Quizilbache[1] (em Azeri: Qızılbaş em turco: Kızılbaş; em persa: قزلباش; romaniz.: Qezelbāsh; lit. "cabeça vermelha") constituíam grupo militante (ghulāt) xiitaduodecimano que levou o xáIsmail I ao poder e ajudou assim a fundar a dinastia safávida no Irã. O nome é alusivo ao gorro vermelho com doze pregas que usavam, denominado, em pársi, Taje Heidar (em português, "coroa da Heidar", sendo Heidar o mestre sufi do grupo). As doze pregas simbolizavam os doze imames do xiismo). Alguns grupos alevitas da Turquia também se chamam quizilbache.
A origem do Qizilbash pode ser datada do século 15 em diante, quando o grande mestre espiritual do movimento, Shaykh Haydar (o chefe da ordem Sufi Safaviyya), organizou seus seguidores em tropas militantes. Os Qizilbash foram originalmente compostos por sete tribos de língua turca, todas de língua azerbaijana: Rumlu, Shamlu, Ustajlu, Afshar, Qajar, Tekelu e Zulkadar.[2][3][4]
↑Grigoriev, Sergei (2000). "Об этнической принадлежности шиитов Афганистана" [On the ethnicity of the Shiites of Afghanistan]. Восток: история и культура (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: 32–46. Кызылбаши, первоначально состоявшие из представителей семи малоазиатских тюркоязычных племен румлу, шамлу, устаджлу, афшар, каджар, текелю и зулкадар, говоривших на азербайджанском языке, были с XV в. одной из главных военно-политических опор Сефевидского государства.
↑Willem Floor, Hasan Javadi, The Role of Azerbaijani Turkish in Safavid Iran.
Оригинальный текст (англ.)
During the Safavid period Azerbaijani Turkish,or,as it was also referred to at that time, Qizilbash Turkish, occupied an important place in society, and it was spoken both at court and by the common people... Throughout the Safavid period there were two constants to Azerbaijani Turkish as a spoken language in Iran. First, it was and remained the official language of the royal court during the entire Safavid period. Second, the language remained the spoken language of the Turkic Qizilbash tribes and was also spoken in the army.
↑David Blow. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. — С. 165.
The primary court language remained Turkish. But it was not the Turkish of Istambul. It was a Turkish dialect, the dialect of the Qizilbash Turkomans, which is still spoken today in the province of Azerbaijan, in north-western Iran.
