The Islamic World to 1600
Shah Ismail I, 1501-26
The beginning of the Safavid Empire - in a political as well as religious sense - is usually dated at 1501, when Ismail I ascended to the leadership of the order, and proclaimed himself Shah, or king. Ismail was a sixth generation descendant of Sheikh Safi, and he enjoyed widespread support in the Safavid order. As a child, Ismail had been tutored by a Shi'ite, the first recorded instance of a leader of the Safavid order being exposed to Shi'ism at such an early age. That may have influenced his decision to proclaim Shi'ism the official faith of the Safavid Empire. Before that happened, however, Ismail engaged in a number of battles to consolidate his rule, and to make territorial gains for the Safavids. In his expansionist endeavours, Ismail enjoyed the support of the Qizilbash, Turkish warriors who shared the territory of present-day Iran with the Persians. They were called Qizilbash, or "red-heads" in Turkish, because of the red hats they wore as representation of their Shi'ite beliefs. These followers of Ismail provided him with an army in his battles with the Aq-Qoyunlu confederation - who had ruled intermittently since the collapse of Timurid rule - for control of Persia. Ismail finally defeated the Aq-Qoyunlu in 1501 and proclaimed Tabriz, in northwestern Persia, the new Safavid capital.
The establishment of the Safavid Empire as it existed for the next 220 years is generally dated at the defeat of the Aq-Qoyunlu in 1501. After that, Ismail considered himself the ruler of his own Islamic empire, and he continued to claim territory for that empire. In 1507 he began raiding Ottoman lands in eastern Asia Minor, antagonising the Ottomans and making future conflict between the two states inevitable. In 1508 he took Baghdad, and then turned east, to battle the Uzbeks in Central Asia, who threatened his eastern frontier.
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The Uzbeks |
Along with the Uzbek threat to the east, the Safavids also faced an intimidating foe to the northwest, in the form of the 300-year-old Ottoman Empire. With its capital at Tabriz, on the Ottoman frontier, the Safavids had good reason to be concerned about the Ottoman threat. From the Ottoman perspective, as we saw earlier in this chapter, it was the expansionist Safavids who posed the threat. Regardless of the point of view, however, both sides were convinced that conflict was inevitable. Contributing to the problem was the fact that eastern Asia Minor, although controlled by the Ottomans, was populated mostly by Qizilbash who were loyal to the Safavids. These traditionally nomadic groups resented Ottoman attempts to settle them, an action that subsequently led to their taxation, and thus they openly supported the Safavids. Ottoman persecution of the Qizilbash in its territory was another factor in the conflict with the Safavids. Tensions reached their height in 1514, and the two armies met in August of that year at Chaldiran, in eastern Asia Minor. In the ensuing battle the Safavid cavalry was completely decimated by Ottoman artillery, and the two sides did not meet in battle again for years.
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The Battle of Chaldiran |
In addition to Ismail's numerous military pursuits, he also initiated a religious policy that influenced the future of Iran up to the present-day. That policy declared Shi'a Islam to be the official religion of the Safavid Empire, and the fact that modern Iran remains an officially Shi'ite state is a direct result of Ismail's actions. It has been suggested that Ismail enacted this policy simply to distinguish his empire from his Sunni neighbours - the Ottomans and Uzbeks. Considering the zeal with which he enforced conversion among his subjects, however, it is more likely that he was a devout Shi'ite himself, and he believed for religious, not political reasons, that his empire should embrace his faith exclusively. Unfortunately for Ismail, most of his subjects were Sunni. He thus had to enforce official Shi'ism violently, putting to death those who opposed him. Under this pressure, Safavid subjects either converted, or pretended to convert. It is nearly impossible to determine exactly how many truly converted, because virtually the entire population claimed to have converted, out of fear of the consequences. Still, it is safe to say that the majority of the population was probably genuinely Shi'ite by the end of the Safavid period in the 18th century, and most Iranians today are Shi'ite, although small Sunni populations do exist in that country.
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