Taming the Qizilbash and Quelling Their Echoes: Ottoman Appropriations of ʿAli

Abstract This article delves into the Ottoman Empire’s nuanced response to the Qizilbash challenge, a significant outcome of the evolving religious and political landscapes in sixteenth-century West Asia. The Ottomans grappled with various strategies, seemingly contradictory, to counter the persistent Qizilbash influence. Among these reactions, a focal point is the Ottomans’ endeavor to claim ʿAli within the Devlet-i ʿAliyye-i ʿOsmaniye (The Sublime State of the Ottomans). Narratives by Kemalpaşazade (d. 1534), the esteemed chief-jurisconsult, and Celalzade Mustafa (d. 1567), a distinguished chancellor, shed light on this approach. Celalzade notably employed anti-Qizilbash tales, emphasizing the contradiction in revering ʿAli while harboring enmity towards the first three caliphs. This narrative strategy aimed to challenge the Safavid Qizilbash state’s foundational arguments, promote “Ottoman Sunni” Islam as a cohesive belief system for ʿAli’s partisans, and ease Qizilbash animosity towards the initial three “rightly-guided” caliphs, pivotal to the Ottoman creed and Ottoman imperial identity.