At the apex of this structure was the shah. 4.3 The Safavid Empire - World History Volume 2, from 1400 | OpenStax While used primarily in mosques and shrines, fragments of these mirror mosaics can still be seen in the outdoor portals of the Chehel Sotoun palace, as well as on the columns of the Ali Qapu palace. Although the Safavids were eventually able to reestablish authority, they never achieved their earlier level of control. afavid dynasty, (1502-1736) Persian dynasty. 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). Haydar was killed in battle in 1488. 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. 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. Spain and the Vatican sent several embassies to Iran hoping to enlist it as an ally against the Ottomans. One faction, which became known as the Sunnis, supported the candidacy of Abu Bakr al-Sadiq, Muhammads father-in-law. 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. Shah Soltan Hosein tried to forcibly convert his Afghan subjects in eastern Iran from Sunni to Shi'a Islam. After waging war against the Uzbeks, Abbas realized that fighting the Ottomans with the country in upheaval would be nearly impossible. Fresco, c. 1597 C.E., Ali Qapu Palace (photo: The palaces of the Safavid era, such as the, Shah Mosque (Royal Mosque), Isfahan, Iran, begun 1611 (photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0). Nadir Shah defeated the Afghans in the Battle of Damghan, in 1729. The social and political structure of the Safavid Empire Essay Members of the Safavid Dynasty likely were of Kurdish Persian descent and belonged to a unique order of Sufi -infused Shi'a Islam called Safaviyya. Between 1508 and 1524, the year of Ismail's death, the shah appointed five successive Persians to the office of vakil. The reflective light symbolized the presence and light of God, who was conceived as a mirror of the divine realm. -This caused tension between the Safavid Empire and Ottoman Empires, which was a Sunni empire. The article analyses the social and political structure of the Safavid Empire. [2] Shah Abbas I recognized the commercial benefit of promoting the artsartisan's products provided much of Iran's foreign trade. The other faction wished the leadership to remain within Muhammads biological family and backed Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammads cousin and son-in-law, whom they believed the Prophet had chosen as his successor. The Safavid Empire at its 1512 borders. 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. In this way, one of his sons was executed and two were blinded. 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. The remaining 5 percent of Shia are Zaydis or Seveners, a sect established by Zayd, the great-grandson of Ali, who disagree with Twelvers over the identity of the seventh imam. OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Some Safavid ceramic artists went so far as to place a fake Chinese workshop stamp on the back of their products to increase their value. As the Safavid order developed, its members intermarried with other Turkic groups such as the Turcomen, Lar, and Bakhtiyari, and with Georgian, Armenian, and Pontic Greek Christians within their lands and bordering territories. The main imports were specie, textiles (woolens from Europe, cottons from Gujarat), spices, metals, coffee, and sugar. Wealthy patrons commissioned artistslike those in the studio of Shah Tahmaspto paint these miniatures either to illustrate books or to be kept as a separate piece of art in an album of similar works. @kindle.com emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. 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. 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. They sustained one of the longest running empires of Iranian history, lasting from 1501 to 1736. Safavid Empire Flashcards | Quizlet Despite these similarities, however, significant differences . Although a majority of the people in the kingdom were Iranians, there were also some Arabs, Turks, and Armenians. In the east, the Mughal dynasty of India had expanded into Afghanistan at the expense of Iranian control, taking Kandahar and Herat. Culture flourished under Safavid patronage. Safavid miniatures are highly prized today; some of the best examples have sold for millions of dollars at auction. Iranian ceramics became highly valued for export because of their remarkable similarity in style and quality to treasured Chinese porcelain, with even more intricately painted decorations. Safavid Army - Military History - Oxford Bibliographies - obo hasContentIssue false, THE JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADRS, TRADE FROM THE MID-14TH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE SAFAVID PERIOD, RELIGION IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS, SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD, PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE TIMURID AND TRKMEN PERIODS (782907/13801501), PERSIAN POETRY IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS, For an annotated general bibliography of the Safavid period, see, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521200943.007, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. [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 . (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. Safavid Iran - Wikipedia It was founded by Isml I, who, by converting his people from Sunnite to Shite Islam and adopting the trappings of Persian monarchy, planted the seeds of a unique national and religious identity. citation tool such as, Authors: Ann Kordas, Ryan J. Lynch, Brooke Nelson, Julie Tatlock, Book title: World History Volume 2, from 1400. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Miniatures were an important form of Persian art long before Islam appeared; Persian artists were prized at the court of the Abbasids, and artistic styles derived from their work, such as the nonfigurative elements used in the borders of miniatures, were later used to decorate manuscripts of the Quran. After Ismails death in 1524, ten years of internal strife followed as rival Qizilbash factions fought for dominance and the right to be regent to Ismails ten-year-old heir Tahmasp. Despite near-constant war, during this time Iran reached new cultural and economic heights. Various groups of Persian-speaking peoples lived in the Iranian plateau and were usually described as Tajik.. Complex, ornate palaces. 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. Immediately after Nadir Shah's assassination in 1747, the Safavids were re-appointed as shahs of Iran in order to lend legitimacy to the nascent Zand dynasty. This book uses the The silk industry of early modern Iran was one of the cornerstones of the Safavid economy. The art of the Safavids is simply magnificent. 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. Creative Commons Attribution License In 1738, Nadir Shah reconquered Afghanistan starting with the city of Kandahar. For the full article, see, https://www.britannica.com/summary/Safavid-dynasty. The Safavids, an introduction (article) | Khan Academy is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings This was a strategic move that accomplished two things. The Safavids generally ruled over a peaceful and prosperous empire. 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. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. 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. Though the majority of Muslims in Azerbaijan and Iran considered themselves Shia by the time the Safavid era ended in 1736, Nader Shah attempted to restore Sunnism as the dominant sect. The epic called the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a stellar example of manuscript illumination and calligraphy, was made during Shah Tahmasp's reign. The main types of buildings constructed during this time were mosques, palaces, markets, shrines and caravansaries (structures used to shelter travelers during long journeys). Many of these are now symbols of Iranian nationhood. The Ardabil carpet, still one of the largest Persian carpets in existence, was made during the Safavid period. 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. Even after their decline, the Safavids left an influential legacy with far reaching implications for Iranian art, religion, and culture. When the outside world finally began learning about the arts of Iran, it was through the lens and example of the Safavids. In the meantime, the navy-less Safavids lost the island of Hormuz to the Portuguese in 1507. The Shia movement originated with a dispute over Muhammads successor after his death in 632. 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. Through his mother, Shah Ismail I was descended from the Komnenos dynasty that once ruled the Byzantine Empire. The city center was unique. 4, p. 14. } Nevertheless, Safavid rulers were aggressive toward the Armenians, Georgians, and other Christians in the Caucasus region, whom they considered potentially rebellious. Exquisitely detailed miniatures. Constant wars with the Ottomans made Shah Tahmasp I move the capital from Tabriz, into the interior city of Qazvin in 1548. But there was little public enthusiasm, and after his death most who had claimed to adopt Sunnism during his reign quietly reverted to Shiism. 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. 6 - THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM - Cambridge Core 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 today's northwestern Iran. The Safavids unified much of Iran under single political control. 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: Brilliantly painted manuscripts.