¹ All references to Shi'ism are to Twelver Shi'ism, unless stated otherwise.

² Rumlu, Hasan Bik, A Chronicle of the Early Safawis being the Ahsanu't-tawarikh of Hasan Rumlu, translated and edited by Seddon, C. N. (Baroda, 1931–34) 2: 26–7Google Scholar, hereafter AT.

³ This is the 'Alam ara-yi Safavi, believed to be the work of a mid-eleventh/seventeenth century writer, Bizan. It is edited by Yadallah Shukri (Tehran: 1350 Sh./1971), hereafter AAS. For the dating of this work, which was for a long time believed by E. G. Browne and others to be an early Safavid source, see Morton, A.H., “The Date and Attribution of the Ross Anonymous. Notes on a Persian History of Shah Isma'il I,” in Melville, Charles, ed., Pembroke Papers I: Persian and Islamic Studies in Honour of P. W. Avery, (Cambridge, 1990), 179–212Google Scholar. See also, R. McChesney's discussion of the content and style, “'Alamara-ye Shah Esma'il,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 796–97, hereafter EI.

⁴ AAS, 64.

⁵ AAS, 64–5.

⁶ This is the one response formula of the ritual curse that has come down to us from Mirza Makhdum Sharifi, who was an eyewitness to the practice. See al-Nawaqid li bunyan al-rawafid (British Museum, Or. 7991), f. 106a, hereafter AN. A detailed account of the practice of cursing during the time of Tahmasp (r. 1524–76) based on this source can be found in Johnson, Rosemary Stanfield, “Sunni Survival in Safavid Iran: Anti-Sunni Activities during the Reign of Tahmasp I,” Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 123–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ AAS, 65.

⁸ Modern scholarship on this topic includes: A. A. Dihkhuda, Lughatnamah, s.v. “tabarra',” “Tabarra'iyan,” hereafter Lughatnamah; Hamid Algar, “Caliphs and the Caliphate,” in EI; Calmard, Jean, “Les Rituels Shiites et le Pouvoir. L'imposition du shiisme Safavide: eulogies et maledictions canoniques,” Etudes Safavides, ed. Calmard, Jean (Paris-Tehran, 1993), 131–135Google Scholar (hereafter “Rituels”); Rosemary Stanfield Johnson, “Sunni Survival,” 130–31. Other studies that have mentioned the tabarra'iyan include: Röhrborn, K.M., Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, (Berlin, 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McChesney, R.D., “Waqf and Public Policy: The Waqfs of Shah Abbas, 1001–1023/1602–1614,” Asian and African Studies 15 (1981): 184Google Scholar.

⁹ See Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. “Kalandariya;” see Mir 'Abadini, Abu Talib and Mehran Afshari, Ayin-i qalandaran (Tehran: Sh. 1374/1995–96) for a study of doctrines and practices; also Lughatnamah s.v. “qalandar”. Hafiz Husayn Karbala'i (d. 997/1588) called the qalandariya an order, the doctrinal beliefs of which were close to the Malamatiya, cited in Mirjafari, Hosayn, “The Haydari-Ni'mati Conflicts in Iran,” Iranian Studies 12 (1979): 141–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Stanfield Johnson, “Sunni Survival.” For the date of the transfer of the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin, see Bidlisi, , al-Din, Sharaf, Sharafnama, ed. Zernof, V. Veliamninof as Scheref Nameh of Histoire des Kourdes, (St. Petersbourg, 1860–62), 2: 234Google Scholar and Mazzaoui, Michel, “From Tabriz to Qazvin to Isfahan: Three Phases of Safavid History,” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft. Supp. III, 1. XIX. Deutscher Orientalistentag. (Weisbaden, 1977), 514–522Google Scholar.

¹¹ Kohlberg discusses the placement of the curse. The curse and dissociation were not permitted to occur within the five daily prayers, but could be incorporated into the supererogatory prayers (du'a or ta'qib), which are said at the conclusion of the faridat, or qunnut. See “Bara'a,” 152–53.

¹² Lughatnamah, s.v. “tabarra'.” Dihkhuda has cited instances of the use of these terms in the poetry of Nasir-i Khusraw, 'Attar and Khaqani, to name a few. See also s.v. “tawalla'iyan”.

¹³ BW, II: 249

¹⁴ MM, I: 171; AN ff. 105b-106a.

¹⁵ Quote taken from Kohlberg, Etan, “Bara'a in Shi'i Doctrine,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI), 7 (1986): 174–75Google Scholar (hereafter “Bara'a”), cited in al-Qadi al-Nu'man, Da'a'im al-Islam, ed. A. A. A. Fyzee (Cairo: 1370/1951–1379/1960), 2:116. The term 'adawwa (“enmity”) frequently used in similar contexts suggests the nature of the disavowal. The accepted date for Al-Sadiq's death is l14/ 732.

¹⁶ Shah Tahmasp-i Safavi, Majmu'a-yi asnad wa mukhatibat tarikhi, ed. A. H. Nava'i (Tehran, 1358–63Sh), 215 (hereafter Asnad). Unless otherwise noted, all translations are mine.

¹⁷ See Kohlberg, “Bara'a” and “Sahaba”. See also, Madelung, Wilferd, Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 4, ed. Yarshater, Ehsan (Albany, 1988)Google Scholar, For example, the eighth and ninth century Khurramiya, a popular revolutionary movement embodied an array of Persian and Islamic religious beliefs, which included tabarra' and tawalla' (p. 11). In the eleventh century Tughril Bik ordered that al-'Ashari be cursed from the pulpits in Khurasan (p. 33); and, later, under Mas'ud, the grandson of Tughril Bik, two prominent Shaf'ite scholars were forced to sign documents repudiating their Ash'arite doctrines and to curse al-Ash'ari (p. 34).

¹⁸ Kohlberg, “Bara'a,” 142.

¹⁹ Modern scholars who have written about this subject have invariably referred to the twelfth century Kitab al-naqd of al-Razi. See, for example, Bausani, A., “Religion in the Saljuq Period,” The Cambridge History of Iran, ed. Boyle, J.A. (Cambridge, 1968) 5:285–86; 290–96Google Scholar (hereafter CHIr). See also, Mahdjub, Mohammad Dja'far, “The Evolution of Popular Eulogy of the Imams Among the Shi'a,” in Authority and Political Culture in Shi'ism, ed. Arjomand, Said Amir, tr. and adapted by Perry, John (Albany, 1988), 55–79Google Scholar (hereafter “Popular Eulogy”) and Mahdjub's introduction to Maulana Husayn Wa'iz-i Kashifi, Futuvvatnamah-yi Sultani, ed. Mohammad Dja'far Mahdjub (Tehran, 1350 Sh./1969). According to Husayn Lisan, manaqib-kh w ani was a countervailing trend to the popular recitations of the Shahnamah, the emphasis shifting from pre-Islamic Iranian mythical heroes to Islamic historical figures, Hunar va Mardum (Tehran,1976), 14:9. This view is consistent with some of the earlier observations published by Bausani, that the Sunnites, according to al-Razi, were imitators of the Shi'ites who, instead of singing of the righteous wars of 'Ali, fabricated wars and stories based on pre-Islamic mythical heros (CHIr, 5: 293–4). See also, P.N. Boratov, “Maddah,” EI 2. A study which utilizes al-Razi's work is Calmard, Jean, “Le chi'isme imamite en Iran a l'epoque seldjoukide d'apres le Kitab al-naqd,” Le Monde Iranien et l'Islam (1971) I: 43–67Google Scholar.

²⁰ A. Bausani, “Religion in the Saljuq Period,” 293–94. Bausani mentions that a Sunnite response to the Shi'ite manaqib-kh w anan was to refute them with “unfounded stories concerning Rustam, Surab, Isfandiyar, Ka'us, Zal, etc.…”, 293–94.

²¹ From Kitab al-naqd of al-Razi (no publishing information), cited in Mahdjub, “Popular Eulogy,” 57.

²² Boratov, “Maddah,” in EI 2. “Popular Eulogy,” 71. Calmard discusses the distinctions among these eulogists and the topic of the tabarra'ian for this period, as well. See “Rituels,” 131–35.

²³ Habib al-siyar fi akhbar-i afrad-i bashar, ed. Jalal Huma'i (Tehran, 1333Sh./1954), 4:273 (hereafter HS).

²⁴ Before the time of Isma'il I (r. 907/1501-931/1524), groups sharing 'Alid sentiments had incorporated bara'a into their own beliefs. Corporate entities having Shi'ite leanings, such as the Bektashis, who were tied to the Qizilbash movement which the Safavid family led in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, included tabarru' in their own rituals. The Bektashi practice certainly suggests that the pre-tenth/sixteenth century Safavids, who were originally Sunnite Sufis from Anatolia, among others, may have profited from the Bektashi synthesis of 'Alid ritual. For a discussion of the Turkish poet Hatip Oglu's translation in 1409 of Maqalat, an Arabic metrical poem attributed to Hajji Bektashi, in which the principles of tabarra' and tavalla are expressed, see Birge, John Kingsley, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes (Luzac, 1994 reprint of 1937edition), 44–45. For recent studies of darvish manuals in which the same principles are set out, see Mehran Afshari, Futuwwat namah-ha va rasa'il-i khaksariya (Tehran, 2003), especially 129 and 149. A close reading of these manuals could shed light on the diffusion of these principles in society.

²⁵ The construction of the polemical debate in the Kitab al-naqd must be verified. Until that is done, one must view Kashifi's claims with some caution. It is not unheard of for authors to deliberately construct polemical debates with fictitious participants created to protect themselves from political reprisal. The tenth/sixteenth—early eleventh/seventeenth-century writer, Shushtari, admits this in his letter to Mir Yusuf Astarabadi, to whom he writes that, as a function of taqiya, he deliberately created an argument between a Hijazi and an 'Iraqi on doctrinal points he wished to debate in writing Masa'ib al-nawasib. See Rizvi, S. A. A., A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna 'Ashari Shi'is in India (7 th to 16 th Century A.D.) (New Delhi, 1986), 1: 359Google Scholar, for a translation of this correspondence.

²⁶ Vasifi, Zayn al-Din Mahmud, Badayi' al-Vaqayi '. ed. Boldyrev, A.N. (Tehran, 1972), 2: 249Google Scholar (hereafter BW) completed in 1538/9. For a discussion of this source and the author, see Subtelny, Maria, “Scenes from the Literary Life of Timurid Herat,” in Logos Islamikos: Studia Islamica in honorem of Georgii Michaelis Wickens, eds. Savory, Roger and Agius, Dionisius (Toronto, 1984), 139Google Scholar. See also Szuppe, Maria, Entre Timourides, Uzbeks Et Safavides: Questions D'Histoire Politique Et Sociale De Heart Dans La Premiere Moitie Du XVI e Siecle (Paris, 1992), 51–53Google Scholar.

²⁷ BW II: 248.

²⁸ BW, II: 249.

²⁹ The madda function of the tabarra'i is illustrated by Qazvini who writes of praise verse allegedly sung by the tabarra'iyan to honor Tahmasp at a military procession in 1529 (KT, I: 203)

³⁰ BW, II: 250–4.

³¹ BW, I: 3–4.

³² BW, I: 5.

³³ This is the first reference to the style of recitation I have come across in both Persian and Arabic sources.

³⁴ BW, II: 250. Dickson discusses Jami's tainted reputation as a Sunnite under Tahmasp I. After ordering the revered poet's tomb to be desecrated, Tahmasp sought to burn the author's works, but was dissuaded through the intervention of his grand vazir, Qadi-yi Jahan (d. 1553), who successfully consulted one of Jami's verses as an augury and then recited several other verses that honored 'Ali. Tahmasp subsequently ordered the tomb to be rebuilt. Vasifi's earlier reference to hostility toward Jami suggests his reputation and grave may have frequently been victims of factional brawls, especially if the instigator was a ruler. See Dickson, Martin, “Shah Tahmasb and the Uzbeks (the Duel for Khurasan with Ubayd Khan) 930–946/1524–1540” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1958), 190Google Scholar. (Hereafter “Shah Tahmasb and the Uzbeks”).

³⁵ Calmard has mentioned the possibility of this term being a corruption of tabarra'i, which from the context seems most certainly to be, “Rituels,” 130. The story is about the candle-maker (sham'riz) Maulana Darvish-i Divanah who entered the chahar suq of Harat and addressed the crowd that surrounded him, asking why they do not give thanks to God that they are alive in these times, as in former times their religious luminaries and guides included Junaydak Baghdadi, Bayazidak Bisami, Zendahpil, Ahmad Jami, and 'Abd Allah Ansari, whereas now the type of person who leads the way is (the likes of): Palang-i tabarrani (tabarra'i ?), Husami-yi madda and Ashraf Astarabadi, who are the height of rafd and famous for their misfortune (badbakhti), unbelief (kufr), obscurity (tiragi), stupidity(humq), and ignorance (jahl). For a discussion of the differences between the madda and the tabarra'i, see Calmard, “Rituels,” 131–35.

³⁶ Khwandamir, Amir Mahmud, Dhayl-i habib al-siyar, ed. Jarahi, M. (Tehran, 1991–92)Google Scholar (hereafter ZHS).

³⁷ Yahya Qazvini, Lubb al-tawarikh. copied by Zia' al-Din Shushtari (Tehran, 1367/1988) (hereafter LT).

³⁸ Qazvini, Qazi Ahmad, Khulasat al-tawarikh, 2 vols. ed. Ishraqi, Ihsan (Tehran:,1359Sh./1980, 1363Sh./1984)Google Scholar (hereafter KT).

³⁹ Junabadi, Rawdat al-safawiya, British Museum Library Ms. No. 3388 (hereafter RS).

⁴⁰ HS, 4: 267; ZHS, 125.

⁴¹ LT, 394–95. Qazvini's phrase “and the people entered in the religion of ahl-i bayt,” (va mardum bi madhhab-i ahl-i bayt dar amadand) is a reminder of Khwandamir's comment on the conversion of the fifteenth-century Rustamdarian, whom he says converted to Shi'ism based on the proposition that people adhere to the religion of their kings: “It is said that the Rustamdaris were until that time Sunnite, but Kayumarth in a meeting in Shiraz promised that if he were once again to become ruler in his hereditary realm, he would embrace the noble Shi'ite faith. Whereupon, when he took control of that realm, he made the banner of the'alawi Shi'ites dominant and the Rustamdari community also converted on the principle of ‘People follow the religion of their kings’. “ (“Guyand ki rustamdarian ta an ghayat sunni madhhab budand va Kayumarth dar majlis-i Shiraz nazr karda bud ki agar karrat-i digar dar vilayat-i mawruth hakim gardad bi mazhab-i 'Aliya-i imamiya dar ayad; bana bar an, dar in waqt ki an mamlakat ra musakkhar sakht, shi'ar-i shi'a-yi 'alaviya ra zahir gardanid va sa'ir-i rustamdarian bi mujib-i kalama-yi “'al-nass 'ala din-i mulukihim” an mazhab ra qabul namudand.”) (HS, II: 48).

⁴² See Storey, C.A., Persian Literature: a Bio-Bibliographical Survey, (London: 1970 reprint of 1927–39 edition), I: 131Google Scholar. Qazvini was also a Sayfi sayyid. It has been suggested by modern scholars that the Sayfi sayyids were all Sunnites who practiced dissimulation under the Safavids in order to maintain their positions of wealth and power. See M. Dickson, “Shah Tahmasb and the Uzbeks,” 192.

⁴³ AT, I: 69.

⁴⁴ KT, I: 73.

⁴⁵ Under the Safavids, new mihrabs were constructed to reflect the Shi'ite position on the correct coordinates for the direction a believer should face when praying. This issue was debated in earnest under Tahmasp on the basis of a fatwa issued by 'Abd al-'Al (d. 982–83/1584–5) [Abd al'Âl], the son of the renowned mujtahid, al-Karaki (d. 941/1534). As a symbol of both royal and spiritual authority, the orientation of the mihrab was a concern to the new Shi'ite elite and was debated at the same time as the question of holding the Friday Prayer and congregational meeting was being debated. See Asnad-i tarikhi, 428–29. For general details, see EI 2 s.v. “Mihrab.”

⁴⁶ TAAA, I: 128.

⁴⁷ KB, 122.

⁴⁸ On al-Karaki see Arjomand, , Amir, Said, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam (Chicago, 1984), 132–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar;141–42; 165–66, and elsewhere; Beeson, Caroline, “The Origin of Conflicts in the Safavid Religious Institution” (Ph.D diss., Princeton University, 1982)Google Scholar; Abisaab, Rula, “The Ulama of Jabal 'Amil in Safavid Iran: 1501–1736: Marginality, Migration and Social Change,” Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 108CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 118–19.

⁴⁹ Qadi Nur Allah Shushtari, Majalis al-mu'minin (Tehran, 1365Sh./1986–87), I: 171 (hereafter MM).

⁵⁰ A.A.A. Rizvi, Socio-Intellectual History, I: 358–63.

⁵¹ The murder of Ahmad Thattawi in India is told by Shushtari in MM, I: 590–2, in Bada'uni, Muntakhabu'l-tawarikh 3 vols. (Calcutta, 1884–98); tr. vol. I, G. S. A. Ranking, 1895–99; vol. II, W.H. Lowe, 1884–98; vol. III, T.W. Haig, 1899–1925. See II: 317–18. A discussion of all these sources is presented by Rizvi, Socio-Intellectual History, I: 227–35. Shushtari himself attained martyrdom in 1019/1610 in India, ostensibly for his anti-Sunnite polemic Ihqaq al-haqq. In his attempt to protect himself from Jahangir's severe sentencing, he practiced taqiya, but was rejected and sentenced to be flogged, from which wounds he subsequently died. For this account, see Rizvi, I: 383; See also EI 2 s.v. “Jahangir.”

⁵² Mutual cursing played a role in Ottoman/Safavid and Uzbek/Safavid relations, in which Ottoman cursing of the Safavids may have been a reaction to the Safavid practice. For example, in 1517, after they conquered the Mamluk empire, the Ottomans singled out Shah Isma'il for a propaganda offensive by having him cursed in the Friday Prayer. See Allouche, Adel, The Origins and Development of the Ottoman-Safavid Conflict (906- 962/1500 - 1555) (Berlin, 1983), 128Google Scholar, citing Tulun, Ibn, Mufakahat al-khillan, ed. Mustafa, Muhammad (Cairo, 1962–4), 2:74–5Google Scholar.

⁵³ Stanfield Johnson, “Sunni Survival,”132–33.

⁵⁴ For studies on Sharifi and his role in the Safavid government, see Eberhard, Elke, Osmanische Polemik gegen die Safawiden im 16. Jahrhundert nach arabischen Handschriften (Freiburg, 1970), 56–60Google Scholar; Golsorkhi, Shohreh, “Isma'il II and Mirza Makhdum Sharifi: An Interlude in Safavid History,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 26 (1994): 477–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stanfield, “A Sixteenth-Century Sunni Sadr;” Stanfield, “Sunni Survival.” For the reign of Isma'il II's reign, see Hinz, Walter, “Schah Esma'il II. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Safaviden,” Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische Sprachen 36 (1933): 19–99Google Scholar; Roger Savory, “Isma 'il II, EI 2 , 4:188; Hans Robert Roemer, “The Safavid Period,” in CHIr 6: 189–350, espec. 250–53; Roemer, Hans Robert, Persien auf dem Weg in die Neuzeit (Stuttgart, 1989), 295–98Google Scholar; For studies dealing with Isma'il II's religious policies, see Mazzaoui, Michel, “The Religious Policies of Shah Isma'il II,” in Intellectual Studies on Islam, eds. Mazzaoui, Michel M. and Moreen, Vera B. (Salt Lake City, 1990), 49–56Google Scholar; Stewart, Devin J., “The Lost Biography of Baha' al-Din al-'Amili and the Reign of Isma'il II in Safavid Historiography,” Iranian Studies 31 (1998): 177–206CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁵ Munshi, Iskandar Beg, Tarikh-i 'alam ara-yi 'abbasi. ed. Afshar, Iraj, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1971)Google Scholar (hereafter TAAA). Also Savory, Roger, tr. The History of Shah 'Abbas the Great (Boulder, Colorado, 1979)Google Scholar (hereafter Shah Abbas).

⁵⁶ KT, 203. See also Röhrborn, K.M., Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1966), 46–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar, citing KT, 198–204. These passages have been analyzed and amended by Haneda, Masashi, “The Evolution of the Safavid Royal Guard,” Iranian Studies 22 (1989): 104–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁷ Hanedi, “Evolution,” 203.

⁵⁸ Qadi Ahmad mentions them sub anno 938/1531 in Harat together with “Shi'ian and ghazian” (Qizilbash), I: 220.

⁵⁹ Michele Membré, Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539–1542), tr. with Introduction and Notes, A.H. Morton (London, 1993) (hereafter Mission).

⁶⁰ Mission, 20, 24.

⁶¹ Mission, 41.

⁶² Husayn, Malik Shah, Tarikh-i Ihya' al-muluk, ed., Sutidah, Shukrallah (Tehran, 1966), 158Google Scholar.

⁶³ Mission, 52.

⁶⁴ Mission, 52.

⁶⁵ Asnad,, 215. One of the Ottoman conditions for peace in the treaty of Amasya was the discontinuation of the ritual curse. See Hamid Algar, “Caliphs and the Caliphate,” in EI.

⁶⁶ For details on qurchis, see Haneda, “Evolution,” 57–86.

⁶⁷ Mirza Makhdum Sharifi, Al-Nawaqid li bunyan al-rawafid (British Museum, Or. 7991), 99a, hereafter NR.

⁶⁸ TAAA, I:148.

⁶⁹ TAAA, 1:148.

⁷⁰ NR, ff.105b-107b. Also f. 152a, where Sharifi asserts that “from the dawn of Islam to the present, Shi'ites were weak and debased, but did not put into effect, until the present, the cursing of the Companions in the assemblies, gatherings and mosques.”

⁷¹ NR, f. 107a.

⁷² NR, f. 107b. According to Sunnites, this refers to “the Ten who are blessed with paradise.” With some variation, they include Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali, Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas, Talha, Zubayr, 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf, Sa'd b. Zayd and Abu 'Ubayd b. al-Jarrah.

⁷³ On the issue of the Friday Prayer as that problem was presented by Sharifi, see Stanfield Johnson, “Sunni Survival,” 129, n. 32. According to Naraqi, the prayer was not reinstituted until the Qajar period, when debates of the religious scholars resulted in the legalizing of the Prayer during the occultation, Tarikh-i Kashan va Natanz, (Tehran, 1348Sh. /1969), 428–9, including n. 1.

⁷⁴ NR. f. 105b. Since Qadi-yi Jahan, who had encouraged the shah to reconsider his opinion of Jami, died in 1553, it appears that Tamasp once again repudiated the poet. See above p. 13.

⁷⁵ NR, ff. 106a-107b. This name coined for this litany was jarr al-qitar, which Sharifi defines as the “cursing of all the pious of the religion,” continuously and successively. See Stanfield Johnson, “Sunni Survival,” 130–31, for details on this ritual.

⁷⁶ NR, f. 124a.

⁷⁷ TAAA, 1: 214; Shah ' Abbas, I:319.

⁷⁸ al-Khwansari, Muhammad Baqir, Rawdat al-jannat (Tehran, 1971), 2:73Google Scholar, hereafter RJ.

⁷⁹ al-Isfahani, Mirza 'Abd Allah Riyad al- 'ulama wa-hiyad al-fudala' (Qum, 1980), 2: 73Google Scholar, hereafter RU; RJ, 2: 322. See Devin Stewart, “The Lost Biography” for an in-depth study of the source for this account and for Stewart's excellent contribution to the analysis of sectarian events taking place in Isma'il II's reign.

⁸⁰ RU, 2: 73; RJ, 2: 322–23.

⁸¹ RU, 2: 73.

⁸² RU, 2: 73; RJ, 2: 323.

⁸³ The implication possibly being that, while Sunnite practice had been “banned,” the Sunnite legal schools were considered legitimate.

⁸⁴ Tarikh-i 'Abbasi, British Library Add. 27, f. 20b. It was also mentioned that Sharifi was saved due to the regard for his mother, who was the daughter of Mirza Sharaf, the highly-regarded court poet. This particular point is not made in the manuscripts on which the published edition is based.

⁸⁵ NR, f. 160b.

⁸⁶ Tarikh-i 'Abbasi, (f. 21b).

⁸⁷ Lughatnamah, s.v., tabarra'.

⁸⁸ Algar, in “Caliphs and the Caliphate,” EI does not discuss the circumstances of and venues for the practice of the ritual curse during this period.

⁸⁹ Algar, “Caliphs and the Caliphate,” in EI.

⁹⁰ See Mirjafari, Hosein, “The Haydari-Ni'mati Conflicts,” Iranian Studies 12 (1979), 135–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Perry, John R., “Toward a Theory of Iranian Urban Moieties: The Haydariyyah and Ni'matiyyah Revisited,” Iranian Studies 32 (1999), 51–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹¹ TAAA, I: 214; Shah Abbas, I: 319.

⁹² AT, I: 134

⁹³ TAAA, I: 214; Shah Abbas, I: 319.

⁹⁴ Asnad, 214.

⁹⁵ Rida Quli Khan Hidayat, Rawdat al-safa-yi nasiri, 10 vols. (vols. 8–10 written as a supplement to work of the same name by Mirkhwand) (Tehran, 1959–60). Reference is to 8:169.

⁹⁶ Recent research has provided a more nuanced understanding of the social values and economy of these groups. See Babayan's study, which analyzes the worldview and values of the futuwwat (communities of “devout lover of 'Ali”): Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs (Cambridge, 2002), especially chapters 6 and 7. Babayan has eloquently explored the storytelling vocation and its bond with the crafts business of the Islamic Middle Ages through her analysis of the writings of Va'iz Kashifi (d. 1504). A significant point is that the guilds lose status in the seventeenth century, so that popular occupations, that of the storyteller among them, are degraded. Keyvani, Mehdi, Artisans and the Guild Life in the later Safavid Period. Contributions to the social-economic history of Persia (Berlin, 1982)Google Scholar, has examined the relationship of the guilds in relation to various sectors of society, including the elite. He deals with the shahr-ashub poets (“city-disturbing poets”), artisans, and tradesmen who wrote conventional poetry about the guilds and discusses guild connections both to the Sufi orders through the tradition of transmitted relationships, and to the Safavid court through services provided to court dignitaries, including the officers who collected and recorded merchant and guild taxes. His study encourages thoughts about the interrelationship of different segments of society and the issue of literacy. See also Karamustafa, Ahmat T., God's Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Middle Period, 1200–1550 (Salt Lake City, 1994)Google Scholar.

⁹⁷ Babayan, Kathryn, “The Safavid Synthesis: From Qizilbash Islam to Imamite Shi'ism,” Iranian Studies 27 no. 1–4 (1994): 135–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter “Safavid Synthesis”), and more recently, Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs, especially chapter 5, and 6: 147–50.

⁹⁸ See Arjomand's, Said Amir introduction to the special issue “Religion and Statecraft in Pre-Modern Iran,” Iranian Studies, 27, no. 1–4 (1994): 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, citing Danishpazhuh, M.T., “Yak pardah az zindigani-yi Shah Tahmasp-i Safavi,” Majallah-yi danishkada-yi adabiyyat va 'ulum-i insani-yi Mashhad 7, no. 4 (1350Sh./1972)Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ See Souroudi, S., “Islamization of the Iranian National Hero Rustam as Reflected in Persian Folktales,” JSAI 2 (1980): 365–83Google Scholar. See also, Safa, Zabih, Hamasa sarái dar Iran (Tehran, 1954)Google Scholar, especially 373–75.

¹⁰⁰ Babayan, “Safavid Synthesis.” For her elaboration and contextualization of the processes of this synthesis, see Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs, chap. 10.

¹⁰¹ An observation of Kathryn Babayan following personal correspondence.

¹⁰² The incident of the “false Isma'il” following the death of Isma'il II, however, indicates the ability of millenarian elements to organize in large numbers. See Savory, R., “A Curious Episode of Safavid History,” in Iran and Islam:in Memory of the Late Vladimir Minorsky, ed. Bosworth, C. E. (Edinburgh, 1971), 463–73Google Scholar. This research supports Cohn's thesis that “Revolutionary millenarianism drew its strength from a population living on the margin of society....” Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium (Oxford, 1970, revised from 1957 edition), 282Google Scholar. An in-depth study of these elements from a political economy perspective may reveal the ways in which they fitted into society economically, politically, and socially, becoming attached to sources of economic subsistence. (Qalandaran, for example, are mentioned in connection with Isma'il II before his release from prison in 984/1576, which suggests their ability to attach themselves under various circumstances to the upper classes. Both Babayan (Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs) and Keyvani (Artisans and the Guild Life) deal with this issue in different ways. See also Jurgen Paul, “The Histories of Herat,” Iranian Studies 33 (2000). Paul, in discussing the local histories of Herati nobles, has depicted the paramilitary formations—essentially popular elements, probably frequently unemployed and unskilled, who allied themselves with the notable families and their interests, suggesting economic dependence on the part of the paramilitary groups.

¹⁰³ Bada'uni, MT, 2: 137.

¹⁰⁴ See MT; Hollister The Shi'a of India; Rizvi, A Socio-Intellectual History.

¹⁰⁵ Kasravi, Ahamd On Islam and Shi'ism, tr. Ghanunparvar, M. R. (Costa Mesa, 1990)Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁶ Anthropologists have indicated the need for studies that explore this relationship through a complementary examination of texts and practices. For an interesting discussion of this approach in a modern anthropological context, see Ibrahim, Abdullahi Ali, Assaulting with Words. Popular Discourse and the Bridle of the Shari'ah (Evanston, 1994)Google Scholar, especially the introduction. With respect to popular eulogy and learned opinions on eulogy and cursing, it would be useful to examine popular practice in the context of doctrinal or legal literature.