This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 31 July 2013, At: 10:17 Publisher: Routledge

Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Iranian Studies
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cist20

Some observations on religion in Safavid Persia

Hamid Algar
a a

Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, University of California, Berkeley Published online: 02 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: Hamid Algar (1974) Some observations on religion in Safavid Persia, Iranian Studies, 7:1-2, 287-293 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00210867408701467

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form

to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON RELIGION IN SAFAVID PERSIA

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

HAMID ALGAR
It is Indisputable that the religious history both of the Safavid period and of the two centuries that preceded it remains inadequately explored. There existed in Transoxania and Anatolia, as well as the Iranian plateau, a plethora of groups and individuals with diverse tendencies and aspirations that it is difficult, in our present state of knowledge, to synthesize into a comprehensible whole. There are however a number of minor observations on Professor Nasr's presentation that I wish to make. The first is an expression of respectful disagreement, and the others are intended to direct attention to matters not mentioned in his otherwise comprehensive paper. Professor Nasr's contention that Sufism owes its essential origin to Shicism, and that therefore its suppression in the Safavid period ought to be regarded as a return to the womb that bore it, is highly contestable. There is a certain tendency, deriving above all from the work of Henry Corbin, to present Sufism as an unacknowledged borrowing from Shicism, which receives its most extreme formulation in the claim that "true Shicism is Sufism, and true Sufism is Shicism."-'- Apart from the fact that this view of the "origins" of Sufism is hardly more plausible than Orientalist theories of Christian or Vendantine parentage, it tends too to obscure the rich legacy of Iranian Sunni spirituality, which includes some of the greatest names of Islam,' Thus, in his En Islam 287

Iranien, Corbin makes hardly any mention of sunni figures, and his discussion of Ruzbihan Baqll is preceded by an almost apologetic mention of that Sufi's Sunni, or, as it is delicately put, "non-Shicite" affiliations.* The assumption that the Sunni Sufism of pre-Safavid Iran was Shicite in essence and origin has the further effect of concealing the radical break with the past that the Safavid establishment of Shicism represented. That Shicism had historical antecedents in Iran, and that the Mongol and Timurid periods had witnessed formative developments in Shicism, none would deny. But the assertion that the way was prepared for the coming of the Safavids by fcarlqats pregnant with Shicism is dubious. The case of the Kubraviyyah is often adduced in this connection, and the late Marijan Mole indeed assembled much fresh and important material in his interesting article on the subject. The conclusions drawn by him are, however, open to question. Of all the figures examined by him--Najm ad-Din Kubra, Sacd ad-Din Hamuya, c Ala ad-Daula Simnani, c Ali Hamadani, and Sayyid Mutiammad b. cAbdullah Nurbakhshit is only the last that may be regarded with any certainty as a Shicite, although there is some ambiguity surrounding Hamadani. The others are shown only to combine respect for the Family of the Prophet, particularly the Twelve Imams, with allegiance to the Four Caliphs and the Four Imams of the maz.5hib--an attitude of integral respect for the leaders of the bmmah by no means peculiar to these Kubravl or their age. The Sunnism of the Kubravl was very marked. Najm ad-Din R3zl Daya, for example, cites as one reason for his choice of Seljuq Anatolia as a place of refuge the supremacy there of Sunnism.^ He insists too on correct belief (ictiq5d), defined as the belief of the People of Sunna and Community, as a condition for the state of "muridhood" and "sha khhood."^ Thfs cases of Hamadani and Nurbakhsh should not be taken as typical for the evolution of the whole Kubraviyyah: it is not as if there were a seed of Shicism planted by Najm ad-Dln Kubra that attained its natural flowering with Nurbakhsh. The later history of the Kubraviyyah is still largely unexamined, but we know that in Transoxania the Kubraviyyah flourished in the 288 Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

same atmosphere of sunni dominance as the Yasawiyyah and the Naqshbandiyyah, two fcarlqats of unquestioned sunni allegiance, as late as the second half of the sixteenth century. A certain Khaztnl, who migrated from Khwarazm to Istanbul in the reign of Sultan Selim II, was initiated into all three tarlqats, and wrote a work setting forth their initiatic chains and devotional practices and making it plain that they were three strands of a single tradition bearing an unmistakable sunni stamp. The Kubraviyyah later died out in the Ottoman lands, being absorbed like the Anatolian remnants of the Yasawiyyah, into the Naqshbandiyyah, a process that would hardly have been possible for a proto-Shicite tariqat. In addition, several branches of the Kubraviyyah are known to have flourished briefly in various areas: there is no indication that they were Shicite.7 Elements in Kubravi texts regarded as protoshicite, such as expressions of devotion to the Twelve Imams, are to be found also in the Naqshbandiyyah. Some consideration of this tariqat is appropriate here, since the Corbin version of Iranian Sufism omits all mention of it, although it had spread from its Transoxanian homeland as far west as Isfahan and Qazvin before the Safavids extirpated it from the Iranian plateau.8 it is true that the chief initiatic chain of the Naqshbandiyyah leads back to Abu Bakr rather than C A1I, but since that chain passes through Jacfar as-Sadiq the Naqshbandiyyah also possesses a secondary silsilah, leading from Jacfar asSadiq through the Imamite line of descent to C A11, that it designates as the "Golden Chain" (Silsilat a.z-gahab).9 There is, then, an calavi element in the spiritual ancestry of this purely Sunni tariqat. The eponymous founder of the Naqshbandiyyah, Baha ad-Din Naqshband, is moreover related to have beheld visions of C A1I at critical points in his wayfaring on the path, 10 ancj numerous examples of similar devotion to the figure of C A1I can be supplied from the later history of the tariqat. Nor is it purely a question of c Ali; all of the Twelve Imams are regarded as deserving of reverence and even as capable of functioning poshumonously as spiritual guides. It is noteworthy that the celebrated Rawdat ash-Shuhadac, a 289

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

description of the martyrdom of Husayn at Kerbela and one of the most important props of the Shicite commemoration of Muharram, was written by a Naqshbandi, Husayn b. c Ali Kashifi, whose son, Fakhr ad-Din c Ali SafI, wrote the fundamental work on the early history of the tarlqat, the Rashahat c Ayn al-ffayat. That devotion to the Imams has no necessary connection with Shicism is further demonstrated by its combination with pronounced hostility to Shicism in a number of significant cases. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, founder of the important Mujaddidi branch of the tarlqat, wrote a bitterly polemical treatise against the Shica, but in his celebrated Maktubat described'the Twelve Imams as the leaders of those who approach the Divine Presence by way of sainthood.^ Similarly, the Naqshbandi saint MawlSnS KhSlid Baghdadl, when passing through Mashhad on his way to India in the early nineteenth century, composed one poem in praise of the Imam Ri.za and another in condemnation of the hicite culama of the city. 12 From these observations on the Kubraviyyah and Naqshbandiyyah we conclude then that the existence of attitudes of devotion to the Twelve Imams in the ^arlqats of the Mongol and Timurid periods was neither a borrowing from Shicism nor a proto-Shicite element. It is therefore not possible to accept the assertion that the evolution of the Safavids from Sunnism to Shicism mirrored a general development among the tariqats, or that the tariqats effectively prepared the way for the coming of Shicism in Iran. Any discussion of the transformation accomplished by the Safavids must include some mention of the violent and coercive methods they liberally applied. Clearly, Shicism could not have flourished in the Iranian soil as it manifestly has through mere imposition; but to ignore the violent nature of its introduction as state religion by Shah Ismacil would be to distort the historical picture and to suggest that a relatively painless transition took place, not a ruthless campaign of suppression. From a certain point of view, the rise to power of Shah Ismacll may be regarded as a Turkoman invasion of Iran from the 290

west that produced almost as violent disruptions as previous incursions from the east. In order to impose Shicism on the Sunni majority of Iran, Sunni culama' were obliged to execrate the first three Caliphs, and the recalcitrant among them were immolated; the tombs of Sunni saints and scholars were violated; and sunni mosques were desecrated.I3 It is important to recall this violently coercive policy of the early Safavids, not only because it demonstrates that Iran was far from ready for a swift passage into Shicism, but also because it was connected with the peculiar and messianic form of Shicism practised by Shah Ismacil, one at variance with subsequent Ithna c asharx orthodoxy. Ghulat elements appear to have entered the Safavid doctrine with Junayd and Haydar,^ and to have reached their apogee with Shah Ismacll, who in his Turkish poetry puts forward an ecstatic variety of claims to being, alternatively, c Alt reincarnate, the Mahdl come in the fullness of time, and even the deity descended to earth.^ It was only with the importation of Arab Snicite scholars from al-Ahsa and Jabal cAmil that more temperate doctrines came to prevail: an Arab scholarly influx came to complement the Turkoman military invasion as a fundament of Shicite Iran. Finally, it should be remembered that the violence used by the Safavids in the establishment of Shicism elicited a shocked and horrified reaction in the sunni neighbors of Iran that for long determined their whole attitude to Shicism. There is a certain consistency of tone and content in all the Ottoman fatvas calling for war on Iran, down to the eighteenth century: the Shicites are seen as neglecters of prayer and desecrators of mosques, as persecutors of scholars and defilers of tombs.16 These accusations could be justified with reference to Shah Ismacll, and although their repetition became to some extent a matter of scribal tradition, there is no doubt that in general the Shicites of Iran were seen by the Ottomans as irredeemably violent and irreligious. Even contemporary Turkish attitudes to the Shicah may be said unconsciously to be colored by Safavid memories. In conclusion, some of the wider effects on the Islamic world of the conversion of Iran to Shicism may be indicated. With the emergence of a militantly shicite
y

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

291

Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

state in Iran, all possibility of territorial continuity between the western and eastern parts of the Islamic world was excluded. It is true that despite the barrier of Safavid Iran the Ottomans communicated sporadically with Central Asia, and had some seaborne contact with India and even Sumatra. It may also be conceded that their Balkan and Mediterranean interests would in any event have precluded a successful eastward expansion of their authority. 17 Safavid Iran nonetheless condemned the Sunni populations of Afghanistan and Central Asia to virtual isolation from the Ottomans, the most powerful sunni state, and it may be held,in part responsible for the stagnation and gradual decay of the Uzbek khanates, ending in their conquest by the Russians in the nineteenth century. This too was part of the price paid for the minor renaissance of Islamic culture that took place under Safavid patronage.

NOTES 1. Henry Corbin, "Sih Guftar dar bSb-i TSrxkh-i Macnavly3t-i Iran," Majalla-yi Danishkada-yi Adabiyat-i Tihran, vol. V (1337/1959), p. 56. 2. 3. En Islam Iranien (Paris: 1972), vol. Ill, pp. 9-11.

"Les Kubrawiya entre Sunnisme et Shiisme aux Huitieme et Neuvieme Siecles de l'Hegire," Revue des Etudes Islamiques (1961), pp. 61-142. Mirsad al-cIbad min al-Mabda' ila 1-Macad, ed. Muhammad Amin RiyShi (Tehran: 1352/1973), p. 20. Ibid., pp. 244, 258. Hujjat al-Abrar dar Asami-yi Auliya-yi Kibar, Bibliotheque Nationale, ancien fonds persan, 1226, ff. 103b-173b. Some information on Khazlnx and another work of his is to be found in Fuad K'dprlllU, TUrk Edebiyatinda tlk Mutasawiflar, 2nd ed. (Ankara: 1960), p. 323. 292

4.

5. 6.

7.

See Bandirmalizade Ahmed MUnib, Mirat at-Turuk (Istanbul: 1306/1889), p. 12. Muhammad b. Husayn b. cAbdullah Qazvxnx, Silsilanama-yi Khw5iag5n-i Naqshband, ms. Laleli (Istanbul: 1381), ff. 9a-llb. Ibid., ff. 2b-3a. We may note in passing that Imam Jacfar as-Sadiq was also physically descended from Abu Bakr: his maternal grandfather was Qasim b. Muhammad b. Abi Bakr, one of the prominent tabicln. Hafiz Husayn Karbala'I Tabrlzl, Raudat al-Janan wa Jannat al-Jinan, ed. Jacfar Sultan al-Qurra'l (Tehran: 1344/1965), I, p. 135! Maktubat (Lucknow: 1306/1889), III, pp. 247-248. Sirhindl's Risala dar Radd-i Ravafid is printed as an appendix to this edition of the Maktubat. Divan (Bulaq: 1260/1844), pp. 41-42, 68.

8.

9. Downloaded by [York University Libraries] at 10:17 31 July 2013

10.

11.

12. 13.

See Jean Aubin, "La Politique Religieuse des Safavides," Le Shicisme Imamite (Paris: 1970), pp. 237-238. See Michel Mazzaoui, The Origins of the Safavids (Wiesbaden: 1972), p. 73. V. Minorsky, "The Poetry of Shah Ismacll I," BSOAS, vol. X (1940-1943), pp. 1006a-1053a. The subject has been examined in detail by Elke Eberhard in Osmanische Polemik gegen die Safawiden im 16. Jahrhundert nach arabischen Handschriften (Freiburg: 1970). On this topic see the interesting study of Ahmet Asrar, Osmanlilarin Dini Siyaseti ve is lam Alemi (Istanbul: 1972).

14.

15.

16.

17.

293