Jewish and Christian beliefs overlapped and
Around his neck he had a rope hung with henna-
merged
dyed bovine teeth and bells, to the accompani-
At least from the period of Ghāzān Khān’s rule
ment of which he would dance in imitation of
there was a growth in Shīʿite sects as well as a
the movements of apes and bears 178 When the
popularisation of ṣūfī orders together with an
shaykh came first into the presence of Ghāzān
influx of Turkish converts 174 The Ilkhan took a
Khān in Tabrīz, a tiger (or, according to some
personal interest in Islamic mysticism, an inter-
accounts, a lion) was unleashed on him to test
est which was shared by his successors and sub-
his supernatural powers, but Barāq like many
ordinates While he was governor of Khurasan,
mystics could communicate with animals and a
even before his conversion, Ghāzān Khān visited
shout from him was enough to subdue the wild
the most important places of pilgrimage (turbat)
beast 179 Thereafter he enjoyed close links with
of the region such as the graves of the celebrated
the Ilkhanid court and is said to have exercised
mystics Abū yazīd (Bāyazīd) al-Biṣṭāmī (d 261/
some influence over Ghāzān and Öljeitü In
874 or 264/877–8), Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad
707/1307–8, on his way to see Öljeitü, Barāq went
Kharaqānī (d 425/1033) and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abi
on an expedition to Gīlān Near Lāhījān he and
’l-Khayr Mayhanī (d 440/1049) At that time he
some of his followers were intercepted by a group
also went to see the shrine of the eighth Imam in
of people, upbraided for being “friends of the
Mashhad and the imposing mausoleum of sulṭān
Tatars” and killed Those of his followers who
Sanjar near Marw Later as ruler he paid his
survived the attack took the shaykh’s bones back
respects to the great Shīʿa sanctuaries in Meso-
for burial at Sulṭāniyya where a hospice was built
potamia, Najaf and Karbalāʾ which he richly
for his followers by the Ilkhanid ruler 180
endowed by building irrigation channels as well
The likes of Barāq Bābā arose from a frontier
as accommodation for pilgrims and sayyid s 175
milieu in Transoxania, Khurasan181 and Anato-
It is unfortunately not known which shaykh
lia 182 The boundary regions in which such ele-
presided over Rashīd al-Dīn’s khānaqāh and
ments subsisted constituted a refuge for political
whether he represented a mystic order (ṭarīqa)
or religious dissidents as well as wandering bands
It is however known that numerous shaykhs vis-
of soldiers of fortune that provided the core pop-
ited the ṣūfī khānaqāh, for instance, the famed
ulation of this war-like frontier society where
shaykh Ṣafī of Ardabīl (d 735/1334) Among the
many divergent cultural elements came into con-
mystics that came to visit were also some wander-
tact with each other The groups in which the
ing dervishes (qalandar s ), often characterised by
Turkish ethnic element predominated also served
their bizarre appearance and the fact that they
as a source for mercenary recruits Maḥmūd of
“deliberately embraced a variety of unconven-
Ghazna (r 389/999–421/1030) for instance is
tional and socially liminal practices ”176 One
known to have drawn heavily upon this resource
prominent representative was shaykh Barāq, a
of ghāzī s for his Indian campaigns 183
crypto-shamanic Türkmen dervish from Tokat
The Central Asian frontier of Islam became a
in central Anatolia who scandalised onlookers by
zone of conversion by the tenth century For the
his strange appearance His chin was shaved but
most part the ghāzī s adopted an Iranian version
he had an oversize moustache and his upper inci-
of Islam and maintained some of their own pre-
sor had intentional y been broken off 177 He would
Islamic traditions Dervish preachers, often char-
go almost naked but for a loincloth and a kind
acterised by their heterodox outlook, were
of felt turban to which bovine horns were attached
instrumental in the process,184 among them Barāq,
174 Spuler, 1939, repr 1955, pp 243–4
179 Algar, “Barāq Bābā,” EIr For similar examples in the
175 Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, ed ʿAlīzāda, vol 3, pp 415–6 (visit
Baṭṭāl-nāma, see Dedes, 1996, pp 156, 164
of Mashhad, the graves of the mystics, and the mausoleum
180 Dorn, 1858, pp 148–51 Cf Karamustafa, 2006,
of Sanjar), p 330 (Najaf and Karbalāʾ), pp 411–2 (endow-
p 62
ment of irrigation channels for Najaf and Karbalāʾ), as cited
181 Bonner, 2006, pp 112–4
in Hoffmann, 2002, pp 205–6
182 For a dicussion of the frontier setting in early Otto-
176 Karamustafa, 2006, p 17 Cf Meier, 1976, pp 494–
man Anatolia, see Lindner, 1983, pp 1–10, esp pp 24–5
516
The concept of the frontier and frontier societies has been
177 Meier, 1976, p 511
the subject of Burns, 1989, pp 307–30
178 Roux, 1984, p 70; Mélikoff, 1962, p 40; and eadem,
183 Bosworth, 1963, repr 1992, pp 98–105, 109–10;
1998, pp 11–3; ʿAsqalanī, 1385/1966, vol 1, p 6, cited after
Mélikoff, “Ghāzī,” EI 2 II, 1043b
Algar, “Barāq Bābā,” EIr; Karamustafa, 2006, pp 62–3
184 Mélikoff, 1960, vol 1, p 51
230