Iran Under the Safavids

by Roger Savory

Overview

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 Shāh Ismā'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 Shāh 'Abbās 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521042512
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/24/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Map; Acknowledgements; 1. The Lords of Ardabīl; 2. Theocratic state: the reign of Shāh Ismā'īl 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 Shāh 'Abbās the Great (1588–1629); 5. Relations with the West during the Safavid period; 6. The flowering of the arts under the Safavids; 7. 'Isfahān is half the world' - Shāh 'Abbās's Isfahān; 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.