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Shiʻi Piety and Dynastic Legitimacy: Mashhad under the Early Safavid Shahs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

May Farhat
May Farhat*
Affiliation:
American University of Beirut
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Abstract

Mashhad, the site in northeastern Iran of the shrine of the eighth Shiʻi imam, is arguably one of the largest and wealthiest sacred shrines in the world. The gilded dome over the imam's mausoleum stands amidst an expansive complex of courts, monumental gateways, libraries, museums, guesthouses, and administrative offices that cater to thousands of pilgrims each year. This paper examines the period, under the aegis of the early Safavid shahs, when Mashhad was established as the preeminent Shiʻi pilgrimage center in Iran. Appropriating the Timurid ecumenical vision for the shrine, the Safavid shahs refashioned the holy city into a site that celebrated the triumph of Twelver Shiʻism in the Safavid realm and reinforced Safavid claims of legitimacy. While highlighting Shah Tahmasb's personal devotion to Mashhad, and his privileging of the shrine within Safavid sacred topography, the paper focuses on Shah ʻAbbas's urban reshaping of Mashhad and the architectural and institutional expansion of the shrine during his reign, thereby enhancing its status as the leading spiritual center in the Safavid empire.

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Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , March 2014 , pp. 201 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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Footnotes

May Farhat would like to thank Sussan Babaie and the anonymous reviewer for commenting on an earlier version of this article. Special thanks are due to Nancy Eickel and Colin Mitchell for their editorial suggestions.

References

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31 Fazl b. Zayn al-ʻAbidin al-Khuzani al-Isfahani, Afzal al-tavārikh, British Library Or. 4678, ff. 230–31.

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37 Sources do not mention the reasons for Shah Tahmasb's displeasure. In one instance, prior to the accession of Shah ʻAbbas to the throne, a Qizilbash governor of Mashhad confiscated the shrine's treasury to raise a large army. Tapping into the shrine's endowments and treasury was a constant threat in a cash-strapped country. Beg Munshi, Iskandar, History of Shah ʻAbbas the Great, trans. Savory, Roger, 3 vols. (Boulder, CO, 1978), 1: 406–7Google Scholar.

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41 Mir Muhammad Ashraf Astarabadi acted as legal deputy for Shah Tahmasb on official visits to the shrine. Ibrahim Astarabadi was the official munshī of the shrine. Minorsky, Calligraphers and Painters, 89–90. Amir Dust Muhammad Husayni Astarabadi was the kitābdār. See Mahbub Farimani, Elaheh, Tarikhcha-i kitābkhana-yi āstān-i Quds-i Razavī bar payā-yi asnād-i Safavī tā Qajarīya (907–1344) (Mashhad, 1390/2011), 70Google Scholar. On the ascendance of the Astarabadi sayyids, see Mitchell, Practice of Politics, 107.

42 Shaykh Lutfallah Maysi (d. 1032/1622–23) was appointed as mudarris; Shaykh Husayn ʻAbd al-Samad (d. 984/1576), shaykh al-Islam of Mashhad, ca. 971–74/1563–67.

43 Qummi, , Khulāsat, 1: 438–9Google Scholar. Asad Allah Isfahani was Shaykh Husayn b. ʻAbd al-Samad's patron, whom he met in Najaf. Husayn b. ʻAbd al-Samad replaced him as shaykh al-Islam of Mashhad upon his death.

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45 Bahram Mirza, his wife, Zaynab Sultan, and their son, Ibrahim Mirza, were buried at Mashhad. For a list of the royal Safavid family members interred in Mashhad see Riza Jalali, Ghulam, Mashāhir madfūn dar ḥaram- i razavī, 4 vols. (Mashhad, 1387/2008), 4: 212–86Google Scholar.

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48 See Shreve Simpson, Maria, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang: A Princely Manuscript from Sixteenth-Century Iran (New Haven, CT, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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52 See Riza Jalali, Ghulam, Mashāhir madfūn dar ḫaram-i razavī, 4 volsGoogle Scholar.

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54 An unpublished document, no. 27511 in the archives at the Directorate of Documents and Publications of the Central Library of Astan-e Quds-e Razavi dated Jumadi II 1010/December 1601, mentions Hajj Hasan Beg, the servitor (khādim) of the tomb (maqbara) of Shah Tahmasb.

55 Munshi, Iskandar, History of Shah ʻAbbas, 2: 705Google Scholar.

56 Babaie, Sussan, Isfahan and Its Palaces. Statecraft, Shiʻism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (Edinburgh, 2008), 86–7Google Scholar.

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58 See Soudavar, Aboulala, “A Chinese Dish from the Lost Endowment of Princess Sultanum (925–69/1519–52),” in Iran and Iranian Studies. Essays in Honor of Iraj Afshar, ed. Eslami, Kambiz (Princeton, NJ, 1998), 125–36Google Scholar.

59 Munshi, Iskandar, History of Shah ʻAbbas, 2: 588–90Google Scholar.

60 Ibid., 2: 752.

61 This statement by Iskandar Munshi confirms the important role Shah Tahmasb played in the shrine's organization, although documents from his reign related to the changes he introduced are lacking in the shrine's archives.

62 Munshi, Iskandar, History of Shah ʻAbbas, 2: 764Google Scholar.

63 Charles Melville, “Shah ʻAbbas and the Pilgrimage to Mashhad,” in Safavid Persia, 191–229; see also Mawer, Caroline, “Shah ʻAbbās and the Pilgrimage to Mashhad,” Iran 49 (2011): 123–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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66 P. Sykes, “Historical Notes on Khurasan,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1910): 1138.

67 An archive composed of thousands of documents—the earliest dating to 998/1589—has survived and records the shrine's fiscal operations over the Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar periods. See Hasanabadi, Abol Fazl and Mahbub, Elaheh, “Introducing the Safavid Documents of the Directorate of Documents and Publications of the Central Library of the Holy Shrine at Mashhad (Iran)” Iranian Studies 42, no. 2 (April 2009): 311–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I consulted these archives in 2009.

68 The keshik, a Mongol institution, refers to an imperial guard corps that functioned as royal bodyguards and supervised the princely household. It survived into the Il-Khanid imperial government. See Subtelny, Timurids in Transition, 20. The meaning of keshik under the Safavids requires further investigation. Its usage to refer to a corps of caretakers at the Mashhad shrine, however, indicates that the administration of the sacred shrine was most likely structured along the administration of the imperial household.

69 McChesney, “Waqf and Public Policy,” 174. See also Canby, Sheila R., “Royal Gifts to Safavid Shrines,” in Muraqqaʻe Sharqi: Studies in Honor of Peter Chelkowski, ed. Rastegar, S. and Vanzan, A. (Milan, 2007), 57–68Google Scholar; Canby, Sheila R., Shah ʻAbbas. The Remaking of Iran (London, 2009)Google Scholar.

70 See Mahbub Farimani, Tarikhcha-i kitābkhana-yi āstān-i Quds-i Razavī, 57.

71 For Hatim Beg's exceptional contributions to the Safavid chancellery and the restructuring of Safavid administration, see Mitchell, Practice of Politics, 179–83.

72 See Babaie, Sussan, Babayan, Kathryn, Baghdiantz-McCabe, Ina, and Farhad, Massumeh, Slaves of the Shah. New Elites of Safavid Iran (London, 2004), 92–4Google Scholar.

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74 Qur'an, 33: 33.

75 “The Apostle of God said: I have left among you two weighty matters which if you cling to them you shall not be led into error after me. One of them is greater than the other: the Book of God which is a rope stretched from Heaven to Earth and my progeny, the people of my house. These two shall not be parted until they return to the pool of [Paradise].” Momen, Moojan, Introduction to Shiʻi Islam (New Haven, CT, 1985), 16Google Scholar.

76 “My Family among you are like Noah's Ark. He who sails on it will be safe, but he who holds back from it will perish.” See Ibid., 17.

77 The inscriptions on the tomb of Allahverdi Khan are given in Mu'taman, ʻAli, Tārīkh-i Astān-i Quds-i Razavī (Tehran, 1348/1969), 150–56Google Scholar.

78 Ibid., 156.

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81 McChesney, “Waqf and Public Policy,” 181–2.

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86 Abisaab, Converting Persia, 141.

87 Rafi‘a, Mirza, Dastūr al-Mulūk, ed. Danish-pashuh, Muhammad Taqi, in Majalla-yi Dānishkada-yi Adabiyyāt-i Danishgāh-i Tihrān 16 (1347 SH/1968–69), 66–8Google Scholar; Floor, Willem and Faghfoory, Muhammad H., trans., Dastur al-Moluk. A Safavid State Manual by Mohammad Rafiʻ al-Din Ansāri (Costa Mesa, CA, 2007), 5–7Google Scholar.

88 Melville, “Shah ʻAbbas and the Pilgrimage to Mashhad in 1601,” 216.

89 The most spectacular is the pilgrimage of the last Safavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn (1694–1722), which took a year to finish. Interestingly, Shah Sultan Husayn stipulated in a number of waqfiyyas that three pious Shiʻi Muslims should each perform the visitation to the Mashhad shrine, the Iraqi shrines, and the hajj on behalf of his three predecessors, Shah Safi, Shah ʻAbbas II, and Shah Sulayman. See Moazzem, Maryam, “Shiʻte Higher Learning and the Role of the Madrasa-yi Sultani in Late Safavid Iran” (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2011), 131Google Scholar.

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91 A poem by Vaʻiz Qazvini celebrating the restoration of the Mashhad dome by Shah Sulayman beautifully fuses the characteristics of the dome, the shah, and the imam. See Losensky, Paul, “Coordinates in Space and Time. Architectural Chronograms in Safavid Iran,” in New Perspectives on Safavid Iran. Empire and Society, ed. Mitchell, Colin (London, 2011), 205–6Google Scholar.