Safavid
The Safavid Turn of Iran
The Qizilbash at the Ardabil shrine, c. 1501
c. 907 AH / 1501 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
The shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din at Ardabil, north-western Iran
38.2474, 48.2933 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
In the year 1501 (907 AH) the Safavid family of Ardabil, in north-western Persia, rose from a Sufi brotherhood into a ruling house, and in doing so remade the religious map of the Muslim world: Iran, until then a largely Sunni land, was turned into the great stronghold of Twelver Shiism that it has remained ever since. The family took its name and its sanctity from Shaykh Safi al-Din (died 735 AH / 1334 CE), the founder of the Safaviyya order, whose tomb-shrine at Ardabil became the cradle of the dynasty. Over the fifteenth century the order grew militant and gathered a devoted following among the Turkmen tribes of Anatolia and Azerbaijan, the Qizilbash or red-heads, named for the tall red caps they wore. In 1501 their boy-leader Ismail, then about fourteen, rode out from this base, defeated the Aq Qoyunlu and entered Tabriz, where he had himself proclaimed Shah and founded the Safavid state. There he proclaimed Twelver (Imami) Shiism the official religion of his realm and began to convert its overwhelmingly Sunni population to it. The Sunni and the standard historical record, including the Ottoman chronicles and the standpoint of scholars such as Ibn Kamal Pasha (Kemalpashazade, rahimahu Allah), the Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud (rahimahu Allah) who later gave fatwas on the Qizilbash, and the modern Sunni and non-confessional historians, records that the change was driven from above by decree, by the patronage of the new creed and the suppression of the old, and by force. The public cursing (sabb and tabarra) of the Companions Abu Bakr (RA), Umar (RA) and Uthman (RA) was made an official rite, Sunni scholars and notables were killed or driven into exile, and Imami jurists were imported from the Arab lands, above all from Jabal Amil and Bahrain, to teach the people, so that over the following generations Iran was made a Shia country. The Safavid court chronicle, Iskandar Beg Munshi's Tarikh-i Alam-ara-yi Abbasi, records the political rise though it cannot be relied on for the religious framing. The turn opened a deep and lasting sectarian and political divide between Safavid Iran and the Sunni empires around it, the Ottomans to the west and the Uzbeks to the east, fought out in long wars, among them the great battle of Chaldiran in 1514. This scene depicts that cradle moment: the Qizilbash assembled in their red caps before the tiled shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din at Ardabil, with raised standards and an open book set out, the gathering of the movement that would carry Ismail to the throne and impose the new creed. It is shown here as a historical turning point with far-reaching consequences, not as a devotional subject; in keeping with the project's ethics any figures are anonymous and at a distance, and the young Shah is suggested only by context, never by likeness.
What you see
A tiled shrine-complex fills the courtyard: a turquoise dome on a high drum, a slender brick minaret, glazed iwan portals and an arcaded forecourt, in a city of north-western Persia against bare hills. This is the sanctuary of a Sufi order that became a ruling house.
Ranks of armed followers stand in tall red caps over long coats; these are the Qizilbash, the red-headed Turkmen tribesmen whose devotion to the Safavid family turned a Sufi brotherhood into an army and a dynasty.
Tall standards rise on poles over the crowd, one red and one green, and a low draped table at the centre carries an open book or scroll laid out for all to see. The gathering reads as a proclamation or oath, not a market or a festival.
This is Ardabil, the cradle of the Safavid family, around the tomb of their ancestor Shaykh Safi al-Din. From this base the boy-leader Ismail rode out, took Tabriz in 1501 (907 AH) and had himself proclaimed Shah, founding the Safavid state.
At Tabriz the new ruler proclaimed Twelver (Imami) Shiism the religion of the state and set about converting Iran, then a largely Sunni land. The change was driven from above by decree, patronage and force, and reshaped the religious map of the Muslim world.
The Sunni historians record the cost of that turn: the public cursing (tabarra) of the Companions Abu Bakr (RA), Umar (RA) and Uthman (RA) was made official, Sunni scholars and notables were killed or driven into exile, and Shia jurists were imported from the Arab lands to teach the people.
The new creed set Safavid Iran against the Sunni Ottomans to the west and the Uzbeks to the east and opened a deep, lasting divide, soon fought out at the great battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The shrine here at Ardabil remained the dynasty's holiest place.
Further reading & cross-references
Kemalpashazade (Ibn Kamal Pasha), Tevarih-i Al-i Osman, and the Ottoman chronicle tradition (early 16th century): Used for the contemporary Sunni Ottoman view of the rise of Shah Ismail and the Qizilbash and the seizure of Tabriz, from the Ahl al-Sunnah frame. Hostile to the Safavids, so weighed as a partisan but near-contemporary witness.
Ebussuud Efendi, the Ottoman fatwas on the Qizilbash, and later Ottoman historians (Mustafa Ali, Kunh al-Akhbar, 16th century): Used for the Sunni juristic and historical reaction to the imposition of Shiism and the official cursing of the Companions. Reflects the standpoint of the Sunni state, not a neutral observer.
Iskandar Beg Munshi, Tarikh-i Alam-ara-yi Abbasi (early 17th century): The Safavid court chronicle, used only as a factual political record of the dynasty's rise, the Ardabil base and the entry into Tabriz in 1501; not relied upon for any religious framing.
Modern non-confessional histories of the early Safavids and the Shia-isation of Iran (e.g. R. Savory, H. R. Roemer in the Cambridge History of Iran): Used for the chronology of 1501, the Qizilbash, the long conversion process, the importing of Imami jurists from Jabal Amil and Bahrain, and the wars with the Sunni empires. Cross-reference for date and process; no Shia confessional works are used.
The standing shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din at Ardabil (extant, material; UNESCO World Heritage survey): The surviving tiled shrine-complex, with its dome, minaret and forecourt, constrains the architecture of the dynastic sanctuary, though much of the present decoration and the chini-khana post-date 1501.
The red taj of the Qizilbash as a depicted motif: The tall red cap with twelve gores is the standard 16th-century emblem of the Safavid following; treated here as the period marker that identifies the assembly, not as a precise reconstruction of one tribe's headgear.
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