Qizilbash Ismail Quotes From Things Fall Apart

Shah Ismail, as a twelve-year-old boy, left the swamps of Gilan near the Caspian Sea, where he had hidden from the enemies of his family for five years, which to whom he sought revenge. Two years later, he entered Tabriz as a leader of an army and proclaimed himself as the shah. Now bearing the title of Shah Ismail, he proclaimed that the official religion of his realm would be Twelver Shiism, and he proceeded to impose it, by force when necessary, on the former Sunni population. Over the next decade, he seized control of the Iranian plateau and launched expeditions into the Caucasus, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and central Asia. Twelver Shiites believed that the twelfth imam, or religious leader, had gone into hiding around 874 to escape persecution, but they believed he was still alive, would one day return to take power, and spread his true religion.
The qizilbash believed that Ismail would make them invincible in battle, and they became devotedly loyal to the Safavid cause. During the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, the qizilbash took the twelfth imam with them to war, in which they fought the Ottomans but suffered devastating casualties and lost some territory. Their loss led to the heavier dependence on the twelfth imam. The Safavid adoption of Twelver Shiism marked an important turning point in Muslim history, since the Safavid dynasty was one of the most important of the Persian dynasties, for it is considered the beginning of modern Persian