1508-1534 - Safavid

On the decay of the power of the Persian Mongols a number of prominent chiefs and provincial governors asserted their independence. Of these the Jalayrs were the most powerful, and held the provinces of -'Irak and Adharbljan, in which they were succeeded by the Turkomans of the Black and White Sheep. The more eastern provinces were ruled by the Muzaffarids, but not without a severe struggle with Abii-Ishak and other members of the family of Mahmiid Shah Injfl, whose seat was Ispahan. In the north-east, Khurasan was for a time divided between the Sarbadarids and the Kart Maliks of Herat. Timur swept across Persia in 1384-93, and his descendants held part of the country for a century.

At the beginning of the 16th century Shah Isma'il the Safavid established his authority over all the provinces governed by the Timurids, Turkomans, and minor dynasties, and presently added Khurasan, since which time the modern kingdom of the Shahs of Persia has remained practically unchanged in its boundaries, save for some losses on the west to Turkey.

At the head of 80,000 horsemen and 40,000 foot, Selim marched upon Persia and forced the Shah to give battle at Chaldiran (1514), when the fine generalship of Sinan Pasha and the valour of the Janizaries won the day. Sellm entered Tabriz in triumph, and after annexing Diyar-Bakr and some surrounding districts abandoned the idea of further conquests in the East in favour of an invasion of Egypt. Erom this time onwards there have been frequent contests over the TurkoPersian frontier, and provinces in Georgia and Armenia have been taken and re-taken, but the general boundary has not greatly varied, except when Murad IV conquered Baghdad and annexed Mesopotamia to the Turkish Empire in 1638.