Shaykh Haydar

Murshid Shaykh Ḥaydar Ṣafavi
Tomb of Shaykh Haydar in Meshginshahr
6th Sheikh of the Safavid order
In office 1460–1488
Preceded by	Shaykh Junayd
Succeeded by	Soltan-Ali
Personal details
Born	June–July 1459 Amid, Diyar Bakr (present-day Diyarbakır, Turkey)
Died	9 July 1488 (aged 28-29) Tabasaran, Dagestan (present-day Russia)
Resting place	Ardabil
Spouse(s)	Halima (Martha), daughter of Uzun Hasan by Despina Khatun (Theodora Megale Komnene) A daughter of Farid al-din Jafar b. Khvajeh Ali
Children	Soltan-Ali Ibrahim Mirza Ismail I Fakhr-Jahan Khanum Malek Khanum Sayyed Hassan
Parents	Shaykh Junayd (father) Khadija Begum bt. Qara Othman (sister of Uzun Hasan)[1] (mother)
Relatives	Khvajeh Mohammad Safavi (brother) Khvajeh Jamshid Safavi (brother) Shah Pasha Khatun (sister)

Part of a series on Shia Islam
Twelver Shi'ism
The Fourteen Infallibles Muhammad Fatimah The Twelve Imams Ali Hasan Husayn al-Sajjad al-Baqir al-Sadiq al-Kazim ar-Rida al-Taqi al-Naqi al-Askari al-Mahdi
Principles Monotheism Justice Prophethood Imamate Judgement Day
Other beliefs Imamate of the Family Angels Mourning of Muharram Intercession Occultation Wilayat al-Faqih Usul al-fiqh Ijtihad Taqlid Irfan
Practices Salat Sawm Hajj Zakat Khums Jihad Amr bi-l maʿrūf Nahy ani l-Munkar Tawalli Tabarri
Other practices Mourning of Muharram Arba'een Pilgrimage Intercession
Holy cities Mecca Medina Najaf Karbala Mashhad Jerusalem Samarra Kadhimiya Qom
Groups Ja'fari Usuli Akhbari Shaykhi
Other related sects and groups Alawites Sufi orders and Alevism Qizilbash Safaviyya Bektashism and folk religion Malamatiyya Qalandariyya Hurufism Bektashism Galibi Ni'matullāhī
Scholarship Law Marja' (list) Hawza Ayatollah (list) Allamah Seghatoleslam Hojatoleslam Ijtihad
Hadith collections The Four Books Kitab al-Kafi Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih Tahdhib al-Ahkam Al-Istibsar Other hadith collections Book of Sulaym ibn Qays Bihar al-Anwar Wasā'il al-Shīʿa Reality of Certainty Nahj al-Balagha Mafatih al-Jinan Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya Al-Amali
Sources of ijtihad and jurisprudence Qur'an Hadiths of The Infallibles Consensus Reason
Related topics List of Twelver Shia books Criticism of Twelver Shi'ism
Shia Islam portal
v t e

Shaykh Haydar or Sheikh Haydar (Persian: شیخ حیدر Shaikh Ḥaidar; 1459–9 July 1488) was the successor of his father (Shaykh Junayd) as leader of the Safavid order from 1460 to 1488. Haydar maintained the policies and political ambitions initiated by his father. Under Sheikh Haydar, the order became crystallized as a political movement with an increasingly extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i coloring and Haydar was viewed as a divine figure by his followers.^[2] Shaykh Haydar was responsible for instructing his followers to adopt the scarlet headgear of 12 gores commemorating The Twelve Imams, which led to them being designated by the Turkish term Qizilbash "Red Head".^[3]

Haydar soon came into conflict with the Shirvanshahs, as well as the Ak Koyunlu, who were allied to the former. Following several campaigns into the North Caucasus, mainly in Circassia and Dagestan, he and his men were eventually trapped in 1488 at Tabasaran by the combined forces of the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar and Ya'qub Beg of the Ak Koyunlu. In a pitched battled that ensued, Shaykh Haydar and his men were defeated and killed. He was succeeded by his son Soltan-Ali as leader of the order. Soltan-Ali was on his part succeeded by Haydar's younger son, who would become the founder of the Safavid dynasty, and known by his regnal name of Ismail I.