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Zahabiya

Shiite Sufism sect

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5957067
Source-derived summary

Zahabiya Sufism (Persian: سلسله ذهبیه, Zahabiya Silsila) is a Shiite order. The history of dervishes from this order dates to the third century AH and Ma'ruf al-Karkhi. Some believe that the order originated during the ninth century AH in Iran; it first became popular in Khorasan and then in Shiraz during the early Safavid period.

History

Zahabiya is a Sufi order of Shia Islam which has its roots from the ninth century AH, composed of followers of Seyyed Abdullah Borzeshabadi Mashhadi. In Iran, after the formation of the Safavid state, the order spread and other orders branched out from it. For this reason, it is known as "Umm al-Salasel" ("mother of the branches"). The order originated from the Sufi Kubrawiya order of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani. Zahabiya is a silsila (chain of lineage) of the tariqa (school) of Kubrawiya. It was considered it to be a Sunni order before Borzeshabadi but became Shiite afterwards, especially after the Safavids forced conversion of Iran to Shia Islam.

Possible founders

There are several theories about Zahabiya's founder.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Zahabiya” is shiite Sufism sect. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Zahabiya, Shiite and Sufism, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 174-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Zahabiya, Shiite and Sufism is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “shiite Sufism sect” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5957067. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Zahabiya”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Zahabiya primary sources, Zahabiya archive and Zahabiya research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Zahabiya”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Zahabiya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.