R Savory, "Ebn Bazzaz" in. [156], A proper term for the Safavid society is what we today can call a meritocracy, meaning a society in which officials were appointed on the basis of worth and merit, and not on the basis of birth. It was the Safavids who made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shiism, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood, acting as a bridge to modern Iran. After Uzun Hassan's death, his son Ya'qub felt threatened by the growing Safavid religious influence. Much of the early art was devoted to celebrating the glories of the earlier Iranian kingdom, and thus, by implication, making legitimate the Safavids as that kingdom's current heirs. From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigenous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. He moved the capital to Efahn and made it the centre of Safavid architectural achievement, manifest in the mosques Masjed-e Shh (renamed Masjed-e Emm after the 1979 Iranian Revolution), Masjed-e Sheikh Lofollh, and other monuments including the Al Qp, the Chehel Sotn, and the Meydn-i Shh. In describing the lady's clothing, he noted that Persian dress revealed more of the figure than did the European, but that women appeared differently depending on whether they were at home in the presence of friends and family, or if they were in the public. Following his conquest of Iran and Azerbaijan, Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni population. Realizing the limits of his military strength, Abbs made peace with the Ottomans on unfavourable terms in 1590 and directed his onslaughts against the Uzbeks. [110] Before he could begin to embark on the first stage, he needed relief from the most serious threat to the empire: the military pressure from the Ottomans. The two parties with their witnesses pleaded their respective cases, usually without any counsel, and the judge would pass his judgment after the first or second hearing. Blow; chapter: "English adventurers at the servise of Shah Abbas.". Beginning in 1526 periodic battles broke out, beginning in northwest Iran but soon involving all of Khorasan. "Iran and Pre-Independence Lebanon" in Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi. Moreover, Shah Abbas's conversion to a ghulam-based military, though expedient in the short term, had, over the course of a century, weakened the country's strength by requiring heavy taxation and control over the provinces. Efahn fell to the Ghilzai Afghans of Kandahr in 1722. (2009). While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. During his reign he had realized while both looking to his own empire and that of the neighboring Ottomans, that there were dangerous rivalling factions and internal family rivalries that were a threat to the heads of state. The Safavid Empire was built upon and thrived through continuous military conquest. The Mongol invasions that began in the 13th century drastically reconfigured the Islamic world. In 1527 Tahmsp demonstrated his desire by shooting an arrow at Div Soltn before the assembled court. Consequently, the vast majority of captives available in seventeenth-century Istanbul were "Rus'," most hailing from what is today Ukraine. 1. Georgians in the Safavid Administration", The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 16001730, "The Safavids and Mughal Relations with the Deccan States", "Persians and Shi'ites in Thailand: From the Ayutthaya Period to the Present", "Cetbang, Teknologi Senjata Api Andalan Majapahit", "CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS iv. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Next in line were the Master of the Royal Stables (Mirakor bashi) and the Master of the Hunt (Mirshekar bashi). Siege of Isfahan. The Safavid Empire's aggressive, and expansionist phase was explosive but brief, fizzling out as the limits of its military power came into focus - beginning with the crushing defeat against . Ruda Jurdi Abisaab. The Mughals adhered (for the most part) to a tolerant Sunni Islam while ruling a largely Hindu population. One of Shah Ismail's most important decisions was to declare that the state religion would be the form of Islam called Shi'ism, that at the time was completely foreign to Iranian culture. The Safavids also spent money to promote religion, making grants to shrines and religious schools. However, the Ottomans led more than twice as many troops as the Safavid army, and it said that the difference in troop strength made the difference between victory and defeat. Power passed to the Shi'a ulama (a religious council of wise men) which eventually deposed the Shahs and proclaimed the world's first Islamic Republic in the eighteenth century. (ed.). [209], In the period prior to Shah Abbas I, most of the land was assigned to officials (civil, military and religious). In the 16th century, the Turcophone Safavid family of Ardabil in Azerbaijan, probably of Turkicized Iranian, origin, conquered Iran and established Turkic, the language of the court and the military, as a high-status vernacular and a widespread contact language, influencing spoken Persian, while written Persian, the language of high literature and civil administration, remained virtually unaffected in status and content. BBC 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Ferrier, R. W.; A Journey to Persia: Jean Chardin's Portrait of a Seventeenth-century Empire; pp 7171. 113131. In fact, it was the founder of the Safavid Empire, Shah Ismail I, who forcibly converted Iran . "Greeks and Trkmens: The Pontic Exception", Peter Charanis. In 700/1301, Safi al-Din assumed the leadership of the Zahediyeh, a significant Sufi order in Gilan, from his spiritual master and father-in-law Zahed Gilani. Zabiollah Safa (1986), "Persian Literature in the Safavid Period". [25][26][27][28] It is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history,[29] as well as one of the gunpowder empires. When Abbas had a lively conversation in Turkish with the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, in front of his courtiers, he had to translate the conversation afterwards into Persian for the benefit of most of those present. After the death of Shah Abbs I (1629), the Safavid dynasty lasted for about a century, but, except for an interlude during the reign of Shah Abbs II (164266), it was a period of decline. Their hairstyle was simple, the hair gathered back in tresses, often adorned at the ends with pearls and clusters of jewels. On the death of Ismail II there were three candidates for succession: Shh Shuj', the infant son of Ismail (only a few weeks old), Ismail's brother, Mohammad Khodabanda; and Mohammads son, Sultan Hamza Mirza, 11 years old at the time. What was the basis of their military strength?, Discuss the religious and political issues that separated the Ottoman Turks and the Safavid Turks, two neighboring Islamic states, in the sixteenth century., By what steps did Shah Abbas achieve a strong and unified Safavid . This freed him of his dependence on Qizilbash warriors loyal to local tribal chiefs. A new age in Iranian architecture began with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. [83] Their formation, implementation, and usage was very much alike to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. Twelver Sha ruling dynasty of Iran (15011736), Genealogyancestors of the Safavids and its multi-cultural identity. And since agriculture accounted for by far largest share of tax revenue, he took measures to expand it. In 1585 two events occurred that would combine to break the impasse among the Qizilbash. The wealth from oil enabled him to head an opulent and corrupt court. Trade with the West and industry expanded, communications improved. Their religious policies, patronage . 1800 Time Period ( remember : 18th century = 1700s , and so on ) DOCUMENT WORK ( preliminary ) Main Idea Outside Evidence HAPP ( HIPP ) Document 1 Safavid military and militia were well trained and knew how to handle gunpowder weapons Document 2 Mughal empire invested a lot of money into different expenditures , paying a lot to their military Audience : Austrian Emperor Document 3 Ottoman . Ali Quli Khan Shamlu, the lala of Abbas and Ismail II's man in Herat proclaimed Abbas shah there April 1581. "[194] Lastly, due to the large amount of Georgians, Circassians, and Armenians at the Safavid court (the gholams and in the harem), the Georgian, Circassian and Armenian languages were spoken as well, since these were their mother tongues. Despite the predominantly Sunni character of this territory, he proclaimed Shiism the state religion and enforced its creed and prayers in the mosques of his dominion. 34, 597634. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century. Although the Uzbeks continued to make occasional raids into Khorasan, the Safavid empire was able to keep them at bay throughout its reign. [207], The Safavid economy was to a large extent based on agriculture and taxation of agricultural products. [82], Tahmsp also planted the seeds that would, unintentionally, produce change much later. Blow, David; Shah Abbas: The ruthless king who became an Iranian legend, pp. Examples of such were the trade and artisan guilds, which had started to appear in Iran from the 1500s. In Esposito, John L. Sir E. Denison Ross, Sir Anthony Sherley and his Persian Adventure, pp. Of these various movements, the Safavid Qizilbash was the most politically resilient, and due to its success Shah Ismail I gained political prominence in 1501. "[93] His conduct might also be explained by his drug use. A very strenuous form of exercise which the Persians greatly enjoyed was hunting. [3] The Safavids have also left their mark down to the present era by establishing Twelver Shsm as the state religion of Iran, as well as spreading Sha Islam in major parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, Caucasus, Anatolia, the Persian Gulf, and Mesopotamia. Then he turned against Iran's archrival, the Ottomans, recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq and the Caucasian provinces by 1616, all through the 16031618, marking the first grand Safavid pitched victory over the Ottomans. It is estimated that during Abbas' reign alone some 130,000200,000 Georgians,[176][124][123][125] tens of thousands of Circassians, and around 300,000 Armenians[177][178] had been deported and imported from the Caucasus to mainland Iran, all obtaining functions and roles as part of the newly created layer in society, such as within the highest positions of the state, or as farmers, soldiers, craftspeople, as part of the Royal harem, the Court, and peasantry, amongst others. Everything is either over-simplified or reduced to a wearisome incomprehensibility. Also, the camel was a good investment for the merchant, as they cost nearly nothing to feed, carried a lot weight and could travel almost anywhere. Thus Abbas was able to break dependence on the Qizilbash for military might indefinitely, and therefore was able to fully centralize control for the first time since the foundation of the Safavid state. [32] Sam Mirza, the son of Shah Ismail as well as some later authors assert that Ismail composed poems both in Turkish and Persian but only a few specimens of his Persian verse have survived. It was perhaps this sort of attitude towards the rest of the world that accounted for the ignorance of Persians regarding other countries of the world. Iranian rule had been fully restored over eastern Georgia, but the Georgian territories would continue to produce resistance to Safavid enroachments from 1624 until Abbas' death. Their rulers also focused a great deal of their attention on this. This would not change with the Arab conquest of Iran, and it was primarily the Persians that took upon them the works of philosophy, logic, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, music and alchemy. These series of wars were the result of expansionism and the desire for control of the Middle East by both sides, specifically the threat that the Safavids posed to Ottoman territory. His oldest son, the crown prince Mohammad Baqer Mirza, was executed following a court intrigue in which several Circassians were involved, while two others were blinded. [72] The victory resulted at least in part from Safavid use of firearms, which they had been acquiring and drilling with since Chaldiran.[73]. SURVEY . [139], More came of Abbas's contacts with the English, although England had little interest in fighting against the Ottomans. Thus Div Soltn emerged victorious in the first palace struggle, but he fell victim to Chuha Sultn of the Takkalu, who turned Tahmsp against his first mentor. [224][225][226], In the long term, however, the seaborne trade route was of less significance to the Persians than was the traditional Silk Road. The afav order at Ardabl, however, was distant enough from any political centre to remain neutral, allowing the Persian mystics to build a strong following of their own. Despite being based on urf, it relied upon certain sets of legal principles. [160] He considered them to be a well-educated and well-behaved people. [105] The Ustajlu chief, Murshid Quli Khan, immediately acquiesced and received a royal pardon. [3][5], The Safavid Kings themselves claimed to be sayyids,[16] family descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, although many scholars have cast doubt on this claim. "[254] Rudolph Matthee concluded that "though not a nation-state, Safavid Iran contained the elements that would later spawn one by generating many enduring bureaucratic features and by initiating a polity of overlapping religious and territorial boundaries. Whether Abbas had fully formed his strategy at the onset, at least in retrospect his method of restoring the shah's authority involved three phases: (1) restoration of internal security and law and order; (2) recovery of the eastern territories from the Uzbeks; and (3) recovery of the western territories from the Ottomans. It was a Turkish dialect, the dialect of the Qizilbash Turkomans, which is still spoken today in the province of Azerbaijan, in north-western Iran. The original name was just turki, and so a convenient name might be Turki-yi Acemi. Those who wrote in Persian were either lacking in proper tuition in this tongue, or wrote outside Iran and hence at a distance from centers where Persian was the accepted vernacular, endued with that vitality and susceptibility to skill in its use which a language can have only in places where it truly belongs. The ulama retained control of religious practice; and enforced the Sharia (Qur'anic Law) in personal and family matters. BACKGROUNDTHE SAFAVID SUFI ORDER. The relationship between the Turkic-speaking 'Turks' and Persian-speaking 'Tajiks' was symbiotic, yet some form of rivalry did exist between the two. John R. Perry, "Turkic-Iranian contacts", establishing Twelver Shsm as the state religion of Iran, a war with Iran that would last until 1590, Abbas I's Kakhetian and Kartlian campaigns, conquered the Hotaki's last stronghold in Kandahar, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Al-Hikma al-mutaaliya fi-l-asfar al-aqliyya al-arbaa, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, "Chronicling a Dynasty on the Make: New Light on the Early afavids in ayt Tabrz's, "Islamic Culture and Literature in Iran and Central Asia in the early modern period", "The emergence of the Safavids as a mystical order and their subsequent rise to power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries", "BARDA and BARDA-DRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran", "GEORGIA vii. Both were converts to Islamor in the process of conversion, in the case of the Mongolsand ruled over largely sedentary, and by now predominantly Muslim populations from whom they were ethnically and linguistically alienated. Corrections? After Saf al-Dn, the leadership of the Safaviyya passed to Sadr al-Dn Ms ( 794/139192). The impressive achievements of its 400,000 residents prompted the inhabitants to coin their famous boast, "Isfahan is half the world". This Bakhtrioni Uprising was successfully defeated under personal direction of Shah Abbas II himself. Each town had their own troop of wrestlers, called Pahlavans. The Safavid brotherhood was originally a religious group. With the substantial new revenue, Abbas was able to build up a central, standing army, loyal only to him. These three empires all had military strength, Sovereign Pride, Religious commitment, and Aesthetic sophistication in common to varying degrees. Stefan Sperl, C. Shackle, Nicholas Awde, "Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa", Brill Academic Pub; Set Only edition (February 1996), p. 193: "Like Shah Ni'mat Allah-i Vali he hosted distinguished visitors among them Ismail Safavi, who had proclaimed himself Shahanshah of Iran in 1501 after having taken Tabriz, the symbolic and political capital of Iran". Traditional pre-1501 Safavid manuscripts trace the lineage of the Safavids to the Kurdish dignitary, Firuz-Shah Zarrin-Kolah. Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw a flourishing growth of theological sciences. Religious poetry from Safi al-Din, written in the Old Azari language[42]a now-extinct Northwestern Iranian languageand accompanied by a paraphrase in Persian that helps its understanding, has survived to this day and has linguistic importance.[42]. [17] There seems now to be a consensus among scholars that the Safavid family hailed from Iranian Kurdistan,[5] and later moved to Iranian Azerbaijan, finally settling in the 11th century CE at Ardabil. They would adorn their clothes, wearing stones and decorate the harness of their horses. That is for the women and to get themselves in good form. When Abbas had a lively conversation in Turkish with the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle, in front of his courtiers, he had to translate the conversation afterwards into Persian for the benefit of most of those present. Compare The Safavid Empire To The Ottoman Empire. According to Willem Floor and Hasan Javadi,[250]. [48] Although Ismil was defeated and his capital was captured, the Safavid empire survived. The Safavid dynasty under Shah Ismail (961/1501) adopted Persian and the Shiite form of Islam as the national language and religion. [138], The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. This led to power being exercised through the highest officials of the ulama, the Ayatollahs. [83] This was a huge impedance for the authority of the Shah, and furthermore, it undermined any developments without the agreeing or shared profit of the Qizilbash. They began preaching Shi'a Islam. Safavid and Mughal Empires The decline of the Mongol Empire laid ground for the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. In the 15th century the brotherhood became more militarily aggressive, and waged a jihad (Islamic holy war) against parts of what are now modern Turkey and Georgia. Almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Safavid Empire, the Mughal Empire, founded by the Timurid heir Babur, was developing in South-Asia. Each magistrate executes justice in his own house in a large room opening on to a courtyard or a garden which is raised two or three feet above the ground. The Safavid and Ottoman empires are usually compared because of the wars that broke . Shortly afterwards, Bayezid was killed by agents sent by his own father.[81]. Iran's neighbors seized the opportunity to attack. The Safavid dynasty had its origin in the Safavid order of Sufism, which was established in the city of Ardabil in the Iranian Azerbaijan region. Quickly making a name as a military genius both feared and respected amongst the empire's friends and enemies (including Iran's archrival the Ottoman Empire, and Russia; both empires Nader would deal with soon afterwards), Nader Shah easily defeated the Afghan Hotaki forces in the 1729 Battle of Damghan. So absolute was his power, that the French merchant, and later ambassador to Iran, Jean Chardin thought the Safavid Shahs ruled their land with an iron fist and often in a despotic manner. Having started with just the possession of Azerbaijan, Shirvan, southern Dagestan (with its important city of Derbent), and Armenia in 1501,[60] Erzincan and Erzurum fell into his power in 1502,[61] Hamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman in 1504, Diyarbakir, Najaf, and Karbala in 1507, Van in 1508, Baghdad in 1509, and Herat, as well as other parts of Khorasan, in 1510. [49] Ismil was of mixed Turkoman, Kurdish, Pontic Greek, and Georgian descent, and was a direct descendant of the Kurdish f Muslim mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din. [118] Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. [134] For his part, Abbas declared that he "preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage. "afavid Dynasty". As the scale and frequency of Ottoman military successes declined, however, the proportion of slaves on the Ottoman market supplied by the Tatars increased. (This book was written by Ferdousi in 1000 AD for Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi) Another manuscript is the Khamsa by Nizami executed 15391543 by Aqa Mirak and his school in Isfahan. According to William Cleveland and Martin Bunton,[232] the establishment of Isfahan as the Great capital of Iran and the material splendor of the city attracted intellectual's from all corners of the world, which contributed to the city's rich cultural life. [74] The goal of the Ottomans in the 1534 and 15481549 campaigns, during the 15321555 OttomanSafavid War, was to install Tahmsp's brothers (Sam Mirza and Alqas Mirza, respectively) as shah in order to make Iran a vassal state. Ali was also venerated. R.M. In 1514, Sultan Selim I marched through Anatolia and reached the plain of Chaldiran near the city of Khoy, where a decisive battle was fought. Tasmsp at the same time removed his son Ismail from his Qizilbash followers and imprisoned him at Qahqaha. This latest leader would only last until 1534, when he was deposed and executed. "afavid Dynasty". [157] There even are numerous recorded accounts of laymen that rose to high official posts, as a result of their merits. He then went on to completely reduce the number of Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically moved qizilbash governors to other districts, thus disrupting their ties with the local community, and reducing their power. [48] His background is disputed: the language he used is not identical with that of his "race" or "nationality" and he was bilingual from birth. An important feature of the Safavid society was the alliance that emerged between the ulama (the religious class) and the merchant community. [2] Iran weakened appreciably during the reign of Ismls eldest son, Shah ahmsp I (152476), and persistent and unopposed Turkmen forays into the country increased under his incompetent successors. use of the Persian language. Listen The demise of Tamerlane's political authority created a space in which several religious communities, particularly Shii ones, could come to the fore and gain prominence. [218] In 1602, Shah Abbas I drove the Portuguese out of Bahrain, but he needed naval assistance from the newly arrived British East India Company to finally expel them from the Strait of Hormuz and regain control of this trading route. Henceforth a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin known as the Treaty of Zuhab was established delineating a border between Iran and Turkey in 1639, a border which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. In 1599, Abbas sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe. It rejected the use of reasoning in deriving verdicts and believed that only the Quran, hadith, (prophetic sayings and recorded opinions of the Imams) and consensus should be used as sources to derive verdicts (fatw). In addition the shah's personal bodyguard, made up exclusively of Caucasian ghulms, was dramatically increased to 3,000. [219] He convinced the British to assist him by allowing them to open factories in Shiraz, Isfahan and Jask. (2009). Physiology was still based on the four humours of ancient and mediaeval medicine, and bleeding and purging were still the principal forms of therapy by surgeons, something even Thevenot experienced during his visit to Iran. The First World War required the most comprehensive mobilization of men and resources in the history of the empire. The Shumlu leader, Ali Quli Khan, however, holed himself inside Herat with Abbas. Indeed, one of the greatest legacies of the Safavids is the architecture. [121] Moreover, he planned to deport all nobles of Kartli. The order at this time was transformed into a religious movement that conducted religious propaganda throughout Iran, Syria and Asia Minor, and most likely had maintained its Sunni Shafiite origin at that time. [220][221] With the later end of the Portuguese Empire, the British, Dutch and French in particular gained easier access to Persian seaborne trade, although they, unlike the Portuguese, did not arrive as colonisers, but as merchant adventurers. From here, Persian traders ventured eastwards to Southeast Asian kingdoms, most notably Ayutthaya Siam, where influential Persian families like the Bunnag helped foster cordial diplomatic relations between Thailand and Iran, as evidenced in the expedition of Suleyman's Ship. Their military power was essential during the reign of the Shahs Ismail and Tahmasp. And, while it was in the governors own interest to increase the productivity and prosperity of their provinces, the commissioners received their income directly from the royal treasury and, as such, did not care so much about investing in agriculture and local industries. In 1501, the Safavid Shahs declared independence when the Ottomans outlawed Shi'a Islam in their territory. A leisurely form of amusement was to be found in the cabarets, particularly in certain districts, like those near the mausoleum of Harun-e Velayat. "The Safavid Period" in Jackson, Peter; Lockhart, Laurence. The war between the two powers continued under Ismil's son, Emperor Tahmasp I, and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, until Shah Abbs retook the area lost to the Ottomans by 1602. His letter of remorse never reached Suleiman, and he was forced to flee abroad to avoid execution. She had been married to Uzun Hassan[44] in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans. The succession was evidently undisputed. His History of Shah Abbas the Great written a few years after its subject's death, achieved a nuanced depth of history and character. The Safavid Empire dates from the rule of Shah Ismail (ruled 1501-1524). An angry mob gathered and Tahmasp had Bayezid put into custody, alleging it was for his own safety. RELATIONS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD. [15], An Iranian dynasty rooted in the Sufi Safavid order[32] founded by Kurdish sheikhs,[33] it heavily intermarried with Turkoman,[34] Georgian,[35] Circassian,[36][37] and Pontic Greek[38] dignitaries and was Turkish-speaking and Turkified.
safavid military strength