Social Sciences and History / Unit 6 SSH 0505 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Safavid Persia and the Sunni–Shia Rift
Captions available
The idea
Shah Ismail founded the Safavid state in fifteen oh one; Qizilbash factions let Ottomans and Uzbeks take land, so Tahmasp and Abbas built a corps of enslaved Caucasians to replace them. The shahs forcibly converted Sunnis to Shi'ite Islam, deepening the Sunni–Shia rift.
In practice
Miniatures, ceramics and royal architecture under stable rule.
Where people slip
Nader Shah ended the dynasty in seventeen thirty-six.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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