Shah Tahmasp supported both schools at a royal painting workshop where artistic masters were invited to work with luxury materials such as gold leaf and ground lapis lazuli (Figure 4.25). Thus, the end of his reign, 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. Feature Flags: { For the purposes of this chapter the period to be covered runs from 907/1501 to 1148/1736, one of the most remarkable ages in Iran's history. While silk had always been a highly sought after Persian commodity, dating back to ancient times, the Safavid era produced one of the most lucrative silk industries of the early modern world. The Safavid era witnessed a political, religious and military reorganisation and unification of which Iran as it stands today is in no small degree the legacy. The Safavids unified much of Iran under single political control. About 95 percent of Shia also believe Ali was the first of twelve infallible leaders chosen by God, so this sect is often called the Twelvers. Royal manuscripts provide a glimpse into the fusion of regional styles used in early Safavid art. Direct link to hdarwish825's post what succession rules was. Tahmasp faced several challenges at home and abroad, however. Like the Ottomans and Mughals, the Safavids developed a powerful military, ran a strong and well-organized central state, and fostered a climate in which artistic and intellectual culture flourished. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. Shah Ism'l I, who established the Safavid dynasty in 907/15012, considered himself to be the living emanation of the godhead, the Shadow of God upon earth, and the representative of the Hidden Imm by virtue of direct descent from the Seventh Imm of the Twelver (Ithn'ashariyya) Sh'a, Ms al-Kzim. Abbas I was particularly lenient toward the Armenian Christian population of Isfahan, due to their participation in the lucrative manufacture and export of silk. Shiisms rise created a new religious hierarchy in Iran. In other words, the Safavid shahs usurped the function which the Ithn'ashar mujtahids had arrogated to themselves, namely, that of acting as the representative on earth of the Mahd, the Ithn'ashar' messiah. He also used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain (1602) and, with the English navy, from Hormuz (1622) in the Persian Gulf (a vital link in Portuguese trade with India). (credit: Armenian Frescoes by David Stanley/Flickr, CC BY 2.0), This detail of a sixteenth-century miniature by the Persian artist Farrukh Beg shows Shah Tahmasp, who was a great patron of the arts. This warfare pattern repeated itself under Shah Tahmasp I and Sultan Suleiman I. Two distinct schools of painting developed: the Turkmen school in western Iran and the Timurid school based in Herat (in todays Afghanistan). 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. Safavid Iran was one of the Islamic "gunpowder empires", along with its neighbours, the Ottoman and Mughal empires. There, the Safavids influenced the local Turcoman tribes, and they themselves were influenced by Turcomans, such that the originally Iranian-speaking Safavids became Turkic-speaking. The Qizilbashi tribes were essential to the military of Iran until the rule of Shah Abbas Itheir leaders were able exercise enormous influence and participate in court intrigues (assassinating Shah Ismail II, for example). inch), 153940 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran, (now at the Victoria & Albert Museum; photo: The Safavids commissioned and built hundreds of monuments during their reign, making them some of the most productive builders in all of Iranian history. Haydar declared a religious war against the Christian residents of the Caucasus, but in order to reach them, he had to pass through the territory of the Shirvanshahs, who were allied with his enemies. The Safavid Empire at its 1512 borders. Many of its members were bi- or multilingual, with Azeri Turkish and Persian being the linguae francae of the dynasty. In spite of all this, however, the general population of Iran remained mostly Sunni until the Safavid period. Roger M. Savory, "Safawidsiii, The establishment of the Safawid state,". consent of Rice University. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by Baluchi tribesmen in 1698, Khorasan by Afghans in 1717, constantly in Mesopotamia by peninsula Arabs. Complex, ornate palaces. Chardin declares emphatically that outside court circles there was no arbitrary exercise of power by the shah, and both Chardin and Malcolm assert that the awe in which the shah was held by the court and the nobility was the primary reason for the relative security and freedom from oppression enjoyed by the lower classes. The article analyses the social and political structure of the Safavid Empire. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. 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. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. The Middle Ages had seen a series of invasions of Iran by Turks, Mongols, and others. In response, a Ghilzai Pashtun chieftain named Mir Wais Khan began a rebellion against the Georgian governor, Gurgin Khan, of Kandahar and defeated a Safavid army. He used state funds to construct schools where Shia beliefs were taught and to build shrines to Ali and members of his family. First, by bringing the capital closer to the center of the empire and away from the Ottoman border, it safeguarded the court from the Turks. Due to his fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. Shah Ismail I himself wrote many poems in Azerbaijani, as well as in Persian and Arabic, while Shah Tahmasp was a painter. Tabriz was the center of this industry. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. "useRatesEcommerce": false But there was little public enthusiasm, and after his death most who had claimed to adopt Sunnism during his reign quietly reverted to Shiism. As in the Ottoman Empire, wealthy Safavid women raised their public stature by becoming patrons of the arts and endowing public buildings. Although a majority of the people in the kingdom were Iranians, there were also some Arabs, Turks, and Armenians. Under them a political system emerged in which political and religious boundaries over-lapped. One faction, which became known as the Sunnis, supported the candidacy of Abu Bakr al-Sadiq, Muhammads father-in-law. They expanded their empire by wagging Jihads (Holy war) against other countries. Isfahan Define Anarchy Lawless and disorder; no one leader, no government Define Orthodoxy Traditional (not flexible) manner to follow a religion Define Shah King of the Safavid empire Define warfare in the Safavid Empire .They had a system similar to the janissaries. Culture flourished under Safavid patronage. At the height of their reign, the Safavids controlled not . An empire in fragments The South Asian subcontinentmodern India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan is part of the Eurasian landmass. The Safavid Empire dates from the rule of Shah Ismail (ruled 1501-1524). 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. Despite the strong rivalry between the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, all three empires produced paintings of this type (Figure 4.27). Below is the article summary. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. 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. afavid dynasty, (1502-1736) Persian dynasty. The silk industry of early modern Iran was one of the cornerstones of the Safavid economy. We do know that Zahed appointed his son-in-law and disciple Safi al-Din Ardabili to succeed him, which angered his family and some of his followers. Over the course of the 1730s, Nader Afshar, one of the Safavid vassals, established himself as a strong military ruler. At the apex of this structure was the shah. Abbs I, byname Abbs the Great, (born Jan. 27, 1571died Jan. 19, 1629), shah of Persia from 1588 to 1629, who strengthened the Safavid dynasty by expelling Ottoman and Uzbek troops from Persian soil and by creating a standing army. Want to cite, share, or modify this book? The Safavids were defeated and, as the Ottoman force moved on Tabriz, engaged in scorched-earth combat. A soup kitchen distributed free food to the needy, and occasionally the square was cleared for polo games, public ceremonies, and festivals. When Ismail crowned himself Shah in 1501, most of Irans population was Sunni. In the following centuries, this religious schism would both cement Iran's internal cohesion and national feelings and provoke attacks by its Sunni neighbors. In 1514, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I invaded western Armenia, causing the ill-prepared Safavid army to retreat. (credit: The Feast of Sada, Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp by Ferdowsi/Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Arthur A. Houghton Jr., 1970 /Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain), This miniature created in the Mughal Empire in 1594 shows a scene from the, https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/1-introduction, https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/4-3-the-safavid-empire, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, Identify the factors that contributed to the rise of the, Discuss the similarities and differences between, Describe the political structure of the Safavid Empire. Power was shifting to a new class of merchants, many of them ethnic Armenians, Georgians, and Indians. Like Europe, it has a long history of big empires and small states. The elegantly baroque, yet famously misnamed, "Polonaise" carpets were made in Iran during the seventeenth century. Safavid art and artistic production reflected Irans location at the center of global trade routes, incorporating elements and styles from countries with which Iran conducted trade. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. and you must attribute OpenStax. Muammad Mumin, A Young Lady Reclining After a Bath, leaf from the Read Persian Album Herat (Afghanistan), 1590s, 37.8 x 24.1 cm, MS M.386.5r (The Morgan Library and Museum), Around the middle of the sixteenth century, a trend developed for stand-alone illustrations of popular stories, including the, Rather than confined within the binding of books, individual miniatures were mobile. This system brought the brightest and most talented into government service while preventing the development of an entrenched and unchecked aristocracy. Abbas I first fought the Uzbeks, recapturing Herat and Mashhad, in 1598. He wholeheartedly adopted the use of gunpowder. In 1536, the Ottomans formalized their own alliance with the king of France, an enemy of the Habsburgs, who sent a military adviser to counsel Sultan Suleiman about his war with Iran in 1547. Since the ruler, as the representative of the Hidden Imm, was closer to the source of absolute truth than were other men, opposition to him was a sin. Various groups of Persian-speaking peoples lived in the Iranian plateau and were usually described as Tajik.. Some reflections on the Persian theory of government, Theory and Practice in Medieval Persian Government, Bibliography on the History of Iran under the afavids, The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of Ism'l I, Bulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies, The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of ahmsp I, Some notes on the provincial administration of the early afavid empire, The struggle for supremacy in Persia after the death of Timr, Find out more about saving to your Kindle, Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521200943.007. Nevertheless, Safavid rulers were aggressive toward the Armenians, Georgians, and other Christians in the Caucasus region, whom they considered potentially rebellious. Ali Mirza was also killed, and his infant brother Ismail was sent into exile. of your Kindle email address below. Safavid miniature painting remains one of the most prized examples of visual art. Detail, Sultan Muhammad, The Court of Gayumars, Shahnameh for Shah Tahmasp I, c. 152425, opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper, 45 x 30 cm, folio 20v (Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). However, several scholars went one step further and extended the familys history back to the biblical Adam. The Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 (experiencing a brief restoration from 1729 to 1736 and 1750 to 1773) and, at their height, they controlled all of what is now Iran, Republic of Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Armenia, eastern Georgia, parts of the North Caucasus including Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Turkey, Syria, what succession rules was followed by the Safavids? afavid dynasty, (15021736) Persian dynasty. Abbas I reformed the military and civil service and built a showpiece capital city, Isfahan, which remains one of the masterworks of Persian Islamic art and architecture. The pope also hoped Abbas would allow the construction of a cathedral in his new capital city of Isfahan, but on their arrival his emissaries found three Roman Catholic churches already there (Figure 4.24). He also made Efahn the capital of Persia and fostered commerce and the arts, so that Persian artistic achievement reached a high point in his reign . The Safavid concept of kingship, combining territorial control with . The Rise of the Safavid Empire. Persian carpets of silk and wool were in high demand in Europe and other parts of the Islamic world. Safi al-Din renamed the order after himselfSafaviyyaand made a number of reforms that reshaped it from a local order to a religious movement that sought followers from around Iran and neighboring countries. (credit: Portrait of Shah Ismail I of Persia by Uffizi Gallery/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain), This detail from a series of seventeenth-century paintings decorating the walls of the Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan, Iran, depicts Shah Abbas I, who ruled over Iran at the height of the Safavid dynastys power. Henceforth, a treaty, signed in Qasr-e Shirin, was established, delineating a border between Iran and Turkey in 1639, which still stands in northwest Iran/southeast Turkey. The maximum extent of the Safavid Empire under Shah Abbas I ( CC BY-SA 4.0) The Safavids were a dynastic family that ruled over modern-day Iran. By the time the seventeen-year-old Abbas was crowned shah in 1588, Iran was in chaos. The Safavids declared Shia Islam the state religion of Iran in the early 1500s, and it remains so to this day, encompassing about 10 percent of the worldwide Muslim population. The Safavid Empire was established in an Iran that had been long fragmented. Through his mother, Shah Ismail I was descended from the Komnenos dynasty that once ruled the Byzantine Empire. From the beginning of the polity in 1501 until the Ottoman Sultan Selim (r. 1512-1520) defeated the founder of the Safavid polity, Shah Ismail I (r. 1501-1524) at Chaldiran in 1514, the Safavid army was a tribal army. Mirror mosaics were used in religious spaces as well, especially in Shia mosques and shrines to important Shia saints. He captured Tabrz from the Ak Koyunlu and became shah of Azerbaijan (1501) and Persia (1502). Has data issue: false The cathedral Abbas ordered built for the Armenian Christians still serves that community in Isfahan today. inch), 153940 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran (now at the Victoria & Albert Museum; photo: Scenes from popular stories and floral motifs were applied just as easily to the pages of books as they were to walls of palaces and, most commonly, to designs woven into silk and velvet textiles. Before the principal phases in the development of the Safavid administrative system are discussed in detail, a brief outline of the Safavid administrative and social structure may be helpful. Arthur Upham Pope, a former Professor of aesthetics at Berkeley, and his wife Phyllis Ackerman, a specialist in Islamic textiles, were part of this movement that opened doors to the arts of Iran. citation tool such as, Authors: Ann Kordas, Ryan J. Lynch, Brooke Nelson, Julie Tatlock, Book title: World History Volume 2, from 1400. The stability of the Safavid system allowed art and culture to flourish; the Safavid era is considered one of the high points of Perso-Islamic culture. The borders of Iran were secure at the end of Tahmasps reign, but his son and grandson were ineffective leaders who failed to keep the Qizilbash rivalries from once again destabilizing the country, which led to yet more incursions by Ottoman and Uzbek forces. What are the common features of the Safavid and Mughal paintings? When the outside world finally began learning about the arts of Iran, it was through the lens and example of the Safavids. The best artists from across the empire traveled to work at the royal workshop in Tabriz, a city in northwestern Iran that was the first capital of the Safavid dynasty. They formed an early alliance with merchants, for instance, establishing and administering vaqfs to protect the merchants property and assets. The Safavids began not as a political dynasty, but as the hereditary leaders of a Sufi order based in the city of Ardabil, located in todays northwestern Iran.
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