{{Short description|Alevi militant groups}} {{About||the surname|Qizilbash (name) |the related Sufi order that led to the Safavid dynasty|Safavid order|the related Sufi order in Turkey|Alevism|the suburb of Nicosia, Cyprus|Kizilbash (suburb)}} {{pp-move|small=yes}} [[File:Qizilbash troops of Shah Ismail I. Circa 1647 painting, Chehel Sotoun.jpg|thumb|Qizilbash troops of Shah Ismail I. Circa 1647 painting, Chehel Sotoun]] {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} '''Qizilbash''' or '''Kizilbash'''{{efn|{{langx|az|قیزیلباش|italic=no}} (Latin script: {{lang|az|qızılbaş}}) {{IPA|az|ɡɯzɯɫˈbɑʃ}}; {{langx|ota|قزيل باش}}; {{langx|fa|قزلباش|qizilbāš}} (modern Iranian reading: {{lang|fa-Latn|qezelbāš}}); {{langx|tr|kızılbaş|lit=red head}} {{IPA|tr|kɯzɯɫbaʃ}}}} were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman{{efn|"The '''Qizilbash''', composed mainly of '''Turkman tribesmen''', were the military force introduced by the conquering Safavis to the Iranian domains in the sixteenth century." Quoted from {{harvp|Babayan|1993|pp=1-6}}.}} Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Vincent J. |author-link=Vincent Cornell |date=2007 |title=Voices of Islam |volume=1 - Voices of Tradition |location=Westport CT |publisher= Praeger Publishers |isbn=9780275987336 |page=225 |oclc=230345942 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320474707 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Charles H. |date=2010 |title=Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1139491419|at=[https://books.google.ca/books?id=SKgs8-pj4_YC&pg=PA53 p. 53] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKgs8-pj4_YC }}</ref> Anatolia, the Armenian highlands, and the Caucasus from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty in early modern Iran.{{r|n=EncycloIslam_V_2435|r={{harvp|Savory|1986|loc=[https://archive.org/details/ei2-complete/Encyclopaedia_of_Islam_vol_5_1/page/243/mode/1up pp. 243-5]}}.}}{{efn|"Kizilbāsh (T. "Red-head"). [...] In general, it is used loosely to denote a wide variety of extremist Shi'i sects [see Ghulāt], which flourished in Anatolia and Kurdistān from the late 7th/13th century onwards, including such groups as the Alevis." Quoted from {{harvp|Savory|1986|loc=[https://archive.org/details/ei2-complete/Encyclopaedia_of_Islam_vol_5_1/page/243/mode/1up p. 243]}}.}}
By the 18th-century, anyone involved with the Safavid state—militarily, diplomatically, or administratively—came to be broadly referred to as "Qizilbash". It was eventually applied to some inhabitants of Iran.{{sfn|Kia|2020|pp=147–149}} 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 ({{reign|1797|1834}}) simultaneously creating a Qajar dynastic identity grounded in the pre-Islamic past.{{sfn|Kia|2020|p=151}}
==Etymology== [[File:Taj-i Haydari, with and without turban, Dastan-i Jamal u Jalal. 1502-1505, Tabriz (Uppsala University Library, O Nova 2).jpg|thumb|''Taj-e Haydari'', with and without turban. ''Dastan-i Jamal u Jalal'', 1502–1505, Tabriz (Uppsala University Library, O Nova 2)]] The word Qizilbash derives from Turkish ''Qızılbaş'', meaning "red head". The expression is derived from their distinctive twelve-gored crimson headwear ({{Lang|fa-Latn|tāj}} or {{Lang|fa-Latn|tark}} in Persian; sometimes specifically titled "Haydar's Crown" {{lang|fa|تاج حیدر}} / {{lang|fa-Latn|Tāj-e Ḥaydar}}),{{efn|{{lang|fa-Latn|Tāj}}, meaning ''crown'' in Persian, is also a term for hats used to delineate one's affiliation to a particular Sufi order.}} 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.{{sfnp|Momen|1985|loc=pp. [https://archive.org/details/introductiontosh0000unse_d5k7/page/101/mode/1up 101–7]}} The name was originally a pejorative label given to them by their Sunni Ottoman foes, but soon it was adopted as a mark of pride.{{sfnp|Esmāʿīl I Ṣafawī at Encyclopædia Iranica (online ed.)}}{{sfnp|Amanat|2017|p=43}}
==Origins== 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 Turkish-speaking Turkic tribes: Rumlu, Shamlu, Ustajlu, Afshar, Qajar, Tekelu, and Zulkadar (Dulkadirs/Dhu’l-Qadar).{{efn|"Кызылбаши, первоначально состоявшие из представителей семи малоазиатских тюркоязычных племен румлу, шамлу, устаджлу, афшар, каджар, текелю и зулкадар, говоривших на азербайджанском языке, были с XV в. одной из главных военно-политических опор Сефевидского государства. Quoted from {{harvp|Grigoriev|2000|pp=32-46}}.}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Floor |first1=Willem M. |author1-link=Willem Floor |last2=Javadi |first2=Hasan |title=The Role of Azerbaijani Turkish in Safavid Iran |journal=Iranian Studies |date=2013 |volume=46 |issue=4 |page=569 |issn=0021-0862 |doi=10.1080/00210862.2013.784516 |jstor=24482868 |s2cid=161700244 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24482868 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{efn|"The primary court language remained Turkish. But it was not the Turkish of Istambul. It was a Turkish dialect, the dialect of the Qizilbash Turkomans, which is still spoken today in the province of Azerbaijan, in north-western Iran." Quoted from {{harvp|Blow|2009|loc=[https://books.google.ca/books?id=Bg-MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA165 P. 165]}}.}}
The Qizilbash were a Shia community that emerged under the leadership of the Safavids in the early 15th century.{{sfnp|Savory|1980|pp=1-10}}
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 Khurramites, and Turkic shamanism, have been suggested.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bruinessen |first=Martin van |author-link=Martin van Bruinessen |date=2017 |chapter=Dersim and Dalahu: Some Reflections on Kurdish Alevism and the Ahl-i Haqq religion |editor=Shahrokh Raei |title=Islamic Alternatives: Non-Mainstream Religion in Persianate Societies |series=Göttinger Orientforschungen, III. Iranica |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Harrassowitz |pages=65–93 |doi=10.2307/j.ctvckq47b |jstor=j.ctvckq47b |isbn=978-3-447-10779-2 |chapter-url=https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/370756/Bruinessen_Dersim_and_Dalahu_2.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Alevism |website=Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School |url=https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/alevism |archive-date=13 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713150403/https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/alevism }}</ref> Of these, the Khurramites were, like the Qizilbash, an early ghulat group{{r|EncycloIslam_V_2435}} and dressed in red, for which they were termed "the red ones" ({{langx|fa|سرخ جامگان |sarkh jāmegān|links=no}}, {{langx|ar|محمرة|muḥammirah|links=no}}) by medieval sources.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anetshofer |first1=Helga |last2=Karateke |first2=Hakan T. |date=2001 |title=Traktat über die Derwischmützen (Risāle-i Tāciyye) des Müstaqīm-zāde Süleymān Sādeddin |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004120488 |lang=de }}</ref> In this context, Turkish scholar Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı sees the Qizilbash as "spiritual descendants of the Khurramites".{{r|EncycloIslam_V_2435}}
==Organization== 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
As murids (sworn students) of the Safavi pirs (spiritual guides), 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 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Savory |first=Roger M. |author1-link=Roger Savory |date=1965 |title=The office of ''khalifat al-khulafa'' under the Safawids |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=497–502 |doi=10.2307/596718 |jstor=596718 }}</ref>
==Beliefs== {{Twelvers}} 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.{{sfnp|Momen|1985|loc=pp. [https://archive.org/details/introductiontosh0000unse_d5k7/page/101/mode/1up 101-2]}}
When Tabriz 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.{{sfnp|Momen|1985|p=108}} The Qizilbash battle cry was "qurban oldiğim, sadaqa oldiğim, pirüm mürşidim" (قربان اولدیغم، صدقه اولدیغم، پیروم مرشدم), meaning "may I be sacrificed for you, my spiritual guide" in Turkish, and referring to Shah Ismail.<ref>Ṣarrāf, M. Ḥ. (1991), معركة چالداران, H:920/M:1514: أولى صفحات الصراع العثماني الفارسي: الأسباب و النتائج, pp. 99, مكتبة النهضة المصرية, University of Michigan</ref><ref>دنبله جستجو در تصوف ایران، عبدالحسین زرینکوب, pp. 229, 1978.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Browne |first=Edward Granville |date=1924 |title=A Literary History of Persia |volume=4 |publisher=The University Press |pages=14–5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aydın |first=Ayhan |date=2006 |title=Akademisyenlerle Alevîlik-Bektaşîlik Söyleşileri |publisher=Horasan Yayinlari |pages=238 |isbn=9789759806583 |lang=tr }}</ref>
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.
===Qizilbash aqidah in Anatolia=== {{Main|Qalandariyya|Imadaddin Nasimi|Hurufism|Bektashism and folk religion}}
{{Further|Mansur Al-Hallaj|Sevener|Qarmatians|Baba Ishak|Babai revolt|Hassan II of Alamut |Muhammad II of Alamut}}
* Among the individual revered by Alevis, two figures, firstly Abu Muslim who assisted the Abbasid Caliphate to beat Umayyad Caliphate, but who was later eliminated and murdered by Caliph al-Mansur, and secondly Babak Khorramdin, who incited a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate and consequently was killed by Caliph al-Mu'tasim, are highly respected. In addition, the Safavid leader Ismail I is highly regarded. * The Qizilbash ''aqidah'', or creed, is based upon a syncretic fiqh (jurisprudence tradition) called batiniyya,{{r|n=Halm_2016|r={{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Halm |first=Heinz |date=2016 |orig-date=1988 |title=Bāṭenīya |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bateniya |access-date=9 January 2026 }}}} referring to an inner or hidden meaning in holy texts. It incorporates some Qarmatian thoughts, originally introduced by Abu’l-Khāttāb Muhammad ibn Abu Zaynab al-Asadī,<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Sachedina |first=Abdulaziz |date=2018 |orig-date=1983 |title=Abu'l-Ḵaṭṭāb Asadī |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-kattab-mohammad-b |access-date=9 January 2026 }}</ref><ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Amir-Moezzi |first=Mohammad Ali |date=2013 |title=Ḵaṭṭābiya |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kattabiya |access-date=9 January 2026 }}</ref> and later developed by Maymun al-Qāddāh and his son ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maymun,<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Halm |first=Heinz |date=2018 |orig-date=1982 |title=Abdallāh B. Maymūn Al-Qaddāḥ |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abdallah-b-maymun-al-qaddah/ |access-date=9 January 2026 }}</ref> and Muʿtazila with a strong belief in The Twelve Imams. * Not all of the members believe that the fasting in Ramadan is obligatory although some Alevi Turks perform their fasting duties partially in Ramadan. * Some beliefs of shamanism still are common among the Qizilbash in villages. [[File:Secaatname 0173. Imam Qoli Khan.jpg|thumb|upright|The Qizilbash Imam Quli Khan with his troops in the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590). ''Şecāʿatnāme'' (1586).]] * The Qizilbash are not a part of Ja'fari jurisprudence, even though they can be considered as members of different tariqa of Shia Islam all looks like sub-classes of Twelver. Their conviction includes Batiniyya-Hurufism and "Sevener-Qarmatians-Isma'ilism" sentiments.{{r|Halm_2016}}<ref>Öztürk, Yaşar Nuri, ''En-el Hak İsyanı (The Anal Haq Rebellion) – Hallâc-ı Mansûr (Darağacında Miraç – Miraç on Gallows),'' Vol 1 and 2, Yeni Boyut, 2011.</ref> * They all may be considered as special groups not following the Ja'fari jurisprudence, like Alawites who are in the class of ghulat Twelver Shia Islam, but a special Batiniyya belief somewhat similar to Isma'ilism in their conviction.
==Composition== 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.{{r|n=Minorsky_1980_16188|r={{cite book |editor-last=Minorsky |editor-first=Vladimir |editor-link=Vladimir Minorsky |date=1980 |orig-date=1943 |title=Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, A Manual of Safavid Administration (ca. 1725) |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press for the E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust |isbn=0906094127 |at=pp. [https://archive.org/details/tadhkirat-al-muluk-1943-minorsky/page/16/mode/1up 16–8], 188 }}}} Some of these greater Turcoman tribes were subdivided into as many as eight or nine clans, including: * Ustādjlu (Its origins reach back to the Begdili)<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Doerfer |first=Gerhard |date=2013 |orig-date=1989 |title=Bīgdelī |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bigdeli-or-begdeli-also-bagdilu-a-former-turkish-tribe/ }}</ref> * Rūmlu (Its name means the one who originates from the Roman land i.e. Anatolia.) * Shāmlu (The most powerful clan during the reign of Shah Ismail I. Its name means the one who originates from Sham i.e. the Levant.) * Dulkadir (Arabic: Dhu 'l-Kadar) * Afshār * Qājār * Takkalu (Persian rendition of Täkälü or Tekelü which means the one who originates from the Teke Peninsula of Anatolia. The region was named after the Beylik of Teke which might have a connection with the Teke tribe of Turkmenistan.)
Other tribes — such as 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tapper |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Tapper |date=2011 |title=Tribe and State in Iran and Afghanistan |location=London |publisher=Routledge |at=[https://books.google.com/books?id=LCj8dzn0KIMC&pg=PA11 Introduction] |isbn=9780415610568 }}</ref>
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 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:{{r|Minorsky_1980_16188}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Savory |first=Roger M. |author-link=Roger Savory |date=1965 |title=The consolidation of Safawid power in Persia |journal=Der Islam |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=71–94 |doi=10.1515/islm.1965.41.1.71|s2cid=161679360 }}</ref> * Tālish * The Lurs * Siāh-Kuh (Karādja-Dagh) * certain Kurdish tribes * certain Persian families and clans
==History==
===Beginnings=== [[File:Battle Scene (left) (f. 26a detail), Dastan-i Jamal u Jalal. 1502-1505, Tabriz (Uppsala University Library, O Nova 2).jpg|thumb|Cavalry charge with Qizilbash horseman wearing the ''Taj-e Haydari'' headdress. ''Dastan-i Jamal u Jalal'', commissioned under Shah Ismail in 1502–1505, Tabriz.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Titley |first1=Norah M. |date=1984 |title=Persian miniature painting and its influence on the art of Turkey and India - The British Library collections |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-76484-2 |page=80 |url=https://archive.org/details/persianminiature0000titl/page/80/mode/1up }}</ref>]] [[File:AliGholiKhanShamlu.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Ali-Qoli Khan Shamlu (aka ''Haji Ali Qizilbash Mazandarani''), Governor of Khorassan in 1576 and chief of the armies under Shah Abbas I in 1588. Painted in 1584.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Necipogulu |first1=Gulru |last2=Roxburgh |first2=David J. |date=July 2000 |title=Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-11669-6 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6aQSy07yzR0C&pg=PA64 64 fig.20, 66]}}</ref>]] The main followers of the Safavids were the Qizilbash from Azerbaijan and Anatolia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kunt |first=Metin |date=2005 |chapter=Ottomans and Safavids. States, Statecraft and Societies, 1500-1800 |editor=Youssef M. Choueiri |title=A Companion to the History of the Middle East |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9781405106818 |doi=10.1002/9780470996423.ch11 |page=195 }}</ref> In 1501, 7,000 Qizilbash defeated the 30,000-strong army of Sultan Alvand Aq Qoyunlu, and after the coronation in Tabriz, the young Sheikh Ismail became the first Shahanshah of Azerbaijan from the Safavid dynasty.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Trapper |first=Richard |date=1974 |title= Shāhsevan in Ṣafavid Persia|journal= Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=37 |issue=2 |page=324 |jstor=612582 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Lockhart |first=Laurence |author-link=Laurence Lockhart |date=February 1960 |title= Laurence Lockhart: The fall of the Ṣafavī dynasty and the Afghan occupation of Persia, xiii, 584 pp., 10 plates, map. Cambridge: University Press, 1958. 70 ''s''|journal= Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=201–2 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00149638 }}</ref> Ismail received the main support for his accession to the throne from the Qizilbash,{{sfnp|Chabrier|2013|p=210}} but did not enjoy the same support in Iran and even faced resentment and hatred from the majority of Sunni Iranians.{{efn|"His aim was to consolidate his hold over Iran, Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia. Faruk Sümer is right to emphasize that without the help of thousands of Qizilbash followers from Anatolia, Shah Ismaʿil would not have been able to defeat Aqquyunlu leaders and achieve these momentous victories. He did not enjoy that kind of support in Iran and even faced the resentment and hatred of the majority Sunni Iranians." Quoted from {{harvp|Zarinebaf|2019|p=311}}.}} He had to ensure the speedy arrival of the Qizilbash from Asia Minor, since in the eyes of the Persians of Iran he and his supporters were strangers whom they hated.{{sfnp|Zarinebaf|2019|p=311}} Ismail's success was greatly influenced by his detachment of seven close Qizilbash advisers.,{{sfnp|Chabrier|2013|p=218}}
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 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.{{sfnp|Savory|Karamustafa|2017|pp=628–36}}{{sfnp|Amanat|2017|p=43}} 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, the latter which had been practised by their Central Asian ancestors.{{sfnp|Amanat|2017|p=43}}
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 the reincarnation of Ali and a manifestation of the divine in human form.{{sfn|Amanat|2017|pp=43–44}} 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 a common lifestyle, language, faith, and animosity towards the Ottomans.{{sfn|Amanat|2017|pp=44–45}}
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 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 the local Turcoman tribes of Asia Minor (Anatolia), Syria, and the Caucasus – collectively called "Qizilbash" by their enemies – rallied to his support in Erzincan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sümer |first=Faruk |date=1992 |title=Safevi Devletinin Kuruluşu ve Gelişmesinde Anadolu Türklerinin Rolü |trans-title=The Role of Anatolian Turks in the Establishment and Development of the Safavid State |location=Ankara |publisher=Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları |page=15 |lang=tr }}</ref> 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 a force of 30,000 Aq Qoyunlu under Alwand Mirzā{{r|n=Savory_1995_765|r={{harvp|Savory|1995|loc=pp. [https://archive.org/details/ei2-complete/Encyclopaedia_of_Islam_vol_8_Ned-Sam/page/765/mode/1up 765-93]}}.}} 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,<ref>{{cite web |title=Safavid Empire (1501-1722) |website=BBC |date=7 September 2009 |access-date=9 January 2026 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/safavidempire_1.shtml }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |author=Shapour Ghasemi |title=History of Iran: Safavid Empire 1502–1736 |website=Iran Chamber Society |access-date=16 December 2014 |url=http://www.iranchamber.com/history/safavids/safavids.php }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rayfield |first=Donald |date=2013 |title=Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78023-070-2 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxQpmg_JIpwC&pg=PA165 }}</ref> Many of these areas were priorly under 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 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.{{r|n=Savory_1964_IS|r={{Cite journal |first=Roger M. |last=Savory |author1-link=Roger Savory |date=1964 |title=The significance of the political murder of Mirza Salman |journal=Islamic Studies |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=181–191 |jstor=20832740 }}}}
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 the Battle of Ghazdewan.{{r|Savory_1964_IS}} 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.
===Battle of Chaldiran=== {{Main|Battle of Chaldiran}}
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 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 was sent to the Ottoman sultan as a warning.
[[File:Safavid heavy infantry at the 1578 Battle of Mollahasanli. Şeca'atname (1598).jpg|thumb|upright|Safavid heavy Qizilbash soldier, at the 1578 Battle of Mollahasanli. ''Şeca'atname'' (1598)]] 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, the new ruler, decided to invade with a force of 200,000 Ottomans. In addition, he ordered the persecution of Alevis<ref name="bloomberg">{{cite news |title=Alevis stage protest against bridge name |newspaper=Hürriyet Daily News |date=2 June 2013 |access-date=10 January 2026 |url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/alevis-stage-protest-against-bridge-name-48081 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.todayszaman.com/national_alevis-protest-plans-to-name-third-bridge-after-ottoman-sultan_317231.html|title=Alevis protest plans to name third bridge after Ottoman Sultan|publisher=todayszaman.com|access-date=10 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214192729/http://www.todayszaman.com/national_alevis-protest-plans-to-name-third-bridge-after-ottoman-sultan_317231.html|archive-date=14 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and massacred its adherents in the Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gibb |first1=H.A.R. |author1-link=H. A. R. Gibb |last2=Bowen |first2=Harold |date=1957 |title=Islamic society and the West. A Study of the Impact of Western Civilization on Moslem Culture in the Near East |volume=1 Part I & II |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |page=189 }}</ref>
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;<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=McCaffrey |first=Michael J. |date=2013 |orig-date=1990 |title=Čālderān |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/calderan-battle/ }}</ref> 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 the relationship between the ''murshid-e kāmil'' and his ''murids'' (followers).
===The deprivation of the Turcomans=== 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.{{sfnp|Savory|1980|loc=pp. [https://archive.org/details/savory-1980-safavids/page/37/mode/1up 37-9]}} After the death of Ismail, the Turkomans managed to seize power from the Iranians, they were however, defeated by Tahmasp I, the son of Ismail who got rid of the Turcomans.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Minorsky |first=Vladimir |author-link=Vladimir Minorsky |date=1942 |title=The Poetry Of Shah Ismail I |journal= Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=1006–1053 |jstor=609140 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00090182 }}</ref>
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 was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Safavid kingdom.<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Savory |first=Roger M. |author-link=Roger Savory |date=2013 |orig-date=1995 |title=Dīv Solṭān |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/div-soltan/ }}</ref> However, Tahmasp managed to reassert his authority over the state and over the Qizilbash.
[[File:Battle of Prince Hamzeh Mirza against rebellious Qizilbash emirs.jpg|thumb|left|Battle of Prince Hamzeh Mirza against rebellious Qizilbash emirs. ''Ḫulāṣat at-tawārīḫ'', circa 1595]] 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 the west.{{sfn|Rothman|2015|page=236}} With the Peace of Amasya (1555), peace between Safavids and Ottomans remained for the rest of Tahmasp's reign.<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Köhbach |first=Markus |date=2018 |orig-date=1989 |title=Peace of Amasya |access-date=9 January 2026 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amasya-peace }}</ref> 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 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,{{sfnp|Streusand|2011|p=148}} similar to that of the neighboring Ottoman Empire – the Janissaries.<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Bosworth |first=Clifford E. |date=2013 |orig-date=1988 |title=Barda and Barda-Dāri v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran |access-date=9 January 2026 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-v }}</ref> 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.{{sfnp|Blow|2009|page=66}}{{sfnp|Aslanian|2011|page=1}}{{sfnp|Bournoutian|2002|page=208}}{{sfnp|Mikaberidze|2015|pages=291, 536}}{{sfnp|Floor|Herzig|2012|page=479}} By this creation of a so-called "third layer" or "third force" in Iranian society composed of ethnic Caucasians, and 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 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.
[[File:"Shah Ismail holds an audience", from Bijan’s Tarikh-i Jahangusha-yi Khaqan Sahibqiran, Iran, Isfahan; end of the 1680s.jpg|thumb|Persian miniature created by Mo'en Mosavver, depicting Shah Ismail I at an audience receiving the Qizilbash after they defeated the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yasar. Album leaf from a copy of Bijan’s ''Tarikh-i Jahangusha-yi Khaqan Sahibqiran'' (A History of Shah Ismail I), produced in Isfahan, end of the 1680s]] 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 counterbalancing influence of traditional Ithnāʻashari Shia Sayeds, made him determined to end the dominance of 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 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.{{r|Savory_1995_765}}
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.{{r|Minorsky_1980_16188}} 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.<ref>{{Encyclopædia Iranica Online |last=Fleischer |first=Cornell H. |date=2017 |orig-date=1985 |title=Allāhverdī Khan (2) |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/allahverdi-khan-d-2/ }}</ref> 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 the office of a ''Sipahsālār'' ({{langx|fa|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 the 1690s, when ethnic Georgians formed the mainstay of the Safavid military, the Qizilbash still played a significant role in the army.<ref>{{cite book |last=Matthee |first=Rudolph P. |author-link=Rudi Matthee |date=2012 |title=Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1845117450 |page=114 }}</ref> The Afshār and Qājār rulers of Iran 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 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.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}
==Legacy== [[File:Afghan_lady_in_Kabul.jpg|thumb|Afghan Qizilbash lady in Kabul]]
===Afghanistan===
{{Main|Afghan Qizilbash}}
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.{{efn|"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." Quoted from {{harvp|Tanner|2009|loc=p. [https://archive.org/details/afghanistanmilit00tann/page/124/mode/1up 124]}}.}}{{efn|"Some of Nadir's Qizilbash soldiers settled in Afghanistan where their descendants had successful careers in the army (until the end of Dost Muhammad's rule), government, the trades, and crafts." Quoted from {{harvp|Adamec|2012|pp=305-6}}.}} Others however were brought to the country during the Durrani rule,{{sfnp|Noelle|1997|loc=p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ylTi-e2C_0IC&pg=PA25 25]}} Zaman Shah Durrani had over 100,000 cavalry, consisting mostly of Qizilbash.{{efn|"According to Husaini, the "gholam Khana" furnished 15,000 out of Shah Zaman's total cavalry of 100,000 and consisted mostly of Qizilbash. Burnes reports that the Qizilbash retained a great degree of their autonomous organization and only pledged direct allegiance to their individual khans, who were in turn answerable to the king. This statement is borne out by the fact that the command of the entire bodyguard rested with the Qizilbash leader Mahmud Khan Bayat during 'Timur Shah's time. Up to Shah Zaman's reign the Khorasani contingents were listed according to tribal allegiance." Quoted from {{harvp|Noelle|1997|loc=p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ylTi-e2C_0IC&pg=PA26 26]}}.}} 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.{{efn|"Obtaining accurate population figures for the Qizilbash in Afghanistan and Pakistan is virtually impossible because they claim to be Sunni, Tajik, Farsiwan, or Pashtun, or they identify themselves according to their place of origin in India. Population estimates for Afghanistan range from 30,000 to 200,000, but some suggest the figure is closer to one million. The story is similar in Pakistan. Few influential Qizilbash live in Iran, their original home..." Quoted from {{cite web |title=Qizilbash |website=Countries and Their Cultures Forum |url=http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Qizilbash.html }}}}{{efn|"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 is particularly appropriate here." Quoted from {{harvp|Afghanistan: A Country Study (2001)|at=p. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=X0CLyC39MEgC&pg=PA104 104] }}.}}
Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone described the Qizilbash of Kabul in the beginning of the 19th century as ''"a colony of Turks,"'' who spoke ''"Persian, and among themselves Turkish.''"{{r|n=Elphinstone_1815_320|r={{cite book |last=Elphinstone |first=Mountstuart |date=1815 |title=An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and Its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India |location=London |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown |at=pp. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=FOc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320 320–1] }}}} 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"''.{{r|Elphinstone_1815_320}}<!--<ref>Henry Yule, "Hobson-Jobson", London, 1886, p. 380</ref>--> Lady Florentia Sale (wife of Sir Robert Henry Sale) and Vincent Eyre – both companions of Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone – described the Qizilbash of Afghanistan also as ''"Persians, of Persian descent, or descendant of the Persians, wearing a red cap"''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sale |first=Florentia |author-link=Florentia Sale |date=1843 |title=A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan 1841–42 |location=London |publisher=John Murray |at=p. [https://archive.org/details/journalofdisaste00sale/page/n18/mode/1up xiii] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Eyre |first=Vincent |date=1842 |title=The Military Operations at Cabul |location=London |publisher=John Murray |at=p. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284412/page/n18/mode/1up xix] }}</ref>
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, the Qizilbash were declared "''enemies of the state''{{-"}} and were persecuted and hunted by the government and by the Sunni majority.{{sfnp|Afghanistan: A Country Study (2001)|at=p. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=X0CLyC39MEgC&pg=PA115 115] }}
The former national anthem (2006-2021) of Afghanistan mentioned Qizilbash as an ethnic group in the third line of third stanza.
Ehsan Bayat family belongs to the Qizilbash community of Afghanistan.
=== India ===
The Qizilbash Safavid army helped Mughal Emperor, Humayun recapture the throne of India from Sikandar Shah Suri of the Sur Empire. Prominent amongst them (the Qizilbash) was Bairam Khan, the regent and chief mentor to Akbar the Great.{{r|n=GK_15082020|r={{cite web |author=Agha Faisal Ali |date=15 August 2020 |title=Building bridges with the past- Memories as our community history: The Qizilbash Tapestry of Kashmir |website=Greater Kashmir |url=https://www.greaterkashmir.com/opinion/building-bridges-with-the-past-memories-as-our-community-history-the-qizilbash-tapestry-of-kashmir/ }}}}{{r|n=KashmirLife_30112017|r={{cite web |title=Kandahar's Qizilbash |publisher=Kashmir Life |date=30 November 2017 |url=https://kashmirlife.net/kandahars-qizilbash-issue-35-vol-09-157293/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211024539/https://kashmirlife.net/kandahars-qizilbash-issue-35-vol-09-157293/ |archive-date=11 December 2017 |access-date=31 July 2025 }}}}
The rise of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century started a fierce cold war in Afghanistan, and subsequently a fight for racial supremacy began between the aboriginal Pashtuns and the Turkic Qizilbash. This resulted in major migrations of the Qizilbash people out of Afghanistan to the safe havens of India in order to avoid persecution on political, racial and religious grounds. They migrated in mass numbers and settled in old cities of the current Indian regions of Awadh, Kashmir and Punjab.{{r|GK_15082020}}{{r|KashmirLife_30112017}}
The Qizilbash in India are Shias by denomination. The Qizilbash of Kashmir use the title, Agha and belong to the Syed caste. The Qizilbash in Awadh use the title, Nawab, which was awarded to them by representatives the British crown.{{r|KashmirLife_30112017|GK_15082020}}
Famous Indian poet, Agha Shahid Ali and his family members, including Agha Shaukat Ali and Begum Zaffar Ali, belonged to the illustrious Syed Agha family, tracing their roots back to the Qizilbash of Afghanistan's Kandahar.{{r|GK_15082020|KashmirLife_30112017}} Amir Qazalbash, another famous Indian poet, also belonged to a Qizilbash family settled in Delhi.
=== Iran === [[File:Qizilbash horseman in 1666, according to the travels of Chardin, Jean (1643-1713).jpg|thumb|In Jean Chardin's book, 1666.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chardin |first=Jean |date=1711 |title=Voyages de Monsieur le chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l'Orient.... |volume=2 |at=Plate [https://archive.org/details/bub_gal_ark_12148_bpt6k1050392t/page/n155/mode/1up XXIX] |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gal_ark_12148_bpt6k1050392t/page/n6/mode/1up |language=French }}</ref>]] Following Shah Abbas's gradual replacement of the Qizilbash in the Safavid military and administrative ranks, and the persecution they faced at 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.{{sfnp|Babayan|1993|pp=41-7}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arjomand |first=Said Amir |date=1994 |title=Introduction: Religion and Statecraft in Pre-Modern Iran |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1/4 |pages=5–8 |doi=10.1080/00210869408701817 |jstor=4310883 |issn=0021-0862 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
===Bulgaria, Greece and Romania=== A strip of land from Babadag in Romania until Dimetoka in Greece is the land of Qizilbash nowadays. This strip includes a part of eastern Bulgaria.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Canbakal |first1=Hülya |title=The Ottoman State and Descendants of the Prophet in Anatolia and the Balkans (c. 1500-1700) |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |date=November 2009 |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=542–578 |doi=10.1163/156852009X458241 |jstor=25651184 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25651184 }}</ref> 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.{{r|n=Eminov_2000|r={{cite journal |last=Eminov |first=A. |date=2000 |title=Turks and Tatars in Bulgaria and the Balkans |journal=Nationalities Papers |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=129–164 |doi=10.1080/00905990050002489 }}}} Qizilbash communities are also present in Ludogorie (Deliorman).{{r|n=Norris1993_98|r={{cite book |last=Norris |first=H.T. |date=1993 |title=Islam in the Balkans: Religion and Society Between Europe and the Arab World |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=9780872499775 |at=p. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=RGmzir-ITtUC&pg=PA98 98]}}}}<ref>{{TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kizilbas|title=KIZILBAŞ|author=İlyas Üzüm}}</ref>
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 is addressing them.{{r|Norris1993_98}} According to the 1992 census, there were 85,773 Shiites in Bulgaria.{{r|Eminov_2000}}
===Syria/Lebanon=== 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 the early eighteenth century, a part of northern Lebanon is even described as the "Kızılbaş mukataa" tax district.<ref>{{cite book |last=Winter |first=Stefan |date=2012 |chapter=The Kızılbaş of Syria and Ottoman Shiism |editor=Christine Woodhead |title=The Ottoman World |publisher=Routledge |pages=171–183 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/3809302 }}</ref>
===Turkey=== {{Further|Alevism}} {{Shia Islam|Branches}}
In Turkey, there is a community ''Alevis'', which were formed out of Qizilbash groups in Anatolia in the 16<small>th</small> century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yıldırım |first1=Rıza |date=2019 |title=The Safavid-Qizilbash Ecumene and the Formation of the Qizilbash-Alevi Community in the Ottoman Empire, c. 1500–c. 1700 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/safavidqizilbash-ecumene-and-the-formation-of-the-qizilbashalevi-community-in-the-ottoman-empire-c-1500c-1700/23E2C81B4BAD0DFAAADD54A25EEB5896 |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=52 |issue=3–4 |pages=449–483 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1080/00210862.2019.1646120 |s2cid=204476564 |access-date=5 May 2023 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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, the fourth Rashidun Caliph.{{r|n=Melikoff2011_35|r={{cite book |last1=Mélikoff |first1=Irène |date=2011 |title=Sur les traces du soufisme turc: Recherches sur l'Islam populaire en Anatolie |publisher=Gorgias Press |page=35 |doi=10.31826/9781463233389-004 |isbn=9781611437188 |lang=fr }}}} In the 19<small>th</small> century, the term was also used in Turkey to refer to the Qizilbash, who were seen as heretics by the Sunni majority.{{r|Melikoff2011_35}} 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.{{r|n=KOK_1997_1|r={{Cite book |editor-last1=Kehl-Bodrogi |editor-first1=Krisztina |editor-last2=Otter-Beaujean |editor-first2=Anke |editor-last3=Kellner-Heikele |editor-first3=Barbara |date=1997 |title=Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present", Berlin, 14-17 April 1995 |publisher=Brill |at=pp. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=TUhwyBmBnI4C&pg=PA1 1–20] |doi=10.1163/9789004378988 |isbn=9789004108615 }}}} The Kurdish Alevis are known locally by the term ''Kızılbaş'', associating them with the Qizilbash in the Safavid dynasty, although their exact origins are unclear and subject to debate.{{r|KOK_1997_1}} 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birge |first=John Kingsley |date=1937 |title=The Bektashi Order of Dervishes |location=London |publisher=Luzac & Co |at=p. [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1303/page/n68/mode/1up 64 n.4] }}</ref>
In the second half of the 19th century, a Western interest in the origins and political orientations of the Qizilbash sparked,{{r|n=Dressler2013_3177|r={{cite book |last1=Dressler |first1=Markus |date=2013 |chapter=The Western Discovery of the Kızılbas¸-Alevis |title=Writing Religion: The Making of Turkish Alevi Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=31–77 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5293/chapter-abstract/148028578 |access-date=16 January 2026 }}}} 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Karakaya-Stump |first=Ayfer |date=2010 |chapter=The Emergence of the Kizilbaș in Western Thought: Missionary Accounts and their Aftermath |editor=David Shankland |title=Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia |publisher=Gorgias Press |pages=333–38 |doi=10.31826/9781463225421-014 |isbn=9781617190889 |access-date=18 January 2026 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.31826/9781463225421/html?lang=en }}</ref> In turn, the Ottoman authorities responded by making more efforts to classify 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.{{r|Dressler2013_3177}} Hans-Lukas Kieser talks about an "Alevi renaissance" which, according to him, took place in the Tanzimat period, as well as later, after the Young Turk Revolution.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kieser |first=Hans-Lukas |date=2002 |chapter=Some Remarks on Alevi Responses to the Missionaries in Eastern Anatolia (19th-20th Centuries) |editor1=Eleanor H. Tejirian |editor2=Reeva Spector Simon |title=Altruism and Imperialism: Western Cultural and Religious Missions in the Middle East |location=New York City |publisher=Middle East Institute, Columbia University |isbn=097212313X |at=p. [https://archive.org/details/altruismimperial0000unse/page/136/mode/1up?q=Adivar 136] }}</ref> There are some doubts, though, whether this term is appropriate, due to the scarcity of sources and the diversity of the various Qizilbash-groups.{{r|Dressler2013_3177}} {{Blockquote|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''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Crowfoot| first=John W. |author-link=John Winter Crowfoot |date=1900 |title=Survivals among the Kappadokian Kizilbash (Bektash) |journal=Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=30 |pages=305–320 | doi=10.2307/2842635 |jstor=2842635 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1810274 }}</ref>}}
==See also== * Aleviler * Bektashism and folk religion * Afghan Qizilbash * Khamseh * Mirza Kalich Beg * Alawites
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==Citations== {{Reflist|30em}}
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==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Aldous |first1=Gregory |title=The Qizilbāsh and their Shah: The Preservation of Royal Prerogative during the Early Reign of Shah Ṭahmāsp |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=2021 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=743–758 |doi=10.1017/S1356186321000250|s2cid=236547130 }} * {{cite book |last1=Baltacıoğlu-Brammer |first1=Ayşe |editor1-last=Erginbaş |editor1-first=Vefa |title=Ottoman Sunnism: New Perspectives |date=2019 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9781474443319 |pages=47–70 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/40821079 |chapter=One Word, Many Implications: The Term ‘Kızılbaş’ in the Early Modern Ottoman Context |doi=10.1515/9781474443333-006}} * {{cite book |last1=Baltacıoğlu-Brammer |first1=Ayşe |editor1-last=Krstić |editor1-first=Tijana |editor2-last=Terzioğlu |editor2-first=Derin |title=Historicizing Sunni Islam in the Ottoman Empire, c. 1450–c. 1750|url=https://brill.com/display/title/58970 |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004440296 |pages=423–450 |chapter=Neither Victim Nor Accomplice: The Kızılbaş as Borderland Actors in the Early Modern Ottoman Realm|chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379183975|doi=10.1163/9789004440296_013}} * {{cite journal |last1=Bashir |first1=Shahzad |title=The Origins and Rhetorical Evolution of the Term Qizilbāsh in Persianate Literature |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |url=https://www.academia.edu/7543051|date=2014 |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=364–391|doi=10.1163/15685209-12341352 }} * {{cite journal |last1= Kondo |first1=Nobuaki|title=Qizilbash Afterwards: The Afshars in Urmiya from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.academia.edu/5894257|journal=Iranian Studies |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1999 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=537–556|doi=10.1080/00210869908701968 }} 10.1007/S10835-017-9273-1 {{Safavids}} {{Islamic Theology|schools|state=collapsed}} {{Islam topics|state=collapsed}} {{Turkey topics}} {{Authority control}}
Category:15th century in Iran Category:Late Medieval Anatolia Category:Islam-related slurs Category:Medieval Azerbaijan (Iran) Category:Military history of Safavid Iran Category:Rebels by type Category:Shia communities Category:Turkic words and phrases