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Safavids

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The Safavid period is conventionally dated from the capture of Tabriz in 1501 by Ismail I (d. 1524) to the fall of the capital Esfahan to the Afghans in 1722. As such, the Safavid dynasty was the longest-ruling dynasty in Iran’s history, since its conquest by Arab Muslim armies in the 640s, and stands between Iran’s medieval and modern history. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the numbers both of Western scholars focusing on the Safavid period and of those for whom the period is one of many areas of interest have grown rapidly. Too, notwithstanding the turmoil of the period, in Iran the publication of key Persian- and Arabic-language primary materials relative to the period has also expanded. In the early 21st century, there is a vast array of primary and secondary sources, composed in many different languages, that was not available prior to 1979. The growth in scholarly interest in the period, in both the West and Iran, together with the growth of available source materials has encouraged the appearance of subdisciplines within the field. Despite this growth, however, the field of Safavid studies remains split between studies of the socioeconomic and political realms and the “cultural,” as broadly construed. Most in both groups also remain beholden to the conventional “decline” understanding of the period, whose origins date, at least, to the works of E. G. Browne (d. 1926). The 17th century especially continues to be depicted as having begun with a burst of cultural and intellectual accomplishment, thanks to the military, political, and economic stability achieved by Abbas I (d. 1629)—a “strong” ruler—but ending in an atmosphere of intolerant religious orthodoxy amid military, political, and economic chaos and “weak” leadership at the center. Scholars still accept the inevitable decline and fall of the Safavid “state,” as represented by the 1722 Afghan capture of Esfahan. This preoccupation with Safavid “decline” is reinforced by recourse to critiques of the Safavid system on offer in both Persian-language historical chronicles and the accounts of contemporary Western travelers to and residents in Iran, although many of the former were composed after the period and the latter are often contradictory, offering as “fact” information gathered after the events in question or in such detail as to beggar credibility, and are the product of a variety of agendas that can render their contributions problematic. Ottoman studies has jettisoned “decline theory,” but “decline” still remains the dominant paradigm in Safavid studies.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. The “decline” model for Safavid history first made its appearance in the early 20th century in the work of the famed Persianist Edward G. Browne, in Browne 1953. Lockhart 1958 expanded on the theme and stands as the proponent par excellence of “Safavid decline.” Savory 2007 reproduced this model and, although the chapters in Jackson and Lockhart 1986 offered a much greater amount of information on a wide variety of topics, their authors remained faithful to both Browne’s original paradigm and explanations as further developed by Lockhart and Savory. Blow 2009 expands on this model as it applies to Abbas I. Canby 2002 offers a good overview of trends in Safavid art and architecture over the period. Floor 2001 is a useful, well-sourced survey of the political organization of Safavid society. Noting that the Safavids were Islamic Iran’s longest-lasting dynasty, Newman 2008 challenged Safavid “decline” and, in its place, offered analyses to account for the Safavids’ longevity. He suggests that this longevity might be most usefully explained in terms of the success with which the realms’ key constituencies were expanded over the period to recognize, include, and transcend the diverse elements and discourses—domestic and “foreign”—extant in the region at the time.
  8.  
  9. Blow, David. Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. New York and London: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  11. A conventional account that reproduces many of the field’s long-extant understandings of Abbas I and the period in general.
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  13. Browne, Edward Granville. A Literary History of Persia. Vol. 4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
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  15. Originally published in 1924. Browne (d. 1926) was the first to offer an overview of the Safavid period in the last century.
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  17. Canby, Sheila. The Golden Age of Persian Art: 1501–1722. London: British Museum, 2002.
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  19. Originally published in 1999; still a useful overview of developments in the many fields of artistic expression over the Safavid period. Good discussion of the dynamic interaction between Safavid art and the rising influence of European and Eastern styles of expression over the 17th century.
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  21. Floor, Willem. Safavid Government Institutions. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 2001.
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  23. A detailed, well-sourced examination of the organization of the central and provincial governmental structures over the period. Useful lists of post-holders at the central level (see also Floor 1998 and Floor 2000, cited under Commerce and Trade).
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  25. Jackson, Peter, and Lawrence Lockhart, eds. The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  26. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521200943Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27. The many detailed chapters in this dated volume—on politics and the economic, religious, and cultural (literature, art, and architecture) life of the period—reflect much of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the field of Safavid studies since Browne 1953.
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  29. Lockhart, Lawrence. The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1958.
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  31. Lockhart (d. 1975) greatly embellished Browne’s “decline” offering and, especially, Browne’s treatment of the Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699), whom both—and many subsequent authors—blame for the 1722 fall of the dynasty to the Afghans (see also Minorsky 1943, cited under Translations, and Baqir Majlisi).
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  33. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  35. Originally published in 2006, this overview of the period challenges the “decline” paradigm and much of its many associated conventional wisdoms to suggest why the Safavid dynasty was the longest-lasting dynasty in Iran since the coming of Islam in the 7th century.
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  37. Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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  39. Originally published in 1980, and representative of the conventional “rise and decline” paradigm for Safavid history dating at least from the works of Browne 1953 and Lockhart 1958.
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  41. Article Collections
  42.  
  43. Further evidence for the growth of scholarly interest in the Safavid period following the Iranian Revolution is the number of international conferences organized in these years and the volumes of their papers published. In Europe, this interest has been marked by the organization of a series of Round Tables—four to date. Calmard 1993, Melville 2009, and Newman 2003 are collections of the papers delivered at these Round Tables in 1988, 1993, and 1998. A fourth was held in Bamberg, Germany in 2003, but there was no resulting publication. Lewisohn and Morgan 1999 stems from a 1997 conference on “Persianate” Sufism. Canby 2002 is a collection of papers solely on the arts in the period, from a second 1998 conference. Mazzaoui 2003 includes papers delivered at a third 1998 gathering, in Utah. Savory 1987 is a collection of a number of the author’s many articles on the period. Matthee and Flores 2011 is a volume of papers from a 2007 conference on role of the Portugal in the Persian Gulf. This is to say nothing of the many conferences on the period held in Iran in these years and papers from several other international conferences organized in the West over the last decade whose publication is imminent.
  44.  
  45. Calmard, Jean, ed. Études Safavides, sous la direction de Jean Calmard. Papers presented at the First International Round Table on Safavid Persia, Paris, 1988. Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993.
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  47. Eighteen papers from the “First International Round Table on Safavid Persia,” held in Paris in 1988. Immensely useful contributions on a range of issues relating to sources, sociocultural history, and socioeconomic history.
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  49. Canby, Sheila, ed. Safavid Art and Architecture. Papers presented at a conference organized at the British Museum, London, 1998. London: British Museum, 2002.
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  51. Nineteen of twenty-four papers delivered at a 1998 conference organized at the British Museum, the first such conference devoted entirely to the arts in the Safavid period.
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  53. Lewisohn, Leonard, and David Morgan, eds. The Heritage of Sufism. Vol. 3, Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501–1750). Oxford: Oneworld, 1999.
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  55. A collection of twenty-one essays on the artistic, literary, and mystical culture and intellectual life of 16th- to 18th-century Iran and India. The volume followed on a conference held in 1997.
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  57. Matthee, Rudi, and Jorge Flores. Portugal, the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia. Papers presented at a conference in marking the quincentennial anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf in 1507, Paris, 2008. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2011.
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  59. A selection of papers from a conference in 2007 marking the quincentennial anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf in 1507. The table of contents is available online.
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  61. Mazzaoui, Michel, ed. Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors. Papers delivered at the third of the three international conferences on the Safavids, University of Utah, 1998. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003.
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  63. Eight of the fourteen papers delivered at the third of the three international conferences on the Safavids held in 1998. The table of contents is available online.
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  65. Melville, Charles, ed. Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Papers presented at the Second International Round Table on Safavid Persia, held in Pembroke College, Cambridge, September 1993. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  67. Originally published in 1996, this is a collection of fifteen papers, all but one originally presented at the “Second International Round Table on Safavid Persia,” held in Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 1993. The table of contents is available online.
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  69. Newman, Andrew J., ed. Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Papers presented at the Third International Round Table on Safavid Persia, Edinburgh, 1998. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  71. Twenty of the forty-three papers presented at the “Third International Round Table on Safavid Persia” held in 1998 in Edinburgh.
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  73. Savory, Roger. Studies on the History of Safavid Iran. London: Variorum Reprints, 1987.
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  75. A collection of some of articles on the period by this important scholar of Safavid Iran.
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  77. Encyclopedias
  78.  
  79. Several encyclopedia-style publications are available. Jackson and Lockhart 1986 is a detailed, if now dated, reference. Matthee 2008 offers a useful overview of the period, if concentrating mainly on politics. Savory, et al. 1994–1995, while dated, offers an overview of developments over the period in many fields.
  80.  
  81. Jackson, Peter, and Lawrence Lockhart, eds. The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  82. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521200943Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  83. This volume includes articles on Safavid Iran from wide range of disciplinary perspectives, including the political, economic, religious, and cultural (literature, art, and architecture) history. While the information is useful, though now very dated, the articles are beholden to the conventional wisdom that has dominated the field of Safavid studies since Browne 1953 (cited under General Overviews).
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  85. Matthee, Rudi. “Safavid Dynasty.” In Encyclopædia Iranica. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. 2008.
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  87. A useful overview of the period, mainly concentrating on political trends and events. The up-to-date bibliography lists materials in different languages on a much wider variety of subjects within the field of Safavid studies. It is especially strong on relations with the Ottomans, Georgians, India, and the European countries and matters of economy and trade.
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  89. Savory, Roger M., J. T. P. de Bruijn, A. J. Newman, A. Welch, and R. Darley-Doran. “Safawids.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. Vol. 8, Ned-Sam. Edited by P. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, and W. P. Heinrichs, 765f. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1994–1995.
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  91. Dated but with still-useful sections on political, military, economic, and commercial history as well as literature, religion and philosophy, science, art, architecture, and numismatics.
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  93. Journals
  94.  
  95. The relevant journals in which material on the Safavids can be found include Iran, published by the British Institute for Persian Studies, Iranian Studies, published by International Society of Iranian Studies, Studia Iranica, from the Association pour l’Avancement des Etudes Iraniennes, and Abstracta Iranica, from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris and the Institut Français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI). Tables of contents are available on their respective websites.
  96.  
  97. Abstracta Iranica. 1978–.
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  99. An annual bibliographical reference work of articles and books published on all aspects of Iranian history and culture. It is sponsored by the CNRS in Paris and the IFRI. Issues since 22 (1999) can be accessed online.
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  101. Iran. 1963–.
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  103. This is the annual journal of the British Institute for Persian Studies, founded in 1961. The journal first appeared in 1963. Tables of contents of more recent volumes are available online.
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  105. Iranian Studies. 1967–.
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  107. The quarterly journal of the International Society of Iranian Studies, based in the United States and formerly known as the Society for Iranian Studies. Tables of contents since the first issue in 1967 are accessible online.
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  109. Studia Iranica. 1978–.
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  111. This is the biannual journal of the Association pour l’Avancement des Etudes Iraniennes (Paris). More recent tables of contents (since 1985) and selected abstracts (since 1995; full texts require subscription) can be accessed online.
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  113. Translations
  114.  
  115. Over the years, many of the key Safavid-period court chronicles have been translated, mainly into English. Taking these in chronological order, Khunji-Esfahani 1992 covers the period immediately prior to the 1501 capture of Tabriz. Rumlu 1934, for which Khunji was a key source, is the first translated chronicle of the period that, together with Qummi 1970, covers the 16th century. Munshi 1978–1986, completed the year of Abbas I’s death in 1629, covers the period from the origins of the Safavids through Abbas I’s reign. Abrahams 1999, composed during the reign of Abbas I, offers fresh insights into views of the reign of the second Safavid shah, Tahmasp. Minorsky 1943, Nasiri 2008, and Rafiʿ Ansari 2002 offer glimpses into late-Safavid administrative organization and practices (see also Floor 2001, cited under General Overviews). (Other translated materials are cited in the relevant sections.)
  116.  
  117. Abrahams, Simin. “A Historiographical Study and Annotated Translation of Volume 2 of the Afzal al-Tavarikh by Fazli Khuzani Esfahani.” PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 1999.
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  119. The entire chronicle, in three volumes, was still being revised by the author in 1639. The volumes are located in different locations in the United Kingdom. The first and only extant section of Volume 2 covers the reign of Tahmasp (reg. 1524–1576) (see further Melville 1998, cited under Secondary Sources).
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  121. Khunji-Esfahani, Fadlullah b. Ruzbihan. Persia in AD 1478–1490. Persian text edited by John E. Woods, with abridged English translation by V. Minorsky revised and augmented by John E. Woods. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1992.
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  123. English translation of Tarikh-i ‘Alam-Ara-yi Amini, the first edition of which was published in 1957. The author was a Sunni attached to the court of a pre-Safavid Sunni court. Notable for its mention that it was under Shaykh Junayd (d. 1460) and his son Haydar (d. 1488), father of the first Safavid shah, Ismail I, that members of the Safavid Sufi order venerated their leaders as divine.
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  125. Minorsky, Vladimir. Tadhkirat al-Muluk: A Manual of Safavid Administration (c. 1137/1725). Translated by Vladimir Minorsky. London: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1943.
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  127. English translation of Tadhkirat al-Muluk, with commentary. A manual on the working of the Safavid governmental administration written for the Afghans after their seizure of Esfahan in 1722. The commentary is often referenced in discussions about Safavid “decline.”
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  129. Munshi, Iskandar Beg. History of Shah Abbas the Great. 3 vols. Translated by Roger M. Savory. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1978–1986.
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  131. English translation of Tarikh-i ‘Alam-Ara-yi Abbasi. Completed in 1629; covers the origins of the Safavid house and has sections on the first four shahs and a detailed chronology of the reign of Abbas I (reg. 1585–1629). The Turkish poetry is not included and the dates given are problematic. Volume 3 is an index of names (on the issue of dating, see McChesney 1980, cited under Secondary Sources).
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  133. Nasiri, Mirza Naqi. Titles & Emoluments in Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration. Translated and annotated by Willem Floor. Washington, DC: Mage, 2008.
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  135. English translation of Alqab va mavajib-i dawrah-ʾi salaṭin-i Safaviyah. Covers Safavid administration from 1495 to 1720. Extremely useful for understanding the nature of central and provincial governmental structures.
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  137. Qummi, Qadi Ahmad. Die frühen Safawiden nach Qazi Ahmad Qumi. Translated by Erika Glassen. Freiburg, Germany: Schwarz, 1970.
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  139. German translation of Khulasat-i Tavarikh. The standard edition (original date, 1359–1363) is that edited in 1984 by I. Ishraqi (2 vols. Tehran, Iran: Intisharat-i Danishgah-i Tehran). The original was a five-volume general history, of which only Volume 5, on the Safavids to 1590–1591, is extant. Qummi also authored Calligraphers and Painters (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art) in 1959.
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  141. Rafiʿ Ansari, Mirza. A Manual of Later Safavid Administration. Translated by Christoph Marcinkowski. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: ISTAC, 2002.
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  143. English translation of and commentary on Dastur Muluk, probably composed between 1722 and 1726.
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  145. Rumlu, Hasan. A Chronicle of the Early Safawis, Being the Ahsan al-Tawarikh of Hasan-i Rumlu. Translated by Charles Seddon. Baroda, India: Oriental Institute, 1934.
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  147. English edition of Ahsan al-Tawarikh. Covers events from 1494 to 1577 and, apparently, the last two volumes of a larger twelve-volume general history that may never have been completed. Includes biographical notes on prominent figures.
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  149. Secondary Sources
  150.  
  151. A number of the field’s specialists have examined particular aspects of these and other chronicles. Togan 1957 examined different copies of an early manuscript to argue it was during the reign of Ismail that the Safavids first claimed to be descendants of the Imams. Morimoto 2010 presents evidence that this claim predated the 1501 capture of Tabriz. McChesney 1980 notes problems with the dates given by Munshi 1978–1986 (cited under Translations). Morton 1990 argues that a key chronicle thought to have been composed in the 16th century was completed a century later. Melville 1998 offers an early assessment of Abrahams 1999 (cited under Translations). Quinn 2000 is a superb study of the different, and sometimes conflicting, “agendas” of the individual chroniclers and how these influenced their accounts.
  152.  
  153. McChesney, Robert. “A Note on Iskandar Beg’s Chronology.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39 (1980): 53–63.
  154. DOI: 10.1086/372779Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. The author explains why the dating system in one section of Munshi 1978–1986 (cited under Translations) was wrong: the chronicler used a dating system based on the Muslim (lunar) calendar, a “year-of-accession” system, and the Turkish (solar) dating system. An appendix contains the corrected dates.
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  157. Melville, Charles. “A Lost Source for the Reign of Shah ʿAbbas: The Afzal al-tawarikh of Fazli Khuzani Esfahani.” Iranian Studies 31 (1998): 263–265.
  158. DOI: 10.1080/00210869808701908Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Describes the discovery of this manuscript at Cambridge and its importance for study of the reign of this shah (see Abrahams 1999, cited under Translations).
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  161. Morimoto, Kazuo. “The Earliest ʿAlid Genealogy for the Safavids: New Evidence for the Pre-dynastic Claim to Sayyid Status.” Iranian Studies 43 (2010): 447–469.
  162. DOI: 10.1080/00210862.2010.495561Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163. Reviews discussions on the Safavids’ claim to sayyid status (see Togan 1957) and then presents evidence that this claim was extant in the 1460s, much earlier than hitherto thought.
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  165. Morton, Alexander. “The Date and Attribution of the ‘Ross Anonymous’: Notes on a Persian History of Shah Ismail I.” In Pembroke Papers I. Edited by Charles Melville, 179–212. Cambridge, UK: Centre of Middle Eastern Studies, 1990.
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  167. Discusses in detail the dating of this well-known chronicle of the first Safavid shah, long thought to have been completed in the 16th century, and argues that it was composed in the 1680s.
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  169. Quinn, Sholeh. Historical Writing during the Reign of Shah ʿAbbas: Ideology, Imitation and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2000.
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  171. Important, comparative examination of the coverage of different incidents over the reign of Abbas as described in several of the period’s best-known court chronicles and explanation for their authors’ different depictions of these.
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  173. Togan, Zaki V. “Sur l’origine des Safavides.” In Mélanges Louis Massignon. Vol. 3. Edited by Institut Français de Damas, 345–357. Damascus, Syria: Institut Français de Damas, 1957.
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  175. Compares three later manuscript copies of a chronicle originally completed in the 14th century to argue that it was during the reign of Ismail that the Safavids first put forth the claim to being sayyids, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, in this case through the seventh Shiʿi Imam Musa Kazim (d. 799) (see Morimoto 2010).
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  177. Commerce and Trade
  178.  
  179. The Safavid period in Iran coincided with broader changes in international trade patterns and organization, in particular the rise of the Spanish-Portuguese trading empires and their subsequent eclipse at the hands of the English and Dutch trading company systems, each of which established an “East India Company.” The commercial representatives of these (and other) European powers appeared on the scene at the same time as their own and other foreign missionary and diplomatic emissaries. Over the period, the goals of all these individuals in Iran and the region evolved and variously conflicted with and complemented those of the other foreign nationals, and even their own countrymen. Over the same period, the goals of Safavid “foreign policy” also evolved in response to domestic, regional, and foreign developments. The luxury trade in silk from Iran to Europe over the years prior to and through the Safavid period—discussed both by Herzig 1992 and, in greater depth, by Matthee 1999—provides an excellent case study for evaluating the changing impact on the region of these broader developments in international trade. Too, Iran was without its own sources of gold and silver, the worldwide basis of currency over this period. Changing patterns of specie import/export—as determined by the local, regional, and international economies—affected the economies of Iran and the region, especially given Iran’s being at the crossroads of the flow of precious metals between Europe, South Asia, the Subcontinent, and modern-day Southeast Asia, as controlled by the East India companies. Herzig 1992 is an early discussion of the silk trade to Europe. All these aspects of premodern “globalization” are addressed by Matthee 1999. Baladouni and Makepeace 1998 documents the changing interests of the English East India Company in the Armenian merchant community. Floor 2000 reminds us, however, that Iran’s chief economic activity was agriculture, that over the period Iran’s main trading partner was India, and that despite the rise of the European company system based on shipping, the overland East-West trading route through Iran remained a vital conduit of international trade. The 1639 Zuhab peace treaty with the Ottomans only boosted that route’s viability and produced a domestic “peace dividend.” Floor 1998 examines the larger political economy of Iran in the period. Keyvani 1982 offers an excellent depiction of the reality and the vitality of everyday economic and social life in late Safavid Iran but argues that Safavid economic policies discouraged growth. Crowe 2002 shows that Iranian-produced ceramics were competitive in domestic and foreign markets. Haneda 2009 discusses the changing topography of Esfahan over the period.
  180.  
  181. Baladouni, Vahe, and Margaret Makepeace, eds. Armenian Merchants of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries: English East India Company Sources. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1998.
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  183. A collection of 265 extracts from the records written by East India Company officials about Iran’s Armenian merchants, focusing especially on those based in Esfahan in the 1690s. Shows the continued strength of the overland East-West trade route even in the late 17th century and the continued involvement of the Armenians in that trade (see also Iranian Christians).
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  185. Crowe, Yolande. Persia and China: Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1501–1738. London: La Borie, 2002.
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  187. A study of more than five hundred pieces of glazed ceramics mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. Notes the dynamism that affected Persian ceramics from late in the reign of Abbas I and that locally produced materials were popular at home and abroad. The former suggests their status as import substitutes after the 1639 Zuhab treaty. Dutch and English traders also exported them to Europe following the Ming dynasty’s collapse in 1643–1645.
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  189. Floor, Willem. A Fiscal History of Iran in the Safavid and Qajar Periods, 1500–1925. New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1998.
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  191. The first half of this volume covers the Safavid period, with sections on the political economy, the changing role of the state in the economy, the structure of the financial administration, landownership, and taxation.
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  193. Floor, Willem. The Economy of Safavid Persia. Wiesbaden, Germany: Reichert, 2000.
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  195. Well-sourced discussion on import-export trade, the role of merchants, currency issues, and the role of the state in the economy, agriculture, and mining. Argues that the “state” had a limited role in the economy, that agriculture remained the most important sector, that Mughal India remained Iran’s major trading partner, and that the East-West overland route remained vital. Lacks an index.
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  197. Haneda, Masahi. “The Character of the Urbanisation of Esfahan in the Later Safavid Period.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 369–387. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  199. Originally published in 1996, based on contemporary Western sources and Iranian studies, the author reconstructs the progress of the capital’s development over the period. Useful maps and tables (see also Blake 1999, cited under Art and Architecture).
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Herzig, Edmund. “The Volume of Iranian Raw Silk Exports in the Safavid Period.” Iranian Studies 25 (1992): 61–79.
  202. DOI: 10.1080/00210869208701769Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. An early discussion of Iran’s silk and an effort to quantify the trade therein. Herzig is wary of contemporary data but notes that the overland trade in Iranian silk via the Levant to Europe remained important throughout the period (see also Iranian Christians).
  204. Find this resource:
  205. Keyvani, Mehdi. Artisans and Guild Life in the Later Safavid Period. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1982.
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  207. Useful, detailed examination of the dual court/“royal” and noncourt guilds, non-Muslim artisans, and the relationship between the guilds and Sufi orders (see “Popular” Religious Discourse). The author argues that Safavid economic policies, including policies toward these institutions, were impediments to economic growth.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. Matthee, Rudolph. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver 1600–1730. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
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  211. A detailed examination of the luxury trade in silk, the Armenians’ role therein, and movements in specie and their interrelationship, as a case study of changing world trading patterns prior to and over the Safavid period and the impact of these developments on Iran. Based especially on European trading companies’ records.
  212. Find this resource:
  213. Gender Studies
  214.  
  215. The study of gender is one of the many subfields of Safavid studies that have appeared in the years since the Iranian Revolution. Ferrier 1998 offers the conventional view of the declining role and increasing powerlessness and exclusion from roles of prominence and influence of women over the period, based on travelers’ accounts. The remaining items effectively challenge many aspects of this model. Blake 1998 and Zarinebaf-Shahr 1998 examine building projects funded by women at the central and provincial levels, respectively. Szuppe 1998 and Szuppe 2003 discuss poetesses and learned women writers of the mid-16th century and explore the kinship networks and myriad activities of elite women in the mid-16th century. Babayan 1998 examines a religious text produced late in the period to argue for the fluidity of gender boundaries. Based on critical examination of travelers’ accounts, Matthee 2000 and Matthee 2011 highlight class and urban/rural axes as considerations when evaluating the changing place of women in Safavid society.
  216.  
  217. Babayan, Kathryn. “The ‘Aqaid al-Nisa’: A Glimpse at Safavid Women in Local Isfahani Culture.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety. Edited by Gavin Hambly, 349–381. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
  218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. Discusses the world of 17th-century urban women through examination of a text completed by a religious scholar who died in 1710. Challenges the notion that women were passive individuals, and suggests that women operated within very fluid boundaries.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Blake, Steven. “Contributors to the Urban Landscape: Women Builders in Safavid Isfahan and Mughal Shahjahanabad.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety. Edited by Gavin Hambly, 407–428. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
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  223. Blake notes that noncourt women played a large role in building activity in the Safavid capital and that mosques and religious schools made up the bulk of the thirteen buildings examined. See also Patronage.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Ferrier, Ronald. “Women in Safavid Iran: The Evidence of European Travelers.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety. Edited by Gavin Hambly, 383–405. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
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  227. Based on a less-than-critical examination of travelers’ accounts over the period; offers a conventional depiction of the role of women as powerless objects.
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  229. Matthee, Rudi. “Prostitutes, Courtesans, and Dancing Girls: Women Entertainers in Safavid Iran.” In Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie. Edited by Rudi Matthee and Beth Baron, 121–150. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 2000.
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  231. Also based on travelers’ accounts, the author suggests that prostitution was not only widespread but supervised, taxed, and protected by the state. Matthee argues that it effectively helped consolidate a social order based on gender segregation and notes a huge gap between its poorer practitioners and the female courtesan class.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Matthee, Rudi. “From the Battlefield to the Harem: Did Women’s Seclusion Increase from Early to Late Safavid Times?” In New Perspectives on Safavid Iran: Empire and Society. Edited by Colin Mitchell, 97–120. London: Routledge, 2011.
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  235. Like Ferrier, based on travelers’ accounts, Matthee challenges the conventional view that women lost their public role and positions of power to suggest that variations along elite/common and urban/rural axes need to be underlined. Notes that veiling should not be confused with inferior status and that gender segregation should not imply that women lost their role in public life.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Szuppe, Maria. “The ‘Jewels of Wonder’: Learned Ladies and Princess Politicians in the Provinces of Early Safavid Iran.” In Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety. Edited by Gavin Hambly, 325–347. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
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  239. Explores a mid-16th-century biography of women poets and scholars, mainly drawn from elite circles of eastern Iran. Also discusses the political role of elite women over the same period, both at the central court and in the provinces.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Szuppe, Maria. “Status, Knowledge and Politics: Women in Sixteenth-Century Safavid Iran.” In Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800. Edited by Guity Nashat and Lois Beck, 141–169. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
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  243. Examines the kinship networks among elite tribal women in the mid-16th century. Includes a discussion of the education of the Safavid princesses, their diplomatic and military roles, and their patronage of cultural activities.
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  245. Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba. “Economic Activities of Safavid Women in the Shrine-City of Ardabil.” Iranian Studies 31 (1998): 247–261.
  246. DOI: 10.1080/00210869808701907Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. A study of the manner in which women financially supported the 14th-century shrine complex of the eponymous founder of the Safavid Sufi order Safi Din (d. 1334) through charitable endowments and other instruments. See also Patronage.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Religious Discourse
  250.  
  251. The Safavid “decline” paradigm (see the Introduction) proposes that the Safavids had their origin in a quietist Sufi order, adopted a militant messianic discourse, seized the ancient capital of Tabriz in 1501, declared Twelver Shiʿism to be the established faith of the realm, welcomed many Arab Twelver scholars to their territory, and quickly extirpated Sunnism from their territory. Abbas I is said to be the great patron of the faith’s scholars and also the king who quashed the last vestiges of the millenarian Sufism that brought his forebear Ismail to power. His less able successors were less interested in the affairs of state, subjects to the whims of the harem where they were reared, and ceded practical authority to the religious elite, particularly Baqir Majlisi. Arjomand 2010 utilizes paradigms in sociology to update and bolster this understanding. Babayan 2002, also generally adhering to “decline,” offers an understanding of the entire premodern period based on reference to a blend of several distinctively Persian spiritual traditions.
  252.  
  253. Arjomand, S. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shiʿite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
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  255. Originally published in 1984. Informed by Weberian sociology; notable for arguing that “genuine” Twelver Shiʿism is esoteric and apolitical and that the origins of the “political Shiʿism,” which manifested itself in Iran in the years following the Iranian Revolution, can be traced to the later centuries of the Safavid period (1501–1722).
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Babayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs, and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2002.
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  259. Also generally beholden to the traditional “decline” paradigm; an attempt to explain the trajectory of premodern Iranian history, and the Safavid period especially, as best understood with reference to a complex blend of Persian Sufi-Shiʿi-messianic discourse.
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  261. Clergy-“State” Relations
  262.  
  263. The permitted scope of interaction between the Twelver clergy and the state during the absence of the Imam has attracted special attention generally (see the section on the Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran) and for the Safavid period in particular. Calder 1987 looks at the degree of legal accommodation between the clerics and the political institution. The issue of Friday congregational prayer was controversial during the premodern period: when the Imams were present in the community, they led the prayer. In the absence of the Imam, should the prayer lapse? Or, could the secular ruler, an avowedly Shiʿite leader in particular, appoint a cleric to lead that prayer in the Imam’s place? Should that cleric accept such an appointment, thereby—if only implicitly—acknowledging and also lending legitimacy to the claims to authority of the secular state generally and its role in the daily affairs of the faith in particular? Newman 2001 looks at the ultimately vain effort of one cleric who accepted service to the state in the mid-17th century as part of a court strategy to achieve some degree of religious harmony on the issue of the Friday prayer. Newman 2006 and Stewart 2009 look at other aspects of the debate over the legitimacy of conducting the prayer during the absence of the Imam and its implications for clergy-state relations in the period. (See the section on Translated Religious Materials; see also Newman 1992a and Newman 1992b, cited under the Usuli/Akhbari “Debate”, and Newman 1993, cited under the Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran.)
  264.  
  265. Calder, Norman. “Legitimacy and Accommodation in Safavid Iran: The Juristic Theory of Muhammad Baqir Sabzewari (d. 1090/1679).” Iran 25 (1987): 91–105.
  266. DOI: 10.2307/4299787Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Calder (d. 1998) examines the ideas of one late-Safavid period cleric on the scope of involvement allowed between the cleric and the established political institution, to suggest the presence of a de facto legal accommodation between clergy and “state” by that time.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Newman, Andrew J. “Fayz Kashani and the Rejection of the Clergy/State Alliance: Friday Prayer as Politics in the Safavid Period.” In The Most Learned of the Shiʿa: The Institution of the Marjaʿ Taqlid. Edited by Linda Walbridge, 34–52. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  271. Examines the court appointment of Fayz (d. 1680), conventionally adjudged more a philosopher than a legist with court connections, to lead the prayer in the capital to promulgate some degree of religious harmony on the conduct of the prayer in mid-17th-century Esfahan, the ensuing widespread popular opposition to Fayz’s efforts, and his resignation from the post (see Kashani 1988, cited under Translated Religious Materials).
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Newman, Andrew J. “The Vezir and the Mulla: A Late Safavid Period Debate on Friday Prayer.” In Special Issue: Études sur L’Iran médiéval et moderne: Offertes à Jean Calmard. Edited by M. Bernardini, M. Haneda, and M. Szuppe. Eurasian Studies 1–2 (2006): 237–269.
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  275. Recounts a debate over the legitimacy of the prayer during the Imam’s absence held at court during the reign of the penultimate Safavid, Suleiman (r. 1666/1668–1694). In the wake of Fayz’s resignation (see Newman 2001), demonstrates the court’s continued interest in reaching a settlement on the issue while being mindful of alternative views on the prayer’s conduct during the Imam’s continued absence from the community.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Stewart, Devin. “Polemics and Patronage in Safavid Iran: The Debate on Friday Prayer during the Reign of Shah Tahmasb.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72 (2009): 425–457.
  278. DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X09990024Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. Detailed examination of a series of essays, composed during the reign of the second Safavid shah, for and against conducting the prayer in the Imam’s absence and of their implications for the larger issue of the scope of interaction permitted between clergy and state.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Translated Religious Materials
  282.  
  283. A large number of religious texts produced in Arabic and Persian over the Safavid period have been translated into English, mainly and especially since the Revolution. Some of these are noted elsewhere in this article. A number of these deal with issues of authority. Ardabili 1988 deals with the extension of the authority of the cleric in relation to the lay believer. Kashani 1988 and Baqir Majlisi 1988 address the relations between the cleric and the established political institution. Tahmasp 1988 is two royal decrees. The first, granting authority to the cleric, also speaks to the relations between the cleric and the “state.” The second addresses issues of political authority generally. Stewart 1989 is a translation of sections of an autobiography of a student of Majlisi. (Other translations are cited under Jews, the Usuli/Akhbari “Debate”, Mulla Sadra, and Baqir Majlisi.)
  284.  
  285. Ardabili, Ahmad. “The Muqaddas al-Ardabili on Taqlid.” Translated and edited by John Cooper. In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism. Edited by Said Arjomand, 263–266. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
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  287. English translation of that section of a Qurʾan commentary by al-Ardabili (d. 1585) in which the author argued in favor of jurists having more authority over lay believers (see also Newman 1999b, cited under “Popular” Religious Discourse).
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad. “Two Seventeenth-Century Persian Tracts on Kingship and Rulers: Ayn Hayat.” Translated and edited by William Chittick. In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism. Edited by Said Arjomand, 267–304. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
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  291. English translation and commentary of sections from Ayn al-Hayat (The fountainhead of life) of Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699) on issues of political authority (see also Baqir Majlisi).
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Kashani, Fayz. “Two Seventeenth-Century Persian Tracts on Kingship and Rulers: The Kingly Mirror.” Translated and edited by William Chittick. In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism. Edited by Said Arjomand, 267–304. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
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  295. English translation of and commentary on Aina-yi Shahi (The kingly mirror) by Fayz Kashani (d. 1679) on issues of political authority (see also Newman 2001, cited under Clergy-“State” Relations and “Popular” Religious Discourse).
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Stewart, Devin. “The Humor of the Scholars: The Autobiography of Niʿmat Allah Jazaʾiri (d. 1112/1701).” Iranian Studies 22 (1989): 47–81.
  298. DOI: 10.1080/00210868908701740Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. Commentary and translation of the autobiographical sections of an essay written by a student of Baqir Majlisi, with an emphasis on the author’s style of humor and his views on the importance of humor in the daily lives of students and scholars.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Tahmasp, Shah. “Two Decrees of Shah Tahmasp Concerning Statecraft and the Authority of Shaykh Ali Karaki.” Translated with commentary by Said Arjomand. In Authority and Political Culture in Shiism. Edited by Said Arjomand, 250–262. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
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  303. English translation with commentary of two decrees of Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576), the second Safavid shah. The first, dated 1533, was to Ali Karaki (d. 940) on the latter’s remuneration for his service to the court and his authority in the realm. The second document dealt with principles of authority and statecraft generally (see the section on the Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran).
  304. Find this resource:
  305. The Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran
  306.  
  307. As with so many other aspects of the conventional wisdom on the Safavids, it was Browne who first suggested that soon after the Safavids’ 1501 capture of Tabriz, the court imported a large number of Arab Twelver clerics to propagate the faith. This suggestion remained unexamined until Newman 1993 suggested that no more than a handful of such scholars came to Iran during first fifty years after Tabriz and offered reasons for their reluctance to become involved with the Safavids. Of the several later discussions on the matter, Stewart 1996 remains the most useful. Abisaab 2004 suggests the presence of some 150 Arab scholars in Iran over the 220 years of the period and argues for their continuing influence as a distinct body of scholars in this period. Newman 2008 suggests that the actual number of Arab Twelver immigrants over the entire two centuries was relatively small and that they rapidly assimilated. Newman 1986 was the first to look in any detail at the career and political and juristic contributions of one such Arab immigrant—brought as a youth to Iran by his father—Baha Din ‘Amili, known as Shakh Baha’i (d. 1621). Bosworth 1989 examines Baha’i’s Persian-language literary oeuvre. Stewart 1991 reconstructs Baha’i’s biography and Stewart 1997 shows that in the period before he came to Safavid Iran, Baha’i’s father continued the Shiʿi tradition of identifying himself as a Shafiʿi Sunni scholar to gain an appointment from the Ottomans.
  308.  
  309. Abisaab, Rula. Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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  311. Identifies some 150 Arab Shiʿi clerics in Iran over the two centuries of the Safavid period. Argues they retained their distinctive identity over the period, seeing themselves as guardians of orthodox Shiʿism and proponents both of interaction with the state and the expansion of clerical prerogatives during the Imam’s absence.
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  313. Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. Baha al-Din al-Amili and His Literary Anthologies. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press, 1989.
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  315. An introduction to another facet of the career and contributions of Shaykh Baha’i—his nonreligious writings, mainly composed in Persian.
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  317. Newman, Andrew J. “Towards a Reconsideration of the Isfahan School of Philosophy: Shaykh Baha’i and the Role of the Safawid Ulama.” Studia Iranica 15 (1986): 165–199.
  318. DOI: 10.2143/SI.15.2.2014624Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. An early critique of the suggestion that those Safavid-period scholars identified by scholars from Corbin to Arjomand as “philosophers” and averse to association with the court, such as Shaykh Baha’i and Mir Damad, were active in the service of the state and the enhancement of clerical authority over Shiʿi doctrine and practice.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Newman, Andrew J. “The Myth of the Clerical Migration to Safawid Iran: Arab Shiʾite Opposition to Ali Karaki and Safawid Shiʾism.” Die Welt des Islams 33 (1993): 66–111.
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  323. Shows that in the first half-century after the capture of Tabriz, only a handful of Arab Twelver scholars actually came to Iran, that many avoided the realm, and that some Iranian scholars left for Arab territory. Offers a series of political and religious reasons for this avoidance. Traces the career of Ali Karaki and the controversy surrounding his service to the “state.”
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  327. Originally published in 2006, argues that the relatively small number of Arab scholars who can be shown to have come to Iran over the period quickly assimilated into Iranian society generally and clerical circles in particular.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Stewart, Devin J. “A Biographical Notice on Baha’ Din ‘Amili (d. 1030/1621).” Journal of the American Oriental Society 111 (1991): 563–571.
  330. DOI: 10.2307/604272Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. Offers a biography of the famous scholar, from his birth in Ottoman-controlled Lebanon through his arrival with his father in Safavid Iran.
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  333. Stewart, Devin. “Notes on the Migration of Amili Scholars to Safavid Iran.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 55 (1996): 81–103.
  334. DOI: 10.1086/373800Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Following Newman 1993, probably the best of the discussions on the clerics from Lebanon who came to Iran in the 16th century.
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  337. Stewart, Devin J. “Husayn b. ʿAbd Samad ‘Amili’s Treatise for Sultan Suleiman and the Shiʿi Shafiʿi Legal Tradition.” Islamic Law and Society 4 (1997): 156–199.
  338. DOI: 10.1163/1568519972599833Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. Study of a work by Baha’i’s father, written while he was still in Ottoman territory, which shows him to have actively identified himself with the Shafʿi Sunni legal school—long the tradition among the Shiʿa—and to have gained an appointment from the Ottoman state thereby. Includes text and translation.
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  341. The Usuli/Akhbari “Debate”
  342.  
  343. The Usuli/Akhbari controversy within Twelver Shiʿism is traditionally understood as primarily a scholastic dispute over jurisprudential methodology that came to fruition only in 17th-century Safavid Iran. Usulism is generally characterized as having stressed recourse to rationalist, subjective forms of analysis—particularly the principle of ijtihad (independent judicial reasoning)—on legal questions where the revealed sources were deemed wanting. Akhbarism has been portrayed mainly in negative terms, as having forbade recourse to speculative reasoning in favor of sole reliance on the Twelver-accepted revelation—the Qurʾan and the sunna, the latter especially including the akhbar (plural of khabar), the Arabic-language body of statements of and narratives about the twelve Shiʿi Imams, the last of whom disappeared in 873–874. The tendency to view the debate as entirely scholastic and as arising only in the second Safavid century stems from the identification of Akhbarism with the personality of Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (d. 1640) and from reference to Munyat al-Mumarisin, written by the late-Safavid Akhbari scholar ʿAbdallah b. Salih Samahiji (d. 1723), as an effective summary of the conflict between the two. Scarcia 1958 and Falaturi 1969 are by the earliest proponents of this understanding, but these authors relied on a 19th-century abridgement of Samahiji’s essay. Newman 1992a is an edited translation of the original text in its entirety, and Newman 1992b challenged the assumptions that the “debate” was entirely scholastic in nature and that Astarabadi was the “founder” of the Akhbari school. Gleave 2007 argues for the earlier understanding but based on detailed examination of a substantial range of key texts. Stewart 2003 discusses the nature of the Akhbari “polemic” in the 16th century.
  344.  
  345. Falaturi, Abdoljavad. “Die Zwolfer-Schia aus der Sicht eines Schiiten: Probleme inhrer Untersuchung.” In Festschrift Werner Caskel. Edited by Erwin Graf, 62–95. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1969.
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  347. The second of the two “standard” works on the dispute that, like Scarcia 1958, is based on a much-later abridgement of the key text by Samahiji.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Gleave, Rob. Scripturalist Islam: The History and Doctrines of the Akhbari Shiʿi School. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  350. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004157286.i-344Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Discussion of the main jurisprudential texts produced by key scholars in the Akhbari tradition to argue that Akhbarism dated from the 17th century and that the disagreements between them and Usulis were generally esoteric in nature and had “limited societal impact” (p. xx).
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Newman, Andrew J. “The Nature of the Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late-Safawid Iran, Part One: Abdallah al-Samahiji’s ‘Munyat al-Mumarisin.’” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55 (1992a): 22–51.
  354. DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00002639Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. English translation of the original, complete text of Munyat al-Mumarisin of the late-Safavid Akhbari scholar ʿAbdallah b. Salih Samahiji (d. 1723), which summarized the main points of disagreement between the two trends of thought.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Newman, Andrew J. “The Nature of the Akhbari/Usuli Dispute in Late-Safawid Iran, Part Two: The Conflict Reassessed.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55 (1992b): 250–261.
  358. DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00004602Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Based on the original, complete text of Samhiji, Newman challenges the conventional wisdom about the Akhbari polemic, suggesting instead that the dispute addressed the relationship between the clergy and the established political institution and involved disagreements over the extent of the authority devolving to the clergy in the absence of the twelfth Imam and that, as such, the polemic long predated the Safavid period (see the section on the Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran).
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Scarcia, Gianroberto. “Intorno alle controversie tra ʿAhbari e ʿUsuli presso gli Imamiti di Persia.” Revista degli Studi Orientali 33 (1958): 211–250.
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  363. Perhaps the earliest Western-language study of the polemic, based on a much-abridged 19th-century recension of Samahiji’s text. Scarcia argues for Amin Astarabadi (d. 1640) as “founder” of Akhbarism and for Akhbarism as essentially a scholastic discourse.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Stewart, Devin. “The Genesis of the Akhbari Revival.” In Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors. Edited by Michel Mazzaoui, 169–193. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003.
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  367. Examination of the 16th-century roots of the “Akhbari revival” of the next century based on close attention to the relevant textual evidence.
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  369. “Popular” Religious Discourse
  370.  
  371. Direct evidence of “popular” discourse in the premodern period is difficult to recover, given the lack of sources. Scholars have therefore reconstructed “the popular” indirectly, that is, from other sources. The Safavids are conventionally seen to have owed their initial military successes to the militantly messianic fervor of the Turkic language-speaking tribal elements who flocked to the banner of the Sufi order, under Shaykhs Junayd, Haydar, and Ismail—the first shah—and who viewed their leaders as divine. Mazzaoui 1972 discusses the spiritual/political origins of the Safavids. Thackston 1988 is a study of Ismail I’s poetry and notes its potential popularity among tribal elements. By later in the period, particularly the 17th century, especially noteworthy was the rise of polemics by middle-ranking clerics against messianic and otherwise unorthodox beliefs and practices, the latter attributed to urban-based “Sufi” groups of the period. Babayan 2009 offered the first discussion of the anti-Sufi polemic over the period. Newman 1999b examines the unorthodox sets of beliefs and practices ascribed to named Sufi groups in a text attributed at the time to a late-16th-century scholar. Newman 1999a and Newman 2010 examine the polemics over ghina, a form of “singing” allegedly practiced by some of these Sufi groups, in the process noting court efforts—ultimately successful—to support a “middle position” between the contemporary extremes in the polemic. There was widespread “popular” disagreement about the legality of Friday prayer (see Translated Religious Materials) during the absence of the Imam, as noted in Newman 2001, but the court’s appointment of the Fayz Kashani to chart a middle ground on this issue came to nothing. Calmard 1993 explores early Safavid efforts to propagate the faith in Iran, in the process giving evidence of the continued popularity of Sunnism. Calmard 2009 examined Western-language accounts for evidence of “popular” religiosity regarding various Iranian and also Shiʿi ritual and ceremonies.
  372.  
  373. Babayan, Kathryn. “Sufis, Dervishes and Mullas: The Controversy over the Spiritual and Temporal Dominion in Seventeenth-Century Iran.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 117–138. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  375. Originally published in 1996, the first discussion of both the period’s polemics against the widespread messianism extant in the popular narration of stories of Abu Muslim, who led the Abbasid armies to victory in the 8th century, and polemics written against “popular” Sufi doctrines and practices that arose beginning in the later years of Abbas I’s reign (see also Babayan 2000 and Calmard 2003, cited under Literature).
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Calmard, Jean. “Les rituels shiites et le pouvoir: L’Imposition du shiisme safavide; eulogies et malédictions canoniques.” In Études Safavides, sous la direction de Jean Calmard. Edited by Jean Calmard, 109–150. Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993.
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  379. An overview of the efforts to impose Shiʿism undertaken in the early Safavid period (see Religious and Ethnic Minorities: Sunni Muslims).
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Calmard, Jean. “Shii Rituals and Power II: The Consolidation of Safavid Shiism: Folklore and Popular Religion.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 139–190. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  383. Based on the accounts of Western travelers to and residents in Iran over the period. Examines the role of the Safavid court in “popularizing” various Iranian and, especially, distinctly Shiʿi rituals and ceremonies, the latter including the Muharram ceremonies, commemorating the martyrdom of the third Shiʿi Imam, Husayn (d. 680), at Karbala.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Mazzaoui, Michel. The Origins of the Safawids: Shiism, Sufism, and the Ghulat. Wiesbaden, Germany: F. Steiner, 1972.
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  387. An early, still-useful exploration of the spiritual/political landscape abroad in the region prior to the rise of the Safavids.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Newman, Andrew J. “Clerical Perceptions of Sufi Practices in Late Seventeenth-Century Persia: Arguments over the Permissibility of Singing (Ghina).” In The Heritage of Sufism. Vol. 3, Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501–1750). Edited by Leonard Lewisohn and David Morgan, 135–164. Oxford: Oneworld, 1999a.
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  391. Focusing on ghina, a practice attributed to named, contemporary Sufi groups by their detractors and debates over its legality in the mid-17th century. Through its appointed spokesmen, whose views on the subject are examined, the Safavid court is seen to be trying to formulate a middle ground between those allegedly undertaking this practice and their very vociferous critics.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Newman, Andrew J. “Sufism and Anti-Sufism in Safavid Iran: The Authorship of the Hadiqat Shiʿa Revisited.” Iran 37 (1999b): 95–108.
  394. DOI: 10.2307/4299996Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Discusses the anti-Sufi sections of this volume attributed to the well-known cleric Ahmad al-Ardabili (d. 1585) (see Ardabili 1988, cited under Translated Religious Materials) to suggest that they were authored by a later Safavid period cleric also known for his vitriolic anti-Sufi polemics and that he inserted into the earlier text to legitimize the anti-Sufi polemic. Detailed discussion of the “unorthodox” beliefs and practices attributed to named Sufi orders.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Newman, Andrew J. “Fayz Kashani and the Rejection of the Clergy/State Alliance: Friday Prayer as Politics in the Safavid Period.” In The Most Learned of the Shiʿa: The Institution of the Marjaʿ Taqlid. Edited by Linda Walbridge, 34–52. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  399. Examines the court’s appointment of Fayz, often adjudged more a philosopher than a legist, to lead the Friday prayer in order to achieve some degree of religious harmony in the conduct of the prayer in mid-17th-century Esfahan. Special attention is given to the widespread popular opposition to Fayz’s, efforts that caused him to resign from the post (see also Kashani 1988, cited under Translated Religious Materials).
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Newman, Andrew J. “Clerical Perceptions of Sufi Practices in Late 17th Century Persia, II: Hurr Amili (d. 1693) and the Debates on the Permissibility of Ghina.” In Living Islamic History: Studies in Honour of Professor Carole Hillenbrand. Edited by Y. Suleiman, 192–207. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
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  403. An examination of the polemic against this form of “singing” in the later 17th century. Suggests that, for a number of reasons, the vitriol of the critics of Sufism and the anti-Sufi polemic were becoming more moderate and waning respectively, by this time as compared to the middle years of the century. Thus was the long-term strategy of the court achieved and vindicated.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Thackston, Wheeler. “The Diwan of Khaṭaʾi: Pictures for the Poetry of Shah Ismail.” Asian Art 1 (Fall 1988): 37–63.
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  407. Detailed examination of Ismail I’s poetry, considering it as a collection of different genres of poetry, concentrating on those written in the ghazal style, then traditionally the genre of love poetry. Thackston points out the especially religious or sectarian character of much of the poetry and notes that Ismail’s message would have resonated among contemporary tribal elements.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Baqir Majlisi
  410.  
  411. Proponents of Safavid “decline” from Browne through Lockhart, Savory to Arjomand and others (see the Introduction) characterize Baqir Majlisi as a bigoted fanatic and blame him, in whole or in part, for the 1722 fall of the Safavids to the Afghans. Lockhart 1958 considerably expanded on Browne’s earlier censure of Majlisi. To date, however, few scholars in Safavid studies have examined Majlisi’s work, including his Arabic-language Bihar al-Anwar (The oceans of lights), let alone his other writings, in any detail. Baqir Majlisi 1992 examines an essay by Majlisi on the Jews to suggest he was much less the anti-Jewish fanatic than is usually thought. Where, pace Lockhart 1958 and other similar works, one would expect an excoriation of the Hellenistic medical tradition, Newman 2003 and Newman 2009 examine his Bihar al-Anwar to show that Majlisi made equal use of and reference to both the Greek, that is, non-Islamic, and Islamic medical traditions. Newman 2008 discusses Majlisi and his role as the capital’s Shaykh al-Islam, to which post he was appointed in 1687, as envisioned by the Safavid court. Baqir Majlisi 1982 and Baqir Majlisi 2003 are translations of Volumes 2 and 3 of Hayat al-Qulub, on the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the lives of his successors, respectively (see also Religious and Ethnic Minorities).
  412.  
  413. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad. Bihar al-Anwar. (1110 AH/1698 CE).
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  415. His massive collection of the Imams’ ahadith, the original oversized lithograph that appeared in twenty-five volumes.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad. The Life and Religion of Muhammad. Translated by James L. Merrick. San Antonio, TX: Zahara Trust, 1982.
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  419. Originally published in 1850 (Boston: Phillips, Sampson), an English translation of Volume 2 of Majlisi’s Hayat al-Qulub.
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  421. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad. “‘Risala-yi Sawaʾiq al-Yahud [The Treatise Lightning Bolts Against the Jews]’ by Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi Majlisi (d. 1699).” Translated with commentary by Vera Moreen. Die Welt des Islams 32 (1992): 177–195.
  422. DOI: 10.2307/1570833Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. English translation of Risala-yi Sawaʾiq al-Yahud, with the Persian text and commentary. Moreen argues that Jews did suffer “periodic persecution” (p. 177) over the course of the 17th century but that, compared to persecution in Europe, there are “no clearly discernible, all-encompassing, ‘theological’ or economic explanations for their nature and extent” (p. 177). Moreen notes the essay’s “fairly balanced tone” (p. 185) and that Majlisi queried the legal bases for some contemporary “disrespectful” (p. 185) practices (see also Jews).
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Baqir Majlisi, Muhammad. The Succession to Muhammad. Translated by Syed Athar Husain S. H. Rizvi. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan, 2003.
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  427. English translation of Volume 3 of Majlisi’s Hayat al-Qulub.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Lockhart, Lawrence. The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1958.
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  431. Considerably expanded on Browne’s condemnation of Majlisi as a “fanatical” (p. 403) mujtahid, adding that Majlisi failed to inspire Iranian Shi‘a “with any real martial spirit” (pp. 32–33) in the face of Afghan advances and was intolerant of Aristotelian and Platonist philosophy; moreover, Lockhart states, “it is highly probable that it was this fanatical leader who was responsible for this increase in persecution” (pp. 32–33) of Jews and Armenians.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Newman, Andrew J. “Baqir Majlisi and Islamicate Medicine: Safavid Medical Theory and Practice Re-examined.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 371–396. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  435. Although described as a fierce critic of all things Hellenic, in the first of two detailed examinations of materia medica in Majlisi’s Arabic-language Bihar al-Anwar (The oceans of lights), shows that Majlisi accorded equal weight to the Greek-inspired humoral medical tradition and to the statements and practices of the Imams in outlining the reasons for illness and wellness.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  439. Suggests that Majlisi’s appointment as Esfahan’s Shaykh al-Islam in the later years of the dynasty was a calculated effort by the court to support the delineation of a middle ground in the midst of spiritual infighting in the capital (see “Popular” Religious Discourse and the Usuli/Akhbari “Debate”). Majlisi’s own actions and writings bespeak efforts to fulfill that role and thereby damp down the strife.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Newman, Andrew J. “Baqir Majilisi and Islamicate Medicine II: ‘Risala dhahabiyya’ in Bihar anwar.” In Le shiʾisme imamite quarante ans apres: Hommage à Etan Kohlberg. Edited by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Meri M. Bar-Asher, and Simon Hopkins, 349–361. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009.
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  443. Examines Majlisi’s inclusion of an essay on medicine attributed to the eighth Shiʿi Imam, ʿAli Rida (d. 818), after the material in Bihar al-Anwar examined in Newman 2003 and Majlisi’s gloss on the essay. Suggests that Majlisi’s inclusion of it was intended to legitimize his own recourse to Hellenic medicine in the midst of the religious strife that marked the period.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Philosopical Discourse
  446.  
  447. Prior to Iran’s Islamic Revolution, such scholars as Henry Corbin (d. 1978) and Sayyed Hossein Nasr discussed parallels between Shiʿism, Twelver Shiʿism especially, and certain aspects of higher, gnostic Muslim mystical thought, especially as articulated in Iran. Corbin and Nasr coined the phrase “School of Esfahan” as a reference to the key Shiʿi scholars based in Iran in the 17th century who contributed to the further development of Shiʿi gnosticism. Since the Revolution, some scholars—basing their arguments on the Corbin/Nasr discussion—have argued that “genuine” Twelver Shiʿism was essentially esoteric in nature and, as such, averse to all forms of political expression and entanglements. Corbin 1956 first used the term “Esfahan School of Philosophy” and identified Mir Damad (d. 1631–1632) as its “founder.” Dabashi 1996 updates this identification and discusses some of Mir Damad’s key works. Nasr 1966 discussed the tenets and major figures of the school. Rahman 1980 and Netton 1999 examine specific dimensions of Mir Damad’s thought. Arjomand 2010 argued, pace Corbin/Nasr’s “Esfahan school,” that “genuine Shiʾism” is esoteric and apolitical and that the “political Shiʾism” which manifested itself in the Iranian Revolution had its roots in the Safavid period, referencing Baqir Majlisi in particular. Newman 1993 notes that Mir Damad was both a philosopher and a cleric in service to the state and a proponent of the accumulation by the clerical class of the prerogatives of the Imam during his continued absence. Pourjavady 2011 offers a long-overdue discussion of Safavid philosophical discourse in the 16th century (see also Newman 1986, cited under the Migration of Twelver Arab Scholars to Iran).
  448.  
  449. Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shiʿite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
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  451. Originally published in 1984; in this overview of Iran and its historical relationship with Shiʿism and Sufism, Arjomand built on the Corbin/Nasr discussion of the affinities between Shiʿism and “high” Sufi inquiry to argue that “genuine” Twelver Shiʿism is esoteric and apolitical and that the origins of “political Shiʿism” can be traced to the Safavid period, in particular in the career and contributions of Baqir Majlisi (see Religious Discourse: Baqir Majlisi).
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Corbin, Henry. “Confessions extatiques de Mir Damad, Maitre de Théologie à Ispahan (ob, 1041/1631–2).” In Mélanges Louis Massignon. Vol. 1. Edited by Henri Massé, 331–378. Damascus, Syria: Institut Français de Damas, 1956.
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  455. The article in which Corbin coined the term “Esfahan School of Philosophy,” named Mir Damad as its originator, and identified the key ideas and questions explored by those associated with the school—including Shaykh Baha’i and Mulla Sadra (d. 1641).
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Dabashi, Hamid. “Mir Damad and the Founding of the ‘School of Esfahan.’” In History of Islamic Philosophy. Vol. 1. Edited by Sayyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, 597–634. New York and London: Routledge, 1996.
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  459. A more detailed, and updated, overview of Mir Damad and his key contributions that remains faithful both to the Nasr/Corbin “Esfahan school” and to the “decline” paradigms.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Nasr, Sayyed Hossein. “The School of Ispahan.” In A History of Muslim Philosophy. Vol. 2. Edited by Mian Muhammad Sharif, 904–932. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1966.
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  463. Building on Corbin’s 1956 discussion, Nasr discusses the careers and contributions of the members of the school, widens their number, and notes the key philosophical ideas with which they engaged and their unique contributions. Nasr concludes by identifying Baqir Majlisi as an opponent both of such discourse and of Sufism. Entire collection available online.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Netton, Ian. “Suhrawardi’s Heir? The Ishraqi Philosophy of Mir Damad.” In The Heritage of Sufism. Vol. 3, Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501–1750). Edited by Leonard Lewisohn and David Morgan, 225–246. Oxford: Oneworld, 1999.
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  467. An examination of Mir Damad’s engagement with aspects of the “Illuminationist” ideas of Suhrawardi (d. 1191).
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Newman, Andrew J. “Dāmād, Mīr(-e), Sayyed Mohammad Bāqer.” Encyclopædia Iranica. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. 1993.
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  471. A basic, if dated, introduction to Mir Damad, noting that he was a philosopher and a cleric who both served the Safavid court and was a proponent of greater authority for the clerical class.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Pourjavady, Reza. Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran: Najm Din Mahmud Nayrizi and His Writings. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011.
  474. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004191730.i-224Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. An important discussion of philosophical discourse in pre-17th-century Safavid Iran, focusing especially on key figures in the “Shiraz school,” named after the southern Iranian city, whose careers and contributions spanned the years before and after the establishment of the Safavid dynasty.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Rahman, Fazlur. “Mir Damad’s Concept of ‘Huduth Dahri’: A Contribution to the Study of God-World Relationship Theories in Safavid Iran.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 39 (1980): 139–151.
  478. DOI: 10.1086/372791Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. Examines Mir Damad’s ideas on the “originatedness” of the world of intelligences and heavenly spheres, which the author terms Mir Damad’s most “celebrated” but also “most controversial” discussion.
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  481. Mulla Sadra
  482.  
  483. Sadra Din Muhammad (Mulla Sadra) (d. 1641) has been identified as a key member of the “Esfahan school” and a philosopher in the tradition of the great Hellenic and Muslim thinkers who, with his discourse on “transcendent wisdom” and “substantive motion” as he rooted them in the teachings of the Shiʿi Imams, made original contributions to Islamic philosophy. Corbin 1963 offered one of the earliest discussions of Sadra following his delineation of the “Esfahan school” concept in 1956. Nasr 1966 offers an English-language discussion in this tradition. Nasr 1978 casts Sadra as a figure in the tradition of theosophy. Rahman 1975 was long the standard overview of Sadra and his thought. Rizvi 2005 offers an easy-to-access, but critical, assessment of Sadra and his contributions. Rizvi 2007 is a thorough introduction to Sadra and his contributions. Rizvi 2009 is a more recent assessment of Sadra’s monumental al-Hikma al-Mutaʿaliya, while Kalin 2010 examines Sadra’s efforts to resolve certain long-standing issues in Greek and Islamic philosophy.
  484.  
  485. Corbin, Henry. “La place de Molla Sadra Shirazi dans la philosophie iranienne.” Studia Islamica 18 (1963): 81–113.
  486. DOI: 10.2307/1595179Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Prepared for a 1962 conference, and following on the author’s 1956 article on Mir Damad, Corbin offers a biography of Sadra and discussed his main contributions and the Shiʿi dimensions of his thought.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Kalin, Ibrahim. Knowledge in Later Islamic Philosophy: Mulla Sadra on Existence, Intellect, and Intuition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  490. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735242.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. Charts the novelty of Sadra’s contributions and his resolutions of philosophical problems that had occupied both Greek and earlier Muslim thinkers. On the key and basic question of epistemology, Sadra is seen to be offering a discussion that supersedes that offered by both his Greek and Muslim forbears but from within a faith tradition.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Nasr, Sayyed Hossein. “Sadr Din Shirazi (Mulla Sadra).” In A History of Muslim Philosophy. Vol. 2. Edited by Mian Muhammad Sharif, 932–961. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1966.
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  495. One of the earliest detailed English-language discussions on Mulla Sadra and his contributions. Entire collection available online.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Nasr, Sayyed Hossein. Sadr Din Shirazi and His Transcendent Theosophy: Background, Life and Works. Tehran, Iran: Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy, 1978.
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  499. A brief, early attempt to explain Sadra and his teachings to the “modern world.” Note here that Nasr gives an alternate translation for the Arabic phrase translated above as “transcendent wisdom” to render it “transcendent theosophy,” bespeaking Nasr’s own interest in theosophy per se. “Wisdom” is offered by Rahman 1975, Sadr Din Shirazi 1981 (cited under Translations into English), and, more recently, Rizvi 2005, although Kalin 2010 also offers “theosophy.”
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Rahman, Fazlur. The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.
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  503. For many years the standard, book-length English-language discussion of Sadra and his thought. The volume is divided into sections on Sadra and ontology, theology, and psychology. The latter addresses Sadra’s theory of knowledge and eschatology.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Rizvi, Sajjad. “Mollā Ṣadrā Širāzi.” In Encyclopædia Iranica. Edited by Ehsan Yarshater. 2005.
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  507. A basic, accessible introduction to Sadra and his thought, as well as the field of “Sadra studies.” Excellent, if now somewhat dated, bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Rizvi, Sajjad. Mulla Sadra Shirazi: His Life and Works and the Sources for Safavid Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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  511. An introductory discussion to Sadra’s life and works, utilizing both a historical and a source-critical approach.
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  513. Rizvi, Sajjad. Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being. London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
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  515. Focuses on the discussions on metaphysics in Sadra’s key al-Hikma al-Mutaʿaliya to suggest that by means of the concept of modulation Sadra sought a compromise between the pluralism of Ibn Sina (d. 1037) and the monism of Ibn ʿArabi (d. 1240).
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Translations into English
  518.  
  519. There has long been an interest in Sadra’s philosophical contributions, but only since the 1980s have some of his works been translated. Sadr Din Shirazi 1981 is a translation of a classic work of Mulla Sadra, while Sadr Din Shirazi 2008 is a work that repays attention for Sadra’s efforts to distance himself from the “popular” Sufism of the day (see “Popular” Religious Discourse). Sadr Din Shirazi 2004 is a translation of a portion of Sadra’s commentary on the Qurʾan.
  520.  
  521. Sadr Din Shirazi, Muhammad (Mulla Sadra). The Wisdom of the Throne: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra. Translated by James W. Morris. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
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  523. English translation of al-Hikmat al-‘arshiyah. Includes sections on the philosophical and historical contexts of Sadra’s works and a discussion of his writings.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Sadr Din Shirazi, Muhammad (Mulla Sadra). On the Hermeneutics of the Light Verse of the Qurʾan. Translated, introduced, and annotated by Latimah-Parvin Peerwani. London: ICAS, 2004.
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  527. English translation of that section of Volume 4 of Sadra’s great Qurʾan commentary Tafsir al-Qurʾan al-Karim which deals with Ayat al-Nur, the twenty-fourth sura (chapter) of the Qurʾan.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Sadr Din Shirazi, Muhammad (Mulla Sadra). Breaking the Idols of Ignorance. Translated by M. Dasht Bozorgi and F. Asadi Amjad, with an introduction by S. K. Tousi. London: ICAS, 2008.
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  531. English translation of Kasr al-Asnam al-Jahiliyya. The author reiterates the intentions of classical Sufi inquiry in a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to put a distance between the author and some contemporary “vulgar” Sufis. Written in the context of the contemporary, expanding anti-Sufi diatribe (see “Popular” Religious Discourse).
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  533. Religious and Ethnic Minorities
  534.  
  535. Scholars have devoted considerable attention to the “official” policy toward and actual treatment of minority groups over the period. The conventional wisdom suggests that this was continuously and consistently harsh. Although the reign of Abbas II (r. 1642–1666) is singled out as a period of particular intolerance, instances of antiminority actions occurred across the period. Late-20th-century scholarly examination of the treatment of other minorities, for example, Christians, Jews, and Sunni Muslims, has produced a more nuanced understanding of the treatment of these groups. Matthee 1991 and Moreen 1981 offer general discussions of minority treatment in the period. Both the intolerance attributed to Baqir Majlisi and research subsequently challenging this portrayal are noted elsewhere.
  536.  
  537. Matthee, Rudi. “The Career of Mohammad Beg, Grand Vizier of Shah Abbas II (r. 1642–1666).” Iranian Studies 24 (1991): 17–36.
  538. DOI: 10.1080/00210869108701755Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. Discusses the career of this important court figure, who held this post from 1654 to 1661, in the process arguing that “official” oppression of such minorities as the Jews, Armenians, and Indian merchants based in Iran (“Banyans”) in the period of his vizierate occurred against a particular background of contemporary “religious hypersensitivity combined with economic distress” (p. 28).
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Moreen, Vera. “The Status of Religious Minorities in Safavid Iran 1617–61.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40 (1981): 119–134.
  542. DOI: 10.1086/372866Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. An early, but still useful, overview of the treatment of Sunni Muslims, Jews, Catholic missionaries, Western official envoys and travelers, Armenians, Georgians, Zoroastrians, and Banyans. Contains a very good list of the Western travelers to and residents in Iran over the reign of Abbas I.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Sunni Muslims
  546.  
  547. Conventionally, pre-Safavid Iran is portrayed as a largely Sunni polity whose followers quickly converted to Shiʿism, usually under official duress, especially in the early years of the dynasty. More-nuanced understandings of the conversion process have emerged, however. Johnson 1994, using a text by a Sunni cleric, notes the continued presence of Sunnis in several of Iran’s key cities as late as c. 1580. Newman 2008 suggests that the widespread popularization of Shiʿism dated only to the next century and that in the 16th century “nominal” conversions were common, especially among the local administrative classes who had served Iran’s earlier Sunni rulers. The clerical classes’ increasing use of Persian as the medium of “popular” religious discourse in the 17th century and such other activities by the court and its associates as the building of mosques and schools meant that even when the Sunni Afghans briefly seized Esfahan and despite efforts by Nader Shah Afshar (r. 1736–1747) to de-establish Shiʿism, the mass of the population remained true to the faith, which was re-established by the Qajar dynasty (1795–1922).
  548.  
  549. Johnson, Rosemary S. “Sunni Survival in Safavid Iran: Anti-Sunni Activities during the Reign of Tahmasp I.” Iranian Studies 27 (1994): 123–133.
  550. DOI: 10.1080/00210869408701823Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. A study of Sunnism late in the reign of Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576) and the years after his death when his son Ismail II—who reigned for but fourteen months—appointed an avowedly Sunni cleric as his chief religious official and attempted to re-establish Sunnism. Notes the continued presence of Sunnis in Qazvin, designated the Safavid capital by Tahmasp, and other cities.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  555. Originally published in 2006, questions much of the conventional wisdom concerning the widespread, rapid, and sometimes forcible conversions of Iranian Sunnis over the period. Suggests the acceptability over the 16th century of nominal conversions among the native (Tajik) population, especially the Tajik administrative class, upon whom the realm and its rulers depended greatly. Points to the continued existence of pockets of Sunnism into the early 17th century.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Jews
  558.  
  559. Moreen has been at the forefront of research into the situation of Jews over the Safavid period. Moreen 1986 and Moreen 2003 examine key texts produced in Judeo-Persian over the period for insight into the situation of Iranian Jews. Moreen 1992 questions the extent of the intolerance of Jews conventionally attributed to Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699). In the process she also discusses “Judeo-Persian,” Persian written in Hebrew script.
  560.  
  561. Moreen, Vera. “The Problems of Conversion among Iranian Jews in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Iranian Studies 19 (1986): 215–228.
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  563. Based on two texts in Judeo-Persian on the forced conversions of the period, especially in 1656 and 1662 and 1729/1730, respectively; explores why the majority of Iranian Jews chose the status of anusim (forced convert) over alternatives when faced with persecution.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Moreen, Vera. “Risala-yi Sawaʾiq al-Yahud [The Treatise Lightning Bolts Against the Jews] by Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi Majlisi (d. 1699).” Die Welt des Islams 32 (1992): 177–195.
  566. DOI: 10.1163/157006092X00109Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. English translation of Risala-yi Sawaʾiq al-Yahud, with the Persian text and commentary. The author highlights the “fairly balanced tone” (p. 185) of this essay, stresses Majlisi’s own “sense of legal fairness,” (p. 185) and notes that Majlisi called on Muslims “to refrain from deliberate disrespectful behavior toward dhimmis” (a reference to Jews and Christians) (p. 185) (see Baqir Majlisi).
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Moreen, Vera. “A Seventeenth-Century Iranian Rabbi’s Polemical Remarks on Jews, Christians, and Muslims.” In Safavid Iran and Her Neighbors. Edited by Michel Mazzaoui, 157–168. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003.
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  571. Discusses a 1686 essay written in Judeo-Persian in which the author attempted to correct many problematic beliefs. Moreen suggests this text, along with two others, one from the Safavid period and one dating to the late 1720s (see Moreen 1986), reveals that the majority of the community at the time was “not learned” (p. 158).
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  573. Iranian Christians
  574.  
  575. The Safavid state is conventionally understood to have adopted alternately tolerant and intolerant views of and policies toward “local” Christians. Under Abbas I, to deny the Ottomans direct access to and control of the Armenian merchants who controlled the lucrative East-West long-distance trade routes, the entire Armenian community of Julfa on the Aras River was forcibly removed to “New Julfa” in Abbas I’s newly established capital of Esfahan. Though Abbas I was generous is his assistance to their settlement, several times over his reign, and during the reign of Abbas II, the community was subjected to persecution. Herzig 2009 explores the factors underlying the importance of “Old” Julfa in the years before the community’s forcible removal. Herzig 1990 contrasts contemporary European accounts of the deportation with those of the Armenians. McCabe 1999 discusses the role of the community in the international silk trade. Carswell 1968 examines the churches and other buildings established in Esfahan over the period. Ghougassian 1998 looks at Esfahan’s Armenians as a religious community. The practice of “military slavery” in Islam and Islamic Iran had a long history. Campaigns waged as early as the reign of Tahmasp returned to Safavid territory with large numbers of Christian Georgian, Armenian, and Circassian prisoners who were forced to convert to Islam. In Iran, these elements were called qullar or ghulam. Abbas I is conventionally said to have used them to check the military power of the Qizilbash tribes. However, their military numbers never countered those of the tribal levies and such converts were not only soldiers (and generals) but also administrators. Ghulam elements, including generals, worked and fought alongside nonconverts and thus became yet another of the dynasty’s many supporting “constituencies.” Maeda 2003 and Babaie, et al. 2004 address the role of the ghulam over the period; Maeda notes that these elements still practiced elements of their preconversion faith. Matthee 2005 is a careful discussion of policy toward Christians, “native” and foreign, over the period (see also Matthee 1999, cited under Commerce and Trade and Matthee 1991, cited under Religious and Ethnic Minorities).
  576.  
  577. Babaie, Susan, Kathryn Babayan, Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe, and Massumeh Farhad. Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
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  579. The chapters address the rise of the ghulam in the post-Abbas I period in alliance with court eunuchs and concubines; the working alliance between Armenians forcibly removed from the Aras River to Esfahan and certain court-based ghulam elements; the cultural legacy of elite ghulams, as evidenced in Esfahan, and particularly in their buildings; and the patronage of the traditional Iranian arts by ghulam elements.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Carswell, John. New Julfa: The Armenian Churches and Other Buildings. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968.
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  583. On the still-standing thirteen of the twenty churches built between 1606 and 1728. With some 104 plates of illustrations. Shows these to have been reflective of both Armenian and Persian building styles. The most impressive building is All Saviour’s Cathedral, dating to 1658–1662, precisely when the community is usually said to have been experiencing a measure of “official” intolerance. Also covers houses dating to the period.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Ghougassian, Vazken. The Emergence of the Armenian Diocese of New Julfa in the Seventeenth Century. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998.
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  587. Focuses on the Armenians as an ecclesiastical community and community religious life from the time of their arrival in the Safavid capital in 1603. Highlights the varied experiences of rich and poor members of the community, particularly, for example, during the forced removal from the Aras River region and the pressures on the community by foreign Catholics. With a score of unpublished documents, including royal firmans (edicts).
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Herzig, Edmund. “The Deportation of the Armenians in 1604–05 and Europe’s Myth of Shah Abbas I.” In Pembroke Papers I. Edited by Charles Melville, 59–71. Cambridge, UK: Centre of Middle Eastern Studies, 1990.
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  591. Contrasts views of Abbas I’s deportation of the Armenians to Esfahan offered in contemporary European accounts with those of Armenians. The former cast the shah in a benevolent light and—the author argues—have influenced Western views ever since. Armenian accounts do not. Reconstructs the deportation process and argues that it was darker than has been thought.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Herzig, Edmund. “The Rise of the Julfa Merchants in the Late Sixteenth Century.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 305–323. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  595. Originally published in 1996; explores the regional economic, geographical, political, and global factors in the rise of the Armenian merchants in their original heartland of Julfa, on the Aras River, in the years before their forced removal to the Safavid capital of Esfahan by Abbas I.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Maeda, Hirotake. “On the Ethno-Social Backgrounds of the Four Gholam Families from Georgia in Safavid Iran.” Studia Iranica 32 (2003): 243–278.
  598. DOI: 10.2143/SI.32.2.563203Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Detailed study of four families from which came a total of twenty-seven influential ghulams over three generations. These include Allahverdi Khan and his son Imamqoli Khan who were generals and provincial governors under Abbas I. Notable for its mention that even after their conversion, some of these individuals continued with some of their preconversion, non-Islamic practices.
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  601. Matthee, Rudi. “Christians in Safavid Iran: Hospitality and Harassment.” Studies on Persianate Societies 3 (2005): 1–42.
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  603. Carefully reviews the antiminority actions undertaken over the middle years of the 17th century, particularly under the viziers of Abbas II (r. 1642–1666). Concludes that changing “official” views and treatment were complex and varied but not grounded in inherent tolerance or intolerance but rather were “mostly the result of worsening economic conditions.”
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  605. McCabe, Ina Baghdiantz. The Shah’s Silk for Europe’s Silver: The Eurasian Trade of the Julfa Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1530–1750). Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999.
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  607. Addresses the role of the Armenian merchants of Julfa and New Julfa and their role in the East-West long-distance trade prior to, during, and after the Safavid period, with special attention to their role in the export of Iran’s silk in the 17th century. Suggests that the ultimate decline of the community in the later Safavid period was more the result of communal infighting.
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  609. Western Travelers
  610.  
  611. Over the period, many Western diplomats, missionaries, commercial representatives, and private individuals traveled through and also came to reside in Iran. The Safavid court, seeking to expand both political and commercial associations, also sent representatives to European capitals. Western scholars have long relied on these foreign visitors’ and residents’ accounts of trends and events over the period. The author of Membré 1999, on a political mission from Venice, visited Iran and met with Tahmasp in the 1540s. Herbert 1928, written by a member of an English political mission to the court, is the first work in English on Iran. Chick 1939 and du Mans 1890 offer insights by Catholic missionaries to Iran. The account of the French Huguenot Jean Chardin, Chardin 1810–1811, has been much used by Western scholars of the period. The author of Fryer 1992, an English doctor, visited Iran in the 1670s, and the author of Kaempfer 1984, physician to the Dutch East India Company, visited in the next decade. Floor 1998 uses Dutch East India Company archives on the period immediately preceding and following the Afghan seizure of Esfahan in 1722. (See also the bibliography Newman 2008 in General Overviews for citations of works produced by the key Western residents in and travelers to Safavid Iran.)
  612.  
  613. Chardin, Jean. Voyages du chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l’Orient. Edited by L. Langlès. 10 vols. and map. Paris: Le Normant, 1810–1811.
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  615. The standard edition of the work of the Huguenot jeweler and long the key source on the reign of Abbas I, although Chardin (d. 1713) arrived in Iran in 1666, four decades later, when he was but twenty-two years of age. Chardin’s information on harem politics, long a staple of Safavid “decline” theory, was acquired only indirectly, through a court eunuch.
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  617. Chick, Hebert, ed. and trans. A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia and the Papal Mission of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries. 2 vols. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1939.
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  619. In 1604, Pope Clement VIII dispatched a delegation of the Discalced Carmelites to Persia to exhort Shah Abbas I to join an alliance against the Ottoman Empire, the goal of many European diplomatic missions to the Safavids over the period. Offers information on the politics, diplomatic rituals, foreign policy concerns, and court ceremony. A new edition was published by I. B. Tauris in 2012.
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  621. du Mans, Raphael. Estat de la Perse en 1660. Edited by Charles Scheffer. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1890.
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  623. The author was Superior of the Capuchin mission in Esfahan and lived in Iran between 1664 and 1696, the year of his death. Du Mans had a close relationship with a court historian of the day and from 1650 was an official translator at court. An opponent of the Jesuits, he promoted the conversion of local Armenian Christians to Catholicism and good relations with the court to win converts.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Floor, Willem. The Afghan Occupation of Safavid Persia, 1721–1729. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 1998.
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  627. Based on unpublished materials in the archives of the Dutch East India Company, deals with the fall of Esfahan to the Afghans in 1722 and its aftermath for Iran. Makes clear that in the years immediately following the 1722 fall of Esfahan the Dutch and many others, including local elements, expected the Safavids to expel the invaders and reassume control imminently. Control over the capital was re-established in 1729.
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  629. Fryer, John A. A New Account of East India and Persia, Being 9 Years Travels, 1672–1681. 3 vols. Edited by William Crooke. New Delhi: India Asian Educational Services, 1992.
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  631. A British travel writer and doctor who traveled in Iran between 1677 and 1678, returned to Britain in 1682, and died in 1733.
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  633. Herbert, Thomas. Travels in Persia. Edited and abridged by W. Foster. London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1928.
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  635. This is the first work in English on Safavid Iran. The author was a member of the embassy of King Charles I to Abbas I in 1626–1629 and died in 1682. Originally published as A Relation of Some Yeares Travaile Begunne Anno 1626 into Afrique and the Greater Asia . . . (London: Routledge, 1634).
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Kaempfer, Engelbert. Am Hofe des persischen Grosskönigs: 1684–1685. Edited by Walther Hinz. Leipzig: Koehler, 1984.
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  639. Kaempfer was a German naturalist who served the Dutch East India Company as a physician during his residence in Safavid Iran (see also Brakensiek 2002, cited under Secondary Sources).
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  641. Membré, Michele. Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (1539–1542). Translated with introduction and notes by A. H. Morton. London: Gibb Memorial Trust, 1999.
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  643. Originally appearing in 1993, an English translation of the author’s Relazione. The Venetian Membré was sent by the Doge to Iran to encourage an anti-Ottoman alliance. In 1540, he entered Iran, where he spent most of that year and was able to meet Tahmasp.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Secondary Sources
  646.  
  647. Only since the 1980s have scholars in the field adopted a reflective, critical attitude toward the accounts of Western residents in and travelers to Safavid Iran. These sources often contradict each other, offer as historical “fact” information gathered well after the occurrence of the events in question, or in such detail as to beggar credibility, and are the product of political, religious, and/or commercial agendas that render their contributions less than objective. Often, these texts reveal more about the religio-political climate of the author’s home country than anything of Safavid Iran. Gurney 1986 and Welch 2003 offer studies of visits of Italian aristocratic visitors to Iran during the early and later 1600s, respectively. Brakensiek 2002 notes that one of these European visitors, at least, based his “observations” on Iran as much on the earlier contributions of others as on his own experience, if not more so. Richard 1993 and Matthee 2010 discuss the role and status of the Catholic missionaries in Iran during Abbas’ reign. Brentjes 2009 is a collection of articles analyzing Iranians’ and Europeans’ perceptions of each other. Stevens 1974 is a still-useful survey of the European visitors to the court. Matthee 2011 examines Portuguese activities in Iran during the reign of Tahmasp.
  648.  
  649. Brakensiek, Stefan. “Political Judgement between Empirical Experience and Scholarly Tradition: Engelbert Kaempfer’s Report on Persia (1684–85).” Medieval History Journal 5 (2002): 223–246.
  650. DOI: 10.1177/097194580200500203Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  651. A critical view of Kaempfer’s approach to and writings on Safavid Iran. Argues that Kaempfer (see Kaempfer 1984, cited under Western Travelers) based his work mainly on existing European writings or communication with residents rather than on any “original” work and offered poor or problematic political judgments. Suggests that in this, Kaempfer was much like other Western residents in the country over the period.
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  653. Brentjes, Sonya, ed. Special Issue: The Pen and the Brush. Reflections on Foreign Visitors and Their Hosts in Safavid Iran. Journal of Early Modern History 13 (2009).
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  655. Based on a 2008 Harvard conference, “From Rhubarb to Rubies: European Travels to Safavid Iran (1550–1700), European and Iranian Perspectives”; four articles surveying both attitudes of travelers to and residents in Iran toward Iran, and Iranian views of these foreigners.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Gurney, John. “Pietro Della Valle: The Limits of Perception.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 49 (1986): 103–116.
  658. DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X0004252XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  659. A portrait of the Italian aristocrat and his interest in serving the Safavids against their Ottoman enemies and helping recapture Jerusalem for Christendom. Arrived in 1618 and met Abbas I and then spent some five years in the country. His letters contain detailed accounts of many aspects of life in the early 17th century.
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  661. Matthee, Rudi. “The Politics of Protection: Iberian Missionaries in Safavid Iran under Shah ʿAbbas I (1587–1629).” In Contacts and Controversies between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire and Pre-Modern Iran. Edited by Camilla Adang and Sabine Schmidtke, 245–271. Würzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag, 2010.
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  663. Notes that the missionaries “served as political intermediaries with the outside world . . . and their presence and activities created serious tensions among various religious groups with ties to the royal court—most notably the Shi`i clerics and the members of the Armenian community” (p. 245). There was also bitter conflict between the various missionary groups, often reflective of clashing agendas of the different European powers with which each was identified.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Matthee, Rudi. “Distant Allies: Diplomatic Contacts between Portugal and Iran in the Reign of Shah Tahmasp, 1524–1576.” In Portugal, the Persian Gulf and Safavid Persia. Edited by Rudi Matthee and Jorge Flores, 219–247. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2011.
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  667. Notes the limited nature of Safavid interest in the Persian Gulf and its trade during this period and suggests that the Portuguese also had limited goals in the Gulf, mainly an anti-Ottoman alliance in the aftermath of the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.
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  669. Richard, Francis. “L’Apport des missionnaires européens à la connaissance de l’Iran en Europe et de l’Europe en Iran.” In Études Safavides, sous la direction de Jean Calmard. Edited by Jean Calmard, 251–267. Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993.
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  671. An overview of Catholic missionary views on and activities in 17th-century Iran by an acknowledged expert on this question.
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  673. Stevens, Roger. “European Visitors to the Safavid Court.” Iranian Studies 7 (1974): 421–457.
  674. DOI: 10.1080/00210867408701475Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  675. One of the earliest surveys of Western visitors to the court in this two-volume special edition of the journal devoted to Esfahan. Though dated, this article is still a useful overview of various visitors to Iran over the period (see also Moreen 1981, cited under Religious and Ethnic Minorities).
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Welch, Anthony. “Safavi Iran Seen through Venetian Eyes.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 97–121. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  679. A discussion of the journal of the sojourn of the nineteen-year-old Venetian nobleman Ambrosio Bembo on the region and, especially, his time in Iran in 1674. The author contrasts Bembo’s Travels and Journal and Bembo’s “agenda” with those of other, contemporary, and better-known, European residents in and visitors to Iran.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Safavid Views of the West
  682.  
  683. The field has also seen a growing number of studies on Iranian views of the West in this period. Hairi 1993 is one of the earliest discussions of Iranian reaction to the missionary presence. Richard 1993 is another such early study. Halft 2010 examines a response to the missionary presence composed by a prominent Shiʿi cleric of the 17th century. Babaie 2009 examines Iranian perceptions of Europeans on offer in the art of the period. Matthee 1998 explores Iranian attitudes toward Europeans in this period and pronounces them interested but also distant. Matthee 2005 (cited under Iranian Christians), using foreign accounts, discusses the pragmatism underlying the evolving “official” view of local and foreign Christians.
  684.  
  685. Babaie, Susan. “Visual Vestiges of Travel: Persian Windows on European Weaknesses.” Journal of Early Modern History 13 (2009): 105–136.
  686. DOI: 10.1163/138537809X12498721974589Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. The author addresses examples of Persian painting in this period that highlight European sexual proclivities, especially Western sexual self-restraint, which, the author suggests, Iranians can only have perceived as “unnatural.”
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  689. Hairi, Abdul Hadi. “Reflections on the Shii Responses to Missionary Thought and Activities in the Safavid Period.” In Études Safavides, sous la direction de Jean Calmard. Edited by Jean Calmard, 151–164. Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993.
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  691. An early discussion of Shiʿi clerical reactions to the arrival of Christian missionaries in Iran over the 17th century, with special attention to the writings of Sayyid Ahmad ʿAlawi ʿAmili (d. 1644–1650), a relation of Mir Damad, on whom see also Halft 2010.
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  693. Halft, Dennis. “Schiitische Polemik gegen das Christentum im safawidischen Iran des 11/17. Jahrhunderts. Sayyid Ahmad ʿAlawi’s Lawamiʿ-i rabbani dar radd-i šubha-yi nasrani.” In Contacts and Controversies between Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire and Pre-Modern Iran. Edited by Camilla Adang and Sabine Schmidtke, 273–334. Würzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag, 2010.
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  695. An extremely detailed study of a text composed by the same Ahmad Alawi (see Hairi 1993) in response to the Christian missionaries. Based on the study of a number of manuscripts of the text.
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  697. Matthee, Rudi. “Between Aloofness and Fascination: Safavid Views of the West.” Iranian Studies 31 (1998): 219–246.
  698. DOI: 10.1080/00210869808701906Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  699. Argues that, while Europeans in Safavid Iran were well treated, Iranians viewed Europe—given its distance from Iran and its foreign religion—as a place of relatively little import and interest even if they were curious about Western manners and customs and were aware of Western military strength.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Richard, Francis. “L’Apport des missionnaires européens à la connaissance de l’Iran en Europe et de l’Europe en Iran.” In Études Safavides, sous la direction de Jean Calmard. Edited by Jean Calmard, 251–266. Paris: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993.
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  703. An overview of Catholic missionary activities in and views of Iran in this period as well as discussion of Iranians’ views of the missionaries.
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  705. Art and Architecture
  706.  
  707. The Safavid period witnessed important developments in all forms of artistic expression, but particularly in the arts of the book, namely, calligraphy, illumination, and illustration; painting, using a variety of media; and ceramics, textile, and carpet production. The achievements across this wide range of activities built on developments in all these arts prior to the Safavid period, carried them forward, and, in many cases, surpassed them. Canby 2002a provides what is still the best overview of developments across a broad range of artistic activities. Canby 2002b contains articles on a wide variety of artistic activities, ranging from architecture to carpet weaving to ceramics. Bahari 2003 looks at the survival of the arts of the book under the Uzbeks after their retreat from Herat, a great center of the arts of the book in the 16th century. Crowe 2002 explores the vitality of ceramics production in the later Safavid period. Qummi 1959 is a survey of practitioners at the turn of the 16th century. Blake 1999 charts the manner in which Esfahan’s “social fabric” changed in response to the appearance of the different sorts in buildings in the city over the period. Babaie 2008 suggests that the development of Esfahan beginning in the 1590s was informed both by the establishment of a new faith and by the previous, even pre-Islamic, imperial tradition.
  708.  
  709. Babaie, Susan. Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shiʾism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
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  711. With twenty-four color and sixty black-and-white illustrations, this is a study of the development of the capital in which the author argues that the combination of the polity’s identification with Twelver Shiʿism and pre-Islamic royal tradition spurred the development of a new ceremonial system based on access and proximity to the person of the shah, and feasting.
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  713. Bahari, Ebadollah. “The Sixteenth Century School of Bukhara Painting and the Arts of the Book.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 251–264. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  715. Overview of the arts of the book from the late Tumirid period through the first Safavid century. Focus on activity in Bukhara, which was controlled by the Safavids’ enemies, the Uzbegs. When the Safavids captured Herat, some of its artists went to Bukara and established that city as a center for the arts of the book (see also Uluc 2000, cited under Patronage).
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  717. Blake, Stephan. Half the World: The Social Architecture of Safavid Isfahan, 1590–1722. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1999.
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  719. With nine maps, twenty-seven tables, and nineteen figures, the author takes the city as a “text” to be studied and charts the distribution of different types of building—imperial, religious, commercial, private, and so forth—in the city and how their appearance altered the institutions that they represented (see also Haneda 2009, cited under Commerce and Trade).
  720. Find this resource:
  721. Canby, Sheila. The Golden Age of Persian Art, 1501–1722. London: British Museum, 2002a.
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  723. Originally published in 1999, still a useful chronological survey of developments in Persian art and architecture over the Safavid period. Discusses architectural expression in secular and nonsecular structures, calligraphy, manuscript illumination and illustration, painting, textile and carpet production, and ceramics. The continued vitality of expression across all these over the period implicitly questions continued recourse to the “decline” paradigm.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Canby, Sheila, ed. Safavid Art and Architecture. London: British Museum, 2002b.
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  727. The papers here were delivered at a 1998 conference organized at the British Museum. This was the first such conference devoted entirely to the arts in the Safavid period. With articles on architecture, manuscript production, textiles and carpets, dress, paintings, and portraits.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Crowe, Yolande. Persia and China: Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1501–1738. London: La Borie, 2002.
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  731. A study of more than five hundred pieces of glazed ceramics mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries, with black-and-white photographs. Notes the dynamism that characterized Iranian ceramics throughout the 17th century. Among those who prospered after the 1639 Zuhab peace treaty, Kirmani ceramics became import substitutes for Chinese ware and were exported to Europe following the Ming dynasty’s collapse in 1643–1645.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Qummi, Qadi Ahmad. Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qazi Ahmad, Son of Mir Munshi (c. AH 1015/AD 1606). Edited and translated by Vladimir Minorsky. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 1959.
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  735. Edited translation of a text, composed c. 1596–1597, that contains notices on key practitioners of both crafts. Minorsky also composed a very useful biographical sketch of Qummi, who also authored Khulasat al-Tavarikh, translated under the title Die frühen Safawiden nach Qazi Ahmad Qumi, by Erika Glassen in 1970 (cited under Translations).
  736. Find this resource:
  737. Individual Artists and Trends
  738.  
  739. Studies of individual artists over the period allow a more detailed treatment of developments in the particular fields over the period. Adamova 2003, Brend 2003, and Canby 1999 each address the works of prominent painters, solving questions of identity along the way.
  740.  
  741. Adamova, Adel. “Muhammad Qasim and the Esfahan School of Painting.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 193–212. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  743. Investigates and offers a solution to the problem of attributing 17th-century paintings by “Muhammad Qasim” to one artist; Adamova’s comparative examination of a series of “Qasim’s” works supports that there were two contemporary painters with this name. In the process, charts the advent of the influence of European art on Iranian painting.
  744. Find this resource:
  745. Brend, Barbara. “Another Career for Mirza Ali?” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 213–232. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  747. Suggests that two supposedly different painters of the 16th century were the same individual, basing this conclusion on detailed, comparative examination of a series of works attributed to each.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. Canby, Sheila. The Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi Abbasi of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 1999.
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  751. Originally published in 1996, a still-useful study, with some seventy illustrations in color and seventy-six in black and white. Effort to contextualize Riza over the two stages of his career in the 17th century set the stage for discussion of the artist’s later nonconformist tendencies, the product of his being freer to pursue his own projects than previous artists.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Patronage
  754.  
  755. Crucial to Safavid longevity was the manner of recognizing, including, and transcending the diverse elements and discourses of the region. The patronage of a broad range of artistic, literary, and religious institutions and individuals played a key role therein. The central and the provincial courts were key sources of patronage over the period. The former, especially, was initially dominated by members of the Safavid house as well as Turkish tribal and Tajik administrative elites; the patronage by both the ruling house and the tribal elite of traditional Persian (Tajik) culture was a further means of demonstrating recognition/acceptance of the latter’s importance to Safavid society. Over the 17th century, especially building on the “peace dividend” that followed the 1639 Zuhab peace treaty with the Ottomans, others—including members of the clerical, ghulam, and merchant classes—were incorporated into the “polity.” Their elites, in turn, also demonstrated their allegiance to the inclusive nature of the Safavid system by patronizing these and other cultural discourses, both at the capital and in the provinces. Over the whole period, women elites were also active as patrons (see also Gender Studies). Babaie 1994 examines how art in “public” spaces served the agenda of the court during the reign of Abbas II. Babaie 2002 discusses the building projects undertaken by the grand vizier of Abbas II. McChesney 1981 and Sifatgol 2003 examine the role of religious endowments by the court and others as an instrument of policy. McChesney 1988 reconstructs the sequential development of Esfahan during the reign of Abbas I. Newman 2008 covers the expansion in the constituencies who undertook such acts of patronage as mirroring the expansion of the constituent elements of Safavid society more generally. Uluc 2000 notes the patronage devoted to the arts of the book by the rulers of Shiraz in the later 16th century. Hillenbrand 2009 argues for a political dimension to a lavishly illustrated manuscript of the Iranian national epic.
  756.  
  757. Babaie, Susan. “Shah Abbas II, the Conquest of Qandahar, Chihil Sutun, and Its Wall Paintings.” Muqarnas 11 (1994): 125–142.
  758. DOI: 10.2307/1523214Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  759. Examination of the wall paintings added to this famous palace in Esfahan. The author argues that they are contemporary with the building. Unpacks the several agendas of these different sets of paintings, in relation to domestic and foreign policy issues.
  760. Find this resource:
  761. Babaie, Susan. “Building for the Shah: the Role of Mirza Muhammad Taqi (Saru Taqi) in Safavid Royal Patronage of Architecture.” In Safavid Art and Architecture. Edited by Sheila Canby, 20–26. London: British Museum, 2002.
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  763. Examines the building career of Saru Taqi (d. 1645), the grand vizier of Abbas II (r. 1642–1666). As provincial governor under Abbas I, he undertook the reconstruction of the shrine in Najaf (Iraq) and built a canal thereto from the Euphrates. As vizier, he built a mansion in Esfahan, an adjacent mosque and bazaar, an additional small mosque, and a caravanserai.
  764. Find this resource:
  765. Hillenbrand, Robert. “The Iconography of the ‘Shah-nama-yi Shahi.’” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 53–78. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  767. Originally published in 1996, with seven figures; the author argues that the lavishly illustrated manuscript of the Shahname of Ferdowsi (d. 1020)—the national epic of Iran—that was created during the reign of Tahmasp (reg. 1524–1576) might usefully be understood in relation to the changing political realities of the day.
  768. Find this resource:
  769. McChesney, Robert. “Waqf and Public Policy: The Waqfs of Shah Abbas, 1011–1023/1602–1614.” Asian and African Studies 15 (1981): 165–190.
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  771. Vaqf (religious endowment) was a means by which specific projects might be undertaken, by individuals or as an instrument of public policy. Explores vaqf documents from Abbas I’s reign in the context of the political environment and how these projects furthered his identification as the successor to preceding shahs and, especially, as a patron of the established Twelver faith.
  772. Find this resource:
  773. McChesney, Robert. “Four Sources on Shah Abbas’s Building of Isfahan.” Muqarnas 5 (1988): 103–134.
  774. DOI: 10.2307/1523113Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  775. Detailed study of materials from four contemporary court chronicles that reveal the sequence of the construction of key buildings over Abbas I’s reign (1598–1629) and, thus, the royal vision and motives behind them. Includes detailed maps of the several phases of the shah’s building program in the city.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  779. Originally published in 2006; Newman notes the changing dynamics of patronage over the period and the manner in which, early in the period, the court as well as the traditional Turk and Tajik elites participated. Over the later period, newly incorporated elites—clerical, ghulam, merchant, and landowning elements included—also became patrons of art, architecture, and the religious infrastructure.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Sifatgol, Mansur. “Safavid Administration of Avqaf: Structure, Changes and Functions, 1077–1135/1666–1722.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 397–408. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  783. Addresses the development of vaqf and its function over the entire Safavid period but especially in the last half of the 17th century. Argues that in the absence of a formal budget for the support of schools, mosques, and other “public” institutions, vaqf endowments fulfilled this function.
  784. Find this resource:
  785. Uluc, Lale. “Selling to the Court: Late-Sixteenth-Century Manuscript Production in Shiraz.” Muqarnas 17 (2000): 73–96.
  786. DOI: 10.2307/1523291Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787. Shows that lavishly illustrated manuscripts, including the classical texts of Persian poetry by Nizami, Saʿdi, and Jami, were being produced in the provincial manuscript center of Shiraz in the 1570s and 1580s and that these emulated the best of the manuscripts produced for the central court of Tahmasp (r. 1524–1576). Their composition strongly echoed painting styles associated with the manuscript centers in Tabriz and Mashhad.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Literature
  790.  
  791. Safavid-period literature, especially its poetry, is usually portrayed as lacking creativity. Too, the allegedly intolerant form of Shiʿism practiced by the court, especially in the 16th century, is said to have forced the most accomplished poets to seek employment in Mughal India, where Persian was the official language of the court. Safa 1986 reprises the conventional view. De Bruijn 1994–1995 both critiques this view and offers an overview of the major genres of Safavid-period literary expression. Losensky 1998, Losensky 2003, Losensky 2009, and Dale 2003 examine the works of individual poets in greater depth and also challenge the conventional depiction of poetry deteriorating over the period. Calmard 2003 and Calmard 2009 (cited under “Popular” Religious Discourse) look at more “popular” forms of literature.
  792.  
  793. Calmard, Jean. “Popular Literature under the Safavids.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 315–339. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  795. Explores “popular” expression, especially the oral narration of devotional stories that encouraged the excessive veneration of important historical figures, such as Abu Muslim, a key figure in the 750 AD overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty, and the hostility that these narratives generated among certain clerical circles (see also Babayan 2009 and Calmard 2009, both cited under “Popular” Religious Discourse).
  796. Find this resource:
  797. Dale, Stephen. “A Safavid Poet in the Heart of Darkness: The Indian Poems of Ashraf Mazandarani.” Iranian Studies 36 (2003): 197–212.
  798. DOI: 10.1080/00210860305242Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  799. Dale dismisses the notion that Shiʿi religious intolerance drove Safavid poets to India to suggest that the relative wealth and corresponding “scale of patronage” (p. 200) at the Mughal court were more important reasons for poets’ migration. Notes that Mazanderani’s poetry also reveals his homesickness for Iran.
  800. Find this resource:
  801. De Bruijn, Johannes Thomas Pieter. “Safavids. III. Literature.” Encyclopedia of Islam, Series 2. 8 (1994–1995): 774–777.
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  803. Discusses why later scholars denigrate Safavid-period literature, especially poetry; notes that Tahmasp I’s oft-cited dictum to the poet Muhtasham (see Losensky 2009)—a supposed example of Safavid intolerance of nonreligious literature—is taken out of context; and suggests “the internationalisation of Persian civilisation” and subsequent regional demand for Persian poetry sparked emigration. Reviews the styles of court and noncourt poets.
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Losensky, Paul. Welcoming Fighani: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda, 1998.
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  807. Introduces the influential poet whose career spanned the years into the reign of Ismail I. Focus on the broader context of Persian poetry over the period and the manner in which Fighani, from a lower-class background, was part of a broader shift of attention away from courtly genres—the qasida and the mathnawi—to the more broadly popular ghazal form. Excellent bibliography.
  808. Find this resource:
  809. Losensky, Paul. “The Palace of Praise and the Melons of Time: Descriptive Patterns in ʿAbdi Shirazi’s ‘Garden of Eden.’” Eurasian Studies 2 (2003): 1–29.
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  811. An examination of this five-part poem of Abdi Bayk (d. 1580–1581). Losensky notes that Abdi Bayk was a mid-level administrator at the court of Tahmasp I and a “prolific poet” (p. 1). The poem was a panegyric devoted to Tahmasp’s new palace complex, built near Qazvin, then the Safavid capital.
  812. Find this resource:
  813. Losensky, Paul. “Poetics and Eros in Early Modern Persia: ‘The Lovers’ Confection’ and ‘The Glorious Epistle’ by Muhtasham Kashani.” Iranian Studies 42 (2009): 745–764.
  814. DOI: 10.1080/00210860903306036Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  815. Long-overdue discussion of the famous poet Muhtasham (d. 1588), whom Losensky calls “the pre-eminent poet of his age” (p. 746). The author notes that the poet was well-known for his religious poetry but herein examines these two autobiographical works as examples of the “realist school” of writing that, Losensky suggests, contradicts the conventional portrayal of literary expression as generally dour under Tahmasp.
  816. Find this resource:
  817. Safa, Zabih Allah. “Persian Literature in the Safavid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Edited by Peter Jackson and Lawrence Lockhart, 948–964. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  818. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521200943Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  819. A long-outdated contribution typical of the traditional view of Safavid-period literature as having lacked creative energy. The author also claims that many Iran-based poets fled to Mughal India following the apparent censure of the poet Muhtasham by Tahmasp I (see Losensky 2009).
  820. Find this resource:
  821. Science and Medicine
  822.  
  823. To date, relatively little attention has been devoted to exploring developments in science and medicine over the period. Matthee 2009 tackles the thorny issue of the lack of Safavid utilization of heavy artillery and the lack of attention to city walls. Newman 1994–1995, although dated, surveys developments in medicine and science over the period. Newman 2003 and Newman 2009 look at issues of Safavid-period medical theory and practice as revealed by examination of religious texts.
  824.  
  825. Matthee, Rudi. “Unwalled Cities and Restless Nomads: Firearms and Artillery in Safavid Iran.” In Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. Edited by Charles Melville, 389–416. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2009.
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  827. Originally published in 1996, the author notes that over the Safavid period Iran underwent a “decastlelization,” while Europe was intensifying its urban fortifications. Argues that this process and the lack of take-up of artillery by the Safavid military are both best explained with reference to “physical environment and historical contingency” (p. 391).
  828. Find this resource:
  829. Newman, Andrew J. “Safavids—Religion, Philosophy and Science.” Encyclopedia of Islam, Series 2. 8 (1994–1995): 777–787.
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  831. References to the humoral medical tradition, Shiʿi prophetic medicine, astrology, and other forms of folk medicine and magic suggest the availability of and recourse to all of these over the period. Discusses issues relating to “public health” and the variety and classes of those who “practiced” medicine at the time. The section on science addresses such areas as astronomy, mathematics, and military technology.
  832. Find this resource:
  833. Newman, Andrew J. “Baqir Majlisi and Islamicate Medicine: Safavid Medical Theory and Practice Re-examined.” In Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period. Edited by Andrew J. Newman, 371–396. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
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  835. Based on detailed examination of the materia medica in a religious text—Majlisi’s Arabic-language Bihar al-Anwar (The oceans of lights). Majlisi’s balanced attention to Greek-inspired humoral medicine and the statements and practices of the Imams—the Shiʿi variant of “Prophetic Medicine”—on illness and wellness bespeaks his tolerance of these traditions as well as their presence in Safavid society (see also Newman 2009.)
  836. Find this resource:
  837. Newman, Andrew J. “Baqir Majilisi and Islamicate Medicine II: ‘Risala dhahabiyya’ in Bihar anwar.” In Le shiʾisme imamite quarante ans apres: Hommage à Etan Kohlberg. Edited by Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Meir M. Bar-Asher, and Simon Hopkins, 349–361. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2009.
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  839. Second detailed examination (see Newman 2003) of materia medica in Majlisi’s Arabic-language Bihar al-Anwar (The oceans of lights), on Majlisi’s inclusion of an essay on medicine attributed to the eighth Shiʿi Imam, ʿAli Rida (d. 818). Contains a detailed description of the essay, which was written in reply to questions put to the Imam by the caliph al-Ma’mun (d. 833).
  840. Find this resource:
  841. The Safavids as “Empire”
  842.  
  843. Several works in the tradition of “world history” and those by scholars in the field have characterized Safavid Iran as an “empire.” Scholars in “world history” see the Safavids as having established one of three Middle Eastern “empires” of the period, along with the Ottomans and Mughals. These contributions assume rather than question “decline,” while not always providing such definitions of “empire” as might distinguish these three from such earlier and later “empires” as the Roman, British, and American. The author of Hodgson 1974, whose discussion of the Safavids follows the traditional “decline” paradigm, was perhaps the first in this tradition. Dale 2010 uses a thematic approach, but within a “decline” paradigm, as does Streusand 2011, although he utilizes a straightforward comparative approach. Matthee 2010 defines “empire” and evaluates the extent to which the Safavid dynasty created such a system. Newman 2008 adjudges the Safavids an “empire” in the tradition of the pre-Islamic Iranian imperial entities of the Achaemenians and Sassanians. A number of other “empire” projects are also in the works.
  844.  
  845. Dale, Stephen F. The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  847. The author offers a comparative/thematic discussion of the rise of these three empires, their institutional structures, their economies, their cultures, and—inevitably—the “golden age” and “decline” of each. Discussion of the factors in the “decline” of the Safavids echoes that on offer in the field.
  848. Find this resource:
  849. Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam. Vol. 3, The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
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  851. One of the earliest ventures in the discipline of “world history” in the last century; the author was perhaps the progenitor of “empire” discourse in Middle Eastern studies. Hodgson nowhere offers a definition of “empire” generally, or in relation to these three in particular. His analysis utilizes the “decline” paradigm both for the Safavid period and with respect to Middle Eastern history more generally.
  852. Find this resource:
  853. Matthee, Rudi. “Was Safavid Iran an Empire?” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53 (2010): 233–265.
  854. DOI: 10.1163/002249910X12573963244449Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  855. Provides a definition of and examines the concept of “empire” generally—a “powerful, hierarchically organized, ideologically driven, and militarily powerful state spanning several civilizations and ecozones” (p. 259)—and suggests that the Safavid system did fit this definition if to a lesser extent than the Ottomans and Mughals.
  856. Find this resource:
  857. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  859. Newman suggests that the Safavid “polity” was an empire in the manner of pre-Islamic Iranian imperial traditions. Argues that the longevity of the Safavid project stemmed from the success with which Safavid society, as these earlier political systems, expanded to recognize, include, and transcend the diverse elements and discourses extant in the realm over the period.
  860. Find this resource:
  861. Streusand, Douglas E. Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2011.
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  863. With chapters on each of the three empires, but no definition thereof. Also assumes “decline” with respect to the Safavid system.
  864. Find this resource:
  865. Legacy
  866.  
  867. By the early 1700s, the Safavid “polity” had evolved into a complex, multiconstituent system, such that each of the realm’s individual constituent elements, rural or urban, elite or non-elite, Muslim or non-Muslim, indigenous or foreign, perceived itself to have a vested interest in the present, and future, thereof. Although the field as a whole accepts 1722 as the effective end of the Safavid “state,” at the time the Afghan capture of Esfahan was not understood to have marked the dynasty’s end: the retaking of Esfahan in 1729 fulfilled popular expectations and hopes, especially as attested by the extent of urban and tribal resistance. The populace at large was convinced that the Afghan occupation would be temporary. Perry 1971 noted the manner in which genuine Safavid princes and pretenders continued to press the Safavid cause, with some successes, over the 18th century. Floor 1998 notes that in the immediate aftermath of Esfahan’s fall, both domestic and, especially, foreign interests believed the Safavid “return” was imminent. Newman 2008 notes that the field’s preoccupation with 1722 as the Safavid “end date” underplays features of continuity and the importance of the Safavid legacy for Iran under both Nader Shah Afshar (r. 1736–1747) and the Qajars (1795–1922).
  868.  
  869. Floor, Willem. The Afghan Occupation of Safavid Persia, 1721–1729. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 1998.
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  871. Based on unpublished archival material from the Dutch East India Company and the “Diary of the Siege of Esfahan,” deals with the fall of Esfahan to the Afghans in 1722 and its aftermath. Presents evidence that both foreign and domestic elements viewed the Afghan occupation as temporary; the Dutch continued to accept the validity of treaties reached with the Safavids.
  872. Find this resource:
  873. Newman, Andrew J. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. London: I. B. Tauris, 2008.
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  875. Originally published in 2006; the epilogue discusses how the 1729 Safavid reoccupation of the capital fulfilled popular expectations, how successive rulers, who hailed from tribes that were part of the original Qizilbash coalition, capitalized on the Safavid legacy, and how genuine Safavid princes and many pretenders attracted attention over the 18th century. Explores the religious, philosophical, and broader cultural legacies of the Safavid period.
  876. Find this resource:
  877. Perry, John. “The Last Safavids (1722–1773).” Iran 9 (1971): 59–71.
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  879. Discusses the post-1722 Safavid princes and pretenders who attracted followers throughout the region.
  880. Find this resource:
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