"A Brief History of Iran" The End of Classical Persia, the Next Journey! (xvi)

After the death of Tahmasp I of the Safavid Shah, the dynasty began to fall into a power struggle. It seems that the decline of every dynasty often begins with an internal struggle for power; the collapse of a dynasty begins with the invasion of foreign enemies.

The Ottoman Empire, seeing its former rival the Safavid Dynasty in crisis, naturally did not miss this opportunity to weaken its opponents.

In 1578, the Ottoman Sultan Murad III led an army to conquer the Caucasus.

In 1585, Murad III again sent an army to capture tabridge, the capital of the Safavid dynasty.

The Ottoman Empire's aggressive posture deepened the crisis on the Safavid Western Front.

As bad as the Western Front was the Eastern Front, where the Uzbek Khanate once again invaded the Khorasan region.

Later, the Uzbek Khanate relied on its own strong military strength and even intervened in the succession of the Safavid dynasty.

The Advent of the Golden Age

In 1587, with the support of the Uzbek Khanate, Abbas I (reigned 1587-1629) ascended the throne as the fifth Shah of the Safavid Dynasty, which was troubled internally and externally.

The Safavid dynasty, which Abbas I took over, was surrounded by strong enemies and had only half the territory of its heyday; inside, the national army was decaying and the tribes were lined with hills.

In this situation of internal and external difficulties, the wise Abbas I decisively chose the strategy of exchanging money and land for peace to alleviate external contradictions. Embark on the internal Abbas reforms:

1. Military reform: From the defeat of Ismaili I at the Battle of Chaldilan, it can be seen that the traditional army equipment can no longer meet the needs of war in the new era. At the same time, the Safavid army, which was supported by tribes, was also full of strong backward tribal atmosphere. Abbas I hired British technicians to build new types of munitions and weapons at home, while recruiting predominantly Turkic troops directly subordinate to the central government. In response to the two-pronged reform of the army, the Safavid dynasty quickly acquired a modern army. 2. Shifting economic center of gravity: Since the Achaemenid dynasty, the persian regime has mostly relied on the two river basins to build capitals. Because of its rich products and convenient transportation, the Two Rivers Valley became the main source of finance for the Persian regional regime. But the unique natural conditions of the Two Rivers Basin also made the Mesopotamian plains a place of war. The long period of war made it difficult for the Safavid dynasty to rely on the Two Rivers Valley as the main source of financial revenue. In 1597, Abbas I moved his capital to Isfahan, the heart of the Iranian plateau. At this point, the Scope of The Persian Regime began to move further eastward. 3. Revitalize commerce: The relatively barren terrain of the Iranian plateau meant that the Safavids began to fall sharply in agricultural taxes. However, a series of internal reforms, as well as the recovery of lost land in the future, do not require strong financial resources to support. Therefore, during the reign of Abbas I, he actively encouraged private commerce and the development of foreign trade activities, and opened up sources of taxation.

Abbas I's aggressive reforms of the interior revived the internally divided Safavid dynasty.

In 1602, the Safavid army defeated the Uzbek Khanate to retake Herat and Mashhad, reoccupy Khorasan and reach Balihei. He then began to fight back against the Ottoman Empire, going through three wars, and by 1622 AD he had captured Baghdad, Mosul and Diyarbakır and the Caucasus. In 1602 he expelled Portugal from Bahrain and regained control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The end of the Golden Age

The great deeds of Abbas I earned him the title of "Abbas the Great" outside.

Worthy of the title of Emperor, Abbas I broke through the vision of the traditional feudal imperial monarch and was committed to building the Safavid dynasty into a new dynasty in line with modern trends.

Abbas I's reforms, however, did not touch the decadent nature of the feudal empire.

When Abbas I, who had ruled for 42 years, died, his New Deal dissipated and the golden age of the Safavid dynasty came to an end.

In his later years, Abbas I mutilated all four of his sons, and his grandson Safi (reigned 1629-1642) succeeded him.

After the Safi succession, the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire rising in India attacked the Safavid dynasty on both sides, and the separatist forces in various places re-emerged, and Abbas I's New Deal was in vain.

Although Abbas II (reigned 1642–1666) later won a brief revival for the Safavid dynasty, the decline of the Safavid dynasty was inevitable.

The rise of the Mughal Empire severely affected Safavid rule in Central Asia.

In 1709, Mirvis Hotak, the leader of the Gilchais in Afghanistan, led a rebellion to break away from the Safavids, and the Safavid rule in Central Asia began to disintegrate.

In 1722, Mahmoud, the son of Mirvis Hotak, invaded Isfahan, and the Safavid Shah Hussein announced his abdication to Mahmoud.

Although Tahmasp II, the son of Hussein, used the power of the Afshar tribe of Azerbaijan to expel Mahmoud and regain power, the fate of the Safavid dynasty was in the hands of the Afshaar tribe.

In 1736, the young Abbas III was deposed, and the leader of the Afshar tribe, Nadir Shah, ascended to the throne and established the Afshar dynasty, and the Safavid dynasty officially collapsed.