Early Conversions to Islam: Difference between revisions

Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty in Persia, decreed Twelver Shia Islam to be the official religion of state and ordered executions of a number of Sunni intellectuals who refused to accept Shiism.<ref>{{Cite book|authors=Savory, R.M., Gandjeï, T.| year=2012 | title=Ismāʿīl I|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam| edition=2nd|publisher=Brill |editors=P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs|volume=4|page=186}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| author=H.R. Roemer| entry=The Safavid Period |title=The Cambridge History of Iran|volume=Volume 6|publisher=Cambridge University Press |ref=harv |year=1986 |editors=William Bayne Fisher, Peter Jackson, Lawrence Lockhart|page=218}}</ref> Non-Muslims faced frequent persecutions and at times forced conversions under the rule of his successors.<ref>Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-00807-8}}. p.52</ref> Thus, after the capture of the Hormuz Island]], [[Abbas I of Persia|Abbas I]] required local Christians to convert to Islam, [[Abbas II of Persia|Abbas II]] granted his ministers authority to force Jews to become Muslims, and Sultan Husayn decreed forcible conversion of Zoroastrians.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Lapidus | first = Ira M. | authorlink=Ira M. Lapidus | title = A History of Islamic Societies | publisher = Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition) | year = 2014| isbn=978-0-521-51430-9 | pages=385–386}}</ref> In 1839, during the [[Qajar]] era the Jewish community in the city of Mashhad was attacked by a mob and subsequently forced to convert to Islam.<ref name="JadidAlIslam">{{cite web|first=Jaleh |last=Pirnazar |url=http://www.fis-iran.org/en/irannameh/volxix/mashhad-jewish-community |title=The "Jadid al-Islams" of Mashhad |work=Foundation for Iranian Studies |location=Bethesda, MD, USA |publisher=Foundation for Iranian Studies |accessdate=2012-11-13}}</ref>