Visit #azerbaijan #baku

The statue of Shah Ismayil Khatai, the founder and first king of the Safavid state, who ascended the throne in 1501 in Tabriz (Now Iran), the ancient city of Azerbaijan, and declared Azerbaijani Turkish as the state language. It was erected in Baku, in 1993, on Yusif Safarov Street.

The dynasty founded by Ismail I would rule for over two centuries, being one of the greatest Iranian empires and at its height being amongst the most powerful empires of its time, ruling all of present-day Iran, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, most of Georgia, the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, as well as parts of modernday Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. It also reasserted the Iranian identity in large parts of Greater Iran. The legacy of the Safavid Empire was also the revival of Iran as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon ”checks and balances”, its architectural innovations, and patronage for fine arts.