Khorasani Turkic,

720-687: Is derived from their distinctive twelve- gored crimson headwear ( tāj or tark in Persian; sometimes specifically titled "Haydar's Crown" تاج حیدر / Tāj-e Ḥaydar ), indicating their adherence to the Twelve Imams and to Shaykh Haydar , the spiritual leader ( sheikh ) of the Safavid order in accordance with the Imamate in Twelver doctrine . The name was originally a pejorative label given to them by their Sunni Ottoman foes, but soon it

800-476: Is my doxy; heterodoxy is anybody else's doxy who does not agree with me. The Arabic word ghulat is used by Shia Muslims for beliefs perceived as being extremely heterodox (more in line with the Christian use of the word "heresy" ). In particular, the term is used to describe the beliefs of minority Muslim groups who ascribe divine characteristics to a member of Muhammad 's family (especially Ali ) or

880-727: Is now viewed as incorrect. The first-known mention of the term "Turkmen", "Turkman" or "Turkoman" occurs near the end of the 10th century A.D in Islamic literature by the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in Ahsan Al-Taqasim Fi Ma'rifat Al-Aqalim . In his work, which was completed in 987 A.D, al-Muqaddasi writes about Turkmens twice while depicting the region as the frontier of the Muslim possessions in Central Asia. According to medieval Islamic authors Al-Biruni and al-Marwazi ,

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960-595: Is particularly appropriate here. Turkoman (ethnonym) Turkoman , also known as Turcoman ( English: / ˈ t ə r k ə m ə n / ), was a term for the people of Oghuz Turkic origin, widely used during the Middle Ages . Oghuz Turks were a western Turkic people that, in the 8th century A.D, formed a tribal confederation in an area between the Aral and Caspian seas in Central Asia , and spoke

1040-688: Is the land of Qizilbash nowadays. This strip includes a part of eastern Bulgaria. Most of the Qizilbash settled in Dobruja in large numbers, either voluntarily or by being deported there from Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities between the 15th and 17th centuries. Qizilbash communities are also present in Ludogorie (Deliorman). The Qizilbash conceal their real identity, outwardly professing to be orthodox Sunnis to their Turkish or Bulgarian neighbours, or alternatively claim to be Bektashis , depending who

1120-578: The Battle of Ghazdewan . This defeat put an end to Safavid expansion and influence in Transoxania and left the northeastern frontiers of the kingdom vulnerable to nomad invasions, until some decades later. Meanwhile, the Safavid dawah continued in Ottoman areas – with great success. Even more alarming for the Ottomans was the successful conversion of Turcoman tribes in Eastern Anatolia, and

1200-517: The Eastern Orthodox Church , the term is used primarily in reference to Christian churches and denominations not belonging to the communion of Eastern Orthodox churches and espousing doctrines contrary to the received Holy Tradition . Charles Spurgeon said: [Y]ou shall find spiritual life in every church. I know it is the notion of the bigot, that all the truly godly people belong to the denomination which he adorns. Orthodoxy

1280-522: The Janissaries . Tahmasp's successors, and most importantly Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), would significantly expand this policy when during the reign of Abbas I alone some 200,000 Georgians, 300,000 Armenians and many tens of thousands of Circassians were relocated to Iran's heartlands. By this creation of a so-called "third layer" or "third force" in Iranian society composed of ethnic Caucasians, and

1360-580: The Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family . Turkmen , originally an exonym , dates from the High Middle Ages , along with the ancient and familiar name " Turk " ( türk ), and tribal names such as " Bayat ", " Bayandur ", " Afshar ", and " Kayi ". By the 10th century, Islamic sources were calling Oghuz Turks as Muslim Turkmens, as opposed to Shamanist or Buddhist Turks. It entered into

1440-837: The Supreme Court of India ruled that Hinduism cannot be narrowed down to particular beliefs or doctrine, saying that it "incorporates all forms of belief without mandating the selection or elimination of any one single belief". In late 1999, legislation was created in China to outlaw "heterodox religions". This was applied retroactively to Falun Gong , a spiritual practice introduced to the public in China by Li Hongzhi ( 李洪志 ) in 1992. Heterodox economics refers to schools of economic thought considered outside of mainstream economics , referred to as orthodox economics, often represented by expositors as contrasting with or going beyond neoclassical economics . Heterodox economics refers to

1520-1115: The Tanzimat period, as well as later, after the Young Turk Revolution . There are some doubts, though, whether this term is appropriate, due to the scarcity of sources and the diversity of the various Qizilbash-groups. It has been reported that, among the Ottoman Turks, kızılbaş has become something of a derogatory term and can be applied to groups that aren't necessarily associated with the Kazilbash of Central Asia. The Bektaşi in Turkey are often referred to as Kızılbaşi . The Qizilbash, or "Red Heads," were Turkic warriors-turned-Persian who had arrived in Afghanistan in numbers after Nadir Shah's and other Persian debacles. Some of Nadir's Qizilbash soldiers settled in Afghanistan where their descendants had successful careers in

1600-525: The Turkic language family. As of the early 21st century, this ethnonym is still used by the Turkmens of Central Asia , the main population of Turkmenistan, who have sizeable groups in Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, as well as Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens , the other descendants of Oghuz Turks. The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonym Türkmen or Turcoman is that it comes from Türk and

1680-599: The Yiva and Bayandur tribes, from which the ruling clans of the states of Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu emerged. After the fall of Aq Qoyunlu, the Turkmen tribes—partly under their own name, for example Afshars , Hajilu, Pornak, Deger, and Mavsellu—united in a Turkmen Qizilbash tribal confederation. By the 10th century A.D, Turkmens were predominantly Muslim. They later found themselves divided into Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. Medieval Turkmens markedly contributed to

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1760-655: The state they would create in the 11th century. Since the Seljuk era, the sultans of the dynasty created military settlements in parts of the Near and Middle East to strengthen their power; large Turkmen settlements were created in Syria , Iraq , and Eastern Anatolia . After the Battle of Manzikert , the Oghuz extensively settled throughout Anatolia and Azerbaijan . In the 11th century, Turkmens densely populated Arran . The 12th-century Persian writer al-Marwazi wrote about

1840-493: The 1690s, when ethnic Georgians formed the mainstay of the Safavid military, the Qizilbash still played a significant role in the army. The Afshār and Qājār rulers of Persia who succeeded the Safavids, stemmed from a Qizilbash background. Many other Qizilbash – Turcoman and Non-Turcoman – were settled in far eastern cities such as Kabul and Kandahar during the conquests of Nader Shah , and remained there as consultants to

1920-510: The Afshār, Dulghadir, or Bayāt, as mentioned by the medieval Karakhanid historian Mahmud al-Kashgari . The non-Turkic Iranian tribes among the Qizilbash were called Tājīks by the Turcomans and included: The rise of the Ottomans put a great strain on the Turkmen tribes living in the area, which eventually led them to join the Safavids, who transformed them into a militant organisation, called

2000-522: The Caucasus, and would systematically replace the Qizilbash from their functions with converted Circassians and Georgians. The new army and civil administration would be fully loyal to the king personally and not to the clan-chiefs anymore. The reorganisation of the army also ended the independent rule of Turcoman chiefs in the Safavid provinces, and instead centralized the administration of those provinces. Ghulams were appointed to high positions within

2080-468: The Governor of Herat and his former guardian and tutor, Alī Quli Khān Shāmlū (also known as Hājī Alī Qizilbāsh Mazandarānī ) the chief of all the armed forces. Later on, events of the past, including the role of the Turcomans in the succession struggles after the death of his father, and the counterbalancing influence of traditional Ithnāʻashari Shia Sayeds , made him determined to end the dominance of

2160-516: The Iranians, they were however, defeated by Tahmasp I , the son of Ismail who got rid of the Turcomans. For almost ten years after the Battle of Chaldiran, rival Qizilbash factions fought for control of the kingdom. In 1524, 10-year-old Shah Tahmasp I , the governor of Herat , succeeded his father Ismail. He was the ward of the powerful Qizilbash amir Ali Beg Rūmlū (titled " Div Soltān " ) who

2240-689: The Ismailis, in a general feeling of heterodox solidarity in a Sunni-controlled empire. The cause of the Alids thus became a rallying point for a diverse range of heterodox Islamic movements. The view that Ali was divine, though never mainstream within Shiism, is attested in the early centuries of Islam. The main schools of Indian philosophy that reject the absoluteness of the Vedas , including Buddhism and Jainism, were regarded as heterodox by Hinduism. In 2015,

2320-499: The Qizilbash (meaning "red heads" in Turkish ), initially a pejorative label given to them by the Ottomans, but later adopted as a mark of pride. The religion of the Qizilbash resembled much more the heterodox beliefs of northwestern Iran and eastern Anatolia, rather than the traditional Twelver Shia Islam . The beliefs of the Qizilbash consisted of non-Islamic aspects, varying from crypto- Zoroastrian beliefs to shamanistic practises,

2400-792: The Qizilbash and other religious groups and secret societies , such as the Mazdaki movement in the Sasanian Empire , or its more radical offspring, the Khurramites , and Turkic shamanism , have been suggested. Of these, the Khurramites were, like the Qizilbash, an early ghulat group and dressed in red, for which they were termed "the red ones" (Persian: سرخ‌ جامگان , romanized:  sarkh jāmegān , Arabic: محمرة , romanized:  muḥammirah ) by medieval sources. In this context, Turkish scholar Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı sees

2480-542: The Qizilbash are also Twelvers, their practices do not adhere to Ja'fari jurisprudence. Among the Qizilbash, Turcoman tribes from Eastern Anatolia and Iranian Azerbaijan who had helped Ismail I defeat the Aq Qoyunlu tribe were by far the most important in both number and influence and the name Qizilbash is usually applied exclusively to them. Some of these greater Turcoman tribes were subdivided into as many as eight or nine clans, including: Other tribes – such as

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2560-437: The Qizilbash as "spiritual descendants of the Khurramites". The Qizilbash were a coalition of many different tribes of predominantly (but not exclusively) Turkic -speaking background united in their adherence to the Safavid order . Apart from Turkomans , the Qizilbash also included Kurds , Lurs , Persians , and Talysh after Shah Abbas's military reform in the beginning of the 17th century. As murids (sworn students) of

2640-468: The Qizilbash as Muslims, though the Qizilbash did not always accept these efforts, such that they would openly decline them at times. Despite such adversarial interactions, a clear picture of how these groups perceived their relations with the Ottoman government or the Western missionaries has not yet been established. Hans-Lukas Kieser talks about an "Alevi renaissance" which, according to him, took place in

2720-658: The Qizilbash of Afghanistan also as "Persians, of Persian descent, or descendant of the Persians, wearing a red cap" . The influence of the Qizilbash in the government created resentment among the ruling Pashtun clans, especially after the Qizilbash openly allied themselves with the British during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842). During Abdur Rahman Khan 's massacre of the Shi'i minorities in Afghanistan,

2800-447: The Qizilbash of Kabul in the beginning of the 19th century as "a colony of Turks," who spoke "Persian, and among themselves Turkish." Described as learned, affluent, and influential, they appear to have abandoned their native Turkish language in favour of Persian, and became "in fact Persianized Turks" . Lady Florentia Sale (wife of Sir Robert Henry Sale ) and Vincent Eyre – both companions of Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone – described

2880-461: The Qizilbash were declared " enemies of the state " and were persecuted and hunted by the government and by the Sunni majority. The former national anthem (2006-2021) of Afghanistan mentioned Qizilbash as an ethnic group in the third line of third stanza. Following Shah Abbas's gradual replacement of the Qizilbash in the Safavid military and administrative ranks, and the persecution they faced at

2960-470: The Safavi pirs , the Qizilbash owed implicit obedience to their leader in his capacity as their murshid-e kāmil "supreme spiritual director" and, after the establishment of the kingdom, as their padishah (great king). The kingdom's establishment thus changed the purely religious pir–murid relationship into a political one. As a consequence, any act of disobedience of the Qizilbash Sufis against

3040-638: The Turkic emphasizing suffix -men , meaning "'most Turkic of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks.'" A folk etymology , dating back to the Middle Ages and found in al-Biruni and Mahmud al-Kashgari , instead derives the suffix -men from the Persian suffix -mānind , with the resulting word meaning "like a Turk". While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation

3120-633: The Turkman, Bahārlu , Qaramānlu, Warsāk, and Bayāt – were occasionally listed among these "seven great uymaqs". Today, the remnants of the Qizilbash confederacy are found among the Afshar , the Qashqai , Turkmen , Shahsevan , and others. Some of these names consist of a place-name with the addition of the Turkish suffix -lu , such as Shāmlu or Bahārlu. Other names are those of old Oghuz tribes such as

3200-572: The army (until the end of Dost Muhammad's rule), government, the trades, and crafts. In 1996, approximately 40 percent of Afghans were Pashtun, 11.4 of whom are of the Durrani tribal group and 13.8 percent of the Ghilzai group. Tajiks make up the second-largest ethnic group with 25.3 percent of the population, followed by Hazaras, 18 percent; Uzbeks, 6.3 percent; Turkmen, 2.5 percent; Qizilbash, 1.0; 6.9 percent other. The usual caveat regarding statistics

3280-475: The arrival of Turkmens to Muslim lands, portraying them as people of noble character who are strong and persistent in battle because of their nomadic lifestyle, and calling them sultans (rulers). "Turkoman" entered into the usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century. By the beginning of 13th century, it became an endonym among Oghuz Turks themselves. The Turkmens also included

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3360-589: The complete systematic disorganisation of the Qizilbash by his personal orders, Abbas I eventually fully succeeded in replacing the power of the Qizilbash, with that of the Caucasian ghulams. These new Caucasian elements (the so-called ghilman / غِلْمَان / "servants" ), almost always after conversion to Shi'ism depending on given function would be, unlike the Qizilbash, fully loyal only to the Shah. This system of mass usage of Caucasian subjects continued to exist until

3440-451: The control of the Ak Koyunlu . The rivalry between the Turkic clans and the Persian nobles was a major problem in the Safavid kingdom. As V. Minorsky put it, friction between these two groups was inevitable, because the Turcomans "were no party to the national Persian tradition" . Shah Ismail tried to solve the problem by appointing Persian wakil s as commanders of Qizilbash tribes. The Turcomans considered this an insult and brought about

3520-464: The country during the Durrani rule , Zaman Shah Durrani had a cavalry of over 100.000 men, consisting mostly of Qizilbash Afghanistan's Qizilbash held important posts in government offices in the past, and today engage in trade or are craftsmen. Since the creation of Afghanistan , they constitute an important and politically influential element of society. Estimates of their population vary from 30,000 to 200,000. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone described

3600-491: The death of 3 of the 5 Persians appointed to this office – an act that later inspired the deprivation of the Turcomans by Shah Abbas I. In 1510 Shah Ismail sent a large force of the Qizilbash to Transoxiania to fight the Uzbeks . The Qizilbash defeated the Uzbeks and secured Samarkand at the Battle of Marv . However, in 1512, an entire Qizilbash army was annihilated by the Uzbeks after Turcoman Qizilbash had mutinied against their Persian wakil and commander Najm-e Thani at

3680-450: The early companions of the Prophet such as Salman the Persian . The assumption is that the groups thus described have gone too far and have come to associate them with God ( shirk ). Sunni and Shia Muslims see each other as heterodox, differing in practice mainly on matters of jurisprudence or fiqh , splitting historically on the matter of the succession of Ali to the caliphate by Muawiyah . A third and much smaller movement

3760-503: The early 21st century, the ethnonyms "Turkoman" and "Turkmen" are still used by the Turkmens of Turkmenistan , who have sizeable groups in Iran , Afghanistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan , as well as Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens , descendants of the Oghuz Turks who mostly adhere to an Anatolian Turkish heritage and identity. Most Iraqi and Syrian Turkmens are descendants of Ottoman soldiers, traders, and civil servants who were taken into Iraq from Anatolia during

3840-407: The early eighteenth century, a part of northern Lebanon is even described as the "Kızılbaş mukataa" tax district. In Turkey, there is a community of so-called Alevis , which were formed out of Qizilbash groups in Anatolia in the 16 th century. Historically, however, it wouldn't be appropriate to use the term Alevi to describe these groups, seeing as it was originally used for descendants of Ali,

3920-428: The expansion of Islam with their extensive conquests of previously Christian lands, specifically those of Byzantine Anatolia and the Caucasus . Turkmens primarily spoke languages that belong or belonged to the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages , which included such languages and dialects as Seljuq , Old Anatolian Turkish , and old Ottoman Turkish . Kashgari had cited phonetic, lexical and grammatical features of

4000-446: The fall of the Qajar dynasty . The inter-tribal rivalry of the Turcomans, the attempt of Persian nobles to end the Turcoman dominance, and constant succession conflicts went on for another 10 years after Tahmasp's death. This heavily weakened the Safavid state and made the kingdom vulnerable to external enemies: the Ottomans attacked in the west, whereas the Uzbeks attacked the east. In 1588, Shah Abbas I came to power. He appointed

4080-413: The fourth Rashidun Caliph. In the 19 th century, the term was also used in Turkey to refer to the Qizilbash, who were seen as heretics by the Sunni majority. Alevism in Turkey is present among the Turkish, Kurdish, as well as the Zaza population. Yet, despite speaking Kurdish and Zaza natively, many of the Alevi tribes still use Turkish as a liturgical language. The Kurdish Alevis are known locally by

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4160-413: The hands of his and Shah Safi 's policies, the Qizilbash started to turn and rebel against the Safavids. This then led to the empire adopting more classical Twelver beliefs and cooperating with Shi'i scholars in combatting Qizilbash doctrines, eventually causing their decline in favour of a more orthodox interpretation of Twelver Shi'ism. A strip of land from Babadag in Romania until Dimetoka in Greece

4240-401: The language of Oghuz-Turkmens; he also identified several dialects and presented a couple of examples displaying the differences. Old Anatolian language, introduced to Anatolia by Seljuk Turkmens who migrated westward from Central Asia to Khorasan and further to Anatolia during the Seljuk expansion in the 11th century, was widely spoken by Turkmens of the area until the 15th century. It

4320-470: The language, the way of life, religions, traditions and social norms of the Oghuz Turks. In Anatolia in the late Middle Ages , the term "Turkmen" was gradually supplanted by the term "Ottomans". The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans until the 19th century. In the late 19th century, as the Ottomans adopted European ideas of nationalism , they preferred to return to a more common term Turk instead of Turkmen , whereas previously Turk

4400-409: The latter which had been practised by their Central Asian ancestors. However, a common aspect that all these heterodox beliefs shared was a form of messianism , devoid of the restrictions of the Islam practiced in urban areas . Concepts of divine inspiration and reincarnation were common, with the Qizilbash viewing their Safavid leader (whom they called morshed-e kamel , "the Perfect Guide") as

4480-494: The local Turcoman tribes of Asia Minor (Anatolia), Syria , and the Caucasus – collectively called "Qizilbash" by their enemies – rallied to his support in Erzincan . Leading his troops on a punitive campaign against the Shīrvanshāh (ruler of Shirvan ), he sought revenge for the death of his father and his grandfather in Shīrvan. After defeating the Shīrvanshāh Farrukh Yassar and incorporating his kingdom, he moved south into Azarbaijan, where his 7,000 Qizilbash warriors defeated

4560-399: The new Afghan crown after the Shah's death. Others joined the Mughal emperors of India and became one of the most influential groups of the Mughal court until the British conquest of India . Qizilbash in Afghanistan primarily live in urban areas, such as Kabul , Kandahar or Herat . Some of them are descendants of the troops left behind by Nadir Shah . Others however were brought to

4640-644: The new ruler, decided to invade with a force of 200,000 Ottomans. In addition, he ordered the persecution of Alevis and massacred its adherents in the Ottoman Empire. On 20 August 1514 (1st Rajab 920 A.H.), the two armies met at Chaldiran in northwestern Iran. The Ottomans, who were equipped with both firearms and cannon, were reported to outnumber the Qizilbash as much as three to one. The Qizilbash were badly defeated; casualties included many high-ranking Qizilbash amirs as well as three influential ulamā . This defeat destroyed Shah Ismail's belief in his own invincibility and divine status. It also fundamentally altered

4720-401: The office of a Sipahsālār ( Persian : سپهسالار , lit.   'master of the army'), commander-in-chief of all armed forces – Turcoman and Non-Turcoman – and usually held by a Persian ( Tādjik ) noble. The Turcoman Qizilbash nevertheless remained an important part of the Safavid executive apparatus, even though ethnic Caucasians came to largely replace them. For example, even in

4800-502: The order of the spiritual grandmaster (Persian: nāsufigari "conduct unbecoming of a Sufi") became "an act of treason against the king and a crime against the state", as was the case in 1614 when Abbas the Great put some followers to death. The Qizilbash adhered to heterodox Shi’i doctrines encouraged by the early Safavi sheikhs Haydar and his son Ismail I . They regarded their rulers as divine figures, and so were classified as ghulat "extremists" by orthodox Twelvers . When Tabriz

4880-403: The origins and political orientations of the Qizilbash sparked, resulting in them becoming the target of Western missionaries, who believed that they held Christian views about Jesus. The Qizilbash weren't hostile towards these missionaries and, according to missionary reports, some were willing to listen to their message. In turn, the Ottoman authorities responded by making more efforts to classify

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4960-492: The recruitment of these well-experienced and feared fighters into the growing Safavid army. To stop Safavid propaganda, Sultan Bayezid II deported large numbers of the Shi'i population of Asia Minor to Morea . However, in 1507, Shah Ismail and the Qizilbash overran large areas of Kurdistan , defeating regional Ottoman forces. Two years later, the Qizilbash defeated the Uzbeks at Merv in Central Asia, killing their leader Muhammad Shaybani and destroying his dynasty. His head

5040-511: The reincarnation of Ali and a manifestation of the divine in human form. There were a total of seven major Qizilbash "tribes", each named after an area they identified themselves with; the Rumlu presumably came from Rum (Anatolia); the Shamlu from Sham ( Syria ); the Takkalu from the Takkeh in southeastern Anatolia; the Ostajlu from Ostaj in the southern Caucasus . It is uncertain if the Afshar and Qajar were named after an area in Azerbaijan, or after their ancestors. All these tribes shared

5120-425: The relationship between the murshid-e kāmil and his murids (followers). Ismail I tried to reduce the power of the Turcomans by appointing Iranians to the vakil office. However, the Turcomans did not like having an Iranian to the most powerful office of the Safavid Empire and kept murdering many Iranians who were appointed to that office. After the death of Ismail, the Turkomans managed to seize power from

5200-427: The royal harems, royal guards, and several other specific posts of the Empire, Tahmasp believed he could eventually reduce the power of the Qizilbash, by creating and fully integrating a new layer in Iranian society with these Caucasian elements and who would question the power and hegemony of the tribal Qizilbash. This included the formation of a military slave system, similar to that of the neighboring Ottoman Empire –

5280-470: The royal household, and by the end of Shah Abbas' reign, one-fifth of the high-ranking amirs were ghulams. By 1598 already an ethnic Georgian from Safavid-ruled Georgia, well known by his adopted Muslim name after conversion, Allahverdi Khan , had risen to the position of commander-in-chief of all Safavid armed forces. and by that became one of the most powerful men in the empire. The offices of wakil and amir al-umarā fell in disuse and were replaced by

5360-613: The rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turks of Israel and Lebanon , Turkish sub-ethnic groups of Yoruks , Manavs and Karapapaks (sub-ethnic group of Azerbaijanis) are also referred to as Turkmens. "Turkoman", "Turkmen", "Turkman" and "Torkaman" were – and continue to be – used interchangeably. Heterodoxy Heterodoxy is also an ecclesiastical jargon term , defined in various ways by different religions and churches. For example, in some groups, heterodoxy may describe beliefs that differ from strictly orthodox views but that fall short either of formal or of material heresy . In

5440-411: The term Kızılbaş , associating them with the Qizilbash in the Safavid dynasty, although their exact origins are unclear and subject to debate. Among Bektashis, Kızılbaş is used to refer to groups that are not initiated into the Bektashi order but have similar beliefs. These groups are looked down upon by initiated members of the tariqa. In the second half of the 19 th century, a Western interest in

5520-405: The term "Ottoman", which came from the name of the Ottoman Empire and its ruling dynasty . It remains as an endonym of semi-nomadic tribes of the Terekeme , a sub-ethnic group of the Azerbaijani people . Today, a significant percentage of residents of Azerbaijan , Turkey, and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks (Turkmens), and the languages they speak belong to the Oghuz group of

5600-416: The term Turkmen referred to the Oghuz who converted to Islam. There is evidence, however, that non-Oghuz Turks such as Karluks also have been called Turkomans and Turkmens ; Kafesoğlu (1958) proposes that Türkmen might be the Karluks' equivalent of the Göktürks' political term Kök Türk. Later during the Middle Ages, the term was extensively employed for Oghuz Turks, a western Turkic people, who established

5680-499: The untrustworthy Turcoman chiefs in Persia which Tahmasp had already started decades before him. In order to weaken the Turcomans – the important militant elite of the Safavid kingdom – Shah Abbas further raised a standing army, personal guard, Queen-Mothers, Harems and full civil administration from the ranks of these ghilman who were usually ethnic Circassians , Georgians , and Armenians , both men and women, whom he and his predecessors had taken captive en masse during their wars in

5760-592: The usage of the Western world through the Byzantines in the 12th century, since by that time Oghuz Turks were overwhelmingly Muslim. Later, the term "Oghuz" was gradually supplanted by "Turkmen" among Oghuz Turks themselves, thus turning an exonym into an endonym , a process which was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. In Anatolia , since the Late Middle Ages , "Turkmen" was superseded by

5840-525: The west. With the Peace of Amasya (1555), peace between Safavids and Ottomans remained for the rest of Tahmasp's reign. During Tahmasp' reign, he carried out multiple invasions in the Caucasus which had been incorporated in the Safavid empire since Shah Ismail I and for many centuries afterward, and started with the trend of deporting and moving hundreds of thousands of Circassians , Georgians , and Armenians to Iran's heartlands. Initially only solely put in

5920-464: Was active. The khalīfa , in turn, had subordinates termed pira . The Safavi presence in eastern Anatolia posed a serious threat to the Ottoman Empire because they encouraged the Shi'i population of Asia Minor to revolt against the sultan. In 1499, Ismail, the young leader of the Safavi order, left Lahijan for Ardabil to make a bid for power. By the summer of 1500, about 7,000 supporters from

6000-496: Was adopted as a mark of pride. The origin of the Qizilbash can be dated from the 15th century onward, when the spiritual grandmaster of the movement, Shaykh Haydar (the head of the Safaviyya Sufi order), organized his followers into militant troops. The Qizilbash were originally composed of seven Turkic, all Azerbaijani -speaking tribes: Rumlu, Shamlu , Ustajlu, Afshar , Qajar , Tekelu, and Zulkadar. Connections between

6080-467: Was eventually applied to some inhabitants of Iran. In the early 19th-century, Shia Muslims from Iran could be referred as "Qizilbash", thus highlighting the influence of the distinctive traits of the Safavids, despite the Iranian shah (king) Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ( r.  1797–1834 ) simultaneously creating a Qajar dynastic identity grounded in the pre-Islamic past. The word Qizilbash derives from Turkish Kızılbaş , meaning "red head". The expression

6160-602: Was sent to the Ottoman sultan as a warning. In 1511, a pro-Safavid revolt known as the Şahkulu rebellion broke out in Teke . An imperial army that was sent to suppress it was defeated. Ismail sought to turn the chaos within the Ottoman Empire to his advantage and moved the border westwards in Asia Minor. The Qizilbash defeated a large Ottoman army under Koca Sinan Pasha . Shocked by this heavy defeat, Sultan Selim I ,

6240-650: Was taken, there was not a single book on Twelverism among the Qizilbash leaders. The book of the well known Iraqi scholar al-Hilli (1250–1325) was procured in the town library to provide religious guidance to the state. The imported Shi'i ulama did not participate in the formation of Safavid religious policies during the early formation of the state. However, ghulat doctrines were later forsaken and Arab Twelver ulama from Lebanon , Iraq , and Bahrain were imported in increasing numbers to bolster orthodox Twelver practice and belief. In Turkey, orthodox Twelvers following Ja'fari jurisprudence are called Ja'faris. Although

6320-519: Was the de facto ruler of the Safavid kingdom. However, Tahmasp managed to reassert his authority over the state and over the Qizilbash. During the reign of Shah Tahmasp, the Qizilbash fought a series of wars on two fronts and – with the poor resources available to them – successfully defended their kingdom against the Uzbeks in the east, and against the arch-rivals of the Safavids – the Ottomans – in

6400-519: Was used to exclusively refer to Anatolian peasants. The term continued to be used interchangeably with other ethnohistorical terms for the Turkic people of the area, including Turk, Tatar and Ajam , well into the early 20th century. In the early 21st century, "Turkmen" remains as the self-name for the semi-nomadic tribes of the Terekime , a sub-ethnic group of the Azerbaijani people . In

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