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The Safavids dynasty (1501-1722) was a Shi’ite dynasty that established an Iranian empire. Their originated in Ardabil city in Azerbaijan region of Iran and are considered by many as one of the greatest Iranian Empires^[1] since the Islamic conquest of Persia. The Safavids established Ithnaˤ'ashari(arabic: twelve) Imami Shiism^[2] as the official religion of their kingdom and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region, ^[3], thus becoming the first native dynasty to establish an independent and united Iranian state since the Sassanids. The origin of the Safavids is complex due to ideological distortions of sources which is discussed below. The Safavids, by the time of their rise were Turkic speaking Shi'ites of mixed ethnic background claiming an Arabic fatherline through the Prophet Muhammad but an important early biography before their rise has mentioned a Kurdish and Shafi'ite fatherline. ^[4]. Despite their demise in 1722, the Safavids have left their mark down to our own era by spreading and establishing Shi'i Islam in major parts of the Caucus and Middle east, specially in Iran.

Contents 1 Origins: The Sufi order at Ardabil 2 From Shaykh Safi ad-din to Ismail I 3 Founder of the dynasty 4 Later sections 5 Notes

[edit] Origins: The Sufi order at Ardabil

Main Article: Shaykh Safi Ad-Din

Unlike many other dynasties which were found by warlords and military chiefs, one of the unique aspects of the Safavids in post-Islamic Iran is that the Safavid dynasty has its origin in a Islamic mystic ([sufi]) order call the Safaviyyah. In this way they can again be compared to the pre-Islamic Sassanid dynasty who made Zoroastrianism as the official religion and were themselves originally from a priestly class.

The origins of the Safavid family are shrouded in some mystery, and our lack of knowledge is compounded by ideological distortions which were perpetrated during their political reign. Like many Islamic dynasties in history, in order to gain wider legitimacy, the Safavids claimed direct male descendant from the Prophet Muhammad. This is particularly true in Shi'ism where the leadership was always connected with Alid descent and the Safavid Shahs themselves claimed to rule on behalf of the twelveth Shi'i Imam. According to Professor Roger Savory, an eminent Safavid historian: There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Persian Kurdistān, and later moved to Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 5th/11th century at Ardabīl.^[5] Nevertheless it is with the birth of Shaykh Safi al-din Eshaq Ardabili (1252-1334), the eponymous founder of the Safaviyya or Safavid order, that the Safavid history really begins. In 700/1301, Safi ad-Din, assumed the leadership of a local Sufi order in Gilan from his spitirual master Shaykh Zahid Gilani who was also his father-in-law. Due to the great spitirual charisma of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili, the order hence-worth was known as the Saffawiya order. The oldest biography of Shaykh Safi ad-Din Ardabili and the only which is extant before 1501 is titled Safwat As-Safa ^[6] and was written by Ebn Bazzaz who was a disciple of Shaykh Sadr-al-Din Ardabili, the son of the Shaykh Safi ad-din Ardabili. In the oldest extant manuscript of Ibn Bazzaz, the Shaykh is a descendant of a noble men named Firuz Shah Zarin Kolah the Kurd of Sanjan. The Turkish Scholar Zeki Velid Togan examined extant manuscripts of the Safwat as-Safa before and after the rise of the Safavid political in 1501. All references to the Sunnism of the Shaykh and Kurdish origin of Firuz were removed in the post-1501 manuscripts^[7]. In order to establish further legitimacy, the Safavids claimed direct male descendant from the Prophet of Islam in the post-1501 manuscripts. Some sources have asserted that the Shaykh Safi was probably of Kurdish fatherline^[8][9].

Nevertheless, even before the time of their political power, the Safavids were turkic-speaking and used Azerbaijani Turkish as a medium of communication to their followers.^[10]

[edit] From Shaykh Safi ad-din to Ismail I

After Shaykh Safi ad-din Ardabili, the leadership of the Safavid sufi order passed unto Shaykh Sadr ad-din Musa(d. 794/1391-92). The order at this time was transformed into a religious movement which conducted religious propaganda throughout Persia, Syria and Asia Minor. Still the order most likely had mainted its Sunni Shaf’ite origin at that time. The leadership of the order passed on from Shaykh Sadr ad-din Musa to his son Khwadja Ali (d. 1429) and in turn to his son Ibrahim (1429-47).

When Shaykh Junaid, the son of Ibrahim assumed leadership of the Sufi order in 1447, the history of the Safavid movement was radocally changed. According to Professor Roger Savory: Shaykh Junaid was not content with spiritual authority and he sought material power. At that time, the most powerful ruler of Persia was the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty. The ruler Qara Qoyunlu Jahanshah ordered Shaykh Junaid to leave Ardabil or else he would bring destruction and ruin upon Ardabil^[11]. Junayd sought refuge with the rival of Jahanshah, the Ak Koyunlu king Uzun Hasan and cemented his relationship by marrying Khadija Begum, the sister of Uzun Hasan. Shaykh Junayd was killed during an incursion into the territories of the Shirwanshahs and his son Shaykh Haydar assumed the leadership of the sufi order. Shaykh Haydar married Marta, a daughter of Uzun Hasan. Marta in turn had a Byzantine mother named Catherine, herself a daugther of the byzantine ruler Johannes of trebizond married to Uzun Hasan.

After Uzun Hasan’s death, his son the Aq-Qoyunlu Yaqub felt threatened of the growing Safavid religious influence. Yaqub allied himself with the Shirvanshah and killed Shaykh Haydar in 1488. By this time the bulk of the Safavid followers were Kizilbash (Turkish: Red Hat). The Kizilbash wore a distintict headger and were overwhelmingly Turkmen warriors and spiritual followers of Haydar. They were the source of the Safavid military victories and their main political base. After the death of Haydar, the spiritual followers of the ordered gathered around his son Ali. Ali was also pursued by Yaqub and was subsequently killed. According to official Safavid history, before passing away, Ali designated Islamil, his brother and the son of Shaykh Haydar as the spiritual leader of the Safavid Order.^[12]

[edit] Founder of the dynasty

Main article: Ismail I

The Safavid ruling dynasty was founded by Shah Islamil I. ^[13]. He was a Turking speaking sufi leader of mixed Turkic, Iranic, and Pontic Greek heritage and was a direct descendant of Safi al-Din. As such, Islamil was the last in line of hereditary Grand Masters of the Safaviyeh Sufi order, prior to its ascent to a ruling dynasty, and believed himself to be of divine Islamic and royal Persian descent. Islamil was a brave and charismatic youth and zealous with regards to his Shi’ite faith.. He was practically worshiped by his tribal followers, the Kizilbash. He invaded Shirvan and avenged the death of his father. Afterwards he went on conquest campaign capturing Tabriz in 1501 and enthroned himself Shah of Azerbaijan^[14] and minted coins in his name and proclaimed Shi’ism the official religion of his domain^[15]. Although masters initially only of Āzarbayijān, the saafawids had in fact won the struggle for power in Persia which had been going on for nearly a century since between various dynasties and political forces. A year after his victory in Tabriz, Islamil was able to proclaim most of Persia as his domain^[16]. Within ten years, Islamil established complete control over all of Persia, showing extraordinary daring and bravery in battle. His decisive victory over the Uzbeks who had occupied most of Khorasan ensured Iran’s eastern borders and the Uzbeks never expanded beyond Afghanistan throughout their history. Although the Uzbek made occasional raids to Khorasan, the Safavid empire throughout their whole reign was able to keep them at bay.

More problematic for the Safavid's were the powerful Ottoman empire. The Ottomans considered the active recruitment of Turkmen tribes of anatolia to the Safavid cause as a major threat. To counter the rising Safavid power, Sultan Bayazid in 907-8/1502 forefully deported many Shi'ites from Anatolia. Salim marched through Anatolia and reached the plain of Chaldiran near the city of Khoy, and a decisive war was fought there. Most source agree that the Ottoman army was at least double the size of that of Islamil. ^[17]. What gave the ottomans the advatange was artillery which the Safavid army lacked. According to Professor Savory: Salim's plan was to winter at Tabriz and complete the conquest of Persia the following spring. However, a mutiny among his officers who refused to spend the winter at Tabriz forced him to withdraw across territory laid waste by the Safavid forces, eight days later^[18]. Thus although Islamil I was defeated and his capital was captured, the Safavid empire survived and retook the area lost to the Ottomons during the reign of Shah Abbas I. But the consequences of the defeat at Chaldiran were also psychological for Ismail. Psychologically, the defeat destroyed Ismaill's belief in his invincibility, based on his claimed divine status^[19] . During the last ten years of his The defeat also fundamentally altered the relationship between Ismail and his Kizilbash followers. The tribal rivalries between the Kizilbash tribes, which was temporarily dampned before the defeat of Chaldiran, resurfaced in intense form immediately after the death of Ismail, and led to ten years of civil war (930-40/1524-33) until Shah Tahmasp regained control of the affairs of the state.

Ismail is also known for his poetry using the pen-name Khatai (Arabic خطائی: sinner)^[20]. He is considered an important figure in literary Azerbaijani and has left approximately 1400 verses in the language. Approximately 50 verses of his Persian poetry have also survided. According to Encyclopedia Iranica: Ismail was a skillful poet who used prevalent themes and images in lyric and didactic-religious poetry with ease and some degree of originality.. Islamil was was also deeply influenced by the Persian cultural and particularly with the Shahnameh of Firdawsi, which probably explains the fact that he named all of his sons after the Shahnameh characters. Dickson and Welch suggest that the Shah-Nama-yi Shahi was intended as a present from Ismail I to the young Tahmasp . ^[21]. Ismail after defeating the Shaybanids was to ask Hatefi a famous poet in Jam in Khorasan to write an Shahnama-like epic about his victories and his newly established dynasty. Although the epic was left unfinished, it was an example of mathnawis in the heroic style of the shah-nama written later on for the Safavid Kings.^[22]

Ismail eschewed politics after his defeat in Chaldiran and left the affairs of the government to the office of the Wakil. Ismai's greatest legacy established an enduring empire which last over 200 years. Even after the fall of Safavids in 1722, the foundation they build endured through the era of Nadir Shah, Zand, Qajars, Pahlavids and the modern Islamic republic of Iran where Shi’ism is the official religion as it was during the Safavid era.

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(Onto Shah Tahmasp) ...

[edit] Later sections

(Court life)

Use Azeri some Persian

(Cultural life)

Patronized Persian books, culture , the Safavid shahs composed in Azeri and some Persian

(Religion)

Mainly Arabic texts but noticeable number of Persian as well..

[edit] Notes