Founding of the dynasty by Shah Ismail I (r. 1501–1524) Iran prior to Ismail's rule , painted from life by
Kamal al-din Behzad, his director of the royal atelier.
Topkapı Palace Museum, H.2169. Following the decline of the
Timurid Empire (1370–1506), Iran was politically fragmented, giving rise to numerous religious movements. The demise of
Timur's political authority created a space in which several religious communities, particularly Shiʻi ones, could come to the fore and gain prominence. Among these were several
Sufi brotherhoods, the
Hurufis,
Nuqtavis and the
Musha'sha'i. Among these movements, the Qizilbash was the most politically resilient, and, owing to its success, Ismail I gained political prominence in 1501. There were many local states before the state established by Ismail. The most important local rulers about 1500 were: •
Huṣayn Bāyqarā, the Timurid sultan of
Herat • Alwand Mīrzā,
Khan of the
Aq Qoyunlu of
Tabriz • Murad Beg,
Aq Qoyunlu ruler of
Persian Iraq •
Farrokh Yaṣar, the
Shirvanshah • Badi Alzamān Mīrzā, local ruler of
Balkh • Huṣayn Kiyā Chalavī, the
Kar-Kiya ruler of
Semnan • Murād Beg Bayandar, local ruler of
Yazd •
Mahmud ibn Nizām al-Dīn Yahyá,
Mihrabanid malek of
Sistan • Several local rulers of
Mazandaran and
Gilan, such as Bisotun II, Ashraf ibn Taj al-Dawla, Mirza Ali, and
Kiya Husayn II. Ismail was able to unite all these lands under his empire.
Rise of Shāh Ismail I (1501), according to the
Shāhnāmah Shāh Ismaʿīl (Tabriz, 1541) The Safavid dynasty was founded about 1501 by
Shah Ismail I, the
sheikh of
Safavid order and a direct descendant of its eponymous founder,
sheikh Safi ad-Din Ardabili. His background is disputed: Different historians have contending claims regarding the ethnic origin of Safi ad-Din. Hinz
de] states that he was Arab,
Ayalon claims he was Turkic,
Kasravi asserts he was Iranian, and
Togan argues he was Kurdish but had completely Turkified by the time of Ismail.
Gelvin and
Lapidus also argue that he was of Kurdish origin.
Savory and Gündüz
tr] have pointed out that the source text regarding Sheikh Safi al-Din's ethnic origin contains factual inaccuracies. According to Roemer
de], the Safavid Shah represented a lineage that combined both Turkmen and Iranian ancestry. Therefore, the question of whether the dynasty's founder, Sheikh Safi, was of Iranian, or
seyyed descent is irrelevant. Due to the marriages of Safavid family with their dignitaries, Ismail also had
Turkoman,
Georgian and
Pontic Greek ancestry. The language Ismail used is not identical with that of his "race" or "nationality" and he was bilingual from birth. As such, he was the last in the line of hereditary grand masters of the Safaviyeh order, prior to its ascent to a ruling dynasty. Ismail was known as a brave and charismatic youth, zealous with regards to his faith in
Shia Islam, and believed himself to be of divine descentpractically worshipped by his
Qizilbash followers. In 1500, Ismail I
invaded neighboring
Shirvan to avenge the death of his father, Sheik Haydar, who was murdered in 1488 by the Shah of Shirvan,
Farrukh Yasar. Afterwards, Ismail went on a conquest campaign, capturing
Tabriz in July 1501, where he enthroned himself the Shah of
Azerbaijan, proclaimed himself
King of Kings (
shahanshah) of Iran and minted coins in his name, proclaiming
Twelver Shi'ism as the
official religion of his domain. Having started with just the possession of Azerbaijan,
Shirvan, southern
Dagestan (with its important city of
Derbent), and
Armenia in 1501,
Erzincan and
Erzurum fell into his power in 1502,
Hamadan in 1503,
Shiraz and
Kerman in 1504,
Diyarbakır,
Najaf, and
Karbala in 1507,
Van in 1508,
Baghdad in 1509, and
Herat, as well as other parts of
Khorasan, in 1510. In 1503, the kingdoms of
Kartli and
Kakheti were made his vassals as well. By 1511, the
Uzbeks in the north-east, led by their Khan
Muhammad Shaybani, were driven far to the north, across the
Oxus River, where they continued to attack the Safavids. Ismail's decisive victory over the Uzbeks, who had occupied most of Khorasan, ensured Iran's eastern borders, and the Uzbeks never since expanded beyond the
Hindu Kush. Although the Uzbeks continued to make occasional raids into Khorasan, the Safavid empire was able to keep them at bay throughout its reign.
Start of clashes with the Ottomans between
Shah Ismail (right) and Uzbek warlord
Muhammad Shaybani Khan (left) in 1510. After the battle Ismail purportedly gilded the skull of Shaybani Khan for use as a wine goblet.
Chehel Sotoun Palace,
Isfahan, painted . More problematic for the Safavids was the powerful neighboring
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 Shiʻite Muslims from Anatolia to other parts of the Ottoman realm. In 1511, the
Şahkulu rebellion was a widespread pro-Shia and pro-Safavid uprising directed against the Ottoman Empire from within the empire. Furthermore, by the early 1510s Ismail's expansionistic policies had pushed the Safavid borders in
Asia Minor even more westwards. The Ottomans soon reacted with a large-scale incursion into Eastern Anatolia by Safavid
ghazis under
Nur-Ali Khalifa. This action coincided with the accession to the Ottoman throne in 1512 of Sultan
Selim I,
Bayezid II's son, and it was the
casus belli leading to Selim's decision to invade neighbouring Safavid Iran two years later. In 1514, Sultan Selim I marched through Anatolia and reached the plain of Chaldiran near the city of
Khoy, where a
decisive battle was fought. Most sources agree that the Ottoman army was at least double the size of that of
Ismāʻil; furthermore, the Ottomans had the advantage of artillery, which the Safavid army lacked. According to historian
Roger 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 Ismail was defeated and his capital was captured, the Safavid empire survived. The war between the two powers continued under Ismail's son, Emperor
Tahmasp I, and the Ottoman Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent, until Shah Abbas retook the area lost to the Ottomans by 1602. .
Chehel Sotoun, painted in 1801–1802. The consequences of the defeat at Chaldiran were also psychological for Ismail: the defeat destroyed Ismail's belief in his invincibility, based on his claimed divine status. The victory resulted at least in part from Safavid use of firearms, which they had been acquiring and drilling with since Chaldiran. Notwithstanding the success with firearms at Jam, Tahmasp still lacked the confidence to engage their archrivals the Ottomans, choosing instead to cede territory, often using
scorched earth tactics in the process. The goal of the Ottomans in the 1534 and 1548–1549 campaigns, during the
1532–1555 Ottoman–Safavid War, was to install Tahmasp's brothers (Sam Mirza and
Alqas Mirza, respectively) as shah in order to make Iran a vassal state. Although in those campaigns (and in 1554) the Ottomans captured
Tabriz, they lacked a communications line sufficient to occupy it for long. Nevertheless, given the insecurity in Iraq and its northwest territory, Tahmasp moved his court from Tabriz to
Qazvin. In the gravest crisis of Tahmasp's reign, Ottoman forces in 1553–54 captured
Yerevan,
Karabakh and
Nakhjavan, destroyed palaces, villas and gardens, and threatened
Ardabil. During these operations an agent of the Samlu (now supporting Sam Mizra's pretensions) attempted to poison the shah. Tahmasp resolved to end hostilities and sent his ambassador to Soleyman's winter quarters in
Erzurum in September 1554 to sue for peace. Temporary terms were followed by the
Peace of Amasya in June 1555, ending the war with the Ottomans for the next two decades. The treaty was the first formal diplomatic recognition of the Safavid Empire by the Ottomans. Under the Peace, the Ottomans agreed to restore Yerevan, Karabakh and Nakhjavan to the Safavids and in turn would retain Mesopotamia (Iraq) and eastern Anatolia. Soleyman 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. It was a heavy price in terms of territory and prestige lost, but it allowed the empire to last, something that seemed improbable during the first years of Tahmasp's reign.
Royal refugees: Bayezid and Humayun (left) and
Shah Tahmasp I (right) in
Soltaniyeh in 1544.
Chehel Sotoun Palace,
Isfahan, painted circa 1647. Shah Tahmasp provided Humayun with 12,000 cavalry and 300 veterans of his personal guard along with provisions, so that his guest may recover his lost domains. Almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Safavid Empire, the
Mughal Empire, founded by the
Timurid heir
Babur, was developing in South-Asia. The Mughals adhered to Sunni Islam while ruling a largely
Hindu population. After the death of Babur, his son
Humayun was ousted from his territories and threatened by his half-brother and rival, who had inherited the northern part of Babur's territories. Having to flee from city to city, Humayun eventually sought refuge at the court of Tahmasp in Qazvin in 1543. Tahmasp received Humayun as the true emperor of the Mughal dynasty, despite the fact that Humayun had been living in exile for more than fifteen years. After Humayun converted to Shiʻi Islam (under extreme duress), Tahmasp offered him military assistance to regain his territories in return for
Kandahar, which controlled the overland trade route between central Iran and the Ganges. In 1545 a combined Iranian–Mughal force managed to seize Kandahar and occupy Kabul. Humayun handed over Kandahar, but Tahmasp was forced to retake it in 1558, after Humayun seized it on the death of the Safavid governor. Humayun was not the only royal figure to seek refuge at Tahmasp's court. A dispute arose in the Ottoman Empire over who was to succeed the aged
Suleiman the Magnificent. Suleiman's favourite wife,
Hürrem Sultan, was eager for her son,
Selim, to become the next sultan. But Selim was an alcoholic and Hürrem's other son,
Bayezid, had shown far greater military ability. The two princes quarrelled and eventually Bayezid rebelled against his father. His letter of remorse never reached Suleiman, and he was forced to flee abroad to avoid execution. In 1559 Bayezid arrived in Iran where Tahmasp gave him a warm welcome. Suleiman was eager to negotiate his son's return, but Tahmasp rejected his promises and threats until, in 1561, Suleiman compromised with him. In September of that year, Tahmasp and Bayezid were enjoying a banquet at Tabriz when Tahmasp suddenly pretended he had received news that the Ottoman prince was engaged in a plot against his life. An angry mob gathered and Tahmasp had Bayezid put into custody, alleging it was for his own safety. Tahmasp then handed the prince over to the Ottoman ambassador. Shortly afterwards, Bayezid was killed by agents sent by his own father.
Legacy of Shah Tahmasp When the young Shah Tahmasp took the throne, Iran was in a dire state. But in spite of a weak economy, a civil war and foreign wars on two fronts, Tahmasp managed to retain his crown and maintain the territorial integrity of the empire (although much reduced from Ismail's time). 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. In the war against the Uzbeks he showed that the Safavids had become a
gunpowder empire. His tactics in dealing with the
Ottoman threat eventually allowed for a treaty which preserved peace for twenty years. In cultural matters, Tahmasp presided the revival of the fine arts, which flourished under his patronage. 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. . Tapestry of the mid-16th century. Tahmasp also planted the seeds that would, unintentionally, produce change much later. During his reign he had realized while both looking to his own empire and that of the neighboring Ottomans, that there were dangerous rivalling factions and internal family rivalries that were a threat to the heads of state. 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. According to Colin Mitchell, for Tahmasp, the problem circled around the military tribal elite of the empire, the
Qezelbāš, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune, and material advancement. Despite that Tahmasp could nullify and neglect some of his consternations regarding potential issues related to his family by having his close direct male relatives such as his brothers and sons routinely transferred around to various governorships in the empire, he understood and realized that any long-term solutions would mainly involve minimizing the political and military presence of the Qezelbāš as a whole. According to
Encyclopædia Iranica, his father and founder of the Empire, Ismail I, had begun this process on a bureaucratic level as he appointed a number of prominent Persians in powerful bureaucratic positions, and one can see this continued in Tahmasp's lengthy and close relationship with the
chief vizier, Qażi Jahan of Qazvin, after 1535. While Persians continued to fill their historical role as administrators and clerical elites under Tahmasp, little had been done so far to minimize the military role of the Qezelbāš. , "art of the court of
Shah Tahmasp", mid-16th century. Therefore, in 1540, Shah Tahmasp started the first of a series of invasions of the
Caucasus region, both meant as a training and drilling for his soldiers, as well as mainly bringing back massive numbers of
Christian Circassian and
Georgian slaves, who would form the basis of a military slave system, alike to the
janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, as well as at the same time forming a new layer in Iranian society composed of ethnic
Caucasians. At the fourth invasion in 1553, it was now clear that Tahmasp followed a policy of annexation and resettlement as he gained control over
Tbilisi (Tiflis) and the region of
Kartli while physically transplanting more than 30,000 people to the central Iranian heartlands. According to
Encyclopædia Iranica, this would be the starting point for the corps of the
ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa-ye-e šarifa, or
royal slaves, who would dominate the Safavid military for most of the empire's length. As non-Turcoman converts to Islam, these Circassian and Georgian
ḡolāmāns (also written as
ghulams) were completely unrestrained by clan loyalties and kinship obligations, which was an attractive feature for a ruler like Tahmasp whose childhood and upbringing had been deeply affected by Qezelbāš tribal politics. 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 shah's attention. Although the first slave soldiers would not be organized until the reign of Abbas I, during Tahmasp's time Caucasians would already become important members of the royal household,
Harem and in the civil and military administration, and by that becoming their way of eventually becoming an integral part of the society. One of Tahmasp's sisters married a Circassian, who would use his court office to team up with Tahmasp's daughter,
Pari Khān Khānum to assert themselves in succession matters after Tahmasp's death. After the
Peace of Amasya, Tasmāsp underwent what he called a "sincere repentance." Tasmāsp at the same time removed his son Ismail from his Qizilbash followers and imprisoned him at Qahqaha. Moreover, he began to strengthen Shiʻi practice by such things as forbidding in the new capital of Qazvin poetry and music which did not esteem Ali and the Twelve Imams. He also reduced the taxes of districts that were traditionally Shiʻi, regulated services in mosques and engaged Shiʻi propagandists and spies. Extortion, intimidation and harassment were practiced against Sunnis. When Tahmasp died in 984/1576, Iran was calm domestically, with secure borders and no imminent threat from either the Uzbeks or the Ottomans. What remained unchanged, however, was the constant threat of local disaffection with the weak central authority. That condition would not change (and in fact it would worsen) until Tahmasp's grandson, Abbas I, assumed the throne.
Chaos under Tahmasp's sons , from a 1587–1592 chronicle of Safavid history,
Kholāsat al-tavārikh On Tahmasp's death support for a successor coalesced around two of his nine sons; the support divided on ethnic lines—
Ismail was supported by most of the Turkmen tribes as well as his sister
Pari Khān Khānum, her Circassian uncle
Shamkhal Sultan as well as the rest of the Circassians, while Haydar was mostly supported by the Georgians at court although he also had support from the Turkmen Ustajlu. Ismail had been imprisoned at Qahqaha since 1556 by his father on charges of plotting a coup, but his selection was ensured when 30,000 Qizilbash supporters demonstrated outside the prison. Shortly after the installation of Ismail II on August 22, 1576, Haydar was beheaded.
Ismail II (r. 1576–1577) Ismail's 14-month reign was notable for two things: continual bloodletting of his relatives and others (including his own supporters) and his reversal on religion. 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. While the murderous actions of Ismail might be explained by political prudence (Ottoman sultans occasionally purged the bloodline to prevent succession rivals), his actions against Shi’a suggest retaliation against his father, who saw himself as a pious practitioner. Ismail sought to reintroduce Sunni orthodoxy. But even here there may have been practical political considerations; namely, "concern about the excessively powerful position of Shiʻi dignitaries, which would have been undermined by a reintroduction of the Sunna." His conduct might also be explained by his drug use. In any event, he was ultimately killed (according to some accounts) by his Circassian half-sister,
Pari Khān Khānum, who championed him over Haydar. She is said to have poisoned his opium.
Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–1587) On the death of Ismail II there were three candidates for succession: Shah Shuja, the infant son of Ismail (only a few weeks old), Ismail's brother, Mohammad Khodabanda; and Mohammad's son, Sultan Hamza Mirza, 11 years old at the time. Pari Khān Khānum, sister of Ismail and Mohammad, hoped to act as regent for any of the three (including her older brother, who was nearly blind). Mohammad was selected and received the crown on February 11, 1579. Mohammad would rule for 10 years, and his sister at first dominated the court, but she fell in the first of many intrigues which continued even though the Uzbeks and Ottomans again used the opportunity to threaten Safavid territory. Mohammad allowed others to direct the affairs of state, but none of them had either the prestige, skill or ruthlessness of either Tahmasp or Ismail II to rein in the ethnic or palace factions, and each of his rulers met grim ends. 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. She did not last much longer than Mohammad's installation at Qazvin, where she was murdered. She was done in by intrigues by the vizier
Mirza Salman Jaberi (who was a holdover from Ismail II's reign) and Mohammad's chief wife
Khayr al-Nisa Begum, known as Mahd-i 'Ulyā. There is some indication that Mirza Salman was the chief conspirator.
Pari Khān Khānum could master strong support among the Qizilbash, and her uncle,
Shamkhal Sultan, was a prominent
Circassian who held a high official position. Mirza Salman left the capital before Pari Khān Khānum closed the gates and was able to meet Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife in Shiraz, to whom he offered his services. He may have believed that he would rule once their enemy was disposed of, but Mahd-i 'Ulyā proved the stronger of the two. She was by no means content to exercise a more or less indirect influence on affairs of state: instead, she openly carried out all essential functions herself, including the appointment of the chief officers of the realm. In place of the usual royal audience, these high dignitaries had to assemble each morning at the entrance to the women's apartments in order to receive the Begum's orders. On these occasions the royal edicts were drawn up and sealed. 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, who was captured during the 1578–1590 Ottoman war and held captive in the capital, Qazvin. None of the perpetrators were brought to justice, although the shah lectured the assembled amirs on how they departed from the old ways when the shah was master to his Sufi disciples. The shah used that occasion to proclaim the 11-year-old Sultan Hamza Mirza (Mahd-i 'Ulyā's favorite) crown-prince. The palace intrigues reflected ethnic unrest which would soon erupt into open warfare. Iran's neighbors seized the opportunity to attack. The Uzbeks struck in the Spring of 1578 but were repelled by Murtaza Quli Sultan, governor of Mashhad. 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. While the initial attacks were repelled, the Ottomans continued and grabbed considerable territory in
Transcaucasia,
Dagestan,
Kurdistan and
Lorestan and in 993/1585 they even took
Tabriz. In the midst of these foreign perils, rebellion broke out in Khorasan fomented by (or on behalf of) Mohammad's son, Abbas. Ali Quli Khan Shamlu, the
lala of Abbas and Ismail II's man in Herat proclaimed Abbas shah there April 1581. The following year the loyal Qizilbash forces (the Turkmen and Takkalu who controlled Qazvin), with vizier Mirza Salman and crown prince Sultan Hamza Mirza at their head, confronted the rebelling Ustajlu-Shamlu coalition which had assumed control of Khorasan under the nominal rule of young Abbas. The Ustajlu chief, Murshid Quli Khan, immediately acquiesced and received a royal pardon. The Shumlu leader, Ali Quli Khan, however, holed himself inside Herat with Abbas. The vizier thought that the royal forces failed to prosecute the siege sufficiently and accused the forces of sedition. 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 crown prince (the vizier's son-in-law) meekly turned him over, and the Qizilbash executed him and confiscated his property. The siege of Herat thus ended in 1583 without Ali Quli Khan's surrender, and Khorasan was in a state of open rebellion. In 1585 two events occurred that would combine to break the impasse among the Qizilbash. First, in the west, the Ottomans, seeing the disarray of the warriors, pressed deep into Safavid territory and occupied the old capital of Tabriz. Crown prince Hamza Mirza, now 21 years old and director of Safavid affairs, led a force to confront the Ottomans, but in 1586 was murdered under mysterious circumstances. In the east Murshid Quli Khan, of the Ustajlu tribe, managed to snatch Abbas away from the Shamlus. Two years later in 1587, the massive invasion of Khorasan by the Uzbeks proved the occasion whereby Murshid Quli Khan would make a play for supremacy in
Qazvin. When he reached the capital with Abbas a public demonstration in the boy's favor decided the issue, and Shah Mohammad voluntarily handed over the insignia of kingship to his son, who was crowned Abbas I on October 1, 1588. The moment was grave for the empire, with the Ottomans deep in Iranian territory in the west and north and the Uzbeks in possession of half of Khorasan in the east.
Shah Abbas (r. 1588–1629) pavilion, dated circa 1647. The 16-year-old Abbas I was installed as nominal shah in 1588, but the real power was intended to remain in the hands of his "mentor," Murshid Quli Khan, who reorganized court offices and principal governorships among the Qizilbash and took the title of
wakīl for himself. Abbas' own position seemed even more dependent on Qizilbash approval than Mohammad Khodabanda's was. The dependence of Abbas on the Qizilbash (which provided the only military force) was further reinforced by the precarious situation of the empire, in the vice of Ottoman and Uzbek territorial plunder. 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.
Restoration of central authority Whether Abbas had fully formed his strategy at the onset, at least in retrospect his method of restoring the shah's authority involved three phases: (1) restoration of internal security and law and order; (2) recovery of the eastern territories from the Uzbeks; and (3) recovery of the western territories from the Ottomans. Before he could begin to embark on the first stage, he needed relief from the most serious threat to the empire: the military pressure from the Ottomans. He did so by taking the humiliating step of coming to peace terms with the Ottomans by making, for now, permanent their territorial gains in Iraq and the territories in the north, including Azerbaijan,
Karabakh,
Ganja, eastern
Georgia (comprising the
Kingdom of Kartli and
Kakheti),
Dagestan, and Kurdistan. 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. Although no one could have bristled more at the power grab of his "mentor" Murshid Quli Khan, he rounded up the leaders of a plot to assassinate the
wakīl and had them executed. Then, having made the point that he would not encourage rivalries even purporting to favor his interests, he felt secure enough to have Murshid Quli Khan assassinated on his own orders in July 1589. It was clear that Abbas' style of leadership would be entirely different from Mohammad Khodabanda's leadership. Abbas was able to begin gradually transforming the empire from a tribal confederation to a modern imperial government by transferring provinces from
mamalik (provincial) rule governed by a Qizilbash chief and the revenue of which mostly supported local Qizilbash administration and forces to
khass (central) rule presided over by a court appointee and the revenue of which reverted to the court. Particularly important in this regard were the
Gilan and
Mazandaran provinces, which produced Iran's single most important export; silk. With the substantial new revenue, Abbas was able to build up a central, standing army, loyal only to him. This freed him of his dependence on Qizilbash warriors loyal to local tribal chiefs. What effectively fully severed Abbas's dependence on the Qizilbash, however, was how he constituted this new army. 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
ghulāms (slaves) which (after conversion to Islam) were trained for the military or some branch of the civil or military administration. The standing army created by Abbas consisted of: (1) 10,000–15,000 cavalry
ghulām regiments solely composed of ethnic
Caucasians, armed with muskets in addition to the usual weapons (then the largest cavalry in the world); (2) a corps of musketeers,
tufangchiyān, mainly Iranians, originally foot soldiers but eventually mounted, and (3) a corps of artillerymen,
tūpchiyān. Both corps of musketeers and artillerymen totaled 12,000 men. In addition the shah's personal bodyguard, made up exclusively of Caucasian
ghulāms, was dramatically increased to 3,000. 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. Abbas also greatly increased the number of cannons at his disposal, permitting him to field 500 in a single battle. Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. Abbas was also able to draw on military advice from a number of European envoys, particularly from the English adventurers Sir
Anthony Shirley and his brother
Robert Shirley, who arrived in 1598 as envoys from the
Earl of Essex on an unofficial mission to induce Iran into an anti-Ottoman alliance. As mentioned by the
Encyclopaedia Iranica, lastly, from 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman
Allahverdi Khan, in conjunction with Robert Sherley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which meant among other things further dramatically increasing the number of
ghulams to 25,000. Abbas also moved the capital to
Isfahan, 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.
Recovery of territory from the Uzbeks and the Ottomans prisoner. Manuscript commissioned by
Husain Khan Shamlu, Herat, ca. 1600. Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing
Herat and Mashhad in 1598. Then he turned against Iran's archrival, the
Ottomans, recapturing
Baghdad, eastern
Iraq and the
Caucasian provinces by 1616, all through the 1603–1618, marking the first grand Safavid pitched victory over the Ottomans. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from
Bahrain (1602) and, with English help, 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 was able to break dependence on the Qizilbash for military might indefinitely, and therefore was able to fully centralize control for the first time since the foundation of the Safavid state. 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 1624 during the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) yet lost it again to
Murad IV in 1638 after Abbas had died. 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. The 150-year tug-of-war accentuated the Sunni and Shia rift in
Iraq.
Quelling the Georgian uprising In 1614–1616 during the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618), 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. 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. Later that year, when the shah summoned them to join him on a hunting expedition in
Mazandaran, they did not show up due to the fear they would be either imprisoned or killed. Ultimately forming an alliance, the two sought refuge with the Ottoman forces in Ottoman ruled
Imereti. This defection of two of the shah's most trusted subjects and
gholams infuriated the shah, as reported by the Safavid court historian
Iskandar Beg Munshi. The following spring in 1614, Abbas I appointed a grandson of
Alexander II of Imereti to the throne of Kartli,
Jesse of Kakheti also known as "Isā Khān". Raised at the court in
Isfahan and a Muslim, he was fully loyal to the shah. Subsequently, the shah marched upon
Grem, the capital of Imereti, and punished its peoples for harbouring his defected subjects. He returned to Kartli, and in two punitive campaigns he
devastated Tbilisi, killed 60–70,000 Kakheti Georgian peasants, and deported between 130,000 and 200,000
Georgian captives to mainland Iran. 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. Kakheti lost two-thirds of its population in these years by Abbas' punitive campaign. The majority were deported to Iran, while some were slaughtered. Teimuraz returned to eastern Georgia in 1615 and defeated a Safavid force. It was just a brief setback, however, as Abbas had already been making long-term plans to prevent further incursions. He was eventually successful in making the eastern Georgian territories an integral part of the Safavid provinces. In 1619 he appointed the loyal
Simon II (or
Semayun Khan) on the symbolic throne of Kakheti, while placing a series of his own governors to rule of districts where rebellious inhabitants were mostly located. Moreover, he planned to deport all nobles of Kartli. Iranian rule had been fully restored over eastern Georgia, but the Georgian territories would continue to produce resistance to Safavid enroachments from 1624 until Abbas' death.
Suppressing the Kurdish rebellion In 1609–10, 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 "Alam Ara Abbasi") and resettled the
Turkic Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to
Khorasan. 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.
Contacts with Europe during Abbas's reign led the first
Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602). Abbas's tolerance towards Christians was part of his policy of establishing diplomatic links with European powers to try to enlist their help in the fight against their common enemy, the Ottoman Empire. The idea of such an anti-Ottoman alliance was not a new oneover a century before,
Uzun Hassan, then ruler of part of Iran, had asked the
Venetians for military aidbut none of the Safavids had made diplomatic overtures to Europe. Shah Ismail I was the first of the Safavids to try to establish once again an alliance against the common Ottoman enemy through the earlier stages of the
Habsburg–Persian alliance, but this also proved to be largely unfruitful during his reign. 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. For his part, Abbas declared that he "preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage." Abbas would take active and all measures needed in order to seal the alliances. , depicting
Doge Marino Grimani receiving the Persian Ambassadors, 1599 In 1599, Abbas sent his
first diplomatic mission to Europe. The group crossed the
Caspian Sea and spent the winter in Moscow before proceeding through Norway and Germany (where it was received by
Emperor Rudolf II) to Rome, where
Pope Clement VIII gave the travellers a long audience. They finally arrived at the court of
Philip III of Spain in 1602. Although the expedition never managed to return to Iran, being shipwrecked on the journey around Africa, it marked an important new step in contacts between Iran and Europe. The Europeans began to be fascinated by the Iranians and their cultureShakespeare's
Twelfth Night (1601–02), for example, makes two references (at II.5 and III.4) to 'the
Sophy', then the English term for the shahs of Iran. Henceforward, the number of diplomatic missions to and fro greatly increased. being honoured by the Trumpets of Fame, together with the
1609–1615 Persian embassy, in ''
Allégorie de l'Occasion'', by
Frans II Francken, 1628 The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. Abbas offered trading rights and the chance to preach Christianity in Iran in return for help against the Ottomans. But the stumbling block of Hormuz remained, a vassal kingdom that had fallen into the hands of the
Spanish Habsburgs when the King of Spain inherited the throne of Portugal in 1580. The Spanish demanded Abbas break off relations with the English before they would consider relinquishing the town. Abbas was unable to comply. Eventually Abbas became frustrated with Spain, as he did with the
Holy Roman Empire, which wanted him to make his over 400,000
Armenian subjects swear allegiance to the Pope but did not trouble to inform the shah when the Emperor Rudolf signed a peace treaty with the Ottomans. Contacts with the Pope, Poland and
Moscow were no more fruitful. More came of Abbas's contacts with the English, although England had little interest in fighting against the Ottomans. The Shirley brothers arrived in 1598 and helped reorganize the Iranian army, which proved to be crucial in the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618), which resulted in Ottoman defeats in all stages of the war and the first clear pitched Safavid victory of their archrivals. One of the Shirley brothers,
Robert Shirley, would lead Abbas's
second diplomatic mission to Europe from 1609 to 1615. 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. This was the beginning of the English East India Company's long-running interest in Iran.
Succession and legacy of Abbas I Due to his obsessive fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. His oldest son, the crown prince
Mohammad Baqer Mirza, was executed following a court intrigue in which several Circassians were involved, while two others were blinded. Since two other sons had predeceased him, the result was a personal tragedy for Shah Abbas. When he died on 19 January 1629, he had no son capable of succeeding him. During the early 17th century the power of the Qizilbash drastically diminished, the original militia that had helped Ismail I capture Tabriz and that had gained many administrative powers over the centuries. Power was shifting to the new class of
Caucasian deportees and imports, many of the hundreds of thousands ethnic
Georgians,
Circassians, and
Armenians. This new layer of society would continue to play a vital role in Iranian history up to and including the fall of the
Qajar dynasty, some 300 years after Abbas' death. At its zenith, during the long reign of Shah Abbas I, the empire's reach comprised
Iran,
Iraq,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Georgia,
Dagestan,
Kabardino-Balkaria,
Bahrain, and parts of
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and
Turkey.
Decline (r. 1642–1666). Painted circa 1647 in the Palace of
Chehel Sotoun,
Isfahan. In addition to fighting its perennial enemies, their archrival the Ottomans and the Uzbeks as the 17th century progressed, Iran had to contend with the rise of new neighbors. 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.
Astrakhan came under Russian rule, nearing the Safavid possessions in
Dagestan. In the far eastern territories, the
Mughals of India had expanded into
Khorasan (now
Afghanistan) at the expense of Iranian control, briefly taking
Kandahar. In 1659, the
Kingdom of Kakheti rose up against the Safavid Iranian rule due to a change of policy that included the mass settling of
Qizilbash Turkic tribes in the region in order to repopulate the province, after Shah Abbas'
earlier mass deportations of between 130,000–200,000
Georgian subjects to Iran's mainland and massacre of another thousand in 1616 virtually left the province without any substantial population. This
Bakhtrioni Uprising was successfully defeated under personal direction of Shah
Abbas II himself. However, strategically it remained inconclusive. The Iranian authority was restored in Kakheti, but the Qizilbash Turkics were prevented from settling in Kakheti, which undermined the planned Iranian policies in the respective province. More importantly, European trading companies used their superior means of maritime power to control trade routes in the western Indian Ocean. As a result, Safavid Iran's overseas links to East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and South Asia were greatly diminished. Overland trade grew notably however, as Iran was able to further develop its overland trade with North and Central Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century. In the late seventeenth century, Iranian merchants established a permanent presence as far north as
Narva on the
Baltic Sea, in what now is
Estonia. Iranian trade with European merchants led to the depletion of much of Iran's metal supplies. Except for Shah Abbas II, the Safavid rulers after Abbas I were therefore rendered ineffectual, and the Iranian government declined and finally collapsed when a serious military threat emerged on its eastern border in the early eighteenth century. The end of the reign of Abbas II, 1666, thus marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Despite falling revenues and military threats, later shahs had lavish lifestyles.
Soltan Hoseyn (1694–1722) in particular was known for his love of wine and disinterest in governance. and his courtiers, Isfahan, 1670. Painter is
Aliquli Jabbadar, and is kept at The
St. Petersburg 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. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by
Baloch tribes in 1698, Khorasan by the
Hotakis in 1717, Herat taken in 1719 by the Abdalis in the
Battle of Herat, Dagestan and northern
Shirvan by the
Lezgins in 1721, constantly in
Mesopotamia by Sunni peninsula Arabs. Sultan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in Qandahar from Sunni to Twelverism. In response, a
Ghilzai Afghan chieftain named
Mirwais Hotak revolted and killed
Gurgin Khan, the Safavid governor of the region, along with his army. 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. He then
besieged the capital of Isfahan, until Shah Soltan Hoseyn
abdicated and acknowledged him as the new king of Iran. At the same time, the
Russians led by
Peter the Great attacked and conquered swaths of Safavid Iran's
North Caucasian,
Transcaucasian, and northern mainland territories through the
Russo-Iranian War (1722–1723). The Safavids' archrivals, the neighbouring
Ottomans, invaded western and northwestern Safavid Iran and took swaths of territory there, including the city of
Baghdad. Together with the Russians, they agreed to divide and keep the conquered Iranian territories for themselves as confirmed in the
Treaty of Constantinople (1724). The tribal Afghans dominated 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. Quickly making a name as a military genius both feared and respected amongst the empire's friends and enemies (including Iran's archrival the Ottoman Empire, and Russia; both empires Nader would deal with soon afterwards), Nader Shah easily defeated the Afghan Hotaki forces in the 1729
Battle of Damghan. He had removed them from power and banished them from Iran by 1729. In 1732 by the
Treaty of Resht and in 1735
Treaty of Ganja, he negotiated an agreement with the government of Empress
Anna Ioanovna that resulted in the return of the recently annexed Iranian territories, making most of the
Caucasus fall back into Iranian hands, while establishing an
Irano-Russian alliance against the common neighbouring Ottoman enemy. In the
Ottoman–Iranian War (1730–35), he retook all territories lost by the Ottoman invasion of the 1720s, as well as beyond. 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, occupying
Ghazni,
Kabul,
Lahore, and
as far as Delhi, in India, when he completely humiliated and looted the militarily inferior Mughals. These cities were later inherited by his
Abdali Afghan military commander,
Ahmad Shah Durrani, who would go on to found the
Durrani Empire in 1747. 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. in general, Emanuel Bowen, 1744–52 Immediately after Nader Shah's assassination in 1747 and the disintegration of his short-lived empire, 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 to take nominal power of the country as well and officially end the Safavid dynasty. ==Society==