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

Haydar and his father.” 719 So clear is thus that, to Khunjī, the transformation of the
Safavid Order into the Safavid Movement very much depended on the ‘increase of the
connection’ with Anatolian disciples. 720
4.3.5. The Qizilbash Beliefs
The most controversial - and the most wide-circulated as well - account of Khunjī
concerns the beliefs of Ardabil sufis who adhered to Junayd and Haydar. This is, in the
meantime, almost the only historical account on the beliefs of early qizilbashes.
Nevertheless the extreme points of their beliefs are evidently overvoiced by Khunjī for
he was in an open attempt to position Haydar and his followers in heresy against the
‘legitimate’ authority of his patron Sultan Yakub. Accordingly, his negative and
pejorative attitude peaks while narrating the religiosity of the path of Junayd and
Haydar. Yet he provides valuable information pertaining to the nature of the Qizilbash
faith before the establishment of shi’ite orthodoxy.
According to Khunjī, his adherents openly called Shaykh Junayd ‘God (ilāh)’
and his son ‘Son of God (ibn-Allāh)’. Even when they saw that Junayd’s corpse was
covered with dust and blood, they did not denounce such a false faith but said: “He is the
living One, there is no God but he.” 721 Their folly and ignorance was such that, says
Khunjī, if someone says that any part of his body became missing or he is dead he was
himself to taste the death. Elsewhere he says his murids considered Shaykh Haydar “as
their god (ma’būd) and, neglecting the duties of namāz and public prayers (‘ibādāt),
719 TA, p. 61.
720 One should keep in mind the Fazlullah b. Ruzbihan Khunji was both a contemporary and close
observer of events for he finished his history in 1490 in the Aqqoyunlu Palace.
721 TA, p. 66.
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