34 Facts About Safavids

1.

Safavids ruled from 1501 to 1722 and, at their height, they controlled all of what is 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,694
2.

The Safavids have left their mark down to the present era by establishing Twelver Shi?ism as the state religion of Iran, as well as spreading Shi?a Islam in major parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, Caucasus, Anatolia, the Persian Gulf, and Mesopotamia.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,695
3.

Safavids had been married to Uzun Hassan in exchange for protection of the Grand Komnenos from the Ottomans.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,696
4.

The Chaldiran battle holds historical significance as the start of over 300 years of frequent and harsh warfare fueled by geo-politics and ideological differences between the Ottomans and the Iranian Safavids mainly regarding territories in Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Mesopotamia.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,697
5.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,698
6.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,699
7.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,700
8.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,701
9.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,702
10.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,703
11.

The Safavids ultimately succeeded in establishing a new Persian national monarchy.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,704
12.

Safavids used his new force to dislodge the Portuguese from Bahrain and, with English help, from Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,705
13.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,706
14.

Ottoman Turks and Safavids fought over the fertile plains of Iraq for more than 150 years.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,707
15.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,708
16.

Shah Ismail I was the first of the Safavids to try to establish an alliance against the common Ottoman enemy through the earlier stages of the Habsburg–Persian alliance, but this proved to be largely unfruitful during his reign.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,709
17.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,710
18.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,711
19.

Immediately after Nader Shah's assassination in 1747 and the disintegration of his short-lived empire, the Safavids were re-appointed as shahs of Iran in order to lend legitimacy to the nascent Zand dynasty.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,712
20.

Nevertheless, the Iranian society during the Safavids was that of a hierarchy, with the Shah at the apex of the hierarchical pyramid, the common people, merchants and peasants at the base, and the aristocrats in between.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,713
21.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,714
22.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,715
23.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,716
24.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,717
25.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,718
26.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,719
27.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,720
28.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,721
29.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,722
30.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,723
31.

Furthermore, the Safavids maintained a sizeable sphere of influence overseas, particularly in the Deccan region of India.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,724
32.

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

FactSnippet No. 2,089,725
33.

Safavids 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.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,726
34.

Safavids used Persian as a cultural and administrative language throughout the empire and were bilingual in Persian.

FactSnippet No. 2,089,727