User talk:Nepaheshgar/Some notes on Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili

The Safavids were a very important Iranian dynasty who established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region , thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Although it should be noted that the name of Iran has been use as a geographical and cultural region continously from the Sassanids by various different states[5]. The Safavids according to Roger Savory obscured their origin, since much of their legitimacy was really based on being descendants of the Prophet. According to Savory (who is one of the greatest authorities on the Safavids and has written most of the Safavid related articles in the Encyclopedia of Islam and Encyclopedia Iranica):

“ Why is there such confusion about the origins of this important dynasty, which reasserted Iranian identity and established an independent Iranian state after eight and a half centuries of rule by foreign dynasties? The reason is that the Safavids, having been brought to power by the dynamic force of ideology, deliberately set out to obliterate any evidence of their own origins which would weaken the thrust of this ideology and call in the question the premises on which it was based. ”

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On Shaykh Safi al-Din (d. 1334) and his ancestry much has been said and will probably be said. He was the founder (or actually a continuer from Shaykh Zahid Gilani) of the Shafi'i Sunni Safavid Sufi order. The Safavid dynasty established in 1501 traced its origin through the Shaykh to the Prophet Muhammad. If we look at Safavid article, we can see that it has been discussed many times. The issue is about if the Safavid fatherline was Iranic speaking or Turkomen (Oghuz). This has some significance in terms of history writing, since the origin of a dynasty is defined by its fatherline. For example, the Shirvanshahs were culturally Persian, married with Iranian families of Shabaran, supported Persian poetry and claimed descent from Sassanids through marriage with local Iranian dynasties of the region. Yet their fatherline goes back Yazid b. Mazyad Shaybani (d. 185/801), whose family was the ruler of the region of Shirvan (a historical region that now part of the republic of Azerbaijan). So in this work we study Shaykh Safi's background from different perspectves. Note we are not concerned about the culture of the Safavids from 1501 onwards, since cultures can change within a period of 200 years or so. For example Esmail Safawi was culturally a blend of Iranic and Turkomen elements. For example he commissioned a beautiful Shahnameh while at the same time guided his Turkomen followers. Overall, it is not possible to disect these elements since they were so intertwined. Sometimes the Shah would favor one element against another as one chronicle at that time has stated: “weakened the position of the Turks”. Culturally , the Safavids were affected by both Turkomen and Iranic elements (which some scholars consider the main components of Azeris). They spoke Turkish in their court, but used Persian as the main administrative language and also patronized Persian minature and etc. But their main identity was really Shi'i and they considered themselves "Seyyeds" (descendant of the Prophet of Islam). So in reality, the identity of the Safavids is complex and multi-faceted. The questions of the Safavid idntity (from 1501 onwards ) though is not that relavent to their ancestry. Since ancestry and culture can differ significantly and the Safavids themselves were originally Sunni before their transformation into Shi'i dynasty.

My general opinion on the Safavid ancestry is the same as the pre-eminent Safavid scholar, Roger Savory. Professor. Savory has spent his whole life researching, translating and analyzing matters that are related to Safavids. He has many books and perhaps around hundred of articles (Encyclopedic and Journal) with regards to the Safavids. He is simply known as the most prolific scholars of the Safavids and has written all the major articles of Encyclopedia of Islam and Encyclopedia Iranica with regards to the Safavids. According to Professor Savory:

“ From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigineous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century. ”

Others may disagree, but discussing the ancestry of someone 700 will never be 100% certain. So we just have to look what seems to be the stronger evidences.

Background

Unlike many other dynasties founded by warlords and military chiefs, one of the unique aspects of the Safavids in the post-Islamic Iran was their origin in the Islamic Sufi order called the Safaviyeh. This uniqueness makes the Safavid dynasty comparable to the pre-Islamic Sassanid dynasty, which made Zoroastrianism into an official religion, and whose founders were from a priestly class. It should be noted that the Safaviyeh was not originally Shia but it was from the Shafii branch of Sunni Islam. Hamdullah Mustaufi, a contemporary of Shaykh Safi al-Din remarks under Ardabil:

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اکثر (مردم) بر مذهب شافعی اند، مرید شیخ صفی الدین علیه الرحمه اند The majority of the people are followers of Shafii sect and students of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili (May God Bless him).

”

Other sources have mentioned this as well.

Ahmad Kasravi did a detail study also on the Madhab of the Shaykh and showed clearly it was Shafi'i Sunnite.

What is certain is that the Safavids were a mixture of ethnic Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and Greek lines but their fatherline goes back to Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili. The Safavid Kings themselves claimed to be Seyyeds, family descendants of the prophet Muhammad, although many scholars have cast doubt on this claim. There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 5th/11th century at Ardabil.

Kurdish Father-line

Excerpt from the Safvat Al-Safa, which describes the lineage of Shaykh Safi al-Din as being Kurdish

Wa chon Nisbat Birooz bâ Kurd raft translates to "Since the origin of Birooz was Kurdish"

The oldest extant book on the genealogy of the Safavid family and the only one that is pre-1501 is titled "Safvat as-Safa" and was written by Ibn Bazzaz, a disciple of Sheikh Sadr-al-Din Ardabili, the son of the Sheikh Safi ad-din Ardabili. There are only two pre-1501 (before the Safavids came to power) manuscripts of this work. According Ibn Bazzaz, the Sheikh was a descendant of a noble Kurdish man named Firuz Shah Zarin Kolah the Kurd of Sanjan. The male lineage of the Safavid family given by the oldest manuscript of the Safwat as-Safa is:"(Shaykh) Safi al-Din Abul-Fatah Ishaaq the son of Al-Shaykh Amin al-din Jebrail the son of al-Saaleh Qutb al-Din Abu Bakr the son of Salaah al-Din Rashid the son of Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Kalaam Allah the son of ‘avaad the son of Birooz al-Kurdi al-Sanjani (Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah the Kurd of Sanjan)". The Safavids, in order to further legitimize their power in the Shi'ite Muslim world, claimed descent from the prophet Muhammad and revised Ibn Bazzaz's work , obscuring the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family

There seems to exist a consensus among Safavid scholars that Safavids originated in Iranian Kurdistan and moved to Iranian Azerbaijan, settling in Ardabil in the 11th century. Accordingly, these scholars have considered the Safavids to be of Kurdish descent based on the origins of Sheykh Safi al-Din and that the Safavids were originally a Iranic speaking clan .

Other Reasons I believe that indicates Iranian origin

Here are some other reasons I believe Shaykh Safi al-Din was not from the Oghuz Turkomen origin (groups that came during the Seljuq invasion and beyond) but was rather of a native Iranian speaking origin. Some of these reasons were not mentioned by scholars, but I believe they give further credence.

Oldest manuscript and oldest biography

Safvat as Safa was written in 1358 by a disciple of the order. Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili passed away in 1334. Thus Ibn Bazzaz was likely alive during the time of the Shaykh and he was a student of Shaykh Sadr al-Din (the son of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili). As already mentioned, this biography was written by a disciple of the order.

The two oldest manuscripts and the only ones that pre-date 1501 mention the Shaykh's ancestry going back to Firuz Shah Zarin Kollah al-Kurdi Sanjani. They both mention that "Chon Nisbat Piruz baa Kurd Raft" (Since Piruz's ancestry was Kurdish). So the oldest manuscript on Safavid geneology describe Piruz as a Kurd? Yes

They mention Sanjaar with regards to Piruz and another place as Sanjaan. Sanjaar exists in Kurdistan, but Sanjaan exists in several places including Kurdistan, Khorasan, Baluchistan, India and etc.

names

There is a not single Turkish name in the Safavid geneology. Compare to Seljuqs, Ghaznavids, Eldiguzids and other Turkish dynasties. Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah is a pure Iranian name and it is not a religious name.

Hanafi and Shafi'i

Shaykh Safi al-Din was a Shafii Muslim, which is the sect that is followed by Sunni Kurds today where-as Sunni Turks historically and overwhelmingly were Hanafis.

That Turkic groups association with Hanafism is well known in Islamic history. For example, we Bosworth who quotes the Iranian historian Rawandi:

“ Saljuqs achieved some prestige in the eyes of the Orthodox by overthrowing Shi’i Buyid rule in Western Iran. Sunni writes even came to give an ideological justification for the Turks’ political and military domination of the Middle East. The Iranian historian of the Saljuqs, Rawandi, dedicated his Rahat al-sudur to one of the Saljuq Sultans of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw, and speaks of a hatif, a hidden, supernatural voice, which spoke from the Ka'ba in Mecca to the Imam Abu Hanifa and promised him that as long as the sword remained in the hands of the Turks, his faith (that of the Hanafi law school, which was followed par excellence by Turks) would not perish. Rawandi himself adds the pious doxology, "Praise be to God, He is exalted, that the defenders of Islam are mighty and that the followers of the Hanafi rite are happy and In the lands of the Arabs, Persians, Byzantines and Russians, the sword is in the hand of the Turks, and fear of their sword is firmly implanted in all hearts! ”

Another testament to this is from traveler Ibn Batuttah who lived in the 14th century. On Turks, he provides some description of their religion: {{cquote| ..After eating their food, they drink the yogurt/milk of mare called Qumiz..The Turks are followers of Hanafism and consider eating Nabidh (Alcoholic beverage) as Halal (lawful in Islam).”

Another source:

“ The Turkmens who entered Anatolia no doubt brought with them vestiges of the pre-Islamic inner Asian shamanistic past but eventually became in considerable measure firm adherents of the near-universal Islamic madhab for the Turks, the Hanafi one ”

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Other Sources .

As mentioned, the Sunni Talysh, Tat, Persian (Larestani) and Kurdish speakers of Western Iran are all Shafi’ites and major cities in Azerbaijan before their Turkification and Shi’ification were Shafi’ite. For example the Safinayeh Tabriz shows that Shafi’ism was the main faith in Tabriz, in the 13th century. Also Hanafism was strong not only among Turks, but also the Baluch/Tajiks/Afghans and other Iranian speaking people of Khorasan and Central Asia.

post-1501

All Safavid books (as far I have checked) after 1501 discuss the geneology of the Shaykh and they all trace it to the Prophet Muhammad. Among these books written during the Safavid era are "Silsilat an-Nisab", "Jahan Araayeh Esmail", "Afzal al-Tawarikh" "Alem Araayeh Abbassi" which have all traced the Safavid ancestry to Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah and from there to the Prophet. So there is really not a single book on Safavid geneology that does not trace their ancestry to Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah. No Safavid books traces the ancestry of the Shaykh to any of the original Oghuz Turkmen tribes.

Counter Arguments

Reading the Safavid pages I saw two arguments with regards to the ancestry of the Shaykh.

Silsilat an-Nisab

The first argument was the alleged phrase "Pir-e-Turk" and "Ganj-e-Turk" in the book the Silsilat an-Nisab by Shaykh Husayn the son of Shaykh Abdal Pirzadah Zahid. But in this book also the ancestry of the Shaykh goes back to the Prophet Muhammad. The other drawback to this book is that it was written in the late Safavid period. It was composed somewhere between (1667-1694). Where as the author of the Safvat as-Safa lived during the time of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili, the author of the Silsilat an-Nisab lived 300+ years after Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabil.

In the Silsilat an-nasab-i Safawiya (composed during the reign of Shah Suleiman)(1667-1694), written by Shah Hussab ibn Abdal Zahidi, the ancestory of the Safavid is traced back to Hijaz and the first Shi'i Imam as follows: Shaykh Safi al-din Abul Fatah Eshaq ibn (son of) Shaykh Amin al-Din Jabrail ibn Qutb al-din ibn Salih ibn Muhammad al-Hafez ibn Awad ibn Firuz Shah Zarin Kulah ibn Majd ibn Sharafshah ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Seyyed Ja'afar ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Isma'il ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Ahmad 'Arabi ibn Seyyed Qasim ibn Seyyed Abul Qasim Hamzah ibn Musa al-Kazim ibn Ja'far As-Sadiq ibn Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Imam Zayn ul-'Abedin ibn Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Taleb Alayha as-Salam.

There are differences between this and the oldest manuscript of Safvat as-Safa. Seyyeds have been added from Piruz Shah Zarin Kulah up to the first Shi'i Imam and the nisba "Al-Kurdi" has been excised. The title/name "Abu Bakr" (also the name of the first Caliph and highly regarded by Sunnis) is deleted from Qutb ad-Din's name. .

Also the usage of the word "Turk" in many Sufic symbolism really means beautiful, ruler, mighty. Anyhow to recap, this source also traces the ancestry of the Shaykh through Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah, it was written in the late Safavid era (making it much less reliable than the Safvat Safa), it also claims the Safavids were Seyyeds, it gets rid of Abu Bakr from one of the Shaykhs name.

Language of the Shaykh

Language by itself does not denote ancestry but some post 1501 Safavid manuscripts have ascribed to the Shaykh Persian, Arabic and Ottoman Turkish works. Shaykh Safi al-Din had followers from every place and it would not be suprising that besides Persian, Arabic, Tati he also knew Mongolian and Turkish. Indeed I believe one source has mentioned he also knew Mongolian. Yet in the Safwat as-Safa, Silsilat an-Nisab and other sources, there are Tati verses and sentences recorded to the Shaykh. Tati is a peculiar Iranian dialect and is less

According to Mazzaoui, who wrote a detailed book on the origin of the Safavids:

“ It appears too that Shaykh Safi al-Din had left some written material before he died. This, however, has not come down to us in any "collected" form. And while the statements and sayings ascribed to Shaykh Safi in the innumerable Hikayat of Safvat as-Safa (as told by Ibn Bazzaz on the authority of the Shaykh Safi's son, Shaykh Sadr ad-Din, as well as many other contemporaries of Shaykh Safi) can be more or less trusted and accepted, the actual work or works (including poetry) said to have been written by Shaykh Safi himself await a close and thorough investigation before they can be accepted as authentic writing. The weight of the evidence here appears to be this material is of much later vintage, and that all if not most of it is apocryphal. Much of it seems to have emanated from an original source which may be none other than the Safwat as-Safa itself ”

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Here are some attestation to the tati of the Shaykh. A sentence in the tati(old Iranian Azari not to be confused with Azerbaijani Turkish which is also called Azari. Both are called Azari since they have/had presence in Azerbaijan whose topynom is much older) dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-I Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa from the Shaykh :

“ «علیشاه چو در آمد گستاخ وار شیخ را در کنار گرفت و گفت حاضر باش بزبان تبریزی گو حریفر ژاته یعنی سخن بصرف بگو حریفت رسیده است. در این گفتن دست بر کتف مبارک شیخ زد شیخ را غیرت سر بر کرد»

The sentence: “Gu Harif(a/e)r Zhaatah” is mentioned in Tabrizi Dialect.

”

According to Ehsan Yarshater, remnants of the old NW Iranian dialect (designated as Azari by some authors) of Azerbaijan from the Shaykh are:

“ A sentence in the “Tabrīzī” language and two sentences attributed to Shaikh Ṣafī-al-dīn of Ardabīl, two double distichs (dobaytīs) probably by him, another dobaytī apparently in the language of Ardabīl, and one in the language of khalkhāl, all of these in the safwat al-safā of Ebn Bazzāz, a contemporary of Shaikh Sadr-al-dīn, the son of Shaikh Ṣafī-al-dīn, and therefore of the 8th/14th century (Bombay ed., 1329/1911, pp. 25, 107, 191, 220). (3) Eleven double dobaytīs by Shaikh safī-al-dīn, and therefore apparently in the language of Ardabīl, in the Selselat al-nasab-e safawīya of Shaikh Ḥosayn, a descendant of Shaikh Zāhed Gīlānī, the mentor (morād) of Shaikh safī-al-dīn (Berlin, 1343/1924-25, pp. 29-33). ”

Overall, this NW Iranian dialect is the rarest dialect known by the Shaykh where-as other languages of the region (Persian, Arabic, and even Mongolian/Turkish (due to the rulers)) are not as noteworthy.

Final Thought

I concur with Professor Roger Savory. Every single book on Safavid geneology traces the Shaykh's ancestry to Firuz Shah Zarin Kolah. At the same time, discussing someone's ancestry 700 years ago is never a 100% certain manner. So for now, since the origin of the dynasty is based on the fatherline and unless something older than the oldest extant manuscript of Safvat as-Safa appears, I am of the opinion that the Safavids were of Iranian origin and not Oghuz Turkmen origin