Qizilbash or Kizilbash[Note 1] were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman[1] Shia militant groups that flourished in Azerbaijan (Iran),[2][3] Anatolia, the Armenian highlands, the Caucasus from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty in early modern Iran.[4][5]
By the 18th-century, anyone involved with the Safavid state—militarily, diplomatically, or administratively—came to be broadly referred to as "Qizilbash". It was eventually applied to some inhabitants of Iran.[6] In the early 19th-century, Shia Muslims from Iran could be referred as "Qizilbash", thus highlighting the influence of the distinctive traits of the Safavids, despite the Iranian shah (king) Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834) simultaneously creating a Qajar dynastic identity grounded in the pre-Islamic past.[7]
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