Campaigns of Ismail I
In the early sixteenth century, Persian conqueror Shah Ismail embarked on a series of campaigns within the Greater Iran region that led to the establishment of the Safavid Empire. He was the first native Iranian monarch since late antiquity to achieve dominion over the entirety of Iran. This article provides an overview of Ismail's wars.
In the initial seven years of Ismail’s reign, the Qizilbash dominated almost entirely, holding key governmental and military posts. Yet, upon reaching maturity, Ismail began appointing certain roles to native Persian-speaking individuals, referred to then as "Tajiks." This move aimed to counterbalance the Qizilbash’s authority and limit their control.
Shah Ismail's Campaigns
Hailing from the city of Ardabil in the northwest of the country, Ismail was the head of the mystical Safavid order of Sufi Muslims. At only thirteen years of age, he commenced his exploits by conquering the state of Shirvan in 1500 – 1501. Immediately after this he began demolishing the Aq Qoyunlu confederation of Turkomans, which ruled western Iran at the time. It was the Aq Qoyunlu who, alarmed at the fall of Shirvan, set out halt the progress of this new conqueror. The two armies met at the Battle of Sharur on 17 July 1501. Ismail's army triumphed despite being outnumbered by four to one.When he took Tabriz in 1501, he proclaimed himself Shahanshah of Iran and the Safavid state came into existence. Ismail established the Shia denomination of Islam as the official religion of Iran and began mass conversions of the formerly predominant Sunni Muslims, spreading the compulsory Shia faith by the sword and slaying those who did not convert. He also announced himself to be the Mahdi and the reincarnation of Ali and Husayn, while simultaneously claiming to be the personification of the divine light called khvarenah or khvarenah which had existed in the ancient Iranian shahs Darius the Great, Shapur I and Khosrow Anushirvan, and wielding a supernatural aura of invincibility.
The Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu was mostly complete by 1503 – with Fars and Persian Iraq falling to Ismail in that year – but the Shah continued pursuing its remnants for another five years, conquering Mesopotamia and taking Baghdad in 1508. There he destroyed the tombs of several important Sunni figures including those of the Abbasid caliphs. In 1510, having turned east, the shah triumphed once again at the dénouement of the Perso-Uzbek Wars, the Battle of Merv, which confirmed his hold over Khorasan.
Having thus unified Iran, Ismail had established the country as a great power for the first time in several centuries. Naturally his next war was with the other superpower of the region, the Ottoman Empire. The two states faced off at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Ismail had all but won the battle against sultan Selim when the Ottoman artillery came to the enemy's rescue. Thus, at the last moment, the battle was lost.