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

However, the foot-prints of this doctrinal schism continued to be seen even
between the descendants of Haydar at least during the first decade of the sixteenth
century. Likewise, Andrew Morton pays attention to persuasive signs of doctrinal
differentiation between the members of Safavid family. Basing his work on Fazli
Isfahani’s Afzal al-tavārīkh, a seventeenth-century Safavid chronicle, he questions the
generally accepted view of the sixteenth century Savafid sources on the succession of
Ismail to his elder brother Sultan Ali. 566 Differing from other sources, Afzal al-tavārīkh
argues that Sultan Ali, when understanding his destiny to be killed, divided the
succession between Ibrahim and Ismail. The related passage runs, “He [Sultan Ali] made
his younger brother Ibrahim his deputy for the chain of mystical guidance, commanded
him to transmit guidance and occupied the prayer carpet, and transferred matters of
military action and kingship over the whole world which, by the grace of God became
adorned with his [presumably Ismail] noble existence, to Sultan Ismail Mirza, who was
seven years old. … With his [Sultan Ali] blessed hand he placed the twelve-gored
Haydarian garment [the tāj] on the head of that fortunate brother [Ismail] and tied the
thunderbolt-powered sword of Sultan Junayd at his waist … and, making Sultan Ibrahim
Mirza his heir in transmitting guidance and the ways of his noble-natured grandfather,
which had come to him in regular succession, ordered the khalifas of the retreat, the
pīras, tarīqchīs, sayers of zikr and his disciples to serve and obey his dervish-natured
brother.” 567 After reciting this passage from Afzal al-tavārīkh, Morton reminds the above
mentioned differentiation between Safavid followers by the succession of Junayd, and
566 Andrew H. Morton, “The Early Years of Shah Isma’il in the Afzal al-tavārikh and Elsewhere”, in
Safavid Persia. The History and Politics of an Islamic Society, ed., Charles Melville, London, New York,
1996, p. 35.
567 Quoted in Morton, “The Early Years”, pp. 34-35.
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