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Abbas I of Persia
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Shah ‘Abbas the Great or Shah ‘Abbas I (born January 27, 1571; died January 19, 1629) was Shah of Iran, and the greatest ruler of the Safavid Dynasty of the Persian Empire. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad.
as was born in Herat (modern Afghanistan) to a Georgian mother from Mazandaran Province, in Northern Iran.
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Shah ‘Abbas the Great or Shah ‘Abbas I (born January 27, 1571; died January 19, 1629) was Shah of Iran, and the greatest ruler of the Safavid Dynasty of the Persian Empire. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad.
Biography
Accession to throne and war against the Uzbeks
‘Abbas was born in Herat (modern Afghanistan) to a Georgian mother from Mazandaran Province, in Northern Iran. The Safavid empire had substantially weakened during the reign of his semiblind father, allowing usurpations and the inner feuds of the Kizilbash amirs, leaders of the Turcoman tribes constituting the backbone of the Safavid army. Furthermore, Ottoman and Uzbek inroads were harassing the Western and Eastern provinces, respectively. In the midst of such upheaval, he was proclaimed ruler of Khorasan in 1581.
In October 1588 he attained the Persian throne by revolting against his father Mohammad, whom he imprisoned. He accomplished the coup with the help of Murshid Quli Ustadjlu, whom he later killed in July, 1589. Determined to raise the fallen fortunes of his country, he signed a separate peace with the Ottomans (1589-90, including the cession of large areas of west and northwest Persia) and then directed his efforts against the predatory Uzbeks, who occupied and harassed Khorasan. 'Abbas needed some ten years to launch a decisive offensive: this was caused by his decision to form a standing army. Cavalry consisted of (ex-)Christian Armenians, Georgians, and also descendants of Circassian ex-prisoners of war, instead of the mistrustful Kizilbash tribal cavalry levies of former times; Persian peasantry formed the infantry. Budgetary problems were resolved by restoring the Shah's control of the provinces formerly governed by the Kizilbash chiefs, the revenues of which supplemented the royal treasury. Mistrusting the once ruling class of the Qizilbash, 'Abbas gained a strong support from common people. Sources report him spending much of his time among them, personally visiting bazaars and other public places in Isfahan. The new Ghulams were often appointed as governors of the provinces.
After a long and severe struggle, 'Abbas regained Mashhad, and defeated the Uzbeks in a great battle near Herat in 1597, driving them beyond the Oxus River. In the meantime, taking advantage of tsar Ivan the Terrible's death in 1584, he had gained the homage of the provinces on the southern Caspian Sea, which had depended on Russia till then.
He moved his capital from Qazvin to the more central and more Persian Isfahan in 1592. Embellished by a magnificent series of new mosques, baths, colleges, and caravansaries, Isfahan became one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Wars against the Ottomans and conquest of the Persian Gulf
A few years later, in 1599, the English gentleman of fortune Robert Shirley and the shah's favorite ghulam and chancellor Allahverdi Khan directed a major army reform. The massive introduction of muskets and artillery marked a great improvement from former times. With his new army, 'Abbas launched a campaign against the Ottomans in 1603. In the following year he obtained a first pitch victory, which forced them to give back the territory they had seized, including Baghdad. In 1605, following a victory at Basra, he extended his empire beyond the Euphrates; Sultan Ahmed I was compelled to cede Shirvan and Kurdistan in 1611. Hostilities ceased momentarily in 1614 with the Persian army at its peak.
In 1602, the Iranian army under the command of Imam-Quli Khan Undiladze managed to expel the Portuguese from Bahrain. In 1614-15, he suppressed a rebellion in Kakheti which resulted in many deaths, while a large number of Georgians were resettled into other parts of his empire, notably Fars, Esfahan and Mazandaran. The united armies of the Turks and Tatars were completely defeated near Sultanieh in 1618, and Abbas made peace on very favorable terms. A few years later, in 1621, with the support of British ships, his forces captured Hormuz from the Portuguese. Determined to control the trade routes of the Persian Gulf, much of the trade was diverted to the town of Bandar 'Abbas which he had taken from the Portuguese in 1615 and had named after himself. The Persian Gulf was therefore opened to a flourishing commerce with Portuguese, Dutch, French, Spanish and British merchants, which were granted particular privileges. Agents treating with the Westerners were mostly of Armenian nationality. Trades and travel were boosted in all the Empire.
In 1623, 'Abbas launched another attack on the Ottomans, capturing Baghdad and much of Iraq. As long as the Ottomans were involved in wars with the Habsburgs in Europe, the Persians held on to their gains. In 1638 however, the Ottomans retook Baghdad, and the Persian–Ottoman border became finalized.
Reforms and assessment
'Abbas' reign, with its military successes and efficient administrative system, raised Iran to the status of a great power. 'Abbas was a skilled diplomat, tolerant of his Christian subjects in Armenia and Georgia (Kakheti and Kartli). He sent Shirley to Italy, Spain and England in order to create a pact against the Ottomans (a tour which also led to his mention as "the Sophy" in Act 2 Scene 5 of Shakespeare's 1601 play Twelfth Night). According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography,
Mistrusting the once ruling class of the Qizilbash, 'Abbas gained a strong support from common people. Sources report him spending much of his time among them, personally visiting bazaars and other public places in Isfahan.
Isfahan became the center of Safavid architectural achievement, with the mosques Masjed-e Shah and the Masjed-e Sheykh Lotfollah and other monuments like the Ali Qapu, the Chehel Sotoun palace, and the Naghsh-i Jahan Square. His painting ateliers (of the Isfahan school established under his patronage) created some of the finest art in modern Persian history, by such illustrious painters as Reza Abbasi, Mohammed Qasim and others. Despite the ascetic roots of the ?afavid dynasty and the religious injunctions restricting the pleasures lawful to the faithful, the art of Abbas' time denotes a certain relaxation of the strictures. Historian James Saslow interprets the portrait by Muhammad Qasim as showing that the Muslim taboo against wine, as well as that against male intimacy, "were more honored in the breach than in the observance". Contemporary European observers at the Shah's court reflected similarly on prevalent customs. Among them was Thomas Herbert, the nineteen-year-old secretary to the British ambassador, who later related that he saw "Ganymede boys in vests of gold, rich bespangled turbans, and choice sandals, their curled hair dangling about their shoulders, with rolling eyes and vermilion cheeks."
'Abbas died in Mazandaran in 1629. His dominions extended from the Tigris to the Indus, even overcoming the Persian borders of pre-Islamic times. He is still today a popular figure in Iran, featuring in numerous traditional tales. His fame is tarnished, however, by numerous deeds of tyranny and cruelty, particularly against his own family. Afraid of a coup by his family (as he had done to his father), he locked them up in palaces in order to keep them without knowledge of the outside world. This resulted in weak successors. He killed his eldest son, Safi Mirza, leaving his throne to his grandson Safi. It is believed that Safi Mirza was killed because the Shah had learned the story of king Absalom who rebelled against his own father as depicted in the illustrations of the Morgan Crusader's Bible which was sent to him as a gift by Cardinal Maciejowski in 1604.
See also
External links
- Shah Abbas: The Remaking of Iran, The British Museum, in association with Iran Heritage Foundation, 19 February – 14 June 2009, .
- John Wilson, Iranian treasures bound for Britain, BBC Radio 4, 19 January 2009, .
BBC Radio 4's live magazine: (audio report).
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