User:Amir Ghandi/Ismail II

Ismail II (Born Ismail Mirza; 31 May 1537 – 24 November 1577) was the third Shah of Safavid Iran from 1576 to 1577. He was the second son of Tahmasp I with his principal consort, Sultanum Begum. During the reign of his father, Ismail spent twenty years imprisoned in Qahqaheh Castle by the orders of Tahmasp; whether for Ismail's recurrent conflicts with the realm's influential vassals, or for his order of mustering an army to invade the Ottoman Empire, in the time of the peace and the newly-signed Treaty of Amasya between the two empires, or for Ismail's growing popularity between the Qizilbash tribes, or due to his homosexuality and revelrous lifestyle.

Tahmasp died In 1576 without a designed heir. Ismail, with the support of his sister, Pari Khan Khanum, overcame his opponents and usurped the crown. In order to relieve himself of potential claimants, Ismail purged all the male members of the royal family, except for his full-brother, Mohammad Khodabanda and his three sons. In fear of the Qizilbash influence on the administration and the army, Ismail replaced them with people whom he trusted. His short reign was scarce of war bar the border raids by the Uzbeks who raided Mashhad and were defeated in the process. Ismail belittled the Shi'ia Islam scholars and sought spiritual guiding with the Sunni Islam scholars. This was perhaps out of spite for his father, who was a devoted Shi'ia.

Towards the ending months of his reign, Ismail shunned his influential sister, Pari Khan, and treated her with lack of appreciation despite her efforts to made him king. In 24 November 1577, Ismail unexpectedly died from unknown reasons, but the general view is that he was poisoned by either Pari Khan Khanum or the Qizilbash. He was succeeded by his brother, the blind Mohammad Khodabanda. Ismail is not remembered fondly by the contemporary historians who considered him as an irrational, perverted, and inept ruler, who brought the Safavid dynasty to the brink of collapse. However, a number of contemporary chroniclers also portray him as a just ruler. The modern historians regard his policies as disastrous and his personality as unusually ruthless even by the period's standards.

Early life
Ismail Mirza was born on the night of Thursday 31 May 1537 in Qom as the second son of Tahmasp I with his principal consort, Sultanum Begum. His mother was from the Mawsillu clan of the Qizilbash and was the sister of Musa Sultan, the governor of Tabriz, who is sometimes confused with Sultanum's father, Isa Khan, who was Tahmasp's maternal uncle. Ismail spent his childhood in the court and since his older brother and the assumed heir apparent, Mohammad Khodabanda was sent to fosterhood in Herat, the young Ismail was the only child in the royal palace of Qazvin; thus, he enjoyed the affection from his father. Tahmasp loved and admired the young Ismail for his courage and valour. As a child, Ismail learned the art of riding, shooting, using war weapons, as well as reading and writing.

In the late summer of 1547, he was appointed as the governor of Shirvan after the rebellion of Alqas Mirza, the shah's brother. There, he faced a rebellion by a claimant to the Shirvanshah's throne and Tahmasp's nephew, Burhan Ali, son of Khalilullah II; evidences show that he was supported by the Ottoman Empire. He was defeated by an army under the command of Ismail's lala (guardian), Gokcha Sultan Ziadlu Qajar. In 1547, during the Ottoman–Safavid War, Ismail Mirza led the local Shirvani warriors into a great victory against the overnumbered Ottoman troops in the Eastern Anatolia. On 25 August 1548, Ismail led the ransack of Kars, killing civilians who had fled the chaos and disorder after the joint campaign of Alqas Mirza and the Ottonans. There, he faced an attempt to his life by the governor of the city. In retaliation, he ordered the massacre of the Ottoman prisoners and the razing of the Kars fortress. After a period of peace, in the winter of 1552, Ismail with 8000 men raided Erzurum and destroyed the Ottoman fortification near the city. The Ottoman commander and the governor of Erzurum, Iskandar Pasha, decided to fight Ismail's army before they reached the city. The battle ended in a stalemate, with Ismail retreating into the west and seemingly defeated. Iskandar Pasha followed Ismail and then was faced with a new Safavid army and was defeated with heavy casualties.

The victory in Erzurum brought Ismail fame and popularity among the Qizilbash but also started the third phase of the war with the Ottoman Empire and the Peace of Amasya, in which the Safavid lands in Mesopotamia were lost to the Ottomans. Even then, Ismail remained as a great military figure, who at a young age, successfully led skirmishes against the Ottomans.

Governor of Herat
In the autumn of 1555, Ismail married his cousin, Safieh Soltan Khanum, the daughter of Khanish Begum (Tahmasp's sister) and Shah Nur-al Din Nimatullah Baqi. The wedding ceremony took place in a mansion in the north of Tabriz. The couple were settled in Qazvin and were given the house previously owned by the shah's brother, Bahram Mirza. A lyrical poem in the same year indicates that Ismail felt pain and agony from his marriage and that he had lost the comfort of a male companion in Shirvan. From Safieh Soltan he had a daughter who later married Shah Khalil-Allah Kermani.

In Qazvin, Ismail spent many of his nights with his male lovers, and his homosexuality was an open secret. This contrasted Tahmasp's zealotry, however, he did not made any effort to stop Ismail until the winter of 1555 when it was reported that Ismail has broken a leg during an outing with his male companion. The incident further infuriated Tahmasp of his son, and in 3 April 1556, he sent Ismail to Herat to govern there instead of Mohammad Khodabanda. Ismail entered Herat in June and was greeted by his brother. Mohammad Khan Sharaf al-Din Ogli Takalu was appointed as his lala.

Ismail's short tenure as the governor saw the return of many Sunni scholars who had fled Khorasan, to their homeland. His pro-Sunni policies were soon to be exploited by his enemies in Qazvin who used this to persuade Tahmasp to recall him from Khorasan. However, the main reason for his ousting was Ogli Takalu's bitter fraud with his elder son, Zayn-al-Din Ali Sultan, a close companion to Ismail, that prompted Tahmasp to recall his son from Herat in less than two years. Zayn-al-Din was later tortured to death on the account of accompanying Ismail in his flinging with consenting young boys.

Imprisonment
While Ismail was returning to Qavin, Tahmasp ordered his allies in the court to be eliminated, including a chief of Bayat tribe and two Zul al-Qadr emirs. Moreover, Tahmasp also did not allow Ismail to enter Qazvin and instead, ordered his arrest in Saveh. Different reason are suggested for this act by the shah, main among them being Tahmasp's paranoia of Ismail's popularity; Ismail's recurrent attacks on the Ottoman borderlands and lastly, Tahmasp's outrage on Ismail's homosexuality and addiction to drugs. It didn't take long before the shah ordered the imprisonment of Ismail in the Qahqaheh Castle in 1557, where he remained imprisoned for nineteen years. Tahmasp seems to be influenced by his grand vizier, Ma'sum Beg Safavi, who was also the lala to Haydar Mirza, his favourite son, to take this decision.

Ismail's gaolers were changed every two years to prevent them from becoming intimate to Ismail and developing sympathy towards him. Reportedly, during the initial period of his imprisonment, he was kept in shackles, but later he was given more freedom of action as he could walk to the castle's courtyard and return to his jail as he wished. However, in the rubāʿiyāt (quatrains) attributed to Ismail, he laments of his incarceration in Qahqaha, ascribing it to his foes’ resentment at his prowess and insight. His addiction to drugs increased greatly during his imprisonment, to the point when he consumed 47 misqal, equivalent to 199.75 grams of grain, of barsh, an antidote of opium, which he used while also taking opium.

While Ismail was in Qahqaha, the Qizilbash leaders confronted Tahmasp with the question of succession, who as of yet haven't appointed a crown prince. There was two candidates for a future king, one was Haydar Mirza, the shah's favourite son, supported by the Ustajlu tribe, Shaykhavand clan (related to Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili, the progenitor of the Safavid dynasty and hence the royal family in large) and the powerful court Georgian gholams (military slaves) and concubines, and the other candidate was Ismail, supported by Pari Khan Khanum, Tahmasp's influential daughter and the other Qizilbash tribes such as Afshar, Qajar and Rumlu. In 1571, there was an incident against Ismail. In that year, Haydar Mirza wrote a letter to the castellan of Qahqaha Castle, requesting him to eliminate Ismail. Pari Khan Khanum found out about this plan and informed Tahmasp. The king who still held affection towards Ismail, ordered Afshar musketeers to guard his jail in case of an assassination attempt.

Familial purge
Tahmasp I died in 15 May 1576 from accidental poisoning. Immediately, Haydar Mirza proclaimed himself as the new king and put Tahmasp's crown atop his head, however, he did not found the time to assert his authority for at the same day the qurchis (the loyal bodyguards) who were of the pro-Ismail faction, isolated him from his supporters and killed him. On 31 May 1576, thirty thousand Qizilbash cavalrymen assembled before Qahqaheh Castle, demanding the release of Ismail, who accepted to come out of his jail only after hearing all of them pledge royalty to him. On 1 September 1576, Ismail entered Qazvin and ascended the throne as Ismail II. A coronation party was held in the Chehel Sotun palace of Qavin in the presence of his brothers, cousins, court bureaucrats, religious dignitaries, Qizilbash tribal and military chiefs and the Georgian Bagrationi princes. Ambassadorial missions and gifts from the Ottoman empire, the Nizam Shahi sultanate of Deccan, and the Portuguese also arrived for the ceremony. The khuba of the accession was read by Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, a Sunni clergyman chosen by Pari Khan Khanum, who was later appointed by Ismail as the sadr-i mamalik (minister of the religion). Moreover, a few days after his coronation, Ismail appointed Mirza Shokrollah Isfahani, as his grand vizier, Shahrokh Khan Zul al-Qadr, his former cellmate, as chief military prosecutor or divanbeygi and Mirza Mohammad Ma'muri, a bureaucrat shunned by Tahmasp, as his chief scribe or monshi.

During three months after his enthronement, a date insisted by Ismail for an auspicious day, he not only ordered the execution of the pro-Haydar faction members of the court, but also shown hostility towards his own supporters. He executed people whose only crime was having a position during Tahmasp's reign, and soon it was clear that Ismail, his mind affected by the long imprisonment, wanted to stay at power in any cost. Hence, the eighteen month of his rule became one reign of terror even unusual for the period's standards. Ismail, no doubt mindful of the earlier threats of Alqas Mirza and Sam Mirza, Tahmasp's brothers, posed as the crown claimants, ordered the purge of his brothers in the most merciless cruelty: in 9 November 1576, Suleiman Mirza was beheaded in Qazvin. Following his death, Ismail's younger brothers and cousins, Mahmud Mirza, Imam Qoli Mirza, Ahmad Mirza were put to death. Two days after their execution, in 5 March 1577, Ismail ordered the death of his cousin, Prince Ibrahim Mirza, the most prominent Safavid Prince and Ismail's chief judge. As a result of his brutality, Prince Mohammad Hossein Mirza raised arms against Ismail in the remote region of Kandahar but was soon eliminated by Ismail's agents in the city. His uprising only helped feeding Ismail's paranoia and insanity. According to Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, in some cases of this mass murder, Ismail was unwilling to kill some of his kin, example being Badi-al Zaman Mirza, his cousin, who was murdered in Sistan, but Makhdum after long discussion had convinced the shah that the act was necessary. Of all his kinsmen, only Mohammad Khodabanda, his blind brother, and his three toddler sons survived this purge.

Death
After Ismail was reassured of the safety of his position, he took the drastic measure of reversing the imposition of Shi'ism in Iran and reintroducing the Sunnism faith, an act followed by the harassment of the Shi'ia scholars. A reason suggested for this action was Ismail's hatred of his father and his desire to do anything in the opposite of what Tahmasp saw fit, namely the zealously practice of the Shi'ia tradition by Tahmasp. Ismail sought out individuals who could help disassemble the established Shi'ia hegemony, which had emerged under his father. His principal target was Mir Seyyid Hossein Al-Karaki, Sheikh al-Islam of Isfahan, but others such as the militant Shi'ias from Astrabad, the new qazi-i mu'asker and even Makhdum Shirazi were also harassed and put under arrest. He organised a set of qurchis (loyal bodyguards) to counter those who were loyal to al-Karaki. Moreover, he also had the khalifa al-khulifa, Bulgar Khalifa, beaten and shamed for not endorsing Ismail's measures, and arrested and executed his son, Nur Ali Khalifa in 24 February 1577, along with a number of high-profile Qizilbash leaders.

Pari Khan Khanum, ismail's sister, felt a lack of appreciation for helping enthroning Ismail. She was house arrested in her room, her guards were increased and her belongings were confiscated, thus making her resentful of her brother. Furthermore, Ismail's pro-Sunni policies and rumours of him being a Sunni himself alarmed the Qizilbash leaders. On the night of 24 November 1577, Ismail consumed slices of poisoned opium before getting to bed with his male companion, a young boy named Hassan Beg. Next morning, the courtiers found him dead, cradled by his male lover. On the morning of Monday 25 November 1577, Ismail's body was buried in the shrine of Imamzadeh Hossein in Qazvin. He was succeeded by his brother, Mohammad Khodabanda, and his infant son was killed in the former's coronation.

Coinage
During Ismail's short reign, the coin production became increasingly centralised as the number of mints decreased to twenty. The silver shahi coin under his reign weighed 2.30g (i.e., a half-mesqal) and his monetary also continued to use larins, inherited from Larestan and tankas (a common currency rooted in Indian subcontinent). His copper coins were not issued to the public, but the texts on it were different from those of his father, namely, the recurrent insistence on minting Ismail's takhallus (pen name), Adeli.

On Ismail's inaugural coins a part of Attar's poem, "‘From the east to the west, if there is an Imam/Ali and his family are everything to us!", is minted. This is seen as part of his Sunni proclivities because he wasn't comfortable with the phrase "There is no deity but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God. Ali is the vicegerent of God", previously minted in the Safavid coins because the phrase regarding Ali contrasted with his Sunni beliefs.