An analysis of the shift of Shah Abbas I's religious policy from Sufism to Shiism

The establishment of the Safavid government was due to the association of the Ghezelbash Sufis with the Safavid dynasty and the continued reliance of this family on the support of the Ghezelbashan could have led to the superiority of the Ghali Sufi thought over the Shiite followers. The followers of the Safavid sect imagined a transcendental image of the Shah that was inconsistent with the theory of the general representation of the jurists in order to manage affairs in the time of the Absent Imam. This attitude evolved from the beginning of Safavid rule until the rise of Shah Abbas I, and eventually led to a change in the legitimacy of the Shah from the religious way to the religious law. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the religious policy of Shah Abbas changed and the main question is what were the reasons for the change of Sufi to Shiite religious attitude in the period of Shah Abbas? It is assumed that this change intensified during the reign of Shah Abbas, and the results of this study show that the change of Shah Abbas's religious policy was due to the strengthening of the ulema as representatives of Sharia. The approach of this article is to emphasize the change in the historical course of Shiism and Sufism, which eventually convert the interaction between them into conflict.