Which factor played a role in the decline of the Safavid Empire?
A. The Ottoman Empire cut off Safavid trade with Europe and Asia.
B. The military could not hold onto territory after the conquest of Constantinople.
C. The government under Shah Abbas was ineffective and could not maintain control of the empire.
D. Sunni Muslims rose up after Safavid officials tried to forcibly convert them.
Answers
Answer:
The three Islamic empires of the early modern period – the Mughal, the Safavid, and the Ottoman – shared a common Turko-Mongolian heritage. In all three the ruling dynasty was Islamic, the economic system was agrarian, and the military forces were paid in grants of land revenue. Despite these similarities, however, significant differences remained. And, to fully appreciate the individual temporal systems, a brief description of the political, economic, religious, and cultural conditions in each state is necessary. Within the confines of a single chapter, however, it is not possible to review all of the literature and settle all of the controversies. As a result, the brief overview that follows depends, for the most part, on the most recent general histories and surveys.
Safavid Empire (1501–1722)
Safavid Iran was shaped like a bowl, a flat bottom encircled by two mountain ranges. The Elburz Mountains ran along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea and met the smaller ranges of Khurasan in the east. The Zagros Mountains stretched from Azerbaijan in the northwest to the Persian Gulf and then east toward Baluchistan. The Eastern Highlands bordered the country on the southeast. A high arid plateau, with an average elevation of 3,000 feet, formed the base of the bowl. Two deserts – the Kavir and the Lut – sprawled across this expanse. Only three rivers interrupted the dry plateau: The Karun River (the only navigable one) originated in the Zagros Mountains and flowed to the Shatt al-Arab and the Persian Gulf; the Safid River rose in the Elburz Mountains and emptied into the Caspian Sea; and the Zayanda River, the only one of the three that watered the plateau, began in the Zagros Mountains and flowed through Isfahan, dying in a salty swamp nearby.
Map 1. The Safavid Empire, c. 1660
No reliable estimates are available for the population of Safavid Iran. However, given the scarcity of arable land, the total was considerably below that for either the Mughals or the Ottomans. Because of the large area taken up by mountains and deserts, only about one-eighth of the country was tillable.1 As a result, an estimate for 1650 of eight to ten million seems reasonable.2
In 1501 Shah Ismail I (1501–1524), the founder of the dynasty, defeated the Turkish Aq Quyunlu forces that had, along with the Qara Quyunlu, ruled northwestern Iran since 1396.3Like his father and grandfather, Ismail headed the Safaviyya Sufi order. As Twelver or Imami Shiites, this mystical order rejected the first three caliphs and honored the Twelve Imams as the direct descendants of Muhammad. An invented genealogy claimed that Sheikh Safi (the founder of the order and Ismail’s ancestor) was a lineal descendant of the Seventh Imam, Musa al-Kasim. Ismail also proclaimed himself the Mahdi (Guided One) and a reincarnation of Ali (the first Imam).
The Safavid founder united in his person the two ethnic components of the state – the Turkish Qizilbash “men of the sword” and the Persian Tajik “men of the pen.” Except for their loyalty to Ismail and their membership in the Safaviyya order, the Qizilbash warriors were indistinguishable from their Sunni brethren in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman empire. Their common heritage gave the Safavid-Ottoman rivalry a special intensity. By contrast, as a descendant of landowners from the province of Gilan, Ismail also had a Persian side. Under him, as under the earlier Turkish rulers, Iranian scribes filled judicial, religious, and administrative positions. The hereditary notables, peasants, merchants, and artisans were Persian also. During Ismail’s reign tension and competition marked the relationship between these two groups.
Shah Tahmasp I (1524–1576), eldest son of Ismail, ascended the throne at age ten. His first twelve years in power (1524–1536) witnessed a civil war between the Shamlu and Ustajlu Qizilbash tribes, and he had no real independence as a ruler. To impose order, Tahmasp introduced a program aimed at reestablishing imperial authority, a program extended and brought to conclusion by Abbas I. He created a new tribe, the Shahvand, and gave it a position equal to that of the other tribes. He increased the number of Qizilbash in his personal bodyguard and assembled a household troop of Christian slaves. He also divided each Qizilbash tribe internally and shifted tribal leaders from post to post. Some chieftains were kept at court in administrative positions while others were given military commands or provincial governorships. These measures weakened the powers of the tribes and laid the groundwork for the more thoroughgoing reforms of Abbas I.4
Like Ismail, Tahmasp was considered by his Qizilbash followers to be divinely favored. They gave him the messianic title Lord of the Age (Sahib-i Zaman). In 1557 he shifted his capital from Tabriz to Qazvin. The need to escape Ottoman threats in the Northwest and to more easily defend his borders in the Northeast probably prompte