Introduction
For most of its Islamic history, the land of Iran was majority Sunni. The Shi’i Safavids, who took control of Iran in 1501, changed this forever. Unlike other Shi’i dynasties such as the Fatimids in north Africa and the Buyids in Iraq, the Safavids were successful in permanently changing the religious landscape of the territory that they ruled. Before the Safavids, approximately 10% of Iran’s population were Shi’i. Within less than two centuries the majority of Iran and Azerbaijan had embraced Shi’ism. The process by which this happened is the subject of this article.
Iran in the early Islamic period
Prior to the advent of Islam, both Iran and Iraq were part of the powerful Sasanian empire. During the period of the Rashidun Caliphate, Muslim armies swept through Iraq and Iran. In 637 the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon was captured. In 651 the Persian emperor Yazdegerd III was killed, marking the complete destruction of the Sasanian dynasty. Over the next two centuries, former Sasanian territory became Muslim majority.
Iran produced some of the most outstanding scholars in intellectual history of Islam. To name just a few[1]:
- Imam Muslim (d.875) from Nishapur
- Imam Abu Dawood (d.889) from Sijistan
- Imam Ibn Majah (d.889) from Qazvin
(the above three authored the famous hadith books contained within the Kutub Sittah)
- Al-Hakim (d. 1014) – famous hadith scholar from Nishapur
- Sībawayh (d.793) – grammarian from Beyza
- Imam Tabari (d. 923)– famous mufassir and historian from Amol
The decline of the Abbasids and the Mongol Invasion
The Abbasids were the third dynasty in Islam seizing power from the Umayyads in 750. Until the early ninth century, the dynasty was united and powerful. Between the mid-ninth and thirteenth century, the Abbasid caliphate fragmented into multiple autonomous provinces. This was coupled with a steady decline in caliphal authority until by the mid tenth century the caliph wielded no political authority. Although he retained the title of caliph, he was nothing more than a useful figurehead to the leaders of the dynasties that controlled different regions within the caliphate.
The early thirteenth century witnessed the Mongol invasion of the Muslim world. Entire Muslim cities were destroyed and its populations massacred. In 1258 the Mongol leader Hulegu entered Baghdad alongside his trusted advisor and astrologer Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1276). Al-Tusi, a leading Shi’i scholar of his era, encouraged Hulegu to destroy Baghdad and kill its inhabitants. The 500 year history of the Abbasid caliphate ended with the death of Caliph al-Musta’sim. He was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by horses[2].
The Ilkhanid dynasty
Iran thus became part of the vast Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty. The Ilkhanid leader, Ghazan (d. 1304) embraced Islam but was heavily influenced by Shi’ism. His successor, Khudabanda (d. 1316) wholeheartedly embraced Shi’ism. The early Muslim Mongol leaders patronised Shi’i scholars, Hilli (d. 1325) being the most prominent. Later Mongol Ilkhanid leaders inclined towards Sufism. With the weakening of the influence of traditional Sunni scholars, the post-Mongol conquest period witnessed a new phenomenon in Iran – the rapid spread of Sufism amongst the masses. This was encouraged by the (now Muslim) Ilkhanid leaders.
By the fourteenth century the Ilkhanid dynasty had fallen apart, and was replaced by multiple, warring local dynasties.
Tariqah Shi’ism[3]
Iran, in the fourteenth century was politically fragmented. With the lack of any central authority, Sufi tariqahs became very active, playing both a religious and a political role. Although outwardly Sunni, these tariqas had an exagerated devotion to Ali b. Abi Talib, often claiming a spiritual chain back to him. Among these Sufi tariqas were the Nurbakhshiyya, the Kubrawiyya, and the Ni’mat Allahiyya. They adopted a number of Shi’i notions including the doctrine of the hidden Imam. The Sufi Kubrawiyya, while claiming to be Sunni, extolled Ali above the first three Caliphs, and declared Ali to be the qutb of his time[4]. These Sufi tariqahs eventually evolved into fully fledged Shi’ism.
This fusion of ‘Sunni’ Sufism with aspects of Shi’i dogma became one of the most significant developments in the religious history of Iran. Amongst the Shi’i leaning Sufi orders was the Safawiyya (or Safavids).
The origins of the Safavids
The founder of the Safavids was a Kurdish Sunni leader called Safi al-Din (d. 1334) who adhered to the Shafi’i madhab. It was from his name that the term ‘Safavid’ was derived. Safi al-Din headquarters were in Ardabil, a town in north west Iran, close to the Iranian- Azerbaijan border. In 1700 he became the head of a Sufi order, previously known as the Zahidiyya, and now under his charismatic tutelage named the Safawiyya (or Safavids). The Sufi order that he inherited previously had very little influence outside Ardabil. However, under Safi al-Din its influence began to spread throughout Iran.
By the early 1400’s under Safi al-Din’s grandson, Khawaja Ali, the Safavids evolved from mystical Sufism into a type of Shi’ism. Under the next leader, Shaykh Junayd (d. 1460), spirituality gave way to military ambition. The Safavids became a fully-fledged Shi’i military brotherhood claiming both religious and military authority. Junayd’s devotees followed an amalgamation of mystic Sufism, Zoroastrianism, and ghulaat Shi’ism believing amongst other things that Junayd was God incarnate. Most of his troops were Turkish nomads who had only recently embraced Islam and still adhered to many pagan customs. Despite his extreme Shi’i tendencies, Junayd allied with the Sunni Ak-Koyunlu[5] to fight his enemies the Shi’i Kara-Koyunlu state[6].
After Junayd’s death, his son Hayder became the head of the Safavids. His troops were called the Qizilbash, and were famous for their distinctive red headgear with twelve folds -each fold representing one of the twelve Shi’i Imams. Hayder turned against his former Sunni allies, the Ak-Koyunlu, and was killed in combat with the latter.
Shah Isma’il takes power
Haydar was succeeded by his son Ali who was quickly arrested by the Sunni Ak-Koyunlu leader along with his brother Isma’il and Ibraheem. They were released four and half years later and in 1494 Ali was killed in a battle with his former captors. The young Isma’il, aged only seven succeeded him. By now the Safavid order had loyal followers throughout Iran, Azerbaijan, Syria and Antolia[7]. In 1500 a battle took place which became a defining moment in the history of Iran. Seven thousand of Isma’il’s troops routed a 30,000 strong Ak-Koyunlu army at the battle of Sharur near Nakhchivan in Azerbaijan. In 1501 Isma’il triumphantly entered the city of Tabriz. He declared himself as the Shah – the title used by pre-Islamic Kings of Iran.
Over the next ten years, the rest of Iran was conquered, as well as Baghdad in Iraq. Shah Isma’il was now the undisputed head of the new Safavid state. The most enduring act of his reign was to proclaim and enforce Twelver Shi’ism as the official state religion of Iran. The religion and geographical boundaries of modern-day Iran have their origins in the Safavid state.
Just as the Isma’ili Fatimid rulers of Egypt had invented a genealogy going back to Isma’il (the son of the sixth Shi’i Imam), Shah Isma’il claimed a lineage going back to the seventh Imam Musa Kazim. Furthermore, Shah Isma’il claimed variously that he was the deputy of the hidden twelfth Imam, the twelfth Imam himself and at times, God incarnate.
The persecution begins
Once in power, Shah Isma’il began a campaign of mass conversion to Twelver Shi’ism. Since the early Islamic conquests, Iran had always been majority Sunni. Under Shah Isma’il this was to radically change. People were given a simple and stark choice; convert to Shi’ism or face death. Coincidently it was at the same time that the Conquistadors gave the same ultimatum to the Spanish Muslims – embrace Catholicism or face death.
Sunnis were forced to curse the first three Caliphs and the Prophet’s wife ‘Aisha; refusal to do so led to brutal and cruel punishments. The level and intensity of religious persecution was unparalleled in Islamic history.
The Qizilbash carried out mass executions throughout Iran including in Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Kazarun, Baghdad and other cities. Many of the ulema were savagely tortured to death. In Tabriz, twenty thousand were massacred including scholars, judges and dignitaries. The killing spree also took place in Iraq, in particular anyone suspected of being from the progeny of Khalid ibn al-Walid was hunted down and killed. The accounts of killing and torture are well documented in both Sunni and Shia works.[8] Within a few years of Isma’il’s ascension, several hundred thousand Sunnis lay dead.[9] The cleansing of Sunnis either through killing, conversion or expulsion continued, with varying levels of violence, for over a century. The result of this genocidal policy was that by the 1600’s Iran became a Shi’i majority country.
Importing scholars
In parallel with his killing spree, Shah Isma’il had the task of educating, those whom he had forcibly converted, into the main tenets of Shi’ism. The problem was the acute lack of Shi’i scholars in what was a predominately Sunni country. Over the following decades, Iran witnessed a huge influx of Shi’i scholars from southern Lebanon, Bahrain, and Karbala to teach the newly converted the Shi’i faith. These scholars were gifted land and huge sums of money, thus forming a powerful clerical class. Important Shi’i works were translated into Persian, whilst Sunni scholarly works were systematically destroyed.
Despite imposing Twelver Shi’ism on the population, Shah Isma’il himself espoused a ghulaat (extreme) form of Shi’ism which differed from the mainstream Twelver Shi’ism. His devoted Qizilbash followers were led to belief that he was either Ali incarnate or God incarnate and would prostrate to him. However, over time and due to the influx of Twelver Shi’i scholars, these particular extreme beliefs died out.
Enter the Ottomans
The militant Shi’ism espoused by Shah Isma’il didn’t go unnoticed by his Sunni Ottoman neighbours. Eastern Antolia contained a large Shi’i population who had been incited by Shah Isma’il to rebel against their Ottoman rulers. In July 1514, the Ottoman Sultan Selim amassed an army of 100,000 men. They marched 1,500 km from Istanbul to Chaldiran (in north West Azerbaijan) where they delivered a crushing defeat on the smaller, 40,000 strong Safavid army. Although the Safavid state remained intact, the Ottomans were able to take Eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq from the Safavids.
The Safavid defeat left an indelible mark on Shah Isma’il’s personality; he withdrew from civil and military life and resorted to heavy drinking. In 1524, aged 37, Shah Isma’il died of alcohol poisoning.
Power to the clerics
Shah Isma’il was succeeded by his son Shah Tahmasp, who formed an alliance with Austria and Hungary against the Ottomans. During his reign the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman retook Iraq and Bahrain from the Safavids. Tahmasp subsequently sought an alliance with England’s Queen Elizabeth I against the Ottomans.
Under Tahmasp’s reign, the Twelver Shi’i clerics gained immense power and influence over government and society. They also implemented far reaching innovations. Prior to the rise of the Safavids, the Twelver Shias held that political leadership and jihad was reserved exclusively for the hidden Imam. Under the Safavid jurist al-Karaki this belief was modified. He argued that the jurists, as deputies of the hidden Imam, could confer authority on the Safavids as legitimate leaders. Karaki who was recognised by Tahmasp as the ‘seal of the mujtahids’ ensured that the Shi’i clergy played an important religio-political role in the affairs of the state. He also undermined the fanatical Qizilbash who eventually had him murdered. After a 52-year reign, Shah Tahmasp died in 1576 of poisoning.
Under his successor Shah Abbas (d.1629), Shi’i scholars from the Arab world continue to flock to Iran. Madrasahs were built for them to teach and they were encouraged to play an active role in the affairs of the state. The process of forced conversion and killing of Sunnis continued unabated. Sufi orders were also heavily persecuted and they almost completely disappeared. It was during his reign that Iran became a majority Shi’i state.
Iran after the Safavids
The Safavid dynasty came to an end in 1736. The events leading to its dissolution are beyond the scope of this article. In brief, the Safavids faced attack from Russia, the Ottomans and the Afghans. Nadir Shah deposed the last Safavid ruler and declared himself to be Shah. A Shi’i in name, Nadir was not particularly religious. He put an end to the persecution of Sunnis, banned the cursing the Khulafa Rashideen, and undermined the Shi’i clergy. Nadir Shah was known as the Napoleon of Persia due to his incessant fighting on multiple fronts including the Caucasus, Afghanistan and Mughal India. He was murdered in 1747.
Nadir Shah was succeeded by the Qajar dynasty that ruled from 1789 to 1925. During this period, the power and wealth of the Shi’i ulema grew even further. In the absence of the hidden Imam, the ulema gave themselves the authority to collect various religious taxes, impose corporal punishment and even declare jihad. In Iran’s first (1906) parliament, twenty per cent of its members were Shi’i clerics.
The Qajar were overthrown in 1925 by a military officer, Reza Shah Pahlavi, who founded Pahlavi dynasty. The Pahlavis tried to undermine by power of the clergy, but their success was short lived. The dynasty was overthrown in 1979 by Khomeini’s Shi’i revolution. He declared himself as the full representative of the hidden Imam with unlimited religious and political power. Under Khomeini’s rule the condition of Sunnis in Iran drastically worsened. Sunni mosques and schools were destroyed, and their scholars either imprisoned or killed. Tehran is one of the only capital cities in the world without a Sunni masjid. Khomeini’s unbridled power was passed on to his successor Ali Khamenei who is currently the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Summary
The brutal sectarian project started by Shah Isma’il and carried through by his descendants changed the history of Iran for ever. Although the dynasty lasted less than two centuries, it has significantly influenced and continues to shape regional geopolitics, sectarian violence, and the development of Shi’i political theory. Twelver Shi’ism became a permanent feature of Iranian state and society. Sunnis were either killed, forcibly converted or exiled. The fall of the Safavids did nothing to reverse this situation. Under the Qajars, the Shi’i ulema became a wealthy and influential social class often having the final say in matters of religion and state. Khomeini’s revolution ensured that the dismal state that Iranian Sunnis found themselves in was to continue.
Sources:
Invasion of the Safavids, (2022) by Abdul ‘Aziz ibn Salih al Mahmud.
Iran under the Safavids, (1980) by Roger Savory.
Iran: A Modern History by Abbas Amanat
A History of Islamic Societies, (2014) by Ira M. Lapidus
Islam in Iran, (1985) by I. P. Petrushevsky
The Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 1A, The Central Islamic Lands from Pre-Islamic Times to the First World War (1978 by P. M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bernard Lewis
The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6. The Timurid and Safavid Periods, (1986). Peter Jackson, Lawrence Lockhart
A history of Shi’i Islam, (2013). Farhad Daftary
An introduction to Shi’i Islam (1985). Moojan Momen
The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi’ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890, (1987) Said Amir Arjomand
[1] Taken from ballandalus.wordpress.com
[2] Hulegu feared a supernatural punishment if he spilt the blood of al-Musta’sim, as he had “royal blood”. i.e. he was a descendant of the Prophet’s (salalahu alaihi wa sallam) uncle al-Abbas.
[3] This term was coined by Marshall Hodgson, Venture of Islam, Volume 2 p.493
[4] According to the Sufis, a qutb is the greatest of the awliya of Allah, who has powers to control various aspects of creation.
[5] Also known as the White sheep Turcomans
[6] Also known as the Black sheep Turcomans
[7] Anatolia is the Asian portion of modern-day Turkey.
[8] For example, Tuḥfah al-Azhār wa Zilāl al-Anhār by the Shi’i historian Ibn Shadqam.
[9] Dr. ʿAlī al-Wardī in his Lamaḥāt Ijtimāʿiyyah min Tārīkh Iraq estimates the Sunni death toll to be in the region of one million. Taken from Invasion of the Safavids by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣālih al-Maḥmūd
