• DOI:10.1086/503715
• Corpus ID: 163061429

Shah Ismaʿil and the Qizilbash: Cannibalism in the Religious History of Early Safavid Iran

@article{Bashir2006ShahIA,
  title={Shah Ismaʿil and the Qizilbash: Cannibalism in the Religious History of Early Safavid Iran},
  author={Shahzad Bashir},
  journal={History of Religions},
  year={2006},
  volume={45},
  pages={234 - 256}
}

• S. Bashir
• Published 1 February 2006
• History
• History of Religions

The first decade of the sixteenth century of the Common Era saw the rise of the Safavids, an Iranian dynasty that lasted more than two centuries. In the year 1501, Ismaoil, the sixth hereditary successor to the prominent Sufi master Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili (d. 1334), took control of the city of Tabriz and proclaimed himself king.1 Ismaoil was only fourteen at this time, and his extraordinary feat was accomplished with the support of intensely loyal soldiers called the Qizilbash, who held him in great esteem