political structure of the safavid empire

As the Safavid dynasty approached the middle of the eighteenth century, the last shahs took less and less interest in foreign and local affairs, and retreated to the interior life of the palace. The Safavids were defeated and, as the Ottoman force moved on Tabriz, engaged in scorched-earth combat. The Safavid Empire dates from the rule of Shah Ismail (ruled 1501-1524). The Art of the Safavids before 1600 on The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Safavid Period at the National Museum of Asian Art. The art of the Safavids is simply magnificent. The reflective light symbolized the presence and light of God, who was conceived as a mirror of the divine realm. Given the sects government sponsorship, the Shia ulama were often able to act as intermediaries between the people and the government. Royal elites collaged them into, The Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud of Kashan, Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. 1999-2023, Rice University. 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. Like that of many Sufi orders, their ideology incorporated elements of both Sunni and Shia doctrines to proclaim a universal message and attract followers from both sects. By 1511, the Uzbeks in the north-east were driven across the Oxus River where they captured Samarkand establishing the Shaibanid dynasty, and from which they would continue to attack the Safavids. 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 most popular of these themes was the Persian, The Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud of Kashan, Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. The Safavid Empire was established in an Iran that had been long fragmented. [2] Shah Abbas I recognized the commercial benefit of promoting the artsartisan's products provided much of Iran's foreign trade. Through this alliance many members of the ulama became landowners themselves, creating a religious aristocracy that gave them a level of political independence. (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. During the Safavid period, Iran was ethnically quite diverse. Junayd believed the Safavids should use their popular religious mandate to seek military and political power for themselves, and he found Shia doctrine more appropriate for his vision. The silk industry of early modern Iran was one of the cornerstones of the Safavid economy. When Shah Abbas I came to power in 1588, he immediately began making plans to move the Safavid capital to Isfahan, a city in central Iran. Shiisms rise created a new religious hierarchy in Iran. Its founder was the Persian[1] mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din (12541334), after whom the order was named. The Safavids also staged incursions into eastern Anatolia; these triggered a conflict with the Ottoman Empire that continued for the length of the Safavids reign. The Middle Ages had seen a series of invasions of Iran by Turks, Mongols, and others. in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. Mar 31, 2023 OpenStax. Despite the Safavid dynasty's Sufi origins, most Sunni or Shi'a Sufi groups were prohibited by the Nimatullahi order. 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. Soon after the Safavids rose to power, they established Twelver Shiism (the largest branch of Shia, Safavid art and architecture reflected this adoption of a Shia identity. 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. [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. In the meantime, the navy-less Safavids lost the island of Hormuz to the Portuguese in 1507. Later, Shah Abbas I moved the capital even deeper into central Iran, to the city of Isfahan, building a new city next to the ancient Persian one. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . Twelvers hold that the twelfth and final imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, went into mystical hiding in the ninth century and will return, along with Jesus, to defeat evil on earth and herald the Day of Judgment. Ali Mirza was also killed, and his infant brother Ismail was sent into exile. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox. 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. He wholeheartedly adopted the use of gunpowder. This clearly differentiated Iran from the Ottomans, who were Sunnis. The cathedral Abbas ordered built for the Armenian Christians still serves that community in Isfahan today. 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. In their view of Islam, any pious man who followed the example of Muhammad could lead the Muslim community. In addition, despite representing different cultures, the two share a range of similarities, which allows for an insightful analysis of the characteristics that great empires share. Safavid dynasty, (1501-1736), ruling dynasty of Iran whose establishment of Twelver Shiism as the state religion of Iran was a major factor in the emergence of a unified national consciousness among the various ethnic and linguistic elements of the country. When Ismail crowned himself Shah in 1501, most of Irans population was Sunni. -Made shitism the official religion of the Safavid Empire. Known as, Muqarnas and mirror mosaics, outdoor portal, Chehel Sotoun (photo: Amir Pahaei, CC BY-SA 4.0). -This caused tension between the Safavid Empire and Ottoman Empires, which was a Sunni empire. Roger M. Savory, "Safawidsiii, The establishment of the Safawid state,". Two distinct schools of painting developed: the Turkmen school in western Iran and the Timurid school based in Herat (in todays Afghanistan). To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org It did not last forever, however. While Safi al-Dins origins are lost to history, it is generally believed that he came from a family of Azeri-speaking Kurds, although even this is uncertain. Following the conquest of Iran, Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni population. By the end of this section, you will be able to: To the east of the lands of the Ottomans, another Islamic empire emerged at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Later, during the Safavid and especially Qajar period, the role of Shi'a ulema increased and they were able to exercise a role in social and political life independent of the government. After being sheltered by allies, the twelve-year-old Ismail emerged from exile in 1499 claiming to be the Mahdi or messiah and began rallying the Qizilbash troops who had fought for his father and brother. 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). Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Render date: 2023-04-30T14:46:17.907Z In 1598, Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in the central Iranian plateau, far from the constantly shifting borders with the Ottomans and Uzbeks and closer to the Persian Gulf and the newly arrived traders of the British and Dutch East India Companies. In all three the ruling dynasty was Islamic, the economic system was agrarian, and the military forces were paid in grants of land revenue. After Abbass death, the Safavid state met another internal threat, this time from the Georgian kingdom of Kakheti. Royal manuscripts provide a glimpse into the fusion of regional styles used in early Safavid art. Under them a political system emerged in which political and religious boundaries over-lapped. Silk was akin to gold in this era, and Safavid silk was renowned for both the high quality of its raw silk, as well as the exquisite designs of their embroidered textiles. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. In these paintings, artists used mineral-based dyes, which produced brilliant and long-lasting colors (Figure 4.26). To spread the new beliefs and win converts, Ismail brought Shia scholars to Iran from Lebanon and Syria. This warfare pattern repeated itself under Shah Tahmasp I and Sultan Suleiman I. Constant wars with the Ottomans made Shah Tahmasp I move the capital from Tabriz, into the interior city of Qazvin in 1548. The princes had Turcoman, Persian, Kurdish, and even Armenian, Indian, Afghan, or Georgian mothers. Shia Islam is still the official state religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The subjects, even if they sponsored the work, are generally idealized rather than actual persons. Abbas then returned to the issue his grandfather had taken up: taming the Qizilbash, whose disputes had plunged Iran into civil conflict that twice nearly brought the country to ruin. 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. They embarked on a military campaign, winning victory after victory until, in July 1501, Ismail entered the Shirvanshah capital of Tabriz and declared himself shah, or emperor, of all Iran (Figure 4.20). Despite near-constant war, during this time Iran reached new cultural and economic heights. The art of these miniature paintings relies on a style called nonrepresentational. Instead of depicting a scene naturalistically, it uses forced or even impossible perspectives to show action on multiple tiers, revealing activity behind doors or walls that some of the subjects in the painting cannot see. In 1522, the Safavid royal library of Shah Tahmasp produced the most exquisitely illustrated Shahnameh of all time, now known as the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. Royal manuscripts such as this were highly collaborative enterprises that brought together miniaturists, illuminators, calligraphers, poets, scribes, and gold sprinklers. By the seventeenth century, trade routes between East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a decline in commerce and trade. ), Reflections on the social and economic structure of Safavid Persia at its zenith, Artisans and Guild Life in the later Safavid period, Quis custodiet custodes? This was a strategic move that accomplished two things. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article afavid dynasty, (1502-1736) Persian dynasty. After Abbas had ordered the mass deportation of Georgians to central Iran, he sent Oghuz Turks (Turcomen) to settle the area; the local population that remained refused to allow them to do so, however, and staged a military rebellion. Later, in 1722, an Afghan army led by Mir Wais' son, Mahmud, marched across eastern Iran, besieged, and sacked Isfahan and proclaimed Mahmud "Shah" of Persia. For this reason, many silks used floral and vegetal motifs that appealed to both Persian and foreign markets. (Azeri is a Turkic language.) By agreement, the Safavids would attack the Ottomans whenever the Ottomans attacked the Habsburgs to divide the Ottoman army between two fronts of battle and thereby weaken it. He used state funds to construct schools where Shia beliefs were taught and to build shrines to Ali and members of his family. Sunni clerics and theologians were given the choice of conversion or exile. Due to his fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In the early eighteenth century under the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, Russia began to encroach on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea and to compete for influence in the Caucasus. [6] It was an Iranian dynasty of Kurdish origin, [7] but during their rule they intermarried with Turkoman, [8] Georgian, [9] Circassian, [10] [11] and Pontic Greek [12] dignitaries, nevertheless they . Another famous manuscript is the Khamsa by Nezami executed in 1539-43, by Aqa Mirak and his school in Isfahan. consent of Rice University. 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. Published online by Cambridge University Press: The Ottomans sued for peace in 1612, relinquishing the Caucasus to the Iranians. Tabriz was taken but the Ottoman army refused to follow the Safavids into the Persian highlands and by winter, retreated from Tabriz. 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. The city center was unique. The city was designed as a treat for the senses, employing artistic motifs in tilework and calligraphy, broad sweeping arches and domes that mimicked the sky, the sounds of running water and wind blowing through leaves, and the scents of flowering shrubs and trees carried on the breeze. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings Shah Soltan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in eastern Iran from Sunni to Shi'a Islam. The city was built as a showpiece, with administrative buildings and public markets opening on the enormous Naqsh-e Jahan (Exemplar of the world) Square (Figure 4.22). They expanded their empire by wagging Jihads (Holy war) against other countries. At the height of their reign, the Safavids controlled not . Corrections? Throughout the rest of the decade, Ismail I fended off attacks from the Ottomans, stamped out the remnants of a rival faction, called the Ak Koyunlu, and continued to expand his territoryHamadan in 1503, Shiraz and Kerman in 1504, Najaf and Karbala in 1507, Van in 1508, Baghdad in 1509, Khorasan and Herat in 1510. Omissions? Many of its members were bi- or multilingual, with Azeri Turkish and Persian being the linguae francae of the dynasty. When the Safavid state weakened in its later years, the ulama were able to step in and use their newly acquired wealth to benefit their communities. At the time, he governed only Azerbaijan and part of the Caucasus. Government of the Safavid Empire The government has been different based on the emperor. Here, Bihzad helped establish the birth of a new Safavid aesthetica hybrid of the colorful expressionism and naturalistic rendering of the dynasties that preceded the Safavids. 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. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. 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. Initially, like most of Irans population, the Safavids were primarily Sunni Muslims. The Safiviyeh came to be led by a fifteen-year old, Ismail I. Under the Peace of Amasya, concluded in 1555, Armenia and Georgia were divided between the two empires; the Ottomans gained control over Iraq and access to the Persian Gulf, while Irans control over Azerbaijan was guaranteed. 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 . Prior to the rise of the Safavids, the region was broken up into a mosaic of autonomous states, all governed by local rulers. The art of the Safavids is simply magnificent. 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. In the fifteenth century, the Safaviyeh gradually gained political and military clout in the power vacuum precipitated by the decline of the Timurid dynasty. In the sixteenth century, carpet weaving evolved from a nomadic and peasant craft to a well-executed industry with specialization of design and manufacturing. Although the Safavids were eventually able to reestablish authority, they never achieved their earlier level of control. 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, inch), 153940 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran, (now at the Victoria & Albert Museum; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
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