Qizilbash or Kizilbash (قزلباش; Ottoman Turkish for "Crimson/Red Heads"; sometimes also Qezelbash or Qazilbash) is the label given to a wide variety of Shi'i militant groups (ghulāt) that flourished in Anatolia and Kurdistan from the late 13th century onwards, some of which contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty of Iran. The expression "Red Heads" 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 Safaviyya movement in accordance with the Twelver Shi'ite doctrine of the Imamate. The origin of the Kızılbaş (Qizilbash) -- whose name originated from their Sunni Ottoman foes, and who later adopted that name as a mark of pride -- can be dated from the 15th century onward, when the spiritual grandmaster of the movement, Haydar (the head of the Ṣafawiyyah Sufi order), organized his followers into militant troops. Connections between the Qizilbash and other religious groups and secret societies, such as the Mazdaki movement in the Sasanian Empire, or its more radical offspring, the Persian Khurramites, have been suggested. Like the Qizilbash, the latter were an early Shi'ite ghulat group and dressed in red, for which they were termed "the red-haired ones" (Arabic: محمره‎ muḥammirah) by medieval sources. In this context, Turkish scholar Abdülbaki Gölpinarli sees the Kizilbash as "spiritual descendants of the Khurramites" The Kizilbash were a coalition of many different tribes of predominantly (but not exclusively) Turkic-speaking Azerbaijani background, united in their adherence to the Safavid doctrine of Shi'ism. As murids of the Safaviyya sheikhs (pirs), the Kizilbash 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 padshah ("king"), changing the purely religious pir -- murid relationship into a political one. As a consequence, any act of disobedience of the Kizilbash Sufi against the order of the spiritual grandmaster became "an act of treason against the king and a crime against the state" (Persian: nā-sufīgarī, "improper conduct of a Sufi") -- as was the case in 1614 when Shah Abbas I put to death some Kizilbash. The Kizilbash adhered to heterodox Shi'a doctrines encouraged by the early Safaviyya sheikhs Haydar and his son Isma'il. They regarded their rulers as divine figures, and so were classified as ghulat extremist by orthodox Ithnāʻashari Shias When Tabriz was taken, there was not a single book on Twelver Shiaism among the Kizilbash leaders; the book of the well known Allama Al-Hilli was procured in the town library to provide religious guidance to the state. The Shia ulema did not participate in the formation of Safavid religious policies during the early formation of the state. However, later, the ghulat doctrines were forsaken, and Arab Twelver Shia ulema resident in Lebanon, Iraq, and Bahrain were brought in increasing numbers. Initially the Shia ulema did not voice dissent about the religious stance of the monarch, but during the following century they were able to impose a stricter version of Shia Islam on both the population and the state. Among the Qizilbash, Turcoman tribes from Eastern Anatolia and Azerbaijan who had helped Shah 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, and included: Ustādjlu Rūmlu Shāmlu (the most powerful clan during the reign of Shah Ismail I.) Dulkadir (Arabic: Dhu 'l-Kadar) Afshār Qājār Takkalu Other tribes -- such as the Turkman, Bahārlu, Qaramānlu, Warsāk, and Bayāt -- were occasionally listed among these "seven great uymaqs". Some of these names consist of a place-name with addition of the Turkish suffix -lu, such as Shāmlu or Bahārlu. Other names are those of old Oghuz tribes such as the Afshār, Dulghadir, or Bayāt, as mentioned by the medieval Uyghur historian Mahmoud Al-Kāshgharī. The origin of the name Ustādjlu, however, is unknown, and possibly indicates a non-Turkic origin of the tribe. The non-Turkic Iranian tribes among the Qizilbash were called Tājiks by the Turcomans and included Tālish Lur tribes Siāh-Kuh (Karādja-Dagh) certain Kurdish tribes certain Persian families and clans

• published: 25 Jan 2014
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