Safavid Rule Research Articles

The role of Shiite clerics during the Safavid state (1501-1722).

This study deals with the political situation in Iran during the Safavid authority and the declaration of Shiism doctrine as the official state religion by Shah Ismael I (1501-1524). It presents how the Shiism was formed and strengthened, and also deals with the appearance of Shia religious men in the political and social fields from the declaration of the Safavid state until the end of their authority. Additionally, the religious changes and the relations of the Safavid rulers with religious men are investigated.The religious policy of Shah Tahmasp I (1524-1577) manifested in bringing a great number of scientists and Shia religious men from the Arab homeland to Iran. The Shah used those religious men in writing and publishing Shia jurisprudence books and expanding the Shiism. The fundamentals of Shiism was written during the reign of this Shah, and the authority of religious men reached the top. Besides, a great number of posts and religious titles were created at the reign of Shah Tahmasp. Another part of this study tackled the arrival of Ismael II (1576-1577) and his policy to weaken the authority of Shia religious men, and pay attention to the Sunni doctrine.Moreover, the study presented the religious policy of Shah Abbas the Great (1587-1622), who was the strongest Safavid Shah, and his attempt to remove the Qizal- Bash Sufis. He also reduced the political role of religious men and tried to establish a strong authority away from religious men. The authority of the religious men increased after Shah Abbas the Great, especially at the final reign of the Safavid authority at the reign of Hussein Al-Safawi (1694-1722). During that period, the Safavid state was completely controlled by religious men. At the reign of Shah Hussien, the Safavid authority became under the control of Mala (Mahmoud Baqir Majlisi) , who practiced a great deal of violence against other religions, especially the Sunni and Zaradashti religions.The degree and posts of religious men, their social position, class and their influence on the Iranian society will be investigated. The study also will discuss the role of religious men in the field of education, and how Sharia courts were managed by religious men, because these two important and influential points were the reason behind strengthening the authority of religious men as it was completely supervised by them.

“Giving What They Hold Dear”: Safavid Diplomatic Gifts to Venice

Abstract The exchange of gifts was an important aspect of the relations between the Safavid Empire and the Republic of Venice. Drawing on Venetian archival documents, the article aims to explore the nature and significance of Safavid diplomatic gift-giving to Venice in the first third of the seventeenth century. In particular, it examines the place and importance of precious objects in gift exchanges, looking at specific types of gifts given such as carpets, textiles, and weaponry. The article sheds light on the role religion played in the determination of a Shah’s choice of a gift to the Doge. Furthermore, this article examines how the diplomatic gifts from the Safavid rulers were viewed and conceived in Venice. Using a comparative perspective, the article explores the differences between the Safavid gift-giving strategies towards Venice and Ottomans. It reveals that the Safavids and Venetians had a common understanding of what was worthy of giving.

Mediating between the Royal Court and the Periphery: The Zangana Family’s Brokerage in Safavid Iran (1501–1722)

ABSTRACT To control the unruly Kurdish tribal confederates on the western frontier of their kingdom, successive Safavid shahs of Iran tried strengthening their personal ties with the Kurdish emirs by various measures, such as educating young members of the Kurdish ruling families in the Safavid court and recruiting some into their royal guard. The formation and maintenance of such close lord–vassal relationships definitely necessitated various levels of negotiations and mediations. This paper highlights the importance of intermediaries in the political integration of peripheral areas, focusing on the brokering role of the Zangana family, an influential elite family of Kurdish origin, who mediated between the royal court and the Ardalan emirate, one of the largest Kurdish tribal confederations that accepted Safavid rule.

The Youth Who Defeated Aristotle: The Life and Thought of Dashtakī (d. 948/1541)

ABSTRACT The running thread of the present article is the perceived union and harmony between faith and reason in the worldview of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr Dashtakī (d. 1542), arguably the most significant – but little-known to modern scholarship – Shiʿi intellectual and polymath of the late medieval era. The study sets to do three things: first, to introduce to introduce new data and material for the study of early Safavid intellectual history, focusing on the figure of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr Dashtakī (d. 1542), his life, writings, and legacy; second, to set out the contours of Dashtakī’s major accomplishments in philosophy, namely in metaphysics; and third, to call for a revised reading of the Safavid intellectual and cultural renaissance, showing that there was precedent in the example of the Shiraz Circle and particularly in Dashtakī, who, along with his contemporaries, led an important scholarly revival in religion and philosophy well over a century before the rise of the Isfahan school in the early decades of the eleventh/seventeenth century. The article will be concerned primarily with Dashtakī the son who lived under the dispensation of the Safavid rulers.

The Territory and Concept of Iran from a Political Point of View in the First Half of the Safavid Rule Based on the Historical Maps of Europe (1511 AD/907 AH - 1600 AD/1008 AD)

The Territory and Concept of Iran from a Political Point of View in the First Half of the Safavid Rule Based on the Historical Maps of Europe (1511 AD/907 AH - 1600 AD/1008 AD)

Rereading the History of Dargazin City in Nasuh Matrakçi Miniature Images

This article focuses on the miniature paintings of Nasuh Matrakçi who came to the west of Iran during the Safavid period. Matrakçi’s miniatures are among the oldest surviving images of Dargazin city, the like of which cannot be found in other travelogues and historians’ works. The surviving three images at two different settings can help us understand the urban and social status of Dargazin in the Safavid period. The findings indicate that, thanks to its Sunni residents and because of its geopolitical significance, Dargazin was of great interest to Ottoman and Safavid rulers who turned it to the governing base of the region. This played an important role in the city’s development in the way that in some areas, like the design of gardens, the traditional architecture of the Safavid period was mixed with original Persian style.

The Role of Influential Dynasties and Local Families in Urban Development and Political Centrality of Shushtar in Khuzestan Province During Safavid Era

Shushtar as one of the most important cities of Khuzestan in safavid era was inhabited by some officials and rulers mostly due to its specific geographical, strategic and military situation during the rule of Safavid dynasty. The establishment of new villages in Shushtar and its surroundings areas by the local rulers caused this city to grow and develop more. In the same regard, due to the entering of many different clans and tribes to Shushtar in the Safavid period, extensive ethnic conflicts emerged in this city. Turk Qizilbash (Shamlus, Rumlus, Afshars, Ustodjlus, Turkmens, and Dulghadirs), Chagatai family, Circassia, Georgians, great religious scholars from Jabal Amel region, Jazayeri and Kalantar Sadats were among the tribes and clans entering Shushtar in the Safavid period. At the end of this period, natural disasters such as flood influenced Shushtar status both socially and politically to a great extent. The current study attempts to describe the political and social conditions of Shushtar during the Safavid period, aiming to answer this question: Why was Shushtar under the spotlight by the Safavid rulers and inhabited by most governmental rulers and authorities? It is hypothesized in this study that due to the geographical and military situation, Shushtar have always been considered as a defensive barrier by the Safavids against Mushashaiyah central bases in the South of Khuzestan, and Ranshis bases in the North of Khuzestan and also against Bakhtiyari Khans. Unquestionably, taking into consideration the topics such as ethnic origin, tribal interests, occupation state, religious and social values, and changing or modification of each case can give provide us with some useful information about the social and political life of Shushtar in the Safavid period.

Royal Assemblies and Imperial Libraries: Polygonal Pavilions and Their Functions in Mughal and Safavid Architecture

This article examines the architectural form and potential functions of two royal buildings: the Sher Mandal and the Guldasta pavilion. An octagonal tower located in the Purana Qilʿa in Delhi, the Sher Mandal was in all likelihood the library (kitāb-khāna) built by the Mughal emperor Humayun (r. 1530–56). Erected during the reign of the Safavid ruler Shah ʿAbbas I (r. 1587–1629), the now-vanished Guldasta pavilion was located south of the palace complex in Isfahan and can be studied through drawings and photographs. A close examination of the formal structure of the two buildings reveals that they belong to a distinct type of polygonal pavilion that first emerged in the late fifteenth century in the works of architecture sponsored by the Timurid dynasty (c. 1370–1405). Moreover, this comparative study opens up new venues for investigating the physical setting of the royal kitāb-khāna in Mughal and Safavid contexts.

Fundamentals of Ottoman-Safavid Peacetime Relations, 1639–1722

This article establishes the overarching principles of Iranian-Ottoman peacetime relations from the Treaty of Zuhab to the collapse of the Safavid rule. Based on previously untapped sources, it illustrates the hierarchical foundation of relations marked by the principle of seniority-juniority on every platform, explores the concepts of legal personality, actors, representation, and delegation in diplomacy, and delineates the various capacities of diplomatic missions. After discussing the conduct of diplomatic business and ceremonial protocol, the article addresses the phenomena of language and arts in official contacts. The later part thematizes foreign policy, status-quos, common frontier, balance of power, harmony, and strife, and thus shows how active and dynamic post-Zuhab relations between Istanbul and Isfahan were.

The modernist Mirk Shah method and sources in his commentary on the book of the merits of Imam Tirmidhi: المحدِّث ميرك شاه منهجه ومصادره في شرحه كتاب الشمائل للإمام الترمذي

A number of modernists have emerged in the city of Herat, and this city is now located in Afghanistan, where these modernists lived under the Safavid rule. Some of them were killed, including Hajar. Several scholars of the city, Mullah Ali Qari, , And made great efforts in the service of the Prophet's biography and still their books traded students of science between study and investigation. The study aims to explain the approach of modernist Nasimuddin Mirk Shah, and show his dealings with the ahaadeeth, the strangest Arabic language, the method of his transfer from the scholars and his meditations, and the diversity of his sources' which indicate his knowledge and culture. In the book of Shamal Imam Tirmidhi, who is a mayor in his door, and the results reached by the study: the acceptance of God's book of the good Tirmidhi, Where scientists dealt with the explanation, and To fine tune, translation ... etc., and also encyclopedic updated Merck Shah, and it clearly shows how the sources relied upon, the art of subtraction of the author in the presentation and rebuttal information.

Political Rationality and Cultural Distance in the European Embassies to Shah Abbas

The embassy of Don García de Silva y Figueroa, sent in 1614 by Philip iii of Castile and ii of Portugal to negotiate an alliance with Shah Abbas against the Ottomans, was a fiasco. Not only did it fail to secure a deal, but within three years of the ambassador’s departure from Ispahan, in 1622, Persian troops, with the help of English ships, conquered the strategic island and fortress of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, marking a turning point in the decline of Portuguese power in Asia. For many historians the embassy was doomed from the start, notwithstanding the lavish gift offered to the Safavid ruler, because the Spanish ambassador could never offer Shah Abbas what he wanted. This analysis however assumes that the two sides understood each other perfectly well, and that the cultural distance between the ambassador and Shah Abbas was no obstacle to perfectly accurate political calculations. Taking advantage of the plurality of agendas and perspectives that can be documented during these exchanges, including English adventurers and commercial agents, various Carmelite and Augustinian friars, and the independent observer Pietro della Valle, this article seeks to test the degree of cultural commensurability in inter-cultural diplomacy, proposing a model that takes account of cultural distance without falling into a facile version of cultural relativism.

Safavid Cousins on the Verge of Extinction: Dynastic Centralization in Central Asia and the Bahrāmī Collateral Line (1517-1593)

The Bahrāmī Safavids, a relatively unknown collateral branch of the Safavid dynasty, active in Iran from 1517 to 1593, played a crucial role in dynastic developments in Safavid Iran. This essay examines the dynastic developments of the Safavid rulers and their contemporaries to argue that they embarked on a process of dynastic centralization, presenting themselves increasingly as the only holder of dynastic power, at the expense of their male relatives. The persistence of the Bahrāmī branch illuminates how this process took shape in Iran and how dynastic developments among neighbouring Central Asian dynasties influenced the fate of the Safavid collaterals.

Die Basis der Erzählung. Das historische Detail in der persischen Historiographie des 16. Jahrhunderts

Abstract Since the very beginnings of modern Middle Eastern Studies, chronicles have formed one of its most intensively used genres of sources. This is especially true for the Iranian World, which has left particularly few textual remains. Whereas the respective approaches to pre-modern Persian chronicles changed substantially within the last one and a half centuries of research, the approach to one aspect of these texts has remained comparably stable: the historical detail, the most bitsy information these texts contain, forming the very basis of the normative narrative of the chroniclers’ patron’s rule. While the end of the age of scientism is debated more than ever, the handling of the historical detail has stayed remarkably untouched – it is still presumed true all too often. Subject of this article are the chronicles written at the courts of Herat and Qazvin within the first decades of the 16th century under early Safavid rule. The study deals with the question of how stable these historical details really are, since the texts actually differ considerably in detail with respect to their stylising descriptions of one and the same historical event. In my view, these details are not stable, but, quite the contrary, surrounded by an aura of coincidence, which has to be taken into account when writing the political history of early modern Iran.

The Timurid to Safavid Transition in Persian Painting. Artists in Limbo: New Evidence

The purpose of this article is two-fold: to present a hitherto unknown early Safavid illustrated manuscript of the first importance, and to examine in close detail its relationship with the celebrated “Cartier Ḥāfiẓ”. A brief introduction will sketch the context, at once political and artistic, of this discussion. This article will discuss some key manuscripts of the transitional period between late Timurid and early Safavid rule. These books were finely transcribed, with illustrations added mostly as double-page frontispieces to each book or chapter.1 Some were later given dubious attributions to famous artists. An important manuscript dated 933/1526–27 by attribution and 934 and 935/1528 by three colophons, has come to light, and its exquisite double-page illustrations include the originals of the undated Ḥāfiẓ copies apparently signed by Sultān Muḥammad and Shaykh Zāda. This manuscript should help both to correct such mistakes and to allow scholars to assess correctly the artists of this period and their works; it is fully described and illustrated in the present article.

Ryuichi Sugiyama. Vaqf Endowments to the Emām Reżā Shrine during the Late Safavid Period

This paper investigates the role of vaqf endowments in the development of the Emām Reḍā shrine in Mashhad during the late Safavid period. An examination of several collections of vaqf documents concerning the shrine shows that the majority of donors came from the governing elite, including Safavid rulers, and that many of the endowment properties were farmlands and commercial facilities. These were, significantly, concentrated in the vicinity of Mashad, this being evidence of the mausoleum’s ...

The Symbolic Expression of Power and Religion in the Public Buildings in Safavid Iran: A Conceptual Interpretation

In this paper, the ideologies of Shari‘ati and Foucault are used to signify and explore the characteristics of Iranian architecture during the Safavid period (1501–1722) with respect to symbolism regarding religion and power. This study focuses on the architecture of public buildings constructed during the Safavid era. These buildings reflect the Safavid rulers’ views of political power and religious beliefs. Applying the ideas of Shari‘ati and Foucault through a survey of Safavid architecture yields five characteristics common to Safavid public buildings: ‘light-floating buildings’, ‘horizontality’, ‘inward-outward flow’, ‘illusion’, and ‘contrast and dualism’. Each of these characteristics is symbolic of Safavid beliefs regarding religion and power.

Religious Politics of the Safavid Ruler Shah Abbas

Religious Politics of the Safavid Ruler Shah Abbas

Yutaka Hirano. « On the Intertribal Conflict Known as ‘The Takkalu Disaster’ ». Meiji University Journal of Asian History, 10, 2005, pp. 55-67 [in Japanese

By analyzing the course of a civil war in 1531, generally known as “The Takkalu disaster,” this paper reconsiders the process with which Sāh Ṭahmāsp, the second Safavid ruler, took power into his own hands. Since the ascendance of the young ruler, the reign of the Safavid State had remained in the hands of powerful Qizilbash leaders, who fiercely vied for the pre-eminent position of amīr al-omarā. The incident began with the accession of Chūha Solṭān Takkalu to this office in 1527. His lust f...

Shahzad Bashir. « Shah Isma‘il and the Qizilbash: Cannibalism in the religious history of early Safavid Iran ». History of Religions, Vol. 45/3, 2006, pp. 234-256.

In this article, Shahzad Bashir provides an insightful historiographical reexamination of the practice of cannibalism during the reign of the first Safavid ruler, Shāh Esmā‘īl (r. 1501-1524). The first section of this article reviews the major chronicles and how they chose to report the celebrated incidents of Qizilbāsh anthropophagy. Bashir is quick to identify that this alleged cannibalism was sporadic and rare, and certainly cannot stand as consistent proof of “ritualistic” religious behav...

The Autonomous State in Iran: Mobility and Prosperity in the Reign of Shah 'Abbas the Great (1587-1629)

AbstractAmong the Safavid Shahs, 'Abbas I (1587-1629), was the chief architect of the modern Iranian state. He consolidated the state by securing the borders, establishing a central administration and bureaucracy, fortifying the economy and creating a standing army responsible not to the tribal heads but to the king as the head of the state. He turned the kingdom into a cohesive and stable monarchy. The state, with the Shah on top, using the new bureaucracy and the coercive force, reached a level of autonomy in which it was fortified by a direct access to financial resources. While bureaucracy was an instrument for regime enhancement and control, the army played the crucial role of system maintenance and was the guarantor of the Safavid rule. To achieve this objective, the state used: 1) social mobility of displacing the Qizilbash element, in favour of Caucasians, Persians and ordinaries; 2) land ownership mobility through transferring toyūls to crown estate; and 3) financial mobility.