Military of the Safavid dynasty

The Military of the Safavid dynasty covers the military history of the Safavid dynasty from 1501 to 1736.

It was the first Safavid king (shah) Ismail I (1501-1524), who laid foundation to the Safavid military. It origins dates back to 1500, when Ismail decided to come out of hiding from Lahijan, a city in Gilan, northern Iran. On his way to Azerbaijan, he recruited followers, and had already recruited 450 at Rasht and 1,500 at Tarom. By summer, Ismail had already gathered 7,000 followers, mostly Turkmens from Asia Minor whom he had rallied together in Erzincan, while the rest were Iranians, mainly from northern Iran, such as the Talysh people. Ismail fought the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar during the same year, where his army is said to have ranged from 7,000 to 40,000.

The Qizilbash was a Shia militant group which mostly consisted of Turkmen tribes, but also Iranian ones, such as the Talysh and certain Kurdish tribes. The largest tribes of the Qizilbash were the Ustajlu, the Rumlu, the Shamlu, the Zul Qadr, the Tekkelu, the Afshar and the Qajar—all Turkmens. The Qizilbash were the main factor of the foundation of the Safavid dynasty and the conquest of Iran. Unlike the ghulam corps, the Qizilbash did not rely on payment from royal treasury, but were instead granted land. In return, they supplied the Safavid shah with troops and provisions.

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