49 Facts About Safavid Iran

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

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

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

In 1511, the Sahkulu rebellion was a widespread pro-Shia and pro-Safavid Iran uprising directed against the Ottoman Empire from within the empire.

Safavid Iran 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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In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid Iran 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.

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

Safavid Iran 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.

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

Safavid Iran'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.

Safavid Iran'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.

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

Safavid Iran 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.

Safavid Iran 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).

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

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

Overland trade grew notably however, as Safavid Iran was able to further develop its overland trade with North and Central Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century.

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

The Safavids' archrivals, the neighbouring Ottomans, invaded western and northwestern Safavid Iran and took swaths of territory there, including the city of Baghdad.

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

Proper term for the Safavid Iran 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.

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 Iran state, reflecting the view that the people had of their ruler, as someone elevated above humanity.

Jean Chardin, the 17th-c French traveler, spent many years in Safavid Iran and commented at length on their culture, customs and character.

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

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

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In turn, many of these transplanted women became wives and concubines of Tahmasp, and the Safavid Iran 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.

The rest of the masses of deportees and importees, a significant portion numbering many hundreds of thousands, were settled in various regions of mainland Safavid Iran, and were given all kinds of roles as part of society, such as craftsmen, farmers, cattle breeders, traders, soldiers, generals, governors, woodcutters, etc.

Safavid Iran 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.

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

Increasingly, members of the religious class, particularly the mujtahids and the seyyeds, gained full ownership of these lands, and, according to contemporary historian Iskandar Munshi, Safavid Iran started to witness the emergence of a new and significant group of landowners.

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

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

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

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

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

In 16th and 17th century Safavid Iran, there existed a considerable number of local democratic institutions.

In Safavid Iran there was little distinction between theology and jurisprudence, or between divine justice and human justice, and it all went under Islamic jurisprudence.

Growth of Safavid 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.

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

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

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

Under the governance of the strong shahs, especially during the first half of the 17th century, traveling through Safavid Iran was easy because of good roads and the caravanserais, that were strategically placed along the route.

Safavid Iran 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.

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

Safavid Iran'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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Shah Abbas wanted to undermine this political structure, and the recreation of Isfahan, as a Grand capital of Safavid Iran, was an important step in centralizing the power.

Safavid Iran 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.

Specific Turkic language was attested in Safavid Iran 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 Iran dynasty.

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