302 chapter seven
the rest of Iran in the following few years. Ismàìl, who turned Twelver,
declared that the Shì"ah was the official religion of the new Persian
state, a religion which remained in Iran until the present day. Ismàìl,
or carrying the Persian title, Shah Ismàìl, embarked on a mission
to eliminate the Sunni opposition in Iran. His enthusiasm for oppos-
ing the Sunnis took him across his borders. In 1510 he drove the
Sunni Uzbecks out of Khurasàn forcing them north to the Oxus
and collided with the Ottomans in 1514, but to be defeated by
flul≈àn Salim I (1512–20) and as a result he had his capital Tibriz,
Mesopotamia, and Armenia occupied by the Turks. Soon the flafaw-
ids realized that extremism in opposing the Sunnis was futile. They,
instead, embarked on a programme of intellectual reforms where
Arab Shì"ah Ulama"were imported for the purpose of teaching the
people a more traditional form of Twelver Shi"ism (Armstrong, 2000).
In his programmes of reform, Shah Abbàs I (1588–1629), built
schools, madrasah, as centres of teaching and learning, where the
Ulama"would teach and reside, and he provided financial support
to both the teaching Ulama" and the learning candidates. Shah
Abbàs’s capital in Isfahan enjoyed a cultural renaissance, like that
of the Italian renaissance in Europe, drawing inspiration from Persian
culture, and with parks, palaces, and huge squares, imposing mosques
and madrasah, Isfahan was a magnificent city (ibid.). The flafawìd
madrasahhad generated several scholars and Ulama"whose views
have shaped the Iranian’s way of thinking until the present day. This
was in sharp contrast to the Ottomans who looked mainly towards
Western culture for modernization.
Role of Ulama"under the flafawids
Compared with their Sunni counterpart under the Ottomans, the
Shì"ah Ulama"under the flafawids had relatively more operational
autonomy. Although, they enjoyed the state’s financial support, like
their Sunni neighbours under the Ottomans, they managed somehow
to maintain their intellectual independence. As they were Arab Shì"ah
who were brought to shoulder the educational and legal responsibilities
of Shi"ism, they were inclined to confine themselves to these respon-
sibilities avoiding, at least for most of them, official government posi-
tions. Whether they as immigrants were particularly concerned about
taking up a rank that would unfavourably elevate them above the
native subjects, or they were genuinely keen on promoting the Shì"ah