The Safavids
During the same period as the Mongols and the Timurids, north-western Iran went through a different historical development. It was here that Turkoman groups fought with each other for power. The Turkoman Dynasty of the Kara-Koyunlu, or "Black Sheep" (1275-1468) was set up at Tabriz, and it was later replaced by the Ak-Koyunlu, or "White Sheep" (1434-1514). However, there was a third dynasty, called the Safavids (1502-1737), that emerged in Azerbaijan, and had as its leader Shah Ismail (1487-1524). He successfully conquered a vast territory which extended from Herat (Afghanistan) to Baghdad (Iraq).
The Safavid dynasty takes
its name from Sheikh Safi-od-Din of Ardabil, who was the ancestor of the Safavid
kings and spiritual leader of the Safavid Sufi order, founded in 1301.
The Safavid order was initially indistinguishable from the many other Sufi
orders in existence in the Muslim world at that time. But Junayd, who became the
head of the order in 1447, transformed it into a revolutionary Shi'ite movement
that aimed at seizing power in Iran. Though the Safavid family itself was of
Iranian origin, the bulk of its supporters were Shi'ite Turkoman tribesmen from
Anatolia, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, and Armenian highlands.
The Safavids were successful in bringing the whole of the Iranian plateau under unified control, and they made Iran a "national state" in the modern sense of the word. The height of Safavid glory was at the time of the reign of Shah Abbas I (1571-1629), who encouraged contact and trade with Europe and transformed his new capital, Isfahan, into one of the most magnificent cities of Persia. The presence at the Safavid court of foreign envoys and the growing number of merchants and travellers in Iran was later to have a great influence on the arts and literature in Europe.
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The cultural growth was accompanied by considerable development in all forms of art. The Persian carpet, for example was at its finest during the Safavid era. Miniature paintings, Chinese and Arabic designs had an important influence in carpet motifs, and carpets became a major Persian export to Europe, India, and even the Ottoman Empire. The Safavids adopted Shi'ism as their state religion, which had an important role in unifying the Persians against the strict Sunni Ottoman Empire. Two centuries of intermittent wars followed which produced only minor territorial changes. By 1722 the Safavid rulers had lost much of their power leading to rebellions within the empire. A small force of Afghans, led by the Ghilzai chief Mahmud, took advantage of this, invading Khorassan, and capturing Isfahan. |
The Safavid dynasty, of Turkish origin, is generally considered to have lasted from 1502 to 1737, and under Shah Ismail's rule the Shi'ite doctrine was imposed as a state religion. The Safavids continued the attempts of the Ilkhanids to foster closer diplomatic ties with the European powers, in order to cement alliances against the Ottomans.
As a result of this closer relationship, the Safavids opened the door to European influence.
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From the description of Western travellers it is known that there once existed wall paintings; with battle scenes in Shiraz showing the capture of Hormuz from the Portuguese, as well as erotic scenes in Julfa, and pastoral scenes at the Hazar Jarib palace in Isfahan. Inside the Safavid palaces pictorial decoration was used alongside traditional decorations in Kashi or ceramics. Early Safavid painting combined the traditions of Timurid Herat and Turkoman Tabriz to reach a peak in technical excellence and emotional expressiveness, which for many is the finest hour in Persian painting. |
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The masterpiece of the age is the Shahnama-yi Shahi (The King's Book of Kings, formally known as the Houghton Shah-nama) with its 258 paintings, which was the most lavishly illustrated Shah-nama recorded in all of Persian history. Herat was the great Iranian miniature painting centre of the Timurid period, but in 1507, after its capture by the Safavids, the leading artists emigrated, some to India and some to the Safavid capital, Tabriz, or the Shaybanid capital, Bukhara. One of the main innovations of the Bukhara miniaturists was the introduction of plant and animal motifs in the margins of their miniatures. It was in Tabriz, the other chief miniature centre of the period, that in 1522 Shah Ismail appointed the famous Behzad director of his library. |
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The Characteristic features of the Tabriz school can be seen in the illustrations for a manuscript of the Khamsa by Nezami; executed 1539 - 43 by Aqa Mirak of Isfahan, his pupil Sultan Muhammad, the Tabriz artists Mir Sayyid 'Ali, Mirza 'Ali, and Muzaffar 'Ali. Tabriz miniatures exploit the complete colour scale, and their compositions are complex and full of figures, which fill the space. Shah Ismail's successor Shah Tahmasp, himself a painter, expanded the royal atelier. However, during the latter part of the 16th century, Shah Tahmasp became a religious extremist, lost interest in painting and stopped his patronage. This was the beginning of the end for the luxury book. Many of the best artists left the court some going to Bukhara, others to India where they were instrumental in the formation of a new style of painting, the Mughal School. Those artists who remained turned from the production of lavishly illustrated manuscripts to separate drawings and miniatures for less wealthy patrons. |
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Some time around the end of the 16th century, with the transfer of the capital to Shiraz (1597), an official deregulation of the traditional code of book painting took place. Some painters turned to other media, experimenting with book covers in lacquer work or with full-length oil paintings. If earlier paintings had been about man in his natural environment, the late 16th and early 17th century is about man himself. The work of this period is dominated by large scale representation of seedy dervishes, Sufi shaikhs, beggers, merchants.... with satire as the driving force behind most of these pictures. Some of the same artists leant their talents to an altogether different genre of painting - the sensuous and erotic - with scenes of lovers, voluptuous women, etc. These were extremely popular and were produced mechanically with the minimum of effort. |
Two main factors influenced artists between 1630 and 1722; the works of Riza, and European Art. In the drawings by Riza, the outline of basic shapes is accompanied by an obsession with pleats and folds, which normally serve to emphasise the sensuous curvature of bodily form, but on many occasions, reach the point of complete abstraction. In a country with a powerful calligraphic tradition, writing and drawing are always interconnected, but at this time the link seems to have been particularly strong so that drawing takes on the physical appearance of Shikastah or Nasta'liq1 calligraphy.
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By the second half of the 17th century, when Shah Abbas II sent the painter Muhammad Zaman to study in Rome, there was awakened a need in artists to find new ways of expression. Muhammad Zaman himself returned to Persia completely under the influence of Italian painting techniques. However, this did not lead to a great move forward in his style of painting; indeed his miniatures for the Shah-nama are in general banal and lack a sense of balance.
As far as architecture is concerned, pride of place goes to the expansion of Isfahan, masterminded by Shah Abbas I from 1598 onwards, which is one of the most ambitious and novel schemes of town planning in Islamic history.
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In architectural decoration great importance was given to calligraphy, which was transformed into an art of monumental inscriptions, a development of particular artistic merit in the art of kashi.
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Its chief exponent was Muhammad Riza-i-Imami who worked in Qum, Qazvin and above all, between 1673 and 1677 in Mashad. The death of Shah Abbas I in 1629 marked the beginning of the end for the golden age of Persian architecture.
The last decade of the 16th century saw a vigorous revival of the pottery industry in Iran. Safavid potters developed new types of Chinese inspired Kubachi blue and white polychrome ware, due perhaps to the influence of the three hundred Chinese potters and their families who were settled in Iran (in Kerman) by Shah Abbas I. Ceramic tiles were produced especially in Tabriz and in Samarkand. Other types of ceramics include bottles and flasks from Isfahan.
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Textiles were greatly developed during the Safavid period. Isfahan, Kashan and Yezd produced silks, and Isfahan and Yezd satin; Kashan was famous for its brocades.
Persian clothes in the 17th century often had a floral decoration on a light background and the old geometric motifs gave way to the depiction of pseudo-realistic scenes full of human figures.
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 Detail of a Persian hunting carpet from the early Safavid period, Kashan. |
Carpets occupy the major position in the textile field, with key weaving centres in Kerman, Kashan, Shiraz, Yezd, and Isfahan.
There were a great variety of types such as the hunting carpet, the animal carpet, the garden carpet and the flower-vase carpet. The strong pictorial character of so many Safavid carpets owes much to Safavid book painting.
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In metalwork, the engraving technique developed in Khurassan in the 15th century retained its popularity well into Safavid times. Safavid metalwork produced significant innovations in form, design and technique. They include a type of tall octagonal torch-holder on a circular plinth, a new type of ewer of Chinese inspiration, and the almost total disappearance of Arabic inscriptions in favour of those containing Persian poetry, often by Hafez and Sa'di. In gold and silver work, Safavid Iran specialised in the production of swords and daggers, and of gold vessels such as bowls and jugs, often set with precious stones. |
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Safavid metalwork, like so many of the other visual arts, remained the standard for subsequent artists in the Zand and Qajar periods.
