Editing Ismail I (section)

== Origins ==
{{see also|Safavid dynasty|Safavid family tree}}
[[File:1541-Battle in the war between Shah Isma'il and the King of Shirvan-Shahnama-i-Isma'il.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Safavid conquest of Shirvan|The battle]] between the young Ismail and [[List of monarchs of Persia|Shah]] [[Farrukh Yassar]] of [[Shirvan]]]]
Ismail I was born to Martha and [[Shaykh Haydar]] on 17 July 1487, in [[Ardabil]]. His father was the [[sheikh]] of the [[Safavid order|Safavid]] ''[[tariqa]]'' (Sufi order) and a direct descendant of its [[Kurds|Kurdish]] founder,<ref name="Tapper">{{harvnb|Tapper|1997|p=39: "The Safavid Shahs who ruled Iran between 1501 and 1722 descended from Sheikh Safi ad-Din of Ardabil (1252–1334). Sheikh Safi and his immediate successors were renowned as holy ascetics Sufis. Their own origins were obscure; probably of Kurdish or Iranian extraction&nbsp;..."}}</ref>{{sfn|Savory|1997|page=8}}<ref>{{harvnb|Kamal|2006|p=24: "The Safawid was originally a Sufi order whose founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din, a Sunni Sufi master descended from a Kurdish family&nbsp;..."}}</ref> [[Safi-ad-din Ardabili]] (1252–1334). Ismail was the last in this line of hereditary Grand Masters of the order, prior to his founding of a ruling dynasty.

His mother Martha, better known as [[Alemshah Halime Begum|Halima Begum]], was the daughter of [[Uzun Hasan]], the ruler of the [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkoman]] [[Aq Qoyunlu]] dynasty, by his [[Pontic Greeks|Pontic Greek]] wife Theodora Megale Komnene, better known as [[Despina Khatun]].{{Sfn|Charanis|1970|p=476}} Despina Khatun was the daughter of Emperor [[John IV of Trebizond]]. She had married Uzun Hassan in a deal to protect the [[Empire of Trebizond]] from the [[Ottoman Turks]].{{Sfn|Bryer|1975|p=136}} Ismail was a great-great-grandson of Emperor [[Alexios IV of Trebizond]] and King [[Alexander I of Georgia]].

[[Roger Savory]] suggests that Ismail's family was of Iranian origin, likely from [[Iranian Kurdistan]], and later moved to [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Azerbaijan]] where they assimilated into the [[Azerbaijanis|Turkic Azeri]] population.<ref name="Savory1999">{{harvnb|Savory|1999|p=259: "From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigenous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabīl sometime during the eleventh century."}}</ref> Ismail was bilingual in Persian and a Southern Turkic dialect, a precursor of modern [[Azerbaijani language|Azeri Turkic]].<ref name="Dale"/><ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Kia|2014|pp=110–111 (note 81): "Shah Esmaʿil wrote poetry in Turkish, because this devotional poetry was aimed at his Qizilbash followers, who were mostly Turkish speakers."}}</ref> His ancestry was mixed, from various ethnic groups such as [[Georgians]], [[Greeks]], [[Kurds]] and [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkomans]];<ref>{{harvnb|Roemer|1986|pp=214, 229}}; {{harvnb|Blow|2009|p=3}}; {{harvnb|Savory|Karamustafa|1998}}; {{harvnb|Ghereghlou|2016}}.</ref><ref name="R.M.">{{harvnb|Savory|1997}}.</ref><ref name="Roger M. Savory 1999, p. 259">{{harvnb|Savory|1999|p=259}}</ref> the majority of scholars agree that his empire was an Iranian one.<ref name="Helen Chapin Metz 1989. p. 313"/><ref name="Emory C. Bogle 1989, p. 145"/><ref name="Stanford Jay Shaw 1976, p. 77"/><ref name="Andrew J. Newman 2006"/><ref name="AlirezaShahbazi">{{harvnb|Shahbazi|2005|p=108: "Similarly the collapse of Sassanian Eranshahr in AD 650 did not end Iranians' national idea. The name 'Iran' disappeared from official records of the Saffarids, Samanids, Buyids, Saljuqs and their successor. But one unofficially used the name Iran, Eranshahr, and similar national designations, particularly Mamalek-e Iran or 'Iranian lands', which exactly translated the old Avestan term Ariyanam Daihunam. On the other hand, when the Safavids (not Reza Shah, as is popularly assumed) revived a national state officially known as Iran, bureaucratic usage in the Ottoman Empire and even Iran itself could still refer to it by other descriptive and traditional appellations"}}.</ref>

In 700/1301, [[Safi-ad-din Ardabili|Safi al-Din]] assumed the leadership of the [[Zahediyeh]], a significant Sufi order in [[Gilan]], from his spiritual master and father-in-law [[Zahed Gilani]]. The order was later known as the Safavid. One genealogy claimed that Sheikh Safi (the founder of the order and Ismael's ancestor) was a lineal descendant of [[Ali]]. Ismail also proclaimed himself the ''[[Mahdi]]'' and a reincarnation of Ali.{{Sfn|Blake|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUB-FEpPHsoC&pg=PA27 27]}}