al-Hasani
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Safavids are being viewed in the Sunni Arab culture as "intolerable evil". Needless to say that the reason is their massive conversion of Iranians to Shiasim -- or may be to en extreme version of it as Ali Shariti have thoroughly explained in his books.
Obviously, the conversion has caused a tremendous and ever lasting pain on the Sunni "campaign".
To this day, the word "Safavid" is being used as a slur when being mad at a Shia
whether an Iranian shia or Arab shia.
Because of the Safavids attack on Iraq and the massacres on Sunnis within Iran and outside of it. Some of the Safavid rulers were the "Al-Qaeda" of the Middle Ages in terms of their sectarianism and actual crimes. But other than that then I am sure they focused on literature, art, architecture etc. like any other dynasty forgetting most of the population. Same thing everywhere else back then.
Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From a nationalist point of view, if you are an Iranian, that does not care about religion and mostly only about your country, then they were obviously not bad.
One can ask themselves though whether those forced and violent conversions from Sunni Islam to Shia Islam have benefited Iran or will do it on the long run.
I would say no.