The Belief in Purifying Power of Fire among the Safavid and Its Origin

Dr. Hasan Gulmuhammet

It is known that Safavid Shah Abbas and perhaps the other members of the dynasty believed in the purifying power of fire. In the reign of this king there were a large number of places that performed the short-term marriages- even marriage for an hour- in the Safavid capital, Isfahan. Their taxes that Shah Abbas considered to be “dirty money,” probably were significant and impossible to be given up. In order to prevent that “dirty money” from entering to his treasury, Shah Abbas ordered that this money be expended for candles, torches and all things related to fire and illumination of the court and the city by burning things. He believed that expending the money this way purified it.[1]

We can trace this belief to the pre-Islamic times. The scholars determined the similar belief among the Gok Turks. In the 560s the Sasanian Empire closed the Silk Road and prevented the flow of goods, especially silk from China to Europe. This action left silk merchandisers, who mostly were composed of Central Asian Sogds, in a difficult situation. Because the Sogds were subject to the Gok Turks they wanted help from the West Gok Turk Kagan to solve this problem. He sent a delegation under the presidency of Sogdian Maniak to the Sassanian court but the negotiations did not end up with the desired result. (Negotiations were unsuccessful). The Sassanian Empire was pursuing to weaken its two opponents, the Gok Turk and Byzantine, by depriving them of income from the Silk Road trade. Both, Gok Turks and Byzantine realized this policy of the Sassanian and for this reason they tried to solve it through war. They exchanged envoys to reach an agreement to initiate a war from two sides against the Sasanians. One of the envoys who were sent to the Gok Turks from the Byzantine court was Zamarkhos. Prior to his meeting with the Gok Turk Kagan, he was passed through two parallel fire lines to be purified.[2] It is not known that this ritual was made by the Zoroastrian Iranic Sogds who were in service to the Gok Turks or by the Gok Turks themselves. This is the only example of purifying by fire among pre-Islamic Turkic people.

Many Scholars has connected the origin of this belief among the Gok Turks to Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians believed in sacredness of fire and protected it in their temples.[3] It is not known whether this belief among the Safavid is continuation of same belief of the Central Asian Turkic tribes or it was borrowed again from Zoroastrians in Iran. According to the travelogues of the Safavid period, many Zoroastrians lived in the Safavid capital, Isfahan.[4] Shah Abbas and the other Safavid Kings were applying more pressure on the Zoroastrian minority, relative to the other minorities.[5] This can be seen as an Islamization of the Zoroastrians in the Safavid domain.

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[1] Jean Chardin, Safarname, Entesharat Tus, Trans. to Persian: Eghbal Yaghmai, Tehran 1372 (1993), v. 2, P.789-790.

[2] Eduard Chavannes, Batı Türkleri, Selenge Yayınları, Cev: Mustafa Koc, İstanbul 2007, P. 299.

[3] Bahaeddin Ögel, İslamiyet’ten Önce Türk Kültür Tarihi, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara 1991, P.189.

[4] Pietro De La Valle, Safarname, Enteşarat-e Elmi-Farhangi, Tehran 1370 (1991), P. 49.

[5] Moslem Aliabadi, “Barrasi-ye Vaziyat-e Agaliyatha-ye Mazhabi-ye Dore-ye Safavi”, Tarikhpajuhi, No. 20, 1383 (2004), P. 12-13.