The History of the Alevism is that of a heterodox, esoteric community found within Anatolia and neighboring regions.
Medieval period
During the great Turkish expansion from Central Asia into Iran and Anatolia in the Seljuk period (11–12th centuries), Turkmen nomad tribes accepted a Sufi and pro-Ali form of Islam that co-existed with some of their pre-Islamic customs. These tribes dominated central and eastern Anatolia for centuries with their religious warriors (ghazi) spearheading the drive against Byzantines and Slavs. Many Armenians converted to Turkmen type Islam while retaining some Christian practices, and some observers believe that heterodox Armenian Christianity exerted a significant influence on the beliefs of the extremist Shi`ite sects.
Roots of Alevism
Sufism stressed esoteric, allegoric and multiple interpretations of scripture combined to intuitive faith and a search for ecstatic experiences, and was spread by wandering dervishes believed to possess "bereket" (baraqat – spiritual power) and "keramet" (qaramat – miraculous powers) due to their special nearness to God. Dervish founders of "tariqat" (Sufi orders) were revered as Saints (Wali) and called dede, baba, pir, or shaykh, and their tombs were serving as pilgrimage centres.
Following the Seljuks, the Ottomans established their power in western Anatolia and gradually incorporated Eastern Anatolia into their empire. After Timur's victory over the Ottomans in the 15th century, the Ottoman hold on Eastern Anatolia weakened for a while, with autonomous Shi'ite Turkmen states (Ak Koyunlu, and Kara Koyunlu) fighting each other for hegemony.
Bektashi order
The Bektashi is a Shia Sufi order founded in the 13th century by Haji Bektash Veli, a dervish who escaped Central Asia and found refuge with the Seljuks in Anatolia at the time of the Mongol invasions (1219–23). This order gained a great following in rural areas and it later developed in two branches: the Celebi clan, who claimed to be physical descendants of Hajji Bektash Wali, were called "Bel evlâdları" (children of the loins), and became the hereditary spiritual leaders of the rural Alevis; and the Babagan, those faithful to the path "Yol evlâdları" (children of the path) who dominated the official Bektashi Sufi order with its elected leadership.
Later, the Bektashiyyah became the order/chaplains of the Janissaries, tolerated by the Ottomans as its monasteries and pilgrimage centres could be manipulated to control its Alevi followers.
Ottoman Empire period
The Ottomans had accepted Sunni Islam in the 13th century as a means to unifying their empire, and later proclaimed themselves its defenders against the Safavid Shia state and related heretical sects. This created a gap between the Sunni Ottoman ruling elite and the Alevi Anatolian population. Anatolia became a battlefield between Safavids and Ottomans, each determined to include it in their Empire.
Bayezid II period
Ismail instigated a series of revolts culminating in a general Anatolian uprising against the Ottomans, whose Sultan Bayezid II mounted a major expedition 1502–1503 which pushed the Safavids and many of their Turkmen followers into Iran.
Selim I period
The successor of Bayezid II, Sultan Selim I "The Grim", launched a vigorous campaign into eastern Anatolia, utilising a religious edict condemning Alevis as apostates to massacre many. In the summer of 1514 Selim I launched another offensive and won the major battle of Chaldiran on the eastern side of the Euphrates, convincing the Safavids to avoid open conflict with the Ottomans for the next century, and enabling him to overcome the last independent Turkmen dynasties in eastern Anatolia in 1515–1517.
Suleyman I period
Suleyman the Magnificent also ruthlessly suppressed Safavid supporters in eastern Anatolia leading three campaigns into northwest Iran. Finally in 1555 the peace of Amasya recognised Ottoman rule over Iraq and Eastern Anatolia and Iranian rule over Azerbaijan and Caucasia.
Kizilbashs
In the early 16th century, a militant ghulat Shia order emerged, called Kızılbaş or "Redheads" after their distinctive headgear. Shah Isma'il was a hereditary leader of the Safaviyya Sufi order centered in Ardabil who led his (predominantly Azeri) followers in conquering Persia. The result was the founding of the Safavid dynasty, and the conversion of Iran to Shiism. Shah Ismail's personal religious views are reflected in his Turkish-language Sufi poetry of a ghulat nature (he claimed divinity), of which selections came to be included in Alevi scriptural compilations, the Buyruks. The religion of the Iranian populace, however, fell under the domination of Shia Arab clerics who downplayed the ghulat beliefs of the Turkish warrior class.
The influences of Safavids After the foundation of the Safavid Persian state, the new Turkmen Shahs gradually rid themselves of their tribal and sectarian origins in their bid to build a unified Iranian state. Twelver Shiism was proclaimed state religion, with a special role for the Safavi Shahs as descendants of alleged Ali and the Imams. Their supposed ancestry is not accepted by most shia Muslims today. This state religion developed into a very different system to the Alevi faith of their Kizilbash troops. Arab Twelver theologians were recruited from Jabal Amil in Lebanon and from Bahrain, and most Iranians were forcibly converted to Twelver Shiism. The Kizilbash tribal troops were gradually disbanded in favour of a regular Iranian slave army.The Qizilbash (red-heads) were Kurdish Matthee, Rudi. (2005). The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900. Princeton University Press. p. 18; "The Safavids, as Iranians of Kurdish ancestry and of nontribal background (...)". Savory, Roger. (2008). "EBN BAZZĀZ". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fasc. 1. p. 8. "This official version contains textual changes designed to obscure the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family and to vindicate their claim to descent from the Imams." Amoretti, Biancamaria Scarcia; Matthee, Rudi. (2009). "Ṣafavid Dynasty". In Esposito, John L. (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford University Press. "Of Kurdish ancestry, the Ṣafavids started as a Sunnī mystical order (...)" and Turkoman tribes who adhered to the Safavid Sufi Order, whose Sheikhs claimed descent from Ali. Under Ismā`il (d. 1524) they became dominant in Eastern Anatolia and conquered Azerbaijan with its capital Tabriz, where Ismā`il named himself Shah in 1501 and went on to conquer all of Iran. His missionaries spread a message of revolt against the Sunni Ottomans in Anatolia, claiming that Ismā`il was the awaited "mahdi" (massiah), and Anatolia became the scene of protracted warfare between Ottomans and Safavids.
The consequences of Qizilbash-Sunni division in Anatolia
The Kizilbash in Anatolia were now militarily, politically and religiously separated from their source in Iran, retreated to isolated rural areas and turned inward, developing their unique structures and doctrines. Following the severe persecution and massacres by the Ottomans which went on into the 18th century, Alevis went underground using taqiya, religious dissimulation permitted by a handful of Shi`a branches, to conceal their faith (pretending to be Sunnis) and survive in a hostile environment.
Kizilbash and Bektashis shared common religious beliefs and practices becoming intermingled as Alevis in spite of many local variations. Isolated from both the Sunni Ottomans and the Twelver Shi`a Safavids, Alevis developed traditions, practices, and doctrines by the early 17th century which marked them as a closed autonomous religious community. As a result of the immense pressures to conform to Sunni Islam, Alevis developed a tradition of opposition to all forms of external religion.
Meanwhile, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire gradually distanced themselves from their nomadic Turkic heritage, ultimately (during the thirteenth century) adopting the Sunni Islam of their Mediterranean subjects. During the long rivalry with Safavid Qizilbash tribes fought for local control of the Anatolian highlands, and were responsible for several 15th and 16th century uprisings against the Ottomans. The 1555 Peace of Amasya found them on the "wrong" side of the Ottoman / Iranian border, as subjects of an Ottoman court which viewed them with suspicion. Massacres of Qizilbash occurred.
The career of Pir Sultan Abdal takes place in this context. Apparently a 16th-century folk musician from Sivas, Pir Sultan Abdal was known for playing a stringed instrument called the bağlama and singing songs critical of his Ottoman governors, in defense of the rights of the Anatolian peasantry. Hanged for fomenting rebellion, he became another beloved figure in Alevi folklore and is now often invoked as a symbol of Alevism's leftist aspect. He is also preferred by Alevi Kurds, who appreciate his protest against the Turkish establishment, over Haji Bektash Veli (whom they identify with the Turks).
The emergence of Ishikism and Yazdanism
After the Kızılbaş lost their power in Anatolia, they are assumed to have merged into the Anatolian Alevis. Kurdish Alevis are sometimes still called Kızılbaş. Even as far east as Afghanistan and Pakistan, many Shias have "Qizilbash" as their family names.Dogan, Religion und kollektive Identität im gegenwärtigen Diskurs der anatolischen Aleviten
Under Ottoman rule the Alevis emerged as an endogamous ethnic group, primarily Turkish-speaking but also including Kurdish communities, concentrated in rural Anatolia. (One writer speculates that Dersim's Kurds converted to Alevism from another ghulat sect.) Led by hereditary dedes, and sometimes by Bektashi dervishes, they practiced "taqiyya" (dissimulation, secrecy) about their religion.
The emergence of a new Bektashi identity Bektashi identity may have been adopted to this end, since the Bektashis were technically Sunni and tolerated by the court. After the 1826 disbanding of the Janissary Corps, the now-proscribed Bektashi order began to meet underground. Adherents of the two groups blurred together to some extent. In the years before and during World War I the Çelebi family, one of two leadership groups associated with the shrine of Haji Bektash, attempted to extend its authority to the village Bektashi (Alevi) dedes, whose own hierarchy was in disarray. Some Alevi groups accepted this Bektashi authority, while others did not.See Ali Yaman's article "Kizilbash Alevi Dedes ."
Turkish Republic period
Rural Alevis were marginalised and discriminated against in the Ottoman Empire, although the official Bektashi order enjoyed a privileged role through its close association with the Janissary professional military corps. After their disbandment, Bektashi secret circles remained extremely active, Bektashis becoming progressive, anticlerical, and liberal, viewed suspiciously by the authorities and cooperating with others hostile to the establishment such as Freemasons and Young Turks. Until 1925 it was estimated that 10 to 20 percent of Turkey's adult male population were still members of the Bektashi. In 1930, a law was drafted by Atatürk to secularize the population which banned all religious lodges. After that time, Bektashi World Center was founded in Albania. Under The Adnan Menderes Government Administration, the Hacıbektaş centre was restored and reopened in 1964 as a museum, with annual celebrations in August for tourists in memory of the Saint.
Alevism and Kemalism