Safawid Diplomatic Documents from the Period of Shah Safi I in the RSAAA Collections

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of documents in Persian and Turkic languages from the period of Shah Safi I, that are kept in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (hereinafter RSAAA). Concise information on Safawid missions to Russia is followed by classification of Safawid documents related to them. The documents, which we divide into texts and registers, are described in terms of their functions and content. The article concludes with attempts to distinguish and exemplify those components of formulary, that are common for all types of the texts, i. e. decrees, letters and petitions. The article can also be regarded as a brief summary of results obtained during the implementation of the project, supported by the RSF. Only few of the documents, found and explored by members of the project, had attracted attention of researchers, and none of them had been published, until the project got started.