- published: 28 Jan 2016
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Ismail I (July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil (Persian: شاه اسماعیل; full name: Abū l-Muzaffar bin Haydar as-Safavī), was a Shah of Azerbaijan (1501), Shah of Iran (1502) and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an Twelver Shia militant religious order and unified all of Iran by 1509. Born in Ardabil in Northwestern Iran, he reigned as Shah Ismail I of Iran from 1502 to 1524.
Ismail played a key role in the rise of Twelver Islam; he converted Iran from Sunni and Ismaili Shi'i Islam, importing religious authorities from the Levant. In Alevism, Shah Ismail remains revered as a spiritual guide.
Ismail was also a prolific poet who, under the pen name Khatā'ī ("Sinner") contributed greatly to the literary development of the Azerbaijani language.
Ismail was born to Martha and Shaykh Haydar on July 17, 1487 in Ardabil. His father, Haydar, was the sheikh of the Safaviyya Sufi order and a direct descendant of its founder, Safi-ad-din Ardabili (1252–1334). Ismail was the last in line of hereditary Grand Masters of the Safaviyah Sufi order, prior to his ascent to a ruling dynasty. As a boy only a year old, he lost his father, the leader of a growing Qizilbash Shi'i community in Azerbaijan, who died in battle. His mother, Martha, was the daughter of Uzun Hasan by his Pontic Greek wife Theodora, better known as Despina Khatun. Theodora was the daughter of Emperor John IV of Trebizond. (She had married Uzun Hassan in a deal to protect Trebizond from the Ottomans.) Ismail grew up bilingual, speaking Persian and Azeri.