The moment was grave for the empire, with the Ottomans deep in Iranian territory in the west and north and the Uzbeks in possession of half of Khorasan in the east.[107]. Period 3 April 6, 2011 Safavid and Mughal Mughal and Safavid were a few of the strongest empires in their time. Safavids (1501-1736), the dynasty that took control of Persia in the early 16th century, is often considered the beginning of modern Persian history. 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. Ismail sought to reintroduce Sunni orthodoxy. -After declared shah (emperor), he banished his father, who was the previous shah, and blinded his brothers. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls, and an inedible bitter almond hadam-talka used as a specie in India. A specific Turkic language was attested in Safavid Persia during the 16th and 17th centuries, a language that Europeans often called Persian Turkish ("Turc Agemi", "lingua turcica agemica"), which was a favourite language at the court and in the army because of the Turkic origins of the Safavid dynasty. They correctly identified the three key points to control all seaborne trade between Asia and Europe: The Gulf of Aden, The Persian Gulf and the Straits of Malacca by cutting off and controlling these strategic locations with high taxation. The arguably most renowned historian from this time was Iskandar Beg Munshi. Furthermore, the Safavids maintained a sizeable sphere of influence overseas, particularly in the Deccan region of India. They appear to have abandoned their identity as Sunni Muslims and embrace Shia ideals under their leader, one Khwaja Ali. [16] The inscriptions on Safavid currency were also in Persian. [75] Temporary terms were followed by the Peace of Amasya in June 1555, ending the war with the Ottomans for the next two decades. The dynasty began as a Sufi order but evolved into a major gunpowder empire. By the seventeenth century, trade routes between East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a decline in commerce and trade. Ottoman Political Hierarchy. That condition would not change (and in fact it would worsen) until Tahmsp's grandson, Abbas I, assumed the throne. [165], The most precious accessory for men was the turban. [197] In time, this proved to become a burden to the people that were under the direct rule of the Shah, as these commissioners, unlike the former governors, had little knowledge about the local communities that they controlled and were primarily interested in increasing the income of the Shah. Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. Abbas also moved the capital to Isfahan, deeper into central Iran. Later, in 1722, an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son, Mahmud, marched across eastern Iran, besieged, and sacked Isfahan and proclaimed Mahmud "Shah" of Persia. The founder of the dynasty, Shah Isma'il, adopted the title of "King of Iran" (Pdiah- rn), with its implicit notion of an Iranian state stretching from Khorasan as far as Euphrates, and from the Oxus to the southern Territories of the Persian Gulf. Was Safavid Iran an Empire. Rosemary Stanfield Johnson, "Sunni Survival in Safavid Iran: Anti-Sunni Activities during the Reign of Tahmasp I,", Abolala Soudavar, "The Patronage of Vizier Mirza Salman,", harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSavory1980 (, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBomatiNahavandi1998 (, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAsat'ianiBendianachvili1997 (. [153][154] In the OttomanIranian War (173035), he retook all territories lost by the Ottoman invasion of the 1720s, as well as beyond. Second to the Prime Minister post were the General of the Revenues (mostoufi-ye mamalek), or finance minister,[189] and the Divanbegi, Minister of Justice. Figueroa heard Abbas speak Georgian, which he had no doubt acquired from his Georgian ghulams and concubines. Summary. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by Baluchi tribesmen in 1698, Khorasan by Afghans in 1717, constantly in Mesopotamia by peninsula Arabs. The Mughal Empire had a well trained army but was defeated. The Persian Empire emerged under the leadership of Cyrus II, who conquered the neighboring Median Empire ruled by his grandfather. [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. 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. It was certainly not homogenousmaybe it was an Azerbaijanian-Ottoman mixed language, as Beltadze (1967:161) states for a translation of the gospels in Georgian script from the 18th century. The vizier thought that the royal forces failed to prosecute the siege sufficiently and accused the forces of sedition. He expanded commercial links with the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. The relationship between the Turkic-speaking 'Turks' and Persian-speaking 'Tajiks' was symbiotic, yet some form of rivalry did exist between the two. He wholeheartedly adopted the use of gunpowder. [76] Under the Peace, the Ottomans agreed to restore Yerevan, Karabakh and Nakhjuwan to the Safavids and in turn would retain Mesopotamia (Iraq) and eastern Anatolia. The Turkish spoken in Safavid Iran was mostly what nowadays is referred to as Azeri or Azerbaijani Turkish. According to Encyclopdia Iranica, for Tahmsp, the problem circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qezelb, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement. [159], Jean Chardin, the 17th-c French traveler, spent many years in Iran and commented at length on their culture, customs and character. And his power reached its peak in 1598, when he became the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. By travelling across the Caspian sea to the north, they would reach Russia. [65] The Chaldiran battle also holds historical significance as the start of over 300 years of frequent and harsh warfare fueled by geo-politics and ideological differences between the Ottomans and the Iranian Safavids (as well as successive Iranian states) mainly regarding territories in Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia. Source for information on Portuguese Empire: Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments dictionary. [83] According to Encyclopdia Iranica, this would be the starting point for the corps of the olmn-e a-ye-e arifa, or royal slaves, who would dominate the Safavid military for most of the empire's length. [72] The victory resulted at least in part from Safavid use of firearms, which they had been acquiring and drilling with since Chaldiran.[73]. [126][127] Kakheti lost two-thirds of its population in these years by Abbas' punitive campaign. Shah Abbas II was known as a poet, writing Turkic verse with the pen name of Tani. Browne, "A Literary History of Persia," Vol. 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. [111][112] At the same time, he took steps to ensure that the Qizilbash did not mistake this apparent show of weakness as a signal for more tribal rivalry at the court. Despite their demise in 1736, the legacy that they left behind was the revival of Iran as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon "checks and balances", their architectural innovations, and patronage for fine arts. [234] Prior to the Shah's ascent to power, Iran had a decentralized power-structure, in which different institutions battled for power, including both the military (the Qizilbash) and governors of the different provinces making up the empire. The Shumlu leader, Ali Quli Khan, however, holed himself inside Herat with Abbas. Tabriz was taken but the Ottoman army refused to follow the Safavids into the Persian highlands and by winter, retreated from Tabriz. [149] The end of the reign of Abbas II, 1666, thus marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. The carpets of Ardebil were commissioned to commemorate the Safavid dynasty. [80] Humayun handed over Kandahar, but Tahmsp was forced to retake it in 1558, after Humayun seized it on the death of the Safavid governor. After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, the Kurdish stronghold of Dimdim was captured. However, Shah Abbas was fearful to the point of paranoia about the assassination and executed or blinded all of his sons to prevent them from replacing him. Rather than rely on another Turkmen tribe, he appointed a Persian wakl. During the fifteenth century, the Ottomans expanded across Anatolia and centralized control by persecuting Shi'ism. [118] Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. However, at that time it was referred to by various other names. After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, the Kurdish stronghold of Dimdim was captured. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. Seven years later Shah ahmsp II recovered Efahn and ascended the throne, only to be deposed in 1732 by his Afshrid lieutenant Nadr Qol Beg (the future Ndir Shh). The article analyses the social and political structure of the Safavid Empire. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Buwayhids, who were of Zeydi a branch of Shi'ism ruled in Fars, Isfahan, and Baghdad. In 1559 Bayezid arrived in Iran where Tahmasp gave him a warm welcome. [96], The amirs demanded that she be removed, and Mahd-i Ulya was strangled in the harem in July 1579 on the ground of an alleged affair with the brother of the Crimean khan, Adil Giray,[96] who was captured during the 15781590 Ottoman war and held captive in the capital, Qazvin. Haydar married Martha 'Alamshah Begom,[38] Uzun Hassan's daughter, who gave birth to Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty. Their sport also provided the masses with entertainment and spectacle. This defection of two of the shah's most trusted subjects and gholams infuriated the shah, as reported by the Safavid court historian Iskander Beg Munshi. [157] There even are numerous recorded accounts of laymen that rose to high official posts, as a result of their merits. 900901, tr. The princes had Turcoman, Persian, Kurdish, and even Armenian, Indian, Afghan, or Georgian mothers. [229] Protected by Dutch naval power, competition from Bengali silk and Sino-Japanese porcelain contributed to the decline of the Safavid economy during the late 17th century.[230][231]. [3] The paternal line of the dynasty's heritage was mainly thought to be Persian,[4] starting with the Persian mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din Is'hq Ardabeli, who himself claimed descent from Firz Shh Zarrnkoll, a local ruler in Persian Kurdistan. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Iranian carpets, silk, and textiles. [45] There were many local states prior to the Iranian state established by Ismil. Particularly important in this regard were the Gilan and Mazandaran provinces, which produced Iran's single most important export; silk. Blow, D; Shah Abbas: The ruthless king who became an Iranian legend; pp. [119] As mentioned by the Encyclopaedia Iranica, lastly, from 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman Allhverd Khan, in conjunction with Robert Sherley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which meant among other things further dramatically increasing the number of ghulams to 25,000.[120]. But it was Shah Safi, under influence by his Prime Minister, Saru Taqi, that initiated the program of trying to increase the royal revenues by buying land from the governors and putting in place local commissioners. The Timurid Empire (Persian: ), self-designated as Gurkani (Persian: Grkniyn), was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, as well as most of contemporary Pakistan and parts of contemporary . As a result, the empire began a long, slow slide into obscurity after his death in 1629. In 1722, an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son Mahmud advanced on the heart of the empire and defeated the government forces at the Battle of Gulnabad. The majority were deported to Iran, while some were slaughtered. Almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Safavid Empire, the Mughal Empire, founded by the Timurid heir Babur, was developing in South-Asia. After the Peace of Amasya, Tasmsp underwent what he called a "sincere repentance." [194] There were also the large number of gholams or "slaves of the shah", who were mainly Georgians, Circassians and Armenians. But his responsibilities also included that of being the treasurer of the Shah's properties. The latter included merchants trading in the bazaars, the trade and artisan guilds (asnf) and members of the quasi-religious organizations run by dervishes (futuvva). 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. He was declared Shah of Iran in 1502. During the reign of Shah Abbas I, as he tried to upgrade the Silk Road to improve the commercial prosperity of the Empire, an abundance of caravanserais, bridges, bazaars and roads were built, and this strategy was followed by wealthy merchants who also profited from the increase in trade. The Safavid state was one of checks and balance, both within the government and on a local level. In the midst of these foreign perils, rebellion broke out in Khorasan fomented by (or on behalf of) Mohammad's son, Abbas. Members of the Safavid Dynasty likely were of Kurdish Persian descent and belonged to a unique order of Sufi -infused Shi'a Islam called Safaviyya. There were no particular place assigned for the administration of justice. First, he bargained for peace with the Ottomans in 1590, giving away territory in the north-west. They were able to summon for a divorce and were given a lot more trust and respect than usual. This book was translated into French in 1681 by Angulus de Saint, under the name "Pharmacopoea Persica". In addition the shah's personal bodyguard, made up exclusively of Caucasian ghulms, was dramatically increased to 3,000. Corrections? In May 1501, Ismail I declared Tabriz his capital and himself Shah of Azerbaijan. In between were nobles, rich merchants, and city people. The tribal Afghans rode roughshod over their conquered territory for seven years but were prevented from making further gains by Nader Shah, a former slave who had risen to military leadership within the Afshar tribe in Khorasan, a vassal state of the Safavids. 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. The treaty was the first formal diplomatic recognition of the Safavid Empire by the Ottomans. 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. 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]. Chardin described one such event:[163]. [150], The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by Baloch tribes in 1698, Khorasan by the Hotakis in 1717, Dagestan and northern Shirvan by the Lezgins in 1721, constantly in Mesopotamia by Sunni peninsula Arabs. 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. signed peace treaty, capital moved from Tabriz to Isfahan, highest point in Safavid empire, established similar system to janissaries, the army, attempted to regain lost territories Rise of empire- Nadir Shah Afshar restored order, military adventurer, launched series of campaigns that restored the country's borders Bureaucracy was by what? Richard Tapper. The Safavids were descended from Sheikh af al-Dn (1253-1334) of Ardabl, head of the Sufi order of afaviyyeh (afawiyyah). 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