Qizilbash

Mannequin of a Safavid Qizilbash soldier, exhibited in Sa'dabad, Iran.

Qizilbash or Kizilbash (Nastaliq: قزلباش - Qızılbāš; Ottoman Turkish for "Crimson/Red Heads"; sometimes also Qezelbash or Qazilbash) is the label given to a wide variety of Shia Islamic 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 Ithnā‘asharī Imāms and to Ḥaydar Ṣafavī, the spiritual leader (sheikh) of the Ṣafaviyya movement.

Origins

The origin of the organized "Kizilbash movement" - as is was called by their Sunni Ottoman foes, and later adopted as a mark of pride - can be dated from middle of the 15th century, when the spiritual grandmaster Haydar, the head of the Ṣafawiyyah Sufi order, organized his followers into troops.

Connections between the Kizilbash to religious groups and secret societies, such as the Mazdaki movement in the Sassanid Empire, or its more radical offspring the Persian Khurrami sect, have been suggested. Like the Kizilbash, the latter were an early Shī‘ī 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".

It has also been speculated that the group had its origins among the mystical Ismaili Assassin sect; the assertion is generally disputed as no influence of Ismaili beliefs is apparent in Kizilbash practices.

Organization

The Kizilbash were a coalition of many different peoples of predominantly (but not exclusively) Turkic-speaking Azerbaijani background, united in their adherence to the Safavid doctrine of Shiism.

As murids of the Safawiyyah 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.

Beliefs

The Kizilbash adhered to heterodox Shi'a doctrines encouraged by the early Safawiyyah 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. Ismail I. presented himself to his Kizilbash followers not as a representative of the Hidden Imam, but as the Hidden Imam himself, claiming divinity. The Kizilbash would go into battle without armour as an expression of faith in divine protection, while proclaiming Ismā'il waliyyu'llāh to the Islamic Shahada.

Among the Kizilbash there appears to have been a substantial lack of knowledge of Twelver Shia doctrine. 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. Nor did Shia ulema 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.

"Turk & Tājīk"

Among the Kizilbash, 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 Kizilbash 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
• Rumlu
• Shāmlu (the most powerful clan during the reign of Shah Ismail I.)
• Dulghadir (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 or non-Turkish-speaking Iranian tribes among the Kizilbash were called Tājiks by the Turcomans and included:

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

The rivalry between the Turkic clans and 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 wakils as commanders of Kizilbash tribes. The Turcomans considered this an insult and brought about 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.

History

The Beginnings

In the 15th century, Ardabil was the center of an organization designed to keep the Safavid 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 Safavid propaganda was active. The khalīfa, in turn, had subordinates termed pira. Their presence in eastern Anatolia posed a serious threat to the Ottomans, because they encouraged the Shi'ite population of Asia Minor to revolt against the sultan.

In 1499, Ismail, the young leader of the Safavid order, left Lahijan for Ardabil to make his bid for power. By the summer of 1500, ca. 7,000 supporters from the local Turcoman tribes of Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq - collectively called "Kizilbash" by their enemies - rallied to his support. 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, he moved south into Azarbaijan where his 7,000 Kizilbash warriors defeated a force of 30,000 Ak Koyunlu under Alwand Mirzā, and conquered Tabriz. This was the beginning of the Safavid state.

In the first decade of the 16th century, the Kizilbash expanded Safavid rule over the rest of Persia, as well as Baghdad and Iraq, formerly under Ak Koyunlu control.

In 1510 Shah Ismail sent a large force of the Kizilbash to Transoxania to support the Timurid ruler Babur in his war against the Uzbeks. The Kizilbash defeated the Uzbeks and secured Samarqand for Babur. However, in 1512, an entire Kizilbash army was annihilated by the Uzbeks after Turcoman Kizilbash had mutinied against their Persian wakil and commander, Amir Nadjm. This defeat put an end to Safavid expansion and influence in Transoxania and left the northeastern frontiers of the kingdom vulnerable to nomad invasions.

The Battle of Chaldiran

Main article: Battle of Chaldiran

Meanwhile, the Safavid da'wa (propaganda) continued in Ottoman areas - with great success. Even more alarming for the Ottomans was the successful conversion of Turcoman tribes in eastern Anatolia and Iraq, and the recruitment of these well experienced and feared fighters into the growing Safavid army. In order to stop the Safavid propaganda, Sultan Bayezid II deported large numbers of the Shi'ite population of Asia Minor to Morea. However, in 1507, Shah Ismail and the Kizilbash overran large areas of Kurdistan, defeating regional Ottoman forces. Only two years later in Central Asia, the Kizilbash defeated the Uzbeks at Merv, killing their leader Muhammad Shaybani and destroying his dynasty. His head was sent to the Ottoman sultan as a warning.

In 1511, an Alevi revolt known as "Shahkulu Uprising" broke out in Teke and was brutally suppressed by the Ottomans: 40,000 were massacred on the order of the sultan. Shah Ismail sought to turn the chaos within the Ottoman Empire to his advantage and invaded Anatolia. The Kizilbash defeated a large Ottoman army under Sinan Pasha. Shocked by this heavy defeat, Sultan Selim I (the new ruler of the Empire) decided to invade Persia with a force of 200,000 Ottomans and face the Kizilbash on their own soil. In addition, he ordered the persecution of Shiism and the massacre of all its adherents in the Ottoman Empire.

On the 20 August of 1514 (1st Rajab 920 A.H.), the two armies met at Chaldiran in Azarbaijan. The Ottomans -equipped with both firearms and cannon- were reported to outnumber the Kizilbash as much as three to one. The Kizilbash were heavily defeated; casualties included many high-ranking Kizilbash amirs as well as three influential ulamā.

The defeat destroyed Shah Ismail's belief in his own invincibility and divine status. It also fundamentally altered the relationship between the murshid-e kāmil and his murids.

The Qizilbash and the Mughals of South Asia

Qizilbash warriors accompanied the Mughal emperor Humayun from the Safavid Empire in Iran to South Asia to reconquer his empire from the Suri Dynasty. The Qizilbash tribes settled in large numbers in northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and also in India at Delhi and Agra, centers of Mughal administration in South Asia.

The deprivation of the Turcomans

For almost ten years after the Battle of Chaldiran, rival Kizilbash 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 Kizilbash amir Ali Beg Rūmlū (titled "Div Soltān") who was the de facto ruler of the Safavid kingdom. However, Tahmasp managed to reassert his authority over the state and over the Kizilbash.

During the reign of Shah Tahmasp, the Kizilbash 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 Ottomans in the west. With the Treaty of Amasya, peace between Safavids and Ottomans remained for the rest of Tahmasp's reign.

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 and conquered Azerbaijan, the Uzbeks conquered Khurasan, including Balkh and Herat.

In 1588, Shah Abbas I came to power. He appointed 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 counter balancing influence of traditional Ithnāʻashari Shia Sayeds, made him determined to end the dominance of the untrustworthy Turcoman chiefs in Persia. In order to weaken the Turcomans - the important militant elite of the Safavid kingdom - Shah Abbas raised a standing army from the ranks of the ghilman who were usually ethnic Armenians and Georgians. The new army would be loyal to the king personally and not to 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 the royal household, and by the end of Shah Abbas' reign, one-fifth of the high-ranking amirs were ghulams. By 1598 an ethnic Armenian from Georgia had risen to the position of commander-in-chief of all Safawid armed forces. The offices of wakil and amir al-umarā fell in disuse and were replaced by the office of a Sipahsālār (Persian: سپهسالار, master of the army), commander-in-chief of all armed forces - Turcoman and Non-Turcoman - and usually held by a Persian (Tādjik) noble.

Legacy

Afghanistan

Mohammad Naib Sharif, leader of the Qizilbash group in Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-42.

Kizilbash in Afghanistan live in urban areas, such as Kabul, Herat or Mazari Sharif, as well as in certain villages in Hazarajat. They are descendants of the troops left behind by Nadir Shah during his "Indian campaign" in 1738. Afghanistan's Kizilbash 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 60,000 to 200,000. They are Persian-speaking Shi'ite Muslims and are usually linked to the Fārsīwāns and Tājīks of the country.

Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone described the Kizilbash 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". However, Lady Florentia Sale (wife of Sir Robert Henry Sale) and Vincent Eyre - both companions of Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone - described the Kizilbash of Afghanistan also as "Persians, of Persian descent".

The influence of the Kizilbash in the government created resentment among the ruling Pashtun clans, especially after the Kizilbash openly allied themselves with the British during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842). During Abdur Rahman Khan's massacre of the Shi'ite minorities in Afghanistan, the Kizilbash were declared "enemies of the state" and were persecuted and hunted by the government and by the Sunni majority. Many Qizilbash migrated to Punjab region of modern Pakistan. (See also: Reign of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan)

Azerbaijan

Qizilbash tribes played an important role in history of Azerbaijan. During Safavid rule, most of the territory of modern Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan became Shiite.

Iran

The Kizilbash were still vital players in the success of the Safavid Empire - providing soldiers and assisting greatly in the flourishing economy, as well as in arts and literature. In addition, many Kizilbash became Ayatollahs or Mujtahids (important Shia scholars), teaching Iran's masses religious practices and belief. Qizilbash clans form a large population in Iran and this can be indicated from a surname, such as Shamlu, Afshar, bayat

Pakistan

The Qizilbash President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan of Pakistan with President Richard Nixon of USA, circa 1970

In Pakistan, the Qizibash are predominantly Twelver Shia Muslims with a significant Sunni Hanafi Muslim minority. The Qizilbash are an influential group found in almost all segments of Pakistani society particularly in the fertile province(s) of Panjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh. There are sizable populations in the city of Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Sialkot, Hyderabad and Rawalpindi. Estimates vary from 800,000 to 3,000,000 people may be descendants of the Qizilbash as they established several settlements principally in Pakistan in medieval times as well as in the urban centres of Afghanistan. Entire villages and sometimes districts were settled by the Qizilbash where many of their descendants can still be found to this day. Their numbers were further increased with the arrival of tens of thousands of Qizilbash refugees from neighboring Afghanistan when they were termed enemies of the state by the then Emir of Afghanistan for allegedly siding with the British Raj in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 to 1842).

In Pakistan, the Qizilbash wield considerable influence both at a local social level within the respective community and tribe they live in as well as in the government as many prominent Qizilbash have attained positions in the Senate of Pakistan and one as President of Pakistan. The Qizilbash are known for their intellect, higher education and are well renowned as scholars all throughout Pakistan. They have produced many politicians, religious scholars, soldiers, doctors, lawyers and engineers within the country. Qizilbash are also found in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa principally in the city of Peshawer as well as in Balochistan. Pakistan's former President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was a Qizilbash. Qizilbash generation hierarchies are preserved in books published by the British during their Raj.

Turkey

see: Alevis

Some contemporary Alevi and Bektashi leaning religious or ethnic minorities in Anatolia are referred to, pejoratively, as Kizilbash.

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

Notable people with the surname Qizilbash

• Asad Qizilbash, a Pakistani sarod player
• Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Pakistan's former President

See also

• Sufism
• Safavids
• Shi'a Islam
• Secret societies
• Bektashi
• Alevism
• Javanshir Qizilbash
• Mirza Kalich Beg