The provided sources offer an extensive examination of the Safavid Dynasty, portraying its two-century rule (1501-1736) as a pivotal period that forged modern Iranian identity and statehood. They trace the dynasty's origins from a Sunni Sufi order, the Safaviyya, into a militant Twelver Shi'a movement that unified Persia under Shah Ismail I, despite initial Sunni majority and a devastating defeat by the Ottomans at Chaldiran. The texts highlight the Golden Age under Shah Abbas I, characterized by robust military and administrative reforms that centralized power, economic innovations like the state silk monopoly, and the creation of Isfahan as a magnificent capital and cultural hub. Finally, the sources detail the Safavids' gradual decline, attributing it to weak leadership, internal strife, economic woes, military neglect, and environmental crises, culminating in the Afghan invasion and the eventual rise of Nader Shah.
Baltacıoğlu-Brammer, A. (2021). The emergence of the Safavids as a mystical order and their subsequent rise to power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In R. Matthee (Ed.), The Safavid World. Routledge. 2
Blow, D. (2009). Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend. I.B. Tauris. 2
Floor, W. (1998). The Economy of Safavid Persia. Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. 115
Frye, R. N. (1966). The Sasanian Inscription of Paikuli. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 26, 223-228. 116
Ghaedan, A. (2013). The Policy Shah Abbas (I) adopted for the Europeans Trading in the Southern Ports of Iran particularly in Bandar Abbas. Foreign Relations History, 14(56), 1-18. 63
Gustafson, A., & White, K. (2022). Environmental Crises at the End of Safavid History: The Collapse of Iran's Early Modern Imperial Ecology, 1666–1722. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 54(1), 1-22. 100
Haneda, M. (1996). The Character of the Urbanization of Isfahan in the Later Safavid Period. In C. Melville (Ed.), Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society. I.B. Tauris. 117
Jackson, P., & Lockhart, L. (Eds.). (1986). The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. Cambridge University Press. 2
Khanbaghi, A. (2006). The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran. I.B. Tauris. 2
Kramer, M. (Ed.). (1987). Shi'ism, Resistance, and Revolution. Westview Press. 38
Matthee, R. (1999). The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730. Cambridge University Press. 59
Matthee, R. (2012). Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. I.B. Tauris. 16
Mikaberidze, A. (2015). Historical Dictionary of Georgia (2nd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. 2
Newman, A. J. (2006). Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B. Tauris. 100
Savory, R. (2007). Iran under the Safavids. Cambridge University Press. 2
Sicker, M. (2001). The Islamic World in Decline: From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2
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