For the purposes of this chapter the period to be covered runs from 907/1501 to 1148/1736, one of the most remarkable ages in Iran's history. 6 - THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM - Cambridge Core As the Safavid order developed, its members intermarried with other Turkic groups such as the Turcomen, Lar, and Bakhtiyari, and with Georgian, Armenian, and Pontic Greek Christians within their lands and bordering territories. Second, it brought the royal workshops closer to the silk route, making it easier for the Safavids to control the sale of Persian silk. This gives a convincing explanation as to why the Turkic Azerbaijani language became so important in a land with an overwhelming Persian-speaking majority. Iran became a feudal theocracy: There was no separation of religion and state; the Shah was held to be the divinely ordained head of both. The loss of his capital Tabriz to the enemyand to a Sunni Muslim at thatwas a huge blow to Shah Ismails standing among his own armies, made worse by the fact that he had declared himself invincible based on his fictionalized semidivine ancestry. This group became known as the Shia. Tahmasp also moved his capital from Tabriz to Qazvin, closer to the Caspian Sea and at less risk of capture or siege by Ottoman forces. The two states finally laid down arms and declared a peace that lasted more than thirty years. Safavid miniatures are highly prized today; some of the best examples have sold for millions of dollars at auction. After Abbass death, the Safavid state met another internal threat, this time from the Georgian kingdom of Kakheti. To populate his new capital, Abbas ordered several different populations to settle in it, including Armenians, Jewish people, Circassians, and other Caucasian peoples, many of whom had been displaced during his war against the Ottomans in their homelands. In 1598, Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in the central Iranian plateau, far from the constantly shifting borders with the Ottomans and Uzbeks and closer to the Persian Gulf and the newly arrived traders of the British and Dutch East India Companies. Tahmasp went on to become the longest-reigning Safavid shah. Roger M. Savory, "Safawidsiii, The establishment of the Safawid state,". View images of the famous Ardabil carpet at the Victoria and Albert Museum website to see it in detail and also get a sense of its enormous size. Some reflections on the Persian theory of government, Theory and Practice in Medieval Persian Government, Bibliography on the History of Iran under the afavids, The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of Ism'l I, Bulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies, The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of ahmsp I, Some notes on the provincial administration of the early afavid empire, The struggle for supremacy in Persia after the death of Timr, Find out more about saving to your Kindle, Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521200943.007. By the time the seventeen-year-old Abbas was crowned shah in 1588, Iran was in chaos. The epic called the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a stellar example of manuscript illumination and calligraphy, was made during Shah Tahmasp's reign. BBC - Religions - Islam: Safavid Empire (1501-1722) At the height of their reign, the Safavids controlled not only Iran, but also the countries we now know as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Armenia, eastern Georgia, parts of the North Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 5.2: Safavid Empire - Humanities LibreTexts To establish political provenance, the Safavid rulers claimed to be descended from Imam Ali, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, through the seventh Imam Musa al-Kazim. An attempt to recapture the territory in 1618 resulted in a devastating loss for the Ottomans. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Buwayhids, who were of Zeydi a branch of Shi'ism ruled in Fars, Isfahan, and Baghdad. The Safavids generally ruled over a peaceful and prosperous empire. Although at first he was able to negotiate safe passage for his army, the Shirvanshahs, already uneasy about Haydars growing power, used his eventual attack on one of their cities as an excuse to declare war on the Safavids. The remaining 5 percent of Shia are Zaydis or Seveners, a sect established by Zayd, the great-grandson of Ali, who disagree with Twelvers over the identity of the seventh imam. There had been, however, Shi'a communities in some cities like Qom and Sabzevar as early as eighth century. Safavid dynasty, (1501-1736), ruling dynasty of Iran whose establishment of Twelver Shiism as the state religion of Iran was a major factor in the emergence of a unified national consciousness among the various ethnic and linguistic elements of the country. In this portrait of Shah Ismail by an Italian painter of the sixteenth century, for example, the shahs reddish hair, possibly an inheritance from his Greek grandmother, is clearly visible. 1 - Safavid, Mughal, and Ottoman Empires - Cambridge Core In this period, handicrafts such as tile making, pottery, and textiles developed and great advances were made in miniature painting, bookbinding, decoration, and calligraphy. In this way, one of his sons was executed and two were blinded. The armies of Peter the Great took the Caucasus in the Russo-Persian war of 17221723, while the Ottomans reoccupied northwestern Iran. In the meantime, the navy-less Safavids lost the island of Hormuz to the Portuguese in 1507. Thus, Abbas I was able to break the dependence on the Qizilbash for military might and centralized control. The Safavid Empire at its 1512 borders. The art of the Safavids is simply magnificent. After subsequent campaigns, the Safavids recaptured Baghdad, in 1623, but lost it again to Murad IV in 1638. -Made shitism the official religion of the Safavid Empire. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. ), Reflections on the social and economic structure of Safavid Persia at its zenith, Artisans and Guild Life in the later Safavid period, Quis custodiet custodes? Shah Mosque (Royal Mosque), Isfahan, Iran, begun 1611 (photo: Another singular characteristic of Safavid architecture are the colorful tiles that covered exterior faced and interior domes of mosques. The Rise of the Safavid Empire. Prior to the rise of the Safavids, the region was broken up into a mosaic of autonomous states, all governed by local rulers. An empire in fragments The South Asian subcontinentmodern India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan is part of the Eurasian landmass. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. The Safavids (Persian: ) were a native Iranian dynasty from Azarbaijan that ruled from 1501 to 1736, and which established Shi'a Islam as Iran's official religion and united its provinces under a single Iranian sovereignty in the early modern period. The emergence of the Safavids marked the first time the region was ruled by Persian kings since the. In other words, the Safavid shahs usurped the function which the Ithn'ashar mujtahids had arrogated to themselves, namely, that of acting as the representative on earth of the Mahd, the Ithn'ashar' messiah. With the capture of Tabriz, the Safavid dynasty officially began. The maximum extent of the Safavid Empire under Shah Abbas I ( CC BY-SA 4.0) The Safavids were a dynastic family that ruled over modern-day Iran. Iran also continued to face threats from outside. Based on the idea that the religiosity of the Turkish-speaking milieu that constituted the Safavid movement's grassroots was primarily shaped by this Karbala-oriented epic literature, this essay argues that Shaykh Jonayd, Shaykh Haydar, and especially Shah Esmil successfully reformulated the Safavid Sufi program to address the codes of . Shi'a's sacred sites were much closerin Iraq, captured by the Safavids in 1623 (but surrendered again to the Ottomans in 1639). When the second Persian "vakil" was placed in command of a Safavid army in Transoxiana, the Qezelbash, considering it a dishonor to be obliged to serve under him, deserted him on the battlefield with the result that he was slain. Before the principal phases in the development of the Safavid administrative system are discussed in detail, a brief outline of the Safavid administrative and social structure may be helpful. Safavid Persia had a succession of capitals: for the capital was where the shah and his entourage happened to be. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. The conversion efforts of the Safavids have left long legacies in the Islamic world. It was founded by Isml I, who, by converting his people from Sunnite to Shite Islam and adopting the trappings of Persian monarchy, planted the seeds of a unique national and religious identity. Haydar was killed in battle in 1488. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license), The Safavid Empire was as ethnically diverse as the Ottoman Empire. what succession rules was followed by the Safavids? Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. Total loading time: 0 It did not last forever, however. If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, The Safiviyeh came to be led by a fifteen-year old, Ismail I. Miniatures were an important form of Persian art long before Islam appeared; Persian artists were prized at the court of the Abbasids, and artistic styles derived from their work, such as the nonfigurative elements used in the borders of miniatures, were later used to decorate manuscripts of the Quran. 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. Constant wars with the Ottomans made Shah Tahmasp I move the capital from Tabriz, into the interior city of Qazvin in 1548. Started in the Safavid period, mirror mosaics became an enduring Persian decorative motif that was used by the subsequent dynasties. Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing Herat and Mashhad, in 1598. (credit: Armenian Frescoes by David Stanley/Flickr, CC BY 2.0), This detail of a sixteenth-century miniature by the Persian artist Farrukh Beg shows Shah Tahmasp, who was a great patron of the arts. However, Safi al-Dins great-grandson Junayd made several changes to the orders doctrine, adopting specifically Shia ideas. The hostility between the sects that continues today is usually traced to the Safavid era and the dynastys military rivalry with the Ottomans, especially after the sultan acquired the Sunni title of caliph in 1517. The article analyses the social and political structure of the Safavid Empire. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. To spread the new beliefs and win converts, Ismail brought Shia scholars to Iran from Lebanon and Syria. The Safavid Empire, based in Persia ( Iran ), ruled over much of southwestern Asia from 1501 to 1736. The Safavid Empire was less ethnically diverse than the Ottoman Empire. They sustained one of the longest running empires of Iranian history, lasting from 1501 to 1736. Soon after the Safavids rose to power, they established Twelver Shiism (the largest branch of Shia, Safavid art and architecture reflected this adoption of a Shia identity. Iskander Beg Monshis History of Shah Abbas the Great, written a few years after its subject's death, achieved a nuanced depth of history and character. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Iranian carpets, silk, and textiles. In these paintings, artists used mineral-based dyes, which produced brilliant and long-lasting colors (Figure 4.26). Many of its members were bi- or multilingual, with Azeri Turkish and Persian being the linguae francae of the dynasty. The three Islamic empires of the early modern period - the Mughal, the Safavid, and the Ottoman - shared a common Turko-Mongolian heritage. Safavid Dynasty 1501-1736 (official end in 1760) and the Netherlands (Dutch East India Company) Exports Persian rugs Silks Textiles Imports Spices Metals Coffee Sugar Slavery- little or no slavery as a labor system Mainly recruited among Georgian, Armenian and North Caucasian renegades All levels of society could mix there, from members of the royal court whose pavilion overlooked the square, to the Shiite clergy whose mosque was at the squares southern end, to foreign dignitaries, members of the military, merchants, and commoners. This system brought the brightest and most talented into government service while preventing the development of an entrenched and unchecked aristocracy. After Abbas had ordered the mass deportation of Georgians to central Iran, he sent Oghuz Turks (Turcomen) to settle the area; the local population that remained refused to allow them to do so, however, and staged a military rebellion. Arthur Upham Pope, a former Professor of aesthetics at Berkeley, and his wife Phyllis Ackerman, a specialist in Islamic textiles, were part of this movement that opened doors to the arts of Iran. This encouraged pilgrimages across the great stretch of the Safavid empire, in places such as Karbala and Najaf, two cities in central Iraq. on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. The Ottomans pushed further and on August 23, 1514, managed to engage the Safavids in the Battle of Chaldiran west of Tabriz. During the period of Mongol rule over Iran and the Caucasus, the distinction between Shia and Sunni became less important than it had been. They sought to control these populations by enslaving or deporting their members, and nobles were often requested to convert to Shiism. The empire's rulers, like the Ottoman rulers, were Muslim, yet the Safavid Empire used religion differently to promote order and stability within its realm. The Safavids were generally more tolerant of non-Muslim subjects than they were of the Sunni. The Safavids were poorly armed, while the Ottomans had muskets and artillery. As in the Ottoman Empire, wealthy Safavid women raised their public stature by becoming patrons of the arts and endowing public buildings. Iranian ceramics became highly valued for export because of their remarkable similarity in style and quality to treasured Chinese porcelain, with even more intricately painted decorations. (credit: Shah Isma'il, History of Shah Isma'il, by Mu'in Musavvir, Isfahan, Iran by Muin Musavvir/British Library/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain), The interior of the Armenian Christian Holy Savior Cathedral in Isfahan, built in 1606, incorporates both Christian imagery, such as scenes from the life of Christ, and Islamic-style decorative tilework. 1999-2023, Rice University. The Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud of Kashan, Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. The more than century of tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq. Direct link to hdarwish825's post what succession rules was. 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. The Safavid Empire was established in an Iran that had been long fragmented. The Ottomans sued for peace in 1612, relinquishing the Caucasus to the Iranians. Safavids in Persia | Article for mature travellers - Odyssey Travellers If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. The capture of Baghdad by Ismail I in 1509, was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534. Hostname: page-component-75b8448494-knlg2 In the previous century, Russia Muscovy had deposed two western Asian khanates of the Golden Horde and expanded its influence into the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia. Though the majority of Muslims in Azerbaijan and Iran considered themselves Shia by the time the Safavid era ended in 1736, Nader Shah attempted to restore Sunnism as the dominant sect. PDF The Safavid Empire If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. After being sheltered by allies, the twelve-year-old Ismail emerged from exile in 1499 claiming to be the Mahdi or messiah and began rallying the Qizilbash troops who had fought for his father and brother. The main types of buildings constructed during this time were mosques, palaces, markets, shrines and caravansaries (structures used to shelter travelers during long journeys).
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