ISMA'IL I

born July 17, 1487, Ardabil?, Azerbaijan died May 23, 1524, Ardabil, Safavid Iran also spelled Esma'il I shah of Iran (150124) and religious leader who founded the Safavid dynasty (first native dynasty to rule the kingdom in 800 years) and converted Iran from the Sunni to the Shi'i sect of Islam. According to tradition, Isma'il was descended from an imam. His father, leader of a Shi'i group known as the Kizilbash (Red Heads), died in battle against the Sunnis when Isma'il was only a year old. Fearful that the Sunnis, the majority sect, would wipe out the entire family, Shi'i supporters kept family members hidden for a number of years. Isma'il emerged at the age of 14 to take his father's position as head of the Kizilbash. He quickly established a base of power in northwestern Iran, and in 1501 he took the city of Tabriz and proclaimed himself shah of Iran. In a succession of swift conquests he brought all of modern Iran and portions of present-day Iraq under his rule. In 1510, Isma'il moved against the Sunni Uzbek tribes in what is now Uzbekistan. By skillful use of ambush Isma'il was able to defeat a 28,000-man Uzbek force with only 17,000 Iranians in a battle near the city of Marv. Muhammad Shaybani, leader of the Uzbeks, was killed trying to escape after the battle, and Isma'il had his skull made into a jewelled drinking goblet. The Shi'i sect of Islam was proclaimed by Isma'il to be the established religion. The fact that much of the population considered him a Muslim saint as well as shah facilitated the process of conversion. Isma'il's action provoked the Ottoman Turks. Religious friction grew after the Turkish ruler Sultan Selim I executed large numbers of his Shi'i subjects as heretics and potential spies. He then wrote Isma'il a series of belligerent letters. Isma'il replied that he had no wish for war, adding that he thought the letters had been written under the influence of opium; he also sent Selim's royal secretary a box of the drug. Selim was an opium user, and the gesture hit home. In 1514 the Ottomans, with highly trained professional troops armed with muskets and artillery, invaded northwest Iran. Isma'il rushed from his campaigns in Central Asia to oppose the threat to his capital at Tabriz. In a hard-fought battle, Selim and a force of 120,000 troops defeated Isma'il and his army of 70,000. Isma'il was wounded and nearly captured as he tried to rally troops. The Ottomans then took Tabriz without opposition; a mutiny among his troops, however, forced Selim to withdraw, giving Isma'il time to recover his strength. The warfare continued as a series of border skirmishes for a number of years, but Isma'il remained strong enough to prevent further inroads by the Ottomans. In 1517, Isma'il moved northwest, subduing the Sunni tribes in what is now the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. The basic conflict between the Shi'i empire Isma'il had founded and the Sunni Ottomans in the west and the Sunni Uzbek tribes in the east continued for more than a century. Isma'il died at the age of 36, but the Safavid dynasty ruled Iran for two centuries, until 1722.