THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF IRAN

IN SEVEN VOLUMES

Volume 6
THE CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF
IRAN
Volume 6
THE TIMURID AND
SAFAVID PERIODS
edited by
PETER JACKSON
Lecturer in History,
University of Keele

AND

the late LAURENCE LOCKHART

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 1986

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First published 1986
Reprinted 1993, 1997, 2001, 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 67-12845

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

The Cambridge history of Iran.

Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid periods.
1. Iran-History
I. Jackson, Peter n. Lockhart, Laurence
955 DS272

ISBN 0 521 20094 6

UP
 BOARD OF EDITORS

SIR HAROLD BAILEY {Chairman)

Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit
University of Cambridge

BASIL GRAY {Vice-Chairman)

Formerly Keeper of the Oriental Antiquities
British Museum

P.W.AVERY
Lecturer in Persian
University of Cambridge

C.E.BOSWORTH
Professor of Arabic Studies
University of Manchester

ILYA GERSHEVITCH
Emeritus Reader in Iranian Studies
University of Cambridge

MAHMOUD SANA'I
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
University of Tehran

H.S.G.DARKE {Editorial Secretary)

Formerly Lecturer in Persian
University of Cambridge
 CONTENTS
List of plates page ix

List of text figures xvii

List of maps xix

List of tables xix

Preface xxi

1 THE JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS I

by H.R.ROEMER, Emeritus Professor of Islamic History, University of Freiburg

2 TIMUR I N I R A N 42
by H.R.ROEMER

3 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR 98

by H.R.ROEMER

4 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES 147

by H.R.ROEMER

5 THE SAFAVID PERIOD 189

by H.R.ROEMER

6 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM 3 51

by R.M.SAVORY, Professor in the Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies,
Trinity College, University of Toronto

7 EUROPEAN CONTACTS WITH PERSIA, 1350— I 7 3 6 373

by the late LAURENCE LOCKHART

8 T R A D E FROM T H E M I D - I 4 T H C E N T U R Y TO T H E E N D
OF T H E S A F A V I D P E R I O D 412
by RONALD FERRIER, Historian to the British Petroleum Company

9 SOCIAL A N D I N T E R N A L E C O N O M I C A F F A I R S 491
by BERT FRAGNER, Professor ofIranian Studies, Free University of Berlin

10 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN 568

by E.s. KENNEDY, Professor of Mathematics, The American University of Beirut

11 P E R S I A N S C I E N C E I N S A F A V I D TIMES 5 81
by H . J . J . W I N T E R , formerly Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Exeter

vii
Vlll CONTENTS

12 RELIGION IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS 6lO

by B.S.AMORETTI, Institute ofIslamic Studies, University of Rome

13 SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS, PHILOSOPHY AND

THEOLOGY IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD 656
by s. H.NASR, Professor of Islamics, Temple University, Philadelphia

14 CARPETS AND TEXTILES 698

by F.SPUHLER, Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Berlin

IJ {a) TIMURID ARCHITECTURE 728

by R.PINDER-WILSON

(b) SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE 759

by ROBERT HILLENBRAND, Reader in Fine Art, University of Edinburgh

16 (a) T H E PICTORIAL ARTS IN THE TIMURID PERIOD 843

by BASIL GRAY, formerly Keeper of the Oriental Antiquities, British Museum

(b) THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD 877

by BASIL GRAY

17 {a) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN T H E TIMURID AND

TURKMEN PERIODS 91 3
by Z.SAFA, Emeritus Professor of Persian Uterature, Tehran University

(b) HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES 929

by ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL, Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture, Harvard University

(c) PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD 948

by Z.SAFA

18 PERSIAN POETRY IN THE TIMURID AND SAFAVID

PERIODS 965
by EHSAN YARSHATER, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies, Columbia
University, New York

Bibliographies 995

Index 1067
 PLATES
Between pages 744 and 745

1—2 An astrolabe made in 1127/1715 by 'Abd al-A'imma, the younger

(Victoria and Albert Museum, London item no. 458—1888.
Reproduced by courtesy of the Director).
3 Khusrau and Shlrin, ascribed to Bihzad, dated 1490 (From the
Khamsa of NizamI, British Library, Add. 25,900, fol. 3. Repro-
duced by courtesy of the Trustees).
4 Woollen knotted carpet, Persia, first half of the 16th century (The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, purchase 1910, Hewitt
Fund).
5 Multiple woollen prayer rug, Persia, first half of the 16th century,
(Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Museum fur Islam-
ische Kunst, Berlin).
6 Woollen knotted carpet, the so-called Ardabll carpet, Persia,
dated 1539-40 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
7 Woollen knotted carpet, Persia, dated 1522—3 (Museo Poldi
Pezzoli, Milan).
8 Woollen knotted carpet, "north-west Persian medallion carpet",
first half of the 16th century (Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, McMullan Collection).
9 Woollen knotted carpet, "Herat carpet", 16th century (Oster-
reichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna).
10 Woollen knotted carpet, "Vase carpet", Persia, first half of the
17th century (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
11 Woollen knotted carpet, "Portuguese carpet", Persia, first half of
the 17th century (Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte
Kunst, Vienna).
12 Woollen knotted carpet, "Sanguszko group", Persia, second half
of the 16th century (Musee des arts decoratifs, Paris).
13 Silk knotted carpet, "Hunting carpet", Persia, 16th century
(Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna).
14 Silk tapestry-woven carpet, Kashan, latter half of the 16th century
(Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna).
ix
X PLATES

15 (a) Silk knotted carpet, Persia, 16th century (The Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Benjamin Altman).
(b) Silk knotted carpet with gold and silver brocade, the so-called
"Polonaise carpet", Isfahan, first quarter of the 17th century
(Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesit2, Museum fur Is-
lamische Kunst, Berlin).
16 Cope, knotted in silk with brocade, Isfahan, beginning of the 17th
century (Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Reproduced by
courtesy of the Director).
17 Velvet, enriched with metal thread, Persia, 16th century (The
Keir Collection, London).
18 Satin, Persia, beginning of the 17th century (Musees Royaux d'art
et d'histoire, Brussels).
19 {a) Yazd. Masjid-i Jami', portal (Photograph, Laurence Lock-
hart).
(b) Yazd. Masjid-i Jami', view of court and sanctuary aivdn
(Photograph, Laurence Lockhart).
20 Turbat-i Shaikh Jam. Masjid-i KirmanI, east wall, transverse
vaults (Photograph, Lisa Golombek).
21 (a) Isfahan. Masjid-i Jami', mihrdb of the adjoining madrasa
(Photograph, Lisa Golombek).
(b) Samarqand. Shah-i Zinda. Detail of portal of the tomb of
Terken Aqa (From Historical Monuments of Islam in the
U.S.S.R. no. 25).
22 (a) Samarqand. Shah-i Zinda. Detail of fagade of the mausoleum
of Tuman Aqa (From op. cit. no. 29).
(b) Samarqand. Gur-i Mir, general view (From op. cit. no. 51).
23 Turkistan. Mausoleum of Ahmad Yasavl, south elevation of the
"complex" containing mosque, mausoleum, khdnqdh and" library
(From Hill and Grabar, Islamic Architecture and its Decoration, pi.
106).

24 (a) Mashhad. Gauhar Shad mosque, sanctuary aivdn (Photograph,

Laurence Lockhart).
(b) Mashhad. Gauhar Shad mosque, detail of foundation inscrip-
tion (Photograph, Bernard O'Kane).
 PLATES xi
25 (a) Mashhad. Gauhar Shad mosque, southeast aivdn (From SPA,
pi. 433).
(b) Herat. Gauhar Shad Musalla. D o m e of the mausoleum of
Gauhar Shad (Photograph, Derek Hill).
26 Herat. Gauhar Shad Musalla. Interior of the mausoleum of
Gauhar Shad (Photograph, Josephine Powell).
27 Herat. Gauhar Shad Musalla. Inside of the dome of the mauso-
leum of Gauhar Shad (Photograph, Josephine Powell).
28 Khargird. Madrasa of Ghiyas al-Dln, interior of eastern domed
room (Photograph, Lisa Golombek).
29 Herat, Gazur Gah. Detail of faience in sanctuary aivdn (Photo-
graph, Lisa Golombek).
30 (a) Isfahan. Darb-i Imam, facade (Photograph, R. Pinder-
Wilson).
(b) Isfahan. Darb-i Imam, detail of faience (Photograph,
R. Pinder-Wilson).
31 {a) Tabriz. Blue mosque, main sanctuary, northwest side (Photo-
graph, Basil Gray).
(b) Tabriz. Blue mosque, main sanctuary, northeast side (From
SPA, pi. 4)6).
3 2 (a) Tabriz. Blue mosque, detail of main portal (Photograph, Basil
Gray).
(b) Tabriz. Blue mosque, interior (Photograph, Josephine
Powell).

Between pages 808 and 809

33 Woollen knotted carpet, "Garden carpet" (Burrell Collection,
Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum).
34 Velvet, metal thread ground, Persia (Museo Civico Correr,
Venice).
35 Velvet, metal thread ground, Persia (Badisches Landesmuseum,
Karlsruhe).
36 Khusrau at the palace of Shlrln. Tabriz, dated 1505. Miniature
added to a manuscript of the Khamsa of NizamI (The Keir Collec-
tion, London).
xii PLATES
37 The court of Gayumars, by Sultan Muhammad. From the
Sbdb-ndma of Shah Tahmasp, folio 20b. Tabriz, c. 15 20-15 30. (The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Collection of Arthur
A. Houghton, Jr).
38 Sam and Zal are welcomed into Kabul; Rudaba on the balcony.
From the Shdh-ndma of Shah Tahmasp, folio 89b. Tabriz, c.
15 20-15 30 (Private collection).
39 Isfahan, Chihil Sutun. Wall-painting in a niche in the room P4.
Girl seated by a stream. Attributed to Muhammad Qasim, c. 1647
(Colour photograph by Cecilia Gray).
40 Isfahan, Chihil Sutun. Wall-painting in a niche in the room P4.
Court picnic in the country. Attributed to Muhammad Qasim, c.
1647 (Colour photograph by Cecilia Gray).

Between pages 872 and 873

41 Na'In. Vault in palatial building (Photograph, Bernard O'Kane).
42 Mahan. Vaults in shrine of Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail (Photograph,
Bernard O'Kane).
43 (a) Isfahan. Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah, exterior (Photograph,
Laurence Lockhart).
(b) Isfahan. Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah, interior (From S.P. and
H.C. Seher-Thoss, Design and Color in Islamic Architecture)
44 [a) Isfahan. Khaju bridge, lower side (Photograph, Laurence
Lockhart).
(b) Isfahan. Caravansarai and madrasa of Shah Sultan
Husain (Photograph, Laurence Lockhart).
45 (a) Isfahan. Madrasa of Shah Sultan Husain, courtyard wing
(Photograph, Laurence Lockhart).
(b) Isfahan. Madrasa of Shah Sultan Husain, courtyard and dome
(Photograph, Laurence Lockhart).
46 Gaz. Safavid caravansarai (Photograph, Robert Hillenbrand).
47 Divan of Khwaju-yi KirmanI, wedding celebrations of Prince
Humal and Princess Humayun. Signed Junaid, Baghdad, 1396
(British Library, MS Add. 18,113, folio 45b).
 PLATES xiii
48 Khamsa of NizamI, arrival of Khusrau at the palace of Shlrln.
Baghdad, 1386-8 (British Library, MS Or. 13,297, folio 80a).
49 (a) Iskandar-nama of NizamI, Iskandar sleeping. Shlraz, c. 1440
(British Library, MS Or. 13,529, folio 19).
(b) Anthology of Iskandar Sultan, Iskandar visits a hermit. Shlraz,
1410-11 (British Library, MS Add. 27,261, folio 230a).
50 Anthology of Iskandar Sultan, illuminated frontispiece. Shlraz,
1410 (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, LA 161, folio 3 b).
51 Shah-ndma of FirdausI, Isfandiyar slaying Arjasp in the Brazen
Hold. Herat, 1430 (Gulistan Library, Tehran).
52 Shdh-ndma of FirdausI, Isfandiyar slaying Arjasp in the Brazen
Hold. Herat, c. 1440. (Royal Asiatic Society, London, per British
Library: folio 278b).
53 Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muliik of Tabarl, Bahram Gur attacking a lion.
Tabriz, 1470 (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, MS 144, folio

54 Kalila va Dimna, The Fable of the Four Friends. Tabriz, 1450-60

(Gulistan Library, Tehran, folio 48a).
55 Khamsa of NizamI, the battle of the tribes of Laila and Majnun.
Herat, c. 1490 (British Library, MS Add. 25,900, folio 121b).
56 Mantiq al-tair of 'Attar, funeral procession at the gate of a ha%jra.
Herat, c. 1487 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
folio 35).
57 Shah u Darvish of Hatifl, Darvlsh conducting a school. Bukhara,
dated 1542 (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, MS 531, folio
13)-
58 {a) Brass wine jar decorated with gold and silver, showing the
dedication to Husain Balqara under the foot, with the date
A.H. 903 (A.D. 1497) and signature of Muhammad b. Isma'Il
Ghurl. Herat, 1497 (British Museum, reproduced by courtesy
of the Trustees).
(b) Silver gilt tankard, chased and engraved with the name of
Qasim b. 'AH. Date, c. 1400 (Hermitage Museum, Leningrad).
59 Jamdl u Jaldl of AsafI, Jalal before the turquoise dome. Tabriz,
• 1504-5 (Uppsala University Library, folio 57b).
xiv PLATES
60 Divan of Hafiz, the feast of 'Id. By Sultan Muhammad, dedicated
to Sam Mlrza, Tabriz, c. 1530 (Private collection, Geneva).
61 Kbamsa of NizamI, King Nushlrvan and his vizier at a ruined
village. By Mir Musavvir, Tabriz, 1539—43 (British Library, MS
Or. 2265, folio 15b).
62 Tuhfat al-ahrar of JamI, East African with a mirror. Mashhad,
1556 (Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C., folio 221b).
63 (a) Portrait of a chamberlain, by Mir Musavvir, Tabriz, c.
1535 - 4 0 (British Museum, Department of Oriental Antiqui-
ties, 1930-11-12-02).
(b) Album of the Amir of Bukhara, a young falconer at the court.
Attributed to Sadiql Beg, Qazvln, c. 15 90 (Pierpont Morgan
Library, New York, MS 386).
64 Shdh-ndma of FirdausI, Blzhan drawn up from the well by
Rustam. Isfahan, 1614 (New York Public Library, Spencer Collec-
tion, folio 432).
65 {a) A girl holding a fan, by Aqa Riza, Qazvln, c. 1595 (Freer
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
(b) A girl holding a wine cup and flask, by Muhammad Yusuf,
Isfahan, c. 1645 (Formerly Y. Dawud Collection, London).
66 Kbamsa of NizamI, Shlrln discovers the murder of her husband
Khusrau, by Muhammad Zaman, Isfahan, dated 1675 (Pierpont
Morgan Library, New York, MS 469, folio 128).
67 Lacquer-painted book-cover, Tabriz, c. 154° (Reproduced by
courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum. 1948-12-11-
027/28).
68 Tooled and gilt leather binding, Tabriz, c. 1550-60 (Leder-
museum, Offenbach-am-Main, Frankfurt, no. 78).
69 Panel of polychrome tiles in cuerda seca technique, from a pavil-
ion in the Chahar Bagh, Isfahan, c. 1640 (Victoria and Albert
Museum, London).
70 Steel helmet, with carved and gilt decoration: dedication to Shah
'Abbas I with the date 1625—6 (British Museum, Henderson
Collection, 1878).
 PLATES XV

71 Shah-ndma of Firdausi, Rustam recovers Rakhsh. Herat style. From

the Shah-ndma of Shah Tahmasp, folio 295a. Tabriz, c. 1520—1530
(Private collection).
72 Sbdh-ndma of Firdausi, Bahram Gur pins the coupling onagers.
From the Shah-ndma of Shah Tahmasp, folio 568a. Tabriz, c.
15 20-15 30 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of Arthur A.
Houghton, Jr, 1970).
 TEXT FIGURES
Chapter 10 page
Fig. i A simplified representation of Jamshld's equatorium as
set up to give a true longitude for the planet Mars. 5 77
Fig. 2 The meridian transit instrument at Ulugh Beg's
Samarqand observatory (From Kary-Niyazov, Astro-
nomicheskaya Shkola Ulugbeka (1950), facing p. 60). 579

Chapter 11
Fig. 1 Diagram of a wooden crane used by Persian builders in
the 17th century (From the 1720 English edition of Sir
John Chardin's travels, facing p. 288. Reproduced by
courtesy of the Librarian, Royal Geographical Society). 601

Chapter 15 (a)
Fig. 1 Turkistan. Plan of Ahmad Yasavl complex (From
Ratiya, Mechet' Bibi-Khanym, p. 12,fig.4). 739
Fig. 2 Samarqand. Plan of the mosque of Blbl Khanum
(From op. cit., p. 83,fig.73). 742
Fig. 3 Khargird. Plan of the madrasa of Ghiyas al-Dln (From
O'Kane, "The madrasa al-Ghiyasiyya at Khargird",
p. 80,fig.1). 750
Fig. 4 Khargird, madrasa. Plan and section of the eastern
dome chamber (From Diez, Churasanische Baudenkmaler
i, 74,fig.34)- 75i
Fig. 5 Tabriz. Ground plan of the Blue Mosque (From SPA.,
p. ii3i,fig. 405). 757

Chapter 15 (b)
Fig. 1 Kalkhuran. Tomb of Shaikh Jibra'Tl, isometric section
(After Foroughi et al., Masterpieces of Iranian Architecture). 767
Fig. 2 Ardabll. Shrine complex, plan (After M.E. Weaver, in
Iran xn (1974), 48-9). 768
Fig. 3 Isfahan under Shah 'Abbas, plan (After Ardalan and
Bakhtiyar, The Sense of Unity). 776
xvii
xviii TEXT FIGURES
Fig. 4 Isfahan. View of the Chahar Bagh in the 17th century
(From de Bruyn, Voyages). 778
Fig. 5 Isfahan. Maidan area, plan (After Ardalan and Bakhtiyar,
op. cit.). 780
Fig. 6 Isfahan. Maidan area, isometric view (After M. D. Willis
in Welch, Shah 'Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan). 781
Fig. 7 Isfahan. 'All Qapu, section (After Zander, Travaux de
Kestauration de Monuments Historiques en Iran, p. 157,
%• IO)- 783
Fig. 8 Mashhad. Shrine complex, plan (From SPA, p. 1204,
fig. 424). 790
Fig. 9 Kirman. Complex of Ganj 'All Khan, plan (Courtesy of
Sazman-i Milll-yi Hifazat-i Asar-i BastanI). 794
Fig. 10 (a, b) Isfahan. Chihil Sutun, section and plan (After
Foroughi et al., op. cit.). 79&~9
Fig. 11 {a) Isfahan. Drawing ("Planographia") of the royal pre-
cinct (From Kaempfer, Amoenitatum exoticarum). 800
(b) E. Galdieri's interpretation of Kaempfer's "Plano-
graphia", in a simplified drawing by H. Gaube
(From Iran x v n (1979), 75). 801
Fig. 12 Isfahan, Khaju bridge, section and plans (After Anon.,
Isfahan, City of Light). 802
Fig. 13 (a) Isfahan, Hasht Bihisht, section and plans (After
Anon., Isfahan, City of Light). 806
(b) Isfahan, Hasht Bihisht, interior (From Coste, Monu-
ments modernes). 807
Fig. 14 Isfahan. Madrasa, caravansarai and bazaar of Shah Sultan
Husain, plan (From Pope, Persian Architecture, p. 234,
fig. 316). 809
Fig. 15 (a, b) Blsitun. Safavid caravansarai, plan, section and
elevation (After W. Kleiss in AMI in (1970),
289-308). 814-5
Fig. 16 Royal reception at the garden pavilion at Asadabad,
adjoining the Chahar Bagh (From Kaempfer, Amoeni-
tatum). 836
 MAPS
page
1. Iran at the advent of Tlmiir 40-1
2. Timur's campaigns 84—5
3. Eastern Iran and Central Asia in the later Timurid era 128—9
4. Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus and Azarbaijan in the
Turkmen period 170-1
5. The empire of Uzun Hasan 18 5
6. Iran under the Safavids 348—9
7. The commercial links of Iran 410— 1

TABLES

I. The Jalayirids 10

2. The Muzaffarids 10

3- The Timurids 146

4- The Qara Quyiinlu 186
5- The Aq Quyiinlu 187
6. The Safavids 35°

XIX
 PREFACE
The period of Iranian history from the death of the last important
Il-Khan, Abu Sa'Id, in 1335 down to the mid 18th century has scarcely
received adequate notice from western historians. Since this volume
was first conceived, the void has been filled partially by two works in
English, The Aqquyunlu by J. E. Woods (1976) and R. M. Savory's Iran
under the Safavids (1980). But there is as yet no authoritative monograph
on Tlmur or the Timurids (with the qualified exception of Barthold's
work on Ulugh Beg and on the court of Husain Balqara); and the
standard work on the Qara Quyunlu is in Turkish. It is not the least
merit of Professor Roemer's first four chapters, therefore, to make the
pre-Safavid era as a whole accessible and intelligible to the Western
reader.
The relative neglect from which late medieval and early modern
Iran has suffered is all the more remarkable when it is borne in mind
that this period witnessed the first emergence of Iran as a "national"
state enjoying a recognisable continuity with the present day. To a
large extent this was of course fortuitous rather than a matter of
conscious policy on the part of the Safavid rulers. The defeat at Chaldi-
ran ensured that the Safavids would not extend their power into Ana-
tolia, just as the simultaneous rise of the Uzbeks and of the Mughal
empire curtailed attempts to enter into the Timurid political legacy in
the east. Yet the fact remains that under the Safavid dynasty, which
contrived to last longer than any of its predecessors since the Islamic
conquest, Iran came to constitute a single political entity roughly
within its present-day boundaries. The part played in this process by
the adoption of Shl'a Islam as the state religion; the reshaping of the
Persian monarchic ideal; the need to resolve the conflicts inherent in
Iranian society, as for instance between tribal and non-tribal elements —
all these are problems which merit detailed investigation.
The period has other fascinations for Western Europe. If diplomatic
contact between Iran and the West had begun under the Tl-Khans, it
had nevertheless been shortlived. Not until the late 15 th century, in the
time of the Aq Quyunlu, did such exchanges become a regular phe-
nomenon, fortified under both Uzun Hasan and his Safavid heirs by
the common hostility of the parties concerned towards the Ottoman
empire. These contacts, and the growing attractiveness of Iran also to
Western merchants in search of manufactures and raw materials,
xxi
XX11 PREFACE

endow the Safavid period especially with a wealth of European travellers'

reports which are among our principal sources for the country's polit-
ical, economic and social history.
This volume was first planned in 1961, when Laurence Lockhart
was appointed editor, and invitations to most of the contributors had
been sent out by the end of 1963. Several chapters were as yet unfi-
nished or awaited translation into English at the time of Lockhart's
death in 1976. Professor J. A. Boyle, who had produced the fifth
volume in this series, then took over the editorship of volume 6, but
had been able to do very little when he in turn died two years later. It
has fallen to me, as editor since the autumn of 1979, to receive the
chapters still outstanding, to edit and prepare the entire manuscript for
the press. Some of the contributors - Professor Savory, Dr Hillenbrand
and Mr Gray - have revised their chapters within the last few years;
and we are indebted to Professor Schimmel and Professor Yarshater
for adding, at somewhat short notice, two valuable chapters to the
literature section of the volume. The remaining chapters were drafted
earlier, and consequently the most recent research has not been taken
into account. For this, of course, the authors themselves are not to
blame. It should also be mentioned that the maps and genealogical
tables were drafted by me and not by the authors of the chapters within
which they are located.
Every effort has been made to achieve a high degree of standardis-
ation throughout the volume. I have adhered, on the whole, to the
system of transliteration followed in volume 4 and to the practice
adopted there of using italics only for the first appearance of technical
terms, and roman characters thereafter, within each chapter. A major
difficulty has arisen from the fact that, even in the period covered by
this volume, Arabic names and terms are by no means totally eclipsed
by Persian ones, and that it is necessary to employ different transcrip-
tions (Arabic th, dh, d, and w for Persian /, £, % and v). The results may
occasionally seem startling, as when the convention is applied to the
titles of books written by the same author but in different languages; or
in the case of the Islamic months and of religious and philosophical
terminology, which have been given in their Arabic form (thus qadt
rather than qa^t, except where part of a proper name, as in QazI Burhan
al-Dln). The ligature used in previous volumes, indicating that the
roman letters concerned represent a single consonant in the Arabo-
Persian alphabet, has been discarded. Diacritical marks are also omit-
 PREFACE XX111

ted, for example, in the names of dynasties where these are anglicised
(thus Safaviyya, but Safavids) and in such titles as shah unless an
integral part of a proper name (thus Jahan Shah, Shah Jahan; but Shah
'Abbas). For Turkish and Mongol words and names I have slightly
modified the system of transcription found in volume 5; and in any case
those dynasties which held extensive sway over Iranian territory, as did
the later Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu rulers, have been treated as if
they were Persian. It is hoped that the adoption of these admittedly
complex principles will have proved more vexatious to the editor than
to the reader.
It remains to thank those who contributed to the completion of this
volume. Hubert Darke, the Editorial Secretary for the Cambridge
History of Iran, has been of considerable assistance with the bibli-
ography, plates and figures. I have benefited also from the help of Iain
White, who sub-edited the manuscript. My colleagues and friends at
Keele have had to live with me while I wrestled with editorial tasks; I
should like finally to thank them for their patience and good humour.
The Publishers and the Editorial Board of The Cambridge History of
Iran are grateful for a generous donation from The Yarshater Fund,
Columbia University.
PETER JACKSON
Keele, April I$8J
 CHAPTER I

THE JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND

SARBADARS

THE LAST CHINGIZIDS

The end of the Il-Khanid empire resulted in Persia, if not in the creation
of a vacuum, at any rate in a dilution of power, which worked in favour
of various forces contending for authority in the state. The rivals
involved in the struggles which now began fall into three categories.
The most obvious of these were princes from several lines of the dynasty
of Chingiz Khan, who looked to a restoration of centralised Mongol
rule. They set about their task partly on their own initiative and partly as
mere figureheads put up by legitimist groupings in the background. A
second group was the representatives of local dynasties or highly placed
families, who had served the Tl-Khans as generals or senior servants of
the state, and also the leaders of powerful tribal associations. And there
were,finally,other groups for whom what mattered was not dynastic or
aristocratic considerations but religious adherence to Shl'I or extremist
movements.
The power struggles that went on within or between these groups
lasted for half a century. Though one or other of the rivals might for a
time contrive to establish a certain measure of political and economic
stability in his area of effective control, none had any lasting success, and
there was no question of their unifying the country alone and unaided.
Whatever the hardships Persia suffered as a result of divisions and chaotic
conditions, even greater sacrifices were demanded of the people when, at
the beginning of the eighties of the 8th/14th century, reunification was
finally achieved: imposed, in fact, from outside by the conqueror Tlmur.
Pressing forward from Central Asia, he soon swept aside the contending
parties or merely allowed them to fade into insignificance.
It is typical of Persia that in spite of the troubles of the decades
between the end of the Il-Khanid empire and the appearance on the
scene of TTmur, Persian culture was not submerged, as one might have
expected, but achieved, in its intellectual life, for example in the sphere
of poetry, a distinction hardly equalled in any other period. The flow-
ering of poetry which reached its highest point in the unique figure of
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

Hafiz of Shlraz is a striking phenomenon in the cultural history of

8th/14th century Persia. In marked contrast, public life and political
affairs were throughout most of this period in a sorry state. Political
confusion, the tyranny of petty princes, bloody conflicts between local
powers, and devastating invasions were a constant menace, not only to
the general well-being but to people's very existence, even when they
managed to save their skins in the apocalyptic horrors which now
descended on their homeland, depopulating many towns and laying
waste entire areas. The collapse of the Mongol empire of Iran,
struggles for the Mongol inheritance and the horrors of another con-
quest and occupation of the country at the hands of Tlmur made up the
fate of the luckless inhabitants of Iran in this century; a fate which was
all the more keenly felt as the memory of the halcyon days under the
last of the Tl-Khans was no doubt still widely treasured.
Strangely enough, the very time at which - with the death of the
Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id and the passing of Hvilegii's dynasty - the end of
their empire became imminent, was the year in which Tlmur was born,
the man who a few decades later incorporated Persia into an empire
destined eventually to extend from the Jaxartes to Asia Minor. Though
he himself was actually of Turkish origin, throughout his life, and even
when he had become the most powerful man on earth, he set the
greatest store by his Mongol family connections — a plain indication of
the high regard in which Chingiz Khan and his descendants were held
even long after the fall of the Il-Khanid empire.
Of course, the extinction of the line of Hiilegu need not necessarily
have implied the end of the Persian Mongol empire, and there is no
doubt that many people in Persia at this time were convinced that
Mongol rule would survive, for there was plainly no lack of influential
Mongol leaders and politicians, nor of princes belonging to the most
diverse lines of descent from Chingiz Khan who could theoretically
have provided for the continuation of the empire. Abu Sa'id's succes-
sor Arpa Ke'iin, for instance, belonged to the family of Tolui. He was a
competent prince, who might have been able to secure Mongol control
of Persia had he not met his end a few months after his accession as a
result of a conflict with a general who was seeking to put another
Chingizid in power. But he was the last of the princes who emerged, or
were thrust forward in these struggles for power, to show any com-
petence, at least in terms of their success in re-establishing a united
Iranian empire. Not one of them was able to assert control, nor could
 THE LAST CHINGIZIDS

any of their military or nomadic backers. The disappearance of central-

ised authority not only opened the way for Mongol princes and influ-
ential military leaders or tribal chieftains to engage in political adven-
tures; it was also the signal to local rulers who had hitherto been
submissive to Mongol power to make a bid for independence.
The Chingizids' control of Iran was at an end by half way through
the 8th/14th century. This is true whether one chooses to take as
critical the year 740/1340, in which Hasan-i Buzurg, the founder of the
house of the Jalayirids, took power personally in Baghdad in place of
his figurehead Jahan Temiir, a descendant of the Il-Khan Gaikhatu
(690—4/1291 —5), or whether one prefers the year 754/135 3, in which an
equally insignificant Chobanid caused the last coins to be minted bear-
ing the name of the puppet khan Anushlrvan and, in addition, the last
Chingizid, Togha Temiir, was murdered by a Sarbadar. From then on
until Timur's invasion of the country, Iran was under the rule of
various rival petty princes of whom henceforth only the Jalayirids
could claim Mongol, though not Chingizid, descent. They ruled from
Baghdad and were later significantly involved in the history of the
country with the conquest of Azarbaljan. In the east, especially in the
Khurasanian city of Sabzavar, the Sarbadars increased in power, while
in Fars and Isfahan members of the house of Tnjii sought to assert
themselves over the Muzaffarids. In the south-east, princes of the Kart
(or Kurt) dynasty at Herat were active on the political scene, just as
they had been under the Tl-Khans. Later, Turkmen confederations
appeared, thrusting forward from eastern Anatolia towards the Iranian
highlands. These were the Qara Quyunlu and the Aq Quyunlu, of
whom the former were already beginning to influence the fortunes of
Persia in the 8th/14th century.
It is necessary to discuss the political scene at this time, grim and
unedifying though it is, because it forms the background to a signifi-
cant epoch in Iranian intellectual life; and also because it shows up in
clear colours the negative reasons for Timur's successes on Iranian soil.
Before tracing the main lines of this development, which extended
over some fifty years, it will be as well to try to clarify the situation of
the time by means of a table setting out the most important political
forces which began to operate after the fall of the Il-Khanid empire.
Although the plan which follows is not exhaustive, it does demonstrate
the fragmentation of the country. It is evident from the dates given,
which in many cases can only be tentative, that various of these
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

regimes survived the conquest by Tlmur or in some cases even the

entire Timurid era:
The Chobanids in 'Iraq-i 'Ajam, Azarbaljan and Armenia, until
744/1343;
The Jalayirids in 'Iraq-i 'Arab and later also in the territory of the
Chobanids, until 835/1432;
The Qara Quyunlu in Azarbaljan, and later with further extensions
of influence to Firs and Khurasan, till 873/1468-9;
The "Tl-Khan" Togha Temiir in western Khurasan and Gurgan,
until 754/1353;
The Sarbadars in western Khurasan, until 783/1381;
The Sayyids of Mazandaran, until 794/1392, and Gllan down to

The Karkiya in Lahijan, until 1060/1650;

The Kartids (Kurtids) of Herat in eastern Khurasan and Afghani-
stan, with influence extending into Slstan and Kirman, until
791/1389;
The Injuids in Fars and Isfahan, until 758/1357;
The Muzaffarids in Kirman and Yazd, and later also in the former
territory of the Injuids, until 795/1393;
The maliks of Shabankara in the area lying between Fars and
Kirman on the Persian Gulf, until 756/1355;
The governors (hukkam) of Lar, until 983/1575;
The maliks of Hurmuz, until 1031/1622;
The atabegs of Greater Luristan (Lur-i Buzurg), until 828/1425;
The atabegs of Lesser Luristan (Lur-i Kuchak), until 1006/1597.
A number of these princely houses and their representatives such as
Togha Temiir, the Chobanids, and particularly the conflict of the "two
Hasans", i.e. the Chobanid Shaikh Hasan-i Kuchak and Shaikh Hasan-i
Buzurg of the Jalayir tribe, have been treated elsewhere,1 and the Qara
Quyunlu will be dealt with later; others are of such minor significance
in the history of Iran, in this period at least, that no more than a brief
reference can be made to them here. We shall therefore summarise the
most important events in three brief sections on the Jalayirids, on the
Tnjii family and the Muzaffarids, and on the Sarbadars and their rivals.

1
On the Chobanids, see Boyle, in CHI v, 373-416; for Togha Temiir, ibid., 413-16, and
Minorsky, "Tugha Tlmur", El1; for the racial affinities of the Ja'un-i Qurban who supported
him, Aubin, "L'ethnogenese", p. 67.
 THE JALAYIRIDS

THE JALAYIRIDS

The name Jalayir is derived from that of a large and important Mongol
tribe.1 The dynasty of the same name, whose rule began in 740/1340
with Shaikh Hasan-i Buzurg's seizure of power in Baghdad and ended
with the death of Husain II at the siege of al-Hilla, is also quite often
referred to as the Ilka dynasty or the Ilkanids. The name originates
with Shaikh Hasan's great-grandfather Ilge (<Tlka) Noyan, who as
one of Hiilegii's generals took a significant part in the Mongol con-
quest of Central Asia and the Near East. His sons likewise attained to
high rank in the military aristocracy of the Il-Khanid empire, and
several of them were able to take princesses of the house of Hiilegii in
marriage* Thus Ilge's grandson Husain (d.722/1322) married a daugh-
ter of the Tl-Khan Arghun named Oljetei, who became the mother of
Shaikh Hasan, the founder of the dynasty.
Shaikh Hasan-i Buzurg, who under Abu Sa'Id and again under Arpa
Ke'iin had attained to the highest offices as ulus beg and deputy, proved to
be the strongest personality in the massive struggles for power which
took place at the end of Mongol rule in Iran, though he was frequently
hard pressed in the conflicts with the Chobanids, and especially with
Shaikh Hasan-i Kiichak and, after the latter's murder in 744/1343, with
his brother Malik Ashraf. If we are to credit a recent interpretation, he
was more interested in seeing restoration of the Il-Khanid empire than
its overthrow, which of course he did in fact bring about.2 He is said
never to have assumed any title other than ulus beg ("amir of the state",
from Tu. beg, "amir", and Mo. ulus, "state, people") and to have recog-
nised the legitimate Chingizids - Togha Temiir (739/1338-9, 741-4/
1340—4), Jahan Temiir (740/1339—40) and Sulaiman (747/1346) — and
subsequently, in the period 747-57/ 1346-56, to have left the throne
unoccupied. The remarkable thing is that this prince was able to main-
tain his position in these troubled times right up to his death in 7 5 7/13 5 6.
"No one in his position has lived to such an age nowadays", commented

1
In "Ilat", EP, Professor Lambton discusses a manuscript said to be taken from the state
papers of the Safavid Sultan Husain, in which the distribution of tribes at the beginning of the
12th/18th century is surveyed and a distinction drawn between Persian and non-Persian tribes:
here the Jalayir in Khurasan are listed in the former category.
2
The view of Smith, "Djalayir, Djalayirids", EP. According to Spuler, Die Mongolen in Iran,
p. 133, and Boyle, CHI v, 41;, however, Shaikh Hasan began his autonomous rule in Baghdad
with the deposition of Jahan Temiir. On this question Shaikh Hasan's coinage appears relevant:
cf. Spuler, p. 303, n.7.

5
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

in amazement Ibn Bazzaz; and he finds a supernatural explanation for

the fact — namely the good relationship which (in contrast to the
Chobanids) Hasan-i Buzurg had established with the saintly Shaikh SafI
al-Din of Ardabll, who had died twenty-two years previously.1
He was succeeded by Shaikh Uvais, a son of Hasan and the Cho-
banid princess Dil-Shad Khatun. In the same year — as had happened
once before, at the death of Abu Sa'Id — an attack was launched by the
Golden Horde against Persia, namely in Khurasan and Azarbaljan.
However, the khan Janl Beg (Jambek) Jalal al-Din Mahmud, who had
defeated and executed Malik Ashraf, the ruler in Azarbaijan, was
forced to withdraw as a result of developments in the northern part of
his realm. When he died in the following year, his son BerdI Beg,
whom he had left as governor in Persia, also returned to Saral. This
amounted to the abandonment of the Persian conquests, even if we
regard Akhlchuq, one of Ashraf's amirs, who placed himself at the
disposal of the conquerors after the defeat, and following their with-
drawal twice took possession of Tabriz, as belonging to the Golden
Horde; for he, too, was unable to maintain his position for any length
of time. In 761/1360 Uvais, who had at first recognised the overlord-
ship of the Golden Horde, conquered Azarbaijan, which his father had
lost to Shaikh Hasan-i Kuchak twenty years earlier. Thus another
attempt to restore Mongol rule in Iran, this time from the direction of
the Golden Horde, had also failed. Shaikh Uvais' success had not been
achieved at the first attempt, however. It was preceded by an abortive
attack on his part and a campaign led by Mubariz al-Din Muhammad
b. al-Muzaffar of Yazd, which had thoroughly weakened Akhlchuq's
fighting power. In the years that followed, Shaikh Uvais intervened
in the power struggles of the Muzaffarids. To Shah Mahmud, who
acknowledged his sovereignty and married one of his daughters, he
handed over Isfahan and recognised his conquest of Shlraz.
These great successes were offset by many difficulties and setbacks
with which Shaikh Uvais had to contend. Thus in the winter of
766/1364, during a campaign against the Shlrvan-Shah Kai-Ka'us
b. Kai-Qubad, news reached him of the revolt of his governor in Bagh-
dad, Khwaja Mirjan, and he was obliged to return and restore order in
his own capital city. Among his worst enemies were the Qara Quyunlu
1
Cf. Glassen, Die friiben Safawidtn, p. 43. Good relations with the Ardabll order continued
into later times, as may be seen from an edict of the Jalayirid Ahmad of 1372: see Masse,
"Ordonnance".
 THE JALAYIRIDS

in Diyarbakr, the same Turkmen federation which later, at the begin-

ning of the 9th/15 th century, was to put an end to his dynasty. In the
spring of 767/1366 he marched against them and defeated Bairam
Khwaja, their leader, at the battle of Mush. Eventually he also brought
to heel the Shlrvan-Shah, who had twice exploited his absence from
Azarbaijan to launch attacks on Tabriz. In Ray he defeated Amir Vail,
who ruled in Astarabad after the death of Togha Temur, but was forced
to break off the campaign when news was brought of the death of
his brother Amir Zahid in Ojan, which made necessary his return to
Azarbaljan. He placed the governorship of Ray in the hands of Qutlugh
Shah, one of his amirs, who was followed in the post two years later by
'Adil Aqa.
Although Shaikh Uvais retained Baghdad as his capital, his military
enterprises and political considerations repeatedly took him to Persia,
and he died finally in Tabriz (776/1374). It is not only his military and
political achievements that mark him out as unquestionably the most
eminent prince of his line; it is particularly his human qualities and the
impetus he gave to cultural life. The latter embraced both efforts to
revive commercial enterprise in the devastated regions of Iran and his
own personal contribution to civilised living, his patronage of and
interest in art and literature - to which no doubt we are also indirectly
indebted for many of the detailed facts concerning his life and activities
found in a chronicle whose author was apparently his official court
chronicler, the Tdrtkh-i Shaikh Uvais of Abu Bakr al-Qutbl al-Ahrl.
But in addition he wrote verses himself and won renown as a calli-
grapher and painter.
Shaikh Uvais's efforts towards an extension of Jalayirid power to
central and eastern Persia, which was clearly to have been initiated by the
campaign against Ray, met with no success. Nor were the rulers who
followed him any more successful in this direction. Indeed, the decline
of Jalayirid power set in immediately and relentlessly after his death. His
eldest son, Hasan, failed on account of his general unpopularity and was
executed by the top-ranking amirs. The succession passed to his brother
Husain (776—83/1374—82).' He experienced immediate difficulties with
the Muzaffarids, first with his brother-in-law Shah Mahmud, who
marched from Isfahan to occupy Tabriz, though he was obliged to
1
According to Rabino, "Coins of the Jala'ir", p. 106, Husain's laqab, which is usually given
as Ghiyas al-DIn, appears on his coins as Mughls. al-DIn. Perhaps it should also be read thus in the
document published by Herrmann, "Ein Erlass des Galayeriden Soltan Hoseyn".
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

withdraw from the town as a result of illness and died shortly afterwards.
His successor Shah-i Shuja' also made all haste to occupy Tabriz if
he could, but again the attempt failed. Disturbances in the city, the
inclemencies of a hard winter, and an uprising in Qazvin forced him to
return to Isfahan. Not until the summer of 778/1376 was Husain again
able to take up residence in Tabriz, only to be compelled in the follow-
ing spring to march again, against Bairam Khwaja and his Tiirkmens,
who were thrusting eastwards once more, this time from the direction of
Erzerum.
These operations were successful, but Husain soon found himself
caught up in problems of an internal nature, in which his brothers
Shaikh 'All, Ahmad and Bayazld were involved. The situation was fur-
ther aggravated by his support of 'Adil Aqa, whose exceptional rise to
power provoked the hostility of other influential amirs. Incessant
troubles at home, uprisings by local potentates and battles with the
Muzaffarids consumed Husain's resources. To all this was added the
breach with 'Adil, who had meanwhile risen to a position of unchallen-
geable power. So he found himself by Safar 784/the end of April 1382
defenceless against an attack by his brother Sultan Ahmad when he
advanced with an armed force from his territory around Ardabll and
occupied Tabriz. Ahmad, who took over the succession, had his
brother executed.
Amir 'Adil countered by proclaiming Prince Bayazld, who had man-
aged by the skin of his teeth to escape from Tabriz, as sultan in
Sultaniyya. Ahmad, now subjected to attack from several directions,
could find no other expedient in the circumstances than to seek help
from the arch-enemies of his family, the Qara Quyunlu under Qara
Muhammad. His brother, Shaikh 'All, who had advanced from Bagh-
dad to attack Tabriz, was killed in the fighting against them. A treaty
providing for the cession of Azarbaljan to Sultan Ahmad, 'Iraq-i 'Ajam
to his brother Bayazld, and 'Iraq-i 'Arab jointly to Ahmad and 'Adil,
proved to be shortlived, so that it was in a state of utter disunity and
discord that the Jalayirids were hurled into the great conflicts of
TImur, on the one hand with the Golden Horde under Tokhtamish
and on the other with the Ottomans under Bayezld I Yildiri'm. This
will be dealt with in the next chapter.
The contributions to cultural life made by various princes of the
Jalayirid dynasty provide a welcome contrast to the disastrous role
played in Iranian politics by this princely house (especially its later
 THE JALAYIRIDS
members), with their endless disputes and feuds. Miniature painting is
the most significant area. Their artistic activities were centred on
Tabriz and especially Baghdad, where impressive examples of their
architecture have been preserved. In the period we are dealing with the
Jalayirids were largely Turkicised, or at least Turkish-speaking; and
they have been credited with establishing the Turkish element in
Arabic Iraq on a firmer foundation so that Turkish became the lan-
guage most commonly spoken after Arabic.1 But this did not prevent
them from acquiring a reputation as patrons of Persian poets: as a
prime witness to this fact we may quote no less a name than Salman
Savajl.
In the religious sphere the Jalayirids display unmistakably Shfl
features, as in their preference for such names as 'All, Hasan and
Husain. A still clearer indication is to be seen in the dying wish of the
founder of the dynasty, Shaikh Hasan-i Buzurg, to be buried in Najaf,
where according to tradition 'All b. Abl Talib had found his last resting
place. Nevertheless, as Mazzaoui points out,2 the conversion of ruling
princes to Shi'ism at this time did not necessarily assume a spectacular
form or result in the conversion of their subjects. Whether this circum-
stance helps to explain the virtual absence of references to the Shf a on
Jalayirid coins must remain an open question. Rabino has found no
evidence demonstrating even Shl'I sympathies among the coins — over
150 of them — minted by the Jalayirids which he has examined. In a
group of 3 5 other coins preserved in the Muza-yi Azarbaljan, Tabriz,
only one bears the names of the Twelve Imams rather than those of the
Orthodox caliphs, namely a coin of Hasan-i Buzurg minted at Amul
in 742/1341-2.3 A recent find at 'Aqarquf, 20 km west of Baghdad,
contained 227 Jalayirid silver coins, of which 50 belong to Shaikh
Uvais and the remainder to Sultan Ahmad. Shl'I characteristics were
totally lacking, and the coins of Uvais bore the names of the Orthodox
caliphs.4

1 2
Yinanc, "Celayir", p. 6;. Origins of the Safamids, p. 64.
3
Sayyid Jamal Turabl-Tabatabai, Sikkabd-ji shahan-i islimi-yi Iran 11 (Tabriz, 1350/1971),
n o ; cf. idem, Rasm al-khatt-i uighuriva sSin dar sikka-sbinisi(Tabriz, 1351/1972), p. ;8, for two
other strikings of Hasan-i Buzurg, in Baghdad 745/1544-5 and 744/1343-4, which both bear the
names of the Orthodox caliphs.
4
Mahab Darwlsh al-Bakrl, "Iktishaf nuqud jala'iriyya fl 'Aqarquf", al-Maskikdt m (1972),
77-80 (reference kindly supplied by Dr Dorothea Duda): the details are unfortunately very
scanty.
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

I. The Jalayirids
Husain
I
SHAIKH HASAN-I BUZURG

SHAIKH UVAIS Amir Zahid

, I _ _ _
i l l I I
Hasan HUSAIN SULTAN AHMAD Shaikh 'All Bayazld

II. Tie Mu^affarids

Sharaf al-Din Muzaffar

MUBARIZ AL-DlN MUHAMMAD

I f— 1 1
JALAL A L - D I N ABU'L-FAVARIS Shah Mahmud Shah Muzaffar SULTAN 'IMAD A L - D I N
SHAH-I SHUJA' I AHMAD
Sultan ZAIN AL-'ABIDIN Sultan Shah Mansur Shah Yahya
Uvais 'AL! Shibll

Sultan Abu
Ishaq

IO
 THE INJU FAMILY AND THE MUZAFFARIDS

THE INJU FAMILY AND THE MUZAFFARIDS

The Jalayirids had been unable to bring any lasting pressure to bear on
'Iraq-i 'Ajam and Fars. On the contrary, the advances made by the
Muzaffarids from these areas against their sphere of control, including
even the repeated occupation of Tabriz, can be regarded as a pointer to
the debilitated condition to which they were so often reduced.
The Muzaffarids originated in an Arab family in Khurasan which
had been settled there since the Islamic conquest but which, on the
advance of the Mongols, had withdrawn to Yazd where they had
entered the service of the local atabeg, 'Ala' al-Daula. Various members
of the family had then seen service under Hiilegii, while others had
remained in Maibud, a town not far from Yazd. Here the eponym of
the family, Sharaf al-Din Muzaffar, was finally appointed governor. He
served under several Tl-Khans, the last of whom was Oljeitii, as com-
mander of the gendarmerie, with the task of exterminating the robber
bands that were springing up in many parts of the country. His son
Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, who was only thirteen years old when his
father died, lived at first at the Tl-Khan's court but then returned to
Maibud after the death of Oljeitii. From here he succeeded after a few
years in bringing down the atabeg of Yazd and himself taking
possession of the city. Soon after this he was obliged to engage in a
whole series of battles with the Negiideris, a Mongol tribal group
which was seeking at that time to intervene in the fortunes of Persia
from the south-east.1
For the coup in Yazd, Mubariz al-Din had a helper in Amir Ghiyas
al-Din Kai-Khusrau of the house of Tnju. This family, whose destiny is
closely linked with that of the Muzaffarids, exercised control in Fars
and in various centres of'Iraq-i 'Ajam from 703/1304, the beginning of
the reign of the Tl-Khan Oljeitii, until their fall from power in
758/1357. They owed the name Tnju to the circumstance that their
ancestor Sharaf al-Din Mahmud Shah, the father of the Kai-Khusrau
already mentioned, was responsible for administering the royal
domains (Mongol: in/it). Sharaf al-Din was reputedly descended from
the well-known mystic of Herat, 'Abd-Allah Ansarl (d. 481/1089). The
well-nigh absolute control he had managed to establish by 725/1325 in
Fars aroused the suspicion of Abu Sa'Id, who therefore summoned him
1
For the origin and early development of the Negiideris as "le troisieme groupe pre-Qara-
unas", see Aubin, "L'ethnogenese", pp. 7)ff.

II
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

to his court and appointed another governor to replace him in Fars.

However, the latter was unable to take up his office because Amir
Ghiyas al-Dln, who ruled in his father's name in Shiraz, refused to
hand over the management of affairs to him, and some time later, on
the news of the death of the Tl-Khan, took him prisoner and sent him
to Azarbaljan. Even during Abu Sa'Id's lifetime Sharaf al-Dln had
been imprisoned in Tabriz after an abortive attempt on the life of his
successor. When Arpa Ke'iin had him executed, his sons, who were
present in the royal encampment [prdd), took flight, Amir Jalal al-Dln
Mas'ud Shah finding refuge with Shaikh Hasan-i Buzurg in Rum, and
Shaikh Abu Ishaq with Amir 'AH Padishah in Diyarbakr.
Arpa Ke'iin later fell into the power of his rival Musa Khan and
was handed over to Mas'ud Shah, who exacted a bloody revenge for
his father's death. The same Mas'ud Shah forthwith advanced to the
position of vizier to Muhammad Khan, who succeeded Musa Khan as
ruler in 736/1336, and after the murder of his master fled to Shiraz,
where Kai-Khusrau had meanwhile set himself up as his father's suc-
cessor. In the struggle for power between the two brothers which
promptly began, Mas'ud Shah emerged as the stronger but was unable
to rid himself of the dispute with Kai-Khusrau until the latter went the
way of all flesh a few years later (739/1338-9). But Mas'ud Shah was
destined to have little joy of his reign. The very next year his brother
Shams al-Dln Muhammad, whom he had been holding prisoner in the
fortress of Qal'a-yi Safld, escaped and threw in his lot with the
Chobanid Plr Husain. The two men marched at the head of Mongol
troops to Shiraz and conquered the city; and Mas'ud Shah fled from
there to Luristan. By his murder of Shams al-Dln Muhammad, Plr
Husain forfeited all hope of support from the population, so that he
again had to withdraw from Shiraz. His attempt to gain possession of
the city the following year also came to nothing. In his disputes with
other Chobanids he finally sought refuge with Hasan-i Kuchak. The
latter, however, had him executed; and shortly after this was himself
murdered (27 Rajab 744/15 December 1343).
The two surviving sons of Sharaf al-Dln Mahmud Shah also tried to
make their way with the aid of the Chobanids; and likewise it proved
their undoing. Mas'ud Shah struck up an alliance in Luristan with
Yaghi Basti and marched with him to Shiraz. He met the same fate as
his brother and in the same year — murdered by his ally. Abu Ishaq, the
last of the Injuids, who had tried to appropriate Yazd to himself when
12
 THE INJU FAMILY AND THE MUZAFFARIDS

the rule of the Tl-Khans came to an end, had been entrusted by the
above-mentioned Plr Husain with Isfahan; he had also successfully
asserted his claim on Shlraz at the collapse of the Chobanids, which
followed immediately on the death of Hasan-i Kuchak. His efforts to
extend his power into Kirman, beginning in 748/1347, brought him
into conflict with the Muzaffarid Mubariz al-Dln Muhammad, a
conflict which he only succeeded in intensifying by a campaign against
Yazd (751/1350—1). Two years later his troops were defeated in open
battle and the Muzaffarid besieged him in Shlraz. He was compelled to
capitulate, but managed to make good his escape and — with the aid of
the Jalayirid Hasan-i Buzurg — to establish himself again in Isfahan,
only to be besieged there in turn by Mubariz al-Dln. He had to capitu-
late once more, was taken prisoner and executed (758/1357).
With this triumph on the part of Mubariz al-Dln the fate of the
Injuids was sealed, and it might well be thought that their passing
would have gone quite unlamented. But it was not so. 'Ubaid-i Zakani,
one of the most famous poets of the time, deplored the death of Shaikh
Abu Ishaq in an elegy, and no less a figure than Hafiz praised the happy
days in Shlraz under the reign of the last of the Injuids. The latter had
been a generous patron of poetry — he was indeed not alone in this
among the members of his house — and on this score secured his
recognition in world literature in spite of the warmongering intrigues
into which he had all too often recklessly blundered. With the victory
of Mubariz al-Dln, which also found its way into the history of
literature (if only in the negative sense that the victor is recalled as an
implacable fanatic who made life hard for literary men), the happy days
of Shlraz and its buoyant poets seemed to have come to an end, and
both social and public life were placed under the watchful eye of the
supervisor of markets and public morals {muhtasib). That this situation
did not, however, erect insuperable obstacles for the poetic muse, but
even added a certain stimulus to its life — by obliging poets to be
discreet and operate with metaphors and ironic allusions — can be read
between the lines in a number of passages in Hafiz's Divdn.^
The capture of Shlraz and Isfahan gave Mubariz al-Dln, the first of
the Muzaffarid princes, a dominant position in Iranian politics. The
little country town of Maibud had served them as a springboard to
Yazd; they had then pressed on to Kirman, and now - with Fars and

1
See Lescot, "Chronologie".
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

'Iraq-i 'Ajam taken - they possessed two of the most important prov-
inces of the country. Mubariz al-Dln Muhammad made Shiraz his
capital. The fame of his military exploits caused the khan-of the Golden
Horde, JanI Beg, who was in Tabriz at the time, to invite him to enter
his service. He was in a position to be able to decline the invitation,
and when the khan, and shortly afterwards also his son and successor
BerdI Beg, had withdrawn from Tabriz, he promptly marched his
forces to Azarbaljan, defeated Akhlchuq, the khan's governor, at
Miyana, and occupied Tabriz. But his triumph was shortlived, for
when Jalayirid troops moved up from Baghdad he found himself un-
able to hold on to his conquests and retreated from Tabriz. This meant
the failure of an undertaking which could be regarded as an attempt to
solve the major problem of Persia in the half-century between the fall
of the Il-Khanid empire and the emergence of Tlmur, namely the
establishment of centralised control.
Mubariz al-Dln Muhammad's bleak tyranny did not endure long
after the removal of the house of Tnju from the scene. His intolerance,
combined with severity and treachery, inspired fear and hostility in his
own sons. One of them, Abu'l-Favaris Shah-i Shuja'1, took him
prisoner, had his eyes put out, and incarcerated him in Qal'a-yi Safld.
He contrived to improve his lot quite soon afterwards, but never again
managed up to his death (765/1364) to secure a dominant influence in
government, not even by means of a plot hatched by his supporters
against his son. The period of his rule in Shiraz stands out in stark
contrast to the cultivated standards of the city with which we are
familiar from contemporary literary evidence.
Under the new ruler, Shah-i Shuja', the liberal spirit of freedom and
tolerance that had been enjoyed before was once again in vogue, and was
jubilantly greeted by Hafiz. Though his long reign (759-86/1358-84)
reintroduced an atmosphere of liberty and meant the end of narrow
bigotry, yet it was anything but a period of undisturbed peace. The
constant squabbles of the prince with his brothers and his attempts to
extend his power produced even worse conditions than under the
Jalayirids and the Injuids - namely, almost unremitting warlike en-
tanglements with alternations of success and failure. As early as
765/1363 Shah-i Shuja' marched against his brother Shah Mahmud, who
ruled in Isfahan. Although a reconciliation was initially effected, he met

1
[For the form of the name, see Aubin, "Lafinde l'etat Sarbadar", pp. 101—2 n. 32. (Ed.)].

14
 THE INJU FAMILY AND THE MUZAFFARIDS

with a reverse somewhat later when Mahmud, with the support of his
father-in-law, the Jalayirid Shaikh Uvais, who ruled in Baghdad, inva-
ded the province of Fars, besieging and finally conquering Shiraz. It was
three years before he could again take possession of his capital city.
The idea of uniting the north-western areas of Persia with the
Muzaffarid territories had not died with Mubariz al-Din Muhammad and
his abandonment of Tabriz; in fact, various further attempts were made to
achieve it. The first impetus was given by the complex situation involved
in the succession to the throne of Tabriz (described above) after Shaikh
Uvais had died there in 776/1374. At that time Shah Mahmud had
challenged his brother-in-law Husain's claim to his father's inheritance,
but was forced by a sudden severe illness to yield up Tabriz, which he had
by then occupied — just as his father had done before him. Not long after
this he died (776/1375), and Isfahan passed into the hands of Shah-i Shuja',
who now himself sought to annex Azarbaljan. In spite of a victorious
advance on Tabriz, he too was denied success, fundamentally because
conditions in Fars were not sufficiently stable for him to risk being absent
for any length of time. This fact was quickly made plain when his nephew
Shah Yahya, now installed in Isfahan, rose in revolt. He therefore acceded
to a compromise arrangement with Husain, hoping to secure his position
by marrying his son Zain al-'AbidIn to a sister of the Jalayirid ruler. This
proved to be an illusory hope, for the Jalayirids, particularly Amir 'Adil,
promptly prepared to strike back. They got no further than Sultaniyya,
however, where Shah-i Shuja' managed to halt them. He now contrived to
draw over to his side the Jalayirid Bayazld, who had been proclaimed
sultan there by Amir 'Adil, by making him his deputy; but even this move
failed to save the town from falling into the hands of Sultan Ahmad.
Shortly before his death in 786/1384 Shah-i Shuja' appointed his son
Zain al-'AbidIn as his successor and his brother 'Imad al-Din Ahmad as
governor of Kirman. This arrangement was far from satisfying Shah
Yahya, who advanced against Shiraz. However, a peaceful settlement of
the conflict was reached. Shah Yahya was unable to hold onto Isfahan
for long, but was driven out by the populace, which even at that period
was prone to riots and disturbances,1 and found refuge in Yazd;
whereupon Isfahan was placed under the supervision of Muzaffar-i
KashI, an uncle of Zain al-'Abidln.

1
See Roemer, "Das friihsafawidische Isfahan als historische Forschungsaufgabe", ZDMG
cxxiv (1974), )ioff.
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

The final end of the Muzaffarids proved to be as bloody as the

period of their rule. They fell at the hands of TTmur, who invaded
Persia just when Shah-i Shuja"s days were approaching their end. He
was already on his deathbed when he wrote a letter to the conqueror -
in the autumn of 786/1384 - in which he commended his sons to the
benevolence of TTmur on the strength of their good relationship. The
discovery of Timur's real attitude towards the members of his house
was an experience he was spared.
However bleak the record of political and social conditions under
the Injuids and the Muzaffarids, the cultural achievements of the
period were impressive. Many representatives of the two houses had a
share in these, either as generous patrons or — like Shah-i Shuja' with
his poetry — as active participants. We have already indicated that this
is one of the most brilliantly productive periods in Persian literature.
But it is also important to mention the great contribution made by the
two dynasties to the art of book illumination. Another area of signifi-
cant achievement was that of architecture, which contributed not only
to shaping the style of the metropolis, Shlraz, but gave many towns
their distinctive cast, as for instance Yazd, Kirman and Isfahan.
As for the religious sphere, in contrast with the Jalayirids the SunnI
allegiance of the two princely houses cannot seriously be doubted.
Nur-AUah Shushtari does list the Injuids among the dynasties he
regards as Shl'I,1 but the evidence he adduces is vague and uncon-
vincing. If Shah-i Shuja' is sometimes aligned with the Shl'a it is on
account, it would seem, of his close relationship with Hafiz, whom
many writers describe as Shl'I. However, it is no longer possible to
sustain the view of that prince of poets as belonging within this reli-
gious category.2 On the contrary, Shah-i Shuja" s SunnI religious per-
suasions are demonstrated conclusively by his recognition, in
770/1368, of the 'Abbasid shadow caliph of Cairo, al-Mutawakkil I.

THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

As had so often been the case in the course of history, Khurasan,

whose contacts with central Persia are restricted by the mountains in
1
Majalis al-mu'minim, 147.
2
Rypka, HIL, p. 265, describes Krymsky and Muhammad Qazvlnl as representing the
extremities of the two views: the former roundly declares Hafiz to have been a Shf 1, whereas
Qazvlnl regrets that he was not.

16
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

the north and the desert in the south to a narrow strip of settlements,
played a special part in events at the end of the Persian Mongol empire.
Here too, a pretender to the throne was to be found in the person of
Togha Temur,1 who could trace his ancestry back over six generations
to Jochi Qasar, a brother of Chingiz Khan, and had contrived to
attract support from the powerful figures in the province. The situa-
tion of Khurasan, more or less isolated as it was from the rest of Persia,
provided what was effectively a favourable precondition for his plan of
restoring the Il-Khanid empire. Nevertheless, the several attempts he
made to achieve his object were doomed to failure.2 This was due
partly to various developments in eastern Persia of greater interest to
the historian than the campaigns undertaken by Togha Temiir or even
certain successes he achieved at home in temporarily stabilising condi-
tions in limited areas.
Of these developments it is especially those concerned with the
Sarbadar state that are of interest. Its beginnings and further growth are
among the strangest in the Islamic world, the history of which is
certainly not lacking in odd political structures. Whereas the founders of
the principalities we have been discussing in other parts of Iran based
their claims to authority on their relationship to individual Mongol
rulers, or on an office conferred by them or by one of the shadow khans,
the Sarbadars of Sabzavar were usurpers, principally belonging to the
Shl'I creed, who certainly entertained no such legitimist notions. Certain
social characteristics of the Sarbadar movement — if we accept this
description as a meaningful r>ne - have attracted the attention of socialist
historians and have led them to indulge speculative views that are far
from being adequately borne out on all points by the evidence available.
The community they created differed from other systems in that it was
not dynastic but a realm without kings. But it also displayed other
unusual features, the most striking of which were its religious aspect
and, associated with this, the part played by dervishes of an extreme
form of Shi'ism.
Various interpretations have been offered for the name by which the
Sarbadars have gone down in history, none of which can be seen to be
totally appropriate. It may be derived from an utterance of 'Abd
1
I have kept to the form of the name employed in CHI v. Smith, Sarbadar Dynasty,
pp. i8iff., argues from the vocalisation of al-Ahrl and from the Uighur spelling of the name in
favour of Taghai (Taghay) Temiir.
2
See Boyle, in CHI v, 414—16.

17
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

al-Razzaq, one of its best known representatives, intended to express the

idea that the political success aimed at was worth the risk of hanging
(sar ba-dar,"he&d on gallows").1 And not only has it been the name that has
produced varying interpretations; right up to the present day the same is
true of evaluations of the Sarbadars' historical importance. Whereas many
commentators continue to dismiss them as a robber state, another inter-
pretation would see them in terms of a socially orientated reform move-
ment having the character of a class struggle, in which the unmistakable
faith in a Mahdl, i.e. a kind of messianic belief, and a striving for a
theocratic order, were no more than passing features of minor import-
ance.2 Both interpretations - robber state and the socio-critical view -
have met with sharp opposition from John Masson Smith.
Togha Temiir and the Sarbadars, however, were not the only rivals
for power in Khurasan. Another contender was the Kart dynasty
in Herat.3 They were descended from an eminent dignitary of the
Ghurids named Shams al-Din, who had succeeded in establishing his
authority out of the wreckage of his masters' realm when the territory
was recovering from the marauding expeditions of the Mongols
around the middle of the 7th/13 th century. He himself and his descen-
dants ruled, as Mongol vassals, from Herat over Balkh and Slstan and
in the east as far as the Indus. Notwithstanding their Indian connec-
tions, they were from the outset also orientated towards the west, and
not only kept a careful eye on the struggles for power going on in
Khurasan and other parts of Persia at the end of the period of Mongol
rule, but also pursued their own interests by military and political
means. For instance, they supported the opponents of the Muzaffarid
Mubariz al-Din in Kirman, and were involved in the conflict between
the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id and his generalissimo Amir Choban. Their
efforts did not always meet with success, in fact: in spite of their
military intervention, Kirman did pass into the hands of Mubariz
al-Din, and in 727/1327, on the insistence of Abu Sa'id, Amir Choban
had to be executed in Herat, where he had taken refuge - an action
which resulted in a severe loss of prestige for the Kart prince. When he
and two of his successors died within a brief interval, many of their
1
[FaryumadI calls them SarbaJa/an.]
2
Petrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", trans. Kishavarz, "Nahzat". The possible meanings of the
term are listed in Biichner, "Serbedars", in Smith, Sarbadar Dynasty, p. 108, and in "Dvizhenie",
pp. 119, 121—22 (tr. Kishavarz, pp. 161, 16;).
3
The name occurs both as "Kart" and as "Kurt": I have followed Ahmed Zeki Velidi
(Togan), "Kert-mi Kurt-mii?", TiiMe n (1928), 592-6.

18
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

subjects saw this as a punishment from God for the treachery com-
mitted against Amir Choban as one seeking asylum. These shortlived
rulers were followed in 732/1331—2 by Mu'izz al-Dln Husain, who was
later to intervene actively in the power struggles in Khurasan.
The situation in Khurasan at the start of the succession conflicts
following the death of Abu Sa'Id is thus none too easy to trace out. It
appears still more confused if we bear in mind certain ethnic factors of
political importance. These are ethnic strands which had arisen in
eastern Khurasan and on the frontiers with India since the Mongol
invasion as a result of a racial mixing due partly to military dispositions
and affecting various elements, particularly Mongol and Turkish ones;
and partly to environmental associations, for example with the Indian
population. Several of them were to be found under the name Qara'unas
in the area of their origin, and also in other regions of Central Asia and
the Middle East, as well as in Egypt. Research on the complex relation-
ships between these ethnic groups has recently progressed as a result of
Aubin's work, though many questions remain unanswered at the pres-
ent stage. We have already come across the Negiideris, who belong in
this context. We have now to deal with the Ja'un-i Qurban. By an
unjustified analogy with the known family connections of their leaders,
they are often referred to as Oirats, but in fact they arose from what was
known as a "little thousand" {hat^aracba) which, under the command of
Amir Arghun Aqa (d. 673/1275), had been formed out of the Mongol
army by the detachment of three (Je'iiri) soldiers in every hundred
{qurban), that is to say, irrespective of tribal membership. In 736/1335 a
grandson of this military leader, named Amir Arghun Shah, was in
command of this unit, which at the time was deployed over the area of
Nlshapur, Mashhad and Ablvard, and also north-west of these cities as
far as the upper course of the Atrak.
It is to the historian and geographer Hamd-Allah MustaufI (d. some
time after 740/1339—40), who hailed not from Khurasan but from
Qazvln, that we are indebted for certain details important to our
understanding of the developments we must now consider.1 Accord-
ing to his account, the large number of viziers and officials in the
Mongol financial administration who came originally from Khurasan
had contrived so to arrange things that their home province, together
with Quhistan, Qumis, Mazandaran, and Tabaristan, had been
1
For the relevant passage from Nu^bat al-qulub, see Smith, Sarbaddr Dynasty, pp. <))fi.
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

grouped together as a special tax area; and its governors were permitted
to hold in reserve a considerable sum from the tax yield, under the
pretext that it was required for the payment of troops. Some years before
the death of Abu Sa'Id, it seems, his vizier Ghiyas al-Dln Muhammad b.
Rashld al-Dln had taken steps to abolish this abuse, calling upon the
support of Shaikh Hasan-i Buzurg, the recently appointed amir of the
ulus, Shaikh 'All Qushjl, and 'Ala' al-Dln Muhammad FaryumadI, who
had been ordered to Khurasan for this very purpose. It is evident that
those who chiefly suffered from this measure were Togha Temiir, Amir
Arghun Shah and 'Abd-Allah b. Mulai, the master of Quhistan.
We may end this introduction to the major political figures by some
reference to Shaikh 'All b. 'AH Qushjl who has just been mentioned. He
had been ruling as the Tl-Khan's governor in Khurasan since
729/1328-9. After the death of his master he proposed as his successor
the Chingizid Togha Temiir, and having gained the support of the
amirs of Khurasan, caused the prince's name to be adopted on the
coinage (sikka) and in the official prayers (khutbd). He thus secured an
influential position with the new khan, who in any case was not a
strong personality. Allowing also for the fact that about this time
(737/1337) the pretenders Arpa Ke'iin and Musa Khan had already
failed in their claims, there was no question of Togha Temiir being
recognised without friction in other parts of the realm, where of course
control was generally in the hands of fairly strong princes. A campaign
to the west, his first military undertaking, was aimed at restoring the
Il-Khanid empire under his own sceptre. But even during the march
rivalries broke out between the amirs, in which Arghun Shah and
'Abd-Allah b. Mulai, alarmed at the growing power of 'All Qushjl,
deserted and set off back with their troops. Their defection was indeed
counterbalanced by the addition of large numbers of Mongol troops
whom Hasan-i Buzurg had defeated, including their leader Musa
Khan, to whom reference has just been made. Nevertheless, the cam-
paign ended in catastrophe; for the Jalayirid prince inflicted a crushing
defeat on this army as well in a battle at Sultaniyya - an encounter
whose outcome Togha Temiir did not even wait to witness in person.
Now Amir Arghun Shah's hour had come. He captured his rival,
Shaikh 'All Qushjl, who was already in flight, in Bistam, had him
executed, and sent his head to Hasan-i Buzurg, with whom, it will be
recalled, the victim had cooperated in abolishing the privileges of the
Khurasanls. Then he again joined up with Togha Temiir and became
20
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

his military commander {amir al-umard'). A governor whom Hasan-i

Buzurg had appointed for Khurasan, a man named Muhammad-i
Mulai, was defeated and executed. It looks very much as though the
Jalayirid, in thus attempting to gain control of eastern Persia, had
turned against Arghun Shah, but not against Togha Temiir. This is
supported by his loyal attitude to the Chingizids, referred to above,
and by subsequent developments.
Even at this time he may have reckoned on the khan's readiness to
make concessions, realising that the latter's only concern was the
restoration of the Persian Mongol empire under his rule. And in fact
this assessment proved well grounded in the case of an offer of alliance
which he made to Togha Temiir in the summer of 738/1338, after his
defeat in battle against the Chobanid Hasan-i Kuchak. The khan
accepted the offer and once more led his troops west; again ineffectu-
ally, however, for Hasan-i Kuchak had sown doubts about him in the
mind of his ally by sending him a letter written in the khan's own hand.
This contained the statement that he, the khan, was prepared to take up
an offer of alliance made by Hasan-i Kuchak, to marry Amir Choban's
widow SatI Beg, the sister - of Abu Sa'Id, and thus to revive the
Il-Khanid empire with Chobanid assistance. Shocked by such blatant
disloyalty, Hasan-i Buzurg agreed to the alliance proposed by his
old adversary, and in view of the opposition now ranged against
him Togha Temiir was left with no other choice but to withdraw to
Khurasan. The harmony between the Jalayirids and the Chobanids did
not, in fact, endure for any length of time, and after various disagree-
ments with his ally which worked out to his disadvantage, Hasan-i
Buzurg again turned to the khan of Khurasan. A new agreement he
made with him managed to survive for three years, until 744/1343-4.
Coins struck at Baghdad and other Mesopotamian mints which bear
his name are evidence that the Jalayirid recognised Togha Temiir's
suzerainty at this time.
Although his accord with the Jalayirid prince had ensured the recog-
nition Togha Temiir so desired over large areas of Persia, indeed even
in Iraq and eastern Anatolia, this lasted only for a short period in each
case. And the price he paid for this episode in his career, the fleeting
dream of an Il-Khanid restoration, was its devastating results. A mere
few years of ill-advised policy had been enough to deplete the military
strength of Khurasan and its economic resources to a point from which
no regeneration was possible. Worse still, the way was now open for
21
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

political forces to come into play with which neither Togha Temiir nor
anyone else in Khurasan could contend.
These forces burst out in the rising of the Sarbadars, a revolt which
in all probability was a reaction to fiscal burdens imposed on the amirs
and leading men of Khurasan by 'Ala' al-Dln Muhammad, mentioned
earlier, to cover the increased costs pf maintaining the KhurasanI, and
no doubt also the Jalayirid, troqps, and coming on top of the increases
provided for in the financial reforms carried out only a few years before
by the vizier Ghiyas al-Dln (see above). That Sabzavar itself was the
centre of the disturbances may possibly be connected with the fact that
the city, and Bashtln, which belonged to it, lay in the area administered
by 'Ala' al-Dln himself and would thus be hit by the full severity of the
new measures. The rebellion cannot be precisely dated, but it seems
most likely that it took place at a time when the KhurasanI troops were
otherwise engaged and not available for use in Sabzavar. Various
interconnections would suggest the period shortly before the first
Khurasanl-Jalayirid alliance.
Of the various conflicting accounts we possess of the beginning of
the rising, Hafiz-i Abru's seems the most inherently probable version.
According to this, Amir 'Abd al-Razzaq, the son of a very powerful
figure and himself a highly placed person, killed a government official
('amil), probably a tax-collector, in the township of Bashtln, which
formed part of the district of Sabzavar, and then fomented a rising in
order to avoid punishment. The motive for the killing is explained as
an act of protest against oppressive methods used to collect increased
taxes. By chance, the murdered official was a nephew of 'Ala' al-Dln.
Although 'Abd al-Razzaq found support, which enables us to conclude
that the situation was tense, it is stretching the available evidence too
far to talk, as does Petrushevsky,1 of angry masses consisting of
peasants, impoverished town-dwellers and artisans; nor is there suffici-
ent warrant for the class struggle, racial friction or national antago-
nisms which he adduces as additional factors to support his hypothesis
of a peasants' revolt. The solid fact of the matter which we should keep
in mind is that 'Abd al-Razzaq belonged to the feudal ruling class of
Khurasan, which had plainly been made to bear the brunt of consider-
able increases resulting from 'Ala' al-Dln's tax reforms. Had he
belonged to the class of small landowners, there would have been no

1
Petrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", pp. 94, 11; (tr. Kishavarz, "Nahzat", pp. 130, 156) et passim.

22
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

plausible reason for his action: for the rise in taxation applied only to
the wealthy and powerful in the land and not to the peasants and small
landowners, whose own taxes, moreover, had been cancelled at the
same time as these increases were imposed.
Immediately after the start of the rising, the ranks of the rebels, who
- no doubt following well-tried precedents - had fallen back into the
mountains, were so heavily swollen as a result of their successes against
the militia and raids on caravans and herds of cattle that in the summer
of 738/1337 they were able to take possession of the city of Sabzavar.
'Abd al-Razzaq, who now assumed the title of amir and had himself
named on the coinage and in the official prayers, was stabbed to death
by his brother Vajih al-Din Mas'ud shortly afterwards in the course of
a marauding expedition. The incident did take place in hot blood,
during an argument between them, but may also have had deeper
political motives. At all events, Mas'ud, who now took over the leader-
ship of the Sarbadars, for the moment abandoned the policy of con-
frontation in favour of one of compromise. He recognised Togha
Temiir and solemnly undertook to pay taxes to him. This change is
authenticated by coins from Sabzavar. Both sides gained advantages
from the new modus vivendi: the khan no longer needed to fear raids by
the Sarbadars, which had seriously jeopardised supplies for his troops,
and the Sarbadars were not exposed to government sanctions.
By taking the city of Sabzavar, the Sarbadars had not only acquired
a considerable political centre but had also established contact with
an ideological movement which was to exercise a powerful influence
on their future development: above all it provided them with new
adherents and strong religious stimuli. In contrast to other places in
Khurasan, it contained a large number of Shl'Is whose zeal for the faith
had shortly before been roused to a pitch of intensity by the preaching
of a mystic from Mazandaran named Shaikh Khalifa. The Sunnls must
have regarded his activities as dangerous; at all events, they had him
murdered. After his death one of his disciples, Hasan Jurl, took over
his role, scoring even greater successes in his propagandistic travels
from one town of Khurasan to another. His activities aroused the
suspicion of the government authorities; in Shawwal 736/May 1336 he
had to take refuge in flight and went to 'Iraq-i 'Ajam. When he later
returned, by a circuitous route, Arghun Shah had him arrested
(740/1339-40). It is quite possible that Mas'ud had a hand in his
eventual release: later, Hasan's personal influence and wide popularity
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

induced him not only to join the order as a novice imurld) but also -
following a practice seen among the earlier Sarbadars — to give Hasan a
joint share in government, for in the official prayers Hasan's name was
mentioned first, before that of Mas'ud. The shaikh proclaimed the
imminent return of the Twelfth Imam. He had earlier founded a secret
organisation to prepare for Shl'I theocratic rule; this included an armed
force which was apparently organised along the lines of the futuwwa1
and was composed of artisans and merchants.
Though the oddly matched joint rulers began by cooperating well,
tensions were present from the outset. In the first place, there was
Hasan Jurl's popularity among the Shl'I population of Sabzavar, with
which Mas'ud could not compete. Then there were the totally different
objectives of the two men. Hasan continued to hold to his Shl'I and
theocratic idea of the state, whereas Mas'ud regarded Khurasan as an
integral part of an Il-Khanid empire that was in the very nature of
things essentially SunnI, at first under the rule of Togha Temiir and
then - as we shall see - under Chobanid lordship. Finally, Hasan's
adherents, with their markedly religious orientation, were devotedly
intent on furthering radical Shl'I ideas, whereas those of Mas'ud, in so
far as they were Shl'I at all, supported a moderate line. This led to the
emergence of two groups of Sarbadars, namely the original followers
of 'Abd al-Razzaq and Mas'ud, and those of Hasan Jurl, who were
called Shaikhiyan to distinguish them from the others. It was the latter
in particular who were responsible for the reputation the Sarbadars
have had with many commentators — even earlier ones — as robbers
and riff-raff.
Although Vajlh al-Dln Mas'ud's reign lasted only six years, i.e. until
the summer of 745/1344,2 it brought about a quite remarkable expan-

1
Cf. Cahen and Taeschner, "Futuwwa".
2
[A slightly different chronology for the early Sarbadar rulers is given by Faryumadl, MS
Yeni Cami 909, fol. 287':
Mas'ud, killed 27 Dhu'l-Qa'da 743/23 April 1343;
Muhammad Ai-temur, ruled j Jumada 11 743—Muharram 747/3 Nov. 1342—April or May 1346:
*Kallu Isfandiyar, killed 10 Rabr 11 748/20 July 1347;
Amir Shams al-DIn, ruled RaW 11 — Sha'ban 748/July — Nov. 1347;
Khwaja 'All-yi Shams al-DIn, killed Dhu'l-Qa'da 7;2/Dec. 1351 or Jan. 1352;
Khwaja Yahya KarabI, murdered 13 Jumada 11 757/14 May 1356;
Khwaja Zahlr KarabI, deposed Shawwal 757/Oct. 1356 and killed at the end of Dhu'l-Qa'da/
Nov.;
Haidar Qassab, killed 25 Dhu'l-Qa'da 757/19 Nov. 1356.
Amir Lutf-Allah b. Amir Mas'ud, deposed mid-Dhu'1-Qa'da 759/Nov. 1358 by
Hasan Damghanl. (Ed.)]

24
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

sion of the Sarbadar state. What made this possible was the efficient
army he created, said to consist of 12,000 well armed mounted peasants
and 700 Turkish slave troops as his personal bodyguard, together with
Hasan Juri's dervishes, the Shaikhiyan. The first blow was directed in
741/1340 against Arghvin Shah's Ja'un-i Qurban, who were obliged to
give up Nlshapur and retreated to Tus. As coins with Togha Temiir's
name were minted in Sabzavar in the very next year, the Sarbadars
must have assumed that the khan, who had been away on operations in
the west at the time of their campaign, would overlook this liberty. He
did not, however, but marched against them. His troops were routed,
and while fleeing to Mazandaran such eminent figures as the vizier
'Ala' al-Dln Muhammad and 'Abd-Allah b. Mulai were killed; indeed
even the khan's brother 'All Ke'iin, lost his life. The victors occupied
Jajarm, Damghan and Simnan, together with Togha Temiir's capital,
Gurgan.
By this victory a totally different situation had been created. When
they took Nlshapur the Sarbadars had come up against a population
which was almost exclusively Sunni, and by conquering Simnan they
had become neighbours to the Chobanids, who were also Sunni.
Naturally, they considered the suzerainty of Togha Temiir as having
lapsed, and Mas'ud recognised in his place the Chobanid Hasan-i
Kuchak and the shadow khan Sulaiman whom he had appointed;
though the decision can hardly have been taken in consultation with
his co-regent, since these were Sunni princes. Differences had in fact
already arisen between them because Mas'ud rejected the idea of
forcibly converting the Sunnls of the conquered territories to Shi'ism.
The dominions of the Sarbadars now embraced a territory the size of
Ireland. But with the recognition of Hasan-i Kuchak they were con-
fronted with a real threat emanating from the Kartid of Herat, Mu'izz
al-Dln Husain, whose father, it will be remembered, had killed Amir
Choban when he was in flight from Abu Sa'Id and sought refuge at his
court. Furthermore, Husain was an ally of Togha Temiir. The Sarba-
dars attempted to scotch this danger by means of a preventive strike.
The armies met at Zava (13 Safar 743/18 July 1342), and the battle
initially went in favour of the Sarbadars. But when Shaikh Hasan Jiirl
fell, the fortunes of war changed, since the dervishes broke off the
engagement, assuming - probably not without justification - that their
shaikh had not died at the hands of the enemy but had been struck
down by an assassin hired by Mas'ud. The battle thus resulted not only

25
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

in defeat but also in an unleashing of hostilities and tensions that had

been latent in the relations between the moderate supporters of Mas'ud
and the radical Shaikhiyan for a long time past. The total implications
of this clash of views, however, did not become plain until later. At
first Mas'ud may well have thought that he could attain his objectives
even without the dervishes. In his next expedition, two years later, he
aimed to eliminate Togha Temur, who had withdrawn to the region of
Amul, secured the support of local princes, and was blocking the
Sarbadars' lines of communication with their Chobanid allies in the
west. Although the campaign got off to a good start, it ended in
catastrophe. On the march from Sari to Amul the Sarbadar army was
trapped in a pincer movement by the enemy. Mas'ud himself was taken
prisoner and executed.
Their two defeats, one in the east, the other in the west of their
dominions, had thrown the Sarbadars back upon the starting-point of
their operations, the region of Sabzavar and probably also Juvain and
Nlshapur. Nevertheless, they had no need to fear for their survival.
None of their rivals was in a position after all these years of heavy
fighting to subject the whole of Khurasan to his control, let alone to
extend his power beyond its frontiers. For much the same reasons,
there was little danger from the outside. The princes of Khurasan came
to a compromise agreement. Togha Temiir was free to return to Astar-
abad and Gurgan, having settled for the recognition of his suzerainty
on the part of the Sarbadars; and even Arghun Shah in the east was
once more able to exercise his authority as leader of the Ja'un-i
Qurban.
The Sarbadars of Khurasan survived by almost forty years the death
of Mas'ud, who had more than a dozen successors. Since one of them,
'All-yi Mu'ayyad, managed to stay in power for twenty years
(763—83/1361—81), their very number is evidence of how troubled the
period from 745/1344 to 763/1361 must have been. The chief feature of
these years was in fact incessant fighting and quarrelling over the
rulership. The way these disputes are recorded in the evidence we have
is not free of contradictions; but the details are in any case only of
limited importance for the history of the region and certainly for the
history of Iran. In the context we are considering it is sufficient to trace
the main lines of development.
How important the division into two parties (the moderate adher-
ents of Mas'ud and the party of the radical dervishes) was for the
26
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

further progress of events, requires a more closely differentiated treat-

ment. John Masson Smith1 reckons among Mas'ud's supporters not
only the members of his family such as his son Lutf-Allah, (who,
incidentally, later himself reigned for a short time), but also the gentry
of Bashtin, as well as his army, to which — apart from professional
soldiers - belonged also escaped slaves, former bandits and Turkish
slave troops {ghulaman). On the other side there was the group of the
Sabzavaris, of which Hasan Jurl's dervish organisation has already
been mentioned. It also included the Sabzavari aristocracy [khwdja^ada-
gari) and the trade guilds, which may have been organised on the
principles of the futuwwa. Not only were the two main parties at odds
with each other, but each lacked internal unity as well. For example,
there were considerable points of difference within the Sabzavaris aris-
ing from the theocratic concepts of the extreme dervishes. These did
not meet with the approval of all Shl'is, for there were moderate
groups even among them who leaned more towards cooperation with
the Sunnis than towards the acceptance of such radical ideas. All in all,
this kind of analysis of Sarbadar society would appear to do more
justice to the facts than Petrushevsky's division into "popular masses"
of peasants, urban poor, and artisans in opposition to the feudal lords
consisting of small Iranian landowners and a Mongol-Turkish nomad
aristocracy, and his hypothesis of class struggle and racial hostilities in
the period.
Vajlh al-Dln Mas'ud's first three successors came from the group of
his adherents: these were two of his military commanders and his
brother Shams al-Dln b. Fazl-Allah. All fell from power after the
briefest time, and the periods of their rule total only three years.
Meanwhile, the alliance with the Chobanids was abandoned; their
power in any case came to an end with the fall of Hasan-i Kuchak
about this time. In addition, the death in 743/1343 of Arghun Shah, the
leader of the Ja'un-i Qurban, proved convenient to the Sarbadars,
since his son and successor Muhammad Beg, giving up his alliance
with Togha Temiir, established friendly relations with them; so that,
with one exception, there were no further clashes with this neighbour.
Not until Shams al-Dln 'All, a dervish of the Sabzavari group, came
to power was there again a personality of stature in charge of affairs.
The achievements of his five years of government (748 to 752/1347 to

1
Sarbadar Dynasty, pp. nzff.

27
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS
1351-2) are praised by the historian Daulatshah. He records that the
people lived under quite reasonable conditions. The officials were paid
in cash. Notes (bardf) were no longer issued to cover salaries and
soldiers' pay on tax payments due, an abuse which was evidently quite
common. The new ruler carried out effective tax reforms, by means of
which he reorganised the shaky finances of the state. Thus he was able
to maintain efficient fighting units, with which he effectively protected
his territory, now extending from Nishapur in the east to Damghan in
the west. He admittedly failed to take the city of Tus, but did succeed
in putting down a revolt in Damghan. By his simple manner of life,
through the honesty and thrift on which he insisted in the conduct of
state affairs, he won the affection of large sections of the population.
His measures against prostitution, drugs, and alcohol are also worthy
of mention.
The swift decline of Mas'ud's adherents and the passing of power to
a Sabzavarl may be seen as indications of the growth of this party. In
fact the strength of Mas'ud's adherents and his troops had been
severely weakened by his unfortunate military enterprises, whereas the
dervishes, who had taken no further part in his campaigns since the
death of Shaikh Hasan Jurl, had suffered no losses. Nevertheless, it
must have been consideration for the forces of Mas'ud, predominantly
Sunnls or moderate Shfls, that kept Shams al-Dln 'AH, who had be-
longed to Hasan's intimate circle and therefore must in all probability
himself have been a ShI'I, from officially introducing the Shl'I confes-
sion. For ten years, from 748/1347 to 758/1357, the government of the
Sarbadars was SunnI, as shown by the coins of which details have been
published to date.
In spite of his efforts for the common weal — perhaps even because
of them - Shams al-DIn 'All soon made some bitter enemies, especially
among those who distrusted him for his connections with extreme
Shl'Is, i.e. the dervishes; among the libertines, who disliked his puritan-
ical ways; and finally among the corrupt servants of the state, who lost
out as a result of his reforms. One of the latter, Haidar Qassab, whose
name suggests that he was a member of an artisan guild, was respon-
sible for his murder. Although the immediate motive for the act was
revenge for a punishment he had received for irregularities in the
conduct of the tax collection for which he was responsible, it looks
very much as if he also had backers in the circles of those of higher
rank who were dissatisfied.
28
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

The elimination of Shams al-Dln 'All is probably not to be traced, as

might be supposed, to the adherents of Mas'ud, but to the Sabzavarls,
that is to say, the group to which he himself belonged, as also did his
successor, Yahya Karavl (752 to 756/1351-2 to 1355-6), a member of
the Sabzavari aristocracy. Under his rule the power and extent of the
Sarbadar state reached a new peak. But first it was necessary to remove
the major danger that had threatened this state from the beginning, the
khan Togha Temiir. In spite of the reverses he had had to endure in his
struggle with the Sarbadars, he regarded them as rebels who were to be
destroyed at the earliest possible opportunity. They might be tolerated
under the pressure of sheer circumstance, but they could not be recog-
nised. Togha Temiir's dominions had indeed been severely reduced in
size, most recently by the defection of the Kartid of Herat, who had
previously paid tribute to him, and of the Ja'un-i Qurban and the
Turkish tribes in the steppelands around Herat. Nevertheless, with his
tribal units living in Gurgan and Astarabad, estimated at 50,000,' he
was a potential danger to the Sarbadars, who had only 22,000 men under
arms at the time. Yahya successfully attempted to lull the khan into a
sense of false security by promising to recognise his suzerainty (a fact
which is authenticated by many coins bearing his name struck in Sabza-
var), and by undertaking to pay taxes as well as to make loyal visits once
every year to demonstrate his obedience. When in Dhu'l-Qa'da 754/
November—December 1353 he went to the Mongol winter camp of
Sultan-Duvln in the vicinity of Astarabad, accompanied by only a small
military train, his appearance must have been associated with such a visit
which was just about due. At all events, he was able to make his way
unchallenged through the camp and into the tent of the khan. The men
with him assassinated Togha Temiir and cut down his courtiers. In
order to eliminate any possibility of a successor, the Mongol troops were
done to death and the khan's herds, without which the nomads were
deprived of the very basics of life, were all slaughtered. Though
Luqman, a son of the murdered khan, constantly reappears up to the
year 790/1388 in the struggle for mastery in Khurasan, the fall of Togha
Temiir put paid once and for all to any idea of a restoration of the
Il-Khanid empire.
The power of the Sarbadars now once more reached those far-flung

1
No doubt this is how we should understand the quotation from Ibn Battuta given in
Petrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", p. 146 (tr. Kishavarz, "Nahzat", p. 194).

2
9
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

frontiers which Mas'ud had achieved by his conquests and then for-
feited by his recklessness; indeed, it even spread beyond them — in the
west into the area around Ray, in the east as far as Tus, a n d m t n e
north-west to Astarabad and Shasman in the region of Gurgan.
Even these great efforts in the cause of Sarbadar power could not
spare Yahya Karavl the fate which had come to be almost customary
for Sarbadar princes, namely murder by his opponents. From the evi-
dence available it is not possible to say with certainty who was behind
the assassination. It could have been adherents of Mas'ud who would
have preferred to see one of their number in power. The likely candi-
date would have been Mas'ud's son Lutf-Allah, who in fact did later
become ruler. It has even been argued1 that he had, strictly speaking,
already succeeded by the time of his father's death, but that in view of
his youth others had exercised the regency on his behalf.
If the state had had to contend up to this point with external
enemies, it was from now on affected by severe internal crises. These
could well have threatened its very existence, and that they did not was
only because there were no strong external enemies to be confronted at
the time. Haidar Qassab, whom we have already mentioned, now
promptly arrived from Astarabad to bring Yahya's murderers to justice.
He installed Yahya's nephew Zahlr al-Dln Karavl as ruler, but soon
afterwards seized power himself when the latter failed to fulfil his
expectations. Lacking sufficient supporters, he had in fact overreached
himself by this action. As will be recalled, he had originally been a
member of Shams al-Dln 'All's party, which is the reason why he found
no friends among the adherents of Mas'ud; later he had murdered his
master and thereby had forfeited also the sympathies of the dervishes
(the Shaikhiyan).
Meanwhile, in Isfara'in, the most important city of the Sarbadars after
Sabzavar, Lutf-Allah's royal tutor and atabeg Nasr-Allah had foment-
ed a rebellion with the aid of those of Yahya's murderers who had
escaped the vengeance of Haidar Qassab. Haidar now turned upon the
rebels. But before the issue could be decided in the field, he was struck
down by the dagger of an assassin hired by Hasan Damghanl. Now
Lutf-Allah's hour had come, and since there were still certain circles
with sympathies for his father he could well have succeeded in found-
ing a dynasty for the Sarbadars. But this opportunity was lost when, in

1
Petrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", pp. 141, 150 (tr. Kishavarz, "Nahiat", pp. 184, 201).

3O
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

the conflict with Hasan DamghanI which ensued with inevitable rapid-
ity, he was defeated. As a result the party of his father's supporters was
to all intents and purposes annihilated.1
These events in themselves show how feeble were the foundations of
the state; but the civil war which now began demonstrated how utterly
incapable it was of coping with the centrifugal forces that threatened it.
Haidar Qassab's move out of Astarabad had left a vacuum which
encouraged Amir Vail, a son of the previous governor of the province,
to return from the refuge he had been granted by a prince of the Ja'un-i
Qurban. He claimed to be representing the interests of Luqman
b. Togha Temiir in his absence from Mazandaran, in order to gather the
latter's sympathisers around him, but had not the remotest intention
when he arrived there of actually handing over power to him. For in the
meantime he had beaten in succession two expeditionary corps sent
against him by Hasan, and finally he defeated Hasan himself, so that he
was in a position to extend his power over other territories of the
Sarbadars as well.
In eastern Khurasan a radical Shl'I named Darvlsh 'Aziz2 rose in
revolt and established a theocracy in Mashhad in the name of the
Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdl (d. 329/940). This sort of enter-
prise was in the air at the time: Hasan Jurl and Shams al-Dln 'All, after
all, had themselves wanted to establish the theocratic state of the
Mahdi, and we may assume that the Shaikhiyan of Sabzavar were
represented among the supporters of Darvish 'Aziz. At any rate his
successes in Mashhad, which were continued still further with the
conquest of Tus, must have electrified the Sabzavarl dervishes, who
were of course also devoted to the idea of a theocratic state. Hasan
DamghanI recognised the danger that this implied for him, marched
east and put an end to the Mahdist state. Darvlsh 'Aziz went into exile
in Isfahan.
While Hasan DamghanI was fully engaged in the north-western and
eastern parts of his country, another danger was brewing for him in
Damghan, to the west. Here 'All-yi Mu'ayyad rose in revolt and gath-
ered around him the troops of Hasan's enemies who had been defeated
and were in flight. He also sent for Darvlsh 'Aziz in Isfahan and joined
1
Smith, Sarbadar Dynasty, p. 141, gives the year 759/155 7—8 for Lutf-Allah's execution [see
p. 24, n. 2 above (Ed.)], whereas Petrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", p. 15 o (tr. Kishavarz, "Nahzat", p. 201)
supplies 30 Rajab 762/; June 1361.
2
Petrushevsky, locc. cit., calls him 'Aziz Majdi.

31
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

his order; and together they prepared for the conflict with Hasan
Damghanl. When the latter was laying siege to the castle of Shaqqan,
near Jajarm, after taking Mashhad and Tus, they captured Sabzavar in
a surprise attack (763/1361-2). They succeeded in acquiring not only
the possessions of Hasan's followers but also their families. 'All-yi
Mu'ayyad's demand to Hasan's followers, that they should depose their
master and send him his head as a sign of their loyalty, therefore
produced the desired result.
Authority among the Sarbadars was now vested in a duumvirate
which shows striking similarities to that of Vajlh al-Dln Mas'Gd and
Hasan Jurl. As in the former situation, the condominium worked quite
well to begin with, in fact for ten months. Though 'AH-yi Mu'ayyad,
who was himself a Shl'I, played his part in raising Shi'ism to the state
religion, he resisted certain notions dear to the heart of Darvlsh 'Aziz
as to what the Mahdist state should be; and this led, just as before, to
severe tensions, culminating in the removal of the dervish leader.
Again the decisive moment came during a campaign against Malik
Husain of Herat, except that 'All's men did not wait until they met up
with the enemy, but picked a quarrel with the dervishes while still on
the march. Darvlsh 'Aziz and many of his adherents were killed as they
attempted to escape.
'All-yi Mu'ayyad did not leave it at this but seized his opportunity to
rid himself of the threat from the dervishes once and for all. He
smashed their organisation and hounded them out of Sabzavar; he
even went so far as to have the graves of Shaikh Khalifa and Hasan
Jurl destroyed. But although he had broken the power of his enemy for
the time being, banishing the dervishes from his immediate entourage,
they were still not done away with altogether. They found a welcome
from Malik Husain in Herat, from the Ja'un-i Qurban and from the
Muzaffarid Shah-i Shuja' in Shlraz. It goes without saying that from
these places of refuge they now bided their time; nor, if things ran to
the form familiar to contemporaries, would it be long in coming. In
fact, in the final phase of the Sarbadar state which now began, the
dervishes were a significant element and contributed their share to its
downfall.
( 'All-yi Mu'ayyad managed to remain ruler for twenty years and even
survived Tlmur's invasion. Although it would be quite wrong to infer
that this long reign was a period of peace and quiet, a certain degree of
stabilisation does seem to have taken place, at least for a time. There is
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

evidence of this in the steady quality of the coinage to begin with,

although only up to the middle of his reign, when against a back-
ground of stormy political events a decline in quality set in which was
never to be halted. 'AH-yi Mu'ayyad is described as a just and efficient
prince, in so far as anyone could be in the conditions of the day, and he
did in fact improve the lot of the peasants by a reform of the tax
system.
The unsolved external problems of the Sarbadar empire which
'All-yi Mu'ayyad had taken on when he assumed power in Sabzavar had
a determining influence on his reign. Though the Ja'un-i Qurban gained
control of Tus again, there do not seem to have been any further
conflicts with them. There was a conflict, however, with Amir Vail, who
had in the past enjoyed their protection and was related by marriage to
one of their leading men. Hasan DamghanI had had trouble with him in
his time but had not been able to put him down. He had extended his
control over Bistam and Simnan, whereas Astarabad, where between
767/1365-6 and 770/1368-9 Sarbadar coins were struck, was at least for
a time subject to the government at Sabzavar before falling back again
into the hands of Amir Vail. 'All-yi Mu'ayyad in fact avoided bringing
the dispute to a head, because he saw this rival's area of control as a
convenient buffer state against the Jalayirids. At the time they were
beginning to evince rapacious designs on Khurasan, with the result that
Amir Vail was obliged to mount campaigns against them in the region of
Ray and Sava.
'All-yi Mu'ayyad found himself drawn into a critical situation as a
result of what was happening among the Kartids of Herat when in
771/1370 Malik Mu'izz al-Din Husain died and the succession passed
to his two sons Ghiyas al-DIn Plr 'All and Malik Muhammad. Plr 'All, a
grandson of Togha Temur through his mother Sultan Khatun, saw
'All-yi Mu'ayyad as sympathising with the murderers of his grandfather
and stirred up against him the Sabzavari dervishes now living as
emigrants in his own territory. The Sarbadar leader retorted by con-
spiring with Plr 'All's stepbrother Malik Muhammad, who ruled over
the smaller portion of the Kartid empire from the city of Sarakhs.
When Plr 'All marched against Malik Muhammad, 'All-yi Mu'ayyad
rescued him in a flanking attack by overcoming one of Plr 'All's castles
near the frontier whose captains were emigrant Sabzavari dervishes.
This was not only a blow struck at his own enemies; it also induced Plr
'All to come to a compromise with his brother. So commenced the

33
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

years of fighting against Pir 'All which tied down the Sarbadars to
Nishapur, the most important place in the eastern part of the country,
and inevitably prejudiced the defence of their capital. This situation
proved to be a challenge to 'All-yi Mu'ayyad's opponents in the west,
especially the dervishes who had fled to Shlraz, who had found an
enterprising leader in Rukn al-Dln, a disciple of their unsuccessful
master Darvlsh 'Aziz. Together with Iskandar, Pir 'All's former gover-
nor of Nishapur, he now mounted against Khurasan a campaign which
was supported with money and arms by Shah-i Shuja'. They conquered
Sabzavar (778/1376-7); and 'All-yi Mu'ayyad was forced intoflightand
found refuge with Amir Vail.
The new condominium in Sabzavar, which promptly set about estab-
lishing a radical Shl'I regime based on the teachings of Hasan Jurl, was
followed at once by a still more drastic reduction of the Sarbadar state,
which had in any case severely contracted. Nishapur was conquered by
Pir 'All, and it was not long before Amir Vail appeared before the gates
of Sabzavar. His entourage included Shah Mansur, the rival of the
Muzaffarid Shah-i Shuja' of Shlraz, and 'All-yi Mu'ayyad, whom Amir
Vail reinstated as ruler after the capture of the town. The alliance
between Amir Vail and the Sarbadar leader did not endure for long. By
783/1-3 81 Amir Vail was once again besieging the city. In his extremity
'All-yi Mu'ayyad turned to Tlmur; and his appeal for help was destined
not to go unheeded. It afforded the immediate pretext for Tlmur's
invasion of Persia. This did not yet mean the final end of the history of
the Sarbadars of Khurasan, even though it was the end of their auton-
omy as a state. It will be necessary to refer to their later fortunes when
discussing Tlmur's appearance on the Persian scene.
At this point, however, some comment is required on various effects of,
and parallels with, the rule of the Sarbadars, extending to regions outside
Khurasan. We shall not consider the Sarbadars of Samarqand,1 since they
do not directly form part of the history of Persia; but some mention
should be made, if only in broad outline, of events in Mazandaran, Gllan
arid Kirman.
In the reign of Shams al-Dln 'All an adherent of Hasan Jurl, named
'Izz al-Dln, together with a group of co-religionists who like him
were not prepared to accept the conditions in Sabzavar, resolved to
1
See Barthold, "Narodnoe dvizhenie"; also Yakubovsky, "Timur", pp. 56—8, who on the
authority of 'Abd al-Razzaq's Mafia' refers to the Samarqand rebels as "Sarbadars", though
whether they themselves employed the term is doubtful.

34
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

return to his homeland of Mazandaran. However, he died en route,

and his son Sayyid Qivam al-Dln, known as Mlr-i Buzurg, took his
place. He managed to settle in Amul and to found a state in conjunc-
tion with Kiya Afrasiyab b. Hasan ChulabI, who in 750/1349 had
brought down the local dynasty of the Bavandids, which had lasted for
seven hundred years.1 This state ran in many respects along the lines of
that of Sabzavar. The dichotomy between a ruler who leant towards
secular attitudes and a dervish aiming at a theocratic structure again led
to a conflict, which ended with the victory of the religious fanatic. This
state lasted until its destruction by Tlmur in 794/1392, but after his
death it emerged briefly once more.
With the aid of the Mazandaranl dervishes a group of Shl'I shaikhs
also gained control in Gllan under the leadership of Shaikh Amir Kiya.
The state he called into being endured for over two centuries - which
was doubtless largely due to its geographical remoteness - until it was
finally absorbed in 1000/15 92 i n t o t n e Safavid empire.
In 774/1373 a revolt took place in Kirman against Shah-i Shuja', the
prince of Shlraz, fomented by Pahlavan Asad b. Toghan Shah. The
rebellion received military support from 'Ali-yi Mu'ayyad, whose rela-
tions with Shah-i Shuja' have already been discussed, but was put
down in Rajab 776/December 1374 by troops sent from Shlraz.

Seen as a historical phenomenon, the Sarbadars of Khurasan are a quite

typical product of the situation in Persia after the collapse of the
Il-Khanid empire, but they display certain noteworthy differences from
what is found elsewhere. Khurasan resembled other parts of the empire
in that it lacked a single dominant power, and possessed in Togha
Temiir a descendant of the Mongol rulers who was too weak to assert
effective control. But what distinguishes the Sarbadars from practically
all contemporary rulers in Persia is the absence of any legitimist claims
on their part. It was not only that none of them could claim descent
from a Mongol or other princely house or the warrant of having
previously exercised high office; they plainly did not even consider it
necessary to seek to establish any legitimate claim to rule. None of
them had a Mongol shadow khan or marriage ties with a highly placed
family, and there was no serious attempt to found a dynasty.
Another point of difference is the religious aspect, which played so
great a part among the Sarbadars. It was expressed particularly, though

1
B. Nikitine, "Afrasiyabids", EP. R.N. Frye, "Bawand", ibid.

35
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

not exclusively, in the share the Sabzavarl dervishes had in Sarbadar

rule, whether in the form of a condominium with a secular ruler, or as
observers keeping at a discreet distance, or as rivals with a keen eye to
their chances or even occasionally as sole rulers. It is undoubtedly
significant that the population of their capital city had a strong Shl'I
component and that also, we may assume, many of their rulers, perhaps
even the majority of them, belonged to the Shl'a. But none of this was
decisive, any more than the basic opposition between Shl'a and Sunna
in this particular situation. Moderate Shl'Is in this period could, and in
some cases actually did, reach a modus vivendi with Sunnls more easily
than with the dervishes. The stumbling-block for both parties was
rather the dervishes' adherence to a rigid organisation with unambig-
uous ideas of what the state should be, ideas which they advanced with
uncompromising firmness. The goal of the dervishes was a Mahdist
state, a theocracy with an extremist Shl'I state religion, and hence a
Utopia which admitted of no compromise with other conceptions of
statehood.
It appears very much as if the princes who did not come from the
ranks of the Shaikhiyan were at first not fully conscious of this aim.
How else are we to explain the numerous attempts at establishing a
condominium together with committed supporters of the dervishes?
Not even so far-reaching a concession as joining the dervish order as a
novice (murld) saved those rulers who did so from the painful discov-
ery that the theocracy the dervishes demanded was not to be reconciled
with their own divergent conceptions of the state, nor even, in fact,
with Shl'I ideas on the subject. Practical illustrations of this are not far
to seek, and at bottom it was this very incompatibility of other atti-
tudes with an ideological conception of government which was the
undoing of the Sarbadar state. In spite of numerous successes scored
by each party over the other, the dichotomy of the Sarbadar state
displays a balance of forces leading not to a modus vivendi but to decades
of conflict, the net result of which was to weaken both parties.
Mas'ud's adherents were unable to exclude the dervishes; nor again
were the dervishes powerful enough to supplant their opponents. The
result was a process of mutual exhaustion, a gradual attrition that had
virtually extinguished the Sarbadars' will to survive by the time Tlmur
advanced against Persia.
The Shaikhiyan must of course be reckoned among the many reli-
gious movements in the Islamic world that strove for power and in a
36
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

fair number of instances actually gained control. Iran seems to have

been good soil for such movements, as can be seen from a number of
comparable phenomena from both earlier and later periods. It was the
tragedy of the Sabzavari dervishes that in their time and in their
country there were also other political forces at work, especially among
the provincial nobility, who were aiming at power simultaneously with
them; and that it was impossible either to win these over or subject
them - so that, in the end, there was nothing left for any of them but to
sink together.
But apart from the conflict of interests at home, the Sarbadars were
also threatened by external enemies. They did manage to overcome
Togha Temur after some time, but not his less impressive successor
Amir Vail. Though there were conflicts with the Ja'Gn-i Qurban, for a
long time peaceful relations prevailed; while the struggle against the
Kartids of Herat remained indecisive. All these opponents kept up a
state of feud with the Sarbadars, irrespective of which of their two
parties happened to have provided the ruling figure of the time.
Although the Sarbadars' rule started with a rising against the Mongols
or their representatives, their further history cannot be thought of
exclusively from this point of view. Once they had compelled Togha
Temiir to tolerate them in principle, their policies were no longer
determined solely by an anti-Mongol attitude, so that eliminating Togha
Temiir was ultimately only a matter of choosing the right moment.
As for the question of their constituting a robber state, it is doubtful
whether such a view is justified by any of the circumstances of their
history - neither the frankly dubious name they chose to go by, nor
their lack of or indifference to a legitimate claim, nor the absence of a
dynastic line, nor the conflicts waged against established rulers of
somewhat questionable legitimacy. The fact that the Sarbadars in their
campaigning were not given to considerate treatment of their enemies
or the civilian population is hardly an argument to be used against
them, since it is hard to imagine any belligerent party of the time which
would have behaved differently. To this extent, therefore, the estimate
we make of the Sarbadars need be no different from that applied to
their rivals or any other rulers in contemporary Persia. This view is
also supported by the fact that they were not without their share of
cultural activity or at least various efforts in this direction. We may
mention just two examples: the efforts made by Shams al-Dln 'All to
develop Sabzavar architecturally, which led to the building of a Friday

37
 JALAYIRIDS, MUZAFFARIDS AND SARBADARS

mosque (masjid-i jami') and a warehouse affording work for artisans.

Another aspect was their interest in poetry, as evidenced by their
panegyrist Muhammad Tughra'I, known as Ibn-i Yamin, who made a
name for himself in literary history1. At the battle of Zava he fell into
the hands of the Kartids, spent some time as court poet in Herat, and
eventually managed to escape and return to the Sarbadar dominions.
Finally we may mention the relations of 'All-yi Mu'ayyad with the
eminent Shl'I theologian Ibn Makkl al-'Amill,2 who was responsible
for so important a Shl'I book of law as al-Lum'a al-Dimashqiyya. This
sort of evidence is also not easily fitted into the notion of a robber
state.
If not a robber state, then, what of the interpretation of the Sarba-
dars as the social revolutionary movement of which Petrushevsky
speaks? This view is certainly correct to the extent that the phenome-
non is traceable back to a revolt by suppressed and exploited sections
of the population. But proof is lacking that it was a rebellion of the
mass of the producing class against the exploiters. 'Abd al-Razzaq,
with whom, in this view, the beginnings of the rising are very closely
associated, was neither a peasant nor a representative of the lesser
gentry who had espoused the peasants' cause because the latter were
not in a position to press their own case. In fact, he belonged precisely
to that aristocratic class of society at which the revolt of the exploited
masses would have needed to be aimed. Moreover, the sources bearing
on the social class of the various leading figures only rarely give any
lead to speak of, so that any coherent interpretation on the pattern of
socio-critical models is a dubious undertaking in the present state of
knowledge.
Nevertheless, it is still legitimate to ask whether the dervishes of the
Shaikhiyan may not properly be seen as a socially progressive group:
in other words, whether the radical ideas they stood for in religious
matters did not also have social implications or effects going beyond
the principles of their order and their idea of a theocratic state. It is
possible to infer an answer to this question from the particular manifes-
tations within whose framework the Shaikhiyan are located. We are very
well informed on one of these, which had experienced a spectacular
upsurge at this very period, namely the Safaviyya of Shaikh SafI al-Dln
1
He is regarded as a convinced ShTI. Possibly this is to be seen as the reason for his flight
from Herat: cf. Rypka, HIL, p. 261, and "Ibn-i Yamin", El2.
2
Most recently treated by Mazzaoui, Origins of the Safawids, pp. 66ff.

38
 THE SARBADARS AND THEIR RIVALS

Ishaq (d. 735/1334)- This was the religious-cum-political nucleus from

which, at a later time, Shah Isma'U I's state was to emerge. Even
though at this time - in contrast to the Shaikhiyan - it was not yet
Shi'I, certain approaches of the two orders may very well have corre-
sponded closely to each other. Reduced to a brief formula: both orders
were groups based on religious principles with an unmistakable orien-
tation towards political influence and claims to secular power, except
that in the case of the Shaikhiyan the political component was already
much more strongly developed than in the Safaviyya.1 This may have
been due to differences in local conditions, but was probably due also
to the markedly theocratic inclinations of the dervishes of Sabzavar,
aimed as they were at the establishment of a Mahdist state. Social
effects may occasionally have come about in the process. But these are
rather to be understood as ingredients of the religious programmes of
politically motivated groups, and most certainly not the other way
round. Interpretations of the Shaikhiyan as a social revolutionary
movement go beyond the limits imposed on the historian by the avail-
able evidence.
The cliche of a social-progressive movement or group does not apply
to the Shaikhiyya of Sabzavar, any more than the label of a robber-state
applies to the Sarbadar movement. The designation "Sarbadar dynasty"
is hardly adequate, given the absence of a hereditary succession, which is
the characteristic feature of a dynasty.2 It would be possible, rather, to
speak of an oligarchy and even, in a very limited sense, of a republic,3 if
one is unwilling to retain the definition of "a kingdom without kings",4
which is most suited to the conditions of this period.

1
Glassen, Die friihen Saftmiiden, p. 43, nevertheless reaches the conclusion: "The early
Safawlya were a mass movement ... Safi ad-dln had no wish to be the leader of an esoteric tariqa
in the midst of an elite association of disciples, but consciously devoted his whole energy to
winning over the broad masses." Even Bina-Motlagh, Scheich Safi von Ardabil, pp. 53-68, gives
detailed consideration to Shaikh SafTs political connections, though he tends to see him rather as
a saint (p. 126: "totally set apart from earthly things").
2
The title of John Masson Smith's book is not to be understood, of course, in a genealogical
sense.
3
Aubin, "La fin de l'etat Sarbadar", p. 95: ". . . un Etat.. . organise en 'republique', sans
devolution hereditaire de l'autorite, par les representants de divers courants politiques". On
p. 117, in the same context, he even speaks of the "phenomene d'auto-gouvernement iranien".
4
Aubin, in JESHO xiv (1971), 382.

39
 J A L A Y I R I D S , MUZAFFARIDS A N D SARBADARS THE SARBADARS A N D THEIR RIVALS

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40
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
 CHAPTER Z

TTMUR IN IRAN

Timur's advances from Transoxiana into the Near East radically trans-
formed conditions in Iran. The resulting changes were not confined to
political affairs or to the structure of the state but also affected to a
considerable degree the ethnic composition of Persia, the economic
and social situation in the country and its cultural development.
In the decades following the demise of the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id the state
of Iran was fragmented and there was widespread evidence of the
collapse of national power. In itself, this might well have aroused the
expansionist appetites of neighbouring states much earlier, but with
the exception of the Golden Horde they simply lacked the military
strength to take advantage of the situation. The Ottoman empire, as yet
in its early stages, was just one of countless Anatolian principalities and
constituted even less of a threat to Iran than any of the Turkmen tribal
groups, such as the Qara Quyunlu, that were still struggling to obtain
a political status. Nor is there any record of military advances by
Egypt into Iran. The vast distances and the almost insurmountable
geographical barriers involved make it unlikely that even the Mamluk
sultans contemplated such invasion plans,1 and certainly any hopes
the Muzaffarid Shah-i Shuja' may have entertained when he granted
recognition to the token caliph al-Mutawakkil 'ala'llah Abu 'Abd-Allah
Muhammad of Cairo were to remain unfulfilled. The situation was quite
different, however, as far as the Golden Horde was concerned. At the
court of Saral a keen interest was shown in events in Persia, and the
ruling khans of the period were greatly attracted by the idea of gaining
influence there. Indeed, as we have seen, attacks had already been made
on Khurasan and Azarbaijan in 758/1357, as a result of which Tabriz
remained occupied for several years. The successes of the khans JanI Beg
and BerdI Beg proved ephemeral in view of the fifteen-year period of
civil strife in the Golden Horde that followed their deaths, but Iran was
to play a significant part in the duel between Tlmur and Tokhtami'sh

1
For details of Egypto-Persian relations during this period, see Sulaiman 'Atlya Sulaiman,
al-'alaqat al-siyasiyya baina Misr va gharb Asiya (min wafat Jlkhan Abi Sa'id ila daulal Aqquyiinlu),
unpubl. Master's thesis, Univ. of Cairo (Kulllyat al-adab), 1952.

42
 T I M U R ' S EARLY CAREER

Khan and influence the actions and decisions of the two rivals over a
long period, a subject that will be discussed in detail later.

TIMUR'S EARLY CAREER

First, some reference must be made, if only briefly, to Timur's origins

and the early stages of his life. At roughly the same time as central
power was breaking down in Il-Khanid Persia, its eastern neighbour,
the ulus of Chaghatai, named after its founder, Chingiz Khan's second
son, was also undergoing severe political and religious disruption. In
the process the Chaghatayid empire was split up into two khanates.
One of these was Mughalistan, on the river Hi in eastern Turkestan, a
land ruled by Mongols in which Mongol tradition was so staunchly
upheld that even Islam failed to gain a footing there. The other was
Transoxiana, an area peopled by strongly Turkicised Mongols who
were being converted to Islam in ever increasing numbers. They were
in time given the name Qara'unas, a term originally applied only to the
Mongols of mixed race living in the Indo-Iranian border area.1 By the
year 747/1346 Qara'unas amirs had replaced the Chaghatayid khans who
had previously ruled the area. From now on the amirs were the de facto
rulers, although each of them raised to the throne a shadow khan and
exercised power in his name. These khans no longer came exclusively
from the line of Chaghatai, some of them being descendants of his
brother Ogedei.
It was natural that the name Qara'unas should be transferred to the
Chaghatai Mongols, for this people in Transoxiana had become assimi-
lated to its original population so as to form a distinct culture. By the
middle of the 8th/14th century, the process of assimilation was com-
plete throughout Transoxiana and beyond, even as far as Slstan.
Among those affected were the Barlas in the valley of the Qashqa-
Darya, the tribe of Tlmur (Tu. temur,"iton"), whose name has been
corrupted, via the Persian Tlmur-i Lang ("the lame"), into the Euro-
pean form Tamerlane. This, in rough outline at least, was the milieu
1
See Aubin, "L'ethnogenese", and "Le khanat de Cagatai", p. 18. Three possible meanings of
the term Qara'unas have to be taken into account: (1) the mixed Mongol population originating
in the Indo-Iranian border area; (2) the Turco-Mongol population of Transoxiana; and (3) the
Turco-Mongol dynasty of amirs ruling in Transoxiana after the death of Qazan Khan in 1346. For
the Timurid chroniclers the designation Qara'unas ("half-castes") was taboo because the Mughals
came to use it as their nickname for the Chaghatais. See Barthold, Vlugh Beg, p. 11, quoting Marco
Polo and MIrza Haidar Dughlat. For their part the Chaghatais called the Mughalsys/f ("robbers").

43
 TIMUR IN IRAN

into which he was born on z 5 Sha'ban 736/8 April 13 36, in Kish (Shahr-i
Sabz), where he spent his childhood and probably also his youth.
Although not a wealthy man, Tlmur's father Amir Taraghai was highly
regarded within the Barlas tribe. A burial inscription ascribes to the
family a common ancestry with Chingiz Khan, but during his lifetime
Timur never laid claim to such a relationship. Indeed, when he had come
to power, he even installed puppet Chingizid khans in Samarqand: first
Soyurghatmish Khan (proclaimed in 771/1370; d. 786/1384), a descen-
dant of Ogedei, and then his son Sultan Mahmud Khan (d. 805/1402).
This suggests that he felt his rule stood in need of legitimisation. He
called himself Amir, claiming the title A.mir-i bu^urg, Amir al-kabir or
the like, in addition to the attribute Kurgan, which derives from the
Mongol kiiregen ("son-in-law"): this last was a reference to his marriage
connection with the Chingizids, of which we shall speak later. In
accordance with the customs of tribal life Timur learned in his youth
every skill a warrior needed, especially horsemanship and archery. In
addition to the Turkish language of his tribe he also acquired Persian,
although he did not learn to read or write. The spread of Islam, which
was making great strides in Transoxiana at that time, had also affected
the Barlas tribe. Timur, who can scarcely be described as a particularly
religious man, was to value the conversation of dervishes and pious
shaikhs throughout his life, a habit which may perhaps be ascribed to the
influence of his father's spiritual adviser, whose name is given as Shams
al-Dln Kulal.
Even in his early days Timur found such recognition amongst his
contemporaries in the Barlas tribe that some of them aligned them-
selves with him more closely as liegeman (nokiit, sing, nokiir). His
qualities as a leader and the success with which his various enterprises
were crowned swelled the number of his followers. When considering
the nature of these enterprises it must be borne in mind that in those
times Transoxiana, just like Persia, was largely in a state of anarchy.
They were in fact adventures typical of the circumstances of the time,
warlike and predatory raids, mostly on a local scale - in other words
nothing unusual in the nomadic milieu with which we are concerned.
Reports of skirmishes in Slstan, where civil wars were then a common
occurrence, show that Timur gradually extended his sphere of action.
His involvement in this area may have had something to do with the
Qara'unas or Negiideris living there. Of course, whether one chooses
to regard the leader of such exploits as an ambitious tribal warrior or as

44
 TIMUR S EARLY CAREER

a bandit and robber chieftain depends on one's point of view. What the
court chroniclers thought of them is fairly obvious, since they pass
over this phase of Timur's career in stubborn silence.
Several attempts were made from Mughalistan to re-establish the
unity of the former ulus of Chaghatai under Mongol rule. The murder
in 759/13 5 8 of Amir Qazaghan, who in 747/1346 had founded a line of
Qara'unas princes in Transoxiana, prompted Tughluq Temiir Khan to
launch a campaign against the region, as a result of which the governor
of Qashqa-Darya, Hajjl Barlas, took flight. Timur, also convinced that
it was pointless to put up any resistance, did not flee but acknowledged
the authority of the khan, who then transferred to him the governor-
ship of Qashqa-Darya. This compact was short-lived, however,
because Timur then allied himself with Amir Husain, a grandson of
Amir Qazaghan who initially ruled the territory from Balkh to Kabul,
but with Timur's support managed after a long struggle to reconquer
the lands of his grandfather. In one of these exchanges Timur received
the injuries to the right shoulder, the right hand and the right thigh
which account for his nickname and traces of which were detected on
his skeleton by the archaeological commission which opened up his
sarcophagus in the Gur-i Mir in 1941. For the present Timur cemented
the alliance with Husain by marrying one of his sisters, named Oljei
Terken. Then, taking advantage of the increased social prestige this
afforded him, he entered into further marriage alliances with the aris-
tocracy of Central Asia.
Yet in the long run neither the alliance, nor the fact that they were
related, nor even their shared experience of danger, imprisonment, defeats
and eventual victories could prevent the two princes from becoming
rivals. Timurfinallylaid siege to Balkh and conquered it. Although he had
granted Husain safe conduct he allowed one of the local princes to murder
him in revenge for the killing of his brother ten years earlier. Thus
sovereignty over Transoxiana passed to Timur. He now married Sarai
Mulk Khatiin, a member of Husain's harem. She was a daughter of the
Chaghatayid khan Qazan, who had ruled until 747/1346, and it was on this
connection that Timur based his claim to the epithet Kurgan (son-in-law,
that is, of a member of the dynasty of Chingiz Khan).1
The events just discussed took place against a background of great
social upheaval and change for the population of Transoxiana. In part

1
For the document of 804/1401 recording this, see Fekete, Einfiibrmg, pp. 7 1 - ; and plates 3-6.

45
 TIMUR IN IRAN

this was due to the fact that political power passed from the hands of
the Mongol khans and their adherents to Qara'unas amirs who of
course had their own followers. It is known that Amir Husain ousted
from their positions and estates numerous amirs and landlords, many
of whom took refuge with Timur. The social consequences are particu-
larly clear in the case of Sarbadars of Samarqand, to whom brief
reference has already been made. They managed to save the city from
attack by the Mongols but were subsequently destroyed by Amir
Husain, apart from those who escaped to Timur or were rescued by
him. Another notable factor is the change from a nomadic to a more
settled way of life. An example of this is Husain's fortification of Balkh,
a task he undertook despite Tlmiir's warnings. In the eyes of the
nomads this was tantamount to a criminal offence, since they regarded
it as a matter of principle never to settle permanently in any one place
but constantly to renew their migrations. Yet the impulse to establish a
permanent capital city, if not to adopt a wholly settled way of life, was
so strong that even Timur succumbed to it. Once he had eliminated his
rivals, he too set about fortifying and architecturally developing his
capital, Samarqand.

THE CONQUEST OF EASTERN IRAN

Tlmiir's advances to the south and west are in no way linked to a

population explosion or to a mass migration of peoples. They lacked
the spontaneity associated with the rise of Chingiz Khan. Timur
planned his campaigns against Afghanistan and the Iranian uplands
with as much care as the early part of his career up to 1370 with which
we have so far been concerned. Indeed, so thorough were his plans that
more than a decade went by before he proceeded to put them into
operation. Although he now had at his disposal the troops of his
defeated rival, who had switched their allegiance to him, his forces
were still not strong enough to outmanoeuvre the Qara'unas amirs,
who had been watching his advancement with envy and suspicion. In
order to ensure himself against surprise attacks in Transoxiana as he
marched into the Near East he had either to eliminate them or to win
them over to his side. To secure his position at the rear it was also
necessary to subjugate Khwarazm.
At this time a variety of links existed between Transoxiana and
Khurasan. Following the murder of the Mongol ruler of Astarabad,
46
 THE CONQUEST OF EASTERN IRAN

Togha Temiir (754/1353), there remained in eastern Persia three sig-

nificant political powers. These were the realm of the Kartids of Herat,
the state of the Sarbadars of Sabzavar, and the dominion of the Ja'un-i
Qurban around Tus. Tlmur had to deal with all three, and in each case
the issue was settled differently.
With the Kartids, who lived closest to his home territories, Timur
established links at an early date. Malik Mu'izz al-Din Husain (732 to
771/1331-2 to 1370), who after his victory over the Sarbadars at Zava
(743/1342) had carried out various successful campaigns against the
ulus of Chaghatai, took Timur into his service. He had himself pro-
claimed Sultan (750/1349), which was tantamount to abrogating Mon-
gol supremacy and was a measure typical of the increasingly strong
tendencies in Herat at that time towards a revival of Islam. Although
married to a Chingizid princess, the daughter of Togha Temiir, the
malik was not himself of Mongol descent and thus according to the law
of Chingiz Khan, the Yasa, he did not qualify for sovereign rule. From
his Mongol father-in-law he had nothing to fear ; it was Amir Qaza-
ghan, exercising power in the name of a Mongol puppet khan, who
moved against him and forced him to give up his independence. The
alliance with Timur came to an end as a result of a predatory raid by
the Kartid that impinged upon his immediate sphere of influence. After
the death of his father, sovereignty over the Kartid empire passed to
Ghiyas al-Din Pir 'AH, except for Sarakhs and part of Quhistan, which
were the inheritance of his stepbrother Malik Muhammad. In the
struggle to gain absolute power that inevitably ensued, each of the two
brothers attempted to secure his position by enlisting Timur's support.
The prince of Herat sent an embassy to him, and his brother even
arrived in person, seeking asylum after being driven out of Sarakhs.
This did not prevent Timur from proposing to Ghiyas al-Din Pir 'All
that they should renew "the old ties of friendship" and indeed
strengthen them by means of a marriage between one of his nieces and
Ghiyas al-Din's eldest son, who for this purpose came to Samarqand.
Not until two years later was he allowed to return to Herat, and then
only as a result of pressure from his father. Scarcely were the marriage
celebrations in Herat at an end when Ghiyas al-Din was summoned by
Timur to a great council (quriltai). This summons may well suggest
that Timur was beginning to doubt the loyalty of the prince of Herat,
probably because of conspicuous defence works that the latter had
undertaken. When Ghiyas al-Din now made all sorts of excuses to try

47
 TIMUR IN IRAN

to postpone the date of his departure, Tlmur armed himself for battle
and arrived with his troops outside the city in Muharram 783/April
13 81. This was the prelude to one of the greatest catastrophes in the
history of Iran.
There is no lack of evidence to suggest that Tlmur was well
informed about the desperate political plight of Persia, the breakdown
of power and the widespread internecine strife within the country.
Moreover, some important figures in Iran actually wanted Tlmur to
intervene. Evidence of this can be seen from a letter sent by Mu'in
al-DIn JamI, the aged vizier of Mu'izz al-DIn Husain, in which Tlmur
was openly invited to make his way to Khurasan. When Tlmur was
nearing their city, the shaikhs of Jam, who were related to the vizier
and had great political influence in the country, called upon all the
dignitaries to go out and welcome the conqueror: almost without
exception they did so. It is likely that Tlmur was similarly encouraged
by those Khurasanian emigres and refugees who were in his camp,
such as the Kartid prince of Sarakhs and Togha Temiir's son Luqman.
No doubt they held hopes of being restored to power by Tlmur, hopes
which, incidentally, were often fulfilled.
Despite the city's strong fortifications Tlmur had no difficulty in
taking Herat. Ghiyas al-DIn Pir 'All, who was by no means as skilful or
capable as his father, had failed to arouse in the population the strength
of will to defend the city. Tlmur showed effective command of the
tactics of psychological warfare by promising to spare the lives and
possessions of those who took no part in the battle. He went even
further when he made the magnanimous gesture of releasing some two
thousand prisoners of war. After the city had been occupied the fortifi-
cations were dismantled, although not the citadel of Ikhtiyar al-Din. A
fairly large group of respected citizens, including theologians and
other scholars, was deported to Shahr-i Sabz in Timur's more
immediate homeland, and a high tribute was exacted from the popula-
tion. Ghiyas al-DIn had no choice but to submit to the authority of his
father's former liegeman and could count himself lucky to be reinstated
as Timur's vassal. In 785/1383, however, his career was terminated
when he was suspected of complicity in a plot hatched by members of
the house of Herat. Timur's son Mlran Shah, the Chaghatayid gover-
nor, managed to nip the rebellion in the bud and annexed Herat. In
798/1396 he was to murder the other surviving Kartids at a banquet to
which he had invited them. Thus ended, after 130 years, the sway of a
48
 THE CONQUEST OF EASTERN IRAN

local dynasty of no little significance in the history of Iranian civilisa-

tion.
In the very year he conquered Herat, Tlmur turned his attention to
the west, where 'AH Beg Ja'un-i Qurbani, who had succeeded his
brother as ruler of Kalat and Tiis, had ignored the summons to assist in
the campaign against Herat. After a long siege Tlmur took him
prisoner, sent him to Transoxiana and shortly afterwards had him
killed. A sizeable contingent of the Ja'un-i Qurban was deported to
Samarqand and the surrounding area, where they were later to attract
the notice of chroniclers.1. Tlmur installed one of their number, Hajjl
Beg, as governor (hakim) of Tus, thus entrusting to him a Chaghatayid
protectorate which he was to administer until his rebellion in the year
791/1389.
It is sometimes maintained that the sovereign of the Sarbadar state
of Sabzavar, Khwaja 'All-yi Mu'ayyad, suffered a fate similar to that of
the ruler of the Ja'un-i Qurban. The proponents of this view would
have us believe that Tlmur subjected him to his overlordship, only to
dispose of him a few years later when he had outlived his usefulness.
However, as Jean Aubin has recently shown, this version of events is
not only inaccurate but also runs counter to the general policy pursued
by Tlmur in Persia. Already, towards the Sarbadars of Samarqand, it
will be recalled, Timiir had adopted a more or less friendly attitude. It
is reasonable to suppose that he also established friendly contacts with
the Sarbadar leader in Khurasan before embarking on his westward
advance from Herat. When he arrived in the region of Nlshapur,
Khwaja 'All was there to pay him homage. What he had to offer the
conqueror may have been no more than a modest remnant of the once
glorious Sarbadar state, but the offer suited Tlmur's plans well. His
policy was not to dismantle established political structures but to make
use of them whenever it was possible to do so without risk to himself.
Timiir was right to anticipate possible risks in western Khurasan, as
the conflicts with 'AH Beg Ja'un-i Qurbani had already shown. In
addition there were the activities of Amir Vali, self-appointed guardian
of the interests of the Il-Khanid prince Luqman. As we have already
mentioned, Khwaja 'All-yi Mu'ayyad sought assistance from Tlmur
against him when he was already close to conquering Sabzavar. Tlmur
promptly relieved the pressure on the leader of the Sarbadars by

1
See Roemer, in Sams al-Husn, pp. 99ff.,quoting Shaml 11 (commentary), 46, 48, 49, 76.

49
 TIMUR IN IRAN

actions against Gurgan and the possessions of Amir Vail in Mazan-

daran, but above all by the brutal treatment he meted out to the latter's
forces and the population of Isfara'In. In Radkan, as he was returning
from the campaign in Mazandaran, Tlmur confirmed the appointment
of Khwaja 'All-yi Mu'ayyad as governor of Sabzavar.
Khwaja 'All remained loyal to Tlmur until the end, fulfilling his
military obligations towards him until 788/1386, when he died as a
result of a wound sustained in battle in Lesser Luristan. His loyalty was
respected by TTmiir, who did not occupy Sabzavar with a Chaghatai
garrison. Khwaja 'All may have forfeited his independence, but he did
retain control of the local administration and - although this did not
always protect him from the encroachments of Chaghatai finance
officers — even enjoyed in principle exemption from taxation. How can
one reconcile this picture of events with the reported rebellion of
785/1383 in Sabzavar and the terrible retribution that followed it? The
answer is quite simple. The scene of the uprising was not the capital of
the Sarbadars but a place in eastern Khurasan that lay some 70 miles
south of Herat and was furthermore called Isfizar.1 Nor had the ring-
leader of the rebellion, Shaikh Da'iid-i Khitatal, any connection with
the Sarbadars. He was a military man who, having left the service of
the Kartids to join Tlmur, had been made governor of the place. The
rebellion was thus the work of the petty aristocracy of the Kartid
empire.
The death of Khwaja 'All did not mean that his family ceased to play
an active role in Tlmur's empire. The territory of the Sarbadars was
divided up amongst several of his relatives, possibly in imitation of the
Turkish or Mongol principle of inheritance. The army of Sabzavar and a
number of Khwaja 'All's relations featured in several campaigns, usually
playing a loyal part. Only Muluk Sabzavarl allowed himself to become
involved in the rebellion of Hajjl Beg of Tiis, to which we have already
referred. After its failure he sought refuge with the Muzaffarid Shah
Mansur in Isfahan, but was eventually pardoned by Tlmur and made
governor of Basra at the beginning of 796/end of 1393.
When they had quelled the rebellion of Sabzavar/Isfizar, Tlmur's
forces marched on Slstan. After heavy fighting they captured the capi-
tal Shahr-i Slstan, and plundered and destroyed it. They then devas-
1
Aubin, "Lafinde l'etat Sarbadar", pp. io<)ff., traces the origin of the confusion to ShamI 1,
91: Barthold had already correctly equated Sabzavar with Isfizar in 1903 in Istoricheskii-geografi-
cbeskii ob^pr Irajta (see n o w his Socbineniya v n , 84)

5°
 MOTIVATION AND METHODS

tated the country, destroying especially irrigation works vital to its

agriculture, a factor often cited as contributing to the continuing
backwardness of the region even to this day. Qandahar was to suffer a
similar fate in the course of the army's return march.
One other advance can be seen as part of this first phase of Tlmur's
operations against Iran. Begun in 786/1384, it took him back initially
to Mazandaran. The Il-Khanid prince Luqman, a son of Togha Temiir
who himself had found refuge in Samarqand in his day, was appointed
governor of Astarabad. This was not, however, the sole aim of the
offensive. Timur advanced further, against the Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad
in Azarbaljan, but failed to capture him either in this campaign or later.
As a result of the latter's flight, however, Timur had little difficulty in
conquering the ancient Il-Khanid capital Sultaniyya, where he halted
his advance. After going into winter quarters in Ray, he returned to
Samarqand. Persia was to be further subjugated in the course of
Tlmur's three famous campaigns, the three-year campaign of
788-90/1386-8, the five-year campaign of 794-8/1392-6 and the so-
called seven-year campaign1 which he began on 4 Sha'ban 801/11 April
1399. These will be dealt with later.

MOTIVATION AND METHODS

An account has now been given of the most important stages of the
military operations by means of which Timur in the space of less than
five years imposed his sovereignty on the east and south-east of Iran,
i.e. Mazandaran, eastern and western Khurasan, and Slstan. Already a
few typical features have emerged, a number of which were to recur in
later operations against Iran. Particularly striking is the thorough prep-
aration of each individual operation. It is obvious that all the military
possibilities were carefully considered, as well as the means needed to
put them into operation. Without prior reconnaissance this would
certainly have been impossible. Members of Islamic orders, dervishes
and itinerant monks {qalandarari) all played a part in the gathering of
secret military information. For a SunnI Timur was relatively indiffer-
ent in his personal attitude to religion but he treated the champions of

1
When Tlmur died on 18 Feb. 1405, six years had elapsed since the start of the campaign and
the seventh had begun only thirteen days previously, i.e. on 4 Sha'ban 807/j February. The
traditional designation "Seven Year Campaign" is therefore somewhat problematical, unless
perhaps it derives from some plan of Tlmur's.

51
 TIMUR IN IRAN
the Islamic faith with obvious benevolence. Descendants of the family of
the prophet Muhammad (sayyid, pi. sdddt), shaikhs, Sufis, dervishes and
judges of the religious law {qudat, sing, qadt) all enjoyed his special
protection. Their lives or property were never in jeopardy when he was
taking terrible reprisals against a captured city. Even when tributes were
being raised, when the rest of the population had to surrender money
and other belongings under threat of death or were forced by torture to
reveal the whereabouts of hidden valuables, they were able to move
about freely in the streets and squares. On occasion, indeed, they were
able with some hope of success to intercede for one or another of the
victims of Timur's myrmidons. Naturally, they proved grateful for such
great privileges, and Tlmur could count on many of them whenever he
was in need of their help. The mobility of this class of people and the
widespread organisation of their orders made them ideal agents of
reconnaissance.
The objects of Timur's military ventures and campaigns were vari-
ous: they might be designed to eliminate a permanent military threat,
as in the case of the Golden Horde; to secure political influence, as in
India or Anatolia; or to impose his own power in the face of dangerous
rivals in the Chaghatayid heartlands, as was the case with the struggle
against the Qara'iinas amirs in Transoxiana and the subjection of
Khwarazm. The invasion of Iran, however, had none of these aims.
When he began his advance into Khurasan, Tlmur never contemplated
annexing the territory or incorporating it into his homelands, as is
quite clear from his endeavours to maintain existing political structures
in being rather than destroy them. His objective was to neutralise other
rulers, that is, to extend his own sphere of influence by setting up
protectorates. The rulers were, of course, obliged to give up their
independence and required to pay considerable sums in tribute.
Although only one of the three protectorates, that of the Sarbadars of
Sabzavar, lasted for any length of time, whereas the other two — the
empire of the Kartids and the realm of the Ja'un-i Qurban - were
liquidated soon after they had been established, this was due solely to
the rebellions that occurred there after Tlmur had withdrawn.
Increased political power was, however, by no means the only
motive for Timur's invasion of Iran. Economic considerations must
have played an equally important part. In this connection it is worth
bearing in mind the economic situation in Chaghatayid Transoxiana. It
was far inferior to that of Iran even after almost three decades of
52
 MOTIVATION AND METHODS

confusion and civil war had, it would appear, reduced to ruins the
Il-Khanid empire, which had attained a particularly high level of
development thanks to the reforms of Ghazan Khan. Culturally, too, the
Chaghatais were backward in comparison with the people of Iran. It
would therefore be reasonable to assume that Tlmur with his pragmatic
cast of mind was concerned to redress the situation in favour of his
Central Asian homeland. His idea was, as far as it was possible, to
transfer material goods to Transoxiana in order to lay the foundations of
economic prosperity and to give his authority as ruler a fitting air of
splendour. His advances into Iran may have been predatory raids, but
they were carefully considered and executed in accordance with pre-
viously established plans, unlike those of nomadic peoples attracted by
the material wealth of sedentary populations. From Iran and other
countries, therefore, the means were to be acquired to develop Trans-
oxiana's economy and to transform Tlmur's capital Samarqand into a
splendid metropolis appropriate to so great a monarch. In fact, Timur
was not content to strip the cities he conquered or occupied of their
treasures and objects of value, but also seized movable property of all
kinds, including riding-horses and pack animals, domestic animals, herds
of cattle, weapons, provisions and supplies of consumable commodities.
No less important was the acquisition of human labour-forces, prisoners
who could be used as slaves, especially qualified men such as craftsmen
and artisans who could be put to work to improve and develop the
homelands; although theologians and scholars were also included.
The description just given of the economic aspects of Tlmur's con-
quests conforms to the type normally found in books. It is not wrong,
but it is somewhat summary and lacking in concrete information. More
recent investigations have served to clarify the picture, and though
they may differ as regards points of detail, what emerges most strik-
ingly from them is Tlmur's essentially systematic and consistent ap-
proach. They provide an insight into the methods used when exacting
tribute, ransom money and capital levies or confiscating property; and
the extent to which such measures succeeded in individual cases can
also be seen. In addition, they tell us what sort of means the army
leaders used either to hold in check their soldiers' rapacity when it
threatened to have an adverse effect on the superior claims of official
revenue or, conversely, how they gave them free rein when the situa-
tion demanded it, i.e. when reprisals no longer worked or concessions
had to be made to sustain the fighting spirit of the troops.

53
 TIMUR IN IRAN

It was the normal military custom for troops on the march to live off
the land, but the occasional mention of a requisition order suggests
that they did not always go about it in an irregular manner. As far as
they could be obtained, lists of businesses and tax registers were used
as a basis for levying tribute. Responsibility for implementing the
levies was entrusted to the tax-collectors (muhassilan) of the Supreme
Divan, to whom military assistance was also made available. The first
step was to seal off all but one of a city's gates, sometimes even to wall
them up. At any rate they were closely guarded, with two different
aims in mind: to prevent the inhabitants from escaping or removing
possessions that they were required to surrender, and to stop the
troops who were eager for plunder from entering the city before the
appointed time. Accompanied by torturers, the tax-collectors then
moved through those areas of the city that had been assigned to them,
confiscating money and possessions, carrying out house searches and
extracting forced confessions from inhabitants whom they suspected of
concealing valuables or possessing information about the circum-
stances of others who were liable to pay tribute. All takings were to be
delivered to specified collection centres where they were registered,
loaded and dispatched under the supervision of responsible amirs. As
the means of transport available for removing the confiscated
possessions was often inadequate, particularly intensive searches were
made for pack-animals. The ransom money {mal-i amdnt) with which a
city could buy immunity from plunder was usually distributed amongst
the amirs. Tlmur's efforts to persuade every city he arrived at with his
forces to capitulate by negotiating a ransom sum show that economic
considerations weighed heavily with him. Naturally the desire to spare
his own troops was also a significant factor, but above all he was
concerned to secure the expected booty or tribute which would be
considerably reduced, if not totally lost, as a result of the plundering that
inevitably followed any seizure by force. As a rule the soldiers were only
given permission to plunder, and then on a specific signal, when the
officials of the divan had completed their requisitions; although such a
regulation was no longer applicable when a city had been taken by
storm. Tlmur only resorted to military force when negotiations of
surrender had failed, but when this happened he took extremely aggres-
sive action, showing the city's inhabitants little or no mercy.
The economic and administrative aspect of Tlmur's conquests — a
feature common to all of them, not only those in Iran — has not
54
 MOTIVATION AND METHODS

received such clear recognition until now. This is probably because

one's attention is all too easily distracted from such details by the
descriptions of acts of cruelty and brutality found in reports. On the
other hand, an economic approach to events must not be allowed to
disguise the fact that bestial atrocities were commonplace. Indeed, to
quote one historian, "The Great Amir regarded terror as the means of
government"1 and all the more of waging war. The most horrifying
atrocities were committed in the course of reprisals ordered by Timur
when his negotiators or officials sent into a city after its capitulation
were attacked or killed, when a city prevented negotiations by attack-
ing the forces besieging it, or when a conquered city subsequently rose
up once more against the victors. In such cases punishment took the
form of a bloodbath (qatl-i 'dmm), the slaughter of the entire popula-
tion. While the menfolk were murdered, women, boys and girls were
violated, but this did not necessarily mean that they escaped death.
Only old people and very young children under the age of five had any
chance of survival, providing they did not die of starvation later.
Otherwise the inhabitants of conquered cities were considered as part
of the booty, sold as slaves and deported to Transoxiana. Many of
them — often one in two — died of exhaustion, starvation or disease on
the way.
The pyramids {minaraha) of skulls that Timur had erected outside the
gates of cities punished in this manner may be regarded as direct symbols
of his unbridled cruelty. The worst instance of this was in Isfahan, where
in 790/1388 the population had attacked the tax-collectors. The historian
Hafiz-i Abrii, renowned for the reliability of his historical accounts,
records how, in the aftermath of the reprisals, he walked with a friend
halfway round the periphery of the city and counted twenty-eight such
towers, each consisting of roughly 1,500 heads. He also mentions similar
towers on the other side of Isfahan, though not so many. Figures
mentioned in the sources of 70,000 heads taken by Timur's troops from
the bodies of slain inhabitants of Isfahan may not, therefore, exceed the
bounds of possibility. Timur may have taken as his model the massacres
carried out by the Mongols during their conquest of the Middle and
Near East, but nothing they did equalled this degree of inhumanity.
Nor could they rival in ingenuity the act of bestiality perpetrated in
Sabzavar/Isfizar after the suppression of the above-mentioned uprising.

1
Aubin, "Comment Tamerlan prenait les villes", p. 122.

55
 TIMUR IN IRAN

Two thousand prisoners were heaped up in a living mound, which was

then walled in with clay and fragments of brick.1
The conquest of a particular area could also be followed by resettle-
ment operations on a fairly large scale.2 Their significance is not always
easy to determine, but as a rule they were probably carried out for
reasons of security. This was the case with the group of the Ja'un-i
Qurban whose deportation has already been mentioned, and perhaps
also with the Qara Tatar who were moved from Amasya and Qaisariyya
to Central Asia in 806/140 3.3
The principles by which Tlmur proceeded in his conquest of Iran
were scarcely ever so rigid as not to admit of exceptions. From time to
time even a city in revolt, like Yazd in 798/1396, was able to benefit
from his flexibility. Timur gave orders that it was neither to be plun-
dered nor held to ransom, and it was even spared the biennial tax
normally imposed in such cases. On the other hand, thousands of the
city's inhabitants had already starved to death during the siege that led
to its eventual capitulation. Yazd was a centre of textile manufacture,
and it may be that Tlmur dealt with the city relatively leniently because
he was concerned about a possible demise of the local industry. A
bloodbath of the kind suffered by quite a number of cities could reduce
them to a state of almost total depopulation and economic collapse.
Nevertheless, the majority were able to recover after some time. That
this was so is probably due to the fact that even when the collective
murder of a population was involved Tlmur imposed certain limits on
the use of arbitrary violence and ensured that these limits were
observed. As we have already noted, sayyids, shaikhs, qadls and other
members of the religious classes could be granted protection against
murder and pillage. We have also encountered one example of a city
where the dignitaries were given exceptional treatment, namely Herat
in 783/1381. In fact, the leading members of a city's aristocracy or "the
rich", as they were sometimes called, were generally spared, together
with their relatives and servants: it was not unknown for Timur to

1
Shamli, 91.
2
Cf. the case of the Sufiyan-i Rumlu, who were the descendants of liberated prisoners of war
from Anatolia. Returning from his campaign against Bayezld in the spring of 806/1404, Tlmur is
said to have handed them over to the Safavid leader Khwaja 'All in Ardabil at the latter's request
(Hinz, lrans Aufstieg, pp. 1 jff.): on the authenticity of this meeting, see Horst, "Timur und Hoga
'All, " pp. 25, 38; also below, pp. 80, 205-6.
3
For details, see Barthold, "Tatar**, fi/1. The later history of this tribal group is considered
in Roemer, Sams al-Husn, p. 97.

56
 THE GOLDEN HORDE

protect this section of society from the fate suffered by the remainder of
the population by ordering a military cordon to be thrown around the
closed districts in which they lived.
No direct comparison can be made between the planning of Tlmur's
advances into Iran and that of his other military enterprises, such as his
campaigns against the Golden Horde, India and Anatolia. This is ap-
parent even from the earliest of his operations which we have so far
discussed. The subjugation of the Kartids of Herat, the removal of the
Ja'un-i Qurban and the partnership with the Sarbadars of Sabzavar
were not simply conceived as predatory raids, whatever gains they
brought in terms of booty. Nor was there any intention, at least from
the outset, to annex these territories. Tlmur aimed rather at eliminating
or, more precisely, at neutralising these hitherto more or less indepen-
dent political entities by turning them into Chaghatai protectorates.
His first raids on Slstan, Gurgan and Mazandaran may be regarded as
flanking manoeuvres to secure the principal territories of Khurasan. The
conquest of eastern Persia owed its success, as we have shown, to
several carefully planned operations. There were good reasons for
proceeding in so calculated a manner. Tlmur had to tread cautiously
because the internal situation in Transoxiana was only gradually
returning to stability and because he saw danger threatening from his
neighbours, the White Horde and the Golden Horde to the north, and
the Mughals from the region of the river Hi in the north-east.

THE GOLDEN HORDE

The offensive of 786/13 84 against Sultaniyya in itself makes it clear that

Timur's conquests in eastern Persia were not designed merely to estab-
lish a glacis for his Chaghatayid empire, but were the beginning of a
campaign to subjugate Persia as a whole. In this connection a brief
consideration of the political situation in Central Asia is necessary, and
in particular of TTmur's relations with Tokhtami'sh. The latter, after
clashing with Qipchaq princes, had sought refuge with Tlmur, who
gladly welcomed him, not so much out of respect for his Chingizid
descent, if he had such respect at all, but because he recognised the
opportunity this offered to weaken the position of his northern neigh-
bours, the White Horde and possibly also the Golden Horde. The
campaigns Tokhtamish fought in Tlmur's service all ended in defeat,
but eventually he gained dominion over the White Horde and even

57
 TIMUR IN IRAN

over the Golden Horde. From then on his actions were quite the
opposite of what Tlmur had expected from him. He strove to make his
territory a major power, first by invading Russia and plundering and
destroying Moscow, then by pursuing ambitions in Transoxiana and
Iran which led to attacks across the Jaxartes in the east and over the
Caucasus in the west. Although there are coins of Tokhtami'sh that
were minted in Khwarazm in 785/1383, it is not clear whether it was
his incursion into this area that prompted Tlmur to return to
Samarqand from his first campaign to Azarbaljan, instead of pursuing
the Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad, who had retreated from Sultaniyya to
Tabriz. On the other hand, all the evidence indicates that Tokhtami'sh
kept a careful eye on Timur's movements in Persia and began making
preparations for an attack on Tabriz on receiving news of his return to
Central Asia. After advancing via Darband, his troops captured and
plundered the city in the winter of 787/1385—6.
At the outset of the three-year campaign the Chaghatai forces aimed
initially for the Jaxartes, a line of attack which might lead one to
conclude that Tlmur had in mind a show of force against Tokhtami'sh.
There is, however, greater reason to believe that it was a diversion
designed to cover up Timur's real objectives, which were central and
western Persia together with the invasion routes leading there from
Qi'pchaq. In fact his forces first went into action against the Lurs, on
the pretext that they had been ambushing caravans of pilgrims bound
for Mecca. But it is more likely that the slaughter TTmur inflicted upon
them was designed to make secure the route to Mesopotamia because
of its possible strategic importance in the struggle against Sultan
Ahmad Jalayir. To suppress him was, after all, clearly one of the
principal objectives of Timur's campaign. Soon after the withdrawal of
the Qi'pchaq forces, Sultan Ahmad had recovered control of the city of
Tabriz, and Tlmur lost no time in marching there once the operation in
Luristan had been completed. He had no difficulty in capturing the city
in the summer of 788/1386, but the Jalayirid, whose army and resources
had been seriously weakened by Tokhtami'sh's attack, had again man-
aged to evade him by taking flight. The inhabitants of Tabriz, still quite
prosperous through their trading connections, were forced to pay a
heavy tribute, and scholars, artists and craftsmen were deported to
Samarqand. The Chaghatai court remained in residence in Tabriz
throughout the summer, and the rulers of the surrounding territories
came to pay homage. Amir Vail, who as Sultan Ahmad's city comman-
58
 THE END OF THE MUZAFFARIDS

dant in Tabriz had been swept away by Tokhtami'sh's forces, led a

rebellion in Mazandaran, but it was put down, and the ringleaders were
captured and executed. A nephew of TTmur, Muhammad Sultan, was
eventually made governor, and the Chaghatai troops moved on.
They now began a campaign against Georgia, the first of six invasions
whose object was not only to subjugate and exploit the local population
but also to cut off the approach routes normally used by the armies of the
Golden Horde for their attacks on the Iranian uplands. As a result of these
operations, the territory of Georgia was devastated and depopulated. The
Georgians, a Christian people, were usually more than capable warriors,
but they proved no match for the ferocious Chaghatais. The city of Tiflis,
which was difficult to capture and tenaciously defended, was taken by
storm in the very first campaign. King Bagrat V was imprisoned together
with his wife Anna Comnena, a princess of Trebizond. Only by accepting
Islam was he able to save his life, but subsequently he apostatised and as a
result his country suffered further calamities.
In the winter the Qi'pchaq forces again advanced through Darband to
attack Persia. They were defeated by MIran Shah, who then went with
his prisoners to Qarabagh, an Armenian territory where Timur had set
up his winter quarters. Against all expectations and contrary to his usual
practice, Tlmur treated the prisoners leniently. He set them free with no
more than a warning, thus clearly making one last effort to convince
Tokhtamish that he still enjoyed the goodwill of his former protector
and at the same time discouraging him from further hostilities.

THE END OF THE MUZAFFARIDS

Reference was made in the previous chapter to the official dispatch that
Shah-i Shuja' issued shortly before his death, in which he sought to
commend to Tlrriur's favour the members of his dynasty1. Timur's
mistrust of foreign rulers and the intrigues by individual relatives of
the recently deceased Muzaffarid prince made him unwilling to take
this document at face value. After the struggles in Armenia and
Georgia he might have been expected to continue the pursuit of Sultan
Ahmad Jalayir into Mesopotamia, but he chose first to establish order
and stability in those territories of central Persia as yet not touched
upon in his campaigns. A letter was dispatched to Zain al-'Abidln 'All,

1
See above, p. 16.

59
 TIMUR IN IRAN

the son and successor of Shah-i Shuja', reminding him of the latter's
declaration of loyalty. As this had no effect, TTmur marched on Isfahan,
whose governor, Muzaffar-i Kashl, surrendered the keys to him. The
citizens would probably have suffered no more than the tribute imposed
upon them, harsh though it was, had not a rebellion against the Chagha-
tai tax gatherers aroused Tlmur's wrath and resulted in the slaughter of the
population as was described above. On Tlmur's approach, Zain
al-'Abidin fled from his capital Shlraz, intending to go to Baghdad. Near
Shushtar he encountered his cousin Shah Mansur, who treated him
kindly at first but subsequently had him taken prisoner and thrown into
gaol. In the circumstances Shlraz easily fell prey to the Chaghatai troops.
Along with 'Imad al-DIn Ahmad and other Muzaffarid princes and local
rulers, Shah Mansur then came to Tlmur's court in the city to pay
homage to the conqueror. As before, Timur resorted in this instance to
his old practice of reinstating the members of previously ruling families
as governors in his service or allowing them to continue in office. Such a
course of action was particularly advisable in this case, as reports of
incursions by Tokhtamish called for his immediate return to Transoxi-
ana. He entrusted the administration of Shlraz to Nusrat al-DIn Shah
Yahya, a nephew of Shah-i Shuja'.
It was obvious that Tlmur's successes in Transoxiana and Persia, the
bloodbath of Isfahan and the plundering of Shlraz had all failed to
teach the Muzaffarids a lesson, for they resumed their old feuds as soon
as he had departed. Shah Mansur, a particularly enterprising prince, set
about re-establishing the old sphere of influence of the MuzafFarids. He
first gained control of Shlraz, forcing Shah Yahya to flee to Yazd.
Then he captured Abarquh, but his attempts to conquer Isfahan met
with less success and he returned to Shlraz. Meanwhile Zain al-'Abidin
had escaped from prison and proceeded to Isfahan, where the inhabi-
tants gave him a warm welcome. His cousin Shah Yahya tried to form
an alliance with him and Sultan Ahmad, the ruler of Kirman, against
Shah Mansur. Negotiations took place in Safar 793 (began on 8
January 1391) in Slrjan,1 at the home of the local ruler, a Muzaffarid
by the name of Abu Ishaq. The common front agreed upon against
Shah Mansur, however, was soon to crumble. When they were met by
the latter's troops near Furg on the border of Kirman, Shah Yahya's
1
On the location of Slrjan, which A.A.K. Vazlrl Kirmani, Tarlkh-i Kirman (Salarijja)
(Tehran, 1340/1961), equates with Qal'a-yi Sang, see Aubin, "Deux sayyids", p. 13, n. 1, and "La
question de SIrgan au XIHe siecle", Stir vi (1977), 285-90.

60
 THE END OF THE MUZAFFARIDS

forces were not on the spot, and Sultan Ahmad retreated in the direc-
tion of Nairlz, accompanied by his son Ghiyas. He eventually joined
battle at Fasa, but lost the day and fled to Kirman. Zain al-'Abidln for
his part repaired to Isfahan, pursued by Shah Mansur. When he
attempted to slip away into Khurasan he was captured in Ray by the
local ruler Musa Jaukar and handed over to Shah Mansur, who had
him blinded and imprisoned in Qal'a-yi Safid. The following year
Shah Mansur devastated the city of Yazd and its hinterland. He then
appeared before the gates of Kirman and tried to persuade Sultan
Ahmad and Shah Yahya, who had sought refuge there, to join him in
an alliance against Timur. When his efforts failed, he clearly recognised
that he was in no position to capture the city, for he returned to Shlraz,
probably with the intention of strengthening his forces. At all events,
he renewed his attacks on Yazd and Kirman soon afterwards, though
again without success except in terms of pillage and destruction. He
failed to take Kirman, so it is said, because a number of his officers
defected to Sultan Ahmad.
Such was the state of affairs in Fars, in 'Iraq-i 'Ajam and in Kirman
when Timur left Transoxiana on 14 Dhu'l-Qa'da 794/3 October 1392
to begin his new five-year campaign against Iran. In the interim he had
been involved in conflicts with the powers that had invaded Iran
during his absence, and with those who had aided and abetted them,
i.e. the khans of the Golden Horde, the khans of Mughalistan and the
ruler of Khwarazm. Since these campaigns are only indirectly con-
nected with the history of Iran, a few brief references to them will
suffice for our purposes. By now respect for Tlmur's military genius
had grown to such an extent that the mere news of his approach was
sufficient to scatter the troops of his enemies, who were wreaking
havoc in Transoxiana. But he was not content to let matters rest there.
He launched a campaign against Khwarazm, plundering and destroy-
ing Urgench, the country's flourishing capital, and emptying it of its
inhabitants, who were abducted as slaves. This raid meant the end of
the local Sufi dynasty, whose last representative, Sulaiman Sufi,
sought refuge with the Golden Horde. After two campaigns against
Mughalistan, where sovereignty had passed to Khizr Khan, Timur
then prepared to strike against Tokhtami'sh. At the head of powerful
forces he marched to Qi'pchaq and inflicted a heavy defeat on his
former protege by the river Qundurcha, to the north of the city of
Samara (15 Rajab 793/18 June 1391). Even though Tokhtami'sh had
61
 TIMUR IN IRAN

suffered heavy losses and was forced to flee, the foundations of his
power had by no means been destroyed, as events were soon to show.
A new khan was installed by the grace of Timur, but this measure was
of no lasting consequence because the Chaghatai troops soon withdrew
once more.
Nevertheless Timur was able to march to the west again in the
following year without having to worry about the situation in Sam-
arqand and Transoxiana, his departure having been delayed only by a
serious illness. If the account in Yazdl's Zafar-nama can be relied upon,
Tlmur's route took him through Gurgan and Mazandaran. The "heret-
ical Sayyids", of whom he killed many in this area, may have been
adherents of the HurufI sect. Its founder Fazl-Allah Abu'1-Fazl, whom
Tlmur's son Miran Shah executed with his own hands in Dhu'l-Qa'da
796 (began 6 November 1393) at the fortress of Ali'njaq near Nakhchi-
van, was a native of Astarabad and had many followers in the region.1
However, this was probably no more than a minor action. Tlmur's
advance was aimed principally against the Muzaffarids or, to be more
precise, against the one particularly active representative of the family,
Shah Mansur. Even though it meant conflict with his own relatives,
the latter was doing everything in his power to re-establish the political
dominance of his dynasty, and this in open opposition to Timur. When
he received the news of Tlmur's departure from Samarqand, of his
activities in Mazandaran and of his further advance, begun in Safar
795/at the end of December 1392, via Damghan, Ray, Kurdistan and
Burujird, Shah Mansur resolved initially to make Isfahan his defensive
base. However, he was persuaded to drop this plan by the Sarbadar
Muluk, who had switched his allegiance to him, and instead remained
in Shiraz. He dispatched Muluk to Kashan as commandant (ddrugba)
of the city, with the task of protecting the northern frontier of the
Muzaffarid territory and of keeping him informed of the movements of
the Chaghatai forces. By Rabf II 795/the beginning of March 1393
Timur had advanced to Dizful and Shushtar, where he installed the
Sarbadar Khwaja Mas'ud as governor. On the way he freed prince
Zain al-'Abidln from imprisonment in Qal'a-yi Safld, treated him
kindly and promised to exact vengeance from Shah Mansur on his
behalf. At the approach of the Chaghatais Shah Mansur had first left
Shiraz, but thinking better of it he turned back to face Timur and

1
Ritter, "Die Anfange der Huruflsekte"; cf. Aubin, "Lafinde l'etat Sarbadar", p. 100.

62
 THE END OF THE MUZAFFARIDS

fought with great personal courage at the head of a feeble contingent

whose numbers were further decreased by desertions. Wounded sev-
eral times, he finally attempted to fight his way through to Shlraz but
was captured by prince Shah Rukh's forces and decapitated.
This conflict was also of vital concern to the other princes of the
house of Muzaffar, and its outcome served to convince them of the
futility of all further resistance. Arriving to announce their submission
to Tlmur, they were given an honourable reception, but on 10 Rajab
795/22 May 1393 in Qumisha, to the south of Isfahan, a supreme order
was issued for their execution. So ended the rule of the Muzaffarids.
Only Zain al-'Abidln and Sultan Shibll, the eldest and the youngest
sons of Shah-i Shuja', were spared and sent to Samarqand.
For an insight into conditions in general in Iran during the eighty
years (713— 95/1313— 93) in which the Muzaffarids were politically
active we have already had recourse to the testimony of Hafiz
(d.791/1389 or 792/1390), whom many literary experts consider the
greatest poet in the Persian language. His divan provides outstanding
evidence of the cultural and intellectual situation at the time. It is
significant both as a poetic masterpiece and as a rich source for the
history of ideas, not least because of the style in which it is written, a
subtle interplay of normal sense usage and mystical hidden meaning.
Although the divan contains verses that are cheerful in mood, it does
not of course follow that the circumstances of its author and his con-
temporaries were happy ones. On the contrary, the vein of melancholy
which again and again predominates in the work carries rather more
conviction. It is a reflection of the sceptical and often pessimistic atti-
tude to life that was widespread amongst the people of Iran as a result
of numerous national catastrophes, foreign domination, despotism and
tyranny, typified especially by the beginning and end of the Mongol
empire.
Strangely enough, these conditions of existence, however wretched
and miserable they may have been, did not inhibit the development of
strong cultural energies in the country, as has been indicated in the
previous chapter. We have mentioned Shah-i Shuja"s patronage of
Hafiz, but this was not an isolated example. Even a prince like Shah
Mansiir took an interest in literature and promoted the Khwaja.
Mubariz al-DIn Muhammad, too, though his interest was more
narrowly religious, encouraged certain intellectual disciplines, as can
be seen from his generous patronage of 'Azud al-DIn al-Iji (d.756/

63
 TIMUR IN IRAN

1355), the distinguished Shafi'I jurist and Ash'ari theologian.1 When

the latter was in Isfahan, Shah-i Shuja' took the opportunity of study-
ing under his guidance the commentary of Ibn Hajib (d.626/1229) on
al-Mufassal fi'l-Nahw, a study of Arabic grammar by al-Zamakhshari
(d. 5 38/1144).2 Finally, one could point to the example of Shaikh Majd
al-Dln Isma'il, whose reputation for scholarship prompted the famous
traveller Ibn Battuta (d.780/1378) to visit Shlraz.3 The Muzaffarids may
have failed to rescue Persia from the chaos of civil wars and disruption
that followed the collapse of the Il-Khanid empire: indeed their fratri-
cidal warring brought untold disaster to countless inhabitants of the
country and facilitated its almost effortless conquest by Timur. Yet they
managed reasonably well to maintain a minimum of public order and
security, thus making possible cultural achievements such as we have
just mentioned, achievements that are of greater significance in the
history of Iran than the Muzaffarid rulers themselves.

THE CONQUEST OF THE JALAYIRIDS

Tlmur's only adversary in Persia after the defeat of the Muzaffarids

was Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, whose sphere of influence stretched from
Azarbaljan into Mesopotamia as far as Baghdad. Normally his summer
residence, Baghdad had served him as a refuge from the Chaghatais
ever since he had taken flight during Tlmur's first advance on Sultan-
iyya. Hoping to surprise him by attacking in the hottest part of summer,
Timur took only eight days to march at the head of his advance guard
from Fars to Mesopotamia and arrived at the gates of Baghdad on 30
Shawwal 795/29 August 1393. He caught his opponent unawares but
failed to defeat him, for although Sultan Ahmad had no time to prepare
for the defence of Baghdad he did manage to withdraw to the west
bank of the Tigris, taking with him what ships he could and scup-
pering the rest, as well as destroying all the bridges. To no avail, for
Timur wasted no time on the fortifications of the city, which at this
period stood only on the east bank; nor did he halt at the Tigris.
Showing great foresight, he had equipped his troops with planks and

1
Van Ess, "al-Tdji", EP, and Die Erkenntniskhre des 'Adudaddm al-l£i, (Wiesbaden, 1966).
2
Cf. Brockelmann, GAL i, 303 (GAL2 1, 367) and Supplement 1, 531—9, where no such com-
mentary, however, is listed.
3
Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, 11, 300-5. We are here dealing with the qadi Isma'il b. Yahya b.
Isma'il, whose father and grandfather before him had also held the office of qadl of Shlraz.

64
 THE CONQUEST OF THE JALAYIRIDS

beams by means of which they were able to cross the river both above
and below the city. Nevertheless, they arrived too late. Sultan Ahmad
narrowly escaped them, just as he did later when his pursuers came
within a hair's breadth of capturing him near Karbala. He fled to Syria,
where his request for asylum was granted by the ruler of the Mamluk
empire, Sultan Barquq (784—801/1382—1399).
Tlmiir occupied Baghdad without a fight. Several writers, including
two eye-witnesses,1 have left detailed accounts of the Chaghatai
troops' behaviour in Mesopotamia, and we also have data on specific
outrages and atrocities they committed. Yet it would appear that the
population of Baghdad itself, in so far as they remained within the city
walls, were treated relatively leniently, albeit at the price of a high
ransom that was extorted from them. Plunder and confiscation were
succeeded by dearth and famine when Tlmur marched away again
some two months later. On this occasion too, scholars and artists were
deported, including the masters of the renowned Baghdad school of
book illumination, who had enjoyed the protection of Sultan Ahmad.
Tlmur also had captives, both male and female, taken away to be sold
as slaves.
The governorship of Baghdad was conferred upon Khwaja Mas'ud
Sabzavarl, a nephew of Khwaja 'All-yi Mu'ayyad, the last Sarbadar
prince of Sabzavar. His force of Sarbadars, however, though 3,000
strong, was not sufficient to defend the city when Sultan Ahmad
marched back again a year later. Instead of giving battle, Khwaja
Mas'ud withdrew his troops from Baghdad to Shushtar. Sultan Ahmad
was thus able to re-establish his control over Baghdad. As if nothing
had happened, he proceeded to live in the same unrestrained fashion as
before, thus giving many a leading figure in his entourage cause to
criticise him. In 800/1397—8 this discontent found expression in a
conspiracy, and although he triumphed over the conspirators Sultan
Ahmad no longer felt secure. Secretly leaving the city, he sought
assistance from the Qara Quyunlu chief Qara Yusuf, but when the
latter's Turkmen cavalry arrived in the outskirts he had a hard task
preventing them from occupying and — almost inevitably — plundering
the city. Eventually, however, he persuaded them to turn back. Despite
the air of nonchalance he usually displayed, Sultan Ahmad was well
aware of the danger of his position. Even though an attempt by Miran

1
ShamI 1, 139. 'Aziz b. Ardashlr Astarabadi, ha^m u ra^m, ed. Kilisli (Istanbul, 1928), p. 19.

65
 TIMUR IN IRAN

Shah to advance against him from Tabriz in the summer of 800/1398

had to be abandoned, it provided, along with other signs, clear evi-
dence of a recurring Chaghatai interest in Mesopotamia. Two years
later, when news reached him of TTmur's presence in Anatolia, he left
Baghdad. Subsequently, when Timur was occupied in Syria, he
returned for a short while and handed over command of the city to
Amir Faraj, one of his army leaders, before taking refuge himself with
the Ottomans.
Sultan Ahmad's fear that a new Chaghatai advance against Baghdad
was in the offing proved well grounded. After his numerous military
successes, to which we shall return later, TTmur must have been especi-
ally irritated by the thought that the Jalayirid prince remained un-
defeated. In addition, of course, Baghdad was still an important centre
of trade and communications. It was also strategically significant as a
possible base for campaigns directed against the rear or the flank of
those of his units active in Anatolia or Syria, and thus constituted a
threat to the very operations that occupied his mind at this time. The
disaster Sultan Ahmad had anticipated soon occurred. It befell Bagh-
dad in May 1401, when a Chaghatai division Timur had sent out from
Mosul to exact tribute met with vigorous resistance outside the city
from Turkmen units and bands of bedouins called to the scene by Amir
Faraj. Even when Timur's troops received reinforcements the resis-
tance did not slacken, for the commandant of the city clearly had no
idea that he was dealing with Timur himself. As it was, the latter had
arrived in person at the head of comparatively small forces, leaving
behind the main body of his troops in the Kurdish mountains in view
of the summer heat. There they had the benefit not only of a better
climate but also of rich grazing grounds.
Although all Baghdad's supplies were exhausted in a siege that
lasted forty days, Timur's hopes of a bloodless surrender were disap-
pointed. As a result, when the city was taken by storm on 27
Dhu'l-Qa'da 803/9 July 1401, he ordered a ruthless massacre of the
population from which not even women and children were exempted.
The only people whose lives were spared were theologians, shaikhs
and dervishes. The city's fortifications were then demolished and its
public buildings, including some from the 'Abbasid period, destroyed;
the only exceptions were mosques, universities and hostels. By all
accounts the depopulation and destruction of the city were carried to
such lengths that TTmur had no need to instal a governor. Despite all
66
 THE CONQUEST OF THE JALAYIRIDS

this Sultan Ahmad returned to Baghdad soon afterwards and set about
rebuilding the city. In the middle of winter he had another narrow
escape when a Chaghatai raiding party advancing from Kurdistan
caught him unawares. Nevertheless he arrived back in his city again a
few months later, this time accompanied by Qara Yusuf. The
friendship between the two princes was not to last long. When they
quarrelled, Sultan Ahmad was expelled by the Turkmen leader.
Any hopes he entertained of being kindly received and granted
asylum by the Mamluks a second time proved illusory. Sultan Faraj
(801-815/1399-1412), who in the meantime had succeeded his father
Barquq on the Egyptian throne, imprisoned the Jalayirid in a strong-
hold because he feared Timur's vengeance. Here Sultan Ahmad was to
meet up again a short time later with Qara Yusuf, who in the autumn
of 806/1403 was driven out of Baghdad by Aba Bakr, a grandson of
Tlmur, and similarly sought refuge with the Mamluks. In prison the
two of them formed a new alliance, but despite all guarantees it proved
shortlived when they regained their liberty some time later. Qara
Yusuf moved to Tabriz, whilst Sultan Ahmad returned to Baghdad
and again assumed power. He retained it for five difficult years before
Qara Yusuf defeated him in battle, took him prisoner and executed
him. The victor handed over Baghdad to his son Shah Muhammad Qara
Quyunlu, who conquered the city on 5 Muharram 814/29 April 1411.
Thus began the Turkmen phase of the city's history. Elsewhere,
notably in Khuzistan, Jalayirid rulers managed to retain power until as
late as 835/1432.l
Apart from the Sarbadars, who won Timur's favour by promptly
establishing good relations with him and continuing to serve him
loyally, the Jalayirids were the only political force of any importance
on Persian soil that survived the conqueror, though not by many years.
The price Sultan Ahmad had to pay for his survival was not only
unsettled and precarious, but also depended on an uncertain alliance
with his rivals, the Qara Quyunlu. This alliance was bound to end in a
trial of strength, and when it finally came he proved no match for them
1
Ouda, "Buchmalerei", p. 32, lists (following Shirln Bayan!) the remaining Jalayirids: Sultan
Valad (813-14/1410-11); Sultan Uvais II (814-24/1411-21); Sultan Mahmud (824-8/1421-4);
and Sultan Husain II (828-36/1424-32). Of these the first three were sons of Sultan Ahmad, and
Husain his grandson. In Yinanc, "Celayir", the successor of Uvais is named as Muhammad, and it
is alleged that Valad's widow Tandu Khatun bint Jalal al-DIn Husain (previously married to the
Egyptian Sultan Barquq) paid homage to the Timurid Shah Rukh and ruled over Wasit, Basra
and Shushtar until her death in 819/1416.

67
 TIMUR IN IRAN

either in Tabriz or in Baghdad. Sultan Ahmad's survival also entailed

the sacrifice of a considerable cultural inheritance. His family had made
Tabriz and more particularly Baghdad into important cultural centres,
and in both cities a miniaturist school of the highest rank was crippled,
if not entirely destroyed, when Tlmur carried off the best painters
to Central Asia. Scholars and other representatives of intellectual,
religious and artistic life were also deported. In the nine years that
remained to him after 803/1401, Sultan Ahmad was quite incapable of
repairing the damage caused by this drain on his cultural resources,
even though he did everything in his power to try to restore Baghdad.
In terms of his character and role, about which we have considerable
detailed evidence, the Jalayirid prince was probably a typicalfigurenot
only of his dynasty but of his times in general, for he was a man of
startling contrasts. He was both a patron of the arts and a practising
artist in his own right : none other than the famous 'Abd al-Haiy
taught him drawing. He was a miniaturist, a skilled calligrapher, well
versed in music, and a poet whose Arabic and Persian verses were
collected in a divan. On the other hand he is described as cruelly
despotic, fratricidal, disloyal and avaricious. Others depict him as a
courageous warrior, in spite of his tactical retreats in conflicts with
Tlmur and his generals, and also as a protector of scholars and poets.
We have already mentioned the court poet Jamal al-Dln Salman Savajl
(b. c.700/1300, d. 778/1376), who was highly esteemed by Sultan
Ahmad's father, Shaikh Uvais. Primarily a panegyrist, he was also a
master of the romantic epic and of lyric poetry. A measure of the
respect he enjoyed is the quatrain, ascribed to Hafiz, in which he is
praised as "chief among the cultured men of the age" {sar-amad-i
fu^ald-ji %amdnd). One unusual feature of his poetry is that he takes real
events as his subject matter - a rare phenomenon in the classical
literature of Iran. This is true of his Firaq-nama ("Book of Separ-
ation"), in which he describes Shaikh Uvais's pain at the loss of one of
his favourites, first when he disappears from the court, then when he is
away on a military campaign, and finally when he dies unexpectedly.1
Salman is mentioned here as just one example of the many poets,

1
For a detailed consideration of Salman, see LHP m, passim, and HIL, pp. 261—2; Bozotg
Alavi in Kindlers Literatur-Lexicon (Munich, 1974) ix, 343jf. {Firaq-nama), 3767 (Jamshid va
Khurshid), and xix, 8432^ (Saqi-nama); Abdul Muqtadir, Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian MSS in
the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore2 1 (Bihar 1962): "Gazaliyyat-i Salman". Rypka considers the
Hafiz quatrain to be wrongly attributed.

68
 THE INDIAN CAMPAIGN

famous and less well known, who lived under the Jalayirids and were
patronised by them.
With their liking for ostentation at court, it was also natural that
several of the Jalayirids should distinguish themselves as builders, but
many of the architectural achievements for which they were renowned
have been destroyed. One of the buildings of Khwaja Mirjan, who was
the Jalayirid governor of Baghdad on more than one occasion, has
survived, however. It is the Islamic university (madrasd) in Baghdad,
which was later named Jami'-i Mirjan.1 The Spanish ambassador
Clavijo, usually a reliable observer, records having seen a palace of
gigantic proportions in 804/1401 in Tabriz which was called Daulat-
khana and had been erected by Uvais. His observations could well be
based on fact. Lastly, Sultan Ahmad's repeated efforts to improve or
restore the architecture of Baghdad are emphasised in many sources.
The most impressive legacy of the Jalayirids is their painting. Exam-
ples of miniatures from Tabriz and Baghdad that have been preserved
derive for the most part from the Sultans Uvais, Husain and Ahmad.
The Jalayirid schools suffered greatly as a result of the deportations
ordered by TImur, but the Baghdad school at least survived the first
conquest of 795/1393 and did not finally come to an end until the
second in 803/1401. This is demonstrated by works of art produced
during the intervening period.
The cultural and intellectual achievements of the Jalayirids, particu-
larly the complex and controversial subject of iconography, its genesis
and styles, will be considered in more detail in later chapters. Here we
have been content to give a general sketch of the world that TImur
destroyed in his efforts to eliminate the political and military power of
the dynasty. Although Sultan Ahmad personally succeeded in eluding
Tlmur's grasp, the blows he suffered sapped the vitality of his empire.
Each military defeat drained away more of its cultural and intellectual
energies until by the time of the conflicts with the Tiirkmens it had
exhausted all its strength, and neither Sultan Ahmad nor his successors
could bring about its regeneration.

THE INDIAN CAMPAIGN

For the history of Iran the most important outcome of the five-year
campaign was that the country became an integral part of Tlmur's
1
For Khwaja Mirjan and his architectural activities, see al-'Azzawi, Ta'rikh al-Iraq n, 84-129.

69
 TIMUR IN IRAN

sphere of influence. Opponents such as Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, the

Turkmen Qara Yiisuf Qara Quyunlu, or individual Georgian princes
who managed to elude the grasp of the Chaghatais, constituted at most
a latent threat. In practice they were reduced to living as best they
could either as exiles abroad or in border areas of Iran to which access
was difficult. Yet Timur by no means underestimated the possibility of
trouble from them. Contemplating as he did further conquests, he had
to guard against all eventualities in his rear.
His plans did not stop at the destruction of the military power of the
Qipchaqs. For Mongol supremacy to be restored, as he envisaged, he
would need to subjugate India and China too, not to mention areas of
the Near East outside Persia. His grandson, Pir Muhammad b.
Jahanglr, who since 794/1392 had occupied the "throne of Mahmud of
Ghazna" and had the closest knowledge of Indian affairs, was ordered
to march against the Punjab in the autumn of 800/1397. This was the
prelude to Tlmur's Indian campaign of the next two years, culminating
in the sack of Delhi in 801/i 398. No political reasons for the expedition
are mentioned in the sources. Since it was directed not solely against
non-Muslim princes but also, indeed primarily, against Muslim rulers,
the view that the campaign was motivated by a desire to spread Islam
cannot be accepted without qualification. The weakness of the Indian
princes and the fact that they were in conflict with one another may
well have prompted Tlmur's decision to attack, for booty and the
payment of tribute seem to have been his principal aim. As a conse-
quence the Indian territories affected suffered devastation and slaughter
on an unimaginable scale, together with disease and famine, as one can
see from Ghiyas al-Din 'All's record of the expedition.

THE FINAL CONFLICT WITH TOKHTAMISH

Our summary of the fortunes of the later Jalayirids has taken us well
beyond the period of Tlmur's five-year campaign (794-798/1392-
1396). The time has now come to pick up the thread of events follow-
ing Timur's departure from Baghdad in the late autumn of 795/1393,
events which took place not in Iran itself but in border areas and
neighbouring countries. In what follows they will be considered in
more or less detail depending on the extent to which they affected
Persian history.
When Timur moved on up the Tigris after conquering Baghdad, it

70
 THE FINAL CONFLICT WITH TOKHTAMISH
was not clear what his next military objective would be. Syria, Egypt,
western or eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus were all possible
targets, and the news of Tlmur's military successes as well as his brutal
methods of waging war not only perturbed the rulers of these terri-
tories but also struck fear into the hearts of their populations. Nor was
the situation eased when the conqueror sent envoys to numerous
princes and rulers, inviting them to establish friendly relations or
demanding that they should submit to his sovereignty, as was the case
with Sultan Barquq of Cairo, who had granted asylum to Sultan
Ahmad Jalayir, and with Ahmad's Turkmen ally, Qara Yusuf of the
Qara Quyiinlu confederation. One other act of Tlmur was probably
designed to strike terror in the hearts of his rivals. This was the
spectacular feat of capturing the fortress of Takrlt on the Tigris, which
had been considered impregnable. Its commandant and garrison were
slaughtered, and pyramids of skulls were erected for all to see. After
the capture Tlmur held a military parade on the west bank of the Tigris
to demonstrate to the world the strength of the Chaghatai forces.
Such demonstrations had their effect, though not in the way Tlmur
had desired. They resulted in intensive diplomatic exchanges on the
part of his adversaries. The ruler of Sivas informed Barquq of his fears
and asked him for support. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezld made contact
with the Egyptian ruler and sent him subsidies. Tokhtamish and
Barquq also entered into an alliance, which was of particular signifi-
cance since it showed that Tlmur's campaign against Qi'pchaq in
793/1391 had failed to neutralise or at any rate intimidate the khan of
the Golden Horde.
Nevertheless, Tlmur now delayed, in fact for a whole year, before
deciding on his next major blow. In the meantime he turned his atten-
tion to operations on a geographically limited scale. As well as the
Artuqids in Mardin, he again attacked the Georgians. This was the
prelude to later offensives against their territory, that of 1395 under the
command of Mlran Shah and those of 1399 and 1403 which Tlmur was
again to lead himself. Qara Yusuf and his Qara Quyiinlu, at this time
Tlmur's most dangerous enemy south of the Caucasus, were also
engaged in battle. They lost the fortress of Avnik on the Araxes, and
its commandant, a brother of Qara Yusuf called Misr Khwaja, was
taken captive and sent to Samarqand together with his family. Events
of importance on the personal level at this time were the birth of Ulugh
Beg, a son of Shah Rukh who was to become Tlmur's favourite grand-

71
 TIMUR IN IRAN

son, and the death of the conqueror's oldest surviving son, 'Umar
Shaikh, which must have come as a severe blow. Summoned to the
court from Fars, where he was governor, he was fatally wounded by an
enemy arrow while besieging a Kurdish stronghold en route.
A letter of 8 Jumada I 797/1 March 13951 shows that Tlmur made
one last effort to effect a reconciliation with Tokhtami'sh. Even though
it failed, it provides further evidence of his concern to remain loyal to
the descendants of Chingiz Khan. Another communication, addressed
to the Ottoman sovereign,2 indicates that at this time - and perhaps
even earlier - Tlmur was contemplating something quite different.
This was an expansionist policy on a grand scale, stretching as far as
eastern Europe. As his starting point, Tlmur took the old division of
the ulus of Jochi into two parts, i.e. the area east of the river Dnieper as
the left flank (sol qol), the empire of the Golden Horde, and the terri-
tories west of the Dnieper as the right flank (prj qol), together with the
Ukraine, the lands of the Lithuanians and Poles, who were the allies of
Tokhtami'sh. In his letter Tlmur praised Bayezld's achievements in the
holy war (jihad) against the Christian princes in the Balkans and
suggested that they should establish mutual spheres of interest. The
right flank, that is the area extending west of the Dnieper to the
Balkans, was to be allotted to Bayezld, the left flank or all territory to
the east of the Dnieper to Tlmuf. The letter also reveals that two of the
basic principles behind Tlmur's global political strategy were the
spread of Islam throughout the world and the restoration of the world-
wide supremacy of the Mongols. If, as Togan assumes,3 Tlmur's new
campaign against Tokhtamish was designed not merely to punish a
disloyal ally, but "to put into effect a comprehensive plan for eastern
Europe", it failed because the sultan was not prepared to cooperate
with him. At that time Bayezld regarded a siege of Constantinople and
operations in northern Greece as more important than any far-reaching
projects Tlmur was contemplating.
Be that as it may, the spring campaign of 797/1395 turned out to be
more urgent than any other actions Tlmur may have been considering,
such as operations against the Mamluks in Syria and Egypt or indeed
against Bayezld himself. For this there were two reasons. First, the
attempts to negotiate an alliance between the Golden Horde and Cairo,
1
Sharaf al-Din Yazdli, 52jff.
2
For the text, with detailed commentary, see Togan, "Timurs Osteuropapolitik".
3
Ibid., p. 290.

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 THE FINAL CONFLICT WITH TOKHTAMISH

which cannot have escaped the attention of the Chaghatai high com-
mand, meant that the ruler of Iran faced the risk of being hemmed in
between these two powers, as was the situation of the Il-Khanid Empire
and other Iranian empires before it. Secondly - and here the danger was
no less acute — incursions into Tlmur's domain in the Caucasus provided
clear evidence of hostile intentions on Tokhtami'sh's part. When, in
addition, Tokhtamish replied in unsatisfactory terms to Tlmur's con-
ciliatory message, the Chaghatai troops received the order to march
against him that same spring. The decisive battle, in which both rivals
personally took part, was fought in the valley of the river Terek in the
northern Caucasus. It ended in a crushing defeat for the Q'ipchaq army.
The way was now clear for Timur to advance into the Volga area and to
strike against the capital of the Golden Horde, Saral. It was looted and
plundered together with other cities of the lower Volga, the Crimea and
the northern Caucasus. An immeasurable amount of booty was carried
off, and many of the native people, not just soldiers but women and
children too, were abducted into slavery. Stories of Timur advancing as
far as Moscow have no basis in fact, although he did make raids on cities
in southern Russia that were close to the frontiers of the Golden Horde.
The country was so devastated and depopulated, its economic
potential so effectively destroyed, that the Q'ipchaq empire never again
recovered. Moreover, with the severance of the trade routes and the
destruction of key transfer-points, long-distance trade between the Far
East and Europe, in so far as it passed via the Golden Horde, was
virtually paralysed. Timur had probably intended to ruin the country's
economy in this way, for it is unlikely that he thought of usurping power
there even though he helped Temiir Qutlugh, a pretender of his choice,
to assume control. Tokhtamish, who lost his throne as a result of the
defeat, still had a role to play in later eastern European conflicts, but any
ambition he or the Golden Horde had in Transoxiana or Iran were
thwarted once and for all. Although its effects were to be felt for some
time, Tlmur's brutal punishment of the Q'ipchaqs came to an end in the
spring of 798/1396 when he marched to Persia via Darband. Isolated
operations in Georgia, Azarbaljan, Fars and other areas of Iran, includ-
ing the suppression of a rebellion in Yazd, brought the five-year cam-
paign to a close. In the summer the Chaghatai troops set out on the
return journey to Samarqand, where Timur was to make his most
protracted sojourn prior to embarking on the Indian campaign we have
already noticed.

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 TIMUR IN IRAN

THE CAMPAIGNS IN SYRIA AND ANATOLIA

Tlmur had scarcely recovered from a severe illness suffered on the

return march from India to Transoxiana when not long after his arrival
back in Samarqand, in May 1399, he began preparations for a new
campaign. This was the so-called seven-year campaign against the
West. A mass of information reaching him from that quarter led Tlmur
to decide on this course of action. All was not well in the realm of his
son Mlran Shah, who reigned "on the throne of Hiilegu" in Sultaniyya
and Tabriz. The situation was eased somewhat by the death in
801/1399 of Barquq, the Mamluk Sultan of Cairo, and the succession of
his son Faraj, a boy often. On the other hand, it was aggravated by the
constant and apparently irresistible rise to power of the Ottoman Sul-
tan Bayezld I. On 25 September 1396 he had won a spectacular victory
over an army of crusaders at Nicopolis on the lower Danube. Later,
during Timur's Indian campaign, he had enjoyed success in Anatolia in
operations against the princes of Qaraman. Other news to reach Samar-
qand at this time was that of the death in 1398 of the emperor T'ai-tsu,
who thirty years earlier had brought the Yuan dynasty to an end and
expelled the Mongols from China. No doubt this greatly interested
Tlmur, but not enough to make him waver in his resolve to take action
first against the threats looming in the west.
When the Chaghatai troops set off for Persia, a detachment under the
command of Sulaiman Shah, one of Timur's nephews, was sent on
ahead to investigate the charges that had been made against Prince
Miran Shah. Doubts had arisen about his loyalty because he had
alluded in letters to his father's advanced age and incapability. The
charges also concerned his failure to deal with instances of unrest and
refusal to pay taxes in the area he ruled, as well as the loss of the
stronghold of Alinjaq, a pocket of resistance of great importance to the
Jalayirids1 where Georgian troops had come to the relief of Prince
Tahir, a son of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir. Far from making difficulties,
Miran Shah actually came forth with Sulaiman Shah to meet his father.
Tlmur deposed him, and without further punishment assigned him to
his retinue, where he was to remain for the next four years. His friends
1
See more fully Minorsky, "Transcaucasica", pp. 91—112. Alinjaq had already been attacked
by Tlmur in 789/1387. It was to offer the most stubborn resistance of all the fortresses he
conquered, for it did not fall until 803/1401, after the Georgian campaign with which we shall
shortly deal.

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 THE CAMPAIGNS IN SYRIA AND ANATOLIA

and advisers, some of them well known figures in cultural life, were
not treated so lightly. They were severely punished, and some of them
even executed, for allegedly corrupting the prince and leading him
astray; this despite the fact that he was by now thirty-three years of age.
Timur personally directed operations to restore order in north-
western Persia. Then he moved into winter quarters in Qarabagh, a
stretch of country in the bend of the river Araxes that offered good
winter shelter, especially for cavalry. From here he launched a punitive
raid against the Georgians that was interrupted only by adverse weather
conditions. The very next spring saw the start of a new campaign against
the Georgians, the fifth in all, in the course of which Tiflis was again
stormed. Timur had demanded that the Jalayirid Tahir, who had sought
refuge with the Georgians, be handed over, but King Giorgi VII
allowed him to escape just in time, and he made his way to the Ottoman
Sultan Bayezld. In view of the destruction caused by the Chaghatais and
the heavy losses sustained by his troops and people, the Georgian king
was forced to open negotiations with Timur, in the course of which he
agreed to pay a considerable tribute and to furnish a contingent of troops
for the conqueror's army.
Even though Sultan Barquq had now died, Timur still had a score
to settle with the Mamluks because of the support they had given to
Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, their attempts to form an alliance with the
Golden Horde, and above all the murder of his ambassador to Cairo.
Although some years had elapsed since the murder took place, Timur
could scarcely allow it to go unexpiated, if only for reasons of pres-
tige. Another factor he had to consider was the position of Mesopo-
tamia. The presence of a strong opponent in Egypt would pose a real
threat to its security and might leave one flank dangerously exposed,
should he ever contemplate an expedition to Anatolia. Nor can one
entirely rule out the possiblity that Timur, with his respect for Mongol
tradition, felt an obligation to avenge the historic defeat that the
Mamliiks had inflicted upon the Mongols in 658/1260 at 'Ain Jalut in
Palestine. Lastly, it can scarcely have escaped his attention that since
the death of Barquq and young Faraj's elevation to the throne rivalries
among the military commanders had made the internal situation in the
Mamluk kingdom highly unstable, a state of affairs that positively
invited intervention on his part.
Such were the considerations that led to the advance of the Chagha-
tais against Syria in the autumn of 803/1400. Setting off from Malatya,

75
 TIMUR IN IRAN

the armies marched via 'Aintab and captured the city of Aleppo. There
they laid siege to the citadel, forcing it to surrender within four weeks.
Not long afterwards Hama, Hims and Ba'labakk also fell. Early in
Jumada I/at the end of December Timur arrived outside Damascus.
Sultan Faraj, who had arrived with his forces from Cairo a few days
earlier, was encamped in the Ghuta, not far from the city. He did not
join battle, however, but marched off again, ostensibly because of
rumours of an impending coup in Cairo. The sultan's withdrawal was a
shattering blow to the morale and resistance of the Damascenes. The
surrender of the city was followed by that of the fortress. The tribute
Damascus had to pay was so high that all its resources were exhausted.
Even so, the city was thrown open to the Chaghatai troops for three
days of general pillage in the middle of March 1401. They committed
untold crimes and atrocities despite TTmur's orders to spare the popu-
lation.

For Timur the Syrian campaign reaped a rich reward in terms of goods
and valuables confiscated and slaves captured. For the country itself it
meant economic ruin, the devastation of its cities, the decimation of its
population and the destruction of countless businesses and trades. This
state of collapse, which was to last for many years, suited Tlmur's plans
perfectly. Together with the unstable political situation inside Egypt, it
offered, for the time being at least, the best possible guarantee against
dangerous activities on the part of the Mamluks, let alone any revival
of the idea of an alliance between them and the Ottomans. Conscious
of the success he had thus achieved and perhaps influenced by the
warnings of a Western observer, Bertrando di Mignanelli, of a possible
attack from the rear by the Ottoman Sultan, Timur resolved to refrain
from advancing further southwards against Egypt and to turn his
attention once more to activities in Anatolia. Before doing so, how-
ever, he still had to avert the danger threatening from Baghdad. Thus,
in the summer he proceeded to carry out the terrible revenge on that
city to which we have already referred.
Just as Sultan Ahmad Jalayir and the Qara Quyunlu prince Qara
Yusuf had sought refuge with the Ottoman sovereign, so Anatolian
chiefs came to ask Timur for asylum, having lost their dominions to
the Sultan of Edirne. They were able to ensure that the Chaghatais
were kept well informed about developments in the Ottoman sphere of
influence. Although no military confrontation had yet taken place,

76
 THE CAMPAIGNS IN SYRIA AND ANATOLIA

Tlmur and Bayezld Yildirim ("the Thunderbolt") had already been in

opposition to one another for some time. When Tlmur had invaded
eastern Anatolia in the preceding year, the Sultan had been besieging
Constantinople and was unable to react, first because of the great
distance involved and secondly because of the impossibility of con-
fronting the enemy with his troops before the onset of winter. He was
thus unable to relieve the city of Sivas, which he had captured only a
few years previously from the renowned QazI Burhan al-Dln Ahmad.
In revenge for the devastation of the city, he conquered Arzinjan in
1401, deposing for the time being its commandant, a protege of Tlmur
named Taharten.1
Bayezid was only too well aware, however, that much more was at
stake than this or that stronghold in eastern Anatolia, than one more
city or less pillaged by the Chaghatais. Timur's plans for global con-
quest, long since a topic of daily conversation in every kingdom, were
now jeopardising the very existence of the Ottomans. Up to now
Bayezld had succeeded not only in centralising power in his own
empire but had also subjugated the Balkan states within a few years
and won a brilliant victory over the Hungarian King Sigismund at
Nicopolis. If he wished for further success in this direction he simply
had to eliminate the Chaghatai threat. He was now confronted by a
new situation, for in his desire to expand he had so far looked princi-
pally to the west and north-west. Raising the siege of Constantinople,
he marched eastwards with his army. In doing so he planned to force
Timur, who had again spent the winter in Qarabagh, into fighting a
battle at a spot on the upper reaches of the Euphrates where conditions
would be much less favourable to Tlmur than to his opponent. By
strategically skilful manoeuvres Tlmur managed to avoid the confron-
tation. Indeed, he even lured Bayezld into what, for him, proved a fatal
race to reach Chubuq-ovasi, a plain north-west of Engiiriye, on the site
of present-day Ankara, where he, Tlmur, contemplated fighting the
decisive engagement. Arriving a few days earlier on the field of battle,
the Chaghatais from the outset enjoyed an advantage over the Otto-
mans, who were late on the scene and, what is more, exhausted after
days of forced marches in the summer heat. Tlmur made good use of

1
The forms Tahirten and Mutaharten, which are probably corruptions of Mutahhar al-DIn,
also occur: cf. Uzuncarjih, Anadolu beylikleri, p. 165.

77
 TIMUR IN IRAN

his start by fortifying his camp and cutting off the enemy's access to
water.
Sources differ as to the precise date of the battle. The most likely
date is 27 Dhu'l-Hijja 804/28 July 1402.l There are also considerable
discrepancies in the figures quoted for the strength of the two
armies, the highest estimates being those of the Bavarian, Johann
Schiltberger, who himself participated in the battle and was captured
by the Chaghatais — namely, 1,600,000 Chaghatai and 1,400,000 Otto-
man troops. A modern historian, after taking into account every
known or accessible circumstance, particularly the distances marched
and the movement of supplies, puts the figure for each side at a maxi-
mum of 20,000 men.2 Apart from a few dozen Indian elephants on
Tlmur's side, the most important difference between the two armies
was the strong representation in the Ottoman ranks of Janissaries, who
were crack troops. In contrast to the bulk of the Chaghatais, however,
these were not mounted forces.
In the first phase of the battle it was by no means clear which army
would be victorious, which was hardly surprising since some of the
most successful and efficient fighting troops of that time had come face
to face. A turning point was reached only when whole contingents of
the Sultan's army left the field en bloc or went over to Tlmur's side.
This was the result of earlier propaganda by the Chaghatais, helped by
the Anatolian princes who had taken refuge with Tlmur after being
deposed by Bayezid. Although the Sultan lost all his cavalry in this
way, he fought stubbornly on together with his Janissaries. They
struggled with a courage born of despair, but had no chance against
the might of the Chaghatai cavalry: in the end they were massacred,
and Bayezid, who fell from his horse in a last minute attempt to escape,
was taken captive.
If the battle of Ankara did not seal the fate of the Ottoman empire, it
was because Tlmur failed to exploit his victory to the full. Some of his
generals did pursue fleeing enemy contingents, but quite a number of
them escaped across the Sea of Marmora to Europe. Tlmur also
advanced further to the west, but at an unusually slow pace attributed
by RolofF in part to the depleted strength of the Chaghatai forces after
the battle and to the delay in reinforcements from the east. In spite of

1
The date decided upon by Alexandrescu-Dersca, pp. 116—19.
2
Roloff, "Die Schlacht bei Angora", pp. 253-6.

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 THE CAMPAIGNS IN SYRIA AND ANATOLIA

the many places he conquered (and they included the former Ottoman
capital Bursa); in spite of his advance to the Aegean, where at the end
of 1402 he stormed the stronghold of the Knights of St John at Smyrna
(Izmir) and afterwards received the homage of the lords of several
Aegean islands, there can be no question of Tlmur's having truly
eliminated the Ottomans. Nor did he set up a Chaghatayid administra-
tion in Anatolia. Instead he was content for the most part to re-
establish under his suzerainty the regional principalities that the Sultan
had abolished. As far as Constantinople was concerned, he was happy
to accept the offer of submission brought to him by the hastily dis-
patched envoys of Emperor Manuel II, and he did not concern himself
with the Balkans. The Sultan himself was taken along as a prisoner in
Tlmur's retinue until his death in Aqshehir on 13 Sha'ban 805/8 March
1403. Even though suicide was relatively rare in the Islamic world, the
possibility cannot be ruled out that he took poison because it had been
divulged to him that he would have to accompany Timur to Sam-
arqand. Tlmur's problems in Anatolia were more or less at an end
when Prince Siileyman, one of Bayezld's sons, subsequently declared
his submission. Since the conqueror used the same methods to subju-
gate Anatolia as he had in other countries — raising excessive tributes,
plundering and destroying cities, depopulating and devastating the
countryside — the result was that the country's economic strength was
destroyed when the campaign ended and his troops marched off
eastwards. Politically, too, the area had been effectively neutralised,
because for the time being Timur could rest assured that the Ottoman
princes and the regional dynasts, both in Anatolia and in Europe,
would be occupied with their own rivalries.
The Chaghatai victory at Ankara gave rise to numerous diplomatic
exchanges, not only between Tlmur's headquarters and oriental courts,
but also with Western powers. These will be discussed in detail later,
but it is worth mentioning at this point that even Sultan Faraj of Cairo
made efforts to win Tlmur's favour. Hitherto he had detained the
latter's envoys, but he now gave them permission to leave and sent an
embassy of his own to declare his submission, which Timur accepted.
The reaction of the Georgian King Giorgi VII was different. He had
failed to congratulate Timur on his victory over Bayezld. In late sum-
mer, when Timur was approaching, he tried to make good the omis-
sion, but the conqueror rejected the gifts he sent, demanding that he
should appear before him in person. He then resorted to various

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excuses, but could not prevent the Chaghatais from invading his coun-
try and again subjecting it to the most terrible devastation. Giorgi at
first retreated without any show of resistance, but eventually he man-
aged to appease Tlmur by offering him valuable gifts, including droves
of horses and gold coins struck in the conqueror's name. Tlmur again
spent the winter of 806/1403—4 in Qarabagh, setting off on the return
march to Transoxiana the following spring. If we were to accept the
evidence of Safavid historians, it would have been in the course of this
journey that he visited Ardabil and agreed to a request from Khwaja
'All, the master of the Safaviyya, for the release of his Ottoman
prisoners of war.1 He arrived back in Samarqand at the beginning of
807/the end of July or early in August 1404, after an absence of five
years.

THE PLAN TO INVADE CHINA AND TIMUR'S DEATH

In the middle of the 8th/14th century the famous Arab traveller Ibn
Battuta had written that Transoxiana, the kingdom of Sultan 'Ala'
al-Dln Tarmashirin, was surrounded by four of the world's great
kings: the king of China, the king of India, the king of Persia and the
king of the Golden Horde (Ozbeg), all of whom sent gifts to the
sultan, and honoured and respected him.2 This statement gives some
insight into the view of the world with which Tlmur grew up. It is not
difficult to imagine what it now meant to the ageing prince to have
conquered all the renowned rulers who had played a role in his boy-
hood and youth - all, that is, except for the emperor of China. To
appreciate the full significance of this, it has to be realised that Tlmur
considered it his mission to restore the former Mongol world empire,
of which China had of course been a part. In fact, Mongol domination
in China had actually outlasted the world empire, continuing as it did
until the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368. Chaghatayid court
circles were of course familiar with the political situation in contem-
porary China. It was known, for instance, that just recently, in 1402,
the Emperor Hui-ti, grandson and successor of the Ming Emperor
T'ai-tsu who had died four years previously, had been deposed by his
uncle Yung-lo. Information about Yung-lo's policy towards the
Mongols was also available. The new sovereign was known to be a

1 2
See n. 2 p. 56; also pp. 205—6. Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, in, 556.

80
 THE CHINA PLAN AND TIMUR S DEATH

particularly efficient warrior and thus probably represented a special

challenge to Timur.
As had been his custom prior to making a major decision, Tlmur
again summoned a quriltai. Concerning this assembly, which took
place in September 1404 on the plain of Kan-i Gil close to Samarqand,
we possess a report by the Castilian ambassador Clavijo, who had then
just arrived to take up his post and attended the gathering together
with his advisers. It amounted to a demonstration of power, designed
not only to impress external enemies against whom military operations
were planned, but also to bolster the confidence of Timur's own forces.
In addition to military consultations, Timur held a gigantic review of
his troops in which the various Chaghatai hordes appeared. In con-
junction with the assembly magnificent banquets were given, including
the marriage celebrations for several royal princes, notably Prince
Ulugh Beg, Tlmur's favourite grandson.1 During the festivities and
consultations in Kan-i Gil preparations for the expedition to China,
which Tlmur had already commenced from Anatolia, were in full
swing. Thus his forces, which included numerous auxiliaries in
addition to the hard core of Chaghatais, were able to begin their march
soon afterwards. Timur himself left Samarqand on 23 Jumada I/27
November. The orders he issued regarding the government and ad-
ministration of the capital and the country as a whole, as well as the
measures he took to protect his advance and his supply lines, all
pointed to a particularly long absence. Despite severe weather con-
ditions Timur pressed on with all speed. He left Aqsulad, where it had
been planned to spend the winter, even before December was over.
The bitter cold and the snow made life very difficult for the troops
with their numerous baggage trains, but on the other hand a thick
covering of ice on the Jaxartes made the river easier to cross. Never-
theless, there were instances of both men and animals succumbing to
the frost. In the middle of Rajab 807/January 1405 Timur reached
Utrar, some 250 miles from Samarqand. This city, the point of depar-
ture for caravans going to China by the route through Mughalistan
north of the Tien Shan range, was to serve as the rendezvous for the
planned operation.
Timur lodged in the governor's palace. Although he had made use
of a litter as on previous occasions when he had been unwell, e.g. on

1
Roemer, Sams al-Husn, pp. 21-3.

8l
 TIMUR IN IRAN

the return journey from India, the long trip had left its mark on the
conqueror, who was now nearing the end of his sixty-ninth year. In
Utrar he continued to suffer from the extreme cold, and when members
of his entourage suggested holding a feast to relieve the general atmos-
phere of depression, he readily agreed. The celebration lasted three
days, during which Tlmur, in his efforts to keep warm, constantly
drank wine and other alcoholic beverages, but touched no food.
Although he became feverish and suffered from stomach and bowel
trouble, rather as in cases of gastritis, he continued drinking until he
eventually lost the power of speech. For all their efforts his court
physicians were unable to bring him relief. When he finally recovered
consciousness and was able to speak again, he himself announced that
his end was near. His doctors, asked to tell him the unvarnished truth
about his condition, could not in all seriousness contradict him. To the
princes and dignitaries assembled around his sick-bed he declared his
last will and testament, in which he appointed as his successor on "the
throne of Samarqand" his grandson Plr Muhammad b. Jahanglr. All
the nobles present, whose spokesmen were Amir Shah Malik and Amir
Shaikh Nur al-Dln, had to swear a solemn oath that they would respect
this stipulation. Tlmur died in the night of 17 Sha'ban 807/18 February
1405.
The princes and generals resolved to abandon the projected expedi-
tion to China and to proceed only with the smaller scale action
against Mughalistan, which had formed the first stage of the original
plan and which Tlmur had ordered to begin on 10 Sha'ban/11
February, even before he fell ill. They would in any case only have
been carrying out an order given long ago, since prince Ulugh Beg
had been appointed governor of Mughalistan on the occasion of his
marriage in Kan-i Gil, and his retinue had already been assembled. In
order to accomplish this much at least, it was decided to keep secret
the monarch's death for the time being. Khwaja Yusuf, who was
charged with transporting Tlmur's mortal remains to Samarqand, was
to leave under cover of darkness so as to escape notice. In addition he
was to spread the rumour that he was conveying the remains of a
dead princess. Despite all attempts to cover things up, however, it
quickly became common knowledge that the conqueror had passed
away. As a result the planned campaign against Mughalistan was also
abandoned.
Khwaja Yusuf, who is said to have arrived in Samarqand by 23
82
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR
1
February, buried Timur in total secrecy alongside his grandson
Muhammad Sultan b. Jahanglr (who had originally been designated as
Timur's successor but had died on the return march from the Aegean
in March 1403), in the vault that bore the latter's name, the Khangah-i
Muhammad Sultan. Later, probably in 1409 after Shah Rukh's occu-
pation of Samarqand, the body was removed — once more with that of
Muhammad Sultan - to its present resting place in the Gur-i Mir.

AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

Before assessing Timur's significance in the framework of Iranian

history, a brief sketch of his personality will be given, especially those
features not yet touched upon. For this we are indebted to several
excellent studies of Timur that have appeared in the course of the last
sixty years. Concerning Timur and his times there is an abundance of
source materials. They provide details not only of his campaigns,
actions, and policies but also of his person, character and outlook on
life. We can even say with certainty what he looked like. He was tall in
stature and broad-shouldered. His right thigh bone had coalesced with
the kneecap, which made him drag his right leg, and similar deform-
ities in the right shoulder and lower arm deprived him of the normal
use of his right hand. This coincides with what Ibn 'Arabshah, who
was a fourteen-year old boy when he saw Timur, later wrote about his
appearance from memory. It is also borne out by the account of the
Castilian ambassador Clavijo, who met the conqueror a few weeks
before his death and thus also speaks of his great age, his weakening
eyesight and his already clouded judgment. There exists, in addition, a
modern reconstruction by the Soviet anthropologist and sculptor
M. M. Gerasimov, of Timur's head which gives a reasonably accurate
likeness of his facial features inasmuch as it has been modelled on his
preserved skull.2 It is not, however, adequate to help determine
whether any of the illustrations that have been preserved in miniature
paintings has the character of a portrait.
The information available about Timur's character and personality is
of course far less reliable than the data just mentioned, which are based
1
Barthold questioned the accuracy of this date in view of the great distance from Utrar to
Samarqand (400 km) which would have had to be covered at an average rate of 80 km a day: see
"O pogrebenii Timura", trans. Rogers, p. 81.
2
Reproduced in Hookham, Tamburlaine, facing p. 32.

83
 TIMUR IN IRAN AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

Moscow* 40.'°f / 50\°E 60fe

>, "Samara

L. Balkhash^-J^f
WHITE
HORDE
Astrakhan

^ \ ^ MUGHALISTAN
Edirne B l a c k Sea
V _ ;
\ .Utrar
KHWAR'AZM
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) AmasyaV^ Urgench \ Tashkent
'Tiflis
Ankara* / . Trebizond Andijan •
Sivas . . ._ Khujand •
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^Smyrna / pj Kashghar
*Avnik lARABAGH/-^, j
=
' \^ Aqshehir*

MOGHAN , \ . . _
^ _ »Ardabil
f) 'Tabriz S -~-T^rmid^^
RHODES
I J AZAR- N—
MardTn* " RAMAN ' Balkh*
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)
.JKURDISTAN Sultaniyya
/ .Hims
g\ 'IRAQ-I 'AJAM *K H U R Aj S A N
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/ . Damascus *T •Hamadan
{Baghdad Herat

\ LURISTAN
Karbala • ) Isfahan
\ "\ Shushtar
•Qandahar
\ KHUZISTAN

Kirman SI ST A N ) fMuitan DELHI V \

Basra^ / / — ' \Delhi
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Kl R M A N STstSn / SULTANATE y v
-

o 590 km
1 1 1 1
O 300miles

Map. l l m u r ' s campaigns

84

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

 TIMUR IN IRAN

on examinations of his skeleton. Here we are dependent to a large

extent on the accounts of writers who were anything but impartial, for
example the polemical utterances of Ibn 'Arabshah, who had every
reason to be resentful of the conqueror, or the panegyrics of Sharaf
al-Dln 'All Yazdi, who was in the pay of Timur's descendants. More or
less neutral observers, such as Clavijo or the North African philos-
opher of history Ibn Khaldun, are rare exceptions, but there are many
questions on which they remain silent.
One of Timur's characteristics was truly extraordinary: his military
genius. His victories and conquests, his strategic and tactical feats are
almost without parallel in world history. The callousness and bestial
cruelty with which he achieved them are similarly almost unrivalled.
As a rule only those who surrendered without a struggle had any
chance of escaping his dreadful vengeance. His imposing appearance,
his exceptional physical strength, his powerful voice, his courage and
resilience may well have contributed to his military rise to power, but
such qualities are not in themselves enough to explain his unprece-
dented successes. The example set by heroes of the nomadic tradition
in which he had grown up must certainly have played a great part. This
is clear from the reverence he had for the Chingizids and his predilec-
tion for Mongol customs that culminate in warlike deeds and demand
from their adherents above all else feats of military prowess. When
such imponderables have been taken into account, together with the
fact that from his earliest youth he enjoyed a first-rate military training,
a great deal still remains which must be ascribed to natural talent.
Timur's immense political and military power may be regarded as
the ultimate achievement of a nomadic warrior tradition that was
modelled on the exploits of the Mongols, but this is by no means the
only reason why he is a figure of historical interest and significance.
Whilst it is true that he criticised his fellow warrior and rival Amir
Husain for fortifying the city of Balkh and thus violating nomadic
tradition, to which any idea of fixed settlements was utterly foreign, he
himself proceeded to establish a fixed capital of his own after Husain
had been defeated. At first it was intended to be Shahr-i Sabz, but in
fact it turned out to be Samarqand. Tlmur, the descendant of nomads,
spent decades of his life making this city more and more splendid. He
surrounded it with a ring of newly built villages named after the
ancient centres of the Islamic world — Baghdad, Sultaniyya, Shlraz,
Misr (Cairo) and Dimashq (Damascus) - thus emphasising the unique
86
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

distinction and superiority of the new metropolis. His military cam-

paigns provided the resources, materials and manpower needed to
carry out the architectural projects he had in mind. The vast wealth of
booty brought to Samarqand from the countries he had conquered,
and the architects, craftsmen and artists selected from the populations
of captured cities and deported to Transoxiana, all made it possible to
develop the capital and other places as well. Many of the buildings
Tlmur had erected have been preserved to this day. Some have sur-
vived intact or have been restored, some are merely representative
remains; but all testify to the artistic taste of the period and also, it is
reasonable to assume, to the taste of their architect, Tlmur himself.
The question now arises as to whether all this architectural activity
stemmed from genuine cultural impulses or whether it was merely the
product of Timur's desire to provide as splendid a framework as pos-
sible for the power he had gained. We may perhaps be in a better
position to answer this question if we first examine Timur's attitudes to
other areas of cultural life to see whether he had any feeling for such
activities at all, and if so to what extent. Even though he could neither
read nor write, TTmur had a command of Persian in addition to his
Eastern Turkish mother tongue. Persian was the language not only of
his court chroniclers, who had to read out their works for his critical
comments, but also that of his chancellery.1 His interest in history was
not confined to contemporary chronicles but included also the past of
the Turks, the Persians and the Arabs. Two other disciplines in which
he is said to have shown an interest were medicine and astrology,
although it is claimed that he did not avail himself of the latter for his
personal use, preferring instead to seek guidance from oracles (tafd'ul)
in the Qur'an. Regarding his attitude to philosophy and logic the
sources contain conflicting statements.
Tlmur always had a number of scholars in close attendance, and he
had a particular liking for the conversation of members of religious
orders, theologians and representatives of spiritual life in general. Of
these the most famous — if one ignores the meeting with Hafiz which
cannot be entirely ruled out but is not reliably documented — was Ibn
Khaldun (b. 732/1332, d. 808/1406). The Moroccan scholar has left us
1
Evidence of this is provided by three documents: (1) Timur's decree of 804/1401, referred
to in n. 1 p. 4;; (2) his letter to Charles VI of France, in Qazvlnl, "NamaT'; and (3) his letter of
1395 to Bayezld, referred to in n. 2 p-7*. It goes without saying that the use of Persian was not
confined exclusively to Timur's chancellery.

87
 TIMUR IN IRAN

detailed accounts of the conversations he had with Tlmur in January

and February 1401, when they met on numerous occasions in the
military camp outside Damascus. The very fact that the conqueror
knew of Ibn Khaldun's reputation as a historian and philosopher,
immediately enquired after him in Damascus, and received him time
and again for lengthy conversations is in this context highly significant.
The various discussions are said to have been conducted in a friendly —
indeed positively cordial — atmosphere. This was probably because the
historian with his engaging appearance, elegant bearing, shrewdness
and eloquence was soon able to gain Timur's sympathy. The fact that he
mentioned several prophecies from his younger days that might be
interpreted as relating to Tlmur may also have played its part. In view
of the large number of audiences he was granted and the favours
readily bestowed upon him for his personal security and that of his
friends and colleagues, as well as unconditional leave to return to
Cairo, one can scarcely describe Ibn Khaldun's account of his friendly
reception by Tlmur as exaggerated. The historian's Moroccan home-
land figured largely in the discussions. The conqueror, who knew little
about it, not only made him talk at some length about the country but
also caused him to write a fairly detailed expose of the subject during
those weeks in Damascus. It is likely that they devoted even more time
to historical questions, discussing the heroes of classical antiquity, the
ancient East and Iranian mythology, as well as more recent matters
such as the continuation of the 'Abbasid caliphate after the fall of
Baghdad in the persons of the puppet caliphs at Cairo and the problem
of their legitimacy. Tlmur did not hesitate to recognise them, influ-
enced as he probably was by the legitimist attitude which he himself
observed towards his own Chingizid shadow khan, Mahmud, whose
name had been duly inserted in the khutba of the Umayyad mosque
following the capture of Damascus. The account of the conversations
in Damascus conveys the impression that Tlmur, even at an advanced
age (he was then just completing his sixty-fifth year), was blessed with
an active mind, intellectual curiosity, unclouded judgment and a
remarkable degree of culture. Ibn Khaldun expressly credits him with
high intelligence, discernment and delight in the discussion of topics
both familiar and unfamiliar.
As far as his religious attitudes were concerned, Tlmur remained
strongly attached to Mongol traditions; indeed, after his death his
followers felt constrained to design his burial-place according to Mon-
88
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

gol custom and in defiance of Muslim beliefs.1 Yet he frequently

stressed his faith in Islam, claiming that he would make it the dominant
religion in the world. As an example of this attitude one need only
point to his conflict with the Mughals, whom he quite justifiably
regarded as unbelievers. In general the evidence for his religious beliefs
is conflicting: some factors suggest a commitment to Islam, others cast
doubt upon it. His relations with representatives of the Muslim faith —
theologians, members of religious orders and dervishes — have already
been mentioned, as has his predilection for religious debate. One could
also point to the sums he spent on religious causes, on sacred buildings
and visits to Muslim holy places. On the other hand, it is impossible to
ignore the fact that his troops desecrated mosques, transgressed the
laws of sanctuary, murdered prayer-leaders in the Umayyad mosque of
Damascus and killed Muslim men, women and children or took them
captive by the thousand in order to sell them as slaves. Ibn al-Shihna
records hearing Tlmur vent his anger upon troops who were found to
have decapitated people alive instead of collecting human heads
severed from corpses, as they had been ordered, but such evidence
scarcely mitigates the overall picture of disregard for Muslim lives.
Another contradictory aspect of Tlmur's behaviour was his simul-
taneous observance of both the customary law of the Mongols (ttirii,
turd) and the Muslim religious law {Shortd). No less peculiar was his
ambivalent attitude to the split within Islam between Sunna and Shl'a.
In Mazandaran he punished Shl'I dervishes for disparaging the Com-
panions of the Prophet, whereas in Syria he appeared as the protector
of the Shl'a and the descendants of 'All. Here one must assume that
either his contemporaries and associates in general or he himself lacked
all awareness of the acute polarisation between the two views of Islam,
or that he acted in a purely opportunist fashion, adopting religious
causes for reasons of political expediency. Despite conflicting evidence
in the sources Tlmur cannot be regarded as an adherent of the Shl'a.
Yet even though he was not a religious man, his personal development
was influenced to a great extent by three theologians. They were Shams
al-Dln Kulal, his father's spiritual adviser, who was greatly attached to
him in his childhood; Zain al-Dln Abu Bakr TayabadI KhwafI, who is
said to have protected him from the start of his military career; and
Sayyid Baraka, his own spiritual adviser.
1
Barthold, "O pogrebenii Timura", trans. Rogers, pp. 81—5: on the grave (qabr) itself lay his
clothes (aqmisha), on the walls hung his weapons {asliba) and his personal effects (amti'a).
89
 TIMUR IN IRAN

Tlmur's attitude to religion becomes somewhat clearer if it is seen

against the background of his homeland Transoxiana. At that time the
country was the meeting point of the Muslim sphere of influence (Ddr
al-lsldm) and the as yet non-Islamic world {Ddr al-harb). The sedentary
population, predominantly Persian, had adopted the Muslim faith. So
too had the nomadic population, Chaghatai Turks and Mongols,
although their Islamic beliefs were less orthodox and still left room for
elements of Shamanism and other heathen notions. Alongside these
were tribes which were totally unaffected by Islam and attracted the
attention of itinerant Muslim mystics, who attempted to convert them.
The majority of these were Sufi dervishes whose views as a rule did
not accord with strict SunnI doctrine. One such itinerant monk was
Ni'mat-Allah Vail KirmanI, the famous founder of a religious order,
who when they met personally made so strong an impression on Timur
that the conqueror feared he might exert a suspect political influence
and banished him from Transoxiana.1
The assertion that Timur was a proponent of uncompromising
orthodoxy does not bear investigation, any more than do attempts to
compare him with Charlemagne, Charles V or Napoleon and other
great historical figures. Not even the apparently convincing compari-
son with Chingiz Khan is well founded. The Mongol conqueror was a
nomad, and remained a nomad all his life. The Chaghatai was himself
no longer a nomad, even though he won his victories with predomi-
nantly nomadic troops and actually came from a nomadic environment.
He had, after all, given up the vital principle of not becoming attached
to any one place, at the latest when he made Samarqand his capital and
set about developing it into a splendid metropolis with the help of the
treasures, artists and craftsmen of the countries he had conquered. Of
course he was familiar with the nomadic way of life and even liked to
take part in it frequently, but from his earliest childhood he had con-
nections with the settled rural population and also with city life, as can
be seen from his knowledge of Persian alone.
Timur, if one wants to characterise him aptly, was a Turkish aristo-
crat of Central Asian origin, in essence a military man but not lacking
either in cultural interests or intellectual refinement. If anything, his
respect for Mongol traditions strengthens rather than detracts from
1
See Aubin's introduction to Materiaux, which contains three biographies of the saint; for a
further biography recently discovered in Princeton by Muhammad TaqI Danishpazhuh, see KK
xvi (1552), 285-7.

90
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

this view, as does his ideal of restoring Mongol world domination. His
cruel methods of warfare were not unique to him, but corresponded to
the almost inconceivably harsh practices of the period, as we have seen
from those symbols of terror, the pyramids of skulls. What set him
apart from all other contemporary princes was his mastery as a general
and the unprecedented good fortune in battle that accompanied his
career right up to the end. It is this that has guaranteed him a place not
only in the annals of history but also in the popular legends and
literatures of the East and the West even down to the present day.

Timur's effective destruction of the military and economic might of the

Golden Horde did a great deal to liberate Old Russia from the Tartar
yoke under which it had suffered for so long. The catastrophic fall of
the Ottoman empire after the defeat at Ankara and the capture of
Sultan Bayezld, granted Constantinople, which was then close to fall-
ing, another fifty years' respite. In this way Tlmur, who considered
himself the standard-bearer of Islam, rendered the Christian powers
valuable service. Needless to say, this was not his intention; indeed, it
is doubtful whether he ever became aware of such causal connections.
There can be even less question of agreements with the prince of
Moscow and the Byzantine Emperor. It does, however, show that
Tlmur, who after all had undertaken to re-establish the Mongol world
empire, was not always guided by global political considerations.
Just as it is difficult to discern any clear global policy behind his
campaigns, so it is hard to see what were the objectives in his various
campaigns in the case of victory. Nor is there much evidence of eco-
nomic planning and consideration, apart from the primary need to
supply Samarqand and a certain amount of assistance given to other
cities of Transoxiana, notably Shahr-i Sabz. Tlmur seems to have
lacked any really clear sense of the need to make long term arrange-
ments or to plan for the future. The conquered territories were held
together as if in a vice by their fear of Timur's policy of inexorable
terror, as experienced by all those who disobeyed him or rebelled
against him. In this sense the gruesome examples of Herat, Tabriz,
Isfahan and Baghdad had the desired effect, but in the long run they
could not make up for Timur's lack of statesmanly vision and his
failure as a consequence to make appropriate structural changes.
Originally Tlmur seems to have pursued a policy of setting up
protectorates in the conquered territories under the control of mem-

91
 TIMUR IN IRAN

bers of the previously ruling dynasties who were loyal to him. How-
ever, this solution only proved practical in exceptional cases because
the danger of such governors defecting was too great. As his sons and
grandsons, along with other princes of his dynasty, gradually grew
older, TTmur therefore reverted to the old Turkish principle of
appointing princely governors from among his own family. In such
cases an experienced amir would be assigned to the younger princes as
atabeg or tutor, whose job it was to ensure that they exercised power
correctly. This, at any rate, was the policy Tlmur applied in Iran soon
after his very first advance against Khurasan, though he did not neces-
sarily adhere to it in other countries as well. Thus Amir Shah Malik
was appointed governor of Damascus, and Prince Aba Bakr received
Baghdad. But Tokhtamish, on the other hand, was replaced by one of
his Mongol relatives, while in India power was similarly entrusted to a
native regent, and it was an Ottoman prince who after the battle of
Ankara was set up as ruler in the Ottoman dominions.
Basic to this principle was of course the idea that power belonged
not only to the ruler but to his whole family, or more precisely to all its
male members. As far as the continuity of the dynasty was concerned
the concept was not without its attendant risks, for an almost inevita-
ble consequence of the death of the ruler was the creation of minor
principalities, a problem that duly arose in Tlmur's realm. In such cases
it was necessary, if the empire was not to become fragmented, to
neutralise all those princes who were surplus to succession require-
ments. The Ottomans solved the problem by murdering them. Later,
the Safavids were to confine them strictly to the harem and to exclude
them from all the affairs of state. In the case of the Timurids the
problem never became quite so acute, because their dominions col-
lapsed before such a stage was reached.
In a recent study of administration and authority in Tlmur's empire,
Beatrice Forbes Manz points out that the information on the subject
available in the sources is inadequate. The very fact that such data are
scarce has led Gafurov to conclude that Tlmur had no interest in
setting up a new system of administration in his dominions.1 The large
number of different - indeed in themselves conflicting - settlements he
is reported to have made do in fact suggest that he was more concerned
to limit the powers of the governors, and leave himself as much oppor-

1
Istoriya tad^hikskogo naroda I I / I , 337.

92
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

tunity as possible for intervention, than to introduce unified and clearly

defined forms of organisation. Certain features of Tlmur's military
organisation bear this out. Whereas the main body of the fighting
forces remained under the control of the central authority, the gover-
nors had only relatively small contingents at their disposal. In this way
units could be called away from a particular territory without any need
to consult the local governor responsible. Even though we are only
concerned with Iran, it is necessary at this point to consider some
features at least of the Chaghatai military system, to which Timur owed
his victories and conquests. The nucleus of his armed forces was the
Chaghatai units. Shortly after the invasion of Persia they were joined
by Iranian troops such as, for example, the Khurasanian contingents
under Sarbadar command, which were renowned for their efficiency
and for which Timur had a particularly high regard. In the tightness of
their organisation and the strictness of their discipline Timur's forces
were more akin to the armies of Chingiz Khan than to any Islamic
contingents of the period. No doubt this was Tlmur's intention, but it
would be wrong to assume that he modelled his forces on those of the
Mongols in every respect. In fact, he also pursued quite new tactics of
warfare to outwit his opponents, such as abruptly changing the direc-
tion of his marches, using novel methods of deployment and reorganis-
ing his troops into hitherto unknown combat units.
The military and administrative organisation of Iran under Timur
differed in essential points from that of Transoxiana. The seven tiimens
of Transoxiana had no equivalent in Persia. Instead the country was
divided into provinces or areas controlled by governors of the kind
that, with the exception of Farghana, did not exist in Transoxiana. Here
especially there was a lack of uniformity. The Persian gubernatorial
districts differed in size, and their legal arrangements were neither
uniform from case to case nor over the course of time. Two of them
are particularly notable - both because of their size and because of
their titles, which were derived from older traditions. They are Tabriz
(or Sultaniyya) and Qandahar. Prince Mlran Shah was expressly
appointed to "the throne of Hiilegu" when he received the governor-
ship of Azarbaljan, a post he occupied from 1396 until his dismissal in
1399. So too was his successor Muhammad Sultan b. 'Umar Shaikh on
his appointment in 1401. Three years later he was in turn followed by
prince 'Umar, Mlran Shah's second son, who was to have jurisdiction
over all the princes in western Persia, including Fars and 'Iraq-i 'Ajam

93
 TIMUR IN IRAN

as well as Mesopotamia. This immense power was in turn curtailed

when the highly influential amir Jahan Shah was appointed as his
guardian. As governor of Qandahar, PIr Muhammad b. Jahangir
received, along with the territories stretching west of the Hindu Kush
to the Indus, "the throne of Mahmiid of Ghazna". Since such high
ranking princes were appointed to these two governorships — no less
than three of them were designated successors to the throne — Tlmur
must have considered them very important territories, perhaps even
the most important of all after Transoxiana. In the case of Azarbaljan
and the areas belonging to it this clearly makes sense, but it is not
immediately obvious why Qandahar, which was economically no
match for Tabriz, should have carried such weight. Evidently, how-
ever, it had a certain military and political significance, above all by
virtue of its glorious past under the Ghaznavids, but also on account of
its sheer size. Even in 1383, long before the Indian campaign, when it
was first conferred upon a Timurid prince (MIran Shah), it comprised
Herat, Balkh, Qunduz, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Khuttalan and Hisar.
There were of course other large provinces in Iran, especially Fars
with its capital Shlraz, which was conferred upon 'Umar Shaikh and
later upon his son PIr Muhammad (not to be confused with his name-
sake, Jahanglr's son, who was prince of Qandahar). In addition there
were any number of medium-sized and small governorships, such as
Isfahan under Rustam, Hamadan under Iskandar, Kirman under the
amir Idiku, Ray under Sulaiman Shah and Firiizkuh under Iskandar
Shaikhl. Although the majority of the governors were descendants or
relatives of Tlmur, such posts were also open to other deserving
military commanders.
Appointments of this kind, as the example of Fars suggests, could
take the form of fiefs, called suyurghal, which were either hereditary
(suyiirghal-i abadt) or granted for a fixed duration.1 The suyurghal was
an extension of the older iqtS that covered administration and jurisdic-
tion in addition to taxes and duties.2 It probably dates from the turn of

1
According to ShamI i, 135:' Umar Shaikh Babadur-ri an mamlakat [sc, Fars] ba-suyiirghalfarmuda
bdkim-i mutlaq gardanld. This evidence is important because it is the sole instance mentioned by
ShamI of a large Persian territory being granted as suyurghal. The other examples he lists where a
suyurghal was granted are: 1, 77 (Jl va vilayat); i, 95 (Kavkarsh in the Nisa area as suyiirghal-i abadi);
1, 122 {vilayatimu tabar); i, 145 {an qal'at-ra); and I, 153 (yilayat-i Akhlai). He employs the word
suyirghal(at) on numerous other occasions, but not with reference to enfeoffments. Cf. the
etymology in TMEN 1, 351-3.
2
A view expressed time and again by Petrushevsky, e.g. in Zemledelie, p. 273.

94
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

the 7th-8th/i3th-i4th centuries, and thus cannot have been intro-

duced by Tlmur, as has been suggested,1 but must have been in exis-
tence before his time. It was given specific form first by the Jalayirids,2
then by the Turkmen confederations, and finally by the Safavids.
Although further research into the matter is needed, the suyurghal
appears to have had various functions in Tlmur's time, such as the
granting of territories, cities or strongholds, first to relatives of Tlmur,
secondly to deserving military commanders, and lastly to former
holders of such possessions who had surrendered to the conqueror.
Whether exemption from taxation was also granted in every case re-
mains to be seen, although it was probably a regular feature of the last
mentioned type of arrangement. What is certain is that the suyurghal
was not yet of great importance during Tlmur's reign, so that no
comparison with the Safavid period is possible. Tlmur's governors in
Persia, even if they were his own close relatives and enjoyed wide
ranging powers, were not given unlimited jurisdiction vis-a-vis the
armed forces or the organs of civilian administration.3 There is ample
evidence to show that they were subject to direct supervision from
above and that they could be deposed where necessary, as the fate of
prince MIran Shah demonstrates. When they were appointed, they
were given the task of getting trade and business going again, putting
the administration on a regular footing and bringing to heel or elimi-
nating rebellious elements. In each case they were granted an initial
period of a few years to accomplish such tasks, after which they were
again required to report for military service.
Under this administration, however much it may have varied from
one area to another, Iran as a whole gradually recovered from the
heavy damage it had sustained during the period of turmoil resulting
both from the collapse of the Il-Khanid empire and the conquest and
subjugation of the country by the Chaghatais. No lesser an authority

1
Belenitsky, "K istorii feodal'nogo zemlevladeniya", p. 46, and Yakubovsky, "Timur",
pp. 66ff.
2
The word suyurghal occurs fifteen times in Nakhchivani's Dastur al-katib, dedicated to the
Jalayirid Shaikh Uvais; but it is used not in the sense of "fief" or "transfer of territory" but rather
of "favour", otherwise forming part of a compound verb meaning "to grant" or "to donate".
3
In this respect it would be wrong to make too much of the fact that the formula so^iimi^ is
used in documents of MIran Shah dating from 796/1394 and 798/1396 and in a document of
Muhammad Sultan of 804/1401. It is particularly interesting to note that in addition to the
preamble Sultan Mahmud jarligbind'm, which is common to all three documents, the last also
contains the formula Amir Timur kiiregen so^umindin. Cf. Fekete, Einfubrung, no. 1 (reviewed by
Herrmann in Der Islam LV [1978], 147—9), a n ^ Herrmann, "Zur Intitulatio".

95
 TIMUR IN IRAN

than Barthold claimed that Tlmur's constructive achievements were

just as astonishing as the destruction he wrought, and he has been
praised in particular for the security that prevailed in his dominions.
For instance, the example of a merchant's widow travelling on busi-
ness, accompanied only by two young Indian slaves, has been cited to
show that the route from Qandahar to Diyarbakr was absolutely safe.
In dangerous areas robbery and theft were effectively curbed by the
introduction of severe sanctions and also by military or police opera-
tions against notoriously disruptive elements amongst the nomadic
populations of Tiirkmens, Kurds and Lurs. Not only Iran but Tlmur's
entire empire also enjoyed the benefit of an efficient postal system.
Apart from these by no means negligible achievements of Timur and
his governors, what other benefits did the conqueror bring to Iran? We
know of irrigation works in the steppes of Mughan and in Khurasan
that he either had installed or had restored to working order.1 He is
said to have shown great enthusiasm for the reconstruction or restora-
tion of cities and villages destroyed during his conquests; indeed it is
claimed that he could not bear to see a patch of arable land lying
fallow.
As far as cultural life is concerned, one can point to the fact that
Persian poetry continued to flourish, although there is relatively little
evidence of its being directly encouraged by Timur. Persian historical
scholarship owes a greater debt to him, for he commissioned several
works of distinction.2 One can also name Persian scholars who enjoyed
his patronage, and who wrote their works exclusively or predomi-
nantly in Arabic, e.g. the theologian and grammarian Sa'd al-Dln
Mas'iid al-Taftazanl (d. 791/1389 or six years later), the famous mystic
and logician 'All b. Muhammad al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani (d.
816/1413) and the renowned lexicographer Abu Tahir b. Ya'qub al-
ShirazI al-Flruzabadl (d. 817/1414).
The lack of any well organised, uniform system of administration, in
conjunction with the basically destructive attitude to ruling authority
which ceased to be latent among the Timurids when their eponymous
leader died, did not detract from the gradual process of recovery in
Persia, at least during the last phase of the conqueror's life. Once the
news of his death had spread, however, these factors proved fatal both
1
Barthold, K istorii oroshcniya Turkistana, p. 6;.
2
See PL, trans. Bregel' n, 787-828; Hinz, "Quellenstudien"; Yakubovsky, "Timur",
pp. 42-6; and Roemer, Sams al-Husn, pp. 1-14.

96
 AN ASSESSMENT OF TIMUR

to the continued existence of the empire and to the unity of Persia. But
as far as the cultural foundations of the empire were concerned, the
situation was quite different. Within the broad framework of his sphere
of authority Timur once more, and for the last time, re-established the
total cultural entity of Iran - from Transoxiana to eastern Anatolia,
from the Aral Sea to Mesopotamia and from the Caucasus to the Indus.
It is idle to speculate whether or not he was himself conscious of this
fact. Certainly he personified the transition from a nomadic to a seden-
tary way of life, and in this his contact with Iranian culture played a
decisive role. For him, indeed, Iran may well have been the very
epitome of culture. This can be seen from his tireless efforts over a
period of decades to develop his homeland, and in particular the metro-
polis of Samarqand, by means of buildings, works of art and other
cultural achievements, the vast majority of which bore the imprint of
Persian taste, Persian artistic sensibility and Persian craftsmanship. The
fact that scholars, poets, artists and craftsmen were selected from the
population of conquered cities and deported to Samarqand is also clear
proof of this, for Iranian elements predominated in these cultural
circles both outside Persia and within. Of course, as a result of this
influx and in other ways, that section of the capital's population which
was responsible for its cultural development also contained a sprink-
ling of Turkish and, to a lesser extent, Mongol elements: in certain
particulars they too left their mark on the resulting culture, but they
had no effect on its essential features.
With the development of Samarqand the centre of gravity of Persian
culture was switched to the periphery, a process not without precedent
in the history of Iran. After Tlmur's death, however, this was offset by
the enforced exodus of numerous people and by the development of
new centres of Iranian culture under the Timurids. Not only did the
culture of Iran survive the trials inflicted upon its representatives by
Timur and his Chaghatais, but it also conserved sufficient energy to
experience a further development in the constituent states that were
formed after 807/1405. This was true even of Samarqand under Ulugh
Beg, who had a marked preference for Mongol traditions. Timur thus
laid the foundations for the culture of the Timurids, which was one of
the most important epochs in Persian cultural history.

97
 CHAPTER 3

THE SUCCESSORS OF TlMUR

The empire Tlmur left behind at his death was of vast extent. But as there
existed neither an effective disposition for the succession nor a firm
political organisation for the realm, its unity immediately crumbled. In
spite of this, large portions of the territory remained for a long period in
the hands of Timur's successors, some of them ruling over independent
states, some in the manner of joint rulers and local princes as governors of
the individual provinces in the daughter empires which now emerged.
The distinction of this period was no longer military in character, nor
political; it is to be sought rather in an astonishing upsurge of cultural and
intellectual life, the shaping of which involved both Persian and Turkish
elements under Timurid control and largely also Timurid patronage.
After some years of violent conflict for the possession of the throne, the
countries of Central Asia and the Near East again enjoyed periods of
relative quiet in comparison with the reign of Tlmur. During such periods
many of the old wounds inflicted by Tlmur in his campaigns and acts of
devastation were healed. Conditions in individual regions, however,
varied considerably, and hardly anywhere was there any sure guarantee of
tranquil life, since local risings, disputes concerning the succession and
incursions on the part of warlike neighbours were a constant possibility.
The period of Timurid government in Iran extends from 807/1405 to
913/1507. Successors of Tlmur did in fact rule long after this period, in the
Mughal empire in India founded by Zahir al-Dln Babur. However, that
state had no immediate influence upon the development of Persia — at
least, none of any major consequence. The importance of the Timurid age
for Iran lies in the intellectual, religious, and cultural developments which
were beginning to take shape at that time. These led at the end of the
9th/15 th and the beginning of the ioth/i6th century to radical changes in
many parts of the Islamic world and particularly in the Iranian area.

EARLY SUCCESSION DISPUTES

Of the conqueror's sons, Jahanglr had died in 777/1575 and 'Umar

Shaikh in 796/1394. The third, Miran Shah, suffered from mental
trouble as the result of an accident, while the fourth, Shah Rukh, who
98
 EARLY SUCCESSION DISPUTES

had been born in 779/1377 and had a reputation for excessive modesty,
peaceableness and personal piety, appeared to lack the necessary quali-
ties to rule. Hence Timur had appointed as his successor his grandson,
Plr Muhammad b. Jahanglr, who was thirty-one years of age and
occupied at the time the governorship of Qandahar, the "throne of
Mahmiid of Ghazna". In the absence of support from his relatives he
was unable to succeed to the throne and was murdered by his own
vizier in 809/1407.
It was clearly the case that the great empire which had been built
upon the conquests of three decades was all too dependent on the
personal authority of its founder. His sons and grandsons, whom he
had appointed as governors of individual countries and provinces,
where they reigned in effect as joint rulers, had been obliged to defer to
his authority. With his death, however, that authority was at an end,
and now they ignored his dispositions for the succession. Any one of
them who was in a position to do so had his name incorporated in the
official prayers and inscribed on the coinage in his own domain, so
claiming for himself the status of an independent ruler. The govern-
mental pattern Timur had given to his empire thus revealed its weak-
ness. It based itself on the conception commonly accepted among
Turkish peoples that the state belonged not to the ruler alone, but to
the whole ruling family, and hence that the territory entrusted to the
administration of any one member of the family was his property.1
Under a monarch as strong as Timur such notions might not endanger
the unity of the empire; but it was a very different matter in the
situation obtaining after his death, when no personality comparable in
terms of personal authority was at hand to take over the succession.
The empire disintegrated into a number of separate principalities; and
although a large number of them were later for some decades reinte-
grated into one state, the territorial extent of Timur's empire was never
again attained. In the disputes over the succession and the confusions
which now followed, various of his successors made war on one
another, and certain amirs who had deserved well of the state and had
been entrusted by him with offices at court or in the provinces were
inevitably drawn into the conflicts. Others involved were local princes

1
For this and similar interpretations, see F. Kopriilii, Turk edebiyatinda ilk mutasavviflar
(Ankara, 1966), p. 16m., with reference to the Kokturks and the Saljuqs; O. Turan, Selfuklular
tarihi ve Turk-Islam medeniytti (Ankara, 196$), p. 218, with reference to the Great Saljuqs; and
Yinang, "Akkoyunlular".

99
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

who derived their claims from the period before the reign of Timur
and who now came forward to urge their own particular demands by
force of arms. These struggles lasted for some years.
At the death of Timur the troops of the main army formed part of
his immediate train. Their amirs really wanted to prosecute the war
against China, if only with the limited aim of striking a blow against
the Mughals in eastern Turkestan. They abandoned the project, how-
ever, when on the news of Tlmur's death the succession did not work
out according to plan. Samarqand, Tlmur's capital, fell into the hands
of Prince Khalll Sultan b. Mlran Shah (b. 786/1384), who had distin-
guished himself in the campaign in India, had in 1402 received the
governorship of Farghana, and had enjoyed his grandfather's particu-
lar favour. While still in Tashkent he had forthwith had his amirs pay
homage to him; and regarding himself as Tlmur's successor, he took
possession of his treasure, which he squandered, and transferred the
title and authority of khan, which had hitherto always been vested in a
direct descendant of Chingiz Khan, to a Timurid prince. Sultan
Husain, the son of one of Tlmur's daughters, who at first had also been
a pretender to the throne, relinquished his claim and joined forces with
Khalll Sultan; though after various adventures he was to finish up in
captivity and was put out of the way by Shah Rukh while under
detention in Herat.
Shah Rukh marched his army from his city of Herat to the Oxus, but
made no further offensive move against Khalll, no doubt because the
latter's father Mlran Shah represented a serious threat, advancing at the
head of his troops from Azarbaljan — which had been given into his
charge by Tlmur - with Aba Bakr, another of his sons, to the support of
Khalll. He later withdrew, however, without having carried out his
intentions. Although there were a series of more or less unproductive
negotiations between Shah Rukh and Khalll Sultan, the latter was finally
reduced after many clashes even though he had frequently been vic-
torious. His attitude had provoked general disapproval in Samarqand. His
amirs could not condone the powerful influence permitted to his wife
Shad Mulk, as a result of which individuals of low rank were elevated to
high positions to the disadvantage of Tlmur's old companions-in-arms,
while the widows and concubines of Timur, not without some pressure, it
seemed, were married off to men of humble origin. A famine which
affected the land contributed its share to the general mood of discontent.
And finally Khalll Sultan fell into the hands of Khudaldad Husain, a

100
 REIGN OF SHAH RUKH

powerful tribal amir, leader of the Dughlat, a man who had once been his
mentor. The latter accompanied him to Farghana, had him proclaimed as
ruler in Andijan, and himself went to join the Mughals in order to win
their military support for further operations.
Meanwhile, on 27 Dhu'l-Hijja 811/13 May 1409, Shah Rukh occu-
pied his own home city of Samarqand without striking a blow. He
declared his eldest son Ulugh Beg (b. 796/1394) governor of Trans-
oxiana, with his seat of government in Samarqand, initially under the
guardianship of Amir Shah Malik, one of Tlmur's long-serving mili-
tary commanders. Khalll Sultan, whose wife had fallen into the hands
of Shah Rukh, now betook himself to his uncle in Samarqand, received
his wife back from him and became governor of Ray. Shortly after-
wards, however, on 16 Rajab 814/4 November 1411, he died there;
whereupon Shad Mulk took her own life. Khalll Sultan, whose gener-
osity, liberality and credulity, and unquestioning love of Shad Mulk,
contributed largely to his own failure, has gone down in history — not
least for his literary and artistic leanings — as a romantic figure, difficult
to place in the general picture of the age.

THE REIGN OF SHAH RUKH

Now that, at a point in time marked at the latest by the death of

Khalll Sultan and following the execution of Sultan Husain and the
murder of Plr Muhammad, all immediate rivals had left the scene, Shah
Rukh became Timur's successor. In spite of the fact that his father had
not considered him for the succession, he had made him governor of
Khurasan, the most centrally situated province of his empire, which he
administered from Herat. He plainly felt so attached to that city that he
declined to move to Samarqand and conducted the government of the
Timurid empire from Herat until his death in 850/1447. Some years
before the acquisition of Transoxiana Shah Rukh had extended his
domains to include Gurgan and Mazandaran. Insubordination on the
part of his nephew Balqara b. 'Umar Shaikh led to his mounting an
expedition to Fars in 817/1414. Two years later he succeeded in sub-
duing Kirman, where Sultan Uvais b. Amir Idiku Barlas had reigned
since 811/1408 as an independent ruler. The area under his control was
further extended as the pull of his steadily consolidated dominion made
itself felt, either by voluntary subordination on the part of minor princes
or by means of alliances. Thus it was not long after the fall of Khalll
101
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

Sultan that in a single year emissaries presented themselves from the

land of the Uzbeks, from the Qi'pchaq steppes, from Shirvan, Hazar-
jarlb, Sari, Flriizkuh, Garmsir and Qandahar.
Up until 823/1420 Shah Rukh was able to assert his power in the
eastern areas of Timur's empire, central and southern Persia, but not in
Mesopotamia and Azarbaljan. After the death of Tlmur, the Jalayirid
Sultan Ahmad b. Uvais, who had been expelled by Tlmur fifteen years
previously, once again seized power, only to be driven out of Tabriz
by Aba Bakr b. MIran Shah. Shortly afterwards, however, an opponent
made his appearance on the scene for whom Aba Bakr was no match.
This was Qara Yusuf Qara Quyunlu, who defeated him, first in
809/1406 at Nakhchivan and then again in 810/1408 at the battle of
Sardrud near Tabriz, in which MIran Shah met his death. In 813/1410
this Turkmen prince defeated and destroyed also Ahmad Jalayir when
the latter attempted to reconquer Tabriz. As a result of his conquest of
Diyarbakr and Baghdad and successful operations against Georgia and
Shirvan, and above all by the conquest of Sultaniyya, Tarum, Qazvln
and Sava in 822/1419, he established himself as a dangerous neighbour
to the Timurids.
The threat which arose in this advance of the Tiirkmens remained for
decades the great unresolved problem of the Timurid empire. Shah
Rukh attempted to solve it by political and — in three campaigns against
Azarbaljan - military means, but never achieved more than partial
success. Qara Yusuf, the real founder of the princely power of the Qara
Quyunlu, an energetic and battle-hardened man, ended his days in
Dhu'l-Qa'da 823/November 1420 as Shah Rukh entered Azarbaljan in
the course of the first of these campaigns, so that the Timurid troops
were at first able to occupy not only Tabriz but also Azarbaljan and
Armenia without difficulty; but even so Shah Rukh was obliged to assert
his sovereignty in the summer of the following year in a battle of
several days' duration against the Turkmen prince's sons. However, as
Iskandar b. Qara Yusuf contrived to re-establish the power of the Qara
Quyunlu in the years that followed, another Azarbaljan campaign
proved to be necessary in 832/1429. Once again, Shah Rukh won the
day against the Tiirkmens. But his attempt to solve the problem by
installing a Qara Quyunlu prince named Abu Sa'Id under Timurid
suzerainty met with only short-lived success; for in 835/1431 Qara
Iskandar reoccupied Tabriz and had Abu Sa'Id executed. Faced with
the extension of Qara Iskandar's control over an ever wider area, Shah

102
 REIGN OF SHAH RUKH

Rukh early in 838/near the end of 1434 resolved upon his third and last
campaign against north-west Persia. This campaign, although it did
not achieve a final settlement of the Turkmen question, at least
brought about one which was adequate for the remainder of his reign,
namely the installation of Qara Iskandar's brother Jahan Shah as the
Timurid governor of Tabriz.
It is noticeable that Shah Rukh, at least in the early part of his reign,
frequently made transfers among the princes who held court as gover-
nors in the provinces of his empire. Among those transferred were not
only Khalll Sultan (from Samarqand to Ray) but also 'Umar Mlrza
(from Azarbaljan to Astarabad), Iskandar Mlrza (from Farghana and
Kashghar to Hamadan and later to Shlraz), and Balqara Mlrza (from
Shlraz to Qandahar and Garmslr), to mention only a few examples. It
is reasonable to assume that the motive behind such measures, which
were quite often directly connected with acts of insubordination on the
part of those affected, was the desire to ward off possible hankerings
after independence. Certainly Shah Rukh, for all his precautions, was
not spared dangerous rebellions on the part of the Timurid princes.
And though he was not hard put to it to suppress them in the eastern
parts of his empire, it was a different matter in his western dominions.
Over and over again he had to intervene with armed might against
recalcitrant relatives, as for instance in 816/1413 against his nephew
Iskandar b. 'Umar Shaikh, who once before, in 812/1409, had encour-
aged his brother Plr Muhammad to attack Kirman and, moreover,
after the latter's murder had himself assaulted Isfahan and Kirman,
systematically devastating the country in the process. Mention has
already been made of Shah Rukh's campaign against Balqara b. 'Umar
Shaikh, who not long afterwards rose in rebellion in Shlraz. Even
shortly before his death, Shah Rukh, already weakened by age and ill-
health, again had to march to the west, where one of his grandsons,
Sultan Muhammad b. Balsunqur, had risen in revolt. In Ramadan
850/December 1446 he managed to bring the latter's supporters to
justice in Sava, but the prince himself had eluded his grasp and escaped
to Luristan. Three months later, on 25 Dhu'l-Hijja 850/13 March 1447,
Shah Rukh died in winter quarters at Ray.
At first sight his long reign seems to yield a fairly favourable overall
picture.1 Although Tlmur's enormous empire was not preserved in its

1
For a particularly favourable view, see Togan, "Biiyuk tiirk hukiimdan §ahruh".

103
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

entirety under his rule, it remained a coherent dominion of considerable

extent in Central Asia and the Near East. In spite of protracted and
sanguinary conflicts at home, which inevitably brought misery and suffer-
ing to the populations affected, the state was preserved for four decades
from the anarchy which threatened to engulf it upon Timur's death; and in
some parts of the empire there was an improvement not only in economic
standards but also in cultural achievements. It must be admitted that the
credit for the turn of the tide and these more hopeful developments was
not all - perhaps not even primarily - Shah Rukh's. Although certain
aspects of his character are in marked and refreshing contrast to the
hardness and ruthlessness of his father, there is no conclusive evidence to
suggest that he should be credited with outstanding skill as a statesman,
and even his character is not a matter of agreement amongst modern
historians. It is rather the case that at the court of Herat other personalities
exercised a more powerful influence on government than the ruler him-
self, especially hisfirstwife, Gauhar Shad, who together with her sons and
a few state officials made it her business to provide for orderly continuity
in the state's affairs, which contributed to the welfare of wide sections of
the population. The highest offices of state had indeed been entrusted to
men of unusual ability, some of whom, moreover, remained in office for a
very long period, with the result that they had full scope to develop their
talents. Examples are Jalal al-Din Flruz Shah, who was for thirty-five
years supreme commander of the armed forces; Ghiyas al-Din Plr 'All
KhwafI, who was supreme secretary for thirty-one years; and Amir 'Allka
Kokultash, vizier in charge of the finances of the state for forty-three
years.
Shah Rukh's piety, indeed bigotry in religious matters, is well known.
He regarded himself as an Islamic ruler for whose actions the prescrip-
tions of the Sharf a were authoritative, not the Mongol traditions which
had of course meant so much to Tlmur that he called himself Kiiregen
(i.e. bound by marriage ties to the dynasty of Chingiz Khan) and was
constantly accompanied by a Chingizid shadow khan even when he had
reached the peak of his power. Shah Rukh's son Ulugh Beg adhered to
this tradition in Samarqand by taking the title Kiiregen and immediately
after the deposition of Khalil Sultan, whose Timurid shadow khan
disappeared from Transoxiana simultaneously with him, appointed a
Chingizid to be khan in Samarqand. In contrast, Shah Rukh called
himself neither Khan nor Kiiregen (though he did bear the title Bahadur
accorded him by Tlmur) and appointed no shadow khan in Herat.
104
 ULUGH BEG

Shah Rukh's relations with China,1 in which Ulugh Beg was also
involved, are renowned. They were not restricted to the exchange of
ambassadors but included also trading contacts. Other commercial
links, too, especially with Egypt and India, were fostered. Source
material contains in addition details of the encouragement of agri-
culture. River control and irrigation schemes in the Herat and Marv
regions are also mentioned.
The reign of Shah Rukh saw significant advances in cultural life,
especially in the sphere of the arts and intellectual inquiry. These
included painting, especially miniatures and calligraphy, architecture,
music, historiography,2 and the law and theology of Islam. The
encouragement of artistic and intellectual achievement, however, was
due not only to the ruler but also to his sons and other members of the
family, and to certain highly placed members of his court. The interest of
Prince Balsunqur (d. 837/1433) in promoting calligraphy is well known;
so, too, is the patronage at Shlraz of Prince Iskandar b. 'Umar Shaikh,
one of whose proteges was the mathematician and astronomer Ghiyas
al-Dln Jamshld b. Mas'ud KashI, who later lived in Samarqand. Poetry,
too, in this period is marked by such distinguished names as those of the
Sufi poets Qasim al-Anvar and Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail. In addition to
Persian literature the beginnings of an eastern Turkish literature are also
to be discerned. Even though the cultural achievements of the Timurid
age were only just moving towards their climax, however, the death of
Shah Rukh saw the onset of the decline of the Timurid empire as the
leading political power in Central Asia and the Near East.

ULUGH BEG AND HIS RIVALS

Shah Rukh had made no disposition for the succession, but it was
understood that he would prefer to see Muhammad Juki, a man of
some forty years of age then ruling as governor in Balkh, as the next
occupant of the throne. The latter, however, died three years before his
father, so that of Shah Rukh's five sons only Muhammad Taraghai,
1
Quatremere, "Memoire" and "Notice"; also A Persian Embassy to China ...from Zubdatu't
Tavarikh of Hafi^ Abru, trans. K.M. Maitra, new ed. (New York, 1970); D.M. Dunlop, "Hafiz-i
Abru's version of the Timurid Embassy to China in A.D. 1420", Glasgow Univ. Oriental Soc.
Transactions xi (1942-4), 15-19; and H. Serruys, The Tribute System and Diplomatic Missions,
1400—1600 (Brussels, 1967), p. 624.
2
As instanced in the dedication of the Muntakbab al-tavarikh to Shah Rukh, on which see Hinz,
"Quellenstudien", p. 362.

105
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

known as Ulugh Beg, survived him. Yet at the time of his father's
death he was neither in the royal entourage nor in Herat. In fact he had
only ever made an occasional appearance at court as a guest and had
never been invited to share in the imperial government; since 812/1409
he had been merely a more or less independent local prince in Samar-
qand. He had up to this time had coins struck bearing the name of his
father, though his edicts were issued in the name of the Chingizid
shadow khan he himself appointed; and he had provided military con-
tingents for his father's campaigns, but had never personally served in
command. He appears not to have been required to make contri-
butions to the central treasury in Herat, or at any rate he never in fact
did make any. The question of the succession under the existing
circumstances could have been a comparatively straightforward
matter. Nevertheless, as early as 848/1444, when Shah Rukh had fallen
ill and his impending death had to be reckoned with, there had been a
kind of prelude to the confusions which now ensued in real earnest. At
that time, Muhammad Juki had gone to Herat, hoping to succeed to
his father's throne, while the troops, at the direction of Gauhar Shad,
were quickly sworn in allegiance to 'Ala' al-Daula b. Balsunqur
(b. 820/1417), in confident but, as things turned out, misplaced expec-
tation of a change of ruler. The latter, together with Ulugh Beg's third
son 'Abd al-Latlf, had previously been a supporter of the princess in
her conduct of government affairs.
It looked almost as if the demise of Shah Rukh was going to pro-
duce a repetition of what had happened at the death of Tlmur. Again
there was no one outstanding figure strong enough to assert himself
against the aspirations to power of the numerous princes. But there the
parallel ends, for on this occasion there was nobody on the scene, like
Shah Rukh in his day, to profit from the general turn of events or to
enlist competent aides in order to build up a centralised administration
and thereby to preserve the unity of the empire. It soon became evi-
dent, moreover, that what had been experienced at the time of Shah
Rukh's illness in 848/1444, far from easing the question of the suc-
cession, had if anything exacerbated it. Gauhar Shad, who had accom-
panied Shah Rukh on his last campaign, induced 'Abd al-Latlf, who
was also present in the royal camp, to take over supreme command of
the army. Abu'l-Qasim Babur b. Balsunqur (b. 825/1422), together
with Khalll Sultan b. Muhammad Jahanglr, Shah Rukh's daughter's
son, plundered the main baggage-train of the army and marched to
106
 ULUGH BEG

Khurasan. 'Ala' al-Daula, who had remained in Herat, at first played a

waiting game, but then had himself proclaimed ruler when he realised
how the situation was shaping. He distributed his grandfather's
treasure among his troops and had Mashhad occupied. Ulugh Beg,
who regarded himself as his father's only rightful successor, called his
troops together and advanced as far as the Oxus. However, he found
himself prevented from further immediate action because Mlrza Abu
Bakr, governor of Khuttalan, Arhang and Sail Saral, had crossed the
river ahead of him and occupied the region of Balkh, Shaburghan and
Qunduz as far as Badakhshan and expelled his brother Muhammad
Qasim, to whom Balkh had been entrusted after the death of their
father Muhammad Juki.
Such was the situation at the beginning of the struggles for power
which developed after the death of Shah Rukh among his descendants,
lasting the whole two years of Ulugh Beg's reign, and which has been
described in detail by Barthold in his classic study of Ulugh Beg. In the
struggle of each party against every other which now began, the for-
tunes of war ebbed to and fro, but no decisive victory was won, nor
were clear alignments established. The various parties agreed to certain
alliances, frontier settlements and other arrangements, which led in
some instances to a temporary lull in hostilities. But these agreements
were hardly ever kept for any length of time and their infringement in
each case became the cause of renewed conflict. Various princes were
captured, regained their freedom, or were killed.
Ulugh Beg did achieve a certain measure of success. He contrived,
for example, to foil the plans of Prince Abu Bakr b. Muhammad Juki,
and in the spring of 852/1448 he won a victory over his nephew 'Ala'
al-Daula at the battle of Tarnab and occupied Mashhad, while his son
'Abd al-Latlf conquered the fortress of Herat. Yet his political and
military skill was nowhere near sufficient to master the complexities of
the situation. The occupation of Herat, important though it was in
strategic terms and still more — as the former capital — in a
psychological sense, was only a step in the right direction, since he did
not wish to remain there but intended to make Samarqand the capital
of the Timurid empire. The military enterprises he carried out from
Herat did not bring about the consolidation of his power, but rather
led to the most detrimental of results for the population of Khurasan
and their economic life through the devastation of the countryside
which was involved. In Transoxiana at this period it was the same
107
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

disastrous story. The continuing confusions had remained no secret to

the Timurids' neighbours, especially the Tiirkmens in the west and the
Uzbeks in the east. The first move was made by the Uzbek khan
Abu'l-Khair, who invaded Transoxiana and marched through the
region around Samarqand, looting and burning as he went.
When Ulugh Beg left Herat for Samarqand late in 8 5 2/at the end of
1448, taking his father's body with him, the problems of Khurasan were
no nearer solution than they had ever been, not to mention those of
other parts of the empire: indeed he was not even able to march
unimpeded to Transoxiana. First a detachment dispatched by
Abu'l-Qasim Babur inflicted heavy losses on him; and then, to make
matters worse, his troops were ambushed by the Uzbeks while crossing
the Oxus before reaching their intended winter quarters at Bukhara.
To summarise the first phase of the conflicts arising from the
succession to Shah Rukh, it remains only to be said that two years after
his death no centralised form of government had been achieved, and
what was emerging was rather a tripartite division of his empire.
Ulugh Beg, who may be regarded as his father's rightful successor,
evidently imagining that he could make Samarqand the capital once
again as in the days of his grandfather Timur, had - by yielding up
Khurasan as the real base from which to extend his rule over the whole
of Shah Rukh's territory - de facto limited the area of his control to
Transoxiana. To begin with, Abu'l-Qasim Babur asserted himself in
Khurasan, conquering both Mashhad and Herat, while 'Ala' al-Daula,
after the defeat at Tarnab, was soon forced to abandon his plan of
marching on Samarqand and had to be content with a small territory in
south-western Afghanistan. From here he was able in the next few
years to intervene in the struggle for Khurasan, but without any
enduring success. Central Persia ('Iraq-i 'Ajam) and Fars passed into
the control of Sultan Muhammad b. Balsunqur, who after the death of
his grandfather at once emerged from his hiding-place in Luristan and
played a significant part in the ensuing struggles for the succession.
Finally, the supremacy of the Timurids over the Turkmen principality
of the Qara Quyiinlu under Jahan Shah in north-west Persia and
eastern Anatolia, which Shah Rukh had secured in three campaigns,
had become virtually meaningless in the present circumstances. It was
not to be long before Jahan Shah's expansionist potential would be
made evident, to the detriment of the Timurids.
Ulugh Beg had no further opportunity to put into effect his
108
 ULUGH BEG

intention of again subjugating Khurasan in the spring of 853/1449,

since his strained relations with 'Abd al-Latif, who ruled in Balkh, led
to the latter breaking into open rebellion around this juncture. During
his time in Herat Ulugh Beg had on various occasions humiliated his
son, in connection, it would seem, with the planned transference of the
capital city. When his pent-up anger was still further increased after his
father's departure, the result was a military confrontation in the
autumn of 85 3/1449, the consequences of which were decisive. Ulugh
Beg was defeated near Samarqand at the township of Dimashq.
Previously a series of uprisings had broken out in the capital against
Ulugh Beg's appointed governor, his youngest and favourite son 'Abd
al-'Aziz, in which it would appear that representatives of the religious
classes had played some part, just as they had in the downfall of Ulugh
Beg's predecessor Khalll Sultan in 811/1409. The ruler had been able to
restore order, but dissatisfaction and resentment had continued. After
his defeat, and plainly in association with these events, his stock had
sunk so low that wherever he sought shelter he could find no refuge,
not even in his own capital. He was only able to escape the imminent
threat of being captured and handed over to his victorious son by
voluntarily giving himself up. He received permission to undertake a
pilgrimage to Mecca, as often happened in such cases, but was killed on
the journey in accordance with the verdict which 'Abd al-Latif had
caused to be passed on him in his absence and without his knowledge
at a false trial. This was in Ramadan 853/October-November 1449.
Some days later the same fate overtook 'Abd al-'AzIz; but in his case no
legal means had been invoked.
This sorry end after a rule of only two years, consisting of a series of
political and military failures and errors, is by no means what has gone
down in history as the dominant image of the man Ulugh Beg. What
are remembered as significant are rather the cultural achievements
brought about in the course of his reign of almost four decades as
prince of Transoxiana, achievements either associated with his name or
attributed to him personally. We may mention his initiation of building
projects in Samarqand and Bukhara or his interest in problems of
Persian poetry, which he discussed in a correspondence with his
artistically inclined brother Balsunqur. Mention may also be made of
the fact that certain Chaghatai poets eulogised him in Turkish verse,
though it is not known what attitude he adopted towards the eastern
Turkish literature which was just emerging during his lifetime. A
109
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

historical work, the Tdrikh-i arba' uliis, a history of the four states
which came into being at the disintegration of the Mongol empire, is
reputed to have been written at his behest.
Though such interests and activities may have encouraged the view
of him as "the scholar on the throne", they did not succeed in really
validating it. What did, however, was his involvement in the 'uliim-i
riya^Jva hukmi — the exact sciences as one would say nowadays. In this
he was in line with an attitude of mind that had prevailed in the Near
East, and especially in Persia, since the rule of the Mongols and
amounted to a view of scientific findings as being of lasting benefit to
mankind in contrast to theology and literature, whose significance in
terms of time and also - on account of language differences - in terms
of space could only ever be limited. Among the scholars available to
provide Ulugh Beg with instruction or collaborate with him in scien-
tific research a number of astronomers and mathematicians are note-
worthy, especially Salah al-Dln Musa b. Qazlzada RumI, Ghiyas al-Dln
Jamshld b. Mas'ud KashI, 'Ala' al-Dln b. Muhammad QushchI and
Mu'In al-Dln Kashanl.1 Ulugh Beg's observatory in Samarqand, dating
from 823/1420, is famous (its remains were excavated in 1908); yet the
period during which it was in use did not outlast the death of its
founder. His writings on astronomy won him an enduring reputation.
His astronomical tables, usually known as Zij-i Ulugh Beg or Zij-ijadid-i
sultdni, represent a climax of achievement in that science, which
declined in the Islamic world after his death.
Ulugh Beg's splendid style in Samarqand did not lag behind that of
the court of Herat, even in his father's lifetime. However, he found his
model not in Shah Rukh but in his grandfather Tlmur. The very choice
of royal title, already mentioned, reveals that his pattern was not the
figure of the Muslim prince but that of the Mongol ruler, for whom the
prescriptions of the Yasa rather than those of the Sharl'a were
authoritative. Thus he was given to such secular delights as cannot be
reconciled with the religious law of Islam. In Samarqand there were
carousals with music and singing. Wealthy inhabitants of other cities
even had musicians and singers of both sexes come from Samarqand.
As a result of his predilection for such pleasures Ulugh Beg came into
conflict with certain religious circles, not the representatives of the
official theology, on whose support he could broadly count, but the

1
See below, chapters 10 and 11.

IIO
adherents of Folk Islam, as embodied in the manner of life of sufIs and
dervishes, usually adherents of the Naqshbandiyya order. The situation
was therefore the precise opposite of that in Islamic lands situated
further west, in which the theologians figured as the guardians of the
religious law, whereas sufis and dervishes gave their allegiance to more
liberal notions in which the requirements of the religious law could
easily be relegated to an unimportant place.
Ulugh Beg was a cultured prince of keen intellectual interests; but he
was not a man of action and he lacked political and military talent. Thus
after a defeat which he had sustained in the spring of 830/1427 in a battle
against a small force of Uzbeks he took no further part in any campaign
for twenty years, and even in the dispute over the succession following
the death of Shah Rukh he did not distinguish himself through bold
action or strategic acumen. In contrast to his pious, not to say bigoted,
father he was a man of savoir vivre and cheerful demeanour. Towards his
subjects he was, it seems, an easy-going if not a popular prince. At all
events, he contented himself with a modest land rate, though he insisted
implacably on the tax imposed on commerce and trades, the tamghd — a
tax, moreover, which conflicted with the Shari'a.

'Abd al-Latlf, who succeeded his father, was, like him, interested in
secular scholarship. He introduced a stricter discipline among the
population and the military than had been the case hitherto. However,
by a pious personal life and respectful treatment of the dervishes he
managed to secure the goodwill of those religious circles which had
been offended by Ulugh Beg's habits. Since many amirs could not
forget the murder of his father and brother, a conspiracy was
eventually mounted against him, to which he fell victim after a reign of
only six months, in Rabl' I 854/May 1450.
'Abd-Allah b. Ibrahim (b. 836/1433), another grandson of Shah
Rukh, who replaced him on the throne, also enjoyed only a short reign.
Earlier, Fars had been entrusted to him by his grandfather, but he had
been obliged to withdraw from there in 851/1447 under attack from
Sultan Muhammad's troops. As an adherent of Ulugh Beg he had been
imprisoned at the latter's fall. His release and installation as sultan, for
which he had to show his recognition by handsome gifts of money to
the troops, did not meet with universal approval. 'Ala' al-Daula b.
in
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

Balsunqur, whose ambitions have already been mentioned in connection

with the death of Shah Rukh, rose against him, though with only passing
success. Far more dangerous, however, was the reaction in Bukhara, the
traditional centre of dervishism in Transoxiana. There, Abu Sa'Id b.
Muhammad (b. 1424), a great-grandson of Timur of the lineage of Mlran
Shah, who had also been incarcerated at the death of Ulugh Beg, was
released from captivity and proclaimed ruler. After some initial setbacks
he eventually marched from Tashkent to Samarqand with the military
support of the Uzbek Abu'l-Khair Khan, defeated his rival in Jumada I
85 5/June 1451, took him prisoner and had him executed, causing him-
self to be enthroned instead. Abu Sa'Id was able to maintain his authority
for some considerable time, in fact until the winter of 873/1468—9, and
he even succeeded in bringing about a stabilisation of the internal
situation in his dominions. However, these only embraced western
Turkestan, Khurasan, Mazandaran and parts of present-day Afghani-
stan (Kabulistan and Zabulistan), so that it is not possible to speak of a
restoration of the Timurid empire, even to the extent of Shah Rukh's
territorial possessions. But even such limited successes were not
achieved without warfare.
Since the fall of Ulugh Beg, changes had also come about beyond
Transoxiana. Sultan Muhammad b. Balsunqur, not content with Fars
and 'Iraq-i 'Ajam, had advanced on Khurasan and compelled
Abu'l-Qasim Babur in an initially victorious campaign culminating,
in March 1450, in a battle at Mashhad, to cede to him certain parts
of his domain. Somewhat later, however, the fortunes of war turned
against him. Abu'l-Qasim took him prisoner and had him executed, re-
established his authority over the whole of Khurasan, and then marched
to Shlraz to incorporate his vanquished opponent's lands into his own
empire.
He had proceeded to appoint governors for Qum and Sava when
Jahan Shah of the Qara Quyunlu, who had hitherto remained loyal to
the vassal relationship instituted by Shah Rukh, advanced westwards
from Tabriz and threatened the two cities. His action had in a sense
even been provoked by Babur, and not merely by the unstable political
conditions prevailing in eastern Persia and Transoxiana; for Babur, in
spite of having placed his name on the coinage and in the public
prayers, the privileges of the Muslim sovereign, had merely
communicated the news of his victory over Sultan Muhammad to him
in a letter bearing the royal seal rather than in the form of an edict
112
{nishdn), with the demand which might be expected from a successor of
Shah Rukh, to the effect that henceforth Jahan Shah must pay him
tribute money (bdj), as formerly laid down by Shah Rukh, and the taxes
(khardj) for the province of Azarbaljan.
Babur, who had already set off to relieve Qum and Sava, was obliged
to return to Herat, ostensibly because of the news of intrigues on the
part of 'Ala' al-Daula, in league with the Tiirkmens, but more likely as a
result of the massive onslaught of the troops led by Pir Budaq, Jahan
Shah's son. The way was now wide open for the further expansion of the
Qara Quyunlu. An additional factor was that they could count on a
friendly attitude on the part of certain groups among the population in
many places. Hardly one of the Timurid princes and other governors
was able to hold at bay the Turkmen assault for any length of time. Thus
in Rajab 856/August 1452 the control over almost the whole of Persia
and Mesopotamia established by Ttmur seventy years before came to an
end, with the exception of Abarquh, which was not taken until a year
later, and Kirman, which was temporarily reconquered and was inten-
ded to have served as a base position for more ambitious operations
by the Timurid forces. These losses were final, and a few thrusts against
Ray at a later date could do nothing to alter the situation.
An invasion of Transoxiana carried out by Babur as a reply to the
conquest of Balkh by Abu Sa'Id in the spring of 858/1454 from Herat
led to the siege of Samarqand. Apparently it was only under pressure
from the Naqshbandl shaikh 'Ubaid-Allah Ahrar that Abu Sa'Id
resolved to defend the city. But hostilities were finally brought to an
end by the mutual recognition of the Oxus as frontier. This was agreed
in a treaty of peace which remained effective until the death of Babur in
861/1457. Babur's successor, his eleven-year-old son Mahmud, was
forced out of Herat by Ibrahim b. 'Ala' al-Daula after only a few weeks.
The latter himself, however, had to flee in Sha'ban 861/July 1457 from
Abu Sa'Id, who had never abandoned the idea of annexing Khurasan.
Nevertheless, Abu Sa'Id did not succeed in capturing the citadel of
Herat, but took up winter quarters in Balkh.
The conflicts going on among the Timurids induced Jahan Shah,
after his amazing successes in central Persia, Fars and Mesopotamia, to
attempt further advances eastwards. Having occupied Gurgan, he
defeated Ibrahim in a battle near Astarabad. The vanquished Timurid
withdrew to Herat, where he was joined shortly afterwards by his
father 'Ala' al-Daula and his forces. Yet there was no question of the

"3
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

pair offering resistance to Jahan Shah, so that there was nothing left to
them but flight, whilst the Turkmen prince made his entry into Herat
on 15 Sha'ban 862/28 June 1458. Four months later Plr Budaq also
arrived in the city with his troops, clearly in order to strengthen the
Turkmen forces. Jahan Shah, now installed in the capital city of his
former overlord Shah Rukh, promptly had his name incorporated into
the official prayers and inscribed on the coinage.
It was soon evident, however, that he had outreached himself by his
advance into such remote regions. He had to contend with the same
handicap as the Timurids, namely the unceasing struggle for power on
the part of the princes of his own house; ambitions which were all the
more dangerous for him as his capital Tabriz was so far distant. Faced
with a revolt led by his son Hasan 'All, who had managed to escape from
the fortress of Maku where he had been held prisoner, he saw no other
course open to him but to return to Azarbaljan. Abu Sa'Id, who had not
remained in ignorance of his opponent's tight situation, demanded in
the ensuing negotiations that all Timurid possessions which Jahan Shah
had conquered should be handed back. In the event, all he secured was
the return of Khurasan.
Qara Quyunlu rule over Herat remained no more than an episode in
the history of the Timurids without other direct results of any conse-
quence. No more Turkmen operations were undertaken, nor were the
Turkmen governors able to hold Khurasan for any length of time after
this. Quite soon, more or less friendly relations were established
between Abu Sa'Id and Jahan Shah, since each of them had enough to
do to keep his own house in order. Thus we know of Turkmen
missions in 1461, 1463, 1465 and 1466 which were amicably received in
Herat. On balance, the whole train of events had tended to consolidate
the power of Abu Sa'Id. In the very next spring he defeated 'Ala'
al-Daula, Ibrahim and Sultan Sanjar b. Ahmad b. 'Umar Shaikh in the
vicinity of Sarakhs. He had Sanjar, who had fallen into his hands,
executed, but the two other princes managed to escape. However, they
both died soon afterwards, Ibrahim within only a few months and his
father the following year. And as, in addition, Babur's son Mahmud
met his death about this time, Abu Sa'Id was able to consolidate his
power still further, being rid of so many rivals, and even to extend it to
Mazandaran and Slstan.
Meanwhile, Prince Husain Balqara (b. 842/1438), a grandson of
'Umar Shaikh who had formerly lived in Khwarazm, had appeared
114
upon the scene in Khurasan. After Jahan Shah's withdrawal from
Herat he succeeded in defeating the latter's governor of Gurgan,
Husain Beg Sa'dll, the chief of one of the most important Qara
Quyunlu tribes, and taking over his territory. Although, to begin with,
he recognised Abu Sa'id's sovereignty, as soon as the latter was
involved in putting down a rising in Transoxiana in 1460, he lost no
time in occupying Mazandaran, and in Dhu'l-Qa'da 86 5/September
1461 he laid siege to Herat. Though his successes were not permanent
and he was later compelled to seek refuge again in Khwarazm, he was
nevertheless able in 868/1464 to undertake a pillaging expedition to
Khurasan with impunity.
Abu Sa'Id had gained power with Uzbek aid. In spite of this, Uzbek
incursions across the Jaxartes into Transoxiana did not cease during
his reign. The same Abu'l-Khair Khan who a few years previously had
supported Abu Sa'Id in his struggle against 'Abd-Allah and had then
received a daughter of Ulugh Beg in marriage, was by 859/1454-5
granting Uvais b. Muhammad b. Balqara his assistance in a rising in the
course of which Abu Sa'Id suffered a serious defeat. Another Timurid,
Muhammad Juki b. 'Abd al-Latlf, rose in revolt in 865/1461, marched
through Transoxiana pillaging as he went, and finally took up a
position in Shahrukhiyya, where Abu Sa'Id besieged him from
November 1462 to September 1463. The danger from the Mughals also
became acute once again but receded after Abu Sa'Id had repulsed two
attacks by the Chaghatayid khan Esen Buqa and from 860/1456
onwards lent his support to the latter's elder brother Yunus, whom he
had recognised as joint ruler in Mughalistan.
It would be wrong to conclude from the friendly relations which Abu
Sa'Id maintained with Jahan Shah after 863/1458 that he had given up
the idea of re-establishing Timurid rule over the territory conquered by
the Tiirkmens. This was plain when early in 872/at the end of 1467 Jahan
Shah, coming up against the rivalry of the Aq Quyunlu Tiirkmens, met
his death in a clash with their ruler Uzun Hasan. Abu Sa'Id was quite
aware that the reconquest of the Iranian territories previously lost to the
Qara Quyunlu and now passing into the hands of the Aq Quyunlu might
become a forlorn hope - indeed an absolute impossibility - if he did not
succeed in checking the menacing rise of Uzun Hasan. In face of this
danger the traditional alliance linking the Timurids with the Aq
Quyunlu no longer carried much weight.
Abu Sa'Id therefore embarked on a campaign to the west under the
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

pretext of relieving Jahan Shah's son Hasan 'All, who had asked for his
assistance after an unsuccessful battle against the Aq Quyunlu. Even
the start of this operation, at the beginning of Sha'ban 872/end of
February 1468, was clearly undertaken so impetuously and with so
little planning that he did not wait for all the troops at his disposal to
arrive, let alone ensure that he had adequate reserves. He did in fact
manage to dislodge the Turkmen governors of 'Iraq-i 'Ajam and Fars;
and elsewhere, as in Gilan, his sovereignty was once again recognised.
But he continued his advance without paying due regard to estab-
lishing order in the hinterland, and failed to capture all the strongholds
— Ray, for example, was one which was simply bypassed. Nor did he
pay any attention to asseverations of friendship and peaceful intentions
on the part of Uzun Hasan, which reached him en route.
The situation for Abu Sa'id was in fact far from unfavourable. After
the disastrous end of Jahan Shah there were a fair number of amirs and
members of the Qara Quyunlu federation who were only awaiting the
opportunity to throw in their fortunes with a new leader, especially in a
campaign against Uzun Hasan. Thus when the Timurid army arrived
in Miyana, Jahan Shah's son Ytisuf, a large number of amirs of the
Qara Quyunlu, and troops totalling allegedly some fifty thousand men
joined him; so did Prince Hasan 'All b. Jahan Shah with his son
Amlrzada 'All; and when he was about to take up winter quarters on
the banks of the Araxes he was joined also by the Shlrvan-Shah
Farrukh-Yasar, who was in alliance with him.
In spite of this accession of strength, the Timurid army found itself
in a critical situation at this time, caused not only by the inclemencies
of the Azarbaljan winter but also by serious supply problems. Not only
were its supply routes to Khurasan - extending some 1,250 miles -
vulnerable in themselves, but to make matters worse Uzun Hasan
succeeded within a short space of time in severing all routes by which
reinforcements could be brought up. He cut off the access of supply
ships from Shirvan, intercepted a supply column (Jtbakkhand) from
Khurasan and mounted attacks from Ray against his enemies'
communications. The lack of food and winter clothing, the loss of
riding and transport animals, and the constant surprise attacks by fast
raiding groups of Tiirkmens undermined the morale of the Timurid
troops. When Uzun Hasan succeeded, in addition, in persuading the
Shirvan-Shah to defect from Abu Sa'id and withdraw, the demoral-
isation of the army reached a nadir which manifested itself in numerous
116
 ABU SA'lD

desertions. The depleted army marched via Ardabil, low in spirit and
with little heart for fighting, into the Mughan steppes and was there
met by the waiting Turkmen troops. After suffering heavy losses, Abu
Sa'Id was taken prisoner. On 22 Rajab 873/5 February 1469 he was
handed over to Yadgar Muhammad, a great-grandson of Shah Rukh
who had sought refuge with Uzun Hasan. Yadgar Muhammad took a
belated bloody revenge on him for Gauhar Shad, the energetic wife
of Shah Rukh, who had been murdered in Herat twelve years pre-
viously on Abu Sa'Id's orders. With his overthrow the loss to the
Timurid empire of all Persian territories west of Khurasan was finally
sealed.
The verdict on Abu Sa'Id as a man and a ruler is sometimes more
favourable than his achievements warrant, not least because he
succeeded in holding his own in the succession struggles of his day
throughout eighteen years. This does not of course offset his failure to
re-establish the previous extent of the empire and bring about peaceful
conditions. He is best seen as a typical representative of the Turkmen
military aristocracy. The main prop of his power was clearly the
Turkish tribe of the Arghun, who had elected him as their chieftain
and on whom he could rely in his political and military ventures. The
means he used to consolidate his power was the granting of fiefs
{suyurghdt), in which he indulged most liberally, and not only to leading
members of the tribe, but also to his sons and to secular and religious
dignitaries, to Turks and non-Turks alike. We should not fail to
observe the religious element in the sultan's character. Sufi shaikhs had
a considerable influence on him, especially Khwaja 'Ubaid-Allah
Ahrar. He described himself as a murid of this particular dervish, who
exercised absolute power in Samarqand under his government,
persuaded him to reinstitute the religious law (the Sharl'a) in
Samarqand and Bukhara, and even to give up the tax on commerce and
trades (tamgha), which could not be reconciled with Islam. It was he,
too, who fortified him in his fatal decision to undertake the campaign
to the west from which he was never to return.
In the domestic sphere he can be seen to have shared the kind of
interest in agriculture and the welfare of the peasants which we have
observed earlier in the empire of the Timurids. His measures included
tax provisions favouring agriculture and improvements in the
irrigation system. In this connection his vizier Qutb al-Dln SimnanI
was particularly active in organising the laying of the Jul-yi Sultani to
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

the north of Herat. Source materials also speak of peasants' revolts,

however, and it therefore needs to be clarified how far these measures
in the area of agricultural policy may have been inspired only as a
response to uprisings and the threat of violent action on the part of
desperate peasants. As there is no lack of evidence of Abu Sa'Id's
cruelty we should not simply attribute his tax reductions to motives of
generosity and sympathy.

With the passing of Abu Sa'Id the Timurid empire entered a new
phase of disintegration. In the territory which Shah Rukh had at least
nominally ruled as one whole, three independent empires now
emerged: in Persia, Transcaucasia and eastern Anatolia a Turkmen
empire with its capital at Tabriz, in which, however, it was no longer
princes of the Qara Quyunlu who ruled, but the Aq Quyunlu Uzun
Hasan, until 882/1478, and later his son Ya'qub (883-96/1478-90) and
his successors; in western Turkestan, Timurid Transoxiana with its
capital at Samarqand, in which Khwaja Ahrar (d. 895/1490) was the
dominant figure until his death, but where sovereignty passed to the
sons of Abu Sa'Id, beginning with Sultan Ahmad (b. 855/1451, ruled
873-899/1469—94); and finally Cisoxiana, i.e. the territory to the west
and south-west of the Oxus together with Khurasan and the greater
part of present-day Afghanistan, where the great-grandson of 'Umar
Shaikh, Sultan Husain Balqara (873-911/ 1469-1506), came to power.
The latter ruled in Herat, with whose attractions Samarqand had not
been able to compete since the days of Shah Rukh, so that even Abu
Sa'Id had transferred his seat of government there after finally
managing to conquer the city in 863/1459.
While Uzun Hasan was engaged in raising his empire to a position
where it commended itself even to Western powers as an ally against
the Ottomans, things were going steadily from bad to worse with the
two Timurid principalities. They were plagued with the age-old
Turkish rivalry between princes, who operated in the cities and
provinces entrusted to them as governors with an independence that
grew in proportion to the weakness of the central power -
fundamentally the inevitable result of that Turkish concept of the state
referred to earlier, whereby the country did not belong to the ruler, let
alone the people, but jointly to all the members of the ruling family.
118
 TRANSOXIANA
The disintegration of power in Transoxiana was particularly drastic.
Here, as previously, danger threatened from two eastern neighbours,
the Uzbeks, who in 1447, under Abu'l-Khair Khan, a descendant of
Shaiban (or Shiban), a son of Jochi and grandson of Chingiz Khan,
had advanced their area of control at the expense of the Timurids as far
as the Jaxartes; and the Mughals, who lived in the Semirechye, that is
to say on the Issyk Kul and the rivers Talas, Ili, Yulduz and Manas. In
spite of originally friendly relations between them, Abu Sa'Id had of
course been obliged to defend himself repeatedly against Uzbek
intrigues. Moreover, he had succeeded in weakening the offensive
power of the Mughals by promoting the division of Mughalistan
between two rival Chaghatayid princes. However, it proved to be his
own protege Yunus Khan (866—892/1462-87) who later reunified the
country under his rule, thus becoming so powerful that he was able to
intervene in the disputes of the Timurids of western Turkestan. In this
connection it should be remembered that these princes, regardless of
their respective genealogies, even if they boasted descent from Chingiz
Khan himself, were, like their peoples, Turks or Turkicised. It is
doubtful, even in the case of the inhabitants of Mughalistan, who
called themselves Mongols and were thus designated by other ethnic
groups, whether by this time they spoke the Mongol language. Yunus
Khan, whom we have mentioned, had spent long years in Persia in his
youth and had there acquired a degree of cultivation thanks to which
he is described as the "most educated Mongol of all time". Sultan
Ahmad's brother 'Umar Shaikh, who ruled as prince of Farghana from
Andijan (not to be confused with Tlmur's son of the same name, who
had similarly governed Farghana in his day), maintained friendly
relations with him. 'Umar's wife, Qutluq Nigar Khanum, the khan's
sister, was the mother of his son Zahlr al-Dln Muhammad Babur
(b. 888/1483), who was thus descended on his father's side from Timur
and on his mother's from Chingiz Khan: he later became the founder
of the dynasty and empire of the Great Mughals in India.
The fall of Abu Sa'Id had been preceded in 872-3/1468 by the death
of the Shaibanid Abu'l-Khair Khan. After years of heavy righting with
the Oirats pressing forward from western Mongolia he had finally been
defeated and done away with by members of his own family who had
earlier defected from him and taken up their abode in Mughalistan. In
the same year his son Shaikh Haidar had met his death in a conflict
with Yunus Khan. Thus the Uzbek menace to the Timurids had been
119
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

brought under control, but only temporarily. A grandson of

Abu'l-Khair named Muhammad ShaibanI (b. 855/1451) had managed
to survive after the death of his grandfather and uncle, until he found
the opportunity of re-establishing himself in a position of power in the
service of Mahmud b. Yunus Khan. When he finally marched across
the Jaxartes into western Turkestan, there arose once more an Uzbek
dominion: it was to spread rapidly at the expense of the Timurids, who
were prevented from taking effective counter-measures by incessant
family strife, and was to provide the basis for a powerful empire that
endured for a century and played a significant role in the history not
only of Central Asia but also of Iran.
Muhammad Shaibanfs objective was of course Samarqand. At the
same time, he had a Timurid competitor in Prince Babur, of whom
mention has just been made and who had succeeded his father in
Andijan in 899/1494, when the latter was killed in an accident. His
uncle Sultan Ahmad promptly marched against him to take possession
of Farghana, since 'Umar Shaikh had withdrawn from his obedience
under the protection of his Mughal allies and had even made attacks on
territories belonging to Samarqand; but Babur was saved by Sultan
Ahmad's sudden death in the course of his advance. Since his brother
Mahmud, who succeeded him, died in the following year and none of
the sons of Sultan Ahmad was able to hold his own, Babur occupied
Samarqand in 903/1497, but then had to yield it up on account of a
conspiracy in Andijan. The partition of Farghana which he arranged
with his brother Jahanglr (who enjoyed the support of the Mughals)
provided him with a free hand for a new move against Samarqand in
competition with Muhammad ShaibanI, in which he was, however,
defeated. In 905/1500 the Uzbeks conquered Samarqand, and in the
course of the fighting the ruling Timurid Sultan 'All lost his life. But
shortly afterwards Babur succeeded in taking the city by means of a
coup de main. In Ramadan 906/April—May 1501, however, he was
defeated at the battle of Sar-i Pul by the Uzbeks, following which he
had to abandon Samarqand to them again. They were now able to
establish a firm hold on Transoxiana, while he himself, losing even his
homeland of Farghana, which Jahanglr now claimed for himself alone,
set off on his celebrated wanderings and was not able to gain a foothold
until 910/1504, in Kabul. Here, two years later, a plea for help reached
him from Husain Balqara of Herat, who was now also being hard
pressed by the Uzbeks.
120
 HUSAIN BAIQARA

HUSAIN BAIQARA

We must now trace out the beginnings of the Timurid empire of

Herat, which had arisen shortly after the death of Abu Sa'Id. That state
also had to struggle against heavy odds but, in contrast to the Timurid
empire in Transoxiana, it was distinguished by great achievements in
the sphere of intellectual and material progress, a continuation for
more than three decades of the great age which had begun under Shah
Rukh and which had given the state of Herat that characteristic stamp
that now reached its ultimate development under the rule of the
Timurid Husain Balqara.
Sultan Husain b. Mansur b. Balqara, to give him his full name, had lost
his father when he was only seven or eight years;of age, and in 856/1452
had entered the service of Abu'l-Qasim Babur, interrupted for a brief time
only after the latter's unsuccessful campaign against Samarqand. After the
death of his master he led the irregular life of a wandering mercenary
captain, the kind of man frequently found over the years among the
auxiliary troops of various Timurids engaged in their struggles for power,
until he eventually began to wage war on his own account, for a long
time indeed without lasting success. To begin with, his interests lay in
Mazandaran, then particularly in Khwarazm, whence he repeatedly set
out on invasions or pillaging expeditions into Khurasan. These won him
the enmity of Abu Sa'Id, against whom he sought assistance from the
Uzbek khan Abu'l-Khair. However, his overtures were brought to
nothing by the latter's death, to which we have referred.
With the news of Abu Sa'Id's fall, a situation had therefore arisen in
which Husain Balqara was no longer dependent on Uzbek aid. Seeing
his opportunity, he forthwith exploited it. On 25 Sha'ban 873/10
March 1469 the news reached Herat of the events in the Mughan
steppes; on 2 Ramadan/16 March Sultan Mahmud, a son of the
executed prince, arrived in the city with the remnants of his father's
army, but had to quit it again shortly afterwards; and only a week later
the official prayers were proclaimed in the name of Husain Balqara,
who had meanwhile made his entry into the city. Although Sultan
Ahmad was already approaching Herat with a powerful force from
Samarqand, he broke off his campaign to Khurasan after meeting up
with his brother Mahmud en route.
Nevertheless, Husain Balqara's succession did not remain un-
disputed. Uzun Hasan did not fail to exploit his victory over Abu
121
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

Sa'Id. He transferred his capital from Diyarbakr to Tabriz, and not

only occupied 'Iraq-i 'Ajam, Fars and Kirman but also declared Yadgar
Muhammad, the prince who had put Abu Sa'Id to death, as the only
legitimate heir to the throne, sending him off with the Timurid soldiery
who were in his company at the time to Khurasan. A victory which
Husain Balqara scored over him at Chinaran on 8 Rabf I 874/15
September 1469 proved indecisive, because Uzun Hasan promptly sent
reinforcements to the aid of his protege. It was plainly his intention to
extend his influence, if not his sovereignty, over Khurasan. Thus he
demanded from Husain Balqara, in vain as it turned out, the handing over
of various Qara Quyunlu amirs who had fled to Herat while he was
occupying Kirman. When Uzun Hasan's sons Zainal and Khalll were
brought in to support Yadgar Muhammad, Husain Balqara found himself
in a critical situation. So many of his troops deserted to the enemy that he
even had to abandon Herat, where his rival made his entry on 9 Muharram
875/8 July 1470. The latter, in fact, could not rely on his troops either,
especially the contingents of the Aq Quyunlu, so that Husain Balqara,
having assembled fresh forces and having met the three sons of Abu Sa'Id
in a victorious engagement, reoccupied his capital six weeks later. Yadgar
Muhammad, who fell into his hands, was executed, and with him the last
descendant of Shah Rukh left the political stage. Since the line of Jahanglr
had ceased to play a political role only a few years after the death of Tlmur,
the activity of Tlmur's heirs was now restricted to descendants of his two
sons MIran Shah and 'Umar Shaikh - that is to say, respectively the scions
of Abu Sa'Id in Transoxiana, of whom only Babur had a significant future,
and Husain Balqara and his family in Khurasan.
With the death of Yadgar Muhammad the designs of Uzun Hasan
on Khurasan likewise came to an end. There were no further attempts
to extend his territorial power over eastern Persia. And Husain
Balqara, too, refrained from any move against his western neighbour.
His frontier with the empire of the Aq Quyunlu followed from the
coast of the Caspian Sea a line west of Astarabad running in a southerly
direction, then ran along the edge of the Dasht-i Lut, finally reaching
Lake Hamun. Both parties were intent on good-neighbourly relations,
which were not affected by occasional frontier incidents.
Though he had achieved signal distinction through his courage and
enterprise before his accession to the throne, Husain Balqara seems
henceforth to have yielded to no further desire for military enterprises
of any scope. Thus he substantially respected the Oxus frontier,
122
 HUSAIN BAIQARA

though the incessant conflicts of his cousins beyond the river and their
military weakness in fact represented a constant invitation to intervene.
This is all the more remarkable since from his own experience and
acquaintance with the personalities of the situation he knew only too
well what dangers were lurking in the background; that is to say, how
strongly the peoples who lived on the Jaxartes, particularly the
Uzbeks, were pressing towards the west and developing into an
immediate threat to him personally with every success they scored in
western Turkestan. Before he found himself in direct confrontation
with the Uzbeks at the end of his life, only incidents of a more or less
limited significance took place on the Oxus frontier, with one
exception: the campaigns carried out by Khurasan forces against the
Timurid Sultan Mahmud ruling in Hisar.
These in fact fruitless operations were connected with the conflicts
which Husain Balqara had to fight out against his sons, especially in the
second half of his reign. Fundamentally, the cause yet again was always the
question of the authority enjoyed by the Timurid princes who ruled in the
most important cities; a perpetual temptation to challenge the central
power as soon as differences of opinion with the ruler arose. As early as
1490 Darvlsh 'All, a brother of'AH Shir (see below), had - as guardian of
Prince Ibrahim Husain, a son of Husain Balqara who had his residence in
Balkh - intrigued with Hisar, which apparently led to a campaign against
the city. Years later, in the course of a further campaign, Husain Balqara's
eldest son Badf al-Zaman was transferred from his governorship in
Astarabad to Balkh and rose in rebellion when his son Muhammad
Mu'min, whom he had left behind in Astarabad, was passed over for
appointment as governor there. Badl' al-Zaman was defeated in battle,
and chance decreed that his son, who had also risen in rebellion and had
consequently been imprisoned in Herat, was executed at about the same
time, though this had no connection with his father's defeat. A reconcilia-
tion was brought about, but this revolt was not the last, and in 1499 the
prince even besieged Herat. Other sons, too, rose against the ageing ruler.
As a result, there were frequent occasions for military operations but no
upheavals, apparently, serious enough to endanger the state.
We have detailed knowledge of the Turkish and Persian figures of
eminence in the empire on whom Husain Balqara depended in the
business of government, even down to the details of court intrigues.
Among these figures, one personality stands out, a man of distinction
in both political and intellectual history. This is 'All Shir Nava'I
I2
3
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

(b. 844/1441), who had been closely connected with Husain Balqara
even in his youth. He was a Turk born in Herat who had been present
at Sultan Ahmad's headquarters in 873/1469 and arrived in the capital
only a few weeks after Husain's accession to the throne. He was ap-
pointed keeper of the great seal, and in 876/1472 member {divan begt) of
the great state council {divdn-i bu^urg-i amdraf). The influence he exerted
was so powerful that he is referred to as second only to the prince. In
the course of time relations between ruler and adviser did indeed
become strained, and this state of affairs took some years to pass, with
'All Shir Nava'I in 892/1487 going to Astarabad as governor for fifteen
months. The high esteem in which he was held, which incidentally is
not to be dissociated from his achievements in the cultural sphere, was
strikingly evident in the ceremonies of mourning ordered by the prince
on the occasion of his death in 906/1501.
The year 1501 ushered in a new era for both Central Asia and the
Middle East involving the fall of the Timurids and the rise of new
powers. It saw the consolidation of Uzbek power, as has been men-
tioned above, resulting from Muhammad Shaibanl's final conquest of
Samarqand, and the accession of Shah Isma'H I, with which the Safavid
empire began. Husain Balqara, who had moved further and further away
from the military prowess of his youth in the three decades of his rule in
Herat, was prevented by advanced age and protracted illness from
taking energetic decisions. As may be seen from his correspondence, he
was at pains to avoid conflict with Shah Isma'Il. For a long time — far too
long, in fact — he closed his eyes to the immediate threat of a massive
attack on the part of the Uzbeks, whose successes in Transoxiana could
of course have been no secret to him, and trusted in his fortresses which
barred the way to Khurasan. Even Babur's attempt to spur him to action
against the common enemy was unable to prevail against this view. So it
came about that the Uzbeks were able to cross the Oxus, conquering
Khwarazm and carrying out pillaging expeditions against Khurasan.
Husain Balqara did not live to see the collapse of his empire. He died
on 11 Dhu'l-Hijja 911/4 May 1506, having finally marched against the
Uzbeks. It was just at this very time that Babur was making
preparations to answer the appeal for help that he had received from
Herat by advancing from Kabul with his troops. Though he received
the news of Husain Balqara's death en route, he continued his march
until, after four months, he reached his objective. In his memoirs he
records of Badl' al-Zaman and Muzaffar Husain, two sons of the
124
 EARLY CAREER OF BABUR
dead prince who were at odds over the succession, that they were no
doubt experienced in matters of court ceremonial but not in the rules
of warfare. Judging the military situation to be hopeless, he retreated
without waiting to clash with Muhammad Shaibanl. In the very next
year he received news of the Uzbeks' entry into Herat and theflightof
Husain Balqara's sons. Muzaffar Husain did not long survive the
disaster; his brother found refuge first at the court of Shah Isma'Il and
afterwards in Istanbul, where he died in 923/1517.
It stands to the credit of Husain Balqara that in the thirty-seven years
of his rule in Herat he gave the Timurid empire, in spite of everything,
fairly peaceful conditions, albeit within a severely reduced area. Babur
speaks of his reign as a wonderful period, in which many significant
men lived in Khurasan. The able warrior he is described as being in the
first half of his life was not only a famous sabre-fighter who plunged
fearlessly into hand-to-hand fighting in battle, but also a cultivated
man, actively interested in the intellectual and artistic life of his time,
and a renowned patron of the arts. He himself wrote Turkish and
Persian poetry under the pseudonym of Husainl. It should, however,
be said that his Turkish divan, which has come down to us, contains
only poems of average merit. He also left behind a brief treatise in
which his opinions and ideals are set out. He does not appear to have
been strongly committed in a religious sense. He was entitled to plead
the rheumatism he suffered from for years as an excuse for neglecting
the prescribed prayers; but this and similar excuses cannot account for
offences against the laws of fasting or for other derelictions from the
religious law which appealed to him, such as daily indulgence in wine,
pigeon-flying, ram-fighting and cock-fighting. His lack of political
acumen and his all but apathetic absence of resolution in dealing with
the Uzbeks — among the main contributory factors in the fall of the
Timurid empire — may have been signs of senility, for he was generally
credited with an alert mind which found expression not only in rapid
utterance but also, at the beginning of his career, in swift decision.

THE EARLY CAREER OF BABUR

The Uzbek conquest of Khurasan need not in itself have signified

the end of the Timurids in Central and Western Asia, for Zahlr al-Dln
Babur was still ruling in Kabul. Indeed, the idea of a Timurid restora-
tion in these territories remained alive in him, and he was to be pre-
125
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR
sented with the necessary opportunity a few years later, on the fall of
Muhammad ShaibanI. Although an incursion into India in 910/1505
shows a new direction of his ambitions, the march on Herat which he
carried out at Husain Balqara's request reveals his sense of involvement
in the Timurid heartlands and his hatred for the Uzbeks who had expelled
him from them. In the fresh circumstances he was once again threatened
in Kabul by the same enemy, and from two directions: in the north
from Qunduz and the province of Badakhshan, and in the south-west
from Qandahar. To begin with, he had to witness his younger brother
Nasir Mlrza falling back before the Uzbeks in Badakhshan. And when
Muhammad ShaibanI also laid siege to Qandahar, Babur does seem
temporarily to have given his cause up for lost. At all events he took care
to evacuate his men from Kabul in order to march on India. Only because
he was prevented from making a rapid advance by ambushes mounted by
Afghan tribes did he learn en route that due to difficulties in the hinterland
the Uzbeks had raised the siege of Qandahar after offering easy conditions
to the besieged troops. At once he returned to Kabul.
Here he received news, some time later, of Shah Isma'H's victorious
campaign against Khurasan, the battle of Marv, in which Muhammad
ShaibanI had been killed on 1 Ramadan 916/2 December 1510, and the
entry of Isma'Il into Herat. In spite of the winter conditions he at once
set off for Transoxiana. In Qunduz, where he was held up by Uzbek
resistance, he was joined by his sister Khanzada Begum, whom he had
agreed to marry off to Muhammad ShaibanI when he had been forced
to give up Samarqand. She had fallen into the hands of the Persians at
Marv and had now been sent to him by the shah. To this gesture of
amity he responded by sending Prince MIrza Khan on a mission with
presents and felicitations. The shah confirmed the ambassador in the
governorship of Badakhshan and gave an assurance that Babur should
retain all the territories in Transoxiana he could take from the Uzbeks
— on condition, however, that he converted to the Shi'a. Babur
accepted, although of course this implied recognising the sovereignty
of the Safavids. On his advance through Transoxiana he took Hisar
and Bukhara. In Rajab 917/October 1511 he occupied Samarqand - for
the third time - but was compelled to evacuate the city again in the
following Safar/May after a reverse in battle with the Uzbeks.
Meanwhile, the initial jubilation at his return had subsided, and indeed
had turned to disaffection and hatred, because the SunnI population
could not come to terms with the Shi'a. Though nothing more than
126
 TIMURID POLITICAL TRADITIONS

mere verbal assent was involved for Babur, the official prayers did
include the name of Shah Isma'Il, whose brutal treatment of eminent
Sunnis in Herat was common talk; and also the Shl'I confession of
faith. The same objections no doubt applied to the inscriptions on the
coinage. Shortly afterwards, with the arrival of Persian auxiliaries
under Isma'Il's viceroy (vakil) Yar Ahmad KhuzanI, known as Najm-i
sani,1 Babur realised that his position had become untenable. It was not
merely that he was to be subjected to the military authority of the
Persian general; the latter inspired terror and revulsion in the people as
a whole for having, against Babur's advice, slaughtered the entire
population of the city of QarshI which he had conquered. Thus at the
battle of Ghujduvan on 3 Ramadan 918/12 November 1512, Babur held
back. The Uzbeks were victorious and the Safavid general was killed;
while Babur withdrew in all haste.
He remained in fact in Badakhshan for some considerable time after
this before admitting to himself that there was no future for him in
Transoxiana and Khurasan. After 920/1514, the year of his return to
Kabul, he turned his whole attention to India and undertook several
campaigns in that direction, until on 8 Rajab 932/20 April 15 26 he won a
decisive victory against Ibrahim LodI, the sultan of Delhi, at the battle of
Panlpat. This was the moment at which the Mughal empire was born, a
Timurid state founded on Indian soil, which endured until the 13 th/19th
century. And though parts of Afghanistan, and Kabul, which was not
lost until it was conquered by Nadir Shah in 1738, belonged to this
empire, the fact is that its centre of gravity lay in India. This state of
affairs was not altered by occasional later thrusts towards Khurasan and
Transoxiana, which led at best to ephemeral successes. In Central and
Western Asia the Timurids had ceased to play a vital part on the political
scene in 913/1507, with the Uzbek victory over the sons of Husain
Balqara, and at the latest with the return of Babur to Kabul in 920/1514.

THE POLITICAL TRADITIONS OF THE TIMURID EMPIRE

What, then, are the characteristic features of this Timurid period?

The state which Timur had left to his successors was made up,
according to Barthold,2 from components derived from the Turco-
Mongolian military system, and ample trimmings of Islamic culture,
1
On whom see Braun, Ahval-t Sah hm3H, pp. 8iff., and Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I", pp. 68ff.
2 Ulugb Beg, pp. 8ff.
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR TIMURID POLITICAL TRADITIONS

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Map. Eastern Iran and Central Asia in the later Timurid era
128 129

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

generally of a Persian cast. The relationship of these elements to one

another varied in the different states deriving from the Timurid empire
according to the attitudes and inclinations of the particular ruler at any
one time. An extreme example of this is found in the reign of Ulugh
Beg in Samarqand. During the lifetime of his father Shah Rukh, who
ruled strictly according to the prescriptions of the Sharl'a, he was able
to promote his own enthusiasm for the Yasa and the tradition of
Chingiz Khan in the management of the state. If this was possible in an
area loyal to the central government, it is all the more likely that in the
Timurid states of later times, each leading an independent existence
from the others, certain differences will have been found.
The main reason for the obvious lack of success with which the
Timurids had to contend in Azarbaijan and Iran was the rise of the
Turkmens, firstly the Qara Quyunlii and then the Aq Quyiinlu. It may
be the case that the stimulus which came to these two nomadic
federations to strive for independence was partly due in the first
instance to the destructions wrought by Tlmur,1 for example in eastern
Anatolia and Azarbaijan; though hardly in Iran, where the details
given by the Spanish ambassador Clavijo concerning the cities he
visited shortly before Timur's death preclude the possibility that these
had been devastated or not rebuilt.
Of smaller significance were the nomadic tribes in western
Turkestan and - less still - in Khurasan. Nevertheless, there still
existed, as in Timur's day, nomadic tribes originally Mongol in descent
which had become Turkish in culture, certainly in respect of speech,
though we should be cautious in the assessment of their ethnic
composition. This nomadic element was referred to in Transoxiana as
Chaghatai, after Chaghatai (d. 639/1242), the second son of Chingiz
Khan, even long after there were any surviving khans of this dynasty
in western Turkestan. The most important of these tribes were -
according to the account given by Ibn 'Arabshah - the Arlat in the
northern part of present-day Afghanistan, the Jalayir in the region of
Khujand, and the Barlas on the Qashqa-Darya. Their chiefs had
extensive sovereign rights in the areas in which they lived.
Still stronger was the position of those Timurid princes who, as
joint or autonomous rulers, were appointed as governors in individual
provinces. We have referred a number of times to the conception

1
This is at any rate the reasoning of Cahen, Der Islam i, 3} i.

130
 TIMURID POLITICAL TRADITIONS

underlying their legal position, namely that the empire was not the sole
possession of the ruler but belonged to all male members of the ruling
family, and have drawn attention to the fateful results which followed
from this assumption. Taken together with the absence of an effective
disposition for the succession, this conception led to unending disputes
over the rightful inheritance and to the fragmentation and diminution of
the territory as a whole. At the same time, military strength crumbled,
and when powerful opponents took the offensive, disaster followed.
One of the basic features of the Timurid state was feudalism, the
material foundation of the military. The prime beneficiaries were the
princes and those holding high military command, including tribal
chieftains. From the beginning of Shah Rukh's reign we come across
the institution known as the suyurghal, a further development of the
earlier iqtS. Etymologically, as we have seen,1 this suggests a beneficium,
an "act of largesse" or "reward" on the ruler's part towards persons
employed in his service. De facto it was the granting of a territory as a
fief, especially a military fief, which carried the obligation to serve in
the army of one's lord and at the same time to make available a fixed
number of armed warriors. In return, the fiefholder was guaranteed
freedom from rates and taxes in his own territory but allowed the right
to raise such contributions for his own benefit from the population,
who of course did not share the privilege of this freedom. Unlike the
iqta', this immunity not only applied to the fiscal sovereignty of the
central authorities but extended also to their administrative and judicial
sovereignty. A typical feature of the Timurid administration was the
existence of extremely large fiefs of this kind embracing whole prov-
inces. In time, the suyurghal acquired a hereditary character and was
not restricted to military beneficiaries, being accorded also to civilians
such as the holders of religious offices and dignities.
The organisation of the Timurid governmental machinery has been
only inadequately researched as yet. Although it cannot be assumed
that it remained even in broad outline uniform throughout the whole
period from 807/1405 to 913/1507 or even among the various states
existing alongside each other, we may nevertheless reasonably infer
that certain basic characteristics were common, for instance the influ-
ences exerted by the different elements in the population on the organ-
isation of the communities, or at any rate the Turkish/Persian dichot-

1
See above, pp. 94 and n. 1, 95 n. 2.
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

omy. A brief consideration of the most important authorities among the

supreme imperial institutions under Husain Balqara gives the easiest
general picture.1 The supreme body in the Herat administration was the
Great State Council {divdn-i bu^urg-i amdrat) already mentioned. As the
designation divdn-i amdrat-i tuvdjiydn is also found, it is to be assumed that
it was identical with the tuvdji divdnifrequently referred to.2 Among yet
other titles for the same institution, tiirk divdni'is especially interesting as
a reflection of the responsibility for army matters: the army was of course
composed mainly of Turks and Turkicised Mongols. It was a sort of
general staff with additional functions corresponding to the increased
importance of the forces in maintaining a state constantly threatened by
external and internal enemies. Its members were amirs ( = begs) with the
title amir-i tuvdji ot divan begi. They took precedence in rank over all other
amirs. As inspectors of troops they had a wide area of responsibility. At
court or in the military headquarters this included preparing and carry-
ing out the receptions and parades given by the ruler. The secretaries of
this divan were called bakbshiydn or navisandagdn-i turk, never va^ir. Of
course, there were also viziers; but they were responsible for the finan-
cial affairs that fell within the competence of another divan, the divdn-i
mdl, which appears to have been identical with the divdn-i 'dli and was
also called sart divdni in order to distinguish it from the tiirk divdni. In
contrast to the "Turkish secretaries" just referred to, in the case of this
divan only the term "Persian secretaries" was used {navisandagdn-i tajik).
At its head stood the amir-i divdn-i mdl. The superior status of the tuvajl
dlvani is suggested by the fact that it was also called the supreme divan
(divdn-i a'la). This interpretation of the source material, incidentally, is
not upset if we adopt the explanation of the function of the Great Amir
{ulugh beg), who is sometimes referred to, as that of supreme head of both
the divans we have considered. It must be admitted, though, that the
schema suggested here need not offer the only possible explanation for
what is a highly complex set of facts.

ECONOMIC AND COMMERCIAL LIFE

The economic life of the Timurid age was not so darkened by the
destructions carried out by Tlmur as might be imagined. In this con-
nection the particularism of the Timurid princes and governors even
1
Roemer, Staatsscbreiben, pp. 169—72; Togan, '"Ali §ir".
2
See J. Deny, "Osmanli ancien tovija (dovija)", ]A ccxxi (1932), 160-1; TMEN 1, 260-4.
 ECONOMIC LIFE

had favourable results; for they had a strong vested interest in rebuild-
ing the cities which were their seats of government and - in the
economic sphere - of putting the political, and more especially the
cultural, aspirations which most of them cherished on a sound footing.
In most comparisons made of the cruelty and destructive fury of
Tlmur with that of the Mongols, Tlmur comes off badly. Yet it is a fact
that the desolation he wrought did not have such a lasting effect as
those for which they had been responsible. Whereas whole cultivated
areas were destroyed and reduced to pastureland as a result of Mongol
campaigns, under Tlmur public order was at any rate to some extent
soon restored after the cessation of hostilities. Where the irrigation
systems vital to agriculture had deteriorated as a result of devastation
or lack of attention, they were put in order without delay. It is known
of a number of rulers, for instance Shah Rukh, Ulugh Beg and Abu
Sa'Id, that they paid particular attention to the irrigation system and
were renowned for their construction of famous installations. The
holders of fiefs and benefices also had an interest in the development of
the territories whose taxes and rates were under their control. There is
evidence of specific measures to encourage agriculture in many places,
not only in Transoxiana and Khurasan, but for example also in the
vicinity of Isfahan. In some places the pre-Mongol standard was
reached or even surpassed. However, there were areas in which the
destructions of the Mongols could not be made good. Care for agri-
culture is seen as one of the characteristic features of Timurid rule.
Nevertheless, arbitrary increases in the rates imposed and abuses in the
taxation system on occasion caused distress and poverty among the
peasantry, sometimes proving so oppressive that revolts broke out.1
Under the Timurids there was a commercial life which was as active as
it was important, and which did not stop at the frontiers. Tabriz, due to
its peripheral situation, was indeed.not able to continue to play the same
part in east-west trade as it had under the Mongols. Even the trade
relations with Byzantium, the Ottomans and the Mamluks in Egypt
were now necessarily based on other routes. The trade routes to the east
and the north, to China and the Golden Horde, ran via Samarqand and
in part also via Herat, which was in addition an important stage on the
trade route via Kabul to and from India. The ortaq system provided a
remarkable trading institution. By means of this, merchant entrepre-

1
Arunova, "K istorii narodnykh vystuplenil".
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

neurs invested loan capital for orders and for the benefit of their financial
backers, of whom quite often the ruler himself was one.
In the taxation system Mongol traditions were quite unmistakably
preserved: payments in kind made by the agricultural section of the
population, and trade and craft taxes (tamgha) in the towns, levied to
some extent as local and transit tolls. We do in fact often hear of such
levies being waived or reduced, either because of the results of natural
catastrophes, epidemics or crop failures, or for religious reasons on the
occasions when a pious mystic or a theologian succeeded in steering his
ruler back onto the path of the religious law (Sharl'a), whose prescrip-
tions condemned such sources of revenue. But this sort of concession
was rarely permanent; with the best will in the world, the rulers could
usually not manage to forgo the tamgha, the most productive of all the
taxes. Even the pious Shah Rukh went no further than giving a
semblance of legality when he attempted to declare trading taxes to be
alms levies (p^akdi) — by a simple change of terminology — just in order
to rescue them from the odium of illegality that attached to the tamgha.
What has been said here of the restoration of public order, the
recouping of losses due to destruction at the hands of Tlmur, and the
rebuilding of cities does not by any means imply that in Central and
Western Asia under the Timurids peaceful and prosperous conditions
everywhere prevailed. The long reigns of Shah Rukh, Abu Sa'id, and
Husain Balqara did in each case bring about a certain stabilisation of
affairs in comparison with earlier times and the intervening periods.
Nevertheless, in view of the incessant risings, the incursions by the
Tiirkmens in the west and the Uzbeks and Mughals in the east, the
endless succession disputes and the concomitant military measures,
troop movements, requisitionings and reprisals, it is not reasonable to
speak of general peace and prosperity, even though the conjunction of
all these things was generally confined to a few limited areas. The
sufferings of the people in the districts and cities affected were pro-
tracted and had long-lasting effects. In the first half of the 9th/15 th
century reports from the province of Kirman speak of the constant
insecurity to which daily life was subject.1 Here even a town such as
Bam, described by Arabian geographers as a flourishing city with an
important textile industry, fell back into village conditions with a
mere four or five thousand inhabitants. In Khurasan, too, a decline in
1
Aubin, "Deux sayyids", and "Fragments historiques concernant Bam"; for conditions in
Herat, cf. Boldyrev, "Ocherki iz zhizni", which was unfortunately inaccessible to me.

'34
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

population density in contrast with the Mongol period can be observed

which is recognisable in the changes that took place in the territorial
pattern.1 The constituent units of Timurid territory were larger than
those of the Mongols; and the reason for older administrative units
having been abandoned is clearly to be sought in a considerable reduc-
tion in the size of populations. Quhistan, for instance, formerly the
largest district (yilayat) belonging to Herat, was now no longer a unit
administratively speaking, but only geographically.

RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

This somewhat grim background of general conditions is eminently

important for an understanding of the religious situation of the Timurid
period. It is undoubtedly true to say that the larger part of the popula-
tion should be thought of as belonging to a SunnI form of Islam, yet this
is an inadequate description of the pattern. Even the limitation that
individual areas such as Gllan, Mazandaran, Khiizistan and eastern
Quhistan, and a few cities such as Ray, Varamln, Qum, Kashan, and
Sabzavar in Khurasan, were traditional centres of the ShI'a — and
especially of the Twelver ShI'a - amounts to no more than a rough
amplification of what is only a crude sketch. In reality, it was a far more
complicated matter. The facts show that much of the Islamic world was
vigorously involved in religious change. This begins at the latest with
the disappearance from the scene of the 'Abbasid caliphate, the rule of the
Mongols and the resulting curtailment of the influence of the theologians
in the Islamic east. The most important aspects of these changes were
numerous manifestations of popular piety, an increase in Islamic monasti-
cism (Jdriqa, tasavvuf), veneration of the saints, pilgrimages, belief in
miracles, veneration of 'All and the ahl al-bait generally. Such phenomena
often bore a Shl'I stamp, but this is far from justifying the conclusion that
they are evidence for religious assent and adherence to the ShI'a. For some
time past the term Folk Islam has been applied to this kind of phenome-
non,2 usually in reference to conditions in Asia Minor; but there is no lack
of convincing evidence for an analogous development further to the east,
in the dominions of the Timurids.
1
Aubin, "Un Santon quhistanl".
2
The concept of Folk Islam, at least in the broad sense, is probably older and is to be found as
early as Babinger's Berlin inaugural lecture of 1921, published as "Der Islam in Kleinasien"; see
further Mazzaoui, Origins of the Safavids, pp. izff, and passim.

135
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

The oscillation between Sunna and Shl'a typical of Folk Islam also
exercised a powerful influence on the political potentates of the age.
The traditional formula which speaks of the Shl'I Qara Quyunlu and
the SunnI Aq Quyunlu can now no longer be sustained in its former
exclusive sense.1 It is undoubtedly truer to say that the princes of the
two federations were hardly concerned about a religious issue but far
more about political ones when they sought to achieve assent and more
effective support among the population by favouring one side or the
other. Similar motives of expediency — in addition to personal prefer-
ences, no doubt — may explain something of Abu Sa'Id's adherence to
the Naqshbandiyya, the order of Khwaja Ahrar, who was omnipotent
in Samarqand and indubitably persecuted SunnI attempts at a restora-
tion of the Shari'a; or again, it would seem, when Husain Baiqara, who
after his succession to the throne in Herat had taken the first steps to
introduce the Shl'a, then abandoned the project at the instigation of
'All Shir; not to mention Zahlr al-Dln Babur's conversion to the Shl'a
on his third conquest of Samarqand, when his only concern was to
secure the support of Shah Isma'Il for his plans.
All in all there developed in the atmosphere of Folk Islam favour-
able preconditions for heterodox tendencies and hence also for the
Shl'a, either because it formed a bridge to the popular variant of Shl'a
and thus advanced the Imamiyya, or because it prepared the ground for
extremist sects, which in the course of the 9th/15 th century attracted
many new adherents and had far-reaching effects.2 The underground
political-cum-religious activities of the time are vividly projected for a
moment on 22 RabT 11 830/21 February 1427 by an attempt on the life
of Shah Rukh, when an adherent of the Hurufiyya attempted to stab
him as he was leaving the Friday prayers.3 This was by no means the
first outbreak of heretical violence. It had been preceded by religiously
inspired risings, immediately after the death of Tlmur, in Sabzavar,
where Shah Rukh had only been able to exert his authority with
difficulty, and a year later in Mazandaran, where an attempt was made
to re-establish the amirate of the Shl'I Mar'ashI Sayyid. One rising
1
"Le probleme n'etait pas pour les Qara Qoyunlu ou les Aq Qoyunlu de se montrer hostiles
ou favorables au chiisme, mais d'adopter une politique qui leur garantit un large support parmi
leurs sujets": Aubin, "Notes sur quelques documents Aq Qoyunlu", p. 152.
2
Mole, "Les Kubrawiya"; Miklukho-Maklal, "Shiizm".
3
Most recently treated by Savory, "A 15 th Century Safavid Propagandist"; on the Hurufiyya,
see Bausani, "Hurufiyya"; Ritter, "Die Anfange der Huruflsekte"; Golpinarh, "Fadlallah-i
Hurufi'nin ogluna".

136
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

which was successful, at least against the Timurid governor of Fars and
Khuzistan, was that of Sayyid Muhammad b. Falah (845/1441—2), who
claimed to be the Mahdl and who made the city of Havlza the official
seat of an extremist provincial dynasty, the Musha'sha', which even
outlasted theTimurids.1 It must also be assumed that the revolt of
Muhammad b. Balsunqur in 849/1446 had a religious background.
This would also explain the severity of Shah Rukh, unusual for him in
his dealings with Islamic aristocrats and scholars {sddat and 'ulamd'),
when in Ramadan 850/December 1446 in Sava his verdicts on the
adherents of the rebellious prince — to the horror of many contem-
poraries — did not spare this category of persons the penalty of execu-
tion. In fact he thus dealt a severe blow to the Shi'a, which was
spreading rapidly in Fars, as elsewhere, from which it could not easily
recover. This action of his is intimately connected with his religious
attitudes and the role as restorer of orthodoxy and protector of the
SunnI theologians which he had assumed.
Even though it is difficult, and in many cases impossible, to classify
individuals or indeed even particular orders as to their religious atti-
tude — Sunna or Shi'a — this does not mean that all the distinctions
were simply blurred. Orthodox theology existed under the Timurids as
it had before. It had indeed passed its ultimate climax with 'Azud
al-DIn al-ljl (d. 756/135 5), who had gathered its doctrines together in a
new form in his Mawdqij — and in a challenging fashion.2 His ideas
were, moreover, still widespread among the theologians of the
9th/15 th century. But they had long since ceased to be productive and
had petrified into merely scholastic forms. With a few exceptions - one
of them the Suliik al-muluk of Fazl-Allah b. Ruzbihan al-Khunji, written
in the Fiirstenspiegel tradition — the theological writings of the period
have nothing to offer but commentaries and super-commentaries in
devastating quantity, and glosses and manuals which in their use of
abbreviations are barely comprehensible to the modern reader.
To be brief, the representatives of the Sunna were in no position to
have their own way in the conflict with the rising tide of Shl'I or
heretical movements. The decisive blow was struck, as far as large
areas of the Timurid territory were concerned, when one of these
movements, that of the Safavids, succeeded in Persia in forcing
through its religious ideas against the Sunna by the use of the military
1
Minorsky, "Musha'sha"'; Caskel, "Ein Mahdl des 15. Jahrhunderts", and "Die Wall's von
2
Huvezeh". See above, pp. 63-4 and n. 1.

137
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

might which it had acquired through the support of fanatical adher-

ents. However, it was unsuccessful against the mortal enemies of the
Timurids, the Uzbeks, who now became the protective power of
orthodoxy in the eastern Islamic world. The results of these events
were, however, only clearly perceptible after the fall of the Timurid
states of Central and Western Asia.
The intellectual life of the Timurid age may be traced through the
ample evidence which has come down to us, the most noteworthy source
being Daulatshah of Samarqand. If their best historians do not quite
approach the leading figures of Mongol historiography, they did leave
behind works of a highly respectable quality. Their most important
writers include such names as Hafiz-i Abru (d. 833/1430), 'Abd
al-Razzaq Samarqandl (d. 887/1482) and Mir Khwand (d. 903/1498). The
lastnamed chronicler not only soon aroused the interest of historically
minded groups in the Ottoman empire, but later intensively occupied
Western historians, as can be seen by the numerous translations of his
work, especially in the last century. Hafiz-i Abru offers in his works
interesting evidence of the historical method and the historical interests of
the age. His Majmita embraces twelve works, of which a majority are
based on earlier authors and the rest are his own work. His Majmd
al-tavarikh with its four parts is a universal history, the fourth section of
which, separately entitled Zubdat al-tavarikh-i Batsunquri, contains the
history of Shah Rukh up to 830/1427. 'Abd al-Razzaq's work, entitled
Matla' al-sa'dain, is also in the nature of a universal history. Its treatment of
the Timurid period is based primarily on Hafiz-i Abru and is a valuable
source in itself for the events which its author experienced in person. Since
the Timurid historical writings were mainly, if not exclusively, commis-
sioned by princes intent on transmitting their own renown or that of their
dynasties to posterity, we have of course to be prepared for much rose-
coloured presentation of the facts. Furthermore, the lives and sufferings of
the common people usually disappear in the aura of court history. In the
area of religious and social history certain works of popular literature,
especially hagiographical writings - which for some time now have been
evaluated with remarkable results — are therefore of very considerable
importance. Aspects of constitutional history and the history of finance
are being illuminated by documents which to date indeed are only seldom
available in their original form but frequently are to be found in the copies
which figured in a literary genre highly appreciated at that time, the works
called Insha'. Analysis of these, too, has now been taken in hand.
138
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

While historical writing in the Timurid period, and also, it seems, the
astronomical and mathematical work mentioned in connection with
Ulugh Beg, was written in Persian, in the sphere of literature there
figures also Chaghatai, an eastern Turkish language of which no literary
monuments are preserved from the time before Timur's reign. Its first
known representative is Sakkaki, a poet from Transoxiana who died in
the first half of the 9th/15 th century. He may have been writing as early
as the lifetime of Tlmur, but at all events he is mentioned as court poet to
Khalll Sultan and Ulugh Beg. Outstanding among his successors is
Lutfi, the author of a divan and a verse narrative (masnavi) entitled Gulu
Naubabar. His home was Herat, where he died in 1462 or 1463 at the age
of ninety-nine. Turkish poetry was written by Timurid princes such as
Khalll Sultan, Aba Bakr MIr2a and Abu'l-Qasim Babur. Chaghatai
literature reached its peak under Husain Balqara, who personally con-
tributed a divan and a risala.x While his works lack the touch of real
distinction, this is found in the numerous compositions of his famous
minister and friend Mir 'All Shir Nava'I, who not only finally raised
Chaghatai to the level of a literary language but, in one of his works
entitled Muhakamat al-lughatain ("Arbitration on the Two Languages",
i.e. Persian arid Turkish), accorded Chaghatai the primacy for its greater
expressiveness. The first history of Chaghatai literature, the Majdlis
al-nafd'is, came from his pen.2 Among the other prose writings Zahlr
al-Dln Babur's memoirs of the period 899—936/1494—1529, entitled
Vaqd'i'-i Bdburi or more usually Bdbur-ndma, occupy an eminent place
from a biographical, a historical and a geographical point of view. There
is no reason to conclude from NavaTs "Arbitration" that there existed
any antagonism between the use of Turkish or Persian, if only because
the authors of Turkish works usually had in addition Persian writings to
their credit. Chaghatai poetry also has many if not most forms in
common with Persian - and the same ones, moreover, as had been
favoured by Persian poets as early as the 8th/14th century. Even the
subject matter corresponds, except that Turkish poets show a somewhat
stronger preference for subjects derived from popular literature.
Evidence for the good relationship between Chaghatai and Persian
literature is provided by Nava'I himself with his Turkish translations of
Jamfs Nafahdt al-uns and 'Attar's Mantiq al-tair.

1
Gandjei, "Husayn Mirza", and "Uno scritto apologetico".
2
But although he held Persian to be of lesser value, this did not prevent him from using that
language also: cf. Gandjei, "II canzoniere persiano".

139
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

The brilliant period of Persian literature before Tlmur's invasion is

not repeated after his death. One does come across Timurids who
wrote in Persian, esteemed Persian poetry, and as patrons also
reinvigorated court poetry. Favourable external circumstances of this
kind increased the number of poets but not the intellectual and
aesthetic worth of their production. The originality and richness of
thought of the previous century declined, and adherence to poetic
convention and heavy stress on formal elements took their place. As
Indian style extended its influence, classicising rigidity was further
encouraged. Such negative elements are a burdensome legacy even for
considerable talents.
The increased tendency to turn for guidance to the religious orders,
due to the troubles of the time, is matched by an increase in mystical
poetry. Typical exponents are such saints as Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail
(d. 834/1431), the author of numerous works, some in Arabic and some
in Persian, which display pantheistic emphases, and the poetically far
more gifted Qasim al-Anvar (d. 837/1433-4). The latter was born in
Azarbaljan, lived for a time in Herat, and was suspected of being
involved in a heretical conspiracy in connection with the attempt on
Shah Rukh's life, but finally found asylum with Ulugh Beg in Samar-
qand. But in addition to this religiously orientated poetry, there are
represented also love lyrics and romantic and heroic epics. The lyric
poetry quite often shows the same weave of mystical and pseudo-
mystical elements as is frequently found in the work of Hafiz. This is
particularly true of the writings of Kamal al-Din Bina'I (executed in
918/1512). In the romantic epic KatibI of Nlshapur (d. between 1434
and 1436) earned a high reputation, while 'Abd-Allah Hatifl (d. 927/
15 20), a nephew of JamI, is worthy of mention for his Timiir-nama, a
heroic epic in praise of Timvir.
These few examples would adequately characterise Persian poetry
were it not for the fact that the century produced one other remarkable
figure, Maulana Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman JamI (b. 817/1414,
d. 898/1492), who was outstanding not only as a poet and mystic but
also as a scholar in various disciplines and as a powerful personality.
True to his training under Sa'd al-Din Muhammad Kashgharl, the
pupil and follower of the founder of the order, Baha' al-Din Naqsh-
band, he remained loyal throughout his life to the Sufism observed by
the Surma, in spite of the pantheistic ideas found in his works. He was
a friend of 'AH Shir Nava'I and Khwaja Ahrar and had good connec-
140
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

tions with the court of Herat. He dedicated various of his works to

Husain Balqara and Sultan Ya'qub Aq Quyunlu, the prince of Tabriz.
Yet he was never tempted into the conventional flattering panegyrics of
his day. Nor did he take up an invitation to move to the Ottoman court,
though he did not disdain travel, as is shown by his pilgrimages to
Mashhad and Mecca and quite lengthy stays en route in Baghdad,
Damascus and Tabriz. As a scholar, Jam! dealt with questions of
theology, prosody, and Arabic grammar. In his poetry, an oeuvre of
unusual scope, almost all the traditional genres are represented. He left
three divans, and in seven long poems (masnavls) under the general title
Haft aurang he took up again the main themes of Persian poetry. As the
mature expression of Persian thought, his works have commanded high
regard and found numerous translators in Europe.
There is an apparent contradiction to be seen between the fair con-
solidation of outward conditions in the Timurid dominions, on the one
hand, especially under the long reigns of Shah Rukh, Abu Sa'Id and
Husain Balqara, and the insecurity, distress and oppression, on the
other, which obtained at particular stages and in many areas for the
population of the plains and the provincial towns. This contradiction,
however, is exceeded by the remarkable imbalance between the general
social and economic conditions and the brilliance of some of the larger
cities, especially the royal cities such as Samarqand, Shlraz and Herat.
The great pattern and standard the Timurids imitated was Tlmur, who
had applied his best efforts to making Samarqand the radiant metropo-
lis of the Islamic world. We know that he deported master builders and
artisans, artists and scholars for this purpose to Samarqand from the
cities he conquered, in order to use their skills to enhance the beauty
and renown of his capital. We find the same habit in his successors, if
not to the same extent. We know, at any rate, the names of certain
artists, poets and scholars who at the whim of the particular conqueror
had to shift their sphere of operations away from various cities when
these were occupied, to where the prince resided. Of course it should
not be assumed that coercion was always used, since clearly the patron-
age of many princes had a powerful attraction for those involved in
cultural life.
The most obvious expression of all this was to be found in the
buildings of the Timurid empire, of which many are preserved and
others are at least known from the descriptions of contemporary
writers, of whom some were travellers from Europe. They bear testi-
141
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

mony to a great flourishing of Islamic architecture at this time, which

largely accounts for the phrase "Timurid renaissance" coming into
vogue in Europe. One of the characteristic features was an adherence
to existing architectural traditions, expecially — but not exclusively —
Iranian traditions; another is a striking eclecticism. Both are seen by
scholars as symptomatic of that coming together of professional artists,
especially from central and southern Persia, which we mentioned
above. And it was precisely this that preserved architecture from
slipping away into provincialism. We cannot reject the suggestion that
the personal taste of the clients also gave a new impulse to artistic
creativity. This is a question which would merit detailed investigation.
Finally, there is some prima facie evidence suggesting foreign influ-
ences, for instance from the Far East.
The beginnings of essentially Timurid architecture go back to the
time of Tlmur, and had already achieved their peak of perfection in the
palace of the conqueror at Kish (Shahr-i Sabz), known from the
description of the Spanish ambassador Clavijo, who saw it in 1404
before its completion, and in the Ahmad Yasavl mosque at Turkistan,
built 797/1394—5, and the Bibi Khanum mosque at Samarqand, com-
pleted five years later. A new era, the first Khurasan period, occurs
during Shah Rukh's reign, in which his wife Gauhar Shad and their
son Baisunqur (d. 837/1433) are remembered for the work they com-
missioned, and Qivam al-Din ShlrazI as their builder. In contrast to
the preceding era in Transoxiana it shows considerable progress in
both design and decoration, as can clearly be seen by a simple compari-
son of the Gauhar Shad mosque at Mashhad (begun 808/1405—6 and
completed 821—2/1418-9) with the Blbi Khanum mosque at Samar-
qand. This structure initiated the predominantly classical Timurid style
of the next few decades. The basic architectural plan — as in the
8th/14th century - was the inner court with its four cloisters with
pointed arches {aivdri), connected by two-storey arcades, but now also
extended by a portal. In the next architectural period, which lasted
from the end of Shah Rukh's reign to the fall of the Timurid empire of
Herat, this type of structure only occurs once, namely in the Herat
madrasa. Otherwise we find the covered mosque, which demanded less
expenditure, or a kind of combined form, a mixture of covered and
courtyard mosque, represented by Abu'l-Qasim Babur's mosque in
Anau dating from 848/1444—5. As an example of the more common
covered mosque we may cite the Masjid-i Shah (1451) at Mashhad. As
142
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

the period went on the statesman and writer Mir 'All Shir Nava'I won
renown as the builder of a large number of edifices.
Among the striking innovations of Timurid architecture are not only
the increase in expenditure involved and — especially in the first Khura-
san period — the tendency to magnificence seen in the greater height of
the buildings, precious surface decorations, numerous cupolas and
minarets and a greater number of rooms in contrast with former designs,
but also new structural features such as the portal with stalactites in
droplet form and — very typically — the tall pear-shaped cupola which
now appears, in addition to the flat cupola which is still used. The first
instance of this is found in the Gur-i Mir at Samarqand. It rests on a
supporting cupola not visible from the outside, which, in addition to its
function as a support, also serves to restore the normal height dimension
to the space beneath. Still more important, though, indeed perhaps the
most important feature, is the hitherto unprecedented wealth of colour.
It is often found in the faience mosaics of the surface decoration, which
is frequently embedded in stucco and covers the representational sides of
whole buildings in a lavish display of plant and script motifs. Whereas
the Timurid faiences of the early period have only a modest, somewhat
austere range of colours, what develops in the course of time is a rich
palette as great in its variety as in its aesthetic elegance which gives the
whole architectural concept its characteristic fascination.
With the choice achievements of its architecture, in terms both of
technical and decorative developments, Timurid civilisation undoubtedly
reached its peak. It is part of the great artistic heritage which passed to the
Safavids in the ioth/i6th century and became the starting-point of a new
development which so impressed itself on the outward appearance of
Persia that it remains to this day one of the characteristic features of the
country.
The initiative of the Timurid princes, no matter what may have been
the motives and personal interest of the art-loving patrons among
them, was responsible for the emergence of painting of high quality.
No examples of mural or textile painting have been preserved, but
specimens of miniature art are numerous. Illuminated manuscripts of
the Timurid period constitute some of the most priceless treasures in
the libraries and collections of east and west.1 Even before TImur's
1
To give two examples: I. Stchoukine, "Un Gulistan de Sa'dl illustre par des artistes timur-
ides", KAA x (1936), 92-6; R. Ettinghausen, "An illustrated manuscript of Hafiz-i Abru in
Istanbul", KO 11 (1955), 30—44.
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

time several generations of artists, influenced by the work of the Far

East, and under Mongol and probably also Turkish influences, had
awakened the art of old Iran to new life out of the petrifaction of
obsolete forms. In the 9th/15 th centupy, under Timurid - that is to say,
essentially Turkish — patronage, the art of painting looks back to its
Iranian past, and the influence of this past forces back the hitherto
dominating influences.
Research to date places the origins of Timurid painting in the work-
shops of the Jalayirids in Baghdad and Tabriz, perhaps also in those of
the Muzaffarids in Shlraz, attributing them to artists deported by
Timur to Samarqand after his conquest of these cities.1 Since none of
their work survives, it cannot be proved, though it may reasonably be
assumed, that it was here that the roots of a syncretism of various
different styles are to be found, and moreover those of totally different
schools of painters, a syncretism which is characteristic of Timurid
painting throughout the whole period of its existence. The political
upheavals which followed the death of Timur induced many artists to
leave Samarqand and to seek their livelihood at the newly developing
Timurid princely courts. This would account for the fact that the style
of the period, in spite of the great distances that separated the indi-
vidual centres, shows a remarkable unity in which the only differences
are matters of nuance.
This style can only in fact be traced as an unbroken sequence at two
places, Shlraz and Herat. Under Iskandar b. 'Umar Shaikh, who ruled
from 812/1409 to 817/1414, painting in Shlraz enjoyed a period of
distinction strikingly marked by the refinement of its draughtsmanship
and the delicacy of its colours. And in the following twenty years
under Ibrahim (d. 838/1435), whom his father Shah Rukh appointed
governor of Fars after the victory over Iskandar, the distinction of this
school continued, even though its production was no longer quite of
the same high standard. At the same time there grew up a powerful
rival to it under the patronage of Shah Rukh and his son Balsunqur in
the form of the Herat school, which eventually reached and later even
surpassed its achievements by its success in evolving new means of
expression and a unique wealth of colour. Signs of age were already
appearing in Timurid art when it once again had the good fortune to
1
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, p. 156, regards both Jalayirids and Muzaffarids as the
precursors of the Timurid schools of painting, whereas Aubin, "Le mecenat timouride", p. 73,
mentions only the Jalayirids.

144
 RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY

acquire generous patrons in Husain Balqara and Mir 'AH Shir Nava'I.
Under their protection emerged the greatest painter of Muslim Iran,
Kamal al-Dln Bihzad (d. c. 1535). Combining direct observation of
nature with traditional elements, he was responsible for the renaissance
of book illumination. He outlived the fall of the Timurids, went to
Tabriz, and achieved high renown at the court of the Safavids. As a
result of his work and the wide circle of his pupils he introduced into
Safavid miniature art what was to be a continuation of Timurid paint-
ing, distinguished by the brilliance of its achievements.

145
 THE SUCCESSORS OF TIMUR

III. Tit Timnii,

TTuOR
I
Jahinglr 'Umar Shaikh Mirin Shih SHAH RUKH
I I
Muhammad Plr Pit Rimam Iskandar BaTqara Ahmad Abd 'Umar KHALIL Muhammad (see below)
Sultan Muhammad Muhammad I I Bakr SULTAN I
1 I 1 I I
Muhammad Mansiir Muhammad Sultan ABO SA'ID
Jahinglr I | Sanjat I
KhaM HUSAIN BAIQARA Uvais SULTAN AHMAD SULTAN MAHMOD 'Umar Shaikh
S"'tan | | _ 1
Bad!' al-Zaman Muzaffar Ibrahim Sultan BAISUNQUR Suljin MIrzi ZAHIB AL-DIN Jahinglr Na'sir
Husain Husain Mas'ud 'AH Khan MUHAMMAD
| BABUR
Muhammad

SHAH RUKH
I
Baisunqui Muhammad Juki
I
' A B D AL-LATIF 'Abd al-'Aziz *ABD-ALLAH Sultan 'ALA* AL-DAULA ABU'L-QASIM Abu Bakr Muhammad
Muhammad I BABUR Qasim
Muhammad Yidgar Ibrahim Shah
Juki Muhammad Mahmud

146
 CHAPTER 4

THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

INTRODUCTION: THE TURKISH BACKGROUND

With the conquest of Baghdad in 656/1258, the Mongols dealt a death-

blow to the empire of the caliphate. This event, together with the
dramatic circumstances that attended it, is often regarded as a dividing-
line between two historical epochs. This view is justified only in so far
as the fall of the caliphate destroyed the last tie which, up till that time,
had with difficulty been holding together the world of Islam. Yet the
historical significance of this event should not be over-estimated. It is
true that, apart from the liquidation of the 'Abbasids, it represented the
prelude to new historical developments, such as the rise of the U-
Khanid dynasty, which was to be of great importance in the history of
Persia. But its total effect on the history of the Islamic world was of a
more or less superficial nature. For the political organisation of the
caliphate which the Mongols had destroyed was little more than an
outer shell, which had long been crumbling away, around hetero-
geneous structures which as a whole had very little to do with the
Islamic empire of the early 'Abbasids, and which indeed actually negated
the raison d'etre of a common polity.
In spite of the catastrophic effect of the Mongol assault upon the
people of that time, and in spite also of the changes which it caused and
the traces which, here and there, it left behind it, eighty years later it
already belonged to the past. Of distinctly greater historical signifi-
cance were other developments which had begun long before. One of
the most important of these, though not the earliest chronologically,
was the influx of the Turks into the Islamic world which, by the
5 th/1 ith century, had reached considerable proportions, but had in fact
begun in a small way as early as the 3rd/9th. The advance of Turkish
peoples has been likened to the Teutonic migrations because by in-
vading a unified ancient culture - the Teutons that of the West, the
Turks that of Islam - both movements created the necessary precon-
ditions for the rise of national states. It should be remembered that the
Turkicisation of Anatolia did not begin in the 7th/13 th century, as was
once supposed, but had already started in the jth/i ith century, or even
earlier: there is mention in the 3rd/c)th century of the Tourkopouloi as

147
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

auxiliary troops of the Byzantine emperor, presumably Oghuz

Tiirkmens, who are known to have existed in Bukhara towards the end
of the 4th/ioth century.1
Indeed, the political success of single Turkish groups and indi-
viduals within the world of Islam which had thus begun more than two
centuries before the Mongol onslaught, was one of the most important
prerequisites for later developments. The Turkish invasion did not
merely bring about the fall of the Byzantine empire. In addition, the
arrival in the Holy Land of victorious Turkish hordes furnished the
pretext for the crusading movement in the West; it was Turkish forces
which marched against the Crusaders as they drew near their goal;
Turkish troops, this time under the Mamluks, who halted the hither-
to irresistible advance of the Mongols in the Syrian approaches to
Egypt; and Turkish initiative, again, that prevailed during the jockey-
ing for political power in the Near East after the end of Mongol
hegemony. In fact, if the 20th century be disregarded, nearly all the
later states of the Islamic world were of Turkish foundation. But of
particular historical import in this connection were the events that
took place during the 8th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries, since they were
the prelude to a development whose effects were to last until well into
the 20th century.
Great though the Turkish share in this process may have been, it
would not be correct to describe it as being exclusively Turkish. To
speak of an age as being entirely Turkish is possible only with reserve
and within very restricted limits for the reason that there was another
and very significant factor at work. Even before the Turkish migration
had reached the highlands of Iran other, Iranian, forces had begun the
work of undermining and subverting the 'Abbasid caliphate, whose
effective strength was by then already in decline. So the Turks in fact
did nothing more than take over and continue the work that Persians
had already begun: that work concerned the formation and develop-
ment of indigenous forces in Iran, which in their turn succeeded in
establishing political dominions without the central government in
Baghdad being able to put a stop to their activities, but also without
these forces having in view the removal of the caliphate. This political
development was accompanied by a cultural one, for at about the same

1
W. Bjorkman, "Die altosmanische Literatur", in Philologiae Turcicae Fundamtnta n (Wies-
baden, 1964), 403.

148
 THE TURKISH BACKGROUND

time the New Persian literary language was reaching its zenith, and this
manifested itself in literary achievements of the first order; it is but one
example, though an especially striking one, of the cultural impulse then
at work in Iran, which, together with its many other manifestations, is
sometimes called Iranism.
It is true that none of the Iranian sub-principalities survived for
long. But the cultural movements which were inspired or encouraged
under their aegis are all the more remarkable. They set their stamp
upon wide areas of the Islamic world, though in varying forms. The
Turks who later made their appearance from Central Asia showed
themselves particularly receptive to this Islamic culture. These migra-
ting bands need not be seen as completely uncivilised barbarian hordes;
the Turkish immigrants in Anatolia consisted predominantly of
nomads, but there were also some sedentary elements.1 Nevertheless it
may be conjectured that even after the adoption of Islam they brought
with them to the west the lightest of cultural burdens and were there-
fore quite remarkably open to new influences. At all events, the fact
remains that Persian culture of that time exercised upon them a peculiar
attraction to which they readily responded. Of course they did not take
over everything that was proffered lock, stock and barrel, nor did they
leave unchanged what they absorbed. In the place of the more or less
unified Islamic culture which had been brought about by the 'Abbasid
empire, there arose something quite new, a Turco-Persian culture
which is always to be found wherever Turks settled on Persian soil or
wherever, after contact with Iranian lands and their cultural ema-
nations, they appeared elsewhere. A new, and not uncontested, inter-
pretation sees in this the initial phase of national political develop-
ments, a question which will be discussed in greater detail in connec-
tion with the Safavids.
Among the Turkish immigrants into the Near East the Oghuz,
Turkmen peoples under leaders of the house of Saljuq, had been par-
ticularly successful as a result of founding several kingdoms, of which
that in Anatolia with its capital Qonya, the former Iconium, is of
special interest in our particular context. From the start, these Saljuqs
were not the only Turkish princes in Asia Minor with political ambi-
tions, since under their dominion, or alongside them, there were other
families of high standing who were awaiting their opportunity.

1
See Siimer, "Anadolu'ya yalniz go^ebe Tiirkler mi geldi?".

149
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

That had arrived with the downfall of the Saljuq kingdom in Asia
Minor in 708/1308, which was followed soon after, through the decline
and final extinction of Mongol power, by a political vacuum, a chal-
lenge to men of enterprise. Among the principalities which were then
formed or grew in strength was that of the Ottomans, later to take its
place in world history, a destiny which at the time seemed by no means
assured and indeed cannot yet have been envisaged. Seen in retro-
spect, the rise and fall of most of these ruling houses, some twenty in
all, belong to the sphere rather of Ottoman than of Persian history,
although all of them, not excluding the Ottomans themselves, came
under that influence of Iranian culture already mentioned.
Yet some of them are of primary significance in the history of Iran,
not only because of cultural ties but also for political, dynastic and
religious reasons. Two of them, the principalities of the Aq Quyunlu
and Qara Quyunlu, which also fall within the immediate Ottoman
context, are closely connected with Persia; at times individual rulers of
these dynasties were able to bring large sections, even the whole, of
Persian territory under their sway, and thus a role very nearly devolved
upon them which in the event was to be reserved for others. At any
rate, in the eyes of contemporary European observers in the 9th/15 th
century it seemed certain that here were the eastern counterparts to the
dangerously expanding Ottomans. The impressive reports of these
informants led the European powers to enter into negotiations with
the Tiirkmens with a view to an alliance. Under their rule there were
also Shi'I movements which were to have far-reaching historical conse-
quences. It is a measure of their importance that those who followed
them, the Safavids, are seen as the successors of these same Turkmen
princes, as a collateral, that is, of the ruling house of Aq Quyunlu, with
a different territorial area.1

ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

While in recent times much new light has been shed on these Tiirkmens,
their actual origin is still obscure.2 The uncertainty begins with their
very names. There is, indeed, nothing especially remarkable about
1
The view of Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I".
2
On the meaning of the word Turkmen, sec Minorsky, "The Middle East", p. 439; I. Kafesoglu,
"Turkmen adi, manasi ve mahiyeti", Jean Deny Armagam, ed. J. Eckmann et al. (Ankara,
'958), pp. 121-33.

150
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

designations like Aq Quyunlu, "those (tribes) with white sheep

(qoyun)" and Qara Quyunlu, "those (tribes) with black sheep", among
nomads whose flocks were among their most valuable possessions. But
still the question remains as to how they should be interpreted. There
is a tendency today to see them as referring to totem animals, to which,
however, it must be objected that in ancient times — at least according
to Rashid al-Dln Fazl-AUah - Turks had been prohibited from eating
the flesh of their totem animals. Had this proscription still been in force
in this instance, such an interpretation would have to be rejected on
grounds of practicality alone, in which case greater probability would
accrue to a more mundane interpretation, namely that the designations
in question are expressions of nothing more than the colour of the
sheep exclusive to, or predominating in, their respectiveflocks.The
designations must also have had an antithetical character in that they
reveal the desire of the two groups to be clearly distinct one from the
other. The dynastic emblems of the Aq Quyunlu and Qara Quyunlu
found on coins, documents and tombstones have no recognisable con-
nection with their names.1
In considering the genesis of such groups it should be remembered
that these are nomad confederations of which, in the course of time,
the composition changes frequently under the influence of political,
geographic or economic factors. A strong tribe may, by the successes it
achieves, attract other tribes, absorb them into its alliance and eventu-
ally through such accretions become a major constellation. But the
opposite process is also possible when an important tribe loses its
renown, its power, its magnetism; until, perhaps, it finally disintegrates
altogether, while its various components achieve independence or seek
to join other tribes that are on the upward climb. This explains how
one and the same name may attach now to a kinship, now to a tribe or
even to a confederation of several tribes. It is obvious that some part is
played in this by rivalry, feuds and military struggles. It is not always
possible to trace the underlying events, because history scarcely
records them - if indeed they are recorded at all - unless they are
preserved in oral tradition or in legendary accounts. Not until a tribe

1
For the Aq Quyunlu, see Hinz, Irans Aujstieg, pp. io;ff.; for the Qara Quyunlu, Burn, "Coins
of Jahan-Shah"; Rabino, "Coins of the Jala'ir", p. 102; Minorsky, "The Clan of the Qara-qoyunlu
rulers". On the interpretation of these tamgbas generally, see Uzun9arsih, Anadolu beylikleri, pi. 49;
H. Janichen, Bild^eicben koniglichen Hoheit bei den iraniscben Volkern (Bonn, 19)6), pi. 28, no. 24;
L.A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry (Oxford, 1933), pis. ; o , 51.
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

or confederation achieves prominence does its destiny attract the atten-

tion of historians, whereupon the question of its origin and
provenance arises, but often without any satisfactory answer being
found. What is discovered, then, in the sources is all too often con-
fused, incomplete and contradictory.
Thus it is with the beginnings of the Aq Quyunlu and Qara
Quyunlu. It is not impossible that they once belonged to the same
confederation, or perhaps even formed one tribe, later to separate and
seek their fortunes, in both cases successfully, as independent tribes. By
the time when they are clearly discernible historically, in the 8 th/14th
century, their names are no longer those of mere tribes, but of two
confederations with numerous sub-tribes. Some of the names of these
latter are known from earlier times, from the catalogue of the original
twenty-four Oghuz tribes found in Rashld al-Dln and from other
legendary accounts.1 We are thus concerned with two confederations
formed from various Turkmen tribes — those, in fact, which in all
probability came with the Oghuz to Western Asia in the 5 th/11 th
century, some of them no doubt getting as far as Anatolia. The sources
give no direct information concerning these associations, but they
must have been formed in the 8th/14th century after the fall of the
Anatolian Saljiiq dynasty and to some extent out of the latter's bank-
ruptcy. At that precise moment, too, the disintegration of the Mongol
hegemony by which they and their member tribes had been contained
enabled them to pursue their aspirations in the area of the resulting
power vacuum, namely eastern Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and
north-west Persia.
There is, indeed, no record of the names of the Aq Quyunlu and the
Qara Quyunlu in the pre-Mongol period, though there does exist a
record of the principal kin-groups which were later to become the
ruling families among their subjects: the Bayindir (Bayundur) with the
Aq Quyunlu, and the Baharlii, sometimes called BaranI, with the Qara
Quyunlu.
Bayindir is found in Rashld al-Din's index of tribes mentioned above
as the designation of one of the twenty-four Oghuz tribes, whereas in
the Kitdb-i Dede Qorqud, a Turkish epic that was recorded about 1400, it
is the name of an Oghuz ruler. It is supposed that the Aq Quyunlu
were a clan of the Bayindir tribe, but in the sources Bayindir or

1
Cf. E. Rossi, II 'Kitab-i DedeQprqut' (Rome, 1952), pp. i6ff.

152
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

Bayi'ndiriyya is also found as a synonym for Aq Quyunlu; at any rate

the tribal name Bayindir is met with in the 8th/14th century in Asia
Minor. Certain central Anatolian place-names which must go back to
the Oghuz conquest give rise to the supposition that the Bayindir took
part in the Saljuq conquest of Asia Minor. After the fall of the Aq
Quyunlu dynasty, the Bayindir settled in Tripoli and Aleppo, and also
to the south of Slvas.
The name Baharlu borne by the ruling family of the Qara Quyunlu is
sometimes connected with Bahadur,1 but is almost certainly linked
with the locality of Bahar north of Hamadan, the seat of a powerful
Turkmen family also represented at Irbll, Maragha and Akhlat: from
the basin of Lake Urmiya, that is, to that of Lake Van, as well as
considerably to the north and south of these. The pressure of the
Mongol invasion may have driven them completely into the area north
of Lake Van, where later the confederation of the Qara Quyunlu was
to form. This connection can be deduced from the name Tva'I which is
recorded as early as 629/1230 at Akhlat and again with one of the last
'Abbasid caliph's most famous ministers, who came from the village of
Bahar and was executed in 656/1258 in Baghdad by the Mongols. Tva'I
is merely a derivative of Iva or Y'iva, which is the name of another of
the original Oghuz tribes. The connection between the Qara Quyunlu
and the Yiva is proved by the dynastic emblem common to both, and
which the Qara Quyunlu dynasty must have taken over from the
Yiva.2 The designation BaranI, as used in respect of the Qara Quyunlu,
has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It has been supposed that it is
the name of the tribe's ruling family, or that it is connected with a
place-name,3 two interpretations which need not be mutually exclusive.
The early history of the two Turkmen groups with which we are
here concerned is closely bound up with the "social sickness", as a
Turkish scholar has called the period of decline,4 which set in with the
end of Mongol hegemony throughout a large part of the Near East.
Freelance mercenaries and adventurers, basing themselves upon
nomadic tribes and robber bands, disrupted economic life in town and
1
Siimer, "Kara-Koyunlular", p. 292, mentions a Bahadurlu tribe. There is no mention of the
transition from bahadur to bahar amongst the many references collected by Doerfer, TMEN11, s.v.
bahadur, apart from the ba bar occurring in Caucasian languages (p. 373).
2
Minorsky, "The Clan of the Qara-qoyunlu rulers"; idem, "Baharlu", EP. On the Yiva tribe,
see Sumer, "Yiva Oguz boyuna dair".
3
See respectively Sumer, "Kara-Koyunlular", p. 292, and Minorsky, "The Clan of the
4
Qara-qoyunlu rulers", p. 392. Yinanc, "Akkoyunlular", p. 258.

153
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

country, often bringing it to a complete standstill. They offered their

services, or allied themselves, to any prince who seemed likely to
succeed, but they never hesitated to abandon master or ally as soon as
fortune beckoned elsewhere. Lust for booty, a thirst for power and a
striving for territorial dominion, such were their motives. Only the
successful could count on the following that perhaps might enable
them to achieve political authority.
It was in these circumstances that the two confederations evolved,
and under these conditions that they prospered, so that during the
second half of the 8th/14th century they were both able to found
dynasties, that of the Aq Quyunlu in Diyarbakr, with its centre at
Amid, that is in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates with Urfa and
Mardin in the south and Baiburt in the north; that of the Qara Quyunlu
immediately to the east, with a centre at Arjlsh on the north-east shore
of Lake Van, and spreading north to Erzerum and south to Mosul.
The territories of both confederations were then occupied, as they had
long been already, by a predominantly sedentary population, consist-
ing of Armenians, Kurds, Aramaeans and Arabs, but at first including
no Persian elements. While no doubt exploited and much oppressed by
the Tiirkmens, these peoples were never driven out or exterminated.
Individuals, families, and sometimes even much larger groups, might
fall victim to circumstances, abandon their homes, or marry into one of
the oppressor's tribes, but the ethnic pattern remained much the same,
with groups surviving Turkmen overlordship and persisting in their
own locality, in some cases actually until the present day. Their role in
the political developments we have to consider was, with rare excep-
tions, non-existent; they were the suffering witnesses of events upon
which, generally speaking, they could have no influence whatsoever.
The rise of the two confederations was accompanied, not only by
endless conflicts with their neighbours, but also by mutual jealousies
and rivalries: the destruction of Erzerum in 733—5/1332—4 resulted
from the feud between them.1 These quarrels and conflicts determined
their policies of alliance and their choice of enemies, in other words,
their entire destiny, until eventually the Aq Quyunlu triumphed,
destroyed the dominion of the Qara Quyunlu, assimilated not only
their lands, but also many of their sub-tribes, and entered the ranks of
the major powers of the Near East. In spite of certain peculiarities

1
Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, 11, 437.

154
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

distinguishing the two groups from one another, they have so much in
common ethnically, politically, historically, culturally and economic-
ally, that their history is best considered in conjunction.
We are better informed regarding the political inception of the Aq
Quyunlu than about the first stages of the Qara Quyunlu. No doubt
this is due to the nature of one of their first objectives, the Comnenian
empire of Trebizond, which they set out with great determination to
attain, their raids and conquests for the rest not being confined to
eastern Anatolia, but extending into Mesopotamia and Syria. Their
often repeated attacks on Trebizond after 741/1340 gave the Byzantine
chroniclers every cause to write about them. Thus they mention Tur
'AH Beg, lord of the "Turks of Amid", who had already attained the
rank of amir under the Il-Khan Ghazan (694-703/1295-1304). When
in 749/1348, under his leadership, the Tiirkmens reappeared before
Trebizond, they again failed to take the town, but the youthful John
Comnenus, soon to ascend the throne as Alexios III but never to
achieve military fame, had evidently been so terrified that he, and no
doubt also his advisers, deemed it politic to betrothe his sister, Maria
Despina, to Fakhr al-Din Qutlugh Beg, son of the Turkmen leader,
thus finally warding off the danger.1 The calculation proved correct:
Trebizond was spared for the time being, and later generations
witnessed several other such unions between Comnenian princesses
and Aq Quyunlu chiefs. It may well be to these that the empire of
Trebizond owed the respite which enabled it to survive until 865/1461,
eight years after the fall of Constantinople. However this may be, we
know that Uzun Hasan intervened with Mehmed the Conqueror on
Trebizond's behalf.2
From the Tiirkmen-Trebizond marriage of 75 3/13 5 2, the first to be
attested, was born the founder of the Aq Quyunlu dynasty, Qara
Yoluq3 'Usman Beg who, in 791/1389, followed his brother Ahmad
Beg as head of the Aq Quyunlu. The chief chronicle of the dynasty,
Tihranl's Kitab-i Diyarbakriyja, not only mentions his grandfather, Tur
'All Beg, the besieger of Trebizond, and his father, Qutlugh Beg, who
presumably succeeded the latter in 764/1363, but traces his lineage
1
Fallmerayer, pp. 2o8fT.; Miller, Trebizond, pp. 57-60.
2
Minorsky, "La Perse au XVe siecle", p. 322; Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror, p. 190.
3
The form Kara Yoluk adopted by Minorsky, "Ak Koyunlu", is corroborated by the contem-
porary European transcriptions "Caro Jolucho" and "Korolock" or "Karolackes": see P. H.
Dopp, L'Egypte au commencement du quinsjeme siecle dapres le Traite d'Emmanuel Piloti de Crete (Cairo,
1950), p. 103, and Stromer von Reichenbach, "Diplomatische Kontakte".

155
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

through 51 generations back to Oghuz Khan, the legendary eponym of

the Oghuz.1 Such genealogical trees are, of course, notoriously unreli-
able, yet this is a significant point, revealing as it does the view which
the Aq Quyunlu held of themselves, since around 875/1470, the time of
the chronicle, when they were in their heyday, they may well have
regarded this genealogy not only as mere flattery but also as political
legitimation. We do not know - indeed it is doubtful - whether this
claim was made at the time of the dynasty's foundation, or in fact
whether it could be made at all. At that time, a family alliance with the
Comneni may in itself have represented political capital. In any case,
Qara 'Usman followed the example of his father by marrying a
Trebizond princess.
Seldom were the many conflicts in which the Aq Quyunlu engaged
so romantically resolved. Generally these were feudal struggles with
neighbouring and usually local rulers, in which territorial expansion
and spheres of influence were involved. In the course of his long life,
Qara 'Usman carried out many more of these than his far from peace-
able father, always impelled by the belief that he would succeed in
establishing his tribal lands of Diyarbakr as a stable dominion. It is not
necessary, nor possible, to describe in detail these never-ending quar-
rels, if only because accounts in the sources differ from each other in
many respects and most have not yet been critically assessed. Yet they
cannot be completely ignored, for in them can sometimes be discov-
ered the lines of later development. This is usually so when one of the
major powers is involved, as could of course happen even in a mere
quarrel with any princeling whatsoever. This was the case with the
rulers of Slvas, to whose assistance the Ottoman Turks willingly hast-
ened because the rise of the Aq Quyunlu had filled them with forebod-
ing and mistrust, especially when, as here, it was a question of lands in
which they themselves were interested. The struggle ended in the year
800/1397 with the defeat and death of QazI Burhan al-Dln, a man
renowned as a poet, who had risen from being a lawyer to the rank of
sultan of Slvas.
There was also friction with the rulers of Egypt, the Mamluks,
whose possessions in northern Syria and southern Armenia were
threatened by Qara 'Usman. This did not lead to more serious conse-
quences at the time, perhaps because Barquq (784-801/1382-1399), the

1
For the genealogy, see also Ghaffari, as cited in Hinz, Irani Aufstieg, p. 128.

156
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

sultan of Cairo, was compelled by a serious rising in Syria to devote all

his energies to the preservation of that country, and even to the protec-
tion of his own throne and person.
But there was one adversary who, above all others, was dangerous
to the Aq Quyunlu and the political aims they pursued, namely their
tribal kinsmen of the Turkmen Qara Quyunlu confederation. Their
leader, Qara Muhammad, it is true, did not long survive 'Usman Beg's
father, against whom he had often fought. His successor, Qara Yusuf,
however, showed himself uncommonly active and was, of course, de-
termined to keep up the traditional feud. At first the issue remained
undecided. Only when Tlmur appeared in the Near East did a change
seem imminent. The Qara Quyunlu, the first to encounter his troops,
ignored his demands for surrender, opposed him and suffered defeat
every time that battle was joined. This gave rise to a feud that persisted
with Tlmur's successors. There appear to have been many different
accounts current at the time concerning the conqueror's character and
his military methods. Whereas in Cairo he was still being referred to in
788/1386 as "a Mongol rebel by the name of Tlmur", who was on his
way to Tabriz, in Persia and Mesopotamia his advance aroused so
intense a state of terror as sometimes to induce a kind of paralysis. Qara
Yusuf did not wait for a final military decision, but chose rather to seek
refuge with the Ottoman Turks. Returning later, he again had to flee,
this time to Syria where he was interned in a castle near Damascus by
the governor because of his earlier activities against the Mamluks.
His conduct, and the attitude of hostility towards Tlmur adopted by
the other Qara Quyunlu chiefs, may have been the incentive that
determined the Aq Quyunlu leader to join the conqueror and to offer
him his services. This took place in 801/1399, ^n t n e Transcaucasian
camp at Qarabagh, where Qara 'Usman paid homage to Tlmur.
During the first campaign in Anatolia he was made commander of the
vanguard, and his name is also mentioned in connection with the
subsequent Syrian campaign. Next, in 804/1402, he took part in the
battle of Ankara. The defeat and imprisonment of Bayezid I brought
about a serious crisis in the Ottoman empire. Tlmur awarded the title
of amir to the leader of the Aq Quyunlu as a reward for his services,
and conferred on him all the lands of Diyarbakr in fief.
Thus it seemed that the Aq Quyunlu's dream of a principality had
come true, for at that time there was no greater feudal lord in the Near
East than Tlmur. But their joy was shortlived; for when Tlmur died

157
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

in February 1405 during a campaign in the east, it was immediately

apparent that the vast empire he had accumulated by his conquests
lacked internal stability. The anarchy following his death saw the rise
of a number of rulers. One of the main causes for the rapid decline of
so great an empire was undoubtedly the fact that the princes of Timur's
house, scattered throughout the dominions as governors and ruling
their provinces with virtually unlimited power, although they had
submitted to the supreme authority of the conqueror, did not feel
bound to any successor. This phenomenon has its parallel in the ori-
gins of many Turkish states and is also found, as we shall see, among
the Tiirkmens. Notwithstanding these upheavals, a considerable
empire survived, mainly in eastern Persia and in Afghanistan, under
the rule of Timur's son, Shah Rukh, as it continued to survive under
his successors for the next hundred years. But exert themselves as they
might, these rulers were unable to overpower the Tiirkmens. The
immediate effect of Timur's campaigns is apparent in the fact that
neither the Timurids nor the Ottomans nor yet the Egyptian Mamluks
succeeded in containing the political ambitions of the two Turkmen
confederations, a circumstance that was to play a significant role in
their subsequent development.
In the sorely afflicted countries of the Near East, the struggle con-
tinued after Timur's death. Qara 'Usman, whose successes at Timur's
side had earned him considerable prestige in the eyes of his confedera-
tion and had won over a number of tribes of doubtful allegiance,
waged war, usually with success, against many of the neighbouring
princelings. His relations with Egypt were initially peaceful, but later
he again attacked her possessions. In nearly all his undertakings against
the Qara Quyunlu, still his main adversaries, he was unsuccessful,
probably because in Qara Yusuf he had encountered an equal, if not a
superior, antagonist. He remained loyal to Timur's house, however,
though the patronage of Shah Rukh (807—50/1405—47) was very far
from being as significant as that of his father, so that the alliance was
therefore of small advantage to Qara 'Usman and was partly respon-
sible for bringing about his death. During Shah Rukh's three Azar-
baijan campaigns (823/1420, 832/1429, 838—9/1434—5), all conducted
against the Qara Quyunlu, Qara 'Usman is found each timefightingon
the Timurid side. Although Qara Yusuf had died at the very start of
the first expedition, his troops had been dispersed, and Iskandar Beg,
his second son and eventual successor, had been beaten, the Qara
158
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

Quyunlu were quick to recover. During the third campaign, when this
same Iskandar fled before Shah Rukh to take refuge with the Turks,
Qara 'Usman, now almost eighty years old, tried to cut off his retreat.
During a fight near Erzerum he was severely wounded, and died as a
result in Safar 839/at the end of August 1435. Returning from exile,
Iskandar Beg passed through the town, had the Aq Quyunlu leader's
grave opened and the corpse decapitated, characteristically sending the
skull to the sultan of Egypt, who caused it to be publicly displayed in
Cairo.
'Usman Beg's fearlessness and military fame were immensely ad-
mired by his contemporaries, yet when the results of his turbulent
career are considered, it is found that he did little more than make a
first attempt at founding a state. It is true that he had achieved royal
status, had extended his dominion's by the conquest of numerous lands
including important places such as Ruha (formerly Edessa, now Urfa),
Slvas and Toqat, and had consolidated his sovereignty shortly before
his death by victories over al-Malik al-'Adil Jikam, the governor of
Aleppo and Damascus, as well as over al-Malik al-Zahir 'Isa, the com-
mander of Mardln, but these achievements were to a large extent
nullified by the violent disputes that broke out between his sons after
his death. For a time their dynasty was eclipsed by that of the Qara
Quyunlu, though it was later to make a brilliant recovery. Thus the
initiative had now passed to the Qara Quyunlu, who entered on the
period of their greatest expansion. Before considering their subsequent
history, something should be said of the early years of this confedera-
tion, which have not been dealt with before because less significant
than the founding of the Aq Quyunlu state.
In the decades following the death of the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id
(716—736/1316—1335), which brought Hiilegii's dynasty to a close,
various Mongol princes and other potentates attempted to subdue the
Il-Khanid empire, or portions of it. The ensuing struggle for power
quickly brought about the disintegration of the Mongol empire, part
of which re-emerged as the dominion of the Jalayirids, extending
across Mesopotamia, Azarbaljan and, later, Shlrvan. During the reign
of Shaikh Uvais (757-776/1356-1374), an energetic and successful rep-
resentative of this dynasty, the Qara Quyunlu emerged for the first
time as an undoubted political force. In the sources, their name is
mentioned in connection with Bairarn Khwaja and two of his brothers,
who belonged to the Baharlu tribe, of which we have already spoken
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

as the sometimes unruly followers of Shaikh Uvais1. Although after the

latter's death Bairam Khwaja did not shake off Jalayirid authority, he
succeeded in acquiring Arjlsh, Mosul and Sinjar, as well as some places
in Transcaucasia, so that on his death in 782/1380, Qara Muhammad,
presumably his son but according to some sources his nephew,
succeeded to dominions extending from Erzerum to Mosul.
Qara Muhammad, whom we have already encountered as the antag-
onist of Qutlugh Beg Aq Quyunlu, the son-in-law of the Comneni, is
generally regarded as the founder of the Qara Quyunlu ruling house,
and rightly so if we consider the strength of his influence in the above-
mentioned lands. His successes against the Artuqids, a dynasty of
Turkmen origin that had existed for something like two centuries in
and around Mardin, against the Aq Quyunlu and against the Syrian
nomadic Turkmen tribe of the Dogher under their leader Salim2, were
threatened by Tlmur's conquest of western Iran in 788/1386 and his
campaign against the Qara Quyunlu in the very next year.
At the very beginning of his reign, Qara Muhammad had secured
for the Jalayirid Ahmad the succession against other pretenders; thus,
though the dependent position of his dynasty vis-a-vis the Jalayirids
was not actually reversed, it was at least converted into one of alliance,
and hence of independence. In any event, there was now nothing
to prevent him from trying to establish friendly relations with the
Egyptian Mamluks, and the report of Egyptian chroniclers that on the
occupation of Tabriz in 790/1388 he paid allegiance to Sultan Barquq,
declaring that the latter's name was to be mentioned in the Friday
prayers and on the coinage, seems highly probable, since this ruler
would appear to have been a perfect ally, both against the Aq Quyunlu
and against Timur. However, his policy towards Egypt had to be
temporarily abandoned for several reasons, not least because as early as
the spring of 791/1389 Qara Muhammad was killed in a struggle with
rival Tiirkmens.
We have already mentioned the flight of his son, Qara Yusuf, to the
Ottomans, and it should be added that his stay in Turkish territory was
Tlmur's main incentive for his second Anatolian campaign, although
by that time Qara Yiisuf was already on his way back. Ahmad Jalayir
had also taken refuge with the Ottomans, and the paths of the two
princes crossed for the second time when, after their return from
1
See above, pp. 7-8.
2
See Siimer, "Dogerlere diir".

160
 ORIGINS OF THE TWO TURKMEN GROUPS

Anatolia, they again fled before Tlmur's troops, this time to Syria, in
the domain of the Mamluks. Here they received a welcome less kindly
than that of the Ottomans; indeed they were interned in a castle near
Damascus for having some time previously attacked and defeated
Egyptian governors of northern Syria, and an order for their execution
actually arrived from Cairo, having its origin either directly or indirectly
in Tlmur; but it was not carried out. Their imprisonment together led to
a renewal of their former friendly relations, differences that had sprung
up in the meantime were ironed out and an agreement was reached
regarding spheres of influence that was intended to eliminate all dispute.
According to this, Mesopotamia with Baghdad was to be an area of
Jalayirid influence, and AzarbaTjan with Tabriz an area of Qara Quyunlu
influence.
When the two princes regained their freedom in the spring of
806/1404, this agreement turned out to be little more than a pro-
gramme, for both dominions had meanwhile been incorporated into
Tlmur's empire and made over to one of his grandsons, MIrza Aba Bakr
b. Mlran Shah, a prince who had already on a previous occasion
defeated Qara Yusuf in battle. But circumstances soon changed. The
Qara Quyunlu leader's personal renown and the successes that he soon
achieved again won him a considerable following which increased on
the death of Tlmur: for this we have the evidence of the Spanish
ambassador Clavijo, who encountered his troops in the summer of
1406 in the region of Khuy.1 In the struggle against Aba Bakr he was
victorious first in 809/1406, again in 810/1408, and on several subse-
quent occasions. The news that his former fellow prisoner, Ahmad
Jalayir, had occupied Tabriz was a severe blow, however, for not only
was it a violation of the treaty we have mentioned, but it also put in
jeopardy his eastward expansion which, in view of Ottoman resur-
gence and the tenacious resistance of the Aq Quyunlu in the west,
might well prove to be a question of life and death. Thus the occu-
pation of the town of Tabriz cut across Qara Yusuf's most vital plans
and represented a pretext for war. He therefore marched against
Ahmad Jalayir, who was defeated, taken prisoner and executed in
813/1410.
During the time of his Syrian imprisonment, a son, Pir Budaq, had
been born to Qara Yusuf. This boy had been adopted at the time of his

1
Clavijo, Embajada, pp. 239ft"., trans. Le Strange, pp. 329!?. (especially p. 363, n.2).
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

birth in 1403 by Ahmad Jalayir, probably to demonstrate the sincerity

of his friendship. It was probably owing to legitimist considerations
that Qara Yusuf nominated this particular son, while still of tender
years, lord of Tabriz, even getting his adoptive father to appoint him
by royal decree as his successor, while he himself retained only the
regency. The Turkmen leader, not in other respects a scrupulous man,
obviously had sufficient reason for thus reasserting his claims to inde-
pendence when he made Tabriz his capital city. He had repeatedly
occupied it since 793/1391, but never held it firmly in his grasp.
With the elimination of the Jalayirids, the power of the Qara
Quyunlu moved rapidly towards its zenith. The very next year, in 815/
1412, Shah Muhammad, another of the prince's sons, conquered
Mesopotamia and Baghdad which he retained, in spite of some dis-
putes with his father, under the latter's overlordship, until driven out
in 836/1433 by his younger brother, Aspand. Qara Yusuf himself
fought successfully against the Aq Quyunlu in eastern Anatolia,
conquering parts of Georgia and Shlrvan, whose rulers had owed
allegiance to the Jalayirids. While an advance into Persia, namely to
Sultaniyya, the former capital of the Tl-Khans, and to Qazvin, Isfahan
and Fars, increased his military fame, it was a move that had serious
consequences, for it made Shah Rukh aware of the full extent of the
danger that was threatening from the Tiirkmens. We have already seen
that he did not remain idle in the face of that threat but led an expedi-
tion against Azarbaljan. Qara Yusuf, though mortally ill, went out to
meet him, but death overtook him before battle had even been joined.
In spite of the crisis brought about by Shah Rukh's attack and the
death of their leader, the Qara Quyunlu dynasty had foundations stable
enough to withstand these perils. That this was so was due in large
measure to the achievements of Qara Yusuf, who had not only created
an efficient army and repeatedly held his own on the field of battle, but
had so successfully conducted his internal affairs with justice and
liberality, at the same time keeping a close watch over the conduct of
his wayward governors and showing concern for his dominions' agri-
culture, that he is extolled as the most able statesman of his house.
His successor, Qara Iskandar, while victorious in his battles against
the Kurdish amirs and the Shlrvan-Shah, did not succeed in adding
appreciably to the power of his confederation, though he was relatively
successful in keeping their dominions intact. He was not, however, a
match for the intrigues of the Timurids, whose intention it was to play
162
 JAHAN SHAH QARA QUYUNLU
off his ambitious brothers against him. It is true that he was able to
assert himself in 835/1431 against Abu Sa'Id, who had been made
governor of Tabriz while he himself had been in exile. But when, after
another defeat in 840/1436, he had to meet in battle his brother Jahan
Shah, the new governor of Azarbaljan — another appointee of Shah
Rukh's — his soldier's luck deserted him once and for all. He was
defeated near Tabriz, in the locality of Sufiyan, and retreated to
Al'injaq, a castle in the neighbourhood of Nakhchivan. There he was
murdered soon after by his son Shah Qubad in 841/1437.

JAHAN SHAH QARA QUYUNLU

Under Jahan Shah, the power of the Qara Quyunlu confederation

reached its height, but his death was followed by an abrupt decline.
Though he owed his rise to the political strategy of Shah Rukh, by
whose favour he had in fact become governor, he did not carry grati-
tude and loyalty beyond what was necessary to secure his sway over the
principal lands of the Qara Quyunlu. As early as 850/1447 circum-
stances changed through the death of his overlord and, like his prede-
cessors, he followed the basic tendency of his house, the Turkmen
drive towards the east. His brilliant victories in the ensuing campaigns
against the Timurids did not always lead to lasting gains, but they
clearly demonstrate the growth of Turkmen influence in the history of
Persia at that time; not through the occupation of Persian provinces
alone, but also from an ethnological standpoint, for at the time of
Jahan Shah's seizure of power the second of three waves of Turkmen
peoples flooding back into Persia from Anatolia was in full swing: they
were to play a considerable part in the development of that country.
The fall of Qara Iskandar had brought into Jahan Shah's hands the
Qara Quyunlu principality, with the exception, however, of central and
southern Mesopotamia; here his brother Aspand, who had extended
his dominion as far as Havlza and Basra, refused him recognition.
During two campaigns in Georgia similar to those which that coun-
try's Muslim neighbours had been waging for many years, he was able
to try out his troops and allow free rein to their thirst for plunder. On
the death of Aspand, when inheritance disputes afforded an opportun-
ity for intervention, he conquered Baghdad and Mesopotamia.
The inevitable conflicts following the death of Shah Rukh were a
signal for Jahan Shah to shake off the overlordship of the Timurids and
163
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

to extend his power eastwards at their expense. He assumed the title of

Sultan and Khaqan, immediately reoccupied Sultaniyya and Qazvln,
and seized Isfahan in 856/1452 and Fars and Kirman in the following
year. After an advance upon Herat, the capital of Khurasan,
undertaken in 862/1458, he had clearly over-reached himself, but was
wise enough to relinquish his conquest when a reserve army from
Turkestan under the Timurid Abu Sa'Id marched against him, and
impending danger in the Turkmen west necessitated his return. Soon
after his arrival there he effectively subdued his son Hasan 'All's insur-
rection in Azarbaljan. He faced a more difficult conflict with another of
his sons, Plr Budaq (not to be confused with his namesake, Qara
Yusuf's son, who had died as early as 816/1413), who had already
proved unruly when governor of Fars and who had now rebelled as
governor of Baghdad. Not until the summer of 870/1466, after the city
had been under siege for a year and a half, was he overthrown and
killed, perhaps by his brother MuhammadI, who took over the succes-
sion. Contemporary observers saw in Plr Biidaq's execution, which
directly contravened the promise of safe conduct, not only a breach of
faith but a Pyrrhic victory because Jahan Shah, already an old man,
thus deprived himself of an exceptionally capable comrade-at-arms.
Indeed, Jahan Shah's tactics were eventually to fail in confrontation
with the Aq Quyunlu confederation. This heralded a development
which was to bring about the fall of the Qara Qoyunlu. Before going
into this further, it would seem pertinent to consider briefly Jahan
Shah's character and the political system which he succeeded in setting
up in opposition to the sovereign claims of the Timurids.
With Jahan Shah's reign of almost thirty years, the principality of
the Qara Quyunlu achieved not only independence from the Timurids
but, as a result of territorial expansion from Lake Van to the deserts
which separated Persia from its eastern province of Khurasan, and from
the Caspian to the Persian Gulf, attained almost imperial dimensions.
In asking ourselves what this kingdom was like, we must again recall
the importance attached by the Qara Quyunlu to their appearance as
legitimate successors of the Jalayirids. There was a further consider-
ation underlying this, namely that the successors of the Jalayirids were
also entitled to the inheritance of the Tl-Khans. Whether or not Jahan
Shah really called himself "Tl-Khan", it is certain that the Qara
Quyunlu adopted the political forms of the Persian Mongol empire,
as is evident from the Mongol titles of "Khaqan", "Noyan" and

164
 JAHAN SHAH QARA QUYUNLU
"Bahadur" adopted by them. Again, comparison of the available docu-
ments issued by their court chancelleries with those of the Jalayirids
supports the assumption.1
While in this respect Jahan Shah was merely following in the foot-
steps of his predecessors, his personality achieves greater definition
when considered in the context of the Tiirkmens' cultural achieve-
ments. The rulers who preceded him seldom afford any opportunity
for insight into the intellectual and artistic life of the times. Even
allowing for the gaps in our knowledge and for the fact that the
information we possess regarding the Qara Quyiinlu derives for the
most part from writers who were not well-disposed towards them and
hence were sparing of expressions of praise and appreciation, yet the
picture we have of their cultural activity is somewhat colourless, if
their excessive religious enthusiasm and the literature it produced,
discussed later on in this volume, are disregarded. Amongst the
Turkmen leaders we have encountered up till now — mercenary charac-
ters for the most part, avid for power and spoils - Jahan Shah stands
out both for his military and political prowess and for his cultural
merits. Traces of his building works remain in a number of Persian
cities, an especially remarkable monument being the Blue Mosque in
Tabriz. His literary activity discloses rather more about him. Under the
pseudonym Haqiqi or Haqlqat, we possess an anthology of his work
consisting partly of Persian and partly of Turkish poems astonishing
for their unusual and difficult verse-forms which are handled with
considerable skill. Even if we are justified in suspecting that these are
not the work of the ruler himself but of a ghost-writer, they neverthe-
less allow us to deduce a good deal respecting his cultural level and his
literary tastes. Indeed Jahan Shah is said to have patronised large
numbers of poets and scholars, as well as himself being actively
involved in intellectual matters.
These constructive traits, however, are not at all in keeping with the
portrait on which the sources are virtually unanimous. They describe
him, rather, as a grasping tyrant, a powerful and successful man per-
haps, but of an unpredictable, malicious and merciless temperament

1
For Qara Quyunlu documents, see Busse, Untersuchungen, p. 250; for Jalayirid documents,
A. D. Papazian, "Dva novootkrytykh Il'khanskikh yarlyka", Banber Matenadarani vi (Erivan,
1962), 379-401. Further references in Roemer, "Arabische Herrscherurkunden aus Agypten",
OLZ LXI (1966), especially 329^, n.j.

165
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

who, on the slightest pretext, would fling his officers in gaol, invariably
for life. His cruelty towards vanquished towns, such as Tiflis (843/
1439—40) and Isfahan (856/1452), must be taken as proven. He was
reputed to have a partiality for opium and wine, debauchery and licen-
tiousness, and for that reason was known contemptuously at the Otto-
man court as "the bat". He is reproached with lack of assiduity in
prayer, with ignoring religious precepts and with heretical inclinations.
Against all this calumny only one voice is raised in approval; and
because it comes from so unexpected a quarter, it is a voice that
commands a hearing. 'Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandl, the court chronicler
of the Timurid Shah Rukh and his successors, praises Jahan Shah's
righteousness, his careful government and the good treatment meted
out to his subjects;1 his capital of Tabriz, with its large and prosperous
population, compares favourably with Cairo; even Jahan Shah's model
regime during the occupation of Herat comes in for praise.
Such contradictory judgments are difficult to reduce to a common
denominator. One can only seek for an explanation as to how and why
they arose. The suggestion that 'Abd al-Razzaq was under an obliga-
tion to Jahan Shah, perhaps because of certain gifts or favours
bestowed upon him on the occasion of a not altogether implausible
encounter in Herat, can have little foundation in view of the chroni-
cler's name for impartiality in reporting his times.2 It might, indeed,
profit us more to assess the crimes and misdeeds of which Jahan
Shah has been accused in the context of the debased morality of those
days, which might have led a well-disposed or even merely unpreju-
diced reporter of the 9th/15 th century to see them in a milder light. Yet
the idea is not to be arbitrarily dismissed that SunnI - and perhaps also
Safavid - writers depicted the prince's adverse characteristics in more
lurid colours because of his heretical leanings or his hostile attitude
towards the Safavids.
This brings us to the question of Jahan Shah's religious attitude. If
no clear picture is attainable of his qualities as a man, in this particular
respect he proves still more elusive. Here we are concerned not only
with the evaluation of his personality, but also with circumstances of
political import. For he has sometimes been designated as a progenitor

1
'Abd al-Razzaq, Mat/a' al-sa'dain, pp. 1271— 4.
2 Barthold and ShafT, "Abd al-Razzak al-Samarkandl", El2.

166
 JAHAN SHAH QARA QUYUNLU
1
of Shl'I heresy and his dynasty, on account of its heterodox views, as
the virtual predecessors of the Safavids, who were just then beginning
to make the Shi'a the basis of a political system that was to determine
Persia's destiny for more than two hundred years and, so far as
religious matters were concerned, even right up till the present.
How the Shl'a achieved such significance has not yet been ade-
quately accounted for, although recently avenues have been opened up
that promise new discoveries. What is known without doubt is that
during the 8 th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries heretical movements of
various kinds proliferated throughout the whole area of what had been
the Il-Khanid empire.2 It is incontestable that there were also Shl'I
tendencies among the Qara Quyunlii. Yet the thesis of their Shl'I
bigotry, culminating in the person of Jahan Shah, is no longer
altogether tenable. We know, indeed, that his brother Aspand, when
governor of Baghdad (836-848/1433-1445), introduced the Twelver
(Ithna'ashariyya) Shl'a into Mesopotamia as the official religion, and
this most certainly was not without Jahan Shah's knowledge and con-
sent. It is also a fact that Sultan Qull, descendant of one of Jahan
Shah's nephews, who fled from Hamadan to India in 883/1478, em-
braced the Shl'a and became the founder of the Qutbshahl dynasty of
Golkonda, who were well known for their Shl'I views. No less incon-
testable is the occasional use of Shl'I coin-inscriptions by Jahan Shah.
It is bewildering, but perhaps also characteristic, that his coins should
as a rule have on their obverse side what was, from a Shl'I point of
view, a highly unacceptable enumeration of the Orthodox Caliphs. The
suppression of a HurufI rising in Tabriz is hardly compatible with the
picture of an anti-Sunnl fanatic,3 nor for that matter is the fact that he
twice banished from Ardabll, in about 852/1448 and again in 863/1459,
the Safavid Shaikh Junaid, a man whom many people charge with Shl'I
views. These arguments justify us in concluding that Jahan Shah can-
not indeed have been the Shl'I zealot depicted by many writers. This is

1
Minorsky, "Ahl-i Hakk", EP (French edition, i, 270: "II est a relever que Djahanshah ...,
qui pour les Sunnites est un horrible heretique, portait parmi ses adherents le titre de sultan
al-'arifin." This sentence is missing in the English edition).
2
Babinger, "Der Islam in Kleinasien", pp. j8ff.; H. Laoust, Les Scbismes dans tlslam (Paris,
1965-9), pp. 2j8ff.; and recently K. E . Miiller, Kulturhistorische Studien ^ur Genesepseudo-islamischer
Sektengebilde im Vorderasien (Wiesbaden, 1967), passim. For an interesting example, see Ritter, "Die
Anfange der Huruflsekte".
3
It is not absolutely certain, however, that this rising and its suppression took place in Jahan
Shah's reign: cf. Minorsky, quoted by Ritter, "Die Anfange der Huruflsekte".

167
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES
also substantiated by the divan mentioned earlier, which cannot really
be cited as evidence of a Shl'I mentality, especially when it is compared
with that of Shah Isma'Il, where extreme heretical convictions are
professed. Thus the thesis of heresy is based upon little more than
certain Shl'I inclinations not entirely incompatible with a SunnI
environment, as other examples go to show. A further contributory
factor was the down-to-earth opportunism which, for better or worse,
dictated a policy of compromise with the dangerous religio-political
movements of the day.
Whatever Jahan Shah's moral qualities and his religious convictions
may have been, it is undeniable that his military and diplomatic skill
acquired for the Qara Quyunlu a sizeable empire extending far into
Persian territory, and testifying in many ways to a notable cultural
achievement. Had this kingdom been granted time for peaceable develop-
ment and the construction of an ordered polity, it would undoubtedly
have exerted considerable influence on the subsequent course of Persian
history. But that was not to be, for the very moment of time that marked
the zenith of its power, also marked the beginning of its decline.

THE RISE OF UZUN HASAN AQ QUYUNLU

We must now return to the history of the confederation of the Aq

Quyunlu, which we last noticed in 839/1435 when, in a battle against
Iskandar Beg, Qara 'Usman was mortally wounded before the gates of
Erzerum. None of his many sons was of the same fibre as their warrior
father, and for a whole decade it seemed as though the ruling house of
the Aq Quyunlu would be engulfed in the turbulence of endless strife
and intrigue. It would be otiose to recount the details of this anarchy.
We need only mention here that two of Qara 'Usman's sons,first'AH
Beg (d. 842/1438), then Hamza Beg (d. 848/1444), strove to preserve
their father's heritage, sometimes in conflict with the Egyptian sultans,
sometimes with their support and that of the Ottomans, but either way
without any marked success, failing in particular to repel Jahan Shah's
inroads into their dominions, which were eventually reduced to the
region between Diyarbakr and Arzinjan. Nor was the decline of Aq
Quyunlu power affected by the recognition 'AH Beg had succeeded in
eliciting from Shah Rukh and the sultan of Cairo. Incidentally, after
'All's death this was also to earn for Hamza the rank of an Egyptian
amir.
168
 THE RISE OF UZUN HASAN AQ QUYUNLU
Circumstances began to change only with the accession of 'AH Beg's
son Jahangir. Under his rule some at least of the land seized by the Qara
Quyunlu was recovered. But his endeavours to restore the previous
territorial position and to consolidate his confederation were hindered
by family disputes which constantly impelled him into conflict with his
uncles and cousins. Particularly troublesome in this respect were his
father's two brothers, Qasim Beg and Shaikh Hasan. The one looked for
support to the Egyptian Mamluks, the other received it from the Qara
Quyunlu, thus threatening Jahanglr's very existence. He therefore sent
his brother, Uzun Hasan, against his uncle. The battle ended with
Shaikh Hasan's defeat and death. The good understanding between the
two brothers - based, it would seem, on yet other services rendered by
Uzun Hasan — subsequently proved illusory. At any rate there can have
been no question of brotherly affection in the summer of 85 7/145 3, if not
actually earlier, when Uzun Hasan, during Jahanglr's absence, seized
the town of Diyarbakr (Amid) by a ruse and at once became master of
the Aq Quyunlu. The resulting situation must have reflected the actual
balance of power, for Jahangir, in spite of many and dogged attempts
during the years that followed, was unable to regain his position and
finally had to be content with retaining only Mardin, where he ended his
days in 874/1469.
Uzun Hasan's rule not only led to the resurgence of the Aq
Quyunlu, but represents the most successful of all the Turkmen
undertakings discussed so far. This cannot be attributed to unusually
favourable circumstances, of which, except for the decline of Timurid
power, there is no question. Not even the fortunes of war by which
Uzun Hasan was so often, though by no means always, favoured
suffice to explain his success. More important than any other circum-
stance were the outstanding qualities by which he was distinguished,
not merely as a military leader, but also as a statesman.
It is questionable whether the conquest of Constantinople by Sultan
Mehmed II in 857/1453 was, in the eyes of oriental princes, so epoch-
making an event as it was to the minds of Western observers, both then
and later. There are many indications to show that the sultan failed to
impress Uzun Hasan as a result. To the latter the Comnenian empire at
Trebizond, even after 1453, was not a doomed structure, but a power
factor with which, at least to a certain extent, its neighbours must
continue to reckon. At any rate he carried on the tradition of his
house, to which we have already alluded, marrying in 863/1458 Kyra
169
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES THE RISE OF UZUN HASAN AQ QUYUNLU

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 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

Katerina, a daughter of the emperor Kalo Johannes, a princess gener-

ally known, even in European chronicles, as "Despina Khatun".
Uzun Hasan forged another family link — with Shaikh Junaid, the
enterprising chief of the community of the Safavid order at Ardabll
(851-64/1447-60). After the difficulties the latter had experienced ten
years earlier with Jahan Shah, he now found himself invited for a long
visit by the new ruler who gave him his sister Khadija Begum in
marriage. While this course may have been dictated by the sympathy he
felt for dervishes in general, and for the young shaikh in particular,
there must certainly have been some dominant political considerations.
In the years that followed his seizure of power, Uzun Hasan not only
held his own in conflict with his brother Jahanglr and other kindred, but
also engaged in numerous campaigns to enlarge and round off his
territory and to consolidate his power. During that time he gave evi-
dence of political skill and military prowess which nearly always
brought success, whether in the conquest of the domains of Hisn Kaifa
on the Tigris (866/1462) and Qoylu Hisar on the river Kelkit (863/1459),
the capture of the fortress Shabin Qara Hisar, his first campaigns in
Georgia (145 9,1462-3) or the expulsion from Kharput (869/1465) of the
Dulghadir (a Turkmen tribe whose rulers were related to the Ottomans
by marriage and had their capital at Abulustan). It was inevitable that
such successes should arouse the suspicions of his powerful neighbours,
the Ottomans in the west, the Qara Quyunlii and the Timurids in the
east, and the Egyptian Mamluks in the south. Since Uzun Hasan did not
merely impinge upon their spheres of interest, but in a number of cases
actually invaded their territories, serious conflicts were bound to
develop. It must have been clear to Uzun Hasan that sooner or later
there would come a life and death struggle.
The Aq Quyunlu's closest neighbours, and hence the most threat-
ened by their expansion, were the Qara Quyunlii, and it was from that
quarter that the first strong reaction came. Even before Uzun Hasan's
seizure of power there had been a clash between the two rivals. Jahan
Shah had then been unable to break Jahanglr's resistance, but had
extorted from him a declaration of loyalty recognising the suzerainty
of Tabriz. A few years later Jahanglr, as a defence measure against his
brother's political coup, had asked the Qara Quyunlii for support. But
their reinforcements were beaten back. When Jahan Shah claimed
suzerainty over Uzun Hasan as well, the latter went no further than to
give assurances of allegiance.
 THE RISE OF UZUN HASAN AQ QUYUNLU
In the long run this failed to satisfy Jahan Shah, and in the spring of
871/1467 - that is, in the year following the conquest of Baghdad - he
decided on a campaign against the Aq Quyunlii in upper Mesopotamia.
It may have been partly the pacific nature of Uzun Hasan's letters that
led him to believe that there was no immediate danger and hence to
spend the summer in the region of Khuy. When, at the end of Rabl' I
872/October 1467, he eventually entered the eastern Anatolian plain of
Mush, he was overtaken by the premature onset of wintry conditions,
interrupted his campaign against Uzun Hasan, sent the majority of his
troops into winter quarters and with a small following made his way
northwards. Uzun Hasan, who had been keeping a wary eye on his
opponent's movements, was in no way put out by the change in
weather, seeing it rather as an opportunity. While Jahan Shah was
encamped near Sanjaq in the Chapakchur region, Uzun Hasan took
advantage of the negligence of the Qara Quyunlii to attack in the half-
light of dawn on 14 Rabl' II 872/11 November 1467. Jahan Shah was
surprised in his sleep, after a night of of drunkenness, according to the
sources. Though he succeeded at the last moment in making his escape,
he was killed as he fled by one of Uzun Hasan's soldiers. The defeat
was total, for his sons MuhammadI, the crown prince, and Abu Yusuf
also fell into enemy hands, the latter being blinded, the former killed
later on.
Jahan Shah's death also brought about the dissolution of his king-
dom. It is true that Hasan 'AH, one of his surviving sons, was able to
take up the succession, but in spite of the considerable following that
he collected at first, he was not long able to maintain his position. With
the Aq Quyiinlu hot on his heels, he fled to the region of Hamadan
where, in Shawwal 873/April 1469, he committed suicide. His brother
Abu Yusuf, who had regained his freedom, also paid with his life for his
attempt to restore the power of the Qara Quyunlii in Fars. Thus the
political role of the Qara Quyunlii in the Near East came to an end.1
The fact that a few decades later one branch of the dynasty succeeded
in founding a kingdom on Indian soil at Golkonda is outside the scope
of this work. With the elimination of the ruling family both the state of
the Qara Quyunlii and the confederation of that name disappeared.
Their territories soon fell to Uzun Hasan. Individual tribes which had
1
It has still to be determined how far the name of the Qara Quyunlu region in what was later
the khanate of Maku is connected with the confederation of that name: cf. Gordlevsky, "Kara
Kojrunlu".

J73
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES
belonged to their alliance looked for new affiliations; many found them
with the victor, whose confederation thus gained in size and striking
power.

HEYDAY OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

With the unexpected victory over Jahan Shah, Uzun Hasan took the
centre of the stage of Persian history. Whereas previously he had been
no more than an ambitious Turkmen prince with territorial interests
outside Iran, the heritage of the Qara Quyunlu which he now took
over brought him at one stroke dominion over nearly the whole of
Persia. He also became the immediate neighbour of the Timurids,
however, and while he and his forebears had remained their loyal allies
since the days of Tlmur, it seemed improbable that his sudden rise to
power could fail to disturb them.
It will be remembered that Jahan Shah's expansion eastwards after
850/1447, the year of Shah Rukh's death, had occurred at the Timurids'
expense. Herat, which he had later also occupied but had then relin-
quished, had been the price he had had to pay for a good
understanding with Tlmur's great-grandson Abu Sa'Id when in Safar
863/December 1458 domestic problems had compelled his return to his
home territory. It was to Abu Sa'Id also that Hasan 'All had success-
fully turned for support against Uzun Hasan after his father's death.
Clearly in the hope that here was an opportunity to regain at little cost
the territories lost to the Tiirkmens, the Timurid moved precipitately
westwards. A contributory factor was, of course, the thought of the
danger to the Timurids which so active a ruler as Uzun Hasan would
represent if given free scope in a new Turkmen state extending from
eastern Anatolia to the borders of eastern Persia. All endeavour to
restrain Abu Sa'Id's impetuous advance by negotiation proved vain;
vain, too, the reminder of the alliance maintained through some gener-
ations. It cannot have been with a light heart that Uzun Hasan marched
to encounter so determined an enemy. But the fortunes of war con-
tinued to smile upon him. Abu Sa'Id, who with his cavalry had rushed
ahead, careless of his lines of communication, was at the mercy of the
Azarbaijan winter, and finally suffered annihilating defeat on 14 Rajab
873/28 January 1469, after being surrounded on the Mughan steppe
beside the lower reaches of the Araxes river. He himself was taken
prisoner and ten days later was executed.

J74
 HEYDAY OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

After the fall of Abu Sa'id, the Timurids, whose dominion in eastern
Persia, Afghanistan and Turkestan continued to survive for several
decades, presented no danger worthy of the name to the Aq Quyunlti.
It was only now that the latter could feel secure in the possession of the
land they had seized after their victory over the Qara Quyunlii. They
had risen to be virtually the only uncontested power in Persia. That
Uzun Hasan was conscious of the role thus devolving upon him
is apparent from his prompt transfer of his capital from Amid in
Diyarbakr, one of Anatolia's local centres of power, to Tabriz. By so
doing he chose a residence with an ancient tradition where not only the
Qara Quyunlu had previously had their capital, but also the Mongol
Tl-Khans and their heirs, the Jalayirids. This procedure symbolised the
assumption of power in Persia; it also led to a new phase, the second
great wave of Turkmen population elements which flooded back from
Anatolia into the Iranian highlands and for a century afterwards was to
play a considerable role in the development of that country, as will
presently be shown.
News of Uzun Hasan's astonishing rise spread not only among his
eastern neighbours, but also among the Western powers. While their
interest in the Near East during the first half of the 9th/15 th century
had been determined largely by the old idea of the crusade, that
is to say the liberation of the Holy Sepulchre and the conquest of
Egypt along with Syria and the Arabian peninsula, since the fall of
Constantinople to the Ottomans in 8 5 7/145 3 the new and most import-
ant motive had been the reconquest of that city, and even the word
"crusade" had finally come to mean the struggle against the Ottomans.
The fall of Constantinople, too, had made plain to the West the grow-
ing danger that Ottoman expansion represented. Pope Nicholas V had
promulgated a bull on 30 October 145 3 in which he called for a crusade
against the Turk. At the same time he had sent to the east an ambassa-
dor, probably the Franciscan Ludovico da Bologna, to win allies be-
hind the back of the powerful monarch. Even though the idea of a pact
with non-Christian powers was not exactly popular in the West, it was
far from being a new one, for Western powers had previously negoti-
ated with the Mongols to effect an alliance behind the back of the
Egyptian Mamluks. Venice, too, who saw her interests in the eastern
Mediterranean threatened, had already despatched a mission to
"Persia" in 1454. Although at that early date Uzun Hasan had not
shown himself prepared to discuss proposals for an alliance against the

175
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

Ottomans, he would seem to have been alive to its inherent possi-

bilities and to have desired to show himself uncommitted; for a group
of ambassadors of Anatolian princes arriving in Rome in 1460, whence
they were to proceed to other European courts, included a Turkmen
ambassador whose presence among envoys predominantly Christian
aroused considerable attention.
Before long Uzun Hasan adopted a positive policy and, indeed, after
872/1467, became the moving force behind the busy interchange of
diplomatic missions, a subject that will be treated in greater detail in a
later chapter. This can be seen as a presage of the imminent struggle
with the Ottomans, the more so since Uzun Hasan had been forced to
witness the Ottoman conquest of Trebizond in 865/1461. The idea of
an East-West anti-Turkish league had numerous and sometimes
changing advocates both on the European side and on that of Asia
Minor. The Curia, Venice, Naples, and other powers were the partner-
ship that corresponded to the Trebizond, Georgian and Turkmen
princes. But just as Venice was to become the principal spokesman in
the West, so Uzun Hasan eventually assumed that position in the East.
Preliminary agreements in 1458 were followed by an alliance in 1464,
and this was further strengthened when relations culminated in the
mission of Caterino Zeno. The latter left for Tabriz in 1471, probably
at the beginning of October, and did not return to Venice for another
four years. Being personally acquainted with the East, and even related
to Uzun Hasan through his wife, a niece of Despina Khatun, he was
particularly well-equipped for his mission. On account of the Turco-
Venetian war (867-84/1463-79) the Turkmen alliance had certainly
acquired a new significance for the Signoria, especially since the
Ottomans had conquered the Morea, Lesbos, and also Euboea
(875/1470), which had been in Venetian hands for 264 years. The
object of all these negotiations was common and coordinated military
action to destroy the Ottoman empire, as well as agreement on the
distribution of eventual spoils. Over and above this, Uzun Hasan had
expressed the urgent request that Venice should supply him with artil-
lery and other firearms so that in this respect at least he could be a
match for the Ottomans, who were already thus equipped. These
weapons were despatched by decision of the Senate on 4 February
1473-
The Porte, naturally, was not unaware of what was going on.
Through Uzun Hasan's rise to power, Sultan Mehmed II, the con-
176
 HEYDAY OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

queror of Constantinople, found himself increasingly in the same kind

of situation as had existed on the eve of the catastrophe of 804/1402,
except that this time his enemies both to the East and to the West were
in agreement. There were precedents not only for the East—West
confrontation but also for the involvement of Asia Minor. By his
marriage with the Despina, Uzun Hasan had become part of an alliance
directed against the Ottomans, thus joining forces with the rulers of
Trebizond, Georgia and Qaraman, and in the following year, 1459, n e
had sent a mission to the Sublime Porte requesting that the latter
should waive the contributions paid yearly by the emperor of Trebi-
zond, while at the same time he reminded him of the annual presents
formerly made by the sultan to the rulers of Diyarbakr. For more than
fifty years this had not been paid. The negative outcome of the move
can hardly have come as a surprise. None the less it provided a pretext
for Uzun Hasan to attack the small principality of Qoylu Hisar on the
river Kelkit which commanded the approaches from central to eastern
Anatolia and to Trebizond. While this failed to bring him lasting
success, he had at least shown that he regarded himself as the protector
of the Comnenian dynasty. When in 865/1461 Mehmed II advanced to
attack Trebizond, Uzun Hasan sent his troops to meet him between
Arzinjan and Kamakh, though after several unsuccessful skirmishes he
was forced to acknowledge that he could not obstruct the sultan's
intentions. He was clever enough to avoid a premature trial of
strength, but sought rather to come to an understanding by despatch-
ing his mother, Saral Khatun, into the Ottoman camp, not, it would
seem, without success.
In spite of this reverse and his quite manifest desire for the moment
to avoid a definite break with the sultan, he still did not relinquish his
Anatolian ambitions; and indeed his western commitments hardly
allowed him to do so. For if that alliance were to be fully effective, he
must needs maintain direct contact with his European allies. How else,
for instance, could arms reach him from Venice? Since at this time
Cyprus was governed by King Jacques II de Lusignan, husband of the
Venetian Catarina Cornaro, and so was open to Venetian ships, it was
clear that Uzun Hasan must seek access to that part of the Anatolian
coast facing the island. The way that led there passed through
Qaraman country, where Uzun Hasan's interests clashed with those of
the Ottomans and the Egyptians. A favourable opportunity arose
when, in 868/1464, after the death of the Qaramanid Ibrahim, his eldest
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

son Ishaq was driven out by his brother Plr Ahmad, and sought help
from his father's old friend, Uzun Hasan. This was forthcoming,
and with Turkmen support he regained his throne. So important was
Qaraman to Mehmed, however, that by the spring he had restored the
former status quo in Qonya, the Qaraman capital. Whether the ruler of
the Aq Quyunlu was deterred by the death of his protege a short while
after, or by fear of provoking the Porte, or by developments to the east
of his territory, he did not seek to intervene when the sultan reinstated
Plr Ahmad, nor yet when he drove him out again not long afterwards,
to incorporate Qaraman within his own dominions.
If to modern eyes Uzun Hasan's actions seem predominantly aggres-
sive, the impression of him that prevailed in Istanbul in his own time
was one of moderation and readiness for compromise. Jahan Shah's
message to the sultan, which was accompanied by a request for
support, that he was about to march against the Aq Quyunlu, met with
refusal on the grounds that the Porte had no cause for war with Uzun
Hasan. It can only be assumed that a campaign in the east did notfitin
with the sultan's plans. Doubtless, too, he also nourished the convic-
tion that, if it came to a crisis, the ruler of Amid would present a
problem no greater than had any of the other potentates of the Anato-
lian hinterland, and could be dealt with as had recently those of Trebi-
zond and Qaraman, a fatal miscalculation, as it turned out, when by his
victories over Jahan Shah and Abu Sa'Id Uzun Hasan had grown
to be almost the leading power in the Near East. For not even Istanbul
could dismiss as a mere Anatolian princeling a ruler having at his dis-
posal the combined resources of eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Azar-
baljan and Persia. Moreover, his Western alliance, of which the effects
were gradually becoming perceptible, now appeared in a quite different
light. With such an enemy in his rear, the sultan's hands were tied in
regard to his far-reaching ambitions in the west and north-west, for
were he to leave his eastern frontier exposed he would have to reckon
with the threat of surprise attack.
Uzun Hasan did not hesitate to take advantage of the changed
situation. Significantly, he began with Qaraman, returning for the first
time to the plans which the sultan had thwarted in 1469. It would seem
that he had already undertaken an expedition against Qaraman in
875/1471, but without success. The following year a strong force set
out, ostensibly against the Dulghadir in Abulustan, but in reality once
more against Qaraman. To mislead the sultan and his informers in
178
 HEYDAY OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

Anatolia, Uzun Hasan simultaneously sent a mission to Istanbul, soli-

citing a pardon for the Qaramanids exiled from Qonya, while all the
time these were marching on their country with the Turkmen levies. In
August Turkmen troops laid waste Toqat and pressed on through
Slvas to Qaisariyya and Qaraman. Certainly Uzun Hasan's immediate
objective was to contact his western allies on the Mediterranean coast
and to take delivery of the firearms which had arrived there meanwhile
from Venice. Nevertheless, ultimately all his military activity was
directed against the Ottoman sultan: it was a question of supremacy
in Anatolia. If further proof was required in Istanbul of the gravity of
the situation, it was forthcoming in the news that Admiral Pietro
Mocenigo, well-known to the Turks from many a battle as a daring
enemy, had entered Qaramanian waters with a fleet of ninety-nine
Venetian, Neapolitan, Papal and Cypriot galleys and was conquering
towns and fortified places on the coast.
Uzun Hasan's advance on Qaraman was intentionally planned for
late summer because this meant that the sultan must first muster his
troops, then bring them over a large distance, and hence would not be
able to counter-attack before the winter, so that nothing was to be
feared from that quarter earlier than the following spring. Under these
circumstances it might have been expected that Uzun Hasan would
shortly make his way south-west to join his allies in person. But this
was not to be. When news of the destruction of Toqat reached
Mehmed II, he knew that the time had come for action. Undeterred
either by the lateness of the season or by the warnings of his cautious
advisers, he demonstrated his intentions by transferring the royal camp
to the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus and made everything ready so
that he could march on eastern Anatolia in the spring without any
further delay, a plan which in fact he put in operation. At the first
encounter between the two forces, which took place between Arzinjan
and Tarjan, Uzun Hasan's troops were victorious. But in the decisive
battle at which both rulers were present, on 16 Rabl' I 878/11 August
1473, n e a r t n e village of Bashkent on the Otluqbeli, the Ottomans
triumphed; and every detail of the battle is described in a victory
document by Mehmed II.1 The Ottomans were already using gun-
powder and fire-arms at the beginning of the 9th/15 th century, and the

1
R.R. Arat, "Fatih Sultan Mehmed'in yarligi" TiiMc vi (1936-9), 285-522. Salim, Otlukbeli.
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

effect of their artillery on the Turkmen cavalry in this battle was

devastating.1
The result of this struggle was a peace treaty whereby the Euphrates
became the western frontier of the Turkmen empire, a demarcation
which Uzun Hasan and his successors were in fact to observe. While
their defeat at Bashkent can be seen as an indication that the Turkmens
had reached the limits of their expansion and had passed the zenith of
their political development, the defeat was of little immediate conse-
quence to the Turkmen empire, if only because Mehmed II did not
exploit his victory but refrained from the pursuit of his conquered foe.
Perhaps this circumstance also explains why the Western powers so
obviously underrated the extent and significance of the Turkmen
defeat. How otherwise is it comprehensible that Venice should actually
have intensified her efforts to involve Uzun Hasan in common action
against the Ottomans after the disaster of 878/1473, although in
retrospect it is obvious to historians that this had shattered the
Western-Turkmen alliance? The defeat at Bashkent, which set the
final seal upon Uzun Hasan's failure in Qaraman, did in fact preserve
him from a clash with Egypt, the fourth of his powerful rivals, which
would have been inevitable had he continued to press onwards
towards the Mediterranean. As it turned out, however, his relations
with the Mamluks, which up till then had been clouded only by an
occasional episode, were to remain more or less friendly until the end
of his reign.
We have recounted in detail only those of Uzun Hasan's military
operations which are of significance in the expansion of his kingdom or
in the general field of politics, while lesser operations such as his
campaigns in Georgia or his battles with the Kurds have been men-
tioned, if at all, only cursorily.'Of the further struggles after 1473, onty
the rebellions of his sons, Ughurlu Muhammad in Shiraz and Maqsud
in Baghdad (879/1474), and that of his brother Uvais in Ruha
(880/1475) are worthy of note. In these, needless to say, his military
skill did not again fail him.
More important than a detailed account of these occurrences, which
we can now leave behind, is a survey of the forces which Uzun Hasan
employed in the conquest of his kingdom and for the maintenance of
order within it. Some reasonably reliable figures are available in a study

1
V.J. Parry, "Barud: The Ottoman Empire", El2.

180
 HEYDAY OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

of an account of a review held by Prince Khalll, governor of the

province of Fars, in 881/1476.* We are told that the standing army
consisted of 25,000 horsemen and 10,000 infantry, with corresponding
staff and commissariat. Besides these there were the contingents of the
provincial governorships, among which Fars led with an almost equal
strength, while the rest of the provinces put up levies commensurate
with their smaller capacity. All in all, Uzun Hasan probably had at his
disposal an army of more than 100,000 men. The strength of that army
lay in its exceptionally effective cavalry, according to the eye-witness
account of the Venetian ambassador, Caterino Zeno; its weakness, as
we have seen, was its lack offirearms,and particularly of artillery.
Besides military qualities, Uzun Hasan also possessed striking polit-
ical ability. This was particularly apparent during the final phase of his
reign, from about 875/1471 to 882/1478. To this time probably belongs
the Qaniin-ndma-yi Hasan Padishah, a kind of legal code, of whose con-
tents the greater part at least is known to us.2 It concerns the codifi-
cation of fiscal regulations as handed down, probably from ancient
times, in many different parts of the Turkmen empire, and was com-
piled with the intention of protecting the people against arbitrary
increases in existing taxation and the introduction of new taxes and
levies. To gauge the significance of the introduction of binding and
effective fiscal laws, one need only call to mind the ruthless exploitation
of the people, the oppression and the horrors of war which, for more
than a hundred and fifty years, had been the predominant characteristics
of that region. Not only were these laws a determining factor in the
population's welfare, but they were also the prerequisite for a healthy
economic life. And, indeed, the "Codex Uzun Hasan", as this compila-
tion might be called, was still in use many decades later in regions of
the Turkmen empire by then in Ottoman hands and in Persia. Eastern
writers of that time mention it with approval. Its originator thus exer-
cised a lasting influence on government and finance and secured for
himself an honourable place alongside another Near Eastern reformer,
the great Mongol statesman Ghazan Khan.
When Uzun Hasan breathed his last on 1 Shawwal 882/5 January
1478 at the age of barely 5 3, he left behind him a Turkmen empire even
larger than that lost to him eleven years earlier by Jahan Shah Qara

1
Minorsky, "A Civil and Military Review".
2
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens"; Balkan, "Osmanh devrinde".
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

Quyunlu. It extended from the upper reaches of the Euphrates to the

Great Salt Desert and the Kirman province in south Persia, and from
Transcaucasia to Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. Uzun Hasan had
made no provision for the succession; nevertheless, it seemed atfirstas
though this kingdom, unlike so many other states of Turkish founda-
tion, possessed enough internal stability to survive its founder. Even
though his son Khalll Sultan, who succeeded him on the throne, was
able to hold it for only a few months, his younger brother Ya'qiib who
overthrew him succeeded in preserving the kingdom through twelve
comparatively peaceful years. In this he was favoured by the fact that
Mehmed the Conqueror's successor in Istanbul, Bayezld II
(886—918/1481 —1512), was an inferior warrior, and also by having less
threatening neighbours in Husain Balqara (873—911/1469—1506), the
ruler of the Timurid kingdom in Herat, and in the Egyptian sultan
Qa'itbal (872-901/1468-96).
The predominantly peaceful conditions at this time can be ascribed
to the skill shown by the young ruler in obtaining the allegiance of the
country's magnates. Thus secured against many an internal difficulty,
he was able to devote his whole energy to domestic policy, to cultural
interests and to such military matters as even he found unavoidable.
Amongst these was a victory over an Egyptian force which had been
despatched in 885/1480 to conquer Diyarbakr, and also a number of
campaigns, such as those in Kirman, Georgia, Gllan and Mazandaran
which were judged to be necessary during his reign.
From beginning to end, none of these operations presented any real
threat. Such cannot have been Ya'qub's estimation of the events of
893/1488, that is to say, the machinations of his cousin and brother-
in-law, the young leader of the community of the Safavid order at
Ardabll. We have already seen his father, Shaikh Junaid, as the foe of
the Qara Quyunlu and protege of Uzun Hasan. Subsequently he had
met his death in 864/1460 during a battle with the Shirvan-Shah Khalll
Sultan, whom he had provoked on the occasion of an attack upon the
Circassians. His son and successor, Shaikh Haidar, also waged a war
against the Circassians the motives of which will be discussed in the
chapter on the Safavids. In order to reach their country, which was not
adjacent to Ardabll but about 250 miles away, he had to march through
Shlrvan, which was subject to the Aq Quyunlu. Although he had not
omitted to obtain Ya'qub's permission, the increased power that
accrued to him from the very active support of sufl followers seems to
182
 DECLINE AND END OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

have aroused suspicions in Tabriz and as a result he was invited in

891-2/1487 to Ya'qub's court, where he had to swear an oath of fealty.
But only a year later, the Turkmen leader, happening to be at Qum,
received a call for help from the Shlrvan-Shah Farrukh-Yasar, his
brother-in-law, whom the shaikh had attacked and beleaguered in his
capital city, Shamakhl, while returning from a campaign against the
Circassians. Circumstances cannot have left him long in doubt as to his
course of action in regard to these two brothers-in-law, since he must
have feared that the victorious Safavid shaikh, were he also to conquer
Shlrvan, would become a serious menace to himself. He therefore
despatched troops and set out himself for Shlrvan. On 29 Rajab 893/9
July 1488 the Safavid forces were vanquished by the Tiirkmens near
the village of Dartanat at the foot of the Alburz mountains, Shaikh
Haidar being killed during the righting.
It could not then have been predicted that, in spite of their annihilat-
ing defeat, the future belonged to the Safavids. The necessary precon-
ditions did not arise until after Sultan Ya'qub's sudden death in
896/1490, when the resulting continuous struggle for power among the
Turkmen princes brought about a condition of chaos.

THE DECLINE AND END OF THE AQ QUYUNLU

Under the last representatives of the Aq Quyunlu dynasty, Balsunqur

(d. 898/1493), Rustam (d. 902/1497), Ahmad Govde (d. 903/1497),
Alvand (to 907/1502), Muhammad! (d. 905/1500), and Murad (to
908/1503), the empire created by their grandfather Uzun Hasan fell
into decay. Its future development had already been presaged when
Sultan 'All, son of the Safavid Shaikh Haidar, secured the succession
for Rustam. Their friendship did not last long. Fleeing before the
troops of his now mistrustful protege, he was killed in 899/1494. It was
reserved to his brother Isma'U, born in 892/1487, to secure the heritage
of the Aq Quyunlu for the Safavids — in Persia for good, but temporar-
ily only in eastern Anatolia, until the Ottoman victory. In 907/1501 he
ascended the throne in Tabriz and defeated Alvand the following year.
With the conquest of Mardin, held by the Aq Quyunlu until some time
prior to 913/1507,1 and the almost simultaneous flight of Murad from
Baghdad to Turkey, Turkmen rule came to an end.

1
Minorsky, "Ak Koyunlu", and "A Soyurghal of Qasim b. Jahanglr".

183
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES
Historians of the West are not forward in praising Turkmen
achievement, including that of the Aq Quyunlu, and its subsequent
influence in the field of culture.1 This might, however, appear in a
more favourable light if seen against the background of the appalling
conditions brought about by the Mongol invasions and Tlmur's cam-
paigns. In the general devastation of the Near East, architectural activ-
ity such as that of the Aq Quyunlu, especially of Uzun Hasan and
Ya'qub, however little of it may have survived, has a certain signifi-
cance in that it formed a connecting link with later, happier times. The
relations they established with Western powers were also to have cer-
tain repercussions. Finally, the intellectual life at the court of Tabriz
under Uzun Hasan and Ya'qub was distinguished by the presence of a
number of eminent men whose names have gone down in the history
of Persian thought.
The Aq Quyunlu are supposed to have belonged to the Sunna, and
are therefore seen as directly contrasting with the Qara Quyunlu. This
dichotomy may well be due to a failure in discrimination, itself perhaps
the result of reliance on the classifications of eastern, and notably Shl'I,
writers. We have already seen that the Shl'I zeal of the Qara Quyunlu
has certain doubtful features, and probably much the same applies to
Uzun Hasan's SunnI orthodoxy, of which the pro-dervish policy, not
only towards the Ardabil shaikhs, is somewhat suspect. It should not
be overlooked that the SunnI label attaching to the Aq Quyunlu, who
repeatedly engaged in strife with the Safavids during the phase of their
decline, is problematical, especially when based on later Shl'I accounts.
In future research rather more consideration should be given to the
religious factor.
The political structure of the Aq Quyunlu, like that of the Qara
Quyunlu, was based in many respects upon Mongol foundations and
the Jalayirids must be regarded in this instance as its mediators. Uzun
Hasan's reforms have already been discussed. While his achievement
appears to have been the stabilisation of existing principles of law so as
to prevent arbitrary fiscal innovations, towards the end of Ya'qub's
reign there was an energetic attempt to eradicate utterly such principles
of Mongol taxation as were out of step with the prescriptions of
Islamic religious law, and to set up the latter in their stead. Although
the attempt failed and Sultan Rustam (897—902/1492—7) returned to

1
Spuler, The Muslim World n, 77.

184
 40°N_

Sultaniyya*
" V. Jl
Qazvin
Sava *

Map. The empire of Uzun Hasan

IV. The Qara Quyiinlu
Qara Muhammad
I
QARA YUSUF
I
Plr Budaq Shah Muhammad Aspand QARA ISKANDAR JAHAN SHAH Abu Sa'Id
i i i i
r —' 1 Plr Budaq MuhammadI Hasan 'All Abu Yusuf
Shah Qubad Alvand ' I
| 'All
Plr Qull
I
Uvais Qull
I
Sultan Qull
\
QUTBSHAHI DYNASTY OF GOLKONDA
V. The Aq Quyunlu
Tur 'All Beg
I
Qutlugh Beg

Ahmad Beg QARA YOLUQ 'USMAN BEG

' A L I BEG HAMZA BEG Qasim Beg Shaikh Hasan

I
JAHANGIR Uvais UZUN HASAN

• i • • • • i

Qasim K H A L I L SULTAN Ughurlu Muhammad Zainal Maqsfld SULTAN YA'QUB Yusuf

(in MARDIN) " I ' ' |
I I I I I I
AHMAD GOVDE RUSTAM BAISUNQUR MURAD MUHAMMAD! ALVAND
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES
1
the old customs, it was repeated, once again without success, under
Ahmad Govde ("the Dwarf"), who during the years of his exile had
become familiar with the corresponding Ottoman regulations.
With the fall of the Aq Quyunlu, the second wave of Turkish
population elements flowing back from Anatolia to the east, to
Azarbaljan and the Iranian highlands, came to an end. When it had
been in full spate, states had been founded that seemed full of promise,
but their success was never of long duration. They were too closely
bound up with exceptional individuals, and there was no sound politi-
cal organisation to ensure their continuance. In the final analysis, the
nomadic form of life and government were still too strong. Although
neither Turkmen confederation was destined to have noteworthy
reverberations, the role of their respective ethnic groups was not yet
played out.

1
Roemer, "Le dernier Firman de Rustam Bahadur Aq Qoyunlu?".

188
 CHAPTER 5

THE SAFAVID PERIOD

In the summer of 906-7/1501,l after his victory over the Aq Quyunlu,

Isma'Il entered the Turkmen capital Tabriz, ascended the throne and
took the title of Shah. He thereby founded the rule of the Safavid
dynasty in Iran which was to last until 1148/1736. Thus after becoming
Grand Master of the Ardabil order on the death of his brother Sultan
'All, hefinallyattained the political power in pursuit of which his father
and grandfather had already lost their lives.
Whether we think of this event as marking the beginning of modern
Persian history or not, it certainly heralds a new era. The historical
achievement of the Safavids was to establish a strong, enduring state in
Iran after centuries of foreign rule and a lengthy period of political
fragmentation. Although the preceding Turkmen dynasties, the Qara
Quyunlu and the Aq Quyunlu, created certain preconditions of this
achievement and on the surface pursued similar aims for a short time —
came near, indeed, to realising them — their success was only tempor-
ary. Despite all their military and political attainments in the late
8th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries — for example, the way in which they
maintained their independence vis-a-vis such powerful neighbours as
the Ottomans, the Mamluks and the Timurids, or founded new states
culminating in the kingdoms of Jahan Shah and Uzun Hasan - not one
of their rulers succeeded in establishing a lasting political structure.
Though their rule extended deep into Persian territory, it represents
from the point of view of the history of Persia merely peripheral
formations beyond or on the frontiers of Iran. Not until the Safavid era
did Iran witness the rise of a state similar in importance to the Ottoman
empire or the empire of the Egyptian Mamluks. For more than two
centuries the Safavid kingdom prolonged the older political and cul-
tural tradition of Persia and endowed the country and its peoples with
a unique character of historic significance, which has in part endured
even up to the present day. Its typical features include the revival of the
monarchist tradition, the acquisition of historically justified territory,
the creation of a new military and political structure, the spread of a

1
The date authoritatively established by Glassen, Diefrihen Safawidtn, p. 85.

189
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Shl'I creed as the state religion, the Iranicisation of Persian Islam, the
continued progress of modern Persian towards becoming the language
of politics and administration in modern Iranian history, and the devel-
opment of a specific culture which reached its peak in architecture (still
visible today), but which also produced remarkable results in the intel-
lectual life of the Persian nation. The importance of this dynasty is not
confined to the national history of Persia: it was the Safavids who led
Iran back on to the stage of world history. Their conflicts with the
Ottomans and their policy of alliance with the Western powers have a
world-historical interest and a direct relevance to the history of
Western Europe.

THE BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

Who was this Isma'Il, who made such an impact on the Persia of his
time and whose influence was still felt centuries later? His personality
presents difficulties to the historian which cannot be resolved ade-
quately by reference to either his biography or his career. Rather, they
become clear and comprehensible only when one considers his origins
and the strange intellectual climate which produced him. We have
already met his father, Shaikh Haidar, and his grandfather Junaid as
notably enterprising characters in Turkmen history, politically ambi-
tious representatives of the Safaviyya, a widespread sufI order centred
on Ardabll in the south-western coastal region of the Caspian Sea. The
early history of this order differs little from that of other Islamic
conventicles,1 but the political development in which it culminates is
quite unique. The order is named after Shaikh SafI al-Dln Ishaq, whose
lifespan (650-735/1252-1334) coincides almost exactly with the Per-
sian Mongol empire of the Il-Khans, a circumstance which in several
respects helped to determine his life and actions.
This era constitutes a special period in the history of Islam. With the
destruction of the Caliphate by the Mongols and the decline of almost
all the previous centres of power in the Islamic East, Islam was faced
with a grave crisis, both political and religious; indeed, even its very
existence seemed threatened. Moreover, after the numerous theological
disputes and the endless wrangling between heretical sects in preceding

1
See Kissling, "Aus der Geschichte des Chalvetijje—Ordens": the connection between the
Safaviyya and other orders is dealt with in Kissling's table I.

190
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

centuries, the chance of a reconciliation of the warring factions and a

reversion to the essential elements of the faith might have been found in
this very crisis. It cannot be said that the opportunity was exploited:
even at this point Islam did not undergo a genuine renaissance or
reformation. However, in the territories under Mongol rule at least,
certain differences were pushed into the background, for example, the
split between the four schools of law and the violent opposition between
the Sunna and the Shi'a, the origin of which - the question of the
legitimate ruler of the Islamic world - had lost its immediate significance
in the light of the Mongol victory. With the loss of the political
background, the official theology, which had never been popular
because of its rationalism, was deprived of much of its importance and
influence. A popular religiosity became widespread, displaying several
characteristics which had probably existed earlier but which had not
prevailed owing to orthodox hostility. These included a marked will-
ingness to believe in miracles, a cult of saints with the growth of much-
frequented places of pilgrimage, and even the veneration of 'All, the
cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, an aspect fundamen-
tal to ShI'I belief but which does not necessarily have the same import-
ance in Folk Islam since even devout Sunnis have venerated 'All as amir
al-mu'minln. They also included Islamic mysticism, which had flowered
long before the Mongol invasion but now underwent a great revival.
At the same time the sufl orders which practised it expanded to
unprecedented dimensions. Their shaikhs were known and loved by
the masses and the great respect commanded by certain masters of the
religious chapters filled the scholarly theologians with envy and resent-
ment.
In this respect Shaikh Safi was a typical religious leader, a represen-
tative of Folk Islam far removed from the official theology, whose
spokesmen viewed his career with grave suspicion. But in no other
regard: for even his origins as a member of a respected family which
had lived in Ardabll for generations, are by no means typical of the
religious leaders of the time, who normally came from the lower
classes. Although he was renowned for asceticism and piety, he dis-
played other qualities which for the most part accord ill with a propen-
sity for the meditative existence of a recluse: self-confidence, enterprise,
acquisitiveness and a militant activism. Shaikh Safi is portrayed as a
paradoxical personality in which the miracle worker and man of God
combined with a sober, practical politician and a cunning merchant.
191
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

His teacher, Taj al-Dln Ibrahim GllanI, known as Shaikh Zahid

(b. 615/1218, d. 700/1301),] a familiar figure in the history of Islamic
religious orders, is said to have perceived his extraordinary gifts at
their very first meeting and - according to the legend - to have
realised even then that he was destined to become conqueror of the
world. At all events, Shaikh Zahid allowed him to marry one of his
daughters and appointed him as his successor.
Round about 1300, perhaps while his spiritual leader was still alive,
Shaikh SafI founded his own order in Ardabil, the Safaviyya. He never
in fact conquered the world, but Shaikh Zahid's assessment of his
other qualities proved accurate. As grand master of his order, as one of
the holy men who in those days ruled alongside the political leaders, he
achieved extraordinary success. Unless we are very much mistaken, his
cell even became the focal point of a mass religious movement. He was
friendly with the secular rulers and enjoyed remarkable esteem on their
part; undoubtedly their attitude was determined by the size of his
following and his influence over the people. He became the protector
of the poor and the weak, while his convent at Ardabil became a refuge
for the persecuted and the oppressed. In the last analysis he owed his
popularity not merely to his reputation for sanctity, miracles and
prophecies, but also to his political authority and to the wealth which
he acquired in due course through the generous gifts of his supporters
and admirers. His network of disciples and emissaries, so we are told,
extended throughout the land from the Oxus to the Persian Gulf, from
the Caucasus to Egypt. An emissary (khalifa) of his is even said to have
risen to a position of influence in Ceylon.2
The intertwining of religion and politics in Islam, such as is seen in
the history of the Prophet Muhammad himself, is also a characteristic
feature of the Safavids which, as we can see, marks even the career of
their founder. Although he was not very concerned with secular
power, he certainly did not lack political influence. The integrity of his
religious position is beyond question. Not only his good works and his
asceticism, but also his missionary efforts to convert the Mongols,
many of whom were not of the Islamic faith, and his influence on
certain Turkish or Turkmen groups stamp him as a particularly consci-
entious Muslim. The theory3 that he dreamed of a renewal of Islam
1 2
Minorsky, "A Mongol Decree of 710/1320". Glassen, Diefriihen Safawiden, pp. 43, 130.
3
Details ibid., p. ;o, where a change in the meaning of the word "sufl" to something like
"committed, active Muslim" is mentioned.

192
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

which would transcend the dogmatism of the theologians and the

squabbling of the heretics is not without foundation. He certainly
could not achieve so paramount a success during his lifetime, nor did
the effects of his activities, once this success materialised later, cover
the whole Islamic oecumene. But the religious revival and unification of
Persia which came about two centuries later are unthinkable without
the brotherhood he founded — although there is no direct connection
between them. Whether on the other hand Shaikh SafI envisaged a
Shl'I Persia is quite a different question, with which we shall deal
later.
Nevertheless, his role in the Safaviyya was not confined to founding
the order and giving it his name; he also established a firm basis for
future development through the great number of supporters which he
won for it and the prosperity with which he endowed it.1 The ancestors
of the Safavid rulers are often depicted as unassuming monks, but this
image does not really correspond to the historical facts even in the
earliest phase. It is scarcely appropriate for the later period either.
Although we have only meagre evidence about the immediate succes-
sors of Shaikh SafI as masters of the Ardabll order, we can conclude
simply from occasional references in the sources that they were highly
esteemed — by the early Ottoman sultans, among others.2 How other-
wise could one explain the ambitious plans and the political aspirations
of Junaid and Shaikh Haidar under the Turkmen princes of the latter
half of the 9th/15 th century — aspirations which were after all by no
means entirely unfulfilled?

After his entry into Tabriz, Shah Isma'U immediately proceeded to

institute the Shl'I creed as the state religion. Until it is proved other-
wise, we can assume that he took this decision out of religious convic-
tion, not out of political expediency.3 The precise nature of Ismail's
commitment to the Shl'I faith — to what extent he was familiar with
and himself observed the precepts of the Shl'a — remains to be seen. At
present it will suffice to affirm that he desired to abolish the Sunna with
1
For endowments set up in Shaikh Safi's favour, see M.H.M. NakhjuvanI, "Farmanl az
faramln-i daura-yi Mughul", Revue de la Faculte des hettres de Tabriz v/i (1953), 40-8.
2
Babinger, "Der Islam in Kleinasien", p. 61.
3
Political motives for his Shfl creed are imputed to Isma'Il by Efendiev, Obrayovanie, pp. 49,
51; E. Werner, Die Geburt einer Grossmacht — Die Osmanen (1300—1481) (Berlin, 1966), p. 303; and
GuseJnov and Sumbatzade, Jstoriya A%erbaid%hana 1, 210.
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

its veneration of the Orthodox Caliphs and to replace it with the belief
in 'All and the Twelve Imams.
We know that Isma'il's advisers voiced grave reservations about his
intention because the entirely SunnI population of Tabriz would be
violently opposed to the Shl'a. But Isma'Il would not be deterred, and
in fact achieved success. The first phase of Safavid rule does not lack a
certain grotesque trait, in as much as theologians who were fully con-
versant with the Shl'a must have been few and far between at that time.
Detailed information about Shi'i precepts was hard to come by; indeed,
there was a lack of books from which this might have been culled. In
the search for appropriate texts there eventually came to light a solitary
volume of the Qawa'id al-ahkdm ft ma'rifat al-haldl wa'l-baram of Ibn
Mutahhar al-Hilli (d. 726/1325), a famous Shi'i theologian of the
Mongol period. Admittedly the book was in Arabic and therefore
unsuitable for general use until it had been translated into Persian, for a
knowledge of Arabic could by that time no longer be presupposed
among the populace.
Given the tremendous importance of the introduction of the Shl'a for
Isma'il's future and for Persia, we must ask ourselves what made him take
this decision. It is not easy to find an answer. We do not know for certain
who was the first member of the future dynasty to profess the Snfl faith.
Was Isma'Il himself thefirst?Or were his father and grandfather adherents
of the sect? Or must we go back even further, perhaps to Shaikh Khwaja
'All, or even Shaikh Safl in person? Circumstantial evidence of all kinds is
adduced in this connection, but none is conclusive.
There are various reasons for our being still so much in the dark.
First, there is the lack of evidence in the sources, or at least in the
reliable ones; in this context we must certainly disregard most docu-
ments written under Safavid rule and many sources which originated
among their enemies. The complex relationships within Folk Islam
similarly constitute an obstacle to a clear understanding of the situa-
tion. This Shl'I-Sunnl syncretism, as it might be termed, occurs in
Iran from the time of the Mongol invasion, and even in the 8th/14th
and 9th/15 th centuries, after the decline of the Tl-Khans, it continued to
mould the religious outlook of the ordinary people. Finally, it is by no
means impossible that if one or other of Isma'Il's ancestors had been a
Shi'i, he might have practised taqiyja, that is, he might have concealed
his convictions; this is in fact prescribed by the Shl'a whenever an open
profession of the faith might be dangerous.
194
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

All these considerations should not be allowed to obscure the fact

that even the question of what Shl'a and Sunna meant in the 9th/15 th
century cannot at present be answered at all precisely. This would
require careful examination of the theological writings of the age, and
such an analysis we do not yet possess. For the time being we must be
content to surmise that at this period the well-known definitions of
earlier times were no longer entirely valid. Until we possess more
detailed knowledge, we cannot define more closely the religious ideas
of Isma'H's ancestors.
In order to characterise the situation, the following factors may be
emphasised. That Shaikh SafI was a Sunni is beyond all shadow of a
doubt. Yet the orthodoxy of his beliefs should not be judged too
rigidly since the mere ideas of the religious world in which he lived
cannot be entirely reconciled with orthodox tenets. Significantly he
belonged to the Shafi'I madbhab, that is, to precisely that school of
religious law which is closest to the Shl'a and therefore normally
adopted by Shl'Is who are masquerading as Sunnls. For the first
hundred years after his death we have so little information that we
can do no more than surmise that his successors adopted a similar
position. Shaikh Khwaja 'All (d. 832/1429) could be linked with the
Shl'a on account of his name and especially because he is said to have
seen 'All, the fourth Caliph and son-in-law of the Prophet, in a dream,
and sang his praises in verses which are still extant. Sunni writers are
particularly distrustful of Junaid, the grandfather of Isma'Il, because
he is alleged to have compromised himself round about 1450 in
Qonya in the presence of the famous theologian Shaikh 'Abd al-Latif
through a pro-Shl'I remark transmitted to us by a friend of the
shaikh, the Ottoman historian 'Ashiqpashazade. We are told also that
when Junaid died some of his followers began to call him God and
his son Haidar the Son of God. Admittedly this statement stems from
an embittered enemy of the Safavids, Fail-Allah b. Ruzbihan Khunji,
the chronicler of Sultan Ya'qub Aq Quyunlu, who later fled from
Isma'Il to Transoxiana. Haidar too is reported to have seen 'All in a
dream. This is supposed to be the origin of the "Haidar cap", the red
hat of the Qizilbash, whose twelve gores are explained by reference
to the Twelve Imams.
We could certainly draw conclusions from these reports if we had
any certain knowledge of the dividing lines between Sunna and Shl'a in
the 9th/15 th century. Since it is possible that these were no longer what
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

they had been, we must be cautious. Yet it should be noted that not
one of the relevant writers describes any ancestor of Isma'Il unambigu-
ously as a Shl'I - not even those authors who attack their religious
attitude. It is also significant, on the other hand, that an unbroken,
direct Shl'I tradition extending from Junaid via Haidar to Isma'Il is out
of the question. Haidar was not born until 864/1460, several weeks
after his father's death, and was brought up at the court of his uncle
Uzun Hasan in Amid, in an environment which has so far not been
suspected of sympathy towards the Shl'I doctrine. Not until he was
nine years old did he arrive in Ardabll where again it is unlikely that
any marked Shl'I atmosphere predominated under Shaikh Ja'far. If
Haidar was actually converted to the Shl'a later, he had no opportunity
to introduce Isma'Il to the creed, for Isma'Il was born on 25 Rajab
892/17 July 1487, only a year before his father's death. Haidar could
not have achieved this indirectly through Sultan 'All, his eldest son,
either, as the latter was still a child. In the next seven years which the
sons of Shaikh Haidar spent in the custody of the Aq Quyunlu, we
cannot exclude completely the possibility that they were exposed to
Shl'I influence, for example on the part of their guardians, but neither
can we impute this to them without further ado. Although we cannot
speak of a direct transmission of ideas between those three generations,
we must posit a certain virulence of Shl'I thought in order to begin to
grasp the course of events.
Perhaps the solution of the problem lies precisely in the fact that
Shaikh SafI and his descendants, possibly including Isma'Il until
shortly before his seizure of power, must be seen in the framework of
Folk Islam without ever having consciously or overtly gone over to
the Shl'a. In the case of adherents of a sufl order such as they, this is a
perfectly reasonable conjecture in the light of all that we know. We can
pass over the question of whether the equation of tasavvuf (Sufism)
with the Shl'a is justified or whether it oversteps the mark: what is
certain is that the step from Sufism to heresy was a fairly small one.
The SunnI theologians had only too good a reason for their antipathy
towards the dervishes and their religious brotherhoods. If it is permis-
sible to link the Ardabll order from the outset with Folk Islam, certain
Shl'I features become clear. Though in Folk Islam these Shl'I elements
were stronger or weaker depending upon the area and the period, they
were surely always present. Therefore certain Shl'I affinities in the case
of Shaikh SafI and his successors (who at all events bear the stigma of
196
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

Sufism in the eyes of the distrustful orthodox theologians) do not

necessarily mean that they had abjured the Sunna and turned Shl'I.
Neither the name of Shaikh Khwaja 'All, the second successor and
grandson of Shaikh SafI, nor the manifestation of 'All in dreams which
he and later Shaikh Haidar are said to have had, nor his verses in praise
of 'All therefore constitute clear signs of a Shl'I faith, and they are
perhaps no more than features of Folk Islam.
If one examines Isma'U's notions against the Folk Islam back-
ground, it is quite possible that the worship of 'All widespread in his
environment grew more firmly rooted in him so that a tendency
towards the Shl'a became predominant. This accords well with his
youthful capacity for enthusiasm (he was only fourteen years old when
Tabriz fell). We see his enthusiasm in his collection of Turkish poems,
particularly where religious ideas are concerned, but also with regard
to the heroes of Iranian legend. What is so disconcerting about the
introduction of the Shl'a is the violent hostility exhibited towards the
Sunnis, whereby the execration of the Caliphs Abu Bakr, 'Umar and
'Uthman is far more strongly emphasised than the Shl'I additions to the
shahdda, which is what really matters. Even if propaganda purposes
played a part in this, there remains an impression of youthful protest,
perhaps because Isma'il had grown tired either of the compromises of
Folk Islam or of the secretiveness of taqiyya.
We must not underestimate the importance for Isma'U's religious
beliefs of his stay in Lahljan which followed his escape from the soldi-
ers of Sultan Rustam Aq Quyunlu. From 899/1494 onwards he spent
five years there under the protection of Karkiya Mlrza 'All, the then
ruler of Gllan, who claimed to be a descendant of the Caliph 'All and
was a Shl'I. He appointed one of the theologians in his kingdom, one
Shams al-Dln Lahljl, to be Isma'U's teacher. This man must have
influenced his pupil to a certain extent, since he occurs again, immedi-
ately after Isma'il ascended the throne, as sadr, occupying the highest
religious office in the realm; later we see him as tutor to the princes at
court. There is scarcely any doubt but that he was a Shl'I. And this
would be certain if he should be identical with a disciple of the same
name of Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh, who along with Muhammad
b. Falah, the famous Mahdl, had been trained by the well-known Shl'I
theologian Ahmad b. Fahd al-Hilll. Whatever the truth about the reli-
gion of his forebears, where Ismil'Il himself is concerned we already
have a valid explanation of the origin of his Shl'I faith in the few years
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

he spent with his tutor in Lahljan. This factor lends credence to the
suggestion that his religious attitude was determined by inner convic-
tion.
His collection of Turkish poems mentioned above provides an in-
sight into his religious ideas. The Shl'I character of these verses is
unmistakable. But clearly what we have here is not something that can
be related to the High Shl'a as delineated in Shl'I theology, but rather
rabid fanaticism. The worship of 'All expressed here betrays an extre-
mism which cannot be reconciled with the normal Shl'I doctrine. 'AH is
named before the Prophet Muhammad and placed on a level with God.
In these lines we see perhaps an unrestrained exaggeration of certain
Shl'I ideas which also occur incipiently in Folk Islam. It is also signifi-
cant that the particularly extreme passages are only to be found in the
oldest extant versions of the collection: later manuscripts do not con-
tain them, presumably because they derive from a version expurgated
under the influence of Shl'I theologians. Anyway the creed which
Isma'il avowed on coming to power could not have been the Shl'a of
the theologians, no matter of what school. Even if he himself, lacking
clear religious ideas, envisaged no more than changing from the Sunna
to the Shl'a, his poems proclaim very different notions. Nor can they be
interpreted as a gradual transition from Folk Islam to the High Shl'a. If
one pursues Isma'Il's thought to its conclusion and relates it to his
political intentions, one realises that he is proclaiming a Shl'I theocracy
with himself at its head as a god-king.

However Isma'Il's attitude may be judged from the point of view of

the official theology, his claim to be venerated as a god {sijda) did not
prevent him from favouring the Ithna'ashariyya, the Twelver Shl'a,
among the manifold divisions of the Shl'a existing at the time. This
creed acknowledges not the Caliphs but only the Twelve Imams as the
legitimate successors of the Prophet Muhammad; a succession com-
mencing with 'All and ending with the Mahdl Muhammad Hujjat-
Allah who, his followers believe, did not die but was merely carried off
on 24 July 874, to return once more at the end of the world.
It was on this theory of succession that the Safavids based their claim
to be direct descendants of 'All and thereby of the Prophet Muham-
mad. It rests on a genealogy which links Shaikh SafI via a line of
twenty ancestors with Musa al-Kazim (d. 183/799), the Seventh Imam.
198
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

Clearly such a lineage lent great weight to Isma'Il's bid for power in the
legitimist atmosphere of the Shl'is, perhaps also in the rather monar-
chist concepts of certain Iranian circles. However, this lineage has not
gone unchallenged. It was attacked even during the Safavid period and
likewise deemed a forgery in recent times by Persian and non-Persian
scholars alike.1 It is indeed possible that the family tree of the Safavids
cannot bear any closer analysis than many another table of this kind.
The question still remains whether Isma'Il invoked it, knowing it to be
false, or even undertook or commissioned the forgery himself as
alleged by the Ottoman historian 'All;2 or whether he acted in good
faith, convinced of the authenticity of this genealogy. The answer to
this question determines whether he began his extraordinary career in
the honest, though biased, belief that he had a legitimate claim to the
throne, or whether right from the outset he was prepared to stoop to
anything, even outright forgery, to achieve his aim. Given his numer-
ous embittered enemies, it is not surprising that he has indeed been
accused of deliberate deception — unjustly, as far as one can tell. For
even the Shlrvan-Shah Khaffl-Allah addresses Junaid, Isma'Il's grand-
father, in a letter the text of which has been preserved, as a descen-
dant of the Sayyids; and the Turkish Sultan Bayezld II applies to
Shaikh Haidar epithets such as are only used for a scion of 'All's
family.3 If therefore alien rulers who were opposed to the Safavids
accepted this notion, why should not Isma'Il himself have believed in
all honesty that he was descended from 'AH? This belief is also attested
by the spontaneity and originality which characterise his divan, pre-
cisely at the points where he emphasises his 'Alid blood. Finally, Isma'Il
may also have been aware that Shaikh SafI himself had allegedly
claimed to be related to the Prophet's family.4 At least in childhood

1
Kasravl, Shaikh Safi, followed by Togan, "Sur l'origine", who pointed to the different
versions of the Safvat al-safa.
2
Walsh, "Historiography", p. 207; cf. also Togan, he. cit. For a detailed study of anti-Safavid
propaganda, see E. Eberhard, Osmanische Polemik gegen die Safav/iden (Freiburg i. Br., 1970).
3
SabitI (ThabitI), Asnad, pp. 37; f. Ferldun Bey, Miinsbe'at es-selatiii1 (Istanbul, 1274—5/185 8—9)
'. 3°3-
4
Shaikh SafTs remark, dar nasab-i ma siytdat hast, which is included even in the earliest MSS
and could not therefore have been added in tne Safavid period, is passed over by Togan as being
too vague. But Togan thereby ignores the fact that this expression corresponds exactly to the
attitude of a Sunnl who, though a descendant of 'All, does not wish to draw too much attention to
himself. Togan nevertheless concedes the possibility that Shaikh SafTs son, Sadr al-Dln Musa, as
is claimed, could have ordered the sharif, on the occasion of a hajj, to authenticate a genealogy
going back to 'All; given this, it is unfair to dismiss outright Ismail's good faith as he does.

199
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

and certainly at the time of his accession to the throne in Tabriz,

Isma'H was convinced that his family tree reached back to Caliph 'All.
Whether he maintained this belief in later life, when perhaps he had
access to more reliable sources of information, is another question.

Thus whether or not Isma'Il was the first of Shaikh Safl's descendants
to embrace the Shl'a, he was certainly the first whose Shi'I faith can be
proved without a shadow of a doubt, and was viewed in this light by
certain ioth/i6th century writers.1 The political ambitions which he
combined with his faith were after all not without precedent in his
family. We saw that Shaikh SafI enjoyed respect and influence among
political leaders of his time, even though he did not himself pursue any
political goals. That his successors were not entirely remote from the
affairs of this world may be judged from Timur's legendary visit to
Khwaja 'All, and we meet his son Ibrahim, described by a Christian
eye-witness as the "cruel governor of Ardabil", in the retinue of Jahan
Shah on a campaign in Georgia.2 We have fairly detailed knowledge
of the military and political exploits of Junaid, Shah Isma'H's grand-
father. Since up to his father's death the leadership of the order had
always passed from father to son, he could have inherited the office in
851/1447, and there is in fact a well-attested tradition which speaks of
his accession in that year. Nevertheless, he might thereafter have lost
the leadership again: this would not necessarily be recorded in the
official history of the Safavids, which naturally sets out to portray
Isma'H's grandfather in the appropriate light.
The point is that at this time not he, but one of his father's brothers,
Shaikh Ja'far, was head of the order, while he himself was mostly away
from Ardabil, not always of his own accord. It is of secondary import-
ance whether Ja'far functioned as his nephew's guardian or representa-
tive, or whether he personally was-invested with the office of grand
master. What interests us is that Ja'far too did not stay remote from
and uninvolved in the political events of his age, for he mobilised
against Junaid the powerful Jahan Shah Qara Quyunlii,3 who was the
father-in-law of Ja'far's son Qasim. Ja'far also had contacts with the
Timurid Abu Sa'id and went out to greet him when the latter reached
Sultaniyya on his fatal campaign of 873/1469 to the Mughan steppe.

1
E.g.. al-Nahrawall and al-Qaramanl: see Mazzaoui, Shfism, p . 215, n.20}.
2 3
Minorsky, "Thomas of Metsop'", p. 25. See above, p. 167 .

2OO
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

We also know about Ja'far's correspondence with the Shlrvan-Shah

Khalll-Allah, again to the detriment of his nephew.1
There is no doubt that, soon after Shaikh Ibrahim's death, around
852/1448 a serious estrangement occurred between Shaikh Ja'far and
Junaid which was still not resolved at the time of Junaid's death. But
we have no such certainty concerning its cause. The motive is sought
in diverging religious beliefs. According to this explanation Ja'far,
who remained faithful to the Sunna, quarrelled with his nephew
because of the latter's Shi'I proclivities. This is indeed possible, but
finds no adequate support in contemporary sources; one cannot draw
conclusions about Junaid's early years from records which refer to his
behaviour in later life. In Fazl-Allah Khunji's royal chronicle of the Aq
Quyunlu, which is relevant here, we read that he diverged from the life
of his forebears. This might of course allude to divergent religious
beliefs, if the writer did not expressly state that he had something else
in mind: he says that Junaid strove for secular power, was driven into
alien lands by his lust for conquest, instigated revolts against indi-
vidual provincial governors in Anatolia, and constantly suffered fresh
onsets of folly. All this need not necessarily be connected with Shi'I
heresy. There were probably sufficient grounds for the conflict in
Junaid's militaristic tendencies alone, for we read that his multitudi-
nous supporters occasionally gave Ardabll the appearance of an armed
camp.
Junaid's career doubtless gave many of his contemporaries cause for
admiration or criticism, especially those who clung to the pattern of a
devout life as led by his famous ancestors. He was anything but the
ideal religious leader whose life was composed of pious striving and
progression along the path of mystic perfection. When first exiled from
Ardabll, he wandered for seven years through Azarbaijan, Anatolia
and northern Syria, probably in the manner of a travelling monk but
without observing the limitations of this role. His ambition was polit-
ical success and a military following that would help him attain it. His
charismatic personality must have had a great impact especially on the
adventurous elements among the Turkmen tribes which he visited. On
the other hand, he rightly saw that his opportunity lay in the rivalry
between the Qara Quyunlu and the Aq Quyunlu. The hostility of
Jahan Shah Qara Quyunlu drove him to cultivate the latter's opponent

1
Hasan-i Rumlu, quoted in Hinz, Irans Aufstieg, pp. 47f.

2OI
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

in Amid and eventually in 861/1456 he succeeded in being received

there. Uzun Hasan welcomed him and showed him such favour that
Junaid enjoyed his hospitality for three whole years and, after some
time, was even allowed to marry his sister. Although at that time Uzun
Hasan was not the famous potentate he was later to become, this
connection represented for the young Safavid a gain in prestige which
gave many an observer food for thought in that twilight world
between religion and politics.

Such events are by no means typical of the career of a member of a

religious order at that period. They cannot be explained by Junaid's
eminent lineage nor by the sympathy which Uzun Hasan is supposed
to have shown towards dervishes. It is more fruitful to suppose that
the Turkmen potentate took this unusual step out of certain political
expectations, for example, the hope of winning over along with Junaid
the latter's militant followers for his own cause. But such an assump-
tion would only be reasonable if Junaid had been at this time a man of
some importance or at least potentially a great military leader. And that
indeed appears to have been the case. We have to postulate a change in
the conception of a religious order, which seems to have occurred with
Shaikh Safi's descendants. There is some evidence that with Junaid
this development reached its climax. In order to understand it, we must
remember that even the founder of the order had been reproached for
allowing his disciples to grow too numerous for him to be able to
instruct them in the precepts of the mystic initiation. In fact, he must
have modified the mystic practice (such as he himself had followed
under his teacher Shaikh Zahid) which he handed down to his disci-
ples; thus the word sufl, originally denoting an Islamic mystic, seems
to have declined even during his lifetime to the meaning "active
Muslim", in accordance with the religious mass movement which in
those days appears to have been centred on Ardabll. The esteem which
the order continued to command under Safi's successors indicates that
a similar situation also prevailed under their rule.
We can assume that during his stay in Anatolia and northern Syria
Junaid exploited the contacts which the Ardabll order enjoyed there
and which in many cases it had maintained for a long time. We may
even suppose that he did his best to strengthen those relations and to
influence them according to his lights. Here lies the explanation of
statements to the effect that at this time he had a lively following which
202
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

increased during his years at the court of Amid, and that from there he
intensified recruitment by appointing new emissaries (khulafa).^ His
success with Uzun Hasan must have endowed his ideas with a peculiar
attraction in precisely those circles which mattered to him. At all
events it is clear that his exploits must be seen in relation to the Ardabll
order; this is also indicated by the fact that he did not abandon the idea
of returning to the home of the order, and in 863/1459 actually
attempted to gain a footing in Ardabll again — but without success.
Although several aspects of Junaid's personality remain at present
obscure, there is no doubt that he gave military training to the adher-
ents of the order who lived in his retinue and used them in military
operations. Here lies the origin of the equating of the words sufi and
gha%i ("soldier of the faith") which is taken for granted in the Safavid
chronicles thereafter. The change in meaning of the word sufi, which
occurs even in the early Safaviyya, reaches a new and far more
advanced stage round about this time. The change is not confined to
the semantic history of one word, but has a prominent political signifi-
cance. Members of a sufi order, whose mystical rule was probably
preserved only as a more or less faded memory, were converted to the
ideals of a Holy War which are inherent in Islam, trained as fanatical
warriors and, as we shall see, actually led into battle.
The ghazi idea has another historical bearing which should be men-
tioned here. Defenders of the faith known by this name played an
important part as early as the first third of the 8th/14th century in
western Anatolia, on the Byzantine frontier of the Ottoman heartlands.
From the collapse of the Salju<q empire onwards, when the pressure of
Mongol power on western Asia Minor lessened, they contributed
substantially to the protection and extension of the frontiers with
Byzantium, while the Ottoman empire was being established. Recent
research shows, however, that the ghazi concept was not limited to
western Asia Minor but also existed in eastern Anatolia, where they are
credited with the attacks of the Aq Quyunlu on the Comnenian empire
of Trebizond,2 which was discussed earlier. That had been about the
middle of the 8th/14th century. But the ghazi concept appears to have
survived even after that and to have finally been taken over by Shah
Isma'Il's two predecessors. This theory is supported by the fact that the
Safavid chronicles prefer to use the word ghazi to denote the military

1 2
Ibid., pp. 22—32, 37ff. Baykal, "Die Rivalitat", pp.

203
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

followers of the master of the order - not exclusively, of course, but

almost more frequently than sufl or Qizilbash.
It remains to be seen whether in practice the Safavids were familiar
with the Jihad, the Holy War, in this sense. In fact such seems to have
been the case. A fairly conclusive instance of this is Junaid's attempt to
conquer Trebizond in 860-1/1456, that is, prior to his appearance at
the court of Uzun Hasan, from where he could not very well have
launched such a venture since after all it would have been directed
against his host's relatives. He was, moreover, on the point of conquer-
ing the city, but at the last moment had to relinquish his impending
victory because the Turkish Sultan, seeing his interests in Trebizond
threatened, despatched an armed force to the scene which would have
proved too much for Junaid.
Other military adventures undertaken by Junaid can also be
included under the ghazl heading; although it is clear that in Junaid's
case, just as elsewhere, other motives in addition to the ghazl concept
were instrumental in the attacks on non-Muslim peoples - the prob-
lems of feeding and paying a large military retinue, and the thirst of
Junaid's adherents for adventure and plunder. We shall not examine
these exploits in detail.1 The last was a campaign against the Circassians
of Tabarsaran, which he decided to undertake in 863/1459 after again
being banished from Ardabll on the orders of Jahan Shah. This exploit
met with success, but he was then attacked by the Shlrvan-Shah
Khalll-Allah, through whose territory he had marched and to whom
the defeated Circassians may have been tributary, and on 11 Jumada I
864/4 March 1460 was killed in battle.
If we sum up Junaid's life, we see an unruly spirit with political
ambitions and military propensities, but not a religious reformer. Even
if it is true that, as KhunjI claimed,2 he was worshipped as a god after
his death, this betokens the unbridled fanaticism of his followers or
those of his successor, rather than the nature of his own religious
beliefs. Although as a member of the order he may have been suscepti-
ble to the 'All-venerating or even Shl'I tendencies in Folk Islam, he
need not necessarily for that reason have been the wild Shl'I fanatic
which his enemies - especially KhunjI and 'Ashiqpashazade - make
him out to be. Even the quarrel with Shaikh Ja'far, as we saw, need not

1
Summarised in Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safaviden", pp. 118—22.
2
Minorsky, Persia in A.D. itfS—ijfo, p. 66.

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 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

have been due to religious differences. It can easily be explained by the

fact that after Ibrahim's death two strong personalities whose political
ambitions were irreconcilable clashed in Ardabll: Junaid's ambition
may be gauged, after all, from the fact that he aspired to the headship
of the order even though not his father's eldest son but only his sixth.
Finally, it must remain an open question whether during his wander-
ings in Anatolia Junaid came across such strong Shi'I tendencies
among supporters of the Ardabll order or among sections of the popu-
lation which he hoped to win over, that he was compelled to profess
the Shl'a, either out of expediency or out of conviction.1

However much recent scholars have concerned themselves with the

rise of the Safavids, several features of this unusual phenomenon have
yet to be satisfactorily explained. We know that Turkmen adherents of
the Ardabll order played an essential part, but how this participation
came about cannot yet be elucidated in every detail. The question is
vital not only because of the share of the Turkmen in founding the
Safavid state, but also because during the first century of its existence
the majority of its ruling class and, up to the time of 'Abbas I, virtually
all the officers and men in the army were in fact Tiirkmens. That the
Safavids themselves cannot be called Tiirkmens, in spite of their close
ties and the blood relationship with the Aq Quyunlu, simply makes the
problem more complicated. How then did Turkmen tribes come to
play such a crucial role?
Even their contemporaries in Persia probably racked their brains
over this question. They searched for an explanation and found it - in
a visit to Ardabll by Tlmur, a visit which he was supposed to have paid
to the then head of the order, Khwaja 'AH. It is said that the latter's
miracles impressed him deeply, whereupon he made Khwaja 'All a
present, at his request, of 30,000 prisoners of war whom he had
brought with him from Anatolia. These were the forefathers of the
Tiirkmens who a century later played a prominent role in the founda-
tion of the Safavid empire. Tlmur's visit to Ardabll is likely to have
occurred in the spring of 806/1404. That it was in honour of the
Safavid leader, or that he even glimpsed the latter on this occasion, is
not, it is true, out of the question, but neither is it anywhere attested.
Moreover, the presentation of these Anatolian prisoners is pure myth,

1
As Minorsky, "Shaikh Ball Efendi", p. 439, maintains.

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 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

since the captive nomads deported from Anatolia by Tlmur were Qara
Tatars and were subsequently settled not in Persia but in Transoxiana;1
and the story is apparently a home-grown attempt to account for the
Turkmen part in the founding of the Safavid empire.
A plausible explanation for their role can be found in something I
have already mentioned, the spread and popularity of Islamic religious
communities in the 8th-9th/i4th—15th centuries. As will be recalled, in
addition to the focal point of the order at the seat of the master {murshid
[-i kami/] or ptr), they had a following scattered over a wide area which
kept in touch with the centre through so-called representatives or
emissaries (khulafa'). We know that this following included numerous
Turkmens, if not whole tribes or tribal groups. This is true in general
of all such orders but especially of the Safavid order, which even in the
founder's time had had Turkish or Turkmen supporters2 and which
seems later to have enjoyed an increasing popularity among the Turk-
mens. This Turkmen following probably extended in the main through
Azarbaljan, Anatolia and northern Syria. It was thus not fortuitous
that Junaid visited precisely these areas on his raids. Here he could be
certain of support and assistance. On the other hand the presence of an
enterprising, even fascinating, descendant of the great Ardabll Shaikh
SafI could not have failed to win recruits for the local sufl groups.
Although our knowledge of the early history of the Turkmen tribes,
whose names occur very frequently in the sources, is in several respects
incomplete, certain tribal names which can be construed with certainty
confirm that they originated in the areas mentioned: the Shamlu must
have had their home in Syria (Sham), the Rumlu in Anatolia or, to be
more precise, in the province later known as Slvas but which earlier
had been called Rum. The name Takkalu points to the province of
Tekke in southern Anatolia, and Dulghadir, corrupted to the Arabic
form Dhu'1-Qadr, had been since 1337 the name of a local Turkmen
dynasty in Abulustan, the region between Jaihan and the Euphrates.
The intellectual atmosphere to which Junaid owed his success
among the Turkmens - possibly too the impression which his person-
ality left on these simple people, who were always inclined to believe in
the miraculous and the extraordinary - must have lasted a long time
after his death, long enough anyway for his son Haidar to slip effort-
lessly, or so it seems, into his father's role. We do not know the exact

1 2
See above, pp. 56,80. Glassen, Diefriihen Safawiden, p. 385.

206
 BACKGROUND OF THE SAFAVIDS

point when this happened, or when he assumed the leadership of the

Safavid order. He came to Ardabll in 1470 when he was barely ten
years old, from Amid, where his childhood had been spent at the court
of Uzun Hasan. Perhaps his uncle sent him to the home of the order in
order to neutralise Shaikh Ja'far, whose once powerful protectors, the
Qara Quyunlu Jahan Shah and the Timurid Abu Sa'Id, were no longer
alive.
It seems indeed that Ja'far was loth to accept and tolerate his great-
nephew in Ardabll. The man of religion, himself highly educated,
appears to have consistently neglected to complete or at least improve
Haidar's religious training which had been totally overlooked in Amid.
Perhaps the love of arms which Uzun Hasan had inspired in the boy,
together with a corresponding natural bent, had already grown too
strong. Perhaps too the advanced politicisation of the order stood in
the way of any change of heart. Unless we are very much mistaken,
Haidar's self-image already suggested the son of a secular prince rather
than the future head of a mystical order. "Instead of the school bench,
he sat on a horse, instead of mystic treatises he read mythical tales": in
such words he is censured by Fazl-Allah b. Ruzbihan KhunjI,1 who at
the same time testifies to his great courage and mastery of the arts of
war. It is not surprising that under his leadership the secularisation of
the order proceeded apace and its militarisation neared a climax. An
external sign of this development was Shaikh Haidar's introduction of
a uniform for members of his order. Its characteristic feature was a red
turban with twelve gores, called taj-i haidart, the "Haidar cap". Their
enemies gave the wearers of this headgear the nickname qi^tlbdshlar
("Redheads"), a designation, however, which they soon proudly
adopted as a title of honour.
The name Qizilbash for the followers of the Ardabll shaikhs un-
doubtedly goes back, together with the introduction of the red turban,
to the time of Haidar. The word is not found in Tihranl's Kitab-i
Diydrbakriyja, completed in 1470, but it is used by KhunjI fifteen years
later in a derogatory sense. But whether even at that period as later this
was bound up with a religious motif, the accusation of Shl'I heresy on
the part of opponents or the public profession of the Shl'a on the part
of those concerned, or whether we have here the projection of subse-
quent conditions back to an earlier age, cannot be ascertained with

1
Minorsky, Persia in A.D. 1478-1490, p. 66.

207
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

certainty, whether or not one accepts the explanation that Haidar acted
in accordance with a command given him by the Imam 'AH in a vision.
Were one to relate the twelve gores, as is usually done, to the Twelve
Imams, this does not necessarily indicate ShI'I convictions, since the
Twelve Imams also had a place in the Folk Islam of those times. Even a
SunnI sectarian like Fazl-Allah KhunjI wrote a poem in praise of the
Twelve Imams which has been preserved.1
Thereby we come to the problem of Shaikh Haidar's religious
beliefs. Was he a ShI'I or not? As we have seen, in the first ten years of
his life in Amid he scarcely had any religious education at all, and
certainly not a ShI'I one. In Ardabll he came into contact with Shaikh
Ja'far, whose orthodoxy (not, of course, to be measured by the stan-
dards of SunnI theology but rather against the more moderate condi-
tions of Folk Islam) has never been disputed. Again, it is KhunjI alone
who questions Haidar's orthodoxy, and even he does not accuse him of
subscribing to the Shl'a, maintaining rather that his foolish followers
worshipped Junaid as God and Haidar as the Son of God. It is difficult
to accept this at its face value, especially in the case of someone with
such an underdeveloped religious sensibility as Haidar. Normally, the
influence exerted over him by his father's followers when he lived in
Ardabll is the reason put forward for his supposed conversion to the
ShI'I faith.
It is of course true that Turkmen supporters of the Safavids flocked
to Ardabll when it was learnt that the young shaikh was recruiting
fighting men like his father before him, possibly in the aftermath of the
collapse in 872/1467 of the Qara Quyiinlu confederation, whose ele-
ments may now have striven for a new relationship with the Ardabll
shaikhs. One can therefore quite reasonably reckon on a strong Turk-
men influence on Haidar whereby religious zeal may have been a factor
— but not necessarily the ShI'I creed. Folk Islamic ideas, with a greater
or lesser ShI'I tinge, combined with the ghazi concept, suffice to
explain the process. And we may almost with certainty impute the
ghazi idea to a military mind like that of Shaikh Haidar.
He too carried the Holy War into the land of the Circassians. Twice,
in 888/1483 and 892/1487, his campaigns went according to plan. The
third time, in 893/1488, there was again no need for complications,
because Haidar had obtained permission to march through Shlrvan.

' M.A. KhunjI, "Fazl-Allah b. Ruzbihan KhunjI", FIZ iv (1335), i78f.

208
But when he attacked the town of Shamakhl in order, we are told, to
avenge his father, he came into conflict with Farrukh-Yasar, who had
succeeded the Shlrvan-Shah Khalll-Allah in 867/1462. With the sup-
port of troops of the Aq Quyunlu sent to his aid by Sultan Ya'qub, the
Shlrvan-Shah was victorious. Shaikh Haidar fell in battle on 29 Rajab
893/9 July 1488 in Tabarsaran, not far from the spot where his father
had been killed in 864/1460.'
As early as the Mongol period several Turkmen tribes had learnt to
absent themselves from the arena of great events whenever danger
threatened. In later times too this ability appears to have been shared
by many Turkmen adherents of the Safavids, as when they vanished
from the stage for many years after Junaid's death. Following Haidar's
death, they again withdrew into obscurity for more than a decade and
bided their time, leading the unobtrusive life of nomads.

Just as at the beginning of the 9th/15 th century the leaders of the Aq

Quyunlu and the Qara Quyunlu expended all their energies in attain-
ing military power and acquiring territorial sovereignty, so Junaid and
Haidar too were dedicated to the pursuit of political goals. Then as
now the notion of warring for the faith appears to have figured as a
welcome motive, if not as a pretext. Whether the two Safavids were
driven by a more profound religious zeal, for instance by a desire to
launch a Shl'l mission, cannot at present be established and in fact
seems doubtful, although in their case too the ideas of Folk Islam
certainly included a series of Shl'l features.
In Isma'Il's case we are faced with different assumptions, inasmuch
as he spent a lengthy period of his childhood in a Shl'l enviroment and
was apparently given instruction in the Shl'l faith. Moreover, he must
have had a well-defined religious sensibility, as can be seen from his
divan. Here he calls 'AH a manifestation of God and proudly asserts
that he himself is a descendant of 'AH and Fatima who came into the
world at 'All's behest. Of course such notions cannot be reconciled
with the Shl'a or the Shl'l theology; but they originate in the world of
the Shl'a rather than in that of Folk Islam.
1
Savory, "Haydar", EP, concludes that in view of the help rendered by the Aq Quyunlu
Haidar must have had stronger forces than his father, whom the Shlrvan-Shah had defeated
without outside assistance.

209
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Although Isma'Il's statements are somewhat vague, they at least

convey a marked sense of mission. This makes more comprehensible
his decision in the summer of 905/1499, that is, at the age of twelve, to
leave his refuge in Lahljan, despite the warnings of his protector Kar-
kiya Mlrza 'All, in order to try to emulate the deeds of his father and
grandfather. However strange this venture may seem, it was very well
timed from a political point of view. The power of the Aq Quyunlu, in
whose territory Isma'Il lived, had been more or less paralysed by the
dispute over the succession triggered off by the death of Sultan Ya'qub
in 896/1490. The role of the Timurids in Persia had been curtailed by
the fall of Abu Sa'Id. Both the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks in
the east were at this time unable - as yet, at least - to intervene in the
affairs of Persia. And in Cairo, where the rule of the powerful Sultan
Qa'itbal had ended in 901/1496, a grave crisis was simmering,
characterised by a rapid succession of new rulers. Apart from a few
local dynasties of little influence, there was a political vacuum in Persia.
Since the death of his brother Sultan 'AH in 899/1494, Isma'Il had
been grand master of the Ardabil order. It is not known whether he
himself underwent the mystical initiation and conveyed it afterwards to
novices; in fact this seems unlikely.1 His sufism seems rather to be
confined to the extreme Shl'I ideas which occur in his poetry. Never-
theless, after leaving Lahljan he made straight for Ardabil, the centre of
the Safavid order. Emotional reasons may have influenced this choice,
and probably too the hope that there he was most likely to attract the
militant adherents of the order whom he now needed. This expectation
was not in fact fulfilled, clearly because through the respect he com-
manded the local governor, who owed his appointment to the Aq
Quyunlu, deterred members of the order from openly supporting
Isma'Il. And because of this same governor Isma'Il could not remain in
Ardabil. Uncertain what to do next, he decided — significantly — to lead
a holy war (gha^a-ji kdfirdri) against Georgia.
The messianic spirit which inspired Isma'Il had its pendant in the
religious mood of the people. Many seem to have had an apocalyptic
awareness at this time. Insecurity caused by war, anarchy, bandits,
catastrophes, plagues and famine had given rise to religious expecta-
tions typified by the hope — shared by others besides the Shl'a — of the
1
That the Ardabil shaikhs down to Junaid had practised mysticism emerges from their
influence on other dervish orders: see Kissling, "Aus der Geschichte des Chalvetijje—Ordens" and
"Bajramijje".

2IO
 ISMA'IL I

return of the Mahdl, which would mark the end of the world. There
was evidence of a connection between the young Isma'Il and the
Mahdl; there were even those who saw in him the returning Imam or at
least his harbinger. Typical of this was the scene when Isma'Il arrived
at the summer camp of the Turkmen tribe of the Ustajlu. When news
of his approach reached them, the whole tribe, led by the elders
(rishsafiddn), went to greet him, singing and dancing, and escorted him
just as centuries earlier the old Companions {ansar) had welcomed the
Prophet Muhammad in Medina when he arrived there on the Hijra
from Mecca. In the stories of these Tiirkmens he was seen as the
messenger of the Lord of Time {sahib al-^amdn).
Isma'Il's physical appearance must also have had some effect when
he entered public life. The testimony of an eye-witness depicts him as
being of truly regal bearing, gentlemanly and with engaging features, a
fair complexion and reddish hair. If one thinks of the enthusiasm with
which even today the mostly dark-skinned Persians greet a fair-headed
youth, it is easy to imagine the impact made by the young head of the
order, about whom various anticipatory legends were circulating, in
that period of intense religious awareness. Isma'Il's descent from the
shaikhs of Ardabll, his personal appearance, his religious ideas and his
sense of mission corresponded almost perfectly with the expectations
which an oppressed people might nourish in their religious daydreams.
His youthfulness, which arouses scepticism in the rational mind of the
modern observer, must in the circumstances have fostered his plans.
The great influence of the Ardabll order, the propagandist and military
endeavours undertaken by his father Haidar and particularly by his
grandfather Junaid among the Tiirkmens, now bore abundant fruit.
He had already brought with him a group of Turkmen companions
from Lahljan, and other members of these tribes joined him during his
first winter camp in Arjuvan on the Caspian Sea. The intention of
finding further reinforcements was certainly one of the motives behind
a campaign against Arzinjan in eastern Anatolia, upon which he
embarked in the middle of Sha'ban 905/March 1500. Finally his army
grew to 7,000 men and he launched the intended holy war.
The ghazl troops again marched on Shirvan. This time, in Jumada I
906/December 1500, at the village of JabanI near the Shirvan capital of
Shamakhi, they clashed at the outset with the Shlrvan-Shah, the same
Farrukh-Yasar who had defeated Isma'Il's father twelve years pre-
viously. At that time he had been helped by the Aq Quyunlu; on this
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 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

occasion he was unaided. In spite of his superiority of numbers he was

vanquished and killed. Thereby Isma'Il not only avenged his father and
grandfather, but also conquered a land which had enjoyed for long
periods a certain independence under the family of the Shlrvan-Shahs,
although under different suzerains. Admittedly, he could not yet claim
to have a firm grip on it, since several sons of Farrukh-Yasar had
escaped and there were to be Shlrvan-Shahs under Safavid suzerainty
until 945/1538.
In the spring of 906/1501 Isma'Il initiated from his winter camp at
Mahmudabad measures to complete the subjugation of Shlrvan. Mean-
while news reached him that Alvand, the sultan of the Aq Quyunlu,
like himself a grandson of Uzun Hasan, had been disquieted by Is-
ma'Il's victory over the Shlrvan-Shah and was mobilising against him;
but that because of the disorderly circumstances in which Alvand
lived, the time was ripe for a preventive blow. Isma'Il therefore inter-
rupted his enterprise in Shlrvan and for the time being also abandoned
his plans for Georgia. Battle was joined at Sharur in the Araxes valley
and as a result Alvand took flight. This victory at the beginning of
907/in July or August 1501, opened up for Isma'Il the way to Tabriz,
the Turkmen capital. His reign over Iran is usually dated from the
occupation of that city, although the dynasty of the Aq Quyunlu was
not finally eliminated for some years, after the expulsion of Alvand, the
victory over Murad at Hamadan on 24 Dhu'l-Hijja 908/20 June 1503
and the fall of Mardln still later.
In the existing political and religious situation the appearance and
early successes of Isma'Il must have had extraordinary results. I have
already pointed to the way in which the activity of his father and
grandfather stood him in good stead when he went among the Turk-
men tribes. The departure of the first tribal groups doubtless hastened
the decision of many others to follow suit, for as a result of the decline
and final collapse of the power of the Aq Quyunlu they were faced with
the necessity of finding new connections — upon which nomadic
peoples at the time depended if only for the sake of self-preservation —
to replace their previous affiliation to the federation of the Aq
Quyunlu. Indeed many of them were only too willing to join Isma'Il
after he had given impressive proof of his enterprise and military skill
in the battles at JabanI and Sharur. His unequivocal support for the
Shl'a, which may have aroused hostility in some instances, for example
among the urban population, would not have been a serious obstacle
212
for these people, who subscribed to Folk Islam and were not interested
in theological arguments.
A description of Isma'lPs political career reveals how significant a
part the Tiirkmens played in the founding of the Safavid state. In this
his kinship with the Aq Quyunlu is naturally a pertinent factor; but at
least as important is the fact that his military strength was based on his
rapidly growing retinue of Turkmen tribesmen. It was on their leaders
that he drew when he had to fill military posts at court, posts in the
civil administration and, as his conquest grew, in the provinces. A
certain Shams al-Dln Zakariya KujujI, who had been vizier to the Aq
Quyunlu, had earler presented himself at the winter camp at Mahmud-
abad and encouraged Isma'Il to undertake the successful campaign
against Alvand by describing the confused situation at the court of his
erstwhile masters. He then became Isma'U's first vizier. Thereby a firm
link was forged with the Turkmen tradition of government and admin-
istration, whose institutions were undoubtedly taken over following
the capture of the previous centre of government at Tabriz.
What is true of the military posts in the earliest Safavid administra-
tion — namely, that they were filled by Turkmen notables — is by no
means true of the civil posts, for example in the treasury, or of the
extensive sphere of religious law ranging from the judiciary and the
administration of the pious endowments to the charitable institutions.
These posts were not occupied by Tiirkmens, any more than under the
Aq Quyunlu or the Qara Quyunlu. As members of the military aristoc-
racy they did not lay claim to them — nor would they have been
suitable candidates for the vacancies. For some time past this type of
administrative post had been staffed by the native Iranian bureaucracy,
irrespective of which dynasty happened to be reigning. The Zakariya
KujujI mentioned above belonged to this civil servant class.1 To that
extent Iranian personnel provided continuity between the Turkmen
and the Safavid administrations.
The adoption of Turkmen institutions or the dependence on existing
traditions does not, on the other hand, exclude the introduction of major
changes. It was an innovation that the two groups of Turkmen soldiers
and Iranian civil servants — the "lords of the sword" (arbab-i saif) and
the "lords of the pen" (arbab-i qa/am) - should be united even ethnically
in the person of the Safavid ruler. In the Turkmen states discussed

1
On his family, see Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I", pp. 60-3.

2I
3
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

earlier, the sultans had always been Turkmen: the Safavid Shah com-
bined in himself the blood of both Turkmen and Iranian ancestors. It is
irrelevant, therefore, whether the founder of the dynasty, Shaikh SafI,
was descended from Iranian dibqans, from 'AH, or from Kurds, since
Isma'H himself was connected equally with the military and the adminis-
trative aristocracy. The consequences of this remarkable dualism will be
seen later.
But the divergence from the pattern of Turkmen government did
not stop there. Isma'il, who ascribed to himself divine qualities as the
representative of the Twelve Imams, was also the head of a theocracy,
which had not been the case with either the Aq Quyunlii or the Qara
Quyunlu. He was therefore infallible and could command divine ven-
eration. Moreover, the state which he founded perpetuated the Ardabll
religious order. Isma'il was grand master (pir, mursbid, murshid-i kdmil)
of the Safaviyya. His adherents were therefore called murid and sufi or
ghdstf. Their external appearance was again characterised by the taj-i
haidarl, the turban with twelve red gores which had been introduced
by Haidar but which had grown less popular after his death. Thereby
the name Qizilbash became common usage.
As far as can be ascertained, the overwhelming majority of Isma'U's
militant supporters belonged to Turkmen tribes. What was demanded
of them was suftgari, "conduct becoming to a sufi", though this can
scarcely have meant the same duties as those normally incumbent upon
members of an Islamic mystical order. We must leave unanswered the
question of how far under Isma'U's rule the Safavid sufls had to dis-
charge the religious duties of prayer and worship belonging to the
mystic path (tartqa), asceticism and a retiring life, vigils and fasts,
litanies and the invoking of God. On the other hand, there is no doubt
that, just as with the members of a dervish community, absolute obedi-
ence to the murshid was demanded of them.
We know that the Qizilbash soldiers fulfilled this obligation; they
even accepted the king's claim to be venerated as a divine being. Their
battle cry is significant:
Qurban oldigbim piriim miirshidim!
("My spiritual leader and master,forwhom I sacrifice myself!")
Reports of their fanatical conduct in battle indicate that this cry truly
conveyed their inner conviction, that they cared nothing for their own
safety in war, either because they believed themselves to be invulner-
214
able or because they positively longed for death as a direct access to
paradise. The belief in Isma'il's invincibility, repeatedly confirmed over
the years, also contributed to the process of turning his hordes into an
efficient fighting force. At that time, when the morale of almost every
army was extremely low, a strong moral impulse and several intangible
factors must have been necessary to organise a military force adequate
to the task of conquering a country as large as Persia.
In order to understand further developments in the story, it is
important to remember that the Turkmen tribesmen were grouped
together in units or bands according to their tribe. Their tribal group-
ing also played a part in certain specialised units which were set up in
due course.1 It was of particular importance when it came to allocating
provinces to the amirs. Each one would take all or some of his fellow
tribesmen with him to his new place of residence, and employ them to
help carry out his decrees: he was thus able to exercise an almost regal
authority. The survival of tribal loyalties subsequently had serious
repercussions for the Safavid state.
Of the tribes which played a part in founding the empire, we have
already mentioned the Ustajlu, the Shamlu, the Rumlu, the Takkalu
and the Dulghadi'r. Also important are the Turkman, the Afshar and
the Qajar. Besides these there were smaller tribes which had little or no
influence on events; and there were other tribal groups which formed
subdivisions of or clans within the main tribes.2

Apart from regarding himself as god-king, Isma'H seems to have seen

himself as the legitimate heir of his grandfather Uzun Hasan Aq
Quyunlu. His desecration of the graves of the Aq Quyunlu rulers
following his coronation does not necessarily contradict this. More
pertinent are not only the fact that he preferred Tabriz as his capital to
other cities such as Ardabll, but also his acceptance of the Turkmen
administration described above, and the important contribution made
by Turkmen tribes to his success. The same can be seen in his decision
not to press further eastwards after the final expulsion of Alvand and
the victory over Murad Aq Quyunlu which established his control
over Hamadan with central and southern Iran; instead he turned his
attention to the old heartlands of Uzun Hasan, Diyarbakr and the
1
Cf. Rohrborn, Province/I und Zentralgewalt, p. 49.
2
For further details, see Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safaviden", pp. 131-7, and Minorsky,
Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. 189—95.

215
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

earlier capital, Amid. Here in eastern Anatolia he even advanced as far

as Mar'ash and Abulustan, the home of the Dulghadir tribe, only a
section of which had hitherto been numbered among his adherents.
Thereby he had reached the eastern frontier of the Ottoman empire.
But he was clever enough not to provoke his powerful neighbour
further. Although certain tensions had existed between them, peaceful
relations still appeared possible at this point, particularly since Sultan
Bayezld II was known to be a friend and protector of dervishes and
sufis. Shortly before, he had granted an annual pension to a Qizilbash
leader in southern Anatolia named Hasan Khalifa,1 and he had hither-
to set great store by the cultivation of the traditional friendly relations
between his dynasty and the Ardabll order.
After the conquest of Azarbaljan and eastern Anatolia Isma'Il turned
his attention to Mesopotamia; its conquest began before 1507 with the
capture of Mardln, the last bastion of the Aq Quyunlu, and was com-
pleted the following year with the capture of Baghdad. We do not
propose to describe these campaigns in detail, but must discuss a little
more closely a remarkable exploit which followed the conquest of
Baghdad. This was a campaign to the southern Persian province of
Khuzistan, directed against ultra-Shl'I sectarians who had lived there
since 840/1436 under the name of Musha'sha'2. According to the testi-
mony of a Safavid chronicler3 they had at that time a leader named
Sayyid Fayyaz and professed the heretical belief that 'All, the fourth
Caliph, was God and that finally their leader Sayyid Fayyaz was also an
incarnation of God. We are also told that at their prayer meetings they
recited verses about 'A^li Ildhi and so on, thereby achieving invulnera-
bility: if they then tried to thrust a sword into their bodies, it left no
wound — on the contrary, the blade would bend like a bow.
Certain aspects of the teaching of these sects, of which we have more
detailed knowledge, bring to mind notions which we know to have
occupied Isma'Il, above all the exaggerated adulation of 'All. There
seems to be further proof here that such ideas were in the air at the
time. Naturally, it is easy to see that such extreme viewpoints could
scarcely coexist harmoniously, the less so when they were linked with
rival political claims. It is not surprising that Isma'Il refused to tolerate
in others religious demands similar to those which he voiced himself.
The Khuzistan campaign ended the independence of the kingdom of
1
Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safaviden", p. 159.
2
See above, pp. 136—7.
3
Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, p. 57.

2l6
Haviza. Sayyid Fayyaz was killed in battle. Soon, however, his brother
Sayyid Falah took his place. With him began a line of princes who were
vassals of the Safavids except when they were prevented from fulfilling
their allegiance by the Ottomans. Under their rule the border country
of 'Arabistan around Haviza formed a kind of buffer state between the
Ottomans and the Safavids and rendered the Safavids in particular
valuable services. We must not forget either the way in which the
rulers of Haviza mediated between the Persian and Arabic cultures.
Before the Ottoman-Safavid conflict - which we have touched upon
several times already - could be resolved, there was a clash with another
enemy of the Safavids, the Uzbeks of eastern Iran, who had begun to rise
to power in Transoxiana around 149 5. Their ruler, Muhammad ShaibanI
Khan, was waiting for a chance to annex the territory of the Timurids
together with their capital Herat. There, since the fall of Abu Sa'Id in
873/1469, power had been in the hands of Husain Balqara, who had
turned his capital into a splendid centre of Islamic culture. When he died
in 911/1506, two of his sons quarrelled over the succession, so that the
following year Herat fell an easy prey to the Uzbek khan. Thereby the
western part of Khurasan was also threatened. The information which
Isma'Il received about these events, and certainly too the personal appeal
of Bad!' al-Zaman, Husain Balqara's son and heir, who had sought
asylum at Isma'H's court, led him to launch a campaign in the east. He
defeated and slew the Uzbek ruler in battle at Marv at the beginning of
the winter of 916/1510. Isma'Il captured Herat, appointed one of his
amirs governor, and withdrew again.
The fall of Muhammad ShaibanI Khan did not remove the Uzbek
threat to the Safavids; on the contrary, it remained acute until the end
of the ioth/i6th century. Two years after the battle of Marv there was
another Uzbek attack which overwhelmed the Safavid troops in
Khurasan. Reinforcements sent by Isma'Il under the leadership of the
famous general Najm-i sanl proved no match for 'Ubaid-Allah Sultan,
the new khan, even though they were supported by the Timurid
Babur, who later founded the Mughal empire in India. After the cata-
strophic defeat of his forces at Ghujduvan on 3 Ramadan 918/12
November 15121, Isma'Il had to go to Khurasan in person the following
spring, in order to save the situation. His arrival brought about the
withdrawal of the Uzbeks without any battle being fought.

1
See above, pp. 126-7.

217
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

In a relatively short period Isma'H had won control over both the
territory of the Aq Quyunlu and the rest of Persia, with the exception
of a few small areas. Apart from the Uzbek khan Muhammad Shaibanl,
he had not come across any truly dangerous opponent. Admittedly he
had not been greeted everywhere by a jubilant populace. There were
cities like Kashan and Qum with an old-established Shl'I population
which clearly welcomed a Shi'I ruler. In several places, too, the propa-
ganda which preceded his arrival and the reputation of his fascinating
personality doubtless prepared the ground; similarly, the far-reaching
intellectual climate of Folk Islam had favourable consequences for him.
These circumstances doubtless facilitated for many their conversion to
the new faith. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to think that in the
course of the expansion of the Safavid state the population of Persia
was converted overnight from the Sunna to the Shi'a. The propagation
of the Shi'a was not accomplished uniformly or with unqualified suc-
cess or without conflict. There are even grounds for supposing that
decades after the commencement of Safavid rule, for instance, in
Khurasan (where there was to be no lack of Sunnls at the time of the
Uzbek conquest in 997/15891), and probably in other parts of the
realm too, adherents of the Sunna continued to practise their creed in
secret. But in the course of these conquests there were also fervent
Sunnls who refused to relinquish their religious principles and were
not prepared even to make a pretence of being converted. In such cases
- for example, in Baghdad or Herat - Isma'H reacted with brutal
severity, ruthlessly executing theologians, scholars and even poets who
refused to accept the Shl'I faith.2
I have already alluded to the extensive spread of the Safavid order in
Asia Minor. We also know that Isma'H prepared for his seizure of
power by despatching envoys to mobilise his supporters in Anatolia. It
has been suggested that the purpose of his march to Arzinjan may have
been to shorten the march of the Qizilbash hastening to meet him from
the west and thus to have them at his disposal at the earliest possible
moment. It is true that many Anatolian Tiirkmens flocked to Isma'Il's
standard when he embarked on his first exploits. In the first ten years of
his rule this influx grew year by year. The reason lay above all in his
military successes, but also in his reputation for generosity in the

1
Iskandar MunsM, trans. Savory, pp. 559,;84, 1073.
2
Duri, "Baghdad", EP. LHP iv, 63.

218
distribution of booty, news of which spread rapidly throughout the
Near East. Adventurousness and religious zeal played their part.
Although the desire to join Isma'lFs army at an opportune moment
before the final triumph of the Safavid movement may have been a
contributory factor, it was not merely that kind of motive which drove
so many Turkmen tribesmen into the Safavid camp. An additional
reason was the persistent economic crisis among the population of Asia
Minor at this time, following natural disasters, plagues and famines.
When one realises that many of these Tiirkmens - in fact, all those
who came from the province of Rum — were Ottoman subjects, one
readily appreciates that this occurrence, a movement of population
which the Ottoman authorities could not fail to notice, was viewed in
Istanbul with suspicion and growing disquiet. It was seen as a confirma-
tion of certain separatist tendencies which had been evinced in the
province of Rum for some time. Even a ruler sympathetic towards the
dervishes like Sultan Bayezld II could not look on indifferently: at least
since the attempt on his life in 897/1492 by an Islamic wandering mystic,
he knew what to expect of political fanatics who had donned the cowl.
Although the would-be assassin had been a qalandar dervish, not a
Qizilbash, the political aspirations of the Qizilbash had been clear
enough to the Sublime Porte since the time of Junaid. Thus when Isma'II
appeared in Arzinjan, the Ottoman government feared an attack on the
province of Rum, which in the circumstances might only too easily
result in the loss of this territory. It therefore made extensive military
preparations, which were not abandoned until Isma'II had turned his
attention to the regions further to the east. Although the expected attack
had not materialised, there remained grave concern about the continu-
ing flow of Anatolian mercenaries into Isma'U's armies.
In order to stem this massive emigration of able-bodied subjects and
put an end to the reinforcement of a potential enemy, the sultan
ordered in 907-8/1502 the first persecution of Qizilbash in Anatolia.
Every inhabitant who was known to have Safavid sympathies was
branded on the face and deported to the west, usually to Modoni and
Koroni in southern Greece. The amirs on the eastern frontier were
ordered to prevent Qizilbash from crossing the border. However,
these measures could have had little permanent effect in the conditions
of the time, particularly in the case of a partly nomadic population
whose religious and political loyalties were difficult to check. But the
campaign was not a total failure either, as can be seen from Ottoman
219
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

chroniclers who record that Isma'Il sent the sultan a written (and
unsuccessful) appeal asking him not to forbid his adherents to cross the
frontier.
Relations between the Ottomans and the Safavids worsened after
Isma'Il's campaign of 913/1507 against the principality of the Dul-
ghadi'r, which lay within the Ottoman sphere of influence; though
whether he also advanced into Ottoman territory proper is not known,
since the sources contradict each other.1 In any case the Ottoman
military were provoked into taking new defensive measures which in
the event again proved unnecessary. The extent of the threat to the
province of Rum, if not to the whole Ottoman empire, of Isma'Il's rise
to power and of the movement he led, was not seen until several years
later - and then not as the result of a military attack but through a
grave internal crisis.
When the sons of Sultan Bayezld II began to quarrel over the
succession even while their father was still alive, Prince Sultan Qorqud
secretly left his city of Antalya at the beginning of 1511 and headed for
Manisa, a town closer to the capital, from where he could more easily
observe the developments at court. His departure, which did not in
fact pass unnoticed, gave rise to rumours of the death of the sultan,
who had been in poor health for years. This totally unfounded news
brought to a head the resentment which had been simmering among
the Qizilbash, especially in the province of Teke-Ili, of which Antalya
was the capital, ever since the persecutions mentioned above; the
tension had been increased by their fear of deportation and their anger
at not being allowed to cross into Persia. Led by a certain Qizilbash
called Shah Qull, who hailed from that area but whose origins are
otherwise not completely clear, hordes of rebellious Tiirkmens, com-
posed almost entirely of Qizilbash, roamed the region, murdering and
looting. The rebels belonged to the landless rural classes who had
nothing to lose but who believed themselves to be assured of paradise
if they were killed. The economic distress in Anatolia should not be
ignored as a motivating factor in the uprising. This social aspect com-
bined with Shl'I extremism is clearly discernible.
Wherever the rebels appeared they spread fear and panic. Villages
whose inhabitants refused to join them were razed to the ground, the
people - even women and children - were massacred, and all the animals

1
Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safaviden", p. 142.

22O
slaughtered. Even mosques and Islamic monasteries were not spared
their lust for destruction. Regular forces which intercepted them were
defeated, whether under the command of the governor of Anatolia or of
Prince Sultan Qorqud, who did battle with them on the plain of
Alashehir. In the end Sultan Bayezld had to despatch his Grand Vizier
Khadim 'All Pasha with a large army. The latter pursued Shah Qull and
his bands, who had fled from him at Antalya, across wide stretches of
Anatolia until finally on 2 July 1511 he caught up with them in the
neighbourhood of Slvas. The battle ended in catastrophe for both sides:
the Grand Vizier was mortally wounded, and Shah Qull was killed
either during or soon after the engagement. Despite heavy losses his
adherents managed to escape across the Persian frontier. At Ray they
joined Isma'il, who was probably filled with suspicion by their misdeeds.
At all events, the leaders were executed on his orders for committing
robbery on Persian soil, and the others distributed among the fighting
units, obviously because he feared the consequences of accepting such
troops into his ranks as a separate and unified force. Although Shah Qull
had begun as a supporter of the Safavids, in the later stages of the revolt
he had been worshipped as God, Prophet and Mahdl and had thus
relinquished his support for Isma'il. For this reason alone it is somewhat
unlikely that the rebellion was instigated or assisted by the Safavids.
Moreover, this is never suggested in the sources.
A very different situation prevailed subsequently. The revolt was not
quelled by the battle of Slvas and the death of Shah Qull. On the
contrary, only after this did it break out properly in the province of
Rum. Here there are clear links between the rebels and the Safavids. The
proximity of the Persian frontier allowed them in an emergency to evade
their pursuers by withdrawing on to Safavid territory, there to plan fresh
exploits. The rebellious Qizilbash even obtained support from members
of the Ottoman royal house. Prince Shehln Shah, one of Bayezld's sons
and governor of Qaraman, tried to reach an agreement with them but
died suddenly before achieving anything. When his brother Ahmed,
whom the sultan had in fact chosen as his successor, saw his hopes of
ascending the throne fade and rebelled as a result, his son Murad, who
had been deputising for him in his capital Amasya, negotiated with the
Qizilbash and allowed them to occupy Amasya in the middle of April
1512. The history of the revolt in Rum is characterised by atrocities just
as terrible as those committed in western Anatolia by Shah Qull and
his followers. Whether the conduct of the rebels met with Murad's
221
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

approval, we do not know. At all events he soon lost the initiative and
had no alternative but to flee to Shah Isma'H.
The revolt of the Anatolian Qizilbash contributed substantially to a
turn of events which was highly unpropitious for the rebels: under
pressure from his generals Sultan Bayezld abdicated in favour of his
son Sellm, who ascended the throne on 7 Safar 918/24 April 1512. The
new sultan was not only energetic and determined, but was also a bitter
enemy of Shah Isma'Il. He understood the true magnitude of the threat
to his empire from the Qizilbash, for as governor of Trebizond he had
watched from relatively close range the rise of the young Isma'H, the
orphaned son of a religious fanatic and political adventurer, to become
the invincible God-King of Persia. He had seen too the fanatical valour
of Isma'lPs warriors. He did not doubt that Ottoman rule, at least in
the provinces of Asia Minor, was in jeopardy as long as the revolt of
the Qizilbash in Anatolia was allowed to continue.
The developments in Persia and their repercussions in the eastern
territories of the Ottoman empire - for this is how the revolt must have
appeared to Sellm - had already given him enough grounds for concern:
now, about the time of his accession, further disquieting information
reached him. The Persian intervention which Istanbul, erroneously, had
expected earlier at the time of Isma'il's campaigns against Arzinjan in
905/1500 and Abulustan in 913/1507, had finally occurred. Not the shah
in person, but his governor in Arzinjan, Nur 'All Khalifa Rumlu, had
now invaded Ottoman territory on the orders of his master to assist the
rebels in Rum. He sacked several Ottoman towns and finally, together
with Prince Murad, whom he had intercepted on his march towards
Persia, the city of Toqat. He inflicted a devastating defeat on an Ottoman
general, Yular Qisd'i Sinan Pasha, who attacked him on his return march
close to the frontier.
As soon as Sellm I had prevailed over his brothers, he ordered a
pitiless repression of the Anatolian Qizilbash. Anyone who was known
or suspected to be a member of the movement was called to account.
All ascertainable Qizilbash were registered; some were executed,
others imprisoned. On this occasion too the victims were nomadic
Turkmen tribesmen or peasant villagers; townspeople as a rule showed
little tendency to support extremist movements. The reason for the
persecution was the repeated revolts of the Qizilbash and their connec-
tion with the Safavids - not their Shi'I faith, even though this con-
flicted with the dominant SunnI creed of the Ottoman empire. There
222
were other ShI'I groups who remained unscathed as long as they
refrained from treasonable activities. It is possible that Sellm saw in the
rebellion of the Anatolian Qizilbash the culmination of certain separ-
atist tendencies which had troubled the province of Rum for decades.
At all events he did not draw the line at internal measures, but on 10
March 1514 set out for a campaign against Persia. Both his military
advisers and his troops were loth to undertake this campaign, a factor
which subsequently proved of some consequence.
If we have hitherto examined the relations between the Safavids and
their Turkmen adherents in Anatolia primarily from a religious point
of view, it is because this is the prevailing interpretation. However, a
recently elaborated thesis,1 according to which social and political
factors outweighed religious motives, also deserves attention. Accord-
ing to this argument the Turkmen tribes of Asia Minor turned to
Persia because they neither would nor could be integrated into
Ottoman society. For one thing their own strong racial consciousness
stood in the way of any integration (though in the event the Safavids
too failed to bring about such an integration). For another, their lead-
ers would have had no chance of promotion in the Ottoman army of
this period because a Turkish military aristocracy had already been
formed - whereas in Persia Turkmen amirs had been offered a wide
sphere of action not only in the conquest of territory but also in the
political organisation and provincial administration of the empire.
This argument is not implausible, although its validity remains to be
tested on some points, especially the idea that tribal interests over-
shadowed all other ties, even the religious ones, and that these Turk-
mens were in fact quite indifferent to the religious issue, being still
close to the shamanistic faith of their forebears. Such assertions are not
adequately supported by the sources discovered to date, and for the
time being we must assume that the rise of Isma'Il was inspired by
strong religious motives which must have impinged on his Anatolian
adherents. There, even if one attaches no great significance to the
religious motives of his father and grandfather, the matter must rest,
until the opposite is proved to be the case.
Whatever the details of events in Anatolia, Sellm had of course good
reason to view the development of the new Safavid state as a threat to

1
Walsh, "Historiography", pp. ioz{.

223
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

the Ottoman empire. With the far-reaching plans which he had doubt-
less already conceived and which shortly afterwards he put into effect
with the conquest of Syria and Egypt in 922/1517, he could not accept
the risk of being attacked on the flank or from the rear. But as he
marched towards Persia in the spring and summer of 920/1514, he was
dogged by the worry that he might not be able to engage the shah in
battle. He could not be sure that Isma'Il would fight, in spite of the
provocation contained in the letters exchanged by the two rulers, the
texts of which have come down to us. Should Isma'Il seek to avoid
doing battle, the march eastwards could not be continued indefinitely
with troops who were already less than eager (there is a report of a
mutiny among the janissaries). Spending the winter in eastern Anatolia
was also out of the question, if only for climatic reasons. The whole
difficulty of the operation was brought home when the Safavid gover-
nor of Diyarbakr retreated from his province as the enemy approached
and implemented a scorched-earth policy against his pursuers.
In the end this anxiety proved to be unfounded: Isma'Il did not
avoid doing battle, although he must have known that the sultan
commanded greatly superior forces. If certain sources can be relied
upon, he deliberately relinquished certain advantages which would
have accrued to him in his base in the mountains of Khuy in north-
west Azarbaljan, and instead marched down into the plain of Chaldi-
ran. Moreover, we are told that he refused to attack the enemy before
their troops had time to recover from the exertions of their long march
and could be deployed in battle order, the advice of two of his generals,
Muhammad Khan Ustajlu and Nut 'All Khalifa, based upon their
experience of fighting Ottoman troops. Although such information
smacks slightly of the hindsight of participants, it is not impossible in
view of the good fortune which had hitherto smiled on Isma'Il's mili-
tary ventures that he really did act in this way out of a feeling of
invincibility.
In the battle of Chaldiran on 2 Rajab 920/23 August 1514 the shah
suffered a shattering defeat. He himself managed to escape to his capital
Tabriz with a small band of followers, but his army was beaten and
many of his generals were killed. The magnitude of the disaster may be
judged from the fact that the royal harem with two of Isma'Il's wives
fell into the hands of the enemy. The reasons adduced for the Persian
defeat include not only those already mentioned, especially the numeri-
cal superiority of the Turkish army, but also its possession of artillery
224
and firearms which the Persians lacked almost completely1 and which
had a devastating effect on their cavalry, particularly on the plain. The
brilliant solution of the logistical problem, the difficulties of which
should not be underestimated, on such a long march mostly through
loyal territory certainly contributed to the Turkish victory, although
perhaps it did not play a decisive role.
However thorough Isma'lPs defeat had been, the Turkish Sultan was
in no position to exploit his victory properly. He pursued the shah and
captured Tabriz, but a week later, on 13 September, he had to withdraw
again westwards after failing, despite their impressive victory, to per-
suade his officers to winter in Tabriz, let alone advance on the Iranian
highlands as would have been necessary if the pursuit of the shah was to
be continued. Here we see a situation from which the Safavids were
often to profit in their subsequent conflicts with the Ottomans; the
extended lines of communication, the difficulties of transportation and
the harsh climate of eastern Anatolia and Azarbaljan. Cleverly exploit-
ing these circumstances, they avoided a decisive battle with the Otto-
mans after Chaldiran and caused their offensives to dissipate themselves,
in the certain expectation that the approach of winter would force them
to turn back.
Shortly after Sellm's withdrawal Isma'Il returned unopposed to
Tabriz. Yet he was unable to prevent the Turkish occupation and
eventual annexation of the provinces of Arzinjan and Diyarbakr, losses
which after 1517 were in fact never recovered.

For Shah Isma'Il Chaldiran did not mean merely the loss of a battle and
of extensive tracts of land. In the eyes of his followers he had also lost
the nimbus of invincibility, even if the defeat had done nothing to
impair his reputation for sanctity. After all, the later Safavid monarchs
were still considered sacred persons. However, his confidence must
have been dealt a considerable blow. How else is one to explain the fact
that thereafter in the ten years up to his death he never once summoned
up the strength to take part in a military campaign, against either
external or internal enemies? After Chaldiran there seems to have been
little left of his old dynamism or of the boldness which he had still
shown even on the battlefield of Chaldiran, although there was no lack
of opportunity for military action, whether because of the revolt of

1
FalsafI, "Jang-i Chaldiran", p. 53. Savory, "The Sherley Myth", pp. 75IT.

225
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

individual governors or because of attacks from outside, for example a

new Uzbek invasion in 927/15 21 under 'Ubaid-Allah Khan. Tasks such
as these he left to his officers. He himself appears to have lapsed into a
persistent passivity, at least as far as the military defence of his throne
and empire was concerned. Although he continued the customary
transfer of the royal court and headquarters from one province to
another, the alternation of summer and winter camps, he spent most of
his time in hunting, competitive games and carousing. In the spring of
930/15 24, on a hunting trip to Georgia, the shah fell ill, but recovered
in Ardabll on the way back and continued his journey. However, he
developed a violent fever en route and succumbed to it in Tabriz in the
month of Rajab/May.
Before we proceed to discuss the later history of the Safavid empire,
this is an appropriate point to assess Isma'Il's personality and historical
significance. Contemporary Italian reports convey a vivid picture of
the appearance of the first Safavid shah. This is supplemented by a
portrait which nowadays hangs in the Uffizi palace in Florence.1 The
Italian informants, who saw Isma'Il with their own eyes, describe him
as of prepossessing appearance, not too tall but of adequate stature,
heavily built and broad-shouldered, with a fair complexion, clean-
shaven except for a reddish moustache, and with apparently thinning
hair.2
Isma'Il is reputed to have been shrewd, to have had a lively mind
and a quick intelligence. His personality as deduced from the sources
does not lack positive features. The chronicles depict him as a just ruler
who had the interests of his subjects at heart. His poems bespeak an
unusual religious enthusiasm. Therein lies probably the key to his early
political and military success: his ability to inspire others with his zeal
- though the age was such that we may presuppose a certain suscepti-
bility on their part. Courage and boldness together with physical
strength and a masterly skill in the arts of war - he was said to be a
superb archer - distinguished him in battle. But elsewhere too he did
not lack courage, as is shown for instance by his decision to introduce
officially the Shl'I faith in Tabriz, a city which had been hitherto two
thirds Sunnl. These qualities characterise his conduct even at a very
early age. We hear that while out hunting as a boy he fearlessly faced
1
For a mediocre reproduction, see FalsafI, Cband maqala, facing p. 40.
2
Thus Ramusio, quoted in Hinz, Irans Aufstieg, pp. 74f.; also "The Travels of a Merchant in
Persia", in A Narrative of Italian Travels, p. 202.

226
 THE EARLY SAFAVID EMPIRE

bears, leopards and lions. He was famedforhis boundless generosity,

especially when it came to distributing booty: of course his behaviour
may not have been influenced by altruism alone but also by the realisa-
tion that this was the quickest way to win recruits.
However unstinting the shah may have been towards his adherents,
he also showed merciless severity, for example towards arbitrary acts
on the part of his governors. Opponents who refused to submit were
pursued with unrelenting vengefulness and horrifying cruelty. We
recall the faithful SunnI executed on his orders or the refined tortures
which, according to the chronicles, he inflicted upon some delinquents.
His hatred could outlast the death of his opponents; for instance, he
had the skull of the Uzbek Muhammad ShaibanI Khan fashioned into a
drinking vessel for his own use, and ordered the desecration of graves
and corpses. One's revulsion at such horrors is scarcely mitigated by
any allusion to the general barbarity of the age. A curious light is
thrown on Isma'Il's character by his passivity and his hedonism during
the last ten years of his life. The transformation from a remarkable
military and political ambitiousness to a life limited to the confines of
the court and devoted to drinking bouts, hunting and contests, appears
to have puzzled even his contemporaries. At all events their naive
attempt to present the shah as the victim of the wiles of worthless
courtiers such as the Grand Vizier Mlrza Kamal al-Din Husain (mur-
dered in 1523) or other Isfahan notables, suggests that this was the
case.

CHARACTER OF THE EARLY SAFAVID EMPIRE

Two sections of the population of the Safavid empire stand out in

particular, the Turks and the Iranians. They are distinct not only in
language and customs, but also in origin and culture. Whereas the
Turkish element is composed of Turkmen tribesmen, for the most part
nomadic herdsmen and warriors, the Iranian consists of the old-
established peasantry and the urban mercantile and artisan classes. In the
figure of Isma'Il the Turkish and the Iranian groups fused. It was not
immediately apparent whether Isma'Il would cast in his lot with one or
the other of these two sections of the population, and if so which one he
would choose.
Although the sultan had not been able to exploit his victory to the
full, the battle of Chaldiran had immense repercussions not only on
227
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Shah Isma'lFs personal conduct but also on the history of Persia. With
the resulting loss of the Safavid territory in eastern Anatolia the capital
Tabriz found itself deprived of its more or less central location and
placed on the frontiers of the empire; the geographical centre of grav-
ity of the Safavid realm was thereby well-nigh compulsorily transferred
to the Iranian highlands. Despite all Isma'lFs Iranian conquests as far
as Khurasan, it was by no means clear in the first phase of his rule
whether his realm, whose western frontier with the Ottoman empire
was marked by the upper stretches of the Euphrates, would develop
into an Iranian state with a Turkish glacis to the west, or into a
Turkish state with an Iranian perimeter to the east. Both were possible,
although certain circumstances such as the inclusion of some Turkmen
traditions in the administration and the army appeared to indicate a
preference for the Turkish option. The defeat at Chaldiran did not
indeed supply a final answer to this question, for Isma'Il still clung to
Tabriz as his capital and the seat of government was not moved to
Qazvln for another generation; but without doubt it caused Safavid
policy to be directed towards the east, especially since Isma'Il accepted
the new situation without endeavouring to reverse it.
It would be wrong to see in the distinction between Turks and
Persians at this time something approaching a national bias, if only
because nationalism in the modern sense came only much later from
Europe to the Near East. On the other hand, the individual peoples
were fully aware of the differences between themselves and others. In
the Safavid empire discord and even violent antagonism deriving from
the rivalry between Turks and Persians were not only common, they
even exerted a strong influence on the internal development, at least in
the ioth/i6th century and, moreover, as early as Shah Isma'Il's own
reign. From the outset there were on the one hand Turkish soldiers
who could claim credit for having laid the political foundations of the
new state, and on the other hand members of the Iranian aristocracy
who were proud of the part they had played in organising and admin-
istering the realm.
For generations certain Iranian families had furnished civil servants
for the chancellery and the highest positions in the administration.
These families belonged to the native Iranian aristocracy. Irrespective
of whether their rulers were Qara Quyunlu, Timurids or Aq Quyunlu,
the senior civil servants were always drawn from this Iranian aristoc-
racy. Sometimes it can be ascertained that members of one and the
228
 THE EARLY SAFAVID EMPIRE

same family, and occasionally even the very same men, served several
dynasties. Isma'Il too when he came to power had no alternative but to
make use of the same class of experienced bureaucrats, just as earlier
rulers had done, for there were no other qualified candidates to fill
these posts, certainly none of Turkish or Turkmen origin.
We may ask ourselves whether, as is maintained,1 Isma'Il was really
the symbolic representative of the Iranian population through whom
they made their last and most successful attempt to win political
power. What is certain is that in his case the recourse to the native
aristocracy had quite different consequences than under earlier rulers
such as the Tiirkmens. Hitherto the influence of Iranian officials had
always been strictly limited by the interests of members of the royal
house and of the Turkmen military aristocracy, as instanced in the fate
of the reformer QazI Safi al-Dln 'Isa Savaji in 897/1492.2 With Isma'Il,
however, we see the effect of his own link with the Iranian feudal class
— to which, without prejudice to his Turkmen ancestry, he after all
belonged — in that he was no less sympathetic towards the Iranian
element than towards the Tiirkmens. To this must be added the over-
whelming influence of the Turkmen tribes who had helped him to
victory. The part played by their leaders especially in his early years
must have positively compelled him to be on the look-out for a counter-
balance; and almost inevitably this could only be found in the Iranian
aristocracy.
According to the traditional interpretation, there existed a sharp
distinction in the Safavid empire before Shah 'Abbas I (995-1038/
1587—1629) between military posts which were reserved for the Turk-
ish tribal leaders, and civil and religious posts which were filled by
members of the native aristocracy, that is by Persians, often called
Tajik. More recent studies have revealed that such a summary account
does not adequately describe the position at the time.3 Even under
Shah Isma'Il numerous significant departures from this schema can be
ascertained. The bestowing of senior posts in the chancellery and of the
highest authority over the pious endowments (the office of sadr-i
a\am) on Iranian notables is quite in line with the dichotomy described
above. But it is no longer consistent with this principle that a man like
1
Walsh, "Historiography", pp. zoif.
2
Minorsky, "The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms", BSOAS xvn (1955)" 449~^ 2 ( re P r - ' n Tbe
Turks, Iran and the Caucasus).
3
Braun, Ahval-e Sah hmSil, passim. Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I".

229
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

QazI Muhammad KashI should have become simultaneously sadr and

amir. The abandonment of the principle becomes even clearer with the
appointment of a deputy {vakil) for the shah who had to combine in his
own person the functions of commander-in-chief {amir al-umara') and
grand vizier {va^tr-i a'%am). Even the first occupant of this office,
Shaikh Najm al-Dln Mas'ud Rashtl, was an Iranian, and the recruit-
ment policy which he pursued in this high post was unequivocally
directed towards the favouring of Iranian notables and the reduction of
Turkish influence. On his death in 15 09 another Persian, Yar Ahmad
Khuzanl, better known as Najm-i sanl, was appointed as his successor,
again with the double function, both military and civil. That he took
the military section of his duties seriously is beyond all doubt, since in
918/1512 he led the royal armies against the Uzbeks and was killed in
the battle of Ghujduvan. From 1509 to 1514 the appointment of com-
mander-in-chief, or the more comprehensive office of vakil, was in
Iranian, not Turkish, hands. The position is illustrated by the examples
cited, and one could quote many more. They show clearly that even
under Isma'Il I the highest military appointments and the military
commands in the field were open to Iranian notables.
It can be shown that under Isma'Il Iranian dignitaries used their
influence to restrict the once well-nigh unlimited power of the Turkish
amirs, something which would scarcely have been possible without the
agreement or acquiescence of the ruler. We know too that Shah Isma'Il
heaped tokens of his favour on the Iranian notables already mentioned
and on their fellows, so that several of them acquired immense wealth.
It does not require much imagination to picture the indignation and
resentment of the Turkmen aristocracy when they witnessed such
favouritism and particularly the serious encroachments on their privi-
leges, real or imagined. Here lies the origin of the strained relations
between Turkish and Iranian dignitaries which lasted throughout the
ioth/i6th century and are even characteristic of this period of Safavid
rule. They will recur frequently in the subsequent history of the
dynasty.
Isma'Il was undoubtedly aware of these effects of his Iranophile
policies, at least to a certain extent. It is therefore plausible to suggest
that he had some definite purpose in mind, if only the combatting of
the influence of the Turkish military, to whom can be imputed the
desire to make him an instrument of their own ambitions. Be that as it
may, the geographically determined Iranicisation of the Safavid
230
 THE EARLY SAFAVID EMPIRE

empire, referred to above, was now compounded with the strengthen-

ing of the Iranian element or, to be more precise, the ruling class of the
native population. For all the similarity with the previous empire of the
Aq Quyunlu, which had also fostered a certain Iranicisation through
transferring the capital from Amid to Tabriz, through Uzun Hasan's
defeat by the Ottomans in the battle of Bashkent in 878/1473 and
through the appointment of Persian notables to posts in the government
and the civil service, one observes under Isma'Il's regime signs of more
or less deliberate measures. It cannot be proved that he consciously
attempted to bring about an Iranicisation of the country; but one can
certainly postulate that he was familiar with the problem, if only in
vague terms. This conclusion is justified by a letter written to him by
Sultan Bayezld II. For this letter urges Isma'Il to regard himself as an
Iranian ruler and to confine his activities to the affairs of the inhabitants
of Iran.1 Admittedly the recipient of this advice bequeathed to posterity
a collection of poems written in Turkish; but according to the testimony
of his son Sam Mlrza he also wrote Persian poems. We may credit him
with an insight into the differences in culture and civilisation between
the Persians and the Turks, differences which were probably not
insignificant. However strong Isma'Il's Turkish connections may have
been, however important the contribution of the Qizilbash to his
political success, the state which he founded could scarcely have been
intended to be a Turkish empire.
The Iranian aristocracy favoured by Shah Isma'Il's recruitment
policy were essentially large landowners.2 As everywhere else in the
Near East, where latifundia and feudal-type institutions governed eco-
nomic life, the territory annexed by Isma'Il contained broad sections of
population who lived in reduced circumstances, many in abject penury.
This suggests that the religious movement which carried Isma'Il to
victory may have been inspired by social motives and aspirations,
especially by a concern to remedy existing abuses. Before Isma'Il's
appearance on the scene there had in fact been movements of this kind
often enough in the Islamic world, for instance the communistic
uprisings under Shaikh Badr al-Dln b. QazI Samavna and Baba Biirkluje
1
Cited in FalsafI, Chand maqala, p. 7.
2
An exception that proves the rule is the Grand Vizier Mlrza Kamal al-DIn Shah Husain, an
architect by profession: he was appointed to the office for having found Isma'Tl's favourite wife
wandering about helplessly after Chaldiran and restored her to the shah. But he too acquired
extensive areas of land through his position and the shah's favour: Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I",
pp. 7if.

231
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Mustafa in western Anatolia at the beginning of the $)th/i 5th century.1

If Isma'Il originally showed some understanding of the social prob-
lem,2 he did not introduce any social reforms when he became shah.
The favouritism shown towards Iranian notables indicates rather that
he did not wish to tamper with existing social conditions. Of course,
no reforms could be expected from the Iranian aristocrats themselves,
and the less so the more powerful they grew. But such ideas were also
foreign to the Turkmen leaders with whom they were at loggerheads:
the Turkmens thought of nothing but the defence of their own privi-
leges which could best be achieved by the preservation of the old
feudal order, and certainly not by its curtailment or abolition.
Although new men were appointed to posts of responsibility, nothing
changed in the sphere of economic and social conditions. The burdens
which Isma'H's subjects had to bear at this time are all too clearly
revealed by the long lists of taxes and dues found in documents relating
to tax exemptions and immunities.3
The foundation of an empire whose frontiers corresponded approxi-
mately to those of present-day Persia, the political organisation of these
lands, a certain internal consolidation, and protection from foreign
enemies — such is Isma'Il's incontestable achievement. The propagation
of the Shl'a as the state religion, however dubious the methods
employed, can be seen in retrospect to have made a limited contribution
towards the unification of the empire and its peoples. On the other
hand it had little immediate effect upon the antagonism between the
predominantly nomadic Turkmens and the Iranian town-dwellers. The
new state did not display any particular national character. This notion
occurs in the older literature, but it must be dismissed, if for no other
reason than that nationalist ideas (in the modern sense) did not exist at
that time. Shah Isma'Il I did not carry out any social or political
reforms. The form of government which he adopted in his empire
represents no advance upon that of preceding dynasties: it was an
absolute monarchy, distinguished from other oriental political systems
by its theocratic trappings.

1
Cf. Kissling, "Badr al-dln ibn Kadi Samavna", El2, and for the impulse he and his order
derived from the Safaviyya, "Bajramijje".
2
See the view of Babinger, "Schejch Bedr ed-dln", pp. 87f.
3
For a list of such documents, cf. Busse, Untersuchungtn, pp. 250—7.
 TAHMASP I

TAHMASP I

Shah Tahmasp I (930-84/15 24-76),1 Isma'U's eldest son, was only ten
years old when he ascended the throne. At that age, clearly, he could
not exercise any great influence on the government and to begin with
other elements gained the upper hand with the result that it rapidly
became evident on what weak foundations the Safavid empire still
rested. The internal situation was marked by immense difficulties,
among them the lust for power and the unbridled tribalism of the
Qizilbash, which was henceforth to remain the main problem of
Safavid domestic politics for decades. Immediately after Tahmasp's
accession, and again on successive occasions thereafter, disputes and
intrigues among the Turkmen tribes crippled the military strength of
the Safavids in the face of such powerful foes as the Ottomans in the
west and the Uzbeks in the east. Historians usually pronounce a some-
what unfavourable verdict on the reign of the new shah, which lasted
fifty-two years. However, if one considers the problems and perils
which he had to face during this period — and which on the whole he
overcame successfully - one cannot pass a purely negative judgment
on his rule.
The first decade of his reign, the period from 930/1524 to 940/1533,
has the appearance of an interregnum during which power was wielded
not by the shah himself but by Qizilbash amirs. In addition, it was in a
sense a reaction against the last phase of Isma'U's rule. As will be
recalled, the latter had lost much of his earlier self-confidence after his
defeat at Chaldiran which deprived him of his aura of invincibility.
Evidently in connection with this, there occurred a certain retreat from
the theocratic system of government of the early years — and above all
the attempt to circumscribe the power of the Turkmens by appointing
Iranian dignitaries to the highest administrative and military posts. It is
obvious that on Isma'U's death this policy terminated for the time
being, that the Turkmen leaders immediately undid what had been
achieved and saw to it as long as they were able that similar tendencies
did not prevail under the new shah. Tahmasp's tutor (atabeg), Dlv
Sultan of the Rumlu tribe, took over the direction of public affairs with
the office of Great Amir (amir al-umara). His position did not go
unchallenged, however, since the other Turkmen tribes and particu-

1
Dickson, "Fall of the Safavl Dynasty", prefers the form Tahmasb.
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

larly the strongest among them, the Ustajlu, who dwelt in Khurasan
and also in Tabriz, were loth to accept this arrangement. Nevertheless,
Dlv Sultan managed to assert his authority to the point of being able to
enter the capital. But he had to make concessions: together with Kopek
Sultan, an influential amir of the Ustajlu tribe, and a leader of the
Takkalu by the name of Chuha Sultan, he formed a triumvirate to rule
the empire. In trying to oust his two co-regents, whom he regarded
from the outset as his rivals, he came to grief or, rather, brought about
conflicts in the course of which, from the spring of 932/1526 onwards,
regular battles broke out between individual tribes. At first these were
confined to north-west Persia, but later other parts of the country,
above all Khurasan, were also dragged into the strife. The result was
civil war and chaos throughout the land, and fresh activity on the part
of the Uzbeks in the east.
The Ustajlu suffered heavy losses in these battles and Kopek Sultan
was killed. Thereupon Chuha Sultan Takkalu succeeded in winning the
support of the shah and in poisoning his mind against Dlv Sultan
Rumlu, so that in the summer of 933/1527, before the assembled court,
the shah shot an arrow at his atabeg, thereby giving the signal for his
removal. The dominance of the Rumlu tribe was now followed by that
of the Takkalu, but only for three years. As early as 937/1530—1 there
was a clash between the Takkalu and the Shamlu, whose leader Husain
Khan, governor of Herat, went so far as to brawl with his opponents in
the royal tent. Thereby Chuha Sultan met his death and Husain Khan
took his place. Just like the Ustajlu and the Rumlu before them, the
Takkalu were now ousted in favour of the Shamlu. But Husain Khan's
days were also numbered: three years later he was overthrown and
executed,, although he was related to the shah through his mother, a
sister of Shah Isma'Il.
This brief outline of the Qizilbash interregnum must suffice. It is
enough to illustrate the steady development of the Turkmen tribes into
a kind of Safavid praetorian guard, an evolution characteristic of the
ioth/i6th century. It can readily be imagined how each of these coups
brought with it an intrigue involving various individuals and the tribes
to which they belonged or whose allies they were. The fall of a power-
ful amir signified each time a severe blow for the government and the
whole realm, because the situation at court had its repercussions in the
provinces: each victorious amir attempted to appoint fellow tribesmen
or members of allied tribal groups to the most important positions
2
34
 TAHMASP I

both at court and in the provinces, naturally at the expense of the

defeated faction. This process produced innumerable enmities.
The ousting of Husain Khan denoted a turning point in this
development. The young shah knew now what to expect from the
Turkmen amirs and did not hesitate to draw the appropriate conclu-
sions. He rode roughshod over the allocation of offices already decided
by the amirs, by entrusting the command of the Shamlu contingent not
to one of the amirs of that tribe but to his brother Bahram Mirza and
by once again nominating a Persian as the shah's viceroy (vakil). This
was Qazi Jahan Qazvini, who had already held this post earlier. For
the time being the enormous perils confronting both throne and
empire as a result of the ambitions and cabals of the Qizilbash amirs
had been checked, but they were by no means eliminated. From time to
time they continued to loom up with varying degrees of ominous-
ness. The latent threat remained the same as under Isma'Il. However,
Tahmasp succeeded in asserting his authority for forty years from
940/15 3 3 onwards, until a new rebellion, similar in extent to that which
troubled the beginning of his reign, again rocked the empire.

Scarcely less devastating were the effects of the strife among the Qizil-
bash on the external political situation of the Safavid empire. The
Uzbek danger which we encountered in the reign of Shah Isma'Il for a
long time plagued his son in turn. It crystallised into five separate
assaults, the first of which took place in the year of Tahmasp's acces-
sion. It is unlikely that this initial attack was aimed at the conquest of
Khurasan, though mounted as it was by a strong force it was more
than a mere raid in search of booty and indeed culminated in a pro-
longed but unsuccessful siege of Herat. On the other hand, this inten-
tion, which we have already observed in the case of the Uzbeks, is so
clearly discernible behind the subsequent invasions that a modern
writer has appropriately described the Persian-Uzbek conflicts
between 930/1524 and 947/1540 as "the duel for Khurasan".1 It is not
certain whether the decision to launch the first of the five Uzbek
attacks was taken in the light of the events enacted at the Persian court
after Tahmasp's accession, since the evidence of the sources is contra-
dictory, some placing the outbreak of hostilities prior to Isma'Il's

1
The title of Dickson's thesis: Shah Tahmdsb and the Uzbeks (The Duel for Khurasan with 'Ubayd
Khan...).

235
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

death; but it is undoubtedly the case that these events influenced the
course of the conflict.
The governorship of Khurasan province together with that of the
capital Herat was at that time in the hands of Tahmasp's younger
brother Sam Mirza. In view of his youth, power was exercised on his
behalf by his tutor, Durmish Khan Shamlu. Letters exchanged by the
Uzbek prince 'Ubaid-Allah Khan, Muhammad Shaibanl's nephew, and
the commandant of the fortress of Herat which he was investing,
apparently during the winter of 932/1525—6, are still extant and convey
a good impression of the situation. For in his summons to surrender,
the Uzbek indicates that no assistance could be expected from the shah
in view of the quarrelling among the Qizilbash amirs. And indeed Dlv
Sultan Rumlu did not dare to weaken his army by despatching a force
to relieve Herat. As it happened, there were no serious repercussions at
this particular point because 'Ubaid-Allah Khan was not prepared to
prolong the siege until the enemy had been ground down. Some time
later he withdrew empty-handed.
Shortly after that, however, he must have resolved to conquer
Khurasan, indubitably influenced by the unending squabbles among
the amirs of the shah, and perhaps too by news of the death of
Durmish Khan. As early as 934/1528 he mounted a fresh attack, occu-
pied Mashhad and Astarabad and appeared once again before the walls
of Herat to begin a seven-month siege. This time a Persian relief force
was organised and the shah accompanied it to Khurasan. He inter-
vened personally in the battle of Jam (10 Muharram 935/24 September
1528) and won a victory principally by methods which his amirs had
learnt from the Ottomans: for example, by the use of artillery, which
was new to the Uzbeks. Unfortunately, the Safavid troops failed to
exploit their victory, allowing the enemy to escape, and the following
spring they marched westwards again in order to put down a revolt in
Baghdad which had been instigated by Zu'1-Faqar Beg Mausillu.
Because of its connections with the Ottomans this uprising had a
more than local significance for the shah. He considered it to be more
dangerous than the Uzbeks, who would predictably return in the event
of his own withdrawal. Indeed, he did not have to wait long for news
of 'Ubaid-Allah's third attack. After conquering Mashhad, 'Ubaid-
Allah this time achieved the surrender of the fortress of Herat by
Husain Khan Shamlu, the tutor of Sam Mirza, in return for a guarantee
of safe conduct out of the city. The reasons for this were firstly that
236
 TAHMASP I

Herat had not yet recovered from the previous siege; and secondly that
the court made no effort to go to the aid of Khurasan, clearly because
Chuha Sultan Takkalu had nothing to gain from assisting his enemy
Husain Khan. On the face of it relief was perfectly possible, for the shah
had been able to resolve the problem in Baghdad with unexpected
rapidity. Zu'1-Faqar had been murdered and with the collapse of this
revolt Baghdad had fallen to Tahmasp on 3 Shawwal 935/10 June 15 29.
But instead of then returning to Khurasan, the shah set up a summer
camp at Abhar, and on top of that spent the winter in Qazvln. Not until
the following summer did he march towards Khurasan at the head of a
strong army. At the news of his advance, 'Ubaid-Allah Khan's gover-
nors took flight. 'Ubaid-Allah himself likewise retreated from Herat,
tried to raise reinforcements in Marv and, when that failed, marched on
to Bukhara. The shah assigned Khurasan to Prince Bahram Mlrza and
appointed GhazI Khan Takkalu as his tutor. In spite of the lateness of
the season he left Khurasan again in mid-Rabl' I 937/at the beginning of
November 15 30, perhaps because the size of his army would have caused
grave supply problems had he decided to winter there.
About this time the Persian court witnessed the fall of Chuha Sultan
and the ousting of the Takkalu. The events connected with this were of
such a spectacular nature that the Uzbeks must have learnt about them
forthwith and conceived the idea of a fresh campaign against Khura-
san. An attack by the Ottomans on north-west Persia, with which we
will deal later, was another contributory factor. As in 935/1528 the
shah again reacted nervously to the Ottoman initiative and marched to
Azarbaljan, which not even a fresh Uzbek invasion in the spring of
938/1532 could induce him to leave. The reason for his different esti-
mation of the foes on Persia's western and eastern flanks lay probably
not only in the greater military potential of the Ottomans and the
obvious success of their expansionist policies, but also in the geopoliti-
cal situation. The remote province of Khurasan is connected with the
Safavid central provinces only by a small colonised strip between the
southern face of the Alburz mountains and the northern edge of the
desert; an enemy like the Uzbeks, who were essentially interested only
in Khurasan, would scarcely venture beyond that strip in any large-
scale actions (though they occasionally raided further, as in 939/1533,
when they reached Ray). In Azarbaljan, on the other hand, with its
tracts of agricultural land, vital interests were at stake, including
several access routes to the country's central provinces.

237
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

The fourth Uzbek assault on Khurasan thus coincided with the

shah's stay in Tabriz. It led to the almost complete occupation of the
province. Herat alone resisted the attack and a siege lasting a year and a
half, which might still have achieved its aim had not 'Ubaid-Allah
suddenly retreated in mid-Rabl' I 940/at the beginning of October
1533. His action may have been determined by internal events in his
homeland of Transoxiana, but scarcely by news of Shah Tahmasp's
advance, since the latter did not reach Khurasan for another two
months. The fact that the Herat garrison was equal to the hardships of
a protracted siege is astonishing, the more so since the local Qizilbash
had hitherto been dominated by the Takkalu, who had long since been
ousted from the shah's immediate circle. Nevertheless, the new constel-
lation now had its impact on Herat. Sam MIrza was again appointed
governor, as before with a tutor from the Shamlu tribe, called
Aghzlvar Sultan. This time the shah wintered in Herat. In preparation
for a campaign against the Uzbeks he sent troops to Marv and the
territory of Gharchistan on the sources of the Murghab. In Dhu'l-Hijja
940/June 15 34 he himself departed for Balkh with the main force.
There news reached him of an Ottoman raid on north-west Persia. He
thereupon changed his plans and marched towards the west.
Before we discuss the events of the ensuing war in the context of
Ottoman—Persian friction, we would do well to consider the course
and temporary termination of the struggle against the Uzbeks. But we
can record at this point that the Ottoman attack created the most
dangerous crisis of Shah Tahmasp's reign, because it was connected
not only chronologically but also inherently with the machinations of
the Qizilbash touched on earlier. That 'Ubaid-Allah Khan made the
most of the opportunity afforded him by the shah's involvement in the
west and by the crisis at the Persian court is scarcely surprising. But we
must dismiss the notion that the Turkish sultan conceived of an alli-
ance with the Uzbeks in order to trap the Safavids in a pincer move-
ment, or that similar ideas existed in Bukhara. The latter supposition is
refuted by the mere fact that 'Ubaid-Allah did not mount his attack
until the Ottomans had already begun to retreat.
It is quite another question whether 'Ubaid-Allah had some connec-
tion with the rebellion of the Qizilbash, in the course of which, as we
saw, Husain Khan Shamlu was executed. The consequences of this
uprising for Khurasan began with an official edict (hukm) from the
Herat authorities, permitting the Turkmens to plunder the civilian
238
 TAHMASP I

population. The revolt of Sam Mirza, his tutor and his amirs was
revealed when without the shah's authorisation they undertook a cam-
paign against Qandahar, which was part of the Mughal empire in
India. The enmity existing between 'Ubaid-Allah Khan and the
Mughals, together with the fact that 'Ubaid-Allah initially did not
launch any offensive, but only minor thrusts against Herat, although
the city had been left in a state of turmoil akin to civil war and entirely
without any military protection — all this points to a secret under-
standing. It was undoubtedly known in Bukhara that the Turkish
sultan had already officially recognised Sam Mirza as shah in place of
his brother Tahmasp.
When in 942/at the end of 15 3 5 'Ubaid-Allah Khan mounted his fifth
offensive against Khurasan, a revolt of the population against the
Qizilbash was under way in and around Herat in consequence of the
ruthless plundering to which it had been subjected. The rebels were so
strong and numerous that they were able to place Herat under a regular
state of siege. They put themselves at the disposal of 'Ubaid-Allah,
who was camped before Mashhad, and summoned him to Herat.
Finally, treason on the part of Persian citizens delivered the town into
the hands of the rebels and their Uzbek allies. With the conquest of
Herat, 'Ubaid-Allah, who meanwhile had been elected supreme khan
of the Uzbeks, might have seen himself at the summit of his ambition
to enter upon the heritage of the Timurids in their famous capital, had
not the collapse of discipline in his army become all too evident. When
news reached him that the shah was approaching after a victory over
the Ottoman sultan, his amirs refused to risk a battle with the Qizil-
bash and insisted instead on returning to Bukhara and abandoning
their conquests in Khurasan.
Thus it came about that Herat was evacuated in mid-Sha'ban 943/
at the end of January 1537 and was occupied without a struggle by
the new governor whom the shah had sent on in advance. He was
Tahmasp's eldest son, the future Shah Muhammad Khudabanda,
accompanied by a tutor from the Takkalu tribe, Muhammad Khan
Sharaf al-Din-ughll, who as governor of Baghdad during the rebellion
of his tribe had remained faithful to the shah. Tahmasp remained in
Khurasan for six months, waged a campaign against the Mughals,
thereby conquering Qandahar (if only for a brief interval), and sent his
troops into action against various Uzbek dominions. When in Rabl' II
944/September 1537 he began his return march towards Tabriz, the
2
39
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Uzbek threat had been dispelled for a long time to come. Tahmasp's
prestige, founded on his triumphs over the Ottomans, Uzbeks and
Mughals, but above all over his own Qizilbash amirs, did not fail to
have its effect.
The shah was now twenty-three years old, and had acquired experi-
ence from the events of his childhood and adolescence which, in con-
junction with his political and military aptitude, had turned him into a
ruler of considerable stature. He had survived with flying colours the
long probation period of internal and external crises since his acces-
sion. The very circumspection of his reaction to the Uzbek attacks
leads one to postulate a sound judgment in complicated situations. He
may have known that 'Ubaid-Allah Khan's aspirations in Khurasan,
however serious, were limited by the lack of internal stability in Trans-
oxiana. In fact 'Ubaid-Allah's ideas could not by any means have been
identical with the plans of his generals. Whereas he envisaged an exten-
sion of Uzbek territory - namely the revival of the former Timurid
glory - his followers had perfectly concrete, more modest ends in
mind, that is, forays and expeditions to Khurasan and what seemed to
them to be the untold wealth of its settlements.

Tahmasp was right: his most dangerous enemies were the Ottomans,
not the Uzbeks. Naturally, he was not to know that his opponent
Siileyman the Magnificent (926-74/1520-66) would go down in his-
tory as the most important sultan of the Ottoman empire. Whether the
shah had adequate information right from the beginning of the conflict
about the sultan's military strength and his dealings with the western
powers, we do not know. The mere memory of his father's grave
defeat at Chaldiran may have been sufficient to determine his estimate
of the Ottoman threat. Although that battle had taken place as early as
920/1514, the year of Tahmasp's birth, eye-witness accounts which he
heard as a child doubtless had their effect in later years.
As an indication of the fact that the shah was none too well informed
of the Ottomans' plans or at least exaggerated the potential danger, we
might look at his reaction to the revolt of Zu'1-Faqar Sultan Mausillu
Turkman. It will be recalled that it was this uprising which, after the
victory at Jam in the autumn of 935/1528, caused Tahmasp to leave
Khurasan again with the greatest speed. Since news of the rebellion
had reached him even before the Khurasan campaign, the reason for
his haste was probably that Zu'1-Faqar had recognised the authority of
240
 TAHMASP I

the Ottomans. Now the sultan had just returned from the conquest of
Hungary and was preoccupied with a campaign against Austria, the
attack which led to the siege of Vienna (27 September - 15 October
15 29); he was thus scarcely in a position to pay much heed to the events
in Baghdad, but this was clearly not so obvious from the point of view
of the Persian court encamped in Jam.
Only with the Austrian ceasefire of 14 January 1533 and the peace
treaty which quickly followed did a really serious situation arise for
Persia, resulting in the first of three Turco-Persian wars waged during
Tahmasp's reign. Sultan Suleyman could scarcely have been under any
illusion concerning the danger which a strong Safavid empire might
represent for him and his ambitious plans in the west and north-west of
his realm. Moreover the revolts of the Anatolian Qizilbash — especially
that of Shah Qull but also others that had followed1 - were still fresh
in his mind. When the peace with Austria restored his freedom of
action, he therefore proceeded to tackle this problem.
As will be recalled, the Takkalu had been ousted from their position
of dominance in Persia in 937/1531. The ensuing persecution and
harassment of the members of this tribe provoked one of their leaders,
Ulama Sultan, a governor of the shah in Azarbaljan who had earlier
fled to Persia from Anatolia, to seek refuge at the Ottoman court.
Describing the precarious position of the shah, exposed as he was to
tribal strife at court and in the provinces and to Uzbek attacks on
Khurasan, he drew attention to the favourable conditions for an Otto-
man initiative. The sultan readily took up this suggestion, hoping in
such circumstances to abolish a potential danger in his rear which
might have grown acute at a time when he was engaged in campaigns
in Europe. He sent Ulama Sultan, who had meanwhile been given the
rank of pasha, to Hisn Kaifa as governor with the task of conquering
Bitlls and supporting the Turkish offensive against Persia. In Muhar-
ram 941/July 1534 the Turkish Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha occupied
Tabriz and two months later Suleyman himself arrived in the city. He
marched via Hamadan on Baghdad, which surrendered to the Turks at
the end of November without a struggle. The shah, who had broken
off his campaign against the Uzbeks upon learning of the Ottoman
invasion, and had hastened a distance of some 1,200 miles to meet it,
found himself in desperate straits. In Khurasan there had been an

1
Gokbilgin, "Siileyman I", pp. \o^{. Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safaviden", pp. 164-86.

241
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

attempt to poison him. The Shamlu were in revolt, and more and more
Qizilbash amirs were leaving him in the lurch. This was the last of the
great tribal feuds before the shah succeeded in asserting his authority
and in taking over the government of the realm himself. Suleyman
exploited this situation by making contact with the rebellious prince
Sam in Khurasan, whom he believed he could set on the Persian throne
at the price of Azarbaljan. The Shamlu, and perhaps also the Takkalu,
seem to have been behind this project. Contact between the Khurasan
rebels and the sultan may have been established by GhazI Khan
Takkalu, who had been tutor to Bahram Mirza during his governor-
ship of Herat and now paid a brief visit to the Ottoman winter head-
quarters at Baghdad.
Nevertheless, Tahmasp was able to reverse all of Suleyman's gains as
soon as the latter retreated into Mesopotamia. This led the sultan to
launch a fresh campaign against Persia in the following spring. The
shah again refused to fight a pitched battle - indeed he was probably
not in a position to do so. He confined his activity to attacking the
Turkish rearguards and involving them in skirmishes. When the sultan
began the return march to Istanbul at the end of 1535, his conquests
were again completely lost, with the sole exception of Baghdad, which
remained permanently Turkish, apart from a Persian interlude in the
nth/17th century. Sultan Suleyman had failed to achieve his goal of
freeing himself from the Persian threat to his rear. His failure was all
the greater in that Tahmasp emerged strengthened from the grave
crisis into which the Ottoman attack had plunged him. There is little
doubt that the Turkish failure must once again be attributed to the
rigours of the climate and to the extended lines of communication
which presented the Ottoman armies with practically insoluble logisti-
cal problems. The Persian problem had been shelved, but not solved.
In the next fifteen years Safavid troops established several strong
points along the Turkish frontier, yet without noticeably straining rela-
tions with the Ottomans. Not until Tahmasp's brother Alqas1 Mirza,
who., had once played a prominent part in the struggle against the
Uzbeks and had been made governor of Shlrvan, rebelled against the
shah and was granted asylum at the Porte did relations once more grow
perilously tense. On this occasion too a recent peace treaty with

1
Alternative forms are Alqass, Alqas, Alqasb and Ilqas (for the last, see Rohrborn, Provins^en
und Zentralgewalt, index).

242
 TAHMASP I

Austria gave the sultan a free hand in any conflict with Persia. The
encouragement of the Persian prince to this effect found a ready ear,
especially since another refugee, a son of the last Shlrvan-Shah, was
working along the same lines. In the spring of 955/1548 the sultan
attacked Persia. Again a two-year campaign ensued, and again the
Ottomans failed to win any decisive gains. Tabriz was captured, but
only for a few days. With the sultan's permission, Alqas Mlrza
launched a thrust towards Isfahan and other Persian towns, using not
Turkish but irregular troops. Eventually, however, he fell into his
brother's hands and was imprisoned in a fortress, where he soon met
his death. While Siileyman withdrew to a winter camp at Aleppo,
Tahmasp laid waste large areas of eastern Anatolia. Thereby he
achieved his aim: although the Turks sent a force into Georgia, they
would not risk an engagement with the shah and in the late autumn of
956/1549 they began their retreat.
The repeated capture of his capital by the Turks must have demon-
strated to the shah its exposed location. He therefore decided in
95 5/1548 to transfer his seat to Qazvln.1 It was to remain there for half
a century until finally Isfahan became the capital. One may also see in
this change a token of the increasing Iranicisation of the Safavid
empire, for which the Turkmen tradition linked with Tabriz had now
lost its erstwhile importance.
That the second Persian campaign of Siileyman the Magnificent had
likewise failed to fulfil its objective soon became apparent when shortly
afterwards Tahmasp's second son Isma'Il Mlrza invaded eastern
Anatolia, invested various towns in the neighbourhood of Van, cap-
tured Akhlat and later Arjlsh, and defeated Iskandar Pasha, governor
of Erzerum, before the gates of his own city. When similar exploits
were repeated, the sultan decided on another campaign which initially
he intended to entrust to one of his generals, but which in the event he
led himself. In Jumada II 961/May 1554 he left his winter camp in
Aleppo for Amid and advanced as far as the Armenian territory of
Qarabagh in the southern bend of the Araxes. But by the time he
returned to Erzerum in Ramadan/August all that had been achieved
was extensive pillaging and more or less insignificant skirmishes. Then
a Persian envoy appeared and an armistice was negotiated. Clearly it
1
The date given in Lockhart, Persian Cities (London, i960), p. 69. The difficulty of tracing a
record of the transfer in the sources may probably be ascribed to the fact that public affairs were
dealt with mostly in the royal camp, i.e. in frequently changing locations.
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

was in the interest of both sides to terminate hostilities. For after

Tahmasp, whose pacific nature is often emphasised, had despatched
another plenipotentiary the following spring, a peace treaty was con-
cluded in the sultan's camp at Amasya on 8 Rajab 962/29 May 1555, the
first official peace between the Safavids and the Ottomans. It was
observed until after the deaths of both rulers - in fact, until 986/1578.
Admittedly the Turkish attacks had deprived Tahmasp of Baghdad
and Mesopotamia, together with the fortress of Van. But he had been
able to prevent any further loss of territory, above all the loss of
Azarbaljan. Confronted by a foe who was at the height of his power,
whose exploits had been crowned with success far into Europe, the
shah had acquitted himself not at all badly. Thereby one is of course
overlooking the repercussions of three decades of war in the east and in
the west, combined with the simultaneous internal strife amongst the
Qizilbash tribes, for the Persian economy and the material circum-
stances of the population.
Alongside the conflict with the Uzbeks and the Ottomans, Tahmasp's
relations with the empire of the Indian Mughals, which had been
founded shortly before the beginning of his reign by Zahlr al-Dln
Muhammad Babur, the famous descendant of Tlmur, were of second-
ary importance. Though in 943/1537 the shah had occupied the
Mughal city of Qandahar, he omitted to take any retaliatory measures
when it was shortly afterwards recaptured from the governor he had
appointed. Some years later, when Babur's successor Humayun sought
refuge at his court, the shah placed at his disposal Persian troops, with
whose help he retook the town. In fact, Qandahar did not revert into
the shah's possession until the accession of the Emperor Akbar
(963-1014/1556-1605).1

The Safavid empire possessed numerous frontier areas like Qandahar.

Some of them were ruled as vassal states by native governors, who
occasionally bore the title of vali. The territories were often remote and
differed from the rest of Persia in the language, culture and religion of
their populations. Sometimes they formed a kind of buffer state
between Persia and her powerful neighbours. In the course of time they

1
For further details of Tahmasp's relations with India, cf. the Tirikh-i Qutbi of Khurshah b.
Qubad al-Husainl: review of M.H. ZaidFs partial edition of this work in Der Islam XLV (1969),
169E

244
 TAHMASP I

were integrated with the Persian state as provinces, thereby of course

losing their special status. This tendency can be seen even in the reign
of Tahmasp I: in fact, from 943/1536-7, with the appointment of a
governor in Lahijan, where following the death of Isma'H's benefactor
Karkiya Mirza 'All relations between the Safavid court and the ruler of
east Gllan had rapidly deteriorated; the appointment was short-lived,
though another was made for a few years towards the end of the shah's
reign.1 Shirvan lost its autonomy once and for all in 1538, Baku
followed some years later and Shakkl in 15 51. Tahmasp also appointed
a governor over part of Mazandaran, but the latter could only maintain
his position from 1569 to 1576. The rulers of'Arabistan, the Musha'-
sha', had remained loyal to the Safavids since their subjugation by
Isma'H I. To be sure, Badran b. Falah found himself in a cleft stick
when the Ottomans began their operations against Mesopotamia, and
had no choice but to go to greet Siileyman the Magnificent on his
advance from Hamadan towards Baghdad in 941/1534. Yet his son
and heir Sajjad once again acknowledged the shah as his lord when
Tahmasp proceeded to Dizful in 948/1541. On this occasion Sajjad was
confirmed as governor {hakim) of Havlza.
Naturally there were also territories conquered by Isma'Il I which
were lost to his son; for example, Bitlls on the Turkish frontier, which
has already been mentioned, and Slstan in the far south-east of Persia.
Georgia — including the areas of Shirvan and Shakkl — held a particular
attraction for the Safavids, as indeed it did for the Ottomans and
had also done for previous Muslim dynasties such as the Turkmens.
Tahmasp was following an established precedent, therefore, when he
undertook no fewer than four Georgian campaigns, three of them in
the period 947-61/i 540-54. Great as was the attraction of this land for
the Safavids, the difficulties confronting them there were no less daunt-
ing, both on account of its geography and because of the military
prowess of the Georgians. Tahmasp was not able to hold the capital
Tiflis, although it had been captured several times by the Qizilbash,
until he succeeded in establishing there as his governor the Bagratid
David, a brother of King Simon I, who came to the Persian court, was
converted to Islam and entered Tahmasp's service. This, however, did
not by any means solve the Georgian problem. Nevertheless, the oper-

1
From 975/1567-8, according to Rohrborn, Provin^en und Zentralgewalt, p. 83. Minorsky,
Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 170, gives 1567.

245
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

ations of the Safavids in Georgia had a domestic significance which

will be discussed below.

In order to elucidate the domestic repercussions of Safavid-Georgian

relations, we must again recall the frequent revolts and mutinies of the
Qizilbash amirs, the civil wars unleashed by them at the beginning of
Shah Tahmasp's reign, their unbridled tribalism, individual cases of
desertion to the Ottomans, and their attempt to depose Shah Tahmasp
in favour of his brother Sam Mlrza — all alike basically the consequence
of the failure of Tahmasp, and still more of Isma'il I, to assimilate the
old Safavid order, the Qizilbash, within the state. As has already been
mentioned, such incidents had led occasionally under Isma'il, and all
the more under Tahmasp, to successive attempts either to oust the
Qizilbash amirs or to reduce their predominance. This was possible
only if they could be dislodged from the most important military and
administrative posts in the empire. We have seen what courses of
action the two rulers adopted in order to attain this goal. They prob-
ably realised that although they could obtain partial success by playing
off rival tribes or individuals one against the other, no definitive suc-
cess could be achieved in this way. Shah Isma'lPs practice of appoint-
ing Iranian dignitaries to the highest military posts indicates his aware-
ness that a fundamental change could only be brought about by
recruiting non-Turkmen elements.
In these efforts not only Persians play a role, but even more so
Georgians1 and Circassians (in the then accepted sense of anyone living
north of Darband2), who as a rule were recruited into the army as
bodyguards (qiirchis). The commander of the royal guard (qurchi-bashT)
was already gaining more and more importance during the second half
of Shah Tahmasp's reign, while the power and influence of the Great
Amir (amir al-umara') diminished. This process, which extended over
several decades and eventually resulted in the undermining or even
neutralisation of the Turkmen military aristocracy, the Qizilbash, did
not, of course, escape the attention of the victims, even though to begin
with it was not perhaps as apparent as the preference given to representa-
tives of the Persian aristocracy under Shah Isma'il I. They were of course
reluctant to accept this turn of events, and so repeated disturbances and
1
In 15 5 3—4 alone Tahmasp brought back no fewer than 30,000 Georgian captives: Savory,
"The Principal Offices during the reign of Tahmasp I", p. 84.
2
Minorsky, Tadbkirat a/-Mul£A, p. 163.

Z46
 TAHMASP I

rebellions ensued until Shah 'Abbas I succeeded in finally quelling the

Qizilbash.

Yet before this point was reached, the Safavid empire had to survive
another grave internal crisis, so grave indeed that its very existence was
in danger. The trouble began at the end of Shah Tahmasp I's long
reign, when in October 1575 the aged ruler fell ill. Among the mem-
bers of the royal family and the court, especially the chief amirs of the
Qizilbash, the question of the succession was inevitably debated. This
matter was not governed by any set rules, any more than was the
leadership of the Ardabll order, in which, although it had been custom-
ary for the leadership to be handed down from father to son, the eldest
son had not always been chosen and the rule does not seem in any case
to have been followed invariably.1 Nor had the shah made any explicit
disposition by nominating a crown prince. Although he had for some
time past shown favour to Prince Sultan Haidar Mlrza by inviting him
to participate in affairs of state, he had nevertheless refrained from
endowing him with any specific office.
Admittedly there were influential tribal leaders, among them amirs
of the Ustajlu and powerful Georgians, who looked upon Haidar as the
future shah. His elder brother Muhammad Khudabanda was not con-
sidered a serious contender because he suffered from a major eye com-
plaint. Yet Prince Haidar was opposed by amirs of the Rumlu and
Turkman tribes, for instance, who like Haidar's influential sister Parl
Khan Khanum had a quite different candidate in mind, namely Prince
Isma'Il. The reasons for this choice are not very clear, for the prince in
question had lived for eighteen years under close arrest in the fortress
of Qahqaha, in the Savalan mountains west of Ardabll. Presumably
little more than tribal particularism lay behind it. Perhaps, too, one
may adduce the fame that Isma'Il had won through his victories over
the Turks and which had never entirely faded, that very esteem com-
bined with the common touch and a certain arrogance which may have
induced Shah Tahmasp to imprison Isma'Il after all his unpleasant
experiences with his brothers Sam Mlrza and Alqas Mlrza. We cannot,
however, dismiss the possibility that in spite of everything his father
still considered Isma'Il an eventual successor, since the shah sent a

1
Hinz, Iratis Aufstieg, p. 17. We can only assume that the traditions of the order were observed
in the succession of the first Safavid shahs, since to date there has been no detailed study.

247
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

reliable bodyguard to protect him from any attempts on his life that
might have been instigated by the fortress commandant.
Initially it seemed as if the discussions at the court of Qazvln about
the succession had been premature. Shah Tahmasp recovered from his
illness and devoted his attention as before to affairs of state. But the
tensions among his entourage remained in spite of the king's attempts
to dispel them by making changes in the personnel surrounding him.
The tensions still prevailed when he finally died six months later, as a
result of poison, on 15 Safar 984/14 May 1576. Whether this was by
accident or design has never been established.

Tahmasp's death triggered off a series of dramatic events. Before

proceeding to deal with these, however, we must dwell at least briefly
on an assessment of his character and his fifty-two-year reign. In gen-
eral the verdict of historians has tended to be adverse. They criticise his
miserliness, his greed and his cowardice. They are also offended by the
bigotry which he demonstrated at an early age, apparently following
the failure of a poisoning attempt,1 and which not only affected his
personal conduct and his immediate retinue but was also responsible
for a series of narrow-minded ordinances imposed on the population as
a whole. The notion that he refused to conclude any treaties with the
Christian powers of Western Europe on religious grounds can no
longer be sustained.2 But his bigotry is discernible in his stubborn
attempts to convert the Great Mughal Humayun to the Shl'I faith
when the latter sought asylum at his court in 1541. A particularly
repugnant act of treachery may be seen in his treatment of the Ottoman
Prince Bayezld, who sought refuge in Persia in 1559 after rebelling
against his father. The shah could have been in no doubt as to the
impending fate of the prince and his four sons when he handed them
over to an Ottoman delegation after negotiations lasting two years.
Even if political considerations were involved — Siileyman had threat-
ened military reprisals, in other words, the termination of the Peace of
Amasya - it is to Tahmasp's discredit that he accepted payment for his
collaboration in gold coin and territorial concessions.3
Such misdeeds, errors and weaknesses throw a murky light on
1
Dickson, Sbdb Tahmdsb and the Uzbeks, pp. z6i, z~i&fi., with the date 1534.
2
Cf. now Palombini, Biindnisaerbett, especially p. 119.
3
S. Turan, Kanuni'nin oglir, more briefly Gokbilgin, "Siileyman I", pp. 140-3; Kramers,
"SelTm II", EP.

248
 TAHMASP I

Tahmasp as a person and as a ruler. Yet a just appraisal of the shah

cannot be reached on the basis of this evidence alone: we must also
consider other factors together with his political achievements and
behaviour. We should not forget that the first decade of Tahmasp's
life - the whole period prior to his accession - coincided with that phase
in the career of his father Isma'Il I during which the latter, clearly
disillusioned and discouraged by his defeat at Chaldiran, could not bring
himself to take any notable political or military initiative and therefore
failed to inspire his son with any noble aspirations. On the other hand,
we should not underestimate Tahmasp's achievement in personally
taking over the reins of power within a space often years, after the land
had been at the mercy of plotting tribal chieftains. If in the first decade of
his reign he was a puppet in the hands of Turkmen amirs, he certainly
cannot be accused of weakness during the next forty years.
What is remarkable is not only the skill with which he freed himself
from the tutelage of the Qizilbash leaders but also the courage with
which he faced the Uzbeks, particularly in the battle of Jam, and then
in 941/15 34, even before the Uzbek danger had been averted, took the
correct decision to withdraw from the fighting in the east and march to
meet the greater threat posed by the Ottoman invasion. He adhered
steadfastly to this policy despite the Ottoman.successes and despite the
conspiracy of his brother Sam and the defection of most of his Turk-
men generals. Only in this way did he succeed eventually in asserting
his authority, quelling several revolts on the part of the Qizilbash
(nowadays we would describe them as civil wars), retaining Khurasan
with Herat and Mashhad in defiance of five Uzbek attacks and even
emerging relatively unscathed from three wars against the Ottomans.
Persia was able to absorb the loss of Baghdad, and the surrender of
eastern Anatolia gave an impetus to the Iranicisation (at least in a
geographical sense) of the Safavid empire, for which both its Turkmen
forebear Uzun Hasan and the latter's son and heir Ya'qiib had, so to
speak, established certain preconditions. Another instance of this
development was manifest from 955/1548 onwards, when the Safavid
capital was transferred from Tabriz, now standing on the boundaries
of the empire, to Qazvln. Although Tahmasp and his advisers prob-
ably had no conscious thought other than to avoid the ever-present
threat to the capital from the Ottomans, the idea of a Turkmen state
with its centre at Tabriz and its fulcrum in eastern Anatolia, Mesopo-
tamia and north-west Persia was thereby abandoned in favour of an
249
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

empire centred on the Iranian highlands. At this time, therefore, arose

roughly the same geopolitical situation that still prevails today. There
is no reason to seek here the beginnings of a deliberate policy of
Iranicisation. Yet the implications of the development are clear. At
most one can speak of an involuntary Iranicisation that shows even
fewer signs of being a conscious intention than the previously men-
tioned recruitment of non-Turkmen notables for the civil and military
administration.
The shah's character also appears in a rather more favourable light
when we learn that in spite of his cupidity piety led him to forgo highly
lucrative taxes on the grounds that they offended against religious law;
thereby rejecting an income of some 30,000 tumdns.x The extant record
of the speech he made on 19 July 1562 to the envoys of the Turkish
sultan who had come to negotiate the extradition of Prince Bayezld
betokens his political skill,2 while his highly cultured mind, his scholar-
liness and his patronage of the arts ensure him a measure of sympathy.
After all, under his aegis the art of book illumination attained between
15 30 and 1545 a zenith of development that has never been surpassed.3
Thus, if one carefully weighs up the positive and negative features that
were combined in Tahmasp's character, favourable qualities are by no
means lacking. It must be counted a particular achievement that by the
time of his death he had managed to preserve the essential fabric of his
father's empire in the face of grave internal and external dangers.

That same day the explosive nature of the domestic political situation
in the Safavid empire became evident. It was revealed less by the
immediately erupting dispute over the succession than by the peculiar
character of the antagonisms that now came to the fore. It was not only
a matter of a conflict between rival interests which grouped themselves
around the two contenders, but also (and to a far greater extent) of a
struggle between Turkmen and non-Turkmen. Admittedly, the picture
does not appear so clear-cut at first sight. On the one hand we find

1
Kiitukoglu, "Tahmasp I", p. 647: following Hinz, "The Value of the Toman in the Middle
Ages", Yad-nama-yi Trani-yi Minorsky (Tehran, 1348/1969), pp. 90—5, this is equivalent to 1,730 kg
of pure gold.
2
On this report, see Hinz, "Zur Frage der Denkwurdigkeiten".
3
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis pp. 189, 1996°.

250
Prince Haidar supported partly by the Turkmen Ustajlu tribe but
mainly by the Georgian leaders at court; on the other hand the party of
Prince Isma'Il, who was still imprisoned at Qahqaha — a group led by
Princess Par! Khan Khanum and supported partly by her Circassian
uncle Shamkhal Sultan but in the main by all the Turkmen tribes other
than the Ustajlu.
Prince Haidar considered himself not without good reason as the
heir appointed by Tahmasp, but did not even get a chance to take
power: he fell into the hands of his opponents and was immediately
murdered. Thereafter the way was open for his brother to ascend the
throne as Isma'Il II. The eighteen months of his rule constituted a reign
of terror unusual even by oriental standards. That the party which had
suffered a defeat over the succession should have been exposed to the
revenge of the victors is not surprising. What is remarkable is the
merciless cruelty with which the new shah exterminated his brothers.
Only one of them, the almost blind Muhammad Khudabanda, eluded
his assassin — and that only because Isma'Il died before the order could
be carried out. This brutality is explained by the hypothesis that
Isma'Il, whose health had been ravaged by the constant use of drugs
during his long captivity, was on the verge of insanity when he suc-
ceeded to the throne and from then on acted purely out of paranoia.
This theory may well be correct; but it is equally possible that he was
deliberately imitating the example of the Ottoman court, where at this
time, after several unfortunate experiences, the "superfluous" princes
were systematically eliminated to ensure that the accession of the
crown prince would not be threatened.1 It can be assumed that Isma'Il,
remembering his earlier battles with the Turks, continued to show an
interest in developments in the Ottoman empire even during his cap-
tivity. We even know that he could draw on certain sources of infor-
mation at Qahqaha. Why should he therefore not have come to the
same conclusions as had been drawn in Istanbul? Perhaps the distrust
and fear that he showed reflected his own attitude towards his father;
they were certainly dictated by his father's bitter experience with his
brothers Alqas and Sam. There is no evidence that the murdered
princes had given the new shah any concrete grounds for suspicion,
with the exception of one of his cousins, Sultan Husain MIrza, who set
1
Cf. F. Giese, "Das Seniorat im osmanischen Herrscherhause", MOG n (1923-6), 248—56.
That the Persian court was familiar with the Ottoman practice is clear from Sam Mirza's Tuhfa-yi
Samf, ed. Humayun Farrukh (Tehran, 1347/1969), p. 25.

251
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

up an independent principality in the remote region of Qandahar and

who perished early in 15 77 without Isma'il's contrivance.
If one looks for positive features to alleviate the sinister picture of
Isma'il's personality during his brief reign, there is very little to fall
back on. One could probably point to the success with which he
re-established law and order in the land. In the last eight years of
Tahmasp's reign, we are told, conditions in Persia had grown very
insecure. It is alleged that thousands of Persians were killed by bandits
or as a result of the raids of Turkmen soldiery. Isma'Il apparently
succeeded in re-establishing law and order with relentless severity. One
can also point to the glimmerings of Isma'il's military glory that may
have preserved the country from attacks by foreign enemies, although
news of events inside Persia, of the murder of the princes and especially
of the strife between various Qizilbash tribes, which took a particularly
violent turn in Khurasan, might have been expected to arouse their
interest and ever-present greed for plunder.
Even though Isma'Il II had to proceed cautiously in his relations with
the Ottomans, one of the most extraordinary measures that he attempted
to carry out shortly after assuming power, namely the re-introduction of
the SunnI faith, can scarcely be explained in terms of his respect for their
religious susceptibilities (although such a notion was current in the
capital)1 - not even in the light of the Ottoman demand in the Peace of
Amasya of 962/15 5 5 that the execration of the Caliphs Abu Bakr, 'Umar
and 'Uthman that dated back to Shah Isma'Il I should cease in Persia.
What Isma'il's real motives for such a step may have been remains a
mystery, at least in the present stage of knowledge. Naturally one can
adduce his hatred for his merciless father and the corresponding endeav-
our always to do the very opposite of what Tahmasp had deemedfit;in
this case, therefore, to abandon the typical Safavid credo which Tah-
masp had maintained with such exaggerated piety. One could combine
with this explanation the argument that a reaction against the previous
Shl'I fanaticism was inevitable. It is possible, however, that the step was
dictated by a sober political consideration: Isma'il's concern about the
excessively powerful position of Shl'I dignitaries, which would have
been undermined by a reintroduction of the Sunna.
Before the full repercussions of Isma'il's completely disastrous and
aimless policies could be felt, he met his death on 13 Ramadan 985/24

1
Hinz, "Schah Esma'il II", p. 80. See chapter 12 below.

252
 MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA
November 15 77 in an unexpected and mysterious fashion. Some
accounts claim that he died of an overdose of drugs, others that he was
poisoned by his ambitious sister Parl Khan Khanum, who had been
instrumental in ensuring his succession but who had earned only
ingratitude for her pains. Others again relate that he was murdered by
Qizilbash amirs who refused to tolerate his political measures, particu-
larly the religious changes.

MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA

Some of Isma'Il's relatives had escaped the systematic elimination of the

royal princes. These included his eldest brother Muhammad
Khudabanda and four of his sons, the eldest, Sultan Hasan Mlrza,
having been murdered in Tehran shortly before on Isma'Il's orders. In
the council of the Qizilbash amirs at court who met to discuss the
succession various suggestions were made. Shah Shuja', Isma'Il's infant
son, who was only a few weeks old; his eleven-year-old nephew, Sultan
Hamza Mlrza; and the latter's father, Crown Prince Muhammad
Khudabanda, who had been passed over at the time of Tahmasp's death,
were all mooted as successors. In each case Princess Parl Khan Khanum,
who was at this time about thirty years old, hoped to be able to take over
the regency — even when the choice finally fell on Muhammad Khuda-
banda, for owing to an ophthalmic disease he was almost blind.
When he moved from Shlraz, where he had escaped the fate of his
brothers, to Qazvin and ascended the throne on 3 Dhu'l-Hijja 985/11
February 15 78, the land was delivered from a harrowing tyranny, but
the ten years of his reign brought little joy to his people. What at first
made him appear a mild ruler was the sheer contrast with Isma'Il's
cruelty. If one looks closer, his gentleness is seen to be really weakness,
indifference and incompetence. Although his eye trouble was not con-
ducive to an effective reign, it cannot explain completely his total lack
of involvement in affairs of state. In these circumstances power soon
passed into other hands. The shah lived so much in the background
that some foreign observers evidently never became aware of his exis-
tence; this is the reason for Sultan Hamza Mlrza being described more
than once as a reigning monarch in the list of Safavid rulers — a
position which in reality he never held.1

1
Horst, "Der Safawide Hamza Mlrza"; Roemer, Niedtrgang, pp. 66ff.

255
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

The principal feature of the new shah's whole reign was the quarrel-
ling and intrigues of the Qizilbash amirs that had gone on for decades
and were only quelled when a particular ruler was able to counter them
either by force or by cunning. Since Muhammad Khudabanda could
do neither, their unruliness and jockeying for position reached a climax
during his reign, until his son 'Abbas succeeded in suppressing them.
When news of Isma'Il's death was received, bloody conflicts immedi-
ately broke out among the Qizilbash, with the Shamlu and Ustajlu on
the one side and the Turkman and Takkalu on the other. Although the
Grand Vizier, Mirza Salman Jabirl, a member of an aristocratic family
from Isfahan which had served the Safavids from an early date,1
managed to reconcile the warring parties for a time, these quarrels -
sometimes amounting to serious rebellion and even civil war - were to
remain the dominant factor in Persian politics for the next ten years.
The mention of the grand vizier indicates that not only various fac-
tions among the Turkmen tribes, but also non-Tiirkmens such as
members of the Iranian aristocracy took part in these clashes. This
particular combination, which had already existed before even as early
as the reign of Shah Isma'Il I, foreshadowed future developments.
Admittedly it would be wrong to speak of a confrontation between
Turkmen and non-Turkmen, or even between Turkmen and Iranian.
On the contrary, one finds elements of both groups on either side at
any given moment.
On the death of Isma'Il II the reins of power, as we have seen, were
gathered together in the hands of Princess Parl Khan Khanum. She
was supported by her Circassian uncle, Shamkhal Sultan, the lord of
the seal. As at the time of her father's death, the princess could muster
considerable support among the Qizilbash and with their help was able
to assert her claims. Thus it came about that the Grand Vizier Mirza
Salman, who had been appointed by the late shah in Rabi' I 98 5 /June
1577 and did not find favour with the princess, soon left the capital
ostensibly to pay his respects to the new shah but in fact prompted by a
well founded fear for his own safety. Here we see an alliance of
interests that is worth noting. In the retinue of the new shah it was
evidently known what was to be expected of his reign. The way that he
had exercised previous functions, most recently in Shlraz, permitted
the drawing of fairly reliable conclusions: neither his eye ailment nor

1
Aubin, "Etudes Safavides I", pp. jGS.

254
 MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA

the indifference towards public affairs that he had shown previously

was likely to change. The role of the royal spouse Khair al-Nisa
Begum, known as Mahd-i 'Ulya, would therefore be all the more
important. She was an ambitious woman, born into the MazandaranI
nobility, and her enterprise and lust for power now found undreamed-
of opportunities, after she had gone for months in constant fear of her
life. When the grand vizier arrived in Shlraz she must have welcomed
him not only as a man fully conversant with the latest events in the
capital, but also as a potential ally ideally suited to her purpose. He was
familiar with the details of the administrative machinery and at the
same time enjoyed no particular following among the Qizilbash, since
he belonged to a famous Iranian family. Thus he was not likely to find
any better opportunity than an alliance with the queen of such a weak
ruler as the new shah. All the same, he could not have been unaware of
certain dangers inherent in this community of interests.
To begin with, Mlrza Salman's calculations were apparently proved
correct. He retained his high office even under the new ruler and saw
his enemy Princess Parl Khan Khanum brought low when, along with
her uncle Shamkhal Sultan, she lost all influence shortly after the
arrival of the court in Qazvln and was murdered. Yet the grand vizier
could scarcely have foreseen the extent to which the queen herself
appropriated power, any more than had the Turkmen amirs, who had
presumably voted for Muhammad Khudabanda not least because of his
weakness and inadequacy. She was by no means content to exercise a
more or less indirect influence on affairs of state: instead, she openly
carried out all essential functions herself, including the appointment of
the chief officers of the realm. In place of the usual royal audience,
these high dignitaries had to assemble each morning at the entrance to
the women's apartments in order to receive the Begum's orders. On
these occasions the royal edicts were drawn up and sealed. Political
affairs continued to be dealt with in such a manner for well over a year.
By that time the amirs were so infuriated by the regiment of women
that they conspired against the queen, and openly demanded that the
shah should remove her. They achieved their aim: the Begum was
strangled in the harem on i Jumada I 987/26 July 1579, on the pretext
- whether justified or not, it is uncertain - of having entered into a
love-affair with 'Adil Girai, a brother of the khan of the Crimea.
The queen's murder was tantamount to the usurpation of power by
the influential leaders of the Qizilbash. First there occurred a violent

255
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

explosion of hatred against the Iranian aristocracy, particularly because

of their entrenched positions of power in the central government and
other branches of the administration. During the ensuing persecution
of Iranians, especially the Mazandarani supporters of the murdered
consort, only those under the protection of powerful Turkmen amirs
survived unscathed and unmolested. One such man was the Grand
Vizier MIrza Salman Jabirl, who had joined the conspirators at an
opportune moment even though he did not agree with them on every
point. The difficulties that he had to face during the persecution of the
Iranians may well have deceived the shah into overlooking his previ-
ous conduct. At all events the shah allowed him to remain in his high
office.
The conspirators found it easy enough to persuade the shah to
continue on the throne and to satisfy him with renewed protestations
of their fealty. Naturally they emerged scot-free; for who could have
called them to account? However, it is interesting that Muhammad
Khudabanda's address to the amirs and the reproaches that he levelled
at them contained clear allusions to the old relationship between the
shah as sufl master and the amirs as his disciples (sufigart, 'aqida-yi
bdtint). From this we may conclude that in theory the original basis of
the Safavid empire was still adhered to, even though the religious bond
with the shah had long since been dissolved, probably as early as the
second half of the reign of Shah Isma'Il I.
On this occasion Prince Hamza was proclaimed crown prince. Since
he was only eleven years old the Qizilbash had nothing to fear from
him for the moment. However, in time, as we have seen, he stepped
into the limelight. He had a strong ally in the Grand Vizier Mlrza
Salman Jabirl, who soon achieved a position of prominence once
more. Naturally, the increasing influence of the prince and the vizier
earned them the suspicion and ultimately the enmity of the Qizilbash
amirs. It is therefore not surprising that they both met a violent end.

In fact, they were not killed until 991/1583 and 994/1586 respectively.
Before that the disputes and fighting among the Turkmen tribes grew
so acute that the internal crisis of the Safavid empire, which had been
simmering ever since Shah Tahmasp's death, began to have wider
repercussions: both in the east and in the west Persia's neighbours
launched attacks on her. In the context of the present study a mere
outline of the main events and their background will suffice.
256
 MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA

An attack by Uzbek bands in the spring of 986/1578 was repulsed by

Murtaza Qull Sultan, the governor of Mashhad. This was perhaps a
legacy of the Uzbek wars waged by Tahmasp I, rather than a prelude to
later Uzbek onslaughts of a greater magnitude. In the west the position
was more serious. Whether one chooses to see the Turkish defeat at the
hands of Don Juan of Austria at the battle of Lepanto in 15 71 as a
turning point in the history of Turkish power, or merely as one of
many signs of incipient decline - perhaps even as an attempt to seek
compensation in the east for reverses suffered in the west1 — the
Ottomans still remained by far the greatest threat to the Safavids.
Relations between the Ottomans and their western and north-western
neighbours were just as important a factor in determining the fluctua-
ting extent of the danger as the strength or weakness of particular
Safavid rulers. The confusion surrounding the accession of Shah
Muhammad Khudabanda created ideal conditions for Sultan Murad HI
(982-1003/1574-95) to mount military expeditions in the eastern part
of his empire, because the Habsburg Rudolf II had shortly before paid
him tribute and he could reasonably assume that he had nothing to fear
from that quarter. The Grand Vizier Mehmed Soqollu, who was
inclined to accept the Persian offer to abide by the Peace of Amasya,
was unable to dissuade his monarch; the Sultan was bent on war. A
series of uprisings in the Persian frontier areas among the Kurds and in
Shlrvan, quarrels among the Georgian princes — some of whom in-
clined towards the Turks, others more to the Persians — favoured the
Turkish plans. These tribesmen may well have had a presentiment of a
new Ottoman-Safavid confrontation: indeed in some cases it was
known that neighbouring Turkish governors were stirring up trouble
on instructions from above.2
The Turko-Persian war (986-98/1578-90) was launched by the
Porte with the dispatch of the third vizier Mustafa Pasha, known as
Lala Pasha. He gained victories in Georgia, and also defeated Persian
troops on Lake Childir (some 30 miles north of Kars) and invaded
Shlrvan, but the decisive breakthrough into Persia eluded him.
Although the khan of the Crimea also sent an expeditionary force into
Shlrvan, there were no lasting gains to begin with, since the Safavids —
despite great losses — harassed the initially victorious invaders, often
1
A contemporary view: Roemer, Niedergang, p. 90.
2
Minadoi, p. 2 5. Micheli, in Relation! degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, ed. E. Alberi, Serie
Ilia, 11 (Florence, 1844), 261.

257
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

forcing them to withdraw. However, other Ottoman generals operated

more successfully, with the result that ultimately Persia suffered con-
siderable territorial losses not only in Transcaucasia but also in Kurdis-
tan and Luristan and in 993/1585 she even lost Tabriz.
Nothing could be wider of the mark than to suppose that such
military disasters would have helped to terminate the fateful strife
between the different factions among the Qizilbash tribes, or at least to
keep it within tolerable bounds. As before, dissenting tribal interests
remained the guiding principle of the amirs' actions. They were blind
to the interests of the empire as a whole, in the foundation of which
their forefathers had played such a large part and whose very existence
was now at stake. Their attitude naturally had repercussions on the
military developments and aggravated the situation to a marked extent.
Particularly dangerous was a rebellion in Khurasan that led in
989/1581 to this province temporarily seceding from the central gov-
ernment in Qazvln. In order to understand this event we must recall
that within the Safavid administrative framework certain Qizilbash
amirs, together with their tribes or individual groups of tribal follow-
ers, represented the central government in various provinces as viceroy
(hakim, vail) and wielded political authority on its behalf. Certain
provinces were placed in the charge of royal princes who entrusted the
duties of their office to the Turkmen amirs attached to them as guard-
ians or tutors. Thus we encountered Muhammad Khudabanda, before
his accession, as governor of Shlraz. This post was bestowed on him
eighteen months after the birth of his son 'Abbas on 1 Ramadan 978/27
January 15 71, while Herat, which he had governed hitherto, was allot-
ted to the new-born prince.
Khurasan, which included parts of present-day Afghanistan, had
two centres at this time, Mashhad and Herat. The importance of this
land and the value placed upon it by the Safavids will be remembered
from the earlier account of Shah Tahmasp's Uzbek wars. It should be
noted that Khurasan produced centrifugal tendencies more than once
in the course of Persian history owing to its remoteness from the
central areas of Iran and to the narrow corridor that was its sole link
with them between the Alburz mountains and the Kavlr desert. This
separatism now manifested itself once again, as during the bloody strife
between the Turkmen tribes the victory of any particular group was
immediately countered by reprisals against the kinsfolk of the victors
in another area. This escalation reached its peak when an alliance
258
 MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA

composed mainly of Turkman and Takkalu triumphed over the more

closely linked Shamlu and Ustajlu at the royal court.
The man who had become tutor to Prince 'Abbas was one 'All Quli
Khan Shamlu, who had originally been made governor of Herat by
Shah Isma'Il II and sent there with orders to eliminate the prince.
However, he had not found the opportunity to carry out this commis-
sion when he learnt the news of the shah's death, and this enabled him
to take up office without fulfilling his instructions. Thereafter, before
the demands of Queen Mahd-i 'Ulya that the prince be sent to the court
could be met, she too perished. Thus in the dispute with the court,
where his enemies were now all-powerful, and in the struggle with
their representative in Mashhad, Murtaza Quli Khan, the governor still
possessed an important pawn. He defeated his rival and retained the
upper hand even when the latter was reinforced by troops sent from
the capital. Then fresh reprisals were taken at court against his fellow
tribesmen and in consultation with confederate amirs he resolved to
have the prince proclaimed shah. The accession took place at Herat in
Rabl' I 989/April 15 81. However, Shah Muhammad Khudabanda
advanced into Khurasan in such strength that the ambitious 'All Quli
Khan was worsted at Ghuriyan, then forced to retreat and was finally
surrounded at Herat. He thereupon surrendered. Nevertheless, he
remained governor of his province and guardian of Prince 'Abbas.
The motive force behind the counter-attack in Khurasan had been
the Grand Vizier Mlrza Salman Jabirl. He had gained more and more
influence at court and even when the queen was murdered his career
suffered no more than a temporary setback. In the perilous game in
which he was involved he staked his fortunes on Prince Hamza, mar-
ried off his daughter to him, made his eldest son Mlrza 'Abd-Allah the
prince's vizier, and accompanied him on his campaign in Qarabagh
and Shlrvan. The grand vizier distinguished himself during this cam-
paign, as also in the war against the Ottomans and in the battle against
'Adil Girai Khan, the brother of the khan of the Crimea. The public
token of this rise to power was the bestowal of the rank of governor or
iyalat. Eventually Mlrza Salman enjoyed the same kind of authority as
the shah's viceroy (vakil) in the days of Shah Isma'Il I,1 though he was
never given this particular title. His success aroused the suspicion and
jealousy of the Turkmen amirs and finally inspired them with a grow-

1
See above, pp. 229—30.

259
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

ing hatred for him. They accused him of being hostile to the Qizilbash
and of plotting against them, of harbouring a lust for power and
interfering in military affairs which in their view could never be the
concern of a vizier, an Iranian. The Herat campaign brought things to
a head and they demanded that he be handed over (991/1583). Such
was the bitterness of the amirs that the shah and Prince Hamza had no
choice but to abandon the grand vizier to his enemies.
His assassination demonstrates that in the eighty years since the
beginning of Shah Isma'Il's career the rift within the Safavid empire
between Iranian and Turk had still not been healed. Shah Isma'Il's
plans to break the power of the Qizilbash by uniting the supreme
administrative and military authority in the hands of a non-Turkish,
Iranian vakil had been frustrated despite five successive attempts to
tackle the problem. Shah Tahmasp I's endeavours had likewise met
with little success. Although the office of viceroy existed during his
reign, none of those appointed took a hand in military affairs after an
initial attempt to do so had almost cost the vakil his life. However,
these experiences had left the Turkmen generals with an almost trau-
matic sensitivity towards possible military aspirations on the part of
some leading Iranian even though no military rank had in this case
been conferred. Since they felt it degrading to be under the command
of an Iranian, they fought to defend their military privileges even when
a political analysis would have revealed that their position could rather
be strengthened by a unanimity to be displayed in the face of external
enemies.

We have taken a somewhat closer look at the internal conflicts of the

Safavid empire after the accession of Muhammad Khudabanda in order
to show the extent of the crisis caused by the advent of an incompetent
ruler. The bloody quarrels among the amirs, the murder of the queen
and Mlrza Salman, and the attempted secession in Khurasan were
all merely symptomatic of this crisis. The tribal self-seeking of the
Turkmen amirs continued to make itself felt even after the assassina-
tion of the grand vizier. But it would be pointless to unravel the
details of the ensuing intrigues. What is more important is the effect
that the obvious weakness of the Persian government had on its exter-
nal foes. Events among the Safavids offered them a temptation which
soon proved irresistible. One result was a new Ottoman attack on
north-west Persia in 992/1584. Prince Hamza was dispatched at the
260
 MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA

head of inferior forces to confront 'Osman Pasha and Farhad Pasha, the
commanders of the invading Turkish armies, but failed to recapture
Tabriz. Even in the face of the enemy he had to deal with quarrels
among the Qizilbash. On 24 Dhu'l-Hijja 994/6 December 15 86 he was
assassinated in his camp in Azarbaljan. It has been claimed, though
never proven, that the murderer, a barber by the name of KhudavardI,
had been hired by a group of conspirators among his officers.1 This
new assassination triggered off a development of vital significance. It
brought about the accession of Prince 'Abbas.
After the death of Prince Hamza amirs of the Shamlu and Ustajlu
tribes at court managed to thwart the succession of the shah's next son,
Prince 'Abbas, and instead had his younger brother Abu Talib Mlrza
(b. 15 74) proclaimed crown prince. This step led to immediate reper-
cussions in Khurasan, where by now the initiative no longer lay in the
hands of 'All Qull Khan Shamlu, the governor of Herat, but in those of
the new governor of Mashhad, Murshid Qull Khan Ustajlu, who had
succeeded in spiriting Prince 'Abbas off to Mashhad. He now pro-
ceeded to set in motion plans far more ambitious than those pursued by
the governor of Herat in 989/1581 with his rebellion against the central
government. He cleverly induced some Turkmen leaders in Khurasan
to lend him their support. In addition declarations of loyalty to Prince
'Abbas arrived from other parts of the country. Since the shah had left
the capital with the crown prince and his military retinue, Murshid
Qull Khan ventured to ride with 'Abbas and a small escort - not more
than a few hundred horsemen — to Qazvln in order to make his ward
shah in place of his father.
When he ascended the throne in Qazvln on 16 October 1587, 'Abbas
became the fifth shah of the Safavid dynasty. Muhammad Khudabanda
did not challenge the usurper even after returning to the capital. He
continued to live in Qazvln for a time, but was then banished from
court, a measure probably connected with an attempt to restore him to
the throne. According to the accepted version of events, he was taken
with Prince Abu Talib to Alamut, where his son Tahmasp Mlrza was
already being held: it is said that all three were bunded. Since, how-
ever, Iskandar MunshI records that Navvab-i Sikandar-sha'n, as
Khudabanda was known posthumously, died at Qazvln in the ninth

1
Bellan, Cbab 'Abbas I, p. 14.

26l
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

year of 'Abbas's reign1 (that is, between 21 July 1595 and 10 July
15 96), his imprisonment, if there is any truth in the above story, cannot
have lasted very long.

'ABBAS 1

Murshid Qull Khan Ustajlu, whom Shah 'Abbas appointed his viceroy
{yakil-i divan-i 'alt), may well have counted on the sixteen-year-old ruler
now giving him a free hand. This hope was rapidly dispelled. Before
long the measures taken by the new government bore the hallmark of
the young monarch himself.
The most urgent problems confronting him were the same as those
which had constantly recurred in previous years. In the first place there
was the internal problem of the Turkmen tribalism which had been
fostered by the protracted weakness of the central government. From
the beginning of the reign of the Safavids, all-powerful tribal princes
had filled the military offices at court, while others held sway with their
clans in the provinces as feudal lords, either as governors or as the
guardians of princes who had not yet attained the age of majority. In
some provinces it appears that certain tribes regarded it as their pres-
criptive right to hold the governorship and other administrative offices
— for instance, the Dulghadir in Fars and the Shamlu in Kirman. At
about this time another problem arose with the renewed rise to power
of certain previously subjugated local dynasties, mostly in the frontier
regions of the empire. However, the external difficulties of the realm
were almost more acute than the domestic situation. The enemies of
the Safavids, especially the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks in the
east, had overrun large areas, totalling well-nigh half the territory
bequeathed by Shah Tahmasp to his successors; and now they were
making preparations for fresh attacks on Persia. Under such conditions
trade and industry suffered and the living standards of the people were
correspondingly wretched.
Through determined and consistently applied policies Shah 'Abbas I
overcame the crisis in which the country had found itself at the begin-
ning of his reign. It took him many years and he repeatedly suffered
grave setbacks. Yet his eventual success, like his personality, left a deep

Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, p. 692.

262
 ABBAS I

impression on his people. The memory of this particular shah survived

in Iran for generations and even to this day it has not completely
disappeared. What interests us, however, is the question of how he
found for these problems the solutions which had eluded his predeces-
sors for so long. The most urgent problem at the time of the shah's
accession was the feuding of the Turkmen amirs, which had grown to
the proportions of a civil war. As will be recalled, their power rested
ultimately on the services rendered by their forefathers as soldiers of
the Ardabll order at the time of the foundation and expansion of the
Safavid empire. Of course, there could no longer be any question of
the old relationship between the shah as grand master of the order and
the Qizilbash as his disciples, nor is there any doubt that the theocratic
ideas of Isma'Il I had lost their validity for Shah 'Abbas. If, however,
the strength of the former religious ties had declined, this is not to say
that they had been completely forgotten or had dwindled into insignifi-
cance. The erosion of these old ties has been amply demonstrated by
the above-mentioned activities of the amirs. But their decay is also
demonstrated by 'Abbas's readiness to cast aside the old customs of the
order whenever it was in his interest to do so. On the other hand he
willingly obeyed or enforced them if it suited him. Naturally the con-
flict with the Qizilbash was in the first instance a political problem, but
an element of the original religious relationship remained.1
Apart from this religious aspect the history of the Safavid empire up
to 'Abbas I is synonymous with the history of the rivalry between the
two leading ethnic groups within the state, the Turkmen and the
Iranian elements. One can also view it as a conflict between town and
country, between nomads and settlers. There were plenty of attempts
to achieve a solution. It is an open question whether we should lay
greater emphasis on the endeavour to break the dominant power of the
Turkmen amirs or on the effort to unite and reconcile Persian and
Turk such as was represented in the person of individual members of
the Safavid dynasty. Whichever view we take, the failure is obvious:

1
Its foundations had already been undermined at Chaldiran, as pointed out by Savory, "The
Principal Offices ....during the reign of Isma'Il I", p. 91. But this leaves open the question how far
the Safavid monarchs were still seen as masters of the order or laid claim to that role. At any rate,
as late as 'Abbas's death in 1038/1629 attempts were made to obtain the consent of all available
members of the order regarding the succession, in the traditional manner: Braun, Das Erbe Schah
'Abbas' I, p. 104; and below, p. 279 . See also Savory, "The Office of Khalifat al-khulafa".

263
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

nobody succeeding in working out a compromise between these

opposing elements.
The new shah tackled the Turkmen amirs from the outset in a
relentless and uncompromising fashion. He began by executing a
group of tribal amirs whom he held responsible for the murder of his
brother Hamza. He continued by crushing savagely a conspiracy of
tribal leaders who were plotting to depose him, and then eliminated his
erstwhile guardian Murshid Qull Khan Ustajlu, who had boycotted an
expedition to relieve the siege of Herat by the Uzbeks because of his
long-standing dispute with the city governor, 'AH Qull Khan Shamlu.
There were several other examples over the years, but we need not go
into detail at this-point. The experiences of the shah's youth, such as
the assassination of his mother and his brother Hamza, undoubtedly
helped to inspire his life-long suspicion of the Qizilbash. So ineradica-
ble was this suspicion that he even removed an outstanding general for
the sole reason that he considered him to have acquired too much
power. In the end Shah 'Abbas succeeded in breaking the stranglehold
of the Turkmen amirs and in suppressing the constant squabbles
among the tribes.
Shah 'Abbas's reign saw the beginning of the end for the Tiirkmens,
the decline of their military and political influence and the eclipse of
their social status. The contempt and distrust with which they were
regarded by the ruler resulted in their being squeezed out of the most
important military commands. We witness in effect the disbanding of
the praetorian guard into which the Qizilbash had developed after the
accession of Shah Tahmasp I. This is not to say that they disappeared
from the scene altogether: there were still Qizilbash units in Persia
during the reign of Shah 'Abbas and even down to the collapse of his
dynasty in the 12th/18th century. But henceforth they were no longer
the sole military caste.
After they had been neutralised the structure of the Safavid empire
was fundamentally transformed. Shah 'Abbas could only achieve a
lasting success by creating a counterbalance to the Qizilbash on the one
hand and by compensating for the loss of military striking power on
the other. He employed various means to this end. One was a proce-
dure associated with the term shablsavani which aimed at polarising
feeling among the Qizilbash. It took the form of a summons to "those
loyal to the king", the royalists. It seems that in this way reliable
elements among the Qizilbash were identified and then probably reor-
264
 ABBAS I

ganised into fresh military units. However, we have no detailed know-

ledge of this.1
We know a good deal more about the establishment of a new corps
in the Safavid army, the cavalry formation of royal squires (qullar or
ghuldmdn-i kbdssa-yi sharifa) whose commander bore the title of qullar-
dqdsi. These royal squires, mostly Muslim converts descended from
Christians of diverse races, had either come to Persia as children or had
been born of Georgian, Circassian, Caucasian and Armenian parents,
often prisoners of war, who had already settled in Persia. This corps,
which was raised by 'Abbas shortly after his accession, proved so
valuable that the Qizilbash formations were soon reduced to a half or
even less of their original establishment. As their first commander, a
Georgian convert to Islam by the name of AllahvardI Khan, won great
esteem and was honoured with the title of Sultan. Qullar who proved
their worth could rise to high office: they were employed as governors
- AllahvardI Khan himself succeeded in becoming governor of Fars -
or were even appointed commanders of Turkmen troops when the
latter failed to produce suitable candidates for vacant positions from
among their own ranks. In time they came to occupy about a fifth of all
the key positions in the administration.
Among the royal squires there was a secondary troop, the corps of
musketeers {tufangchtydri) which had already existed in a more modest
way under Shah Tahmasp I. It was composed of the most diverse
ethnic elements, among them representatives of the Persian peasantry,
Arabs and also Tiirkmens. In addition there was an artillery corps
(tupchiydri), a military arm of which the Persians were not particularly
enamoured. Although the Safavids exploited it readily enough in siege
situations, they did not make much use of artillery in the field. Sir
Robert Sherley, an English adventurer, is usually credited with the
introduction of artillery into Persia. He arrived at the Persian court in
1598 with his brother Sir Anthony and a group of other Europeans. It
is a fact that Shah 'Abbas sought this man's advice on the question of
military reforms and AllahvardI Khan adopted his suggestions for the
reorganisation of the army. He also supervised the production of artil-
lery pieces. But he had nothing to do with the introduction of artillery

1
Shabisavanikardan is commonly used in documents dating back to Khudabanda's reign. From
the synonymous phrase sala-ji shabisavani kardan it is clear that the meaning is not "to make Shah's
friends", as in Tapper, "Shahsevan", p. 6j, but rather "to proclaim: Let him who loves the Shah
present himself at such and such a place". Cf. further Minorsky, "La Perse au XVe siecle", p. 326.

265
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

into Persia, because the Persians had long since been familiar with it.1
By the end of the ioth/i6th century the number of troops at the shah's
disposal - in addition to the Qizilbash - amounted to 37,000 men.
This total comprised the corps of royal squires (10,000), a bodyguard
again formed by squires (3,000), and the corps of musketeers and
artillery (12,000 each). The artillery was equipped with 500 cannons.2
The essential characteristic of these new formations was that they were
not tied to any one tribal organisation and hence were not commanded
by members of the Turkmen military aristocracy. Moreover they were
paid directly out of the royal chest, not out of the military appropria-
tions like the Qizilbash.

These military and administrative reforms took many years to com-

plete and it was some time before they bore fruit. They were of no help
in the military crises which confronted Shah 'Abbas I at the beginning
of his career. What was needed there above all was astute political
decisions — in the first place peace with the Ottomans, which could not
have been easy for the shah to accept. But since he had no hope of
defeating them as long as several provinces were in revolt and the
Uzbeks were occupying Khurasan, this was the only means open to
him of securing a free hand to deal with his other, even more pressing
problems.
Ottoman troops who had already invaded large areas of Persia in the
reign of Muhammad Khudabanda — parts of Azarbaljan along with
Tabriz, parts of Georgia and Qarabagh, the city of Erivan, Shirvan and
Khuzistan — extended their conquest of Persian territory still further
after the accession of the new shah. Baghdad was lost to them in
995/1587 and shortly afterwards they took Ganja. Negotiations with
the Porte led to the Peace of Istanbul on 21 March 15 90. This put
an end to twelve years of hostilities between the Ottomans and the
Safavids. The conditions imposed on the shah were unusually harsh.
They included the loss of Azarbaljan and Qarabagh together with
Ganja, • of Shirvan and Daghistan, of the Safavid possessions in
Georgia, of parts of Kurdistan and Luristan, of Baghdad and Mesopo-
tamia. Although Ardabil, the seat of the Safavid order, remained in
Persian hands, the old capital of Tabriz, where Shah Isma'Il I had founded

1
Savory, "The Sherley Myth".
2
Figures from Savory, "Safavid Persia", p. 418. See also Lockhart, "The Persian army".

266
 ABBAS I

his empire, had to be relinquished. A clause which decreed that the

Persians should desist from anathematising the Orthodox Caliphs — a
practice instigated by the founder of the empire - added a particularly
humiliating note to the peace treaty, for it involved the original hall-
mark, as it were, of the Safavid state. The peace which was bought at
such a price gave the shah a free hand to solve urgent internal problems
and to confront his foreign enemies in the east. (We shall discuss these
measures later.) Yet the fundamentally unacceptable terms militated
against a final peace settlement, and relations with the Ottomans were
to occupy 'Abbas for the rest of his life.
To begin with, however, he turned his attention to the Uzbeks, who
had been occupying Khurasan for the past ten years. Disputes concern-
ing the succession in Transoxiana favoured his undertaking, and in
1007/1598-9 he reconquered Herat and Mashhad, also extending his
control to include Balkh, Marv and Astarabad. But when, two years
later, BaqI Muhammad Khan, the new ruler of Transoxiana, re-
occupied Balkh, the Safavid troops found they were no match for him
and were finally not only forced to withdraw, but lost the greater part
of their new artillery in the process (1011/1602-3). That, for the
moment, was the end of the Safavid-Uzbek conflict. In spite of their
eventual losses, the Persians had gained from it by the reconquest of
western Khurasan, the area lying to the north of it and bordering the
Turkmen desert and including Marv and Nasa, and eastern Khurasan,
including Herat, Sabzavar and Farah. Later — in 1031/1622 — they also
won back Qandahar, which the Mughal emperor Akbar had wrested
from the Safavids in 1003/1594, when 'Abbas had been in no position
to put up an effective defence.
With the successes in the east the danger of a war on two fronts was
checked, so that even by 1012/1603—4 t n e shah was able to risk a
confrontation with the Ottomans. He now reconquered Azarbaljan,
Nakhchivan and Erivan. The Turkish supreme commander
Chighalezade Pasha, preparing to strike back, suffered a crushing
defeat at Tabriz. Although a new peace agreement was drawn up in
1612 at Istanbul which re-established the old Turkish — Persian fron-
tier, the sultan tried once again a few years later, albeit in vain, to
recover control of the ceded Transcaucasian and Persian conquests by
means of another military expedition. A Safavid campaign against
Mesopotamia in 1033/1623-4 re-established Persian control over the
Kurdish territories of Daquq, Kirkiik and Shahrazur, Karbala and
267
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Najaf, and in addition over Baghdad, though in this case only for
fifteen years; a further result was the occupation of Diyarbakr.
These had been preceded by further extensions of territory: in 1010/
1601—2 the island of Bahrain had been annexed, and in 1016/1607-8
Shlrvan had been reconquered. A series of campaigns brought exten-
sive areas of Georgia into Persian hands. However, 'Abbas was not
able to subdue Kakhetia, and was in fact obliged to recognise the
government of King Theimuraz I. In 1031/1622 he succeeded -
though only with the help of the English - in driving the Portuguese
out of Hurmuz.

The chaotic state of affairs at home at the beginning of the reign of

'Abbas seemed to herald the dissolution of the Safavid empire or, more
correctly, the rump state that was left after the depredations of neigh-
bouring powers. This, it seemed, was what was likely to happen, with
the development of various opposing small states under Turkmen
princes, roughly comparable to the petty princedoms {uc beylikleri) of
Anatolia in the 8th/i4th century. It is not inappropriate to describe the
situation by saying that Shah 'Abbas had to reconquer his own land
"from the Tiirkmens and other military leaders who had to all intents
and purposes become autonomous".1 By throwing in his newly consti-
tuted forces, and by dint of an adroit policy at home, he managed to
master this Sisyphean task. His perspicacity is particularly evident from
the fact that in spite of the tough, even brutal measures he took, he did
not allow himself to be swept into a rigid consistency of action which
might have called forth a solid front on the part of the mutually
disaffected tribal chieftains. Thus he not only preserved the old life-
guards (qurchls) but, as we have seen, retained in addition to the new
military formations contingents of the old Qizilbash amirs; and he did
not touch the possessions of the Turkmen lords provided they re-
mained loyal. Indeed, new fiefs {tiyul)7- were granted, and not only to
Turkmen army officers but also to the non-Tiirkmen commanders of
the new corps. His appeal to the old discipline of the order (suflgari), to
which reference has been made above, and the loyalty due to the shah
as grand master of the order (shahlsavanl) may well have reflected
similar considerations.
1
N. Keddie, "Iran und Afghanistan", in Fischer Weltgescbicbtt xv: Dtr Islam n. ed. G.E. von
Grunebaum (Frankfurt am Main, 1971), p. 167.
2
Minorsky, "Tiyul", EV; TMEN 11, 667f.; see also below, chapter 9.

268
 ABBAS I

Nevertheless, during his reign of over forty years, the shah adhered
consistently to the principle of centralisation for his state. Evidence for
this is to be found not only in the reorganisation of the armed forces,
with the creation of a standing army, the quashing of particularist
tendencies on the part of the Qizilbash amirs and the abolition of
practically independent tribal rulerships such as those just mentioned,
the Dulghadir in Fars or those of the Afshar in Kirman, but also the
annexation of the former vassal states of Mazandaran (1005-6/1596-8),
Gllan (1000/1592 Lahljan, 1003/1595 Rasht) and Lar (1010/1601-2)
and the resubjection or firmer attachment of independent areas such as
the Georgian regions of Kakhetia (1029-30/1620-1) and Meskhetia
(1032-3/1623-4) and the province of Makran (1017/1608-9). The idea
of centralisation is particularly in evidence in the way in which crown
lands {khassa or khalisa) were systematically increased. There had in fact
been royal demesnes in the Safavid empire prior to this. But it was
'Abbas I who began the process of incorporating whole provinces,
indeed major provinces, into the crown lands, a practice to which his
successors adhered. The implications of this can be assessed if we
remember that between 996/1588 and 1014/1606 the provinces of
Qazvln, Kashan, Isfahan, Kirman (in part), Yazd, Qum, Mazandaran,
Gllan, Astara and Gaskar were finally, or at any rate for some consider-
able period, converted into royal demesne lands, so that their total
revenue was reserved for the use of the shah, i.e. could neither be paid
into the state treasury nor used for purposes of enfeoffment.
At the end of the ioth/i6th and the beginning of the nth/17th
century, Shah 'Abbas had mastered the crisis which had shaken his
country at the time of his accession, in respect both of external enemies
and of disruptive forces at home. Iran now enjoyed the greatest terri-
torial extent it ever reached under the Safavids. After security had been
restored in the country, 'Abbas turned his attention to establishing an
effective administration. In the development of transport routes, which
he pursued with energy, particularly noteworthy is the network of
caravansarais he created, many of which are still preserved today,
either completely or in remarkable remains,1 and take their place
among the characteristic monuments of Persia. These and other
measures invigorated trade and industry, so that the broad masses of
the population also found that their standard of living was at first

1
Siroux, "Les caravanserais routiers Safavids".

269
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

improved and ultimately reached a level never known up to that time.

Whereas in other parts of the Islamic world around this period econ-
omic setbacks occurred, due to the recessions in Mediterranean trade
and the extension of Atlantic trade, Persia - at any rate in this period -
seems to have been spared these changes and the consequences of the
decline of the Central Asian caravan routes, from which it was in any
case largely cut off by its Uzbek neighbours.
Isfahan, which took the place of Qazvln as the new capital of the
country in 1006/1598 - Qazvln having in its half a century as the
metropolis undergone no significant development as a city - now
became, as it were, the symbol of resurgence. 'Abbas called on the
services of architects, artists and craftsmen to develop it. Though
basing their approaches on an older tradition in architecture, town
planning and decorative style, they developed the specifically Safavid
style to a point of such rare maturity that it still has power to captivate
the observer of today. Some of its most beautiful monuments are
grouped around the Royal Square (Maidan-i Shah), which - according
to the testimony of European travellers of the time - were without
parallel anywhere, especially the Masjid-i Shah, the 'All Qapu gate-
house and the Shaikh Lutf -Allah Mosque. With these, a new array of
jewels was added to the rich treasury of brilliant architectural achieve-
ments left by the earlier dynasties in Persia, and such as represented a
culmination of the aesthetic standards of a whole epoch. The artistic
creativity of the Islamic world once more attained to a peak of achieve-
ment, represented in the popular punning phrase Isfahan nisf-i jahdn:
"Isfahan, half the world".
The motives that led Shah 'Abbas to move his capital from Qazvln
to Isfahan are not as clearly discernible as those of his grandfather
Tahmasp fifty years earlier, when he chose Qazvln in place of Tabriz.1
The decisive element at that time had been fear of the Ottomans and,
connected with this, a certain tendency towards Iranicising the Safavid
empire, together with a mistrust of the Turkmen tribes and their
influence (which was particularly strong in Azarbaljan and Tabriz).
But it is possible that now, in changed circumstances, it was especially
his desire for a centrally situated position within the reconstituted
Persian empire that determined 'Abbas to make the change, and the

1
For the background to the various Safavid changes of capital, see Roemer, "Das friihsafawi-
dische Isfahan".

270
 'ABBAS I

opportunities of developing the city according to his own ideas. And

of course we must not underplay his personal preference for Isfahan, to
which sources refer. It seems highly likely that another factor was the
climatic advantages of the area, its ample supply of water and the
fertility of the developed land in the vicinity, even though the popula-
tion had from time immemorial not enjoyed the best of reputations for
their tendency - attested by KhunjI, himself a native of the city - to
indulge in rumour-mongering and intrigues of every kind.1
The shah succeeded in creating a position of parity for his new
capital among the famous Islamic metropolises. As a result not only of
its development architecturally, but also by virtue of its vigorous econ-
omic, social and political life, Isfahan was preserved from the odium
of provincialism that Qazvln had never been able to shake off. With the
international repute that 'Abbas won for himself, the diplomatic con-
tacts linking him to the potentates of his time also intensified. These
included, in addition to the contiguous powers such as the Great
Mughals of India, the khan of the Crimean Tartars and the Tsar of
Muscovy, as also many Western powers, and there are many contem-
porary descriptions of the magnificence attending the comings and
goings of emissaries from other countries. An associated factor was the
presence of Western merchants, artists and monks, who were free to
move around at will in the country provided they did not engage in
proselytising activities among the Muslims. We know of Carmelites,
Augustinians and Capuchins who paid visits to Isfahan and other
places in the land, and to some of these we owe highly informative
accounts of the shah's court and of life in the country and among the
people, and accounts of events they witnessed at first hand.2
This period of distinction for Isfahan must be attributed in part no
doubt to the shah's population policy, a matter we have already
touched on in connection with his reform of the armed forces. This fed
in elements, not only to the troops, but to the population at large,
whose energy and skills in various crafts and whose trading enterprise
benefited the economic life of the capital. It was particularly evident in
the transfer of three thousand Armenian families from the AzarbaTjanI
city of Julfa to Isfahan, where they were settled beyond the Zayanda-
riid in a new part of the city which was then given the same name as
their old home town, a name it still preserves. Many Georgians, too,

1
Minorsky, Persia in A.D. 1478-1490, p. 58. 2 See below, chapter 7.

271
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

were brought into the country as prisoners of war and around the
middle of the nth/17th century numbered 20,000 souls in Isfahan
alone. Unlike the Armenians and also, incidentally, the members of the
old Jewish community,1 both of which groups adhered doggedly to
their separate linguistic and religious traditions, they were assimilated
fairly easily into the indigenous population.

The Iran of the end of the ioth/i6th and the first quarter of the
nth/17th century: the rebirth of the Safavid state out of chaos; the
emergence of a state enjoying high regard abroad among the powers of
the Near East which had already begun to expand into Persian terri-
tory; widespread revival of economic life; the development of an indig-
enous cultural style, accompanied by an admirable flowering of the arts
- all this was the work of Shah 'Abbas I. And though his historical
significance has long been known there has as yet been no adequate
appraisal in the West of 'Abbas as a ruler — for he was the ruler without
whom Persia's transition to the modern age cannot be understood — in
spite of the wealth of material available. In what follows we will
attempt to trace out at least the most important features of his person-
ality.
Robert Sherley, who of course knew the shah personally, speaks of
him in the following terms: "His person is such as well-understanding
nature wouldfitfor the end proposed for his being — excellently well-
shaped, of most well-proportioned stature, strong and active; his col-
our, somewhat inclined to a man-like blackness, is also more black by
sun-burning; the furniture of his mind infinitely royal, wise, valiant,
liberal, temperate, merciful; and an exceeding lover of justice, embrac-
ing royally other virtues as far from pride and vanity as from all
unprincely sins or acts."2 Of these qualities, it is his liberality of out-
look which is expecially striking in contrast with his bigoted father,
Tahmasp I, not to mention other oriental potentates of the day. It was
clearly evident in his tolerance towards Jews and Christians, for
instance, not only in his permitting them to exercise their religion and
to build churches, but in the fact that he himself even had a church
built for the Armenians brought to New Julfa.
1
W. Fischel, "Isfahan — the Story of a Jewish Community in Persia", Joshua Starr Memorial
Volume (New York, 1955), pp. 111-28.
2
Quoted in Welch, Shah 'Abbas and the Arts, p. 17; for pictures of the shah, see, e.g., ibid., p.
123; Browne, LHP iv, frontispiece.

272
 ABBAS I

There was no question of his indulging in libertarian attitudes in

questions of religion. He is, rather, described as a good Muslim, and in
this connection there is a reference to a pilgrimage to Mashhad which
he made on foot;1 we hear, too, of the repair work he had carried out to
the mausoleum of the Eighth Imam, damaged by the Uzbeks, and his
fondness for visiting the famous Shl'I places of pilgrimage at
Ardabll, Mashhad, Karbala and Najaf. It is significant that he insisted
on keeping his role as master of the order of the Safaviyya among the
population, as can be seen on the occasion of his visits to Ardabll. This
is consistent with his having regarded himself as a sayyid, that is to say,
his claiming descent from 'All, whose memory he held in honour along
with that of the Twelve Imams. In his personal life he kept in a high
degree to the religious commandments except where he allowed
himself to be driven into breaches of it by his fundamentally
sensuous approach to life. Numerous pious foundations (auqdf) were
the work of Shah 'Abbas, such as grants of land from his demesnes in
Azarbaijan, Qazvin, Kashan and Isfahan; and he maintained close
relations with many religious scholars ('u/ama), especially those who
eschewed worldly ambition.
In spite of his great tolerance towards non-Islamic confessions, there
was a limit to his indulgence regarding the Sunnls among his own
subjects. Though he would go no further than to make unmistakeable
allusions to his own Shl'I faith in his dealings with the ambassadors of
neighbouring SunnI countries, his Sunni subjects or SunnI prisoners of
war, especially theologians amongst them, could count on no consider-
ation and clemency from him; far less the adherents of heretical move-
ments, of which there were many at the time, e.g. the ahl-i nuqta, also
known as the Nuqtavtydn, followers of Mahmud PasikhanI GllanI, who
had proclaimed a doctrine with metempsychotic characteristics around
the year 1400.2 Enthusiasts for these and similar views, who were to
be found in various Persian cities and in various social classes up to the
highest strata of society, were persecuted on the orders of the shah, and
where it was possible to arrest them or to trace them in his entourage,
they were sentenced to death. Such movements were in fact not with-
out a dangerous aspect, since they generally entailed political aims, as
for instance in the case of Mulla Qasim, a Nuqtavi who challenged the

1
Cf. also later authors such as Riza QulT Khan Hidayat, Kau^at al-safa win (Tehran, 1359),
2
Kiya, "Nuqtaviyan".

2
73
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

shah's right to the throne. This being so, the shah's reaction was no
different from those of his Sunni opponents to the west and east of his
empire in their attitude towards Shf I tendencies.
Though the shah was in advance of his time in many ways, he
remained a child of his age in other respects, especially in the supersti-
tious notions he entertained. It is possible to find a religious explana-
tion for his putting on a shirt embroidered with verses from the Qur'an
when marching into battle, but not for the respect he showed to
astrological predictions and the dreams he had, and to which he paid
heed in reaching decisions. Such facets of his character are of course of
no consequence in estimating his personality.
Of more interest is his relationship to art, especially representational
art of various kinds; and this, of course, touches on religious issues in a
number of respects. We are referring not to sacred architecture or its
decor, mentioned above, but particularly to painting, which clearly
implies some attitude to the Islamic prohibition of visual representa-
tion. Reference has been made to Tahmasp's service to book minia-
tures: we should add that as he grew old, and under the influence of
increasing bigotry, he turned more and more away from this
interest. The case was quite different with Shah 'Abbas. He seems to
have shared neither the personal engagement of his grandfather nor his
religious scruples. It is natural that a man who had spent the greater
part of his youth among the productions and abiding stimuli of
Timurid art in Herat and Mashhad was not without sensitivity to the
artistic expressions of his time. Indeed we can still see in the Shaikh
Lutf -Allah mosque, with its textual scrolls and lacy roof ornamenta-
tion, a personal involvement of the shah in architecture and its devel-
opment similar to that of his grandfather in the sphere of art; and with
the transfer of the capital from Qazvln to Isfahan the workshops
attached to the royal court also had to move, and the artists employed
there along with them. Thus it came about that the great painter
Riza-yi 'AbbasI was able in Isfahan to develop an entirely new style,
differing from that of Qazvln, in whose traditions he had grown up
and worked hitherto. It is plain that this sort of thing did not take place
without the active interest and encouragement of the ruler. The latter's
influence, however, hitherto a decisive factor in artistic developments,
begins — precisely under Shah 'Abbas I — to decline, and to decline in
favour of commercial influences. This is most evident in the sphere of
ceramics, textiles, and carpet designing, all of them up to this time

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 ABBAS I

areas of largely individual creativity. With the introduction of work-

shops for export production — a departure for which the shah was
responsible — their products lost their value as individual artistic
achievements and sank to the level of industrial products. This change
was also felt in book illustration. What was now produced in this
sphere was no longer made for the ruler alone, or at any rate for
governors of princely rank in the provincial capitals, but also for other
customers, who included parties with a commercial interest.
Recent attempts to rescue the Safavids from the odium of indiffer-
ence to creative writing,1 if not indeed of its neglect or suppression,
show that Shah 'Abbas took a positive attitude at all events to indi-
vidual poets, for example to Sharaf al-Dln Hasan Shifa'I (d. 1037/1628),
whom he appointed poet laureate, or to ShamI, whom he had weighed
in gold as a sign of his recognition, and to Kamall Sabzavari
(d. 1020/1611 —12), who celebrated his exploits in a verse epic entitled
Shah-nama or 'Abbas-ndma.2 However, since relationships of this kind
form the exception rather than the rule, they signify little. The criticism
of Safavid poetry, whether justified or not, as lacking in originality, full
of banalities and "endless verbal niceties" is not shaken by such evi-
dence. Emigration of Persian poets, particularly to India, which had
been going on at least since the time of Shah Tahmasp, did not cease
under Abbas. Indian courts, at which the old interest in courtly poetry
continued, offered at any rate better opportunities than Isfahan with its
Safavid traditions, and not only for poets but for other artists such as
calligraphers and miniature painters, whose success was largely depen-
dent on the ruler's attitudes to aesthetic matters.
The shah's interest in the intellectual and artistic culture of his time
is unmistakeably evident, sometimes in the form of unique works of
art, and certainly also in the large number of artistic achievements that
appeared. But it is also unmistakeably the case that this influence was
exercised, if not exclusively, at any rate largely, to resuscitate an older
heritage, that of the Timurids; in other words, it was not always based
on original conceptions. And in addition, these reversions to the past,
however impressive they may be when seen from a distance or at a
casual glance, reveal on closer inspection a more or less hasty manner
1
E. Yar-Shater, "Safawid literature". Falsafi, Zindaganin, 28ff. Cf. W. Heinz, Der indische Stil
in derpersiscben Literatur (Wiesbaden, 1973).
2
Mentioned by H. Ethe, "Neupersische Literatur", in Grundriss der iranischen Philokgie, ed.
W. Geigerand E. Kuhn (Strassburg, 1895-1904), n, 257.

275
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

of execution, a lesser degree of thoroughness than the originals, and

the use of less costly materials.
Nevertheless, alongside the successes of the statesman, the general,
and the far-sighted politician must be reckoned also the achievements
of the builder of cities, the architect and the patron of the arts. Enter-
prise, energy, shrewdness and a degree of tolerance remarkable for
his time went together in 'Abbas with intellectual curiosity, as is clear
from his taste for conversations with Islamic and Christian theologians
and with western diplomats and merchants, his aesthetic sensitivity
and, albeit with certain limitations, his knowledgeability in artistic
matters.
In spite of his many talents, the shah was unable to muster either the
statesmanship or the personal qualities to contend with one momen-
tous problem relating both to the political situation and to the personal
sphere. This was the question of arranging the succession and the
treatment of his sons; and here he may have been influenced by residual
elements of the Turkish notion that authority did not reside exclusively
in,the reigning prince but was the property of the ruling family as a
whole.1 Among the eleven children of the shah known to us, five were
sons: (i) Muhammad Baqir MIrza, usually called SafI MIrza, (a) Hasan
MIrza, (3) Sultan Muhammad MIrza, also referred to as Ruzak MIrza
or Muhammad Khudabanda MIrza, after his grandfather, who died in
the year of his birth (1006/1597-8), (4) Isma'Il MIrza, and (5) Imam
Qull MIrza.2 Of these princes, Hasan MIrza and Isma'Il MIrza died
while still in childhood.
Abbas was not only conscious of problems with princes that had
come the way of his immediate predecessors - some during his own
lifetime - and, before that, of most of his forebears who had occupied
the throne; he had himself come to the throne as the result of a coup
d'etat, had deposed his own father and banished him from the capital
together with his two surviving brothers, whom he had caused to be
blinded. To these memories was added the fear of possible acts of
vengeance on the part of malcontents among the aristocracy of the
empire, especially the relatives of tribal chieftains he had eliminated or

1
See above, p. 99.
2
The most reliable details are given in Falsafi, Zindagamn, 170—207. In the genealogy provided
by Rohrborn, Provm%en und Zmtralgewalt, p. 1 j 8, "Sultan Husain MIrza" should be deleted and
Isma'Il MIrza included in the penultimate position. A further son, Tahmasp MIrza, mentioned in
some of the sources, is apparently identical with Hasan MIrza.

276
 ABBAS I

stripped of power among the generals of the Qizilbash. With these

things in the background, he developed attitudes of suspicion and
mistrust that stayed with him all his life. In his efforts to rule out
conspiracies and coups d'etat, he kept his courtiers, especially the mili-
tary men, away from his sons as far as it lay in his power to do so, and
expressly forbade them to have dealings with his offspring, in several
instances punishing infringements of his orders with cruel penalties.
The princes were largely banished to the harem, where their social
relationships were restricted to the princesses, the ladies of the harem,
and the eunuchs. They received no training in either statecraft or
soldiering and were likewise excluded from participating in their
father's campaigns.
As a result of the sanguinary means by which the shah had seized
and secured power, and of his rigid conduct of state affairs, he had
indeed made many enemies. A number of these entertained sympathies
for his eldest son, the crown prince Safi Mlrza, and would have liked
to see him ruling in his father's place, particularly as he had the reputa-
tion of good character and warm personal qualities. The very fact of
the increasing popularity of the prince was a thorn in the flesh to the
shah. When, in addition, he encountered plans to depose him in Safi
Mlrza's favour, he resolved to remove him from the scene. Upon
warnings given by one of the court astrologers and the advice of his
closest counsellors, he was persuaded to do away with the prince. He
met his end at the age of twenty-seven while on a visit to Rasht, where,
in 1024/1615, he was stabbed to death on his father's orders while
returning from his bath. All the evidence suggests that the prince was
innocent, as 'Abbas seems to have realised afterwards. At all events, he
never recovered, to his dying day, from the horrific memory of his evil
decision. Nevertheless, his concern for the security of the throne and
his own life had such a grip on him that some time later he had the eyes
put out of Prince Sultan Muhammad Mlrza, his grandson Sulaiman
Mlrza, the eldest son of Safi Mlrza, and even — at the very end of his
life — the crown prince Imam Qull Mlrza, thus eliminating them from
the succession, which in accordance with Islamic ideas is barred to
pretenders who are blind.
The murder of Safi Mlrza aroused an enormous sensation of dis-
quiet and horror not only in the shah's entourage but also among the
people. In Rasht even riots ensued. But since the circle of those who
knew the true facts was a small one, such expressions of anger or

277
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

protest led to no further consequences. Persian historians, from whom

the truth of these events was not hidden, have named Shah 'Abbas "the
Great", and so he is known in Iran to this day. In view of his splendid
achievements and the services he rendered his country it is a title which
can hardly be challenged. Possibly his actions can be judged in a
somewhat more lenient light in view of the circumstances of the time
in which he lived.

It is too easy for the observer of history, impressed by the record of

Shah 'Abbas's great achievements for his country, not only to be
tempted to feel that the less spectacular ages which followed his reign
were a period of decline, but to see his death as the beginning of the
end of Safavid rule. This view is emphatically not justified. Apart from
the outward and visible magnificence which continued under the later
Safavids, there were in the remaining century of their rule in Iran still
decades in which the empire maintained an impressive level of achieve-
ment and when large sections of the population were able to enjoy
wealth or at least reasonable prosperity, even though the period of
territorial expansion was over once and for all.
One fateful cause of the later decline of his dynasty and its power
was indeed the work of Shah 'Abbas himself, namely his neglect of the
succession. The elimination of royal princes, whether by blinding them
or immuring them in the harem, their exclusion from the affairs of state
and from contact with the leading aristocracy of the empire and the
generals, all the abuses of the princes' education, which were nothing
new but which became the normal practice with 'Abbas at the court of
Isfahan, effectively put a stop to the training of competent successors,
that is to say, efficient princes prepared to meet the demands of ruling
as kings. The result was that from then on the princes who came to the
throne had from their earliest youth been ruined by living in the
women's quarters, by indulgence shown towards them by all around,
by courtiers, eunuchs and concubines, and were not only quite useless
in the performance of their duties but often totally uninterested.

SAFI I

When Shah 'Abbas died at his summer palace at Ashraf in Mazandaran

on 24 Jumada I 1038/19 January 1629 none of his brothers and none of
his sons was available to take on the succession. Those who were still
278
 SAFI I

alive had been blinded and were thus unsuitable to rule. He had
appointed his grandson Sam Mlrza, a son of the murdered SafI Mlrza
as his successor, although in a not entirely unambiguous fashion. The
decision to have the prince come to Ashraf to prepare him to take over
the throne came too late, and the negotiations about what was to
happen after his death, which the shah conducted with various leading
figures from his deathbed, achieved no results. As it proved impossible
to keep the shah's death a secret, and as the alternative possibility of
unforeseeable developments such as the enthronement of another
prince, local risings, or intervention by neighbouring powers, could
not be ruled out, the leading figures in the empire who were present
in Ashraf, especially the Grand Vizier {va^tr-i a'^ani) Khalifa Sultan
and the commander of the guards (qiirchi-bdshi) 'Isi Khan, made
every effort to arrange for the succession of Sam Mlrza at the earliest
possible moment. A document to this effect which was sent to Isfahan
had the desired effect. Promptly on 28 January 1629, three weeks
before the court entourage returned, he mounted the throne in accor-
dance with the wishes of his grandfather, adopting the royal title Shah
SafI (I).
Reports on this change of rulers expressly stress the part played by
members of the Safavid order and the fact that the observances of the
order were fulfilled.1 According to these reports, the leading aristo-
crats of the empire had assured themselves of the agreement of this
group at the Ashraf meeting, and in Isfahan the rules of the sufls were
observed at the enthronement. It may be legitimate to see in this regard
a connection with the attitude of the dead shah, who repeatedly had
attached the greatest importance to his position as pir and murshid, i.e.
master of the order and its spiritual leader. On the other hand, it is of
some interest to note (especially in view of the observances of the order
we have referred to, but of which we obtain no very precise details in
the source materials), that Mir Damad, equally famous as a philosopher
and representative of "orthodox" Shl'I theology, took part in the
solemn ceremonies at Isfahan.
The details we have about the character of the new ruler, who began
his reign at the age of eighteen, seem at first sight to be contradictory.
On the one hand he is praised for his lavish generosity, and on the
other he is reproached with unbounded cruelty. Foreign observers

1
Iskandar MunshI, quoted in Braun, Das Erbe Schab 'Abbas' I, pp. 104, 106.

2
79
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

who had personal contacts with him praise his charm and his uncom-
plicated character, which they contrast with the inscrutable and incal-
culable attitudes of his grandfather. Which of these estimates is
correct? Was Shah SafI a warm and generous ruler or a bloody despot?
It is certainly the case that, for instance, at his enthronement he distrib-
uted lavish presents. But when we learn that so enormous a sum as
5 00,000 tumans was spent for this purpose, and Imam Quli Khan, the
grand beg of Fars, was remitted a whole year's instalment (60,000
tumans) of the dues he owed, it is more appropriate to speak of wild
extravagance than of generosity.
It can also not be denied that in the early years of his reign almost all
the royal princes, including the sons of his predecessor's daughters and
even the princes who in any case had been blinded, were systematically
murdered and that, in addition, a large number of leading figures in the
empire and servants of the court were done to death, for example - in
1630 — the commander-in-chief of the armed forces (sipdbsdldr-i
kull-i sipdh) Zainal Khan Shamlu, in 1632 the generals of the guards
(qurchi-bashl) 'Isa Khan and Chiragh Khan Zahidi, in 1634 the Grand
Vizier (vazlr-i a'zam) MIrza Talib Urdubadi and the lord marshal
{ishik-dqdsi-bdsht) Ughurlii Khan Shamlu. These are merely a few
names, quoted as examples which may stand for many more besides.
Even if one is disposed, in view of the circumstances of this period,
to see the liquidation of royal rivals as an understandable protective
measure and even to attribute the execution of undesirable dignitaries
in the state and army to the exigencies of raison d'etat; indeed, if one
assumes it to have been probable that the shah was heavily influenced
by individuals in his immediate entourage, it is still not possible to
acquit SafI of the charge of exceptional cruelty.1
The study of the actions and attitudes of the new shah reveals no sign
of a more human dimension to his personality which would explain the
positive comments of European observers; rather, it is the features of a
moody despot that stand out, one who kept those around him in a state
of fear and trembling by assassination and arbitrary death sentences.
Moreover, the degree of interest he evinced for the business of state
was only peripheral in character, if not non-existent, and it seems likely
that he took not the slightest part in the intellectual and cultural life of
his people; for in spite of a number of efforts to begin, he had not even

!
On SafT's cruelty, see Falsafi, "Dastha-yi khun-alud", Cband maqala, pp. 211-22.

280
 SAFI I
managed to attain a reasonable standard in reading and writing. If we
add to this the fact that he indulged with increasing frequency a taste
for wine and that it had been prescribed, we are told, to counteract
certain effects of opium, to which he had apparently become addicted
at quite an early age, we are left with a somewhat grim picture of the
ruler and the thirteen years he occupied the throne before death from
excessive drinking carried him off.
Although he received instruction from several experienced leading
figures of the empire in affairs of state, starting shortly after he
ascended the throne, little appears to have been achieved through these
efforts to influence the shah to take more than the slightest interest - a
reaction which is clearly the result of his upbringing in the harem. The
decisions that had to be taken therefore became the responsibility of
other important personages, however much they may have contrived
to suggest to their master that they emanated from him. With a simple-
minded, uncomplicated personality, as his is described, this can hardly
have been a very difficult matter, for he was quite incapable of keeping
himself immune from the intrigues and insinuations of his courtiers.
This was especially serious when such machinations were aimed at
competent and unexceptionable people, whose fate was then almost
invariably sealed.
If we enquire who were the real rulers in the state, we find that in
the early years of the new reign four outstanding personalities
emerge: the lord marshal (ishlk-aqasl-bashl) Ughurlu Khan Shamlu; a
Georgian named Rustam Beg, formerly imperial provost (divdn-begi),
and later in addition general commanding the musketeers (tufangchi-
aqasT) and commander-in-chief of the armed forces (sipahsalar-i
kull-i sipah); Chiragh Khan Zahidl, who at first had no special office
and later was appointed general of the guards (qurchl-bashl); and
lastly another Georgian named Rustam Khan, who was town gover-
nor (ddriigha) of Isfahan and general of the royal squires (qullar-
aqasi) and had originally been known as Khusrau Mirza and also as
Khusrau Khan. We may also assume that various ladies of the harem,
for example the queen mother and, at least for a time, Zainab Be-
gum, one of 'Abbas I's daughters, exercised some influence. We have
already come across the names of two of the people mentioned above,
Ughurlu Khan Shamlu and Chiragh Khan Zahidl, in connection with
the victims of Shah Safl's tyrannical rule. In 1630 Rustam Beg Dlvan-
begl became grand beg {begkrbegi) of Azarbaljan and his namesake
281
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Rustam Khan moved from Kartlia to Tiflis to become governor

(vali).
Mention should be made at this point of the elimination of the most
powerful and wealthy man in Iran after the ruler, and his sons. This
was Imam Qull Khan, the recipient of such munificence on the occa-
sion of Safl's accession. He was not only grand beg of Fars and
Kuhglluya, but also governor of Lar, Hurmuz (Jarun), the Bahrain
islands, Gulpalgan and Tuysirkan. In these offices he had followed in
the footsteps of his father, AllahvardI Khan, who had risen to high
office under Shah 'Abbas I. Shah 'Abbas had even honoured him, a
practice not unknown among the Safavids, by giving him one of his
own wives in marriage. On the rather threadbare charge of conspiracy
with insubordinate dignitaries in north-west Persia and Georgia, he
and nearly all his numerous sons were put to death in 1632. The
simultaneous conversion of the province of Fars into crown lands was
entirely in line with the policy of centralisation that Shah 'Abbas had
pursued on a grand scale by strengthening the shah's position as the
central authority at the expense of the provinces controlled by state
governors.
Ultimately, the dominant influence at the court of Isfahan came to be
that of the Grand Vizier (va^tr-i a'^am-i divan-i a'la) Mlrza Muhammad
Taql, usually known as Mlrza TaqI or Saru Taqi ("Taqi of the fair
hair"). Appointed in 1634, he had had a successful career in administra-
tion, where he had distinguished himself through services in the sphere
of construction, including road building projects undertaken for
'Abbas I in Mazandaran and the rebuilding of the sanctuary of Najaf on
the orders of Safi I, and through his activity as vizier of Mazandaran
and of the whole of Gllan after the rising stirred up there by Gharib
Shah.1 Sarii Taqi, who held office as grand vizier until the death of
Safi and for as long as three years afterwards, was not only an experi-
enced specialist in administration but also a person of integrity,
incorruptible and not at all intent on personal financial advantage. He
so won the support and goodwill of the shah that he was able to get his
way with all the authorities, in earlier years even including the military
aristocracy. Efficient administrative measures, especially in finance,
enabled him to raise revenues to a level never before known in Iran. He
did indeed make use of a secret information service to this end, the

1
Braun, Das Erbe Schah 'Abbas' 1, pp. i6f. Petrushevsky, "Narodnoe vosstanie".

282
 SAFI I

activities of which, while it may have increased his popularity in some

quarters, had quite the reverse effect elsewhere. In the course of time,
moreover, he became so hardened and implacable, and so given to
autocratic behaviour and contempt for others, that he not only played
into the hands of his opponents but sometimes even offended against
the interests of the state. Thus in 1638 his misplaced reluctance to
compromise gave the impetus to the loss of Qandahar, when he
insisted on withdrawing certain privileges in the payment of annual
contributions to the Grand Divan from the local governor, 'All
Mardan Khan, which had been granted by his predecessors. Instead of
obeying the summons to appear at court, the governor proceeded to
place himself and his province under the jurisdiction of the Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan.

This brings us to the question of Iran's foreign relations under Safi I.

Even under normal circumstances a change of ruler in the Safavid
empire always touched off increased interest and, all too easily, covet-
ous aspirations among neighbouring powers. Since Shah Safi revealed
himself only too soon as a weak, insecure and impressionable charac-
ter, his neighbours lost no time in making appropriate moves. In the
reign of Shah Safi hostilities started up on the frontiers with the
Ottoman empire, in Georgia, with the Uzbeks and with India, and
these resulted in territorial losses or at all events in the necessity for
counter-measures. The fact that Iran escaped fairly lightly is hardly
attributable to its ruler, but was due rather to other circumstances.
The first disorders that occurred after the death of Shah 'Abbas were
incursions on the part of Bedouin Arabs of the Banu Lam tribe into the
area around Baghdad. These, however, had no significant effect upon
the destinies of Iran; and even various conflicts among the Musha'sha'
in the area of Havlza (Huvaiza), a tribe subject to the shah, which
broke out after the murder of the governor of Shlraz, Imam Qull
Khan, had no particularly momentous consequences. This was because
'All Pasha, the independent Turkish governor of Basra, who might
have caused difficulties, was shrewd enough to avoid any involvement
in these disputes.
Grave news, however, was arriving in Isfahan from the west, where
under the young Sultan Murad IV (1032-49/1623-40) an enterprising
and ruthless grand vizier had come to power in the person of
Khiisrev Pasha. The object of his planning was clearly to exploit the
283
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

easement achieved as a result of the renewal of the Peace of Szony

recently negotiated between the Porte and the Emperor Ferdinand II
by mounting a blow against Persia. At the news of his approach in the
summer of 1038-9/1629, the Persians did not find themselves unpre-
pared. Zainal Khan Begdell Shamlu, the newly appointed commander-
in-chief, moved at the head of the Persian forces to Hamadan, where
the shah was also encamped with his court. Khiisrev Pasha, who had
temporarily given up his original objective, Baghdad, and had
advanced in the direction of Hamadan, scored a victory on 4 May 1630
at Mahldasht. Though Hamadan then fell into his hands, he resisted
the temptation to press on further into the interior of Persia and turned
his attention to his real objective, Mesopotamia and Baghdad. As the
Baghdad contingent under SafI Qull Khan held out against the
Ottoman assault following heavy artillery bombardment, Khiisrev
Pasha regarded the venture as a failure, and withdrew. It seems likely
that his decision was prompted in part by the thought of the approach-
ing winter — the attack took place between 8 and 12 November 1630 —
and no doubt by the associated thought of how vulnerable his lines of
communication to the rear would be, having regard to their length and
particular geographical location. It proved not too difficult for the
Persians to clear out the garrisons left behind by the Ottomans in the
central part of the Euphrates region, and to bring to heel the Kurds,
who had largely sided with the enemy. Although it at first looked as if
peace could be brought about between the Ottomans and the Safavids,
these hopes were destined to be dashed because the new Turkish
Grand Vizier, Tabanyas'i Mehmed Pasha, observing the murder of the
Persian princes and the Georgian resistance to the shah,1 did not regard
Persia as a dangerous enemy and had no interest in concluding a peace.
Hence the next four years saw no end to frontier skirmishes in which
the initiative and the outcome alternated from one side to the other
constantly.
The Ottoman conquest of the fortress of Erivan in 1045/163 5, at
which the Sultan Murad IV was present in person, was a more serious
matter. So was the subsequent advance on Tabriz, which was plun-
dered and laid in ruins, but not occupied. Shah SafI himself took part
in the Persian counter-offensive in the following spring, which ended

1
See below, pp. 285—6.

284
 SAFI I

with the reconquest of Erivan. Overtures of peace made by the

Persians immediately afterwards were once more unavailing.
The reason for the Supreme Porte's reluctance to make peace was
no doubt that Istanbul had not given up the idea of reconquering
Baghdad. In fact, in 1048/1638 the sultan again undertook a campaign
into Mesopotamia, by means of which he achieved the desired result,
for Baghdad fell into his hands in mid-Sha'ban/the closing days of
December without the Persians making any attempt to relieve their
garrison in the city. From then until the First World War the city
remained an Ottoman possession.
In spite of the atrocities that followed the conquest, the Persians
entered into peace negotiations with the Ottomans. These resulted, on
14 Muharram 1049/17 May 1639 *n t n e P e a c e treaty of Zuhab, as a
consequence of which a settlement of frontiers was agreed that sur-
vived beyond the end of the Safavid empire and — apart from the
northern sector, where a new situation was created by the advance of
the Tsarist empire in the 12th/18th century — endured up to the present
time. For Persia, it meant not only the loss of Baghdad, but also the
final abandonment of the whole of Mesopotamia. Both parties abided
by the terms of the treaty, and after this no more wars were fought
between the Safavids and the Ottomans.
Nor were there any serious consequences from conflicts in the
Transcaucasian petty states, especially the Georgian kingdoms and
principalities, where Safavid and Ottoman interests overlapped. It will
be remembered that Shah 'Abbas I had not only undertaken campaigns
of conquest into Georgia, but had transplanted very large numbers of
Georgians to Persia, where many of them, in connection with the
reorganisation of the army, were taken into the Iranian forces and not
infrequently rose to the higher and even to the highest military and
governmental positions. Stubbornly though the Georgians clung to
their own national ways in their homeland, even under Muslim rule, to
their language, and to their Christian faith especially, in Persia they
were quickly assimilated and, alongside Iranians and Turks, formed the
third ethnic element of modern Persian society. In this they contrasted
markedly with their Armenian neighbours, whose treatment under
Persian tutelage was entirely comparable.
Shah Safi's relations with Georgia have already been touched on in
the context of the transfer of the governor of Isfahan, Rustam Khan.
He held to the Islamic faith and had made his entire career in Persia up
285
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

to this point; but in 1634 he succeeded in defeating Theimuraz and

seizing power in Tiflis in the name of the shah. His success determined
the lords of Imeretia, Mingrelia and Guria, who strictly owed alleg-
iance to the Ottoman state and its ruler, to declare their willingness to
accept the shah's authority. Even Theimuraz, who at first disappeared
from the scene, but later managed to oust the Safavid governor of
Kakhetia, finally placed himself under the Isfahan government, which
confirmed his rule over Kakhetia - clearly in order thus to create a
rival to Rustam and prevent his gaining excessive power. Conflicts
between the two viceroys, Rustam and Theimuraz, were not slow to
develop, but did not assume very serious proportions. Thus Rustam
Khan, who remained in office until his death in 1658, was able to give
his country a long period of peace and reconstruction, of which it was
sorely in need after the serious devastations and losses of population
resulting from the campaigns of Shah 'Abbas I. The exportation of
Georgians to Persia, especially boys and girls, continued throughout
the nth/17th century, but it was no longer in the form of official,
obligatory requisitions or forced deportations, as had formerly been
the case, but was arranged by agents, who tackled the problem by
means of bribes, persuasion, and cunning.1
There was more serious unrest on Iran's north-east frontier. A
reconciliation was effected with the neighbouring Tiirkmens after they
had invaded from Khiva (Khwarazm), when its Yadgarid ruler Isfandi-
yar Khan (1032-52/1623-42) apologised for the attack and in
1039/1630 handed over to the shah his brother Abu'l-Ghazi, on whose
shoulders he put the blame. Abu'l-Ghazi, later Isfandiyar's successor
and a celebrated historian, spent the next ten years at the shah's court.
In contrast, the Uzbeks of Transoxiana, now under the rule of the
Janid dynasty, kept the Persians fully occupied. The most important
figures here were Imam- Qull Khan, the prince of Bukhara (1020—5 II
1611-41), and his brother Nadr Muhammad Khan, who was initially
his governor in Balkh and was appointed by him as his successor in
1051/1641 when he himself had gone blind. Imam Qull Khan set off on
a pilgrimage to Mecca and only just managed to escape into Persian
territory from pursuers sent after him on the orders of his brother, who
at the last moment had resolved to prevent his leaving. He was received

1
P. Oberling, "Georgians and Circassians in Iran", Studia Caucasica i (The Hague, 1965),
127-43.

286
 SAFI I

there by the shah with the highest honours due to an eminent guest,
and finally died in Arabian territory. Strangely enough, Nadr Muham-
mad Khan in turn at a later date (105 6/1646) had to seek refuge in
Persia, and he too was received with great ceremony. Nevertheless, it
would be quite wrong, on the evidence of the reception accorded by
Safavid rulers to Uzbek princes in difficulties, to conclude that good
neighbourly relations existed between the two powers. The opposite
was, in fact, the case. As they had from the very beginning of Safavid
rule, Uzbek incursions and plundering raids into Persia continued
unabated during the nth/17th century, and in the reign of Shah SafI
they reached a climax, with no fewer than eleven Uzbek campaigns
against Persia. Even though most of these were no more than forays,
we find that such large forces were involved — numbers amounting to
20,000 or 30,000 Uzbek warriors are mentioned — that the possibility
that the Uzbeks intended a conquest of Khurasan cannot simply be
dismissed. Nevertheless, no significant results in this direction were
achieved.
The tense relations between Shah SafI and the Indian Mughals led,
among other reasons, in 1636 to the severance of a strange Indo-
Persian connection. 'Abd-Allah Qutb Shah, the lord of the principality
of Golkonda in the Deccan (1020-1083/1626-72), and the descendant
of a Shi'I Qara Quyunlu refugee,1 had attached himself for religious
reasons to Shah 'Abbas I and thereafter had caused the name of the
Persian shah to be incorporated in the official prayers (khutba) and
adopted on the coinage. He now abandoned his association with Persia
and placed himself under the Great Mughal Shah Jahan after the lat-
ter's victory over his neighbour to the west, the prince of Bljapur.
When Shah SafI died unexpectedly on 12 Safar 1052/12 May 16422
at the early age of thirty-one, he left behind him a country whose
territory was quite considerably smaller than it had been at his succes-
sion, but which still embraced all the heartlands of Persia. From the
point of view of the Iranicisation of the Safavid empire, the loss of the
Mesopotamian territories — and these were by far the most extensive —
was in any case of no very great importance. More significant was the
fact that at the time of his death the country was not threatened by any
serious external dangers, and especially that it was no longer at risk
1
Minorsky. "The Qara-qoyunlu and the Qutbshahs", BSOAS xvn (195;), 5 5—73.
2
Braun, Das Erbe Schah 'Abbas' I, p. 117, says he died at Isfahan; Luft, Iran unter Scbah 'Abbas II,
p. 207, n. 192, at Kashan, though the date he supplies is in error.

287
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

from the Ottoman empire. This fairly positive state of affairs, however,
could hardly be credited to Shah SafI, but rather to various dignitaries
in his empire distinguished by special competence, particularly the
Grand Vizier Sam Taqi. In Safl's character we see clearly manifested
some of the weak points in the structure of the Safavid empire which
were to play a fateful role in its decline and final demise. These were
especially the lack of preparation of the crown prince for the position
of ruler and the unlimited power of a despotic monarch totally orien-
tated on himself, and — since the time of Shah 'Abbas I — further
strengthened by the exclusion of the Qizilbash amirs and the increasing
centralisation of the state. A figure possessing the personal qualities of
a Shah 'Abbas could exploit such a position of omnipotence to the best
advantage of Iran and its people. A man as weak as SafI in mind and
character — a man who was also physically weak — was not equal to the
tasks involved in the office.

ABBAS I I

Though SafI cannot be compared with his grandfather 'Abbas in any

respect, it is not proper to speak of the thirteen years of his reign as the
beginning of the decline of Safavid power. It is true that the Safavid
state at this time shows signs of ageing and also gives certain indica-
tions of decadence. But that it was still able to survive and guarantee its
subjects good, if not outstandingly good, conditions in which to live,
was evident under Safl's son and successor, Prince Sultan Muhammad
Mlrza, who ascended the throne on 16 Safar 1052/15 May 1642 with
the name 'Abbas II. Certainly there could be no question, to begin
with, of his influencing the affairs of state, since the new shah was not
quite ten years old at the time.1 Since Saru TaqI remained in office as
grand vizier, it was inevitable that his should be the authoritative voice
in government. Less self-evident was the part the queen mother played
in state affairs. In the case in question, the practicalities of carrying out
joint rule were in fact fairly simple, because the grand vizier was a
eunuch, so that he was not subject to the usual prohibitions on access
to the ladies of the court.
If there had been indications under the rule of Shah SafI that the

1
For a discussion of his date of birth, see Braun, Das Erbe Schah 'Abbas' I, pp. 13 iff.

288
 ABBAS II

shift in power from the Turkmen tribal leaders to the shah and the
tight centralisation that 'Abbas I had carried through would become a
permanency, this now became clearer still. The grandees of the empire
(arkan-i daulat), who were no longer dependent on or challenged by the
Qizilbash aristocracy, now looked simply to the ruler. Indeed to such
an extent was this so that the latter, if ever he should be unwilling to
take action or if he should be as yet not of age to rule, could be
represented for years by an efficient chancellor of the imperial court or
grand vizier without such persons needing - as MIrza Salman Jabirl
had once needed - to fear the intrigues of the Turkmen military. This
is far from saying that he was proof against the conspiratorial activities
of other members of the court, especially the palace eunuchs and the
ladies of the harem.
Even though the ruler still possessed supernatural powers in the
estimation of his subjects, his role as master of the order now no longer
had any practical significance. Perversions of what remained of this
role, his alleged incapacity for doing any wrong (so that religious
commandments and prohibitions did not apply to him), could have
fateful results. The observances that derived from the rule of the order
had been replaced by an ingeniously devised court ceremonial which is
described in much detail by European observers living in Isfahan at the
time. When the Turkmen military aristocracy was stripped of power,
the role of the provinces as epicentres of central government was — as
we have seen — reduced almost to nothing. There were among the
leading figures of the empire, the incumbents of high office in the
court, still some Turkmen tribal princes, but they had no significant
power to fall back on in the provinces; they had to be content with
fairly small governorships which might be associated with the court
offices for which they were responsible. They no longer derived their
influence from the fact that they belonged to particular tribes or from
the economic power of their office in the provinces, but — like all other
servants of the court, such as Georgians, Armenians or Circassians -
from the favour of the ruler and, at times, of the grand vizier, largely
depending on the degree of loyalty and competence they had shown.
All in all, these are the typical characteristics of a court aristocracy. A
significant aspect of the situation was that the court offices, which in
the ioth/i6th century had been largely only titular, now increasingly
entailed specific functions, which on the one hand made their incum-
bents, i.e. the leading men in the empire, into pillars of the state
289
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

(arkan-i daulat), and on the other invested them at particular times

with considerable influence.
Although it is not intended here to examine the details of the Safavid
governmental apparatus, it is worth casting a brief glance at the top
echelons of the empire at the time of the new shah's accession. The
ruler held solemn court at unspecified intervals for particular purposes.
At these, affairs of state were discussed, ambassadors of foreign powers
were received, and the conferment of offices announced. One note-
worthy additional authority was the court and imperial council, one of
whose functions was to supervise the work of governors and senior
officials. Since it was responsible for enquiring into complaints from
the population about abuses of authority, oppression and arbitrary
government, there may well have been some connection with the divan
al-mat^alim of earlier times. Any verdict it announced led to sentence
being passed by the shah, who also had the right to exercise direct
judicial power.
Among the members of the court and imperial council the grand
vizier and the commander of the mounted guard (qurchl-bashl) occu-
pied the first place. In addition, the commanders of the royal squires
(qullar-aqasl), of the musketeers (tufangchl-aqasi) and of the artillery
corps (tupchl-bashl) belonged to it, as did the dlvan-begl, the state
privy clerk [vdqi'a-nivis), the lord marshal (ishlk-aqasl-bashl), and some-
times the imperial sadr {sadr al-mamalik). At the head of the financial
administration, with partial responsibility for administering crown
lands, was the imperial director of finances {mustaufi al-mamalik). Court
administration was under the care of a supreme major-domo or inten-
dant-general {na%tr-i buyiitaf), who also had charge of the court work-
shops.
The Persian army, once the nucleus of Safavid power, had been
weakened as a result of the tribal particularism and insubordination of
the Qizilbash amirs, but reformed both radically and effectively by
Shah 'Abbas I to represent a powerful striking force. Under Shah Safi,
in spite of the decimation of the generals, it had nevertheless so far
contrived to preserve its strength that in 105 8/164.8 it proved itself a
force to be reckoned with against the Indian invasion troops during
the conflict over Qandahar. But quite soon afterwards the changed
political situation began to take effect. The dangers which earlier on
had threatened the existence of the state or its territorial integrity had
either been averted or were no longer so menacing that they demanded
290
 ABBAS II

trained troops in a constant high degree of readiness and in great

numbers. As the government was no longer pursuing a policy of
expansion, its military undertakings were confined to fairly small-scale
punitive expeditions within the country or on the frontiers. The
decline was first evident among the provincial contingents and not as
yet among the main body of the royal army, which in 1654 was in fact
increased by a small corps of bodyguard infantry, the ja^a'irt, consist-
ing of 600 men to begin with, a number later increased to 2,000 men.
The falling-off became plain among the artillery, which was the force
least needed in long periods of peace and which had never been especi-
ally popular among the Persians with their marked preference for
cavalry.1 As time went on, the typical extravagance, luxurious living
and idleness of the court did not fail to have a demoralising effect on
the royal troops. Corruption in the intendant's office, inadequate provi-
sion for the lower ranks, casualness and neglect became the order of
the day, and the shah's lack of interest added the finishing touches.
Thus it was possible for it to happen that, in 1666, at a parade of
troops, the same soldiers were marched past the shah several times
over. The result of such abuses was that discipline disintegrated and
the strength of units was allowed to fall, so that it was eventually said
of the army that it was quite useful for military parades but no use at all
for war.

Such, then, were the instruments of power available for the govern-
ment of Iran when the new shah ascended the throne. If his personal
share in the affairs of state was still confined for the time being to
representative functions only, he nevertheless learned to make it more
effective a few years later. To begin with, he had to catch up on the
education he had been denied hitherto; and he made such good prog-
ress in reading and writing that it was soon possible to introduce him
to religious texts. The foundations of his lifelong interest in theological
questions may well have been laid at this time, and this interest may
have provided the stimulus for a new Persian translation of al-KulInl's
Usu/ al-kdjift 'Urn al-dtn, the most important of the four books of the
ShI'i tradition. In addition to his intellectual training, which was not

1
Against Chardin's assertion, however, that the artillery corps was disbanded after the death
of its commander Husain Qull Beg in 1655, Luft {Iran unter Schah 'Abbas II, p. 3 7) draws attention
to the formation of a new artillery detachment in that very year.

291
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

confined merely to religious subjects, the shah also learned riding,

archery, polo and other equestrian games.
Meanwhile, the real power lay in the hands of the trusted Grand
Vizier Saru TaqI, who did not shut himself off from the influence of the
queen mother. He also willingly carried out ideas put forward by the
Shl'I jurists, who were deeply concerned to eradicate the excesses of
Shah Safi's reign that ran counter to the law. These included the
tendency to wild extravagance at court and, in imitation of it, in the
provincial capitals. The grand vizier insisted on the principle of econ-
omy and was able to curb the excessive drinking at court. However,
the successes he achieved were not destined to last long, as in this
respect 'Abbas II later followed in his father's footsteps.
After the accession had been carried through smoothly there were
more important concerns to worry about than the lax observance of
the religious law at court. Experience taught that the fluid situation
created by a change of ruler meant a challenge for discontented ele-
ments, power-hungry individuals, and centrifugal forces. Saru TaqI
met the new dangers with the classic ploys of generous tax concessions
for the provinces and by confirming almost all of the highly-placed
officials at the court and in the provinces. This policy had the desired
effect. There were no disturbances or revolts when the change of ruler
took place - with one exception. This was the trial of strength with the
imperial field-marshal (sipahsalar) Rustam Khan. He opposed the order
to remain in Mashhad on account of the threat from Indian troops,
having gone there to prepare a campaign, already planned but later
abandoned, against Qandahar. He now set off" for Isfahan, clearly with
the intention of bringing pressure to bear on state policy with the
change of ruler. The grand vizier reacted to this act of insubordina-
tion by promptly arranging for sentence of death to be passed on him.
This was carried out in Mashhad on 9 Dhu'l-Hijja 105 2/1 March 1643.
"Lord of the amirs, servant of the poor", boasted Saru TaqI in an
inscription of 1053/1643 recording his foundation of a mosque he
caused to be erected in Isfahan.1 The death of Rustam Khan is not the
only case in which he held to this principle. Integrity and incorruptibil-
ity were among the virtues for which he is remembered, and to which
we have already referred. These alone made him many enemies. A
compulsive urge to dominate, a contempt for people and the implac-

1
Mihrabadi, p. 640. Cf. also Hunarfar, Ganjina, p. J49-

292
 ABBAS II

able severity with which he proceeded against crooked dealings in the

management of state affairs, and especially the system of spies
employed in the collection of state taxes — each played its own part in
increasing the number of people opposed to the grand vizier, who in
any case does not seem to have been particularly popular even among
the highest dignitaries in the land. Not surprisingly, a plot was hatched
against him, led by JanI Khan Shamlu, the qurchl-bashl, who with five
other conspirators attacked and murdered him in his home on 20
Sha'ban 105 5/11 October 1645.
It was by no means certain whether what lay behind the murder was
only the pent-up resentment of a fairly small group of officers or
possibly — and perhaps more probably — a more ramified conspiracy of
Turkmen tribal chieftains, such as those which may still have been
remembered from the remote period of the Qizilbash conspiracies,
aimed perhaps at dethroning the shah in favour of another prince. The
crime was consequently followed by a period of some days in which
bewilderment and confusion swept the court. Not until various senior
officers and other dignitaries manifested their loyalty did the shah issue
the order to proceed against the murderers and have them and their
supporters put to death. It was again a Shamlu amir, Murtaza Qull
Khan Bljarlu, who was appointed to the position of qurchl-bashl. He
occupied this office for four years and his place was then taken by
Husain Qull Khan.
Sarii Taql's successor was Khalifa Sultan, who had been grand vizier
once before, from 1623 to 1632, and now remained in office until his
death (1064/1653—4). Shah SafI had had four of his sons blinded at the
time of the persecution of the princes. He was a pious man, concerned
to see respect paid to the religious law, though his successes in this
direction were at best only limited. It would seem that what he was
able to achieve in the matter of prohibiting visual representation — in
view of the many examples of portraiture and especially of miniature
painting at the time — was just as modest as in the matter of drinking,
which was a widespread habit, particularly at court, and could be
suppressed only occasionally by imposing sharp penalties. It is well
known that he made an effort to curb pederasty and to reduce prostitu-
tion by measures taken against the brothels that existed in many of the
towns. In spite of his zeal in these directions, he seems on the whole —
in welcome contrast to the severity, abruptness, and overbearing ways
of his predecessor - to have been a conciliatory character, disposed to
2
93
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

make allowances. Nevertheless, he was not without rivals at court.

Since 1644 AllahvardI Khan, the son of the Armenian Khusrau Khan,
had been master of the hunt (amtr-shikar-basht). He was hardly less
successful in securing the favour of the ruler than his namesake of
earlier days with Shah 'Abbas I. He can be seen as almost the ideal
embodiment of the courtier, and in his strategy as such he exploited
especially the shah's passion for hunting. His brilliantly arranged bat-
tues secured him the shah's affection and indeed also bore testimony to
the organisational skills which brought him the office of qullar-aqasl
when this position fell vacant; he held it until his death {c. 1663).
This high position, together with the unwavering goodwill of the
shah, made it possible for him to manoeuvre one of his proteges into
the position of grand vizier when Khalifa Sultan died. This was
Muhammad Beg, a Tabriz Armenian of modest origins, who up to that
time had been intendant-general of the court (nazir-i buyutat) and had
made a name as an efficient administrative and financial specialist. The
problems he was required to solve, however, were beyond his capabili-
ties. He did not succeed in reducing the immoderate outlay on the
court and the high military expenditure as the situation demanded, not
even by taking the necessary measures to reduce the quality of the
coinage, attempting to foster mining, and further increasing the crown
lands. His high-handed manner, his dismissal of several governors, and
the disputes he was involved in with the Isfahan city administration
created many enemies for him, among them some very influential
people. When he finally became involved even in differences with the
powerful AllahvardI Khan, he was removed from office and compelled
to take up permanent abode in Qum (18 Jumada I 1071/19 January
1661).
The shah did not hurry to appoint his successor. The fact that
ultimately Mlrza Muhammad Mahdl, scion of a highly respected family
of theologians, who had been sadr-i mamalik for over ten years, was
made grand vizier, may have been a concession to the Shl'I jurists.
Trouble had been fermenting in their ranks for a long time, not only
on account of the libertarianism at court (the stricter discipline intro-
duced after Saf I's death, with prohibition of wine and strict adherence
to the other religious prescripts, had long since been allowed to go by
the board), but also because of the magnanimity of the ruler towards
Christians, and Christians only recently converted to Islam, who were
able to attain to high office, indeed to the highest offices in the land.
294
 ABBAS II

In contrast to his predecessor, 'Abbas II took an active interest in the

business of government, although he too had been raised in the seclu-
sion of the harem and had received no preparation whatsoever for the
throne. Exactly when he began to play an active role is impossible to
determine, but it appears to have been at quite an early age, possibly in
the period immediately following the assassination of Saru TaqI, when
he was scarcely more than fifteen years old. A distinctive feature of his
reign was the consolidation of his power, which he achieved by pursu-
ing policies of centralisation such as increasing the number of prov-
inces belonging to the royal estates. In this respect he adhered firmly to
the policy of Sarii TaqI who, under Shah SafI, had already incorpo-
rated the province of Lar into the crown lands and who, only a year
before his death, had also annexed the land of the Bakhtiyar, in conse-
quence of a revolt against the local governor KhalU Khan. Subse-
quently other territories such as Hamadan (1654), Ardabil (1656—7)
and Kirman (1658) were also incorporated in the royal estates. The
increased revenues and the greater power of the monarch resulting
from these measures did not necessarily make for an improvement in
the lot of the population. In certain instances they even proved detri-
mental, because the administrators of the crown lands, as the immedi-
ate subordinates of the shah, were frequently in a position to disregard
constraints to which the former governors had been subject. On the
other hand, it was not unknown for the shah to intervene against his
provincial officials on receiving complaints from peasants or other of
his subjects that they had been dealt with too harshly. This explains
why European observers are able to contrast the well-being of the rural
population in Persia with the very much worse plight of the peasantry
in the West. The relatively favourable living conditions, also of course
attributable to the fact that Persia was spared any serious involvement
in major wars during this period, in turn help to explain why, for most
of the time, the country remained peaceful internally and the roads
were safe. When disorders and rebellions did develop they were
confined, like the uprising of the Bakhtiyars mentioned above, to bor-
der areas or vassal territories.
This was the case with various dominions in Georgia and Daghistan
which were either under Persian tutelage or loosely subject to the shah.
Reference has already been made to Rustam Khan, who ruled as gover-
nor or viceroy (vail) in Tiflis, and to conflicts between him and Theim-
uraz. These conflicts continued under 'Abbas II, in the first instance
2
95
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

shortly after his accession, then again in 1648. Even though Theimuraz
was eventually excluded from power and sent to Astarabad, fresh
disturbances occurred, despite — or even because of — an attempt to
restore peace by means of a special policy of colonisation and construc-
tion of fortresses, directed from Isfahan. Hostilities bordering on civil
war were not brought to a conclusion until the beginning of the
1070s/1660s under a new viceroy called Shahnavaz. Theimuraz him-
self, albeit in vain, had sought support from the government of the
Tsar. His efforts were certainly not misplaced, for Cossacks had ad-
vanced as far as the river Terek around the year 1600. When, however,
they proceeded to build fortifications commanding the approach routes
to eastern Georgia, Persian troops were sent into action who destroyed
their strongholds and put the garrisons to flight. To guard against
renewed incursions by the Russians, or those of the Ottomans, any
rebellions on the part of the princes of Daghistan were quelled.
No account of the development of domestic politics under 'Abbas II
would be complete without a brief consideration of Western trading
companies and their activities in Persia, although a later chapter will be
devoted to a detailed discussion of this topic. By the beginning of the
i ith/iyth century, at the latest, these companies had become a signifi-
cant factor not only in Persian history but also in the overseas history
of various European powers, i.e. in the development of what nowa-
days would be termed Western imperialism and colonialism. We have
already touched on the expulsion of the Portuguese with the aid of the
English, who aimed at establishing secure trade relations with
Persia.1 Other European powers now endeavoured in much the same
way to forge economic links with Iran and to set up suitable trade bases
in the country.
Portugal had still been granted minor rights by the shah in a treaty
of 1625, but when Muscat was conquered by the imam of 'Uman in
1060/16 50, she lost her foothold in the Persian Gulf and with it, simul-
taneously, her final opportunity for influence in Persia. It would, how-
ever, be quite wrong to conclude from their relations with the Portu-
guese that the rulers of Persia were in principle opposed to foreign
trade delegations. They were in fact only too well aware of the benefits
the country derived from the presence of Western trade representa-

1
See above, p. 268, and below, chapters 7 and 8. For a brief recent survey, cf. Schuster-Walser,
Das sajawidische Persien, p p . G-jfi.

296
 ABBAS II

tives. These benefits were not confined solely to the economic sphere.
Just how diverse they were can be gauged from two examples: the
deployment of English ships in support of the Persian government, for
instance, during the expulsion of the Portuguese, and the influence of
Western art on that of Persia, which is of particular interest in view of
the artistic inclinations of Shah 'Abbas II.
The English East India Company had been represented in Shiraz
and Isfahan since 1617. Later, in gratitude for the assistance it had
given against the Portuguese, it was granted significant privileges by
'Abbas I and Safi I, for example, a customs franchise in Bandar 'Abbas
(Gombroon), which had replaced the Portuguese Hurmuz; representa-
tion by a permanent ambassador at the court; a guarantee of free trade
throughout the country; independent legal authority; freedom of wor-
ship; the right to carry arms, and the pledge of greater supplies of silk.
Despite all this it would be wrong to conceive of the activity of the
company as being outstandingly successful. More often than not it
encountered difficulties when seeking to exercise its privileges, and not
infrequently it was obliged to relinquish them altogether. Moreover,
the role of the company was dependent upon the prestige that the
English homeland, about which they were quite well informed,
enjoyed amongst the Persians; and this, particularly since the outbreak
of the Civil War in 1642, was not exactly high.
Not many years after the English, the Dutch had also founded a
settlement in Bandar 'Abbas. The Dutch East India Company was more
successful in defending its interests than its English rival because, unlike
the latter, it could count on the support of its government and also
enjoyed greater freedom to act on its own authority. The privileges
conceded to it by 'Abbas I were endorsed by the governments of both
Saf I and 'Abbas II, though in the latter case not before drastic pressure
had been brought to bear by sending a Dutch fleet from Batavia to the
Persian Gulf.1 The principal Dutch imports to Persia were spices, sugar
and textiles. They purchased various silks, such as brocade, taffeta,
velvet and satin, in addition to raw silk. A trade agreement remained in
force until the end of the dynasty, but from time to time it proved
damaging or problematical to one or other of the parties as the result of a
stipulation obliging the Dutch to take agreed quantities of Persian silk at
a fixed price, which proved ruinous for them.

1
See Johann von der Behr, Diarium, as quoted in Schuster-Walser, p. 88.

297
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

French attempts to establish trade relations with the shah led to

agreements, the contents of which were sanctioned by 'Abbas II in a
farman issued shortly before his death, but for the time being nothing
came of them in practice.
Apart from the exchange of goods they facilitated, the activities of
the Western trading companies contributed to a certain opening up of
Iran towards the West. The companies brought large numbers of
Europeans to Persia, amongst them men of great acumen and intellec-
tual curiosity who made it their ambition to really get to know the
country and its inhabitants in depth, men who recorded their observa-
tions and experiences and subsequently published them. Reports of this
nature not only provided the contemporary Western world with
reliable information on Persia, but constitute to this day indispensable
source-material for certain areas of study. Through the agency of the
trading companies, for instance by using their ships, Persian merchants
also visited European countries and were able to inform themselves of
cultural conditions there. Western ideas reached Persia, where their
influence is clearly discernible, if not so much on intellectual life, then
certainly in the field of art and in the increasing refinement of Persian
culture.

In discussing the European trading companies we have already moved

to the subject of external relations, which were, as has already been
indicated, predominantly peaceful in the reign of 'Abbas II. The treaty
of 1049/1639 proved a reliable basis for relations with the Ottomans. In
other respects the judicious restraint of the shah paid dividends. He
was not tempted by such favourable opportunities to expand his terri-
tory as arose, for instance, in Transcaucasia, where the risk of war was
so acute that the governor of the Turkish border provinces had even
evacuated the civilian population in expectation of a Persian attack, or
in Basra, where the shah's aid had been sought to settle a struggle for
the succession. Under these circumstances no danger threatened from
the Ottomans, whether because the Porte was pursuing interests else-
where - the conquest of Crete occurs in the period 105 5-80/1645-69 -
or because their desire for expansion was counterbalanced by consider-
able difficulties at home. A significant indication of the peaceful nature
of relations between Persia and the Ottomans is the exchange of a
number of legations.
Nor did any threat to peace emerge from the north-east, where in
298
 ABBAS II

Khiva a new ruler had ascended the throne in the same year as 'Abbas
II. This was Abu'l-GhazI Khan, whom we have previously encoun-
tered as an exile in Isfahan. On the other hand, Persia was drawn into
conflicts which arose amongst the Uzbeks of Bukhara. Here we have
in mind not those incursions by nomadic Uzbek tribes which did
occasionally still occur, though no longer as frequently or on so large a
scale as under Shah SafI, but rather conflicts within the ruling dynasty.
Just as Imam Qull Khan had in his day arrived in Isfahan as a refugee
from his brother Nadr Muhammad Khan, so now this selfsame prince
appeared seeking help at the Persian court after being banished from
the throne by his son 'Abd al-'Aziz and having, if anything, further
exacerbated the situation by asking the Great Mughal for military
support. With Persian cooperation a settlement was arrived at between
father and son, but it lasted only until the beginning of the fifties. The
renewed strife, which had again led Nadr Muhammad Khan to
announce his arrival in Isfahan, was resolved by the latter's death.1
From then on Persia seems to have had no further difficulties of any
great significance with her Uzbek neighbours.
Nadr Muhammad Khan's request for aid had reached Shah Jahan as
he was beginning preparations for an attack on Transoxiana with the
initial aim of securing the approach route across the Hindu Kush,
across Badakhshan and Balkh, a situation of which the khan of
Bukhara was completely unaware. Small wonder, then, that the Indian
troops for whose support he was hoping had no other aim in mind
than the annexation of his country. The Great Mughals, a Timurid
dynasty, had consistently regarded the conquest and occupation of
Central Asia as a hereditary commitment handed down from generation
to generation, the legacy of their founder Zahir al-Dln Babur, who, it
will be recalled, had refused to give up the idea of a return to
Samarqand even when it was a practical impossibility.
The Indian advance on Central Asia eventually ended in catastrophe.
In Isfahan this led to a revival of the old plan to reconquer Qandahar
which had had to be abandoned on the death of Shah SafI. In the
autumn of 105 8/1648 the shah moved troops, supported by artillery,
into Afghanistan and succeeded in conquering Qandahar and the for-
tresses of the surrounding district before the arrival on the scene of an
1
Braun, Das Erbe Schah 'Abbas' 1, p. 62, dates this crisis in 1653. According to Luft, Iran tmter
Schah 'Abbas II, p. 140, Nadr Muhammad abdicated in 1650 and died later that year in Bistam
while undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca.

299
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Indian relief force under the command of Prince Aurangzlb. A counter-

attack by the Indians proved ineffectual and had to be abandoned.
Even when, two years later, Shah Jahan himself advanced at the head
of an army with elephants and cannon, victory was denied him, despite
a siege which lasted ten weeks. The Crown Prince Dara Shukuh, who
tried his luck in 1653, also failed. His attack was repulsed by Autar
Khan, who, as a former member of a diplomatic mission to the coun-
try, was well versed in Indian affairs and now turned his experience to
account as the shah's governor. Despite all efforts on the part of India,
Qandahar remained in Persian hands even after the Safavid dynasty
had come to an end, until the middle of the 12th/18th century, when it
became a part of the emerging independent state of Afghanistan.
The illness of Shah Jahan in Dhu'l-Qa'da 1067/September 1657 gave
rise to a war of succession among his sons, of whom Prince Dara
Shukuh attempted to gain military support for his cause from the shah.
It may well be the case that some form of intervention was contem-
plated in Isfahan, for a smallish contingent of troops was detailed for
this purpose. However, no measures of great significance were taken
and the prince eventually fell into the hands of his brother Aurangzlb,
who had him executed in 1069/165 9. It is possible that the prompt
despatch of troops from Qandahar might have saved him.1
In the course of his struggle for power, in 1065/165 5 and 1067/165 7
respectively, Aurangzlb sent troops into the Deccan states of Gol-
konda and Bljapur, both of which had previously been under Persian
suzerainty. He allowed them, however, to retain a certain measure of
independence and it is possible that in view of this the authorities in
Isfahan conceived the idea of playing off the Shl'I princes of these states
against the new Mughal emperor, himself a declared Sunnl. The send-
ing of a Persian ambassador to the states would appear to support this
conjecture. If it is correct, however, the shah must very quickly have
convinced himself of the futility of such a scheme, for only a short time
after the coronation of Aurangzlb, he resolved to recognise the
Mughal's sovereign authority. Aurangzlb, whose position was still
precarious, appears to have received this information with some sense
of relief. If the shah's decision was motivated by concern for the
security of Qandahar, he was to be disappointed, for when ambassa-
dors were exchanged it transpired that the Indian monarch by no

1
Riazul Islam, Indo-Persian Relations, p. 123.

3OO
 ABBAS II

means considered this particular question closed. Subsequently ten-

sions between Persia and India increased to such an extent that the
shah, even in his last days, when he was suffering from the illness
which eventually killed him, was making preparations for a campaign
against India. It was not, however, destined to be carried out.

A dominant feature of the reign of 'Abbas II is the indefatigable con-

cern he personally showed for the affairs of state. This did not change
even when, in 1073/ at the end of 1662, he displayed the first symptoms
of what was to prove a long and painful illness, although his reactions
to irregularities and maladministration on the part of individual digni-
taries and officials became, from this point onwards, more severe and
violent than in previous years. Executions for reasons of this nature
were no longer a rarity. When a deterioration in the condition of the
shah, who according to the descriptions of European reporters was
probably suffering from syphilis,1 forced him to recuperate in
Mazandaran, he still retained sufficient energy to take charge of state
business even from there.
At the age of thirty-three, in the autumn of 1077/1666, probably
during the night of 26 Rabi' II/25-6 October,2 'Abbas passed away in
Khusrauabad, a small mountain castle between Damghan and Gurgan.
His body was brought to Qum, where he was buried next to his father
Safi. Not without reason is his name often mentioned in the same
breath as those of Isma'Il I and 'Abbas I as the three outstanding ruling
figures of the Safavids. Because he might otherwise have been just the
man to prevent the downfall of the Safavid kingdom, there is no lack
of expressions of regret at his untimely end, either in the primary
sources, of which the accounts of Western visitors to Persia have the
first if not the sole claim to credibility, or in the writings of historians.
The validity of such speculation can best be judged by a consideration
of his personality.
Surviving portraits show the shah to have been a finely propor-
tioned young man of medium height with a longish face, sharply
defined features and a wide, sweeping moustache of the kind fashion-

1
The testimony of Kaempfer, p. 36, as a physician, carries especial weight. Cf. also Chardin ix,
400.
2
Braun, Das Erbe Scbab 'Abbas' I, p. 142. Other sources give 25 Rabf I (Luft, Iran unter Schah
'Abbas II, p. 103 and n.409) or 23 RabP I (the anonymous essay "Az ibtida-yi Safaviyya ta akhir-i
Qajariyya padshahan-i Iran har yak dar kuja mad fun and", Yadgar 111/2 [132;], 9-22).

301
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD
1
able at the time. He was renowned for his skill in and enthusiasm for
sporting activities such as riding and archery, as well as for his passion-
ate interest in hunting.
'Abbas II adhered to the traditional conception of the divine king-
ship and sacred status of the Safavids and did not hesitate to dispute the
views of those theologians who argued that until the return of the
departed Imam, i.e. the Mahdl, temporal power belonged by right not
to the Safavid shah but to the mujtahid of the time. On the other hand,
he was concerned to foster good relations with the Shl'I jurists, which
explains in part why he chose his sisters' husbands from amongst their
number. He did so also, of course, with the ulterior motive of preclud-
ing any issue eligible for succession to the throne, an eventuality he
would have had to face had his brothers-in-law been members of the
ruling dynasty or eminent military figures in the realm.
The desire to consolidate his own power, for decades the overriding
concern of the Safavid monarchs, prompted 'Abbas II to have his
nephews killed and his four brothers blinded. Nor was he content to
follow the practice hitherto customary at the court, of rendering the
cornea opaque, but ordered the actual removal of their eyeballs. This
fear of potential rivals did not, however, extend to his own two sons,
in spite of certain misgivings concerning them in court circles. A
propensity to cruelty can also be discerned in certain directives issued
when 'Abbas was in an inebriated condition. The prohibition imposed
at the time of his accession by the Grand Vizier Saru Taqi and repre-
sentatives of the religious classes had been shortlived, and excessive
consumption of alcohol, just as in the days of his father, had again
become the order of the day at court. According to one chronicle,2
probably the only activity the young shah preferred to a bout of heavy
drinking was watching a game of polo. Another passion he indulged
was his love of the fair sex, and it would seem that his early death was
not unconnected with his lack of restraint in this regard.
Although such characteristics tarnish the image of the ruler some-
what, he was by no means lacking in conspicuously good qualities
which earned the praise of native and foreign observers alike. Fore-
most amongst these was a pronounced love of justice. He would inter-
1
See Braun, Das Erbe Scbah 'Abbas' I, p. 136, and Luft, Iran unter Schab 'Abbas II, p. 260, n. 5 87.
Of the two portraits supplied in Welch, Sbab 'Abbas and the Arts, pp. 85 and 98, the first is
particularly impressive.
2
Qazvlnl, 'Abbas-nama, p. 315; see also Braun, Das Erbe Scbah 'Abbas' I, p. 137.

3O2
 ABBAS II

vene quite ruthlessly whenever corruption or despotism, irregularities

or malpractices came to his notice, irrespective of whether it was a
question of the normal administration of justice or the surveillance of
political and administrative bodies, both civil and military. He even
went to the length of personally devoting several days a week to the
administration of justice, amongst other things initiating measures to
promote public safety and above all to suppress banditry and highway
robbery. The energy and drive displayed by 'Abbas in this and other
areas of public life led not only to the eradication of particular abuses
which had crept in since the death of his great-grandfather, but also to
an overall reform of Safavid politics as such.
A clearer image of the ruler's personality emerges when one con-
siders his attitude towards things spiritual, intellectual and artistic,
something which has already been alluded to in passing. He valued the
company of intellectuals and scholars as well as that of dervishes, on
whom, incidentally, he lavished considerable sums. At court he would
organise discussions and debates with them on topics chosen from
their sphere of interest. On occasions, moreover, committed leaders of
the faith such as his Grand Vizier Khalifa Sultan succeeded in inciting
him in his religious zeal to attempt to convert the non-Islamic
minorities of the realm. Whereas the Christians emerged relatively
unscathed because they were not pursued with any great rigour or
stringency, the fate of the Jews, above all the sizeable Jewish com-
munity in Isfahan, was much worse. All kinds of coercive measures
and underhand practices were employed to convert them to Islam.
Measures of this nature, however, seem only marginally to have
affected the general climate of religious affairs under 'Abbas II, reliable
accounts indicating as they do that, in contrast to other Islamic
countries, religious discussions between Christians and Muslims were
not merely permitted in Persia during this period, but actually took
place frequently. Although the Islamic faith undoubtedly formed the
undisputed basis of national and public life, there is ample evidence for
the existence of liberal attitudes and, apart from the exceptions such as
those just mentioned, the tolerance extolled by European observers of
the time of'Abbas I seems to have reigned during this period also. This
can be seen, for example, from cases in which the shah intervened
against Islamic judges who in legal disputes between Christians and
Muslims had unfairly favoured the latter.
The ruler's attitude towards the fine arts shows him in a particularly

3°3
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

sympathetic light. There was admittedly a long tradition of artistic

inclination and aesthetic sensibility among the Safavids, but in 'Abbas
II, who was himself a practising artist, these qualities found quite
outstanding expression. The painting of the time owes its charm not
least to the traces of European and Indian influence detectable in it.
These are the result not only of the increasing number of pictures
which found their way to Persia from Europe and India but also of
personal contacts between Persian artists and European and Indian
masters. 'Abbas II is himself the best example of this trend. After
gaining experience of skilled craft-work in his early youth, he later
received lessons in painting too, from European as well as Persian
teachers.
The artistic interests of the ruler also extended to architecture and
lengthy accounts of the buildings he erected in Isfahan are to be found
in the sources. Apart from preservation and reconstruction work, how-
ever, no mention is made of the building of mosques, to which his
great-grandfather owed his immortal renown as an architect. All the
more significant and numerous, on the other hand, are his achieve-
ments in the field of secular architecture, such as caravansarais, bridges
and palaces. Much that owed its inspiration to him has subsequently
been destroyed, but to this day monuments have been preserved in the
architecture of Isfahan which testify to his exquisite taste, such as, for
instance, the most charming bridge Pul-i Khaju over the Zayandariid
and above all the garden palace Chihil Sutun, which in its combination
of architecture and painting gives some impression of the radiance that
adorned the royal household and the festivities of the shah.

SAFI ri (SULAIMAN)

With the death of 'Abbas II, who for all his faults was a just and
magnanimous - if not a liberal - monarch, Persia came once and for all
to the end of a long period of peace and prosperity. Problems began to
arise even on the question of the succession, for which the late shah
had made no provision. Was the eldest son, the approximately nineteen-
year-old Safi Mlrza to succeed his father in accordance with the estab-
lished custom of the Safavids, even though he had not been on particu-
larly good terms with 'Abbas? Or would the throne fall to his favourite
son Hamza Mlrza, a mere seven-year-old? Despite initial support
for Hamza MIrza's claim on the part of the Grand Vizier Mlrza
304
 SAFI II (SULAIMAN)

Muhammad Mahdi, the leading figures of the realm, assembled where

'Abbas had died, decided in favour of the older prince's succession,
merely on the basis of representations made to them by his personal
tutor and confidant, the eunuch Mirza Aqa Mubarak. Subsequently
he ascended the throne on i November 1666 with the title SafI II.1
The new shah, the son of a Circassian slave called Naklhat Khanum,
had been raised, according to what by now had become the firmly
established custom, in the wives' quarters, that is in the sole company
of the ladies of the harem and eunuchs, without the slightest prep-
aration for the throne. He lacked not only experience and observation
of the practice of government but also.those excellent human qualities
his father had possessed, although he shared with the latter such vices
as excessive drinking, cruelty, principally when under the influence of
alcohol, and a tendency towards immoderate sexual indulgence. To a
fondness for pomp and circumstance, evinced also by his father, came
in addition an inordinate extravagance, at least in the early part of his
reign. Later on, admittedly, he was to swing to the opposite extreme
of avarice and covetousness, two qualities that remained with him
until the end of his days. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor, who
lived in Isfahan in the years 1683-4, left behind an excellent account
of the Safavid capital and of the administration of the court and coun-
try, including also a character sketch of the shah.2 Alongside his more
familiar faults and vices are listed irascibility, indolence and supersti-
tion, but a few good qualities also find mention: occasional acts of
justice and clemency, piety, an unusual love of peace and winning
social manners. Kaempfer testifies not only to the shah's kindhearted-
ness but also to his popularity with his subjects.
The very beginnings of SafI IPs rule in Iran were anything but
encouraging. The news from Mazandaran of his father's death and his
own appointment to the succession had found him, just like his grand-
father before him, in a state of total unpreparedness. Never before
having set foot outside the harem, he was seized with panic and
responded to the invitation to appear in the throne room for his corona-
tion only after a considerable show of reluctance, because he assumed
that he was being lured there simply to be murdered or blinded.
Shortly after he came to the throne, prices soared in the capital and
1
This and the second coronation are discussed in detail by Chardin, Le couronnement de Solei-
maan Troisiime [sic], roy de Perse (Paris, 1671), an account also included in his Voyages ix and x.
2
Kaempfer, pp. 47—61.

3°5
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

there were outbreaks of famine and disease in the country. The prov-
ince of Shirvan suffered a violent earthquake and in the following year
the Caspian provinces had to endure the predatory raids of Stenka
Razin's Cossacks, whom the Persian forces were unable to subdue.
Since all was not well with the ruler's health either, presumably
because of the dissolute life he led, one of the physicians who were
striving in vain to cure him hit on the idea that all these misfortunes -
not only the shah's sickliness but all the untoward occurrences in the
land — must stem from a miscalculation of the horoscope determining
the date of his accession to the throne. It did not take long to find a
court astrologer who confirmed this assumption, and the leading
figures of the realm together with the shah duly concluded that the
remedy to the situation lay in repeating the ceremony of accession.1
A new horoscope indicated 20 March 1668, at nine o'clock in the
morning, as the most propitious time. The second coronation, which
was again observed in every ceremonial detail, was supposed to
betoken a completely fresh start. Thus, on this occasion, the shah
ascended the throne under a new name also, that of Shah Sulaiman, by
which he is known in history.2
However, neither the renewed accession to the throne nor the adop-
tion of a new name by the sovereign made for an improvement in the
fortunes of the Safavid kingdom. The ruler was simply not a man of
substance. The qualities he had lacked previously - energy, courage,
decisiveness, discipline, initiative and an eye for the national interest —
all these he subsequently proved incapable of acquiring. His fundamen-
tal indifference towards the tasks of government was reinforced, as
before, by his fondness for alcohol and women. As the years went by,
the respective grand viziers - initially MIrza Muhammad Mahdl, who
had served under 'Abbas II, then after the latter's death (f.1673) the
Kurd Shaikh 'All Zangana until 1690, and finally MIrza Muhammad
Tahir Vahld Qazvlnl - were granted less and less frequently the morn-
ing audience with the shah which previously had been the custom.
More and more he made the harem the focal point of his existence, and
whilst there he was inaccessible even to his grand vizier. Thus it
1
On occasions one reads (cf. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis, p. 3 2) that instead of SafT II a self-
appointed "usurper" ascended the throne at this time so that he could be the victim of the evil fate
ordained in the stars. This is possibly connected with ancient eastern ideas: cf. K. Hecker, Die
Institution des Ersat^konigs im alien Zweistromland, probationary lecture in Freiburg, 9 Dec. 1970.
2
Occasionally he is entitled Sulaiman I, to distinguish him from the ephemeral Sulaiman II,
who ruled in Mashhad in 1163/1749—50: see Lockhart, The Fall, p. ; 10; below, p. 329.

306
 SAFI II (SULAIMAN)

happened that, even when important decisions had to be made, the

grand vizier was often left entirely to his own devices or, alterna-
tively, the shah would discuss affairs of state with his wives and
eunuchs and communicate through a servant of the harem any decision
arrived at in this manner. Indeed, the shah even set up a privy council
in the harem, to which the most important eunuchs belonged, a kind of
private administration which effectively deprived the real organs of
government, i.e. the council of State {divan) and the court assembly
{majlis) as well as the grand vizier, of their functions. In practice state
dignitaries were reduced to the level of mere executive organs of this
privy council. Even when the shah condescended to participate in
consultations outside the harem it was hardly ever possible to discuss
in detail problems that had arisen, because he had neither the inclina-
tion nor the patience necessary to familiarise himself with the facts of a
complex situation; and the leading figures of the realm had learned
from bitter experience not to be too energetic in their efforts to arouse
his interest. Sovereignty resided in the harem, where eunuchs,
princesses and concubines intrigued constantly.
The shah's indifference, bordering on apathy, with regard to ques-
tions of political administration inevitably gave rise to grave abuses. In
the absence of any effective control or sanction against oppression and
exploitation, corruption was rife. In the circumstances, the practice of
bestowing favours, widespread in Persia, rapidly led to bribery in
public life. Sinister developments in the armed forces, of which there
had been indications even under 'Abbas II, now became widespread.
Oblivious of their military duties, soldiers came to regard their pay as
little more than a gratuity, in exchange for which no effort was
required on their part. Some contingents, indeed, existed only on
paper.1

Shah Sulaiman ruled for twenty-eight years, until 1105/1694. To judge

from the observations of European travellers, the royal household was
maintained with a pomp and splendour no less lavish than that which
characterised earlier Safavid rulers. One reads, for example, of excur-
sions organised by the shah with his estimated eight hundred ladies of
the harem. At the beginning of his reign these took place once or twice
a week, bringing the activities of whole areas of the city to a standstill,

1
Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, p. 3 5.

3°7
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

because all males, even boys and old men, were banned under penalty
of death (quriiq) from the streets through which the royal procession
was due to pass.1 The discrepancy between this outer veneer and the
tawdry reality underneath becomes positively grotesque when one
finds others, no doubt in all sincerity, reporting that the people revered
this ruler and that life during his reign was not at all bad for them.2
As a matter of fact, dissatisfaction with conditions in the country did
not find expression in uprisings of any significance. How is one to
explain this? Undoubtedly the Persian government's aggressive policy
of centralisation since the reign of 'Abbas I had in the meantime borne
fruit. Quasi-autonomous provincial administrations had been system-
atically eradicated. At the same time, those elements most likely to
constitute a threat to the shah, especially the Qizilbash and their
leaders, had been divested of power and ultimately suppressed.
However, this is not of itself an adequate explanation. It is doubtless
also significant that, according to Malcolm,3 no events whatsoever
of major importance occurred during the reign of Sulaiman. But
what decisively influenced public verdict on the shah was probably
the fact that he did not involve the country in war. His apathetic
and nonchalant attitudes may well have been construed as a love of
peace. In the judgement of the masses, reports of the dignified bearing
and the external appearance of this blonde, blue-eyed man of great
physical strength4 are likely to have outweighed any evidence of lack of
initiative.
It is true that in the sphere of foreign policy Sulaiman avoided doing
anything that might lead him into difficulties. Although the Ottomans,
owing to wars with Austria, Poland and Venice, would scarcely have
been capable of action on any large scale in the eastern parts of their
empire, he steadfastly refused to violate the peace treaty which his
grandfather had made with the Porte in 1049/1639; tn * s despite, for
instance, repeated offers from Mesopotamia (1684, 1685) and from
Basra (1690) to re-establish Persian suzerainty there. In addition, he
allowed the Dutch East India Company to establish a base on the island
1
Details in Kaempfer, pp. 179—8 5.
2
Chardin, as cited in Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 23.
3
Quoted in Braun, Das Erbe Scbab 'Abbas' I, p. 159.
4
Braun, ibid., p. 156, refers to a miniature depicting Sulaiman in the Chester Beatty collection,
which is reproduced in A Chronicle of the Carmelites i, 405. The prohibition of illustrations of the
shah referred to by Kaempfer, p. 48, cannot therefore have been as effective as Stchoukine,
Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, p. 37, assumes.

308
 SAFI II (SULAIMAN)

of Kishm in the Persian Gulf. Similarly he shunned conflict with

Russia when the Cossacks, in the course of their increasingly frequent
incursions on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea after 1662,
requested on more than one occasion that they might be placed under
Persian suzerainty.
The Uzbeks were able to make plundering raids on eastern Persia
without fear of vigorous reprisals. Such raids, always undertaken when
the Persians least expected them, were, however, relatively small-scale
actions carried out by tribes of rapacious nomads not fully integrated
into the sphere of influence of the khan. At all events they did not mar
the good relations the shah enjoyed with successive rulers of Bukhara,
'Abd al-'Aziz Khan and, after 1091/1680, the latter's brother, Subhan
Qull Khan. In 1685 ambassadors were exchanged in an attempt to
settle existing differences diplomatically.
Another neighbouring people from the north, the Kalmucks, a
Western Mongolian race from the Ust-Urt region between the Caspian
and Aral Seas, had already attracted the attention of the government in
Isfahan in the time of 'Abbas II, at first because of an incursion into the
province of Astarabad and later when a legation was sent to the Persian
capital. The Kalmucks, clearly under the impression that Persia was
militarily weak, made further attacks during Sulaiman's reign. From
time to time they also sent ambassadors to the Persian court again. It is,
however, unlikely that they were held in any great esteem there.1
In contrast to earlier periods there were no difficulties of note with
the Georgian lands. In Kakhetia the previously mentioned governor
Shahnavaz had been succeeded in 1664 by his son Archil Khan and in
1675, for a short period, by Herakleios I (Erekle), a grandson of the
famous Theimuraz. All subsequent administrators were Persians. In
Kartlia, on the other hand, a native dynasty, the Mukhranids, remained
under Persian suzerainty.
Because of the pomp and circumstance associated with the reception
of foreign legations, detailed accounts of the diplomatic activity of the
period are given both by Persian sources and by foreign travellers.
European missions figure prominently, such as those from Sweden,
Russia and France. Their object was usually the development of trade
relations, Persian silk in particular being in great demand.
On 29 July 1694 Shah Sulaiman died in Isfahan at the age of forty-

1
Kaempfer, p. 206.

309
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

six. According to one version he suffered a stroke during a particularly

heavy drinking bout.1 According to another the cause of death was
gout, which had already confined him to bed for two years. Other
authorities see his death as the outcome of decades of debauchery.2
The brief sketch of his reign we have just drawn contains ample
evidence of his failure as a ruler. The picture of Sulaiman the human
being is no less shameful. Two instances of his insulting behaviour
towards his Grand Vizier Shaikh 'All Zangana will suffice to make the
point. On one occasion, after forcing the grand vizier to imbibe
intoxicating liquor, he spent hours revelling at the sight of his pathetic
condition. On another occasion, after ordering the removal of the
grand vizier's beard, he had the barber's hand chopped off because he
had not done the job thoroughly enough. These and other still worse
atrocities of which he was guilty are grotesquely incompatible with the
"saint-like" and "unblemished" status to which he laid claim and
which was attributed even to this shah by his subjects.3
Sulaiman's only redeeming feature might perhaps be his apprecia-
tion of art, specifically painting and the work of miniaturists. He must
be regarded as an outstanding connoisseur if, as is likely, it is true that
as a patron he influenced directly or indirectly some of the most
impressive works of the three greatest painters of the late nth/ 17th
century, 'All Qull Jabbadar, Muhammad Zaman and Mu'In Musavvir.
His promotion on the one hand of the traditional style found in Mu'In
Musavvir and, on the other hand, of the new tendencies inspired by
Western painting which mark the work of 'All Qull Jabbadar and
Muhammad Zaman may well be evidence of an artistic taste that could,
in more favourable circumstances, have led to the development of a
new aesthetic sense.

SULTAN HUSAIN

Intrigues in the harem, which had played a decisive role in so many of

his political affairs, seem also to have determined the choice of Sulai-
man's successor. He himself had failed to nominate a crown prince.
Instead, he is said to have advised the dignitaries gathered around his

1
Gemelli-Carreri, Voyage du tour du monde n (Paris, 1719), 120, quoted in Schuster-Walser, Das
safawidische Persien, p. 21.
2
For the last two versions, from Krusinski and the Zubdat al-tavarikh respectively, see Braun,
3
Das Erbe Schah 'Abbas' I, p. 1; 7. Kaempfer, pp. 16f.

310
 SULTAN HUSAIN

sick-bed during his last hours that if they were concerned to maintain
peace and quiet they should make his elder son, the twenty-six-year old
Sultan Husain Mlrza his successor; if, on the other hand, they wished
to strengthen royal power and expand the empire they should rather
appoint the latter's twenty-three-year old brother, 'Abbas Mlrza. The
ruler passed away at an unforeseen moment when no-one was present.
His death was discovered by his aunt, Princess Maryam Begum, whose
sympathies lay wholly with Prince Husain. She informed the influential
eunuchs and it is unlikely that she had any difficulty in winning their
support for her favourite.
His coronation on 14 Dhu'l-Hijja 1105/6 August 1694 meant the
continuation of his father's misrule, albeit in a somewhat different
key. At the same time it was the prelude to the fall of the Safavid
dynasty. Sultan Husain had, it is true, a reign of twenty-eight years
before him, but not one, however, destined to bring happiness to the
empire. He and his country, which for more than two centuries had
withstood serious crises within and powerful enemies without, were
to suffer a catastrophe at the hands of an opponent as unforeseen as
he was basically insignificant, but whom the shah and his army were
powerless to repulse. Before considering this, however, we need to
discuss his character, his outlook on life and his conduct of govern-
ment.
Shah Sulaiman's statement concerning the choice of his successor,
whether actually made or subsequently attributed to him, was well
founded in the quite different personalities of his sons, the two eldest of
a total of seven. Both had grown up in the seclusion of the harem and
neither of them had received an education or preparation of any kind
for the tasks which awaited a future monarch of Persia. Manliness,
bellicosity, sobriety and adroitness were the main characteristics of
Prince 'Abbas. Sultan Husain was totally different: a placid, social
personality, studious, abstemious and, even in his early years, pious to
such a degree that he was given the nickname "Mulla Husain" by those
around him. His indifference towards the governmental duties assigned
to him — in this respect he was just like his father — found expression in
another nickname he was given, Yakhshidir ("very well!"), which was
his stock response whenever matters of government were expounded
to him.
In the good intentions with which he began his reign the new shah
had the support of the Shaikh al-Islam Muhammad Baqir MajlisI

3"
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

(b. 1037/1627, d. mi/1699), a famous theologian on whom Shah

Sulaiman had already conferred office. Initially, it looked as though
this man, who had girded on Husain's sword during the solemn inves-
titure,1 would prevent the young monarch from following in the evil
ways of his predecessors. He was the driving force behind Husain's
first decrees, which forbade abuses of the religious code that had
become widespread, such as unbridled consumption of alcohol. On his
initiative too the sufis were banished from the capital, members of the
very order of which the shah himself was master but with whom he no
longer felt any affinity.
The influence exerted by Muhammad Baqir and his theologians
inevitably roused the jealousy of the people of the harem, the eunuchs
and the princesses. Anxious not to lose power, they did their utmost to
counteract any attempts to weaken their position; and not without
success, as shown by the fate of the ban on alcohol just mentioned.
Cunningly exploiting the concept of moral infallibility associated with
the office of shah, a Shl'I version of the maxim "the king can do no
wrong", they successfully tempted Husain to indulge in wine drinking.
Here again the Princess Maryam Begum, herself a hardened wine
drinker, played a significant role.
Although at first sight these events appear to stem from a palace
intrigue on the part of various pressure groups composed of court and
state dignitaries, their real causes lie deeper. These will be dealt with in
our concluding remarks, but at least some allusion to them is necessary
at this point in the discussion. It will be recalled that Shah 'Abbas I had
not only destroyed the military might of the Qizilbash but also neutral-
ised the more strongly religious elements of the group, the sufis proper
- by that time the arms-bearing ghazls could probably no longer be
regarded as actually identical with the practising members of the sufl
order. 'Abbas I had put the latter firmly in their place in 998/1589-90
after a trial of strength to which they had challenged him. From then
on he had suppressed their influence more and more, most effectively
by a policy of ignoring them or treating them with contempt. After his
death their standing suffered still further, especially when in the reign
of Shah 'Abbas II a group of well-versed theologians appeared on the
1
Lockhart, Tbe Fall, p. 38, writes: "Sultan Husain refused to let the Sufis gird him with the
sword in the customary manner, and called upon the Shaikh al-Islam to do so instead." Safi II
(Sulaiman) had done the same at his coronation : Lambton, "Quis custodiet custodes?", SI vi
(1956), i4if.; Braun, Das Erbe Schab 'Abbas' I, p. 50.

312
 SULTAN HUSAIN

scene who were no longer prepared to recognise "the mystic vagaries of

the earlier period".1 This group, the 'ulama', with the mujtahid at their
head, advanced unassailable Shi'i doctrines to refute the religious con-
cepts of the sufls and resolutely strove, for their own part, to win power
over the shah. In the case of Shah Sulaiman and, as will now be seen,
Shah Sultan Husain, they succeeded. Of the 'ulama, the group which
thus greatly increased in strength, a prominent representative was
Muhammad Baqir Majlisl. As his theological writings prove, he was
a man of great erudition, but this in no way diminished his interest
in secular power. Nor, certainly, did it counteract a religious intolerance
on his part from which not only Christians and Jews but also Sunnis,
the aforementioned sufls and even philosophers were made to suffer.
The shah let him have his own way. Far from unifying the population of
the country, this policy of intolerance, which was also pursued by
Muhammad Baqir's grandson and successor Mir Muhammad Husain,
tended to sow dissension because it encouraged people to denounce one
another. It was one of the factors that subsequently, in the hour of need,
rendered religious commitment ineffective as a stimulus to popular
resolve to defend the country.
A truly paradoxical situation characterises the final phase of Safavid
rule. A monarch, pious to the point of bigotry, submits to the demands
of orthodox Shi'i theologians, the adversaries of his ancestors who had
won over the nation to Shi'ism and preserved it in that belief. Of
course these ancestors, especially Isma'Il, the founder of the state, had
held radically different views of Shi'ism from the theologians who now
triumphed as power slipped from the hands of a weak and irresolute
ruler. These did not use their power to the best advantage of the
country, any more than did their rivals inside the harem, who with few
exceptions were men of little ability. The decline in royal power, the
indifference of the shah with regard to the affairs of state, his lack of
initiative, energy and consistency ruled out all possibility of progress in
the country, whether one considers trade and commerce, administra-
tion or agriculture, the national finances or the army. Nor were suc-
cesses in foreign policy to be achieved in the prevailing circumstances.
Nevertheless, the institutions of state continued to function, even if
ominous signs of ossification and torpor became noticeable, for
example, in the military sphere.

1
See Minorsky, Tadbkirat aUMu/uktp. 125.

313
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Even cultural life continued on its way, in some fields with consider-
able achievements. Examples of craftwork, such as ceramics, metal-
work and textiles, testify to the uninterrupted activity at the monarch's
court workshops. Their products nowadays enjoy immense popularity
amongst collectors and museums throughout the world. Architecture,
too, remained productive. The shah was reponsible for the improve-
ment and extension of his palace buildings and the Madrasa-yi
Chaharbagh, founded by his mother, is even one of the masterpieces of
Safavid architecture. Contacts with Europe continued: we learn of
legations from the courts of Louis XIV and Peter the Great in 1708, as
well as a further legation from the Tsar in 1715. Persia herself sent
diplomatic missions, for example to France. Although these exchanges
were concerned primarily with specific problems of international trade,
they were at the same time not without significance for the cultural and
particularly the artistic development of the country. They brought
aesthetic ideas from the West to Persia, European works of art such as
paintings and even Western artists and craftsmen. Thus the already
mentioned European influence on Persian art, especially painting, was
enhanced. Clearly the shah himself did not stand in the way of this
development, since he even agreed to pose for a Dutch portrait
painter.1 In this respect, at any rate, he had no religious scruples.

The religious policy just referred to, which was designed to impose
Shi'I Islam as the sole confession in Persia, naturally created a good
deal of bad blood because of the forcible conversion of Zoroastrians,
Jews, Christians and relatively small groups of Shi'I sectarians, but it
had positively devastating consequences for the more or less closed
SunnI sections of the population. If they lived near the borders, such
communities reacted to the pressure of forcible conversion by develop-
ing separatist tendencies. This occurred in the Afghan areas of the
Safavid empire, and it was there in the region of Zamlndavar and
Qandahar that the storm gathered which was eventually to cause the
downfall of the shah.
The warlike tribe of the Ghalzai2 had penetrated into these areas,
1
Welch, Shah 'Abbas and the Arts, pp. 120-37. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis, pp. 38—41. See
also Lockhart, The Fall, frontispiece.
2
Often linked with the Khalaj: cf. R.N. Frye, "Ghalzay (GhaldjI, Ghilzay)",B^; Koprulu,
"Halac", ///. Ans.; on the language of the Khalaj resident in Persia, Doerfer, "Das Chaladsch -
eine archaische Tiirksprache", ZDMC cxvm (1968), 79—112, and "Das Chaladsch, eine neuent-
deckte archaische Tiirksprache", ZDMC Suppl. 1 (1969), 719—25.
 SULTAN HUSAIN

the population of which had been severely reduced during the reign of
'Abbas I with the resettlement of the Abdalls in Herat. The Ghalzai
policy of playing off the Persian governor of Qandahar against the
Mughal governor in Kabul had so far helped them to overcome con-
siderable difficulties. Inveterate Sunnls as they were, the Ghalzai now
attempted to counter Persian religious pressures by treating with India.
Initially they had no intention of rebelling against the Persians,
towards whom, if anything, they were more favourably inclined than
to the Mughals. But a sudden switch in policy occurred when, as a
result of an attack by the Baluchls which the commandant of Qandahar
proved powerless to resist, Gurgln Khan (i.e. the former King Giorgi
XI of Kartlia) was appointed governor-general in May 1704 and dis-
patched together with his forces from Kirman to Qandahar. Brutal
treatment at the hands of the Georgians now provoked a revolt
amongst the Ghalzai. Gurgln Khan suppressed them, took prisoner
their leader, the wealthy and influential Mir Vais, and sent him to
Isfahan. Although Gurgln Khan had warned that his prisoner was a
dangerous man, Mir Vais managed to gain the favour of the shah and
even to arouse his suspicion against the governor-general. A few years
later he returned to Qandahar a free man and Gurgln Khan was unable
to take any action against him. During his long stay in the capital he
had gained a deep insight into the abuses of the government and
central administration.
In April 1709, when a large proportion of the Georgian troops had
left on an expedition in the provinces, Mir Vais staged a carefully
planned coup. Surprising the governor-general in a camp outside the
fortress, he overpowered and defeated him together with his followers.
Later, when the expeditionary force returned, it was unable to retrieve
the situation. The man sent to quell the rebellion, Kai-Khusrau, prefect
of Isfahan and a nephew of Gurgln Khan, proved unequal to the task.
It took him more than a year and a half even to arrive on the scene
although the forces at his disposal — Georgians and Qizilbash, who
were joined in Herat by a group of the Abdali tribe, hereditary foes of
the Ghalzai — were numerically strong. Despite initial successes, he
was brought to a standstill outside the walls of Qandahar, and lack of
reinforcements as well as the outbreak of an epidemic amongst his
troops forced him to raise the siege at the end of October 1711. As he
retreated the pursuing Ghalzai inflicted a crushing defeat which also
cost him his life. The next commander to be entrusted with the recon-

3M
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

quest of Qandahar, the qiirchl-bashl Muhammad Zaman Khan

Shaman, fell ill and died en route in Herat long before his forces could
make contact with the enemy.
Whether these failures helped to persuade the authorities in Isfahan
that nothing could be achieved against the Ghalzai with forces of the
quality hitherto dispatched, or whether the indifference of the shah had
now spread to those members of the government who had so far
retained an inclination for decisive action, Mir Vais suffered no further
attacks from the central government in the years up to his death in
1127/1715. He subjected the whole territory of Qandahar to his control
and ruled it as an independent prince, if only under the modest title of
vakil ("administrator"). The plans sometimes attributed to him of
marching on Isfahan, dethroning the shah and assuming sovereign
command in Persia seem to have scarcely any foundation in fact and are
probably embellishments of the truth in the light of subsequent devel-
opments.1 The starting point of these developments may be discerned
in the policies initiated by Mir Vais, and he might even be regarded as a
pioneer of Afghan independence, though not as its founder. Since his
ambitions did not extend so far, that title is usually reserved for
another tribal leader, Ahmad Shah Durrani, who does not come to full
historical prominence until thirty years later. One reason for this may
be that the latter's tribe has greater claims to be called Afghan than the
Ghalzai, namely the Abdalis2 of Herat, whom we have just encoun-
tered as the hereditary foes of the Ghalzai and allies of the luckless
Kai-Khusrau. The Abdalis, finding themselves in a plight similar to
that of their adversaries in Qandahar, revolted against oppression and
exploitation by representatives of the central government in Isfahan.
The shah sent one force after another to suppress the uprising, but they
all failed. Although the warlike spirit of the Afghans was a contribu-
tory factor, the lack of training and discipline on the part of the troops
sent and the incompetence and inadequate fighting experience of their
leaders was of greater account, as ample evidence from both Persian
and Western sources shows.
In the face of such catastrophic information from the east of the

1
Lockhart, The Fall, p. 92, and appendix VI, especially p. 543.
2
Boldly speculative attempts are sometimes made to link the Abdall tribe with the Hephthal-
ites of the 5 th and 6th centuries A.D.. Later the Abdalis acquired the name Durrani, by which they
are still known today, after Durr al-durran, an epithet attached to his name by the above
mentioned Ahmad Shah. See Lockhart, "Abdall"; M.E. Yapp, "Durrani".

316
 SULTAN HUSAIN

country — to which may be added the news of the occupation of

Bahrain and other islands of the Persian Gulf by Sultan b. Saif II, the
imam of 'Uman — Princess Maryam Begum, who still had a certain
influence over the shah, tried to stimulate him to a more effective
course of action. As a result he transferred his court in the winter of
1129— 30/1717—18 to Qazvln, hoping that he might be able to raise
more efficient fighting troops in the north-west. During the three years
he spent there, however, not a single successful expedition was made
against the Abdalls or the Ghalzai. Opportunities for effective inter-
vention doubtless arose; it was merely a question of choosing the right
moment. But in practice Sultan Husain and his advisers allowed
events in the east to take their course. During the turbulent period
associated with the Abdall uprising, which spread from Herat to
Mashhad, events of vital interest to the shah were occurring, as it were,
behind the scenes. For the brother and successor of the vakil, 'Abd
al-'AzIz, intended in spite of all the opposition the idea aroused
amongst his fellow tribesmen to announce his submission to Sultan
Husain. The intention proved fatal. In 1129/1717 it prompted Mir
Mahmud, a son of his late brother, to murder him and seize power.
It seems that nobody at the Persian court was even aware of the
opportunity that an arrangement with 'Abd al-'Aziz might have
offered. Similarly the Persians made little attempt to exploit the oppor-
tunities arising from the internal power struggles of the Abdall leaders
and failed to profit from the conflicts between the Abdalls and the
Ghalzai which soon developed. When Mir Mahmud sent the shah the
head of the Abdall leader Asad-Allah who had fallen in battle
(1132/1719—20), the most obvious interpretation of the gesture — that
it was a disarming ploy — never even occurred to him. Choosing
instead to see it as a manifestation of loyalty, he appointed Mir
Mahmud governor-general with the title Husain Qull Khan and sent
him a royal robe of honour.

The death-blow to the Safavid kingdom did eventually come from the
east, but it was impossible to foresee that it would happen as it did.
Nor, initially, did the government locate the principal danger in that
direction. Given the incursions from Russia mentioned earlier, Peter
the Great's interest in Persia should have given cause for alarm, and a
Russian attack on the south-west coast of the Caspian Sea was in fact to
occur in the summer of 1134/1722. By that time, however, Safavid
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

might was in any case at the last gasp, and the Russians achieved little
more than the capture of Darband.1
There was unrest amongst the Lezgians, a Sunnl people in the north-
west of the country, even though one of their number was Grand Vizier.
The Shlrvanls, also Sunnl, were led by the intolerance of their Persian
governors to appeal for aid to the Porte. This may have contributed to
Durri Efendl's being sent to Persia as ambassador, a move by which
Istanbul probably hoped to gain a clearer picture of Persian affairs. In
1719 the Lezgians became involved in armed conflict, first with the
Shlrvanls, then with the Georgians under Vakhtang VI of Tiflis. The
latter was just preparing to deal a final, crushing blow to the Lezgians
when the government intervened to prevent him. Although the Lez-
gians were saved the future loyalty of the Georgian prince was forfeited.
Rebellious Kurds occupied Hamadan and penetrated almost to the
outskirts of Isfahan. In Khuzistan rivalry for the office of viceroy
(vail) led to unrest among the Musha'sha'. Baluchi tribes made plunder-
ing raids on Bam and Kirman.
Since the government could not possibly contemplate dealing with all
these potential threats simultaneously it chose to concentrate on what in
its view was the most dangerous: the Arabs on the Persian Gulf and
the imam of 'Uman, who in occupying the Gulf islands had
of course already encroached on Persian territory. The Grand Vizier
(i'timad al-daula) Fath 'All Khan Daghistanl entrusted the task to his
nephew, Lutf'All Khan, the governor of Fars, who assembled a force of
9,000 men which he intended to transport to 'Uman in Portuguese ships.
But the project was not destined to reach fruition.
It seemed as if the government's attention was diverted from
Qandahar as a result of this plan. There the young Mahmud — he was
only eighteen years old when he seized power — was gaining the
respect of his fellow tribesmen through his warlike bearing and his
cunning. It suited his plans that the death of Aurangzib in 1118/1707
had provoked a crisis in the Mughal empire, which meant that he was
safe from surprise attacks on that flank. At the end of 1719 he gained
an unqualified success when he advanced on Kirman with 11,000 men.
The startled governor took flight and the Ghalzai were able to occupy
the city without difficulty. Soon, however, they were forced to march
back to Qandahar because Mahmud's position there was threatened.

1
Lockhart, The Fall, pp. 176-89.

318
 SULTAN HUSAIN

The sudden attack on Kirman must have caused Fath 'All Khan to
change his mind. At all events he endeavoured to divert the govern-
ment's interest from the Persian Gulf and to concentrate it instead on
Qandahar. He urged that all the armed forces should be marched there,
the shah himself and the government taking part in the campaign in
order to lend the desired weight to the operation for the benefit of
external observers. The assembled court did in fact set off for the east at
the end of 113 2/beginning of October 1720, but it advanced no further
than Tehran.
The grand vizier's standing at court was problematical, partly as he
was a Lezgian and not a Persian proper, but above all because of his
SunnI beliefs which were considered unthinkable by those dignitaries
still capable of reasoning in the old Safavid-Shi'I categories. Moreover,
he could not rely on the shah, apathetic, irresolute and inconsistent as he
was. In these circumstances every member of the government and court
strove to realise his own particular aims — or at least each pressure group
did - and to thwart the opposing plans of others. In this way the
proposed Qandahar campaign had met with violent opposition. The
chief opponents of the grand vizier were the mulla-bdsht, Muhammad
Husain, and the royal physician {hakim-bdshi), Rahlm Khan, in this case
because of the increased power and prestige a successful campaign might
bring him. With the help of a forged letter to a Kurdish tribal chief they
made accusations of high treason against him to the shah. Fath 'All Khan
was alleged to be part of a SunnI conspiracy to depose the monarch and
assume power himself. Without investigating the charge, Sultan Husain
relieved him of his office and had him blinded and imprisoned. Lutf 'All
Khan was likewise accused of complicity in the plot, enticed from Shlraz
to Isfahan and there thrown into prison.
Any continuation of the march to Qandahar was now out of the
question. The court turned back to Isfahan, where it arrived at the end of
April 1721. Those of Lutf 'All Khan's troops who had not already
dispersed, now the only remaining operational force of the shah, were
dispatched under a different command against the Afghans. As a result
of various conflicts on the way, however, they were almost totally wiped
out long before their destination was reached. Although by no means all
authors agree in their judgment of Fath 'All Khan Daghistani,1 it is
certain that in eliminating him and his nephew the shah had removed
1
For the varying views, see ibid., p. 106; Muhammad Hashim, Kustam al-tavarikh, ed.
M. Mushlri (Tehran, 1348), p. 91 and n. 1.

319
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

the two strongest pillars of the now shaky edifice of his power. The
accounts of the Turkish ambassador DurrI Efendi, who left Persia at this
time, confirm precisely what his Russian counterpart Volynsky had
reported to the Tsar two years earlier, namely that Safavid rule was on
the point of collapse because of a lack of talented personalities in the
government.
As a result of the fall of their tribesman Fath 'All Khan, unrest
among the Lezgians increased. Together with fellow-Sunnis from
Shlrvan and other Transcaucasian areas they besieged and conquered
the capital of Shlrvan, Shamakhl, taking terrible revenge for earlier
Shi'I oppression and placing themselves and the city under the sover-
eignty of the Sultan of Turkey. In the meantime the government had
also lost its influence in the south and south-west of Iran, and chaos
had supervened.

The Safavid empire was in flames, but it still enjoyed a respite which
might have saved it from utter ruin — a respite, however, of which no
advantage was taken. Immediately after his return from Tehran, Sultan
Husain repaired to his favourite castle of Farahabad on the other side
of the Zayandarud and occupied himself with its further development,
seemingly oblivious of the reasons for the campaign that he had
intended to pursue only shortly before. Only when news arrived that
Mahmud was again about to enter Kirman did the government in
Isfahan begin to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
The Ghalzai had indeed arrived outside the city on 22 October 1721,
but after suffering heavy casualties during an unsuccessful attack on the
citadel Mahmud decided to forgo a renewed attempt, probably because
of the risk of further losses, and marched on. A similar situation
occurred in Yazd, where after an unsuccessful blockade Mahmud
raised the siege in exchange for the payment of a high tribute and
continued his march in the direction of Isfahan. Authorities there must
by this time have realised that Mahmud was out to clinch matters, if
reports are true that en route he was twice interrupted by messengers
of the shah who were to offer financial inducements to halt his advance.
Mahmud rejected such offers, rightly inferring that Sultan Husain's
preparations for defence could not be very strong.
In Sagzl, twenty-five miles east of Isfahan, he received intelligence
of a Persian force advancing against him. He then continued his march
only as far as the village of Muhammadabad where he divided his
320
 SULTAN HUSAIN

troops, positioning them on three hills where they had an uninterrupted

view over a plain stretching some 4,000 yards or more to the next
village, Gulnabad. The Ghalzai forces were not all that strong: probably
10,000 men, to which must be added the support troops of the Hazaras
and Baluchls. Although details of the numerical strength of the two sides
vary considerably in the sources, it is in all unlikely that Mahmud had
more than 18,000 combatants at his disposal, and allowance must be
made for the losses he had so far incurred: the abortive assault on the
citadel of Kirman alone had cost him 1,500 men.1
On 7 March 1722 the Persian forces arrived on the battlefield. Their
army of 42,000 men was superior, numerically and in various other
respects, to that of the Afghans. Although it contained a fairly large
proportion of hastily assembled volunteers who were inadequately
trained and armed, there were also experienced fighting troops such as
the corps of royal squires (qullar), which included a four-hundred-
strong guards unit under the command of the experienced Georgian
general Rustam Khan; a 12,000 strong corps of Arab cavalry com-
manded by the vail of 'Arabistan, who is said to have been called
Sayyid 'Abd-Allah; two Lorian contingents of mounted tribal warriors,
one under the command of 'All Mardan Khan Faill, the other under
'All Riza Khan from Kuhglluya; and a detachment of artillery with
twenty-four guns commanded by a Persian with the assistance of an
experienced French master-gunner.
When battle commenced the following afternoon, the Persians
gained initial successes that very nearly reduced Mahmud to a state of
panic. It soon became apparent, however, that there was a total lack of
coordination on the Persian side. There was no unified supreme com-
mand, responsibility being shared by two men who were, what is
more, sworn enemies. They were the new Grand Vizier (i'timad
al-daula) Muhammad Qull Khan Shamlu and the vail of 'Arabistan.
The latter owed his position to the special favour of the shah whilst the
Grand Vizier, as a former general of the guards (qurchi-bashl), was
expected to possess military ability - a totally unwarranted assump-
tion. The Persians' main asset, their heavy artillery, was scarcely of any
account because the Afghans succeeded in eliminating it early in the
battle. Whereas the absence of a clear hierarchy of command proved

1
For a survey of the different figures for the strength of the two sides found in the sources, see
Lockhart, The Fall, p. 136.

321
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

fatal to the Persians, the superior coordination of their own forces

enabled the Afghans to make the best of a bad job even in awkward
situations. By the end of the day the Persian forces had collapsed and
were retreating in undisciplined fashion into Isfahan. Their- losses are
estimated at 5,000 men, whereas the Afghans are said to have lost only
a tenth of that number. Only fear of an ambush prevented the Afghans
from pursuing the defeated Persians into the city.
It seems that Mahmud did not immediately realise the full extent of
the Persian defeat and the demoralisation it entailed. The fact that he
had neglected to take the citadels of both Kirman and Yazd during the
course of his advance may well suggest that a military engagement
with the shah was his major aim, but it does not necessarily imply that
he had in mind the destruction of Safavid rule from the very outset of
his campaign. At any rate, the victory does not appear to have deprived
him of the capacity for making a realistic assessment of the possibilities
open to him. It is difficult otherwise to explain why he let three days go
by before resuming his march on Isfahan, now only nineteen miles
away. On reaching the area south of the Zayandarud, he came upon
Sultan Husain's favourite castle of Farahabad. In spite of the existence
of defence works, he was able to take it without a fight and set up his
headquarters there. The Armenian suburb Julfa was then plundered
and a tribute ruthlessly exacted from the inhabitants, to whom — rather
than to Persian soldiers — it owed its defence. These actions suggest
that the Afghan troops were still very much aware of the fact that they
might suddenly have to retreat. Mahmud no doubt saw clearly that the
victory of Gulnabad had been won to a large extent thanks to a combi-
nation of favourable circumstances; nor is he likely to have forgotten
that at one moment during the battle he had been close to accepting
defeat and retreating. Finally, he must have realised that in spite of the
defeat the shah's military resources were as yet by no means exhausted.
One thing, for the moment at least, that the Ghalzai leader could not
be expected to know was the absurd state of affairs that the shah,
whenever a decision was required of him, was more or less guaranteed
to choose the alternative least favourable or even fatal to his cause.
Despite repeated disasters, he remained stubbornly faithful to those
counsellors whose advice had constantly proved detrimental, especially
the mulla-bashl, Mir Muhammad Husain, grandson and successor of
the famous theologian Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, and the royal physi-
cian, Rahlm Khan. Each of these men had, as we have seen, acted as
322
 SULTAN HUSAIN

evil genius to the ruler at an earlier stage. They were now joined by the
vail of 'Arabistan, for whom the shah had a particularly high regard
despite his failure in the battle of Gulnabad. He persisted in his opinion
when rumours too loud to ignore indicated that the governor was
conspiring with the enemy and even when incontrovertible evidence of
the fact came to light.
First in a whole series of fatal mistakes made by the shah was his
decision to remain in Isfahan instead of mobilising fresh troops in
other parts of the country to combat the Afghans. His peace proposal,
which probably reached the Afghans as they were advancing on the
capital, may more than anything else have given the game away and
confirmed them in their intentions. On two occasions he then rejected
Mahmud's offers of negotiation, one at the beginning of April, the
other at the beginning of August 1722. He imposed a general ban on
leaving the city and failed to evacuate the civilian population when it
would still have been feasible. He successively dismissed the two royal
princes Mahmud Mirza and SafI Mirza from the position of crown
prince and from their military functions, merely because of acts of
intervention on their part of which his advisers disapproved.1 In
addition, he dispatched to Kashan and Qazvln the unreliable Prince
Tahmasp, who, instead of raising a relief force and returning with it to
the sorely pressed capital as he had been commanded, engaged in
dissolute pleasures. Finally, he even dismissed Ahmad Agha, the
capable general of the royal squires (qullar-aqasl), because in the heat
of the moment his troops had taken revenge on some of the vali's Arab
cavalrymen who had left them in the lurch during a sortie.
At the beginning of April Mahmud succeeded in capturing a bridge
in the 'Abbasabad quarter and establishing a bridgehead. A little later
he was able to link up with contingents based in the east and north,
thus making it impossible to either leave or enter the city without risk.
Given its size — Kaempfer set its circumference at 57 miles2 — the
Afghan troops were unable to encircle the city completely, but Mah-
mud did establish powerful strong points, between which units of
cavalry constantly patrolled.
In the circumstances, living conditions in the city became increas-
ingly difficult. Supplies of food ceased, and to prevent their being

1
Ibid., p. 147, for a more discriminating account than that given earlier by Lockhart in his
2
Nadir Shah, p. 8. Quoted in Lockhart, The Fall, p. 477.

323
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

resumed in future Mahmud ordered all crops in the area to be

destroyed. The shah made every effort to obtain relief. The most impor-
tant fighting force, the Georgians, who could probably have dealt with
the Afghans on their own, had to be ruled out when Vakhtang VI
refused to come to the shah's aid because he had not yet forgotten the
latter's intervention on behalf of the Lezgians. Other contingents such
as the Bakhtiyar under Qasim Khan, the Lurs of 'All Mardan Khan
or the 10,000 strong force advancing under the command of Malik
Mahmud Slstani, the governor of Tun and Tabas, were either repulsed
by the Afghans or ultimately had second thoughts, in part convinced
by Mahmud of the pointlessness of their enterprise.
From mid-June onwards there was famine in Isfahan. All attempts
to depose the shah or to persuade him to abdicate were of no avail. At
the end of August, when the famine was at its height and more and
more people were dying of starvation and disease, despair spread
throughout the city. Cannibalism was rife, the dead could no longer be
buried and thousands lost their lives in hopeless attempts to escape. In
the end the coffers of both government and crown were empty and
troops could only be paid out of funds loaned to the shah against the
security of the crown jewels by the Dutch and, to a lesser extent, the
British East India Companies.
By the beginning of October even the shah was convinced that
further resistance was pointless, and he capitulated to Mahmud. The
latter was not, however, prepared to receive him before 23 October
1722. The meeting took place in the morning of that day in the castle
of Farahabad. The shah announced his abdication and the transfer of
power to Mahmud, as a gesture of confirmation taking from his head
the bejewelled tuft of heron's feathers (Jiqa), the symbol of monarchy,
and affixing it to Mahmud's turban with his own hands. Two days later
Mahmud entered Isfahan in solemn triumph. Sultan Husain rode at his
left hand and, on arrival in the audience chamber of the royal palace,
was obliged to acknowledge Mahmud as his successor once more, this
time before the assembled military dignitaries, the viziers and the
nobles of the realm.

THE LAST SAFAVIDS

Ghalzai supremacy was to represent only a brief interlude in the his-

tory of Persia, coming to an end as early as 1730 with the fall of Ashraf,

324
 THE LAST SAFAVIDS
Mahmud's cousin and successor. Apart from the liquidation of the
already tottering Safavid dynasty, it was scarcely of any significance.
The Afghans were able neither to counteract Russian and Turkish
incursions into Iranian territory nor to eradicate hotbeds of unrest in
various parts of the country, whether these emerged before or after the
fall of the Safavid empire. Least of all did they manage to restore the
unity of Persia. They even proved incapable of reviving life in the
sorely tried capital in which they now resided.1
The seventy-five years leading up to the end of the 12th/18th century
have been not inaccurately described by Perry as a morass of anarchy2
in which three periods, those of the Afshars, the Zands and the early
Qajars, stand out like islands. During each a strong and relatively
sensible government was headed by a figure of significance: Nadir
Shah, Karlm Khan Zand and Agha Muhammad respectively. The
extent to which the traditions of the Safavids were taken over, pre-
served, adapted, diminished or enlarged by these rulers before they
passed to the Qajars and were finally handed down, via the 19th cen-
tury, to the modern age, is a problem for the cultural historian. Within
the narrower framework of Safavid history, our task is to investigate
attempts to continue or resurrect the Safavid empire that were made
either by members of the dynasty or with their assistance.
When the central government in Isfahan came to an end the Safavids
were by no means totally eliminated. On the contrary, individual repre-
sentatives of the dynasty were still to play a certain part in the political
life of the country. Strictly speaking, there were Safavid puppet rulers
and periods of partial Safavid rule until as late as 1187/1773, the year in
which Isma'Il III, last of the Safavid rois faineants, died; and the efforts
of genuine Safavid princes or impostors to gain power in various parts
of Persia were of considerable significance.
No share in subsequent historical developments was granted to Sul-
tan Husain, nor is it likely that he sought any. During his lifetime,
Mahmud ensured that he was well treated although, like all Safavid
princes resident in Isfahan, he was imprisoned. He remained in prison
1
The Persian forces are said to have lost 20,000 men in the course of the siege, and civilian
losses are put at 80,000. If the population was really 650,000 at the end of the Safavid period, an
enormous migration must have occurred as \ result of the siege and the capture of the city by the
Afghans. A census of 1882 lists only 73,654 inhabitants, and an estimate made by Schindler in
1893 gives 82,000. Even the rise in population in the last few decades has not yet caught up with
the Safavid figure: see Lambton, "Isfahan", EP; Lockhart, Tie Fall, pp. 169, 476ft".
2
Perry, "The last Safavids", p. 59.

325
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

until 1139/1726, when he was beheaded on the orders of Ashraf as a

result of an insulting letter the latter had received from the Ottoman
general Ahmed Pasha, then operating in Persia. He called Ashraf a
usurper and informed him that he considered it his duty to reinstate the
legitimate ruler of Iran whom the Afghans had deposed. Only a year
before, probably in afitof persecution mania, Mahmud Shah had killed
the majority of the princes imprisoned with Sultan Husain, some of
them with his own hands.1
For wide sections of the population in Iran the collapse of the
Safavid empire that occurred when Sultan Husain relinquished the
throne and power was assumed by Mahmud was a catastrophe greater
than anything they could possibly have imagined. The result was an
almost universal willingness to accept without question any sign of the
continued existence of the dynasty or its possible revival — an ideal
situation for pretenders! One source2 lists eighteen of them in the
Afghan period alone, and no less than twelve more are mentioned by
chroniclers of the reigns of Nadir Shah and his immediate successors.
A number of these claimants found support in widely differing areas of
the country and managed to occupy or conquer cities and strongholds.
Not infrequently they were able to defeat strong regular troops,
including even Ottoman invasion forces. Sooner or later, however,
they failed because their supporters proved inadequate in numbers or
lacked perseverance when really put to the test.
The claims of these pretenders to be Safavid princes — no fewer than
three SafI Mlrzas and three Isma'Il Mirzas emerged - were at best
dubious and as a rule totally without foundation. Yet genuine princes
of the fallen dynasty did exist, as well as others whose claims, whilst
doubtful, could not simply be rejected out of hand. As we have already
seen, Tahmasp Mlrza (b. 1704), appointed crown prince by Sultan
Husain, succeeded in breaking through the Afghan lines during the
siege of Isfahan and managed to reach Qazvln. There, as early as 30
Muharram 1135/10 November 1722, he had himself proclaimed shah,
had the style of Shah Tahmasp II included in official prayers and on
the coinage, and issued decrees (arqdm) in all parts of the country,
announcing his accession to the throne. Although his was only a nominal

1
Lockhart, Tie Full, table following p. 472, names fifteen, although sometimes the numbers
given ate considerably higher.
2
Muhammad 'All Hazln Jllani, cited in Perry, "The last Safavids", p. 60.

326
 THE LAST SAFAVIDS

rule, he reigned in fact for a good ten years.1 In addition to Tahmasp,

another prince, Mirza Sayyid Ahmad, son of Shah Sulaiman's eldest
daughter,2 had managed to escape. In 1139/1726 he rose to the level of
ruler in Kirman and proved to be a serious opponent in combats with
the forces of both Tahmasp II and the Afghans. He did indeed consti-
tute a greater threat to the Afghans than Tahmasp, and accordingly
received more attention from them. Eventually he was defeated and
brought as a prisoner to the Afghan chieftain, who had him executed in
1140/1728.
In foreign affairs, the greatest threat to Persia after the abdication of
Sultan Husain came from Russian and Ottoman designs on territory in
the Caspian provinces and the north-west of the country respectively.
Russian troops were already present in Darband and other places on
the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Ottomans, for their part, were not
slow to act. Sending a declaration of war in 1135/1723, they marched
troops into Georgia and — via Kirmanshah and Hamadan — into Persia
itself. The policy of Tahmasp II, who had been forced to withdraw
from Qazvln to Tabriz by the Afghans, from there to Ardabll by the
Turks and ultimately via Ray to Mazandaran, again by the Turks, was
dictated by the notion that his position at home would be consolidated
if only the Russians and Ottomans could be induced to recognise him
as the legitimate ruler of Persia. With this in mind he had sent negotia-
tors to Istanbul and St Petersburg. As a result the Porte changed its
view in his favour, but in a treaty for the division of western Persia,
concluded by the Sultan and the Tsar for 2 Shawwal 1136/24 June
1724, the two powers merely expressed a desire to help the shah to
achieve "his legitimate rights". Moreover, he was to restrict himself to
the territory in the west of the country, defined by the places Ardabll,
Sultaniyya and Qazvin.
Tahmasp II's first vakil al-daula was Fath 'All Khan Qajar. He was
followed by Nadr Qull Beg Afshar, a particularly capable military
commander who successfully fought the Afghans and the Turks on his
behalf and subjugated Azarbaljan, Georgia and most of Armenia. In
other respects, too, he did everything to gain the shah's favour. In
1138/1726 he had conferred upon him the title Tahmasp Qull ("servant
of Tahmasp") and by driving out the Afghan Ashraf he even made it
1
For official documents he issued, see Fragner, "Ardabll zwischen Sultan und Schah".
2
Probably identical with the prince of the same name who is listed as a grandson of the
princess in Lockhart's table referred to in p. 326, n. 1, above.

327
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

possible for the shah to return to Isfahan. It became increasingly clear,

however, that the weak and unreliable shah was incapable of being
anything more than a puppet in the general's hands, and when he
suffered a heavy defeat in a battle with the Turks the latter's patience
came to an end. He exposed the shah publicly as a drunkard and
dethroned him.
He clearly still thought it advisable, however, to take account of
popular sympathy for the Safavids, otherwise he would scarcely have
nominated a new Safavid shah, the deposed monarch's eight-month-
old son, who as 'Abbas III was puppet king from 1144/1732 to 1148/
1736. The general then deposed him as well and mounted the throne
himself under the name Nadir Shah. Tahmasp II and 'Abbas III were
imprisoned and executed in 1740 at Sabzavar together with Isma'Il,
another son of Tahmasp.
Although it is true that the Afshar tribe to which he belonged was
one of the Qizilbash tribes which had contributed in large measure to
the rise of the Safavids,1 Nadir Shah's general outlook by no means
accorded with the Safavid conception of the state. Two things demon-
strate this clearly: his religious policy, which involved a turning away
from the Twelver Shl'a, and his decision to transfer the capital to
Mashhad. Although this city lay in the middle of his Khurasanian
homeland, the main reason for the transfer was more probably its
central position within the extensive territory that Nadir Shah thought
of as his empire, as is shown by his campaigns in Central Asia, Afghan-
istan and India. His conception was, therefore, an imperial one that had
nothing in common with the Safavids' idea of their realm, which was
confined solely to Iranian lands. At any rate, Nadir's outlook could be
compared to that of Tlmur. It might be thought that the successes he
enjoyed in realising this conception would have caused the glory of the
Safavids to fade somewhat in the eyes of the Persian people. But the
situation soon changed. When, after the murder of Nadir, the princes
of his family were systematically eliminated, one of his grandsons,
Shah Rukh by name (b. 1734), was spared. Now his mother was a
daughter of Sultan Husain, and it was clearly the intention that a
legitimate prince of Safavid descent should be available as puppet ruler
in case renewed enthusiasm for the dynasty were to arise. At the time
nobody could have foreseen that Shah Rukh would rule over the

1
F. Siimer, "Avjarlar'a dair"; idem, Safevidevlctinin kurulu{u, pp. 98-100, 145?., 188—92.

328
 THE LAST SAFAVIDS

inheritance of Nadir Shah, or what still remained of it, from 1161/1748

to 1210/1796, albeit with some interruptions.
In the conflicts that followed upon the fall of Nadir Shah, Mir
Sayyid Muhammad, curator of sacred relics (mutavalli) in Mashhad, was
also involved. Like the above mentioned Mlrza. Sayyid Ahmad, he was
a son of Shah Sulaiman's eldest daughter and was held in high regard.
When, as the result of a mutiny, Shah Rukh was deposed and blinded,
he was the rebels' choice as a successor. In 1163/1750 (or shortly
before)1 he was elevated as shah in Mashhad with the style Sulaiman II.
A move to Isfahan could not remotely be contemplated because quite
different forces had in the meantime assumed effective control there. As
it was, he fell victim to a conspiracy only a few weeks after his eleva-
tion to the throne, and Shah Rukh, despite his blindness, returned to
power in his place.
The concept of divine right, associated with the person of the shah
in the thinking of the Safavids, cannot be ruled out as a significant
factor in the stubborn survival of the dynasty. Developments in
Isfahan and in central Persia generally at any rate suggest such an
interpretation. Here, the downfall of Nadir Shah left behind a vacuum
into which streamed nomadic tribes from the Zagros mountains, e.g.
Lurs, Bakhtiyars, Kurds and also the Zands. Initially, the dominant
figure in Isfahan was the Bakhtiyar leader 'AH Mardan Khan. He too
seems to have regarded a Safavid figurehead as indispensable and
found one in the person of the seventeen-year-old Prince Abu Turab,
the son of a marriage between Sayyid Murtaza and a daughter of Shah
Sultan Husain. He was crowned in 1163/1750, receiving the name
Isma'U III.2 From then on 'All Mardan himself bore the title of vakil
al-daula. It appears that the prince was not happy with the role
assigned to him, but he had no other option.
In the battle of Chahar Mahall (spring 1165/1752), fought between
the Bakhtiyar leader and Karlm Khan Zand, Isma'Il went over to the
side of the Kurds with a section of the troops when he realised that his
vakil would be defeated. In subsequent conflicts between Karlm and
1
According to Lockhart, The Fall, appendix I, he reigned from Dec. 1749 to Jan. 1750. Perry,
"The last Safavids", pp. 65IT., says that he was crowned in Jan. 1750 and deposed and blinded in
the following month.
2
Lockhart, The Fall, appendix I, says that Isma'Il III "ruled nominally in 1750 and again
between 1752 and 1756". Perry also speaks of an "unsuccessful pretender Sultan Husain II". See,
in addition to the sources he mentions, Mlrza Mahdl Khan AstarabadI, trans. T.H. Gadebusch,
Geschichte des Nadir Schah (Greifswald, 1773), especially p. 423 (the only edition available to me).

329
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Muhammad Hasan Khan Qajar, he similarly chose to side with the

stronger party, only to discover that the Qajar was eventually worsted.
Handed over to Karim Khan, he was greeted with the words shqh-i
namak ba-haram ("ungrateful Shah") and interned in the fortress of
Abada, half way between Shlraz and Isfahan. Nevertheless, Karim was
at first also content to be called vakil al-daula. When in 176 5 he opted
for Shlraz as capital city, he then changed his title to vakil al-ra'ayd and
occasionally vakil al-khalayiq, meaning roughly "Vice-regent of the
people" and "Vice-regent of mankind" respectively. He would refuse
to be addressed as "Shah", maintaining that the true shah was in
Abada and that he was merely his deputy {kadkhuda). When Isma'Il III
passed away in 1187/1773, Karim Khan, who outlived him by eight
years, neither installed a new phantom ruler nor made himself shah.
The concept of the Safavid monarchy now ceased to exist. Although
it had outlasted the fall of the Safavid empire by half a century, it had
not been sufficiently strong to bring about a genuine restoration. The
concept of monarchy as such was preserved in Iran. In the early
i3th/late 18th century it was given a new lease of life by the Qajars,
who were successfully to unite the fragmented country within the
territorial boundaries of the Safavid empire, albeit without Safavid
participation.

One of the most important reasons for the fall of the Safavids was their
failure to groom successive members of the dynasty for the task of
ruling. Of all people, it was Shah 'Abbas I who abolished the original
practice of assigning to the crown princes a large province in order to
introduce them to the business of government, even if, until they
attained their majority, they did nothing more than observe the gover-
nor at work and remained under the supervision of a tutor {laid).
'Abbas I was also responsible for the fatal policy of confining the
princes to the harem, thus not only preventing them from learning the
practice of government, but also barring them from all contact with
the outside world, making it impossible for them to associate with the
aristocracy of the realm and giving them no opportunity to come to
terms with the conditions of life in general.
Naturally there were other reasons for the fall of the dynasty.
Amongst the most significant may be cited the increasing inefficiency
of central authority within a system organised on centralist lines; the
concomitant strengthening of local authorities such as respected tribal

33°
 THE SAFAVID STATE

leaders; the ruin of the economy, which has been covered in detail
elsewhere in.this volume, and especially the disintegration of the armed
forces which ultimately caused the shah to succumb even to an enemy
as insignificant as the Afghans. The disintegration of the religious
foundations on which the empire had been built also had fatal conse-
quences. And finally, within the ruling classes there was a marked
decrease in the supply of able personalities.
Depressing though conditions in the country may have been at the
time of the fall of the Safavids, they cannot be allowed to overshadow
the achievements of the dynasty, which were in many respects to prove
essential factors in the development of Persia in modern times. These
include the maintenance of Persian as the official language and of the
present-day boundaries of the country, adherence to the Twelver Shl'a,
the monarchical system, the planning and architectural features of the
urban centres, the centralised administration of the state, the alliance of
the Shl'I 'ulama with the merchants of the bazaars, and the symbiosis
of the Persian-speaking population with important non-Persian,
especially Turkish-speaking, minorities.
A few of the most important factors - the peculiar antagonism
between Persians and Turks, religious developments in so far as they
were of political significance, and alterations in the monarchical system
- will be considered in the following summary.

THE SAFAVID STATE

From the 8th/14th to the ioth/i6th century, three waves of returning

Turkish emigrants gravitated from eastern Anatolia and northern Syria
towards the highlands of Iran. Each of them belonged to a particular
tribal confederation and the leaders of each devoted all their energies to
the establishment of political and territorial sovereignty. All three con-
federations succeeded in this, but only the third of them, the Safavids,
had lasting success. The first of these Turkmen confederations, the Qara
Quyunlu, began their endeavours in the 8th/14th century, establishing a
principality the capital of which eventually became the Persian metropo-
lis Tabriz. In 872/1467, when at the height of their power, they were
defeated in armed conflict by the rival Aq Quyunlu, who after their
victory also transferred their capital to Tabriz. In 907/1501 the city then
became the capital of the third confederation of Tiirkmens, the Safavids,
after they had in turn overcome the Aq Quyunlu. Like their two
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

predecessors, the Safavids extended their domain to cover the whole of

present-day Iran, an intervention in the fortunes of the country which
proved of great significance for the whole development of Persia in the
modern era.
How is one to explain these movements of population and the
centuries-long interest of Turkish tribes in Iran, a country whose people
were neither Turks nor Turkish speakers? True, the ancestors of the
tribesmen in question had already been in Iran - during the course of the
Oghuz migrations, mass movements of Turks into the Near East and
Asia Minor — and come into contact with Iranian culture, some of them
for the second time, since they had been exposed to the cultural influence
of Iran in Central Asia even before their migration to the west. The state
and court chancelleries of the confederations, as well as their chroniclers,
used the Persian language, which in itself points to a certain degree of
Iranicisation. This influence was, however, confined to a minute ruling
class whose admiration for, and love of, Iran and its culture naturally
cannot in themselves have triggered off migrations of whole tribes nor
determined the particular direction of their movement. More important
was the fact that, as a rule, the Tiirkmens in question had no access to the
Ottoman army, any more than their leaders had to the Ottoman military
aristocracy, which offered few real openings to them either before or
after the battle of Ankara: The Qara Quyunlu leader Qara Yusuf was not
even integrated into the Ottoman forces when he sought refuge with •
the Ottomans in flight from their mutual enemy Timur. At this time
Ottoman power did not extend as far as eastern Anatolia, let alone to
Azarbaijan or the Iranian highlands. In the power vacuum left behind
after the death of Timur and the fall of his empire these areas offered
good opportunities for politically motivated tribal leaders interested in
establishing independent domains. To the broad masses of the nomads
the prospects of rich spoils of war from the civilised country of Iran and
extensive grazing grounds for their herds were unfailing attractions.
Together with the restlessness and spirit of enterprise typical of nomadic
life, they probably constituted sufficient motive for the eastward thrusts
of Turkmen tribes and their federations, at any rate for thefirsttwo
waves, those of the Qara Quyunlu and the Aq Quyunlu.
A quite different motive, however, underlay the third wave, that
occurring under the Safavids. They were attracted by a sufl order, the
Ardabil Safaviyya and by a religious concept which, at the end of the
9th/15 th century or perhaps somewhat earlier, had developed from
332
 THE SAFAVID STATE

vague beginnings in popular piety into a politico-religious ideology.

This ideology aroused in its adherents enthusiasm, fanaticism and ulti-
mately unconditional commitment - precisely those attitudes of mind
associated with militant believers in Islam. The order's centre in
Ardabll had always attracted men of piety from near and far, including
Turkmen tribesmen, long before the aspirations of its masters became
unmistakeably political. But in the second half of the 9th/15 th century
the hitherto customary pilgrimages gave way to something quite differ-
ent and the donations arriving in Ardabll at that time, far from being
mere oblations as before, had probably been given with other purposes
in mind.
What had changed? With the travels of Shaikh Junaid in Anatolia
and Syria an intensive phase of Safavid propaganda had begun, and his
marriage with the Bay'indir princess, a sister of Uzun Hasan, had both
increased his prestige and made him, to a certain extent, an acceptable
ally of the Tiirkmens. The importance of these two facts for subse-
quent developments can scarcely be overestimatjed. On the one hand
the order was intensifying contacts with the Outside world; on the
other it was effacing the dividing line between the two key national
groupings in the region. As the descendants of a line of Gllani land-
owners, the Ardabll shaikhs were representatives of Persian agricul-
tural life, and not Tiirkmens or nomads. Distinctions between nations
of the kind familiar to us from later European nationalism were foreign
to Islam and are scarcely applicable in this case. Yet the Persians and
Turks incontestably sensed that they were essentially different, and this
feeling frequently finds explicit expression in historical sources. Inter-
marriage between the two, in so far as it occurred at all, was not
common. Junaid's marriage did not, however, remain the only exam-
ple of a Tajik-Turkmen union, and these initial indications of a sym-
biosis might perhaps help to explain just why Turkish nomads should
have chosen as their leader the Persian-born master of a religious
order.1 Be that as it may, the activities of Junaid to which we have
referred were significant factors in the formation of the third great
Turkmen federation.
A brief look at the early history of the Safavid order should help to
clarify these developments. The motives behind the formation of the

1
A question last raised by S.H. Nasr, in the Strasbourg colloquium Le SbVisme imamite (Paris,
197°). P- 243-

333
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

fraternity were certainly religious in nature, but it also played a con-

siderable role in economic and political life, even in the time of Shaikh
SafI, who gave the family its name. Landed property, revenues from
religious foundations, donations and other sources of income brought
him economic influence, and in politics he was able to establish wide-
ranging contacts, even with one so eminent as the Mongol Tl-Khan.
His descendants, amongst whom the position of master of the order
was usually handed down from father to son, likewise went on to
achieve distinction in public life. Without going into further detail, it
can now be seen that Junaid's intervention in politics did not represent
a radically new departure. What was new was the way he, and after-
wards his son and successor Shaikh Haidar, set about militarising the
order. The organisational measures and reforms they carried out must
have been of lasting effect, for they remained in force until Isma'Il came
to public prominence decades later, in Muharram 90 5 /August 1499,
this despite the fact that their two initiators, and after them Sultan 'All,
lost their lives on the battlefield — three masters of the order in the
space of thirty-four years.
Recent research has thrown more light on these matters even if some
questions still remain unanswered. We now have at least some notion
of how the alliance between Ardabll and its outposts worked,
especially those in Anatolia and Syria that provided the main body of
the forces which supported the Safavid seizure of power. Local cells
existed under a headman, called a khalifa. In individual cases, though
not as a general rule, there was a supervisor, called a ptra, who was
responsible for their coordination. At the head of the organisation was
the khalifat al-khulafa, who was also deputy of the master of the order
(murshid-i kamil). It has not yet been possible to ascertain exactly
when this organisation was established, but it is known that there was a
khalifat al-khulafa as early as 1499, i.e. before Isma'lPs accession to the
throne. Once the decision to seize power had been taken, the organisa-
tion demonstrated its efficiency.
Assertions in some sources that the young Isma'Il personally made
this decision cannot be accepted at face value. Although he became
master of the order five years earlier in place of his brother Sultan 'All, he
was still merely twelve years old at the time of the march out of Gllan.
Even if one assumes that he was abnormally gifted, it is still inconceiva-
ble that a boy of that age could have carried out the complex political and
military planning and preparation that must have preceded the uprising.

334
 THE SAFAVID STATE

Who, if not Isma'Il, could have taken the momentous decision and
begun to put the operation into effect? Some time ago, Soviet his-
torians referred, if only in vague terms, to the existence of Turkmen
confidential agents as advisers of Isma'Il.1 More precise information
has since come to light. They were in fact a group of leading Turkmen
tribesmen, the ahl-i ikhtisds ("those endowed with a specific responsi-
bility" or "those legally empowered to act"), a sort of "central com-
mittee" as they were recently described in modern terminology.2 These
were the people who sustained Isma'Il after the death of his brother,
who made it possible for him to escape to Gllan and kept him in hiding
there, who took care of his education and ultimately persuaded him to
march against the Aq Quyunlii. In the light of this obviously convinc-
ing interpretation, the elaborate myth of Isma'Il the child prodigy
becomes superfluous. Even so, the events associated with his public
appearances remain extraordinary enough and messianic elements,
evident even at the outset of his career, are now no longer mere
surmise but have actually been proved to exist.3
The hundred and fifty years of the Safavid order that culminated in
the accession to the throne of Shah Isma'Il not only have their place in
the religious history of Islam but are from the outset of political
significance. Although there had always been a certain influx of Tiirk-
mens into the order, it was not until the time of Shaikh Junaid that the
strong links with Turkmen tribesmen were forged, that made for an
increasingly tight-knit organisation. His years of propaganda in Anato-
lia, in Syria and, of course, also in Azarbaljan ultimately unleashed
the third wave of Turkish emigrants returning to the Iranian uplands
and created the conditions necessary for the formation of the third
Turkmen federation, which may be called the "Safavid" or perhaps,
more accurately, the Qizilbash federation. This migration persisted, as
has recently emerged,4 right up to the death of Shah 'Abbas I, a time
when the Qizilbash had decades previously forfeited their privileged
role.
Closely linked to these occurrences is a religious phenomenon the
origins and earliest development of which, despite new information,
have still not been adequately investigated. This is the decisive trans-
1
Guselnov and Sumbatzade, Istoriya A^erbald^hana i, ntfi. I.P. Petrushevsky, Islam v Irane
(Leningrad, 1966), pp. 37of.
2 3
Savory, "Some Reflections". Glassen, "Schah Isma'Il, ein Mahdl".
4
Siimer, Safevidevletimn kurulusu, p. 213.

335
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

formation due to the influence of the Shl'a. The fact that present-
day Persian adherence to the Shl'a derives from the early Safavids,
especially Shah Isma'Il I, might lead one in retrospect to conclude that
a change of faith took place according to the principle emus regio eius
religio. But appearances are deceptive. In reality the transition was a
lengthy and highly complex process, connected with the spread of
certain Shl'I ideas via Folk Islam or Islamic popular piety — a process
which cannot be discussed in detail here.
On his accession to the throne, Isma'Il did in fact proclaim Shi'ism
the official religion, or state religion, as it might be called. As he
extended his sphere of influence, he then proceeded to implement it
throughout Persia with the aim, so it is claimed, of distinguishing
Persia from the Ottoman empire.1 This may not, however, have been
his sole intention or at all premeditated, but merely a more or less
unconscious motive. What he proclaimed was ostensibly the Twelver
Shl'a, a creed which certainly cannot be reconciled with his own per-
sonal religious views. These we know from what is a quite unim-
peachable source of personal testimony, his own poems. In them he
claims to be the reincarnation of 'All, an emanation of God and indeed
God himself. Such notions have no place in the Shi'a, indeed they are
sheer heresy from an orthodox Shl'I point of view, a fact which cannot
be denied by arguing that they are perhaps merely the literary extrava-
gances of a mystically impassioned youth, along the lines of such sufi
conceptions as unto mystica, union with God {tauhid). In fact they were
by no means merely obsessive mystical speculations but articles of faith
which were widely held by the supporters of the Safavids and had
powerful practical consequences. Isma'Il's enthusiastic disciples
{muridan) took them so seriously that they were firmly convinced of his
invincibility. Imbued with such ideas, they marched into battle, going
from triumph to triumph until the whole of Persia had been subjected
to the sway of the Safavids. Admittedly the defeat at Chaldiran des-
troyed Isma'H's charisma, but even after this reverse he continued to be
revered like a god by many of his subjects, and the same is also true,
incidentally, of his son Tahmasp.
The state founded by Isma'Il was a theocracy, comparable with the
1
Lambton, "Quis custodiet custodes?", SI vi (1956), 126. As against this view, it would be
worth investigating whether the Ottomans, who were then on the brink of turning to Shi'ism, did
not rather have rapid second thoughts when the Shfa was raised to the level of state religion in
Persia.

336
 THE SAFAVID STATE

empire of the caliphs but based on ShI'I rather than on SunnI prin-
ciples. The distinction is important because it meant that ShI'I theories
of the state and of succession, radically different from those of the
Sunnls, were to be authoritative. Instead of the elected caliph, the head
of state was to be an imam descended from the Prophet Muhammad, at
any rate as long as such a person existed, i.e. until 260/873-4, the date
of the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam. Subsequently the office
passed to a vakil whose entitlement did not depend on direct descent
from the prophet, but rather on being nominated by a legitimate pre-
decessor (nass). This regulation remained in force until 329/940—1,
when the vakil Abu'l-Hasan al-Samarrl passed away without having
exercised his right to designate a successor. According to the doctrine
of the Twelver Shl'a, from that point onwards until the return of the
Mahdl - i.e. for the duration of the great ghaiba which still continues
today - a given mujtahid was to be considered as the latter's steward.
The mujtahid is that singular dignitary who without being appointed,
without either office or clearly defined responsibilities, has a command-
ing influence within the Shl'a community in matters of religious law
and practice purely by virtue of his personal authority, based on his
learning and his exemplary conduct. It must be emphasised that neither
the vakil nor the mujtahid is required to be a descendant of the
Prophet.
Bearing in mind these considerations, how legitimate was the Safav-
ids' claim to sovereignty over Persia? Neither in Isma'Il's case nor in
that of his father, grandfather or any other ancestor can there be
any question of nass, and indeed none of them claimed to have been
designated ruler by a legitimate predecessor. Nor was any one of them
a mujtahid. In these circumstances, how could they have become
sovereigns? Can it really be the case that so fundamental a qualification
for the post of steward of the imam was disregarded, perhaps, as has
been suggested, on account of Safavid propaganda, deliberately
designed to divert attention from it?1
To consider the matter of Isma'Il's accession in such a theoretical
light is in all probability inappropriate. Because it was markedly reli-
gious in character it is of course tempting to judge it from a theological
point of view. But this is surely a mistake. Obviously Isma'U was a
personality with a pronounced sensitivity for things religious. For

1
Savory, "The Emergence of the modern Persian State", especially p. 20.

337
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

some years he had received Shl'I religious instruction, but he had

certainly not acquired any theological knowledge. Nor can one assume
that those around him possessed any. Moreover, the Shl'a he caused to
be proclaimed in Tabriz by no means accorded with the theology of
the Twelver Shl'Is. True, this neglect of theological considerations was
not to last, but for the situation to change Shl'I theologians had to
come from outside the country, a fact which in itself points to a certain
paucity of theological knowledge at the outset of his reign. It would
appear that the young Isma'Il and his advisers were not even aware of
the meaning of the concept of nass.1
Although initially the sharp distinctions of theological concepts may
have been foreign to the young Isma'Il's world of ideas, it by no means
follows that he was totally ignorant of legitimist theories as such. He
was probably just as familiar with general ideas of this kind as were his
contemporaries. Whereas SunnI theories of sovereignty allow for the
recognition of a usurper, in Shl'I teaching the principle of legitimacy
finds particularly strong expression. It is encountered also in popular
thinking, a concrete example of which is the quasi-legendary tale in
which the hidden Imam performs the investiture of Isma'Il before the
eyes of a dervish in a dream.2 Here the underlying idea of the neces-
sity for the ruler to be designated in accordance with divine wish or
approval is unmistakeable, even though the concept of nass is not
mentioned. To that extent the tale does not necessarily contradict our
supposition that Isma'Il and his loyal supporters could scarcely have
been familiar with so complex an idea.
Whether Isma'Il, in emerging from Gllan, intended from the outset
to win sovereignty over Iran remains debatable, however much subse-
quent reports suggest such an interpretation. Initially, of course, he
had to establish himself as master of the Ardabll order. This may
explain the military campaigns and predatory raids he carried out
which were similar to those of his father and grandfather before him
with their bands of ghazls. Like them, he was probably inspired by the
ghazl concept and perhaps by the idea of vendetta as well. The turning-
point was probably not reached until the emergence of Shams al-Dln
Zakariya KujujI, a native of Tabriz who for many years had served the
Aq Quyunlu as vizier. For this man, whom Isma'Il made his own

1
Glassen, "Schah Isma'Il I und die Theologen", p. 264.
2
This story is analysed by Glassen, "Schah Isma'Il, ein Mahdl"

338
 THE SAFAVID STATE

vizier, reported that his former masters were in a state of utter chaos.'
At all events, his reports demonstrated just how favourable an
opportunity had arisen for seizing power. After all, Isma'U was the
grandson of Uzun Hasan. Why should he not ascend the throne of his
grandfather instead of his cousins? A clear indication that Safavid rule
was to represent a continuation of that of the Aq Quyunlu is the fact
that the Turkmen capital of Tabriz was retained, whereas no mention
is made of Ardabll, which might equally well have been chosen as the
royal residence. Further evidence of a desire to follow in the line of
Turkmen rulers is Isma'il's assumption of the title Padishah-i Iran, pre-
viously held by Uzun Hasan. At the same time it provides documen-
tary proof of the Persian monarchs' continued adherence to the con-
cept of divine right — khwarna, "regal majesty", which under Islam was
changed to %tll Allah, "the shadow of God [on earth]".2
Isma'U's assumption of power in Tabriz in no way affected his
position as murshid-i kamil, master of the order of the Safaviyya. On
the contrary, this office — which was relevant only to members of the
order and not to his other subjects — had increased in significance as a
result of his military and political successes, for in addition to his
powers as sovereign it guaranteed him, by virtue of the plr-murld
relationship, the particular loyalty of his armed forces, the Qizilbash.
As we have seen, these were mostly Turkmen tribesmen from Anatolia,
Syria and Azarbaljan. Its importance was not to wane until the
defeat of Chaldiran later destroyed the messianic radiance and charisma
of the ruler, making him less sacrosanct in the eyes of his supporters.
Not surprisingly, the khalifat al-khulafa gained in influence, since he
had to deputise for the shah to a large extent in his duties as master of
the order. No outright confrontation between the two was to occur
until half a century later, in the reign of Shah Isma'Il II, when members
of the order made no secret of the fact that they felt a greater obligation
to the khalifa than to the monarch. This clear indication of the order's
decline was followed by another confrontation, this time with 'Abbas I
in 998/1589-90, which practically speaking put an end to its respected
status in the realm.

1
Gruner, Die Geschichte Scbah ismSils I. aus der Chronik "Takmilat-al-ahbar", pp. 88—90, 125,
133; the extract she uses is printed in facsimile in Efendiev, Obra^ovanie.
2
Most recently discussed by Savory, "The Safavid State and Polity", p. 184; cf. Roemer's
comments ibid., p. 213, and Amin Banani in Savory, "The Emergence of the modern Persian
State", p. 14.

339
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

More problematical than the two foundations of Safavid power we

have discussed so far was its third basis, descent from the Prophet
Muhammad, i.e. the sayyid status of the dynasty. With a touch of dry
irony Aubin remarks that the Safavids did not become Sayyids until
late on, probably just before the middle of the 9th/15 th century.1
Since that other scion of the prophet, Sayyid Ahmad Kasravl, made his
violent attacks on the genealogy of the Safavids fifty years ago the
arguments for and against their genuineness have constantly been the
object of critical debate, but no clear-cut and definitive verdict has yet
been reached.2 Without pursuing the argument further here, we may
confine ourselves to the observation that in the absence of proof to
the contrary there is no reason to doubt the young Isma'Il's good
faith with regard to his ancestry before he ascended the throne. That
such a conviction cannot simply be dismissed as absurd is evident from
the clearly unobjectionable testimony of a poet who, around the mid-
dle of the 8th/14th century, praises the then master of the Ardabll
order, Shaikh Sadr al-Dln, as having emerged from the sea of the
sayyids.3
Since, according to the doctrine of the Twelver Shl'a, what deter-
mines the legitimacy of a ruler is designation by a rightful predecessor
(nass) and not so much his genealogy, no particular significance should
really be attached to descent from 'All. Whether he is a sayyid or not,
the man who seizes power without either nass or ijtihad is a usurper.
This is a theory which still has its supporters today. Whether it is in
fact applicable to the case of Isma'Il is, however, open to discussion. If
it were, one would be obliged to deny the legitimacy even of his
subjective claim to assume power. In that case the great significance the
Safavids attached to their descent from 'All would matter only in terms
of the respect it brought them, the great proximity to divine truth
resulting from it and the justification of their claim to sinlessness
('isma). This presupposes, however, that Isma'Il actually knew of the
paramount importance of designation, which is probably the very
opposite of the case. No evidence from the intellectual and spiritual
1
Aubin, "La politique religieuse des Safavides", especially p. 237.
2
For the present state of research, see Roemer, "Scheich SafI von Ardabll"; also M.R.
Zamir-Dahncke, "The Problem of the Descent of the Safavids", Nashriyya-yi Danishgdh-i Isfahan:
Ddnishkada-yi Adabiyyat va 'uliim-i insanivvn\y (1352), 1 j—18.
3
M. Dirakhshan, "PIramun-i kalima-yi shaikh va sayyid", Ddnishgdb-i Tihran: Majalla-yi
Ddnisbknda-yi adabiyyat va 'uliim-i insdni xxi/4 (1353), 153—62 (14—16), quoting from a qaslda by
Nasir-i Bukhara'! written c. 1350, details of which are unfortunately not given.

54°
 THE SAFAVID STATE

sphere in which he lived, familiar to us both from the chronicles and

from his own divan, supports the assumption that he had so sublime a
knowledge of Shl'I theory. In the long run, of course, with the increas-
ingly dominant influence of theology, the Safavids must have discov-
ered the existence of this doctrine. Exactly when they became ac-
quainted with it remains to be investigated, but in this context it is not
so important. Suffice it to say that no knowledge of it can be attributed
to Isma'Il in the summer of 907/1501. The probability, rather, is that on
the one hand he considered himself eligible to succeed by virtue of his
descent from Uzun Hasan, and on the other hand he saw his 'Alid
lineage as giving him the advantage in legitimacy over his Aq Quyunlu
cousins and other claimants.
These are the decisive criteria for judging whether Safavid rule was
from the outset established on the basis of a fraudulent manoeuvre, the
only mitigating circumstances for which would be the tender age of the
dynasty's founder and the unscrupulousness of his confidential advis-
ers. Since Isma'Il's character was not without its sinister traits — it is
sufficient to recall the inconceivable cruelty with which he imposed his
authority and his religious views — one is inclined to believe him
capable of any other misdeed. Yet his ruthless treatment of genuine
and potential adversaries has to be seen against the moral back-
ground of his time and his immediate environment, in which human-
ity, magnanimity and clemency could prove fatal and were of as little
account as in the West during the same period. Clearly allowance has to
be made for a different scale of moral values, although it would be
going too far to assume a total absence of ethical norms.
These reflections do not, however, do full justice to Isma'Il's seizure
of power, because they leave out of account certain irrational factors
that played a considerable role. A first-rate reliable source for these is,
as has been mentioned, KhataTs dlv3n, Khata'I being the pseudonym
he used as a poet. This collection of poetry shows him to be a man of
great religious ardour and strong mystical impulse, surely evidence of a
centuries-old tradition of sufism prevalent in his family. This is cer-
tainly borne out by his first emergence as a public figure. The ecstatic
fervour he exudes is striking and transmits itself in an even more
intense form to his adherents. Recognisably messianic features find a
lively echo in contemporary expectations of the return of the MahdI. It
no more occurs to this religious revivalist to enquire into the theologi-
cal minutiae of Shl'I doctrine than to trouble himself with the details of
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

what is essentially an established theory of succession, even assuming

that he was familiar with it. For him, descent from 'All, of which at this
stage at any rate he may have been convinced, must have been the
decisive factor in his entitlement to rule. If he knew anything at all
about the concept of nass, one must suppose that he either equated or
confused it with membership of the family of the Prophet {dudmdri), in
other words with descent from the Seventh Imam, Musa al-Kazim, to
which the Safavids laid claim. After all, when he ascended the throne,
he had likewise not hesitated to make Shi'ism the official religion of the
state, in spite of the heretical notions expressed in his divan.
The young master of a religious order, of Iranian rural stock but
with forebears in Turkmen and Byzantine dynasties, seizes power,
with the aid of fervently religious Turkmens, in Iran, a Persian-
speaking country. He establishes a theocracy and proclaims a new
faith, the Twelver Shi'a, of which his knowledge is so superficial that
he can equate it with his own quite personal belief which, precisely
formulated, is a syncretism of metempsychotic Islam and Shamanism.1
Such is the situation at the outset of the Safavid empire, under the
auspices of which Persia crosses the threshold of the modern era.
Inevitably this start was associated with a plethora of complex political
and religious problems. The dynasty was to have two and a half centu-
ries in which to solve them. In view of the continued influence and
effect of their achievements down to the present day, one can scarcely
say that the Safavids and their subjects failed in this task, even if the
disintegration and catastrophe that marked the end of their empire
makes it impossible to speak of total success. It is probably more
accurate to see the Safavid era as a significant phase in the struggle for
their identity which the Persians had to undergo as they entered the
modern age.
Let us now return to the main problems which concern us, the
antagonism between Persians and Turks, the religious developments
and the changes in the monarchical system that occurred in Persia
during this period. Without doubt the foundation of the Safavid state
would have been impossible without the military effectiveness of the
Qizilbash. There were also Qizilbash of non-Turkish descent, for

1
Melikoff, "Le probleme kizilbaj", p. 52, speaks of a Qizilbash variant of Shi'ism in Anatolia
which also existed, in a much more archaic form, in Iranian Azarbaljan. Cf. also the phenomena
discussed by Aubin, "La politique religieuse des Safavides", p. 257.

342
 THE SAFAVID STATE

example Persians and Kurds,1 but their numbers were small, probably
even minute. The vast majority of the disciples who flocked to the
Ardabll order from the middle of the 9th/15 th century onwards were
members of nomadic Turkmen tribes or at times probably Turkmen
peasants as well.2 Whether, as has been discussed above, these were
ethnic groups which had no connection with the foregoing confedera-
tions, the Qara Quyunlu and the Aq Quyunlu, or whether on the
contrary they comprised to a large extent their ethnic rump,3 is a
question that need not concern us here. What is important is the fact
that Isma'Il's state so clearly bore the stamp of his Turkmen adherents
that at first it scarcely differed from the principalities which preceded it
and has justifiably been described as a direct continuation of them.
Given the powerful impetus which animated the Qizilbash, their rise
to political power ought in itself to have brought about a Turkicisation
of Persia, but things took a different course. Even though fewer and
fewer historians still maintain the view that the Safavid empire was a
Persian national state, it is undeniably true that the state founded by
Isma'Il was from the outset exposed to strong Iranicising tendencies,
which ultimately led to the integration of the Tiirkmens. At all events
there can be no question of a Turkicisation of Iran at the hands of the
Safavids. How is this to be explained?
To quote Minorsky, Tiirkmens and Persians, like oil and water, did
not readily mix. According to him, the dualistic character of the popu-
lation considerably affected both military and civil administration and
can be seen, for example, in the dichotomy between Turkish "lords of
the sword" and Persian "lords of the pen" which is mentioned in
chronicles.4 His diagnosis is accurate. The worst manifestation of
antagonism between Persians and Turks had been eradicated within a
century, but it would be utterly mistaken to ascribe this success to a
gradual convergence of the two peoples. Rather was it the result of a
lengthy and bloody confrontation which made the first half of the
1
Cf. Efendiev, "Le role des tribus". An example is Isma'Il I's famous vakil, Najm-i sanl. The
Talish of north-west Persia referred to in Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Mulik, p. 14, as supporters of
2
Isma'Il, were probably Qizilbash too. Sumer, Safevt devktinin kuru/u{u, p. 213.
3
Siimer's remark ibid, that Isma'Il's Turkmen helpers were "Anatolian Turks ... completely
distinct from the Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu confederations" cannot, of course, be taken to
mean that elements belonging to these confederations were in no way involved in the foundation
and rise of the Safavid empire. One has only to consider the Chepnl, to whom he himself refers
and who had been part of the Aq Quyunlu confederation. Cf. Sohrweide, "Der Sieg der Safavi-
den", p. 121; Babinger, "Der Islam in Kleinasien", pp. 6jff.; Efendiev, "Le role des tribus".
4
Tadhkirat al-Muluk, p. 188.

343
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Safavid era a time of ever recurring political crises both at home and
abroad. These began immediately in the reign of Isma'Il I with con-
stantly abortive attempts to combat the omnipotence of the Qizilbash
generals by appointing an eminent Persian to the office of vakil, the
shah's deputy with regard to his political and military functions. They
culminated in massive revolts on the part of the Qizilbash during the
reigns of Shah Tahmasp I and Shah Muhammad Khudabanda and in
the murders of Queen Mahd-i 'Ulya (987/1579), mother of the subse-
quent Shah 'Abbas, and the Grand Vizier Mlrza Salman Jabirl
(991/1583).!
The final chapter of these dramatic events saw the destruction of
Turkmen supremacy by Shah 'Abbas I in the course of a thorough
reform of the armed forces carried out at the beginning of his reign.
The Turkmen tribal aristocracy was stripped of all power, new types
of weaponry were introduced and a regular corps established which
can be regarded as the model and source of later efforts to create a
standing army. One of the most significant consequences of the reform
was the fact that members of the Georgian, Armenian and Circassian
ethnic groups were now recruited to the armed forces and the highest
offices of state. The reorganisation of the armed forces, completed by
the end of the ioth/i6th century, also involved administrative and
financial reforms. Payment of troops from the funds of the royal house-
hold replaced the feudal system on which the army had previously
been based. Increasing numbers of provincial governorships, until
now in the hands of Turkmen military commanders, were trans-
formed into crown lands, with the result that their levies and taxes
accrued to the shah and could be used for the maintenance of the new
contingents.
The destruction of Turkmen autonomy was not the only conse-
quence of these measures. They also led to large-scale social change
and restratification which still await closer investigation. Qizilbash
tribes continued to exist, and some of their leaders even retained their
posts as governors, but all in all the reform of the army constituted an
advance along the road towards the integration of the Tiirkmens with
the Persian population. Even in the 12th/18th century, Turkmen tribes
still supplied Persia with royal dynasties like the Qajars whose rule

1
See Savory, "The Significance of the Political Murder of Mirza Salman"; Roemer, Niedergang,
passim.

344
 THE SAFAVID STATE

came to an end a mere fifty years ago. Alliances between Turkish and
Persian elements - the example of Isma'H's marriage was repeatedly
followed by his successors - in the long run became a possibility for
wider circles in the community. Even more important was the fact that
just as Persian and other non-Turkish dignitaries could, from the end
of the ioth/i6th century onwards, occupy military commands and
offices of state, so Turkmen tribesmen were able in time to play an
active part in various spheres of Persian cultural life.1 A few examples
from the field of history alone will suffice: Sadiql Beg Afshar and
Hasan Rumlu, both born shortly after 1530, and their younger contem-
porary, Iskandar Beg Turkman, usually known as Iskandar Munshi,
one of the greatest historians of Islamic Persia.

One final consequence of the reform of the army needs to be empha-

sised. The ensuing transformation into crown lands of provinces pre-
viously ruled by governors lasted for decades, indeed until the time of
Shah 'Abbas II (1052—77/1642—66), and went hand in hand with a
strong policy of centralisation, affecting the administration and other
spheres of life. This was of enormous importance for subsequent de-
velopments, even up to the present day. Ultimately it put an end to the
polycentric system, inherited from the days of TTmur, which might
have been of significance, especially in terms of artistic and intellectual
development. A further contributory factor may have been 'Abbas I's
decision to discontinue the practice of appointing the royal princes to
governorships in particularly important provincial cities.
At the start of Safavid rule, religious fanaticism, as we have seen,
played a far more prominent part than theological knowledge, which
would have been useful in confrontations with established Sunni theol-
ogy. At that time Persia was a largely Sunni country, with numerous
theologians of that persuasion. In the circumstances, the advisers of the
new shah, and presumably Isma'Il himself, must quickly have recog-
nised the disadvantages of their theological ignorance. Significant evi-
dence of this is the search — albeit not exactly successful — for specialist
literature on the subject, which is mentioned in a chronicle of the
period.2 Soon the situation changed as the call for Shl'i theologians
was answered. They came from areas in which there was a Shl'I tradi-

1
Savory, "The qizilbash, education and the arts".
2
Hasan-i Rumlu i, 61; cf. Mazzaoui, Origins of the Safavids, pp. 6, 28.

345
 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

tion, from Bahrain and from the Jabal 'Amila in southern Lebanon,
and brought Safavid religious views, which bore the imprint partly of
popular piety and partly of the extremist currents of the early period of
the empire, into line with the official tenets of the Twelver Shl'a. The
extent to which they became respected in Persia can be judged, for
example, from the fact that Shah 'Abbas the Great married the daugh-
ter of one of them, Shaikh Lutf-Allah MaisI from the Lebanese Mais
al-Jabal, whose memory is kept aliveJm this day in what is one of the
gems of Persian architecture, the little mosque on the Maidan-i Shah in
Isfahan which is named after him.
However, not all the consequences of this increase in the influence of
Shl'I theology proved welcome to the Safavids. The concept of divine
right, so important to the shah's reputation, especially amongst large
numbers of the common people, had no place in the doctrines of the
Shl'I theologians. They, of course, were familiar with the theory of
nass, according to which any representative of the departed Imam
needed to be designated by a legitimate predecessor. They were only
too aware that the Safavids had not been designated in this way and
could not make up for this deficiency by claiming descent from the
Prophet. The dynasty had thus usurped the power which rightfully
belonged to the mujtahid of the time. At first the theologians probably
acquiesced in this without too much difficulty since both they and, of
course, the mujtahid enjoyed a better position under the Safavids than
under any SunnI regime, however magnanimous. As their activities
gradually influenced the beliefs and religious practices of the popula-
tion, and the official doctrines of the Twelver Shi'a supplanted the
heresy introduced by Isma'Il, so the shah lost the preeminent position
he had held previously in religious matters. Eventually, by the end of
the nth/17th century, he retained only executive power, and the
people showed a greater devotion to the mujtahid. There is therefore a
certain parallel here with previously discussed developments within the
Safavid order, in which the khalifat al-khulafa was able to assert his
superiority over the shah in his capacity as murshid-i kamil. More than
a century later, the Qajars, who after decades of indecision finally
resolved to grant the Shl'I theologians ('ulama) their former privileged
status, thus hoping to give their rule the semblance of legitimacy, were
also disappointed. The theologians could not change their fundamental
beliefs. Monarchs, no matter whether they were Safavids or Qajars,
were and remained in their eyes usurpers. Instead of supporting those
346
 THE SAFAVID STATE

to whom they owed a debt of gratitude, they contributed, in the case of

both dynasties, to their downfall.
Shah 'Abbas I may well have realised where things were leading. His
ostentatious displays of religious devotion — from his visit to the shrine
at Ardabll to his pilgrimage to Mashhad — were primarily designed,
although genuine religious motives cannot be ruled out, to establish a
healthy relationship between monarchy and the Shl'a. In vain: it fell to
him not only to destroy the might of the Qizilbash; he was also the
instigator of the most important measures of social discrimination
against the sufls, which, according to the testimony of foreign trav-
ellers, had taken effect by the middle of the nth/17th century. Within
his own lifetime Shah 'Abbas I was to witness the triumph in Persia of
the representatives of Shl'i orthodoxy, beginning with his famous con-
temporary Mir Damad (d. 1630). The idea of the sanctity of the
monarch had fallen into decay, the heretical beliefs of his great-
grandfather had been banished and the Safavid order had declined.
One of the things modern-day Persia inherited from the Safavids
had been the tradition of monarchy. Although initially it had taken the
form of kingship by divine right, towards the end of the Safavid era the
monarchy shed more and more of its supernatural aspects until ulti-
mately it was completely devoid of them. Subsequent ruling dynasties
held fast to the principle of monarchy but did not revive the idea of the
shah as God incarnate. The Safavids, as we have seen, were obliged to
pursue unconventional policies in order to achieve a reconciliation
between the indigenous Iranians and the Turkmens their ancestors and
they themselves had brought to the country, two ethnic groups with
which they were, of course, linked by descent. Although they were
unable to eradicate all antagonism between the two, they certainly
managed to remove the most important obstacles to a reconciliation.
Finally, it was as a result of their endeavours that Persia became a Shl'I
country, which it has remained to the present day. Two attempts to
abolish the Shl'a failed, the first under Shah Isma'Il II around 984/15 76,
the second a hundred and sixty years later under Nadir Shah. The
introduction of the Shl'a to Iran is the most striking contribution of
the Safavids to modern-day Persia because it is the factor that most
clearly distinguishes the country from its neighbours.

347
 THE S A F A V I D P E R I O D THE SAFAVID PERIOD

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Map. Iran under the Safavids 349

348

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

 THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Table VI. The Safavids

ISMA'TL I 907-950/1501—1524
TAHMASPI 930-984/1524-1576
ISMA'TLII 984-985/1576-1577
MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA 985-995/1578-1587
'ABBASI (989)995-1038/(1581)1587-1629
SAFlI 1038-105 2/1629—1642
'ABBASII 1052-1077/1642-1666
SAFT II (SULAIMAN) IO77(IO 7 8)-IIO5/I666(I668)-I694
SULTAN HUSAIN 1105-1135/1694-1722
TAHMASPII 1135-1144/1722-1732
'ABBAS III 1144-1148/1732-1736

35O
 CHAPTER 6

THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE

SYSTEM

Before the principal phases in the development of the Safavid admini-

strative system are discussed in detail, a brief outline of the Safavid
administrative and social structure may be helpful. At the apex of this
structure was the shah. Never was the Divine Right of Kings more fully
developed than by the Safavid shahs. Shah Isma'Il I, who established the
Safavid dynasty in 907/1501—2, considered himself to be the living
emanation of the godhead, the Shadow of God upon earth, and the
representative of the Hidden Imam by virtue of direct descent from the
Seventh Imam of the Twelver (Ithna'ashariyya) Shl'a, Mvisa al-Kazim. It
is axiomatic that such a ruler would command instant and unquestion-
ing obedience from his subjects. Since the ruler was directly appointed
by God, men were required to obey his commands whether just or
unjust. Since the ruler, as the representative of the Hidden Imam, was
closer to the source of absolute truth than were other men, opposition to
him was a sin. This led inevitably to an assumption of kingly infallibility.
In other words, the Safavid shahs usurped the function which the
Ithna'asharl mujtahids had arrogated to themselves, namely, that of
acting as the representative on earth of the Mahdi, the Ithna'asharl
messiah. The net result of these various Safavid theories of kingship was
absolutism.1 In practice, however, there were well defined limits to this
absolutism, even when the shah was a strong and capable ruler. Chardin
declares emphatically that outside court circles there was no arbitrary
exercise of power by the shah, and both Chardin and Malcolm assert that
the awe in which the shah was held by the court and the nobility was the
primary reason for the relative security and freedom from oppression
enjoyed by the lower classes.
Minorsky has written: "It is a moot question how the idea of the
State, if ever distinctly realised, was expressed in Safavid terminology".
Though the term daulat was sometimes used as an abstract concept, he
says, the nearest equivalent in a concrete sense was mamdlik-i mahrusa,
the "divinely-protected dominions".2 This rather extreme statement

1 2
Lambton, "Quis custodiet custodes?", SI vi (1956), izjfF. TaJbkirat al-Muluk, p. 14.

351
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

must now be modified. There is abundant evidence that, long before

the end of the Safavid period, the concept of the territories under
Safavid jurisdiction as a state had crystallised into a more concrete
form. During the reign of Shah Sulaiman (1077-1105/1666-94), the
term mamlikat-i Iran is found, but the historian Iskandar Beg MunshI,
writing in 102 5/1616-17, frequently uses terms of a similar nature
with reference to the Safavid state at the time of Shah Tahmasp I
(930—84/1524-76): mulk-i Iran; mamalik-i Iran; 'arsa-yi Iran (the last of
these perhaps more geographical than political). Even if Iskandar Beg
Munshi's use of these terms in regard to the reign of Shah Tahmasp
represents a case of prolepsis, it nevertheless indicates that, by the
time of Shah 'Abbas I at least, Safavid rule had led to the emergence
of a more definite concept of a state operating within fairly well-
defined boundaries. The meaning of daulat, now the ordinary word
for state, gradually evolved from the rather abstract concept of the
"bliss" or "felicity" of the ruler, the aura of beneficence which sur-
rounded him and sheltered his subjects, and came to be used in a
more concrete sense. Roemer has pointed out that the existence of
Iran as an administrative entity was acknowledged by the Ottomans
from the time of the establishment of the Safavid state. A letter to
Shah Isma'Il I from the Ottoman sultan Bayezld II refers to him as
pddishah-i Iran.1
The administrative organisation of the Safavid state was divided
both horizontally, along ethnic lines, and vertically, by Barthold's
classic "red thread", namely, "the division of all the organs of admini-
stration into two main categories, the dargdh (palace) and divan (chan-
cery)".2 On the ethnic plane, the Qizilbash, the Turkmen tribes which
had been mainly responsible for bringing the Safavids to power, con-
stituted the military aristocracy of the Safavid state, the "men of the
sword" in traditional Islamic terms. The amirs, or chiefs of these
tribes, were the military governors of most of the provinces of the
Safavid empire during its early period. They filled the most important
offices of state, and held a dominant position in political as well as in
military affairs. This state of affairs they considered to be no more than
their due in view of their services to the Safavid cause. Differing from

1
Savory, "The Safavid State and Polity", p. 214 for Roemer's comments; ibid., pp. 206—8, for
further examples from Iskandar MunshI showing that Iran was viewed by that historian as a
positive entity or state.
2
Barthold, Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion, 3rd ed. (London, 1968, GMS n.s. v), p. 227.

352
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

the Qizilbash in race, language and culture were the Tajiks, or Persian
elements of society, the descendants of those who had traditionally
filled the ranks of the bureaucracy under a succession of alien Arab,
Turkish, Mongol and Tartar rulers. From the Tajik elements were
drawn not only the viziers and the numerous classes of officials in the
royal secretariat, but also the accountants, the clerks, the tax-collectors
and other officials of the financial administration, and, in general, the
"men of the pen" of classical Islamic society. In addition, the majority
of the members of the religious classes ('u/amd): the mujtahids, the qddis,
the sayyids, the khatibs, and other functionaries of the religious institu-
tion, were Persians. The few who were originally of Arab blood had
become thoroughly assimilated in the course of time, and thought of
themselves as Tajiks. The head of the religious institution, the sadr, was
always a Persian.
The administrative organisation of the Safavid state remained fluid
during the whole of the period prior to the accession of Shah 'Abbas I
(996/1588). Even when the actual administrative institutions assumed
more rigid forms in the course of the administrative reorganisation
carried out by 'Abbas I, some lateral mobility still existed, and officials
were able to cross the boundary between the religious institution and the
political institution with comparative ease. During the early
Safavid period, the divan, or mamdlik, branch was predominant. From
the time of Shah 'Abbas I onwards, however, the power of that branch
of the administration which was under the personal control of the ruler
(in Safavid terminology: kbdssa) increased at the expense, and to the
detriment, of the mamalik branch. Eventually (1077/1666-7), even the
office of sadr was divided into a khassa and an 'dmma (i.e., mamalik)
branch.
The everyday business of the state was transacted by a council {divan;
later: jdnqt) of high-ranking amirs {arkan-i daulat; umard-yi 'dlijdb; etc.).
The vizier iya^Jr) was a member of this council. Later, other officials
were nominated to it. They included an official known as the majlis-
nivis, or vdqi'a-nivis, sometimes termed the va^tr-i chap, because he
stood on the left of the shah, whereas the vizier proper stood on the
shah's right. This official had three functions: he was the official court
historiographer; he was the shah's private secretary; and, most import-
ant of all, he was a rapporteur to the shah.1 In this last capacity he was

1
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 121 — 2.

353
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

in effect the head of a widespread intelligence system. The council of

amirs was presided over by the shah, or, in his absence, by the vakil-i
nafs-i nafis-i humayiin (later, by the i'timdd al-dauld). The amirs who were
members of the council resided at court. If any of them held another
office in addition, such as a provincial governorship, he would delegate
that function to his son, or to another amir from his own tribe.
The head of the bureaucracy was the vizier. He had at his command
a large staff of viziers of lesser rank, secretaries, and other officials, each
of whom was in charge of a branch of the vizier's department, which
was called the daftarkhdna-yi humayiin, or royal secretariat. No letter of
appointment to a post in the bureaucracy was valid without the vizier's
seal. The various branches of his department dealt with such matters as
the authorisation of assignments on the revenue, grants, pensions and
immunities of many different kinds; the payment of troops, and the.
keeping of muster-rolls and other military records; and the keeping of
the archives.1
Financial matters were ultimately the responsibility of the vizier, but
the technical business of preparing and auditing the budget, assessing
taxes (which were many and varied), and collecting the revenue — in
short, the actual operation of the financial machine — was in the hands
of a large staff of accountants, clerks, tax-collectors and financial agents
under the control of the mustaufi al-mamdlik, the comptroller of
finance.2 As the khassa side of the administration expanded, the office
of istlfd-yi mamdlik, like the saddrat, was divided, and the financial
business of the khassa branch was conducted by an official termed
mustaufi-yi khassa. In the final analysis, however, the latter seems to
have been inferior in rank to the mustaufi al-mamalik.
The administration of the royal household was carried on by a
separate department, headed by the nd^ir-i buyutat, or superintendent of
the royal workshops (buyutdt-i khdssa-yi sharifd), of which there were
eventually about thirty-three.3 "The artisans in the Royal Workshops
were organised in royal guilds",4 which continued to provide some of
the court's needs. The royal workshops "made large profits for the
Safavid Shahs; they not only produced goods such as textiles and rugs
for the court, but also sent expensive silks and textiles to Europe and

1 2
Ibid., pp. 44—6. Ibid., pp. 54-5.
3
Ibid., pp. 48—50. See further Keyvani, pp. i66ff. * Keyvani, p. 170.

354
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

India, and paid the profits made in this way to the Shah".1 Each royal
workshop was in the charge of a sahib-jam' and a mushrij', and the nazir-i
buyutat had in addition many other subordinate officials who assisted
him in the discharge of his multifarious duties. These included: the
preparation of an estimate of the expenditure of the royal household
(which was then submitted to the central vizier for approval); agreeing
on the price of, and signing contracts for, foodstuffs and other goods
supplied to the royal household; the supervision of the day-to-day
expenditure of the various royal workshops; the payment of the work-
men employed in the said workshops; the maintenance of all the build-
ings connected with the royal household; and the general supervision
of the management of the royal stables and the arsenal. The administra-
tion of the harem (haram) and the private quarters of the shah did not
come within the purview of the nazir-i buyutat, but constituted an
entirely separate branch, the internal palace administration, staffed
mainly by eunuchs. The latter were initially all black eunuchs, but from
the time of Shah 'Abbas I a number of white eunuchs, Georgian
ghuldms, were employed in the palace. Not all the staff of the internal
palace administration were eunuchs. The exceptions were: the royal
physician; the royal astrologer; the comptroller of assay and other
officials of the royal mint: and the keepers of various seals. All the
officials of the internal palace administration were known under the
general title of muqarrab al-khdqdn. Officials whose duties lay at the
entrance to, or outside, the harem and the private quarters of the shah,
were classified as muqarrab al-ba^rat. Included in this category were the
officials of the department of the nazir-i buyutat, referred to above, and
an extensive staff of doorkeepers, gentlemen-in-waiting, ushers, and
the like.2
The administration of justice was a complicated affair. During the
early Safavid period the sadr, as head of the religious institution,
was ultimately responsible for the administration of canon law. The
business of the courts, however, was in the hands of a number of other
religious officials in addition to the sadr, including the qddial-quddt and
the shaikh al-isldm. As a result, there was a considerable degree of
conflict of jurisdiction. At some point, not yet determined, a new post
was created in an attempt to draw all these strands together under one
overriding authority. The holder of this new office was termed

1 2
Ibid., p . 166. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. ;6ff.

355
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

the divan-begt. Although the sadr was supposed to possess superior

authority in cases involving capital offences, the fact that such crimes
were tried in the divan-begl's tribunal indicates that the supreme author-
ity, in these as in other legal matters, in fact lay with the dlvan-begl. In
addition, the divan-begl's court was the highest court of appeal. By
the time of Phase Three (as defined below) of the development of
Safavid administrative institutions, or possibly earlier, officials such as
the mustaufl al-mamalik, the nazir-i buyiitat, and the dlvan-begl, were
classified as amirs of the highest rank, and consequently were admitted
to membership of the council of amirs. By the end of the Safavid period,
membership of this council stood at nineteen, but during the early
period it was only about one-third of that size.
Safavid administrative institutions derived from two main sources:
the administrative institutions of the Tiirkmens and the Timurids -
rival dynasties which for a hundred years had disputed the succession
to Tlmur's empire in Persia - and the basic sufl organisation of the
Safaviyya, the militant Shl'I order which brought about the establish-
ment of the Safavid state in 907/1501. Thus in part the Safavids were
the inheritors of a bureaucratic system which resembled the traditional
bureaucracy of a Persian Muslim state. The existence of the tightly-knit
sufl organisation of the Safaviyya, however, constituted an essential
point of difference between the Safavids and their predecessors. When
Shah Isma'Il became the first ruler of the Safavid dynasty in 907/1501,
he was faced with the problem of incorporating this sufl organisation
in the administrative system of the Safavid state. In the event, the
problem proved insuperable. As the Safavid administration system
gradually evolved along more conventional lines, the remains of the
original sufl organisation continued to exist as a system within a sys-
tem, but as an organism devoid of any real function within the state.
There are three main phases in the development of Safavid admini-
strative institutions: first, the period between the accession of Shah
Isma'Il I and that of Shah 'Abbas I (907-96/1501-88); second, the reign
of Shah 'Abbas I (996-1038/15 88—1629); and third, the period from the
accession of Shah SafI to the overthrow of the Safavid dynasty
(1038-1135/1629-1722). The first period was one of change and
adjustment, during which the functions of the principal officers of state
were not clearly defined. As a result, the powers of one official fre-
quently clashed with those of another. During the second period, the
administration of the Safavid state was reorganised on entirely new
356
 PHASE ONE ( 9 O 7 - 9 6 / 1 5 O I - 8 8 )
bases by Shah 'Abbas I. The third period is one of gradual sclerosis and
consequent decline.

PHASE ONE ( 9 0 7 - 9 6 / 1 5 0 1 - 8 8 )

At his accession, Shah Isma'Il, as mentioned above, was confronted by

the problem of fusing very dissimilar elements into one harmonious
administrative system. On the one hand were his Qizilbash followers,
the sufls of the Safavid order who had brought him to power. These
men accorded Shah Isma'Il adoration as a quasi-divine figure, since
they regarded him as the Shadow of God upon earth and the represen-
tative of the Hidden Imam. He was also, as head of the Safavid order,
their murshid, and they, as his murtds, gave him unquestioning obedi-
ence. From the ranks of the Qizilbash were drawn the ahl-i ikhtisds, a
small group of special staff officers, who maintained the Safaviyya on
an active service footing during the years that Isma'Il was in hiding in
Gllan (899-905/1494-9). These officers included a lala ("tutor",
"guardian"), an abddl, a dada, a khddim and a khalifat al-kbulafd. On the
other hand were the Persian bureaucrats and 'ulama, many of whom
had held secular and religious posts respectively under the predecessors
of the Safavids.
The task of combining a traditional mediaeval Muslim administra-
tive system of the Persian type with what was in effect a theocratic
organisation, would in any case have been a formidable one. It was
rendered still more difficult by the fact that the elite of the Qizilbash
fighting men were of Turkish stock, members of Turkmen tribes from
eastern Anatolia and Syria, such as the Rumlu, Dulghadi'r, Takkalu,
Ustajlu, and Shamlu. The mutual suspicion and hostility between the
Turkish and Persian elements in the state split the Safavid administra-
tion irrevocably along ethnic lines.
What steps did Isma'Il take in his attempt to effect a synthesis of these
disparate elements? In the first place, he created the new office of vaktl-i
nafs-i nafts-i humayiin. This official was to be the vicegerent of the shah
and was to represent him both in his spiritual capacity (as murshid-i kamil
of the Safaviyya) and his temporal capacity (as pddishdh). The powers of
the vizier, traditionally the first minister and the head of the bureau-
cracy, were temporarily eclipsed by the overriding powers of this new
official. The creation of this office clearly represented an attempt on the
part of Isma'Il to bridge the gap between a theocratic form of govern-

357
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

ment and a bureaucratic one. It was only natural that the first incumbent
should be one of the ahl-i ikhtisas, referred to above, the Turkmen
officer Husain Beg Lala Shamlu.
Secondly, Isma'Il attempted through the office of sadr to forge a link
between the political institution, which in the early Safavid period had
a markedly military character and was dominated by the Turkmen
aristocracy, and the religious institution, the Persian 'ulama. The office
of sadr had been inherited from the administrative system of the
Timurids and the Turkmen dynasties, but the scope and purpose of the
office under the Safavids was quite different. The chief function of the
Safavid sadr, who was, of course, always a Persian, was the imposition
of doctrinal uniformity throughout the Safavid state, and, as a corol-
lary, the extirpation of heresy. This goal had largely been achieved by
the end of Isma'Il's,reign in 930/1524. By establishing that the sadarat
was subordinate to the political institution, Isma'Il hoped to prevent
that separation of secular and religious powers which in fact occurred
under his successors. The predominantly military character of the early
Safavid state is again shown by the fact that the sadrs often held
military rank and not infrequently military command. At the critical
battle of Chaldiran in 920/1514, for instance, the entire Safavid centre
was under the command of sadrs and other members of the religious
classes.
The other principal offices of state during the early Safavid period
were those of the amir al-umard, the qurchi-bdsht, and the vizier. The
office of amir al-umara, or commander-in-chief of the Qizilbash tribal
forces, was considered by the Qizilbash to be their prerogative. Apart
from his military duties, this officer was one of the great amirs of the
supreme divan and played a considerable part in the affairs of state.
Although, because of the predominantly military character of the
Safavid state during this first phase, the terms "military" and "civil"
cannot be used with precision in defining the functions of particular
officials, it is clear that the amir al-umara was primarily a "military"
officer who encroached on the prerogatives of the vizier and other top-
ranking officials of the bureaucracy, to the extent permitted by the
prevailing political situation. In the event that the shah was weak or a
minor, the amir al-umara and the leading Qizilbash amirs assumed full
control of the machinery of government. Another high-ranking mili-
tary officer was the qurchl-bashl, who later superseded the amir
al-umara. During the early Safavid period, however, we hear little of

558
 PHASE ONE ( 9 O 7 - 9 6 / 1 5 O I - 8 8 )
the qurchl-bashl, and his function, which was distinct from that of the
amir al-umara, remains obscure. Finally, we have the vizier, whose
powers were drastically diminished during the early Safavid period by
the creation of the office of vakll-i nafs-i nafls-i humayun, by the
interference of the amir al-umara in political affairs, and even by the
activities of the sadr, who, by virtue of his special role in the Safavid
administrative system, wielded greater power than did his predecessors
in the Turkmen and Timurid administrations.
Almost from the start, however, there were indications that the
Turco-Persian condominium was not working smoothly. It seems clear
that Isma'Il made a mistake in allotting to one man, Husain Beg Lala
Shamlu, the two most important offices of state, that of vakll-i nafs-i
nafls-i humayun and that of amir al-umara, so that too much power
was concentrated in the hands of one individual. Isma'Il's realisation of
this fact can be seen in his dismissal of Husain Beg from the vikalat
only six years after the establishment of the Safavid state. From then on
Isma'Il, as a matter of deliberate policy, excluded the Qizilbash from
the vikalat, and Husain Beg was followed by a succession of five
Persian vakils between 913/1508 and 930/1524. But if Isma'Il thought
to balance the power of a Persian vakil against that of a Turkmen amir
al-umara, he was mistaken again. There was an immediate and violent
reaction on the part of the Qizilbash against the appointment of Per-
sians to the vikalat. Of the five Persian vakils mentioned above, two
were murdered by the Qizilbash, a third met his death as the direct
result of the hostility between himself and the Qizilbash, and the
remaining two held office for only two years each.
The decisive defeat suffered by the Safavids at the hands of the
Ottomans at Chaldiran in 920/1514 had far-reaching effects, not only on
the character and behaviour of Isma'Il himself, but on his relations with
the Qizilbash amirs. This in turn affected the relative importance of the
principal administrative offices, and the relations between the Persian
and Turkish elements in the administration. Although the Qizilbash
amirs had suffered heavy losses at Chaldiran, Isma'lPs virtual withdrawal
from the conduct of both military and administrative affairs enabled the
survivors to strengthen their position vis-a-vis the ruling institution,
namely, the shah. An even more important effect of Chaldiran was the
tacit assumption by the Qizilbash that their murshid's reputation for
infallibility and invincibility was now in ruins. From the time of Chaldi-
ran onwards, the Qizilbash by their actions demonstrated incontrover-

359
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

tibly that they considered that they need no longer in practice accord the
shah the unquestioning obedience demanded of a murld by his murshid.
More and more their behaviour resembled that of turbulent barons, and,
when Shah Isma'il I died in 930/1524 and was succeeded by Shah
Tahmasp, who was only ten and a half years old, they took advantage of
the shah's youthfulness to assert their own power at the expense of the
monarch. In the course of their internecine struggles to determine which
tribe or coalition of tribes should rule the state, they showed so little
respect for the shah's person or position that there were armed clashes
between rival groups even in the presence of the shah, whose life was on
one occasion endangered. The fiction of their loyalty to their spiritual
director was maintained, however, and as late as 1629 Shah 'Abbas I was
still recognised in theory as the murshid-i kamil.
By the end of the reign of Isma'il, important changes had taken place
in regard to three of the principal offices of state. First, after 920/1514,
the term vakll-i nafs-i nafls-i humayun was abandoned, and the vikalat
was referred to in terms more appropriate to the vizierate. There is no
doubt that this marks the failure of the attempt to create in the person
of the vakll-i nafs-i nafis-i humayun a superior authority who would be
able, because he was the alter ego of the shah both in his spiritual and in
his temporal capacity, to harmonise and co-ordinate the activities both
of the political institution and of the religious institution. It marks, fur-
ther, a decisive movement away from the concept of a theocratic state,
and towards that separation of religious and temporal powers which
became an accomplished fact under the later Safavids. Second, the task
of imposing doctrinal uniformity, which had been the justification for
the extraordinary powers wielded by the early Safavid sadrs, was virtu-
ally completed by the end of Isma'lPs reign, and consequently there
was from then on a progressive decline in the authority of the sadr,
who had less and less influence in political matters. Third, Isma'il
himself had taken steps to curb the power of the amir al-umara by
appointing to that office in 915/1509—10 an officer of inferior rank.
This proved effective, since the officer in question, although he held
the office for fifteen years, does not figure prominently in the events of
that period.
In 930/15 24, the evolution of Safavid administrative institutions was
rudely interrupted when the Qizilbash amirs seized control of the state
from the youthful Tahmasp. For a period of ten years, different
Qizilbash tribes, ruling either separately or in alliance with others,
360
 PHASE ONE ( 9 0 7 - 9 6 / 1 5 0 1 - 8 8 )
dominated the scene. The imposition of military government naturally
had its effect on the Safavid administration. The Qizilbash had always
considered the vikalat to be their prerogative, and the new rulers of the
state dubbed themselves vakil (but not, be it noted, vakil nafs-i nafls-i
humayiin) and/or amir al-umara. By vakil they wished to indicate a
rank superior to that of the vizier, who was a Persian and therefore, in
their eyes, inferior and only fit to hold positions in the civil service.
During this period, the fluidity of the administrative system was such
that the sources often refer to two officials as vakil simultaneously.
This causes some confusion, but the military and political aspect of the
vakil's function is always uppermost in the one, and the administrative
and bureaucratic aspect is predominant in the other. The former is
always a Turkmen and may also hold the office of amir al-umara. The
latter is always a Persian, and his office may also be referred to as the
vizierate or ni%arat-i divdn-i 'all.
About 940/1533, Shah Tahmasp succeeded in imposing his authority
on the Qizilbash amirs. The immediate effect of the shah's assertion of
himself as the ruling institution was the decline of the amir al-umara. In
fact this officer disappears from the list of the officials of the central
administration (although the title amir al-umara continued to be applied
to the Qizilbash military governors of important provinces, particularly
in times of crisis, up to the end of the reign of Shah 'Abbas I). His
disappearance was accompanied by the rise of the qurchl-bashi, a for-
merly subordinate officer, to the position of commander-in-chief of the
Qizilbash forces. Like the amir al-umara before him, the qurchl-bashi
exercised his authority in political as well as in military affairs. During a
period of some forty years (95 5-95/1548-87) prior to the accession of
Shah 'Abbas I, the majority of the qurchl-bashls were drawn from the
Afshar Turkmen tribe. In addition, a marked hereditary tendency
became apparent in appointments to this office. At first sight, this might
suggest that the power of the qurchl-bashi was increasing. Although this
may possibly be true in regard to individual qurchl-bashls, I would
suggest that both these tendencies reflect a weakening of the position of
the Qizilbash as a whole within the state, and in their position relative to
the shah. With the abandonment of the concept of the vakll-i nafs-i
nafls-i humayiin, and the disappearance of the amir al-umara, the
qurchl-bashi had emerged as the most powerful military officer in the
state. If the Qizilbash were prepared to allow this office to be monopol-
ised by one tribe, several conclusions may be drawn. First, during this
361
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

period the Qizilbash were not prepared to challenge the authority of the
shah, a complete reversal of the position obtaining during the first
decade of Tahmasp's reign. Second, the Qizilbash tribes which had
formerly been most prominent - the Shamlu, the Ustajlu, the Takkalu
and the Rumlii — had either been weakened, or discredited, or both, by
the decade of civil wars (930-40/1524-33). Thus the way had been
opened for a hitherto less important tribe, the Afshar, to come to the
fore. Third, the fact that the more powerful tribes acquiesced in the
appointment of a succession of Afshars to the office of qurchl-bashl
again suggests that the shah's will now prevailed.
Another significant trend during the reign of Tahmasp I
(930—84/15 24—76) was the continued decline in the power of the sadr.
With the successful establishment of Ithna'asharl Shi'ism as the "ortho-
dox" form of Islam throughout the Safavid dominions, the special
powers which had been conferred on the sadr at the inception of the
Safavid state became less necessary. The sadrs ceased to play any sig-
nificant part in political affairs and were largely preoccupied with
routine religious matters, particularly the administration of the auqdf
(bequests and endowments for pious purposes). Even their position as
head of the religious institution was not secure, and there are certain
portents during the latter part of Tahmasp's reign of what became an
established fact by the time of 'Abbas I, namely the eclipse of the sadr
by the powerful theologians known as mujtahids, who emerged as the
exponents of Shl'I orthodoxy as it assumed more rigid doctrinal forms.
Finally, we may note the increased power and prestige of the vizier
after the shah had brought the Qizilbash amirs to heel about 940/1533.
During the preceding decade, the viziers had been mere tools in the
hands of the "military" vakil/amir al-umara.
To sum up, we may recapitulate the following characteristics of the
Safavid administrative system under Tahmasp I: a continued move-
ment away from the theocratic form of government associated with
Safavid origins; a greater separation of temporal and spiritual powers;
an increase, after an initial setback, in the authority of the ruling
institution (the shah) and a corresponding curtailment of the influence
of the Qizilbash in political affairs. In the second half of Tahmasp's
reign, the introduction into the Safavid state of elements of different
ethnic origin, namely Georgians and Circassians, also militated against
the Qizilbash supremacy. This will be considered in the next section.

362
 PHASE TWO ( 9 9 6 - I O 3 8 / 1 588-1629)

PHASE TWO ( 9 9 6 - I O 3 8 / l 588-1629)

It was stated above that Shah 'Abbas the Great reorganised the Safavid
state on entirely new bases. Why was it necessary to do this? Briefly,
Shah 'Abbas was forced to take drastic action to preserve the fabric of
the state. In 982/15 74 Shah Tahmasp's physical powers began to fail, and
this was the signal for the recrudescence of Qizilbash dissension.
Tahmasp's death in 984/1576 was followed by more than a decade of
disastrous government by Isma'Il II and Muhammad Khudabanda,
neither of whom was capable of effective rule. Various power groups
took advantage of the situation to pursue their particular ends at the
expense of the state, which was rent by their faction. The situation in
982/1574, however, differed from that obtaining in 932/1526 in one
important respect. In 15 26 the precarious balance between the Turkish
and Persian elements in the administration had been upset when the
Qizilbash seized control of the state, and the object of the civil wars
which followed had been to decide which Qizilbash tribe, or tribal
coalition, should dominate the rest. It was, so to speak, a domestic
quarrel. In 15 74 and subsequent years, however, the point at issue was
whether the Qizilbash could maintain their privileged position in the
state in the face of the threat posed by the new Georgian and Circassian
elements which were beginning to oust them from administrative posts.
Where had these new elements come from? In the main, they were
prisoners, or the offspring of prisoners, taken captive in four Cauca-
sian campaigns fought by the Safavids between 947/15 40— 1 and
961/i 5 5 3—4, and brought back to Persia. The rivalries of Georgian and
Circassian women in the royal harem led to dynastic struggles based on
ethnic considerations, of a type hitherto unknown in the Safavid state.
Not all the Georgians were captives taken in battle. Some Georgian
noblemen voluntarily entered Safavid service, and before the end of
Tahmasp's reign we hear of one such who held a provincial governor-
ship.
In addition to anarchy at home, Shah 'Abbas was faced at his acces-
sion by a war on two fronts against the arch-enemies of the Safavid
state, the Ottomans and the Uzbeks. The former had taken advantage
of Persia's internal weakness to occupy more Safavid territory in the
north-west than ever before; the latter had overrun Khurasan in the
north-east. 'Abbas had therefore to restore internal stability and then to
expel the invaders from Persian soil.

363
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

In order to do this, 'Abbas desperately needed troops on whose

loyalty he could rely. After enduring more than a decade of Qizilbash
plots, intrigue and treachery, he decided he could place no further trust
in them. He therefore formed, from the ranks of the Georgians and
Circassians referred to above, several regiments of a new standing
army, owing allegiance only to himself, and paid direct from the royal
treasury. These men were known as ghulams, i.e. "slaves" of the shah.
This decision meant that a new source of income had to be found for
the royal treasury. Hitherto the Qizilbash troops, which had consti-
tuted the greater part of the Safavid armies, had been paid by their
Turkmen chiefs, who formed the military aristocracy of the early
Safavid state and held all the important provincial governorships. The
provincial governments were largely alienated from the control of the
central government, and the provincial governors held the land under
their jurisdiction in the form of assignments of various types, known
by the general term ttyiil. They consumed on the spot the greater part
of the revenue which they derived from these assignments, and
remitted only a small portion, in the form of dues of various kinds, to
the central government. Even then these funds were not under the
direct control of the shah but were administered by a special "ministry
of state lands". The shah's main source of income was crown lands,
the revenues from which were collected by the royal agents. The
solution adopted by Shah 'Abbas was to increase the revenue remitted
to the royal treasury by converting some mamalik or "state" lands into
khassa or crown lands. This policy was extended by his successors to
such an extent that it became one of the principal causes of Safavid
decline.1
Not all the ghulams were trained for service in the newly-created
regiments. Many were employed in the royal household and in the
khassa administration in general. The latter necessarily expanded as it
took over the administration of more and more state lands. Gradually
the ghulams made their presence felt at the higher levels of Safavid
administration until they filled about one-fifth of the high administra-
tive posts. Governorships of the khassa provinces went to ghulams
rather than to Qizilbash. Finally, in 1007/1598, a ghulam, AllahvardI
Khan, was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The old
dichotomy between Turk and Persian had been further complicated by

1
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, pp. 107—9.

364
 PHASE TWO ( 9 9 6 - I O 3 8 / 1 5 8 8 - 1 6 2 9 )
the emergence of the Caucasian elements as a powerful "third force".
The numbers involved make it clear that Shah 'Abbas had, in fact,
effected a social revolution. For instance, in 1013/1604 20,000 Arme-
nians were enrolled in the ghulams. In 1025/1616 130,000 Georgian
prisoners were brought back to Persia. In addition, in order to weaken
tribal cohesion and to break down rigid social patterns, 'Abbas moved
large groups of Qizilbash tribesmen from one area to another and
settled large groups of Caucasian immigrants in strategic areas.
As one would expect, this social revolution produced major changes
in the administrative system. The abortive attempt by a Qizilbash amir,
at the beginning of the reign of Shah 'Abbas, to constitute himself an
old-style vakil represented the last bid by the Qizilbash to regain their
former position of dominance in the administration. When Shah
'Abbas crushed this attempt, the title of vakil lapsed, as to all intents
and purposes did that of amir al-umara in so far as it denoted an
officer of the central administration. Instead of these titles, associated
specifically with the period of Qizilbash supremacy, we find the com-
manders of two of the new regiments ranked among the six principal
officers of state, namely the qullar-dqdsi and the tufangcbi-dqdsi. The
former commanded the regiment of qullar, or ghulams, and the latter
commanded the regiment of musketeers. The commander of the
Qizilbash forces still retained the title of qurchi-bashl, but since the
Qizilbash constituted only one element of the Safavid army as reconsti-
tuted by Shah 'Abbas, his influence in military and political affairs was
necessarily curtailed. At best, he was now primus inter pares. The greater
centralisation of the administration under 'Abbas is reflected in the
improved status of the vizier, the head of the bureaucracy and leader of
the Persian elements in the administration. As a token of this new
status, the vizier was commonly referred to as i'timad al-daula ("trusty
support of the state") or sadr-i a'%am ("exalted seat of honour"). The
sadr (with whom the sadr-i a'zam should not be confused) remained
the head of the religious institution, but his position, as we saw above,
was increasingly challenged by the mujtahids. The sixth and last of the
principal officers of the realigned administration was the isblk-dqdsi-
-bdshi-yi divdn, who was naturally a Qizilbash amir and whose duties as
Grand Marshal were largely of a ceremonial nature.
The measure of the achievement of Shah 'Abbas I - and for this
reason alone he is deservedly called "the Great" - is that the adminis-
trative system of the Safavid state, as reorganised by him, continued to
365
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

function for a century after his death, more or less under its own
momentum because his successors, with the exception of 'Abbas II,
were weak and incompetent rulers. One must point out, however, that
the germs of future decay were present in this system. The pernicious
effect of the extension of the khassa system has already been men-
tioned. The reasons why it was pernicious are not hard to seek.
Granted that the old-style Qizilbash military governors consumed the
greater part of the provincial revenue in situ, and remitted little to the
state coffers. But precisely because they enjoyed the use of this revenue
it was in their own interests to maintain a flourishing economy in the
area under their jurisdiction, and not so to tax the province that pros-
perity declined and the amount of revenue consequently decreased. In
the khassa provinces, on the other hand, the taxes were farmed by the
shah's agents or intendants, who had no material interest in the prov-
ince in question, and whose sole concern was to increase the amount
remitted to the royal treasury; by pleasing the shah in this way they
ensured that they would retain their own jobs. The more rapacious the
shah and his viziers, the harsher the burden of taxation imposed on the
population of the khassa provinces. In contrast to the position obtain-
ing in the mamalik provinces, little if any of the revenue collected from
the khassa provinces was ever used to support the economy of those
provinces.
The second major cause of subsequent decay was the growth of the
haram system. In the first phase of Safavid development it had been the
practice for the shah to appoint his sons to provincial governorships.
While they were still minors, the royal princes were placed under the
guardianship of a Qizilbash amir, termed lala (or, less commonly,
atabeg, an echo of Saljuq practice). The lala was responsible for the
moral and physical education of the prince committed to his charge,
and the latter thus received a training which fitted him to take his place
if need be, as ruler of the Safavid empire. In particular, he received
first-hand training in the conduct of political and military affairs. The
obvious danger inherent in this system was that an ambitious prince, or
an overweening amir, might seek to anticipate events by rebelling
against the ruler. But when one observes the moral and physical degen-
eration of the dynasty which resulted from the practice, instituted by
'Abbas I, of confining the royal princes to the harem, and entrusting
their training to the court eunuchs, one is bound to feel that the
possibility of treachery was the lesser of two evils.
366
 PHASE THREE (1038-II35/1629—1722)

PHASE T H R E E (1038-II35/1629-1722)

Almost a century elapsed between the death of Shah 'Abbas I and the
usurpation of the Safavid throne by the Afghans. It was a period of
gradual but continuous decline. This decline was checked, but not
stopped, by Shah 'Abbas II (1052—77/1642—66). 'Abbas II was a strong
ruler, who asserted his authority as the ruling institution. During his
reign, however, the policy of bringing state (mamalik) lands under the
direct administration of the crown was not only continued but exten-
ded. It has already been pointed out that this policy contributed largely
to Safavid decline. Apart from the harmful effects resulting from the
impersonal and oppressive administration of the khassa provinces by
the shah's intendants, the loss of each successive mamalik province
meant a proportionate reduction in the number of the Qizilbash, and a
consequent decline in Safavid military strength. Although the
Georgian and other ghulam regiments were loyal to the shah - indeed,
by the end of the nth/17th century they were almost the only troops
on whose loyalty he could rely as fighting men — they were not com-
parable to the Qizilbash. In many cases, too, the reduction in the
Qizilbash strength was not made good by a corresponding increase in
the numbers of the ghulams.
During the first phase of Safavid administrative development, the
whole administrative system had a pronounced military character, as
we have seen, and bureaucrats who had no military function had little
influence. In Phase Two, Shah 'Abbas broke the power of the
Qizilbash, and as a consequence of this, and of the increased centralisa-
tion of government, the power of the bureaucracy grew. In Phase
Three, the transformation was completed. The military arm was weak-
ened to the point where it was no longer possible to check the incur-
sions of marauding tribesmen from Baluchistan and Afghanistan. At
the same time, the bureaucracy expanded in size, and became more
rigid in its organisation and operation, until it resembled the complex
and ponderous machine described in the Ta^kirat al-muluk, a manual of
Safavid administration, unique of its kind among Persian historical
records, completed about 1726. The vizier became the most powerful
officer of state and, in conjunction with the court and the harem,
exercised undue influence over a succession of weak and debauched
shahs.
We have already noted, in Phase Two, an increasing tendency

367
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

towards the separation of spiritual and temporal powers. In Phase

Three, the separation between the political institution and the religious
institution became complete. No longer subject to overriding political
control, the religious classes tightened their grip on the nation, and their
power reached its zenith during the reign of the two weakest Safavid
shahs, Sulaiman and Sultan Husain, who together ruled forfifty-sixyears
(1077-1135/1666-1722). Particularly during the reign of the latter, the
mujtahids, who had only reluctantly conceded the claim of the Safavid
shahs to be the representatives of the Hidden Imam, took advantage of
the weakness of the political institution to reassert their independence of
it and to regain their prerogative as the representatives of the MahdI.
Some sources even suggest a period of "direct religious rule by means of
a concourse of mujtahids above the monarch".1 As E.G.Browne put it,
the domination of the state by the "great ecclesiastics" "hardly made for
either spiritual unity or national efficiency".2 The founder of the Safavid
state, Isma'Il I, had recognised the potential dangers to the fabric of the
state which would flow from unbridled intervention by the 'ulama in
political, economic and military affairs. It was for this reason that he had
made the sadr a political appointee, charged with ensuring that the
religious classes remained subject to political direction. This system
worked only as long as the shah maintained a strong hand at the helm.
According to Sir John Malcolm, however, under Shah Sultan Husain
the "meekness and bigotry" of the shah "proved more destructive to his
country than the vices of Soliman [Shah Sulaiman: 1077—1105/
1666—1694]. So great was his pious zeal, that none but Moollahs [mu/Jds],
or holy Syuds [sayyids], were appointed to high stations .. -High nobles
gave place, with feelings of resentment, to eunuchs and priests; but their
discontent was only vented in complaints."3
Up to the time of Shah Sulaiman, the prosperous multicultural
Safavid state, in which "strangers were encouraged and protected, and
foreigners from every quarter of the globe, but particularly Europe,
resorted to Persia"4, continued to exist. Under Shah Sultan Husain,
however, the position of the Armenian merchants, whose commercial
and financial expertise had contributed much to Safavid economic
prosperity, declined greatly, since the shah was too weak to protect
1
See Amin Banani, "The Social and Economic Structure of the Safavid Empire in its Hey-
day", paper presented to the Harvard Colloquium on Tradition and Change in the Middle East,
December 1967, p. 6.
2
LHP iv, 120. 3 Malcolm, History of Persia 1, 594—5- 4 Ibid.,p. 592.

368
 PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION

them from the "rapacious ministers and bigoted priests of his court"1.
During the second half of the 17th century, the status of the sadr, an
officer whose function was closely connected with the original concept
of the Safavid state during Phase One, continued to decline. Shah
'Abbas II had deliberately restricted the power of the sadr, and in
1077/1666-7 the sadarat had been divided into a khassa and an 'amma
(mamalik) branch, a step which accurately reflected the current division
of the Safavid administration and indicated that the sadr was no longer
an official of the first importance. From the beginning of the reign of
Sultan Husain (1105/1694) at least, and possibly earlier, the supreme
religious official was the mulla-bashi.2 The sadrs, however, continued
to be primarily responsible for the administration of the auqaf and also
assisted the qadls in various juridical functions.

PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION

The provincial governments were, to a large extent, replicas in minia-

ture of the central government. Some of the principal officers of the
central government had their counterparts at the courts of provincial
governors. Foremost among these were the vizier and the sadr. The
provincial viziers and sadrs were, in general, appointed by the shah and
not by the central vizier and central sadr respectively. If the provincial
governor had more than one province under his jurisdiction, or if his
province was of exceptional importance, the vizier who was in atten-
dance at the seat of the provincial governor frequently controlled the
activities of other viziers, subordinate to himself, who were resident at
other large provincial centres. To denote the superior rank of the
former, the term va%jr-i kull was used.
In appointing viziers and sadrs to the provincial administrations, the
Safavids were once again following the practice of their predecessors,
the Timurids, Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu. Documentary evidence
points to the continuity, at many levels, of the Persian bureaucratic
tradition under a succession of Mongol and Turkmen rulers. In some
instances the vazlr-i kull was hardly less influential than the vizier who
was the organ of the central administration. In many cases the provin-
cial vizierate was the stepping-stone to appointment to the central
vizierate. Many families had a tradition of public service going back

1 2
Ibid., p. 627. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Mulik, p. n o .

369
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

for several generations, but the facility and frequency with which pro-
vincial viziers were transferred from one part of the country to another
militated against the growth of family dynasties or bureaucratic
empires in the provinces.
The provincial sadr controlled the religious institution in his prov-
ince, just as the central sadr was the head of the religious institution
overall. He had authority over all members of the religious classes, and
was responsible for the administration of the auqaf and the conduct of
all transactions connected with them. During Phase One of the develop-
ment of the Safavid administrative system, the provincial sadr, again
like his central counterpart, not infrequently held the military rank of
amir. That this was no token appointment is shown by the fact that as
late as 955/1548 we have evidence of a provincial sadr being in com-
mand of an actual military operation. Such was the predominantly
military character of the Safavid administration during this first phase
that not only sadrs, but also qadls and other members of the religious
classes, took part in military operations, in particular the defence of
cities. In such cases, when qadls moved to protect the lives and
property of the citizenry, they were fulfilling the traditional role of the
Persian 'ulama as organisers of popular action. The lack of any clear
boundary, during this first phase, between "political" and "religious",
between "civil" and "military", is even more marked at the provincial
level than in the central administration. Qadls were frequently
appointed to the vizierate and vice versa, and members of the religious
classes often encroached on the preserves of temporal officials in regard
to financial matters and the conduct of the business of the divan.
The remaining principal officers of state had no counterparts at the
provincial government level. For instance, the amir al-umard't, or office
of the supreme commander of the Qizilbash forces, had no provincial
equivalent. The regional commanders of Qizilbash troops were, in the
mamalik provinces, the military governors of the provinces concerned.
These governors were termed indifferently amir, hakim, and beglerbeg
(-/") (more rarely, darugha or ttyiilddr). In times of crisis, however, the
governors of the strategically important frontier provinces - in parti-
cular Azarbaljan, Shlrvan and Khurasan - were accorded the title of
amir al-umara, in recognition of the fact that the military aspect of their
office was all-important at such times.
From the time of 'Abbas I onwards, an increasing number of mam-
alik provinces were converted to khassa and brought under the direct
 CONCLUSION

administration of the shah. The administration of the khassa provinces

was carried on in times of peace by viziers, drawn from the ranks of the
ghulams. If military officers were needed in the khassa provinces, they
were furnished by one of the ghulam regiments. The number of pro-
vincial governors who were drawn from the ranks of the Qizilbash
tribes was drastically reduced. As a result, the title of amir al-umara
became increasingly uncommon, and in fact is rarely, if ever, used after
the death of'Abbas I (1038/1629).
We saw previously that during the reign of Shah Tahmasp the
qurchi-bashl replaced the amir al-umara as the principal military officer
of the central administration. As had formerly been the case with the
amir al-umara, the qurchl-bashl did not have an equivalent in the
provincial administrations, and for the same reason. When the term
qurchi-bashl occurs in connection with provincial government, it
denotes the commander of a local detachment of qurchls, or the com-
mander of a small bodyguard of qurchls attached to the person of a royal
prince, or has some other special connotation.
Finally, the vakll-i nafs-i nafis-i humayun (as he originally was), or
the vakil-i saltana or plain vakil (as he later became), naturally had no
provincial counterpart. When the term vakil occurs in the sources in
relation to provincial government, it is used simply in the sense of
"agent", "deputy", "representative". Not infrequently it is used to
denote an official who seems to be subordinate to the provincial vizier.

CONCLUSION

The Safavids went down to defeat ultimately because they failed to

reconcile the irreconcilable: Turk and Persian; tribal organisation and
urbanism; the pastoral-nomadic tradition and the sedentary life of the
agriculturalist; revolutionary sufism and dogmatic Shi'ism; theocracy
and the complex bureaucracy required by an expanding empire; the
"men of the sword" and the "men of the pen"; the claim of the
mujtahids to constitute the only legitimate form of government in an
Ithna'ashari Shl'I state, and the imperatives of a multi-cultural state.
The measure of their success is that they had a greater degree of success
in dealing with these problems than had the Saljuqs, the Mongols and
the Tiirkmens who had preceded them. The dynasties which followed
them - the Afghans, Afshars, Qajars and Pahlavis, all of whom were
confronted by at least some of the same problems - were also to

371
 THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

prove less successful in finding solutions to them. The Safavid admin-

istrative machine, with its complex system of checks and balances,
worked with surprising efficiency, except when there was lack of effec-
tive direction from the centre. Life and property were secure; travel
was safe; trade and commerce flourished; minorities were tolerated and
protected; formidable foreign foes were kept at bay. Alone of all the
countries of the Middle East, Iran resisted the most efficient military
machine of its time, that of the Ottoman empire. The contrast with the
position in the second half of the 18th century and the 19th century,
after the breakdown of the Safavid administrative system, is startling:
absence of effective central control; total lack of internal security; de-
population of the cities and economic decline; the unrestrained play of
centrifugal forces; and the permanent annexation of Iranian territory
by enemies in the north-west, north-east and east. In order to make a
proper assessment of the merits and defects of the Safavid administra-
tive system, one must take into account the ephemeral nature of the
Turkmen dynasties which preceded it, and the chaos which followed
its collapse. Despite the internal stresses and external pressures to
which the system was subject, it gave Iran two and a quarter centuries
of stable and prosperous government.

372
 CHAPTER 7

EUROPEAN CONTACTS WITH PERSIA,

Although historians generally have regarded the Mongol irruption of

the 7th/13 th century into Persia and countries further to the west as an
unmitigated disaster, this calamity may be taken as a starting point for
this chapter because it in fact served one purpose that can be regarded
as beneficial. The Mongol armies may have been motivated solely by
lust for conquest and destruction, but even out of their evil sprang a
positive development when they rent asunder the veil which had for so
long shut off Persia and other Islamic countries from the West. For as a
result of the Mongol invasions new contacts between the East and the
West became established, though at first only slowly and with all the
handicaps of much ignorance on both sides. As the pioneers in estab-
lishing this contact between East and West, such as William of
Rubruck, the Polos, Marino Sanuto and Friar Odoric of Pordenone, all
belonged to the period covered by the previous volume of this series,
there is no need to say more here than to state that their achieve-
ments were of prime importance, since they showed the way for later
travellers to follow. The East was no longer a closed book to the
West, but as yet comparatively few pages had been turned. It must be
borne in mind when studying the development of contact between
Persia and the West that the "traffic" was not merely from West to
East; there were also travellers in the opposite direction. On the whole,
a good deal less has been heard of these visitors from Persia partly
because they were fewer in number, and partly because their accounts
did not, in the majority of cases, become widely known, if at all, in
Europe.
One may begin this survey of contacts between Persia and the West
by examining what were, on both sides, the main incentives for estab-
lishing and maintaining relations. These incentives were of a fourfold
nature, but they were not, of course, always operative simultaneously;
moreover, they were of varying intensity.
In the first category, but only in the West, there was the religious
incentive. In consequence of the tolerant religious policy of the
Mongol Il-Khans, towards the close of the 1 jth century a number of

373
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
Dominican and Franciscan friars visited northern Persia and some were
allowed to establish themselves in Tabriz. In 1318 Sultaniyya was made
a metropolitan see, the first archbishop being Francus of Perugia, a
Dominican. Between 1320 and 1329 bishoprics were established at
Maragha, Tabriz and Tiflis, all the occupants being likewise Domini-
cans.1 In 1350 Nakhchivan was made an episcopal see, and a century
later, with the decline of Sultaniyya, became an archbishopric; it was
destined to outlast all the other sees, surviving until 1745. A notable
increase in the number of European missionaries occurred during the
reign of Shah 'Abbas I, when his tolerant religious policy made pos-
sible the establishment in Persia of the Augustinians, Carmelites and
other orders. Like the Dominicans, these missionaries had to learn
Persian, Turkish and Armenian in order to be able to preach in those
languages. Although the proselytising efforts of these missions among
Muslims had meagre results, their members made important contacts,
and many of their letters to Europe, particularly of the Carmelites and
Jesuits, are most valuable sources of information.
Secondly, there was the desire for concerted military action by both
East and West against the Ottoman Turks, whose growing power and
aggressive nature constituted a serious threat not only to Persia but
also to the Byzantine empire and other countries in the West. This
desire led to the despatch of a number of diplomatic missions from
various Western nations to Persia and also from the latter to the West.
Though these attempted diplomatic exchanges were continued by both
sides over a long period, they all failed. The reason for this failure was
not lack of good will; it was the extreme difficulty of making and
retaining close contact between East and West with a hostile Turkey in
between. The consequence was that properly concerted and synchron-
ised operations against the common foe proved to be impossible.
In the third place there was the commercial incentive. It was as
advantageous to the Western nations as to the Persians to establish
trade relations. The desire to forge commercial links resulted in the
sending of a number of commercial missions by both Persia and the
nations of the West.
In the fourth category of incentives to increased contact between
Persia and the West were those travellers who passed through that
country on their way to or from India or beyond. There were also

1
Gams, pp. 4J4-;.

374
 E U R O P E A N C O N T A C T S , 1350—1736
some persons who visited the country merely out of curiosity, as Persia
was still a relatively unknown land.
Some of the earliest contacts between Persia and the West in the
period covered by this chapter were made by the Dominicans and
Franciscans, particularly the former. In March 1377 a Dominican named
Johannes de Galonifontibus was appointed bishop of Nakhchivan. In
August 1398 Pope Boniface IX made him archbishop of Sultaniyya.1
Tlmur, after his great victory over the Ottoman Turks near Ankara in
July 1402, sent Archbishop Johannes on a mission to Venice, Genoa,
London and Paris with tidings of his triumph.2 To Henry IV of England
and Charles VI of France Timur sent letters in which he proposed to
conclude treaties for the granting of reciprocal privileges for the mer-
chants of his realm and for those of England and France. Both Henry IV
and Charles VI replied in suitable terms and congratulated Timur on his
brilliant victory.3 On his return to Persia, Johannes de Galonifontibus
remained at Sultaniyya until his transfer to the Crimea about the year
1423.4
Tlmur's victory over Bayezld transformed for a time the whole
situation in the east and gave the already moribund Byzantine empire
another half century of existence. In order to obtain up to date infor-
mation on the results of this victory, Henry III of Castile and Leon
decided to send a mission to Timur under Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo,
Gomez de Salazar and Fr Alonso Paez de Santa Maria. He had already
been in touch with Timur, as two of his envoys, Pelayo de Sotomayor
and Fernando de Palazuelos, were present at the battle of Ankara;
moreover, when they returned to Spain Timur sent with them an
envoy of his own named Hajjl Muhammad al-QazI.
The Clavijo mission left Spain in 1403. Not being able to reach
Timur while he was on his way back to Samarqand, Clavijo and his
companions had to traverse the whole of northern Persia from west to
east on the outward journey and in the reverse direction on the way
back, the two routes differing slightly at certain points. Consequently,
they were able to visit a number of important towns in northern Persia
1
Eubel 1, 457.
2
For the confusion between Johannes de Galonifontibus and the English Franciscan John
Greenlaw, bishop of Soldaia in the Crimea, who, so far as is known, was never in Persia, see
Silvestre de Sacy, "Memoire sur une correspondance inedite de Tamerlan avec Charles VI",
Memoires de FAcademie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres vi (1822), 509; also Loenertz, p. 172.
3
For Henry IV's letter, see Original Letters illustrative of English History, ed. Sir H. Ellis, 3rd
4
series (London, 1846) 1, 54—8. Loenertz, p. 171.

375
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

and to meet many persons of note. Clavijo has given us a valuable

account of these journeyings. Entering Persia on 1 June 1404, the
mission travelled via Khuy to Tabriz, a city which much impressed
Clavijo. He described it as large and well laid out, with fine roadways
and many great buildings. From Tabriz the mission journeyed on to
Sultaniyya, which was still enjoying its brief spell of importance.
Clavijo noticed there the great concourse of merchants and traders
who were attending the annual fair, held at Sultaniyya every summer
and patronised by a number of Genoese and Venetians.1 While at
Sultaniyya, Clavijo and his colleagues were received by Mlran Shah,
who, despite his mental instability, behaved very graciously on this
occasion. From Sultaniyya the mission travelled via Tehran, Flruzkuh,
Damghan and Nlshapur to Mashhad. In that town they were allowed
to enter the tomb-chamber of the Imam 'All al-Rida, "whereby when
travelling later through other parts of Persia it came to be noised
abroad that we had been at Meshed and visited this holy place the
people would come and kiss the hem of our robes, deeming that we
were of those who had acquired merit for having made the pilgrimage
to the shrine of the great Saint of Khurasan".2 Of the remainder of the
journey to Samarqand and of Tlmur's reception of the mission in his
capital no mention need be made because they are beyond the scope of
this chapter. Nor does the return route, following the same itinerary as
the outward one, except for digressions to Simnan and Qazvln, need
further comment. What is relevant is that when in March 1406 Clavijo
and his companions reached Spain, they had done much to extend and
strengthen European contacts with Persia.
Little can be said respecting the next contact between Persia and the
West, for Nicolo de' Conti, the Venetian who made it, has left no
records of much interest or value. Between 1420 and 1425 he sailed
from Basra to Hurmuz, of which he gave some description. From
Hurmuz he went along the Persian coast to a large town which he
called Calabatia, where he claimed to have learned Persian; this place,
like a number of others which he mentioned, cannot now be identified.
The Ottoman Turks, though so heavily defeated by Timur in 1402,
showed such powers of resilience that only twenty years later they were
once again hammering at the gates of Constantinople. Although this

1
Genoese merchants had been established at Sultaniyya since Il-Khanid times: Heyd 11, 506.
2
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. 18 5 —6; p. 158 for Mlran Shah.

376
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

attack was beaten off, others followed, and in 1453, to t n e horror of the
Christian world, the city fell and the Byzantine empire came to an end.
Venice, with her far-flung commercial interests in the east, was gravely
threatened by the ever-growing Turkish menace. For some time she
and the other European powers which were exposed to this danger
sought anxiously for some eastern ruler who, as Tlmur had done,
might attack the Turks from the rear, if possible in conjunction with a
simultaneous onslaught from the west. At last it seemed that Uzun
Hasan, the Aq Quyiinlu ruler of Persia, might be this ally. In 1458
Uzun Hasan made an alliance with the emperor David of Trebizond,
whose niece Kyra Katerina, daughter of the penultimate emperor Kalo
Johannes, he married. Though the Turks extinguished the empire of
Trebizond in 1461, they were unable to overthrow Uzun Hasan. In
1463 the Venetian Signoria sent L. Quirini to Tabriz to induce Uzun
Hasan to join Venice in an attack on the Turks, but he failed to do so.
Eight years later the Signoria despatched to Persia, with the same
object, Caterino Zeno, a more suitable envoy than Quirini, as he was a
nephew of Kyra Katerina (or Despina Khatun, as she was pleonasti-
cally called after her marriage). In consequence, he was able to per-
suade Uzun Hasan to make war on the Turks. Although he was suc-
cessful at first, the Turkmen ruler later met with a serious reverse.
Unfortunately, no simultaneous attack was made from the west by the
Venetians or other Western powers.
In 1473 the Signoria sent Giosafat Barbaro to Tabriz to urge Uzun
Hasan to renew his attack on the Turks, but he found the Turkmen
ruler still smarting from his defeat and disinclined to cooperate. In
other respects, however, Barbaro made an excellent contact with Uzun
Hasan. He was able to visit many parts of Persia, of which he after-
wards gave a valuable account. He was at Hurmuz not long after the
visit of the horse-dealer Afanasil Nikitin, the first Russian of whom we
have any record in that part of the country.1 Barbaro's efforts to make
Uzun Hasan take up his sword again were soon reinforced by another
Venetian envoy, Ambrogio Contarini, who brought with him an ambi-
tious plan for a simultaneous attack on the Turks from both east and
west. By this time, however, Uzun Hasan was in failing health and was
preoccupied, moreover, with a revolt by one of his sons. In 1478 he

1
For his description of Hurmuz, see Nikitin, Kbo^benic, p. 21, and in Major, India in the
Fifteenth Century, part 3, pp. 8—9.

377
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I35O-1736

died. Though Barbaro and Contarini failed in their main object, they
brought back with them much information respecting Persia and its
resources. Barbaro's account is the more valuable of the two, since he
was very observant and had the advantage of knowing Turkish and
also some Persian. On the other hand, Contarini's description of Uzun
Hasan's appearance and character is more vivid than Barbaro's.1
Less than a decade after the failure of these Venetian efforts to
combine with Persia against trie Ottoman Turks, Bartholomeu Diaz
rounded the Cape of Good Hope, but a threatened mutiny of his men
prevented him from proceeding further. While Diaz was on his famous
voyage, a Portuguese named Pero da Covilha travelled across Egypt,
sailed down the Red Sea and crossed the Indian Ocean. He was the first
Portuguese to set foot on Indian soil. On leaving India, he landed on the
island of Hurmuz, which he was likewise the first of his nation to visit.
From Hurmuz da Covilha returned to Egypt, where he wrote in great
detail the report of his travels east of Suez. This report proved to be of
great value to those responsible for planning Vasco da Gama's truly
epoch-making voyage round the Cape of Good Hope to India. This was
an achievement of capital importance: the Portuguese sea captains,
trained in the tradition of Prince Henry the Navigator, had succeeded in
outflanking Islam by sea. Moreover, as was apparent soon afterwards,
they had also, commercially speaking, outflanked the Venetians and
Genoese. Though it may be doubted whether Henry the Navigator had
ever thought of Persia when he was formulating at Sagres his plans for
ocean travel and discovery, it was undoubtedly his inspiration which led
ultimately to the rounding of Africa and the inauguration of the long sea
route from Europe to the Persian Gulf, India and beyond. This wonder-
ful achievement had great effects on the relations between Persia and the
West. Portugal, as the pioneer, was naturally the first to benefit and then
make the contact permanent. With the additional route to Persia now
open, there was soon to be a great increase in the number of travellers
from the West to that country.
Shortly before the close of the century, a Genoese named Hieronimo
di Santo Stefano, after a very hazardous journey to India and Ceylon,
returned to Europe via Hurmuz, Shlraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Aleppo and
Tripoli. His account of Persia does not, however, add appreciatively to
our knowledge of the country at that juncture.

1
Travels to Tana and Persia, p p . 152—3.

378
 E U R O P E A N C O N T A C T S , 1350—1736
Although there had been, as has been seen, quite a considerable
interchange of travellers between Persia and the West in the course of
the 15 th century, it is improbable that more than a limited number of
people in Europe had any precise knowledge of the country by its
close. It must be borne in mind that the reading public of those days
was small and that it was only in the latter part of the century that
printed material became available. People were then on the whole more
drawn to fabulous tales than to factual narrations. They liked to read of
terrible monsters, of dog-headed men and of men with no heads at all.
They were regaled with much material of this kind in the Travels of Sir
John Mandeville, written about 1356, the real author of which was
either Jean de Bourgogne or, less probably, Jean d'Outremeuse, both
of them natives of Liege.1 In the Mirrour of the World, which Caxton
translated from Coussouin's Image du Monde and printed in 1480 or the
following year, there occurs this passage:
Emonge alle other ther is a contree named Perse, and conteyneth xxxiii
regyons: of which the first is the Royame of Perse, where is a science called
Nygromancie was first founden, which science constrayneth the enemye, the
fende, to be taken and holde prisonner. In this contree groweth a pese whiche
is so hoot that it skaldeth the handes of them that holde it, and it groweth with
encresynge of the mone, and with wayning it discreceth at eche tyme of his
cours. It helpeth wel to them that ben nygromanciers.2
In the early years of the 16th century Ludovico di Varthema of
Bologna, whose chief claim to fame is that he performed the pilgrim-
age to Mecca, landed at Hurmuz, which he described as a noble and
extremely beautiful city. He went to Shlraz, where he met a Persian
merchant whom he had known at Mecca. This merchant took
Varthema to his home at "Eri" (Herat), which he maintained was in
"Corazani" (Khurasan), but which was probably the village of Harat-i
Khurra, near Nairlz, in Fars.3 He and his merchant friend wished to
go on to "Sambragante" (Samarqand), but could not do so because the
"Soffi"4 (Shah Isma'Il) was ravaging the country and slaughtering the

1
H.S. Bennett, Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1947), p. 199.
2
Quoted from the Early English Text Society, no. n o , The Mirrour of the World, p. 81. The
editor, O.H. Prior, points out that Caxton mistranslated as "pese" the word^xw^;, "pitch", which
obviously makes much better sense.
3
See Penrose, Travel and Discovery, p. 30. Varthema claimed to have travelled from the coast
near Hurmuz to Herat in 12 days, which was manifestly an impossibility.
4
A very early use of the term ("Sophy", a corruption of SafI), unless it is a later interpolation.

379
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 135O-1736
Sunnls. After spending some months at "Eri", Varthema returned to
Hurmuz, whence he sailed to India.
Of far more importance than Varthema's visit to Persia was the
arrival off Hurmuz in 15 07 of a Portuguese fleet under the command of
Affonso d'Albuquerque, who had come via the Cape of Good Hope.
The twelve-year-old king of Hurmuz, Saif al-Dln, was under the
tutelage of his vizier, the audacious and cunning Khwaja 'Attar, who
had received ample warning of the approach of the Portuguese fleet
and had done his utmost to put Hurmuz in a state of defence. When
Albuquerque demanded the surrender of the island, his demand was
rejected. The Portuguese thereupon launched an attack which suc-
ceeded only after some hard fighting. The young king agreed to
become a vassal of the king of Portugal and to pay an annual tribute.
Soon afterwards an official arrived from Shah Isma'Il to collect the
annual tribute due to him. In great perplexity the king and his advisers
consulted Albuquerque as to their reply. Albuquerque, by way of
answer, gave the official cannon balls, grenades and guns and bade him
inform the shah that "this was the sort of money wherewith the King
of Portugal had ordered his captains to pay the tribute of that kingdom
that was under his command".1 Albuquerque soon repented of this
brusqueness, however, and sent the Persian official some valuable pre-
sents; while in 1513, still anxious to establish friendly contact with Shah
Isma'Il, he sent to him Miguel Ferreira as his envoy with suitable gifts
and a message couched in appropriate terms.
The Portuguese fleet remained at Hurmuz until 1508, when some of
Albuquerque's captains grew restive at the delay and began to intrigue
with Khwaja 'Attar. Faced with open mutiny, Albuquerque was reluc-
tantly compelled to abandon the island. He was so conscious of its
great strategic and commercial importance, however, that he deter-
mined to recover it as soon as opportunity arose. When he had been
able to collect a fresh fleet of sufficient strength in 1515, he again
appeared off Hurmuz, seizing the island and this time holding it. Soon
afterwards, Miguel Ferreira returned from the Persian court with an
envoy from the shah. As Isma'Il was still smarting from his defeat by
the Ottoman Turks at Chaldiran in the previous year and as, in any
case, he had no navy, he had no choice but to accept the Portuguese
occupation of Hurmuz as a. fait accompli. Albuquerque was thus able to

1
Albuquerque I, 145.

380
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
conclude a treaty with Persia which confirmed that the king of
Hurmuz was a vassal of the Portuguese crown. In return, the Portu-
guese were to help the Persians to recover the Bahrain islands from the
Arab dynasty of the Jabrids, to enter into an alliance against the Otto-
mans and to assist the Persian government to put down a revolt by a
Baluchi tribe in Makran.1 One of the earliest Europeans to furnish
particulars of Hurmuz after its seizure was Duarte Barbosa, who was
probably an eye-witness of the event.2
Albuquerque, who had sent back with Shah Isma'H's envoy, follow-
ing the conclusion of the treaty, his own ambassador Fernao Gomes de
Lemos with presents double the value of those he had received from
the shah,3 then set out by sea for India, but died before he could reach
Goa.
Thenceforward, for over a century, Portugal possessed not only a
naval base controlling the approaches to the Persian Gulf but a com-
mercial outpost of the first importance. Some years after their occupa-
tion of Hurmuz the Portuguese landed on the Bahrain islands and
expelled the Jabrid ruler; though instead of handing them over to
Persia in accordance with the 1515 treaty they retained possession of
them for eighty years. The fort which they built on the north coast of
the main island a few miles to the west of Manama is still to be seen but
is now in ruins. In 1522 the Portuguese authorities on Hurmuz took
over the customs there, but the conduct of their officials provoked a
serious revolt, which spread from Hurmuz to the dependencies on the
Arabian coast. They had meanwhile concluded a fresh treaty with the
puppet king of Hurmuz which tightened their hold on the island even
further.
In September 1523 Balthasar Pessoa headed an important Portuguese
mission to the Persian court. Antonio Tenreiro, who was a member of
this mission and afterwards wrote an account of it, describes Pessoa as "a
man of much merit". Tenreiro himself was an acute observer who noted
the differences between the Sunnls and the Shi'a and correctly described
the red caps of the Turkmen Qizilbash.4 Shah Isma'Il received the
mission very graciously, but died shortly afterwards in May 15 24.
During Shah Isma'il's reign endeavours had been made by him on
1
For a summary of the terms of the treaty, see Sir A.T. Wilson, The Persian Gulf (Oxford,
2 3
1928), p. 121. Barbosa 1, 90-11;. Baiao, Itinerdrios, pp. 33, 54.
4
Ibid., pp. 20-1. His account is more detailed and accurate than that of his Venetian contem-
porary, G.M. Angiolello: see A Narrative of Italian Travels, p. 115.

381
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
the one side and by the Emperor Charles V and King Ludwig II of
Hungary on the other to conclude an alliance against the Turks. In
1516 Ludwig sent a Maronite friar named Petrus de Monte Libano to
the shah with that object. Charles, while still king of Spain (he was not
elected Emperor until 1519) also sent an envoy to the shah at this time
for the same purpose. Shah Isma'lPs replies to these letters have not
been preserved, but in the late summer of 1523 he sent a letter written
in Latin to Charles V in which, after expressing astonishment that the
Christian powers were fighting among themselves instead of combin-
ing to crush the Turks, he urged Charles to mobilise his forces and
attack the common foe.1 This same view was strongly expressed by
Paolo Giovo somewhat later, in the second volume of his Historia sui
Temporis, published in Paris in 15 60. He maintained that the Christian
powers, by their feuds and rivalries, had failed to crush the Turks while
it was still in their power to do so, and that the Turks were now so
strong that they were likely to conquer the whole world.
Isma'H's letter did not reach Charles V until after the shah's death in
15 24. It is noteworthy that the news of Shah Ismail's death and of
Shah Tahmasp's accession had not reached the emperor by February
1529, for he then addressed a further letter to Shah Isma'Il. This
illustrates the parlous state of communications between Persia and the
West at that time, which rendered impossible any concerted planning
by the powers concerned.
In 1547 Sultan Siileyman the Magnificent took advantage of the
revolt of Alqas MIrza, Shah Tahmasp's brother, to invade north-west
Persia and occupy Tabriz.2 As it was then the policy of the French
government to be on good terms with Turkey in order to be able to
play off the sultan against the emperor, it was arranged for Gabriel de
Luetz, Baron et Seigneur d'Aramon et de Vallabregues, the French
ambassador to the Porte, to accompany the sultan on this expedition.
He was accompanied by two of his secretaries named Jacques Gassut
and Jean Chesneau. As the Persians had, when they retreated, adopted
a "scorched earth" policy, lack of provisions soon forced the sultan to
withdraw his troops. He then laid siege to the citadel of Van, which
was held by the Persians. The Turkish artillery bombarded the citadel,

1
For the Latin text, see Correspondent des Kaisers Karl K., ed. K. Lanz, 1 (Leipzig, 1844), 52—3,
with the Hijra year incorrectly given as 924. FalsafI, TdrTkh-i ravdbit, pp. 163—4, has published a
Persian translation of this letter, which he states was written in Shawwal 929/13 Aug.—10 Sept.
2
1523. See above, pp. 242—3.

382
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736
but their fire was ineffectual until, at the suggestion of d'Aramon, they
moved one of their batteries to the other side of the fortress; the
Persians were then forced to surrender.1
At the beginning of the second half of the 16th century steps were
taken which soon led to the opening up of a trade route between
England and Persia through Russia, thus turning the left flank of the
Ottoman Turks just as the Portuguese and those who had followed
them had outflanked them on the right. In 1553 a ship under the
command of Richard Chancellor sailed round the north of Norway
into the White Sea. Landing at Archangel, Chancellor travelled south
to Moscow, where he was well received by the Grand Duke Ivan the
Terrible. This visit laid the foundations for the overland trade with
Persia via Russia, for which purpose the Muscovy or Russia Company
was formed in 1555. Two years later Anthony Jenkinson and the
brothers Richard and Robert Johnson set out from England, crossed
Russia to Astrakhan and sailed from there down the Volga and across
the Caspian Sea. This was truly a pioneering venture. In Jenkinson's
words: "Note that during the time of our Navigation, wee set up
the redde crosse of St. George in our flagges, for the honour of
the Christians, which I suppose was never seene in the Caspian Sea
before".2 On this occasion, however, these pioneers went not to Persia
but to Bukhara, where they spent the winter. They were the first
English merchants to set foot in Central Asia. Jenkinson and his com-
panions returned to England by the route that they had followed on
the outward journey.
Encouraged by this success, Jenkinson and his colleagues in 1561 set
out for Persia, the company having in the meantime decided to include
that country in its sphere of operations. Jenkinson took with him a
letter from Queen Elizabeth to the grand duke and another to "the
Great Sophie". On reaching Astrakhan, they sailed southwards and
landed on the Persian coast near Shabran, whence they journeyed to
Shamakhl, the capital of Shirvan. From Shamakhl they had to travel
another twenty miles to the summer camp of 'Abd-AUah Khan
(Jenkinson's "Obdolowcan"), the governor-general of the province,

1
Chesneau, pp. 84—8. See also Charriere, Negotiations 11, 66-9.
2
Page, p. 114. It was probably this passage which led Marlowe to write, in Tamburlaim the
Great:
And Christian merchants, that with Russian stems,
Plough up huge furrowes in the Caspian Sea.

383
 E U R O P E A N C O N T A C T S , 1350—1736
who gave them a friendly reception. On 2 October Jenkinson set out
via Ardabll for Qazvln, the then capital of Persia, where he was
received by Shah Tahmasp. At first all went well, but when the bigoted
monarch discovered that Jenkinson was a Christian, he brusquely bade
him depart. Nevertheless, the shah later relented, treated Jenkinson
well, and gave him a handsome parting present when he left for
England.
The success achieved on this occasion led to several other expedi-
tions from England to Persia by the Russian route. During this period
the Russia Company's traders visited a number of towns in Persia,
penetrating as far south as Kashan.1 However, what with the ravages
of plague in Persia, attacks by Tartar pirates on the Volga and a
number of other troubles, accompanied by serious loss of life and
goods, the undertaking was abandoned in 15 81.
On 7 October 15 71 the combined fleets of Spain, Venice and other
Christian states gained a great naval victory over the Turks to the west
of Lepanto. Pope Pius V thereupon wrote to Shah Tahmasp urging
him to attack the Turks and so share the fruits of victory instead of the
toils of war. However, it was soon made clear from the account given
by Vincentio d'Alessandri, who visited Persia in that year, that little or
nothing could be expected of Tahmasp. The shah had, he said, been
immured in his palace for eleven years and cared only for women and
money; he had no inclination for war; the country was in a bad state,
there was much injustice and the roads were unsafe.2
Eight years later, another Venetian, Gasparo Balbi by name, travelled
overland to Basra and sailed thence to Hurmuz. In his narrative Balbi
gave rather more detail than was usual regarding his journey down the
Persian Gulf, but his distortion of many of the names makes it difficult to
identify the majority of them. Balbi's description of Hurmuz is of some
value in affording particulars of the weights and measures in use there,
together with other details of economic interest.3
Hard on Balbi's heels came that intrepid Elizabethan, John
Newberie. The first Englishman to use the overland route via Aleppo
and Baghdad, he reached Basra on 1 May 15 81. Leaving Basra by ship,
he arrived at Hurmuz on 22 June, after calling at Bushahr
("Abousher"), Nakhilu ("Necchel") and Kishm. Newberie spent six

1
See Banister and Ducket, in Hakluyt, Principal Navigations n , 120—3.
2 3
A Narrative of Italian Travels, p p . 2ij—25. Balbi and Federici, p p . 123-

584
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
weeks in Hurmuz, where he met, among other people, a Venetian
named Michiel Stropene, who aroused his suspicions by interrogating
his servant very closely as to his affairs.1 Crossing to the mainland,
Newberie travelled by the caravan route via Lar to Shlraz and thence
to Isfahan, Kashan, Qum and Tabriz. From Tabriz Newberie returned
to England via Turkey. Not content with this journey, he soon set out
on another, from which he was destined not to return. In company
with Ralph Fitch, John Eldred, William Leeds, William Shales and
James Story, he sailed to Tripoli in the Tiger. From Tripoli the party
went to Aleppo and thence by the usual route to Baghdad and Basra.
Leaving Eldred and Shales behind at Basra, the others sailed to
Hurmuz, where they intended to establish trading connections. Shortly
after their arrival, the Venetian merchants there, probably at the insti-
gation of Stropene, denounced them to the Portuguese authorities as
spies, with the result that they were placed under arrest and sent under
guard to Goa for trial. Very fortunately, an English Jesuit named
Thomas Stephens was able, with the help of Jan Huyghen van
Linschoten and another Dutchman,2 to procure their release on bail. It
is beyond the scope of this chapter to record their further adventures
and Newberie's tragic end. It seems that Shakespeare had read Fitch's
Journal, published in 1598, for in Act I, scene 3, of Macbeth he made the
first witch say, "Her husband's to Aleppo gone, Master o' th' Tiger".
Incidentally, it is to be noted that Linschoten was apparently the first
Dutchman to visit Persia, but as he confined himself to Hurmuz he saw
nothing of the rest of the country.
In 1583 a new crisis arose in the relations between Turkey and
certain of the Western powers. Pope Gregory XIII endeavoured to
revive the crusading spirit in Europe and also the project of an alliance
with Persia. In order to obtain up to date information on Persia and her
military resources, the Pope sent Giovanni Battista Vecchietti, a native
of Cosenza, to make a detailed report. As Vecchietti was an intelligent
man and was something of an orientalist, he was well qualified for his
task. He reached Persia towards the close of the reign of the weak Shah
Muhammad Khudabanda, when that monarch was merely a puppet in
the hands of the Turkmen tribal leaders. Vecchietti found that the shah
had only limited forces and no artillery whatever. He spent some time

1
On Stropene, see Tucci, "Mercanti Veneziani", pp. 1092-3.
2
Linschoten 11, 186-8.

385
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
travelling around the country in order to acquire a more general
knowledge of it. While he was in Persia war broke out between that
country and Turkey, resulting in a number of defeats for Persia with
loss of territory. Vecchietti returned to Europe in 15 87, the year in
which Shah 'Abbas I was raised to the throne at the age of sixteen. It
was clear from Vecchietti's reports that Persia was then in no position
to give effective military aid to the West; on the other hand, no one
could foresee the wonderful transformation in his country's fortunes
which Shah 'Abbas was going to effect in the years to come.
Pedro Teixeira, a Portuguese of Jewish descent, began his eastern
travels in 1586, but did not reach Hurmuz until 1593. He spent sev-
eral years on the island. He was probably the first European resident
in Persia (if we can regard Hurmuz as being at that time part of the
country) to study and, what is more, to attempt to write Persian
history. He read Mir Khwand's Rau^at al-safd fi slrat al-anbiyd
va'l-muluk va'-khulafd. With information taken from this source and
from Turan Shah's chronicle of the kings of Hurmuz (a work which
is unfortunately no longer extant), he compiled his Relaciones de P.
Teixeira del origen, descendencia y succesion de los Reyes de Persia y de
Hormu^ y de un viaje hecho par el mismo autor desde la India oriental hasta
Italia por tierra, published at Antwerp in 1610. He included in this
work an account of his journey from Hurmuz to Mazandaran and
back. In spite of his use of Persian sources, his book has little merit as
a historical work, while his record of his travels in Persia is distinctly
jejune.
In November 1598 a mission headed by that adventurous but un-
scrupulous Englishman, Sir Anthony Sherley, arrived in Persia. This
mission had been sent by the earl of Essex in order to endeavour to
persuade Shah 'Abbas to unite with the Christian powers against
Turkey and also to take steps to improve trade between England and
Persia. When Sherley was received by the shah, he was treated with
much courtesy. The shah, besides promising to facilitate trade with the
West, authorised Sir Anthony to go to Europe on his behalf to endeav-
our to enlist the support of the Western powers against the Turks.
Leaving his younger brother Robert and five other members of his
mission as hostages until he returned, Sherley set out for Europe via
Russia. He was accompanied by the remainder of his suite and by a
Persian named Husain 'All Beg Bayat as joint ambassador, as well as
some Persian secretaries and servants; one of the secretaries was the
386
 E U R O P E A N C O N T A C T S , 1350—1736
ambassador's nephew 'All Qull Beg, while another was named Uruch1
Beg Bayat. After crossing Russia, the two ambassadors and their suites
in October 1600 reached Prague, where the Emperor Rudolf treated
them with great consideration.
The party arrived at Rome at the beginning of April 1601, but their
audience with Pope Clement VIII was delayed because Sherley and.
Husain 'AH Beg could not agree as to which of them should have
precedence. Eventually, the Pope received Sherley first, but when
Husain 'All's turn came, he claimed to be the real envoy and main-
tained that Sherley was merely his assistant.2 The sojourn of the mis-
sion in Rome was far from being a placid one. The dissensions between
the two ambassadors reached such a pitch that Sherley gave up his
position as envoy in disgust. Husain 'All Beg, though left as undis-
puted head of the mission, was greatly upset when several of his suite
(one of them his cook) were converted to Christianity.3 The ambas-
sador, together with those of his suite who remained Muslims, went on
to Valladolid, where Philip III received him in audience. The ambas-
sador was deeply chagrined when his nephew 'All Qull Beg and Uruch
Beg both became Christians, with the king of Spain and his wife,
Queen Margarita, acting as their godparents and giving them the
names, respectively, of Felipe and Juan. So strongly were Husain 'All
Beg's feelings aroused over this conversion that he attempted to have
Don Juan (Uruch Beg) murdered. With the aid of a Spanish licentiate
named Alfonso Remon, Don Juan wrote in Spanish his Kelaciones. In
this book the account of the mission to Europe is prefaced by a history
of the Caliphate, followed by that of Persia. In the last section, the early
record of the Safavid dynasty is given in some detail and contains
corrections of some errors made by Minadoi in his work referred to
below. Don Juan's book was published in Valladolid in 1604. In the
following year the unfortunate author, having got accidentally
involved in a street brawl in Valladolid, was stabbed to death.
Before proceeding further with the record of the contacts between
Persia and the West, it will not be out of place briefly to review the
progress made during the 16th century. Much had been accomplished,
though a vast amount yet remained to be done. So far, the Portuguese
were the only people in the West to have direct and continuous contact
1
Possibly a corruption of Ulugh, though FalsafI, Zindagam 1, 180, gives the name as Uruj.
2
The Fugger News-Letters, t;6$-i6o;, trans. P. de Chary (London, 1924), pp. 331—2.
3
Ibid., p. 243.

387
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

with Persia. The English had made their gallant but unsuccessful
attempt to establish a trading relationship via Russia and the Caspian
Sea. There had also been an interchange of envoys on a number of
occasions. A notable feature of the second half of the century was the
number of books which were written in Europe on the subject of
Persia. There were, for example, the histories of the Turco-Persian
wars by such writers as G.T. Minadoi, Historia de/la Gverrafra Tvrchi et
Persiani (Rome, 1587), and P. Bizarus, Rerum Persicarum Historia
(Antwerp, 1583). These works, though written at second- or third-
hand, nevertheless often contained authentic material. In Italy the inde-
fatigable Venetian Giovanni Battista Ramusio collected much valuable
material concerning travel and discovery, which was first published in
three volumes in Venice between 1550 and 1563 under the title De Hi
Navigation! et Viaggi raccolte da M. Gio. Battista Ramusio. In 1598
Richard Hakluyt, Ramusio's English counterpart, published The Prin-
cipal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries, in which he included
material relating to Persia such as Ralph Fitch's record of his journeys.
In Elizabethan England there was a widespread idea of Persia as a
land of great pomp and luxury. Spenser, in his Faerie Queene (Book I,
canto iv, 7), referred to Persia as "the nourse of pompous pride".
Furthermore, though there were no more "nygromanciers", fantasy
and fable were not yet dead. In the closing years of the 16th century, Fr
Jose Teixeira published a book supporting the claims of an impostor
named Marco Tullio Catizone to be King Sebastian of Portugal, who,
he maintained, had not been killed at the battle of al-Qasr al-Kabir in
Morocco in 1578 but had recovered from his wounds. He would not
return to Portugal, which had been united to Spain in 15 80, but wan-
dered about the world under the title of the Chevalier de la Croix.
Anthony Munday translated this book into English with the title of
The Strangest Adventure that ever happened ... containing a Discourse concern-
ing the successe of the King of Portugall Dom Sebastian, from the Time of his
Voyage into Affrique, when he was lost in the Battell against the infidels in the
Yeare IJ/S, unto the sixt January, this present 1601. On page 90 of this
book Munday added that Sir Anthony Sherley had written from Persia
to say that the Chevalier, with other gallant gentlemen, had taken
service with the Persians and had fought valiantly against the Turks.
There is, of course, not a word of truth in this assertion.
Shortly before Sir Anthony Sherley and the other members of his
mission reached Rome, a Portuguese priest named Francisco da Costa
388
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

had arrived there from India by way of Persia. He gave the Pope a
most exaggerated idea of the state of the Christians in Persia, and he
went so far as to allege that Shah 'Abbas was willing to undergo
instruction in the Christian religion and that he would then, as a
Christian, be all the more ready to make common cause with the rulers
of Christendom against the infidel Turks.1 He also said that the shah
would welcome the advent of Christian missionaries, which was, how-
ever, nearer the truth, as will be seen below.
It was unfortunate that Pope Clement VIII decided to send this
priest and a layman called Diego de Miranda as ambassadors to Isfahan
in response to the Sherley mission. The two envoys quarrelled violently
on the journey and continued their bickerings on reaching Persia.
Furthermore, they behaved very badly in other respects. Fortunately
for the good name of Christians in Persia, a mission consisting of three
Portuguese Augustinians arrived in Isfahan in 1602 in order to estab-
lish a convent in the city. The missionaries, who had been encouraged
to take this step by da Costa's assertions, were Antonio de Gouveia,
Jeronimo da Cruz and Cristofero do Spirito Santo. They were all three
of a very different type to da Costa and Miranda. Shah 'Abbas received
them well and not only gave them leave to set up their convent in
Isfahan and to build a church, but also paid for part of the cost of
decorating the church. As time went on, the duties of the Augustinians
in Isfahan grew more diplomatic than religious. The Prior of the
Augustinians was also the representative at first of the king of Spain
and, after the separation of Portugal from Spain in 1640, of the Portu-
guese king. This was the first permanent European diplomatic repre-
sentation to be established in Persia.
In return for the embassy led by Sir Anthony Sherley and Husain
'All Beg Bayat, Rudolf II sent one to Persia under a Transylvanian
nobleman named Stefan Kakasch' de Zalonkemeny. Soon after this
mission reached Gllan, the unhealthy climate claimed a number of
victims, among whom was the ambassador himself. George Tectander
von der Jabel, Kakasch's assistant, thereupon took charge. As soon as
news of the arrival of the mission on Persian soil reached Shah 'Abbas,
he sent Robert Sherley to meet it. When Robert reached the members
of the mission, he found that Kakasch was already dead. He thereupon
took Tectander and the surviving members of his suite to Tabriz,

1
A Chronicle of the Carmelites 1, 80-4.

389
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

where the court then was. When the shah received Tectander, he
treated him graciously and then examined his letters of credence. While
he was so occupied, a Turkish prisoner was brought in, and simultane-
ously a servant entered and gave two sheathed swords to the shah.
Drawing one of these swords, the shah, with one swift stroke, cut off
the unfortunate prisoner's head. Poor Tectander was terrified, thinking
that his turn would come next. However, his fears were groundless, for
the shah then turned to him and treated him kindly, and subsequently
Tectander received as a gift the other sword which had been handed to
the shah. Shortly afterwards, Tectander and the other members of the
mission returned to Prague.1
Although Robert Sherley had been treated at first more or less as a
hostage, he later entered the shah's service as a soldier and military
adviser, becoming also, as has been stated, a diplomat. He fought
valiantly in several battles against the Turks, and he was certainly of
some assistance to the shah over the reorganisation of his army, though
Samuel Purchas and some other writers have exaggerated his achieve-
ments in this respect. It was fortunate for Robert that he was able to
justify himself to this extent, since his position at first was very difficult
in view of his elder brother's failure to make good his promises.
At the beginning of February 1608 Robert married Teresa, the
daughter of a Christian Circassian named Isma'il Khan, who was said
to have been a relative of one of the shah's wives. Immediately after his
marriage, Robert gave up his military duties for good, and went at the
shah's orders as his envoy to Europe in order to endeavour to persuade
the Christian rulers to combine against the Turks and also to take steps
to improve the silk trade with Europe, in which the shah was person-
ally interested, silk being a royal commodity in Persia. At Prague,
Robert and his wife were well received by the emperor, who knighted
Robert and made him a count palatine. From Prague he went to
Rome, where he was again well received, being made a chamberlain
and a count of the Lateran palace;2 but as at Prague he made no real
progress with the objects of his mission. He strongly urged Pope Paul
V to do his utmost to induce the Christian powers to forget their
rivalries and to join Persia in a league against the Turks. The letter
from Shah 'Abbas to the Pope was couched in the same terms, though
it contained nothing to support the statement in a Venetian source that

1 2
Kakasch de Zalonkemeny, p. 50. Purchas x, 377.

390
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
Robert had assured the Pope of Shah 'Abbas's willingness, after the
overthrow of the Turks, to abjure Islam and become a Christian. It
seems unlikely that Sherley would have made such an assertion, know-
ing the shah so well. On the other hand, many people had been misled
by da Costa's mendacious statements, and in addition the shah's own
behaviour lent some colour to the idea.1
From Rome Robert and his wife travelled to Spain. Although
Robert made a better impression there than his brother had done, he
failed in the end to achieve any concrete results. His position was
rendered difficult when Antonio de Gouveia and Denglz Beg Riimlu
arrived from Persia as rival envoys. Robert and his wife therefore went
to England after he had received assurances that the fact that he had
been in Spain as an envoy would not be detrimental to him. Although
King James received him in kindly fashion at Hampton Court, Robert
failed to persuade the hard-headed merchants of the Levant and East
India Companies of the advantages of trading with Persia via Hurmuz.
In consequence, he returned empty-handed to Persia in 1613. Details of
his subsequent career will be given later.
Despite the fact that Robert Sherley was in Europe on his behalf,
Shah 'Abbas in 1609 sent Antonio de Gouveia, and Denglz Beg
Rumlu, a Persian, as envoys to Philip III of Spain and Pope Paul V.
Iskandar MunshI, in his Tdrtkh-i'dlam-dra-yi 'Abbasi, described Denglz
Beg as "smooth-tongued".2 They took with them a number of gifts
for Philip III and the Pope and also fifty loads of silk for sale on the
shah's personal behalf. They fared in Spain no better than Robert
Sherley had done. While in Europe, Gouveia was made bishop of
Cyrene and Apostolic Delegate. On their return to Persia in 1613 the
shah had Denglz Beg seized and executed in Gouveia's presence on
charges of treasonable and corrupt actions while he was in Europe.
Gouveia, fearing for his life, fled to the south. He was detained for a
time at Shlraz by Imam Quli Khan, the governor-general of Fars, but

1
He would often discuss religious questions with the Augustinians in Isfahan and also with
the Carmelites after their establishment in that city in 1608. When pressed by the friars as to
whether he would become a Christian, he would pretend to agree, but when pressed further he
would make an evasive reply. In Paris in 1606 an anonymous book entitled Nouvelle Conversion du
Roy de Perse avec la Defette de deux Cat Mil Tuns was published, and ten years later, also in Paris,
another with the title Histoire veritable de toute qui s'est passe en Perse depuis la conversion du Grand
Sophy. Far more surprising, however, was the appearance in Paris in 1614 of an anonymous work
supplying details of the conversion of the Ottoman Sultan!
2
Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, p. 1074 (mard-i charb-^abdri).

39 1
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736
was later allowed to go on to Hurmuz. Imam Qull Khan was very
severely rebuked by the shah when he learnt of this action, as Gouveia
was alleged to have given the silk to Philip III instead of having it sold
for the shah's benefit. The shah therefore wished to recover the value
of the silk from Gouveia. On reaching Hurmuz, Gouveia sailed to
Basra, went overland to Syria and sailed from there for Portugal. His
ship, however, was captured by Algerian corsairs and he himself was
imprisoned and held for ransom. Truly, a diplomatic career in those
days had its hazards and hardships.
As Shah 'Abbas had intimated to Philip III that he was tired of
receiving friars as envoys and that he would prefer "some gentleman of
note", Philip early in 1614 despatched Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa
as his ambassador to the shah. Philip had been much perturbed pre-
viously when the Persians had recovered the Bahrain islands in 1602,
and he was now worried by reports which he had received of the
worsening situation in the Persian Gulf. Imam Qull Khan had sought
to regain the shah's favour by offering to recover from the Portuguese
the strip of territory to the north of Hurmuz on which the small port
of Gamru was situated, but the shah refused permission. Soon after-
wards, however, cruel and tactless action by the Portuguese comman-
dant of Hurmuz led to the shah giving permission to Imam Qull Khan
to take this action, with the result that the Persians recovered this
territory late in 1614.
Don Garcia reached Goa in October 1614, but the Portuguese
authorities there, greatly angered at a Spaniard being sent on this
mission instead of a Portuguese, detained him on various pretexts for
over two years before he could set out for Hurmuz. There also the
unfortunate envoy was detained for some time, with the result that he
did not reach Isfahan until the summer of 1617. As the shah was at
Qazvln, Don Garcia had to travel there to present his credentials. It
was not until the summer of 1619 that he could obtain a proper audi-
ence with Shah 'Abbas. Don Garcia then brusquely demanded the
restitution of Kishm, the Bahrain islands and the territory to the north
of Hurmuz. He also demanded the exclusion of the English from the
Persian markets. These demands so angered the shah that he broke off
all relations with Don Garcia and gave him his conge. Don Garcia
thereupon returned to Hurmuz, whence he sailed for Spain; he died,
however, on the voyage. Under his supervision, one of Don Garcia's
secretaries had compiled an interesting record of his mission.
392
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
In the meantime, Richard Steele, a factor of the East India Company,
when travelling across Persia on his way to India, was struck with its
potential value as an additional market. The company was then having
difficulty in disposing of all its stocks of cloth in India. It therefore sent
Steele and another factor called Crowther to negotiate with the shah.
Shah 'Abbas received them well and gave them afarman (royal rescript)
enjoining his subjects to "kindly receive and entertaine the English
Frankes or Nation" who might present themselves.1 In consequence,
the company, in December 1616, sent a mission to Persia under
Edward Connock, who brought with him a cargo of cloth. Despite an
attempt at interception by the Portuguese, Connock landed his cargo
safely at Jask, and brought it to Isfahan early in 1617. In that year
Connock opened factories at Shlraz and Isfahan. Shah 'Abbas
undertook to provide the company with between 1,000 and 3,000 bales
of silk a year at a price of between 6s. and 6s. 6d per pound. It was also
agreed that the staff of the company in Persia were to be allowed the
free exercise of their religion, while the company's Agent or Resident
at Isfahan was to be regarded as the ambassador of the king of
England.
By this time Shah 'Abbas had determined to recover Hurmuz from
the Portuguese, but he had no shipping. However, by threatening to
withdraw its privileges, he forced the East India Company to make its
ships cooperate with the Persian forces in an onslaught on the island.
The consequence was that Hurmuz fell to the combined forces in May
1622. The loss of Hurmuz marked the beginning of the decline of
Portuguese power in the Persian Gulf. On the other hand, this devel-
opment had favourable results for the East India Company, which
could never have competed successfully with the Portuguese had they
been able to retain their long-established and highly successful entrepot
on the island. Shah 'Abbas made the company free of customs at
Hurmuz and also promised that it should receive half the customs dues
of the port. When soon afterwards Hurmuz was abandoned in favour
of Gamru (which the English called Gombroon and which was soon
renamed Bandar 'Abbas), these privileges were, in theory, also to be
enjoyed there. In practice, however, the company's share of the cus-
toms was almost always in arrears.
For nearly a century and a half the East India Company maintained

1
Purchas iv, 279.

393
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350—1736

its trading connection with Persia; during this long period many of its
employees served in that country. Some of these men who had served
in India had learnt Persian there, as it was the language spoken at the
Mughal court. By far the most outstanding scholar in its service in
Persia was a Scotsman named George Strachan of the Mearns. He had
an extremely good knowledge of Arabic and also knew Persian and
Turkish well. Strachan, who may be regarded as ranking with his
contemporaries Thomas Bedwell and T. van Erpe (Erpenius), was a
keen collector of Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts and books
and became a close friend of the Italian traveller Pietro della Valle.
The East India Company, however, was not left long undisturbed in
Persia. The Dutch, though they had cooperated with the English in
fighting the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf, soon ceased to be allies
and became rivals. With its greater wealth and its extremely vigorous
methods, the Oost-Indische Compagnie soon gained and retained for a
long while the ascendancy over its English rival. Like the English
company, it established factories in many parts of Persia.
While Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa was still in Persia, a traveller of
a very different type arrived there. Pietro della Valle, an Italian of noble
family and good education, had set out on his eastern travels in 1614 not
for commercial gain or diplomatic duties, but primarily to cure himself
of a broken heart. He spent much time in Istanbul learning Turkish,
and then went on to the Holy Land, Syria and Mesopotamia. In
Baghdad he cured his broken heart by marrying a local Christian lady
called Maani Gioerida. With her he went on info Persia towards the close
of 1616. Going first to Isfahan, he found that Shah 'Abbas was in
Mazandaran, so he journeyed northwards to seek an audience. Given his
knowledge of Turkish, which was the language spoken at the court,1 he
had no need of an interpreter when with Shah 'Abbas and his courtiers.
He established very friendly relations with the shah, to whom he offered
his services. He suggested that Persia might conclude an alliance with
the Cossacks, who had for some time been raiding the northern coast of
Asia Minor, against the Turks, though he did not explain how effective
contact was to be made and maintained. He spent in all seven years in
Persia, many parts of which he visited. To his friend Mario Schipano, of
Naples, he sent voluminous letters describing his experiences and

1
Du Mans, p. 134. See Thevcnot 11, 90, on the difference between the language as spoken in
Turkey and the form employed in Persia.

394
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

doings. These letters, which have been published several times as his
Viaggi, on the first occasion in 1650, constitute an invaluable record of
Persia, its form of government and general conditions at that time.
Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall, praised Pietro for his accurate descrip-
tions, but accused him of being intolerably vain and prolix.1
More fortunate, or perhaps more circumspect, than Denglz Beg
Rumlu was Hajjl Mahmud Shahsavar, a native of the picturesque
village of Nava, which is situated high in the Alburz mountains. On
Shah 'Abbas's behalf, Hajjl Shahsavar travelled to Venice in 1613 and
again eight years later. He also visited London, where he later became a
permanent resident, dying there in August 1626.2 Muhammad, one of
his sons, was with him in London and fell in love with the chamber-
maid of Lady Cokayne, whose husband Sir William was a high city
dignitary (he was Lord Mayor in 1619-20). Muhammad pressed his
suit assiduously, offering the girl his whole estate and also promising to
become a Christian. It seems that Muhammad's wooing was unsuccess-
. ful, as there is no mention of him being accompanied by a wife when
he left for Persia in the spring of 1627 in the same ship as the then
youthful Thomas Herbert. The unfortunate Muhammad never reached
his native land, as he contracted "a burning fever" and died at sea.
Herbert relates that "the captain of our ship honoured his funeral with
the rending clamour of four culverins" as his coffin was committed to
the deep.3
It is now time to return to Robert Sherley and to bring his story to
its tragic conclusion. Robert and his wife reached India from England
in 1613. From India they travelled overland to Persia via Qandahar.
On their way they met that strange and whimsical character Thomas
Coryate,4 the author of the Crudities, who, having traversed Persia,
was on his way to India on what was to prove his last journey. Soon
after Robert's arrival in Isfahan, Shah 'Abbas sent him to Europe again
on another mission. He spent five years in Spain in further futile
attempts to obtain agreement over the questions of the alliance against
Turkey and the commercial treaty. Despairing of success in Spain, he
went early in 1622 to England, where despite the hostility of the East

1
Gibbon, Decline and Fall m, 223.
2
For his curious epitaph, see W. Toldervy, Select epitaphs (London, 1755), pp. 104—5.
3
Herbert, Travels in Persia, p. 28.
4
The "single-soled, single-souled and single-shirted Observer", quoted by D. Bush, English
Literature in the earlier Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 1945), p. 175.

395
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I35O-I736

India and Levant Companies he had a promising audience with James I.

Unfortunately, James died soon after, and Robert had to start all over
again with Charles I. His position was greatly weakened by the arrival
of a Persian named Naqd 'All Beg, who denounced Robert as an
impostor and treated him with great rudeness. The English govern-
ment thereupon decided to send an ambassador of their own to Persia,
Sir Dodmore Cotton, who left England for Persia via Surat in March
1627. He was attended by a numerous suite, one of whom was a young
man of good family named Thomas Herbert. Robert dnd Teresa
Sherley left for Persia in the same convoy, as did Naqd 'All Beg, but he
was sent in a separate ship. Before the mission reached Persia, Naqd
'All Beg, fearing condign punishment at the hands of the shah for his
behaviour in England, committed suicide by taking an overdose of
opium.1 In due course, after travelling from Bandar 'Abbas via Shiraz
and Isfahan, Sir Dodmore, the Sherleys, Thomas Herbert and the other
members of the mission were received by Shah 'Abbas at Ashraf, in
Mazandaran, in May 1628. The shah was gracious to Sir Dodmore and
promised Robert Sherley satisfaction for his treatment by Naqd 'AH
Beg. Thereafter, however, his attitude changed, owing, it is believed,
to the hostility of Muhammad 'All Beg, the shah's chief minister, who
Herbert claims had been bribed to work against the English mission.
When the shah left for Qazvln, Sir Dodmore Cotton, his suite and
Sherley and his wife accompanied him. On reaching Qazvln, Sir
Dodmore could make no progress with his negotiations, while Shah
'Abbas, despite all Robert's faithful services, treated him so harshly
that he fell ill and died, apparently of a broken heart. A week later Sir
Dodmore followed him to the grave, and the mission had perforce to
return to England. Herbert wrote a most readable and entertaining
account of the mission, with amusing descriptions of incidents at
Shiraz and elsewhere; and a more pedestrian record was compiled by
Robert Stodart, another member of the mission.
Up to this time France had had but little contact with Persia. Pere
Joseph de Paris, the celebrated "Eminence Grise", having taken note
of the success achieved by the English and Dutch East India Com-
panies, determined that France must follow their example and have
overseas interests as well as being a European power. For this purpose,
he argued, Persia must be at least a stepping-stone for further penetra-

1
Herbert, Travels in Persia, p. 31. On this mission, see FalsafI, Tarikb-i ravabit, pp. 140—4.

396
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I35O-I736

tion in the east. Pere Joseph and Cardinal Richelieu, who shared his
views, being aware that the Augustinians in Persia were exclusively
Portuguese, while the Carmelite missions in the country contained a
preponderance of Spaniards and Italians, in 1627 sent the Capuchin
Pere Pacifique de Provins as ambassador to Shah 'Abbas with a request
to be allowed to open Capuchin missions in Isfahan and elsewhere.
These missions were to be exclusively French in character. The shah
readily agreed, with the result that the Capuchins established a mission
at Isfahan and another at Baghdad, which was then in Persian hands.
From that time on the Superiors of the Capuchins in Persia were
regarded as representing the king of France.
Although Persia, after her wonderful efflorescence under Shah
'Abbas I, began to decline following his death in January 1629,1 there
was no appreciable change in her relations with the West. Missionaries
of the Augustinians, Carmelites and, soon, the Capuchins continued to
come and go, and so did the employees of the English and Dutch East
India Companies. Furthermore, in 1636 a diplomatic mission from Duke
Friedrich of Holstein arrived in Persia in order to arrange for the supply
of raw silk for the industry, which he wished to establish in his newly
founded town of Friedrichstadt. When Crusius and Brugman, the two
envoys, reached Isfahan, Nicolaas Jacobus Overschie, the Agent of the
Dutch East India Company, brusquely informed them that he had
orders to do all in his power to frustrate their endeavours. The hostility
of the Dutch and the bad behaviour of Brugman combined to make
success impossible, and hence the mission returned empty-handed to
Holstein in December 1637. Adam Olearius (Oelschlager), the secretary
of the mission, subsequently wrote a record of it, which makes interest-
ing reading.
Quite the most remarkable of the Capuchins to go to Persia was Pere
Raphael du Mans, who in 1644 travelled from Baghdad to Isfahan in
company with Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, the well-known French jewel-
ler and traveller. Being a mathematician, Pere Raphael was warmly
welcomed at the Persian court and was greatly esteemed by Shah
'Abbas II and by his successor Shah Sulaiman. Pere Barnabas, a Car-
melite, wrote of him that "he is constantly with the greatest persons of
the country".2 Besides conscientiously carrying out his religious

1
Chardin m, 291: "Des que ce grand et bon prince eut cesse de vivre, la Perse cessa de
2
prosperer." A Chronicle of the Carmelites 1, 398.

597
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
duties, he made a study of the Persian language and also spent much
time and trouble in gathering together information respecting the
country and its people. He compiled his Estat de la Perse en 1660 for the
guidance of Colbert when that able minister was collecting data on
Persia prior to the formation of the Compagnie Francaise des Indes
in 1664. During the rest of his long life (he remained in Persia until his
death in 1696 at the age of 93) he continued to give what assistance he
could to France and also to visitors from that country such as Francois
Petis de La Croix. Pere Raphael was also very helpful to Chardin, and
Tavernier was much indebted to him for data respecting Persia,
though this indebtedness was not always acknowledged.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was born in Paris in 1605. The son of a rich
jeweller, he had, like Pietro della Valle, the means to gratify his desire
to travel. Between 1636 and 1665 he paid six visits to the east. As
already stated, in 1644 he travelled from Baghdad to Isfahan in com-
pany with Pere Raphael du Mans. In his book, the first edition of
which was published in Paris in 1676, Tavernier had a great deal to say
respecting the system of government in Persia, the religion of the
people, their manners and customs, much of it provided by Pere
Raphael. Tavernier had an agreeable style and had much of interest to
relate, but his transcription of oriental personal and place names leaves
a great deal to be desired. Voltaire took an unfavourable view of him
saying that "il n'apprend guere qu'a connaitre les grandes routes et les
diamants".
The first Jesuit to visit Persia was Pere Francois Rigordi. He was in
Isfahan briefly in February 1646, when on an extensive journey to
various Middle Eastern countries. In 1653 P e r e Rigordi, with another
French Jesuit, Pere Chezaud, came to Persia with letters of recommen-
dation from Louis XIV in order to establish Jesuit missions there.
Shah 'Abbas II received them well and allowed them to set up estab-
lishments in Julfa (Isfahan) and Shiraz. Their advent brought the num-
ber of religious orders in Persia up to five, namely the Dominicans,
Augustinians, Carmelites, Capuchins and Jesuits. Many of these mis-
sionaries were good linguists, as they had to preach in Persian, Turkish
and Armenian.
Acting, apparently, on a suggestion made in a letter from a Persian
Armenian named Khwaja Petros in 16501 to Queen Henrietta Maria,

1
Bodleian Library, Carte MSS, vol. cxxx, fol. 145.

398
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

Charles II and his advisers, who were then in exile in Holland, sent
Henry Ward, Viscount Bellomont, a former Fellow of King's College,
Cambridge,1 and an ardent Royalist, on a mission to Persia and India to
raise funds. The intention was that Bellomont should endeavour to
obtain from Shah 'Abbas II the sums due to the East India Company as
its half share of the Gombroon customs receipts; sums which were, as
was usually the case, very much in arrears. As England and Holland
were then at war, Bellomont was given letters of introduction to the
representatives of the Dutch East India Company in Persia, since he
could hardly expect to receive any help from the English company,
whose share of the Gombroon customs he was to endeavour to divert
to Charles. In 1651 J.-B. Tavernier had written to the East India
Company at Surat to warn them that Bellomont was on his way to
Persia with this object in view. It is not therefore surprising that when
Bellomont arrived he met with strong opposition from the representa-
tives of the company in Persia, spending over a year in Isfahan in
fruitless attempts to achieve his ends. As peace had by this time been
signed between England and Holland, representatives of the Dutch
East India Company were unable to give him active assistance. Finally,
Bellomont had to make his peace with the English company by prom-
ising not to act against it in any way and was then given a passage in
one of its ships to India. From Surat, which he reached in January
1656, he set out, after a brief stay, with his young Venetian companion
Nicolo Manucci, for the Mughal court at Delhi, but on 20 June he died
suddenly, apparently of heat apoplexy, soon after leaving Agra.
Jean de Thevenot, like Pietro della Valle, was a man of independent
means, and so was able to travel for the sake of gratifying his curiosity
regarding foreign lands. Born in 1633, he travelled first extensively in
Europe and later went to the Middle East. After traversing Mesopo-
tamia, he entered Persia in August 1664 and travelled to Isfahan, where
he stayed with Pere Raphael du Mans for five months. He had a sound
knowledge of Turkish, which stood him in good stead, and also
acquired some knowledge of Persian. From Isfahan he went to Bandar
'Abbas, intending to take ship to India. No ship, however, was avail-
able, and so he went to Shiraz and thence to Persepolis. There he met
Tavernier, Jean Chardin, and Andre Daulier-Deslandes, who had been
sent to Persia to gather information for establishing commercial rela-

1
A. Allen, A Catalogue of all the Provosts...of the King's College i n , 1336-42.

399
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
tions between that country and France. With a view to returning to
Europe via north-west Persia and Turkey, Thevenot set out for
Tabriz, but was seized with a fatal illness at Miyana, where he died on
28 November 1667.
As already stated, the Compagnie des Indes Orientales was formed
in 1664. The long delay in setting up this company was due to a
number of causes, such as the Fronde rebellion and war with Spain.
Immediately after the formation of the company, a mission consisting
of Dupont, Beber and Mariage, representing it, and Nicolas Claude de
Lalain and de la Boullaye le Gouz, who were accredited by Louis XIV
to the shah, left France for Isfahan, which they reached in November
1665. Furious quarrels then broke out between the various members of
the mission, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that Pere
Raphael du Mans was able to patch up their differences sufficiently for
them to open their negotiations with the Persian government. Not-
withstanding the extremely unfavourable impression which these un-
seemly quarrels had produced, the shah agreed to grant the company
exemption from tolls and customs dues for three years, together with
the same trading rights as those which had already been granted to
other foreigners. The Compagnie des Indes thereupon opened a fac-
tory at Bandar 'Abbas and began to trade with Persia, but neither Louis
XIV nor the Compagnie sent any presents to the shah; nor was any
attempt made to negotiate for a treaty to confirm its rights. The Com-
pagnie later attempted to make amends by sending one of its senior
officials from Surat, but he died on the way, and his place was taken by
a young and inexperienced man named de Joncheres. In consequence,
the Persian government did not take de Joncheres's attempts to negoti-
ate seriously, a fact of which the English East India Company quickly
took advantage. However, with the help of Pere Raphael du Mans and
a Frenchman named Louis de PEstoile, whose father had settled in
Isfahan, he obtained permission for the Compagnie to trade freely, but
without having any exceptional privileges. The Compagnie was, more-
over, greatly handicapped by the active opposition of the English and
Dutch East India Companies.
In 1665 Jean Chardin, a French Huguenot jeweller, first arrived in
Persia. Between that time and 1677 he spent ten years in the country,
mostly in Isfahan, during which he accumulated a vast amount of
information regarding the country, its cities, its peoples and their
modes of life. His Voyages is a veritable mine of information regarding
400
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
Persia in the latter part of the 17th century. Gibbon described Chardin
as the master "of all our travellers of the last century",1 praise which
was fully deserved. Of particular interest is Chardin's account of Isfa-
han.2 With his friend Herbert de Jager, of the Oost-Indische Compag-
nie, he used to wander through the streets and alleys of the city, noting
down all that was of interest. De Jager took similar action, although
his description of Isfahan cannot now be traced and only his account of
Persepolis is extant.3 So little has Isfahan changed in its essentials that it
is still possible to use Chardin's Voyages as a guide to many parts of it.
Of de Jager himself a few words must be said. By profession a physi-
cian, he had practised medicine in the East Indies and had then been
sent by the Oost-Indische Compagnie to Persia. He was a remarkable
linguist, being well versed in a number of oriental and other languages.
Chardin described him as:
... Un tres-savant homme... II me suffira de dire, pour donner une idee de son
merite, que Golius, ce fameux professeur des langues orientales, le jugeoit le
plus digne de tous ses disciples de remplir sa chaire et de lui succeder. Une
passion commune de connoitre la Perse et d'en faire de plus exactes et plus
amples relations qu'on n'avoit encore faites, nous lia d'abord d'amitie, et nous
convinmes, l'annee suivante, de faire aussi, a frais et a soins communs, une
description de la ville capitale, ou rien ne rut omis de ce qui seroit digne d'etre
su.o
Petis de la Croix was the son of Petis, the secretary-interpreter of the
king of France for Arabic and Turkish. Born in 1653, he was sent by
Colbert to study Arabic, Turkish and Persian in the Levant, and also to
collect manuscripts in those languages for the Bibliotheque du Roi. He
spent two years in Persia, mainly in Isfahan, where Pere Raphael du
Mans was of great help to him in his studies, besides nursing him
through a serious illness. Under the guidance of the head of the
Maulavl dervishes in Isfahan, he made a study of the Masnavi of Jalal
al-Dln Ruml. The Abbe Carre, who met Petis in Baghdad in 1674, was
greatly struck by his aptitude for oriental languages. Petis returned to
France in 1680 and fifteen years later succeeded his father as Professor
of Arabic at the College du Roi in Paris. Before his death in 1713, he
published translations of, inter alia, Sharaf al-Dln Yazdi's biography of
TTmur, entitled the Zafar-nama, and of the Thousand and One Nights, the
latter translated from a Turkish text.
1 2
Gibbon, Decline and Fall vi, 365. Chardin vn, 273—492, and VIII, 1-143.
3
Included in F. Valentijn, Oude en Nieua Oost-lndien (Amsterdam, 1726).
4
Chardin vn, 287—8.

401
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I 3 5 O— I 7 3 6
In the latter part of the 17th century Sweden entered into diplomatic
relations with Persia, her emissary being Ludwich (or Ludvig) Fabri-
tius. He was born in Holland in 1649, but accompanied his step-father
Beem to Russia in 1660 or the following year. Ludwich subsequently
entered the Russian army and took part in the operations against
Stenka (Stepan) Razin, the rebel Cossack leader. He was captured by
the Cossacks in the Lower Volga region in 1670, but later escaped to
Persia, where he remained antil after the Razin revolt had been
quelled. Instead of remaining in Russia after his return, he went to
Sweden, where he later became naturalised. In virtue of his knowledge
of Russian and Persian, the Swedish government sent him, in 1679, as
envoy extraordinary to Russia and Persia. The object of this mission
was, presumably, to induce Shah Sulaiman to attack the Turks, who
were then threatening not only Poland but also the Swedish
possessions to the south of the Baltic.1 If this surmise is correct,
nothing came of the request to make war on the Turks, because Shah
Sulaiman was the least martial of monarchs and was, moreover, com-
pletely indifferent to affairs of state.
Fabritius returned to Sweden in 1682. In the following year
Charles XI sent him again as envoy to Persia with the twofold object of
inducing the shah to attack the Turks, who were then gravely threaten-
ing Vienna, and of concluding a commercial treaty. The secretary of
this mission was a young German physician named Engelbert Kaemp-
fer, of whom something more will be said later. Fabritius and his suite
reached Isfahan in March 1684, and he was received in audience at the
end of the month. Also in Isfahan at this time were an ambassador
from Poland named Suski and an envoy from Siam. Fabritius could
make no progress in his negotiations with the shah. More often than
not, Sulaiman was drunk, and he, like Shah Tahmasp, often shut
himself up in his harem, sometimes for long periods.2 Some while after
Fabritius's return to Sweden, he was raised to the nobility, and in 1697
he went once again as ambassador to Persia. He died in Stockholm in
1729, aged eighty.
1
Particulars of the mission and its objects are probably to be found in Johan Kempe, Kongl.
Swenska Envoijen Ludwich Fabritii Lefwerne, which is apparently not available, however, outside
Sweden. Some details are given in the Svensk Uppslagsbok (Malmo, 1954) IX . <>6; see-also Konova-
lov; David Butler, letter from Isfahan, 6 March 1671, in Struys, pp. 340-60.
2
On one occasion for seven years, according to Muhammad Muhsin, Zubdat al-tavarikb,
Cambridge Univ. Library, Browne MS G. 15 (13), fol. 20jr. See also A Chronicle oftbe Carmelites i,
408.

402
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

Kaempfer remained in Persia when Fabritius and his suite returned

to Sweden in 1684. At the suggestion of Pere Raphael du Mans, he
entered the service of the Dutch Oost-Indische Compagnie as a physi-
cian and served for some time in the Persian Gulf area and Bandar
'Abbas, leaving Persia for Japan in 1688. In his book Ameonitatum
Exoticarum he gave an account of Shah Sulaiman, followed by a
detailed description of the system of government and the duties of the
court functionaries. His book was published in his native town of
Lemgo in 1712, four years before his death.
Dr John Fryer, an M.A. of Cambridge University and in later life a
Fellow of the Royal Society, arrived from India on a visit to Persia in
March 1677, remaining in the latter country until the end of November
1678. During his visit he spent some time in Isfahan. Although
ignorant of oriental languages, he afterwards wrote a very readable and
interesting account of his experiences in the country, garnished with
many classical quotations. Fryer gave the following unflattering des-
cription of Shah Sulaiman:
Shaw Scholymon, the present Emperor; Who is a Man of a good Presence,
and of no mean Capacity, unless by indulging his Body he thickens his
Understanding as well as he has made his Body Gross; he is Tall and very
Fleshy, so that when he stirs or laughs, all the Muscles of the Scapula, as well
as Ribs, move together. In the beginning of his Reign, like another Nero, he
gave good Specimens of his Inclinations, not unworthy the Heroes that were
his Ancestors; but when he began to hearken to Flatterers, and give himself
over to Idleness, he left off to Govern, and listed himself in the service of
Cruelty, Drunkenness, Gluttony, Lasciviousness, and abominable Extortion,
where he perpetrated things not only uncomely to be seen, but even offensive
to the Ears; wherefore at his libidinous Feasts, to enquire what he transacts, or
how he behaves himself, is fitter for an Aretin than a modest Author.1
Fryer made the following amusing comment on the great heat at Ban-
dar 'Abbas: "... The Sailers had stigmatized this Place for its Excessive
Heat, with this sarcastical Saying, That there was but an Inch-Deal betwixt
Gomberoon and Hell".2
During the last two decades of the 17th century a number of ecclesi-
astics came to Persia, some of whom were French. Pere Sanson, a
French secular priest, reached the country in 1683 and remained until
1692. Soon after his arrival in Persia he accompanied Mgr Frangois
Picquet, the bishop of Babylon (Baghdad) and coadjutor-bishop of
1 2
Fryer m , 51. Ibid. 11, 165.

403
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

Isfahan, to the court, where he spent some time. After the death of that
prelate he was for long engaged in endeavouring to free from seques-
tration the bishop's effects at Hamadan. He thus had ample oppor-
tunity to observe the state of affairs at the court. In his book entitled
Voyage ou Relation de FEtat present du Kqyaume de Perse, which was
published in Paris in 1695, he described, inter alia, the stranglehold
over the conduct of affairs which the court eunuchs had established
owing to Shah Sulaiman's lack of interest in such matters. Apart from
that, Pere Sanson's book does not furnish anything of interest that is
not to be found in Pere Raphael du Mans's more authoritative work. To
judge from his book, Pere Sanson's knowledge of the Persian language
was not extensive.
Abler and better informed than Pere Sanson was another French
priest, Pere (later Abbe) Martin Gaudereau, who went to Persia as a
missionary some years before the end of the century. In 1698 he was
appointed vicar-general to Mgr Pietro Paolo di San Francisco, the
archbishop of Ancyra, when the latter reached Persia on his way to
India as Apostolic Delegate. In so far as Persia was concerned, the
objects of the mission were to obtain the renewal of privileges which
had lapsed and to endeavour to win over to Catholicism the Gregorian
Armenians of Julfa. The archbishop was successful in the case of these
privileges, as Shah Sultan Husain, who had succeeded his father Shah
Sulaiman in 1694, was well-disposed towards Christians; he failed,
however, in regard to the Armenians. Gaudereau left Persia for India
with the archbishop and subsequently went back to France. Some years
after his return to France Gaudereau was appointed secretary-general
for oriental languages to the King. Besides writing the account of the
archbishop's mission in Persia, Gaudereau was responsible for several
other books on that country, which will be found in the bibliography
at the end of this volume. More will be said of Pere Gaudereau later, in
connection with the mission of Muhammad Riza Beg to France in
1714-15.
Towards the close of the 17th century the Compagnie Francaise des
Indes determined to expand its activities in Persia. In 1698 de Chateau-
neuf, the French ambassador at Istanbul, sent Jean Bilin de Cansev-
illes, an intelligent and enterprising merchant of Marseilles, to Isfahan
to act ostensibly as secretary to the Capuchin mission there. The real
object of this appointment was to enable de Cansevilles to obtain a
thorough insight into trading conditions in Persia for the benefit of the
404
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

Compagnie Francaise des Indes. De Cansevilles remained in Persia

until 1705, when he returned to France. In 1707 he was sent to Persia
again, this time for a shorter visit. De Cansevilles obtained a great deal
of data which he embodied in a series of memoranda, most of which
have been preserved at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, though
some of them do not bear his name.
In the meantime, the French government had decided to send a
mission to Persia in order to conclude a commercial treaty. The envoy
selected was Jean-Baptiste Fabre, a native of Marseilles who had spent a
good many years in the Levant. He was singularly ill-fitted for the task
before him. Moreover, he was so much in need of money for his
preparations that he had to borrow what he needed from his mistress
Marie Petit. Fabre set out for Persia in March 1705. He was accompanied
by his young son Joseph, his nephew Jacques Fabre, a surgeon called
Louis Robin, a clock-maker named Jacques (or Jacob) Rousseau (a
cousin of Jean-Jacques Rousseau) and a number of other persons;
among these last was Marie Petit disguised as a "cavalier". Much
difficulty was experienced in crossing Turkey, and it was not till January
1706 that the mission reached Erivan.
Fabre was well received by Muhammad Khan, the governor of
Erivan, and so was Marie Petit. Just before the mission was due to leave
Erivan for the court, Fabre was taken ill with a violent fever from which
he died shortly after. A scene of great confusion ensued. Some wished to
make young Joseph the head of the mission, while others wanted to
nominate Jacques. Marie Petit solved the problem by proclaiming
herself the head, and at the beginning of December she and the youthful
Joseph set out for the court via Tabriz, accompanied by a Jesuit named
Pere Mosnier. Meanwhile, news of these startling developments had
reached the Comte de Ferriol, the French ambassador to the Porte. He
immediately sent one of his secretaries named Michel to supplant Marie
Petit; so great was his haste that he did not pause to obtain proper
credentials for Michel. Travelling post haste, Michel overtook the
mission at Nakhchivan. However, while he had no credentials, Marie
had been given an escort and provided with letters from the governor of
Erivan, and so he was powerless to stop her. By different routes, they
went on to Tabriz, where Marie received every attention, but Michel
met with a very cool reception and was refused permission to proceed.
Marie thereupon went on to the court which was then encamped to the
east of Tehran. In virtue of her letters from the governors of Erivan and

405
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 1350-1736

Tabriz, Marie was well received by the I'timad al-Daula, who conducted
her to the shah's harem, where she received "all possible honours".1
Having achieved her great objective, Marie returned to Tabriz. Mean-
while Michel had at last got leave to proceed to the court, but found that
he could do nothing there. On returning to Tabriz, in company with
Mgr Pidou de Saint-Olon, the bishop of Babylon, he was arrested and
thrown into prison with the bishop. They were, however, soon released
and then found Marie in penitent mood. Michel bade her return to
France and gave her a small sum in cash and a bond on Aleppo which
proved to be worthless. On Marie's arrival in France, she was thrown
into prison whence she emerged, years later, broken in health and
penniless.
Michel's letters of credence having at last arrived, he was able to go
again to the court at Isfahan, where, despite strong opposition by the
English and Dutch East India Companies, he concluded a treaty on 16
September 1708 which, besides providing certain facilities for trade,
gave protection to the Christian religious orders in Persia.2 This was
the first official treaty between France and Persia.
In return for Michel's mission, the Persian government decided to
send an embassy to France. The envoy chosen was Muhammad Riza
Beg, the kaldntar (mayor) of Erivan, who was to prove quite as unsuit-
able for the task before him as Fabre had been. He left Erivan for
France in May 1714. After much difficulty in crossing Turkey, where he
was imprisoned for a time, he eventually reached Marseilles in October
1714. For various reasons which are too lengthy to be mentioned
here,3 he did not arrive in Paris until the beginning of February 1715.
His astounding whims and unpredictable outbursts of rage proved
most trying to the unfortunate French officials, including Gaudereau,
who had the misfortune to have to look after him. On 19 February
1715 the aged Louis XIV received Muhammad Riza Beg formally at
Versailles. After handing over his letters of credence, the ambassador
presented the casket containing the shah's gifts to Louis XIV. These
gifts proved to be of poor quality; this fact, together with the strange
behaviour of the envoy on a number of occasions, led many persons to
believe that Muhammad Riza Beg was merely an impostor. They

1
Evidence for the defence at Marie Petit's trial: Affaires Etrangeres, Perse, vol. ii, fol. 259a.
2
A French translation of this treaty by Petis de la Croix is to be found in Affaires Etrangeres,
3
Perse, vol. ii, foil. 35—40. Herbette, U/ie Ambassade Persane, p p . 61—113.

406
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I350-1736

included Montesquieu, who very probably derived the idea of writing

his Lettres Persanes from this mission (see letter no. 92).
Negotiations thereupon ensued for the drafting of a new treaty to
replace the one concluded by Michel. This new treaty, which was
signed on 13 August 1715, was far more favourable to France than its
predecessor.1 Muhammad Riza Beg was given his final audience on the
same day that this treaty was signed; it was the last public function to
be attended by Louis XIV.
The departure of the ambassador for Persia was not unattended by
surprise. As he embarked at Le Havre for Russia, a large case with a
number of holes in it, said to contain his devotional books, was placed
in his cabin. When the vessel was at sea, this case, on being opened,
was found to contain a devotional object of a different kind, in the
person of the young Marquise d'Epinay. She had fallen madly in love
with Muhammad Riza Beg and had arranged to elope with him in this
manner. The journey ended in tragedy, for Muhammad Riza Beg,
realising that he had greatly exceeded his powers in signing such a
treaty, committed suicide soon after reaching Persia. Madame d'Epinay
is said to have embraced Islam and to have subsequently married
Muhammad Riza Beg's brother.
One of the consequences of the conclusion of this treaty was the
despatch of the Chevalier Ange de Gardane, the Seigneur de Sainte-
Croix, to Persia to be French consul at Isfahan, accompanied by his
younger brother Francois.2 The Gardane brothers were destined to
remain in Persia for sixteen years, during which they had to endure the
privations and anxieties of the Afghans' siege of Isfahan in 1722 and
the troubled years that ensued under the usurpers Mahmud and Ash-
raf. They were not able to return to France until after Nadr Qull Beg,
the future Nadir Shah, had expelled the Afghans from Persia and
restored the Safavid dynasty.
A number of other Europeans were in Persia during the Afghan
period (1722—9). The one who has given the best and most detailed
account of this troubled era was the Polish Jesuit Tadeusz Krusinski,
who went to Persia in 1707. A man of energy and ability who became

1
Ibid., pp. 370-4, for the text.
2
It is noteworthy that two other members of the Gardane family, likewise brothers, went, on a
mission to Persia just under a century later: Claude-Mathieu de Gardane, a distinguished general
in Napoleon's service, and Ange-Paul-Louis, who, as secretary of the mission, wrote an account
of it in his journal Sun Voyage dans la Turquie et la Perse, 1S07—8 (Paris, 1809).

407
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, 135O-I736

procurator-general of the Jesuit missions in that country in 1720, he

had considerable linguistic gifts and often had to act as interpreter for
the Persian court, thus playing a role like that of Pere Raphael du Mans
in the previous century. After the siege of Isfahan, he was able to
resume his activities at the court throughout the brief and terrible reign
of Mahmud. He left Persia for Europe soon after the accession of
Mahmud's cousin, Ashraf.
A valuable and so far unpublished record of the siege of Isfahan in
1722 is the Dagregister kept by Nicolaus Schorer, the Chief Merchant of
the Oost-Indische Compagnie at Isfahan, and some of his assistants. It
covers the period from the beginning of March up to the end of
August 1722 and is by far the most detailed account of the siege that
we possess. Owen Phillips and his Council of the English East India
Company at Isfahan also contributed some valuable data regarding the
siege and the succeeding period. Mention must also be made of
William Cockell, who succeeded Owen Phillips as Resident of the East
India Company at Isfahan. He was in Persia until February 1737, and
was thus there throughout the brief reigns of Tahmasp II and the
infant 'Abbas III, as well as the beginning of Nadir's de jure reign as
shah. Although not mentioned by James Fraser by name in his biogra-
phy of Nadir Shah, Cockell provided him with much of the material
for the earlier part of that book.1
As the Safavid period came to an end with Nadir's usurpation of the
throne in 1736, we may regard Cockell as the last of the contacts
between the West and Persia during the period covered by this chapter.
In looking back over the four centuries we have examined, we see that
while progress in establishing contact between Persia and the West was
slow at first, a great advance was made in the 16th century. Never-
theless, the progress then made pales into insignificance when com-
pared with what was accomplished in the succeeding hundred years.
Moreover, the contacts made in the 17th century with the establish-

1
O n p . iv of The History of Nadir Shah formerly called Thamas Kuli Khan the present Emperor of
Persia (London, 1742), Fraser stated: "The Account of Nadir Shah's first Exploits I have been
favoured with from a Gentleman now in England, who resided several years in Persia, speaks that
Language, and has been frequently in Company with that Conqueror". After quoting Cockell's
"Account" on pp.71—128, Fraser stated that Cockell (whom he referred to as "the Gentleman
who favoured me with the above Memoirs") left Persia for India in February 1737. We learn from
the Gombroon Diary (Vol. iv of The Persia and Persian GulfKecords of the East India Company of
9/20 February 1737) that Cockell was the only employee of the company to leave Persia for India
in that month.

408
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, I35O-I736

ment of the various religious orders and of the English, Dutch and
French East India Companies were to prove of a more continuous and
lasting nature. Furthermore, we have the narratives of a great number
of travellers to, and residents in, Persia. Of these the most important
were unquestionably Chardin and Pietro della Valle. For the first
thirty-six years of the 18th century we have likewise a mass of material
from a number of sources, such as Krusinski's works, which can be
regarded as very reliable. To sum up, it may be said that by the end of
the Safavid period in 1736, Persia had most certainly ceased to be a
terra incognita in the West.

409
 EUROPEAN CONTACTS, E U R O P E A N C O N T A C T S , I 350—1736

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Map. The commercial links of Iran 411

410

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

 CHAPTER 8

TRADE FROM THE MID-14TH CENTURY

TO THE END OF THE SAFAVID PERIOD

I . GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Persia, wrote Thevenot, the French traveller in the 17th century, was
like a caravansarai: merchants travelled in from many directions. This
was particularly true of the period from the Timurids to the end of the
Safavids. Routes criss-crossed the Iranian plateau linking east and west,
the steppes of Central Asia and the plains of India with the ports of the
Mediterranean and north and south, down the rivers of Russia to the
shores of the Persian Gulf carrying trade from the East Indies, India
and China to Europe. Along the roads were strung the main towns,
their sites determined as much by geographical and economic factors as
political. It is notable that the major trading routes, whilst fluctuating
in importance, remained almost constantly in use throughout this
period, though from the Mongol ascendancy to the collapse of the
Safavids the state of Persia and those of its neighbours in Asia were
remarkably transformed.
After the disintegration of Mongol rule, Tlmur aspired to similar
far-reaching power but after a period of violent success his empire
split. By the mid-ioth/i6th century three states had arisen which di-
vided the control of much of the present geographical areas of North
Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and
India between them for nearly three centuries. These were Ottoman
Turkey, Safavid Persia and Mughal India. Across the sea first the
Portuguese and then the English and Dutch companies added a new
maritime dimension to the ancient trading patterns.
There are three main divisions into which the general period from
Tlmur to Nadir Shah can be subdivided. They are, in the context of
this economic survey, firstly, the ages of the Timurids and their
Turkmen successors, secondly, the first century of the Safavid dynasty
from Shah Isma'il up to the accession of Shah 'Abbas and, thirdly, the
second century of the Safavids till their ultimate eclipse.

412
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

2. THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

(a) The northern area

The cruelty and destruction of Timur's ruthless military campaigns are
well known but amid the political confusion of much Persian history
there is an astonishing recuperative capacity and fortitude in the midst
of adversity. The reputed defiant encounter of Hafiz with Timur is an
eloquent poetic expression of this spirit. In economic terms a recovery
took place after the devastating effects of the post-Il-Khanid disorders
and Timur's relentless three decades of warfare in the last half of the
8th/14th century. At the beginning of the 9th/15 th century Clavijo
reported on the comparative prosperity of many parts through which
he travelled on his embassy to Timur. In Arzinjan he noticed "many
opulent merchants" and "many caravans carrying much merchandise
journey on their way, coming hither from Syria and bound for
Turkey."1 Tabriz he thought "a very mighty city rich in goods and
abounding in wealth, for commerce daily flourishes here." It was a
wonderful sight, for "throughout the city there are fine roadways with
open spaces well laid out: and round these are seen many great build-
ings and houses, each with its main doorway facing the square. Such
are the caravanserais: and within are constructed separate apartments
and shops with offices that are planned for various uses. Leaving these
caravanserais you pass into the market streets where goods of all kinds
are sold: such as silk stuffs and cotton clothes, crapes, taffetas, raw silk
and jewelry: for in these shops wares of every kind may be found.
There is indeed an immense concourse of merchants and merchandise
here." He particularly remarked that "in certain of the caravanserais
those who sell cosmetics and perfumes for women are established" and
that it was the women who bought them, being "wont to use many
perfumes and unguents."2
Clavijo was also impressed by Sultaniyya,3 "a very populous city, but
not so great as Tabriz: though it is a more important centre of exchange
for merchants and their goods". In June, July and August of each year
the city "is in a state of great commotion, and immense are the customs
dues that accrue to the Treasury. Thus every year Sultaniyah is visited

1 2
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. 129, 151. Ibid., pp. 152-3.
3
Ibid., pp. ij8ff.

413
 TRADE

by numerous merchants from Lesser India who bring with them all
kinds of spiceries. Hither too are imported the best sorts of the lesser
spices that are not to be found on sale in the Syrian markets, such namely
as cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, manna, mace and the rest. These are
prime spiceries that never reach the markets of Alexandretta and hence
are not to be procured in the warehouses there." Apart from spices, silk
was a commodity in great demand at Sultaniyya, whither was "imported
all the silk that is produced in Gilan... where much of that com-
modity is produced and manufactured. This Gilan silk is exported from
Sultaniyah to Damascus and other parts of Syria, also to Turkey and to
Kaffa [in the Crimea] with the neighbouring lands. Further to Sultaniyah
is brought all the silk made at Shamakhi [in Shirvan] which is a place
where much of this article is woven, and Persian merchants travel thither
to buy it, also Genoese and Venetians." The importance of silk to the
Persian economy was clear at that time.
It was not alone spices and silk that were marketed in Sultaniyya but
"many kinds of cloth woven of silk or cotton and taffetas with crape-
stuffs of various kinds" which "came from the country round and
about Shiraz which lies towards the border of Lesser India." These
textiles were joined by those from Yazd and the province of Khurasan.
From the port of Hurmuz came "a great quantity of pearls also many
precious stones", in caravans which took sixty days to complete the
journey. To Sultaniyya came "merchants from Christian lands, namely
from KafFa and Trebizond, with Moslem merchants from Turkey,
Syria and Baghdad" meeting in the hostels which "were conveniently
disposed for the accommodation of merchants who come to the city".
Samarqand, "rather larger than Seville", was another great city
which Clavijo visited. Tlmur had spared no effort to beautify and
enrich it. It was a large emporium for produce and manufactured
goods, for Tlmur obliged artisans of all trades to settle in his capital.
Many merchants, "Turks, Arabs and Moors of diverse sects, with
Christians who were Greeks and Armenians, Catholics, Jacobites and
Nestorians", besides Indians, traded there, for "the markets of
Samarqand are amply stored with merchandise imported from distant
and foreign countries", such as Russia, Tartary, China and India. The
goods included leathers, linens, silk-stuffs, precious stones, unguents,
herbs, spices, preserves with special emphasis on Chinese products
which were regarded as the "richest and most precious of all those
brought thither from foreign parts, for the craftsmen of Cathay are
414
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

reputed to be the most skilful by far beyond those of any other

nation".1 Clavijo mentions an 8oo-camel caravan bringing merchandise
from China which just preceded him to Samarqand. He writes that the
journey from Peking took six months. One of the principal reasons for
the trading prominence of Sultaniyya and Samarqand was their signifi-
cance as the principal residences and military camps of the ruler of
Western Persia, prince Mlran Shah, and Timur himself. At a time when
the administration and high command accompanied the ruler, such a
base provided the central place of government and hence the focal
point of buying and selling. This kind of organisational centre which
existed in the Mongol, Timurid and Turkmen periods remained
important too in Safavid times, when the purchasing power of the
royal court and camp was a powerful economic factor.2
In Persia, where long distances had to be covered by caravans in a
variety of exacting climatic and topographical conditions, the security
and safety of the routes were vital. In periods of strong central author-
ity there was a satisfactory system of post horses, caravansarais, road
guards and market inspectors. It had been so in the heyday of the
Achaemenian and Sasanian empires and existed for a time under the
Tl-Khans. It was also apparent in the Timurid period, for Clavijo
commented on the post houses which had been built "at intervals of a
day's journey apart, or sometimes of half a day's journey" with their
horses for official use "kept stationed ready for use at post stages" and
"cared for by men appointed to see to them". Amongst other places he
was complimentary about the caravansarai at Miyana "for the accom-
modation of travellers and for merchants on the road".3 He reported
that butchers and shoemakers who overcharged in the royal camp were
penalised. In general from his descriptions of the main cities and others
the picture which emerges is of much commercial and agricultural
activity along the route that he travelled. Nlshapur was "very densely
populated, and it is a most delightful place to live in"; Tiis, "a most
pleasant township, and it has a greater population than any other place
that we had come to since leaving Sultaniyah"; Bukhara, where "the
merchants here are very rich"; Simnan, "a very populous town";

1
Ibid., pp. 285, 288-9.
2
Similarly in the Mughal empire, "those ba^ar dealers, so necessary for the support of an army
in peace as well as in war": Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, ed. A. Constable
(London, 1891), p. 43.
3
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. 15 6—7.

415
 TRADE

Tehran, "a delightful abode being a city furnished with every con-
venience".1
Herat, unvisited by Clavijo, played then, and later, an important role
in the Timurid trading pattern. "In the 14th Century it became the
main centre of the north-east/south-west trade between the Golden
Horde, Khwarazm and India and of the west-east trade between the
empire of the Il-khans and the western provinces of China. It was soon
acknowledged to be the pivot of the commercial and intellectual life of
Central Asia."2 Certainly not all cities were prospering: Erzerum, for
example, which previously had been "the richest and greatest city of all
those parts" [Anatolia], was not then well populated and similar mis-
fortunes had befallen Qazvln and Zanjan, where "most of the town is
now uninhabited, but in former times they said this had been one of the
greatest cities in all Persia". It was equally true that not all the roads at
all times were safe from banditry and local extortions, as shown by
Clavijo's efforts to avoid Qara Yusuf, the Qara Quyunlu chief, who
was in revolt against Timur, or his encounter with Cyril Cabasica,
lord of "Zegan". 3 Yet generally whatever the political turmoil, trade
had reasserted itself in the northern areas, from the Ottoman centre of
Bursa to the Chinese capital of Peking through the roads and cities of
Persia.
Yet later, as a result of the gradual fragmentation of the Timurid
legacy, the increasing isolationism of the Chinese behind their Great
Wall and the rising power of the Uzbeks, the full flow of trade through
northern Persia and Central Asia from east to west began to lessen,
though local trade persisted to south-west Asia and with India. Mer-
chants were still passing along the routes from Tana on the sea of Azov
to China in the time of Uzun Hasan, for the Venetians commented on
Samarqand that it was "a verie great and well enhabited citie well
replenished of artificers and merchaunts both". Furthermore, it was
heard that "in these parties is verie great trafficque of merchaundize,
specially Jewells and clothes, as well of sylke as of other sortes, and
from thense they go into the province of Catay".4 Anthony Jenkinson,
the English merchant-traveller, a century later in 1563 came across
trade centering on Bukhara. The overland trade with India too was of
long standing and increased in importance with the rise of the Mughal
empire. Ibn Battuta had mentioned the extensive overland trade in
1 2
Ibid., pp. 167, i8iff., 186, jo2, 306. Allen, Problems of Turkish Power, p.8.
3 4
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. n6ff., 139, 157. Travels to Tana and Persia, p.75.

416
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

horses, which were "exported to India (in droves), each one numbering
six thousand or more or less. Each trader has one or two hundred
horses or less or more,"1 and they were taken to Sind through Multan,
the capital. These were the horses valued for their "strength and length
of pace". He noted that "there are manufactured at Naisabur silk
fabrics of nakh, kamkha', and other kinds, and these are exported from
it to India".2 They also exported by mounted post fruits from
Khurasan to India.
Ceramics and textiles were produced in Persia. In the Ottoman
empire, Bursa had become a manufacturing city of much wealth and
industry, as Clavijo had remarked on leaving Tabriz when he "joined
company with a caravan numbering some two hundred sumpter-horses
carrying merchandise bound for the country of the Turks, the ultimate
destination of the caravan being Brusa". Trade flowed between Persia
and Turkey as Persian silk supplied most of the large requirements for
the Ottoman looms. European merchandise reached Persia along the
routes of Anatolia, the region of the upper Euphrates and by the Black
Sea from Trebizond. It is towards the end of the 9th/15 th century, after
the Aq Quyunlu under Uzun Hasan had asserted themselves over the
Qara Quyunlu, that the complex relationship of mutual animosity and
dependence developed between the Persians and Ottomans. Their
empires and resources were too extensive for each to dominate the
other completely; their economies were complementary.
The great Ottoman successes contemporary with the decline of the
Timurids affected Venetian trade. The Venetians attempted to counter
this by creating an alliance with Uzun Hasan against the Turks in H7 2 -
This was no more successful than earlier attempts to enlist the services
of Timur against the Turks or, later, the Safavids against the common
enemy of Persia and Europe. Venetian emissaries have left interesting
descriptions of the state of trade in the late 9th/15 th century. Since
Clavijo's time, Sultaniyya had declined in importance, for "it is nowe
but evill inhabited" with some 6—7,000 people in it. Tabriz had taken
its place as the capital and, according to Contarini, retaining its com-
mercial prominence was a large city though not "very populous". "It
abounds in all kinds of provisions but everything is dear. It contains
many bazaars. A great quantity of silk passes through in caravans,
bound for Aleppo, and there are many light articles of silk from the

1 2
Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, n, 478. Ibid., m, 584.

417
 TRADE
manufactures of Jesdi [Yazd] and a great deal of fustians and mer-
chandise of almost every kind."1
Yazd and Kashan were recognised as important manufacturing
centres by the Venetians. The former produced "clothe of golde, of
sylke, and of damaskyne chamlette, lyned with sylke or furred with
exceading faire armelynes and sables". It was a town of artificers, "as
makers of sylkes, fustians, chamletts, and other like... of V myles in
circuite, with very great suburbes, and yet in maner they all arr wevers
and makers of divers kindes of sylkes which came from Straua
[Astara], from Azzi, and from the parties towardes Zagatai". The
articles produced were exported to other parts of Persia, India, China
and Turkey and were so highly regarded that "lett him that woll bie
good silkes of Soria, faire and well wrought, take of these". Appar-
ently "they saie that towne requireth every daie twoo sompters of
sylkes... As for chamletts, fustians, and such other, I saie nothing; for,
by the sylke they make, it may easelie be gessed how much more they
make of those." Kashan too, well inhabited, was also renowned for its
textiles, "wheare for the more parte they make sylkes and fustians in so
greate quantitie that he wolde bestowe xml ducates in a daie may finde
enough of that merchaundise to bestowe it on." Isfahan was well
provided for the accommodation of merchants, whilst Shlraz "conteig-
neth innumerable people, and is full of merchaunts.... Hither arr
brought many jewelles, sylkes, both great and small, spices, rewbarbe,
and semenzina". It was "a very sure dwelling without any disturb-
ance". The Venetians marvelled at the diamonds, rubies and pearls
they were shown. They were impressed with the carpets, the "most
beautiful carpetts betweene which carpetts and those of Cairo and of
Borsa [Bursa] (in my judgement), there is as much difference as
betweene the clothes made of Englishe woolles and those of Saint
Mathewes", which they saw in Tabriz. The ingenuity of the carpenters
was remarkable in spite of the shortage of suitable timber.2
Especially revealing were the comments on the organisation of the
bazaars and the consideration paid to merchants. Writing of Yazd, the
Venetian Barbaro wrote, "whan any merchaunt cometh to this towne
for wares, he goeth into the Fondaco, rounde about the which arr
certein litle shoppes, and in the middest a litle square place, likewise
with shoppes, having twoo gates cheyned (bicause horses shulde not

1 2
Travels to Tana and Persia, p. 127. Ibid., pp. 60, 72—4.

418
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

passe through). This merchaunt with his companie, if they be acquainted

with any place, resorte thither to sytt: if not, they may sytt wheare
pleaseth them in any of those shoppes, beinge vj foote square a peece.
And if they be divers merchaunts, lightly they take eche one a shoppe by
himself. An howre aftre the sonne ryseng certein go about with sylkes
and other wares on their armes, passeng rounde about without speaking.
And the merchaunts, if they see ought that pleaseth them, call the seller;
and looke on his wares: the price whereof is writen on a paper sowed
unto it. If he lyketh them and the price, he throweth them into the litle
shoppe, and so dispacheth them without moore wordes. For he that
delivereth the stuff knoweth the owner of the shoppe, and therefore
departeth without further question: which markett endureth till noone;
and aftre dyner cometh the seller and receaueth his mooney; wheareas, if
he fynde none that woll bye at his price one day, that he retorneth an
other day: and so foorthe."1 The caravansarais were locked at night for
the protection of the merchandise.
As well as the main east—west route which went through Azarbaljan,
followed the foothills of the Alburz mountains and skirted the danger-
ous deserts of the interior, there was a more northerly route which
crossed the Alburz dropping down to the Caspian Sea into the prov-
ince of Shirvan, Gllan and Mazandaran, part of ancient Hyrcania. Some
of the area had belonged to the old kingdom of Armenia, whose
political influence had disappeared, but the industry and skill of indi-
vidual Armenians survived the loss of the state. Armenians were to
have a deep influence on the later course of trade in the 16th and, more
particularly, the 17th centuries. The result of Timur's campaigns and
the resurgence of the Ottomans was to turn the northern provinces
into political prizes for which the Persians and Turks contended at the
expense of a succession of local rulers. The small pockets of Genoese
traders whose principal bases were at Tana and Kaffa in the Crimea
became isolated. Timur had ruined the Tartar city of Astrakhan, the
first of that name, which was the hub of trade up the Volga or west-
wards to the Crimea. This ended the Genoese and Venetian trade in the
silks and spices there which, in the main, was re-routed through Syria.
This reduced the volume of trade in the former direction but did not
stop it. Astrakhan was rebuilt and local trade over the Caspian re-
sumed. The Russian merchant Nikitin, for example, travelled through

1
Ibid., pp. 73-4.

419
 TRADE

Astrakhan and over the Caspian with the ambassador of Shirvan to

Ivan III, Grand Duke of Russia (1462—1505). Conditions were not
easy, for the behaviour of the Tartars was unpredictable and transpor-
tation insecure. Contarini wrote that the ships were kept on shore
during the winter when they could not be used and were "called fishes,
which they are made to resemble in shape, being sharp at the head and
stern and wide amidships. They are built of timbers, caulked with rags,
and are very dangerous craft. No compass is used, as they keep contin-
ually in sight of land. They use oars; although everything is done in a
most barbarous manner, they look upon themselves as the only
mariners worthy of the name." This Venetian voyaged to Astrakhan
from Darband, with "thirty five persons, including the captain and six
mariners; there were on board some merchants taking rice, silk and
fustians to Citracan [Astrakhan] for the Russian market and some
Tartars going to procure furs for sale in Derbent". Grounding on the
shallows and shipwreck were not infrequent. It was said that an ambas-
sador and a caravan left Astrakhan every year for Moscow "accom-
panied by a great many Tartar merchants who... take with them silk
manufactured in Gesdi [Yazd] and fustian stuffs to exchange for furs,
saddles, swords, bridles, and other things which they require".1 On the
Black Sea, some trade continued at Trebizond but did not represent a
significant share of the total volume then entering or leaving Persia.
There was, therefore, in the Turkmen period as in that of the
Timurids, a thriving textile industry, a considerable export of raw silk
to Turkey, and a large import of spices. Whilst trade continued to
follow the established pattern east and west across the north, though
with diminishing importance as a long distance exchange, it was being
augmented in the south by the remarkable rise of Hurmuz. This barren
island, virtually devoid of natural resources, resembling a miniature
polychromed waste land, became a poetic and real symbol of fabulous
wealth. If the world was a ring, it was imagined, then Hurmuz was its
jewel.

(b) The southern area

The other great axis of trade through Persia was longitudinal up from
the Persian Gulf through the southern deserts, not easily passable in

1
Ibid., pp. 146—7, 1; 1.

42O
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

the hot summer, and along the eastern foothills of the Zagros to the
northern junction towns of Azarbaljan with principal spurs running
east to west at Lar, Shlraz, Abada, Isfahan, and Sava. From very early
times both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf were frequented by traders.
Recent discoveries of Achaemenian buildings near Bushira have rein-
forced the literary evidence of Alexander's admiral, Nearchus, of an
early Persian presence in the Gulf. The maritime interest of the Sasan-
ians has been convincingly confirmed by the recent archaeological
discoveries at Slraf. The importance of post-Islamic trade up the Persian
Gulf is well attested by the Arab geographers and clearly proved by a
number of scholars. In the time of the Mamluks, Aden was especially
notable for its spice trade and Ibn Battuta commented that "it is the
port of the merchants of India, to which come great vessels from
Kinbayat [Cambay], Tanah, Kawlam [Quilon], Qaliqut, Fandaraina,
al-Shaliyat, Manjarur [Mangalore], Fakanur [Bacanore], Hinawr
[Honavar], Sindabur [Goa], and other places. The merchants of India
live there, and the merchants of Egypt also."1 It retained a commercial
importance to the mid 17th century. It was also a port of entry for
pilgrims to Mecca.
Ibn Battuta visited Hurmuz some thirty years after the city was
transferred from its mainland site to the adjacent island of Jarun,
shortly after 1300. Then, according to Ibn Battuta, it was "a fine large
city, with magnificent bazaars, as it is the port of India and Sind, from
which the wares of India are exported to the two 'Iraqs, Fars and
Khurasan".2 Lar too, with its "fine Bazaars" was becoming more
important and the pearl fishing off Bahrain was already renowned.
Hurmuz retained its preeminent position at the head of the Persian
Gulf for three centuries until it was ruined when the Persians took it in
1622 from the Portuguese, who had taken complete control of it under
Albuquerque in 1515. Clavijo stressed the importance of Hurmuz in
the trade of spices, precious stones and pearls, and stated that only the
skilled men of Hurmuz could do the work of boring and stringing the
pearls. The great Chinese admiral, Cheng Ho, brought fleets to
Hurmuz, as well as Aden, in the early 15 th century. There was no
doubt about its wealth, for "foreign ships from every place and foreign
merchants travelling by land all come to this country to attend the
market and trade". Here were found a wonderful variety of fruits and

1 2
Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, 11, 372. Ibid., p. 400.

421
 TRADE

foods. The people of Hurmuz were "experts in every kind of art and
craft", and they traded in all kinds of precious stones and textiles.1
Hurmuz was, in fact, the great emporium for the seaborne trade of
the east which reached Persia and a vital link in the transhipment of
trade between Europe and the Far East. There were a number of ports
on which the long distance trade hinged and, as Albuquerque realised,
they represented strategic keys for the domination of that trade.
Besides Hurmuz, Aden, Goa, Calicut and Malacca were important
staging ports, but trade was carried on elsewhere at a number of others
along the coasts of India where Persian merchants were to be found.
Evidence of this is widespread, notably in the accounts of 'Abd
al-Razzaq, the ambassador of Shah Rukh in 845/1441-2, and Afanasil
Nikitin, the Russian merchant, a generation later. According to 'Abd
al-Razzaq, Hurmuz still continued to attract "the merchants of seven
climates". They came from Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, all the provinces of
Persia, Turkestan, southern Russia, China, Java, Bengal, Siam, Tenas-
serim, Socotra, Bljapiir, the Maldives, Malabar, Abyssinia, Zanzibar,
Vijayanagar, Gulbarga, Gujarat, Cambay, Arabia, Aden, Jidda and the
Yemen, bringing "those rare and precious articles which the sun, the
moon and the rains have combined to bring to perfection, and which
are capable of being transported by sea". The transactions were carried
out either by money or by exchange.2 There were indications of credit
arrangements but it is probable that these were confined to merchants
from the same towns as Ibn Battuta implied earlier or through family
connections. 'Abd al-Razzaq said of the inhabitants of Hurmuz that
they united the nattering character of the Persians with the profound
cunning of the Indians. He was impressed with the security and justice
of Calicut, to which merchants came from all quarters, and noted that
people from Hurmuz resided at Vijayanagar as well as people from
Khurasan. Many Persians were employed in the Deccan. Nikitin also
noticed this Persian presence, which he exaggerated by asserting that
"the rulers and the nobles in the land of India are all Khorassanians".
Nikitin remarked on the extensive trade in horses between Persia and
India by sea, particularly at the port of Daibul in Sind. He, too, was
impressed with Hurmuz, "a vast emporium of all the world; you find
there people and goods of every description, and whatever thing is

1
Ma Huan, The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores, trans. J.V.G. Mills (Cambridge, 1970), pp.
2
165, 167. Major, India in the Fifteenth Century, part 1, pp. 5—7.

422
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

produced on earth you find it in Hormuz. But the duties are high, one
tenth of everything."1. He thought Chinese goods cheap, especially
porcelain. Other travellers such as the Venetian Nicolo de' Conti sup-
port the evidence of widespread Persian involvement in the maritime
trade with India. Conti refers to his friendship with some Persian
merchants about 1440 and to Calicut being "a very noble emporium of
the Persians". Just over fifty years later Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a
Genoese, after journeying from Cairo to India, returned home after
innumerable adventures through Cambay and Hurmuz, where he was
befriended by some Alexandrian and Damascene merchants. These
helped him to reach Aleppo by way of Shiraz, Isfahan, Sultaniyya and
Tabriz. He refers to Armenian merchants in Hurmuz. Another Vene-
tian mentions that "the merchaunts that travaill either out of India
into Persia or out of Persia into India, for the more parte do all arryve
in this ilande".2 All draw attention to the scorching heat and brackish
water.
It is probable that Persian maritime trade with India in particular
and the east in general reached a high level of activity in the last decade
of the 15 th century in both variety and volume. The Ottomans had not
then won control over Egypt, Turkish—Persian relations were not
affecting trade in the south to any great extent, Mughal dominion was
not yet felt over India, and the Portuguese had not established them-
selves or disturbed the pattern of Asian trade. Not for another century
and a half, in the time of Shah 'Abbas II, was maritime trade compar-
able, and then the Persians had to share it not only with Indian mer-
chants, but also with the increasingly powerful Armenian merchant
communities who were entrenching themselves in the main trading
centres, and with the Dutch and English East India Companies.
The Portuguese noticed and admired the well-dressed, good-living
inhabitants of Hurmuz, whose trading activities they were to control
to their own advantage. Duarte Barbosa described the island in its
greatest period at the beginning of the 16th century: "In this city are
many merchants of substance, and many very great ships. It has a right
good harbour where many sorts of goods are handled which come
hither from many lands, and from here they barter them with many
parts of India. They bring hither spices of all sorts, and divers kinds, to
wit pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamoms, eagle-wood, sandal-wood,

1 2
Ibid., part 3, p. 19. Travels to Tana and Persia, p. 79.

423
 TRADE
brasil-wood, myrobalans, tamarinds, saffron, indigo, wax, iron, sugar,
rice (great store) and cocoa-nuts, as well as great abundance of precious
stones, porcelain and benzoin, by all of which they gain much money.
They have also great plenty of Cambaya, Chaul and Dabul cloths, and
from Bengala they bring many synbafos, which are a sort of very thin
cotton cloth greatly prized among them and highly valued for turbans
and shirts, for which they use them. And from the city of Adem they
bring to Ormus abundance of copper, quicksilver, vermillion, rose-
water, many brocaded cloths, tafetas and ordinary camlets; also from
the lands of the Xeque Ismael come a great quantity of silk, very fine
musk and rhubarb of Babilonia. And from Barem and Julfar come seed
pearls and large pearls, and from the cities of Arabia a great number of
horses come, which they carry hence to India, whither every year they
used to take one and at times two thousand horses, and each one of
these is worth in India, taking good and bad together, three or four
hundred cruzados, more or less according to the demand for them.
And in the ships in which these horses are taken they carry also abun-
dance of dates, raisins, salt and sulphur, also coarse seed pearls in
which the Moors of Narsingua take great delight".1
The administration was competent and strict and, in spite of the
necessity to import all the provisions of daily life, "all the open places
are constantly full of all this food and wood (which also they bring
from outside) in great abundance, and everything is sold by weight at
fixed rates, with very strict regulations; and any person who gives
short weight or departs from the fixed rate and orders given to him, is
punished with great severity". The collection of customs was well
organised, for "this king keeps his governors and collectors of revenue
at those places in Persia and Arabia and the isles which pertain to his
seignory". There would appear to have been an adequate supply of
money without restrictions on its export and generally constant in its
value. It is doubtful if gold was coined there, though it.had a limited
circulation, but it is probable that the special silver coinage, Idris,
which were like thin beans, were minted there, as Duarte Barbosa says.
"All this money", Barbosa affirmed, "silver as well as gold, is in such
plenty" that "as many ships as come to the city with goods, after they
have sold their goods and bought the horses and sinais which they are
to take away with them what balance soever remains over to them"

1
Barbosa i, 93—5.

424
 THE TIMURIDS AND TURKMENS

they take in this coin, "as it circulates much in India and has a good
value there". This acceptance of the lari facilitated trade. Barbosa
specially mentioned connections with Daibul, to which horses were
brought from Hurmuz; Goa, where "the harbour was exceeding good,
had great trade, and many ships of the Moors, came thither from
Mecca, the city of Aden, Ormus, Cambaya and Malabar", where horses
were sold and where "the Ormus merchants take hence in their ships
cargoes of rice (great store), sugar, iron, pepper, ginger and other
spices of divers kinds, and drugs, which they carry thither".1 Large
quantities of rice were also obtained from the west coast of India at
Baticala (Bhatkal), as well as sugar, for bartering for horses and pearls,
and Bacanore, where it was bartered for copper, coconuts and molasses.
Other travellers at the same time corroborate the account of Duarte
Barbosa, such as Tome Pires and Ludovico di Varthema. The latter
comments on the extent of the trade of Bengal from which "fifty ships
are laden every year in the place with cotton and silk stuffs... these
same stuffs go through all Turkey, through Syria, through Persia,
through Arabia Felix, through Ethiopia, and through all India".2
Varthema also mentions, as does Tome Pires, Persian merchants at
Pegu, a great centre for gumlac. This was probably exported in large
olive-coloured jars with dragons and other Chinese motifs in relief and
which were thereafter used for carrying holy water from the Ganges to
Indian merchants residing in Persia. Tome Pires noted Persians and
Armenians at Malacca. An interesting instance of the importance of
local brokers in business transactions is described by Varthema as
having taken place in Calicut and was probably paralleled elsewhere.
Brokers and the money changers (sarrdfs) played extremely important
parts in the organisation of trade.
There was no doubt at all of the extensive well-organised system of
trading which operated along the sea routes. Doubtless greatly facili-
tated by a common religion and language in many parts among the
traders as a result of the spread of Islam in previous centuries, it was
nevertheless protected and encouraged by prince and producer for the
wealth it brought and the revenues it sustained. The merchants were
intrepid, for the voyages were dangerous, uncomfortable and depen-
dent on the monsoons. The ships, apart from the great Chinese junks
and the Portuguese galleons, were simple in construction, "the timbers

1 2
Ibid., pp. I 6 J , 175—8. Varthema, p. 212.

42 5
 TRADE

of which were sewn together with cords and the sails made of rush
mats", or cotton. While the art of navigation was well understood,
there was not a great deal of order on board ships, and there was the
ever-present threat from pirates at sea and brigands on inhospitable
coasts, the fear of shipwreck or at best loss of voyage or goods, or
starvation in a voyage blown off course. A voyage from Hurmuz to
Calicut would last three weeks or more and one from Aden to Calicut
would take up to five weeks in normal conditions.
In assessing the particular trading role of Hurmuz from the 14th to
the 16th centuries in Persian history, it is necessary to bear in mind the
composite nature of the trade and the close connections of traders
inhabiting the Persian Gulf on both its sides. Duarte Barbosa writes of
Hurmuz that "the merchants of this isle and city are Persians and
Arabs", and in considerable detail, if not always completely accurately,
he enumerates all the places of the Gulf and the coastal districts of
Arabia which were to a lesser or greater extent involved with the
kingdom of Hurmuz. The trading was cosmopolitan but the kingdom
itself was virtually autonomous, also administering part of the Persian
mainland. There was no real effort to make it subject to the dynasties
that rose and fell in southern Persia, which had neither the means to
coerce it nor the power to supplant it whilst they benefited from the
trade which was attracted to it. The Safavids sought early to change
this state of affairs and make the kingdom of Hurmuz subject to them
and sent officials to claim a yearly tribute. The vizier, Khwaja 'Attar,
opposed the pretensions of the Safavids as much as the threats of the
Portuguese. Shah Isma'Il sent an ambassador to Goa in 1510, before it
had been taken by Albuquerque, to solicit assistance from the Goanese
ruler in subjecting Hurmuz. Subsequently it was suggested to Albu-
querque that the Portuguese and Persians should jointly effect this, but
this and other requests were rejected. With the conquest of Hurmuz by
Albuquerque in 1515, Persian claims to the island, even to its trading
revenues, were unavailing for a century.

(c) Conclusion

There was, therefore, in Timurid and Turkmen times much commer-

cial activity throughout Persia. The merchant had his standing in con-
temporary society and he had an assured place in the large towns where
accommodation was provided and where retailing was carried out in
426
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

the bazaars. Manufacturing centres at Yazd, Kashan, Isfahan, Shlraz,

Kirman, Tabriz, to mention the major cities, produced a wide variety
of textiles, ceramics, leather work and metal work for local consump-
tion and export. The fine arts flourished; the main palace and mosque
"so well built that I do not know how to describe it" at Tabriz were
regarded by a contemporary Venetian merchant as outstandingly beau-
tiful. The transit trade was extensive from China to the Levant in
which Persian merchants were prominent and Hurmuz was the entre-
pot par excellence. Trade was only very loosely national in character,
unlike that of the following centuries.

3. THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

(a) Introduction
The rise to power of the Safavid dynasty in Persia did not generally, in
the short term, have a profound effect on the Persian economy. During
Shah Isma'Il's early years of achievement, when he held off challenges
to his own supremacy from the Turks and Uzbeks, Persia reacted to
external events rather than took initiatives. There was, however, no
mistaking the militant Shi'ism of Shah Isma'Il, his religious fervour,
irrespective of whether the motivation was political or spiritual. In his
time he deliberately exploited Iran as the seat of a Shl'I
minority sect with all the devotion which such a feeling engenders.
This initially may have proved a weakness, for not only did its self-
conscious sense of self-righteousness make cooperation with Sunnis
difficult, but it led to extravagant claims and aggressive activities. Thus
the Portuguese, in return for Persian assistance against the Turks, were
requested, amongst other demands, to impose the Shl'I creed in Goa,
whilst early efforts to proselytise the Turks of Anatolia provoked
wrathful reprisals from the Sultans. As in the previous century sea
borne trade with India and beyond was maintained through Hurmuz,
though the Persian revenues benefited little. Turkey remained the main
market for silk exports, with increasing reliance on Venetians and
Armenians as intermediaries.
It was on the periphery of Persia that the main events were taking
place with such profound political and economic implications. Power
was shifting from Central Asia to Anatolia. Many reasons have been
advanced for this; many theories formulated. In part it is explained by

427
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the spectacular success of the Ottomans themselves. In part it is the

triumph of the musket over the bow. In part it is the greater rise of
industrial economies with manufacturing skills on a comparatively
large scale which were being developed in Europe over peoples mostly
exchanging raw materials: the facility of cash payments over bartering
arrangements; the skills of navigation and shipbuilding construction
over the mule and camel for transportation. Whatever the validity of
these and other explanations, there is no doubt of the political and
economic changes of the ioth/i6th century. The Turks performed
notable feats of administration, commerce and warfare. The Russians
from Moscow broke free and stretched out from the Baltic to the
Caspian along the Volga and east to Siberia. In Europe the fleets of
Portugal, Spain, England and Holland were mastering the seas, adding
a new dimension to the politics and trade of the period. The whole
Mediterranean world teemed with activity. In Egypt the Mamlfik
domination came to an end. The half century from 1510 to 1560 was
particularly momentous. Shah 'Abbas and the later Safavids were to
derive great advantages from a Persia placed in a decisive position
between East and West.

(b) The northern area

As a result of the enmity between the Uzbeks and the Persians-, which
continued intermittently throughout the century, and the seizure of
Herat by Shah Isma'Il in 1510, which ended the golden age of that
noble city, trade from Persia to Central Asia was reduced. Some trade
continued to flow through Mashhad and Kabul to Bukhara and Balkh
as they remained centres distributing Indian and some European goods
throughout Turkestan. In the second half of the century the Russians
began actively promoting their trade there after they had defeated the
Tartars and taken control of the Volga from Kazan down to the delta
including Astrakhan. Anthony Jenkinson, who passed through the
land of the Tiirkmens in 1561, reported that in Urgench there was little
trade out of Persia, "in most small quantitie not worth the writing",
and that in Bukhara, which gave some evidence of its former greatness
as a yearly great resort of merchants, they were "so beggerly and poore
that there is no hope of any good trade there to be had worthy the
following". There was, however, some Persian trade there, for they
"doe bring thither Craska [coarse linen] wollen cloth, linnen clothe,
428
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

divers kindes of wrought pide silkes, Argomacks [Turkmen horses

crossed with Arab stock] with such like, and doe carrie from thence
redde hides with other Russe wares, and slaves", for which it was the
largest market in Central Asia.1 Besides the Russians, there were some
merchants from India, "but golde, silver, precious stones, and spices
they bring none". "I enquired", adds Jenkinson interestingly, "and
perceuied that all such trade passeth to the Ocean Sea, and the vaines
where all such things are gotten, are in the subiection of the Portin-
gals." Jenkinson could not sell his cloth to the Persian merchants "for
that they bring thither themselves, and is brought unto them as I have
enquired from Aleppo in Syria, and the parts of Turkie". This was
confirmed on his return journey, when he was again informed that "the
chief trade of Persia is into Syria, and so transported into the Levant
seas". The routes were dangerous, thieves abounded, and silver and
copper coinage were in short supply and frequently debased. It was
Russian interest which was to take in the widespread trade to Central
Asia and eventually to culminate in their occupation of the area. On
Jenkinson's return from his Central Asian journey he was accompanied
by "two ambassadors, the one from the King of Boghar [Bukhara], the
other from the King of Balke [Balkh]..." and later "foure more Am-
bassadors sent from the King of Urgence, and other Soltans, his
brethren, unto the Emperor of Russia...".
The acquisition of Siberia by Russia in the latter part of the
ioth/i6th century was also important in both a political and economic
context. The area provided a vast store of furs, particularly sables and
foxes, which became an important item of Russian trade to Persia, and
some gold and silver. The southern Russian pivotal town for trade east
to Central Asia and south to Persia was Astrakhan, 75 miles upstream
on the lower Volga from the Caspian Sea. It had been important for
centuries and during the 3rd/c)th and 4th/ioth centuries had been a link
between the northern Viking communities and the Arab merchants. It
acquired more importance in the Mongol period when Ibn Battuta
described it as "one of the finest of cities, with great bazars", along
with the "fine bazars and harbour" of Azov in the Crimea. As has been
noted, in the 9th/15 th century its trade declined, but with the southern
and eastward expansion of Russia it gradually increased in importance
after its capture in 15 54 and its fortification in the 1580s. It did, how-

1
Jenkinson, Early Voyages i, 72, 87-9.

429
 TRADE

ever, suffer greatly in the anarchical conditions of "the Troubles" over

the Russian succession in the early 17th century.
Jenkinson on his first voyage described its trade as follows. "The
chiefest commodities that the Russes bring thither are redde hides,
redde sheepe skinnes, woodden vessels, bridles, and saddles, knives,
and other trifles, with corne, bacon and other victualles. The Tartars
bring thither divers kindes of wrought silkes; and they that come out
of Persia, namely from Shamackie, do bring sowing silke, which is the
coursest that they use in Russeland, Crasko, divers kindes of pide silkes
for girdles, shirts of male, bowes, swoords, and such like things: and
some yeeres corne, and wallnuts." At that time, however, less than a
decade after its capture by the Russians, it was not an attractive place.
There were "all such things in such small quantitie, the merchantes
being so beggerly and poore that bring the same, that it is not worth
the writing."1
The importance of Astrakhan in the third quarter of the 16th cen-
tury in the context of Persian trade was twofold. Firstly, as a staging
point in the route which stretched from the White Sea to the Caspian
linking Europe and Asia, it was beyond the interference of the Spanish
and Portuguese fleets. From the time of the first English voyage to
Russia in 1553—5 a possible alternative route was available for spices,
silkes and dyes, away from Turkish or Venetian control, and a poten-
tial market for exports of English cloth, which was then and for many
years the staple English export item. As Jenkinson explained to
'Abd-Allah, khan of Shlrvan, "if it would please the sayde Sophie and
other princes of that countrey, to suffer our merchaunts to trade into
those dominions, and to give us passeport and safe conduct for the
same, as the sayde Turke hath graunted to the sayde Venetians, I
doubted not but that it should growe to such a trade, to the profite of
them, as never before had bene the like, and that they should bee both
furnished with our commodities, and also have utterance of theirs,
although there never came Turke into their land...". 2 Unfortunately
Shah Tahmasp, having just concluded a treaty with Hasan Agha, the
Turkish ambassador, in Qazvin in November 1562, was unwilling to
listen to Jenkinson's trade proposals at that time, lest he jeopardise his
improved relations with the Turks. Laurence Chapman later reported
Turkish hostility, their merchants pretending to be friendly "but

1 2
Ibid., pp. 58-9. Ibid., pp. 145—4.

430
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

secretlie they be our mortall enemies, searching by all meanes to hinder

our sales". Arthur Edwards repeated this trade proposition later to
Shah Tahmasp when he promised to bring the merchandise as the
Venetians did, "abundance of fine karsies, of broad clothes, of all sorts
and coulers, as scarlets, violets, and other of the finest cloth of all the
world... by the way of Moscovia, with more safetie and in much
shorter time then the Venetians can bring them".1 The shah was then
agreeable and authorised the necessary privileges.
Secondly, as the most southerly Russian outpost Astrakhan threat-
ened Ottoman interests in the Caucasian area. The six Persian voyages
sponsored by the English Russia Company between 15 60 and 15 80 were
a premature but interesting attempt to reorientate a portion of Persian
trade from its east—west axis to a north—south one. It had attractions for
a Persia that wished to be free from Turkish control over its existing
major export routes. Shah Tahmasp, in giving the Agent of the Russia
Company, Arthur Edwards, the trading privileges and a list of the goods
he wanted on 29 June 1566, made it clear that he "desireth to see of all
sortes, which will be an occasion that the Venetians and Turkes shall be
in lesse estimation than they are, for themselves doe feare and secretly
say the same. And truely the Princes subiects intend to enter into trade
with us for spices and other commodities that they were woont to sell
unto the Venetians and Turkes." Thus at the outset of this trade one of
the main objectives was to displace the Levant-routed merchandise, but
neither then nor later throughout the rest of the Safavid period was this
accomplished either in a northerly or southerly direction. Edwards
realised that "to breake the trade betwixt the Venetians and the whole
company of the Armenians" was not feasible on the resources he had
available; it never was.2
As will already have been noted, trade to a greater or lesser extent
had been carried on between Persia and the trading centres and ports of
the Levant for centuries. The rise of the Ottomans, far from reducing
its importance, increased it. Thus although the English merchants were
in hopes of developing a profitable trade with Persia through Russia,
neither the Venetians, the Armenians nor the Turks were disposed to
surrender their markets lightly. What was at stake was mentioned by
two Russia Company merchants, Thomas Banister and Geoffrey
1
Ibid., n, 415, 416.
2
Ibid., pp. 406, 410; see also p. 397. "I feare you shall be hindrd by the Venetians, if they may;
for I knowe it will grieve them, that you doe trade into these partes."

43 1
 TRADE

Ducket, to Sir William Cecil in 1568: "This matter of Percia towchit

the Etallians and straungers verye neare, for the Etallians have had
the holle trayed of silks and also moche spyces brought by the Vene-
tians, the Flamings; in lyke caise they have the stapill of all Spyces
playsid at Andwarpe [Antwerp] by the Portingales, whereof a greate
parte is utteride in England, so that if we might bringe the Spyces and
silks this waye, they are all towchid, whiche they are not ignorant of."1
Cloth, silk and spices - these were the main trading counters concerned
in this new opening of trade which was definitely acquiring a national
character.
What, then, did the English merchants discover in the Persia of Shah
Tahmasp in their "good hope for a beneffitiall trade of Spices, drugges
and silkes out of Persia"? They were informed that "there is more silke
brought into some one citie of Persia then is of cloth brought into the
citie of London", 2 but, hyperbole aside, silk was the dominant Persian
commodity. It was estimated that raw silk cost between 9/- and 10/- a
lb., that is 60 shahis, at 6d each, a batman of six and a half lbs. at Qazvln
and a mule's lading was 60 batmans. It was thought possible to pur-
chase 60,000—80,000 lbs. yearly at Qa2vln and at Ganja "(if it were not
for the Turkes) for a two hundred thousandes pounds [over 400,000
lbs.] besides silke of all colours died in graine", for about 1 is 6d per lb.
There was no shortage of silk: "there is in those parts to be had three
or foure thousand horses lading, every horse loade being 50 or 60
batmans, beside silke of Groine [Georgia]". The Turks, Venetians
and Armenians had the edge over the English merchants not only in
the regularity of their supplies, the security of their routes and their
superior knowledge of local conditions, but also in their provision of
ready money to facilitate sales. The Turks, according to Arthur
Edwards, "bring great store of silver to be coyned, to wit, Dollars at
ten shaughes the peece. The Hungarie Ducket is at 12 shaughs. And
having monie in readiness at the time of the yeere, they buy silke the
better cheap, when the country men bring it first to be sold."3 For this
reason it was requested "to send some bulion to be coined here; it will
please the prince there, and be profitable to you".
The circulation of precious metals had become complex in the
ioth/i6th century, and with the introduction of large quantities of
silver from South America it was to have increasingly different reper-

1 2 3
Ibid., p. 260. Ibid., p. 420. Ibid., p. 401.

432
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

cussions on national economies. In particular the Turkish economy

suffered from a bad bout of inflation towards the end of the 16th
century, exacerbating its relations with Persia. The movement of
precious metals, particularly in the trade between west and east in the
nth/17th century, was a subject of acute controversy in the state
treasuries. At this time in Persia, according to Vincentio d'Alessandri,
"those who introduce silver from Turkey gain twenty per cent., gold
fourteen and fifteen per cent., and copper sometimes eighteen and
sometimes twenty per cent.; it is true that there are great expenses, as
the exportation of metals is forbidden".1 It was reported by the
English merchants that "there is brought into Persia an incredible
summe of Dutch dolers, which for the most part are there employed in
rawe silke". In exchange for silk or spices English merchants could
only provide cloth in quantity, and for this purpose Qazvln, Tabriz,
Ardabll and Kashan were the places where resided the chief merchants;
Tabriz was "the principall place in this countrey for uttering of cloth
or karsies". Kashan was praised for "a towne that consisteth all
together of merchandise, and the best trade of all the lande is there,
beying greatly frequented by the merchauntes of India. Here our men
bought great store of all maner of wrought silkes and some spices, and
good store of Turkie stones." To the ordinary people who wore rough
cloth, it was hoped to sell kerseys. The wealthier people wore broad
cloth. "They talke such of London clothes" or those from Venice and
preferred bright colours; "violets in graine and fine reds be most
worne". However, though Shah Tahmasp talked of taking 100,000
cloths, this did not materialise, nor was it likely. The shah might
exercise a control over trade, especially of silk, but he was not a
merchant. It was reported that "the Shaugh neuer tooke cloth unto his
treasurie all the dayes of his life, and will not now beginne; his whole
trade is in rawe silke, which he selleth alwayes for money to the
Armenians and Turkes, and such other as use to buy it".2 There was
thus little chance of bartering cloth for silk directly with the shah. The
English merchants were faced with strong competition from the
Venetians and Armenians already entrenched in the complementary
silk and cloth trade at Aleppo, for "the Armenians yeerely receaue at
the Venetians hands kersies in barter for rawe silkes, giving some-
times 60 peeces of kersies for 70 batmans of silke of this countrey, and

1 2
A Narrative of Italian Travels, pp. 225-6. Jenkinson, Early Voyages 11, 411.

435
 TRADE

40 peeces for Grousine [Georgian] silke". It was reported that one

Armenian village "yeerely carrieth 400 and 500 Mules lading of silke
to Aleppo, and bringeth thence 800 or a thousand Mules laden with
kersies and Venice clothes", a mule carrying 60 batmans of silk or 18
kersies.1
The same problem applied to spices, which were, however, in this
period in short supply from Hurmuz owing to Portuguese-Indian
hostilities, and the English merchants were advised to pay for them
"one third part money, the rest, cloth and kersies fitted in coulers meet
for this countrey".
Commodities thought exportable out of Persia for England through
Russia included raw silk, pepper, ginger, nutmegs, mace, cinnamon,
brimstone, alum, rice, galls, cloves and bow staves. Much good cotton
was produced, some of which was exported to Aleppo. Manufacturing
was carried on, and Khurasan was mentioned by Alessandri where
"they worked cloths of silk and especially velvets, which are equal in
excellence to the Genoese; in other parts they work on smooth stuffs
and damask, but not with the finish they have in Italy". Trade, how-
ever, by and large was not flourishing. There are frequent references to
the interruption caused by the dearth of commerce at Hurmuz, or the
effects of warfare around Aleppo, or the difficulties caused by disturb-
ances within the country, or the Cossack brigands at the delta of the
Volga. There was unrest with local notables, for example, in Shlrvan
on the death of 'Abd-Allah Khan, and an almost perpetual state
of Turkish - Persian hostilities. All this reached its climax in the
anarchical state of Persia between the death of Shah Tahmasp and the
accession of Shah 'Abbas I.
There does appear also to have been some deterioration in the accom-
modation and protection offered to travellers, for a number of the
English merchants died or were slain on their journey in the last
quarter of the century. The comments of the merchant Laurence Chap-
man, perhaps prejudiced, were far from flattering. "To travell in this
countrey", he wrote, "is not onely miserable and uncomfortable, for
lacke of townes and villages to harbour in when night commeth, and to
refresh men with wholesome victualles in time of need, but also scarsi-
tie of water, that sometime in three dayes journey together is not found
any droppe fit for man or beast to drinke, besides the great danger we

1
Ibid., pp. 396-7.

434
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

stand in for robbing by these infidels, who do account it remission of

sinnes to wash theyr hands in the bloud of one of us. Better it is,
therefore, in mine opinion, to continue a begger in England during life
then to remaine a rich merchant seven yeeres in this countrey, as some
shall well finde at theyr comming hither."1
Yet, whatever the disturbances caused by local conditions, the
Turks made strenuous efforts to procure the silk needed for the
looms of Bursa and the revenues of the state. They used political
pressure to supplement economic efforts in this as in other areas that
touched their vital interests. Not only did the Turks control the
routes across Anatolia which came through Erzerum, but they also
controlled those to Aleppo along the Upper Euphrates valley after
defeating the Persians at Chaldiran in 920/1514 and the Mamluks at
Marj Dabiq in 922/1516, and those across the desert as a result of
their capture of Baghdad in 941/1534. Thus in the middle of the
ioth/i6th century the Turks controlled all the western outlets for
Persian silk. It was not surprising that they reacted to the threat of a
new northern outlet after the Russian capture of Astrakhan in 1554
and took counter measures.
In the first place there was a cessation of Turkish—Persian hostili-
ties signalised by the Peace of Amasya on 8 Rajab 962/29 May 1555. As
a response to Russian probing advances to the Crimea, the Grand
Vizier, Mehmed Soqollii, conceived of the plan to isolate the Russians,
link up with the Muslim khanates of Central Asia and deprive the
Persians of their silk-growing territories. The Russians were not only a
potential threat to the political and religious prestige of the Turks but a
real threat to their trading interests. It was for these reasons that the
Don-Volga canal project was opposed. "The Muslims were angry
and afraid of Moscow gaining the great commercial roads and market
places and thus bringing the trade of the Muslim countries into their
own hands. The Ottoman Empire, struggling in the Indian Ocean with
the Portuguese for the pilgrim and commercial routes, would certainly
have wished to revive the central-Asian—Astrakhan-Crimean road. If
a canal could be made at the point where the Don and the Volga are
nearest to each other, supplies and ammunition could be brought
directly by ships from the Black Sea to the Caspian... it would be
possible to subjugate Shirvan, Karabagh and the whole of Georgia,

1
Ibid., p. 412.

43 5
 TRADE

and thus the Ottoman Empire could attack the innermost parts of
Iran." 1 It was a geopolitical enterprise on a vast scale for the period,
but it failed, for the idea outran the resources. Besides, Turkey and its
Crimean allies were not only suspicious of each other but differed in
their objectives. Astrakhan was sacked in 1569 and Moscow burnt by
the Tartars a year later, but these were pyrrhic victories over a Russia
that was then ill-prepared to sustain a long campaign, but which once
more found its chief ally in the arduous winter climate.
The Turkish setback was serious but not irreparable. The Turks
made peace with the Venetians and bided their time on their eastern
front when they could strike a blow at Persia, which besides being an
old enemy was the ally of two adversaries, Russia and Portugal. Indeed
Persia "was a potential link between the two vast areas of the Portu-
guese 'oceanic' front and the Russian 'fluvial' front". Once again Persia
was threatened because of its strategic position astride the land mass
connecting Europe and Asia. The Turkish menace, however, then
receded, but Persia's problems remained. The death of Shah Tahmasp
occasioned internal disorders in Persia of which the Turks took advan-
tage and annexed most of Azarbaljan, Georgia, Shlrvan, Luristan and
parts of Gilan. Turkey controlled the main ports on the Caspian and
the silk-producing areas and eventually consolidated her hold by the
treaty signed with the young monarch Shah 'Abbas in 998/1590.
Thereafter, as long as Persian silk remained a commodity in request till
the latter part of the 18th century, Turkish and Russian routes com-
peted.

(c) The southern area

Hurmuz throughout the 16th century continued to play its important
trading role, having a "greate traffique", according to Van Linschoten,
for "it is the staple for all India, Persia, Arabia and Turkie, and of all
the places and Countries about the same, and commonly it is full of
Persians, Armenians, Turkes, and all nations, as also Venetians, which
lie there to buy spices and precious stones, that in great abundance
are brought thether [of all parts] of India, and from thence are sent
overland to Venice, and also carried throughout all Turkie, Armenia,
1
Allen, Problems of Turkish Power, p. 25. On earlier related aspects of the East Indies trade for
the Turks and Persians, see H.J. Kissling, "Sah Isma'il I", 'a nouvelle route des Indes et les
Ottomans", Turcica vi (1975), 89—102.

436
 THE EARLY SAFAVID PERIOD

Arabia, Persia and every way. There are likewise brought thether, all
manner of marchandises from the same Countries, that is from Persia —
out of the Countrie called Coracone and Dias, and other places, great
store of rich Tapestrie [and Coverlets] which are called Alcatiffas
[carpets]: out of Turkie all manner of Chamlets: out of Arabia divers
sortes of Drugges for Poticaries, as Sanguis Draconis, Manna, Mirre,
Frankinsence and such like, divers goodly horses, that are excellent for
breeding, all manner of most excellent Orientall Pearles..."1 There
appears to be no significant change in the goods and commodities
passing through Hurmu2, in spite of the Portuguese pass system
controlling the movements of local shipping or the exactions of
Portuguese officials who claimed extra duties on trade there. Van Lin-
schoten mentions the larls coined at Lar from fine silver and "brought
thether in great quantities, whereby there is as great dealing with them,
as with other merchandises, because of the greate gaine that is gotten
by them and in India they goe very high". The treasure drain to India
had commenced long before the arrival of European companies there
in the nth/17th Century. At Diu, Cambay and Chaul there continued
to exist much traffic to Hurmuz, subject to Portuguese pass restric-
tions. An indication of the rising power of the Mughals was the
growing importance of Agra, which had become a "great resort of
merchants from Persia and out of India, and very much merchandise of
silk and cloth and of precious stones, both rubies, Diamonds and
Pearls".
Van Linschoten stated that the reason for such a great traffic was
that "every yeare twice there commeth a great companie of people over
land which are called Caffiles or Carvanes, which come from Aleppo,
out of the Countrie of Surie three dales iornie from Tripoli which lyeth
uppon the west of the Mediterranean Sea,... in the months of April and
September. There is a Captaine and certain hundreths of Iannisaries,
which connvaye the said Caffila untill they come to the Towne of
Bassora, from whence they travaile by water unto Ormus." 2 The mer-
chants were informed of the movements of the caravans, which were
protected against marauding Arabs. At Basra they regrouped on the
way down to Hurmuz or up to Aleppo, "whereby all manner of
merchandises, out of all places are brought thether in great abundance,
by great numbers of traveling Marchants". It was, quite clearly, true

1 2
Linschoten i, 47. Ibid., p. 48.

437
 TRADE

that "Basra continued to be, in the mid 16th century, an active centre
of commerce with Asia".1 Not only is the testimony of the customs
registers conclusive, but contemporary literary evidence is corrobora-
tive. "There is a trade with Hurmuz, whence come all Indian wares:
with Barhen, Catifa, Lasan, Persia, Baghdad, and all Arabia there-
abouts". 2
It was equally apparent that some Venetian merchants had estab-
lished themselves well in Hurmuz, such as the Stropene family who
resented the appearance of three English traders there in 1583. The
Portuguese at Lisbon informed those on Hurmuz that "you shall take
great heed that neither these people nor other similar ones be allowed
in those parts, the which you shall order to be specially guarded against
at the fortress of Ormuz, which is the gateway by which they are
chiefly likely to enter".3 This the Venetians did so successfully that the
Portuguese authorities arrested the English merchants and sent them
off to Goa, from which they subsequently escaped. In this case as over
other Europeans, the Spanish and Portuguese, whose crowns were
united in 15 8o, were very strict. It was not simply that there was rivalry
in Europe but a sense of insecurity arising from the arrival of English
and Dutch shipping, which was penetrating further and more fre-
quently into oceans that had been considered exclusively for the use
and benefit of the Spanish and Portuguese.
The Turks had reacted to the threat posed by the Portuguese astride
their maritime routes to the east with seafaring expeditions mounted at
great cost to challenge the Portuguese from 15 20 to 1585. In spite of
limited successes, they failed to dislodge the Portuguese; but they
unsettled them. Because of this activity, the pertinacity of established
traders, the increasing security of the routes across Arabia, the desire of
Portuguese governors at Hurmuz to profit from trade and the ingen-
uity of local shippers, the Portuguese authorities were never able offici-
ally to operate an effective embargo on trade from the east through
Hurmuz towards Basra and through Baghdad to Aleppo. The propor-
tion of the total trade in Hurmuz may have fallen, but the volume
remained significant and Hurmuz prospered. This state of affairs lasted
till the end of the second decade of the 17th century. After Hurmuz

1
R. Mantran, "Reglements Fiscaux Ottomans de la Province de Bassora (2e moitie du XVe
2
siede)", JESHO x (1967), 226. Teixeira, p. 29.
3
Philip II of Spain to Viceroy of India, 2; Feb. 1585, quoted in Teixeira, p. xxviii. See also
Tucci, "Mercanti Veneziani".

438
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I
was captured by the Persians in 1031/1622 and practically destroyed, its
place as a port was taken by Gombroon, renamed Bandar 'Abbas, on
the mainland opposite, a mile or so away.

(d) Conclusion
Throughout the ioth/i6th century, in spite of frequent Persian —
Turkish hostilities, the external trade of Persia persisted. In terms of
Persian exports the main commodity was silk, which was exported in
quantity to Turkey where it was either consumed in the Turkish silk
industry based at Bursa or purchased by Venetian merchants for Euro-
pean markets. The silk from the northern provinces of Persia also
provided the raw material for the main weaving centres of Yazd,
Kashan, and Kirman. Trade to and from Central Asia flagged and did
not revive significantly till early in the nth/17th century, when the
Russian expansion to the Caspian was consolidated. The enterprise of
English traders between 15 60 and 15 80 was an interesting development
bringing a new trading force onto the Persian economic scene, but
their efforts to re-route Persian trade from its Levant-orientated axis to
a northerly one failed in the face of Turkish, Venetian and Armenian
opposition. It did, however, demonstrate clearly the close connection
between the cloth and silk trades, for they were a complementary
exchange. Without cloth exports English traders would not have had
the resources to pay for silk imports, lacking the greater Venetian
supplies of silver currency. In the south, notwithstanding the arrival of
the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean and their control over Hurmuz,
goods from India and the East Indies continued to reach Hurmuz in
quantities for onward shipment up the Gulf and across Arabia or
through Persia to Mediterranean ports. Persia, though becoming a
stronger power, did not reap the advantages from this transit trade
owing to the Portuguese control over the revenues obtained at Hur-
muz. Persia realised the importance of this trade but lacked the power
to have its rights protected.

4 . THE REIGN OF SHAH 'ABBAS I

{a) Introduction
The economic, like the political, condition of Persia at the opening of
the reign of Shah 'Abbas I was very unstable. The turmoil of the civil

439
 TRADE

war prior to his accession had adversely affected trade. The arbitrary
exactions of provincial governors, the lack of responsible central
authority, tribal confusion and the atmosphere of uncertainty caused
by two erratic monarchs and their courts were not conducive to trade.
There were hostilities with the Turks, whose occupation of the main
silk-producing provinces and whose incursions around the towns and
along the routes severely affected the Persian silk trade and its connec-
tions with the eastern Mediterranean. The intermittent insurrections of
parts of Georgia, Armenia and elsewhere were a constant drain on
resources.
The southern trade which flowed into and up the Persian Gulf
through Hurmuz and which was fairly strictly controlled by the Portu-
guese, both officially and unofficially, was gradually lessening.
Although some Persian merchants and shipping continued to partici-
pate in the seaborne trade with north-west India, Arabia, the east coast
of Africa and beyond, many of the caravans were bypassing Persia and
going through Mesopotamia. The arrival of Dutch and English trad-
ing ships in the Indian Ocean to challenge Portuguese and Spanish
dominance there upset the Portuguese navigational pass system
whereby they had attempted to control the local shipping routes. As a
result such shipping increasingly suffered. Although it was not com-
pletely damaged, it became more cautious in its sailings, so reducing
the volume of its trade. In the north-east the disturbances among the
Uzbeks and their incursions into Khurasan hardly promoted trade.
The overland routes through Kabul and Qandahar were suffering not
only from Uzbek attentions but also from Akbar's activities to consoli-
date his empire. All these developments reacted adversely upon trade,
disrupting but not entirely preventing it. Indeed one of the economic
constants among the variables of economic history was concisely
expressed by one of the first English traders to Persia in 1618:
"Marchantes muste hazard that will trade."
Thus Shah 'Abbas inherited an unpromising political and economic
legacy. As long as the trading routes to the east were under the control
of the Uzbeks, whilst the Portuguese dictated the course of trade in the
south and the Turks possessed the silk-producing provinces in the
north-west, Persia was almost economically strangled. Without
revenue, Persia was without power. The manner in which Shah 'Abbas
defeated the Uzbeks, restored the silk-producing provinces to Persian
sovereignty and acquired possession of Hurmuz is recounted
440
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

in chapter 5. It was a prerequisite not only for the resumption of

trading on the previous scale but for an expansion of Persian trade,
upon which Shah 'Abbas placed such a vital emphasis and to which he
devoted so much effort.

(b) Early policy

There are two main aspects of Persian trade to be considered in this
period. Firstly, there was the maximum advantage to be derived from
exporting the produce and manufactures of Persia. Secondly, there was
the revenue to be obtained from the transit trade, which was always a
feature of Persian economic life by virtue of its position astride the
great land routes connecting Europe and Asia. Shah 'Abbas recognised
that the key to Persian economic prosperity lay in silk, the export of
which he fostered and controlled himself. This was the one commodity
in which Persia was then pre-eminent. The provinces of Georgia,
Shlrvan and Gllan had the right climatic and soil conditions for the
growth of mulberry trees, upon the leaves of which the silkworms fed
before they became the chrysalises, having spun around their cocoon
the light gossamer silk threads. The damp, close humid atmosphere
was right for the rearing of silkworms and the region was famous for
its silk industry. The total production of silk seems to have been
increasing from the early part of the ioth/i6th century not only in
Persia, but in the Levant, the islands of the Aegean, and Italy. Silk
became an important element in the Turkish economy and was contri-
buting greatly to the revenue of the Ottoman treasury, apart from
dues, services, hire, lodging and general expenses exacted from and
disbursed by the caravans traversing the country.
For Persia the exports of silk were crucially important, for whilst
Persia generally had an unfavourable balance of trade with the east, it
was favourable with the west. With the proceeds from the sales of silk
Persia principally imported cloth but, most important, coined money
was acquired without which a circulating Persian coinage would have
been almost impossible. Persia did not have any real gold or silver
mines and as there were not enough exports to balance the imports of
cotton goods, spices and drugs from the east, the balance was made up
in money, part of the flow of precious metals eastwards. As the
ioth/i6th century progressed and the volume of silver arriving in
Europe from South America increased, setting off with other factors a
441
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significant price rise, so did inflationary pressures mount and the

Persian need for silver grow.
At the same time Turkey was also experiencing many of .the same
conflicting trading pressures on economic and social conditions. Some
Turkish responses were to prohibit the export of precious metals to
Persia, to insist on barter transactions in exchanging silk for cloth or to
create more state industry to supplant Persian trade. These actions
singly or together in various combinations were implemented at differ-
ent times during the ioth/i6th century. Their double object was to
strengthen the Turkish economy and weaken that of Persia by denying
it outlets for its major export, except under conditions strictly advan-
tageous to the Turks, thus directly reducing Persian revenue and in-
directly curbing its power by depriving it of the means to purchase
strategic materials. Such measures were, however, never permanently
effective or successful, for the two economies were too closely inter-
dependent. Furthermore, the Turks never developed satisfactory alter-
native supplies of silk nor adequately enforced their restrictions.
Conversely, all the reasons pressing the Turks to extend their hold
over the Persian silk trade applied to Persia; but, weaker both politically
and militarily, Persia had been unable to exert much pressure on Turkey.
Nevertheless it was not a state of affairs which could be long contem-
plated with equanimity by Shah 'Abbas I. Whilst his enthusiasm for the
possibilities of foreign trade may have been whetted by the opportune
arrival of the English adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley in Qazvln, when
the shah had just returned in triumph from his victories over the Uzbeks
in 1007/1598, there were earlier precedents for Persian attempts to
bypass the Turks either through Russia or with Venetians. The range of
possibilities, however, was extended as a result of the English and Dutch
maritime presence in the Indian Ocean. The Cape route added a new
dimension to the issue, for it would be invulnerable to Turkish counter-
measures and as such had a strong appeal to Shah 'Abbas. Yet more
immediate was the need to restore the territorial integrity of Persia by
reoccupying the silk-producing provinces and expelling the Turks. The
shah envisaged that this could be accomplished in collaboration with
certain European powers, to whom he despatched Sir Anthony Sherley.
He was prepared to offer, in return for such assistance, a share in the
monopoly of the Persian silk exports and privileged trading opportuni-
ties. He sought papal support by promising to tolerate the residence of
Christian missionaries.
442
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

During the crucial two decades of his struggles with the Turks, Shah
'Abbas waited vainly for any decisive intervention on the part of the
European powers. The initial Sherleian mission failed because of its
inability to persuade any of the countries visited to take any real action
and because of mistrust amongst its members aggravated by the
recriprocal antipathy of Sir Anthony Sherley and his Persian colleague,
Husain 'All Beg. It was a pattern that was frequently repeated in the
embassies of Shah 'Abbas to Europe, which were more memorable for
their internal dissensions than their actual successes. The Sherleian mis-
sion was followed by others to Venice, Rome and Spain. Venice was
reluctant to jeopardise its relations with Turkey. The Pope was
enthusiastic but ineffectual. Spain was interested, but Persia was insig-
nificant compared to its more pressing problems of the Dutch and
English penetrating oceans that were once considered exclusively
within the Spanish and Portuguese sphere. These embassies produced
no tangible evidence of a European commitment to an alliance with
Persia against the Turks. Communications were long, distances great,
trust ephemeral; and, besides, a certain trade with Turkey was not to be
hazarded for a hypothetical one with Persia.
Another concerted attempt was made with the mission of Anthony
Sherley's brother, Robert, who had been left behind by his brother in
Persia as a hostage and had distinguished himself in Persian military
service and as a minor provincial governor. He was sent in 1607 to
persuade the Spaniards to establish a silk staple at Hurmuz and ship it
to Europe in association with Persian and Armenian merchants. The
Spanish were reluctant to become involved in such a trade, for they did
not possess adequate facilities to handle it themselves and so would
have had to rely upon others to dispose of the silk at no great profit to
themselves. Also they were unwilling to waive customs and duties,
thereby reducing the advantages to the Persians and Armenians in
promoting such a trade. Furthermore, although the Spaniards and
Portuguese had been united under one crown since 15 80, they did not,
as it were, speak with one voice. The Portuguese resentment of any
Spanish interference in their affairs in the east resulted in the failure to
formulate any agreed policy. It was a mass of contradictory decisions.
Since Goa and Hurmuz would have been the main administrative and
trading centres in such an enterprise, Portuguese cooperation was
essential. Sir Robert Sherley's subsequent visits to Rome, Holland and
England were also inconclusive. Although he was well received by the

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English court he was rejected by the majority of English merchants.

Some time before Sir Robert Sherley returned to Persia in 1615,
Shah 'Abbas had realised that an alliance was unlikely, for he had
received little beyond missionary solicitude and expressions of support.
After his victories over the Turks in 1608, with his recovery of much
of the silk-producing area, a fragile peace ensued and he started to
assert his authority in the south. His general, Imam Qull Khan, re-
duced Laristan and captured the mainland areas with the port and fort
of Gombroon opposite the island of Hurmuz and took Bahrain in
1614, which had been occupied by small Portuguese garrisons. These
successes had an undoubted prestige value but were not militarily or
economically significant whilst shipping was still controlled from
Hurmuz itself. They marked, nevertheless, the determination of Shah
'Abbas to reassert Persian claims of sovereignty over lost territories,
freedom for its trade, and an end to an intolerable political and
religious situation aggravated by Portuguese behaviour. Carmelite
missionaries had clearly remarked on the likelihood of such action
some years before. Since the Persians were no match for Portuguese
sea power and since the fort on Hurmuz was virtually impregnable to
any assault unaccompanied by artillery, in which the Persians were
deficient, there was no real danger to the Portuguese. The Persians for
their part realised that they stood little chance of wresting Hurmuz.
from the Portuguese without naval and military assistance.
Before Shah 'Abbas could attempt to exploit his success in the south,
three events occurred, each of which had its own significance and
which taken together presaged important developments. Firstly, hos-
tilities with the Turks, which had been smouldering, broke out again
in 1024/1615, and the shah found himself hard pressed. So once again
Persian silk exports were at risk without alternative markets. Secondly,
Sir Robert Sherley arrived back from his disappointing European
embassy and within a short time he was despatched again, primarily on
a mission to Spain. His task was threefold: to renew the call for an
alliance, to reassure the Spaniards over Hurmuz but maintain the
Persian claims to the mainland, and to revive the proposals for trade.
The third event was the arrival in Isfahan of two Englishmen, sent by
the Council of the East India Company at Surat, to investigate the
possibilities for trade with Persia. The English company, which had
established itself in Surat in 1612 against Portuguese opposition, had
failed to find adequate outlets for quantities of cloth, the main English

444
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

export item, and was looking for other markets. The shah, impatient at
his failure to induce the Spanish to take up the trade and still very
anxious to lessen his dependence on Turkish-controlled export chan-
nels, affirmed the opportunities for trade and authorised the necessary
permission and privileges to the English company. Perhaps his main
consideration was that an English interest would more than counter-
balance that of the Portuguese on Hurmuz and that he would be able
to play one off against the other. He may also have been hoping for a
supply of armaments, which he was being denied by the Portuguese
but which he needed against the Turks.
At all events, the first English group of merchants arrived off Jask
on 4 December 1616 to inaugurate trade with Persia, notwithstanding
the lack of enthusiasm of the English ambassador to the Mughal court,
Sir Thomas Roe. Roe was apprehensive over the attitudes of the
Portuguese and the Turks, who would see their interests threatened if
English trade became settled and who would take counter-measures to
prevent its establishment. The ambassador was convinced that when
Persia and Turkey made peace trade would return to its traditional
channels and the shah would break his promises to divert it south-
wards. He doubted whether the volume of trade would support the
expenditure or provide a sufficient exchange of commodities or enough
money to make it profitable. His caution was reasonable. Although
Shah 'Abbas had accomplished much, the state of the country was not
really settled. The shah did not receive complete support and he was
suspicious of the intentions of his family and court, as revealed by his
later murder of his eldest son. Not all his court agreed that the warfare
against the Turks should be sustained until the Persians had won
decisively, and many proposed peace on terms that were unacceptable
to the shah. Money was in extremely short supply, and only the shah
himself was trading on any scale. The crisis was weathered and the
shah emerged more powerful than ever. Peace was concluded with the
Turks on satisfactory terms in 1027/1618 and the long "Hundred
Years' War" with Turkey was almost over.
Shah 'Abbas, with his western and northern frontiers guaranteed
and his trade routes to the Mediterranean again open, was free to turn
his attention to the south and east. Conclusive evidence of his inten-
tions is indicated by his attitude to the Spanish ambassador from Philip
III, Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa. He left him in no doubt in 1617
that he was not prepared to discuss Spanish claims to the mainland or

445
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return the island of Bahrain. The English merchants, meanwhile, had

not made an impressive appearance, for, lacking supplies, short of
money, opposed by the merchants, abused by the officials and uncer-
tain of their prospects, they were quite unprepared and unable to make
any extensive purchases of silk, only obtaining 71 bales in their first
two years. They persevered, expecting better prospects. The shah
approved of their presence, even if he was disappointed with their
purchases, for they might be persuaded to assist him one day against
the Portuguese. Equally, he was not prepared to offend the Portuguese
without cause, for he was still dependent upon their goodwill over the
trade on Hurmuz. He had his reservations about the English, for he
had seen little evidence of their power, but this opinion was changed as
a result of the English company's successes at sea against the Portu-
guese off Hurmuz in 1621. The following year a pretext was found to
hold the bales of silk bought by the English on the point of being
shipped out. Restoration was made conditional upon the English
company's fleet assisting the Persians to bombard the Portuguese forts
on Kishm and Hurmuz and ferry Persian soldiers across the sea to
assault the Portuguese garrison. Inadequately defending themselves,
the Portuguese capitulated and the Persians under Imam Qull Khan
occupied Hurmuz.

(c) Persian trade in the second decade of the ijth century

Thus within four years Shah 'Abbas had effectively freed Persia from
the Turkish menace and the Portuguese blockade, and in the very same
year he took Qandahar. All the frontiers were open and the routes free,
two indispensable conditions for an expansion of Persian trade. What
then was Persian trade at this time?1 Firstly to be considered are Persian
exports, and of those suitable for England silk was the most important.
It is described as coming principally from four main areas: Georgia,
which had three kinds, Ardass, Ardasett and Canaree and which pro-
duced about 60,000 mans, but in 1618 only produced 30,000 mans
because "at present in regard of the last warrs in those partes the
Countrye is much dyvasted and dispeopled" and it sold for 220 shdhis a
man2; Gllan, where silk came from several regions such as Lahijan and
1
The following account of Persian trade in the reign of 'Abbas I is derived from the letters of
two English merchants: see Ferrier, "An English View".
2
Generally a man was 12J lbs, a shah! jd, and a tuman worth £3.ios.

446
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

Rasht, producing about 81,000 mans selling for between 220 and 236
shahis a man; Mazandaran, producing 57,000 mans selling for 200
shahis a man; and Khurasan, producing 34,000 mans of very fine silk
which was unsuitable for carrying to Europe, but of which a consider-
able quantity was carried overland to India via Lahore or transported
by ship from Hurmuz to Sind, worth between 350 and 360 shahis a
man. Some silk was also produced in Kirman, Yazd and a few other
places. Thus it was estimated that the total production of Persian silk
then was 232,000 mans (2,900,000 lbs. or 125 tons), of which a third
was retained for internal uses to be made into carpets or textiles.
Textiles included velvets made in Yazd and Kashan of all colours,
costing between 120 and 200 shahis a length of 6 | yards, many satins,
damasks and taffetas which were in good supply, usually 26 inches wide
and 6 | yards long, worth 48 shahis a piece. The taffetas were comparable
to similar European kinds, but the other textiles were less esteemed.
Cloths of gold and silver made in Isfahan, Kashan or Khurasan varied
greatly in price according to the quality and work, from 200 to 2,000
shahis. There were bezoar stones from Kirman, turquoises, a royal
monopoly, from Khurasan, civet, opium which was better than that
grown in India, and all kinds of nuts and fruits such as walnuts,
pistachios, almonds, prunes, raisins and dates.
Among the goods for India were runds (madder), used as a red dye,
mostly grown around Ardabll but procurable in Isfahan, costing 10
shahis a man and carried overland in quantities into India via Qanda-
har; saltpetre, which although obtained at Lar was a royal monopoly
and its export prohibited; pearls fished off Bahrain, of which the best
were supposed to be reserved for the shah and were better than any to
be found elsewhere in the world; rosewater worth 6j shahis for 1^
gallons and other essences, besides silk and textiles already mentioned.
First among the commodities from England vendible in Persia were
cloths, either broad cloths in various bright colours, of which in
lengths of 32 yards, costing £\o—£\z pounds each, between 600 and
1,000 might be sold yearly for 34—36 shahis a yard, or kersies, a
rougher cloth. Tin, of which 40—50 tons a year were used in Persia,
came principally from Malacca and was worth 48—50 shahis a man;
brass was not required; quicksilver not much requested, being sold for
140-145 shahis a man. Lead was almost as cheap as in England, for it
was mined in the country, as was iron in Gllan and Hamadan, worth 7
shahis a man. Copper was greatly used for all kinds of utensils and, as it

447
 TRADE

was an import prohibited by the Portuguese, was brought in overland

from India at great charge: in plates it was worth 40—44 shahls a man,
in ingots 34-36 shahls a man. Hides, of which 300-400 were sold
annually, were used for saddles, coarse carpets and drinking vessels
and worth, according to quality and size, 50-80 shahls each; furs were
in demand, for "noe man in the cold season is without a coate lyned
with one furre or other". A limited quantity of vermilion, worth
180-224 shahls a man, and cochineal, worth 2,400 shahls a man; some
walrus teeth, 80-100 mans annually, worth 190-200 shahls a man, and
large coral beads, worth 24-30 shahls each depending on their size for
use as prayer beads, would sell. Ornaments of all kinds were wanted.
Indian goods which could be disposed of in Persia included metals
such as copper, iron and steel, the last of which was expensive in Persia
owing to it being another commodity prohibited by the Portuguese
and carried into Persia overland from India. White calicoes in particu-
lar and Indian cloth in general sold well in Persia in various qualities
and kinds at differing prices to good profit. Sashes, of which there were
innumerable varieties from different places such as Agra and Patna, and
coloured cloths from Ahmadabad, Agra and Lahore used for lining
coats and quilt coverings had good sales. Powdered sugar was con-
sumed from Bengal, Siirat, Agra and Lahore, and some 300 tons were
sold yearly at 19—20 shahls a man, as well as sugar candy. It was
transported by ship or brought overland from India. Conserves, such
as ginger and "mirabolins", had a limited sale of about 1,000 mans.
Some cassia fistula, a medical product from the leaves of the Pudding
Pipe tree, and aloes from Socotra had a limited sale. Of saffron from
Daibul about 10,000 mans could be sold yearly, and of "cardemons"
from Cannanore about 2,000 mans for 54—5 8 shahls a man. Of gumlack
from Siam, worth 64-70 shahls a man, about 5,000 mans annually, and
of indigo about 100 churls, worth 36-38 shahls a man for the Biana
kind and 22—24 f° r Serquess, were used for dyeing. A considerable
amount of camphor, worth 230—240 shahls a man, was imported for
funeral purposes. Coffee brought in from Moccha costing 24-26 shahls
a man was drunk "heere as tobacco in England for idlenesse". About
2,000 mans of tamarind were sold for 6-8 shahls a man. Packaging
materials such as rough cloths, cord and cotton wool for bags and bales
were expensive. Some 20,000 sheets of paper from Ahmadabad were
imported, costing about 3 shahls a sheet.
The main commodities received from the East Indian islands and
448
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

Ceylon were spices. It was thought that ioo tons of pepper were sold
annually at 30—36 shahls a man, 10 tons of cloves from 90—100 shahls a
man, and a small quantity of mace, nutmeg and cinnamon. Chinese
goods imported included "all sorts of China ware [which] are heere
both in greate esteeme and use which beinge sorted of all si2es, pryces
and fashions will vend heere at least 100 tonns per annum", ginger,
camphor and China roots. Logwood from Pegu in Siam or Cochin on
the Indian coast was used in dyeing, some 5,000 mans being sold at 3 2
and 20 shahls a man respectively.
Whilst this list seems reasonably complete, it must be remembered
that it is primarily concerned with goods bought or sold in Persia, but
not necessarily all consumed there. Furthermore, because it is con-
cerned primarily with English interests there are some omissions.
Wine, galls marketed in Hamadan, goat's and fine lamb's wool are not
mentioned among the exports nor precious stones among the imports.
Apart from textiles and carpets, it does not provide information on
industry, such as saddlery and glass-making in Shlraz, the copper and
tinsmiths of Isfahan, Kirman and Kashan, the silversmiths of Tabriz,
the pottery of Kirman or Mashhad. It is to be assumed that at this time
most of those products were consumed within the country and did not
form an appreciable percentage of exports.

(d) The arrival of the English and Dutch trading companies

Such then was the scope of Persian trade. What further measures or
actions did Shah 'Abbas take to foster it? There was the deliberate
attempt to encourage further foreign enterprise in Persia, not only to
offset the dominant role of the overland Levant routes, but also to
stimulate an expansion of trade in all directions. The Levant trade was,
in any case, growing as the European trading companies became more
established in Ottoman cities. Embassies were received. Relations with
Bukhara and Balkh and other Central Asian khanates were intensified,
partly on political, partly on economic grounds. With the Portuguese
weakening, the shah especially encouraged the English and Dutch
trading companies. The English East India Company, with little
option, had rendered singular service in helping the Persians to force
the Portuguese from their base and emporium on Hurmuz. The
Persians transferred the commercial organisation of Hurmuz to
Gombroon, which was renamed Bandar 'Abbas. The buildings upon

449
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Hurmuz were allowed to collapse and its fame and facilities withered
away in neglect. The Persians hoped to force either the English or Dutch
companies into attacking Muscat, then occupied by the Portuguese,
with a view to extending Persian power to the western shore of the
Persian Gulf and completely eliminating the Portuguese from the area.
The English and Dutch, however, would not allow themselves to be
used in this way and the Persians eventually reached an accommodation
with the Portuguese in 1630 to grant them the use of the port of Kung
with certain rights. This put an end to nearly twenty years of intermit-
tent hostilities between them and opened the Persian Gulf to all
shipping.
The opportunities offered to the English and Dutch companies were
more important. The English company was granted special privileges
including relief from customs for its imports, no liability for road taxes
and the half of the customs revenue from Bandar 'Abbas in return for its
assistance in the capture of Hurmuz. Although possessed of them, it was
not always accorded its rights, and only obtained about a tenth, at the
most, of its share of the customs. The earliest agreement to trade had
been obtained by Richard Steele and John Crowther in 1615 but was
subsequently renegotiated and later confirmed on the accession of Shah
Safiin 1038/1629. It lasted with relatively little alteration till the reign of
Shah Sultan Husain and corresponded in broad terms to the treaties
concluded with the Dutch in 1624 and the French in 1664.
In principle, the articles granted the residence of an English repre-
sentative in Persia or a Persian one in England; and fair treatment at
the ports of entry according to local conditions and charges so that
traders would not be abused. In the event of shipwreck, no hindrance
to salvage was to be offered or theft committed. There was freedom to
travel anywhere within the country for the purpose of buying and
selling goods without restrictions; religious toleration on all sides; and
permission to keep and use arms in the defence of person or property.
If a man was killed in the act of robbery, the English were not to be
called to account for it, or if he was taken the robber was to be
punished in the presence of the English; but if he was an Englishman,
the English were to have the right to take what action they thought fit
themselves. The possession of a residence was confirmed for the dura-
tion of their stay; the English Representative was responsible for the
punishment of offending Englishmen without recourse to the local
judiciary; respect was to be shown at all times to the nominated deputy
450
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I
of the chief representative. They were guaranteed protection against
offences by local people wherever it might be; respect to be shown to
all employees of the English and no man to be prohibited their service;
the redemption of any slaves from Turkey proved to be English on due
payment to the master; no interference in the estate of any Englishman
dying in Persia and the right to a proper burial; the return of orphaned
children born of Christian parents to the Representative. Ordinary
English merchants were to pay no more customs than were exacted in
the Ottoman empire at Aleppo or Istanbul, and if any losses occurred
along the routes, the road guards were responsible for finding the
goods or paying their value upon an affidavit sworn in the presence of
a priest or representative. Any dispute between English merchants
involving less than £66 was to be decided in the presence of an English
representative according to Persian law, and if for a greater amount the
same procedure was to be followed, but in the presence of the Repre-
sentative. And lastly, any goods not disposed of were to be allowed to
be returned without difficulty.1
The Dutch United East India Company first arrived in Persia on 20
June 1623, when Huybert Visnich, as chief merchant, landed from the
Heusden at Bandar 'Abbas. He had been sent by Pieter Van den Broecke,
who had been appointed the first Dutch director for Arabia, Persia and
India in 1620. The Dutch soon made their presence felt and claimed and
won the same customs privileges as the English. They soon became the
leading importer of spices into Persia. An agreement was concluded in
1624. There was intense rivalry between the English and Dutch compa-
nies in the east, and the Dutch soon vaunted to the Persians their
superior resources. The English, less well provided, resented this Dutch
intrusion, for "they have builded uppon our foundations and reaped
where wee had plowne". The Dutch mainly sold spices, purchased silk
and obtained ready money through the favourable balance of trade
which they were building up with Persia. The English, almost on the
point of abandoning Persian trade in 1625, were reluctant to go, "lest
our refusall should induce itts delyverie to the Dutch", and so remained
after better assurances of support from the shah.
Meanwhile, in London from 1623 to 1626, Sir Robert Sherley on his

1
The English treaties are to be found in the India Office [I.O.] Library: with 'Abbas I,
E/3/5/661 (14 June 1618); with Safi I, G/29/1 (1629); with Sulaiman, E/3/52/6416 (1697).

451
 TRADE

second mission was once again endeavouring to persuade English

merchants to take a more active part in Persian trade. Now that the
Portuguese had been removed from Hurmuz, the Persians, he argued,
could defend their shores themselves if only they were provided with
"prefabricated" galleys which could be assembled in the Persian Gulf.
When English merchants claimed they could not cope with all the
Persian silk exported, not having a sufficient range of suitable goods,
nor adequate supplies of ready money, he suggested that Persian
merchants "may passe ther goods in such Englishe shippinge as goes
ordynarily thether, And which your Merchants are not able to lade
themselves, paying such ffraytage as Merchants, with Merchants, may
agree upon". It was a shrewd and interesting approach aimed at over-
coming the inadequacies of Persian shipping and opening up new and
unrestricted markets for Persian merchants by utilising the recently
opened sea routes. At the same time it offered a means of overcoming
the chronic shortage of ready money for foreign investments that
afflicted English and most other European trading for most of the 17th
century. James I was impressed with Sherley's advocacy and recom-
mended the English merchants that "you take into your serious con-
sideration and care both the furtherance and manner of settleing of it,
as may bee best for the weale of our Kingdome". The king might
propose it, but it was the merchants who decided. The East India
Company was very reluctant to get entangled with Sherley, and the
Levant Company objected to the idea.
At this stage Shah 'Abbas took the last of his diplomatic trade
initiatives. He despatched embassies to England and Holland, the first
under Naqd 'All Beg, which arrived early in February 1626 at
Portsmouth in the Star, and the second under MQsa Beg, which arrived
on 9 February in the same year. Little is known of the exact circum-
stances in which these embassies were despatched, but certain explana-
tions are likely. Shah 'Abbas probably recognised that the presence of
both the English and Dutch companies in Persia was counterbalancing
and favourable to Persia. He therefore probably decided to treat both
countries impartially, and as he was hoping to conclude a treaty with
the Dutch it was an opportune moment to confirm his interest in
England. Be that as it may, it is likely that a renewal of hostilities
between the Persians and Turks over Baghdad and unrest in Anatolia
were adversely affecting trade again and raised once more the question
of alternative markets. The Portuguese, dispossessed of Hurmuz, were

452
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I
still harrying the Persian coasts and interfering with shipping, so pro-
tection was necessary. The failure of a French embassy under Louis des
Hayes, Baron de Courmenin, which was to have inaugurated French
diplomatic and commercial relations with Persia, to materialise in 1626,
together with the opposition expressed against certain Armenians at
Marseilles, may have made the shah reluctant to count on French
assistance. Neither of the embassies to England and Holland was par-
ticularly successful and both had their moments of Comedia del arte in
Persian dress. The English responded with an embassy under Sir Dod-
more Cotton, the account of which was written by Thomas Herbert
but which achieved little except to offer lasting amity and goodwill. A
Dutch-Persian treaty was eventually signed on 7 February 1630/1 in
Holland, more formal than the agreement of 1624 in Persia.1

(e) The encouragement of Armenians as traders in relation to the internal

aspects of the trading policy of Shah 'Abbas
There are two major considerations: improvements in the local con-
ditions for trade, and the role of the Armenians. The prosperity of
transit trade depends on the amenities provided for merchants and the
security of the roads. It is uncertain whether all the improvements in
trading facilities ascribed to Shah 'Abbas were in fact deliberate, but
nevertheless it can be assumed that it was his concern which was
responsible for the upsurge of public works throughout Persia. Doubt-
less in many cases the initiative taken and the costs incurred were the
responsibility of the provincial governors. Sometimes buildings were
due to competitive patronage, as was the case with AllahvardI Khan's
elegant architectural masterpiece, his bridge at Isfahan.
The result was an increase in the network of caravansarais at inter-
vals along the main trading routes, a series of bridges spanning rivers
at strategic sites, road improvements, such as the stone causeways
constructed in the northern provinces of Gllan and Mazandaran and in
central Persia, the building of covered bazaars, of which the one sur-
viving in Isfahan is a visible reminder of such attention to trade.
Stringent regulations were enforced by the market inspectors on the
quality and price of merchandise sold to the public. The status of the
judiciary and local officials was enhanced. The stationing of road

1
See Dunlop, Bronmn, pp. 677-82.

45 3
 TRADE

guards (rdhddrs) along the roads, for which a tax was exacted from
merchants, increased the security of the routes. General attempts to
improve administrative practice and the answerability of officials were
not without their beneficial effects on trade. None of these measures
was in itself an innovation, since many had already been applied earlier
in Persia and elsewhere, particularly in Turkey; but they certainly had
beneficial affects for the economy in general.
Perhaps, in the long term, the most vital contribution which Shah
'Abbas made to the Persian economy was his forced introduction into
Persia of Armenians. There were many precedents for the transference
of populations or groups of artisans. TTmur removed communities of
craftsmen to embellish Samarqand, and Sultans Sellm and Siileyman
had no scruples about uprooting people and settling them where they
needed them. Shah 'Abbas made a virtue out of necessity in driving
thousands of Armenians from their homelands around the north-
western frontiers with Turkey in order to implement his "scorched-
earth" policy against the invading Turks in 1604 and 1608. Many
thousands he dispersed throughout Gilan and Mazandaran to revive
the silk-producing industry. Many died on the way or in the pestilential
climate for which they were unprepared. Others were settled in areas
around Isfahan to till the fertile plains there, or in areas of Azarbaijan
further from the Turkish frontiers, or in Kurdistan. Many fled north
into Georgia or west to Turkey. A significant group already accus-
tomed to trading were placed in a part of Isfahan, where they were
eventually allowed to develop their own thriving and independent
community in New Julfa, across the Zayandarud, and were free to
follow their own national customs and their Christian practices and be
governed by an Armenian of their own choice.
Shah 'Abbas had suffered from the malpractices of Persian mer-
chants1 and he was determined to manipulate the Armenian commu-
nity to his own advantage. Apart from being thrifty, hard-working and
shrewd, the Armenians had a facility for languages and an ability to
travel light. They appealed to Europeans, in that they were Christian in
faith, if not always in practice. Since the fall of their kingdom their
successes as merchants in the time of their "diaspora" had been
acquired in a hard school long before they were utilised by Shah

1
An example being Denglz Beg, who accompanied the Persian mission to Spain in 1609-13:
see above, pp. 391—2.

454
 THE REIGN OF SHAH ABBAS I

'Abbas, for many Armenians had visited Europe on trading ventures.

Some were playing an increasing part in Turkish life. Others were
travelling eastwards to India and beyond. They had already opposed
the English factors of the Russia Company in 1561 in Qazvin.
Armenians in the service of Shah 'Abbas first made their appearance
in Venice. Gradually the Armenian community in Isfahan extended
the range and scope of their trading activities under the patronage of
the shah, assisted by his privileges and credit. The community began
to prosper, and the wealthier members began building noble resi-
dences and stately churches. In 1618 they were opposing the efforts of
the English factors to obtain silk when Shah 'Abbas set up an auction
for it, the bidding going up to 50 tumans a load. The English com-
plained that "the Armenians were made a stale to draw us on". Soon,
however, the Armenians were freighting goods on the English com-
pany's shipping to and from Persia and India. In Europe their activi-
ties at Marseilles in 1621 aroused the wrath of French merchants who
petitioned the French king "de vouloir interdire absolument a ces
Armeniens et Persans toute descente de soie en votre Royaume a
peine de confiscations".1 Pietro della Valle in 1618 had advised Shah
'Abbas to break the Turkish hold on Persian trade by engaging the
French, "since the intention of the King was that all the silk reach
Europe without any whatsoever going through Turkey, to bring
about which I say this (still with the intention of harming the Turks),
that we needs must bring it about that the French come to Persia; and
without them there is nothing to be done: for the French are those
who bring to the Levant the most ready money."2 There was some
French and Armenian initiative afoot over Persian silk, for in 1625
the Secretary of the East India Company reported "the offer of the
French Embassador of 2 millions yearely to ioyne with the English to
bringe the Silke of Persia to Marsellis, but said hee had wholly dis-
couraged him therein".3

1
Histoire du commerce de Marseille iv, ed. L. Bergasse and G. Rambert (Paris,
1954), 66.
2
Delia Valle II/I, 299, letter no. 4, Qazvin, 2; July 1618:
"...che l'intention del Re era, che tutta la seta andasse in Europa senza che passasse punto per la
Turchia. Per effettuar questo, io gli dissi (con intention sempre di far danno ai Turchi) che
havrebbe bisognato procurare di far venire in Persia i Francesi; e che senza loro non si faceva
niente: perche i Francesi eran quelli, che portavano in Levante la maggior parte del denaro in
contanti".
3
I.O., B/10, p. 58, 30 May 1625.

45 5
 TRADE

Yet, though the Armenians had only limited success in France, they
fared better in Holland, where an influential group settled in Amster-
dam and remained throughout the 17th and much of the 18th century.
Indeed, it is in Holland that Robert Sherley's earlier suggestions of
reciprocal trade which he had made to both the Portuguese and the
English were most nearly accepted. In the Dutch—Persian treaty con-
cluded in 1631 the Dutch "in return for privileges accorded to the
Dutch in Persia conceded reciprocal benefits to Persian traders in the
Netherlands". It was the Armenians who mostly benefited from this
provision. Thus during the reign of Shah 'Abbas, whilst ostensibly
remaining subordinate to the demands of the shah, who controlled the
silk production and its disposal, the Armenians were already consoli-
dating their position in the international trade of Persia and becoming
an indispensable factor in its success.

( / ) Conclusion
Shah 'Abbas I stimulated the overseas trade of Persia by concerted
efforts to improve the local conditions, by encouraging new foreign
traders to lessen dependence on older, more easily monopolised out-
lets, and by utilising the services of the enterprising Armenians to
widen the search for new markets and products and expand the scope
of the established routes. The sea routes opened to Europe then and
later never supplanted the position of the traditional overland routes
linking east and west through Anatolia or Mesopotamia across
northern Persia, but they certainly supplemented them.
The impetus given to trade between India, Persia and the Levant
which came as a result of the opening up of the Persian Gulf to all
shipping was also significant. This reactivated local shipping, apart
from increasing the volume and value of freight which was carried by
the shipping of the Dutch and English companies. All this followed
from the impressive Persian revival which was the political as well as
the economic achievement of Shah 'Abbas; a legacy which, in spite of
the enormous demands made upon it, outlasted the Safavids.

456
 THE LATER S A F A V I D PERIOD

J. THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

{a) Shah Soft

The pattern established by Shah 'Abbas remained substantially unal-

tered throughout the remainder of the Safavid period. Only in one
respect was there a significant change. It concerned the royal silk
monopoly which was discarded by Shah Safi. The English merchants
of the East India Company commented very clearly on the change
evident in the early part of Shah Safl's troubled reign, "these busie
tymes where every upstart will have his voice". They reported that
"the ould Emperor Shaw Abbas by his commands prohibited all men
what nation soever to buy any silks unless from his hands, and to the
ende all should be collected and brought into his Magazenes, hee sent
his owne servants with ready Money to all places where silks grewe to
buy from the Countrey people... att such rates as the owners could
afforde itt, with this silke thus gained, hee complied yearlie with the
English and Dutch nacons, could partt unto the Jullfaleyne Armenians
att Ten Tomands the loade proffitt, which was transported by the way
of Aleppo, some hee adventured with them on his proper account, and
the rest hee hoarded upp in his Magazenes."1 Shah SafI, on the other
hand, "gave lycence to buy Silks in all partts of his kingdome without
restricon". When he failed to honour his contracts with the English
merchants he justified himself to Charles I by claiming that "in my
grandfather's tyme he made Crooke that no man could buy any but
himselfe and of himselfe ... but since my tyme I have broken that
Crooke, that Middlemen in my country might reape the benefitt there-
of: and that those who are the owners of the silke might sell itt to
whom they would".2
The merchants had no doubt about the reasons for the change and
where the responsibility lay: "Jullfalleynes Armenians and other
merchants of Guyland and Sherwan, who have their trade to Aleppo
by their extreame bribes to his Ducks, Nobles and Ministers preven-
teth him".3 The Armenians had consolidated their hold on Persian
commerce, mostly over exports and imports of silk and cloth respec-
tively, and had spread their interests into internal trade too, setting up
1
I.O., E/3/12/1547, Gombroon to E. I. Co., 11 March 1630/1.
2
Public Record Office, S.P. 102:40, part 1, fol. 190.
3
I.O., E/3/i}/i379, Isfahan to E. I. Co., 26 Sept. 1631.

457
 TRADE

shops in the bazaars with a network of contacts throughout the

country. Against this monopoly the efforts of the English and Dutch
merchants were ineffective. They never wrested the silk and cloth
trades from the Armenians, however much they "earnestly solicited
transport of silk to Bandar Abbas acquainting the Kinge how honour-
able and profitable an action it would be to him to restore and establish
the Commerce of Ormous again which had in former tymes been the
most famous mart in the World".1 After the decision of Shah SafI there
was no hope of deflecting a major part of the silk and cloth trades to
the seaborne routes in the face of opposition from the Armenians, with
whom the European merchants had to come to terms.
After the reign of Shah 'Abbas there were few confrontations
between Persia and the neighbouring countries, apart from some fight-
ing with the Turks, during which Baghdad was lost in 1048/1638, and
intermittent hostilities over Qandahar with the Mughals in 1636, 1642
and 1648. Persia was generally at peace. The relative prosperity and
standard of living of Europe in the 17th century was growing; its trade
with the rest of the world increased, and this involved Persia too.
Reliable statistical information from the 17th century is difficult to
find, quantify and interpret. This is particularly true in the case of
Persia, where it is not easy to differentiate trade intended for local
consumption and that in transit. It is possible that a comprehensive
examination of sources not so far consulted in detail, such as Turkish
and Russian customs archives, where they exist, would be revealing in
this respect. If, however, the volume of silk purchases made by the
English Levant Company, the greater part of which came from Persia,
and the customs receipts obtained by the East India Company at
Bandar 'Abbas are considered, there is no doubt at all that both on the
Levant routes and the southern sea routes Persian trade expanded.
Moreover, Dutch and, to a lesser extent, French and Venetian pur-
chases of Persian silk rose, not to mention direct Armenian transac-
tions with buyers outside the main companies trading to the Levant. In
the south through Bandar 'Abbas the English company's share of the
customs, however imperfectly paid, rose over the century from 225
tumans in 1624 to 550 m 1631, 341 in 1634, 345 in 1637, 700 in 1640,
612 in 1643, 635 i n 1648, 750 in 1651, 785 in 1652, and by 1672 it was
generally assessed at 1,000. This represented only a part of the trade

1
I.O., E/3/12/1517, Agent, Royal Camp, to E. I. Co., 6 Oct. 1630.

458
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

through the main ports of Bandar 'Abbas and Kung, for neither the
Dutch nor the Portuguese paid customs. Furthermore many traders in
little boats landed goods surreptitiously along the coast to avoid cus-
toms. Others made arrangements with the European companies to pass
their goods off as belonging to the companies to escape customs,
a procedure known as "colouring", greatly resented by the Persian
officials but frequently used.

(b) The seaborne trade to Persia

(/) The English and Dutch companies

The direct involvement of the major European companies in the trade
of Persia was almost entirely concerned with the southern routes, the
seaborne traffic, although indirectly they bought Persian silk and sold
cloth to Persia through Armenian middlemen, principally at Aleppo
and less frequently at Smyrna and Istanbul. The English were first to
land, at Jask in 1616, prematurely hopeful of obtaining 8,000 bales of
silk on three years credit at 7/6d a lb. which was expected to sell for
16/- in England. Yet until the Agency of William Burt in 1627,
business was uncertain, though probably some 1,700 bales of silk were
shipped, purchased with ready money, English commodities and other
goods, approximately a third of each. Then in a determined effort in
the early 1630s, three separate "voyages" — trading ventures — were
directed towards Persia, partly to test the market seriously and partly
because conditions in India had deteriorated. Contracts were made
with Shah Safi, renewed, and then broken by him. Between 1630 and
1640 a little over 2,000 bales were obtained from the shah at prices
ranging from 45 to 50 tumans a load. After these contractsfinishedthe
East India Company obtained little further supplies of silk from Persia,
for the cost of obtaining it increased, its quality became unreliable and
its profitability much reduced. The real reason was that the Armenian
control of the market was almost complete. The East India Company
realised that no progress could be made against Armenian competition
and that only in association with them could they hope to increase their
silk purchases and cloth sales. The mid 17th century in England, with
its unsettled internal political conditions brought about by the Civil
War and the three wars with the Dutch in the 1650s, 1660s and 1672,
resulted in a diminished interest in Persian trade. Attention was

459
 TRADE

concentrated on India, whose exports of calicoes, silk and silk goods

satisfied demand.
However, after difficulties with the Mughal authorities in the 1680s,
culminating in hostilities and the temporary loss of its position in
Bengal, the East India Company turned seriously to Persia again and
sought Armenian cooperation. Armenians who had settled in London
pledged their collaboration. An agreement, therefore, was concluded
in 1688 with them whereby in return for privileged treatment they
would trade on behalf of the company particularly in India, where they
were promised their own settlement, and elsewhere, with special refer-
ence to the silk and cloth trades. This was never very effective and in
1693 the East India Company attempted to enter into a more compre-
hensive agreement with five major Armenian merchants in Isfahan for
a close trading partnership. A large consignment of goods amounting
to £93,995.1 is yd, almost a third of all overseas investments for
1693-5, was sent to Persia to promote this association, concerning
which the company wrote to the Armenians: "We shall God willing
haye much more to do with you of the same kind hereafter to such a
degree, that your Nations shall not need to travel to Aleppo to sell
their Silk or buy their Cloth, but may do both better and cheaper in
their'own Country and at their own doors." 1 There was no doubt
about the purpose of this proposal, which was nothing less than "to
turne the course of Trade between Persia and Aleppo, which hath
continued many hundreds, it may be Thousands of Years, for the
Persians etc. to buy vast quantities of Silk in the Province of Guiland,
to carry it from thence to Aleppo etc., truck it there for Cloth and the
Other Europe Goods, and bring that Cloth to Persia where it is finally
consumed within the Limits of our Charter".2
This English proposition threatened the interests of the Armenians
and they reacted strongly, for they were not prepared to enter into a
contract on terms that were tantamount to a possible commercial hara-
kiri. They replied that "As for bringing Silk to Ispahan, yt is but wind,
for nobody will be so mad, when we carry it to Aleppo: we have more
ways than one to dispose of it: for there are English, French, Venetians
and Dutch; if we cannot sell them for ready money, part money, cloth,
Cocheneal, amber, Coral, or false pearl; then we can carry it to Europe

1
I.O., E/j/92, E. I. Co. to the Five Merchants, 3 Jan. 1693/4.
2
I.O., E/3/92, E.I. Co. to Persia, 3 Jan. 1693/4.

460
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

our Selves; but if we bring it to Ispahan there is only you to buy it, and
if you won't give us a price, then we must let you have it, as you will;
and take cloth of what price you will, for you won't let us put it on
board your Ships from England."1 So the ambitious project of re-
routing the silk and cloth trades again failed. The land routes had
withstood the challenge from the sea. The experience of the East India
Company underlined, the importance of ready money to the European
trader in the east, the tenacity of the traditional patterns, the crucial
parts played by the local merchants and brokers and the close interde-
pendence of the cloth and silk trades.
Though the English company failed to obtain a permanent foothold
over the northern-orientated trade of Persia, it achieved more success
in the south, though it is not easy to be sure how much of it was due to
official policy and encouragement or how much was due to the per-
sonal initiative of the company's merchants both in India and Persia
who traded on their own account. The first Agent, Edward Connock,
tried to encourage local merchants to use the company's shipping,
indicating the advantages, "their little charge in freight, their danger
less and the brevity of time in their passage least of all". The policy was
continued and freightage became an important element in trading to
Persia, at least up to the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652, when six
English ships were destroyed off Hurmuz by the Dutch. Afterwards
English shipping went into eclipse till the 1680s, when it revived again.
This increased interest in Persia coincided with the Dutch company's
differences with the Persians which led to their temporary occupation
of Kishm in 1684 and caused a drop in their freightage. By the begin-
ning of the 18th century Charles Lockyer, with some exaggeration,
maintained that it was "a main Branch of the Company's Profit... So
that I look upon English ships from Persia to Surat in the latter end of
October and November, to be the richest Vessels on that side of the
world", estimating them "sometimes to the Value of two or three
hundred thousand Pounds".2
Such ships would also include goods purchased in India or else-
where for delivery in Persia or Basra. This direct trade by sea had
grown significantly since the 1630s as a result of improved security, at
least until the piratical activities of the Muscat Arabs towards the end of
the 17th century. The deflection of trade from the overland routes

1 2
I.O., E/3/; 3/6417, Isfahan to E.I. Co., 15 July 1697. Lockyer, p. 251.

461
 TRADE

between India and Persia in the 1640s, as a result of hostilities around

Qandahar, added to the growth of the sea routes, for much of this trade
never returned to the old routes. Whilst English shipping brought
sugar and cloth, the Dutch brought not only these goods, but spices
and copper.
The Dutch company's share of Persian trade was proportionately
larger than that of the English, commensurate with their greater re-
sources and presence in the east throughout the 17th century. The
Dutch too were interested in silk exports, obtaining their first deliver-
ies in 1626, 352 bales. Thereafter, in the 1620s they were exporting
about 1,200 bales a year and in the 1630s between 800 and 1,000 bales.
In the 1640s they were curtailing their requirements as they had over-
committed their resources in Persia, and like the English merchants the
Dutch were finding that the quality had declined and its cost increased,
so they were only purchasing between 200 and 5 00 bales a year. In the
early 1630s, it seemed as if another competitor for Persian silk might
emerge. This was the duke of Holstein, whose mission left Hamburg
for the first time in October 1633, travelled to Moscow, where it
encountered many difficulties, and returned to Hamburg. Setting out
again in October 1635, it reached Isfahan in August 1636 after travel-
ling through Russia, voyaging down the Volga to Astrakhan and
crossing the Caspian Sea, where the members of the mission were
shipwrecked near Darband. The duke of Holstein hoped to import a
considerable quantity of silk through Russia. He was quite unsuccess-
ful, for the Russians proved obstructive, his mission incompetent, the
Persians uncooperative and the English and Dutch companies hostile.
The Dutch director, Nicolaas Overschie, with the connivance of the
Armenians, made extensive purchases of silk to cause a shortage which
put up the price. The mission departed empty-handed and rather igno-
miniously, after quarrelling with an Indian embassy then in Isfahan and
behaving with an unfortunate disregard for Persian protocol.
As a result of straining resources for some years and the fraudulent
practices of some directors, the Dutch authorities at Batavia of the
United East India Company made a more vigorous attempt to keep a
closer hold over their Persian Agency and to reassert themselves vis-a-
vis the Persians. They tried to raise the price of Dutch imports, lower
the price of silk, increase sales of Indian and other East Indian com-
modities and prevent abuses over the quality and deliveries of silk. The
subsequent history of relations between the Dutch company and the
462
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

Persian authorities is basically one in which the Dutch are increasing

their sales of imported commodities to Persia, reducing their purchases
of silk and remitting the resulting trading imbalance in ready money.
This policy became more important as the Japanese increasingly
restricted the export of gold, silver and copper, upon which the Dutch
had heavily relied for the availability of ready money. The Persians,
concerned to balance their trade and reluctant to permit the flow of
ready money out of the country, endeavoured to oblige the Dutch
company to purchase at least 300 loads of silk yearly. These differing
attitudes caused a tension in relations and resulted in mutual retaliatory
activities. A Dutch embassy in Isfahan in 1644 considered itself
abusively treated, and when there was a failure to reach an acceptable
settlement the Dutch bombarded Bandar 'Abbas and the island of
Kishm in the following year. Temporarily they obtained better terms.
Another mission in 1647 was inconclusive, and the Dutch were prepar-
ing for more hostile action but desisted as the English company was
benefiting from these Dutch actions. In 1651 Johan Cunaeus arrived
with an impressive embassy to settle the outstanding differences of
claims and counter-claims and the question of silk contracts. A silk
contract for 300 loads yearly at 48 tumans the load was agreed, but
little else.
The real turning point in the Dutch company's fortunes in Persia
resulted from the collapse of the English company's position there
caused by losses to its shipping in the east from the First Anglo-Dutch
War, which broke out in 1652. English energies were subsequently
directed towards Europe and the West Indies against the Dutch. So
during the Protectorate official interest in the east waned. The East
India Company, for internal political considerations, was deprived of
much of its authority and power which it did not begin to regain till
after the Restoration in 1661. The Dutch, therefore, for three decades
at least, had an almost free hand, for not only was there practically no
English competition during this period but the Persians, deprived of
the sufficiently counterbalancing power of the English, were forced to
reach a less favourable arrangement with the Dutch company. Thus
the Dutch exercised a dominating position in the southern trade,
though not an exclusive one, for local shipping, in particular Indian
and Armenian interests, was increasingly participating in that trade.
The final eclipse of Portuguese power in the Persian Gulf with the loss
of Muscat in 1649 stimulated trade on the Arabian side. When John
463
 TRADE

Fryer was at Bandar 'Abbas in 1675 he commented that "the English

Company's Trade is but small here" and that "the greatest Traffick,
next Indian Cloth, comes from the Spice Trade; which the Dutch
engross, beside Sugar and Copper formerly; for which they carry off
Fifty thousand Thomands worth of Velvets, Silk, Raw and Wrought,
with Rich Carpets, besides many Tunn of Gold and Silver, Yearly".1
By the 1680s the price of Persian silk had fallen so low in Amster-
dam that, in comparison with silk from India or brought to the Levant
ports, it was unprofitable. The Dutch company was anxious to free
itself from its Persian commitments and tried to accomplish this by
intimidation, occupying Kishm in 1684, and by missions led by
Reynier Casembroodt in 1683 and Johan Van Leenen in 1689-92, and
negotiations. At that time, however, the English company was actively
renewing its interest in Persia, so the Dutch did not hold all the
advantage. There was, moreover, an increasing shortage of reliable
ready money in Persia, caused by royal hoarding, non-productive
luxury expenditure, the debasement of the currency and its eastward
flow through Persia to India, in spite of efforts to prevent this taking
place, and an increasing monetisation of the economy which exerted a
growing pressure on supplies of reliable coinage. Thus the Persians
were all the more reluctant to let the Dutch company continue to
import on the same scale whilst reducing its silk purchases. Fortunately
for Persia at this time, supplies of silk from India lessened and those
from the Levant suffered from hostilities waged by England and
Holland against France, which made the Mediterranean insecure for
fleets. Therefore, in 1694 an agreement was reached for 300 loads at 44
tumans a load.
At this time, when the demand for Persian silk again outran supply,
the Persians attempted to exert pressure on the English and Dutch
companies to cooperate with them in an attack on Muscat, whose
corsairs were attacking shipping and plundering along the Persian
coast. Neither company was agreeable, though the Persians persisted in
their efforts. When Jacobus Hoogkammer arrived in Persia in 1701 he
was unable to renew the contract on the old terms, for the price
demanded for silk was 48 tumans a load or 200 bales at 44 tumans with
sufficient douceurs. This state of affairs lasted till the end of the Safavid
period, the Dutch continuing to import spices and textiles on a large

1
Fryer n, 163.

464
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

scale and refusing assistance over Muscat. Throughout this period

there was a sizeable colony of Armenians in Amsterdam, who main-
tained a network of contacts throughout the Levant and who increas-
ingly turned their attention to Russia.
(/;') The French and Portuguese

The French were not nearly so long represented in Persia as the

English and Dutch companies, and exerted very little official influence
in the 17th century, though many individuals successfully traded there,
as the examples of Tavernier and Chardin show. French policy was
strongly affected by the traditional friendship with Turkey and the
commercial ties of Marseilles with the Levant. In spite of the early
interest of Cardinal Richelieu and the establishment of a Capuchin
mission under Pere Pacifique de Provins in Isfahan in 1627, trading
connections with Persia were insignificant, though some Armenians
managed to trade under difficult conditions in Marseilles. It was not
until the interest of Colbert had been aroused that some concerted
action was taken to establish the real French presence in Persia.
Colbert's objective was to "tirer de la main des Anglais et des Hol-
landais tout le commerce du Levant par une grande concurrence quel-
conque ou les Francais trouvassent un benefice".1 This led to the
establishment, on 26 May 1664, of La Compagnie des Indes.
On 11 July 1665 a mission from the company arrived in Isfahan
composed of Messieurs de Lalin and de la Boulaye Le Gouz, nomi-
nated by the French king, and Messieurs Beber, Dupont and Mariage,
appointed by the company. An agreement was reached for trading
privileges, but the behaviour of certain members of the mission left an
unfavourable impression and little resulted from its visit. In 1672 Louis
XIV, who had become actively interested in and concerned about the
persecution of Armenians who professed the Catholic faith, sent Sieur
de la Jonchere with an impressive retinue and presents to confirm the
privileges already granted and establish a trading base at Bandar
'Abbas. De la Jonchere unfortunately died on the way and the French
director at Surat, Monsieur Gueston, took charge and an agreement
was signed with Shah Sulaiman in December 1671. Although the
French company appointed a director at Bandar 'Abbas there was, as
John Fryer noted, little to occupy him, for "The French have as little

1
Histoire du commerce de Marseille v, ed. R. Paris (Paris, 1957). >4-

465
 TRADE

to do at this Port as in other Places; and were it not for the Credit of
their Interpreter, who gets good Profit by Wine, (he being priviledg'd
with a Wine-press for that Nation at Siras, as well as the other Europe
Nations), they could not subsist".1 Colbert also encouraged Armenians
to settle at Marseilles, admonishing the merchants there "de leur don-
ner toute la protection que l'autorite de votre charge vous permettra de
les garantir contre les chicanes des habitans... qui ne connaissent pas
en quoi consister leurs avantages".2 At Surat certain Armenians were
suggesting loading silk on French vessels instead of transporting it
overland through Turkey. Ultimately the policy of encouraging
Armenians to bring their Persian trade to Marseilles foundered on the
opposition of the French merchants. Ponchartrain, Colbert's successor,
was obliged in respect of the Armenians to "leur imposer des condi-
tions qui empecheraient de faire tort au sujets de sa Majeste".3
In other respects, however, Ponchartrain persevered with his efforts
"d'examiner les moyens d'introduire... les marchandises et manufac-
tures du royaume et lever les obstacles qui pouvaient s'y opposer...,
entrer s'il etait possible en concurrence avec le commerce qu'y font les
Anglais et les Hollandais".4 Jean-Baptiste Fabre was sent to Persia for
this purpose. The Fabre mission was bedevilled with roguery, intrigues
and misfortune, though it had its bizarre aspects when the disguised
mistress of Fabre, Marie Petit, took charge of it on her lover's death in
1706. The mission was redeemed by Pierre Victor Michel, who
succeeded in negotiating a treaty with the Persians on 14 September
1708, in spite of the hostility of the English, Dutch, Portuguese and
Armenians. If the French were mainly concerned to assert their pres-
ence in Persia, increase trade and protect Catholic Armenians, the
Persians were anxious to find a more effective ally against the Muscat
Arabs. As a French envoy was pointedly informed by the Persians, "Le
Roy de Perse t'ordonne de proposer au Roy de France que n'etant pas
content des services qui luy rendent plus les Anglais contre les Masca-
tins ses ennemis bien qu'ils soient bien payes pour cela... nous envoyer
equipes des vaisseaux et bombardes necessaires."5 There is some simi-
larity with the Persian predicament a century earlier, when they were
forced to rely upon the English company to assist them in dislodging
1 2
Fryer 11, 164. Histoire du commerce de Marseille IV, 500.
3 4
Ibid, v, 16. Ibid., p. 422.
5
Archives des Affaires Etrangeres: Affaires Etrangeres, Perse, vol. ii, fol. 313, memoire, April
1711.

466
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD
the Portuguese from Hurmuz. It was only in the reign of Nadir Shah
that tentative moves to form a Persian navy began, though in any case
they proved abortive.
The Persians eventually followed up the Michel embassy with one of
their own conducted by Muhammad Riza Beg, who arrived in France
on 23 October 1714. It fascinated the Parisian populace but exasperated
the court officials, and in spite of a lavish reception, including the last
public appearance of Louis XIV, it had little practical result. For
whatever the interest of the royal entourage, trade with Persia had little
appeal to French merchants, who advised, "n'ecouter ladessus aucune
proposition et de ne pas permettre de commerce de France aux mer-
chands Persans... le commerce pourra faire tort au gens Marseillais".1
Taking a similar view to the English merchants trading to the Le-
vant, the French merchants of Marseilles maintained their opposition
for over a century. Their attitude was confirmed by the experience of
the English and Dutch companies. The southern sea routes never
supplanted the overland routes to Europe, for unless the trade was
supplemented by Indian and other southern commodities it could
not be balanced. The English company had its special privileges, the
Dutch their spices, but the French merchants had no such inducements
to enter a new trade which might jeopardise the old. For the majority
of Armenians it held little interest in comparison with their trade
through the Levant or later, from the end of the 17th century, through
Russia.
The importance of the Portuguese in the trade of Persia after their
loss of Hurmuz was negligible. Albuquerque believed, "This city of
Ormuz is according to my idea the most important of them all." The
English merchants reckoned that it was because of spices that the
Portuguese "have made that barren island of Ormoze to yield them
more profit than any (if not many) their Eastern trade besides".
Kung, near Bandar 'Abbas, the port granted to them by Imam Qull
Khan provided them with a pale shadow of their former glory. It was
used by Indian, Arab and Armenian merchants who wished to avoid
Bandar 'Abbas, for little Portuguese trade passed through it. After the
fall of Muscat in 1649 t n e Portuguese had even less hold over local
shipping, for they were unable to enforce the pass system effectively
and as they lost more ground to the Dutch in the east generally,

1
Ibid., vol. iv, fol. 165, 31 July 1715.

467
 TRADE

especially after the loss of Malacca, their trade further declined. Most
of their effort was directed against the Arabs from Muscat, with
whom they were engaged in almost incessant hostilities till the end of
the 17th century.
(Hi) Local shipping and trading
It early became obvious to the English merchants that one of the
principal obstacles to a large trade with Persia was that sales of English
commodities alone would not balance purchases of Persian goods and
in consequence large supplies of ready money would be needed to
make up the difference. This was, however, a problem which domi-
nated eastern trade in the 17th and early 18th centuries. English mer-
chants in general and the East India Company in particular did not
then have sufficient ready money available. As the first Agent realised,
"The want then of ready moneys to be extracted our land, being the
life of all (the whole difficulty thereon consisting)". So efforts were
made to participate in the local trade either from the East Indies with
spices or from India with textiles, metals, drugs, foodstuffs etc. which
were traditional Persian imports from these areas. The expectation was
that "Your ships from the Southward may furnish with spices, from
Suratt, if but only we bring the Moor and Banyan merchants (of whom
we may receive great freights), all India commodities may also be
supplied." Almost a century later the absolute necessity of such trading
was echoed in comments from French merchants who maintained that
trade to Persia alone from France would not pay without complemen-
tary commerce with India. The Dutch company certainly appreciated
the point, for they not only took the position of the Portuguese as the
chief suppliers of spices, but were very active in the Indian textile trade
with Persia, particularly from Coromandel.
Nevertheless, the accusation that the English and Dutch were
responsible for ruining trade in the Gulf or for eliminating local traders
is unacceptable. In the two decades from 1612 to 1631 when the
Portuguese were in conflict with the Persians, trade was already
adversely affected and even from 1623 the joint Dutch and English
convoys could only protect some of the merchants engaged in the trade
for part of the time. With the granting of the port of Kung to the
Portuguese in 1631 conditions became much more stable and the follow-
ing decade saw a remarkable renewal of trade between. India and Persia,
much of it carried on in shipping constructed in India, particularly at
468
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD
Surat. Gujarat! shipping reasserted itself not only in the Red Sea but
also in the Persian Gulf. Armenian interests expanded in India both on
their own and with Dutch and English assistance. Khwaja Nazar, who
was head of the Julfa Armenian community, requested the East India
Company's assistance in 1620 for Armenian merchants travelling by sea
to India and their accommodation in Siirat. By 1630 many Armenians
were established at Bandar 'Abbas, with trading networks extending
throughout India and into the East Indies. Khwaja Minas, originally
from Isfahan, was operating from Surat on a large scale in the 1660s as
principal buyer and creditor to the East India Company there and as
the owner of much shipping. It was an Armenian who owned the
Queddah Merchant, which was pillaged by pirates in 1690 and whose
cargo was valued at £50,000. The Callendar family, with family
connections in Isfahan, Siirat and London, was associated with the
East India Company in 1688 in its ambitious project to export Persian
silk and import English cloth through Surat and Bandar 'Abbas. A
similar scheme was proposed to the French in 1682 by Armenian
interests, so there was no lack of initiative displayed by Armenian
traders both with their own shipping and in freighting English and
Dutch ships.
Indian participation in the trade to the Persian Gulf is also acknow-
ledged. Much of the local trade was carried in the shallow-draught
single-masted dhows of the time, which generally avoided the main
ports of Bandar 'Abbas and Kung with their customs controls. This
kind of clandestine trade continued in the Gulf up to the mid 20th
century, so it is hardly surprising to find it existing in the 17th century.
It is certainly true that there were a large number of Indian merchants,
Banians, a rather loose term covering those coming principally from
Gujarat, who established themselves in the ports of Persia and the
larger cities, such as Shlraz, Kirman, Kashan, Isfahan, Tabriz and
Ardabll. They had their own quarters in the bazaars. In Bandar 'Abbas
they had frequent difficulties over their religious rites and beliefs. In
addition to merchants, there were many Indian money-changers whose
expertise in precious metals was widely acknowledged. Shah 'Abbas
was very reluctant to agree to their presence, but under Shah SafI and
his successor their numbers increased and their knowledge became
indispensable in the money markets. Many different coins entered
Persia - piastres, chequins, rials, rijks dollars, ducats, pagodas, to
mention a few - and the fluctuations in the exchange rates between
469
 TRADE

themselves and in reference to the Persian silver coinage of 'abbasls and

shahls and the unit of account, the tviman, were carefully observed.
There was no doubt about the upsurge of trade between India and
Persia in the third decade of the 17th century, after Surat had recovered
from its famine and floods and peace was made with the Portuguese.
The English Resident for India noted in 1637 that merchants "thrive
and thronge yearely twixt Gombroone and Masulipatam". Earlier in
1633, according to the English Captain Weddell, merchants "rinding
the sweetnes of the trade, beginne, for want of shipping, to come
hither in their own vessells". Hostilities between Persia and India over
Qandahar in the middle of the century, which intermittently closed the
overland routes, resulted in an increased volume of goods being car-
ried by sea, much of which never reverted to the land. Thus in 1640 the
English factors reported that the quantity of goods entering Bandar
'Abbas had quadrupled and that "never to any man's remembrance
were soe many merchants and goods present at any one time in Surat"
for Persia.
From the records it is clear that the range and variety of textiles
being imported into Persia from India was growing and that through-
out the century it remained a profitable investment for both European
and local trader. The East India Company reckoned, probably conser-
vatively, on goods from Agra, that "From Disboursement of your
mony, to the time it is returned, into your Cash, charge of Transport,
way charges in Rhadaree, servants wages employed with Caphillaes,
Customes of Surat and Broach, fraight to Gombroon and transport to
Spahan, there cannot be lesse reconed then 40 or 45 % one with another
which being deducted, from the Spahan prizes there wilbe nonthelesse
a Competent profitt, peradventure 35% one with another."1 Indian
merchants, purchasing more cheaply and with fewer overheads, would
have traded even more profitably. Indeed, even in the spice trade,
Indian merchants were not eclipsed by the Dutch, for they "carried on
a traditional and considerable trade with Persia and Mocha". In the
1670s the names of 'Abd al-Ghaffur and Ahmed Chelebl occur as ship-
pers to Bandar 'Abbas amongst other places, and they were not alone.
The increasingly aggressive activities of the Muscat Arabs towards the
end of the century affected the security of shipping in the Gulf and
more local trade began to be carried on European ships, either official

1
I.O., E/3/14/1504, 24 March 1633; E / 3 / I 6 / I 6 ; 8 , 15 Jan. 1638/9; E/3/22/2216, 8 April 1651.

470
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

company ships or those in private ownership belonging often to

English or Dutch merchants. This private trading is difficult to quan-
tify, but the indications are that it was considerable and profitable.
The majority of local shipping came from Indian ports, much of it
from Surat, where it was subject to control by the Mughal authorities.
Thus during the hostilities over Qandahar in 1648 an embargo was
placed upon shipping going to Persia. Occasionally Indian shipping
expected special privileges to be arranged for it in Persia by the English
merchants, such as those accorded to Mir Jumla for his ships from
Golkonda which entered customs-free. Frequently goods would be
trans-shipped in ports from distant places and in this way goods from
China were received, particularly china ware, which was much
esteemed in Persia throughout the Safavid era. Sometimes shipping
came from the East Indies, such as a vessel from Bantam in 1687,
captained by an Englishman, Anderson, bringing spices. There was a
brief exchange of trade with Siam in the 1660s. Furthermore, there was
much local trade around the Arabian peninsula and along the Gulf to
Basra. There were many small fishing and trading communities dotted
about the coastline which contributed in some measure to the trade of
the area.

(c) Overland trade

(/') Turkey
It has been said that "the silk trade between Persia and Turkey was a
dominant element in the economies of both countries. The Ottoman
silk industry was dependent upon Persian silk; moreover the trade
brought an average of 70,000 alton a year into the treasury. In Persia,
the currency in circulation was kept supplied by gold and silver earned
on the Ottoman markets."1 This was true of the 16th century, and it
remained true of the 17th century, irrespective of the upheavals in the
political and commercial relations between the two countries which
virtually came to an end for almost a century with the Peace of Zuhab
in May 1639. The greatest part of Persian silk exports passed through
Turkey, where it was either manufactured into textiles at Bursa or
exported from Aleppo or Smyrna to London, Marseilles and, to a

1
H. Inalcik, "Bursa and the Commerce of the Levant", JESHO in (i960), 131—47.

471
 TRADE

lesser extent, Venice and Leghorn. In Aleppo, Bursa, Smyrna and

Istanbul the silk was traded principally for cloth or money, but other
goods such as glass, arms, watches and objects of fashion were bought
for import to Persia. It was well organised from the chain of trade silk-
growing provinces to the Turkish market places. It suffered from the
arbitrary behaviour of Turkish officials towards the Armenians at the
beginning of the 18th century. The Armenians were the main interme-
diaries in this trade and were also well represented in other commercial
and social affairs in Turkey.
(«) Russia
There was a development of Persian trade to Russia towards the end of
the Safavid era. Throughout the 17th century embassies had been
exchanged between Persia and Russia. Shah 'Abbas received three, in
1618, 1623 and 1626. Some trade accompanied the embassies, for in
1648 a departing Persian ambassador for Russia "made Silke soe deare,
hee carringe great quantities with him". The embassies, at least on the
Russian side, were often elaborate, for in 1654 the Russian ambassador,
Lobanov-Rostovsky, "went in greate pomp and state; he haveing
Drums, Trumpetts and Flaggs carryed before him; accompanied with
250 or 300 Russians and had as many Camels for carryage of his present
and Luggage".1 A decade later a Russian ambassador "had a retinue of
neerest 600 men of whom 400 sayd to be Merchants, att his entring the
Citty rode 16 trumpets before him, 8 drums and 13 large Freezeland
horses were led in state; its reported never the like beasts came into
these parts before, being intended as presents for the King, with 2
Coaches extraordinary well made, with watches and clocks and abun-
dance of other toyes, likewise bares and Doggs of all sorts".2 There
were also falcons and sables, which always made highly esteemed pre-
sents for the shahs. If there was not always real respect displayed on
such visits, nevertheless the Persians recognised their value, for: "Le
Moscovite est notre voisin, et notre ami et le commerce est establi entre
nous d'anciennete et sans interruption."3
If there was an element of exaggeration in this statement, there was
more than a grain of truth, for by 1670 there were those suggesting to
the Dutch traveller Jean Struys, "qu'il leur feroit bien plus facile de

1 2
I.O., E/3/24/2288, 10 April 1654. I.O., G/36/104,9 Sept. 1664.
3
Chardin 111, 171.

472
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD
faire descendre leurs marchandises par la Wolga a Arcanguel, et de la
en Hollande, que de les envoyer par terre a Smirne, ou ils ne pouvaient
les faire tenir sans les exposer a de grands perils, outre que les frais de
cette voiture etoient immenses".1 At this time from the middle of the
century onwards, apart from the intermittently troubled period of the
Cossack insurrections under Stenka Razin between 1664 and 1671,
Armenian trade to Russia was increasing under Russian encourage-
ment.
It was the Armenians who were the principal intermediaries in this
trade. The importance of Astrakhan as an international entrepot has
been mentioned earlier, as have been the earlier efforts in the mid 16th
century by Anthony Jenkinson to open up trade between Europe and
Persia by the Volga. It was not surprising that Delia Valle drew atten-
tion to the advantages of this land route over that by sea as advocated
by a Russian embassy in 1622: "if the Muscovites have this in mind and
are negotiating to facilitate it, having a sufficiency of money, at least to
begin with, I believe it to be perfectly feasible for the English that they
themselves can trade in Moscow by this route without such great
risk of war."2 The Armenians were singularly well placed to take an
interest in the Persian—Russian trade, not only because of their local
connections in the regions bordering the two countries, but because
they had been involved to a greater or lesser extent in commercial affairs
in Moscow since the end of the 15 th century. Their activities increased
as a result of the forward policy of Ivan IV, whose defeat of the Kazan
khanate was a prelude to closer relations with the trading centres of
Central Asia. Russian internal difficulties then checked this progress,
but trade between Persia and Russia again developed depending on
the security of the routes along the Caspian hinterland and the Volga.
Contemporary accounts do not underestimate the dangers of travel in
those regions.
Although Armenian merchants settled in the bazaars in Astrakhan
during the reign of Shah 'Abbas I, it seems that the Russian encourage-
ment of them becomes more evident in the second half of the century.
After having conquered the Ukraine, contained the threat from Turkey

1
Strays, p. 220.
2
Delia Valle 11/2, 522, letter no. 18 from the ship The Whale, 18 Jan. 1623:
"se i Moscoviti pensano a questo, e trattano di attendervi, havendo denaro a bastanza, almeno per
cominciare; io l'ho per cosa assai riuscibile: ed a gl'Inglesi stessi, che pur' in Moscovia hanno
traffico, per quella via, senza tanti pericoli di guerra."

473
 TRADE

and concluded an alliance with Poland, Russia felt able to turn her
attention eastwards again. In 1660 Khwaja Zakar and nine companions
from Isfahan were received by Tsar Alexis Mikhallovich. In February
1666 another group of 40 Armenians arrived in Moscow, and after
long negotiations a treaty of commerce was signed on 31 May 1667
with the Russian officials, Yury Dolgoruky and Ordin-Nastchokin. It
gave the Armenians a concession to transport the goods of Asia to
Europe by way of Astrakhan and Archangel on payment of customs of
5 % ad valorem. The principal goods exchanged consisted of cloth,
hides, furs, falcons and silk.
By the early 1690s the English factors in Persia were complaining
about the competing supplies of cloth coming from Russia, but the
strongest stimulus to Russian—Persian trade and relations in general
followed the return of Peter the Great to Russia in 1698. He was
determined to create a more powerful modernised Russia. Although
for much of the time preoccupied by wars with Sweden, Poland and
Turkey, Peter the Great successfully cultivated ethnic, religious and
political links with Georgia and Armenia. In the troubled and weak-
ened state of the northern Persian provinces, he particularly encour-
aged a closer trading association between the Russians and Armenians,
which gradually grew as relations between the Armenians and Turks
deteriorated. A Russian consul was established at Shamakhl and
embassies sent in 1701 and 1708. In 1718 Artemil Petrovich Volynsky
negotiated a satisfactory treaty, including regulations and privileges
regarding trade which permitted Russian merchants freedom of move-
ment in Persia and unlimited purchases of silk. The impetus to trade
given by Peter the Great survived his ill-fated campaign in 1722, for
not only were Persian-Russian trading connections strengthened but
the Dutch and English companies traded through Russia with Persia
even after the demise of the Safavids till the mid 18th century. It had
become obvious, as Jonah Hanway remarked, "that of all the nations
who have endeavoured to establish a trade with the people of Persia,
the Russians are most advantageously situated".
(Hi) Central Asia and India
Mashhad was the main centre of Persian trade towards Central Asia in
the later Safavid period, a gathering place for horses and the wool from
the sheep and goats of the mountain pastures. Rhubarb and lapis
lazuli were traded with Balkh and Bukhara, which occasionally sent
474
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD
ambassadors to the shah's court. Here pottery, carpets and leather
goods were made. Further east Herat and Farah were strategic and
commercial outposts but the nodal point of the overland trade between
India and Persia was Qandahar, whose possession for half a century
was disputed between the two countries. Two English merchants pass-
ing through Qandahar in 1615 noticed that "By reason of frequent
passage of Caravans it is much enlarged lately, that the Suburbs are
bigger then the Citie. For within this two yeare, that the way of Ormus
is stopped up by the wars betwixt the Persians and Portugals, all
Caravans which passe betwixt India and Persia, must of necessitie goe
by this place. And here they doe hire Camels to go into India, and at
their returneforPersia... Trade it yeelds not of it selfe, but accidentally
by the meeting of Indian, Persian and Turkie Merchants, which are not
willing to travel further at twentie per Cento profit."1 These two
merchants were accompanied into Persia by three Armenian and
twelve Persian merchants. In 1628 Herbert noted the arrival in Qazvln
of a 40-camel caravan from India carrying tobacco.
There had always been a close connection between Khurasan and
India, particularly Golkonda and the Deccan. Shortly after Shah
'Abbas II had finally recaptured Qandahar an English traveller com-
mented that "Qandahar brings vast Customes to the King of Pertia for
theres noe way into the Northern parts of it from Multan and other
India parts by land except it come by way of Sindy."2 A few years later
it was reported from Persia that, "By way of Candahar is arrived lately
at Spahan near 1,000 camel loads of cloth and indico which hath caused
said commodity to fall in price 15%." This was additional to the
seaborne trade, of which it was written at about the same time that
"Greater quantities of goods than usual arrived this year from India to
Gombroon." So whatever the attractions of the sea route some cara-
vans continued to travel throughout the 17th century between India
and Persia and were only interrupted intermittently by the warfare
around Qandahar. As a result of the raids of the Baluchls and the
disturbances with the Afghans at the beginning of the 12th/18th cen-
tury, the roads then became less secure and the volume of goods
carried decreased. An English merchant in Mashhad in 1697 remarked
that it was difficult to sell cloth because the ways were blocked.
1
Purchas iv, 272—3.
2
"Richard Bell's Journal and Travels to the East Indies and the Mogul's Countrey in the year
1654", British Library, Sloane MS 811, fol. 6.

475
 TRADE

id) The routes

In general the pattern of the routes did not change significantly in
Safavid times. The means of transportation remained the camel, the
horse and the mule, and the caravans depended upon local pasturage,
food and, most crucial of all, water. Wheeled traffic was negligible.
Political troubles might deflect the routes temporarily. Trade might,
where practical, be moved by sea rather than land, but in the main,
geographical conditions determined the choice of routes. In the same
way the seasonal changes of the monsoons affected sailings. Ships came
up from Indian ports to the Gulf generally from November to May at
the latest, but from June to October there were only small local move-
ments of shipping. A voyage from Surat to Bandar 'Abbas would take
between three and six weeks, usually about a month, in a European
vessel, such as a 300-ton carrack. The smaller Siirat-built pinnaces of
100 tons would take about the same time, as well as the Arab-built
dhows which crossed the Indian Ocean to East Africa or went round
the Indian coast or across to the East Indies.
Once the merchandise had arrived at Bandar 'Abbas it was in one
direction despatched either north-east through Jlruft, Bam, Kirman,
Yazd and Ardakan, where it joined up with the eastbound route which
went to India across the Dasht-i Kavlr to Tabas, Blrjand, Farah and
Qandahar or more easterly from Bam through Slstan and the Hilmand
valley to Qandahar, but this became more dangerous because of the
Baluchis. From Qandahar further routes went either north into Central
Asia through Ghazna and Kabul or east into Multan and Lahore. The
other way was north to Isfahan through Lar, Jahrum, Khafr, Shlraz,
Zarqan, Mayln, Ojan, Asupas, Dihgirdu, Yazdikhwast and Qumisha.
Alternative routes were from Bandar 'Abbas to Shlraz through Darab
and Fasa and from Shlraz to Isfahan through Slvand, Dihbld and
Abada before rejoining the main route at Yazdikhwast. Another route
went north from Kung through Kuhkird, Bastak and Nimar, where it
joined the main route at Lar. From the lesser ports at Bandar Rig and
Bandar Rlshahr routes converged near Burazjan and the road to Shlraz
passed through DalakI, Kazarun and the Dasht-i Arjan. These routes
were subject to extraordinary variations in climatic conditions, scorch-
ing heat when only travelling at night was bearable and perishing cold
when travel might be impossible. An English factor, Robert Loftus,
noted in April 1628: "I stayed in Digerdoo [Dihgirdu] six daies until
476
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

the Carravans had broken the waies, which otherwise I coulde not pass
by reason of the extremitie of the snowe"; but his courier died on the
way. There were many hazardous parts where the direction was con-
fusing or the ground treacherous. John Fryer found the travelling hard
in 1676 when "in the day, besides the Heat and Sands, the Winds
brought with them another plague the Locusts... The Mountains gape,
the Rocks cleft in Sunder, the Waters stagnate... Water...Thick,
Troubled and Slimy", in all "a sensible Map of Purgatory".1 Though
accommodation in the main towns was satisfactory, Fryer experienced
that it was not always so in the caravansarais along the way.
Throughout the 17th century the roads were reasonably secure and
patrolled by rahdars who were responsible for guaranteeing the safety
of the travellers and the protection of their merchandise. It was also a
period of considerable building activity, with officials and merchants
putting up caravansarais, bridges, water tanks, baths, and bazaars. In
addition to the routes to India and Central Asia already mentioned
through Farah and Qandahar, another left Farah through Herat to
Mashhad. Coming into Mashhad were the routes from Balkh, Samar-
qand, Bukhara and Khiva going through Marv. From Mashhad part of
the old silk route was followed through Nlshapur, Sabzavar,
Damghan, Simnan, Tehran, which was insignificant compared to the
ancient town of Ray, and Sava. There the routes divided. One went
south through Qum and Kashan, where it branched either in the
direction of Isfahan and so south through Shiraz to the coast or more
south-easterly through Na'In, Ardakan and Yazd to Kirman and
Bam, where it either forked south to the coast or east towards India.
Another turned west through Hamadan, where it divided, the north-
erly route going in the direction of Sanandaj, Mosul, Mardin and
Urfa to Aleppo, the more westerly one going to Baghdad, where it
divided once more, either north to Mosul along the Tigris or along
the Euphrates through the desert to Aleppo. The third main route
from Sava passed north-westerly to Qazvln, where it either went
towards the Caspian to Rasht, Ardabll and north to Shamakhl and
Darband or went to Tabriz through Sultaniyya and Miyana. Tabriz
was an important industrial centre, a vital link with connections in all
directions. One route went to Erivan, with a road going north to
Tiflis and so to Georgia and Armenia, and then on to Turkey where

1
Fryer H, 172—3, 185.

477
 TRADE

the first important town was Erzerum. From there routes went to the
coast at Trebizond and through Anatolia to Istanbul or Bursa or to
the Aegean at Smyrna. Another route from Tabriz which went to
Aleppo passed through Khuy, Bitlls, Diyarbakr and Urfa, where it
joined the route to Aleppo.

(e) The trade

{i) Persian exports

It was silk which was "the chiefest naturall commodity in and about
this place" and which constituted Persia's principal export. As
mentioned before, it was produced principally in the northern prov-
inces of Georgia, Mazandaran and Gllan and to a much lesser extent in
Khurasan and around Yazd. Production had declined in the last quar-
ter of the ioth/i6th century as a result of the Persian—Turkish wars,
but Shah 'Abbas I made determined efforts to expand production.
Statistics and terminology concerning the silk industry are unreliable,
so that it is only possible to generalise on some of the main features.
An estimate was given that in 1618 some 232,000 mans or 125 tons were
being produced. Olearius, two decades later, suggested that produc-
tion was 8,000 bales of 213 lbs. in Gllan, 3,000 bales in Shirvan, 3,000
bales in Khurasan and 2,000 bales each in Mazandaran and Qarabagh:
about 192 tons, of which a twentieth perhaps was used in Persia. By
Chardin's time production had increased, according to his computa-
tion, to some 270 tons, made up of 10,000 bales of 276 lbs. from Gllan,
from Mazandaran 2,000, from "Media and Bactria" 3,000 apiece, and
2,000 each from Qarabagh and Georgia, totalling 22,000 bales. Struys,
who is less reliable, put the total at 30,000 bales. By the end of the
Safavid period in 1740 there was a 40% decline from peak production
estimated at around 160 tons by Han way. By this time Persian silk was
meeting increased competition not only in the markets of Europe from
Indian and Italian silk of middling and excellent quality, but in the
Turkish market from Syrian and Greek silk.
In general the silk from Gllan was most favoured, two main grades
of which were imported to Europe: firstly, sharbassee, which was the
best quality and according to Chardin "la meilleure soye pour les riches
etoffes", and was also called legee, though the terms were not always
synonymous; and secondly, ardasset, described by Chardin as "grosse,
478
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

epaise et hide", which was coarser and cheaper and mostly came from
Shirvan. Other grades in lessening quality were called Khadkudapasand,
Carvari and Canari. Supply was influenced not only by political con-
siderations but by climate and disease. Shah SafI excused himself for the
non-compliance of a contract in 1631 by referring to the disease ravaging
the silkworms and the bad state of the mulberry trees. In 1721 the
English Agent, Owen Philips, alluded to the increased cost of silk
caused "by reason of great Loss of Silke and Wormes this year in an
Earthquake". The European companies at first dealt almost entirely
with the Court, and the tedious negotiations with the officials involved
douceurs to those involved as well as presents on other occasions, such as
the accession of the monarch, new appointments and at the festivities of
Nauruz. Fluctuations in demand naturally influenced prices, and the
Dutch complained that the arrival of the Holstein embassy increased the
price of silk, though they contributed to this by extensive purchases to
thwart them. Price increases were occasionally caused by the departure
of an embassy carrying silk away. The English factors at first hoped to
obtain a load of silk, 36 mans, for 40 tumans, about 6s. 3d a lb., but found
their first consignment costing 50 tumans, about 7s. 6d a lb. It was
generally marginally cheaper for ready money than in part exchange for
other commodities and money. In general the price to the European
companies fluctuated between 45 and 48 tumans a load, according to
circumstances and quality. Exceptionally, in 1721 the English Agent
reported Gllan legee costing about 75 tumans a load.
The cost of transporting a load in 1617 from Isfahan to Bandar
'Abbas, some 5 50 miles, by camel in 45 days, ass in 40 days or mule in
30 days might cost 38 shahis in animal hire and 3^ shahis for tolls.
Packing, baling, wrapping and weighing in Isfahan, including mater-
ials, cost in 1639 25 shahis the load. Other costs included lighterage
and porterage at port and freight charges, which to England were £20
a ton, about 75 shahis a load. Thus in 1640 silk costing 7s. 6d a lb
inclusive was being sold in London for 17s. The prices and costs,
however, fluctuated greatly, for in 1708 the East India Company was
complaining to its Persian factors that the silk invoiced to them at
8s. 4d. was sold for 12s. 2d. on average, "so that considering freight,
Custom, and Discount we have not our money again by a great deal
besides all our Charges and Interest and Insurance lost".1 The Dutch

1
I.O., E/3/96, 9 Jan. 1708/9.

479
 TRADE

too became less enthusiastic over Persian silk, for it was often short in
weight and dirty. At Aleppo costs were complicated by the interaction
of cloth and silk prices and supplies, so that silk might be bought for
14 dollars a rotello in cash but 17^ dollars against a particular kind of
cloth at a certain price depending on demand1. An appreciation of the
interdependence of the silk and cloth trades in the Levant markets is of
fundamental importance. In the early 18th century London prices for
silk fluctuated between 20s. and 30s. a lb. in response to increased
demand as a result of European hostilities which affected the security
of shipping in the Mediterranean. Such silk was being bought for
between 12s. and 14s. at Aleppo.
Other exports of Persia were of much less importance in comparison
with silk. Kirman wool, a fine quality from the goats found in that
province, and a little from Mashhad, were exported by the European
companies and also went through the Levant. Tavernier gives an
amusing account of his experiences with an early consignment in 1654.
The East India Company first requested it from its Persian factors in
1659 an<^ within a decade they were requesting 10—12,000 mans yearly.
During the 1670s about 150 bales were being exported yearly, "clean
good, not to exceed 6d. or 8d. a lb. clear abroad, not black", for red
was the preferred colour. The price obtained in London in the years
1669—77 ranged from 2s. 3d. to 6s. 3d. In 1693 392 bales were shipped,
in 1697 254, and in 1698 338, with prices ranging between 5s. 7d. for
the best and 3s. jd. and 2s. 9d. for second grade. On the eve of the
Afghan invasion the English factors had obtained 18,000 mans. The
Dutch too exported considerable quantities of this wool, which was
principally used in the making of hats and buttons. Of considerable
interest is the fact that the production of this wool stimulated a local
weaving industry which emerged in the 1670s, causing less supplies for
the European companies. By the mid 1680s there was no doubt that the
main reason for these restrictions was "the yearly increase of weavers
who get their living by weaving that Commodity" in Kirman.2
Textiles and carpets were important products of the industry of
Persia, but whilst they now enjoy a remarkable reputation, this was not
necessarily so in the 17th century, for artistic fashion changes. For
example, in the 17th century travellers were unimpressed by Persian

1
A dollar was js—js, and a rotello 4 lbs 12 oz.
2
I.O., G/36/92, 23 Feb. 1684/;.

480
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

painting, and manuscripts were obtained not for their aesthetic quali-
ties but for their religious or historical interest.
The pearling industry off Bahrain, which was nominally under
Persian jurisdiction, was practically under the control of the strongest
local sea power, which meant firstly the Portuguese and then the
Muscat Arabs during the 17th century. The export of pearls, important
though it was, brought little revenue directly to the Persian treasury.
The best pearls were "to be round of good colour and clear, not
yellow". An interesting development in the early 18th century was the
idea of using a submarine to fish for the pearls. The East India Com-
pany was approached in the early 18th century in London "for making
use of an Engine lately invented by which persons can continue under-
water twenty fathoms deep for several hours. It is supposed great
advantage might be made in the Pearl Fishery near Ormus." Bilin de
Cansevilles, the French merchant and traveller, at the turn of the cen-
tury had a similar idea, believing that a submersible machine used off
Marseilles for recovering treasure from wrecks would be suitable for
fishing "une grande quantite de perles orientales pendant toute la jour-
nee sans intermission".
Pearls were much used in the decoration of richly embroidered
textiles as can be seen in contemporary Persian or European portraits.
Red oxide and salt were exported steadily from Hurmuz. Rhubarb,
which came from Central Asia to Qazvln, was mostly exported to
Aleppo, but occasional consignments were shipped from Bandar
'Abbas. Drugs, gums and medicaments such as lapis tuttia, oppoponax,
salarmoniac, worm seeds, ammoniacum, galbanum, olibanum and as-
safoetida were exported in all directions and though the total volume
was small the returns were considerable. An indication of this may be
inferred from Lockyer's account of prices at Bandar 'Abbas in 1705,
when lapis tuttia cost 7 shahls a Tabriz man of 6J lbs, galbanum 16
shahls and ammoniacum 6^ shahls, whilst prices in London were reck-
oned in 1661 to be £5 — £6, £io—£\z and in 1686 £3. 10s respectively.
Dyestuffs included runas (madder), a red root from the Ardabll area,
which was especially in demand in India, and galls, a bitter excrescence
forming on oak trees from the Hamadan and Kurdistan regions, which
went mostly to the Levant.
Persian wine, especially that of Shiraz, in spite of intermittent prohi-
bitions, was highly esteemed in court circles and among the foreigners
residing in the country. Tavernier in 1666 estimated the production of
481
 TRADE

Shlraz wine at 154,688 imperial gallons, 4,125 barrels of 300 pints each
(200,025 mans), of which a quarter was exported to India and another
quarter consumed exclusively by the court. There were vineyards in
many parts of the country where the climate was favourable, including
Azarbaljan around Lake Riza'iyya, Qazvln, Khurasan, particularly
about Nlshapur, districts in Georgia and Armenia, as well as Isfahan,
Yazd and Shlraz. Shlraz, according to Tavernier, "is particularly
famous for the most excellent wines of all Persia".1 The grapes were
fermented in large terra cotta containers before being bottled and
transported wrapped with straw in cases. Jews, Armenians and
Zoroastrians were those engaged in the trade. The wine of Shlraz was
highly esteemed by Europeans, who probably stimulated increased
production from the beginning of the 17th century and who were
granted special concessions to make their own, which was usually
managed for them by Armenians. Tavernier reckoned that in 1666
50,000 mans were produced there for the Europeans and the rest by
Jews, 100,000 mans of which much was exported to India. India also
took rosewater, orange-flower essence and much fruit. In 1705 Lock-
yer stated that Shlraz rosewater cost 120 shahls and Shlraz wine cost
140 shahls a chest of 10 gallons, but in 1685 it was priced at 100 shahls
with local brandy at 20 shahls a gallon.
(it) Persian imports
The main imports were textiles either for internal consumption or for
re-export to neighbouring countries. The principal kinds were firstly
woollen cloths from Europe, particularly from England and to a lesser
extent from Venice, France and Holland, which entered Persia mostly
from the Levant, although the English East India Company especially
made strenuous efforts at various times to expand its cloth sales
through Bandar 'Abbas. Secondly, there was a wonderful variety of
Indian cotton cloths which were brought in by local traders, the Dutch
company and to a lesser extent the English Company. Most of the
European cloth imported was English broadcloth, thick, well-woven
and heavy, generally of the ordinary variety costing between 3s. 6d.
and 5 s. a yard dyed and called "Londra", which was the term given to
it by Italian merchants towards the end of the 16th century when it was
first appearing in the Levant. Though there were considerable varia-

1
Tavernier i, 420; for quantity, see ibid., 754.

482
 THE LATER SAFAVID PERIOD

tions in quality, weaving, dressing, pressing and dyeing, in general the

cloths were some 40 yards long, slightly lengthening towards the end
of the century, and between 4 ft. 6 ins. and 6 ft. in breadth and usually
sold in bales of five cloths. The Persians preferred bright gay colours
and bought them at 30—36 shahis (10s.—12s.) a yard. Some sales were
made of kersies, a coarse narrow cloth, some 27 ins. wide, woven from
long wool. The newer style of cloths, lighter in texture, known as bays,
and perpetuanos, the "new draperies", as they were termed in Europe,
coming into fashion early in the 17th century, did not make much
headway in the Persian markets. Middling and high quality cloths in
rich colours such as scarlet, crimson or deep wine had limited sales and
were often used for presents.
The Indian cotton cloths came mostly from Sind, Coromandel, Surat,
which handled the production from Agra, Broach, Ahmadabad and
other north-west Indian textile centres, Bengal and Kutch. The large
number of Persians in India facilitated this trade and influenced its
methods and patterns. The volume was great; perhaps a third of Indian
textile production went to the Red Sea and Persia and onwards to
Arabia, the Levant, Turkey, Russia and Central Asia. Fryer noticed the
predominance of the textile and spice imports to Persia.
The Dutch involvement in the textile imports is well attested by
Professor Raychaudhuri, who states that, "starting as a mere accessory
to the spice trade in the Indies the Dutch trade with Coromandel
developed before long into one of the chief pillars of the Company's
Eastern commerce", and nowhere more so than to Persia.1 The Dutch
continued to the end of the Safavid period to import textiles and spices.
Four Dutch ships arriving at Bandar 'Abbas in 1721 brought sugar,
pepper, sappon wood, lack, cardamons, sugar candy, tin, cinnamon,
cloves, nutmegs and a variety of textiles ranging in price from 8 to 13 8
shahls a piece, with the most numerous single kind being Cossas, of
which there were 2,280 costing 56 shahls each.
In 1721 spices imported by the Dutch, who were not the exclusive
but the largest traders in them, were valued in the Bandar 'Abbas
customs house registers as follows: cardamons 70 shahls per Tabrl2
man, cinnamon 85 shahls 7 qazbaks, nutmegs 97 shahls, preserved
nutmegs 200 shahls, pepper 11 shahls, cloves 142 shahls 8 qazbaks,
preserved cloves 250 shahis, benjamin 18 shahls and more 40 shahls per

1
T. Raychaudhuri, Jan Company in Coromandel 160;-1690 (The Hague, 1962), p. 211.

483
 TRADE

IOO misqals. Turmeric and ginger were also imported, and rice. Wood
was frequently imported in the south for building. Sugar was also an
important import throughout this period.
Apart from these staple items, tin and iron were required and a wide
variety of luxuries such as furs, jewels, watches, glassware, cutlery,
amber for beads, coral, porcelain, ivory, falcons, exotic animals and
fashionable bric-a-brac. Guns were always highly acceptable as
presents in court circles and among officials, but there was no large-
scale importation from European sources.

6. ORGANISATION OF TRADE

Shah 'Abbas had trade organised as a state monopoly, almost on a

personal basis. The reasons for this lay partly in his determination to
centralise his administration, partly in the effects of the Turkish wars
prior to his accession and partly as a consequence of the Portuguese
hold over trade in the south, and not least because it was financially
advantageous to him. Moreover, Persian merchants were short of
capital to sustain trade on a large scale, as the English had noticed on
their first arrival. As silk sales were a priority, Shah 'Abbas encour-
aged the Armenian community he had settled in Isfahan. The shah,
however, retained under his own control international trade, which
was administered in accordance with his instructions by one of his
ministers, Lala Beg or Mulla'Im Beg in the last fifteen years of his
reign.
Under Shah SafI the royal monopoly was greatly relaxed and under
subsequent monarchs practically abandoned. The operations of the
mints, which under Shah 'Abbas were strictly supervised, became less
effective and much of the foreign coinage entering the country was
never taken to them. As a result of this and court hoarding, the
amount of coinage in circulation failed to keep pace with financial
requirements as the volume of business increased. Such a state of affairs
had not yet become obvious by 1631, for remark was made of "Silver
and Gould which is transported yearely from hence into India in great
quantities by merchaunts of these parts",1 but it had become a serious
problem thirty years later. Raphael du Mans noted that "la richesse de
la Perse n'est done que comme Phumidite de l'eau qui s'attache aux

1
I.O., E/3/14/1503, 23 March 1633.

484
 ORGANISATION OF TRADE

canaux cependant qu'elle passe pour aller se descharger dans son bas-
sin... il reste quelque peu de chose sur le pais".1
Twenty years later still a critical situation had arisen with money in
very short supply and the currency debased. "The unhappy Order of
not suffering Gold nor Silver to be exported" was decreed and officers
commissioned to enforce it, for "the Deputy who is now in towne
[Bandar 'Abbas] hath given abunndance of trouble, threatning to open
all chests and bales to seek for money, but the merchants at last made a
general complaint and got leave for shipping their goods after he had
searched all with running an Iron into both bales and chests".2 This
had some effect in the short term, but with the connivance of port
officials and other more devious methods it was not long before the
flow to India was continued, by which, according to Tavernier earlier,
"those who understand the traffic well and carry hence gold or silver to
the territories of the Great Mughal, always get 7% or 8%, provided
they take care to shun the customs-house".3
As for the debasement in 1684, it was reported that "the money of
Spahanne is soe very bad there is neither buying nor selling, and in fifty
abassis there is not five Silver, soe that the Bazars are all shutt up, and
noe trading at all, nor will be any until the King hath ordered this
money to be cryed downe, and other good money made in the room of
it, the which these people are now by the King's order every day at
worke upon, but wee fear it will take some time (by reason of the
Scarcity of good Silver) before they can gett quoined soe much as will
serve soe great citty as Spahaune".4 The problem continued to bedevil
the Persian economy and was as much the result of the lack of adminis-
trative control in enforcing unpopular measures as economic. Practi-
cally all the silk was exported to the Levant, with little apart from
European demand to balance the trade to the south and east, so that the
imbalance was compensated by the export of precious metals. There
was not such a shortage of these, for Venetian chequins came from the
Levant, Hungarian ducats and rijks dollars from Russia. The Spanish
real was still current. Much coinage, however, never reached the mints
and so was not taxed, but exported directly.
The Armenians as a group seemed alone in possessing some kind of
social as well as commercial cohesion, even a common school of busi-

1 2
Du Mans, pp. 192-3. I.O., E/3/31/3504, 26 Oct. 1670.
3 4
Tavernier 11, 591-2. I.O., E/3/44, 5 Nov. 1684.

485
 TRADE

ness practice, but it must not be assumed that all Armenians every-
where had the same interests, for though some might mutually
collaborate closely others were in violent opposition to each other.
This became more obvious towards the end of the 17th century,
when religious persecution, discrimination and competing commer-
cial conditions began to disrupt their communal solidarity in Isfahan.
There was similarly visible a clear reaction arising from the political,
economic, social and religious factors throughout the Persia of Shah
Sultan Husain. This eventually resulted in its collapse and capitula-
tion to the Afghans of Mahmud, described by a French observer as
being "a body of eight thousand shepherds half unarmed". Banians
and Jews too began to suffer more intervention in their affairs
towards the latter end of the century, but in general Safavid Persia
was more tolerant of its minorities than Mughal India and interfered
with them less.
The bulk of direct European trade with Persia was conducted by the
English and Dutch companies. This was regulated by treaties and
decrees. Although a royal farman authorising Christian merchants to
trade in Persia with protection, privileges and exemption from tolls
and customs was granted by Shah 'Abbas I to Sherley in 1599, the
significant date is 1615, when Richard Steele and John Crowther
obtained a farman permitting the English East India Company to
commence trade in Persia with the cooperation of the local officials.
The first and second Agents, Edward Connock and Thomas Barker,
proposed separate drafts, which if not formally accepted were used as
the basis for normal relations until a formal agreement was accepted
and issued by Shah SafI in 1629. This lasted in force and in 1697 was
confirmed and slightly expanded by Shah Sultan Husain from eighteen
to twenty articles. Similar arrangements were entered into by the
Dutch with Persians in 1623 and a treaty signed on 29 December 1624.
This was subsequently confirmed in 1631, 1642 and 1694.
These treaties established the framework in which the European
companies operated in general, but secondly there were further raqams
required to cover more specific aspects which arose in the course of
trading and which needed royal confirmation. These included freedom
from rahdari (the road taxes), polite usage from local officials, permis-
sion to export an agreed number of horses annually, security of resi-
dence, freedom to make wine, provision of guards for caravans,
supplies of water, permission to purchase Kirman wool, restitution of
486
 ORGANISATION OF TRADE

goods or money unlawfully taken, and others. In 1697 nineteen such

raqams were confirmed by Shah Sultan Husain for the English com-
pany.
A third kind of official authorisation was that concerned with royal
contracts such as those entered into between Shah 'Abbas I and Agent
Burt or between Shah Safl and Agents Burt, Heynes, Gibson and
Merry for the English company between 1628 and 1640. These might
concern the terms and conditions of the sale of Persian silk for English
commodities such as cloth or tin or part exchange with money, or they
might consist of instructions to certain officials or merchants to furnish
a given amount of silk to the English company. The Dutch also
required such raqams for their affairs, the granting of which often
depended on the relationship between the personnel of the companies
and the royal officials, the situation at court and the giving of presents.
In many ways the official most closely involved with the European
companies was the sbdhbandar, the port officer. There was a similar
functionary for the Mughal emperor at Surat. He had the overall
jurisdiction of the port, he collected the customs and controlled the
customs-house, he regulated the movement of shipping, he authorised
the landing and despatch of goods, he provided the lightering facilities
which were essential at Bandar 'Abbas, and his goodwill was essential
for the merchants. In the time of Shah 'Abbas I it appears that this
appointment was in the gift of Imam Qull Khan, the powerful gover-
nor of Fars, but on his murder by Shah SafI the appointment became a
royal prerogative. The details are not certain: at first it seems to have
been a salaried position, but in the latter part of the 1 ith/i7th century it
was a "farmed" post, at 24,000 tumans for Bandar 'Abbas.
By the middle of the reign of Shah 'Abbas I the facilities for mer-
chants had improved. In the large cities the bazaars were functioning
as the centre of trading. Each sector of the bazaar had its own particu-
lar kind of trade organised with its own guild administration for ser-
vicing the requirements of traders for wholesale and retail purposes,
provision of porterage, transportation and stabling, the control of
pricing and arbitration over commercial disputes. Food retailing was,
however, organised differently and was distributed throughout the
bazaar. The importance of the total bazaar complex and its relationship
to the city is most clearly seen in Isfahan, where Shah 'Abbas included
it among his religious, administrative and economic institutions
centering on the great maidan. It is obvious too in a later example at
487
 TRADE
Shlraz, where Karlm Khan Zand attached very much importance to his
Bazar Vakil. Whilst the Armenians gradually dominated the silk and
heavy cloth trades, GujaratI merchants were prominent in the Indian
trades of spices and light cloths and largely controlled the money
exchanges. The European merchants were largely dependent on their
local brokers, whose connections with the traders of the bazaar and
the officials of the court were indispensable. The English and Dutch
companies had their own quarters in Isfahan, but did little direct
trading themselves after the reigns of Shah 'Abbas I and Shah Safi.
Along the trade routes a determined effort was made to supply suffici-
ent caravansarais for the use of merchants on their journeys.

7 . CUSTOMS AND REVENUE

The whole question of the Persian customs at the port of Bandar

'Abbas, which for most of the period handled by far the largest volume
of seaborne trade to Persia, is confused in the absence of any reliable
statistics, which is not surprising, given the nature and the methods of
Safavid bureaucracy and the practices of merchants. Some tentative
indications, based primarily on English sources, however, may be pro-
posed with reservations. It was assumed in 1624 that the Portuguese
obtained 180,000 rials (some £45,000 at 5s. per rial or some 14,616
tumans at £3. 6s. 8d a tuman) yearly on customs set at 14% nominally
at Hurmuz. The English company was entitled to half the customs
taken at Bandar 'Abbas in recognition of the services it had provided
for the Persians at the capture of Hurmuz. It was admitted that it
received at the most only a tenth or even a fifteenth of what was due
and in some years less than that or none at all, particularly towards the
end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. The following
amounts were received by the English East India Company for their
share of customs in representative years: 1624225 tiimans, 1631 550,
1633242, 1634 341, 1637345, 1640700, 1643 612, 1644 6i6|,
1648 635, 1649 200, 1650 61 z\, 1651 750, 1652 785, 1653 7OO> 1654 500,
1655 400, 1656 700, 1657 650, 1658 400, 1659 500, 1660450, 1661 650,
1664700, 1668700, 1669700, 1670900, 16721,000. Subsequently it
remained, though was not always delivered, at the agreed nominal
figure of 1,000 tumans.
It is possible to hazard a possible cross-referencing of figures around
1670. If it is accepted that the English company only received a
488
 ORGANISATION OF TRADE

fifteenth of what was due to it, then this means that it should have had
15,000 tumans and the shahbandar a like figure, or £50,000 each,
giving a total of £100,000. Now it was calculated that the customs for
1669-70 trading period amounted to 29,000 tumans, some £96,666. In
1652 the Persian customs were reckoned to be £118,000. In 1682 in
London it was believed that the English share of the customs was
worth 12,000 tumans (£40,000) yearly in the period 1658-78. In 1661
Nicholas Buckeridge, the English Agent in Isfahan, overheard "the
Vizeer of the Custome house acknowledge to his friends (supposing
hee did not heare, or that hee did not understand him) that the King's
Customes this year amounted to above 15 and 16 thousand Tomands
... [and] hath cheated the King and you, of more then would make it
up 20 Thousand Tomands".1 In 1674 customs were farmed out for
24,000 tumans. The duties were 10% of value. In 1656 and 1657
together some.£444,500 worth of goods was cleared through the
customs at Surat for Persia.
In attempting to extrapolate from these tentative figures the total
value of trade, allowance has to be made for English and Dutch com-
pany trade, which was exempt from customs, though the private trade
of the merchants was officially not so, but in fact was; the practice of
offloading at secluded beaches; and the prevalence of "colouring",
whereby local trade was brought in in the guise of company trade. An
inspired guess for the total import trade of the southern ports might
give a value of £700,000 in the middle of the 17th century, a little less
from the Levant and somewhat less still from Russia, Central Asia and
the overland trade from India: an overall total of £iim., of which a
quarter might be re-exported. As for exports, the bulk of these were
composed of silk exports. Chardin in the second half of the 17th
century estimated the total production at about £5111. At between 45
and 50 tumans a load of 36 mans of i2^1bs per man, the value of silk
production was between £ i i m . and £1,800,000. Perhaps a fifth of the
total production was consumed in Persia, leaving a possible £1,750,000
for exports, though these figures varied greatly during the century
according to the fluctuation of demand or supplies. Other exports in
comparison were limited, and so in general it may be assumed that in
the 17th century trade was balanced, but that after the collapse of the
Safavids it deteriorated. In 1801 Sir John Malcolm reckoned that "the

1
I.O., E/3/27/2894, Nicholas Buckeridge, Isfahan, to E.I. Co., 19 Aug. 1661.

489
 TRADE

annual amount of the imports and exports of Persia do not (if this
statement is correct) much exceed two million and a half sterling... it is
considered that at least one half of this only passes through the King-
dom on its way to others".1 Thus the assumption that the value of the
annual trade of Persia at the height of Safavid prosperity was £$m. is
not unreasonable. In comparison, the imports and exports of the
United Kingdom at this time were estimated at some

1
Malcolm, The Melville Papers, ed. Sir A.T. Wilson, included in Charles Issawi, The Economic
History of Iran 1800-1)14 (Chicago, 1971), p. 265.

490
 CHAPTER 9

SOCIAL AND INTERNAL ECONOMIC

AFFAIRS*

In discussing the economic situation of Iran from the 14th to the 18th
century, it seems to us helpful to keep two essential sectors distinct
from one another: on the one hand the economy of the open country-
side (above all, agriculture, cattle-breeding, hunting, fishing and
mining) and on the other hand the urban economy (commerce and
industry). Let us turn initially to the sector of rural production, with
agriculture and cattle-breeding as its predominant elements. This
created to a great extent the basis for almost all the economic activities
we shall encounter in the period we are to treat. Subsequently the
development of the various forms and institutions of landholding will
have to be examined. Thereafter we shall treat the urban sectors of the
economy (home trade and industrial production), and we shall end
with a description of the financial and taxation systems.

THE RURAL ECONOMY

In the framework of agrarian production we encounter above all two

sharply demarcated social groups. While the settled peasants mostly
devote themselves to agriculture, cattle-breeding is above all in the
hands of nomads and semi-nomads. Let us first discuss some character-
istic features of peasant production in our period.
The damage done to Iran's agriculture by the Mongol invasion
showed its effects for centuries, and it is questionable whether the
country, down to the end of the Safavid period, ever regained the
degree of prosperity that distinguished Iranian agriculture from the
4th/ioth to the 6th/12th century, though there were indeed regional
exceptions. The reasons for this setback lay above all in the destruction
of irrigation works, some of them centuries old, and in the deforesta-
tion and depopulation of the country: both of the latter were direct
consequences of the Mongol invasion. Further devastation occurred in

* This chapter was completed in 1972. It has not been possible, therefore, to take into account
work which has appeared since that date.

491
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

the course of Tlmur's conquests. Nevertheless, there were phases of

economic improvement around the middle of the 9th/15 th century and
above all in the 1 ith/iyth century.
The village was the basis of rural production. Authority over the
villages was exercised by landowners, fief-holders or tenants; when the
ruler himself was the landowner, that is to say on crown lands, or when
he had administrative control in some other way, he was represented in
relation to the peasants by fiscal officials. We shall discuss this matter
further below.
All peasants enjoyed equal rights as members of their village commu-
nity; each of them, within his village, had a right to the use of a portion
of land, to his own household, to the use of the communal pasture and
the irrigation works of the village. The portion of land was usually
calculated on the unit of a.juft (juft-igdv, "a yoke of oxen"); a juft was as
much land as could be cultivated with a yoke of oxen, and it was an
established principle that every peasant had the right to a juft. In this
situation it was generally accepted that all the jufts of a village should be,
as far as possible, of equal value with regard to the harvests they would
yield. In some cases, in order to achieve this equal sharing among all the
villagers, the jufts were reallocated after a period of several years.
Another possible method of establishing equal shares for the indi-
vidual peasants was the allocation of a fixed quantity of water; in this
case a village functionary, the mirdb, saw to it that each peasant's
portion of land was supplied with the necessary quantity of water from
the irrigation system.
The peasant himself was regarded as a tenant of his landlord. In
every case the cultivated ground, often also the implements, the
draught animals, the water, and of course the irrigation works that cost
so much to construct, belonged to the landlord. The human labour was
of course supplied by peasants.
In conformity with the extent of these preconditions for agricultural
production, the harvest of the village at any given time was divided up
according to the terms of a "contract of lease" between landlord and
tenant. If, for example, the landlord had provided the land, the draught
animals, irrigation and seeds, and the peasants of the village concerned
merely contributed their labour, then the latter had to be content with
only one-fifth of the produce. This was the general rule for villages
with straightforward field-tillage. With orchards, vineyards and vege-
table plantations in the vicinity of towns, where irrigation was ensured
492
 THE RURAL ECONOMY

by natural watercourses and not by expensive underground channels

(qanat), a different percentage was customary: here the peasant retained
from one-third to one-half of the produce. In every case the peasants -
the so-called ra'aya, i.e. "the protected" (by the landlord and his repre-
sentatives), "the flock" - formed a class on their own. They had, since
the Jalayirid era, been increasingly bound to the soil and were not
allowed to leave the region of their village without official sanction, as
illustrated by kfarmdn of Shah SafI issued in Rabl' I 1041/September -
October 1631, in which there is mention of the return of Slstanl peas-
ants to their villages; they had fled to various parts of Khurasan during
an Uzbek raid.1 Even though it may have held good for previous
centuries that the landlord functioned as mediator between peasantry
and bureaucracy and was thereby also the peasants' protector, this was
hardly the case after the time of the Tl-Khans: from the 8th/14th to the
12th/18th century we repeatedly encounter a tendency towards the
development of a landowning class possessing far-reaching powers and
authority. In general the peasants hardly ever came into contact with
their landlords or their representatives; these lived almost entirely in
towns, often far distant, so that the life of the villagers, especially of
those living well away from the towns, was characterised by a high
degree of isolation. The daily routine followed its course, year in, year
out, entirely within the limits of the village community. Requisites for
day-to-day use were made at home by the peasants themselves, or else
the landlord provided such articles as implements of various kinds and
eventually recovered their value by increasing his share of the produce.
This fact is of fundamental importance, since it shows clearly that
commerce was largely restricted to the urban sector of the economy
and at best extended only to villages in the vicinity of towns. These
villages supplied the towns with fresh fruit and vegetables. The rela-
tive prosperity of the peasants in such areas was by no means a charac-
teristic of the inhabitants of the many remote villages. Their only
contact with the outside world was when they met tax-collectors and
the landlord's representatives, who had to bring in his share of the
produce. It should also be said that these observations do not apply
merely to the period under discussion here.
This also holds good when we consider the most important agricul-

1
Husain DavudI, "Asnad-i khanidan-i Kalantari-yi Slstan", BT iv (1348), no. 5—6, pp. gff.
(document no. j). See generally Petrushevsky, Kisbavar^i 11, 186—90.

493
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

tural products; as in earlier and later times, the main cereals were wheat
and barley, the latter mainly as fodder. In the Caspian coastal areas rice-
growing held first place; it was also to be found to a limited extent in
the Isfahan area. Sugar-cane had already been cultivated in Khuzistan
since the time of the Sasanians. Fruit-growing was not exclusively
confined to plantations in the vicinity of towns; however, it always
required favourable means of irrigation. Essentially the same kinds of
fruit were cultivated as in our own day. Cotton-growing and the rear-
ing of silkworms were widespread, the latter mainly around Yazd, in
Khurasan and in Gllan on the Caspian coast. Wine-production was not
unusual and mostly found in the vicinity of the vineyards themselves.
It is, of course, not surprising that (Christian) Armenians and
Georgians were especially active in this trade. Saffron, which was in
great demand, came mostly from Khurasan. In districts where there
was hardly any frost in winter, figs and above all dates were harvested.
There were extensive date-plantations everywhere in Khuzistan and
also in the province of Kirman and on the Caspian coast. Olives and
citrus fruits were grown in the climatically favoured districts, limes
especially in the fertile areas by the Persian Gulf, and Persian bitter
oranges {ndranj) mainly on the shores of the Caspian and in Kirman.
The cultivation of sweet oranges {purtaqdf) also increased after the
contacts with the Portuguese, i.e. in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it
did not reach the same extent as today. Cultivation of poppies (for the
extraction of opium) and hemp was widespread in all areas.
As has been indicated above, in Iran irrigation was a decisive factor
for every kind of agriculture. The following irrigation techniques have
been handed down from the 1 ith/iyth century: surface irrigation with
water from springs or rivers; "underground" irrigation from deep
wells {chdh) fed by ground-water; and irrigation by means of qanat (or
kartz), underground channels, expensive to construct, which were
driven through strata carrying ground-water. These methods are
known well before the 8th/i4th century and are still practised today.1
Orchards and plantations, as we have already mentioned, required a
greater supply of water than simple agriculture. We therefore find this
type of cultivation mostly in places where surface irrigation with river-
water was possible. In the crown provinces of the nth/17th century
the ruler had a monopoly of water and leased it to the holders of fiefs

1
C h a r d i n i v , 1 0 1 . H a m d - A l l a h M u s t a u f I , Nu^batal-qulub, text p p . 1 3 2 , 1 3 3 , 1 4 4 , 1 4 5 , 2 2 1 , e t c .

494
 THE RURAL ECONOMY

and to peasants. Thus the Band-i amir dam in Fars, for example, which
went back to the Buyid epoch, is said to have brought in some
thousand tumdns annually for the royal treasury.1 In a similar way, in
other areas the landlord at any given time had special rights of owner-
ship with regard to water and irrigation works. It hardly needs to be
emphasised that the irrigation problem was of an entirely different
character in the humid Caspian provinces.
Because of the limited range of the irrigation systems, agricultural
operations were always restricted to a specific cultivation area; it there-
fore proved necessary to manure the exhausted and meagre soil regu-
larly. For the most part the dung of asses, cattle, camels and sheep
served the purpose, and the fertilising effect of human excreta was also
highly esteemed. The cesspits of town houses were therefore emptied
regularly by local peasants coming to market, in order that they could
transfer this valuable material to their fields and gardens. Generally all
the rubbish of the towns was — as it still is — carefully gathered up by
peasants and used as fertiliser.2 Ox and camel dung were also used as
fuel. It was a very common practice to use the ground-up remnants of
decayed mud walls, which had been made durable by an admixture of
fermented straw and chaff and thus contained valuable chemicals.
Pigeon droppings were held to be the most valuable fertiliser. Even
today strangely shaped pigeon towers {kabutarkhana) are a character-
istic feature of the environs of Isfahan; often up to ten thousand birds
nest in them. These buildings, of which similar examples are found at
al-Fayyum in Egypt, date back to the 17th century. Every day con-
siderable quantities of the precious salpetre-like substance were — and
still are — obtained from them. In former times a fixed tax was levied by
the state for the erection of these towers.3
Landlords and wealthy peasants used to store up large quantities of
cereals for considerable periods. For this purpose they generally used
large vessels, in which the goods to be kept were covered over with
dry straw and sand. It was also customary to bury stores in large dry
holes in the ground and cover them with sand. Apples, for example,
could be kept for a whole year in this manner. Peasants often buried
their harvest produce, to keep it out of the reach of tax-collectors,
highwaymen or predatory nomads.

2
Kaempfer, p. 94. Du Mans, p. 233. Chaidin rv, 103.
3
Chardin in, 386-7.

495
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

We should add a word on mills and milling. There were mills in

many districts; these, however, did not always belong to the peasant
production sector, since their products (meal and flour, especially
wheat-flour, and oils in the case of oil-mills) were in great measure
intended for urban consumers. The meal needed for private use was
generally ground by the peasants themselves. From the technological
point of view there were mainly two types of mills: those driven by
draught animals and - along watercourses - watermills. There was
probably a trend towards an increasing number of watermills; these
were in general use in the 17th century. There are also said to have
been windmills in some parts of the country, e.g. in Khurasan.1
The settled peasants practised cattle-breeding only to a limited de-
gree, usually only for the reproduction of draught animals and possibly
also to satisfy their own very modest demand for meat. Poultry —
preferably chickens and pigeons, and in the Caspian regions also ducks
— was bred mostly in the vicinity of the towns, obviously with a view
to being sold in the markets. The major part in satisfying the demand
for meat was played by the nomad cattle-breeders, whose extensive
flocks and herds - mostly sheep and goats, camels, and in Khuzistan
also buffaloes - were to be met with everywhere. There had been
nomad tribes in Iran even before the arrival of the Turks and Mongols
- Kurds, Bakhtiyars, Lurs, Baliichis (all of Iranian origin), and
Bedouin Arabs (e.g. the Banii Ka'b) in Khuzistan ('"Arabistan"). In
the period under discussion here, the tribes of Turkish origin were
predominant. In addition, ethnically very heterogeneous tribes had
developed in the Il-Khanid period under the leadership of Mongol
soldiers; these probably succumbed to far-reaching Turkicisation
during the 8th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries. Each tribe had at its dis-
posal a clearly defined and extensive pasture area, consisting of a sum-
mer pasture (jailaq) and a winter pasture (qishlaq), which might often be
at a great distance from one another. The summer pastures lay in the
highlands, while the winter pastures were always to be found in exten-
sive lowland tracts. The tribes were divided into sub-tribes and clans;
the smallest organisational unit was a nomad household consisting of
several tents (Turkish oba). The total pasture territory of a tribe was
called jurt.2 The supreme authority over a yurt was exercised by the
1
Petrushevsky, Kisbavarvji, i6$R. Du Mans, p. 243.
2
TMEN 11, 132ff.(no. 57*)- Petrushevsky, Kisbivanjn, 77•. For the yurt under TTmur, cf.
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 100.

496
 THE RURAL ECONOMY

members of the tribal aristocracy, headed by the chief. Even though

the flocks and herds were regarded as the communal property of the
tribe concerned, they were in fact controlled by the leaders of the tribe,
whose decisions were generally accepted because of their rank and
prestige. The strict discipline prevailing within the tribes was also
connected with the fact that every Turkish nomad tribe, down to the
time of 'Abbas I and to a lesser degree even later, was at the same time
also a military unit and the tribal hierarchy was generally identical with
the military hierarchy. We have already mentioned that the nomads
met the demand for meat. Besides this, they also produced wool,
supplied hides, did a small amount of tanning and made milk products
of various kinds. They lived in tents; whereas the Mongolian felt tent
(known as yurt) has been used in north-eastern Iran down to the
present day, the type called the "black tent" came into general use in
the central highlands and in western Iran from the Mongol period
onwards. A "black tent" consisted of specially-cut pieces made of spun
goat's wool. This was an excellent heat-insulating material, and the
tents made of it were probably more mobile than the robust yurt. In
Khuzistan the wandering herdsmen and shepherds also made them-
selves reed huts, which could be quickly erected. The economic aim of
the nomad cattle-breeders was a constant enlargement of their stock; it
must however be remembered that the annual increase was very much
lessened by consumption for their own needs and by substantial sur-
rendering of cattle to the state or the court and above all to the
superiors of the tribe and to its leader. Cattle-dealing on a larger scale
was carried on only by tribal leaders and their subordinates; these also
made the greatest profits. More and more the leaders of tribes settled in
the towns, above all in times of peace, and especially when they exer-
cised administrative functions, as for example the Qizilbash governors.
They thus became somewhat estranged from the way of life of their
fellow-tribesmen, but never to such a degree as to risk losing their
absolute authority. These were not the only circumstances in which
there was a community of interests between the nomad leaders and the
traditional landlords. As we shall see later, in the course of the 14th,
15 th and 16th centuries, tribal chiefs were often the possessors of large
"fiefs" or beneficia and thereby combined two social functions.
Hunting and fishing were probably always of limited economic im-
portance. Hunting was practised as a sport by the genteel and rich;
apart from this it was also one of the special characteristics of nomad

497
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

life. Among the settled population, large-scale hunting and fishing were
carried on only in the Caspian coastal areas, where game and fish were
plentiful; there was also fishing in the waters of the Persian Gulf. For
obvious reasons, the exploitation of fish was confined to the regions
concerned. In general, the consumption of fish or game (chiefly gazelles,
wild goats and game birds) was unusual among the town-dwellers of the
interior of the Iranian plateau, except at court and in wealthy households,
where such things were regarded as special delicacies. It gave 'Abbas I
particular pleasure to prepare wifh his own hands game that he had killed
and to have it served to his guests and hunting companions.1
Finally, a few words about the exploitation of mineral resources. In
the 17th century at least, the Crown held sovereign rights over mining,
salt-production and pearlrfishing. The yield from these formed an es-
sential source of revenue for the royal treasury. Among the most
valuable mining products were the turquoises from the celebrated
mines near NIshapur. The exploitation of these mines was from time to
time prohibited by the shah. Large quantities of copper were extracted
in Khurasan and above all in Kirman, while the gold and silver mines
of Iran were already so exhausted in the 1 ith/i7th century that it was
no longer possible to work them. Lead came mainly from Yazd and
Kirman; iron was extracted in Khurasan. Lastly, sulphur, mercury
and antimony were also mined.2 The demand for salt was satisfied by
the rich rock-salt deposits of Iran; there were also of course extensive
salt-works in the Persian Gulf area, where sea-salt was obtained by
evaporation. Travellers made particular mention of such salt-works,
especially in Hurmuz.3 We must also remember the mineral oil de-
posits in the Baku and Khuzistan (Shushtar) area. Sometimes the exploi-
tation of "oil-wells" {cbab-i naff) was incumbent upon local landlords;
these wells were of course only gushers.4
We must also mention the dangers that threatened the existence of
large parts of the population in every age — namely, natural disasters of
various kinds. The most serious of these were crop failures and the
ensuing famines: they were caused by lack of precipitation during the
winter months, and they weighed most heavily on the rural popula-
tion. The consequences of a period of drought affected not only the
1 2
FalsafI, Zindaganiix, 25. Kaempfer, p. 94.
3
Ibid. Uouvragt de Seyfi £e/ebi, bistorim ottoman du XVIe siicli, ed. and trans. J. Matuz (Paris,
1968), pp. 142-3.
4
Kaempfer, p. 94. Petrushevsky, "K istorii instituta 'soyurgala'", pp. 141ft.

498
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

settled peasants but also nomad herdsmen and cattle-breeders; it often

took five years or more to re-establish a herd that had been decimated
by drought and lack of pasture.
In the borderlands of the Great Desert the daily battle for water was
coupled with fighting off the wind-borne sand that had for thousands
of years been endeavouring to bury the settlements lying there. Walls
had to be built to protect fields and gardens, and the advancing desert
continually threatened to dry up the essential wells and destroy the
irrigation systems.
Iran is one of the most restless tectonic zones on earth; in conse-
quence of this, disastrous earthquakes occurred repeatedly. Those who
suffered most from them were villagers living in frail mud huts, but
hardly anyone escaped unhurt in an affected area.
Diseases and epidemics, often intensified by lack of water and
absence of hygiene, also endangered many lives. The towns were es-
pecially prone to epidemics because of the crowded living conditions
in high-concentration centres: the plague epidemic at Herat in the year
838/1435 as described by 'Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandl is an instance of
this. In such cases, the sparsely populated flat country proved to be a
cordon sanitaire by which the epidemic could be prevented from spread-
ing to other towns. In the rural areas, however, diseases like cholera,
typhoid fever, dysentery and malaria were endemic, especially in Gllan,
Khuzistan and the coastal areas by the Persian Gulf; they were dreaded
- not without cause - by European travellers, and in every age they
were a danger to the rural population.

THE VARIOUS FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

It is hardly possible to give a simple definition of all the forms of

landholding which existed in the period under discussion. At one end
of the scale there was private ownership; at the other there were
beneficia, privileges and tax-farming ; while in between came grants
somewhat reminiscent of the European "fief" and for which that term
will be employed in this chapter, although it should be noted that they
did not correspond to it at all points.
The institutions already existing in the Mongol period under-
went various changes between the 14th and the 18th century. Further-
more in the course of time a number of new concepts and institutions
arose, which in practice again changed rapidly and probably assumed

499
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

different forms in different areas of Iran. Clarification of the problem of

landholding is also complicated by the fact that the legal concepts of
landlordship do not always give a true picture of the actual situation. In
the following exposition we will try, as far as possible, to explain the
various institutions on the basis of their legal definitions and to describe
how they worked in practice, how they developed and changed in the
course of time, and how new types of landlordship emerged.
In principle, the following categories of land were recognised from
the 'Abbasids onwards: (i) divaniland (state land), (ii) mulk land (private
estates), (iii) vaqf land ( charitable or religious endowment land), and
(iv) khdssa land (crown land).1 However, this ideal scheme cannot be
applied to our period without closer scrutiny. Within the category of
"state land" in particular there was a bewildering mass of institutions
by which the state's title to land was, to a greater or lesser degree,
transferred to individuals. Let us first clarify the concept. All areas
whose tax revenues were at the disposal of the state were regarded as
divani land. Part of this income was used to finance the civil service
and the military; especially from the Mongol period onwards the au-
thorities no longer restricted themselves to collecting the traditional
kharaj (land tax), but levied a number of special taxes. These did not
conform with the religious law, but were generally legitimised in the
Il-Khanid period by the Yasa, the code of Chingiz Khan. Their num-
bers, and the amounts required, varied at different times and in differ-
ent places.2 It was the normal practice for the tax officials ('ummdl) of
the time to collect the prescribed taxes on the spot. For centuries,
however, this procedure had already been breached by the granting of
fiscal privileges and beneficia. The most widespread forms of benefi-
cium - already under the Buyids and particularly from the Saljiiq
period onwards - consisted of the various types of iqtS ? This institu-
tion was based on the procedure that high officials or military leaders
were not paid in cash, but each received the tax revenue of a certain
territory instead. In other words, the iqta' consisted above all in the
state's yielding the right of tax collection to individual persons. In
those cases where this procedure represented a substitute for salary,

1
Cf. Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 51 j .
2
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", especially p. 191. Minorsky, "The Aq-qoyunlu and
Land Reforms". Minorsky and Minovi, "Naslr al-DIn TusI on finance".
3
Becker, "Steuerpacht", pp. 89 ff. Cahen, "L'evolution de l'iqta"'. Lambton, Landlord and
Peasant, pp. J3ff. Petrushevsky, KisbavanJ 11, 45-65.

500
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

this right was attached to the performance of certain administrative or

military duties within the framework of the state. It was therefore
neither transferable nor hereditary on the part of the holder of the
beneficium. This stipulation, however, remained legal theory, especially
with regard to the military iqta'. The army of the Great Saljuq state was
based on nomadic Turkish tribal formations, and every tribal unit was at
the same time also a military unit. Just as the leader's rank was hereditary
within the hierarchy of the tribe, so also his state function (as a military
leader) passed to his heir, and thus the iqta' in question became de facto
the basis of subsistence for several generations of tribal leaders. Nizam
al-Mulk had still required that the iqta'-dar (also muqta', holder of an
iqta') should have no direct contact with the peasants of his iqta' and
should confine himself exclusively to collecting the dues. However,
towards the end of the 6th/12th century the iqta'-dars regarded their
beneficia as hereditary property. If one considers that the iqta'-dar's
family had already held the beneficium for some generations and the
iqta'-dar himself had military forces under his control, one can easily
understand that he was interested in something more than the tax yield
of the territory assigned to him. To an increasing extent he appropriated
to himself sovereign rights over the territory, and at the beginning of the
8th/14th century the term iqta' signified not only the ceding of the
beneficium but also the actual land concerned. The central power -
insofar as one existed - and the legal institutions connected with it did
not always recognise this state of affairs. They held fast to the principle
that the iqta' was a beneficium attached to a person and his function.
This proceeding was justified, insofar as the spreading and development
of the military iqta' system in the time of the Great Saljuqs had undoubt-
edly played a large part in bringing about the collapse of their state.
Moreover, there was probably little inclination to reconcile the legal
recognition of the hereditary character of the iqta', and the sovereign
rights exercised by the iqta'-dar, with the principle of religious law that
the Caliph or the ruler was the owner of all land.
Further development of the iqta' was stimulated in the Mongol
period. Under the Tl-Khans the military-nomadic element had gained
the upper hand in every sphere of life. After the administrative and
economic reforms under Ghazan Khan and his vizier Rashld al-Dln
there existed a form of iqta' that no longer had anything much in
common with the original fiscal beneficium: the iqta'-dar was the head
of a military unit organised on a tribal basis, the commander of a force
501
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
of anything from a thousand to ten thousand men. His iqta' was
hereditary and his powers were so extensive that he was able to re-
grant sections of his iqta', as subinfeudations, so to speak, to subordi-
nate commanders (tribal sub-leaders). The holders of the various su-
binfeudations were inspected annually, however, by state officials to
make sure that they fulfilled all the duties arising from their grants,
especially with regard to military service. Any such holder who was
found unworthy was deprived of the right to his beneficium. This
was a highly developed form of the authority of amirs — military
commanders, as can be deduced from the foregoing, and mainly of
Turco-Mongolian origin - over what were often very extensive areas
of cultivated land, including the settled population living on and
dependent on this land for their livelihood. The break-up of the
Il-Khanid state and the consequent weakening of all the elements
of the central administration increased the independence of the amirs in
all parts of the country. From this form of a large-scale military iqta' in
the Mongol period, as we have just described it, a new institution
developed under the Jalayirids around the middle of the 8th/i4th cen-
tury which gave its beneficiaries the greatest power over cultivated
land and its people that a landlord could achieve in the following
centuries of Iranian history. This was the suyurghal, which we shall
discuss later.
The development of the iqta' during the Saljuq and Mongol periods
had of course not led to the disappearance of the iqta' in its original
sense by the middle of the 8th/i4th century or later. It had been
customary, under the rule of all the dynasties with which we are
concerned, to pay officials or clergy by granting them the tax revenue
of certain places or districts, and by the Safavid period a whole series of
modifications of this procedure had developed. These various forms
differ from one another chiefly because of the fact that often only parts'
of the tax revenue were granted — shares of total amounts, or merely
the yield of certain tax sources - or else because the areas on which the
calculations were based might be of widely differing extent. Moreover,
the grant might be subject to certain conditions.
The following methods of procedure are in part known from the
Jalayirid period. Firstly, the idrdr; an idrar grant gave the beneficiary
the right to claim a fixed share of the kharaj revenues from a defined
area. His title to this fixed sum was generally hereditary and was
conferred, at least nominally, by the ruler. This procedure was basically
502
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

the same as an earlier institution called iqtff-i i/dra.1 It should be said

incidentally that an idrar might consist not only of shares of agricul-
tural taxes but also of shares of taxes on commerce and property
(tamgha). A non-hereditary form of idrar was also known, namely the
idrdr-i ma'isha, which was only valid for the beneficiary's lifetime. In
both cases the idrar could be converted into a muqassa by decree of the
ruler.
A muqassa differed from an idrar in that it granted not shares of
taxes but regular shares of property; like the idrar, it was either for life
only (muqdssa-ji ma'isha) or devisable. The hereditary nature of a grant
was usually expressed by the term abadi ("eternal","perpetual") and
sometimes by sarmadi ("eternal"), or else by a combination of the two
words, abadi va sarmadi. For a hereditary muqassa there was also the
formulation muqdssa-ji idrar. In many respects the muqassa corre-
sponded to the iqtet-i tamlik of earlier periods.2 With the establishment
of a muqassa the land in question was removed from the authority of
the divan, and in the case of an "eternal" muqassa there was little
likelihood that the granted land would ever again be available for the
profit of the divan. The holder of the muqassa also enjoyed some
degree of administrative immunity; in a muqassa decree there appears
the set formula which was still in use in the following centuries, qalam
va qadam kutah va kashida ddrand ("secured against the pen, protected
against access", or sine introitu iudicum); this formula indicated the trans-
fer of administrative rights from the official mentioned in the deed to
the holder of the grant.3 It is, however, possible that in this particular
case the formula refers only to tax officials. The advantages of the
muqassa over the simple idrar were above all that the holder of the
muqassa not only had taxation rights but also received the landlord's
shares of the crops due to him as part owner or exclusive owner. In any
case, the rights accruing to the landlord from a muqassa-yi idrar were
entirely similar to those attached to a large military iqta'. The decisive
criterion was probably the size of the area in question. In terms of
form, these two procedures had created the basis for the development
of the suyiirghal.4 Idrar and muqassa - even when they were only
ma'isha ("for life") - carried too many advantages to the holder for
them to be used exclusively for the purpose of paying salaries. It can
1 2
Lekkegaard, p. 19. Cf. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, pp. z8ff.
3
Cf. Petrushevsky, Kishavary 11, 70, quoting NakhchivanI, Dastir al-kdtib.
4
Ibid., pp. 66—72.

5O3
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

therefore be assumed that the recipients of idrar and muqassa could

claim meritorious services as grounds for this distinction; they were
probably deserving officials, the ruler's favourites, and religious
dignitaries. These last were, in the 9th/15 th century and also in the
Safavid period, largely holders of smaller and medium-sized suyur-
ghals, with which the muqassa had a good deal in common. On the
other hand, the idrar was continued in later times in the form of
payment of salaries by means of bardt (tax cheques; see below) and in
the mustamarri, which was, down to the Qajar period, understood as
the payment of a pension to deserving persons. There are also con-
nections between the idrar and the payment of a va%tfa in certain cases
that are known from the later Safavid period. A vazlfa was
understood as the payment of an annuity or the grant of certain rights
of landholding to members of the religious class; normally vaqf land
formed the basis of a vazlfa, and we shall return to this subject when
discussing vaqf land. Vazlfa annuities could also be paid out of tax
revenues from dlvanl land, and in this case we are strongly reminded
of the idrar. The assignment of a vazlfa had, however, to be renewed
every year.1 The same condition existed in the case of ayak-sdia (in
full, bardt-i yak-sdla, i.e. one-year tax cheque).2 As this method of
effecting payment out of tax revenues from certain areas — a method
known from the Safavid period — was applied exclusively to salaries,
we shall deal with it later on.
We see then that various forms of "feudal" rule were exercised not
only by amirs, local princes and provincial governors, who belonged
to the arbdb-i saif ("men of the sword"), but also by civilian landlords,
who belonged to the arbdb-i qalam ("men of the pen", officials) or to
the arbdb-i 'amd'im ("men of the turbans", i.e. 'ulamd, shaikhs, sayyids,
teachers). But the most perfect forms of such "feudal" rule are encoun-
tered in the 9th/15 th and as late as the ioth/i6th century within the
framework of the institution we have repeatedly mentioned here, the
suyiirghal. Before pursuing the history of this institution from the later
14th century to the early 18th century we will try to demonstrate some
of its main characteristics.
The Mongol word soyurghal originally meant nothing more than
"act of favour" (from the ruler), "grant", or "donation". The expres-

1
Cf. Busse, Untersucbungen, pp. i izfF.; on a vazlfa from state funds, see ibid., document no. 13.
2
Chardin v, 420. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 29, 153.

504
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

sion suyurghamishi already had this general significance under the

Tl-Khans. The first known occurrence of the word as the designation of
a certain kind of "fief" is in the Jalayirid period.1 The holder of a
suyurghal {sahib-suyurghat) enjoyed a number of rights over the estate in
question. Above all — and this had already been characteristic of the
iqta' - he was entitled to the tax yield of his area and in addition
exercised rights of ownership over the tract of land in question (which
was also called suyurghal). Furthermore, the suyurghal carried with it
exemption from taxes; this point was always mentioned separately in
the deeds conferring suyurghals. Thus a superficial inspection of the
documents might give the impression that the privilege of tax-exemp-
tion (mu'dft, musallamt) was a separate element from the suyurghal.
This is not quite correct; every suyurghal grant shows at the same
time the granting of immunity from taxes, and in many cases it is also
stated that even in the event of an increase in the tax yield, e.g. of the
kharaj by virtue of rising productivity, or of the poll-tax (Ji%ya) when
the population of non-Muslims living in the suyurghal area had
grown, the surplus was to go to the holder of the suyurghal.2 This
usage can hardly be explained by saying that the divan authority had
wanted to recognise the suyurghal only as a beneficium, in order to
prevent too great a concentration of power in the hands of the land-
lord. The deed, as drawn up, rather served the landlord as a legal
instrument that he could produce in order to defend himself success-
fully against the local and regional tax officials if they made tax claims
on the suyurghal land. The same problem arises with the other privi-
leges pertaining to a suyurghal "fief", namely those of administrative
immunity and hereditary rights. Just as immunity from taxes was
very often indicated by a detailed list of all the relevant dues, so also
the previously mentioned formula for administrative immunity was in
most cases preceded by a list of all the officials who were forbidden to
set foot on the territory of the suyurghal or to make demands upon
it. The formula we have already quoted, qalam va qadam kutdh va kashi-
da ddrand, was usually employed for the administrative autonomy of
the sahib-suyurghal. Besides this, the following expression might be
used: 'ummdl ba-htch vajh min al-vujiih dar an madkhal nasayand ("the tax
officials may not penetrate there under any circumstances"). This is
1
Petrushevsky, "K istorii instituta 'soyurgala'", p. 228. For the etymology, see TMEN 1,
3} 1—4 (nos. 228, "soyurgal", 229, "soyurgamiST").
2
Busse, Untenucbtmgen, p. 98. Petrushevsky, "K istorii instituta 'soyurgala'", p. 238.

5O5
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

found in a deed of Rustam Aq Quyunlu dated 27 Ramadan 902/29

May 1497. Otherwise the administrative and associated legal preroga-
tives were simply listed in full detail, as in suyurghal deeds of Jahan
Shah Qara Quyunlu dated 3 Rajab 859/19 June 1455 and of Shah
Isma'il I dated 10 Rajab 915/24 October 1509.1
On the demise of the sahib-suyurghal the "fief" passed to his heirs;
the Muslim law of inheritance was, however, not necessarily observed.
The transfer was always confirmed by the drawing up of a deed,
generally on the part of the ruler.2 But this is not to be taken as
implying that the heirs would always have needed the ruler's explicit
assent. The rights to the existing suyurghal could be simply transferred
to the heir or heirs. It was very much in the interests of the new holder
of the suyurghal to have a deed recording the transfer; he could then
use this against anyone who was trying to restrict his suyurghal terri-
tory or his prerogative. We can deduce from the text of many suyur-
ghal deeds, especially from such confirmations, that particular clauses
were inserted for specific reasons. The advantages the suyurghal
brought to its holder were often accompanied by conditions, especially
with regard to military service, or at least the obligation to provide a
number of well-equipped warriors. But there were also suyurghals that
were free from any obligations. This was especially the case with
religious dignitaries to whom suyurghals were granted, a custom prac-
tised under the Timurids and also in the Turkmen and Safavid
periods.3 In such cases the suyurghal was in the nature of a distinction;
moreover, this act on the part of the ruler was often interpreted as
payment of the obligatory t^akat (alms tax),4 since it was fundamentally
a matter of pious conduct. With such an interpretation, attention could
also be called to the fact that a large number of receivers of alms were
supported out of the income of a religious suyurghal-holder, even
though the beneficiaries might in many cases have been merely the
working ra'aya of the suyurghal. It was also possible for non-religious
personages to receive such suyurghals of "distinction", as in the case of
the poet Salman Savajl.5
With smaller suyurghals it could happen that the material basis
1
For these three documents, see respectively Roemer, "Le dernier firman", p. 286; Aubin,
"Un soyurghal Qara-Qoyunlu", p. 161; Martin, "Seven Safavid Documents", p. 180.
2
'Abd al-Razzaq, Mafia' al-sa'dain, ed. M. ShafT (Lahore, 1941-9), p. 682.
3
E.g. Lambton, "Two Safawid Soyurghals"; Khwand Amir iv, 431.
4
Minorsky, "The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms", p. 453. Busse, Untcrsucbungen, pp. 99-101.
5
Daulatshah, p. 260.

506
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

of the suyurghal was not the title to the entire tax yield from the
suyurghal area, but only a claim to certain tax revenues. These were
either defined as a specific sum of money or else limited to specific tax
sources. In such cases the prerogative rights of the sahib-suyurghal
were of course also reduced.
Suyurghal land could thus be of varying extent. There were
suyurghals on villages, and indeed even on parts of villages; but small
or large districts, and even entire provinces, could be granted as
suyurghal. In the case of large suyurghals the prerogative rights and
the material basis enjoyed by the holder were so extensive that he could
acquire not only economic, but also political power. In any case, the
institution of suyurghal formed a basis for all the forces in the state that
were opposed to centralisation. It is therefore not surprising that we
find the largest suyurghals, in terms of both territory and absoluteness
of prerogative rights, in the 9th/15 th century. In loose political confed-
erations like those of the Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu (and also the
Timurids) large territories were granted as suyurghal. When new areas
came under the sovereignty of the state the former territories of the
local rulers were often returned to them as suyurghal. As one surveys
the conditions and characteristics of the suyurghal and compares them
with the administrative system of governorships in the 15 th century,
one comes to the inevitable conclusion that the governorships, in every
case where the governor belonged to the military aristocracy or to the
ruling house, to some extent represented gigantic suyurghals.1 When,
for instance, Uzun Hasan Aq Quyunlu wanted to abolish the tamgha
(the municipal trade taxes, which were forbidden by religious law), he
had to give up his intention in face of the resistance of the amirs, i.e.
the Turkmen military leaders;2 obviously most or all of them were
entitled to a share of the tax yield not only of villages but also of towns.
As the "fiefs" of the tribal military leaders (in fact, these very amirs) in
particular were not restricted to individual settlements but also in-
cluded living-space for the members of their tribes, this practice is clear
evidence for the territorial extension of their suyurghals - and it was
certainly these that were involved, since the suyurghal had to a great
extent superseded the other forms of military "fief" during the
Turkmen period. It may be assumed that there were several towns in
1
For such grants from the Timurid period, see Togan, "Buyiik Turk hukumdari Sahruh",
p. 523; Yakubovsky, " T i m u r " , sect. 4; Arunova, " K istorii narodnykh vystuplenil", p. 35.
2
Schmidt-Dumont, Turkmeniscbe Herrscber, p. 219.

5O7
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

each of their areas, and thus it was worth their while to defend their
income from the yield of the tamgha. This example makes it plain that
every attempt at building an empire, since it required centralisation of
power and administration, had to work against the owners of the great
suyurghals. A policy of weakening the suyurghals was in fact adopted
under the Aq Quyunlu rulers Ya'qub and Ahmad, and the Safavids too
regarded the restriction of the suyurghal system as an important ele-
ment in their internal policy.
Ya'qub's vizier, QazI SafI al-Dln 'Isa of Sava, in his attempts to
restrain the growth of the suyurghal system, directed his measures
primarily against the holders of small and medium-sized suyurghals. It
obviously seemed to him too dangerous to embroil himself with the
great amirs, and he therefore picked on those that had no condition of
obligatory military service attached to them. Most of these, as we have
shown above, belonged to religious dignitaries, and thus QazI 'Isa got
himself into a paradoxical situation. On the one hand he was basing his
intentions on the argument that the abolition of the suyurghals served
to assure the supremacy of the Sharl'a over the Yasa, and on the other
'hand he was, on this pretext, actually taking drastic steps against the
clergy! After this obviously abortive attempt the importance of the
suyurghal increased steadily, and it is related of Rustam Aq Quyunlu
(898-902/1493-1497) that he granted more suyurghals than any prince
of the Aq Quyunlu or the Qara Quyunlu had ever done before.1 His
successor Ahmad Beg Aq Quyunlu, together with his high officials,
renewed the struggle against the suyurghal holders, but this time with
different methods from those used by QazI 'Tsa in his day. He declared
the provisions of all the "perpetual" suyurghals granted under his
predecessors to be invalid. Moreover, he deprived most of the reli-
gious holders of their various privileges, especially that of exemption
from taxes. It is clear that this action angered the powerful military
aristocracy against Ahmad, and after only seven months as ruler he
died in battle against insurgent amirs (905/1497).
The Safavids did indeed grant suyurghals, but their policy in this
field was clearly different from that of their predecessors. There were
small and medium-sized suyurghals throughout the Safavid period,
and the beneficiaries were generally arbab-i 'ama'im, i.e. religious dig-
nitaries. There were also cases where suyurghals were granted not to

1
Petrushevsky, "K istorii institute 'soyurgala'", p. 231, following the Lubb al-tavarikh.

508
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

persons but to pious foundations. The mutavalli (administrator) of the

foundation in question then had the benefit of such a suyurghal, and
the whole business was probably a formal artifice to restrict the
accumulation of prerogative rights in the hands of a single person.1 In
addition, various tax liabilities were imposed on the suyurghal holders;
for example, in the late 17th and early 18 th century the sadr-i a'%am
received a percentage of the income from the suyurghals.2 The
progressive depreciation of the currency also played its part in weak-
ening the suyurghals, especially those whose yield had from the start
been defined as a specific sum of money.
When the Safavids assumed power the days of the great suyurghals
were over. Recalcitrant great landlords were simply deprived of their
latifundia by degree; other measures were also taken, such as the sus-
pension of suyurghals in certain provinces (e.g. under 'Abbas I in
Azarbaijan).3 In the newly-arisen Safavid state governorships and large
territories were granted to Qizilbash tribes or their leaders, but this
was now done in the form not of suyurghal but of non-hereditary tiyiil
(see below). Naturally - as the course of Safavid history shows - this
procedure could not prevent the appearance of centrifugal tendencies;
nevertheless the central power was considerably strengthened by
avoiding the growth of large suyurghals, and its organs consciously
directed their policy towards this end.
There is one peculiarity we should mention. In some Safavid deeds
of grant vaqf estates are described as the suyurghal of their mutavalli.
This is probably explained by the fact that in those days the functions
exercised by a mutavalli were in practice identical with those of a
sahib-suyiirghal; they were entitled to tax revenues, enjoyed immunity
from taxation, and exercised prerogative rights over their own terri-
tory. Moreover, their position was likewise hereditary, and their ra'aya
were bound to the soil. The suyurghal-holders belonged mainly to the
religious class: according to Chardin none but religious families were
beneficiaries of suyurghals.4 The contamination of the two types of
landlordship {tauliyat, i.e. administration of foundation property, and
suyurghal) is no longer surprising, since the exercise of power was
identical in both cases, even though their legal bases must be distin-
guished from one another.
1 2
Busse, Untcrsucbtmgen, p. 99. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 8; ff.
3
Martin, "Seven Safavid Documents", pp. 2oj, 20J (document no. 7).
4
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 11 j , quoting Chardin vi, 65.

509
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Let us now recapitulate the most important characteristics and peculi-
arities of the suyurghal. It represented a hereditary grant of land with the
title to the tax yield (or part of it), immunity from taxation, and
prerogative rights which, in the case of large suyurghals, extended to
administrative and judicial immunity. Further, it can be regarded as
characteristic that the large suyurghals of the 15 th century (Timurids,
Qara Quyunlu, Aq Quyunlu) were in the hands of powerful amirs,
mostly of Turkmen origin, and thus formed the basis of their political
power. The lords of large suyurghals were more or less independent
rulers over their own territories; they were, however, obliged to play an
active part in the military operations of their sovereign. Restriction of
the large suyurghals was a precondition for any attempt to centralise the
state. The small suyurghals - of rather second-rate importance before
15 00 even though they were widespread - represented the archetype of
the suyurghal in the Safavid period. This type of suyurghal was less
often connected with services to be rendered; it had rather the character
of a distinction or honour for special merit. The holders of medium-
sized and small suyurghals were from the start predominantly 'ulama; in
the late Safavid period there were probably hardly any suyurghals
granted to persons who did not belong to the religious sphere.
We can see from this summary that the suyurghal involved the
elaboration and fusion of a number of "feudal" institutions that had
grown up by the middle of the 8th/14th century. In the small
suyurghals, especially those of the Safavid type, we can easily recognise
elements of the muqassa. Various types of the Saljuq iqta' survived in
all the forms of suyurghal, and it is evident that the large suyurghal was
a direct development from the Mongol military iqta'. The final form of
the suyurghal was made possible mainly by the weakness of the central
power in the successor states to the Il-Khanid empire. There is also the
very significant fact that the ties between the legal system of that age
and the Sharl'a were relatively loose owing to the considerable influ-
ence of the Yasa. This makes it much easier to codify the concept of
suyurghal. The suyurghal had arisen in a period of weak central power,
and in the 15 th century the Timurids, Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu
found it a serious impediment to the development of lasting empires
with a strong, centrally oriented monarchy. The large suyurghal was
also one of the bases for the economic and administrative opposition
between the (military-nomadic) Turkish elements in the population
and the settled Persian elements.
510
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

We still have to ask the question whether the suyurghal was granted
from state land and, if so, how far one could still speak of "state land"
with reference to suyurghals. Again we have to distinguish between
large and small suyurghals. The former undoubtedly represented a
change in the character of divanl land, to which their territories had
once belonged. With the smaller suyurghals this was not necessarily
the case. They were not granted exclusively from state land, but rather
from vaqf land and — above all in the 17th and 18th centuries — from
crown land.1 However, at that time it was possible for the ruler to
encroach directly upon the interests of a governor and his officials by
making a suyurghal grant from divanl land.
One of the most important constituents of the suyurghal was the
privilege of fiscal immunity, which in medieval Europe was known as
exemptio. This privilege had of course been practised long before the
collapse of the Il-Khanid state, and in the period with which we are
concerned it was by no means exclusively connected with a suyurghal
grant. We know of many cases where tax exemptions were granted,
and in practice any tax-paying subject could receive one. Here, in
connection with the suyurghal, we intend to deal only with exemptions
in the agricultural sector. The privilege of tax exemption was in princi-
ple designated by the terms mUdji or musallami (pi. musallamiyyat).
Fiscal immunity reached back to pre-Mongol times; under the Tl-Khans
it was enriched with the qualities of a similar procedure introduced by
Chingiz Khan. The Mongol privilege of immunity not only had the
character of a mark of distinction or honour, but was also valid for the
clergy of any recognised creed, for nobles, and for children. Some
elements of this Mongol institution were still practised in the following
centuries. It thus became the custom to grant exemptions to religious
personages, and among these not only Muslim but also Christian (es-
pecially Armenian) clerics were included. Vaqf land was also subject to
exemption. Fiscal immunity for aristocrats (probably mostly nomads)
or nobles of the state might include a provision — also of Mongol
origin and still in use under the Timurids — that the person in question
was, in addition to the mu'afl, also exempt from criminal prosecution
for transgressions of the law, the number of offences that might go
unpunished being precisely denned. Down to the 15 th century the
holder of a hereditary tax exemption for a particular tract of land was

1
Busse, Untersuchungen, pp. 101-2. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, he. cit.

5"
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

called tarkhdn; the granting of this type of immunity and also the land
concerned were called tarkhdni. Originally tarkhan was a term applied to
Mongol nobles, but later it was extended to those who, without being
themselves members or descendants of the Mongol nomad aristocracy,
nevertheless enjoyed their privileges, particularly the hereditary tax
exemption of their land. In these circumstances the tarkhani represented
a component that had entered into the institution of the suyurghal.1
The recipient of a mu'afl could be a corporate body as well as an
individual; as we have mentioned above, the 'ulama and vaqf estates
were exempted from taxes. Large mulk estates (see below) often en-
joyed a mu'afl, and tenant farmers {musta'jir), who were liable to pay
taxes, could likewise be exempted. Tiyuls were also often combined
with a mu'afl. In the decrees we find, among others, the following
formulae for exemption: mu'df va musallam ddnand ("to be recognised
as exempted from liability to pay taxes"), mu'df va musallam va burr va
marfif al-qalam ddnand ("to be recognised as freed from liability to pay
taxes, disposing freely [of his territory] and secured from the pen"),
mu'df va tarkhdn va mar jit al-qalam ("exempt from taxes, [made] tarkhan
and secured from the pen") and mafrur va mustasnd shindsand ("to be
recognised as freed and excepted").
Exemptions could be granted en bloc; it was also possible to be
exempted from individual dues, sometimes only up to a specified
amount. In all cases more or less exact details were given in the decrees.
Every decree dealing with a tax exemption was provided with a "tax
list", which indeed often included not only the actual taxes of the time
but also older ones that no longer existed; when this list was made up,
dues from identical (or similar) sources of tax could be grouped to-
gether. This was often done in order to prevent the tax-collectors from
using the pretext of formal objections, by which they might possibly
have been able to collect the dues: this might be done merely by the
insertion of previous deeds and by invoking certain chancery tradi-
tions. The issuing of decrees for fiscal immunity and the registration of
them was the duty of the financial department of the divdn-i mamdlik
(state land administration) or the divdn-i khdssa (crown land administra-
tion). In both cases the procedure generally resulted in the execution of
a deed by the sovereign.

1
Busse, Vntersucbungen, pp. 102—5. F ° r exempt Armenian clergy, cf. Papazian, Persidskic doku-
mmty 1, nos. 1—6, 8—10, 14, 18.

512
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

The tiyul1 is an institution that is in many respects similar to the

suyurghal. In post-Mongol times this term replaced the word iqta', and
various procedures that had developed in the framework of the iqta' up
to the early 14th century survived as a rule in the tiyul. Thus tiyul is
really a later synonym of iqta', and the historians of the Safavid period
used "iqta"' simply as an archaism for "tiyul".2 In the 15 th century,
when the members of the military aristocracy held their great suyur-
ghals, the tiyuls were used to pay officials, and thus the tiyuls of officers
of high rank may well have been in many respects similar to the
medium-sized suyurghals of "the higher religious dignitaries. For the
sake of simplicity, let us set out the various manifestations of the tiyiil
in the Safavid period.
The following characteristics apply to all tiyuls:
(i) The tiyiil was in principle subject to a time-limit and therefore
not devisable; tiyuls were hardly ever recognised as hereditary,
(ii) The tiyul was always involved with some service to be ren-
dered, either the performance of an office or the obligation to
raise an army or military units: it therefore represented the usual
method of payment for this,
(iii) The fundamental constituent of the tiyul was the grant of the
tax yield from a particular area or of a part of that yield.
These are the formal basic elements that had been equally characteristic
of the earlier iqta'. We must emphasise the word "formal" in this
context: the economic, social and political effects of the various forms
of tiyul were in no way dependent on these three elements, but were
rather related to the territorial and financial extent of the tiyul in
question and also to the additional rights granted to the tiyul holder
(tiyiilddr) or claimed by him. The large tiyuls of the Safavid period were
either "fiefs" of high officials or military "fiefs". As we have already
said, under the Safavids the members of the military aristocracy were
now granted their extensive territories as tiyul and no longer as
suyurghal. This was the case with governors {hakim, pi. hukkam), with
Qizilbash nobles who occupied official posts, and with other military
dignitaries, who were above all expected to raise troops. It is beyond
doubt that the reason for avoiding suyurghal grants in such cases was

1 TMEN11, 667ff.(no. 1014).

2
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, pp. 102, i09ff. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Mulik, pp. *8ff.
Kaempfer, p. 96.

513
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

the intention to restrict, at least formally, the autonomy of the high

amirs in the provinces. The fact that henceforward military functionar-
ies (like the officials) were paid by tiyul may also reflect the Safavids'
endeavour to assimilate the predominantly Turkish military aristocracy
to the higher bureaucracy, which was mostly of Persian origin. The
exercise of rights of lordship by the great tiyuldars was not noticeably
different from the practice of the great sahib-suyurghals of the pre-
Safavid era. This type of tiyuldar had absolute power over the land and
its inhabitants, treated the peasants as he pleased and was assured of the
non-intervention of the officials. In the time of Chardin, who travelled
to Iran three times between 1655 and 1677, there were a number of
tiyuls that had de facto become hereditary, so that the distinction be-
tween tiyul and the earlier suyurghal was becoming blurred. Chardin
also reported that the inhabitants of tiyuls that were in practice hered-
itary enjoyed better treatment than those of non-hereditary "fiefs".1
This is easily understandable: the tiyuldar with a time limit was obvi-
ously very much interested in extracting the highest possible profits
from his "fief". For the holders of intermediate and higher offices there
were tiyuls attached to the office, so that on a new appointment to a
post there was also a new grant of the tiyul. This arrangement corre-
sponded largely to the Ottoman khdss. Chardin's observation held
good, and to an even higher degree, for the peasants of such "fiefs".
However, it often happened that "special" salary contracts were con-
cluded with new office-holders, which meant that they were granted
additional tiyuls (probably only for life). In any case it held good for all
these tiyuldars that the competence of the organs of the state land
administration extended to them only to a limited degree. The payment
of ordinary officials and holders of minor military rank was likewise
effected by procedures similar to tiyuls, but special forms had devel-
oped for this sector. An essential criterion for the significance of the
small tiyul with regard to landholding was whether the salary of the
person concerned was assigned as global tiyul for a village or at least
part of a village, or whether this tiyul was restricted to a specified
(larger or smaller) sum of money — often with indication of the tax
source. In the former case it could be assumed that the tiyul holder had
certain rights of exploitation over the ra'aya. If, however, the tiyul
consisted only of relatively small individual sums, then the recipient of

1
Chardin v, 418—20.

514
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

the salary was hardly in a position to influence production within the

area of his "fief". In this context it is also an important question
whether the tiyuldar had the tax yield (i.e. the income from his "fief")
collected by persons subordinate to him, or whether this was effected
by tax officials. (With governorships both definitions applied: the offic-
ials were subordinates of the hakim.) The answer to this question tells
us a great deal about the degree of power that the tiyuldars possessed in
their territories. It is evident that those paid by way of partial tiyuls
stood lowest in the hierarchy of the tiyuldars. For them there were two
main methods of payment: either a specified sum of money was
awarded from a particular source and they could claim it every year, or
the salary was reassigned annually on production of a certificate of
employment. In both cases — and this also held good for somewhat
more lucrative tiyiil grants — the central financial administration issued
a tax-cheque (barat) for the stipulated sum, to be collected from the
relevant tax district; the recipient had to cash this cheque on the spot,
-and for this reason the category of barat recipients was often contrasted
with the possessors of (large) tiyuls. In the former case, this assignment
of tax money {havald) was effected automatically, so long as there was
no decree ordering a different procedure; a standing assignment of this
kind was called hama-sala. Most of the barats were probably issued
through the hama-sala procedure. There was also a rather less common
procedure called yak-sala, which we mentioned earlier on in our dis-
cussion of the idrar: in this case the assignment was renewed every
year.1 Salaries assigned by barat were called mavajib (i.e. dues, income).
These mavajib were in practice usually a little less than the nominal
value of the barat. The salary of a subordinate recipient was often
issued in the form of several small assignments of different types, with
the further complication that the localities assigned for payment were
often so far away from the recipient that he could not possibly make
the journey because of the expense and waste of time. This led to the
development of a special source of profit. Persons well provided with
capital bought up the issued tax-cheques for less than their nominal
1
From Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 29, it is evident that payment of tiyuls was effected
through the barat system and that hama-sala and yak-sala were special cases of barat.
Consequently the concept of tiyiil applied to governors, officials of high or low rank and all
subordinates in receipt of salaries, in so far as their salaries were in the form of assignments. It is
therefore not altogether correct, in our view, to regard tiyul, barat and hama-sala as procedures
that differed basically from one another. Cf. Kaempfer, p. 96; Schuster-Walser, Das safawidiscbe
Persieit, p . 38.

515
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

value and then, either personally or through representatives, collected

the full amounts on the spot. This procedure was employed especially
with soldiers.1 The Qizilbash warriors of the ioth/i6th century still
largely participated in the "fiefs" of their tribe (or in fact those of the
tribal leader), in much the same way as with the military iqta' of the
Mongols. Later they were more and more paid individually, naturally
by way of assignments. The ghulaman — the royal special troops since
the time of 'Abbas I - were, however, paid in cash.2
We see that certain types of landholding survived in the Safavid
tiyul. Thus elements of the idrar and the muqassa can easily be recog-
nised in the general salary system; the large tiyuls continued the tradi-
tion of the large suyurghals of the 9th/15 th century, though they also
showed some features of the Mongol tribal "fief". The replacement of
suyurghal domination of the pre-Safavid type by tiyul "fiefs" did not,
in the long run, bring about any large-scale weakening of the great
land-holders. The attempt to strengthen the powers of the central
authority by the expansion of crown land was probably more success-
ful; we shall say more about this later.
Different kinds of grants of tax revenue were subsumed, by formal
criteria, into the concept of tiyul. This led in the end to a confusion
of concepts. Tiyul, on the one hand, was used to convey the idea of
grants in general, but also had the special sense of major "fiefs"
which might have unmistakable suyurghal character. On the other
hand, the term suyurghal had become rarer in the later Safavid
period; it was used mainly for hereditary beneficia of distinguished
and generally religious families. Clearly there was at no time any eff-
ort to define and codify, and eventually there was a certain confusion
of the two ideas.
In conclusion we should mention that the holders of tiyuls in the
later Safavid period had to pay dues for their "fiefs". The smallest
amounts were paid for tiyuls connected with military service; with
these the total dues came to about 3^%. More than 10% was collected
for a hama-sala, and more than 16% for a major tiyul. Holders of
suyurghals had to pay nearly a quarter of the revenue.3
The next category to be discussed is that of the mulk (pi. amldk)

1
Schuster-Walser, Das safawidiscbe Persien, p. 54, quoting Kaempfer, p. 75.
2
Schuster-Walser, ibid., pp. soff., following mainly Delia Valle and Thevenot.
3
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, pp. 124—6, quoting Tadbkirat al-Mulik, pp. 85-93.

516
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

estates. Mulk was understood as unconditional possession of land. The

owner {malik) could do what he liked with his land and was free to sell
it or transfer it to other persons; it was devisable, mostly in accordance
with the relevant Islamic rules, and there were no services of any kind
attached to the possession of it. At the same time the concept of mulk
included the ownership of irrigation works on the land in question and
the water itself. There were precise legal regulations governing the
conditions on which land could become mulk, but the practice of
earlier centuries had already deviated from the rules. The essential
characteristic of mulk land was that the features mentioned above
(devisability, vendibility) were attached to the land itself, so long as no
action had been taken to divest it of its mulk character. This also
applied when there were various privileges connected with the mulk.
An ordinary mulk was of course liable to tax: the normal divan taxes
for mulk land were one-tenth of the revenue. On the other hand, an
estate of the mulk-i burr class gave its owner, to some extent automati-
cally, the advantage of exemption from taxes. The tax officials carried
mulk land of this type in their books as isqat (approximately
"dropped out", i.e. from tax liability). Land of the mulk-i hurr type
could therefore be sold for a considerably higher price than normal
mulk land of equivalent value. It might of course also happen that the
owner himself, the malik, was granted an exemption (mu'afl) from
taxes. However, in this case it was a matter of a strictly personal
exemption which, understandably, could not be transferred by sale to
other persons together with mulk land, even when the mu'afl was
hereditary.
We can distinguish two different types of mulk land. On large mulk
estates the soil was cultivated by the local ra'aya, and the relations
between malik and peasantry had a rather patriarchal character. Here
the malik was the beneficiary of his share in the yield. There was also,
however, small-scale mulk land cultivated by the malik himself, though
this form of mulk was very much on the decline. Conquests and
frequent changes of sovereign were a danger to the continued existence
of mulk land, as it was always doubtful whether the mulk character of
any piece of land would still be recognised under the new ruler. As we
have already said, large amlak were often converted into suyurghals.
This made no difference to the actual circumstances within the land
concerned; it did, however, mean the legal cancellation of its mulk
status. Evidently the small malik, in such situations, was particularly at
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

the mercy of influential and powerful personages. It is therefore hardly

possible to prove the existence of small amlak in the Timurid period or
later. In the Il-Khanid period very large amlak came into being
through sales and purchases. After the collapse of this dynasty the
number of large amlak increased rapidly, as many persons with the
power to do so possessed themselves of Il-Khanid crown estates
and ultimately incorporated them into their own property. At that
time it was still possible to acquire large mulk property by purchase,
as is shown by the increase in the amount of land owned by the
early Safavids in the environs of Ardabll (e.g. under Shaikh Sadr
al-Din).1 Subsequently the number of amlak decreased. After the Sa-
favids had taken over, many amlak were confiscated in the course of
efforts to ensure a concentration of power. A further decline of the
amlak was occasioned by the creation of crown land (khassa) under
'Abbas I and probably even later; the shah forced the mulk owners to
sell him their land at a low price, which almost amounted to confisca-
tion.2
One special form of landholding was in many respects comparable
with the mulk; this was the khalisa, an institution of Il-Khanid origin.
It was understood in the 8th/14th century to be devastated and unculti-
vated (thus usually unirrigated) territory, forming part of either state
land or crown land, which was given the advantages of a mulk (tithe,
vendibility, etc.) for a limited period; in these circumstances the person
who undertook the task of irrigating and cultivating the land was
declared to be its landlord. Such a person was called tdni (pi. tunnS',
"resident"). 3 This measure to repair the ravages inflicted on agriculture
by the Mongol conquest was obviously a thoroughly practical one.
There may still have been khalisa land in this sense under the Timurids.
Later, however, this expression denoted a particular type of crown
land (see below). We may perhaps see in this a hint of the future fate of
land affected by this institution.
We hardly need to explain here the fundamental principles of the
pious foundations (vaqf, pi. auqdf). We will merely remind the reader
of a few important points. Anyone who possessed profitable movable

1
Petrushevsky, Kisbavar^tn, 79, quoting Manaqib-i Shaikh Safial-Din Ardabtli.
2
Falsafl, Zindagam in, 270?. For the decline of the "arbabl" (i.e. mulk) estates, cf. Du Mans,
p. 226; for confiscation, cf. also Kaempfer, p. 95.
3
Petrushevsky, Kisbavany'n, 25, and in CHI v, 526. Obviously the arrangements for khalisa
estates differed from one part of the country to another.

518
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

or immovable property could, by fulfilling certain conditions, donate

this for charitable or religious purposes. Suitable recipients for dona-
tions were mosques, the graves of holy men, khanqahs (hospices for
dervishes), institutions of general importance such as schools, caravan-
sarais, bridges and wells, and also groups of persons, for example the
donor's family or his descendants. In the latter case, the usual descrip-
tion was vaqf-i ahlt. Even fictitious persons could be made the recipi-
ents of a donation: 'Abbas I in 1015/1606-7 converted his private
property into vaqf for the "Fourteen Immaculate Ones" (Muhammad,
Fatima and the Twelve Imams). We shall return to this subject in a
different context. In Persia there were also many auqaf for Christian
(generally Armenian) institutions, especially under the later Safavids.1
Here we shall deal mainly with donations of estates.
The donor appointed an administrator (mutavalll) for his vaqf. This
office was normally hereditary and an annual stipend was assigned to
its holder from the endowment. In general, foundations enjoyed a
mu'afl (exemption) from ordinary and special taxes. In the 8th/14th
century the auqaf were controlled by the Islamic judges {qadt, pi. qudat)
of the regions in question; for technical reasons special authorities
were ultimately set up to deal with them. In the Safavid state - and
even earlier - the control and administration of the auqaf, besides the
safeguarding of the interests of Islamic law, were among the main
duties of the sadr, who was head of the divan al-sadara and to whom
provincial sadrs were subordinated. The competent authority for the
financial administration of the auqaf was the mustauft-yi mauqufat (finan-
cial controller of foundations), who was head of an office for endow-
ment affairs (daftar-i mauqufat). Chardin described this mustaufl as a
"lieutenant des sadr".2 Sadr authorities and mutavallls ensured the
fulfilment of the various purposes of the foundations; in addition they
were themselves beneficiaries of the production from vaqf land and
controlled the use of it. This does not mean that the mutavalll himself
might have been a member of the sadr authorities: the situation
was rather that the mutavalll exercised his hereditary office like a
1
See, e.g., Papazian, Persidskie Dokumenty i, nos. 2, 4 (both pre-Safavid), 10, 11, 12, 15, 19; n,
nos. 4, 14, 25, 26, 38. There are also Christian auqaf in thi Lebanon.
2
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 146. Chardin vi, 61. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 120.
Petrushevsky, KishavanJ n, 29, states that the sadr al-sudur was already the head of the divan-i
mauqufat in the Il-Khanid period. According to Roemer, Staatsschreiben, pp. 143—5, however, there
is no evidence for the office of sadr until the 1; th century, and at the end of the Il-Khanid period
endowment affairs were the responsibility of the bdkim-i auqaj-i mamalik-i mahrusa.

519
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

landlord. Dismissal of a mutavalll was usually not within the powers of

the representatives of the sadr authorities and the judges subordinated
to them. The divan al-sadara and especially the daftar-i mauqufat were
merely the competent authorities for the affairs of the mutavalll and his
vaqf property. The extent of the autonomy of the landlord in the later
Safavid period is clearly illustrated by the fact (already mentioned in
our discussion of the suyurghal) that in some deeds of grant the vaqf
estates of a mutavalll are spoken of as his suyurghal. Obviously the
mutavalll's exercise of power over the land entrusted to him differed
only very little from that of a sahib-suyurghal. We must, however, bear
in mind that at this time even the sahib-suyurghal was a religious
dignitary.
Vaqf land could not be converted into another category of land and
could, therefore, not be sold. In theory it could also not be confiscated,
but in reality this was not always the case. Many auqaf had in fact been
confiscated in the Mongol period, and even in later times, under the
Safavids, it often happened that foundation land was removed from the
competence of the divan al-sadara. Nevertheless the landowner could
largely keep himself out of the reach of the organs of the state and the
ruler by converting his estates into auqaf and appointing himself (and
his descendants) as mutavalll.
It was probably the theoretical impossibility of selling vaqf estates
that caused the development of a special form of land tenancy; vaqf
property was assigned to tenants (musta'jir) for a period of 99 years, in
most cases probably in return for a lump sum. When this period had
elapsed these tenants had to pay a sum equal to one year's tax yield of
the area in question, whereupon the land was assigned to them for
another 99 years. In some cases, however, a relatively small sum was
collected annually as rent; the actual amount was determined by the
size of the rented land.
The office of mutavalll appears, at any rate in some cases, to have
been very profitable, especially with foundations for the great Shl'I
holy places in Iran. 'Abbas II tried to counteract the concentration of
administration of large vaqf estates in the hands of a few people by
once again dividing up the estates among the mutavallls.1 It hardly
made any difference to the ra'aya whether they lived on a "fief" from
dlvanl land or on vaqf land. In some places there may have been some

1
Busse, Untcrsucbungcn, p. n 6 , quoting Chardin vi, 65.

5 2O
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

arrangements by which the mutavalll's or the musta'jir's share in the

harvest was fixed as a lump sum. In consequence of the continual
devaluation of the currency, however, it was in the landlord's interests
to secure a definite percentage share of the harvest. Ultimately this way
of determining the share was in general use, as we see in a farman dated
Rabf II 1073/November-December 1662.1
One particular institution dates back to the time of Tahmasp I,
namely the foundations for the "Fourteen Immaculate Ones" (see
above); the reigning sovereign of the time was appointed as their
mutavalll. The best known of these foundations is the one which, as we
have already mentioned, arose from the conversion of the private
estates of 'Abbas I (1015/1606—7). Such foundation property from
crown land, with the sovereign himself as mutavalll, was called auqaf-i
tafvijj (tafvt%, "mandate", "authorisation"). Simultaneously with this
extensive increase in crown foundations the office of sadr was divided:
a sadr-i khassa (sadr for crown foundations) was set up side by side
with a sadr-i 'dmma (sadr for general foundations). However, the situa-
tion was not exactly that the competence of the sadr-i khassa was
confined to regions in which there were foundations created by the
sovereign from crown land; he was also competent for some other
(defined) territories, and the sadr-i 'amma was also often concerned
with crown foundations. At certain times the two sadr offices were
united in a single person.2
To sum up: it appears that in the sphere of the foundation system
there was also a marked tendency to develop a fairly uniform type of
landholding, of a kind that we have already seen in the tiyiil and the
suyurghal. The growth of the crown foundations and the creation of
the office of sadr-i khassa may be an indication that the Safavid central
power was adjusting its policy, even with regard to the foundation
system, so as to restrict the influence of these landlords.
Finally we have to consider the category of crown lands. The exis-
tence of estates of which the income was directly at the disposal of the
court and especially the sovereign was not in itself anything new. As
far back as the Il-Khanid period extensive areas, including whole
towns, had been converted into crown property, and for these the

1
Printed in Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, pp. 113—14, with commentary.
2
Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 42 (and Minorsky's comments at p. 111). The division of the office of
sadr is mentioned by Kaempfer, p. 98.

521
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Mongol term injii or the Arabo-Persian (amlak-i) khassa was used.

After the collapse of the Il-Khanid empire there was a marked de-
crease in the extent of khassa land. The weakening of the central power
in all regions of the former empire led to the conversion of large parts
of earlier crown land into dlvanl or mulk land. It is clear, however, that
even the post-Mongol dynasties had control of areas whose tax rev-
enues were at the disposal of the sovereign and his nearest relatives and
also the court.
We cannot take the formal distinction between crown land and state
land to imply any opposition between the court and the state adminis-
tration. In the 9th/15th and ioth/i6th centuries crown estates were
characterised by the fact that (at least in theory) sovereignty over them
was not assigned to influential personages in the form of suyurghals or
large tiyuls, as was the case with dlvanl land. They therefore not only
served to finance the sovereign's personal expenditure but also formed
a counterpoise against those tendencies towards feudal splintering of
the land that we have seen with other categories of land. From this it is
apparent that the strengthening of the monarchy and the central power
under the Safavids was accompanied by growth in the size and import-
ance of crown estates. Strictly speaking, even before 'Abbas I the
crown estates were not free from "fiefs" of various kinds. However,
the holders of these "fiefs" were very close relatives of the sovereign,
and this was in complete accordance with the traditional character of
the crown estates. These had become very substantial in the ioth/i6th
century; they included a number of more or less centrally situated
provinces and formed a contrast to the governorships that had been
bestowed as tiyul, for example on the Qizilbash leaders. Such
provinces which were entirely crown property were called khassa.
Smaller crown estates, situated within other governorships, at that
time generally bore the name of khdlisdt (literally "free", i.e. from
interference by the governor); these crown estates must not be
confused with the 8 th/14th century institutions that were also called
khalisat (see above).
The sweeping internal reforms of 'Abbas I (centralisation, repression
of the Qizilbash, establishment of the ghuldmdn-i khass) and the increas-
ing requirements of the court were among the causes of accelerating
growth of crown estates under this ruler. This extension occurred in
various ways. For example, a complaint from the inhabitants of a
village near Natanz about the arbitrary attitude of the tax officials
522
 FORMS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LANDHOLDING

served the shah as a pretext for incorporating the whole district of

Natanz into the crown lands.1 Sometimes too the shah bought up
private mulk estates: when this happened, the persons affected - as we
have already mentioned - had to put up with a low price. Often the
possessions or "fiefs" of dignitaries who had fallen into disgrace (for
example Qizilbash leaders) were confiscated for the crown estates. In
the end Isfahan, Kashan, parts of Kirman and Yazd, Qazvln, Qum,
GHan and Mazandaran all belonged to the sovereign's domains. The
political aim of the extension of crown property was above all to break
the power of the Qizilbash leaders, who ever since the beginnings of
Safavid rule had been holding the governorships as tiyul. As soon as a
province was turned into khassa it also became free of Qizilbash troops
as there was no longer any governor. This policy was continued under
Shah Safi and 'Abbas II. Safl's vizier, Saru TaqI, was one of its most
important proponents, and it was he who instigated the incorporation
of Fars into the crown lands. The crown estates attained their greatest
extent under 'Abbas II, but decreased again thereafter, as the threat of
war once more necessitated the appointment of (Qizilbash) governors
and these were naturally expected to raise troops.
A special administrative machinery for the crown estates had been
built up and developed since the time of 'Abbas I. Viziers were put at
the head of the khassa provinces. The various administrative affairs
came gradually within the competence of the crown land administra-
tion {sarkar-i khdssa-ji sbartfa).2 As we have noticed above, there had
been a sadr for the crown estates since the time of 'Abbas I, and now in
addition a chancellery for the administration of crown property was
established, with standing equivalent to that of the state chancel-
lery. In the crown estates the Qizilbash were replaced by the troops of
the ghulaman-i khass. The maintenance and payment of these forces
made it necessary to depart from the previous practice of paying court
and crown servants in cash. From 1026—7/1617—8 onwards the pay-
ment of all persons in the service of the domains administration was
effected in the usual manner: officials and troops received tiyuls in the
same way as others of their kind, or else barat (hama-sala and other
mavajib assignments) from the tax revenues of crown estates.3 In the

1 2
FalsafI, Zindagam 111, 272. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 2jff.
3
Rohrborn, Prmimpn tmd Zentralgewalt, p. 133, quoting Iskandar Munshl.

523
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

late Safavid period the "fiefs and appanages" part of the crown
property grew to such an extent that it seemed advisable to bring
together, as a new organisational group, the remaining crown estates
from which neither tiyuls were assigned nor salaries allocated; the term
khalisa found further employment as the name for this type of crown
land.
It is indisputable that 'Abbas I and his successors, by their policy of
extending the crown estates, achieved their object of a political and
economic weakening of the Qizilbash tribes and their leaders. They
were unable, nevertheless, to prevent the crown land from immediately
developing forms of ownership similar to those that had existed pre-
viously in the other areas. In the end it made hardly any difference to
the simple peasants whether their landlord was a tiyuldar on state or
crown land. Moreover their situation was scarcely affected by the ques-
tion whether their landlord exercised his absolute authority over them
by reason of a tiyiil, a suyurghal, or an appointment as mutavalli. The
peasants were perhaps more oppressed on the khalisa estates, where
they were the victims of arbitrary treatment by the tax officials, than on
tiyiil land or in areas that were used as beneficia for certain officials and
dignitaries.

THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE CITIES: COMMERCE AND TRADE

In the Saljuq period Iranian foreign trade still extended far beyond the
frontiers of the Islamic world. The Mongol conquest dealt a severe
blow to this trade; nonetheless at the beginning of the 8th/14th century
the big trading cities of Iran again appear as commercial links between
east and west. This astonishingly rapid regeneration may well be con-
nected with the fact that under the rule of the Chingizids Iran was
brought politically closer to the countries of Central and Eastern Asia
and, in consequence, served as a gateway to Europe for the traders of
the entire Mongol empire — and vice versa. Moreover, as a result of the
downfall of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, Iran's commercial activities had
found a new focus: it is true that Baghdad continued to be an economi-
cally important city, but in the 8th/14th century Tabriz, the seat of the
Tl-Khans, had taken precedence over all other cities in Iran. The
ravages of the Mongol invasion, which had set other cities far back
from their former stage of development, had long since been repaired
 C I T I E S : COMMERCE AND TRADE
in Tabriz. In spite of the rapid reconstruction of the basic structures of
Iranian economic life, however, the economic flowering which had
been a characteristic of every large city in the land in the pre-Mongol
period could not be achieved again.
At this point we should recall how enormously important for orien-
tal foreign trade in all ages was the maintenance of the trade-routes.
Commercial development depended in a high degree upon the quality
and safety of the roads, the density of the communications network,
the number of well appointed halting-places, watering-places, bridges,
etc. The degree of development enjoyed by the cities was related ulti-
mately to these factors also. For the city was above all a place of trade
and exchange; its economic heart had always been the bazaars, the
store-houses, the counting-houses; it was a vital necessity for the city
to be attached to a supra-regional communications-network.
From this point of view the existence of well-organised, centralised
states with the widest possible area of dominion was highly advantage-
ous to the intensification of Iranian internal trade. The administrative
organs of such a state-structure were much better able than an often
shortlived, unstable local polity would have been to guarantee the
quality, safety, and numerical sufficiency of the elements required by
the economic infrastructure. For this very reason even trivial political
changes frequently exercised an effect upon commercial life.
We have already referred to the importance of Tabriz under the
Mongols. From this city the main trade route led diagonally across
northern Iran to the east, following the traditional silk-route, through
Khurasan to Samarqand and eventually to China. Commercial traffic
from the interior of the Iranian highlands and from the south did
not lead directly into Tabriz, but through several entrepots lying
along this west — east route: Sultaniyya, Qazvln, Ray and NIshapur.
As Sultaniyya had become the seat of .the Tl-Khans, it overshadowed
the other centres. Since the supersession of the port of Slraf on the
Persian Gulf by Hurmuz, through which the whole sea traffic
between India and the Levant immediately began to flow, the trade-
route between Sultaniyya and Hurmuz not only represented the north
- south axis of internal Iranian trade, but made Iran the point of
intersection of all existing trade links by land and sea between Europe
and Asia in the 8th/14th century. The collapse of the Il-Khanid
empire ushered in a gradual decline in the importance of Iran in the
passage of trade between Europe and the Far East. The interest of the
525
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Timurids was directed more at promoting the eastern Iranian trade

centres such as Samarqand and Herat than at developing Iran's tradi-
tional position as the prime link in the chain of east-west trade. As
a result of the opening up of the sea route to India round the
southern cape of Africa, the importance of Iran for world trade
rapidly declined, and constant military confrontations between the
Timurids and the Turkmen states in the west, and the labile internal
conditions of all these states created obstacles in the way of politico-
economic concepts and considerations on a grand, supra-regional
scale. When at last the country was consolidated under the Safavids,
and the internal preconditions for the commercial recuperation of
Iran were restored, it was already too late: world trade was now run-
ning along new tracks. As a result of the increasing importance of
European commercial shipping in inter-continental trade, Iran found
itself pushed onto the fringe of the world economic scene. It could no
longer pride itself on playing an active part in world transit trade. To
the European commercial powers Iran remained of interest chiefly on
account of its products and raw materials. The economic flowering of
Isfahan in the nth/17th century is to be traced chiefly to this city's
pre-eminence in internal trade. The capital of the Safavid period can-
not, therefore, be compared with Tabriz of the Mongol period, when
it was a centre for international commerce.
A special mark of the merchant class, from the 8th/i4th century
onwards, was their close association with the great landowners. We
have already mentioned the fact that the incumbents of suyurghals, the
usufructuaries of vaqf land (mutavallls, etc.) and the owners of mulk
land preferred, unlike their antecedents in the early Islamic period, to
live far away from their lands in the cities, where they were numbered
amongst the most prominent citizens. Their large incomes enabled
them to take part in a variety of commercial enterprises; they did this
partly through capital investment, and partly by consigning large
quantities of agricultural products to merchant-princes in exchange for
a share in their profits. The preconditions for this were present, for
ever since the Mongol domination the dues of the ra'aya had increas-
ingly come to be paid in kind. For their part the landowners invested a
great deal of the wealth that they did not require for their own use in
commercial enterprises. Even the rulers did not hesitate at times to
invest considerable sums out of the privy purse in the businesses of
commercial magnates. That this phenomenon is characteristic of the
526
 CITIES: COMMERCE AND TRADE
big business of that time can be seen from the name given to the
merchant-prince, urtaq (Turkish ortaq, "partner", "shareholder").1
In the i ith/iyth century foreign trade experienced a sharp increase in
the volume of government commissions: the monopolisation by the
crown of the silk trade, as well as of the production of precious stones
and of other branches of industry, created the preconditions for this
increase.2 Under 'Abbas I there was a tremendous opening up of caravan
routes and the provision everywhere of installations (inns, etc.) to serve
the needs of commercial traffic. One of the most spectacular of these
installations was the so-called sang-farsh, about 30 kilometres of paved
roadway with several bridges across a swampy salt desert between
Ardistan and FIruzkuh.3 At a single stroke this road-system, built in a
very short time, made Isfahan the centre of Iranian internal trade. As a
result of these measures the whole commerce of the country naturally
experienced an upsurge, but these efforts to extend and improve the
communications network in Iran must also be assessed in terms of the
commercial interests of the shah. At that time he was probably the
biggest merchant-prince in the land; in the course of the nth/17th
century, under imperial protection, Armenians and European compa-
nies became the carriers of almost the entire export. Evidently the native
merchants could only partially adapt to the mercantile requirements of
the times and concentrated more on home markets, although even in the
late nth/17th century individual merchants were still keeping up com-
mercial contacts with distant countries.4
In the centuries now under discussion, commerce in Iran was con-
ducted solely in cash, with the clumsiness that this entailed. Money was
packed in leather sacks in lots of 50 (silver) tumans and transported in
the merchant caravans. The beginnings of non-cash transactions,
which had evolved in the pre-Mongol period, seem to have been
forgotten. In the second half of the nth/17th century the Iranian
commercial system made a rather poor impression on several European
travellers. At that time the road network was becoming increasingly
neglected, and the tradition-bound merchants of Iran were indeed

1
Minorsky and Minovi, "Naslr al-DIn Tusi on finance", p. 84. Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 509.
Hinz, "Ein orientalisches Handelsunternehmen", p. 334.
2
Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, p. 20. Kaempfer, p. 94.
3
A. Gabriel, Die Erforschtmg Persiens (Vienna, 1952), pp. 71, 85, quoting Delia Valle and
Thomas Herbert. Siroux, Caravansirails, p. 19. Tehrani, Die Entwicklung, pp. ;3fT.
4
Chardin iv, 167.

5*7
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

becoming less and less fit to stand up to the constantly increasing

rivalry of European world trade.1
And yet the native merchants were well-off. Every year they made a
profit of 30-40% on their business capital. In the warehouse of a
merchant of Isfahan were found, during the Afghan siege of
1135/1722, silver coins worth 1,792 tumans (on the value of the tiiman
see below.) This gives us some idea of the size of cash hoard a
merchant-prince could command.2
Under the later Safavids export concentrated on the same products
as those for which Iran had already become famous in the Mongol
period: fabrics of all kinds, brocades, camel-hair, tobacco, precious
stones, and, above all, silk; while during the Safavid era also the
export of carpets steadily rose.3 By contrast the supply of precious
metals seems to have been more or less exhausted in this period. At
no time, however, did the export of silver, mostly in coin and princi-
pally to India, ever cease. Those chiefly responsible for this export
were the usurious Indian money-changers and money-lenders, who in
the nth/17th century plied their trade in every important centre
of commerce. In Isfahan alone there are supposed to have been
10,000 of them. Their profit margin was allegedly much greater than
that of the native merchants.4 At all events they contributed to the
universal shortage of money, which was aggravated also by the finan-
cial policy of the court, for in the later Safavid state cash payment was
avoided and as much coin as possible hoarded in the treasury of the
ruler.5
Inter-city trade was profitable only for commercial magnates with
large capital, who were in a position to deal in costly luxury goods, and
had the necessary trade connections and possibly also their own special
organisations. The small merchant, who did not have these means, was
basically restricted to trading in utility goods, chiefly in the produce
from the countryside around his own city. High domestic tolls pre-
vented him from undertaking lengthy overland transport: because of

1
Minorsky, TadbJkirat al-Muluk, pp. 20, 180. Chardin iv, 170. Rabino, "Banking in Persia",
pp. 2iff. Ashraf, p. 521.
2
Minorsky, TaJJ/kirat a/-Malik, pp. 19K., quoting the Zubdat al-tavarikb.
3
Chardin iv, i62ff. Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 508.
4
Chardin rv, 64. Kaempfer, pp. 160, 178. Minorsky, Ta^kirat al-Muluk, p. 19.
5
Chardin v, 430. Kaempfer, p. 96. Du Mans, p. 193. Schuster-Walser, Das safawidiscbe Permit,
p. 39. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. i82ff. Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 6.

528
 C I T I E S : COMMERCE AND TRADE

the variations in maximum prices from place to place, it was question-

able whether he would make a profit.
Artisans, small merchants and other tradesmen — people who offered
any kind of service — were organised in guilds (sinf, pi. asndf).
Everything Petrushevsky has said in the previous volume about these
guilds in the 8th/14th century applies to the following period.1 We do,
however, have some additional information about these organisations
as they existed under the Safavids. From the ranks of the "masters"
(ustad) they elected representatives (kadkhuda, a term applied also to the
head of a city-district), who in turn had to be accredited by an official
called a naqib (presumably the head of the sayyids of the city). Only
then could the representative be officially installed by the kalantar. The
kalantar was an official with functions similar to those of a western
European mayor; but he was appointed by the central government and
normally belonged to the aristocracy of his city. The office was often
hereditary, and in the 8th/14th century the kalantar still bore the title
ra'fs. This great interest of the government in the guilds can best be
explained by the part they played in the assessment of taxes on profits
and of corvees (cf. below, the discussion of the tax-system). In other
respects the competence of the heads of the guilds was rather limited.
No one was permitted to open a new shop without their permission;
and in addition it was their duty to present the monthly schedules for
fixing the maximum prices to the sdhib-nasaq, an official whose principal
concern was with price control and related problems. This official was
responsible to the muhtasib al-mamalik ("overseer of market and morals
for the whole realm"), who was represented in each city by the nayib
(literally "deputy"). Final decisions were made within the framework
of this authority, so that the elders of the guilds exerted only an
indirect influence on the price structure. Within the first three months
of the tax-year the members of the guilds (most likely only the masters)
assembled at the offices of the naqib or before the kalantar in order to
discuss the apportionment of the prescribed dues.2 There is no mention
of any other "guild meetings". Chardin reports categorically that they
never took place.3 For the rest, the guilds were very loosely organised,
but they did attend to the mutual support of their members, if these
should become needy, and provided a not very binding instrument to

1
Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 509, ;nff. On the role of the asnaf in Safavid Iran, see Ashraf,
2 3
pp. 3i8ff. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 81. Chardin iv, 93.
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

represent the members' interests. All in all, their influence on society

was slight. Only in a very restricted sense might we speak of communal
self-government in the western European sense.
In the large cities every conceivable trade was to be found. Du Mans
lists 35 different craft guilds in Isfahan in 1660.1 To these must be
added the service-trades — victual-dealers, bakers, cooks - and also
such people as dancers, jugglers, beggars, dervishes and sayyids, all of
whom belonged to guilds. This multiplicity of trades was not a special
feature of the Safavid period: -a government manual from the second
half of the 8th/14th century lists a similar number of taxable trade
associations in Tabriz.2 In medium-sized and small cities one often
found a certain concentration of particular trades. In Yazd, for exam-
ple, the manufacture of costly textiles predominated, while Kashan was
famous for its ceramics and, increasingly, for its carpets. Similar exam-
ples can be adduced for almost every city in the country.
Those engaged in commerce plied their trades chiefly in the great
bazaars of the cities. The bazaar was often the property of the divan or
of the crown, and in many cases bazaars were endowments.3 The
tradesmen then had to pay rents for their shops, which served also as
workshops. This applied also to the city's cattle-markets, slave-
markets, storehouses, caravansarais, bridges and baths, the rents from
which provided an important source of income for the public treasury,
the crown, or the vaqf administration. The central area of the bazaars
in the large cities — the qaisariyya — was always crown property. The
traders who exposed there for sale the choicest and costliest wares (e.g.
expensive fabrics, jewels, luxury imports from distant lands) had to
pay considerable sums of money for the privilege.4
At this point a particular form of bazaar must be mentioned. The
royal headquarters sometimes moved from one place to another. This
happened for a variety of reasons; e.g. war, or the search for climati-
cally favourable summer- or winter-quarters. This habit was indulged
especially by the Jalayirid, the Timurid, and the Turkmen rulers. On
these occasions the whole court, led by the ruler, would forsake the
capital city and take off for another, often far distant, part of the
country where amid great pomp and ceremony a royal court encamp-
ment would be set up. The considerable needs of this encampment
1 2
Du Mans, pp. 195-211. Hinz, Keiala-je Falakijya, pp. i78ff.
3
Petrushevsky, in CHIv, 506-8, and Kishavar^f u, 28. Kaempfer, pp. 94ft.
4
Kaempfer, p. 157.

5 3O
 C I T I E S : C O M M E R C E AND TRADE

were supplied by an army of scurrying tradesmen who on such occa-

sions often came long distances to take advantage of this urdu-bdv^dr
(i.e. "market of the court and army camp"). On the camp being struck,
the provisional bazaar likewise was dissolved. This institution of the
Tl-Khans was still common under the Aq Quyunlu, and provided the
merchants with an enormous turn-over. Not until the time of the
Safavids did the urdu-bazar lose its importance. This market, too, was
regarded as a crown institution, and the revenues from it were con-
siderable.
Besides such institutions there were also industries, the income from
which went to the public treasury, to the crown, or to the vaqf admin-
istration. The origin of these industries may be connected with the
captive and enslaved workers who were set to work at various crafts in
the palaces of the Tl-Khans and, at a later date, of Tlmur and even of his
successors. At all events, from the 8th/14th century onwards such
industries were to be found in many cities. The main industries of this
sort were: tanning, pickling and preserving, soap-manufacture, paper-
making, dyeing. The mints, too, must be listed among these "state"
industries. The income from the mint, which came chiefly from min-
tage, that is the difference between the real and the nominal value of the
coin, flowed constantly into the royal treasury.1
There was one special form of industry that mainly emerged in the
Safavid empire: the buyiitdt (literally "houses") or "royal workshops".
These court workshops and court industries of the Safavids were sited
inside the royal palace grounds. Their function was chiefly the prepar-
ation of every imaginable product that the court might need. The
buyiitat comprised, firstly, departments connected in any way whatever
with the supply of victuals for the court. Near the court kitchen were
the food warehouse, the bakery, storerooms for drinking water and
fruit juices, the wine-cellar, slaughterhouse, the coffee-kitchen, the
pharmacy and the rest. Then there were storehouses and rooms of
various kinds for firewood, torches and lamps, for tablecloths, plates
and crockery, for carpets and robes of honour. The royal treasury, too,
must be listed here. All the departments which employed manual la-
bour for the provision of the needs of the court household were court
workshops in the true sense. Thus the court controlled its own looms,

1
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 196. Rashld al-Dln Fail-Allah, Mukitabat, ed.
M. ShafT (Lahore, 1945), p. 318. Yakubovsky, "Timur", pp. fiS.

531
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

its own tailoring, shoemaking, and fur and leather industry. There was
a goldsmith's workshop and a copper smithy, which supplied the court
with all manner of tools and utensils; and there were many other
departments as well. Finally, mention must be made of the harness-
maker's workshop, the armoury, the ordnance-foundry, and the library
in which manuscripts were not only collected but specially produced
by a staff of artists. The stables and many other offices were also part of
the buyutat.J
As a rule there was a director {sahib-jam') and a controller {mushrif)
over each department. This rule was broken, however, where, for
operational reasons, several departments worked closely together and
were therefore from time to time put under a single sahib-jam' or a
single mushrif. In the late Safavid period the buyutat were entirely
under the direction of the na%ir-i buyutat ("overseer of the court work-
shops"). This had not always been so: at the beginning of the i ith/i7th
century the nazir-i buyutat had controlled only certain specific court
industries and workshops. Later, however, he was de facto in charge of
the, whole royal household and was reckoned to be one of the most
powerful and influential ministers of state.
Countless workmen and specialists with a variety of professional
skills were employed in the court industries. In contrast to their col-
leagues in the bazaars they enjoyed a number of privileges. Each em-
ployee was given a deed of appointment which indicated precisely the
manner of his work and his rate of pay. In the late Safavid period the
annual wage of a workman ranged from two tumans to the consider-
able sum of 5 5 tumans. This was paid in the form of barat — the
assignment of certain tax returns. One of the employees was commis-
sioned to cash these tax-cheques on the spot, so that in fact most
employees got a cash payment, although forfeiting in the process
5 — 10% of the wage stated in their deed of appointment. Every third
year an employee at a court workshop could count on receiving a
wage-increase. In addition he had the right to specific allowances in
kind (Jtra). Emoluments in kind were calculated in terms of a unit
known as the qab ("dish"). Six or seven persons were supposed to be
able to find subsistence from the food contained in one qab. Highly
paid workmen received a whole qab, others only half or a quarter. On
request one could have the jira commuted into cash. As well as these

1
Kaempfer, pp. io6ff. Chardin VII, 33off. Minorsky, Tadkkirat al-Muluk, p. ;o.

532
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

regular wages the employees at the buyutat received premiums or

"gifts" {in'am), often amounting to as much as a year's wages. This
occurred principally when a workman had distinguished himself by
specially good work.1
An appointment in the buyutat was normally for life. In case of
illness or unfitness for work the salary continued to be paid. Moreover,
it also happened that many of the workmen worked not only by royal
commission, but on their own account as well. All of these facts show
that a post in court industry at a court workshop was in many respects
a privileged post, and must have been much sought after.
In conclusion let us mention the activities of European workmen in
the buyutat. Under 'Abbas I, SafI I and 'Abbas II a series of painters
worked at the court at Isfahan. There are several reports of watchmak-
ers, but it is not clear whether these were always attached to the
buyutat. Several European specialists were employed in the ordnance-
foundry at court, and it is possible that their number increased under
Shah Sultan Husain (1105—35/1694—1722), for at this time the produc-
tion of artillery was being stepped up.2

THE TAX SYSTEM IN THE POST-MONGOL PERIOD

During the centuries of the 'Abbasid Caliphate it had been customary

to observe, formally at least, the tax regulations prescribed by the
Shari'a, even if the four canonical taxes - kharaj (tax on land and
agricultural products), 'ushr (tithe), %akat (alms-tax) and Jii(ya (capita-
tion tax for non-Muslims) - covered the most heterogeneous institu-
tions, and the rate of taxation differed greatly from place to place and
from time to time, and special impositions had often assumed the
character of regular taxes. In Iran this principle was overthrown dur-
ing the first decades of Il-Khanid rule: the qubchur tax took its place
alongside the canonical kharaj and quickly proved to be the most
oppressive taxation ever imposed upon the settled population.3 In the
Il-Khanid period the term qubchur - originally a pasture-tax on the
Mongol nomad herdsmen — denoted various types of tax. For the
arable farming community the qubchur was a levy assessed according
to the quantity of the product, and had to be paid in cash. In many
1
Ibid., p. 21.
2
Ibid. Schuster-Walser, Das safawidische Persien, pp. 5 $ft. Busse, Untersuchutigen, pp. 136ff.
3
Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 5 3off., and Kisbavanjn, 228E

533
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

districts the qubchur was a fairly uniform fixed tax on all subjects and
thus a capitation levy on Muslims too.1 Cattle-breeders also were liable
for qubchur dues, which again had to be paid in cash, not in cattle, as had
originally been the custom with the Mongols. The zakat was superseded
by the tamgha, introduced by the Tl-Khans. This was a set of taxes on
trade and industry, the combined rate of which was several times greater
than the 2 V2 % of the canonical alms-tax. In addition, the Il-Khanid
regime imposed a great number of oppressive special burdens upon the
population of Iran, most of all upon the settled community. The exac-
tion of taxes by the administrators of the Il-Khanid state had been brutal
and capricious and had threatened the life of great sections of the Iranian
peasantry. When reform came under Ghazan Khan (694-703/1295-
1304), there was not by any means a return to the norms laid down in the
Sharl'a. Such a course would have deprived the rulers of a substantial
part of their income. What took place was, rather, the systematisation
and codification of the practices that had been in operation since the
middle of the 7th/13 th century. On the basis of this reform the canonical
taxes continued for the time being, but income for the public treasury
was assured by the cataloguing of a wide range of additional dues. This
seems nonetheless to have been to the advantage of the populace,
because the fixing of the rate of taxation put a stop in some measure to
the often immoderate demands of the tax-collectors.
The co-existence of canonical taxes and of levies that were not
consistent with the Sharl'a, plus many special burdens - some of which
admittedly had been customary even before the Mongol conquest of
the Near East - is plainly characteristic of the post-Mongol period as
well. As early as the 8th/14th century there appeared tendencies to
obliterate the distinction between canonical and non-canonical taxes.
Attempts to put a stop to this development were made repeatedly, as
for example under the Timurid Shah Rukh (811-5 0/1409-47), under
the Aq Quyunlu rulers Ya'qub (883-96/1478-90) and Ahmad
(902—3/1497), and also under Shah Tahmasp (930-984/1524-1576).
Such intentions seem also to have played some part, albeit a limited
one, in the tax reform of Uzun Hasan (857—82/1453—78).2 The assimi-

1
Minorsky and Minovi, "Naslr al-DIn TusI on finance", pp. 79—80. Bussc, Untersmbungen,
p. 104. TMEN 1, 387-91 (no. 266, "qubtur"). Barthold, "Die persische Inschrift", p. 261.
2
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 191; "Das Rechnungswesen", p. 121; and
"Steuerinschriften", pp. 758ff. Minorsky, "The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms", pp. 45iff., 4;8ff.
Schmidt-Dumont, Turkmeniscbe Herrscber, p. 219.

5 34
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

lation of non-canonical and canonical taxes was finally accomplished, it

would seem, in the nth/17th century, presumably under 'Abbas I. His
fiscal measures came at the end of a continuous series of tax reforms.
They were preceded by the codification and the regulation of the
financial system during the second half of the 8th/14th century (the
Jalayirid period) and by the creation of the Qaniin-i (or Qaniin-ndma-yi)
Hasan Padishah, the tax book of Uzun Hasan Aq Quyunlii. Common to
all of these reforms is that, as we observed about the tax laws of
Ghazan Khan, they have to do only in part with the introduction of
totally new measures; for the rest they are concerned with the collating
of detailed arrangements and of usages that had come into existence at
an earlier stage. Thus, for example, the returns contained in the Qdniin
of Uzun Hasan concerning eastern Anatolia — so important for our
consideration — show tremendous variation from place to place, in
respect both of the type of tax and of the rate of taxation. The reason
for this can be traced to the fact that over a long period of time
accepted local traditions had found their way into Hasan's code. And
so, such returns as these give us some idea also of fiscal conditions
before the codification of the Qdniin.^ And there are some other sources
which provide data concerning the tax system. As we explained in
another context, records of tax exemptions always provide valuable
evidence, for, in the form of tax lists, they indicate to which type of
levy the exemption in question applied. On this subject the number of
extant documents from the Safavid period is much greater than the
number from the 9th/15 th century or even earlier. Manuals of adminis-
tration often supply valuable information on this score, and data of this
kind in the records can be augmented from many reports by European
travellers. We shall initially follow the development down the centuries
of the most important regular taxes, and then discuss irregular special
impositions.
The first thing to note is that soon after the collapse of the Il-Khanid
state the terms kharaj and zakat occur less frequently in the sources.
This applies also to the Mongol expression qubchur, presumably be-
cause in the popular mind this conjured up memories of the worst kind
of fiscal exploitation. From the second half of the 8th/14th century
onwards, in place of these terms we find mal and jihdt, and from the
9th/15 th century onwards they are linked to form mdl-u-jihdt. Both of

1
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 179.

535
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

these expressions possessed a comprehensive connotation: mil em-

braced the totality of the regular taxes that were payable in kind (that
is, chiefly levies on agricultural products), whereas jihat were indirect
taxes to be paid in cash.1 Amongst these were obviously the regular
commercial taxes, but there were also the cattle levies, to be paid in
cash (cf. below) and the taxation of land, in which certain elements of
the traditional misaha regulations for the kharaj survived. In documents
from the 9th/15 th century onwards we find mal-u-jihat along with
vujuhat (money-taxes of the most varied kinds, presumably mainly dues
to officials) set in contrast to the takalif-i dlvdni (special dues for the
state household) and other extraordinary payments. In the manuals of
administration, too, we meet this term mal-u-jihat, but here, as we
might expect, we find rather the specification of the separate classes of
levy which made up the totality of the taxes. From this we are able to
deduce that mdl-u-jihat va vujuhat quite simply denoted all regularly
collected taxes. It is clear that mal-u-jihat in predominantly agricultural
regions denoted chiefly taxes upon land and its produce, whereas in
urban contexts it denoted chiefly taxes upon trade and industry.2
The rate of taxation of farm produce varied considerably from place
to place and from time to time. Whereas under the Mongols after the
reforms of Ghazan Khan the tithe had to be paid in kind, plus an
additional high tax on produce in cash (one of the so-called qubchur
taxes), with the Jalayirids the tendency developed of shifting these cash
qubchur payments (tax on produce and the poll tax introduced by the
Tl-Khans) into the field of extraordinary taxation. This apparent easing
of the burden of the tax on produce promptly made possible the
collection of a larger proportion in kind as harvest tax. Under Uzun
Hasan in most localities the tithe was replaced by the "fifth" (khums,
panj-yafc), and in many regions of Transcaucasia the harvest tax claimed
as much as three-tenths of the whole harvest. In view of this severe
oppression of the peasants it is scarcely conceivable that Uzun Hasan's
regulations found a favourable reception. About a hundred years later
in most districts the khums, or slightly less, was still in force. Accord-
ing to d'Alessandri, towards the end of the reign of Tahmasp I
(930—84/15 24—76) only one-sixth of the harvest was claimed.3 Chardin
reports of the nth/17th century, however, that on crown estates the
1
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 765.
2
Minorsky, "A Soyurghitl of Qasim b. Jahangir", p. 945. Hinz, Keiala-je Falakijya, p. 129.
3
Minorsky, TadhkJral al-Muluk,p. 178.

536
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

tax on produce accounted for one-third of the entire yield. In the

region around Isfahan at the beginning of the 12th/18th century a
quarter of the harvest (chahdr-yak) was claimed.1 These levies applied
primarily to grain. Orchards and vegetable gardens were taxed on the
basis of a tithe or a seventh part of the annual yield. In the 8th/14th,
and in the first half of the 9th/15 th, century vineyards were often
subject to the khums, but under Uzun Hasan this levy was commuted
into cash (in eastern Anatolia every hundred vines were assessed at the
flat rate of about two Ottoman aqchas).2 This may well indicate that at
that time the greater part of the grape harvest was pressed, so that there
was no point in claiming a levy on the fruit. The sale of the wine was
subject to various commercial taxes, so that it paid the public treasury
on the one hand to put a flat rate on the vineyards, and on the other to
encourage wine production to the limit. This tax, known as ra^kdrf,
was in operation throughout the whole period under review, as one
document from the year 1094/168 3 demonstrates.3
Another mal tax in kind consisted in the supplying of hay, chaff, or
firewood. According to the regulations of Uzun Hasan the tenant of a
juft was liable to supply from one to four kharvdrs (ass-load, cf. Hinz,
Masse u. Gewichte, p. 14) of the materials indicated. All of these dues
became payable at harvest, except the firewood, which had to be deliv-
ered in late autumn. The fixing of the precise quantities and sums to be
given was the responsibility of the mumayyi^ or rayya',* the assessor of
the harvest, whose underlings performed this task a short time before
the harvest. In order to protect himself from too high an assessment,
the peasant had to pay the rayya' and his staff both an assessment-due
(introduced in the Aq Quyunlii period) and also the so-called taqabbu-
Idt. These dues became payable "when a tax-payer agrees to the assess-
ment fixed by the revenue-officer."5 Evidently this was a case of legal-
ised bribery. Not without some amazement do we find the taqabbulat,
in an administrative manual of the early 18 th century, among the regu-
lar state revenues.6
In this category must certainly be included the land tax collected in
various regions — the rasm-i juft. Under Uzun Hasan the rasm-i juft
passed in some districts as being consistent with the "old law".7 Here
1 2
Chardin v, 384, 392. Hinz,"Das SteuerwesenOstanatoliens",p. 181.
3
Busse, Untersuctungen, document no. 20. * Sid See Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muliik, p. 150.
5 6
Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 441. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, p. 76.
7
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 180.

537
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

we are dealing with a tax payable in cash and, under Uzun Hasan,
varying in rate from district to district (and dhimmls were further
assessed at a higher rate than Muslims). D'Alessandri finds, evidence for
the existence of this tax in the late ioth/i6th century, and Kaempfer
puts the rate at five 'abbasis per jarib for the reign of Shah Sulaiman.1
From Kaempfer and from Chardin we learn also that in the second half
of the 17th century this category of payment included a contribution to
the bdrkhdna-ji Shah ("royal goods-caravan"), claiming the choicest
produce of the various regions. The yield from both taxes flowed into
the coffers of the rulers. That these two interchangeable taxes repre-
sented a later form of the rasm-i juft can be seen from the fact that they
were expressly catalogued among the regular taxes.
The same dichotomy in basic taxation can be observed in the realm
of cattle-rearing, down to the second half of the ioth/i6th century. By
a decree of Ya'qub Aq Quyunlu dated 15 Ramadan 884/30 November
1479 t n e addressee of the document was exempted from paying the
taxes of mavashl (cattle-tax) and marcti (pasture-tax).2 In the tax-regula-
tions of Uzun Hasan both types of tax are mentioned. Let us first
examine the cattle-tax. After the end of the Il-Khanid state it continued
to be known for some time as qubchiir-i rasmi or qubchur-i aghndm,
expressions going back to the reforms of Ghazan Khan and current
down to the Timurid period. In the Qdniin-i Hasan Padishah we find the
above form mavashl.3 In eastern Iran in 15 00 there existed a tax called
pay-i gdvdna, which clearly was identical with this cattle-tax.4 Under
Shah Tahmasp, who was renowned for his piety, this undoubtedly
non-canonical exaction was camouflaged in the colours of the Shari'a,
by being interpreted as one form of the alms-tax and named %akdt-i
gusfand va mavashl. Obviously, however, even this formal re-interpreta-
tion was not sufficient to calm the conscience of the sanctimonious
Tahmasp, for in 972/1565 he had it totally annulled as being unlawful.5
From the time of 'Abbas I onwards the cattle-tax, now called
chupdn-blgl, once again took its place as a fixed element in the mal-
u-jihat and remained so until the 18th century.
Under Uzun Hasan in many districts the mavashl tax consisted of
1
Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Mulik, p. 179.
2
Busse, Untersuchmgen, document no. 3. On the term mara'I, see Minorsky and Minovi, "Naslr
al-DIn TusI on finance", p. 78.
3
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 199, and "Steuerinschriften", p. 756. Busse,
4
Untersuchungen, p . 107. Roemer, Staatsschrtiben, p . 167.
5
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", pp. 759, 766.

538
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

two levies: one was a cash payment of from 2A to one aqcha for each
wether-sheep or goat (in Anatolia), to which was added a herd-tax in
kind - a stated number of livestock incurred, in varying amounts, fixed
levies, for example one beast per year for every three hundred sheep. In
addition female stall-cattle were taxed in cash: mares, cows, and asses
incurred a tax of from 2 to 4 V2 aqchas per beast.1 There are records from
the reign of Tahmasp of tax rates of 15 btsti for every forty sheep
(excluding tups) and 10 for each bullock.2 Obviously these rates were in
force before the above-mentioned cancellation of the cattle-tax in 1565.
Under 'Abbas I, in the province of Khurasan alone, the chupan-blgl
yielded annually the sum of about 20,000 'Iraqi tumans, and this shows
that here, too, we are dealing with a tax that had to be paid in cash.3 Of the
late 17th century Chardin reports, however, that the chupan-blgl for sheep
had to be paid in kind: one-seventh of the lambs and the whole yield of
fleeces. Foals were assessed at one-third of their fictive price (supposedly
fairly assessed) in cash. In any case, in this period the ruler was the direct
beneficiary of the income from the chupan-blgl.4
The pasture-tax, too, can be traced back to the period of Mongol
rule in Iran, and is explicitly mentioned in the Qanun of Uzun Hasan.
Later on it frequently became merged with the categories of cattle-tax
listed, but we have evidence that in the time of Tahmasp I it was still
separate.5
Regular taxation of urban commercial activity primarily affected
trade and crafts - the latter at first only slightly. Of course the agricul-
tural activity of individual city-dwellers is not in question here: in
terms of the total tax yield from the cities revenues from this source
were of no great importance.6
The most important of the levies imposed upon trade were the
customs and sales taxes. From the time of Ghazan Khan these are to be
reckoned as the most important regular revenues of the public trea-
sury. Craft and industry were obviously liable to taxation on sales, but
in addition at certain periods shops and workshops were taxable also.
Most of these tariffs and taxes go back to the era of the Tl-Khans, and in
no way harmonised with the precepts of the religious law. First, let us
1
Hinz, "Das Steuenvesen Ostanatoliens", p. 181.
2
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 179, quoting d'Alessandri.
3
Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, p. 774.
4
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 180, following Chardin.
5
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 764. Barkan, "Osmanli devrinde", pp. 97,104, 195, etc.
6
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 185.

539
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

take up a terminological problem. From the 8th/i4th to the ioth/i6th

century all the taxes on trade and industry were described by the term
"tamgha". There is documentary evidence that this originally Turkish
word (primary meaning "herd-brand"; hence later "seal" or "stamp")
had been applied to specific taxes in Iran since the late 7th/13 th cen-
tury. In every period the term was applied fundamentally to taxes that
were raised on merchants and craftsmen and paid principally in cash. In
the course of time the occasional payment in kind does, however,
figure in the complex of tamgha taxes. We do not know exactly how
the term tamgha came to be used in the fiscal realm. It is possible that
the earliest tamgha dues were the customs dues paid by merchants on
entry into a city, on all the goods they intended to sell in that city. This
view is supported by an early 8th/14th century tradition, according to
which, by order of the supreme authority, the tamgha dues of various
cities had to be displayed in writing on the city gates, so that "the
receivers of customs ...should not, under pretext of ...(an increase in
the tamgha) .. .collect more (than was prescribed) nor introduce any
innovations".1
On the other hand Naslr al-Dln TusI was already describing the
tamgha as a kind of tax on sales.2 In any case, towards the end of the
Il-Khanid period, the term tamgha already possessed the character of a
comprehensive concept covering all levies, often including extraordi-
nary taxes, affecting trade and industry in the cities. The above-men-
tioned city customs dues, often designated by the word bdj, were part
of this concept, as were also taxes on sales and profits. As none of these
levies had anything to do with the tax prescriptions of Islamic religious
law, the word tamgha, more often in its Arabicised plural tamghavdt,
was frequently used quite simply to denote all taxes that were contrary
to the Shari'a.3 Hence the champions of the Islamic faith (arbab-i
'ama'im) at all times fought for the abrogation of the tamgha, and this
cause was taken up even by some of the rulers - either out of personal
piety or from political considerations. But with all such "reforms" it
was always a case of trying to resolve the contradiction that arose
between religious ends and those forms of taxation which yielded the
highest returns to the public purse and which the state economy simply
1
TMEN 11, 558, quoting Rashld al-DIn, ]am!al-tavarikb.
2
Minorsky and Minovi, "Naslr al-DIn TusI on finance", p. 71.
3
Ibid., pp. 78f. See further Horst, "Zwei Erlasse", p. 302, for a document dating from late
Ramadan 972/late April 1565.

540
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

could not do without. For this reason the success of every attempt to
do away with the tamgha was very shortlived. The taxes and extraordi-
nary dues embodied under this concept had to be forthwith reintro-
duced in another guise. From the reign of Shah Rukh we learn about
an even simpler solution. In order to satisfy the requirements of reli-
gion the term tamgha was simply replaced by the word zakat.1 In India
Babur and his successors frequently dispensed with the tamgha, a
measure which must have produced almost no effect at all.2 The most
spectacular abrogation of the tamgha occurred in 972/1565 in connex-
ion with a dream of the Safavid Tahmasp. The story runs that this
shah, notorious for his avarice, saw in a vision the Twelfth Imam, who
commanded the sovereign to repeal the taxes, including the tamgha,
that were contrary to the faith.3 Naturally, these taxes disappeared
from public life only for a short time. At all events there is evidence
that from this time onwards the fiscal term tamgha was used less and
less. In the 17th century the tamgha taxes did continue in various
forms, but there seemed no longer to be any point in embracing them
all together under the concept of tamgha.
The sales taxes which appeared under the Mongols were levied
under the Jalayirids mostly at the rate of about 2 V2 % - less than under
the Tl-Khans. Shah Rukh's zakat sales tax still ran at 2 Vi% in 1440, but
in Uzun Hasan's Qanun it was fixed at 5 %. Moreover, with the codifica-
tion of the Qaniin efforts to abrogate the tamgha seem to have been
effective, although the agents of this abrogation were unable to carry it
out in face of the opposition encountered from the amirs.4 The rate
went up under the Safavids (until Tahmasp). For Christians it was as
high as 10%. Particularly valuable goods such as pearls, jewels and
musk were assessed at special low rates.
Sales taxes, as we have pointed out, were normally collected in cash.
In several places, however, the tax on a few goods had to be paid in
kind. Under Uzun Hasan wine was exempted from the sales tax but
became liable to city customs dues and special tariffs, which did not,
however, touch wine pressed inside the cities. Likewise possessing a
special character was the sales tax on cattle, which in some places was
1
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 191. Ulugh Beg, on the other hand, obviously
agreed with the concept of tamgha: Barthold, Ulugh Beg, p. 128.
2
Beveridge, The Bdbttr-nima in English, p. 555.
3
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", pp. 758-69. Horst, "Zwei Erlasse".
4
Minorsky, "The Aq-qoyunlu and Land Reforms", p. 450. Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanato-
liens", pp. 187, 190.

541
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

fixed at 4—5 % of the selling price, in other places at a fixed sum (e.g. in
Arzinjan at 10 aqchas for one ass). In order to distinguish the sales tax
clearly from other tamgha taxes, under Uzun Hasan they were given
the title tamgha-ji siydh ("black tamgha").1
During the 17th century the sales tax declined somewhat in import-
ance beside the great number of other taxes on trade and crafts. It is
possible that they were exacted only in respect of specific goods. In this
period certainly, they were calculated not as a percentage but on a flat
rate. Olearius reported that in 1637 one paid one 'abbasi to sell a horse,
one muhammadi &n ass, and one qa^baktz sheep.2 Silk, too, was liable to
some such sales tax. This decline of the market tax under the later
Safavids was certainly connected with the simultaneous restructuring
of the financial administration, which we have still to discuss.
Because in Iran one could have the beasts one had bought (bullocks,
sheep, lambs) slaughtered in the cattle yards (kbatira), the tamgha
which fell due in such a case represented a combination of slaughter-
ing-fees and sales tax. This slaughtering-tamgha could be paid partly or
wholly by surrendering the skins to the city tannery, the heads and feet
to the city pickling and salting works, or the offal to the gut-factory.3
There is evidence of this-custom as early as the second half of the 14th
century; in the later 15 th century the surrender of these parts of the
animal may have become obligatory at least in certain districts. This
special form of slaughtering fee is evidenced, however, not merely for
eastern Anatolia and Azarbaljan, but also for central Iran, for Qum, for
example, where as well as the skins one had to give up half a sheep's
liver and the fat — presumably the fat on the rump of the Persian
sheep.4
After the sales taxes we come now to the customs dues. On this
topic we must bear in mind that not all varieties of customs were
regarded at all times explicitly as tamgha. At the moment, however, we
do not wish to go any further into the question of formal classification.
Up to the 16th century the most lucrative customs dues were the city
customs (baj, later also duruV), which presumably were always tamgha
payments. They were not based upon some uniform tariff, but were
made up of an ever-increasing number of levies, which often belonged
neither to the category of mal nor to that of jihat, but were officially
1 2
Ibid., pp. 190, 192. Schuster-Walser, Das safawidiscbe Persien, p. 36.
3
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", pp. 194c, and Kesala-je FaJaktjya, pp. 176C
4
Busse, Untersuchungen, document no. 4.

542
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

regarded as extraordinary impositions, although in practice certainly

they very soon assumed the character of regular taxes.1 Like the rest of
the tamgha dues the system of city customs displays a continuous
development from the Mongol period until the second half of the 16th
century. Not until the time of 'Abbas I do we find substantial changes.
In the Il-Khanid period the goods carried by the caravans were still
taxed at a flat rate, and one distinguished only between the rate for
goods to be sold within the city and the rate for goods in transit. In the
course of time, however, there evolved a refined system of deductions
and "administrative fees" - for so we might describe those dues levied
on the grounds that they reimbursed those engaged directly or indi-
rectly in the work of collecting the customs dues. We will return to this
topic in our discussion of extraordinary taxation.
Once again the data contained in the Qaniin-i Hasan Padishah are of
assistance in providing a picture of the city customs. The basic levy
was the due paid to the guard at the city gate, called the rasm-i bavvabi.
This was a tax on the number of loads of goods that passed through
the city gate, whether in or out, without distinction of quality, and
irrespective of whether the goods were to be sold in the city or were
merely in transit. If they were in transit, then they were taxed twice,
once on entry, once on leaving.2 Certain goods were exempt from the
rasm-i bavvabi - for example, grain and milk products for the city's
food supply. Peasants in the surrounding district could become exempt
from the rasm-i bavvabi by paying additional dues in kind on their
harvest. It might also happen, however, that in such cases the rasm-i
bavvabi could be exacted in kind at the city gate. In Diyarbakr for
fattened beasts, instead of this tax, one paid a levy of one aqcha for
every six sheep that passed through the city gate, and this levy was
called tamghd-ji aghnam ("sheep tamgha").
In addition to the dues paid to the guard at the gate there was a
series of further customs charges, as, for example, the fee to the scribe
{rasm-i kitabat or rasm-i kuttdbi), and for caravans passing through
there was a levy called rasm-i qabi^ana? Duty on wine had to be paid in
kind. There was a fee to the master of the court cellar, a fee to the
commandant of the fort, and to the night watchman. In spite of these
specific designations the quantities of wine collected as city customs

1
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 766.
2 3
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 186. Ibid., p . 187.

543
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

went into the royal cellars. A special group of different levies went to
make up the silk tax, which had to be paid in cash. Certain textile
goods were liable to an increased silk tax. The total revenue from city
customs amounted in general to between 2% and 3% of the value of
the goods. Hinz points out that in the 15 th and 16th centuries the price
of an article transported, say, from eastern Iran to Istanbul would
double itself solely on account of the payment of local customs dues.
Out-of-the-way cities sought to profit from this by enticing merchant
caravans with the offer of lower customs rates.1
Not only at the city gates were tolls erected. Along the great caravan
routes, at forts, guard posts and bridges, there were road tolls (baj-i
shavdri') to be negotiated. For a long time these taxes, known as road-
guard dues (rasm-i rahddri), had served to maintain the guards stationed
everywhere along the highways; but these were not always regarded as
a component of the tamgha.2
It is now time to look at the system of tolls and tariffs in the Safavid
state of the 17th and early 18th century. Since the reign of 'Abbas I the
dues on the highways and, even more important, at the ports had been
allowed to supplant city tolls as the most important source of revenue
for the public treasury. To this must be related the fact that trade with
foreign, principally European, powers was constantly widening in
scope during the 17th century. The rahdarl dues had long since ceased
to provide for the upkeep of the highway guards. Nevertheless their
rate had been creeping up all the time, and this, along with the multi-
plication of the number of customs posts, had turned them into a
public revenue source of the first order. A European traveller made the
very pertinent observation, concerning the Iranian road system, that
although one came upon scarcely any crossings or bridges one had
nevertheless to pay up at every turn. The revenue from this abundant
source had been flowing into the royal treasury very probably since the
days of 'Abbas I.3
On the state frontiers the customs arrangements were not organised
everywhere with the same thoroughness. The fiscal administration
concentrated on taxing all goods imported into the country through
the ports on the Persian Gulf, where the average rate ran at 10% of the
estimated value of the goods. In the time of 'Abbas II (1052-

1 2
Ibid., p. 199. Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 768. Minorsky, Tadl/kirat al-Muluk, p. 76.
3
Ibid., p. 180. Kaempfer, pp. 132ff.Schuster-Walser, Das safavidiscbe Persien, pp. 28ff.

544
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

77/1642-66), from Bandar 'Abbas alone the public treasury collected

annually the sum of 24,000 tumans.1 Later on, this source of revenue
was somewhat neglected; under Sulaiman it brought in only 10,000
tumans, and the office of harbourmaster, to whom belonged the super-
vision of the machinery for collecting the tariffs, was finally leased out
in 1674 for the relatively small sum of 2,700 tumans.2 On the Persian
Gulf there were three large ports: Bandar 'Abbas, Bandar Rig, and
Bandar Kangun, each with its own independent customs house. On the
inland frontiers and also on the Caspian Sea the customs were very
irregularly organised. It is worth mentioning, however, that not all
foreign merchants were taxed at the same rate. The British, the Portu-
guese, the Dutch and the French all paid at different rates, and all were
entitled to specific tariff concessions.
Among the tamgha taxes abrogated by Tahmasp in 1565 were the
revenues from the mints. We must note that these revenues were of
various kinds. Anyone who on his own initiative struck coin out of
precious metal, or had foreign currency, also of precious metal, re-
minted - a practice that became mandatory in the 17th century - had
to pay a fee to cover expenses. We know, however, from the later
Safavid period that in addition the royal treasury claimed the difference
between the real and the nominal value of every coin struck. W. Hinz
and H. Horst argue convincingly that the mint tamgha was presum-
ably this mintage deduction, averaging 2%, rather than the fees for
minting.3 At all events Tahmasp's abrogation of the tamgha did not
result in the revenues (ydjibi) from this mintage being renounced for
ever, for, as has been already pointed out, in the 17th century this tax
appears as one of the most lucrative sources of revenue for the royal
treasury, and in the first half of the 18 th century the rate of mintage
rose to over i5%. 4 When discussing the monetary system we will
return to this question. Now we turn to the last significant group of
tamgha taxes: taxes on crafts.
In the reign of the Jalayirids, and presumably under the Timurids as
well, the taxation of crafts was operated within the framework of the
existent sales taxes, on the principle that it was not the manufacture but
the sale of a product that made it liable to taxation. Relevant, too, is the
circumstance that in the tax codes the sales tax was not computed at a
1 2
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 181. Ibid. Kaempfer, p. 93.
3
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 766, and "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 188. Horst,
4
"Zwei Erlasse", p. 306. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. i3off.

545
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

flat rate for a whole city, but specified for individual professions,
artisan guilds (asnaf) and shops. From the models provided by an
assessment book of the year 764/1363 for the city of Tabriz we learn
that a sales tax was presented for close on forty professional groups and
guilds, which proves that this tax was clearly conceived as a means of
taxing industrial production.1 In the Qaniin of Uzun Hasan Aq Quy-
unlii, about a hundred years later, we detect the beginnings of the
attempt to tax industrial production itself, irrespective of the amount
for which the product was "sold. Obviously in the period before the
compilation of the Qaniin of Uzun Hasan, the practice had become
established of taxing weavers at a specified monthly or yearly rate for
their looms. The Qaniin prescribed the tax on individual professions in
various regions. This might be a tax on shops or workshops, as in the
case of tradesmen, or it might be a straightforward tax on industry, as
in the case of the bakers and cooks in the eastern Anatolian city of
Kharpiit.2 As a rule these taxes seem to have been payable in cash, but
sometimes the rates referred to payment in kind. It is obvious that in
the late 15 th century and thereafter these taxes on industry were re-
garded as an extension of the previous system of taxing industry ac-
cording to turn-over, for they were always conceived as tamgha levies.
The turning point in the development of some of the taxes, which
we have placed at the beginning of the 17th century, can be perceived
in the sphere of industry as early as the reign of Tahmasp in the second
half of the 16th century. The historical development of the tax on crafts
had followed a different course from region to region. In contrast to
this tax as operated by the Aq Quyunlu and certainly as operated
during the early decades of Safavid rule is the system which compre-
hensively taxed those engaged in industry. This system we find operat-
ing in the later period of Tahmasp's reign. Because it embraced all
urban manufacturers and subjected them to fixed levies, it was a much
more efficient fiscal instrument than the codified usages of the Qanun-i
Hasan Padishah. In the often quoted administrative manual, Ta%kirat
al-muluk, this taxation system is vividly presented. In accordance with
the guidelines set down by the divan, a high city official, the kalantar
(in several respects not unlike a European mayor, cf. above), assisted

1
Hinz, Kesila-ye FalaJkijya, pp. 177-85.
2
Barkan, "Osmanb devrinde", p. 194. For the taxation of brothels (bait al-lutf) and gambling,
see Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 188, and KesaH-ye Fa/aMiffii, p. 129; Minorsky,
t al-Muluk, pp. 139, 182.

546
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

by another dignitary, the naqlb (probably the most distinguished of the

sayyids, i.e. descendants of the Prophet, in the city, cf. above), decided
on the total extent of the taxes on industry due in their city. These
taxes, known in Tahmasp's time as mal-i muhtarifa, were now called the
bunicha. Then the kalantar summoned the heads of the districts (kad-
khuda) and the elders of the guilds {rishsafidan-i asnaf) in order to
apportion, in their presence, the bunlcha-quotas to the individual
"guilds" and other institutions. The aldermen now became responsible
for the collection of the amounts apportioned. The bunicha payment
was obligatory on all craftsmen, bazaar merchants, sellers at the rope
market, cattle market, and other markets, on all bakeries, eating-
houses, inns and baths (in so far as these were not crown properties and
thus leased by the royal treasury, as, for example, in Isfahan), and at
times on such notorious services as taverns and brothels.1 In the crown
provinces the revenues from the bunicha, like all other levies, naturally
flowed into the royal treasury, and in the other provinces they formed
part of the regalia, so that in every case it was the sovereign who
profited directly from the bunicha.2 Special value was attached to the tax
on the production of silk and cotton. According to Chardin the ruler
received a sum equivalent to one-third of the product, quite apart from
the fact that the export of silk was one of the most important royal
prerogatives. The flat rate assessment of the bunicha was of advantage
to the public treasury in yet another respect. If a particular producer was
exempted from bunicha levies, this in no way diminished the revenue
from taxes, for the cost was shared out by the other members of the
guild.3
Following Hinz's argument, we may regard the receipts from cer-
tain urban manufactures as a latent tax on industry. The fees levied, for
example, by the city tanneries when someone brought a goatskin or
sheepskin to have it tanned, or, as the case might be, took away the
finished leather, were somewhat higher than the cost of running the
industry. The surplus was claimed by the public treasury.4 Certainly
this did not apply in every case, nor to all manufactures. It also covered
the processing of certain raw materials claimed as dues by fiscal
1
Kaempfer, p. 94. On the bunicha, see Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 81, 83; Hinz, "Steuerin-
schriften", p. 764.
2
Kaempfer, lee. cit. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 180. Du Mans, p. 33.
3
Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 83.
4
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 196, following Barkan, "Osmanli devrinde",
pp. 185, 194.

547
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

fiscal officials. One recalls, for example, the dues payable on slaughter-
ing an animal. Moreover, the products of these urban manufacturers
were frequently the object of a fiscal device which, under the name of
tarh, had been widespread since the Mongol period. The populace was
compelled to sell certain raw materials to the fiscal office (explicitly, to
the manufacturer) at an artificially low price, or, alternatively, to buy
certain products from the fiscal office at an inflated price.1 As with
many other devices this one gave the tax officials ample scope for
malpractice, as an inscription dated 981/1573 records concerning the
compulsory sale of the products of the soap works at Nairlz.2
We now move on from the discussion of all those levies which were
regarded up to the 16th century as tamgha, and which to some extent
underwent special development during the 17th century. That does not
mean that we have abandoned the sphere of regular taxation. To this
sphere certainly belonged the jizya, the Quranic poll tax on non-
Muslims. This tax affected Jews and Christians, both native and foreign
(including Europeans). The principle underlying the jizya was funda-
mentally that every adult male dhimml had to pay a specified annual
sum. As with all the other taxes, the rate of the jizya varied from place
to place and from time to time. In the middle of the 17th century, for
example, Armenians and Jews liable to the jizya had to pay annually
the equivalent of one misqal of gold (i.e. 4.69 gm). Du Mans, to whom
we are indebted for this information, tells us also that this tax was
called either kharaj or jizya, an interesting indication of how little
awareness there was in the 17th century of the original character of the
canonical taxes.3 We learn from a document of Sulaiman from the year
1094/1683 that the Quranic poll tax for Armenians in Julfa, south of
Isfahan, was calculated at a flat rate and apportioned to the male
members of the Armenian community by the kalantar of the
Armenians of Julfa in collaboration with the kadkhudas (heads of the
districts, elders).4 This procedure was very much in line with what we
have already observed concerning the apportionment of the flat rate
bunlcha tax. At that time the yield from the jizya for Julfa had reached
the figure of 580 tumans. In 'Abbas I's time it had yielded only 180
tiimans, which may indicate that the Armenians of Julfa in those days
1
Petrushevsky, Kisbavanju, 289. Busse, Vntersutbimgen, document no. 5. Aubin, Noteprelimi-
naire, pp. I7ff. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 102. Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 754.
2
Ahmad Iqtidari, "Farmanlaz Shah Tahmasp-i Safavl", FIZ xn (1345), 5:9-22.
3 4
Du Mans, p. 46. Busse, Untersutbmgen, document no. 20.

548
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

had been taxed at a specially low rate, in order to encourage their

settlement there. Under 'Abbas I's successor SafI (1038-52/1629-42)
income from the jizya had already risen to 260 tumans. During the
second half of the 17th century the income from the jizya raised in
Julfa flowed into the purse of the queen mother.1 From the document
mentioned above we learn that at this time the jizya contribution of
one of the richest Armenian merchants and his five sons added up to no
less than 3 5 tumans.
Over and above the jizya, the dhimmls were bound to pay other
taxes as well. In the Qaniin of Uzun Hasan enhanced rates for certain
taxes are indicated as applying to Christians, and we know that in the
16th century considerably higher tax rates were imposed upon Chris-
tian merchants and manufacturers than upon their Muslim colleagues,
a fact already mentioned above. Since the time of 'Abbas I a great
Armenian colony had existed in Julfa. The above mentioned reduction
in taxes which 'Abbas granted the Armenians of this town did not
continue to operate for long after his death. In the later 17th century
the Christians of Julfa were particularly hard hit by tax impositions and
other repressive measures. An additional burden upon the Armenian
artisans of Julfa was that they were called upon much more frequently
than were others to provide unpaid corvee labour. More will be said
about this in the context of special impositions.
A special group of foreigners were the Indians, who had flocked to
Iran in the 17th century. These, as we have observed, applied them-
selves to monetary business and usury. A specially assessed poll tax was
imposed upon them, and was known as sardna-yi Huniid.2
Besides the jizya, there was yet another form of poll tax which must
not be confused in any way with the canonical tax on non-Muslims: the
universal poll tax on Muslims. Let us recall once again the concept
qubchur as it had been understood in the time of the Tl-Khans. One of
these qubchur taxes had been a levy to which every subject was uncon-
ditionally liable. It was thus a poll tax on all Muslims, in strict contra-
vention of the Shari'a. In spite of changes in the meaning of the term
qubchur, and its ultimate disappearance in the post-Mongol period,
this tax continued in other forms, in such forms, indeed, that it could
be listed officially amongst the extraordinary taxes, although exacted

1
Chardin vm, 114. Busse, Untersucbtmgen, p. 139. Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens"
2
p. 182. Kaempfer, p. 68. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 76.

549
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

with all the regularity of a regular tax. Under the Jalayirids this levy
became known as sarana or sar-shumdra, and in many districts the cus-
tom grew up of imposing a khdna-shumdra on a whole household in-
stead of levying a poll tax in the true sense. In the Qdniin of Uzun
Hasan we come across this "hearth-tax" (Hinz) in the context of extra-
ordinary taxes.1 It was still being exacted under the Safavids.
The same sort of thing happened in respect of the host of taxes in the
form of "administrative dues". These too did not pass without reserva-
tion as regular taxes, and yet de facto were exacted on a regular basis and
frequently formed an official component of regular levies, as was dem-
onstrated above regarding the composition of the tamgha on wine.
Such dues undoubtedly constituted an essential element in the compre-
hensive concept of vujuhat to which we referred earlier. They were
designated ikhrdjdt (literally "expenses", signifying reimbursement of
expenses incurred in the course of taxing and administering), rusiim or
huqiiq (more or less "dues", to those in whose favour they were
granted). A distinction was drawn between muqarrart dues, which were
regular exactions, and khdrijiyydt, which were ad hoc extraordinary
dues.2 It was undoubtedly true of many dues that their true application
did not coincide with the purpose indicated by their title. This was
especially obvious with those which were of long standing. For exam-
ple, in Uzun Hasan's time and later, in certain districts of eastern
Anatolia a rasm-i timurjak was raised, a "Tlmiir due", when the con-
queror had been dead and buried for fifty years. It is clear that in such a
case an originally extraordinary imposition had become a regular tax.3
Obviously the contrary could also occur: the due reached the actual
nominee. This probably happened all the time if the recipient were
someone in a high position. Thus the rasm-i ndyib of Hasan's Qdniin
most certainly found its way to the crown's deputy. Equally the rasm
al-vi^dra, known in the time of the Jalayirids, went to the vizier, whose
upkeep at the end of the Safavid period was provided for almost
entirely out of dues;4 and the rasm al-saddra was instituted for the
benefit of the sadr. This latter tax had been in operation since the 15 th
century, and under the Safavids the suyurghals, too, were liable to it, as
was mentioned in another context.5 A characteristic of many dues was
1
Petrushevsky, Kisbavar^t n, 278, quoting NakhchivanI, Dastur al-kitib. Hinz, "Das Steuer-
2
wesen Ostanatoliens", p. 182. Petrushevsky, in CHI v, 554.
3 4
Barkan, "Osmanh devrinde", p. 104. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 86 (§ 86).
5
Ibid. (§ 87). Busse, Untersucbungoi, documents nos. 3, 4. Hinz, Kesala-ye FalaJkijtyd, pp. 43, 48.

55O
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

their persistence, often throughout several centuries: once such a per-

quisite was introduced, the recipient could hardly bring himself to
renounce the income it brought. Thus the due for the governor of the
city or the district (shihna, becoming ddriigha under the Timurids) was
exacted under all the dynasties with which we are concerned as rasm-i
sbibnagi, ddrughagana (under the Timurids) or rasm-i ddrugba.1
Another distinction may have lain in whether the due had been
imposed for some higher official in the general administration (e.g.
nayib, sadr, vizier) or for an official who was actively engaged in the
collection of one or more taxes. In the latter case the dues - at least at
the time of their introduction - possessed the character of extraordi-
nary taxes, as in the case of reimbursement fees for tax officials in
general {rusum-i 'ummal, haqq al-tabsil) or dues destined for the assessor
of taxes (though not to be confused with the aforementioned taqabbu-
lat). This had originally been the case with the rasm-i bavvabl and
rasm-i kuttab, which we mentioned along with the city gate customs,
although by the time of Uzun Hasan they had already taken on the
character of regular fiscal revenues. The same was true of the road
customs dues (rahdarl), which had originally maintained the highway
guards but in the course of time became a component of regular state
revenue or of the ruler's income.
Many dues had been conceived as supplementary levies, in the sense
that their rate was computed as a percentage of other taxes. There were
other dues, however, which had fixed rates.
A complete enumeration of all dues and a detailed exposition of their
significance and development would go far beyond the framework of
this present study. We must be content, therefore, with the foregoing
reflections, and may sum up by stressing the fact that many of these
impositions, although not by any means all of them, revealed a ten-
dency to take on the character of regular state revenues, a tendency
which expressed itself in the increasing alienation of the imposition
from its original purpose as well as in the transition from "secondary
rates", i.e. rates calculated as percentages of other taxes, to primary,
fixed rates.
Another group of special impositions, fundamentally having some-
thing in common with the dues of which we have been speaking,

1
Busse, Untersucbungen, pp. 108, m {rasm-i dirughagt). Roemer, Staatsscbreiben, p . 166. Barkan,
"Osmanli devrinde", p. 105 (resmi \abnegt). Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 754.

551
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

comprised those levies imposed, originally at least, on particular occa-

sions during the year. In this sphere, too, the tendency of extraordinary
impositions to become regular taxes can be detected. We discover, for
example, a feast-day levy and a wedding levy listed in the Qanun of
Uzun Hasan under the category of extraordinary impositions. It is
quite clear, especially of the wedding levy, that these taxes, when first
introduced, must have fallen due on the occasion of the particular
event. The Qanun, however, indicates that the term when both of these
taxes fall due is the beginning of spring, which can only mean that
these extraordinary impositions had become disguised as regular taxes
on the population.1
The yield from genuine regular taxation — often described as asl-i
mdl-u-jihdt or, in respect of non-Muslims, as asl-iji^ya — was augmented
by surcharges in the form of specific percentages of the amounts
yielded by the as/. These additions to regular taxes were known as
tafavut (literally "the difference"). In Mongol times the word used had
been far'. The documents usually speak of tafdvut-i mdl-u-jihat and of
tafdvut-i ji^ya. The original purpose of the tafavut may have been to
offset a putative increase in production without having to revise the
fixed tax rates, an operation which would have involved considerable
administrative expense. In fact, however, the tafavut levies were little
other than an easily contrived means of increasing the principal taxes.
They had been exacted even in Mongol times and can be traced down
to the late Safavid period.2
One special category of extraordinary taxes consisted of obligations
which were not discharged directly through payment in cash or in
kind. Here, too, the usage observed was essentially Il-Khanid in origin.
First to be mentioned in this connexion are those services which peas-
ants had to give to travelling officials, whom they had to accommodate
along with their entire retinue. This service was called qunalghd. They
were required also to provide for these people and their animals. In
respect of persons, the obligation was called 'alafa and, in respect of
animals, 'ulufa. The word ulagh denoted the duty of peasants to provide
such officials and their retinues with mounts; while uldm denoted the
obligatory service of providing local guides. The manner and form of
exacting these services, even under the later Safavids, was very much in
1
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 182.
2
Petrushevsky, Kisbavar^J 11, 264, and "K istorii instituta 'soyurgala'", p. 239. See also
Papazian, Persidskie Dokumcnty, e.g. 11, no. 28.

552
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

line with Il-Khanid usage.1 The documents show that from the Mongol
period until the end of the Safavid period other services were required
which were known by the names bigar and shikar. The latter term probably
applied to unpaid service at the hunt, including possibly the supply of
beaters. Bigar denoted corvee services of all kinds, principally that of
supplying agricultural labour. The number of days of such service pre-
scribed for peasants could not at any time have been so very great. In
Uzun Hasan's time, for example, only from one to three days a year were
required, and exemption could be bought by payment of a moderate cash
sum.2
The urban craftsmen, however, especially in the Safavid period,
were subject to a much more exacting type of bigar. They were called
out to work chiefly on the large building projects of the shah. In this
way it was possible for the ruler to execute large-scale plans without
drawing too drastically on the treasury - one is put in mind of the
architectural embellishment of the capital Isfahan by 'Abbas I and his
successors. The organisation of such a comprehensive system of labour
services was handled by precisely the same methods as the bunlcha, the
tax on industry: the kalantars decided on the quota of men required,
and passed this on through the "guild" elders to the craftsmen in the
guilds (asnaf). The Armenians of Julfa, called upon frequently on
account of their manual skills to perform such unpaid work, presum-
ably were not organised in guilds according to profession. The Arme-
nian kalantar of Julfa, in collaboration with the kadkhudas (heads of
the separate residential districts), apportioned the work to the inhabi-
tants of a city quarter who practised the particular craft.3
Finally, important revenues of the public treasury included every
conceivable form of "gift", squeezed out of the people at every possi-
ble opportunity. There was scarcely a European traveller who was not
moved to report in astonishing detail the unlimited appetite of Iranian
rulers for an enormous range of valuable "gifts" from the provinces
and from individuals, as well as their confiscation of property. In this,
too, we see the persistence of Il-Khanid institutions and customs.4
1
Busse, Untersucbmgen, pp. 105 ff. Minorsky, "A Soyurghal of Qasim b. Jahanglr", p. 948.
Pettushevsky, KisbavanJ 11, 294—500.
2
Hinz, "Das Steuerwesen Ostanatoliens", p. 182. For bigar, see Petrushevsky, Kisbavany ny
290-4.
3
Chardin v, 404. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 20, 181. Busse, Untersucbungen, document
no. 20.
4
Kaempfer, p. 93. Chardin m , 230, and v, 430. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 179. Petru-
shevsky, in CHI v, 535, quoting Rashld al-DIn.

553
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

The following observations are meant to provide a rough sketch of

the administrative background to the tax system. During the period of
our review, we can detect in general a far reaching continuity in state
fiscal institutions. It must first be stated, however, that the division of
the administration into two components under 'Abbas I and his succes-
sors brought about certain changes in this sphere also.
Together with the state chancellery the central finance administra-
tion formed the Grand Divan {divdn-i a'la), at the head of which stood
the Grand Vizier. This linking of finance chamber and chancellery
dates back, possibly, to Nizam al-Mulk, the celebrated statesman of the
time of the Great Saljuqs. One of its consequences was that the Grand
Vizier was ultimately responsible for the financial affairs of the state.
Nonetheless, the real head of the finance chamber was the mustaufl
al-mamdlik. Since the time of 'Abbas I his counterpart had been the
mustaufi-yi kbdssa, who was responsible for the financial affairs of the
crown estates.1 At all events this sharing did not of necessity bring
with it — at least not until the last decades of the 17th century — a
twofold structure in all of the lower sections of the finance chamber.
Even in the time of the Tl-Khans the mustaufl al-mamalik was
assisted at the head of the finance chamber by two more high officials,
although both were of lesser rank: the mushrif al-mamalik and the na\ir
al-mamalik. Obviously, in directing the financial administration the
primary function of this trio was to exercise mutual control. The same
trio was to be found in all provincial and regional finance chambers
also. All regional mustaufls were subject to the mustaufl al-mamalik,
and, correspondingly, the mushrifs and nazirs were ultimately subject
to the mushrif al-mamalik and nazir al-mamalik respectively. In the
Safavid ndqjr-i daftarkhana-yi bumdyun-i a Id we can recognise the older
nazir al-mamalik; and the mushrif al-mamalik was presumably the
prototype of the Safavid ddriigba-yi daftarkbdna.2
The foundation of the tax system was the qdniin, the "book of
levies". In this book were set down the rates of all taxes that had to be
paid, based upon the data in what amounted to an archive and was
comparable to a land register office. According to this book, the taxes
should have been at the same level from year to year, but, as we have
1
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", p. 22. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, pp. 25, 45. Rohrborn,
Province/I und Zentralgevalt, pp. i22ff.
2
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", p. 23. Minorsky, Tadbkirat al-Muluk, p. 71. Busse, "Persische
Diplomatik im Oberblick," p. 240.

554
 THE POST-MONGOL TAX SYSTEM

seen, this was not so in practice. For this reason, the qaniin had to be
revised from time to time. In the later Safavid period the book of
exactions, under the title dastur al-'amal, was placed within the depart-
ment of the sahib-taujth (see below).1
In order to clarify the administrative procedures surrounding the
actual collection of taxes we have to discuss two more concepts: tax
farming and tax cheque (barat). The raising of the various taxes in
separate districts and regions was leased out, always under contract, to
private persons or officials in the form of concessions which varied in
range. On making application for such a concession, the applicant had
to produce evidence of the state of his own property, for, if the applica-
tion were granted, the lessee assigned his own property as surety for
the sum to be raised. As the owners of tiyuls or suyiirghals, as de-
scribed above, always possessed the right to collect taxes, contracts had
to be made with them also. But they did not have to provide any
special evidence of their own financial standing, because in most cases
they enjoyed an exemption from tax (mu'afl), and so the public
treasury had no claims upon them. Hence their contracts were different
from those of the other tax-lessees, and were given the special name
taslim-nama.2 In all cases tax-cheques (barat) were issued to the tax
farmers {musta'jir, mutasarrif) by the central financial administration
and made out on the basis of the terms and rates contained in the
qaniin. The recipient had to cash these sums right away and at the end
of the tax year balance his account, in accordance with the terms of his
contract, whereupon he was discharged by the financial authorities. As
we have seen, the barat system also served to remunerate or reward
officials. This was done by giving them tax cheques to the value of
their salaries, drawn on a particular city or district where they could
raise the fixed sums themselves or through an intermediary.
These procedures were put on record in two books of the finance
chamber. Assigned tax cheques were entered in the daftar-i taujih under
the control of the sahib-taujlh.3 In another book, the daftar-i avarija,
appeared the current state of the tax fund for the whole territory,
arranged by cities and provinces; and all financial transactions, includ-
ing the making out of tax cheques, had to be noted in this book, which
was kept by the avarija-nivis. In the 17th century the book was sub-

1
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", p. 134. Minorsky, Tad&kirat al-Muluk, pp. i43ff.
2 3
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", pp. \<)S. Ibid., p. 123. Tadtkiratal-Muluk, p. 76 (§ 66).

555
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

divided according to the four traditional administrative regions -

Azarbaljan and Shlrvan, 'Iraq-i 'Ajam, Kirman and Khurasan - and
each district was under its own avarija-nivls.1 Before making out a
barat on the tax income of any city or province, the subordinate officer
of the sahib-taujlh had, therefore, always to consult the daftar-i avarija
in order to make sure that he was not issuing an "uncovered" cheque
in the event of the tax capacity of the region being exhausted. In the
Safavid period all levies which, as regalia, flowed into the crown
treasury, although not falling within the competence of the administra-
tion of the royal estates, were withdrawn from the "balance-sheet" of
the avarija books and, from the first half of the 17th century, recorded
in a special department headed by the ^abita-nivis.2-
In the Mongol period the custom had already become well esta-
blished of taking the solar year as the fiscal unit of time. This year was
based on the calculations of Naslr al-Dln Tusl. Since the time of the
Timurids these solar years, reckoned from the beginning of spring,
were given the year names from the Turco-Mongol twelve animal
cycle. This manner of reckoning time - in comparison with reckoning
in lunar years - simplified book-keeping and balancing, and eased the
lot of the tax-payer, who otherwise - as still happened in the time of
the 'Abbasid Caliphate - would have been taxed 3 3 times in the course
of 32 harvests.3

OBSERVATIONS ON T H E MONETARY SYSTEM

In Iran during the period under our review there existed throughout a
two-tier, parallel currency, based upon gold and upon silver. Most
coins were minted in silver, but there was always gold coinage too,
even if seldom issued. Iranian coins in precious metal were always of a
very high standard. Under Ghazan Khan the fineness of silver coins
was 976/1000, and in later centuries the standard rose even higher.
From the 14th until the 18th century the coin chiefly to be found in
currency was silver coin. This circumstance, like several other phe-
nomena in economic life, is to be connected with the reforms of the
Tl-Khan Ghazan. During his reign (694-703/1295-1304) a new unit of
1
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", pp. i2off. Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. 77I?., i74ff-
2
Ibid., pp. 76, iojff.
3
Hinz, "Das Rechnungswesen", p. 5. See further O. Turan, Oniki bayvanli Turk taJaiimi (Dil ve
Tarih Cografya Fakultesi Yayinlanndan. Tarih serisi, 3. Istanbul, 1941).

556
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

currency was introduced: the silver dinar, called the dinar-i rayij. One
dinar-i rayij (silver) was equal to six dirhams. According to a statement
of Rashid al-Dln, in the time of Ghazan Khan the dinar-i rayij weighed
3 misqal (at that time 4.3 gm). The dinar thus weighed 12.9 gm. There
were also dirham coins (2.15 gm) and coins valued at half a dirham -
all in silver.1 The unit of reckoning was the tuman (from the Mongol
tumen, i.e. 10,000), the equivalent of 10,000 dinars. Until the end of the
18th century the silver tuman was never struck, so that in the period
with which we are concerned there never were any silver tuman coins.
In his currency reform Ghazan Khan had taken as his model the
"Chinese tuman", which consisted of 10,000 bdlish each of six dinars.2
At all events, this standardisation under Ghazan Khan broke with
Islamic tradition, which set the dinar as the unit of gold currency over
against the dirham as the unit of silver currency. In Iran, from the
Mongol period until its final disappearance, the dirham was regarded
as a standardised subdivision of the (silver) dinar, and this in turn
remained the basis of reckoning for the whole monetary system of Iran
throughout succeeding centuries, even though at a later stage it was no
longer minted and other monetary denominations became common. In
what follows the most important coins with their different names and
their dinar value will be presented, the gold value of the dinar and the
tuman at different periods indicated, and some idea given, conse-
quently, of the value of Iranian money in the course of the centuries
with which we are dealing.
That it had been one of the intentions of Ghazan's reform to adopt
the term dinar primarily as a designation for the unit of silver currency
can be seen from the fact that none of the gold coins of Ghazan Khan
was named dinar (or named as fractions of a dinar or as a dirham,
being a fixed fraction of a dinar). This was so in spite of the fact that
Ghazan's one misqal gold coin corresponded by weight to one-third of
a dinar or two dirhams. For a gold coin weighing one dirham (\
misqal, say 2.ijgm) one used, obviously quite deliberately, the term
nim-misqal.
Ghazan Khan's standard for the dinar-i rayij of three misqal (12.9
gm) could obviously be maintained only for a few years. By the time
1
Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 4. Smith, "The Silver Currency", pp. i8ff. For a discussion
whether dinar-i rayij or dinar-i rabib is preferable, see Herrmann and Doerfer, "Ein persisch-
mongolischer Erlass", p. 17, n.6o.
2
Barthold, "Die persische Inschrift", pp. 25 iff. Schroetter, pp. 697^

557
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

of the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id (717— 36/1317-35) the silver dinar weighed
only 8.4 gm; but the original dlnar-i rayij continued to be used as a unit
of account.
In the period following the collapse of the Il-Khanid empire, namely
in the second half of the 14th century, various monetary systems grew
up in Iran. True to the Il-Khanid tradition, however, all of these were
based upon the silver dinar, subdivided into dirhams. Whereas a dinar,
divided into six dirhams following the tradition of Ghazan's dlnar-i
rayij, was still minted in Tabriz, we find in Baghdad, the capital of the
Jalayirids, a dinar divided into 12 dirhams, and another, called the
dinar-i mursal, divided into. 10 dirhams.1
In Nishapiir in the province of Khurasan under Togha Temiir
(d.754/i353)a silver dinar weighing 4.21 gm and divided into 4 dirhams
(at 1.05 gm) was minted. It was known also as a khurasanl or a dlnar-i
khurasanl. However, in Khurasan the dlnar-i rayij at that time was still in
use for account purposes.2 Another currency based on a silver dinar was
to be found in Transoxiana: in the ulus of Chaghatai anonymous silver
coins had been minted since the late 13 th century. From the time of the
reign of Kebek Khan (718-26/1318-26), however, these were struck
with the name of a ruler, so that thereafter these coins were known as
kapaki money. One silver kapakl dinar weighed approximately 8 gm and
was divided into 6 dirhams at from 1.3 to 1.4 gm.3
After 792/1390 Tlmur had a new silver coin struck throughout the
territories of Iran. At first it was introduced obviously only into Trans-
oxiana and Khurasan. This was the tanga-ji nuqra or silver tanga, a word
which seems to be of Indian origin. Originally it denoted a unit of
weight and was applied first to a coin probably under Mahmud of
Ghazna. From the reign of Sultan Shams al-Dln Iltutmish (607-33/
1211 — 36) a silver tanga (tanga-yi nuqra) weighing 10.76 gm was being
minted in Delhi. Ttmur's tanga-yi nuqra followed this standard and
weighed exactly half the tanga of Delhi, i.e. 5.38 gm. It was divided into
four dirhams. Presumably Tlmiir's tanga soon ousted the above-men-
tioned lighter (dlnar-i) khurasanl of four dirhams, for in the period
around 844/1440 there is no further mention of the khurasanl currency.
1
Rabino, "Coins of the Jala'ir", pp. io3ff. Hinz, "Ein orientalisches Handelsunternehmen",
p. 327, and Kesala-ye Falakijyd, p. 14.
2
Ibid. Schroetter, p. 141. Smith, "The Silver Currency", p. 19. Herrmann and Doerfer, "Ein
persisch-mongolischer Erlass", pp. 16—19.
3
Schroetter, pp. 141, 147. Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 762, following the Shams al-siyaq of
'AH ShlrazI, MS Ayasofya 3986. On the kapakl dinar, see farther Barthold, Vlugb Beg, p. 8.

558
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

Under Shah Rukh the weight of this silver tanga was reduced to 4.72
gm, which in his day was the weight of one misqal. In a very large part
of the teritory under his rule, during the early decades of the 9th/15 th
century, the coin assumed the name shdhrukhi. Moreover, this Timurid
tanga at one misqal was minted also in gold, although very rarely, and
was called tanga-yi tilld. In later times it became the tilld, the current
gold coinage of the Uzbek khans of Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand.1
Even so, in the Timurid period various dinar currencies persisted.
There is evidence from 844/1440 of the existence of the following: in
Transoxiana there was the kapakl dinar at about 8 gm of silver. In
western Iran there were as many as three different dinar currencies, the
relationship of which to the kapakl dinar is known: the Baghdad or
Shlraz dinar, the dlnar-i 'Iraqi, and the Tabriz dinar. The dlnar-i 'Iraqi
seems traceable directly to the earlier Tabriz dinar-i rayij, whereas the
dlnar-i Tabrlzl of the 15 th century must have appeared for the first
time in Timurid times. At that time the relation between the four silver
currencies was as follows: one kapakl dinar was equivalent to three
Baghdad (or Shlraz) dinars, to six 'Iraqi dinars and to nine Tabrlzl
dinars. Thus we arrive at the following average weights for the various
dinars: Baghdad or Shlraz dinar = ca. 2.7 gm; dlnar-i 'Iraqi = ca. 1.35
gm; dlnar-i Tabrlzl = ca. 0.9 gm.2
There is one piece of information, likewise applicable to the period
around 1440, that startles us: two kapakl dinars are supposed to have
been equivalent to one tanga.3 At first sight this would seem to con-
tradict our affirmation that under Shah Rukh a tanga of 4/72 gm had
been minted. It is possible that meanwhile, at least in eastern Iran and
Transoxiana, the name we have already mentioned, shahrukhl, had
become so popular for these smaller coins that the name tanga could be
used for another species of coin. A similar process can be observed
happening in the time of the Aq Quyunlu in eastern Anatolia, where
the terms tanga and shahrukhl likewise denoted two different species of
coin.4 In the kingdom of Lar also there existed at a later date a
monetary unit called a tanga, but this did not prevent a larger coin, the
Idri, also being described as a tanga (cf. below).
In the second half of the 15 th century the dinar currency of Iran
suffered an incredibly rapid decline. According to Hinz, in 1440 one
1
Schroetter, pp. 680, 694. O n the shahrukhl, see TMEN 11, 555.
2 3
Hinz, in Orient x (1957), 369. Ibid., and "Steuerinschriften", p. 762.
4
Barkan, "Osmanh devrinde", pp. iooff., 187.

559
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

tuman-i 'Iraqi, i.e. 10,000 dinars, was still worth on the gold standard
3,250 German Gold Marks at pre-war standard (cf. below). Twelve
years later the tuman-i 'Iraqi had sunk to 1,200 Gold Marks. Under the
Safavids the only currencies known were the 'Iraqi and Tabriz dinars,
and we may assume that the distinction between these soon became
purely formal, both currencies becoming equal in value.1 We may,
therefore, equate the tuman of 916/1510, that is of the reign of Isma'Il
I, with the tuman-i 'Iraqi of 1440 and 145 2: it was worth only 270 Gold
Marks.
There is little information available on currency conditions under
the Turkmen dynasties of the Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu. In the
time of Qara Yusuf, and presumably under all the other Qara Quyunlu
rulers, the legal tender was the silver dinar, at least in the form of the
Tabriz dinar and the 'Iraqi dinar. There are reports, however, which
mention sums in tumans. Besides these there were silver tangas weigh-
ing 5 gm or 5.2 gm, and coins of Shah Rukh and other Timurids were
current also. What knowledge we have of the currency system in the
Aq Quyunlu state, at least in its territories in eastern Anatolia, comes
from the records kept in these territories under the reign of the
Ottoman Sultan Sellm I; and it is to these records, too, that we are
indebted for our knowledge of Uzun Hasan's Qaniin (cf. above). There
we find the following data: one aqcha-ji ' TJsmdni (the Ottoman asper,
the gold value of which at the time was calculated by Hinz to be 0.20
Gold Marks or 2.4d.) under the Aq Quyunlu corresponded to three so-
called qaraja-aqchas, also known as dirhams. One tanga is equated to
two Ottoman aqchas, one shahruql (clearly a corruption of shahrukhl)
to six Ottoman aqchas.2 From this we may deduce:
1 tanga = 6 qaraja-aqcha
1 shahruql = 3 tangas = 18 qaraja-aqchas
From this comparison we learn that one "shahruql" had a gold value
of 1.2 Gold Marks, which, at the end of the 15 th century, was com-
pletely in line with the gold value of the shahrukhl standardised at 4.72
gm under Shah Rukh. In the second half of the 15 th century the tanga
of the Aq Quyunlu period, of which we have just spoken, was worth
only one-third of the shahrukhl. This tanga was probably restricted to
only a few provinces. Also in circulation was a silver coin with a
1
Hinz, "Steuerinschriften", p. 762, quoting Chardin in, 156.
2
Barkan, "Osmanli devrinde", p. 187. Schroetter, p. 181. On the aqcha, see Schaendlinger,
pp. )7ff.

560
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

standard weight of 4.6 gm (or 5.2 gm if we follow H.L. Rabino); and

this coin, too, was called a tanga. In addition there were coins of half
this weight, and even quarters and eighths of this unit. This tanga must
have been the counterpart of the "shahruql" we know existed in
eastern Anatolia.1 Under the Aq Quyunlu, alongside a possibly
multiple tanga currency, there was also in circulation the dinar cur-
rency, principally the dlnar-i Tabrlzl.
A further brief note on the gold coins of the Turkmen dynasties: we
know of a gold coin of Jahan Shah Qara Quyunlu, weighing some 3.9
gm; the Aq Quyunlu minted a gold coin weighing one misqal-i shar'i,
i.e. a "canonical misqal" of about 3.4 gm. Probably these two coins
corresponded to the ashrafi; the second one almost certainly did. The
ashrafl was an originally Egyptian gold coin which had been minted
since 810/1407. It weighed 3.45 gm. There is proof that Mamluk ash-
rafl coins were in circulation in the Aq Quyunlu kingdom. There are,
however, also records mentioning gold tangas of the Aq Quyunlu
rulers.2
We have already referred to the sharp debasement of the coinage in
the course of the 15 th century. This must be attributed to the fact that
in the Safavid state the silver dinar was no longer being minted. But
the dinar still remained what the tuman had been from the beginning: a
unit of account. In this period the 'Iraqi dinar was already equated with
the Tabriz dinar as we mentioned above. This took place presumably
as early as under Isma'Il I. Other currencies based on the silver dinar
now existed only outside the frontiers of the Safavid state, with the
exception of parts of Khurasan.3
Under Isma'Il I and Tahmasp I, following the traditions of the 15 th
century silver tangas were still minted. But the early Safavid tanga no
longer belonged to any special currency. Tanga was now the name for
a coin of a specific weight, the value of which was expressed only in
dinars or, which comes to the same thing, in fractions of the tuman. In
the early years of his reign, Isma'Il's silver coins weighed four, two,
and one misqals (18.7 gm, 9.3 gm, and 4.7 gm). Later on their weight
was reduced on several occasions. The silver coin weighing one misqal
was worth fifty dinars. The term tanga certainly applied to this coin,
for its standard weight of one misqal corresponded to the monetary
1
Rabino, "Coins of the Jala'ir", p. 117.
2
Ibid. Schroetter, p. 41. Barkan, "Osmanli devrinde", p. 101. Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals,
3
p. 14. Ibid., p. 13.

561
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

standard of the silver tanga of the 15 th century. Thus the double tanga
was worth 100 dinars and the quadruple tanga 200 dinars.1 Under
Tahmasp the new term sbdhi supplanted the term tanga. One shahl was
equal to 50 dinars; the 100 dinar coin was named the du-sbdbi ("double
shahl") and from 1540 weighed one misqal (4.64 gm).2 Under Muham-
mad Khudabanda (985-95/1578-87) the name of the ruler established
itself as the designation, khudabanda or muhammadi, for the 100 dinar
coin. In the 17th century thejiame khudabanda was scarcely ever used.
Under Muhammad Khudabanda and at the beginning of the reign of
'Abbas I, the muhammadi weighed one misqal (about 4.7 gm).3 For a
short time it was the most minted coin, until under 'Abbas I
(995 —1038/15 87—1629) a 200 dinar piece appeared, the 'abbasi, which at
first weighed two misqals and hence corresponded to the Timurid
tanga. In 1593 the weight of the 'abbasi was reduced to 7.8 gm. Under
'Abbas I the following silver coins were minted: the bisti worth 20
dinars, the shahl worth 50 dinars, the muhammadi worth 100 dinars,
and finally the 200 dinar piece, the 'abbasi we have just mentioned.
Besides these there were copper coins also called qd% or qd^baki. One
qazbakl used to be worth five dinars. At the beginning of the 18th
century there were "small"and "large" qazbakls, worth 5 and 10 dinars
respectively. Copper coinage was minted in almost every city, but
possessed its full value only in its region of origin; in the rest of the
realm it possessed only half of its face value; it was re-minted annually.4
From the second half of the 17th century more silver coins came into
currency: the ha^ar (i.e. "thousand"), worth 1,000 dinars, and named
also the pan/-'abbasi; and a dah-shdhi ot pdnsad-dindr, which, as the name
indicates, was worth 500 dinars. In addition, under Sulaiman there
were two different 'abbasi coins: the "little 'abbasi" worth 200 dinars
and the so-called "large 'abbasi" worth 250 dinars, also known as the
panj-sbdbi.5 From the reign of 'Abbas I until the end of the 17th
century the weight of the Safavid silver coins had scarcely altered.

1
Here we accept Hinz's suggestion in "The Value of the Toman", p. 91, as against that of
Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 28, who argues that the jo dinar piece may have weighed
9-5 gm.
2
Rabino, Coins, Medals and Stall, p. 15. This coin used to be called sad-dinar or sadiaho.
3
Ibid. Hinz, "The Value of the Toman", p. 92. This coin was also known as a mabmudr.
Schroetter, p. 1; Schuster-Walser, Das safavidiscbe Persien, p. 43.
4
Schroetter, pp. iff. Rabino, "Coins of the Shahs", especially p. 350, and Coins, Medals and
Seals, pp. 2off., 32ff.
5
Kaempfer, p. 5 4. Hinz, "The Value of the Toman", p. 94.

562
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

Only in the 18th century, under Sultan Husain, did the 'abbasi, worth
200 dinars, drop to 5.4 gm.1
We have already mentioned that under Isma'Il I gold coins had been
struck according to the monetary standard of the Mamluk ashrafi at
about 3.4-3.5 gm. Thus gold coins of 0.887 g ma n d °-77 gm> struck in
the name of Isma'Il, were £ ashrafls.2 Gold coins minted under
Tahmasp and Muhammad Khudabanda exhibit by contrast the
monetary standard of the Timurid (tanga-yi) tilla (the gold tanga),
which lived on in the gold coinage of the Shaibanids and Janids in
Transoxiana. One gold coin of'Abbas I weighed 2.3 gm; it represented
a half-tilla, and thus followed the tanga standard, of Timurid origin.3
Later the ashrafi completely ousted the gold tanga coinage. However,
alongside the ashrafi currency gold coins were struck which followed
the 'abbasi monetary standard current at the time. And so there were
gold 'abbasls, muhammadls, and so on. As has been explained already,
these gold coins scarcely ever found their way into circulation. They
were struck on special occasions and used chiefly by the shah as gifts.
We must not fail to note, however, that foreign gold coinage, too,
principally the Venetian ducat (ptfcchino, ducatd) and the Florentine gul-
den (Jiorino), were to be found all over the Middle East. In value they
were always equivalent to the ashrafi.4
In conclusion we shall examine the Iranian currencies in circulation
outside the Safavid state in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the
most popular coins around the Persian Gulf was the larl, minted in Lar,
the capital of Laristan in southern Iran, a territory which in the 16th
century did not yet belong to the Safavid empire. The larl consisted of
a double twist of silver purl, stamped on both sides, having a metal
purity of 98% and weighing 4.8-5.1 gm.5 This and the fact that in 1517
this curious coin was not only known as the larl but sometimes was also
designated as "tanga" causes us to surmise that the larl, too, originally
had been struck according to the standard of the Timurid tanga. In
1525 two larl mintings were known: the "old larl" equal to 3 tangas
and 9 dinars, and the "new larl" equal to 3 tangas and 10 dinars. In this
1 2
Vasmer, p . 181. Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 28.
3
Ibid., p. 34. Schroetter, pp. 681, 694.
4
Du Mans, p. 33. Hinz, "Die spatmittelalterlichen Wahrungen", p. 303. Minorsky, Tadjkirat
al-Muluk, p. 59, arguing that asbrafi-jidii-buticould have been the Venetian ducat. Vasmet, p. 138.
J.L. Bacharach, "The Dinar versus the Ducat", IJMES iv (1973), 77—96.
5
Hinz, "Die spatmittelalterlichen Wahrungen", p. 304. Cf. Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals,
p. 16.

563
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

context the tanga, as a fraction of the larl, must not be confused with the
name also commonly used of the whole larl.1 From these data we draw
the following conclusion concerning the currency of Laristan: its basis
was the dinar of Laristan; 12 dinars made up one Laristan tanga; an "old
Ian", therefore, was valued at 45 dinars, a "new larl" at 46 dinars. After
the integration of Laristan into the Safavid empire larls continued to be
minted, although relatively seldom, but their value was determined
from now on only by the Safavid currency, for obviously a native
Laristan currency no longer existed. And so: one (Safavid) larl= 125
dinars = i j muhammadl = 85turnan.2
In Hurmuz, which was under Portuguese rule in the 16th century,
there were to be found in circulation at that time, besides larls, coins of
a special dinar currency. In the middle of the 16th century they seemed
to have stood to the Safavid dinar currency of the same period in the
ratio of 4:1. At the beginning of the 16th century there was a 100 dinar
piece known as sadi, at that time the only silver coin in the dinar
currency of Hurmuz. The 1,000 dinar piece called the hazar was of gold
and was also called the "half ashrafl". One ashrafl, called by the
Portuguese "xerafim", was thus equivalent to 2,000 Hurmuz dinars. In
1550 hazars were also minted from silver. There was also a copper fals
with a nominal value of 10 dinars. Until Hurmuz became absorbed into
the Safavid empire in 1622, the Hurmuz currency steadily depreciated.
In Transoxiana, namely in the Uzbek khanates, the tanga currency
continued after the days of the Timurids; but it was accompanied for
some time by the kapakl dinar currency. Rabino conjectures that the
dinar currency in circulation in Khurasan in 15 90 was identical with the
kapakl dinar currency and is to be traced back to the period of Uzbek
rule in Khurasan. Certainly at that time the value of the Khurasan tuman
was less than that of the 'Iraqi (Tabriz) tuman of the Safavids by a
quarter.3
In the following exposition we follow Hinz, whose research into the
monetary system of Iran is of the highest importance.4 We can arrive at
a useful value-index of the various currencies by expressing them in
terms of gold. A precondition for this is knowledge of the value ratio

1
Hin2, "Die spatmittelalterlichen Wahrungen", pp. ^o^S. (and cf. n.17).
2
Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 16. Hinz, "Die spatmittelalterlichen Wahrungen", p. 306,
following Tavernier and Charles Ijcxkytt, An Account of the Trade in India (London, 1711), p. 241.
3
Rabino, Coins, Medals and Seals, p. 15, quoting Hasan-i Rumlu.
4
Hinz, "The Value of the Toman" and "Die spatmittelalterlichen Wahrungen".

564
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

of gold to silver — which was not the same at all times. This ratio was
discovered by collating and assessing many data concerning money
from various sources. In the 14th century the ratio was 1:12; in the
middle of the 16th century it was 1:10; in 1622 it was again 1:12. About
1660 the ratio rose to 1:13^ and by 1680 had reached the level of 1:15.
In the early 18th century the ratio went back to 1:12. It is clear that
when the gold value of silver fell, a silver coin of fixed weight lost in
value, and vice versa.
Having taken these ratios into account, having assessed many parallel
data concerning the nominal value of different coins and currencies, and
having made use also of numismatic studies of monetary standards, we are
at last in a position to make a statement concerning the gold value of the
coinages underlying the currencies.
In the following tables, in accordance with Hinz, we will express the
gold value of Iranian currencies and coins by means of German Gold
Marks on the pre-war standard of 1913. The price of one gram of fine
gold was then 2.81 Gold Marks. It should be noted that the equivalent
of one German Gold Mark in English currency is one Gold Shilling; as
far as French currency is concerned, 0.81 Gold Mark = 1 Gold Franc
(all rates pre-war standard).

565
 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

A. Iranian currencies based on silver dinars

year kind of dinar Approximate gold values of one tuman (i.e. 10,000
dinars), expressed by equivalents in German Gold Mark
on standard of 191) (one gram offinegold being 2.S1
Geld Marks)

1. Pre-Safivid dinars
c. 1300 dlnar-i rayij (Ghazan) 29,400.- GM
c. I 320 dinar (Abu Sa'Id) 24,500.- GM
c. 1380 kapakl dinar 19,500.- GM
c. 1440 kapakl dinar 19,500.- GM
c. 1440 dlnar-i Baghdad (d.-i SMraz) 6,500.- GM
c. 1440 dlnar-i 'Iraqi 3.250.- GM
c. 1440 dlnar-i Tabrlzl 2,170.- GM
1452 dlnar-i 'Iraqi 1,200.- GM

2. Safavid dinars
1510 270.- GM
1522 195.- GM
1530 165.- GM
1550 133- GM
'577 162.- GM
1580 129.- GM
'593 100.- GM
1622 83.-. GM
1660 77-" GM
1680 69.- GM
1711 63-5 GM
1718 66.5 GM

3. dinars o f Hurmuz
c. 1520 5O.- GM
c. 1550 35.6 GM
c. 1580 26.- GM
1618 22.7 GM

566
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONETARY SYSTEM

B. Currencies based on tangas

kind of tanga Approximate gold values of these tangas,

expressed by equivalents in German Gold Mark
on standard of if ij

Timur's tanga-yi nuqra with a weight of 5.}8 1.26 GM

grams (after 1390)

Timurid tanga of the 15 th century weighing 1.10 GM

4.72 grams (the so-called shahrukhl)

"large tanga" equalling two kapakl dinars, 3.90 GM

c. 1440

"small tanga", coined by the Aq Quyunlu 0.40 GM

rulers in eastern Anatolia (late 1; th century)

C. Currency of L-aristdn

year unit of currency Approximate gold values expressed by equivalents in German

Gold Mark on standard of /f/j

1525 "old" larl 1.67 GM

1525 "new" larl 1.70 GM
1)25 so-called "small 0.44 GM
tanga" in Laristan
M54 larl 1.43 GM
161; larl 1.25 GM
1627 larl 1.05 GM

After the monetary integration of Laristan into the Safavid empire one larl equals 12 5 Safavid dinars

567
 CHAPTER IO

THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID

IRAN

Throughout the four centuries preceding the rise of Tlmur, science

had been actively cultivated in many parts of the Iranian plateau by
practitioners who were in the forefronts of their respective disciplines.
The dissipation of political power which attended the breakup of the
'Abbasid empire entailed also a dispersal of the scientists concentrated
at Baghdad. But lines of inquiry opened by them were pursued by
scholars supported at the various later dynastic centres. During this
time trigonometry emerged as an independent branch of mathematics.
The foundations of geometry were repeatedly re-examined, and steps
were taken towards generalising the concept of number; solutions were
given for extensive classes of algebraic equations. Advances were made
in mathematical geography, and in astronomy, both in theory and in
observation. In optics, a start was made in explaining the phenomenon
of the rainbow. It is the object of this chapter to give an account of the
extent to which these activities were continued during the century and
a half between, say, 1350 and 1500. In point of fact, most of what
follows describes the accomplishments of one man, Jamshld Ghiyas
al-Dln al-Kashi (d. 832/1429), working at one place, Ulugh Beg's
Samarqand observatory, and in one subject, numerical analysis. The
names of a number of other scientists at Samarqand are known, and
many more can be assembled from other localities, but only the
writings of Jamshld transcend competence and are contributions to
knowledge.
This somewhat narrow picture may be changed at any time by the
recovery of additional material. The ratio of scientific manuscripts
studied to scientific manuscripts which exist is very low, though per-
haps no lower for Timurid Iran than for Europe, or India, or the Far
East. But meanwhile only what is known can be described. In what
follows, modern mathematical symbols are used where convenient.
There is no trace of this in the texts themselves; either the equivalent
expressions are written out verbally or they must be inferred from the
context.

568
 DECIMAL FRACTIONS

DECIMAL FRACTIONS

If any system of representing numbers is to be used for major computa-

tions, it is necessary that it embody the notion of place value. This means
that in the array of symbols which represents any particular number,
the contribution of any individual symbol is determined not only by
the symbol itself, but also by its place in the array; for instance, in the
array 2027, the contribution of one of the 2's is two thousand, of the
other, twenty. Only a finite number of different symbols is required,
and this number is called the base of the system.
The first place value system to be invented was the sexagesimal
representation (base sixty), in Mesopotamia, sometime in the second
millennium B.C. Much later the now familiar decimal system appeared
in India. Both were known and used by Islamic scientists from
'Abbasid times on, but with inherited perversities which require
explanation. Sexagesimals as written by the Babylonians incorporated
no device analogous to the decimal point. It was as though with us
2027 could mean 2027000 (=2027 X io 3 ), or 20.27 ( = 2027 x io~ 2 ), or
.0002027 (2O27 x IO~7)> o r i u s t 2O27> o r this times any other power of
the base. Hence a set of cuneiform numeral symbols (digits) may repre-
sent one of many possible numbers, fractional or integer, and the
reader must infer from the context which particular one the scribe had
in mind. The Indian decimals, on the other hand, were used only for
whole numbers (or common fractions), so that no decimal point was
called for, and the representation was unique.
For the most part, the results of Islamic calculations were expressed
neither in pure sexagesimals nor in pure decimals, but in a mongrel
arrangement taken over from the Greeks. In it all symbols were al-
phabetical, the Arabic cognates of Greek letters. For the integer part
of a number a non-place-value decimal system was used, the fractional
part being in sexagesimals. But when it was necessary to multiply,
divide, or extract roots of these numbers, they would first be trans-
formed into a decimal expression in Indian numerals having a denom-
ination of the smallest sexagesimal fraction present in the original
expression. For example, the symbols (read from right to left)
^ * «_J3 which may be transcribed as 120 5 53, stand for 120 +
5/60+ 53/602. This number would be converted into the form: 432353
seconds, since (i2ox6o 2 )+ (5 x 60)+53 =432353. Any desired opera-
tions having been performed on the decimal representations, the final
569
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN

result would be returned to the original alphabetical form, with

sexagesimal fractions.1
Pure sexagesimals were by no means unknown in Islamic writings;
they are to be found particularly in chronological tables, where the
spans of days between pairs of epochs are often very large. Neither
were decimal fractions completely unknown. Several occur in the
4th/ioth century arithmetic of al-UqlldisI.2 The medieval Chinese, in
computing the appearance of new moons, measured time in days and in
units consisting of one ten-thousandth of a day. This special variety of
decimal fraction was well-known to Jamshld from his work with the
Chinese calendar.3 It may have suggested to him the notion of the
decimal fraction in full generality, which he proceeded to describe and
to apply in his textbook of arithmetic, the Miftab al-bisab. So far as is
known he was the first to do this, and in so doing anticipated the
Fleming, Stevin, by almost two centuries.4
Jamshld noticed that a sexagesimal representation can be thought of
as two sequences of digits proceeding in opposite directions from the
units digit. Thus in the representation

which may be transcribed as

4 34 25 9 48 56 thirds
and which stands for
4 X 602 + 34 X 601 + 25 X 6o° + 9 X 60-! + 48 X 60- 2 + 56 X 60-3,
the sequence 9, 48, 56 yields the fractional part of the number, and 25,
34, 4 the integer part. He observed further that the decimal system is
completely analogous to the sexagesimal, and that to restrict the for-
mer to the writing of integers is to throw away, as it were, half the
potential of the system. Therefore he adjoined a sequence of fractional
digits to the integer sequence to give, say,
2953871 decimal fourths,
where we would write
295.3871.
It is worth remarking that his notation giving the power of the base by
1
For an example, see Kennedy and Muruwwa, "Birunl".
2 i
See his LV (1964), 210. Kennedy, "The Chinese-Uighur Calendar", pp. 436—7.
4
Juschkewitsch, pp. 236-48, 363—5.

57°
 THE ^-COMPUTATION

which the rest of the representation is to be multiplied (instead of a

mark to set off the fractional part) is precisely the "floating point"
convention used nowadays in programming digital computers.
Having established the theoretical basis for decimal fractions,
Jamshld then went on to demonstrate their utility in the computation
of areas, volumes, and other geometric problems. He gave rules and
examples for converting common fractions into decimals, and con-
versely, and he worked out tables, still useful, for the conversion of
sexagesimals into decimals, and vice versa.
The Miftah was widely disseminated in manuscript copies. That its
influence reached as far as Constantinople is demonstrated by an arith-
metic written there, in Greek, sometime during the latter half of the
9th/15 th century. This book contains one worked example of multipli-
cation and one of division in which decimal fractions, converted from
common fractions, are employed. The author ascribes the technique
to "the Turks", and it is known that at least one of Jamshid's col-
leagues at Samarqand, al-Qvishchl, eventually established himself in
Constantinople. 1

THE 7t-COMPUTATION

The important number now universally called n, definable as the ratio

between the circumference and the diameter of any circle, has been an
object of interest since the beginning of mathematics. In a treatise
devoted entirely to it, al-Risdla al-mubitiyya, Jamshid criticises the
approximations to 7t made by various individuals. He remarks, for
instance, that the use of Archimedes' value, the familiar 3}, to calculate
the earth's circumference in terms of its radius would entail a possible
inaccuracy offivefarsakhs. He therefore proposes to compute n to such
a degree of precision that if it is used to calculate the circumference of a
circle with a diameter of 600,000 earth-diameters, the error involved
will be less than the smallest linear unit known to him — the breadth of a
horsehair. Presumably he chose this diameter as being that of the
largest circle in the universe, a great circle on the sphere of the fixed
stars. By use of the hierarchy of units between the horsehair and the
earth-diameter, he shows that the imposed condition demands an order
of accuracy of 1/609 part of the result.

1
Hunger and Vogel, pp. 32—5, 104.

571
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN

His method of procedure, like that of all his predecessors, is to use

the fact that if a regular polygon is inscribed in (or circumscribed
about) a circle, the difference between the perimeter of the polygon and
the circumference of the circle may be made arbitrarily small by suffici-
ently increasing the number of sides of the polygon.
From elementary geometric considerations, Jamshld adduces rela-
tions expressible (in modern symbols) as follows:
Let a regular polygon be inscribed in a unit circle such that each
side, an, subtends an arc an=6o°lz"~\ and let cn be the chord of the
supplement of this arc. Then, since ax =yJ $, the recursion relation

(0 '.=(* + '.-,) l / 1
makes it possible to calculate any desired cn by computing the second c
in terms of the first, the third from the second, and so on. Moreover,
the Pythagorean relation gives

and the perimeter, an approximation to z%, is the product of the length

of a side, an, times the number of sides, yza-
Before beginning the actual computation, Jamshld proceeds to
determine how many iterations of (i) will be required to insure the
degree of precision he has set himself, and to how many fractional
sexagesimal places he must work. For this purpose, he makes a general
estimate of the number of horsehairs which, laid side by side, will
encircle the universe. And from this he concludes that the angle sub-
tended at the centre by a single hair is greater than 1/608 of a degree.
Hence the required accuracy will be secured if the error is less than the
latter. This condition is applied in the course of an involved sequence of
inferences drawn from inequalities, and leading to the conclusion that,
for a circle of radius sixty, an acceptable an must be less than 8/604.
Thereupon Jamshld sets about successive halvings of 1200 to produce
the sequence of a's. It turns out that a28 is less than 6°/6o4, and its chord,
^28; satisfies the condition given just above. The number of sides in the
inscribed polygon finally used is therefore 3-228 (=805,306,368). In the
sexagesimal representation this number has six digits. This consider-
ation, combined with the requirement that the result must have eight
significant fractional digits leads to the conclusion that, with numbers
obtained in the course of the computation, digits beyond the eighteenth
may safely be neglected, a requirement which is in fact unduly rigorous.

572
 TRIGONOMETRIC TABLES
At this stage the calculation proper can commence. The main part of
it consists of twenty-eight square root extractions, each one of which
takes up an elegantly laid out page of the manuscript. In order to
maintain a running check of the operation as it progresses, each succes-
sive square root is squared, and the result compared with the radicand.
The final result (in modern notation) is
27t = 6516,59,28,1,34,51,46,14,50,
where the commas separate sexagesimal digits, and the semicolon is the
"sexagesimal point".
For the benefit of people who are unaccustomed to this base,
Jamshld converts it into decimal fractions as
271 = 6.283 185 307 179 586 5,
correct to the last digit.

TRIGONOMETRIC TABLES

Trigonometry as an independent branch of mathematics was in large

measure a creation of Muslim medieval astronomers. From the ninth
century on, the standard trigonometric functions were made available
in tables of continually increasing detail and precision. This trend
reached its high point in Timurid Iran, and the function tables pro-
duced at the Samarqand observatory of Ulugh Beg are superior to all
others of the time, a supremacy which was retained for a century.
The sine table alone in this set has a value for each minute of each
degree up to ninety, hence 5,400 entries. But this number is doubled by
the presence of a tabular difference (for each interpolation) for each
entry. All of these are carried to five sexagesimal places, implying
precision of the order of one to seven hundred million. These tables
have been recalculated with electronic computers, and no error has
been observed. The other trigonometric ratios were tabulated in analo-
gous fashion at Samarqand, as well as many of the special functions
encountered in spherical astronomy.
Implicit behind these masses of numerals is the knowledge of algor-
isms, computational schemes, which call for much more than patient
and meticulous reckoning. An example is Jamshld's method of deter-
mining the sine of one degree to any desired accuracy, the algorism
which underlies Ulugh Beg's sine table.

573
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN

The solution is related to the classical Greek problem of trisecting an

angle. Jamshld first derived a relation between the sine of any angle
and the sine of its third, which we may write as
(2) sin 30c = 3 sina —4 sin3a.
The sine of three degrees, as it happens, is not difficult to calculate,
by manipulating the functions of larger angles (like 300) which are even
easier to find. Let x = sin 1° and put q= sin j°, assumed to be known.
Then (2) becomes

(3) *=

which transforms the problem into that of finding a number x satisfy-

ing the cubic equation (3). The first sexagesimal digit of this root was
already known, from earlier tables. Call this digit dr; regard it as a first
appproximation to the root, say xx = dv and try it out by substitution in
(3). Symbolically, put/(x) = (^ + 4v3)/3, and calculate

where d2 is formed from r2 by dropping off. all its sexagesimal digits

save the first. Now regard d2 as a correction to d% and add the two to
obtain a better approximation to the root. I.e., put x2 = x^+d2, and
repeat the above process to find a dy This means, form

The cycle of operations is then repeated. In general

*•.-/(*•.)='.+,« 4.+,
and
= *•„

until the desired precision is attained.

This type of iterative algorism was used many centuries before the
time of Jamshld, and it is valid for categories of f(x) much more
general than this particular polynomial. But his is a particularly elegant
example because the only operations involved are additions, subtrac-
tions, and multiplications. Furthermore, the process converges so fast
that each iteration pinches off one more digit in the final result.1
1
Computation described more fully in Juschkewitsch, pp. 319-24.

574
 INSTRUMENTS - THE EQUATORIUM

COMPUTING INSTRUMENTS - THE EQUATORIUM

Throughout the Middle Ages a great variety of scientific instruments

were invented and produced in the countries of Islam, and in Iran in
particular. These included astrolabes of many types, quadrants, celes-
tial spheres, sundials, and mechanical or graphical devices designed to
accept numerical data and to solve certain categories of problems in
instances where tedious computation could be eliminated. Most of the
known instruments of Timurid provenance are of types well known in
previous periods. The one described briefly below, however, the equa-
torium invented by Jamshld al-Kashl, is in several ways unique.
For a given planet and a given time, the problem of determining its
position in the celestial sphere has been of interest since early times.
The operation is reducible to two parts: the determination of the
planet's mean position, and the calculation of its "equation". Solution
of the first part is simple indeed. The planet's motion is always in the
vicinity of a fixed great circle called the ecliptic, and always generally
forward on the ecliptic, but sometimes moving faster than its mean
velocity, sometimes slower, and sometimes even backwards. It is
customary to imagine a point, the "mean planet", which travels with
the mean motion of the actual planet, sometimes on one side or the
other of it but never exceeding a fixed distance on either side. The
position of the mean planet at any time may be found by adding to its
position at some known epoch the product of the time elapsed since
epoch and the mean velocity.
The planet's equation at any time is the distance between the mean
planet and the true planet at that instant; it is a measure of the irregu-
larity of the true motion. The latter, in turn, is caused primarily by two
effects, arising from the common character of the earth's and the
planet's orbits about the sun. We view the planet from, as it were, a
moving platform; hence its direction from us is affected not only by its
own travels around the sun, but also by the changing point of view
afforded by our own annual trip about the same object. Furthermore,
neither orbit is quite a circle, and both earth and planet travel faster
when they are nearer the sun.
The problem of determining the equation is therefore a complicated
one. In medieval times the most precise method of solving it was to use
a pair of tabulated functions, the "equation of the centre", and the
"equation of the anomaly", and to modify the entry obtained from the

575
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN

one table by an involved interpolation procedure utilising the entry

from the other table. Tables for determining the mean position, on the
other hand, were very easy to use, since addition was the only opera-
tion required. A second method of solution would be to construct a
scale model of the earth - sun - planet system, consisting essentially of
the two orbits, the one being constrained to maintain its proper posi-
tion relative to the other. Points properly fixed on the orbits represent
the respective celestial bodies. For any particular time, a straightedge
passing from the earth to the planet would indicate the planet's true
position at that instant. A third way of solving the problem is to make
a scale drawing of the configuration as of the time in question, where-
upon the vector drawn from the image of the earth to that of the planet
would yield the desired position.
Jamshld's planetary equatorium can be characterised as an ingenious
combination of the three types of approach sketched above: numerical,
mechanical, and graphical. Mean positions were to be determined by
numerical tables; hence they constituted the initial data fed into the
machine. It consisted essentially of a large circular plate surrounded by
an annular ring, graduated all around in degrees in order to serve as a
3600 protractor. There were two moving parts, a graduated alidade,
pivoted at the centre of the plate, and a graduated ruler, arranged so
that it and the alidade together could be operated as parallel rulers.
They served to transfer angular distances back and forth between the
plate, which was used as a plotting board, and the protractor. Fig. 1 is a
schematic representation of the instrument as set up to give a true
position for the planet Mars. For purposes of simplicity, most of the
graduations and rulings of the actual instrument have been left off the
drawing. Of the two orbits required for each planet, one (called the
deferent) was permanently engraved on the plate. The other (the epi-
cycle) was never actually drawn, although it appears on our figure. The
radius of the epicycle equals the segment CD on the alidade edge. By a
rotation of the alidade, this length can be transferred to CD', thence
displaced to EM. Without going into details, it transpires that C can be
regarded as the image of the earth and M that of Mars, whence the
place where the alidade edge crosses the protractor ring gives the
required true position.Thus the device yielded quick results, accurate,
say, to within ten minutes of arc. Since the main motive for calculating
planetary positions was for the casting of horoscopes, this degree of
precision was ample.

576
 INSTRUMENTS - THE EQUATORIUM

Fig. i. A simplified representation of Jamshld's equatorium as set up to give a true longitude for
the planet Mars.

The basic idea of the equatorium reaches back into Hellenistic times,
and several were constructed in medieval Europe, one by the poet
Chaucer. So far, however, Jamshld's version is the only example re-
covered from the lands of eastern Islam, and it is probably the most
compact of all. In one respect it was far superior to others of its time in
that it includes a method for determining planetary latitudes as well as
longitudes.
The orbital planes of the planets lie almost in the ecliptic plane, and
no great error is involved in assuming that the planetary motions take
place in the ecliptic, as was done above. The problem is then two-
dimensional and the motions are known as motions in longitude. In
actual fact, however, the orbits diverge slightly from the ecliptic, and
the amount of a planet's divergence at any time is called its latitude.
The prediction of a latitude, since it adds a third dimension to the

577
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN
problem, is inevitably difficult. By applying what later came to be
known as descriptive geometry, Jamshid makes available to prospec-
tive users of his equatorium a graphical solution of the latitude
problem.

OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY

The observatory founded at Samarqand in 833/1430 by the astrono-

mer-prince Ulugh Beg worthily carried on the tradition established by
the Buyid, the Saljuq and the Il-Khanid dynasties. The observatory
building, occupying the top of a hillock some 21 metres high, was a
three-storey cylindrical edifice about 46 metres in diameter. The instal-
lation is dominated by an enormous mural instrument for measuring
the altitudes of celestial bodies as they cross the meridian (fig. 2). It
consists of an arc, in the meridian plane, and having a radius of about
40 metres. In order to make room for it, part of the arc was sunk into
the ground between a pair of walls parallel to the meridian plane, and
part was on masonry built up above ground level. The arc, or rather
the narrow cylindrical surface which carries it, was carefully graduated
in fractions of degrees. At meridian transit, a ray from the sun, or any
other object being observed, would pass through an orifice at the
centre of the arc and fall on the graduations, giving the altitude di-
rectly. Extensive remains of the building and instrument have been
excavated, and are much visited by tourists in the Soviet Union. The
instrument is an extreme example of an attempt to gain precision by
great size.
Other instruments were in use there, but no complete listing can be
given. There exists a letter by Jamshid written from Samarqand back
home to his father in Kashan. In it he reports progress in the building
of the observatory, saying that one armillary sphere had been com-
pleted, and that another was being made, as well as a diopter and an
azimuth instrument with two quadrants. Both of the latter are types
invented or elaborated upon at the Il-Khanid observatory at Maragha.
Jamshid states further that before his arrival two massive brass rings
had been cast, six cubits in diameter, to observe declinations after the
manner of Ptolemy. He pointed out that the progress of the art had
shown this technique to be faulty, and the sultan ordered the rings
broken up and the metal used for other instruments.
Of other Timurid observatories we have no knowledge, nor can
578
 OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY

Fig. 2. The meridian transit instrument at Ulugh Beg's Samarqand observatory.

much be said about actual observations. That the Samarqand observa-

tory was used, follows from the fact that the stellar coordinates in the
table of fixed stars in Ulugh Beg's Zij are, for the most part, the result
of independent observations. Jamshld reports very completely three

579
 THE EXACT SCIENCES IN TIMURID IRAN

lunar eclipses he observed at Kashan in 808/1406 and 809/1407.1 There

is no evidence to suggest that the elaborate observatories characteristic
of late Islamic astronomy produced results which would have been
unobtainable with less massive equipment.

RECAPITULATION AND ASSESSMENT

One general conclusion is clear — that the activity which had given Iran
pre-eminence in science from late 'Abbasid through Saljuq and
Mongol times fell off markedly during the span of the Timurid
dynasty. Steady and continuous progress had been made by Islamic
mathematicians in the foundations of mathematics, in the solution of
algebraic equations, and in geometrical optics. No Timurid additions
can be exhibited in these fields, although competent practitioners con-
tinued to be plentiful. By way of contrast, vigorous work in trigonom-
etry was now under way in Central Europe, and further west Oresme2
was developing the concept of fractional exponents.
In one branch of mathematics, numerical analysis, brilliant work was
done. Jamshld's computational algorisms exhibited a feel for elegance,
precision, and control which had never been seen before, and which
was not to be surpassed for a long time to come.
The situation is much the same in astronomy. Writings of the Mara-
gha planetary theorists who later so strongly influenced Copernicus
were known and debated in the group around Ulugh Beg.3 But the
available work done at Samarqand is purely Ptolemaic, unaffected by
the newer planetary models. The equatorium of Jamshld was matched
by one turned out by a French contemporary of his, Fusoris. Whatever
observations may have been made at Samarqand were less significant
than the many hundreds recorded at Nuremberg alone by Walther4 and
his collaborators. All things considered, Iran's scientific output,
though weakening, may have maintained her in a leading position
through the 9th/15 th century. Thereafter, the lead passed clearly to the
West.

1 2
Zij-i Kbaqint, fol. 4r. Juschkewitsch, pp. 401— 9.
3
Sayili, "Ghiyath al-DIn al-KashTs Letter", pp. 99, 100.
4
Pannekoek, p. 181.

580
 CHAPTER I I

PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

One of the most distinguished European travellers drawn to Persia in

Safavid times, Sir John Chardin, records a native saying in these terms:
"Le doute est le commencement de la science; qui ne doute de rien
n'examine rien, qui n'examine rien ne decouvre rien, qui ne decouvre
rien est aveugle et demeure aveugle".1 And he goes on to place both
Persian and Chinese science next to that of Europe in achievement,
qualifying his statement by adding that certain theorems which are
regarded as new in the West are, in fact, to be found in the Persian and
Arab books. But Chardin was impressed by the legacy of the past, for
Islamic science, which had a strong Persian element, reached its zenith
with Ibn Sina, al-Blrunl, 'Umar Khayyam, al-Khazinl, and al-Tusi,
and, apart from a late burst of activity in Timurid times attributable to
Ulugh Beg and his school, was then in decline. Medicine alone con-
tinued to make new advances.
There are, nevertheless, several influences which go to make this
period in the history of science one of peculiar interest. Persia was a
place of exchanges in ideas rather than a focus of original discovery.
The protracted and bitter struggle between the Safavid monarchs and
the Ottoman Turks, in the course of which the Persians became fam-
iliar with embassies from European courts, and Anthony Sherley is
said to have suggested to Shah 'Abbas I an alliance with the Christian
powers, not only generated an interest in technology, for the shah's
armies were initially deficient in the heavier weapons of war; it also
enabled Persia to know something of the scientific revolution which
was gaining in momentum and influence in western Europe. Her trad-
itional Islamic science, with a few Chinese accretions absorbed in the
years of Mongol dominion, would soon be exposed to a discipline
which might be called world science, for Persia was no longer in
isolation from the effects of experimental method and the interpret-
ation of its results in terms of mathematical analysis. Lest we be in-
clined, however, to exaggerate this impact upon the native science and
culture, we are corrected at once by a predominant regard for the

1
Chardin iv, 197.

581
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

established authors from Ulugh Beg and al-TvisI right back to Galen,
Ptolemy, Apollonius, and Euclid; by the perfection in Safavid times of
the workmanship and art of the astrolabe, the favourite portable astro-
nomical instrument of medieval Islam; by the persistence and further
development of a medical tradition which owed much to India; and,
not least, by the dead hand of orthodoxy. What the exhaustion and
ravages of war failed to obliterate, the zealots of the Shl'I faith strove
to deny. In the struggle between the divine and the secular sciences the
Legalities were in the ascendant, the Accomplishments in decline. To
quote Mlrza Muhammad Qazvini on the Safavids: "... under this
dynasty learning, culture, poetry and mysticism completely deserted
Persia...".1
For two centuries there was a dearth of creative minds in literature,
and many scholars perished in the siege of Isfahan in 113 4-5/1722. The
torch of learning which had burned brightest at the court of the ageing
Sultan Husain Balqara in Herat in the early ioth/i6th century now
reappeared, rekindled at the Mughal court in Delhi, where thinkers and
writers gathered from Persia under the liberal patronage of Humayiin.
Indeed it is from Persia's nearest neighbours, India and Turkey, that one
may glean information which throws further light upon the condition
of Persian science as well. This is not so surprising when it is realised
that mathematics (riydqiyjat), natural science (tabt'iyydf) and metaphysics
(ma vara, or md ba'd, al-tabi'ai) together comprised philosophy, and that
in traditional Islamic science there was a strong a priori tendency
inherited from the Greeks. Alchemy and astrology were still powers to
be reckoned with, and times were harsh on those whose predictions
failed to meet royal approval; but then it was not so different in Elizabe-
than England. It is impossible, as it was in medieval Latin Christendom,
to sever science as a separate discipline from the whole corpus of
learning, and at the courts of both Shah 'Abbas II in Isfahan and Akbar
in Delhi there were poets who were physicians and physicians who were
poets. Francis Bacon in England had still to ring the bell that gathered all
the other wits together and so point the new way to scientific discovery.
This period was one of transition in the West and, to a lesser extent, in
Persia; thus it is necessary to evaluate the forces for change against a
stable background of tradition.

1
LHP iv, 26-8.

582
 EMISSARIES, AMBASSADORS, AND MISSIONS

EMISSARIES, AMBASSADORS, AND CATHOLIC MISSIONS

Snippets of scientific information may be collected from the accounts of

European travellers, many of whom settled and worked in the service
of the shah. Thus, "Master Jeffrey Ducket, agent for the Muscovie
companie" writes c. 15 74: "They have few bookes and lesse learning, and
are for the most part very brutish in all kind of good sciences, saving in
some kind of silke workes, and in such things as pertaine to the furniture
of the horses, in which they are passing good".1 Don Juan (Uruch Beg),
who knew both Persia and the Catholic West, speaks2 of "great numbers
of water-wheels all along the banks of the rivers and lagoons, these being
made after the fashion of the water-wheels and mills we see on the
Tagus", and adds that armour of thin steel plate "cunningly forged" is
made in large quantity and some "exported into Muscovy". On the
subject of medicine he says: "In the matter of curing disease they do as
with other nations of the barbarians, using herbs and ordering a strict
diet. In acute illnesses, such as in cases of quinsy, pleurisy and the like,
they bleed. The people are very superstitious, being given to regarding
auguries, and imagine that by praying in the mosque they can favourably
affect, or at least prognosticate, the issue of all their maladies." The
writer knew of the splendours of Isfahan, its six hundred caravansarais at
the entrance gates and its three hundred hammdms, and the stable system
of communications in the reign of Shah 'Abbas the Great (995 — 1038/
15 87-1629).
William Parry, who accompanied Sir Anthony Sherley on his
Persian travels in 1598-9, obviously makes a superficial observation
when he says: "They are no learned nation, but ignorant in all kind of
liberal or learned sciences..." and their writing is "as a wild kind of
scribbling that hath therein neither form nor matter".3 In fact, the
Sherley brothers were bent upon diplomacy and military affairs, so that
we learn only about the technology of ordnance. Abel Pincon, also in
the suite of Anthony Sherley, relates that the Persians had only a heavy
armoured clothing and no artillery save that left behind by the Otto-
man Sultan Selim I in 920/1514. However, this statement has to be
considered in relation to one made by Don Juan, to the effect that
when the Turks of Sultan Murad .Til held the fortress of Tabriz in

1
Jenkinson, Early Voyages n, 436 (Hakluyt, Principal Navigations 11, 129).
2 3
Don Juan, trans. Le Strange, pp. 50—2. Ross, Sir Anthony Sberley, pp. 121-2.

583
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

993/1585 the Persians brought up two immense siege-guns whose bore

at the open end "spanned a yard [bara] across, the length of the barrel
being five yards".1 Moreover, cannon seem to have been captured also
from the Tartars, whilst at the height of his power Shah 'Abbas I
appears to have drawn to his allegiance men who had deserted the
Turks and were competent to manufacture new ones. Creasy2 empha-
sises the undoubted superiority of the Turks in military engineering,
but it may well be that after the encounter with the Sherleys the Persian
artillery improved somewhat as a result of European contact: and this
contact was maintained, for Philippe Colombe, a Frenchman, in charge
of Persian ordnance under Shah Sultan Husain, was killed in the battle
of Gulnabad in 1134/1722. The immediate result of cooperation with
Anthony Sherley, who is said to have brought a "gun-founder" in his
company and to have shown the shah books containing "models of
fortifications", is summed up in an exaggerated manner in the well-
known quotation:
The mighty Ottoman, terror of the Christian World, quaketh of a Sherley-
fever, and gives hopes of approaching fate. The prevailing Persian hath
learned Sherleian arts of war, and he which before knew not the use of
ordnance, hath now 500 pieces of brass, and 6,000 musketeers; so that they
which at hand with the sword were before dreadful to the Turkes, now also in
remoter blows and sulphurian arts are grown terrible.3
It is now clear that this statement cannot be taken at its face value, and
that a more sober view should prevail: Savory gives first credit to the
Portuguese and the Continental gunners in their service.
A still later English traveller, who was in Persia on the death of Shah
'Abbas I and who published his account some four years after
returning to London, was Thomas Herbert. His comments on the state
of Persian science are a useful general summary. Writing of the physi-
cians, he says:
So well as I could apprehend, these are learned in the sciences, and few but are
philosophers: nevertheless, their libraries are small; their books usually Ara-
bic, but choice and useful, commonly such as advance their practice and
profession; and in their proper art I perceived that they prefer plants and other
vegetables before minerals...They are masters of much knowledge and not a
little delighted with judicial astrology. Many Arabic writers, learned both in
1
Don Juan, trans. Le Strange, p. 189.
2
Sir Edward Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks (London, 1878), p. 202.
3
Purchas x, 376.

584
 EMISSARIES, AMBASSADORS, AND MISSIONS

natural philosophy and the mathematics, have flourished in those parts, most
of whose books they read, namely Hippocrates, Galen, Averroes, Alfarabius,
Avicenna, Ben-Isaac, Abbu-Ally, Mahummed-Abdilla, Ben-Eladib, Abu-beer,
Rhazis, Algazzallys, and Albu-mazar."1
Of the cities, Herbert says that Shiraz "has a college wherein is read
philosophy, astrology, physic, chemistry, and the mathematics; so as
'tis the more famoused through Persia",2 whilst in Isfahan "Within
the Maydan the shops"... show "greater variety of simples and ingre-
dients of medicines than ever I saw together in any one city of
Europe; and such as may give encouragement to physicians both to
view and judge ..." 3 He also refers to the source of assafoetida as the
region around Lahore and the River Indus, and remarks on the pre-
valence of mulberry forests for the rearing of the silkworm in the
northern parts of the country (Persia). Like other travellers he notices
in the people the veneration of tradition, such as adherence to the
lunar calendar, and the general lack of enthusiasm for invention and
innovation.
Without doubt our most valuable informant is Chardin. Knowl-
edgeable in science, he gives the only systematic account of its con-
dition in Safavid times. His travels took him to Persia in 1666, when he
was in Isfahan on the death of Shah 'Abbas II, then to India, and back
again to Persia in 1669. He returned to Paris in 1670 but was soon once
more on his way to Persia, where he arrived in 1672 and stayed for four
years. Finally he came to England, and was made Court Jeweller by
Charles II, was knighted in 1681, and elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society a year later. According to Chardin, the Persians "have a ready
disposition to Sciences, and to the Liberal and Mechanick Arts ..."
Astronomy and astrology are the most cultivated, especially since the
latter affords an infallible key to the future. There are numerous astrol-
ogers in the capital Isfahan, and "the most celebrated originate from
Corasson, where there is a little town called Genabad, and one illustri-
ous family, noted for astronomy. The King draws his court astrologers
only from Genabad, which has a school for training all the astronomers
of Persia. In this region of ancient Bactria and Sogdiana, between the
rivers Oxus and Jaxarte, where the air is pure, dry, and still, there have
flourished for six hundred years the most competent astronomers."4

1
Herbert, Travels in Persia, pp. 244-6: for explanatory notes on the proper names, see p. 329.
2 3
Ibid., p. 72. Ibid., p. 129. * Chardin rv, 211.

585
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

Chardin also has a chapter entitled "Of the Trees, Plants, and
Druggs", for "Persia is a perfect Country for Physical Druggs";1 and
he goes on to relate an amusing story concerning the rivalry between
astrologers and physicians at the Court:
Les astrologues sont toujours pleins de jalousie contre les medecins, comme
egalement puissans, riches et recherches; c'est a qui aura la faveur; les mede-
cins veulent agir selon les phenomenes des maladies, et donner la-dessus les
remedes de l'art; les astrologues s'y opposent, et disent qu'il faut consulter les
phenomenes celestes, pour savoir s'il est bon de prendre medecine, lorsqu'on
en veut donner, et si l'operation en sera heureuse. Je me souviens d'avoir ou'i
dire a un astrologue a ce sujet: "Notre condition est bien differente de celle des
medecins, dans l'exercice de notre profession. Car, si un astrologue fait une
faute, le ciel la decouvre; mais si un medecin en fait une, quelque peu de terre
la couvre.2
Chardin records that the recognised authorities in science, who were
highly regarded in Persia, were for astronomy and mathematics
Ptolemy, for mathematics Archimedes, Euclid, Theodosius, Autoly-
cus, Menelaus, and Apollonius, and for medicine Hippocrates and
Galen; whilst in astronomy the leading native exponents were Abu'l-
Husain 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Umar al-Sufl (d. 376/986), Naslr al-Dln
TiisI, Mahmud Shah Khaljl,3 and Mlrza Ulugh Beg assisted by Jamshld
Ghiyas al-Dln al-Kashi, Qazlzada al-Ruml, and 'All b. Muhammad
al-Qushchl. Reliance upon tradition and established practice was wide-
spread. Thus Chardin notes the retention of the original observations
in al-SufTs star maps and, despite a knowledge of other instruments,
the almost universal popularity of the astrolabe. He further adds to his
list in astronomy and mathematics al-Ma'mun, al-Kindl, al-Farisi, and
'Umar Khayyam, and mentions Abu'1-Wafa' particularly for algebra,
al-Farabl for music and medicine, one "Ayran" (perhaps Ibn al-
Haitham) for optics, and Abu'1-Fida for geography. As in the quadri-
vium of medieval Latin Christendom there was in Islam a tradition of
Euclidian geometry in which the straight line accounted for phenom-
ena in optics, gnomonics, and perspective, whilst number ratios united
mathematics with music. Of their libraries Chardin says that none
exceeded four hundred volumes, and compared with those of Europe

1 2
Ibid, in, 298 (translation from Lloyd n, 57). Chardin iv, 355.
3
Commentator (e. 8 j 2/1448-9) on the astronomical tables (Zy-i Tl-Kbani) of al-TusI [He may,
in fact, have been not the author but the dedicatee of the work: see PL, 11/1, 74, n.4. (Ed.)]: see
Greaves, Astrottomica.

586
 ASTRONOMY AND RELATED SCIENCES
1
"c'est une mouche aupres d'un elephant", whilst dependence upon the
Ancients does not make many books nor many discoveries.
When in Isfahan Chardin lodged with the Superior of the Capuchin
Order and obtained information on the astrolabe from the most
famous maker, Muhammad Amln, who is remembered by two extant
instruments dated 1086/1675—6 and 1097/1685—6. Chardin refers to
him as the son of the astrologer Mulla Hasan 'All, but this son was
KhalU Muhammad, known by nineteen extant astrolabes.2 The distin-
guished Capuchin was Pere Raphael du Mans (Jacques Dutertre), who
had accompanied Jean-Baptiste Tavernier to Isfahan and was helpful
also to Thevenot and to Chardin.3 He compared the Persian theory of
the astrolabe with that of Jean Stoefflerin, whose Elucidatio fabricae
ususque astrolabii had appeared in 1513, and Regiomontanus, and found
them similar; according to Chardin's report the Persian version was the
better and more accurate, being neater geometrically. A mathematician
of note, Du Mans was held in high regard by Shah 'Abbas II and by
Shah Sulaiman in turn. The first mission in Isfahan was Augustinian in
1602-3, a n ^ t n e l a s t of the Catholic orders to establish itself there was
the Jesuit in 1653. Contemporary Jesuit influence in China in the field
of astronomy is significant, and there was a period when Chinese
scholars knew of the telescope and of the heliocentric theory of
Copernicus; in fact, the China Mission had already collaborated with
native scientists to produce, between 1629 and 1635, a compendium on
astronomy and the calendar entitled Chhung-Chen Li Shu. But we have
as yet no record of such fruitful scientific cooperation between Jesuits
and Persians at that time, though there is little doubt that both Iran and
Turkey were gradually coming under the influence of Western science
and technology, as we shall see from the next section.

ASTRONOMY AND RELATED SCIENCES

Islamic astronomy during the Safavid period lies at the end of a long
tradition of geometrical representation, characterised mainly by the
study of shadows cast upon surfaces by objects placed in the rays of the
sun and by stereographic projections of heavenly bodies upon a circu-
lar plate (the astrolabe), and culminating in the observatories of Jai
Singh II in India at a time when the telescope had found general

1 2 3
Chardin iv, 220. Mayer, Islamic astrolabists, pp. 54—7. Chardin vm, 109.

587
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

acceptance in Europe, thereby ushering in the optical period, and when

Greenwich Observatory was beginning its regular observations.
Professor Kennedy has already enlarged upon the achievements of
Timurid Iran in the previous chapter. The great Muslim institutions at
Maragha and Samarqand had had a short life and were now in ruins,1
but they were perpetuated by their observational records, Zij-i Il-Khani
(Y.670/1271) and Zij-i jadtd-i Sultani, which according to 'Abd al-
Mun'im al-'Amill (f.970/1562-3) were the tables of Ulugh Beg, com-
pleted in 841/1437. Versions of the latter tables, which were widely
disseminated, appeared in Persian, Arabic and Turkish, and reached
Oxford in the time of Charles I, whilst the fame of the gigantic merid-
ian arc, which was the central instrument on the Samarqand site, being
over 120 feet in radius, had spread to the astronomers in Istanbul and
to a visiting Englishman, John Greaves. Efforts at emulation by the
Safavid monarchs came to nothing. Shah Isma'Il I, founder of the
dynasty, planned to restore the Maragha observatory and charged
Amir Ghiyas al-Dln Mansiir b. Amir Sadr al-Dln Muhammad al-
ShlrazI (d.949/1542—3) with this task. Muslim astronomers had long
considered, however, that to compile an adequate set of star tables
would require extended observations over a period of thirty years
corresponding with the revolution of Saturn, so Isma'Il abandoned the
project. His successor Tahmasp I (930—984/1524—1576) also had a
scheme to build an observatory in a hall of the royal palace at Isfahan
with the object of bringing the tables up to date, but this again failed to
materialise. However, a valuable manuscript written in connection
with the project as Isfahan survives, and describes the design of instru-
ments previously used at Alexandria, Maragha and Samarqand.2
A word of explanation is required here concerning the brief life of
Islamic observatories. There certainly were individual scientists who
pursued their investigations for the sake of knowledge itself, as is clear
from the prefaces to their writings, but the ruling powers had no such
ideals, and the policies of the Safavid monarchs were dictated by ex-
pediency and the value attached to astrological speculation; thus the
observatory was set up as a temporary institution for a restricted pro-
gramme of work. Nevertheless, the Islamic observatory represents an
1
The remains of the meridian transit instrument of Ulugh Beg's observatory are shown in
fig- 2> P- 579-
2
'Abd al-Mun'im al-'Amill, Kitab ta'lim Hit %tj, British Library MS Add. 7702 (with diagrams):
see Seemann.

588
 ASTRONOMY AND RELATED SCIENCES

important phase in the history of astronomy, and - in the absence of a

Persian example - it is worth adding a few remarks about the contempo-
rary Turkish building erected on a height overlooking the Tophane
quarter of Istanbul from the south. TaqI al-Dln Muhammad al-Rashid b.
Ma'ruf, the director, who was also the author of a long account of the
rectilinear propagation, reflection and refraction of light,1 predicted that
the comet of 985/1577 would bring good fortune to Sultan Murad III in
his campaign against the Persians, so the observatory was completed in
that year, and with the object of rectifying outdated astronomical tables.
In its construction "Venetian Ducats were spent like sand", whilst the
endeavours of the staff appear to have been crowned with success:
Sultan (to TaqI): Have you untangled knots from the firmament in a hair-
splitting manner?
TaqI (to Sultan): In the Zlj of Ulugh Bey
There were many doubtful points, oh exalted King;
Now through observations the tables have been
corrected.... 2
There was an elaborate main building, with offices and a library, but
with the large instruments mounted in the open. A smaller building
nearby housed quadrants, an astrolabe, clepsydras, a terrestrial globe
showing Africa, Asia, and Europe, and various geometrical instru-
ments; such a small-scale observatory perhaps contained pilot instru-
ments, but in any event it was not short of staff, four or five men being
assigned to one instrument, two or three as observers, one as a re-
corder of readings, and the last for miscellaneous duties. We are in-
debted to the poet 'Ala' alrDin al-Mansur for more detailed information
about the work carried out. Thus he speaks of an armillary sphere for
determining the latitudes and longitudes of stellar bodies; a mural
quadrant for finding the declination of the sun and other "distances"
from the equator; a large azimuthal quadrant for azimuths and eleva-
tions; a wooden or ruler-quadrant with two sights for investigating the
motions of Mercury and Venus as well as determining angles of eleva-
tion and zenith "distances"; a parallactic ruler for all angles of eleva-
tion and the parallax of the moon; "an instrument with two holes" for
studying apparent diameters of heavenly bodies and the phenomena of
eclipses; "an instrument with cords" to determine the positions of the
1
He wrote about these difficult investigations, "which are enough to make the hair turn
white": see Winter, "Arabic Optical MSS".
2
Saydi, The Observatory in Islam, p. 293; '"Alii al-Din al-Mansur's poems", text p. 455, trans,
p. 482.

589
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

equinoxes, said to have been invented by Taql al-Din to replace the

equinoctial armilla; and finally al-mushabbaha bi'l manatiq. This was an
invention of Taql al-Din, based on Ptolemy's Almagest, whose purpose
is not quite clear. al-Mansiir writes of it:

Moreover, with the help of the mushabbaha,

And thanks to very carefully made observations,
The radius of Venus' epicycle, in the third firmament,
Became known with great precision...;

and of the sUnaidl ruler, and a mechanical clock with a train of

cogwheels,

With the help of careful measurements and corrections made

with the clock,
The ascensions of stellar bodies were fixed,
And with the firm and specially chosen ruler,
That wonderful ruler to which the astronomers give the name
"sanidi"!
All the symbols and signs of astronomical instruments
Became extremely accurate.2

A comparison of the Istanbul instruments of Taql al-Din with those of

Tycho Brahe in Europe has been made by Miss Sevim Tekeli, and of
those common to both astronomers the mural and azimuthal quadrants
long used in Islam were then new to Europe, whilst the large fixed
wooden or ruler-quadrant made by Tycho antedated by some years
that of Taql. Both used staircases to take readings. It is clear that there
was a good deal of intellectual commerce between Turkey and the
West, and also, despite crippling wars, with Persia, and that what we
have described for the Istanbul observatory would have applied largely
to any such establishment which might have arisen further east, even to
Mughal India. Whilst the mechanical clock from Europe had entered
the Ottoman observatory to rival the water-clock in the recording of
duration, Islamic scientific information and ideas were percolating
slowly westwards through Elia Misrachi (1456—15 26), who travelled to
Basle, and Regiomontanus when on a scientific mission to Hungary.
The Islamic hypothesis of solid spherical shells was adopted by
Peurbach. In fact, Sayih remarks that "it seems probable that the
1
Perhaps a geometrical instrument associated with the engraving of astrolabes etc.
2
Sayili, '"Ala al-Din al-Mansur's poems", text p. 453, trans, pp. 478—9.

590
 ASTRONOMY AND RELATED SCIENCES

sudden rise in the level of astronomical work in Europe with Peurbach

and Regiomontanus was the result of contacts with Eastern Islam".1
Again, the Kassel Observatory of Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse
(1532—92), the first European institution comparable with the Islamic
ones, was a royal observatory as its predecessors in Muslim lands had
been. Of these latter Samarqand had greatest influence upon the West:
Maragha was rather too early, Istanbul perhaps rather too late. In this
connection we must recall the name of John Greaves.
Greaves was one of those enterprising gentlemen associated with the
rise of science in 17th-century England. Elected Professor of Geometry
at Gresham College in 1630, he became interested in Islamic science,
and encouraged by Archbishop Laud he left London seven years later
in the company of the orientalist Edward Pococke with instruments to
make astronomical observations and money to purchase books - in
particular, the tables of Ulugh Beg. He collected in Istanbul in 1638,
and went on to Alexandria and Cairo (where he says he found little),
leaving Egypt in 1639 with his assembled manuscripts in Greek,
Arabic and Persian. He had left Pococke in Istanbul with instructions
to look for further scientific manuscripts. Back in England after a lapse
of three years, he was to find himself deprived of his Gresham profes-
sorship through long absence and failure to deliver lectures. However,
in 1643 we observe him occupying the Savilian chair of Astronomy at
Oxford, where he settled down to the study of his oriental acquisitions.
According to John Ward, Greaves collected five Persian manuscripts
of the Samarqand Tables, translated them into Latin, and deposited the
copy of his final revision with Archbishop Usher. "But Mr. Thomas
Hyde of Queen's College in Oxford not knowing this, made a new
version of them, which he published with the original, and a learned
commentary, at Oxford 1665, quarto."2 Ejected from his Oxford pro-
fessorship, with his rooms ransacked, by the Parliamentary visitors in
1648, Greaves finally retired to London to work on his writings, and
died there in 1652 in his fiftieth year.
Further attention has been directed to the problem of transmission,
this time from West to East, by a letter written in 1624 to a Persian,
one Zain al-Din al-Lari, by the Italian traveller Pietro della Valle, who
had spent several years in Persia. It relates to Tycho's system of the
world and to the discoveries made with the Galilean telescope, and its

1 2
Sayili, The Observatory in Islam, p . 586. Ward, p . 149.

59 1
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

importance has recently been emphasised by a paper of Dr Aydin Sayih

entitled "An early seventeenth century Persian Manuscript on the
Tychonic System".
As in the medieval quadrivium of Latin Christendom, the mathe-
matical sciences in Safavid Persia were closely integrated by a common
body of knowledge. Whilst accretions from further east were Sanskrit,
transmissions to the West were Turkish. The Tabaq al-mandtiq,x a
planetary calculating device invented in Timurid times by Jamshld
Ghiyas al-Dln al-Kashl (d. 832/1429?), inspired a similar instrument
which is described in an early ioth/i6th century risala dedicated to
Sultan Bayezld II. It will also be remembered that a colleague of
al-Kashl at the Samarqand observatory, 'All b. Muhammad
al-Qiishchl, established himself finally in Istanbul. Inevitably and de-
servedly, the fame of the Samarqand astronomers and mathematicians
spread. Al-Kashl's textbook of arithmetic, Miftdh al-bisdb, in which,
according to Kennedy,2 he anticipated Stevinus of Bruges by two
centuries in the exploitation of decimal fractions, was widely dissemi-
nated through Turkey. From Mughal India came Persian versions of
the Li/awati and Vtja-ganita of Bhaskara Acharya, spreading the now
common processes of decimal arithmetic and the solution of algebraic
equations which had reached their final form with the Hindus in the
12th century. There were many writers of astronomical manuals in
Persia: Mlrza QazI b. Kashif al-Dln Muhammad Yazdl (d. at Ardabll
in 1075/i664-5), Shaikh al-Islam, whose father had been a physician to
Shah 'Abbas I, compiled a practical handbook of astronomy under the
title Tuhfa-yi 'Abbdsiyya. One of the best known of these writers was
Baha' al-Dln Muhammad b. Husain al-'Amill (d. at Isfahan in
1031/1622), who was the author of Tashrih al-afldk, a work on astron-
omy in Arabic which was followed by Persian commentaries; Tuhfa-yi
Hdtimt, a short treatise on the astrolabe, dedicated to Mlrza Hatim
Beg, vizier of Shah 'Abbas I; another very short composition in Arabic
entitled al-Saftha, brief enough to be inscribed on the plate of an
astrolabe; and a successful Arabic compendium of arithmetic, Khuldsat
al-bisdb, which inspired commentaries in both Persia and India (e.g.,
Arcot, 1696) and was later printed with the Tuhfa-yi Hdtimi (Tehran
1316/1898-9). An emigrant to India, Muhammad 'AH "Hazln" JllanI

1
See Kennedy, "A Fifteenth-Century Planetary Computer"
2
Kennedy, "The Chinese-Uighur Calendar", p. 437.

59 2
 ASTRONOMY AND RELATED SCIENCES

(b. in Isfahan in 1105/1692, d. in Benares in 1180/1766), composed a

work on the elements of astronomy, Risd/a dar hai'at, near the end of
his life.
Indian mathematical influences are represented principally by
Persian translations and commentaries on the first two sections of the
Siddhdnta-siromani, a Sanskrit astronomical treatise completed around
1150 by Bhaskara Acharya of Bldar in the Deccan. An edition of the
opening section, Lildwati, dealing with arithmetic and geometry, was
prepared in 995/1587 for Akbar by "Faizi", a poet and scholar and
brother of the emperor's chief minister Abu'1-Fazl; whilst the second
section, Vija-ganita, relating to algebra, was rendered in Persian under
the title Bij ganit, and dedicated to Shah Jahan in 1044/1634— 5, by
'Ata'-Allah "Rushdl". "Rushdl" also wrote Khuldsa-ji rd^, a metrical
work on arithmetic, algebra, and mensuration which eulogised Shah
Jahan and Prince Dara Shukiih (to whom it was dedicated). "Rushdl",
"Muhandis" and Nur-Allah "Mi'mar" were the three sons of Nadir
al-'asr ustad Ahmad-i mi'mar-i Lahauri, the distinguished architect,
who also had two grandsons and a great-grandson to perpetuate this
tradition of science and learning. Lutf-Allah "Muhandis", "Rushdl's"
younger brother, is known for his Arabic commentary on the Khuldsat
al-hisdb of Baha' al-Din (mentioned above) and a Persian translation of
al-Suffs famous book on the fixed stars, al-Kitdb suwar al-kawdkib.
Incidentally, this last serves to emphasise the long-continued reverence
for the masters of traditional Islamic astronomy.
This Muslim tradition in astronomy, reaching its peak in
Samarqand, was perpetuated by the Mughal emperors, and came to
its close with the observatories erected at Delhi, Jaipur, Mathura
(Muttra), Benares, and Ujjain, by Raja Jai Singh Sava'I, who had
served Aurangzlb and his successors as a military commander. His
tables Zij-i jadid-i Muhammad Shdht, completed in 1140/1728, were
compiled with the object of correcting the earlier Zij-i Ulugh Beg, Zij-i
Khdqdni, and tashildt composed for Akbar by Mulla Chand and for
Shah Jahan by Mulla Farid. Mulla Farld al-Din Mas'ud b. Ibrahim
Dihlavl, Astronomer Royal to Shah Jahan, had completed in
1039/1629 his Zij-i Shah Jahdni, based on Ulugh Beg and in the
same format, and calculated for 1041/1631—2 in the new era Tarlkh-i
Ilahl-yi Shah Jahanl.
Spherical trigonometry of the celestial sphere was equally valuable
in terrestrial problems, such as the determination of the latitudes of

593
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

cities and of the azimuth of the qibla (the direction of Mecca). The
northern hemisphere had been divided into seven climates {haft iqlim)
according to a specific definition by latitude: thus, the first climate
comprised regions having a maximum daylight of 127 to 13-^ hours,
the second climate those having a maximum daylight of 137 to 137
hours, and so on. Most %Jjdt listed the geographical coordinates of
cities, since apparent celestial positions are affected by the geographi-
cal position of the observer, and these appeared inscribed in the umm
of astrolabes. But there is a dearth of information on cartography.
After the maps of the Arab al-ldrlsl in mid-6th/i2th century Norman
Sicily, which superseded the medieval monastic maps and persisted in
their influence for four hundred years, no maps appear from the
Islamic world until the rise, of Ottoman Turkey as a maritime power.
The Turks were keen to amass geographical knowledge and obtained
it either at first hand, as from the admiral Plrl Re'is, who presented
charts of the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean and Black Sea to
Sultan Selim in 927/1521 and had personal experience of the Indian
Ocean and the China Sea, or from the scholars and cosmographers,
such as Katib Chelebl (Hajjl Khalifa), the famous medical bibliogra-
pher, who translated in the mid-nth/17th century the Atlas Minor of
Mercator and other European geographical works and drew upon
Persian sources for his Jihdn-numd. These latter included a Turkish
version, made during the reign of Sultan Murad III (982-
1003/1574-95), of a Persian Qdnun-nama, written by a merchant and
dedicated to Sultan Selim I in 1516, a Risdla of Ghiyas al-Dln
al-Naqqash, the painter, who was sent by the Timurid Shah Rukh to
the emperor of China in 822/1419, and another Persian work, entitled
Khitdi-ndma, by Sayyid 'All Akbar-i Khita'I, who spent about three
years (1505-8) in China. Persia was the intermediary through which
knowledge of China passed westwards to the Turks and belatedly to
Europe, as for example through the work of Banakiti (fl. 717/1317),
of which the eighth section, on China, was translated in 1677; and
this knowledge helps to supplement our meagre information concern-
ing the period between Marco Polo and the Jesuits; whilst there is
clear evidence of transmission in the opposite direction, e.g. Islamic
influences upon Chinese porcelain of the early ioth/i6th century.
Following upon early Arab cartography, there is only one Persian
map of the world extant, so far as I know, and this is in an English

594
 THE ASTROLABE

version derived from some unknown Persian author.1 The impetus to

the study of cartography which was provided in Turkey by her maritime
exploits, and the enthusiastic translation of European geographies into
Turkish, appear to have aroused no parallel activity in Persia.

THE ASTROLABE

Perhaps the most persistent feature of Safavid astronomy is the popu-

larity of the astrolabe. The earliest dated instrument from Isfahan is
one made by Ahmad and Muhammad b. Ibrahim in 374/984 (now in
the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford), whilst in that same
city seven hundred years later fine astrolabes were being produced by a
number of distinguished astronomers and craftsmen. Astrolabes were
fashioned in the royal workshops (buyutaf), and to make and decorate
one's own instrument became a work of art;
Chardin remarks on the fact that an astronomer was not regarded as
a learned man who did not know how to make his own instruments,
and "parmi le commun peuple meme, chacun garde son astrolabe
comme un bijou".2 Derek J. Price has made an interesting study of the
chronological distribution of astrolabes, which shows pronounced ac-
tivity around the periods which gave birth to each new set of astro-
nomical tables, whilst a great "peak" in the number of Western astro-
labes around the year 1580 is seen to be followed by a lesser "peak"
(rather more than half in number) of Eastern astrolabes a little later
than 1700. This last phase coincides with the activity of Persian, Moor-
ish and Mughal craftsmen which went on almost unabated from the
mid-17th century to 1800, and embraces the outstanding achievements
of 'Abd al-A'imma the younger in Persia and of the Allahdad family in
Lahore. Price writes of the late activity in Islam during the period
1650-1750 as being in many ways a retransmission back from Europe
of the popularity of the instrument. Such may well be one of the
factors, but Persian craftsmen, with their long tradition, had no need of
such a stimulus, whilst there were other influences: outside of the
observatories, the portability and the reference data it supplied made
the astrolabe popular, to the exclusion of almost all other instruments,
with a people much taken with astrology. And again, this Persian
renaissance of the astrolabe simply reflects in metalwork the artistic

1 2
Bagrow, p. 209. Chardin iv, 332.

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 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

creativity of an age which produced worthy successors to Bihzad in

miniature painting and reared those visionaries who conceived the
gems of Mughal architecture in India.
Space forbids a full discussion of the theory of the astrolabe; an
account by the present writer appeared in 1951 in the journal Endeav-
our, but for a complete treatment it is necessary to consult the article by
Willy Hartner (in the Survey of Persian Art) or the treatise by Henri
Michel. Chardin devotes a chapter to the theory and construction of
the instrument as he understood them in Isfahan, and adds a geometri-
cal illustration.1 It will suffice to say here that of the two faces of the
plate (umm or mater) of the plane astrolabe, one carried the alidade or
sighter, used to determine stellar "altitudes", and secured to the centre
of the plate by pin and horse; whilst the other face, together with a
number of additional thin brass discs {safd'ih) which could be placed
singly over the central pin, enabled theoretical calculations to be made.
Of these discs, the 'ankabut or rete, or spider (because of its open-work
design), indicated the ecliptic, the signs of the zodiac, and by means of
sha%ayd, or pointed "branches", the positions of important fixed stars.
In the case of a given latitude the face of the mater, acting as a disc or
saftha, represented the appropriate stereographic projection of the heav-
ens upon the equator, whilst the 'ankabut moving over it gave the path
of the fixed stars around the north pole of the heavens. As an instance
of the encyclopaedic value of the instrument we may refer to examples
recently sold in London. A Safavid astrolabe2 inscribed with the name
Sayyid RadI al-Dln Muhammad b. Sayyid 'All al-Husainl, but undated,
carried on the 'ankabut twenty-six named stars, and had five safa'ih
which showed hour lines, Babylonian hours as well as almucantars,
azimuths, and unequal hour lines, for latitudes 220,250,300,32°,340,350,
370, and 3 8°, and a tablet of horizons. In the umm itself was a gazetteer
of longitudes and latitudes and inhiraf (for defining the azimuth of the
qibla of thirty-one towns, and the longitude and latitude for a further
twenty-four towns. On the other face of the umm, over which rotated
the alidade, was a sine graph, arcs of the signs of the zodiac with
azimuths of the qibla, for Isfahan, Yazd, Herat, and two other places
(illegible), a shadow square (containing also an astrological table), and
a zodiac scale with the faces of the planets and other astrological data.

1
Ibid., pp. 331-51 andfig.xxvm.
2
Sotheby, Catalogue, i j July 1963, item 186, p. 54 and plate.

596
 THE ASTROLABE

It may be noted here that sometimes there is a cotangent scale as well as

a sine graph, and an astrological table giving, in addition to the signs of
the zodiac and the planets, the twenty-seven or twenty-eight mansions
of the moon. This instrument, probably from the time of Shah Sultan
Husain, was 14.7 cm in diameter, about the usual popular size. An
Indo-Persian astrolabe, in the same catalogue1 and "inscribed in the
blessed city of the port of Surat on the 13 th of the holy month
Muharram, year 1081 of the Hijra" (2 June 1670), carried on the front
an 'ankabut for fifty-five stars, six safa'ih, some Italian hour lines being
shown, and inside the umm a gazetteer of longitude and latitude for
sixty-seven places; whilst on the back were engraved declination scales
for the alidade, a zodiac and calendar scale giving Syrian solar months,
a sine and cosine graph with arcs of sines and versed sines, arcs of the
signs of the zodiac with a line of the sun's meridian altitude for latitude
2i°3o' (suitable for Surat or Mecca), cotangent scales, and a shadow
square within which was a table of the seven "climates" with their
latitudes and the hours of the longest day.
The principal makers in Safavid Persia were 'Abd al-A'imma the
elder, who made a fine astrolabe for Shah 'Abbas I in 986/1578—9; 'Abd
al-A'imma the younger, at least thirty-one of whose instruments made
between 1688 and 1720 have survived, though they are perhaps not all
by him (a fine example made by him in 1127/1715 is shown in Pis. 1,2);
'Abd al-'AlI b. Muhammad Rafl' (al-Juz'I?), who is remembered by
seven examples made between 1707 and 1714, and especially by the
superb astrolabe (now in the British Museum) constructed by him for
Shah Sultan Husain in 1124/1712 and decorated by Muhammad Baqir,
the maker's brother;2 Khalil Muhammad b. Hasan 'AH, of whose in-
struments nineteen are known,3 some of which are again decorated by
Muhammad Baqir; Mahmud b. Jalal b. Ja'far al-Asturlabl, who though
flourishing near the beginning of our period represents a long line
of tradition;4 Muhammad Amln (who may be identical with Ibn
Muhammad Tahir), Muhammad Tahir himself, and Muhammad Amln
b. Amlrza Khan al-Nakha'I al-Qumi; Muhammad Mahdl al-khadim
al-Yazdl, son of Muhammad Amln, maker and decorator of at least

1
Ibid., item 188, p. 56 and frontispiece.
2
See W.H. Morley, Description of a Planispberic Astrolabe constructed for Shah Sultan Husain
Safawi, King of Persia, and now preserved in the British Museum (London, I 8 J 6 ) . Gunther, p. 147.
3
Josten, p. 12, and Maddison, Supplement, p. 2 j . * Mayer, Islamicastrolabists, p. ; 8 .

597
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

fifteen extant astrolabes;1 Muhammad Muqlm al-Yazdl, who had in-

struments decorated by the aforementioned Muhammad Mahdl and in
1647 made, in the presence of Muhammad Shafi', the astronomer of
Janabad, an astrolabe for Shah 'Abbas II which was subsequently en-
graved by Fazl-Allah al-Sabzavarl;2 Muhammad Zaman of Mashhad,
whose name is perpetuated by four astrolabes and two celestial globes,
and who constructed an astrolabe in 1677—8 for Subhan Qull Bahadur
Khan of Bukhara;3 and finally Mustafa Ayyubl, who is known by two
instruments of c. 1700.
The lastnamed is Ottoman, and it is of interest that few Turkish
astrolabes of this period survive: if we are to judge from present
evidence there was considerable activity in favour of sundials, which
were in demand for mosques and madrasas. On the other hand, the
Indo-Persian astrolabes form an interesting class of instruments of
which a considerable number of fine examples exist. They are usually
less ornate than the Safavid, and most were produced by the Allahdad
family in Lahore. A characteristic is the high triangular kursi which is
decoratively pierced. A Mughal astrolabe recently sold4 had an
'ankabut for thirty-nine fixed stars, five safa'ih for different latitudes
(with azimuths drawn below the horizon line, and some lines for
Babylonian hours), in the umm a gazetteer of latitudes and longitudes
for forty-two places, and on the back (amongst other data) a sine/co-
sine diagram, scales of cotangents, and lines giving the meridian alti-
tude of the sun throughout the year in latitudes 2o°,36°, and 380. This
instrument was made by Hamid b. Muhammad Muqlm b. 'Tsa b.
Allahdad and dated 6 Dhu'l-Qa'da 1086/22 January 1676. He was the
maker of two other known examples, one of 1069/16 5 8-9, the
property of the Clockmakers' Company and in the Guildhall Museum,
and the other of 1071 \\660-1 in a private collection in Paris. An
instrument signed by his father, Muhammad Muqlm, and dated
1051/1641—2 has been described by Dr F. R. Maddison. Indeed the
history of craftsmanship in this family can be traced back to its origina-

1
Josten, pp. 11, 12; Mayer, Islamic astrolabists, pp. 70, 71.
2
This instrument, formerly in the family of the amir of Afghanistan, is now in the Evans
Collection of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford: Gunther, pp. 132—5; Mayer, Islamic
astrolabists, pp. 74, 7;.
3
Now in the Museum of History, Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Tashkent: see M. Osipov,
"Astrolabiya planisfera ili persidsko-arabskaya astrolabiya", Protokoly ^astdaniii soobsbchtniya
cblenov Turkestanskogo kru^bka lyubittlei arkheologii (Tashkent, 1910), pp. 114—32.
4
Christie's, London, Catalogue, 10 Nov 1964, p. 4 and plate.

598
 MECHANICS AND TECHNOLOGY
tor, who signed an astrolabe made c. 1570 with the words: "Work of
the Master, Allah-Dad, the astrolabist of Lahore". x

MECHANICS AND TECHNOLOGY

We return to Chardin, who is a mine of information on Safavid tech-

nology. He pays particular attention to the technology of agriculture as
it relates to the domestication of water:
They dig at the foot of Hills for Water, and when they have found a Spring,
they guide it in subterraneous conduits to ten Leagues distance, and some-
times further, down Hill all the Way, that it may run the swifter. No People in
the World know better how to Husband Water than the Persians. Those
Conduits or Channels, are sometimes near fifteen Fathom deep; and I have
seen some of them of that depth. They are easily measured for at every ten
Fathom distance, there are Vent-holes, the Diameter whereof is as big as that
of our Wells... Those subterraneous Ways are usually about nine Foot deep,
and three Foot broad.2
And he adds that in Khurasan there were at one time forty-two
thousand of these underground kenses (qanats).3
As to the distribution of the River and Spring water, it is made Weekly or
Monthly, as occasion requires, in this manner. They lay on the Canal, which
conveys the Water into the Field, a Brass Bowl, round and thin, with a little
Hole in the Center of it, whereat the Water comes in by Degrees and when the
Bowl sinks the Measure is full, and they begin again, till the quantity of Water
agreed upon, be all run into the Field. The Cup is commonly near three Hours
before it sinks. They make use likewise of that Contrivance in the East, to
measure the Time by: 'Tis the only Clock and Sun-Dial they have in several
Parts of the Indies, especially in Fortes, and in Noblemens Houses, where a
Guard is set.4
A canal exceeding thirty miles in length, with a siphon arrangement,
was built to the orders of Shah 'Abbas I, and later enlarged by Shah
Sultan Husain.5
In matters of cultivation and harvesting there was considerable en-
lightenment and ingenuity. Thus they "Plough with a Share drawn by
lean Oxen (for the Persian Oxen do not grow fat as ours do) Yoked,
1
See Maddison, Supplement, pp. 20, 22; also J. Frank and M. Meyerhof, Ein Astrolab aus dim
Indischcn Moguheicbe (Heidelberg, 1925).
2
Chardin iv, 96-7 (translation from Lloyd 11, 262-3).
3
For a modern account of the qanit system, see A. Smith, Blind White Fish in Persia (London,
1953),passim. * Chardin iv, 98—9 (translation from Lloyd 11, 264-5).
5
Lockhart, Tie Fall, appendix III.

599
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

not by their Horns but with an Arch and a Breast-Leather". J As

already pointed out by Needham, in respect of the breast-strap harness
used by the Chinese, this is a superior arrangement.2 Threshing is
carried out, not with flails, but by drawing over the heaps of corn
stalks small sledges with iron wheels. Each sledge (some 3 feet long by
2 feet wide) has three or four "round Sticks... which are instead of
Axle-Trees; like our Pastry Cooks Rouling Pins, and go in some Iron
Wheels, made something like the Wheels of our Jacks, but that they are
dented sharp, most like the teeth of a Saw..." When drawn by an
animal such as an ass, "Those Wheels break and cut the Straw, and
squeze the Corn out of the Ears, without breaking it, because it slips
between the Teeth..." As for the hulling of rice, this was done by a
hinged-beam device, manually operated; the end of the beam (which
was 4 feet long) fell on to the rice through an iron ring, half sharp, and
4 inches in diameter.3
Building and architecture afford scientific and artistic achievements
of no mean order. A wooden crane, illustrated by Chardin (fig. 1), had a
velocity ratio of approximately 5. It was used by the "Joyners; they are
very skilful, and very ingenious in composing all sorts of Inlaid-work
and Mosaick-work, and they make noble Ceilings of that Kind; they fit
them all on the ground, and when they are done they raise them up
over the top of the Building, on the Columns, that are to bear them up:
I have seen a whole one of fourscore Foot Diameter, rear'd up, with
the help of a Machine, like the Draught I present you with on the other
side, not knowing whether our European Workmen have any such; the
Persians use no other, and they raise every thing with a Pully... The
Joyners sit on the Ground at their Work, their Plains are not like ours,
for they thrust the Shavings out of the Sides, and not out of the Top,
which seems to be a more expeditious way..." 4
We have already commented on the state of Persian arms. Chardin in
his chapter VII, Of Metals and Minerals, says: "The Persians don't
make use of a Flint to their Guns, nor to strike Fire with. They have a
Wood which serves them instead of a Steel and Flint, and has the same
effect..."5 Though they made their guns "alike strong and thick all

1
Chardin rv, 101 (translation from Lloyd u , 266).
2
J. Needham, Science and Society in Ancient China (Conway Memorial Lecture, London, 1947),
3
pp. 16—17. Chardin iv, 106-7 (translation from Lloyd n, 270-1).
4
Chardin iv, 127 (translation from Lloyd 11, 289).
5
Chardin in, 358—9 (translation from Lloyd n , 83).

600
 M E C H A N I C S AND T E C H N O L O G Y

Fig. i. Diagram of a wooden crane used by Persian builders in the 17th century.

along", the barrels were unnecessarily heavy and the open ends weak.
In manufacture "they Soder the Breech of the Barrel with the heat of
the Fire, and reject Screws, saying, that a Screw Breach going in
without Stress, may be thrust out by the Violence of the Powder, and is
601
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

not to be rely'd on". 1 Whilst Europeans and Turks were competent in

the casting of ordnance in iron and brass, the Persians generally lacked
interest in establishing their own industries and "they had rather send
into Europe for Guns..." 2 This gradual opening up of trade and the
influx of Europeans was in some respects mutually beneficial. In ad-
dition to gunnery experts, the French in particular supplied jewellers,
clockmakers, and various artisans; Jacob (Jacques) Rousseau, a jewel-
ler and dockmaker from Geneva, settled in Isfahan around 1707, and
Chardin stresses the need: "Neither is there in Persia one single Native
that knows well, how to mend a Watch".3 On the other hand, '"Tis
certain that the Dutch have much improved themselves in Persia, in
the way of making Earthen Ware, and they would make it still better
had they the same clear water, and the same clear Air they have in
Persia." And Chardin goes on to praise the native craftsmen: "The
Pieces which the Persian Potters called Cacoiper, or Earthen Ware
Bakers, make best, are the Enamel Tiles painted and cut out in imita-
tion of Moresk Work. Indeed nothing can be seen livelier and brighter
in that Kind, or drawn finer or more regular".4
The function of the royal workshops must not be overlooked.
Rulers have understandably retained the powers of technology within
their own grasp. Akbar was not alone in his knowledge of "the
Mechanick Arts" and his interest in the manufacture of weapons in his
own palace. At Isfahan fine workmanship no doubt produced the
exquisite astrolabes for which the Safavid monarchs are famed.
According to the Ta%kirat al-muluk, thirty-three such workshops were
in active production in the reign of Shah Sultan Husain.
What might be called practical mathematics engaged both the writer
of compendia and the engineer on the site; thus mensuration, the use of
the right-angled triangle, the measurement of arcs, pulleys, the heights
of inaccessible objects, and the laws of optical reflection were common
subjects of study. The geometry of architecture as reflected in the
superb Muslim style, exemplified in the Taj Mahal at Agra (1638) and
the tomb of Dilras Rabi'a DauranI, wife of Aurangzib, at Aurangabad
(1666), displays a wonderful exploitation of symmetry in design and of
calligraphy in decoration. Persia was already famous for faience in the
1
Chardin iv, 138 (translation from Lloyd n, 299).
2
Chardin iv, 91 (translation from Lloyd n, 257).
3
Chardin iv, 89 (translation from Lloyd 11, 256).
4
Chardin iv, 129-30 (translation from Lloyd 11, 291-2).

602
 MEDICINE

days of Timur. We have previously mentioned the illustrious family of

Lahaurl. Nadir al-'asr ustad Ahmad-i mi'mar-i Lahaurl, who died in
1649, w a s t n e architect of the Taj, whilst a nephew of his, Abu'l-Khair
Khair-Allah Khan "Muhandis", second son of Lutf-Allah "Muhandis"
Lahaurl, later became adviser to Jai Singh II of Jaipur in the building of
his observatories and wrote a commentary on this distinguished Raj-
put's astronomical tables under the title Shdrh-i Zij-i Muhammad Shdbi.
Finally, there are three small and unrelated items of technological
information which deserve mention. The use of the mechanical clock in
the observatory of Taqi al-Din recalls the present made by Queen
Elizabeth to Sultan Mehmed III in 1599. It was a mechanical organ,
made by the famous Thomas Dallam, which incorporated a clock and
other automatic devices.1 In the fifth tashkhis of the Tuhfat al-mu'minin,
begun by Mir Muhammad Zaman TunakabunI and completed by his
son Muhammad Mu'min-i HusainI, there is a record of the weights used
in medicine. An interest in natural history compelled Mir Muhammad
Baqir of Astarabad (pen-name Ishraq), known as Mir Damad (d.
1040/1630— 1), to have constructed an observation hive of bees.

MEDICINE

We now enter a period of vernacular medical literature which, apart

from the researches of Cyril Elgood, has been largely unexplored.
Indian influences return, and valuable contributions were made by the
Persians who had migrated to the Mughal Court. Medicine in Persia
had suffered a great loss some two centuries earlier by the pillage of the
Rub'-i Rashidl, the quarter of Tabriz upon which Rashld al-Din
Fazl-Allah, court physician to the Mongol Tl-Khans, had lavished so
much loving care by his establishment of hospitals, colleges, and librar-
ies, where some fifty physicians from India, China and the Near East
had each ten students in training, whilst surgeons, oculists, and bone-
setters had each a quota of five. But now there were new clinical
observations to supplement the traditional Arabic system exemplified
in the Qanun of Avicenna and the Thesaurus of al-Jurjanl,2 and the
pharmacology of the great botanist Ibn al-Baitar was augmented by a
fresh exploitation of drugs. Thus Ghiyas al-Din, a general practitioner
1
H.G. Rosedale, Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company (London, 1904), pp. 78-9. H. Bowen,
British Contributions to Turkish Studies (London, 19 54), p. 14.
2
Browne, Arabian Medicine, pp. 109-11, 119—2;.

603
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

in Isfahan who later went to Turkey, dedicated to Sultan Bayezld II in

896/1491 his Mir'at al-sihhafi'l-tibb("Mirror of Health in Medicine"),
in which a summary of the Thesaurus is amplified in the section dealing
with drugs, and horizons are widened by a discourse on Turkish
medical teaching. As for originality in observation and diagnosis we
cannot do better than name Baha' al-Daula, who, in the opinion of
Elgood, was "the greatest physician who ever lived in Persia after the
passing of the golden age of the caliphs of Baghdad".1
Muhammad HusainI Nurbakhshl Baha' al-Daula had studied under
both Persian and Indian teachers at Ray and Herat, and was schooled in
the works of Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Rhazes, Sayyid Isma'Il
(al-Jurjani), and Ibn al-Baitar, to which he soon added a wide and
individual clinical experience in his only known work, written at Ray
in 907/1501 under the title Khulasat al-tajarib ("The Quintessence of
Experience"). In this book there is a description of an epidemic cough
which was rife in Herat; this Elgood thinks may well have been the
first account of whooping cough, on which the earliest publication in
Europe was that by Willis in 1674. It also gives the earliest description
of syphilis in the East. There is a chapter on eruptive fevers which
accounts for three diseases, other than measles and smallpox, which
could be chicken-pox, German measles, and the Fourth Disease.
Further, in the chapter on diseases of the eye, there is described what is
probably hay fever (not recognised in Europe until 1819), which Baha'
al-Daula found peculiarly resistant to treatment. In this last diagnosis it
seems likely that he was helped by Rhazes, who had written an essay
"On the Cause of the Coryza which occurs in the Spring when the
Roses give forth their Scent". Nevertheless, Elgood points out:
"Scattered through his works are observations which a physician of
today can neither accept nor deny. They have never been considered"
— for example, the appearance of pigmentary patches on the face or
body of an epileptic denotes a cessation of the fits.
The second outstanding physician of Safavid times was 'Imad al-Din
Mahmud b. Mas'ud b. Mahmud of Shlraz, who in later life attended
patients at the shrine and hospital of Mashhad, where a regular medical
service was provided for pilgrims and others. He wrote a monograph
on atishak, the Persian form of syphilis, in 15 69.2 China root, which

1
Elgood, A Medical History, pp. 3 j 3—j.
2
Trans. Elgood, in Annals of Medical History (New York, 1931), pp. 4S.

604
 MEDICINE

was acclaimed efficacious in the treatment of this disease, was regarded

as a universal panacea, and in an earlier treatise Risa/a-ji chub-i Chtni
khwurdan ("Essay on the Eating of China Root") he had already c. 1550
stressed its importance as an antidote in the arrest of a whole list of
complaints. Another antidote (bad-%ubr) highly prized was the bezoar
stone, a black or reddish stone found in the stomach and gall-bladder
of the wild goat which roamed over the north-east extremity of Persia.
Chardin in his account "Of the Trees, Plants and Druggs", which
includes assafoetida, bezoar stone, musk, "Ambergrease", poppy,
tobacco, and sugar, names it "a Counter Poison... a thing that has the
upper-hand of Poison" and adds:
The Bezoar is made use of with great Success in Sudorifics; they give it in
Purple Fevers; they more especially prescribe it in Cordials, Confections, and
Philtres. They say it warms and enlivens the Spirits, awakens Vigour, and
confirms the Temperature of the Body... The Manner of using it in Persia, is
to grate it with the Point of a Pen-knife, or to make it into Powder on a
Marble, and the usual Dose is two or three Grains, in a Spoonful of Rose-
water. !
In spite of its wide popularity in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, in
both Persia and England, Chardin is honest enough to state that,
though it was praised by the quacks, it was losing its esteem, and "will,
in a short time, be entirely cry'd down, as I think it is already in
Europe". The first monograph in Persia devoted to it was by 'Imad
al-Dln, and it remained in the English pharmacopaeias until around
1750.
Towards the end of our period the unsettled conditions forced
Persian physicians to seek asylum at the Mughal court in Delhi.
Among them was Mlrza Muhammad Hashim 'Alavl Khan, who left
Shlraz in 1699, was presented to Aurangzlb and served his court, then
that of Muhammad Shah, and finally the tyrant Nadir Shah. Member of
a medical family, he was the elder of two sons, both doctors, of Mlrza
HadI Qalandarl. Other refugees from Shlraz were Muhammad Akbar
Shah ArzanI and Nur al-Din Muhammad 'Abd-Allah b. Hakim 'Ain
al-Mulk. The latter wrote two important works, Alfa% al-adviydh ("The
Vocabulary of Drugs") for Shah Jahan in 1038/1628-29, and the Tibb-i
Ddrd Sbukiiht for Shah Jahan's son and heir, murdered by Aurangzlb,
which was the last great medical system written in Persian and con-

1
Chardin in, 318-9 (translation from Lloyd 11, 5 3).

605
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

tained a long section on syphilis. There had always been some contact,
however slight, with Indian medicine, especially through Herat - thus
Yusuf b. Muhammad b. Yusuf, the son of a distinguished physician of
that city, at an earlier date became secretary to Humayun (937-963/
1530—1556) — and so subsequent adverse circumstances merely tended
to foster the link.
The age which produced Baha' al-Daula did not lack distinguished
scholars. Poets and physicians thronged the court of Shah 'Abbas the
Great as they did that of Akbar. Experimental science had not yet
caused that expansion and fragmentation of knowledge which was the
downfall of the medieval philosopher. The a priori approach of Muslim
scientists, which can be explained by the classification of the natural
sciences under a common heading of philosophy, inclined men to a
respectful acknowledgement of traditional practice, especially in the
conservative profession of medicine. It was Avicenna for his philos-
ophy and system, Rhazes for diagnosis and treatment. As Rhazes had
used apes in his pharmacological investigations, so other animals, such
as dogs or fowls, might be used in certain experiments. Above all, it
was the golden age of pharmacology, and many Persian compilers of
Qarabddln {materia medico), though they possessed additional specialised
information of native or Indian origin, still revered Ibn Jazla and Ibn
al-Baitar as their model. The Tub/at al-mu'minin, completed for Shah
Sulaiman by Muhammad Mu'min-i Husaini in 1669, consisting chiefly
of materia medica, persisted in numerous manuscript versions in both
Arabic and Turkish (the court language of the Safavids). As for
ophthalmology, a study of great importance in Islamic countries, little
was achieved in Persia at this time and the main focus of effort was
Cairo. The encyclopaedic mind, characteristic of the medieval world,
prevailed. Baha' al-Dln 'Amill (Shaikh-i Baha'I), a theologian and
philosopher whom we have mentioned earlier, studied mathematics
under Mulla 'All Muzahhib and Mulla Afzal of Qa'in; furthermore, he
proceeded to learn medicine under 'Ala' al-Dln Mahmud. Like Shifal,
he added prestige to the court of Shah 'Abbas the Great. Companion of
the shah, court physician and "Plato of his time", Hakim Sharaf al-Dln
Hasan Shifa'I was praised by Riza Qull Khan in these words: "... his
medicine eclipsed his scholarship, as his poetry eclipsed his medicine".1
Physicians, druggists, and astrologers were members of families tradi-

1
Browne, Arabian Medicine,^. 256. For his portrait, see British Library MS Or. 1372.fol.7r.

606
 MEDICINE

tionally associated with learning, the tajiks. The principal court physi-
cian, haktm-bdsbi, advised on all matters relating to state medicine and
the deployment of the country's doctors, and was assisted by the chief
druggist,' attar-basht. Employees in the buyutat received free drugs and
attention, whilst in Tahmasp's reign a charitable dispensary was estab-
lished. A good deal is known about the hospitals {btmaristan; lit. "a
place for the sick") in respect of location and buildings, but not much
about their organisation and administration. Oddly enough, John
Fryer omits to mention them. Unlike Herbert, who was not a medical
man, he looked upon Persian medicine with less favour. Fryer says that
"they stick to the Arabian Method as devoutly as to the Sacred
Tripod... on which score Chymistry is hardly embraced; nor to the
Pathological part do they think the Anatomical Knife can bring much
Profit"; and since "Their Law forbids them to inspect a dead Carkass"
so then in anatomy "their Practice is lame, and their Theory no more
than the prating of a Parrot"; hence "they are imperfect in the
Chyrurgeons-Art...". They resort to phlebotomy. Unusual diets (e.g.
camel's flesh) native to the country are recommended. Only certain
specific remedies are tried, and these are of universal application "with-
out respect had to difference of Temperament, or Constitution; nay, or
even to the Distempers themselves..."1 The bezoar-stone is highly
regarded, especially in the treatment of Spotted Fever. Fryer, who
reached Isfahan in August 1677 and was there at the same time as Pere
Raphael du Mans, was particularly interested in the druggists, "all
Jews", and the multiplicity of their wares. Sickness forced Fryer, who
was a physician in the employ of the East India Company, to leave
Persia, and after a period in Surat, he sailed for England, where in due
course he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1697). He was
aware that chemistry, only recently a new science in England due
largely to Boyle, had not yet emerged out of alchemy. Hiilegii had had
an alchemical laboratory attached to the observatory at Maragha, and
specific technical achievements in chemistry were not lacking, but it
was the practice of an art rather than a science, and astrology and magic
were close adherents. Even Baha' al-Daula, most eminent of clinical
observers, believed that magic played some part in medical practice.
The most significant reference to a technical process in chemistry
seems to be that of Chardin when speaking of the production of rose-

1
Fryer m, 94-7 passim; quoted in extenso by Elgood, A Medical History, pp. 401-7.

607
 PERSIAN SCIENCE IN SAFAVID TIMES

water by distillation; he refers to "its being Distill'd without Water,

which is contrary to our Method... '
We return to the Catholic missions. It is appropriate to mention
them here because of the close association of many of their members
with medicine. Raphael du Mans2 describes an instrument for the
extraction of soft cataracts by suction. This was not new, but was in the
illustrious tradition of Arab eye-surgery, being the hollow needle, a
forerunner of the injection syringe, invented by 'Ammar b. 'AH
al-Mausill, who practised in Cairo in the late 4th/ioth century. Though
the Capuchin Fathers were given the title of physician, it is to the
Carmelites, Pere Mattheus and Pere Ange de Saint Joseph, that we
must turn for a definite record of achievement.3 The former, first a
physician in the important medical centre of Shlraz, later travelled to
India as a botanist and pharmacologist. Pere Ange de Saint Joseph
(Joseph Labrosse), the first serious student of Persian medicine, was
responsible for the transmission of Persian medical terminology to
Europe; on his return to Paris he published his Pharmacopoeia Persica in
1680, a work based upon the Tibb-i Shifd'i, written by the pharmacist
Muzaffar b. Muhammad al-Husainl al-Shifa'I before 963/1556. One
might append here for the sake of completeness the name of Giovanni
Tommaso Minadoi (1540—1615), who was also instrumental in the
transmission of Persian and Turkish medical knowledge to Europe.
After taking his medical degree Minadoi travelled for seven years in
the Ottoman dominions, finally returning to Italy to become physician
to the duke of Mantua and professor of medicine at the University of
Padua.
We come to the end of our story, and it is left but to summarise. In
this troubled period of Persian history conditions were not often con-
ducive to scientific research. Physicians and astrologers who fell foul of
their royal masters frequently found themselves on a swift journey to
Paradise. Decisions were invariably dictated by expediency. Rather
must we regard it as a period of culmination, in which the observatory
in Islam, like the hospital before it, became an institution for the first
time in human affairs. The long geometrical tradition in Muslim as-
tronomy had reached its limits of accuracy in the erection of giant
instruments and could progress no farther; so with the astrolabe we

1 2
Chardin iv, 65 (translation from Lloyd 11, 237). Du Mans, p. 178
3
A Chronicle of the Carmelites 1, 620.

608
 MEDICINE

have perfection at the end of an era of advancing craftsmanship. In the

words of C.H.Josten, "In the middle of the seventeenth century the art
of the Persian engravers reached its highest point. The precision and
calligraphy of that period are without comparison. In spite of the most
elaborate ornamentation the mathematical accuracy of the engraving is
unimpaired".1 It is perhaps only in medicine, especially in the acute
clinical observations of Baha' al-Daula, that we find the opening up of
new vistas of enquiry, whilst Elgood still thinks that the study of the
Persian pharmacology of the Safavid period is a profitable source of
information. Science, circumscribed by native culture, was nurtured
and confined in a few centres of learning: Isfahan, Shlraz, and — on
the Persian trade route to Bukhara — Mashhad and Herat. Northern
Khurasan, through which the Indian merchants passed, also on their
way to Bukhara, was almost the only source of astronomers. Con-
trolled experiment, in which concomitant variation could be examined,
was lost after Ibn al-Haitham, and was only now being revived and
appreciated in Europe; uncontrolled experiment had furnished, at
Samarqand, the finest zlj of that time, though subsequently nothing
like Kepler's Laws emerged from the data. But Persia stood upon the
threshold. The door to the West was ajar, so that the light of a univer-
sal objectivity might one day come filtering through.

1
Josten, p. I I .

609
 CHAPTER I 2

RELIGION IN THE TIMURID AND

SAFAVID PERIODS

I. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TIMURID ERA

At the time of Tlmur's death and under his immediate successors the
religious situation in Iran was characterised by two complementary
processes, which were the primary determinant of — or, minimally,
ultimately resulted in - that particular form of religious reality known
as Safavid Shi'ism.
The first factor is the great flexibility, bordering on prevarication,
displayed by the religious world in fulfilling its cementing function
between the political rulers and their subjects in the most disparate
alliances between successive sovereigns and the local religious (and
administrative) aristocracy, even when the diversity of madhhab pro-
fessed by the two protagonists would lead one to expect an at least dual
missionary activity rather than a day-to-day cooperation. It is true that
there was a diversity of madhhab in a slightly broader and more equi-
vocal sense, rather than in that usual connotation of the word which
restricts it simply to the canonical schools. But it is indisputable that
there was a rapprochement on the concrete plane which occurred at a
time when, as all scholars admit, there was a "return" to the myth of
the ideal sovereign, a "true Caliph", and consequently to a renewal of
the hope in the advent of a leader in spiritual affairs and so too in
religious affairs. This eagerly awaited leader was the Mahdl, a figure
who was variously delineated and characterised in the different areas
and madhdhib proclaiming and anticipating his coming.
The other decisive factor is a gradual trend towards Shi'ism among
the "aberrant" currents of orthodoxy, including sufism, allied with the
presence of strong "Twelver" elements in the movements consciously
aiming at a centralist outlook, which transcended the traditional divi-
sions of Muslim religious society. This analysis is acceptable only up to
the advent of Shah Isma'il, after which any discussion of the religious
situation in Iran must necessarily involve an examination of the religious
policies followed by the various sovereigns in circumstances which,
interesting though they may be, were less fluid and so easier to classify.
610
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TIMURID ERA

That these two processes were of a complementary nature is plain

once one recognises the presence of ideological elements which pro-
vide us also with a key to the analysis of all the 9th/15 th century
religious movements. Muslim society explicitly embodied at that time,
particularly in Iran, the backlash of reaction to the "paganism" of the
Mongol hegemony during the preceding centuries.1 The watchword
was the restoration of Islam, conceived of as the restoration of the true
Short a, that is, the Shari'a as expounded by the Prophet - and even
more by his first Companions - which envisaged in a precise fashion a
homogeneous society united under one leader. This led to an extension
of the functions and prerogatives of the teachers of the Shari'a, and in
consequence to an exaltation of the ideological, and not merely the
functional, values of the juridical madhhab to which the subjects had to
conform. In religious terms, however, this is tantamount to admitting
the possibility of the existence of an orthodox Shari'a side by side with
a faith open to innovations — a coexistence which was advocated and
defended by many heresiarchs of those days.
The transition from the concept of an ideal sovereign acting as the
leader of such a restoration, to that of a Mahdi representing the only
hope of implementing the reform of Islam according to the dictates of
the ancients, appears ever more natural. Typologically speaking, it is
therefore more specific to recognise that religious trend of the Muslim
world which, though representing the apotheosis of the waiting for the
Mahdi in its most persistent form, is nevertheless always partial to an
ever-delayed realisation of his coming as a sovereign: that is, the tradi-
tion of the Twelver ShI'a.
According to the ideal line of evolution, the lawful sovereign is
considered at one time as an intermediary who wields the powers
recognised as legitimately appertaining to that religious entity we call
the Mahdi; then as his deputy and Caliph; and ultimately as the incarna-
tion of the Mahdi. Tlmur, the "refuge of the Caliphate",2 the cosmic
vindicator of all Islam, who punished the Shl'Is for their crimes against
the Companions and the Damascenes for the wrongs they had inflicted
upon the A.M al-bait, represents the first and not altogether clear exam-
ple of mediation between the Mongol heritage and the new complex of

1
As opposed to the more immediate reactions to paganism implicit in irrationalism (Barthold),
spirituality (Meier) or urban conscience (Koprulii) in Iranian Islam at the time of the Mongol
domination, on which see A. Bausani, in CHI v, chapter 7.
2
Cf. Ghiyas al-Din 'All, in Barthold, "Khalif i sultan", p. 47 n. 144.
 RELIGION

political and religious requirements of Islam. A significant case in point

is his relationship, according to legend, with the Safavid Khwaja 'All,
which thanks to the new sources published by Horst can now be even
more legitimately considered as one of a number of attempts made by
the throne to take advantage of the suf I movements in order to acquire
a wholly religious kind of legitimacy, which might be exhibited as one
of the indispensable attributes of regality. For TImur this may have
been merely an a posteriori justification of an attempt to break with the
preceding era that was to be emphatically endorsed by his successors
and in particular by Shah Rukh. The latter claimed to be the restorer
par excellence of the Sharl'a and the Caliphate ("May God perpetuate his
reign in the Caliphate of this world" are the words of the khutba which
the Indian Khizr Khan was required to utter in Hafiz-i Abrii)1 in the
shadow of an increasing and deliberate philo-'Alidism which, although
tempered by a prospective alliance with sufism, was destined to be-
come gradually an Imamite form of 'Alidism. In this connection we
must remember the aspirations of Husain Balqara ("ornament of the
throne of the Caliphate"2), who, by trying to persuade Mir Sayyid 'AH
Qa'inI to recite the khutba on behalf of the Twelve Imams,3 presented
himself as the legitimate forerunner of a future authority which would
automatically replace the principles of authority hitherto recognised.
This amalgam of the Shl'a, of sufism and of the awareness of the
necessity for a Mahdl had an 8th/14th-century precedent in the Sarba-
dar movement, in which are discernible those elements that are typical
of and common to all the religious protest movements of the century
under consideration. Strictly speaking, the history of the Sarbadars
(Sabzavar 1337—1381) and its repercussions in the Caspian (Sayyids of
Mazandaran, 1350-92; of Gllan, 1370) and Kirman (1373) areas do not
concern us here, but a brief analysis of the nature of the movement will
serve as an ante litteram case history of the subsequent relationship
between the sovereign and the Musha'sha' or Qizilbash heretics. The
Sarbadar opposition comprehended many kinds of heterogeneous ele-
ments: there were not only peasants and plebeians from the towns, but
also members of the local landed gentry, who provided the first two
military leaders of the movement - 'Abd al-Razzaq and Ma'sud - and
other elements also. These non-plebeian and essentially Iranian ele-
ments, faithful to the Firdausian traditions, did what they could to
1 2
Ibid., pp. 48—9. Daulatshah, p. 458.
3
Petrov, "Dannye istochnikov", p. 77.

6l2
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TIMURID ERA

provide an opposition to the administrative aristocracy, many of whose

members were also Shl'I, and to the Sunni 'ulama, both of them groups
which were enmeshed in the Il-Khanid policy. On the religious plane
these aristocrats represent an idealisation of the true Sharl'a, which lay
beneath the expectation of the coming of the perfect prince, whereas
the dispossessed, ready as they were to accept any leader provided one
could be found, represent the longing for a brotherhood of all Muslims
and thereby for one of the Mahdl's prerogatives, i.e. the establishment
of social justice. Both components of the movement were at any rate
Shl'i. Thus, with the Sarbadars, the Shl'a became an effective form of
protest. We are dealing here with a Twelver Shi'a, despite the fact that
some of its attitudes are reminiscent of the Zaidite revolts in the early
years of the 'Abbasid era which, though in a different way, were like-
wise obsessed with the idea of a legitimate sovereign. The Mahdi
whose coming they awaited was to be a warrior and a conqueror, and
the armed struggle they waged against constituted authority was
directed towards hastening his coming by removing all possible
obstacles. This explains the revival by the Sarbadars of a custom
witnessed by Yaqut in 7th/i3th century Kashan: every morning the
city authorities would lead a saddled horse outside the walls, in the
always likely eventuality that the Mahdi should arrive.1
The sufl movements, even under the Saljuqs and more especially
during the years of Mongol domination, were characterised by a pro-
gressive socialisation, the first consequence of which was access to the
"mystic path", open to those social classes who, because they were
poor, were ready to accept any authority having the seal of religious
legality, as opposed to the political reality which was proving more and
more disappointing. The shaikhs to whom they had recourse appear to
have represented a court of appeal for complaints, even when the only
solution they could suggest was a disdainful liberation from worldly
needs pending the arrival of better times.
This form of shaikh cult filled most of the gap between the Shl'I
outlook and sufism, thanks to the ever greater ideological affinity
between imam and shaikh. The Sarbadars were, in fact, Shl'Is, but they
were organised on military lines as a confraternity, and in this way a
diarchy of power - religious and political - was created; this would
seem to have posited the need for a kind of coexistence between an

1
]acufs Geograpbiscbes Worterbucb, ed. F. Wustenfeld, iv (Leipzig, 1869), 15.

613
 RELIGION

amir, responsible for maintaining order in temporal affairs, and a

shaikh-Mahdl who would act as a guarantor of the truthfulness of the
professed madhhab. As a result of this distribution of powers, the role of
revolutionary elements and the task of introducing social reforms were
entrusted to the shaikh-Mahdl, while the amir acted as a moderator and
hence as the mouthpiece of the claims of the minor aristocracy, whose
chief aim was to supplant the Mongol rulers and their emissaries. In the
9th/15 th century, when movements emerged of very different dimen-
sions and religious significance, such as the Musha'sha' and the
Qizilbash, the diarchy was combined in the hands of one man. The most
typical examples are the first two Musha'sha' leaders - Muhammad b.
Falah and 'All — and Shah Isma'Il, whose careers display a certain
similarity in evolving from a form of political and religious extremism.
This led both Isma'Il and 'All to consider themselves as partaking of a
divine quality and thereby being in a position to grant favours of a
mainly material nature — into a self-imposed limitation of their own
prerogatives which they accepted in exchange for security of office (a
development which was completed within Shah Isma'Il's own lifetime,
while in 'All Musha'sha'I's case it extended to the rule of his successors).
Regardless of one's point of view, the religious history of Iran can
be seen as being wholly reflected in the complex relationship of the
Qara Quyunlii and Aq Quyunlu with their subjects, in a complicated
network of alliances and enmities which do not seem to have been
dictated by any coherent religious policy; though it must be added that
any such apparent policy would inevitably appear ambiguous owing to
the individual sovereigns' wavering between orthodoxy and "heresy"
in their own personal convictions.
It was in this climate of ambiguity and an uncertain political situa-
tion that heretical movements like those of the Hurufls and the
Musha'sha' were born, and that the Qizilbash movement assumed the
form of a military and religious organisation.

II. THE RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY OF PRE-SAFAVID IRAN

Detailed information about the religious situation in the various prov-

inces and cities of 15 th-century Iran is lacking. Hamd-Allah MustaufI,
however, has left us in his Nu^hat al-quliib (c. 740/13 40) a fairly accurate
religious topography of Persia during the preceding century, thus pro-
viding us with a starting-point for an analysis of the transformation of
614
 PRE-SAFAVID RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY

the Iranian mentality which, as we have seen, was characterised by an

attempt to fuse sufism with the Shl'a and by an increasing trend towards
'Alidism. It needs to be said that this latter trend was extremely vague.
The misfortunes of JamI, who in 877—8/1472 proclaimed himself a
potential victim of both the Iraqi (Shl'I) and the Khurasan (SunnI)
ta'assub, are highly significant.1 For the same reason, when the philoso-
pher Jalal al-Dln DavanI, who was a SunnI despite claims to the con-
trary,2 devoted all his energies between 1467 and 1477 to a typical
vulgarisation of a classical Shl'I text such as the A.khlaq-i Ndsin, this did
not seem to the 15th-century mind to be due to the eccentricity of a
scholar, because in reality it formed part of a complex — and to some
extent unconscious - official SunnI attempt at annexing concepts or
studies traditionally held to be part of the Shl'I rationalistic heritage. In
Davanl's case this was an abstract ethico-political theory, polyvalent by
its very nature, which explains why both currents regarded him as their
master. A more specific instance is provided by a fundamental work of
Talibite genealogy, the 'Umdat al-talib, compiled at this time by Ibn
'Inaba (d. 828/1424) and dedicated to a patron who is generally believed
to have been the reigning monarch, Tlmur. While the historical validity
of this dedication may be disputed, the work remains an indication of the
popularity and the importance of the Ahl al-bait, which the religious
mentality is inclined to regard as the common heritage of all Islam (at
any rate such an attitude appears natural in this historical context, given
the still more significant fact that a posteriori the work has been seen as
written for Tlmur). At Balkh the true (Iranian) ma^ar of 'All was
rediscovered and pilgrims flocked to Mashhad as a result of the growing
importance of its shrine, whose influence was felt beyond the confines of
the Imamite entourage and led the Timurids to embark on a whole range
of imposing public works.
This was, in fact, the golden age of Mashhad, for after succeeding to
the throne Shah Rukh visited the city several times, paying homage to
the tomb and making generous gifts to the local sayyids. The Matla'
al-shams records visits during the Muharram in 809/1406, 810/1407,
815/1412, 821/1418, 822/1419, and 840/1436. Shah Rukh was also re-
sponsible for the embellishment of both the great Khurasan shrines:
the one we have just mentioned, at Mashhad, and the newly "discov-

1
LHP in, 510-11.
2
'All DavanI, Sbarb-i ^indagani-ji Jalal al-Din Davarn (Qum, n.d.).

615
 RELIGION

ered" shrine at Mazar-i Sharif, where his minister Ghiyas al-Dln

(d. 829/1425—6) was buried. The name of Mashhad, however, is con-
nected above all with that of the sovereign's wife, Gauhar Shad, who
was responsible for the erection of the mosque of the same name, built
by a craftsman from Shiraz between 808/1405 and 821/1418. Shah
Rukh's successors also venerated this shrine and the Matla' al-shams
records visits by Ulugh Beg in 852/1448-9; by Abu'l-Qasim Babur in
856/1452—3 and on a second occasion before he died and was buried in
the madrasa of Shah Rukh in 861/1457; by his son Mahmud, who was
crowned at Mashhad in the latter year; by Husain BaTqara in 870/1465—6;
and by Abu Sa'Id in 872/1467-8.x An "officially" Shl'I dynasty could
hardly have been more obsequious. In short, this was a period when the
popular substratum played a leading role in official "sacred history" by
introducing a kind of sentimentalism that might be described as group
religiosity, and also had a share in formulating the language of sufism -
for example in the "theology" of Va'iz-i Kashifl, who died in
910/15 04-5 (the Rau^at al-shuhadd is identical in terms of its contents
with the classical Imamite texts, but its form is that of a narration,
supplemented with a wealth of elements drawn from mythology and
folklore), and in the mysticism of Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail (d. 834/1431).
As regards the other point, i.e. the intermingling of sufism and Shi'ism
in the light of a reachieved Islamic unity, in accordance with the attempt
to return to a kind of religious purism which, as we have seen, was a
constant factor in Muslim society at that time, the man who was most
effective and coherent in trying to bring about this synthesis was the
Kubravl mystic, Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhsh (d. 869/1464).
Nurbakhsh derives his desire for unity from 'Ala al-Daula SimnanI, a
SunnI whose centralist outlook was typically Ash'arl but who, at the
same time, was appointed by Oljeitii to preside over the Sunnl-Shl'I
council at Sultaniyya (1305) which ended with his "conversion" to the
Shl'a. It should, however, be noted that this anti-rigorist attitude of
both tendencies did not prevent SimnanI from replying to Shaikh
Khalifa, the theoretical founder of the Sarbadar movement, by throw-
ing an inkpot at his head to punish him for his impertinence in declar-
ing that he wanted something more than his master was able to give
him.2 Shaikh Khalifa, in fact, had ventured to deny the validity of the

1
Muhammad Hasan Khan, Matla' al-shams n, 285—9.
2
Pctrushevsky, "Dvizhenie", p. 112.

616
 PRE-SAFAVID RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY

juridical concept of the orthodox madhhab, to deny which was a very

different thing from a sentimental attachment to 'Alidism. An equally
centralist outlook, on the other hand, was shared by the most direct
teacher of Nurbakhsh, Ahmad b. Fahd al-Hilll (d. 841/1437-8). This
Twelver Shl'I did not hesitate to pronounce a sentence of takfir against
his former pupil Muhammad b. Falah Musha'sha'I when he too,
although in circumstances different from those of the Nurbakhsh case,
claimed the prerogatives of a MahdI.1
The position of Nurbakhsh, which concerns us here more closely, is
defined in a passage in his 'Aqida, which is, incidentally, coherently
Shl'I. In it he lays stress on a process which might be called one of
"transfert", whereby the heir to the prophetic mission, i.e. he who is in
the position of privilege of the Ahl al-bait, is the sufl, whose own
spiritual ancestor is 'All, while at the other extremity of the chain is the
MahdI. Within the history of the development of religious ideas in Iran
this assertion is far more important than the reasons which later in-
duced Nurbakhsh to proclaim himself MahdI, these reasons being
based for the most part on astrological and cabalistic calculations as
well as on a number of coincidences. Nevertheless, the religious topog-
raphy of Iran that can be deduced from MustaufI clearly reveals the
possibility of the formation, in a promiscuous religious milieu, of a
certain ambivalence and so that belonging to the Shl'I rather than to
the SunnI confession would seem to be a matter of religious sensibility
rather than one of ideological divergences or different juridical rites.
According to MustaufI, in the big urban centres the majority of the
inhabitants were Sunnls, while the traditionally Shl'I - or, to be more
precise, Twelver - areas were, in addition to Gllan and Mazandaran,
the cities of Ray, Varamln, Qum and Kashan, the province of
Khuzistan and the Khurasan region of Sabzavar. In those parts of Iran
where it existed Shi'ism was widespread among the peasantry, but in
the cities some of the aristocratic families were also Shl'I and occupied
leading posts in the administration during the Timurid era, and
especially under the SunnI Aq Quyiinlu.
Some significant examples, in this connection, are cited and devel-
oped by Aubin2 to show the privileges granted to certain Shf! sayyids
or whole families, in accordance with a policy of bestowing privileges
upon them which began with Tlmur and continued down to Uzun

1 2
See below, pp. 626-8. Aubin, "Notes sur quelques documents aq-qoyunlu".

617
 RELIGION

Hasan. On the other hand, as late as 1720-1 the Ottoman DurrI Efendl
reported that a third of the population of Iran were Sunnls.1 Their
numbers must have been more constant still outside the cities, a contri-
butory factor being the ambivalent effects of taqiyya. It is pointless to
ask what had happened during the period intervening between these
two statements, unless one takes into account a fact of the greatest
importance in the work of the earlier of the two writers. MustaufI
maintains that Shafi'I elements existed in almost every place he men-
tions, both in those where he speaks of the presence of Sunnls and in
the traditional centres of Shi'ism, and this provides evidence to sup-
port the supposition that the religious situation in Persia had a certain
homogeneity, due not only to the factors mentioned above, but also to
the influence of Shafi'ism, which from another point of view seems
more capable than any other madhhab of absorbing methodologically
different outlooks, thereby paving the way, in its turn, to a more
complete amalgamation.2
As a partial confirmation of these suppositions let us consider an
extreme case reported by Nur-Allah Shushtarl in the Majalis al-mu'mimn2
when speaking of Kashan, a city which, more than any other, provides
frequent evidence of its adherence to the Shl'I faith (the saddled white
horse waiting for the Mahdi, the "death festival" of 'Umar,4 etc.).
Despite this, it was in Kashan that, when Shah Isma'H ordered a public
execration of the first three Caliphs, "the great and the worthy among
the people of the Sunna in the land of Iraq took the path of exile", and
it was in Kashan that "there remained no traces of Sunni qddiot mufti".
For two years, whenever they wished "to ascertain the truth in their
problems of Sharf a", the people of Kashan had to ask the maulana
Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Khunfarl, "although he was not a special-
ist in the problems oi fiqh and had no adequate text among his Shl'I
books". When formulating his fatwa, the maulana used his common
sense (a method used, in particular, by the Shafi'I school), pending the
arrival in Kashan of a Shl'I jurist who, after examining the fatwas given
by the maulana, ratified them all because they were in accordance with
1
Relation de Dourry Efendy,ambassadeurde la Porte Ottomane aupres duRoi de Perse (Paris, i8io),p. 54.
2
On the Shi*! side there is usually a tendency to stress the fact that the Shafi'T method was
based on the Ja'farl system in order to explain certain undeniable analogies. This is of less interest
to us, however, than the problem of finding a plausible explanation for the smooth transition
from one system to the other in the everyday practice of the istisbab, which is a characteristic of
3
both schools. Nur-Allah Shushtarl, Majalisal-mu'minln(Tehran, 1268/1852), fol. iyor.
* Ibid.,(o\. 18.

618
 PRE-SAFAVID RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY

the principle of "rational beauty and ugliness", which was precisely the
basic precept of the Imamite school. If we compare this valuable testi-
mony with the fact that it was in Kashan that a bitter enemy of the
Safavids, the SunnI (but Shafi'I) historian Fazl-Allah b. Ruzbihan
KhunjI (who was also the author of a poetical hymn in praise of the
Twelve Imams1), found a temporary refuge, we have more than a clue
to the complexity of the situation. This will perhaps provide us with a
basis for further inferences, for the existence of such a situation in one
of the main centres of Persian Shi'ism, where it would seem that the
jurists were SunnI by nature and that one was a Shl'I particularly in the
writing of poetry, can serve to dispel much of the confusion surround-
ing the figure of Shaikh Safi al-Dln in connection with his proper place
in the religious history of Ardabil and his now undisputed original
adherence to Sunnism.
According to MustaufI, Ardabil was a centre of Shafi'ism.2 In parti-
cular, A. Kasravl has shown that Shaikh Safi al-Dln's Shafi'ism was an
essential part of the religious mentality of the Shaikh and was certainly
not due to any taqiyya, which would be unlikely at a time when Oljeitii
was tending towards non-orthodox attitudes. Nevertheless, the exam-
ple of Kashan would seem to demonstrate that we cannot take the type
of madhhab as an adequate basis for determining the nature of the faith
professed by any Persian city. This does not cast any doubts on the
position of Shaikh Safi, but it does lead us to another question, the
answer to which might help us to solve at least some of the outstanding
problems concerning the religious evolution of the first Safavids. A
certain simplification of terms, possible after the installation of
Twelver Shi'ism in the whole of Iran, would seem to have been applied
retrogressively to this period, which, as we have seen, was full of
ambiguities. In particular, the claim made by Safi al-Dln's descendants
to be HusainI sayyids seemed for a long time to imply that they were
Shl'I, despite the fact that the authentic sources do not mention this
title when referring to the shaikhs of Ardabil. It would seem more
likely that there was a gradual realisation of the importance of this
claim — beginning with the vague remarks of Sadr al-Dln, becoming
explicit in the assertion of Isma'Il, who described himself, though not
always, as a HusainI, and arriving finally at the generalisation of the

1
Muhammad Amln KhunjI, "Fazl-Allah b. Ruzbihan KhunjT", FIZ iv (1355), 178-9.
2
Hamd-Allah MustaufI, Nu^bat al-qulub, text p. 81.

619
 RELIGION

title under Tahmasp. In the traditional terminology, in fact, extremism

and Shi'ism seemed to be more easily reconcilable than extremism and
Shafi'ism, and it was impossible to give a typological definition of the
Safavid ghuluww if the ShI'I premisses were to be discarded.
The transition from Shafi'ism to the ghuluww, on the contrary, does
not necessarily have to pass through a stage of claiming the sajydda, this
being no different from moderate Shi'ism, and there is another factor
that might ultimately have proved disadvantageous to the sayyada, i.e.
to the Twelver Shi'ism, of the first Safavids, which may help to throw
light on the situation. This was the Kurdish origin of the family,
unequivocably demonstrated by Togan.
The inhabitants of Kurdistan were Shafi'i, and yet it was in Kurdistan
that certain extremist heresies either had their origins or found fertile
soil - for example, the Ahl-i haqq. Such heresies were not offshoots of
Twelver Shi'ism, but as a result of long contacts they were subjected to
its influence to such an extent that after the accession of the Safavids they
borrowed some of its forms. Moreover, the Ahl-i haqq component
seems obvious in the Qizilbash movement, in regard to which the
Shaikhs of ArdabU set themselves up as unquestioned and traditional
leaders, and even today there are groups of Kurdish Qizilbash in
Anatolia. Protected also by sufl esotericism, the Shaikhs of Ardabll
seem to have submitted outwardly to a certain moderation, until they
eventually found an outlet in a twofold kind of extremism: political
when Shaikh Junaid indulged in extra-religious activities along lines
apparently going back to the Zaidism of GHan, and religious when it
reflected their relationship to their extremist followers.
This may enable us to hazard a definition of the components of the
madhhab under the first Safavids: an extremist type of sufism — which
did not prevent the profession of juridical Shafi'ism — influenced by the
Kurdish (Ahl-i haqq) and Turkish (BektashI) aspects of Qizilbash
religious beliefs, but possibly also by Nuqtavi elements known to have
been present (see below) in Gllan, the traditional refuge of the Shaikhs.
Its approach was therefore of a heretical type which cannot be strictly
characterised as ShI'I or non-Shl'I: such was Shafi'I sufism, which
became the ideological banner of so composite a movement as that of
the Qizilbash, engaged in difficult political manoeuvres with both the
ShI'I Qara Quyiinlu and the orthodox Aq Quyunlu, which were ren-
dered even more complicated by innumerable ties of blood-relation-
ship in no way determined by religious sympathies. Another instance

620
 PRE-SAFAVID RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY

of the coexistence of juridical Shafi'ism and heretical beliefs is provided

by the case of the son of the Huruf I Fail-Allah, who, when comment-
ing on his flight from ruthless persecutors, claimed to have answered
their question (to which madhhab he belonged) by professing a
Shafi'ism which he did not subsequently renounce.1
This swinging of the balance of power from Aq Quyunlu to Qara
Quyunlu and vice versa was particularly noticeable in the first half of the
9th/15 th century. Although, to a certain extent, it was a reflection of the
sphere of political influence, there is no real parallel to this shifting of
power in the far more subtle field of diplomatic and ideological relation-
ships. Practically speaking, the latter were limited to the support given
by princes to one another when they came into conflict with members of
their own families. In such cases they exploited the idea of religious
differences, which they seem to have regarded as being so many more
strings to their own bows, and had the aim of encouraging the greatest
possible confusion in their relationship to their subjects.
As examples one can cite the alliance between the Qara Quyunlu and
the SunnI Ottomans against the Aq Quyunlu, who considered them-
selves the most direct heirs of Timurid power on account of the
Il-Khanid princes' authoritative investiture; or conversely, the support
given by an Aq Quyunlu such as Uzun Hasan to the traditional enemy,
embodied in this case by Hasan 'All, while the anti-Timurid Qara
Quyunlu policy was being carried on by Iskandar. Such was the back-
ground in Iran to the fortunes of Mahdism, to the diffusion of the
Huruf I and Musha'sha' heresies and to the formation of Ahl-i haqq (or
rather their predecessors) and Qizilbash groups. All these things made
it incumbent upon the sovereign to follow an elastic religious policy,
ranging from broad-minded comprehension of equivocal or antitheti-
cal professions of faith on the part of his subjects to the inevitable
exclusive adhesion to one group whenever the political situation
became critical and the duties and ambitions of the sovereign were not
limited to functioning merely as the guarantor of the status quo.
The two sovereigns who appear to have been the more or less
involuntary mouthpieces of this complex religious world were Aspand
and Jahan Shah, both of whom were representatives par excellence of
Qara Quyunlu heterodoxy, though the type of Shi'ism professed by
each had different characteristics.

1
Golpinarli, "Fadlallah-i Hurufi'nin ogluna", p. 45.

621
 RELIGION

Aspand embraced Shi'ism after a grand council attended by both

Sunnls and Shl'Is, at a moment when the inhabitants of Iraq, who had
always been Shl'Is, seemed at last to have found the leader for whom not
only Khuzistan and Iraq, but the whole Islamic world, had been waiting
— a man who, at all events at this stage, combined political audacity with
an original religious syncretism, the Musha'sha' Muhammad b. Falah.
Aspand's explicit acceptance of Shi'ism seems to have been a clever
move on the part of a sovereign who was trying to reach a compromise
with his non-orthodox subjects, to place himself on their religious level
and to obtain — paradoxically enough, from his subjects — a more official
investiture than that obtained by Shah Muhammad. For Aspand,
becoming a Shl'l meant minting coinage in the names of the Twelve
Imams, professing the Twelver cult and thus becoming — in effect — the
champion of the pure madhhab of the Ahl al-bait.
By contrast, Jahan Shah's Imamite profession of faith seems to have
been dictated by more personal reasons, as he was a Shl'l not merely by
virtue of his minting coins with the names of the Twelve Imams
but also because he was troubled by more sincerely religious spiritual
doubts, at least if we can judge from the divan which the ruler, desig-
nated Shams al-'arifln, either composed himself or at any rate claimed
as his own.1 In other words, while Aspand represents the high-level
and probably demagogic realisation of the ruler-subject relationship
which had been much more spontaneously anticipated by the vicissi-
tudes of the Sarbadar movement, Jahan Shah would appear to have
been a forerunner of Shah Isma'Il. The appropriateness of this analogy
is evident in the negative attitude of both rulers towards the ghuluww,
which they did not in any way try to appeal to in the name of a
common background, either in a religious or in a political sense. Al-
though Jahan Shah was not the most outspoken denouncer of Huru-
fism, he could not accept it, not because his point of view coincided
with that of such rulers as Tlmur or MIran Shah, who feared the
danger - always latent in the Shl'a - of the discovery of the true
sovereign, but because the chosen ruler had already been made mani-
fest in his own person. Nor did his stubborn opposition to Hurufism
create any real halo of ambiguity regarding the sincerity of his Shl'l
beliefs.2 On the contrary, it would seem to have been due to the
enthusiasm of one who felt that he had been entrusted with a super-

1 2
Minorsky, "Jihan-shah Qara-qoyunlu and his Poetry". But cf. chapter 4 above.

622
 THE HURUFIS

human task: as champion of the Twelfth Imam, he was the chosen

leader and the repository (such was the esotericism of the Imamite
agnostics) of a higher truth the need for which, directly or indirectly,
had been repeatedly and insistently asserted in the course of the history
of Twelver Shi'ism and had led to the 'drifs being considered its trus-
tee, sharing - to use an expression dear to Corbin - in the Body of
which the Imam is the head.

III. THE HURUFIS

The Hurufis made their first appearance at the end of the 8th/14th
century. Their founder Fazl-Allah (possibly known earlier as 'Abd
al-Rahman) was born at Astarabad in 740/1340. The details of his life
reflect all the ferments of his time: he was a sayyid, a mystic from
childhood, an interpreter of dreams, an ardent pilgrim and a strict
observer of the Sharl 'a, as was only to be expected in the son of a qadl
(hence his nickname, halal-khur). His actions were invariably deter-
mined by dreams; it was a dream that induced him to undertake the
^tydra to Mashhad immediately after the hajj; in another dream the
names of the holiest mystics were revealed to him; and a dream of light
foretold his mission by piercing his right eye ('aiti, which also means
"essence" or "source") with the rays of the Star which rises in the East at
intervals of centuries. His investiture immediately assumed the double
form — indispensable in one who lays claim to being the repository of
sirr in the Muslim world — of mediation in trans-human things (he
acquired his first disciples by interpreting dreams and reading them in
the mind) and of hujja in sub-human matters (the world of nature as
represented by birds, whose language Fazl-Allah, like all the Imams,
could understand). The community he gathered around him, however,
had the same characteristics as the contemporary groups of dervishes:
its members were of humble origin and were for the most part artisans;
it practised frugality and rectitude. It was not until he had reached
middle age, about 1396, that Fazl-Allah was led to theopathy — from
the authentic revelation of the meaning of the Prophecy to the dignity
of Sahib al-zaman and the glory of the divine manifestation. He wrote
the Javtdan-ndma-yi kabir, and while his religious mission between
Isfahan and Shlrvan naturally had a political significance, he went
unarmed. He seems to have merely "besought" the potentates to join
him, but Miran Shah, whom he trusted, betrayed him, cast him into
623
 RELIGION

prison (during his imprisonment he wrote the Vasijyat-nama) and had

him executed at Alinjaq in 790/1394. Equally unfortunate was his first
caliph, 'All al-'ala, when he tried to approach the new Qara Quyunlu
leadership, embodied in this instance by Qara Yusuf. Yet though he
was executed in 822/1419, he was nevertheless responsible for first
spreading the HurufI doctrines within the Bektashi-Anatolian environ-
ment. Subsequent external events and the various subdivisions and
schisms are of only relative importance.
In substance, Hurufism is still an expression of Isma'ilism, in the
sense that the theological terms defining it on the religious plane are
not derived solely from Isma'ilism, i.e. the doctrine that the Creation is
necessarily determined, by the cosmic drama of which it is a pallid and
imperfect reflection. Significantly, the definition of divinity was based
on the absolute ta'til of the divine attributes and on a form of tashbih
which proceeded in an opposite direction to the orthodox, in the
sense that the term of comparison was Man and it was to Man that the
divine likeness was referred. But although this concentration of in-
terest on the human figure as representing completely the ultramun-
dane mystery is its closest link with Isma'ilism, Hurufism differs from
the latter in its recognition of the real location of the Haqiqa in the
substance of the letters rather than in the person of the Imam. And
hence a new type of Qur'anic ta'wil related to what might be called the
material rather than the symbolic form in which the word as revealed
was incorporated in the sacred text. The Muslim mind has always been
faced with the problem of a form of Qur'anic expressions capable of
different and even conflicting interpretations, the various tafsirs being
merely approximate and incomplete catalogues of these that could be
amplified. In this sense, for example, the letters kn symbolise the divine
creative activity. The various heretical movements have always felt the
need of clarifying the metaphysical content of such symbols by choos-
ing - out of the various alternatives which were often suggested by
orthodox as well as unorthodox thought - some that could represent
Reality as a whole. By using among other things a cabalistic interpre-
tation, Hurufism raises the letters' value to such a level that the dualism
between Substance and Form is transformed into the equation: Reality
of Substance = Determined Value of the Letter. This process of
emphasis is, however, at the same time a process of simplification and,
theologically speaking, instead of leading to an innovatory interpreta-
tion of the divine content, crystallises into a confessional creed of a
624
 THE MUSHA SHA

static type, the revolutionary message of which is, paradoxically

enough, entrusted to those practical measures which Muslim society
regards as the inevitable consequences of any new religious choice. In
any case, in the context of Hurufism, the thing that most plausibly
transcends a strictly Shl'I mentality is the claim to possession of the key
to the Haqlqa; this eliminates both the first intermediary (the Imam)
and a leader like Jahan Shah, claiming to be the second intermediary
destined (as Twelver Caliph and Sovereign) to recognise the function
of the Imam and to proclaim it to the world.

IV. THE MUSHA'SHA*

Aspand, too, had to deal with heresy, viz. the Musha'sha' movement
which, on the social plane, had perhaps an even greater significance.
His reaction, however, was quite different, and it has already been said
that the ultimate aim of his persecution of the Musha'sha' was not so
much their extermination as the hope of reducing their leaders to their
rightful rank of vassals obedient to the wishes of their legitimate Shl'I
sovereign. The Musha'sha' movement originated in circles that, strictly
speaking, were not Iranian and in areas where many of the inhabitants
were Arabs, though it is true that Ibn Battiita located a Persian popula-
tion in Havlza, which was later to become their capital.1 Typologically,
however, this was an entirely Iranian heresy, so much so that the more
modern BabI offshoot of the Twelver Shl'a seems to have modelled
itself upon it in its various stages of development and in its degrees of
heretical intensity. Thus a description of the religious situation in Iran
during the period in question would be incomplete without some
reference to this movement.
The political situation, which is dealt with more fully in an earlier
chapter, was characterised by an alteration of military successes and
reverses on the part of the Musha'sha', who were initially helped by
Aspand's policy of trying to win over to his side, in one way or
another, the discontented and unreliable inhabitants of 'Arabistan, and
by a sort of compromise whereby the legitimate authority of the Qara
Quyunlu was acknowledged in exchange for a measure of frequently
disputed autonomy in religious affairs which survived until Isma'il, like
Jahan Shah, compelled everyone to embrace orthodox Shi'ism. The

1
Ibn Battuta, trans. Gibb, n, 321.

625
 RELIGION

"conversion" of Aspand, in 840/1436—7, leaves open the question

whether he took this step as a counter-offensive against the founder of
the Musha'sha' heresy, who in that very year had launched his cam-
paign among the local tribes, declaring that he was the Mahdl; or
whether the public declaration by Muhammad that he himself was the
long-awaited Mahdl was possibly an unconscious reaction to the
authority of Aspand, who since his conversion had become the legiti-
mate religious — as well as political — leader. What is certain is that the
grave economic situation in 'Arabistan, where problems existed that
could not be solved by means of a new siydsa Shar'iyya, gave the
Musha'sha' movement plenty of scope for manoeuvre. It also gave
them a kind of moral authority for their expansionist activities when
they decided to set up an ideal structure, permeated by the wish to
achieve consistency between the religious problems and the civil ele-
ments, in accordance with the principle of the perfect prince and a
religious State that has remained an unrealised alternative throughout
the history of Islam.
In any case, having recognised the complex nature of the relation-
ship between the Shl'I sovereign and the equally Shl'I group facing him
as his revolutionary opponent in the political as well as in the religious
field, it is to the latter that we must turn our attention if we wish to
provide analysis of some of the most typical stages of an evolution
through which, it would appear, every heresy that can be called Iranian
must necessarily pass.
The focal point of the Musha'sha' theory (known to us thanks to an
unpublished Kaldm al-Mahdt brought to light by A. Kasravl)1 is the
person of the Mahdl, which signifies the immanence of the Imam,
conceived as a transcendent entity mediating between the Creator and
his creatures in the metaphysically existential act which, through the
process of creation, distinguishes the one from the other. Proceeding
along these lines, the Musha'sha' (or, to be more precise, the two most
interesting protagonists from the religious point of view, the founder
Muhammad b. Falah and his son 'All) reached a halfway point in the
ideal development of Mahdism, which began with the Isma'IlI affirma-
tion of the Imam's participation in the divine essence and ended with
the BabI movement, which claimed that the divinity had been mani-
fested in the Imam. Muhammad b. Falah would seem, however, to

1
Kasravl, Tinkh-ipansad-sala, pp. 1-46.

626
 THE MUSHA SHA
have progressed gradually in his religious evolution and in his career as
leader of a community — unless of course this was merely tactical
caution in the ever more explicit diffusion of his message. Two state-
ments of his which were not necessarily intended as imposture can be
quoted as cases in point: the declaration he made to the governor of
Vasit, following the takflr of his teacher Ahmad b. Fahd, to the effect
that he was a suf I and a follower of the Sunna; and his words when, on
being confronted with an 'alim sent from Baghdad to refute his extre-
mist position, he boasted that he had always applied the Shari'a. Now it
is a fact that from the historical point of view the Musha'sha' (the
etymology of the word is obscure, but it may be connected with the
idea of "light" or "ray", from the root)1 was one of those movements
organised along the lines of a confraternity, the birth and development
of which were realised in sufism — under whose authority they placed
themselves — during the 7th/ 13 th and 8 th/14th centuries in particular.
The 9th/15 th century organisations are different, principally by
virtue of their platform of social and economic reform which fre-
quently allowed them to set up a parallel military organisation among
their disciples, as is clearly shown by the continually expressed desire
of their leaders to observe scrupulously the law and the Sunna. Never-
theless, among the Musha'sha' the subsequent religious evolution was
the result not of a group approach as in the case of the Qizilbash, but
of their leaders' individual elaborations. Muhammad b. Falah began his
career by proclaiming himself wall of the Mahdi (the Twelfth Imam),
thus characterising himself as leader of the. jihad in a typically Shi'i
sense, in order to bring about, in the name of the Mahdi, the indispens-
able moment of the Test, i.e. establishing who was for the Mahdi and
who was against him.
This type of logic can be reconciled both with the most classical
principles of Twelver ideology and with the most normal Shi'I inter-
pretation of Qur'an x, 99— 100, if one bears in mind that for the Shl'is
each verse is always a %ahir expression of a more obscure substance.
Muhammad, however, denied that any such verification by the Mahdi
himself was possible, since it was one of the Mahdi's prerogatives (and
here we see the influence of contemporary social aspirations) that he
was invincible and omnipotent, so that, vis-a-vis the Mahdi, both good
and wicked men would be in an identical position, since they would be

1
Caskel, "Ein Mahdi", pp. 91-2.

627
 RELIGION

bound to recognise him. In this there was already a heresy, even though
it was camouflaged by a sophism. Soon, however, caution was thrown to
the winds, for the Test was to be followed by a period of yihiir
(manifestation) and Muhammad b. Falah declared that he was the hijdb
(shield) of the Mahdl, while his son 'All went so far as to maintain that he
himself was God, by a process based on one of those syllogisms so
typical of extremist movements: the Mahdl is 'All; 'All is God; I, the
Mahdl, am 'All; I am God. In any case, the fact remains that, although
the respective positions of father and son may appear to have been
different (in his correspondence with Pir Budaq, Muhammad b. Falah
apologised for his son's conduct, comparing his position with that of
'All, who had allowed Abu Bakr to assume an office for which he was not
destined, in the same way as God, in spite of his infinite foresight, had
created Iblls), the religious premiss is the same. This conception of the
Mahdl was based on a clear distinction between the historical figure and
his metaphysical nature, expressed in a terminology whose lucidity
confirms the originality of the Musha'sha' way of thinking. Thus the
Twelfth Imam, being alive as a category, might also be dead, and not
merely "hidden" in the evanescent person of Muhammad b. Hasan
al-'Askari. And following this line of thought there was no real differ-
ence between him and the Prophet, or between him and the other
Imams. All of them were the Twelfth Imam, and the actual death of any
one of them was in its turn nothing but ghaiba on the conceptual plane
from which their existence stems. It was therefore prophesied that each
one of them would return, because the substance of the Imam was
invariable, whereas the body in which he appeared was variable. In other
words, in the actual prophetic cycle the divine function was expressed in
the silsila leading up to the Eleventh Imam, whereas the function en-
trusted to the Twelfth (the Return ^wr excellence) was now to be realised in
his hijab Muhammad b. Falah. The transition accomplished by 'All, in
claiming to be the substance of the metaphysical principle of the Imam,
seems to have been an esoteric stage of what his father had exoterically
preached rather than an extremist extension of the concept from which it
derived. And in the field of realisation it was 'All who plundered and
defiled the tomb of 'All b. Abl Talib, while it fell to the father to punish
severely the ghdli even when they were his own followers, in a manner
sometimes reminiscent of Kharijite ideas. (And yet this punctilious guard-
ian of the Sharfa was also the author of canonical formulae for the ziyara
to himself, on the lines of the classical Imamite formulae.)

628
 THE QIZILBASH

It is also worth noting bow the Qur'anic Christ, too, tends to be

absorbed in this explanatory vision of the Imam. Strange tales were
circulated concerning the dead Christ worshipped by Christians, al-
most as if he were a real, i.e. material, figure. The Qur'an, on the
contrary, tells not so much the "true story" of Christ as the story of
Christ as an immortal, ever-present spirit. This duality, and the fact
that the legends derived from Christological mythology differ from the
Muslim versions, whether Shl'I or orthodox, suggest Mandaean views
were exerting their influence through a mechanism of borrowings
whose starting-point cannot be established with any certainty. For
example, the Christians' Jesus Christ is said to have had his head cut off
and sent to a prostitute at Najaf, on the grounds that the cult practised
there was idolatrous, since 'All was the living God, in Egypt {sic); in
other words, Christ is John the Baptist, but the John of the Christians,
whereas a quality attributed by the Mandaeans to the Baptist - that he
could not be wounded with a sword — is also one of the miraculous
attributes of the Musha'sha' Mahdi, just as the "death in the river" of
'All b. Muhammad reminds us of the death of John according to the
Mandaeans. Nor is this all, for the attribution to the "Magi", by
Muhammad b. Falah, of the veneration of Bukht al-nassar (Nebuchad-
nezzar), too hastily rejected as absurd by Kasravl, might also imply a
Mandaean link with very ancient forms of Irano-Semitic syncretism.
On the other hand, much of our information on Musha'sha' beliefs (a
striking example is the dhikr 'All Allah) can be compared with what more
recent writers have attributed to the Ahl-i haqq. This and other analo-
gies — the Safavid coin called Huvaiza (Havlza) used in initiations1 —
give us an idea of the continuity of the connective tissue in the religious
life of the period in question, which leads on to broader and more
composite issues, such as the complex problem of the Qizilbash.

V. THE QIZILBASH

The Qizilbash movement constitutes the meeting-point and the

melting-pot of the various elements — or at any rate the most signifi-
cant among them - of the religious life of the 9th/15 th century. It is
not, however, a zone of light amidst the obscurity characteristic of the
period, for the presence of diverse motives in the movement produced

1
Ibid., p. 93.

629
 RELIGION

composite, eclectic and contradictory results. The movement could be

described as an ethnographical-religious complex localised, during the
period we are discussing, in Asia Minor, principally in a geographical
belt extending from the Lebanese — Syrian border to the Azarbafjan
frontier. Its members were drawn from Turkish tribes, but that the term
Qizilbash (literally "men with red caps") was, ethnographically speak-
ing, vague is demonstrated by the number of different connotations that
it acquired at different times and in different places. Subsequent to its
origination in Dzhungaria,1 it was used in eastern Turkestan to denote
the Shl'Is;2 in Asia Minor it was often used as an alternative for the term
'alavt; for the Ottomans it meant a member of a secret society, a hetero-
dox person, or, in the 16th century, the Safavid enemy; in Russia it
became a synonym for Persian, and later, by extension, Asian; and
among the Volga Tartars it was used to denote a cunning man (a
merchant, often a Persian merchant).3 The different ways in which this
word was used independently of ethnical entities shows that it had an
ideological content that became fused with the concept "Persian", i.e.
schismatic, in the same way as the Persians themselves were defined in
antithesis to the Ottomans. This, however, did not occur until a victori-
ous Qizilbash movement under Shah Isma'Il had first made its contribu-
tion to Iranian religious life and then suffered what was essentially a
repulse, being reduced, by a humiliating process of absorption, to the
more commonplace, yet still heretical, connotation of official Safavid
Shi'ism. The internal dialectic of all 15 th-century extremist movements
seems, in fact, to have led to a kind of self-camouflage, through which
certain religious forms survive under different names or as original
contributions to the great stream of Twelver Shi'ism. Despite this, the
most striking innovatory feature, that particular religious attitude which
could still be described as ghuluww and which acted as the catalyst of
new social demands, was paradoxically eliminated at the very moment
when a certain degree of political equilibrium might theoretically have
enabled it to be utilised in a new type of society.
Whereas the Sarbadars can be described as the first link in the sufl
chain leading to the Musha'sha', its most outstanding element is un-
doubtedly represented by the Qizilbash. It now becomes self-evident
that the particular kind of religious feeling permeating, with its long-
ing for renewal, the conscience of the Iranian Islamic world at that
1
E. Oberhummer and H. Zimmerer, Durch Syrien und Kleinasien (Berlin, 1899), P- 397-
2 3
Le Coq, "Kyzylbasch", pp. 61-5. For all these, see Gordlevskil, pp. 263, 264 n. 1.

630
 THE QIZILBASH

time, had as its essential component a certain type of sufism. Or, to be

more precise, we should speak, not of sufism, but of that particular
evolution in the sufI world, and in the relations existing between the
members of the confraternities, which, as we have seen, was based on
the communion - drawn from the Twelver Shl'a - between the Shaikh
as vicar of legitimate religious authority and his murids; these latter in
accordance with the classical Shi'I procedure, were to be the "proofs"
of his intentions, that is of his truthful madhhab. The gradual transi-
tion from the ascetic mission to identification with the task assigned by
hagiography to the Mahdl, concludes with his declaring himself to be
the Mahdl, and thereby the ma%har of God in this world.
The Shaikhs of Ardabll were precisely this in the eyes of those who
turned to them, and the stages which they proposed are already com-
prehended in the evolution of the relationship between Shaikhs and
their supporters. In other cases both the figure of the sayyid, though
invested with an authority not solely due to his birth but recognised
and demanded from below (the sayyids of Bam were examples of this
during the first half of the 15 th century), and that of the Shaikh, whose
position was very similar to that of the Caliph, though in less universal-
istic terms (we need only think of Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail), remain so
to speak experiences crystallised in time, without any of that evolution
which facts and circumstances seemed logically to require.
The union between Qizilbash and the Shaikhs of Ardabll was a
military relationship having, in its turn, no original features, which
provided a practical solution for that reciprocity of duties and obliga-
tions which formed part of the relationship between the Shaikh and his
followers. Seen in this light, the personal attitude of individual Shaikhs
— that is to say, when they were "converted" to Shi'ism, the type of
Shi'ism which they embraced and how much of the Qizilbash aberra-
tions had entered into the religion of the man whom they recognised
as their leader - becomes of secondary importance. The key element
seems to be, above all, Junaid's awareness of the military potential
latent in the order and the fact that in beginning preparations for his
"reign" he developed it with the full consent of the Qizilbash, who
then responded with fanatical enthusiasm to the appeals of the Shaikhs
up to the time of Isma'H's victory. Hence the particular reaction of
the sovereigns then ruling Azarbaljan who, whether they were Aq
Quyunlu or Qara Quyunlu, displayed a mistrust which sometimes
erupted into open hostility. This is understandable when we remember

631
 RELIGION

the more or less conscious desire, on the part of authorities who were
afraid of being bypassed, to surround themselves with a halo of
religious legitimacy. It also explains the religious preparations for the
reign of Isma'Il, and the burden that he had to bear as a result of his
presumed infallibility, which found expression in a theopathic enthusi-
asm, counterbalanced by his consent to the compromise offered by the
Twelver Shl'a.
The religious folklore of the Qizilbash, in contrast to their spiritual
ideas, which were typically Iranian, had been borrowed from Asia
Minor, the religious outlook of which was by definition heretical, open
to every kind of eclecticism and already endowed with a heritage of
complex religious forms. On to the rites of an orgiastic nature with
which the Qizilbash carry on extremely ancient Anatolian traditions,
and on to the elements of a Christianity hostile to orthodoxy, Islam
imposes a graft of plebeian social aspirations of a dissenting and
vaguely communistic nature, such as those of the Qalandars and the
Jalalls, combined, in this specific case, with the expectation of the
imminent coming of the MahdI. From this point of view it is difficult
to separate the religious forms of the Qizilbash from those of the
Bektashls, who according to Gordlevskil were the "codifiers" of the
fluid Qizilbash religiosity maintained by the various wandering
dervishes of the 16th century. The orthodox party accused them of
forming secret societies, at the meetings of which ritual orgies were
celebrated, including incest and pederasty, but these accusations
do not differ greatly from the sins attributed by orthodox Islam to any
heretical movement.
On the other hand, heresy did not prevent a movement which seems
to represent the codification of that trend of Anatolian Qizilbash
religiosity, which prevailed in the Kurdish area, i.e. the Ahl-i haqq,
from rinding the necessary links with Twelver tradition. Indeed, were
it not for the fact that the texts dealing with Ahl-i haqq religious ideas
are too modern to allow us to consider them here, it would seem more
correct to regard the BektashI, Ahl-i haqq and Qizilbash movements as
slightly different expressions of the same religious form. For the
Qizilbash as well as for the BektashI, authority was vested in a central-
ist leader who chose to rule the various communities his representa-
tives - dede or bdba - who in their turn made use of an intermediary in
dealing with the tdlib. One of their distinctive signs was the ear-ring
worn on the left ear, which in the case of a dede signified asceticism

6j2
 THE QIZILBASH

and chastity. Among the Bektashls, even today, the chiefs wear sleeve-
less robes like those of the Armenian peasants, but the most character-
istic feature of their costume is the peaked twelve-banded red cap, the
taj-i haidan, variously explained as symbolising the Twelve Imams or
else resulting from Christian influence (the twelve Apostles), trans-
mitted through the Armenians, from whom they have also borrowed
certain practices relating to fasts. Another external sign is beard-kissing
as a form of greeting — a beard being regarded as indispensable, for
anybody dying without one is considered as doomed to unhappiness.
A counterpart to these visible signs is an esoteric sign, understood only
by initiates, viz. the star symbolising the light of the intellect and the
soul, which shone in a Qizilbash and distinguished him from others.
Incidentally, the Qizilbash are sometimes called ot-dinli, or "wor-
shippers of grass", owing to a belief (also current among the
Bektashls), which might be characterised as of Dahrite origin, in the
eternity of natural matter undergoing continual change. This belief led
them to a pantheistic (or perhaps more precisely HurufI) attitude based
on uninterrupted communication between God and his creatures; that
is why, for instance, they swear by grass and by 'All while beating the
ground with a stick. Another name for the Qizilbash is chirdgh-sondiiren
("extinguishers of the light"), reminiscent of one of the Ahl-i haqq
sects which is similarly called KhamushI in Persian, just as the name
Da'udi ("worshippers of David") applies both to some Ahl-i haqq and
to certain Qizilbash from Sivas.
In addition to the normal veneration for 'All and the fraternal ban-
quet — the Bektashi "communion"— another custom, recorded, for
example, among the Kach-Kiri Kurdish tribe, is the funeral banquet
which may throw some light on the charge of cannibalism that has
been brought against the Qizilbash,1 believed to be in the habit of
setting fire to their dead and eating them instead of burying them. As a
matter of fact the funeral repast is consumed on the spot, on the tomb
of the deceased, after the rite of lamentation, and consists of the scatter-
ing of yoghurt and morsels of a specially prepared sacred loaf, all of
which is offered to the friends present at the ceremony. Another
characteristic custom is the confession of their sins which the Qizilbash
make to their dede. The latter ties a tape round the neck of the

1
Scberef Nameb ou Histoire des Kourtles, tr. with notes by V. Velyaminov-Zernov, n (St
Petersburg, 1862), 136.

633
 RELIGION

penitent, who has then to bring the dede an offering, marking the door
with a cross as he enters. After this the tape is removed and the sins are
written down and burned. The person of the dede is considered sacred
and everything he touches is thereby sanctified, and so too is the earth
covering his tomb and the dust on which his horse has trodden, the
latter being carefully collected because of its miraculous properties. On
certain occasions the young women would come to kiss the dede, who
singing mysterious songs would choose one of them to be his compan-
ion for the night; on the morning after the dede is washed and the
water distributed among the various households. All these hybrid and
non-Islamic elements exist side by side with a deep reverence for
Shi'ism, as is shown not only by the link with 'All, who, with his
attributes of holder of temporal authority and repository of the divine
secret, is the central figure in this type of religious belief, but also by a
social organisation reminiscent of certain Zaidite politico-social experi-
ments, as well as by sufl ideas, which, as we have seen, were impreg-
nated with Twelver Shi'ism during the 15 th century. The sufl influ-
ence in its turn found its way into the Shl'a, at the popular level
changing concepts into ritual practices and widening the devotional
field, which previously had been limited to the Twelve Imams.

It was against a background of the kind that we have just described

that there suddenly emerged the figure of Shah Isma'Il, who personifies
success in the historical and religious situation we are studying. In his
own person he comprehended the qualities of a spiritual leader, a
military commander, and a legislative reformer aware of the economic
needs of his followers, as is clearly shown by, among others, Sanudo in
his Diarii. These qualities were exemplified in his public career, for he
realised the basic aspirations of the Qizilbash movement and those of
the other heretical and dissenting bodies active at that time.
He was a sufl, but in such a way as to transcend a shaikh's ordinary
role, acting as an intermediary with God along lines which placed him
closer to God than to the creatures to whom he gave witness. In this
sense he was the long-awaited leader and his military successes were
regarded as proofs of the superhuman nature of his task. His aspira-
tions were identical with those of all the other "Messiahs" of the time,
namely the creation of a State in which religious ideology would be
634
identified with political necessity. Nevertheless, once he had risen to
power, this did not prevent Isma'Il from accepting political compro-
mises and fusing them with his religious beliefs - and this not only on
a personal level.
But in spite of his heretical acts — such as proclaiming himself 'All,
or God, or disdaining to follow the dictates of the Sharl'a — Isma'Il
combined in his own person two conflicting aspirations of Islam,
which, however, have not always led to antithetical consequences: a
need for individualistic religious expression, which was the mainspring
of sufism in the more generic significance of the term, and an urge to
socialise every kind of experience by translating it into terms of the
common weal. Isma'Il was thus a typical Islamic condottiere - in other
words, a "true Caliph", a new embodiment of what was symbolised by
'All throughout the history of Islam, whether orthodox or not.
Western sources describe Isma'Il as a new prophet and provide us
with evidence of the Mahdist and reforming aspect of his mission as
well as of the fanaticism of his followers, whose relationship to their
leader was of the peculiar military-religious type mentioned above.
Isma'Il is also depicted as a friend of the Christians, in contrast to the
Ottomans who were considered the enemy par excellence. This is, in a
way, a Venetian cliche, which, however, has some foundation as far as
Isma'H's changing attitude to the jihad is concerned. Ever since
Junaid's time the Shaikhs of Ardabll, by extending their power to the
temporal field, were conditioned in their tactics for its consolidation by
the jihad, which presented the only religiously admissible method in a
community as fundamentally Islamic as that of the Qizilbash. Their
most natural enemies were obviously the Christians, firmly established
to the north of the Ardabll sphere of influence, but the wavering policy
of the Qara Quyunlu produced what might be called a territorial land-
slide in the Shaikhs' interests when they became the heirs of this policy.
The result was a new interpretation of the jihad, directed no longer
against the Christians but against the SunnI Ottomans, as soon as the
buffer represented by the Aq Quyunlu, who in their turn were also
Sunnls, was eliminated. The religious element in the Safavid concep-
tion of the jihad was gradually trivialised into the normal allegations of
impiety in accordance with the classical formulae of disputes between
Sunnls and Shl'Is; but until the battle of Chaldiran the arguments used
in this connection rank from the point of view of kalam, and even of
Mu'tazilite kalam, among Isma'H's most outspoken affirmations of

635
 RELIGION

heterodoxy. At least, this is the case if we are to believe Sanudo's

Diarii, of which the following is a typical passage:
He took a Turk named Talisman and asked him where God was; and
he replied that God was in Heaven, whereupon he caused the Turk to
be cut in two. And then he took another man, a Christian priest from
Armenia, and he asked him where God was; and he replied that God
was in Heaven and upon earth and pointed to him who was listening.
And he said: "Let him go, for this man knows where God is."1
In the Western sources Isma'H is called the Soft, Sophi, Sufi or Soffi, a
name which is also applied to his successors. That sufl and Safavl were
confused, in the way exemplified by the passage where Pietro della
Valle, speaking of the Ardabll tombs, confuses the "Sofi" (Isma'Il)
with SafI [al-dln],2 would explain why the "surname" of the Safavid
dynasty is not given in any other form. For Europeans, in fact, the
sufis are identical with the Safavid tariqa? This is the case even when a
correct etymology and explanation of the word sufl are given in the
texts, e.g. in Rota4 or in Don Juan of Persia,5 who denies that it had
any connection with the term "sophist", or again in the remark of an
English traveller to the effect that the King of Persia would not be very
pleased if he knew that in the West he was called the "Great Beggar".6
In any case, since those Western texts which mention the word sufl do
not do so in order to stress its mystical connotation, the European
interpretation of this term does not coincide fully with the local mean-
ing, even if any hypothetical confusion is taken into account. In Persia
mystics are not normally called sufl, but the fact remains that contem-
porary Persian sources use the word to denote certain Safavid murids,
and in particular, to cite one example, to denote the seven dervishes
who accompanied Isma'Il when he left Gllan and the reinforcements he
subsequently received during the march from Lahljan to Tarum;7 later
1
Sanudo, Diarii iv, cols. 191-2.
2
Della Valle 1/1, 4 0 7 - 8 (ed. Gaeta and Lockhart, p. 384).
3
See, for example, T. Bulgarelli, Gli amisi a stampa in Roma mlCinquecento (Rome, 1967)^. 139
(copy of a letter from Andimopoli written by Francesco Baiul to Rome, 1538): "...di questa
sitta... fu un grande abbate detto Saich Caoder"; see also Deltorigine, vita et facti iarme del Gran
Sofi al Doge di Venecia, per un maestro Giovanni Rota, ml IJOJ di mai\o, MS Biblioteca Nazionale,
Naples, Fondo MS X F 50, fol. 7or: the Sufis are called qi^ilbash because of the colour of their
caps and "etnaseri" [Iibna'asbarrfya] because of the twelve bands on the same.
4
Delforigine, loc. cit.: "the religion of the Sufis lays down that, to show their humility, they
5
should wear only woollen robes". D o n Juan, trans. Le Strange, p. 50.
6
Geofrey Ducket, in Hakluyt, Principal Navigations 11, 126.
7
Anonymous writer, in Ross, "The Early Years of Shah Ismail", p. 315; Hasan-i RumlG,
Absan al-tavarikh 1, 26.

636
on the term was also used to denote those members of the Safavid
confraternity who were intimates of the shah, i.e. the Sbabisavant,
especially those from the Shamlu, Rumlu and Qajar tribes.1
This is most probably the reason why the term reached the West as
nothing but a synonym for Qizilbash or Safavid. The Qizilbash sufls
provided the group from among which were chosen the various
khalifas and the khalifat al-khulafd, i.e. the vicar-general of the murshid-i
kdmil, the sovereign and only effective head of the brotherhood. The
heaviest burden of the rules of honourable conduct towards the sover-
eign fell on the sufI, and as late as the reign of Isma'Il II a sufI who lied
to his sovereign would be put to death;2 'Abbas I used the term nd-sufi
to denote misbehaviour (IOOI/I 592-3) and called a betrayal in the year
1023/1614-15 a nd-siifi-gari? Under 'Abbas II and Sulaiman the sufls
met in a hall called the td'iis-khdna, but gradually the importance of the
category declined and some of the suf is were engaged in the humblest
occupations, e.g. as sweepers, porters or executioners. At the time of
its greatest splendour the Safavid confraternity granted to the sufl the
religious privileges that it conferred upon its leaders: a morsel of their
food had the virtues of sbafd'a and the khalifat al-khulafa granted
remission of sins in public meetings, beating the penitents with a stick
in accordance with the customs and rites of the Anatolian Qizilbash
and BektashI communities which we have already mentioned. In this
connection the report of an ambassador, Michele Membre, who visited
the court of Shah Tahmasp on behalf of the Venetian Republic, con-
tains a detailed account of the ceremony of public confession as prac-
tised in 1540 and lays particular stress on details of a ritual character
(the fact that the sinners prostrated themselves when begging for
remission and that they were publicly called upon to do so in a certain
order) and on those of a cabalistic HurufI nature (the stick representing
the letter alif etc.).4
In the religious career of Shah Isma'Il we can discern a veritable
parabola. Between the time when he left Gllan with the seven sufls and
his coronation at Tabriz he devoted himself with profound conviction
to his mission as a new prophet-divinity; while the Qizilbash, against a
background that was not only military and political but above all
religious, represented the embryo of a new society that had still to be
1
FalsafI, Zindagam i, 185-6.
2
Cf. the case of Bulghar Khalifa: Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, pp. 518-9.
3 4
FalsafT, Zindagam \, 187. Membre, Rela%ioney pp. 48f.

637
 RELIGION

built up, and acted as a social element which, while accepting the new
message, could provide the guarantees — necessary according to the
Muslim way of thinking - that the declarations and appeals of the
leader were genuine.
The official disavowal of this attempt came at Tabriz when Isma'Il
recited the khutba in the names of the Twelve Imams,1 thus declaring
his support for the Twelver Shl'a in the traditional way of a sovereign,
which even found a reflection (admittedly merely formal) in the
tenuous reform of the taj-i haidarl.2 This fact, however, does not
appear to have had a decisive influence on the religious personality of
Isma'Il, who continued to regard himself as the elected one and as a
conqueror, that is to say as the Imam of his day according to Qizilbash
ideas, which obviously went beyond any Twelver definition of the
term Imam.
The peak of his religious crisis may be historically placed after the
defeat at Chaldiran, which Isma'Il seems to have accepted as a test
designed to confute his divine mission. After that a change became
apparent in his policy, which perceptibly turned Iran toward the east,
as contrasted with the 15th-century tradition which regarded it as an
alternative to Ottoman domination. It was at this stage that the great
betrayal became irreversible, in respect not only of the Qizilbash ideal,
but more specifically of the members of the brotherhood conceived of
as the supporting structure of that now vanished ideal. A vivid echo of
the religious vicissitudes of Isma'Il and his followers can be found not
so much in historical chronicles (e.g. the questionable events of 1512)
as in the literary cycle revolving around certain Turkmen variants of
the legend of KIr-oghlu, apparently a hero of the jaldli type belonging
to the Takkalu tribe, one of the most extreme among those making up
the Qizilbash movement and also, partly for geographical reasons, one
of the most susceptible to non-Islamic influences.3
To a fundamentally ShI'I programme, based on the expectation of
the Mahdl and the acknowledgement of the spiritual powers of the
sovereign, were added various extremist elements of the Qarmato-
Isma'Iliyya type, symbolised by communitarian ideas of the ideal State,

1
See, however, Sanudo, Diarii iv, col. 192: "...and he has with him 40 governors, who are
called calipbani, who also act and celebrate the office in his name, because he says that he is God...".
2
Cf. the passage in the Tarikb-i jabin-ara quoted by Falsafl, Zindagani 1, 164.
3
R. Mollov, "Contribution a l'etude du fond socio-historique du destan 'Koroglu'", fctudes
halkaniques VII (Sofia, 1967), 107-28.

638
reflecting perhaps an experience of the Sarbadar type. Despite the
modifications of this legend to meet the circumstances (among the
Uzbeks we find the extreme case of the hero being an enemy of the
Qizilbash), everything seems to point here to a definitely Qizilbash
conception of history — the key to which is provided by a Bulgarian
variant in which it is definitely stated that Kir-oghlu was a Qizilbash -
more especially as regards the hero-sovereign relationship. We have
on the one hand BektashI historical disengagement, which character-
ises the hero as a member of the tarlqa of 'All, the Mahdi etc, and on
the other a trend towards a more perceptive description of the hero as a
victim of the shah, for whom, although no longer a Messiah, the hero
continues to fight. The figure of the sovereign is deliberately left
vague; he is not a symbol of oppression and betrayal, these tasks being
normally left to an emissary, but an accomplice and supporter of the
anti-ideal pursued to the disadvantage of Kir-oghlu, who by definition
is the shah's hero.
Another indication of Isma'Il's religious compromise stands out in
typically legalitarian aspect against the background of the more and
more "orthodox" character of his virtual conversion to what was
obviously Twelver Shi'ism, even though its first manifestation is not
chronologically defined by our sources: namely the claim to the siydda
which, explicit already in Isma'Il and even more precisely asserted by
his successors, was retroactively attributed to his ancestors by the
panegyrists and emendators of texts. On this point, too, the Western,
and particularly the Venetian, sources are helpful. We need only re-
member the first items of information recorded by Sanudo.1 Contem-
porary Eastern texts, when speaking of Isma'Il, still tend to call him
shaikh-ogblu or even Ardabil-oghlu2 (cf. the term shaikh-dvand used to
denote relatives of the sovereign), without normally referring to his
title of sayyid husaini. And yet this claim, which had its period of
incubation and partial realisation in the years before the battle of
Chaldiran, acquired in serving as a strongly anti-Qizilbash move the
value of a well-planned political decision at a moment when the
sovereign had given up his Imamite aspirations: his power was now
supported by a new form of authority which, being more traditional,
was endowed with sufficient legality to place a bond of obligation on
1
It is true that in Diarii iv, cols. 253-7 a n d 3 1 2 - I 5 . t n e meaning is obscure, but the passage
already quoted and cols. 500-2 are perfectly clear.
2
Shukrl, Salim-nama, quoted in Barthold, "Khalif i sultan", p. 73, notes 307—8.

639
 RELIGION

the Shl'I Iranian aristocracy which had by now inherited the privileged
position formerly held by the Qizilbash.1

VII. TAHMASP AND ISMA'lL II

The history of this reciprocal granting of favours was repeated in a
more decisive way under Tahmasp, though with an irregular rhythm
reflecting the religious involution of Isma'Il's successor, and it culmi-
nated in the violent and systematic repression of the Qizilbash carried
out by 'Abbas I. When the youthful Tahmasp ascended the throne, he
was steeped in the spirit of his preceptors and advisers; thus, like his
father, he inaugurated his reign along the lines of Qizilbash teaching
and then renewed, in a minor key, the experiment of transition to the
traditional forms of Twelver Shi'ism. Obviously Tahmasp was, so to
speak, born a Twelver, and did not inherit from his father the pride in
a mission to be accomplished by him as a prophet-Mahdl. But despite
the conventional trappings with which he surrounded himself follow-
ing his accession to the throne, his figure remained isolated amidst the
orthodox Shi'I establishment, which only later succeeded in obtaining
his complete surrender. This was due to a particular conception of
sovereignty, still strictly bound up with Qizilbash religious demands -
which it would be wrong, because only very approximate, to describe
as being autocratic - and determined by the ethico-political trend
towards a unified conception of the State-religion hendiadys, which
still demanded renewal, reforms, and the elimination of old structures.
In this respect, Tahmasp at first continued the anti-Ottoman policy,
and it was precisely during the least Twelver phase of his reign - and
perhaps not altogether by chance - that the religious aspect of Iran
seems to have undergone an effortless change, with the result that
Shi'ism acquired a greater degree of homogeneity. It seems legitimate
to see in this grandiose phenomenon of conversion, not so much the
abandonment of old systems or a break with juridical traditions, but

1
The lack of unanimity in the documentary sources suggested to Kasravl that Isma'Il never
proclaimed himself a sayyid (cf. Aubin, "fitudes Safavides I", pp . 44—5 and 44 n. 4), but to me it
seems to denote uncertainty on Isma'H's part, which is confirmed by the oft-quoted passage from
Sanudo's Diarii iv, cols. 191-2: "...and his father said that he was a relative of Mahomet; and then
his father died; ... and he says that my father was not my father, but he was my slave; and he says
that he himself is God..." In other words, Isma'Il may have regarded the siyada, at times, as a
handicap in his mission. If this reasoning is correct, then Isma'Il was simply reaffirming, without
conviction, a claim already made by his father Haidar.

640
 TAHMASP AND ISMA'lL II

rather a transition towards a new conception of the State, which was

accepted because it clarified — or at any rate set out to clarify — the
relationship between the sovereign and his subjects, and consequently
between political praxis and Islam. This did not imply a reaffirmation
of those divine attributes which Isma'Il had specifically renounced,
since he had preferred a simple temporal investiture; but it did mean
that there was a supreme idealisation of the temporal leader as a
guarantor of the preparations for the blissful era of the Mahdl and also
of the continuity of the Islamic past, as represented by the claim, from
now on loudly proclaimed everywhere, that the sovereign belonged to
the Ahl al-bait. And, at the same time, this could be considered the first
actual manifestation of a nationalistic kind of claim, according to
which regality was derived from the ancient rulers of Iran.1
An analysis of the situation in Tabriz at three critical moments
between 907/1501, the year of Isma'Il's coronation, and 942/1535, the
date of the reconquest of the city by Tahmasp after it had been occu-
pied by Siileyman, serves to validate our hypothesis of the conversion
of Iran — or at least of the larger urban centres — to Twelver Shi'ism. In
907/1501 Tabriz was in a position similar to that of Kashan (see
above), in the sense that there were neither Ja'fari texts nor, conse-
quently, juridical experts — a circumstance which is normally attributed
to the predominance of Sunnism in the first Safavid capital.2 The
sources do not record any drastic measures taken to remedy the situa-
tion, and this leads one to suppose that in Tabriz, as in Kashan, there
was a slow evolution from a type of Shafi'ism towards a stricter form
of Ja'farism. In 920/1514, when Selim occupied Tabriz after the battle
of Chaldiran, he did not deem it necessary to take any repressive
measures, probably because to him the city appeared to be still SunnI
(and this despite the fact that he had just ordered the massacre of
40,000 Anatolian Qizilbash). For the following twenty years, from this
point of view, Tabriz has, as it were, no history. When Siileyman
arrived in 942/1535, however, it would seem that the city had com-
pletely changed; in other words it had become Shl'I. Venetian sources
tell us that many janissaries went over to the other side and that the
populace rose against the Ottoman foe and greeted the Shl'I Tahmasp

1
Ueposi^ione de persona jede degna del viaggio fatto al campo del Gran Signore verso Babiionia il 14 luglio
i;j;, MS Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, dasse VII, no. 882, fol. jt.
2
LHP iv, 53.

641
 RELIGION
1
as a liberator. The description of so oddly compliant — and yet com-
plete — a conversion is confirmed by a passage in Membre's report.2
There Tabriz is described as a typically Shi'I and almost "modern"
city, where by "modern" we refer to the "form" which characterises
any Shi'I Iranian city, distinguishing it from the towns of any other
Islamic country, and which is not merely based on rituals such as the
observance of Muharram or the public execration of the first Caliphs. It
is also based on certain religious factors inspired both by sentiment and
by folklore which, as we shall see, acquired a canonical form in the days
of MajlisI and were based on a whole set of examples of "coexistence"
with the Twelve Imams, including prophecies, miracles, apparitions
and dreams — all this in a setting which was halfway between the
everyday life and the realm of myths. The modern originality of
Persian Shi'ism has its roots here, and in this sense Tahmasp can
serve as a symbol: after a beginning marked by his Qizilbash back-
ground he soon fell under the influence of the Shi'I 'ulama, the first
notable occasion being his contacts, during the 15 30s, with the sayyids
of Uskuya near Tabriz.3 Although the influx of new contingents of
immigrants from Anatolia continued throughout his reign (at Qazvln
alone there were ten thousand new immigrants at the time of the
sovereign's death, which would seem to indicate that Isma'Il's betrayal
had not taught them an effective lesson),4 the administrative frame-
work shows signs of the arrival of this new component on the political
scene, although its influence was obviously by no means undisputed.
Tahmasp is thus the first modern Persian Shi'I about whom we have
information drawn not only from oriental sources (including the sig-
nificant and searching autobiography of the sovereign himself) but also
from reports by Western observers among which that of Membre gives
us a lucid account of the early period, while the better known work by
d'Alessandri deals with the latter years of the monarch's reign. And as a
conclusion to this theologico-sentimental edifice of which he was
at once the champion and the victim, in his last years Tahmasp was
seized with a veritable mania for conservation: it replaced his already
languishing anti-Ottoman ardour and led him to cut himself off from
the world and to waste his time in commonplace activities that served
as palliatives to his suspicions and fears, rendered more acute by con-

1
Deposition, fol. 3 v; cf. the anonymous Gran Rotta de lo exercito delSignor Turcbofatta dt lagente
2
del Sophi in Persia (Venice, 15 3;), p. 6. Membre, pp. 2Z-3, 4 6 - 8 etc.
3
Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, pp. 229-30. 4 Falsafi, Zindagani1, 187.

642
tinual dreams which were his only guide whenever he had to make a
public decision.
It seems that there could have been no logical reaction to Tahmasp's
clerical and bigoted Shi'ism other than an attempt to reintroduce into
Iran "the impure and wicked commands of the damned Abu Bakr,
'Uthman and others...", which is how Minadoi1 describes Isma'Il IPs
efforts to restore Sunnism in his domains. In actual fact, Iran had been
gradually tending towards definitely Shl'I forms, especially in the larger
cities, where the need to safeguard old-established interests by adopting
an attitude as close as possible to that of the sovereign was most urgently
felt. As invariably happens, the rural areas had revealed a more conserva-
tive spirit, though the character of the whole country was determined by
the common denominator of an expected restoration of the old and pure
Sharl'a, as an antidote to economic difficulties that had never been
solved. Isma'Il II's Sunnism was in its turn an invocation to the Sharl'a,
with the intention of providing himself with a weapon which would
enable him to undermine the power of the Shl'I 'ulama by establishing a
new balance of power between the Iranian aristocracy and the Qizilbash
tribes still active in the political field, since, owing to their mutual
rivalry, both these elements were not unwilling to give him a sure degree
of support. At any rate, although it is possible to describe, with a certain
approximation to truth, the political motivation of such a decision as
anticlericalism, an appeal to the rural peasantry, an obligation of the
Sharl'a or diplomatic opportunism, yet the more specifically religious
mechanism underlying it remains far from clear. Iran was rapidly be-
coming aware that it was the chosen land of the Imams and that its
inhabitants were the repositories of their ta'wil, elements for which the
presence of the sovereign, together with certain incipient national and
religious ideas, had been a determining factor. To a certain extent the
position of Isma'Il II would seem to posit a renunciation of these
prerogatives and a greater sympathy for the more mundane needs of the
country. Translated into religious terms, this meant a return to the
situation that had brought Isma'Il I to the throne, by dint of combating
the obscurantist tendencies of Tahmasp's last years, almost in an attitude
of anti-family reaction which was later carried to extremes, though
within a framework which was again fully and conventionally Shl'I, by
Muhammad Khudabanda.

1
Minadoi, p. 11.

643
 RELIGION

VIII. THE NUQTAVIS

For the reasons stated above it is once again a heresy that will help us
to understand the spirit of the times more clearly than would a close
examination of the official religious policy. The Nuqtavl heresy (the
word is derived from nuqta, "point", naturally in the cabalistic sense)
began in Gllan as an offshoot of Hurufism under the leadership of
Mahmiid Paslkhanl (hence the name Paslkhaniyan sometimes applied
to its adherents) and towards the end of the 8th/14th century probably
represented a form of opposition to the stagnant local Shi'ism with its
Zaidite tendencies. It acquired, to a certain extent, greater significance
during the rule of Isma'Il II, while its end as an organised movement
came in the reign of 'Abbas I. Its kinship with Hurufism, which
explains the obvious Isma'Ul influences present in Nuqtavl ideology
(though we should also bear in mind geographical proximity to
Rudbar), lies in the fact that it adopted a still more definite attitude,
metaphysically speaking, towards the divine ta'tll, and thereby towards
a "Renaissance" appreciation of the value of human actions. Its rela-
tionship to the accepted Hurufi theory that man is the starting-point
for any form of superhuman knowledge is clear. For the Nuqtavl deity,
man does not represent an object of activity, and it is man himself who,
through self-knowledge, can raise himself up to the divine sphere.
Thus good and evil are measured against an extremely mundane yard-
stick and the realities of paradise and retribution occur on earth within
a period of time which may exceed anybody's lifetime, through a
process of metempsychosis corresponding to one's virtues and sins.
This belief in metempsychosis, it should be noted, was stressed by a
later writer, Riza Qull Khan Hidayat,1 whose remarks should be inter-
preted in the light of a possible subsequent Indian influence on the
movement, since its followers, as a result of persecution, eventually
fled to India. Instead of the resurrection of the body, however,
Nuqtavl metempsychosis appears to envisage a continual process of
metamorphosis of matter, considered, in the Dahrite sense, as being
eternal. To this we must probably add various residual elements that
had been present for some time in the very promiscuous substratum of
Gllan, such as the belief in the visibility of the mid-day divinity (riding
upon an ass like Dajjal, who in Iran is not unconnected with Zahhak)

1
Kiya, "Nuqtaviyan", pp. 43-4.

644
 THE NUQTAVIS

and, still more cogently, the classification of the appearance, bodily

movements and qualities of human beings as zuhur of the divine
attributes.1 The Nuqtavis, destined to be the alternative par excellence to
official 16th-century Shi'ism, were persecuted by Isma'Il I after 1514
and, in a more reactionary manner, by the clerical Tahmasp, who in
973/1565 had one of their leaders blinded and in 981/1573-4 carried
out a large-scale repression of the sect at Kashan. After the death of
Tahmasp, however, the movement clearly became the mouthpiece of
two elements which in my opinion are of decisive importance in deter-
mining the religious attitude of Isma'il II: on the one hand, an anti-
Shl'I trend, the theoretical basis of which consisted of the denial of any
need for an official intermediary when dealing with the deity, irrespec-
tive of whether the intermediary were a wall-imam or the whole body
of the Twelver mujtahids acting on behalf of and as substitutes for the
Imam; and, on the other hand, the discontented plebeian element
which was always ready to try the experiment of an organised protest.
During the reign of Tahmasp the most influential groups of Nuqtavis
were to be found at Kashan, Isfahan, Shiraz and especially at Qazvln.
The dervish Khusrau, a plebeian from Qazvln, became their symbol
and guide. His public activities show how closely involved with one
another were the movements of this era and how primitive the
demands which had led to their formation. The dervish Khusrau
"clothed himself as a qalandar" and travelled all over the country
before probing deeper into the Nuqtavl doctrine. On his return to
Qazvln he began preaching in the mosque at meetings attended by
other dervishes and the populace, and this annoyed the 'ulama, who
had him summoned to the court. In the presence of the shah - prob-
ably Isma'Il II - he questioned the dogmas of Islam and the "pure faith
of the Imam", but "did not depart from the Sharl'a", to improve his
knowledge of which he had been attending fiqh lessons given by the
'ulama themselves. He was pardoned in the name of Sharl'a orthodoxy,
which in the social spirit of Islam ranked higher than the ambiguities of
pure kalam. Further information on the complex structure of the sect is
provided by subsequent events (especially the increasing number of
plebeians among his followers), culminating in the takflr launched by
'Abbas I, who had been present at a discussion between a famous

1
Muhammad b. Abl Talib al-Dimishql, Cosmograpbie, ed. A. F. M. Mehren (St Petersburg,
1866), p. 226.

645
 RELIGION

Nuqtavl known as Yusuf the artisan and the qalandar Kuchik in the
course of which the heretical nature of Khusrau's doctrine is said to
have become clear, and the resulting "jest of the stars" (the title of a
well-known novella by Akhundov), in which this same Yusuf took the
place of 'Abbas on the throne for three days before being killed
(1002/1593-4).l The presence of an element that may be termed sufl in
the outward sense of its organic structure (compare, for instance, the
tekke founded by the dervish Khusrau) has no bearing on the fact that
the brotherhood spirit, strengthened in religious terms, now appeared
to be paradoxically anti-mystical in so far as it was anti-individualistic.
This would seem to have created around the movements influenced by
it a margin within which it was possible to achieve a political compro-
mise by means of an increasingly skilful use of the taqiyya, camou-
flaged under the officially recognised esotericism of the various tariqas.
On the other hand the Shl'I religious class soon perceived the ambigu-
ity of such an attitude, and the reaction to this new type of sufism took
the form of a more precise limitation of the boundaries of Twelver
Iran.

IX. THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA

The official religious history of the Safavid era, beginning with 'Abbas
I, is in fact concerned with three fundamental problems: the condem-
nation of sufism; the juridical codification aimed at solving according
to fiqh those contradictions and differences of opinion which would
have been so much more dangerous if they had led to theological
definitions (on the theological refinements reserved for privileged
members and initiates of the so-called "school of Isfahan", see Chapter
13); and, lastly, the promulgation of the new Majlisian theology, a
counterpoint to that feeling based on folklore and ritual which, as has
been said, is typical of modern Shi'ism. In its official form anti-sufl
feeling in Safavid Iran after the reign of 'Abbas I was nothing but a
return to the original standpoint of the Twelver Shf a, traditionally
averse to mystical experience. The importance of sufism in the evolu-
tion of religion during the 15 th century lay in its functional and para-
digmatic value. The typical religious forms tried out in the sufl move-
ments had been transplanted into the body of a dissenting and heretical

1
Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, pp. 648-9.

646
 THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA

Shl'a, whence they were transmitted — emptied, however, of their

revolutionary potential — to the official Safavid clergy. It was mainly a
question of the link, equivalent to a precisely established hierarchical
relationship, between Shaikh - Mahdl - sovereign and murld - wor-
shipper - subject; of the individualistic mechanism which, operating in
connection with even the most heterodox demands, was in this case in
symbiosis with a social and collectivist feeling that allowed a retrogres-
sive check on the experiments carried out by the leader, who was the
mouthpiece of aspirations which were indeed general but had been
modified by refraction through the prism of his personal elaboration.
At a time when the Twelver religious class had been stabilised
owing to a juridical organisation and a hierarchy stricter than in any
other sector of Islam, to have permitted the survival of such elements
outside the organisation would have implied the constant risk of
decentralising for an authority already deeply engaged on both the
religious and the political plane, which exhibited a high degree of
parallelism and gave each other mutual support. Despite the continual
agitation of the qalandars and the aftermath of the elimination of
Qizilbash support within the state, the reign of 'Abbas was therefore
deeply marked by an anti-mystical spirit, so much so that the most
advanced experiments in the religious sphere, viewed with suspicion
by the authorities, were only externally tinged with sufism (e.g. the
philosopher Mir Damad), and the problems which arose melted away
into a refined consciousness and love for theology, this being typical of
the period.
In any case, the fact that the external appearance was sufl in all
matters that did not form part of the official Twelver religion brings us
back to consideration of the question as to how far sufism was used as
a taqiyya during the last century of Safavid rule, not on'y internally, i.e.
to conceal extremist positions that had survived the process of standar-
disation, but also externally, in the sense that minority groups of
Sunnls embraced sufism in order to escape victimisation, for the most
part fiscal but in some cases political. It is known that there were SunnI
groups at Qazvln even in the immediate entourage of 'Abbas, and also
at Hamadan, where in 1017/1608 repressive measures were taken by
'Abbas himself, who accused the SunnI ra'is of the city of ill-treating
the Shl'Is and stirring up his own co-religionists. Surkha, to the west of
Simnan, was likewise the scene of persecution in 1599, but under Shah
Safl it would seem to have been still SunnI, for in a farman dated
647
 RELIGION

1039/1630 he excluded this village from certain measures of tax-

reduction.1 The sole exception was Laristan, whose tenacious Sunnism
had been spared even by Shah Isma'Il during the most political phase
of his activity.
As confirmation of the fact that the definition of suf 1, a vague term
inevitably arousing suspicion, covered more than one form of heresy
(extremism, Sunnism) involving people whose common bond was dis-
satisfaction with the way political or religious power was exercised
after its centralisation at the end of the Safavid era, we may mention the
celebrated defence which Muhammad Baqir al-MajlisI, the mujtahid
prince of the late Safavid period (d. 1111/1699—1700), attempted to
make of his father's eclectic and ambivalent attitude to sufism.2 A
natural result of the sufl question in the history of Twelver Shi'ism
was the solemn takflr proclaimed by the Usull Muhammad 'AH
b. Muhammad Baqir BihbihanI (d. 1216/1801-2),3 which relegated it to
that same sphere of obscurantism which according to official Islam -
whether Shi'I or Sunni - was the domain of all broadly speaking illegal
movements bearing the same burden of a general and typical accusa-
tion of immorality, contempt for the Sharfa, the drinking of wine and
so forth.
As regards the progressive simplification of ritual and theology, in
the sense of an increasingly frequent appeal to an established authority
and a fixed procedure for the various manifestations of religious life,
the most striking example was the growth of a particular juridical spirit
embracing every kind of religious problem and preparing the way for
the theoretical - and not merely de facto - absorption of Twelver
Shi'ism by the Islamic umma, as subsequently codified by Nadir Shah.
Progress towards the official recognition of the existence of another
madhhab besides the four of the canon was marked by lively contro-
versies with the Ottoman and Uzbek Sunnls, and the instances given in
the sources represent so many stages in an ideal evolution towards a
steadily decreasing differentiation of the religious substance of things.
By analysing three of these controversies - the correspondence
between the Uzbek 'Ubaid-Allah and Tahmasp (936/1529-30),4 an ex-

1
Aubin, "Les Sunnites", p. 152.
2
MIrza Muhammad TunakabunI,j2'Wal-'ulama, p. 233.
3
Agha Muhammad 'AH b. Muhammad Baqir IsfahanI BihbihanI, Kisala-ji bairatijya, British
Library MS described by Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian MSS 1, 33—4.
4
Hasan-i Rumlu, Absan al-tavarikh 1, 226-32.

648
 THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA
change of letters between the 'ulama of Mashhad and certain Uzbek
'ulama dating from 997/15 88-9,1 and another dating from the first half
of the 17th century between the Ottoman mufti Asad Efendl and his
Persian colleagues2 — we can establish a few of their fundamental
theses. The views of the Shi'Is are still characterised by the condemna-
tion of the first three Caliphs, which, however, in the letter from the
'ulama of Mashhad is already considered as the affirmation, not of a
religious, but of a political principle and definitely distinguished from
the canonical execration, which is described as an "act worthy of
ignorant Shi'Is". The dispute is restricted to the sphere of the public
activity of the three Caliphs, to whom 'A'isha is naturally added, and
the wrong done to 'All is not regarded as implying a religious fault in a
general sense; it is treated merely as a juridical offence of such a kind
that the guilty parties can still be held to be members of the umma. As
regards the other side, in addition to the charge concerning the execra-
tion, which as we have seen drew a defensive reaction, only in the
Ottoman letter is there a detailed list of charges, which are directed,
however, against the Persian Qizilbash rather than against Shi'Is in
general; controversy thus hinges on the wearing of moustaches and
beards, the improper use of green clothing, the drinking of wine,
sexual promiscuity and the like. Despite the possibility that such mat-
ters might be evidence of heretical tendencies, they are recalled in an
argument more reminiscent of a legal dispute than a theological confu-
tation and they are treated on the same plane as, or rather as supporting
evidence for, the political and religious claims to priority, in relation to
'All, of Abu Bakr as the first convert, 'Umar as champion of the faith
and 'Uthman as editor of the Qur'an. The more definite accusations
belong to the category of political controversies directly involving the
Safavid sovereigns. Conversely, on the Sunni side stress was officially
laid on the category of the "pure Imam" and, while in the letter to
Tahmasp there may still be some doubt concerning their identity, the
subsequent Uzbek controversy shows that the path followed by the
Sunnis was that of the Salafs and the Twelve Imams, both the former
and the latter being guarantors of the true Sunna and of the.jam?a. The
Twelve Imams have always had a place in Sunni devotional attitudes,
especially during the pre- and proto-Safavid periods (the case of
KhunjI may be cited as an example), but after the turbulent interven-

1 2
Amoretti, "Una polemica". Mordtmann, "Sunnitisch - Schiitische Polemik".

649
 RELIGION

tion of the Qizilbash the Safavids must have seemed to the Sunnls to be
"asses of the Imams", just as the Christians were called "asses of
Christ", namely bearers overshadowed by a sacred burden.
At this stage, once political fanaticism had begun to subside, a
contact between the two branches of Islam seemed to become feasible,
subject to the proviso that there was full acknowledgment of the
existence of single points of acceptable difference, whereas the more
mature and original fruits of Persian-Shl'I Safavid thought could be
culled only within the narrow confines of the abstruse domain of
abstract philosophical speculation, which on the one hand was ignored
by official Sunnism and on the other was viewed with deep distrust by
official Shi'ism. In the more strictly ecclesiastical Shl'i camp, the lack of
any definitely religious substance in these controversies was counter-
balanced by the great flowering of religious-juridical codification which,
though not insensible in its turn to strictly political demands, is of
greater interest from the ideological point of view. In its general out-
lines the ideological complexity of Twelver Shi'ism at this stage, when
it was adapting itself to its function as state religion, can be clearly
discerned in the antithesis between the Usulls and the Akhbaris, who
during the Safavid era (after the compilation of the Faiva'id al-madaniyya
by Mulla Amln AstarabadI, who died in 1026/1617) assumed the char-
acter of well-defined currents within the body of the "Imamite
school". The ethico-political foundation on which these two move-
ments were based seems to have been formulated in terms offering a
simplistic view of 15th-century problems. In Iran the Usulls repre-
sented the aristocratic element, which since the reign of Isma'Il had
reaffirmed its function as an indispensable link in the relationship
between the sovereign and his subjects, as a result of the privileges
granted on the basis of the well-known and uninterrupted tradition
dating from the days of Tlmur, and of its specific administrative func-
tions. This was now enhanced by the corporate outlook of a youthful
clergy whose spokesmen were drawn from the aristocracy, within
which — as the sovereign's faithful ally — they became characterised as
the instrument best suited to prevent any effective change in the bal-
ance of forces. When considering this dichotomy — which should not
be viewed as a clear-cut religious contrast — it would definitely be
going too far to attribute to the Akhbaris the significance of symbolis-
ing a constant desire for reforms and progress; but within the Akhbari
movement, providing a proof of its greater vitality (in the purely
650
 THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA
religious sense) and of a certain availability which was at least consis-
tent with the principles of a Shl'I society, there later arose the shaikhl
school, which in Iran was the only adequate testing-ground for new
experiments that served to regenerate the normal Imamic conceptions
when the Safavid era ended. The contrast is thus far more important
than the struggle, bd^ari even if it was not pure folklore, between
factions such as the Haidariyya and the Ni'matiyya. The disappointing
and too fragmentary realisation of the promises implicit in the Akhbarl
principles is certainly outside the scope of this study. Nor can we speak
of a genuine Usull religious feeling, though it is permissible to talk of
Usull and Akhbarl methods, which were divergent trends operating in
the sphere of Majlisian Shl'I society. Let us refrain from essaying a
complete definition, but as one example of disagreement we can mention
the interpretation of the ta'wil, which was obviously the mainspring of
any Shl'I system. For the Usull the Surma, through its interpretation
entrusted to the reasoning ('aq/) of the mujtahid, was the means of
making effective {^ahir) the teachings of the Qur'an. The ta'wil was
therefore entrusted to a special body which, necessarily provided with
particular instruments, had the power to render practically equal to the
text {naqt) that which would otherwise have been only tafslr, or, in
legal terminology, ijtihad or %ann. And it is precisely in its elaboration
of the theory of zann that the originality and fascination of this school
lie. The "cogency of conjecture" was a regrettable practical necessity,
generating what was nothing better than a credo quia incertum and, in the
administrative economy of the Safavid confessional State, an emphatic
proclamation of a kind of solve et repete principle having a cosmic value,
which required the acceptance in all cases of the decisions of the
temporal authority, with the reservation that the real values — should
they have been violated — would be re-established in the life to come.
In this way the Usulls cut themselves off from any prerogative of
renewal, leaving the Imam with the sole function — which necessarily
was never verifiable in space or time - of acting as the basis of their
activity. They abandoned the pursuit of the ideals of perfect justice,
realisable only through the Law which it was the Imam's task to
convey to this world, and resigned themselves to the only realistic way
of making the law consistent with changing circumstances, in an al-
most existential manner. From the religious point of view, reality was
confined to direct and everyday experience of the Sharfa, while the
Reality of Imamic dimensions was merely the logical instrument that

651
 RELIGION

made it possible to define this pure actuality. That Reality belonged to

the plane of myths and not to that of metaphysics. A logical conse-
quence of this was that no further revelation could be expected: the
Imam was no longer considered as having the revolutionary potential
of a Mahdl and his place was taken by a clergy well aware of the change
that had been made to their own advantage. The Imam was no longer
expected to arrive, because he was already there, living in the psyche
and the dreams of the faithful. And these dreams were no longer a
prerogative of saints and seers, but, by a kind of inflationary process,
were from now on extended to all believers.
Ideologically the Akhbarls were in a more classic situation, not
because of any reversal of values vis-a-vis the Usiills, but merely
because, unlike their opponents, they had retained certain options;
recourse to the akhbdr in an individualistic form, and ignoring the
authority of the ijtihad, on the one hand prevented the constitution of
any element that might become a substitute for the Imam, who
remained active and indispensable; and on the other hand it also
prevented the formation of a new naql as a zahir of the Imamic Sunna,
which was considered the only way of interpreting the prophetic
message. The Sunna was thus the Qur'anic ta'wll, and the tafslr drawn
from it did not exclude the possibility that the authentic interpretation
of the Sunna in question should be the will of the Imam destined one
day to change the Shari'a as hitherto applied.
In a religious social conscience this still left room for the expectation
of the Mahdl and his teaching and presupposed the possibility of a
transformation of society starting from the top. Such a position (which
was by no means unusual in the ShI'I outlook, whose extreme manifes-
tations extended in fact far beyond it in originality) now represented
the only vital alternative to the rigorism introduced by the Safavids.
All this is elucidated by the transformation which the theology of
MajlisI brought about in Persian religious life, changing it into a cult
and a spirit that were essentially nationalistic. MajlisI returned to the
Sunna of the Imam and, without introducing any innovations in terms
of its content, restored to the Safavid Shl'a the text of the various
akhbar. The philological demand for new large "editions" of the mater-
ial constituting the Sunna was one of the characteristics of this period,
from which, in fact, date the new compilations of hadith, the most
important of these being Majlisl's Bihar al-amvdr. The new element that
made its official appearance with MajlisI and was divulged in innumer-

652
 THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA

able works of a popular type was the codification of what has been
called the coexistence of the Imam and his followers. It is not the new
miracles performed by the Imam that make it possible to perceive the
transition (which was in fact reciprocal) between legend and theology,
but the context within which these miracles, whether old or new, take
place.
A striking example is the hagiography of the Imam 'All al-Rida,1
virtually identical with that of Ibn Babiiya (4th/ioth century). The
miracles are foretold by luminous visions, by miraculous dreams and
magic voices; generally they occur during a pilgrimage to the Imam,
who speaks to his disciples "as if in a dream" and reveals unknown
readings of the Qur'an. Often the vows fulfilled by the Imam have
detrimental consequences for the typical enemies of Persia at that time,
the Uzbeks or the notables who thwarted the pietistic activities of
good Persians and were probably Sunnls. At the same time stress is laid
on the sanctity of purely temporal requests from individuals and of
demands for the granting of all kinds of privileges to the district of
Mashhad, where the sanctuary of the Imam was situated and which was
also a Shl'I bulwark against the Uzbeks and Turkmens. The Imam,
theoretically deprived of his function as a future effective head of the
State, becomes the devout companion and the benevolent intercessor
in everyday matters. This occurs as the result of a long series of visions,
dreams and auspices which are not in any way mystical and represent
the Iranian canonisation of everything that in Islam had remained
outside orthodoxy (averse to anything that might detract from its pure
monotheism), and confined within the barely tolerated sphere of
religious sentimentalism manifesting itself in forms of ritual and a
particular need of myths.
That is why the Shl'I religion now takes on a nationalist hue based
on figures such as the Eighth Imam, who represented the most perfect
expression of Persian Shi'ism, with his typical characteristics, i.e. a
conscious victim of his own sacrifice and a prophet of the greatness of
Iran, destined to accept his mashhad. As a counterpoint to the funda-
mental theme of the Insan al-kdmil, which in the theology of MajlisI was
recognised in the Iranicised version of the 'All al-Rida "type", pilgrim-
ages to the tombs of the Imam and of the innumerable Imam-^adas,
which had always been regarded as meritorious acts of devotion,

1
Mulla Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad TaqI al-MajlisI, Bihar al-amvar XII, 1-99.

653
 RELIGION

acquired growing canonical status. Theoretically they were even placed

on the same level as the hajj,1 and to the popular mind they were
perhaps more important than this, owing to a series of traditional and
pietistic values which found expression in the accomplishment of the
ziyara, especially to Mashhad, which in the meantime had become one
of the recognised centres of Twelver Shi'ism. The Shl'a still continued
to revolve around the Iraqi axis of Najaf and Karbala, but this infiltra-
tion of popular elements led to a veritable Iranicisation of the holy
places, carried to such lengths that Imamism, at all events in its external
manifestations, became a Persian religion, creating a homogeneous
tradition destined to find its fulfilment in modern times. The compact-
ness of the present Twelver world has sometimes led to misconcep-
tions regarding the nature of the ShT'a in pre-Safavid times, because
habits of thought and religious mechanisms have been attributed to it
which as a matter of fact were present in the Shl'a only during the
Safavid period of its development. The skill displayed by those who
held the reins of power in creating national cohesion around the Shl'a,
which the people of Persia embraced after a slow transition, prevented
any anti-Shl'I reaction at the time of the Afghan occupation. Such a
reaction might well have offered Iran a SunnI alternative founded on a
system capable of solving the country's economic difficulties by doing
away with the privileges of the ruling class; but the brutality of the
Afghans, who were virtually isolated during their campaign and re-
duced to trying to solve problems with which they were incapable of
dealing, merely served to strengthen the bonds between the Shl'a and
Iran, thereby achieving the aim to which Isma'Il had sacrificed his
religious ambitions.
The Dasht-i Mughan farman of Nadir Shah in 17362 was a recogni-
tion of this state of affairs. Like all the sovereigns of Iran he appealed to
the local aristocracy to consider his act as one more step towards the
recognition of the place of Iran within the framework of the Islamic
world. The mujtahid at that time, 'All Akbar Mulla-bashI, was officially
the sovereign's adviser, and the execution of the edict was entrusted to
an official who belonged to the great Safavid tradition, the wicc-sadr
Muhammad 'All. The suggestion that there should be an ideal return to
the period before the days of Isma'Il, who had been responsible for the
introduction of certain deplorable innovations (meaning thereby the
1
Cf. the second "trustworthy" hadlth mentioned in Hajj Shaikh 'Abbas QumI, Kulliyat-i
2
mafatib al-^inan, p. 498. Petrov, "Ukaz", pp. 52-5.

654
 THE HEYDAY OF THE SAFAVID ERA

execration of the first three Caliphs, subsequently abolished), was prac-

tically equivalent to the acceptance of Twelver Shi'ism with its juridi-
cal institutions, so that the mention of the mujtahid does not have the
religious implications one would expect, just as to renounce the execra-
tion of the three Caliphs is not, for a Shl'I, an indicator of theological
aberration. The consequences of this edict are confined in practice to
the final disappearance of the concept of jihad within the Muslim
world, now divided no longer into firaq but into juridical schools,
the fifth of which — the so-called Ja'fari school — is represented by
the Twelver Shl'a, in particular by Twelver Usulism. This led in Iran
to an even greater isolation between actual religious life, entrusted to
popular piety, and the task of the class destined to enforce the Shari'a,
albeit according to the Ja'fari system. A positive result of this dualism
- somewhat unusual from the Islamic point of view - was the adop-
tion of a purely technical conception of whatever is the object of
speculation in the sacred texts. The true Shi'I ability to see problems
through the prism of a highly developed juridical system without any
interference of a religious-humanistic kind later contributed to a more
ready acceptance — in comparison with other Muslim countries — of
modernistic solutions to the various political and social problems.

655
 CHAPTER I 3

SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS, PHILOSOPHY

AND THEOLOGY IN THE SAFAVID
PERIOD

THE BACKGROUND

The Safavid period is one of the outstanding epochs in the intellectual

and spiritual history of Islamic Iran, although its artistic and political
life is much better known to the outside world than what it created in
the domains of sufism, philosophy and theology. Particularly in
Hikmat - that combination of philosophy and gnosis which should be
translated as theosophy rather than philosophy as currently understood
in the Occident - the Safavid period is the apogee of a long develop-
ment which reaches back to the 6th/12th century and the introduction
of new intellectual perspectives into Islamic civilisation by Suhravardi
and Ibn 'Arabl. Likewise, in sufism and the religious sciences the
sudden flowering of activity in the ioth/i6th century is based on the
important but little studied transformation that was taking place in
Persia since the Mongol invasion.
Persia did not become Shf I through a sudden process. Ever since
the 7th/1 }th century Shi'ism was spreading in Persia through certain of
the sufl orders which were outwardly SunnI — that is, in their madhhab
they followed one of the SunnI schools, usually the Shafi'I. But they
were particularly devoted to 'All and some even accepted wilaya (or
valayat, in its Persian pronunciation), that is, the power of spiritual
direction and initiation which Shl'Is believe was bestowed upon 'All by
the Prophet of Islam. It was particularly this belief that made the
transformation of Persia from a predominantly SunnI land to a Shl'I
one possible. The Shl'Is consider SafI al-Dln Ardablll, the founder of
the Safavid order, as a Shl'I, whereas the research of modern historians
has revealed him to be a SunnI. The same holds true of Shah
Ni'mat-Allah Vail, the founder of the Ni'matallahl order, which is the
most widespread sufl order in contemporary Persia. In a sense both
contentions are true depending on what we mean by Shi'ism. If we
mean the Shafi'I school or madhhab, then these sufl orders such as the
656
 THE BACKGROUND

Safavl and Ni'matallahl were initially Sunni and later became Shl'I. If,
however, by Shi'ism we mean the acceptance of the valayat of 'AH, then
in this sense these orders were inwardly Shl'I during this period and
became also outwardly so during the Safavid era.
In any case the role of sufism in the spread of Shi'ism and the
preparation of the ground for the establishment of a Shl'I Persia with
the Safavids remains basic both in the direct and active political role
played by the Safavl order and in the religious and spiritual role of
other orders such as the Kubraviyya and especially the Niirbakhshiyya,
which more than any other order sought to bridge the gap between
Sunnism and Shi'ism.1 Shaikh Muhammad Ibn 'Abd-Allah, entitled
Nurbakhsh, who died in Ray in 869/1464—5, made indirect claims to
being the Mahdl and sought to bring Shi'ism and Sunnism closer
together through sufism. His successors Faizbakhsh and Shah Baha'
al-Din continued the movement in the same direction and finally
became fully Shl'I. A celebrated member of this order, Shaikh Shams
al-Din Muhammad Lahljl, the author of the best-known commentary
upon the Gulsban-i rd%, a work which is a bible of sufism in Persian,
was thoroughly Shl'I while being an outstanding sufl. The story of his
encounter with Shah Isma'Il and the question posed to him by the shah
as to why he always wore black, to which he replied that he was always
mourning the tragic events of Karbala, is well known.2 And it indicates
the complete transformation that had taken place within the Niir-
bakhshl order so that it became totally Shl'I in form. We observe the
same process within the Ni'matallahi and Safavl orders. Both Shah
Ni'mat-Allah, who came to Persia from Aleppo, and Shaikh SafI
al-Din from Ardabll were at first suf Is of Sunni background such as the
Shaziliyya and Qadiriyya brotherhoods. But the inner belief in the
valayat of 'All gradually transformed the outer form of the orders as
well into thoroughly Shl'I organisations, although the inward structure
of these orders, being sufl, remained above the Shl'I — Sunni distinc-
tions. The Ni'matallahi order became Shl'I during the Safavid period
itself, while the Safavl order began to show Shl'I tendencies with
Junaid, who was attracted to the Musha'sha' movement, and became
fully Shl'I with 'All b. Junaid. In all these cases, however, a similar
process was occurring. Sufl orders with Shl'I tendencies were

1
See the series of articles by M. Mole, in KEI during 1959—63; Shushtari, Majalis al-mu'mimn
2
ii, 145—8. Ibid., pp. i;o—6.

657
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

inwardly transforming Persia from a predominantly Sunni to a pre-

dominantly Shl'I land. Therefore, sufism is the most important spiri-
tual force to be reckoned with in studying the background of the
Safavid period.
As for the intellectual background of the Safavid era, there also the
theoretical and doctrinal aspect of sufism, known as gnosis ('irfan),
plays a fundamental role along with schools of philosophy and theol-
ogy. The very rich intellectual life of the ioth/i6th and nth/17th
centuries did not come into being from a vacuum. There was a long
period of preparation from the time of Suhravardi and Ibn 'ArabI to
the advent of the Safavid renaissance, a period which, although span-
ning nearly four centuries, remains the most obscure in the intellectual
history of Persia. Yet without a knowledge of this period an
understanding of Safavid intellectual life is impossible.
There are four major intellectual perspectives and schools of
thought, all clearly defined in traditional Islamic learning, which gradu-
ally approach each other during the period leading to the Safavid
revival: Peripatetic {mashsha'i) philosophy, illuminationist (ishrdqT)
theosophy, gnosis ('irfdn) and theology (kaldtri). It is due to the grad-
ual intermingling and synthesis of these schools that during the Safavid
period the major intellectual figures are not only philosophers but also
theologians or gnostics. The very appearance of the vast syntheses
such as those of Sadr al-Din ShIrazI attest to the long period preceding
the Safavid renaissance which made these all-comprehending meta-
physical expositions possible.
The usual story of Islamic philosophy, according to which it was
attacked by Ghazali and after an Indian summer in Andalusia disap-
peared from Muslim lands, is disproven by the presence of the Safavid
philosophers and metaphysicians themselves. The fact that they were
able to expound philosophical and metaphysical doctrines and ideas
matching in rigour and depth anything written before or after in tradi-
tional philosophy is itself proof of the continuity of Islamic philosophy
after the attacks of Ghazali and Fakhr al-Din Razl.1 Actually, in the
7th/13 th century the mathematician and theologian, Naslr al-Din TusI,
who was also one of the foremost of Islamic philosophers, revived the
Peripatetic philosophy of Ibn Slna, which had been attacked by both of
the above-mentioned theologians, through his philosophical master-

1
Nasr, "Fakhr al-DIn al-Razi".

658
 THE BACKGROUND

piece the Sharb al-ishdrdt, which is a reply to Razl's criticism of Ibn

Slna's last philosophical testament, the Ishdrat wa'l-tanbibdt. Hence-
forth, Persia continued to produce philosophers who followed upon
Tusl's footsteps. His own students, Qutb al-DIn ShlrazI, author of the
monumental philosophical opus Durrat al-tdj in Persian, and Dablran
KatibI, author of the Hikmat al-'ain, continued the tradition immedi-
ately after him. In the 8th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries Qutb al-Din
RazI and a whole group of philosophers who hailed from Shlraz and
the surrounding regions also wrote important philosophical works.
Among them Sadr al-Din DashtakI and his son Ghiyas al-DIn Mansur
DashtakI are particularly noteworthy. The latter, the author of
Akhlaq-i Mansurt in ethics, a commentary upon the Haydkil al-nur of
Suhravardi and glosses upon Tusl's commentary upon the Ishdrat,
lived into the Safavid period and was very influential upon the major
Safavid figures such as Sadr al-Din ShlrazI, for whom he has been
mistaken by many traditional scholars as well as by some modern
historians. Many of the cardinal themes of Safavid philosophy and
metaphysics may be found in the writings of Ghiyas al-DIn Mansur
and other figures of the period, not one of whom has by any means
been studied sufficiently.
Even these philosophers, who were mostly Peripatetic, were influ-
enced by the ishraql theosophy of Suhravardi, especially in such ques-
tions as God's knowledge of things. After the founding of this new
intellectual perspective by Suhravardi in the 6th/12th century, its teach-
ings spread particularly in Persia and became more and more integrated
with Avicennan philosophy as seen in the case of Ghiyas al-Din Mansur
and similar figures from the 7th/13th to the ioth/i6th century. And this
ishraql interpretation of Avicennan philosophy is one of the character-
istics of the intellectual life of the Safavid period, as seen to an eminent
degree in the case of the founder of the school of Isfahan, Mir Damad.
There is also the basic question of gnosis to consider. The teachings
of the founder of the doctrinal formulation of gnosis in Islam, Muhyl
al-Din Ibn 'ArabI, spread throughout Persia rapidly, especially through
the works and direct instruction of his pupil, Sadr al-Din Qunyavl.
Henceforth nearly all the masters of sufism in Persia, such as 'Abd
al-Razzaq KashanI, Ibn 'Arabi's eminent commentator, Sa'd al-Din
Hamuya, 'Aziz al-Din NasafI and such famous poets as Fakhr al-Din
'AraqI, Auhad al-Din KirmanI and 'Abd al-Rahman JamI, were deeply
influenced by the gnostic teachings of Ibn 'ArabI. JamI in fact wrote

659
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

several commentaries upon Ibn 'Arabl's works as well as composing

on the themes of gnosis independent treatises such as the hava'ih and
Ash^at al-lama'at.
Certain philosophers and theosophers began to incorporate this form
of teaching into their schools. Ibn Turka of Isfahan, the 8th/14th century
author of Tamhid al-qawSid, was perhaps the first person who sought to
combine fa/safa and 'irfdn, philosophy and gnosis. In the following centu-
ries this tendency was accelerated in the hands of a few Shl'I gnostics and
sages such as Sayyid Haidar Amull, author of Jam? al-asrdr, which is so
deeply influential in Safavid writings, Ibn Abl Jumhvir, the author oiKitab
al-mujli, which is again a doctrinal work of Shfl gnosis, and Rajab BursI,
known especially for his Mashariqal-anwar. The importance of the work of
these figures for the Safavid period can hardly be over-emphasised,
because it is they who integrated the sapiental doctrines of Ibn 'Arab! into
Shi'ism and prepared the ground within Shl'I intellectual life for those
Safavid figures who achieved the synthesis between philosophy, theology
and gnosis within the cadre of Twelver Shi'ism.
As for theology or Kalam, in its Shl'I form it reached its peak in a
certain sense with the Tajrid of Naslr al-Dln Tusl. During the centuries
preceding the Safavid period a very large number of commentaries and
glosses were written upon it by Shl'I theologians while the SunnI
theologians of Persia such as TaftazanI and DavanI - at least in his
early period - continued to develop the Ash'arl Kalam, which had
reached its peak with Fakhr al-Dln Razl. In fact, this outspoken theo-
logical opponent of the philosophers was also influential in many ways
among Shl'I theologians and thinkers.
In this domain also gradually philosophy and theology began to
approach each other. It is difficult to assert whether a particular work
of Sayyid Sharif JurjanI or Jalal al-Dln DavanI is more Kalam or
Falsafa. Moreover, certain glosses and commentaries upon the Tajrid
such as those of Fakhrl and especially of SammakI, who influenced Mir
Damad, contain many of the themes that belong properly speaking to
Hikmat and Falsafa and were adopted by the Safavid philosophers.
The long series of commentaries upon the Tajrid, which has not been
studied at all fully, is the source of many of the important elements of
Safavid philosophy.
From this vast intellectual background there gradually emerged the
tendency towards a synthesis of the different schools of Islamic
thought within the background and matrix of Shi'ism, which because
660
 THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING

of its inner structure was more conducive to the growth of the tradi-
tional philosophy and theosophy which reached its full development in
the ioth/i6th and nth/ 17th centuries. The advent of the Safavids,
which resulted in Persia's becoming predominantly Shl'I, along with
temporal conditions such as peace and stability and the encouragement
of the religious sciences, which in Shi'ism always include the intellec-
tual sciences (al-'ulum al- aqliyya), aided in bringing nearly four centu-
ries of intellectual development to fruition. And so with suchfiguresas
Mir Damad and Sadr al-Dln ShlrazI, usually known as Mulla Sadra, an
intellectual edifice which has its basis in the teachings of Ibn Slna,
SuhravardI and Ibn 'ArabI and also upon the specific tenets of Shi'ism
as found in the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet and Imams
reached its completion. A synthesis is created which reflects a millen-
nium of Islamic intellectual life.

THE REVIVAL OF RELIGIOUS LEARNING IN THE SAFAVID

PERIOD

For both religious and political reasons the Safavids sought from the
very beginning of Shah Isma'Il's reign to foster the study of Shi'ism
and to encourage the migration of Shl'I scholars from other lands to
Persia. Of scholars of non-Persian origin most were Arabs either of the
Jabal 'Amila region in today's Lebanon and Syria or of the Bahrain,
which included in the terminology of that day not only the island of
Bahrain but the whole coastal region around it. There were so many
Shl'I scholars from these two regions, which had been strongholds of
Shl'I learning, that the two biographical works, Lu'lu' al-Bahrain by
Yusuf b. Ahmad al-Bahranl and Amal al-'amil fi 'ulama Jabal 'Amil by
Muhammad b. Hasan al-Hurr al-'Amill, are devoted to the account of
the scholars of Bahrain and Jabal 'Amila. Such men as Shaikh 'All b.
'Abd al-'AlI KarkI, Shaikh Baha' al-Dln 'Amill, his father Shaikh
Husain, a disciple of Shahld-i sanl, and Ni'mat-Allah Jaza'irl, all of
Arab extraction, were some of the most famous of a large number of
Shl'I scholars and theologians who were responsible for the major
renaissance of Shl'I religious learning during the Safavid period.
It has often been said, even by such authorities as Browne and
Qazvlnl, that the very emphasis upon religious and theological learn-
ing during the Safavid period stifled science and literature and even
sufism. This is only a half-truth which overlooks previous conditions
661
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

and what was actually happening in these fields. The emphasis upon
the study of the Sharfa and theology, while helping to unify Shl'I
Persia, did not stifle activity in other domains until the second half of
the i ith/iyth century, when a reaction against sufism set in. As far as
literature is concerned, it is true that this period did not produce
another Hafiz or Sa'dl, but such poets as Sa'ib Tabriz!, Kalim Kashani
and Shaikh-i Bahai (Baha' al-Dln 'Amill) cannot be brushed aside as
insignificant. Moreover, there are two types of poetry which reach a
new mode of perfection at this time: the poetry dealing with the life,
sufferings and virtues of the Shl'I Imams, which is particularly associ-
ated with the name of Muhtasham Kashani, and poems in which the
doctrinal teachings of sufism or gnosis, as well as theosophy, are set to
Persian verse. In this latter case the Safavid period witnesses the inter-
esting fact that most of its great philosophers and gnostics were also
poets, some of commendable quality.
As for science, a decline had already set in in Islamic science with the
Saljuqs, after which the mathematical sciences were revived by Nasir
al-Dln TusI and his school at Maragha. The early Safavid period con-
tinued this tradition of mathematics and astronomy, whose centre of
study in the ioth/i6th century was Herat. Only in the following cen-
tury did the study of mathematics begin to decline in the madfasas. As
for medicine and pharmacology, this period, far from being one of
decline, produced outstanding figures like Baha' al-Daula to the extent
that some have called it the golden age of pharmacology.1
The case of sufism is somewhat different and more complex. During
the early Safavid period sufism flourished spiritually and even polit-
ically, until, due to the danger of a Qizilbash uprising and a certain
mundaneness which had penetrated into some sufl orders possessing
worldly powers, a religious and theological reaction set in against
sufism as seen in the figure of the second Majlisl. But many of the
earlier religious scholars and theologians like the first Majlisl and
Shaikh-i Baha'I were either sufls or sympathetic toward sufism. More-
over, it was because and not in spite of the spread of Shl'I religious
learning that the type of metaphysical and theosophical doctrine associ-
ated with Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra became current. Such forms of
thought would have been inconceivable without the Shl'I climate
established by the Safavids. Even if the Shl'I 'ulama opposed the

1
Elgood, Chapter 13.

662
 SUFISM

mutasawwifa in late Safavid times, 'irfan or gnosis continued to be taught

and studied within the traditional Shi'I madrasa system itself, in which
milieu it survives to this day in Persia. Those who know most in Persia
even today about Islamic philosophy and even the "theology of
Aristotle", or in other words Plotinus, wear the turban and belong to
the class of religious scholars; they are not "free thinkers" who are
hakims in spite of being Shi'I divines. The establishment of centres of
religious learning by the Safavids and the emphasis placed upon Sharl'I
and theological learning undoubtedly diverted much of the energy of
the intelligentsia to these fields and indirectly diminished activity in
other fields. Not only did it not destroy the intellectual sciences, how-
ever, but it was an essential factor in making possible the appearance of
the vast metaphysical syntheses for which the Safavid period is known.

SUFISM IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

The major sufl orders of the 9th/15 th century such as the NurbakhshI,
Ni'matallahl and Qadirl, not to speak of the Safaviyya themselves,
continued into the Safavid period and flourished into the nth/17th
century. Naturally most of these orders acquired a purely Shi'I colour
and centred most of all around the Eighth Shi'I Imam, 'AH al-Rida,
who is the "Imam of initiation" in Shi'ism and to whom most sufl
orders in the Shi'I and SunnI world are attached through Ma'ruf
al-Karkhl. Many eminent sufl masters of the ioth/i6th century in fact
lived at or near Mashhad, as we see in the case of Muhammad
al-Juniishanl, 'Imad al-Dln Fazl-Allah MashhadI and Kamal al-Dln
Khwarazml, all spiritual descendants of 'AH Hamadanl. All these
masters expressed a special devotion to Imam Rida.1 Likewise the
masters of the Ni'matallahl order, such as some of the actual descen-
dants of Shah Ni'mat-Allah from whom most of the present-day orders
in Persia derive, were thoroughly Shi'I, although here the order was
attached most of all to 'AH himself.
A sufl order which to this day considers itself as the purest Shi'I sufl
order, the ZahabI, was also active during the early Safavid period. The
Zahabis, like most other Shi'I sufl orders, believe that even before the
advent of the Safavids the basic chains {silsila) of suf Is were Shi'I but hid
their Shi'ism through the process of concealment {taqiyyd). The Zahabis

1
Shushtarl, Majatis al-mt/minin II, I 5 6fF.

663
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

claim that only with the advent of the Safavids did the necessity for
taqiyya subside so that the orders were able to declare themselves openly
Shl'I in Persia. Among all the orders the Zahabls consider themselves as
being the most intensely Shl'I; and being especially devoted to Imam
Rida they add the title ra^aviyya to the name of their silsila.
An outstanding example of a sufl work belonging to the Safavid
period and typical of a Shl'I sufl order in its new setting is the Tuhfat
al- abbdsiyya of the ZahabI master, Muhammad 'AH Sabzavarl, a con-
temporary of Shah 'Abbas II and, interestingly enough, the mu'adhdbin
(he who calls the prayers) of the mausoleum of Imam Rida at Mashhad.
The work consists of an introduction, five chapters, twelve sections
and a conclusion. The titles of the chapters and sections are as follows:
Chapter I - On the meaning of tasavvuf and stiff, why there are few
sufls, why they are called so and the signs and characteristics
pertaining to them.
Chapter II - On the beliefs of sufls in unity (taubid).
Chapter III — On the beliefs of sufls in prophecy (nubuvvat) and
imamate (imamat).
Chapter IV — On the beliefs of sufls concerning eschatology (ma'ad).
Chapter V — On the dependence of the sufls upon the Shl'I Imams.
Section I — On the virtue of knowledge.
Section II — On continence and asceticism.
Section III — On silence.
Section IV — On hunger and wakefulness.
Section V — On self-seclusion.
Section VI — On invocation.
Section VII — On reliance upon God.
Section VIII — On contentment and surrender.
Section IX - On worshipping for forty days.
Section X - On hearing pleasing music and on that all pleasant
music is not the singing that is scorned in the Shari'a.
Section XI — On ecstasy and swoon.
Section XII — On the necessity of having a spiritual master, and the
regulations pertaining to the master and the disciple.
Conclusion — On the sayings of the sufls concerning different sub-
jects.
An examination of the contents of this work reveals that it deals very
much with the same subjects as one finds in the classical treatises of
sufism such as the Kitab al-luma', Kisdla qushairiyya and Ihya' 'uliim

664
 SUFISM

al-din. The only difference that can be discerned is in its relat-

ing the chain of sufism to the Shl'I Imams and in its relying not only
upon the Qur'an but also upon Prophetic Hadtth and traditions of the
Imams drawn from Shl'I sources, whereas sufi works within the Sunni
world are based upon the Qur'an and Prophetic Hadlth mostly of the
sihdb literature. As for the role of the Imams, this is a major point that
distinguishes sufism in its Shl'I and Sunni settings. In the chain of
nearly all the orders that are widely spread in the Sunni world such as
the Shaziliyya and Qadiriyya the Shl'I Imams up to Imam Rida appear
as saints and spiritual poles (qutb), but not as Imams as this term is
understood specifically in Shi'ism. In Shl'I sufi orders the presence of
the same figures is seen as proof of the reliance of sufism upon the
Imams, as the fifth chapter of the Tuhfat al- abbdsiyya demonstrates in a
typical manner.
Besides the type of Sufism represented by the ZahabI and other
regular orders during the Safavid period, there are two other kinds of
Islamic esotericism to consider: the first is the case of those like Mir
Abu'l-Qasim FindiriskI and Baha' al-Dln 'Amill who were definitely
sufls and are recognised as such by the sufi orders, but whose initiatic
chain and spiritual master are not known; the second is the case of
gnostics like Sadr al-Dln ShlrazI who definitely possessed esoteric
knowledge usually in the form of Hikmat — which also implies means of
attaining this knowledge — but who did not belong, at least outwardly,
to any sufi orders, so that the means whereby they acquired this gnostic
knowledge remains problematic. Mulla Sadra, while being a thorough
gnostic like Ibn 'ArabI, wrote his Kasr al-asndm al-jdhiliyya against those
in his times who pretended to belong to sufism and whom he calls
mutasavvif, using this term in the particular context of his time and not as
it has been employed throughout the history of sufism.
In fact, what we observe during the Safavid period is that as the sufi
orders become more popular and acquire in certain cases a worldly
character, a reaction sets in against them from the quarter of the
religious scholars. Henceforth within the class of the 'ulama it is no
longer socially acceptable to belong openly to one of the well known
sufi orders so that esoteric instruction is imparted without any
outwardly declared sufi organisation. Moreover, the term 'irfan, or
gnosis,1 is employed with respect in place of tasavvuf, which from the

1
By gnosis we mean, of course, that knowledge which is related to being and results from the
union between the subject and the object, and not the Christian heresy of the 3rd century.

665
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

to the 12th/18th centuries falls into disrepute in the circles of

exoteric authorities of the religion. That is why, while Baha' al-Dln
'Amill practised sufism openly, Qazi Sa'Id QumI, whom a contempo-
rary authority has called the Ibn 'Arab! of Shi'ism, refers constantly to
'irfan, but never claims to be a sufl in the usual sense that is found
within the turuq, although without doubt he was a sufl. To this whole
situation must be added the initiatic role of the Twelfth Imam for the
elite of Shi'ism in general, and the fact that the whole structure of
Shi'ism possesses a more esoteric character than we find in the exoteric
side of Sunnism. This fact made it possible for esoteric ideas to appear
even in certain exoteric aspects of Shi'ism.
As a result, the Safavid period presents us with not only the regular
sufl masters of the well known orders, but also with gnostics and sufls
of the highest spiritual rank whose initiatic affiliation is difficult to
discern. Moreover, the gnostic dimension of Islam penetrates at this
time into philosophy and theosophy or Hikmat, and most of the
important figures of this era are thinkers with the highest powers of
ratiocination and with respect for logic while at the same time seers
with spiritual visions and illuminations. It is hardly possible to separate
philosophy, theosophy and gnosis completely in this period.

OUTSTANDING INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES OF

THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Shaikh Baha' al-Din 'Amili

From the point of view of versatility, Baha' al-Dln 'Amill, known to
the Persians as Shaikh-i Baha'I (the name is quite unconnected with the
heterodox Baha'I sect which finally broke away from Islam), is the
most remarkable figure of the Safavid renaissance. Born in Ba'labakk
in present-day Lebanon in 953/1546, the son of the leader of the Shl'I
community of that region, Shaikh Baha' al-Dln was brought to Persia
by his father at the age of thirteen and soon mastered the Persian
language to such an extent that he is usually considered the best Persian
poet of the ioth/i6th century. He studied in Qazvln, then a centre of
Shi'I learning, and in Herat, where he mastered mathematics. His most
famous teachers were his own father, 'Izz al-Dln Husain b. 'Abd
al-Samad, and Maulana 'Abd-Allah Yazdl, the author of the celebrated
glosses upon the Tahdhib in logic, which is studied to this day in
666
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

Persian madrasas under the title of Hdshiyya-ji Mulld 'A.bd-A.lldh. He

also studied medicine with Hakim 'Imad al-Dln Mahmiid. After a
period of travelling in Persia and pilgrimages to Mecca, Shaikh-i Baha'I
settled in Isfahan, where he gained the title of Shaikh al-Islam and
where, during the reign of Shah 'Abbas, he became the most powerful
Shi'I figure in Persia. He died in 1030/1621 and is buried in Mashhad
near the tomb of Imam Rida. His beautiful mausoleum is visited by
thousands of pilgrims to this day.
The many-sided genius of Shaikh-i Baha'I is best illustrated by the
diversity of his works, nearly all of which have become authoritative in
their own domain. These works include: in the field of Qur'an and
Hadlth, A.rba'un badithan, a collection of forty prophetic traditions with
commentary, glosses upon the Tafstr oi Baidawi, Hall al-huriif al-Qur'an
on the opening letters of some of the chapters of the Qur'an, 'Urwat
al-wuthqd, a commentary upon the Qur'an, and Wajt^a, also known as
Dirdyat al-hadtth^ on the science of Hadlth; in the field of jurisprudence
(fiqh), theology, and specifically Shi'I studies, ithnSashartyjat in five parts
on the Muslim religious rites, Jdmi'-i 'abbdsi, the most famous Persian
work on Shl'I fiqh, Habl al-matin on the injunctions (ahkatri) of religion,
Hadd'iq al-sdlihin, a commentary on the Sahtfa sajjddiyja of the Fourth
Shi'I Imam, Miftdh al-faldh on daily litanies and prayers, and a treatise
on the necessity to perform the daily prayers (saldt); in the sciences of
language, Asrdr al-baldgha on rhetoric, Tabdhib al-baydn on Arabic
grammar and Fawd'id al-samadtyya, an advanced work on Arabic gram-
mar still very much in use in Persia today; dozens of works on various
branches of mathematics such as Tashrih al-afldk on astronomy, Khuld-
sat al-hisdb, the most famous Muslim mathematical treatise of the last
few centuries, and glosses on Chaghmlnl's astronomical treatise;1
several treatises on the occult sciences now lost; and many works on
sufism of which the most famous is the Kashkul ("The begging bowl"),
which as the title indicates contains, like the begging bowl of the
dervishes into which bits of food were thrown, selections from
masterpieces of sufl literature. His poems also, such as the masnavis
Tiiti-ndma, Nan va halvd and Shir va shikar, which are written in the
style of Jalal al-DIn Ruml's Masnavi, all deal with sufism. Altogether
nearly ninety works are known to have been written by him concern-

1
See H. Suter, Die Malbtmatiktr und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (Leipzig, 1900), p. 194.

667
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

ing nearly every domain of the Islamic sciences from mathematics to

gnosis, from astronomy to theology.1
But the works of Shaikh-i Baha'I include, besides these writings,
buildings and gardens which have helped leave such a vivid memory of
this figure in the minds of the people of Isfahan and surrounding regions
to this day. Shaikh-i Baha'I was an accomplished architect and helped in
drawing the plans for the Shah mosque in Isfahan, which is among the
masterpieces of Islamic art. He built a bath house based on the oral and
secret knowledge of masonry and architecture which he undoubtedly
possessed, a bath which according to many witnesses had hot water with
only a candle burning underneath its water tank. The bath was destroyed
about forty years ago. He designed the plans for the beautiful Fin
Garden of Kashan, which served as a model for the more famous
Shalimar Garden of Lahore. In yet another field, he calculated the
proportion of water of the Zayandarud to be distributed to each piece of
land on the river's course to Isfahan, a work which is called the Tumar-i
Shaikh-i Bahd'T. This involves a very complicated mathematical problem,
which he solved so well that over three and a half centuries later his
method is still used and only after the projected dam on the river is
finished will his division of its waters be no longer applicable.
Shaikh-i Baha'I is the last eminent representative of the Muslim
hakim in the sense of being the master of all the traditional sciences. He
was also one of the last eminent representatives of the class of 'ulama
who were outstanding mathematicians and who did not feel it below
their dignity to take an astrolabe and make actual observations or
measurements. After him, with only a few exceptions, the 'ulama
ceased to be interested in the mathematical sciences, with the result that
the teaching of these sciences deteriorated rapidly in the madrasas.
Shaikh-i Baha'I was an authority in both the exoteric and esoteric
aspects of Islam. He hardly hid his sufism and frequented sufl gather-
ings openly. His Tutt-nama contains some of the most eloquent and
frank expositions of sufism in Persian verse. His sufism also possessed
a popular aspect without itself being in any way devoid of intellectual
content or the awareness that belongs only to the elite {khavdss) among
the sufis. But in the sense that the highest is reflected in the lowest, his
1
For his works, see Naflsl, Abval va asb'ar, pp.92—no. The traditional biographies of the
Safavid and later periods, such as Amal al-amul, Salafat al-'asr, Lu'/u'at al-Babrain, Tarlkh-i 'alam-
ira-yi 'Abbisi, Kau^at al-jatmat, Mustadrak al-vasi'il and Raihanal ai-aJab, all contain accounts of, or
references to, his life and works.

668
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

sublime siifl message was propagated within the popular strata of

sufism and even in fact among the populace in general. To this day
many storytellers (naqqals) in the traditional tea houses chant his
poetry, while his theological and juridical works are read by advanced
religious students in the madrasas. Also his prowess and competence as
a mathematician of the Pythagorean kind and fame as an alchemist have
left their mark on the popular conception held of him. He is an eminent
representative of the sufl scientists of which Islamic history has pro-
duced many examples.
In traditional theosophy or Hikmat Shaikh-i BahaT does not reach
the level of Mir Damad, his contemporary and close friend, or Mulla
Sadra, his student. But his contributions to Shl'I law and theology,
mathematics and sufism are sufficient to make him one of the leading
lights of the Safavid period. He is one of the figures most responsible
for the rapid spread of Shl'I learning in i oth/16th century Persia and a
person who, more than any other figure of his day, sought to display
the harmony between the law and the way, the Shari'a and the Tariqa,
which comprise the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of Islam.
Most of the well known scholars who came to Isfahan were stu-
dents of Shaikh-i Baha'I: men such as Mulla Muhammad TaqI MajlisI,
Sayyid Ahmad 'Alavl, Sadr al-Dln Shlrazi and Mulla Muhsin Faiz
Kashani. Over thirty of his students, many of whom also studied
with Mir Damad, became well known figures themselves, spreading
in yet another way the influence of their teacher. Through all these
channels, that is, his writings, monuments and students, Shaikh-i
Baha'I was able to exercise widespread influence throughout nearly all
classes of Persian society. There is no other figure of the Safavid
period who became so well known to the elite and the common
people alike, and who left such a deep mark as a national and almost
mythological hero upon the people of Persia.

Mir Damad
Mir Muhammad Baqir Damad HusainI, entitled Sayyid al-hukama' and
Sayyid al-falasifa,1 is the real founder and central figure of the theoso-
phical and philosophical school which has now come to be known as
1
These titles are mentioned in Maulavl Muhammad Muzaffar Husain Saba, Ta^kira-ji ru^-i
rausban (Tehran, 1345), p. 51, and Hajjl Aqa Mujtaba 'Iraqi, Fibrist-i kJlabkbana-ji madrasa-ji
faiijyya-jiQum 1 (Qum, 1358), p. 391. Most historians, such as Tunakabuni, Qisas, p. 333, agree
that Mir Damad was a descendant of the Prophet through Imam Husain, whereas 'All Khan,
Salafat al-'asr, p. 485, considers him as Hasanid.

669
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

the School of Isfahan. As the person who established and classified the
traditional sciences in the new Shl'I setting of Safavid Persia, as
Aristotle had done in Athens and Farabi in the newly born Islamic
civilisation as a whole, Mir Damad has been honoured with the further
title of the "Third Teacher" (mu'al/im-i sdlis), following Aristotle and
Farabi, the First and the Second Teachers.1 As for his title Damad
("son-in-law"), it refers to the fact that his father was the son-in-law of
Shaikh 'All 'Abd al-'AlI KarkI, the celebrated Shl'I scholar of the early
Safavid period.2 Mir Damad also composed fine poetry under the pen
name Ishraq, by which he is known in the annals of literary history. But
this appellation also has a philosophical significance in that it demon-
strates openly his attachment to ishraql theosophy.
The date of Mir Damad's birth has not been determined with cer-
tainty: that given in the glosses upon the Nukbbat al-'iqdl of Sayyid
Jamal al-Dln Husain BurujirdI is 969/1561—2, and appears as fairly
likely considering the date of his death and the approximate span of his
life, which are known. His education was carried out mostly in Mash-
had, and possibly Arak, and his best known teachers were Shaikh 'Izz
al-Dln Husain b. 'Abd al-Samad, the father of Shaikh-i Baha'I, and Mir
Fakhr al-Dln Sammaki, who taught him the intellectual sciences
{al-'ulum al-aqliyya)? Mir Damad travelled several times within Persia
to Qazvln, Kashan and Mashhad and accompanied Shah SafI to Iraq,
where he died in 1040/1630-1; he was buried in Najaf near the mauso-
leum of 'All, and his tomb is venerated to this day.
It was possible for Mir Damad to revive the intellectual sciences and
especially Hikmat because of his special gift in these sciences, added to
the remarkable respect and authority in which he was held among the
jurisprudents and theologians as well as with the king. He lived an
extremely pious life and is said to have read half of the Qur'an every
night. Many of his poems are dedications to the Prophet and 'All, such
as the following quatrain in praise of the Prophet of Islam:
O Seal of Prophecy! The two worlds belong to thee.
The heavens, one is thy pulpit and nine thy pedestal.
There would be no wonder if thou didst not cast a shadow,
For thou art light and the sun is itself thy shadow.
1
The title appears specifically in many works, e.g. 'All Qull Khan Daghistani, Kiya^ af-sbi/ara,
2
MS in the Majlis Library, Tehran. Iskandar MunshI, trans. Savory, p. 234.
3
An account of his life and teachings is found in nearly all the standard biographies and
histories such as Lif/i/at al-Babrain, Mustadrak al-vasSil and Rau^dt al-janndt, as well as in more
contemporary sources such as A'yan al-sbi'a and Kaibanat al-adab.

670
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

In his Persian work, the Ja^avat, he begins with a poem dedicated to

'All in which he sings:
O herald of the nation and soul of the Prophet,
The ring of thy knowledge surrounds the ears of the intelligences.
O thou in whom the book of existence terminates,
To whom the account of creation refers,
The glorified treasure of the revelation,
Thou art the holy interpreter of its secrets.
The intensity of religious fervour in Mir Damad was too great to
permit his being criticised in any quarter for having revived Hikmat
and the wisdom of Ibn Slna and Suhravardl. To this element must be
added the abstruseness of his writings, which veiled their meaning
from the eyes of the uninitiated and helped establish the banner of
Hikmat firmly, without any opposition from the 'ulama. No Muslim
philosopher or sage has ever written works in such a difficult style and
complicated phraseology, which makes access to his works well nigh
impossible for all, save for those with a sound training in the tradition
of Islamic philosophy and the aid of the oral instructions which accom-
pany the texts. The difficulty of Mir Damad's works is such that many
stories have been told about him and it is even said that, during the
first night in the grave, when the angels asked him concerning his
beliefs he gave an answer that was so difficult that even they did not
understand it and so went to God in search of help. The anecdote
continues by mentioning the fact that even God did not comprehend
Mir Damad's sayings but allowed him nevertheless to enter Paradise
because he was a virtuous man.
About fifty works of Mir Damad are known, of which most are in
Arabic and a few, including his collection of poems, are in Persian.1
These include works on theology and jurisprudence, Qur'anic com-
mentary and other religious sciences, and especially Hikmat, which is
the subject of most of his writings. The most celebrated of these are
al-Ufuqal-mubtn, al-Sirat al-mustaqtm, Qabasat, which is possibly his most
important opus, Taqwim al-tmdn and Taqdisdt, all in Arabic, and ]a%avat
and Sidrat al-muntaha in Persian. The lattermost work may have been
completed or even written by his student Sayyid Ahmad 'Alavl,
although in the Ja%avdt Mir Damad mentions it as one of his own

1
I. al-SJsi, in a recent Ph.D. thesis at the Faculty of Letters of Tehran University (1967), which
involved the preparation of a critical edition of the Ja^avat, mentions 5 2 works by Mir Damad.

671
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

writings. He also wrote commentaries upon the works of Ibn Slna and
Naslr al-Dln Tusi, and the collection of Persian and Arabic poems,
Mashdriq al-anvdr.
Mir Damad revived Avicennan philosophy in ishraql dress. He may
be considered as an ishraql interpreter of Avicennan metaphysics in the
spiritual universe of Shi'ism. But his interpretation is very far from the
rationalistic Avicennanism with which the Occident is acquainted
through the interpretation of medieval latin scholastics.1 In fact, in a
conscious manner Mir Damad distinguishes between YamanI and
Yiinanl (Greek) philosophy, the first of which he associates with
wisdom derived from revelation and illumination and the second with
rationalistic knowledge. The "YamanI" here refers to the symbolism of
the right side (jamiri) of the valley when Moses heard the revelation of
God. The right side or the east is therefore symbolically the source of
illumination and revelation, of light and spirituality, and the left side or
the Occident, in accordance with the well known symbolism of ishraql
theosophy, the source of darkness or of purely discursive and
rationalistic knowledge.2 The school of Hikmat thus established by
Mir Damad, very far from being a continuation of Muslim Peripatetic
philosophy as it came to be known in the West, was a school in which
illumination was combined with ratiocination and where the Avicen-
nan metaphysics was transformed from an abstract system of thought
to a concrete spiritual reality which became the object of spiritual
vision and realisation.
Nowhere is this better seen than in two works of Mir Damad which
record two different spiritual visions he had, the first in Ramadan
1011/1603 and the second twelve years later in the middle of Sha'ban
1023/1614. The first, which occurred in a mosque in the city of Qum
after the afternoon prayers, involved a theophanic vision of the
Prophet and his five Companions, Abu Dharr, Salman, Miqdad,
Hudaifa and 'Ammar - who are so important for Shi'ism - the Twelve
Imams and the host of angels. These figures of light appeared to Mir
Damad with such intensity that he wrote that he would have a nostal-
gia for the vision of this spiritual universe until the Day of Judgment.

1
On the difference, see Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, tr. W. Trask (New York,
1960), pp. ioiff.; Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, pp. 46ff., and An Introduction, pp. i8jff.
2
See Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, chapter 2, and "Suhrawardl", pp. }8iff., as well as Corbin's
many studies on this theme. On the symbolism of the Yemen, see Corbin, "Le recit d'initiation et
l'hermetisme en Iran", Eranos jabrbuch XVII (1949), 136—7.

672
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

The second vision, which took place twelve years later at Isfahan,
came directly from the practice of invocation {dhikr) in a spiritual
retreat (khalwd). As Mir Damad himself accounts in his Kisdlat
al-khafiyya al-qudsiyya al-malakuttyja, the vision came when he was
invoking the two Divine Names, al-Ghani and al-Mughni. Suddenly he
was taken on the wings of the spirit to the spiritual world where he was
given a vision of the celestial hierarchies and the various superior states
of being. In a most dramatic fashion the vision involved an actualisa-
tion of the Avicennan metaphysics and cosmology from what appears
as an abstract scheme in Peripatetic philosophy to a concrete reality —
in accordance with all true metaphysics, which deals not with theory in
the modern sense but with theoria, or intellectual and spiritual vision in
its original Greek sense. Moreover, the vision took place on the eve of
the birthday of the Twelfth Imam, on a night which according to Shl'I
sources is the second most sacred night in the Islamic calendar after
lailat al-qadr or the night of power. It is a night when spiritual influ-
ences descend upon man and when this very descent or deployment of
grace (Jaid) makes possible the spiritual ascent described by Mir
Damad.1
The two experiences described by Mir Damad himself are the only
witnesses we possess to the spiritual side of his life, a life which was
otherwise immersed in religious and philosophical activity. But the
very fact that he was able to experience such visions proves the con-
stant presence of a spiritual life and a practice which is the same as
sufism in its most universal manifestation. There is nothing closer to
sufi spiritual practices than the dhikr and the khalwa. This may appear
strange in a sage who was especially known for his powers of
ratiocination and logic and who was such an authority in the exoteric
sciences. But one of the characteristics of later Persian theosophy is
precisely the fact that philosophy and rational thought are tied to
spiritual practices and illumination, and metaphysics becomes not the
result of rational thought alone but the fruit of vision of the superior
world.
An element that characterises the works of Mir Damad is his con-
cern with time and the relation between change and permanence, or the
eternal and the created (qidam and buduth). This problem has occupied
Muslim theologians and philosophers from the beginning and many

1
For the Arabic text and French translation, see Corbin, "Confessions extatiques", pp.

673
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

solutions have been presented for it, although it cannot be solved

through rational thought but only through the coincidentia oppositorum
made possible through metaphysics and gnosis. Mir Damad is known
as the author of a novel view on this subject called hudus-i dahri. He
distinguishes three realms of being which are as follows: Sarmad, or
eternity, refers to that reality which does not change, or more exactly
to the relation between the changing and the changeless. This concerns
the Divine Essence and the Divine Names and Qualities, which are the
self-determination of the Essence and themselves immutable. Below
this world, which alone is absolutely eternal, stands dahr or the world
which relates the immutable to the changing. The world is created not
directly by the Essence but through the immutable archetypes or
"lords of the species" {arbdb al-anvd1) and dahr represents precisely this
relationship between these immutable archetypes and the changing
world. Below dahr stands time (^amdri), which represents the relation
between changing things. The world was not created in time in the
sense that there was first a time and then an event called creation which
took place in it. This would be hudus-i %amdni which Mir Damad
rejects. Rather, according to him this world was brought into being
through the archetypes and with respect to dahr which stands above
zaman. Creation is therefore hudus-i dahri; it is ibdS and ikhtirS, not
takwin.
This theme is amply treated by Mir Damad in all its ramifications and
he comes back to it again and again in his books. His works in fact are
not divided into the classical four sections of metaphysics {ildhiyyaf),
natural philosophy {taWiyydi), mathematics (riyd^iyydi), and logic
(mantiq) that we find in the well known works of Islamic philosophy
such as the Shifd' and Na/dt of Ibn Slna or the Persian Durrat al-tdj of
Qutb al-Dln Shlrazl. Rather, they treat different themes of metaphysics
and philosophy whose axis remains the problem of the relation between
time and eternity. Altogether these works show a Suhravardian inter-
pretation of Avicennan philosophy in the matrix of Shi'ism, in which the
most rigorous Peripatetic logic is combined with a Pythagorean interest
in number and harmony and an ishraql attraction to the illuminative
aspect of the angelic world. These are elements that were instrumental in
establishing the School of Isfahan, which Mir Damad more than any
other figure helped to bring into being and which found its culmination
in his disciples and students.
Of the intellectual progeny of Mir Damad the most important is
674
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

Mulla Sadra, whom Mir Damad held in the greatest esteem and to
whom we shall turn shortly. But there are a host of others such as
Sayyid Ahmad 'Alavl who became Mir Damad's son-in-law and is
known for his commentary upon the Shifd' of Ibn Sina and works
which elucidate the thought of his master. One must also mention
Mulla Khalll QazvinI, a most respected scholar of his day, who has left
one of the best known commentaries upon the Usiil al-kaft of KulainI,
Zalall Khunsarl, one of the well known poets of the Safavid period,
Qutb al-Din Ashkivarl, the author of the monumental history of phil-
osophy in Persian called the Mahbub al-qulub, which remains unedited
to this day, and lesser known figures such as Ahmad b. Zain al-'Abidln
'Alavl 'Amill Jill and Mlrza Muhammad Qasim b. Muhammad 'Abbas
Jllanl. One must mention also particularly Mulla Shamsa GllanI
(d. 1098/1686-7), w n o continued the school of Mir Damad, writing a
treatise on the problem of the creation of the world, about which he
also corresponded with Mulla Sadra, and commenting upon the
Qabasat of Mir Damad. The combination of Avicennan and ishraql
elements seen in Mir Damad is very much present in his works and he
is among the most faithful propagators of his master's teachings.1

Mir Abu'l-Qasim Findiriski

A contemporary and close friend of both Mir Damad and Shaikh-i
Baha'I, Mir FindiriskI is much less known and less studied and remains
to this day the most mysterious intellectual figure of the Safavid
period. In his lifetime he was considered, along with Mir Damad and
Shaikh-i Baha'I, as one of the great masters of Isfahan and was highly
revered in religious circles as well as at court. He lived a life of
simplicity and asceticism and was a practising sufi whose personal life
can be compared in every way with those of the well known classical
masters of sufism.2 He travelled to India frequently and was highly
revered by Hindu Yogis and Muslim sages alike. He is said to have
journeyed often, but he also lived in Isfahan for a considerable portion
of his life and taught philosophy, mathematics and medicine in that
city. Because of his sufi practices and esoteric knowledge Mir
FindiriskI came to be credited with miracles such as being in two places

1
See ShlrazI, al-Shawahid, p. 93 of the editor's introduction.
2
TabrM, Kaibanat al-adab ill, 231-2; Hidayat, Riya^ al-arifm, p. 276.

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 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

at once and travelling great distances instantaneously. The very attribu-

tion of these accounts to him is of the greatest interest in understanding
his personality. Even after his death his reputation would not leave him
alone, for when he died in 1050/1640— 1 in Isfahan he was buried in the
famous Takht-i Fulad cemetery, not in a regular grave, but in one which
is surrounded within the earth by a metal case. Since he was celebrated as
an alchemist, people were afraid that his grave would be dug up by those
who sought the philosopher's stone and who would violate the sanctity
of his grave in quest of physical gold.
Mir FindiriskI wrote little. His extant works include the monumen-
tal commentary in Persian upon the Yoga Vasistha which had been
rendered into Persian by Nizam al-Dln Panlpati and which is one of the
major works in Persian on Hinduism, a treatise on motion (Risd/at
al-haraka), another on sociology from the traditional metaphysical
point of view (Kisala sana'iyya) and the Usiil al-fusiil on Hindu wisdom.
Recently his treatise on alchemy, in Persian, has also been discovered in
a manuscript acquired by the Library of the Faculty of Letters of
Tehran University.1 But his most famous work is a qastda which sum-
marises the principles of Hikmat in verses of great beauty, showing
Mir FindiriskI to be an accomplished poet like Mir Damad and
Shaikh-i Baha'I. The poem begins with the verses:
Heaven with these stars is clear, pleasing and beautiful;
Whatever is there above has below it a form.
The form below, if by the ladder of gnosis
Is trodden upward, becomes the same as its principle,2
and continues to discuss the most essential aspects of Hikmat. It has
been for this reason commented upon by several later hakims such as
Muhammad Salih Khalkhall and Hakim 'Abbas Darabl. It is also
highly regarded by most of the contemporary masters of Hikmat in
Persia.
Many later authorities believe that Mulla Sadra studied with Mir
FindiriskI and learned the particular features of his doctrine such as
trans-substantial motion and belief in the "imaginal world" from him.
This is impossible to deny categorically, for there may have been an
oral instruction imparted, but what remains of the written works of

1
M.T. Danishpazhuh, Catalogue mitbodique...des manuscrits de la bibliotbique privet de tlmam
Jum'ab de Kermart donne en legs a la Facultides Lettres de Tehran (Tehran, 1965), p. 11.
2
Full translation in Nasr, "The School", pp. 923—4.

676
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

Mir FindiriskI reveals that in philosophy he was a faithful follower of

Ibn Slna and specifically denied trans-substantial motion {al-harakat
al-jauhariyyd) and the archetypal world in his particularly philosophical
works. Moreover, all of his students except Mulla Sadra — if we do
accept that Mulla Sadra studied with Mir FindiriskI - were more or less
Avicennan.1 Yet his qaslda affirms the reality of the archetypal world
and reveals Mir FindiriskI as a siifl pure and simple. One must there-
fore say that Mir FindiriskI, while a master of Peripatetic philosophy
and the sciences such as medicine and mathematics, in all of which he
taught the classical works such as the Shifd' zx\&Qdnun, was a practising
siifl and gnostic who was also well versed in the occult sciences such as
alchemy and, in addition, Hindu metaphysics. He is yet another of the
remarkable intellectual figures of the Safavid period who were masters
of several disciplines and expositors of different planes of knowledge.
Mir FindiriskI trained many students, some of whom became well
known figures. These include Mulla Rafl'a Gllanl (d. 1082/1671-2), the
commentator upon the Usu/ al-kdfi, Mulla Muhammad Baqir Sabzavarl
(d. 1098 or 1099/1686—7), author of several important works on juris-
prudence such as the Kifaya and glosses upon the Ishdrat wa'l-tanbihdt and
Shifd' of Ibn Slna, and Aqa Husain Khunsari (d. 1080/1669—70), who
was one of the greatest Shi'I scholars of his day and wrote Mashariq
al-nufiis on jurisprudence and also glosses upon the Shifd' and Ishdrat. But
besides Mulla Sadra, Mir Findiriskl's most famous student was Mulla
Rajab 'AH Tabrlzl (d. 1080/1669-70), who was the outstanding teacher
of philosophy in the second half of the nth/17th century. Mulla Rajab
'AH, the author of many works including the Kilid-i bihisht ("Key to
Paradise") on eschatology, was opposed to Mulla Sadra and did not
accept his views concerning trans-substantial motion and the union of
the knower and the known. Also, opposed to the great majority of
Muslim philosophers, he had nominalistic tendencies and considered
being (rvujud) to be shared only nominally by existing things without its
corresponding to an objective reality. He taught the books of Ibn Slna
and trained many well known students, including QazI Sa'Id QumI and
Muhammad Rafl' Plrzada, who under the direction of his master com-
posed al-Ma'drif al-ildhiyya, assembling therein the lessons given by
Mulla Rajab 'All.2

1
See ShlrazT, al-Shawahidy introduction, pp. 86—9.
2
For all three men, see LahljanI, Sharb risalat, introductions by Jalal HumaT and S.J.
Ashtiyanl.

677
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

Sadr al-Din Shira^J (Mulld Sadra)

The philosophical and theosophical movement of the Safavid period
reaches its climax with Sadr al-Din ShlrazI, known as Mulla Sadra or
Sadr al-muta'allihln ("the foremost among the theosophers"), whom
many Persians consider as the greatest Muslim thinker in the domain of
metaphysics. His influence has been immense ever since his death and
he has in fact dominated the intellectual scene in Persia during the past
centuries. The present day interest in traditional Islamic philosophy in
Persia also revolves around his name and many works have been
devoted to him in the past few years.
Sadr al-Din ShlrazI was born into an aristocratic family of Shiraz in
979 or 980/1571 or 1572 and received the best education possible in his
native city. Gifted from early childhood with a love for learning and
being the only son of a wealthy and influential father, he was placed
under the care of the best masters from an early age and was able to
learn Arabic, the Qur'an, Hadlth and other religious sciences early in
life. This was made easier for him because of his intense devotion and
religious fervour which he combined with keen intelligence from the
age of childhood. At that time, although Shiraz was a major city, the
great centre of learning was Isfahan, to which the young Sadr al-Din
decided to travel in order to benefit fully from the presence of the
masters at the capital. In Isfahan he pursued his studies eagerly first
with Shaikh Baha' al-Din 'Amill in the religious or transmitted sciences
{al-'ulum al-naqliyya) and then with Mir Damad in the intellectual
sciences {al-'ulum al-aqliyja). It is said that he wrote a work on the
order of Mir Damad and when Mir Damad saw it he exclaimed that
henceforth no one would read his own works. Some sources have also
mentioned that Sadr al-Din studied with Mir Findiriskl but, as already
pointed out, this has not been established with certainty.
After completion of his formal studies, Mulla Sadra began a new
phase of his life in quest of the other kind of knowledge, which comes
through intuition and illumination resulting from inner purification.
He left the busy life of the capital and retired to a small village named
Kahak, near Qum, where he spent according to some seven and to
others eleven years in ascetic and spiritual practices. He attained in this
way immediate knowledge ('///»-/ hu^iirt) as he had perfected earlier his
grasp of acquired knowledge ('ilm-i husiilt). At this moment he was
asked by Shah 'Abbas II to come to Shiraz to teach and train qualified
678
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

students. He accepted the call and returned to public life, spending the
last thirty years of his life teaching in the Khan school of Shlraz built
for him by Allahvardl Khan, the governor of Fars. Due to the presence
of Mulla Sadra, the Khan school became a great centre of learning
attracting students from near and far. In fact, it became so famous that
it attracted the attention of some of the European travellers of the
period such as Thomas Herbert, who writes: "And, indeed, Shlraz has
a college wherein is read philosophy; astrology, physic, chemistry, and
the mathematics; so as 'tis the more famoused through Persia".1 It was
also during this period that Mulla Sadra wrote most of his works. On
returning from his seventh pilgrimage on foot to Mecca he died in
Basra in 1050/1640 and was buried in that city.2
Nearly fifty works of Mulla Sadra are known, most of which were
lithographed during the Qajar period and are now being republished in
modern editions. Some of these concern specifically religious themes
such as his Qur'anic commentaries and the monumental commentary
upon the Usiil al-kafi of KulainI, which was left uncompleted. Others
deal with Hikmat properly speaking, such as al-Shawdhid al-rububtyya, in
many ways his personal testament and the summary of his teachings,
al-Mashatir on being and Hikmat al-'arshiyya on the posthumous becom-
ing of man. Yet another group of his writings are commentaries upon
earlier philosophical works such as the glosses upon Ibn Sina's Shifa' and
the commentary upon Kitab al-hidaya of Athlr al-Dln Abharl known as
Shark al-Hiddya, which became the most famous work on Islamic philos-
ophy in the Indian subcontinent and is referred to as Sadra in India and
Pakistan to this day.3 Mulla Sadra also wrote two works in his own
defence, one the Sih as/, his only Persian work in prose, in which he
defended gnosis ('irfan) against the attacks of superficial doctors of law
and jurisprudents, and the Kasr al-asnam al-jdhiliyja, in which he
defended the Sharl'a and the exoteric dimension of religion against some
of the extremists who existed within certain sufi orders and to whom he
refers as the mutasawwifin of his time.4 Mulla Sadra also wrote a Divan
1
1
Herbert, Travels in Persia, p. 72.
2
The traditional sources for his life are the same as those mentioned above for Mir Damad and
Shaikh Baha' al-Dln: for a full discussion of them, see ShlrazI, Sih asl, introduction, pp. 2-8.
3
Nasr, "Mulla Sadra dar Hindustan", pp. 909(1.
* The term mutasavvif is perfectly legitimate in most schools of Sufism, where it refers to the
person who follows the path of Sufism, but in Safavid and post-Safavid Iran it gained a pejorative
connotation as referring to those who "play" with Sufism without being serious, in contrast to the
real sufls who were called Sufijya. It thus acquired the meaning of mustasvif, a term used by some of
the earlier sufls to designate those who know nothing about Sufism but pretend to follow it.

679
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

of poetry, selections of which have been published. But these poems do

not compare in quality with those of his teachers Mir Damad and
Shaikh-i Baha'I or those of his students Faiz-i Kashani and LahljI.
The outstanding masterpiece of Mulla Sadra is the al-Hikmat
al-muta' dliyyafi'l-asfdr al-arba' at al-'aqliyya ("The Supernal Wisdom con-
cerning the Four Journeys of the Intellect"), known in Persia as the
Asfdr. This most advanced text of Hikmat is a final summation of
traditional wisdom, including, in addition to the most thorough expo-
sition of Mulla Sadra's own vision, a vast amount of material related to
the views of earlier gnostics, philosophers and theologians. It is there-
fore a major source for our knowledge of Islamic intellectual history
and at the same time a testament to the author's remarkable knowledge
of earlier philosophical, religious and historical texts. The Asfdr, which
is taught only to students who have already mastered Peripatetic
philosophy, ishraql theosophy and Kalam, is taught in traditional
schools over a six year period and is the crowning achievement in the
traditional curriculum of the "intellectual sciences" in the madrasas.
Numerous commentaries have been written on this work, of which
some of the best known include the commentaries of Mulla 'All Zunuzl
and Hajjl Mulla HadI Sabzavarl. The Asfdr and its commentaries are
like a central river compared to which all other streams are peripheral.
In such fashion has this work dominated the intellectual life of Persia;
and the later philosophical and theosophical schools have been like so
many tributaries that have only contributed to its expansion in its
onward march.
The work of Mulla Sadra, all of which except for the Persian Sib as/,
a few letters and the poems are in Arabic, are written in a remarkably
lucid style which in fact makes them appear as deceptively easy. There
is, moreover, a mixture of logical analysis, mystical gleaming and refer-
ences to religious sources, especially the Qur'an and Hadlth, which
characterises all of Sadr al-Dln's writings. He achieved in his own life,
as well as in his works which are the fruit of that life, a synthesis of the
three means open to man in his quest after truth: revelation {wahy or
sbar'), illumination and intellectual intuition (dhauq) and ratiocination
(istid/dl or 'aql in its limited meaning). His works reflect this synthesis.
A most rigorous dialectical and logical discourse, in which type of
expression Mulla Sadra was an unmatched master and for which he is
especially known in the Indian subcontinent, is often followed by a
gnostic utterance received through illumination to which he usually
680
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

refers as "truth received from the Divine Throne" (tahqiq 'arsht). In the
same manner rational arguments are supported by citations from the
Qur'an, and the commentaries upon the Qur'an and Hadlth are carried
out through the process of hermeneutic interpretation (ta'wit) in such a
way as to reveal their gnostic meaning. There is but one inner, spiritual
reality which manifests itself outwardly in the revealed scriptures, in
the soul and mind of man and in the cosmos, or "upon the horizons"
to use the Qur'anic terminology. The synthesis achieved by Mulla
Sadra aims at bringing man back to this one spiritual reality from all
the different modes of perception and knowledge that are open to him,
whether it be the given text of revelation, or ratiocination and its
analysis of the externally perceived world, or the inward illumination
which opens up the inner horizons of the two above modes of knowl-
edge and is at the same time objectivised and regulated by them.
The synthesis of Mulla Sadra and his intellectual progeny is based
upon the integration of the four major schools of Islamic thought
alluded to earlier: namely Kalam, Peripatetic philosophy, ishraql theo-
sophy and 'irfan. In Mulla Sadra we find elements of Ghazall, Ibn Slna,
SuhravardI and particularly Ibn 'Arabl. Moreover, there is Shi'ism,
especially in its gnostic aspect, which serves as the background for this
whole synthesis. The Nahj al-balagha of 'All and the traditions of the
other Shl'I Imams are a constant source of inspiration for Mulla Sadra
and a major source of his doctrines. Of course, this synthesis could not
have been achieved without the work of the sages and philosophers of
the two preceding centuries. But their work in turn finds its final
meaning and elaboration in the doctrines of Sadr al-Dln.
There are many principles which distinguish the metaphysical doc-
trines of Mulla Sadra, not all of which can be enumerated here. Some
of the most important of these principles include the unity, principial-
ity and gradation of being; trans-substantial motion; the unity of the
knower and the known and the reality of "mental existence" {wujud
al-dbihm) as a distinct state of existence which makes knowledge pos-
sible; and the catharsis (tajrid) and independence of the power of imag-
ination {khayat) in the soul from the body, and also the existence of a
cosmic "world of imagination" which makes possible the theosophical
explanation of religious descriptions of eschatology.1

1
For a discussion of these points, see Nasr, "Sadr al-DIn ShlrazI". Also Corbin: introduction
to Le Uvre dispenetrations metaphysiques; "Mundus imaginalis"\ Terre cilisli, pp. 257-65.

681
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

The doctrine of unity of being {wahdat al-wujud) is usually associated

with sufism and in fact finds its highest expression in the gnostic
teachings of Muhyl al-Dln Ibn 'ArabI and his school. This doctrine is
usually mistaken for pantheism or panentheism by those who cannot
distinguish between profane philosophy and a sacred metaphysical
doctrine.1 But in reality it is nothing but the inner meaning of the
shahada of Islam, La ildha ill'Alldb, made manifest by those who are
given the vision of the inner meaning of things. There is nothing more
Islamic than unity {al-tauhtd) and wahdat al-wujud is the essence of
al-tauhld and therefore of Islam. But even this doctrine has levels of
interpretation; that is why in Persia a distinction is usually made
between the wahdat al-wujud of the 'urafa or gnostics, referring to Ibn
'ArabI and his school, and the wahdat al-wujud of the hukama or
theosophers, referring to Mulla Sadra and his school. In order to
understand this distinction it is necessary to analyse the gradual process
by which man comes to understand unity. The first perception of the
external world for the untrained mind or for a child is to see multipli-
city and only multiplicity. The multiplicity is due to the quiddity
{mahiyya) of each thing which distinguishes it from others, and to
consider this multiplicity as ultimately real is to accept the view of isalat
al-mahiyya or "principiality of quiddity" for which Mir Damad and
SuhravardI are known, if we do not consider that SuhravardI held to be
true for light what Mulla Sadra held with regard to being. Of course
these sages did not negate unity, which for them stands above the
world of multiplicity, but in their analysis of the world of multiplicity
they stopped short at the quiddity of things without considering their
existence {wujud).
The next stage is to hold that within each thing, which according to
Avicennan philosophy is composed of existence and quiddity or
essence, it is the existence which is ultimately real and not the quiddity,
but nevertheless to believe that the existence of each object is totally
different from that of another. This view is isalat al-wujud ("principial-
ity of being"), but still falls short of fully grasping the sense of Unity.
It is the view of Ibn Slna and his followers.
Above this view stands that of Mulla Sadra and his followers, who
claim that not only is the existence of each object principial vis-a-vis its

1
Schuon, pp. ;6ff. Burckhardt, Introduction, chapter 3. M. Lings, A Moslem Saint ojthe Twentieth
Century (London, 1961), chapter 5. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, pp. 104-8.

682
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

quiddity (isalat al-wujud), but also that the existence of each object is a
state and grade of Being itself, not a totally independent being. They
thus believe that there is only one Being (wahdat al-wujud), which
possesses grades and stages {tashkik) while it remains transcendent with
respect to these states and stages (maratib), and it is this being and not
the quiddity of objects which gives reality to things. Mulla Sadra and
his followers are therefore said to believe in the unity (wahdat), grada-
tion (tashkik) and principiality (isalat) of Being (wujud). Above this
concept of the "Unity of Being" stands the unity of gnostics, usually
called wahdat-i kbassa (special unity), according to which Being corre-
sponds to only one objective Reality, God. Nothing else can even be
said to exist. Everything else is the theophany (tajallt) of this One
Being, not having any being of its own, not even that of being a stage
and state of the One Being.
On the basis of the doctrine of the Unity of Being Mulla Sadra
created the vast doctrine of the metaphysics of being, which is another
version of the metaphysics of essence of Suhravardl. The interrelation
between all stages of existence and the incessant deployment from the
Source and return to the Source characterise the whole doctrine of
Mulla Sadra. There is a dynamism in his view; but it must not be in any
way confused with the type of dynamism found in modern thought,
which usually results from a forgetting of the immutable essences of
things and terminates in a horizontal and purely temporal and secular
evolution that sometimes even appears in a theological garb, as in the
case of Teilhardism. The dynamism of Mulla Sadra is "spatial" rather
than "temporal'. It is directed not towards the achievement of a
future state but towards the realisation of a higher state of being that
exists here and now. The world of becoming is related to the world
of being not by a temporal sequence but in a relation that can be best
symbolised by the spatial circumscription of one sphere by another, as
we see in the medieval cosmologies based upon the metaphysical sym-
bolism of the Ptolemaic spheres. Interestingly enough, Mulla Sadra in
fact described this metaphysical relationship without having recourse
to Ptolemaic astronomy: his exposition, therefore, cannot be brushed
aside so easily by those who, being unable to distinguish the symbol
from the brute fact, discard the medieval metaphysical doctrine of the
states of being because it is tied in its exposition to the homocentric
Ptolemaic astronomy.
The relationship between being and becoming, which Aristotle him-
683
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

self had also sought to explain, lies for Mulla Sadra in the idea of trans-
substantial motion (al-harakat al-jauhariyya). Ibn Slna and the Peripa-
tetics in general limited motion in the Aristotelian sense of the word to
the four categories of position, space, quality and quantity; that is, all
gradual change from potentiality to actuality or motion for them
occurred not in the substance of things, but in one of the above four
accidents. Ibn Slna in fact gave reasons in the Shifd' as to why the
substance of an object cannot change in the process of motion. Mulla
Sadra, after answering the difficulties stated by Ibn Slna, proceeds to
prove the necessity of trans-substantial motion while arguing at the
same time for the "Platonic ideas" or archetypes of things which the
Peripatetics had negated. It is hardly possible to analyse this difficult
doctrine here.1 Suffice it to say that for Mulla Sadra motion is the
means whereby gradually the substance of a thing changes until it is
able to achieve a higher state of being and through man gain access to
the world of immutable forms {tajarrud) above and beyond all change.
In the same way that the cosmos receives its reality through the effu-
sion of being from the Origin and Source of all being, the becoming
and change in the cosmos are with the aim of achieving higher states of
being and finally states that lie above the world of change and becom-
ing and that lead ultimately to the Source once again. The Universe is a
vast system aimed at making possible this catharsis and disentangle-
ment from matter and becoming which the very rich term tajrld
implies (an angel being called mujarrad in the language of theosophy,
that is one who possesses the state of tajrld). This possibility exists here
and now, at least for man who stands in an axial and central position in
this world. The role of Hikmat is to make him realise where he stands
and to enable him to achieve the state of tajrld. The doctrine of trans-
substantial motion, therefore, in addition to enabling Mulla Sadra to
construct a new form of natural philosophy, is a cornerstone of both
his metaphysics and his spiritual psychology.
The problem of how we know, or epistemology, which since
Descartes's dissection of reality has become both central and insoluble
in Western philosophy, also occupies a central position in Mulla
Sadra's writings. A good part of the first journey of the A.sfar is
devoted to it. With a rigour which would satisfy a modern analyst
Mulla Sadra seeks to analyse the problem of knowledge from a back-

1
See Qazvlnl.

684
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

ground which is again essentially gnostic and is based on the union

between the knower (al-'aqil) and the known (al-ma'quT). In the act of
perception {idrak) man becomes identified with the object of his
knowledge; that is, the knower or 'aqil is at the moment of perceiving
the known identified with the form of the known or ma'qul, which is
in fact its reality. Knowledge is only possible through this union.
In order to demonstrate the possibility of this union taking place,
Mulla Sadra must prove the existence of an independent plane of
reality which he calls the mental plane {wujudal-dhihni). He is the first of
the Muslim philosophers to have devoted attention to this question
and to have analysed all that the reality of this plane implies. It is true
that the union of knower and known had been alluded to by Abu'l-
Hasan al-'Amirl and some of the sufis, but here as elsewhere it was
Mulla Sadra who for the first time provided demonstrations for it and
incorporated it into a vast metaphysical synthesis. To have found
traces of this and other ideas in earlier books does not at all detract
from the genius of Mulla Sadra, for the important question is how
these ideas are incorporated into a new intellectual perspective. Other-
wise in the domain of metaphysics there is nothing new under the Sun,
as Aristotle had already asserted. It is enough to compare Mulla Sadra's
treatment of this question with what is found in earlier Muslim sources
to realise exactly what he achieved.
For Mulla Sadra the mind is not a tabula rasa nor only a tablet on
which certain "ideas" are engrained. It has several faculties and
powers, one of which is to create forms, and this power is that of
"imagination" as the term is understood by the hukama. Mulla Sadra,
like Ibn 'ArabI, believes in the creative power of imagination
{mutakhayyila khalldqd), through which the mind is able to bring forms
into being in the same way that the Divine Intellect has given objective
existence to things through Its own creative power. Knowledge
results, not from the external form "entering" the mind, but in this
external form acting as an occasion for the mind to create, in accor-
dance with the immutable essence of the object concerned, its form.
This act in turn changes the state of being of the knower itself. There-
fore knowledge is inseparable from being and leaves its effect upon the
being of the knower.
The catharsis or tajrid of the imaginative faculty plays a major role in
the eschatological doctrines expounded by Sadr al-Dln. In the last part
{safar) of the Asfdr as well as in individual treatises on resurrection and
685
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

the afterlife, especially the monumental commentary in the form of

glosses upon the Hikmat al-ishrdq, Mulla Sadra has expounded in the
most complete fashion the esoteric meaning of the Muslim doctrine of
resurrection and eschatology (ma'ad).1 His writings in this domain are
probably the most thorough and systematic of any Muslim work in this
area, where Muslims, in contrast to Hindus and Buddhists, have been
generally laconic. It is only in the works of Ibn 'Arabl and Mulla Sadra
and their schools that these questions are amply treated.
The intermediate world of imagination or the "imaginal world",
which he also calls "purgatory" (barn^akh) and the world of "hanging
forms" {suwar al-mu'allaqd), is the locus of the eschatological events
described in sacred scripture. It is where the events of the Last Judgment
occur in a real way because this world is real and has an ontological
status. This is a world possessing not only form but also matter which is,
however, subtle and celestial (latif and malakuti). Man, likewise,
possesses a subtle body, or what in the parlance of Western Hermeticism
would be called the astral body. In his glosses upon the Hikmat al-ishrdq,
Mulla Sadra asserts that neither the Peripatetics like Ibn Sina nor the
theologians like Ghazall could really solve this problem. The one could
only prove spiritual resurrection {al-ma'dd al-ruhdni), and the other
believed in corporeal resurrection (al-ma'dd al-jismdnt) without being
able to provide any demonstration for it. Mulla Sadra broke this dead-
lock and was able to prove corporeal resurrection in accordance with
Qur'anic teachings by appealing to this intermediate world where man is
resurrected after death not as a dismembered soul but as a complete
being possessing also a subtle body.
Mulla Sadra develops fully the theme of the posthumous becoming
of the soul and its resurrection beyond the imaginal world to higher
states of being and finally to a station before the Divine Presence itself.
He makes the science of the soul ('i/m al-nafs) a branch of metaphysics
{ildhiyydf) rather than natural philosophy (tabfiyydf) as was the case
with the Peripatetics, and he develops an elaborate science of the soul
starting with the embryonic state of man and terminating in his ulti-
mate beatitude far beyond the earthly life. In this domain no less than
in metaphysics he gives an imprint of a powerful genius to a teaching
that is by nature timeless and perennial.
Mulla Sadra trained many students, of whom two, Mulla Muhsin

1
Corbin, "Le Theme".

686
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

Faiz Kashanl and Maulana 'Abd al-Razzaq Lahljl, are among the
first-rate luminaries of the Safavid period and will be treated below.
Others less known but nevertheless significant include Shaikh Husain
TunakabunI, who continued Mulla Sadra's school after him, AqajanI
MazandaranI, the author of a vast commentary upon the Qabasdt of
Mir Damad, and Mirza Muhammad Sadiq Kashanl, who went to India
to propagate Mulla Sadra's teachings. In Persia the teachings of Mulla
Sadra were not continued immediately after him due to difficult
circumstances. But a century later men like Mirza Muhammad Sadiq
ArdistanI revived his teachings, and early in the Qajar period Mulla 'All
Nurl, followed by his student Hajjl Mulla Hadl Sabzavarl, established
Mulla Sadra's school as the central school of Hikmat in Persia.

The akhbdri - usiili debate

Almost contemporary with Mulla Sadra there began a debate which
had some influence upon the later course of philosophy and a great deal
of effect upon the further chapters of religious and theological history.
This debate concerned the role of reason in the interpretation of reli-
gious matters. An 'dlim by the name of Mulla Muhammad Amln Astar-
abadl (d. 103 3/1623-4) established the akhbdri school, which opposed
the use of 'aql in religious matters and relied completely on the Qur'an
and the traditions of the Prophet and the Imams. In his al-Fawd'id
al-madaniyya he attacked the idea of ijtihad or the giving of opinion
based upon the four principles {usiil) of the Qur'an, Hadlth or sunna, the
consensus of the community (i/md1) and reasoning or 'aql, which in
Sunnism is called qiyds, and branded mujtabids, or those who practised
ijtihad, as enemies of religion. The opposing school, which came to be
known as usiili and which finally won the day, continued to emphasise
the importance of 'aql within the tenets of the Qur'an and Hadlth.
Usually the followers of the akhbarl school were literalists and purely
exoteric and outward interpreters of religion, and came to be identified
as qishris (those who remain content with only the husk rather than
seeking the kernel as well). They were usually opposed to sufism and
Hikmat and even Kalam. But this was by no means, always the case.
There were some akhbarls who became outstanding sufls and hakims,
such as Mulla Muhsin Faiz Kashanl, the disciple of Mulla Sadra. Such
men, while opposing the use of'aql on a certain plane, were able to reach
the supra-rational domain of gnosis and illumination.
687
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

The akhbarl — usull debate continued into the Qajar period in the
form of the Shaikh! - baldsart disputes. Strangely enough, Shaikh
Ahmad Ahsa'I, the founder of the Shaikhl movement, was close to the
akhbarl position and at the same time an enemy of the hakims and sufls.
He was particularly opposed to Mulla Muhsin Faiz despite the fact that
both may be classified as akhbaris. The situation, then, is more complex
than classifying usulls as pro-Hikmat and akhbaris as opposed to
Hikmat; although the refusal to consider the role of 'aql in the interpre-
tation of religious matters naturally led the akhbaris away from Hikmat
and gnosis, in which reason serves as the first stage for a knowledge
which is supra-sensible and where in any case reason is never opposed
on its own plane, but is ultimately transcended.

Mulla Muhsin Fai% Kashant

Of Mulla Sadra's students the best known is Muhammad b. Shah
Murtaza, known as Mulla Muhsin KashanI or KashI, and given the
title of Faiz by Mulla Sadra himself, who besides being his teacher also
became his father-in-law. Mulla Muhsin was born in Kashan in
1007/1598-9, studied for a few years in Qum and Isfahan, where he
belonged to the circle of Mir Damad and Shaikh-i Baha'I, and then
came to Shiraz to receive the last phase of his education from Mulla
Sadra and to study the religious sciences with Sayyid Majid Bahranl.
The last part of his life he spent in Kashan, where he died in
1091/1680-1 and where he is buried. His tomb is to this day a centre of
pilgrimage and is credited with miracle-working powers.1
Nearly 120 works of Mulla Muhsin are known, of which most have
survived.2 They are in both Arabic and Persian and have become since
his day a mainstay of the curriculum of Shri religious schools. Like
FarabI and Naslr al-Dln TGsI, Mulla Muhsin was able to place himself
in the different intellectual perspectives and schools of Islam and write
outstanding works in each without mixing it with the teachings of
another point of view. This, of course, does not mean that he was
hypocritical or without a particular point of view himself; rather it
means that he observed strictly the hierarchic structure of knowledge
that is such an essential element of Islam and Islamic civilisation, and
1
On his life, see TabrM, Kaihanat al-adab m , 542-4; Hidayat, Riyaz al-'arifin, pp. 388-9;
Khunsarr, Rau^at al-jannat, pp. J4zff.; ShlrazI, Tara'iq al-haqaiq 1, 18iff. passim.
2
Listed by Mishkat in his introduction to KashanTs Mabajjat.

688
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

avoided the "mixing of the arguments of different sciences" {khalt-i

mabhath), which is so disdained in traditional Islamic learning.1
The works of Mulla Muhsin, of which he himself has left us with
three lists, include many commentaries upon the Qur'an such as the
al-Safi and al-Asfd'; works on Hadlth including al-Wdfi, which is the
most outstanding of its kind in recent centuries; treatises devoted to
the principles of religion (usul al-dtri) such as 'Ilm al-yaqin and 'Ain
al-yaqin; treatises on the Muslim rites such as the daily prayers and hajj
and their esoteric significance, in which this period is particularly rich;2
collections of litanies and invocations such as Jala' al-'uyiin; treatises on
jurisprudence such as al-Tathir; and works devoted to the lives and
sayings of the Imams such as his commentary upon the Sahtfa sajjddiyya
of the Fourth Shl'I Imam. Besides these works in the religious sciences,
he wrote many works on sufism and gnosis, of which the al-Kalimdt
al-makniina with its summary, al-Kalimat al-makh%una, is perhaps the
outstanding example. This work, which is in Persian, is one of the
outstanding expositions of gnosis in its Shl'I setting and treats a com-
plete cycle of metaphysics.3 Mulla Muhsin also summarised and com-
mented upon earlier sufl works such as the al-Futiihdt al-makkiyya of
Ibn 'ArabI and the Masnavi of Jalal al-Dln Ruml. He also wrote many
poems himself mostly on mystical themes and in the masnavi form. His
divan is very well known and contains some fine verses, although all of
his poems are not of first rate quality. As to Hikmat, he did write a few
treatises on the subject, but they are not as well known as his works on
religion and 'irfan.
Perhaps the most important work of Mulla Muhsin outside the
domain of Hadlth, where he is the undisputed Shl'I authority of the last
centuries, is his al-Mahajjat al-baidd' fiihyd" al-ihyd' ("The White Path in
the Revival of the 'Revival'"), the second "Revival" {ihyd') referring to
the Ihyd' 'uliim al-din of Ghazall. In the same way that the Ihyd' is the
outstanding work of sufl ethics in the SunnI setting, the al-Mahajjat
al-baidd' must be considered as the most important Shl'I work of ethics
with a sufl orientation. In fact, what Mulla Muhsin did was to revive
the work of Ghazall in Shl'I circles by "Shi'ifying" it. He achieved this
task by substituting traditions drawn from Shl'I sources for the
1
Nasr, Science and Civilisation, pp. i<)&.
2
His treatise on the esoteric meaning of the daily prayers has been published in a beautiful
edition as Naming tarjumat al-salat (Tehran, 1340/1962).
3
For a summary, see Nasr, "The School", pp. 926—30.

689
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

Sunni ones which serve as a prop for Ghazall's book. Otherwise the
two works are nearly the same, and of the same monumental propor-
tions. A close comparison of the two would be a most fruitful
undertaking to elucidate exactly how the Sunni and Shi'I religious and
mystical climates are related.
Mulla Muhsin was one of the foremost esoteric interpreters of
Shi'ism. While an outstanding exoteric interpreter of the religion and
an undisputed 'alim of theology and jurisprudence, he was also a
gnostic and sufl of high standing and sought throughout his works to
harmonise the SharT'a and the Tarlqa. Of the three elements which
Mulla Sadra unified in his vast synthesis, namely sbar', kashf and 'aql,
or revealed religion, inner illumination and rational and intellectual
demonstration, Mulla Muhsin followed mostly the first two. Yet he
was of course a hakim well versed in Mulla Sadra's teachings, as works
such as the al-Kalimat al-maknuna reveal. In fact, it is with him that the
process of the integration of the school of Hikmat into Shi'ism is
completed. It is he who identified the "celestial guide" or illuminating
intellect of Avicennan and Suhravardian metaphysics specifically with
the Twelve Imams, who as heavenly archetypes reflect the "light of
Muhammad" [al-niir al-mubammadt) which is a sun that illuminates
these "spiritual constellations".

Mulla 'Abd al-Ra^aq Labt/i

The other well known student of Mulla Sadra, 'Abd al-Razzaq b. 'All
Lahljl, entitled Fayyaz, was also a son-in-law of the master and inti-
mately associated with him. His date of birth is not known and several
dates are mentioned for his death, of which the most likely is
1072/1661—2.1 Lahljl is known particularly as a theologian with several
glosses upon different commentaries of Naslr al-Dln Tusl's Tajrid, the
Shawariq al-ilham, itself an independent commentary upon the Tajrid, as
well as the two Persian works, Sarmaya-yi iman and Gauhar murad, the
latter work being perhaps the best known book on Shi'I theology of
the Safavid period. But these works are theology (Kalam) that is deeply
impregnated with Hikmat, of which Lahljl was also a master. In fact,
during the Safavid period there is not so much an independent
growth of Kalam as the development of Kalam within the framework

1
See Tabrlzl, Kaihanat al-adab ni, 233-4, and Shlrazl, al-Shawahid, introduction, pp. 99—102.
69O
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

of Hikmat. Most of the glosses and commentaries upon the Tajrid,

such as those of Khafrl, belong more to the tradition of Hikmat than
Kalam proper, and most of the debates that are truly theological are
found within the pages of works on Hikmat, especially those of the
school of Mulla Sadra.
Lahljl in fact developed a form of Kalam which is hardly dis-
tinguishable from Hikmat, although at least in his better known works
such as the Gauhar murad he does not follow the main doctrinal teach-
ings of Mulla Sadra, as on the unity of Being and the catharsis of the
faculty of imagination. Yet in other works he confirms these points in
such a manner as to indicate that the condition of his times did not
allow an open espousal of the teachings of Mulla Sadra and that he had
to adopt a more "theological" or KalamI dress to suit the taste of some
of the 'ulama who were by now severely criticising the sufls and the
gnostics.
Lahljl, however, has also left us with works that belong more purely
to the tradition of Hikmat such as Hudiith al-'dlam, the commentary
upon the Hayakil al-niir of SuhravardI and al-Kalimdt al-tayyiba, which
deals with the contending views of Mulla Sadra and Mir Damad on the
principiality of existence or essence (isdlat-i mujud and isdlat-i mdhiyyat).
All these works show Lahljl to be a master in Hikmat and a true
disciple of Mulla Sadra.
Like Mir Damad and Mulla Muhsin Faiz, Lahljl also wrote poetry
which is of a high order containing many beautiful verses. His divan of
about six thousand verses, of which the most complete manuscript is to
be found in the Kitabkhana-yi astana-yi quds-i razavl in Mashhad,
reveals a very different aspect of his personality from that revealed by
his other works. Here one finds the gentle breeze of realised gnosis and
mysticism in which pearls of wisdom are couched in verses of beauty
and harmony rather than in rigorous rationalistic arguments. The
poems contain many verses in the praise of the Prophet and the Imams
and also long qasldas dedicated to both Mulla Sadra and Mir Damad,
with whom Lahljl also most likely had contacts. These are perhaps the
most eloquent and telling poems ever written on these two giants of
the Safavid period, and they could have been written only by a person
of the stature of Lahljl, who stood close to them both in time and from
the vantage-point of ideas.
Lahljl had many students, of whom his own son, Mlrza Hasan
Lahljl, and Qazi Sa'Id Qumi are perhaps the most important. Mlrza
691
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

Hasan was a very respected religious scholar of his times, revered as an

outstanding authority on the religious sciences. But he was also a
hakim of much merit and, at a time when Hikmat was being attacked
by some of the 'ulama, wrote a work in Persian entitled A'ina-yi hikmat
to defend Hikmat by appealing to the traditions of the Prophet and the
Imams.

Qd^i Sa'id Qumi

The other student of Lahljl, Muhammad b. Sa'id Qumi, usually known
as QazI Sa'id or as the "Junior hakim" (hakim-i kiichak), is as well
known as his master and belongs to the rank of the most outstanding
figures of the Safavid period.1 A student of Lahljl, Mulla Muhsin and
also of Mulla Rajab 'All Tabrlzl - who represents the more Peripatetic
trend of philosophy in the Safavid period — QazI Sa'id was particularly
attracted to sufism and gnosis, while at the same time he was the judge
or qddi of Qum from which position he has gained his title. In fact,
most of QazI Sa'Id's life was spent in Qum. It was in this holy city of
Shi'ism and centre of religious studies that he was born in 1049/1639;
here he passed most of his active years and also died and was buried in
1103/1691. Besides serving as the judge of Qum, he was also a well
known physician in the city and was considered as a real hakim in both
senses of the word, as physician and philosopher.
The total attachment of QazI Sa'id to 'irfan has made him the "Ibn
'ArabI of Shi'ism". This is a very apt title for him because he belongs
more to the school of pure 'irfan of Ibn 'ArabI than to the school of
Hikmat of Mulla Sadra, where gnostic themes are provided with
rational demonstration. The works of QazI Sa'id bear this out, for they
usually deal with esoteric meaning of revealed and sacred texts and
rites. They include al-Arba'iin hadithan, which is a commentary upon
forty prophetic hadlths dealing with divine science; al-Arba'undt
li-kashf anwdr al-qudsiyydt, which is a collection of forty treatises, again
mostly concerned with the esoteric meaning of religion; Asrdr
al-'ibdddt, which deals with the esoteric significance of the Muslim rites;
and commentary upon different traditions such as the famous Hadith-i
ghamam. His largest work in this domain is the monumental three

1
See Kaihanat al-adab in, 268-9; C°rt>in, "La Configuration", pp. 79—166; and Qumi, Kitab
asrar, introduction by Sabzavari.

692
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

volume commentary upon the Tauhid of Shaikh-i Sadduq, which

remains unedited and is not well known except for the section dealing
with rites which has become known independently as the above-
mentioned Asrar al-'ibddat. But he also wrote several works on logic
and philosophy such as the Asrar al-sanay? on logic; glosses upon the
"Theology of Aristotle", which is among his most important works;
and also glosses upon the Sharh al-isharat of Nasir al-Dln Tusl.
The most marked feature of Qazi Sa'Id's thought is his mastery in
revealing the esoteric sense of different aspects of the Islamic tradition
in both its doctrinal and practical dimensions. The process of ta'wll,
of spiritual and hermeneutic interpretation of things, which is so cen-
tral to both sufism and Shi'ism, found in QazI Sa'id one of its great-
est masters. In his writings the inner meaning of verses of the Qur'an,
traditions of the Prophet and the Imams, as well as Islamic ritual
practices, gains the transparence and lucidity which result from the
purely gnostic and metaphysical point of view held by him. In his
exposition of the symbolism of the Ka'ba, he even develops a true
philosophy of art, and explains the symbolic significance of forms and
spatial configurations with such completeness and thoroughness that
it is difficult to find its like in the annals of Islamic thought.1 In this
field also he reflects in many ways the doctrines and teachings of Ibn
'Arabi.

The two Majlisis

It would hardly be possible to treat philosophy and theology in the
Safavid period without dealing with Mulla Muhammad Taql MajlisI
and his more famous son, Mulla Muhammad Baqir MajlisI, although
they, and especially the son, have been dealt with elsewhere in this
volume. The first MajlisI, who died in 1070/1659-60, was one of the
religious scholars of his time who was attracted to sufism and was
probably a practising sufl.2 The reaction against organised sufism in
religious circles had not as yet set in so that Mulla Muhammad Taql
could enjoy respect among Shl'I scholars and yet openly espouse the
cause of sufism. He rendered a great service to both in many ways. He
was the first Shl'I scholar to spread and propagate widely the text of the
1
Corbin, "La Configuration", pp. 82ff.; Nasr, "The Concept of Space".
2
Tabrlzl, Kaibanat al-adab m, 460-2; also BihbihanI, Mir'at al-ahval, which is devoted to him
in particular.

693
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

traditions of the Imams and to encourage their study, so that he must

be considered in a way as the father of the science of Hadlth in its new
development during the Safavid period. He also made the life of
sufism in religious circles easier by lending to it the weight of his
authority and support.
His son, Mulla Muhammad Baqir (b. 1037/1627—8, d. mi/1699—
1700), was in many ways a different type of personality. He was polit-
ically more influential than his father and must be considered as the
most powerful ShI'I scholar of the Safavid period. He was also much
more austere and exoteric, and openly condemned and opposed organ-
ised sufism, to the extent of denying his own father's allegiance to
sufism. In fact, he was the most formidable spokesman for the reaction
which set in within ShI'I religious circles during the later Safavid
period due in part to excesses within some of the sufl orders. With the
same breath he also condemned the hukama, whose teachings he saw
as closely wedded to those of the sufis.
The second MajlisI is the most prolific of ShI'I writers, and probably
wrote his works with the aid of some of his own students. Otherwise
these works, numbering over one hundred and including the monu-
mental Bihar al-anwar, could hardly have been written by one man. The
Bihar al-anwar itself, which is over twenty-six lengthy volumes in its
modern edition, is a vast encyclopaedia of Shi'ism dealing with different
aspects of Islam as a religion as well as the Islamic religious sciences
and the history of the Prophets and the Imams. It remains a treasury of
information for all the phases of ShI'I learning to this day. His other
works deal with different religious sciences. Some of the most famous,
such as Haqq al-yaqin and Hilyat al-muttaqin, both in Persian, and Sirdt
al-najat in Arabic, are concerned with principles of religion, traditions
and theology in the general sense, not in its technical sense of Kalam.
In his commentary upon the Usul al-kdfi of KulainI, however, MajlisI
turns to the intellectual sciences and seems to have been influenced by
the commentary of Mulla Sadra. Likewise, in his Zad al-ma'dd there are
allusions to Islamic esoteric teachings, which implies that MajlisI was
not completely alien to these subjects and perhaps spoke so vehemently
against the hakims and sufis because of the particular conditions of his
time, which necessitated such a position for the defence of the Sharl'a
and the official religious institutions. In any case MajlisI left an indel-
ible mark upon all later ShI'I thought while his opposition to Hikmat
only delayed its new flowering in the Qajar period.
694
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

The later hakims of the Safavid period

Although the atmosphere was not favourable to the propagation of
philosophy and theosophy from the second half of the nth/17th cen-
tury to the Afghan invasion, which put an end to Safavid rule, several
notable figures continued to propagate the tradition and make possible
its renewal in the 13 th/19th century. Among these figures one may
mention Mulla Hasan Lunbani (d. 1094/1682—3), a student of Mulla
Rajab 'All Tabrlzl, who combined philosophy and sufism and even
wrote a commentary upon the Masnavt. Due to his particular attraction
to ishraq and 'irfan he was accused by some of the exoteric 'ulama of
being a sufl and wrote a treatise in his own defence.1
Another figure of the same period, Mlrza Muhammad Sadiq
ArdistanI (d. n 34/1721—2), was more or less a follower of the teach-
ings of Mulla Sadra. Like Mulla Sadra, he believed in the catharsis
(tajarrud) of the inner faculties of the soul, particularly the faculty of
imagination, and offers the same arguments in proof of this view. But
on the question of the origin of the human soul, which he considers as
a ray of the universal soul (tiafs-i kullt), he presents a view which is
different from that of both Mulla Sadra and Ibn Slna. On the question
of the unity and principiality of being also he follows Sadr al-Dln.2
ArdistanI was the foremost teacher of Hikmat of his time in Isfahan.
His Hikmat-i sadiqiyya, which consists of his lectures assembled by his
students, is a major work on the school of Hikmat during the Safavid
period. He was personally revered because of his extremely simple and
ascetic life, but owing to the opposition of some of the religious
authorities he finally fell out of favour with Shah Sultan Husain. Yet he
was able to be of much influence and to train a number of students, of
whom the best known is Mlrza Muhammad TaqI Almasi, a descendant
of the first Majlisi. Almasi was the first person to begin to teach the
texts of Mulla Sadra in official lessons of the madrasas and was instru-
mental in propagating his work. It was his student, Aqa Muhammad
Bldabadl, who taught Mulla 'All Nurl, the great reviver of Hikmat
during the Qajar period, and so through him the chain of transmission
of Hikmat is preserved between the Safavid and Qajar eras. Another of
Ardistanl's students, Mulla Hamza GllanI, was also a well known
1
See LahijanI, Sbarb risila, introduction by Humai, p. 16; introduction by AshtiyanT,
pp. 40-1.
2
Sbarb risala, introduction by AshtiyanJ, p 42; al-Shawahid, introduction, p. 118.

695
 SPIRITUALITY, PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

master of Hikmat and was among the many people who lost their lives
in the Afghan invasion of Isfahan.
During the last phase of the Safavid period, the school of Mulla
Sadra was as yet far from being completely dominant. A contemporary
of ArdistanI, Shaikh 'Inayat-Allah Gllani, who belonged to the school
of Mulla Rajab 'All Tabrlzl, continued the Peripatetic school of Ibn
Slna and taught the Isharat, Shifd' and Najdt. Likewise, there were
masters who taught pure gnosis and ishraq. One of them, Mir Sayyid
Hasan TaliqanI, was the outstanding gnostic of Isfahan at the begin-
ning of the I2th/i8th century and taught the Fusiis al-bikam of Ibn
'ArabI, as well as works of Suhravardi such as the Hikmat al-ishraq and
Hayakil al-niir along with their traditional commentaries. Yet he too
was to some extent under the sway of the teachings of Mulla Sadra.
Altogether, the general impression one has of the little known history
of these last decades of Safavid rule is the gradual spread of the teach-
ings of Mulla Sadra, especially in Isfahan, while at the same time other
schools such as the Peripatetic and the gnostic continue in a climate
which became ever more hostile to both Hikmat and 'irfan.

The influence of the school of Isfahan in India

Although interest in Islamic philosophy on the Indo-Pakistani sub-

continent goes back to the 7th/i3th and 8th/i4th centuries, the real
establishment of a school of Islamic philosophy on the sub-continent
dates from the Safavid period. During this epoch many Persian philos-
ophers, scholars and scientists migrated or travelled to India, such as
QazI Niir-Allah Shushtari, author of the well known Majalis
al-mri'minin and Ihqdq al-haqq, Muhammad Dihdar ShlrazI, author of
several gnostic treatises such as Ishraq a/-nayjirain, Baha' al-Dln
IsfahanI, known as Flzil-i Hindi, who summarised the metaphysics of
the Shifd', and the already mentioned Mir Findiriskl. Moreover, the
teachings of Mir Damad and especially Mulla Sadra spread far and
wide in India. The Sharh al-Hidaya of Mulla Sadra, to which we have
already referred, became the most popular work in the sub-continent.
The very large number of glosses and commentaries upon the works of
Safavid masters as well as manuscripts of their writings that are found
today in the libraries of the sub-continent are a witness to the remark-
able spread of the teachings of the school of Isfahan in that region. In
fact, except for Iraq, which was then as now religiously associated with
696
 INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL FIGURES

Persia, the Muslim part of the sub-continent represents the only other
region of the Islamic world where this particular school of Islamic
philosophy spread to an appreciable extent. The mystical and theologi-
cal movements associated with such names as Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi
and Shah Vall-Allah, as well as the Khairabadi school which is,
properly speaking, philosophical and logical, cannot be fully
understood without a study of the Safavid schools of thought.
In Persia itself after the interim period of confusion following the
downfall of the Safavids, the school of Hikmat was revived again in
Isfahan. The central figures of this revival were Mulla 'All Nurl, who
taught the works of Mulla Sadra for seventy years, and his student
Hajjl Mulla HadI Sabzavarl, who made the teachings of Mulla Sadra so
dominant and central as practically to exclude other schools of philos-
ophy. Through him and other Qajar masters the teachings of the
Safavid sages have been transmitted to the present day and continue to
exercise an appreciable influence, particularly the doctrines of Mulla
Sadra, which have received so much attention in recent years and
which act as the axis around which the revival of traditional philos-
ophy in Persia is taking place. Furthermore, they have even attracted
the attention of certain thinkers outside the orbit of Persian culture,1 as
the labour of a small group of scholars, foremost among them Corbin,
has enabled the Western world to know Safavid philosophy for the
first time and to study it not only for its historical interest but also as a
living school of wisdom and thought, in which are combined the
rigour of logic and the ecstasies of inner illumination.

1
Corbin, "The Force of Traditional Philosophy in Iran Today", Studies in Comparative Religion
(Winter, 1968), pp. 12-25.

697
 CHAPTER 14

CARPETS AND TEXTILES*

I. CARPETS

The finest Persian carpets are considered to be those of the Safavid

period. There are two possible reasons for this. Either this particular
branch of the arts in Iran reached its zenith later than any other, or else
the judgment may be explained by the fact that none of the Timurid
textiles have been preserved and that their evaluation is therefore based
entirely on miniatures, whereas we still possess a wealth of Safavid
carpets and fabrics which attest their advanced stage of technical and
aesthetic development. The miniatures leave us in no doubt as to the
existence of carpets in the Timurid era. Moreover, the finest surviving
knotted carpets date back to the early years of the Safavid dynasty and
could not have originated spontaneously. References to precious car-
pets are found as early as the Sasanian period. These, however, will not
be dealt with in the present survey, since the evidence does not provide
any clear impression of their design or technique.1

Timurid carpets
Two types of carpet can be seen in Timurid miniatures, those with
geometrical and those with arabesque designs. For an excellent study
of these rugs we are indebted to Amy Briggs. The geometrical type is
the earlier and forms by far the larger group. The geometrical carpets
were replaced towards the end of the 9th/15 th century by those with
arabesque and floral patterns, the best examples of which are found in
miniatures by Bihzad and his school. Bihzad, who lived approximately
from 1455 to 1535 - 6 , belonged to the Herat school and in 15 22 he was
appointed librarian to Shah Isma'Il I in Tabriz. On the miniature (pi. 3)
attributed to him and dating from the last decade of the 15 th century,
both types are illustrated. The small carpet in the foreground repre-
sents the geometrical group. The designs of these carpets consist of

* The author wishes it to be known that this chapter was submitted in 1973; as a consequence
more recent developments in the field have not been taken into account.
1
For sources, see Pope, "The Art of Carpet Making", in SPA, pp. 2270-82.

698
 CARPETS

small repeating patterns of squares, stars and crosses, hexagons,

octagons or circles, thereby showing similarities to the patterns of
contemporary paving tiles. The framing of these shapes by narrow
light-coloured bands interwoven into stars or crosses and in between
into knots is characteristic. Interlacing also occurs as a filling motif and
is typical of the borders where the light drawing on a dark background
is based on Kufic script. The corners are accurately worked out, using
a reciprocating design divided at an angle of 45 °. The ground of the
inner panels is monochrome or shaded in contrasting colours like a
chessboard. Arabesque motifs are rare in these geometrical carpets.
Their similarity to the 16th-century "Holbein" carpets of Asia Minor is
remarkable, and it is conceivable that these are a continuation of early
Timurid rugs.
The later style of arabesque pattern is displayed by the other two
carpets on Bihzad's miniature and by the awning in the background.
(As a rule awning patterns are closely related to those of the carpets,
even in the Safavid era. Unfortunately, as in the case of the carpets
depicted on the miniatures, it is not clear how they were made or of
what materials. Their function suggests that they were woven from
silk or made of embroidered linen.) The differences between these and
the geometrical carpet in the foreground are plain. The small repeating
pattern has given way to a complicated and extensive quaternate
symmetrical arrangement. Constructed lines cover the inner field, des-
cribing semicircles, circles, polyfoils, cartouches and ellipses. These
shapes overlap to some extent and thus-segments are formed which
through their colouring and the arabesques specially designed to fill
them stand out independently. The formalised Kufic border was
replaced by a repeating pattern of elegant undulating tendrils. In the
case of the awning in the background one is struck by the medallion
centre piece. Further innovations include rugs and awnings with an
almost isolated medallion in the centre and corner pieces resembling
the quarters of a central medallion, on a ground covered with
arabesques and even incorporating animal figures; and carpets with a
pattern entirely of scrolling tendrils on a monochrome ground. Both
these kinds too are to be seen on miniatures by Bihzad.1 The detailed
reproduction of these textiles seems to have been of particular interest
to him and it may be assumed that the development of the new style,

1
Grube, Tie Classical Style, pi. 51.2. Iran, Persian Miniatures, pi. XVII.

699
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

which has affinities with that of book illumination, was at least influ-
enced by him. The three principles of composition - the division of the
surface by intersecting lines into various symmetrically arranged
panels, the medallion and panel design - together with individual
motifs used in this context, such as tendrils, flowers and terminal
arabesque leaves, form the basis of the carpet patterns of the Safavid
period, at the beginning of which indeed Bihzad was still active.
Carpets in the geometrical style are no longer found in this period.

Safavid carpets
As was mentioned at the outset, not even a fragment of a Timurid
carpet appears to have survived. This is curious not only because there
are a great number of carpets and fabrics dating from the Safavid
period but also because two large carpets dating back to the years
1522—3 and 1539—40 are still extant in very good condition (pis. 6, 7).
The question therefore arises whether some fragments held to be
Safavid might not in fact date back to the Timurid era (e.g. pi. 5). This
can scarcely be proved, for despite the abundance of examples the
criteria for dating individual Safavid pieces within the two centuries in
question are not very substantial and the reader who expects the
assigning of precise dates and places of origin in respect of this period
will be disappointed.

Dating
Four carpets with the date woven into them, two of which, alas, were
produced almost contemporaneously, plus a few documents, do not
provide very reliable evidence. A degree of uncertainty as to the dating
existed in the case of the medallion animal carpet in the Museo Poldi
Pezzoli in Milan (pi. 7), since here the date one thought could be
construed as either 929/1522 or 949/1542. After intensive examination
of the original I prefer nowadays the earlier reading. Thus this carpet
dating from 929/1522-3 is our earliest dated example. The famous
carpet produced for the tomb of Shaikh Saf I in Ardabll and now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London (pi. 6) bears the date
946/1539—40. Together with a companion piece now in the County
Museum of Los Angeles, it was sold in 1886 through the agency of
Ziegler and Company to the London firm of Vincent Robinson,

700
 CARPETS

because money was needed for the restoration of the mosque. The
carpet was restored with the help of its counterpart. Its purchase by
the Victoria and Albert Museum for £2,500 — an astonishingly high
price in those days — was a sensation, as is even today the carpet
itself, which measures 11.52 x 5.43 metres and displays a refined
drawing, a close weave of some 5,200 knots per square decimetre and
subtle nuances of colour. It is one of the most important carpets
of the 16th century and there can be little doubt that it was Shah
Tahmasp himself who commissioned such a costly pair of carpets,
particularly since they were destined for the mausoleum of the foun-
der of the Safavid dynasty.
An interval of more than a hundred years separates these two pieces
from a "vase" carpet in the Sarajevo Museum dated 1067/165 6.1 The
latest dating - 1082/1671 - occurs on a silk carpet from the mausoleum
of Shah 'Abbas II in Qum.2 Other inscriptions are of a purely literary
nature.
The style predominant round about 1600 and in the first quarter of
the 17th century is represented by the so-called "Polonaise" carpets,
silk knotted carpets brocaded with gold and silver. Their production in
Kashan and particularly in Isfahan at this time is attested by a commis-
sion tendered in Kashan in 1601 by King Sigismund III Vasa of
Poland, by five not very typical examples in the Treasury of San Marco
which were brought to Venice as ambassadorial gifts from Shah 'Abbas
I, and by the contemporary reports of European travellers.
European paintings, which are useful in the dating of Anatolian
rugs, cannot on the basis of research to date help us to classify Persian
carpets. The pictures in which Persian carpets are depicted, for example
17th century Dutch paintings, are relatively late and merely provide
examples of the "Herat" group of carpets. The Safavid miniatures show
that the whole wealth of forms that recurs in textile design was already
fully developed by the beginning of the 16th century. The carpets
depicted represent both types, the medallion and the scrolling tendril
carpets, but are not painted with sufficient discrimination to allow us to
allocate them to individual sub-groups and thus employ them for the
purpose of determining dates and origins.
We must therefore fall back on the two masterpieces dating from
1522—3 and 1542, the style developed under Shah 'Abbas in the first

1
SPA, pi. 1238. 2 SPA, pi. 1259.

701
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

quarter of the 17th century which is represented by the early

"Polonaise" carpets and is clearly distinct from that of the rugs of the
time of Shah Tahmasp, and two comparatively late examples from
about 1660—70. Within this framework one must date pieces according
to stylistic criteria, examining in each case the precision of the design
and the craftsmanship, and the configuration and stage of evolution of
individual forms. The subjectivity of such judgments explains why
individual pieces have been differently evaluated by different experts.

Origin
No less difficult is the problem of origin, that is, the task of attributing
to individual weaving centres the various groups which can be distin-
guished among Safavid carpets on the basis of their design and techni-
cal characteristics. The few inscriptions we have are of little help.
Admittedly the Ardabll carpet bears the words "produced by...
Maqsiid of Kashan" and the silk carpet from the Qum mausoleum the
words "the work of Master Ni'mat-Allah of Jaushaqan", but this does
not mean that the origin of the craftsmen is the same as that of the
rugs, any more than that the destination was necessarily identical with
the place of origin. Since the Safavid carpets must be the products of
large establishments patronised by the Court, it may be supposed that
carpets were manufactured in the workshops of successive capitals. In
1501 Shah Isma'H (1501-24) conquered Tabriz and was crowned there.
In 1548 under Shah Tahmasp (1524-76) the court was transferred to
Qazvin, and in 1598 under Shah 'Abbas (15 87-1629) it moved to
Isfahan. It is likely that carpets were produced in Tabriz under
Bihzad's influence. As late as 1700 Frantz Caspar Schillinger refers to
the close-woven carpets sold in that town.1 It is surprising that hitherto
scarcely any attempt has been made to trace carpets to Qazvin, al-
though the Court was established there for fifty years. Early in the 17th
century Florencio del Nino Jesus emphasised that Qazvin was an im-
portant trading centre where there was an abundance of silk and bro-
cade carpets.2 In the case of Isfahan there is reliable evidence from
various sources of the manufacture of carpets brocaded with gold and
silver threads. Indeed Jean-Baptiste Tavernier describes the exact loca-
tion of the workshops in the Maidan quarter.3 But woollen carpets

1 2 3
Schillinger, p. 149. Nino Jesus, p. 100. Tavernier 1, 444.

7O2
 CARPETS

were also woven in Isfahan, for Tavernier writes on another occasion:

"The Karkrone is the house of the royal manufactories where fine
carpets of gold, silver, silk and wool, together with gold and silver
brocade, velvet, taffeta and other such fabrics are made."1
The pro-European policy of Shah 'Abbas drew many Europeans to
Persia as envoys, traders and missionaries, and their reports are of great
help in determining the origin of silk textiles brocaded with gold and
silver. By comparison with these representative showpieces the
woollen carpets seem to have been far less impressive and unworthy of
detailed description. Thus we learn nothing about the designs peculiar
perhaps to certain localities. A highly interesting exception is the
description by Engelbert Kaempfer of the banqueting hall, probably in
Isfahan, during an audience on 30 July 1684. He writes: "The most
striking adornment of the banqueting hall was to my mind the carpets
laid out over all three rostra in a most extravagant fashion, mostly
woollen rugs from Kirman with animal patterns and woven of the
finest wool".2 Other sources with which I am familiar are content with
brief allusions which at best merely indicate the quality.
Kashan is mentioned most frequently, always as outstanding for the
manufacture of silk, and it was still named as the centre of this industry
by Chardin as late as 1670.3 A report for the years 1607-8 notes that
here carpets of gold and silk, fine brocades and velvets, satin and
fabrics of many kinds were worked.4 D. Garcia de Silva y Figueroa,
who visited the town in 1618, considers the carpets made there to be
the most beautiful in all Persia and on a par with those of Isfahan.5
Unfortunately, it is not clear from the account whether silk or woollen
rugs are meant. Subsequently Kashan appears to have been superseded
by Isfahan in the manufacture of carpets. Pedro Teixeira, who left Goa
in 1604 and journeyed to Europe via Persia, judges the carpets of Yazd
to be the best, followed by those from the province of Kirman and
then those of Khurasan.6 Chardin also speaks of carpet factories in
Kirman and particularly in Slstan.7 On the other hand, in 1636—7
Adam Olearius avers that the best carpets come from Herat.8 Tadeusz
Krusihski, looking back in about 1720 over the reign of Shah 'Abbas,
enumerates as the places where the latter established royal workshops
the provinces of Shlrvan, Qarabagh, Gllan, Kashan, Kirman, Mashhad,
1 2 3
Ibid., 654. Kaempfer, p. 202. Chardin 111, 3-4.
4 5 6
Nino Jesus, p. 102. Silva y Figueroa, p. 210. Teixeira, p. 243.
7 8
Chardin iv, 154. Olearius, p. 548.

7O3
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

Astarabad and the capital Isfahan.1 Thus the following weaving centres
emerge: Kashan for brocaded silk carpets, Isfahan for brocaded silk
carpets and woollen carpets, for the latter in addition Yazd, the prov-
inces of Kirman and Khurasan with Herat. That Tabriz is mentioned
only once, about 1700, may perhaps be explained by the fact that the
evidence is no earlier than the 17th century, while Tabriz ranked as a
place of importance during the first half of the 16th century.
Over against these centres we have clearly defined groups of Safavid
carpets that have subsequently been distinguished. The categories are
based on various criteria, so that some are named after peculiarities of
design, such as the vase and garden carpets, while others are named
after the provenance once attributed to them, for instance the "Polon-
aise" carpets, the Herats, Isfahans and Kashans. Only in the case of
these so-called "Polonaise" carpets is it possible to correlate them on
the basis of the materials used, silk, gold and silver. In the case of every
category it seems to me supremely difficult to assign them to one or
other of the weaving centres mentioned. The assumptions as to their
origin which have gained credence over the years are purely hypothet-
ical and such designations as north-west Persia or Tabriz, southern
Persia or Kirman, eastern Persia or Herat should be regarded as para-
phrases serving to identify the various types rather than as accurate
descriptions of their provenance. Hitherto the only expert to decline to
make definite assertions about their origin because of the lack of evi-
dence has been A. C. Edwards. Perhaps one day town chronicles,
workshop reports or copies of designs will come to light and clarify the
situation, but this is probably wishful thinking.

Principles of composition
Quite apart from the special characteristics which distinguish different
types and provenances, Safavid carpets and with them all Oriental
carpets, are designed according to definite principles. The most obvi-
ous of these is the division into an almost invariably rectangular inner
field, and an enclosing border which consists of a main central stripe
and two or more guard-stripes. In the design of the field onefindsin
general a continuous, usually multi-layered arrangement of small or
large repeating patterns, from which a section is chosen and sur-

1
Krusinski, chap. 232, A. 219.

704
 CARPETS
rounded by the border. The attention paid to symmetry is character-
istic. Most common of all is the quaternate symmetrical layout, in
which the pattern is arranged like mirror images on the longitudinal
and the transverse axes of the carpet and which determines the compo-
sition of the late Timurid rug and of the awning on the Bihzad minia-
ture illustrated. This design is also apparent, though less clearly, in the
small-sectioned panel design (see pi. 4) and in patterns composed of
scrolling tendrils (see pi. 9). It is most easily recognised on medallion
carpets. Here, in the centre of the carpet, and on a second level, as it
were, a medallion is superimposed on the quaternate symmetrical
section from the panel design. The composition of the ground may be
formed by a small repeating pattern constantly reciprocated (see pi. 8),
or alternatively the unit of design may be so large that it constitutes a
whole quarter of the carpet (see pi. 6). The design consists as a rule of
two layers, for instance a more broadly drawn primary tendril system
with a secondary filling tendril motif (see pi. 6), or a system of tendrils
on which is superimposed a design of figures and animals (see pi. 7).
Sometimes the ground is filled like that of a miniature with trees,
flowering shrubs, animals and hunting scenes (see pi. 13). If only one
medallion is superimposed, it serves merely to emphasise the central
point of the carpet. Usually, however, the central medallion is comple-
mented by the repetition of a quarter of this medallion in each of the
four corners of the field, thereby showing that it is part of a second
repeating pattern and of a more extensive arrangement of offset
medallions. The medallions of the early Safavid carpets have an
unbroken linear contour and vary from starshaped and round to
ogival. They are found on other textiles as early as the 15 th century.
The internal design of the early Safavid medallions is isolated from the
pattern of the ground and does not extend beyond the edges of the
medallion. Ancillary forms are frequently added to these medallions,
generally an obliquely-set cartouche and a shield-like appendage on the
longitudinal axis on either side; these are treated just as independently.
In the case of 17th-century carpets, on the other hand, particularly the
so-called "Polonaise" carpets, the independence of medallion and
ground gives way to an interrelationship in that the tendrils of the
background invade the medallion and vice versa. The medallions with a
linear outline are replaced by formations of symmetrically arranged
forked leaves which are integrated with the tendrils of the ground (see
pi. 15 b) and which go back partly to the filling motifs of the earlier

705
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

medallions. Thus the medallion of this "Polonaise" carpet corresponds

to the internal design of the medallion of the silk carpet illustrated on
plate 15 a.
In addition to the carpets with a quaternate symmetrical design,
there are others of which the patterns form mirror images only along
the longitudinal axis (see pi. 10). Examples without any axial symmetry
are more rare. They are always adorned with figures and have a
picture-like character. Interesting intermediate stages are seen in the
carpets on plates 12 and 13.
Another type of design is the division of the surface into compart-
ments that can be arranged both in the quaternate symmetrical fashion
and in an ascending manner. These "compartment rugs" are directly
connected with late Timurid book illumination and with Bihzad and
the Herat school. The earliest example is probably a carpet in the
Metropolitan Museum, New York (pi. 4). Here light-coloured,
concavely and convexly undulating bands intersect and circumscribe
shield-like panels arranged concentrically around octafoils. Rows of
star motifs are produced between which other rather smaller octafoil
rosettes are inserted as connecting links, so that the pattern covers the
whole surface like a web. The incomplete stars on the longer sides
indicate that here once again we have a section of an endless pattern. A
tent in a miniature of the Herat school dating from i486 is decorated
on the same principle.1 The larger medallions of the carpet illustrated
on plate 4 depict the battle of the dragon and the phoenix; the smaller
ones each contain four beasts drawn from Chinese mythology, the lions
or dogs of Fo, and the shields alternately contain symmetrical spiral
tendrils with terminal arabesque leaves and birds. The remaining
portions of the ground are filled with scrolling tendrils and cloud-
bands. The whole is framed by a border of cartouches linked by
rosettes or small circular intermediate shapes. There are several exam-
ples of this among Safavid carpets. Because of the subtle design one
can without hesitation ascribe this compartment rug and its counter-
part in the Musee des Tissus, Lyons, to the first half of the 16th
century. What is clearly a later pair of carpets has the same panel design
as that upon which the medallion of the carpet on plate 8 is superim-
posed in the centre.2 Another pair of carpets shows a variation in

1
Sakisian, La miniature persane, pi. L X I V ,fig.109.
2
Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst, Vienna; its counterpart in SPA, pi. 1125.

706
 CARPETS

which shields and quatrefoils are arranged in alternating rows.1

Sections from similar patterns were also used as borders (see pi. 9). The
penetration of the compartments which is familiar from the carpets in
Bihzad's miniatures was repeated in the case of another carpet in the
Metropolitan Museum, which has intersecting cartouches, and in the
case of a pair of "Polonaise" carpets in the same collection. 2 The
former carpet is so close to the vase carpets in its colouring that it
could not have originated at the same period as our initial example but
rather belongs - like the pair of "Polonaise" carpets - to the beginning
of the 17th century. An essential difference is the fact that in these later
examples the filling motif of spiral tendrils is not tailored to fit the
individual fields but they overlap each other. The division of the
surface into rhomb-shaped compartments formed by tendrils or lan-
ceolate leaves is a common feature of the vase carpets.
Apart from carpets with closely corresponding patterns which may
well, however, have been produced at different periods, there are many
matching pairs where sometimes the one carpet is a reciprocating image of
the other. At least some of these must have been intended for use in pairs.
Such a pair of carpets is depicted on a miniature painted about 15 40 by Mir
'All Tabrlzl.3 The so-called "Polonaise" carpets in particular often exist in
pairs. The carpets featured on plates 4 and 6 also have exactly matching
companion pieces and one could list a whole series of other examples.
The representation of figures shows the influence of miniature paint-
ing. The symbolic motifs of dragon and phoenix, crane, Ch'i-lin,
cloud-bands and -whisps are of Chinese origin. They were already
common elements in Timurid book illumination and found their way
into carpet and textile patterns through Timurid and Safavid minia-
tures. Figured carpets reached the zenith of their development during
the reign of Shah Tahmasp in the 16th century. The finest example is a
silk hunting carpet with an amazingly close weave of some 12,000
knots per square decimetre; formerly in the possession of the
Habsburg dynasty, it is now in the Osterreichisches Museum fur
angewandte Kunst in Vienna (pi. 13). Just as the formal medallion
design characteristic of the 16th century disappears almost completely
in the 17th century, so too in this same period carpets modelled on
miniatures decline in importance, and the few pieces which, owing to
1
Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst; its counterpart in Sarre and Trenkwald n,
2
pi. 17. SPA, pi. 1223. Dimand, Handbook, p. 379, fig. 249.
3
Grube, World of Islam, p. 127.

7°7
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

the decadence of the design, cannot be assigned to the 16th century are
simply offshoots of the carpets of the early Safavid era.
Prayer rugs occupy a special position, since their design is governed
by their function. A characteristic feature of the field design is the niche
form, the point of which is directed towards Mecca during prayer. This
form is in imitation of the mihrab, which in a mosque points in the
direction of Mecca, the qibla. There are some prayer rugs with a single
niche and others with several. Scarcely any Persian examples survive
from the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest is the fragment of a
prayer rug with a pattern arranged in rows in the Museum fur Islam-
ische Kunst in Berlin (pi. 5). It does not allow us to draw any conclu-
sion as to the number of niches arranged side by side and one above the
other. Stripes with light-coloured tendrils on a red ground delineate
the individual fields. Narrower bands separate the niches and the
surviving spandrels. The niches and spandrels are executed alternately
in light and dark colours. The design of the spandrels consists in each
case of scrolling tendrils with terminal arabesque leaves which in their
elegance and refinement are remarkably reminiscent of a fabric serving
as a coverlet on a miniature dated 1514.1 The formation of the niches
differs from one row to another. The accuracy and richness of the
design indicate that it originated in the early Safavid period, but it is
also possible that it dates from the Timurid era, as F. Sarre suggested.2
There is nothing to indicate its place of origin. In the case of another
type of prayer rug with only one niche, the spandrels and the borders
of the upper half are adorned with verses.3 There are thirty-seven rugs
of this kind in the Topkapi Sarayi in Istanbul, clearly Turkish in
origin and dating from the 19th century. It is not known whether these
are copies of 16th century Persian originals or whether the examples
hitherto thought to be Persian themselves belong to this Turkish
group. 4 The same problem occurs with the stylistically closely related
medallion carpets of the so-called "Salting" group named after a carpet
from the Salting Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum.5

"North-west Persian" medallion carpets

These fall into different categories which may be broadly divided into
two groups of contrasting styles. In the one group, represented by the
1 2
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis, pi. V. Sarre and Trenkwald II, caption to pi. 50.
3 4
Ibid., pi. 51. Erdmann, review, pp. 164-5, ^ d Siebenhundert Jabre, p. 162.
5 SPA, pi. 1162.

708
 CARPETS

Ardabll carpet (pi. 6) which is dated 1539-40, the drawing is sinuous;

in the other, best exemplified by the Milan hunting carpet of 1522-3
(pi. 7), the drawing is rigid and angular. Over against scrolling tendrils
with flowing convolutions we have a lattice of straight lengths of
tendril and almost rectangular offshoots. Since the inscriptions vouch
for a not too long difference of time in production of both carpets, the
differences cannot be ascribed to a progression or degeneration from
one type to another. The reason for assigning a common origin to
them was presumably the fact that both must have been produced in a
court manufactory and that at the time they were woven the seat of
government was still in Tabriz.
The same disparity between figured and angular forms occurs in the
case of medallion carpets with a purely representational pattern, said to
have originated in north-west Persia. Examples of the former kind are
an animal carpet in Milan and the so-called "Chelsea" carpet in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, which is also interesting for the un-
usually large pattern section of offset medallions connected diagonally
by pointed ovals and which, judging by its design, falls between the
Ardabll carpet and the compartment rug (pi. 4) described above.1 The
second kind is represented by a medallion carpet with a white ground,
formerly in the Clarence H. Mackay Collection, and its companion
piece in the Islamisches Museum, East Berlin - a rug which was largely
destroyed during the last war.2
In a less complex type the medallions are superimposed upon a
continuous, somewhat clumsily drawn design with a small repeating
pattern. Figured motifs do not occur in these cases. One of the best
pieces of this kind which, unfortunately, has not survived in its origi-
nal size of some 10 X 3.95 metres will serve as an example (pi. 8). The
plate is a photographic montage. The central portion of the carpet as
far as a point just beyond the partial shield of the medallion has long
since belonged to the Victoria and Albert Museum. A quarter of the
missing piece with the corner was acquired a few years ago by the New
York collector Joseph V. McMullan and it enabled experts to recon-
struct the carpet. The pattern of the background, as is predominant in
carpets of this kind, consists of a repeating pattern of very slender
symmetrical scrolling tendrils terminating in arabesque leaves. At the

1
Sarre and Trenkwald n, pis. 29-30 and 15-16.
2
Ibid., pi. 27. Erdmann, trans. Ellis, pi. 50.

709
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

point where the spirals touch, palmettes are superimposed. The

medallion formed by interlocking multi-coloured fields is reminiscent
of the cartouche carpets. The border characteristic of this type is
composed of a repeating pattern of short reciprocating interlacing
arabesques.

"Herat" or "Isfahan" carpets

The most outstanding features of this group are large palmettes super-
imposed in many variations upon a quaternate symmetrical arrange-
ment of very slender scrolling tendrils. Medallions are rare. The
ground is generally crimson, the borders dark blue or dark green.
Within this group again two types can be distinguished. In the earlier
kind belonging to the 16th century (pi. 9) the design is very compact
and interwoven with many cloud-bands. The ends of the tendrils are
not emphasised. A few pieces have details picked out with metal
thread. Animals - partly creatures from Far Eastern mythology such as
the stag Ch'i-lin and dragons - and beasts preying on one another are
often incorporated in the pattern. The best animal carpet of this kind,
together with a similar fragment, is in the Osterreichisches Museum
fur angewandte Kunst in Vienna.1 The Far Eastern motifs were doubt-
less responsible for these carpets being attributed to eastern Persia.
This provenance has yet to be proved to be correct, although it is
known that carpets of high quality were indeed produced in Khurasan
and its capital Herat. The carpets decorated with scrolling tendrils
which are depicted on the miniatures of the Herat school lack the large
palmettes and cannot be classified as "Herat" carpets.
In the later type the floral designs are simplified, cloud-bands are less
frequent, and there are no animals. Along with the palmettes large
lanceolate leaves attached to the ends of the tendrils and often divided
into different coloured halves dominate the pattern. The borders consist
mostly of repeating patterns of sinuous S-shaped tendrils terminating in
lanceolate leaves, and of large palmettes superimposed at the tangential
points of the single units of design. The same borders are found on the
"Polonaise" carpets, and it is surely right to assume that they were
produced in the same period, namely the 17th century. Whether this type
of "Herat" carpet is synonymous with the woollen carpets of Isfahan

1
Sarre and Trenkwald i, pi. 7.

710
 CARPETS

and thus represents a style characteristic of Isfahan, or whether the

"Polonaise" carpets are merely influenced by this group, remains an
open question. It was recently suggested that some of them might stem
from India, and so we find the term "Indo-Isfahan". We know that such
carpets were exported to India and were also imitated there. In the palace
of Jaipur even today there is a whole series of examples. Precise distinc-
tions between Indian and Persian pieces of this kind have never to my
knowledge been traced: at least no findings have been published.
These later "Herat" carpets must have been a commodity highly
prized by Europeans, for apart from the fact that a large number are
still extant they were reproduced relatively often in paintings, particu-
larly in the pictures of 17th-century Dutch genre painters; they
occurred above all in Holland and Portugal. Through the East India
companies both these countries cultivated close trading links with
Persia and India. Thus Joan Cunaeus, an envoy of the Dutch East
India Company, reports that in 1651—2 he purchased forty-nine carpets
in Isfahan and had them brought overland to Hurmuz, where they
were shipped to the company base at Batavia and thence to Holland.1
At the beginning of the 17th century Pedro Teixeira writes of the trade
with the Portuguese in Hurmuz: "There usually come from all the
provinces of Persia to Harmuz large caravans or cafilas, to trade with
the Portuguese and other Christians, and the heathen and Moors that
reside there, and to barter what they bring, namely gold, silver, raw
and manufactured silk, brocades, carpets, horses, madder, alum,
tuthiath, rhubarb, rose-water, and divers other commodities".2

The "Sangus^ko" group

In the case of woollen carpets the influence of miniature painting is
most clearly seen in the twelve or so carpets of the so-called "San-
guszko" group. The designation derives from the carpet which at the
London Exhibition of Persian Art in 1931 provided the stimulus for
the classifying of this group and which belonged to Prince Roman
Sanguszko.3
Although almost all of the carpets belonging to the group have a
medallion design, I have chosen as my example the fragment from the
1 2
Cunaeus, pp. 340, 346, 348. Teixeira, p. 252.
3
SPA, pi. 1206: at present in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on loan from Mr
and Mrs E. Seley.

7"
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

Maciet Collection now exhibited in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in

Paris (pi. 12), because here, independently of each other, quite definite
themes from miniature painting were taken up, and the connections
and influences therefore emerge particularly clearly. Thus we see — in
each case twice repeated like mirror images along the longitudinal axis
- in the upper zone Shlrln discovered in the pool by Khusrau, and
underneath a hunting scene, then Laila with the dying Majnun in the
desert. On the longitudinal axis the symmetry is broken by the intro-
duction of supplementary figures. There results a cross between a
textile pattern, which through reflection and sequence is potentially
capable of infinite extension, and a picture. A fine example of this is the
silk hunting carpet in Vienna (pi. 13) to which the whole group is
closely related formally. Since the rugs of the Sanguszko type reveal
the same degree of stylistic development as the figured silk tapestry-
woven carpets which we know from documentary evidence to have
been manufactured in Kashan - a stage illustrated among other things
by the preference for ogival medallions and an increasing amount of
stippling on animals and garments - K. Erdmann believes that they
too originated in Kashan. A.U. Pope, on the other hand, proposes
Yazd or Kirman.1 In texture and in its individual scatter motifs the
carpet illustrated corresponds to the "vase" carpets. The rugs of the
Sanguszko group date back to the second half of the 16th century.

"Vase" carpets
The name derives from flower-filled vessels in the form of Chinese
porcelain vases which occur on many of these carpets. On the rug
illustrated (pi. 10) the vase is in the centre. Vase carpets are distin-
guished by a wealth of colour and vegetable forms. In addition to the
most fantastically executed rosettes and facetted palmettes the charac-
teristics include stylised lilies, naturalistic flowering shrubs and
snailshell-like motifs that represent perhaps the remnants of shrunken
cloud knots.
With few exceptions the patterns unfold in an ascending direction,
and form mirror images along the longitudinal axis. Usually they go
back to a rhomboid design. For the most part the lozenge shapes are
formed as in our example by several tangential and intersecting tendrils

1
SPA, pp. 2270-82, and Erdmann, review, pp. 164—5.

712
 CARPETS

which, on a monochrome ground, are far less marked than the flowers.
However, they may also be clearly framed by tendrils or wide lanceo-
late leaves and filled in different colours.1 The symmetry of the design
is quite often relieved by an asymmetrical colour pattern. There are
also vase carpets without any marked rhomboid design but with inter-
laced rows of offset flower vases or shrubs.2 In the case of two
examples with an unusual composition in the McMullan Collection a
medallion and corner pieces are superimposed on an ascending pattern
of this kind, against the rules of the medallion design.3 Pieces with an
arabesque pattern and medallions are also found.4 In the main, two
borders were used. One of them, which has a repeating pattern of two
interlaced arabesque tendrils, can be seen in the illustration. The other
is very narrow and enclosed not by secondary stripes but merely by
bands. The pattern consists of rosettes or palmettes alternating with
squares of tiny flowers and a diagonal stem. The narrow borders and
the elongated format have led some scholars to suppose that these vase
carpets were intended for the floors of mosques. One or two examples
whose irregular outlines are adapted to the ground-plan of a building,5
the strong construction produced by a layered, so to speak double,
arrangement of the warp, and the relatively large number of fragments
appear to confirm this.
Regarding the chronological sequence of individual patterns and the
question of which "vase" carpets to assign to the 16th century and
which to the 17th, opinions vary. I cannot believe that the variations in
design succeeded one another in time, but consider rather that they
existed side by side and that their dating must be based on the quality
of the detail. A few fragments with a luxuriant and animated design
and particularly well executed detail correspond stylistically to the best
"Polonaise" carpets and are doubtless contemporary with them — that
is, they were woven at the beginning of the 17th century.6 The prob-
lem is whether the more distinctly drawn, formalised pieces in the main
group represent the antecedents or a subsequent development of these
fragments. In some an unambiguous degeneration is seen in the impov-
erishment of the design; in the case of others which are still very rich

1
SPA, pi. 1Z21; Erdmann, review, pis. 20, 21, 22.
2 3
Sarre and Trenkwald 1, pi. 24. SPA, pi. 1231. McMullan, pis. 17, 18.
4
Ibid., pis. 20, 21. Sarre and Trenkwald 1, pi. 31.
5
Erdmann, Siebenbundert Jabre, pi. 274. SPA, pis. 1238, 1218.
6
Erdmann, review, pis. 19, 22.

713
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

despite an apparently more simple pattern, it is exceptionally difficult

to reach a conclusion. Judgments will remain subjective. The vase
carpet dated 1656 in the Sarajevo Museum is not a typical example and
does not help us very much. Its design is to my mind remarkably good
and suggests that the majority of vase carpets were produced in the
17th century.

Garden carpets
Garden carpets (pi. 33) are representations of Persian gardens with
their strict geometrical and rectangular composition, with canals and
ponds where ducks and fish swim and which are bordered by multi-
farious trees and shrubs. Between them play birds and mammals. The
Persian rulers were passionately fond of splendid gardens, and so the
Safavid period saw the establishment of the gardens of Hazar Jarlb
near Isfahan, extolled by 17th-century European travellers, and the
garden laid out in 1612 by Shah 'Abbas in Ashraf, in the province of
Mazandaran. The carpet illustrated corresponds to the vase carpets in
technique, colouring and the detail of the pattern, such as the two vases
on a level with the middle watercourse and the interspersed snailshell-
like forms. The quality of design is akin to that of a garden carpet
measuring 28'8" by i2'3^-" in the Jaipur Museum which is probably the
earliest piece in this group.1 On the reverse there is an inscription
which records that this "foreign carpet" arrived at the Palace of Jaipur
on 29 August 1632. The carpet had probably been woven shortly
before and brought from Persia to India as a gift or as a commission.
The rigid formalisation and geometrical nature of every shape dis-
tinguishes what is definitely a later type from its Safavid predecessors.2
It certainly did not develop until the 18th century and is held to be
north-west Persian or Caucasian in origin.

"Portuguese" carpets
Since the same kind of design is common to them all, these constitute
the most uniform group (pi. 11). Erdmann lists nine examples surviv-
ing in their entirety and three fragments.3 They were given their name
1
Dimand, "A Persian Garden Carpet", p. 93.
2
SPA, pi. 1270. McMullan, pi. 29. Erdmann, Siebenhtmdert Jabre, p. 149.
3
Jabrbucb der Hamburger Kimstiammlungen vi (1961), 156.

714
 CARPETS

because of the scenes depicted in the spandrels which have been con-
strued as the arrival of a Portuguese embassy in the Persian Gulf, and
also because it was assumed that these carpets were intended for the
Portuguese in Goa. They show a mixture of European and Oriental
motifs in a highly unusual arrangement. A rhomboid central panel
with four small ogival medallions and a serrated and pinnate outline is
surrounded by concentric interlocking stripes of different colours. In
the early examples they are animated and have irregular protrusions. In
the later ones they are straight, run exactly parallel and are evenly
stepped. The stripes fill the surface except for the spandrels in each of
which there can be seen two sailing ships with people on board dressed
in European fashion, and next to these a man emerging from the water
and waving to the ships, the head of a sea monster and a few fish. This
scene must be derived from a European model, possibly from a map.
The border is related to the panel design of some arabesque carpets.1
As in the case of the "Herat" carpets, the origin of the Portuguese
rugs has been traced both to Persia and to India. E. Kiihnel believes
them to be indubitably Persian. K. Erdmann and he propound
southern Persia as their provenance. C. E. C. Tattersall suggests
Kashan. A.U. Pope, on the other hand, opts for Goa (Portuguese
India). The latter opinion rests more on the unusual character of the
"Portuguese" carpets compared with other Persian rugs than on any
inherent resemblance to Indian carpets, which is itself no more con-
vincing. The whole group would seem to belong to the 17th century.
How the same theme could subsequently be repeated in the Cauca-
sian region is likewise a mystery.2 Furthermore, two small silk carpets
which fall between the "Polonaise" rugs and the "Portuguese" carpets
are designed on the same principle, though without the scenes in the
spandrels.3

Silk carpets of the 16th century and tapestry-woven carpets

The changes which took place between the 16th and the 17th centuries
can be traced particularly clearly in the case of the silk carpets.
The earliest and most impressive example is the Vienna hunting
carpet (pi. 13). It represents the climax of the rugs modelled on minia-
1 2
Ibid., pis. 3, 1. Bode and Kuhnel, pi. 79.
3
Oritntaliscbc Teppicbe, Tf. LV, Abb. 73; the other is in the Walters An Gallery, Baltimore, Inv.
no. 81.5 (unpublished).

715
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

tures that were produced in the reign of Shah Tahmasp. A large part of
the detail is picked out in gold and silver thread. Its size - 6.93 X 3.23
metres - corresponds to that of the great woollen knotted carpets. There
was a somewhat smaller silk carpet of almost identical quality in the
collection of Baron Maurice de Rothschild and now belonging to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The provenance is believed to be Tabriz
or Kashan, which was famous for its silk industry. With these two
carpets is associated a group of some thirteen small silk carpets (see
pi. 15a) which K. Erdmann calls "the small silk carpets of Kashan".1 The
majority likewise have a medallion design into which, in the case of an
example in the Gulbenkian Collection, animal figures and beasts preying
on one another are introduced. Apart from this example such figures
rarely occur in this group, in fact on only four rugs with an ascending,
asymmetrical pattern which are picture carpets pure and simple. The
representation of human beings and peris is not found on these rugs.
On the other hand, these motifs do occur together with scenes of
animals fighting on some woven silk carpets which with two excep-
tions are similarly of small format. The representational tapestry-
woven carpets are closely related to the carpets of the "Sanguszko"
group and reveal the same stage of stylistic development. A decisive
innovation vis-a-vis the knotted silk carpets is the use of brocade not
only to pick out detail but over whole panels. The Munich hunting
carpet,2 which unfortunately does not survive in its entirety, is out-
standing among tapestry-woven carpets by virtue of its size, the excel-
lence of the design and the hunting scenes which link it directly with
the Vienna hunting carpet. In addition to the example illustrated
(pi. 14) two small tapestry-woven rugs similar to our example are also
associated with it, as are the remnants of a once large piece and three
carpets in Berlin, Washington and Copenhagen with a dragon and a
phoenix in the central medallion and slender flowering tendrils on the
ground; these last three are known as "Padishah" carpets because of
the inscription on the Berlin example.3 The designs of all these tapestry-
woven rugs contain ogival medallions with transverse cartouches
and partial shields, typical secondary motifs of the early Safavid period.
They are framed by borders of alternating cartouches and polyfoils.
Besides the figured tapestry-woven carpets, there is a second con-
1 2
Erdmann, Sitbenbmdtrt Jabre, p. 143. Sarre and Trenkwald n, pi. 47.
3
Erdmann, "Persische Wirkteppiche", p. 227, and "Ein persischer Wirkteppich", p. 62.
Spuhler, "Der figurale Kaschan-Wirkteppich", p. 55.

716
 CARPETS
trasting group with a purely floral design. These include a complete
carpet in Munich1 and half a carpet in Washington incorporating the
arms of King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland. It is certain that these are
two of the carpets which Sigismund commissioned through Sefer
Muratowicz in Kashan in 1601. An invoice dated 12 September 1602
lists pairs of carpets and a sum of five crowns for the execution of the
royal coat of arms.2 On the occasion of the marriage of the Polish
princess Anna Catherina Constanza, the daughter of Sigismund III, to
the Elector Palatine Philipp Wilhelm, an unknown quantity of carpets
came into the possession of the Wittelsbachs in 1642 as a dowry.
Among them was doubtless the tapestry-woven carpet adorned with
the coat of arms, and probably the other tapestry rugs and "Polonaise"
carpets now in Munich. The heraldic carpets provide evidence of the
stage of stylistic development attained by tapestry-woven carpets
round about 1600. In their case we perceive a simplification and a
coarsening of the drawing, compared with the figured tapestry carpets
and particularly with the Padishah carpets, in respect of the tendrils of
the background, the large flowers and the lanceolate leaves. This
would suggest that the figured pieces - with the exception of a
tapestry-woven rug in the Louvre showing Bahram Giir vanquishing
the dragon, and the one in the Thyssen Collection in Rohoncz castle,
near Lugano, with a repeating pattern of cartouches, polyfoils and
shields - date from the latter half of the 16th century. When comparing
them with the knotted silk hunting carpets it must be remembered that
for technical reasons a tapestry-woven rug cannot match a knotted
carpet of the greatest density for delicacy of design. Correspondingly a
chronological sequence can be established in the case of the floral
examples by drawing stylistic comparisons with the heraldic carpets
and a pair of embroidered silk carpets in the Rosenborg Castle in
Copenhagen, which together with other textiles were brought to
Europe in 1639 by a Persian embassy to Duke Friedrich of Holstein-
Gottorp and which reveal in the centre a star-shaped medallion with
two opposite phoenixes. This sequence begins with a few tapestry-
woven carpets in the latter half of the 16th century3 and continues to
the end of the 17th century. It is characteristic of these pieces that the
close link with the early Safavid carpets remains unimpaired by the
stylistic development that occurred in silk carpets about 1600.

1 2
SPA, pi. 1268B. Mankowski, p. 152. 3 E.g. SPA, pi. 1266.

717
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

"Polonaise" carpets

The production of silk knotted carpets was markedly increased under

Shah 'Abbas I and these carpets form the only group in which a
completely new style developed at the beginning of the 17th century,
quite distinct from 16th-century rules of composition (see pi. ijb). The
misnomer has been the subject of criticism ever since the appearance of
the catalogue of the Exhibition of Oriental Carpets in Vienna in 1891,
in which A. Riegl disputed the alleged Polish provenance of these
carpets. There has been no lack of alternative suggestions, but none
have been sufficiently apposite to replace the original name which by
now has become a terminus technicus. The total of some two hundred
and thirty extant examples shows in what numbers these rugs were
produced, for they were not — as was once assumed — destined
exclusively for export or as gifts for European rulers, but equally, as
showpieces, formed part of the furnishing of Safavid palaces. On this
point 17th-century travellers' reports leave us in no doubt.
As with the tapestry-woven carpets, large panels and often the
whole ground of the "Polonaise" carpets are brocaded. Nowadays the
distribution of gold and silver can be discerned only from the yellow or
white silk cores of the interwoven threads, since the metal covering has
largely dropped off or been oxidised. The colours of the silk pile,
particularly the salmon pink, the bright tomato red, and the shades of
green and yellow are as a rule badly faded. In the case of the example
illustrated the original colours are still visible on the reverse. The
costliness of the materials led to economies which are evident in the
predominantly small size of the silk carpets and also, in the case of the
"Polonaise" rugs, in the use of cotton for the foundation. A warp and
weft wholly of silk is found only in those few antecedents and early
examples where the style of the main group is not yet fully defined and
which are very delicately and linearly drawn.1 It is characteristic of the
typical "Polonaise" carpets, on the other hand, that they transfer the
emphasis from the linear to the planar, a change which finds expression
above all in the abandonment of the monochrome ground. The scroll-
ing tendrils are reduced to the function of demarcating the irregular
panels which they describe and which are filled in different colours,
thereby standing out independently. With this tendency to juxtapose

1
Ibid., pis. 1242, 1243.

718
 CARPETS

grounds of different shades instead of contrasting them with one

another as on the early medallion carpets, it is not surprising that
compartment patterns are revived. Through the abandonment of the
unified background and the clear delineation of the medallions, the
latter are incorporated into the panel design and lose their overriding
function. Where they appear to be preserved the medallions are almost
always dependent upon a cartouche pattern ranged beneath them and
merely serve as overlapping rosettes at the tangential points of the
units of design or as filling motifs. In the detail, the abjuring of clear
contours and lines is seen in a baroque luxuriance of forms and an
accumulation of short encircling tendrils and fan-shaped miniature
leaves. The most important individual device is the arabesque leaf
which to a large extent determines the composition and acts as a
terminal motif in the primary tendril system. The broad lanceolate
leaves in the secondary tendril motif and the palmettes are reminiscent
of the late type of "Herat" carpet.
The large number of surviving "Polonaise" carpets provides us with
an insight into the technique of sketching the designs. The patterns are
derived - with only one or two exceptions - from thirteen designs
constantly varied by the choice of different sections, medallions or
colours, so that, for instance, there is almost always a series of smaller
carpets dependent upon the few large pieces. Over and above these
connections we can discern fifty-two matching pairs where the com-
panion pieces correspond even in their borders and colour schemes.
The Europeans who visited Persia in the 17th century were so
impressed by the splendour of the silk carpets brocaded with gold and
silver that in their reports, as I related in my introduction, they supply
us with a considerable amount of evidence which enables us to assign
these rugs to Kashan and Isfahan and to fix their dates. The brocaded
silk carpets of Kashan were already known abroad in 1601. The trans-
fer of the Court doubtless brought about the establishment in Isfahan
around 1600 of the manufactories described by Tavernier in the
Maidan quarter. It is probable that the uniform style revealed by the
majority of "Polonaise" carpets developed as a result of the connection
with the Court in Isfahan at the beginning of the 17th century and that
the finest examples, of which the carpet illustrated is one, go back to
the first quarter of the century. As far as the early examples are con-
cerned, it may be assumed that they originated towards the end of the
16th century. In 1599 Sir Anthony Sherley was presented by Shah
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES
'Abbas I with eighteen carpets brocaded with gold.1 Those
"Polonaise" carpets, where the quality of the design markedly deterior-
ates and the degeneration becomes obvious in the decline and rigid
formalisation of individual motifs, were probably woven in the second
half of the 17th century, and some unimportant examples as late as
1700. Krusinski reports that in 1722 the destruction of the Safavid
empire by the Afghans put an end to the manufacture of brocaded
textiles.2
On a par with the best "Polonaise" carpets is the cope knotted
entirely on silk (pi. 16), which by virtue of its form, composition and
themes is marked out as a commission and is the only example of
figured motifs being introduced into a "Polonaise" design. The extra-
ordinarily refined drawing, the linear tendrils on a monochrome
ground and the brocaded detail stamp it as one of the earliest examples,
whereas the individual devices with the numerous fan-shaped minia-
ture leaves, the palmettes, the arabesque and lanceolate leaves and the
brocaded border already reflect the style typical of "Polonaise" carpets.
The tendrils incorporate on the longitudinal axis the figure of Christ on
the Cross flanked by Mary and John. On the upper edge Mary on the
left hand and the Angel on the right together form a tableau of the
Annunciation. The reproduction of Biblical events is not an innovation
in Persian art since some of them are also attested by the Qur'an. The
Annunciation is described in terms similar to the Christian tradition,
but the Crucifixion of Christ's person does not occur in the Qur'an.
Moreover, the manner in which the figures on the cope are depicted is
by no means Persian, unlike for instance the velvet shown on plate 34;
on the contrary, the scenes correspond to a late Gothic type. It is
certain therefore that this ceremonial garment was commissioned by a
Christian patron who himself supplied the models for the Crucifixion
and Annunciation scenes.

II. TEXTILES
Miniatures convey an impression of the wide use of the most varied
fabrics. Apart from being made up into garments and turbans, fabrics
were used for cushions, rugs, curtains and for tents and awnings that
are apparently embroidered and often sumptuous. The garments vary

1 2
Ross, Sir Anthony Sberley, p. 94. Krusinski, p. 219.

720
 TEXTILES

from the most simple to luxurious ceremonial robes which were

frequently donated by guests wishing to curry favour at court or which
alternatively were bestowed as a form of decoration. Velvets and
brocades were also used as light rugs and as coverlets for sarcophagi.
In one source, unfortunately no earlier than the end of the 17th
century, the royal workshop in Isfahan heads the list of the most
important textile factories and is described as follows: "The royal
weaving mill consists of various weaving shops in which silks as well
as gold and silver brocades are manufactured. The director of the
establishment is the Superintendent of the traders who controls and
supervises the selection of patterns, the preparation of the raw
materials and the storage of the completed articles. In addition he is
head of all the workshops that supply the clothing needs of the royal
household". The superintendent of the traders who supervised the
royal weavers, dyers, tailors and silk embroiderers was at the same time
merchant and trading adviser to the King.1

Timurid fabrics
Again we are dependent upon miniatures for our knowledge of the
appearance of Timurid fabrics since, as in the case of the carpets, no
examples have survived which can with certainty be ascribed to this
period. The garments have a very small pattern and are dotted with
golden decorative motifs arranged in even rows. These devices include
groups of dots, small rosettes, stars, peony blossoms, cloud-bands and
ducks. Sometimes the shoulder area is adorned as though with a
medallion. There is an ornamentation of this kind executed in gold
embroidery on silk and set into the original garment in the Museum of
Oriental Cultures in Moscow.2 Ackerman attributes it to the 16th
century, but equally it resembles the Timurid illustrations. Sometimes
the embellishment of the robes consists of a border introduced at knee
level and figured ornamentation on the chest and back. In addition
there are robes and cushions covered in narrow stripes and pillows
with a tendril pattern. Since pre-Timurid examples of silk-twill, satin,
silkcloth and double cloth enriched with gilt thread have been pre-
served, and furthermore an amazing number of velvets and embroi-
dered and printed fabrics dating back to the Safavid era, it can be

1 2
Kaempfer, pp. 86, 120. SPA, pi. 1017.

721
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

assumed that in the Timurid period the same techniques were in use.
We do not possess any clues as to the location of the centres where
Timurid fabrics were produced. There is not the slightest difference,
for instance, between the fabrics depicted on the miniatures of the two
most famous schools of painters, Herat and Shlraz.
By comparison with the Safavid miniatures tents are less frequently
reproduced. Here, as with the saddle blankets - we do not know
whether these were knotted or tapestry-woven - the patterns of the
Safavid medallion carpets are already emerging. Similarly the tent
patterns on Safavid miniatures correspond to a considerable degree to
the patterns of contemporary carpets, and the same report that
supplied the evidence cited above indicates that the tents were in the
charge not of the director of the royal weaving mill but of the curator
of the royal carpets.1

Safavid fabrics
In artistic terms Persian fabrics reach their peak in the figured satins
and silk velvets brocaded with precious metal of the Safavid period; in
addition, however, a considerable number of outstanding silks with
repeating floral patterns were manufactured at that same period. A few
complete garments with patterns of this kind have survived.2 From the
travel journals it emerges that the towns of Kashan, Yazd, Isfahan and
Tabriz were centres of the silk industry. The sources are in part the
same as those upon which I drew in discussing the origin of the
"Polonaise" carpets. In 1599 Don Juan of Persia lists in addition to
Isfahan, Kashan and Yazd the towns of Qum and Sava as centres for
the manufacture of silks.3 Kashan is the place most frequently men-
tioned and Nino Jesus speaks of silk carpets brocaded with gilt and of
"beautiful brocades and velvets, satin and fabrics of many kinds"
which were made here.4 Olearius reports that in Kashan and Yazd
fabrics adorned with figures and inscriptions were produced, while
Tavernier records that the silk workers of Kashan weave the most
beautiful "gold and silver pieces" in the whole of Persia.5 Pietro della
xValle distinguishes three sorts of silk products in Kashan: long wide
sashes for men which are wound several times around the body and
1 2
Krusinski, A. 120. SPA, pis. 1060, 1034. Gliick and Diez, p. 372.
3
Don Juan, tr. Le Strange, p. 40. * Nino Jesus, p. 100.
5
Olearius, p. 601. Tavernier 1, 80.

722
 TEXTILES

into which, sometimes with and sometimes without gold, stripes and
delicate leaf and flower patterns are woven; silks without brocade but
embellished with inscriptions and figures such as men, women and
beasts; and silks which differ from the latter solely by virtue of gold
and silver brocade and which were destined entirely for women's
garments, cushions, bed curtains and similar domestic uses.1 Similarly
the production of figured silks in Isfahan is attested by Raphael du
Mans,2 and I have already cited the fact that the royal weaving mill at
Isfahan was responsible among other things for the clothing require-
ments of the royal household. Tabriz is seldom mentioned, although
Chardin claims that it ranked second in importance, size, wealth,
volume of trade and population and writes that it was full of artisans
specialising in the manufacture of cotton, silk and gold. Here the finest
turbans and six thousand bales of silk a year were produced. These
statements are largely confirmed by Schillinger round about 1700; in
connection with Tabriz he also singles out figured linen fine beyond all
measure.3 The difficulty of correlating the extant fabrics with these
centres is, however, just as great as in the case of the carpets, and the
lack of reliable criteria prevents me from drawing detailed conclusions
about their provenance.
Fabrics bearing dates of manufacture are rare. Because of their pre-
dominantly epigraphic decoration two "silk compound clothes" dated
1545 and 1669 do not permit us to draw any inferences regarding floral
and figured fabrics. Eight fabrics signed "Ghiyas"(e.g. pi. 18) offer a
certain amount of help. Ph. Ackerman has supplied interesting biogra-
phical details about Ghiyas.4 Regrettably, however, we do not know
his dates. He is described as a naqshband, painter and embroiderer, he
was born in Yazd, where he owned a luxurious house, and he belonged
to the circle which frequented the court of Shah 'Abbas I. His name
was known beyond the Persian frontiers and his fabrics were highly
prized. No biographical details relevant to the problem of dating are
available for other extant signatures. In the case of the figured fabrics, a
stylistic comparison with miniature painting reveals a few clues which
justify our assigning, for instance, various pieces influenced by the
style of Riza-yi 'AbbasI (see pi. 35) to the early 17th century. We
know the dates of presentation of the Madonna fabric illustrated on
plate 34 which was brought to the Signoria of Venice by a Persian
1 2
Delia Valle I I / I , 151 ff. Du Mans, pp. 186, 195.
3 4
Chardin 11, 320, 327-8. Schillinger, p. 149. Ackerman, "Ghiyath the Weaver", p. 9.

7*3
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

embassy in 1603, and of some fabrics which Shah SafI I sent with an
embassy to Duke Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp in 1637 and which are
now in the Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen.1 They merely confirm
the dating suggested by a comparison with contemporary miniatures.
The variety of Safavid fabrics makes it impossible to examine or
illustrate each kind in the present review. I shall confine my choice
accordingly to a few examples which can justly be described as a
supreme achievement. One of the finest fabrics of the 16th century is
the brocaded velvet with a red ground (pi. 17). Two staggered rows of
various peris alternate on a pattern of paired scrolling tendrils with
birds and whisps of cloud. The peris with two wings in the first row sit
on a carpet-like platform in front of which stands a flagon. The four-
winged peris in the next row sit on thrones. The peculiar headdress of
pennate leaves is already worn by peris on miniatures ascribed to the
latter half of the 15 th century and the Herat school,2 and it is also worn
by the Madonna on the fabric illustrated on plate 34. Peris are celestial
beings from Paradise who are depicted, for instance, accompanying
Muhammad's ascension or as the retinue of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba.3 In a sitting position and, as on the velvet shown here, in
conjunction with scrolling tendrils, birds and whisps of cloud, they
occur in the border of the Vienna hunting carpet (pi. 13); an enthroned
peri forms the centre of the medallion of the woven Munich hunting
carpet,4 and furthermore they are familiar from the tapestry-woven rug
on plate 14 and the border of the woollen knotted carpet on plate 12.
To a considerable degree the border of the fabric corresponds in design
to the outer guard-strip of the Vienna hunting carpet; and the pairs of
fish forming a palmette occur in precisely this manner on 16th century
knotted carpets. On a miniature in a manuscript dated 1556a fabric
adorned with peris serves as an awning behind Majnun's kneeling
father, and they are also seen on a camel saddle painted in 15 57-5 These
parallels justify the attribution of our example to the middle of the 16th
century.
The eight fabrics signed "Ghiyas" are among the most important
silks of the middle Safavid period. With the exception of a sarcophagus

1
Martin, Die pcrsiscben Pracbtstoffe.
2
Sakisian, ha miniature persant, pi. LIX, fig. 101, and pi. LXI,fig.105.
3
Grube, WorU of Islam, pi. 144. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Jt Shah 'Abbas, pis. XVI, XVII.
4
Sarre and Trenkwald 11, pi. 48.
5
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis, pi. XLIII. Sakisian, ha miniature persant, pi. XLIX,fig.8 5.
 TEXTILES

cover with a prayer niche and an inscription border1 they are all figured
fabrics. The themes are Khusrau glimpsing Shlrin in the pool and
Majnun being visited by Laila. in the desert. This scene appears on the
brocade with a black ground illustrated on plate 18, of which several
portions have been preserved. Among other things the naturalistic
portrayal of the camel on which Laila is riding in a howdah attests the
great skill of Ghiyas. The depictions of the camel with howdah and
driver and of the poet speaking to the animals have prototypes in
miniature painting.2 The question has been raised whether Ghiyas was
the designer, the weaver or the director of the workshop. In fact, there is
no reason to distinguish so sharply between these functions, and it is
quite possible that to a certain extent he combined all three roles. At all
events he was certainly responsible for the designs of the fabric signed in
his name in different styles of script. It may be assumed, however, that he
did not weave them all himself but supervised their execution. With the
great demand for his work it is probable that he employed assistants. We
know that he lived in Yazd and it is likely that he worked there too.
Nevertheless, one should not exclude the possibility of his designs
having been executed in Isfahan, since after all he attended court there
and could have occupied a leading position in the royal workshops. The
introduction of his signature in a prominent place and its recurrence in
the repeating pattern makes a rather obtrusive impression. This habit,
rare in the east, of emphasising his personal identity is shared by his
contemporaries at the court of Shah 'Abbas I in Isfahan, the calligrapher
'All Riza-yi 'Abbasi and the painter Riza.
The latter's style influenced a series of figured fabrics such as the velvet
with a metal ground in the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe
(pi. 35), fabrics which usually depict a genre scene in the repeating
pattern.3 The scene on the Karlsruhe fabric shows a youth standing in a
garden with his legs lazily crossed, leaning on a stick, and, as he smells a
flower, listening engrossed to an older man on his knees before him. The
latter has placed his shoes on one side and in front of him there is a shallow
bowl and another, unidentifiable object. This figure has been unconvin-
cingly interpreted as a beggar. E. Kiihnel describes him as a dervish. The
influence of Riza-yi 'Abbasi is seen in the attitude of the figures, the
delicate pleating of their garments and the large, loosely sketched turban.

1 2
SPA, pi. 1037. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavis, pis. XLII, LXVI.
3
Sarre and Mitrwoch, pis. 10, 20. Stchoukine, Manuscrits it Shah 'Abbas, pis. XXXV, XXXVI.

725
 CARPETS AND TEXTILES

The brocaded silk velvet on plate 34 is closely related to the Karls-

ruhe fabric. In addition to its history, it is interesting for the unusual
theme of the scenes it incorporates, for here, in contrast to the cope on
plate 16 where the groups of figures are copied from a foreign model,
the Biblical event of Christ's Nativity is depicted according to the
Oriental tradition and in a purely Safavid style. E. Kiihnel has pro-
duced a study of Christian motifs in Persian miniatures, in which he
discusses these problems of iconography. The Nativity is also described
in the Qur'an, but it differs from the Biblical account inasmuch as Mary
gives birth to Jesus in solitude under a date palm and the Lord causes a
rivulet to flow at her feet in order that she might be refreshed (sura xix.
24-7). In connection with this theme, which he notes is very rarely
treated, Kiihnel reproduces two 16th-century miniatures, and
Stchoukine another dating from the beginning of the 17th century.1
On the fabric the palm tree is replaced by a flowering shrub which with
the bird perched upon it is very similar to the bushes on the Karlsruhe
velvet, where indeed the spring with the fish also recurs. Mary is
nursing the baby Jesus and both are adorned with the flaming halo of
holiness. The figure facing this group and holding a cloth in readiness
does not belong to the Nativity scene as described in the Qur'an and
cannot therefore be explained by reference to the account we find
there.
The fabrics influenced by Riza-yi 'AbbasI, paintings and the
"Polonaise" carpets represent in equal measure the courtly style en-
couraged by Shah 'Abbas I at the beginning of the 17th century.

Public collections of oriental carpets and fabrics

In Europe the most important collection is that of the Osterreichisches
Museum fur angewandte Kunst in Vienna. Then comes the Victoria
and Albert Museum, London. The once exemplary collection in Berlin
was badly hit by extensive wartime losses. The remaining pieces are
now housed in the Islamisches Museum (East Berlin) and the Museum
fur Islamische Kunst, Stiftung Preuss. Kulturbesitz (West Berlin).
Without arranging them in order of size or completeness, I must also
mention the collections of the following: the Rijksmuseum, Amster-
dam; the David Collection and the Rosenberg Castle, Copenhagen; the

nbid., Pi. xxiii.

726
 TEXTILES

Museo Bardini, Florence; the Burrell Collection (recently opened to the

public) belonging to the Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow; the
Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; the Turk ve Islam
Eserleri Miizesi, Istanbul; the Hermitage in Leningrad; the Gulbenkian
Museum, Lisbon; the Musee des Tissus, Lyon; the Museo Poldi
Pezzoli in Milan; the Residenzmuseum and Nationalmuseum in
Munich; and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris.
In America the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, houses
particularly splendid pieces. The Textile Museum, Washington,
possesses a very large collection. To these may be added the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Detroit Insti-
tute of Arts; the County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Philadelphia
Museum of Art; and the City Art Museum of St Louis.

7*7
 CHAPTER I 5 {a)

TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

INTRODUCTION

The architectural achievements surveyed in this chapter range over

four hundred years of Persian history. The first half of our period was
one of constant shifts in political power accompanied by changing
frontiers. Only in the second half did Persia obtain some measure of
security under a single political authority. The story opens with the
architectural style associated with the Tl-Khans and its development in
western and southern Persia under the successor dynasties. It was this
style which was transferred to Transoxiana in the last quarter of the
8th/14th century. The part played by Tlmur and his house is crucial
to the story inasmuch as theirs was the principal building effort, first
in Transoxiana and then in eastern Persia — centres of Timurid
power. With the political decline of the Timurids in the middle of the
9th/15 th century, the initiative in architecture returned to western
Persia under the patronage of the Turkmen dynasties. Thanks to
Shah Isma'Il and his successors, the strands were drawn together and
a homogeneous style was created and disseminated throughout the
Safavid kingdom.
Initiative in public works was with members of the royal house and
the high officers of state: many civic undertakings were due to the
enterprise of local dignitaries. The religious was the most powerful of
motives: for at least in the first half of our period it is only the religious
foundations which survive. Apart from the public and private mosque,
the madrasa and kbangah, the principal effort was concentrated on the
embellishment of the great shrines — above all, those of the Imam Rida at
Mashhad and of Shaikh SafI at Ardabll. There is, too, as in the previous
period, a preoccupation with funerary architecture. Of the builders
themselves, we have an imperfect knowledge. It would seem that
western and southern Persia were the source of the greatest architectural
talent; and the only architect whose surviving work is sufficient to
establish him as a potent creative artist with a distinctive style is Qivam
al-Dln, a native of Shiraz.
The surviving monuments are but a partial index of the taste and
aspirations of the period. With the exception of the most famous, many
728
 INTRODUCTION

important monuments still await detailed and scientific study. The only
secular buildings of any significance earlier than the Safavid period to
have survived are a few caravansarais. There is scarcely a trace of
palace architecture. There were monuments standing until a century
ago which have since disappeared through wanton destruction or
neglect. Natural causes, too, have taken their toll; and it is ironical that
earlier buildings have survived earthquakes which reduced those of the
Timurid period and later to ruins. These later buildings, conceived on
a larger and more ambitious scale, lacked the structural solidity of an
earlier age. Thus any survey at the present time is provisional and
subject to alteration as further study leads to deeper understanding.
This would apply particularly to the social and functional aspects of
Persian architecture.
The most striking feature is the continuity of development. There was
no sudden change of direction such as occurred in the West, where a
revived interpretation of the classical tradition produced a wholly new
approach to architectural forms. Building materials continued to be
bricks, whether baked or unbaked, and timber. Stone was used sparingly.
The characteristic arch is pointed, struck generally from four or
three centres; from two centres only rarely. The round or segmental
arch is scarcely used at all. Dome profiles are elliptical or struck from
three or four centres: the bulbous dome is developed in our period.
The articulation of the facade is achieved by introducing blind arcades,
recessed panels and pilasters. Experiment and innovation were directed
to the handling of formal relationships within the accepted canons.
The principal preoccupations were, on the one hand, space and
formal relationships and, on the other hand, decoration. Increased
internal space was made possible by developing new vaulting systems.
Much thought was concentrated on relating the dome to the other
components, more particularly, the aivan with or without its attendant
screen and minarets. It is in the nature of the great religious buildings
that the architectural aspect is developed within the confining walls:
thus the monumental portal (ptshtdq) became the preponderant feature
of the exterior fac,ade. On the whole it was the smaller and more
compact buildings, such as the mausoleum and palace kiosk, which
were conceived as free standing monuments demanding a logical
relationship between exterior and interior. But the most significant
developments were in decoration. In our period there is an increasing
tendency to conceal structural features beneath an overlay which super-

729
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

ficially appears to have structural function but, in fact, more often

than not is purely ornamental. Such are the muqarnas (superposed rows
of prism-shaped elements in brick, plaster or wood, either covering the
curved surface of a vault or acting as a cornice, and sometimes called
stalactite decoration) and the complex network of ribs used to convert
the square to the circle. But it is polychrome surface decoration which
gives to Persian architecture of the period its unique character. Glazed
ceramic tiles, applied to the wall surface in a variety of techniques, were
the principal medium of decoration; gilding and painting were also
used, but, vulnerable as they were to time and weather, surviving
examples are rare. The three-dimensional effects of the earlier period
were less and less sought after. Deeply carved and painted stucco was
gradually abandoned. The interior of the mausoleum of the Imamzada
Khwaja 'Imad al-Din at Qum, built in 1390, is entirely covered in
polychrome plaster. It is a tour de force on the part of the carver but its
style is already archaic.1 A quite different technique of plaster decora-
tion was introduced in the 15 th century. The current style of decora-
tion was rendered in very low relief in plaster which was then painted
and gilded.

I. THE MUZAFFARID STYLE

The death of Sultan Abu Sa'Id in 7 3 6/13 3 5 spelt the virtual dissolution of
Il-Khanid power. From then until the coming of TTmur, Persia was
dominated by the Jalayirids in Iraq and Azarbaijan, the Muzaffarids in
Fars, Kirman and Isfahan and the Kart dynasty in Khurasan. The
Il-Khanid style had been created in the first three decades of the century;
and is represented by two remarkable monuments, the mausoleum of
Oljeitii Khudabanda at Sultaniyya and the Great Mosque of Varamln.
The major monuments in the period of the Mongol succession states are
remarkably few. The outstanding ones are to be found in western and
southern Persia and are associated with the Muzaffarid rulers. That there
are no examples of the buildings raised byi members of the Jalayirid
house is surprising and can in part be explained by the devastations
^wrought by Tlmur. The contribution of this dynasty to the development
of painting was crucial, but no trace remains of the splendid palace built
outside Tabriz by Shaikh Uvais and described in detail by Clavijo.2

1 2
Wilber, The Architecture, no. 144, p. 188. Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, p. 153.

73°
 THE MUZAFFARID STYLE

The development of the Muzaffarid style can be traced in the history

of two notable religious buildings, the Great Mosque of Yazd and that
of Kirman. The Great Mosque at Varamln, built between 1322 and
1326, had established the general plan from which subsequent public
mosques in Persia rarely deviated.1 Its exterior facade is dominated by a
great arched entrance portal (pishtaq). In the middle of each of the four
arched faces of the interior court, an aivan (an arched and vaulted
niche) is introduced. Behind the aivan on the qibla side (i.e. that facing
Mecca) is the square sanctuary chamber surmounted by a dome.
Because in the ground plan these aivans can be seen as the arms of a
cross, this type of mosque has been termed cruciform. The mosque at
Varamln was the first in which these features were adopted at its
inception. At Yazd they had to be introduced into an already existing
mosque structure.2 In 1324 Rukn al-Dln Muhammad, a local dignitary
and familiar of Sultan Abu Sa'Id, built a great square dome chamber to
the north-east of this ancient mosque (pi. 19^). The double dome was
supported on squinches concealed by stalactite pendentives converting
the octagon to the circle. The outer dome springs from a relatively low
drum; the inner is shallow and elliptical. In 13 31 an aivan was built in
front of the dome chamber. The facade of the aivan consists of a lofty
arched opening set in the square-headed screen. The aivan itself ex-
tends a considerable length in depth to meet the sanctuary chamber;
and the profile of its vault reproduced that of the arch. The aivans on
the other three sides of the court were never built, though it is clear
enough that a cruciform plan was originally intended. Some ten years
after the completion of the sanctuary aivan, the great portal was built
to the east of the latter (pi. 19a). This is an arched opening set in a
square-headed screen crowned by paired minarets. The rear wall of the
shallow opening is divided into two registers. In the lower, a square-
headed door is surmounted by an arched tympanum: in the upper is a
hemispherical vault decorated with muqarnas above the two corner
squinch arches. The same composition of portal and crowning minar-
ets had already been used in the portal of the mosque at Ashtarjan near
Isfahan, which bears a dating inscription of 715/1315-16.3 The Yazd
portal makes an uneasy impression by its excessive verticality.
In 1362 Shah Yahya was governing Yazd in the name of his uncle,
1
Wilber, The Architecture, p. 158, no. 64.
2
For the mosque's history, see Siroux, "Le Masjid-e-djum'a de Yezd", and Wilber, The
3
Architecture, no. 66, pp. 159F. Ibid., no. 49, pp. 141 —j.

73 1
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

Shah-i Shuja', second sovereign of the Muzaffarid house. It may have

been at his instigation that his minister, the amir Rukn al-Din Shah
Hasan, built in 1367 the oratory flanking the eastern side of the sanctu-
ary dome chamber and aivan. This hall was probably intended to
provide additional space within the sanctuary area. In order to roof its
great width — 8.1 metres — a novel system of vaulting was used. Broad
transverse arches were thrown at intervals from one longitudinal wall
to the other and the space between each pair filled in to form a barrel
vault. There is a similar oratory on the western side of the sanctuary
chamber and aivan but, while the length is the same as that of the
eastern oratory, the width is greater (9.37 m.). Transverse arches are
again employed but are far narrower. At the apex of the barrel-shaped
infillings are small domical heads. This western oratory may have been
built at the order of the amir Rukn al-Din Shah Hasan or, as seems
more likely, in 819/1414 during the reign of Shah Rukh.
This system of vaulting made it possible to roof far wider areas than
hitherto. Clerestory lighting could be obtained by piercing window
openings in the infilled spaces between the transverse arches. The
system had already made its appearance in eastern Persia, where it was
adopted in the Masjid-i Kirmanl flanking the entrance portal of the
shrine complex at Turbat-i Shaikh Jam (pi. 20). This masjid has been
dated by Golombek to 763/1362. Unlike the oratories in the Great
Mosque at Yazd where the mihrab (prayer niche) was placed on the
short side, the mihrab was located in the middle of the longitudinal
side which formed the qibla wall. The architect was a native of Kirman
and it is likely that the transverse vault was developed in western and
southern Persia, for its next occurrence was in Isfahan when the
Muzaffarid Qutb al-Din Shah Mahmud ordered the building of the
madrasa in the Masjid-i Jami' in 1366.1 This was built behind the
eastern aivan of the mosque and consisted of a court, long and narrow,
with two storeyed arcades on its east and west sides and an aivan on the
north and on the south side. Behind the south aivan is the masjid of the
madrasa, its longitudinal axis running east-west (pi. 2 id). It is roofed by
four transverse arches running north-south, the inner pair being spaced
wider apart in order to accommodate the great mihrab which is
crowned by an arch at right angles to the two transverse arches. The
bays on the south side flanking the mihrab show how it was possible to

1
Ibid., no. 109, p. 187.

732
 THE MUZAFFARID STYLE

introduce clerestory lighting. Above the mihrab are two small

cartouches containing the names of the architects; Shams b. Taj and
Fakhr b. al-Vahhab of Shlraz the mason [al-banna)}
Kirman fell to the Muzaffarids in 1340. Nine years later Mubariz
al-Dln Muhammad built there the Masjid-i Jami'.2 The plan is cruci-
form; the aivans are linked by single-storeyed arcades except on the
south where they are two-storeyed. The entrance portal, square-headed
with crowning minarets, leads into a dome vestibule which gives onto
the shallow north aivan. The sanctuary aivan on the south side is wider
and deeper than the others.
Coloured faience was now the accepted mode of surface decoration.
Two techniques were employed often side by side; tile inlay and tile
mosaic. In tile inlay, glazed polygonal elements were inlaid in the brick
or terracotta surface to form patterns, the unglazed contrasting with
the glazed areas. In tile mosaic, the entire surface is of glazed faience,
each separate area of colour being carved and fitted to its neighbour.
Tile inlay was already being practised in Saljuq times. Tile mosaic
appears first in Oljeitii Khudabanda's mausoleum at Sultaniyya; and
was perfected in the portal facade of the mausoleum of Baba Qasim
completed in 1340.3 The tilework on the portal facade of the Great
Mosque at Kirman is dated 750/1349 and has suffered much damage,
although what remains is sufficient to give an impression of the
original intention. The composition of the facade, logical and harmoni-
ous, was to become a standard one for succeeding generations. The
arch screen is framed on all three sides by a broad band enclosing a
naskhi inscription in white on a ground of tightly involuted scrolling in
light blue, all on a dark blue background. Each of the imposts raised
on a low socle is divided into three tiers of blind arcades. The voussoir
of the portal arch is composed of a spirally twisted moulding which is
untwisted at the two bases. The entrance door is set back within the
arch, and the rectangular compartment thus formed is given a hemi-
spherical vaulting of stalactite penditives. The tile mosaic decoration is
partially preserved in the blind arcades of the imposts and their fram-
ing bands. These are decorated in white, yellow and two shades of blue
with elaborate interlacings developed from a central rosette or star.
The decoration of the mihrab in the Masjid-i Jami' at Yazd was
1
Godard, "Historique du Masdjid-e Djum'a d'lsfahan", p. 241. Hunarfar, Ganjina,
2
pp. 136—45. Wilber, The Architecture, no. 97, pp. i82f.
3
Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 38—43 ("Le Tombeau de Baba Kasem").

733
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

executed by Hajj Baha' al-Din Muhammad al-Husain in 1375. The

tilework is far better preserved than that of the mosque portal in
Kirman. The composition of the screen is among the finest in Persia:
an outer framing band with inscription, a narrow inner band of floral
scrolling, bevelled voussoir band with a series of half-palmettes form-
ing pendants, paired colonnettes supporting the arch. The treatment of
the spandrel is of particular interest: a geometric roundel in each of
the corner angles and a circular raised boss at the apex of the arch. The
naturalistically rendered floral sprays which decorate the ground of the
spandrels anticipate the style of manuscript illumination executed in
Shlraz in the first decade of the 9th/15 th century.
The interior of the mihrab consists of five vertical faces surmounted
by hemispherical stalactite vaulting. The tile mosaic panels are deco-
rated with half palmettes arranged in the "tree of life" design or with
star patterns radiating from a central rosette. In two of the faces these
panels are set in a ground executed in inlaid tilework: polygonal terra-
cotta tiles with delicate relief designs are inlaid in interlaced bands of
turquoise tiles, a technique used in the mausoleum at Sultaniyya.
It is our misfortune that so little architecture of the second half of
the 14th century has survived in Persia. The outstanding monuments
are associated with the Muzaffarid dynasty and do seem to constitute a
style both in structural form as well as decoration. It was the architects
of Shlraz and Isfahan who were to play the leading role in the develop-
ment of Timurid architecture in Transoxiana and Khurasan; and it is
the migration of talent to Timur's court which may in part explain this
paucity of buildings in Persia in the closing decades of the century.

II. ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR

Timur's conquest of Transoxiana was sealed in 1369 by the capture of
Samarqand, which was declared the capital of the empire. It was Tlmur
and his family who gave the impulse to the new architectural move-
ment. The enormous scale in public works was alone made possible by
the resources of the empire in artistic talent, engineering skill and
material.
The major monuments belong to the last ten years of Timur's reign.
His earliest efforts were directed to commemorating the deceased
members of his family by the building of mausolea in the complex
known as the Shah-i Zinda. Today, this consists of some sixteen

734
 ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR

buildings grouped on either side of a narrow path which clears the

crest of a hill in the north-eastern quarter of Samarqand.1 It owes its
name "the Living King" to the Prophet's cousin Qutham b. 'Abbas
whose shrine had long been the principal sanctuary of the city. Here as
elsewhere in Islam it was the custom to bury the dead in the vicinity of
the shrine of a saint or martyr. The existing mausoleum of the Shah-i
Zinda at the northern end of the complex was built in 735/1334-5.
The Timurid mausolea are of two kinds; the domed cubical struc-
ture with a single dominating facade and a polygonal structure with
dome set on a high drum and having an entrance on two or more of its
faces. The earliest mausoleum to be built in the Shah-i Zinda complex
during Tlmur's reign belongs to the first type. This is the mausoleum
of Shad-i Mulk, completed in 773/1371—2 by Tlmur's sister, Terken
Aqa, for her daughter Shad-i Mulk.2 The principal emphasis is on the
portal which, with its screen, forms the fagade of the mausoleum which
springs from a low octagon. The dome is barely visible behind this
facade. It is decorated with vertical ribs joined tangentially — a novel
feature which was to be widely used in Transoxiana and Persia. Its
origins have not been satisfactorily explained; and a possible connec-
tion with the stone ribbed dome current in Egypt in the 8 th/14th
century has yet to be investigated.
The basic scheme of the Timurid portal facade is that already
developed in Persia: the screen set on a plinth, the lofty pointed arch
and the vaulted entrance embrasure. The ingenuity of architect and tile
worker was applied to the organisation of architectonic detail and
decoration. In the facade of the mausoleum of Shad-i Mulk the decora-
tion of the surfaces of the screen and of the flanking walls of the
entrance embrasure is arranged in rectangular or square panels. Much
of the decoration consists of faience carved in relief, a technique appar-
ently unknown in Persia (pi. zib). The designs were carved in the
"biscuit" which was then glazed in turquoise or turquoise and white and
fired. The technique was possibly developed from carved and painted
stucco and had already been developed in Samarqand and Bukhara in
the earlier 14th century. In the Shad-i Mulk facade, this technique is
used not only in the impost panels but also in the engaged columns

1
For a map of the Shah-i Zinda complex, see Cohn-Wiener, p. 24; Hrbas and Knobloch, p. 22,
fig. XI. Pugachenkova and Rempel', Vjdayushcbiisya Pamyatmki, pp. 108-15.
2
Cohn-Wiener, pis. XXVI-XXXIV. Hrbas and Knobloch, pis. 57, 66-7, 70. Pugachenkova
and Rempel', lstoriya lskusstv U^bekistana, pp. 25 3ff.

735
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

which define the outer ends of the facade, the columns supporting the
arch and the stalactite vaulting elements. Some of the framing bands
are composed of turquoise glazed bricks laid edge above edge and the
spandrel of the arch screen is decorated with sinuous leaf scrolls
rendered in light relief under a turquoise glaze on a dark blue ground.
There is also a framing band consisting of tiny square elements of
white, turquoise and light blue faience arranged to form a series of star
figures. This is the "inset" technique rather than mosaic inlay which
requires that the elements should interlock.
True mosaic tilework first appears in Samarqand in the mausoleum
of Shlrln Bika Aqa, another sister of Tlmur. This was built in 787/
1385 —6.1 It, too, is a fac,ade mausoleum but its exterior treatment
differs from that of the mausoleum of Shad-i Mulk in that the dome is
slightly bulbous and rests on a sixteen-sided drum. The polygonal
drum occurs in two other mausolea in the Shah-i Zinda complex built
in the 1380s. The most significant feature of the mausoleum is its portal
decoration which is executed entirely in tile mosaic. The decoration is
developed above the plinth and consists of vertical panels. The arch of
the entrance embrasure is supported on engaged columns, and within
the embrasure there are framing bands around the arched entrance
door and stalactite vaulting within the portal arch (pi. 22a). The motifs
are floral: symmetrically disposed arabesques in the vertical panels and
framing bands. Within the tympanum above the arched entrance door
are floral arabesques developed about a large rosette in each of the
spandrels. The external niches on the sixteen faces of the drum still
have traces of tile mosaic decoration. The drum itself was decorated
with a network of lozenge-shaped compartments in inlays of coloured
bricks. The interior of the mausoleum is painted in red, blue and
black except for panels of square green tiles and light blue hexagonal
tiles, the latter painted in gold with phoenixes — a rare example of
"Chinoiserie" at this date.
The tile mosaic decoration on the facade of this mausoleum is related
to that on the mihrab of the Masjid-i Jami' at Yazd and it seems
probable that the technique was introduced to Samarqand by migrant
tileworkers from Persia. The facade of the mausoleum of Tuman Aqa,
wife of TTmur, who completed it in her lifetime in 1405, is decorated
with tile mosaic designs closely resembling that of the mausoleum of

1
Cohn-Wiener, pis. XXXVI-XXXIX. Hrbas and Knobloch, pis. 6i, 65> 68, 74.

736
 ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR

Shlrin Blka: and it is noteworthy that they are the work of Shaikh
Muhammad b. Khwaja Beg of Tabriz.1
The mausolea so far described belong to the first type of mausoleum
in which the dominant external feature is the portal facade. Its form
was no doubt determined by its siting in relation to other adjacent
buildings. The laying out of buildings along a thoroughfare demanded
a series of imposing facades since these would be the only visible
features from-the road. The second type of mausoleum — a polygonal
structure, either square or octagonal with an entrance on two or more
of its faces and a dome springing from a high cylindrical drum — was
evidently intended as a free standing monument visible on two or more
sides. There are examples of this type in the Shah-i Zinda but the most
famous in Samarqand is the Gvir-i Mir which contains the tombs of
Tlmur and other members of his dynasty. It was built by Tlmur
between 1403 and 1404 to commemorate his grandson, Mirza
Muhammad Sultan b. Muhammad Jahanglr who died in 805/1403.2 It
was an addition to an already existing complex of buildings erected by
Muhammad Sultan at the close of the 14th century. These were a
madrasa and khangah which stood to the north-east and north-west of
the Gur-i Mir, separated by a square court. The mausoleum is octagonal
in plan. The dominating feature is the bulbous dome set on the tall
cylindrical drum (pi. zzb). With its great ribs each joined to its neigh-
bour tangentially and appearing to rise from the stalactite corbelling of
the cornice, it is a striking and bold conception. Ribs, stalactite cornice
and the upper band around the drum are decorated with tile inlays of
black and yellow lozenge figures on a turquoise ground. The drum is
decorated with glazed and unglazed bricks arranged in zones of geo-
metric patterns above a broad band of Kufic.
The interior is square with a projecting bay on each side. The
transition from the square to the circle is achieved by the imposition of
eight ribbed arches between the squinch arches and those of the four
projecting bays. The resulting sixteen-sided cornice forms the base for
the inner dome. The decoration of the interior is unexpectedly austere.
There is a dado of hexagonal alabaster plaques framed by a guilloche
moulding and above this an inscribed band of greenish grey jasper.
The upper register of the walls and the surface of the dome were
1
Ibid., Abb. 73. Pugachenkova and Rempel', htoriya Iskusstv Ui(bekistana, pp. 268f., pi. 168.
2
Les Mosquees de Samarcande. Sarre, DenkmdJer, pp. 148-51, Taf. CXIV. Conn-Wiener, pp. jof.,
pis. LXVIII-LXXII. Hrbas and Knobloch, pp. 23f., pis. 78-80.

737
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

originally decorated with patterns in gilded paper raised in relief. The

cenotaphs, including the great jade slab commemorating Timur, are
surrounded by a low marble balustrade consisting of exquisitely carved
flower sprays and formal arabesques with low spirally twisted columns
securing the balustrade to the floor. The actual interments are in the
crypt.
The double dome was an established system in Persia in the 14th
century. If a single dome is raised to an inordinate height, the propor-
tions of the interior space are impaired. The shallow inner dome was
the solution of this problem. In the Gur-i Mir the height of the ceiling
dome is 22.5 m. and of the exterior dome 34.09 m. The system also
made possible the development of the bulbous dome since the inner
gave some measure of support to the outer. The transition from the
square to the circle by the means of a sixteen-sided figure had the great
advantage of reducing the transitional zone to a single register.
The mausolea of the Shah-i Zinda are relatively modest structures.
The Gur-i Mir must have been the crowning feature of the madrasa
and khangah of which it was an adjunct. An example of a far more
ambitious treatment of the funerary monument is the ma^ar (pilgrim
shrine) of Ahmad Yasavi in Turkistan city built in 799/1396-7.1 This is
a highly complex building designed to provide for the manifold needs
of those responsible for the saint's shrine, and incorporating a masjid,
library and cells of a khangah and a kitchen. Its plan is cruciform and
centres on a great dome chamber (fig. 1). On the longitudinal axis are
the deep portal aivan to the north and domed tomb chamber to the
south. The remaining rooms are disposed on the east-west axis and
within the four arms of the cross. The north elevation is dominated by
the great portal aivan and the two flanking towers with polygonal
bases. On either side of this portal are upper storeys. The principal
feature of the south elevation is the portal of the mausoleum sur-
mounted by a ribbed dome raised on a high cylindrical drum (pi. 23). Its
form together with its stalactite cornice and glazed brick decoration
resembles that of the Gur-i Mir. The roofing of certain of the rooms is
by means of transverse arches - the same system employed in the
oratories of the Great Mosque at Yazd and in the masjid of the madrasa
in the Masjid-i Jami', Isfahan. This is the first occurrence of the system
in Transoxiana and was almost certainly introduced from Persia, since

1
See Man'kovskaya.

738
 ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR

Fig. i. Turkistan. Plan of Ahmad YasavT complex.

we know that the architect of the mausoleum of Ahmad Yasavl was

Khwaja Hasan of Shiraz, who may have been brought to Samarqand
soon after Tlmur's conquest of that city in 795 /i 393.
One aspect of the mazar of Ahmad Yasavl is indicative of the aspira-
tions of the new style. In the exterior, the principal emphasis is on the
main portal facade which dominates the great mass by its sheer weight
and size. The arch screen seems to overlap the apex of the great dome
itself; and the flanking minarets bonded with the outer edges of the
screen suggest fortification. The manner in which the arched vault
rises above the screen is a disturbing feature and it has to be assumed
that this facade was never completed. It is unfortunate that there is no
trace of polychrome revetment — if it ever existed.
The formula of the deep aivan with flanking towers could be applied
equally well to secular architecture. It was evidently a feature of the
great palace known as the Aq Saral which Timur began to build in
about 1384 at Kish, the city of his birth.1 Renamed Shahr-i Sabz in the
14th century, Kish is situated about fifty miles south of Samarqand on
the road leading to Tirmiz on the Oxus. The palace was still being built
1
Cohn-Wiener, pis. LII-LVI. Hrbas and Knobloch, pis. 88, 84. Pugachenkova and Rempel',
lstortya hkusstv Uzbekistan*:, pp. 26iff.

739
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

when Clavijo visited the city in 1404. His description gives a fairly clear
idea of the layout.1 A high portal aivan flanked by rooms led into a
great court with its longitudinal axis running at right angles to that of
the entrance portal. Opposite the latter was a vast aivan flanked by
towers with polygonal bases. According to Babur, this was flanked by
two smaller aivans.2 There was probably an aivan in the centre of each
of the other three sides of the court; and these were joined by two-
storeyed arcades. Behind the principal aivan lay the great audience hall,
probably square and surmounted by a dome. Surrounding this audi-
ence hall were lesser rooms to a height of six storeys.
All that remains of the Aq Saral today is a part of the great aivan
portal. The aivan is flanked by towers with polygonal bases. The
interior of the aivan is 22 m. wide and 12.6 m. deep; the side walls
survive only as far as the springing of the aivan arch of which the
height has been calculated as about 40 m. From the apex of the arch to
the top of the screen would have been about one-third of the height of
the arch. The flanking towers would have projected one-third of the
height of the arch above the top of the screen. These dimensions give
some idea of the scale of the palace.
The decoration of the flanking towers is executed in glazed bricks of
two shades of blue and white: geometric patterns on the polygonal
facets and Kufic seal characters arranged in diagonal patterns on the
cylindrical surface. Panels of geometric ornament between inscribed
bands frame the arch imposts. The interior walls of the aivan are
decorated with hexagonal painted tiles; while the vaulting is orna-
mented with glazed brick inlays similar to the towers. One of the
inscription bands bears the date 798/1395—6. In the middle of the back
wall of the aivan interior is an opening into a smaller room flanked by
engaged columns which certainly supported an arch. The columns
consist of four spirally twisted mouldings which rise from a decorated
base. These columns are also revetted with glazed tiles. The walls of
the inner room are decorated with mosaic tilework which in concep-
tion and perfection of technique exceeds any of the tile mosaic in the
mausolea of the Shah-i Zinda.
The ruined portal of the Aq Sara! at Shahr-i Sabz gives a tantalising
glimpse of the new style which must have received the initial impulse
from Tlmur himself. Unquestionably his greatest monument is the

1 2
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. 207—10. Beveridge, The habur-nama in English, p. 83.

740
 ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR
Great Mosque which he began to build in Samarqand in 801/1399.1 It
was intended as the Masjid-i Jaml' of Samarqand and the current name
"Mosque of Bibl Khanum" seems to have been applied to it from a
confusion with the madrasa erected in the name of Tlmur's wife. Of
this madrasa no trace remains but we know that both the mosque and
the madrasa stood within the walls of the city near the Iron Gate and
that Tlmur built a great bazaar street leading from the open space in
front of the two buildings to what was later to become the Rlgistan.
At each outside corner of the mosque was a minaret (fig. 2). The
entrance portal on the north facade was a vaulted aivan with cylindrical
flanking minarets. This led into the rectangular court. In the centre of
each side was an aivan. Parallel to the north, west and east sides were
four galleries behind the arcades of the court. These galleries consisted
of rows of columns of which every four supported a shallow dome. On
the south side, there were nine galleries. Behind the aivans on the west
and east sides were dome chambers. The sanctuary aivan was nearly
twice as wide as the others and was flanked by minarets hexagonal in
section. The height of the aivan arch was 30.66 m. and of the aivan
screen, 40.88 m.; the crowns of the minarets probably projected more
than 10 m. above the aivan screen.
There are two dating inscriptions: 801/1398 in the sanctuary dome
chamber and 808/1405 on the entrance portal. Thus we may suppose
that the work was completed with the building of the main facade. The
scale of the mosque is without parallel in either Iran or Transoxiana.
Certain salient features require mention. The vertical effect was
achieved by the eight minarets and by the great height of the sanctuary
aivan screen behind which the sanctuary dome was invisible from the
court. The height of the screen was further accentuated by the single-
storey arcades around the court. The domes in the centre of the east
and west sides are set on high cylindrical drums and projected far
above their respective aivan screens which were considerably lower
than that of the sanctuary. The polygonal flanking minarets of the
sanctuary portal, which resemble those of the portal of the Aq Saral at
Shahr-i Sabz, were to find their way into the mosque architecture of
Iran as, too, were the dome chambers of the lesser aivans and the
corner minarets. While the aivan screens and domed structures were of
brick, the vaulting as well as the columns were constructed of stone.

1
E.E. Ratiya, Mtcbi/ Bibi-Kbanym (Moscow, 1950).

741
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910111213141516
I I I I I I I I I I I 1I I I I

Fig. 2. Samarqand. Plan of the mosque of Blbi Khanum.

742
 ARCHITECTURAL FORMS UNDER TIMUR

The employment of stone in Timurid Samarqand is noteworthy, for

even in Iran during the Safavid period stone and marble were used
sparingly, principally for flooring and lower revetments, apart of course
from foundation courses which were invariably of stone. The feature
was sufficiently unusual to elicit the notice of Babur, who recalls a
passage from the Zafar-nama of Sharaf al-Dln 'All Yazdl according to
which, when Tlmur was building the Sangln ("stone") mosque, there
were stone-cutters of Azarbaljan, Fars, Hindustan and other countries
to the number of two hundred.1
No madrasa has survived that can be associated with Tlmur; but the
madrasa of Ulugh Beg in Samarqand, built between 1417 and 1420, can
indicate how the new style was adapted to this type of building.2 Since
the principal function of the madrasa was teaching, the fixed require-
ments were living quarters, lecture rooms and prayer hall. In the
madrasa of Ulugh Beg the court is laid out on a four-aivan plan.
The living quarters were arranged in two storeys between the aivans,
although the upper storey has since been destroyed. There is a domed
lecture hall in each of the four corners of the madrasa and on the side
opposite the entrance portal and behind the aivan a long prayer gallery
with its main axis parallel to the wall. There is a minaret at each of the
four outside corners of the madrasa, but the wide portal screen has no
flanking minarets. This portal dominates the north-eastern face of the
madrasa: the width of the opening is one-third of the whole length of
the latter. The entire archivolt of the aivan arch is provided with a
cable moulding as in the inner entrance door of the portal of the Aq
Sarai; and each cable is faced with "cuerda seca" tiles. The minarets are
decorated in glazed brick inlays with diaper patterns of Kufic seal
inscriptions, and geometric glazed brick inlays form the principal
decoration of the aivan screen except for the spandrels of the arch
where there are still traces of mosaic inlay. The rear wall of the portal
aivan consists of an arched entrance leading through a vestibule into
the court and is flanked by two tiers of arched niches. It is in the
entrance vestibule that the decorator concentrated his main effort.
Here are panels of mosaic inlay as well as terracotta relief tiles inset
with tile mosaic, a style of revetment already noted in the mihrab of the
Masjid-i Jami' at Yazd.

1
Beveridge, The Babur-nama in English, p. 5 20.
2
Sarre, Denkmaler. Cohn-Wiener, pi. LXXV. Pugachenkova and Rempel', htoriya hkusstv
U^bekistana, pp. z69ff.,fig.265.

743
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

What conclusions may we draw from these examples of architectural

practice by the first generation of Timurid architects? Most striking, of
course, is the scale of the great monuments, which is unknown in Persia
at this period. The principal forms and structural detail, however, are
those of Persia. In the exterior facade, the portal entrance was the
principal concern. For those of lesser buildings a tall and narrow arched
embrasure was used and was often given a hemispherical vault of
stalactite corbels. In the great buildings, the portal was a salient formed
by a great rectangular screen in which the arched embrasure was wider
and the arch sharper in relation to the height than in the portals of lesser
buildings. Wall surfaces continued to be articulated by arched niches,
open or blind. Arch profiles are pointed although there is some variation
in form. In decoration, tile mosaic and inset tilework seem closely
related to the style which was already developed in Persia.
There are certain innovations. The ribbed dome with a cornice of
stalactite corbelling just below its springing seems to have been
invented by the architects of Transoxiana. The high drum, too, was
developed probably as a feature of the "free standing" monument. We
have noticed, too, the combination of aivan screen and flanking
minarets, the latter in certain cases being given polygonal bases. The
squinch arch continued to be the system of effecting the transition of
the square to the circle, but greater refinement was achieved by intro-
ducing ribbed arches between the shoulders of the eight arches of the
octagon.
Carved faience was apparently a technique developed in Transoxiana
but had gone out of fashion by the end of the 14th century. It looks on
present evidence as if the technique of painted tiles was an invention of
Transoxiana; and it anticipates by two centuries its use on a large scale
in Persia.
Scholars of the USSR have analysed in great detail many of the
monuments of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and, as a result, have
been able to establish that the buildings discussed above were planned
in accordance with a system of proportions. Designs were laid out on a
grid based on a predetermined module. This practical application of
mathematical knowledge is not surprising in an age in which the exact
sciences were so highly esteemed; and it is revealing that the mathemat-
ical treatise Miftdh al-hisab, which Ghiyas al-Dln Jamshld of Kashan
dedicated to Ulugh Beg in 830/1427, included a chapter on the theoret-
ical construction of arches.
744
 THE ERA OF SHAH RUKH

III. THE ERA OF SHAH RUKH

Shah Rukh, who succeeded to the empire on his father's death in 1405,
had been governor of Khurasan since 799/1396—7. Herat remained the
seat of government until his death in 850/1447. Khurasan was thus
drawn into the cultural renaissance that was taking place in Trans-
oxiana. Thanks to the patronage of Shah Rukh and his consort Gauhar
Shad the new architectural style was introduced into eastern Persia,
where it was reinterpreted and developed by a younger generation of
architects. The impact on Khurasan is particularly striking. It is a
curious fact that although the cruciform plan, that is, a court with a
central aivan in each of its four sides, was adopted in domestic architec-
ture and as a form of caravansarai and possibly of madrasa, it was only
in western Iran that the cruciform plan was incorporated in the mosque
and combined with the sanctuary dome chamber. The earliest example
is the Masjid-i Jami' at Zavara dated 5 30/113 5-6. The known mosques
of Khurasan, however, are generally based on the two-aivan plan, the
sanctuary aivan being opposed by an aivan on the north side. Such was
the plan of the mosque at Furumad (probably 1 3 th century) and of the
mosque at Zauzan (616/1219).1
It was due to the initiative of Gauhar Shad that the first cruciform
mosque was introduced into Khurasan. The mosque of Gauhar Shad
in the shrine of the Imam Rida at Mashhad bears the impress of the
style of Transoxiana.2 According to the framing inscription of the
sanctuary aivan which Balsunqur himself designed, the building was
completed in 821/1418-19 by the munificence of his mother Gauhar
Shad. Another inscription at the end of Balsunqur's inscription records
that the architect was Qivam al-DIn Zain al-Dln of Shlraz (pi. 24b). The
word used here for architect is tayjan ("mason").3 Qivam al-Dln of
Shlraz is known to have been the leading architect at the court of Shah
Rukh.4 Daulatshah describes him as one of the four luminaries of the
court and as one learned in mathematics, drawing and building. From
another source, we know that he was versed in astrology. He must
have joined the court before 1410, for in that year he built for Shah
Rukh a madrasa and khangah in Herat, of which neither has survived.
Gauhar Shad's mosque is built on the south side of the central core
1 2
Godard, "Khorasan". SPA, pp. 1124-6, pis. 428-37.
3
Sykes, "Historical Notes", pp. 1146-8.
4
Golombek, Tie Timurid Shrine at Ga^ur Gab, p. 76, n.33, for references to his life and works.

745
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

of the shrine and has, therefore, no entrance portal. The court, 55 m.

long and 45 m. wide, is pierced on each side by an aivan. The sanctuary
aivan on the south side is perceptibly wider than the others (pi. 24a).
Between the aivans are two-storeyed arcades with galleries in the rear -
three on the east and west sides and seven on the sanctuary side. The
dominant feature is the great south aivan arch flanked by cylindrical
minarets with polygonal facets of marble around the bases. There is no
screen between the domed sanctuary chamber and the aivan as in the
Blbl Khanum mosque; the transition is effected by an inner nested
arch. Within the chamber, the inner dome is set on four massive piers
by means of stalactite net pendentives which provide a sixteen-sided
seating for the circle of the dome. The mihrab is in a rectangular area
set back from the dome chamber; and this additional chamber has a
hemispherical vaulting of stalactites. The outer dome, revetted in
turquoise tiles with a band of Kufic in black at its bulge, has a steep
curvature and stands on a low drum. The transitional zone is concealed
by a rather obtrusive four-sided structure, its three visible faces being
divided into two-storeyed blind arcades. From the court the dome is
barely visible behind the aivan screen.
European travellers have been unanimous in praising the sumptuous
polychrome tile decoration of the court. Much of the tile work has
undergone extensive restoration and a thoroughgoing analysis is
required in order to realise Qivam al-Dln's intention.1 Mosaic tilework
was used for spandrel decoration and framing inscriptions: larger
surfaces were ornamented with geometric designs executed in glazed
and unglazed bricks. A new technique, however, was employed in the
intrados of the arches of the sanctuary and north-east aivans: polygonal
tiles were arranged to form star patterns with raised and interlaced
framing bands of marble (pi.2 <,a). This use of tile decoration will occur
again in Herat.
From 1417 to 1438, Qivam al-Dln was collaborating in the building
of the Musalla of Gauhar Shad to the north of the city of Herat.2 Both
this and the madrasa of Sultan Husain Balqara Mirza were almost
entirely destroyed in 1885 by order of the amir 'Abd al-Rahman, who

1
Godard, in AI vm, 11, mentions extensive repairs carried out in the mosque in 1087/1676-7.
These included the rilling in of many of the arcades flanking the sanctuary aivan as well as the
addition of the parapet in order to counteract the outward thrust of the aivan arch. Perhaps, too,
some of the tilework dates from this period.
2
SPA, p. 1125. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, pp. 50—3.

746
 THE ERA OF SHAH RUKH

thought that the buildings might provide cover for an invading

Russian army. Fortunately we have detailed descriptions of the
Musalla. It comprised a mosque and madrasa. The term musalla was
applied to a mosque located outside the walls of a city where the
citizens and inhabitants of the outlying districts congregated for the
great religious festivals. Gauhar Shad's mosque in the Musalla was
unusually large inasmuch as it was designed to accommodate such a
congregation on the Feast of Sacrifices (Qurban bairam) and the Feast at
the breaking of the fast in Ramadan ('Idal-fitr). It was a large rectangu-
lar enclosure 106 m. by 64 m., with a minaret on an octagonal base at
each corner. The inner court, 5 2 m. by 49 m., consisted of two-storeyed
arcades and an aivan in the centre of each side. The sanctuary aivan,
however, was flanked by two smaller aivans, a composition recalling
that of the great aivan of the Aq Saral at Shahr-i Sabz. An unusual
feature was the addition of a smaller dome chamber behind the sanctu-
ary dome chamber. The entrance portal on the north-eastern side was
as high as the sanctuary aivan.
All that remains of the mosque today is a single minaret. These
minarets must have been of great beauty. The angle of taper results
from the diameter of the crown being half that of the base: the height is
eight times the diameter of the base. The polygonal faces of the base
were articulated by square and rectangular panels. Incorporated in
these were stone panels carved in relief with intricately interlaced Kufic
lettering on a ground of sinuous scrolling. The cylindrical surface
above the polygonal base was entirely covered with bands of tilework
and varying widths divided into three-fold divisions by three stalactite
cornices. The principal bands are decorated with a network of mosaic
tiles in the form of eight-pointed stars framed by a narrow marble
moulding as in the court of Gauhar Shad's mosque at Mashhad. This
elaborate surface embellishment of the minaret is an innovation, for the
characteristic treatment in southern Persia as well as in Transoxiana
was the insetting of glazed brick in the unglazed brick surface in the
form of geometric designs often arranged in a spiral movement.
We do not know what part, if any, Qivam al-Dln took in the build-
ing of this mosque; but that he was responsible for the construction of
the madrasa which lies to the north of the mosque, and which was
completed in 1432, we know from 'Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandl.1 This

1
'Abd al-Razzaq, Matla' al-sa'dain, ed. M. Shaft* (Lahore, 1949), p. 720.

747
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

was constructed on the cruciform aivan plan, the principal facade with
its vaulted entrance hall being flanked by corner minarets. The sanctu-
ary aivan was extended in depth to the qibla wall and the mihrab itself
was contained in a further rectangular chamber which projected from
the wall. In each of the corners flanking the sanctuary aivan was a
dome chamber, an arrangement already encountered in the madrasas of
Transoxiana where similarly placed dome chambers performed the
function of darskhana (lecture room). All that remains of this madrasa is
the east minaret and the right hand, that is, the western, dome chamber
(pi. 25^). The latter is known as the mausoleum of Balsunqur, who was
the first of his house to be buried there, in 836/1433.J Its external aspect
resembles in certain respects that of the Gur-i Mir: the ribbed bulbous
dome is supported on a high drum which rises from the cubical struc-
ture with no visible transitional zone. The ribs, however, are not
joined tangentially as in the Gur-i Mir but are separated by bands of
turquoise tiling. The ribs are revetted with square or rectangular tiles
of black, white, red and two shades of blue arranged in diaper. Of
particular interest is the extensive use of painted tiles: in the fine band
of Kufic which appears to bind the base of the ribs to the dome, as well
as in the stalactite corbelling and the vertical panels immediately be-
low. The drum is lower than that of the Gur-i Mir, which probably
required this additional emphasis.
The most striking feature, however, is the vaulting system of the
interior, which must rank as a masterpiece of Muslim engineering skill
(pi. 26). In the centre of each side of the square interior is an arched
recess with a width of 4.5 m. The diameter of the dome is the same as
the width of the recess. This is because the dome is supported on four
great arches which spring from the forward edge of the recess arches,
each^adjacent pair intersecting to form the square. Secondary ribs
spring from the haunches of the arches and effect the transition to the
octagon by a series of "kite"-shaped pendentives which are so charac-
teristic of Timurid and subsequent architecture. Above the octagon,
sixteen fan-shaped pendentives complete the transition to the ceiling
dome (pi. 27). The apex of each pendentive is decorated with stalactites
either in relief or painted in blue, red and brown. This technique of
intersecting vaulting arches was first employed in Samarqand. It had

1
Yate, Northern Afghanistan, p. 31, enumerates six tombstones in the dome chamber, including
that of Gauhar Shad, which is dated 861/1456—7: the latest is dated 898/1492—3.

748
 THE ERA OF SHAH RUKH

the practical advantage of providing the structure with added strength

to withstand earthquake; and quite as importantly, it had a powerful
effect in the organising of the interior space. Instead of the clearly
defined transitional zones of the squinch system, it produced a sense of
upward motion by means of the tense rhythm of arch, rib and kite
pendentive.
The attribution of the mausoleum to Qivam al-Dln is founded not
only on the statement of 'Abd al-Razzaq but also on its stylistic similar-
ities with the only other remaining work that can be assigned with
certainty to the master. This is the Madrasa Ghiyasiyya at Khargird
near Khwaf in Khurasan.1 The building was still unfinished when
Qivam al-Dln died in 1438 and according to the inscription it was
completed by his associate Ghiyas al-Dln of Shiraz in 1444. According
to the portal inscription it was erected under the patronage of Shah
Rukh's minister Ahmad b. Ishaq and of Fakhr al-Dln of Khwaf in
848/1444-5.
The Madrasa Ghiyasiyya is among the earliest madrasas in Persia.
The Muzaffarid madrasa in the Masjid-i Jami', Isfahan, was incorpo-
rated in a larger building. The Madrasa-yi ImamI in Isfahan was built
probably in 1325 and is designed on a cruciform plan; but is a relatively
modest structure. The madrasa at Khargird, on the contrary, although
small by the standards of the madrasas of Transoxiana, was designed to
fulfil all the requirements of the madrasa as it had developed in
Samarqand and Bukhara: living rooms, lecture room (darskhana) and
masjid.
The madrasa forms a rectangle 92 x 56 m. with an inner court 28 m.
square (fig. 3). An aivan on each side results in a cruciform plan. Each
aivan is flanked by two arcades in two storeys: and each corner is
"champfered" and provided with a two-storeyed arcade. At each
corner of the rectangle is a dome chamber and on the north side behind
the main facade is a narthex consisting of a domed vestibule flanked by
two large dome chambers. The principal facade is dominated by the
slightly projecting aivan portal (plshtaq) which is flanked by triple
arcades of which the central ones give access to the respective dome
chambers. The facade is completed at each end by a tower, octagonal at
the base.
The spatial organisation of the narthex is a wonderful unity of

1
Diez, Cburasanischc haudcnkmalcr i, 72-6. O'Kane, "The Madrasa al-Ghiyasiyya at Khargird".

749
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 3. Khargird. Plan of the madrasa of Ghiyas al-Din.

design. The three dome chambers are joined by barrel-vaulted corri-

dors of varying width. Of special interest are the two larger dome
chambers each with a distinctive form of vaulting. That on the right,
i.e., the northern dome chamber, is square with projecting niches on
each side. The transition to the octagon is by means of squinches, the
crowns being level with those of the niche arches. Above the octagon,
stalactites effect the transition to a sixteen-side polygon. On this are set
an inner and an outer row of eight piers which provide the seating for
the inner and outer domes respectively.
The system of vaulting adopted in the left hand dome chamber is
that of the mausoleum of Balsunqur in Herat (pi. 28, fig. 4). By means
of intersecting arches which spring from the sides of the terminal
niches, the diameter of the dome is reduced to the width of the latter.
Subsidiary ribs form the characteristic "kite" pendentives just as in the
mausoleum of Balsunqur. The work thus bears the unmistakable stamp
of Qivam al-Din.
The Madrasa Ghiyasiyya served the Shafi'I rite and with its twenty
 T H E ERA OF S H A H RUKH

Fig. 4. Khargird, madrasa. Plan and section of the eastern dome chamber.

cells is modest by the standards of Transoxiana. Diez, who published

a detailed description of the madrasa, has drawn attention to the
determining effect of seasonal climate on function. As in domestic
buildings, so in this madrasa distinct parts of the complex were appro-
priated for winter and for summer use. Those on the northern side
were for summer, those on the southern for winter. This factor would
account, too, for the difference in the vaulting systems of the two
dome chambers in the vestibule, the smaller dimensions of the dome of
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

the left hand one providing some measure of protection from the
rigours of the cold.
Much of the building effort in the reign of Shah Rukh was directed
to the architectural development of the shrine complex. Gauhar
Shad's mosque at Mashhad was introduced into a pre-existing group of
buildings centred on the domed mausoleum where were interred the
remains of the Eighth Imam. Other shrine complexes in Khurasan
developed around the grave of the saint which remained, however, in
the open and without architectural covering. Perhaps this practice was
determined by a literal adherence to the Islamic proscription of elabo-
rate funerary monuments. Nevertheless, no scruples seem to have pre-
vented the embellishment of such shrines by the construction of pious
foundations and adjuncts in proximity to the saint's grave.
The most important of such shrine complexes is that of the eleventh
century saint, Khwaja 'Abd-Allah Ansari in the village of Gazur Gah
on the northern outskirts of Herat. This shrine has been the subject of a
penetrating study by L. Golombek, who has contributed not only a
masterly analysis of the structure but also an illuminating commentary
on the religious function. She suggests that the shrine at Gazur Gah is a
ha^tra. This term ("fenced enclosure") would properly refer to the tomb
enclosure of the saint set on a raised platform and surrounded by a
balustrade of wood or stone, but in the Timurid period was extended
to cover all the subsidiary buildings necessary for the functioning of a
great shrine complex of which the central feature was the hazira proper.
The great rectangular building which forms the shrine of the saint
was built by Shah Rukh in 1425. The western and principal facade, with
its vaulted entrance aivan flanked by blind arcades and terminal towers
octagonal in section, anticipates that of the madrasa at Khargird. The
plshtaq leads into a vaulted vestibule flanked by two rooms roofed by
transverse vaults, the one a masjid, the other an assembly hall. The
inner court is organised on the cruciform aivan plan with lofty arcades
flanking the aivans on the north, south and west sides. The saint's
grave stands in front of the great western aivan which is both taller and
wider than the other aivans. Above the apex of the arch, the screen is
pierced with a gallery of five arcades and surmounted at each end by a
lantern turret. One curious feature is that while to the west of the
aivans on the north and south sides there are vaulted rooms behind the
arcaded facade, to the east of the aivans the latter is merely a curtain
wall. Golombek has suggested that this, together with the great aivan,

752
 THE ERA OF SHAH RUKH

was designed to give definition to the whole east end of the court as
the hazlra.
Some of these features are to be found at Turbat-i Shaikh Jam half
way between Mashhad and Herat, another great shrine complex.1
But while Gazur Gah was a single creation, Turbat-i Shaikh Jam
developed from the 13 th to 15 th centuries. Successive buildings were
constructed about a rectangular enclosure in the southern quarter of
which lay the saint's tomb open to the sky. A square dome chamber to
the south of the tomb is the earliest of these buildings. In the course of
the 14th century, a mosque was built on the east side of this dome
chamber, a khangah and madrasa on the west, and a great aivan portal
on the north. In 1362, the two halls flanking the portal were built.
These afford a striking parallel to the two halls flanking the entrance
portal at Gazur Gah: these, too, are roofed by transverse vaulting. The
one is an assembly hall and the other a masjid in which the mihrab is
placed in the centre of the southern and long side. The latter, known as
the Masjid-I KirmanI after its architect Khwaja ZakI b. Muhammad
b. Mas'ud, has already been mentioned (pi. 20).
Tlmur himself erected a khangah on the north side of the enclosure but
no trace of this remains. The most important additions in the Timurid
period were those of Shah Rukh's chief amir Jalal al-Dln Flruz Shah.
These were a madrasa on the west side of the court and a "new" mosque
immediately to the south of the square dome chamber. Apparently only a
part of the eastern side of the madrasa was completed: a small domed
vestibule and a dome chamber to the south known as the Gunbad-i Sabz,
which according to an inscription was the work of Ustad Hajjl Mahmud,
here described as attached to the Jami' of Shlraz, in 844/1440-1. The
dome of the Gunbad-i Sabz is supported on the system of intersecting
arches which we have already met in the Madrasa-yi Ghiyasiyya at
Khargird and the Gauhar Shad mausoleum at Herat. All that remains of
Firiiz Shah's new mosque, completed in 846/1442-3, is the domed sanctu-
ary chamber, the remainder having been rebuilt in recent times. Its
vaulting system is that of the Gunbad-i Sabz.
Shah Rukh's minister, Ahmad b. Ishaq b. Majd al-Dln Muhammad
of Khwaf, who was co-founder of the Madrasa-yi Ghiyasiyya at Khar-
gird, was responsible for the so-called Masjid-i Maulana at Tayyabad,
south of the village of Yusufabad near the present Afghan frontier.2
1
Golombek, "The chronology of Turbat-i Shaikh Jam". O'Kane, "Taybad", pp. 96—103.
2
Ibid., pp. 87-96.

753
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

Completed in 848/1444-5, the same year as the madrasa at Khargird, it

is described in its dedicatory inscription as a bucfa, a term apparently
indicating a funerary function and assembly hall for a sufl community.
The tomb of the local saint, Zain al-Dln, stands in the middle of a
rectangular enclosure. The Masjid-i Maulana occupies the south side of
the latter and consists of a great aivan with two small flanking aivans
leading into vaulted rooms. A doorway in the near wall of the principal
aivan gives access to the square dome chamber, the dome being sup-
ported on intersecting ribs. The name of the architect is unrecorded
but Godard, drawing attention to the similarity in the treatment of the
faience decoration to that of Gauhar Shad's mosque at Mashhad and of
the Khargird madrasa, has suggested that the Tayyabad masjid was the
work of Ghiyas al-Dln of Shlraz, who collaborated with Qivam al-Dln
at Khargird.
These Khurasanian monuments retain much of their original surface
decoration. Painted designs were reserved for interiors, such as in
Gauhar Shad's mausoleum at Herat and Qivam al-Dln's dome chamber
at Khargird. Large external surfaces were decorated with glazed brick
inlaid in the unglazed brick surface in the form of bold chevron and
lozenge patterns. Mosaic faience was reserved for smaller areas such as
arch spandrels and inscription bands. The patterns were generally
floral. Perhaps the most felicitous use of tilework is to be seen in the
interior of the great eastern aivan at Gazur Gah, where a lower dado is
decorated with square panels of inlaid bricks arranged in Kufic "seal"
forms and a upper register is composed of polygonal panels — rhom-
boids, hexagons and triangles — with floral, geometric and "seal"
patterns rendered in mosaic faience (pi. 29).
Shlrazi architects seem to have predominated in Khurasan during
the reign of Shah Rukh and were probably the principal inspiration in
the development of the new style. No doubt it was they who adopted
the transverse vaulting system with such effect at Gazur Gah and
Turbat-i Shaikh Jam. This, together with the use of intersecting arches
as a dome support, created a new concept of interior space. The archi-
tectural forms of Transoxiana were refined: thus the ribbed dome of
Gauhar Shad's mausoleum is more acceptable than that of the Gur-i
Mir as, too, is the relation between dome and drum. The facade of the
court of Gauhar Shad's mosque at Mashhad with its harmonious and
rhythmic alternation of voids and solids set a standard for later genera-
tions of Persian architects. The faience decoration of the buildings we

754
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

have been considering was of a quality and variety rarely equalled and
never surpassed in subsequent periods.

IV. ARCHITECTURAL ACTIVITY UNDER THE TURKMEN

DYNASTIES

In western and southern Persia during the reign of Shah Rukh there
was no building activity comparable to that in Khurasan. Timurid
power was contested first by the Jalayirids and then by the Turkmen
Qara Quyunlu; but the political disruptions of the period are only a
partial explanation of the paucity of surviving monuments. We have
seen the contribution of the architects of Shlraz in Khurasan; yet their
native city has little or nothing to offer. This is all the stranger inas-
much as Shlraz under the patronage of its Timurid governors, Iskan-
dar b. 'Umar Shaikh and Shah Rukh's son Ibrahim, was an active
centre of manuscript illumination and painting.
In 840/1436-7 the amir Chaqmaq built a four-aivan mosque in
Yazd. The sanctuary aivan leads to a vaulted chamber containing the
mihrab. Its most interesting feature is the oratory adjacent to the
sanctuary which, with its transverse vaulting and clerestory lighting,
resembles the Muzaffarid oratories in the Masjid-i Jami' at Yazd.1 The
only surviving evidence of Timurid building in Isfahan is the winter
oratory behind the north-west aivan in the Masjid-i Jami'.2 This
was erected in 851/1444 at the order of Balsunqur's son, Sultan
Muhammad, who governed Isfahan from 850/1446 to 855/1451. With
its groined vaulting, supported by eighteen squat piers square in
section, it is an impressive building. Daylight filters through panels
inserted in the middle of each vault; and the low height of the hall is
designed to provide a refuge from the winter's cold. The architect of
this building was a certain Shaikh Hasan b. Sharaf al-Dln, a native of
Ravidasht near Kiihpaya, to the east of Isfahan.
The renewal of building activity was due to Turkmen initiative. In
1435 Tabriz became the capital of the Qara Quyunlu and in 856/1452
Jahan Shah occupied Isfahan. In the same year the Darb-i Imam was
built to contain the tombs of the Imamzadas Ibrahim Batha and Zain
al-'Abidln. Much restored and altered in the Safavid period, it was

' Golombek, The Timurid Shrine at Ga^ur Gab,fig.148. Hill and Grabar,fig.201. SPA, pi. 449.
2
Godard, "HistoriqueduMasdjid-eDjum'ad'Isfahan", pp. Z4;f. Hunarfar, Ganjtna, pp. 121-).

755
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

originally a dome chamber preceded by a vestibule and portal.1 The

last has long been recognised as a masterpiece of tile decoration
(pi. 30a). It is also of considerable significance inasmuch as its composi-
tion adumbrates that of the Safavid portal. The voussoir of the arch is
defined by a facetted moulding which rests on low engaged columns of
stone. The portal niche is treated as the halved section of a square
dome chamber in which the transition to the hemispherical vault is
obtained by two squinch arches each with a flanking arch. Subsidiary
ribs spring from the haunches and apex of each arch and meet to form a
starlike support for the hemispherical vault. The function of the ribs,
however, is probably a simulated one, for the actual springing of the
vault occurs at the springing of the arches which themselves incline
forwards. The tile revetment is of the highest quality. The arch is
framed by a band of mosaic tilework with alternate cross and cartouche
figures containing single floral sprays and split-leaf arabesques. A dado
of monochrome pentagonal tiles runs around the screen and the niche
interior. Flanking the door, now replaced by a wood screen carved in
openwork, are panels of symmetrically disposed flowers issuing from a
vase (pl.3o£). The two side walls of the interior are decorated with
polygonal mosaic tiles applied to a star-tessellated ground of polygonal
tiles. A broad inscription band intervenes between these panels and the
squinch zone.
The most ambitious monument of the period of Jahan Shah Qara
Quyunlu is the so-called Blue Mosque in Tabriz, built by Jahan Shah's
daughter Saliha Khanum in 1465.2 The Blue Mosque has been
regarded as a rare example of a covered mosque in Persia. One inter-
pretation of the ground plan suggests a cruciform aivan court covered
by a great dome, surrounded on three sides by vaulted and domed
galleries (fig. 5). A sanctuary dome chamber projects from the south
side, connected with the great inner dome court by the south aivan. The

1
Godard, "Isfahan". See also Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 243—353, for a revised reading of the
portal inscription containing the names of both Jahan Shah and the Timurid Sultan Muhammad.
The latter died in 855/1451—2, and no satisfactory explanation of the introduction of his name has
been offered.
2
To bibliography in SPA, p. 1130, n.4, add Dibaj, Asar, p. 76-80; also Masterpieces of Iranian
Architecture, pp. 82-3, containing measured plans, elevations and sections. The attribution to
Saliha is given by QazI Husain MaibudI (SPA, pp. ii3of., n.5); but her name does not appear in
either of the two incomplete historical inscriptions, the first in the name of Jahan Shah, the
second naming Ni'mat-Allah b. Muhammad al-Bawab with the date 4 Rabf I 870. It is not clear
whether the latter was the architect or the official who supervised the building of the mosque. See
Hinz, "Beitrage", pp. 58—60, 421-2; Sauvaget, "Notes epigraphiques", pp. iojf.

756
 THE TURKMEN DYNASTIES

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 metres
i
1 1I I I I

Fig. 5. Tabriz. Ground plan of the Blue Mosque.

galleries were roofed by transverse vaults which on the east and west
sides supported a dome behind the respective aivans. The north gal-
lery, which served as the vestibule, contained three domed vaults equal
in diameter to those of the side galleries. In the north-west and north-
east corners of the galleries were two larger domed vaults. The main
facade of this mosque contained a lofty arched portal approached by a
flight of three steps and at either end a tall tapering minaret round in
section. The most interesting structural feature of the mosque is the
vaulting system of the domed court. The great dome, 16.75 m - m
diameter, is supported on eight arches of equal span which spring from
eight massive pillars (pi. 31a). In actual fact, four of these are squinch
arches which spring at an oblique angle from the piers. The spaces
between the arches were filled in with bricks, each successive row
slightly corbelled in order to secure the circular seating for the dome.
In the rear wall of each aivan was an arched opening leading to the

757
 TIMURID ARCHITECTURE

galleries and sanctuary chamber; and there were similar arched open-
ings in the adjacent walls beneath the squinch arches. Since these
arched openings occupied about one-half of the height of the great
dome-supporting arches, it was possible to create window openings in
the upper half, since the central mass rises above the galleries. The
great dome and much of the vaulting has been destroyed as a result of
earthquake, but enough remains to judge with what success the archi-
tect had realised a solution to the problem of space and light.
There has been some speculation regarding the source and origin of
this design. There seems no need to look to Byzantine church architec-
ture; and it would be worth investigating the contemporary Ottoman
mosque as a source of inspiration. If the plan of the mosque was the
result of an imported idea, the polychrome tilework is wholly Persian,
with the exception, perhaps, of the gallery dado consisting of white
geometric interlaced bands on a black ground (pis. 31^, 32a).1 Much is
distinctive in style and technique and may well have been the work of
local masters. In this category would be the embellishment of mosaic
tile patterns with an overlay of knots, arabesques and naskhl lettering
in raised stucco. There are panels, too, of mosaic tiles set in a ground
of terracotta tiles in a chevron arrangement (pi. 32^). Tilework of this
style was introduced in the sanctuary aivan of the Masjid-i Jami',
Isfahan, when the Aq Quyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan carried out restora-
tions there in 1475-6.
Two years after the completion of the Blue Mosque, Jahan Shah
died in battle against Uzun Hasan, leader of the rival Turkmen
dynasty, the Aq Quyunlu. Apart from Uzun Hasan's restorations in
the Masjid-i Jami' at Isfahan, there is no surviving evidence of the
buildings with which he embellished Tabriz. A Venetian merchant
who visited the city about 1510 has described the park and palace of the
Hasht Bihisht as well as the other monuments of the city,2 but these are
the work, as Woods has demonstrated, of Uzun Hasan's son Ya'qiib.3
Hinz, however, has located Uzun Hasan's mosque and madrasa near
the Sahib al-'Amr mosque.4

1
Seherr-Thoss, p. 170 and pi. 78, observes that this style of geometric dado is frequently found
2
in 15 th—16th century Ottoman buildings. A Narrative of Italian Travels, p. 177.
3
John E.Woods, The Aqqqunlu. Clan, Confederation, Empire (Bibliotheca Islamica, Chicago,
4
1976), p. 150. Hinz, "Beitrage", pp. 60—4.

758
 CHAPTER I 5

SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE*

Safavid buildings are preserved in greater abundance than those of any

other period in Iran. Yet Safavid architecture is far more imperfectly
known than that of the Saljuqs, Il-Khanids or Timurids. Several
factors help to explain this paradox. One is quite simply prejudice. The
finest Safavid buildings lend themselves to uncritical panegyric and
readily enter the unlovely category of tourist attractions, and perhaps
for that very reason many of them have not been subjected to detailed
scholarly analysis. Alternatively, one might cite the inadequate docu-
mentation of Safavid architecture: the relative dearth of monographs,
technical drawings and theses in this field makes any general survey
premature. A third contributory factor is the over-exposure of a few
significant buildings in Isfahan, whose very accessibility is a snare and
throws into unjust obscurity comparatively inaccessible work at
Ardabll, Mahan, Kirman and Mashhad.
This paradoxical neglect of a richly productive period has meant that
the term "Safavid" is not yet precise enough to be used safely in the
context of architecture. It does not yet connote special kinds of ground
plan, spatial organisation, fa£ade composition, muqarnas, arch profiles or
vaulting, though it is a widely used concept in the field of tilework. One of
the objects of this chapter is to demonstrate that at least three Safavid
styles coexisted and that only the function of the building — religious,
palatial or otherwise secular — determined which of them should be used.
It is in the domain of religious architecture that the definition of a
Safavid style poses the most problems, particularly in view of the
eagerness of Safavid patrons to repair and extend earlier monuments.
These changes are rarely recorded in detail in the inscriptions which
mention them, and tile mosaic - at first sight the obvious dating
control — is a potentially treacherous guide because of the innate con-
servatism of the medium in such matters as technique and palette. A
close examination of the designs employed might lead, in Safavid as in
early Islamic ornament, to the recognition of small but significant
* I am most grateful to David Gye, Dr Karim Yusuf-Jamall, Bernard O'Kane and Douglas
Pickett for their comments on an earlier draft of this chapter, and to Dr Ronald Ferrier for his
assistance with the illustrations.

759
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

changes in apparently standard design elements and these might then

be fitted into a chronological framework.1 In the absence of inscrip-
tions, certain types of brick and stucco ornament, fresco painting and,
above all, square underglaze-painted tiles and their varied subject
matter all furnish useful clues for dating. But the close resemblance
between the decorated domes of the Masjid-i Shah and the Madar-i
Shah madrasa is sufficient reminder of the pitfalls of using ornament as
a dating control. It is not surprising that, in cultic architecture,
"Safavid" has become something of a collective adjective to describe
work which could date from almost any time between the 15 th and the
20th century.
The definition of "Safavid" in the case of palatial architecture
presents rather fewer problems; fewer than ten palaces survive, most of
them in Isfahan, and they are usually datable either by inscriptions or
by literary evidence. Their ostentatiously frail architecture, their
garden setting and their decoration, with its echoes of the minor arts,
together lend these palaces a recognisable individuality.
Finally, the term "Safavid" is widely and often inaccurately used to
describe a great range of non-palatial secular structures. In some of
these buildings — dams, pigeon towers, cisterns, ice houses — the scope
for innovation was slight. It is in the study of bridges and caravansarais
that the search for a distinctive Safavid secular style may most profit-
ably be pursued. But such buildings are especially hard to date. Devoid
alike of ornament and epigraphy, they have an almost puritanical
austerity. They obey the maxim that form follows function. They
inhabit a different world from that of the imperial monuments in
Isfahan, and their influence extended right into the present century.
Numerous differences in plan, size, layout or facilities may be noted
between the various caravansarais in particular, but these may reflect
specific local needs or the amount of money available and are not
necessarily helpful in dating these buildings or in identifying a
developing style.
So much for the obstacles which currently impede a proper
understanding of Safavid architecture. In such a situation the most
profitable approach may well be to base a general survey on detailed
discussion of a few key monuments, and thus prevent the discussion

1
M.S. Dimand, "Studies in Islamic Ornament. I. Some Aspects of Omaiyad and Early 'Abba-
sid Ornament", AI iv (1937), 19}—J37.
760
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

degenerating into a jejune list of buildings, dates and craftsmen. Only

by drastic selection will the wood emerge from the trees. But - to
adapt the familiar metaphor — the nature of the wood depends on the
type and quantity of trees. Brief lists of buildings will therefore be
included as background material at certain stages of the discussion.
Buildings usually omitted from general surveys will be analysed in an
attempt to bring into clearer focus the architectural activity of the 16th
and the later 17th centuries, two substantial epochs in the history of
Safavid architecture which have hitherto been very imperfectly known.
The accession of Shah Isma'Il (907/1501) has commonly been
regarded as a turning point in the history of Iran. It would be idle,
however, to regard his reign as a comparable landmark in architectural
history. Indeed, it would be hard to find any quarter-century in Iranian
architecture since the rise of the Saljuqs (the aftermath of the Mongol
conquests excepted) of which less material evidence survives. Architec-
ture was of far less account to the shah than were poetry, painting,
calligraphy and music.1 Perhaps the political turmoil of Isma'U's reign
ensured that unusually little was produced. At all events, no breath of
innovation disturbed the architecture of the time, which placidly con-
tinued in the late Timurid idiom. Small-scale decorative set-pieces
closely rivalled the best work of the previous age, but there seems to
have been no attempt to imitate the ambitious ensembles (e.g. at Mash-
had and Samarqand) popular in the previous century. Enthusiastic
accounts of the palaces of Isma'Il have been left by Western travellers,
but apparently none of these structures was built to last. The random
scatter of surviving early 16th-century buildings offers no clue to the
magnificence of later Safavid architecture.
Undoubtedly the masterpiece of the period is the portal of the tomb
of Harun-i Vilayat at Isfahan, dated Rabl' I 918/May — June 1513. The
patron, the Grand Vizier Durmlsh Khan, is mentioned in a Persian
distich over the door; such poetical quotations, hitherto infrequent,
quickly became a characteristic of Safavid buildings. Architecturally
the complex is curious rather than distinguished, with an exterior
which in toto falls far short of the portal, though the original layout has
been overlaid by numerous later restorations. The exterior elevation of
the dome chamber illustrates in miniature the piecemeal nature of the

1
See M.K. Yusuf-Jamall, The Life and Personality of Sbab lsmSHl (r^-iji^), unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh, 1981, pp. 154-70, 232—45.

761
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

whole complex. Its octagonal base gives way to a square middle storey,
a reversal of the usual practice. The dome above, whose tilework is
entirely of recent date, rests on a high cylindrical drum set over a
modest octagon and has a slight bulge at the collar, a profile very close
to that of the Masjid-i Shah, Mashhad (85 5/1451). In its choice of basic
elements such as dome, courtyard and facade the building is in no sense
novel.
But a distinct change of emphasis can be detected here. Attention
focuses on the exterior facade rather than on the internal layout, an
emphasis frequently repeated in later Safavid buildings. It is of a piece
with this approach that areas which are generally seen (such as the
lower part of the drum and the octagon beneath it) should be left in
plain brick. The building is conceived more as a frame for lavish
decoration than as an entity in which each element has its part to play;
hence its defective design. Its facade, to be sure, subtly exploits the
plastic potential of the arched niche, which, repeated at various scales
and depths, is the leitmotif of the whole composition. But stepping
through the grandiose gateway the visitor can scarcely escape a feeling
of anticlimax at the restricted inner courtyard and at the imbalance of
the dominant dome chamber in this cramped composition. Internally
this dome chamber is unremarkable as architecture; it is notable princi-
pally for its dadoes of tile mosaic and its numerous inscription bands.
The identity of the saintly Harun in whose honour the tomb
{mashhad) was built remains a mystery which the romantic confections
of Chardin do little to dispel. He is referred to only indirectly by means
of a hadith quoted in a foundation inscription whose allusiveness can be
paralleled in other contemporary epigraphy. Far from being a simple
factual record of the date of the building and the titles of the ruler, it is
an elaborate act of homage to Shah Isma'Il. His descent from 'All
(jaddhu) is brought in under cover of the hadith mentioning Harun.
His war against the Ottomans is exalted into a jihad by the use of the
time-honoured titles al-gha^t, al-mujdhidft sabil Allah. His rule is twice
termed a caliphate, surely intended as a counter to the Ottoman
usurpation of the title. A punning reference to the name of the tomb
may be detected in the use of the title wall al-wilayat for the shah, and it
is surely no coincidence that this inscription, placed in a portal,
mentions the ever-open doors of the shah's bounty. It is even possible
that this apparently conventional eulogy is intended to bear a theologi-
cal interpretation. In some of his more ecstatic verse Isma'Il compared
762
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

himself to 'All, and the concept of 'All as the gate to paradise was
standard among Shl'is. Indeed, the inscription over the eastern door
of the mausoleum - again the location is important - quotes
Muhammad's saying, "I am the city of knowledge and 'All is its gate".
Appropriately enough the name of 'All joins those of Muhammad and
Allah in a cartouche of square Kufic placed at the apex of the entrance
arch. Below this, and in the tympanum of the door itself, is a panel
depicting "birds of paradise" set within a radiant nimbus of Chinese
clouds. The central axis of this figural panel coincides exactly with the
name Isma'Il in the main portal inscription immediately beneath it. The
name and titles of the shah are executed in dusky golden letters which
stand out from the white used for the rest of the inscription. It is hard
to avoid the conclusion that inscription and decoration alike have
theological as well as political undertones and that they exalt the more
than human status of Isma'Il.1
Yet it is not on these grounds that the building has attracted atten-
tion, for its crucial position in the history of glazed tilework has pre-
empted detailed discussion of its other features. Apart from the high
quality of the tilework, its dependence on earlier techniques demands
emphasis. Its hints on the future development of Safavid tilework are
noted below, but at the same time it exemplifies the major techniques
developed previously. Thus, with the nearby Masjid-i 'All, it serves as a
coda to a great tradition. In addition to tile mosaic, the best established
of these tilework techniques, it illustrates chequerboard work derived
ultimately from Saljuq brick decoration, glazed geometric window
grilles, strips of monochrome tilework outlining architectural features
and the use of glazed insets against a predominantly brick background.
A wide range of scripts is employed. The tall compressed cursive
usually termed thulth predominates, but the verses over the door are a
very early monumental example of nasta'ltq, while naskh and square
Kufic are also found.2 The use of a different colour for the name and
titles of the sovereign had long been standard practice, nor was it a
novelty to employ living creatures in the decorative scheme. Floral
compositions closely linked to carpet designs were equally familiar.
Only the emphasis on thin billowing sprays, effortlessly confined to
their panels and pruned of most of their leaves, is perhaps hard to

1
Hunarfar, Ganjina, p. 368: it is undated.
2
For the inscriptions, see Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 64—5, 68; Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 360-9.

763
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

parallel in earlier work, though of course the arabesque is as old as

Islamic art itself. But what the facade lacks in novelty it redeems by the
diverse range of styles which it fits into a limited space, and by its
daring chromatic harmonies. The thin glazed strips, like much of the
tile mosaic, are in line with Timurid work in Khurasan, while the motif
of glazed insets against plain brick — the single recurrent theme of the
facade - finds, like the tawny marble dado, a ready parallel in the Blue
Mosque at Tabriz. Thus this early Safavid building in central Iran
draws together (as does contemporary painting) the divergent threads
of eastern and western Persian traditions in a harmonious synthesis —
an apt symbol of this nascent pan-Iranian kingdom.
The sister building to the mashhad of Harun-i Vilayat, the
neighbouring and almost exactly contemporary Masjid-i 'All, shares
many of its characteristics. It too is renowned for the tilework of its
facade, though here plain brick and geometric patterns play a much
larger role than at Harun-i Vilayat. Some of the untiled designs would
not look out of place on a Saljuq building, apart from the yellow brick
in which they are executed. Square Kufic is used on both a small and a
large scale to spell out sacred names. Architecturally this mosque,
apparently a new foundation, is of a much higher order than the nearby
mausoleum, though their street facades have much in common.
Internally the Masjid-i 'AH - the name is apparently a popular one, like
its former title of the Sanjari mosque, and is not attested by inscription
— is of four-aipdn plan, with a substantial domed sanctuary. This
chamber, dated 929/1522, provides an instructive link between the
Blue Mosque of Tabriz and the Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah. With its
numerous arched bays opening at ground and gallery level it at once
recalls the earlier building. But the square ground plan, and the use of
four massive pendentives to carry the dome, looks ahead to the later
mosque. These pendentives are identical in size and contour to the
arches along the main axes; net vaulting fills the intervening spaces,
and a thick circular inscription band (Qur'an xvii. 1-14) completes the
transition to the dome. This interior is of almost unrelieved plainness;
its white plaster surfaces are heightened only by the red outlining of
the arch profiles. Within the bays the upper area is filled by modest
decorative minor vaults. Nothing could refute more decisively the
popular image of Safavid architecture dominated by applied ornament.
The handsome, spacious proportions of this mosque, and its bold
reworking of the traditional domed square formula, make it formally
764
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

the outstanding building of this period, even though it would be rash

to conclude that it exerted direct influence on later architects.
The portal inscription contains theological allusions of the same
esoteric nature as those discussed earlier. Shah Isma'U is described as
the one "on whom descends the grace of having his name repeated in
the Qur'an as many times as there are Imams". On the face of it, this
simply celebrates the pious antecedents of his name. But since the name
of Isma'il occurs in the Qur'an twelve times, and since it was the
Twelver Shl'I faith that Isma'il had instituted as the national creed, this
phrasing may be seen not only as intensely topical but also as an
attempt to elevate Isma'il to the rank of Imam at least by implication.
There may be a hint too that this accords with the Divine will : hence
the numerical concordance between the number of references to Isma'il
in the Qur'an and the number of Imams. In this context of esoteric
allusions the choice of words for the chronogram at the end of the
(portal) inscription is surely also significant: "He has come, the opener
of gates". For while this term usually refers to Allah Himself, the
equation of 'AH with a bab ("gate") is found in other buildings of
Isfahan, always with a double meaning: 'AH as a gate to spiritual
enlightenment, and a punning reference to the location of these
inscriptions over the entrances to religious buildings. In this mosque a
third level of meaning may be intended, for the inscription has an extra
appropriateness on a mosque which is itself named after 'All and may
therefore indicate that the popular name is the correct one.1
Two buildings at Sava offer further insights into the architecture of
this period. The transfer of the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin gave the
city a new importance, for important roads from the south-east and
south-west met there. It would thus be natural for Shah Isma'il to
embellish it. But the extent of early Safavid work in the Masjid-i Jami'
has been somewhat exaggerated. The interior revetment of the dome
chamber includes the name of Sa'd b. Muhammad Kaduk (also found
in the Yazd Jami', c. 1375), and this makes it premature to date even
the upper structure of the dome chamber to the early 16th century.
Indeed, the major new construction in the mosque at this period was
apparently limited to a kind of inflated cbahdr-su in the south-western
corner, while the vaults of the two aivans received a garnishing of

1
Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 69-72. Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 569-79. Bakhtiyar, "The Masjid Ali",
pp. 1-2, argues in favour of a Saljuq date for this mosque.

765
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

clumps of stalactites. The decoration of the sanctuary area includes a

probably pre-Safavid dado of hexagonal turquoise tiles and a tile
mosaic inscription in the qibla aivan with the date 927/1520. Its piece de
resistance, however, is the carved stucco mihrab. The early Safavid parts
of the Sava Jami' use plaster decoration, whose vogue had passed one
and a half centuries earlier, to a remarkable extent. This mihrab, for all
the virtuosity of its riqa' inscriptions, illustrates that the attempt to
revive this obsolete technique was ill-advised. Saljuq and Il-Khanid
plaster mihrabs, of which examples have been found in this mosque,
are conceived sculpturally and exploit several levels of carving. This
mihrab, by contrast, reproduces in stucco the kind of two-dimensional
design originally created for tile mosaic or book-covers. In the Masjid-i
Maidan nearby, whose inscriptions dated 916/1510 and 924/1518 refer
to Safavid restoration work, a very similar mihrab, perhaps the work
of the same artist, may be found.1
Amidst the sparse output of Shah Ismail's reign one other building
deserves analysis: the tomb of Shaikh Jibra'il (father of Shaikh SafI) at
Kalkhuran near Ardabll (fig. 1). Although it bears no date, it is gener-
ally agreed to be of the early 16th century, for its style and decoration
are post-Timurid while a terminus post quern is provided by the restora-
tion work of Shah 'Abbas I there, dated 1030-1/1620-2. The building
could most naturally be interpreted as one of the first-fruits of the
virtually uninterrupted interest in Ardabll shown by the Safavid shahs,
who clearly saw the mausoleum of SafI and its dependencies as a kind
of dynastic shrine. Both the form and the function of the mausoleum
are significant. Its form owes a general debt to the great domed squares
of Timurid Transoxiana, notably the mosque-mausoleum of Khwaja
Ahmad Yasavl at Turkistan and the Gur-i Mir. It is much smaller than
these, however, and its form is still transitional, not least in the lack of
integration between its internal and external layout. A much restored
dome on a high drum is set abruptly, without intermediary, on a
square, flat-roofed lower storey whose box-like appearance is
redeemed only by deep axial arched portals.2 Such mausolea replaced
the tomb tower, offering a far more spacious layout which encouraged
large-scale pilgrimages. This decisive shift away from ostentatiously
secular memorials is already evident in the burial arrangements for

1
Godard, "Les anciennes mosquees", pp. 85-8. Pope, in SPA, pp. 1166-70, figs. 414—15 and
2
591, and pi. 460. Sarre, Denkmaler 1, 50—2, Abb. 49-52. Dibaj, Rabnamd, pp. 89—91.

766
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. i. Kalkhuran. Tomb of Shaikh Jibra'Tl, isometric section.

Shah Isma'U in the Ardabll shrine (fig. 2). While the shah apparently
continued the medieval tradition sufficiently to erect a cylindrical
domed tomb tower for himself, the building was not only small but
surrendered all claim to outward display by its avoidance of a free-
standing site. Hemmed in amidst larger buildings, it is clearly an
anachronism - a traditional architectural type transformed by a novel
setting. Most subsequent Safavid shahs were buried in sacred shrines
of long standing, their graves marked by sarcophagi rather than
buildings.
Numerous inscriptions in buildings throughout the country testify
to building activity in the reign of Shah Isma'il. New construction or
repairs were carried out on structures as diverse as the shrines of
Ardabil, Mashhad (920/1514) and Qum (facade of the Sahn-i Kuhna,
925/1519); the Friday mosques of Damavand (927/1520), Gaz and

767
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 2. ArdabTl. Shrine complex, plan.

Isfahan; tombs like that of Khatun Qiyamat at Shlraz, Husain at Qum

or Chihil Akhtaran at Qum; and the bridge of Qaflan Kuh (923/1517).
Decrees dating from this period are found, among other places, in the
Masjid-i Maidan, Kashan (922/1516), and in the Friday mosque of
Simnan (926/1519), while among the many examples of carved
woodwork may be cited those at the shrine of 'Abd al-'AzIm at Ray
(918/1512), the Imamzada Ibrahim at Amul (924/1519), the tomb of
Baba Afzal at Maraq (912/1506) and the tomb of Sultan Mir Ahmad at
Kashan (915/1509). Tombstones include examples at Natanz
(921/1515) and the Imamzada Zaid, Tehran (Rajab 920/August —
September 1514). Finally, it seems appropriate in view of Shah
Isma'Il's love of hunting to note, as a curiosity, that against all expecta-
tions a minaret decorated with the horns and skulls of game survives
on the outskirts of Khuy. Contemporary accounts record the erection
of such a tower here.
If, then, the reign of Shah Isma'Il is not so void of architectural
activity as is often thought, nevertheless it represents a startling decline
in productivity compared with the high level of preceding centuries.
This decline characterises the lengthy reign of Shah Tahmasp too. Yet
this reign was incomparably more peaceful than that of Shah Isma'Il,
and the country prospered accordingly. The continued lull in building
activity must be laid at the door of the shah himself, whose apathy as a
patron came to affect all the arts. Only a very few ambitious buildings
or parts of buildings may be distinguished amidst the well over forty
published so far and datable to his reign on grounds of epigraphy
alone. Like his father, Shah Tahmasp cannot be credited with a single
surviving mosque for which he was wholly responsible. Not sur-
768
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

prisingly, Iranian architecture of this period had no markedly indi-

vidual style; hence the difficulty of fashioning dating controls to apply
to undated buildings.
In defence of Shah Tahmasp it must be said that his best work was
probably concentrated in his capital city of Qazvln, which has suffered
cruelly from earthquakes. Thus virtually nothing remains of his
Masjid-i Shah and his royal palace (though a kiosk which was part of
the royal palace and has recently been refurbished gives some clues);1
while his baths (and probably his bazaar) have entirely gone. Among
surviving buildings of his reign the Jannat-sara at Ardabll deserves
special mention, though his work on the shrine as a whole is far less
than was formerly thought.2 Important mausolea survive at Nishapur
and Sultaniyya, while the best tilework of the time can be seen in the
Friday mosques of Isfahan, Kirman and Shlraz as well as in the frag-
ments of smaller Isfahan mosques now re-erected in the garden of the
Chihil Sutun palace. With these various exceptions, then, the majority
of the work carried out under Shah Tahmasp, and identifiable as such
on epigraphic grounds, comprises repairs or additions to existing
shrines (e.g., Mashhad and Ardabll); mausolea (including five in
Kashan, six in the Yazd area and eight in Qum and its surroundings);
mosques (Barsiyan, Qum, Yazd, Shushtar, Saravar and the Masjid-i
Jami', Isfahan, along with six others in the city); tombstones, or stone
slabs inscribed with decrees (e.g., at Kashan, Masjid-i Maidan);
woodwork (e.g., Tajrlsh, Imamzada Qasim; Tabas, Imamzada Husain;
Natanz shrine; Kashan, Sultan Mir Ahmad; Ray, Bibl Shahrbanu;
Qazvln, Shahzada Husain; and Plshva, Imamzada Ja'far); and a few
modest tombs (Imamzadas Abazar, near Qazvln, Hamza at Bavanat,
and Abu'l-Futuh at Vanshan, the last two with quantities of carved
woodwork).
Although, strictly speaking, slabs with decrees, tombstones, carved
doors and sarcophagi are extrinsic to the basic structure of the building
in which they occur and are thus of no value in dating the structure
itself, their presence is at least an indication that at the date in question
the building did attract the interest of a patron. While otherwise
undatable repairs cannot be dated on such evidence alone in any given
case, there must be a strong presumption that in many cases these

1
Kleiss, "Der safavidische Pavilion".
2
Morton, "The Ardabil Shrine (concluded)", pp. 41-3, 48.

769
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

inscribed dates are contemporary with unrecorded restorations and

repairs in such buildings. It will be apparent that this output has much
in common with the haphazard collection of small-scale and limited
work, innocent of any overall direction or momentum, which consti-
tutes the architectural achievement of Shah Isma'Il.
The architectural achievements of the reign may conveniently be
discussed under two headings: mosques and shrines. A Persian inscrip-
tion framing the qibla aivan of the Isfahan Jami' and dated to the
"caliphate" of Shah Tahmasp mentions the beautifying and repair
(ta\in va ta'mir) of the mosque. Contemporary with this is the inscrip-
tion framing the arch of the same aivan, and further nasta'llq inscrip-
tions are found within the aivan. Presumably the refurbishing did not
extend beyond the aivan. In the framing arch an unusual layout is
adopted. Cartouches of basically tabula ansata form, but with rounded
ends, alternate with smaller quatrefoils. The latter carry brief prayers
and pious sayings, such as invocations to 'All, while each of the former
contains an extended litany on one of the Fourteen Pure Ones. A third
inscription on the soffit of this entrance arch gives the date
938/15 31-2. Significantly enough this work, executed in a mosque
which for centuries had attracted the highest patronage in the land, was
paid for by a certain Muhammad al-Isfahanl working under the aegis of
the lady Aqa Sultan; no credit is accorded to the shah himself. As in the
previous IsfahanI monuments, nasta'llq is given some prominence.1 At
Barsiyan the Saljuq mosque, consisting presumably of an isolated dome
chamber and minaret, was enlarged by the addition of a courtyard with
aivans. In the Kirman Jami' the tile mosaic mihrab probably dates
from the rebuilding of 967/1559-60 mentioned on the southern portal
of the mosque; its arabesques recall coiled springs rather than plant life
and represent a hardening of the motif in comparison with early
Safavid work at Isfahan. For all its high technical quality, this is a very
mechanical production. Finally, the Jami' of Shlraz deserves notice for
the tile mosaic dated 973/1565-6 in the qibla aivan. Its generous use of
plain brick to act as a foil for tiled insets of almostfleur-de-lyspattern,
like its emphasis on bold strapwork and lozenges spelling out sacred
names in square Kufic, finds equally convincing parallels in Timurid
Khurasan and in 15th-century Azarbaljan.

1
Godard, "Historiquc du Masdjid-e Djum'a d'Isfahan", pp. 256-9. Hunarfar, Ganjina,
pp. 88—103.

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 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

More can be learned of the architecture of this period from a study

of its mausolea. An unusually grand example, though its funerary
purpose is not absolutely certain and though it has lost its dome, is
provided by the octagonal Jannat-sara at Ardabll, datable c. 1540
(fig.2). This was the largest single building on the site and, perhaps on
account of the sanctity of the Ardabll shrine in Safavid times and its
place of honour among the monuments of the land, the building repre-
sents an unusually munificent effort on the part of the shah. With its
great dome, which originally had a span of over 16 m., and its com-
manding position at one end of the great inner courtyard of the shrine,
this spacious octagon may well have been intended by Tahmasp to
serve as his own tomb. Internally the plan retains its octagonal shape
on both of its storeys; each side is occupied by a great blind arch
enclosing narrow superposed arched niches. Subsequent alterations
have disfigured the original plan, in which great arched recesses, each
corresponding to one side of the octagon and reaching almost to the
springing of the dome, were scooped out of the exterior facade. Only
on the south-west side, which was preceded by an entrance aivan, and
directly opposite on the north-east side, where the recess was internal,
is the arrangement different. Whether these huge external bays held
doors or windows originally can only be determined by excavation,
but either way it is the open plan of the structure that deserves atten-
tion. Rather than discouraging access by a forbidding high blank wall,
the architect has chosen, by this device of deep bays, to invite entry
into the building. Psychologically the effect is quite different from that
of previous tombs. Hints of this change are found in earlier buildings,
though the new approach had not hitherto been expressed so boldly
and on such a large scale.1
Subsequent Safavid mausolea continued to favour this open plan,
though perhaps none pares down the octagon so inexorably to its eight
constituent piers. In the tomb of Mulla Hasan ShlrazI at Sultaniyya, for
example, now shorn of its garden setting, the lightness and airiness of
the octagon, in which broad, deep aivans alternate with narrower and
shallower arched bays (an interesting variation on the theme of the
Jannat-sara), gives way to a heavy complex interior with many walls
containing staircases. The incompatible emphases of an open octagon
and a closed square chamber remain unresolved. Even the multi-tiered

1
Morton, "The Ardabil Shrine (concluded)", pp. 41-3. Weaver, Preliminary Study, pp. 15-18.

771
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

stalactite ceiling contrives to suggest weight rather than lightness,

possibly because its many miniature spandrels have recently been
picked out in red, but more likely because the inner dome is too
shallow for such treatment. Quite apart from its plan, this mausoleum
deserves attention for its tilework, in which may be detected a con-
scious antiquarianism. Thus the small glazed joint plugs with simple
geometric or floral designs in two or three colours used on the exterior
wall occur as early as the tomb of Oljeitii nearby and are also found in
the Blue Mosque at Tabriz. The finest work, however, is reserved for
the drum of the dome, which is encircled by a band of twelve panels
containing an ingenious interlocking series of inscriptions executed in
square Kufic and invoking divine blessings on the Fourteen Pure
Ones. The band is bordered above and below by geometrical patterns
in glazed brick. The dome itself is blue while tile mosaic adorns the
spandrels of the aivans. All in all this varied decoration is an entirely
appropriate reminder that Mulla Hasan bore the title "Kashl".1
Larger tombs of the period include the Imamzada Sultan
Muhammad 'Abid (said to be the brother of the Imam Rida) at Kakh,
near Gunabad, dated 960/1552, whose dominant feature is a massive
dome on a high drum. A broad and low projecting facade with a
central portal aivan provides a modest approach to the tomb chamber.
Basically similar in layout is the shrine of Muhammad Mahruq near
NIshapur. According to legend the saint was burned (hence his name)
for converting an 'Abbasid princess to the Shl'I creed. Two doors
within the shrine, of which one is dated 978/1570 and both are signed
by Imam Qull Najjar, give a terminus for the building itself. As with
the tomb of Mulla Hasan, the main chamber is square, but the flanking
structures are more complex and are dominated by a huge stepped
portal aivan flanked by superposed arcuated niches. Moreover, despite
lavish later tilework, dated 1041/1631, in the domed rooms flanking
the main tomb chamber, parts of the shrine exhibit a notable simplicity.
Plain brick suffices for the lower parts of the shrine's exterior, while
the interior of the dome chamber, following Timurid precedent, is
plain white apart from the tiled dado.2
An entirely unexpected find in recent years has been the richly
decorated remains of a once extensive palace in Na'in (pi. 41). Archi-

1
Godard, " Le tombeau de Mawlana Hasan Kashi".
2
Maulavl, Asar. Pope, in SPA, pp. 1178-9.

772
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

tecturally its layout is unusual, with a sunken courtyard whose fagades

are broken by four uneven aivans, two per long side. Living quarters
are disposed in two storeys of which the upper one had a room with
niches specially carved in pottery shapes, as at the 'All Qapu. The
largest aivan has an ambitious net vault executed in several planes with
greatly thickened ribs to indicate the contours of the vault. Blank
niches, alternately broad and narrow, form the basis from which the
vault's ribs spring to form varied stellar patterns. Above a plain dado
with recessed panels the entire field is decorated. Niches and stellar
patterns alike contain figural ornament. The technique in these plaster
panels is so fine and detailed that they seem to be paintings, but in fact
the white stucco skin is cut away to reveal the dark background and
thus form the design; the technique is of extreme rarity in Safavid,
though not in later, times. Traces of colour survive but it is not certain
whether these are original, especially as other similar decoration in
Na'In has suffered subsequent repainting. The themes of the decora-
tion are the common coin of miniature painting, with scenes from
Nizaml (Farhad and Shirin) and Jam! (Yusuf and Zulaikha), as well as
games of polo, enthroned royal couples, banquets and hunts. Inscrip-
tions of Persian poetry (Hafiz) in densely decorated cartouches like
'unvdns, and above all the style of these figures, drive home the parallel.
The stellar forms created by the vault have predominantly chinoiserie
themes: dragons, phoenixes, flying ducks, ch'i-lins and so on. The
form and content irresistibly evoke Il-Khanid glazed star tiles. At the
apex of the ceiling and of the iconographic programme is the largest
such star which depicts a group of eight angels. Some reference to
Paradise seems to be intended here, and the widespread ancient
equation of an actual vault with the dome of heaven is emphasised by
the many stars of the rib vault. A pair of much smaller rooms (some
5 m. and 3^ m. high respectively) bear broadly similar decoration to that
of the aivan. The ensemble has convincingly been dated to c. 1560 but
its presence in a provincial town like Na'In has yet to be explained.1
In the dozen years between the death of Tahmasp and the accession
of 'Abbas I architecture continued in the doldrums. Literary sources
preserve the memory of vanished buildings erected in this period but
little more survives than an occasional mosque (Isfahan, Masjid-i Fath),

1
Luschey-Schmeisser, "Der Wand- und Deckenschmuck", and pis. 68-81, and "Ein neuer
Raum", and pis. 78-82; and Gropp and Najmabadi, pi. 82.

773
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

tombstone (Isfahan, Baba Qasim; Vanshan, Imamzada Abu'l-Futuh;

Isfahan, Imamzada Isma'Il), decree (Kashan, Masjid-i Maidan) or
sarcophagus (Pishva, Imamzada Ja'far; Turbat-i Haidariyya, Mazar
Qutb al-Din). Repairs were carried out on the Masjid-i Nau at Shlraz in
995/1586.
The accession of Shah 'Abbas completely transformed the sorry state
of affairs which had prevailed in Iranian architecture for nearly a
century. His achievements in this field placed Persian work belatedly
but firmly on an equal footing with the output of the Ottomans and
Mughals. Around 1600 these super-powers between them controlled
the Muslim world from Bengal to the Atlantic; the scale of their
architectural achievements reflected this political dominance and was
unsurpassed in the contemporary world. The lesson of scale was not
lost on Louis XIV when his ambassadors regaled him with marvellous
tales of Asian palaces.
In Iran the new spirit was symbolised by Isfahan. The dynamism of
the new shah as a patron of building stimulated architects to recover
the inspiration that had trickled away in the long stagnation of previ-
ous reigns. Appropriately enough, Timurid — and not earlier Safavid —
architecture provided the springboard for fresh developments, though
'Abbas had a sense of vision beside which Tlmur's enthusiasm for
building stands exposed as merely frenetic and aimless. Such was the
impetus generated by this monarch that architecture continued to
thrive in spite of the progressive political and economic decline over
which his successors presided. The buildings selected for extended
discussion here can only hint at the wealth, variety and sheer quantity
of contemporary architecture. Inevitably the monuments of Isfahan
claim pride of place, but important works at Ardabll, Kirman, Mahan,
Mashhad, and Shlraz can be used to create a more balanced picture,
while palaces and gardens at Ashraf, Bairamabad, Kashan and Saflabad
help to reconstitute the lost splendours of the Chahar Bagh. A local
school of Perso-Armenian architecture at Julfa illustrates the pervasive
influence of the Safavid aesthetic on an otherwise sturdily independent
and alien tradition. Lastly, the output of public works is on such a
massive scale that it reveals an entirely new dimension to Safavid
architecture.
Impressive as the various provincial foundations are individually,
however, they are isolated. Some of them are necessarily restricted in
concept since they were conceived as additions to pre-existing

774
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

ensembles; others were the work of royal governors. To assess Shah

'Abbas himself as a patron one must turn to Isfahan; indeed, it is in the
masterpieces erected there between 1598 and 1628 that Safavid archi-
tecture found its authentic expression.
Several introductory remarks may be in order. 'Abbas had been on
the throne for almost a decade when he moved the capital from Qazvin
to Isfahan in spring 1598. In that time he had achieved very little as a
patron of architecture. It was apparently the move ,to Isfahan that
roused his dormant ambitions in this field and triggered a vast pro-
gramme of construction. It seems justified to conclude that Isfahan had
his heart. At the same time the previous urban development and the
natural setting of the city favoured these plans for expansion. Most of
the population was concentrated in the older quarters to the north,
where the natural focus was the Saljuq Maidan-i Kuhna. To the south,
all the way to the river and beyond, the shah had more of a free hand.
The very presence of a large river and of great tracts of unoccupied
land so close to the city favoured a scheme of urban planning on the
grand scale (fig. 3). Indeed, one of the most notable features of Safavid
architecture in Isfahan after 1598 is the change of pace. Instead of the
spasmodic and uncoordinated activity of earlier years a new sense of
purpose makes itself felt. Much more is undertaken and some of the
projects are completed with remarkable speed. As more new buildings
rise, and as the outline of the royal scheme becomes increasingly clear,
architecture becomes a fashionable concern. But there is little evidence
that the buildings themselves were distinguished by any great original-
ity. The concept of a city plan dominated by a great square was not
new in Iran. At Shlraz the square had, like Isfahan, a bazaar fronted by
a naqqdra-khdna at one end, with the royal palace opposite. In Isfahan
itself the Maidan-i Kuhna was a familiar sight. Fifteenth-century
Tabriz had several great squares linked by arterial thoroughfares. The
maidan of Shah 'Abbas itself extended an earlier maidan on the
same site. Perhaps a maidan built afresh on an unencumbered site and
designedly bordered by mosques would have been oriented towards
the qibla, thereby rendering otiose the ingenious shifts employed by
the royal architects to accommodate divergent axes in the Masjid-i
Shah and the Lutf-Allah mosque.
Yet if the novelty of the Isfahan of 1630 has been overestimated, one
must concede that it offered a unique combination of qualities. Quanti-
ties of brand new buildings, some of spectacular scale and beauty, met

775
SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. j . Isfahan under Shah 'Abbas, plan.

776
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

the eye at every turn and were often a key element in extensive and
entirely man-made prospects. The reconstructed city itself was remark-
ably large and the maidan aptly symbolised this. Seldom was a new city
so embowered in gardens; indeed, the Chahar Bagh in its heyday was a
Persian garden carpet conjured into three dimensions. It was this
opulent ambience of flowers, streams, trees and fountains that sur-
prised and delighted European visitors, and contrived to disarm even
the curmudgeonly chauvinist Tavernier. Their verdict is unanimous :
no contemporary city in the world could rival Isfahan; and these were
men familiar with the greatest cities of Europe.1
The series of masterpieces begins with the Chahar Bagh, where work
was under way directly after Shah 'Abbas had made Isfahan his capital
(fig. 4). The name derives from four vineyards which he had to rent in
order to carry out his plan. In form the Chahar Bagh is a huge avenue
some 4 km. long which ran on a direct north-south axis from the royal
gardens bordering the centre of the maidan to the Hazar Jarlb, a royal
estate some two km. south of the Zayandarud. Stately plane trees
planted in rows divided it into three alleys, of which the central one
contained a canal. Fountains and cascades punctuated its flow. Gardens
spread far and wide on either side of the Chahar Bagh and trellised rather
than solid walls allowed passers-by to enjoy glimpses of them from the
public thoroughfare. At intervals palaces with names like Satara,
'Abbasabad, Jahan-nama and Nastaran emerged from gardens named
after thrones, nightingales, dervishes, mulberries and paradise itself.
Never intended for commercial traffic, the Safavid Chahar Bagh, as its
name indicates, was essentially a garden, whose shaded walks made it a
pergola on the grand scale. But it is as much an expression of architec-
tural values as it is landscape gardening. Its use of a long vistaflankedby
palaces and closed at either end by a monumental building, and the use
of apparently endless arcades to define the enclosed space, both find
analogies in the maidan. There too nature is made part of the overall
scheme, and there too the designer has blocked out his plan on the basis
of adjoining rectangles. Yet there is no hint of coercion, no unnatural
rigidity, in this layout; contemporary accounts stress how ideally the
Chahar Bagh was suited for the tranquil civilised pleasures of convers-
ing, strolling — or, more often, riding — and watching the world go by.2
1
Stevens, pp. 421-57.
2
Wilber, Persian Gardens, pp. 102, 106. Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 88—94. Hunarfar, Ganjina,
PP- 479-93-

777
F i g . 4. Isfahan. V i e w o f the Chahar B a g h in the 17th century.
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Forming a natural pendant to the shah's work on the Chahar Bagh

and to his development of Julfa, the purpose-built Armenian suburb, is
the bridge that links these two projects and continues the axis of the
promenade. Erected in 1011/1602 by the shah's favourite and generalis-
simo, AllahvardI Khan, and named after him, it is a remarkable 300 m.
in length. As if aware of the danger of monotony, the architect gar-
nished the bridge with pavilions at intervals, but these were not large
enough to break its overall lines. Open or covered footpaths at three
levels are ingeniously incorporated into the stately double arcade
which is the essence of the design. As in the Chahar Bagh itself,
practical and aesthetic aims harmonise.1
If the Chahar Bagh, for all its deliberate informality and its function
as a promenade, imposed order on one part of the new Isfahan, the
maidan did the same for the area to the east (fig. 5). Curiously enough,
the two projects are not directly linked, although it would have been
an obvious move to make the Chahar Bagh the main pedestrian
approach to the maidan. Perhaps the shah was circumscribed in both
projects by land rights and the current function of the area. At all
events, the avenue and the maidan were the key features of the new
Isfahan, providing a framework within which subsequent buildings
could be fitted. Much of their importance depended on their sheer size.
The maidan measures 512 m. X 159 m. and thus covers over eight
hectares, far outstripping comparable European urban plazas. Its
apparent size is much increased by the buildings fronted with a low
two-storeyed arcade which define its limits and make it a piazza rather
than a sprawling field (fig. 6). These date from 1020—1/1611 — 12, and are
primarily functional; shops took up the ground floor openings, with
dwellings above. But their lowness has a further aesthetic impact in
that it exalts the stature of the four buildings that break through the
arcade. Though the maidan was lined with cbandr trees and a water-
channel, no buildings intruded on the cleared space and it was precisely
this emptiness that allowed the maidan to play so varied a role in the
life of the city. In turn market place, training and parade ground,
execution dock, polo pitch, open-air stage, running track and arena for
animal combats, it was a magnificently illuminated funfair by night and
the inevitable setting for all kinds of royal entertainments. At the same
time as he fixed the limits of the maidan Shah 'Abbas completed his

1
M. Ferrante, in Zander, Travaux, pp. 443-jo. Pope in SPA, pp. 1235-7.

779
SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. j . Isfahan. Maidan area, plan.

780
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 6. Isfahan. Maidan area, isometric view.

plans for the facade by adding a monumental portal in the centre of

each short side. These portals gave access to the Masjid-i Shah and the
Qaisariyya bazaar respectively. With a concentrated corps de batiment on
each of its four sides, the maidan could be interpreted as a gigantic
version of the courtyard with four aivans which, found in mosques,
madrasas, houses and caravansarais, maintained so tenacious a hold on
781
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

the imagination of Iranian architects. Only the 3: 1 ratio of long to

short sides vitiates the comparison, and even this may have an explana-
tion. It will be seen, looking northwards, that the portal of the
Lutf-Allah mosque, with the 'All Qapu directly opposite, begins at
one-third of the way along the facade, rather than just under halfway as
the symmetry observed on the short sides would dictate. The presence
of earlier structures may have prevented the shah from undertaking an
entire transformation of the maidan and thus securing axial symmetry,
and it perhaps encouraged the adoption of a more subtle system of
proportion. Indeed the length finally chosen for the maidan may have
been determined by the desire to have the mosque and palace placed
one-third of the way down the long sides of the maidan, markedly and
aristocratically removed from the world of commerce entered through
the Qaisariyya portal.1 That portal bears in its tiled spandrels the
emblem of Sagittarius, under whose astrological influence Isfahan was
founded. The same entrance complex contains faded frescoes depicting
the wars of Shah 'Abbas with the Uzbeks. Its high galleries housed the
naqqara-khana, where a consort of royal musicians played a daily
cacophony whenever the shah was in residence. The vaulted bazaar
which opens up within the portal is the finest example of the genre
from the Safavid period and was erected from 1029/1619—20 onwards
though no doubt planned two decades earlier; its climax is a great
domed chahar-su, a feature which recurs in numerous later bazaars
(e.g. Kashan and Qum).
On the west side of the maidan stands the 'All Qapu ("Sublime
Porte") which formerly gave on to the royal gardens (fig. 7). In form it
is a rectangle some 33 m. high, too low to be a cube, preceded by a
broad portico crowned by a columned verandah or tdlar. Critics have
found the junction of porch and palace proper maladroit and even
absurd. Yet this is to ignore a prime component of the design; for the
building faced the maidan. It was necessarily facade architecture. It
backed on walled private gardens and was not intended to be viewed
from behind. Moreover, its function largely determined its form. Like
any modern office block it held scores of small rooms. The need to
have them well lit and ventilated accounts for the lavish fenestration of
the side facades, though the windows which overlooked the royal
1
Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 103-6. Hunarfar, Ganjma, pp. 395-401; idem, "Maidan-i Naqsh-i
Jahan-i Isfahan", Hunar va Mardum cv (July 1971), 2-28. Galdieri and Orazi, Progetto di sistema-
Zione del Maydan-i Sah (Rome, 1969); and Galdieri, "Two Building Phases".

782
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

10 m
I i ' i ' I ' ' ' i I

Fig. 7. Isfahan. 'All Qapu, section.

harem were blocked from the outset. Each of the four upper floors is
pierced by at least one deep bay. Faience spandrels and geometric
window grilles variegate the busy articulation of multiple arched
windows and niches. But while the main building with its six storeys
looks weighty and monumental when seen from the back, the principal
facade is made airy and insubstantial by the columned talar, which
takes up two entire storeys. There is even something lighthearted in
combining forms as alien as the plshtaq and the talar in a single build-
ing, and in transporting the talar - traditionally a low, earth-bound
architectural form - to a point forty feet above ground. Despite these
incongruities the 'All Qapu fulfils its role of royal grandstand to perfec-
tion. The shah could see and be seen and thus partake publicly of the
life of his capital. The ancient traditions of the royal tribune and
window of appearances are thus given a new dress. Royal power and
royal accessibility are alike stressed.
Internally the ground plan varies markedly from floor to floor.
Certain areas are easily identified: the area for judicial and administra-
tive functions below the talar; the reception hall, complete with water
tank and fountain, at talar level; and the music room in the top storey
with its fragile stucco surround for precious porcelain. Other rooms,
however, are of uncertain function. Most of them are very small,

783
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

though an illusion of space is granted by vaulting. Frescoes in several

styles spread over the walls: some depict the languid youths and
maidens popularised by Riza-yi 'AbbasI, while others develop a
wonderfully unfettered idiom whose various elements - birds, clouds,
trees, flowers — are originally of Chinese origin though long acclima-
tised in Persian miniature painting. Other designs reminiscent of carpet
motifs are cut into the thin plaster skin of the walls in a sgraffiato
technique found at Na'In. In decoration even more than in architecture
the 'All Qapii must stand as an exemplar of the palatial building of its
time. Such sanctity attached to the 'All Qapii in Safavid times that its
threshold and doorway, which even the shah himself approached on
foot, was a sanctuary {bast) for fugitives. This sanctity was also
expressed symbolically in the n o Portuguese cannon from Hurmuz
ranged . 10 paces from either side of the portal: using abjad reckoning
this numbei yielded the name 'All.1
But it is above all the two mosques on the maidan that can justly
claim to rank as the finest work of the time. Typically Safavid though
their decoration is, in plan and elevation they are surprisingly original.
Begun in ion/1602-3 and finished in 1028/1618-19, the Masjid-i
Shaikh Lutf-Allah, or Masjid-i Sadr/Masjid-i Fath-Allah as it was
earlier called, is the earlier of the two and also the more unorthodox.
The domed one-room sanctuary shorn of a courtyard was by now a
highly unusual form as a mosque, but it fits quite naturally into the
long-established Timurid and Safavid tradition of large domed
mausolea. Only the central sarcophagus of such buildings is missing.
This affiliation with mausolea is not the only curiosity. Much has been
made of the bent entrance, and the oblique orientation of the dome
chamber in relation to the maidan. One may also note the skewed
relationship between aivan and dome. It is widely assumed that the two
former irregularities were dictated by the need to orientate the mosque
to the qibla. This is not entirely true. The aivan, for example, could
lead without the least deviation t o the west wall of the chamber,
thereby rendering a bent entrance superfluous. Such lateral entrances
to a sanctuary chamber would have been nothing new in Persian archi-
tecture, though admittedly it is standard practice to site the main
entrance opposite the mihrab. Since a dome chamber is virtually

1
Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 416-26. Zander, Travaux, pp. 133—289; "La restauration de quelques
monuments"; and "Observations". Galdieri, Esfaban: Alt Qapu.

784
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

devoid of a directional emphasis internally, and entirely so externally,

this oblique orientation is a problem more apparent than real. Once
inside the dome chamber one would no longer be conscious of the
maidan and therefore of any orientation problem, while the exterior
cannot be said to be orientated or misorientated vis-a-vis the square. It
is only when one analyses the relationship between the aivan and the
dome that a discord is apparent, and it is highly significant that this
discord is unnecessary. Had the dome chamber been shifted twenty
metres to the north, aivan and dome would have been on a single axis
and no significant alteration of the plan would have followed. Instead
of this the architect did all he could to draw attention to the conflicting
axes of the ensemble. Internally, the long passageway skirting the
chamber, and its right-angled turn, underline the point. Externally it is
the lack of correspondence between the aivan and the dome that re-
minds the viewer of the convergent axes at work. In the Masjid-i Shah
the presence of a courtyard with the dome chamber necessarily on its
qibla side automatically emphasised the shift of direction from the
portal. Thus the architect there was absolved from straining to publi-
cise the fact that maidan and mosque faced in different directions.
Clearly the architects of both buildings were at pains to reveal, not to
conceal, that the dues of Caesar conflicted with those of God. The
layout itself may in fact be intended as a serious call to devotion.
Shah 'Abbas built the Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah in honour of the
shaikh, who was his father-in-law, as a place for private prayer, though
it is extremely large and ostentatious for such a purpose (pi. 43a). A
low portal with a central arch leads to the arched entrance. The tile-
work here is modern. Above it broods a low single-shell dome. Its
external decoration incorporates a striking feature found elsewhere in
the mosque : the use of plain brick as a ground for tilework. The effect
is to create the optical illusion of buff-coloured tiles. In a design of
arabesques superimposed on each other as in Safavid carpets the
ubiquitous blue of other Safavid domes is subordinate to buff, black
and white. Once inside the building, the aesthetic purpose of the long,
low, gloomy passage leading to the dome chamber becomes evident,
for it is with a sense of heightened anticipation that one enters the
sanctuary. Lowness gives way to soaring height and gloom is dispelled
by the steady illumination of nearly a score of windows.
In all Persian architecture no more perfectly balanced interior comes
to mind (pi. 43^). Much of this harmony is due to the dovetailing of

785
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

architectural and decorative accents. This concern is already apparent

in the horizontal carpet designs of the tiled dado. Above this eight
huge arches carry the circular drum on which the dome rests. Each
arch is outlined in a turquoise cable moulding of electric brightness,
and further outlined by a broad double-decker inscription band
executed in dazzling white on an indigo ground. Two more such
bands mark the upper and lower limits of the collar, which is filled by
thirty-two arched panels. These are alternately blind and fitted with
arabesque grilles to filter the sunlight. The entire surface of the dome is
covered with a network of curvilinear lozenges executed in plain brick
and diminishing in size as they approach the apex of the dome, a
deliberate distortion of perspective which makes it seem higher still.
Each lozenge contains a tiled floral design. This novel pattern may be
seen as a deliberate reduction into two dimensions of the sculptural
complexity of a muqarnas vault. Yet the light and dark accents of its
tilework are so situated that they create a series of concentric circles
which act as a counterpoint to the main theme, the net of lozenges - a
subtlety impossible in a muqarnas vault. A predominantly white sun-
burst design with a filigree of blue arabesques reigns supreme at the
apex of the dome, like the sun in the firmament. A sovereign harmony
controls the individual patterns of this interior, many of which are
designed to be read in different ways depending on the viewer's dis-
tance from them. Details sharpen into precise focus or blur into some
larger pattern. A similar harmony rules the elevation. Gone is the
hectic piling-up of tiny vaults which characterised Timurid zones of
transition and many Timurid domes. A principle of successive sub-
division gives place to one of assimilation and simplification, so that
the elevation resolves itself into large serene surfaces — arches, drum,
dome — whose function the mind can readily grasp. The time scale of
this decoration is suggested by two inscriptions: one, at the base of the
dome, is dated 1025/1616 and the other, in the mihrab, is the signature
of the builder (bannd') Muhammad Riza b. Husain, dated 1028/1619.
The portal originally bore two inscriptions, one of 1011/1602—3 and
the other of 1012/1603-4; the latter is signed by 'All Riza al-'Abbasi.1
The quality of serenity, the confident marshalling of large spaces,
manifested in the Lutf-Allah mosque, dominates the Masjid-i Shah

1
Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 96-9. Pope, in SPA, pp. 1189-91, 1Z09-10 and pis. 481A - 48;.
Hunarfar, Ganjma, pp. 401—15. R. Byron, The Road to Oxiana (London, 1950), pp. 176-8.

786
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

too. Its construction, the work of Ustad 'All Akbar al-Isfahanl, under
the direction of the master of works, Muhibb 'All Kika Lala, spans
about twenty years. Work began with the portal, which was started in
1021/1612—13 and completed in 102 5/1616, according to an inscription
signed by 'AH Riza al-'AbbasI. Only in 1026/1617-18 did building on
the mosque proper begin, and the date of 1040/1630 on the west aivan
probably marks the end of major construction work on the mosque,
though the marble dadoes (mentioned in an inscription written by
Muhammad Riza al-Imami) were not installed before c. 1048/1638. This
is a remarkably long period for an age in which the monarch was
accustomed to seeing buildings completed within a year or two of
being started. Popular tradition explains the delay by telling of the
architect who, realising that the shah's impatience to be finished was
imperilling the safety of the mosque, since the foundations needed time
to settle, disappeared for five years after taking measurements and
reappeared to demonstrate that the foundations had indeed sunk. It is
of course entirely naive to suppose that building would have ceased in
the interim, and, besides, even twenty years is remarkably long for a
project so central to the royal plans for Isfahan. Moreover, the mosque
was indeed shoddily built in places, especially in its foundations, and
has required extensive repair over the years (though it should be
mentioned that subsidence has never been noted as a problem in the
rocky and sandy terrain of the Isfahan area, and that foundations that
have not been loaded have by that token not been tested). The reason
for this1 long building campaign seems to lie rather in the unprece-
dented size of the mosque and in the unusually imposing form of its
subordinate parts, though not all of these date from the reign of Shah
'Abbas. Essentially it is a four-aivan mosque and thus accords with the
classical tradition of Persian Islamic architecture. But at every turn
variations in the familiar schema meet the eye. East and west aivans
lead into domed chambers, a layout customarily reserved for the qibla
side alone. The sanctuary complex includes long eight-domed winter
prayer halls on either side of the main dome. Minarets crown not only
the portal but also the qibla aivan. A further arcaded courtyard used
for latrines opens off to the south-east of the vestibule via a domed
quincunx. Perhaps the most unexpected addition, however, is the pair
of custom-built madrasas flanking the sanctuary complex. Identical in
form, each comprises a long narrow courtyard enlivened by pools and
trees and bordered by arcades which are deeper on the sides adjoining

787
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

the sanctuary complex. Diminutive aivans at the centre of each short

side reinforce the axial emphasis of the courtyard itself. They exhibit
the same urge for symmetry that marks the rest of the mosque, giving
it an exterior almost as streamlined as the interior layout. All these
extra refinements were prodigal of space, which accounts for the huge
plan area of the mosque and its dependencies — the whole measures
some 140 m. x 130 m. at its greatest extent, while shorn of its entrance
complex it still attains some 100 m. X 130 m. This royal mosque, with
its multiple functions, in many ways harks back to the huge mosques of
early Islam which served as an emblem of the Islamic community and
its life.
Primarily, of course, this impression of size depends on the actual
dimensions. No other Persian mosque has a double dome c. 52 m. high
(some 14 m. above the inner dome), and the broad court, nearly 70 m.
across, was a device enthusiastically copied by Qajar architects, especi-
ally those of Fath 'All Shah. The sanctuary aivan is made to seem larger
still because its flanking arcades are of one storey instead of two like
the arcades on the other sides of the court. Similarly, the dimensions of
the portal aivan (27.5 m. high) are magnified by the wings which
project from each side. This device ensures that whoever enters the
mosque does so not precipitately but with a proper sense of anticipa-
tion. The mosque projects its sanctity well beyond the portal, welcom-
ing the worshipper inside, and thus there is ample time for the aivan to
assert its presence gradually. The same concern with selected view-
points ensures that subsidiary areas of the elevation are neglected, such
as the rear of the entrance portal and the lateral facades of the west
aivan. Many such surfaces are left in plain brick and their haphazard
elevation is clear proof that in constructing vistas some Iranian archi-
tects, at least, did not have multiple viewpoints in mind. Nevertheless,
it is hard to think of another building in the Islamic world with a
polychrome splendour so rich and uniform as this, the reflections of
the facades gleaming with redoubled effect in the extensive ablutions
pool.
Apart from the entrance portal, constructed when time and money
were plentiful, the ceramic decoration which predominates (marble is
used for dadoes and stone for pillars in the winter prayer halls) is of
overglaze painted tiles (haft-rangt), an understandable and practical
economy given the huge surfaces to be covered. Dazzling though it is
in strong sunlight, this tilework shows to poorer effect in the sanctuary
788
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

chamber and worst of all when seen at close quarters in the vaulting of
the winter prayer halls. Subsequent architects took to heart the evident
lesson that large painted tiles are an unsuitable medium for decorating
these domical and pseudo-ribbed vaults.1
These two great mosques mark the apogee of Safavid architecture.
Although neither introduces any striking new feature into the
repertory of forms and techniques, both reshuffle familiar elements
into unexpected patterns. They show a concern for outward splendour
that was still unusual in Persian mosque architecture, and which no
doubt springs from their presence on the maidan. It says much for the
architecture of this period that two such ambitious mosques so funda-
mentally different from each other could have been raised side by side
and almost simultaneously. Their location in full view of all at the heart
of one of the most prestigious capitals of the contemporary world
made it inevitable that they should exert a dominant influence on
subsequent Safavid architecture. Even when this influence cannot be
traced in extenso, the basic emphasis on a lofty dome and on the
sheathing of surfaces in haft-rangl tiles remained. The best of later
Safavid buildings are, nevertheless, far more orthodox than these
mosques, while in the many lesser mosques and madrasas erected in
17th-century Isfahan no very marked individual style can be detected.
It could well be said that Safavid architecture had shot its bolt with the
mosques on the maidan, for almost without exception the best later
work is in the secular field.
The devotion of Shah 'Abbas to Isfahan has tended to obscure his
major contributions to the major shrines of the country, notably
Mashhad, Turbat-i Jam, Ardabil, Mahan and Qum. His work at
Mashhad was on a more lavish scale than elsewhere, and extended to
buildings other than the shrine, notably the mausoleum of Khwaja
Rabl' (1030/1620). It is recorded that he made the pilgrimage from
Isfahan to Mashhad on foot, and that after he had delivered the city
(permanently) from the Uzbek threat in 1006/1597 he entered the
shrine unshod to give thanks. Subsequently he encouraged his people
to visit this shrine rather than Mecca, possibly for commercial reasons.
A complex tangle of personal, devotional, political and economic
motives may therefore have actuated his work on the shrine. Unlike

1
Golombek, "Anatomy",passim. Godard, "Isfahan", p p . 107—16. Pope, in SPA, pp. I I 8 J — 9
and pis. 463-470A. Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 427-64.

789
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

0 10 20 30 40 50 IDO m

A. Bala khiyaban (Upper esplanade) H. Dar al-huffa? (Chamber of the T. Madrasa-yi Par7-za"d
B. Sahn-i kuhna (the Old Court) Guardians) U. Madrasa-yi du-dar (Madrasa of
B'. The gold aivan (Aivan-i tali) of J. DJr al-siyada (Chamber of the two doors)
"AH ShTr Nava'T (now called the nobility) V. Caravansarai VazTr-i Ni?am
Aivan-i tala-yi NadirT) K. Bala-sar (above the head (a)) W. Caravansarai NadirT
ffi

Entrance from Upper esplanade of L. Bala-sar (above the head (b)) X. Masjid-i Gauhar Sh3d
Shah 'Abbas I M. Mosque of the ladies a. Mihrab
B>. Aivan of Shah 'Abbas 11 N. TauhTd-khana (Chamber of b. sanctuary aivan (aivan-i
B 4 . Minaret of ShSh Tahmasp monotheism) maqsura)
B'. Entrance from Lower Esplanade 0. Dome chamber of AllahverdT Khan c. oratory (shabistan)
C. Pain khiyaban (Lower esplanade) P. D3r al-ziyaTa (Chamber of d. minaret
D. Sahn-i nau (the New Court) hospitality) e. aivan of Hajji Hasan
1
D . t h e gold aivan of Path 'All Shah Q. Madrasa of 'AIT NaqT MTrza / the water aivan (aivan-iab)
E. DSr al-sa'ada (Chamber of felicity) R. Madrasa-yi pain-i pa (Madrasa g. aivan of the nobility (aivan
F. Dome chamber of Hatim Khan below the feet) al-siyada)
G. ZarTh-i HazYat (the tomb chamber) S. Madrasa-yi bslff-sar

Fig. 8. Mashhad. Shrine complex, plan.

Isfahan, Mashhad did not allow him a free hand and thus his contribu-
tions to the shrine must be assessed piecemeal rather than as a unity
(fig. 8). His order of 1010/1601 that the shrine be restored would lead
one to expect traces of his handiwork sporadically throughout the
complex, and indeed his name is associated with or found on the north
aivan of the Masjid-i Gauhar Shad, the Balasar madrasa (repaired by his
general Allah Qull Khan), the east and west aivans in the Sahn-i
Kuhna, the chambers of AUahvardl Khan (1021/1612) and Hatim Khan
790
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

(1010/1601), the Khiyaban and the redecorated dome chamber of the

Imam himself. Of these the crucial elements are the Khiyaban and the
chamber of AllahvardI Khan.
The Khiyaban, divided by the Old Court (which nevertheless con-
tinues the same axis) into an "upper" and "lower" section, traverses
the entire length of the shrine at its northern extremity, and totals
about 200 m. in length. A watercourse, a section of the great qanat
provided for the city by Mir 'All Shir, runs through its centre. The
scale of the undertaking (made even more remarkable by the fact that
the area was densely built-up), its bold simplicity, and the use of water
as an integral part of the design, all have affinities with the much larger
project of the Chahar Bagh. Flanked on either side by shops, the two
halves of the Khiyaban mediate between the shrine and the outer
world. They also impose order on and knit together the otherwise ill-
assorted northern fagade of the shrine and thus provide afittingand
dignified approach to the Sahn-i Kuhna, the finest courtyard of the
shrine proper. The east and west aivans of this courtyard, along the
axis of the watercourse, are also due to Shah 'Abbas, and here again the
themes later taken up at Isfahan make their first appearance. In sheer
scale both aivans challenge the portal aivans of the Masjid-i Shah at
Isfahan and, unlike that aivan, fulfil a double function : not only do they
serve as the formal entrances to the shrine, but they also act as key
components of the Sahn-i Kuhna, marking the centre of each short
side. The sequence of large and small bays, of solids and voids, adopted
in this inner facade is unique. The approach to the dome chamber of
AllahvardI Khan is rather unpromising, for Qajar additions have cast
into permanent gloom an entrance aivan designed for sunlight. Yet the
modest size of this portal, and the exterior of the dome itself, with its
shallow profile and plain surface formerly crowned by a diminutive
domed belvedere, show clearly enough that the building was intended
primarily as an interior. Like the mausoleum of Oljeitii at Sultaniyya,
from which it may derive, it is an octagon throughout until the
springing of the dome, an unusual feature for large domed buildings in
Iran. Both structures also share a marked emphasis on lighting and a
preference for articulating the interior walls by deep arched recesses.
The Safavid chamber, however, owes its intensity not to architecture
so much as to decoration, for almost every available surface is covered
in tilework. The head of each recess is crowned with cascading stalac-
tites and they also encrust part of the dome. These broken surfaces and

79!
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

deep bays reflect light at every turn, while the tilework itself is
spangled with tiny bright flowers, each one a pinpoint of light against
the dark ground. Within each bay subdivisions are multiplied into a
complex array of rectangular and arched panels, each different from its
neighbour in outline and in the design or colour of its field. Net vaults
of Timurid type constitute the transition zone, and the choice of this
device accords with the fragmented nature of the individual parts
within the grand design. Amidst a singularly rich repertoire of living
creatures "birds of paradise" dominate.1 Rectangular inscription bands
frame the lower arches and provide much-needed continuity. It would
be hard to discover in Safavid architecture a more concentrated display
of tilework so enhanced by an original elevation.
In 1021/1612 Shah 'Abbas visited the Ardabll shrine, to which he
donated the royal porcelain collection, and various alterations to the
shrine itself were made in his name from this time on, though a door
dated 1011/1602-3 shows that work was already being carried out
earlier in his reign. His principal contribution was the redecoration in
1037/1627-8 of the Dar al-Huffaz, a 14th-century foundation.2 The
treatment is unusual for a shrine, for it uses exclusively the techniques
of gilding, plaster ornament and painting commonly associated with
Safavid palaces. The Chinlkhana, long regarded as entirely constructed
under Shah 'Abbas, has a structure as early as the 14th century though
the interior decoration, including the dado of haft-rangl tiles and of
course the entire architectural surround for the porcelain (again
derived from palatial models such as the 'All Qapu?), is of the early 17th
century. The inner dome is unusual in that it continues the net vaulting
of the "pendentives" as a decorative motif, so that the entire surface is
criss-crossed with lozenge and stellar forms. Fresco paintings and
carved and relief stucco in an idiom reminiscent of rocaille fill most of
these panels. Again this ornament is painted and gilded.
At Mahan too the work of Shah 'Abbas is intermingled with that of
earlier and later generations. To the west of the 15th-century dome
chamber of Shah Ni'mat-Allah, which was the nucleus of the shrine
and which he restored in 1010/1601, he added a covered gallery (dar
al-huffaz) and an adjoining courtyard. The long corridors thus created
carry transverse vaults of the type encountered in the oratories of the

1
Pope, "Representations".
2
Morton, "The Ardabil Shrine", pp. 52—4. Weaver, Preliminary Study, pp. 18-22, 36-

792
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Yazd Jami', which provide a structural skeleton embellished by a

matchless assembly of cupolas and oculi of stellar design (pi. 42). When
viewed as a continuous series, their different patterns mingle like those
of a kaleidoscope in the fluid transition from one bay to the next. The
dazzling white plaster finish perfectly complements these precise
abstract designs; colour would be superfluous. The lower part of the
gallery is, despite subsequent repairs, readily datable by inscriptions to
998/1589-90, and the vaults are probably contemporary with this, even
though they are closely paralleled in the Qajar sections of the shrine,
such as the Vakil mosque, which were built at a time when spectacular
vaulting, as demonstrated in the bazaars of Qum, Kashan and Kirman
itself, was especially fashionable. Simpler forms of these probably
Safavid vaults had long been established in southern Iran, while the use
of pure white vaulting in cultic buildings had an equally long history.
Moreover, the vaulted bays in the lower parts of the western gallery
exploit the contrast between plain white stalactite vaults, lightly
sprinkled with tiled insets, and the intense polychromy of tiled dadoes.
Such tiled insets are a distinctively Timurid feature which might well
have continued into Safavid times but would be surprising at a much
later date. The evidence therefore favours a Safavid date, though more
detailed discussion of the Mahan vaults must await a full monographic
account of the shrine. Other decorative features include floral frescoes
in the lower vaults and — in glaze - window grilles and inscribed
cartouches.1
Apart from the great shrine complexes the outstanding Safavid en-
semble in the provinces is the mosque, madrasa and caravansarai of
Ganj 'All Khan, the governor of Kirman under Shah 'Abbas (fig. cj).z
The inscriptions date the work to 1007/1598, though it was probably
begun as early as 996/15 87, and are the work of the celebrated calligra-
pher 'All Riza-yi 'Abbasl. The ensemble comprises a rectangular plaza
(100 m. x 50 m.) with a two-storey building, probably a caravansarai
(dimensions 55 m. x 53 m.), on its east side, a small mosque adjoining
it and two bazaars facing each other across the square: a Maidan-i Shah
in miniature? The bazaars comprise a series of adjacent shops each
consisting of a deep domed bay, and are linked by a similar line of
shops on the west side of the maidan. An impressive 12-sided chahar-su
with deep radiating niches takes up the south-west corner of the com-

2
'Bastani-ParizI, Kabnuma, pp. 74—95. Idem, " L ' E n s e m b l e " .

793
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 9. Kirman. Complex of Ganj 'All Khan, plan.

plex. An octagonal cistern or reservoir (J>au%) with radiating dome

chambers on each of its eight sides was also added to an earlier hamrnam
already comprising numerous octagonal structures and adjoining the
southern bazaar. Opposite the bath on the other side of the maidan is a
square darabkhana to which a large vestibule gives access. Numerous
portals led to these various structures. The whole was made vaqf in
1008/1599 and again in Rajab 1024/July 1615. Apart from the bath, a
very complex affair of half a dozen major elements whose chronology
has yet to be established, the most remarkable element in this complex
is the caravansarai, which conforms so little to the norm for this genre
that it has tentatively been identified as a madrasa. It would, however,
be an equally exceptional specimen of that genre too. No two sides are
symmetrical or even of equal depth, and the presence of numerous
rooms of uneven size and layout is hard to parallel in any public

794
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

building of the period. Especially puzzling is the densely planned

multi-chambered area between the courtyard and the maidan. More
functions could be suggested for these various chambers, however, in
the context of an urban caravansarai (with its requirement for ware-
houses and secure chambers for valuable goods) than of a madrasa. In
the portal spandrels of this building is a series of chinoiserie themes in
niched oval medallions (themselves a Chinese feature) or amidst
arabesque scrolls. Dragons and phoenixes fight while cranes and
Chinese clouds act as spacefillers. Other motifs include jackals, moun-
tain sheep and felines bringing down gazelles, a repertory borrowed
directly from contemporary carpets. Strangest of all, however, is the
winged angel carrying a baby with a lion looking upwards from below,
presumably a reference to 'All (who was commonly termed haidar,
"lion").
Among Safavid madrasas the Madrasa-yi Khan in Shiraz, built
between 1024/1615 and 1036/1627 by a certain Husain Samma'I, is on
several counts perhaps the most interesting. It is the only Safavid
madrasa which has been subjected" to a detailed historical and func-
tional scrutiny (through its published vaqf-nama) as well as to a
thorough architectural analysis. It demonstrates that the best work in
the provinces yielded nothing to that of the capital. Indeed, some of its
details, like the fine stereotomy of its dadoes, its dragon carving in
stone, above all the tilework of its vestibule, show a vital and original
local style. Lastly, it provides ample evidence that the emphasis on
sheer size (the madrasa measures c. 82 m. X c. 69 m.) which so often
recurs in the buildings of Isfahan was by no means confined to that city
or to royal foundations, though it is no doubt significant that the
patrons here were AllahvardI Khan and his son Imam Quli, succes-
sively governors of Fars and both high in the royal favour. The layout
displays numerous as yet unexplained variations on earlier madrasas.
While the standard four-aivan plan is employed, the general lack of
symmetry within this framework is marked. Only the north and south
sides agree, with their two storeys of student cells. The communal
areas of the plan, including the vaulted apsidal aivan which is the
cynosure of the whole building, are to the east rather than on the qibla
side or within the entrance complex as at Khargird. Moreover, there is
no separate mosque; the south-western aivan, located at right angles to
the entrance, fulfils this function. Within the entrance complex are
groups of rooms opening off central corridors, many of them difficult

795
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

of access. In all its essential features the upper storey echoes the
arrangement of the lower.1
The works of Shah 'Abbas constitute a kind of terminus. No later
shah erected a tithe of the buildings which may justifiably be laid to his
credit. Instead, the pattern of later building which emerges consistently
is of repairs and embellishments to existing monuments. Chardin was
right: when Shah 'Abbas the Great ceased to breathe, Persia ceased to
prosper.2 The dramatic fall in the quantity, scale and - to some extent
— quality of architecture after his reign justifies a somewhat summary
treatment of later work.
This approach is most thoroughly vindicated in dealing with the
output of the immediate successor of'Abbas, Shah Safl. In his thirteen-
year reign his principal achievement in the field of architecture seems
to have been the modest mosques built at Shahristan and Turbat-i
Haidariyya; he seems also to have contributed to the gardens of Safla-
bad and Fin. In Isfahan he repaired the Imamzada Isma'Il and the tomb
of Baba Qasim, and completed the mausoleum of Baba Rukn al-DIn.
He also put some of the finishing touches to the Masjid-i Shah. New
buildings in the city included the Masjid-i Aqa Nur (1039/1629) and
the Madrasa-yi Mulla 'Abd-Allah.
Shah 'Abbas II was a much more zealous builder and at least two
undisputed masterpieces in Isfahan - the Chihil Sutun palace and the
Khaju bridge - can be attributed to him. Among other buildings of
high quality for which he was responsible one may cite the Talar
Ashraf and Masjid-i Hakim in Isfahan and, in part, the Qadamgah near
NIshapur. Restoration work or new building was carried out on the
shrines of Ardabll, Qum and Mashhad and on the Friday mosques of
Kirman, Gurgan and Qazvln as well as on numerous smaller mosques
and shrines. He also added the marble dadoes and great door of the
Masjid-i Shah. Finally, in Isfahan itself some fine smaller cultic build-
ings were put up during his reign: the Armenian church of the Holy
Sisters (actually in Julfa), the Masjid-i MisrI, the Masjid-i Saru TaqI,
the Madrasa-yi Jadda Buzurg and the Madrasa-yi Jadda Kuchak.
The Chihil Sutun is deservedly the most famous of Persian palaces,
perhaps because it is one of the few to have kept its original garden
ambknte (figs ioa,b). Thus some flavour of the festive, hedonistic life-
style celebrated there still lingers. The prospect over the ornamental

1 2
Khoubnazar and Kleiss, pis. 57—6i. Chardin HI, 291.

796
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

lake, closed by an axial pavilion, is integral to the architecture.

Formerly the royal gardens were strewn with palaces of this kind, each
drawing much of its individual quality from its surroundings. Such a
tradition is at least as old as Hadrian's Tivoli palace and is found
throughout the Muslim world, in Samarqand, Edirne and Granada.
Kaempfer's map of the royal garden precinct at Isfahan gives a vivid
impression of such landscape architecture (figs i la, £).' But if the gen-
eral tradition from which these garden palaces sprang is clear, the
specific antecedents of the Chihil Sutun type are difficult to determine.
Parallels are commonly drawn with the hypostyle palaces of Persepolis
and with the talar of the typical Caspian house, but neither is very
convincing. Paradoxically, despite its trabeate form it owes more to
Sasanian palaces than to any other traceable source, for the deep
recessed central bay leading to the throne room operates just like a
Sasanian aivan.
Like many other Safavid palaces, the Chihil Sutun has a deliberately
unstable and impermanent air. Its eighteen pillars, seemingly as thin as
matchsticks, seem preposterously inadequate to bear the burden of the
apparently massive flat roof. There is an element of hyperbole here
which finds expression in different terms in other Islamic palaces such
as Saljuq Qubazabad or Il-Khanid Soghurluq/Saturiq, and is evoked
by the very title of Chihil Sutun - "many" rather than "forty"
columns; the theory that the name refers to the reflections of these
columns in the water is surely a picturesque fantasy.
Like the 'All Qapu, however, this palace offers an aspect of four-
square solidity from its sides and rear which is very different from its
frail and insubstantial facade. Long bays some 5 m. deep open along
the lateral fagades and each is punctuated by four columns. Niches with
frescoes of courtly scenes break the recessed wall behind. In contrast to
the main facade the rear wall presents a solid mass of masonry in which
the principal break is the rear entrance. This, like all the other en-
trances, is stepped, for the palace is placed on a platform. The internal
layout is readily grasped and has none of the bewildering complexities
of the 'All Qapu. Three major spatial units are set side by side: the talar
leads into a throne room which in turn gives onto the main hall.
Subsidiary chambers on the pattern of the 'All Qapu flank the throne
room on its short and the main hall on its long side. Thus spacious and

1
Galdieri, "Relecture". Luschey, "Der konigliche Marstall".

797
 0 1 2 314 5m

THIRD PERIOD • SECOND PERIOD 4

Fig. ioa. Isfahan. Chihil Sutun, section.

 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. iob. Isfahan. Chihil Sutun, plan.

intimate units alternate and interact in a design of admirable compact-

ness. They have a rich fresco decoration which recycles the threadbare
repertoire of courtly scenes in the painting of Riza-yi 'Abbas! - vapid
youths and maidens halfheartedly dallying and drinking in a landscape
of eternal spring. In the large halls these themes are relegated to the

799
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 11 a. Isfahan. Drawing ("Planographia") of the royal precinct.

lower part of the walls, while more ambitious scenes of royal banquet-
ing and battle claim pride of place. The talar ceiling and eaves are
prinked out in paint and marquetry work. Most of this decoration is
given an architectural quality by the division of the ceiling into a grid
of recessed panels, a technique earlier used in medieval vaults. Multi-
tiered stalactite capitals, again a familiar medieval form, mediate
between the columns and the roof. If the talar seems somewhat bare
and echoing now, in its heyday bright curtains were hung between the
800
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Chahar Bigh :r::;- -

Madari Shah
complex
(1714)

^ H still existing features

V//A stables and associated buildings

0 50 100m

Fig. u b . E. Galdieri's interpretation of Kaempfer's "Planographia", in a simplified drawing by

H. Gaube.

columns and the floor was strewn with carpets on which courtiers
reclined to watch the dancing girls frolic.
The other great masterpiece of this reign is the Khaju bridge,
erected on the foundations of a Timurid bridge at the royal command,
probably by the shah's general Hasan Beg, in 1060/1650 and named
after a nearby quarter of the city (pi. 44^). Though less than half the
length of the bridge of AllahvardI Khan (132 m. as against c. 300 m.) it
is lent a more imposing air by the massive octagonal pavilion which
straddles it in mid-stream, and juts out on both sides like a prow.
Moreover, unlike its predecessor the Khaju bridge rests on a high
stone platform which to the east shelves down to the river in a series of
shallow steps broken by sluices, while to the west spear-shaped
contreforts break the river's flow. This podium on which the superposed
arcades of the bridge rest transforms the structure into a massive three-
801
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

PAVILION AND
/ BALCONY

UPPER LEVEL

— FLOW OF
THE RIVER
7
STONE PROJECTIONS PROVIDED IN
CROSS SECTION STONE SIDE WALLS FOR WOOD
PLATE
COVERS SLUICE GATES TO RAISE
0 1 234 5m WATER LEVEL WATER LEVEL
• TERRACE

PAVILION

BALCONY

ROOM

CARAVAN WAY

mruuui
CASCADE PLATFORM
UPPER LEVEL

LOWER LEVEL
0 5 10 15 2 0 m

Fig. 12. Isfahan, Khaju bridge, section and plans.

tiered elevation conceived in highly plastic terms (fig. 12). Diminutive

half-octagonal kiosks, reduced versions of the great centrepiece, termi-
nate the bridge at each end. In purely visual terms it has a variety and
compactness which is far removed from the monotonous length of the
AllahvardI Khan bridge. Functionally, too, it is a far more complex
structure. The upper section is subdivided into a central track for
horses and wheeled traffic with a vaulted pedestrian footway on either
802
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

side. The lowest section serves as a weir which at its widest reaches 26
m.; when the sluices are closed the level of the river rises by some two
metres. The central pavilion is simply a typical Safavid pleasure palace
incorporated into a utilitarian structure. From this peerless vantage
point the shah could watch aquatic sports, mock naval battles, water
polo and regattas, while the inner rooms gave him the opportunity to
retire in private when he wished. Nondescript modern tilework and
stencilled carpet designs have replaced the gilded paintwork and moral
saws which formerly graced these rooms. In its location the bridge
testifies to the same careful planning as does its design. It is athwart the
old road to Shlraz, it provided conveniently quick access to the Zoro-
astrian quarter and thus effectively kept the Zoroastrians off the Chahar
Bagh, and finally it continues the axis of the east side of the maidan. A
now vanished covered bazaar linked maidan and bridge.1
Among the many mosques erected by high officials of the Safavid
court in the 17th century the Masjid-i Hakim is outstanding alike for its
size and for the splendour and extent of its ornament. It was erected in
1067/1656 with funds sent from India by the court physician of Shah
'Abbas II, Muhammad Da'ud Hakim, who had fled to the Mughal
court after incurring his master's wrath by certain intrigues. Several
later dates occurring in the unusually rich epigraphy — 1069/165 8—9,
1071/1660—1 and 1073/1662—3 — suggest that the 1067/1656-7 date
refers only to the completion of construction work on the mosque.
These inscriptions were written by the finest calligrapher of the day,
Muhammad Riza al-Imaml. The classical formula of courtyard with
axial aivans linked by two-tier arcades and with a domed sanctuary is
realised on a generous scale. While lengthy Qur'anic inscriptions from
suras ii, xvii, xlv and lxii are used within the aivans and dome
chamber, the courtyard facade consists largely of sacred names in
square Kufic forming ingenious patterns. The virtual absence of floral
motifs is marked.
This decorative scheme is notable for its avoidance of overall revet-
ment, for it is conceived as an assembly of separate panels framed
against a plain brick ground. The general effect is not of a continuously
tiled surface, as in the Masjid-i Shah, but of a predominantly brick
building enlivened by touches of colour. Architectural values are begin-

1
Pope, in SPA, pp. 1237—40. Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. J82-;. Ferrante, in Zander, Travaux,
pp. 451-62.

803
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

ning to reassert themselves. Structurally the most interesting feature of

the mosque is its qibla side. In the aivan preceding the dome chamber,
for example, a shallow stalactite vault is suddenly resolved into an
ornamental and two-dimensional squinch net etched onto the plain
smooth surface of the vault. The plastic configurations of a full-scale
stalactite vault are decisively rejected in favour of a smooth and indeed
comparatively plain surface. Similar concerns govern the layout of the
dome chamber. This owes much to the Lutf -Allah mosque in its
virtual removal of the transition zone in favour of a ring of eight
arches occupying the lower elevation, but the arches on the diagonals
are much smaller than those on the principal axes and kite-shaped
forms (not pendentives as they are sometimes called) are needed to fill
the huge spandrels thus created. Three mihrabs and a minbar suffic-
iently emphasise the importance of this mosque.1
In the field of religious architecture about half of the work associ-
ated with Shah 'Abbas II is found in Isfahan, and while a few new
foundations are recorded elsewhere (Vazir mosque, Kashan, 1055/
1645; Friday Mosque, Sarm, 1062/165 0 most of the dated work in the
provinces consists of repairs and additions to existing structures - e.g.
the Mashhad shrine (1057/1647) or the Qadamgah near Nlshapur
(founded 1020/1611 and refurbished 1053/1643), adorned octagon of
the same general type as some of the 16th-century mausolea discussed
above; whereas the activity in Isfahan includes many new buildings, of
which three madrasas and at least eight mosques survive. This situa-
tion persisted throughout the reign of his successors, the last two
Safavid monarchs.
Neither secular nor cultic architecture saw any significant advances
in the last half-century of Safavid rule. Instead the trend was towards
the retrospective. The major monuments erected by Shah Sulaiman are
again secular, not religious — perhaps because the commanding loca-
tion and scale of the mosques on the maidan, and the presence of a
hoary jami', discouraged major cultic buildings. Among the palaces the
Hasht Bihisht ("Eight Paradises") of 1080/1669 is paramount (fig.
13a).2 The very name, a common one for gardens in Iran, is evocative,
though perhaps a more worldly paradise is intended, for the palace
houses eight intimate pavilions. Its layout is a triumph of compactness,
1
Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 152-4. Hunarfar, GanJFna, pp. 611-20.
2
Seherr-Thoss, pp. 204—9, &&s- H—1 and pis. 93-5. Hunarfar, Ganjina, pp. 612—6. Ferrante, in
Zander, Travaux, pp. 399-420.

804
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

although paradoxically the first impression is one of untrammelled

space. On the principal axes huge talars open, extending up to roof
level, so that from every part of the building views of the surrounding
gardens impinge (fig. i$b). These talars are set off by sturdy polygonal
corner turrents, each of which holds a complex of rooms and stairways
on two storeys. Thus the private chambers of the palace and the access
to them are managed within the corner blocks which carry the whole
edifice. Intensively exploited areas thereby alternate with markedly
open ones, while an octagonal pool with a fountain symbolically brings
nature right into the building, a conceit repeated at the 'All Qapu and
the Chihil Sutun. The rather unsightly pitched roof gives no hint that it
covers a huge and spectacular muqarnas vault pierced at its apex in
Timurid fashion by a high drum with an inner dome. This oculus is
brilliantly lit by eight windows. Like the Chihil Sutun, the Hasht
Bihisht rests on a stone-faced platform as high as a man and ascended
by axial stairways, each different from the next. It is hard not to see
here, as at the Chihil Sutun, a faint echo of an ancient Iranian tradition
whereby palaces were raised on platforms and thus symbolically
removed beyond the ken of the common man.
The impact of the original decoration is now lost beyond recall, for
over the years the building fell victim to neglect and to the misguided
attentions of Qajar craftsmen whose mirrorwork and frescoes com-
pletely transformed it. But surviving parts of the original scheme (e.g.
in some of the reception rooms on the second floor) go far to justify
Chardin's panegyrics. Following an Iranian tradition for which early
Islamic as well as Safavid parallels may be cited, the various little
rooms are vaulted and ornamented in subtly different ways but bear a
strong family likeness. Quite small rooms are given an illusion of size
by the use of several adjoining vaulted areas. These are broken up into
multiple facets which effortlessly blend into each other, and are, as
Herbert would say, "pargetted with azure and gold". The decorative
repertoire has a chinoiserie flavour already encountered in the 'All
Qapu. Externally the accent was on tilework, some of which survives
in the spandrels of the blind arches. Hunting scenes prevail. These are
treated in a style akin to contemporary book painting, with the anti-
naturalistic colour schemes of that medium. Thus green stags flee
across a yellow ground punctuated by blue trees.
Much simpler in plan is the other important late Safavid palace to
survive in Isfahan, the Talar Ashraf, which may date from c. 1690. It
805
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

SECTION A - A

1 3 5
0 2 4 10 15 m
GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Fig. 152. Isfahan, Hasht Bihisht, section and plans.

806
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Fig. 15b. Isfahan, Hasht Bihisht, interior.

comprises a central pavilion, roofed with a groined vault, and a smaller

room on each side, a disposition already found in the rear part of the
Chihil Sutun. Three aivans knit together the facade. Inside, the stalac-
tite vaulting is of the same type as that of the Hasht Bihisht, but the
minutely worked stucco is something of a novelty.
807
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Several important madrasas were built or repaired in the reign of

Shah Sulaiman. In the Mashhad shrine, for example, which also re-
ceived other embellishments at this time, inscriptions record repairs in
the Dii Dar (1088/1677), Parizad (1091/1680) and Balasar (1091/1680)
madrasas (fig. 8). In Isfahan the Madrasa-yi Mulla 'Abd-Allah, which
was probably built in the early 17th century, was in its time, according
to Chardin, "le plus grand et le plus riche college [sic] d'Ispahan" —
which says little for the standard of the forty-eight others, since it is
somewhat humdrum. It bears a vaqf text of 1088/1677-8 recording the
endowment of shops for the building.
It is customary to confine any discussion of the last quarter-century
of Safavid architecture to a single group of monuments — the bazaar,
caravansarai and madrasa on the Chahar Bagh. Summary though this
approach is, it is broadly speaking justifiable. The reign of Shah Sultan
Husain saw dated work, whether of construction or repair, carried out
on something over thirty buildings, slightly less than in the previous
reign and roughly comparable to the amount of work carried out
under Shah 'Abbas II. But very little of this total represents new work.
A mihrab in the Gurgan Jami' (1108/1696), an aivan in that of Dizful
(1110/1698), multiple repairs - e.g. to the Imamzada Isma'Il at Isfahan
between 1100/1688-9 and 1115/1703, to the Chihil Sutun, and to the
tomb of Khwaja Rabf (1119/1707) - these do not add up to a volume
of work large enough to permit a final judgment. With the odd excep-
tion (e.g. the Friday Mosque of Chashum, 1105/1694, the nearby
Faslhiyya madrasa in Sabzavar, 1124/1712, or the tomb of Sahl b. 'AH at
Arak, 1110/1698) such new buildings as were erected were restricted to
Isfahan. They include the mosque and bath of 'AH Qull Agha, both of
1122/1710, the Madrasa-yi Sadr, the Madrasa-yi Shamsabad, founded by
the merchant Muhammad Mahdl in 1125/1713, the Madrasa-yi
Kasahgaran (1105/1694) and the Madrasa-yi NImavard. The latter, built
by one Zainab Begum in 1117/1705—6, is an ambitious building with a
monumental tiled portal and a courtyard with bevelled corners like the
Khargird madrasa. But the scale of these foundations is too modest, and
their decoration too banal, to offer any insight into the quality of the best
work produced under royal patronage at this time. For such an insight one
can study only the complex of buildings on the Chahar Bagh: the Madar-i
Shah madrasa, caravansarai and bazaar (pi. 44^,fig.14).l
1 Po
Coste, pp. 26-7 and pis. XVIII-XX, XXX-XXXII. Godard, "Isfahan", pp. 155-9. Pe.
in SPA, pp. 1213—15. Hunarfar, Ganjim, pp. 685—723.

808
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

r.^U-iiiiiqu|i||-UIII^

9 10 20 30 40 50 m

(A) Madrassa IB) Caravanserai (C) Stables ID) Canal (E) Bazaar

Fig. 14. Isfahan. Madrasa, caravansarai and bazaar of Shah Sultan Husain, plan.

They are an entirely unexpected return to the grandiose planning of

Shah 'Abbas I, and together these three buildings may claim to repre-
sent the principal achievement of Safavid architecture after the 1630s.
A less likely patron than the feeble and dilatory Shah Sultan Husain can
scarcely be imagined. But if the scale and ambition of the project are
noteworthy, no less significant is its dependence on earlier Safavid
models. Shortly before the dynasty was extinguished the familiar
elements of its architecture are reshuffled on a large scale for the last
time. But the result, though fine, cannot claim to be an unusually
original creation. Its merits lie in the serene and rational disposition of
the three constituent units. The madrasa and caravansarai are orien-
tated along the same due eastward axis, marked by the entrance portal
of the madrasa and continued in the pools of both buildings, pools
which extend even to the stables closing off the complex at the east end.
It will be seen that the elaborate shifts to ensure an accurate qibla in the
maidan are not pursued here and the mihrab wall of the dome chamber
points, inaccurately, due south. Presumably Shah Sultan Husain, for all
his piety, lacked the resolution to break with the long-established axes
of the Chahar Bagh and the maidan, while tradition made it virtually
impossible to place the sanctuary chamber in the south-west diagonal
of the building. In fact, the madrasa bears all the marks of a blueprint
809
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

conceived on a drawing board and executed without special reference

to its setting. Its plan is so similar to that of the adjoining caravansarai
that it is tempting to regard them as the work of one man. Seldom has
the flexibility of the four-aivan plan been more clearly demonstrated.
Nevertheless, within this broad schema both buildings possess
somewhat unusual features. The madrasa lacks a large lecture hall and
instead has polygonal, usually niched, chambers opening on the axes
and diagonals (pi. 45a). It is hard to suggest a specific function for so
many such chambers. Those on the bevelled diagonals are repeated at
first floor level. The intervening areas on both floors are filled with
narrow double cells. A pathway and a pool divide the courtyard into
four miniature gardens, perhaps intended as a graceful echo of the
wider Chahar Bagh outside (pi. 45^). Aesthetically the madrasa's arcades
are a happy compromise between the plainness of the maidan arcades
and the somewhat oppressive overall tilework of those in the Masjid-i
Shah. Their interiors are whitewashed, with vaulting lines picked out
in blue, while their court facades are tiled. The dome chamber, on the
other hand, is in elevation so close a copy of the great dome of the
Masjid-i Shah that they are readily confused. But while the later archi-
tect might strive to emulate the earlier achievement, he could add
nothing to it — an apt commentary on the relationship between the
earlier and the later period. Only the tilework shows a marked decline
from the standards of the 1620s, which themselves were not unduly
high. Floral tile mosaic is almost entirely absent and muqarnas compo-
sitions, where large tiles are impracticable, are replaced by chequerwork.
Coarse, indeed rather primitive, geometrical designs are frequent and
are not improved by an unpleasant custard yellow which invades the
colour scheme. Nevertheless, the madrasa may fairly claim to be the
finest building of its kind in the country apart from the Madrasa-yi
Ghiyasiyya at Khargird (pi. 28).
To the north the bazaar knits together the two larger buildings. It
comprises a single broad corridor some 220 m. in length bordered
symmetrically on both sides by multiple arcades. For the first eighty
metres these open into deep recesses for shops and thereafter into
shallow booths. The division between the two types of recess coincides
with the eastern perimeter of the madrasa. The deeper recesses on the
madrasa side serve to conceal the fact that the madrasa and the caravan-
sarai are not harmoniously aligned to their northern end; and they
ensure that the arterial passage in the bazaar runs as straight as a die.
810
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

The back walls of the southern recesses are contiguous with those of
the madrasa and the caravansarai, thus permitting the back wall in each
case to serve two buildings. Oddly enough no such continuity exists
between the two larger buildings on the east-west axis, so that they are
separated for their length by a narrow passage. Its function may have
been to insulate the madrasa from noise within the caravansarai. The
income from the bazaar and caravansarai was intended for the upkeep
of the madrasa, and the size of the latter goes far to explain the
spacious scale of the other two projects. Particularly noteworthy are
the huge rectangular stables, now vanished, which ran almost the
entire length of the caravansarai on the east side. Equally unusual is the
placing of aivans on the entrance axis alone, while the east and west
sides are marked only by an enlarged bay which does not even embrace
both floors. But, as with the madrasa and bazaar, the scale is impressive
and the planning is meticulous and rational to the last detail. The
confident marshalling of such large forms was a heritage bequeathed to
Zand and Qajar architects and is arguably the great strength of Persian
architecture in post-Safavid times.
The Safavid period has left a legacy of wall painting incomparably
richer than the sum total which survives from previous periods. Most
of it decorates palaces, though an important undated cycle of battle and
hunting scenes adorns the upper part of the Bazaar Gate in Isfahan. Its
relatively public subject matter is entirely appropriate to its location.
The two major bridges in Isfahan also carry painted decorative
schemes, but these are of minor interest only, while the paintings in the
Hasht Bihisht, in contradistinction to its tilework, avoid figural sub-
jects. However, in the Chihil Sutun and 'All Qapu palaces recent clean-
ing and conservation by Italian teams has revealed ambitious figural
schemes in as much of their original splendour as their only partial
preservation permits. They show an almost total dependence on the
repertoire of contemporary book painting, with its emphasis on
intimate courtly scenes and its occasional frankly erotic flavour. The
artists decline to exploit the varied wall surfaces available to them and
prefer to reproduce on a larger scale the rectangular and oblong frames
of book illustration. In consequence the palace becomes in effect a
picture gallery, an impression strengthened by the eye-level height of
these artificial panels and by the deliberately muted floral or other non-
figural motifs which fill the intervening spaces. This interstitial decora-
tion operates as a kind of wallpaper. The tendency to reduce a
8n
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

dauntingly large wall space to a series of manageable units is found in

Safavid tilework too, but there it cannot be regarded as the standard
solution to the problem of dovetailing decoration with architecture.
Three major themes can be isolated in these figural schemes. The
first category comprises one or more persons reclining alfresco, drink-
ing or picnicking. The second group consists of single standing figures
of courtiers or foreigners, the latter sufficiently identified by costume
or attribute (thus an Englishman holds a turnip, presumably an exotic
vegetable at the Safavid court). In these panels, which are usually
vertical and over life-size, an attempt at realistic rather than idealised
representation is made. Finally, a third group depicts busy crowded
scenes of court receptions or battles. Here again an attempt at portrai-
ture — Shah 'Abbas is instantly recognisable — and perhaps even satire
(as in the cameo of a drunken youth, turban awry, reeling away from a
feast supported by pages) breaks through the hackneyed conventions
which govern these themes. Influences from European painting, which
are themselves apparently filtered through Mughal traditions, have
been detected in these large-scale paintings. So far it has not been
possible to assign a date to these various figural wall-paintings, but the
evidence suggests that they were produced in the reign of 'Abbas II
(1052/1642-1077/1666).
It remains to consider one typically Safavid genre of building: the
caravansarai (pi. 46;fig.1 )a,b). The dearth of datable examples makes it
desirable to treat these structures as a group rather than singly. Discus-
sion of their variety, their utilitarian quality, the patrons who financed
them, the planning devices and ideals used in their construction, and
the dating problems which they present should place in better perspec-
tive the Safavid contribution to this field. By creating the abstraction
of a "typical" Safavid caravansarai and describing its features, useful
conclusions may be drawn from the scores of Safavid caravansarais to
survive.1
The typical caravansarai, then, is set in open countryside and has a
rectangular exterior marked by rounded towers at the corners and
sometimes at intervals along the perimeter walls. The three side walls
bear no decoration. At the centre of the main facade opens the single
portal, sometimes flush but more often projecting boldly with its
wings sometimes bevelled at the inner corners. When deep niches
1
For useful introductory remarks on the genre, see Muller, pp. 9—30, 53—65, and SPA,
pp. 1245-51-

812
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

articulate this facade, booths or shops may occupy them. Rings may be
let into this wall for tethering animals. The provision of only one
entrance has obvious advantages: traffic can be the more easily con-
trolled and the security of the building is improved. A broad vaulted
vestibule, sometimes of two storeys, mediates between the portal and
the inner courtyard. If provision is made for an upper storey here, the
space is often occupied by a balakhana, a well-ventilated private cham-
ber which in some caravansarais is reserved for important guests. The
inner courtyard, a spacious rectangle, is articulated by four aivans in a
cruciform disposition. Individual chambers, consisting of a broad pub-
lic porch leading into a narrow private cell for sleeping, and arranged
in rows at right angles to the courtyard, link these aivans. These rooms
facing the court rest on a raised platform so that the animals in the
courtyard cannot intrude on the quarters reserved for travellers. Some-
times tethering rings are attached to this platform. Between the cham-
bers for travellers and the perimeter wall run long uninterrupted
galleries used for stabling. Access to these is by passages in the diago-
nals of the courtyard. Staircases in the thickness of the walls lead to the
roof, which is also used for sleeping. Ample storage space is provided,
often in the diagonals of the plan. Many caravansarais had a resident
custodian, who had his private quarters adjoining or above the portal.
Certain deficiencies are apparent in this imagined blueprint. Privacy,
for example, was a privilege enjoyed by the few. Generally, no facilities for
cooking were available, though the individual chambers had fireplaces.
Ventilation was poor. Apparently there were sometimes no latrines.
Safavid caravansarais, unlike those of earlier periods, generally had no
mosque. Water was frequently unavailable within the building, though if
there were no cistern inside water could be obtained from a nearby well,
stream, cistern or qanat. No special provision was made for female
travellers.
A few well-appointed caravansarais do, however, show that design-
ers were aware of these imperfections and could overcome them at
need. They have such extra features as shops, bakeries, baths, specially
segregated quarters for women or for honoured guests, kitchens and
even signal towers in which lights burned to guide desert traffic. Some
of the larger examples even have two tiers of rooms; their interior
facades approximate to those of mosques and madrasas.1 Frequently
' E.g., Siroux, "Les caravanserais routiers", pp. 356 (Mahyar), 360 (Gabrabad), 362 (Sarda-
han), 364-j (Chah-i Siyah Nau).

815
 SAFAVID A R C H I T E C T U R E

Fig. i ;a. BIsitun. Safavid caravansarai, plan.

these improvements are grafted on to earlier Safavid or pre-Safavid

caravansarais; examples are even known of Safavid caravansarais refur-
bished in this period.
Variety is a major characteristic of this genre of building. No two
caravansarais are identical, despite their close family resemblance. A
host of small, significant refinements from one caravansarai to the next
can be detected even in groups of such buildings which were clearly
814
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

10 20 M

tmtm
10 20 M

PT-T
.. 3,

Fig. ijb. BIsitun. Safavid caravansarai, section and elevation.

commissioned and built together, and were usually, one presumes, the
work of a single architect. This variety is particularly striking if it is
recalled that these buildings, especially when they line the long,
monotonous, semi-desert routes skirting the Dasht-i Kavlr, cater for a
given size of caravan and so are identical in function to the others in
the chain. Thus little purpose would be served by major changes in
layout. Cultic structures, by contrast, were inherently open to a much
wider range of functions which could be served by various elements
grafted on to a nuclear plan. In addition, many external reasons
account for the variety of Iranian architecture as a whole at any given
period. Styles, for example, are often essentially local. Sites may be
815
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

irregular. A patron may lavish interest and money on a single building.

Functions in a given genre of building vary from one structure to the
next. Fashions in ornament change over the generations. Yet Safavid
caravansarais achieve variety without such external spurs. With some
exceptions, shortly to be noted, the functional constraints are remark-
ably constant. If, then, the buildings maintain their variety, the reason
must be sought less in external factors than in the mind of the architect.
Seen as a whole, Safavid caravansarais offer silent testimony to the way
that their architects grappled with the perennial problem of matching
form with function. They allow us to admire the intellectual rigour and
inventiveness of these masters who so often drew unexpected felicities
from the deployment of a few standard elements, and who were
capable, as some octagonal and circular caravansarais show, of break-
ing the set conventions of the genre with dramatic effect.1 Produced as
they were in large numbers under official patronage, these caravansa-
rais would be the obvious place to look for the use of blueprints in
Safavid architecture; but such blueprints, if used, must have been
systematically reworked on almost every occasion.
Nevertheless there are certain external factors to which some cara-
vansarais had to adjust. If they were sited in mountainous areas, for
example, where the weather was liable to be severe, they were com-
monly roofed throughout and might even be built into the hillside.
Routes which incorporated extremes of climate, or were otherwise
uncomfortable to travel, naturally carried less traffic and called for
smaller caravansarais than the more popular arterial routes. Some
routes were positively dangerous, for they travelled through areas
infested by brigands. Hence, probably, the trio of octagonal fortified
caravansarais on the Shlraz road. Proximity to a village might explain
the reduced size of a caravansarai vis-a-vis others in the same chain.
Conversely, if it was located close to a major town the caravansarai
would probably have to deal with more than mercantile traffic, for it
was an ancient custom to accompany a departing caravan to the end of
the first day's stage. In the case of the Madar-i Shah caravansarai, some
45 km. from Isfahan, the needs of ambassadors on their way to the
court were borne in mind; hence the unusually lavish provision of
elaborate guest rooms and a hammam. Yet other caravansarais per-

1
Siroux, Caravanserails, pp. 73-5 (Dihbld, Amlnabad, Khan-i Khurra). Kiani, "Robat
Zayn-al-Din", pp. 27—31-

816
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

formed subsidiary functions as links in the postal service, as refuges for

nearby villages in time of danger or as military outposts. Exceptions
apart, however, the multiple solutions that were devised within the
basically simple framework of the celebrated four-aivan plan command
admiration.
A second hallmark of the genre is its plainness. For elaborate decora-
tion no Safavid caravansarai approaches such medieval examples as
Ribat-i Malik, Ziya' Khatun, Ribat-i Sharaf or a whole series of
Mongol caravansarais. It seems to have been a policy decision to stress
the utilitarian function of these buildings. Timurid examples had prob-
ably initiated this trend, if the extensive but plain Qush Ribat, a foun-
dation of Amir Shuja' al-DIn in north-western Afghanistan dated
912/1506—7, is any guide. Internal and external facades in most Safavid
caravansarais are plain, and the same austerity governs the vaulting in
the covered areas. Only in the portal and in the vestibule behind it is
this rule frequently broken, and then somewhat grudgingly. Portals,
whether flush or salient, are decked out in ornamental brickwork or
glazed tiles and often bore inscriptions, while the vestibule often
boasts a stellar vault. These exceptions serve only to highlight the
dominant severity of the building. So alien is this characteristic to the
great public buildings of Iran that it demands an explanation. Perhaps
the setting of the typical caravansarai in remote countryside, never to
be seen by a large admiring public, is partly responsible, though it must
be conceded that earlier patrons were not inhibited by this factor.
Cultic buildings could be decorated to the greater glory of God, and
palace decoration naturally reflected the luxurious life-style of the
court; but the caravansarai called for display neither on cultic nor on
secular grounds. Yet these reasons are insufficient to explain the plain-
ness of these buildings. A comparison with earlier caravansarais is
instructive, for the richness of many of the surviving examples and the
fact that evidence for a chain of such buildings is mostly lacking
suggest that they were the product of ad hoc patronage: hence, no
doubt, the very marked differences between them. Moreover, they
enabled a wealthy patron to advertise this munificence without incurr-
ing the much greater cost involved in a chain of caravansarais. The
Safavid period, if not already late Timurid times, saw a total reversal of
this practice. Chains of caravansarais were now built, often as part of a
single building campaign. Thus the buildings were numerous and time
was short. Moreover, the extensive scale of many of these structures
817
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE
would have made their decoration too costly. Limited funds would
also have discouraged innovation. A complex of factors therefore
determined the marked lack of applied ornament in this genre and its
rather conservative bias. At the same time these very factors helped to
perfect the "house style" marked by economy, a sense of proportion
and an infallibly good taste, and founded on wide experience. In much
the same way even jobbing builders in Georgian Britain achieved
consistently pleasing results. In both cases the very limitations of the
architectural vocabulary were turned to advantage. It is easy to
understand how the caravansarai became sui generis in this period and
why there was little interaction with contemporary religious and
palatial architecture.
The Safavid caravansarai also sheds much light on the principles of
design employed by architects of this period.1 These principles are simple
and practical, as befits a building intended for the daily unloading,
provisioning, stabling and loading of hundreds of beasts, for the accom-
modation of their masters and (in the case of urban caravansarais) for the
sale of goods. The building is conceived less as a whole than as a quarter,
and the four quarters are planned in identical fashion. This makes it easier
for the architect to block out his design. Sometimes a smaller unit is
employed: thus the size of an individual bay in the stabling area, or of an
individual chamber in the accommodation for travellers, is repeated in
modular form for all similar elements throughout the building. In this
way caravansarais of very large surface area could be laid out with
rigorous exactitude. Regular subdivisions are built into the plan to keep
men and animals apart, and to separate adjoining stables; this is a prime
function of the aivans. The variety of solutions devised for the treatment
of the diagonal areas in the courtyards highlights the comparative same-
ness of the rest of the courtyard facades and suggests that architects
devoted special attention to these intersections. Perhaps, indeed, the
solution adopted for these passageways dictated the rest of the plan.
The construction of scores of such large and expensive buildings
along the arterial roads of Iran clearly implies royal patronage. To this
day most caravansarais throughout the country are confidently attri-
buted by the local people to Shah 'Abbas I.2 While these identifications
1
Kleiss, "Bericht", p. 235 and Abb. 114. Siroux, Caravanseraih, p. 52,fig.15. In both cases a
modular layout is assumed.
2
Siroux, Caravanserails, pp. 8, 24—7. Fot literary evidence in the case of urban caravansarais in
Isfahan, see Kiani, "The British Museum manuscript", pp. 22—5.

8l8
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

are individually open to doubt, in toto they do deserve a certain measure

of credence, the more so as no other type of building is so unhesitat-
ingly identified. In some cases, even though no inscriptions survive,
the existence of several very similar caravansarais at intervals along a
given route is ample testimony - on the ground of expense alone - of
exalted patronage, while the provision of caravansarais along compara-
tively unfrequented routes only makes sense as part of an overall policy
of encouraging trade, communications and pilgrimage. Shah 'Abbas I
is known to have pursued such a policy with vigour. Some groups of
caravansarais are associated with particular officials, such as those on
the Isfahan — Kashan road built by the Grand Eunuch Agha Karmal.
Other single caravansarais were also built by courtiers, such as that of
Gabrabad, which is associated with the royal general Mir Sablr. It
seems likely that wealthy merchants too might have been active in this
field, though there is apparently no epigraphical evidence for this.
The dating of these buildings is problematic. Until this century ample
evidence was available in the form of dating inscriptions, usually in glazed
tilework, set in the entrance portals of many caravansarais. Subsequently,
these panels, the only decorative element of obvious value, have all too
frequently been removed. Most Iranian caravansarais that bear a date are
of the Safavid period, and most of those were built in the 17th century. In
a chain of similar caravansarais, one dated building may allow the others
to be dated by association. But these dated points of reference are rare. In a
building genre where the functional element is uppermost, the detailed
decoration and elaborate vaulting which serve to date anepigraphic cultic
buildings are absent. Yet the presence of certain types of vault (e.g. the
kite or the sunburst variety, and muqarnas semi-domes with two or three
broad tiers of cells), of geometric glazed tilework in colour schemes
known from other Safavid buildings, and of flush patterned monochrome
brickwork, all point to a Safavid date for anepigraphic caravansarais with
these features. The absence of the distinctive arch profiles of earlier
centuries offers further corroborative evidence. Above all, however, the
huge quantity of caravansarais for which no pre-Safavid date can be
canvassed must be the crucial factor in any dating controversy. For it is
plain that between 15 00 and 1900 the wealth, the organisation, the internal
security and the expansion of trade which this mass of buildings implies
only characterised Iranian society in the Safavid centuries.
The detailed analysis of individual buildings in the previous pages
must now be supplemented by a more general discussion of the wider
819
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

themes expressed by this architecture. Three broad headings suggest

themselves: the political context of Safavid architecture, including ques-
tions of patronage; its quantity, distribution, type and time-scale; and its
characteristic styles. A discussion of the role of the craftsman and of
foreign influence on Safavid architecture will round off this section.

THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

At first sight the political context of these times could be regarded as

well suited for great architectural projects. A good many shahs reigned
for a quarter of a century or more — Isma'Il I, 'Abbas II, Sulaiman, Sultan
Husain - while 'Abbas I and Tahmasp I reigned for 41 and 52 years
respectively. These long reigns provided the continuity necessary for
sustained architectural campaigns. But such campaigns in fact occurred
only sporadically, for several of these monarchs — e.g., Isma'Il I and
Tahmasp I — failed to provide the necessary impetus from the top. As a
result the period of 15 00—90 is remarkably void of great architecture —
more so than any century in Iran since the arrival of the Buyids. With the
accession of Shah 'Abbas this situation changed dramatically; and the
reason was precisely that not only the monarch but his courtiers too
began to build. Apparently the menaces of the shah encouraged the
laggards among them, and indeed the array of functionaries is suspici-
ously representative: physicians, generals, amirs, chamberlains, major-
domos and governors were all involved. But their joint activity sufficed
to transform Isfahan beyond recognition. The European travellers com-
ment on how these courtiers vied with each other in lavish building
projects, but there is no proof that this emulation had any political edge.
Thus it seems unlikely that the tribal and factional rivalries which
simmered in the Safavid court found expression in competing architec-
tural programmes. The women of the court seem to have had little hand
in building, and such architectural patronage as was exercised by women
in this period seems to have been directed particularly towards
madrasas: there was no Safavid successor to Gauhar Shad. Beyond the
orbit of the court there probably existed a class of merchant patrons
whose financial support may help to explain the quantity of lavish
bazaars (in Qazvin, Kirman, Kashan and Qum apart from Isfahan itself)
which were erected in this period.1

1
Stevens, pp. 430—40.

820
 POLITICAL CONTEXT

In the later Safavid period, therefore, patronage was exercised on a

broader basis than hitherto. But the shah himself still played the pre-
eminent role, and his foundations often had a political motive. The
establishment of Shi'ism as the national creed goes far to explain the
emphasis on shrines. Ardabll enjoyed particular prominence because of
its unique status as a dynastic shrine (fig. 2), while the Mashhad shrine
was lavishly embellished, evidently as part of an attempt to encourage
pilgrimages there rather than to Mecca (fig. 8). Both political and
economic considerations seem to underlie this scheme: Mecca was after
all in Ottoman hands at this time. More surprising, perhaps, is the same
shah's patronage of work on Sunni monuments, such as Bistam,
Turbat-i Jam and Turbat-i Haidariyya. Given the solidly Sunni popula-
tion of much of Khurasan, this support might be seen as an attempt by
Shah 'Abbas to win over these potential opponents. Economic rather
than political or sectarian motives account for the extensive network of
trade communications which he built up throughout Iran. In provid-
ing major roads criss-crossing the country and serviced by regularly
spaced caravansarais he was realising the dream of many of his prede-
cessors. Urban caravansarais provided a support system for the rural
ones and a major port was developed at Bandar 'Abbas. This scale of
investment in trading facilities is an expression of that same capacity to
think big, that same awareness of a wider world, which produced the
Maidan-i Shah.
Indeed, the imperial aspirations of 'Abbas and his eagerness to estab-
lish contacts with Europe are the key to his architecture. He sought to
make Isfahan rival Istanbul and Delhi, which at that very time were
undergoing what might be termed an ostentatious face-lift that clearly
proclaimed imperial aspirations. For once in Iranian history the great-
est buildings which survive of a dynasty are those erected by its great-
est ruler at the height of his power. It is of a piece with the grandiose
vision of Shah 'Abbas that the new Isfahan, essentially his personal
creation, should attract the lion's share of resources. By the later
Safavid period the capital was becoming a central feature of govern-
ment and society. The ruler was apt to spend most of his time there
instead of on campaign, and it was natural that the capital should be
increasingly embellished. Even under Isma'Il I and Tahmasp I most
important new buildings were concentrated in Tabriz and Qazvln
respectively. In earlier periods, distinctions between metropolitan and
provincial styles in architecture may be somewhat unreal, with monu-
821
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

ments of the first quality being built outside the orbit of the court in
villages and towns all over the country. In Safavid times, however,
these distinctions do begin to apply, for little fine architecture was
produced in the provinces unless the monarch himself or the court was
responsible for it; a similar process may be traced in book painting.
Only secular architecture may provide substantial exceptions to this
rule.

QUANTITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF SAFAVID BUILDINGS

So much, then, for the political context of Safavid architecture. One

may now attempt to formulate generalisations about its quantity,
distribution, type and time-scale. The quantity of buildings is perhaps
the crucial factor, for all the other generalisations depend on it. The
nearest approach to a checklist of Iranian architecture, the very incom-
plete gazetteer of MishkatI, records many more monuments of the
Safavid than of any other period. Its incompleteness, too, is correspon-
dingly more marked in its coverage of Safavid buildings, as the pub-
lished accounts of monuments in Isfahan and Yazd show. It seems
likely that the 111 Safavid or partially Safavid buildings he records are
less than half of those actually extant.1
This massive production may justify some tentative observations.
Quantity alone, for example, may be deceptive. Many entries in a list of
Safavid "monuments" turn out to refer to sarcophagi, tombstones,
woodwork or even graffiti in buildings of uncertain date and indiffer-
ent aesthetic value. Or they may be nothing more than minor repairs.
Even so, it is clear that for this - as for no other - period in Islamic
Iran there exists a truly representative selection of buildings, warts and
all. The contrast with earlier architecture is instructive. Almost by
definition, buildings which have survived from medieval times in Iran
have been of high quality. Indifferent work has gone. But in Safavid
architecture a good deal of it still remains. Generalisations can thus be
tested against a wide range of buildings, and panegyrics of Safavid
architecture must be specifically tied to the buildings produced under
royal or court patronage. Stylistic developments can be pinpointed,
and it is even possible to assemble a respectable oeuvre for individual
artists, notably calligraphers. Where major blanks in the chronology

1
An unpublished working list kindly made available to me by Dr G. D. Pickett lists 15 8 items.

822
 QUANTITY AND DISTRIBUTION

occur (e.g. between 1520 and 1590) they can be identified as gaps in
production and not confused with the vagaries of survival. Areas of
active and of sluggish production emerge, as does the order of popu-
larity of the various building types. Sufficient material is available for
the large-scale collation of documentary records with the evidence of
standing structures. This is a task for Iranian scholars par excellence, just
as native Turkish scholars have brought to light and interpreted the
Ottoman archival material which bears on architecture and tilework.
The quantity of surviving buildings is also a reminder that — no matter
what prominence is given to the finest creations of court patronage —
this architecture has its roots in everyday life. A great many Safavid
buildings are situated unpretentiously in villages or small towns, and
even when they are found in the major cities of the land they are most
often located in quarters which are essentially village or small town
units transported in their entirety into an urban setting.
One conclusion, however, that cannot lightly be drawn from the large
quantity of surviving Safavid buildings is that the output of this period
was substantially greater than that of the preceding centuries in Islamic
Iran. Contemporary records are unreliable yardsticks of building activ-
ity, but the fact that the city chronicles of Yazd and Shiraz alone list
scores of medieval monuments which have now disappeared without
trace should sound a warning note. Moreover, among the great epochs
of Iranian architecture the Safavid period is the most recent and one
would therefore expect more to have survived than from earlier periods.
Finally, the stability which Shah 'Abbas brought to Iran may well have
released into building activities — among other areas of the economy and
national life — energies previously wasted in war. In such an interpreta-
tion, these hundreds of buildings spread throughout the country would
reflect a land at peace. But the argument cannot be pushed very far, since
the examples of Yazd and Shiraz cited above suggest that the spate of
new buildings could continue in politically self-contained towns despite
political instability in the country at large.
The areas where Safavid buildings cluster most densely differ signifi-
cantly from the centres favoured earlier. Azarbaljan, so crucial for an
understanding of Il-Khanid architecture, is neglected, and so too is
Khurasan, the region which produced so many fine Saljuq structures.
Herat has little to show for nearly two centuries of Safavid rule. As
noted above, the earlier Safavid capitals of Tabriz and Qazvln saw
little major construction. Amidst the sea of frankly provincial work
823
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

which floods the country there rise islands of more ambitious architec-
ture, such as the great religious shrines, the buildings of Kirman, and
of course Isfahan itself, which offer the chance to study fine Safavid
work in depth. For the rest of the country "Safavid" is more a con-
venient dynastic label than a precise descriptive term connoting a dis-
tinctive style.
In this chapter the role of the areas bordering modern Iran has
deliberately been minimised because of the wealth of monuments in
Iran itself. No serious distortion of emphasis seems likely to result
from this neglect. But these outlying areas do show that Safavid archi-
tecture had a certain cachet and that it imposed itself even in lands with
a rather different building tradition. While the Safavids held Iraq,
much work was done on the four great Shl'l shrines there (Baghdad,
Samarra, Karbala and Najaf), and indeed Iraqi architecture after c.
1500 is in the shadow of Persian modes. This is especially clear in the
minarets of the country, with their tiled geometrical and epigraphical
ornament.1 In the Caucasian provinces the Safavid style using brick
and tilework and Persian forms (e.g. at Erivan) existed side by side
with a local Caucasian tradition which had done much to inspire the
stone architecture of medieval Anatolia. The Safavids sporadically held
substantial sections of eastern Anatolia, but the architectural style there
remained obstinately Ottoman. To the east Safavid influence
penetrated at least to Qandahar, though it seems likely that the tiled
buildings of Lahore and Multan reflect contemporary Iranian inspira-
tion indirectly. But the major school of architecture in the Safavid style
outside Iran is undoubtedly that of Shaibanid Bukhara. It may seem
ironic that the capital of the Uzbeks, the inveterate enemies of the
Safavids, should be a treasury of apparently Safavid architecture. On
reflection, however, it is clear that this Uzbek style was a natural
outgrowth from Timurid architecture, which of course also generated
— or rather, imperceptibly became — Safavid work. The Uzbek build-
ings conveniently fill the years 15 00— 15 90 which are so barren in Iran,
and share with their Safavid counterparts, through their joint ancestry
in the Timurid style, a common vocabulary of form and decoration,
though they place more emphasis on decorative brick vaulting, with
flush painted joints, than was fashionable in Iran.2
1
al-Gailanl, pp. 73-87.
2
Pugachenkova and Rempel', Vjdayusbchiisya Pamyatniki, pp. 79—93, pis. 20-57. Hrbas and
Knobloch, pis. 91—103. Historical Monuments of Islam in the U.S.S.R., pis. 72—98.

824
 TYPES

TYPES
Although the Safavid period did not generate brand new types of build-
ing, its priorities did not coincide with those of previous centuries. New
emphases of architectural patronage may be detected as much in what is
not found in Safavid architecture as in the great achievements of the
period. Perhaps the most striking feature is the virtual absence of large
new mosques. A functional explanation for this - that there was by now
little need for such structures - is inadequate, for the later Timurids
erected numerous large and bare mosques throughout Khurasan, many of
them simply too big for the communities they were apparently intended to
serve. The Timurid princes who built these mosques understood, as did
Shah 'Abbas at Isfahan, the psychological dimension of lavish public
architecture. It is only in the last century and a half, when old buildings
have suffered destruction at an accelerating pace, that the need for new and
large mosques has made itself felt once more. The characteristic Safavid
activity in mosque architecture, as will be shown in detail below, is repair
work: even in the erstwhile capital cities of Tabriz and Qazvin it was
apparently considered sufficient to refurbish the existing jami', and this
was at first done in Isfahan too. While Safavid architects did not especially
avoid the challenge of sheer size, in religious architecture they were not
often given the chance to meet that challenge. Large mosques were simply
not fashionable. The great exception is of course Isfahan; once again it is
clear that for all its importance that city is no satisfactory gauge for Safavid
architecture as a whole. The choice of a new site on the outskirts of the city
made large new mosques a necessity. In the contemporary Ottoman and
Mughal empires such large mosques were, by contrast, frequently built. If
such large mosques were the exception in Safavid architecture small
mosques at least were a standard feature, and in Isfahan, where the
majority of them are to be found, were built mostly at the behest of
courtiers. No particular type of mosque was preferred above others;
hypostyle, domed square and aivan mosques are all common.
Although madrasas were an established genre of buildings from the
n t h century onwards in Iran, remarkably few medieval examples
survive there, and of these few the majority are Timurid. It seems
likely that purpose-built madrasas — as distinct from composite foun-
dations, now not always recognisable as such, or mosques which
served at least in part as madrasas - achieved a new popularity in the
15 th century which continued throughout the Safavid period. These
825
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Timurid madrasas are conceived on a large scale, and Uzbek madrasas

perpetuated this tradition. Safavid architects, however, supplemented
this type of madrasa (which remained popular) with a smaller and more
intimate type of building, something perhaps more akin to the original
concept of the madrasa. The courtyard remained, but was so reduced
in size that the building reverted to an essentially domestic scale.1
But it is the shrine above all that dominates Safavid religious archi-
tecture. This is true of large, complexes and even more of isolated
imamzadas; both types of building were frequently centres of pilgrim-
age. Many of the most celebrated shrines of Iran (such as Ardabll and
Mashhad, figs 2, 8) and of Iraq acquired their present aspect during this
period. Secular mausolea gave way almost entirely to those of saints, a
process traceable at least as early as the Mongol period but one which
had been gathering momentum ever since then. The tomb tower form
which had been such a landmark in medieval architecture had by now
been decisively rejected in favour of buildings which emphasised
breadth as much as height and had domes rather than conical roofs. In
harmony with this revised emphasis, the square or octagonal plan had
become general, replacing the variety of earlier plans. The interiors of
these mausolea were comparatively spacious rather than cramped.
They usually had mihrabs and sometimes even adjoining courtyards
and a garden setting. This radical change of layout was a response to
the growing habit of conducting devotions in shrines and this practice
helps to explain why shrines rather than mosques were the character-
istic expressions of Safavid patronage in cultic architecture. The adop-
tion of Shi'ism, with its ancient tradition of the veneration of saints, as
the national creed could only accentuate this change of emphasis.
Side by side with this accent on shrines is the unexpected burst of
activity in secular architecture in the 17th century. It is this which
singles out the Safavid period from the rest of Islamic architecture in
Iran. Bridges which have wider functions than carrying traffic are
built, reviving Sasanian custom. Caravansarais in both town and
country proliferate, and there are large urban bazaars. Pigeon towers
were built in their thousands, mainly in the Isfahan oasis but also
around Gulpaigan and Kirman. Town planning develops on a scale
hitherto unequalled in Iran. Earlier, when new cities were built (like
Sultaniyya) or old ones extended (like Tabriz), it seems that no overall

1
Brandenburg, pp. 64-77.

826
 CHRONOLOGY

plan was imposed and thus these foundations expanded in a somewhat

random way. Lastly, several princely residences have fortunately sur-
vived and make it possible, for the first time in Iranian Islamic architec-
ture, to weigh the hyperbolic literary accounts against actual palaces. In
sum, then, it seems generally true that in Safavid times secular and shrine
architecture absorbed the energies of architects to a degree not found in
earlier periods, and that this was to the detriment of other religious
architecture which hitherto had attracted most patronage.

CHRONOLOGY

It will be seen that neither the major building types nor the areas of
architectural activity were evenly spread in Safavid times, and the same
patchiness marks the chronology of production under this dynasty.
Periods of intense activity alternate with protracted lulls. Indeed,
although Safavid rule lasted for two and a quarter centuries very few
decades in this period were truly productive so far as architecture was
concerned. The lack of vigorous local schools has already been noted, and
it means that the Safavid, unlike the Saljuq, Il-Khanid, and Timurid
periods, lacks the continuous rhythm of local traditions on which imperial
foundations are occasionally superimposed. In the 14th and 15 th centuries
especially, the enthusiastic patronage of the later Tl-Khans and of the
Timurid princes was supplemented by that of the numerous smaller
dynasties of the period: Chobanids, Muzaffarids, Aq Quyunlii, and so on.
Continuity was assured. Safavid rule brought increasing centralisation
and tended to confine architecture within the orbit of the court. Such
architecture thus came to depend to a dangerous degree on royal patron-
age. When that failed, architecture itself languished, for the continuity of
provincial architecture had already been broken. This lack of continuity
may help to explain why for most of the Safavid period Iran, though so
rich in ordinary buildings, is comparatively barren of great ones. Interes-
tingly enough, the obvious exception — the years from 1590 to 1630 — is
also the period when there was a permanent concentration - indeed, a
constellation - of talent in one place. It could very well be argued that for
the rest of the century Isfahan lived off the resources accumulated in that
creative period. Earlier, the architecture of Shah Isma'Il could be seen as a
hangover from the Aq Quyunlu period; but in eastern Iran the Timurid
style died of inanition. In view of the doldrums of the 16th century any
discussion of a developing style in this period is misplaced.
827
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

The lesson of most medieval Iranian architecture is that the neces-

sary craftsmanship and expertise were latent and needed only the right
stimulus in order to be exploited. In Safavid times it was only in the
reign of Shah 'Abbas that this stimulus was forthcoming on a
requisitely lavish scale. Ambitious patronage generated ambitious
architecture. The grand style was lost in subsequent reigns, and while
the reasons for this leave room for discussion, it seems preferable to
attribute the apparent failure of nerve to the patron rather than to the
architect. No matter how blame is apportioned, however, the conse-
quences are self-evident: despite the fact that the Safavids ruled for well
over two centuries, they achieved qualitatively less in that period — so
far as architecture is concerned — than did the Saljuqs between 1080
and 1160 or thell-Khans between 1300 and 1350.
It may be, of course, that the very scale of the larger Safavid build-
ing projects caused later architects a certain disquiet and made them
chary of framing similar plans. Projects like the Ganj 'All Khan com-
plex at Kirman (fig. 9) and the redevelopment of the shrines at Ardabil,
Mahan and Mashhad — to say nothing of the great ensembles at Isfahan
— must have brought in their train multiple problems of logistics and
administration, many of them unfamiliar. Buildings on this scale were a
serious drain on resources and could not lightly be undertaken. Nor
was money the only problem. The time-scale adopted for some of these
buildings was probably inadequate for them to be completed success-
fully; hence the possibly apocryphal tale about the architect of the
Masjid-i Shah noted above.1 The change from tile mosaic to haft-rangl
tilework in the same building offers independent corroboration of this
story. Things were very different in the more highly organised build-
ing industry of the Ottoman empire. But Safavid architecture had no
one with the genius, status or staying power of Sinan. The great
achievements of Ottoman and Mughal architecture were made possible
as much by efficient organisation as by great architects. In Safavid Iran,
which attained imperial status appreciably later than its rivals, this
fortunate conjunction was regrettably intermittent.
Clearly, therefore, the sheer size of the Safavid auvre can be decep-
tive; and not only for the reasons just cited. An unprecedentedly high
proportion of Safavid architecture all over Iran comprises repair work,
not new foundations. The buildings chosen for repair and extra embel-

• Seep. 787.

828
 CHRONOLOGY
lishment were, following traditional practice, almost exclusively
religious, and the great shrines especially benefited from such work.
Not so secular buildings: rather than repair old caravansarais, archi-
tects preferred to build new caravansarais beside them.
Various explanations could be adduced for this emphasis on repair
work. Rather than build yet more mosques and shrines Safavid patrons
may have preferred the compromise solution of repairing existing
structures. For a small outlay — for example, on a new portal, a fagade
screening earlier work, or just new decoration - they would receive
disproportionate credit, especially if, as often happened, the repair was
not acknowledged as such and the patron greedily claimed, implicitly or
explicitly, to have erected the entire building. This seems a more likely
motive than does exceptional religious piety. Alternatively, these
repairs could be seen as the result of purely local initiatives prompted
by the decay of some valued local building. It is of course precisely at
the level of restoration and embellishment that local patronage can
most fruitfully be exercised.1
In such repair work Safavid craftsmen acquired a close familiarity
with earlier styles and this in turn may have affected their response to the
task in hand. Thus at Mahan, for example, the galleries added by Shah
'Abbas to the Timurid nucleus of the shrine ape the Timurid device of a
single-colour tiled dado with plain white vaulting above (pi. 42). This
could be either extreme conservatism or conscious antiquarianism, as
pastiches of earlier Islamic styles can be found in Safavid lustre tilework,
in the Safavid inscriptions on pre-Islamic monuments (e.g. Persepolis
and Blsitun) which perhaps presage that wholesale adoption of and
identification with the Iran of legend that was to characterise the Qajars,
or in some of the manuscripts painted for Shah 'Abbas in the early 17th
century.2 Much of this repair work, however, was carried out on earlier
Safavid buildings, which says little for their quality. The tomb of Khwaja
Rabi', for example, was repaired twice within a century of its original
foundation. But whatever the date of the building to be repaired, redeco-
rated, extended or subjected to some change of function, the new work
was rarely identified in detail and is thus difficult to date precisely.
1
An unpublished list of Iranian architects and craftsmen in the field of architectural decora-
tion, drawn up by Dr G.D. Pickett and kindly made available to me, shows that most craftsmen
operated in the immediate orbit of their native village or city.
2
Watson, "Persian Lustre Ware", pp. 63-80. A.S. Melikian-Chirwani, "Le royaume de
Salomon. Les inscriptions persanes de sites achemenides", Mil 1 (1971), 1-41. Grube, "The
Language of the Birds", pp. 344—6.

829
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

The lack of a comprehensive checklist of Safavid buildings makes it

hard to pinpoint the trends underlying these repairs. It does seem,
however, that repairs were proportionately more frequent in the reigns of
certain rulers than of others. The evidence suggests that it was precisely
the shahs who avoided large building projects — Isma'Il I, Tahmasp I and
Saf 11 — whose reigns also witnessed a disproportionate amount of repair
work. It seems, too, that the proportion of repairs vis-a-vis new founda-
tions rose steeply in the reigns of Shah Sulaiman and Shah Sultan Husain,
thus suggesting that the gradual enfeeblement of the dynasty increasingly
forced architectural patronage to confine itself to relatively trivial pro-
jects. But these generalisations doubtless require further refinement in the
light of more evidence. Similarly, it is too early to say whether (with the
obvious exception of Isfahan) the ratio between repair work and new
foundations was constant throughout Iran, or whether some areas
benefited more than others from new building within given periods.

STYLE

The foregoing remarks must suffice to establish the wider context of

this architecture. Given the quantity and variety of Safavid buildings,
it has seemed best to examine their style by focussing on three main
areas: the buildings of 17th-century Isfahan; the great shrines; and
secular architecture of the 17th century. The generalisations which
follow have been formulated with all three groups in mind, though of
course they do not apply equally to each group.
A sure sense of spatial values informs the best architecture of the
period. This sense is seen at its most spectacular in the great ensembles
where each building is enhanced by its neighbours. It expresses itself
on the grand scale of landscape architecture in the Chahar Bagh, where
nature - even if it is nature methodised - envelopes the buildings,
which function as beauty spots only and are deliberately subordinated
to the landscaping of the avenue (fig. 4). The various royal gardens in
Isfahan and elsewhere - especially the great gardens at Farahabad and
Ashraf in Mazandaran - are also laid out with an eye for scale and for
the interaction of the constituent parts. Massed plots offlowersand
shrubs combine with pools, fountains and canals; trees demarcate the
major divisions; uncluttered expanses rest the eye (fig. \ia). A ground
plan tends to overemphasise the regularity of the overall design of such
gardens. Within the geometrical layout so reminiscent of garden car-
830
 STYLE

pets there is room for surprises. Suddenly a wide prospect opens, or

conversely the scale shrinks to an enclosed arbour with a central pool.
Sometimes terraces bring an abrupt change of plane. A secluded pavil-
ion, subtly at one with its surroundings, readily evokes an atmosphere
of intimacy, but its plan may be open and airy with windows giving on
to a series of different views, some circumscribed, others distant. Such
a garden employs concepts of open and closed space, and of their
interaction, which are essentially architectural; the same is true of the
emphasis on vistas, directed viewpoints, and changes of plane as well
as devices of anticipation and surprise.1
Even when the architects did not have a free hand, notably in the case of
additions to extant structures, the same spatial awareness makes itself felt.
Work on the great shrines illustrates this. At Mashhad the great esplanade
of Shah 'Abbas imposed ideals of order and scale on the heterogeneous
jumble of earlier buildings (fig. 8). The same ruler provided airy galleries
to flank the domed square mausoleum of Shah Ni'mat-Allah at Mahan,
and thus to open up the whole shrine. A huge courtyard and perimeter
walls were added at Ardabll (fig. 2). The dominant impulse in such work
seems to have been to introduce a new and grander sense of scale into
these foundations. This trend is of course most obvious when the archi-
tect disposed of a virgin site (Isfahan maidan; Masjid-i Nau, Shlraz).
Wherever possible, the essentially additive nature of the extant buildings
was masked by large elements (avenues, galleries, courtyards, perimeter
walls) whose scale was sufficiently bold to absorb the earlier piecemeal
work. Thus an overall plan is created which takes account of standing
structures but by suitable additions gives the entire shrine a more coherent
and organised appearance.
Individual buildings illustrate much the same concerns. The typical
free-standing mausoleum of Safavid times has a new complexity of
plan and elevation. The factor of increased size alone allows far more
scope to an architect interested in spatial problems. Large octagonal
mausolea are in fact the ideal genre of buildings to study some typical
Safavid approaches to these problems (fig. 1). A standard feature is the
drastic reduction of wall surfaces, both internally and externally; deep
niches are scooped out of the wall and indeed arches sometimes break
through the wall altogether. Frequently the mausoleum comprises two
storeys; the common arrangement in such cases is to have the ring of

1
Wilber, Persian Gardens, pp. 79—140.

831
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

niches or arches on the ground floor repeated at first floor level, rather
than to extend their height. Inner and outer galleries add depth to the
elevation, while net or stalactite vaults and blind arches or panels
articulate the individual bays. The plethora of windows ensures that
the architect can exploit many contrasts of light and shade. In all these
various features different levels — of light, surface, texture — are juxta-
posed and the same motif is repeated along the horizontal or vertical
axis. A delight in spatial diversity underlies the whole approach. A
comparison with earlier mausolea reveals that the third dimension was
never before so systematically exploited in this type of Iranian build-
ing. The emphasis is in some respects sculptural.1
Yet while Safavid architects well understood the spatial grouping of
entire units and of elements within a single unit, their buildings could
not fairly be described as complex. Safavid architecture is safe. It deals
in large masses and prefers smooth surfaces to intricately articulated
ones. With a few honourable exceptions like Mahan (pi. 42), vaulting —
the essence of any curvilinear architecture — is dull and repetitive, in
contrast to the pyrotechnic display of the previous period. When in
doubt, the Safavid architect manufactures another few tiers of "stalac-
tite" cells. Domes follow models known from Timurid and Il-Khanid
times, if not earlier, but have a more restricted range: the melon
dome, for example, disappears. Structure is reliable but not original.
Estimable though this competence may be for public secular buildings
such as caravansarais, especially when they are built in large quantities,
it is not enough in the case of the major religious structures. Structural
complexities in particular are toned down. This simplifying trend is
most apparent when one compares Safavid with earlier Islamic archi-
tecture in Iran. Gone is the massive strength and vigorous ornament of
Saljuq brick buildings, or the nervous tension of Il-Khanid architec-
ture, often so close to overreaching itself. Arch forms lose the fantasy
and playfulness of those produced in the previous two centuries - even
Saljuq arches were much more varied. Surprises are too few in matters of
structure. The vocabulary is limited; it is as if the architect voluntarily
restricted himself to a few standard shapes which could be reproduced
on various scales and reshuffled as required. It is not entirely unfair,
then, to describe Safavid architecture as modular. The various factors
which produced this situation will be analysed in more detail below.

1
Pope, in SPA, pp. 1171— 4, 1178—9, 1211-12.

832
 STYLE

Neither the spatial organisation nor the simplifying trend in Safavid

architecture is, however, its most striking feature. Any casual visitor to
Isfahan will confirm that the glory of this style is its decoration. No
doubt this was the deliberate intention of those responsible for the
buildings. This splendour aims to disarm criticism by its very profusion.
But it will not bear minute examination. The common and just com-
plaint against much Safavid tilework is that its quality is poor. In place of
the many-faceted reflections of tile mosaic is the virtually unbroken
sheen of large over glaze painted tiles. The deep, vibrant tones achieved
in tile mosaic give way to paler, even muddy, colours. The reason for
this is technical; whereas in tile mosaic each element is cut from a tile
fired at the optimum temperature for that colour, overglaze painted tiles
bear many colours (hence the term haft-rangl — "seven colours" —
applied to these tiles, though the colours may number more or less than
seven) all fired together at a "compromise" temperature. Inevitably,
therefore, the quality of such a tile cannot approach that of tile mosaic.
Nevertheless it is not simply because of its technical quality that
Safavid tilework is open to criticism. It is habitually used on a larger
scale than ever before, several times completely enveloping an interior
(Lutf-Allah mosque, pi. 43^; dome chamber of AllahvardI Khan in the
Mashhad shrine). Entire facades, too, were sheathed in tilework. Many
Il-Khanid and Timurid buildings use lavish tilework, but the total
exclusion of brickwork, the actual material of construction, from such
large areas of the elevation is virtually without precedent. As late as the
reign of Shah Isma'Il, in the Masjid-i 'All, brick still plays a major part
in the decorative scheme. Although tile dominates brick in many
Timurid facades, brick is allowed to play several important roles in
them: it acts as a reminder of the underlying structure, provides a
contrasting texture and acts as a chromatic foil to the tilework. Safavid
architects surrendered these advantages and frequently relegated brick
to the sides of the building. Here tilework is conspicuously absent.
This is an obvious slight, and an implicit invitation to look at the
building only from those viewpoints where its tilework dominates. As
a result the building loses something of its three-dimensional quality
and is in danger of becoming facade architecture. Courtyard fagades
and other subsidiary areas are either coated with plaster or left as bare
brick; in either case their function is to serve as a foil (pi. 45a).1
1
Hillenbrand, "The Use of Glazed Tilework". The Masjid-i Hakim is an honourable excep-
tion to some of these strictures.

833
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

New figural themes, taken from the repertory of painting, are

largely confined to palaces. Nevertheless, living creatures figure with
some frequency in the tilework of religious buildings, and include,
besides images that are sacred (angels) or ambivalent (peacocks), others
that are quite secular (dragons). With this exception the range of tile-
work designs themselves is no broader than in the previous period.
The themes are simply worked harder. Thulth inscriptions, for exam-
ple, assume a greater prominence than hitherto.
As a whole, architectural decoration is impoverished by the
comparative dearth of worked stucco, carved terracotta and ornamen-
tal brickwork. All these techniques had an important role in Timurid
architecture. Only plain white stucco, used to cover vaults, retained a
certain hold. It follows that tilework now had to serve many of the
functions formerly discharged by these techniques. New colours and
new combinations appear, and there are even attempts to put tilework
to new uses (e.g. the tiled floor of the Lutf-Allah mosque). Perhaps the
most distinctive new departure is the use of tiled designs, not plain
tilework as hitherto, on domes. Floral arabesques were preferred here,
though geometrical patterns also occur. In other, less obvious ways,
too, tilework came to dominate a building, usurping functions
previously reserved for brick or other media. For example, colour was
now necessarily the means for distinguishing between different parts of
the design or between several superimposed inscriptions. It accentuates
structural features, like the turquoise cable mouldings in the
Lutf-Allah mosque interior. Sometimes entirely glazed compositions
reproduce in many colours the monochrome patterned brickwork of
Saljuq times. But for all this readiness to devise different uses for
tilework, the plain fact is that the medium was already past its maturity
by the end of the 15 th century.1
In its genesis and formative period glazed tilework coexisted with a
booming pottery industry and it reached its zenith when that industry
had already begun to decline. Late Saljuq and Il-Khanid wall tiles,
especially in lustre and lajvardma, benefited from developments in
ceramic but there was to be no further fruitful relationship between the
two sister arts. The tilework specialists of pre-Safavid times had in all
probability restricted the range and combinations of glazed tones on

1
For a survey of architectural kosblin Muslim Iran until 1400, see Pickett. I am most grateful
to Dr. Pickett for much information on tilework in Safavid and pre-Safavid times.

834
 STYLE

purpose. Certainly the technology for a much wider gamut of colours

than they actually used was available to them.1 Safavid inventions in
this field, such as apple green and a hectic custard yellow, were rarely
happy ones. Safavid decoration, then, for all its surface splendour, is in
some respects the fatal flaw of this architecture.
An entirely unprecedented boom in secular buildings marks Safavid
architecture in its prime as in its decline, and this fact had a direct
impact on Safavid architectural styles. The buildings concerned are
broadly speaking of two kinds: utility structures and palaces. The
former genre has already been discussed. The palaces, however, illus-
trate a distinctive style which may conveniently be analysed here. The
paucity of earlier examples makes it difficult to assess their originality.
They are sufficiently distinct from each other, however, to allow the
assumption either that they represent an original style which achieved
an early flowering or that - more likely - the tradition from which
they sprang was itself varied. Nearly all of them date from the period
1600-70. Numerous typological subdivisions suggest themselves,
from the conception of a palace as a full-scale garden garnished with
buildings, as at Farahabad, to the transposition of a palace on to a
bridge, as in the Khaju bridge at Isfahan (pi. 44a). But in all of them a
deliberate insubstantiality is the aim, a lack of emphasis on obviously
solid bearing walls, a love for piercing the surface by large windows,
niches or loggias and for encrusting interior walls with yet more niches
as well as false low-hung ceilings and "stalactite" vaults (fig. 16). In
virtually all of them the natural surroundings are brought into play.
Royal Safavid miniatures conjure up in exquisite detail the courtly life-
style to which such palaces ministered, and as a bonus they document
numerous lost types of fastidiously elegant pavilions whose rickety
structure sufficiently explains their disappearance. Wood here plays an
important structural role which it is accorded nowhere else in Iranian
Islamic architecture: not only are these buildings frequently of trabeate
type, but wooden gratings and balconies figure largely in them.
Ground plans and elevations hark back with surprising fidelity to pre-
Islamic models. Seldom has the innate conservatism of Persian builders
been so clearly demonstrated.

1
Cf. the material in Lane, A Guide, pp. 6-26, with that in his Later Islamic Pottery.

835
Fig. 16. Royal reception at the garden pavilion at Asadabad, adjoining the Chahar Bagh.
 CRAFTSMEN

CRAFTSMEN

So much, then, for Safavid architectural style. What of the craftsmen

who created it? While public works like caravansarais may imply the
existence of teams of craftsmen travelling from one site to the next and in
the process developing a "house style" which allowed little scope for
individual initiative, the evidence of Safavid religious structures on the
contrary suggests the primacy of local initiatives executed by local
craftsmen. The evidence also suggests that the individual craftsman
improved his status during this period. Two factors especially support
this hypothesis. First, far more craftsmen's names survive from this
period than from earlier centuries. Of course this is partly due to the
large quantity of Safavid buildings extant. But buildings which would
earlier have been anonymous or would have borne only a single
inscription now have several. This suggests that craftsmen felt a greater
self-confidence than hitherto, which itself implies an improved status.
Second, the inscriptions bear witness to a new tendency to compartmen-
talise the labour of erecting a building. One craftsman designs, another
builds, a third cuts the tiles (and draws their patterns? - hence the use of
the term al-naqqdsh) and a fourth writes the inscriptions. Each signs
himself separately and identifies the nature of his work. He may also give
his nisba and his father's name, but very rarely anything else. Such
multiple signatures appearing on a single building suggest that the
master mason has been to some extent demoted and that his fellow
craftsmen have benefited correspondingly. Among the specialists whose
prestige increased at this time may be noted particularly the tile-cutter
(now called increasingly often kdshi-tardsh) and the calligrapher. Many
more practitioners of the latter art are recorded than ever before; they
apparently specialised in architectural inscriptions. Several of them have
left their signatures on a whole series of buildings throughout Iran.
Thus a chronology of their work is available and an attempt can be made
to define the development of their style. Moreover, these cases provide
precious evidence that the best craftsmen were in demand throughout
the country. The obvious example is Muhammad Riza ImamI, whose
work on key monuments at Isfahan, Qum and Mashhad argues a very
exalted status;1 and, before him, 'All Riza al-'Abbasi was active on royal
1
The corpus of inscriptions in this calligrapher's name has been substantially increased as a result
of Pickett, "Inscriptions", pp. 91—6. See too Godard, "Muhammad Rida al-Imaml", who lists also
the works of his son Muhammad Muhsin al-ImamJ and his grandson 'AH NaqI al-Imaml.

837
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

foundations at Isfahan, Mashhad and Qazvln as well as the madrasa of

Ganj 'All Khan at Kirman.
Unfortunately, the surviving inscriptions indicate that the calligra-
phers were exceptional. Few other craftsmen are attested by more than
one inscription. Even the builders of masterpieces acknowledged as
such in their own time, such as the mosques on the Isfahan maidan, are
known by no other buildings. This suggests that - unlike the case of
most Iranian book painting — there was no royal atelier of choice
craftsmen in continuous employment. But when seen in the context of
the large number of names to survive, these single inscriptions bear
witness to the great reservoir of talent on which Safavid patrons could
draw. The signatures also pose many unresolved problems. Thus
detailed study of contemporary sources might reveal whether the
craftsmen were subject to any overall organisation. A checklist of the
nisbas of these craftsmen would of course emphasise the unchallenged
pre-eminence of Isfahan; but, much more interestingly, it would also
permit a classification of the more important provincial centres during
this period. It might even reveal that certain specialities were particu-
larly associated with certain towns. Nisbas are of course notoriously
misleading at times but the sheer quantity of examples would offset this
disadvantage. Such a checklist would also indicate whether any new
titles or honorifics were applied to craftsmen at this time. Until the
proportion of craftsmen's names to extant buildings is established, it
would be hazardous to draw further conclusions about the role of the
craftsman at this time, and similar information is needed for preceding
periods and for other contemporary Islamic lands before the full context
of the craftsman's activity can be established. But, as shown above, the
quantity of names available seems sufficient to isolate certain trends.

RESISTANCE TO EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

It is now time to grapple with an issue often hinted at in the foregoing

pages: the reasons for the lack of development which may be detected
in Safavid architecture. This has other causes than those that have been
canvassed above, namely the royal neglect of the 16th century, the
decay of provincial schools or the emphasis on decoration at the ex-
pense of structure. It results also from an inward-looking quality
which prevented Safavid architects from looking to and learning from
foreign architectural styles. The foundations of Islamic architecture in
838
 RESISTANCE TO EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Iran seem to have been laid in the Saljuq period at the latest. Il-Khanid
architects refined, rather than expanded, the vocabulary of forms
which they inherited, as did Timurid architects in their turn. Some of
the excesses of 15th-century work showed that the process could not
be continued indefinitely. Yet this was precisely what Safavid (and
Uzbek) architects tried to do, even though their current idiom was
bankrupt after centuries of intensive exploitation. It is not surprising
that they were unable to introduce significant innovations and that the
structural aspects of architecture stagnated. Builders had to content
themselves with allotting a new and dominant role to decoration. A
more fruitful approach might have been to look beyond the borders of
Iran to some of the other flourishing traditions of the contemporary
world. It may be instructive to consider why this was not done.
The lack of influences from Western Europe is entirely understandable,
despite the fascination with all things Western evinced by Shah 'Abbas.
Although embassies trekked back and forth between Europe and Persia,
the dominant classical flavour of most contemporary European architec-
ture would have struck no chord in Persian builders. They would not of
course have seen such buildings themselves and the reports of ambassa-
dors or the odd engraving would probably not have been a sufficient
stimulus. Even in painting, where the exposure to European modes was
much more sustained, it is the manner rather than the essence of the
European model that is copied, as the auvre of Muhammad Zaman or the
Chihil Sutiin panels depicting Europeans indicate.
Other factors, however, must explain the reluctance of Safavid
architects to learn from their Ottoman and Mughal counterparts. It has
been a recurrent theme of this chapter that Safavid architecture took a
long time to find itself because for many decades the conditions were
wrong for an original, fully integrated style to develop. Ottoman
Turkey and Mughal India were favoured with one ruler after another
who patronised architecture on a grand scale. Both Mughal and
Ottoman architecture had a fundamentally different bias from that of
the Safavids, and one that would have made imitation difficult. The use
of stone rather than brick demanded different techniques, such as
centering, and favoured precise calculation, whereas much of Iranian
architecture depended on the eye. Ottoman architects preferred plain
exteriors, which looked impressive in stone, while Iran was tradition-
ally wedded to surface ornament. This latter bias was, however, shared
by Mughal architecture, which makes the neglect of that school as a
839
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

source of inspiration even harder to explain, especially as Mughal

culture owed so much to Persia. Certainly Persian architects and artists
went to the Mughal empire. But if they returned they apparently
brought little inspiration with them, though conceivably Mughal
gardens or the parkland setting of so much Mughal architecture might
have exercised some influence on Safavid Persia. Both Mughal India
and Ottoman Turkey were, of course, political rivals of the Safavid
state, and this must have inhibited the easy dissemination of artistic
styles associated with them, in architecture as in painting. Presumably
this is why even those influences which would have been easy to
absorb, and which had roots or parallels in the Persian tradition, such
as Iznik tilework, Ottoman minarets, Mughal chhatris and onion
domes, are absent. Chinese art, on the other hand, carried no such
political liability and it is therefore not surprising that in much Safavid
art, notably in pottery and in certain types of painting, a pervasive
chinoiserie should be evident. The Chinese repertory of dragons,
phoenixes, cloud scrolls, peonies and lotuses also makes frequent
appearances in Safavid tilework, but these various elements had of
course long been domiciled in Iran. It is not necessary, therefore, to
postulate a fresh wave of influence from China.
The negative complexion of all this evidence makes it all the more
surprising to find a major enclave of alien architecture in Isfahan itself.
Nevertheless the Armenian buildings in Julfa document only the impact
of Iranian modes on a sturdily independent native tradition; no influence
in the reverse direction can be detected. Architecturally Julfa was as
much a foreign body as it was from the standpoint of politics, religion,
language and society. Armenian forms such as belfries, developed in the
context of a stone architecture, look incongruous and even slightly
absurd in the alien garb of Safavid brick and tile. But apart from the
purely cosmetic change brought about by these local materials, the form
of the churches remains entirely Armenian. They represent a curiosity
rather than a true merging of the Persian and Armenian traditions.

CONCLUSION

It is now time to draw together the various threads of this chapter. The
marked fluctuation in the quantity of surviving buildings from one
reign to the next in the Safavid period well illustrates yet again that the
finest architecture in Iran is the direct result of royal patronage. When
840
 CONCLUSION

that flagged, so did the production of major buildings. This helps in

turn to explain the uneven time-scale of so much Safavid architecture,
in which periods of intense activity alternate with long lulls. In fact,
most of the Safavid shahs showed little interest in erecting splendid
buildings, and even when some of them did engage in serious patron-
age their increasingly centralised state ensured that most important
new construction was in the capital. It is therefore not surprising that
central Iran should see the most concentrated spate of building activity,
while other provinces which had earlier been of prime importance,
such as Azarbaljan, Khurasan and Fars, now became something of a
backwater. That the quantity of structures surviving throughout much
of Iran during this period is nevertheless so great reflects among other
factors the replacement of royal by local patronage.
Shrines of various types, rather than mosques, were a particularly
popular Safavid form and reflected a widespread veneration of saints,
while in secular architecture quantities of palaces and above all of
caravansarais survive. In such buildings the manipulation of scale and
certain spatial devices brought new emphases to Iranian architecture. In
spite of such new constructions, however, repairs and embellishments
were a keynote of the period. Foreign influences are of negligible
significance, for this is essentially an inward-looking style. It was too
firmly rooted in the past to encourage innovation and no clear line of
development can be traced throughout the buildings of the period. This
conservatism in matters of structure coexisted with, and was probably
linked to, a predilection for overall decoration in glazed tilework. This
emphasis on applied decoration brought a new status to the craftsman
which is reflected in the proliferation of signed work and of named
specialists in calligraphy and in the various techniques of tilework. But
the primacy accorded to ornament implied a waning interest in architec-
ture per se. It can therefore be argued that, of all the styles of Islamic
architecture practised in Iran before the 18th century, the Safavid seems
to be the least original, notably lacking in that steady progression which
characterised contemporary Ottoman and Mughal architecture.
Finally, the fact that this relative decline coexisted with a higher level
of material prosperity than Iran had enjoyed for centuries demands some
discussion. Perhaps it is an expression of that general artistic and cultural
decline, that lack of new inspiration, which was widespread in much of
Islamic culture, not least in architecture, by the early 16th century.
Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India of course stand out as the exceptions.
841
 SAFAVID ARCHITECTURE

Even so, it must be conceded that in certain areas, such as book painting,
textiles and carpet manufacture, the Safavid achievement rivals that of any
previous Muslim dynasty in Iran. The argument that architecture ex-
presses a more general decline is therefore of only limited value.
Another approach would be to emphasise the destructive impact on
architecture of the widespread fashion for tilework. Timurid poly-
chrome ornament had popularised the idea that architecture was a
framework, a skeleton to be fleshed out with decoration. The accumu-
lated expertise of centuries in seeing a building as a whole was gradually
lost and it could not quickly be regained. Buildings were now articulated
by colour rather than structural devices. Gradually the focus of attention
moved to the facade, and then to the entrance itself, a trend already well
developed in Timurid architecture. The side and rear walls became of
diminishing consequence and even the interior was apt to be neglected.
The building as a whole was thus bound to suffer.
But perhaps the crucial factor was the conservatism which afflicted,
indeed paralysed, so many Safavid architects. Earlier medieval architec-
ture owed some of its vitality to the need to devise new architectural
forms for new purposes: khangah, madrasa, tomb shrine and others. No
such new functions make their appearance in the Safavid period. Long
experience had established the optimum form of the basic secular and
cultic structures. In matters of structure and decoration a similar fatigue,
if not stagnation, had set in. No new structural devices appear and there
is no technical breakthrough. The various emphases of earlier styles —
tilework, brick patterning, stucco carving, transition zones, vaulting,
large domes — had all been exhausted. The vigorous local schools of
previous centuries had died, so that there was little prospect of fresh
ideas from such a source. Much of provincial architecture in this period
was produced at artisan level in a style which grew naturally out of
provincial Timurid work. Flagging inspiration is particularly plain in
cultic buildings and much of the best Safavid work is secular architec-
ture, a hitherto less intensively exploited field. This may help to explain
why in religious architecture Safavid builders so often relied on sheer
scale for their most dramatic effects. The lesson was not lost on the
architects of the next two centuries, who also habitually used this
dimension of size and thereby partially disguised the humdrum and
derivative nature of their buildings. In the context of what was to come
it is thus entirely fitting that Safavid architecture should find its epilogue
in the gigantic complex of Shah Sultan Husain on the Chahar Bagh.
842
 CHAPTER l6(tf)

THE PICTORIAL ARTS IN THE TIMURID

PERIOD*

In his chapter in volume V of this series, Professor Grabar wrote of the

present difficulty of coordinating the monuments of the visual arts
with the events of the time. To some extent this is less true of the
Timurid and Safavid periods, for two reasons; the existence of near
contemporary literary sources for the art of the period, especially the
arts of the book; and secondly the clearer relation of political events,
changes of capital, the patronage of princes, the greater extent of
surviving material.
Still, even for this period, there are striking gaps in our knowledge:
the small amount of architecture of the 9th/15 th century in western
Iran; the complete disappearance of 15 th century carpets; the lack of
any wall-paintings or of portrait drawings which can be attributed with
any security to the 15 th century; and of any paintings from Samarqand
or Bukhara of the same period. Again, there has been far too little
systematic publication, in spite of the marked progress during the past
forty years; we still await definitive publication of the Balsunqur and
the Tahmasp Shah-nama manuscripts, for instance; even the work of
Bihzad, the most famous painter of Persia, is not yet satisfactorily
defined nor his life-history properly established. However, the history
of miniature painting is well enough known during these two and a
half centuries for an account to be given of the stylistic course and for
its assessment in the scale of world art. For, with architecture, this is
now the major artistic expression of Iran during this period which
witnessed the rise and decline of its classic style.
When the period opens,1 the leading centre for the arts of the book
was in the west, in Tabriz and Baghdad, alternate capitals of the

* These chapters were written in 1972. They have been twice revised to take account of
subsequent research and publications, the last time in early 1981. Since then the most important
event has been the publication of the monograph on the so-called Houghton Shab-ndma by
Martin B.Dickson and Stuart Cary Welch, Harvard University Press, in two folio volumes in
which all the 258 miniatures are reproduced in facsimile size, together with 23 colour plates and
extensive text. It has not been possible to take account of this book in this place. B.G.
1
Professor Grabar has pointed out in CHI v, 649, that 1370 "seems to be as good a date as any
other for the change to the assured style of the later fourteenth century".

843
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

Jalayirid dynasty; it then shifted briefly to Shiraz for the opening years
of the 9th/15 th century, and was then fixed in Herat for the period until
853/1449, and again from about 1480 to 912/1506. In the interval the
capital of the Qara Quyunlii under Jahan Shah and of the Aq Quyunlu
under Uzun Hasan and his son Ya'qiib, Tabriz again became a leading
centre for the arts of the book and for architecture. With the rise to
power of the Safavid house, Tabriz became the leading centre for the
third time, until the capital was transferred to Qazvln and later to
Isfahan, when this city became the capital of Shah 'Abbas the Great.
After its brief glory under the governorship of Iskandar (812—817/
1409—14), son of'Umar Shaikh, Shiraz never again assumed the leader-
ship in Persian painting; but it remained for a hundred and fifty years a
fruitful workshop, from which indeed the largest number of illumi-
nated manuscripts emanated. This phenomenon has not so far been
explained: why should the merchant class of this city have supported
the art more than that of any other city of Iran? It may, however, be
historically significant, because it was from this Shiraz school that the
painting styles of the Indian sultanates were mainly derived.
Both the earliest written sources which have come down to us and
modern scholarship have treated of the history of miniature painting
throughout the period of this volume as fundamentally a single devel-
opment in time, shifting as we have indicated from one centre to
another to follow the course of patronage. Anything outside this single
line has been regarded as "provincial", which in effect has been taken
to mean retarded, unoriginal or crude. It is a question, however,
whether this scheme does not tend to overemphasise the importance of
royal patronage, although no doubt economic necessity would have
made some support necessary during the long period of production
required for an illuminated manuscript, with the use of costly materials
and the need for the collaboration of several different specialist
craftsmen and artists - calligrapher, illuminator, miniaturist and binder
at least. Moreover, only in princely libraries would the artists have had
access to models and former masterpieces. We shall be able to show
that it was not always the political leaders who provided this patronage
but, on the contrary, often the less effective members of the ruling
families who gave their time and money to artistic commissions. In
particular, the situation in the lifetime of Tlmur is at first sight unex-
pected. Although we know that he carried off from the captured cities
of Iran to his new capital of Samarqand leading artists and craftsmen,
844
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

including the famous calligrapher of Tabriz, Mu'In al-Dln and the

painter 'Abd al-Haiy,1 we do not know of a single fine manuscript
produced in Samarqand during the lifetime of Tlmur. The calligra-
phers and illuminators must have been fully occupied with the design-
ing of the decoration for the many splendid buildings, permanent and
temporary, which Tlmur was putting up with feverish haste; nearly
every famous scribe of these times also designed the inscriptions for
public buildings, and we hear of wall-paintings in the garden pavilions
and figured embroideries in the tents which still were the favourite
dwellings of the conqueror. Thus it is that the Timurid style of minia-
ture painting was not developed in Samarqand nor even in one of the
seats of Timurid rule but in the precarious capitals of the last of the
Jalayirids, Sultan Ahmad. It was only after the death of TTmur that this
style was adopted by his descendants, but with some modification,
especially towards greater energy.
While technically the change from Mongol to Timurid painting is
smoothly achieved and without radical change in visual structure, the
psychological adjustment is notable. It is symbolised by the fact that
romantic and lyrical poetry was not within the range of the Il-Khanid
school, which, as Professor Grabar has pointed out,2 was concerned
with the Shdh-nama as a mirror of the destiny of dynasties and the tragic
involvement with fate. Otherwise the school was occupied by the
illustration of history and of books of instruction.
The change is symbolised by the fact that the Khamsa of Nizami was
not included in the Mongol repertory; but at the end of the 8th/i4th
century this situation changed decisively. We now have a copy of the
Khamsa dated 788-90/1386—8,3 in nasta'liq by Mahmud b. Muhammad
at Baghdad when it was a capital of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir. It contains
twenty-three miniatures. Then follows a very fine Khusrau u Shtrin in
the Freer Gallery,4 copied by 'AH b. Hasan al-Sultanl "in the capital of
the kingdom Tabriz" and undated, but attributable to the end of the
Jalayirid period between 1405 and 1410. The new tradition is immedi-
ately taken up again in the library of Iskandar at Shlraz, where in
813—14/141 o—11 illustrations to the Khamsa are among the miniatures

1 2
QazI Ahmad, p. 63 and n.170. CHI v, 653, 657.
3
Christies's, Catalogue, 29 April 1970, lot no. 45, pp. 26-31, with four plates. Titley, "A
Fourteenth Century Khamseh", pp. 8 - 1 1 , 2 pis.
4
Aga-Oglu, in Al iv (1937), 478-81, illustrating the five miniatures contemporary with the
text. See also Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, p. j8; Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 53—5.

845
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

of the two famous anthologies prepared for this Timurid princely

patron. It may therefore be inferred that the change of subject at this
time signified a change of direction in the cultural spirit of the Jalayirid
court. They were of Mongol stock and claimed the main direct succes-
sion from the Il-Khanid tradition, but they lived in a completely
Iranicised milieu, to which they personally contributed as writers and
artists. Sultan Shaikh Uvais (757—76/1356—74) was a notable builder:
his patronage of the painter Shams al-Dln was recorded by Dust
Muhammad.1 With Sultan Ahmad Jalayir we enter on a period where
the literary sources can be directly connected with surviving illustrated
manuscripts.
Ahmad secured the control of the kingdoms of Iraq and Azarbaijan
by 784/1382, and Baghdad and Tabriz remained his alternate capitals
so long as he was master of those cities. Coins were minted in Tabriz in
his name in 1383, but the city was seized by Tokhtam'ish of the Golden
Horde in 787/1385, and it was occupied by Tlmur in 788/1386, when
Mlran Shah was installed as governor. It remained in Timurid hands
until the death of Tlmur in 807/1405, when it fell to the Shlrvan-Shah
for a year. Sultan Ahmad was welcomed back by the inhabitants in
1406 but he survived only till 813/1410, when he was defeated and
killed by Qara Yusuf of the Qara Quyunlu. Baghdad was held by
Ahmad until 795/1393, when it was taken and sacked by Tlmur, and he
fled to Syria and Egypt. However, he was soon able to return and
remained in control until 803/1401, when it again fell to Tlmur, while
Sultan Ahmad took refuge with the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid. The
surviving manuscripts produced for Sultan Ahmad fall in the years
1386 to 1388, 1392, 1396 and 1399, in all of which he was in control of
Baghdad.
The leading master at the court of Sultan Ahmad was 'Abd al-Haiy,
pupil of Shams al-Dln, until he was removed by Tlmur in 795/1393 to
his new capital in Samarqand. Junaid, pupil of'Abd al-Haiy, remained
in Baghdad, and the most famous surviving manuscript from Sultan
Ahmad's library, the celebrated Khamsa dated 1396 of Khwaju of
Kirman in the British Library, bears his signature on one of the
miniatures.2 The nine illustrations of this manuscript3 are worthy of a

1
Binyon eta/., Persian Miniature Painting, p. 184.
2
Gray, Persian painting from miniatures of the XIII—XVI centuries, pi. 4.
3
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pp. 33—5, pis. IV—VIII. Martin, Miniature Painting 11, pis.
45 — 50. Barrett, pis. 8, 9. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 46—7.

846
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

master on account of the originality of the compositions and the bril-

liance of the colouring in which they are executed (pi. 47). Stchoukine
considers that they are all by a single hand, but it may be that two (nos.
1 and 7) are by another painter. Two other manuscripts assigned by
their colophons to the court of Sultan Ahmad are an 'Aja'ib
al-makhluqat, copied in 1388 and now in the Bibliotheque Nationale
(Supp. pers. 332)1, and the Khamsa of NizamI, already referred to and
dated 1386-8 from Baghdad. The twenty-three miniatures of this latter
manuscript are much simpler than those of the Khwaju manuscript,
but show similar, rather stiff figures of men and horses; similar con-
ventions for the rendering of foliage and rocky ground; and in some
cases similar extension of the miniature into the margins of the page.
Rich colour is common to both manuscripts, with the use of gold for
the sky as an alternative to a cobalt blue, but of lapis in some of the
costumes and other textiles. At least one of the carpet designs is com-
mon to both, and these are among the earliest designs known to us;
and the best miniatures show something of the same movement,
especially apparept in the "prostration of Shlrln (fol. 88a) before
Khusrau" (pi. 48). But although all the elements of the new style are
there, they are not yet developed into the spacious and romantic minia-
ture style of the Khwaju. The 'AJd'ib al-makhluqat with its numerous
miniatures shows less of this new spirit, but this is to be expected of a
work of this character, with its traditional subject matter, largely astro-
nomical. The few figure subjects are, however, quite comparable with
the NizamI miniatures, and there seems no need to assign, with
Stchoukine, these illustrations to a later period. Another manuscript in
the same library, clearly dated 1392 and apparently produced for Shah
Valad, son of Sultan Ahmad, is a Kalila va Dimna2 (Pers. 913) of small
format but illustrated by seventy-four miniatures contemporary with
the text and therefore of the Jalayirid school of Baghdad. Some of
them are more forward-looking than anything in Supp. pers. 332,
especially in the importance given to landscape. There is one other
manuscript dated 1399, which has been plausibly attributed to the same

1
H. Masse, Le Livre des Merveilles du Monde (Paris, 1944). Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pp.
32—3. Arts of Islam, no. J42.
2
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, p. 33, pis. II, III. S. Walzer, "The Topkapu-Saray manu-
script of the Persian Kalila wa Dimna (dated A.D. 1413)", in Paintings from Islamic Lands, ed. R.
Pinder-Wilson (Oxford, 1969), pp. 73-6. Arts of Islam, no. 543.

847
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

school. Entitled the Kitdb al-bulhdn (Bodleian, Or. 133),1 this is an

account of the Seven Climes of the Ptolemaic cosmology and is enriched
by seventy-eight miniatures, including eleven of the Seasons. These
have been attributed by D.S. Rice to an Italian prototype which might
have been available in the cosmopolitan capital of the Jalayir at
Baghdad, where it was produced. The flat schematic architecture might
be thought primitive, but it is enlivened by shading of the tiled surfaces
and rather prefigures the scenic convention that was to prevail into
the early Timurid period. The tree and plant conventions are those
common in the Jalayirid school, and Chinese influence is clear in the
water and cloud patterns, and is shown in the dragon-headed snake
(fol. 33V). These two pseudo-scientific manuscripts of 1388 and 1399
accentuate the exceptional quality of the Khwaju: they serve also to
bridge the gap between the Jalayirid school of Tabriz and Baghdad
and the school of Shlraz under the Muzaffarids.
A precursor of the Kitdb al-bulbdn is a dispersed scientific dictionary
entitled Mu'nis al-ahrdr, dated 1341 from Shlraz,2 when it was still ruled
by the Tnjii dynasty. For landscape elements in the Jalayirid manu-
scripts we might compare the Muzaffarid Shdh-ndma of 1370 in
Istanbul.3 Here we see elegant little plant clumps, and above all a better
relation of figures to the scale of the page than is found in either the
Tabriz or the Shlraz manuscripts of the first half of the century. There
are some fine detached Shdh-ndma illustrations mounted in an album in
the Topkapi library (Hazine 215 3),** which clearly develop out of the
Tabriz style of the Il-Khanid period and retain the great size of the
page used in the Rashldiyya scriptorium of Rashld al-Dln, but are so
advanced that they can hardly be put before 1370; yet they retain the
epic character of the time of Abu Sa'Id, only modified by the reduction
in scale of the figures in relation to the landscape. If this date is correct,
then this solution of the proper relation of figures and page was
reached independently at about the same date in Shlraz and Tabriz.

1
D.S. Rice, "Seasons and Labors of the Months in Islamic Art", AO i (1954), 1—39. Z. Jane,
"Minijature iu Islamskom AstroSlokom spisu Orijentalnog Istituta u Sarajevu", 1958, Perlo^a
Qrijentalnu Titologiju i Istori/u Jugoslovanskiu Naroaa pot. Turkskom Vladavinom. E. Baer, in BSOAS
xxxi (1961), 526-7.
2
Qazvlni, "An Account of the Mu'nisu'l-Abrar"'. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 60—2.
Grube, Miniature islamicbe, pis. 50, 31.
3
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 63—4. Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pi. 1. Aga-Oglu,
"Preliminary Notes", pp. 191-2, pis. 5-7.
4
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 41—3. See now also N. Atasoy, "Four Istanbul Albums".

848
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

Thanks to closer familiarity with Chinese painting and to more

discriminating patronage, the Tabriz landscapes are more developed.
Yet the later Jalayirid miniatures seem to owe as much to the Shlraz
tradition as to that of Tabriz. At the same time in Shlraz, the economy
of visual terms both in figures and in landscape was inherited in the
early Timurid period, but refined by greater skill in draughtsmanship
and enriched by freer use of gold, silver and lapis lazuli, now within
the command of the rulers of an empire.
Shlraz in the 13 90s thus saw the birth of a new style, which devel-
oped naturally out of the Muzaffarid, when it was brought into touch
with the achievements of the Jalayirid masters in Tabriz and Baghdad.
Twin volumes of epic poetry dated 1397 and now in the British
Library1 and the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin,2 show the vigour and
sense of striking design of Shlraz under the Muzaffarids refined by the
sensitive draughtsmanship and fine colour sense of the Jalayirid
school. At Shlraz the prince who represented the ruling house was
Iskandar, son of 'Umar Shaikh. He was twice governor of Fars, from
1394 to 1399, w n e n i n his early teens, and again from 812/1409 to
817/1414. These two volumes of epics might well have appealed to a
precocious boy of thirteen, with their strongly romantic feeling and
direct drama. They still keep the simplicity of composition which has
all along been a characteristic of the Shlraz school. This indeed contin-
ues in the much more sophisticated work in the miniatures illustrating
the well known anthologies, or rather compendia, prepared for Iskan-
dar by his scriptorium in 813 -14/141 o-11. In them the range of decora-
tion was increased by two means: the employment, for the first time, of
double-page compositions extending the full width of the open book,
and the introduction of marginal decoration.3 This practice, as distinct
from the extension of the miniature into the margin, was apparently
first employed in the Divan of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, produced in the
first years of the 9th/15 th century. The last six pages of this manu-
script, which is now in the Freer Gallery, Washington,4 are decorated
with figures in landscape, in ink with touches of blue and gold, in a
closely Chinese style and medium. A similar range of colouring is to be

1
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pis. XI-XV. Barrett, pi. 10. Gray, Persian Painting (1961),
p. 66. G. Meredith-Owens, Persian Illustrated Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1965), pi. II.
2
Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, pi. XXXI. Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, pi. 7.
3
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 71, 73.
* Martin, Miniatures from the period of Timur. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 49.

849
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

seen in the margin decorations of some pages in the smaller Iskandar

anthology of 1410. In the larger, there are whole pages of decorative
work of this same character, veritable climaxes of illumination.1 There
are also some marginal miniatures, a feature shared with the Nizaml
Iskandar-nama of small format, now in the British Library,2 which is
later than 1410, but also of Shlraz (pi. 49*2). These are a witty novelty,
for the artist has used the area, of the text of the poem within the
margins as if it were a curtain from behind which part of the action is
allowed to appear in the margin: a fallen battle standard, signifying a
defeated enemy; two camel-heads and a groom, a caravan; the head of a
sleeping man between two candles; a harp and tambourine, to signify
an orchestra. They are really thumb-nail sketches, two inches by one.
It was a time of experiment and it is therefore not so surprising to
find another manuscript, dated 1398 from Bihbihan in Fars, in which
an anthology of seven poets is illustrated by eleven pure landscapes and
only one figure subject (Turk ve Islam Miizesi, Istanbul, T. 1950).3
Here the forms of trees and plants, as they are found represented in
landscapes in other manuscripts of the early Timurid period, have been
extracted and arranged as if they were specimens, each depicted in
perfection and in fullest visibility, formed into patterns against a back-
ground of stylised hills in exotic colours. The date of these miniatures
has been questioned by Stchoukine, who compares them with those of
a Khamsa of Nizaml in the Topkapi Library (Hazine 1510), dated
906/15 o 1 but with miniatures which he believes to have been added
about 15 70.4 It appears, however, that not only has the date in the
colophon of this manuscript been altered but the miniatures have been
subsequently greatly overpainted and that their original date may have
been about 1400.5
The full beauty of the early Timurid style of miniature is first seen in
the two anthologies made for Iskandar Sultan in 813/1410-1. It com-
prehends greater freedom of handling, the figures moving in space,
1
Gray, "Some Chinoiserie drawings", fig. 6.
2
Robinson, "The earliest illustrated manuscript of Nizami?", Oriental Art, autumn 1957, pp.
96—103.
3
Aga-Oglu, "The Landscape Miniatures of an Anthology manuscript of the year 1398 A.D.",
AI III/I (1937), 77-98. (Jig, Katahgu, p. 72, no. 12, pis. V, VI. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 68.
4
Syria XLII (1965), 137—40; see also his La peinture Turque ctapres les manuscrits illustres (Paris,
1966), p. 64, no. 27.
5
See Pugachenkova and Rempel', Istoriya iskusstv U^bekistana, p. 290 and pis. 280, 28;. The
patterning of the tree foliage in T. 1950 is already found in the Shlraz Sbah-nama of 1370 (Hazine
1511, fol. 105V).

850
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

experiment in rendering architectural form; the circular "Hall of Seven

Images", each in a different pose;1 the aerial view of the Ka'ba with the
gay tents of the pilgrims pitched in the desert outside the walls of
Mecca; Iskandar guided by a candle as he walks under the night sky
over the rocky path to the hermit's cave (pi. 49^); or Farhad carrying
Shlrln on her horse at Blsitun by the rock-carvings.2 In the other
moonlit scene from the Alexander legend, in which he watches, con-
cealed, the Sirens in their lake home, in the two versions,3 one in each
of these books, this style has reached its height. Imaginative concep-
tion and lyrical expression have found a perfect medium, perfect in
scale, in feeling and in colour. This is a unique moment in the history
of the Persian school: it passed all too quickly from the youth to the
prime of the Timurid school. Iskandar came to an untimely end in
817/1414, and after a brief period when his cousin Ibrahim b. Shah
Rukh carried on the Shiraz tradition at his capital Isfahan, the leader-
ship of the school passed to his brother Balsunqur in his father's seat of
government, Herat, in the year 823/1420.
Of Iskandar the fullest account has been given in his article "Le
mecenat timouride" by Jean Aubin, who points to his great building
activity both at Isfahan and at Shiraz; in both cities he built fortified
palaces, perhaps because of the hatred he inspired in the people by his
oppressive rule. As with most of the Timurid princes his background
was essentially Turki, his mother being a Chaghatai princess; and he
composed poetry in Turki. Nevertheless his taste was formed by
Persian culture, which is fully reflected in the two anthologies; but these
also contain astronomical calculations, and in one is included a Shl'I
treatise on law. Aubin considers that his interest in mysticism was
only superficial, but that would not prevent genuine feeling having
been entertained by some of the artists who worked for him. The
Gulbenkian manuscript includes a double-page composition showing
Christians of Najran recognise the Prophet (fols. 265—6). Both pages are
resplendent in gold, light and dark clouds of glory on the right; and
eleven figures writhing in flames on the left leaf.4 This is probably a
unique document for its subject: in style too it is unusual; it may be one
of several miniatures in this manuscript which show Western influence,
1 2
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 7;. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pi. XVII.
3
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 76. Pinder-Wilson, Persian Painting in thefifteenthcentury, pi. 2.
* Persian Art: Caloustt Gulbenkian Collection, pi. 15. Professor P. Soucek has correctly identified
this subject.

851
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

perhaps Byzantine, transmitted therefore through Tabriz. For the head

of Iskandar's library in Shlraz was Ma'ruf BaghdadI, certainly not the
only leading artist attracted to him from the falling power of the
Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad. Later Ma'ruf removed to Herat to serve Shah
Rukh, but was involved in 830/1427 in an attempted assassination of
his patron by a Huruf I fanatic, of which heretical movement he was an
adherent.1 It has been suggested that Iskandar may also have been
affected by this heresy, which seems to have gone under the cloak of
Shi'ism. One of its tenets was the mystical or divine value of certain or
all of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, a doctrine likely to appeal to an
aesthete and to a calligrapher. It should be stressed, however, that
there is no historical evidence to support this suggestion, which re-
mains a pure surmise.
The two anthologies produced for Iskandar Sultan are also of
crucial importance for their illumination. The Gulbenkian book has
perhaps the finest sar-lauh (frontispieces) (pi. 50) of the early Timurid
school. The second double opening is laid out very like the tile mosaic
decoration on the buildings of the period, and it is in fact possible to find
a close parallel for these pages in the entrance gateway to the madrasa of
Ulugh Beg, cousin of Iskandar, in the Rlgistan at Samarqand, which was
built between 1417 and 1420. The central rosace, so like a Gothic rose
window both in its layout and in the splendour of its floral arabesque
decoration, resembles a similar feature in the architectural decoration of
this gate;2 while the stylised Kufic circles and diamonds in the frame-
work on the page are echoed elsewhere in the decor of the madrasa. We
know that other artists of the book, the calligraphers, were quite often
employed to design the monumental inscriptions on buildings; and it is
likely that the miniaturists also contributed to the decoration of Tlmur's
palaces and tented camps at Samarqand as they are described by the
Castilian envoy Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo.3
The special position of these two anthologies has already been
stressed; it remains to point to two other features which distinguish
them, the first of which had no continuing future, the second only to
be taken up and developed in a much later period. Each manuscript
contains double-page compositions which are thus not so much larger
than the normal size, as different in shape and organisation. As has

1 2
Aubin, "Le mecenat timouride", p. 8 5. Hill and Grabat, pi. 64.
3
Clavijo, trans. Le Strange, pp. 220, 227-8, 230, 237—55, 268-76.

852
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

already been noted in one instance, the two halves can be used for
contrast but in the smaller book it is also used for a panoramic view of
the city of Mecca and the Ka'ba. The practice does, however, destroy
the unity of the book, of text and illustration, which had just been
perfectly achieved: consequently it is not surprising that the double-
page composition is in future generally reserved for the frontispiece,
the most striking exceptions being the illustrations to a manuscript of
Sharaf al-Dln 'All Yazdl's Zafar-ndma, copied in 1467 and now in the
Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.1 The second innovation in the two
anthologies is the introduction of marginal decoration, in the form of
ornamental or figural thumb-pieces.
In some of the miniatures of the two Iskandar anthologies the older
Shiraz tradition still predominates, though their forthrightness is
modified by the polish and sophistication of the Jalayirid school.2 The
strength of this old tradition was, however, sufficient for it to become
once more dominant after the death of Iskandar and the succession to
the governorship of Fars of his cousin Ibrahim b. Shah Rukh, who
ruled for twenty years. This is immediately apparent in the principal
surviving manuscripts from Shiraz and Isfahan of this period, the
anthology of the Berlin Museum of 1420,3 which was a present sent by
Ibrahim to his brother Balsunqur; and a manuscript of the Shdh-ndma
with forty-seven miniatures in the Bodleian Library (Ouseley Add.
176) dedicated to the prince himself and probably datable to 1432—4,
the last years of his life.4 The tradition is continued in two ShlrazI
manuscripts of 839/1435-6, a Khamsa of Nizami in the British
Museum,5 which still retains some of the romantic quality of the Jalay-
irid tradition; and a Zafar-ndma of Sharaf al-Dln, whose miniatures are
now widely scattered.6 In both these manuscripts invention is still
shown in the compositions, at least equal to that in the Tbrahlm manu-

1
For these miniatures, attributed to Bihzad, see below, p. 868 and n. 2.
2
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timitrides, pi. XVI. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 74. Robinson,
Persian Miniature Painting, pi. 8.
3
Kiihnel, "Die Baysonghur Handschrift", Jahrbuch des preussischen Kunstsammlungen LII (Berlin,
1931), 132—52. V. Enderlein, Die Miniaturen der Berliner Baisonqur-Handschrift (Leipzig, 1969).
4
Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, frontispiece and pis. XXXVIII—XL. Stchoukine,
Manuscrits Timurides, pis. XXI—XXVI. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 98-100.
5
Gray, "A newly discovered Nizami of the Timurid school", East and West n.s. xiv/3—4
(1963), 220-3.
6
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 97. Grube, Miniature islamiche, pis. 32-3. Stchoukine,
however, has argued for a Yazdl origin for these pages. The carcase of the MS was sold at
Sotheby's in 1976.

853
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

scripts, the calligraphy and illumination also still as fine as could be

found in Herat. Ibrahim himself designed inscriptions for the monu-
ments of Shlraz and Isfahan (but no longer extant) and he gathered
about him a "numerous concourse of scholars and men of talent". It
seems to have been the political decline of the Timurids which rather
soon after this date made Shlraz a provincial centre, though even as
late as 1444 a Shdh-ndma manuscript shows a largeness of design as well
as a vigour of drawing, especially in the double-page frontispiece
feasting scene,1 which is refreshing.
The finer, more sophisticated tradition had long since passed to
Herat, where Balsunqur, Ibrahim's younger brother, had established
himself as the leading patron of his generation, not later than 1425.
Indeed in calligraphy it was clearly pre-eminent by 1420, when he
returned from a punitive expedition to Tabriz, bringing with him
Maulana Ja'far Tabrlzl, master of the nasta'llq script, Sayyid Ahmad
the painter (naqqash), Khwaja 'All the designer (musavvir), and Qivam
al-Din the binder.2 By 1421 Ja'far was using the style al-Balsunqurl,
but the earliest of the manuscripts with minatures attested as made for
him are two elegant little volumes dated 830/1426-7, a Gulistdn of Sa'di
copied by Ja'far himself and an anthology copied by Muhammad b.
Husam called Shams al-Din al-Sultanl, and a third manuscript of the
following year of the Humdiu Humdyiin of Khwaju KirmanI also copied
by the latter scribe. The Gulistdn, now in the Chester Beatty library in
Dublin,3 is one of the most exquisite of Persian manuscripts; its eight
deceptively simple miniatures conceal a fresh and daring treatment of
the picture space. Three of them show different experiments in the use
of the bent wall and the open door in it, to make a closed stage for the
action, while suggesting an inner world communicating with the out-
side through the half-open doorway. Each figure is related to the
others by gestures which are quietly expressive. The stiff figures of the
Jalayirid school have come alive. A similar advance has been made in
the treatment of the landscape; by cutting off the line of the sky not far
above the ridge of the hill. This practice had been tried out somewhat
timidly in the Jalayirid Khamsa of Nizaml of 1386-8, but the effect was
much reduced by bringing the figures too near the front of the compo-

1
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 102-3.
2
Dust Muhammad, quoted in Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, p. 185.
3
Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue 1, 119, pis. 27-8. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 87.
Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, pi. 10.

854
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

sition; whereas now Baisunqur's painters had learnt how to push back
the hori2on. The text of the poem floats in front of the composition
and serves as a curtain concealing the far distance. The colouring is
cool, and has been compared by Robinson to diamonds and pearls.
Actually turquoise, blue and green are predominant. Like the Junaid
miniatures, these are also full-page and again, like them, introduce
beautiful decorative inscriptions on the buildings depicted. The Herat
court style has been born.
How much credit for this should be given to Balsunqur personally is
difficult to determine. Herat was now the principal seat of Timurid
power under Shah Rukh, and so would naturally have attracted the
more ambitious artists. At the same time it was twenty years after the
death of Timur and the emergence of Shah Rukh as his successor that
this school showed its first fruits, and they were seen then only in
Baisunqur's manuscripts.
Though overshadowed by his son Balsunqur, Shah Rukh was still
an important patron of the arts of the book. While Balsunqur was
editing a new recension of the Shah-nama, his father was assuming the
mantle of the great Il-Khanid minister, vizier and historian Rashld
al-Dln. He tried to re-establish the original text by collating the manu-
scripts which he could find, and he entrusted Hafiz-i Abru with the
task of bringing the history up to date in his Majma' al-tavarikh. He was
equally careful in having the original illustrations of the Jami'
al-tavarikh copied and in continuing this tradition of illustrated history.
Ettinghausen1 has aptly given the name of the "historical style" to this
Timurid extension of the Il-Khanid style. Examples of it are to be seen
in Hazine 1653 and 1654 in the Topkapi Sarayi library; in the famous
Jami' al-tavarikh of the Bibliotheque Nationale, originally published by
Blochet as contemporary with the author; and in a widely dispersed
manuscript of the Majma' al-tavarikh of about 1423. However, the
greatest surviving monument to the taste of Shah Rukh as a patron of
the arts of the book lies in the Mir'aj-nama or visionary journey of the
Prophet Muhammad, copied at Herat in 1436 by Malik Bakhshi in
Uighur script.2 This mystical work is lavishly illustrated in gold and

1
Ettinghausen, "An illuminated manuscript of Hafiz-i Abru in Istanbul, part I", KO n (1956),
30-44.
2
Blochet, Musulman Painting, pis. LXXX—LXXXVII. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pis.
LVIII—LXIV. Gray, Persian painting from miniatures of the XIII—XVI centuries, pi. 6. M.R. Seguy,
The Miraculous Journey of Mahomet, Miraj Nameh (London, 1977).

855
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

blue. Apart from their iconographical interest, these miniatures show

the continuation in Herat of the style of the Gulbenkian anthology of
Iskandar of 1410, with rather large stiff figures and simple architecture
and landscape. So far as the subjects allow, the colour scheme is attrac-
tive and expertly handled. So universal is its conception in illustrating
the circles of heaven and hell that its miniatures have been found
useful to illustrate Dante.1 The epithet "BakhshI" used with the name
of the scribe here designates only a man who can use the Uighur script
and does not imply that he was a religious devotee. This manuscript
does, however, suggest that Shah Rukh was himself inclined towards
this kind of mystical gnosis. It is therefore a contrast with the epic and
romantic poetry copied and illustrated for Balsunqur.
After the three exquisite small manuscripts of 830/1426-7, the next
secure date that we have for the products of Balsunqur's library is
833/1429-30, in which year two famous manuscripts were completed:
a Kaltla va Dimna copied by Muhammad b. Husam, and the Shah-ndma
copied by Ja'far al-Balsunqurl,2 recognised since 1931, when it was
first shown to the world in the great Persian exhibition at the Royal
Academy in London, as the masterpiece of its age. If reflection and
study now suggest some criticism of it, this does not deprive it of this
title. The two outstanding features of the thirty-five miniatures which
illustrate it are the skilful and varied compositions and the brilliant
colouring. The drawing is not sensitive or fluent but superbly con-
trolled. There is an expert formal relationship between the figures, but
they are somewhat stiff and lack sensibility. There is a conceptual
rather than a visual perspective, but it is consistently applied. The two
divan scenes and the "Bedroom of Rudaba" are rigidly frontal, with the
carpets and tiled floors seen directly from above and thus in continu-
ous line with the back wall. No attempt is made to accommodate the
thrones in the layout: one is frontally seen; the other in bias, but with
no adjustment of the front elevation. In the "Gulnar at the Window
seeing Ardashlr" some relief is given by the irregular shape of the
courtyard and the bias wall of the tower, but there is an unresolved
difficulty where this should meet the top of the page. The artist has
shirked this and simply continued the tiling to the margin. In the
"funeral of Faramurz" the two coffins of Rustam and Zavara in the
1
E . Ccrulli, LJbro delta Scala (Rome, 1949).
2
Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, no. 49, pis. XLHI—L. Iran, Persian Miniatures, pis.
I—IX. Gray, Persian Miniatures from ancient Manuscripts, pis. I—IX.

856
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

domed tomb chamber are shown in a kind of aerial perspective,

whereas the tiled floor on which they should stand is rigidly frontal,
but apparently intended to be stepped up at each of the arcade pillars of
the frontal screen. The walls of the courtyard in the foreground are
impossible to reconcile with any system. On the other hand, the elabo-
rate architecture of the Brazen Hold in which Isfandiyar is slaying the
tyrant Arjasp (pi. 51) is a very interesting attempt at aerial perspective.
The throne room, which is the centre of the drama, is again seen in
front view, with no allowance for the different planes of floor and wall;
but all the rest of the composition is arranged so as to radiate outwards
from this point. Circular composing had already been seen in the
Iskandar anthology, but there the interior view permitted of a simple
solution by cutting off the circle at the bottom of the page, which thus
forms a hemicircle. The two encircling walls of the castle are depicted
as diverging from the gateways; the re-entrant of the inner wall is
depicted to show the inside, leaving an extremely awkward truncation
at the corner, where the artist has covered his confusion byfillingin
the whole background with tilework on a straight plane. For all this
difficulty, this is an able and cunning picture of a castle seen from
above. It also conveys a good conceptual view of tile-mosaic clad
buildings of the period, with monumental inscriptions running round
the cornices.
The other Balsunqur manuscripts deal with these architectural prob-
lems in the same way; yet with greater trouble. For instance, in the
Berenson anthology,1 the tower in a similar love story is revealed as a
cardboard piece of scenery where it meets the tiled floor of the court-
yard in such a way as to make egress impossible. In the landscape
scenes, the transition from low ground towards a high horizon is
already an established convention, here used in an interesting way
when the action requires the actors in a scene to enter into the rocky
background, as in the "Combat of Gudarz and Plran", "Zahhak
pinned to mount Damavand" or "Rustam killing the White Dlv"; in
all of which the mountain build-up is effectively suggested. In the
Jalayirid landscapes ("Humai and Humayun fighting", for instance),2
the mountains enclose the action; in the Iskandar anthology, figures
and mountains have not come to terms: the figures have to move along

1
Ettinghausen, Persian Miniatures in the Bernard Berenson collection (Milan, 1961), pi. IV. Gray,
2
Persian Painting (1961), p . 86. Ibid., p . 47.

857
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

smooth paths leading past the rocky peaks. In each case this entry into
the mountain zone is emphasised by the presence of horses or horse-
men outside it, in the plain below. This more realistic approach is
emphasised by the greater naturalism of the trees, though they are still
partly conceptual.
The free extension of many of these miniatures into the margins has
allowed the miniaturists to achieve more spacious settings without
losing coherence or pictorial unity. Indeed the close-knit compositions
of this great manuscript are its most striking virtue.
The second manuscript of the year 833/1429—30, the Kaltla va Dimna
(Topkapi Sarayi library, Revan 1022),1 has many features in common
with the Shah-ndma: for instance, the smooth but knotted trunks of the
trees, the stiff figures and the rich colouring. The usual manner of
depicting the rocky scenery, which again forms the landscape setting,
is a spongy scalloped edge shading off into a neutral ground covered
with small conventional plants. There is often a repoussoir of darker
shaded ground in the foreground. Once more the miniatures
frequently overlap the marginated area into the margin; crisply drawn
and brightly coloured separate large plants are a special feature. The
skies are a deep blue. Animals and birds are very precisely, even
harshly, drawn.
Recently, another manuscript of the same work, copied a year later
in 834/1431 by Ja'far al-Balsunquri, has been discovered in the
Topkapi Sarayi library (Hazine 362) by Robinson, who has put for-
ward an interesting theory to account for the production of two copies
of the same book for Prince Balsunqur within two years.2 According to
this theory, the Herat library, of which Ja'far was head, would have
produced two classes of manuscript, one for "public" use, excelling in
the academic qualities of formal accomplishment and finish, the other
for the prince's private enjoyment, in which sensibility was allowed
more play. In the second group, in addition to the Hazine 362 manu-
script, he places the Chester Beatty Gulistan of 1427. It will be noticed
that both these manuscripts were copies by Ja'far himself; but he also
copied the Shah-nama, which is the very archetype of the accomplished
academic. For this reason, as well as on the more general ground that it

1
Aga-Oglu, "Preliminary Notes", p. 199, figs. 10—14. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 84.
Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pis. 11, 15.
2
Robinson, "Prince Baysunghur and the Fables of Bidpai", Oriental Art, n.s. xvi (June 1970),
145-54-

858
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

is hard to see in what sense the academic books were "public" in

a society where there was no public access to fine manuscripts of
any kind, outside works of religious instruction kept in mosques or
madrasas, the distinction is hard to accept in these terms. Moreover,
the essential difference between these two manuscripts lies not in the
quality of the calligraphy or illumination, but in the miniatures. Either,
therefore, Balsunqur with his connoisseur's discrimination was dissatis-
fied with the 1430 manuscript of Kalila va Dimna and commissioned
another immediately, or he may have given the first away to some
other bibliophile and wished to replace it. In either case the art
historian's task is to seek to identify the hands of the miniaturists
responsible for each of these series. Unfortunately, there is a complete
absence of signed work from the Balsunqur kitdbkhdna; and we can
only fall back upon the names recorded in literary sources, which are
not contemporary. Apart from Sayyid Ahmad and Khwaja 'All men-
tioned already as foundation members of this library in 1420, we hear
of Ghiyas al-Din as attached by Balsunqur to Shah Rukh's embassy to
China in 1419-22 and of the leading master of Herat in this period,
Khalil, who may have been in charge of the production of the great
Sbdh-ndma of 1430, if this can be the manuscript referred to by Dust
Muhammad as ordered by Balsunqur in rivalry with an epic volume
produced for Ahmad Jalayir. If this is right, then Amir Khalil is the
pre-eminent master of the "academic" style, still drawing the stiff
figures of the Jalayirid tradition; mentioned by Daulatshah as one of
the "four talented artists at the court of Shah Rukh, who in their time
had no peer".1 Robinson, on the other hand, thinks that Amir Khalil
was the master responsible for the miniatures of the "second" Kalila va
Dimna of 834/1431 (Hazine 362) and also of the Gulistdn of 1426,
because of his known intimacy with Balsunqur. The alternative for the
role of the "sensitive" artist is Ghiyas al-DIn or possibly Sayyid
Ahmad: we do not know. Certainly the miniatures in Hazine 362 are
more forward-looking, naturalistic and sensitive, but their designer is
less good at depicting animals, less dramatic, perhaps also not so good
a colourist. The death of Balsunqur of drink and dissipation in 837/
1433 brought to an end this unique combination of artists; but the
Herat school held its pre-eminence for another fifteen years.
Its mastery is illustrated not only by the Mir'dj-ndma of 1436 but

1
Quoted in LHP in, 498.

859
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

also, more typically, by the Royal Asiatic Society Shdh-ndma with

"dedication" to Muhammad Juki, younger son of Shah Rukh. This
identification was made in 1931 by J.V.S. Wilkinson1 on the basis of an
inscribed battle standard in one of its miniatures, which illustrates the
shooting of Isfandiyar by Rustam: al-Sultdn al-a\am Muhammad Juki.
His cautious attribution has been amply sustained by subsequent
scholarship, and it may be accepted as a work of the Herat school of
about 1440. Muhammad Juki is reported to have suffered from a
lingering disease before his death in Sarakhs in 848/1445, perhaps
hastened by the hostility of Gauhar Shad, the masterful wife of Shah
Rukh. A comparison of the miniatures in this manuscript2 with those
of the Balsunqur Shdh-ndma of only about ten years earlier indicates the
change of direction which was taking place in Timurid painting at this
time. The marked reduction in scale of the Muhammad Juki book is an
aspect of the increased importance given to landscape. This in turn
indicates a new emphasis which is summed up by Laurence Binyon in
the judgment that "the whole work is saturated in romantic atmos-
phere". This effect is achieved by the use of the same elements as
before, deployed with greater freedom: the coral-like rocks have pro-
liferated; foliage of the trees is more variegated; cloud forms are end-
lessly complicated with curdled and highly coloured shapes; above all
architecture is now romantically related to mountains whose peaks it
crowns or rivals (pi. 5 2). There is considerable range of quality as
between the miniatures, and it is worth looking at some of the more
significant pages. Robinson pointed to some clear ShirazI elements
which appear especially in the battle scenes and has suggested that
some artists from the library of Ibrahim Sultan after his death in
838/1435 may have migrated to Herat. This might explain the return of
certain earlier features of the Shiraz school, such as the use of coulisses
in landscapes and the foreshortening of horses. It could also have
contributed to the greater drama, even though the figures are still
rather stiff. The relationship to Shiraz has been illustrated by Robinson
from the only double-page composition in the manuscript, a battle
scene of which the left half is a confused milee, while the right shows an
ordered array. This is essentially backward-looking; whereas another
battle on a single page (fol. 430V) shows an open composition in which
1
J.V.S. Wilkinson, The Shah-namah of Firdausi (Oxford, 1931), pp. 1—3.
2
See Robinson, "Unpublished paintings from a 15th century Book of Kings", Apollo Miscel-
lany, 19; 1. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 89-91.

860
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

there is balance and harmony, prefiguring in its complexity the mature

art of the period of Bihzad towards the close of the century. The
"Tahmina coming to Rustam's chamber" has been exhaustively dis-
cussed by Eric Schroeder in connection with another version of this
scene in the Fogg Museum, Harvard,1 which he attributes to the period
of Sultan Iskandar and to the hand of Pir Ahmad Bagh-Shimall, an
artist mentioned by Dust Muhammad as the zenith of his time, which
appears to be the early 9th/15 th century. Leaving aside the justness of
this attribution, we may admit the priority of the Fogg miniature and
the debt of Muhammad Juki's artists to the painters trained in the
Jalayirid tradition. Schroeder also associated the Fogg miniature with
the miniatures in a Kalila va Dimna manuscript in the Gulistan library,
Tehran, then generally attributed to the period 1410 to 1420. The
situation of this important and beautiful manuscript2 must now be
considered in conjunction with some others.
The political confusion which followed upon the deaths of Shah
Rukh in 850/1447 and of Ulugh Beg in 853/1449 and the diminished
resources of the Timurid house would already account for a break in
artistic production at this point: moreover Herat which had been the
centre of the school for thirty years had a particularly unstable history
during the next twenty. Sultan Abu Sa'Id b. Mlran Shah made it his
capital for the decade 863/1458 to 872/1468 (after the city had submit-
ted to Jahan Shah of the Qara Quyunlu Turkmen for six months). No
manuscript with miniatures from this time is known: for the dedication
of an anthology in the Chester Beatty Library to him is to be rejected
on account of the date of 1475 in its colophon, eight years after his
death. While this date is probably approximately correct, the evidence
of the colophons is suspect and to be rejected.
In this third quarter of the 9th/15 th century the leading political
power in Iran and far to the west of it was that of the Turkmen, first
under the Qara Quyunlu (Black Sheep) ruler Jahan Shah (838—72/
1435—67) and then under the Aq Quyunlu (White Sheep) ruler Uzun
Hasan (872-82/1467-78). Their capital was generally established at
Tabriz in Turki-speaking Azarbaljan; but they had very wide domin-
ions both in Anatolia and in Iran. It is only recently that important
illuminated manuscripts have been identified as products at the courts
1
Schroeder, pp. 51 -74.
2 Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature fainting, no. 44, pis. XXVII, XXXIV-XXXVI. Iran: Persian
Miniatures, pis. X-XV. SPA, pis. 865-8. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 82-3.

86l
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

of these two rulers. The earliest is a manuscript of the Kbamsa of

Jamali1 (India Office Library, Ethe 1284), copied in Baghdad in
869/1465, at a time when this city was in the hands of Jahan Shah. The
miniatures are in the Timurid Herat tradition with stiff but elegant
figures in simple landscapes. Although they lack the compositional
felicities of the Herat school of the second quarter of the century, they
excel in the beauty of the colouring, mainly in a range of blues and
greens, and still show a capacity for skilful arrangement of many
figures. The four illuminated headings are of great beauty, fully equal
to the famous tilework in the celebrated "Blue mosque" at Tabriz of
the same year. Even richer is the illumination lavished on a copy of the
history of Hafiz-i Abru now in the Topkapi Sarayi Library (Bagdat
282), which must date from this period. It must therefore be assumed
that one or two of the artists trained in the Herat library must by this
date have migrated to the court of Jahan Shah; but some of them also
seem to have moved to the court of the Shlrvan-Shah Farrukh-Yasar at
Shamakhi in northern Azarbaljan. An anthology in the British Library
(Add. 16, 561) copied in 1468 in Shamakhi contains eight miniatures in
a simplified style of figure drawing, but the landscapes are still com-
pletely in the Herat tradition with emphasis on beautiful flowering
trees. The most remarkable of them depicts the city of Baghdad under
flood,2 a complex bird's-eye view with shifting viewpoint so that each
building is seen directly in perspective. For comparison, one can turn
to the "Siege of Gang-Bihist" or the "Isfandiyar slaying Arjasp in the
Iron Fortress" of the Juki Sbah-nama of 1440, as striking examples of
the same application of the principle of frontality.
Next in date comes a Kbamsa of NizamI in the Topkapi Library
(Hazine 761),3 dated 866/1461 and 881/1476 and copied by Fakhr
al-Dln Ahmad, with sixteen miniatures and again exquisite illumina-
tion. This was produced for Pir Budaq at Baghdad and completed for
Uzun Hasan in 1476; while a manuscript of the Divan of Hidayat in the
Chester Beatty Library (Turk. 401)4 was copied in 1476—8 for the
library of his son Sultan Khalll (d. 1478). These also show a close
connection with the Herat school; but with a certain naivety. Uzun
Hasan had died 882/1478 and was succeeded by his son Ya'qiib (883—96/
1
Arnold, Painting in Islam, pis. XII, XIII. Stchoukine, Manuscrits Timurides, pi. XLIV.
2
Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pi. 14. Arnold, Painting in Islam, pi. II.
3
Stchoukine, "La peinture a Baghdad sous Sultan Pir Budaq Qara-Qoyunlu", AA xxv
(1972), 3-18.
4
Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pis. 76-7, and Persian Miniature Painting, pi. 41.

862
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

1479-90). Fortunately again we have a manuscript whose colophon

records that the text of the Khamsa of Nizami was copied by 'Abd
al-Rahim b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sultani al-Ya'qubl at Tabriz the capital
of the kingdom in 886/1481 (Hazine 762 in the Topkapi Library).1 Of
the nineteen miniatures in this manuscript, ten appear to be contempo-
rary with the copying and in an enriched version of the Herat Timurid
style, while the remainder have been added later, as is clear from the
Safavid kulah which is introduced into the costumes. The style of these is
even richer and the artist has taken advantage of the margins to make
delightful landscape settings. Three miniatures have been separated at
some time from this manuscript and are now in a private collection.2
One of these miniatures bears the date 910/ 1504—5 (pi. 36). By that date
Tabriz had fallen to the victorious Isma'Il, who was still only seventeen
years old. The date seems acceptable also for the early Safavid miniatures
which remain in the manuscript. They can therefore be taken to show
the continuance of this Tabriz Turkmen style into the early ioth/i6th
century and the Safavid period. They make a great contrast with the
Bihzad style which was by then dominant in Khurasan.
Now that a clear view of a court style under the Turkmen dynasties
is possible and indeed necessary,3 on the basis of the manuscripts
mentioned it is possible also to attribute some others to this same
school. The most important of these are three manuscripts of different
dates. The Tabarl Ta'rikh al-rusul wa!l-muluk, ("Annals of the Prophets
and Kings"), copied in 874/1470 (Chester Beatty P. 144),4 the four
miniatures of which are in a very conventional extension of the Herat
style, can now be seen to be characteristic work of Uzun Hasan's
library. The "Bahram Gur attacking a lion" (pi. 5 3) shows a composi-
tion5 parallel with those of the Balsunqur 1430 Shah-nama (fol. 154b),
while they also resemble the miniatures in a Kulliyyat-i tdrikhiyya copied
1
Stchoukine, "Les peintures turcomanes et safavies d'une Khamseh de Nizami achevee a Tabriz
en 886/1481", AA xiv (1966), 1-16.
2
Robinson et a/.. The Keir Collection, pp. 207-9, P's- 19—21.
3
Robinson, "The Turkman School to 1503", in Gray, Arts of the Book, pp. 215-47.
4
Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue i, 144, pi. 36. Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pi. 20, and
Persian Miniature Painting, pi. 12. SPA, pi. 880.
5
This miniature was re-used in a MS of the Kbamsa of Nizami, copied at Herat in 849/1445—6,
in the Topkapi Library (Hazine 781): Stchoukine, "Une Khamseh de Nizami". The composition
was used once more in the Nizami MS in the Metropolitan Museum, 1913-228-13, a Haft paikar
long controversial for its date. Recently it has been proposed by Robinson, "Prince Baysonghor's
Nizami", pp. 388-91, and by Grube, The Classical Style, pp. 26-7, as an original work from the
scriptorium of Balsunqur. In spite of this weighty support, the present writer believes that these
miniatures are 16th century copies after originals in early Timurid style.

863
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

for Shah Rukh and now in the Topkapi Library. At the same time the
lion and reedy stream in the foreground of this miniature recall several
of the subjects of the Kalf/a va Dimna in the Gulistan Library. As
mentioned above this manuscript has been for the past forty years
attributed to the early Timurid period, until recently when Robinson
suggested that it might be as late as 1460— 5.' This would bring it near
the period of Bihzad, while the figure drawing is still stiff and old-
fashioned. The solution may well be to attribute this, one of the most
beautiful of Persian manuscripts, to the years 1450—60 under Jahan
Shah, when some masters trained in the Timurid school in Herat in the
time of Balsunqur might still have been alive and working, and have
had access to the original designs for the Balsunqur copies, now in
Istanbul, containing miniatures with nearly identical compositions, in
two cases in reverse. This strongly suggests the use of pounces, which
may by this time have been part of the miniaturist's workshop equip-
ment. It appears that they were in common use in the 9th/15 th century.
They were certainly then used for the gold decoration of margins, as in
some poetical manuscripts, for instance an anthology in the Chester
Beatty Library copied by Ja'far al-Tabriz! in 1432.2 At the same time
there are many new compositions and the landscapes and animal draw-
ing are more sympathetic (pi. 5 4) than those in either of the Balsunqur
manuscripts. Of the thirty miniatures, seven are repeated from the 1432
book, all but two of them scenes with human figures. At latest they
must have been executed before 1468, when the frontispiece composi-
tion was borrowed3 for use in the Shamakhl anthology of that year
mentioned above, in a clumsy copy, for the production of which the
Gulistan Kalila va Dimna manuscript must have been accessible.
Thus we must accept the idea that the court of the Turkmen rulers
in Azarbaljan provided the enlightened patronage for the arts of the
book during the period when this failed in Herat owing to the dis-
turbed political conditions in the Timurid dominions further east.
Ya'qub Beg remained a friend of Persian culture to the end of his life in
896/1490, and was exchanging manuscripts with Mir 'All Shir Nava'T
during the heyday of the Herat atelier, from which he received the gift
of a complete set of the works of the poet and mystic Jami. Sultan
Husain Balqara was able to establish his capital in Herat in 873/1469
1
Gray, Arts of the Book, p. 217.
2
Binyon et at., Persian Miniature Painting, no. j 1, pi. XLIIa.
3
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Tim&rides, pi. XLV.

864
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

and he was in undisputed possession from 875/1470, until the rebellion

of his sons towards the end of the century. Mir 'All Shir Nava'I joined
him there in his first year and became his closest associate in adminis-
tration, though he endeavoured as far as possible to rely upon personal
collaboration rather than upon formal office. The great calligrapher
Sultan 'All MashhadI had been summoned to Herat by Sultan Husain
not later than 1477, and he probably remained there in the sultan's
library until 1502. He copied many of the most famous manuscripts of
this period, including both a Gulistdn of i486 and a Biistan of 1488, as
well as several manuscripts which remained without miniatures until
they were supplied many years later at the Shaibanid court in Bukhara.
By 1480 Herat had become that centre of culture and art which is
singled out by Babur in his memoirs for such signal praise: "Herat had
no equal in the world under Sultan Husain." Some indication of the
esteem of letters there may be formed from the reputation of 'All Shir
Nava'I, who was through and through a literary figure, whose own
brother Darvlsh 'All was known as the Kitdbdar and whose favourite
Hajjl Muhammad, whom he himself described as "an angel in human
shape", was a painter and experimenter in the imitation of Chinese
porcelain. He remained in the amir's library until shortly before his
death in 906/1501, when he followed the rising star of Badl'
al-Zaman,1 the son and for a short time successor of Sultan Husain.
Herat then, though ruled and administered by men of Turkish
blood, was a great centre of Persian culture. It was the centre of an
extensive empire still including almost the whole of modern Afghani-
stan, eastern Iran and part of Soviet Central Asia. Mir 'All Shir Nava'I
was a great builder as well as a patron of letters, and he and his master
shared the patronage of Bihzad and of his pupil Qasim 'All. The sultan
himself is said to have discovered the talent of the Sayyid MIrak, who
had practised calligraphy and illumination before joining the library of
the court, where he became head of the painting staff.2 Both Bihzad
and Qasim 'All were trained in this library and both continued to work
there until the end of the reign. Both MIrak and Hajjl Muhammad died
at the time of the Uzbek conquest of the city in 913/1507. This event
then marks the effective end to the brilliant circle which had gathered
at Herat round the sultan and his minister, Mir 'All Shir Nava'I.

1
Khwand Amir, quoted in Arnold, Painting in Islam, p. 139.
2
Dust Muhammad, quoted in Binyon eta/., Persian Miniature Painting, p. 186.

865
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

The contemporary sources and those of the next two generations do

not help us to distinguish between the contributions of these several
artists to the art of the period, although they record the high esteem in
which the masters were held, and the growth of the reputation of
Bihzad in the next century, until he came to overshadow all other
Persian painters in retrospect. Nor has it so far proved possible to
arrive at a clear and accepted view of his style as distinct from that of
his contemporaries in Herat from a study of the surviving material
which has up to the present been available for appraisal.1 This still
continues to grow, and it would be rash at the present time to establish
stylistic criteria for attribution. For these reasons it seems best to
attempt here rather to give an account of the school as a whole and its
main achievements during the last twenty or twenty-five years of the
15 th century. By 1470 the older Herat tradition had become stereo-
typed, with the re-use of old motives, a stiffening of figure drawing and
a lack of invention and vitality; even though in the best work there was
still a good sense of colour and skilled draughtsmanship. With the
return of patronage to Herat, a fresh breath was infused into the
school. At the same time, it is right to emphasise the continuity with
the old tradition, the terms of which were still accepted as viable for
landscape and architecture, for perspective and the framework of
vision. This acceptance made possible the quick advance which is to be
seen in the work of the new masters. Indeed, the first of these seems to
have been Shah Muzaffar, the son of the master Mansur, who had been
court artist to the Timurid prince Abu Sa'Id. Since Shah Muzaffar is
reported to have died at the age of twenty-four, he must have been
active by the 1480s: his name is twice coupled by Babur with that of
Bihzad as outstandingly skilful, and he is said to have been a client of
'All Shir Nava'I. He has been thought to represent the more conserva-
tive influence at this time, but we lack proof. The earliest work of the
school now identifiable can be grouped around the year 1485. This is
the date of the copying of the five parts of the Khamsa of'All Shir Nava'I
for prince Badl' al-Zaman; of the copying of the Khamsa of Amir
Khusrau Dihlavl in the Chester Beatty Library; probably of the double-
page composition of Sultan Husain in his garden enclosure, in the
Gulistan Library, Tehran:2 while to the following year can be assigned
1
Summarised by Pinder-Wilson, "Bihzad".
2
A rather later date has been suggested by M. Lukens-Swietochowski because of the ageing
face and stance of the sultan: see Gray, Arts of the Book, pp. 184, 207.

866
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

the Gulistan from the Maurice de Rothschild collection; and probably

the thirteen miniatures added to a Khamsa of NizamI copied in 1442
and now in the British Library (Add 25,90c).1 This gives a total of
forty-six miniatures which provide a sufficient base for a consideration
of the new style. Most are comparatively traditional, but in each gr^up
there are some new experiments, especially a more rhythmical and
significant placing of the human figures. The "Khwaja 'Abd-Allah
Ansarl with four disciples" and the "Mystics discoursing in a garden"
in the Nava'i; the "Khusrau arriving at the palace of Shlrln" in the
Amir Khusrau; the right half of the garden scene; the "Sa'dl and the
youth of Kashghar" in the Gulistan; and the "Camel Fight of the Tribes
of Laila and Majnun" in the NizamI (pi. 5 j), 2 may be singled out for
this quality in each of these compositions. Although the next group
follows on only two or three years later and can be thought of as
centred on the year 1490, there is a notable advance in most of the
miniatures to a freer, less enclosed movement, usually with more than
one centre or axis. This group consists of the four near-contemporary
miniatures of the Mantiq al-tair of 'Attar, copied in 1483, but with a
date of 1487-8 on the fifth miniature;3 of the Biistdn dated 1488, but
with a miniature dated 1489; and the Khamsa of NizamI copied for
Amir 'All FarsI Barlas, itself undated, but one of the twenty-one minia-
tures bears a date of 1494—5. The two earlier manuscripts in this group
were prepared in the library of Sultan Husain himself, the third for one
of the Turki begs of the very powerful Barlas clan in Herat. Yet the
three are knit together by frequent repetition of single figures or small
groups, sometimes in reverse. They may therefore be considered the
work of a single atelier or group of artists. There is a less close relation
with the earlier group, although there is one clear case of the derivation
of a figure in one of the Nava'I miniatures4 from one in the Mantiq
al-tair. It follows that the production of the Khamsa of Nava'I must
have continued over several years, just as no doubt did the work on the
miniatures of the other manuscripts. It is characteristic of the work of
1
The only evidence for the close dating of these miniatures is supplied by a date included in an
inscription painted on the frieze on a building on fol. 77: the first twofiguresare clear 89; but the
third digit, which has been read as both 8 and 1, appears to the present writer to be more probably
5. If so, the date would be 895/1490 rather than 1493 or i486.
2
Gray, Persian Painting (1930), pi. 6. Arnold, Painting in Islam, pi. XLIII. Martin, Miniature
Painting ri, pi. 77. Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, pi. LXVII. Stchoukine, Manuscrits
Timurides, pi. CXXVI. Pinder- Wilson, Persian Painting in thefifteenthcentury, pi. 7.
3
Lukens, "The Language of the Birds".
4
Ibid., p. 324, fig. 13. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 119.

867
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

this whole period that the execution maintains a very high standard of
technical skill in every detail. This is not the place for a detailed
discussion of these miniatures and of their possible attribution: this has
been done frequently, most thoroughly by Stchoukine and most
recently by Robinson.1 One further manuscript must be mentioned,
standing rather apart from any of those in either group and with no
internal evidence for the date, except that it was copied as early as 1467
by Shir 'All, though probably not in Herat since it bears the ex libris of
Sultan Husain, who was not yet established in the Timurid capital at
that date. This is the Zafar-nama in Baltimore University collection, but
for many years in the Mughal imperial library, during which time the
miniatures suffered some lamentable retouching. These are six double-
page openings, which come as near to being history paintings as any of
the post-Mongol period. For they are not conventional battle scenes
nor romantic illustrations of heroic events, like those in the Shiraz
manuscript of 1436 of the same text; but serious attempts to recon-
struct some of the outstanding events in the career of the founder of
the empire of which Sultan Husain was the last effective head. It was
no doubt because of the wish to depict adequately complex military
operations that the double-page format was employed. Scholars of the
subject have been unanimous in praising the original conception and
brilliant execution of these miniatures, so far as this is still discernible;
and have with more or less conviction followed Sir Thomas Arnold2
in accepting the attribution of them to Bihzad. He observed that the
manuscript had been remarginated before the addition of the minia-
tures and suggested that a reasonable date for them might be about
1490, twenty-three years after the completion of the text. At least, they
must be earlier than the death of Sultan Husain in 911/1506, since his
likeness is used in the representation of Tlmur in the first and last
paintings.
These are the most complete of all the miniature paintings of the
school of Herat under Sultan Husain, while they follow the second
group of manuscripts in being built on more than one axis. In the
battle scenes effective use is made of straight lines or rectangles to give
some stability in what might otherwise have been too diffuse a compo-
sition. In the "Building of the Great Mosque at Samarqand" the

1
Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, no. 29. Stchoukine, "Les peintures de la Khamseh".
2
Arnold, Bib^ad and his paintings.

868
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

massive elephant moving in on the lower left gives the required sense
of movement and direction in what might otherwise have been too
rigid and confused a geometric scene. This painting too demonstrates
the links between this manuscript and the other products of the school;
for several groups of the workers depicted in it appear also in the
"Building of the Castle of Khavarnaq"1 in the NizamI of 1495. Others
in the first painting are found in the Mantiq al-tair of 1483. The four
contemporary miniatures of this manuscript are worthy to be ranged
with the Cairo Bustan miniatures, especially the double frontispiece of
the "Court of Sultan Husain" and the "King Dara and the Keeper of
the royal horses",2 in their felicities of composition and the loving
treatment of animals and of the minor human figures. The sufl mysti-
cal and didactic poem by Farld al-Dln 'Attar, the Mantiq al-tair, was
indeed well suited to express the spirit of the ruling circle in Herat at
this period. Whoever illustrated the manuscript showed that he was
familiar with the substance and the intention of this mystical poem, so
that the allegation of Michael Rogers that the miniatures have nothing to
do with the text is to be rejected.3 The third of these miniatures (now the
seventh) illustrates two stories:4 in the foreground Sultan Mahmud
aiding the woodcutter whose donkey had fallen and injured him; and in
the background a passer-by saying to a drowning man, "You must get
rid of your beard or you will surely drown." These stories are widely
separated in the poem; one in Discourse XVII and the other in Dis-
course XXXIV;5 the first pointing to the value of contact with the wise
and noble ruler; the second the need for detachment from earthly ties,
such as pride in a fine beard. The second miniature is equally remarkable,
though it seems to have only a single reference: a funeral procession is
approaching a ha^tra (fenced enclosure for burial) near the tomb of a
holy man,6 where a grave is being dug (pi. 56); presumably illustrating
the question asked of the grave-digger in Discourse XXI:7 "Have you
seen a marvel?" To which the answer was: "The dog of my [carnal] soul
has seen me digging graves here for seventy years, but has neither died

1
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p . 116.
2 Binyon, eta/., Persian Miniature Painting, pis. LXVIII, LXIX.
3
In Iran v m (1970), 137.
4
Lukens, "The Language of the Birds", colour plate on p. 326.
5
Nott, The Conference of the Birds, pp. 48, 88. See now also Swietochowski, "The Historical
6
Background". Golombek, The Timurid Shrine at Ga^ur Gah, p. 107.
7
Nott, The Conference of the Birds, p. 57, mistranslates these lines. See Hellmut Ritter, Das Meer
der Seek (Leiden, 1955), p. 208.

869
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

nor learnt to obey me." That this miniature was believed to be by the
hand of Bihzad in the ioth/i6th century is shown by a Bukhara
simplified version of it in the Walters Art Gallery, which bears that
attribution. Both these miniatures show the easy mastery of complex
compositions with expressive stance and gesture, and loving treatment
of animal life: a cat by the saint's tomb and appropriately many birds in
a bare tree above it; and the patient donkey in the first scene. Matching
the brilliant and sensitive handling of the horses and foals in the "Dara
with the Groom"; 1 is the treatment of a yoke of ploughing oxen in the
last miniature of the Mantiq al-tair,2 which is once more a double
composition set in a country landscape, the most forward-looking of
the four. The crouched figure of a Chinese mendicant monk holding a
greyhound in leash, may illustrate the story in Discourse XLI, 3 of the
dervish whose love for the daughter of a dog-keeper forced him to take
a dog every day to the bazaar, thus showing that he preferred ridicule
to insincerity. The foreground scene directly illustrates the story of
Shaikh of Malinah questioning the pious old villager as he follows his
ox-drawn plough.
If we seek to sum up the characteristics of the miniature art of the
school of Herat at the end of the Timurid period, certain qualities stand
out: the small scale and low tone of the colouring; the invention,
intimacy and harmony of the compositions; the preference for lyrical,
romantic and mystical poetry, rather than epic or history; and conse-
quently the care devoted to the detail of carpet design and architectural
decoration. Harmony of man and nature is the outstanding mode of
the Persian miniaturist, but at no other time did the art reach the
sureness of touch or the sensitive vision seen in almost every work of
this school. This is the moment of fruition following the building of a
tradition during the early Timurid period, and preceding the richer,
more decorative, externalised art of the Safavid achievement.
Many of the Herat painters seem to have left the city after its sack by
Muhammad ShaibanI Khan in 913/1507, but at this time it does not
appear that there was an exodus to Uzbekistan. It is only after 15 20 and
long after the death of ShaibanI in 916/1510, that miniatures in the
1
Sa'di, Bustan. National Library, Cairo: Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, pi. LXIX.
2
Lukens, "The Language of the Birds", p. 355,fig.30.
3
Nott, The Conference of the Birds, p. 114. The detail showing the Buddhist monk is reproduced
in Lukens, "The Language of the Birds", p. 334, fig. 29. Cf. this figure with that in Gray,
"The Timurid Copy", pp. 55-8, which represents a further stage in reinterpretation of a Chinese
theme.

870
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

Herat style appear in Bukhara. One of the first manuscripts produced

there is the Khamsa of Nava'I in the Leningrad Public Library (Dorn no.
559), in which most of the miniatures have an old-fashioned mid-15 th
century look;1 but in one, of "Majnun with the wild animals in the desert",
there can be seen the influence of the late Herat school. The four minia-
tures in a manuscript of the Mihr u Mushtarl of 'Assar dated 1523, and now
in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington,2 are far more accomplished.
They already show the tendency to a simplified, unstructural style which
was to remain a characteristic of this school. The light-toned colour
scheme of Herat is retained, but brightly coloured blossoming trees are
often conspicuous. Not much later come four miniatures in a Baharistan of
JamI in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon,3 bearing attributions to
Bihzad and very close in style to the 1494—5 Khamsa of Nizaml.
A further exodus of artists from Herat followed the second Uzbek
sack of 15 28, but the school of Bukhara does not seem to have reached
its height until the reign of'Abd al-'Aziz Bahadur (946-57/1539-50),
who was evidently a great patron of the arts of the book, with a special
admiration for the manuscripts of Sultan Husain Balqara. He commis-
sioned miniatures to be added to manuscripts written by leading calli-
graphers of Herat between 1492 and 1514,4 as well as entirely new
books of fine quality and lavishly decorated with gold stencilled mar-
gins, such as the Bustan of Sa'dl copied for him by Mir 'AH Haravi
in 1542 and now in the Gulbenkian Foundation.5 Several of the
miniatures in this manuscript are signed by 'Abd-Allah and Mahmud
mu%ahhib, who were the leading painters at the court of 'Abd al-'Aziz.
One of them derives directly from the Cairo Bustan of 1488, while a
double-page frontispiece, signed Mahmud, in a Baharistan of JamI
dated 1547, derives directly from the Gulbenkian manuscript of the
same work, and ultimately from the Baltimore Zafar-ndma. The Bukha-
ra court painters thus kept alive for two generations the tradition of the
Herat school under Sultan Husain. They did also originate; and one of
the finest works of Mahmud is the double-page miniature in a Mukhyan
al-asrar of Nizaml in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Supp. pers. 985),
signed by Mahmud and dated 1545—6.6 It shows Sultan Sanjar with his
1
D'yakonova and Gyuzal'yan, Srednea^iatskie miniatyury, pis. 7, 8.
2
All reproduced in Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, pis. LXXIX-LXXX.
3
SPA-, pi. 388. Gulbenkian Foundation: Exhibition of Islamic Art, no. 122.
4
Robinson, "An unpublished manuscript", p. 231.
5
Gulbenkian Foundation: Exhibition of Islamic Art, no. 123.
6
Blochet, Musulman Painting, pis. CXIV, CXV.

871
 THE TIMURTD PICTORIAL ARTS

courtiers hunting in mountain country and accosted by the old woman

who complained to him of injustice, in a composition of remarkable
clarity and fine handling. Similar easy skill of composition is shown in
the two miniatures illustrating a manuscript of the Shah u darvish of
Hatifl dated 1540 now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (MS
no. 531). The first is a school scene (pi. 57) reminiscent again of the Herat
school, but a good deal more lively. It bears a date corresponding to
154Z in an inscription over a doorway. How quickly the school declined
after 1550 can be seen by comparing this miniature with one of a similar
subject in a manuscript of the Gulistan of Sa'dl, dated 1566-7 in Lenin-
grad, where the figures of the pupils are arranged anyhow.1 It would be
easy to find many parallels for this decline into jejune repetition of
compositions which have lost all vitality.

METALWORK AND CERAMICS IN THE TIMURID PERIOD

Though there had been some falling away during the Il-Khanid period
from the splendid traditions of metalwork and ceramic achievement of
the Saljiiq age, in both fields the standards were still high and produc-
tion on a large scale. By the end of the 8th/14th century, however,
there was evidently a reduction both in production and in variety of
technique. But it is not true that silver and gold inlay on metal was
then unknown. Superb monumental bronzes made by craftsmen from
Isfahan and Tabriz for Tlmur himself are now in the Hermitage
Museum. They were brought there, from the mosque of the city of
Turkistan to which they were dedicated, in 1935 at the time of the
Third International Congress of Iranian Art and published in the
Memoirs of the Congress by A.G. Yakubovsky.2 The most imposing, a
huge water tank for ablutions (2.45 m. in diameter)3 dated 801/1399,is
signed by 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Sharaf al-Dln TabrizI, while the equally fine
candlesticks are signed by 'Izz al-Dln b. Taj al-Dln IsfahanI with the
date 1397. The ablution vessel is decorated only with engraved inscrip-
tions in thulth and kiifi and with arabesque ornament; while three of the
five candlesticks retain a good deal of the original gold and silver inlay.
A similar but smaller uninscribed candlestick is in the museum of the
Georgian State in Tiflis, and another example is divided between the
1
D'yakonova and Gyuzal'yan, Srednea^iatskie miniatyury, pi. 17.
2
Yakubovsky, "Les artisans Iraniens", pp. 277-85, pis. CXIX-CXXIII.
3
First published by Veselovskil and Gorokhov in Bulletin de ^Association International pour
f exploration de FAsie Centrale, nos. 6 and 7 (St Petersburg, 1906-7).

872
 TIMURID METALWORK AND CERAMICS

Hermitage and the Louvre.1 The restrained character of the decora-

tion of this group which leaves considerable areas of metal plain has
been attributed to the HanafI milieu for which they were made;2 but
in fact it seems characteristic of the taste of the period. Already in
1374—5 a bronze ablution basin decorated only with inscriptions and
arabesques was dedicated at the Friday mosque at Herat (1.74 cm. in
diameter). It was signed by the maker Hasan b. 'All b. Hasan b. 'All
IsfahanI made to the order of a qalandar in honour of his Kartid ruler,
and is said to have been a model for the Turkistan basin of 1399.3 Gold
and silver inlay is also found freely applied to a numerous group of
wine tankards originally supplied with covers, which were a speciality
of Khurasan in the Timurid period. The signed examples of 1457, 1461
and 1466 appear all to have been made by KhurasanI craftsmen from
Baharjan or Birjand, both within greater Khurasan. One in the
Hermitage is signed by Javan Bakht b. Husain, while another in the
British Museum bears under the base a dedication to Sultan Husain
Baiqara, with the date 1497 (pi. 58a).4 Many of these vessels include in
their decoration verses by Hafiz, and in one case by Qasim al-Anvar (d.
837/1433-4), a mystical poet, who also freely used the symbol of the
wine-cup. How early this tankard shape goes back in the 9th/15 th
century is not at present clear, but it is probably significant that it is
found reproduced in a jade cup inscribed with the name and titles of
Ulugh Beg Kurgan,5 and therefore datable between 1417 and 1440.
The tour de force by which this cup is supplied with a jade handle only
underlines that it must have originated in a metal shape.
Engraving alone was still used in elaborate all-over decoration in the
later 9th/15 th century, as on a dish with repousse and engraved geo-
metric interlace ornament surrounded by Persian verses in panels and
stylised butterflies. This is dated 1496-7.6 The precious metals were
also frequently employed for the smaller vessels in domestic use, as we
know from their representation in manuscripts, where they generally
appear to be of gold. It is more likely that silver gilt was used, as in a
1
Kiihnel, lslamische Kleinkunst, Abb. 147.
2
Yakubovsky, "Les artisans Iraniens", p. 285.
3
A.S. Melikian-Chirwani, in Gazette des Beaux Arts LXXIII (1969), 5-18.
4
SPA, pi. 1376b, dated 1461. Kiihnel, lslamische Kleinkunsl, Abb. 146, dated 1457, mistakenly
attributed to Venice. Grube, World of Islam, p. 135,fig.74.
5
Guibenkian Foundation: Exhibition of Islamic Art, no. 28. The identification was made by R.
Pinder-Wilson. Persian Art: Calouste Guibenkian Collection, pi. 13. Arts of Islam, no. 114.
6
Catalogue of the All-Union Exhibition on the Arts ofthe Timurid Period(Samarqand, 1969), no. 106,
dated 902/1496; d. 18; 5 cm. Cf. A.S. Melikian-Chirwani, he bronze iranien (Paris, 1973), pp. 92-3.

873
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

pair of vessels now in the Hermitage Museum, a tall flask with a garlic
mouth and a tankard (pi. 5 Sb), more depressed in form than the inlaid
brass ones. Both are lobed with chevron bands and both have
arabesque lappets below the neck, like those on the great ablution bowl
of 1399; and they probably date from the same period or rather earlier.1
The same date is assigned to a heavy signet ring in the Metropolitan
Museum with dragon-head terminals to the hoop.2
This illustrates the taste in Chinese design which is so conspicuous at
this period in many of the arts, and above all in ceramics. Chinese
porcelain had for centuries enjoyed an unrivalled reputation in Iran, and
had provided a challenge to the potters which they found hard to meet.
In the late fifteenth century at Herat the painter Hajji Muhammad,
whom we have noted as a favourite of 'All Shir Nava'I, succeeded after
long experiments in producing vessels very similar to the Chinese in
body, but less pure in colour.3 Herat pottery of this period has not been
identified, but there is little doubt that the reference here must be to blue
and white,4 since this appears as rival in esteem with the silver plate in
the miniatures of the Timurid period. Naturally it is not possible to
distinguish in them the Chinese imports from the local imitations. Much
of the collection dedicated by Shah 'Abbas I to the Ardabll shrine in 1607
is of late 8th/14th and 9th/15 th centuries, so that we have a good sample
of the Chinese porcelain to be seen then in court circles. The copies or
derivatives from them have nearly all come down to us in damaged state
as fruits of excavation, and there are no more than stylistic criteria
available for dating them. It can be said, however, that the majority are
of later 9th/15 th or ioth/i6th century date and that they are less close to
the Chinese prototypes than the copies made in Syria or Turkey.5 It is
probably due to the chance of more excavation of Timurid sites in

1
Arts of Islam, no. 162. The tall flask (Hermitage Museum, K 5 86) resembles one depicted in
the fragmentary KalTla va Dimna, Istanbul University Library, Fy 1422, fol. 23V: Sakisian, La
miniaturepersane, pi. VII. These miniatures, which depict other interesting vessels, are to be dated
2
c. 1360-74. Dimand, Handbook, p. 154,fig.93.
3
Khwand Amir, in Barthold, Four Studies in, 66. Arnold, Painting in Islam, p. 139.
4
A "signature" of Hajji Muhammad is found in combination with a tassel mark on a dish in the
Victoria and Albert Museum decorated in Chinese taste: Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pi. 8ib,
p. 100. Although this can date only from the third quarter of the 17th century, it may perhaps
preserve an echo of a 15 th century product by this master, for it is executed in green and black, an
unusual colour scheme for this period; and the design of floral scrolls in the cavetto could reproduce
in underglaze painting an original design incised on a black ground. If it could be shown that Hajji
Muhammad worked in this style, he could be associated with the dated "Kubachi" dishes of 1465
and 1495, which could then be assigned to Khurasan.
5
See now Grube, "Notes".

874
 TIMURID METALWORK AND CERAMICS

Mavara al-nahr than south of the Oxus that most of the blue and white so
far published comes from sites now in Soviet Central Asia. In the
Panjkent Museum is about half of a large dish which copies fairly closely
a Chinese porcelain of the early 9th/ijth century.1 Otherwise the
relationship is less direct and the dating consequently less exact. There is
a good collection in the Hermitage Museum, mainly there attributed to
the 9th/15 th century. In one dish the Chinese motif of two fish head to
tail has been added to a Chinese cloud pattern;2 a pair of birds on another
dish stand on little mounds instead of a branch, and are surrounded by a
floral scroll. The most characteristic, however, show a symmetrical
flower design as the centre of a formal pattern: in one case this is in the
shape of a star filled with the Chinese wave pattern:3 in others with a
conventional floral design which resembles those found on the only
other type of ceramics which can be attributed to the 9th/15 th century.
This has the design incised through a black slip ground under a tur-
quoise on green glaze. This type also has been found in the Samarqand
area, but the best known examples, bearing dates equivalent to 1468 and
1480, have been associated with the hill-town of Kubachi in Daghistan in
the Caucasus area.4 It is improbable that this can be maintained as their
place of origin; and the alternative of Tabriz was proposed by Arthur
Lane, largely on the basis of the signature of a potter called GhaibI
al-TaurlzI, who was working in Egypt in the 9th/15 th century.5 His
name appears on blue and white pieces in Chinese taste, and his son
signed a lamp decorated in exactly the same technique as was employed
on the "Kubachi" dishes.6 These symmetrical designs (in which calligra-
phy plays a significant part) are far removed from any Chinese proto-
type: so that it can be argued that the blue and white "Kubachi" type is
earlier than the incised type with their secure dating in the second half of
the 9th/15 th century. It must be assumed that blue and white pottery was
made in a number of different centres in the 15 th century as it was also in
the 16th. There is no evidence that polychrome wares in this style were
made before the Safavid period.7 Indeed, the only other type of ceramics
1 2
Pope, Chinese Porcelains, pi. 35. Arts of Islam, no. 39J.
3
Pugachenkova and Rempel', lstoriya Iskusstv U^bekistana, pi. 294.
4
Reitlinger, "The Interim Period", p. 185, figs. 9, 12. Lane, hater Islamic Pottery, pp. 34-6,
pi. 20. Zick-Nissen, "Die Tebriser Meister".
5 6
Lane, l^ater Islamic Pottery, pp. 19, 31, 35, and pi. 17a. See above, p. 874 n. 4.
7
Y. Brunhammer, in Cahiers de la Ce'ramique, no. j (Sevres, winter 1956-7), pp. 24-34, argues
that the polychrome pieces could have influenced the early Iznik coloured wares. This seems
impossible, however, in the light of recent research on the Iznik kilns by Aslanapa and others.
Influence from Iznik is unmistakable in the Safavid polychrome ware.

875
 THE TIMURID PICTORIAL ARTS

to be attributed to the Timurid period are some residuary lustre wares of

poor quality and, of course, the extremely important, varied and beauti-
ful tiles, which must however be regarded as architectural decoration.
The surviving examples of carved woodwork are also in a monumental,
architectural style even when they are small objects like a Qur'an stand in
the Metropolitan Museum, dated 1360 and signed by an Isfahan! artist.1
From the same mosque of Khwaja Ahmad Yasavl in Turkistan city as
the monumental bronzes already described, and contemporary with
them, are two sets of doors dated 1394 and 1397,2 in a monumental style
but with freer and richer floral decoration that wood permits. A more
elaborate technique with inlay in ebony, ivory and silver wire (now
largely missing) was employed in the carved wood doors of the Gur-i
Mir in Samarqand.3 The special character of this school of architectural
wood carving is achieved by counterpoint between two layers of relief
arabesque.

1
Dimand, Handbook, pp. 116-17,fig-<>6.
2
Denike, "Quelques monuments".
3
Pugachenkova and Rempel', htoriya Iskusstv V^bekistana, pi. 293, for a pair of doors inlaid in
ivory in the Shah-i Zinda, Samarqand. For carved wood doors from Iran dated 1442, see Arts of
Islam, no. 458.

876
 CHAPTER I 6

THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Shah Isma'Il was of Turkmen blood on his mother's side and he

deliberately made the Aq Quyunlu capital of Tabriz his first capital: he
took over the machinery of government centred in that city, and it
seems that he also took over the artists of the book from the school
established there by Uzun Hasan and his son Ya'qub (883-96/
1479-90), which we have seen to have continued the Timurid tradition
of Herat painting through the second half of the 9th/15 th century. A
key manuscript to illustrate the transition to the early Safavid style is
the Khamsa of Nizami copied for Ya'qub at Tabriz in 1481 (Topkapi
Sarayi, Hazine 762),' to which a dozen miniatures were added later,
apparently in 910/15 04-5, according to a date on one of them; and
evidently still at Tabriz (pi. 36), for they show the Qizilbash projecting
kuldh, the Haidari tdj adopted by Haidar, father of Isma'Il, as the sign of
his adherents in the Safaviyya. These miniatures preserve the elegance
and decorative quality of the royal Turkmen school with no interest in
spatial organisation. There is another well-known manuscript whose
miniatures also show an early type of Safavid kulah, one of them
bearing the same date 910/15 04-5 (pi. 59). This is a copy of the Dastdn i
Jamdl u Jaldl o£ the. poet AsafI in the Uppsala University Library. These
miniatures show the same disregard for spatial organisation, but a
much greater interest in landscape, rendered in a particularly rich
palette for the luxurious vegetation2. For all that, these miniatures are
very old-fashioned compared with the contemporary school of Bihzad
in Herat. These characteristics they share with a richly coloured minia-
ture depicting the "Sleeping Rustam saved by his horse Rakhsh from a
marauding Lion"3 which has long been detached from an apparently
unfinished manuscript of the Shdh-ndma. Here the landscape setting has
become the main interest, though the animal drawing is sensitive and
sympathetic. If we are correct in attributing this miniature to the
opening years of Isma'Il's reign in Tabriz, which had become his
1
See above, p. 863 and n. 1.
2
K.V. Zettersteen and C.J. Lamm, Mohammed AsafT, the story of Jamil and Jala/ (Uppsala,
1948). Arts of Islam, no. 591 and pi. 9.
3
Gray, Persian Paintingfrom miniatures of the XIII—XVI centuries, pi. 7.

877
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

capital in 907/1501, it can be seen what a splendid painting tradition he

inherited. In 916/1510 he captured Herat from Muhammad Shaibani
Khan, whom he killed, and so became heir also to the great Timurid
school patronised by Sultan Husain Baiqara and adorned by the master
Bihzad. It was the union of these two traditions which made possible
the achievements of the Safavid school at Tabriz during the next
thirty-five years. After 1510 we have no dated manuscript of import-
ance from this scriptorium until the accession of Shah Tahmasp in
930/1524. Although he was then only twelve years old, he showed an
immediate interest in painting, for he had already received lessons in
miniature painting from the leading master Sultan Muhammad1 and
was ready to give his patronage to painters and illuminators. The latter
part of the reign of Isma'Il, after his defeat by the Ottoman Turks in
920/1514 at the battle of Chaldiran, was not a period when we would
expect initiative or innovation, yet it is to this period that is attributed
the diploma appointing Bihzad as head of the court library staff in the
year 928/1522.2 It seems that this date is not to be relied upon, for the
document has been preserved only as a specimen of official style from
the pen of the famous historian Khwand Amir (b. c. 880/1475, d. 942/
1535). He was a protege of 'All Shir Nava'I, the famous minister of
Sultan Husain at Herat until his death in 906/1501; and his first work
was completed in 905/1499—15 oo,3 from which period the farman
appointing Bihzad might well be expected to date, and not from the
Safavid period.4 Bihzad is remembered as of Herat, where he died in
942/15 35-6 in the early part of the reign of Shah Tahmasp, for whom
he is said to have adorned a Khamsa of NizamI with miniatures.5
Moreover, there is sufficient evidence to show that a school of painting
continued in Herat in a more conservative style than in Tabriz. It was
probably not before 1528 that the remaining artists were carried off
from there to the Shaibanid court at Bukhara, where they maintained
the Bihzadian tradition well into the second half of the ioth/i6th
century. From the period before that date there have survived manu-
scripts written by Herat scribes and with miniatures in the Herat style,

1
QazI Ahmad, p. 181.
2
Qazvlnl and Bouvat, "Deux documents inedits". Arnold, Painting in Islam, pp. 15 o-1.
3 LHP in, 435.
4
Information through Dr Paul Luft from an unpublished doctoral thesis by G. Herrmann,
who discusses the contents of the Nama-ji Ndmi&nd points out that all, including some which are
certainly of the period of Husain Baiqara, bear the same date, 928/1; 22.
5
QazI Ahmad, p. 135

878
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

such as a Biistdn of Sa'dl copied by 'All al-Husainl in 1519 at Herat and

now in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art in Istanbul (no.1019),1
while from a manuscript of the Khamsa of Amir Khusrau Dihlavl
copied by the Herat scribe 'Ala' al-Din Muhammad in Balkh in 1504,
some detached miniatures now in the Metropolitan Museum2 and the
Louvre3 must be assigned to Herat about the year 15 20. Soon after that
date, in 1523, comes the first known illuminated manuscript of the
Bukhara school, the Mihr u Mushtari of 'Assar in the Freer Gallery at
Washington.4 The transition from the first group of miniatures to the
four in the 'Assar is direct; but the latter are superior in quality of
design and in draughtsmanship. In both groups the simple landscape is
no more than a setting for the figures, of whom even the minor ones
reveal a humanity or a pathos unknown in the Safavid court style, with
its interest in the rhythmical, the decorative and the gorgeous. The
Herat tradition of the school of Bihzad is the purer, and, so long as it
preserved the interior feeling, the most perfect expression of the minia-
ture art in Iran, or indeed anywhere else. When it lost that integrity of
vision, as it did later in Bukhara, it became only a mirror of the old
style, lacking in warmth, invention and personality.
As has been said, Shah Isma'il himself spent the earlier part of his
reign in campaigns, but, after his disastrous defeat by the Ottomans in
920/1514, he withdrew increasingly from the personal direction of all
affairs of state both civil and military. As has been pointed out in
Chapter 5, the tradition of civil administration by the Persian bureau-
cracy was continued as a measure of policy and, although the language
of the court continued to be Turki, the tradition of Persian culture
was fully maintained by the Safavids. It seems that some part of the
royal library was carried away as loot by the Ottomans in 1514, for
there are several outstanding examples of the Turkmen royal style in
the libraries of Istanbul, for instance in the Topkapi Sarayi Library a
Khamsa of NizamI dated 886/1481 (Hazine 762) and another dated
881/1476 (Hazine 761), and an Amir Khusrau Dihlavl dated 883/1478
(Hazine 795); but it was probably only in the latter part of the reign of
Tahmasp that there was an exodus of artists of the book to the

1
Qg, Katahgu, p. 70, no. 10, pis. XV, XVI.
2
Stchoukine, Manmcrits Safavis, p. ;6, no. 7, where these miniatures are attributed to Tabriz,
1525 — 7. Marteau and Vever 1, pis. LVII, LXIX. Sakisian, l^a miniature persane,fig.110.
3
Stchoukine, Les miniaturespersams: Muse'e National du Vouvre, pis. VI, VII.
4
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 149, and The Arts of the Book, pis. LXXI-LXXII.

879
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVTD PERIOD

Ottoman court.1 On the contrary, under Shah Isma'Il it seems that the
royal library staff was strengthened by the adhesion of masters from
Khurasan. Although there is no work which can be attributed securely
to the greatest of these, Bihzad, during the quarter of a century of his
life as a subject of the Safavids before his death in 1535 at the age of
about eighty, his influence is clearly to be seen directly in Herat and
indirectly at the Safavid court.
The director of the early Safavid kitdbkhdna seems on the other hand
to have been Sultan Muhammad, a native of Tabriz and not a pupil of
Bihzad or of MIrak. The best attested fact about him is that he in-
structed the future Shah Tahmasp in the art of painting, and was so
engaged when Bihzad first arrived in Tabriz from Herat,2 which was
not likely to have been before 1523, since Tahmasp was born only in
1515. Sultan Muhammad must therefore have been in charge of the
court library under Shah Isma'Il and during the first half of the reign of
Tahmasp. There is good reason to think that the extraordinary
achievement of the preparation of the Houghton (formerly Rothschild)
Shdh-ndma with its two hundred and fifty six miniatures was carried out
under his direction.3 These miniatures richly illustrate the transition
from the Turkmen to the Safavid court style, as well as the impact on
the Tabriz atelier of the arrival of Timurid-trained artists bringing the
style of Herat to enrich it.
That Sultan Muhammad himself was at work on this from an early
period is strongly suggested by the miniature representing the "Court
of Gayumars" (fol. 2ov), in correspondence with the account preserved
by Dust Muhammad of this artist having painted in a royal Shdh-ndma
"people clothed in leopard skins such that the hearts of the boldest of
painters were grieved" by the marvellous skill shown by the miniatur-
ist (pi. 37).4 This miniature is indeed a work of extraordinary finesse,
and it is to be attributed to the very early 15 20s. Such an immense
undertaking can hardly have taken less than ten years to accomplish:
the only date in the manuscript is introduced into the architecture of
the miniature on fol. 5 i6r, and is in figures "934 H.", equivalent to
15 27-8. It seems fair to assume with Welch,5 that this folio is so far on
1
But see K. Otto-Dorn, Das islamischi l^nik (Berlin, 1941), pp. 180—4, '94; Sakisian, in
Burlington Magazine LXXXVII (1945), 224—32.
2 3
QazI Ahmad, pp. 180—1. Sakisian, La miniature persane, p. 108, quoting'All
4
Welch and Dickson, The Hougbton Shahnameh 1, colour pi. 8; Wonders of the Age, p. 17.
5
Welch, A King's Book of Kings, p. 16. There is now no colophon. Formerly it was assumed to
have been copied in 944/1537 by Qasim Ashrl: Martin, Miniature Painting 11, 63.

880
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

in the manuscript that the work on it must have been in progress for a
number of years already. He proposed a date in the early 15 20s for its
start and in the mid 15 30s for its conclusion. I would prefer to assume
dates from about 15 20 to about 15 30 for its production: for it seems to
me that, quite apart from the numerous miniatures which echo the
Turkmen court style, the majority are more closely related to two well-
known manuscripts of the 15 20s, the Paris Mir 'All Shir of 15 26 and the
Tehran Zafar-ndma of 15 29, rather than to the royal Khamsa of NizamI
of 1539-43 in the British Library. A few do indeed recall the Hafiz of
Sam Mirza of about 1530— 3,* but that would not invalidate the dates
suggested for the temporal limits of its production. Few of the minia-
tures appear nearly as advanced as those in the NizamI of 1539—43,
which nonetheless contains two miniatures attributed by "signatures"
to Sultan Muhammad. One of these depicting Bahram Gur hunting is
quite comparable with fol. 568 of the Shdh-ndma, which happens to
treat also an exploit of Bahram (pi. 72). The rock masses are more
clearly defined, but otherwise there is no great difference between these
two hunting scenes in conception of figures in landscape. Sultan Mu-
hammad was joined by his son Mirza 'All in illustrating the royal
NizamI, and he is likely to have given up the directorship of the library
staff to Mir Musavvir about 15 40. He too is recorded to have worked
on a royal Shdh-ndma manuscript which may be that in the Houghton
collection. This would have allowed this latter artist a term of about
ten years before his migration to the Mughal court soon after the
arrival in Kabul of the emperor Humayun in 956/1549.
Typical of a number of the earlier miniatures in this manuscript are
folios 2iv, 22V and 23V,2 which could only be the work of artists
trained at the court of the Aq Quyunlu, with their fecundity of vegeta-
tion, rather large figures in relation to the horses and with heads large
in relation to the bodies. Trees, clouds and rocks are highly stylised,
but both in colour and movement a certain gaiety pervades these
scenes. Gold is freely used for the skies. This style is found only in the
first half of the manuscript. Herat influence appears unmistakably in a
few pages, which show smaller figures, more important architecture
and tinted rocks in the earlier Timurid tradition (pi. 38; fol. 89V).
These two kinds of miniature, both rich and exuberant, dominate the
1
Binyon eta/., Persian Miniature Painting, pi. LXXXIVA. Welch, A King's Book of Kings, p. 57.
Arts of Islam, no. 598b.
2
Welch, Wonders of tie Age, pp. 5 2-3, no. 9, and A King's hook of Kings, pp. 92-7.

881
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

manuscript; but there are some more forward-looking, with more open
composition and fewer figures. There is an immense variety of inven-
tion and wealth of detail, so that the cumulative effect is quite over-
whelming. The frame round the text area is strongly accented, even in
most cases where it is exceeded by extending the miniature, generally
into one of the side margins. These extensions are usually themselves
rectangular and thus serve to throw the weight of the composition
onto that side of the page. A few are extended rectangularly at the top
as well; and the importance to the artist of the strong framing lines is
demonstrated by their occasional use as architectural verticals in the
compositions. Only seldom is the Timurid habit of showing the turret
on a pavilion or a tree-top free against the blank paper of the upper
margin still used, while a very few instances occur of a free extension
on more than one side (pi. 71), a practice that was to grow towards the
middle of the century. Indeed, the weakness of this new style was its
diffusion, loss of concentration on the subject and consequent failure of
dramatic or emotional interest. Technically they were unequalled, and
in colour harmony unmatched in the art of the world.
The great achievement of this masterpiece of Persian manuscript
production has been so enormously damaged by its wanton and dis-
graceful dismemberment that the overriding unity of the book, a sign
of a mature and well-organised workshop, is greatly reduced by the
extraction of the miniatures and their separation from the text. The
weight and density of these near whole-page miniatures were calcu-
lated as balanced by the facing page of text. Only three out of all the
miniatures occur as facing pages in a single opening. By far the greater
number of pages with miniatures allow of the inclusion of some text as
well: and the layout provides many alternative methods of their combi-
nation, varying from complete separation through partial continuation
of miniature between the text columns to the insertion of formal
arabesque illumination in these areas; in each case with the aim of
preserving the integrity of both picture and text to a maximum degree.
In two instances (fols. 385b and 638b)1 the ground of four text areas
has been gilded to avoid compromising the stability of the architecture
depicted.
Similarly the unity of text and paintings is matched by an overall
1
Persian Miniatures: an exhibition of seventeen paintings from the Hougbton Shahnameb (T. Agnew &
Sons Ltd., London, 1979), no. 15, pp. 36-7. Christie's, London, Catalogue, 17 Nov. 1976, D, pp.
28-33 (seven fols. from the Houghton Shah-nama).

882
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

unity of style and palette no doubt imposed by the director of the court
atelier, Sultan Muhammad. The house style may be defined as diffused
and decorative; spacious and outward looking; in contrast to the
Timurid style of Herat under Sultan Husain, dominated by the intro-
vert sufl interest centred round the poet JamI and evident in the work
of Bihzad and his school, with their tightly knit and cool harmonies
and enclosed compositions.
The miniature on fol. 516b1 is signed by Mir Musavvir and illus-
trates the romance of Ardashlr and Gulnar, who are here seen together
in bed in a brilliantly tiled pavilion at Ray. It is a scene of complete rest,
with sickle moon and knotted clouds in the night sky. Passion is
conveyed only by the warm colouring of the bedchamber, while the
rope by which Gulnar had scaled the wall hangs slackly and the hand-
maids sleep. The artist's signature is in the tiled inscriptional frieze.
The other signed painting, by Dust Muhammad (fol. 512b),2 whose
importance as a literary source is discussed below, illustrates the story
of Haftad and the Worm. This is a diffused landscape, the central
feature being a town set in a valley with much coming and going at the
gate. In the lower left corner the story is enacted of the finding of the
magic worm by a party of girls spinning outside the gate. This is one of
the most advanced compositions in the book and probably one of the
latest, prefiguring the extended landscapes of the mid-century. It is also
notable because it was later copied by a Mughal artist working for the
young prince Sallm, afterwards the Emperor Jahanglr, about 1600.3
More central in style to the Houghton manuscript and no doubt
rather earlier, is the scene on fol. 42b, where Farldun tests the courage
of his sons by confronting them with a dragon.4 It is interesting to
compare this miniature with a hunting scene in the 'AH Shir Nava'I
manuscript of 15 26. Here Bahram Gur is shown performing his feats of
skill before the two Greek slave-girl musicians.5 Cary Welch has attrib-
uted these miniatures to Sultan Muhammad himself, and no doubt
both are of royal quality; the Bahram Gur composition is the more
complex with its use of echelon for the file of bowmen on one side of
1
Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp. 96-7, no. 30, and A King's Book of Kings, pp. 169—71.
2
Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp. 98-101, and A King's Book of Kings, pp. 175-4.
3
E. Kiihnel and H. Goetz, Indian Book Paintings from Jabangir's Album in the State Library, Berlin
(London, 1926).
4
Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp. 62-3, and A King's Book of Kings, pp. 121-2.
5
Blochet, Musulman Painting, pi. CXXIV.

883
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

the foreground and of serving men on the other side, and of heads of
beaters appearing over the horizon behind; features also seen in the
richly illustrated Zafar-nama of 1529. But the Farldun excels in its
splendid involvement of the huge dragon's body in the rocky land-
scape contrasted with the open plain, where the horsemen move with
greater sense of space than in the tapestry-like Paris miniature.
A second miniature in this Nava'I manuscript, the spirited battle
scene, "Iskandar routing the army of Dara",1 illustrates the re-use of
successful compositions and groupings.2 In this case a central group of a
horseman fighting off the attack of two foot soldiers was derived
ultimately from a Khamsa of Nizami datable 1490 in the British Library
(Add. 25,900) and signed by Bihzad, and generally believed to be his
work. This small but vigorous composition was re-used first in the
Nizami of 15 2 5 in the Metropolitan Museum, for which three other
groups of combatants were also taken, in addition to that in the Paris
Nava'I. That this work of 1525 was in fact the transmitter of the
Bihzadian composition is proved by the presence in the Nava'I
miniature of a statuesque figure of a horseman holding an arrow on the
right side, found in identical pose and position, though here bearded, in
the Metropolitan page. This is a somewhat stiff work, unlike the Nava'I
Battle scene which is as vigorous as the Bihzad miniature, but fully in the
open manner of the early Tahmasp period.
A new more structural treatment of architecture was advanced in a
painting signed by Sultan Muhammad in the Hafiz of Sam Mlrza of
about 1534.3 In this miniature, as in the advanced paintings of the
Houghton Shah-nama, large numbers of figures are introduced, each
with a characteristic gesture or stance, but all related to one another, as
in this depiction of the "Feast of 'Id" (pi. 60). No doubt it was on the
basis of this signed work that Welch attributed to Sultan Muhammad the
"Zahhak told his fate" in the Houghton manuscript (fol. 29b).4 The
"Feast" is a far simpler composition, but the figures of courtiers and
attendants show the same kind of chain relationship and the framing of
the main action by a brilliantly decorated aivan with roof pavilion, is
equally effective in both. No doubt, in spite of its early position in the
manuscript, this miniature must be one of the latest in date, about 15 30.
Even more forward-looking is the "Barbad hiding in a tree" on fol.73 ib
1 2
Ibid., pi. CXXV. Grube, The Classical Style, p. 35. Artsoj Islam, no. 595b.
3
Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp. 126—7, n o ' 43-
4
MMAB, April 1971, pi. 2, p. 347.

884
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

with its extraordinary night sky with wind-blown cloud streaming into
the left margin. This miniature has been attributed by Welch to MIrza
'All, the son of Sultan Muhammad,1 a claim which can be supported by
the two signed by this artist in the British Library NizamI of 15 39-43,
one of which even happens to depict Barbad, but here as court musician.
This second royal manuscript, a Khamsa of Nizam! copied between
1539 a n d 1543 by Shah Mahmud Nlshapuri, has survived with thirteen
contemporary miniatures (British Library, Or.2,265).2 Two royal manu-
scripts are mentioned by the near contemporary Dust Muhammad as "so
beautiful that the pen is inadequate to describe their merits": he adds that
the two Sayyids, Aqa Mlrak and Mir Musavvir, painted the illustrations
to them.3 Evidently not all the miniatures can be by these two hands
alone, but the NizamI opens with an illustration to the fables of King
Nushlrvan and his vizier and the owls on the ruined village, which bears
a convincing signature of Mir Musavvir (pi. 61), introduced into the
field of the painting, as they seldom are at this period. As in most of the
illustrations to the Khamsa, the landscape is the most striking part,
notable here for the touches of realism in the fallen tilework and the
introduction of a stork's nest and snakes as well as the owls perched on
the ruins. The gorgeous sunset sets a fashion which continues through
the rest of the century. The other miniatures of this book bear only
librarians' attributions, but several of these are acceptable, including one
to Aqa Mlrak of "Khusrau enthroned": and one to Sultan Muhammad
of "Khusrau's first sight of Shlrin bathing". The latter is the most
beautiful illustration of this famous and favourite subject with the
miniaturist that has come down to us; for in it landscape and figures alike
sustain the lyrical feeling of the romantic scene. In the former the
courtiers of Khusrau are depicted in the sumptuous dress of the court of
Tahmasp, while the great throne arch has become a mere screen through
which the garden background can be better shown. Mir Sayyid 'All, son
of Mir Musavvir, is represented by a pastoral scene of a nomad encamp-
ment in which are set the three superior tents of Laila and her attendants,
where she receives the feigned mad Majnun led in chains by a beggar
woman. This green scene is the most advanced composition of the
series, built on a double axis from the corners and combining realistic
detail of herdsmen and embroiderers with the romantic theme of the
1
Welch, Wonders of the Age, pp. 114-5.no. 38.
2
Binyon, Poems of Ni^ami. Gray, Persian painting from miniatures of the X1U-XV1 centuries, pis.
3
11,12. Dust Muhammad, in Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, p. 186.

88;
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

story illustrated, in a balanced tension. In India, where he went to found

a school, the realism increased, but the romance quickly faded.
There are two primary sources for the history of the arts of the book
dating from the ioth/i6th century, both of them reliable when writing
of events and persons within their own experience but less so when
dealing with earlier periods. Nonetheless, they are the best sources
which have come down to us for the traditional history of miniature
painting as preserved in the Safavid studios of the art. Even where they
cannot be accepted literally they throw light on the manner in which
the profession and its patrons looked upon that tradition.
Maulana Dust Muhammad was a native of Herat, a highly esteemed
calligrapher and also skilled in music and painting according to the
authority of Sam MIrza.1 He was employed by Bahram MIrza
(b. 923/1517, d. 956/1549), brother ofShah Tahmasp and a notable patron
of the arts of the book. His account of "Past and Present Painters" is
preserved as a preface to the muraqqa' bearing the name of Bahram MIrza
in the Topkapi library in Istanbul and is dated 1544.2 It is naturally
biased towards Khurasan and Herat in particular, but for that reason is
authoritative on the history of Herat painting under Sultan Husain. On
the early Safavid period he is also naturally well-informed. For he
worked in the kitabkhana of Shah Tahmasp and instructed his sister
Mihin-banu, called "Princess Sultanim", in calligraphy. However, in
general Dust Muhammad writes as an heir to the main stream of
Timurid tradition fixed in Herat from the time of Balsunqur onwards.
The second source, QazI Ahmad, who praises Dust Muhammad as a
calligrapher but does not mention his preface as a source for his own
account, produced the first version of his treatise on calligraphers and
painters fifty years later, in 1596. He was born about 1550 into a family
of Sayyids of Qum; spent his early life in Mashhad, where his father
Sharaf al-Din Husain was Mir MunshI in the service of Ibrahim MIrza,
son of the above Bahram MIrza and thus nephew and son-in-law of
Shah Tahmasp and a man of learning and culture. The son therefore had

1
Sam MIrza's Tubfa, a treatise on painters, illuminators and calligraphists dating from
957/1550—1, has been analysed by Mahfuz ul-Haq. The most valuable biographical information it
supplies (pp. 242—3) relates to Aqa MIrak, "at present... the leader and the guide of the artists of
the Court" of Shah Tahmasp; Mini of Shlraz, at first a goldsmith, later a poet, and "unrivalled in
painting (musawiri) and peerless in drawing (naqqasbi)"; Qadiml of Gllan, "good in painting, but
in poetry also he does not consider himself inferior to others"; Mir Shukri, a Sayyid of Shlraz,
"knows book-binding and lapis lazuli colour work"; Qardadmish "sells china at Tabriz."
2
Abridged translation in Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, pp. 183-8.

886
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

personal knowledge of the patronage of Ibrahim until his political

murder in 15 77. The Mirza had been the principal patron of the arts of
the book during the previous sixteen years following the fall of his
cousin Sam Mirza in 15 61. Apart from his personal experience in
Mashhad during these years of his youth, QazI Ahmad stayed in the
capital Qazvln as a minor official through the reigns of Isma'Il II
(984-5/1576-7) and Muhammad Khudabanda (985-95/1578-87). In
addition to personal knowledge QazI Ahmad drew upon .two written
sources, a verse epistle by the famous calligrapher Sultan 'All
MashhadI, concerning the craft of writing and the rules of teaching it
and possessed of little historical value,1 and the compilation by Sam
Mirza, son of Isma'Il I. The treatise was first completed in 1015/1596
and was extensively revised and enlarged by 1606, when a second
version was completed. It is pertinent to note how frequently leading
calligraphers (including royal ones like Ibrahim and Balsunqur, the sons
of Shah Rukh, and Shah Tahmasp) are recorded as having designed
monumental inscriptions on buildings, for execution in tilework or
glazed brick. To exemplify how closely connected the decoration
of manuscripts and buildings was felt to be, it is said that Ibrahim
AstarabadI wrote a distich in nasta'llq "as an unvdn on the tiled gateway
of the mausoleum of Fatima at Qum". 2 QazI Ahmad also constantly
illustrates the mobility of the artists of the book, in response to offers
of patronage, and their intimacy with ruling princes. Professor
Minorsky, who produced a valuable edition of QazI Ahmad's treatise,
remarks in his introduction that the plan of this book was far from
original, and that it closely resembled that of a Turkish account by the
poet and historian Mustafa 'All, the Mandqib-i hiinerverdn, composed
about ten years earlier. Since this was clearly no more than a compila-
tion, it presupposes the existence of earlier sources, of which the only
one mentioned by QazI Ahmad was written by Slml Nlshapurl,3 a
calligrapher of Mashhad of about the middle of the 9th/15 th century,
who wrote on the epistolary art and on the arts in general.
In addition to monographs, information about the history of the arts of
the book is to be found in the pages of general historians; and Sir Thomas
Arnold published extracts from two authors, Khwand Amir and Iskandar
Munshl.4 The latter carried his account down to the death of Shah
'Abbas I, whereas the former ends his account with the fatal year
1
Incorporated in QazI Ahmad, pp. 106-25.
2 i 4
Ibid., p. 89. Ibid., p. 19. Arnold, Painting in Islam, pp. 139—44.

887
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

913/1507 when Muhammad Shaibani Khan captured Herat. Arnold

also translated the relevant passage form Mirza Muhammad Haidar
Dughlat (b. 905/1499, d. 958/15 51).1 Apart from what can be deduced
from these biographical accounts we know almost nothing about the
organisation of the kitabkhana until the last part of the period treated
here, for which the la^kirat al-muluk of about 1725 supplies some
comparative statistics for the staff of all the royal workshops, including
the library. At that time we learn that the salaried staff could undertake
private commissions whenever there was not enough official work to
occupy all their time.2 This may well be a practice which grew up only
in this period of decadence; but, on the other hand, it might have been
true of earlier periods, and thus account for duplicates of compositions
by the same hand. For the later Safavid period there is also some
evidence from Western travellers about the conditions of painters and
other artists of the book and the way that their work was organised.
Chardin gives some idea of the scale of employment in the thirty-two
royal workshops, mentioning for instance that in his time there were
seventy-two painters on the strength of the establishment, all enjoying
an annual salary, partly paid in free messing; as compared with one
hundred and eighty tailors. He also describes the manner of recruit-
ment to these establishments by scrutiny of specimens of the work
submitted by candidates first to the head of each specialist workshop,
and then for confirmation by the na%ir in charge.3 Appointments were
normally made for life, and the children of those on the royal employ
had the chance of being accepted into the establishment at twelve to
fifteen years of age. This general set-up probably dates from the admin-
istrative reforms of Shah 'Abbas I and is probably more systematic than
previously, but essentially throughout the Safavid period most artists
of the book must have been supported out of the personal revenues of
the shah or of one of the princes.
However, in Chardin's time there evidently was some private enter-
prise in manuscript production; for he mentions the rates charged by
copyists of manuscripts, of which the highest was of four 'abbasis for a
thousand couplets.4 There was also a good market for second-hand
books in which high prices were paid for fine calligraphy, illumination
and miniatures. Elsewhere, he writes of the supreme quality of the
1
BSOS v (1930), and reprinted in Binyon et at., Persian Miniature Painting, pp. 189—91.
2 3
Minorsky, TadUkirat al-Muluk, p. 21. Chardin v, 499—500, and v n , 329^
* Ibid, iv, 281.

888
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

paper used for painting and of the brilliance of the pigments, which are
unfading; also of the superiority of the medium, admired by Western
masters, made of gum sandarac, a tree resin, and linseed oil.1 He does
not omit to mention the use of lapis lazuli, and pays tribute to the
virtuosity of the line and the excellence of the arabesque work.
A third source for the history of miniature painting in the Safavid
period is now available in the writings of one of the leading masters of
the later ioth/i6th century who was also a poet and composed in
Persian verse a treatise on painting techniques, Sadiql Beg (b.940/
1533-4, d. 1018/1609-1 o).2 He belonged to one of the Turkish tribal
groups which had made possible the Safavid rise to power and his
native language was Chaghatai; in that language he wrote a biographi-
cal account of leading poets, painters and connoisseurs of the Safavid
period. Although by family tradition a soldier, he was fired with the
ambition to practise the art of Bihzad and persuaded Muzaffar 'All
(d.1576), his nephew and pupil, to teach him at Qazvin in 1568, where
he was moving in court circles. He was afterwards in the employ of
Isma'Il II during his brief reign (984-5/1576-7), but at his death with-
drew to Hamadan and later to Lahljan in Gllan and to Yazd. He had,
however, so much impressed the young Shah 'Abbas when in Herat that
on his accession in 995/1587 Sadiql was made head of the library
(kitdbddr) to the shah, a post he held for the next ten years. His
position and his travels gave Sadiql a close knowledge of the leading
personalities in the cultural world of Iran in the last third of the
sixteenth century. His writings do not of course give us biographies of
the leading artists of the book, but they do give vivid sketches of their
personalities, reputations and accomplishments; and they are out-
spoken and anecodotic. His work therefore does not have the historical
importance of Dust Muhammad or QazI Ahmad.
One of the crucial artistic documents for the understanding of
Safavid book-painting in the mid-sixteenth century is the manuscript
of the Haft aurang of JamI in the Freer Gallery, Washington.3 The 303
folios took nine years to complete between 963/15 56 and 972/1565, and
according to the colophons were divided between three centres, Mash-
had, Qazvin and Herat. It is a princely manuscript prepared for

1
Ibid, iv, 27iff, and v, 204.
2
See Gandjei, "Notes" ; also Welch, Artists for the Sbah, pp. 41—74.
3
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavfs, p. 127 and pis. XL, XLII, XLIII. Gray, Persian Painting (1961),
pp. 187-90.

889
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Ibrahim Mlrza, son of Bahram Mlrza, a favourite nephew of Shah

Tahmasp, who appointed him governor of Mashhad in 963/15 56, when
he was thirteen years old, and gave him his daughter Gauhar Sultan in
marriage. Ibrahim took with him to Mashhad Maulana Malik, a
renowned master of calligraphy, to be the first head of his kitabkhana;1
but he was recalled by the shah to Qazvln in 966/1559. He had
meanwhile copied the first two parts of the Freer Haft aurang, while the
rest was shared among four other leading calligraphers. That the minia-
tures are contemporary with the text is shown by the dedications to
Ibrahim to be seen on three of these (fols. 38b, 132a and 162a), all
of which occur in sections copied at Mashhad. We know from the
account of QazI Ahmad that the leading painters working in the
princely governor's service at this time were Shaikh Muhammad, 'All
Asghar and 'Abd-Allah.2 The lastnamed is recorded as a master of
ornamental gilding and illumination. For this reason his title was
mu^ahhib (ornamentalist or gilder), with which speciality he is also
mentioned by Iskandar MunshI. The Freer manuscript is one of the
first of which we can confidently say that the gold-decorated margins
must be contemporary with the book.3 Indeed, this practice of floral
embellishment may probably have started only about this date, just at
the time of the foundation of the Mughal school, in which also it
became a special fashion. It is to be noticed that the marginal decora-
tion of the royal NizamI of 15 39-43 was supplied at a date subsequent
to the completion of the miniatures, which have been cut out and
remounted. 'All Asghar, a native of Kashan, was QazI Ahmad's own
instructor in miniature painting and, according to Iskandar MunshI,
specialised or excelled in landscape (streets and trees). Shaikh
Muhammad was a calligrapher as well as a painter. He is said to have
followed (or, perhaps, imitated) the Chinese; but that may probably be
intended merely as a compliment to his skill rather than as an indica-
tion of any actual interest in Chinese painting. Indeed, on the contrary,
Iskandar MunshI mentions that he introduced the fashion of imitating
European painting. In any case he seems to have been especially a
figure painter. There is in fact no identifiable European influence in
Persian painting before the nth/17th century. Since we may take the

1 2
QazI Ahmad, p. 142. Ibid., pp. 187—90. Arnold, Painting in Islam, p. 143.
3
M.S.Simpson, "The production and patronage of the Haft Aurang of Jam! in the Freer
Gallery of Art", AO xm (1983), 98, reports her discovery of the signature of 'Abd-Allah al-
ShlrazI on fol. 84b, a two-page 'unvin.

890
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

miniatures in the Freer Haft aurang as certain evidence for the work of
this group of artists in Mlrza Ibrahim's library, it is right to scrutinise it
for evidence of style.
Stchoukine divided the twenty-eight miniatures into two groups, a
first of sixteen which he regards as old-fashioned, not much different
from the illustrations of the royal NizamI of 1539—43; the other of
twelve representing a further development, more dynamic and with
some bold experiments in composition and striking realism in some of
the figures (nos. 8, 11, 12, 14, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27). Nos. 23 and 24
belong to the Laildu Majniin, copied at Herat in 972/1565; no. 19 to the
Salmanu Absdl, copied in 968/1561; while the Yiisuf u Zulaikha (nos.
7—12) was copied at Mashhad in 964/1557. For comparison with the
later group we have the eight miniatures of the Garshdsp-ndma (British
Library, Or. 12,985) dated 981/1573 from Qazvln,1 three of them
signed by the painters Muzaffar 'All, Sadiql Beg and Zain al-'Abidln,
masters of the royal library of Shah Tahmasp and later of Shah 'Abbas.
These are, however, much more crisp in drawing and more coherent in
organisation. If we can follow the distinction into two groups pro-
posed by Stchoukine, the latter are more simplified with greater atten-
tion to figure painting (pi. 62), a characteristic which is to be taken up
by MuhammadI in his incomparably delicate drawing of 1578. Com-
pare the "Majnun's first glimpse of Laila" {Haft aurang, fol. 231),2 with
its cow-milking in the background,with the Louvre "Pastoral Scene"
of MuhammadI and the ploughing oxen.3 The earlier group continue
the rich counterplay of numerous figures in a spacious setting which
had been characteristic of the NizamI of 1539—43, with some clear
indebtedness to it in detail. The later group is also not far removed in
style from the miniatures of a dispersed manuscript of the Sbdb-ndma,4
which bears contemporary attributions to Naqdl, Siyavush, Sadiql and
Zain al-'Abidln, who are all known as court painters. All except Naqdl
are mentioned by QazI Ahmad5 as men of an earlier generation than
his; while Iskandar MunshI records Zain al-'Abidln, Naqdl and Sadiql
1
BMQ xxxi (1966—7), 27—31. Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, no. 48, pp. 22—4.
2
Welch, Persian Painting, pi. 45, an illustration to the Laila u Majnun copied in Herat in
972/156;.
3
Robinson, Drawings of the Masters, pi. 40. Kiihnel, Persische Miniaturmalerei, Taf. 54.
4
Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue ill, no 256. Marteau and Vever n, pis. CM—CIV. Robinson,
Persian Miniature Painting, no. 56, pi. 28. Welch, Artists for the Shah, pis. 14—16, ; 8—66, and colour-
plates 1, 2, 5, 14—16: this work contains the fullest account, with bibliography on pp. 20—1. There
is a succinct account in Robinson, "Isma'il II's copy of the Shahnama", Iran xiv (1976), 1-8.
5
QazI Ahmad, pp. 187, 191.

891
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Beg as working in the library of Isma'U II. Siyavush indeed was a

household servant of Shah Tahmasp, a Georgian royal ghuldm and, like
Sadiql, a pupil of Muzaffar 'All, whom we have seen to have been still
in Qazvln in 1573, and therefore senior to the group. Since this group
of artists was probably only first brought together by Isma'U II, the
illustration of this Shdh-ndma is plausibly attributed to his reign
(984-5/1576-7). The range of colouring in these miniatures is stronger
and brighter than those in the Haft aurang, suggesting that at Qazvln a
more academic, less sensitive style was appreciated. The position of
MuhammadI in this situation remains somewhat enigmatic: he was a
man of Herat and probably trained in the court style of Shah Tahmasp,
but, to judge from his generally accepted auvre, nearer in sensibility
and in preference for simple country scenes to the work of the Mash-
had group of painters working for Sultan Ibrahim.1 No doubt these
too were recruited into the royal library after the death of their patron
in 1577. It is therefore to be supposed that there were two or three
different schools working together in Qazvln in the last quarter of the
16th century. The Garsbdsp-ndma and the dispersed Shdh-ndtna represent
the more brilliant and assured style of the group of painters round
Siyavush, Sadiql and Zain al-'Abidln; while MuhammadI may have
been the leader of the quieter, more sensitive artists, whose work is to
be seen in a number of country scenes and drawings of dervishes, and
also in three detached miniatures from a manuscript of the Gulistan of
Sa'dl in the Mahboubian collection and in a manuscript of the Sifat
al-'dshiqin of Hilall dated 1582 in the Edwin Binney collection.2 These
sensitive miniatures represent the end of the early Safavid court style;
in which landscape and figures are united in harmonious compositions,
which admirably express the Persian love of natural and human beauty,
and the sufl tendency to see the two as equally reflecting the divine
immanence.
Apart from manuscripts, there is fortunately one surviving monu-
ment to illustrate the art of wall-painting in the mid-ioth/i6th century, a
Safavid palace pavilion at Na'In, which has recently been discovered
and published by Dr Ingeborg Luschey-Schmeisser. A considerable
part of the decoration of the upper part of the walls and the vaulting of
this building has survived, and the quality is such that one can only feel
1
Stchoukine, Manuscrits Safavls, pp. 40—2, 94—7.
2
Exhibition of Islamic miniatures from the collection of Edwin Binney III (1962), n o . 47 and
frontispiece. Grube, The Classical Style, no. 79. Persian and Mughal Art (London, 1976), no. 24.

892
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

a strong regret that so much good work of the early Safavid period
must have been done on walls of which no trace remains. Shah
Tahmasp himself is recorded to have painted one or two scenes on the
walls of the Chihil Sutiin pavilion at Qazvln;1 while the leading court
painters Mir Musavvir and Aqa MIrak decorated for Bahram MIrza
an arched mirror-house (jdmkhana) "making it as beautiful as para-
dise peopled with fair youths and hurls".2 This description fits remark-
ably the decoration of the domed chamber in the Na'in palace; but this
must be a building of a generation later. It is dated about 15 5 0—60 by
Luschey, who distinguishes two different hands in the work in the two
rooms. On the evidence of the costume of the figures represented, and
also on stylistic grounds, these paintings must be put well before 15 8o,
and it is at present not possible to give a more definite date than that
suggested by Luschey. The technique is to be noted by which these
designs were carried out in relief stucco work known as kundal?
modelled and then cut to shape. Technically, therefore, these Safavid
wall-paintings resemble the contemporary manner of decorating the
inner surfaces of bindings with designs in applique, while the outer
covers often show similar subjects in relief formed by pressing the
leather into moulds. For the aivan arch of the pavilion is decorated
with arcaded niches whose apexes form part of the interlace vaulting.
Within this in star-shaped panels are depicted phoenix, ch'i-lin, wild
geese in flight and parts whose wings fit into the star shapes. On the
walls are designs of animals, birds and vegetation in panels. No human
figures are included in the decoration of this part of the building; but
the inner domed chamber is decorated with symmetrical designs of
pairs of young men drinking from a single cup, and of winged parls,
separated by floral designs — sprays growing from vases. This complex,
as Luschey has pointed out, resembles some of the fine Safavid painted
lacquer book-bindings in showing the sky filled with birds inflightand
small stylised clouds above scenes of feasting and hunting. Thus it can
be seen how closely connected this decorative wall-painting is to the
contemporary arts of the book, which are primary in this period. The
small scale of the designs bears this out and as final proof it can be
mentioned that the Na'in pavilion includes in its decoration verses by

1
QazT Ahmad; p. 182.
2
Dust Muhammad, in Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, p. 186.
3
Pugachenkova, "Ishrat-Khaneh and Ak-Saray, two Timurid mausoleums in Samarkand",
), 177-90. SPA, p. 1351, pis. 478—9.

893
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Hafiz in nasta'llq script in panels against a floral ground. There are two
well-known drawings now in the Freer Gallery, Washington, repre-
senting a battue in mountain country and Solomon carried through the
air by jinn and attended by parl,1 which include all the principal
elements in these wall-paintings, and of mid-16th century date, which
might even be designs for similar architectural decoration. In quality
there is no great difference, but the wall-paintings show faces more
sharply characterised, no doubt in order to compensate for the distance
from the eye of the spectator.
Although the last two decades of the 16th century saw a decline in
the production of fine illustrated manuscripts, there were still some of
excellent quality whose miniatures mark the transition from the late
Qazvln style to that of the new capital, Isfahan, which thereafter
became the principal seat of the book arts. Among these, two lavishly
illustrated manuscripts of the Shdh-ndma can be taken to exemplify the
character of the period. One of these is at present known only by a
fragment in the Chester Beatty Library,2 with twelve large-scale minia-
tures and an illuminated frontispiece, which bears the signature of Zain
al-'Abidin, thus marking it as a court product. It has been attributed to
the last decade of the century, but should perhaps be assigned to the
15 80s. The figures remain sharply focused and the detail of the archi-
tecture and landscape is fine and precise, but touches of realism fail to
compensate for the loss of structural sense or of feeling. The second
manuscript in the Mahboubian collection (University of Texas no.
922), also unfortunately undated, is probably slightly later. Among the
twenty-three miniatures, the double frontispiece and three of the min-
iatures show the beginning of a new style, while the remainder are in a
simplified Qazvln style in which figures decisively dominate the land-
scape. This is true also of the new style, but here the figures are on a
larger scale and can thus carry a more personal expression. This is
emphasised by the introduction of several bare-headed men, hitherto
practically unknown in this art. Gestures are expressive rather than
realistic, while the setting is now entirely conventional.
Recently another illustrated manuscript, this time fortunately dated

1
Binyon et a/., Persian Miniature Painting, no. 157, pi. XCIII. Martin, Miniature Painting 11, pis.
5 7-8-
2
Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue ill, no. 277, pp. 49-50, pis. 478—9. On these miniatures, see
now Welch, Artists for the Shah, pp. 106-22, pis. 8—11 and figs. 31—3, 35-41: Welch argues for a
date of 15 87-97, the first decade of the reign of 'Abbas I.

894
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

to 1593, has come to light, the Anvdr-i Suhaili in the collection of the
Marquess of Bute.1 This bears a note beside the colophon that it was
prepared for "Sadiql Beg, the rarity of the age, the second Manl, the
Bihzad of the time". Robinson, who has published this manuscript,
believes that this means that all 107 miniatures which illustrate it were
painted by Sadiql for his own satisfaction. I find this hard to accept,
partly because they do not all appear to be by a single hand, but also
because such a dedication would be more likely to represent a tribute
from the artist's pupils to their master. In his recent study of the life
and work of the artist Sadiql, Welch has proposed that he was given by
Shah 'Abbas the appointment as head of the library (kitabdar) immedi-
ately on his accession in 1587 and not as hitherto assumed in 1596, so
that such a tribute might have been timely. In any case the illumination
of this manuscript underlines the academic brilliance of the work in the
last decade of the 16th century at the capital, Qazvln. At the same time
the miniatures, though unequal in quality, illustrate all the tendencies
to be seen in the school at this time; the archaism of direct copies of the
late Timurid style of Herat, the realism which is somehow connected
with the contemporary Mughal style at the court of Akbar and the new
style coming about at the court of Shah 'Abbas, highly mannered and
with strong colouring. Other features of these miniatures include
streaming, coloured clouds, strongly shaded trees and wind-blown
foliage. Most of the miniatures project into the side margin of the page,
as do also the miniatures in the Chester Beatty Shdb-ndma.
Occasionally also, even in the last years of the century, there are
some manuscript illustrations of sensibility and invention, such as the
four miniatures added at this time to the 1483 Mantiq al-tair now in the
Metropolitan Museum,2 before it was dedicated by Shah 'Abbas I in
1607 to the shrine of Shaikh SafT at Ardabll. At the time of this
addition the manuscript was also provided with an illuminated 'unvan
signed by Zain al-'Abidln, as was the Shdh-ndma fragment mentioned
above. There is, moreover, another connection between these two
groups of miniatures. The most remarkable of the later series of illus-
trations to the Mantiq al-tair depicts the "Conference of the birds",

1
Robinson, "Two Persian manuscripts", pp. 50-6. Welch, Artists for the Shah, pp. 125-45, pis.
12, 13, figs. 42-55, and p. 66 for the appointment of Sadiql Beg to the court.
2
Grube, "The Language of the Birds: the seventeenth century miniatures", MMAB xxv
(1967), pp. 539-47. Swietochowski, "The Historical Background", pp. 39-72, where the subjects
of these miniatures are identified.

895
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

watched by a hunter carrying a matchlock in a rocky hillside. This

bears the signature of Hablb-Allah, a painter recorded to have been
recruited from Qurn to the court workshop in Isfahan between 15 96
and 1606; and it includes as its most conspicuous element a peacock
displaying, seen frontally. This bird is exactly repeated as a decorative
feature in the centre of the aivan in the best of the Shdh-ndma minia-
tures.1 The other miniatures added to the Mantiq al-tair are less original
in composition, but in certain, as in the "Execution of a sick man by a
GhazI", there are vivid touches of movement within traditional
settings. Yet even the architecture is abreast of the times with the
coffered false vaulting (muqarnas) of an aivan like that of the 'All Qapu
reception hall. Hablb-Allah was an accomplished figure draughtsman2
and quite capable of the swooning Christian girl in the story of the
Shaikh of San'an. He shows afinde stick elegance, unlike the more
relaxed stance of the 17th century. Behind the garden pavilion is the
last of the 16th century garden vistas, with a pensive gardener leaning
on his long-handled spade. There seems no reason why all four mini-
atures might not be by Hablb-Allah.
The most significant development during the last quarter of the 16th
century is the rise to favour of the independent figure subject.
Although a number of separate figure subjects have been attributed to
the time of Sultan Husain in Herat, and some even to the hand of Bihzad
himself, there is little that can be accepted as before 1500. The well-
known portrait of Mir 'All Shir Nava'I,3 must be posthumous, for it
bears the probably genuine signature of Mahmud muqahhib, a Bukhara
painter of the 15 30s and 40s, whereas the Mir died in 906/1501. In the
time of Shah Tahmasp Mir Musavvir, Muhammad Qadlml, Kamal
al-Tabriz! and 'Abd al-'Aziz of Kashan are all recorded as "portraitists",
though little survives of their work. The best are the figure subjects by
Mir Musavvir of young princes and pages in the British Museum (pi.
63a)4 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.5 His son Mir Sayyid 'All
also made some drawings of similar fashionable youths before leaving
for India with Humayun. The dates of these drawings must be between
1535 and 1540. Muzaffar 'All also is said to have been an incomparable
figure painter and to have decorated the walls of the Chihil Sutun at
1
Robinson, Version Miniature Paintings no. 6oc, pi. 29.
2
Sakisian, La miniature persane,fig.185. Kiihnel, Miniaturmalerei, pi. 87.
3
Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, no. 74(d), pi. LXXVI.
4
SPA, pi. 901.
4
Sakisian, La miniature persane,fig.137.

896
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Qazvln.1 He is now known only by his manuscript illustrations already

mentioned. His pupil, Sadiql Beg, the first specialist in figure drawing,
who "painted thousands of marvellous portraits," became in 1569
kitabdar to the shah. He was of the Afshar tribe, one of the leading
Turkmen tribes, and a good warrior, but overbearing and rude, so that
he finally lost his position, though not his title and salary.2 Attributed to
him are several attractive but rather mannered coloured figure drawings
in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Supp. pers. 1171)3 and elsewhere, of
young beauties of both sexes. Several are included in the so-called
"album of the amir of Bukhara" in the Pierpont Morgan Library (M.
386):4 amongst them sketches of young men wearing loosely wound
coloured turbans of the period about 1590 (pi. 63Z?), and in more
sophisticated poses than became fashionable in the 17th century.
The beginning of the reign of Shah 'Abbas I thus heralds the period
of the primacy of the independent miniature or drawing over the
manuscript illustration. In the first part of the reign it is true that some
notable manuscripts were still being produced, such as the Duval
Rani-yi Khi^r Khan of Amir Khusrau Dihlavl of 1596 (British Library
Add 7,776),5 where the flat silhouetted figures continue the tradition of
elegance introduced by Muhammadl. This may well be a provincial
manuscript, since one of the two scribes was a man from Lahljan, chief
town of Gllan; and it has a slightly Turkish look, probably appropriate
to the disputed areas of north-western Iran at this time.
Later on, after the move of the capital to Isfahan and the establish-
ment of the shah as a great national leader, his personal taste becomes
apparent in the miniature style of the second half of the reign; as for
instance in a poetical manuscript dated 1613 in the Walters Gallery,
Baltimore6 and a Khamsa of NizamI of 1605-26 in the Bibliotheque
Nationale (Supp. pers. 1980).7 The figures are still of considerable
elegance, but their attitudes are more natural, less stylised, and could
well have been taken from life; landscape and architectural setting, on
the contrary, are simplified and conventional; even the famous Blsitun

1
Iskandar Munshi, q u o t e d in Arnold, Painting in Islam, p. 141.
2
Ibid., p. 142. For a new estimate of him, see Welch, Artists for the Shah.
3 Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pis. X X V I , XXVIII, X X I X , X X X b , X X X I b .
4
Martin, Miniature Painting 11, pis. 150-1. Grube, The Classical Style, pis. 87-9.
5
Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pi. IX.
6
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 165.
7
Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, p. 19;, pis. XLVI-XLVIII.

897
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

rock-carving, for instance, in the Khusrau u Shirin,1 shown as a wall-

painting of the lovers in a landscape found in a niche; and the clouds in
the Baltimore manuscript drawn in the margins in pale blue and gold,
as in the backgrounds of some of the figure drawings. The same in-
difference to landscape and architectural form is shown in a remarkable
manuscript of the Shdh-ndma dated 1023/1614, which illustrates another
aspect of the shah's taste, a pastiche of the great Balsunqur manuscript
of 1430, which must have remained in the royal library. This copy
contains thirty-nine miniatures, the composition of more than half of
which are borrowed from the 1430 book, with simplifications.2 The
colouring and superficial resemblance are skilfully achieved, and the
elements of the landscape are the same; but some figures in contempo-
rary dress are introduced, as in the "Blzhan drawn from the well by
Rustam" (pi. 64). Here the prisoner wears the Mongol yoke (palahang),
but his costume is of the early 17th century, and so is the water jug
beside him. The background is a phantasmagoria of rocks, formed
from the Timurid coral convention, but filling nearly all the sky.
Rustam is a conventional Herat figure and the foreground is studded
with early Timurid plants. In some of the miniatures there is no
intrusive element and the landscape is a passable imitation, as in the
"Rustam lassoing the Khaqan of Chin". In others again, part of the
composition is borrowed and part supplied by fresh invention, remark-
ably in keeping. The figure of Prince Balsunqur himself, on horseback,
with his attendants, is adapted to a polo scene, from the double-page
hunting scene which formed the frontispiece of the 1430 book. The
ground is covered with an all-over floral arabesque pattern instead of
vegetation, a convention which had developed in Shlraz in the later
ioth/i6th century. Shah 'Abbas was determined to rival the Timurid
princely patrons; and he had equal resources in materials and library
staff. But the spirit of the age was no longer in tune with the romance-
epic. Iran did not produce a school of history painting like India, nor
of portraiture like that of the Mughals. Instead, the painters rivalled
one another in virtuosity of penmanship and richness of design. For
the first time in the history of the art, a majority of the drawings are
signed, though not of course always in the autograph of the artist.
Repetitions abound, often probably contemporary work by pupils or

1
Kiihnel, Miniaturmalerei, pi. 90.
2
Gray, Persian Pamling(i()6i), p. 164. Grube, Tie Classical Style, pis. 82 (1-4).

898
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

assistants. The question now is not so much when or where a drawing

was made, as whether it is an orginal, and, if so, by whose hand. This
debate continues and has proceeded farthest towards the identification
of the work of Aqa Riza.
We know from the literary sources1 that Aqa Riza was a son of 'All
Asghar and therefore, like Sadiql Beg, of Turkmen stock, but unlike
him born into the profession and almost certainly apprenticed in the
royal library at an early age. He had an established reputation by the
time that QazI Ahmad completed his first version in 15 96, and his birth
is reasonably placed by Stchoukine about 1565, when his father was
among the leading artists in the atelier of Ibrahim Mlrza at Mashhad.
Aqa is part of his name by which he is referred to in the sources. QazI
Ahmad writes: "in the flower of the youth he brought the elegance of
his brushwork, figure painting and likeness to such a degree that if
ManI and Bihzad were living today they would praise his hand and
brush a hundred times a day". The work of this early period which is
generally accepted is not extensive. At its head are two fine coloured
drawings of standing figures, one of a girl holding a fan (pi. 65 a), the
other of an elegant page in a cloak holding a fruit.2 Both bear "signa-
tures" of Aqa Riza and both also the royal seal of Shah 'Abbas with the
date of his accession incorporated in the legend. The style is more
elegant than that of Sadiql Beg, with less sense of volume (there are no
highlights on the features, as in his) but greater vitality: and we may
remark a certain humour in the expressions. Then there are some pen-
drawings, also of young people, a girl standing and holding a rosary3
and a seated youth with a flowering spray in his hand,4 which excel in
the bravura of the line which moves from thick to thin, following the
curves of the body and ends in a splutter of controlled ink. The first of
these also bears the shah's seal, while the second comes from an album
put together before the end of the 16th century, but shows a cloud
formation in the background like that of the early 17th-century manu-
script illustrations. Also belonging to the period about the turn of the
century is another drawing in the Louvre of a young cup-bearer wear-
ing the voluminous turban of the early 'Abbas I period but more
voluptuous in his stance than anything hitherto.5 All these bear "signa-
1 2
QazI Ahmad, p. 192. Gray, Persian Painting (1961), p. 161.
3
Sakisian, La miniature pcnani,fig.167.
4
Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbis, pi. XXXIIIb.
5
Ibid., pi. XXXV.

899
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

tures" of Aqa Riza, though not all in the same hands; and evidently
attributions, in spite of the humble formulae conventionally employed.
We now approach the problem of Riza-yi 'AbbasI, whose name is
not mentioned in any of the sources, but is found, generally with a date
added, on a great many 17th-century figure drawings. Some of the
earliest of these according to the inscriptions, are stylistically close to
the Aqa Riza drawings last mentioned, especially the two earliest dated
1603 and 1610. There is, moreover, supporting evidence to be found in
inscriptions on three other drawings, not by Riza himself. Two are
different versions of a portrait of a painter by the most productive artist
of the second half of the century, Mu'in. Both are inscribed by the
artist and both give the name of the subject as Riza-yi 'AbbasI, the
earlier dated 1673, &v'mS t n e further name of Ash'ar (probably in-
tended for Asghar), the family name of Aqa Riza. In both, Riza is
described as Mu'In's master, and both portraits are said to be copied
after an original of 1044/1635, which, the 1673 inscription adds, was
the year of his death, only one month later. The second copy, made in
1676, lacks this important additional information. The third drawing
purports to be a copy made by Riza-yi 'AbbasI in 1618 after an illustra-
tion to the Gulistan of Sa'dl, which he believed to be by Bihzad. A
second inscription by Riza's son, ShafT 'AbbasI and dated 1064/165 3,
refers to him as Aqa Riza. If we accept the genuineness of these
inscriptions, we have double proof that Aqa Riza and Riza-yi 'AbbasI
were the same man. How then do we account for the change of name?
If we turn to the second edition of QazI Ahmad's treatise of 1606—8,
we find an additional paragraph1 in which his character is said to have
completely changed by his consorting with libertines and taking up the
vulgar sport of wrestling. He was, however, still in the shah's employ.
Ten years later in 1616 Iskandar MunshI writes2 that he was then
always poor and in need and gave little time to his art, which surely
implies that he was no longer in court service. His fall from grace is
here attributed to the influence of Sadiql Beg, whom we have seen to
have had an unusually disagreeable character. Might it not be that Riza
took to using the epithet '"AbbasI" only when he ceased to be the
shah's servant, but when he wished to enhance his market value by
reference to the royal patronage he had enjoyed? If his dismissal
occurred about 1610, there is only one earlier dated example of the

1 2
QazI Ahmad, pp. 192-3- Arnold, Painting in Islam, pp. 143—4.

900
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

signature to account for that of 1603.JI would suggest that this inscrip-
tion may have been added subsequently, although the date may well be
correct for the making of the drawing. If this interpretation is correct,
the Riza-yi 'AbbasI drawings are those made for sale in the market.
This is not, however, to imply that there need have been any marked
change of style at this moment, for it must be remembered that the
taste of the shah was likely to be "popular": he was a good mixer and
enjoyed the company of shopkeepers and such people, as we learn from
the graphic pages of Pietro della Valle,2 who visited Isfahan in 1617.
Some index of his taste is provided by the decoration of the 'All Qapu
pavilion. Alongside of the niches intended for Chinese porcelain, for
which he had a real passion,3 are to be seen the remains of a system of
arabesque decoration with birds in flight in the public rooms and of
figures in the smaller rooms on a much smaller scale. That these are of
the time of Shah 'Abbas I we know once more from the pages of Pietro
della Valle,4 who considered them lascivious. They are in fact similar in
style, though coarser in execution, than those of Riza-yi 'AbbasI but
are, from the point of view of the 20th century, gently sentimental
rather than provocative. Embracing lovers are one of the themes of
Riza's work after 1610, but he was equally fond of depicting old men,
especially dervishes, and of what we might call "costume pieces",
young women and men wearing the elaborate modish dress of the
period, including some young pages in European hats and breeches.
The Persian male dress had always included trousers and by the time of
Shah 'Abbas I, as Anthony Sherley noted, breeches were a normal male
dress and even worn by the shah himself. As plumes were frequently
worn in turbans without any indication of rank, and as the shah
favoured rich costume, such dressing up was normal and not to be
attributed, as it sometimes has been, to any special Portuguese
influence.
A mannerism, apparently introduced by Riza, was to incline the
1
Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pi. XXXIIa. Akimushkin and Ivanov, pi. 61.
2
Della Valle 11/2, 50-1. Cf. Blunt, pp. 185-6.
3
Mario Ferrante argues, however, that these niches are decorative only, being formed as a
plaster screen to mask the windows: "Desseins et observations preliminaires pour la restauration
du palais de Ali Qapu", in Zander, Travaux, p. 168,fig.73. In fact these niches closely resemble
those in the Chlnlkhana at the shrine of Shaikh SafI at Ardabll, which we know to have been
prepared to receive the gift from 'Abbas I of his large collection of Chinese porcelain in 1611 : see
Pope, Chinese Porcelains, pp. 8—11, pi. 4.
4
Delia Valle 11/1, 40; Blunt, p. 126. The two upper floors were added under 'Abbas II. Gray,
"The Tradition of V'-1' Painting", p. 322.

901
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

standing figures forwards as if they were suddenly arrested in a forward

movement. This trait is most obvious in the more complex manuscript
illustrations by him such as a double-page country picnic of a young
lord, dated 1612, in the Hermitage,1 particularly rich with gold sky and
gold margin decoration into which the miniatures extend. It is also to be
seen in some of the miniatures in an undated manuscript of the Qisas
al-anbiyd ("History of the Prophets") in the Bibliotheque Nationale
(Supp. pers. 1313) of about 1600, which are also by Riza.2 This manner-
ism continued through the middle of the century and is but one sign of
the strength of Riza's influence on his followers, led by his pupil Mu'in
and his son Shaf f. His personality dominates the first half of the century,
no doubt partly because it corresponds so clearly to the spirit of the age,
democratic, confident, delighting in display and bright colours but
conservative in its respect for age and its salute to beauty.
Shah 'Abbas I died before Aqa Riza, whose death cannot be placed
prior to 163 5, in the reign of SafI I (1038-5 2/1629-42), a troubled time,
from which little book art survives, though both his son Shafi' and
Mu'in must have been active. By the former is a coloured bird and
flower drawing in the Hermitage dated 163 4— 53 and two pen-drawings
in an album of designs dated 1640 and 1641 and signed Muhammad
Shafi' IsfahanI and Shafi' 'AbbasI, the name which he received as a
court artist.4 Both are flower drawings and both seem to derive from
European originals. The Hermitage drawing of a parakeet on the
blossoming cherry bough, also shows Western influence in the
shading. Western influence is entirely absent from his father's work,
but from now on it is frequently seen for the rest of the Safavid
period. Shafi' probably designed for the textile business; the silk
brocades having as favourite repeat motives flowering plants and birds,
such as Shafi' designed. There was an active foreign trade interest in
these things: as is demonstrated by copies made by Shafi' from two
English pattern books etched about 1661 in London, by John Dunstall
(d. 1693), as well as by the instructions from Charles I to Nicholas
Wilford in his mission to Persia in 1637.5 This was evidently a period
1
Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pis. XXXVIII-XXXIX. Akimushkin and Ivanov, pis.
59. 60.
2
Gray, Persian Painting (1961), pp. 162-3. Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pis.
XXI-XXIH and pp. 138—9, does not accept the attribution to Aqa Riza.
3 4
Akimushkin and Ivanov, pi. 71. Gray, "An album of designs".
5
R.W. Ferrier, "Charles I and the Antiquities of Persia : the mission of Nicholas Wilford",
Iran v m (1970), 51 —6.

902
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

of mutual influence between East and West, when oriental products -

textiles, lacquer, ceramics — appealed to European taste, without much
regard for country of origin, so long as it was east of Suez; while in
India and Persia, and a few decades later in China, there was a recipro-
cal interest in Western painting with its perspective and chiaroscuro.
The work of Shafl' 'AbbasI of this kind extends down to 1674, which is
said to have been the year of his death. At the same time he was making
copies after his father's works, to some of which he probably added his
father's signature. He was evidently highly skilled but without great
originality.
A striking contrast to him was Mu'In Musavvir, immensely prolific,
dynamic and extremely personal in the virtuosity of his line. In manu-
scripts he excels in the vigour and originality of composition, rather
than in colouring, where he showed a liking for garish contrasts, of
strong primary colours. It is in his more personal, rapid sketches that
he shows his genius for characterisation. The manuscripts mainly
belong to the earlier part of his career under Shah 'Abbas II;1 the style
of the sketches owes nothing to the West, but is the interpretation in
calligraphic line of a particularly keen observation from life. Some-
times this is combined with a traditional phantasy, as in the "Man
attacked by Dragons", dated 1676, in the British Museum:2 or under
Indian influence as in the "Milking of a Cow" in the Berlin Museum,3
of 1681. Only in the coloured drawings does the influence of his master
Aqa Riza continue until the end of his career (1689 and 1694), when he
had been active for over fifty years. He kept alive the tradition of vital
brushwork with a tendency to abstract calligraphic line long after it
had been abandoned by most of the leading artists of the last third of
the century.
The reign of Shah 'Abbas II (io5 2-77/i642-66)was favourable to
the arts and new hands brought a revival, led by Muhammad Yusuf,
Muhammad Qasim and Afzal al-Husainl. The lastnamed signed sixty-
two of the miniatures in a Shah-nama manuscript in the Leningrad State
Library (no. 3 3 3).4 Many of these bear dates between 1642 and 1645,
while others, unsigned, excel in their dramatic effects, the figures being

1
Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue in, no. 270, frontispiece and pis. 31-3. SPA, pis. 922-3.
British Library Or. 3,248 in Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pis. LXVI-LXVIII (mid-i7th
2
century). Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, no. 84.
3
Kiihnel, "Der Maler Mu'in", Pantheon v (1942), 112, Abb. 6.
4
Gyuzal'yan and D'yakonov, Iranskie Miniatyury, pp. 72—83, pis. 35—45.

903
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

arranged as if on a stage-set with elaborate backcloth.1 The same

dramatic effect is sought by similar means in some miniatures in a
second Shdh-ndma dated 1648 in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle,2
and almost certainly by the same hand. Afzal al-Husaini is a very
competent follower of Aqa Riza, whereas Muhammad Yusuf 3 emerges
more clearly as a distinct personality, of a more baroque tendency. The
landscape backgrounds seem to be tormented, as if a great storm has
lately passed over them, tearing the leaves from the trees and leaving
the clouds in tatters (pi. 65^). His figures seem to carry further the
inclination forwards found in Aqa Riza's later work and to be poised
for fresh movement. Muhammad Qasim, on the other hand, was more
interested in decorative effects; his figures are static and his landscapes
mere staffage, but over all attractive.4 It seems likely that he may have
been responsible for some of the best decorative and colourful wall-
paintings which formed part of the improvements carried out at the
Chihil Sutun palace at Isfahan by Shah 'Abbas II, according to an
inscription of 1647 discovered by Professor Hunarfar.5 The most
attractive of these are in one of the smaller rooms adjoining the central
hall, named by the Italian restoration team who have recently cleaned
and consolidated them with great skill, "P4". They fill ogival and
lunette niches and show groups of picnickers in the country or single
figures. The style and subject are very like those of the contemporary
miniatures, and were no doubt painted by the same hands. It may be
thought that such compositions gain from being carried out on a larger
scale than the miniature. It perhaps becomes more obvious that the
landscape elements are no more than artificial background, but the
figures gain in grace and in the detailed depiction of elegant costume
with patterns as lovingly reproduced as in Elizabethan portraits (pis.
39, 40). This room preserves the only complete interior of a palace
decoration of Safavid times.
As the restoration of the Chihil Sutun wall-paintings proceeds some
large historical scenes in the central hall of the palace have been

1 2
Ibid., pis. 57, 43, 45. Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas, pis. LVIII, LXII.
3
Binyon et al., Persian Miniature Painting, pi. CIXc, dated 1645. Robinson, Drawings of the
Masters, pi. 58, dated 1637. Akimushkin and Ivanov, pis. 69, 70, dated 1656 and 1658. Mahbou-
bian collection, ten miniatures, one dated 1652.
« Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shib 'AbbSs, pis. LXXI, LXXVIII, LXXXb. Blochet, Musulman
Painting, pi. CLXVII. Martin, Miniature Painting n, pi. 165c. Kiihnel, Miniaturmalerei, pi. 91.
5
Hunarfar, Ganjina, p. 566. P. Mora, "La restauration des peintures murales de Cibil Sutun",
in Zander, Travaux, pp. 323—8, figs. 56—81.

904
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

uncovered. These are in a style different from that of the smaller

paintings in room P4 and in both composition and chiaroscuro betray
Western influence. They show successive shahs receiving foreign guests
identified as Humayun at the court of Tahmasp I; the khan of Turkes-
tan, Nadr Muhammad, received by 'Abbas I; and Shah 'Abbas II with
the Uzbek ambassador.1 No attempt has been made to depict these
scenes in the dress of the time, but all wear contemporary costume of
the period around 1670, at the beginning of the reign of Sulaiman. It
was only at this time that we begin to find evidence of Western influ-
ence in Safavid painting. The wall-paintings in the large hall are thus
some twenty-five years later than those in the smaller rooms P4 and P5.
Nearer in style to the wall-paintings in the side rooms are some large
panels of wall-tiles which once adorned some of the pavilions which
were erected in the gardens behind the Chahar Bagh. Several of these
figural compositions are now preserved in Western museums (pi. 69),
all showing similar scenes of young men and women enjoying them-
selves in flowery gardens. They are in the cuerda seca technique in
which the colours are separated by greasy lines.
Of the work of one or two stray European painters known to have
been patronised by Shah 'Abbas I no trace now remains; but after the
middle of the century there is the definite evidence in the Armenian
churches and houses in Julfa, the foreign suburb of Isfahan, which
followed not, as might have been expected, a Near Eastern tradition
but a Northern European, Dutch one. It is in fact the Italianising
Flemings and Dutch whose style is reflected in the semi-Western style
paintings which have survived from the last quarter of the century.
The two leading exponents of this style seem to have been 'All Qull
Jabbadar and Muhammad Zaman. The best collection of the work of
both artists is in the Oriental Institute, Leningrad.2 This Muhammad
Zaman is not to be confused with the calligrapher Muhammad Zaman
KirmanI, mentioned by QazI Ahmad,3 a Tabrlzl active there at the end
of the 16th century. Furthermore, it cannot unfortunately be assumed
that he was the same as the "Muhamedzama" whom the Italian
traveller N. Manucci met in Delhi about 1660,4 who had been sent by
Shah 'Abbas II early in his reign as a student of theology to Rome

1 2
Grube and Sims, "Wall paintings". Ivanov el a/., Al'bom, pp. 44-59.
3
QazI Ahmad, p. 166.
4
N . Manucci, Storia do Mogor, ed. W. Irvine (London, 1907—8), 11, 17-18. A Chronicle of the
Carmelites 1, j 1 jff. N.N. Martinovitch, in JAOS XLV (1925), 108-9.

905
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

where he had been converted to Christianity and had taken Paolo as his
baptismal name. He had therefore not cared to return to Iran but had
sought the Mughal court, where Shah Jahan had given him a pension
and installed him with other Persian expatriates in Kashmir. There are
chronological difficulties about this identification, for the visit to Rome
seems actually to have been in the early 1630s under Shah SafI, whereas
the dated work of our painter in Iran falls between the years 1672 and
1697. These works are signed Muhammad Zaman b. Hajjl Yusuf, with
no indication of a Christian connection. Of his forty-seven known
works, four are of Christian subjects,1 but all these appear to be copies
directly from engravings (the same kind of material copied by the
Mughal artists at the court of Jahanglr and Shah Jahan from the work
of Northern artists who were trained in Rome).2 The colouring
certainly implies that Muhammad Zaman was familiar with paintings
of this school, but he used a mixed style which retains the original
composition, but with the spirit and conception of a Persian miniature
transposed into a Western idiom with cast shadows and plastic
modelling. The trees are directly borrowed with their gnarled trunks
and bunched foliage from the school of Martin van Heemskerck; while
clouds are barred with shafts of sunlight. Muhammad Zaman is best
known for his three illustrations added to the royal NizamI of 15 39—43
in the British Library,3 and two to the now fragmentary Sbah-ndma in
the Chester Beatty Library.4 All five are dated 1086/1675; and this and
the two following years are the period of sixteen miniatures supplied to
a manuscript of the Kbamsa of NizamI in the Pierpont Morgan Library,
New York. These are smaller and in a lower tone, but they illustrate
the same thoroughly mixed Westernised Persian style, as in the "Shirln
discovers the murder of her Husband Khusrau" (pi. 66). Each element
may be borrowed, but the whole remains eastern. It is hard to believe
that this artist could have pursued a systematic course in the studio of a
European painter in Rome. An extreme example of the mixed style is
one of the miniatures added to the British Library NizamI, showing
Bahram entertaining a princess,5 a night scene with mixed candle and
moonlight which the painter has used as an excuse for exaggerated
chiaroscuro. The princess and one of the serving maids wear European

1
Martin, Miniature Painting n, pi. 173. Ivanov et al., Al'bom, pis. 84-5.
2 3
Barrett and Gray, pp. 86-7. Arnold, Painting in Islam, pi. V.
* Chester Beatty Library, Catalogue in, no. 277, pi. 38. SPA, pi. 925.
5
V. Smith, A History of the Fine Arts iiflndia and Ceylon (Oxford, 1913), pi. CXVI.

906
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

dress, while Bahrain is dressed in the contemporary shah's costume.

Since this must have been a royal commission, we are entitled to assume
that this hybrid style appealed to the personal taste of Shah Sulaiman
(1077—1105/1666—94).
A court scene in which a shah enthroned gives audience to a Mughal
ambassador, now in the collection of Prince Sadr al-Dln Agha Khan,1
is attributed to Muhammad Zaman and dated about 1663 by compari-
son with a drawing signed by Shaikh 'Abbasi, showing a shah in
similar dress and also receiving a Mughal embassy and apparently
dated 1074/1663—4.2 The Shah in this drawing is older and with a fuller
beard and moustache than that in the first drawing, so that the latter
would need to be earlier; yet 1663 is already very early for a work by
Muhammad Zaman. Moreover, the costume of the shah in both is that
of the reign of Shah Sulaiman, who succeeded in 1077/1667 at the age
of twenty; and both show notable European influence. The solution
proposed is that both these court scenes date from the early 1670s, the
date on the drawing by Shaikh 'Abbasi being 1084/1673. Both Shaikh
'Abbasi and his son 'All NaqI show in their work Mughal as well as
European influence and this became from then onwards an element in
the late Safavid painting style. 3
The second leading figure in miniature painting in this period was
'All Qull Jabbadar, who was also evidently fascinated by such Western
portraits as he could see.4 He too painted the shah surrounded by his
courtiers, including a page boy in Dutch costume and, since he wears
his hair over his shoulders, perhaps actually a European.5 This artist
has a less sure grasp of perspective than Muhammad Zaman, as is
betrayed by the insecurity of this group which seems to float rather
than to be based on the ground; but he achieves an equally realistic
finish. 'All Qull may have been of Georgian origin since two of his
drawings carry notes in Georgian and one, in the British Museum,
signed Ghulamzada Qadlml 'All, has been reasonably attributed to his
hand.6 It represents a couple in Georgian dress but in the Persian court
style. The secular art of Georgia at this time was thoroughly Persian-

1
A. Welch, Collection of Islamic Art: Prince Sadruddin Ago Khan m (Geneva, 1978), ij4~7.
2
IRM 93. Welch, Shah 'Abbas and the Arts, p. 98, no. 62.
3
R. Skelton, "Shaikh 'Abbasi and his son", in Vlth International Congress, p. 81. Robinson et al.,
The Keir Collection ill, 395, pi. 90 (dated 1080/1670).
4 5
Martin, Miniature Painting 11, pi. 172. Ivanov et al., Al'bom, pi. 99.
6
Robinson, Persian Miniature Painting, no. 87, pi. 34.

907
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

ised;1 but if 'All Qull was actually Ghulamzada he was presumably

born in Isfahan or Julfa.
This synthetic style was still in vogue up to the end of the century
and indeed beyond through the reign of Shah Sultan Husain
(1105 —35/1694—1722). There is a large manuscript of the Shdh-ndma in
the Metropolitan Museum dated 1663-9 but with miniatures added
between 1693 and 1698 and signed by the painters Aqa Nuyan,
Ghulam Parmak and 'All NaqI, whom we have already noted as son of
Shaikh 'AbbasI, and by Muhammad Zaman.2 It also contains some of
the last work of Mu'In, who naturally maintained to the end the style
of his youth under 'Abbas II and was little affected by the new vogue.
This style was continued after the turn of the century by the son of
Muhammad Zaman, Muhammad 'All, who was working as late as
1721, when he signed a careful and no doubt official drawing of the last
Nauruz present-giving of Sultan Husain, now in the British Museum.3
The rigidity of the architectural perspective and chiaroscuro and the
conventional modelling of the faces of the depressed courtiers show the
signs of artistic decadence parallel with the political decline. A drawing
in the Leningrad album signed by Muhammad SultanI and dated
1694—54 is in the same style and may well be by the same hand. It
shows the shah at the time of his accession. That this shah too favoured
Western painting is proved by his commission to the Dutch painter
Cornelis de Bruyn, who visited Isfahan in 1701 to paint his portrait.5
Muhammad 'All is known also as a painter in lacquer, a medium which
was to be increasingly important during the 18th and 19th centuries.
His signed work in this medium includes two qalamdans signed 1701
and 1708,6 both painted with figures in landscape in the same style as
his miniatures on paper. A famous album of Mughal and Persian
painting and calligraphy in the Academy of Sciences at Leningrad is
enclosed in a painted lacquer binding which bears the two dates
1147/1734 and 1151/1738, during the very last years of the Safavid
dynasty. The front cover has a fine over-all design of flowers symmetri-
cally arranged around a central cartouche rather like a carpet design;
1
Gray, "The Man in the Panther Skin", Bodleian Library Record in (1951), no. 32, 194—8.
2
Robinson, "The Shahnameh Manuscript Cochran 4". Stchoukine, Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas,
pis. LXXXIV, LXXXV. 3 Lockhart, The Fall, p. 489, pi. X.
4
Ivanov et a/., Al'bom, pi. 92. Cf. Akimushkin and Ivanov, pi. 78 (dated 1697-8). Martin,
Miniature Painting n, pi. 167 (dated 1700).
5
Lockhart, The Fall, frontispiece and appendix.
6
Ivanov, in Soobsbcbeniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermita^ha x v m (i960), 52—3.

908
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

the back cover shows birds and flowers confined to a central cartouche
and the border. It was dedicated to a certain Muhammad Mahdl Khan
but is unsigned.1 This is the kind of decorative lacquer painting which
was to be favoured during the next hundred and fifty years.
In the sixteenth century the art of binding had kept abreast of the
other arts of the book in quality of design and execution, and in rich
variety of technique. Leather is always the basis, even of the lacquer
painted covers, which were introduced at Herat under Husain Baiqara.
No doubt the painting was carried out by miniaturists of top rank. These
bindings can never have been common and they are unfortunately easily
damaged; and consequently few survive in good condition. The bigger
libraries generally have examples, and in the British Library is a binding
signed by SayyidI 'All on a manuscript of the Divan of Nava'I (Or. 1,374)
of about 15 50;2 and two detached covers of very fine quality and large
size from about 15 40, formerly in the Diisseldorf Museum and
bequeathed to the British Museum by Sir Bernard Eckstein in 1948 (pi.
67), but these have some damage in areas of the outer faces.3 This
damage reveals that a deep blue ground was used as an undercoat, as it
was also in lacquer-painting on wood. Another landscape lacquer bind-
ing on a manuscript of the Divan of Shahl in the library of Trinity
College, Dublin, shows the poet, who had lived at the court of Shah
Rukh, reciting to a prince in a garden. Another large pictorial lacquer
binding in Hamburg (Kunstgewerbemuseum 1894.27) is enhanced with
gold and silver paint. Instead of human figures it includes combats of
mythical Chinese beasts and is comparable with a binding dated 15 69 in
the Bodleian Library (Greaves I).4 In the Chester Beatty Library is a
lacquer-painted binding with symmetrically designed decoration and
not a pictorial scene; and a similar style of design is to be seen on a large
tooled binding of about 1550m the Deutsches Ledermuseum, Offenbach-
am-Main (1.20.24) (pi. 68).5
This sumptuous type of book-cover is the gilt embossed pictorial
binding made with intaglio stone moulds into which the leather is
pressed. The technique seems to have been used originally by saddlers,
but was extended about the middle of the 9th/15 th century to book
1
Ivanov el a/., Al'bom, pi. 98.
2
Arts of Islam, no. 605 and colour plate at p.58. It is close in style to the binding of Topkapi
Sarayi Revan 999, copied in 949/1543: see £ig, "The Iranian lacquer technique work", fig. 5.
3
Sarre and Martin, Taf. 30 (2 and 4). Schulz, Taf. 196-7. Arts of Islam, no. 606.
4
Erdmann, Taf. 66. Arts of Islam, no. 602; ibid., no. 611, for Bodleian binding.
5
Size 40 x 30 cm: mid-16th century, rather than 17th as in the 1974 catalogue.

909
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

binding.1 The use of metal stamps is older, and the austere bindings of
the first half of the 15 th century are generally regarded as superb
examples of reticent design. In them Chinese motifs, especially the
dragon and phoenix, are employed in a quite un-Chinese way in
arabesque panels and combined with arabesque floral scrollwork; thus
conforming to the concept of Chinoiserie, the use of Chinese elements,
valued for their exotic character, in accordance with a different mode of
vision and design.2 This stylistic feature persisted in the later 15 th
century, when the whole face of the cover was embossed with richly
gilt pattern. When this technique was first used the moulds were
supplemented and finished with a good deal of hand tooling, but in the
ioth/i6th century this was reduced to no more than retouching and
finishing off. In this field Chinoiserie design persisted much longer
than in the arts of illumination, metalwork or textiles. It is only in
ceramics that there is a continuous tradition of Chinese design in
Persian blue and white. They are datable only by reference to the
periods of the Chinese prototypes, among which the Chia-ching
(1522-66) dishes and bowls decorated with cranes in flight among
clouds are conspicuous. The quality of body and glaze was superior in
this type to anything achieved earlier and is confidently attributed to
Mashhad,3 which remained through the nth/17th century a leading
centre for the blue and white pottery industry. In the earlier Safavid
period Kirman has been suggested as the place of origin of some blue
and white vessels on which the Chinese designs have been rethought
and redesigned, as on some bearing dates of 15 23 and 15 25.4 Soon after
this date the influence of Iznik design and colouring becomes apparent
in some handsome dishes and jars and vases also attributed to the
Kirman kilns. Examples are in the Tehran archaeological museum and
the Victoria and Albert. The "Kubachi" ware also shows Iznik influ-
ence at this time, though more in the colouring than the design.5
Tabriz has already been suggested as the centre for this ware, and it
might be urged that it was more open to Anatolian influence than
Kirman. On the other hand, Tabriz and the whole province of Iranian

1
Ettinghausen, "Near Eastern Book Covers", pp. 123—5, pis. 6—9.
2
Aslanapa, "The Art of Bookbinding": the earliest moulded examples on pis. 3} (dated 1407)
and 42 (1442), fully pictorial.
3
7000 Yean, p. 176, no. 705. Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pi. 74.
* Ibid., pi. 64. There is also the purely Islamic design in blue and white on a Zodiacal plaque
dated 1563—4 in the Staatliche Museen at Berlin: Erdmann, Taf. 58.
5 7ooo Ans a"Art, pi. CXIV.

910
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

Azarbaijan had a troubled history throughout the Safavid period, at

least until the reign of Shah 'Abbas I.
The exact date of the introduction of this polychrome ware is uncer-
tain: the typical products of tiles or dishes with bust portraits of smart
youths and girls show the fashions current at Qazvln in the 15 90s,
while some dishes also copy Chinese border patterns from Wan-li
porcelain (1573-1619). The attractive colouring, which includes a sub-
stitute for the brilliant Iznik red, supersedes the earlier .16th-century
black painting under a green or turquoise glaze. The quality and
durability of the ware at the same time decline and the products are
correspondingly scarce.
The 17th century ware, which is more reliably connected with
Kirman, has a more provincial appearance1 and may not be earlier than
the middle of the century. By this time blue and white wares were
being made in Iran in large quantity and especially for export through
the Dutch East India Company,2 who found that they could sell them
in Europe as Chinese, especially during the years between about 1653
and 1695 when export from China was interrupted. It may be that
production for the export trade encouraged the inclusion in the designs
of figures in Western dress as well as Chinese and Persian; but Western
figures and dress were also to the taste of Isfahan in the 17th century.
The more freely these designs are derived from the Chinese, the more
vital and amusing they are. Celadon ware was also imitated at this time
in Kirman, but the decoration, painted in white slip, sometimes with
the addition of touches of blue and red, is in a purely Islamic style, with
arabesque patterns or sprays of flowers.3 No earlier a date can be given
to the revival of lustre-painted decoration after a clear break during the
early Safavid period; and again the designs are entirely native to Iran.
The rather crowded floral patterns, often with some landscape ele-
ments, are related to the margin painting in manuscripts both in style
and in the use of different tones of gold. In the earlier period a pure
white ground was preferred,4 while later blue or occasionally yellow
ground was adopted. The body is finer than that of the Kirman wares
and the polychrome wares identified with that centre combine formal
1 2
Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pi. 69. Chardin vn, 403.
3
Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pi. 87. A variant technique is cutting through the slip to the white
body, as on a blue dish in the British Museum: Arts of Islam, no. 399.
* Kiihnel, hlamische Kleinkxnst, p. 145. The name Khatim, of whom nothing is known, is often
found on these pieces. For evidence of the continuation of the lustre technique in Iran, see
Watson.

911
 THE ARTS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

and geometric motifs borrowed from architectural decoration,1 with

similar floral designs as an alternative to Chinoiserie. This ware also is
from the later 17th century.
In contrast to the abundance of pottery production in many different
centres in the 17th century, the only significant development in
metalwork is in the use and decoration of steel, whether for armour
and sword-blades, or cut through as decoration, in which calligraphy
usually supplies the main element.2 Thus calligraphy, which had
become more and more dominant in the decoration of brass or copper
vessels, finally achieved virtual independence in the cut steel applique
to wood or leather. On helmets (pi. 70) and body-armour chasing and
intarsia were the usual methods, and some royal pieces are carved all
over in low relief. Even more care was taken with the sword, the blade
being of an elegant curve and the handle of jade, agate or shagreen. So
the period ends with the applied arts at a high level of technical skill;
closer awareness of foreign styles and markets, but with diminished
originality and a loss both in ceramics and miniature painting of the
inspired wealth of invention of earlier centuries.

1 2
Lane, Later Islamic Pottery, pis. 57—61. Arts of Islam, nos. 234—7.

912
 CHAPTER I 7 (a)

PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE

TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIODS
(782—907/1380—1501)

This long period of 120 years was a troubled one. Tlmur's attack on
Iran, which began in 782/1380—1 with the invasion of Khurasan and
Slstan, terminated the pre-Timurid interregnum in a period character-
ised by sudden alarms. Even after the conqueror Tlmur's death, except
for the comparatively peaceful reign of Shah Rukh (807—850/1405 —
1447), conditions throughout the land remained unsettled; his succes-
sors could not be at peace one with another; government was the
plaything of turbulent rivals. Besides numerous princes of the Timurid
dynasty, there were other leaders on the scene, such as those of two
Turkmen dynasties, the Qara Quyunlu and Aq Quyunlu, who had
established themselves in the regions of Azarbaljan and western Persia,
with occasional inroads into the eastern regions of the country.
Eventually this state of affairs was ended in the east by the Shaibanids
and in the west by the Safavids.
Disturbances that can be dated back to the Mongol invasions, and
which finally developed into the disruption and disorder of the period
after Shah Rukh's death, occasioned a serious decline in civilisation and
deterioration in thought. At the beginning of this period a few of the
scholars, poets and writers of the interval between the Mongol Tl-Khans
and the Timurids were still alive and affording contributions to science
and literature. But apart from these few, and with the possible exception
of those who had gathered at the court of Sultan Husain Balqara at Herat
and who were didactic rather than original, we hardly hear of any
important or justly celebrated men of learning or science until the latter
part of the 9th/15 th century.
During this period the Persian language was continuing the complex
evolution which had begun in the 7th/12th century. In addition to
those changes in vocabulary, syntax and inflection which necessarily
accompany the historical development of a language, other factors
accelerated changes of a more radical nature. On the one hand, the
influence of eastern Persian dialects was day by day lessened, eastern

9X3
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE
Persian elements being supplanted by those of western Persian. On the
other hand, some Arabic words and compounds which had gradually
come into use in the common tongue as well as in the works of former
writers became so firmly ensconced in the language that they replaced
their Persian counterparts and attained permanence. At the same time
the admixture of Mongol and Turkish in Persian increased; some of the
many single words and compounds in use since the time of the
Mongols became established features of the language. The use of the
Turkish language was so prevalent during this period that, as it had
been introduced into poetical works and was patronised by literature-
loving but Turki-speaking rulers and notables, a Turkish prose and
poetic literature eventually emerged, and this in Khurasan, the very
cradle of Persian's development as a literary language. Some exponents
of literature having elected to write in this new literary medium, an
argument about preferences resulted, to be expressed in a work like the
Muhakamatal-lughatain ("The Arbitration between the Two Tongues") of
Mir 'AH Shir Nava'I, the famous minister and patron of letters under
Husain Balqara.
The character of Persian literature at this time was decided not only
by changes of this nature in the language, but also by certain factors
which were leading it into new phases and simultaneously towards
decline. Among these influences was the fact that before the Mongol
invasion poetry and prose writing had been subject to strict rules and
conventions and had been closely connected with courts, in a
thoroughly "classical" situation; whereas in this later period creative
writing was in the hands of the common people as well as under court
influence, and ceased to be subject to former exacting literary stan-
dards. The explanation of this is that, before the Mongol invasion, a
poet or writer had to learn a number of rules and examples in both
Arabic and Persian. This schooling naturally resulted in a broadening
of his literary horizon and an increase in his knowledge of the best
models of literary techniques.1 In the period under review, and also in
later times, this concern for the great classical models either completely
disappeared or at best could only rarely be discerned among the more
refined and better educated. The shedding of traditional literary con-
ventions resulted in a decline in the generally shared knowledge of the

1
See Nizaml-yi 'Aruzi, Chahir maqila, ed. Muhammad Mu'In (Tehran, 1341/1962— 3), pp.
20—2, 47—8; also Safa 11, 347—50.

914
 POETRY
styles, devices and disciplines of exemplary writers and poets; a conse-
quent weakening of style was inevitable. This lapse of style and
ignorance of forms are, with the outstanding exception of a writer like
JamI, observable in most of the works of this period.
The closing down of important Persian literary centres in Khurasan
and Iraq, the break-up of courts which had supported and encouraged
poets and writers, and the disappearance of great men or families who
before, and even for a while after, the Mongol invasion of Persia
patronised such activities, combined to cause the gradual disappear-
ance of great masters like those of classical times without producing
any worthy successors. Poetry and prose fell into the hands of men for
the most part of mediocre talent.

POETRY

Persian poetry, therefore, like the language itself and, indeed, other
branches of learning, was not as resplendent in this period as it might
have been. In addition to the reasons already propounded, there was
constant political instability and also, though admittedly to this there
were exceptions, an absence of leaders and sovereigns of literary taste
who enjoyed a plenitude of power and breadth or continuity of domin-
ion that would have made for a wide and consistent cultivation of a
ripely developed literature. In other words, it was a time of transition,
which left the marks of unsettlement and flux on its literary products.
Among the exceptions to rulers not capable of literary patronage
were such Timurid princes as Shah Rukh, Balsunqur Mlrza (d. 837/
1433), Ulugh Beg (850-853/1447-1449), Abu Sa'ld (855-873/1452-
1469) and especially Husain Baiqara (873—911/1469—1506) and his
minister Mir 'AH Shir Nava'I. These men, with a few others, were
essayists themselves in the literary arts (or at least had works attributed
to them) and admirers of men of literary talent, their courts providing
centres of artistic and scientific achievement. But their fitful and
regional patronage of letters in the disturbed conditions of the times
seems often to have been susceptible to errors of judgment, to have
lacked information on what was best; while the general dearth of
notables willing to invest the weight of their influence on the side of
literature made it difficult for a few, even had their taste and awareness
of what was sound and what was not been of a higher order than they
were, to stem the tide of decadence.
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

Undoubtedly the most important Timurid centre of culture was

Husain Balqara's court at Herat, which in retrospect seems to have
shone out like a beacon in lands only recently devastated by Tlmur's
own career of conquest, and which in eastern Iran afforded a refuge for
the arts after Husain had succeeded in carving out a realm for himself
in Khurasan, following the strife that had ensued on Tlmur's death and
his failure to consolidate an empire in Iran. Numbers of poets, writers,
historians, musicians and painters were attracted to Herat, there to
introduce styles and techniques that were to continue in fashion, and in
their development, until Safavid times. Hence it is correct to say that
Husain Balqara's literary, scientific and artistic circle left a great
impress on Iran's intellectual and artistic life. But the high place occu-
pied by painters at Herat evinced a new departure, and that towards the
visual arts, and a new manifestation of artistic vitality, of significance
in discussing the decline of literature and the absence of originality, not
only in literary invention but in thought. It was as if a new channel of
expression for the genius of Iran had been opened.
At the outset of the Timurid period a number of talented poets
followed the methods of their predecessors of the 8th/14th century.
Those who wrote poetry in the next generation adopted a style which
was quite new. They even criticised the imitators of the old masters. As
Katibi has said:

He is no poet who, when he writes verses, brings together thoughts from the
poems of the old masters.
No house which is built with old bricks stands on so firm a foundation as a
new house.

The poetic language of the Timurid era came closer than had poetic
diction hitherto to the colloquial tongue. The reason for this develop-
ment was that in this epoch poetry was less, as we have seen, the
speciality of the court, and, at the same time, had become more current
among the common people. Since the poet had to write to suit popular
taste, adherence to former poetical traditions seemed of less importance.
It is possible that to this attitude may be attributed the relatively large
number of poets and of poetasters of this period; reference to the
biographies of this and of the early Safavid period shows the increase in
their numbers after the post-Mongol, Il-Khanid times. If one examines
the biographies of the poets of the Timurid era, such as Daulatshah's
Ta^kirat aJ-sbu'ard, Mir 'All Shir Nava'I's Majalis al-nafa'is (in Turkish)
916
 POETRY

and its Persian translation, entitled the Latd'if-nama, and the Tuhfa-ji
Sami by the Safavid Sam Mirza, one encounters a concourse of poets
who in fact represent only a part of the total. As will be also seen in
connection with the Safavid period, this development cannot be
divorced from the popular nature of poetry, now current among a
variety of classes of people.
The prevalence of Turkish ultimately ensured its total use as a
medium for poetry, or its adoption, for variety's sake, even by those
who usually stuck to Persian. One of the greatest of those who usually
wrote in Turkish but sometimes in Persian was Mir 'AH Shir Nava'i
(d. 906/1501), Husain Balqara's minister. His works in Turkish include
four collections (divans) of gha^als (odes) and five masnavls (rhyming
distichs) in the manner of Nizaml's Khamsa, while another work, the
Lisdn al-tair, ("The language of the Birds"), was in imitation of Farld
al-Din 'Attar's Mantiq al-tair. In his Persian poetry, which has not been
praised by critics, he wrote under the pen-name (takhallus) of Fani.
In the poetry of the Timurid period, as for example in that of Katibi
of Turshlz, one comes across specimens of rhetorical nourishes and
poetical artifices. Although some men of letters tended to adopt such
conceits, it must be admitted that this was not very common, the more
celebrated writers and poets of the age preferring simplicity.
Mysticism was still a favourite topic for poetry. In particular, suf 1
expressions were in common use in ghazals. Now and again such poets
as Shah Ni'mat-Allah Vail, Qasim al-Anvar and JamI wrote long poems
of a suf I character. Love romances and poems consisting of anecdotes
and tales on ethical and philosophical subjects were relatively numer-
ous. They were mostly written in imitation of Nizaml, whose themes
were sometimes versified anew with slight changes.
Furthermore, among the various poetical forms practised in the
Timurid period, the ghazal received special attention. Towards the end
of the Timurid era increasingly ingenious thoughts and artifices are
noticeable in the ghazal. A possible reason for this development may
be that the Persians, in consequence of the Mongol invasions and the
massacres and plundering of the yth-cjth/ 13 th- 15 th centuries, were
forced to turn to spiritual matters and neglect the material world. They
therefore tended to adopt far-fetched and non-corporeal, artificial
themes, which they endeavoured to express as succinctly and strikingly
as possible.
When this style, whose origins - chiefly in the circle of Husain
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

BaTqara and Mir 'AH Shir Naval at Herat - are being considered here,
is more fully discussed under the Safavid period, it will be seen that a
balance between words and purport was not always maintained. The
latter tended increasingly towards the fanciful. It was far-fetched in
proportion as it departed from any basis in reality: it went beyond that
realm of poetry in which the imagination's function is to transmute the
world of actuality into the expression of universal ideas. Hence it
became a weak and overplayed genre.
Following these general observations brief references will now be
made to some of the principal Timurid exponents of the poetic art and
their works, roughly in chronological order; though in the instance of
the first to be singled out, he has priority of place for the merits of his
achievement as well.
This was Kamal al-Dln b. Mas'ud (d. 808/1405—6), who had lived in
the interval between the Mongol Tl-Khans and the Timurids and was
known by his pen-name of Kamal, Kamal-i Khujandl, a master in the
ghazal form. While to students of Persian literature he is always
remembered as one of the outstanding contemporaries of Hafiz, his
own sense of his superiority to Hafiz can hardly win support. Never-
theless, he did play an important part in perfecting the ghazal form.
Contemporary with Kamal was Mulla Muhammad Shlrln MaghribI
of Tabriz (d. 809/1406-7). Mulla Muhammad's ghazals and tarji'-bands'^
contain numerous references to the ideas and aspirations of the Muslim
mystic: Mulla Muhammad was himself celebrated as a siifl, and his
notions tend markedly towards pantheism. As a poet, however, he
must be regarded as mediocre, in a class similar to that of 'Ismat-Allah
Bukhara'I or 'Ismat-i Bukharl (d. 829/1425—6). 'Ismat left some cele-
brated amatory ghazals and qasidas in addition to tarji'-band poems.
In the words of Professor Browne,2 a poet "who offers the greatest
possible contrast to MaghribI, the mystic and pantheist", was Abu
Ishaq of Shiraz (d. 827 or 830/1424 or 1427), known as Bushaq At'ima
because he was "the poet of foods".3 Appropriately enough his divan,
the collection of his ghazals, qasidas, quatrains and masnavis, is enti-
tled the Kan^-i ishtiha ("Treasure of the Appetite"). This collection is
1
A tarjf-band ("return-tie") is a poem comprising strophes of five to eleven verses in length,
each verse within each strophe rhyming with the rest; the final verse of each strophe remaining
the same throughout the poem as a refrain; the verse in the last strophe preceding this refrain
contains an allusion to the poet in indicating his pen-name (takhallus). Cf. LHP n, 23, 25, and
M. Garcin de Tassy, Rbetoriqut et Prosodie des Langues de f Orient Musulman (Paris, 1873), p. 375.
2 3
LHP in, 344. a'tima, pi. of I Jam, "dish" (of food).

918
 POETRY

of importance because of the details and names it gives of various

foods, and of the festive occasions and eating habits associated with
them. His poems and several small treatises, "The Tale of the
Saffroned Rice", "The Book of Bushaq's Dream" and "The
Glossary", are full of the old culinary terms of Iran up to his time. He
was not without his imitators, for example Nizam al-Din Mahmud
Qari of Yazd, who in the 9th/15 th century also wrote verses on such
subjects as dishes and dress. His poems have come down to us in his
Divdn-i albisa ("The Divan of Clothes"), which is now printed and is
important because of the details to be derived from it of the dress of
that century.
Also belonging to the 9th/15 th century was Sayyid Ni'mat-Allah
Vail of Kirman (d. 22 Rajab 834/4 April 1431). He was a great mystic
and the founder of the Ni'matallahl order of dervishes. His mystical
poetry, which is of mediocre quality, consists of ghazals, qasldas and
masnavis. Another mystic was Sayyid 'All b. Nasir b. Harun, better
known as Qasim al-Anvar (d. 837/1433-4), whose divan contains a
number of poems in the dialect of the province of Gllan as well as some
verses in Turkish.
The qasldas and masnavis of Maulana Muhammad b. 'Abd-Allah
Katibl of Turshlz or Nishapur (d. 839/1435—6) are well known for
their poetical artifices. He was the author of punning masnavis in
which he used double metres and double rhyme; these poems were
entitled Husnu'ishq ("Beauty and Love"), Nd%ir u man%ur ("The
Viewer and the Viewed") and Bahrdm u Gul-Anddm. It is said that
towards the end of his life he began a poetical rejoinder to the Khamsa
of Nizaml.
A poet who has been praised for the beauty, effectiveness and clarity
of his verse is Mir Shahl Sabzavari (d. 857/1453). In particular, his
ghazals are worthy of attention as they are full of meaning and beauty.
Similarly, the love poems of Shaikh Azarl of Isfara'in (d. 866/1461—2)
are lively, graceful and full of fine ideas. A well-known poetical work
which is attributed to him is the Bahman-ndma, about the Bahmanid
rulers of the Deccan.
Maulana Muhammad b. Husam al-Din, better known as Ibn Husam
(d. 875/1470—1), wrote poems of various kinds as well as a religious
epic entitled the Khdvardn-ndma describing the travels and wars of 'All
b. Abl Talib. The divan of his qasldas has been published in modern
times in a printed edition.
919
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE
Among the poets of the second rank of this epoch are Shihab of
Turshlz, Slml of Nlshapiir, Ghiyas of Shlraz, Khiyall of Bukhara, Baba
Sauda'I, Talib of Jajarm and several others. At the close of the period
there were other poets of this class, such as Hilall Chaghata'I, Hatif I of
Kharjird, Qasimi and a few more. As, however, most of those in the
latter group gained fame in the early part of the Safavid era, they will
be mentioned in the later section.
By far the most outstanding literary figure of the last years of the
Timurid epoch, a man who as a poet ranks as the greatest after Hafiz,
was Nur al-Dln 'Abd al-Rahman Jaml (b. 817/1414, d. 898/1492). This
poet and mystic, besides being one of the greatest writers of his age and
a prolific one, a scholar in both Arabic and Persian, a critic as well as
poet and one of Islam's most celebrated biographers of great figures in
the path of Sufism, was also one of the leaders of the Naqshbandi order
of dervishes, a fact which must attest the saintliness and studiousness
of his life.
In his masnavis Jaml followed Sa'dl and Hafiz, and in his ghazals the
qaslda-writers of Iraq. However, one must not consider Jaml's poetry
as being empty of original ideas, power of expression and beauty of
meaning. Although he cannot be said to equal his eminent predeces-
sors, he, as the last great Persian poet, may be said to have a place and
importance of his own. His poetical works include, first, the Haft
aurang or Sab'a ("Septet"), which consists of seven masnavis, the Silsi-
lat al-%abab ("The Chain of Gold"), Salman u Absdl, Tuhfat al-ahrdr,
Subhat al-abrdr, Yiisuf u Zulaikha, L,aild u Majnun and the Kbirad-ndma-ji
Iskandari. The collection of Jaml's ghazals, qasldas and tarji'-bands is
filled with mystical ideas, stories and lyrical themes; but more will be
said of Jaml in discussing Timurid prose-writers.

PROSE

Persian prose in the Timurid era had a relatively promising beginning.

Since the prose works of this period were written for the most part in a
simple and familiar style, they are comparatively free of the technical
and rhetorical exaggerations of the 6th/i2th and 7th/i3th centuries:
one meets with only occasional examples of ornate writing in which a
highly artificial style is employed. The Timurid prose writers paid less
attention to archaic Persian wording; they often used the words and
compounds in common use in their own time, hence the simplicity and
920
 PROSE

fluency of their style. However, the influence of the Turkish language

cannot be overlooked. Also writers in this period paid little attention
to the fundamental rules and conventions of the Persian language; a
fact to be associated with their lack of any desire to be precise, to keep
facts in view and ensure the soundness of their subject matter.
Although, generally speaking, traces of an artificial style are rare, for
prefaces, the beginning of chapters and dedications to leaders and
other dignitaries an ornate style was adopted. Frequently the
abundance of ingenious but superficial titles and compliments obscures
the real meaning of a passage. In some works one meets with dry
rhyming prose and inadmissible formalities; but in others there is a
refreshing directness. By and large the prose of this era lacks the
firmness and succinctness of ancient writers, and appreciation of their
style and adherence to their canons of taste are not, as a rule, in the
least conspicuous.
There was no lack of variety in the subjects treated: they include
scientific problems, history, tales, biography, commentaries on the
Qur'an, theological questions, mysticism, ethics and so on. The ten-
dency to write on scientific subjects in Persian had been strengthened
in the Mongol period and was still present. The reason was that, as the
fall of Baghdad receded further into the past and the influence of the
Arabic language and literature diminished, the need to employ the
Persian language in the composition of scientific works became
increasingly pressing.
A matter in the closing years of the Timurid period which has
already been alluded to and is worthy of consideration is the use of
Turkish as a literary language. The writing and compilation of books
in that tongue was encouraged in the literary circles at Herat. This was
in effect the strengthening of a movement which had been introduced
earlier by Husain Balqara and Mir 'All Shir Nava'i. Among other
works, the Majalis al-nafd'is, the Muhakamat al-lughatain, the Mahbub
al-qulub, the Munsha'dt and others by Mir 'All Shir Nava'i and the
Babur-nama by Zahlr al-Dln Babur were written in Turkish. Parallel to
this development was the appearance of those bilingual poets to whom
reference has already been made. /
One of the highly regarded writers of the^period was Nizam al-Dln
Shanb-i GhazanI, known as Nizam-i ShamI, a contemporary of Timur.
In obedience to Tlmur's orders he wrote the Zafar-nama. Its style is
simple, in contrast with that of Sharaf al-Dln 'All Yazdl, another
921
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

learned historian and writer, who made use of this biography in his
own Zafar-ndma-ji Timiiri. His is a longer work, written in afloridand
verbose manner, and was completed in 828/1424—5. Tlmur's very last
years, together with the early years of the reign of Shah Rukh, had
meanwhile been covered in the Shams al-husn, composed by Taj al-Din
Salman! in 813/1411.
A slightly later historian was Shihab al-Din 'Abd-Allah b. Lutf -Allah
al-Khwafl, known as Hafiz-i Abru (d. 833/1430), whose Majmd
al-tavdrlkh is a vast general history from the Creation down to
830/1426-7 in four volumes. Of these the last, known independently as
the Zubdat al-tavdnkh-i BdTsunquri, is concerned with the period follow-
ing the death of the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'id in 7 3 6/13 3 5. In addition, Hafiz-i
Abru produced other historical works which are much briefer but of
scarcely less importance: a history of the Kartid rulers of Herat from c.
732/1331—2; a history of the Sarbadars; and surveys of the reigns of
minor potentates in Khurasan such as the Tl-Khan Togha Temur, Amir
Vail and Arghun Shah.1 These pieces are included, along with a new
edition of the great Jdmi' al-tavdrikh of Rashid al-Din Fazl-Allah (d.
718/1318) and Hafiz-i Abru's continuation {gait) of it, in his Majmifa, or
"compendium", which has fortunately survived in two Istanbul manu-
scripts (Bagdad Kogkii 282 and Damad Ibrahim Pa§a 919). Hafiz-i
Abru's anonymous geographical treatise, finally, is a major historical
source in its own right, containing original data especially on his native
Khurasan and on Transoxiana.
Ahmad b. Jalal al-Din Muhammad, known as Faslh-i Khwafi, was
the author of the Mujmal-i Fasihi, which he completed in the year
845/1441—2 and submitted to Shah Rukh. This book is of importance
because it contains biographical notices of many Persian poets and
scholars. Its style is of the simplest.
A writer of a different kind was Kama.1 al-Din Husain b. Hasan
Khwarazml, who was killed in 839/1435-6 and was the author of the
book entitled the Javdhir al-asrdr ujavdhir al-anvdr; it is a commentary on
Rumi's Masnavi and has a long preface on the history and beliefs of the
sufis.
Sa'in 'AH b. Muhammad Tarka'I IsfahanI (d. 836/1432-3) was a
theological scholar of the age. He was well trained in speculative and

1
These minor chronicles and the history of the Kartids were edited by Tauer as Cinq opuscules
de Hafi^-i Abri. On the rulers named, see above, chapter i.

922
 PROSE

traditional learning and achieved considerable fame during the reign of

Shah Rukh. Among his better known works are his translation of the
Milal wa'l-nihal by Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karlm ShahristanI, and the
Asrdr al-salavat and the Tuhfat-i 'ald'iyya on the principles of the Islamic
religion according to the four SunnI schools. He also wrote a number
of books in Arabic, in which he adopted a florid style.
Among the distinguished prose writers of this period was the poet
Nur al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman JamI, one of whose greatest works is the
Nafahdt al-uns ("Breaths of Fellowship"), a biography of 614 sufi
saints. This book, written in 883/1478-9, is for the most part a transla-
tion of a collection of sufi biographies by Khwaja 'Abd-Allah Ansarl
of Herat, a work written in the Herat dialect and itself for the most part
a translation of the Arabic work, the Tabaqdt al-Sufiyja, of Muhammad
b. Husain SulamI of Nlshapur, though each of the two translators
added something of his own. The Nafahat al-uns, which is written in a
simple and clear style, is one of the most authoritative works on the
subject of the sufis and has a long introduction respecting their
doctrine. Another of Jaml's prose works, the Kitdb al-bahdristdn, was
written in imitation of Sa'dl's Gulistdn and intended to teach his young
son, for whose benefit he included at the end a memoir of some of the
most famous Persian poets. Also deserving mention in a catalogue of
Jaml's prose works is the Lavd'ih ("Flashes"), consisting of 30 articles
(Jd'iha), each of which briefly describes a principle of mysticism. As a
commentary on difficult points in the LMma'dt of Fakhr al-Din Ibrahim
'Iraqi,1 a famous poet and mystic of the Mongol era, JamI wrote, in
simple and direct language, his Asbi"at al-lama'dt ("Rays of the
Flashes"), a highly important Persian work on mysticism. In addition to
this commentary, JamI also wrote Persian treatises on other theological
and literary works, including the Ndi-ndma (MasnavT) of Jalal al-Din
RumI, and commentaries on the poems of Amir Khusrau of Delhi.
Another writer of this period was Ghiyas al-Din 'All b. 'All HusainI
IsfahanI, a contemporary of Sultan Abu Sa'Id the Timurid, whose
book, the Ddnish-ndma-yi jahdn, is an important work on divine and
natural philosophy, written in simple Persian prose.
It will not be out of place here to mention one of the most remark-
able translations into Persian prose, the translation of the Rasd'i/ of the
Ikhvan al-safa, from a summarised Arabic version entitled Majma'

1
'Iraqi was his takhallus or pen-name: see LHP m, 124.

923
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

al-hikmat. This book, in clear and spirited Persian, dates from the reign
of Tlmur; several manuscripts of it are extant.
One of the greatest chronicles of this period, a work which has been
used as a source by most subsequent historians, is the Mat/a' al-sa'dain
("The Dawn of the Two Auspicious Planets"), written by Maulana
Kamal al-Dln 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Samarqandl (d. 887/1482). This history
covers a period of some 170 years, from the reign of the last Il-Khanid
ruler of Iran, Abu Sa'Id (716-736/1316-1335), t o t n e end of that of
Timur's great-grandson, his namesake, who reigned from 855/1451—2
to 873/1469. Though the author had the nisba "Samarqandl", he was
himself born at Herat; Samarqand was the birthplace of his father,
Maulana Jalal al-Dln Ishaq, who had been a jurist and divine under Shah
Rukh. The love of historical narratives and desire for annals of their own
times evinced by the Mongol Il-Khanid rulers continued down to the
days of Tlmur and his successors.
The great work of Daulatshah b. 'Ala' al-Daula Bakhtishah of
Samarqand, the Ta^kirat al-shu'ara ("Memoirs of the Poets"), takes us
out of the realm of history into that of a species of literary history,
anthologising and even, it may be said, literary criticism. For in addition •
to brief biographies of the poets, written in a straightforward, bombast-
free style, and to numerous extracts from their works, whence the
anthologising aspect of the book is derived, Daulatshah permits himself
to make judgments on the powers of his chosen poets. Admittedly, these
judgments range in degrees of praise rather than of derogation. This
feature gives the work the impress of being deliberately revivalist or
recollective in purpose, as if a later age was considered in need of
prompting to recall the literary splendours of times past. Daulatshah,
whatever his private motives, received publicly acknowledged encour-
agement in the preparation of this volume from Mir 'AH Shir Nava'i,
that Maecenas to whom allusion has already been made. Next to the
Lubab al-albdb of Muhammad 'Aufi, Daulatshah's work is the most
important collection of biographies of poets in Persian; though there is a
considerable time gap between the two compositions, for 'Aufl's work
goes down only as far as 625/1228.
The date of Daulatshah's death is uncertain: it was at some time
between 896/1490—1 and 900/1494—5. While we are on the subject of
this particular uncertainty in dating it is appropriate to issue the now
standard warning about Daulatshah's unreliability as a historian. His
observations on the dating and his accounts of the lives of poets are so
924
 PROSE

frequently inaccurate that his statements cannot, generally speaking, be

accepted without caution. Legend and fact are inextricably inter-
mingled. Nonetheless, his treatment of the lives of 105 poets comprises
a volume of surpassing interest and great readability.
Returning to purely historical narrative, the Rau^dt al-janndtft ausaf
madinat Hardt was completed in 875/1470 by Mu'In al-DIn Muhammad
Isfizarl, who thus provided posterity with a book of considerable value
as containing the chronicle of the Kartid rulers of Herat, and events of
the Timurid period up to the reign of Husain Balqara, with many
useful details about the notables of that time. As a stylist, Isfizarl
deserves special mention for the clarity and sureness of his use of
language. He was similarly a master in the epistolatory style, and was
for a time in charge of the court correspondence. There are, however,
decorative attempts in his "History of the City of Herat", comprised of
quotations from some of the older poets, and also in the occasional
adoption of a florid and prolix method of exposition, in particular in
some decriptive flights and in introductory passages.
A local history such as Isfizarl's is of great importance to later
historians, but much better known is the general history of Muhammad
b. Khavand Shah b. Mahmud, known as Mir Khwand (b. 838/1434-5,
d. 903/1498). This work is called the Rau^at al-safd fi sirat al-anbiyd
va'l-muliik va'l-khulafd, and is in seven volumes. The last part was added
by his daughter's son, Ghiyas al-Din b. Humam al-DIn Muhammad,
surnamed Khwand Amir. Like his grandfather, Khwand Amir en-
joyed the patronage of the Timurid rulers, to whose courts, especially
that of Husain Balqara, Mir Khwand had been closely attached and by
whom he had been highly respected. This last volume deals with events
in the reigns of Husain Balqara and of his son, Badl' al-Zaman Mlrza. But
the total work had for its objective a detailed record of pre-Islamic
history and of the Muslim era; while, thanks to another and later hand
being engaged in completing the Raut^at al-safd, the last section deals
with episodes that followed Mir Khwand's death. It is written in simple,
informal language and may be said to bring to culmination the stylistic
tendencies in the prose of the Timurid age.1
Besides completing his grandfather's Rau^at al-safd, Ghiyas al-DIn
Khwand Amir (d. 941/15 34— 5)2 wrote a collection of biographies of

1
Though cf. the less favourable views expressed by Browne, LHP in, 433, and by Arberry,
2
Classical Persian Literature, p. 390. For the date, see PL 1/1, 101.

925
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

Muslim viziers, including those of Iran, called Dastiir al-vu^ard, and a

general history, the Habib al-siyar, which comes down to the reign of
the Safavid Shah Isma'Il I (907—930/1502—15 24) and beyond. The latter
work will be discussed below.
Abu'l-GhazI Sultan Husain b. Mansur b. BaTqara b. 'Umar Shaikh
b. Tlmur, the last notable Timurid prince to rule in Iran, has been
mentioned so far for his patronage of literature in the capital, Herat,
where he had been born and which he captured on Abu Sa'Id's death in
873/1469, to rule Khurasan thence for thirty-eight years until his own
demise in 911 /15 06. A divan of his poetry in Turki is, according to
Storey, to be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.1 But in
prose at least he must be mentioned here as possibly a Persian author in
his own right. For he is the ostensible compiler of the Majdlis al-'usb-
shdq ("Conferences of the Lovers"). This work comprises an introduc-
tion treating of earthly and divine love, and seventy-six "conferences"
in which, in ornate prose interspersed with verse, an equal number (or
thereabouts) of mystics, famous lovers and kings are the subject-
matter. The work was begun in 908/1502—3 and completed in the next
year, the last person to be dealt with in it being Sultan Husain himself.
As reference to Storey's bibliography and to Browne's A. Literary
History of Persia will show,2 the book was severely criticised by the
Mughal emperor Babur (932-937/1526-1530) in his Babur-ndma. Here
it is attributed not to Sultan Husain but to Kamal al-Din Husain
Gazurgahl, and described as a wretched book, full of "insipid" lies, in
which carnal and spiritual loves are confused the one with the other,
and from which the odour of heresy is not entirely absent. Babur was
equally incensed over the attribution made by Kamal al-Din to Sultan
Husain of a work in which the verses are undoubtedly by himself and
not by the sultan. The book, for all its weaknesses and despite the
difficulty over its correct attribution, nonetheless deserves to be men-
tioned here because it serves to illustrate the taste and interests of some
of the literati of the time, however lapsed the former may appear to
have been, and however exotic the latter.
Although for ornateness of style, and as affording yet a further
example of a decline in rhetoric,3 he cannot be put in a superior class,
Kamal al-Din Husain Va'iz-i KashifI of Sabzavar (d. 910/1504-5) was a

1 2
Ibid., 1/2, 959. Ibid., pp. 960-1. LHP m, 457—8.
3
LHP m, 463.

926
 PROSE
much more genuine and serious writer than the compiler of the Majalis
discussed above. As his title of Va'iz implies, he was a preacher and
resided in Herat, where he was a member of the sufi order of the
Naqshbandls. His late work, the Akhldq-i Muhsim, dedicated to Husain
Balqara and composed in 900/1494—5, entitles him to rank among the
writers on ethics in Persian, followers of the example set by Nasir al-Dln
Tusi (d. 672/1274) in his Akhlaq-i Ndsin (633/1235-6). But this was by
no means the sole, nor the most important, production of this typical
Muslim savant, a jurisprudent, a litterateur, a Qur'anic exegetist, a man
versed in astrology and the scholasticism of his time and religious
environment. One of his more famous works, though more famous in
India than Iran and written in a florid and turgid style, is his Anvdr-i
Suhaili ("The Lights of Canopus"), which is, in fact, a translation in a
revised form of the Kalila va Dimna.1 He also wrote a Makh^an al-inshd
("Treasury of the Art of Composition").
Another of Va'iz-i Kashifi's works achieved considerable celebrity
in the fervently Shl'I Safavid epoch, when it was recited at the assem-
blies which collected to mourn the deaths of the Shl'I martyrs. From
this use of it the work became known as the Majdlis-i rau^a-khwdm,
("The Assemblies of the Recitations of the Martyrs' Deaths"), but its
correct title is the Rau^at al-shuhadd ("The Garden of Martyrs"). It
deals particularly with the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson
Husain, the Third Imam, and with persecutions undergone by other
prophets and imams, and is once again a work composed in a highly
rhetorical style. While its historicity is not of much validity, its nature
is indicative of 9th/15 th century religious and stylistic impulses, of a
kind which increased in prominence during the succeeding era.
In the field of Qur'anic exegesis, Va'iz-i Kashifl produced, for Mir
'All Shir Nava'I, a Persian commentary on the Qur'an entitled the
Mavdhib-i 'Aliyja, completed in 899/1493-4, and representing a concise
work in contrast to his other essay in the compilation of a commentary
on the Qur'an, the Javdhir al-asrdr, also called the Javdhir al-tafsir
("Gems of Exegesis"). This undertaking was planned on a more ambi-
tious scale than the Mavdhib.
In yet another sphere, though one which might also be adduced as a
1
Browne's comment is interesting, lot. cit., where he states that Husain Va'iz "set himself to
'write up' and improve upon the work of his predecessors", this being a reference to the Persian
version of Ni?am al-Dln Abu'l-Ma'all Nasr-Allah in the 12th century, based on 'Abd-Allah
b. al-Muqaffa"s Arabic version made in the 8th century.

927
 TIMURID AND TURKMEN PERIOD LITERATURE

reason for including this author under the heading, if not of authors of
ethical works, at least of those on social categories and institutions, is
Va'iz-i Kashifl's ¥utuvvat-ndma-yi Sultdni, a work of great interest for
the study of Iranian social history, since it deals with the manner of
training, the beliefs and the conventions of various groups of Fitydn
(Jdvdnmarddn), "youths".
Concerning astrology he wrote the Ikhtiydrdt and the Sab'a Kdshifa
("The Seven Kashifian Discourses"). His Lubb-i lubdb-i masnavi is an
abridgement of Jalal al-Dln Ruml's Masnavi, itself abridged in his fur-
ther work, the Lubb-i lubb. Besides the works mentioned, this versatile
preacher's name has been appended to numerous other prose disserta-
tions and opera.
His son, Fakhr al-Din Va'iz (d. 939/15 32—3), was also a writer of the
late Timurid and early Safavid periods. His most famous composition
is the Rashahdt-i 'ain al-haydt ("Sprinklings from the Spring of Life"), a
work devoted to the grace, teachings and examples of Khwaja
'Abd-Allah, a great leader of the Naqshbandl order of sufis of the
Timurid era, and of his associates. In addition, Fakhr al-Dln wrote an
interesting and informative collection of anecdotes about various
classes of society: rulers, ministers, divines, sufis and others.
There remains Jalal al-Dln Muhammad As'ad Siddlql Davani
(b. 830/1426—7, d. 908/1502—3), the author of the Akhldq-i Jaldli, a
work on ethics whose more correct title is the Lavdmi' al-isbrdq fi
makdrim al-akhldq ("The Beams of the Suns in the Graces of Ethics").
This work, like Va'iz-i Kashifl's Akhldq-i Muhsini, stemmed from the
tradition of works on ethics established by the Akhldq-i Ndsiri of
Khwaja Naslr al-Din Tiisl.
The prose works which were a feature of the Timurid period cannot
be left without some reference to those connected with the sect of the
Hurufis, which was founded in the reign of Timur by a certain
Fazl-Allah of Astarabad. The most important work of this sect, whose
scribes adopted a special literary style with symbols and idioms pecu-
liar to their persuasion, is the founder's own Jdviddn-ndma. Other
Hurufi texts are the Adam-ndma, the 'Arsh-ndma, the Hidayat-ndma, the
Ustuvdr-ndma, the Kursi-ndma and the Muhabbat-ndma, while there is a
key to the secrets of the Jdviddn-ndma entitled the Miftdh al-haydt ("Key
of Life").

928
 CHAPTER I 7 {b)

HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

One of the great experiences in Iran is a visit to Shlraz and the delightful
garden that is laid out around the tomb of Hafiz; to enter under the
white marble baldachin that covers the tombstone on which some of the
poet's verses are engraved in elegant nasta'ltq, and to open the Divdn-i
iidfiz t o l°°k for zfa'l, an augury, according to well established rules
that have been followed for centuries. During such a moment the visitor
may perhaps recall the beautiful lines written by the "last classical poet"
of Turkey, Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1881-1958), who uses one of Hafiz's
central concepts, that of rind ("vagrant"), in his poem Rindkrin oliimii:
In the garden at Hafiz's tomb there is a rose
Which opens every day with blood-like colour;
At night, the nightingale weeps until dawn turns grey,
With a tune that reminds us of ancient Shlraz.

Death is a calm country of spring for a vagrant;

His heart fumes everywhere like a censer — for years ...
And over his tomb that lies under cool cypresses
A rose opens every morn, every night a nightingale sings.
During the long history of Islam Shlraz was always an important
centre of learning, mysticism, and poetry. In spite of frequent changes
in government, numerous wars and internecine feuds of its rulers the
city can boast of a long-standing cultural tradition. To be sure, the
8th/14th century, when Hafiz lived, was no longer the time of the
asceticism of Ibn-i Khafif (d. 371/982) nor of the high-soaring mystical
experiences of Ruzbihan Baqli (d. 606/1209), and the days of Sa'dl,
whose works made the name of Shlraz known in the West before those
of most other places in Iran, had long passed. But the religious tradi-
tion was embodied in one of the leading Ash'arl theologians of the
later Middle Ages, 'Azud al-Dln Tjl (d. 756/135 5), who held the office
of chief qadi under Abu Ishaq Tnju, although he later withdrew from
Shlraz. His Mawaqif, a kind of Summa Theologica, was to become a
standard work in scholastic theology, and it is said that Hafiz, too,
studied it. The Mawaqif was often commented upon by later theolo-
gians; among them was — still during Hafiz's lifetime — al-Sayyid
929
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

al-Sharlf al-Jurjanl (d. 1413) who, after long wanderings in Egypt and
Turkey, was called to the Muzaffarid capital in 13 77 as a professor in
the Dar al-shifa madrasa, and returned once more to Shlraz after a
prolonged stay in Samarqand whither Timur had carried him. Jurjanl's
Ta'rifdt are still a helpful instrument for the understanding of theologi-
cal definitions.
Poets were not lacking either in Shlraz or in other Persian cities
around 1350. E.G. Browne goes so far as to call the 8th/i4th century
the richest period of Persian literature, a fact which he ascribes to the
existence of numerous small courts that competed with each other in
attracting literati. Salman Savajl (d. 778/1376), the panegyrist of the
Jalayirids in Baghdad and Tabriz, is noted for his "fluency of
language" and his skilful use of iham ("amphibology") which he dis-
played in "artistic qasldas" (qasida-yi masnif). His contemporary Kamal
al-Dln Khwaju KirmanI settled finally in Shlraz, where he died in 1352
or 1361; he left a divan with enjoyable ghazals. Certain similarities
between his verses and those of Hafiz have been pointed out by the
critics. Besides lyrical poetry he composed a Khamsa, out of whose five
— mostly mystically tinged — epics the story of Humal and Humayun
has attracted the interest of scholars because of the exquisite miniatures
that adorn one of the early 9th/15 th century manuscripts.1 Somewhat
later we find Kamal Khujandl (d. probably in 803/1400) in Tabriz; he
and Hafiz seem to have been acquainted, although Kamal, an inter-
preter of the theory of vahdat al-vujiid, is censured as "abstruse" by the
sober commentator SudI in the ioth/i6th century. In Shlraz itself the
poetry of 'Imad al-Dln Faqlh KirmanI (d. 773/1371—2) was widely
acclaimed. He was the chief panegyrist of the Muzaffarids, a fertile
lyrical author, and also produced five mystical masnavls. 'Imad al-Dln
and Hafiz were allegedly not on very friendly terms, as some biogra-
phers assume, who spin out a story from Hafiz's verse:
Don't be duped when the devotee cat performs the ritual prayer,2
which is interpreted as referring to 'Imad's well-trained cat. However,
as Browne pointed out, Hafiz's expression can be more safely traced
back to a verse in Mush u gurba ("Cat and mouse"), a little epic still
widely read in Iran which has often been lithographed or printed with

1
Reproduced most recently in A. Papadopoulo, hlamiscbe Kunst (Freiburg i. Br., 1977), pi. 41.
2
Brockhaus, no. 122. Ahmad and Nairn, no. 102.

930
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

simple illustrations. Its author, 'Ubaid-i ZakanI (d. 772/1371), a citizen

of Shiraz, which he dearly loved, is mainly noted for his satires; his
prose satire Akhldq al-ashrdf offers an interesting picture of the vices of
Persian society in the 8th/14th century.
However, to speak of Shiraz in the 8th/14th century - in fact, even to
mention the city's name at all among educated Westerners - means to
recall immediately the one name that has become the epitome of the
Persian lyric for both Oriental and Western readers, that of Muhammad
Shams al-Dln Hafiz. Surpassed in popularity, particularly in the
English-speaking world, only by 'Umar Khayyam, the name of Hafiz
stands in the West for everything Persian: for the apogee of uninhibited
sensual delight; enjoyment of the prohibited wine; and the predomi-
nance of love in all its shades, while most of the Oriental interpreters see
in him "the tongue of the Unseen World", singing of Divine Love and
spiritual intoxication. In the German-speaking world, Hafiz's name has
become almost a household word since the days of Goethe. But famous
as he is in both East and West, and much as he has been interpreted as the
embodiment of sensuality and free thinking on the one hand, and of the
highest mystical enthusiasm on the other, yet it is difficult to give a
satisfactory account of his life; and the orientalist views with envy his
colleagues in the field of German or English philology who can follow
the development of their great writers step by step, almost day by day. In
the case of Oriental poets it is next to impossible to transgress the
narrow framework offered by the biographers and to infuse real life into
the numerous anecdotes which are repeated time and again by the
writers. A few remarks in contemporary historical sources, perhaps a
tombstone, or some scattered hints in the poetry itself, may prove
helpful for the chronology of a Persian lyrical poet's life. On the whole,
our knowledge of Hafiz's life is woefully inadequate.
The preface of one of the oldest manuscripts — used intensively for the
first time by Qasim Ghani and Muhammad Qazvlnl - contains at least
some biographical material. But even the date of Hafiz's birth is not yet
established. Some authors, like Ghani, put it in 717/1317—8, while others
such as M. Mu'in plead for 725/1325 - 6 , a date which would agree fairly
well with the statement in 'Abd al-Nabl's Maikhdna (written in 1626) that
Hafiz died at the age of sixty-five lunar years. Most European scholars
seem to have accepted a date oi c. 719/1319—20.
Hafiz's father, a merchant who had migrated from Isfahan to Shiraz,
died early, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. Yet young
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Hafiz apparently enjoyed the traditional education in a madrasa. Some

sources speak of his poverty, and say that he apprenticed himself to a
doughmaker to earn his livelihood. It seems that he worked as a
copyist for quite some time; for the library in Tashkent owns a copy of
Amir Khusrau's Khamsa in his hand, dated 9 February 1355.1 That
means that even in his thirties he had still to do some menial work.
However, he must have been very well versed in the Qur'anic sciences;
hence his nom-de-plume Hafiz. His Arabic was excellent and in later
years he taught exegesis and other theological courses in Shiraz.
According to the preface he studied Zamakhsharl's Kashshaf (to which
he incidentally alludes in one of his ghazals), Sakkakl's Miftdh and
several other Arabic works; according to A. Krymsky, some of his
Arabic works are extant in autographs.2
A charming story tells how he received his initiation in the art of
poetry at Baba Kuhl's tomb on the hillside near Shiraz, where 'AH b.
Abl Talib appeared to him and offered him some heavenly food. The
beautiful ghazal,
Dush vaqt-i sahar as^ ghussa najdtam dddand

(Yesterday at dawn I was given relief from my grief),3

is taken as an allusion to this event, although the story was almost
certainly invented tofitthe poet into the Shi'I tradition. But in spite of
Krymsky's opinion, he was not an avowed Shi'I, for no authentic Shl'I
verse appears in the Divan. Several invitations from rulers outside Fars
show that his poetry attracted some interest quite early. Ahmad Jalayir,
himself a skilful poet and talented calligrapher inter alia, invited him
probably after Shah-i Shuja"s death (786/1384). But before that the
ruler of the Bahmanid kingdom in South India sent for him, as one
century earlier the ruler of Multan, Prince Muhammad b. Balaban, the
Maecenas of Amir Khusrau, had invited Sa'dl to leave Shiraz for India.
Hafiz did not accept any of the invitations; but in one of his ghazals he
speaks of far-away Bengal where his poetry was appreciated - poetry,
which, like a perfected sufl, can perform the miracle of taiy al-makdn
("ubiquity") and, though only a child one night old, can immediately
make one year's journey. In this poem he says in a line that connects in
a clever murrfat al-na^tr three items from the geographical sphere and
1
Rypka, H1L, p. 264, following Y.E. Bend's, "Literatim na persidskom yazyke v Srednel
2
Azii", SV 1948, 201. Rypka, HIL, p. 277, n.95.
3
Brockhaus, no. 218. Ahmad and Nainl, no. 112.

932
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

the traditional combination of the sweet-speaking parrot with sugar:

All the parrots of India become "sweet-spoken"
From that Persian candy that goes towards Bengal,1
a line in which we find a subtle allusion to his superiority even over
Amir Khusrau, who was commonly called the tiitt-ji Hind and whose
work Hafiz himself had copied.
Very little is known about Hafiz's personal life. He must have been
married, and one of his ghazals is interpreted as an elegy for his son,
who died, probably, in 764/1362-3. According to Firishta, who is
followed by an 18th-century Indian writer, the polyhistor Azad
BilgramI, one of Hafiz's sons by the name of Shah Nu'man came to
India and is buried in Burhanpur.
We do not know whether Hafiz belonged to one of the numerous
sufI orders which were then quite active in the Middle East. The area
of Shiraz was the first part of Iran where a more closely knit commu-
nity of dervishes had been formed by Abu Ishaq-i Kazaruni
(d. 426/1035) and his followers, who were not only active in helping
the needy in Fars but soon extended their activities as far as India and
China. Hafiz's colleague Khwaju was a member of the Kazaruniyya.
No name of any of the leading sufi masters — be it 'Abd al-Qadir
al-Gllanl, the Suhravardls, or Maulana Ruml — occurs in his verse, at
least not overtly. Maybe the frequent use of musical terms and
allusions to the samS point to Hafiz's knowledge of Rumi's poetry, in
which such imagery abounds. But this is only a vague supposition. If it
is correct that one Plr Muhammad 'Attar was his shaikh, he would be
connected with the silsila of Ruzbihan Baqll, as Ritter points out.2 The
poet apparently used to attend the sessions of Maulana Qivam al-Din
'Abd-Allah. That is stated not only in the old preface but also in an
account according to which the Kubravl mystic Sayyid Ashraf al-Din
Jahanglr Simnanl (d. 808/1405), the patron saint of Kichhaucha in
eastern Avadh, met Hafiz around 782/13 80.3 The only way tofindout
more details about Hafiz's life is to look, as Ritter has done recently,
for the explicit and covert allusions to political figures whom he
praised or blamed with subtle allusions.
1
Brockhaus, no. 158. Ahmad and Nainl, no. 149.
2
Ritter, "Hafiz", p. 67.
3
Rypka, HIL, pp. 276-7, following A.A. Hikmat, "Manabi'i jadld dar plramun-i hayat-i
Hafiz", Majalla-yi Danishkada-yi Adabijyat Sbira^ vn (1341/1962), 3—38: the source is Nizam
al-Din Ghanb-i YamanI, Latd'if-i asbraf.

933
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

When the poet was still very young, the Tl-Khan Abu Sa'Id died,
in 756/1335. Abu Sa'Id's successor executed Sharaf al-Dln Mahmud
Shah, who had been semi-independent in Shlraz since 725/1325; after a
struggle of seven years, Mahmud Shah's son Abu Ishaq Tnju took over.
Some of Hafiz's poems praise the tolerant and artistically-minded
prince and his vizier Qivam al-Dln Hasan. But soon, in 754/1353,
Shiraz fell to the Muzaffarids, whose first ruler, Mubariz al-Dln, was
orthodox, harsh, and not inclined to spare human life. He in turn was
deposed and blinded by his own son Shah-i Shuja' after five years of
reign. One usually understands those poems in which Hafiz derides or
attacks the detested muhtasib, the superintendent of market police, as
applying to Mubariz al-Dln's reign. The most famous of these poems,
agar chi bada farahbakhsh u badgulbt^ ast...

(Even though the wine is pleasure-granting and the wind

scattering rose-petals,
Don't drink wine at the sound of the harp, for the muhtasib is
impetuous)1,
alludes in its last line ("for now it is time for Baghdad and Tabriz") to
the two Jalayirid capitals (both of which were later conquered by
Shah-i Shuja') as more congenial places for the poet to sing. It seems,
however, difficult to place all muhtasib poems in Mubariz al-Dln's
time, for example, the following verse:
Don't tell the muhtasib my faults,
For he, too, is continually, like me, in search of wine
[or: of good life].2
The solution of these problems is left to the interpreters' under-
standing.
When Shah-i Shuja' ascended the throne times changed for the better,
and Hafiz sings cheerfully:
At dawn, glad tidings reached my ear from the voice of the
Unseen World:
It's the time of Shah-i Shuja' - drink boldly wine!3
Shah-i Shuja' himself, though an educated man, was a mediocre poet; his
1
Brockhaus, no. j7- Ahmad and Nairn, no. 68.
2
Brockhaus, no. 54. Ahmad and Nainl, no. 57, reading 'aish instead of bada. The whole poem
speaks of enjoyment and drinking.
3
Brockhaus, no. 327. Ahmad and Nairn, no. 251.

934
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

court poet proper was 'Imad al-Dln Faqlh, but Hafiz too was one of his
eulogists and it seems that Shdh-suvar, who repeatedly represents "the
beloved", is a subtle allusion to this ruler's surname Abu'l-Favaris.
When the prince left Shiraz between 765/1363 and 767/1366 Hafiz wrote
some poems that complain of separation from the "Friend". During
those years Shah-i Shuja' had to fight his own brother Mahmiid, who in
1365 even laid siege to Shiraz, along with the Jalayirid Shaikh Uvais. For
some time the relations between the ruler and the poet apparently cooled
down; at least the view of the biographers regarding Hafiz's verse,
Gar musulmdma% an ast ki Hafiz darad
Vdi agar a\ pai-ji imru^ buvad farda'i

(If the state of a Muslim is such as Hafiz possesses -

Woe, if there were a tomorrow after today!1),
is that it estranged him from the ruler because of its apparently non-
Islamic character. Fardd has of course to be interpreted as Day of
Judgment, which in the Qur'an is often called "tomorrow", just as diish
("yesterday") in Persian poetry usually points to the time before crea-
tion, the Day of the Covenant (ru^-i alasf), when "the angels kneaded
Adam's clay".2 Hafiz may have travelled to Isfahan and Yazd during
the "estrangement" around 1373; but the relevant traditions are weak.
Shah-i Shuja' was succeeded in 786/1384 by Zain al-'Abidin; he after
a brief reign by Shah Yahya. During that time the internecine feuds in
the Muzaffarid family continued. More importantly, Timur, in the
course of his incessant conquests, reached Shiraz in 1387, the same year
when he massacred 70,000 people in Isfahan. He stayed in Shiraz for
two months and may well have met Hafiz, interested as he was in
gathering learned men and artists from all over the Muslim world. The
anecdote about the dialogue between the world-conqueror and the
poet has been told and retold — probably spun out of the famous matla'
about the Turk-i Sbird^i. The story is found in a rather early source,
Shuja'-i Shlrazl's A.nis al-nds of 830/1426—7, so it may contain some
truth; it was then popularised by Daulatshah, from whom Eastern and
Western writers alike took it.3
Hafiz died in 791/1389, to which the chronogram khdk-i musalld

1
Brockhaus, no. 525. Ahmad and Nairn, no. 374.
2
Brockhaus, no. 222. Ahmad and Nairn, no. 115.
3
Sayyid Muhammad 'All Jamalzada, "Ravaj-i bazar-i shi'r u sha'iri", Armaghin 46, 129-42,
offers a text that authenticates the meetings.

935
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

would fit, or in 792/1390 (thus the chronogram b s 5; in the old preface).

It is said that the orthodox refused to have him buried in a Muslim
cemetery because of his anti-orthodox, sensual poetry; but by means of
an oracle taken from his poetry they finally agreed to a correct burial.
The story may or may not be true; the custom of asking the Divan for
good advice in every situation has been maintained.
Since Hafiz had been too busy with teaching and scholarly work he
had no time, according to the early sources, to collect his Divan him-
self; this work was left to later scholars. And here the major problem
for every interpreter of Hafiz's poetry begins: the lack of an authentic
text. We do not even know the identity of the "Friend" (usually called
Muhammad Gulandam) who speaks in the preface about his acquaint-
ance with the poet. After Boelke had made some researches into the
oldest available manuscripts, Robert M. Rehder discussed once more in
1974 the textual tradition of Hafiz's poems, in a brief, well-
documented article, giving an account of fourteen dated manuscripts
prior to the year 827/1423-4, which is the date of the GhanI - Qazvlnl
text. Was the "Friend" the only collector of Hafiz's verse? Or did
independent collections exist soon after the poet's death? The latter
possibility seems more likely. Single ghazals of Hafiz can be found in
manuscripts written during his lifetime, for example in a collection
made in 781/1379—80 in Baghdad. A safina, collected a year later in
Shlraz, contains four of Hafiz's ghazals. In 1937 Rempis drew the
attention of the scholars to a manuscript dated 820/1417 that belonged
to one Muzaffar Husain in Hyderabad, Deccan;1 but, as Rehder states
with regret, the whereabouts of the manuscript, which was taken to
Pakistan by its owner in 1948, are at present unknown, since it is not to
be found in the Library of Khairpur Mlrs, which acquired the bulk of
Muzaffar Husain's library. The National Museum in Delhi has a manu-
script dated 818/1415, with 358 ghazals, on loan from Hyderabad.
Another manuscript, mentioned by Rehder as no. 13, consists of an
anthology and was formerly in Gavanpur; since it contains the preface
it seems to be the same manuscript which was carefully edited by
Ahmad and Na'Inl in 1971. It contains 435 ghazals. Ritter had studied
two very valuable manuscripts in the Ayasofya Library in Istanbul (AS
3945 and 3857), dated 1410 and 1413 respectively; one of them was
written for the library of the Timurid prince Iskandar b. 'Umar Shaikh,

1
Rempis, Beitrage, p. 126, n.2.

936
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

from whose library another copy is preserved in the British Library

with 152 ghazals which was edited by Khanlarl. The Revan Kojkii
in the Topkapi Sarayi, too, owns a pre-827 manuscript of Hafiz's
poems, and an important manuscript is preserved in the library of the
Tajik Academy of Sciences (no. 555) and described by Galimova.
That the text of Hafiz's Divan was rather garbled as early as about a
century after his death is understood from the statement of the versatile
Timurid author Sharaf al-Dln Marvarld, who writes that "through the
transcribing of the text by various scribes of defective understanding
many of the pearls and precious stones of that 'pattern of the praise-
worthy and eminent' [Hafiz] became the prey of the plundering ringers
of a handful of fools",1 and by the fact that one of Husain Balqara's
sons, Prince Farldun Khan, decided in 907/1501-2 to produce a better
edition, which found its way later into the British Library (Or. 3,247).2
Almost every Persian Divan has a tendency to become inflated; but
in the case of Hafiz's poems this process is even more natural. After all,
it was the only book besides the Qur'an out of which prognostication
was taken. Therefore many poets, scholars, and eager copyists have
inserted their own verses or appropriate poems in Hafizian style for the
sake of gaining fame under his name or of participating in the baraka of
the book; others may have tried to improve verses according to their
own taste. Nor can we exclude the possibility, suggested by Rehder,
that a certain number of variant readings exist because Hafiz wrote
more than one version of a poem or revised his words. Sudl's commen-
tary comprises, in one edition, 575 poems, in Brockhaus, 692 poems;
the editio princeps (Calcutta, 1791) has no less than 725 poems. The
inflation of the text is most conspicuous in areas where Persian was a
living language, as in Iran and India.
People's admiration for Hafiz is reflected in the care the calligra-
phers took to transcribe his verse on beautiful coloured paper, sur-
rounded with margins full of delicate golden drawings. His poems
were copied not only by the masters of nasta'llq but also by the special-
ists in shikasta. Did the artists perhaps think of the poet's clever use of
letter-images and of his complaint that the Friend did "not send him a
letter to catch the bird of his heart with chainlike script"?3

1
Rehder's translation: "The text of Hafiz", p. 147. Text printed in facsimile by Roemer,
Staatsschrcibcn.
2
Ch. Rieu, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London,
3
1895), no. 268. Brockhaus, no. 247. Ahmad and N a i r n , no. 203.

937
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Several copies of the Divan have been decorated with miniatures,

one of the finest being that in the Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge,
Mass.), datable to c. 1527: it originally contained two miniatures by
Shaikhzada and five by Sultan Muhammad. The most attractive and at
the same time intriguing picture is the one by Sultan Muhammad
which shows the various stages of heavenly and mundane intoxication,
where "Hafiz himself, popeyed with drink or religious inspiration, sits
in a window with the huge wine jar",1 under a roof on which angels
are dancing and drinking, while in the lower level wild-looking
dervishes produce strange music. It is indeed a picture "which demol-
ishes the conventional split between the effects of wine and divine
ecstasy. In this extraordinary transcendental painting, low comedy and
high religion meet.. .".2 And thus the problem that has puzzled gener-
ations of scholars and admirers of Hafiz, whether to interpret his
poetry as sensual or mystical, seems to be solved by the brush of one of
the greatest Persian painters.
About the time when Hafiz passed away, the Ottoman Sultan Murad
I in 791/1389 vanquished the Serbs at Kossovo and thus subjugated the
Balkans. Subsequently, the representatives of the growing Turkish
literature began to take a more intense interest in the works of Persian
poets, who became their literary masters and whose style deeply
influenced the so-called Divan edebiyafi. Shaikhl (d. c. 1451) and even
more Ahmed Pasha (d. 1496) are obviously influenced by Hafiz's
lyrical style. Ottoman interpreters and commentators carefully pre-
served the Hafizian heritage without interfering too much with the
actual text. Yet Hafiz's poetry was apparently viewed with some suspi-
cion in orthodox Turkish circles; otherwise it would not have been
necessary to ask the famous mufti Abu Su'ud (d. 1578) for a jatvd
concerning the poet's religious attitude. The wise mufti gave an
elegant ambiguous answer, explaining that Hafiz's poetry on the whole
was not really objectionable but that some expressions were prone to
wrong interpretation, and it was left to the reader's discrimination to
select the correct interpretation. Abu Su'ud's judgment is important,
because during and shortly after his time three most widely used com-
mentaries were written to elucidate Hafiz's verse. Sham'i and Sururl
took to the mystical interpretation, while the Bosnian SudI gives sober,
1
S.C. Welch, Persian Painting (New York, 1976), text to pi. 18; the three other extant minia-
tures are pi. 15, "Lovers picnicking", pi. 16, "Scandal in a mosque", and pi. 17, "The Feast of'Id
2
begins". Ibid., introduction, p. 20.

938
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

grammatical explanations. His dry but useful commentary was to form

later the basis for most European interpreters of the Shlrazi poet. The
mystical understanding of his Divan was prevalent in Safavid Iran and
the countries to the east. There his admirers allegorised his verse by
applying the standard equations as laid down by authors like Muhsin
Faiz-i KashanI:1 every curl of the beloved means the dark manifesta-
tions of contingent beings which veil and yet enhance the radiant
Absolute Beauty of the Divine Face, or may pertain to theja/ai-side of
God, His Majesty and Wrath; while every wine was only the wine of
love, every tavern the non-qualified unity. This kind of mystical inter-
pretation is the reason for some Indian sufl leaders' keeping with them
only three books, i.e. the Qur'an, Maulana Jalal al-Din Ruml's
Masnavl, and the Divan of Hafiz.
Tradition has it that the poet's own contemporaries, headed by
Shah-i Shuja', criticised a certain incoherence in his verse, and
European critics of the 18th and 19th centuries followed them in
complaining of the lack of a higher logical order. As Hindley wrote in
1800: "Hafiz ... takes the liberty of glancing with the frenzied eye of
inspiration from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth, in search of
objects adapted to the subject of his composition ..." Gertrude Bell,
who tried in the foreword to her translation to evaluate Hafiz's great-
ness from a Western viewpoint, wondered why there is "almost no
echo" of the political and martial events that occurred during his life-
time. She touches here a point which was to arouse major discussions
fifty years later. But she concluded, "It is as if his mental eye, endowed
with wonderful acuteness of vision, had penetrated into those
provinces of thought which we of a later age were destined to inhabit".
Friedrich Veit, who wrote his thesis Des Grafen von Platen Nachbildungen
aus dem Diwan des Hafis in 1908, found a "unity of thought" in the
poems; but his interpretation is mainly concerned with the homosexual
aspects of Hafiz's and Platen's verse. Schaeder, in his masterly book
Goethes Erlebnis des Ostens (1938), expressed the opinion that in a Hafiz-
ian poem several themes are connected as a kind of leitmotifs. He is
thus not too far from Arberry, who saw in Hafiz's poetry a progress
toward a kind of polyphony: beginning as a poet who is almost "a
perfect Sa'dl" in his ghazals, he then develops the art of inserting two
or more themes and elaborates them in an intricate pattern whose

1
Examples in A.J. Arberry, Sufism (London, 1950), pp. i^ff.

939
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

various "melodies", so to speak, stand in a contrapuntal relationship;

this art would have become more and more refined in the poet's later
years.
Schaeder remained faithful to the "classical" interpretation of
Hafiz's lyrics and harshly contradicted Karl Stolz, who had claimed in
an article in 1941 that one could understand Hafiz's spiritual develop-
ment to a certain extent by observing the changes in emphasis,
allusions to persons, etc., referring to Mahmud Human's study iidfi^
chi miguyad? which points to the same direction of research. Stolz found
strong support - though unwittingly - in the work of the French
scholar Lescot, who, basing his research mainly on GhanI and Qazvlnl,
found that un fil conducteur, a chain of associations, connects each verse
with the previous and the following one, and ascribed much of the
apparent incoherence to negligent copyists. Like Stolz, Lescot discov-
ered in Hafiz's poetry certain cycles that can be ascribed to different
phases of his life, and detected a relative chronology by disclosing the
identity of people alluded to in the ghazals. Now for the first time the
idea was put forth that Hafiz was in reality a panegyrist who had cleverly
used the more or less lyrical introductory part of the usual qasida for his
panegyrics, so that the invoked ma'shuq, "beloved", stands for the
mamdiih, the object of the poet's praise, e.g. the prince or vizier.
Roemer in 1951 came close to Lescot's theories, defending the possi-
bility that at least parts of the poems are datable. The problem is,
however, that the application of Lescot's and Arberry's methods some-
times puts the same ghazal in two completely different categories of
time, so that neither of the approaches can offer a perfect elucidation of
the chronology.
One year after Roemer's useful survey of "Hafizology" there
appeared two articles by Wickens, who first stressed convincingly the
lack of significant or "dramatic" development in Persian poetry, a fact
which he explains in the context of the Islamic way of thinking in
general; his example of interpretation reads as if he were over-extend-
ing one principle of Persian rhetoric, i.e. that of murSat-i nayjr, from
one verse to a whole ghazal. Wickens went on, however, to try to find
in each and every word of the oft mistreated Turk-i Shtra^t every
conceivable and inconceivable connotation of the written word in
order to establish the underlying "Turkish" feeling of the ghazal. In a
very outspoken rebuttal of this interpretation, Mary Boyce rightly
stresses the fact that in the East poetry is usually recited or sung, rather
940
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
than read, so that the sound is more important than the script; and
indeed, how many semi-illiterate people in Indo-Pakistan or among the
older generation in Turkey used to know their Hafiz by heart and
could insert quotations from his Divan in every conversation! She
states correctly that many words, which at first reading may convey
only one meaning, prove to carry secondary and associated ideas; but
these ideas are either implicit in the meaning of the word itself or
conveyed by delicate punning — an observation that brings her close to
Schaeder's position. As a working hypothesis, Wickens' "focal theory"
can prove helpful; but it should not be taken as absolute norm.
Schaeder's viewpoint was taken over, though with slight modifica-
tions, by Bausani, who stresses the elemento non emo^ionale, finamente
rationale which distinguishes Hafiz's verses from lyrics in the Western,
romanticising tradition. Bausani, however, lays special stress on the
two small masnavis which are ascribed to Hafiz, i.e. the Saqi-nama and
the Ahii-ji vahshi, which he translates and counts among the most
personal and inimitable compositions of Hafiz; although both
masnavis are missing in some of the oldest manuscripts. Schaeder had
branded the sweet and delicate "Wild Gazelle", which is indeed much
more "personal" than the ghazals, as greatly inferior to Hafiz's lyrical
poems. The Saqi-ndma, again, contains the praise of the wine of ecstasy,
and stands in a tradition going back to the famous Khamriyja, "Wine
Ode", of Ibn al-Farid (d. 632/1235).
What is it that makes Hafiz so incomparable? He has relied upon the
poetical tradition as it had been perfected by his compatriot Sa'dl, and a
comparison between the motifs and metaphors used by him and his
contemporaries - poets like Salman, Khwajii, and others - proves a
great similarity in their use of words and images. However, it was Hafiz
who was able to weave the best threads of the tradition into a perfect,
colourful fabric.
But we have to beware of interpreting Hafiz too much according to
our own, Western understanding of poetry. Schaeder, followed by
Bausani, has put his finger upon the main problem when he says, "For
the German the understanding of Persian poetry begins by attempting
to forget all his ideas about poetry as an expression of personality or of
experience [Erkbnis]",1 and he advises the reader to go back to
Baroque poetry (incidentally Mas'iid Farzad, too, drew a comparison

1
Schaeder, "Lasst sich", p. 202.

941
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

between Hafiz and John Donne,1 or even to the mediaeval minnesin-

gers who followed prescribed patterns and images to express their
feelings in a stylised form. Hafiz is after all a master of rhetoric, a poeta
doctus, and one of the great difficulties for the Western reader is to
disentangle the complicated web of allusions and rhetorical figures that
make a line of Persian poetry "true poetry". Rypka has given us
numerous examples of this important art of interpretation, and in his
review of Nicholson's edition and translation of Ruml's Masnavi Ritter
too warned against excessive allegorising in our dealings with Persian
poets.2 For only when the rhetorical figures have been understood can
a verse be interpreted correctly according to its various levels. Verses
of a supreme master of this art, like Hafiz, are like diamonds, hard and
well polished so that they send out rays of different colour at every
moment. We should not expect our poet to pour out his feelings in
sheer lyricism, as is usually done in post-Enlightenment poetry in
Europe; rather, the highest art is to condense a personal experience so
perfectly that it always remains valid, just as one drop of rose-oil
represents the "spirit" of hundreds of roses. The reader can use it at
every moment, whether he needs a line for a drinking party or a verse
that consoles him by speaking of the beloved's wisdom, of God's
inscrutable will. To quote Christensen, "As the love-verses of a poet
can be applied by every lover to a new individual (who differs from the
person of whom the poet was thinking), so these verses can express
moods which offer analogies to a love relationship, and, vice versa,
mystical verses can be filled with individual contents."3 Christensen
compares the poetry of Hafiz with the dreamlike play with rapidly
changing images and thoughts; they are, thus, similar in character to
the faience ornaments on Persian mosques where letters, arabesques,
geometrical and floral decorations grow out of each other, and, as we
may add, change colour at every moment according to the light of the
sun. This comparison, incidentally, brings the Danish scholar close to
Wickens' views on the "non-dramatic" character of Persian poetry, a
distinctive feature which one also may call "carpet-like" - as Goethe
addresses Hafiz in the West-Ostlicher Divan:
Dass du nicht enden kannst, das macht dich gross,
Und dass du nie beginnst, das ist dein Los ...,

1 2
Quoted by Arberry, Classical Persian Literature, p. 359. OLZ, 1941, 247-53.
3
Christensen, Kulturskitser fra Iran, pp. 88—90, quoted in Schaeder, Goetbes Erlebnis, p. 177.

942
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

thus pointing to the "circular" movement of the Persian poem. Goethe

was aware that the very character of Persian poetry is determined by
the form of the ghazal; for the given rhyme scheme makes the poem
assume "a tinge of quodlibet" because the poet's mind is not focussed
on one point but rather turns in a number of directions in order to
comply with the exigencies of the rhyme; and, continues Goethe, "We
forgive him the most daring metaphor for the sake of an unexpected
rhyme and enjoy the presence of mind which the poet can maintain in
such a complicated position." Goethe recognised the "guiding spirit"
(das Vorwalten des oberen Leitenden) as characteristic of this poetry, and
he admired the readiness to establish human contacts (Bereitschaft
%um Geselligen) in Hafiz's poetry. Such poetry can lift up problems
which fill the soul with extreme tension, transporting them into a
realm where tension and calmness are no longer valid, namely that of
pure spirit. Sensing this deeply spiritual character that underlies great
Persian poetry, he knew that Hafiz's verse should not be interpreted
exclusively at face value; for the word — as he expresses it — is a fan that
hides a beautiful eye and yet makes the observer feel that it exists and
may suddenly smile at him.
One may claim that Hafiz is perhaps the first poet in the Persian-
speaking world who perfectly realised the unity of the mundane and
the spiritual sphere. To be sure, Jalal al-Dln RumI had taken his images
and symbols from every walk of life, changing even pebbles into
poetical rubies, but his poetry was so deeply tinged by his experience of
mystical love that it became regarded as trie veritable "Qur'an in the
Persian tongue". Mystical poetry had developed particularly in Iran.
Literature had been deeply affected by the introduction into sufl
thought of the shahid, the human "witness" of Divine beauty (i.e. the
charming human object of love); and we must not forget the maxim
that al-majd^ qantarat al-haqiqa, that metaphors, and thus metaphorical,
i.e. human, love, form the bridge to the Divine Reality. Already the
early sufls in the time of Kharraz (d. 286/899) an<^ ^1S disciple Junaid
of Baghdad (d. 298/910) had developed the art of speaking in subtle
hints, ishdrdt. Hafiz lived in the city where Ruzbihan Baqll had com-
posed one of the most important works on chaste love, the 'Abhar
al-'dshiqin, and had contributed to our understanding of the theopathic
utterances of early sufis, particularly Hallaj, in his Sharh-i shathiydt. It
would be surprising, therefore, if Hafiz, living in Shlraz and perhaps
even related to Baqll's silsila, had not been familiar with the finest art of

943
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

mystical isharat. He would certainly agree with RumI, who states in the
beginning of the Masnavi that "the secrets of the loved ones [sirr-i
dilbardri] can better be expressed in the stories of others", e.g., by
veiling the truth under poetical symbols. It was this art which Hafiz
has brought to perfection. In almost each of his verses, a constant
oscillation between the worldly and the spiritual level can be discov-
ered. That is why his poetry can be interpreted — and, what is more,
enjoyed — on two, if not three levels (and there may be even more
hidden meanings). The object can be the beautiful beloved, preferably
a fourteen-year-old boy who is as cruel as he is charming and hence
called by the traditional term, a Turk; or the object can be the Divine
Beloved Who acts as He wills, and Who is loved by the poet because
He combines jamdl and jalal, Beauty and Majesty, and in spite of the
fact that He is "the best of rusers" (sura iii. 47); or the object can be the
prince, whose whims are endured by the subject and who has to be
flattered in terms of utter subjection (as has the beloved) and high
praise. In every case the poet remains the 'abd, the loving, admiring,
and obedient servant. This intended double-entendre does not
preclude, however, the possibility of discovering historical data in the
lyrics.
If we approach a poem like the ever-present Turk-i Shird^t by a
simple analysis of the rhetorical devices in the first verse, we certainly
do not find the "charming maid of Shlraz", although the basic idea is
as simple as can be: the lover would give away even the most precious
thing imaginable for a moment of kindness from his beloved, or for a
moment of Divine grace, or for a sign of royal favour. The charm of
this line resides not in the rather commonplace idea but in the expres-
sion: Hafiz produces a complete murd'at-i na%ir of five geographical
concepts: Turk, Hindu, Shlraz, Samarqand, and Bukhara, and another
one from three parts of the body, i.e. heart, hand, and mole. Further-
more, the juxtaposition of Turk and Hindu is used, which is quite
common in Persian poetry, particularly since Nizaml. The Turk
supplied, from Ghaznavid times onward, the model for the beloved
with his round, light-coloured moon face, a mouth like a mim or a dot,
and slightly slanting eyes — an ideal that appears more and more on
Persian miniatures. The Hindu again was the black, lowly and often
cunning slave; so much so that mystics like Majd al-Dln BaghdadI (d.
1209) could compare angels and devils to Turks and Hindus respec-
tively. Given this extremely lowly position of the Hindu in Persian

944
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

imagery, Hafiz's claim to give away two major cities for the "Hindu"
mole of his friend gains even more momentum. Besides, the reader may
think of the Turk-i falak (the planet Mars) and the Hindu-yi falak
(Saturn), stars connected in astrology with minor and major misfortune,
and with bloodshed and melancholia respectively. The clever combina-
tion of this verse has often been imitated, but never surpassed. But a
translation that leaves out the meaningful puns can never capture its real
charm. Another line that has been quoted by Oriental poets time and
again, and in which mystical and profane meaning are most skilfully
intertwined, comes from the ghazal that starts with the daring outcry:
fash mi-guyam u a% gufta-yi khud dilsbadam ...
(I declare it openly and am happy about my saying:
I am the slave of love, and free from both worlds),1
a mafia' that makes the reader immediately think of the imminent
danger of ifsha' al-sirr, the divulgence of the secret of loving union
which, according to the sufl tradition, was Hallaj's sin and caused his
death on the gallows. The line in question reads:
On the tablet of my heart there is nothing but the alif
of the friend's stature -
What can I do? My master did not teach me any other letter.
To play with letters is common in Persian and related poetry, and
Hafiz is no exception to this custom. The importance of the letter alif
has always been stressed: as the first letter of the alphabet with the
numerical value i, and consisting of a slim vertical line, it was inter-
preted as the symbol of Allah's unity and uniqueness, but is at the same
time the cypher for the elegant slender stature of the beloved. Why
should one go farther than this letter? The alif represents everything
that is needed — as the Turkish mystic Yunus Emre (d. c. 13 21) says:
The meaning of the four holy books
is contained in one alif.2
Verses like this form the basis for the claim of quite a few mystics in
Iran, Turkey, and Muslim India to be illiterate and to know only the
alif which the great master of 'Urn laduni, immediate wisdom from God
(Qur'an xviii. 65), has taught them. For the mystic it is enough to
1
Brockhaus, n o . 416.A h m a d and N a i n l , n o . 315.
2
Yunus Emre Divani, ed. A. Golpinarli (Istanbul, 1943), p. 200, no. XXIV.

945
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

remember God's unity as expressed in the alif; as for the lover, the
slender body of his beloved completely fills his heart and mind.
One more example is taken from a poem in which Hafiz complains
of the separation from the Friend.1 The last line mentions his pen, this
instrument which he so often praises with grand hyperboles because of
its miraculous powers: the pen, with severed tongue, reveals the
Friend's secret only after its head is cut. Just as the reed-pen has to be
cut for proper writing - which means: telling the mind's secret - so the
lover will rather give his head than reveal the secret entrusted to him.
"I give the head, sar, but not the secret, sirr", is a common saying. It
does not matter whether the poet thinks of the secret of loving union
with a human being whom he does not want to expose to blame, or of
revealing, as Hallaj did, the secret of divine love and the experience of
ecstatic extinction of the self; or whether he is one of the confidants of
his prince who has entrusted him with information that should be kept
secret - be it a political consideration, be it, as in the story of King
Midas with the donkey's ears, a personal problem of the ruler (the pen,
made of reed, is cut off from the reed-bed like the reed-flute which
revealed, according to the legend, Midas' pitiable state to the world).2
On whichever level we interpret the seemingly pleasant and easy verse,
it makes perfect sense.
There is no doubt that Hafiz, to quote Wickens, "composed some of
the world's most sublime and technically exquisite poetry".3 It is a sign
of truly great poetry that every reader tries to explain it according to
his own understanding, and therefore the manifold interpretations
have a certain legitimacy. But it would be an injustice to Hafiz to
interpret his verse exclusively as an expression of a hedonistic and
happy-go-lucky attitude — as wrong as it would be to see him exclusively
as lisdn al-ghaib, the "Tongue of the Unseen World," by applying to his
verse an overall allegorical interpretation. The greatness of his poetry
lies in the unsurpassable balance between the world of senses with its
wine and beauty, but also its politics, and the world of unchanging
Perfect Beauty, which is reflected in the changeful manifold. His "deep
optimism" (Ritter) has probably to do with his talent to offer the
perfect Glasperlenspiel, and we can see him, as did Ritter and others who
followed him, as the true rind, a man who represents a lifestyle in
1
Brockhaus, n o . 130. Ahmad and N a i r n , no. I O J .
2
Cf. for this story Ritter, "Das Proomium des Matnawl-i Maulawl", ZDMG x c n i (1939), 169-96.
3 Wickens, "Hafiz", p . 55.

946
 HAFIZ AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

which fib al-qalbi, cheerfulness and goodness of the heart, is preferred

to everything else; an attitude that is certainly contrary to every kind of
fanaticism.
Perhaps only a poet can fully understand the secret of Hafiz's verse
— as Goethe certainly did. Therefore we owe the best explanation of
Hafiz's poetry to Riickert, the Orientalist-poet, who sings in truly
Hafizian style of the double-sided fabric of Hafiz's colourful lyrics in
which sensual and supra-sensual experience are inextricably woven
together:
Hafis, wo er scheinet Ubersinnliches
nur zu reden, redet iiber Sinnliches;
oder redet er, wo iiber Sinnliches
er zu reden scheint, nur Ubersinnliches?
Sein Geheimnis ist uniibersinnlich,
denn sein Sinnliches ist iibersinnlich.1

1
"Where Hafiz's mere words seem supra-sensory, he speaks of the sensual; or does he speak,
where he seems to speak of the sensual, only of the supra-sensory? His secret is »»-supersensory
[i.e. not beyond sense-perception], because his sensual[ity] is supra-sensory." Naturally no plain
prose paraphrase can convey anything more than the vaguest hint of the word-play and verbal
music of the German poet's lines.

947
 CHAPTER I 7 (c)

PERSIAN LITERATURE IN THE

SAFAVID PERIOD

For the purposes of this chapter the period to be covered runs from
907/1501 to 1148/1736, one of the most remarkable ages in Iran's
history. The Safavid era witnessed a political, religious and military
reorganisation and unification of which Iran as it stands today is in no
small degree the legacy. Socially the Safavids gave the Iranian people a
sense of integration, and of recognition as an entity of consequence in
the affairs of the world, which served signally to distinguish this period
from the distractions and discord that had preceded it. For this period
terminated the disunity and sufferings which the Mongol invasions had
brought about, and which neither the Il-Khanid attempt at resettle-
ment nor Tlmur's subsequent reign of conquest had done anything to
ameliorate; while the events of the interregnum after Tlmur's death
had only exacerbated them.
A factor which perhaps more clearly than any other marks out the
Safavid period as a watershed was the establishment, during this
dynasty's sway of nearly two and a half centuries, of Shi'ism as the
official religion of the state. Thus a sect hitherto of secondary import-
ance was raised to supremacy, affording a vigorous expression of Iran's
identity — it might even be said, of Iranian nationalism — in face of the
challenge presented by the SunnI Ottoman empire, the SunnI Central
Asian Turkish states and the Mughal empire of India. A result of this
development which must concern the literary historian was that official
recognition of Shi'ism, with its active propagation by the Safavid
shahs, prompted the popularisation of Shi'I theology and hence the
composition of voluminous works in the Persian, as well as to some
extent in the Arabic, language. At the same time centralisation of
government gave rise to a political and economic cohesion that not
only served to strengthen Iran, but made possible a large-scale patron-
age of craftsmanship and the arts, by which the fame of Persia was
spread throughout the civilised world.
In spite, however, of the form, in place of formlessness, and sense of
high purpose with which it would appear that the Safavids endowed
their realm, the history of Persian literature in their time, while not
948
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

confined to the land of Iran itself, is by no means golden. Two reasons

may be adduced to account for the way in which this period's literary
products present only a qualified lustre, and both must be seen in
relation to a decline in thought and learning that spells a falling-off of
the essential grounds of a great literature.
The first reason is historical; the second is bound up with the
religious policy of the age. The events of the preceding centuries,
notably the Mongol invasions and their calamitous aftermath, had
caused many scholars to leave Iran for other regions. Libraries, the
repositories of the scholarship of severs! centuries, had been destroyed
at the advent of the Mongols, and many learned men must have
perished, only a relatively small proportion of the scribal and scholarly
class surviving and an even lesser proportion remaining in Iran. The
patrons and the security to be found in the Indian subcontinent in
particular exercised an obvious attraction, to the detriment of those
traditions of scholarly activity in Iran which, in any case, had been
associated with urban centres - Bukhara, Samarqand, Herat, Nlshapur,
for instance - destroyed by the troops of Chinglz Khan. Thus despite
the encouragement of learning displayed by the Tl-Khan Ghazan
(694—703/1295—1304) and later by some of the Timurid princes, the
ranks of the learned remained depleted and scholars of the ensuing eras
were chiefly commentators and annotators, rather than originators of
new ideas.
Under the Safavids the attention paid to religious questions, the
patronage accorded to theologians, and the fanaticism of the 'ulama and
exponents of a deliberately exploited new doctrinal position, all oper-
ated against freedom of thought. Reference to the life and works of
Mulla Sadra of Shiraz (said to have died at Basra in 1050/1640— 1), of
whom, in the words of E.G.Browne,1 "it is clear ... that he suffered
a good deal at the hands of the orthodox divines", provides an
example of the difficulties encountered in one recorded instance of an
influential mind which deviated from the contemporary doctrinaire
lines of thought. In Safavid times intellectual activity was cramped, to
say the least, and there was a corresponding decline in language and
literature.
A major factor so far as literature was concerned was the court's
failure adequately to flatter the hopes of poets and authors in Persian; a

1
LHP iv, 429.

949
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

failure to be contrasted with the encouragement offered Persian

literature at the court of the Mughal emperors and at the hands of other
notables in India. In day-to-day affairs, the language chiefly used at the
Safavid court and by the great military and political officers, as well as
the religious dignitaries, was Turkish, not Persian; and the last class of
persons wrote their religious works mainly in Arabic. Those who
wrote in Persian were either lacking in proper tuition in this tongue, or
wrote outside Iran and hence at a distance from centres where Persian
was the accepted vernacular, endued with that vitality and susceptibil-
ity to skill in its use which a language can have only in places where it
truly belongs. In short, these authors' works can be given only quali-
fied acceptance as examples of a living and genuinely representative
Persian. The poetry and prose of the Safavid era are without the
vitality characteristic of earlier ages. But, having reached this general
conclusion, the opportunity will be taken here to discuss in greater
detail the linguistic situation under the Safavids, with reference to what
was then occurring to affect the composition of works in Persian, and
also to what had happened in the preceding period.

THE PERSIAN LANGUAGE IN THE SAFAVID ERA

Of the difficulties experienced by Arabic-speaking Shi'Is who were

imported into Iran because of Safavid religious policy, and who arrived
not knowing Persian, the well-known anecdote told by Professor
Browne about Sayyid Ni'mat-Allah al-Jaza'irl and his brother on their
arrival at Shlraz is sufficiently illustrative.1 But apart from the aspect of
the situation to be inferred from the arrival of Arab divines who were
expected to write and speak in Persian in order to spread Shl'I doctrine,
there was also the question of Turkish.
This aspect may be illustrated, to take one notable instance of
development, by the fate of the Azarl dialect, an old dialect of Persian,
in Azarbaljan, where at the beginning of the Safavid period, with the
exception of a few areas, it died out. This can be related to what had
happened in preceding eras: it is attributable to the sojourn of Turks in
the region and the domination of Turkish and Mongol tribes, dating
from the 6th/13 th century. By the end of the 9th/16th century Turkish
was commonly spoken in Azarbaljan's chief centres; though there is

1
Ibid., pp. 360—1.

950
 PERSIAN LANGUAGE IN THE SAFAVID ERA

evidence, albeit scanty, to show that at the beginning of the Safavid era
Turkish had not yet gained complete sway; and even the Turkish now
spoken in Azarbaljan is a dialect composed of Azari, Arabic and some
Turkish words, but following the rules of the Turkish language.
So much for one notable regional development. On a larger scale
what demands attention is the marked interest the Safavid monarchs
themselves took in the Turkish language, in addition1 to the factor
already touched upon, that most of the expressions used in the govern-
ment, court and army were in that language. Shah Isma'Il (907—930/
1502-1524), the dynasty's founder, essayed the art of poetry under the
pseudonym of Khata'I; but he composed his Divan in Turkish.
The situation is rendered the more strange when it is recalled that in
the same period Ottoman rulers wrote ghazals and short poems in
Persian. Persian at this time was widely taught in Asia Minor, where its
literature was eagerly studied, Turkish literature and polite forms of
address being powerfully influenced by, and deeply impregnated with,
Persian images and idioms.1 Not that this influence and currency of
Persian in Asia Minor were a new departure restricted to the Ottoman
era. Here once more a legacy from the past was involved. Attention to
and production of Persian literature had begun in Asia Minor in the
time of the Saljuq rulers of that region, i.e. from the middle of the
5 th/1 ith century.
Persian was even more prevalent, during the Safavid period and
later, in the Indian subcontinent, where again the beginnings of this, as
it were, diaspora-like development must be traced much further back,
to the days when Persian had accompanied the spread of Islam in India
under the dynasts and military conquerors who had reached the sub-
continent from eastern Iran: the Ghaznavids, Ghurids and Ghurid
mamluks, all of whom established centres in India where poets and
writers in Persian received ample encouragement.
After the Mongol invasion of north-eastern and northern Iran, the
use of Persian in India received a new and greater impetus. As has
already been indicated, a large number of Persian poets, writers and
scholars (udaba)fledto India from Transoxiana and Khurasan, swelling
the crowd of exponents of Persian already at Indian centres. The
knowledge of Persian culture and civilisation and the numbers of poets
and authors using Persian, producing ghazals, qasldas and masnavls in

1
On this process of assimilation, see Gibb i, 8ff.

951
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

India were such that to the superficially informed onlooker India

might well have appeared the original source and real home of Persian.
Certainly one is tempted to linger over discussion of this development
beyond the borders of Iran, and it is a feature of the literary history of
Persian to which further reference cannot be avoided in treating
literature in the Safavid period. Here, however, comment on it must be
concluded with noting that, although the uses to which Persian was
put in India after the end of Babur's Mughal dynasty continued to be
both elegant and widespread, its scope and popularity inevitably
diminished in face of the rivalry of English and Urdu; and not least
because of the lack of interest shown by Persians themselves in
rescuing from oblivion this remarkable "Indian" branch of their
language's power, creative susceptibility and cultural influence.
Our chief concern in this section has been to show the nature of the
competition, particularly from Turkish dialects, to which Persian
under the Safavids was exposed. Therefore, to digress as we have done
into the realms of Persian's influence in Asia Minor and India may
seem to be to neglect one objective, while irrelevantly concentrating
on an altogether different topic. Indeed it says much for the strength of
the Persian language that a discussion of it in decline should, in the
event, conclude with references to its effects in regions well to the west
and well to the south and east of its original home. But that this interim
conclusion in the study of the vicissitudes of the Persian language and
literature, and its achievements, during the Safavid epoch is not in fact
irrelevant will emerge more clearly later. A passing reference has
already been made to the effect of the transplanting of the language to
other regions, and more will have to be said on, for example, how far
even a high degree of eminence elsewhere had its converse in deleteri-
ous consequences upon Persian literary developments in Iran itself.

PERSIAN POETRY IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

It must be confessed at once that, both in wording and in style, the

poetry of this period lacks interest: except for a few of the more
celebrated poets little of intrinsic value is to be found. There is what
might be termed a "classical" reason for this in that, as with their
predecessors in the Timurid era, the Safavid poets did not have the
training, the thorough schooling in their art, which had been provided
under the auspices of the Samanid, Ghaznavid, Saljuq and other,
952
 SAFAVID PERSIAN POETRY

earlier, courts. Most of the Safavid writers were not sufficiently well-
versed in either the Persian or Arabic languages and, since we are
dealing with a classical literature which imposed high and rigorous
standards upon its exponents, it will be appreciated that a profound
knowledge of these two languages and their literary models and tech-
niques was a prerequisite for any genuinely formative exposition of the
tradition of classical Persian literature.
It will be noticed that specific reference was made above to the
patronage extended by earlier courts, and in this we touch upon a matter
of the utmost significance in both the development of a great classical
literary tradition and its subsequent decline. For yet another cause of the
decline characteristic of Safavid times was the court's failure to patronise
the poet, and the latter's consequent recourse to the common people. A
situation that had arisen under the Timurids became more common-
place. One aspect of this development was that it introduced variety and
innovation in poetry. This might be considered as having been to the
good; but, in the case of a classical tradition, its corollary of decline in
standards of taste and precision cannot be ignored, and to this evil must
be added the admission of abuse of grammatical rules of the language.
There was novelty in subject-matter; new ideas were introduced during
the Safavid period; but ill-chosen expressions and verbal infelicities have
also to be encountered in this poetry.
This is a point at which we can return to the issue of the extent to
which Persian was current outside Iran. Although fresh subjects and
ideas were introduced because of the external areas of Persian literary
endeavour, an alien environment was not without its effects on the
language's customary firmness and strength. Use of Persian as a purely
artistic, literary medium, and that in no small measure for the sake of
novelty, away from those cities and villages where it was the medium
of living speech and practical intercourse, inevitably led to artificiality
and fustian.
For the purposes of this chapter sufficient information will emerge
about subject-matter when authors and their works are summarised at
the end. Here, in a general purview of the state of Safavid poetry, it can
be noted that one effect of Safavid religious policy on poetry was to
make elegies a common mode, and praise of the Imams — that is, of the
chief figures of Shl'I hagiology - a common theme. While so much
royal encouragement went into the most intense possible propagation
of Shl'I doctrine, theology and, in particular, Shi'I jurisprudence and

953
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

the traditions accompanying it did not fail to have their numerous

exponents. Clearly, poetry could not remain uninfluenced: encourage-
ment likewise went to composers of elegies and panegyrics on the
descendants of 'AH, resulting in an upsurge of poetry of this order.
The situation is vividly brought to light by Iskandar Beg MunshI, the
author of the 'A.lam-drd-ji "Abbast, where, on the subject of the position
of poets during the reign of Shah Tahmasp I (930-984/
15 24-1576), he speaks to this effect:1
Although His Heaven-dwelling Majesty patronised poets during his earlier life,
he was, in his later years, too much occupied to give honour or withhold it; he
regarded this respected class of men as latitudinarians, not as righteous and
pious, and he forbade them to recite their poetry before him. Therefore, when
Princess Par! Khan Khanum2 presented him with two qasidas by Maulana
Muhtasham of Kashan, one of which was in his praise and the other in praise of
the princess, he said: "I am not pleased that poets should praise me. If they write
poems in praise of the Protector of the State [the Caliph AH] and the immaculate
Imams, on Whom be Peace, then they may expect to be rewarded by those
saintly souls and, in the second place, by us. When a poet writes in praise of a
king, he eloquently strings together subtle thoughts, exalted notions and
hyperbolical similes which, after the saying what are his best are his lies, seldom
genuinely pertain to the matter in hand. If, however, they are applied to the
Sainted Ones, then they are just, because their holy virtues are even more
exalted". In short, the Maulana received no reward.

Here is conclusive evidence of the attitude of Safavid monarchs

towards poets and their offerings in the form of ghazals or panegyrics,
an attitude not confined to Shah Tahmasp alone. Hence the develop-
ment of elegies and panegyrics on the Imams, notably at the hands of
Muhtasham of Kashan (d. 996/1587-8), the recipient of Tahmasp's
disapprobation for temporal poems. He became an adept in this type of
poetry, employing an ingenuity which made his elegies {mardst) some of
the foremost poetical compositions devoted to the service of religion.
The specimens of his verse given in the 19th-century work, Majma'
al-fusahd ("Compendium of the Eloquent") of Riza Qull Khan Hida-
yat, bear witness to the fact that in this genre Muhtasham's verses
continued, long after his death, to be regarded as models; in times not
far removed from our own, poets have followed them.
One consequence of Shah Tahmasp's and his successors' treatment
1
Iskandar Beg MunshI, Tarikh-i 'alam-ara i, 178; cf. Savory's trans., i, 274-5; a 'so LHP iv,
172—3, where this remark is paraphrased.
2
Shah Tahmasp's second daughter: see FalsafI, Zindagini 1, 13; also pp. 253—5 above.

954
 SAFAVID PERSIAN POETRY

of poets was the migration of many talented composers of ghazals,

masnavls and romances, who withdrew from court circles and in many
instances sought refuge at the Ottoman or Mughal courts. Hence the
establishment of centres of Persian poetry outside Iran, particularly in
India. At the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar (963 —1014/15 5 6—
1605) alone there were fifty-one poets in exile from Iran. The style
known as the Indian style, which had been first noticeable in late
Timurid times, attained its full development in the Safavid age, when
its highest exponents appeared and it enjoyed a great deal of popu-
larity. It remained a model until the end of the Safavid period and was
influential in both the Zand and the early part of the Qajar periods.
Then it lost its hold and attempts were made to return to older models;
though the "Indian" style still survives in India and Afghanistan.
For the poet using this style the primary objective is the expression,
in language as simple as possible, of fine-spun thoughts, unusual,
wonder-evoking themes, and a general conjunction of ideas the most
conducive to delighted surprise in auditors or readers. The style's
history dates to a gradual development in the interval between the time
of the Mongol Il-Khans and the Timurids during the latter part of the
8th/i4th century. It became the fashion during the Timurid period,
notably in the literary circle centred on Herat. Its development can be
attributed to the social conditions of the times, which were such that
people sought to turn away from the corporeal world, desiring in
preference to it a poetical diet of subtle and fanciful ideas. A second
consideration is one to which allusion has already been made, namely
the gradual departure of the literary language from old conventions
and standards in favour of elements based on the popular idiom. Thus
a fusion, at first sight of a somewhat unexpected nature, was brought
about. Poetry became invested to an increasing extent with far-fetched
ideas in which great striving was made after the most subtle refine-
ments, and objects, of expression; and yet, at the same time, poetry
became almost colloquial in tone. That it was also not infrequently
projected into the borderlands of the absurd and worthless must in
some measure be attributed to the fact that so extraordinary a fusion of
stylistic aim and content could not invariably be successfully accom-
plished; especially in circumstances that were in numerous external
ways generally adverse to the production of sound literature. Certainly
poets in the "Indian" style strove hard to display bright and novel
conjunctions, often enough with very considerable ingenuity. But

955
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

imaginations almost as often proved to have been over-teased, and

fancifulness for its own sake allowed to take precedence over strength
of style, the soundness of sense and a vital grounding to exercises of
the imagination, that lie at the roots of great poetry. Thus it was that,
in sheer exuberance of artifice, beauty of meaning, where it existed,
was sometimes in the Indian style lost to sight.
The name "Indian" was appropriated for this style because those of
its partisans who lived in the time of the Safavid shahs and were
adversely affected by their treatment of poets tended principally to
settle in India. India and Afghanistan became its home, and the ghazal,
the short lyrical piece, its most popular form, because this type of poem
lent itself best to the expression of delicate and novel ideas.
More must be said about the attempt made by poets of this era to
eschew ornamented language and keep close to the language of
ordinary people. One result of this was that, certainly if judged by
strictly classical criteria, though their verses were often fluent, they
often contained colloquialisms even, as has been hinted, to the point of
being grammatically incorrect. Perhaps this is not surprising when it is
recalled that the aim was ever to introduce novelty; juxtapositions and
forms of expression which every effort of ingenuity was stretched to
make as wonder-exciting as could be. This was the process that was
carried to the uttermost lengths at the Ottoman and Mughal courts, to
which the divans of poets such as Sa'ib of Tabriz were sent as eagerly
sought-after gifts.1 And yet, if only because of this almost filigree
content, and overlooking the occasional fallings-off or ineptitudes of
diction, contrary to the beliefs of some of our contemporaries it may be
averred that Safavid poetry does not deserve entirely to be dismissed as
of no value. Its value lies chiefly in the very feature that lays it most
open to the imputation of decadence: in its bold use of novel forms and
original subject-matter.
Leaving aside the area of poetry that may be placed under the
heading of the Indian style, the question of subject-matter brings us
back to those elegies and panegyrics of the Imams and the Immaculate
Ones (i.e. their descendants), which have already been mentioned, and
to.consideration of such other subjects as the poetry of our period is
found to have treated. For example, there were lyrical themes which

1
See, however, LHP iv, 26;, where it is stated that Sa'ib was, "like 'Urfl, one of those poets
who, while greatly esteemed in Turkey and India, are without honour in their own country".

956
 SAFAVID PERSIAN POETRY
were sometimes tinged with mysticism, expressing the aspirations of
hermits and dervishes, and this not without an element of the didactic.
Also not absent from the period's corpus of poetry were tales and
romances, especially in imitation of Nizaml. Throughout the period
historical and religious poetry was produced in the epic form,
sufficient to make a sizeable contribution to this genre. At the same
time, however, for reasons which the anecdote given above about Shah
Tahmasp might make clear, poems in praise of earthly potentates were
few, were inferior in quality to the ghazals or longer pieces dealing
with holy personages or spiritual topics, and were generally dedicated
to the Timurid sovereigns of India.
Before going on to discuss prose works during the Safavid era, it
will be useful here to list the names of some of the principal poets and
briefly to mention their more outstanding contributions.
Many of the poets of the earlier part of the Safavid era had been
educated in the late Timurid period, particularly in the literary circle of
Husain Balqara. One of them was Jaml's nephew, 'Abd-Allah Hatifl of
Kharjird (d. 927/15 20-1). One of his most important works is the
Shdh-ndma-ji Ha^rat-i Shah Ismfiil, an historical epic. Others of his
poetical tales in imitation of Nizaml are Shirin u Khusrau, L.aild u Majnun,
Haft man%ar and the Timiir-ndma. The last-mentioned work describes
Tlmur's victories and wars as an answer to, or parallel with, Nizaml's
hkandar-ndma; thus it too may be classified as an historical epic.
Another poet of the beginning of the Safavid era who had been
educated during that of the Timurids and in the first years of Safavid rule
was MIrza Qasim of Gunabad, one of the sayjids of that town. He also
was an imitator of Nizaml, and his most important works comprise
Laild u Majnun, the Kdr-ndma or Chaugdn-ndma, Khusrau u Shirin, Shdhrukh-
ndma, Shdh-ndma-ji mdjj (on the subject of Shah Isma'il), and the
Shdh-ndma-yi navvdb 'All (& description of the reign of Shah Tahmasp).
Another of the well-known poets of the close of the Timurid and the
beginning of the Safavid age was Baba FighanI, who died in
925/1519—20 and was celebrated for his graceful ghazals. He was one of
the greatest poetic innovators of the ensuing age. A contemporary of his
was Umldl TihranI (d. 925/1519—20), who wrote excellent ghazals and
qasldas. This group of poets also included Ahll of Turshlz (d. 934/
1527-8) and his namesake of Shlraz (d. 942/1535—6). The latter wrote
fine qasldas and an artificial masnavl entitled the Sihr-i Haldl. Hilali
Chaghata'I, who was put to death in 935/1528-9, wrote melodious and

957
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

tasteful ghazals at the beginning of the ioth/i6th century. Besides his

passionate ghazals he was the author of three masnavis entitled L,aild u
Majniin, Shah u darvish1 and Sifat al-' ashiqin ("The Attributes of Lovers").
Another of the great poets of the early part of the Safavid era was
VahshI (d. 991/1583-4) of Bafq, a dependency of Kirman: he was a
contemporary of Shah Tahmasp, in whose honour he composed qasldas.
His ghazals were celebrated for the beauty of their style and their fine
sentiments. Furthermore, his short tarktb-bands,2 besides being new in
Persian literature, are noteworthy for beauty and freshness and strong
feeling. His unfinished masnavl entitled Farhdd u Shirin, particularly its
introduction, was much admired by later poets. It was completed in the
Qajar period by Visal of Shlraz in 1265/1848—9.
A contemporary of VahshI was the poet Muhtasham of Kashan
(d. 996/1587-8), whose importance as a writer of elegies has already
been mentioned. He also composed qasldas and ghazals, but one of the
greatest of all the writers of ghazals of this age was Jamil al-Dln
Muhammad b. Badr al-Dln ShlrazI (b. 964/1556-7, d. 999/1590-1),
whose pen-name was 'Urfl. His fame spread in Safavid times through
India and Turkey. In addition to beautiful ghazals in the Indian style,
he composed some qasldas and masnavis in imitation of Nizaml.
Another outstanding writer of Persian poetry in the Safavid era,
though not a Persian, was Faizl-yi FayyizI (b. 954/1547—8,
d. 1004/1595—6), the brother of Akbar's minister Abu'1-Fazl. Like
'Urfl, he achieved considerable fame during his lifetime and was a
master of the qaslda, ghazal and masnavl. Among his well-known
masnavis, which were written in imitation of those of Nizaml, must be
mentioned the Marka^-i advar, Sulaimdn u Bilqis, Nd/ u Daman, Haft
kishvar and the Akbar-nama.
Other poets of this time were: SahabI of Astarabad (d. 1010/1601—2),
Nazlrl of Nlshapur (d. 1021/1612—3), the author of qasldas, ghazals
and tarjTdt, Zuhtirl of Turshlz (d. 1024/1615—6), Zalall of Khwansar
(d. in the same year as Zuhurl) and Talib Amull (d. 1036/1626-7). The
lastnamed was poet laureate to the Mughal emperor Jahangir and
author of several celebrated ghazals and qasldas. Also to be included
among the poets was Shaikh Baha' al-Dln Muhammad 'Amill, other-
wise celebrated as a man of learning; he died in 1031/1622. His cele-

1
Also known as Sbab ugada ("King and beggar"): see LHP rv, 234.
2
A tarkA-band is a poem composed of several stanzas of equal length.

958
 SAFAVID PERSIAN POETRY
brated masnavls, the Savdnih-i Hi/d%, better known as Nan u halvd
("Bread and Sweetmeats"), and the Shir u shakar ("Milk and Sugar"),
are both mystical and didactic in character.
Mention must also be made of Hakim Sharaf al-Dln Hasan
(d. 1038/1628—9). A court physician and boon companion to Shah
'Abbas I, he was the author of ghazals and also of a masnavl entitled
Namakddn-i haqtqat ("The Salt-cellar of Truth"), written in imitation of
SanaTs Hadiqat al-haqiqat. Abu'l-Qasim FindiriskI, one of the philoso-
phers of the Safavid period, was the author of some philosophical
poems; he died about 1050/1640-1. Later there appeared Abu Talib of
Kashan, poet laureate to Shah Jahan, and an imitator of 'Urfl, greatly
skilled in the Indian style. In addition to his well-known collection of
ghazals, he was the author of the Zafar-ndma-yi Shah Jabdni. He died in
Kashmir in 1061/1650—1.
A poet who brought the Indian style to perfection was Muhammad
'All Sa'ib-i Tabrlzl (b. 1010/1601—2, d. 1088/1677-8). Even during his
lifetime his fame spread through India, Persia and Turkey. He was a
prolific poet: the number of verses in his Divan amounts to 120,000.
His ghazals are noteworthy for the sureness of touch that they evince,
the subtlety of ideas and, interestingly, the popular proverbs which are
worked into them. As Sa'ib had made a thorough study of the works of
his predecessors, his wording resembles theirs more than do the poems
of any of his contemporaries.
Another poet to be mentioned here is Shaikh 'All Hazln (d. 1180/
1766—7). In addition to his verses he was the author of two prose
works, the Ta^kirat al-ahvdl and the Tavjzirat al-mu'dsirln.
Among the writers of epics in the 11 th/17th century was Qadrl with
his two historical epics, the Jariin-ndma and the Jang-ndma-yi Kishm; these
were completed in, respectively, 1031/1621—2 and the following year, the
Jang-ndma-yi Kishm being the history of the year 103 2/1622, when the
Persian forces, with the assistance of the shipping of the East India
Company, drove the Portuguese out of the islands of Kishm and Hurmuz.
In 985/1577—8 Bihishtl Maskiikl, another poet of this period, com-
pleted his Shdh-ndma-yi Bihishtt on the subject of the wars between the
Turkish Sultan Murad III and Muhammad Khudabanda, the Safavid
sovereign. With verse annals of this type may be compared the Futiih
al-'Ajam of Jamall b. Hasan Shushtarl, an account of the capture of
Tabriz by 'Osman Pasha in 996/1587—8. Mulla Kami of Shlraz com-
pleted his Vaqd'f-yi %amdn or Fath-ndma-yi Nur Jahdn Begum, a history

959
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

of the closing years of Nur al-Dln Muhammad Jahanglr and his wars
with his enemies, in 1030/1620-1.
Similarly, in this species of poetry celebrating contemporary military
events, another poet named Bihishtl composed the Ashub-ndma-yi
Hindustan on the wars between the sons of Jahanglr, that is, the events
of the years 1067 to 1069/1656—7 to 1658—9.
Of a different kind was the poetry of Mlrza Muhammad Raf I' Khan
Bazil of Mashhad, a contemporary of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
He died in 1123 or 1124/1710-1 or 1712-3, and composed a religious
poem called the Hamk-yi Haidart, completed by Mlrza Abu Talib
FindiriskI after his death.
These are the outstanding poets of the Safavid epoch. In addition
there were many others, in Persia, India and at the Ottoman court.
Each of them endeavoured to complete a divan or collection of poems,
but by and large their works lack merit.

PERSIAN PROSE IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD

In the Safavid period Persian prose did not attain a high position as
literature, despite its widespread use and popularity in Persia, India and
Turkey. Although a large number of works were written during this
period on many topics, it was not an outstanding one, because most of
the writers cared little for style or for linguistic and rhetorical points.
On the whole, the prose works of this period, in particular those of a
literary character, have little to commend them. If the authors endeav-
oured to be simple, they tended to employ vulgar expressions; and if,
on the other hand, they tried to be artificial and ornate, they employed
tasteless artifices. The works which represent a compromise between
these two extremes, such as the 'Alam-drd-yi 'Abbdsi, are few and of
little value. On the whole, Safavid prose is even more loose and super-
ficial than that of the Timurid era; Safavid works are so full of empty
titles, compliments and rhyming words that the original subject
becomes lost or unintelligible. This state of affairs was even worse in
the case of writers in the Indian style. Because of their tendency to
pedantry more attention was paid to elaborations and superfluities than
to subject-matter. In some historical books and tales an intermediate
style was adopted, but even in such cases of plain writing the corrupt
language of the period sometimes left its mark.
A feature of the age deserving attention was the writing of romances
960
 SAFAVID PERSIAN PROSE
in prose. We have knowledge of prose romances in Persian dating
from an earlier age than that of the Safavids, such as the Ddstdn-i
hkandar (this work is to be distinguished from the Iskandar-ndma,
written in a beautiful style in the jth/i ith century), the Bakbtiydr-ndma,
the Nuh man^ar, the Abu Muslim-ndma, the Ddrdb-ndma, the Ddstdn-i
Samak-i 'Ayjdr, the Husn u dil, and a number of others.
In the Safavid period the writing of romance became more common,
and some important works were written such as the above-mentioned
Ddstdn-i hkandar, the Tiiti-ndma, the Ra%m-ndma, the translations of the
famous Indian epics the Rdmaydfia and the Mahdbhardta, the tales of the
Ha^ar Gisii, the Tdlib-i pddishdh-^dda u Mat/ub, the Qissa-ji Arshad u
Rashid, Ashraf u Firii^ va%ir-%dda, the Shtrtn-ndma, the Qissa-yi chahdr
darvtsh, the Niish Afarin-ndma, the Qissa-yi Maryam dukhtar-i Shdb-i
Purtugdl, the Qissa-yi haft sair-i Hdtim-i Td'i, and others. Some of these
romances are written in a simple and agreeable style, particularly the
translation of the Rdmaydna by Naqib Khan and 'Abd al-Qadir
Bada'unI, carried out with skill and care in a fluent and attractive form.
From the letter-writers of this period, whether working at the
Safavid court or for the Mughal emperors of India and Indian nobles,
highly ornate examples of epistolatory style have come down to us.
One of the greatest of these practitioners of the secretary's art was
MIrza Tahir Vahid of Qazvln (d. 1120/1708—9). He was secretary and
historiographer to Shah 'Abbas II and the vizier of Shah Sulaiman. He
wrote a number of letters, in some of which he painstakingly endeav-
oured to exclude Arabic words and to use Persian ones instead. MIrza
Vahid was also a poet in the Indian style.
Other prose works of the period were the Habtb al-siyar by Ghiyas
al-Dln Khwand Amir, who died in 941/15 34-5 and was one of the
historians of the close of the Timurid period and the beginning of the
succeeding one; his book comes down to the closing years of the reign of
Shah Isma'Il. The Ta%kirat-i Shah Tahmasp-i Safaviis the autobiography
of Shah Tahmasp, the son of Shah Isma'Il and ruler of Iran from
930/15 24 to 984/15 76. His reign is also covered by Hasan Beg Rumlu's
Ahsan al-tavdrikh. The Alam-drd-yi Abbdsi, by Iskandar Beg MunshI, the
secretary of Shah 'Abbas the Great, relates events up to the close of that
shah's life, that is, from 958/1577 to 1038/1629, and, among the prose
works of the Safavid era, is noted for the beauty of its style. The Bahdr-i
ddnish, which is a revised version of the Kalila va Dimna, was written by
Akbar's minister, Abu'1-Fazl, who was murdered in 1011/1602. He was
961
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

also the author of other books such as the Akbar-ndma covering the
reign of that sovereign, and the A'in-i Akbari.
The Hasht bihisht and the Tdrikh-i Al-i 'Usmdn were written by
Maulana Idrls of BitUs, a contemporary of Sultan Bayezld II (886/1481-
918/1512), and his son Abu'1-Fazl Muhammad al-Daftarl. The Tdrikh-i
Al-i'Usmdn includes some of the events of the reign of Sultan Selim II.
The Majdlis al-mtfminin by QazI Nur-Allah of Shushtar (d. 1019/
1610— 1) contains the biographies of many Shl'I poets and scholars.
Among the products worthy of interest in the literary history of this
period are the biographies of poets. One of these is the Tuhfa-yi Sdmiol
Sam MIrza, the son of Shah Isma'Il, a work containing the lives of a
number of poets from the close of the 9th/15 th to the end of the
ioth/i6th centuries. Another is the L.atd'if-ndma, a translation by
Fakhri b. Amlrl of Mir 'All Shir Nava'I's Majdlis al-nafd'is which he
completed in 9 2 7/15 20-1; another famous work by him is the Ta%kirat
al-nisd which is also known as the Javdhir al-'ajd'ib. There is also the
Mu^akkir al-ahbdb by Nisari of Bukhara, which contains the biogra-
phies of the poets of the era of Mir 'All Shir Nava'I up to the year
974/1566—7. Similarly, the Nafd'is al-ma'dsir is a biographical survey of
the Persian poets who lived in India during the time of Akbar. Further-
more, there is the Khuldsat al-ash'dr va %ubdat al-afkdr, which TaqI
al-Dln KashanI completed in 986/1577—8. Among the important col-
lections of biographies of poets is the Ta^kirat-i Haft iqlim of Amin
Ahmad RazI, which was completed towards the beginning of the
nth/17th century. We may conclude this list with the Riyd% al-shu'ard
by 'All Quli Khan Valih-i Daghistanl, written in the 12th/18th century.
Another feature of the literature of the Safavid period was lexicogra-
phy. Besides the general need in India for such works, there was the
specialised interest taken by Abu'1-Fazl, Akbar's minister, in the eloquent
writing of Persian and in fostering a return to the use of the Indian style of
the old writers. Such an interest necessitated a good knowledge of the use
and shades of meaning of Persian words. The compilation of dictionaries
was encouraged. It is clear that before Abu'l-FazPs time compilation of
dictionaries had received occasional attention, though few were pro-
duced. Among the important dictionaries which appeared in India after
the time of Abu'1-Fazl, and which certainly deserve notice are, in the first
place, the Farhang-i Jahdngiriby Jamal al-Dln Husain Tnju, who lived at the
court of Akbar and his son Jahanglr, and finished this dictionary in
1014/1605—6, dedicating it to Jahanglr, whence its title.
962
 SAFAVID PERSIAN PROSE

Prior to the compilation of the Farhang-i Jdhdngtri, Muhammad

Qasim Sururi had completed his Persian dictionary in Iran in
1008/1599-1600 and had dedicated it to Shah 'Abbas. Among other
dictionaries compiled in India there is the Farhang-i Rashidi by 'Abd
al-Rashld al-Husainl, who was a contemporary of Aurangzlb. This
work is one of the most valuable Persian dictionaries and was com-
pleted in 1064/165 3-4. Yet another of these works is the Ghiyds
al-lughat by Muhammad Ghiyas al-Din, completed in the year
1242/1826—7. Besides these, other dictionaries were compiled in India,
such as the Mu'ayjid al-fu^ald by Muhammad Lad of Delhi, the Bahdr-i
'Ajam, and the Chirdgb-i hiddyat. Although it is not necessary to
describe them all here, one, the Burhdn-i qdti', must briefly be men-
tioned. Muhammad Husain b. Khalaf of Tabriz, who took the pen-
name "Burhan", compiled this work in India in 1062/1651—2. Since it
contains many words and is fuller than other Persian dictionaries, it has
been reprinted a number of times.
A serious fault in these dictionaries is that the words have not as a
rule been arranged in a careful manner, so that they often lack value as
works of scholarship; and in many cases it has happened that through
the misreading of Arabic, Turkish or Persian words, new words have
been evolved.
Another development which was a grave misfortune for the
language and history of Persia was the appearance of some spurious
books in Akbar's time such as the Dasdtir, the Sbdristdn and the A'in-i
Hushang, all of which claimed to have a number of pure Persian words
as well as material on the ancient history of the country. Such forgeries
brought into existence a number of words of bogus origin and root
such as parkhida, aparkhtda, farniidsdr, samrdd, etc. Nevertheless, these
coined words were inserted in Persian dictionaries as genuine Persian
words and naively employed by the writers of "pure Persian" in the
Qajar and modern periods. It was unfortunate that the information
contained in these books was used in works of the Qajar period on the
ancient history of Persia and regarded as credible.
During the Safavid era many scientific and religious books were
written of which some must be mentioned, beginning with commen-
taries on the Qur'an. 'All b. Husain of Zavara, a well-known Shl'I
theologian and a contemporary of Shah Tahmasp, completed in
946/1539—40 his Tarjumat al-Khavds, which was also known as the
Tafsfr-i Zavdrt. He further produced many translations into Persian,
963
 SAFAVID LITERATURE

notably that of the Sbarh Nahj al-balagha under the title of the Kau^at
al-anvdr; Tabarsl's Makdrim al-akhldq, entitled Makarim al-kard'im; the
Ytiqdddt of Shaikh Saduq, entitled the Vasilat al-najdt; Ibn Taus's
Tard'if, entitled the Jardvat al-lata'if; and the Majma' al-hudd, which
was known as the Qisas al-anbiyd, as well as a number of others.
There is also the Khuldsat al-minhaj which is a Persian commentary
on the Qur'an by Mulla Fath-Allah of Kashan, a pupil of'All b. Husain
of Zavara. He also wrote in Persian a number of other books on
religion, such as the Minhaj al-sddiqin fi il^dm al-mukbdlifin, which is a
commentary on the Qur'an in five volumes and of which the above-
mentioned Khuldsat al-minhaj is an abridgement. He was likewise the
author of the TanbTh al-ghdfilin and the Ta^kirat al-'drifin, the latter
work being a commentary in Persian on the Nahj al-baldgha.
Shaikh Baha' al-Dln Muhammad b. Husain 'Amili, who was a
contemporary of Shah 'Abbas and who is better known as Shaikh
Baha'I, was the author of the Jdmi'-yi 'Abbdsi. This is one of the most
important of the Shl'I theological works of modern times in Persia; it
has been annotated and explained a number of times. Since this book
was left unfinished because of the author's death, Shah 'Abbas ordered
Maulana Nizam al-Dln Muhammad Husain Quraishi of Sava (died
some time after 1038/1628—9) to complete it.
Mulla Muhammad Baqir MajlisI (d. mi/1699—1700) was one of the
most influential of the theologians of the latter part of the Safavid era.
He was Shaikh al-Islam of Persia during the reigns of Shah Sulaiman
(1077-1105/1666-1694) and Shah Sultan Husain (1105-1135/1694-
1722). He wrote many works in Persian and Arabic on Shl'I theology
and ethics such as the Bihar al-anvdr, the Mishkdt al-anvdr, the Mi'rdj
al-mu'minin, the Jala' al-'uyiin, the Zddal-ma'dd, the 'Ain al-haydt, and so on.
One of the most important works on dialectics in Persian of this
period is the Kalimdt-i maknuna by Mulla Muhsin-i Faiz of Kashan
(d. 1000/1591-2), the pupil and son-in-law of Mulla Sadra. He wrote a
number of other books in Persian and Arabic on religious matters. He
was also a poet, and Hidayat has estimated the number of the couplets
in his Divan at between 6,000 and 7,000.
Another pupil of Mulla Sadra was 'Abd al-Razzaq b. 'All b. Husain
Lahlji, who took the pen-name of Fayyaz and who also wrote on
philosophy and dialectics. His most important work is the Gaubar-i
murdd, which is a compendium in Persian of religious theories.

964
 CHAPTER I 8

PERSIAN POETRY IN THE TIMURID

AND SAFAVID PERIODS

Politically, this period extended from the death of the last great
Tl-Khan (736/1335) to the accession of Nadir Shah (1148—60/1736—
47). It encompassed the rise and fall of two powerful dynasties, the
Timurids (771—911/1370—1506) and the Safavids (907—1135/1501 —
1722), as well as of a number of lesser houses.
From a purely literary standpoint the era falls into two phases. The
first, comprising roughly a century, was a turbulent period of wars,
struggle for power, and widespread destruction, culminating in the
sweeping conquests of Timur and ending with his death in 807/1405.
Its literature is best considered a continuation of that of the previous
period, which witnessed the ascendancy of lyrico-mystical poetry (the
'Iraqi school). Beginning in the 12th century, this style reached its
zenith with Hafiz in the 14th.
The second phase, stretching from the 15 th to about the middle of
the 18 th century, may be said to have begun with the succession of
Tlmur's son Shah Rukh in 807/1405 and his long and relatively peace-
ful reign, and continued to the fall of the Safavids and the rise of Nadir
Shah. What marks the division between the two phases is the emer-
gence of a new school, whose style is called the Indian style. This
school, which had its origins in the Timurid period, produced a great
deal of Persian poetry, not only in Persia, but also in adjacent countries
— Ottoman Turkey, Iraq, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and especially
India. The appeal of this style continued for Persian poets in these
lands long after it had lost impetus in Persia.
It might appear at first sight that this second phase, which occupies a
span of two and a half centuries, lacks unity, and therefore cannot be
considered as a distinct literary era. This would be an erroneous
assumption, based perhaps on dissociating Timurid poetry from that of
the Safavids and Mughals. In fact the phase represents one of the more
coherent and well-defined periods of Persian literature. Within its span
the Indian style developed organically, followed a normal curve within
certain limits and constraints, and finally exhausted itself into a lifeless
and forced poetry.
965
 PERSIAN POETRY! TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

The period ended in Persia with the appearance of a group of poets

and critics in Isfahan about the middle of the 18th century, whose
efforts led to the Ba^gasht-i adabi ("Literary Revival movement"). The
movement sought a return to the simpler and more robust poetry of
the old masters as against the effete and artificial verse into which
Safavid poetry had degenerated. It should be emphasised, however,
that whereas the Indian style had a clear end in Persia, it had no distinct
beginning. The transition was gradual and imperceptible, and vestiges
of the former style persisted for more than a century.
In the following discussion we shall focus our attention chiefly on
poetry, since in Persia and the countries which came under its literary
influence it was poetry that until recently was the vehicle par excellence of
literary expression. In medieval Persia, literary effort in prose was directed
chiefly at the embellishment of informative writing — histories and prefa-
tory materials in particular — by the use of rhetorical devices. Inevitably,
this led to florid or bombastic styles of writing, admired by the literati of
the time but disdained today. As Persian prose grew more strident and
bargained its directness and simplicity for artifice, a writer's literary fame
came often to depend on his ability to engage in an excessive use of
metaphors and tropes and to adorn his style with a variety of devices. Of
these, the use of rhythm and rhyme (saf), homonymy or alliterative play
on words (Jinas), congruence or harmony of images {tanasub or murd'dt-i
na%ir), amphibology or double entendre {ihdm), allusion (talmib), allusive
statement (kindyd), antithesis (ta^add), poetic exaggeration (mubalagha) and
hyperbole (igbrdq), as well as an inordinate use of unfamiliar Arabic words
and pedantic citations, were most frequently in evidence. As a result, an
idea which could be expressed simply and clearly in two lines would be
belaboured, in the worst cases, in long and tortuous pages, replete with a
plethora of linguistic jugglings, semantic acrobatics, allusions, tenuous
turns of phrase, forced metaphors, and complex tropes.
The taste for stylistic exertion of this kind in prose presents a literary
outlook quite different from the one prevalent in the West or contem-
porary Persia, and although we may not enjoy the labyrynthine intrica-
cies it often produces, it would be neither objective nor helpful to
dismiss the style on the ground that it does not coincide with our own
literary taste. We must allow that it is a game which is now seldom
played; but as long as it was in vogue it excited wonder and literary
admiration. As we shall see, the kind of taste that produced this turgid
prose was not inactive in poetry either.
966
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

Imaginative prose literature, in the sense commonly understood in

the West, was scarce in medieval Persia, novels, short stories, and plays
being alien to Persian literary tradition. Where imaginative prose did
exist, however, such as in satire and folk epics, sensible, unburdened
prose was often used.
Imaginative verse, on the other hand, had a wide scope, and com-
prised not only amorous and mystical poetry, but also panegyric, epic,
and didactic genres. Fiction normally employed verse, but the masnavi
(couplet) form which was used for narrative poetry was the vehicle of
other genres as well. During the period under discussion a large
number of masnavis were written, principally in imitation of the 12th-
century master NizamI, or the 13th-century Persian poet of India,
Khusrau Dihlavl, or occasionally after Sa'di's Biistdn. They comprise
narrative, mystical and ethical works.
The qaslda, a monorhyme normally between some twenty-five and
seventy lines, but occasionally extended to more than twice that length,
continued to be written during the whole period, although with dimin-
ishing importance. It is used chiefly for panegyrics. A good deal of
qasldas were written by court poets in praise of the Timurid, Turkmen,
and Shaibanid princes, and of the Mughal emperors and their grandees.
From the 14th century we find also a considerable amount of poetry
written in praise of the Shi'I Imams. Among the chief Shi'I poets of the
Timurid period were Khwaju KirmanI (d. 753/135 2), Salman Savajl (d.
778/1376), Lutf-Allah Nlshapurl (d. 812/1409), Tsmat Bukhara'I (d.
829/1425-6), Ni'mat-Allah Vail (d. 834/1431), Amir Shahl (d.
857/1453), Ibn Husam (d. 875/1470), FighanI (d. 925/1519), and Ahli
ShlrazI (d. 942/1535).
The pride of place, however, belongs to the gha%al, which was
written in abundance, overshadowing all other forms of poetry. A short
monorhyme of some six to fourteen lines, the ghazal was the basic form
and major vehicle of lyric poetry. It was ghazals which served as the
main field where poets exhibited their true talent; it is by their ghazals
that they are chiefly known. It is in the context of this form that the
Indian style is discussed, and on it that this chapter is focused.1

1
Prose literature of the period has been dealt with in the previous chapters, where a chrono-
logical survey of its writers and poets is given. Hafiz is likewise treated separately in an earlier
chapter.

967
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

POETRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

This period must be considered a brilliant one in Persian letters, if for

no other reason than having Hafiz (d. 791/1389), the most celebrated
lyric poet of Persia, as its pre-eminent figure. The interest of the period
is not, however, confined to the figure of Hafiz. To this century
belongs also the most delightful satirist of Persia, 'Ubaid-Allah ZakanI
(d. c. 772/1371), whose witty satires and facetiae in prose and verse
have delighted generations of readers. The period also boasts a poet,
Ibn Yamln FaryumadI (d. 769/1368), who is generally considered the
most skilful writer of occasional poems (qita'as, "fragments"). The
other luminaries of the period are the versatile Khwaju of Kirman; the
lyricist 'Imad al-Dln of Kirman (d. 773/1372); the sturdy panegyrist
and able lyric-writer Salman Savajl; the writer of tender ghazals,
Kamal of Khujand (d. 793 or 803/1391 or 1400); the mystical poet
MaghribI (d. 809/1407); and Lutf-Allah Nlshapurl, a panegyrist of
fluent verse who survived Tlmur by some three years.
The diversity and rivalry of local dynasties which sprang up follow-
ing the weakening and eventual demise of the Tl-Khans, namely the
Jalayirids in the north and west, the Muzaffarids in the centre and the
south, and the Karts and Sarbadars in Khurasan, provided for court
poets a patronage which explains the relative abundance of court
poetry during this time. But this is also the period which witnessed the
further spread and increasing popularity of the ghazal. Some of the
poets, despite their attachment to one court or another, have written
mainly ghazals (Hafiz and 'Imad), and the divan of MaghribI consists
only of ghazals. Khwaju is, however, a more representative poet of his
period. He wrote engaging lyrico-mystical ghazals, panegyrics in
praise of his patrons, and a khamsa (quintet) in masnavl form, as well
as qasldas in a mystical vein and panegyrics of Shl'I Imams.
In the ghazal these poets follow the. norms set by Sa'dl, RumI, and
'Iraqi in the previous century. In narrative poetry, however, NizamI
remains the main model. In qaslda, again, they follow the 13th-century
trend, with Zahlr FaryabI, Anvarl, and KhaqanI serving as frequent
models. Apart from the towering figure of Hafiz, the poets of the 14th
century never reached the heights attained by the two 13th-century
masters, Sa'dl and RumI. The poetry of the period is generally com-
petent, smooth, melodious, and well-phrased.

968
 POETRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

The Golden age of satire

Several aspects of this literature call for comment. The first is that this is
the golden period of Persian satire. Neither before nor since has Persia
produced any satirist comparable to 'Ubaid or Hafiz. 'Ubaid is a forth-
right satirist using not only mockery, irony, and sarcasm, but also
ribaldry - without shunning obscenity - in order to expose and ridicule
the corruption, injustice, bigotry, and hypocrisy of his times. Human
foibles, vanity and stupidity are other targets of his satires and parodies.
He often uses the device of writing scandalous parallels to the serious
works of old masters. His best known work, the A.khlaq al-ashraf ("The
Virtues of the Nobles"), consists of short essays on various virtues, such
as justice, chastity, and generosity. In the preamble of each essay he
explains the meanings accorded these virtues in former times and then
the interpretation offered by contemporary men of standing - all traves-
ties of the original meanings. He illustrates these travesties with satirical
and humorous anecdotes written in a most engaging mock-serious style.
His prose is exemplary in its succinctness and elegance.
Hafiz is in a sense the most accomplished satirist that Persia has
produced. His is not the bitter satire of an aggressive or vengeful critic,
but rather the subtle yet penetrating satire of a broadminded poet. If this
aspect of his work is less frequently discussed, it is only because it is often
overshadowed by his lyrical and philosophical thought. Nonetheless,
satire is a major element of Hafiz's poetry and has promoted his popularity
more than is generally acknowledged. His satires come in small vignettes,
in a hemistich or a line or two, in the body of his ghazals. He does not
belabour his point, but delivers it succinctly with apt words and fitting
images. His humour is dry compared to that of 'Ubaid. Whereas 'Ubaid
aims at laughter, Hafiz provokes a smile. Both mean to alert, subvert, and
educate. The scope of Hafiz's satire is, however, limited; it is generally
directed only against the falsehood and hypocrisy of the establishment,
both clerical and sufistic. Characters like the qadi(judge), mufti, shaikh,
faqih (doctor of religious law), muhtasib (inspector of public morality) and
sufl are frequent targets of his mockery and sarcasm.

Mystical poetry
Another aspect of the poetry of the period is its increasing involvement
with mystical ideas and images. 'Attar, Ruml, 'Iraqi, Shabistarl, and
969
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

AuhadI, all of the 13 th century, popularised mystical ideas in poetry,

while Nizami's Makh^an al-asrar and Sa'dl's Bustan set an example of
ethical poems coloured by sufl attitudes and precepts. In Timurid times
the spread of sufism continued and sufl ptrs (spiritual leaders) and
their khanaqahs (sufl hospices), often supported by the wealthy or the
powerful, could be seen everywhere. Among the poets of this period
many were avowed sufls.
The mystical poetry of the 14th and 15 th centuries ranges from poems
devoted entirely to expounding sufl ideas, through those in which a
mystical thought appears here and there, to those which may only by an
effort be made to bear a mystical interpretation. Expressly sufl poetry is
found mostly in the divans of MaghribI, Kamal Khujandl and, in the
15 th century, Ni'mat-Allah Valland Qasim al-Anvar (d. 837/1433), all of
whom had attained a leading position in mystical orders. Their ghazals
of this kind are generally abstract, dry, and sprinkled with technical sufl
terms. The chief— almost the sole — theme of these poems is the mystical
pantheism and related ideas which were in vogue. They speak of the
emanation of the One in the plurality of our world, the priority of
existence {wujiid) over the quiddities {mdhiyjdt), and the basic unity of all
creation despite appearances, particularly in transcendence of opposites
such as lover and beloved, worshipper and worshipped, the hidden and
the apparent, the praising and the praised, the drunk and the sober,
Moses and Pharaoh, the mote and the sun, etc. Some ghazals of this kind
assume an ecstatic tone and bring to mind the rapturous utterances
(shathiyyaty of the mystics. They are attractive and enjoyable, if not
through a clear appreciation of their meanings, at least through their
lively rhythms. The commoner "mystical" ghazals wrap sufl thought in
erotic language, or else are love poems in which the poet includes lines
of either direct or oblique mystical sentiments.2
It is from this period that mystical interpretation of lyric poems
began to become an obsession and made people look for a hidden
meaning behind every image.3 Even up to our own day dictionaries are
compiled which provide esoteric sufistic meanings for the most inno-
cent words and images.
1
Utterances made in a state of ecstasy, sometimes seemingly blasphemous, such as identifying
oneself with the divinity.
2
See Yarshater, Sbfr-i Farsi, pp. 162 ff., for examples of the varieties of mystical poems.
3
Mulla Muhsin Faiz, a firm akbbdri scholar, has written a treatise, Gul^ar-iQuds, in which he
explains the mystical meaning of the images in his ghazals; see his Divan (Tehran, n.d. [i960]),
pp. 11, 18ff.

970
 POETRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

Norms and conventions of lyric poetry

Here we may pause a moment to examine the norms and conventions
of the large body of lyric poetry written in the 14th century. They are
also applicable to the second phase of the period under discussion.
Whereas in narrative poetry the poet writes about others, in
amorous ghazals he invariably writes about himself and sings of his
own love (generally in the first person singular or plural). The main
motifs of love lyrics are two: the paramount beauty of the beloved and
the cherished sufferings of the lover. The pleasure of union is hardly
ever the lover's share. Friend and foe blame him, mock him, or pity
him for having embarked on a hopeless course that brings him nothing
but pain and sorrow; the guard(s) of the beloved turned rival(s) (raqib)
chase him as a presumptuous nuisance, and "wise" philistines waste
their advice on him. He is disconsolate. He sees visions of his own
consuming passion in the moth which throws itself into the candle
flame, and in the enraptured nightingale that pours out its heart to the
inconstant rose. The black spot in the heart of the tulip reminds him of
the brand of love on his own bleeding heart, the stars share his sleep-
less nights of separation. The sun seems never to rise and end his
interminable vigils. His sorrows are legion and his tears fall in torrents.
Proud, arrogant, and fully aware of her (or, rather, his - see below)
beauty, the beloved is impervious to the lover's supplications and his
protestations of love and devotion. If she notices him at all, it is to
humble him and inflict new wounds on him. The lover accepts all this
humiliation, and more, as a token of his true, unfailing love. In his
distracted passion, he is almost unaware of his wounds, hovering
around her house or street, suffering the insults of his rivals, and
continuing to sing her praise. To him her beauty is the marvel of the
whole universe. No noble cypress tree (sarv-i d^ad) was ever more
graceful than her figure, no gazelle walked more gracefully than she.
Her lips put the reddest of rubies to shame, and her languishing {mast,
literally "intoxicated"), melting (bimar, literally "ailing") eyes, framed
by the darts of her eyelashes, wreak havoc with the hearts of her lovers.
With cheeks like rose-petals, night-like hair surrounding the sun of her
face, and a waist as narrow as a hair's breadth, she goes about piercing
lovers' hearts with the arrow of her glance. In the chains of her curls
are fettered a thousand captive hearts. If only she would deign to cast a
favourable glance at her lover, he would not only give up all

971
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

possessions, but also his faith {din) and his life (Jan). Perhaps in no
other literature is so masochistic a picture of the lover and so haughty
and cruel a portrait of the beloved presented.

Love enthroned
Resigned to the exigencies of love and to his destiny, the poet has ended
up by worshipping not only the beloved, but also the sorrow and
suffering of love. He boasts of them and is jealous of them. His
complete and selfless devotion has led, one might say, to love's apothe-
osis. Love reigns supreme in Persian lyrics. It is celebrated in a half-
lyrical, half-mystical manner, not only as the almighty sovereign of all
existence but also as its cause and purpose.1 The great emphasis that
the mystics placed on love as the sole means of attaining the Truth and
the only path to the knowledge of the divine no doubt played a part in
raising the station of love to such heights. Reason ('aqf), on the other
hand, is constantly denigrated and declared impotent. The opposition
between the two supplies the lyrics with one of their fertile themes.

Abstractness of the beloved

Descriptions of the beloved are neither detailed nor generally aimed at
portraiture. She is described in general terms and idealised as a match-
less paragon of beauty. Furthermore, her description is selective.
Whereas the nose, the hands, and the feet are hardly ever mentioned,
the dimple on the chin and the beauty spot {khat) are frequently
described. In addition to these, description of the beloved is usually
confined to the hair, also the lock and curls, the face, the cheeks, the
eyebrows, the eyes, the eyelashes, the bundgiisb (part of the neck and
face just below the ear), the lips, the mouth, the budding moustache
and beard (see below), the waist, the figure, the gait, the look, the
glance, the smile, and less frequently, the forehead, the teeth, the arms
and the legs {sdq). These are described as a rule individually, without
any attempt at giving an impression of the actual person of the
beloved. Almost all such descriptions are variations on basic conven-
tional metaphors. As a result, the reader, rather than getting a concrete
1
The sufls regarded the following tradition of the Prophet as the fountainhead of their beliefs:
"I was a hidden treasure; then I wished to be known; I created the creation so as to become
known." Recognition of the divine, they maintained, was possible only through love.

972
 POETRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

picture of the beloved, receives an abstract image of her — an image

that can fit any fancy. In Persian lyrics the beloved is a personalised
concept, not a person. As an individual she remains unknown. This is
true also of the other characters who populate the lyrics — the Rival,
the Blamer, the Muhtasib, the Zdhid (sanctimonious ascetic), the Ndsih
(complacent counsellor), the Rind (ruffian), etc.
Here it may be mentioned also that in Persian lyrics many concepts
such as sorrow (gham), patience (sabr), separation (firdq), and of course,
love {'ishq) and reason, as well as the heart {dit) and the eye (dtda), are
personified and treated as such, to the point that with a twist a poet,
Jalal Aslr, can curse his heart for having gone after the beloved with-
out his knowledge and having become his rival!1

The beloved is not a woman

Thus far I have referred to the beloved as a woman in order to avoid
confusion. It should be explained, however, that, as a rule, the beloved
is not a woman, but a young man.2 In the early centuries of Islam, the
raids into Central Asia produced many young slaves. Slaves were also
bought or received as gifts. They were often made to serve as pages at
court or in the households of the affluent, or as soldiers and body-
guards. Young men, slaves or not, also served wine at banquets and
receptions, and the more gifted among them could play music and
maintain a cultivated conversation. It was love towards young pages,
soldiers, or novices in trades and professions which was the subject of
lyrical introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian
poetry, and of the ghazal. A common theme in all traditional lyrical
poetry is the description of the khatt-i nau, hair growing on the lip or
face of the adolescent beloved, likened commonly to new shoots of
grass. Many of the metaphors used in the description of the beloved
reflected the attitude of a reluctant young man importuned by the
amorous advances of his own sex.3 His carrying of arms - particularly
sword ifigh, shamshtr), dagger (khanjar), bow (kamdri) and arrow {fir,
khadang) - and his engaging in bouts of drinking are also indicative of
1
"O heart, what were you doing in the street of my beloved?/May you bleed, have you too
become my rival?": JahanbanI, p. 15;.
2
Expressions of heterosexual love are not entirely absent from classical Persian poetry, as
shown by occasional descriptions of the breast. The most common conventional metaphorical
images for it are the pomegranate, the lemon, and the polo ball (guy)-
3
On this question, see Yarshater, "The theme", and Sbfr-i Farsi, pp. 15 5-60.

973
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

his sex. The following famous lines of Hafiz give an idea of the kind of
epithets that can be used for him:
Hair dishevelled, sweating, laughter on his lips, and drunk,
His shirt open in front, singing ghazals, and a jug of wine in hand,
His narcissus-like eyes eager for a brawl, and mockery on his lips,
He came to me in the middle of the night and sat by my side.1
Shah Muhammad Qazvlnl, in his translation (completed in 929/15 23) of
Mir 'All Shir's Majdlis al-nafd'is, adds to the notice on Katibi of Turshlz
(d. 839/1435—6) that "Katibi was enamoured of a youth [pisar], as is the
wont of those cities."2 This Katibi, a prolific and accomplished poet,
when speaking of an example of perfect love in his masnavl Tajnisdt,
does not delay in describing the "charming khatt on the lip of the
beloved". Majdlis al-'ushshdq (written in 908/1502 and attributed to
Husain Balqara, the famous Timurid patron of the arts and literature,
but in fact composed by a sufl in his entourage, Husain Gazurgahl)3
consists of the stories of the love affairs of poets, mystics, and saints,
beginning with the Sixth Shl'I Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. Even though not
much credence can be attached to them, these stories' only subject is a
homosexual love which somehow led in the end to the love of the divine.
In one of the better known verse romances of the century, the Guy u
chaugdn of 'Arifl of Herat (d. 85 3/1449), the subject of the narrative is
again the love of a poor man (darvish) towards a young, handsome
prince. Lutf-Allah Nlshapurl has a ghazal, the radif4 of which is the
word pisar, and Katibi in a ghazal has the following line:
My sweetheart, you ought not to be less than a woman in faithfulness
Potiphar's wife gave up her life but not Joseph's care.
It is only by bearing this circumstance in mind that some of the con-
ventions and images of Persian lyrics can be understood. How else can
one appreciate the following lines of Amir Humayun of Isfara'in (1 jth
century)?
He was approaching, drunk, with his hat awry and his skirt
rolled-up...
Showing modesty to everyone else, but as soon as seeing me
Furrowing his brow and reaching for his dagger.5
1 2
Divan, p. 20, no. 26. Naval, Majdlis, p. 187.
3
See Qasim al-Anvar, Kullijyit, NafisFs introduction, pp. xxii—xxiii; also Gulchln-i Ma'anI 11,
4
757ff. A word or phrase which repeats itself after the rhyme at the end of each line.
5
Yarshater, Shi'r-i First, p. 160.

974
 POETRY OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

What has been said about the ghazal is equally true of the romance, the
quatrain, and lyric introductions to qasldas.
The impression should be avoided, however, that Persian lyrics are
mere maudlin poems populated by dipsomaniac lovers bent on self-
mortification and by irritable, obstreperous youths threatening their
wretched lovers with daggers and swords. Our intention is to explain,
for the sake of a better appreciation, some less usual aspects of this
otherwise sensitive, humane, melodious, and aesthetically superb
poetry.

Wine and intoxication

In his sad plight, the lover finds solace in the liberating intoxication of
wine (mai, bdda, shardb). For his loneliness, the excruciating pain of
love, and the afflictions of a fickle world, wine is a panacaea. It frees
him from the cares of life, from himself, from the cant of hypocrites
and the "wisdom" of philistines. Wine and intoxication (mast?) are only
second to love as major themes of the ghazal. The two themes are
brought together in the person of the saki (sdqt, "wine server") who is
often the subject of the poet's longings and is generally identified with
the beloved.
Poets of the Timurid and Safavid periods wrote, in addition to
ghazals, poems in couplet form called sdqi-ndma, in which the charms
of the saki, the miraculous qualities of wine, and intoxication as the
antidote to the transience of life and the perfidy of destiny, are extolled.
'Abd al-Nabl of Qazvln, a poet and anthologist of the 12th/18th
century, has compiled a whole tasjzira, or collection of notices on
poets, devoted to the writers of saql-namas. The great majority of the
seventy-one poets and their saqi-namas mentioned belong to the
Timurid and the first half of the Safavid periods. The best known is
that of Hafiz.

Cult of the tavern as a symbol of social protest

Taverns {maikada, maikhand) were run by Magians, since Muslims were
not permitted such an occupation. In their esteem for this honoured
calling, the ghazal writers dubbed the tavern-keeper ptr-i mughan
("Magian mentor"), with broad allusions to sufl pirs. In a spirit of
defiance and challenge, the poets treat the Pir-i Mughan with the

975
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

veneration accorded to sages and saints, and pay the tavern all the
homage reseved for holy places. It is often called the Ka'ba or the
khanaqah of the lovers. Not to the mosque but to the tavern would a
lover go for worship; not the hands of a shaikh, but the rim of the cup
would he kiss; and not to a wooden ascetic but to the saintly tavern-
keeper would he listen.
This cult of the tavern which pervades the lyric poetry of the period
is in essence a symbol of protest of liberal minds against the heartless
restrictions and crippling constraints of the socio-religious order. It
hurls defiance at bigotry and cant. The poets go still a step further
in their nonconformist attitude and associate themselves also with
kharabat ("ruins"), that is to say ramshackle and disreputable places
where wine and drugs could be had by the dregs of society. Kharabat
are now exalted as the Mecca of the lovers, and the company of
bohemians, blackguards, and ruffians (the qalandars and rinds)1 is
cherished. In a nihilistic mood, the poet professes to care not a whit
about his good name, regrets the times he has ever been sober, and
admires the sincerity of the open-hearted drunkards and the free spirit
of the kharabat population. He delights in the flouting of socio-
religious conventions. His deeply felt antagonism towards the repre-
sentatives of the establishment is seen not only in his forcefully advo-
cating an anticulture, but also in statements which smack of sacrilege
or blasphemy. He pawns his turban and his sufl cloak (khirqd) to buy
wine; he taints his prayer-rug with wine as an act of piety, and advises
the people of the madrasa to wash off their books in wine; he chooses
the arch of the beloved's eyebrows as his mihrab (the holy niche in a
mosque that the believers face at prayer); he would take wine any time
rather than the water of Kauthar in paradise, promised to believers; he
would circumambulate the kharabat rather than the Ka'ba in Mecca; he
asks to be washed in wine, which is ritually impure, when he dies. The
pleasures of paradise carry little weight with him. To him the threat of
doom belies God's avowed mercy. Thus the ghazal became the
repository of all sceptical, nonconformist thought. A more liberal
atmosphere in Persian writing is hard to find.

1
On the meaning of qalandar and rind, see F. Meier, "Abu Sa'Id-i Abul-Hayr. Wirklichkeit und
Legende", Ada Iranica n (1976), joo— 1; H. Ritter, Das Meer der Stele, 2nd ed. (Leiden, 1978), pp.
487—91; and C. Biirgel, "Le poete et la poesie dans l'oeuvre de Hafez", Convegno Internationale sulla
poesia di Hafez, (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1978), pp. 75-6. For other sources, see HIL, p.
277 n. i n .

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 SECOND PHASE, 1 4 O O - I 7 5 O : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

THE SECOND PHASE, I 4 O O - I 7 5 O : THE INDIAN SCHOOL

The period is one of the longest in Persian letters. No conspicuous

literary event marks its beginning, but the forty-two years of the rela-
tively peaceful reign of Shah Rukh is long enough to allow us to notice
the budding of the characteristics of the Indian style.
Numerous Timurid princes, like their Turkmen rivals, combined
their preocupation with sex and violence with the cultivation of arts
and letters. Prominent among them were Shah Rukh's son Ulugh Beg
(d. 853/1449), a remarkable savant himself, who held court in
Samarqand during his father's lifetime; Balsunqur, another son of Shah
Rukh and an outstanding calligrapher, who ran his father's realm until
his death from excessive drinking in 837/1433; and above all, Husain
b. Mansur b. Baiqara (d. 911/1506), whose court, thanks to the influ-
ence of his learned vizier, Mir 'All Shir (d. 906/1501), is well-known for
its generous patronage of art and literature. Its fame is associated with
JamI (d. 898/1492), the leading poet, writer, and mystic of the period.
The courts of the Qara Quyunlii and Aq Quyunlii Turkmens in the
west, too, furnished literary patronage in the course of the 15 th
century, as did those of the Ottoman sultans of Turkey.

Extensive terrain of Persian letters

When the Safavids established their sweeping power in 907/1501, their
militant and fanatical Shi'ism caused a schism in the body of the Islamic
world. Among other outcomes, political and cultural relations with
the Uzbek Shaibanids in Central Asia (905-1007/1500-98) and the
Ottomans suffered. Contrary to expectations, however, this did not
affect the continued support for and production of Persian literature in
their realms. It is a remarkable fact that, in spite of the religious schism
and the Safavids, Persian culture and Persian literature had their widest
territorial expansion during the 16th-18th centuries.
Central Asia had been a homeland of Persian literature from
Samanid times, and although its importance declined somewhat during
the reign of the Chaghatayids in the 13 th century, it rose to promi-
nence again under Tlmur, who made Samarqand his capital. The city
experienced considerable literary and scientific prosperity under his
grandson, Ulugh Beg. Under the SunnI Shaibanids, Persian letters
continued to thrive, even though now Chaghatai (Uzbek) works were

977
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

also written, following the example set by Mir 'AH Shir, the father of
Chaghatai poetry. The Ta%kira-ji Mu%akkir-i ahbdb of Baha' al-Din
Hasan Nisarl, written in 974/1566—7, contains the notices of 275
Persian poets who were active during the first three decades of the
ioth/i6th century outside Iran and more particularly in Central Asia.
Among these are a large number of Shaibanid princes. These, though
sworn enemies of the Safavids, still wrote Persian poetry and patron-
ised Persian poets, as did some Ottoman sultans, notably Selim I
(d. 926/1520).1
Persian as the literary and administrative language was introduced in
Anatolia chiefly by a branch of the Saljuqs (the Saljuqs of Rum,
470—707/1077—1307), many of whose princes actively patronised
Persian culture. Their literary legacy was taken up by the Ottomans
(680—1342/1281 —1924), who for the greater part of their reign
followed Persian literary models (see below).
Iraq, which had been the seat of the 'Abbasid caliphs, was drawn
into the orbit of Persian cultural influence after the Mongols captured
Baghdad in 1258 and Iraq became a part of the Il-Khanid dominions.
After the collapse of the Il-Khans in 736/1335 Persian literary culture
continued to be supported in Iraq by the Jalayirids, a successor state of
the Mongols in Iraq and Azarbaljan (736-835/1335-1432), and after
them by the Turkmen dynasties and finally by the Ottomans.
The Indian subcontinent was opened to Persian influence with
Islamic missionary activities in the early centuries of Islam, and later by the
conquests of the Ghaznavid Mahmud in the 5th/nth century. The
Ghaznavids of India were among the first patrons of Persian poetry in the
subcontinent. Already in the 7th/13 th century, Khusrau of Delhi set the
tone for a large number of poets who followed in his wake. The founding
of the Mughal empire by Babur in 932/1526 raised to unprecedented
heights the level of patronage of Persian letters in the subcontinent. A host
of poets flocked to the courts of Babur's successors. The generosity of the
Mughal emperors to Persian poets, and the vying of their literary-minded
and art-loving dignitaries with one another in attracting and recruiting
poets and artists, have become legendary. Many biographers and tazkira
writers2 have lingered on the subject (see further below).

1
See J.H. Kramers, "Selim I", El'.
2
See, for instance, Nahavandl in, iff.; Bada'unl in, I7off.; Sana"!, pp. 89—126; Azad Bilgraml,
Khi^ana (written in 1176/1762), on poets who have received gifts and remunerations from their
patrons, under individual names; Shibll Nu'manl m, 4— i7;'Abdal-GhanIi-n, i38ff., andm, 11,38ff.

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 SECOND PHASE, 1 4 . O O - I 7 5 O : T H E I N D I A N SCHOOL

The unity of the poetry in different languages

Poetry was written also in Turkish in Turkey, in Chaghatai among the
Uzbeks, and in several Indian languages in Muslim India, notably
Sindhi and Urdu. An important point to bear in mind is that irrespec-
tive of the language that the poets used, the poetry was the same. In the
vast territory stretching from Asia Minor to Turkestan and to Bengal,
poetry employed the same outlook, literary conventions, forms,
metres, rhyming patterns, and above all the same imagery. The choice
of language was an accident of birth, habitat, patronage, or predilec-
tion, but the models for it were and continued to be Persian. "The first
Ottoman poets — and their successors through many generations —",
wrote E.J.W. Gibb in his classic History of Ottoman Poetry, "strove with
all their strength to write what is little else than Persian poetry in
Turkish words ... Of national feeling in poetry they dreamed not.
Poetry to them was one and indivisible."1. This applies, except in folk
poetry, equally well to the literature of the Turkic peoples of Central
Asia and the Muslims of India; in sum, to the non-Arab Muslims that
Gibb calls West Asian. "The question as to what language a writer in
this West Asian literature should use," he points out, "whether this
should be Persian, Ottoman, Turki, Urdu, or Pushtu, was generally,
but not always, determined by the locality in which he happened to
find himself... To the Ottoman people poetry was a single entity, no
more affected by question of race or language than was theology or
science".2 The languages mentioned above were all, more by cultural
penetration than political dominance, pervaded by Persian, and
borrowed much of their poetic vocabulary from it.

Abundance of poetry
Persian poetry was produced during this period in abundance. In his
Majalis al-nafa'is, Mir 'All Shir names some 132 poets who experienced
the reign of Shah Rukh.3 A ioth/16th-century Persian translator of the
Majalis, Fakhrl HaratI, brings the number of the poets who lived in the
15th century up to 570.4 Daulatshah, writing c. 892/1487, refers in his
tazkira to the overabundance of poets and to the decline of poetry's
1
Gibb 1, 29. In writing this section, I have drawn occasionally on my "Safavid Literature".
2 3
Gibb 1, xxxv-xxxvi. Naval, Majalis, pp. I - J 6 , 183-229.
4
Ibid., pp. }6ff.

979
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

value as a result. "Wherever you listen", he writes, "there is the

murmur of a poet and wherever you look there is a tender-heart or a
wit ... and it is [well] said that the abundance reduces the worth."1
Among the vast number of practitioners of the art were not only
professional poets for whom the Timurid and Turkmen courts vied,
but also poets of humble birth and lowly profession. Mir 'All Shir
mentions poets who were potters, drum-players, spinners, tent-makers,
bag-sweepers, binders, and simple soldiers. He even characterises two
poets as 'ami or illiterate.2
As for the Safavid period, Sam Mirza records in his Tuhja-yi Sami
(written in 958/1551) more than 700 contemporary poets who lived
under his father Shah Isma'U I and his brother Shah Tahmasp; and
Muhammad Tahir NasrabadI, the nth/17th-century anthologist and
biographer of poets, writing under the Safavid Shah Sulaiman
(1077-1105/1666-94), records nearly 1,000 contemporary poets. This
is a considerable number, even when we allow that in tazkiras of this
kind, many poets who are recorded are no more than occasional or
obscure poets who wrote only mediocre verse.
The number of poets who wrote in Persia and Central Asia was far
exceeded by those who wrote in the subcontinent. Although no clear
statistics are available, there is no doubt that more Persian poetry and
prose was written in India under the Mughal emperors than in Persia
during the same period. It will be recalled that Persian was the literary
and administrative language of Mughal India. It is an indication of the
extent of the popularity and productivity of Persian poetry in the
subcontinent that Muhammad Aslah's tazkira of the Persian poets of
Kashmir, written during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad
Shah (1131—61/1719—48), alone lists 303 poets. 'All Shir Tatavl's
Maqdldt a/shu'ard' (completed in 1173/1760) contains notices of 719
Persian poets of Sind alone. Of the 3,148 poets who are the subject of
Ahmad 'All Hashimi Sandllavl's Ta%kira-yi Makbs^an al-ghard'ib
(written in 1218/1804), although this is a general tazkira, the majority
are poets who either were born in India, lived in India, or were
supported by an Indian patron.

1
Daulatshah, p. 10.
2
Naval, Majalis, pp. 21, 23, 37, 40—4, 47; see also pp. 6, 19, 32, for instances of popular
attention to poetry.

980
 SECOND PHASE, I 4 O O - I 7 5 O : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

Contemporary estimation of the poetry

If in quantity the poetry of the period surpasses that of comparable
periods in the past, in quality it falls behind and is associated with the
decline of Persian letters. This characterisation, which reflects the stan-
dards of modern Persia and of the West, is not shared by the critics of
the period. The majority of the period's tazkiras have introductory
sections on the high status of poetry and poets.1 Sam Mlrza, whose
tazkira has been mentioned, typically declares his contemporaries to
be equal to Khusrau Dihlavl, Sa'dl, and Anvarl, and even superior to
FirdausI and Sana'I. As to his view of the status of poets in general, he
considers them "chosen by God and recipients of endless [divine]
light". The very fact that men of exalted rank like Mir 'All Shir and
Sam Mlrza cared to anthologise the poems of their contemporaries and
write tazkiras on them, and the eagerness with which the Mughal
princes and their courtiers sought poets, read their poems, and com-
mented on them, attest to the high station that they accorded to the
poetry of their time.
The poets themselves wrote with great confidence and thought
highly of the poetry of their period. They considered it a poetry of
superior ingenuity and imagination. Although not much weight may
be attached to the poets' conceit, the very exaggerated views of these
poets about their work2 demonstrate at least that they saw no decline in
the poetic art of their time. On the contrary, they boasted of the "new
way", the "new style" peculiar to them. Several expressions are used
by the poets and literary historians to refer to this new way. Among
these are tars^-i ta%a (or tar% for short)3 and td^a-gii'i. The latter is used
by Mulla 'Abd al-Baql Nahavandl in his notices on 'Urfl (d. 999/1590)
and FaizI (d. 1004/1595), suggesting that their new style was encour-
aged by their poetry-loving patron, Abu'1-Fath GllanI, a high-ranking
courtier of Akbar.4

1
See, for instance, Daulatshah, pp. 5 ff.; Nava'T, Majilis, p. xxiv; Nasrabadi, pp. $f.\ Tatavi, pp.
5-7-
2
For some examples of Timurid poets' conceit, see Yarshater, Shtr-i First, pp. 89-91, and
Sadat-i Nasirl in Azar, Atashkada 1, 125. For the conceits of Safavid and Mughal poets, see, e.g.,
Sa'ib, Divan, pp. 218, 871; Kallm, Divan, p. 281 (ghazal no. 484); for 'Urfl, see Shibll Nu'mani in
78-81.
3
Used particularly by Sa'ib: see his Divan, Amiri's introduction, p. 6; Mu'tamin, Tahavvul,
p. 358.
4
Shibll Nu'mani m, 11.

981
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

By the mid 16th century, the new style was in full swing and the
fame of its major representative, Sa'ib (d. 1081/1675), had spread far
and wide, with a large following in Persia, India, Turkey, and the other
regions where Persian poetry was written.1

The emergence of the Indian style

In essence the Indian style is an elaboration of the 'Iraqi style into a

poetry of subtle thoughts and ingenious poetic ideas, frequently at the
expense of felicity of phrase and warmth of feeling.
Faint signs of the Indian style begin to appear from the beginning of
the Timurid period and even in Hafiz. In his case, however, the
subtlety of imagination is matched by a perfect mastery of language
and a rare power of expression. It is clear that with him the ghazal in
the 'Iraqi style had actualised its whole potential. A fallow literary
period ensued before a new approach made itself felt.
From about the middle of the 14th century attempts at expressing
poetic ideas which would impress the reader by their subtlety, dainti-
ness, or ingenuity become noticeable. The tendency continues during
the 15 th century, but it is overshadowed by efforts at formal dexterity.
During the 16th century, while some poets like VahshI (d. 991/1583)
wrote warm, passionate poems, and others like 'Urfl composed robust
qasldas, the majority of the poets tended towards semantic mannerism
and intricate formulation of thought. By the 17th century this had
given rise in Persia and India to a style which was now distinguished
from the 'Iraqi style and had adopted different aesthetic criteria. Sana'I,
(d. 956/1549), 'Urfl, FaizI, Zuhurl (d. 1025/1616), Nazlrl (d. 1021/
1612), Sa'ib, Kallm (d. 1061/1650), Talib Amull (d. 1035/1626) and
Bldil (Bedil, d. 1133/1721), are among its masters.
Before discussing the Indian style in more detail, we must consider a
phase in which the elaboration of the rhetorical aspects of poetry
reached an unprecedented high point.

Poetry of the ijth century

The generation of poets who lived during the first half of the 15 th
century show no advance on their immediate predecessors. The better-

1
See Sadat-i Nasirl, in Azar, Atashkada i, 121, for his fame.

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 SECOND PHASE, I 4 O O - I 7 5 O : THE INDIAN SCHOOL

known poets of this period, 'Ismat Bukhara'I, who wrote tender lyrico-
mystical ghazals; Ni'mat-Allah Vail, the sufl leader who like Qasim
al-Anvar wrote mystical lyrics; the humourist Bushaq (Abu Ishaq,
d. 827 or 830/1424 or 1427), who has left behind a "gastronomical"
divan; Katibl Turshlzl (d. 839/1435—6), the prolific writer in all major
forms of Persian poetry who excelled in the use of rhetorical devices;
Amir Shahl, the writer of felicitous ghazals; and Ibn Husam, who is
distinguished by his well-composed qasldas, are alf good poets of
limited interest who wrote in the style of the 14th century or earlier,
but without any conspicuous originality. As in the sciences, where the
scholarly endeavour tended more and more toward exegesis and anno-
tation of earlier works rather than original writing, so also in poetry,
albeit to a lesser extent, it became a current practice to write parallels to
the works of older masters, emulating the metre, rhyme-pattern, and
sometimes the type of content of an earlier ghazal, qasida, or masnavl.
This trend continued through the Safavid and Mughal period, when
poets often found themselves challenged to "respond" to a poem of a
past or present master.
The aspect of the poetry of the 15 th century that attracts our notice
is the tendency of some poets to engage in impressive rhetorical
elaboration and formal artifice. The currency of this tendency in prose
has already been pointed out. One of its instances in poetry is the
choice of difficult radlfs. Lutf -Allah Nlshapurl, who saw the early
years of this period, wrote, among others, a qasida with the words aftab
u mah ("sun and moon") as its radlf; another one with the four elements
as its radlf; and a ghazal with double rhyme plus partial homonymy
(jinds-i ^a'id) worked out in every rhyme. These efforts, however, pale
before some of the tours de force performed by Katibl. In a qasida of
fifty-eight lines he has managed to implant in each line the improbable
pair "camel" and "chamber" (shutur and hujrd). He also wrote three
poems in couplet form of which one has a double rhyme throughout,
the other employs two simultaneous metres in each line [dhii bahrairi),1
and the third combines a rhyme and a jinas twice in each line, at the end
of each hemistich. Amir Islam Ghazall wrote a parallel to one of
Anvarl's qasldas, from each hemistich of which a chronogram for the
date of the composition of the poem can be extracted.2 Another poet,
1
This is achieved by playing with syllables like the -/' of the i^afa and the conjunction «, which
metrically can be short or long.
2
Naval, Majalis, p. 14 (Fakhrl HaratT's translation).

983
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

Sahib, wrote an elegy of Mir 'All Shir, all the first hemistichs of which
were a chronogram for his birthdate and all the second for his death.1
Ibn Husam, an eager practitioner of rhetorical figures, has written a
long qaslda in every line of which some six or seven artifices are
employed. Some of the rhetorical feats appear indeed beyond human
capability. Ahll ShlrazI, who felt challenged by the masnavls of Katibi,
produced an amazing masnavi, Sihr-i Ha/a/ ("White Magic"), which
combined all the three feats of Katibi in each line, namely double
metre, double rhyme, plus a jinas! As if this were not dazzling enough,
he also wrote three very long qasidas, in each of which a large number
of subsidiary lines can be extracted and which include illustrations of
practically all rhetorical figures and rhyme patterns. In India at a later
date even a poet like FaizI, who deplored exaggerated artifices in the
poetry of some of his contemporaries, wrote an exegesis of the Qur'an
using only the fourteen undotted letters (out of a total of 3 2) of the
Persian alphabet.
These few examples, chosen from many, are sufficient to show that
the difficult artifices and intricate figures which were common to
"literate" prose find ample expression in poetry, too. Such exertions,
which indeed require great skill and practice, were admired, and many
poets felt called upon to prove their dexterity in this field. Lutf-Allah
Nlshapurl composed a quatrain in which he took it upon himself to
mention four flowers, four gems, four weapons, four colours, four
days, and the four elements, without appearing to force the meaning.
Daulatshah writes that Slml Nlshapurl, a contemporary of his, was
challenged to do likewise; he spent a year trying, but failed.2
While a good number of poets continued to write in the fairly
unencumbered style of the early Timurid period, the tendency of those
who aspired to "originality" and eminence was to engage in an escalat-
ing use of rhetorical devices. An aspect of this tendency can be seen in
the increasing popularity of writing chronograms and poetic riddles.
Both require great straining of imagination. In chronograms the poet
normally has to find a word or phrase within a poetic context that
would produce the desired date when the numerical value of each of
the letters is added together. In riddles, a name or concept is hinted at
in a variety of ways, and the reader must solve them by following the
often intricate clues. Nasrabadi (d. c. 1100/1688) has a section at the end
1
Ibid., p. 244 (Shah Muhammad Qazvinl's translation).
2
Daulatshah, p. 319.

984
 SECOND PHASE, 1 4 0 0 - 1 7 5 0 : THE INDIAN SCHOOL

of his tazkira devoted solely to an anthology of chronograms and

riddles, and many divans of the period end with compositions in these
genres.

The court of Husain Baiqard

The poets of the next hundred years or .so, from the middle of the 15 th
century to about the middle of the 16th century, followed the same trend.
The court of the Timurid Husain b. Mansur b. Balqara is the focal point of
this period, not only on account of its generous patronage of literature and
the arts, but also because it boasted among its cluster of poets 'Abd
al-Rahman Jarnl (d. 898/1492), an encyclopaedist, poet, and mystic of
considerable verve and accomplishment. A most respected figure of his
time, he was appreciated also at the courts of the Qara Quyunlu, the Aq
Quyunlu and the Ottomans. Among his better-known contemporaries
were MaktabI ShlrazI, (d. 900 or 916/1495 or 1510), writer of several
masnavls; Sana'I, who wrote both lyrics and panegyrics; FighanI, com-
poser of passionate love-ghazals; Hilall Chaghata'I (d. 935/15 29), who has
a number of well-composed lyrics to his name; and Ahll ShlrazI, a master
of all genres and, as we have seen, an unsurpassed practitioner of con-
trived rhetorical figures. Responding to the ghazals and the qasldas of
former masters and imitating them continued to be vigorously pursued by
the poets of this period. A large number of lyrical, mystical and ethical
masnavls, including Jaml's Haftaurang ("Seven thrones"), were written in
imitation of NizamI and Khusrau Dihlavl. The writing of riddles and
chronograms also continued to be widely practised. The contemporary
historian Khwand Amir mentions among J ami's diverse works a treatise
on writing riddles.1
With Ahli's wizardry at formal elaborations such feats reached a
point beyond which it was hardly possible to pass. The way to the
elaboration of meaning, however, which had started earlier, was open
and was now taken up with relish.

Elaboration of meaning: development of the Indian style

Elaboration of the meaning, like that of the formal elements, becomes
a concern of the poet when direct expression of simple poetic thoughts

1
Khwand Amir iv, 338.

985
 PERSTAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

no longer satisfies him. Ingenuity and novelty of poetic thought in the

poetry of the period manifest themselves in several ways. One common
instance is to give an existing simile or metaphor a new twist or to
build on its implications. Hazin, for example, takes the hackneyed
metaphor of calling the beloved's face a candle (light) and after revers-
ing it (i.e. candlelight resembles her face in radiance — still a common
variation of the basic metaphor) presents us with the following line:
Sweat of shame ran down from the candle's brow
When it was outshone by your radiant face.1
Another is to hit upon a new simile or metaphor as in the following
line, attributed to Sa'ib:
Like a reed-riding child, in the field of choice
We see ourselves mounted on a steed; in fact we are on foot;2
or the following on the fertile theme of the candle:
Anyone who like the candle exalts his head with a crown of gold,
Will ofttime sit [immersed] to his neck in tears;3
and,
The weeping of the candle is not in mourning for the moth,
Dawn is at hand: it is thinking of its own dark night.4
In another line5 Sa'ib compares the joy of the weary fasters when they
see the new moon which ends the month of Ramadan and announces
the feast of Fitr, to that of those poets who seize upon a new poetic
idea after having constantly searched for it:
For us joy means to seize upon a subtle thought;
For us image makers,6 this is the new moon of the Feast.
A third instance is to read a clever, never previously thought-of
interpretation into a natural phenomenon, a fact of life, a common
experience, or an observation, as in the following lines by Kalim:
1
Hazin, Kuiltyyat, p. 531: the three ghazals with sham' ("candle") as radif offer many elabora-
tions and variations on the old candle metaphors.
2
Not found in Amlrl's edition of the Divan or in Mu'tamin's selections, but quoted in
JahanbanI, p. 510.
3
Sa'ib, Divan, p. 749; translation taken from LHP iv, 276.
4
Sa'ib, Divan, p. 349.
5
Sa'ib, selections ed. Mu'tamin, p. 222 (not found in Amlri's edition).
6
Na^uk-khiyalan, literally "men of subtle imagination".

986
 SECOND PHASE, 1 4 O O — 1 7 5 0 : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

If abandoning comfort does not bring pleasure,

Why is it that the tender-bodied rose makes its bed in thorns?1
and.
The spark knows not of the outcome of things in this world
Look at its ashen body after being draped in satin,2
and again:
Those with an enlightened heart are not attached to their offspring:
Separation from spark is easy for the flame.3
In such verses often the observation or common experience is
expressed in one hemistich, the interpretation or illustration {irsdl
al-masal) in the next, so that the line is complete and self-contained, as
in the following by Sa'ib:
When a man grows old, his greed grows young;
Slumber becomes heavy at the time of dawn.4
The technique often consists of illustrating a dictum or a point claimed
by the poet by an undeniable parallel, as in the line by Kallm:
The mean do not acquire nobility by proximity to the great
The thread does not become precious by its connection with
the pearls;5
and,
If you are satisfied with your portion, the more or less of the
world is the same;
When the thirsty man requires but one draught, the pitcher and the
river are the same.6
A variation of this device is to offer a poetic justification (husn-i ta'lit)
for a statement made by the poet, a device frequently and most inven-
tively used in the poetry of the period — for instance:
His apparent cruelty covers a hidden kindness:
He kills the prey so it will not become lean.7
In another variation, the poet implies validity for a poetic statement as
if it were an acknowledged truth, as in the following line by Sa'ib:
1 2
Kallm, Divan, p. 231. Ibid., p. 520: satin refers to the spark's fiery colour.
3 4
Ibid., p. 307. Sa'ib, selections ed. Mu'tamin, p. 77.
5
Kallm, Divan, p. 117 (no. 77).
6
Ibid., p. 192 (no. 259): the word translated "river" is darya (also "sea", "ocean").
7
Ibid.

987
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

To write letters to the beloved is an alien custom

The moth's letter to the candle is its wings.1
Yet another instance is to reach a new level of poetic exaggeration as in
the line from FighanI:
You appeared in his dream and your feet took on the hue of henna,
So much did he rub them against his eyes!2
A further technique is that of invoking a paradox as in Sa'ib's line:
By bitter words he makes himself [seem] sweet;
It is a disaster to life when a coquette happens to be
sweetly foul-mouthed.3
Still another method is to play on the associative meanings or implica-
tions of words and images so that, apart from the more obvious
purport of the line, accessory relationships and correspondences are
invoked in the mind of the reader, for instance:
Oh my Joseph, how long will you place a blue beauty spot
under your lip,
This dove is not worthy of the hollow of your chin.4
The only raison d'etre of this non-poetic and altogether vapid line is
the correspondences and congruities between its elements: congruence
between Joseph and pit; "blue" {nit) and "the Nile" (an unexpressed
homonymy), the second meaning related to Joseph; chah ("pit") has
invoked the image of dove on account of the expression kabutar-i chdhi,
"wild pigeon".
When such correspondences are not forced they add new dimen-
sions to the line. In fact the intellectual and poetic impact of the ghazals
in the Indian style is very often deepened by such implied cor-
respondences; they invite the reader to discover and appreciate them.
As long as they are not too tenuous, they afford the reader the pleasure
of both wonder and discovery; but only too often the power of expres-
sion is inadequate, and the poet fails to do justice to all the relation-
ships which crowd his mind.
An element which contributes to the intricacy of many a line is the
1
Sa'ib, Divan, p. 242.
2
FighanI, Divan, p. 126. There is deliberate ambiguity here: henna hue either on account of
tenderness of the feet's skin, or from the lover's eyes, which conventionally shed tears of blood.
3
Sa'ib, selections ed. Mu'tamin, p. 192; see also the line from Kallm, above.
4
Sa'ib, selections ed. Mu'tamin, p. 119: the word translated "hollow" is chah, literally "pit".

988
 SECOND PHASE, I 4 O O - I 7 5 O : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

excessive use of constructs based on a metaphor. Conventional meta-

phors in Persian poetry are generally based on correspondence between
two simple ideas, such as "glance" and "dart", "wrath" and "fire".
Persian poets often combine the two elements of a metaphor in a single
phrase where the second word determines the metaphorical nature of
the first, such as tir-i nigdh ("dart of a glance"). Such sets are often
based on a simile (that is, i^dfa-ji tashbiht), but the correspondence may
be otherwise and sometimes be grounded on the implications of two
ideas, such as chashm-i tama' ("the eye of greed") or dast-i ghaib ("the
hand of the Hidden"). The poets of the Indian School sometimes have
too many of these sets in a line, as in the following from Nazlri's elegy
on his child:
Without the breath of morn the orchard of the flower-bud grew dry.
Without the lip of the moist rose-petal, the milk of the clouds
dried up,1
or the following line quoted by the author of Ma'dsir-i Kahlmi from
Shaida (16th century):
When the eye of the sun finds its eyebrow in the horn of Aries,
Night becomes the pupil and day the white, so to speak.2
The reader will have a hard time keeping up with such accumulated
metaphors, particularly if they are unfamiliar and the links on which
they are built are thin or whimsical, as in many poems of the later poets
of this school, like Shaukat Bukhara'I (d. 1107/1696), Nasir 'All
Sahrandi (d. 1108/1697) and above all, the highly imaginative, passion-
ate, but often convoluted and occasionally undecipherable Bldil, whose
flights of fancy and his extraordinary ability to capture far-fetched
correspondences often leave the reader aghast.
Despite their variety, these devices3 can be reduced, however, to one
of two basic techniques: finding new, unexpected links between
unrelated notions, and orchestrating the associative meanings of
words, ideas, and images. In the final analysis both come down to a
single faculty: perceiving uncommon relationships. The more subtle or
tenuous these are, the more ingenious and inventive they will sound,
but also less easy to grasp. It is this cerebral aspect of this "imagist
school" of Persian poetry which is both its great merit and its bane.
1 2
Nazlrl, Divan, p. ;6i. Nahavandl in, 1489.
3
For more extensive examples, see Yarshater, "Safavid Literature", pp. 229-36.

989
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

Modern evaluation
The poetry of this period is generally considered one of decline, and the
term "the Indian style" has assumed a mildly derogatory flavour.1 The
first to hold this view were the members of the Isfahanl group who
began the Literary Revival movement. Lutf 'All Azar's comments in his
tazkira on Sa'ib, the best-known Safavid poet, are indicative of the
opinions of the group. He states that "from the beginning the way to the
firm imagery of the eloquent poets of the past was blocked" to Sa'ib, the
"founder of the distasteful new style". He considers his renown un-
founded, and intimates that only with great effort had he managed to
choose some poems of Sa'ib.2 The harshest indictment of the Safavid
style is penned perhaps by Riza Qull Khan Hidayat (d. 1288/1871), the
well-known Qajar scholar, historian, and anthologist. In his Majma'
al-fusaha', the best-known Persian tazkira, which reflects the orientation
of the qaslda-writers of the Qajar period, he writes:
After the Saljuq poets no progress was obtained in poetry; on the contrary, it
declined daily from the highest level until it reached a middle state with the
poetry of Salman Savajl and his like. A number of poets belonging to this
stage attempted lyric poetry, but exceptforKhwaja Shams al-DIn Muhammad
Hafiz, whose ghazals have been well appreciated by the admirers of form and
substance, there is hardly a divan inherited from them which could be worthy
of hearing. Gradually the poetry declined further from the middle stage and
reached a low level. Under the Tiirkmens and the Safavids, reprehensible
styles appeared .. .and since there were no binding rules for lyrics, the poets,
following their sick natures and distorted tastes, began to write confused, vain
and nonsensical poems. They placed in their poetry insipid meanings instead
of inspired truths, ugly contents ... instead of fine rhetorical devices and
attractive innovations ...but, since every defect is followed by a perfection,
and each separation by a reunion, .. .towards the end of the rule of the Lurs
[the Zand dynasty] several individuals directed their tastes toward reviving
the style of the old masters and demonstrated awareness of the tastelessness of
the style of the later poets and their banal ways .. .and endeavoured .. .to divert
people from their blame-worthy style.3

This view of Safavid poetry, which was echoed by Muhammad Taql

Bahar (d. 1330/1951), a respected contemporary poet and literary

1
For the views of some Western literary historians, see ibid., pp. 217, 227.
2
There are two versions of this comment in Azar, Atashkada 1, 124—5, 1 2 7, following different
3
manuscripts: both are derogatory. Hidayat I, 9—10.

990
 SECOND PHASE, 1 4 O O - 1 7 5 O : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

historian,1 has generally been followed by modern critics.2 The distaste

for this style has received further support from some contemporary
literary scholars who regard the Safavid period as a barren one and
hold the dynasty responsible for the decline of culture and learning in
Persia.3
This view of the Indian school of poetry, however, has by no means
been shared by all. The Literary Revival movement did not have much
impact outside Persia, and the Indian, Ottoman, Afghan, and Central
Asian critics continued to admire the works of 'Urfl, Sa'ib, Nazlri,
Kallm and their like. The lively criticism we often find in works
written in India of some poets of the Indian school is directed not
against the school itself but against individual failings.4 Shibll
Nu'manl, in the third volume of his major history of Persian literature
in Urdu, Shi'r al-'Ajam, although not unaware of some of the excesses
and weaknesses of the poets of this school, still shows great apprecia-
tion of them and treats them almost in the same vein as he has earlier
treated Sa'dl and Hafiz. It may be that in countries outside Persia some
of the formal aspects of poetry are appreciated somewhat differently
than in Persia itself.
Of late some Persian critics, too, have attempted a vindication of the
Indian style.5 The divans of many of the poets of this school have
recently been published, and excerpted lines from them have found
their way into many anthologies, a well known example being that of
Jahanbanl. These poets are now receiving kinder treatment than be-
fore, but the scepticism of the established literary critics, although
moderated, has not been radically altered.

General impression of the poems

The poetry of the Indian school is too often judged - particularly by its
admirers — on the basis of single lines, excerpted from the divans.

1
See his collected literary papers, Bahdr u adab-i First, ed. M. Gulbun (Tehran, 1972), pp. 43ff.
2
For a recent expression of this view, see Aryanpur 1, 7—13.
3
See Muhammad Qazvinl's letter quoted in LHP iv, 26; and cf. the comments of Q. GhanI on
an anthology consisting chiefly of lines written by Indian school poets, in his YddJashthav., ed. C.
GhanI (London, 1984), 621.
4
A lively example is the detailed critique of Hazln's poetry by Siraj al-DIn Arzu (quoted by
Sirishk, pp. 40-53) and a rejoinder by Azad BilgramI, Khi^ana, pp. 194-6.
5
Among others, Amir! in Sa'ib, Divan, p. 2; Mu'tamin, Tabawul, pp. 351, 357 ff., 396; BaizaT
in Kallm, Dipan, introduction, p. 12; Sadat-i Nasirlin Azar, Atashkada 1, 124ff.; Dashtl, pp. 1 jjrT.

991
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

These lines, frequently met in anthologies, are generally clever, dainty,

and imaginative; they are also sometimes polished and eloquent. A
more comprehensive impression is gained, however, when we look at
the divans as a whole. Here we see the infirmity of the language, forced
attempts at cleverness and novelty, crowding of lines with images,
disparateness of ideas expressed in a single ghazal without any clear
philosophical or even ethical focus, and a certain absence of warmth
and emotional authenticity. By its preoccupation with novelty the
spontaneity of this poetry suffers. Some poets like FighanI and VahshI,
who were more interested in conveying their heart's feelings, still
followed the models of the 'Iraqi school and their ghazals are
unmistakably love poems. But more often the poets appear to be so
concerned with discovering novel ideas and unexpected turns and
making clever allusions that the ghazal loses some of its emotive effect
and forfeits its naturalness. In the works of the later poets of the period
the ghazal is often no longer an expression of the poet's feelings, but an
arena for the play of poetic wit and invention. Images and ideas
become almost free and assume a life of their own.
The music of the ghazals also call for some comment. Whereas the
qasldas generally retain their vivid musical quality, in the ghazal the
lively rhythms and well-phrased modulations of the former poets are
often replaced by languid, monotonous ones. This is partly because
frequently longer metres, such as ha^aj octameters (four times mafSilun
to each hemistich), were chosen by the poets, possibly to enable them to
express complex thought in a single line, but this cannot explain the
dragging and monotonous arrangements of short and long syllables
within a chosen metre. Only infrequently do we find in the ghazals of the
17th century those exciting, dance-inspiring or virile rhythms1 we en-
counter in the poetry of the old masters. The music of the ghazals and
the masnavls seems to be well in tune with a spirit of meekness advo-
cated by the mystics and the devout humility that the poet assumed
vis-a-vis the beloved. The musical aspect of Persian poetry, however, is
an area which has not been studied adequately and requires further
research.
Not only in music, but also in language the ghazal lost ground. The
'Iraqi ghazal is characterised by elegance and adequacy of expression. It
uses a polished, well-crafted language, the elements of which fit

1
For an excellent example of such rhythms, see Nazlri, Divan, p. 195 (no. 279).

992
 SECOND PHASE, I 4 O O — 1 7 5 0 : THE I N D I A N SCHOOL

together in a grammatically sound and musically pleasing manner. With

the poets of the Indian school the language becomes somewhat loose;
the syntax, which is the linguistic expression of logical thought, weak-
ens and the exclusive diction of the ghazal breaks down; common
words of everyday life enter the lyrics.1 The admission of common
words is not detrimental by itself; it could even be beneficial, as in the
case of Traj (d. 1343/1924) and Parvln (d. 1320/1941) in a later period. It
is their uneasy grafting onto a select language combined with syntactic
and expressive weakness that marks the poor quality of diction and is
considered a negative aspect of this poetry.
On the other hand, these poems allow a variety of content which we
do not find in the 'Iraqi ghazals. They contain many universal state-
ments, points of practical wisdom, mystical sentiments and moral
advice, generally enlivened by a poetic, unexpected illustration. It must
be pointed out, however, that such statements do not emanate from
any system of thought. They are scattered remarks occasioned by the
poet's having seized upon some congruity or elusive relationship.
Thus these poems on the one hand become less intimate, but on the
other more observant. The latter quality was not lost on the critics of
the period. They refer to it as vuqii'-gii'i, which means observing and
expressing real or natural situations occurring in the course of the
lover's experience. The following line from Nazlrl is a case in point:
His kindness cannot be trusted.
I am a new lover and his mind does not suspect me;2
or the following lines from Sharaf-i Jahan:
He will answer me aloud so as to make my rival aware
If I should ask him a question in confidence;3
and
Stealthily my eyes wandered over his face
He turned his glance toward me, and I was ashamed.4
But while we find many fine lines and, here and there, splendid
ghazals, these hardly diminish the general impression. In view of its
1
Mu'tamin, Tabavvul, pp. 565, 380, brings together a number of these words and phrases.
2
Nazlrl, Divan, p. jo (no. 79).
3
Quoted by Shibll Nu'manl in, 18, from Azad Bilgraml, who expressed the view that Sharaf -i
Jahan (d. 962/15; 5), a vizier of Tahmasp I, gave an impetus to vuqS-gu'I and was a frequent user
of it. * Ibid.

993
 PERSIAN POETRY: TIMURID AND SAFAVID PERIODS

emphasis on witty content, the Indian style poetry reads better than
'Iraqi or KhurasanI poetry in translation,1 once its conventions are
understood. Its language and formal qualities, lost to translation, do
not match, however, the inventiveness of its thought and remain some-
what jarring.

The cause of decline

The development of Persian lyric poetry from its inception is entirely

coherent and understandable. From a sturdy and joyous beginning —
with a rather gratified lover as its protagonist — it develops into a
passionate poetry of superb diction, and eventually leads to the intri-
cate ghazals of the later phase of the Indian style, gradually losing its
emotional force and linguistic splendour. In the end it reads more like a
riddle, lost in the web of recondite thought and crowded imagery.
Such a course is not uncommon in the development of many an art and
literature. All manner of theories, mostly of a political nature, have
been offered to account for the decline of classical Persian literature.
Actually, the development of Persian poetry in the 14th to 18th cen-
turies does not seem to have been much affected by political, social, or
religious events. Neither the destructive invasion of Tlmur, nor the
religious militarism of the Safavids, nor the enlightened encouragement
of the Great Mughals seems to have substantially altered its course. This
course does not require much explanation, any more than do the rise,
decline, and fall of political systems or social institutions. The decline
simply comes with old age and the exhaustion of creative energy. Rather
than having been caused by external events, it is, like some of the events
themselves, a manifestation of diminishing spiritual strength.
In the period we have surveyed we are dealing with the last organic
phase of "classical" Persian poetry. This phase did not come to an end
without a final show of vigour. It gave us a vast body of poetry that, its
flaws notwithstanding, has enriched Persian literature with gems of
ingenious poetry in tens of thousands of sparkling lines.

1 Cf. LHP iv, 164.

994
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The abbreviations used in the bibliographies and the footnotes are given
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A AWL Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der
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Acta Iranica Acta Iranica (Encyclopedic permanente des etudes iran-
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Acta Orientalia Acta Orientalia (ediderunt Societates Orientales Batava
Danica Norvegica Svedica) (Copenhagen)
Acta Orientalia Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (Buda-
Hung. pest)
AI Ars Islamica = Ars Orientalis (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
AI(U)ON Annali. htituto (Universitare) Orientale di Napoli
AKM Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes
(Leipzig)
AMI Archaologische Mitteilungen aus Iran (old series 9 vols
1929—38; new series 1968—) (Berlin)
AN Akademiya Nauk
Anatolia Anatolia (Revue annuelle d'archeologie) (Ankara)
Anatolica Anatolica (Annuaire international pour les civilisations de
l'Asie anterieure) (Leiden)
AO Ars Orientalis (continuation of Ars Islamica}
AOAW An^eiger der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
(Phil. Hist. Klasse) (Vienna)
Arabica Arabica (Revue d'etudes arabes) (Leiden)
Arm'aghan Armaghdn (a monthly literary and historical magazine),
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ArOr Archiv Oriental/!/ (quarterly journal of African, Asian and
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Athar-e Iran A. Godard (ed.), Athar-e Iran (Annales du service
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Ayanda Ayanda (A Persian journal of Iranian studies), vols 1—4
(Tehran, 1304/1925-1322/1943)^01.5 (1358/1979")
BAIPAA Bulletin of the American Institute for Version (Iranian) Art
and Archaeology, 5 vols (New York, 1930-42)
Belleten Belleten {Turk Tarih Kurumu) (Ankara)
BEO Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales de I'Institut Francois de Damas
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BIFAO Bulletin de I'Institut Francois dArcheologie Orientale (Cairo)
BMQ British Museum Quarterly (London)
BSO(A)S Bulletin of the School of Oriental (and African) Studies (Uni-
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995
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By^antion By^antion (Revue Internationale des Etudes Byzantines)
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Cahiers du Monde (Paris, 195 9-)
Russe et Sovietique
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Der Islam (Strassburg)
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Endeavour (a quarterly review of the progress of science and tech-
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Eranos Jahrbuch (Leiden)
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FIZ Farhang-i Jrdn-Zamtn, 24 vols (Tehran, 133 2/1953—
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GETOV Gosudarstvennyi Ermita^h. Trudy Otdela Vostoka
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IJMES International Journal of Middle East Studies (Los Angeles -
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Imago Mundi (the journal of the International society for the history of
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lndo-lranica (the quarterly organ of the Iran Society) (Calcutta)
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Iran Iran (Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies)
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Iranica = (Journal of Iranian studies) (Faculty of Letters and
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IS Islamic Studies (Denver, Colorado)
Isis (International review devoted to the history of science)

V
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Islamica Islamica (dirasat islamiyya) (Cairo)
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JAH Journal of Asian History (Wiesbaden)
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society (New York)
JASB Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Calcutta)
JASP Journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan (Dacca)
JBORS Journal of the Bihar (and Orissa) Research Society (Patna)
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JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies (Chicago)
JPHS Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society (Karachi)
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London)
JRCAS Asian Affairs = Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society
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JRCI Journal of the Regional Cultural Institute
KO Kunst des Orients (Wiesbaden)
KSIIMK Kratkie soobshcheniya o dokladakh i polevykh issledovaniyakh
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997
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CHAPTER 6
For an annotated general bibliography of the Safavid period, see Savory,
"Bibliography on the History of Iran under the Safavids," in Bibliographical
Guide to Iran, ed. L. P. Elwell-Sutton (London, 1983).
Valuable information on the Safavid administrative system may be gleaned
from the immensely rich and important European travel literature relating to
Iran during the Safavid period. A useful summary of the available editions of
the European travellers to Safavid Iran is contained in:
John Emerson, Ex Occidente Lux. Some European sources on the economic structure
of Persia between about 1630 and 1690. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
Cambridge, 1969.
*Minorsky, Tadhkirat al-Muluk, pp. 6—9, has brief assessments of the value
of the main travel accounts.
Few Iranian scholars have devoted much attention to Safavid administrative
institutions. An exception is:
*Falsaff, Zindagani.
Works which contain a substantial amount of material on Safavid administra-
tive institutions:
Bellan L.-L. Chah 'Abbas I. Paris, 1932.
*Busse. Untersuchungen.

1037
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
*Chardin.
EP:
"Dariigha" (A. K. S. Lambton);
"Ghulam, ii. Persia" (C. E. Bosworth);
"Kizilbash." (R. M. Savory).
*Hinz, Irons Aufstieg.
*Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, chapter 5.
*Lockhart, The Fall.
•Malcolm, History of Persia.
Pearson, J. D., Index Islamicus, Cambridge 1958-. See articles by Jean Aubin,
Hafez F. Farmayan, A. K. S. Lambton, Laurence Lockhart,
V. Minorsky, J. R. Perry, H. R. Roemer, and R. M. Savory.
Savory, R. M. Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge, 1980.
Other works:
Keyvani, Mehdi. Artisans and Guild Life in the later Safavid period. Berlin, 1982
(IU LXV).
* Lambton. "Quis custodiet custodes?".
Savory, R. M. "The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of
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"The principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of Tahmasp I",
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"Safavid Persia", in Cambridge History of Islam 1, ed. P. M. Holt et al.
(Cambridge, 1970), 394-429.
"The Safavid State and Polity", IrSt vn (1974), 179—212, with "Com-
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"Some notes on the provincial administration of the early Safavid empire",
BSOAS XXVII (1964), 114-28; to be supplemented by Minorsky,
Tadhkirat al-Muluk.
"The struggle for supremacy in Persia after the death of Timur", Der Islam
XL (1964), 35-65.

CHAPTERS 7 AND 8
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Aubin, Jean. "Les princes d'Ormuz du XHIe au XVe siecle", JA CCXLI
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Barbaro. See ^Travels to Tana and Persia.
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CHAPTER 1 4
For a general survey one should refer to the following large volumes of
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years after the Exhibition of Mohammedan Art in Munich in 1910 there

1053
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appeared F. Sarre and F. R. Martin, Die Ausstellung von Meisterwerken Muham-
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Fundamental information is also supplied by W.v. Bode and E. Kiihnel,
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Specifically on the fabrics see also O. v. Falke, Kunstgeschichte der Seidenweberei
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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Shabnameh of Ferdowsi, the Baysonghori manuscript : an album of miniatures

and illuminations. Tehran, 1971.
"Some Chinoiserie drawings and their origin", in Forschungen ^ur Kunst
Asiens; in Memoriam K. Erdmann, ed. O. Aslanapa and R. Naumann
(Istanbul, 1969), pp. 159—71.
"The Tradition of Wall Painting in Iran", in Highlights of Persian Art, ed.
R. Ettinghausen and E. Yarshater (Boulder, Co., 1979), pp. 32i~7-
Grube, E. J. The Classical Style in Islamic Painting. New York, 1968.
Miniature islamiche dal XIII al XIX secolo. Venice, 1962.
"Notes on the Decorative Arts of the Timurid period", in Gurardjamanjar-
ikd: studi in onore di Giuseppe Tucci (Naples, 1974), pp. 233—79.
The World of Islam. New York, 1966.
Grube, E. J., and Sims, E. G. "Wall paintings in the seventeenth century
monuments of Isfahan", IrSt vn (1974), 511—42.
Gulbenkian Foundation: Exhibition of Islamic Art. Lisbon, 1963.
Gyuzal'yan, L. T., and D'yakonov, M. M. Iranskie miniatyury v rukopisyakh
Shakh-Name leningradskikh sobranii. Leningrad, 1935.
Hill, D., and Grabar, O. Islamic Architecture and its Decoration, A.D. SOO-IJOO.
London, 1964.
*Hunarfar. Ganjina.
Inal, Giiner. "Artistic relationship between the Far and Near East as reflected
in the miniatures of the Garni' at-Tawarikh", KO x (1976), 108—43.
Iran, Persian Miniatures - Imperial Library. (UNESCO) Paris, 1956.
Ivanov, A. A., Grek, T. V., and Akimushkin, O. F. Albom Indiiskikh i
Persidskikh Miniatyur XVI-XVIII vv. Moscow, 1962.
Kiihnel, E. Islamische Kleinkunst. Braunschweig, 1963.
Miniaturmalerei im islamischen Orient. Berlin, 1923 (Kunst des Ostens 7).
Lane, A. Later Islamic Pottery. 2nd ed. London, 1957.
*Lockhart. The Fall.
Luckey-Schmeisser, I. "Der Wand- und Deckenschmuck eines safavidischen
Palastes in Nayln", AMI 11 (1969), 183-92.
Lukens, M. G. "The Language of the Birds; the fifteenth-century miniatures",
MMAB xxv (1967), 317-38.
Mahfuz ul-Haq, M. "Persian painters, illuminators, and calligraphists, etc., in
the 16th century A.D.", JASB n.s. xxvm (1932), 239-49.
Marteau, G., and Vever, H. Miniatures persanes expose'es au Muse'e des Arts
Decoratifs, 2 vols. Paris, 1913.
Martin, F. R. The Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey from
the 8th to the iSth century, 2 vols. London, 1912.
Miniatures from the period of Timur in a MS of the Poems of Sultan Ahmad Jalair.
Vienna, 1926.
*Minorsky. Tadb_kirat al-Muluk.
Nott, C. S. The Conference of the Birds, by Farid ud-Din Attar: a translation of the
Persian poem Mantiq ut-Tair. London, 1954.
Ozergin, M. Kemal. "Temiirlu sanatina ait eski bir beige: Tebrizli Ca'fer'in bir
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1061
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Persian Art: Calouste Gulbenkian Collection. Lisbon, 1972.
Pinder-Wilson, R. "Bihzad", in Enciclopedia Universale dellArte (Venice and
Rome, i960), pp. 600-4.
Persian Painting in the fifteenth century. London, 1958.
Pope, J. A. Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine. Washington, 1956.
*Pugachenkova and Rempel'. Istoriya Iskusstv U^bekistana.
Qazi Ahmad. Calligraphers and painters; a treatise by Qadi Ahmad, son of
Mir-Munshi, trans. V. Minorsky. Washington, 1959.
Qazvini, MIrza Muhammad. "An Account of the Mu' nisu' l-Ahrar", BSOS v
(1928-30), 97-108.
Qazvini, MIrza Muhammad, and Bouvat, L. "Deux documents inedits relatifs
a Behzad", RMAf xxvi (1914), 146-61.
Reitlinger, G. "The Interim Period in Persian Pottery: an essay in chrono-
logical revision", AI v (1938), 155-78.
Robinson, B. W. Drawings of the Masters; Persian Drawings. New York, 1965.
Persian Miniature Painting from collections in the British Isles. London, 1967.
"Prince Baysonghor's Nizam!: a speculation", AO 11 (1957), 383-91.
"The Shahnameh Manuscript Cochran 4 in the Metropolitan Museum of
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" T h e Tehran manuscript of Kalila wa Dimna. A reconstruction", Oriental
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Anwar-i Suhayli of 1593", Oriental Art n.s. XVIII (1972), 50—6.
"An Unpublished Manuscript of the Gulistan of Sa'di", in Beitrdge %ur
Kunstgeschichte Asiens. In Memoriam Ernst Die%, ed. O. Aslanapa (Istanbul,
1963), pp. 223-36.
Robinson, B. W., Grube, E. J., Meredith-Owens, G., and Skelton, R. W. The
Keir Collection: Islamic painting and the arts of the book, 3 vols. London, 1976.
Sakisian, A. B. L,a Miniature Persane du Xlle au XVIIe siecle. Paris and Brussels,
1929.
"Mahmud Mudhahib - miniaturiste, enlumineur et calligraphe persan", AI
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1942.
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AA XVII (1968), 45-58. '
Les miniaturespersanes: Muse'e National du Louvre. Paris, 1932.
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Lespeintures des manuscrits de la 'Khamseh' de Nizami au Topkapi Sarayi Mii^esi
d1Istanbul. Paris, 1977.
* Manuscrits Safavis.
*Manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas.
*Manuscrits Timurides.

1062
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Swietochowski, M. L. "The Historical Background and illustrative character

of the Metropolitan Museum's Mantiq al-Tair", in Ettinghausen, Islamic
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8—11.
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Shah 'Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan. New York, 1973.
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York, 1972.
Persian Painting: five royal Safavid manuscripts of the sixteenth century. New
York, 1976.
Wonders of the Age: masterpieces of early Safavid painting, ijoi-76. New York, 1979.
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7000 Years of Iranian Art. Washington, 1964.

CHAPTERS I 7 ( a ) , I 7 ( c ) AND l 8
As the poets mentioned in these chapters are numerous and their works are
very often available in more than one edition, only those who have been
examined in some detail are represented in this bibliography. For the chroni-
clers, see the bibliographies to chapters 1 — 5 (primary sources); and for writers
on religious or philosophical matters, see those to chapters 11 and 12.
'Abd al-Ghanl, Muhammad. A History of Persian Language and Literature at the
Mughal Court (Babur to Akbar) 1-11. Allahabad, 1929; in, Allahabad, 1930.
'Abd al-Nabl Qazvlnl. Ta%kira-yi maikhdna, ed. A. Gulchln-i Ma'anl. Tehran, 1961
(includes Muhammad Shaff's introduction from his Lahore edition of 1926).
Arberry, A. J. Classical Persian Literature. London, 1958.
Aryanpur, Yahya. A% Sabd td Nimd, 2 vols. Tehran, 1972.
Aslah, Muhammad. Ta^kira-yi shu'ard-yi Kashmir, ed. Husam al-DIn Rashldl.
Karachi, 1967.

1063
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bada'unT, 'Abd al-Qadir. Muntakhab al-tavdrikh, ed. M. A. 'All, 3 vols. Cal-

cutta, 1868-9.
Dashtl, 'All. Nigdhiba Sa'ib. Tehran, 1977.
Daulatshah b. 'Ala' al-Daula Samarqandi. Ta^kirat al-shu'ard, ed. E. G.
Browne, Leiden and London, 1901.
*FalsafI. Zindagdni.
Faslh-i Khwafl. Mujmal-i Fasihi, ed. Mahmud Farrukh, 3 vols. Mashhad,

Fighanl. Divan, ed. S. Khwansarl. Tehran, 1937.

Gibb, E. J. W. A History of Ottoman Poetry 1. London, 1900, repr. 1965.
Gulchln-i Ma'anI, A. Tdrikh-i ta%kirahd-yi Fdrsi, 2 vols. Tehran, 1969—71.
Hafiz. Divan, ed. Qasim GhanI and Muhammad Qazvlnl. Tehran,
1320/1941-2.
Hafiz-i Abru. Cinq opuscules de Hdfi^-i Abrii, ed. Felix Tauer. Prague, 1959.
Zail-i Jam? al-tavdrikh, ed. Khan-baba Bayanl. 2nd ed. Tehran, 13 50/1971.
Hazln, Shaikh 'AH. Kulliyyat. Cawnpore, 1893.
Ta%kirat al-abvdl, ed. F. C. Balfour. London, 1831. Trans, idem, The Life of
Sheikh Mohammed Alt Ha^in. London, 1830.
Hidayat, Riza Quli Khan. Majma' al-fusahd, ed. M. Musaffa, 6 vols. Tehran,
1957-61.
*HIL
Isfizarl, Mu'in al-Dln. Kau^at al-jannat fi ausdf madinat Hardt, ed. Muhammad
Kazim Imam, 2 vols. Tehran, 1338/1959.
Iskandar Beg Munshl. larikh-i 'dlam-dra-ji 'Abbdsi. Tehran, 1314/1935—6;
*trans. Savory.
JahanbanI, Muhammad Husain. Gulchin-i Jahdnbdni. Tehran, 1937.
Kallm. Divan, ed. P. Baiza'I. Tehran, 1957.
Khwand Amir. Habibal-siyar, ed. M. Dabir-Siyaqi, 4 vols. Tehran, 1333/1954.
*LHP
Mir Khwand. Raufat al-safd, 10 vols. Tehran, 13 38-9/1960.
Mu'tamin, Zain al-'Abidln. Tahavvul-i shi'r-i Fdrsi. Tehran, i960.
Nahavandl, 'Abd al-Baql. Ma'dsir-i Rahimi, ed. M. Hidayat Husain, 3 vols.
Calcutta, 1910—31.
NasrabadI, Muhammad Tahir. Ta^kira, ed. Vahld Dastgirdi. Tehran, 1938.
Nava'I, Mir 'AH Shir. Majdlis al-nafd'is, Persian translations ed. 'AH Asghar
Hikmat. Tehran, 1323/1945 (pp. 1-178, Fakhri Haratl's trans., l^atd'if-
ndma; pp. 179—409, Shah Muhammad Qazvlnl's trans.).
Muhdkamat al-lughatain, trans. R. Devereux. Leiden, 1966.
Nazlrl. Divan, ed. M. Musaffa. Tehran, 1961.
Nisari, Baha' al-Dln Hasan. Ta^kira-ji Mu%akkir-i abbdb, ed. M. S. Fazl-Allah.
New Delhi, 1969.
Qasim al-Anvar. Kulliyjat, ed. Sa'Id Naflsl. Tehran, 1957.
Safa, Zablh-Allah. Tdrikh-i adabiyydt dar Iran, 4 vols. Tehran, 1959-77.
Sa'ib Tabriz!, Muhammad 'All. Divan, ed. Amlri Flruzkuhl, 2nd impression
Tehran, 1957. Selections ed. Z. Mu'tamin, Ash'dr-i bargu^ida-yi Sa'ib.
Tehran, n.d. [1941].
1064
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sana'!, Hasan.
ed. S. M. Fazl-Allah. Hyderabad, 1969.
Sandilavi, Ahmad 'All Hashimi. Ta%kira-yi Makh^an al-ghard'ib, ed.
Muhammad Baqir, 3 vols. Lahore, 1968—72.
Shibll Nu'mani. Shi'r al-'Ajam, ed. Mas'ud 'All Sahib Nadvl, 5th impression
A'zamgarh, 1956, in.
Sirishk, M. Ha^in Ldhijt. Mashhad, 1963.
Tatavl, 'AH Shir. Maqdldt al-shu' ard, ed. Husam al-Dln Rashldi. Karachi, 1957.
Yarshater, Ehsan. "Safavid Literature: Progress or Decline?", IrSt vn (1974),
217-70.
Shi'r-i Fdrsidar 'ahd-i Shah Rukh. T e h r a n , 1955.
"The theme of wine drinking and the concept of the beloved in early
Persian poetry", SI xin (1960), 43—53.
CHAPTER 1 7 (b)
Editions
Ahmad, Nazir, and Na'Inl, S. M. Riza Jalali. Divdn-i Hdfi^. Tehran, 1971.
Brockhaus, H. Die Lieder des Hafi%. Leipzig, 1854-60; repr. 1969.
Ghanl, Qasim, and Qazvinl, Mlrza Muhammad. Divdn-i Hafiz. Tehran,
1320/1941—2.

Secondary Material
The main sources are: LHP in, 271-319; H. Ritter, "Hafiz", hi. Ans.\ A. J.
Arberry, Classical Version Literature (London, 1958), chapter XIII; A.
Bausani, "Letteratura Neopersiana", in A. Pagliaro and A. Bausani,
Storia della letteratura Persiana (Milan, i960), pp. 437—50; and HIL.
Boyce, M. "A Novel Interpretation of Hafiz", BSOAS xv (1953), 279-88.
Christensen, A. Kulturskitserfra Iran. Copenhagen, 1937.
Galimova, G. "The oldest manuscript of the poems of Hafiz", SV 1959,
p p . 105 — 12.
Lescot, R. "Chronologie de l'ceuvre de Hafiz", BEO x (1944), 57-100.
Rehder, R. M. "The text of Hafiz", JAOS xciv (1974), 145-56.
"New Material for the text of Hafiz", Iran in (1965), 109-19.
Rempis, C. Beitrdge %ur Chajjam-Yorschung. Leipzig, 1957 (AKM XXII/I).
Roemer, H. R. "Probleme der Hafizforschung und der Stand ihrer Losung",
AAWL, Kl. d. Lit., 1951, no. 3, 98-115.
*Staatsschreiben.
Schaeder, H. H. Goethes Erlebnis des Ostens. Leipzig, 1938.
"Lasst sich die 'seelische Entwicklung' des Dichters Hafiz ermitteln?", OLZ
XLV (1942), 201-10.
Wickens, G. M. "An analysis of primary and secondary significations in the
third ghazal of Hafiz", BSOAS xiv (1952), 627-38.
"Hafiz", El1.
"The Persian Conception of Artistic Unity", BSOAS xiv (1952), 239—53.

1065
i An astrolabe made in 1127/171; by ' Abd al-A'imma, the younger, retc side.
2. 'Abd al-A'imma's astrolabe, back, showing the alidade.
; Khusrau and Shlrln, ascribed to Bihzad, late 15 th century
4 Woollen knotted carpet, Persia, first half of the i6th century, 4.98 X 3.40 m.
Multiple woollen prayer rug, with pattern arranged in rows, Persia,
first half of the 16th century, 2.74 x 1.22 m., fragment.
 ••-:•>,/*%* •

0 W o o l l e n k n o t t e d carpet, t h e so-called A r d a b i l c a r p e t , P e r s i a , d a t e d 1539 4 0 ,

n . j z x 5-34 rn.
7 W o o l l e n k n o t t e d c a r p e t , Persia, d a t e d 1522—3, 6 . 8 0 x 3.33 m .
8 Woollen knotted carpet, "north-west Persian medallion
carpet", first half of the 16th century, two fragments,
6.04 x j.96 m. and 2.31 X 1.55 m.
9 Woollen knotted carpet, "Herat carpet", 16th century, fragment 3.67 x 2.78 m.
io Woollen knotted carpet, "vase carpet", Persia, first half of the 17th century,
9 ft 3 in x 6 ft 6 in.
Woollen knotted carpet, "Portuguese carpet", Persia, first half of the
17th century.
12 Woollen knotted carpet, "Sanguszko group", Persia, second half of the 16th century, fragment
3-75 X2.70 m.
13 Silk knotted carpet, " H u n t i n g carpet", Persia, 16th century, 6.93 x j . 2 ; m.
14 Silk tapestry-woven carpet, Kashan, latter half of the 16th century, 2.14 X 1.46 m.
15 a Silk knotted carpet, Persia, 16th century, 2.49 X 1.70 m. 15 i Silk knotted carpet with gold and silver brocade, the
so-called "Polonaise carpet", Isfahan, first quarter of the 17th
century, 2.01 X 1.41 m.
C o p e , knotted in silk with brocade, Isfahan, b e g i n n i n g o f the 17th century.
17 Velvet, enriched with metal thread, Persia, 16th century. Height of repeating pattern 54 cm.
18 Satin, Persia, beginning of the 17th century. Height of repeating pattern 24 cm.
 "H

19" Yazd. Masjid-i Jami', portal. Yazd. Masjid-i Jami', view of court and sanctuary aivan.
20 Turbat-i Shaikh Jam. Masjid-i KirmanI, east wall, transverse vaults.
 i a Isfahan. Masjid-i Jami', mibrab of the adjoining madrasa.

Samarqand, Shah-i Zinda. Detail of portal of the tomb of Terken Aqa.

2d Samarkand, Shah-i Zinda. Detail of facade of the mausoieum of Samarqand. Gur-i iMTr, general view.
Tuman Aqa.
23 Turkistan, mausoleum of Ahmad YasavT, south elevation of the "complex" containing mosque, mausoleum, khdnqah and library.
24a Mashhad. Gauhar Shad mosque, sanctuary aivan. 24 £ Mashhad. Gauhar Shad mosque, detail of foundation
inscription.
Is
SrT
O
-6
26 Herat, Gauhar Shad Musalla. Interior of the mausoleum of Gauhar Shad.
27 Herat, Gauhar Shad Musalla. Inside of the dome of the mausoleum of Gauhar Shad.
28 Khargird. Madrasa of Ghiyas al-DTn, interior of eastern domed room.
29 Herat, G a z u r G a h . Detail o f faience in sanctuary aivan.
 wmm
wimm,

50a Isfahan, Darb-i Imam, facade. Isfahan, Darb-i Imam, detail of faience.
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ s^ysi^^?tMg
31 tf Tabriz. Blue mosque, main sanctuary, northwest side. 31 b Tabriz. Blue mosque, main sanctuary, northeast
side.
32a Tabriz. Blue mosque, detail of main portal.

32 b Tabriz. Blue mosque, interior.

33 Woollen knotted carpet, "garden carpet", first half of the 17th century.
Size, 17ft 3 Jin X 14ft jin.
34 Velvet, metal thread ground, Persia, beginning of the 17th century
Total height, 1.35 m.
35 V e l v e t , metal thread g r o u n d , Persia, first h a i f o f t h e 1 7 t h c e n t u r y .
H e i g h t o f r e p e a t i n g pattern 35 c m .
36 Khusrau at the palace of Shirin. Miniature added to a manuscript of the Khamsa of
Nizami in 1505 at Tabriz. Size, 29 X 19 cm.
37 The court of Gayumars, by Sultan Muhammad. From the Shab-numa of
Shah Tahmasp. Tabriz, c. 1520-30. Size, 34.2 X 23.1 cm.
38 Sam and Zal are welcomed into Kabul; Rudaba on the balcony. From the
Sh'ah-nama of Shah Tahmasp. Tabriz, c. 1520—30. Size, 24.4 X 17.2 cm.
39 Isfahan, Chihil Sutun. Wall-painting in a niche in the room P4. Girl seated by a stream.
Attributed to Muhammad Qasim. Size, about 1.8 X 1.5 m. Date, c. 1647.
40 Isfahan, Chihil Sutun. Wall-painting in a niche in the room P4. Court picnic in
the country. Attributed to Muhammad Qasim. Date, c. 1647.
4i Na'Tn. Vault in palatial building.
42 Mahan. Vaults in shrine of Shah Ni'mat-Allah ValT.
43" Isfahan. Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah, exterior. 43 b Isfahan. Masjid-i Shaikh Lutf-Allah, interior.
 44" Isfahan. Khaju bridge, lower side.

44^ Isfahan. Caravansarai and madrasa of Shah Sultan Husain.

£
-5
4<y Gaz. Safavid caravansarai.
47 Divan of Khwaju-yi Kirmani, wedding celebrations of Prince Humai and Princess Humayun.
Signed Junaid, Baghdad, 1596. Size, 1 i j x j \ in.
 \f. '/JJ V^""! \Jr' ^-J '

48 Kbamsa of Nizami, arrival of Khusrau at the palace of Srurln. Baghdad, 1586-8.

Size, 18.5 x 12.5 cm.
 i-c-} K. v.s^w--'- <~:

49 ^ hkandar-ndma
of Nizaml,
Iskandar sleeping.
ShTraz, 1440.
Size, z\ x 1 in.

49 A Anthology of Iskandar Sultan, Iskandar visits a hermit. Shlraz, 1410-11. Size,

6 x 3^ in.
50 Anthology of Iskandar Sultan, illuminated frontispiece. ShTraz, 1410. Size, 27.3 x 18 cm.
51 Shah-ndma of FirdausT, Isfandiyar slaying Arjasp in the Brazen Hold. Herat, 1430. Size, 38 x 26 cm.
Shah-nama of Firdausi, Isfandiyar slaying Arjasp in the Brazen Hold. Herat, c. 1440.
Size, 19. $ x 14 cm.
T^x~~yr=7l ':^£,C77T^T

5} Ta'rikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk of Tabarl, Bahram Gur attacking a lion. Tabriz, 1470.
Size, 24.6 x 15 cm.
&l'*Jr/s>tyyJ2^^J?1tt >&<i;LhJJiy*stX^U;?>ls:i>#l»'zJ;iji

54 Kallla va Dimna, The Fable of the Four Friends. Tabriz, 1450-60. Size, 29 x 20 cm.
Kbamsa of NizamT, the battle of the tribes of Laila and Majnun. Herat, 1490. Size, 5\ X 3^ in.
56 Mantiq al-tair of 'Attar, funeral procession at the gate of a hayra. Herat, c. 1487.
Size,-9} x (^ in.
57 JAaAa Danish of Hatifi, Darvlsh conducting a school. Bukhara, dated i (42-
Size, 19.8 X 1 i.j cm
5 8 <z Brass wine jar decorated with gold and silver, showing the
dedication to Husain Balqara under the foot, with the date A.H. 903 (A.D.
1497) and signature of Muhammad b. Isma'Il Ghurl. Herat, 1497.
Height, 13 cm.

58^ Silver gilt tankard, chased and engraved with the

name of QSsim b. 'AIT. Date, c. 1400. Height, 21.5 cm.
; 'V^Li-yj*/^^; ~t^..v-(/^.-->%/>- t"'w*'--*V-*er.'--' '

1>, '6^

59 Jamalu jalal of Asafi, Jalal before the turquoise dome. Tabriz, 1504-5. Size, 50.5 X 19.5 cm.
60 Divan of Hafiz, new moon on the feast of *Id. By Sultan Muhammad, dedicated to Sam
Mlrza, Tabriz, 1530—5. Size, 29 X 18.5 cm.
6i Kbamsa of Nizaml, King Nushirvan and his vizier at a ruined village. By Mir Musavvir, Tabriz,
1539-43. Size, 36.8 x 2j-4 cm.
62 Tuhfat al-ahrar o f J a m l , E a s t African w i t h a m i r r o r . M a s h h a d , 1556. S i z e , 34.2 X 23.2 c m .
63a Portrait of a chamberlain, by Mir Musavvir, Tabriz, c. 1535-40. 63A Album of the Amir of Bukhara, a young falconer at the
Size, 33X22 cm. court. Attributed to Sadiql Beg, Qazvin, c. 1590. Size,
16.2 X 7.8 cm.
64 Shah-nana of FirdausI, Blzhan drawn up from the wel! by Rustam, Isfahan, ,6,4- Size
36.4X20.5 cm.
 « ^ i '^'^••••f

65 <? A girl holding a fan, by At^a Rixa, Qazvm, c 6^/; A girl holding a wine cup and flask, by Muhammatl
1595. Size, 16.1 x 9.8 cm. Yusuf, Isfahan, c. 1641. Size, 1 8 X 10.5 cm.
66 Khamsa of Nizaml, ShTrln discovers the murder of her husband Khusrau, by Muhammad
Zaman, Isfahan, dated 1675.
67 Lacquer-painted book-cover, front side. Tabriz, c. 1540. Size, 25 x 40 cm.
68 Tooled and gilt leather binding, one cover. Tabriz, c. 15 50-60. Size, 40 X 30 cm.
69 Panel of polychrome tiles in cuerda seca technique, from a pavilion in the Chahar Bagh, Isfahan, c. 1640. Length, 1.98 m.
70 Steel helmet, with carved and gilt decoration: dedication to Shah 'Abbas I with the date 1625-6.
Height, 27.3 cm.
71 Shdh-ndma of FirdausT, Rustam recovers Rakhsh. Herat style. Size, 35.3 X 28 cm. From the
Shdh-ndma of Shah Tahmasp, c. 1520-30.
 o

72 Shdh-nama of FirdausT, Bahram Gur pins the coupling onagers. Size, 20.7 x 17.2 cm. From the
Shdh-nama of Shah Tahmasp.