SAFAVID

In 1501, the Safavid empire [i] was established by the Safavids, who were part of the Sufis, and traced their lineage to Safi al-Din, a Shi’a Persian nationalist. The first ruler was Shah Ismail, who declared independence from the Ottomans after they outlawed Shi’a Islam. As the Ottomans became less of a threat, rulers became complacent and increasingly corrupt. In the 18th century, a religious council, the Shi’a ulama took over, and officially established the first Islamic Republic. In 1726, an Afghan group conquered the empire, replacing it with a new rule that was split between the Shi’a ulama and Afghan shas.

In their attempt to expand territory, the Safavids became rivals of the Ottomans [ii]. The Ottomans were strong, and threatened imperialist dreams of the Safavids to the west. As the Ottomans threatened their lands, the two civilizations signed a treaty to split contested lands in 1639. Threats from the Uzbek region helped craft an alliance with the Mughal empire [iii]. The Mughal empire faced wars with the Afghans, Uzbeks, and an attempted coup. Given this, the Safavids crafted an alliance with the brother of the emperor [iv]. This alliance helped the brother, Tahmasp, ascend to power, and marked the beginning of a lasting alliance.

After the invasion [v] of the Afghan shas, the Shi’a ulama controlled religious practice and enforced Sharia law. The intertwining of political and religious authority in government created problems which continue to persist in Iran today. When oil was discovered in the early 20th century, an American backed shah was put in power. But in 1979, the ulama overthrew the non-religious Shah. He then installed the highest official of the ulama, the Ayatollah, as the leader of the country. Without the Safavids’ declaration of a uniting religion in their lands, the strong religious tradition in present day’s Iranian society might not exist.

The shah was the head of government [vi], and was legitimized by his lineage as a descendent of the Prophet Muhmammad, or sayyed. Below the shah, there was a complex bureaucracy that served to keep the powers of the shah in check, though it did not always work in practice. Jobs in the bureaucracy were based on meritocracy, often leading to members to make decisions to appease the leader and keep their positions. The shah also had two close advisors - a prime minister chosen from the doctors of law, and the court minister, who was the highest person in the royal court.

In 1501, Ismail became shah [vii] in the area that is Azerbaijan today. Within a decade, he spread his reach to most of Iran and annexed the provinces of Baghdad and Mosul. Although most of the area he controlled was Sunni, Ismail declared Shi’ism the official religion of the Safavids. Once the capital was moved to Isfahan [viii], the Safavid empire grew beyond military strength - it became known for its arts and architecture, many of which are still in the region today. The prosperity influenced the regions around the Safavids as well, and the Safavid civilization became a home for scholars and philosophers.

Isfahan was once called, “half the world” [ix] a city in which the arts, heritage, and culture were preserved. Due to having installed Shi’ism as the state religion, education [x] was able to flourish, grounding itself in Shi’a Islam. This furthered studies of the Quran and the philosophy and theology of the text were furthered immensely. Initially, arts were celebrated in large part because they were crafted to revere the new empire. However, as the empire grew in strength, there was a shift to a patronage of the art to celebrate it, which led to a flourishing of Persian arts in the region.

The Safavid empire was in the perfect geographical position to participate in the trade [xi] between Europe and civilizations in east Asia and India. Through this participation, massive wealth was generated that helped the empire fund other ventures, such as the arts and the empire’s continuous goal of stretching their boundaries. Another important part of their economy was agriculture [xii]. The physical agricultural work was done by the lower class, which was divided between cattle breeders and settled agriculturalists. Through this system, there was always a diversity of options available at feasts, which rivaled the feasts of Italy and France at the time.