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Sufis and Sultans in post-Mongol Iran
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
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One of the least-studied eras of Iranian history is that between the invasion of Changiz Khan (Genghis Khan) in the early 13th century and the establishment of the Safavid Empire early in the 16th. This was a time of unprecedented political upheaval when much of the Iranian world became subject to rule by Mongols and Turks. The period between the collapse of the (Mongol) Il-Khan dynasty in 1335, however, and the consolidation of the empire of Timur (Tamerlane) in the 1380s was an age of regionalism par excellence and one of cultural florescence. The most important of the minor dynasties that flourished at this time were the Muzaffarids in Fars, Iraq-i ‘Ajam and Kirman (1314-93), the Jalayirids in Iraq, Kurdistan and Azarbaijan (1336-1432), and, in Khurasan, the Karts at Herat (1245-1389) and the Sarbidars at Sabzavar (1336-81).
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- Iranian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1-4: Religion and Society in Islamic Iran during the Pre-Modern Era , 1994 , pp. 77 - 102
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- Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1994
Footnotes
*
This article is based on a chapter in my doctoral dissertation, “The Kart Dynasty of Herat: Religion and Politics in Medieval Iran” (Columbia University, 1992). I am most grateful to Profs. Richard W. Bulliet, Jo-Ann Gross, Carl W. Ernst and Simon Digby for comments on earlier drafts, and to Haideh Sahim for invaluable assistance.
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31. Known to the 10th-century Arab geographers as Khasht, to Mostawfi as Jasht and at present as Khwaja Chisht or Chisht-e Sharif, it was originally known as Karzul, but was renamed Chisht by Abu Eshaq (the founder of the khāneqāh) after a town in his native Syria (Abu'l-Qasem b. Ahmad Jayhani, Ashkāl-e ‘ālam, ed.. ‘Ali b. ‘Abd al-Salam Kateb [Mashhad: Astan-e Qods-e Razavi, 1368 Sh./1989], 174). I am indebted to Dr. Mehrdad Izady for this reference.
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36. The sources at our disposal to study the orders at Jam and Chisht, unfortunately, are limited. The political chroniclers—notably Hafez Abru—almost completely ignore them. Utilized here is a biography of Shaykh Ahmad and his descendants entitled Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, written in 1523 by a disciple, Darvish ‘Ali Buzjani (ed. Heshmat Mo'ayyad, Persian Texts Series, 29, ed. E. Yarshater [Tehran: Entesharat-e Bongah-e Tarjomeh va Nashr-e Ketab, 1345 Sh./1966]). Also useful is the Fard'ed-e Ghiyā
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95. This was one of the most famous clashes between the Karts and Il-Khans and has been widely recounted. See, for example, Boyle, “Dynastic and Political History,” 401Google Scholar; Abru, Hafez, Chronique des rois mongols en Iran [section from his Ẕayl-e jāme’ al-tavārīkh], trans. Bayani, K. (Paris: Librairie D'Amérique et d'Orient, 1936), 2:17— 29Google Scholar; Esfezari, Rawżāt al-janādt, 444–52Google Scholar; Meynard, Esfezari/de, “Extraits,” 481–7Google Scholar; also Ghiyas al-Din Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar fī akhbār-e afrād-e bashar, ed. Homa'i, Jalal (Tehran: Khayyam, 1333 Sh./1954), 3:372–6Google Scholar.
96. For example, E'temadi, Guya, “Darbār-e molūk-e Kart,” Āryānā 2 (Sawr 1323/May 1944): 50Google Scholar.
97. Malek Fakhr al-Din had earlier agreed to give Öljeitü 1,000 dinars a year in tribute (Eqbal, Tārīkh-e mofaṣṣal, 372Google Scholar).
98. On the Chaghatay attacks on Herat see Kempiners, Russell George Jr.,, “The Struggle for Khurâsân: Aspects of Political, Military and Socio-Economic Interaction in the Early 8th/14th Century” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1985), 137–47Google Scholar; Meynard, Esfezari/de, “Extraits,” 495–9Google Scholar.
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100. al-Harawi, Sayf, Tārīkh-e Harāt, 680Google Scholar.
101. Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar, 204Google Scholar; Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 105Google Scholar.
102. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 105Google Scholar.
103. Mir Khword, Siyar al-awliyā', 222Google Scholar.
104. Esfezari, Rawżāt al-jannāt 1:422Google Scholar. This was at the direction of Abaqa.
105. al-Hosayni, ‘Abd Allah, Resāleh-ye mazārāt-e Harāt, ed. Ahrari, ‘Abd al-Karim (Herat: Matba'eh-ye Danesh, 1310 Sh./1932)Google Scholar. For a description and contents of the index see Iraj Afshar, “Maqṣad al-eqbāl = Resāleh-ye mazārāt-e Harāt,” in Majallehye dāneshkadeh-ye adabīyāt va ‘olūm-e ensānī (Tehran University), vol. 12, no. 1 (1343 Sh./1964): 51–65. The newer edition of Fekri Saljuqi (Kabul, 1967) was not available to me.
106. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 103Google Scholar.
107. Ibid., 100.
108. al-Harawi, Sayf, Tārīkh-e Harāt, 553, 558 and 624Google Scholar.
109. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, note by Moayyad, 141Google Scholar.
110. Ibid., 145; Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar, 386Google Scholar.
111. Shabankareh'i, Mohammad, Majma’ al-ansāb, ed. Mohaddas, Mir Hashem (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1363 Sh./1984), 306Google Scholar. I am indebted to Mr. Stephen Album for this reference. See also the article by Aubin, Jean, “Le Quriltai de Sultan-Maydan (1336),” JA 279 (1991): 175–97Google Scholar.
112. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 105Google Scholar.
113. Ahl, Yusef, Farā'ed-e Ghiyāsī, document 55, 1:241Google Scholar.
114. On Mo'in al-Din Jami see Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 107–8Google Scholar; Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar 3:386Google Scholar; E'temadi, “Darbār-e molūk-e Kart,” 49Google Scholar; and Gharjestani, Mohammad Esma'il, “Dāneshmandān-e mo'āṣer-e dūdmān-e Kart,” Āryānā 18, no.l (Dalv 1338/January 1960): 51Google Scholar (from Khwandamir). Aubin, “Le Khanat de Čaġatai,” 30, considers Mo'in al-Din the strongman of the triumvirate that ran the government.
115. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 108Google Scholar.
116. In Yusef Ahl, Farā'ed-e Ghiyā
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117. Krawulsky, Ḫorāsān zur Timuridenzeit 1:32Google Scholar, 2:31 (“Sar-e Pol-e Tābān“). Zir-e Pol was possibly in the Morghab district, Karucheh and Faraheh in Fushanj (ibid. 1:39, 2:36).
118. Tauer, Felix, ed., Cinq Opuscules de Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū concernant Vhistoire de I'lran au temps de Tamerlan, Supplement 5 to the Archív Orientální (Prague: L'Académie Tchécoslovaque des Sciences, 1959), 43Google Scholar. This Persian text is the best source for the later Kart period, from the accession of Mo'ezz al-Din Kart in 1331 until the downfall of the dynasty (hereafter Opuscules).
119. Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar 3:381Google Scholar. Khwandamir is the only historian to identify any of these “shaykhs of Jam” by name.
120. Tauer, Opuscules, 42Google Scholar.
121. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 107Google Scholar.
122. Barthold, V. V., Four Studies on the History of Central Asia, vol. 2, Ulugh-Beg, trans. V. and Minorsky, T. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1958; repr. 1963), 22Google Scholar.
123. Manz, Beatrice Forbes, The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 17Google Scholar.
124. On Shaykh Zayn al-Din see Jami, Nafaḥāt al-uns, 498–501Google Scholar. For accounts of the meeting between Shaykh Zayn al-Din and Timur see Barthold, Four Studies, 20–22Google Scholar; Khwandamir, Ḥabīb al-siyar 3:543Google Scholar, trans. Thackston, Wheeler in A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art (Cambridge, Mass.: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989), 108Google Scholar; Tauer, Opuscules, 61–2Google Scholar; and Paul, Jiirgen, “Scheiche und Herrscher im Khanat Cagatay,” Der Islam 67 (1990): 307–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the shaykh's tomb see Mustafavi, Sayyid Mohammad Taqi, “Le Masdjid-e Mowlānā de Tāiyābād,” Āthār-é Īrān 3, no. 2 (1938): 179–99Google Scholar.
125. Ahl, Yusef, Farā'ed-e Ghiyā
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126. Fasih, Majmal 3:113Google Scholar (under“year 780/1378).
127. Digby, Simon, “The Sufi Shaykh and the Sultan: A Conflict of Claims to Authority in Medieval India,” Iran 28 (1990): 71–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Digby's, important article, “The Sufi Shaikh as a Source of Authority in Medieval India,” Puruṣārtha 9 (1986): 57–77Google Scholar
128. “Maktūb-e Ḥażrat-e Shaykh al-Eslāmī Mawlānā Abū Bakr Tāyebādī be Amīr Taymūr …,” in ‘Abd al-Hosayn Nava'i, Asnād va mokātebāt-e tārīkhī-ye Īrān, vol. l,Az Taymūr tā Shāh Esmā'īl, in series Entesharat-e Bongah-e Tarjomeh va Nashr-e Ketab, no. 145 (Tehran 1341 Sh./1962), 1–3.
129. Important examples are Timur's expulsion of Shah Ne'matollah Vali from Transoxiana and Shahrokh's expulsion of Qasem Anvar from Herat. See Aubin, Jean, Matériaux pour la biographie de Shâh Ni'matullah Walî Kermânî, Bibliothèque Iranienne, vol. 7 (Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient and Tehran: Département d'lranologie de l'lnstitut Franco-Iranien, 1956), 11–18Google Scholar.
130. Tauer, Opuscules, 62Google Scholar.
131. Fasih, Mujmal 3:116Google Scholar (under year 782/1380).
132. Buzjani, Rawżat al-rayāḥīn, 110Google Scholar.
133. Subtelny, Maria Eva, “The Cult of ‘Abdullāh Anṣāri Under the Timurids,” in Bürgel, C. and Giese, A., eds., God is Beautiful and He Loves Beauty (festschrift for Annemarie Schimmel) (Bern: Peter Lang, 1994), 377–406Google Scholar.
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135. Jami, Nafaḥāt al-uns, 362Google Scholar.
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