structural:expansion
Rise of Shāh Ismāʻil I

The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501 by Shāh Ismā'īl I. His background is disputed: the language he used is not identical with that of his "race" or "nationality" and he was bilingual from birth. Ismāʻil was of mixed Turkoman, Kurdish, Pontic Greek, and Georgian descent, and was a direct descendant of the Ṣūfī Muslim mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din. Different historians have contending claims regarding the ethnic origin of Sheikh Safi al-Din. Hinz states that he was Arab, Ayalon claims he was Turkic, Kasravi asserts he was Iranian, and Togan argues he was Kurdish but had completely Turkified by the time of Shah Ismail. Savory and Gündüz have pointed out that the source text regarding Sheikh Safi al-Din's ethnic origin contains factual inaccuracies. According to Roemer, the Safavid Shah represented a lineage that combined both Turkmen and Iranian ancestry. Therefore, the question of whether the dynasty's founder, Sheikh Safi, was of Iranian, Kurdish, or Sayyid descent is irrelevant.