Safavid dynasty
The Safavids are considered the greatest Persian dynasty, to date, since the Arab conquest of Iran some eight hundred years earlier. The Safavid empire was established in northern Iran in 1501.
The Safavid kings ruled over Iran (frequently termed Persia by western Nations) from 1501 until 1722. Though several puppet rulers were nominally reigning until 1736.The dynasty was founded by Ismail Safavi, a descendant of Shaik Safi Al-Din (1252 - 1334) of the north Iranian city of Ardabil. Shaik Safi Al-Din was of Ariyan (Kurdish) extraction and a disciple of the famed Sufi grand master Shaik Zahed Gilani (1216 - 1301) of Lahijan. Spiritual Heir to Shaik Zahed, Safi Al-Din transformed the inherited Sufi Order of Zahediyeh into his own, the Safaviyeh, which attained military and political power. During the 170 years to follow the death of Shaik Safi Al-Din, his Sufi order was to rise to a formidable army and established political force. Safi Al-Din's descendant, Shah Isma'il I, the first native Persian ruler since the fall of the Sassanide Empire to the Arab onslought, established his capital in Tabriz, in 1501. Shah Ismail embraced Shia Islam, which he made mandatory for the whole nation, upon the penalty of death. This ignited lengthy struggles with the neighbouring sunnite Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years. After the capture of Baghdad by Ismail I, Suleiman I (the Magnificient) regained this city in 1534. After several campaigns, Safavids recaptured Baghdad in 1623 and lost it again to Murad IV in 1638, during which time, a permanent border was established by treaties, which is still valid between present Turkey and Persia.
Gradually declining in 17th and early 18th century, effective Safavid rule ended in 1722, after the execution of Shah Sultan Hosain by an Afghan rebel army led by Mir Mahmud, who opposed conversion from Sunni to Shi'a Islam.
After an interregnum period, Persian king Nadir Shah prevented the occupation of Persia by Ottoman and Russian armies. The empire finally collapsed after his assassination in 1747 and, subsequent to an interregnum by the Zand Dynasty, was to be replaced by the Qajar dynasty in 1794.