Thinking More Historically about Islam and Violence? A Case Study of the Early Safavid Dynasty

This paper challenges widespread assumptions about the role of violence in establishing Twelver Shiʿism as Iran’s official religion, by presenting the first systematic overview in scholarship of the early Safavid dynasty’s Sufi teachings (until 1524) and thereby refuting common claims of its supporters’ uniquely “militant” or “extremist” Shiʿite beliefs.  Considered alongside centuries of precedent in military activities by similar nomadic groups, I show that the Safavids’ use of violence was neither particularly exceptional nor inherently “religious,” offering a less sensational interpretation of their armed enforcement of public Shiʿism better contextualized by their history.  Responding to Smith, Asad, Cavanaugh and others, my analysis suggests that a limited rehabilitation of Hodgson’s concept of the “secular” in Islamic history, particularly related to military and administrative practices, may advance more historically grounded theorizations of violence and sectarianism in Islam capable of continued growth in responsiveness to contemporary concerns without being artificially constrained by them.