Military of the Safavid dynasty

The Military of the Safavid dynasty covers the military history of the Safavid dynasty from 1501 to 1736.

Foundation of the Safavid military

It was the first Safavid king (shah) Ismail I (1501-1524), who laid foundation to the Safavid military. It origins dates back to 1500, when Ismail decided to come out of hiding from Lahijan, a city in Gilan, northern Iran. On his way to Azerbaijan, he recruited followers, and had already recruited 450 at Rasht and 1,500 at Tarom. By summer, Ismail had already gathered 7,000 followers, mostly Turkmens from Asia Minor whom he had rallied together in Erzincan, while the rest were Iranians, mainly from northern Iran, such as the Talysh people. Ismail fought the Shirvanshah Farrukh Yassar during the same year, where his army is said to have ranged from 7,000 to 40,000.[1]

Units

Qizilbash

Mannequin of a Safavid Qizilbash soldier, exhibited in Sa'dabad, Iran

The Qizilbash was a Shia militant group which mostly consisted of Turkmen tribes, but also Iranian ones, such as the Talysh and certain Kurdish tribes. The largest tribes of the Qizilbash were the Ustajlu, the Rumlu, the Shamlu, the Zul Qadr, the Tekkelu, the Afshar and the Qajar—all Turkmens.[2] The Qizilbash were the main factor of the foundation of the Safavid dynasty and the conquest of Iran. Unlike the ghulam corps, the Qizilbash did not rely on payment from royal treasury, but were instead granted land. In return, they supplied the Safavid shah with troops and provisions.[3]

During the reign of Ismail, the Qizilbash almost saw him as a divine person, and regarded him as the representative of the hidden Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi. A group drawn from the Qizilbash, known as the "ahl-i ikhtisas", was a small group of officers, who had kept the Safaviyya order alive during Ismail's refuge in Gilan. These officers included a lala ("tutor", "guardian"), and many others.[4] Ismail later adopted a policy by trying to avoid appointing the Qizilbash to the powerful vakil (vicegerent) office, and instead appointed his Iranian kinsmen to high offices, the first one being Mir Najm Zargar Gilani. This was because Ismail had lost some trust to the Qizilbash, who possessed too much power and were no longer very trust-able.[5][6]

The fifth Safavid shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), made the ghulam corps much stronger in order to counterbalance the power and influence of the Qizilbash.[7] Furtheremore, he appointed non-Qizilbash officers as the governors of provinces which the Qizilbash used to govern.[1]

Qurchi

Painting of Isa Khan Safavi, a notable Safavid prince who served as the qurchi-bashi.

The royal bodyguard of the shah was known as the qurchi (a word derived from Mongolian, which means "archer"). The qurchis were theoretically enlisted from the Qizilbash tribes and were paid by money taken from the royal treasury. During the early Safavid period, the qurchis were all from the same tribe, but that later changed. The head of the qurchis was known as the qurchi-bashi. They numbered 3,000 under the Ismail I and 5,000 under Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576).[1][8]

Under Abbas I, the qurchis had become much more important and numbered 10,000-15,000. Abbas I gave several of qurchis governorship of large provinces, which decreased the power of the Qizilbash commanders, who were used to govern large provinces. During the late reign of Abbas' reign, the qurchi-bashi was the most powerful office of the empire.[1]

Ghulam

Daud Khan Undiladze, ghulam and the governor of Ganja and Karabakh from 1625 to 1630.

The ghulam unit (meaning "military slave") was a unit which consisted of former Christians from Caucasus, mainly Georgians, Circassians, and Armenians.[9]

According to Babaev, the ghulam unit was created by Abbas I after the assassination of powerful Qizilbash figure Murshid-Quli Khan in 1588/9.[1] This is proven by the appointment of a certain Yol-quli as the chief of the ghulams (qollar-aghasi) in 1589/90. However, the qullar-aqasi office is also mentioned in 1583/4, during the reign of Abbas' father and predecessor Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–1587). Since it is unlikely that the ghulam unit was created during his troublesome reign, it was most likely created under Tahmasp I, who is known to have invaded Caucasus several times.[1] It was, to a large degree, similar to the janissary system of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, in its implementation and formation.[10][11]

As mentioned by the Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1600 onwards, the Safavid statesman Allahverdi Khan, in conjunction with Sir Robert Sherley, undertook the reorganization of the army, which meant among other things dramatically increasing the number of ghulams from 4,000 to 25,000.[12]

It was during the vizierate of Saru Taqi (1633-1645) under Abbas I that the ghulams reached their zenith of power, occupying all the important offices of the Safavid state.[13]

Tupchian

The Tupchian (a Persian word meaning "artillery-men") unit was created under Tahmasp, and later reformed by Abbas I. The commander of the artillery corps was the tupchi-bashi. Although the Tupchian proved very usable for the Safavids, not much known is about it, and they are mostly mentioned in European sources.[1]

Tofangchi

The Tofangchi (a Persian word meaning "musketeers") unit was created under Tahmasp I, and later reformed by Abbas I. They were enlisted from different regions and coordinated under the name of the place they came from. For example, if one Tofangchi unit was from Isfahan, it became known as "tofangchian-e Isfahan". The head of each Tofangchi group was known as min-bashi ("chief of a thousand").[14][1] The unit numbered 12,000, and it mainly included Persian peasants, Arabs and Turkmens.[15][14]

Titles of honor

There was three titles of honor in the Safavid military, the highest one being "khan", the second being "sultan", and the third being "beg". Although not many held the title of "khan" during the early Safavid period, it later increased.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Haneda 1986, pp. 503-506.
  2. ↑ Blow 2009, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Babaie 2004, p. 9.
  4. ↑ Roemer 1986, p. 357.
  5. ↑ Savory 2007, p. 50.
  6. ↑ Mazzaoui 2002.
  7. ↑ Roemer 1986, pp. 264-265.
  8. ↑ Blow 2009, pp. 6, 37.
  9. ↑ Blow 2009, pp. 9-10.
  10. ↑ "BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran". Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis. Diaspora entrepreneurial networks: four centuries of history Berg, 2005 ISBN 1859738753
  12. ↑ R.M., Savory. "ALLĀHVERDĪ KHAN (1)". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  13. ↑ Babaie 2004, p. 11.
  14. 1 2 Roemer 1986, p. 265.
  15. ↑ Blow 2009, p. 37.

Sources

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