Hasan-e Sabbah and other Isma'ilites in Iran have refused to recognize the new Fatimid caliph in Cairo and have transferred their allegiance to his deposed elder brother, Nizar, and the latter's descendants.

There thus will grow up the sect of the Nizari Isma'ilites, who are at odds with the Fatimid caliphs in Cairo and are also deeply hostile to the 'Abbasids.

The Nizaris will make many changes in Isma'ilite doctrine, the most significant, from the point of view of the outside world, being the adoption of terrorism as a sacred religious duty.

From Alamut, by the end of the eleventh century, Hasan, as grand master or leader of the sect, commands a chain of strongholds all over Iran and Iraq, a network of propagandists, a corps of devoted terrorists, and an unknown number of agents in enemy camps and cities.

The Seljuq sultanate's attempts to capture Alamut fail, and soon the Assassins are claiming many victims among the generals and statesmen of the 'Abbasid caliphate, including two caliphs.

(This group, joining with Sabbah's terrorists, becomes known in the West as Assassins, a designation that derives from the Arabic “hashashin”, meaning “users of hashish”, based on stories—unconfirmed in any Ismaili sources—related by Marco Polo and others that the group employs hallucinatory drugs to stimulate them to their murderous acts.)

Tahmasp I, Safavid ruler of Iran, had regularized relations with the Ottoman Empire through the Peace of Amasya in 1555. Amicable relations have continued between the Iranian shah and Selim II.

Tahmasp falls ill in 1574, and discord breaks out among the Qizilbash once more, this time over which prince is to succeed him.

The shah's Georgian and Circassian wives have also introduced a new faction into the court.

Seven of Tahmasp's surviving sons are by Georgian or Circassian mothers and two by a Turcoman.

Of the latter, Mohammed Khodabanda is regarded as unfit to rule because he is almost blind, and his younger brother, Ismail, has been imprisoned by Tahmasp since 1555.

One court faction nevertheless supports Ismail, while another backs Haydar Mirza, the son of a Georgian.

Tahmasp himself is believed to favor Haydar but he prevents his supporters from killing Ismail.

Anarchy has followed the death of Shah Tahmasp I in 1576, and a civil war seems to be developing, leading the Ottoman Turks to believe the Persians can at last be conquered.

The weak rule of the Persian Shah, the semiblind Soltan Mohammad, has allowed usurpation by the amirs, or chiefs, of the Turkmen tribes, who have brought the Safavids to power and still constitute the backbone of Safavid military strength.

Moreover, the intertribal factionalism of these Turkmens (known as Kizilbash [Red Heads] because of the distinctive red headgear that they have adopted to mark their adherence to the Safavids) has so weakened the state that its traditional enemies, the Ottoman Turks to the west and the Uzbeks to the east, have been able to make large inroads into Persian territory.

Safavid court painter Mirza 'Ali, a native of western Iran, was a son of the painter Sultan Muhammad, who was one of his teachers.

A master of line, Muhammadi (so called after his great father) had begun to paint while still young.

The surviving examples of his work were executed between the 1530s and the 1580s, an unusually long period of activity.

He has worked on some of the greatest Safavid manuscripts, including Tahmasp I's Shah-nameh and the Khamseh (1539–43) of Nezami.

His debt to the Herat painters of the school of Behzad is clear, but he is best known for a calligraphic, wiry line and a mannered, almost expressionist, personal style.

This assertion of the individuality of the painter marks Safavid painting hereafter.

Like his contemporaries, Muhammadi signs few of his paintings.

Shah 'Abbas, the third son of Soltan Mohammad Shah, had come to the throne at a critical moment in the fortunes of the Safavid dynasty, faced with two immediate tasks: to reassert the authority of the monarchy and to expel Ottoman and Uzbek troops from Persian soil.

Under his weak-willed father, the country had been riven with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who had killed Abbas' mother and elder brother.

In October 1587, one of the Qizilbash leaders, Murshid Qoli Khan, had overthrown Shah Mohammed in a coup and placed the sixteen-year-old Abbas on the throne.

Meanwhile, Iran's enemies, the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbeks, have exploited this political chaos to seize territory for themselves.

The Ottomans win successes at ...

...forcing the Persians to enter peace talks.

Murshid Qoli Khan, the "kingmaker", has made Abbas marry Hamza's widow and a Safavid cousin, and begun distributing important government posts among his own friends, gradually confining Abbas to the palace.

Abbas is no puppet, however: he first settles his score with his mother's killers, executing four of the ringleaders of the plot and exiling three others.

His next task is to free himself from the power of Murshid.

The Uzbeks continue their conquest of Khorasan.

When Abbas hears they are besieging his old friend Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu in Herat he pleads with Murshid to take action.

Fearing a rival, Murshid does nothing until the news comes that Herat has fallen and the Uzbeks have slaughtered the entire population.

Only then does he set out on campaign to Khorasan.

Abbas, planning to avenge the death of Ali Qoli Khan, suborns four Qizilbash leaders to kill Murshid after a banquet on July 23, 1589.

With Murshid gone, Abbas can now rule Iran in his own right.

...leads Shah ‘Abbas, who he is unable to fight a war on two fronts simultaneously, to sign a humiliating peace treaty with the Ottomans on May 21, thus freeing himself for an offensive against the Uzbeks.

The treaty of Ferhat Pasha, named for the commander of the Ottoman forces, cedes to the Ottomans large areas in west and northwest Persia, including the provinces of Azerbaijan, Karabagh, Ganja and Qarajadagh as well as parts of Georgia, Luristan and Kurdistan.

The Qizilbash, a coalition of many different peoples of predominantly (but not exclusively) Turkic-speaking Azerbaijani background, united in their adherence to the Safavid doctrine of Shiism, have provided the backbone of the Iranian army from the very beginning of Safavid rule; they also occupy many posts in the government.

To counterbalance their power, Abbas has turned to another element in Iranian society, the ghulams (a word literally meaning "slaves").

These are Georgians, Armenians and Circassians who have converted to Islam and taken up service in the army or the administration.

Abbas promotes such ghulams to the highest offices of the state.

They include the Georgian Allahverdi Khan, who becomes leader of the ghulam regiments in the army as well as governor of the rich province of Fars.

Abbas has removed provincial governorships from some Qizilbash leaders and transferred Qizilbash groups to the lands of other Qizilbash tribes, thus weakening Qizilbash tribal unity.

Budgetary problems have been resolved by restoring the shah's control of the provinces formerly governed by the Qizilbash chiefs, the revenues of which supplement the royal treasury.