[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. [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. [138], The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. There was a systemic administrative organization in the empire which developed further into a dual system of civil administration and . Once known as Persia, the area encompassing and surrounding modern day Iran has seen many empires rise and fall. By the time of Isml I, the orders sixth head, the afavs commanded enough support from the Kizilbashlocal Turkmens and other disaffected heterodox tribesto enable him to capture Tabrz from the Ak Koyunlu (Turkish: White Sheep), an Uzbek Turkmen confederation. Commercial Cleaning New York > Cleaning Tips > safavid political structure Why The Right Cleaning Equipment & Supplies Are Vital Posted on February 8, 2022 by [84] According to the Encyclopdia Iranica, this would be as well 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, and would form a crucial part of the third force. Archery took first place. [105] The Ustajlu chief, Murshid Quli Khan, immediately acquiesced and received a royal pardon. "Greeks and Trkmens: The Pontic Exception", Peter Charanis. VI, Cambridge University Press 1986, p. 339: "Further evidence of a desire to follow in the line of Turkmen rulers is Ismail's assumption of the title "Padishah-i-Iran", "Iranian identity iii. Despite being based on urf, it relied upon certain sets of legal principles. [121] Ultimately forming an alliance, the two sought refuge with the Ottoman forces in Ottoman ruled Imereti. He blamed this on misgovernment, the sparse population of the country, and lack of appreciation of agriculture amongst the Persians. Ismail I, despite his heterodox Shi'a beliefs, which were not compatible with orthodox Shi'ism (Momen, 1985) patronized Shi'a religious leaders, granting them land and money in return for loyalty. Nadir 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. It covered all of Iran, and parts of Turkey and Georgia. According to historian Roger Savory, "Salim's plan was to winter at Tabriz and complete the conquest of Persia the following spring. Safavid culture is often admired for the large-scale city planning and architecture, achievements made during the reign of later shahs, but the arts of persian miniature, book-binding and calligraphy, in fact, never received as much attention as they did during his time. -Did a lot of things to improve and ruin the empire. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. The carpets of Ardabil were commissioned to commemorate the Safavid dynasty. Except for Shah Abbas II, the Safavid rulers after Abbas I were largely ineffectual. Among these were a number of Sufi brotherhoods, the Hurufis, Nuqtavis and Musha'sha'iyyah. He had all his relatives killed except for his older brother, Mohammad Khudabanda, who, being nearly blind, was not a real candidate for the throne, and Mohammad's three sons, Hamza Mirza, Abbas Mirza and Abu Talib Mirza. Was Safavid Iran an Empire. Mohammad's younger sister, who had a hand in elevating and deposing Ismail II and thus had considerable influence among the Qizilbash, was the first. Extortion, intimidation and harassment were practiced against Sunnis.[88]. Stefan Sperl, C. Shackle, Nicholas Awde, "Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa", Brill Academic Pub; Set Only edition (February 1996), p. 193: "Like Shah Ni'mat Allah-i Vali he hosted distinguished visitors among them Ismail Safavi, who had proclaimed himself Shahanshah of Iran in 1501 after having taken Tabriz, the symbolic and political capital of Iran". Robbers had their right wrists amputated the first time, and sentenced to death on any subsequent occasion. Pari Khn Khnum, sister of Ismail and Mohammad, hoped to act as regent for any of the three (including her older brother, who was nearly blind). Medieval Islamic period" in, Mikheil Svanidze, "The Amasya Peace Treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Iran (June 1, 1555) and Georgia,", Max Scherberger, The Confrontation between Sunni and Shii Empires: Ottoman-Safavid Relations between the Fourteenth and the Seventeenth Centuries in. In return, they had to keep ready a standing army at all times and provide the Shah with military assistance upon his request. They in turn would be replaced by the Shamlu, whose amir, Husain Khan, became the chief adviser. [122][123][124][125] After fully securing the region, he executed the rebellious Luarsab II of Kartli and later had the Georgian queen Ketevan, who had been sent to the shah as negotiator, tortured to death when she refused to renounce Christianity, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz. [126][127] Kakheti lost two-thirds of its population in these years by Abbas' punitive campaign. The highest level in the legal system was the Minister of Justice, and the law officers were divided into senior appointments, such as the magistrate (darughah), inspector (visir), and recorder (vakanevis). With the beginning of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, Albuquerque, a Portuguese general, conquered Hormoz Island in southern Iran. During these operations an agent of the Samlu (now supporting Sam Mizra's pretensions) attempted to poison the shah. 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. It forever influenced Persian nationalism. It covered all of Iran, and parts of Turkey and Georgia. The Safavids were members of a Sufi tariqa (path of spiritual journey) founded in the 7th/ 13th century by Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili. In cultural matters, Tahmsp presided the revival of the fine arts, which flourished under his patronage. During the three centuries 1500-1800 the technology, organization, and ethnography of Persian agriculture, animal husbandry, manufacturing, and accounting underwent partial change. [130][131] Nowadays, there is a community of nearly 1.7 million people who are descendants of the tribes deported from Kurdistan to Khorasan (Northeastern Iran) by the Safavids.[132]. [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. [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. Abbas offered trading rights and the chance to preach Christianity in Iran in return for help against the Ottomans. This gives a convincing explanation as to why the Turkic Azerbaijani language became so important in a land with an overwhelming Persian-speaking majority. It ruled over the western reaches of the late Silk Road, although the overland trade routes were quickly being supplanted by ocean-going trading vessels. [190] The Chief Physician (Hakim-bashi) was a highly considered member of the Royal court,[192] and the most revered astrologer of the court was given the title Munajjim-bashi (Chief Astrologer). [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). [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. [117][118], Abbas also greatly increased the number of cannons at his disposal, permitting him to field 500 in a single battle. During the first 30 years of his long reign, he was able to suppress the internal divisions by exerting control over a strengthened central military force. At the apex of this system was the Shah, with total power over the state, legitimized by his bloodline as a sayyid, or descendant of Muhammad. [101], The palace intrigues reflected ethnic unrest which would soon erupt into open warfare. This would not change with the Arab conquest of Iran, and it was primarily the Persians that took upon them the works of philosophy, logic, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, music and alchemy. 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. When the second Persian vakil was placed in command of a Safavid army in Transoxiana, the Qizilbash, considering it a dishonor to be obliged to serve under him, deserted him on the battlefield with the result that he was slain. Shah Soltan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in eastern Iran from Sunni to Shi'a Islam. Henceforth, a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin, was established, delineating a border between Iran and Turkey in 1639, which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. Savory, II, p. 1116. After subsequent campaigns, the Safavids recaptured Baghdad in 1623 during the OttomanSafavid War (162339) yet lost it again to Murad IV in 1638 after Abbas had died. According to the Encyclopdia Iranica, for Tahmasp, the background of this initiation and eventual composition that would be only finalized under Shah Abbas I, circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the Qizilbash, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement. To counter the rising Safavid power, in 1502, Sultan Bayezid II forcefully deported many Shiite Muslims from Anatolia to other parts of the Ottoman realm. Since the earliest days of the Safavid dynasty, the Qizilbash generals had been appointed to most of these posts. Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. In order not to favor one Turkic tribe over another and to avoid inflaming the Turk-Persian enmity, he recruited his army from the "third force", a policy that had been implemented in its baby-steps since the reign of Tahmasp Ithe Circassian, Georgian and to a lesser extent Armenian ghulms (slaves) which (after conversion to Islam) were trained for the military or some branch of the civil or military administration. This latest leader would only last until 1534, when he was deposed and executed. And the Naqsh-e Jahan Square ("Examplar of the World"). 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. Between 1508 and 1524, the year of Ismail's death, the shah appointed five successive Persians to the office of vakil. "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. There were no particular place assigned for the administration of justice. Almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Safavid Empire, the Mughal Empire, founded by the Timurid heir Babur, was developing in South-Asia. And in spite of being transported for more than thirty days, they were fresh when they reached Isfahan After melons the finest fruits were grapes and dates, and the best dates were grown in Jahrom. The language chiefly used by the Safavid court and military establishment was Azerbaijani. 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. 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. The Shirley brothers arrived in 1598 and helped reorganize the Iranian army, which proved to be crucial in the OttomanSafavid War (160318), which resulted in Ottoman defeats in all stages of the war and the first clear pitched Safavid victory of their archrivals. Not taken care of accordingly, these were a serious threat to the ruler, or worse, could bring the fall of the former or could lead to unnecessary court intrigues. With the Safavid state and its territories secured, in 1738 Nader conquered the Hotaki's last stronghold in Kandahar; in the same year, in need of fortune to aid his military careers against his Ottoman and Russian imperial rivals, he started his invasion of the wealthy but weak Mughal Empire accompanied by his Georgian subject Erekle II,[155] occupying Ghazni, Kabul, Lahore, and as far as Delhi, in India, when he completely humiliated and looted the militarily inferior Mughals. Beginning in 1526 periodic battles broke out, beginning in northwest Iran but soon involving all of Khorasan. Thus, the end of his reign, 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. Shah Ismail I himself wrote many poems in Azerbaijani, as well as in Persian and Arabic, while Shah Tahmasp was a painter. As non-Turcoman converts to Islam, these Circassian and Georgian olmns (also written as ghulams) were completely unrestrained by clan loyalties and kinship obligations, which was an attractive feature for a ruler like Tahmsp whose childhood and upbringing had been deeply affected by Qizilbash tribal politics. The Safavid Empire was a theocracy. Majlisi's works emphasized his desire to purge Twelver Shiism of the influences of mysticism and philosophy, and to propagate an ideal of strict adherence to the Islamic law (sharia). The kingdom further extended its territory to include overseas lands that were acquired through declarations of loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and caliph. [194] As Prof. David Blow states, foremost among the courtiers were the old nobility of Turkoman Qizilbash lords and their sons. Map Code: Ax01488. She had been married to Uzun Hassan[44] in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans. Women with slender waists were regarded as more attractive than those with larger figures. Mohammad was selected and received the crown on February 11, 1579. [63] Furthermore, by the early 1510s Ismail's expansionistic policies had pushed the Safavid borders in Asia Minor even more westwards. [183] It remains only a small minority in the Shii world. After the Peace of Amasya, Tasmsp underwent what he called a "sincere repentance." An angry mob gathered and Tahmasp had Bayezid put into custody, alleging it was for his own safety. Later, during the Safavid and especially Qajar period, the role of Shi'a ulema increased and they were able to exercise a role in social and political life independent of the government. [191] In addition to these, there were separate officials appointed for the caretaking of royal banquets and for entertainment. 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