The Safavid dynasty is one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Persia (modern Iran) after the fall of the Sasanian Empire—following the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century CE.

The Safavid shahs rule over one of the so-called gunpowder empires.

They rule one of the greatest Persian empires after the Muslim conquest of Persia and establish the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in Muslim history.The Safavid dynasty has its origin in the Safaviyya Sufi order, which ias established in the city of Ardabil in the Azerbaijan region.

It is of mixed ancestry (Kurdish and Azerbaijani, which includes intermarriages with Georgian, Circassian, and Pontic Greek dignitaries).

From their base in Ardabil, the Safavids establish control over parts of Greater Iran and reassert the Iranian identity of the region, thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sasanian Empire to establish a unified Iranian state.

The Safavids rule from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736) and, at their height, they control all of modern Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Armenia, most of Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.Despite their demise in 1736, the legacy that they leave behind is the revival of Persia as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon "checks and balances", their architectural innovations and their patronage for fine arts.

The Safavids also leave their mark down to the present era by spreading Shi'a Islam in Iran, as well as major parts of the Caucasus, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia.