Beginning of Safavid Dynasty in Persia as Shi'ite Muslim Ismail I takes control

Category
Government
Place
Iran
Date
1501
Reference
Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"After centuries of conquest and rule by foreign invaders, a native Iranian dynasty, the Safavids, took control of Persia in 1501. . . . Ismail hailed from the Azerbaijani town of Ardabil, but also drew support from the fierce Turkomen tribesmen of eastern Anatolia, known from the color of their turbans as Qzilbashi (redheads). After losing both his father and a brother as a child, he proclaimed himself shah in the town of Tabriz in 1501, while still a teenager. By 1510, after adopting the Farsi language, he had conquered all of present-day Iran, later adding modern Azerbaijan, Iraq, much of Afghanistan, and Anatolia to his domains. A devout Shi'ite Muslim, he forcibly converted most Persians to his faith, alarming his Sunni neighbors. . . . Despite narrowly escaping capture in the defeat, which lost him Anatolia, Ismail continued his wars with Ottomans and other Sunnis, defeating the Uzbek ruler Shaybani and converting his skull into a jeweled drinking goblet. . . .A later Safavid shah, Abbas I, moved the capital to Isfahan in the late sixteenth century. From there Abbas I presided over a magnificent renaissance in Persian Islamic art and architecture." [1001 Days]

This event is linked to the following periods

PeriodMiner
Begin
End
Category
Safavid Empire
1501
1794
Persian