40 Facts About Safavid Empire

1.

Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia, referred to as the Safavid Empire, was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty.

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2.

Safavid Empire history begins with the establishment of the Safaviyya by its eponymous founder Safi-ad-din Ardabili.

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3.

Safavid Empire's had been married to Uzun Hassan in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans.

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4.

The establishment of Twelver Shi?ism as the state religion of Safavid Empire Iran led to various Sufi orders openly declaring their Shi?ite position, and others to promptly assume Shi?a Islam.

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5.

Safavid Empire culture is often admired for the large-scale city planning and architecture, achievements made during the reign of later shahs, but the arts of persian miniature, book-binding and calligraphy, in fact, never received as much attention as they did during his time.

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6.

In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid Empire harem emerged as a competitive, and sometimes lethal, arena of ethnic politics as cliques of Turkmen, Circassian, and Georgian women and courtiers vied with each other for the shah's attention.

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7.

Safavid Empire reduced the taxes of districts that were traditionally Shi?i, regulated services in mosques and engaged Shi?i propagandists and spies.

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8.

Safavid Empire had all his relatives killed except for his older brother, Mohammad Khudabanda, who, being nearly blind, was not a real candidate for the throne, and Mohammad's three sons, Hamza Mirza, Abbas Mirza and Abu Talib Mirza.

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9.

Safavid Empire's did not last much longer than Mohammad's installation at Qazvin, where she was murdered.

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10.

Safavid Empire's was done in by intrigues by the vizier Mirza Salman Jaberi and Mohammad's chief wife Khayr al-Nisa Begum, known as Mahd-i 'Ulya.

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11.

Safavid Empire's was by no means content to exercise a more or less indirect influence on affairs of state: instead, she openly carried out all essential functions herself, including the appointment of the chief officers of the realm.

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12.

Crown prince Hamza Mirza, now 21 years old and director of Safavid Empire affairs, led a force to confront the Ottomans, but in 1586 was murdered under mysterious circumstances.

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13.

Safavid Empire did so by taking the humiliating step of coming to peace terms with the Ottomans by making, for now, permanent their territorial gains in Iraq and the territories in the north, including Azerbaijan, Qarabagh, Ganja, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Kurdistan.

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14.

Safavid Empire used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain and, with English help, from Hormuz (1622), in the Persian Gulf (a vital link in Portuguese trade with India).

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15.

Safavid Empire expanded commercial links with the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company.

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16.

Safavid Empire was eventually successful in making the eastern Georgian territories an integral part of the Safavid provinces.

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17.

Safavid Empire then besieged the capital of Isfahan, until Shah Soltan Hoseyn abdicated and acknowledged him as the new king of Iran.

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18.

Safavid Empire had removed them from power and banished them from Iran by 1729.

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19.

Proper term for the Safavid Empire society is what we today can call a meritocracy, meaning a society in which officials were appointed on the basis of worth and merit, and not on the basis of birth.

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20.

The term dowlat, which in modern Persian means "government", was then an abstract term meaning "bliss" or "felicity", and it began to be used as concrete sense of the Safavid Empire state, reflecting the view that the people had of their ruler, as someone elevated above humanity.

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21.

Safavid Empire admired their consideration towards foreigners, but he stumbled upon characteristics that he found challenging.

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22.

Safavid Empire considered them to be a well-educated and well-behaved people.

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23.

In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid Empire harem emerged as a competitive, and sometimes lethal, arena of ethnic politics as cliques of Turkmen, Circassian, and Georgian women and courtiers vied with each other for the king's attention.

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24.

Safavid Empire then went on to completely reduce the number of Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically moved qizilbash governors to other districts, thus disrupting their ties with the local community, and reducing their power.

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25.

An important feature of the Safavid Empire society was the alliance that emerged between the ulama and the merchant community.

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26.

Safavid Empire state was one of checks and balance, both within the government and on a local level.

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27.

Safavid Empire enjoyed tremendous power and control over national affairs as he was the immediate deputy of the Shah.

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28.

Safavid Empire was perhaps the closest advisor to the Shah, and, as such, functioned as his eyes and ears within the Court.

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29.

Safavid Empire was responsible for introducing all guests, receiving petitions presented to the Shah and reading them if required.

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30.

Safavid Empire court was furthermore a rich mix of peoples from its earliest days.

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31.

Growth of Safavid Empire economy was fuelled by the stability which allowed the agriculture to thrive, as well as trade, due to Iran's position between the burgeoning civilizations of Europe to its west and India and Islamic Central Asia to its east and north.

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32.

Safavid Empire economy was to a large extent based on agriculture and taxation of agricultural products.

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33.

Safavid Empire thought that there was nothing like it in France or Italy:.

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34.

Safavid Empire blamed this on misgovernment, the sparse population of the country, and lack of appreciation of agriculture amongst the Persians.

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35.

Safavid Empire examined our baggage, but in the most obliging manner possible, not opening our trunks or packages, and was satisfied with a small tax, which was his due.

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36.

Safavid Empire convinced the British to assist him by allowing them to open factories in Shiraz, Isfahan and Jask.

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37.

Safavid Empire's painting and calligraphic style influenced Iranian artists for much of the Safavid period, which came to be known as the Isfahan school.

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38.

Safavid Empire wrote the Al-Hikma al-muta'aliya fi-l-asfar al-'aqliyya al-arba'a, a meditation on what he called 'meta philosophy' which brought to a synthesis the philosophical mysticism of Sufism, the theology of Shi'a Islam, and the Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies of Avicenna and Suhrawardi.

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39.

Specific Turkic language was attested in Safavid Empire Persia during the 16th and 17th centuries, a language that Europeans often called Persian Turkish, which was a favourite language at the court and in the army because of the Turkic origins of the Safavid Empire dynasty.

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40.

The Turkish spoken in Safavid Empire Iran was mostly what nowadays is referred to as Azeri or Azerbaijani Turkish.

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