Note 221 — LETTER III. (continued 3)

Shah Ismael was the founder of the dynasty of the Sofis or Saffis, so called from Sheik Suffee-u-deen of Ardebil, a devotee renowned for his sanctity, from whom Shah Ismael was the sixth in descent. His father, Hyder, on the death of his uncle and father-in-law Uzun Hussun, the prince of the dynasty of the White Sheep, invaded Shirwan at the head of a body of partisans. He made his troops wear red turbans, whence, according to one account, comes the name of Kizilbash (Red Heads), by which the Persians were known among the Turks. Hyder was killed in battle, and his sons were thrown into prison, but they afterwards escaped. The eldest was killed in battle, the second died in Ghilan, Ismael, the youngest, in 1499, at the age of fourteen, took the field against the Turkomans, who were then in possession of the greater part of Persia, and in the course of four campaigns succeeded in establishing his authority throughout the country. His family claimed descent from the seventh Imaum, and their great ancestor, Ali, was the special object of their reverence. The very name of Schiah, which means a sectary, and which Ismael’s enemies had given him as a reproach, became a title in which he gloried. When Sultan Selim I. massacred his co-religionists (see note page 161), the natural consequence was a war between Turkey and Persia. The Turkish army advanced through Kurdistan and Azerbijan on Tabriz, which was then the Persian capital. They were much embarrassed by want of provisions, as the Persians retired, laying waste the country in their retreat. A threatened mutiny among the Janissaries was quelled only by Selim’s presence of mind and resolution. Ismael at last abandoned his Fabian tactics, and took up a position in the valley of Tschaldiran, some 30 miles south-east of Bayezid. A bloody and fiercely contested battle (August 23, 1514) ended in the complete victory of Selim, which he owed mainly to his artillery and the firearms of the Janissaries. This success was followed by the occupation of Tabriz, but Selim was obliged by the discontent of his troops to return homewards. The acquisition of Diarbekir and Kurdistan was, however, the result of this campaign. Apart from his defeat by Selim, Ismael reigned with unbroken success till his death in 1523. He was succeeded by his son Shah Tahmasp.—See Malcolm, History of Persia, i. ch. 12.