Ismail Crowned Shah of Persia

July 1501

After routing the Aq Qoyunlu at Sharur, the boy mystic Ismail rode into Tabriz and declared himself Shah of Iran. He proclaimed Twelver Shiism the state religion on pain of death, shattering centuries of Sunni rule and drawing a theological knife down the center of the Islamic world. His forced conversion of Iran's Sunni population to Twelver Shiism created the sectarian identity that defines Iran to this day.