The establishment of the Safavid state under Shah Ismail I in 1501 was followed by rapid territorial expansion, but conflict between factions of the Qizilbash military corps allowed the Ottoman and Uzbek empires to take advantage and capture territory. Shahs Tahmasp and Abbas I created a corps of enslaved people from the Caucasus to serve as their new elite military force and eventually replace the Qizilbash.  

The Safavid shahs were committed to Shi‘ite Islam and forcibly converted the Sunni Muslims in their territories. They were generally more tolerant of non-Muslims, particularly those who did not live in the Caucasus or along the border with the Ottoman Empire. But the Safavids’ militance and their intolerance of Sunnis heightened tensions between Sunnis and Shia throughout the Muslim world, a rift still apparent today. The stability of the Safavids’ political system allowed for a flourishing of art, however, as exemplified in miniature painting, ceramics, and royal architecture. After Abbas, the growing power of Russia and other neighboring kingdoms led to a weakened Safavid state, which came to an end when Nader Shah of the Afsharid dynasty crowned himself shah in 1736.            

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/4-3-the-safavid-empire            

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