Shaykh Junayd (died 4 March 1460; ) was the hereditary leader of the Safavid order, a Sufi order based in Ardabil in northwestern Iran. He was the son of Shaykh Ibrahim and the grandson of Khvajeh Ali Safavi. He was the father of Shaykh Haydar and the grandfather of Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Following his father's death, he led the Safavid order from 1447 to 1460. He transformed the order into a military movement, seeking to establish his own principality through conquest.

History

Under Junayd, the Safaviyya was transformed from a Sufi order organized around a saint-ascetic into an active military movement with a policy of conquest and domination. He was the first Safavi spiritual leader to espouse specifically Shia Islamic teachings, and in particular those of the Twelver ghulat.Vincent J. Cornell,Voices of Islam: Voices of tradition, pg.225Seyyed Hossein Nasr,Traditional Islam in the modern world, pg.61 Junayd was viewed as a divine incarnation by his followers.Jaroslav Krejčí, Anna Krejčová, Before the European challenge, pg.151Farhad Daftary. The Ismāʻı̄lı̄s, pg.466

During his time in Ardabil, Junayd attracted so many disciples that in 1448, Jahan Shah (the Kara Koyunlu prince) drove him into exile to Anatolia and Syria. While there, he engaged in missionary activities and accumulated Turkmen followers.Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, monarchs, and messiahs, pg.139 He then went to the court of Uzun Hassan at Diyarbakır, where he married Uzun Hassan's sister, Khadija Khatun, somewhere between 1456 and 1459.Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran, pg.129

Junayd was prevented from returning to Ardabil, so he lived at Shirvan where he died in a local skirmish near the Samur River in what is modern Azerbaijan, where he was buried. This led to the beginning of animosity between the mainly Sunni Shirvanshah and the increasingly heterodox Shi’i Safaviyya.Percy Molesworth Sykes, A History of Persia, pg.240-241

Mausoleum of Shaykh Juneyd is located in the village of Khazra in Azerbaijan. Junayd was succeeded by his son Shaykh Haydar, who married his cousin Halima Alamshah Khatun, daughter of Uzun Hassan and Theodora Despina Khatun. They had three sons and three daughters. One of them was Shah Ismail I, father of Shah Tahmasp I.

Succession

See also

Safavid dynasty Safavid dynasty family tree

Notes

External links

JONAYD Encyclopædia Iranica