Campaigns of Ismail I
In the early sixteenth century, Persian conqueror Shah Ismail (1487 – 1524) 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[1] since late antiquity to achieve dominion over the entirety of Iran (and beyond it). 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.[2]
Shah Ismail I Conquests
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.[3]
When he took Tabriz in 1501, he proclaimed himself Shahanshah (King of Kings) 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.[4] He also announced himself to be the Mahdi and the reincarnation of Ali and Husayn,[5] 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[6] when the Ottoman artillery came to the enemy's rescue. Thus, at the last moment, the battle was lost.
List of campaigns and battles
| Date | Conflict | Opponents | Outcome | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1500 | Battle of Gulistan[7] (or Cabanı)[8] | Shirvan | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of Shirvan (1500 – 1501) |
| 1501 | Siege of Baku[3][9] | Shirvan | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of Shirvan (1500 – 1501) |
| 1501 | Battle of Sharur | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu confederation (1501 – 1503/08) |
| 1501 | Siege of Tabriz | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu
Ismail, at fourteen years of age, makes Tabriz his capital and declares himself "Shahanshah" (King of Kings) of Iran. |
| 1502 | Capture of Erzincan and Erzurum[10] | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1502 | Conquest of Armenia | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1502 | Turkoman invasions of Georgia | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | The Safavids aided Georgia against the Turkic invaders of that country. |
| 1502 – 1510 | Perso-Uzbek War | Shaybanid Dynasty | Victory | Safavids supported by Timurid Herat and Timurid Kabul (the latter led by Babur) |
| 1503 | Conquest of Fars | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1503 | Conquest of Persian Iraq | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1503 | Battle of Hamadan | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1503 | Capture of Kerman | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1503 | Capture of Nakhchivan | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1504 | Conquest of Mazanderan | Afrasiyab Dynasty | Victory | Destruction of the Afrasiyab Dynasty of Mazanderan |
| 1504 | Conquest of Yazd | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu |
| 1506 – 1510 | Yazidi uprising | Yazidi rebels | Victory | Kurdish rebellion suppressed |
| 1507 – 1508 | Conquest of Diyarbakir | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Part of the Safavid conquest of the Aq Qoyunlu
The Safavid power is extended into eastern Anatolia |
| 1508 | Battle of Baghdad (1508) | Aq Qoyunlu | Victory | Sultan Murad flees Baghdad causing the collapse of the Aq Qoyunlu, Shah Ismail rules over all of Iraq and destroys the graves of Al Gilani and Abu Hanifa. |
| 1510 | Battle of Merv | Khanate of Bukhara | Victory | Conclusion of the Perso-Uzbek War and the Safavid conquest of Khorasan |
| 1514 | Battle of Chaldiran | Ottoman Empire | Defeat | Campaign against Turkish sultan Selim the Grim |
| 1522 | Battle of Teleti | Kingdom of Georgia | Victory | Part of Ismail's Georgian Campaign of 1516 – 1522 |
References
- ^ Roger M. Savory. "Safavids" in Peter Burke, Irfan Habib, Halil İnalcık: History of Humanity-Scientific and Cultural Development: From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, Taylor & Francis. 1999, p. 259.
- ^ Blow, David (2009). SHAH ABBAS. p. 6. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
- ^ a b Sicker 2000, p. 187.
- ^ Cleveland, William L. "A History of the Modern Middle East" (Westview Press, 2013) p. 131
- ^ Blake, Stephen P (2013). Time in Early Modern Islam: Calendar, Ceremony, and Chronology in the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman Empires. Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-107-03023-7.
- ^ Savory, R. (2007). Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0521042512. Retrieved 2014-10-15. "The monarch [Selim], seeing the slaughter, began to retreat, and to turn about, and was about to fly, when Sinan, coming to the rescue at the time of need, caused the artillery to be brought up and fired on both the janissaries [sic] and the Persians. The Persian horses hearing the thunder of those infernal machines, scattered and divided themselves over the plain, not obeying their riders bit or spur anymore, from the terror they were in ... It is certainly said, that if it had not been for the artillery, which terrified in the manner related the Persian horses which had never before heard such a din, all his forces would have been routed and put to edge of the sword."
- ^ Roy 2014, p. 44.
- ^ Fisher et al. 1986, p. 211.
- ^ Nesib Nesibli, "Osmanlı-Safevî Savaşları, Mezhep Meselesi ve Azerbaucan", Türkler, Cilt 6, Yeni Türkiye Yayınları, Ankara, 2002, ISBN 975-6782-39-0, p. 895. (in Turkish)
- ^ Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume II p. 289
Sources
- Fisher, William Bayne; Avery, P.; Hambly, G.R.G.; Melville, C. (1986). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521200943.
- Roy, Kaushik (2014). Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750: Cavalry, Guns, Government and Ships. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1780938004.
- Sicker, Martin (2000). The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0275968922.