Safawiyya

Safawiyya is recorded within Sufism. Whether it constitutes a distinct tradition is itself disputed in the sources. Also written Safavid order, Safaviyya.

Origin

Founder named in the sources: Safiy al-Din (d. 1334) - named as the figure the order is named for. No founding year is given below, because the sources read do not agree on one and a date has not been chosen for them. Maysam J. Al Faruqi, Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa, verbatim: 'Amongst the Shi'a, the most popular orders were the Safawiyya (Safiy al-Din, d. 1334), which originally had been a Sunni movement'. Carl W. Ernst, Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, verbatim: 'The Safawiyya, once a moderate Sunni order based at Ardebil, became widespread among Turkish tribes on the Persian-Ottoman frontier, and it emerged with a strongly Shi'ite and messianic character to become the basis for the Safavid empire that ruled Iran from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century.' NO FOUNDING YEAR IS GIVEN BY EITHER SOURCE. STATUS IS RECORDED AS DISPUTED, NOT EXTINCT AND NOT LIVING: both sources describe an order that changed confession and then became a dynasty, and neither states what became of it as a tariqa.