Sulayman II (Safavids)

Coins issued by Sulayman II

Sulaiman or Suleiman II ( Persian سلیمان, DMG Sulaimān ; † 1750 ), actually Mīr Sayyed Moḥammad (مير سيد محمد Mir Sayyid Muhammad , DMG Mīr Sayyid Muḥammad ), was on his mother's side a grandson of Safi II (r. 1666-1694) - who had ruled as Sulaiman I from 1668 - and in 1750 the penultimate Shah from the Safavid dynasty for a few months. This ruled Persia since 1501, but since it wasoverthrownby the Pashtun Ghilzai (see Hotaki dynasty )in 1722, the real power lay in the hands of various generals and other potentates, who the Safavids only used as puppet rulers . So in1732the Afsharide Nadir Shah had Abbas III. installed as ruler before he deposed him again in 1736 to become king himself. When after Nadir Shah's death (1747), among other things, today's Afghanistan fell to Ahmad Shah Durrani and southern Persia to the Zand princes , the latter set the Safavid Ismail III in 1750 . on the throne.

In Khorasan , where the Afsharids still ruled, a grandson of Nadir Shah named Shah-Ruch had come to power shortly before . He had brought the Safavid offspring Sulaiman, an influential cleric from the holy city of Qom , to his capital Mashhad and entrusted him with the administration of the Waqf property for the grave of the eighth Imam Ali Riza there . In this way, the Afsharide (like his grandfather) wanted to keep an eye on a potential and therefore not harmless candidate for the throne, but the power struggles at his court quickly developed in a different direction: some nobles and viziers who were dissatisfied with Shah Ruch, persuaded Sulayman that he alone was the rightful ruler of Iran. Incited in this way, Sulaiman reluctantly overthrew Shah-Ruch at the end of 1749, had him incarcerated and later blinded. On January 13, 1750 he was named Sulayman II Shah and issued a tax amnesty for the next three years, which was a heavy burden on the state treasury. Furthermore, there were problems with Ahmad Shah Durrani in the east, who did not recognize the supremacy of Sulayman and conquered Herat . So Sulayman's position was by no means certain. To make matters worse, a group of conspirators gathered around General Yusuf Ali Chan Dschalayir ( Yūsuf ʿAlī Ḫān Ḫān Ǧalāyir ) who wanted to overthrow Sulayman and bring the blind Shah Ruch back to the throne in order to gain the wealth of the state. Sulayman II was killed by the conspirators on the night of the Nouruz festival in 1750, Shah Ruch was freed and reappointed ruler. Sulayman's supporters either fled or came to terms with the new old ruler.

literature

• JR Perry: Afsharids . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica , as of: July 28, 2011 (English, including references)
• JR Perry: The Last Safavids, 1722-1773 , Iran 9, 1971, pp. 59-69