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

testimony unveils a fact: Şahkulu was not simply one of the khalifas spread over all the
empire but the one superior to other khalifas, at least to those khalifas in certain parts of
the Ottoman Empire. One may surmise that the ‘papers’ he dispatched to several
khalifas in Rumelia must have been pamphlets written in the aim of teaching pillars of
the spiritual path and instructing what to do.
One might reasonably infer that Pir Ahmed was only one of many sufi spies
circulating in the Ottoman realm. Accordingly his activities recorded in this document
are simply a cross section of the clandestine qizilbash organization. It would not be
wrong to assume that the agitation of Safavid khalifas in both Anatolia and Rumelia had
already been wide-spread and intensified at the threshold of the sixteenth-century. As
some sources - though being scarce – imply, this propaganda was not fruitless; rather it
was met by a great audience. The Safavid propaganda achieved considerable success in
Rumelia as well as in Anatolia. An account in Haniwaldanus Anonym, which is totally
absent in other chronicles envisages that the khalifas had already created an organized -
even armed - society, which was considerably immune to the interference of the
Ottoman administration. It is written in Haniwaldanus Anonym that in Dobruca so many
weapons were found that could arm whole people of the region in case of any rebellion.
These weapons were sent by those men who called themselves ‘şeyh’ 1243 in order to arm
people when the arrival of Shah Ismail who would according to the propaganda of
(Ceyib) in the distcrict of Đmāret in Filibe and handed over ‘paper’ to him. He then proceeded to Sofya,
where he visited Tāceddin Khalifa, Şuca Khalifa, Şeyh Çelebi Khalifa, and Muhyiddin Khalifa, delivering
papers to them. He then gave papers to Ercanlı Khalifa, whose accommodation is not clear. Pir Ahmed put
some of his clothes and papers in trust of Ercanlı Khalifa and moved to his next destinations: Alaybeyi
Yusuf the son of Mehmed, and Ethemī Mehmed in the village of Resullu of the nāhiye of Dicle, Ilyas
Khalifa in the village of Yalınacak, and finally in the village of Pörtlü (Pirenli) Muhyiddin Khalifa, who
was the imam of the village.
1243 Evidently refers to khalifas of the Safavid Order.
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