It would seemthat the poet and miniaturist Sadeqi Afshar (15331610), whose mother tongue was not Azerbaijani Turkish, but Chaghatay (although he was born in Tabriz), was the first to refer to speakers of Qizilbashi (motakallemin-e Qizilbash), but he, and one century later Abdol-Jamil Nasiri, were the exception to this general rule of calling the language "Turki". Most sources agree that the Ottoman army was at least double the size of that of Ismil;[48] furthermore, the Ottomans had the advantage of artillery, which the Safavid army lacked. [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). They in turn provided for the safety of the travelers, and both Thevenot and Tavernier stressed the safety of traveling in 17th century Iran, and the courtesy and refinement of the policing guards. This gives a convincing explanation as to why the Turkic Azerbaijani language became so important in a land with an overwhelming Persian-speaking majority. Related Questions The Safavids, a militant Sufi order, rose to prominence in the early part of the 16th century CE, as the head of a radical Shia movement. Despite the Safavid dynasty's Sufi origins, most Sunni or Shi'a Sufi groups were prohibited by the Nimatullahi order. P Politics and Governance The early Safavid . [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. Despite the predominantly Sunni character of this territory, he proclaimed Shiism the state religion and enforced its creed and prayers in the mosques of his dominion. From the time of Shah Abbas onwards, more land was brought under the direct control of the shah. Soleymn agreed to permit Safavid Shia pilgrims to make pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina as well as tombs of imams in Iraq and Arabia on condition that the shah would abolish the taburru, the cursing of the first three Rashidun caliphs. The relationship between the Turkic-speaking 'Turks' and Persian-speaking 'Tajiks' was symbiotic, yet some form of rivalry did exist between the two. A new age in Iranian architecture began with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The impressive achievements of its 400,000 residents prompted the inhabitants to coin their famous boast, "Isfahan is half the world". But the reverse seems not to have been true. 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. Had corrupt bureaucracy and officials Peasant revolts Had external conflicts from rival Muslim empires and other Empires that were threatening to take land Rich and powerful spent money for a life of luxury Both corps of musketeers and artillerymen totaled 12,000 men. Between 1508 and 1524, the year of Ismail's death, the shah appointed five successive Persians to the office of vakil. 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. Culture flourished under Safavid patronage. Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw a flourishing growth of theological sciences. [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. Moreover, Shah Abbas's conversion to a ghulam-based military, though expedient in the short term, had, over the course of a century, weakened the country's strength by requiring heavy taxation and control over the provinces. 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. In this way, one of his sons was executed and two were blinded. The original name was just turki, and so a convenient name might be Turki-yi Acemi. Shah Abbss remarkable reign, with its striking military successes and efficient administrative system, raised Iran to the status of a great power. Dr. Kallie Szczepanski is a history teacher specializing in Asian history and culture. During the reign of Shah Abbas I, as he tried to upgrade the Silk Road to improve the commercial prosperity of the Empire, an abundance of caravanserais, bridges, bazaars and roads were built, and this strategy was followed by wealthy merchants who also profited from the increase in trade. During his reign, the official language at the royal court was Azerbaijanian. However, Shah Abbas was fearful to the point of paranoia about the assassination and executed or blinded all of his sons to prevent them from replacing him. John R. Perry, "Turkic-Iranian contacts", Last edited on 21 December 2022, at 07:16, establishing Twelver Shsm as the state religion of Iran, a war with Iran that would last until 1590, Abbas I's Kakhetian and Kartlian campaigns, conquered the Hotaki's last stronghold in Kandahar, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Al-Hikma al-mutaaliya fi-l-asfar al-aqliyya al-arbaa, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, "Chronicling a Dynasty on the Make: New Light on the Early afavids in ayt Tabrz's, "Islamic Culture and Literature in Iran and Central Asia in the early modern period", "The emergence of the Safavids as a mystical order and their subsequent rise to power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries", "BARDA and BARDA-DRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran", "GEORGIA vii. He was declared Shah of Iran in 1502. 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. Russian Muscovy in the previous century had deposed two western Asian khanates of the Golden Horde and expanded its influence into Europe, the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia. The latter was the final appeal in civil and criminal cases, and his office stood next to the main entrance to the Ali Qapu palace. Ismil was known as a brave and charismatic youth, zealous with regards to his faith in Sha Islam, and believed himself to be of divine descentpractically worshipped by his Qizilbash followers. In addition the shah's personal bodyguard, made up exclusively of Caucasian ghulms, was dramatically increased to 3,000. Shh Tahmsp, the young titular governor of Khorasan,[66] succeeded his father Ismil in 1524, when he was ten years and three months old. 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. [39] From their base in Ardabil, the Safavids established control over parts of Greater Iran and reasserted the Iranian identity of the region,[40] thus becoming the first native dynasty since the Buyids to establish a national state officially known as Iran.[41]. [109] Abbas' own position seemed even more dependent on Qizilbash approval than Mohammad Khodabanda's was. [76] Under the Peace, the Ottomans agreed to restore Yerevan, Karabakh and Nakhjuwan to the Safavids and in turn would retain Mesopotamia (Iraq) and eastern Anatolia. 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. The second most senior appointment was the Grand Steward (Ichik Agasi bashi), who would always accompany the Shah and was easily recognizable because of the great baton that he carried with him. In place of the usual royal audience, these high dignitaries had to assemble each morning at the entrance to the womens apartments in order to receive the Begums orders. The kingdom further extended its territory to include overseas lands that were acquired through declarations of loyalty to the Ottoman Sultan and caliph. The more than century of tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shi'a rift in Iraq. Although in those campaigns (and in 1554) the Ottomans captured Tabriz, they lacked a communications line sufficient to occupy it for long. Rather than rely on another Turkmen tribe, he appointed a Persian wakl. Later, he conquered territories as far as east as Delhi, but did not fortify his Persian base and eventually, he exhausted his army's strength. The empire had its genesis when the Russian nobility sought a new bloodline for its monarchy. 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. In the late 17th century, Safavid Iran had higher living standards than in Europe. 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". [83] Their formation, implementation, and usage was very much alike to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. He expanded commercial links with the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. [201], Criminal justice was entirely separate from civil law and was judged upon common law administered through the Minister of Justice, local governors and the Court minister (the Nazir). Increased contact with distant cultures in the seventeenth 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). He then besieged the capital of Isfahan, until Shah Soltan Hoseyn abdicated and acknowledged him as the new king of Iran. [29] The Safavids have also left their mark down to the present era by establishing Twelver Shsm as the state religion of Iran, as well as spreading Sha Islam in major parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, Caucasus, Anatolia, the Persian Gulf, and Mesopotamia.[29][31]. Their demise was followed by a period of unrest. Abbas I recognized the commercial benefit of promoting the artsartisan products provided much of Iran's foreign trade. [85] In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid harem emerged as a competitive, and sometimes lethal, arena of ethnic politics as cliques of Turkmen, Circassian, and Georgian women and courtiers vied with each other for the king's attention. [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. Then he turned against Iran's archrival, the Ottomans, recapturing Baghdad, eastern Iraq and the Caucasian provinces by 1616, all through the 16031618, marking the first grand Safavid pitched victory over the Ottomans. [121] Moreover, he planned to deport all nobles of Kartli. As well as wrestling, what gathered the masses was fencing, tightrope dancers, puppet-players and acrobats, performing in large squares, such as the Royal square. Consequently, they were slowly able to take on administrative jobs in areas which had hitherto been the exclusive preserve of the ethnic Persians.[168]. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by Baluchi tribesmen in 1698, Khorasan by Afghans in 1717, constantly in Mesopotamia by peninsula Arabs. In the first years of the 16th century, the Safavids founded a dynasty that conquered what is now IRAN. [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). [175] Thus, starting from the reign of Tahmsp I but only fully implemented and completed by Shah Abbas, this new group solely composed of ethnic Caucasians eventually came to constitute a powerful "third force" within the state as a new layer in society, alongside the Persians and the Qizilbash Turks, and it only goes to prove the meritocratic society of the Safavids. Stanford Jay Shaw. Bureaucracy and landed class who were considered the middle classes. When Shaykh Junayd, the son of Ibrhim, assumed the leadership of the Safaviyya in 1447, the history of the Safavid movement was radically changed. After Uzun Hassan's death, his son Ya'qub felt threatened by the growing Safavid religious influence. [216] The Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle was impressed by an encounter with one of these road guards:[217]. According to historian Roger Savory, "Sheikh Junayd was not content with spiritual authority and he sought material power. Shi'a's sacred sites were much closerin Iraq, captured by the Safavids in 1623 (but surrendered again to the Ottomans in 1639). [187] To ensure transparency and avoid decisions being made that circumvented the Shah, a complex system of bureaucracy and departmental procedures had been put in place that prevented fraud. As a result of the Mongol conquest and the relative religious tolerance of the Ilkhanids, Shii dynasties were re-established in Iran, Sarbedaran in Khorasan being the most important. Period 3 April 6, 2011 Safavid and Mughal Mughal and Safavid were a few of the strongest empires in their time. 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. And the Naqsh-e Jahan Square ("Examplar of the World"). "IRAN ix. According to Donald Struesand, "although the Safavid unification of the eastern and western halves of the Iranian plateau and imposition of Twelver Shii Islam on the region created a recognizable precursor of modern Iran, the Safavid polity itself was neither distinctively Iranian nor national. "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. [48], Shah Abbas realized that in order to retain absolute control over his empire without antagonizing the Qizilbash, he needed to create reforms that reduced the dependency that the shah had on their military support. Yet over the course of ten years Abbas was able, using cautiously-timed but nonetheless decisive steps, to affect a profound transformation of Safavid administration and military, throw back the foreign invaders, and preside over a flourishing of Persian art. 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. The dynasty began as a Sufi order but evolved into a major gunpowder empire. In general, the farmers lived in comfort, and they were well paid and wore good clothes, although it was also noted that they were subject to forced labour and lived under heavy demands. 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". 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. Three bodies of troops were formed, all trained and armed in an early modern manner and paid out of the royal treasury: the ghulms (slaves), the tofangchs (musketeers), and the topchs (artillerymen). They cleverly allied themselves with European powers in order to protect themselves from the Ottomans. Turkic) origins. Then they had a bureaucracy and other classes in which through their own merit they could possible rise up in the ranks. [78] Having to flee from city to city, Humayun eventually sought refuge at the court of Tahmsp in Qazvin in 1543. 378. Browne, "A Literary History of Persia," Vol. Ismail I, brought in mainstream Twelver Shi'a religious leaders and granted them land and money in return for loyalty. 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. [235] The ingenuity of the square, or Maidn, was that, by building it, Shah Abbas would gather the three main components of power in Iran in his own backyard; the power of the clergy, represented by the Masjed-e Shah, the power of the merchants, represented by the Imperial Bazaar, and of course, the power of the Shah himself, residing in the Ali Qapu Palace. He wholeheartedly adopted the use of gunpowder. [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. The Safavid rulers were a Sufi religious order that dated back to the mid 1200s when Sheikh Safi od-Din Ardabili was alive. The Safavid Empire was strengthened by important Shi'a soldiers from the Ottoman army who had fled from persecution. The arguably most renowned historian from this time was Iskandar Beg Munshi. Thus, the end of his reign, 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Tahmasp then handed the prince over to the Ottoman ambassador. In 1503, the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti were made his vassals as well. With the substantial new revenue, Abbas was able to build up a central, standing army, loyal only to him. The Timurid Empire (Persian: ), self-designated as Gurkani (Persian: Grkniyn), was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, as well as most of contemporary Pakistan and parts of contemporary . The Judge is seated at one end of the room having a writer and a man of law by his side. Henceforth a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin known as the Treaty of Zuhab was established delineating a border between Iran and Turkey in 1639, a border which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Safavid-dynasty, Efahn, Iran: Masjed-e Shaykh Luf Allh (Sheikh Lofollh Mosque), Efahn, Iran: interior of Masjed-e Shaykh Luf Allh (Sheikh Lofollh Mosque). In 1598, when Shah Abbas decided to move the capital of his Iranian empire from the north-western city of Qazvin to the central city of Isfahan, he initiated what would become one of the greatest programmes in Iranian history; the complete remaking of the city. Many of its members were bi- or multilingual, with Azeri Turkish and Persian being the linguae francae of the dynasty. 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. [195] Abbas himself was able to speak Georgian as well. Richard Wilson, When Golden Time Convents: Twelfth Night and Shakespeare's Eastern Promise, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMunsh1978 (, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSstn (, harvnb error: no target: CITEREFJavakhishvili1970 (. Order to protect themselves from the time of shah Abbas onwards, more land was brought under the control. 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