in today's age of relatively stable international relations it's hard to imagine the impact of
something like the mongol invasions starting in 1206 it was a trying time for those who initially
witnessed them mountains of skulls burning cities murder and pillaging on a wide scale even if
genghis khan's descendants became more urbane and grew closer to their conquered peoples the
initial shock of it all was massive the conquered people struggled to make sense of the carnage and
their new reality new religious movements that promised a bright future rose to meet the new
age some of these movements were as apocalyptic as the events recently witnessed out of the ashes of
the old political order new states were formed that looked to the mongols for legitimacy just
as new religious reactions to the carnage looked to instill hope and resistance in the conquered
people a cherno event that could only arise from these conditions led to a very bizarre story of
her persian king let the leader of a cult take the throne so apocalyptic prophecies could be
fulfilled the mongols seized and consolidated the persian-speaking lands of west and central asia
the response by the common people was to turn inward this in return was facilitated by sufism
and popular forms of devotion not associated with any one institution sufism is an islamic form of
mysticism in the early days of sufism charismatic personalities engaging in asceticism and mystical
union with the divine attracted followers who gathered around them for guidance sufism grew into
institutionalized orders where shaykh leads his followers to purify themselves with rituals and
guidance sufi orders and sheikh has authenticated themselves with official lineages going back
to muhammad through his cousin ali ibn abi talib as mongols burned cities and stacked mountains
with skulls it's not surprising to see the masses and elites turn to sufism popular religion
was an important reprieve during this time acting as an intersection between the islamic sects and
even between religions muslim and non-muslim figures like ali ibn abi talib alexander the
great and legendary persian figures like rustum and his fandiar saw a massive spike in popularity
as anti-genghis heroes that stood for everything genghis khan and his mongols were not ali was
an especially popular saintly figure as he was a common hero shared between shiism sufism and local
forms of popular religion with learned elites and the unwashed masses accepting sufism its
structure's utility to organize devoted followers around a charismatic leader did not go unnoticed
leaders of the era gathered around themselves a retinue of devoted muslim and non-muslim
followers that treated their political leaders as spiritual guides responsible for their salvation
other mystical groups began to adopt the sufi order's hierarchy in organizational systems these
groups were non-orthodox sheer sects that started to see a booming popularity because of their
extreme devotion to ally and for extreme doctrines that acted as political rebellion against mongol
elements one of the many groups associated with using a sufi structure to propagate themselves
is a cult called the hurofis or letterists the leftists were founded by foslala astar
abadi from the city of astarabad in modern-day iran fazlala was a scholarly man born to a sunni
judicial family in 1339 he was learned in law and in the quran but later formed spiritual ambitions
and became a wandering dervish during the muslim holy month of ramadan in 1374 he had an experience
in his wanderings that led him to believe he was a manifestation of divinity and the founder of a new
religion this religion was based on the science of letters fazelala took the arabic letters to
have cosmic significance and inherent power akin to magic the new religion took the organizational
structure of a sufi order as was popular at the time even though officially split from islam the
letterists continued to venerate the figure of ali allowing them to fit in amongst non-orthodox shia
fazola began to amass a large enough following that caught the attention of mongol authorities
and was promptly put to death in 1394. the letterists also saw a sectarian split during
the lifetime of fazala lalatorist mahmoud he was fascinated with the extra arabic letters invented
to accommodate sounds found in the persian language but not in arabic to pasakani the persian
letters held enough metaphysical significance that he split from established letterist doctrines
these persian letters are pe che zer and gaf each of these letters was given extra markings
to distinguish them from established arabic letters hence the new group's names the nucotis or
pointists they also believed in four cosmic cycles that happened every six thousand years each cycle
ushering in a new age of persian or arab dominance pasikani saw himself at the end of one arab cycle
and at the verge of a persian cycle that would usher in an era of prosperity for persians and one
of degradation for arabs these cycles are ushered in by an apocalyptic event and one was predicted
by pasakhani to come soon these apocalyptic and racist doctrines alarmed fellow letterists and
pasakani was eventually cast out of the group pasagani had structured his new cold like the
letterists and sufi orders before them pointists referred to their own as the dervishes the persian
word for sufi both the letterists and the pointers shared another commonality they spread across the
literate middle class in urban populations and not the illiterate masses in rural areas
this is easily explained because of the highly literate nature of both groups illiterate people
have little need for such a text-heavy doctrine that they can't understand the two groups split
geographically with the letterists trying their luck westward into the ottoman empire
before mahmud pasikani could fulfill his role as millennial king and usher in a new
persian age he died in 1427. one empire that took advantage of developing spiritual trends was the
sapphire empire in berger founded by shah ismail in 1501. the salvador started as a sufi
order passed from father to son with a lineage stretching back to ali under the leadership of
shah ismail the safavids militarized and expanded into a state it helped that shah ismael's mother
was a mongol princess descended from genghis khan completing the spiritual authority of her father's
lineage with a political authority through his mother's the engine of safavid militarization
and politicization was the creation of a warrior dervish society of turkmen soldiers called the
kizzle bosch kazulbash means redhead referring to the odd caps they wore to symbolize ali the
cap was red because popular imaginings of ali saw him as a redhead the kizzlebosch ascribed
shah is male as one of the incarnations of ali and even a manifestation of the divine as they
were so gripped with frenzy for char ismail that they would eat the bodies of enemies who refused
to give him their support the safavids with their turkmen soldiers quickly conquered much of persia
while shah ismaili expanded his sufi order's scope being the shaker of this massive order he treated
his courtiers like sufis giving them initiation rituals and spiritual guidance he accepted muslims
and non-muslims as part of his expanding order and encouraged more popular conceptions of shiism
making it the official religion of his new empire the pointists were at home in this new environment
neither sunni nor shia but easily slaughtered into the extreme ends of shiism encouraged by
the safavid state they saw so much success that khizubash began fratronizing with them and even
joining the pointed order the pointer saw arise in popularity thanks to the emphasis on persian
fostered by both the safavids and their indian neighbors the mughals as the dynasty was passed
down after shah's mail successive safavid emperors wished to curtail the more radical religious
elements that made the safavid successful in the first place they wanted to slowly implement
orthodox shiism as the state religion but that would run counter to the sunni population and the
radical shia elements in the military as such the pointers saw occasional periods of repression and
resurgence throughout the years at one point around 1571 the pointers tried to proclaim
safavid emperor takmas shah as their messiah but tamas engaged himself with an attempt to
reign in their kisselbush enemies the primetists mixing with the kizzle bosch had another effect
militarization learning from the success their kazubash and similar groups had mixing extreme
shiism with sufi organization and militarization the pointists began organizing militarily
this was either to find a place in the military structure of the sap forbid state or to protect
themselves as their fortunes rose and dipped they also saw more success than failure over
in the mughal empire under the reign of emperor akbar coronated in 1556 aqua wanted to create a
civil religion that combined elements of all known faiths with him as a spiritual guide this is very
much in line with the spiritual trends discussed post-mongol invasion the pointers seem to have
such a prominent place that it was thought by safavid intelligence they converted akbar
specifically to their religion over in the safavid domain the pointists fortunes were about to change
in the reign of shah abbas who took the throne in 1588. there are three differing accounts to our
story one is that shah abbas was a shrewd follower of shia orthodoxy who wished to completely make
his domain convert by banishing the remaining forces of sunnism sufism and extreme shiism he
schemed to dilute his military with caucasian slave and freed forces from armenia georgia
and cicacia emulating the ottomans in the west shah rabbus upset the dominance of the turkmen
kizzlebosch he sought to undo the remnants of the safavid sufi order and extreme shiism
that the safavid state was built on during the early years of shah abbas reign the pointists
had huge followings in several safavid cities including the capital caspine and a growing armed
presence thanks to their militarization they were comfortable enough to approach shah abbas and he
even frequented the gatherings of popular pointist leader dervish cursor in official records it
stated that shah abbas was just keeping an eye on dervish corsa rather than being a sincere follower
in 1591 a pointless rebellion broke out in the region of fars only to be quickly suppressed and
the lead is put to death the incidents and the amassed following pointists enjoyed were used
against them when an internal power struggle led a pointist leader to inform shah abbas
that dervish curse raw was planning an uprising the pointists were rapidly suppressed a dervish
cursor was executed in 1594 the remaining pointers proclaimed a prophecy that one of their own would
hold the throne and utter in the final persian age in a massive calamity amused by this prophecy
charibas plucked a pointist prisoner and appointed him king even waited on him as a royal servant
after three days it was evident that no great calamity would occur shahbaz proven right once
and for all executed the pointer's prisoner and went on a mass slaughter of pointers in his domain
several fled into the arms of akbar over in india alarmed at his safavid counterparts actions akbar
sent to maleta chiding him for his religious intolerance in this narrative wiping the pointists
out was always part of shabbos plan to officially instate orthodox shiism as a state religion a more
bizarre variant of these events is that charabas was informed by his astrologer that his reign was
coinciding with a conjunction of inauspicious planets this conjunction spelled doom for a
member of the royal family the conjunction just happened to coincide with the pointless prophecy
charabas either took the opportunity to put to a test the pointless prophecy or was simply avoiding
having his royal family be the target of bad astrological signs he put the condemned pointus
prisoner on the throne and when the conjunction ended he fulfilled the astrological prophecy by
putting the pointers to death yet another narrative holds that char abbas was a genuine
believer in the pointist cult he had a very close relationship with dervish castro and took the
point is prophecy seriously the story goes that instead of a mere prisoner he appointed his friend
and pointist leader dervish yusuf as king he waited dutifully on darbyshusef until it was
evident that the point is prophecy was never going to happen filled with rage being swindled by the
pointers charabas led his repressions against the mental they were wiped from his domain feeling
guilty over taking part in blasphemy he embraced orthodox cheers and for himself and his people
regardless of which story is true the irony of the pointist prophecy is that orthodox shia
scholars appointed to convert the persians or arabs from lebanon with this charibas formally
put an end to the post-mongol boom of spirituality in persia simmering the population down to a more
sober orthodox shiism that continues to this day shahbaz even married the daughter of one of these
arab scholars locking in the relationship of shia lebanese scholars to his reign regardless of the
details it was clear the pointless time was up in persia over in india the pointers continued
to be a part of the akbar's religious apparatus according to both safabid and mughal sources they
may have been integral in the creation of akbar's new religion he appreciated their elevation of the
persian king and cultural symbols they enjoyed his patronage so much that they appointed him as
their expected messiah to bring about the new age of persian dominance as they tried to do earlier
with safavid tamas he lavished them with important appointments to his court and even administrative
roles this relationship between akbar and the pointists might have included intrigue against
the safavids bakbar employed the pointists in bergerous spies including those close to dervish
curser or possibly dervish curse for himself one of the possible narratives for charabas's
hatred of the point is is his discovery of these secret communiques sent from akbar
in this case shahbaz himself put the spy to death by his own sword the pointless level of importance
to the mughals seems to end with akbar's reign in 1605. from there they fade from the
historical record their letterist cousins fared a little better in the ottoman empire melting their
letter mysticism with occult trends in anatolia and the balkans in persia traces of the letters
and pointers could be found in the emerging religion of baha'ism which sees the two as
predecessism and persian nationalists who see the pointists as protonationalists maybe in the end
this is the whole point of the pointists so if you found this video interesting if you did
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