No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Written Representation of Temporal Power in Safavid Material Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
Abstract
This paper examines the notions of Shiʿism and kingship in Safavid cultural materials (coins, architectural inscriptions, enthronement orations, and panegyrics) to trace the role of Safavid ideology in the dynasty’s transformation from a Sufi order into a monarchic institution with a sectarian identity. It examines these materials in order to reconstruct the dominant ideology of the Safavids in various venues. Examination of the ideologies of Safavid rulership shows a marked difference between ideologies expressed in these cultural mediums. We argue that this difference points to a multi-pronged Safavid strategy of projecting political legitimacy in distinct registers for different audiences. By combining ideologies that were embraced and practiced by people of different regions and sects in the Persian empire before the Safavids, the Safavid monarchs managed to spread widely their power within the empire and beyond, to change the religio-political ideology of the empire, and to remain in power for more than two centuries.
Keywords
- Type
- Narration and Translation
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021
References
Abisaab, Rula. Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire. London: Tauris, 2015.Google Scholar
Arjomand, Saʿid. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Album, Stephen. Checklist of Islamic Coins. 3rd ed.Santa Rosa, CA: self-published 2011.Google Scholar
Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian and Pagan Polities. London: I.B. Tauris, 1997.Google Scholar
Babaie, Sussan, and Talinn, Grigor. Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. London: I.B. Tauris, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babayan, Kathryn. Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscape of Early Modern Iran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
al-Balkhī, Muqātil ibn Sulaymān Tafsīr-e Muqātil ibn Sulaymān. Ed. Mahmud Shihatah, ʿAbd Allah. al-Qāhireh: Muʾassisa al-Ḥalabī, 1969.Google Scholar
Brummett, Palmira. “The Myth of Shah Ismā’īl Safavi: Political Rhetoric and Divine Kingship”, in Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam: a Book of Essays, edited by Tolan, John Victor. New York: Garland Pub., 1996.Google Scholar
Chann, Naindeep. “Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction: Origins of the Ṣāḥib-qirān.” Iran and the Caucasus, no. 1 (2009): 93–110. doi: 10.1163/160984909X12476379007927CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehghani, Muhammad. “Shāʿir-e shuʿleh-hā: pajūhishī darbāreh-ye Faṣīḥī Hiravī va shiʿr-e ū.” Department of Literature and Humanities of University of Tabriz, no. 189 (Winter 2002): 81–114.Google Scholar
Faṣīhḥī, Hiravī. Dīvān-i Faṣīḥī Hiravī. Edited by Ibrahim, Qeysari. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 2004.Google Scholar
Kāshānī, Fayż. Rasāʾil-e Fayż Kāshānī. Vol. 1. Tehran: Madraseh-ye ʿĀlī Shahīd Muṭahharī, 1387/2008.Google Scholar
al-Ghazzālī, Muḥammad. The Niche of Lights (Mishkāt al-anwār). Trans. Buchman, David. Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Hujvīrī, ʿAlī ibn. ʿUs_mān. Kashf al-maḥjūb. Ed. ʿAbidi, Mahmud. Tehran: Surūsh, 2004.Google Scholar
Hunarfar, Loṭfollāh. Ganjīneh-ye ās_ār-e tārīkhī-e Iṣfahān: ās_ār-i bāstānī va alvāḥ va katībeh hā-ye tārīkhī dar ustān-e Iṣfahān. Isfahan: Kitābfurūshī-ye Saqafī, 1965.Google Scholar
Ismā‘īlī, Ṣughrā. Sikkeh-hā va muhr-hā-ye dawreh-ye Ṣafavī. Tehran: Sāzmān-i Mīrā
Farhangī, 1385/2006.Google Scholar
Farhangī, 1385/2006.Google ScholarJaʿfarīyān, Rasūl. “Ṣāʾib Tabrīzī va mashrūʿīyyat-e salṭanat-e ṣafavī.” Kayhān-e andīsheh, no. 60 (1374/1995): 77–83.Google Scholar
Kāshānī, Mīr Taqī al-Dīn. Khulāṣat al-ashʿār va zubdat al-afkār: bakhsh-e Kāshān. Ed. Nasiri Kahnamuyi, Adib Barumand Muhammad Husayn. Tehran: Mīrā-e Maktūb, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
-e Maktūb, 2005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarKhwajigī, Iṣfahānī. Maʿṣūm, Muḥammad. Khulāṣat al-siyar: tārīkh-e rūzgār-e shāh Ṣafī ṣafavī. Tehran: ʿIlmī, 1989.Google Scholar
Krotkoff, G. “Abjad.” Encyclopædia Iranica I, no. 2, 221–222, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abjad(accessed January 25, 2014).Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul. “The Equal of Heaven’s Vault: The Design, Ceremony, and Poetry of the Hasanabad Bridge.” In Writers and Rulers: Perspectives on Their Relationship from Abbasid to Safavid periods, ed. Gruendler, Beatrice, and Marlow, Lousie, 195–216. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004.Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul. “Moḥtašam Kāšāni.” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2014, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mohtasham-kashani (accessed September 20, 2016).Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul. “ʿorfi Širazi.” Encyclopædia Iranica (July 20, 2003), http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/orfi-of-shiraz.Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul. “The Palace of Praise and the Melons of Time: Descriptive Patterns in ‘Abdi Shirazi Garden of Eden.” Eurasian Studies 2 (2003): 1–29.Google Scholar
Losensky, Paul. “Poetics and Eros in Early Modern Persia: The Lovers’ Confection and the Glorious Epistle by Muhtasham Kāshānī.” Iranian Studies 42, no. 5 (2009): 745–764. doi: 10.1080/00210860903306036CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir. Khuṭbeh-ye Jolūs-e shāh sulṭān Ḥusayn bar takht-e salṭanat. Majlis Library, IR 10-26866, http://dlib.ical.ir/faces/search/bibliographic/biblioFullView.jspx?_afPfm=-lj69h0hwaGoogle Scholar
Marzolph, Ulrich. Ṭabaqeh bandī-ye qiṣṣeh-hā-ye Īrānī. Trans. Jahandari, Kaykavus. Tehran: Surūsh, 1992.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudolph, Floor, Willem, and Clawson, Patrick. The Monetary History of Iran: From the Safavids to the Qajars. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudolph. The Politics of Trade: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Mazzaoui, Michel. Freiburger Islamstudien. Vol. 3, “The Origins of the Safavids: Shiʿism, Sufism, and the Ghulāt.” Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1972.Google Scholar
Meisami, Julie. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meisami, Julie. “Genres of Court Literature.” In A History of Persian Literature, ed. Yarshater, Ehsan. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009: 233–269.Google Scholar
Melvin-Koushki, Matthew. “Early Modern Islamicate Empire.” In The Wiley Blackwell History of Islam, ed. Armando, Salvatore, Tottoli, Roberto, and Rahimi, Babak, 353–375. NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.Google Scholar
Minorsky, Vladimir. The Poetry of Shāh Ismāʿīl I. London: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 10, no. 4, 1942.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Colin. The Practice of Politics in Safavid Iran: Power, Religion and Rhetoric. London: I.B. Tauris, 2012.Google Scholar
Mubarak, Hadia. “Khuṭbah.” Oxford Islamic Studies Online, http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0461.Google Scholar
Munshī, Iskandar Beyg. Tārīkh-e ‘ālam ārā-ye ‘abbāsī. Tehran: Chāpkhāne-yi Mūsavī 1955.Google Scholar
Mūsavī, Bujnurdī, Hasan, Kazim, Rizaʾi, Baghbidi, Mahmud, Ja‘fari-Dehaghi, and Sadiq, Sajjadi. Tārīkh-e jāmiʻ-e Iran. Iran: Markaz-e Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-e Buzurg-e Islāmī, Markaz-e Pizhūhish-hā-ye Īrānī va Islāmī, 2014.Google Scholar
Naṣrābādī, Muḥammad Ṭāhir. Tazkireh-ye Naṣrābādī: Mushtamil bar sharḥ-e hāl va ās_ār-i qarīb-e hizār shāʻir-e aṣr-e ṣafavī. Ed. Dastgardi, Vahid. Tehran: Kitāb furūshī-ye Furūghī, 1973.Google Scholar
Naṣīrī, Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm, Zain-al-ʿĀbidīn, and Naṣīrī Muqaddam, Muḥammad Nādir. Dastūr-e shahrīyārān: pādishāhī-ye shāh sulṭān Ḥusayn-e ṣafavī. Tehran: Bunyād-i Mauqūfāt-i Duktur Maḥmūd Afšār Yazdī, 1994.Google Scholar
Newman, Andrew. “The Myth of Clerical Migration to Safavid Iran.” Die Welt des Islams New Series, 33, no. 1 (1993): 66–112.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh. “The Dreams of Shaykh Safi Al-Din and Safavid Historical Writing.” Iranian Studies 29, no. 1/2 (1996): 127–147. doi: 10.1080/00210869608701846CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh. Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah ʻAbbas: Ideology, Imitation, and Legitimacy in Safavid Chronicles. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 2000.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh. Shah ʻAbbās: The King Who Refashioned Iran. London: Oneworld Publications, 2015.Google Scholar
Quinn, Sholeh. “Coronation Narratives in Safavid Chronicles.” in History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East Studies in Honor of John E. Woods, ed. Pfeiffer, Judith, and Quinn, Sholeh. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2006.Google Scholar
Qushayrī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin. Tarjumeh-ye risāleh-ye qushayrīyyeh. Trans. Badiʿ al-Zaman, FuruzanfarTehran: Markaz-e Intishārāt-e ʿ-ilmī va Farhangī, 1982.Google Scholar
Rubin, U. “Nūr Muḥammadī.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed., ed. Bearman, P., Bianquis, T., Bosworth, C.E., van Donzel, E., Heinrichs, W.P., and Bearman, P.J. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Ṣāʾib Tabrīzī, Muḥammad. ʿAlī. Dīvān-e Ṣāʾib tabrīzī: Muṭābiq-i nuskheh-ye daw jildī-ye 1072 H.Q, beh khaṭṭ-e Ṣāʾib “az majmūʻ-ye shakhṣī. Ed. and preface Jahangir Mansur, Shiblī Nuʿmānī, and Parviz Natil Khanlari. Tehran: Muʾassiseh-ye Intishārāt-e Nigāh, 2005(cited Dīvān/I).Google Scholar
Ṣāʾib Tabrīzī, Muḥammad. ʿAlī. Divān-e Ṣāʾib, Ed. Qahriman, Muhammad, Tabriz: Intishārāt-e Muʾassiseh-ye Tārīkh va Farhang-e Iran, 1977.Google Scholar
Salīm, Tehrānī. Divān-e Kāmil-e Salīm Tehrānī. Ed. Qahriman, Muhammad. Tehran: Nigāh 1385/2006.Google Scholar
Schimmel, Annemarie. And Muhammad is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Takallū, Shānī. Dīvān-i Shānī Takallū (953-1023 Hijrī), edited by Musaffa, Amir Banu. Tehran: Anjuman-i Ās_ār va Mafākhir-i Farhangī, 2011.Google Scholar
Sharma, Sunil. Mughal Arcadia: Persian Literature in an Indian Court. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperl, Stefan. Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts:3rd Century AH/9th century AD-5th Century AH/11th Century AD. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Tarjumeh-ye tafsīr-e al-mīzān. Ed. Musavi Hamadani, Muhammad Baqir. Tehran: Muḥammadī, 1984.Google Scholar
Tustarī, Sahl ibn ʻAbd Allāh. Tafsīr al-Qur'ān al-ʻAẓīm: Shaykh al-ʻĀrifīn al-Imām al-Tustarī. Edited by Allāh, Maḥmūd Jiratal-Qāhirah: al-Dār al-Siqāfīyah lil-Nashr, 2002.Google Scholar