Final answer:
The Safavid Empire intensified Sunni-Shia conflict by establishing Shia Islam as the state religion, enforcing conversions, and engaging in territorial conflicts with the Sunni-dominated Ottoman Empire, which went on to persist in the form of a long-standing sectarian divide.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Safavid Empire deepened the conflict between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam primarily through enforced religious conversion. When Shah Ismail I rose to power in 1501, he established Shia Islam as the state religion of Persia. Contrasting the primarily Sunni faith of the neighboring Ottoman Empire, this move pivoted the Safavids into a position of religious, as well as political, opposition to the Ottomans, which held the Sunni title of caliph. This religious polarity was further exacerbated by forced conversions of Sunnis to Shias within the Safavid Empire, a policy that intensified under Shah Ismail's rule. Sunni clerics and theologians faced conversion, exile, or death. These measures did not just convert individuals; they also planted the seeds of a divisive legacy between Shi'ism and Sunnism that persists to this day.
Shah Abbas I, another significant Safavid ruler, further fueled this conflict by bolstering the Persian military and pushing the Ottomans out of Western lands. These actions, paired with religious persecution from both empires against minority sects, stirred up fervor in Shi'ite minorities in Sunni lands, and vice versa, leading to a cycle of conflict and militarized rivalry. The conversion efforts undertaken by the Safavids facilitated a deep-rooted sectarian division that contributed significantly to the ongoing discord between Sunnis and Shias, transcending into contemporary times.