Persia in crisis : Safavid decline and the fall of Isfahan

419 Pages·2012·13.928 MB·English

by  Matthee, Rudolph P

Rudi Matthee holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of
California in Los Angeles. He taught at the University of Delaware
from 1993 to 2011, the last four years as Unidel Distinguished
Professor of History. He is currently the Roshan Professor of Persian
Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.
“This is an extensive and authoritative study of the history of
Iran from the second quarter of the seventeenth century until the
fateful year of 1722, which ended the rule of one the country’s most
successful dynasties—the Safavids. It fills a gap in our understand-
ing of the Safavid period by emphasizing the political, administrative
and economic structure of the time. A rich palette of personalities
and events are critically assessed, and the study is intelligently but
also thoughtfully composed and well documented. The author dis-
plays an admirable knowledge of the sources in Persian, a rich vein of
contemporary archival material  and the studies written in all major
European languages, clearly a feat that will not be easy to follow. The
result is a rich mine of information which will undoubtedly allow the
reader to come to new insights into the character and structure of
the Iranian polity during the second half of the seventeenth century.”
J. P. Luft, Centre for Iranian Cultural Studies,
University of Durham, UK
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Persia in Crisis
Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan
Rudi Matthee
Published by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
In association with the Iran Heritage Foundation
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Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2012 Rudi Matthee
The right of Rudi Matthee to be identified as the author of this
work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
International Library of Iranian Studies, 17
ISBN 978 1 84511 745 0
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd,
Padstow, Cornwall
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For Fariba
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Contents
List of Maps and Illustrations ix
Note on Transliteration xi
Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Preface xvii
Introduction xxi
1. Patterns: Iran in the Late Safavid Period 1
2. Politics at the Safavid Court, I: Shahs
and Grand Viziers, 1629–1666 27
3. Safavid Politics, II: Shahs, Grand Viziers,
and Eunuchs, 1666–1699 55
4. Monetary Policy and the Disappearing Mints, 1600–1700 75
5. From Perpetual War to Lasting Peace: Safavid Military
Politics in the Seventeenth Century 109
6. Weakening Links: The Center and the Provinces,
1600–1700 139
7. Religion in Late Safavid Iran: Shi`i
Clerics and Minorities 173
8. From Stability to Turmoil: The Final Decades,
1700–1722 197
Conclusion 243
Glossary 257
Notes 259
Bibliography 329
Index 359
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Maps and Illustrations
Maps
1. Safavid Iran and the surrounding world xxxvi
2. Locations of Safavid mints 907–995/1501–1587 82
3. Locations of Safavid mints 995–1052/1587–1642 84
4. Locations of Safavid mints 1052–1105/1642–1694 95
5. Late Safavid Iran: tribal pressure on the periphery 224
Illustrations
Plate section located between pages 166 and 167
1. View of Isfahan, 1703, from Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen over
Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, 2nd ed., 1714.
2. Royal Square of Isfahan, 1703, from Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen
over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, 2nd ed., 1714.
3. Mint of Isfahan, from Ambrosio Bembo, “Viaggio e giornale
per parte dell’Asia di quattro anni incirc fatto da me Ambrosio
Bembo Nob. Veneto” (courtesy of the James Ford Bell Library at
the University of Minnesota).
4. View of Sa’adabad, 1703, from Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen over
Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, 2nd ed., 1714.
5. View of Shamakhi, 1702, from Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen over
Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, 2nd ed., 1714.
6. View of Lar, 1704, from Cornelis de Bruyn, Reizen over Moskovie,
door Persie en Indie, 2nd ed., 1714.
7. Grand Vizier Khalifah Sultan, by Mu’in Musavvir, c.1650,
opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper. (Lent by the Art and
History Collection, Courtesy of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: LTS1995.2.88)
8. Safavid surrender at Qandahar, c.1640. (Courtesy of the Musée
Guimet, Paris; Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY)
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