چکیده:
Religion is considered one of the key elements of national identity and has long played an important role in the cohesion of nations. This role-playing in pre-modern eras was more pervasive and, alongside government and political institutions, was a fundamental pillar. In Iran, a very close correlation between society and religion and its pillars and elements has existed from ancient times to the present, and the integrity and national independence of Iran have often been in the group of religious unity and the union of religion and state. In this article, an attempt has been made to explain the identity-building functions of the Shia religion in the Safavid era as a pillar of national identity. The formalization of the Shia religion and the establishment of a national state are two forgotten pillars of national identity that were completed with the Safavid revolution. The Shia religion has had six important functions in the direction of the formation of national identity: creating religious unity in the country, playing a role as a system of similarity and distinction; religious nationalism; preserving independence, creating a legal system, and a legitimacy-providing system for the Safavid government. Thus, the establishment of an independent, inclusive, and centralized national state of Iran, alongside the formalization of the Shia religion, led to the strengthening and growth of a common public culture throughout Iran, and these three determined the foundations for the re-creation of the national identity of Iranians. In this article, the identity-building function of the Shia religion as a pillar of national identity in the Safavid era has been examined.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The Shia religion has had six important functions in the direction of the formation of national identity: Creating religious unity in the country, playing a role as a system of similarity and distinction; religious nationalism; preserving independence, creating a legal system, and a legitimacy-providing system for the Safavid government.
Therefore, there is no doubt that the Shiite religion, both in terms of its jurisprudential and theological acceptance by various groups and classes of the Iranian people and due to the public inclination toward its social, cultural, and political movements, had become like a ripe fruit on the threshold of the Safavid emergence, ready to play a role and create a great revolution; consequently, if it had not been so, the two crushing powers of the Ottoman Turks and the Shaybanid Tatars could have destroyed this nascent movement during the same years of the formation of the Safavid movement and through successive wars.
In such a situation, although Iranians were recognized as a distinct ethnic group with their own specific culture, territory, language, and history, and both they and their neighbors were aware of these identity characteristics, they lacked two essential elements for the formation of a nation and national identity: first, an inclusive, centralized, and independent government, and second, religious unity throughout Iran; a religion that would be officially recognized by the government, elites, groups, and strata of the people.
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