The rise of revolts in eastern Anatolia…
1492 CE to 1503 CE
The rise of revolts in eastern Anatolia will occupy much of the attention of Sultan Bayezid II during the last years of his reign.
Here, the old conflict has resumed between the autonomous, uncivilized nomads and the stable, settled Middle Eastern civilization of the powerful Ottoman Empire.
The Turkmen nomads have resisted the efforts of the Ottomans to expand their administrative control to all parts of the empire.
In reaction to the orthodox Muslim establishment, the nomads have developed a fanatical attachment to the leaders of the Sufi and Shi'ite mystic orders.
Persia politically splintered with the decline of the Timurid Empire, has given rise to a number of religious movements.
The demise of Timurid political authority has created a space in which several religious communities, particularly Shi’i ones, can now come to the fore and gain prominence.
Among these are a number of Sufi brotherhoods, the Hurufis, Nuqtawis and Musha‘sha‘.
Of these various movements, the Safawid Qizilbash is the most politically resiliet.
A Turkish mystic order that had immigrated to Ardabil from eastern Anatolia along with seven Turkmen tribes, the Safavids (called Kizilbash [“Redheads”] because of their use of red headgear to symbolize their allegiance) will use a combined religious and military appeal to conquer most of Iran.
Under the banner of teenaged shah Isma'il I, the Safavids send missionaries throughout Anatolia, spreading a message of religious heresy and political revolt, not only among the tribesmen but also to cultivators and some urban elements, who have begun to see in this movement the answers to their own problems.
The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, consider the active recruitment of Turkmen tribes of Anatolia for the Safavid cause as a major.
threat.
The result is a series of revolts, which Bayezid is unable or unwilling to suppress because of his involvements in Europe and because his mystic preferences incline him to sympathize with the religious message of the rebels.
Finally, at the start of the sixteenth century, a general Anatolian uprising forces Bayezid into a major expedition that forcefully deports many Shi'as from Anatolia to other parts of the Ottoman realm, and pushes the Safavids and many of their Turkmen followers into Iran.
Here, the Safavids turn from orthodox Sufism to heterodox Shi'ism as a means of gaining the loyalty of the Persians to a Turkish dynasty.
People
Groups
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
The Near and Middle East
View →Subregions
