2.10. Rise of the Safavids. How Iran became Shiite (after 1500).

Today, we shall discuss the rise of the Safavids, who turned Iran into a Shiite state, and not through kind persuasion. A listener took issue with my portrayal of Isma’il, calling it propaganda. Therefore, I ‘d like to mention some quotes from the “propaganda” where I found this information. I think you will find these professors are more blunt than me. Abbas Amanat. “Iran, a modern history”, p. 43-44: “The diffuse creed of Qezilbash included non-Islamic folklore ranging from crypto-Zoroastrian beliefs to shamanistic practices, … Perfect Guide ...was viewed not only as the reincarnation of ‘Ali but also as a manifestation of the divine in human form […] as it turned out, Isma’il himself was not particularly keen on practicing the Twelver (or Ja’afari) law, but it was this brand of Shi’ism that he came to promote with zeal throughout his reign.” P. 48: “… the last of the Aq Qoyonly princes ...the Safavid conqueror ordered his wild Qezilbash devotees to broil the prince alive and devour him.” P. 51: “Isma’il celebrated his victory with typical cruelty. He turned the skull of Shayban Khan, ...into a gold-plated wine cup, witnesss to his long hours of heavy drinking. Shayban’s dismembered right arm was stent off to ...the future founder of the Mughal Empire … The stuffed skin of Shayban Khan’s head also served as another carnal dispatch to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II. The heinous act, though not entirely outside the norms of the time, generated outrage in the Ottoman capital, reaffirming the perceptions of the Safavids as fierce heretics. The rest of Shayban’s body was ritualistically devoured by a cannibal clan of the Qezilbash as proof of their devotion to their Perfect Guide… " p. 56:”Whether to overcome combat fright or out of sheer self-confidence, he and his Qezilbash chiefs spent the night before the battle drinking until dawn. On the morning of the fateful conflict, August 23, 1514, the drunkard Isma’il began his day hunting quail on the adjacent plain while his vanguard forces suffered heavy blows[…] p. 60: “A poet, a compulsive hunter, and an adventurous lover of women and men...” Amanat also quotes a poem by Isma’il. p. 60: “My name is Shah Isma’il, I am God’s mystery. […] I am the superior (heir?) to the Twelve Imams. […] Prophethood is for me […]” pp. 72-73: on Ismail II [not Ismail I]: “the new shah, an eccentric opium addict with a temper, had his own agenda. His lethal mix of grudges and paranoia, the product of twenty year’s incarceration on charges of “immorality”, soon shook the empire.[…] He was found unconscious in his private quarters together with his lover, a young man of humble origins, after a night of nocturnal wondering through the taverns in the capital. Presumably he died of an opium overdose.” Stephen Dale “the Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals” - Cambridge University Press on Ismail I p. 68: “While giving his pen name as Khata’I or “sinner,” he assumes Muhammed’s title, the “Seal of the Prophets,”as well as the status of the Shi’i Imam, who in his words, has now appeared on earth as mankind’s “perfect guide”. P. 189 on Safavids: “Indeed, alcoholism and drug addition [sic] so commonly afflicted members of both dynasties that they hardly seem worth mentioning, except for the real effect they often had on governance.” Vernon Egger. A history of the Muslim World since 1260. P. 181 on Ismail I: “In several poems he claims to be God and demands the prostrations and absolute obedience due his divine status.[…] Moreover, numerous inscriptions throughout his empire reiterate the claims that he had a divine nature. […] p. 183: “Isma’il’s espousal of Twelver Shi’ism ran contrary to the claims that he made for himself in his poetry, but he wrote poems in the Chaghatay Turkic dialect […], not in Persian." P. 185: “This messianic figure who identified with God and the Hidden Imam was a heavy drinker, and the cause of his death was alcohol poisoning.”