page_title: Alevi history
section_title: The influences of Safavids on Anatolian Kizilbashs
hierarchical_section_title: Alevi history / Origins and medieval period / Ṭarīqah roots of Alevis / Kizilbashs / The influences of Safavids on Anatolian Kizilbashs
caption_attribution_description: English: 8th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Bayezid II (1447 - 1512). Türkçe: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun 8.Padişahı, II.Bayezid (1447 - 1512). Français&#160;: 35ème Sultan de l'Empire Ottoman, Bajazed II. (1447 - 1512). Deutsch: 8. Sultan des Osmanischen Reiches, Bayezid II. (1447 - 1512).
context_page_description: The History of the Shī‘ah Imāmī Alevī Ṭarīqah or The History of the Alevism is that of a community of Shia Muslims of Anatolia and neighbouring regions.
context_section_description: After the foundation of the Safavid Persian state, the new Turkmen Shahs gradually rid themselves of their tribal and sectarian origins in their bid to build a unified Iranian state. Twelver Shiism was proclaimed state religion, with a special role for the Safavi Shahs as descendants of alleged Ali and the Imams. Their supposed ancestry is not accepted by most shia Muslims today. This state religion developed into a very different system to the Alevi faith of their Kizilbash troops. Arab Twelver theologians were recruited from Jabal Amil in Lebanon and from Bahrain, and most Iranians were forcibly converted to Twelver Shiism. The Kizilbash tribal troops were gradually disbanded in favour of a regular Iranian slave army.
  The Qizilbash (red-heads) were Turkoman tribes who adhered to the Safavid Sufi Order, whose Sheikhs claimed descent from Ali. Under Ismā`il (d. 1524) they became dominant in Eastern Anatolia and conquered Azerbaijan with its capital Tabriz, where Ismā`il named himself Shah in 1501 and went on to conquer all of Iran. His missionaries spread a message of revolt against the Sunni Ottomans in Anatolia, claiming that Ismā`il was the awaited "mahdi" (massiah), and Anatolia became the scene of protracted warfare between Ottomans and Safavids.
caption: Ottoman Sultân Bayezid-i Velî, who was highly revered by the Bektashi, appointed Balım Sultan as the chief executive post for the Bektashiyyah tariqa.
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