Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

THE UMMA t 151
ical territory in northwestern Iran. Thus, by the mid–fifteenth century,
the Safavid tariqa had become a political entity as well as a
Sufi association. More, it veered sharply in the direction of a
Shiism of the extremist variety—its sheikh was beginning to be
regarded as himself a manifestation of God.
In 1494 a sheikh named Ismail (d. 1524) assumed the leadership
of the order and of the still modest Safavid state in northern Iran.
Iran at that time was still overwhelmingly Sunni in its allegiances
and ideology, although there were already important Shiite influences
at places like Qom and Neyshabur, and there were growing
Shiite tendencies in some of the other Sufi orders, including the
Safavid tariqa. By Ismail’s time there was little doubt where Safavid
thinking was. As the Fatimid Ismailis had claimed for their
leaders in their day, in his followers’ eyes Ismail was the Twelver
Imam now returned from his concealment, and his troops reportedly
cried out, on entering battle, “There is no god but The God
and Ismail is the Friend of God.” Battle they did, for ten years
(1499–1509), until in the end Ismail and the Safavids ruled most
of Iran. Already in 1501 Ismail had proclaimed Shiism the official
version of Islam in his new kingdom.
The Safavids early possessed political sovereignty, bought at the
end of a sword, but their claim to religious legitimacy was considerably
less certain. The house, which was likely Turkmen or Kurdish
in origin, claimed to have descended from Ali by way of the
seventh Imam, Musa al-Kazim. This of itself gave Ismail prestige
but no religious authority, and his claim that he was himself the
Imam was entertained by none but his own most favored entourage
of warriors. Most of his followers, and the population generally,
appear to have known little about Twelver Shiism to begin
with, and the more learned Shiite ulama whom Ismail and his successors
invited to Iran seemed little inclined to unmask the pretensions
of their benefactors. For most of the population, it was a
relatively easy transition from Sunni to Shiite Islam, involving little
more than heaping praise on Ali—never difficult among even the
most devout Sunnis—and obloquy on his enemies, notably the
Umayyads, and, where circumstances dictated, on the first three