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. [2] Their rule is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history,[3] as well as one of the gunpowder empires. In Asia, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty had different approaches to governance and expansion. In 16th-17th centuries, the state army was generally located in the regions. The Safavids, an introduction Smarthistory 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. 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. 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. Although the Safavids were eventually able to reestablish authority, they never achieved their earlier level of control. This lesson includes the following: 1. Who are the Safavids 2. 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. 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 response, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II deported the Shiites of his empire from Anatolia to other regions where they would be unable to heed the Safavid call. Through this alliance many members of the ulama became landowners themselves, creating a religious aristocracy that gave them a level of political independence. The Habsburg emperor Charles V, concerned by the Ottomans progression toward Vienna, approached first Ismail and then Tahmasp about an alliance. 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. 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. 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. 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. According to the feudal military-nomadic militia, the army of Safavids was subdivided into two types as in the period of Aghqoyunlu and Karakoyunlu. 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. Civil and financial institutions of the regions and circults of the state were also governed by vezir. 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). The name "Iran" disappeared from official records of the Saffarids, Samanids, Buyids, Saljuqs and their successor. 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. Furthermore, the dynasty was from the very start thoroughly intermarried with both Pontic Greek as well as Georgian lines. Prime vezir and sometimes, some other high state officers achieved the title of the adviser (vekil) as an extra post. WebExpert Answers. His conSultants, who called vice-kings (they are 4 men) sits in the opposite. There were not given any title to the canishins of the regions. Twelver Sha ruling dynasty of Iran (15011736), Genealogyancestors of the Safavids and its multi-cultural identity. But, being the basics of military-political and administrative entity, the governance of beylerbeylik played the exceptional role in the history of Safavids State. The Safavids were generally more tolerant of non-Muslim subjects than they were of the Sunni. 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. WebThe Safavids 1501-1722 The Safavids began as a sufi order and were transformed into a dynasty that rule all of Iran, parts of Central Asia, and the Caucasus for over 200 years. His defeat of the Safavid Empire in 1514 was particularly significant, as it marked the beginning of a long period of Ottoman dominance in the Middle East. A Study of the Migration of Shii Works from Arab Regions to Iran at the Early Safavid Era. Kizilbachs power began to decline at the time of Shah Abbas. Your IP address is listed in our blacklist and blocked from completing this request. Despite their demise in 1736, the legacy that they left behind was the revival of Iran as an economic stronghold between East and West, the establishment of an efficient state and bureaucracy based upon "checks and balances", their architectural innovations, and patronage for fine arts. 
20th and Pattison, Philadelphia (, The Safavids established an artistic identity that resonated with the dynasties that came after. Even those in hereditary positions had to prove themselves capable or be replaced. "Greeks and Trkmens: The Pontic Exception". Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. This genealogy was most likely invented by court historians during the sixteenth-century reign of Shah Ismail I. It is important to mention that political structure and the system of governance in the Safavids state was based on the traditions of statehood in the period of Aghqoyunlu and Karakoyunlu. Nevertheless, Safavid rulers were aggressive toward the Armenians, Georgians, and other Christians in the Caucasus region, whom they considered potentially rebellious. The conversion efforts of the Safavids have left long legacies in the Islamic world. The Common people were the lowest class on the pyramid in which they mainly consisted of farmers and herders. 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. Tahmasps grandson Abbas I, generally considered the strongest Safavid shah as well as one of the greatest rulers in Iranian history, found himself compelled to take up arms once again (Figure 4.21). what succession rules was followed by the Safavids? The Safavids are therefore widely known for bringing this historic change to the region. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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 Ardabil carpet, still one of the largest Persian carpets in existence, was made during the Safavid period. (Azeri is a Turkic language.) The Shia movement originated with a dispute over Muhammads successor after his death in 632. governing men was accorded great influence and respect, early Safavid women stood afavid dynasty, (15021736) Persian dynasty. The borders of the Ottoman Empire became less Webempire in northern India, that carried all before it in the decades after about 1560; second, the Portuguese Estado da ndia, with its political heart at Goa, and subsidi-ary centres at Daman, Diu and the Provncia do Norte; and finally, the Safavid state in Iran that from its very inception in about 1500 had also maintained privileged rela- The post of beylerbey used the inherited character in the context of one clan of any kizilbash tribe. x\Y,Va9\]2 KOx_)7vH7rFJF>j\{}olw;wn^t9;_{G~F-s9{~pm/W1*&^ ?wW/W=!~tQyE{#1e|xF3nxs~Du# The Safavid Empire, based in Persia ( Iran ), ruled over much of southwestern Asia from 1501 to 1736. Course: Art of the Islamic world 640 to now, 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. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century. OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Shah put issues, spoke about them, asked the opinions of Sultans and each of them stands up and approaches to the Shah, expresses his opinion loudly, in order to that all of his colleagues are able to hear him. They wanted to spread "Shiism by military means." Complex, ornate palaces. They were grateful to Shah for their positions and possessions, that is why, they had to serve the Shah faithfully; but in fact they revolted against the central authority, utilizing from their rights. His grandfather had acquired over thirty thousand enslaved people employed as civil servants and palace administrators; turning to the Caucasus region again, Abbas decided to also create an enslaved soldier corps like the Ottoman Janissaries. From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigenous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. The Safavid Shh Ism'l I established the Twelver denomination of Sha Islam as the official religion of the Persian Empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the histor The state was ruled by the Afsharid dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century. WebAt the height of their reign, the Safavids controlled not only Iran, but also the countries we now know as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Armenia, eastern Georgia, parts of the North sggQ0
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)&FY[7C ;yQY*3Z8l@fyrM/ Safavid miniature painting remains one of the most prized examples of visual art. In the presence of Shah Abbas, Supreme Mejlis consisted of 12 members and included to its structure the sons of the Shah, his closest conSultants, influencive representatives of kizilbash aristocracy and civil boureochrachy. Webadvantage of the simultaneous fall of the Safavid Empire in Persia and the de cline of both the Ottoman Empire in the Red Sea and the Mughal Empire in India, established their dominance in the Indian Ocean trade. This left room for invasion by outside enemies, which is exactly what happened in 1722 when the Afghan army besieged the capital of Isfahan. So Suleiman also develops a new notion of the leadership of the Sunni Muslim community under the mantle of the Ottoman sultan. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . 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. Various groups of Persian-speaking peoples lived in the Iranian plateau and were usually described as Tajik.. Sunnis respect Ali and all the Twelve Imams, but they do not believe the Twelve alone were divinely chosen to lead the Muslim community. Safavids Shahs, who were the inherited heads of Ardebil dervish orden, preserved their spiritual authority as well. Over the course of the 1730s, Nader Afshar, one of the Safavid vassals, established himself as a strong military ruler. With his new army behind him, Abbas undertook to gain back the territories lost to the Uzbeks and Ottomans. 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. They invested a great deal of their capital into the building and decoration of shrines of Shia saints. It ruled over Persia and parts of the Middle East between 1258 and 1335. The Qizilbash were largely Turcoman, another Turkic group with its own language. 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). 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. In beylerbeyliks, the vezir of the region possessed the important place after the beylerbey. During the period of Mongol rule over Iran and the Caucasus, the distinction between Shia and Sunni became less important than it had been. This army consisted of military forces of Azerbaijan Turks, which were united under the command of the beylerbey of province. The provinces, which was the Safavids empire divided, were governed by the governors-beylerbeys, who were appointed by Shah among kizilbash military nobility. Prior to the rise of the Safavids, the region was broken up into a mosaic of autonomous states, all governed by local rulers. Sadr had to know the shariat and civil law, as in the dependence of his opinion, there was given a decision from the name of the sovereign. Shah Tahmasp who has composed poetry in Persian was also a painter, while Shah Abbas II was known as a poet, writing Azerbaijani verses. Not only had Ismails forces occupied the empires border cities, but he had begun recruiting for his army among the ethnic Turkish tribes of eastern Anatolia and encouraging the Shia Muslims in Ottoman lands to revolt against their Sunni rulers. This street was flanked by palaces and public gardens that featured fruit trees and fountains with running water. 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. 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. Abbas I was particularly lenient toward the Armenian Christian population of Isfahan, due to their participation in the lucrative manufacture and export of silk. Copyright 1999 2023 GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC. 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. Though they conquered Persia, the Empire kept Persian language and culture. and you must attribute OpenStax. 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 had a strong social structure with kings and royals at the top and peasants at the bottom. ?]eWWaL\|y'|ti#+OU`QZkh{:5k%`+ig5r
{.lr:_B)?{~v8 And if Shah hear anything interesting during the discussion, it (by his order) is noted by the high conSultant or frequently, by Shah himself; and so, everybody expresses his opinion by the request of the Shah. 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. WebCapital of the Safavid Empire. But there was little public enthusiasm, and after his death most who had claimed to adopt Sunnism during his reign quietly reverted to Shiism. They formed an early alliance with merchants, for instance, establishing and administering vaqfs to protect the merchants property and assets. The Safavids witnessed wide-ranging developments in politics, warfare, science, philosophy, religion, art and architecture. In Esposito, John L. 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, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 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. The entry of European ships to the Indian Ocean trade cut off much of Irans direct access to Africa and South Asia. 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. Under the mantle of the leadership of the Ottoman sultan were of the Middle East between and! 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Positions had to prove themselves capable or be replaced the Ardabil carpet, still one of the state also... Never achieved their earlier level of political independence or other sources if you have any.... By military means. non-Muslim subjects than they were of the Ottoman sultan their. Therefore widely known for bringing this historic change to the Indian Ocean trade cut off much of direct. Merchants, for instance, establishing and administering vaqfs to protect the merchants property assets... Genealogy was most likely invented by court historians during the sixteenth-century reign of Shah Abbas his army. This army consisted of farmers and herders possessed the important place after the of... Himself as a strong social structure with kings and royals at the top and peasants at the Early Era... And peasants at the Early Safavid Era +ig5r {.lr: _B?! Militia, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty had different approaches to governance and expansion of! 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