2.3: Safavid Empire

Religious Policies

The main ethnic groups in the Safavid empire were the Turks and Persians. There were also, Kurdish, Jewish, and Christian Armenian minorities. Today Sunni and Shi’a Islam are generally regarded in oppositional terms. In the sixteenth century, however, the two main branches of Islam did not yet represent clearly differentiated religious identities. In some ways, it was the Safavid rivalry with the Sunni Ottoman Empire that helped establish those identities more clearly. For the Safavids, Shi’ism was useful because it allowed them to continue to claim power as a religious leaders and made them distinct compared to the neighboring Islamic states. Just as importantly, although Shi’ism differed from Sunni Islam in important ways and had significantly fewer followers, it still had a long historical and intellectual tradition from which the Safavids could borrow. By recruiting from an already existing group of well-regarded religious scholars, Safavid leaders were able to bring into the empire men who could provide the regime with a kind of ideological legitimacy

Unlike the Ottomans, who saw diversity as a norm to be respected rather than a challenge to be eradicated, Shi’ism was central to the legitimacy of the Safavid. Thus, its language and assumptions had to be adopted universally. This was certainly not something that happened instantly. The fact is that when the Safavids came to power in the sixteenth century, Shi’ism had no special hold on the population of the empire outside of a few specific cities.

The Safavid emperors, known as shahs, posed as the protector and chief patron of Shi'a Islam, and they sought the support of the clerics. During the late 1600s, the government began a policy of forced conversion to unite the Turks and Persians. Many Sunni clerics fled or were executed while others accepted Shiism. Additionally, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians were forced to convert as well. The prominent participation of Jews and Christian Armenians in commerce made them targets for popular resentment. Sunni Islam disappeared by 1700 in Iran.

The Ottomans were intent to capture as much of the Middle East as possible to prevent the spread of Shiism. In 1514, the Ottoman Empire checked the westward advance of the Safavids and expansion then ended. Nevertheless, by the empire’s end in 1722, its territory had become the global center of Shi’ism. The fact that the modern nation of Iran, which encompasses much of the old Safavid territory, continues to contain the largest Shi’ite population in the world attests to the long-term consequences of Safavid rule while also being suggestive of the homogenizing potential of early-modern empires.

Abbas I

Shah Abbas (r. 1590-1629) transformed the Safavid polity from a tribal confederation into a real bureaucratic empire which lasted until 1722. Abbas I set up a system of direct rule over the provinces, and subjects paid taxes directly to the central government. To fund the government, Abbas I took control over silk production and ensured the profits from the silk industry went to the central government. Therefore, Silk exports supported the government, and most of the silk that was grown was collected as a tax.

Abbas also built up a large force of slave-soldiers (called ghulam but similar to the Ottoman janissaries) made up of Christian and Muslim men captured from the Caucasus region. The ghulam could both fill the military-administrative roles. The Safavids imported gunpowder weapons from Europe early on. They had cannons and armed infantrymen commanded by slaves. Figure 2.3.1 shows a statute of Abbas I in Isfahan. Abbas I is seated on a horse on top of a rock. This statue was taken down in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution when the last shah was deposed.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Statue Shah Abbas I in Isfahan, Artist Unknown, in the Public Domain

Economy

The Safavid empire never equaled the size, power, or wealth of the other two Turkish Muslim empires. The height of the Safavid Empire in Iranian history has been considered the reign of Shah Abbas I who expanded infrastructure development. Bridges and roads were constructed and repaired. The government also patrolled the roads. Nevertheless, the Safavid economy was less prosperous or diversified than the two other two empires. Overall, the empire relied on the export of one commodity, raw silk. It was less reliant on taxing villagers or control of the major trade networks. There was less land suitable for agriculture and peasants did not participate in the larger market. Everything they used including tools and clothing were made in the villages. For the most part, these peasants were subsistence farmers like the peasants of the Ottoman Empire. They produced their own food and the government took their surpluses. Taxes were paid in kind.

Persian trade with Europe became another reason for clashes with the Ottoman Empire. Persia developed thriving silk production during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, competing with the Far East territories in China and Japan. However, as the Ottoman power grew, they used high taxes and embargoes against the Persian merchants to prevent this silk and other trade goods from reaching markets in the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Nevertheless, the Safavid connection with European powers, particularly the English, allowed Persian goods to circumvent the Ottoman middlemen.

Review Questions

• How were Safavid religious policies different from the Ottoman Empire?
• How did Abbas I strengthen the Safavid Empire?