In the period between TAMERLANE and the late eighteenth century, Iran was home to one more great empire and to the last great Asian conqueror. The Safavids built the first Persian army to incorporate gunpowder weapons and set the stage for increased interaction with the West and the Persian military’s conquests under Nader Shah. The wars of the Safavids and Nader Shah demonstrated again how Iran’s military fortunes and traditions have been shaped by the interplay of politics and religion. In addition, the repeated problems with adopting and adapting to new means of warfare hindered the Safavids, but were eventually overcome by Nader Shah. The armed forces developed during this period were strongly shaped by the ongoing dilemma over building effective forces that were loyal to the crown, but not so strong that praetorianism or military coups threatened the monarchs’ power.
The Safavids established the first independent Persian state in nearly nine centuries. Although based on Turkman tribes, the Safavids att racted Persian, Syrian, Turkish, and other adherents during the fift eenth century and, aft er the dynasty was established, adopted Persian culture to become increasingly Persian in nature. As Shia, the Safavids rejected the authority of the caliphate, which was then in the hands of the Sunni Ottomans, and the two groups would be in nearly constant confl ict for more than two centuries because of their religious diff erences and imperial ambitions. Toward the end of the fifteenth century as they were becoming a significant power, the Safavids began to wear distinctive scarlet headgear. The Ottomans derisively called them qizilbash or redheads, a name the Safavids adopted as a mark of pride for the disciples of their tribal leader.
The march to empire began in earnest in 1500 when Ismail, who had become the Safavid leader in 1494, set out to conquer territories and establish a divine Shia kingdom on earth. By early 1501, Ismail had defeated the army of the ruler of Azerbaijan, seized Tabriz, and made the city his capital. In short order, the Safavids conquered the rest of Azerbaijan and then Armenia. Declared shah in 1502, Ismail I (r. 1502–24) became the monarch of a theocratic state that harnessed the dynamic theology of its Twelver Shiism official religion. The new shah would take most of the next decade to consolidate his control over Iran, where most of the Persian population was still Sunni. His army spread out fi rst to the central regions in 1504. He then pacified the western frontier and captured Baghdad and southwestern Iran between 1505 and 1508 before finally conquering the Khorasan region and the city of Herat in 1510. Ismail made Shia Islam mandatory for the whole nation and forced the conversion of the local populations while Sunni clerics were either killed or exiled.
Parthian Key Military Tactic
