Karabakh
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Karabakh is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras. It is divided into three regions: Highland Karabakh, Lowland Karabakh, and the eastern slopes of the Zangezur Mountains.
A landscape in Nagorno-Karabakh - a view of the municipality of Karmir Shuka
Persian miniature depicting Shah Abbas the Great hunting in Karabakh. From an illustrated history created in 17th-century Safavid Iran
Safavid Iran
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Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia, also referred to as the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and long-standing Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history, as well as one of the gunpowder empires. The Safavid Shāh Ismā'īl I established the Twelver denomination of Shīʿa Islam as the official religion of the empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.
Ismail declares himself "Shah" by entering Tabriz; his troops in front of Arg of Tabriz, painter Chingiz Mehbaliyev, in private collection.
One of the first actions performed by Shāh Ismā'īl I of the Safavid dynasty was the proclamation of the Twelver denomination of Shīʿa Islam as the official religion of his newly-founded Persian Empire, causing sectarian tensions in the Middle East when he destroyed the tombs of the Abbasid caliphs, the Sunnī Imam Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān, and the Ṣūfī Muslim ascetic ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī in 1508.
Ismail's battle with Uzbek warlord Muhammad Shaybani Khan in 1510, on a folio from the Kebir Musaver Silsilname. After the battle Ismail purportedly gilded the skull of Shaybani Khan for use as a wine goblet.