Sultan Sahak, also called Sultan Ishaq, is a central figure of Yarsani sacred history and a manifestation of the divine in the faith. His shrine at Perdiwar, religious institutions and remembered teachings connect him to a living tradition whose early chronology remains uncertain.

A visitor in a white headcloth and brown cloak standing outside Sultan Sahak’s stone-faced shrine beneath its green roof, with rocky hills behind
A visitor at the shrine identified by the photographer as Sultan Sahak’s, photographed on 24 June 2022. The person shown is a contemporary visitor, not Sultan Sahak. © ملا قاسم (Molla Qasem) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons.

Sacred authority and uncertain dates

Heinz Halm describes Sultan Sahak as the historical figure associated with the religion’s definitive organisation in the Guran region, while identifying his era broadly as the fourteenth or fifteenth century. [1] A 2026 historical review by Arpine Arushanyan stresses the difficulty of combining oral traditions, sacred narratives and documentary evidence. It points to chronological discrepancies between sources and discusses a sixteenth-century endowment document associated with Baba Yadgar. [2] Such evidence helps establish a historical setting, but it does not supply a secure birthday or lifespan for Sultan Sahak himself.

A family remembered through religious narratives

Jean During discusses traditions about Sultan’s father Sheikh Isi and brother Sheikh Musa as important Sufi figures. He cautions that a claimed relationship to Ali Hamadani may express spiritual affiliation rather than biological descent. During also notes that some episodes attributed to Sultan in one tradition are assigned to his father in another account. [3] These observations are useful when reading miraculous birth stories or detailed family biographies: different narratives establish sacred authority in different ways, and a shared name or episode does not by itself settle historical genealogy.

Perdiwar and institutions attributed to Sultan

Halm locates Sultan’s tomb at Perdiwar in Gurani territory and describes his veneration as a divine manifestation across the community’s branches. He also identifies institutions associated with Sultan, notably sar-sepordan, an initiation linking a new adherent to a spiritual guide or pir. The guide–disciple relationship is related to the figure of Benyamin and a covenant between the divine and creation. [1] Sultan’s remembered authority thus concerns both sacred history and the relationships through which community membership is sustained.

What the Saranjam contains

Philip Kreyenbroek distinguishes the prestigious Perdiwari poetic texts, associated with Sultan’s era and earlier sacred periods, from later compositions. Their principal language is Literary Gurani; other religious texts exist in Turkic, Persian and Kurdish. He describes how manuscripts, memorisation, explanation and recent printed collections interact. Published editions differ in ordering and selection. [4] The Saranjam should consequently be understood through a developing textual tradition, rather than assumed to be one unchanged volume written personally by Sultan.

A living and internally varied community

Kreyenbroek describes predominantly Kurdish communities alongside a substantial Turkic-speaking group. He also records differences between Guran and Sahne traditions concerning their relationship with Islam. [4] A single claim about every Yarsani’s ethnicity or self-definition would erase that variation. During’s survey likewise urges attention to how followers describe their own path. [3] The photograph on this page documents a modern shrine visit; it illustrates continuing devotion while the exact medieval chronology remains a separate historical question.

Sources and further reading

  1. Heinz Halm, Ahl-e Ḥaqq, Encyclopaedia Iranica I/6, 1984, pp. 635–637.
  2. Arpine Arushanyan, A Historical Overview of the Formation and Development of the Ahl-e Haqq Community, Bulletin of the Institute of Oriental Studies 6/1, online first, 14 August 2026; abstract. DOI: 10.52837/27382702-2026.6.1-32.
  3. Jean During, A Critical Survey on Ahl-e Haqq Studies in Europe and Iran, in Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives, Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul Transactions 8, 1998, pp. 105–126; especially pp. 113–116.
  4. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, The Religious Textual Heritage of the Yārsān (Ahl-e Haqq), Oral Tradition 35/2, 2022, pp. 331–340; especially pp. 331–338.