Latest / The Safavid Empire: Persia's Return to Greatness — Fexingo History
The Persian Inquisition: Shiite Orthodoxy Under Shah Tahmasp
After the ecstatic, millenarian reign of Shah Ismail I, the Safavid Empire faced a crisis of legitimacy. His son, Shah Tahmasp I, inherited a kingdom torn between the Qizilbash warrior-saints' heterodox faith and the need for a stable, state-backed religion. This episode explores how Tahmasp—often overshadowed by his father and grandson—forged a lasting alliance with Twelver Shiite clerics from Jabal Amel (modern Lebanon), suppressing Sufi ecstasy and messianic movements that had once fueled the dynasty's rise. We follow the arrival of scholars like Sheikh Ali al-Karaki, the brutal…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.