ABSTRACT
The name is also applied to a religious sect living throughout Anatolia and regarded as Shi'a by the orthodox Turkish Sunnis. This sect is closely connected with the Nusairis of Syria; its adepts call themselves 'Alawi', i.e. followers of Ali, the husband of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Some of the Anatolian Kizilbashes are Kurds; the others are for the most part Turkomans or Turks and only speak Turkish. (Summarized from Cl. Huart's article in El, 1st ed.; and see also the article by A. Gokpinarli in lA; there is also much information on the practices and folklore of the Kizilbashes in an unpublished MS. by Colonel Nazmi Sevgen of Istanbul.) The Kizilbashes are numerous as far west as Amasya and Sivas and the Bulghar-dagh.
