page_title: Qizilbash
section_title: "Turk & Tājīk"
hierarchical_section_title: Qizilbash / "Turk & Tājīk"
caption_attribution_description: English: Medieval European rendering by an unknown Venetian artist. The original rendering is kept in the Uffizi Gallery museum in Florence, Italy. See en: for the credits. Русский: Исмаил 1й 1487-1524 English: Portrait of Shah Ismail I of Persia (1487-1524) Deutsch: Schah Ismail I. (1501–1524), Porträt aus dem 17. Jahrhundert Azərbaycanca: Şah İsmayılın XVI əsrdə naməlum Florensiyalı rəssam tərəfindən çəkilmiş portreti (Uffitsi muzeyi. Florensiya. İtaliya). Bahasa Melayu: Lukisan Ismail I dari Parsi (1487-1524) Uffizi Museum &#160;&#160;Native nameGalleria degli UffiziLocationFlorenceCoordinates43°&#160;46′&#160;06.24″&#160;N, 11°&#160;15′&#160;21.24″&#160;E Established1581 (built), 1765 (open to public)Web pagewww.uffizi.itAuthority control : Q16335227 VIAF:&#8201;316731929 institution QS:P195,Q16335227
context_page_description: Qizilbash or Kizilbash, were a wide variety of Shi'i militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia and Kurdistan from the late 15th century onwards, some of which contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty of Iran.
  In Bengal and Bihar, they fought against the East India Company's army as mercenaries of Mir Qasim.
context_section_description: Among the Qizilbash, Turcoman tribes from Eastern Anatolia and Azerbaijan (historic Azerbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan) who had helped Ismail I defeat the Aq Qoyunlu tribe were by far the most important in both number and influence and the name Qizilbash is usually applied exclusively to them. Some of these greater Turcoman tribes were subdivided into as many as eight or nine clans, including:
  Ustādjlu (Their origins reach back to the Begdili)
  Rūmlu
  Shāmlu (the most powerful clan during the reign of Shah Ismail I.)
  Dulkadir (Arabic: Dhu 'l-Kadar)
  Afshār
  Qājār
  Takkalu
  Other tribes – such as the Turkman, Bahārlu, Qaramānlu, Warsāk, and Bayāt – were occasionally listed among these "seven great uymaqs". Today, the remnants of the Qizilbash confederacy are found among the Afshar, the Qashqai, Turkmen, Shahsevan, and others.
  Some of these names consist of a place-name with addition of the Turkish suffix -lu, such as Shāmlu or Bahārlu. Other names are those of old Oghuz tribes such as the Afshār, Dulghadir, or Bayāt, as mentioned by the medieval Uyghur historian Mahmud al-Kashgari.
  The non-Turkic Iranian tribes among the Qizilbash were called Tājīks by the Turcomans and included:
  Tālish
  The Lurs
  Siāh-Kuh (Karādja-Dagh)
  certain Kurdish tribes
  certain Persian families and clans
  The rivalry between the Turkic clans and Persian nobles was a major problem in the Safavid kingdom. As V. Minorsky put it, friction between these two groups was inevitable, because the Turcomans "were no party to the national Persian tradition". Shah Ismail tried to solve the problem by appointing Persian wakils as commanders of Qizilbash tribes. The Turcomans considered this an insult and brought about the death of 3 of the 5 Persians appointed to this office – an act that later inspired the deprivation of the Turcomans by Shah Abbas I.
caption: Shah Ismail I, the Sheikh of the Safavi tariqa, founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, and the Commander-in-chief of the Qizilbash armies.
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