Safavids


History of Iran also referred to as Persia
Median Empire
Achaemenid dynasty
Seleucid dynasty
Parthian Empire
Sassanid dynasty
Samanid dynasty
Buwayhid empire
Seljuk Turkish empire
Khwarezmid Empire
Ilkhanate
Safavid dynasty
Zand dynasty
Qajar dynasty
Pahlavi dynasty
Iranian Revolution
Islamic Republic of Iran
The Safavids are regarded as the greatest Iranian 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. The dynasty was founded by the Sufi master Ismail Safavi, a descendant of Sheikh Safi Al-Din (1252-1334) of Ardebil, and through his maternal line a grandson of Uzun Hassan, ruler of the Turkic tribal Aq Qoyunlou dynasty, in Azerbayjan. Ismail's most significant forebear, the eponym of the Safavids was Sheikh Safi Al-Din, a Sufi Master. The ORIGIN of the Safavid Family is documented in the Sil-silat-al-nasab-e Safaviyeh, a chronology written on orders of the early Safaviyeh Sufi Masters, before the dynasty's founding, narrating the family's descent. It leans on the Safwat as-Safa an oral tradition of the time, which starts with Sheikh Safi Al-Dins tenth century descendant Firuzshah "Zarrinkulah" (Golden Cap), who was dabbed al-Kurdi as-Sangani, having been of Kurdish extraction and having hailed from Sangan (near Merv) in Greater Khorasan. It is said that (according to TOGAN "Origine") he had been part of the conquest of Azerbaijan, together with the Kurdish prince Mamlan bin Wahsudan of the Rawwadid dynasty, in the early 1020s AD and been granted Ardebil as a fiefdom. His descendant, Sheikh Safis father, Amin-ad-din Gibra'il was a wealthy farmer and his mother was the daughter of Gamal Baruqis Dowlati of the village Baruq near Adebil. The forefathers of Safi Al-Din, as well as his siblings and descendants are documented in many chronicles, that have been preserved until today. There is ample evidence as to their ethnicity. They are universally regarded as Kurds/Iranians, except for a few contenders, who theorize that the Safavids may have had Arab or Turkic forbears, without accepted evidence, though. 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 Safaviyeh 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. 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 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, while the last Safavid of the royal line was to serve as a figurehead to the Zand dynasty as late as 1760. 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 Afshar, a former slave who had risen to military leadership within the Afshar Turkmen tribe in Khorosan, a vassal of the Safavids . He had effective control under Tahmasp II and then ruled as regent of the infant Abbas III until 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

Category:Persian history Category:Baghdad Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Royal families de:Safawiden ja:サファヴィー朝

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