HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Iran 1500–2000 The history of modern Iran began with the
tombs of Sufi saints desecrated, and khanaqas
ruling Safavid dynasty (1501–1722) which
(hostelries) given over to Shiite youth. Jews and
established Twelver Shiism as the state religion.
Zoroastrians were subjected to forcible conver-
The dynasty’s founder Shaikh Safi al-Din
sion. The pilgrimage to Mecca was discouraged in
(1252–1334) was a Sufi teacher and mujaddid
favor of ziyaras (visits) to the lavishly-endowed
(renovator) of Sunni allegiance who started a
shrines of the Shiite imans. In the eighteenth cen-
movement of reform among the tribes of eastern
tury, following the disintegration of the Safavid
Anatolia
and
Empire, Iran endured a period of anarchy with
northwestern Iran.
Ottomans and Russians controlling the north, and
His
descendant
Afghans, Afshars, Zand, and Qajar tribal chiefs
Ismail
vying for power in the south. Though Nadir Shah,
(1487–1524) acti-
an Afshar chieftain who proclaimed himself Shah
vated
popular
in 1736, curbed the power of the Shiite ulama, the
eschatological
turbulence of the eighteenth century permitted the
expectations in the
ulama to obtain a higher degree of institutional
period of disorder
autonomy than their Sunni counterparts.
Shah
following the collapse
of
Under the Qajar dynasty (1779–1925) the pow-
the
ers of the Shiite ulama were enhanced by zakat
Timurid Empire by
and khums (religious taxes), which were paid to
Shah Suleiman and his courtiers
proclaiming himself the Hidden Imam, or
them directly, while their custodianship over
with Western visitors, shown
expected Shiite messiah. Led by a fearsome band
shrines and waqfs (charitable trusts) gave them
against a lyrical European-style
of warriors known as Qizilbashis (red heads)
access to rents from land and housing. The loca-
landscape. The Safavid rulers
from their distinctive red turbans, the movement
tion of two of the most important shrines at
exported carpets and silk to
enabled Shah Ismail, who proclaimed himself
Karbala and Najaf in Iraq, in Ottoman-controlled
Europe as well as ceramics
king in Tabriz in 1501, to conquer most of Iran in
territory, gave them a power base outside the
the course of the next decade.
domain of the state. The mourning ceremonies
designed by Chinese craftsmen for the Western markets. They
Though the power of the Safavid state, based
commemorating the martyrdom of the Imam
on the brilliant new capital built by Shah Abbas
Hussein at Karbala and the associated taziya (pas-
figurative painting by claiming
(1588–1629) in Isfahan, was limited, relying for its
sion plays) became characteristic features of pop-
that the Imam Ali, revered by
authority on a network of uymaqs or smaller
ular religiosity, making Shiism a component ele-
the Shiites, had been a painter as
chieftains and the traditional iqta system of tax-
ment in Iranian national identity.
well as a calligrapher.
farming, the Safavid strategy of religious consoli-
As pressures from Russia and Britain began to
dation gave Iran the distinctive Shiite character it
impinge on Iran in the nineteenth century, the
retains to this day. Once the Qizilbashis had done
ulama came to the forefront of nationalist resist-
their work Ismail’s messianic claims were deem-
ance. In 1873 they forced the Shah to cancel far-
phasized, and Shiite scholars were imported from
reaching economic and financial concessions
Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, and al-Hasa to promote the
made to a British citizen, Baron de Reuter, and in
“official” version of Twelver Shiism, according to
the 1890s they led a national boycott against a
which the return of the Imam/Messiah is indefi-
tobacco monopoly granted to another Briton,
nitely deferred. Sunnism was suppressed, the
Major Talbot. The political momentum engen-
broke with the traditional religious hostility toward
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