Editing Safavid order

{{Short description|Iranian Sufi mystic order in Shia Islam}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2015}}
{{Sufism|Orders}}
The '''Safavid order''' ({{langx|fa|طریقت صفویه}}) also called the '''Safaviyya''' ({{langx|fa|صفویه|links=no}}) was a [[Kurds|Kurdish]] [[Sufism|Sufi]] order ({{Transliteration|ar|[[tariqa]]}})<ref>https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1345, Sheikh Safi al-Din</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archnet.org/sites/1595/media_contents/40812|title = Imamzadah Shaykh Ṣafi al-Din Ardabili &#124; Exterior view of Shaykh Safi Tomb. The courtyard wall of Chilakhana courtyard appears in the background, while the Haramkhana is seen in the right foreground}}</ref> founded by the<ref name=":0">Newman, Andrew J., ''Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire'', (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2006), 152.</ref><ref name="R.M.">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090529044819/http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v8f1/v8f1010.html R.M. Savory. Ebn Bazzaz.]}} ''Encyclopædia Iranica''</ref> [[Mysticism|mystic]] [[Safi-ad-Din Ardabili]] (1252–1334 AD). It held a prominent place in the society and politics of northwestern Iran in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but today it is best known for having given rise to the [[Safavid dynasty]].

Starting in the early [[1300s (decade)|1300s]], the leaders of the Safavid movement clearly showed that they wanted political power as well as religious authority. This ambition made the rulers of western Iran and Iraq first feel uneasy, and later, they became openly hostile. Even though three Safavid leaders in a row ([[Shaykh Junayd|Junayd]] in 1460, [[Shaykh Haydar|Heydar]] in 1488, and [[Ali Mirza Safavi|Ali]] in 1494) were killed in battle, the movement was still strong enough to succeed and lead to the founding of the Safavid dynasty in 1501. The Safavid kings based their authority on three core beliefs: that they were divinely appointed to rule Iran, that they acted as the earthly representatives of the [[Muhammad al-Mahdi]]—the Twelfth Imam in Twelver Shi‘ism who is expected to return and bring about a just and peaceful world—and that they served as the ''moršed-e kāmel'', or perfect spiritual guide, of the Safavid Sufi order. However, in the period just before the Safavid state was officially founded, their religious [[propaganda]], known as da‘va, went beyond these claims. It asserted that the Safavid leader was not simply the Mahdi’s representative, but the Mahdi himself—or even a divine incarnation.<ref name="Munshi">{{cite book |last=Munshi |first=Eskandar Beg |author-link=Iskandar Beg Munshi |date=1629 |title=History of Shah 'Abbas the Great (Tārīkh-e ‘Ālamārā-ye ‘Abbāsī) / Roger M. Savory, translator |edition= |url=https://archive.org/details/monshi-shah-abbas-english/Monshi_Shah-Abbas_English/mode/1up |access-date=May 6, 2025|page=xxii}}</ref> 

==Foundation and evolution==
The Safaviyya, while initially founded by Safi-ad-Din Ardabili under the [[Shafi'i]] school of [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] Islam, later adoptions of [[Shia Islam|Shia]] concepts by the children and grandchildren of Safi-ad-Din Ardabili resulted in the order becoming associated with [[Twelver]]ism.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="R.M." />  Safi-ad-Din's importance in the order is attested in two letters by [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> In one, Rashid al-Din pledges an annual offering of foodstuffs to Safi-al-Din, and in the other, Rashid al-Din writes to his son, the governor of Ardabil, advising him to show proper respect and comportment to the mystic.<ref>G. E. Browne, ''Literary History of Persia'', vol. 4, 33–4.</ref>

After Safi-ad-Din death, leadership of the order passed to his son, [[Sadr al-Dīn Mūsā|Sadr al-Din Musa]], and subsequently passed down from father to son, and by the mid-fifteenth century, the Twelver Safawiyya changed in character, evolving into an [[Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam|extreme and intolerant]] form of Twelver Shi'ism, becoming militant under [[Shaykh Junayd]] and [[Shaykh Haydar]] by proclaiming [[Jihad]] against the Christians of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], and becoming [[ghulat|exaggerative]] by adopting [[messianism|messianic beliefs]] about its leadership and [[antinomianism|antinomian]] practices outside of the norm of Twelver Islam at the time.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

Junayd's grandson, [[Ismail I|Ismail]], further altered the nature of the order when he founded the Safavid empire in 1501 and proclaimed Twelver Shi'ism as the state religion, at which point he imported Twelver Shia ''[[ulama]]'' largely from [[Lebanon]] and [[Syria]] to transform the order into a Twelver [[Shia Islam|Shi'i]] dynasty.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last1=Floor|first1=Willem|last2=Herzig|first2=Edmund|title=Iran and the World in the Safavid Age|date=2015|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1780769905|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZNpBgAAQBAJ&q=safavids+imported+lebanon|quote=In fact, at the start of the Safavid period Twelver Shi'ism was imported into Iran largely from Syria and Mount Lebanon (...)}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book|last1=Savory|first1=Roger|title=Iran Under the Safavids|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521042512|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4Yr4foWFFgC&q=safavids+imported+syria}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite web|last1=Abisaab|first1=Rula|title=JABAL ʿĀMEL|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jabal-amel-2|website=Encyclopaedia Iranica|access-date=15 May 2016}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{cite book|last1=Alagha|first1=Joseph Elie|title=The Shifts in Hizbullah's Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology and Political Program|date=2006|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|location=Amsterdam|isbn=978-9053569108|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWxZAQAAQBAJ&q=safavids+jabal+amil}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Safavid dynasty family tree]]
* [[Safvat as-safa|Safvat as-Safa]]
* [[Safavid dynasty]]
* [[Musha'sha'iyyah]], a rival Isma'ili Shi'i sect
* [[Adawiyya]], a Sufi order which also deviated from Sunni Islam

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Islamic Theology|state=expanded|schools}}
{{Theology}}
{{Islam topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Safavids}}

[[Category:Ja'fari jurisprudence]]
[[Category:Safaviyeh order| ]]
[[Category:Shia Islamic branches]]
[[Category:Sufi orders]]
[[Category:Twelver Shi'ism]]
[[Category:Shia Sufi orders]]