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The Safavid State and Polity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Roger Savory
Roger Savory*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

I regard the arguments about nationalism or the lack of it, and about whether or not the Safavid state can be called a nation-state, as in many ways sterile. What I am much more interested in is the question whether or not the Safavids created a state at all, in any generally accepted sense of the word. I propose in a moment to look at some of the commonly accepted characteristics of the state, and see whether or not the Safavid system possessed these characteristics. It is because I do not want to place primary emphasis on the concept of the “nation-state” that I have entitled this paper “The Safavid state and polity”--the latter meaning, of course, an organized society of which they were a part, for to Plato and Aristotle the polis was more than just a natural organism such as a herd or a hive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 1-2: Studies on Isfahan: Proceedings of the Isfahan Colloquium, Part I , Spring Winter 1974 , pp. 179 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1974

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References

Notes

1. For convenience, I follow the categories listed in Morton H. Fried's article on the institution of the state in the Encyclopedia of Political Science, pp. 143-50 (hereinafter referred to as “Fried”).

2. Frederick M. Watkins, article on the concept of the state in the Encyclopedia of Political Science, p. 152; (hereinafter referred to as “Watkins”).

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Fried, p. 146.

6. Lambton, A.K.S., “The Theory of Kingship in the Naṣiḥat al-Mulūk of Ghazāli, Islamic Quarterly, I/1 (1954), p. 51.Google Scholar

7. Erwin I.J. Rosenthal, “The Role of the State in Islam: Theory and the Medieval Practice,” a paper presented to the Colloquium on Tradition and Change in the Middle East, Harvard, 1968, p. 9.

8. Rosenthal, Erwin I.J., Political Thought in Medieval Islam (Cambridge: 1958), p. 44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Jacobs, Norman, The Sociology of Development (New York: 1966)Google Scholar, Chapter 7, “Religion and Political Authority.”

10. Chardin, Jean, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin (Amsterdam: 1711), vol. vi, pp. 249–50.Google Scholar

11. Mazzaoui, Michel M., The Origins of the Ṣafawids (Wiesbaden: 1972), p. 85.Google Scholar

12. Fried, p. 147.

13. Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, translated and explained by Minorsky, V., E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Series, New Series, vol. XVI (London: 1943), p. 188.Google Scholar

14. Savory, R.M., “The Significance of the Political Murder of Mirza Salman,” Islamic Studies, Journal of the Central Institute of Islamic Research, Karachi, vol. III, no. 2 (1964), p. 184.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 185.

16. Ibid., p. 186.

17. Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, op. cit., p. 14.

18. If the shah followed the normal route via Kashan and Rayy, he walked a distance of approximately 800 miles, which works out at almost 30 miles a day-an incredible average.

19. Munshī, Iskandar Beg, Tārīkh-i ᶜĀlam-ārā-iᶜAbbāsī, 2 vols (Tehran: 1955-56), vol. ii, p. 796.Google Scholar

20. Minorsky, V., “The Poetry of Shah Ismaᶜil I,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. X, no. 4 (1942), p. 1047a.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., p. 1048a.

22. Ibid., p. 1043a.

23. Fried, p. 149.

24. Cottam, Richard W., Nationalism in Iran (Pittsburg: 1964), p. 3.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., p. 4.

26. Ibid., p. 5.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 9.

29. Ibid., p. 4.

30. Ibid., p. 7.

31. Ibid., p. 2.

32. Thaiss, Gustav, “Unity and Discord: The Symbol of Husavn in Iran,” in Iranian Civilization and Culture, Adams, C.J., ed. (Montreal: 1972), p. 114.Google Scholar

33. Munshī, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 50, 124 & 152; Cambridge MS. f. 280v; vol. i, p. 547; vol 2, pp. 616, 761 & 1100.

34. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 1101.

35. Ibid., vol. i, pp. 123 & 154; MS. f. 281r; vol. i, pp. 351 & 580; vol. ii, p. 939.

36. Ibid., vol. i, p. 220.

37. Ibid., vol. i, p. 199.

38. Ibid., vol. i. p. 317.

39. Ibid., MS. f. 283v.

40. Ibid., vol. i, p. 530.

41. Ibid., vol. i, p. 765.

42. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 829.

43. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 730.

44. Ibid., vol. i, p. 344.

45. Ibid., vol. i, p. 307.

46. Ibid., vol. i, p. 308.

47. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 1042.

48. Ibid., vol. i, p. 211.

49. Ibid., vol. i, pp. 220 & 240.

50. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 831.

51. Ibid., vol. i, p. 363.

52. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 974.

53. Ibid., vol. i, p. 211.

54. Ibid., vol. ii, p. 1006.

55. Watkins, p. 150.