In
the fourteenth century there resided at Ardebil a
priest named the Sheikh Safi Al-Din, who was held
in the highest repute for his holy life. He was a
lineal descendant of Musa, the seventh -Holy
Imam. His son, Sadr-ud-Deen, not only enjoyed a
similar fame for piety, but used it to such good
account as to become chieftain of the province
where he lived. Junaid (Haydar Safavi Sultan),
the grandson of Sadr-ud-Deen, had three sons, of
whom the youngest, named Ismai'l, was born about
the year 1480.
When only eighteen
years of age, the young Ismail entered the province
of Gilan, on the shores of the Caspian, and by
the sheer force of genius raised a small army,
with which he captured Baku. His success brought
recruits to his standard, and at the head of
16,000 men he defeated the chieftain of Alamut,
the general sent against him, and, marching on Tabriz,
seized it without a blow. In 1499 Ismail, the
founder of the Sefavid dynasty was proclaimed
Shah of Persia. Since that period, with the
exception of the brief invasion of Mahmud the
Afghan, Persia has been an independent and at
times a very powerful nation. The establishment
of the Sefavid dynasty, also brought about the
existence of a Shi'a government, and gave great
strength to that sect of the Mohammedans, between
whom and other Islamite’s there was always
great bitterness and much bloodshed. Ismail
speedily carried his sway as far as the Tigris in
the southwest and to Kharism and Kandahar in the
north and east. He lost one great battle with the
Turks under Selim II. at Tabriz, but with honor,
as the Persians were outnumbered; but it is said
he was so cast down by that event he never was
seen to smile again. He died in 1524, leaving the
record of a glorious reign.
Persia By Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin
Published by T. Fisher Unwin, 1887 Page 287
N.B. I
suggest that Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin meant
Selim
I aka "Selim the Grim"
rather than Selim II. Selim I ruled from 1512 to
1520. Selim II did not rule until 1524 near the
end of Ismail's life. Selim
I won the decisive victory over Ismail Shah
Safavi at the Battle of Chaldiran which in
general terms is near Tabriz. The
Ottoman did outnumber the Safavi and this battle
was a massive personal defeat for Ismail.
Shah
Ismail, Babur
and Shaibani Khan Uzbek
Shah Ismail, the founder of
the first national dynasty that had ruled over
Persia, since the days when Khalid, the lion of
God, had destroyed the old Persian Empire on
the field of Nahavand some nine centuries
previously, was a Sayids whose father and more
remote ancestors had been noted for their
personal sanctity as well as esteemed for being
the descendants of the Prophet. His
birthplace was Ardebil in the hilly country south
of the Caspian Sea. Little by little partly
by his great wealth, for a recognized saint in
those days by means of offerings amassed great
riches, and partly by his ability both in council
and action, he had become the Ruler of all
Persia. More than once he successfully withstood
the might of the Ottoman Empire, and during his
long reign the latter made no serious
encroachments on the various lands which had been
in the possession of the descendants of Timur.
Shaibani, whose one idea of
statesmanship was that of Rob Roy's, that he
should take who had the might and he should keep
who can, had in his predatory expeditions entered
the country over which Shah Ismail ruled. The
latter sent an embassy to Shaibani asking him to
forbear. The Uzbek Ruler who was a strict Sunni
answered the Shi’a Shah Ismail with scorn:
"I," he said, "am a
Prince who hold my dominions by hereditary
descent. I do not understand what claim you Shah
Ismail have to the countries you call your
hereditary dominions. Sovereignty descends
through the father and not the mother."
This he said inasmuch as Shah Ismail had claimed
to rule over a large part of Persia on the ground
that he was descended by his mother from Uzan
Hassan who, as the chief of the Turkmen Horde,
had once been Ruler of the country. A son, he
added, should follow his father's trade, a
daughter her mother's, so I send you a lady's
veil and beggar's dish. (This he said referring
to Ismail's father having been a Fakir.) If thou
hast forgotten thy father's trade the dish ay
serve it to recall it to thy memory; but if thou
wouldst place thy foot on the steps of the throne
remember: “He that would clasp to his breast
royalty as his bride must woo her in the
battle-fray athwart sharp scimitars."
As a good Musalman,
I shortly propose to make a pilgrimage to Meccaand
on my way I shall pass through Irak.
Shah Ismail's reply is thus
related by Erskine: * "The youthful warrior
who professed to feel a pride in his descent from
a family of holy dervishes, that gloried in their
voluntary poverty, received the Uzbek’s
taunts with affected humility. He returned for
answer, that if every man was bound to follow his
father's trade, all being sons of Adam, must
adhere to that of prophets; that if hereditary
descent conferred the only right to sovereignty,
he did not see how it had descended from the
Peshdadi to the Kyani dynasties of Persia, or how
it had come to Chengis, or to him whom he
addressed. "
Boast not thyself, O
vain youth, of thy father, who is dead; Pride not
thyself on bones, as if thou wert a dog."
That he, on his part, proposed
making a pilgrimage to the shrine of the holy
Imam Reza at Meshed, where he would have an
opportunity of waiting on the Khan. In return for
his present, he sent him a spindle and distaff;
and, alluding to his quotation, that royalty must
be wooed in the battle-field, he concluded:
"And so say I also.
Lo, I have tightened my girdle for a deadly
contest, and have placed the foot of
determination in the stirrup of victory. If thou
wilt meet me face to face in fight like a man,
our quarrel will at once be decided. But if thou
wouldst rather slink into a corner, then thou
mayst find what I have sent thee of some
use." "We have sparred quite long
enough; let us now exchange hard blows in the
field." He who falls, borne down in the
combat, let him fall."
After this diplomatic
correspondence, Shah Ismail pushed forward with
great speed and found Shaibani with a small body
of troops near
Merv into which town the latter threw himself.
Shah Ismail when he was near Merv wrote to
Shaibani stating that he had been more punctual
in keeping his engagements than Shaibani had
been, having performed the pilgrimage to Meshed,
whereas Shaibani had not yet gone to Mecca.
Having dispatched * this letter, he pretended to
retreat and thereby allured Shaibani out of the citadel of Merv.
When the Uzbeks had got so far from the town that
retreat was impossible, they suddenly fell on the
whole Persian Army which had been drawn up to
meet them, and in the battle which ensued were
totally defeated. Shaibani being driven into a
small walled enclosure was there overlaid by his
troops endeavoring to escape there out and
smothered. In A.D. 1510 his head was cut off and
his skin stuffed with hay. The former was sent as
a present to the Sultan at Constantinople. A
story is told about Agha Rustum Raz Afzun of
Persia, who
in these troublesome times had made himself
master of Mazanderan, holding out there
against Shah Ismail, and who was in the habit of
saying that his hands were on the skirts of
Shaibani's garment, meaning thereby that Shaibani
would always give him protection. After
Shaibani's death a special messenger sent by Shah
Ismail came on a festival day into the Agha's
court, and after reminding the Agha that his
hands had never been on the hem of Shaibani's
garment added that Shaibani's hand would now be
on the hem of his garment. Thereupon he threw the
severed hand of Shaibani into that of the Ruler's
lap. He escaped without injury.
The battle of Merv
and the death of Shaibani completely changed the
state of affairs in Western Asia. Shah Ismail now
became by far the most powerful Ruler there, but
from him Baber had comparatively little to dread.
It is more than hinted, however, by the
historians who write of Babur's early days that
he was forced to become more or less a vassal of
Shah Ismail. Certain it is that he entered
into a joint invasion of Maweranaher along with
the Persian, that he conquered in the said
invasion Samarkand in A.D. 1511, but that after a
short time the people who had formerly been
favorable to him became deadly hostile, and that
consequently he had finally to flee after being
defeated in more battles than one, from
Maweranaher, which country he never again
penetrated. In the year 1514 he left Transoxiana
never to return, retaining no
possessions north of the Hindu Kush Range.
The only explanation afforded as to why he became
so disliked by the people of Samarkand is that
his conjunction with the heretical Shi’as,
who were the most bigoted of mortals, alienated
the Sunnis who constituted the whole community of
the Muhammedans North of Oxus.
* Erskine, Vol. I, pp. 299-300.
A History of the
Great Moghuls: Or, A History of the Badshahate of
Delhifrom 1398 A.D. to 1739, with an Introduction
Concerning the Mongols and Moghuls of Central
Asia
By Pringle Kennedy
Published by Thacker, Spink, 1905
Shah Ismail From this moment
for the next seventeen years Europe had some
respite from the Eastern Question. There was
incessant fear of what the Turk might do next,
incessant talk of resisting him, incessant
negotiations against him; but there was no actual
war; almost no Christian territory was won for
Islam, and no Christian territory won back for
Europe. The attention of the Sultan was drawn
eastward; where he had to reckon with a new
power; for the lordship of Persia had once more
changed hands. The decline of the Turkmen of the
White Sheep was clearly shown in the circumstance
that on the death of Uzun Hasan nine dynasts (not
to speak of rival claimants) succeeded in
twenty-four years. Murad, the last of these,
succumbed to the power of Ismail, a sheikh of
Ardabil, who traced his descent to the Prophet.
The decisive battle was fought at Shurur in 1502;
and, from his new-won capital at Tabriz, Ismail
advanced to the conquest of Persia and Khorasan.
The history of modern Persia begins with Ismail,
the first Shah—the first of the Safavid
dynasty which endured till the middle of the
eighteenth century (1736). He called himself a
Safavi, from Safi, an ancestor illustrious for
piety; and hence to contemporary Europe he was
known as the Sofi. A collision between the new
Persian power and the Turks was rendered
inevitable by religious fanaticism. To orthodox
Sunnites like the Ottomans, the heresy of the
Shiites is more obnoxious than the infidelity of
the Giaours, who are altogether outside the pale;
and, when Bayazid discovered that the Shiite
doctrines were being propagated and taking root
in certain parts of his Asiatic dominion, he took
steps to check the evil by transporting suspected
persons to Greece. The Shah Ismail then came
forward as the protector of the Shiites, and
called upon the Turkish Sultan to allow adherents
of that belief to leave his realm. But, though
the Shah is said to have insulted the Sultan by
giving the name of Bayazid to a fattened swine,
war did not break out in Bayazid's days. The
Persian monarch showed his anticipation of
trouble by entering into negotiations with the
western powers, as Uzun Hasan had done before;
and a Persian embassy was welcomed at Venice
though the Signory openly declared that there was
no intention of breaking the peace; two years
before they had given up Alessio in Albania, in
order to avoid a breach.
The Cambridge modern history, Volume
1 , Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton
Acton, Ernest Alfred Benians Editors Sir Adolphus
William Ward, Sir George Walter Prothero, Stanley
Mordaunt Leathes, The University press, 1912
As of 1500 13 year old Ismail Safavi was
supported by the Ustajlu, Shamlu, Takalu, Rumlu,
Warsaq, Dhu'l Qadar, Afshar, Qajar, and the Sufis
of Qarabagh.
Browne, Edward Granville, A history
of Persian literature under Tartar dominion (A.D.
1265-1502) Volume 3 of Literary history of
Persia; 3, University Press, 1920