William L. Cleveland Quotes

The Safavid brotherhood was founded as a Sunni order, and historians are uncertain when its leaders adopted Shi'ism or even if they did so before the reign of Isma'il. It is known that for a few years during Isma'il's youth, he was sheltered by a local Shi'a ruler and may have acquired his Shi'a convictions from this experience. Whatever the sources for his belief, Isma'il became a fervent Shi'a and was determined to make all of the inhabitants in the territories under his control adopt Shi'ism. When he proclaimed himself shah in 1501, he also proclaimed Twelver Shi'ism to be the official and compulsory religion of the state.

The Safavids were either of Kurdish or Turkish origin. In the late thirteenth century, a member of the Safavid family founded a Sunni Sufi religious brotherhood in Azerbaijan, the Turkish-speaking region of northwestern Iran. The brotherhood attracted an ardent following among the Turkish pastoral tribes of the area, and by the late fifteenth century its influence had expanded into Anatolia and Syria. The heads of the brotherhood led the tribes in a series of expeditions against the Christians of the Caucasus, thereby acquiring temporal power as well as enhancing their reputations as servants of Islam. Their Turkish followers were known as Qizilbash, the Redheaded Ones, after the red headgear they wore to identify themselves as supporters of the Safavid brotherhood.