Shah Ismail

Around the time of Teymur’s attack, there was a clergy man named “Sheikh Safi al-Din” living in the city of Ardebil in north-western Iran. He had a lot of followers that loved him and were devoted to him. He also was a “shi’a” meaning he belonged to another section of Islam: Shi’ism. This was unusual, because in that period, Iran as a well as other Islamic countries was a Sunny country. After Sheikh Safi died, his son and then his grandson replaced him as the head of his “Sufi” sect. His great-grandson, Sheikh Jonayd was the first of his family to claim the throne after “Ozoun Hassan’s” death. Jonayd was killed in a war and his son “Shaikh Heydar” replaced him. Heydar was a very bold and ruthless warrior, he organized a little guard for himself that eventually evolved into a very strong army. It was called “Ghezel Baash”, meaning “ the red hats”, because they were wearing a big, red turban. Heydar fought in a lot of wars, he gained control of most of the north-western Iran, and finally got killed in a war with Yaghoob Aagh Ghouyounlu, Ozoun Hassan's son.

When Heydar died in(1499), Yaghoob improsoned his three children: Ali, Ismail, and Ebrahim. The followers of Sheikh Heydar elected Ali as their new “Morshed”(leader), but Ali, who was a weak person, was not ready for this heavy responsibility and after a while, he disappointed all of his father’s followers. In this period, the future of Sheikh Safi al-Din’s family was in danger, so Ismail, the middle brother, acted fast. He got control of the “Ghezel Baash”, and organized a movement against Agh Ghouyounlus, he killed Yaghoob Aagh Ghouyounlu in a war(1502), and became the only ruler in north and west of Iran.

Ismail named his dynasty Safavid after his great-great grandfather Sheikh Safii. Immediately after gaining control in the north and west, he started moving further east. He conquered most of Iran and reached the borders of India from the east and Ottoman Empire from the west. He soon was the ruler of most of what we know as Iran. He also began spreading his family's religious beliefs, the Shi’ism. This action caused him a lot of trouble because at that time Shi’its were considered as heretics in most of the Islamic territories. Shi’its had to hide their true beliefs just to avoid getting killed by Sunnies. Now, Shah Ismail was declaring Shi’ism as the official religion of his country.

At this time, the greatest enemies of Iran were Uzbaks in Central Asia and Ottoman Empire on the Asia Minor and they were both Sunny muslims. Uzbeks were descendants of Ghenghis Khan’s first son, Juchi and they were living a Nomadic lifestyle. Ottoman’s were on the north west of Iran and they were at the height of their power at this time. Their empire spread from the borders of Iran on the east to the gates of Vienna on the west. When Sultan Salim heard about Shah Ismail and his Shi’it state, he thought he found a good reason to finally invade Iran and add it to his territories. So he declared war on Shah Ismail and the two armies faced each other in Chaldoran plateau(1514). This war was a disaster for the young Safavi dynasty and Iran both. Iranians were fighting with sword and bow and arrows, but Ottoman’s had Cannons and guns. So they scared Iranians and defeated them in a totaly unequal battle. Ottoman’s invaded the North Western part of the country and they even came close to Ismail’s capital, Tabrizl. Immediately, Ismail turned to the east and gathered another army and faced the Ottomans again. This time he was successful and he pushed them out of the country and regained control. Of course he never gained all of the lost territories; Diyar Bakr and most of what is today Iraq stayed in Ottaman hands.

Although this was a victory, it actually started a series of battles between two countries that lasted throughout the reign of Safavids. This battles can be compared to the endless wars of Iran and Rome during the reign of Sasanid’s. On the other side, Uzbeks were also attacking Iran from the east and tried to do the same thing as their Ottoman allies, but with one exception, they never came further than Mashad or Nishabour in North eastern Iran.

Most of Ismail’s reign was spent in wars with Ottomans and Uzbeks, as well as battles with different oppositions inside the country. Ismail managed to unite Iran after a period of nearly 900 years (end of Sasanid dynasty). He was the first person after the Arab invasion to actually rule Iran, not just part of it. He also was a great patron of arts and literature and his age was the beginning of new Iranian art. He and his successors supported painters such as Reza Abbasi and Kamal al-Din Behzad who reinvented the long forgotten Iranian painting, as painting was considered as an evil art in Islamic belief because it could illustrate the face of god or prophets. He also established the reign of his family as the only rulers of Iran and took the title and position of all of the “local rulers”. But probably his greatest achievement was establishing Shi’ism as the national religion of Iran. This act guaranteed the separation and independence of Iran from other Islamic countries and set the country as an non-Arabic state, something that Iranians are most proud of! It also caused Iranians great troubles because of endless wars with other Islamic states who wanted to destroy this country of heretics!