Shi’i-Sunni Differences and the Emergence of the Ottoman-Iranian Border

Struggles for domination over the borderlands dividing Iran and the post-Ottoman states of Turkey and Iraq have a long history. Starting in early sixteenth century this borderland became the scene of wars of domination between the Sunni Ottoman and Shia Safavid states. This article suggests that the first fifty years of the destructive confrontations between these two states are of outmost importance for scholars and the general public trying to understand the dynamics of sectarianism that still informs the modern-day tensions in the Middle East. Moreover,this period is the foundational period of the formation of the Ottoman-Safavid frontier, a process that lasted for almost four hundred years. This article argues that sectarian and territorial boundary drawing went hand in hand and these processes should be studied together.