TASHAYYU AS GOVERNMENT IDEOLOGY
(THE SHIA SECT)-III
(SAFAVID ERA)
How did the founders of Savafid Kingdom
turn the Shia which was a sect of a party into government
ideology?
- When did this sect witness to
political changes and how did it develop?
* How did the canon jurisprudence of Islam
which consisted of sharia laws and simple rules take hold of
the political and social control of the society?
First of all we must state that those
questions do not examine a kingdom which was solely within
the process of history and fell a few centuries ago. For,
the Islamic government in Iran which is based on political
fundamentals and canonical laws of Islam is today faced with
these questions.
The young empire of the Safavids needed a
standard and civilized form of the Shia sect in order to
provide legitimacy to their own sovereignty. The Kizilbashes
(Ghezelbash) were devoted to traditions of the Shia sect
which were “considered primitive”. Most of the elites and
statesmen were Sunni. As a result, none of these groups was
in the interest of the efforts which the Safavid state was
exerting for search of new horizons. The Safavid state
wished to refer to this method in order to raise the level
of social awareness and to provide political identity to its
own sovereignty.
The founders of the Safavid state aspired to
free the Shia sect from belonging to an ordinary party and
turn into “a world view of a state”. Countless Shia scholars
who had been living Jabel Amal (which was located in Syria
and now in Southern Lebanon) at the time were immigrating to
Iraq, India and Iran from Damascus together with their
families. Those scholars “who were claimed to have emigrated
due to the fact that they could obtain no jobs and income in
these Sunni areas and they could not implement the rules of
their own sect” followed an antagonistic attitude toward
the Ottoman presiding board and palace. A few scholars which
reached the rank of Mojtahed and who provided courses of
canonical law of Islam were followed under the pressure of
government. One of these Mojtaheds was even killed by the
government and referred to as (“the Second Martyr”). The
Safavids believed that the view of “Ijtehad” or “the
rational attitude towards Shia” would serve the purpose of
legitimatizing their power of sultanate. The Safavids would
take on the identity of “the protectors of the Islamic
fundamental” vis-à-vis their eternal rival in other words
the Ottoman. As a matter of fact, Shah Tahmaseb Safavi
trusted the scholars of Jabel Amal very much and favored a
family called Korki among them and made a researcher called
“Mohaghegh Korki” his undersecretary.
Sheykh Ali Korki who is known as Mohaqeq
(meaning researcher) Korki and the author of the famous book
(Jame Ol Maghased immigrated to Iraq and began to gain the
love of the Safavids in order to assume an important role in
the Safavid state order. The real aim of Korki was to settle
the Shia sect to the political, administrative and social
structure of the society and to apply the Sheriat rules one
by one.
Shah Tahmaseb Safavi turned to agreeing with
Jabel Amal’s new claims which believed that the person
called Faqih (person knowledgeable about the canon
jurisprudence of Islam or today’s mullahs) who consider
themselves superior in the theology of Jabel Amal would take
decisions instead of “the Secret Innocent Imam” and which
consider that Faqih should make the political power
legitimate! Those claims which granted Faqihs a political
power and made them opposed to statesmen and the notables
concluded with the domination of Faqihs. For, Kizilbashes
would protect them.
The Shia of the Safavid era started with the
immigration of the Jabel Amal scholars, however, this sect
mixed with the cultural and traditional elements of Iran
subsequently and assumed the identity of Iran. Thus, the
Shia of Safavid era was not entirely imported. This sect was
tried to be raised and spread many times in other countries
however, it did not receive the required interest and it
only drew attention of the political circles dominating
Iran. In fact it is not the right attitude to describe the
spread of a religious idea with words such as import and
export when assessing a religious thought. For it is utmost
important that a specific religious thought should meet the
requirements of the country where it is spread. Every
country that is in position of host knows how to mix every
outside issue with its own culture and moral values in a
creative way and benefit from this element in such a way as
to point out its own identity. It is a value that is worth
of assessing how the Jabel Amal scholars were admitted and
absorbed to Safavid structure.
When the Shia sect gained political identity
through Jabel Amal scholars, the government was transferred
to others temporarily in absence of “the Innocent Imam” in
other words “12th Imam”. The Jabel Amal scholars would
settle themselves in the state structure according to the
needs of Safavid rulers in the face of the Ottoman Empire.
Those scholars produced many rules and laws in order to make
the political fundamentals of the kingdom legitimate in
terms of the canon jurisprudence of Islam. Thus Jabel Amal
scholars (originating from Southern Lebanon) would recapture
their power of religious content which they lost within the
Ottoman borders.
The Safavids who seized power in Iran in
16th century and ruled for 2 centuries are remembered as an
important milestone in the Iranian history. For, the
Safavids turned the Shia sect into state and public thought
and equipped it with social and political fundamentals. When
the historians assess the Mongol occupation that was
experienced in the Islamic countries, they note that the
institution of Caliphate was weakened after this occupation
and the sect of Shia had the opportunity to spread more
freely. In the end, the Mongol occupation which shook the
countries brought Shia a great gift. In other words, if the
Mongol occupation was not experienced, it would not be
possible for the Shia members to get strong in Iran and to
establish dominance.
The sect of Shia which was a primitive and
marginal belief system came under the control of those who
assumed Velayat-e Faqih and religious experts. After
immigrating towards Iran from the south of Lebanon, the
Jabel Amal scholars approached to the Safavid State which is
the real rival of the Ottoman Empire and reached very
important positions in the palace. Although those scholars
did not think that the Safavid government was right, they
made the rulers legitimate and conveyed the public the views
in this direction. Jabel Amal married the eshraf (khahad
dasht) and notable circles of Iran over time and they
obtained their support as well. Jabal Amal scholars almost
all of which belong to a certain family and which are under
the protection of a great network of relatives turned in to
the official religious officers of the country and produced
various rules and laws out of the bed of sheriat.
The seed planted by Jabel Amal Faqihs
started to bear fruits almost a century later. With the
Jabel Amal School in Southern Lebanon starting to be low on
the agenda gradually, the new stream of the Iranian Shia
Faqihs started. This new stream would lower the Shia and
Faqih thought to the public level and drew quite as many
supporters. One of the results of this new stream started to
operate as a school educating students under the name of
“Elmiyye Basin (Howze-ye Elmiyye)” Thus the effort which was
made for the spread of Shia was initiated.
This situation initiated the great dispute
between the Faqihs and Sufis. The Faqihs who consider
mysticism “as a style of thinking as the sect of the
ordinary people and full of novelties and deviations” left
Arabic aside and began using Persian which was under the
monopoly of Sufis and the Wise (those who adopt the view of
education) The understanding of the canon jurisprudence of
Islam by the public easily enabled some members of the
notable circle to be interested in the canon jurisprudence
of Islam closely. The Friday prayer was a political occasion
for the Faqihs and it was used by the Faqihs to come to
power.
In the Safavid era, the meaning of the word
“Mojtahed” suggesting “the person who attained maturity in
the religious issues and who can be imitated” also changed.
Seyyed Nematollah Jazayeri Al Anvar ol Alnamaniye who was a
disciple of Allameh Majlesi who was considered one of the
foundation stones of the Shia sect described the Mojtahed
concept as “the heir of our Prophet, the caliphate of Allah
and the speaking language of our God” and Mojtahed became
the focus of the moral and social assessments. Mojtahed had
knowledge about this world and the world which we will pass
to and the recovery of the society was entirely in his
responsibility. This interesting office reached such a
position that the Safavid kings would take even their own
crowns from the hand of Faqih or Mojtahed al Asrai.
