Kizilbasch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kizilbasch , actually Qizilbasch , ( Ottoman / Persian قزلباش, DMG Qizilbāš ; modern Turkish Kızılbaş , redheads' ) had since about the mid-15th century, in part fanatical followers of the Shiite Sufi - Order of the Safavids ( Safaviyya ) that this first from the Turkmen nomadic tribes Āzarbāydschāns , but later recruited from all regions of their empire. Their name is derived from the characteristic red headgear (Pers. Tark-e Ḥaydarī , Haydar'scher helmet ' ) with twelve gussets, which their master Haydar (around 1460-1488) is said to have introduced. Although Turkmen in origin, the term Qizilbash no longer refers to an ethnic group and is used in certain regions as a synonym for the Shia and Alevis . The word nowadays has an occasional pejorative character.

A Safewid Kizilbash soldier with the typical red headgear

The seven Turkmen founding tribes of the Kizilbash armed force

history

In 1501 the Kizilbasch took the city ​​of Tabriz under their master of the order and later Shah Isma'il I and conquered all of Iran, Iraq and western Afghanistan over the next nine years. They soon came into conflict with the Ottomans , who had conquered all parts of the Byzantine Empire at the time . In the eastern Anatolian town of Tschaldiran , the Kizilbasch, who were inferior in terms of weapons technology, were partially defeated by Sultan Selim I in 1514 . He had thousands of Kizilbasch executed in his eastern domain, so that the Kizilbasch who lived further to the west in the mountains were in a position of isolation. From this situation, in connection with the Bektashi order , the " Alevis " of today's Turkey emerged .

Persia

In Persia, the Turkmen Kizilbasch placed the military aristocracy among the first two Safavid Shahs, but were eliminated and driven out under Abbas I (ruled 1588–1629) (including the Afshars and the Qajars ), and in some cases also retrained as state administrators and imperial administrators. In their place came Persian, Armenian and Georgian elite soldiers. T. continued the name Kizilbasch as a prestige title until the fall of the Safavid Empire. Their descendants still refer to themselves today as Kizilbasch .

However, in 1738, Nadir Shah Kizilbash troops took part in the India campaign, some of which settled in Afghanistan and still constitute a Shiite minority to this day. The ruling dynasties following the Safavids, Afshars and Qajars, go back to Kizilbasch tribes.

Afghanistan

The Kizilbasch in present-day Afghanistan are descendants of administrators and state officials who were settled here under the Afsharids and the Durrani . In some cases, they were appointed as new governors by the rulers as an educated class of civil servants even after the founding of Afghanistan. They are twelve Shiites and speak Persian. They live mainly in Kabul , Herat and Kandahar and belonged to the elite long before they were ousted by Pashtun nationalists and Sunni clergy in the 20th century under the Afghan King Abdur Rahman Khan . Today they are usually counted among the Tajik people.

literature

Web links