ABSTRACT
At that time the Daseni territory extended to the southeast as far as Adiabene, the region between the Great and Lesser Zab rivers, where they feuded with their traditional enemies, the Soran.
Ismail Safawi, the first modern Shah of Persia, was hereditary master of a Sufi fraternity centred in Ardebil, a city in Azerbaijan. His teachings, based on the Shia form of Islam, gained a wide following among the Turks of eastern Anatolia and inspired a flow of fanatical recruits for his army. In 1501 the twenty-four-year-old Ismail, victorious over his enemies, was proclaimed Shahanshah - the first king of kings since Y ezdegerd had fled the country over 800 years before. Within a few years Ismail had conquered Persia, Iraq and all of Anatolia east of the Euphrates. Diyarbakir was taken in 1507, Baghdad and Mosul in the following year.
