Empire1501 – 1736 · 235 years
Safavid Empire
The Iranian dynasty that made Shi'a Islam the state religion — and gave Iran its modern shape.
What it was
Founded in 1501, the Safavids ruled Iran and parts of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus for two centuries, fighting a long cold war with the Sunni Ottomans to the west. Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) made Isfahan one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Why it mattered
The Safavid imposition of Twelver Shi'ism on a previously largely Sunni Persian population is the reason Iran is the only large Shi'a-majority state in the Islamic world today.
From Wikipedia
The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled by the Safavid dynasty from 1501 to 1736, albeit others place the end on the year 1722, when Isfahan fell to the Afghans. It is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history, as well as one of the gunpowder empires.
Wikipedia: Safavid Iran·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.
- SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
- DETAILhistorical-basemaps:1600:Safavid Empire
- SNAPSHOT1600
- MATCHEDSafavid Empire
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire72
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Safavid Empire Formation1501–1629Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 40K dead
- Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Ottoman-Safavid Wars in Caucasus1555–1639Significant · 300K dead
- Ottoman-Safavid War1603–29Significant · 300K dead
- Significant · 50K dead
- Ottoman–Persian wars1514–1823Significant
- Significant
- Significant
- Significant
- Significant
- Hotaki–Safavid wars1709–38Significant
- Ottoman-Georgian Wars1500–1700Regional · 300K dead
- Regional · 0 dead
- Safavid–Aq Qoyunlu wars1488–1513Regional
- Mughal–Uzbek wars1500–1647Regional
- Safavid–Uzbek wars1502–1740Regional
- Regional
- Battle of Merv1510Regional
- Regional
- Battle of Jam1528Regional
- Regional
+ 48 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1501 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Safavid Empire (1501 – 1736). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/safavid-empire · Sources & methodology