Person1487 – 1524

Ismail I

Also called: Shah Ismail

Founding shah of the Safavid dynasty (r. 1501–1524), who made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion of Iran

Born into the family that led the Safavid order of Ardabil, he lost his father and brother as a child and lived in hiding. At about twelve he rose at the head of the Qizilbash and proclaimed himself shah at Tabriz in 1501. His followers revered him as a sacred leader, and he wrote Turkic poetry under the name Khata’i. He defeated the Uzbek Shaybani Khan in 1510, but after his defeat by the Ottomans at Chaldiran in 1514 he campaigned no more.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

1 related event

1
1501 – 1736Founding of the Safavid Dynastyleader
Ismail I proclaimed himself shah at Tabriz and founded the Safavid dynasty. Making Shia Islam the state religion, it confronted the Sunni Ottoman Empire.

Themes this person appears in

Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own