A thirteen century Orthodox Sunni Sufi Order. Named after Sheikh Safi ud-Din (he was the ancestor of the Safavid Kings, Shah Ismail, Shah Abbas).
The order was based in the Iranian city of Ardabil. The Sufi order had a large following among the Turkoman (Qizilbash) who were the military wing of the Sufi order.
The Sufi Shaykhs fabricated their genealogy to descent from Ali and Fatima (Prophet daughter).
Shah Ismail, crowned himself as the Persian King of the Safavid Empire at 14 years of age. Although he was/used to be a follower of the extremist Qizilbash sect, he made a tactical decision to establish Shia Imamiyah as the state religion.
Reference
Salam Gypsy I appreciate your efforts of researching into this, but I would just like to point out something. There is a possibility that Shah Ismail order the change in his genealogy, however to suggest that this was done by the earlier Shaykhs such as Sheikh Safi ud din is highly doubtful after what A.Khamenei has mentioned of the Shaykh's great station (you can check the farsi website on Sheikh Safi), and what is mentioned about him in Safvat as-safa.Peace :) Ağa Hassan Abbas
ReplyDeleteThey also said the same thing about Abdul Qadir Gilani, the Sufi. His followers claim that the Shaykh descended from the Prophet via his grandsons, and we know that isn’t true. The Sufis are notorious for creating fantastical stories about their cult/sect leaders and also in fabricating their genealogy. You may want to check out my articles regarding Ibn Arabi the sufi master. I don’t really believe in the Sufi lineage or most of their stories because there’s absolutely no basis for them.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean A.Khamenei as in the Supreme Leader of Iran? I’ve not read Khamenei’s views and opinions on Safavid. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the Mullahs in Iran are pro-Safavid since they are the ones benefitting the most from whatever pro-Safavid political agenda they seem to like/promote.
Too bad I didn’t get to finish writing my posts about Fake Sayyeds. My writing was based on a book which highlighted the huge number of fake sayyeds popping up in Iran. It was found that these sort of claims were driven by monetary gain and lust for wealth and property. There’s also an article about fake Sayyeds from subcontinent India. A lot of these claims are very questionable.
Islam put a greater emphasizes on the faith of an individual; how good or faithful he/she is to the teaching. It doesn't really value family connection that much.
Shias don’t really have an official stance on the political system and don’t accept anyone except the family of the Prophet. Shiism doesn’t approve of any political system or parties. Some people have decided to fill the void but many others have not.