Safavid Empire
▶ Explore on the mapThe Safavid empire ruled Persia from 1501 to 1736 and gave Iran the Shi'i identity it still holds. The order began as a Sufi movement in Ardabil under Safi al-Din, and his descendant Shah Ismail took Tabriz in 1501, declared himself shah and imposed Twelver Shi'ism as the state religion, a decision that separated Persia from the Sunni Ottoman empire next door. Ismail's defeat by the Ottomans at Chaldiran in 1514 cost him Anatolia but not the plateau. The empire reached its height under Abbas I, who moved the capital to Isfahan, built its bridges, bazaars and mosques, created a new army of gunners and Georgian slaves to break the tribal nobility, and expelled the Portuguese from Hormuz in 1622 with English help. Isfahan in his day was one of the largest cities in the world, famous for blue-tiled domes, for painting, and for carpets whose patterns are still copied. Trade with India and Europe enriched the merchants of New Julfa. After Abbas the eunuchs and the khans ruled in the name of weak shahs, Afghan invaders took Isfahan in 1722, and Nader Shah's coup in 1736 ended the dynasty. The dynasty claimed descent from a Sufi order rather than from a royal house.