Shah Ismail I of the Safavid dynasty declares Twelver Shia Islam the state religion of Persia in 1501 AD — one of the most consequential acts in Islamic history. Before the Safavids, Persia was predominantly Sunni. The forced conversion of the Persian population to Twelver Shia Islam over the following century creates the enduring Sunni-Shia geographical divide: a Shia crescent from Iran through Iraq to Lebanon, embedded within a predominantly Sunni world. The Safavids invited Shia scholars from Jabal Amil (Lebanon) and Bahrain to staff their religious institutions, since indigenous Persian Shia scholarship was limited. The great shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, the theological seminaries of Isfahan and Qom — all reach their full importance under and after Safavid patronage. The Ottoman-Safavid Wars (1514–1639 AD) are partly a Sunni-Shia conflict and permanently shape the borders of the modern Middle East.