Prostration (sijdah) to the Shah in the Shah Isma il I (1501-1523) and ShahTahmasb I's (1523-1576) court; base on sources of 10th and early 11th century

The establishment of the Safavid dynasty at the beginning of the 16th century took place simultaneously with the emergence of the Uzbeks in Transoxiana and the expansion of the Ottoman’s Asian empire in the western boarders. Meanwhile the policies of the Safavids for the propagation of Shi’ism as an official religion created a good situation for the Uzbeks and the greedy Ottomans to legitimize their regional and political claims in the shadow of religious differences. In addition to the political and military conflicts, a number of official and unofficial written works can be identified against the Safavid religious policies and the spreading of the so called raddiyahs. This article assesses one of the subjects appearing in such works which the official histories of the Safavids in the 16th and the early 17th century have no information about. These events tell that the Safavid kings ordered their subjects to prostrate before them when they came to their courts. In the article first rate information for and against this action are applied, then present roots and cues of this ceremony will be identified. The argument here is that this ceremony of sijdah was a tradition between Turks of Central Asia for respecting human characters, which Qizilbashs brought with themselves from Minor Asia to the Safavid court, where it became a custom while entering the Shah’s presence.