The Kizilbash-Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia Sufism, Politics and Community

Explores the transformation of the Kizilbash from a radical religio-political movement to a religious order of closed communities
The first comprehensive social history of the Kizilbash/Alevi communities
Combines conventional sources with newly discovered ones generated within the Kizilbash-Alevi milieu itself
Argues for a readjustment in focus from pre-Islamic Central Asia to the cosmopolitan Sufi milieu of the Middle East when exploring genealogies of popular Islam in Anatolia
Explores the influence of Iraqi Sufism on popular Islam in late medieval and early modern Anatolia
Shows the potential of Sufism to provide a basis for social order and give rise to distinct communities
Offers a critical assessment of the long-standing Köprülü paradigm in the field of religious and cultural history of Anatolia
Provides a new perspective on the Ottoman-Safavid conflict, and on Sunni-Shiʿi confessionalisation in the early modern period
Opens new avenues of research in the study of other heterodox communities in the Islamic world
Includes family histories of a number of Kizilbash/Alevi saintly lineages in central and eastern Anatolia to tell their story from an internal viewpoint
The Kizilbash were at once key players in and the foremost victims of the Ottoman-Safavid conflict that defined the early modern Middle East. Today referred to as Alevis, they constitute