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The Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in the Twelver or Ithna-‘ashariyyah branch of Shī‘ah Islam. According to the theology of Twelvers, the successor of Muhammad is an infallible human individual who not only rules over the community with justice, but also is able to keep and interpret the Divine Law and its esoteric meaning. The Prophet and Imams' words and deeds are a guide and model for the community to follow; as a result, they must be free from error and sin, and must be chosen by divine decree, or nass, through the Prophet.<br/><br/> According to Twelvers, there is always an Imam of the Age, who is the divinely appointed authority on all matters of faith and law in the Muslim community. ‘Alī was the first Imam of this line, and in the Twelvers' view, the rightful successor to the Prophet of Islam, followed by male descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah Zahra. Each Imam was the son of the previous Imam, with the exception of Husayn ibn Ali, who was the brother of Hasan ibn Ali. The twelfth and final Imam is Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed by the Twelvers to be currently alive, and hidden until he returns to bring justice to the world.
Ismail I (July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil (Persian: شاه اسماعیل‎; full name: Abū l-Muzaffar bin Haydar as-Safavī), was Shah of Iran (1501-1524) and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Iranian Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, a Twelver Shia militant religious order, and unified all of Iran by 1509.<br/><br/> The dynasty founded by Ismail I would rule for two centuries, it was one of the greatest Persian empires after the Muslim conquest of Persia. It also reasserted the Iranian identity in Greater Iran, the revival of Persia as an economic power, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy, architectural innovation and their patronage for the fine arts.<br/><br/> Ismail played a key role in the rise of Twelver Islam; he converted much of Iran from Sunni to Shi'a Islam, importing religious authorities from the Levant. In Alevism, Shah Ismail remains revered as a spiritual guide.<br/><br/> Ismail was also a prolific poet who, under the pen name Khatā'ī (which means 'sinner' in Arabic) contributed greatly to the literary development of the Azerbaijani language. He also contributed to the literary development in Persian, though only a few specimens of his Persian verse have survived.
The Shi'ite cleric Allamah Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (1616–98) who devoted himself to the eradication of Sunnism in Iran. In the 17th century the Safavid state made major efforts to Persianize Shi'ite practice and culture in order to facilitate its spread in Iran among its Sunni populace. It was only under Majlisi that Shi'a Islam truly took hold among the Iranian masses.