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The Safavids were a very important Iranian dynasty who established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region[1][2] , thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Although it should be noted that the name of Iran has been use as a geographical and cultural region continously from the Sassanids by various different states[5]. The Safavids according to Roger Savory obscured their origin, since much of their legitimacy was really based on being descendants of the Prophet. According to Savory (who is one of the greatest authorities on the Safavids and has written most of the Safavid related articles in the Encyclopedia of Islam and Encyclopedia Iranica)[3]:

.


On Shaykh Safi al-Din (d. 1334) and his ancestry much has been said and will probably be said. He was the founder (or actually a continuer from Shaykh Zahid Gilani) of the Shafi'i Sunni Safavid Sufi order. The Safavid dynasty established in 1501 traced its origin through the Shaykh to the Prophet Muhammad. If we look at Safavid article, we can see that it has been discussed many times. The issue is about if the Safavid fatherline was Iranic speaking or Turkomen (Oghuz). This has some significance in terms of history writing, since the origin of a dynasty is defined by its fatherline. For example, the Shirvanshahs were culturally Persian, married with Iranian families of Shabaran, supported Persian poetry and claimed descent from Sassanids through marriage with local Iranian dynasties of the region. Yet their fatherline goes back Yazid b. Mazyad Shaybani (d. 185/801), whose family was the ruler of the region of Shirvan (a historical region that now part of the republic of Azerbaijan). So in this work we study Shaykh Safi's background from different perspectves. Note we are not concerned about the culture of the Safavids from 1501 onwards, since cultures can change within a period of 200 years or so. For example Esmail Safawi[4] was culturally a blend of Iranic and Turkomen elements. For example he commissioned a beautiful Shahnameh while at the same time guided his Turkomen followers. Overall, it is not possible to disect these elements since they were so intertwined. Sometimes the Shah would favor one element against another as one chronicle at that time has stated: “weakened the position of the Turks”[5]. Culturally , the Safavids were affected by both Turkomen and Iranic elements (which some scholars consider the main components of Azeris). They spoke Turkish in their court, but used Persian as the main administrative language and also patronized Persian minature and etc. But their main identity was really Shi'i and they considered themselves "Seyyeds" (descendant of the Prophet of Islam). So in reality, the identity of the Safavids is complex and multi-faceted. The questions of the Safavid idntity (from 1501 onwards ) though is not that relavent to their ancestry. Since ancestry and culture can differ significantly and the Safavids themselves were originally Sunni before their transformation into Shi'i dynasty.

My general opinion on the Safavid ancestry is the same as the pre-eminent Safavid scholar, Roger Savory. Professor. Savory has spent his whole life researching, translating and analyzing matters that are related to Safavids. He has many books and perhaps around hundred of articles (Encyclopedic and Journal) with regards to the Safavids. He is simply known as the most prolific scholars of the Safavids and has written all the major articles of Encyclopedia of Islam and Encyclopedia Iranica with regards to the Safavids. According to Professor Savory[6]:


Others may disagree, but discussing the ancestry of someone 700 will never be 100% certain. So we just have to look what seems to be the stronger evidences.


Background

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Unlike many other dynasties founded by warlords and military chiefs, one of the unique aspects of the Safavids in the post-Islamic Iran was their origin in the Islamic Sufi order called the Safaviyeh. This uniqueness makes the Safavid dynasty comparable to the pre-Islamic Sassanid dynasty, which made Zoroastrianism into an official religion, and whose founders were from a priestly class. It should be noted that the Safaviyeh was not originally Shia but it was from the Shafii branch of Sunni Islam. Hamdullah Mustaufi, a contemporary of Shaykh Safi al-Din remarks under Ardabil[7]:

Other sources have mentioned this as well[8][9].

Ahmad Kasravi did a detail study also on the Madhab of the Shaykh and showed clearly it was Shafi'i Sunnite[10].

What is certain is that the Safavids were a mixture of ethnic Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and Greek lines but their fatherline goes back to Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili. The Safavid Kings themselves claimed to be Seyyeds[11], family descendants of the prophet Muhammad, although many scholars have cast doubt on this claim[12]. There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistan[2], and later moved to Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 5th/11th century at Ardabil.

Kurdish Father-line

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Excerpt from the Safvat Al-Safa, which describes the lineage of Shaykh Safi al-Din as being Kurdish


Wa chon Nisbat Birooz bâ Kurd raft translates to "Since the origin of Birooz was Kurdish"

The oldest extant book on the genealogy of the Safavid family and the only one that is pre-1501 is titled "Safvat as-Safa"[13] and was written by Ibn Bazzaz, a disciple of Sheikh Sadr-al-Din Ardabili, the son of the Sheikh Safi ad-din Ardabili. There are only two pre-1501 (before the Safavids came to power) manuscripts of this work. According Ibn Bazzaz, the Sheikh was a descendant of a noble Kurdish man named Firuz Shah Zarin Kolah the Kurd of Sanjan[14]. The male lineage of the Safavid family given by the oldest manuscript of the Safwat as-Safa is:"(Shaykh) Safi al-Din Abul-Fatah Ishaaq the son of Al-Shaykh Amin al-din Jebrail the son of al-Saaleh Qutb al-Din Abu Bakr the son of Salaah al-Din Rashid the son of Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Kalaam Allah the son of ‘avaad the son of Birooz al-Kurdi al-Sanjani (Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah the Kurd of Sanjan)"[14]. The Safavids, in order to further legitimize their power in the Shi'ite Muslim world, claimed descent from the prophet Muhammad[13] and revised Ibn Bazzaz's work [13][8], obscuring the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family[13]

There seems to exist a consensus among Safavid scholars that Safavids originated in Iranian Kurdistan and moved to Iranian Azerbaijan, settling in Ardabil in the 11th century[14]. Accordingly, these scholars have considered the Safavids to be of Kurdish descent based on the origins of Sheykh Safi al-Din and that the Safavids were originally a Iranic speaking clan [14][15][16][17][18][19][13] [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].

Other Reasons I believe that indicates Iranian origin

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Here are some other reasons I believe Shaykh Safi al-Din was not from the Oghuz Turkomen origin (groups that came during the Seljuq invasion and beyond) but was rather of a native Iranian speaking origin. Some of these reasons were not mentioned by scholars, but I believe they give further credence.

Oldest manuscript and oldest biography

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Safvat as Safa was written in 1358 by a disciple of the order. Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili passed away in 1334. Thus Ibn Bazzaz was likely alive during the time of the Shaykh and he was a student of Shaykh Sadr al-Din (the son of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili). As already mentioned, this biography was written by a disciple of the order.

The two oldest manuscripts and the only ones that pre-date 1501 mention the Shaykh's ancestry going back to Firuz Shah Zarin Kollah al-Kurdi Sanjani. They both mention that "Chon Nisbat Piruz baa Kurd Raft" (Since Piruz's ancestry was Kurdish). So the oldest manuscript on Safavid geneology describe Piruz as a Kurd? Yes

They mention Sanjaar with regards to Piruz and another place as Sanjaan. Sanjaar exists in Kurdistan, but Sanjaan exists in several places including Kurdistan, Khorasan, Baluchistan, India and etc.

names

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There is a not single Turkish name in the Safavid geneology. Compare to Seljuqs, Ghaznavids, Eldiguzids and other Turkish dynasties. Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah is a pure Iranian name and it is not a religious name.

Hanafi and Shafi'i

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Shaykh Safi al-Din was a Shafii Muslim, which is the sect that is followed by Sunni Kurds today[28] where-as Sunni Turks historically and overwhelmingly were Hanafis.

That Turkic groups association with Hanafism is well known in Islamic history. For example, we Bosworth who quotes the Iranian historian Rawandi[29]:

Another testament to this is from traveler Ibn Batuttah who lived in the 14th century. On Turks, he provides some description of their religion: {{cquote| ..After eating their food, they drink the yogurt/milk of mare called Qumiz..The Turks are followers of Hanafism and consider eating Nabidh (Alcoholic beverage) as Halal (lawful in Islam).”[30]

Another source[31]:

.

Other Sources[32] [33][34][35].

As mentioned, the Sunni Talysh, Tat, Persian (Larestani) and Kurdish speakers of Western Iran are all Shafi’ites and major cities in Azerbaijan before their Turkification and Shi’ification were Shafi’ite. For example the Safinayeh Tabriz shows that Shafi’ism was the main faith in Tabriz, in the 13th century. Also Hanafism was strong not only among Turks, but also the Baluch/Tajiks/Afghans and other Iranian speaking people of Khorasan and Central Asia.

post-1501

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All Safavid books (as far I have checked) after 1501 discuss the geneology of the Shaykh and they all trace it to the Prophet Muhammad. Among these books written during the Safavid era are "Silsilat an-Nisab", "Jahan Araayeh Esmail", "Afzal al-Tawarikh" "Alem Araayeh Abbassi" which have all traced the Safavid ancestry to Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah and from there to the Prophet. So there is really not a single book on Safavid geneology that does not trace their ancestry to Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah. No Safavid books traces the ancestry of the Shaykh to any of the original Oghuz Turkmen tribes.

Counter Arguments

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Reading the Safavid pages I saw two arguments with regards to the ancestry of the Shaykh.

Silsilat an-Nisab

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The first argument was the alleged phrase "Pir-e-Turk" and "Ganj-e-Turk" in the book the Silsilat an-Nisab by Shaykh Husayn the son of Shaykh Abdal Pirzadah Zahid. But in this book also the ancestry of the Shaykh goes back to the Prophet Muhammad[36]. The other drawback to this book is that it was written in the late Safavid period. It was composed somewhere between (1667-1694). Where as the author of the Safvat as-Safa lived during the time of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili, the author of the Silsilat an-Nisab lived 300+ years after Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabil.

In the Silsilat an-nasab-i Safawiya (composed during the reign of Shah Suleiman)(1667-1694), written by Shah Hussab ibn Abdal Zahidi, the ancestory of the Safavid is traced back to Hijaz and the first Shi'i Imam as follows: Shaykh Safi al-din Abul Fatah Eshaq ibn (son of) Shaykh Amin al-Din Jabrail ibn Qutb al-din ibn Salih ibn Muhammad al-Hafez ibn Awad ibn Firuz Shah Zarin Kulah ibn Majd ibn Sharafshah ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Seyyed Ja'afar ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Isma'il ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Ahmad 'Arabi ibn Seyyed Qasim ibn Seyyed Abul Qasim Hamzah ibn Musa al-Kazim ibn Ja'far As-Sadiq ibn Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Imam Zayn ul-'Abedin ibn Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Taleb Alayha as-Salam.

There are differences between this and the oldest manuscript of Safvat as-Safa. Seyyeds have been added from Piruz Shah Zarin Kulah up to the first Shi'i Imam and the nisba "Al-Kurdi" has been excised. The title/name "Abu Bakr" (also the name of the first Caliph and highly regarded by Sunnis) is deleted from Qutb ad-Din's name. [37].

Also the usage of the word "Turk" in many Sufic symbolism really means beautiful, ruler, mighty. Anyhow to recap, this source also traces the ancestry of the Shaykh through Piruz Shah Zarin Kolah, it was written in the late Safavid era (making it much less reliable than the Safvat Safa), it also claims the Safavids were Seyyeds, it gets rid of Abu Bakr from one of the Shaykhs name.

Language of the Shaykh

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Language by itself does not denote ancestry but some post 1501 Safavid manuscripts have ascribed to the Shaykh Persian, Arabic and Ottoman Turkish works. Shaykh Safi al-Din had followers from every place and it would not be suprising that besides Persian, Arabic, Tati he also knew Mongolian and Turkish. Indeed I believe one source has mentioned he also knew Mongolian. Yet in the Safwat as-Safa, Silsilat an-Nisab and other sources, there are Tati verses and sentences recorded to the Shaykh. Tati is a peculiar Iranian dialect and is less

According to Mazzaoui, who wrote a detailed book on the origin of the Safavids[38]:

.

Here are some attestation to the tati of the Shaykh. A sentence in the tati(old Iranian Azari not to be confused with Azerbaijani Turkish which is also called Azari. Both are called Azari since they have/had presence in Azerbaijan whose topynom is much older) dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-I Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa from the Shaykh [39]:

According to Ehsan Yarshater, remnants of the old NW Iranian dialect (designated as Azari by some authors) of Azerbaijan from the Shaykh are[40]:

Overall, this NW Iranian dialect is the rarest dialect known by the Shaykh where-as other languages of the region (Persian, Arabic, and even Mongolian/Turkish (due to the rulers)) are not as noteworthy.

Final Thought

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I concur with Professor Roger Savory[41]. Every single book on Safavid geneology traces the Shaykh's ancestry to Firuz Shah Zarin Kolah. At the same time, discussing someone's ancestry 700 years ago is never a 100% certain manner. So for now, since the origin of the dynasty is based on the fatherline and unless something older than the oldest extant manuscript of Safvat as-Safa appears, I am of the opinion that the Safavids were of Iranian origin and not Oghuz Turkmen origin


References & Notes

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  1. ^ Why is there such confusion about the origins of this important dynasty, which reasserted Iranian identity and established an independent Iranian state after eight and a half centuries of rule by foreign dynasties? in R.M. Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980), page 3.
  2. ^ a b R.M. Savory, Safavids, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition
  3. ^ in R.M. Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980), page 3.
  4. ^ ROGER M. SAVORY, "Esmail Safawi" in Encyclopedia Iranica [1]
  5. ^ ROGER M. SAVORY, "Esmail Safawi" in Encyclopedia Iranica [2]
  6. ^ Roger M. Savory. "Safavids" in Peter Burke, Irfan Habib, Halil Inalci:"History of Humanity-Scientific and Cultural Development: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century", Taylor & Francis. 1999. Excerpt from pg 259: "From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigineous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century."
  7. ^ Mostowafi, Hamdallah. Nozhat al-Qolub. Edit by Muhammad Dabir Sayyaqi. Tahuri publishers, 1957.
  8. ^ a b Ira Marvin Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2002. pg 233: "The Safavid movement, founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334), a Sunni Sufi religious teacher descendant from a Kurdish family in north-western Iran..
  9. ^ R.M. Savory, "Safavid Persia" in: Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton, Peter Malcolm Holt, Bernard Lewis, "The Cambridge History of Islam", Cambridge University Press, 1977. pg 394: "Such evidences we have seems to suggest that the family hailed from Kurdistan. What does seem certain is that the Safavids were of native Iranian stock, and spoke Azari, the form of Turkish used in Azerbaijan. Shaykh Safi al-Din the founder of the Safavid Tariqa was not a Shi'i (he was probably a Sunni of the Shafi'i Madhhab)
  10. ^ Kasravi, Ahmad. Shaykh Safi va tabarash. Firdaws. 2000.
  11. ^ In the Silsilat an-nasab-i Safawiya (composed during the reign of Shah Suleiman)(1667-1694), written by Shah Hussab ibn Abdal Zahidi, the ancestory of the Safavid is traced back to Hijaz and the first Shi'i Imam as follows: Shaykh Safi al-din Abul Fatah Eshaq ibn (son of) Shaykh Amin al-Din Jabrail ibn Qutb al-din ibn Salih ibn Muhammad al-Hafez ibn Awad ibn Firuz Shah Zarin Kulah ibn Majd ibn Sharafshah ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Seyyed Ja'afar ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Isma'il ibn Seyyed Muhammad ibn Seyyed Ahmad 'Arabi ibn Seyyed Qasim ibn Seyyed Abul Qasim Hamzah ibn Musa al-Kazim ibn Ja'far As-Sadiq ibn Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Imam Zayn ul-'Abedin ibn Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Taleb Alayha as-Salam. There are differences between this and the oldest manuscript of Safwat as-Safa. Seyyeds have been added from Piruz Shah Zarin Kulah up to the first Shi'i Imam and the nisba "Al-Kurdi" has been excised. The title/name "Abu Bakr" (also the name of the first Caliph and highly regarded by Sunnis) is deleted from Qutb ad-Din's name. ُSource: Husayn ibn Abdāl Zāhidī, 17th cent. Silsilat al-nasab-i Safavīyah, nasabnāmah-'i pādishāhān bā ʻuzmat-i Safavī, ta'līf-i Shaykh Husayn pisar-i Shaykh Abdāl Pīrzādah Zāhidī dar 'ahd-i Shāh-i Sulaymnān-i Safavī. Berlīn, Chāpkhānah-'i Īrānshahr, 1343 (1924). 116 pages. Original Persian language source of the lineage: شیخ صفی الدین ابو الفتح اسحق ابن شیخ امین الدین جبرائیل بن قطب الدین ابن صالح ابن محمد الحافظ ابن عوض ابن فیروزشاه زرین کلاه ابن محمد ابن شرفشاه ابن محمد ابن حسن ابن سید محمد ابن ابراهیم ابن سید جعفر بن سید محمد ابن سید اسمعیل بن سید محمد بن سید احمد اعرابی بن سید قاسم بن سید ابو القاسم حمزه بن موسی الکاظم ابن جعفر الصادق ابن محمد الباقر ابن امام زین العابدین بن حسین ابن علی ابن ابی طالب علیه السلام
  12. ^ R.M. Savory, "Safavid Persia" in: Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton, Peter Malcolm Holt, Bernard Lewis, "The Cambridge History of Islam", Cambridge University Press, 1977. pg 394: "They (Safavids after the establishment of the Safavid state) fabricated evidence to prove that the Safavids were Sayyids."
  13. ^ a b c d e [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/index.isc?Article=http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v8f1/v8f1010.html R.M. Savory. Ebn Bazzaz. Encyclopedia Iranica] Cite error: The named reference "R.M." was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  14. ^ a b c d Z. V. Togan, "Sur l’Origine des Safavides," in Melanges Louis Massignon, Damascus, 1957, III, pp. 345-57
  15. ^ Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, translated by Janet Watson. New Material translated by Marian Hill, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, pp 75
  16. ^ Ira Marvin Lapidus. A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 233
  17. ^ Tapper, Richard, FRONTIER NOMADS OF IRAN. A political and social history of the Shahsevan. Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997. pp 39.
  18. ^ Izady, Mehrdad, The Kurds: A Concise Handbook. Taylor and Francis, Inc., Washington. 1992. pp 50
  19. ^ E. Yarshater, Encyclopaedia Iranica, "The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan"
  20. ^ Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran , Cambridge , Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 2002. pg 143: “It is true that during their revolutionary phase (1447-1501), Safavi guides had played on their descent from the family of the Prophet. The hagiography of the founder of the Safavi order, Shaykh Safi al-Din Safvat al-Safa written by Ibn Bazzaz in 1350-was tampered with during this very phase. An initial stage of revisions saw the transformation of Safavi identity as Sunni Kurds into Arab blood descendants of Muhammad.”
  21. ^ Emeri van Donzel, Islamic Desk Reference compiled from the Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1994, pp 381
  22. ^ Farhad Daftary, Intellectual Traditions in Islam, I.B.Tauris, 2000. pp 147:But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al-Din go back not to the Hijaz but to Kurdistan, from where, seven generations before him, Firuz Shah Zarin-kulah had migrated to Adharbayjan.
  23. ^ Gene Ralph Garthwaite, “The Persians”, Blackwell Publishing, 2004. pg 159 : Chapter on Safavids. "The Safavid family’s base of power sprang from a Sufi order, and the name of the order came from its founder Shaykh Safi al-Din. The Shaykh’s family had been resident in Azerbaijan since Saljuk times and then in Ardabil, and was probably Kurdish in origin.
  24. ^ Elton L. Daniel, The history of Iran, Greenwood Press, 2000. pg 83:The Safavid order had been founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334), a man of uncertain but probably Kurdish origin
  25. ^ Muhammad Kamal, Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. pg 24:"The Safawid was originally a Sufi order whose founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334) was a Sunni Sufi master from a Kurdish family in north-west Iran"
  26. ^ John R. Perry, "Turkic-Iranian contacts", Encyclopaedia Iranica, January 24, 2006. Excerpt: the Turcophone Safavid family of Ardabil in Azerbaijan, probably of Turkicized Iranian (perhaps Kurdish), origin
  27. ^ Roger M. Savory. "Safavids" in Peter Burke, Irfan Habib, Halil Inalci:"History of Humanity-Scientific and Cultural Development: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century", Taylor & Francis. 1999. Excerpt from pg 259: "From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigineous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century.[3]
  28. ^ Federal Research Division, Federal Research Div Staff, Turkey: A Country Study, Kessinger Publishers, 2004. pg 141:"Unlike, the Sunni Turks, who follow the Hanafi school of Islamic law, the Sunni Kurds follow the Shafi'i school.
  29. ^ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund, “The political and dynastic history of the Iranian world (AD 1000-1217)”, in J.A. Boyle (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran. V. The Saljuqs and Mongol Periods, Cambridge, 1968.
  30. ^ (Ibn Batuttah, translated by Dr. Ali Muvahid, Tehran, Bongaah Publishers, 1969)}}.
  31. ^ Mohamed Taher, “Encyclopedic Survey of Islamic Culture”, Anmol Publication PVT, 1998. Turkey: Pg 983
  32. ^ "There have sometimes been forcible and wholesale removals from one “rite” to another, generally for political reasons; as when the Ottoman Turks, having gained power in Iraq and the Hijaz in the sixteenth century, compelled the Shafi’ite Qadis either to change to the Hanafi “rite” to which they (the Turks) belonged, or to relinquish office.”( Reuben Levy, “Social Structure of Islam”, Taylor and Francis, 2000. Pg 183).
  33. ^ “Unlike, the Sunni Turks, who follow the Hanafi school of Islamic law, the Sunni Kurds follow the Shafi'i school”( Federal Research Div Staff, Turkey: A Country Study, Kessinger Publishers, 2004. pg 141).
  34. ^ “Hanafism was founded by a Persian, Imam Abu Hanifa , who was a student of Imam Ja’far Al-Sadeq, .. His school held great attraction from the beginning for Turks as well as Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. Today the Hanafi school has the largest number of follows in the Sunni world, including most Sunni Turks, the Turkic people of Caucasia, and Central Asia, European Muslims, and the Muslims of Indian subcontinent ”(Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity”. HarperColins, 2004. Pg 68).
  35. ^ ” On the other hand, because the Turkish rulers were so devoted to Islamic beliefs, they had accepted Hanafism with a great vigor and conviction .” (Mehmed Fuad Koprulu's , Early Mystics in Turkish Literature, Translated by Gary Leiser and Robert Dankoff , Routledge, 2006, pg 8).
  36. ^ M. M. Mazzaoui, The Origins of the Safavids. Shi'ism, Sufism, and the Ghulat, Wiesbaden, 1972, pp. 47, n. 3, and 50, n. 7.
  37. ^ ُSource: Husayn ibn Abdāl Zāhidī, 17th cent. Silsilat al-nasab-i Safavīyah, nasabnāmah-'i pādishāhān bā ʻuzmat-i Safavī, ta'līf-i Shaykh Husayn pisar-i Shaykh Abdāl Pīrzādah Zāhidī dar 'ahd-i Shāh-i Sulaymnān-i Safavī. Berlīn, Chāpkhānah-'i Īrānshahr, 1343 (1924). 116 pages. Original Persian language source of the lineage: شیخ صفی الدین ابو الفتح اسحق ابن شیخ امین الدین جبرائیل بن قطب الدین ابن صالح ابن محمد الحافظ ابن عوض ابن فیروزشاه زرین کلاه ابن محمد ابن شرفشاه ابن محمد ابن حسن ابن سید محمد ابن ابراهیم ابن سید جعفر بن سید محمد ابن سید اسمعیل بن سید محمد بن سید احمد اعرابی بن سید قاسم بن سید ابو القاسم حمزه بن موسی الکاظم ابن جعفر الصادق ابن محمد الباقر ابن امام زین العابدین بن حسین ابن علی ابن ابی طالب علیه السلام
  38. ^ M. M. Mazzaoui, The Origins of the Safavids. Shi'ism, Sufism, and the Ghulat, Wiesbaden, 1972, page 50
  39. ^ Rezazadeh Malak, Rahim. “The Azari Dialect” (Guyesh-I Azari), Anjuman Farhang Iran Bastan publishers, 1352(1973).
  40. ^ "Azari, the Old Iranian Language of Azerbaijan," Encyclopaedia Iranica, op. cit., Vol. III/2, 1987 by E. Yarshater. External link: [4]
  41. ^ Roger M. Savory. "Safavids" in Peter Burke, Irfan Habib, Halil Inalci:"History of Humanity-Scientific and Cultural Development: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century", Taylor & Francis. 1999. Excerpt from pg 259: "From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigineous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century."
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