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Notes on the Safavid State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Roger Savory
Roger Savory*
Affiliation:
Department of Islamic Studies, The University of Toronto
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Extract

It is axiomatic that, if a language does not have a word for a given concept, that particular concept does not exist for the people who speak that language. We must therefore begin consideration of the evolution of the Ṣafavid state by making the negative statement that, for the Ṣafavids the concept of the state in any Western sense did not exist. As Minorsky has said: “it is a moot question how the idea of the State, if ever distinctly realized, was expressed in Ṣafavid terminology.” The term dawlat, meaning “bliss, felicity”, was sometimes used in an abstract way to denote the aura of beneficence which surrounded the just ruler and sheltered his subjects. Thus the principal officers of the Ṣafavid state were termed arkān-i dawlat. that is, the pillars which supported this regal canopy. So too, especially from the time of shāh ᶜAbba I onwards, the vazīr was entitled iᶜtimād al-dawla, that is, its trusty support or prop.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , Summer 1968 , pp. 96 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1968

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Footnotes

*

This is a brief version of a more comprehensive, unpublished article by the author entitled “The Development of the Safavid State.”

References

Bibliography

Bellan, L.L., Chah ᶜAbbas I, Paris 1932.Google Scholar
Busse, H., Untersuchungen zum Islamischen Kanzleiwesen, Cario 1959.Google Scholar
Hinz, W., Irans Aufstieg zum Nationalataat im funfzehnten Jahrhundert, Berlin and Leipzig 1936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockhart, L., The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, Cambridge 1958.Google Scholar
Malcolm, Sir J., History of Persia, London 1815.Google Scholar
Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, translated and explained by Minorsky, V., London 1943.Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., The Safavids in Persia, in Cambridge History of Islam, Part VI, Chapter 2 9in press).Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., The Safavid Administrative System, in Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. VI (in press).Google Scholar
Roemer, H.R., “Die Safawiden, Ein orientalisher Bundesgenosse des Abendlandes im Turkenkampf”, in Saeculum 4 (1953), pp. 27–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Principal Offices of the Safawid State during the reign of Ismaᶜīi I (907-30/1501-24)”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. XXIII, Part I, 1960, pp. 91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Principal Offices of the Safawid during the reign of Tahmāsp I (930-84/1524-76)”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. XXIV, part 1, 1961, pp. 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Significance of the Political Murder of Mīrzā Salmān”, in Islamic Studies, Journal of the Central Institute of Islamic Research, Karachi, Vol. III, no. 2, 1964, pp. 181–191.Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Office of Khalīfat al-Khulafā under Safawids”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 85, no. 4, October-December 1965, pp. 497–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Togan, Z.V., “Sur l'Origine des Safavides”, in Melanges Louis Massignon, Vol. III, Damascus 1957, pp. 345–357.Google Scholar
The European travel literature relating to the Safavid period is immensely rich and important. For particulars of the most valuable works, see Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, pp. 6–9. See also the following:Google Scholar
Travels to Tana and Persia, and A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries, published by the Hakluyt Society, London 1873.Google Scholar
Bellan, L.L., Chah ᶜAbbas I, Paris 1932.Google Scholar
Busse, H., Untersuchungen zum Islamischen Kanzleiwesen, Cario 1959.Google Scholar
Hinz, W., Irans Aufstieg zum Nationalataat im funfzehnten Jahrhundert, Berlin and Leipzig 1936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockhart, L., The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia, Cambridge 1958.Google Scholar
Malcolm, Sir J., History of Persia, London 1815.Google Scholar
Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, translated and explained by Minorsky, V., London 1943.Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., The Safavids in Persia, in Cambridge History of Islam, Part VI, Chapter 2 9in press).Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., The Safavid Administrative System, in Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. VI (in press).Google Scholar
Roemer, H.R., “Die Safawiden, Ein orientalisher Bundesgenosse des Abendlandes im Turkenkampf”, in Saeculum 4 (1953), pp. 27–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Principal Offices of the Safawid State during the reign of Ismaᶜīi I (907-30/1501-24)”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. XXIII, Part I, 1960, pp. 91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Principal Offices of the Safawid during the reign of Tahmāsp I (930-84/1524-76)”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. XXIV, part 1, 1961, pp. 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Significance of the Political Murder of Mīrzā Salmān”, in Islamic Studies, Journal of the Central Institute of Islamic Research, Karachi, Vol. III, no. 2, 1964, pp. 181–191.Google Scholar
Savory, R.M., “The Office of Khalīfat al-Khulafā under Safawids”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 85, no. 4, October-December 1965, pp. 497–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Togan, Z.V., “Sur l'Origine des Safavides”, in Melanges Louis Massignon, Vol. III, Damascus 1957, pp. 345–357.Google Scholar
The European travel literature relating to the Safavid period is immensely rich and important. For particulars of the most valuable works, see Minorsky, V., Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, pp. 6–9. See also the following:Google Scholar
Travels to Tana and Persia, and A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries, published by the Hakluyt Society, London 1873.Google Scholar