Iran Under the Safavids

Iran Under the Safavids aims at providing, in non-technical language, a comprehensive history of the Safavid dynasty.

Roger Savory (Author)

9780521042512, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 September 2007

288 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.407 kg

The importance of the Safavid period (1501–1736) in Iranian history has been increasingly recognised. Iran Under the Safavids aims at providing the student and general reader, in non-technical language, with a comprehensive history of the Safavid dynasty. Professor Savory considers the origins of the Safavid family, the course of the revolutionary movement which brought it to power and the problems facing Sh?h Ism?'il I after the establishment of the Safavid state in 1501. He describes the development of a multi-racial society in Iran during the sixteenth century, the policies of Sh?h 'Abb?s I which brought the Safavid state to the height of its power and prosperity, and the reasons for its decline during the latter part of the seventeenth century and its eventual fall. As well as covering the political history of the period, the book includes chapters on the economic and social structure of the state, on intellectual and artistic life under the Safavids and on relations with Europe.

List of illustrations
Map
Acknowledgements
1. The Lords of Ardab?l
2. Theocratic state: the reign of Sh?h Ism?'?l I (1501–1524)
3. Internal dissensions and external foes: the Safavid state from 1524 to 1588
4. The Safavid empire at the height of its power under Sh?h 'Abb?s the Great (1588–1629)
5. Relations with the West during the Safavid period
6. The flowering of the arts under the Safavids
7. 'Isfah?n is half the world' - Sh?h 'Abb?s's Isfah?n
8. The social and economic structure of the Safavid state
9. Intellectual life under the Safavids
10. Decline and fall of the Safavids
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]