Here the Author offers her reflections on “the role of Shiism in Safavid Iran and its impact on the making of Iranian national identity”, more in the hope of stimulating discussion than with the ambition of giving definitive answers (pp. 307-308). Consequently, her “conclusions” are in fact hypotheses: that “Shiism as such did not play a significant role in the first Safavid period”, that is, that it did not alter a “traditional political behaviour” which was also common to Sunni rulers, and ...