01 1501 Ṣafavid dynasty

Ṣafavid dynasty

IRANIAN DYNASTY

1502–1736), Iranian dynasty whose establishment of Shīʿite Islam as the state religion of Iran was a major factor in the emergence of a unified national consciousness among the various ethnic and linguistic elements of the country. The Ṣafavids were descended from Sheykh Ṣafī al-Dīn (1253–1334) of Ardabīl, head of the Sufi order ofṢafavīyeh (Ṣafawiyyah), but about 1399 exchanged their Sunni affiliation for Shīʿism.