TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

Safī and his spiritual master, Shaykh Zāhid Gilānī, were, indeed, representatives of high
Sufism prudently respecting the rules of Islamic law (şeriat). 422
Shaykh Safīyuddin was highly influential, not only among ordinary people, but
among the ruling elite as well. He gained the respect of Mongol rulers; and he saved
many people from being harmed at their hands. 423 Two letters of the great Minister
Rashiduddin Fadlullah (d. 1318), one addressed to Shaykh Safī himself and the other to
Mir Ahmad, the son of Rashiduddin, reflect in an obvious manner the concern of the
Minister for the welfare of the Shaykh and his desire to win the Shaykh’s favor and
intercession. In his first letter, Rashiduddin offers to Shaykh Safī, for his convent, a
yearly gift of corn, wine, oil, cattle, sugar, honey, and other food-stuffs for the proper
entertainment of notables of Ardabil on the anniversary of the Prophet’s birthday. In his
second letter, the Minister enjoins his son, who was then the governor of Ardabil, to take
care of the all inhabitants, and especially “to act in such wise manner that His Holiness
the Pole of the Heaven of Truth, the Swimmer in the Oceans of the Law, the Pacer of the
Hippodrome of the Path, the Shaykh of Islam and of the Muslims, the Proof of such as to
attain the Goal, the Exemplar of the Bench of Purity, the Rose-tree of the Garden of
Fidelity, Shaykh Safīyyu’l-Millat wa’d-Dīn (may God Most High perpetuate the
422 As Sohrweide determines, both Shaykhs took positions against antinomian Qalandar groups,
denouncing them as heretics. See Sohrweide, p. 103.
423 HT, p. 130. Also consider Mazzaoui, p. 46; Sohrweide, p. 110; Aubin, “Etudes Safavides I, Sah Ismail
et les notables de l’Iraq persan”, pp. 42-3; Roemer, “The Safavid Period”, pp. 192-3. An interesting
dialogue between the powerful Mongol amīr Amir Chūbān, who was a murid of the Shaykh, and Shaykh
Safī is recorded by Safavid sources. Asked by the amīr whether the soldiers of the king or his disciples
were more numerous, Shaykh Sadruddin is said to have answered that his disciples were twice as
numerous. According to another version, he is said to have replied that in Iran alone for every soldier
there were a hundred Sufis. To this the amīr is said to have replied: “You speak truly, for I have traveled
from the Oxus to the frontiers of Egypt, and from the shores of Hurmuz to Bāb al-Abvāb [Darband],
which are the furthest limits of this kingdom, and I have seen the disciples of the Shaykh embellished and
adorned with the ornaments and the garb of the Shaykh, and they have spread the sound of zikr to those
parts.” Recited in Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 10. The same occurrence is recorded in HT. See HT,
p. 130.
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