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The Safavids () were a , and established the Ithnāˤashari School of Shi'a Islam R.M. Savory, ''Safavids'', Encyclopedia Of Islam , 2nd edition as the official Religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the History Of Islam . The Safavid dynasty had its origin in the the "Safawiyyah" which was established in the city of Ardabil in the Azerbaijan region of Iran . From their base in Ardabil , the Safavids established control over all of Persia and reasserted the Iranian Identity of the region''Why is there such confusion about the origins of this important dynasty, which reasserted Iranian identity and established an independent Iranian state after eight and a half centuries of rule by foreign dynasties?in R.M. Savory, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980), page 3, thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Sassanids to establish a unified Iranian state. Despite their demise in 1722, the Safavids have left their mark down to present era by spreading and establishing Shi'a Islam in major parts of the Caucasus and West Asia, especially in Iran. BACKGROUND AND ORIGIN Unlike with many other dynasties founded by warlords and military chiefs, one of the unique aspects of the Safavids in the post-Islamic Iran was their origin in the Islamic Sufi order called the Safaviyeh . This uniqueness makes the Safavid dynasty comparable to the pre-Islamic Sassanid dynasty, which made Zoroastrianism into an official religion, and whose founders were from a priestly class. It should be noted that the Safaviyeh was not originally Shia but it was from the Shafii branch of Sunni IslamHamdullah Mustaufi, a contemporary of Shaykh Safi al-Din remarks under Ardabil: اکثر (مردم) بر مذهب شافعی اند، مرید شیخ صفی الدین علیه الرحمه اند The majority of the people are followers of Shafii sect and students of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardabili (May God Bless him).Ira Marvin Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2002. pg 233: "The Safavid movement, founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334), a Sunni Sufi religious teacher descendant from a Kurdish family in north-western Iran..R.M. Savory, "Safavid Persia" in: Ann Katherine Swynford Lambton, Peter Malcolm Holt, Bernard Lewis, "The Cambridge History of Islam", Cambridge University Press, 1977. pg 394: "Such evidences we have seems to suggest that the family hailed from Kurdistan. What does seem certain is that the Safavids were of native Iranian stock, and spoke Azari, the form of Turkish used in Azerbaijan. Shaykh Safi al-Din the founder of the Safavid Tariqa was not a Shi'i (he was probably a Sunni of the Shafi'i Madhhab). The Safavid dynasty was . But even before their ascent to political power in the 15th century, the Safavids had become Turkic-speaking and used Azerbaijani Turkish as a medium of communication with their followers E. Yarshater ''Iran: The Safavid period'', Encyclopedia Iranica as well the official language of their court. According to Richard Frye , Azerbaijani Turkic father-line According to Lawrence Davidson et al Lawrence Davidson and Arthur Goldschmidt. ''A Concise History of the Middle East'', Westview Press, 2005, p. , ISBN 0813342759: Kurdish Father-line The oldest extant book on the genealogy of the Safavid family and the only one that is pre-1501 is titled ''"Safwat as-Safa"'' and was written by R.M. Savory. Ebn Bazzaz. Encyclopedia Iranica and revised Ibn Bazzaz's work , obscuring the Kurdish origins of the Safavid family There seems to exist a consensus among Safavid scholars that Safavids originated in Iranian Kurdistan and moved to Iranian Azerbaijan , settling in Ardabil in the 11th centuryZ. V. Togan, "Sur l’Origine des Safavides," in Melanges Louis Massignon, Damascus, 1957, III, pp. 345-57. Accordinly, these scholars have considered the Safavids to be of Kurdish descent based on the origins of Sheykh Safi al-Din and that the Safavids were originally a Persian speaking clan Heinz Halm, Shi'ism, translated by Janet Watson. New Material translated by Marian Hill, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, pp 75Ira Marvin Lapidus. ''A History of Islamic Societies'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 233Tapper, Richard, FRONTIER NOMADS OF IRAN. A political and social history of the Shahsevan. Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997. pp 39.Izady, Mehrdad, The Kurds: A Concise Handbook. Taylor and Francis, Inc., Washington. 1992. pp 50 E. Yarshater, Encyclopaedia Iranica, "The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan" Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran , Cambridge , Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 2002. pg 143: “It is true that during their revolutionary phase (1447-1501), Safavi guides had played on their descent from the family of the Prophet. The hagiography of the founder of the Safavi order, Shaykh Safi al-Din Safvat al-Safa written by Ibn Bazzaz in 1350-was tampered with during this very phase. An initial stage of revisions saw the transformation of Safavi identity as Sunni Kurds into Arab blood descendants of Muhammad.”Emeri van Donzel, Islamic Desk Reference compiled from the Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1994, pp 381Farhad Daftary, Intellectual Traditions in Islam, I.B.Tauris, 2000. pp 147:But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al-Din go back not to the Hijaz but to Kurdistan, from where, seven generations before him, Firuz Shah Zarin-kulah had migrated to Adharbayjan. Gene Ralph Garthwaite, “The Persians”, Blackwell Publishing, 2004. pg 159 : Chapter on Safavids. "The Safavid family’s base of power sprang from a Sufi order, and the name of the order came from its founder Shaykh Safi al-Din. The Shaykh’s family had been resident in Azerbaijan since Saljuk times and then in Ardabil, and was probably Kurdish in origin.Elton L. Daniel, The history of Iran, Greenwood Press, 2000. pg 83:The Safavid order had been founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334), a man of uncertain but probably Kurdish originMuhammad Kamal, Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. pg 24:"The Safawid was originally a Sufi order whose founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252-1334) was a Sunni Sufi master from a Kurdish family in north-west Iran". Shaykh Safi al-Din was a Shafii Muslim, which is the sect that is followed by Sunni Kurds todayFederal Research Division, Federal Research Div Staff, Turkey: A Country Study, Kessinger Publishers, 2004. pg 141:"Unlike, the Sunni Turks, who follow the Hanafi school of Islamic law, the Sunni Kurds follow the Shafi'i school.Sigfried J. De Laet. History of humanity: scientific and cultural development. Taylor & Francis. 2005. pg 259: "From the evidence available, at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigineous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century. SHEIKH SAFI AL-DIN Safavid history begins with the establishment of the Safaviyeh Sufi Order by its eponymous founder Safī Al-Dīn Abdul Fath Is'haq Ardabilī (1252-1334). In 700/1301, Safi al-Din assumed the leadership of the Zahediyeh a significant Sufi order in Gilan, from his spiritual master Sheikh Zahed Gilani who was also his father-in-law. Due to the great spiritual charisma of Sheikh Safi al-Din, the order was later known as the Safaviyeh . The Safavid order soon gained great influence in the city of Ardabil and Hamdullah Mustaufi remarks that most of the people of Ardabil are followers of Shaykh Safi al-Din. Extant religious poetry from him, written in - and accompanied by a paraphrase in Persian which helps their understanding, has survived to this day and has linguistic importance. FROM SHEIKH SAFI AL-DIN TO ISMAIL I After Safī al-Dīn, the leadership of the Safaviyeh passed onto Sheikh Sadr ud-Dīn Mūsā († 794/1391-92). The order at this time was transformed into a religious movement which conducted religious propaganda throughout Persia, Syria and Asia Minor, and most likely had maintained its Sunni Shaf’ite origin at that time. The leadership of the order passed on from Sadr ud-Dīn Mūsā to his son Khwādja Ali († 1429) and in turn to his son Ibrāhīm († 1429-47). When Sheikh Junāyd, the son of Ibrāhīm, assumed the leadership of Safaviyeh in 1447, the history of the Safavid movement was radically changed. According to R.M. Savory, ''"Sheikh Junayd was not content with spiritual authority and he sought material power"''. At that time, the most powerful dynasty in Persia was that of the the 's daughter, who gave birth to Ismāil , the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Martha's mother, named Theodora - better known as Despina KhatunPeter Charanis. "Review of Emile Janssens' ''Trébizonde en Colchide''", ''Speculum, Vol. 45, No. 3,'', (Jul., 1970), p. 476 - was a Pontic Greek princess and the daughter of the Grand Komnenos John IV Of Trebizond . She had been married to Uzun HassanAnthony Bryer, ''open citation'', p. 136 in exchange to protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans. After Uzun Hassan's death, his son Yāqub felt threatened by the growing Safavid religious influence. Yāqub allied himself with the Shīrvanshāh and killed Shaykh Haydar in 1488. By this time, the bulk of the Safaviyeh followers were Turkish-speaking clans from Asia Minor and Azerbaijan , and were collectively known as Qizilbāsh (''"Red Heads"'') because of their distinct red headgear. The Qizilbāsh were warriors, spiritual followers of Sheikh Haydar, and a source of the Safavid military and political power. After the death of Haydar, the spiritual followers of the Safaviyeh gathered around his son Ali, who was also pursued and subsequently killed by Yāqub. According to official Safavid history, before passing away, Ali had designated his young brother Ismāil as the spiritual leader of the Safavid Order. FOUNDING OF THE DYNASTY BY SHāH ISMāIL I See Also: Ismail I The Safavid ruling dynasty was founded by Ismāil, from now known as . As such, he was the last in the line of hereditary Grand Masters of the Safaviyeh oder, prior to its ascent to a ruling dynasty. Ismāil was a brave and charismatic youth, zealous with regards to his Shi’a faith, and believed himself to be of divine descent. Practically worshipped by his Qizilbāsh followers, Ismāil invaded Shirvan and avenged the death of his father. Afterwards, he went on a conquest campaign, capturing Tabriz in July 1501, where he enthroned himself the Shāh of AzerbaijanRichard Tapper. "Shahsevan in Safavid Persia", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1974, p. 324Lawrence Davidson, Arthur Goldschmid, "A Concise History of the Middle East", Westview Press, 2006, p. 153 and minted coins in his name, proclaiming Shi’ism the official religion of his domain. Although initially the masters of Azerbaijan only, the Safavids had, in fact, won the struggle for power in Persia which had been going on for nearly a century between various dynasties and political forces. A year after his victory in Tabriz, Ismāil proclaimed most of Persia as his domain, and within 10 years established a complete control over all of it, showing extraordinary valor in battle. Ismāil continued to expand his territory adding Hamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman in 1504, Najaf and Karbala in 1507 , Van in 1508, Baghdad in 1509, and Herat , as well as other parts of Khorasan , in 1510. By 1511, the Uzbeks in the north-east, led by their Khan Muhammad Shaybāni , were driven across the Oxus River where they continued to attack the Safavids. His decisive victory over the Uzbeks, who had occupied most of Khorasan, ensured Iran’s eastern borders and the Uzbeks never since expanded beyond the Hindukush . Although the Uzbeks continued to make occasional raids to Khorasan, the Safavid empire throughout their whole reign was able to keep them at bay. The Birth of Shiaism in Iran The fall of Tabriz in 1501 before the advancing forces of Shah Isma‘il Safawi marked the beginning of a new era in Iranian history. The land of Persia, whose population up to that time had been mainly Sunni, was now beginning to be transformed into a Shi‘ite homeland. Suppression of the Sunni Iranians was swift and merciless. The Sunni ‘ulama and Sufis were specifically targeted for persecution. Many preferred exile to certain death, and with the extermination and exodus of their ‘ulama the Ahl as-Sunnah in Iran lost the leadership capable of maintaining their ‘Aqidah as the dominant creed of the land. Thus the time-honoured Persian tradition of Sunni learning and spirituality that started with the likes of Ibrahim ibn Adham, ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak and Abu Dawud of Sijistan, and was sustained by men like al-Ghazali, ar-Razi and ‘Abd al-Qadir of Jilan, came to a horrendous end in the relentless persecution of the Safavids. In 1507, the Portuguese invaded the Persian Gulf and captured the island of Hormuz . It became a Portuguese naval base and trade outpost, which lasted more than a hundred years until the reign of Shāh Abbās I. The Iranian state lacked a navy at the time of Ismāil, and thus Shāh Ismāil was forced to accept this European presence. Clashes with the Ottomans See Also: Battle of Chaldiran Qizilbash More problematic for the Safavids was the powerful Ottoman Empire . The Ottomans, a Sunni dynasty, considered the active recruitment of Turkmen tribes of Anatolia for the Safavid cause as a major threat. To counter the rising Safavid power, in 1502, Sultan Bayezid II forcefully deported many Shi'as from Anatolia to other parts of the Ottoman realm. In 1514, Bayezid 's son, Sultan Selim I marched through Anatolia and reached the plain of Chaldiran near the city of Khoy , and a decisive war was fought there. Most sources agree that the Ottoman army was at least double the size of that of Ismāil , however, what gave the Ottomans the advantage was the artillery which the Safavid army lacked. According to R. M. Savory, ''"Salim's plan was to winter at Tabriz and complete the conquest of Persia the following spring. However, a mutiny among his officers who refused to spend the winter at Tabriz forced him to withdraw across territory laid waste by the Safavid forces, eight days later"''. Although Ismāil was defeated and his capital was captured, the Safavid empire survived. The war between the two powers continued under Ismāil's son, Shāh Tahmāsp I (q.v.), and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I , until Shāh Abbās (q.v.) retook the area lost to the Ottomans by 1602. The consequences of the defeat at Chaldiran were also psychological for Ismāil: the defeat destroyed Ismāil's belief in his invincibility, based on his claimed divine status. His relationships with his Qizilbāsh followers were also fundamentally altered. The tribal rivalries between the Qizilbāsh, which temporarily ceased before the defeat at Chaldiran, resurfaced in intense form immediately after the death of Ismāil, and led to ten years of civil war (930-40/1524-33) until Shāh Tahmāsp regained control of the affairs of the state. Early Safavid power in Iran was based on the military power of the Qizilbāsh. Ismāil exploited the first element to seize power in Iran. But eschewing politics after his defeat in Chaldiran, he left the affairs of the government to the office of the Wakīl (q.v.). Ismāil's successors, and most ostensibly Shāh Abbās I successfully diminished the Qizilbāsh's influence on the affairs of the state. Ismāil's poetry Ismāil is also known for his poetry using the pen-name Khatāī (Arabic خطائی: sinner). He is considered an important figure in the literary history of , to write a Shāhnāma-like epic about his victories and his newly established dynasty. Although the epic was left unfinished, it was an example of '' Mathnawi s'' in the heroic style of the Shāhnāma written later on for the Safavid kings. Legacy Ismāil's greatest legacy established an enduring empire which lasted over 200 years. Even after the fall of Safavids in 1722, their cultural and political influence endured through the era of Afsharid , Zand , Qajar , and Pahlavi dynasties into the modern Islamic Republic Of Iran , where Shi’a Islam is still the official religion as it was during the Safavids. Political scene in Persia prior to Ismāil's rule After the decline of the Timurid Empire (1370–1506), there were many local states prior to the Iranian state established by Ismāil.The writer Ṛūmlu documented the most important of them in his history. The most important local rulers about 1500 were:
Ismāil was able to unite all these lands under the Iranian Empire he created. SHāH TAHMāSP See Also: Shah Tahmasp Shāh Tahmāsp, the young ''governor of Herat '', succeeded his father Ismāil in 1524, when he was ten years and three months old. He was the Ward of the powerful Qizilbash ''amir'' Ali Beg Rūmlū (titled ''"Div Soltān"'') who saw himself as the de facto ruler of the state. For around ten years, rival Qizilbāsh factions fought amongst themselves for the control of the empire until Shāh Tahmāsp reasserted his authority effectively and ended up by reigning for 52 years, the longest reign in Safavid history. The Uzbeks, during the reign of Tahmāsp, attacked the Eastern Provinces Of The Kingdom five times and the Ottomans under Soleymān I made four invasions of Persia. As a result, Persia lost territory in Iraq , and Tahmāsp was forced to move his capital from Tabriz to Qazvin. Using diplomacy, he negotiated with the Ottomans the treaty of Amasya and peace remained unbroken during the rest of his era. After the death of Tahmāsp in 984/1576, the struggle for a dominant position in the state was complicated by rival groups and factions. Dominant political factions vied for power and support three different candidates. The mentally unstable Ismāil, the son of Tahmāsp and the purblind Muhammad Khudābanda were some of the candidates but did not get the support of all the Qizilbāsh chiefs. The Turkmen Ustājlū tribe, one of the most powerful tribes among the Qizilbāsh, threw its support behind Haydar, who was of a Georgian mother, but the majority of the Qizilbāsh chiefs saw this as a threat to their own, Turkmen-dominated power. Instead, they first placed Ismāil II. on the throne (1576-1577) and after him Muhammad Shāh Khudābanda (1578-1588). SHAH ABBAS See Also: Shah Abbas I The greatest of the Safavid monarchs, s غلام (crown servants or slavesD. M. Lang. "Georgia and the Fall of the Safavi Dynasty", ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 14, No. 3'', Studies Presented to Vladimir Minorsky by His Colleagues and Friends (1952), pp. 523-539 usually conscripted from Armenia n, Georgian and Circassian lands), Tofongchis تفگنچى (musketeers), and Topchis توپچى (artillery-men). Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing Herat and Mashhad in 1598. Then he turned against the Ottomans recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq and the Caucasian provinces by 1622. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain (1602) and the English navy from Hormuz (1622), in the Persian Gulf (a vital link in Portuguese trade with India). He expanded commercial links with the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company . Thus Abbas I was able to break the dependence on the Qizilbash for military might and therefore was able to centralize control. The Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years. The capture of Baghdad by Ismail I in 1509 was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I in 1534 . After subsequent campaigns, the Safavids recaptured Baghdad in 1623 yet lost it again to Murad IV in 1638 . Henceforth a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin , was established delineating a border between Iran and Turkey in 1639 , a border which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. The 150 year tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq . In 1609-1610, a war broke out between Kurdish tribes and the Safavid Empire. 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 . Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan( Mahabad ) (Reported by Eskandar Beg Monshi, Safavid Historian (1557-1642) in the Book "Alam Ara Abbasi") and resettled the Turkish Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan .see:
Due to his obsessive fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. In this way one of his sons was executed and two blinded. Since two other sons had predeceased him, the result was personal tragedy for Shah Abbas. When he died on 19 January 1629 , he had no son capable of succeeding him.see Encyclopaedia Iranica under "Abbas I the Great", page 75. The beginning of the 17th Century saw the power of the Qizilbash decline, the original militia that had helped Ismail I capture Tabriz and which had gained many administrative powers over the centuries. Power was shifting to a new class of merchants, many of them ethnic Armenians , Georgian s and Indian s. At its zenith, during the long reign of Shah Abbas I the empire's reach comprised Iran , Iraq , Armenia , Azerbaijan Republic , Georgia , and parts of Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , Afghanistan , and Pakistan . DECLINE OF THE SAFAVID STATE See Also: Hotaki Afsharids , Iran .]] In addition to fighting its perennial enemies, the Ottomans and Uzbeks, as the 17th century progressed Iran had to contend with the rise of two more neighbors. Russian Muscovy in the previous century had deposed two western Asian khanates of the Golden Horde and expanded its influence into the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia. In the east, the Mughal Dynasty of India had expanded into Afghanistan at the expense of Iranian control, taking Qandahar . Furthermore by the 17th century, trade routes between the East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a loss of commerce and trade. Moreover, Shah Abbas had a conversion to a ghulam-based military, though expedient in the short term. Except for Shah Abbas II , the Safavid rulers after Abbas I were ineffectual. The end of his reign, 1666 , marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Despite falling revenues and military threats, later shahs had lavish lifestyles. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiers — Kerman by Baloch tribesmen in 1698, Khorasan by Afghans in 1717, constantly in Mesopotamia by peninsula Arabs. Shah Sultan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in eastern Iran from Sunni to the Shi'a sect of Islam. In response, a Ghilzai Pashtun chieftain named Mir Wais Khan began a rebellion against the Georgian governor, Gurgin Khan , of Kandahar and defeated the Safavid army. Later, in 1722 an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son Mahmud marched across eastern Iran, besieged, and sacked Isfahan. Mahmud proclaimed himself 'Shah' of Persia. The Afghans rode roughshod over their conquered territory for a dozen years but were prevented from making further gains by Nadir Shah , a former slave who had risen to military leadership within the Afshar tribe in Khorasan, a vassal state of the Safavids. Nadir Shah defeated the Afghans in the Battle Of Damghan , 1729 . He had driven out the Afghans, who were still occupying Persia, by 1730 . In 1738 , Nadir Shah reconquered Eastern Persia, starting with Qandahar; in the same year he occupied Ghazni , Kabul , and Lahore , later conquering as far as east as Delhi , but not fortifying his Persian base and exhausting his army's strength. 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. Immediately after Nadir Shah's assassination in 1747 , the Safavids were re-appointed as shahs of Iran in order to lend legitimacy to the nascent Zand Dynasty . However the brief puppet regime of Ismail III ended in 1760 when Karim Khan felt strong enough take nominal power of the country as well and officially end the Safavid dynasty. SHIA ISLAM AS THE STATE RELIGION Even though Safavids were not the first Shia rulers in Iran, they played a crucial role in making Shia Islam the official religion in the whole of Iran. There were large Shia communities in some cities like Qom and Sabzevar as early as 8th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries the Buwayhid s, who were of Zeydi a branch of Shia, ruled in Fars , Isfahan and Baghdad . As a result of Mongol conquest and the relative religious tolerance of the Ilkhanids , Shia dynasties were re-established in Iran - Sarbedaran in Khorasan being the most important. Shah Öljeitü - the sultan of Ilkhanate converted to Twelver Shiism in 13th century, however the population of Iran stayed largely Sunni until the Safavid period. -2002]] Following his conquest of Iran , Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni population. The Sunni Ulema or clergy were either killed or exiled. Ismail I, despite his heterodox Shia beliefs (Momen, 1985), brought in Shi'a religious leaders and granted them land and money in return for loyalty. Later, during the Safavid and especially Qajar period, the Shia Ulema's power increased and they were able to exercise a role, independent of or compatible with the government. Despite Safavid's Sufi origins, most Sufi groups were prohibited, bar the Nimatullahi order. Iran became a feudal theocracy; the Shah was held to be the divinely ordained head of both. In the following centuries, this religious stance would cement both Iran's internal cohesion and national feelings and provoke attacks by its Sunni neighbors. Constant wars with the Ottomans made Shah Tahmasp I move the capital from Tabriz to the interior city of Qazvin in 1548. Later, Shah Abbas I moved the capital to Isfahan, even deeper into central Iran. Abbas I built a new city next to the ancient Persian one. From this time the state began to take on a more Persian character. The Safavids ultimately succeeded in establishing a new Persian national monarchy. TURCOMAN-PERSIAN CONFLICT See Also: Kizilbash Institute of Oriental Studies in Russia , ever since it was acquired by Tsar Nicholas II . Note the two Georgian figures with their names at the top left.]] A major problem faced by Turkmen s, the "men of the sword" of classical Islamic society whose military prowess had brought him to power, and the Persian elements, the "men of the pen," who filled the ranks of the bureaucracy and the religious establishment in the Safavid state as they had done for centuries under previous rulers of Persia, be they Arabs , Mongols , or Turkmen s. As Vladimir Minorsky put it, friction between these two groups was inevitable, because the Qizilbash "were no party to the national Persian tradition". Between 1508 and 1524, the year of Ismail's death, the shah appointed five successive Persians to the office of ''vakil''. 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. The fourth vakil was murdered by the Qizilbash, and the fifth was put to death by them . The Qizilbashi tribes were essential to the military of Iran until the rule of Shah Abbas I - their leaders were able to exercise enormous influence and participate in court intrigues (assassinating Shah Ismail II for example). ECONOMY What fueled the growth of Safavid economy was Iran's position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and India and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north. The Silk Road which led through northern Iran to India revived in the 16th century. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands which sought Persian Carpet , silk and textiles. Other exports were horses, goat hair, pearls and an inedible bitter almond Hadam-talka used as a specie in India. The main imports were specie, textiles (woolens from Europe, cottons from Gujarat), spices, metals, coffee, and sugar. THE LANGUAGES OF THE COURT, MILITARY, ADMINISTRATIVE AND CULTURE The Safavid's by the time of their rise were Azerbaijani speaking although they also knew Persian as a second language. According to Professor Michel M. Mazzoui, the court, the language of the rulers and the military language was Azerbaijani Turkish. But the administration language as well as the language of respondence (Insha'), of belles-lettres (adab) and of history (tarikh) was PersianMichel M. Mazzaoui, "Islamic Culture and literature in the early modern period" in Robert L. Canfield, Turko-Persia in historical perspective, Cambridge University Press, 1991. pg 87 According to the Cambridge History of Iran Laurence Lockhart, Peter Jackson. ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 950, ISBN 0521200946: According to É. Á. Csató et al.: Safavids also used Persian as a cultural and administrative language throughout the empire and were bilingual in PersianV. Minorsky. "The Poetry of Shah Ismail", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 10. No. 4, 1942. According to Arnold J. ToynbeeArnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History,V, pp. 514-15).:. CULTURE See also: Safavid Art Culture within the Safavid family The Safavid family was a literate family from its early origin. There are extant Tati and Persian poetry from Shaykh Safi ad-din Ardabili as well as extant Persian poetry from Shaykh Sadr ad-din. Most of the extant poetry of Shah Ismail I is in Azerbaijani pen-name of Khatai. V. Minorsky. "The Poetry of Shah Ismail", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 10. No. 4, 1942 Sam Mirza, the son of Shah Esmail as well as some later authors assert that Ismail composed poems both in Turkish and Persian but only a few specimens of his Persian verse have survived. A collection of his poems in Azeri were published as a Divan. Shah Tahmasp who has composed poetry in Persian was also a painter, while Shah Abbas II was known as a poet, writing Azerbaijani verses with the pen name of Tani.E. Yarshater, "Language of Azerbaijan, vii., Persian language of Azerbaijan", Encyclopaedia Iranica , v, pp. 238-245, Online Edition, ( LINK ). Sam Mirza, the son of Ismail I was himself a poet and composed his poetry in Persian. He also compiled an anthology of contemporary poetry. Emeri “van” Donzel, Islamic Desk Reference, Brill Academic Publishers, 1994, pp 393. Culture in the empire flourished again and saw many new monuments, such as Naghsh-i Jahan Square , the biggest historic square in the world.]] Shah Abbas I recognized the commercial benefit of promoting the arts - artisan products provided much of Iran's foreign trade. 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 the sixteenth century, carpet weaving evolved from a nomadic and peasant craft to a well-executed industry with specialization of design and manufacturing. Tabriz was the center of this industry. The Carpets Of Ardabil were commissioned to commemorate the Safavid dynasty. The elegantly baroque yet famously misnamed 'Polonaise' Carpets were made in Iran during the seventeenth century. Using traditional forms and materials, Reza Abbasi (1565–1635) introduced new subjects to Persian painting — semi-nude women, youth, lovers. His painting and calligraphic style influenced Iranian artists for much of the Safavid period, which came to be known as the ''Isfahan school''. 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 Zaman to study in Rome). The epic Shahnameh (''Book of Kings''), a stellar example of manuscript illumination and calligraphy, was made during Shah Tahmasp's reign. (This book was written by Ferdousi in the 1000AD for Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi) Another manuscript is the Khamsa by Nezami executed 1539-43 by Aqa Mirak and his school in Isfahan. , completed in 1630, the Imami Mosque, Masjid-e Imami , the Lutfullah Mosque and the Royal Palace. According to Professor. William Cleveland William L. Cleveland , Westview Press, Published 2000, 2nd edition. pp 56-57: Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval Ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. Poetry lacked the royal patronage of other arts and was hemmed in by religious prescriptions. The Safavid era gave way to a flowering of philosophy in Iran with such figures Mulla Sadra of Shirza, Shaikh Bahai and Mir Damad. According to Professor Richard Nelson Frye: ''They were the continuers of the classical tradition of Islamic thought, which after Averroes died in the Arab west. The Persians schools of thought were the true heirs of the great Islamic thinkers of the golden age of Islam, whereas in the Ottoman empire there was an intellectual stagnation, as far as the traditions of Islamic philosophy were concerned''.R. N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, Phoenix Press, 2000, page 234 One of the most renowned Muslim philosophers, Mulla Sadra , lived during Shah Abbas I's reign and wrote the '' Asfar '', a meditation on what he called 'meta philosophy' which brought to a synthesis the philosophical mysticism of Sufism, the theology of Shi'ism, and the Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies of Avicenna and Suhrawardi . Iskander Beg Monshi’s ''History of Shah Abbas the Great'' written a few years after its subject's death, achieved a nuanced depth of history and character. POLITICAL LEGACY Safavids patronized Iranian culture in the manner of their predecessors, with the difference that they were themselves from Iran (they rose to power from Azerbaijan region of Iran). It was Safavids who made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shi’ism against the onslaughts of orthodox Sunni Islam, and the repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Iranianhood.Hillenbrand R., ''Islamic art and Architecture'', London (1999), p228 – ISBN 0-500-20305-9 and acting as a bridge to modern Iran. The founder of the dynasty, Shah Isma'il adopted the title of "Persian Emperor" ''Pādišah-ī Īrān'', with its implicit notion of an Iranian state stretching from the Afghanistan as far as Euphrates, and from the Oxus to the southern Territories of Persian Gulf .’’ibid’’, p228. ARCHITECTURE A new age in Iranian Architecture began with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw a flourishing growth of theological sciences. Traditional architecture evolved in its patterns and methods leaving its impact on the architecture of the following periods. The appearance of new patterns base on geometrical networks in the development of cities gave order to open urban spaces, and took into account the conservation of natural elements(water and plants) within cities. The establishment of distinctive public spaces is one of the most important urban features of the Safavid period, as manifested for example in Naghsh-e Jahan Square , Chahar Bagh and the royal gardens of Isfahan. Distinctive monuments like the Sheikh Lotfallah (1603), Hasht Behesht (Eight Paradise Palace)(1699) and the Chahar Bagh School (1714) appeared in Isfahan and other cities. This extensive development of architecture was rooted in Persian culture and took form in the design of schools, baths, houses, caravanserai and other urban spaces such as bazaars and squares. It continued until the end of the Qajar reign.Jodidio, Philip, ''Iran: Architecture For Changing Societies'':Umberto Allemandi (August 2, 2006). ROLE OF QIZILBASH IN MILITARY See Also: Qizilbash Qizilbash or '''Kizilbash''' ( grandmaster Sheikh Haydar Ṣafawī. Qizilbash were mainly Turkic-speaking tribes. However, they were not exclusively Turkic speaking. The non-Turkic or non-Turkish-speaking Iranian tribes among the Qizilbash were called '' Tājiks '' by the Turcomans and included:Roger M. Savory, "The consolidation of Safavid power in Persia", in Isl., 1965 Faced with the rebellious Qezelbash, 2007 ) SAFAVID SHAHS OF IRAN
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