A New Age for Iran
Iran, which had seen so many ages of civilization and culture, now stood once more at the threshold of a new period of political movement and artistic creation. When Shah Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty (1502–1736), Iran was a land of chaos and petty rulers. Iraq, Yazd, Semnan, Firuzkuh, Diyarbakir, Kashan, Khorasan, Kandahar, Balkh, Kerman and Azerbaijan each had an independent government. Ismail, who rose from Azerbaijan, brought all these emirates to obedience in a series of hard campaigns, took Herat and Baghdad, and made Tabriz the capital of his powerful kingdom.
The nation accepted this native dynasty wholeheartedly. It was proud of the unity and power that came with the dynasty, and it showed its gratitude and inner pride by creating a brilliant new age of Persian art.
The Boy Who Became Shah
Ismail's rise to the throne is an incredible story. His father died when he was three (1490), he set out to win the crown at thirteen, and before his thirteenth year ended he had placed on his head the crown of Iran. Contemporaries described him as "bold as a fighting cock" and "agile as a mountain goat". He was strong and broad-shouldered, with a fierce mustache and fiery red hair. He wielded a heavy sword with his left hand and was an Odysseus of his age with the bow, splitting seven apples from a row of ten with his arrows.
History says that Ismail was "gentle as a girl," yet he also had his mother (or stepmother) killed, ordered the execution of three hundred courtiers at Tabriz and put thousands of his enemies to death. These details are given only in outline. His fame was such that, according to an Italian traveler, "the name of God was forgotten in Iran and only the name of Ismail was engraved on minds." The secret of his success was faith and daring.
Shiism as a State Religion
The official religion was Shiism, that is, following Ali, son-in-law of Muhammad. Shiites recognized no one as rightful leader besides Ali and his eleven successors, the imams. Since in Islam religion and state are not separate, by Shiite belief each imam had divine right to rule both religion and state. Just as Christians believed Christ would return to extend his kingdom over the earth, Shiites held that the twelfth imam, Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Askari, had never died but would reappear one day and lead the world to peace and happiness.
The book draws a parallel with the Reformation. Just as Protestants condemned Catholics for putting tradition beside scripture, Shiites rejected the Sunnis, who made up the majority of Muslims, because they sought the path of salvation not only in the Quran but also in the traditions that the Prophet's companions reported of his words and deeds. As Protestants abolished the cult of saints and closed monasteries, Shiites accused Sufi mystics of unbelief and closed the dervish lodges, which, like European monasteries in their time of prosperity, had been centers of hospitality and help to the poor. And as Protestants considered their belief the true religion, the Shiites called themselves al-Mu'minun, the true believers. A devout Shiite would never eat at the same table as a Sunni, and if the shadow of a passing Christian fell on his food he regarded it as impure and forbidden.
Ismail claimed descent from the seventh imam. His ancestor was named Safi al-Din, and the Safavid dynasty took its name from him. When he came to power, he made Shiism the official and national religion of Iran and declared that he would fight only under that holy banner. In doing so he stirred his nation with a sense of religious devotion against the Sunnis who encircled Iran: the Uzbeks and Afghans in the east, and the Arabs, Turks and Egyptians in the west. The strategy succeeded, and despite his cruelties, his people revered him as a saint. Some of his soldiers believed so firmly in his divine power that they refused to wear armor in battle.
War with the Uzbeks and the Ottomans
Trusting his people's zealous support, Ismail felt strong enough to challenge his enemies. The Uzbeks, who ruled Transoxiana, had extended their power to Khorasan. Ismail took Herat back from them and drove them from Iranian soil. Having secured his eastern front, he turned west to fight the Ottomans. The two sects, Sunni and Shiite, were now aroused against each other by religious fury and each sought to harm the other.
According to unreliable reports, Sultan Selim killed or imprisoned 40,000 Shiites scattered through the Ottoman empire (1514) before marching against Shah Ismail. Ismail, for his part, punished a number of Sunnis who formed a majority in Tabriz and made the rest recite aloud each day a prayer cursing the first three caliphs who, in the Shiite view, had usurped Ali's rank.
Yet on the battlefield of Chaldiran, the Iranians found that the faith of Shiism was powerless against the artillery and Janissary army of Selim the Grim. Selim took Tabriz and brought northern Mesopotamia under his rule (1516, according to the book), but his troops mutinied and he had to retreat. Shah Ismail returned to his capital in all the splendor of a victorious commander.
During his turbulent reign Persian literature declined, but art flourished under his patronage. Ismail protected the painter Kamal al-Din Behzad and valued him at half of Iran. After twenty-five years on the throne, Ismail died at thirty-eight, leaving the crown to his ten-year-old son (1524).
Shah Tahmasp
Shah Tahmasp I was a timid and treaty-breaking pleasure-seeker of melancholy temper, an incompetent king, a strict judge, a tasteful artist, a devout Shiite and, in the end, an idol of his people. Perhaps he also had qualities that he hid from history. The promotion of the faith, the dynasty's main policy, strengthened the state but also shook the foundations of Islam. Apart from causing a dozen wars, it divided the Islam of the Near East from that of the Middle East (1508–1638). Christendom benefited, for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had to halt his attacks on the west and turn his armies against Iran. Ferdinand's ambassador in Constantinople wrote that only the Persians stood between Europe and the abyss of destruction.
In 1533 Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman grand vizier, brought an army to Azerbaijan, bribed Persian commanders to take the strong forts on his path and finally took Tabriz and Baghdad without a fight (1534). Fourteen years later Suleiman, having made a truce with Ferdinand, marched against the "Qizilbash (Red Heads)", the name Turks gave the Persians, took thirty-one cities from Iran and then turned his attacks against Christendom again.
Between 1525 and 1545 Charles V negotiated several times with Iran, hoping that an alliance of Persians and Christians could form a barrier against the Ottoman sultan. When Iran began its own offensive against the Ottomans and took Erzurum, the West rejoiced. But in 1554 Suleiman, free of European war, overran and devastated large parts of Iran and forced Shah Tahmasp to accept his peace terms and give up Baghdad and lower Mesopotamia to the Turks forever.
An Englishman at the Persian Court
More interesting than these tiresome clashes are the adventurous travels of Anthony Jenkinson, who came to Iran seeking an overland trade route to India and Cathay by way of Russia and Transoxiana. Ivan the Terrible received Jenkinson warmly in Moscow, sent him as his ambassador to the Uzbek rulers of Bukhara and allowed English goods to enter Russia duty-free and travel down the Volga to the Caspian Sea. After surviving a violent storm on the Caspian, Jenkinson continued through Iran and reached Qazvin in 1561. He presented to Shah Tahmasp letters of friendship and greeting from a distant queen, who must have looked to the Persians like the petty ruler of a barbarous nation.
The Iranian government was inclined to sign a trade agreement with him, but when Jenkinson revealed that he was a Christian, he was told, "We have no need of the friendship of infidels," and was dismissed. It is said that as Jenkinson left the shah's presence, an attendant threw dust on his footprints to purify the Shiite court of the pollution of a Christian.
The End of a Reign
With the death of Shah Tahmasp (1576) one of the most eventful reigns in Islamic history, and the second longest, came to an end. No outstanding literature arose in this period to be held in honor in Persian memory, though the charming Baburnama by the exiled Babur cannot be ignored. Safavid art, though not yet at its peak, produced under the first two shahs works with the same grandeur, radiance and refinement that had marked Iran's artistic products across twenty-two centuries of history.