It came to power in Azerbaijan with the aid of the "Red Heads" or Qizilbash and the official language was Azeri during the rule of Ismail I.  
Its first conquest, under the Sufi head of Ardabil, dispossed the Uzbek horde known as the "white sheep" of its future capital. It came to power in Azerbaijan with the aid of the "Red Heads" or Qizilbash and the official language was Azeri during the rule of Ismail I.  Its most powerful ruler hired an English military adventurer to train his ghulam slaves in modern musketry, take the offensive against the Ottomans, and expel the Portuguese traders who had settled at Hormuz. Interrupted briefly by Nadir Shah, then finally supplanted by the Zand and Qajar dynasties, it saw the movement of the capital from Tabriz to Isfahan. FTP, Shah Abbas I was a member of this Shi'ite Iranian dynasty that lasted from 1501 to 1760.
Its first conquest, under the Sufi head of Ardabil, dispossed the Uzbek horde known as the "white sheep" of its future capital.
Safavid dynasty