Shiism in the Persian poetry of the Safavid Era

Shiism is an inseparable, strongly-rooted part of Islam. Shiism is the outcome of the conditions, factors, and events that took place after Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) demise and what happened in the first century after Hijrat. Saqifeh community, the third Caliph being killed, Siffin War events, the emergence of Khawarij and Imam Hussain’s (PBUH) martyrdom, and the emergence of Tavabyn have been among the effective factors in the formation of Shiism. From the very beginning of Shiism, Iranians were specifically interested in it, and during the centuries after Islam, Shia was active in some regions in Iran. It was not till the beginning of the tenth century that the Safavid Shah Ismail announced it to be the official religion of Iran and expanded it in most regions of the country. Along with these specific religious conditions in Iran, Persian literature, especially poetry that enjoyed Hindi- (Esfahani-) style in this period, experienced changes among which Panegyric and elegy related to the Shia’s Imams were considered as new issues, something which is more or less seen in the Divans of most of the poets. This paper tries to examine this phenomenon, that is, the influence of Shiism on the poetry of the Safasvid era.