Shah Abbas (1587-1629) & treatment of non Muslim (Jews,Christian) Safavid Dynasty part 10
Consolidation of the Empire[edit]
Abbas began deposing the vassal rulers of Persia, he first started with Khan Ahmad Khan, the ruler of Gilan, who had disobeyed the orders of Abbas when he asked his daughter to marry his son Safi Mirza.[20] This resulted in a Safavid invasion of Gilan in 1591. In 1593--94, Jahangir III, the Paduspanid ruler of Nur, Iran, traveled to the court of the Abbas, where he handed over his domains to him, and spend the rest of his life in a property at Saveh, which Abbas had given to him. In 1597, Abbas deposed the Khorshidi ruler of Lar. Jahangir IV, the Paduspanid ruler of Kojur, killed two prominent Safavid nobles during a festival in Qazvin. This made Abbas invade his domains in 1598, where he besieged Kojur. Jahangir managed to flee, but was captured and killed by a Pro-Safavid Paduspanid named Hasan Lavasani.[21]
Reconquest[edit]
War against the Uzbeks[edit]
Abbas' first campaign with his reformed army was against the Uzbeks who had seized Khorasan and were ravaging the province. In April 1598 he went on the attack. One of the two main cities of the province, Mashhad, was easily recaptured but the Uzbek leader Din Mohammed Khan was safely behind the walls of the other chief city, Herat. Abbas managed to lure the Uzbek army out of the town by feigning a retreat. A bloody battle ensued on 9 August 1598, in the course of which the Uzbek khan was wounded and his troops retreated (the khan was murdered by his own men on the way). Abbas' north-east frontier was now safe for the time being and he could turn his attention to the Ottomans in the west.[22] After defeating the Uzbeks, he moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan.[15]
War against the Ottomans[edit]
See also: Capture of Tbilisi and Gökçe war, Ottoman--Safavid War (1603--1618), and Capture of Baghdad (1623)
Abbas King of Persia, as seen by Thomas Herbert in 1627.
The Safavids had not yet beaten their archrival, the Ottomans, in a straight fight. After a particularly arrogant series of demands from the Turkish ambassador, the shah had him seized, had his beard shaved and sent it to his master, the sultan, in Constantinople. This was a declaration of war.[23] Abbas first recaptured Nahavand and destroyed the fortress in the city, which the Ottomans had planned to use as an advance base for attacks on Iran.[24] The next year, Abbas pretended he was setting off on a hunting expedition to Mazandaran with his men. This was merely a ruse to deceive the Ottoman spies in his court -- his real target was Azerbaijan.[25] He changed course for Qazvin where he assembled a large army and set off to retake Tabriz, which had been in Ottoman hands for decades.
Drawing of the capture of Tabriz by a European traveller, 1603.
For the first time, the Iranians made great use of their artillery and the town -- which had been ruined by Ottoman occupation -- soon fell.[26] Abbas set off to besiege Yerevan, one of the main Turkish strongholds in the Caucasus. It finally fell in June 1604 and with it the Ottomans lost the loyalty of most Armenians, Georgians and other Caucasians. But Abbas was unsure how the new sultan, Ahmed I, would respond and withdrew from the region using scorched earth tactics.[27] For a year, neither side made a move, but in 1605, Abbas sent his general Allahverdi Khan to meet Ottoman forces on the shores of Lake Van. On 6 November 1605 the Iranians led by Abbas scored a decisive victory over the Ottomans at Sufiyan, near Tabriz.[28]In the Caucasus, during the war Abbas also managed to capture Kabardino-Balkaria. The Persian victory was recognised in the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612, decisively granting them back suzerainity over most of the Caucasus.
Several years of peace followed as the Ottomans carefully planned their response. But their secret training manoeuvres were observed by Iranian spies. Abbas learnt the Ottoman plan was to invade via Azerbaijan, take Tabriz then move on to Ardabil and Qazvin, which they could use as bargaining chips to exchange for other territories.[29] The shah decided to lay a trap. He would allow the Ottomans to enter the country, then destroy them. He had Tabriz evacuated of its inhabitants while he waited at Ardabil with his army. In 1618, an Ottoman army of 50,000 led by the grand vizier, invaded and easily seized Tabriz. The vizier sent an ambassador to the shah demanding he make peace and return the lands taken since 1602. Abbas refused and pretended he was ready to set fire to Ardabil and retreat further inland rather than face the Ottoman army. When the vizier heard the news, he decided to march on Ardabil right away.
In 1623, Abbas decided to take back Mesopotamia, which had been lost by his grandfather Tahmasp. Profiting from the confusion surrounding the accession of the new sultan Murad IV, he pretended to be making a pilgrimage to the Shi'ite shrines of Kerbala and Najaf, but used his army to seize Baghdad.