Safavid Empire: A Visual History

The Safavid Empire was founded in 1501 by Ismail I, hereditary head of a Sufi order who conquered Persia at the head of Turkmen tribesmen called Qizilbash and made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, permanently distinguishing Iran from its Sunni neighbours. Defeated by the Ottomans at Chaldiran in 1514, the dynasty recovered under Abbas the Great (1588-1629), who built a slave army, made Isfahan one of the world's most beautiful cities and traded silk with Europe. Decline set in after him, and an Afghan invasion toppled the dynasty in 1722.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Safavid Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Safavid territory

Timeline of the Safavid Empire

1. 1501
   Ismail takes TabrizShiism proclaimed.
2. 1514
   ChaldiranOttoman victory.
3. 1555
   Peace of AmasyaFirst Ottoman-Safavid border.
4. 1588
   Abbas I
5. 1598
   Capital moved to Isfahan
6. 1622
   Hormuz takenWith the English East India Company.
7. 1639
   Treaty of ZuhabBaghdad ceded to the Ottomans; the border lasts.
8. 1722
   Afghans take Isfahan
9. 1736
   Nadir Shah takes the throne

Ismail and the Qizilbash

The Safavid order of Ardabil turned militant in the fifteenth century; its followers wore red twelve-pointed caps, hence Qizilbash ('red heads'). Ismail, aged 14, took Tabriz in 1501 and within a decade ruled Persia and Iraq. He declared Twelver Shiism the religion of the state and imported clerics from Lebanon to teach it. His aura of invincibility was shattered by Ottoman cannon at Chaldiran in 1514, and he never fought again.

Abbas the Great

After decades of Qizilbash faction fights and Ottoman and Uzbek invasions, Abbas I rebuilt the state. He created a standing army of Georgian, Armenian and Circassian slave-soldiers with English-supplied artillery, recovered Tabriz and Baghdad, expelled the Portuguese from Hormuz with English help, and moved the capital to Isfahan, laying out the Maidan, the Shah Mosque and the Ali Qapu palace. He deported Armenians to New Julfa to run the silk trade with Europe.

Decline and fall

Abbas killed or blinded his sons, and later shahs raised in the harem were weak. The clergy grew powerful and intolerant, the economy stagnated. In 1722 Afghan rebels from Kandahar under Mahmud Hotak besieged and took Isfahan; Shah Sultan Husayn abdicated. Nadir Shah drove out the Afghans in the name of Safavid puppets and then took the throne himself in 1736.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922)
• Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507)
• Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857)
• Qajar Empire (1789 to 1925)
• First Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)

Wars of the same era and region

• Russo-Circassian War and Caucasian War (1763 to 1864)

8 surprising things about the Safavid Empire

1. Ismail wrote Turkish poetry under the name Khatai and told his followers he was a manifestation of God; Chaldiran ended that claim.
2. Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan square is one of the largest in the world and the saying 'Isfahan nesf-e jahan' means 'Isfahan is half the world'.
3. The Ottoman-Safavid border of 1639 is essentially the modern Iran-Iraq border.
4. Abbas I's fear of his sons led him to kill his eldest and blind two others.
5. The Shirley brothers, English adventurers, helped train the Safavid army.
6. Iran was the first state to make Shiism its official religion, and about 90 percent of Iranians are Shia today because of it.
7. The 1722 siege of Isfahan lasted six months and reduced the city to cannibalism.
8. Safavid carpets, such as the Ardabil carpet in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, are among the finest ever woven.

Sources

• Safavid dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Safavid Iran Wikipedia
• Safavid Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire (2006) I. B. Tauris

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