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² Jean, Aubin, “La politique religieuse des Safavides,” in La Shî'isme imâmite, Colloque de Strasbourg, 6–9 mai 1968 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1970), p. 142.Google Scholar

³ Jean, Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient, 12 vols. (Paris: Le Normant, 1811), vol. 3, p. 291. Translations from Chardin are mine.Google Scholar

⁴ Roger, M. Savory, “The Safavid Administrative System,” in Peter, Jackson and Laurence, Lockhart, eds., The Cambridge History of Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), vol. 6,Google ScholarThe Timurid and Safavid Periods, p. 367;Google Scholar and idem, “Safavid Persia,” in Holt, P. M., Lambton, A. K. S., and Lewis, Bernard, eds., The Cambridge Histoy of Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 423, 427.Google Scholar

⁵ Du Cerceau's introduction to Krusinski's, The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 57. Savory concurs with this assessment, “Safavid Persia,” p. 424;Google Scholar and Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 232;Google Scholar as does Roemer, H. R., “The Safavid Period,” in Cambridge History of Iran, 6: 304.Google Scholar

⁶ Riżā, Qulī Khān “Hidāyat,” Rawżat al-Safā-yi nāṣirī, vol. 8 (Tehran, 1853–1856),Google Scholar n.p., cited by Laurence, Lockhart, The Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), p. 17.Google Scholar

⁷ Vladimir, M. Minorsky, ed. and trans., Tadhkirat al-mulūk: A Manual of Safavid Administration (circa 1137/1725) (London: Luzac, 1943), p. 23.Google Scholar

⁸ See Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 17–33;Google Scholar and Savory, , “Safavid Persia,” pp. 423–25;Google Scholaridem, “The Safavid Administrative System,” pp. 367, 368; and idem, Iran under the Safavids, p. 226.Google Scholar

⁹ Marshall, G. S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam. Conscience and History in a World Civilization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974) vol. 3,Google ScholarThe Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times, pp. 50, 55, 56.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Nikki, Keddie, “The Impact of the West on Iranian Social History” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1955), pp. 35–37;Google Scholaridem, Roots of Revolution. An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), p. 13.Google Scholar

¹¹ Leonard, Michael Helfgott, “The Rise of the Qājār Dynasty” (Ph.D. diss., University of Maryland, 1973), pp. 47, 59–65. Helfgott makes a case for “structural contradictions” and undermines what might be termed the “personalist explanation” condemning the degeneration of the dynasty by pointing to the French case in the 18th century and asking if the successors of Louis XIV could have done any better in blunting the discontent they faced.Google Scholar

¹² Ronald, W. Ferrier, “Trade from the Mid-14th Century to the End of the Safavid Period,” pp. 412–90Google Scholar in Cambridge History of Iran, 6: 433, 489.Google Scholar

¹³ Chaudhuri, K. N., “Treasure and Trade Balances: The East India Company's Export Trade, 1660–1720,” Economic History Review, 21, 3 (12, 1968), 497–98, appendix, Table 1.Google Scholar It should be noted that England profited from these transactions because silver was worth more in Asia than in London. While the EIC's bullion exports for 1698–1703 totaled £3,171,404 in silver and £128,229 in gold, re-exports of Asian commodities to Europe and the Americas were worth double these amounts, a profit of 100 percent: Boxer, C. R., Jan Compagnie in War and Peace 1602–1799. A Short History of the Dutch East-India Company (Hong Kong: Heinemann Asia, 1979), p. 55.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ferrier, , “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 489.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Halil, Inalcik, “Bursa and the Commerce of the Levant,” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 3 (1960),Google Scholar cited by Ferrier, , “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 471.Google Scholar

¹⁶ John, Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia being Nine Years' Travels 1672–1681 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1912), vol. 2, p. 163.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid.; Ferrier, , “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 483.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Chardin, , Voyages, 4: 64,Google Scholar cited by Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 19.Google Scholar Likewise the EIC remarked in the early 1630s on the “Silver and Gould which is transported yearely from hence into India in great quantities by merchaunts of these parts,” cited by Ferrier, , “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 484.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Raphäel, du Mans, Estat de la Perse en 1660. Ch., Schefer, ed. (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1890). pp. 192–93, translation mine.Google Scholar

²⁰ Kristoff, Glamann, Dutch–Asiatic Trade 1620–1740 (Copenhagen: Danish Science Press/The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1958), p. 67.Google Scholar

²¹ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 429.Google Scholar The travelers Chardin and Thévenot are cited on the lack of money in circulation by John, Emerson, “Ex Occidente Lux. Some European Sources on the Economic Structure of Persia between about 1630 and 1690” (Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1969), p. 279.Google Scholar

²² lssawi suggests £l-2 million: Charles, Issawi, ed., The Economic History of Iran: 1800–1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), p. 12; Ferrier estimates £1,750,000 in exports, or £3 million in total trade, “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” pp. 489–90.Google Scholar

²³ Figures compiled by Issawi, , Economic History of Iran, p. 12. Ferrier has a comparable set of estimates: 125 tons in 1618, 192 tons in 1636, and 270 tons in the 1670s: “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 478. On p. 457 Ferrier suggests that Olearius's estimate was 3,834,000 lbs. (18,000 bales of 213 lbs. each). He mistakenly says this is 192 tons, when in fact it is 1,917; likewise his figure on Chardin should read 3,036 tons, not 270.Google Scholar

²⁴ Lockhart, , citing a Russian source, notes a possible drop by half in the silk exports of Gilan from 1670 to 1720, though he somewhat puzzlingly concludes that total production may have stayed the same: Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 238, n. 2. Perhaps this implies greater internal use of raw silk, but it is hard to see the evidence for this.Google Scholar

²⁵ Emerson, , “Ex Occidente Lux,” p. 279.Google Scholar This trend is confirmed by Krusinski as well as the Carmelite mission in Iran which suggest that the tuman was stable relative to Italian, French, English, and Spanish currencies until the 1670s, then appreciated by about 33 percent by the 1690s or 1700s: A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia and the Papal Mission of the XVllth and XVIIIth Centuries, 2 vols. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1939). pp. 775–76;Google ScholarKrusinski, , History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. xvii–xix. To calculate the true value of the tuman vis-à-vis these currencies one would want to know the rate of inflation in Europe, which had been fairly high a century earlier.Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid p. 296, based on Borgomale, H. L. Rabino di, Coins, Medals and Seals of the Shâhs of Irân, 1500–1941) (Hertford, Eng.: S. Austin and Sons, Ltd., 1945);Google ScholarBert, Fragner, ‘Social and Internal Economic Affairs,’ Cambridge History of Iran, 6: 556.Google Scholar

²⁷ Chardin, , Voyages, 3: 292.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ferrier, , ‘Trade from the Mid-14th Century’ p. 485;Google ScholarMinorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, p. 27, n. 3.Google Scholar

²⁹ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 89;Google ScholarFragner, , “Social and Internal Economic Affairs,” pp. 562–63.Google Scholar

³⁰ Chardin, , Voyages, 3: 292–93;Google Scholar Emerson cites Chardin, and De, Rhodes on Tabriz, “Ex Occidente Lux,” pp. 279–80.Google Scholar

³¹ Emerson, , “Ex Occidente Lux,” p. 281,Google Scholar based on Chardin, , Voyages, 10: 1–8;Google ScholarRoemer, , “Safavid Period,” pp. 305–6.Google Scholar

³² Father John Baptist found that in 1678 things cost four to five times what they had previously (this sounds like a conjunctural crisis), A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, p. 445.Google Scholar Durri Efendi found that prices in general were twice those in the Ottoman Empire in 1719 due to a dearth of agricultural workers: cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 125.Google ScholarMehdi, Keyvani, Artisans and Guild Life in the Later Safavid Period. Contribution to the Socio-Economic History of Persia, Islamkundische Untersuchungen no. 65 (Berlin: Klaus Schwartz Verlag, 1982), pp. 120–21,Google Scholar cites John, Struys, Voyages and Travels of John Struys through Italy, Greece, Muscovy, Tartary, Media, Persia…, Morrison, J., trans. (London, 1684), p. 324;Google ScholarPère, Nicolas Sanson, Voyages ou relation de l'état présent du royaume de Perse (Paris, 1695), p. 159;Google Scholar and John, Bell, Travels from St. Petersburg to Diverse Parts of Asia, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1763), vol. 1, pp. 121–22.Google Scholar

³³ Roemer, , “The Safavid Period,” p. 282.Google Scholar

³⁴ Ibid., p. 294.

³⁵ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 498.Google Scholar

³⁶ Ibid 3: 292. It is true, however, that available incomplete figures for 1722 show state revenues of 783,862 tumans with expenditures of only 625,320, leaving a very healthy surplus of 158,532 tumans; Minorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, pp. 105–9.Google Scholar

³⁷ Ibid., pp. 105–9, 155; Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 498.Google Scholar

³⁸ Muḥammad, Hāshim āṣaf, Rustam al-tavārīkh, Muḥammad, Mushīrī, ed. (Tehran, 1973), pp. 107–8,Google Scholar cited by Keyvani, , Artisans and Guild Life, p. 189.Google Scholar

³⁹ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 119, 124, 127.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Ibid., pp. 125, 135; Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 48.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 407;Google ScholarMinorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, p. 27.Google Scholar

⁴² Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 403–4; 8: 519;Google ScholarFerrier, , “Trade from the Mid-14th Century,” p. 487.Google Scholar

⁴³ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 84–88.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Muḥammad Muḥsin, Zubdat al-tavārīkh, fol. 205a, cited by Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 176.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Chardin, , Voyages, 3: 292.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 100, 104.Google Scholar See also Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 44;Google Scholar and Roemer, , “Safavid Period,” p. 307.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 113–19;Google ScholarEmerson, , “Ex Occidente Lux,” p. 218.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ This soldier, named Worms, accompanied the Dutch envoy Ketelaar in 1717, and is cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 107, n. 2.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ For an analysis of the class structure, see John, Foran, “The Modes of Production Approach to Seventeenth-Century Iran,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 20, 3 (08, 1988), 345–63.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Amin, Banani, “Reflections on the Social and Economic Structure of Safavid Persia at Its Zenith,” Iranian Studies, 11 (1978), 92.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See James, J. Reid, “Rebellion and Social Change in Astarābād, 1537–1744,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13, 1 (02, 1981), 36, 38.Google Scholar

⁵² Eskandar, Beg Monshi, History of Shah ^cAbbas the Great (Tārikh-i ^cAlam ārā-yi ^cAbbāsī), Roger, M. Savory, trans., 2 vols. (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1978), p. 188.Google Scholar

⁵³ On the tribal state, or uymaq system, see James, J. Reid, Tribalism and Society in Islamic Iran, 1500–1629 (Malibu, Calif.: Undena Publications, 1983), P. 119.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 251.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Olearius is cited by Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 26, n. 4.Google Scholar On Fars, see Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 26. Roemer adds the town of Lar to the list: “The Safavid Period,” p. 295.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 251–52;Google ScholarRoemer, , “Safavid Period,” p. 295.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 252.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Engelbert, Kaempfer, Dar darbār-i shāhānshāh-i īrān (At the Court of the Shah of Iran), Persian translation (Tehran, 1971),Google Scholar n.p., cited by Daryoush, Navidi, “Socio-Economic and Political Changes in Safavid Iran, 16th and 17th Centuries” (Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1977), p. 127.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Klaus-Michael, Rohrborn, Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1966), p. 33.Google Scholar In between, however, in 1642, the proportion had declined to three out of eleven “important” provinces, ibid.

⁶⁰ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 252–53.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Ibid., 5: 276–79. Krusinski confirms that by the reign of Sulayman, beginning in 1666, offices were bought and sold, and that considerable extortion ensued in the provinces, History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 84, 85, 100, 104.Google Scholar

⁶² Savory, , “Safavid Administrative System,” p. 367;Google ScholarMinorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, pp. 25–26;Google ScholarAnn, K. S. Lambton, Landlord and Peasant in Persia. A Study of Land Tenure and Land Revenue Administration (London: Oxford University Press, 1953), pp. 105–9;Google Scholar and Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

⁶³ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 251, 253–54; 8: 446.Google Scholar Shiraz's problems may have had other causes–see the account of sudden price rises (caused by crop failures?) in 1678, and continued rains destroying buildings and ruining the populace in 1688, followed by an epidemic in which “thousands died in a day” in A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, p. 445.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Banani, , “Reflections on the Social and Economic Structure of Safavid Persia,” p. 96;Google ScholarLambton, , Landlord and Peasant in Persia, pp. 113, 126.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 418–20.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Fragner, , “Social and Internal Economic Affairs,’ p. 516.Google Scholar As to the small holders, he feels “… smallscale mulk land cultivated by the malik himself… was very much on the decline,” ibid., p. 517.

⁶⁷ Ann, K. S. Lambton, “The Evolution of the Iqṭā^c, Iran (Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies), 5 (1967), 49.Google Scholar See also Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 380, cited by MinorskyGoogle Scholar

⁶⁸ Navidi, , “Socio-Economic and Political Changes,” pp. 150, 160–62.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Savory, , “Safavid Administrative System,” p. 367.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 315;Google ScholarRoemer, , “Safavid Period,” pp. 290–91.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Minorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, p. 35,Google Scholar based on Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 315, 323. Roemer says this review occurred in 1666: “Safavid Period,” p. 291.Google Scholar

⁷² Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 317, 325–26.Google Scholar Lambton adds that many of the soldiers pawned their weapons: Lambton, A. K. S., “The Tribal Resurgence and the Decline of the Bureaucracy in the Eighteenth Century,” in Thomas, Naff and Roger, Owen, eds., Studies in Eighteenth-Century Islamic History (Carbondale and Edwardsville: University of Southern Illinois Press, 1977), p. 115.Google Scholar

⁷³ Roemer, , “Safavid Period,” p. 291.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ See Savory, , Iran under the Safavids, pp. 94–95, and “Safavid Persia,” p. 424;Google ScholarChardin, , Voyages, 5: 246–47; 6: 30.Google Scholar Nikki Keddie notes this practice was also found in the Ottoman Empire starting in the late 16th century, for much the same reasons and with similar consequences as in Iran, : “The Past and Present of Women in the Muslim World,” Journal of World History, 1, 1 (1990), 92.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Krusinski, , History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 47. The cruelties referred to include the elimination of rival family members and some leading court officials. Roemer notes that the shah was not literate, “Safavid Period,” pp. 280–81.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ On his popularity and qualities, see Krusinski, , History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 51–52;Google Scholar and SirJohn, Malcolm, The History of Persia from the Most Early Period to the Present Time: Containing an Account of the Religion, Government, Usages and Character of the Inhabitants of that Kingdom (London: John Murray, 1815), vol. 1, pp. 582–83,Google Scholar cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 28.Google Scholar On his illness and death, as well as his reforms, see Roemer, , “Safavid Period,” pp. 301, 303.Google Scholar Father Francis of Shiraz noted in 1660 that “the king is so much intent on sensuality that he does not think anything about his kingdom,” and it is speculated that ^cAbbas II died of an inflammation of the throat caused by excessive drinking, A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, p. 404.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 31,Google Scholar citing Muḥammad Muḥsin, Zubdat al-tavārīkh. Fryer writes, “…when he began to hearken to Flatterers, and give himself to Idleness, he left off to Govern, and listed himself in the service of Cruelty, Drunkenness, Gluttony, Lasciviousness, and abominable Extortion,” A New Account of East India and Persia, vol. 3, p. 51,Google Scholar cited by Lockhart, , “European Contacts with Persia, 1350–1736,” Cambridge History of Iran, 6: 403. Roemer cites Kaempfer to attest to few good qualities: “occasional acts of justice and clemency, piety, an unusual love of peace and winning social manners” (“Safavid Period,” p. 305).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Among these are the Dutch artist Cornelius Le Brun in 1704, cited by Minorsky, , Tadhkirat almulūk, p. 24;Google Scholar the Capuchin Père Bernard de Bourges in 1713, cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣ;afavī Dynasty, p. 114;Google Scholar and finally, the Russian envoy, A. P. Volinsky, who observed ca. 1718: “The present head is such that instead of being above his subjects, he is his own subjects' subject; I believe that seldom can one find such a fool among commoners, to say nothing of crowned heads,” cited by Minorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, p. 24.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Krusinski, , History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 83; also pp. 76–84.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Roemer, , “The Safavid Period,” p. 307. Father Sanson noted the power of the eunuchs under Shah Sulayman: Père N. Sanson, Voyages, n.p.,Google Scholar cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar Chardin comments in a similar vein, writing ca. 1700, Voyages, 5: 240.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Krusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 98–100;Google ScholarHelfgott, , “The Rise of the Qājār Dynasty,” pp. 61–67.Google Scholar

⁸² The relevant passages are in Chardin, , Voyages, 5: 208–12, 216; 6: 70–71; 7: 319. See also Aubin, “La politique religieuse des Safavides.”Google Scholar

⁸³ This is the thrust of Said Amir Arjomand's argument at certain key points: The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam. Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi^cte iran from the Beginning till 1890 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 122, 211.Google Scholar See also Savory, , Iran under the Safavids, p. 234.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Banani, , “Reflections on the Social and Economic Structure of Safavid Persia,” pp. 86–87.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-mulūk, p. 24;Google ScholarLockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 119–22.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Roemer, , “The Safavid Period,” p. 313.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ This formulation on ^cAbbas's “system” is found in Helfgott, , “Rise of the Qājār Dynasty,” p. 59.Google Scholar On the theoretical and comparative dynamics of centralization in precapitalist societies, see the sociological work of Max, Weber, Economy and Society, 2 vols. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978);Google ScholarAnthony, Giddens, The Nation-Stare and Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987);Google Scholar and Michael, Mann, The Sources of Social Power, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). The implications of the present analysis for a wider study of decline in the Ottoman and Mughal empires are too complex to discuss here, but it is instructive to realize that of the three, Iran had the least intrusive European impact in the 17th and 18th centuries, and yet the Safavid dynasty still lost its grip on power due mostly to the deleterious effects of its internal developmental dynamics. On the larger comparison, see John Foran, “Modes of Production, European Impact and Social Change in the Pre-Capitalist Middle East and South Asia: A Comparative Survey of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries,” paper presented at the meetings of the Middle East Studies Association, San Francisco, November 1985.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 46;Google ScholarSavory, , “Safavid Persia,” p. 425;Google ScholarLang, D. M., “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 14, 3 (1952), 527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸⁹ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 47, 49, 50.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Lang, , “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 530,Google Scholar based on the Georgian interpreter Joseph's account of 1723 in the French Foreign Ministry Archives. At Isfahan. Mir Vais had suffered insults as a Sunni; he brought several Shi^cte books to Mecca to make his case to the Sunni ulama: Hamid, Algar, “Shi^csm and Iran in the Eighteenth Century,” pp. 288–302,Google Scholar in Naff, and Owen, , eds., Studies in Eighteenth-Century Islamic History, p. 290.Google Scholar This paragraph draws on Lockhart, Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 82, 85–93, 95–99;Google ScholarKrusinski, , The History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, pp. 156–58;Google Scholar and Minorsky, , Tadhki rat al-mulūk, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

⁹¹ De Bourges is cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 114.Google Scholar

⁹² Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 99, 109–12, 119–22;Google ScholarRoemer, , “Safavid Period,” p. 318;Google Scholar on Isfahan in 1718, there is a letter of 14 October 1718, in Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia, p. 542.Google Scholar

⁹³ Lang, , “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 535,Google Scholar based on Krusinski, , History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 269;Google Scholar and Sekhnia Chkeidze's Chronique in Marie-Félicitè, Brosset, Histone de la Géorgie (St. Petersburg, 1856–1857), p. 35.Google Scholar See also Roemer, , “Safavid Period,” pp. 319–20;Google Scholar and Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Krusinski notes that Mir Vais's Afghans felt “That the Persians were but Women compar'd with the Afghans, and the Afghans but Women compar'd with the Georgians,” History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 198.Google Scholar While Dickson feels the prowess of the Georgians, particularly Wakhtang, was much overrated by Lockhart—see Martin, B. Dickson, “The Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty” (a review article on Lockhart's Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty), Journal of the American Oriental Society, 82 (1962), 512— Lang notes, “Clearly the fall of the Safavi dynasty was not caused by Wakhtang's defection alone…. Nevertheless, if any prop could have held up the edifice, it might have been the military support of Georgia,” “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 539. These events are prime examples of hat I would label “contingent” factors in the long fall of the Safavids.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 128–29;Google ScholarLang, , “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 536.Google Scholar In 1717 this governor, Volinsky, had already reported: “In my humble opinion, God is leading this empire to its ruin…. As a result of the weakness here, we can begin a war with Persia without any apprehension, for without a complete army, but with simply a small force, a great part of it can be joined to Russia,” cited in ibid., p. 535.

⁹⁶ Savory, , Iran under the Safavids, p. 125.Google Scholar The Gombroon Diary of the EIC in a September 1721 entry “mentions frequent invasions of Baluchis and “Ophgoons” (Afghans) “who range the country even within sight of Spahaun [Isfahan] and many times carry away both Goods and Merchants, [and] have very considerably reduced the Trade of Persia in general',” cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 406.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Ibid., pp. 130–43. Minorsky dates the battle of Gulnabad as 19 Jamada 11134 (6 March 1722), Tadhki rat al-mulūk, p. 10.Google Scholar The French consul at Isfahan, Gardanne, reported Iranian losses at 1,200– 1,300, Afghans at 200–300: Lang, , “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 537,Google Scholar based on a letter of 19 March 1722, in the French Foreign Ministry Archives. Gardanne's interpreter, an Armenian from Georgia named Joseph (Hovsep) Apisalaimian. provides the figures of 5,000 and 500 respectively; see Weir, T. H., “The Revolution in Persia at the Beginning of the 18th Century (from a Turkish MS in the University of Glasgow),” pp. 480–90Google Scholar in Arnold, T. W. and Nicholson, Reynold A., eds., ^cAjabnameh A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to Edward G. Browne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 488.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ A good example of Lockhart's “personalist” mode of explanation is the following passage: “If the foolish Shāh had only listened to his son instead of paying heed to the false charges of the Mullā-bāshī and his other evil counsellors, the situation might yet have been saved. But Shāh Ṣultan Ḥusain was fated always to take the wrong course,” Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 148.Google Scholar On the vali of Arabistan, see ibid., p. 154 and Friar, Alexander of Malabar, , “The Story of the Sack of Ispahan by the Afghans in 1722,” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, 23, 4 (10 1936), 648.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ On Wakhtang, see Lang, , “Georgia and the Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty,” p. 538.Google Scholar On ^cAli Mardan Khan, see Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 159;Google Scholar Savory says he got within forty miles of Isfahan in June, and demanded the shah's abdication in favor of his brother, which was refused: “Safavid Persia,” p. 426. The relieving force referred to by Lockhart, (Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 159)Google Scholar is unspecified, except that it was “large” and approaching from the north. Krusinski attributes the failure of the Luris and Bakhtiaris to come to Isfahan's rescue to factional divisions within each tribe; History of the Late Revolutions of Persia, p. 97.Google Scholar On the Shahsavan, see Richard, Tapper, “Black Sheep, White Sheep and Red Heads. A Historical Sketch of the Shahsavan of āzarbāijān,” lran, 4 (1966), 67.Google Scholar See also Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, pp. 159, 161, 167;Google Scholar and Jean, Aubin, “Les Sunnites du Lārestān et la chute des Safavides,” Revue des études islamiques, 33 (1965), 151–71.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Muḥammad Khalīl Mar^cashī Ṣafavī, Majma^c al-tavārīkh dar tārīkh-i inqirāż-i Ṣafāviyyah va vaqāyi^c ba^cd tā sāl-i 1207 hijrī qamarī (Collection of Histories on the Story of the Fall of the Safavids and Events till the year 1207 [1792rsqb;), ʿAbbās, Iqbāl, ed. (Tehran, 1949). p. 58,Google Scholar cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 165;Google Scholar also, ibid., pp. 158, 161.

¹⁰¹ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 166.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Friar, Alexander of Malabar, , “Story of the Sack of Ispahan,” pp. 648–49.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 169. The suffering hit all social classes, as the Tadhki rat al-mulük, pp. 76, 77, describes one bureaucratic department where eleven out of fifteen scribes lost their lives during the siege or afterwards, and in another, “Most of the secretaries of the said Department are no [longer] in existence.”Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ James, Morier, A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor (London, 1818), p. 134,Google Scholar cited by Lockhart, , Fall of the Ṣafavī Dynasty, p. 169.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Sultan Husayn is quoted in Apisalaimian's manuscript, Weir, , ‘Revolution in Persia,” p. 489.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Perry, Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (London: Verso, 1974), p. 140, n. 37.Google Scholar