ABSTRACT
One of the most noteworthy features of the Qizilbash/Alevi tradition is its syncretic nature. Throughout its long history, Alevism maintained a close interaction with neighboring religious-cultural climates, thus engaging in a continuous state of evolution. However, certain periods proved to be more signifi cant for the crystallization of its doctrinal and practical aspects. The late ninth/fi fteenth and the early tenth/sixteenth centuries represent a signifi cant historical moment in that regard. Both the doctrinal structure and practical arrangements (especially rituals of worship) of Alevism were (re)formulated and structured at this time, acquiring the specifi c name “Qizilbash” in the process.1 Among the religious sources of the Qizilbash path we fi nd the Sufi order of the Safavids, the popular Sufi traditions of the Haci Bektaş cult (including the Qalandar and Abdal traditions), branches of the Vefāʾī order, Ḥurūfi sm and the Futuwwa-Akhi tradition.
