Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires

Description

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the establishment of the new Safavid regime in Iran. Along with reuniting the Persian lands under one rule, the Safavids initiated the radical transformation of the religious landscape by introducing Imami Shi‘ism as the official state faith and in this as in other ways, laying the foundations of Iran’s modern identity. In this book, leading scholars of Iranian history, culture and politics examine the meaning of the idea of Iran in the Safavid period by examining contemporary experiences of both insiders and outsiders, asking how modern scholarship defines the distinctive features of the age. While sometimes viewed as a period of decline from the high points of classical Persian literature and the visual arts of preceding centuries, the chapters of this book demonstrate that the Safavid era was nevertheless a period of great literary and artistic activity in the realms of both secular and theological endeavour. With the establishment of comparable polities across western, southern and central Asia at broadly the same time, the book explores some of the literary and political interactions with Iran’s Ottoman, Mughal and Uzbek neighbours. As the volume and frequency of European merchants and diplomats visiting Safavid Persia increased, especially in the seventeenth century, and as more Iranians recorded their own travel experiences to surrounding Muslim lands, the Safavid period is the first in which we can document and explore the contours of Iran’s place in an expanding world, and gain insights into how Iranians saw themselves and others saw them. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction • Charles Melville The Body Politic and the Rise of the Safavids • Ali Anooshahr The Qazvin Period and the Idea of the Safavids • Gregory Aldous Man of the Pen, Pillar of the State: Hatem Beg Ordubadi and the Safavid Empire • Colin Mitchell The Idea of Iran in the Safavid Period: Dynastic Pre-eminence and Urban Pride • Rudi Matthee Safavid Town Planning • Sussan Babaie From Absolute Prince to Despot: The Political Representations of Safavid Iran in Seventeenth-Century France • Aurélie Salesse-Chabrier The Idea of Baqer al-Majlesi as ‘The Idea of Iran: The Safavid Era’ • Andrew J. Newman Practising Philosophy, Imagining Iran in the Safavid Period • Sajjad Rizvi Popular Religiosity and Vernacular Turkic: A Qezelbash Catechism from Safavid Iran • Ferenc Csirkés ‘O Muhibbi! You’ve Lit Your Lamp with Khosrow’s Burning Passion’: Persian Poetry as Perceived by Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Authors • Benedek Péri Commercial Relations between Safavid Persia and Western Europe • Willem Floor ‘The World is an Oyster and Iran, the Pearl’: Representations of Iran in Safavid Persian Travel Literature • Maryam Ala Amjadi Local and Transregional Places in the Works of Safavid Men of Letters • Sunil Sharma Shi‘i Rulers, Safavid Alliance and the Religio-Political Landscape of the Deccan • Roy S. Fischel Safavids and Ozbeks • Florian Schwarz The Evolution of the Safavid Policy towards Eastern Georgia • George Sanikidze Flora in Safavid Paintings from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama and Later Works • Sheila R. Canby The Making of New Art: From the Khazana to its Audience at the Court of Shah Soleyman • Negar Habibi Index