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Abbas the Great: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Abbas the Great
On the 14th of May 1576, the Safavid Empire descended into chaos when Shah Tahmasp I died without a designated heir, triggering a civil war that would claim the life of a two-year-old boy named Abbas. Born on the 27th of January 1571 in Herat, Abbas was the third son of Mohammad Khodabanda and Khayr al-Nisa Begum, but his survival was never guaranteed. His father, a man described by court chroniclers as a pious and gentle soul, had been disqualified from the throne due to an eye disease that left him almost completely blind. When Tahmasp died, his favorite son Haydar Mirza was proclaimed shah, only to be immediately overthrown and killed by the royal bodyguards. The new shah, Ismail II, was a paranoid murderer who saw enemies everywhere. He began executing members of the Ustajlu tribe and anyone who had held office under his father. In November 1577, Ismail dispatched Ali-Qoli Khan from the Shamlu tribe to Herat to kill the young Abbas. Ali-Qoli delayed the execution, citing religious holidays, and when Ismail died from poisoned opium on the 24th of November 1577, the boy was saved. For the next decade, Abbas lived in constant fear, separated from his mother and father, learning to be a soldier from his Qizilbash guardians while his mother was eventually strangled by the very men who were supposed to protect him. This childhood trauma forged a ruler who would spend his life breaking the power of the tribes that had nearly destroyed him.
The Third Force Strategy
When Abbas ascended the throne on the 1st of October 1587 at the age of seventeen, he inherited an empire that was riven by internal discord and external threats. The Qizilbash, the militant Turkic tribes that had formed the backbone of the Safavid army, held effective power and had mocked royal authority by killing his mother and grand vizier. To counterbalance their power, Abbas turned to a system initiated by his grandfather, Tahmasp I, known as the ghulman system. This system involved bringing thousands of Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian slave-soldiers into Iran, converting them to Islam, and integrating them into the civil administration and the military. Unlike the Qizilbash, these ghulams had no tribal loyalties and were loyal only to the shah. Under Abbas, this new grouping, often called the third force, grew to include up to 37,000 soldiers, completely funded by the Crown. By 1595, Allahverdi Khan, a Georgian, had become one of the most powerful men in the state, eventually serving as commander-in-chief of all armed forces. This strategic shift allowed Abbas to reduce the number of Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically move them to other districts, disrupting their ties with local communities. The result was a centralized state where government officials collected taxes directly to the royal treasury, and the shah held complete control over the provinces. This system resolved budgetary problems and created a new strata in Iranian society, with thousands of ethnic Caucasians becoming integral parts of the state, serving as generals, governors, and even members of the royal household.
When was Shah Abbas the Great born and where did he grow up?
Abbas the Great was born on the 27th of January 1571 in Herat. He spent his childhood in Herat under constant threat of execution before ascending to the throne.
How did Shah Abbas the Great reorganize the Safavid military?
Abbas the Great created a standing army of 40,000 soldiers including 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry, 12,000 musketeers, and 12,000 artillerymen. He recruited ethnic Georgians and Circassians as ghulams to counterbalance the power of the Qizilbash tribes.
What major cities did Shah Abbas the Great capture from the Ottomans and Uzbeks?
Abbas the Great recaptured Herat and Mashhad from the Uzbeks in 1598 and 1599. He later seized Baghdad in 1623 and Yerevan in June 1604 from the Ottoman Empire.
Why did Shah Abbas the Great move the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan?
Abbas the Great moved the capital to Isfahan in 1598 to create a more central and secure location for the Safavid Empire. He transformed Isfahan into a magnificent city featuring the Masjed-e Shah and the Naqsh-e Jahan Square.
How did Shah Abbas the Great establish diplomatic relations with European powers?
Abbas the Great sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe in 1599 to seek alliances against the Ottoman Empire. He invited English adventurers Sir Anthony Shirley and Robert Shirley to reorganize the Iranian army and granted trading rights to the English East India Company.
When did Shah Abbas the Great die and who succeeded him?
Abbas the Great died at his palace in Farahabad on the Caspian coast in 1629. He was succeeded by his grandson Sam Mirza who took the name Shah Safi at the age of 17.
Abbas needed ten years to get his army into shape so that he could effectively confront his Ottoman and Uzbek enemies, but when he finally did, the results were transformative. He created a standing army of many thousands of ghulams, always conscripted from ethnic Georgians and Circassians, to fight alongside the traditional feudal force provided by the Qizilbash. The new army regiments' loyalty was to the Shah alone. The new army consisted of 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry or squires armed with muskets and other weapons, a corps of musketeers or tufangchiyan that was 12,000 strong, and a corps of artillery called tupchiyan, also 12,000 strong. In addition, Abbas had a personal bodyguard composed of Caucasian ghulams that was increased to 3,000. This force amounted to about 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah. Abbas greatly increased the number of cannon at his disposal so that he could field 500 cannon in a single battle. Ruthless discipline was enforced, and looting was severely punished. He was also able to draw on military advice from a number of European envoys, particularly the English adventurers Sir Anthony Shirley and his brother Robert Shirley, who arrived in 1598 as envoys from the Earl of Essex. From 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman Allahverdi Khan, in conjunction with Robert Shirley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which led to a further increase in the number of ghulams to 25,000. This military reorganization allowed Abbas to defeat the Uzbeks and the Ottomans, regaining vast territories that had been lost to his predecessors.
The Reconquest of Empire
Abbas' first campaign with his reformed army was against the Uzbeks who had seized Khorasan and were ravaging the province. In April 1598, he went on the attack, easily recapturing Mashhad but facing a tougher challenge at Herat. He managed to lure the Uzbek army out of the town by feigning a retreat, leading to a bloody battle on the 9th of August 1598, in the course of which the Uzbek khan was wounded and his troops retreated. By 1599, Abbas had captured not only Herat and Mashhad but had moved as far east as Balkh. With his north-east frontier now safe, he moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan and turned his attention to the Ottomans in the west. After a particularly arrogant series of demands from the Ottoman ambassador, the Shah had him seized, had his beard shaved, and sent it to his master, the sultan, in Constantinople, effectively declaring war. In the resulting conflict, Abbas first recaptured Nahavand and destroyed the fortress in the city. The next year, he pretended he was setting off on a hunting expedition to Mazandaran, a ruse to deceive Ottoman spies, before changing course for Qazvin to assemble a large army and set off to retake Tabriz. For the first time, the Iranians made great use of their artillery, and the town fell. Abbas then besieged Yerevan, which finally fell in June 1604. In 1605, the Iranians, led by Abbas, scored a decisive victory over the Ottomans at Sufiyan, near Tabriz. The Persian victory was recognized in the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612, effectively granting them back suzerainty over most of the Caucasus. In 1623, Abbas decided to take back Mesopotamia, which had been lost by his grandfather Tahmasp. Profiting from the confusion surrounding the accession of the new Ottoman Sultan Murad IV, he pretended to be making a pilgrimage to the Shi'ite shrines of Kerbala and Najaf but used his army to seize Baghdad. However, Abbas was then distracted by a rebellion in Georgia in 1624, allowing an Ottoman force to besiege Baghdad, but the Shah came to its relief the next year and defeated the Turkish army decisively.
The Georgian Massacres
Between 1614 and 1616, during the Ottoman-Safavid War, Abbas suppressed a rebellion led by his formerly loyal Georgian subjects Luarsab II and Teimuraz I in the Kingdom of Kakheti. In 1606, Abbas had appointed these Georgians onto the thrones of Safavid vassals Kartli and Kakheti, but tensions soon arose between the Shah and the Georgian kings. In 1613, when the Shah summoned them to join him on a hunting expedition in Mazandaran, they did not appear as they feared that they would be either imprisoned or killed. At this point, war broke out, and Iranian armies invaded the two territories in March 1614. Abbas, as reported by the Safavid court historian Iskander Beg Munshi, was infuriated by what was perceived as the defection of two of his most trusted subjects and gholams. He deported 30,000 Kakhetian peasants to Iran and appointed a grandson of Alexander II of Imereti to the throne of Kartli. Abbas threatened Imeretia with devastation if they did not give up the fugitive kings. Luarsab surrendered voluntarily to the Shah, but when he learned that Luarsab and Teimuraz had offered an alliance with the Ottomans, he demanded that Luarsab accept Islam. When Luarsab refused, he was thrown in prison. Teimuraz returned to eastern Georgia in 1615, taking advantage of a resurgence in Ottoman-Safavid hostilities, and there he defeated a Safavid force. However, when the Ottoman army postponed its invasion of the Safavids, Abbas was able to briefly send an army back to defeat Teimuraz. In a punitive expedition to Kakhetia, his army then killed perhaps 60,000 to 70,000 or 100,000 Georgians, with twice as many more being deported to Iran, removing about two-thirds of the Kakhetian population. More refugees were rounded up in 1617. In 1619, Abbas appointed the loyal Simon II as a puppet ruler of Kakheti. Abbas was then warned of another imminent Kakhetian uprising, so he returned to Georgia in early 1625. He lured Kakhetian soldiers on a false pretext and then began executing them. He also had plans to execute all armed Kartlians, including his own general Giorgi Saakadze, but Saakadze intercepted a courier and uncovered the plot. Saakadze then defected to the Georgians, and led a new rebellion which succeeded in throwing the Persians out of Kartli and Kakheti while crowning Teimuraz as king of both territories. Abbas counterattacked in June, won the subsequent war, and dethroned Teimuraz, but lost half his army at the hands of the Georgians and was forced to accept Kartli and Kakheti only as vassal states.
The Capital of Isfahan
Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin to the more central city of Isfahan in 1598, transforming it into one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Embellished by a magnificent series of new mosques, baths, colleges, and caravansarais, Isfahan became the center of Safavid architectural achievement. As Roger Savory writes, 'Not since the development of Baghdad in the eighth century A.D. by the Caliph al-Mansur had there been such a comprehensive example of town-planning in the Islamic world.' The city featured the mosques Masjed-e Shah and the Masjed-e Sheykh Lotfollah, along with other monuments including the Ali Qapu, the Chehel Sotoun palace, and the Naqsh-e Jahan Square. In making Isfahan the center of the Safavid Empire, Abbas utilized the Armenians, whom he had forcibly relocated to Isfahan from their homeland in the Armenian highlands. Once they were settled, he allowed them considerable freedom and encouraged them to continue in their silk trade. Silk was an integral part of the economy and considered to be the best form of hard currency available. The Armenians had already established trade networks that allowed Abbas to strengthen Iran's economy. Abbas brought in 300 Chinese potters to Iran to enhance local production of Chinese-style ceramics. Under Abbas' reign, carpet weaving increased its role as an important part of Persian industry and culture, as wealthy Europeans started importing Persian rugs. Silk production became a monopoly of the crown, and manuscripts, bookbinding, and ceramics were also important exports. The city became a hub of art and culture, with Abbas' painting studios creating some of the finest art in modern Iranian history, by such illustrious painters as Reza Abbasi and Muhammad Qasim.
The Diplomatic Web
Abbas' tolerance towards most Christians was part of his policy of establishing diplomatic links with European powers to try to enlist their help in the fight against their common enemy, the Ottoman Empire. The idea of such an anti-Ottoman alliance was not a new one, but none of the Safavids had made diplomatic overtures to Europe until Abbas. In 1599, Abbas sent his first diplomatic mission to Europe. The group crossed the Caspian Sea and spent the winter in Moscow, before proceeding through Norway, Germany, where it was received by Emperor Rudolf II, to Rome, where Pope Clement VIII gave the travelers a long audience. They finally arrived at the court of Philip III of Spain in 1602. Although the expedition never managed to return to Iran, being shipwrecked on the journey around Africa, it marked an important new step in contacts between Iran and Europe. Persian fashions, such as shoes with heels for men, were enthusiastically adopted by European aristocrats. The shah had set great store on an alliance with Spain, the chief opponent of the Ottomans in Europe. Abbas offered trading rights and the chance to preach Christianity in Iran in return for help against the Ottomans. More came of Abbas' contacts with the English, although England had little interest in fighting against the Ottomans. The Shirley brothers arrived in 1598 and helped reorganize the Iranian army, which proved to be pivotal for the Safavid victory in the Ottoman-Safavid War. One of the Shirley brothers, Robert Shirley, led Abbas' second diplomatic mission to Europe between 1609 and 1615. The English East India Company also began to take an interest in Iran, and in 1622, four of its ships helped Abbas retake Hormuz from the Portuguese. The capture of Ormuz gave the opportunity for the Company to develop trade with Persia, attempting to trade English cloth and other commodities for silk, which did not become very profitable due to the lack of Persian interest and small quantity of English goods. Abbas declared that he 'preferred the dust from the shoe soles of the lowest Christian to the highest Ottoman personage,' a stark contrast to his grandfather, Tahmasp I, who had expelled the English traveler Anthony Jenkinson from his court upon hearing he was a Christian.
The Tragic End
Of Abbas' five sons, three had survived past childhood, so the Safavid succession seemed secure. He was on good terms with the crown prince, Mohammed Baqir Mirza, but in 1614, during a campaign in Georgia, the shah heard rumors that the prince was conspiring against him with a leading Circassian, Farhad Beg Cherkes. Shortly after, Mohammed Baqir broke protocol during a hunt by killing a boar before the shah had a chance to put his spear in the animal. This seemed to confirm Abbas' suspicions, and he sunk into melancholy, no longer trusting any of his three sons. In 1615, he decided he had no choice but to have Mohammed killed. A Circassian named Behbud Beg executed the Shah's orders, and the prince was murdered in a hammam in the city of Rasht. The shah almost immediately regretted his action and was plunged into grief. In 1621, Abbas fell seriously ill. His heir, Mohammed Khodabanda, thought he was on his deathbed and began to celebrate his accession to the throne with his Qizilbash supporters. But the shah recovered and punished his son by blinding him, which would disqualify him from ever taking the throne. The blinding was only partially successful, and the prince's followers planned to smuggle him out of the country to safety with the Mughals. But the plot was betrayed, the prince's followers were executed, and the prince himself was imprisoned in the fortress of Alamut. Imam Qoli Mirza, the third and last son, then became the crown prince. Abbas groomed him carefully for the throne, but for some reason, in 1627, he had him partially blinded and imprisoned in Alamut. Unexpectedly, Abbas now chose as heir the son of Mohammed Baqir Mirza, Sam Mirza, a cruel and introverted character who was said to loathe his grandfather because of his father's murder. Nevertheless, he did succeed Shah Abbas at the age of 17 in 1629, taking the name Shah Safi. Abbas's health was poor from 1621 onwards. He died at his palace in Farahabad on the Caspian coast in 1629 and was buried in Kashan. His death marked the end of an era, but the legacy of his reign, with its military reforms, architectural achievements, and diplomatic innovations, would endure for centuries.