The Safavid Revolution: Ismail I and the Shia Transformation of Persia

The Safavid Empire had its distant roots in the Safaviyya, a mystical Sufi order founded around 1301 in the city of Ardabil in northwestern Persia by Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili, originally a contemplative Sunni brotherhood. Over the fifteenth century, under the leadership of Sheikh Junayd and then his son Haydar, the order underwent a radical transformation into a militant, messianic movement with growing Shia influence, and its followers became known as the "qizilbash" ("red heads") for their distinctive red turbans with twelve folds representing the twelve Shia imams. Both Junayd (1460) and Haydar (1488) died in battle, and after Haydar's death his youngest son, Ismail, survived by hiding in the region of Gilan.