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The Qizilbāsh and their Shah: The Preservation of Royal Prerogative during the Early Reign of Shah Ṭahmāsp

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2021

GREGORY ALDOUS
GREGORY ALDOUS*
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar gregory@aldous.org
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Abstract

Modern historians of Persia's Safavid period (1501–1722) have long assumed that there was an interregnum between the death of Shah Ismāʿīl I in 1524 and the date when his son Ṭahmāsp came of age and established direct control in the 1530s. This idea of an interregnum takes two forms in the historiography. According to one narrative, during this time the Qizilbāsh amirs were disloyal to the young Ṭahmāsp and tried to seize control of Persia for themselves. According to the other, there was a war of succession in which Qizilbāsh factions supported different sons of Ismāʿīl I. Both of these narratives co-exist in the contemporary historical literature even though they disagree. Based on a close reading of the early Safavid chronicles, this article demonstrates that both narratives are incorrect and there was no interregnum. The Qizilbāsh continued throughout Ṭahmāsp's minority to respect him and treat him as their leader. Unsurprisingly, given his youth and inexperience, he deferred matters of state to his amirs. Nevertheless, his amirs derived their legitimacy to rule from him, and when leadership passed from one amir to another, it did so only with Ṭahmāsp's approval. Moreover, there was no dispute over the succession during Ṭahmāsp's minority.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 743 - 758
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society

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References

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14 Sām Mīrzā's rebellion cannot serve as a counterexample since it occurred almost a decade after Ṭahmāsp had ascended the throne, after Ṭahmāsp had reached adulthood.

15 Ghiyāth al-Dīn b. Humām al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī Khwāndamīr, Tārīkh-i ḥabīb al-siyar, 4th edition (Tehran, 1380/2001), pp. 595–597.

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17 Kupik Sulṭān was the brother of the former amīr al-umarā Chāyān Sulṭān. His given name was Muṣtafā, but Safavid historians usually referred to him by the nickname Kupik.

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19 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, (ed.) ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Navāʾī (Tehran, 1384/2005), p. 1142.

20 ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 61.

21 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1142.

22 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 282; ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 61.

23 ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 61.

24 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 282.

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26 Būdāq Munshī Qazvīnī, Javāhir al-akhbār: Bakhsh-i tārīkh-i īrān az qara qūyūnlū tā sāl 984 h. q., (ed.) Muḥsin Bihrām Nizhād (Tehran, 1378/1999), p. 153.

27 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 284; ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 64.

28 Martin B. Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks (The Duel for Khurásán with ʿUbayd Khán: 930-946/1524-1540)”, (unpublished PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 1958), p. 95; Savory, Roger, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge, 1980), p. 53Google Scholar.

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30 Būdāq Munshī Qazvīnī, Javāhir al-akhbār, pp. 155–156; ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 65.

31 Khūrshāh b. Qubād al-Ḥusaynī, Tārīkh-i īlchī, p. 106.

32 Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks,” p. 153.

33 ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 66; Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 285; Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1196; Būdāq Munshī reports the event more briefly than the others and does not mention their obeisance before the shah, Javāhir al-akhbār, p. 159.

34 Khūrshāh b. Qubād al-Ḥusaynī, Tārīkh-i īlchī, p. 109; ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 68; Būdāq Munshī Qazvīnī, Javāhir al-akhbār, p. 160.

35 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1198.

36 ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 68; Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1198.

37 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, pp. 54–55.

38 Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks,” p. 199.

39 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 285; Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1199.

40 ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 70.

41 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 285; Būdāq Munshī Qazvīnī, Javāhir al-akhbār, p. 163.

42 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1200.

43 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 286; Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1200.

44 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 55; Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks”, p. 200.

45 Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks,” pp. 228–229.

46 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 287.

47 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1215; Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 288; ʿAbdī Beg Shīrāzī, Takmilat al-akhbār, p. 78.

48 Ghifārī Qazvīnī, Jahān-ārā, p. 289; Būdāq Munshī Qazvīnī, Javāhir al-akhbār, p. 174.

49 Khūrshāh b. Qubād al-Ḥusaynī, Tārīkh-i īlchī, p. 127.

50 Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks,” p. 292.

51 Ḥasan Bayg Rūmlū, Aḥsan al-tavārīkh, p. 1231.

52 Dickson, “Sháh Ṭahmásb and the Úzbeks,” pp. 265, 268–269.