Safavid art is the art of the Iranian Safavid dynasty from 1501 to 1722, encompassing Iran and parts of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was a high point for Persian miniatures, architecture and also included ceramics, metal, glass, and gardens. The arts of the Safavid period show a far more unitary development than in any other period of Iranian art. The Safavid Empire was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia, and with this, the empire produced numerous artistic accomplishments.Helen Chapin Metz, ed., Iran, a Country study. 1989. University of Michigan, p. 313.Emory C. Bogle. Islam: Origin and Belief. University of Texas Press. 1989, p. 145.Stanford Jay Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. 1977, p. 77.Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire, IB Tauris (March 30, 2006).
Historical context
The Safavid dynasty had its roots in a brotherhood called Safaviyeh which appeared in Azerbaijan around 1301, with Sheikh Safi-ad-din Ardabili who gave it his name. The Safavids have greatly contributed to the spread of the Twelvers branch of Shia Islam, those who consider the twelfth imam hidden like his leader.
It was however not until 1447 that the Safavid dynasty began to show its political ambitions, with the seizing of power by Sheikh Djunayd. A system of battles and alliances with the Turkmen tribes began, leading to the extinction of the dynasty of the Kara Koyunlu who reigned up to that time over the region of Tabriz, across from those of the Ak Koyunlu installed in Anatolia. Haydari, the successor of Djunayd, was quickly killed, and Shah Ismail, then 12 years of age, took his place as leader of the movement in 1499. A vigorous propaganda was soon put in place, allowing an army to be recruited. In 1500, his 7000 soldiers defied the Turmken troops, 30,000 men strong, and in 1501, Shah Ismail entered Tabriz in the north-west of Iran, proclaimed the rite of imamism (Twelvers) to be the religion of state and had the first coins struck in his name.
The territorial expansion accelerated towards Baghdad, deeper into the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire, but the arrival of Selim I at the head of the Ottoman empire, which forbade the Shia religion, and the battle of Chaldiran (August 22, 1514), marked a stopping point. The Safavid army, unfamiliar with firearms,, Michael J. McCaffrey, Encyclopædia Iranica suffered a painful defeat. Selim I entered Tabriz—from which he withdrew several months later because of internal quarrels—and annexed a large part of the Safavid territory. Shah Ismail, whose divine ascendance had been definitely set aside, withdrew from political life, while relations with the Qizilbash Turkmen deteriorated. The settlement of the Portuguese at the Strait of Hormuz sparked a flourishing commerce with Europe.
After the death of Shah Ismail, his 10-year-old son Shah Tahmasp came into power. In 1534, Suleiman invaded Iran with a force numbering 200,000 men and 300 pieces of artillery. Tahmasp could only field 7,000 men (of dubious loyalty) and a few cannons. The Ottomans seized the Safavid capital Tabriz, and captured Baghdad. Tahmasp avoided direct confrontation with the Ottoman army, preferring to harass it then retreat, leaving scorched earth behind him. This scorched earth policy led to the loss of 30,000 Ottoman troops as they made their way through the Zagros Mountains and Suleiman decided to abandon his campaign.Nahavandi and Bomati p. 283
Twelve years of confusion followed the death of Tahmasp in 1576, and it was not until the arrival of Shah Abbas the Great that calm was restored. He quickly signed an unfavourable peace with the Ottomans, to give himself time to establish an army of ghulams. These fully loyal converted slave soldiers of ethnic Circassian, Georgian and Armenian origin had been deported to Persia en masse since the time of Tahmasp I. Trained with the best training and equipped with the best weapons, these soldiers would replace the Qizilbash from virtually all their positions in the royal household, the civil administration and the army, and be fully loyal to the Shah., R. M. Savory, Encyclopaedia Iranica These measures, including the heavy European reforms of the army, thanks to the British brothers Shirley, allowed the Shah to easily defeat the Uzbeks and to retake Herat in 1598, then Baghdad in 1624, and the whole Caucasus, and beyond. This reign, the highlight of the dynasty, supported flourishing commerce and art, notably with the construction of the new capital of Isfahan.
The period after the death of Shah Abbas was a long decline, partly due to the harem system, which encouraged intrigue and manipulation, often by the same new Caucasian layers in the Persian society. The reign of Shah Safi (reigned 1629–1642) was notable for its arbitrary violence and territorial retreats; that of Shah Abbas II marked the beginning of religious intolerance towards the Dhimmis and particularly the Jews,, R. M. Savory, Encyclopædia Iranica a situation which continued under Shah Suleiman and Shah Husayn. Disintegrated by feuds, civil strife, and foreign interference of most notably the Russians, Dutch, and Portuguese, a rebellion of Afghans would be enough in 1709 to lead the dynasty eventually to a fall in 1722.
Architecture and urbanism
Under Shah Ismail
While the first Safavid Shah followed a rather intensive policy of restoration and conservation of the great Shiah places, such as Karbala (1508), Najaf (1508) and Samarra in Iraq and Mashhad in the east of Iran, etc., thus perpetuating the Timurid traditions, on the other hand his participation in architectural construction was almost nonexistent, no doubt because the Safavid conquest was carried out without major destruction. Thus, at Tabriz, the new capital, all the surviving Ilkhanid, Jalayirid, Aq Qoyunlu and Timurid monuments largely satisfied the needs of the Shah and his administration. It was nevertheless Ismail who made the city of Ardabil (northern Iran) into a dynastic centre and place of pilgrimage, embellishing the complex surrounding the tomb of Shaykh Safi and interring there the remains of his father in 1509. He is responsible in particular for the construction of Dar al-Hadith, a hall dedicated to the study of the Hadiths, similar to the old Dar al-Huffaz, which served for reciting the Quran. It was no doubt also he himself who designed his own tomb, even though it was created shortly after his death. Ismail is also credited with the restoration of the Masjed-e Jameh de Saveh, in 1520, of which the exterior decoration has disappeared, but of which the mihrab combines a use of ancient stucco and a delicate decor of arabesques in ceramic mosaic. Another mosque of Saveh, the Masjed-e meydan, received a similar mihrab, dated by inscriptions to between 1510 and 1518.
Dormish Khan Shamlu, brother-in-law of Ismail, partially compensated for this lack of construction beginning in 1503. This governor of Isfahan, who lived more often at the court of Tabriz than in his city, left the reins to Mirza Shah Hussein Isfahani, the greatest architect of the period, whom he commissioned and funded to build in Isfahan the Mausoleum of Harun-e Vilayat (1512–1513), and the Ali Mosque (1522), the only mosque built in Iran in the first half of the 16th century.Dating of the tomb is possible due to an inscription. Described by a western traveller as a great place of "Persian pilgrimage" (as much for Muslims as for Jews and Christians), the Mausoleum of Harun-e Vilayat is composed of a square chamber under a cupola, a completely traditional design. The cupola rests on a high drum, the muqarnas filling the octagonal passageway. Two minarets, now gone, magnified the great porch, while the decor of hazerbaf and the ceramic mosaic, concentrated on the facade, stayed in the Timurid tradition. The facade, punctuated by blind arches, is thus unified by basic decor, as was already the case at the mosque of Yazd. The nearby mosque masjed-e Ali was completed in 1522 under the order of the same commander.
Under Shah Tahmasp
Like his predecessor, Shah Tahmasp, at the beginning of his reign (1524–1555) stayed rather inactive in architectural matters, contenting himself with restorations and embellishments, always along the lines of the dynasties which preceded him. In particular, the great mosques of Kerman, Shiraz and Isfahan, and the sanctuaries of Mashhad and Ardabil benefited from his attention. In the latter place, one can cite the funeral tower of Shah Ismail, which was commissioned by Shah Ismail's wife Tajlu Khanum in 1524, at the beginning of Shah Tahmasp's reign. It is situated right next to the funeral tower of the founder of the dynasty and, because of this proximity, has a restrained diameter. It looks therefore a little diminished by its neighbouring monument. Tall in measurement, it contains three small superposed cupolas, and flaunts a ceramic decor divided into numerous registers to avoid monotony. The yellow colour of the decorative ceramic is, however, a totally new element.
Also at Ardabil is attributed to Shah Tahmasp the Jannat Sara, an octagonal building with accessories and gardens much degraded in the 18th century (and greatly restored). Situated at the north-east of the tomb, it dates, according to Morton, to the years 1536–1540.A. H. Morton, « The Ardabil Shrine in the Reign of Shah Tahmasp I », Iran 12, 1974, pp. 31-64, 13, 1975, pp. 39–58. Its main use is still debated, because it's mentioned as a mosque in European sources, but not in Persian ones, which raises certain questions. Was it planned to place here the tomb of Shah Tahmasp, actually interred at Mashhad? From this place come the famous carpets of Ardabil (see below).
Also credited to Shah Ismail is a palace at Tabriz, his capital until 1555, of which nothing survives except a description by the Italian traveller Michele Membre, who visited Tabriz in 1539. According to him, it was composed of a garden surrounded by walls of stone and earth with two gates of a great meydan at the east, and of a new mosque.
At the end of his reign, Tahmasp organized the gardens of Sadatabad. This, like all Persian gardens, is divided in four by two perpendicular alleys and bordered by a canal, an arrangement found particularly in the tapis-jardins (literally carpet gardens) of the same period. It contains baths, four covered walkways and three pleasure pavilions: the Gombad-e Muhabbat, the Iwan-e Bagh and the Chehel Sutun. The name of the latter, built in 1556, means "palace of forty columns", a name which is explained by the presence of twenty columns reflected in a pond. In the Persian tradition, the number forty is often used to mean a large quantity. This little construction at one point served as a place of audience, for banquets and for more private uses. It was decorated with panels painted with literary Persian scenes, such as the story of Farhad and Shirin, as well as hunting scenes, festivals and polo, etc. Floral bands surrounded these panels, based on models of Shah Tahmasp himself, to paint at his hours, or again of Muzaffar Ali or Muhammadi, thus used in the royal library.