Persian History · Chronicle VIII of X
Shia Iran
Iran reunited and made Shia, and the wonder of Abbas the Great's Isfahan.
Shah Ismail IReligious
Shah Ismail I unites Iran under his rule and makes Twelver Shiism the state religion, setting it apart from the Sunni world.
For the first time since the seventh century a native dynasty ruled a unified Iran within roughly its modern borders. Ismail's forced conversion of a largely Sunni population to Shiism was gradual and often harsh, but it forged a durable religious identity that has shaped Iran ever since.
Shah Ismail IMilitary
The Ottomans defeat Ismail at Chaldiran, checking Safavid expansion and beginning two centuries of war between the empires.
Sultan Selim I's cannon and janissary muskets shattered the Qizilbash cavalry, whose faith in Ismail's invincibility was broken. The defeat cost Ismail eastern Anatolia and fixed a hostile Sunni-Shia frontier with the Ottomans that would endure for generations.
Abbas the GreatPolitical
Shah Abbas I takes the throne and begins to rebuild the empire, curbing the Qizilbash and forging a new army.
Inheriting a realm beset by tribal factions and foreign invasion, Abbas broke the power of the Qizilbash lords by building a standing army of ghulams — slave-soldiers of Caucasian origin — equipped with muskets and artillery on the European model. His reforms turned a faltering state into a great power.
.jpg?width=1024)
Abbas the GreatCultural
Abbas moves his capital to Isfahan and transforms it into one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Around the vast Naqsh-e Jahan square rose the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, the Ali Qapu palace, and the great bazaar — a masterpiece of tilework and proportion. 'Isfahan is half the world,' Persians said. The city drew merchants, artists, and diplomats from Europe, India, and beyond.
Abbas the GreatPolitical
Abbas builds a state silk monopoly and welcomes English and other European merchants and envoys to Iran.
Seeking allies against the Ottomans, Abbas cultivated ties with European powers and resettled thousands of Armenian silk-traders in New Julfa, a suburb of Isfahan. With English help he expelled the Portuguese from Hormuz in 1622, opening the Persian Gulf trade to new partners.
The Long DeclinePolitical
After Abbas dies, later shahs are raised in the harem, and real power drifts to courtiers, eunuchs, and clerics.
Fearful of rebellious sons, Abbas had confined the princes to the harem, and his successors grew up sheltered and unprepared to rule. Though the empire remained wealthy and its arts brilliant, its government slowly weakened while the Shia clergy gained influence over society and state.
The Long DeclinePolitical
Under a series of pleasure-loving and pious shahs, Safavid Iran drifts, its frontiers neglected and its army decayed.
The mid-century shahs largely withdrew from governing. Rising clerical intolerance pressed on Sunnis, Christians, and Zoroastrians alike, alienating frontier peoples. Behind a facade of splendour the machinery of the state was rusting, and the tribes of the borderlands grew restive.
Fall of the SafavidsMilitary
An Afghan army besieges and takes Isfahan, and the shah abdicates — the sudden collapse of the Safavid Empire.
The Ghilzai Afghans under Mahmud Hotak besieged the capital for six months; famine killed tens of thousands before Shah Sultan Husayn surrendered his crown. The fall stunned the world and plunged Iran into decades of invasion and civil war, as Ottomans and Russians seized border provinces.
Fall of the SafavidsPolitical
The warlord Nader, having driven out the Afghans, deposes the last Safavid puppet and crowns himself shah.
A brilliant general of humble origin, Nader had restored Iran's borders in the name of a Safavid figurehead. In 1736 he claimed the throne himself, ending the dynasty that had ruled for over two centuries and opening the turbulent age of the Afsharids, Zands, and Qajars.
1 more entry, to 1736
