Shah Abbas: The Most Influential Ruler Of The Safavid Empire

Shah Abbas, or Abbas “the great” was by far the most famous and influential ruler of the Safavid empire. Abbas entered the stage of history in the October of 1588 when he overthrew his father Muhammad of Safavid and became شاه or “Shah” of the empire. He was now in charge of an empire that was losing control. The empire’s hated enemies, the Ottomans to the west and the Uzbeks to the North, held large swaths of Persian land. The Safavid empire’s main military force, Turkmen tribesmen, considered his decrees more suggestions than commands. His coffers were empty because of his father’s huge expenditures, and his Capital was Kazvin rested along the ever changing Ottoman border. With these events troubling the country Abbas got to work and never …show more content…
It Spread from Arabia in the south, to the Balkans in the north, from Egypt in the west, and almost to Kazvin in the east. It was a giant ready to squash the traditionally weaker, but hated Safavid empire. Unfortunately for them the Ottomans had a reputation for being bloodthirsty and power hungry. Shah Abbas noticed this quickly and found a powerful, yet surprising ally in his upcoming wars with the Turks. Europe. The superior Ottoman strategists had been holding the Christian countries of eastern Europe by the nose and kicking them for almost a decade. When Shah Abbas’ emissaries came with a solution, they were more than ready to listen. Abbas started his new campaign as a double pronged attack, one attack coming from the united Christian nations of eastern Europe and the other coming from Persia itself. Quickly Abbas recaptured the lost areas of Persia and settled on very favorable terms with the …show more content…
The first and foremost of these was the moving of his capital to the city of Isfahan. There he completed some of the most exquisite feats of Architecture in the Islamic world. Soaring buildings and magnificent bridges of marble shone in the noon day sun and Isfahan, more strategically placed than Kazvin, became a center of trade and learning. Working in concert with the British, Abbas captured several Portuguese trading outposts and towns, rerouting trade paths through the capital and increasing prosperity. In another war with the Ottomans Abbas had invaded and held part of Armenia for a short time, carting away the local inhabitants, the Christian Julfavites, who were renowned for their trading skills, who settled in Isfahan trading with India and the British as well as bettering the economy at large. Not only did Abbas improve Persia’s overall economy, but he was a patron of the Arts as well. He was known to pay painters and poets very well to work their trade at his