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

development marked a decisive step away from the original theocratic concept of the
state, and toward a greater separation of religious and secular powers within the
state.” 1979
On the other hand, the accumulation of Persian elements in the highest offices of
the state was not limited to the office of vekālat. As we learn from Khwandāmir,
“around the same time the shah assigned the office of comptroller to Sayyid Āmir
Shihabuddin Abdullah, son of Sayyid Nizamuddin Lala, one of the great seyyids of
Azerbayjan; but since he was incapable of discharging the office competently, the office
was transferred to the great and learned naqīb and seyyid, Āmir Jalaluddin Muhammad
al-Husayni al-Shirangi.” 1980
The decline of the qizilbash dominance on the Safavid affairs in the course of the
sixteenth century is perhaps best reflected in the history of two offices: khalīfat al-
khulafā and āmir al-umarā. It has already been evaluated in detail in the present study
that the establishment of the Safavid state was a process principally rested upon the
qizilbash movement which was initiated by Ismail’s grandfather Junayd. In its early
phases until transforming into the ‘routinized state’ under the auspice of shi’ite ulame,
the qizilbash movement had two aspects: politico-military and millenarian-sufistic. 1981
The first aspect was represented by the āmirs or khans of the qizilbash oymaqs while the
second was represented by the khalifas who fulfilled religious functions and the
propaganda of the Order in each clan. According to Nasr Allah Falsafī, the leader of the
1979 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 47.
1980 HS, pp. 606-7. Also see HR, p. 185,
1981 Concomitant to this dual structure of the movement, Shah Ismail and his successors embedded two
institutions in their personality, which had hitherto been represented in Islamic states by two separate
personalities: the holder of temporal power, the shah, and the perfect spiritual guide, the mürşid-i kāmil.
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