The Afghans rode roughshod over their conquered territory for a dozen years, but were prevented from making further gains by Nadir Shah Afshar, a former slave who had risen to military leadership within the Afshar tribe in Khorasan, a vassal state of the Safavids. then you must include on every physical page the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, In this portrait of Shah Ismail by an Italian painter of the sixteenth century, for example, the shahs reddish hair, possibly an inheritance from his Greek grandmother, is clearly visible. 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. In 1402, Iran had come under the power of the notoriously ruthless Timur (Tamerlane), a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Safavids are therefore widely known for bringing this historic change to the region. Although the Safavids were eventually able to reestablish authority, they never achieved their earlier level of control. This warfare pattern repeated itself under Shah Tahmasp I and Sultan Suleiman I. Historians generally agree that the Safavids efforts to convert Muslims in their empire to Shiism utilized coercion and force. Two distinct schools of painting developed: the Turkmen school in western Iran and the Timurid school based in Herat (in todays Afghanistan). Sunnis respect Ali and all the Twelve Imams, but they do not believe the Twelve alone were divinely chosen to lead the Muslim community. In these paintings, artists used mineral-based dyes, which produced brilliant and long-lasting colors (Figure 4.26). 28 March 2008. 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). This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. 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. 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. When the second Persian "vakil" was placed in command of a Safavid army in Transoxiana, the Qezelbash, considering it a dishonor to be obliged to serve under him, deserted him on the battlefield with the result that he was slain. Museums around the world commissioned Pope and Ackerman to organize symposia and exhibitions on the topic of Persian art, where works from the Safavid Empire were especially of interest. The Safavid family later claimed that Safi al-Din was descended from the Prophet through Muhammads daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . (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. 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. 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. With the capture of Tabriz, the Safavid dynasty officially began. The political structure of the Safavid Empire was structured like a pyramid with the Shah at the very top of the pyramid, similar to a pope. 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. His native language was Old Tati (zar), an extinct Iranian dialect of the north closely related to Persian. As the spiritual heir of Sheikh Zahed, Safi Al-Din transformed the inherited Zahediyeh Sufi Order into the Safaviyeh Order. 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). 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. The art of the Safavids is simply magnificent. For the full article, see, https://www.britannica.com/summary/Safavid-dynasty. An attempt to recapture the territory in 1618 resulted in a devastating loss for the Ottomans. The Safavid Empire was less ethnically diverse than the Ottoman Empire. The city center was unique. The capture of Baghdad by Ismail I in 1509, was only followed by its loss to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534. In the sixteenth century, carpet weaving evolved from a nomadic and peasant craft to a well-executed industry with specialization of design and manufacturing. To save content items to your account, 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. Constant wars with the Ottomans made Shah Tahmasp I move the capital from Tabriz, into the interior city of Qazvin in 1548. Render date: 2023-04-30T14:46:17.907Z The order in Ardabil was founded in the thirteenth century by the Sufi master Zahed Gilani, and little is known about its beliefs and practices in its . Located in the central Middle East, the kingdom occupied a fundamental geographic location and had substantial effect in the stability of the region. then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution: Use the information below to generate a citation. This was a strategic move that accomplished two things. on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. 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. As an empire, the Safavids succeeded in placing the nomadic people groups of the region under their. 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. Due to his fear of assassination, Shah Abbas either put to death or blinded any member of his family who aroused his suspicion. Despite near-constant war, during this time Iran reached new cultural and economic heights. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. 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. 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). To populate his new capital, Abbas ordered several different populations to settle in it, including Armenians, Jewish people, Circassians, and other Caucasian peoples, many of whom had been displaced during his war against the Ottomans in their homelands. 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. Capital of the Safavid Empire. Following the conquest of Iran, Ismail I made conversion mandatory for the largely Sunni population. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Rise of the Safavid Empire. The Safavid Empire was established in an Iran that had been long fragmented. Representation of the human form has been forbidden in Islamic art at times; in Persian illuminated manuscripts, the artists response was to use the image to bring a specific person to the viewers mind without representing them accurately. 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. Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service. Abbas I was particularly lenient toward the Armenian Christian population of Isfahan, due to their participation in the lucrative manufacture and export of silk. The subjects, even if they sponsored the work, are generally idealized rather than actual persons. 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. Using traditional forms and materials, Reza Abbasi (15651635) introduced new subjects to Persian paintingsemi-nude women, youths, lovers. The country was repeatedly raided on its frontiersKerman by Baluchi tribesmen in 1698, Khorasan by Afghans in 1717, constantly in Mesopotamia by peninsula Arabs. Abbas I also supported direct trade with Europe, particularly England and The Netherlands, which sought Iranian carpets, silk, and textiles. Junayds son Haydar created a solid political and military framework by establishing a Safavid military order known as the Qizilbash, after their distinctive red hats (qizil means red in Azeri). He was declared Shah of Iran in 1502. 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. Updates? The Shia movement originated with a dispute over Muhammads successor after his death in 632. 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. The Safavid Empire was one ruled by Sufi Muslims who later became Shia Muslims. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. The Ardabil carpet, still one of the largest Persian carpets in existence, was made during the Safavid period. The Safavids generally ruled over a peaceful and prosperous empire. The article analyses the social and political structure of the Safavid Empire. Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan (Mahabad) (Reported by Eskandar Beg Monshi, Safavid Historian, 1557-1642, in the Book "Alam Ara Abbasi") and resettled the Turkish Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan. The empire's rulers, like the Ottoman rulers, were Muslim, yet the Safavid Empire used religion differently to promote order and stability within its realm. Despite these similarities, however, significant differences . The Safavid Empire, based in Persia ( Iran ), ruled over much of southwestern Asia from 1501 to 1736. 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). The epic called the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a stellar example of manuscript illumination and calligraphy, was made during Shah Tahmasp's reign. Like Europe, it has a long history of big empires and small states. In the same year he occupied Ghazni, Kabul, and Lahore. 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. While the decoration of each of these buildings varied, the structural composition remained much the same, consisting of domes surrounded by four, Fresco, c. 1597 C.E., Ali Qapu Palace (photo: reibai, CC BY 2.0). This book uses the The maximum extent of the Safavid Empire under Shah Abbas I (CC BY-SA 4.0), The maximum extent of the Safavid Empire under Shah Abbas I (. Poetry stagnated under the Safavids; the great medieval ghazal form languished in over-the-top lyricism. First, he bargained for peace with the Ottomans in 1590, giving away territory in the north-west. 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. 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. 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. One of the most famous achievements of Tahmasps workshop was an illustrated version of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran written by the poet Ferdowsi in the tenth century. In addition to fighting its perennial enemies, the Ottomans and Uzbeks, as the seventeenth century progressed, Iran had to contend with the rise of two more neighbors. 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. 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. In the previous century, Russia Muscovy had deposed two western Asian khanates of the Golden Horde and expanded its influence into the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia. The most distinctive and prized artworks of the Safavid era were illuminated manuscripts of well-known texts decorated with miniature paintings. 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. In this period, handicrafts such as tile making, pottery, and textiles developed and great advances were made in miniature painting, bookbinding, decoration, and calligraphy. The conversion efforts of the Safavids have left long legacies in the Islamic world. The Ottomans sued for peace in 1612, relinquishing the Caucasus to the Iranians. The Safavid dynasty had its origins in a long established Sufi order, called the Safaviyeh, which had flourished in Azarbaijan since the early fourteenth century. Despite the Safavid dynasty's Sufi origins, most Sunni or Shi'a Sufi groups were prohibited by the Nimatullahi order. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. During his reign, the Safavid state reached the height of its military, political, and economic power. [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. 20th and Pattison, Philadelphia (, The Safavids established an artistic identity that resonated with the dynasties that came after. Its founder was the Persian[1] mystic Sheikh Safi al-Din (12541334), after whom the order was named. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings They wanted to spread "Shiism by military means." They viewed the leader of the Empire with reverence, and they. The Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud of Kashan, Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. @kindle.com emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply. In practice, however, there were well defined limits to this absolutism, even when the shah was a strong and capable ruler. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Except for Shah Abbas II, the Safavid rulers after Abbas I were largely ineffectual. The Safavids were a dynastic family that ruled over modern-day Iran. Posted 7 months ago. Then enter the name part Shah Ismail I himself wrote many poems in Azerbaijani, as well as in Persian and Arabic, while Shah Tahmasp was a painter. 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. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article One of the reasons the Qizilbash were eventually replaced as palace administrators, bureaucrats, and military elites is that they had occasionally used their collective power to render some of the weaker shahs mere figureheads. The Safavids (Persian: ) were a native Iranian dynasty from Azarbaijan that ruled from 1501 to 1736, and which established Shi'a Islam as Iran's official religion and united its provinces under a single Iranian sovereignty in the early modern period. The Safavids were poorly armed, while the Ottomans had muskets and artillery. 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. 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). The Safavid dynasty descended from diverse and mixed ethnic origins, and there is some disagreement among scholars as to whether they were of Azeri or Persian background. By the seventeenth century, trade routes between East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a decline in commerce and trade. Various groups of Persian-speaking peoples lived in the Iranian plateau and were usually described as Tajik.. 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. 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. Even after their decline, the Safavids left an influential legacy with far reaching implications for Iranian art, religion, and culture. Thus, the end of his reign, 1666, marked the beginning of the end of the Safavid dynasty. The Safavids also introduced Shiism as the state religion at a time when Irans population was mostly Sunni, and in doing so they fostered the deep divisions between Shiism and Sunnism that continue to characterize relations between Iran and other Islamic nations today. (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. Based on the idea that the religiosity of the Turkish-speaking milieu that constituted the Safavid movement's grassroots was primarily shaped by this Karbala-oriented epic literature, this essay argues that Shaykh Jonayd, Shaykh Haydar, and especially Shah Esmil successfully reformulated the Safavid Sufi program to address the codes of . During the Safavid period, Iran was ethnically quite diverse. However, the original ancestral line of the Safavids was a religious order of Sufi mystics that lived in Ardabil, a city now in Azerbaijan (Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam that originated during the, Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, rejoined the western and eastern halves of the Iranian plateau through military achievement. The production of silk was one of the most important industries in Iran. The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the power of the Qizilbashthe original militia that had helped Ismail I capture Tabriz and which over the century had insinuated themselves as entitled bureaucrats in the administrationdeclined. In May 1501, Ismail I declared Tabriz his capital and himself Shah of Azerbaijan. 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. 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. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. After the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258, the Sunni caliphate became a weak figurehead position that held only symbolic authority. Find out more about saving to your Kindle. Started in the Safavid period, mirror mosaics became an enduring Persian decorative motif that was used by the subsequent dynasties. Although at first he was able to negotiate safe passage for his army, the Shirvanshahs, already uneasy about Haydars growing power, used his eventual attack on one of their cities as an excuse to declare war on the Safavids.

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