Qizilbash

Qizilbash or Kizilbash were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the Armenian highlands, and the Caucasus from the late 15th century onwards, and contributed to the foundation of the Safavid dynasty in early modern Iran. By the 18th-century, anyone involved with the Safavid state—militarily, diplomatically, or administratively—came to be broadly referred to as "Qizilbash". It was eventually applied to some inhabitants of Iran. In the early 19th-century, Shia Muslims from Iran could be referred as "Qizilbash", thus highlighting the influence of the distinctive traits of the Safavids, despite the Iranian shah (king) Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834) simultaneously creating a Qajar dynastic identity grounded in the pre-Islamic past.