Safavids
The Safavids ( Persian صفویان, DMG Ṣafawīyān ; Azerbaijani صفویلر Səfəvilər ) were a ruling dynasty in Persia from Ardabil who ruled from 1501 to 1722 and established Shiite Islam as the state religion.
Importance of the Safavids for today's Iran
The Safavid epoch had fundamental consequences for today's Islamic state. Under Ismail I , not only was there a merger of predominantly Iranian populated areas and regions, but the germ of a Persian “national consciousness” was also laid, thus creating the basis for today's Iranian state .
The Safavids converted large sections of the population by force to a moderate Shiism, which distinguished itself from the Sunnis ruling in neighboring countries . The Safavids were in constant conflict with the Ottoman Empire in the west. In the northeast there were conflicts with the Uzbeks of the Janid dynasty. Intense disputes were being fought out over what is now Afghanistan in the east . Adversaries here were the influential Indian Mughals . The arguments increasingly required an articulated inner strength of the Persian consciousness.
This generally creeping process ultimately led to the emergence of different Islamic cultures, which in the 18th century then presented themselves as Persia, Central Asia and India under the Great Mughals.
history
The origins of the dynasty can be traced back to Sheikh Safi ad-Din Ardabili (1252–1334), who founded a Sufi order in Ardabil in 1301 . This militarized increasingly from the middle of the 15th century (see also: Safawiyya ). Under Shah Ismail I (1484–1524) succeeded in conquering Tabriz and overthrowing the Turkmen Aq Qoyunlu in 1501 . Among the Turkmenenstämmen who have supported the establishment of the following Safawidenreiches include the Afshar , Qajar , Teke , Humuslu , Şamlı , Ustac , Dulkadir and Varsaken . After the north-east of Iran was secured with a victory over the Uzbeks at Herat (1510), a conflict with the Ottomans in the west broke out. They defeated the Safavids near Tschaldiran in 1514 and conquered the capital Tabriz. Under the Safavids the League of Kizilbasch , elite soldiers, which initially consisted only of Turkmen and were later recruited from other sections of the population, was founded. The Kizilbash gained a lot of prestige and fame among the Safavids.
His successor, Tahmasp I (1524–1576), was also in conflict with the Ottomans and Uzbeks. While he was able to maintain Khorasan against the latter, Iraq and Azerbaijan were successively lost to the Ottomans until 1534. In 1555 the Peace of Amasya established the new border with the Ottoman Empire.
After some dynastic turmoil, Abbas I, the Great (1587–1629) achieved a consolidation of the empire. Under him, Bahrain was occupied in 1601 . In 1603 the Ottomans were expelled from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and in 1623 even Iraq was recaptured with Baghdad . This brought the Shiite pilgrimage centers of Najaf and Karbala back under Persian control. In 1595 the attacks of the Uzbek Abdullah II were stopped. The country became prosperous through skillful economic administration. This was reflected in the expansion of the infrastructure, especially the new capital Isfahan , which now had an excellent road system and representative projects such as the Meidān-e Naqsch-e Jahan . Abbas I also limited the influence of the Turkmen military by building troops from Christian slaves.
Under the successors of Abbas I, the central administration lost influence. Only under Shah Abbas II (1642–1666) did the empire reform and consolidate itself. Under his aegis, close trade contacts were established with the European sea powers England and Holland . In 1649 Kandahar was occupied in what is now southern Afghanistan , which both Persia and the Indian Mughal empire claimed.
Towards the end of the 17th century there was a severe economic decline under Sultan Husain (reign 1694-1722). Since at the same time the Sunnis in the empire were to be forcibly converted to Shiite Islam, an uprising of the Pashtun Ghilzai broke out in 1719 . They conquered Isfahan in 1722 and deposed the incumbent Shah. This new Hotaki dynasty could only last a few years. The ruler's son , Tahmasp II, and his general Nadir Shah were able to drive away the invaders in 1729. But the Safavids (Tahmasp II. And his son Abbas III. ) Were puppets of the Afsharids . In 1736 Nadir Shah put an end to the dynasty. In some provinces the Safavids ( Ismail III ) were able to hold out until 1773, but without actually holding power.
Shiite Islam as the state religion
The Safavids were by no means the first Shiite rulers in Iran. But they played a crucial role in establishing Shiite Islam as the official religion throughout Iran.
In some cities like Qom and Sabzevar there were large Shiite communities as early as the 8th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Buyids , who belonged to the Shiite Zaidite stream , ruled in Fars , Isfahan and Baghdad . As a result of the Mongol conquest and the relative religious tolerance of the Ilkhan , the Shiite dynasties were restored in Iran, such as those of the Sarbedaran in Khorasan . The Ilkhan Shah Öldscheitü converted to Twelve Shiite in the 13th century.
After the conquest of Iran by Shah Ismail, he ordered the conversion of the Sunni population and reduced the influence of the Sunni ulema . Ismail I brought Shiite scholars, especially from Lebanon, into the country and gave them land and money. In return, he demanded their loyalty. During the rule of the Safavids the power of the Shiite ulema grew. In 1501 the Twelve Shia was introduced as the state religion. Despite the Sufi origins of the Safavids, other Sufi groups, except for the Nimatullahi order, were banned. Iran became a feudal theocracy ; the Shah was the divinely ordained head of state and religion. Defeats against the Ottomans, but also the withdrawal of the influence of the former Turkmen-Azerbaijani supporters of the Safavids, moved Shah Tahmasp I to move the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin in 1548 . Abbas I moved the capital around 1598 to Isfahan , which is further southeast , where he built a new city next to the old Persian Isfahan.
economy
Under Shah Abbas I, the Safavid Empire reached its economic climax. Its location between Europe, India and Islamic Central Asia in the east and north encouraged development. The location was particularly favored by the growing technical development in Europe, which expanded its influence over the Near and Middle East. The great trading companies of England, France and the Netherlands did important trade with the Safavids. The exports from Persia came less via the old trade routes, such as the Silk Road leading through northern Persia , than mainly via the sea to Europe and India. Brisk business activities with extensive trading volumes can also be attributed to the Armenian minority. Because of their economic instinct and their excellent networks, Shah Abbas I had thousands of Azerbaijani Armenians (from Jolfâ ) resettled in his capital city of Isfahan in order to benefit from its economic performance . Numerous Persian commercial agencies are increasingly networking with distant regions such as China or the Scandinavian region.
Abbas I centralized power in his empire and consolidated it with effective administrative orders. In this way he also promoted the productive forces in the country over the long term. He lowered taxes, financed the expansion of the infrastructure (especially road construction) and thus increased the effectiveness of the caravanserais along the roads . The expenses were refinanced through road taxes in gold and silver, which mainly hit the Europeans. Road taxes were sometimes the main source of income for the state. The craft thus had a flourishing foreign and domestic market. This paid off especially for silk and carpet production, the size and market presence of which increased significantly. In Europe in particular, the demand for Persian carpets, silk and textiles was very high. Other export goods were horses, goat hair, pearls and a bitter almond , the Hadam-Talka , which was used as a spice in India. The main imports were spices, textiles (woolen goods from Europe, cotton from Gujarat ), metals, coffee and sugar.
The Safavids had repeatedly clashes with the Portuguese, who were allied with the Ottomans. They contested their supremacy over the trade routes. In addition, the Ottomans tried to keep the Europeans out of the region, which was a hindrance to the intensified trade relations of the Safavids. The background to the Ottoman-Safavid hostility was primarily the attractive silk trade.
Culture
Literature and philosophy
Overall, the Safavid epoch is a period of high artistic bloom. The literature of the time, which has so far hardly been scientifically researched, is perceived as rather sparse. Poetry received little support. The philosophy flourished with well-known men such as Mulla Sadra from Shiraz, Sheikh Bahai and Mir Damad. Mulla Sadra lived at the time of Abbas I and wrote the Afshar , which was a synthesis of Sufism, Shiite theology and the thinking of Avicenna and Suhrawardi . Iskander Beg Monschi wrote his work about Abbas I years later and is also well-known and important.
There is poetry by Safi ad-Din in Tati and Persian. Shah Ismail I , who had the stage name "Chatayi", wrote poetry. Most of his works are written in Azerbaijani Turkish. Only a few verses have survived from his Persian works. The Turkish poems were published as a divan . Shah Tahmasp was a poet and painter. Shah Abbas II wrote poetry in Turkish and Persian under the name "Tani". Sam Mirza, son of Ismail I, was also a poet. He wrote in Persian and also put together an anthology of contemporary poetry.
Crafts, book art and painting
Shah Abbas I recognized that the promotion of art would also bring economic benefits to his empire, as the sale of art objects formed a good part of foreign trade. All branches of the service arts were characterized by a very high level. This affected the mercantile branches of tile and ceramic manufacture and textile art. Here the arts were developed. Miniature painting, bookbinding, decoration and calligraphy were in full bloom . Safavid princes like Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (1540–1577) played an important role as sponsors and clients. Reza Abbasi (1565–1635) developed miniature painting further by introducing new motifs such as half-naked women, lovers and young people. This Isfahan school influenced miniature painting throughout the Safavid rule. Growing contact with other cultures, such as the European one, provided the Iranian painter with new inspiration. For example, spatial features such as perspective and oil painting were adopted. Great examples of calligraphy were the shāhnāme and the chamsa of Nezāmi .
Carpets
From the 16th century onwards, the art of making carpets moved away from the works of nomads towards the carpet industry in city centers like Tabriz . The manorial knotters in Isfahan and Kashan are famous for their Polish carpets . These are named after a Polish prince who exhibited such carpets for the first time in Paris. Some of them bear the coats of arms of Polish noble families. This helped to date them to the time of close political and economic ties between the Safavid Empire and Poland during the 17th century. Characteristic features of the Polish carpets are cotton chains and silk pile as well as knitted gold and silver threads.
architecture
With the rise of the Safavid dynasty, a new age began in Iranian architecture . Economically robust and politically stable, this period saw flourishing growth.
The architecture of the Safavid era, however, no longer developed any fundamentally new ideas. Nonetheless, characteristic aspects should be emphasized, which were expressed in particular through the dynastic model of imperialistically formulated goals. As the previous Timurid era already anticipated, architectural greatness gained splendor and at the same time the love of the decorations achieved a degree of perfection.
“It is a variation on a theme, carefully studied and carefully worked out, with which a still completely medieval aristocracy can express its desire for refinement and splendor; the aesthetic ideal manifests itself in the decorative and abstract with occasional mannerisms and counts more than what is said; nothing is left to improvisation "
Despite the transience of the widely chosen building material wood, the Safavids were able to come up with bold technical solutions.
The main place of activity was Isfahan during the time of Shah Abbas I, who gave the entire city an imperial appearance based on a uniform concept. So the main traffic axis followed Tschahār Bāgh ( Persian چهار باغ, 'Four Gardens') a modern geometric network that changed urban development and gave urban spaces an order that also took into account natural elements such as water (canals) and plants (flower beds and double avenues of poplar and plane trees). Examples of this are, in addition to the Tschahar Bagh, the Meidān-e Naqsch-e Jahān ( Persian ميدان نقش جهان, DMG Meidān-e Naqš-e Ǧahān , 'Place of the Image of the World') and the royal gardens connected to both institutions together with Tschehel Sotun ( Persian چهل ستون, 'Forty Pillar Palace') in Isfahan. Similar distinctive monuments such as the Tschehel Sotun and the Masjed-e-Sheikh Lotfollāh ( Persian مسجد شيخ لطف الله) from 1603 or the Hascht Behescht Palace ( Persian هشت بهشت, 'Eight Paradises') from 1699 and the Tschahar Bagh School from 1714 can also be found in other places in Iran.
Verandas (tālār) became an impressive motif of palace architecture under the Safavids. An excellent example of this is the High Porte 'Ālī Qāpū ( Persian) located on the western edge of the Meidān-e Emām عالی قاپو). The Safavid pavilion architecture is reflected in the Hascht Behescht Palace. The construction of bridges and their reconstruction are of particular importance. In Isfahan, the godfather is in particular the Chādschu Bridge ( Persian پل خواجو, DMG Pol-e Ḫ w āǧū ) and the Si-o-se Pol .
Other important buildings from the Safavid period are the Haroun Vilayat mausoleum and the Madar-e Shah Madreseh in Isfahan, as well as the Bibi Dochtaran mausoleum in Shiraz .
This development in architecture was rooted in Persian culture and extended to the design of schools, baths, houses, caravanserais and bazaars. It lasted until the end of the Qajar rule.
See also
literature
- Yukako Goto: The southern Caspian provinces of Iran under the Safavids in the 16th and 17th centuries . Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-87997-382-8 .
- Walther Hinz : Shah Esma'il II. A contribution to the history of the Safavids. In: Communications from the Oriental Languages Seminar. 2. Department, 36, 1933, ZDB -ID 281701-9 , pp. 19-99.
- Engelbert Kaempfer : At the court of the Persian great king (1684–1685). Edited by Walther Hinz. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt et al. 1984.
- M. Ismail Marcinkowski (translator): Persian Historiography and Geography. Bertold Spuler on Major Works Produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India and Early Ottoman Turkey . With a foreword by C. Edmund Bosworth . Pustaka Nasional, Singapore 2003, ISBN 9971-77-488-7 , ( Contemporary Islamic scholars series ).
- M. Ismail Marcinkowski (translator, ed.): Mīrzā Rafīʿāʾs Dastūr al-Mulūk. A Manual of Later Safavid Administration . Commented English translation; with facsimile of the only Persian manuscript. International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur 2002, ISBN 983-9379-26-7 .
- Kishwar Rizvi: The Safavid Dynastic Shrine. Architecture, Religion and Power in Early Modern Iran . IB Tauris, London / New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-84885-354-6 .
- Umberto Scerrato: Islam (= monuments of great cultures ). Bertelsmann et al., Stuttgart et al. 1976, DNB 208274766 .
Web links
- Safavids . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
- BBC
- History of the Safavids from Iran Chamber
- Tamim Ansary, The Unknown Center of the World: Global History from an Islamic Perspective
- Malcom Clark, Islam for Dummies: Discover Islam. The rites and the story
Individual evidence
- ↑ Umberto Scerrato: Islam. (= Monuments of great cultures ). Bertelsmann et al., Stuttgart et al. 1976, DNB 208274766 , pp. 112-114.
- ^ Peter B. Golden: An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. Ankara 2002, ISBN 3-477-03274-X , p. 321.
- ↑ GE Grunebaum (ed.): Der Islam II - The Islamic empires after the fall of Constantinople. (= Fischer world history. Volume 15). Frankfurt am Main 1971, p. 160 ff.
- ↑ Monika Gronke : History of Iran: from Islamization to the present. in the Google book search p. 73.
- ↑ Umberto Scerrato: Islam. 1976, p. 112.
- ↑ Mehdi Parvizi Amineh: The Global Capitalist Expansion and Iran: A Study of the Iranian Political Economy (1500–1980). in Google book search p. 81.
- ↑ Mehdi Parvizi Amineh: The Global Capitalist Expansion and Iran: A Study of the Iranian Political Economy (1500–1980). in Google book search pp. 82–83.
- ^ V. Minorsky: The Poetry of Shah Ismail. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. University of London, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1942.
- ^ E. Yarshater: Language of Azerbaijan, vii., Persian language of Azerbaijan. In: Encyclopaedia Iranica . v, pp. 238–245, Online Edition, ( LINK )
- ↑ Emeri "van" Donzel: Islamic Desk Reference. Brill Academic Publishers, 1994, p. 393.
- ↑ Wall tiles, Safavid; Image and English commentary , accessed January 5, 2011.
- ↑ Textile Art: Velvet, Safavid; Image and English commentary , accessed January 5, 2011.
- ↑ book binding, Safavid; Image and English commentary , accessed January 5, 2011.
- ^ Miniature painting, Safavid; Image and English commentary , accessed January 5, 2011.
- ↑ Abolala Soudavar: The Age of Muhammadi , In: Muqarnas, 2000, PDF
- ↑ Poland carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, silk with gold and silver threads , accessed January 5 2011th
- ↑ Explanations in the Carpet Museum of Iran , accessed on January 5, 2011.
- ↑ See also Heribert Horst: Tīmūr and Ḫōğä 'Alī. A contribution to the history of the Safavids (= treatises of the humanities and social sciences class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born in 1958, No. 2).
- ↑ Umberto Scerrato: Islam. 1976, pp. 86-89.
- ↑ Haroun Vilayat Mausoleum
- ↑ Madar-e Shah Madreseh
- ↑ Bibi Dokhtaran -Mausoleum ( Memento from January 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Philip Jodidio: Iran: Architecture For Changing Societies . Umberto Allemandi, 2006.