Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Islam in a plural Asia
- PART I THE IMPACT OF THE STEPPE PEOPLES
- PART II THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES
- 6 Iran under Safavid rule
- 7 Islamic culture and the Chinggisid restoration: Central Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
- 8 India under Mughal rule
- PART III THE MARITIME OECUMENE
- PART IV THEMES
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
6 - Iran under Safavid rule
from PART II - THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2011
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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Islam in a plural Asia
- PART I THE IMPACT OF THE STEPPE PEOPLES
- PART II THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES
- 6 Iran under Safavid rule
- 7 Islamic culture and the Chinggisid restoration: Central Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
- 8 India under Mughal rule
- PART III THE MARITIME OECUMENE
- PART IV THEMES
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Safavid origins
The Safavid dynasty traces its origins to a fourteenth-century Sufi order established in the northern Iranian city of Ardabīl, located in the province of Azerbaijan (see Map 5). Iran at this time was witnessing one of its not so uncommon periods of political fragmentation and decentralisation, and control of Ardabīl was in the hands of either the post-Ilkhanid Mongol Jalayirids or Turcoman Aq Qoyunlus. As a result of the Mongols placing increasing importance on Tabrīz, and transferring the capital to Sulṭāniyya, both in northern Iran, Azerbaijan was increasingly becoming an important Islamic centre. In Ardabīl, the eponymous founder of the Safaviyya ṭarīqa, Shaykh Ṣafī al-Dīn Iṣḥaq Ardabīlī (650–735/1252–1334) and his followers lived what approximated to a ‘typical’ Sufi existence. Even during his lifetime, Shaykh Ṣafī was highly respected and well known in Ardabīl. Adepts of the Safaviyya order, according to Ibn Bazzāz’s massive hagiographical source, the Ṣafvat al-ṣafā, written during the lifetime of Shaykh Ṣafī’s son and successor, Shaykh Ṣadr al-Dīn Mūsā, engaged in prayer, fasting, dhikr sessions and other activities. Ibn Bazzāz narrates the many miraculous events of Shaykh Ṣafī’s life, all designed to portray him as a devout and pious Sufi. The Safaviyya was just one of many Sufi orders that flourished in post-Mongol Iran and Anatolia.
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- The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 201 - 238Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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