In order to relieve himself of potential claimants, Ismail purged all the male members of the royal family, except for his full-brother, Mohammad Khodabanda and his three sons.

On 24 November 1577, Ismail unexpectedly died from unknown reasons, but the general view was that he was poisoned by either Pari Khan Khanum or the Qizilbash leaders.

[1] His mother was from the Mawsillu clan of the Qizilbash and was the sister of Musa Sultan, the governor of Tabriz, who is sometimes confused with Sultanum's father, Isa Khan, who was Tahmasp's maternal uncle.

[1] There, Ismail faced a rebellion by a claimant to the Shirvanshah's throne and Tahmasp's nephew, Burhan Ali, son of Khalilullah II; he was evidently supported by the Ottoman Empire.

[1] In 1547, during the Ottoman–Safavid War, Ismail Mirza led the local Shirvani warriors into a great victory against the overnumbered Ottoman troops in the Eastern Anatolia.

[4] On 25 August 1548, Ismail led the ransack of Kars, killing civilians who had fled the chaos and disorder after the joint campaign of Alqas Mirza and the Ottonans.

[9] In the autumn of 1555, Ismail married his cousin, Safieh Soltan Khanum, the daughter of Khanish Begum (Tahmasp's sister) and Shah Nur-al Din Nimatullah Baqi.

[1] Tahmasp seems to be influenced by his grand vizier, Ma'sum Beg Safavi (who was also the lala to Haydar Mirza, his favourite son) to take this decision.

There was two candidates, one was Haydar Mirza, the shah's favourite son, supported by the Ustajlu tribe, Shaykhavand clan (related to Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili, the progenitor of the Safavid dynasty and hence the royal family in large) and the powerful court Georgian gholams (military slaves) and concubines.

[20] The other candidate was Ismail, supported by Pari Khan Khanum, Tahmasp's influential daughter and the other Qizilbash tribes such as Afshar, Qajar and Rumlu.

[1] A coronation party was held in the Chehel Sotun palace of Qavin which was attended by his brothers, cousins, court bureaucrats, religious dignitaries, Qizilbash tribal and military chiefs and the Georgian Bagrationi princes.

[26] The khutba of the accession was read by Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, a Sunni clergyman chosen by Pari Khan Khanum, who was later appointed by Ismail as the sadr-i mamalik (minister of the religion).

[1] Three months after his enthronement, on a day that Ismail insisted was auspicious, he not only ordered the execution of the pro-Haydar faction members of the court, but also showed hostility towards his own supporters.

He executed people whose only crime was having a position during Tahmasp's reign, and soon it was clear that Ismail, his mind affected by the long imprisonment, wanted to stay in power at any cost.

[1] After Ismail was reassured of the safety of his position, he took the drastic measure of reversing the imposition of Shi'ism in Iran and reintroducing the Sunnism faith, an act followed by the harassment of the Shi'ia scholars.

His principal target was Mir Seyyid Hossein Al-Karaki, Sheikh al-Islam of Isfahan, but others such as the militant Shi'ias from Astrabad, the new qazi-i mu'asker and even Makhdum Shirazi were also harassed and put under arrest.

[35] Pari Khan Khanum's status after Ismail's coronation was enhanced greatly; the nobility paid her obeisance and many of prominent courtiers sought her patronage and assistance.

[37] Shortly after, he put Pari Khan Khanum under house arrest in her room, and had her guards increased and her belongings confiscated, thus making her resentful of her brother.

[38] On the night of 24 November 1577, Ismail consumed slices of poisoned opium before getting to bed with his male companion, a young boy named Hassan Beg.

[1] The modern historian, Hans Robert Roemer, regards Ismail's policy as disastrous, whereas Colin P. Mitchell describes his administration as assertive and fruitful.

The silver shahi coin under his reign weighed 2.30 grams (0.081 oz) (i.e., a half-mesqal) and his monetary also continued to use larins, inherited from Larestan and tankas (a common currency rooted in Indian subcontinent).

However, Mitchell rejects this line of argumentation, seeing the phrase as part of standard stock of Shi'ite expressions, one which even Ismail I, an unquestionably stringent partisan of Ali, had used in a letter to the Uzbek Khan in declaring victory.