Positions of Ottoman Scholastics vs. Shi ism in Anatolia and the Invasion of Iran by Yavuz Selim

Since the rise the Safavid Shi’i government in Iran, Shi’ism has turned into a serious and important problem for the Ottomans, as well as the scholar class and the scholastics of the jurisdiction of this government. The spiritual influence of the Safavid household among a considerable part of the residents of Anatolia in this period has made the observers to conclude that this land had been on the verge of converting from Sunnism to Shi’ism. In circumstances this this important issue was interpreted as uselessness of propagative and scholastic activities of the past periods, the urgent solution in view of the majority of these scholastics was a violent confrontation by the Ottoman government with the groups advocating the Safavids in Anatolia. Thus, the famous and influential scholastics sought to create a psychological and propagational climate and employ the issuance of fatwas against the Shi’i-Safavids and thereby instigate the Ottoman government to engage in military confrontation against the Shi’as of Anatolia and the Safavids. Despite all these attempts, Bayezid II refused direct combat against the newly-established
Safavid Government and, while confronting with some Shi’i manifestations, imposed some restrictions on the advocates of the Safavids and Shah Isma’il. However, with the rise of Selim I to power and his political and personal motives for combat against the Shi’as and Safavids to establish his power, he succeeded in creating conditions in which the scholastics could prepare the ground for the Ottoman’s military invasion of Iran against the Shi’as. Accordingly, a part of the reasons for the occurrence of the Battle of Chaldiran should be sought in the positioning of the scholastics against the growth of Shi’ism in Anatolia and the rise of the Shi’i Safavid government.