The Islamic Order Of Qizilbash - Turkish Crimson - Red Heads
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