Kept on Wikipedia:Aleviler

For other uses, see Alids, Alevis, and Kızılbaş.

For the mainly Syrian-Shi’ite religious group, see Alawis. For the mainly anti-religious Alawi groups, see Ishikism. For the mainly Non-Muslim Kurdish Kaka'i-Alawis, see Ahl i Haqq. For the mainly Kurdish Mandean groups, see Yazdânism.

Aleviler is an idiom to characterize the Zaydids of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan; the Bātinī-Ismāʿīlīs of Pamir Mountains in Badakhshan and Turkestan; the Non-Ja'fari Twelver-Shi’ites in Turkey; Arab Khaṣībī-Nusairis in Syria and Alawis in Hatay.

There are lots of diversified groups who call themselves by the name of Aleviler (pronounced as "Oalavees"), some of them are Sufis, some of them are Shi'ite Muslims and the others are non-Muslims. The examples are Alevi (Sufis), Alawi (Twelver-Shi'ites), Pamiri-Ismailis, Zaydi-Alavids of Tabaristan, Kızılbaşes, and even some non-Muslim Kaka'is and Ishik Alevis. This page summarizes their differences.

Definition

Alevism represents Kızılbaş faith which is considered as a Muslim sect. But, there are a lot of different groups they call themselves as Alevi and some of them claims that they are not Muslim at all. Aleviler (translated as Alevis) includes all groups, muslim or non-muslim, christian or any other thing. The word Aleviler is used in Turkish for all Shia Muslim sects other than Sunnis, it includes Three Muslim sects: Alevi, Alawites, Ja'faris and Two non-muslim sects: Ishikism and Yarsanism. In the classical textbooks, Alavids, Kaysanites, Qarmatians, Fatimid Ismailis, Nizaris and Pamiris are called as Alevi(ler) (Alevi(s).).

Many groups call themselves as Alevi but they don't share Muslim Alevi faith described in this article. All these people are called "Aleviler" in Turkish: Qizilbashes (also known as Turk Alevileri) and Nosairis (also known as Arab Alevileri) are two distinct Muslim sects; Ahl-E Haqq (also known as Kurd Alevileri) and Chinarism (also known as Işık Alevileri) are two distinct Non-Muslim sects. All these groups uses the term Alevi to define their own faith. Nusayris uses the term Alawi (also known as Arab Alevileri) instead of Alevi which is a Turkish term. Furthermore, all the Shi'ites including Ja'faris, Alavids, Kaysanites, Qarmatians, Fatimid Ismailis, Nizaris and Pamiris are called as "Aleviler" in Turkish as well. The topic Alevi refers to "Kızılbaş faith". Even though Ja'faris, Nosairis, Yarsanis and Ishik Alevis uses the term "Alevi" (or Alawi term in Arabic) to describe their own faith, they don't share "The Kızılbaş faith".

Classification of Aleviler

• Northern Iran and East Turkestan Alevis
  • Zaid’īyyah Alavids of the Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan, emerged under the influence of the Hasan ibn Zayd and the efforts of Hasan ibn Ali al-Utrush
  • Bātinī-Ismāʿīl’īyyah Alevis of the Pamir Mountains, emerged under the influence of the Ismailyya Da'i Nasir Khusraw al-Qubadiani of the Fatimid caliph Abū Tamīm Ma'add al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh
• Bābā’ī-Bātin’īyyah (Mostly Turkish and some Kurdish) Alevis
  • Ḥurūfī’īyyah-Bektashism/Bektashiyyah Tariqa, a religious Alevi-Bātinī community in Turkey, Balkans and Albania, emerged under the influence of Ismailiyyah Shia, Shamanism and Tengrism
  • Sāfav’īyyah-Kızılbaşism/Qizilbash Tariqa, a religious Ghulāt-Alevi community in Turkey, emerged under the influence of Kaysanites Shia, Khurramiyyah Tariqa, and Shah Ismail of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran
• Nusayrism or Arab Alawis A Shi'a Muslim sect founded by Ibn Nusayr, a student of the eleventh Twelver Imam Hasan al‐Askari; and Al-Khaṣībī, a member of a well-educated family with close ties to eleventh Twelver Imam Hasan al‐Askari, known as the ʿAlawiyyah or Nusayriyya, which is a branch of the Twelvers, now present in Syria, Southern Turkey and Northern Lebanon.
• Non-Islamic Yazdânī Faith (Claimed by some of their followers as Kurdish Alevism, as well)
  • Yârsânism Non-Islamic/Mandaeist Kurdish Esoterism
  • Chinarism, Anti-Islamic Ishik Alevism claims that Alevi is the oldest religion in the world, that has changed shapes throughout time. The Işık movement believe that the term "Alevi" is derived from the old Anatolian Luvians, aserting that the word "Luvi" means "People of light" in the Hittite language. The Ishikīsts also claim that the religious ceremonies practiced by Alevis were practiced as early as by the Hittites and even by the Sumerians. According to Ishikīs, medieval Christian sects as Paulicianism, Bogomilism etc. were also Alevis.
    • Çağaptayism, Christian-Ishik Alevis A syncretic community comprising diverse religious beliefs, which developed from Islam, Buddhist-influenced Turkic shamanism, and some elements of Christianity.

The historical emergence of the Shī‘ah Imāmī Alevi Ṭarīqah and other related non-Muslim sects

File:Imam chart-q.pdf

Aleviler amongst Shia islam

Further reading

Alavids

• Madelung, W. (1975). "The Minor Dynasties of Northern Iran". In Frye, R.N. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 198–249. ISBN 978-0-521-20093-6. Search this book on
• Madelung, W. (1985). "ʿALIDS OF ṬABARESTĀN, DAYLAMĀN, AND GĪLĀN". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 8. London u.a.: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 881–886. ISBN 0710090994.

Further information: Alavids and History of Tabaristan

Bektashism

• Brown, John (1927), The Darvishes of Oriental Spiritualism.
• Küçük, Hülya (2002) The Roles of the Bektashis in Turkey’s National Struggle. Leiden: Brill.
• Mélikoff, Irène (1998). Hadji Bektach: Un mythe et ses avatars. Genèse et évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie. Leiden: Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts, volume 20, ISBN 90-04-10954-4 Search this book on ..
• Vorhoff, Karin. (1998), “Academic and Journalistic Publications on the Alevi and Bektashi of Turkey.” In: Tord Olsson/Elizabeth Özdalga/Catharina Raudvere (eds.) Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives, Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute, pp. 23–50.
• Yaman, Ali & Aykan Erdemir (2006). Alevism-Bektashism: A Brief Introduction, London: England Alevi Cultural Centre & Cem Evi. ISBN 975-98065-3-3 Search this book on .

Further information: Bektashism and folk religion and Bektashiyyah

Kızılbaşism

• Halm, H. (1982). Die Islamische Gnosis: Die extreme Schia und die Alawiten. Zurich.
• Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina (1992). Die Kizilbas/Aleviten. Untersuchungen uber eine esoterische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Anatolien. Die Welt des Islams, (New Series), Vol. 32, No. 1.
• Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina, & Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Anke Otter-Beaujean, eds. (1997) Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East. Leiden: Brill, pp. 11–18.
• Moosa, Matti (1988). Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects, Syracuse University Press.

Further information: Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam and Qizilbash

Ahl-e Haqq Tariqa and Kurdish Alevis

• Elahi, Bahram (1987). The path of perfection, the spiritual teachings of Master Nur Ali Elahi. ISBN 0-7126-0200-3 Search this book on ..
• Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (Detroit: Thompson Gale, 2004) p. 82.
• Edmonds, Cecil (1957). Kurds, Turks, and Arabs: politics, travel, and research in north-eastern Iraq, 1919-1925. Oxford University Press.
• Hamzeh'ee, M. Reza Fariborz (1995). Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi; et al., eds. Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East. Leiden: Brill. pp. 101–117. ISBN 90-04-10861-0. Search this book on
• Kreyenbroek, P. G. (1992). Review of The Yaresan: A Sociological, Historical and Religio-Historical Study of a Kurdish Community, by M. Reza Hamzeh'ee, 1990, ISBN 3-922968-83-X Search this book on .. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol.55, No.3, pp. 565–566.
• White, Paul J. (2003), “The Debate on the Identity of "Alevi Kurds".” In: Paul J. White/Joost Jongerden (eds.) Turkey’s Alevi Enigma: A Comprehensive Overview. Leiden: Brill, pp. 17–32.

Further information: Ahl-e Haqq, Sultan Sahak, Hajj Nematollah, Nur Ali Elahi, Ali-Illahism, Chinarism, and Esoterism

This article "Aleviler" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Aleviler. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

This page exists already on Wikipedia.