User:Amir Ghandi/Abbas the Great

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Abbas the Great
Zell'ollah (Shadow of God)[1]
Ṣāḥebqerān-e-ʿAlāʾ (Supreme Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction)[2]
Portrait of Abbas the Great by an unknown Italian painter.[3]
Shah of Iran
Reign1 October 1588 – 19 January 1629
PredecessorMohammad Khodabanda
SuccessorSafi
Born27 January 1571
Herat, Safavid Iran (modern-day Afghanistan)
Died19 January 1629 (aged 57)
Mazandaran, Safavid Iran
Burial
Mausoleum of Shah Abbas I, Kashan, Iran
Consort
Many, among them:
IssueSee below
DynastySafavid
FatherMohammad Khodabanda
MotherKhayr al-Nisa Begum
ReligionShia Islam

Abbas I (Persian: عباس یکم; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (شاه عباس بزرگ), was the 5th Safavid Shah (king) of Iran, and is generally considered one of the greatest rulers of Iranian history and the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda. Abbas lived through a turbulent childhood, surviving attempted murders and rebellions.

Although Abbas would preside over the apex of Safavid Iran's military, political and economic power, he came to the throne during a troubled time for the country. Under the ineffective rule of his father, the country was riven with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who killed Abbas' mother and elder brother. Meanwhile, Iran's enemies, the Ottoman Empire (its archrival) and the Uzbeks, exploited this political chaos to seize territory for themselves. In 1588, one of the Qizilbash leaders, Murshid Qoli Khan, overthrew Shah Mohammed in a coup and placed the 16-year-old Abbas on the throne. However, Abbas soon seized power for himself.

Under his leadership, Iran developed the ghilman system where thousands of Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian slave-soldiers joined the civil administration and the military. With the help of these newly created layers in Iranian society (initiated by his predecessors but significantly expanded during his rule), Abbas managed to eclipse the power of the Qizilbash in the civil administration, the royal house, and the military. These actions, as well as his reforms of the Iranian army, enabled him to fight the Ottomans and Uzbeks and reconquer Iran's lost provinces, including Kakheti whose people he subjected to widescale massacres and deportations. By the end of the 1603–1618 Ottoman War, Abbas had regained possession over Transcaucasia and Dagestan, as well as swaths of Eastern Anatolia and Mesopotamia. He also took back land from the Portuguese and the Mughals and expanded Iranian rule and influence in the North Caucasus, beyond the traditional territories of Dagestan.

Abbas was a great builder and moved his kingdom's capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, making the city the pinnacle of Safavid architecture. In his later years, following a court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, Abbas became suspicious of his own sons and had them killed or blinded.

Early life[edit]

Born in 27 January 1571 in Herat, Abbas was the third son of Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife, Khayr al-Nisa Begum.[4] His father was the firstborn son of Tahmasp I, the second Shah of Safavid Iran. He chose the name Abbas for the infant.[5] Abbas' father, Mohammad Khodabanda, was the governor of Herat, the capital city of the major province of Khorasan.[6] Mohammad Khodanbanda was disqualified from succeeding his father because an eye disease had left him almost completely blind. The Safavid court chronicler, Iskandar Beg Monshi, describes Mohammad Khodabanda as ‘a pious, ascetic and gentle soul’.[7] Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was the daughter of Mir Abdollah II, a local ruler in the province of Mazandaran from the Mar'ashi dynasty who claimed descant from the fourth Shi'ia imam, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin.[8] She and Mohammad Khodabanda had already two children before Abbas— Hassan and Hamza, and she birthed two more sons later— Abu Taleb and Tahmasp.[9]

When Abbas was barely eighteen months old, he was separated from his family, namely, his father and his mother, who were transferred by Tahmasp to govern the city of Shiraz.[5] The nominal governorship of Herat was handed over to Abbas. At first, Tahmasp intended to make Hamza the governor of Herat, but Khayr al-Nisa Begum was unwilling to be separated from Hamza, who was her favourite son. So she persuaded the king to appoint Abbas instead.[9] The fact that Abbas was still a baby was not considered an obstacle, as Tahmasp himself had been appointed titular governor of Khorasan at the age of two.[10]

Shah Qoli Sultan Ustajlu, an amir from one of the Qizilbash tribes called the Ustajlu tribe, was appointed as the actual governor and as Abbas’s lala (guardian).[9] Abbas’s Qizilbash guardians and their wives became substitute parents for him. He never saw his mother again and only saw his father fifteen years later.[9] Abbas learnt the necessary skills of a soldier from his Qizilbash guardians. He played polo and went frequently to hunt. Like most of the Iranian kings, he developed a passion for hunting, which was regarded as a form of military training.[11] Abbas was educated alongside household ‘slaves’, or ghulams, who would have become his childhood companions. Some or perhaps most of them are likely to have been Georgians, Armenians or Circassians.[12]

Ismail II, the third Shah of Iran and Abbas' uncle.

In 1576, Tahmasp I died without a designed heir, leading the realm to descend into civil war. At first, the former shah's favourite son, Haydar Mirza, proclaimed himself king with the support of the Ustajlu tribe and the powerful court Georgians. However, he was soon overthrown by the qurchis (the royal bodyguards).[13] After his death, with the support of the majority of the Qizilbash tribes and the endorsement of Tahmasp's influential daughter, Pari Khan Khanum, Ismail Mirza, who was imprisoned by his father for twenty years, was crowned king as Ismail II.[13] The new king's reign turned out to be short and murderous. The long years of imprisonment had left him suffering from paranoia, with the result that he saw enemies everywhere who had to be eliminated.[14] First and foremost, he began mass murdering the members of Ustajlu tribe regardless of whether or not they had supported Haydar Mirza. He also executed people whose only crime was having a position during Tahmasp's reign.[15] The young Abbas was directly affected by his uncle's purge when a group of horsemen rushed into his guardian's house, Shah Qoli Sultan, and killed him.[14]

Ismail then turned to his family. He ordered the execution of many of his half-brothers, cousins and nephews.[16] He spared Mohammad Khodabandae, possibly because they were full-brothers and perhaps because Mohammad Khodabanda was already blind and disqualified as a possible claimant to the throne.[14] In November 1577, however, Ismail dispatched Ali-Qoli Khan from the Shamlu tribe to Herat to kill the young Abbas.[5] Ali-Qoli delayed Abbas' execution, giving as a reason that it would be "inappropriate" to execute an "innocent" descendant of a seyed on holly days (Qadr Night and Eid al-Fitr). This lingering saved Abbas' life, for in 24 November, Ismail II died from consuming poisoned opium, and Ali-Qoli Khan assumed the governorship of Herat and the role of the new guardian for Abbas.[17]

On 11 or 13 February 1577, Mohammad Khodabanda was chosen by the Qizilbash as the new shah.[18] The new shah appeared weak, indifferent, and incompetent. In these circumstances power soon passed into other hands.[19] Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was a strong-willed woman. She took complete charge of the administration and made all the decisions, even in military matters. The Qizilbash were not happy to see her taking power. The divisions in the Safavid court encouraged rebellions in various parts of the country and the old Qizilbash rivalries rose again, with the Ustajlu and Shamlu tribes immediately confronting each other.[20] Mohammad Khodabanda and the queen asked Ali-Qoli Khan to bring Abbas to Qazvin, in fear that Ali-Qoli Khan was conspiring to enthrone Abbas, but the Qizilbash amirs of Khorasan argued that with the threat of the Uzbeks of Bukhara raiding along Herat, the presence of a prince in the city was necessary.[5]

The weak state of the realm led to the Ottoman Empire to declare war against Iran in 1578. The Safavid armies suffered several defeats before Khayr al-Nisa Begum sought a counteroffensive. Together with her son, Hamza Mirza and the grand vizier, Mirza Salman Jaberi, she led an army north to confront the Ottoman and Tatar forces in Shirvan. But her attempt to dictate the campaign strategy angered the Qizilbash amirs.[21] Eventually, on 26 July 1579, the Qizilbash stormed into the harem, where the queen resided, and strangled Khayr al-Nisa Begum.[22] Although Abbas was still only a boy and barely knew his mother, her murder at the hands of the Qizilbash made a deep impression on him. From that time, he probably begun this belief that the power of the Qizilbash had to be broken.[23]

Ascension[edit]

After the queen's death, Hamza Mirza, aged eleven, was proclaimed crown prince.[24] The Qizilbash found no reason to fear a child and so, assumed ultimate power over the disturbed state of the realm and fought among themselves to gain more.[25] The conflict was most intense at the court in Qazvin and in Khorasan, where Ali-Qoli Khan Shamlu, and his principal ally, Murshid Qoli Khan Ustajlu, had for some time been at war with the Turkman governor of Mashhad, Morteza Quli Khan Pornak.[26] The Takkalu tribe eventually seized the power in Qazvin and proceeded to purge a number of prominent Shamlu members, among them being mother and father of Ali-Qoli Khan. This angered Ali-Qoli Khan and, just as the queen had predicted, in 1581, he took arms against the crown and made his ward, the ten-years-old Abbas, the figurehead of a rebellion in Khorasan by proclaiming him Shah of Iran.[26] Ali-Qoli and Murshid Qoli Khan took control of Nishapur; there, they struck coins and read khutba in Abbas' name.[5]

In the following year, an army from Western Iran advanced into Khorasan to resolve the situation. This army laid siege on Torbat-e Heydarieh, where Murshid Qoli held control, and on Herat, where both Ali-Qoli Khan and Abbas resided. Both attempts proved futile.[27] Upon hearing the news of another Ottoman attack on the northwest Iran, the leading ministers of the campaign hurriedly reached an agreement with Ali-Qoli Khan. The former rebel paid no repercussions and only had to pledge loyalty to Hamza Mirza as the heir apparent. He remained as the governor and as Abbas' guardian and even received a reward from the shah. Mohammad Khodabanda removed Ali-Qoli Khan's old enemy, Morteza Quli Khan Pornak, from his position as governor of Mashhad and replace him with an Ustajlu amir. According to Iskandar Beg Monshi, many came to believe Abbas Mirza's claim would eventually prevail Hamza Mirza.[28]

Meanwhile, Hamza Mirza was preoccupied with pushing Ottomans out of Tabriz.[29] However, he caught up in the rivalries between the Qizilabsh tribes and angered his officers by executing the Qizilbash governor of Azerbaijan.[30] Thus, in 5 December 1586, he was assassinated by his personal barber, who may have had been in bribed by a group of Qizilbash conspirators. This assassination carved the way for Abbas' ascension.[31]

In the meantime, in Khorasan, Murshid Qoli Khan emerged as a rival to Ali-Qoli. He successfully seized Mashhad and abducted Abbas from Ali-Qoli's possession.[4] An Uzbek invasion advanced through Khorasan and laid siege on Herat. This threatened Murshid Qoli's position who realised it was his last chance to enthrone Abbas. Many of the Qizilbash amirs gave assurance of their support for placing Abbas on the throne, and after learning that Mohammad Khodabanda had left Qazvin to confront rebels in the south, Murshid Qoli Khan decided to strike.[32] Thus, on the first ten days of Ramadan 1586, Abbas and his guardian and a small escort, not more than a few hundred horsemen, decided to ride towards Qazvin.[33] As they rode through the Silk Road, Qizilbash amirs from the powerful Takkalu, Afshar and Zul al-Qadr tribes, who controlled many of the key towns on the way, came to pledge their allegiance. By the time they approached Qazvin, their small force had increased to 2,000 armed horsemen. The lord mayor of Qazvin and the Qizilbash amirs inside the city at first urged resistance. But they gave up when crowds of citizens and soldiers, anxious to avoid fighting, came out onto the streets and voiced their support for Abbas, who rode into the capital beside Murshid Qoli Khan on a late September day in 1587.[32]

Mohammad Khodabanda and his heir apparent, Abu Taleb Mirza, and their entourage of Ustajlu and Shamlu amirs, were camped in 200 miles away in the city of Qom. When the news reached them, the amirs decided to abandon the shah and his heir for Abbas Mirza.[34] Mohammad Khodabanda found no choice but to abdicate. On 1 October 1588, at a ceremony in the palace in Qazvin, he placed his crown on the head of his seventeen-yeas-old son, who ascended the throne as Abbas I. Murshid Qoli Khan, to whom Abbas owed the crown, was rewarded with the title of vakil (viceroy).[35]

Reign[edit]

Formative years[edit]

A young man wearing a pink robe and holding a flower
Portrait of a young Abbas. Iran, c. 1590.

Abbas ascended during an extremely dangerous situation: In the west, almost all the provinces lying along the border with the Ottoman Empire had been occupied by the Ottomans; in the east, half ofKhorasan had been under the constant raid of Uzbeks.[36] On the domestic scene, the twelve years after the death of Tahmasp had seen a complete loss of the shah's authority. Abbas was well-versed about the Qizilbash ruthlessness and hunger for power. After seeing so many examples of the Qizilbash cruelty, he knew that he must impose his authority on them or remain their tool.[37] However, with scarce resources at his disposal, Abbas could not afford to solve all these urgent matters simultaneously; hence, he set priorities. This strong sense of pragmatism was to become one of his dominant characteristics.[36] His order of priorities was to be: first, the restoration of internal security and law and order, reorganisation of the army and reform of the financial system; second, expulsion of the Uzbeks from Khorasan; third, recovery of territory occupied by the Ottomans.[36]

Through determination, Abbas finally overcame these crises, but the process took years and many setbacks before coming to fruition.[38] For instance, the reduction of the Qizilbash power specially came to be a hard struggle for Abbas, because the Qizilbash controlled a large portion of the army.[39] So, if he weakened them, he undermined the state.[4] His solution was the forming of a new a new, standing army composed of ghulams, slaves brought from Caucasus by Tahmasp I. Abbas was able to form these corps once he assured his authority.[4]

For the first eighteen months of his reign, Abbas had to live under the direct shadow of his kingmaker, Murshid Qoli. The young shah was not fond of him, but for the time being, he needed him as an unchallengeable regent. The kingdom remained very unsettled and the loyalty of many of the amirs was doubtful. Abbas needed Murshid Qoli Khan to secure his position.[40] It was surprising that Murshid Qoli Khan was not aware of his protege's great dislike of the Qizilbash's heavy influence. This indicates that Abbas had successfully deceived him.[40] Confident in his new-won power, Murshid Qoli Khan issued daily orders to the state officials, promulgated decrees, and distributed civil and military offices and provincial governorships to his friends, all in the name of the shah, but without consulting him. He took the richest province of Isfahan for himself and he became unpopular by raising the taxes by 25 per cent.[41] Murshid Qoli took the liberty to send Mohammad Khodabanda and his son, Abu Taleb Mirza, to Alamut, to be imprisoned there along with Abbas' other brother, Tahmasp Mirza. It is said that all three were blinded.[42]

Eventually, Murshid Qoli's monopoly of power drew opposition from other high-ranking Qizilbash amirs, specially the qurchi-bashi[a]; the muhrdar[b]; and the khalifat al-khulafa[c] who demanded from the shah his removal. Unexpectedly to them, Abbas refused. Instead, he decided to rid himself of the conspirators, whom he regarded as men who had risen to their positions through treachery.[41] The conspirators then decided to remove Murshid Qoli themselves. They burst into the palace, carrying their weapons. Abbas sent a messenger to demand the reason for this intrusion. Hiding the fact that they intended to kill Murshid Qoli, they said had come to accompany him out of the city to welcome an important religious personage from Yazd.[46] Abbas responded that Murshid Qoli Khan was too busy to attend. The conspirators then withdrew to the public sphere of the city, where they summoned more of their retainers and openly declared their opposition. In the following morning, they sent Mehdi Qoli Khan as their spokesman to the shah. He demanded that the shah dismiss Murshid Qoli, allow the Qizilbash chiefs greater freedom and resume the practice of holding twice-weekly meetings of the Council of Amirs. The shah told him that his demands were unacceptable, and Mehdi Qoli gave him an impudent reply.[47] Furious, Abbas had him and all the conspirators executed.[48]

Policies[edit]

Family tragedies[edit]

Personality and appearance[edit]

Coinage and titles[edit]

Later years and death[edit]

Legacy[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The head of the qurchis (the loyal bodyguards of the shah).[43]
  2. ^ Keeper of the Seals.[44]
  3. ^ The head of the Safavid Sufi organisation.[45]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Quinn 2015, chpt. Shah Abbas and political legitimacy'
  2. ^ Quinn 2015, chpt. Shah Abbas as the 'Supreme Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'
  3. ^ Amanat 2017, p. 77.
  4. ^ a b c d Savory 1982.
  5. ^ a b c d e Rahimlu 2015.
  6. ^ Mitchell 2009, p. 160.
  7. ^ Blow 2009, p. 16.
  8. ^ Savory 2007, p. 71.
  9. ^ a b c d Blow 2009, p. 17.
  10. ^ Mitchell 2009, p. 58; Blow 2009, p. 17.
  11. ^ Blow 2009, p. 18.
  12. ^ Blow 2009, p. 19.
  13. ^ a b Savory 2007, p. 69.
  14. ^ a b c Blow 2009, p. 21.
  15. ^ Blow 2009, p. 21; Savory 2007, p. 69.
  16. ^ Newman 2008, p. 42.
  17. ^ Savory 1985.
  18. ^ Savory 2007, p. 70.
  19. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 253.
  20. ^ Blow 2009, p. 22.
  21. ^ Blow 2009, p. 23.
  22. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 255.
  23. ^ Blow 2009, p. 24.
  24. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 256.
  25. ^ Blow 2009, p. 25–26.
  26. ^ a b Blow 2009, p. 26.
  27. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 259; Rahimlu 2015.
  28. ^ Blow 2009, p. 27.
  29. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 260.
  30. ^ Savory 2012.
  31. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 261.
  32. ^ a b Blow 2009, p. 29.
  33. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 261; Rahimlu 2015.
  34. ^ Blow 2009, p. 29–30.
  35. ^ Savory 1982; Rahimlu 2015.
  36. ^ a b c Savory 2007, p. 76.
  37. ^ Savory 2007, p. 76; Savory 1982.
  38. ^ Savory 2007, p. 77.
  39. ^ Floor 2021, p. 226.
  40. ^ a b Blow 2009, p. 31.
  41. ^ a b Blow 2009, p. 32.
  42. ^ Roemer 2008, p. 261; Blow 2009, p. 32.
  43. ^ Floor 2001, p. 139.
  44. ^ Simpson 1997.
  45. ^ Floor 2003, p. 51.
  46. ^ Blow 2009, p. 32–33.
  47. ^ Blow 2009, p. 33.
  48. ^ Blow 2009, p. 34.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Amanat, Abbas (2017). Iran: A Modern History. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300112542.
  • Blow, David (2009). Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. London, UK: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-989-8. LCCN 2009464064.
  • Floor, Willem (2021). "The Safavid Army: Continuity and Change". In Matthee, Rudi (ed.). The Safavid World. New York: Taylor & Francis. pp. 224–244. ISBN 9781000392876. OCLC 1274244049.
  • Floor, Willem (2001). Safavid Government Institutions. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers. pp. 1–311. ISBN 978-1568591353.
  • Floor, Willem (2003). "The Khalifeh al-kholafa of the Safavid Sufi Order". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft: 51–86. ISSN 0341-0137. OCLC 1566426.
  • Mitchell, Colin P. (2009). The Practice of Politics in Safavid Iran: Power, Religion and Rhetoric. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–304. ISBN 978-0857715883.
  • Newman, Andrew J. (2008). Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B.Tauris. pp. 1–281. ISBN 9780857716613.
  • Quinn, Sholeh (2015). Shah Abbas: The King who Refashioned Iran. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781780745688.
  • Savory, R.M. (2012). "Ḥamza Mīrzā". The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (12 vols.). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
  • Savory, Roger M. (2007). Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521042512.
  • Savory, R.N. (1985). "ʿAlī-Qolī Khan Šāmlū". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 8. pp. 875–876.
  • Savory, R. M. (1982). "ʿAbbas I". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
  • Rahimlu, Yusof (2015). "ʿAbbās I". In Madelung, Wilferd; Daftary, Farhad (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica Online. Brill Online. ISSN 1875-9831.
  • Simpson, Marianna S. (1997). "Ebrāhīm Mīrzā". Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition. New York.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Roemer, H. R. (2008). "THE SAFAVID PERIOD". The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 189–350. ISBN 9781139054980.
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