[83] Despite that Tahmsp could nullify and neglect some of his consternations regarding potential issues related to his family by having his close direct male relatives such as his brothers and sons routinely transferred around to various governorships in the empire, he understood and realized that any long-term solutions would mainly involve minimizing the political and military presence of the Qezelb as a whole. In Esposito, John L. Mir Damad is considered the founder of this school. In the second half of the 9th/ 15th century, a religious, political and military movement was initiated under the leadership of Shaykh Junayd and Shaykh Haydar, the grandfather and father of Isma'il I. In earlier times, the Shah had been closely involved in judicial proceedings, but this part of the royal duty was neglected by Shah Safi and the later kings. . The kingdom further extended its territory to include overseas lands that were acquired through declarations of loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and caliph. [31], b Official language,[10] coinage,[11][12] civil administration,[13] court (since Isfahan became capital),[14] literary,[11][13][15] theological discourse,[11] diplomatic correspondence, historiography,[16] court-based religious posts. 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. [147] In the late seventeenth century, Iranian merchants established a permanent presence as far north as Narva on the Baltic sea, in what now is Estonia. In cultural matters, Tahmsp presided the revival of the fine arts, which flourished under his patronage. As a result, the empire began a long, slow slide into obscurity after his death in 1629. In the following centuries, this religious schism would both cement Iran's internal cohesion and national feelings and provoke attacks by its Sunni neighbors. Role of the Military in Society Because all government officials were part of the army, military and political power went hand in hand for the Mughals. Bureaucracy and landed class who were considered the middle classes. Tahmsp received Humayun as the true emperor of the Mughal dynasty, despite the fact that Humayun had been living in exile for more than fifteen years. The Safavid dynasty under Shah Ismail (961/1501) adopted Persian and the Shiite form of Islam as the national language and religion. A third route was therefore devised which circumvented Ottoman territory. [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. Expert Answers. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. For more than two centuries the Safavid kingdom prolonged the older political and cultural tradition of Persia and endowed the country and its peoples with a unique character of historic significance . In private they usually wore a veil that only covered the hair and the back, but upon leaving the home, they put on manteaus, large cloaks that concealed their whole bodies except their faces. The dynasty began as a Sufi order but evolved into a major gunpowder empire. Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan (Mahabad, reported by Eskandar Beg Monshi, Safavid Historian (15571642), in "Alam Ara Abbasi") and resettled the Turkic Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan. Blow, D.; Shah Abbas: The ruthless king who became an Iranian legend; p. 211. Because of the relative insecurity of property ownership in Iran, many private landowners secured their lands by donating them to the clergy as so called vaqf. [134] For his part, Abbas declared that he "preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage. Although a majority of the people in the kingdom were Iranians, there were also some Arabs, Turks, and Armenians. 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]. Ismail's 14-month reign was notable for two things: continual bloodletting of his relatives and others (including his own supporters) and his reversal on religion. The exercises that they took part in were for keeping the body supple and sturdy and to acquire skills in handling of arms. [133] Abbas's attitude, however, was in marked contrast to that of his grandfather, Tahmasp I, who had expelled the English traveller Anthony Jenkinson from his court on hearing he was a Christian. It was from this time that the division of the Shia world into mujtahid (those who could follow their own independent judgment) and muqallid (those who had to follow the rulings of a mujtahid) took place. Sir E. Denison Ross, Sir Anthony Sherley and his Persian Adventure, pp. What was the state religion of the Safavid Empire? Ismail sought to reintroduce Sunni orthodoxy. Eventually Abbas became frustrated with Spain, as he did with the Holy Roman Empire, which wanted him to make his over 400,000 Armenian subjects swear allegiance to the Pope but did not trouble to inform the shah when the Emperor Rudolf signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans. [210][211] According to contemporary historians, though, the landlord always had the worst of the bargain with the farmer in the crop-sharing agreements. Bureaucracy and landed class who were considered the middle classes. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. Then they had a bureaucracy and other classes in which through their own merit they could possible rise up in the ranks. Mohammad was selected and received the crown on February 11, 1579. They appear to have abandoned their identity as Sunni Muslims and embrace Shia ideals under their leader, one Khwaja Ali. Contacts with the Pope, Poland and Moscow were no more fruitful. He had effective control under Shah Tahmasp II and then ruled as regent of the infant Abbas III until 1736, when he had himself crowned shah. The two princes quarrelled and eventually Bayezid rebelled against his father. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. [141], Due to his obsessive fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. History. Furthermore, the Safavids maintained a sizeable sphere of influence overseas, particularly in the Deccan region of India. Geographical discoveries, in general, and bypassing the Cape of Good Hope, in particular, in South Africa, changed traditional trade routes in Iran's international trade. With his new army, Abbs defeated the Turks in 1603, forcing them to relinquish all the territory they had seized, and captured Baghdad. Examples of such were the trade and artisan guilds, which had started to appear in Iran from the 1500s. From 1609-1610, war broke out between Kurdish tribes and Safavid Empire. Later, during the Safavid and especially Qajar period, the Shii Ulema's power increased and they were able to exercise a role, independent of or compatible with the government. In the gravest crisis of Tahmsp's reign, Ottoman forces in 155354 captured Yerevan, Karabakh and Nakhjuwan, destroyed palaces, villas and gardens, and threatened Ardabil. [161], Unlike Europeans, they much disliked physical activity, and were not in favor of exercise for its own sake, preferring the leisure of repose and luxuries that life could offer. 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. [195] Abbas himself was able to speak Georgian as well. The fourth vakil was murdered by the Qezelbash, and the fifth was put to death by them. On these occasions the royal edicts were drawn up and sealed. Safavid, like other Empires had a long standing hierarchy. One of Tahmsp's sisters married a Circassian, who would use his court office to team up with Tahmsp's daughter, Pari Khn Khnum to assert themselves in succession matters after Tahmsp's death. For instance, the Qajar dynasty (1789-1925), the first major dynasty to succeed the Safavids, continued the tradition of Safavid book arts, painting, and architecture. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Iranian carpets, silk, and textiles. [101], The palace intrigues reflected ethnic unrest which would soon erupt into open warfare. Whereas neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans accorded high social status to their doctors, Iranians had from ancient times honored their physicians, who were often appointed counselors of the Shahs. By 1511, the Uzbeks in the north-east were driven across the Oxus River where they captured Samarkand establishing the Shaibanid dynasty, and from which they would continue to attack the Safavids. [165], The most precious accessory for men was the turban. But it was not the Turkish of Istanbul. There probably did not exist any parliament, as we know them today. Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (/sfvd, s-/), also referred to as the Safavid Empire,[c] was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by 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. He blamed this on misgovernment, the sparse population of the country, and lack of appreciation of agriculture amongst the Persians. The Portuguese Empire and the discovery of the trading route around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 not only hit a death blow to Venice as a trading nation, but it also hurt the trade that was going on along the Silk Road and especially the Persian Gulf. As a result of Mongol conquest, and relative religious tolerance of Ilhanids, Shi'a dynasties were established in IranSarbedaran in Khorasan being the most important. 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. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. [97] Pari Khn Khnum could master strong support among the Qizilbash, and her uncle, Shamkhal Sultan, was a prominent Circassian who held a high official position. It was perhaps to perpetuate the distinction of Persian from Arabic culture that attracted the Iranians towards Shi'a Islamthe heartland and sacred sites of Sunni Islam would always be in the Arabian peninsula. Merit In day-to-day affairs, the language chiefly used at the Safavid court and by the great military and political officers, as well as the religious dignitaries, was Turkish, not Persian; and the last class of persons wrote their religious works mainly in Arabic. By the seventeenth century, trade routes between East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a decline in commerce and trade. There are many reasons as to why the empire was as successful as it was, but some of them include its very strong and organized military and its centralized political structure. In the fifteenth century, the Safaviyeh gradually gained political and military clout in the power vacuum precipitated by the decline of the Timurid dynasty. But eschewing politics after his defeat in Chaldiran, he left the affairs of the government to the office of the wakl (chief administrator, vakil in Turkish). Isfahan bears the most prominent samples of the Safavid architecture, all constructed in the years after Shah Abbas I permanently moved the capital to that city in 1598: The Imperial Mosque, Masjid-e Shah, completed in 1630, the Imami Mosque,Masjid-e Imami, the Lutfullah Mosque and the Royal Palace. [244], Safavids also used Persian as a cultural and administrative language throughout the empire and were bilingual in Persian. They in turn would be replaced by the Shamlu, whose amir, Husain Khan, became the chief adviser. Although the Uzbeks continued to make occasional raids into Khorasan, the Safavid empire was able to keep them at bay throughout its reign. the safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736 and 1750 to 1773) and, at their height, they controlled all of what is now iran, republic of azerbaijan, bahrain, armenia, eastern georgia, parts of the north caucasus including russia, iraq, kuwait, and afghanistan, as well as parts of turkey, syria, Despite being based on urf, it relied upon certain sets of legal principles. Thus, the majority of the people suffered from rapacity and corruption carried out in the name of the Shah. However, they were different in that while the women's freedom decreased after Shah Abbas' death, the women of Mughal Empire had their freedom unrestricted until the end of the Mughal Empire. It covered all of Iran, and parts of Turkey and Georgia. Having agreed to do so, a sergeant would investigate and summon the defendant, who was then obliged to pay the fee of the sergeant. After the death of Babur, his son Humayun was ousted from his territories and threatened by his half-brother and rival, who had inherited the northern part of Babur's territories. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. R. Matthee. "[93] His conduct might also be explained by his drug use. These cities were later inherited by his Abdali Afghan military commander, Ahmad Shah Durrani, who would go on to found the Durrani Empire in 1747. Safavid power and territory grew quickly, yet the empire was prone to Sunni attack from the Uzbeks in the North, Mughals in the . One result of the resolution of this conflict was the rise in importance of the concept of ijtihad and the position of the mujtahid (as opposed to other ulama) in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Richard Tapper. The more than century of tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq. The Safavids were descended from Sheikh af al-Dn (12531334) of Ardabl, head of the Sufi order of afaviyyeh (afawiyyah). In 1514, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I invaded western Armenia, causing the ill-prepared Safavid army to retreat. This warfare pattern repeated itself under Shah Tahmasp I and Sultan Suleiman I. [57], Although Ismil I initially gained mastery over Azerbaijan alone, the Safavids ultimately won the struggle for power over all of Iran, which had been going on for nearly a century between various dynasties and political forces. In this way, one of his sons was executed and two were blinded. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article [182] However, shortly thereafter Muhammad Baqir Behbahani (died 1792), along with other Usuli mujtahids, crushed the Akhbari movement. [160] He considered them to be a well-educated and well-behaved people. Soltan Hoseyn (16941722) in particular was known for his love of wine and disinterest in governance. [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. [102] More seriously the Ottomans ended the Peace of Amasya and commenced a war with Iran that would last until 1590 by invading Iran's territories of Georgia and Shirvan. [31] Junayd sought refuge with the rival of Kara Koyunlu Jahan Shah, the Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkomans) Khan Uzun Hassan, and cemented his relationship by marrying Uzun Hassan's sister, Khadija Begum. A dispute arose in the Ottoman Empire over who was to succeed the aged Suleiman the Magnificent. [199], In Safavid Iran there was little distinction between theology and jurisprudence, or between divine justice and human justice, and it all went under Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). Chardin was present at some feasts in Isfahan were there were more than fifty different kinds of fruit. This gives a convincing explanation as to why the Turkic Azerbaijani language became so important in a land with an overwhelming Persian-speaking majority. [99] He may have believed that he would rule once their enemy was disposed of, but Mahd-i Uly proved the stronger of the two. [214] According to Chardin, they were also more abundant than in the Mughal or Ottoman Empires, where they were less frequent but larger. This map shows the Safavid Empire (green) at its greatest extent, including disputed territories (dots) where the Safavids found themselves in conflict with the Ottoman Empire (orange) and the Uzbek rulers of the Khanate of Bukhara (purple). [77] It was a heavy price in terms of territory and prestige lost, but it allowed the empire to last, something that seemed improbable during the first years of Tahmsp's reign. In the meantime, the navy-less Safavids lost the island of Hormuz to the Portuguese in 1507. 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. The crown prince (the vizier's son-in-law) meekly turned him over, and the Qizilbash executed him and confiscated his property. She is said to have poisoned his opium.[94]. They finally arrived at the court of Philip III of Spain in 1602. 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. "the Order of the Lion and the Sun, a device which, since the 17 century at least, appeared on the national flag of the Safavids the lion representing 'Ali and the sun the glory of the Shii faith", Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovski, J. M. Rogers, Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, Courtauld Institute of Art. But Selim was an alcoholic and Hrrem's other son, Bayezid, had shown far greater military ability. But even he stood accountable to a deputy (vakanevis), who kept records of his decision-makings and notified the Shah. 113131. After the death of Haydar, the Safaviyya gathered around his son Ali Mirza Safavi, who was also pursued and subsequently killed by Ya'qub. In 1613, Abbas had appointed these trusted Georgian gholams of his on the puppet thrones of Kartli and Kakheti, the Iranian Safavid ruled areas of Georgia. From 1553 for forty years the shah was able to avoid being ensnared in tribal treacheries. [68], At the downfall of Husain Khan, Tahmsp asserted his rule. 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