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

ecause of that, was denounced by learned sunni scholars as ‘heretic’. 516 Sooner the
second branch swallowed the whole of the Order, shifting the representatives of the
traditional line to marginality, and in one or two generations to oblivion. This
transformation, which started during the Shaykhdom of Junayd and was mostly
completed under Shaykh Haydar, also laid the fundamentals of Ismail’s state. As a
modern scholar states, “Following the death of Šaih Ibrāhīm … a sudden and
tremendous change occurred in the Order of Ardabil and its leaders. With the succession
of Šaih Ğunaid the Order seemed to be transformed into a militant movement which,
like a whirlwind, grew in intensity during the period of Ğunaid’s son Haydar, and during
Haydar’s son Sultān ‘Ali Pādishāh, and which finally carried Haydar’s second son
Ismā’īl and seated him on the throne of the Safawids at Tabriz.” 517
From this point of view, Junayd’s Shaykhdom, especially his journey to Anatolia
and Syria was the period during which the seeds of Ismail’s throne were planted. The
most crucial historical development of this period, for the future of the Safavid Order,
was without a doubt the attachment of militant Turkomans of Anatolia to the Order. In
Mazzaoui’s words, “the Anatolian ‘Turks’ who under Osman and Orhan were
conducting gazā in the west against the Byzantium are now the ‘Turkmāns’ who were
engaging in similar gāzī activities under Junayd and Haydar against Georgians.” 518 In
516 As already mentioned Safavid sources undervalue this transformation, attempting to present a linear
history of dynasty. Indeed, the ghazā activities of Junayd and Haydar are recorded, but present this new
area of interest as if it were a normal sufi practice rather than loading some new connotations. (Yet the
outstanding genuineness of Iskender Beg Munshi must be remarked here. He openly writes the political
desires of Junayd.) The emergence of shi’ite ideas and the essential change in the socio-cultural bases of
the disciples during this period is especially not mentioned. Nonetheless, even the epithets that they use
for the members of the dynasty clearly reflect this transformation. The four heads of the order up until
Shaykh Ibrahim, employ the epithet “Shaykh” while Junayd and Haydar are called “Sultan”, obviously
connoting temporal power as well as the spiritual one. For a brief analysis of Safavid historian’s usage of
the title ‘sultan’ for Junayd and Haydar and its connotations, see Mazzauoi, p. 72.
517 Mazzaoui, pp. 71-2.
518 Mazzaoui, p. 77.
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