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Ismail II (; born Ismail Mirza; 31 May 1537 – 24 November 1577) was the third shah of Safavid Iran from 1576 to 1577. He was the second son of Tahmasp I with his principal consort, Sultanum Begum, an Aq Quyunlu princess. On the orders of Tahmasp, Ismail spent twenty years imprisoned in Qahqaheh Castle; whether for his recurrent conflicts with the realm's influential , or for his growing popularity with the Qizilbash tribes, resulting in Tahmasp becoming wary of his son's influence.
Tahmasp died In 1576 without a designated heir. Ismail, with the support of his sister, Pari Khan Khanum, overcame his opponents and usurped the crown. 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. In fear of the Qizilbash influence on the administration and the army, Ismail replaced them with people whom he trusted. Ismail belittled the Shia Islam scholars and sought spiritual guidance from the Sunni Islam ulama. This was perhaps out of spite for his father, who was a devoted Shi'ia.
Towards the end of his reign, Ismail shunned Pari Khan, and had her arrested, despite her efforts to make him king. 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. He was succeeded by his brother, the blind Mohammad Khodabanda. Contemporary historians considered Ismail as an irrational, perverted, and inept ruler, who brought the Safavid dynasty to the brink of collapse. However, a number of contemporary also portray him as a just king. Some modern historians regard his policies as disastrous and his personality as unusually ruthless, even by the period's standards.
The victory in Erzurum brought Ismail fame and popularity among the Qizilbash but also started the third phase of the war with the Ottoman Empire and the Peace of Amasya, in which the Safavid lands in Mesopotamia were lost to the Ottomans. Even then, Ismail remained in Qizilbash's memory as a renowned military figure, who at a young age, successfully led skirmishes against the Ottomans.;
In Qazvin, Ismail spent many of his nights with male lovers, and his homosexuality was an open secret. This contrasted with Tahmasp's Zealots; however, he did not try to stop Ismail until the winter of 1555, when it was reported that Ismail had broken a leg during an outing with his male companion.; The incident further infuriated Tahmasp with his son, and on 3 April 1556, he sent Ismail to Herat to govern there instead of Mohammad Khodabanda. Ismail entered Herat in June and was greeted by his brother. Mohammad Khan Sharaf al-Din Ogli Takalu was appointed as his lala.
Ismail's short tenure as the governor saw the return of many Sunni Islam scholars who had fled Khorasan to their homeland. His pro-Sunni policies were soon to be exploited by his enemies in Qazvin, who used this to persuade Tahmasp to recall him from Khorasan. However, the main reason for his ousting was Ogli Takalu's bitter feud with his elder son, Zayn-al-Din Ali Sultan, a close companion to Ismail, that prompted Tahmasp to recall his son from Herat in less than two years. Zayn-al-Din was later tortured to death on the account of accompanying Ismail in his sessions with young boys.
Ismail's gaolers were replaced every two years to prevent them from becoming intimate with Ismail and developing sympathy towards him. Reportedly, during the initial period of his imprisonment, he was kept in , but later he was allowed to walk to the castle's courtyard and return to his jail as he wished. However, in the rubāʿiyāt (quatrains) attributed to Ismail, he laments his incarceration in Qahqaha, ascribing it to his foes’ resentment at his prowess and insight. His addiction to drugs increased greatly during his imprisonment, to the point when he consumed 47 Mithqal, equivalent to of grain, of barsh, an antidote of opium, which he used while also taking opium.;
While Ismail was in Qahqaha, the Qizilbash leaders confronted Tahmasp with the question of succession, as he did not desire to appoint any of his sons as the crown prince. 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 Georgians Ghilman (military slaves) and concubines.;
The other candidate was Ismail, supported by Pari Khan Khanum, Tahmasp's influential daughter, and the other Qizilbash tribes such as Afshar people, Qajar and Rumlu.; In 1571, Ismail survived a conspiracy. That year, Haydar Mirza wrote a letter to the castellan of Qahqaha Castle, requesting him to eliminate Ismail. Pari Khan Khanum found out about this plan and informed Tahmasp. The king, who still held affection towards Ismail, ordered Afshar to guard his jail in case of an assassination attempt.
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. Ambassadorial missions and gifts from the Ottoman Empire, the Nizam Shahi sultanate of Deccan, and the Portuguese also arrived for the ceremony. The Khutbah of the accession was read by Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, a Sunni clergyman chosen by Pari Khan Khanum, who Ismail later appointed as the sadr-i mamalik (minister of the religion). Moreover, a few days after his coronation, Ismail appointed Mirza Shokrollah Isfahani as his grand vizier, Shahrokh Khan Zul al-Qadr, his former cellmate, as chief military prosecutor or divanbeygi and Mirza Mohammad Ma'muri, a bureaucrat shunned by Tahmasp, as his chief scribe or monshi.
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. Hence, the eighteen months of his rule became a reign of terror that was horrific even by the period's standards.
Ismail, no doubt mindful of the earlier threats that Alqas Mirza and Sam Mirza, Tahmasp's brothers, posed as the crown claimants, ordered the purge of his own brothers, who were mercilessly and cruelly killed: in 9 November 1576, Suleiman Mirza was beheaded in Qazvin. Following his death, Ismail's younger brothers and cousins, Mahmud Mirza, Imam Qoli Mirza, and Ahmad Mirza, were all put to death. Two days after their execution, on 5 March 1577, Ismail ordered the death of his cousin, Prince Ibrahim Mirza, the most prominent Safavid Prince and Ismail's chief judge.; ; As a result of his brutality, Prince Soltan Hosayn Mirza raised arms against Ismail in the remote region of Kandahar, but was soon eliminated by Ismail's agents in the city. His uprising only helped to feed Ismail's paranoia and insanity. According to Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, in some cases of this mass murder, Ismail was unwilling to kill some of his kin, an example being Badi-al Zaman Mirza, his cousin, who was murdered in Sistan. After a lengthy discussion, Makhdum convinced the shah that his death was necessary.; Of all his relatives, only Mohammad Khodabanda, his blind brother, and Mohammad's three infant sons survived this purge.
He organised a set of qurchis (loyal bodyguards) to counter those loyal to al-Karaki. Moreover, he also had the khalifa al-khulifa, Bulgar Khalifa, beaten and shamed for not endorsing Ismail's measures, and arrested and executed his son, Nur Ali Khalifa, on 24 February 1577, along with a number of high-profile Qizilbash leaders.
Pari Khan Khanum's status after Ismail's coronation was greatly enhanced; the nobility paid her obeisance, and many prominent courtiers sought her patronage and assistance.; Ismail was apparently displeased with the attention that his courtiers gave her and his sister's 'meddling' in the affairs of state. He reportedly asked the nobility, "Have you not understood, my friends, that interference in matters of state by women is demeaning to the king's honour?". Shortly after, he put Pari Khan Khanum under house arrest in her room, and had her guards increased. Her belongings were confiscated, thus making her resentful of her brother. Furthermore, Ismail's pro-Sunni policies and rumours of him being a Sunni himself alarmed the Qizilbash leaders.;
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. The next morning, the courtiers found him dead, cradled by the boy. Although at the time his death was regarded as natural, many historians have accused the Qizilbash leaders or Pari Khan Khanum of being responsible for his death.; On the morning of Monday 25 November 1577, Ismail's body was buried in the shrine of Imamzadeh Hossein in Qazvin. Soon afterwards, Ismail's infant son, the child of one of his concubines, was murdered. Ismail was succeeded by his blind brother, Mohammad Khodabanda.
On Ismail's inaugural coins a part of Attar's poem, "‘From the east to the west, if there is an Imam/Ali and his family are everything to us!", was minted. This was seen by Walther Hinz as part of his Sunni proclivities due to him not being comfortable with the phrase "There is no deity but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God. Ali is the Wali of God", previously minted in the Safavid coins because the phrase regarding Ali contrasted with his Sunni beliefs. 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.
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