An outline, era by era

Safavid Persia

Early Modern Era · ~1500 – ~1800

Safavid Persia was the Iranian state ruled by the Safavid dynasty from 1501 to 1722, with a short afterlife in the 1730s. It began when the young Shah Ismail took Tabriz and proclaimed himself shah. At its height it covered Iran and parts of the Caucasus, Iraq and Central Asia. Its rulers made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, a choice that shaped the identity of Iran to this day.

The dynasty rivalled the Ottoman Empire to the west and the Uzbeks to the northeast, and fought long wars with both. Under Shah Abbas I, who reigned from 1588 to 1629, the state was reorganised, the army was modernised, and the capital moved to Isfahan, which was rebuilt as one of the great cities of its age. Safavid Persia was also known for carpets, miniature painting, architecture and trade with Europe and India. The dynasty weakened in the early eighteenth century and fell when Afghan forces took Isfahan in 1722.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The Safavid order and the rise of Ismail

    Event

    What happened

    The Safavid order is a Sufi brotherhood founded at Ardabil by Shaykh Safi al-Din (died 1334). Over the fifteenth century it gains many Turkmen followers, known as the Qizilbash, who wear a red cap. In 1501 the teenage Ismail, head of the order, leads them to take Tabriz from the Aq Qoyunlu and is crowned shah.

    The rest is history

    Ismail went on to conquer most of Iran within about a decade. He declared Twelver Shia Islam the religion of the state, though most of his subjects were Sunni at the time. Shia scholars were brought in, many from Arab lands such as Jabal Amil, to build up a Shia religious establishment. This was a lasting change, and Iran has been mainly Shia ever since.

    Sources

    1. BookSavory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
    2. BookBabayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.

  2. The battle of Chaldiran, 1514

    Event

    What happened

    In August 1514 the Ottoman sultan Selim I meets Ismail's army at Chaldiran in northwest Iran. The Ottomans have many guns and muskets, and the Safavid cavalry has few. The Ottomans win and enter Tabriz for a short time before withdrawing.

    The rest is history

    The defeat ended Ismail's belief that he could not lose, and he took little part in campaigns after it. Eastern Anatolia and Iraq stayed contested for generations, and the Treaty of Amasya in 1555 set out a frontier and brought a period of peace, though later wars changed the border again. Chaldiran also left a lasting rivalry between the Shia Safavids and the Sunni Ottomans. Persian and Ottoman armies fought again many times in the following two centuries.

    Sources

    1. BookSavory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
    2. BookBlow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.

  3. Tahmasp's long reign and the Treaty of Amasya

    Event

    What happened

    Ismail dies in 1524 and his son Tahmasp I, aged ten, takes the throne. Qizilbash chiefs fight over control of the young shah for about a decade, until he rules for himself. Ottoman armies invade several times, and in 1555 the two states sign the Treaty of Amasya.

    The rest is history

    Tahmasp reigned until 1576, the longest Safavid reign. The treaty brought about two decades of peace with the Ottomans and left Iraq in Ottoman hands, while Tabriz remained Persian for the time being. Tahmasp moved the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin in the 1540s, away from the Ottoman frontier. His court also supported painting and the making of books. After his death, disputes among his sons and the Qizilbash weakened the state.

    Sources

    1. BookSavory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
    2. BookNewman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.

  4. Abbas I takes the throne

    Event

    What happened

    In 1588 Abbas I becomes shah after years of civil strife, with the Ottomans and Uzbeks holding Persian lands. In 1590 he makes peace with the Ottomans, giving up territory in the northwest. He then pushes back the Uzbeks in Khorasan in 1598 and later recovers lost lands from the Ottomans.

    The rest is history

    Abbas reduced the power of the Qizilbash chiefs. He built up new forces of slave soldiers, called ghulams, drawn largely from Georgians, Armenians and Circassians, and equipped with firearms. In 1598 he moved the capital to Isfahan. By 1623 he had retaken Baghdad, though it was lost to the Ottomans again in 1638. His reign is generally seen as the high point of Safavid power.

    Sources

    1. BookBlow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
    2. BookMatthee, Rudi. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  5. Isfahan rebuilt as capital

    Event

    What happened

    From about 1598 Abbas I rebuilds Isfahan, laying out the huge Naqsh-e Jahan square, with the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Ali Qapu palace around it. A broad avenue, the Chahar Bagh, runs through the city. Armenians from Julfa in the Caucasus are moved to a new quarter, New Julfa, around 1605 to 1606.

    The rest is history

    Isfahan became the centre of a state that sold silk to Europe and India through merchants such as the Armenians. The Dutch and English East India Companies traded there, and in 1622 English ships helped the shah take Hormuz from the Portuguese. European visitors described the city's gardens, bazaars and bridges. The square and its buildings survive and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    Sources

    1. BookMatthee, Rudi. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
    2. BookBlake, Stephen P. Half the World: The Social Architecture of Safavid Isfahan, 1590-1722. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999.

  6. The Sherley brothers' mission to Persia

    Event

    What happened

    In 1598 two English adventurers, Anthony and Robert Sherley, arrive at the court of Abbas I. Anthony later travels as the shah's envoy to seek allies in Europe against the Ottomans, while Robert stays and helps train the army in the use of artillery. Robert later makes his own embassies to Europe for the shah.

    The rest is history

    The shah sought European allies against the Ottomans but never got a lasting alliance with them. Contacts did grow, and more traders, envoys and missionaries came to Isfahan. Robert Sherley was in Persian service for many years. The brothers' travels were well recorded by contemporaries, and are one sign of the new links between Safavid Persia and Europe.

    Sources

    1. BookBlow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
    2. BookMatthee, Rudi. Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.

  7. Decline and the fall of Isfahan, 1722

    Event

    What happened

    In 1709 Ghilzai Afghans in Kandahar rise under Mirwais Hotak against Safavid rule. In 1722 their leader Mahmud Hotak defeats a Persian army at Gulnabad and besieges Isfahan, which surrenders after months of famine. Shah Soltan Hosayn (reigned 1694 to 1722) gives up the throne.

    The rest is history

    Historians point to several causes of the weakness the Afghans exploited, including strained finances, an army that had shrunk, unrest in the provinces and court politics, and they do not blame any one ruler alone. Mahmud took power in Isfahan, while a Safavid prince, Tahmasp II, was later supported by Nader Khan, a military leader from Khorasan. Nader expelled the main Afghan forces in 1729, deposed the Safavid shah in 1736 and made himself shah. The dynasty ceased to rule then, though Safavid princes survived and were briefly put forward as rulers later.

    Sources

    1. BookMatthee, Rudi. Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
    2. BookAxworthy, Michael. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic Books, 2008.

  8. Ismail the invincible holy warrior

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Ismail is said to have been a semi-divine figure whom his Qizilbash followers regarded as invincible, so that they went into battle without armour. In this telling he was a boy of thirteen who rose from hiding to take a kingdom.

    The rest is history

    Some of this has a real basis. Ismail was about fourteen when he took Tabriz, and he was raised partly in hiding in Gilan after his father and brother died in battle. His own poems, written in Azeri Turkic under the pen name Khata'i, praise him in terms close to divine, and some followers did revere him that way. Chaldiran in 1514 showed he could be beaten. After his death, his son Tahmasp and later shahs moved the dynasty toward ordinary Shia religious law and away from claims of divinity.

    Sources

    1. BookBabayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
    2. BookSavory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

  9. Abbas the Great in disguise

    Folk tale

    The legend

    Abbas I is said to have walked through the bazaars of Isfahan disguised as a commoner or dervish to find out what his people thought of him and to catch cheating merchants. In these tales he rewards honest craftsmen and punishes corrupt officials.

    The rest is history

    Such stories are told in Iran about Abbas and are part of his reputation as a just ruler. They are folk tradition, and I know of no contemporary source that records the practice. His real reputation is more mixed. European visitors such as Pietro della Valle admired his energy and wrote of his cruelty, and out of fear of plots he had his eldest son, Safi Mirza, killed and other sons blinded. What the stories show is that he was remembered as a strong ruler, in Iranian tradition.

    Sources

    1. BookBlow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
    2. BookAxworthy, Michael. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic Books, 2008.

← Back to the outline