Safavid order

The Safavid order, also called the Safawiyya, was a Sufi order founded by the mystic Zahed Gilani and named after his son-in-law and successor Safi al-Din Ardabili, who lived from 1252 to 1334 and established its spiritual center at Ardabil in what is now northwestern Iran. Originally rooted in Sunni Islam of the Shafi'i school, the order's leadership adopted Twelver Shia beliefs over succeeding generations, and by the mid-fifteenth century had turned militant, with leaders including Shaykh Junayd and Shaykh Haydar proclaiming jihad and messianic claims beyond conventional Twelver Shia teaching; three successive leaders were killed in battle in the late fifteenth century. The movement's momentum carried through to 1501, when Ismail I, a descendant of these militant leaders, used it to found the Safavid Empire and declared Twelver Shiism the state religion, importing scholars from Syria and Lebanon to complete the order's transformation into a ruling Shia dynasty.