The dynasty of the Séfévides or Safavides صفویان|Safaviān on the Iran of 1501 with reigned 1732. They are the first independent Iranian dynasty to reign on Iran since nearly 1000 years. Safavides are in the beginning members of an religious order Soufi militant, the Qizilbash.

Conquest and seizure of power first

At the 14th century, Ardabil was the center of an organization intended to keep the chiefs Safavides in contact with its Murid S (" Masters spirituels") on the territories which are now the Azerbaïdjan, the Iraq and is Anatolia. The organization was controlled through the station of khalifat Al-khulafa' I which named representatives ( khalifa ) in the areas where propaganda safavide was active. The Khalifa in its turn of subordoonnés had called the will pira . Their presence in the east of the Anatolia represented a serious threat for the Othoman , because they encouraged the population Shiite of minor Asia to revolt against the sultan.

In 1499, Ismail, the young chief of the Safavide order, left Lanjan for Ardabil in order to claim the capacity. During the summer 1500, nearly 7000 of its partisans originating in the tribes turcomanes in Anatolia, Syria and Iraq - called together the Qizilbash - joined him in order to support it. With the head of these troops, it starts by conducting a punitive campaign against Shirvanshah (sovereign of the Shirvan); he then sought to be avenged for dead for his Heydar father and his grandfather in Shirvan. After having beaten Shirvanshah Farrokh Yassar, it moves in the south towards the Azerbaïdjan where its 7.000 Qizilbash warriors beat a force of: 30000 Aq Qoyunlu under the orders of Alwand Mirza then take Tabriz, thus marking the foundation of the State Safavide.

During the first decade of the 16th century, Qizilbash extend the capacity safavide to the remainder of Persia, until Baghdad and the Iraq, before under the control of the Aq Qoyunlu.

In 1510, Shah Ismail sends a great quota of Qizilbash in Transoxiane in order to support the sovereign Timouride Bâbur, in war against the Uzbeks. Qizilbash beat the Uzbeks and make safe Samarkand for the account of Babur. However, in 1512, a whole army of Qizilbash is destroyed by the Uzbek after the qizilbash turcomans revolted against their Vakil of origin Persian and their commander, Amir Nadjm. This heavy defeat marks the end of the expansion and of the safavide influence in Transoxiane and the borders of the North-East of Iran remain vulnerable to the wandering invasions.

Unification of the State

It is under the impulse of Ismaïl I {{er}}, first sovereign safavide, that the conversion of Iran to the Chiisme duodécimain is decided. This conversion results from a will to continue vis-a-vis the domination of the Othoman S sunnites. Conversion makes it possible to constitute the bases of a strong State starting from a specific identity. The safavides also used their resources in order to convert a great number of Iranians to the Chiisme. Under the reigns of the first safavides, Iran became a theocracy: indeed, the partisans of Ismail Ier recognize it like the murshid kamil , “the perfect guide” but also like an emanation of God.

The main issue of Safavides was to create a unified state, a task which was difficult taking into account the ethnic diversity of the country. Indeed, they had to make cohabit their Turkish-speaking partisans with Iranian, their traditions of combat with the Iranian bureaucracy and their Messianic ideology with the administrative requirements of a territorial state. The institutions of the beginning of the State Safavide reflects these efforts of integration and balancing between these various elements. Moreover, Safavides faced external threats, in particular those of the Uzbeks, which attacked them on the north-eastern border and which made raids on the Khorasan; and of the Othoman , which fought Iran in the the Caucasus and in Anatolia.

The defeat of the Iranians against the Othomans with Chaldoran in the 1524 then occupation of the Safavide capital, Tabriz, mark a turning in the history of Safavides: the Shah cannot be regarded as a semi-divine figure any more, and its influence decrease on a certain number of the chiefs Qizilbash. The Othomans fought thereafter with the Iranians on the Western border of Iran, fascinating Baghdad and the south of the Iraq in 1533. The battles continued in the Caucasus and in Iraq until 1639, year during which was signed the treaty of Qasr-e Shirin, which established borders between the two powers which remained almost unchanged until the beginning of the 20th century.

Apogee and decline of Safavides

The apogee of Safavides is reached under Shah Abbas I {{er}} Large the (1588 - 1629): it succeeds in demolishing external threats by signing treaties, balances the capacity of the troops Qizilbash by creating a body of Armenians and from géorgiens which is honest for him, the territory managed by its State extends and centralizes even more the administration. He was a pious king, who supported the religious institutions by building mosques and madreseh S (religious schools); however, one notes under his reign a gradual separation of the religious institutions and State, in a movement towards an independent religious hierarchy. Its reign is also a golden age for the trade and arts. It fights initially against Portuguese who occupied the Détroit of Ormuz then accommodate the foreign tradesmen (British, Dutch, French and different). The level of arts owners by the Shah is visible with Ispahan, its new capital, where it builds palates and mosques of any beauty: Place Naghsh-e Jahan, and Ali Qapu, Mosque of the Shah, Mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah, Palate of Chehel Sotoun, etc) and gives a great importance to the miniatures and the fine arts. This patronage gives rise to one called artistic period Art safavide.

The decline of Safavides starts truly after the death of Abbas Shah. This decline results from several factors: weak sovereigns, interference of the policy of the harem with the policy of State, bad administration of the grounds of the State and excessive taxes like increasing weakness of the armies (at the same time the army qizilbash and the army of the ghulams ). Moreover, the religious policy of the Shiite Ouléma S persecuting the sunnites (particularly sunnites of Afghanistan) is another of the elements release of the fall of the safavides. It is this decline and this dissatisfaction which will push Afghan tribes directed by Mahmoud Ghilzai to raise itself then to gain a series of victories on the Western border in 1722, quickly carrying out them to the capital and putting a term at the dynasty at the State Safavide.

Séfévide dynasty

See too

Internal bonds

Simple: Safavid dynasty

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