Ottoman persecution of Alevis

Accordingly, Seyyid Rüstem got in trouble with the local Ottoman officials, despite the fact that he had a personal agreement with the sultan Orhan I to obtain some soil.

As the official had heard of Seyyid Rüstem, he shouted: "How dare this Torlak make a mark on my land and depart from obedience?

[2] It is also known that the heterodox Shiite sect hurufiyya was widely spread in Iran and Anatolia and that they made propaganda in large parts of the Ottoman Empire.

The Hurufi then attempted to seek refuge with Mehmed II, but was subdued by Fakhr al-Din's aggressive behavior and therefore held back from defending his guests.

[3] This incident also aligns the previous example with Orhan I, where the Sultan's sympathy towards the Torlaks was also destroyed by officials.

In the subsequent part of Mehmed II's reign the Ottoman Empire became extended towards both east and west and thus incorporated new areas where there were a greater propensity of heterodoxy.

Hurufis and other heterodox Sufi groups were still subject to persecution and isolated massacres in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, however.

In 1468–1474 disputes led Mehmed II to drive out tribes, possibly Qizilbāsh, from this area to Rumelia and in 1475 he made an end to the Karaman rule.

[6] Only four years later, in 1492, there was an attempt of murdering the sultan by a dervish and a document from 1501 also reveals that Bayezid II had ordered the execution of all Qizilbāshes who were captured from traveling to Iran.

[9] The oldest preserved religious statement (fatwa) on the Qizilbāshes was also issued under Bayezid II by the then Ottoman Mufti Hamza Saru Görez (d. 1512).

As governor of Trabzon, he had been closely acquainted with the Safavids and the Qizilbāsh success in Iran and eastern Anatolia.

Upon ascending to the throne, Selim I got the Ottoman Shaykh ul-Islam ibni Kemal (d. 1533) to issue a new fatwa against the Qizilbāshes to finally legitimize their killing.

On his march to face Ismā'il at Chāldirān, Selim had many Alevis massacred, seeing them as enemies of the Ottoman Empire.

[10] In an Ottoman source, the Selimşâh-name, this event is described as such: Her şeyi bilen Sultan, o kavmin etbâını kısım kısım ve isim isim yazmak üzere, memleketin her tarafına bilgiç katipler gönderdi; yedi yaşından yetmiş yaşına kadar olanların defterleri divâna getirilmek üzere emredildi; getirilen defterlere nazaran, ihtiyar-genç kırk bin kişi yazılmıştı; ondan sonra her memleketin hâkimlerine memurlar defterler getirdiler; bunların gittikleri yerlerde kılıç kullanılarak, bu memleketlerdeki maktullerin adedi kırk bini geçti.

The omniscient Sultan Selim I sent accurate writers all over the country to take note of the supporters of the group called Qizilbāshs, part by part and name by name, it has been ordered by Divan [a senior executive institution of the Ottoman Empire] to retrieve records to Divan on everyone from age seven to seventy and the names of forty thousand persons were noted in those registers, old and young, then officials brought the registers to the administrators of all regions [of the country]; the places they went, they killed more than forty thousand by sword in these areas.However, Ottoman Tahrir Defters of that time, in which all demographics and taxpayers for each village were registered, do not justify the specifics of these claims.

Likewise, Ottoman historians studying Seriyye Defterleri, official records for the local disputes, did not find evidence for such a huge death toll.

The extremely violent period from 16th to the 17th century, however, was eventually relatively subdued, but the oppression of Qizilbāshes continued to a lesser extent.

[17] In cases where the accused Qizilbāshes had many sympathizers or relatives, the Ottoman regime tried to avoid riots by not killing too many at a time.

Bilin ve haberdar olun ki, reisleri Erdebil oğlu İsmail olan Kızılbaş topluluğu, Peygamberimizin şeriatını, sünnetini, İslam dinini, din ilmini, iyiyi ve doğruyu beyan eden Kuran'ı küçük gördüler.

Kutsal Kuran'ı, öteki din kitaplarını tahkir ettiler ve onları ateşe atarak yaktılar.

Bu topluluğun durumu kafirlerin (kitap sahibi Hristiyan ve Yahudiler'in) halinden daha kötüdür.

Onların gerek kendi aralarında gerekse başka topluluklarla yaptıkları evlenmeler muteber değildir.

Sadece İslam'ın Sultanı'nın, onlara ait kasaba varsa, o kasabanın bütün insanlarını öldürüp mallarını, miraslarını, evlatlarını alma hakkı vardır.

Know and be aware that the Qizilbāsh people, whose leader is Ismail son of Ardabil has looked down on our Prophet's laws (Sharia), his custom (sunna), the religion of Islam, the religious science and the Qur'an, which tells us what is right and wrong.

We have therefore in accordance with the rules of the religious law (Sharia) and the rights provided in our books, issued a statement (fatwa) towards this population as being infidel and pagan.

[31][32] The former leader of the Bektashi Order, Hamdullah Çelebi, was initially sentenced to death, but then sent into exile in Amasya where his mausoleum exists today.

Alevis are often assessed from a Sunni perspective, and may need to defend themselves on issues such as why they do not pray in mosques or fast during Ramadan.