World History: The Middle East and Imperialism

Egyptian Revolution of 1919

As we have seen in previous World History posts, the nineteenth and early-twentieth century saw European states becoming powerful and proceeding to colonise the rest of the world. The Middle East is often overlooked in this narrative, largely as formal European colonies, outside of North Africa that is, were not formed until after World War One. When they are discussed it is often viewed through the lens of decline, the famous Ottoman Empire, for example, became known as the 'Sick Man of Europe'. However, Middle Eastern states did not simply see exploitation; states tried to negotiate their power and tried to resist foreign exploitation. If we want to understand exactly why the Middle East has become what it is today, it is important to look at this time period. Today's events are either a direct response to the events which we'll discuss today, or the seeds of today's events were planted during this period. As the Middle East and North Africa were an incredibly diverse region split over several different states we'll largely look just at Turkey, Egypt, and Iran, but we will at times discuss other areas of the region - such as the Arabian peninsula.

The Shift - c.1800

The last decade of the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth saw a shift in the Middle East. The same year that the French Revolution broke out Selim III became Ottoman sultan, and he wanted the empire to change. Selim saw the height of the Ottoman empire being under Suleiman, and hoped that, through reform, the empire's strength could be resurrected. In a precursor to what will trouble his successors Selim opened embassies in Europe, and invited Europeans to help create a new military called the nizam-i jedid (new order). Previously, the military and bureaucracy had been controlled by the Janissaries who had become so powerful that they could appoint sultans. Selim's reforms proved short lived. Local landowners, who were taxed to fund the nizam-i jedid, and Janissaries were angered by the reforms and deposed Selim in 1806 to be executed the next year. Meanwhile, another great shock impacted another area of the empire - Egypt. Aiming to both cut British access to India and copy his idol of Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded in 1798. Although welcomed by the more reform-minded elite and traders eager to do business with the French, Napoleon's forces quickly upset the locals. When the French forces were stranded after the British destroyed the fleet in Aboukir Bay they became increasingly willing to loot Egyptian cities, they even desecrated important mosques. In 1801 a joint British-Ottoman expedition wiped out the French forces, and in the ensuing power vacuum an Albanian commander called Muhammad Ali was appointed pasha, governor, of Egypt. Muhammad Ali would radically shape Egypt, but the Napoleonic invasion shattered an image of the secure, albeit decentralised, empire. The Ottoman holdings in the Balkans began breaking off - often with European help - with Greece waging a decade long war from 1821.

Meanwhile, a new power rose in Iran. Originally a Turkish tribe in Azerbaijan the Qajars began expanding across Iran - in 1786 the managed to declare Tehran their capital and in 1796 managed to declare the Qajar dynasty. Following the end of the Safavid dynasty in 1736 Iran had lacked a strong dynasty which allowed the Qajars to take control. The first shah, Agha Mohammad, had to give autonomy to many local rulers and institutions. As the Safavids emerged through a Shi'a religious movement this allowed them to have little opposition from the important religious institutions; the Qajars could not claim this and the Iranian mujtahids would offer an alternate source of power to the Qajar shahs. Agha Mohammad would not reign for long - he was assassinated in 1797. Unlike contemporaries in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, the Qajars would never successfully establish some form of central authority.

Egypt - The First Reforms

Muhammad Ali would establish a dynasty which would rule Egypt, for better or for worse, until the 1950s. Similar to the Ottoman Empire, the Egyptian military and bureaucracy was ran by a class called the Mamluks; like the Janissaries they were the elite of Egyptian society, and became an entrenched class. Unlike Selim III Muhammad Ali would wait until after the dissolving of the Mamluks before creating the nizam-i jedid. After years of slowly chipping away their power, in March 1811 the leading Mamluks were invited for a banquet in Cairo where they were killed enabling Muhammad Ali to dissolve them. With the conservative Mamluks destroyed it allowed Muhammad Ali to reform education, administration, and the military. A European-inspired military and navy were implemented, and attempts to create new military ranks were done through authoritarian means. Expeditions to Sudan were made to enslave 20,000 people in order to create a slave army - brutal treatment and dehumanisation meant that most were killed. As a result, a nizam-i jedid was created in 1822 made out of conscripted peasants, and proved to be the backbone of Muhammad Ali's new army. Expeditions to Sudan were done for gold and slaves, they were sent to Greece in the War of Independence, and even against the Ottomans themselves when they invaded Syria in the 1830s as Muhammad Ali was angered that the sultan had gone back on the promise to award him Crete. Military reforms not the only ones which Muhammad Ali undertook.

Reforms in administration, land, industry, and education were all undertaken. New administrative divisions were created where Muhammad Ali appointed loyalists as governors to rule over Egyptian fellahin (peasants). Furthermore, new government departments were created in War, Navy, Finance, Industry, and Foreign Affairs with specialised schools being established to fill them. It was clear that Muhammad Ali viewed his role in a decentralised Ottoman Empire as being more than just a simple pasha. Similar to Japan and China during this period, students were sent to Europe in order to gain an education, and return to Egypt to serve as bureaucrats. During his rule 311 students were sent to France, Britain, Italy, and Austria in order to fill the new administration. This existed alongside the first Arabic newspaper to be produced in the 1820s, and a printing press to publish educational works in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. This was to create a literate elite in order to guide Egypt to his idealised 'modern' state. The first tentative steps towards industrialisation also began in order to 'make Egypt part of Europe' - the first factories were made, canals and irrigation were repaired to encourage efficient crop production, and state monopolies were established to ensure the state could gain the profits. By the 1840s a third of the labour force were under state control, and 80% of agricultural produce was in state hands. However, Muhammad Ali's plans were hampered by a lack of resources, like coal, to power the heavy industry which he wanted, and the primarily rural nation meant there were few urban workers needed for industrial work. His invasion of Syria came to a crushing end when Britain helped the central Ottoman state the Egyptians, and the ensuing London Convention forced him to reduce the size of his military in return for having his own dynasty. This would begin European dictation of Egyptian affairs.

The Ottomans and Tanzimat

Fuad Pasha

Attempts to reform the Ottoman Empire did not end with Selim III's murder. A later sultan, Mahmud II, worked to slowly undermine the Janissaries so in 1826 he could wipe them out in the 'Auspicious Incident' of 1826. Under Mahmud a reformer called Mustafa Rashid Pasha became increasingly important, so when Mahmud died in 1839 he could greatly influence the new sultan Abdulaziz. Rashid's protegees Fuad and Ali further allowed the Tanzimat reforms to continue after the death of Rashid. In 1839 the two released the Edict of Gulhane beginning a period known as the 'Tanzimat' - reorganisation. The aim of the Tanzimat was to create a 'modern' Ottoman Empire by reorganising different aspects of society. Despite being a top-down reform movement it paved the way for bottom-up implementation of these ideas in later years. Just like in Egypt, new educational, administrative, and military reforms were implemented to placate both internal separatists and to show foreign powers that the Ottomans were modern. The earliest edicts, including equality before the law regardless of religion, guarantees to property, and a new tax system were possibly done to gain British support against the forces of Muhammad Ali. Later reforms involved simplifying taxation, abolishing the death penalty, developing consultative assemblies, and a wide range of new schools. From 1847 a series of new secular schools were created, and foreign religious schools were also opened to create ties between Europe and the Empire. Mainly, these were Protestant and Catholic mission schools, but there was also the Jewish Alliance Israelite Universelle. Although very conservative the first schools for women were opened in 1863 - like many other women's schools at the time it was created with the idea of creating good Muslim wives and mothers. Some upper-class women were able to study abroad, and religious minorities had access to some mission schools. Christians, for example, had access to the American College for Girls, first opened in 1871, until 1891 when it was opened to non-Christians. One of the major Turkish women's leaders, Halide Edip,  was the first Muslim woman to graduate from there. The traditional religious communities, the ulama, constantly criticised this, and proved to be one of the major undermining factors limiting the Tanzimat.

The aftermath of the 1860 Revolt

The Tanzimat also aimed to create a united Ottoman state. Although the millets, quasi-autonomous communities for minorities, still remained in existence the Tanzimat reduced their autonomy in order to create loyalty solely to the sultan. A key part of this was the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman lands - soon enough Romania and Bulgaria would also break off from the empire. There was also another issue that if Christian communities were attacked it would give foreign powers even more excuses to intervene. During the Tanzimat period the Crimean War broke out as France and Russia clashed over who could intervene in Ottoman affairs. This was particularly frightening for Ottoman officials when looking at Mount Lebanon. The region had long been a site of refuge for religious dissidents, especially Christian Maronites and the Druzes, and the Egyptian invasion would cause clashes. Muhammad Ali's son Ibrahim was placed in charge of Syria - back then a region consisting of modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. The clashes caused resentment which spilled over during the Tanzimat. Maronites became increasingly wealthier thanks to new educational institutes and commercial ties with Europe. The resentment broke out into communal violence in 1860 and to avoid French involvement Fuad Pasha himself went to Mount Lebanon to see that Muslims who killed Maronites were punished. A new political system was made, a mutasarrifiyyah, that was partially guaranteed by European powers. This effectively showed the flaws of the Tanzimat. The reliance on foreign powers meant that the Ottomans became increasingly in their debt. The period came crashing down in 1876. When Abdulaziz tried to reassert his power a political crisis caused his resignation and the introduction of a new constitution, but his successor, Abdul Hamid, was firmly against reform.

Reformers and Radicals

Al-Afghani

Throughout the 1800s new ideas started being spread. In the Arabian peninsula the Wahhabi movement began emerging. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was educated in Mecca and Medina during the 1700s, and began preaching that Muslims had to return to the teaching of Islam, in the words of Albert Hourani, 'understood by the followers of Ibn Hanbal: strict obedience to the Qu'ran and Hadith...and rejection of all that could be regarded as illegitimate innovations.' Local chieftain Muhammad ibn Sa'ud started supporting the Wahhabi thought, and his presence along key trade routes allowed the spreading of his polito-religious forces, so much so that in 1803 he captured Mecca. As Wahhabi thought declared that the Ottomans were not the protectors of Islam the sultan sent Muhammad Ali to destroy the movement. Although military defeated, Wahhabism became ingrained in the region, and set the stage for the modern Saudi state's religious ideology. Meanwhile, in Iran, emerged Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. Kumari Jayawardena has placed great emphasis on al-Afghani's rhetoric inspiring anti-imperialist and liberatory ideas in the Islamic world during this period. Living across states across Europe and Asia, largely as he kept on being exiled, he called for Pan-Islamic unity and anti-absolutism. In al-Urwah al-Wuthqa he said that Islam had fallen into decadence and stagnation, so they had to abandon superstition and unite with one another. Especially among young Muslims his advocacy against accepting the status quo was well received. An Egyptian student of his, Muhammad Abduh, became a key figure in Egyptian law arguing that modernity and Islam were not mutually exclusive.

There were secular movements to emerge as well. In Turkey a group of scholars, inspired by French writing, formed a group named the Young Ottomans. The key figures in this were Namik Kemal, Ibrahim Sinasi, and Ziya Pasha who all lived in France due to oppression back at home. Sinasi himself even took part in the Paris Revolution of 1848, and in 1862 began a Turkish journal criticising the regime. In particular, they said that all people, regardless of ethnicity and faith, should be welcomed as equal citizens into Ottoman society. The Young Ottomans themselves remained in exile for most of their lives, but their writings would inspire new generations of radicals and reformers. Among them was Fatima Aliye who in 1892 wrote the novel Muhadarat, (Womanhood), stating that traditional culture held women back, and she would help found A Newspaper for Ladies, one of the key early feminist regular publications. In 1889 the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) was formed to resist the Ottoman sultan's repression. They are now better known as the Young Turks. Unlike earlier movements they were firmly secular, nationalist, and pro-West, so much so that some of their rhetoric shows the xenophobia Westerners had towards the Middle East. Ahmad Muhtar stated that 'Either we westernize, or we are destroyed', while Abdullah Cevdet would write 'There is no second civilization; civilization means European civilization and it must be imported with both its roses and thorns.' The Young Turks also proudly called themselves Turkish, something which had previously been used as an insult.

Egypt - Becoming a Colony

Opening the Suez Canal

Despite earlier defeats Egypt tried to rebuild itself, its rulers adopted the title 'khedive' - a distinguished title in Persian. One of the key rulers was Khedive Ismail who had the view that 'Egypt was part of Europe.' He began an expansive and ambitious project designed to bring Egypt closer to Europe, at times quite literally. Capitulations, something which also emerged in the Ottoman Empire and Iran, allowed foreign subjects to not exempt from Egyptian law, instead they answered to the laws of their own country. In order to enter the European market Ismail invested heavily in cotton production during the American Civil War, and it quickly collapsed after the end of the war. A series of new schools aimed to craft an elite along European lines. In 1872 the Dar al-Ulum was formed to retrain religious school graduates along European lines, in 1868 the School of Languages was reopened as a more elitist and European institution, and in 1873 Ismail's wife Jashem Afet Hanum formed the Suyfiyya Girls School which soon had 400 pupils. Most famously is the creation of the Suez Canal. In 1854 Ferdinand de Lesseps was given a concession to construct the canal, and when Ismail became khedive he invested a large fraction of Egypt's wealth into the construction. To much pomp and international celebrations the Suez Canal was opened in 1869, but Ismail had bankrupted the country. With over 60,000 being conscripted to work on the canal this reduced crop output, and taxes for peasants rose by 75% within three years. A negotiation for money with landowners gave him a quick reprieve, but weakened the state's leverage over the landlords. In 1875 he was forced to sell his 44% shares in the canal to Britain, but this didn't stop Egypt from being declared bankrupt in 1876. In 1879 the debts forced him to abdicate in favour of Tawfiq, and soon enough a rebellion broke out. Ahmad Urabi was a fellahin who became important in the army, and was seen as an authentic voice for the Egyptian people. In January 1881 Urabi led a mutiny against a law preventing Egyptians from rising in the army, but it soon evolved into a movement against autocracy and imperial domination. With popular support, 'Egypt for the Egyptians', Urabi was brought into government. Britain and France disliked such a popular nationalist being in power, and used a nationalist riot in June 1882 in Alexandria to invade. Urabi was exiled to Sri Lanka and Britain established the 'veiled protectorate' of Britain.

The Dinshaway Hangings

Lord Cromer was made 'counsel-general' of Egypt, a polite term for the governor as officially the Ottomans still ruled in Egypt. Cromer had a low view of the Islamic states, his diaries from his time in Iran are full of phrases such as 'Oriental despotism.' While some of Cromer's policies can be considered progressive - such as banning the usage of whips - only the wealthy benefited from British rule. Cotton mills were discouraged, as it could compete with British cotton production, but cotton growing was encouraged making fellahin increasingly indebted. Cromer had also been an official in the British Raj, and viewed education as a way that nationalists could be created. As a result he tried to limit the implementation of higher education, and cut funding to build new schools. Only after Cromer left his position was the Egyptian University in Cairo created in 1908. Cromer was further well known for his despotism. While he opposed the construction of schools he was in favour of building prisons, and eagerly used forced labour to enforce his building projects. In 1906 British officers went pigeon shooting, something very dangerous for local peoples who heavily relied on pigeons for their livelihoods. At the village of Dinshaway soldiers clashed with villagers and two soldiers were injured - one died later, largely from heat stroke. Cromer came down hard. The 52 villagers were tried, 34 were convicted, and four were hanged with the remaining 30 being flogged. This caused a national outrage so bad that Cromer was forced to resign. Mustafa Kamil, editor of the paper al-Liwa, formed the Watani Party, made mostly of urban men, to campaign for Egyptian freedom. Following the First World War, when Egyptian lawyer Sa'd Zaghlul formed the wafd, delegation, Egyptians hoped his presence at Versailles could allow the Allied powers to hear their plight. Britain responded by arresting the Wafd's leaders and exiling them to Malta. An uprising, largely led by women, then broke out in 1919 which only stopped when Zaghlul was allowed to attend Versailles.

Iran's Troubles

Rebels in the Constitutional War

The shah through most of the 1800s, Nasir al-Din (1848-1896), like his contemporaries tried to reform the state. However, this was hard for several reasons. Mainly, it was due to the Qajar dynasty having little formal power outside of Tehran. As stated earlier, tribes and religious institutes remained powerful politically and militarily. Through this it was also hard to make them pay taxes so there was a serious lack of funds. When taxes were paid it wasn't to the state. Instead the religious councils collected the zakat taxes, and instead they used it to fund schools. Early on the Cossack Brigade was created in 1879, but it was small at around 3,000 and was dominated by imported Russian officers. An institute of higher learning, the Dar al-Fun, was created in 1851 which was staffed by Europeans, but it remained an extremely elite institute. An observer in the 1870s reported that there were only 70 students. All this was not helped by Nasir al-Din himself - the public widely viewed him as doing nothing and living a life of luxury. Like elsewhere, Iran became a debtor state as foreign states, largely Britain and Russia, began extracting more and more concessions devastating local economies. The bazaaris, merchants, were especially affected as they now were pushed out by European companies. In 1890 Britain was given exclusive right to control Iran's tobacco crop. Al-Afghani, who was an adviser to the shah, resigned and nationalist protests broke out. In 1891 the religious bodies intervened when a Shiraz mujtahid declared that using tobacco went against the Hidden Imam, if anyone was reluctant to join the protests now enthusiastically did so. The shah rescinded the concession within the year, but it did not help him and in 1896 he was assassinated. The Qajars continued to face colonial exploitation; in something which will shape Iran's history William Knox D'Arcy in 1909 was granted oil concessions forming the Anglo-Persiab Oil Company, now called BP. Seeing revolution in 1905 break out in Russia protests broke out demanding economic equality, education, and democracy. From 1906 to 1911 a small scale civil war broke out over whether Iran would have a Madjles, a parliament. Throughout the First World War it would be occupied by the Allied powers to secure their access to the oilfields, and the second Madjles was dissolved. Within a decade the Qajar dynasty was ousted in favour of Reza Khan Pahlavi, a colonel in the Cossack Brigade.

Abdul Hamid and the Young Turks

The end of the Tanzimat was followed by decades of authoritarian rule by Sultan Abdul Hamid, known as 'the Butcher' or 'Red Sultan' for his cracking down on nationalist and reformist/republican movements. The cautious advocacy of secularism, 'Ottomanism' or 'laicism', of the Tanzimat was replaced by an advocacy of Pan-Islam to work for him domestically and internationally. The Ottoman sultan also claimed the title of caliph, so he emphasised this to ensure loyalty to him from his Muslim subjects and as a bargaining chip with foreign powers. There was an implication that, as caliph, he could encourage revolts in their Muslim-majority colonies, so they had to give him concessions. To show that he was a representative of Pan-Islam, but also continuing some Tanzimat policies, the Hijaz railway was constructed connecting Medina to Damascus, and 51 new secondary schools were constructed in the Asian provinces. However, there were subtle limits to this. The schools were taught along European lines and were centralised - this limited the impact religious institutions had on education. Railways were also constructed connecting Istanbul to Vienna creating the renowned 'Oriental Express', and ties were created with Germany. A Berlin-to-Baghdad railroad was formed as a result, and Kaiser Wilhelm II even performed two state visits. However, Abdul Hamid was not known for peaceful rule. Political opponents were often forced to go into exile to avoid repression, and the CUP were largely based elsewhere until the 1900s. Nationalism also resulted in brutality. Despite his advocacy for Pan-Islam, Arabs became distrustful of Ottoman rule when Abdul Hamid replaced influential Arabic families who were pro-Tanzimat with his own supporters - something seen as 'Turkifying' the Arabic areas. Throughout the 1890s Armenian nationalist uprisings resulted in Abdul Hamid massacring Armenian villages, and Greece declared war in 1897 thanks to the repression of an uprising on Crete. He was also almost assassinated in 1905 by Armenian nationalists. His repression led to the growth of nationalism across the empire - when the First World War broke out Arabs soon revolted to create their own state and Armenians also attempted to ally Russian troops.

Troops stationed in Salonika, the Third Army, were sympathetic to the CUP and opposed the sultan, so they staged a revolt in 1908 inspired by Ottomanism. Abdul Hamid won some support back for allowing elections, a demand of the troops, but a counterrevolution broke out to restore the sultan's power. The Third Army formally deposed him, and to keep with Ottomanism, sent a delegation consisting of two Turks, an Armenian, and Jewish officer were sent to inform the sultan of his deposition. However, the CUP was heavily divided between liberals and conservatives which was made worse when Balkan states in 1912 took over the European lands. In 1913, a triumvirate under Enver, Talat, and Jamal Pasha (they were unrelated, until the Ataturk era your job title was your family name), took control. They would move between authoritarianism and reformism which helps explain why it became to embrace a specifically Turkish identity. For example, Arabs saw the replacement of Hamidian era notable Arabic families as further attempts to Turkify the empire. Through this, we can see why in the First World War they began seeing the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian population as a fifth column beginning a genocide - a topic for a later post.

Aftermath and Conclusion

Women in Egypt, 1919

The events which we have discussed today have set the stage for the Middle East's history up until today. Nationalism would lead to genocide of Armenians and the breaking up of the Ottoman Empire, however, the legacy of European intervention meant that many of the former parts of the empire became colonies. The aspirations of Arab nationalists to create a united Arabic nation was squashed by the Sykes-Picot Agreement dividing the area between British and French colonies - these colonies would later be further divided. The reformist movements would bring to power new movements which would shape today. The new Pahlavi dynasty in Iran would continue to grant foreign powers concessions spurring an anti-imperialist movement - from both Leftists and Islamic forces (sometimes they were the same). From the CUP emerged the reformist Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, and, according to Serif Mardin, would complete the ideas set forth in the Tanzimat. Since then the divide between Kemalism and its opponents have been a characteristic of Turkish thought. The Middle East as we know it began to take shape during this period, for better or for worse.

The sources I have used are as follows:
-William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Sixth Edition, (Boulder, CO: 2016)
-Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, (London: 1991)
-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)
-Betty Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels and Rogues, (Stanford, CA: 2016)
-Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, (Berkeley, CA: 1988)
-Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran, (Cambridge: 2008)
-Serif Mardin, 'Ideology and Religion in the Turkish Revolution', International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2:2, (1971), 197-211
-Nicole Pope and Hugh Pope, Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey, (Woodstock, NY: 2004)
-Yaseen Noorani, Culture and Hegemony in the Colonial Middle East, (New York, NY: 2010)
-John Galbraith and Afaf Latfi al-Sayyid-Marsat, 'The British Occupation of Egypt: Another View,' International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 9:4, (1978), 471-488
-A.G. Hopkins, 'The Victorians and Africa: A Reconsideration of the Occupation of Egypt, 1882,' The Journal of African History, 27:2, (1986), 363-391

Thank you for reading, and next time we'll be looking at settler colonialism in Australia and New Zealand. For other World History posts we have a list here, and for future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: The Safavids

A depiction of the court of Abbas I

The last time on World History we looked at the first of the 'Gunpowder Empires' with the Ottomans and today we'll be looking at the second of these empires and the enemy of the Ottomans: the Safavids of Iran. Safavid rule was established in 1501 and lasted until the early-eighteenth century, but despite existing for a far shorter amount of time compared to the Ottomans (which lasted from the early-fourteenth century until the early-twentieth) the impact of the Safavids on Iran was profound. The Safavids were the first Shia rulers of Iran and they happened to be the first 'native' dynasty to rule over a united Iran since the Sasanians in 651. Today we'll look at this empire and its legacy.

Origins

Safavid history is much older than the establishment of Safavid rule in 1501. There are two aspects of this which we will need to discuss: the Safaviyye and Twelver Shia Islam. The Safaviyye was a religious order founded under the Kurdish Shaikh Safi al-Din (1252-1334) in 1300 and it takes its name from him. The Safaviyye were part of a branch of Islam called Sufism - sometimes called 'Folk Islam' by figures including H.R. Roemer - which placed emphasis on mysticism as well as Islamic theology. Shaikh Safi in Roemer's words was a 'miracle worker and man of God combined with a sober, practical politician and cunning merchant.' From his base in Ardabil he became a popular figure becoming the focal point of a religious movement, he was friendly with secular rulers, he became a protector of the poor and the weak, and his convent became a refuge for the persecuted and oppressed. The Safaviyye was one of the reasons why the Mongols in Iran adopted Islam. After Shaikh Safi's death his son became the leader of the Safaviyye and leadership would pass from father to son for over a century. Thanks to them Ardabil became a holy pilgrimage site. This changed under Shaikh Junaid in the fifteenth century who transformed the Safaviyye from a religious Sufi order to a military one. Junaid started seizing land and creating political alliances - he married the sister of the Aq Quyunlu's ruler Uzun Hassan and his son would marry Hassan's daughter. This was important as the Aq Quyunlu were the most powerful Turkmen dynasty in the region. Junaid's son Haydar truly embraced the military side - Junaid had sent propaganda to Turkmen lands in the Ottoman Empire which attracted potential fighters to the Safaviyye order. Haydar organised them into an army called the Qizilbash, or Kizilbash, which meant 'Red heads' or 'Red turbans'. Originally this was an insult from the Ottomans but the Safaviyye embraced it. Under Haydar's son, Ismail, the Safavid Empire would emerge.

Ismail, the son of Haydar and founder of the Safavid Empire

Under Haydar, but possibly under Junaid, the Safaviyye went from a Sunni order to a Shia order. Over the centuries many differences have emerged between Sunni and Shia Islam but they originated about who should be the caliph (spiritual leader) of Islam. Sunni theology argues that anyone who is holy and pious enough can become caliph whereas Shia theology argues that only relatives of the Prophet Muhammad can be caliph. Thanks to this divide the later doctrinal differences emerged. The Safavids were part of a branch of Shia Islam called Twelver. According to Twelver theology the twelve direct descendants of Muhammad who were imams were the true successors of Muhammad. The twelfth imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, is believed to still be in Occulation until he returns as Mahdi (savior). It is also believed that when the Mahdi arrives the Second Coming of Christ will happen to aid the Mahdi in the defeat of the Anti-Christ. Many Sufi orders also subscribe to the idea of the Twelve Imams which explains why there was little pushback for the Safaviyye adopting Twelver Islam.

Ismail and the founding of an Empire

A depiction of the Qizilbash

We'll look at aspects of Ismail's rule in this point - we'll come to administration, religion etc. later on. Haydar, like Junaid, wanted to become the new regional power. The Ottomans were on the rise in the west, the Aq Quyunlu was being swallowed up slowly by the Ottomans, and the Timurid Empire in Iran was being torn apart by civil war. Haydar saw this as a chance to expand and when Uzun Hassan died in 1478 this gave Haydar the excuse to cut ties. His empire building was cut short when he died in 1488 fighting the Shirvans and Aq Quyunlu. The Qizilbash continued fighting the Aq Quyunlu and at the age of seven Haydar's young son Ismail went into hiding in Gilan on the Caspian where he was trained by Shia theologians. At the age of just 12 he came out of hiding, went to Ardabil to take leadership of the Qizilbash and began his way into forming the Safavids. Ismail was bold, charismatic and had legitimacy. The Qizilbash were loyal to any son of Haydar, although this did not stop them from using his brothers as pawns before their deaths, and Ismail himself had political and spiritual legitimacy. He was the grandson of the Aq Quyunlu leader Uzun Hassan whose wife was the daughter of the King of Trebizond. As a direct descendant of Safi al-Din he got spiritual legitimacy but according to one lineage Safi al-Din was a descendant of the first Twelve Imams and the fourth of the Rashidun (see here) Ali. Regardless if this was true Ismail claimed this legacy once stating: I am God's mystery. I am the leader of all these ghazi warriors. My mother is Fatima, my father is Ali; and I am the pir [leader] of the Twelve Imams. He also came out of hiding at the turn of a new century; something later Safavid historians claimed was being symbolically linked to the Mahdi and linked to the phrase 'God sends at the beginning of every century someone to renew the faith'. Ismail himself even claimed that he was a Mahdi.

The Safavids under Ismail

Within nine years Ismail had created a new empire. Ismail first turned his attention onto the Shirvans and their ruler, the Shirvanshah, who had killed his father. With their defeat the booty from the war strengthened his role among his Turkmen tribal followers. With the defeat of the Shirvans he took on the Aq Quyunlu conquering them in 1501. Quite curiously Ismail took the Aq Quyunlu capital of Tabriz as his capital - something possibly due to its geographic location and to stress his own ties with the Aq Quyunlu aristocracy. Ismail then looked east to the Timurids in the rest of Iran and Central Asia. In 1507 the Timurid capital of Herat in modern Afghanistan was captured and by 1510 he had expanded into Uzbekistan. In such a small amount of time basically a child had created an empire covering the entirety of Iran (something important later on), Iraq, eastern Anatolia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Soon hubris would lead to nemesis. In 1511 a pro-Safavid uprising took place in Ottoman Anatolia which led to war when Sultan Selim I overthrew his father Bayezid II who had done little to stop the uprising. In 1514 Ismail fought the Ottomans at the Battle of Chaldiran and suffered a devastating defeat. Offsetting the idea of the 'Gunpowder Empires' the Safavids had used traditional weaponry while the Ottomans used muskets. It was a slaughter. Selim went on to capture Tabriz and only left thanks to a revolt from his own janissaries. By the end of the war Ismail had lost eastern Anatolia and his Arabic lands. However, the psychological impact on Ismail was staggering. Venetian diplomat Caterino Zeno wrote that 'If the Turks had been beaten in the battle of Chaldiran, the power of Ismail would have become greater than that of Tamerlane, as by the fame alone of such a victory he would have made himself absolute lord of the East.' Ismail knew this and the humiliation of the war left him in disarray. Making matters worse was the the Ottomans were a Sunni power as well. For the rest of his reign he let his viziers rule but as Ismail had centered administration around himself things started to fall apart until he died at a young age (aged 36) in 1524. His son, Tahmasp, was left to pick up the pieces.

Administration and Governance

Throughout Safavid rule the Qizilbash remained important acting as the Safavid version of the Ottoman janissaries. When not fighting they often served as administrators and like with the janissaries they were not of the same cultural and ethnic group as the rest of the empire. Instead of being Iranian the Qizilbash were often Turkmens, Kurdish and later Caucasian; by the end of the dynasty Caucasians had replaced Turkmens as the main group which comprised the Qizilbash. The Qizilbash became both something which benefited the Safavids and something which hindered them. They often provided the backbone of the administration and also under Ismail the aristocracy but then they became too powerful. Qizilbash factionalism under Ismail's later reign and under Tahmasp threatened to tear apart the empire and often they warred against tribes for power and land. Tahmasp once wrote 'For years I was forced patiently to watch the bloodshed between the tribes and I tried to see what was the will of God in these events'. Occasionally when shahs tried to replace administrators with Persians the Qizilbash had them assassinated. To try and offset Qizilbash power starting under Ismail the royal family married Iranians and creating a slave army similar to the janissaries called the ghulam. The ghulam were taken from captured Georgians and Circassians. Although the Qizilbash did remain powerful and factionalism after a series of short reigns after the death of Tahmasp in 1570 (as well as foreign invasions) threatened to tear the empire apart. When Abbas I took the throne via a coup in 1588 through force he brought the Qizilbash into line - when one clan, the Nuqtavi, became too powerful and caused an issue where it was believed that they would seize the throne he did a mock coronation in 1594 before executing them by firing squad and personally beheading the order's leading poet.

Pari Khan Khanum

The shah in theory ruled absolute as monarchs did worldwide but as we've seen their power could be challenged. They often ruled with a grand vizier who could rule in their own right when the shah was indisposed through war or refuge - Ismail's vizier Mirza Shah Husayn became very powerful before his assassination due to his proximity to the defeated shah. It was possible for women to hold sway as well, especially after the Second Civil War in 1576. Tahmasp's daughter, Pari Khan Khanum, in particular gained prominence. A Circassian on her mother's side, showing the displacement of the old elite, she was extremely well read, sophisticated and was a great patron of Shia shrines. Due to her own skill and intelligence she got her brother to become shah in 1576 becoming Ismail II. However, she held the real power - her brother largely did as she wanted. When Ismail mysteriously died she too followed him to the grave in 1578 and another woman managed to gain power. Khayr al-Nesa was the wife of Ismail's blind brother Muhammad Khodabande. She was not of Turkmen origin and was supported by her kin from the Mazandaran region along the Caspian and the Persian-Tajik elements in the administration. Palace intrigue saw her strangled in the imperial harem in 1578 which caused outrage and another wave of fighting. There are two aspects of Safavid rule we have yet to discuss: religion and tribes/ethnicity. These shall have their own points.

Religion

Religion was a key component of Safavid rule - so much so that the mujtahid (those capable to exercise Islamic law) managed to became a class in of themselves holding land and governmental posts. However, the religious leaders could not touch secular law. The Safavid shahs were very keen to spread Shia Islam, especially compared to the Ottomans and Mughals. The Safavids largely ruled over Muslims whereas the Ottomans ruled over Muslims, Jews, and Christians as the Mughals ruled over mainly Hindus. Early on the Safavids wanted to enforce Shia in their empire, Ismail himself invited clerical families from Jabal 'Amil in Lebanon to come form a ulema (religious body of scholars). The most influential, 'Ali al-Karaki al-'Amili, arrived in Najaf, Iraq in 1504. Ismail destroyed Sunni mosques, had people denounce the first three caliphs, had mosques adopt Shia aspects of worship, and encouraged Shia Muslims to come to Iran. To get into administration you had to go to a madras (religious college) and to get into one you had to be Shia. Quite often Shia Islam was equated with Sufism to allow the general masses to more easily convert as it was less of a change in doctrine for them. Ismail's great-grandson, Abbas I, loathed Sunni Muslims and enforced conversion. By his death in 1629 most had converted. Today the reason why Iran and Iraq are mostly Shia is due to the Safavids. There were pushback though from non-Shia against these conversions; one of the reasons why the Uzbeks continuously revolted was due to this. Nevertheless Shia became a way to legitimize yourself - those in the royal family who wanted to become legitimate often patronized Shia shrines. 

Ethnicity, Tribe and Culture

One key aspects of Safavid rule was that they were the first Iranian group to rule a united Iran (sometimes called Persia) since the rise of Islam. They had either been ruled by Arabs, Turks, or Mongols until 1501. The empire - and today's Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan - was incredibly diverse having Iranians, Arabs, Kurds, Uzbeks, Turkmens, and many other ethnicities lived within the empire. One key aspect to the constant troubles Safavid shahs had were the tribes. Ismail had taken over from decentralized empires which gave the tribes vast amounts of power and after the shahs relied on tribes for military means. The Safavids would continuously face issues with different groups trying to exert their own autonomy or independence during times of trouble. During the Qizilbash Civil Wars the Uzbeks tried to break off and at times were successful. Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, the ruling elite were Iranian and had large amounts of Caucasians and Circassians mixed in. We'll look at this later when we look at Safavid arts but the Safavids were heavy patrons of Persian identity. While it was common for other Muslim rulers to write in the style of their enemies - Selim I of the Ottomans wrote many poems in Persian - the Safavids were more reluctant to do so. Ismail wrote primarily in Persian and Azerbaijani as an example. However, ruling over a multi-ethnic empire they would often write in other languages. Persian was the primary language the Safavids focused on with it being spoke in court, schools, colleges and the administration. 

Abbas I

An Italian painting of Abbas I

Abbas I (r.1588-1629), sometimes called Abbas the Great, saw what has been described by Stephen Dale as the 'Safavid Renaissance'. Upon seizing the throne he managed to quell the Qizilbash and centralized rule under himself - something he managed to do thanks to a particularly violent streak in him. In 1598 he invited English brothers Robert and Anthony Sherley to his court in order to use ideas from Europe. These included implementing gunpowder into the army creating formations of musketeers and artillery and reducing the power of the Qizilbash emirs. Ghulam slave elites were put in place paid from the treasury instead of the old revenue assignments under the control of the tribal leaders. To pay for this more provinces were put into royal hands and he started marrying (or have his children married into) Georgian, Armenian and Circassian families. All of these reforms centralized his rule and started breaking the feudal power of both the Qizilbash and tribal leaders. In 1598 Abbas moved the capital from Tabriz to Isfahan which remained the Safavid capital until 1722 and became a center of culture and learning for a century. The centerpiece was the Maydan-e Naqsh-e Jahan (The Image of the World Square) where a madras was built, a grand mosque named the Sheikh Lotf-Allah Mosque, and the Maydan, a great square measuring 83,000 square meters (second in size only to Tiananmen Square). Each side of the Mayden had something special: the royal bazaar to the north, the Ali Qapu Palace to the west, the Sheikh Lotf-Allah Mosque to the east, and the Royal Mosque to the south. The rest of the Maydan was filled with smaller bazaars, markets and spectacles. An English visitor, Thomas Herbert, in the 1620s said 'The Maydan is without doubt as spacious, pleasant and aromatic a market as any in the universe. It is a thousand paces from North to South, and from East to West above two hundred, resembling our Exchange, or the Palace-Royal in Paris, but six times larger'. Abbas also expanded the empire's land without the aid of the Qizilbash retaking eastern Iraq, Baghdad and the Caucasus from the Ottomans, and Bahrain and Hormuz from Portugal.

The Maydan-e Naqsh-e Jahan today

The Arts

An image from the Shahnama

Even before the reign of Abbas the Safavid Empire was known for the arts. Ismail himself wrote many poems and today we only have access to half of those he wrote in Persian. Carpets, textiles, metalworks, jeweled wine cups, lather and lacquer book-binding and illuminated manuscripts all became associated with Iran under the reigns of Ismail and Tahmasb. Ismail himself revived the Tabriz scriptorum and patronized those who were interested in Persian literature. For one, he had a new copy of the Shahnama (Book of Kings) commissioned for Tahmasb. A 70,000 couplet long poem by Firdausi (d.1010) it is the Persian version of The Canterbury Tales, Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Bhagavad Gita. Most importantly it is a story about how the pre-Islamic Iranian leaders fought their Turkic enemies who had usurped the Persian crown. This commission took until the 1530s to finish and featured 258 large-scale paintings of the poem's events. Even under the fragile rule of Tahmasp the arts flourished where even the Ottoman elite eagerly wanted Safavid arts. Tahmasp even personally sent art to the Ottoman sultan Selim II in order to keep the peace. Abbas oversaw the 'Safavid Renaissance' seeing an explosion of cosmopolitanism and arts. European and Indian merchants eagerly sought lucrative employment in Iranian markets. Porcelain similar to that of Ming China was being produced which managed to make its way to Amsterdam and Nagasaki. Carpet weaving became popular as well - there is a reason why we specifically say 'Persian rugs'.

Foreign Contacts

Iran has always had contacts with the wider world - after all it is one of the key points of the Silk Road which continued under the Safavids. By the time the Safavids rose to power Europeans started exploring the world and the Mughals were on the verge of taking power in northern India. Unlike the Ottomans in the west the Safavid-Mughal rivalry was far less intense with it centering on the key trading city of Kandahar in modern Afghanistan. When the Mughals were briefly ousted they sought refuge in Safavid Iran under Tahmasb. Specifically under Abbas trade was vibrant with India. Meanwhile, Europeans were also coming onto the scene. As early as 1507 Portugal had established themselves on the island of Hormuz but the Safavids always resented their presence. Later when the English and Dutch arrived the Safavids were willing to make contact inviting them to court. At this stage Iran and the West were equal in power so the Europeans were more respectful compared to what they would be just a century later. Safavid merchants were eager to get access to European goods and actively engaged with the English and Dutch East Indian Companies. They liked the English so much that when England took Hormuz from Portugal Abbas allowed them to keep it. By the nineteenth century this Iranian-European relationship would become vastly different.

Collapse

The big question is why did the Safavids collapse not even a century after the strength of Abbas' rule? Originally historians put the collapse down to a steady decline after the death of Abbas II in 1666 and although this is true it needs nuance. After the death of Abbas his heirs continued the centralization and art projects still continued to flourish. Even the loss of Baghdad and Iraq again to the Ottomans in 1638 did not fully cause a collapse - Gene Garthwaithe has even argued that this strengthened the Persian element of the empire by removing most of the Arab population. After Abbas II his son Suleiman ruled for almost thirty years overseeing a period of peace, stability, and even opening ties with Denmark. Under Suleiman (and to an extent Abbas) the seeds of collapse were sown. Both had invested heavily to stop factionalism at court and the harem and had given more power to the ulama. When Suleiman died in 1694 his son Husayn heavily promoted Twelver Shiism giving lots of influence to the cleric Muhammad Baqir Majlisi. Although this produced classical pieces of art, like the Madrasa of Chahar Bagh, he ended up alienating huge sections of society. Sufis were expelled from Isfahan, Sunnis were pressured to convert (something not pushed since Abbas I's early reign) and non-Muslims (largely Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians) were also forced to convert. The Christian Armenians had special economic roles which became threatened by these reforms. Soon enough uprisings took place where a Ghazali tribal leader, who had already once been captured, in 1709 took Kandahar. Soon enough other uprisings happened, including a Kurdish uprising, which became worse through attacks from Russia and Oman. In 1721 Afghan forces laid siege to Isfahan for seven months causing widespread famine and fuel shortages until the shah surrendered. Four years later they were massacred to ensure that they could no longer be restored. The Safavids were briefly restored by a general and former slave Nader Quli Beg who has been called one of the greatest Iranian generals. He initially ruled through the last shahs before deposing Abbas III and declaring himself Nader Shah. His dynasty did not last and in 1779 was deposed by a Qizilbash tribe under Agha Muhammad Khan who would form the Qajar dynasty which would last until 1924.

Nader Shah

Conclusion

Despite being for more short lived compared to the Ottomans the Safavids played a key role in particularly Iranian history. Their reforms, especially under Abbas I, transformed the region from a tribal and feudal economy to that one that can be described as an 'early modern' economy. The explosion of art helped create a clearly defined Persian identity which went on to shape how Iran perceived itself in the future. The adoption of Shia Islam has greatly influenced the region as well - to this day Iran and Iraq have majority Shia populations. Even the large Armenian and Cicassian minorities in both countries are thanks to he Safavid Empire. Safavid rule helped define Iran's borders, its people, and its language. It was the last time Iran played such a huge role in the world and being so strong until the present day. It is no surprise that when the Islamic Republic was formed that they left Safavid names in towns and cities while they changed the names of places which were named after the Qajars and Pahlavis. The Safavids left a long lasting legacy on Iran.

Thank you for reading. The next World History post will be about the final one of the Gunpowder Empires: the Mughals. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Stephen F. Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

-Sussan Babaie, 'Persia: The Safavids, 1501-1722', in Jim Masselos, The Great Empires of Asia, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010)

-Gene R. Garthwaite, The Persians, (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005)

-Charles Melville, (ed.), Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2009)

-Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart, (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)

-Rudi Matthee, Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan, (New York, NY: I.B. Tauris, 2012)

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