Safi-ad-din Ardabili

Sheikh Safi-ad-din Is'haq Ardabili (of Ardabil) (1252-1334) (PerB|شیخ صفی‌الدین اردبیلی), eponym of the Safavid dynasty, was the spiritual heir and son in law of the great Sufi Murshid (Grand Master) Sheikh Zahed Gilani, of Lahijan in Gilan Province in northern Iran. He was of Persian [Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, Vol. XII, p. 873, original German edition, " Persien (Geschichte des neupersischen Reichs)", ( [http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/12/seite/0873/meyers_b12_s0873.html LINK] )] and Kurdish background [ EBN BAZZAZ Encyclopedia Iranica [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v8f1/v8f1010.html] ] .

Sheikh Safi al-Din's has poems in the Iranian dialect of old Tati which is very close to Kurdish. He was a seventh-generation descendant of

Sheikh Safi al-Din inherited Sheikh Zahed Gilani's Sufi order, the "Zahediyeh", which he later transformed into his own, the "Safaviyeh". Sheikh Zahed Gilani also gave his daughter Bibi Fatemeh in wedlock to his favorite disciple. Sheikh Safi al-Din, in turn, gave a daughter from a previous marriage in wedlock to Shaikh Zahed Gilani's second-born son. Over the following 170 years, the Safaviyeh Order gained political and military power, finally culminating in the foundation of the Safavid dynasty.

Only a very few verses of Sheikh Safi al-Din's poetry, called "Dobayti"s ("double verses"), have survived. Written in old Tati and Persian, they have linguistic importance today [ [http://www.payvand.com/news/06/jul/1269.html Payvand News] ] .

Minorsky however writes that the families of Sheykh Zahed Gilani and Sheykh Safi al-Din were different. According to him, Sheykh Safi al-Din's ancestor Firuz-shah was a rich man, lived in Gilan and then Kurdish kings gave him Ardabil and its dependencies. Minorsky refers to Sheykh Safi al-Din's claims tracing back his origins to Ali ibn Abu Talib, but expresses uncertainty about this and mentions nothing about Kurdish origins of Sheikh Safi Al-Din. [Minorsky Vladimir, The Turks, Iran and the Caucasus in the Middle Ages. Preface by J.A. Boyle. Variorum Reprints, London 1978; page 517-518]

(Other transliterations for Safi al-Din: Safi al-Din, Safi ad-Dîn, Safi Eddin, Safi od-Din, Safi El-Din, Safieddin, Safioddin)

Notes

Virtual Tour

[http://www.virtualtourengine.com/tour.aspx?id=5 Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili's Mausoleum Virtual Tour]

Literature

*Monika Gronke, "Derwische im Vorhof der Macht: sozial- und wirtschaftsgeschichte Nordwestirans im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert," Wiesbaden 1993
*Mazzaoui, Michel, "The Origins of the Safavids: Shi'ism, Sufism, and the Gulat," Wiesbaden, West Germany: F. Steiner, 1972.