A Study of the Relationships between the Safavids and the Shirvānshāhs from the Beginning of Shāh Tahmāsb’s Monarchy until the Safavid Shāh ‘Abbās I Rising to Power (930/1523 – 995/1586)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Jahānbakhsh Thavāqib
• Ghulāmriḍā Dhulfiqārī

10.22067/history.v0i0.15874

Abstract

The relationships between the Safavids and the Shirvānshāhs and the situation of the Shirvān province during the Safavid’s reign comprise one of the important chapters in Safavid history from the politico-military dimension and on the internal and regional level. The appearance of Shah Ismā‘īl I in the scene of political challenge and his attack on Shirvān in 906/1500, destabilized the power of the local Shirvānshāhī government and the age-old relationship based on enmity and violence between the two dynasties of Shirvānshāhī and Safavids turned into compromise and submission of the Shirvānshāhs to the Safavids. In the developments emerged in the political arena with the establishment of the Safavid state, the Shirvānshāhs lost their independence and turned into tribute payers to the Safavids, which continued until the early decades of the reign of Shāh Tahmāsb I. Finally, despite frequent revolts by the Shirvānī claimants and the involvement of the Ottoman, Tartar, and Daghestan forces in the existing clashes, the Safavids were able to transform Shirvān from the situation of submission and tribute paying into their own explicit sovereignty and managed to put an end to the political life of the Shirvānshāhāns. In this article, the relationship between the Safavids and the Shirvānshāhān during the years 930/1523 to 995/1586 from the beginning of the Monarchy of Shāh Tahmāsb I until the rising of the Safavid Shāh ‘Abbās I to power, which underwent many ups and downs, the factors influential in these bilateral relations, the position of the Shirvānīs versus the Safavid sovereignty, and the role of peripheral forces in the conflicts of the Safavids with the Shirvānīs, are studied and analyzed.

Keywords

• Safavids
• Shirvānshāhān
• Shirvān
• Tahmāsb I
• Muḥammad Khudābanda

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