(Redirected from
Safavid)
The Safavids are regarded as the greatest Persian dynasty since the Arab conquest of Iran some eight hundred years earlier. The Safavid kingdom was established in northern Iran in 1501 and grew to an empire during the following hundred years.
At its zenith, during the long reign of Shah Abbas I, the most eminent Safavid monarch, the empire's realms comprised the present day Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, parts of present Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Turkish Azerbaijan. Fine arts, poetry and sciences flourished under Safavid patronage and to this day the Safavid capital Isfahan bears witness to the era's magnificent architecture.
While the Safavids were of Persian ethnicity, they came to power in Azerbaijan, the northernmost province of Iran, with the aid of a militia of Turkic soldiers (called Qizilbash , Turkic for "Red Heads" due to their red head gear), recruited from Azerbaijan and Anatolia. During Shah Ismail I rule, the official language at the royal court was Azeri, the Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan.
The Safavid shahs ruled over Iran 1501-1722, though puppet rulers nominally reigned until 1736. The dynasty was founded by the Sufi master Ismail Safavi, a descendant of Sheikh Safi Al-Din (1252-1334) of Ardebil. Sheikh Safi was a disciple of the famed Sufi grand master Sheikh Zahed Gilani (1216 - 1301) of Lahijan . Spiritual heir to Sheikh Zahed, Safi Al-Din transformed the inherited Zahediyeh Sufi Order into the Safaviyeh, which attained military and political power.
Over the almost 170 years following the death of Sheikh Safi Al-Din, the Safaiyeh Sufi Order acquired a formidable army and political force. His descendant, Shah Ismail I, the first native Persian ruler since the fall of the Sassanid Empire to the Arab conquest, established his capital in Tabriz in 1501. Ismail I embraced Shi'a Islam, which he also made mandatory for the whole nation upon penalty of death. Ismail's and Iran's conversion to Shi'ism was the first time this sect had attained such high levels of power in the Islamic world. It would strengthen the rationale for attack by its Sunni neighbors.
The Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years. The capture of Baghdad by Ismail I in 1509 was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I in 1534. After subsequent campaigns, the Safavids recaptured Baghdad in 1623 yet lost it again to Murad IV in 1638. Henceforth a treaty was established delineating a border between Iran and Turkey, a border which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. The century of tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq.
Gradually declining in the 17th and early 18th centuries, effective Safavid rule ended in 1722 after the execution of Shah Soltan Hosein by an Afghan rebel army led by Mir Mahmud , who opposed conversion from Sunni Islam to Shi'a Islam.
The Afghans were prevented from making further gains in Iran by Nadir Shah, a pirate turned military leader. He ruled as regent of the infant Abbas III till 1736 when he had himself crowned shah.
Immediately after Nadir Shah's assassination in 1747, the Safavids were re-appointed as shahs of Iran in order to lend legitimacy to the nascent Zand dynasty. The brief puppet regime of Ismail III ended in 1760 when Karim Khan felt strong enough take nominal power of the country as well.
Safavid Shahs Iran
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55
