The Alevīs are a number of heterogeneous socio-religious communities in Turkey and the Balkans, historically referred to as Qızılbaş, who, in the twentieth century, began to share a common trans-regional Alevī identity called Alevism (Tr. Alevilik). 1. Genealogy There are four primary historical meanings of the name Alevī (Ar. ʿAlawī): (1) a descendant from the first Shīʿī Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Tālib; (2) a person following ʿAlī and thus a Shīʿī in the widest sense; (3) pejoratively, a heretic with Shīʿī tendencies; and (4) since the early twentieth