He also expelled (1602, 1622) the Portuguese traders who had seized the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf early in the 16th century. The greatest of the Safavid monarchs, Shah Abbas (15871629) came to power in 1587, at the age of 16, following the forced abdication of his father, Shah Muhammad Khudbanda. [140] The English at sea, represented by the English East India Company, also began to take an interest in Iran, and in 1622 four of its ships helped Abbas retake Hormuz from the Portuguese in the Capture of Ormuz (1622). 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. In 1599, Abbas sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe. Realizing the limits of his military strength, Abbs made peace with the Ottomans on unfavourable terms in 1590 and directed his onslaughts against the Uzbeks. Iran's neighbors seized the opportunity to attack. Then he turned against the Ottomans, recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq, and the Caucasian provinces, by 1622. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [14] David Blow adds; "it seems likely that most, if not all, of the Turkoman grandees at the court also spoke Persian, which was the language of the administration and culture, as well as of the majority of the population. In response, a Ghilzai Pashtun chieftain named Mir Wais Khan began a rebellion against the Georgian governor, Gurgin Khan, of Kandahar and defeated a Safavid army. S Social Interactions and Organization The political structure of the Safavid Empire was structured like a pyramid with the Shah at the very top of the pyramid, like a pope. Although in those campaigns (and in 1554) the Ottomans captured Tabriz, they lacked a communications line sufficient to occupy it for long. It was also requested from them that they appoint a lawyer (vakil) to the Court who would inform them on matters pertaining to the provincial affairs. [25][26][27][28] It is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history,[29] as well as one of the gunpowder empires. Beginning in 1526 periodic battles broke out, beginning in northwest Iran but soon involving all of Khorasan. The loyal Qizibash recoiled at their treatment by Mirza Salman, who they resented for a number of reasons (not least of which was the fact that a Tajik was given military command over them), and demanded that he be turned over to them. Then two Englishmen, Robert Sherley and his brother Anthony, helped Abbas I to reorganize the Shah's soldiers into a partially paid and well-trained standing army similar to the European model (which the Ottomans had already adopted). Expert Answers. In 1514, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I invaded western Armenia, causing the ill-prepared Safavid army to retreat. [73] Nevertheless, given the insecurity in Iraq and its northwest territory, Tahmsp moved his court from Tabriz to Qazvin. To uphold the standard, another source of revenue was needed, and road toll, that were collected by guards (rah-dars), were stationed along the trading routes. [223] The Persians were also active in the Aceh Sultanate, the Brunei Sultanate, the Demak Sultanate, and Dai Viet. They were of Kurdish Persian decent with unique customs. [196], On a local level, the government was divided into public land and royal possessions. Having agreed to do so, a sergeant would investigate and summon the defendant, who was then obliged to pay the fee of the sergeant. These early, successful governments make the Ottoman Empire one of the most important in history. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. A very strenuous form of exercise which the Persians greatly enjoyed was hunting. 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. [216] The Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle was impressed by an encounter with one of these road guards:[217]. "The Safavid Period" in Jackson, Peter; Lockhart, Laurence. The Safavid Empire was a theocracy. 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. 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. [190], Next in authority were the generals: the General of the Royal Troops (the Shahsevans), General of the Musketeers, General of the Ghulams and The Master of Artillery. During these operations an agent of the Samlu (now supporting Sam Mizra's pretensions) attempted to poison the shah. In the fifteenth century, the Safaviyeh gradually gained political and military clout in the power vacuum precipitated by the decline of the Timurid dynasty. [98] Mirza Salman left the capital before Pari Khn Khnum closed the gates and was able to meet Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife in Shiraz, to whom he offered his services. [251] According to Professor Roger Savory:[252][253]. Despite being based on urf, it relied upon certain sets of legal principles. As one of the powerful "gunpowder empires" of the age, the Safavids re-established Persia's place as a key player in economics and geopolitics at the intersection of the eastern and western worlds. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The relationship between the Turkic-speaking 'Turks' and Persian-speaking 'Tajiks' was symbiotic, yet some form of rivalry did exist between the two. Astrakhan came under Russian rule, nearing the Safavid possessions in Dagestan. Islamic philosophy[237] flourished in the Safavid era in what scholars commonly refer to the School of Isfahan. As part of its completion, he greatly expanded the ghulam military corps from just a few hundred during Tahmsp's era, to 15,000 highly trained cavalrymen,[174] as part of a whole army division of 40,000 Caucasian ghulams. [5] In addition to that, the Safavids' power base included largely Turkic-speaking warrior tribes from Azarbaijan and Anatolia, who were collectively known as the Kizilbash, and were, at certain points in time, the de facto rulers of the empire. The war between the two powers continued under Ismil's son, Emperor Tahmasp I, and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, until Shah Abbs retook the area lost to the Ottomans by 1602. At its height, it encompassed the areas of modern-day Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. the peace treaty signed between the ottoman empire and the safavid empire on may 17, 1639, after the conquest of baghdad, which had been in the hands of the iranians for 14 years as a result of murat's baghdad campaign, ending the 1623-1639 ottoman-safavid war and determining the current turkey-iran border.13 from a general point of view, it During the Safavid period Azerbaijani Turkish, or, as it was also referred to at that time, Qizilbash Turkish, occupied an important place in society, and it was spoken both atcourt and by the common people. Tahmasp I's successor, Ismail II, brought another 30,000 Circassians and Georgians to Iran of which many joined the ghulam force. Having started with just the possession of Azerbaijan, Shirvan, southern Dagestan (with its important city of Derbent), and Armenia in 1501,[60] Erzincan and Erzurum fell into his power in 1502,[61] Hamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman in 1504, Diyarbakir, Najaf, and Karbala in 1507, Van in 1508, Baghdad in 1509, and Herat, as well as other parts of Khorasan, in 1510. Every office had a deputy or superintendent, whose job was to keep records of all actions of the state officials and report directly to the Shah. The Safavid dynasty had its origins in a long established Sufi order, called the Safaviyeh, which had flourished in Azarbaijan since the early fourteenth century. Daggers were worn at the waist. Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw a flourishing growth of theological sciences. He returned to Kartli, and in two punitive campaigns he devastated Tbilisi, killed 6070,000 Kakheti Georgian peasants, and deported between 130,000 and 200,000 Georgian captives to mainland Iran. The carpets of Ardabil were commissioned to commemorate the Safavid dynasty. Since Safavid was a theocracy they followed Gods will through the Shah, who at time was considered the entire government. Usually neither Persian nor European authors mention in which language people communicated with each other. [74] The goal of the Ottomans in the 1534 and 15481549 campaigns, during the 15321555 OttomanSafavid War, was to install Tahmsp's brothers (Sam Mirza and Alqas Mirza, respectively) as shah in order to make Iran a vassal state. His painting and calligraphic style influenced Iranian artists for much of the Safavid period, which came to be known as the Isfahan school. [220][221] With the later end of the Portuguese Empire, the British, Dutch and French in particular gained easier access to Persian seaborne trade, although they, unlike the Portuguese, did not arrive as colonisers, but as merchant adventurers. In 1738, Nadir Shah reconquered Afghanistan starting with the city of Kandahar. The primary court language [with Abbas I's reign (r. 15881629)] remained Turkish. Mohammad was selected and received the crown on February 11, 1579. He suggests that this longevity might be most usefully . The impressive achievements of its 400,000 residents prompted the inhabitants to coin their famous boast, "Isfahan is half the world". Journal of The Economic and Social History of The Orient. [180], The Akhbari movement "crystalized" as a "separate movement" with the writings of Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi (died 1627 AD). He moved the capital to Efahn and made it the centre of Safavid architectural achievement, manifest in the mosques Masjed-e Shh (renamed Masjed-e Emm after the 1979 Iranian Revolution), Masjed-e Sheikh Lofollh, and other monuments including the Al Qp, the Chehel Sotn, and the Meydn-i Shh. (1986). The revenue came not so much from exports, as from the custom charges and transit dues levied on goods passing through the country. Although they lasted a long time it was necessary to have changes for different occasions like weddings and the Nowruz, while men of status never wore the same turban two days running. Map Code: Ax01488. Browne, "A Literary History of Persia," Vol. The capture of Baghdad by Ismail I in 1509, was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534. [83] While Persians continued to fill their historical role as administrators and clerical elites under Tahmsp, little had been done so far to minimize the military role of the Qezelb. 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. Each element constituted 20 percent of the crop production, and if, for instance, the farmer provided the labour force and the animals, he would be entitled to 40 percent of the earnings. [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. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands which sought Persian carpet, silk and textiles. From 1540 and onwards, Shah Tahmasp initiated a gradual transformation of the Iranian society by slowly constructing a new branch and layer solely composed of ethnic Caucasians. This system avoided an entrenched aristocracy or a caste society. Women from the provinces and slaves pierced their left nostrils with rings, but well-born Persian women would not do this. The fourth vakil was murdered by the Qezelbash, and the fifth was put to death by them. The Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years. Increased contact with distant cultures in the 17th century, especially Europe, provided a boost of inspiration to Iranian artists who adopted modeling, foreshortening, spatial recession, and the medium of oil painting (Shah Abbas II sent Muhammad Zaman to study in Rome). All other religions, and forms of Islam were suppressed. Floor 2001 is a useful, well-sourced survey of the political organization of Safavid society. The Empire's economic strength came from its location on the . First, he bargained for peace with the Ottomans in 1590, giving away territory in the north-west. Noting that the Safavids were Islamic Iran's longest-lasting dynasty, Newman 2008 challenged Safavid "decline" and, in its place, offered analyses to account for the Safavids' longevity. Throughout the rest of the decade, Ismail I fended off attacks from the Ottomans, stamped out the remnants of a rival faction, called the Ak Koyunlu, and continued to expand his territoryHamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman in 1504, Najaf and Karbala in 1507, Van in 1508, Baghdad in 1509, Khorasan and Herat in 1510. Physiology was still based on the four humours of ancient and mediaeval medicine, and bleeding and purging were still the principal forms of therapy by surgeons, something even Thevenot experienced during his visit to Iran. Following the conquest of Iran, Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni population. The Safavid empire had a strong social structure with kings and royals at the top and peasants at the bottom. The Silk Road, which led through northern Iran to India, revived in the sixteenth century. Roemer, H. R. (1986). Mohammad allowed others to direct the affairs of state, but none of them had either the prestige, skill or ruthlessness of either Tahmsp or Ismail II to rein in the ethnic or palace factions, and each of his rulers met grim ends. For most of the last decade of Ismail's reign, the domestic affairs of the empire were overseen by the Tajik vizier Mirza Shah Hossein until his assassination in 1523. [116] This force of well-trained Caucasian ghulams under Abbas amounted to a total of near 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah. In 161416 during the OttomanSafavid War (16031618), Abbas suppressed a rebellion led by his formerly most loyal Georgian subjects Luarsab II and Teimuraz I (also known as Tahmuras Khan) in the Kingdom of Kakheti. While large in terms of land area, the large proportion of deserts and mountains in its territory meant density was very low; the empire's population is estimated to have probably numbered between eight and ten million in 1650, as compared to c.20 million for the Ottoman Empire in 1600. The treaty was the first formal diplomatic recognition of the Safavid Empire by the Ottomans. [6] It appears that with the advent of the Mughal empire, the harem began to directly exert political power. 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. 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. [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. Though that language might generally be identified as Middle Azerbaijanian, it is not yet possible to define exactly the limits of this language, both in linguistic and territorial respects. As a result, the empire began a long, slow slide into obscurity after his death in 1629. [82], Tahmsp also planted the seeds that would, unintentionally, produce change much later. Suleiman's favourite wife, Hrrem Sultan, was eager for her son, Selim, to become the next sultan. "These legendary characters are often represented on textiles in contemporary Safavid dress, with men sporting turbans wound around a central oblong baton (taj haydari) (52.20.11). As Vladimir Minorsky put it, friction between these two groups was inevitable, because the Qezelbash "were no party to the national Persian tradition." - The Ottomans were able to capture Constantinople in 1453 by using a 26-foot bronze cannon and several other cannons from 15 to 22 feet in-The methods that the safavid empire used to expand their empire was using an early safavid military hero named ismail who was also 14-15 years old conquered most of persia and iraq (Desiree)-They conquered . [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. He also reduced the taxes of districts that were traditionally Shii, regulated services in mosques and engaged Shii propagandists and spies. [219] He convinced the British to assist him by allowing them to open factories in Shiraz, Isfahan and Jask. [83] This was a huge impedance for the authority of the Shah, and furthermore, it undermined any developments without the agreeing or shared profit of the Qizilbash. 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. According to the French jeweller Jean Chardin, the variety in agricultural products in Iran was unrivaled in Europe and consisted of fruits and vegetables never even heard of in Europe. The Shumlu leader, Ali Quli Khan, however, holed himself inside Herat with Abbas. And since the Safavid society was meritocratic, and successions seldom were made on the basis of heritage, this meant that government offices constantly felt the pressure of being under surveillance and had to make sure they governed in the best interest of their leader, and not merely their own. "Greeks and Trkmens: The Pontic Exception", Peter Charanis. Presently, there is a community of nearly 1.7 million people who are descendants of the tribes deported from Kurdistan to Khurasan (Northeastern Iran) by the Safavids. The Safavid Empire was one ruled by Sufi Muslims who later became Shia Muslims. Moreover, he began to strengthen Shii practice by such things as forbidding in the new capital of Qazvin poetry and music which did not esteem Ali and the Twelve Imams. This unique headdress represented the Shici ideology of the Safavid dynasty, with the twelve folds of the turban symbolizing the imams in Twelver Shiism. Bureaucracy and landed class who were considered the middle classes. Source for information on Portuguese Empire: Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments dictionary. A separate official, the Commander-in-Chief, was appointed to be the head of these officials. The judge (qazi) was informed of relevant points involved and would decide whether or not to take up the case. 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