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

Sufis in each tribe was called khalifa. 1982 Indeed, it has not been clarified yet whether the
military chiefdom and the spiritual leadership of the clans were unified in one person or
represented by two different people. Kathryn Babayan suggests, without providing
historical evidence, that during the classical age of the Safavid rule (1501-90), these two
offices in each oymaqs were filled by two different delegates appointed by the court, a
khan, sultan, or beg, and a khalifa. 1983 In any case, however, the organization of these
two branches followed different lines. The tribal leaders who were the commanders of
troops recruited from their own clan were organized under the supreme commandership
of the āmir al-umarā, the head of the Safavid army. The Sufis or khalifas, on the other
hand, were organized under the leadership of khalīfat al-khulafā 1984 who was regarded as
the nāyib or deputy of the mürşid-i kāmil. Beginning from the reign of Shah Tahmasb I,
both offices gradually lost their eminence in Safavid politico-religious sphere, one
contested by the ulemā of Twelver Shi’ism while the other was eroded by the Persian
bureaucracy and the ghulām.
During the formation period, the khalifas were extremely influential in
propagating the Safavid message among Turkoman tribes and other affiliated social
groups, organizing religious affairs of communities already converted to qizilbashism,
recruiting fighters among disciples, organizing upheavals against the Ottoman
administration, and consolidating the spiritual influence and the legitimacy of the
Safavid shaykhs etc. It is not surprising that when this office was established officially
by the foundation of the state, it was granted to a qizilbash Turkoman Hadim Beg
1982
Cited in Savory, “The Office of Khalīfat al-Khulafā under the Safavids”, p. 497.
1983
Kathryn Babayan, “The Safavid Synthesis: From Qizilbash Islam to Imamite Shi’ism”, Iranian
Studies, v. 27, no . 1-4, 1994, p. 138.
1984
Minorsky truly called the office of khalīfat al-khulafā the ‘special secretariat for Sufi affairs”. See TM,
p. 125.
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