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Pir of the Safaviyya order; successor (khalifa) and son-in-law of Ibrahim Zahid al-Gilani, regarded as the founder of the Zahidiyya. The dynasty that founded the Safavid state in Iran in 1501 descends from him and takes its name from his.
He was born in Ardabil in 650 (1252). His father was Amin al-Din Jibra'il; most sources record his grandfather as Salih and his great-grandfather as Qutb al-Din. Differing views have been advanced as to whether his lineage was Arab, Turkish, Persian or Kurdish. The fullest account of his life is found in the Safwat al-safa, a book of virtues that his son Sadr al-Din al-Ardabili had Ibn Bazzaz compile twenty-four years after his death; the work is said to have been re-edited by order of the Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp I.
He lost his father at the age of six. Although the sources give no information about his studies and teachers, the statement that he knew Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Mongolian and the language of Gilan shows that he received a good education.
In his youth he set out in search of Sufi training. Unable for a long time to find in Ardabil a shaykh suited to his disposition, he decided to go to Najib al-Din b. Buzghush, whom he had heard was living in Shiraz; but on arriving in Shiraz he learned that the shaykh had died. There he met scholars and Sufis such as Shaykh Zahir al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman, the son who succeeded Najib al-Din, Shaykh Sa'di of Shiraz, Mawlana Radi al-Din al-Maliki, Rukn al-Din al-Maliki, Shaykh Rukn al-Din al-Baydawi and Amir 'Abdallah al-Farsi; he attended the Qur'anic exegesis lessons of Radi al-Din al-Maliki and received a licence from him.
On the advice of Amir 'Abdallah al-Farsi he went to Shaykh Ibrahim Zahid al-Gilani, who was active in the region of Gilan. He is said to have been twenty-five at the time and the shaykh sixty; on this basis the source holds that his initiation must have taken place in 1276 or 1277, and that the record of his spending twenty-five years with the shaykh, who died in 1301, confirms these dates. He completed his spiritual training under Ibrahim Zahid, received his licence and married the shaykh's daughter Bibi Fatima. Ibrahim Zahid first sent him to Maragha with the task of guidance and later appointed him his deputy at the great lodge built in Ardabil. In 700 (1301), when his shaykh fell ill at Gushtasfi, he brought him, in accordance with his wish, to Siyavrud, a district of Lahijan; Ibrahim Zahid died there two weeks later.
Continuing his activity at the lodge in Ardabil, Shaykh Safi al-Din's fame had spread widely while his shaykh was still alive, and he had won the great confidence of the Ilkhanid rulers. According to the Maktubat-i Rashid al-Din, by 697 (1298) the lodge in Ardabil held an important place in the spiritual life of the city, and the shaykh's activities were supported by the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan and his vizier. The vizier Rashid al-Din Fadlallah al-Hamadani, in a letter to his son Mir Ahmad, the governor of Ardabil, asked him to show respect to the shaykh and to attend closely to his health. According to the contemporary historian Hamdallah al-Mustawfi, most of the people of Ardabil had become the shaykh's disciples; the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan and the commander-in-chief Amir Chuban also joined his followers. It is recorded that Amir Chuban one day asked the shaykh, "Are our soldiers more numerous, or your disciples?", and that the shaykh replied, "Your soldiers too are our disciples." Al-Mustawfi states that thanks to Shaykh Safi al-Din many common people were delivered from the oppression and tyranny of the Ilkhanid officials.
In the last years of his life he made the pilgrimage. He died in Ardabil on 12 Muharram 735 (12 September 1334) and was buried in the courtyard of his lodge. In accordance with his will, his son and successor Sadr al-Din Musa took his place. By his first wife Bibi Fatima he had three sons, Muhyi al-Din, Sadr al-Din Musa and Abu Sa'id; by his second wife two sons, 'Ala' al-Din and Sharaf al-Din, and a daughter. He married his daughter to Shaykh Shams al-Din, the younger son of his shaykh Ibrahim Zahid al-Gilani.
The source records that the information in the unadulterated copies of the Safwat al-safa, where his views are set out at length, clearly shows that he held the Sunni creed; Hamdallah al-Mustawfi's remark about the people of Ardabil, "Most of them are of the Shafi'i school and are disciples of Shaykh Safi al-Din", confirms this as well.
His Circle of Influence — Extending his activity beyond Ardabil, Shaykh Safi al-Din travelled with his disciples to regions such as the Dasht-i Qipchaq and the Crimea to guide the people. He gained thousands of disciples from many cities in Azerbaijan, Gilan, Tabaristan (Mazandaran), Khurasan, Bukhara, Turkmenistan, Turkistan, Qara-Khitay, Chinese Turkistan, India, Serendib (Ceylon), Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Hijaz, Anatolia and Rumelia. It is recorded that disciples came to visit the shaykh from Anatolia, especially from Niksar, Amasya and Diyarbakir and from the principalities of Dulkadir, Karaman, Varsak and Menteshe; from Fars and Kirman in Iran, from Basra in Iraq, from Damascus and Aleppo in Syria and from Balkh in Khurasan; and that lodges attached to the central lodge in Ardabil were founded throughout this whole geography. Tashkopruzade states that Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Arzinjani, who was active in the lodge he founded near Amasya, was among his deputies. Among his visitors was 'Ala' al-Dawla al-Simnani, founder of the Rukniyya order. The Safaviyya order attributed to him continued with his son Sadr al-Din Musa, who succeeded him by his will; his descendant Shah Isma'il founded the Safavid state in Iran in 1501.
His Poetry and Sufi Line — Some sources attribute Persian poems to Safi al-Din al-Ardabili; several Iranian scholars, foremost among them Ahmad Kasravi, state that these poems are in the Azari dialect. His Sufi line descends from the Zahidiyya path of his shaykh Ibrahim Zahid al-Gilani; he himself is regarded as the pir of the Safaviyya, the continuation of that path which bears his name. Among his disciples, Mawlana Badi' al-Din Mahmud Qadi al-Ardabili composed some poems about him, and Ahmad Maddah al-Ardabili 114 odes.
His Works — The biographical dictionaries of Gharibi and Baqa'i state that the shaykh had a work called Qara Majmu'a, which was kept in the treasury of the Safavid rulers. Among the sources of Nur al-hidaya by Najib al-Din al-Tabrizi, one of the Iranian Shi'i Sufis of the XVII century, a book by Safi al-Din called Maqalat is also listed, and the endowment register of his tomb dated 1139 (1727) likewise contains an entry for this book. Haririzade says that his sayings were gathered in a book; but it is unclear whether the book meant is the Safwat al-safa commissioned by his son or another work. The Manaqib al-asrar bahjat al-ahrar attributed to him was in fact written by a certain Bisati in the time of Shah Tahmasp. Works such as the Shaykh Safi Buyrughu and the Shaykh Safi Wasiyatnama, attributed to him and composed largely within a Shi'i-Alevi framework, are products of later periods; the source states that they have no connection with Safi al-Din al-Ardabili.
His Tomb and Complex — He was buried in the courtyard of his lodge in Ardabil. His tomb, built by his son Sadr al-Din Musa, is counted among the most magnificent works of Safavid art. The entries concerning books in the tomb's endowment register show that the tomb also housed a library.
Differing Scholarly Views
His lineage and sayyid status — The sources diverge here. One copy of the Safwat al-safa records a genealogy tracing his descent to 'Ali through the seventh imam Musa al-Kazim. The shaykh's own statement that there was sayyid descent in his family, but that he had not been able to ascertain whether they were 'Alawi (descended from Husayn) or sharif (descended from Hasan), appears in almost all copies of the work; the genealogy, however, is not recorded in all of them, and those that contain it do not agree. Mirza Abbasli argues that this section was added later. Historians such as Khwandamir, Mir Yahya Qazvini, Ghaffari and Iskandar Beg Munshi record him as a sayyid. Against this, the Shaykh al-Islam Kemalpashazade claimed in a fatwa that the Safavids had only later laid claim to sayyid status; Muneccimbashi Ahmed Dede gave the genealogy with the note "according to the mistaken supposition and claim of the Safavid kings"; and Jamal al-Din Hulvi wrote that the shaykh at first wore a green turban and robe and later, doubting his sayyid descent, changed to a white robe. The author of the source considers that the presence in all copies of the shaykh's statement about sayyid descent in his family removes the doubt. The Atlas takes no side in this debate.
His ethnic origin — Those who hold him to have been Turkish rely on his being called "the Turkish pir, son of a Turk" in the Safwat al-safa. Zeki Velidi Togan, while accepting that they were of Arab origin, says that the ancestors of the Safavids spoke Azari Persian and became Turkicised in the Ilkhanid period. Some Iranian scholars, foremost among them Ahmad Kasravi, argue on the basis of his Persian poems in the Azari dialect and his ancestors' use of that language that his lineage was originally Persian. Those who say he was of Kurdish origin point to the fact that his great-grandfather Zarrinkulah Firuzshah is recorded with the nisba "al-Sinjani al-Kurdi" and migrated to Azerbaijan from the region of Sinjar south of Diyarbakir. The Atlas records the four views side by side.
His father's name — Franz Babinger recorded his father as Khwaja Kamal al-Din 'Arabshah; the source states that this is incorrect and that his father was Amin al-Din Jibra'il. The names of his grandfather and great-grandfather also vary between copies: the Ayasofya copies of the Safwat al-safa give Salih Qutb al-Din Abu Bakr, the Hekimoglu copy Salih b. Qutb al-Din; according to the latter and to most historical sources, Salih was his grandfather and Qutb al-Din his great-grandfather.
The date of his initiation — According to the record that he was twenty-five and the shaykh sixty when he joined Ibrahim Zahid al-Gilani, the initiation must have taken place in 1276 or 1277; the record that he spent twenty-five years with the shaykh, who died in 1301, also supports this. But if one takes into account that he went to Gilan after the death of Najib al-Din b. Buzghush, who is said to have died in Sha'ban 678 (December 1279), one must accept that the initiation took place after the year 1279. The source gives both computations; the Atlas does not fix the date.
The date of his death — The source gives his death as 12 Muharram 735 (12 September 1334). The date 760 (1359) recorded in the Lemezat-i Hulviyye is, according to the source, incorrect; the fact that his contemporary Hamdallah al-Mustawfi invokes God's mercy on the shaykh in the Nuzhat al-qulub, completed in 740 (1340), shows that he was no longer alive by that date.
Dispute with his shaykh's family — It is claimed that Jamal al-Din 'Ali, the elder son of Ibrahim Zahid, regarding himself as his father's spiritual heir, bore hostility towards Safi al-Din and made several attempts on his life, without success (Aubin). It is further stated that a dispute later arose over certain endowment lands between Badr al-Din, the son of Jamal al-Din 'Ali, and Shams al-Din, Safi al-Din's son-in-law, and that the matter was settled in 720 (1320) by the intervention of the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan (Minorsky). The Atlas records these claims as the source transmits them.
His doctrinal line — The proclamation of Twelver Shi'ism as the official creed of the state in 1501 by his descendant Shah Isma'il, and the stance of Isma'il, his father Haydar and his grandfather Junayd, have given rise to doubts about the shaykh's own belief. The source, relying on the unadulterated copies of the Safwat al-safa and on al-Mustawfi's note that most of the people of Ardabil were Shafi'is, states that he held the Sunni creed. Texts attributed to him and composed within a Shi'i-Alevi framework, such as the Shaykh Safi Buyrughu and the Shaykh Safi Wasiyatnama, are products of a later period. The Atlas transmits the source's judgement without passing one of its own.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) · vol. 35, pp. 476-478, entry “Safiyyüddîn-i Erdebîlî”
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