Qizilbash

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Qizilbash or Kizilbash were a diverse array of mainly <a href="/facts/Turkoman_(ethnonym)/ertEYum2">Turkoman</a> <a href="/facts/Shia_Islam/JIQl7ooz">Shia</a> <a href="/facts/Militant/JFJkBXcL">militant</a> groups that flourished in <a href="/facts/Azerbaijan_(Iran)/m0hNEXRu">Azerbaijan</a>, <a href="/facts/Anatolia/vMkrLrPr">Anatolia</a>, the <a href="/facts/Armenian_highlands/ySwNXG0X">Armenian highlands</a>, the <a href="/facts/Caucasus/sE8P8Ejg">Caucasus</a> from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the <a href="/facts/Safavid_dynasty/QmhkbI06">Safavid dynasty</a> in <a href="/facts/History_of_Iran/0Q0WRDqo">early modern Iran</a>.
</p><p>By the 18th-century, anyone involved with the Safavid state—militarily, diplomatically, or administratively—came to be broadly referred to as "Qizilbash". It was eventually applied to some inhabitants of Iran. In the early 19th-century, Shia Muslims from Iran could be referred as "Qizilbash", thus highlighting the influence of the distinctive traits of the Safavids, despite the Iranian <a href="/facts/Shah/5fHmcDtU">shah</a> (king) <a href="/facts/Fath-Ali_Shah_Qajar/fw2jNgu5">Fath-Ali Shah Qajar</a> (r. 1797–1834) simultaneously creating a <a href="/facts/Qajar_dynasty/sz5ulL0k">Qajar</a> dynastic identity grounded in the pre-Islamic past.
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Qizilbash open-in-new

Qizilbash