Qizilbash

The Qizilbash (Turkish: Azeri Kızılbaş, : Persan Qızılbaş, : قزلباش Qezelbāsh, meaning “red Head”) is a group militant ( Ghulāt ) Shiite duodécimain which carried Chah Ismail to the capacity and thus helped to found the dynasty Safavide. Their name finds his origin in the cover-chief whom they carry, a red bonnet of color with twelve folds in reference to the 12 Imam S of the Chiisme duodécimain. This bonnet is known under the name of Tāj-e Heydar in Persan, in reference to their Master Soufi, Heydar (Tāj means “crown” into Persan and is also used for the cover-chiefs, thus making it possible the soufis to show their membership of a particular order). One calls also Kizilbaş certain groups alévis in Turkey.

Origins

The brotherhood Safavieh was creates by the sheik Aldine Safi Ardabili (1252-1334), originating in Ardabil, in the north of the Iran. This brotherhood was in the beginning a movement Soufi (mystical movement whose leaders were hereditary). There exist various theories on the origin of this brotherhood. The brotherhood would have been born from the gathering of the brotherhoods Akhiyya (Turkish: Ahilik), Qalandariyya (Turkish: Kalenderiye), and Zahidiyya according to Bayat Fuzuli; according to Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, it would result from the brotherhood Halwatiyya (Turkish: Halvetiye). According to Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, the order could practice the Taqiya (Turkish: takiyye) (dissimulation according to the Shiite principles) to be regarded as sunnite by external observers. Safavieh were then kind of a mystical and hereditary spiritual authority. At the 15th century, Safavieh claim Chiisme openly and developed a militant theology which wanted the supremacy of the Shiism to the force of the weapons. These safavides militant said being the descendants of the 7th Imam, Musa Al-Kazim.

Qizilbash go down from the Safavieh brotherhood and indicate in the beginning a confederation of seven tribes of the steps turcomanes in the north of Iran, linked by their belief in the doctrines Shiite Safavide, derived from the Safavieh doctrines.

Certain theories were advanced by researchers to connect Qizilbash to certain militant secret orders much older; Abdülbaki Gölpinarli, a Turkish researcher, sees in them spiritual descendants of the Khurammites .

Beliefs

The Qizilbash tribes considered their sheikhs, particularly starting from Heydar and of his/her son Ismail like divine characters, and were thus considered by the orthodoxe Shiites duodécimains . It is clear that Ismail Ier presented to its partisans not only like one representative of the Imam occulted but like the Imam hidden itself, protesting by there its own divinity. Qizilbash were going then to fight without armor, trustful in the fact that they would not be wounded, adding moreover Isma' it waliyyu' llah to the Islamic Chahada.

This is perhaps due to the fact that Qizilbash knew in fact rather little the doctrines of the Chiisme duodécimain. When Tabriz was taken in 1501 for example, the Qizilbash chiefs did not have with them any treating book of the Shiism duodécimain and that the book of famous Allama Al-Hilli.

The Terminologie qizilbash comprises two types of partisans:

• Qizilbash : “spiritual” soldier with the service of the Shah
• Chahseven : by opposition, soldier associated in a “material” way with the Shah (means in Turkish who loves the Shah ).

The tribes qizilbashs were wandering or seminomad. With the head of each tribe a khan was. To become khan, a bey was to gain a military victory. It was among the khans that the sovereign took his general governors ( Beylerbeyi ). Its governors ( Hakim ) had in load of the Province S and District S which they received in stronghold ( Tayyul ).

Remaining in tribes before obeying the sovereign, the qizilbashs received the orders of their chiefs who according to their importance had row of Bey, Sultan or Khan (also called Amirs ). The chief of the army Khanlar Khani (the khan of the khans), was generally the governor of Tabriz.

In time of war, the khans were held to bring to the Shah the contest of their tribe. In times of Paix they fed with their people the body of the qurtchus, ordered by a Qurtchubashi , royal guard whose manpower never exceeded the six thousand men. The Mührüdar was the Garde of the royal Sceau . The Khalifa was the representative of the Shah like Titulaire of the administration of justice among the qizilbashs

Khans, joined together, formed what one called the council of Ali Ali Divani because the Shah in their eyes was the downward one of Ali thus the successor of the prophet and consequently the terrestrial sprituel chief. The Shah was held to take council for all that related to association shahseven. Ali Divani wanted to also say the great council. In this council was present the Master of the Cérémonie S of the court, Yasavul Sohbet.

Inhabitants of Tajik and Turkmènes

Among Qizilbash, the tribes turkmenes originating in the east of the Anatolia and Azerbaïdjan which helped Shah Ismail to seize the power were by far most important of number and in influence. For this reason the name Qizilbash is sometimes given to them. Here the list of the seven original tribes qizilbash:

• Shamlu
• Rumlu
• Ustādjlu
• Takkalu
• Zol Al-Qadr
• Qajar
• Afshār.

Other tribes, whose Bahārlu, Warsāk, or Bayāt were occasionally listed among the large seven uymaqs .

Some of the names preceding have the suffix - read indicating the Turkish source, like Shāmlu or Bahārlu. Other names are those of old tribes Oghouzes like Afshār, Dulghadir, or Bayāt; such as they were mentioned by the medieval historian Ouïghour Mahmoud Al-Kāshgharī. The name of the Ustādjlu tribe is as for him of unknown origin and indicates surely a nonTurkish origin.

The not-Turkish or not-Turkish-speaking Iranian tribes among Qizilbash were called Tājiks (meaning Iranian not-Turkish or ) by Turkmènes and included:

• Tālish
• Siāh-Kuh (Karādja-Dagh)
• tribes Lor (for example the Zand)
• certain Kurdish tribes
• certain families and Persian clans

The competition between the clans Turkish and the noble Persan ones was an main issue in the Safavide kingdom and because of many problems. As V. Minorsky underlines it, the friction between these two groups were inevitable because Turkmènes did not make to part of the national tradition Persian . Shah Ismail tried to solve the problem by naming Persan vakil S ordering of the Qizilbash tribes. However, Turkmènes regarded this gesture as an insult and put at death three of the five Persan ones named at this station - an act which brought thereafter to the spacing of Turkmènes by Shah Abbas Ier.

History

Beginnings

At the 14th century, Ardabil was the center of an organization intended to keep the chiefs Safavides in contact with its Murid S ( main spiritual ) on the territories which are now the Azerbaïdjan, the Iraq and Anatolia is . The organization was controlled through the station of khalifat Al-khulafa' I which named representatives ( khalifa ) in the areas where propaganda safavide was active. The Khalifa in its turn of subordoonnés had called the will pira . Their presence in the east of the Anatolia represented a serious threat for the Othoman , because they encouraged the population Shiite of minor Asia to revolt against the sultan.

In 1499, Ismail, the young chief of the Safavide order, left Lanjan for Ardabil in order to claim the capacity. During the summer 1500, nearly 7.000 of its partisans originating in the tribes turcomanes in Anatolia, Syria and Iraq - called together the Qizilbash - joined him in order to support it. With the head of these troops, it starts by conducting a punitive campaign against Shirvanshah (sovereign of the Shirvan), it then sought the revenge for the death of his Heydar father and his grandfather in Shirvan. After having beaten Shirvanshah Farrokh Yassar, it moves in the south towards the Azerbaïdjan where its 7.000 Qizilbash warriors beat a force of 30.000 Aq Qoyunlu under the orders of Alwand Mirza then take Tabriz; thus marking the foundation of the State Safavide.

During the first decade of the 16th century, Qizilbash extend the capacity safavide to the remainder of Persia, until Baghdad and the Iraq, before under the control of the Aq Qoyunlu.

In 1510, Shah Ismail sends a great quota of Qizilbash in Transoxiane in order to support the sovereign Timouride Bâbur, in war against the Uzbeks. Qizilbash beat the Uzbeks and make safe Samarkand for the account of Babur. However, in 1512, a whole army of Qizilbash is destroyed by the Uzbek after the qizilbash turcomans revolted against their Vakil of origin Persian and their commander, Amir Nadjm. This heavy defeat marks the end of the expansion and of the safavide influence in Transoxiane and the borders of the North-East of Iran remain vulnerable to the wandering invasions.

Battle of Chaldoran

During this time, the da' wa (propaganda) safavide continues in the Othoman territories - with much of success. The conversion of tribes turcomanes in the east of Anatolia and in Iraq is even more worrying for the Othomans, as well as the recruitment of combatants experienced and feared in the growing army safavide. In order to stop propaganda safavide, Bayezid II off-sets great numbers of Shiite inhabitants of minor Asia until in Morée. However, in 1507, Ismail Shah and Qizilbash take most of the Kurdistan, by beating the Othoman regional forces. Only two years after in Central Asia, Qizilbash beat the Uzbek with Merv, kill their chief Muhammad Shaybânî and destroy its dynasty. Its head is sent to the Othoman sultan as a warning.

In 1511, a revolt Chiite bursts in the Khanqah alévis and is brutally repressed by the Othomans: 40.000 people are massacred on order of the sultan. Shah Ismail tries in return to turn chaos in the Ottoman Empire to his advantage and invades it Anatolia. Qizilbash beat an important Othoman army under the orders of Sinan Pasha. Shocked by this heavy defeat, the sultan Selim Ier (new sovereign of the empire) decides to invade Persia with an army of 200.000 Othomans and to deal with Qizibash on their own ground. Moreover, it orders the persecution of the Chiisme and massacres it of all its members in the Ottoman Empire.

The August 20th 1514 (1st Rajab 920 A.H.), the two armies meet with Chaldoran in Azerbaïdjan. The Othomans are in excess with approximately two against one (three against one according to certain sources) and had a Artillerie and Pistolet S. Qizibash then underwent a heavy defeat, and many Amir S qizilbash of high ranking as three characters of importance among the Ouléma S are killed.

The defeat destroys the belief in the invicibility of Ismail Shah and its divine statute . The relation between the murshid-e kāmil ( perfect guide ) and its murid S ( in favor ) is then broken.

Qizilbash and Moghols

After the battle of Chaldoran, during almost ten years, of the factions Qizilbash rivals fight for the control of the kingdom. In 1524, the Shah Tahmasp Ier, governor of Herat , succeeds his/her Ismail father. It was then under the supervision of powerful the Amir Qizilbash Ali Beg Rumlu (called " Div Soltan" ) which was thus the sovereign de facto Safavide kingdom. However, Tahmasp succeeds in taking again its authority on the state and Qizilbash.

In 1554, Humâyûn, the second emperor Moghol, is confronted with internal difficulties in the young empire moghol and is faced an opposition of the princes Timourides and Djaghataïdes. It leaves then to find refuge near Tahmasp which it meets with Soltaniyeh.

During the reign of Tahmasp Shah, Qizilbash take part in a series of wars on two faces and - with the little of resources which they have - succeed in defending their kingdom against the Uzbek in the east and against the Othomans in the west. With the Treated of Amasya signed in 1555, peace between the Othomans and the Safavides are made for all the duration of the reign of Tahmasp

Humâyûn will set out again of Persia in 1554 and Chah Tahmasp will help it to reconquer its kingdom - usurped by Sher Shâh Sûrî - by lending to him an army of 10.000 qizilbashs and a score of guns, ordered by Budaq Khan Qadjar. This army will allow him to take Kandahâr and Kabul, then to continue its reconquest of the Empire moghol.

This body of Qizilbashs will remain with the service of Moghols as from this moment, some qizilbash reaching even headquarters in the armies of the moghols; like the case of Bayram Khan shows it (1497 - 1561, pertaining to the Baharlu clan of the Qara Qoyunlu Turkmènes), which serves Shah Ismail first of all and is then sent by Tahmasp with Humâyûn towards India. The reconquest of India by Akbar is allotted to the strategy and with the sagacity of Bayram Khan, which will carry the title of khan-e khanan then will be made vakil Al soltana ( Prime Minister ) by Akbar. It will help to consolidate the capacity of the moghols on their empire, by recruiting many Persan immigrants while trying to neutralize the tensions between the various factions from noble of the empire. Thereafter, of the clans qizilbash will remain installed in all the area under domination of the empire moghol, but will not have an access to the direct capacity because Akbar considered that them Uzbeks and Qizilbash have the practice of détroner their kings.

" Persianisation" Qizilbash movement

The tribal competitions of Turkmènes (particularly at Qizilbash, which is often governors of provinces), the attempt of noble Persians to put an end to the domination turkmene and the conflicts ceaseless during the ten years which followed the death of Tahmasp have much affaibili the State Safavide and made their kingdom vulnerable to the external enemies. The Othomans conquer the Azerbaïdjan then, and the Uzbek conquer the Khorasan, of which Balkh and Herat.

The come to power of Shah Abbas in 1588 mark a change of course in the attitude of the central capacity vis-a-vis the tribes turkmenes in Persia. The events of last - of which fights after the death of his/her father Muhammad Khudabanda - determine to put an end to the domination tribes qizilbash on the country. In order to weaken them (they were then the military elite of the Empire), it founds an army made up of Ghulam S ( slaves ) downward of Armenian or Géorgiens. This new army would be faithful to the person of the Shah and more to the chiefs of clans. The stations of vakil and to amir Al-umarā fell in disuse and were replaced by the station of Sepahsālār سپهسالار , main of the army , commander-in-chief of all the armed forces (Qizilbash and non-Qizilbash), who was generally allotted to noble Persan.

It is under the reign of Abbas Shah that the Iranian fraction takes the top on turkmenes, putting fine at decades of domination turkmene in Persia.

Nadîr Shâh and the fall of the safavides

The decline of Safavides starts truly after the death of Abbas Shah. This decline results from several factors: weak sovereigns, interference of the policy of the harem with the policy of State, bad administration of the grounds of the State and excessive taxes like increasing weakness of the armies (at the same time the army qizilbash and the army of the ghulams ). Moreover, the religious policy of the Shiite Ouléma S persecuting the sunnites (particularly sunnites of Afghanistan) is another of the elements release of the fall of the safavides. It is this decline and this dissatisfaction which will push Afghan tribes directed by Mahmoud Ghilzai to raise itself then to gain a series of victories on the Western border in 1722, quickly carrying out them to the capital and putting a term at the dynasty at the State Safavide.

Shah Tahmasp II vis-a-vis this invasion, fact call to Nadir Khan, a qizilbash of the Qirqlu clan of the Afshar tribe, which gained a reputation as a chief of tribe after raids and plunderings in Khorasan. Nadir Khan will be put at the service of the Shah and will take the name of Tahmasp Qoli ( slave of Tahmasp ) then will beat in a decisive way Afghan with the Bataille of Damghan in 1729, marking the return of the safavides to the head of Iran. Nadir then gives Tahmasp II on the throne. This one loses the Georgia and the Arménie with the profit of the Othomans, which puts Nadir Khan in anger, which relieves it, puts Abbas III, the eight month old son of Tahmasp, on the throne and declares regent. He installs his capital with Mashhad and then begins a period of conquest and a return to the tribal army made up of qizilbash. At the end of a few years, Nadir Khan is made crown Shah under the name of Nâdir Shâh and follows a policy of conquests which will make it regard as the Iranian Napoleon . These conquests carry out it in Afghanistan, then until Delhi, which it will put at bag, then bringing back fabulous spoils, whose Trône of the peacock celebrates it.

It will try to impose the sunnism on Iran. It is at that time that part of Qizilbash will settle in Afghanistan and India at the time of the conquests of Nadir Shah.

Legacy of Qizilbash

Afghanistan

Qizilbash in Afghanistan live in the urban areas like Kabul, Herat or Kandahar, like in certain villages of Hazarajat (today Bamiyan). They are descendants of the troops left in the area by Nâdir Châh during its Indian countryside in 1738. Qizilbash occupied of the important stations in the governmental ones in the past and count today many members who are tradesmen. Since the creation of Afghanistan, they set up an important group and which influences the company politically. The estimates of their number vary from 13.000 to 50.000 people. They speak Afshar (a dialect of the Azeri ) or the Dari and are as a majority of the Shiite Moslems. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone describes Qizilbash of Kabul at the beginning of the 19th century like one Turkish colony speaking the Persan one and, for some of enter them, Turkish . Described as educated and influential, it appears that they gave up their original Turkish language in favor of the Persan one, thus becoming persianized Turkish

The influence of the Qizilbash movement in the government created resentment among the clans Pachtounes, particularly after Qizilbash were openly combined with the British during the first anglo-Afghan war (1838-1842). During the massacre of the minorities Shiite of Afghanistan perpetrated by Abdur Rahman Khan, Qizilbash were declared “enemy of the state” and were persecuted and driven out by the government and the sunnite majority, and one of them, Aga Muhammad Yahya Khan Qizilbash (1917 - 1980), which was the President Pakistan of 1969 with 1971.

Turkey

See also: Alévisme, Bektachis

Some Alévis and modern Bektachis are always called Qizilbash.

It was reported that, among the Othoman Turks, the kizilbaş became a kind of term derogatory which can be applied to groups which are not necessarily associated with Kizilbash of Central Asia. In Turkey, one often refers to the Bektachis with the term Kizilbaşi .

Alévis would find their origin in the Qizilbash populations having been converted at the beginning of the Qizilbash movement, as some of their beliefs show it.

Syria

The legacy of Qizilbash of Syria comes owing to the fact that many Alévis in Syria are of Qizilbash origin. The population of Qizilbash origin in Syria speaks a dialect about the Azeri and their number was estimated at 30.000 in the years 1960.

Qizilbash famous

• military Commanders:
• Diplomatic Hussein Khan Shamlu
• Muhammed Khan Ustadjlu
• Imamqulu Khan Ziyadoglu Qadjar
• :
• Huseyin Ali Bey Bayat
• Oruç Bey Bayat
• Historians:
• Hassan Bey Rumlu
• Iskender Munshi Bey Turkmen
• Writer and Peintre:
• Sadiq Bey Afshar
• Poets:
• Ashık Qurbani : Large Bard of Azerbaidjan, Qurbani is regarded as the first ashık. It will be one of the first to take share with the qizilbash cause. Its poems tell the company of the time and the quarrels between the qizilbashs chiefs. He will be a prisoner of the Othoman before being released by the qizilbashs. In his poems, one can feel a very sharp attachment with Chah Ismail:

Qurbani was sacrificed for the person of the chah
Le Derviche knows what is a life misérable
Mon lord looked at the shore and threw it to more profond
Durant seventy years the Ange Gabriel dazzled me, Main O!

• Pir Sultan Abdal : it was a Abdal and a large poet. The Governor of the town of Sivas, Hizir pasha, made it hang because one showed it to support the Séfévides. Pir Sultan was not only a abdal like the others, quietly sitted in its tekke (convent), it was with the people and saw the sufferings of the people.

Its poems reflect the company time with all this concern:

That I burn love divin
Je will not turn over a my chemin
Si I leave my way, I would be désœuvré
Je will not turn over a my chemin
Si the Cadi S and the Mufti S give the sentence
Si one hangs to me, here the corde
Si one cuts the throat of me, here the dague
Je will not turn over a my way.

• Yusif Bey Ustadjlu

• Murshidqulu Shamlu

Yuregi daĝ olmayinca, baĝri kanli lal teak
Difficulty kimin haddi yoktur qizilbas olmaĝa
Shah Ismail Khatai
(As long as its heart did not reach the vastness of a red rubis
None has the right to become qizilbash!)