User:Amir Ghandi/Suleiman I of Persia

Suleiman I
Portrait of a young ruler, probably Suleiman I, painted by a student of Aliquli Jabbadar, circa 1670-80
Shah of Iran
Reign	1 November 1666 – 29 July 1694
Coronation	First Coronation: 1 November 1666 Second Coronation: March 1668
Predecessor	Abbas II
Successor	Soltan Hoseyn
Born	Sam Mirza February/March 1648
Died	29 July 1694 (aged 46) Isfahan
Burial	Fatima Masumeh Shrine, Qom, Iran
Spouse	Elena Khanum
Issue	See below
House	Safavid dynasty
Father	Abbas II
Mother	Nakihat Khanum
Religion	Shia Islam

Suleiman I (Persian: شاه سلیمان, romanized: Shah Solayman; born Sam Mirza, February or March 1648 – 29 July 1694) was the eighth and the penultimate Shah of Safavid Iran from 1666 to 1694. He was the eldest son of Abbas II and his concubine, Nakihat Khanum. Born as Sam Mirza, Suleiman spent his childhood in the harem among women and eunuchs and his existence was hidden from the public. When Abbas II died in 1666, his grand vizier, Mirza Mohammad Karaki, did not know that the shah had a son. The nineteen-years-old Sam Mirza was crowned king under the regnal name, Safi II, after his grandfather, Safi I. His reign as Safi II was met with troublesome events: in 1667, he caught an unspecified illness that bedridened him by August of that year. Then, poor harvests in 1666 and 1667, caused the population of central Iran to suffer from high prices, famine, and disease. The treasury soon became scarce of money and in November 1667, a powerful earthquake struck in Shirvan. All this events led to a second coronation for the shah in 20 March 1668, simultaneously with Nowruz, in which he was crowned king as Suleiman I.

After his second coronation, Suleiman retreated into the harem to enjoy the pleasures of flesh and excessive drinking. He was indifferent to the state affairs, often not appearing in the public for months and only leaving his capital, Isfahan, once. Regarding his personality, Suleiman lacked the best qualities that his father had while also showing no desire to become an effective ruler, letting his grand vizier, Shaykh Ali Khan Zanganeh to rule in his place on the account of his competence. One trait attributed to him was his cruelty, he was unpredictable and erratic even towards Shaykh Ali who he had shown fondness. The courtiers, intimated of Suleiman, became sycophants for him, flattering and hiding unpleasant news from the shah, as a result, corruption raised in the ranks of bureaucracy. Suleiman's reign, in peace with the Ottoman Empire, saw the decline of the Safavid army, to the point when the soldiers became undisciplined and made no effort to serve as it was required of them. At the same time with the declining army, the eastern borders of the realm was under the constant raids from the Uzbeks and the Kalmyks who had settled in Astrabad also had begun their own plundering.

On 29 July 1694, Suleiman died from a combination of gout and his chronic alcoholism. Often seen as a failure in kingship, Suleiman's reign was the starting point of Safavid decline: weakened military power, falling agricultural output and the corrupt bureaucracy, all were a forewarning of the troubling rule of his successor, Soltan Hoseyn, whose reign saw the end of the Safavid dynasty. In his indifference, Suleiman was compared to the Abbasid caliph, Al-Muqtadir, who was described as an ‘internal absentee’ by the British historian, Hugh N. Kennedy. Suleiman was the first Safavid Shah that did not patrol his kingdom and never led an army, thus giving away the government affairs to the influential court eunuchs, harem women and the Shi‘i high clergy. Perhaps the only admiring aspect of his reign was the appreciation of art, for the Farangi-Sazi, or the Western painting style, saw its zenith under Suleiman's sponsorship.

Background

Suleiman's father, Abbas II, was the seventh Shah of Safavid Iran. Like with Suleiman, Abbas had spent his childhood years in the harem, until in 1642, when he ascended the throne at the age of nine. Thereafter, he found a chance to undertake the kingly education and learned how to read and write by the age of ten. Abbas had an energetic personality and his desire to rule alone led him to purge the ranks of bureaucracy in 1645 and end his regency. In 1649, Abbas led an army to retake Kandahar, a bone of contention between the Safavid and the Mughal Empire originating back to Tahmasp I's reign. The war, though successful, was one of the reasons for a financial decline later in his reign which plagued the Safavid Empire until its dissolution. Bar the war for Kandahar, the Safavid army during Abbas' reign also undertook two military campaigns to Caucasus, one in 1651 to destroy the Russian fortress in the Iranian side of the Terek river which the Safavids considered as part of their realm, and one in 1659 to suppress the Georgian rebellion. Abbas' reign was scarce of rebellion and relatively peaceful. Of the consequences of this peace was the decline of the army which started during his reign and saw its peak in the reign of his successors.

Abbas' relations with the Uzbeks were peaceful through his arranged agreements with the Uzbeks of Bukhara which kept them from raiding into the Iranian territory. A disturbance in the relations between the two nations was the arrival of Nader Mohammad Khan in Isfahan in 1646 when he was overthrown from his rule by his son, Abd al-Aziz Khan. Abbas managed to establish a truce between the father and his son, with Nader Mohammad Khan receiving an escort from the shah and Abd al-Aziz allowing his father to settle in Herat. But strives between the two soon arose in early 1650s which led to Nader Mohammad again taking shelter in Isfahan and dying in 1653 en route there. Relations with the Ottoman Empire was likewise peaceful, even though favourable conditions occurred during Abbas' reign, for instance, in Transcaucasia, where the risk of war was so acute that the governor of the Turkish border provinces had even evacuated the civilian population in expectation of an Iranian attack, or in Basra, where the shah's aid had been sought to settle a struggle for the succession.

Among the traits attributed to Abbas II, his persistent concern towards the state affairs outshines his place between the successors of Abbas the Great. Praised for his sense of justice, he sat aside three days of the week whereon he would listen to people's petitions. He was always quick to deal with any injustice in cases of despotism, irregularities or malpractices, whether it was a normal case of administration of justice or it was a big scale political and social scandal in which a party was unjustly punished. Indeed, his efforts to develop the well-being of his subjects made the life of the rural population very high-level in cotrast to the peasants in the West, according to the Western observers themselves, who were astonished by the safe roads and the scarcity of rebellions.

Early life

Sam Mirza was born in February or March 1648 as the eldest son of Abbas II and his concubine, Nakihat Khanum. He grew up in the royal harem under the guardianship of a black eunuch named Agha Nazer. According to Jean Chardin, the French traveler, Sam Mirza was known for his arrogancy. His first language was and remained Azeri Turkish and it is unclear to what extent he ever mastered in Persian. Reportedly, Abbas II was not on good terms with Sam Mirza (As there was a spreading rumour that the shah had blinded the young prince), and favoured Sam Mirza's little brother, Hamza Mirza, from a Circassian concubine.

At the end of 1662. Abbas II showed the first symptoms of syphilis. On 26 October 1666, while in his winter town, Behshahr, he died of a combination of syphilis and throat cancer as a result of his excessive drinking at the age of thirty-four. It was said that on his deathbed, Abbas II foretold the fate of his successor to be one of perpetual turmoil and disaster.

Reign as Safi II

First Coronation

The coronation of Safi II, engraved by Engelbert Kaempfer, Isfahan, 1 November 1666

In the later hours after the death of Abbas II, the yuzbashi Sulaman Aqa called for a meeting between the notables presented in the shah's camp. Behind the close doors, he told them that the shah was dead and that they should choose his heir before leaving for the capital, Isfahan. The shah's grand vizier, Mirza Mohammad Karaki, responded with "What do I know?" and "I have no knowledge of what goes on in the interior of the palace." when asked about the shah's offspring. It was the eunuchs of the inner palace (And who were presented in the meeting,) that informed the notables of the existence of two sons, the nineteen-years-old Sam Mirza and Hamza Mirza who was only seven-years-old. The eunuchs, who were eager to have a pliable child on the throne and also had believed the rumour about Sam Mirza's blindness, announced their support for Hamza Mirza. Following suit, the grand vizier too declared support for Hamza Mirza's claim. At this point, Agha Mubarak, Hamza's lala (guardian), made an argument on favour of Sam Mirza and went opposite to his interests and those of his eunuch colleagues. He accused the eunuchs of selfish reasons for opting for Hamza Mirza and argued that Sam Mirza was indeed not blinded by his father and that he was more worthier than a mere child. And at last, Agha Mubarak's argument prevailed. The Tofangchi-aghasi, Khosrow Soltan Armani, by reputation the least trust-worthy among the eunuchs, was chosen to go to Isfahan to announce the new heir before word of the death of Abbas II would spread. Sam Mirza, who had been surrendered by women and eunuchs all his life and had not seen the world outside of the harem, was then brought out of the inner palace, dazzled and unsure what to do with the responsibility trusted upon him. He was seized with panic when asked to appear before the throne room for the coronation and only accepted the invitation reluctantly because he assumed that he was being lured there simply to be murdered or blinded.

On 1 November 1666, six days after Abbas II's death, Sam Mirza was crowned king under the name Safi II, after his grandfather, Safi I, at one o’clock in the afternoon in a ceremony persisted by Mohammad Bagher Sabzevari, the shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan. The new king received heads of slain Uzbeks and rewarded the slayers with money. He also distributed money to 300 Turkish exiles from the Ottoman Empire, who had sought refugee in Isfahan. As a sign of smooth transition of power, the city of Isfahan remained calm: the shops stayed open and started doing their business with the new coins of Safi II, and life went on as if nothing had happened, and foreign residents who in fear of uprisings and looting, had locked their houses, again emerged into the city.

Turmoil and disasters

Stepan Razin Sailing in the Caspian Sea by Vasily Surikov, 1906. The Russian rebel, Stenka Razin, led numerous raids on the Northern provinces of Iran during 1667

Soon after his coronation, Safi faced problems. Two barren harvests left the central parts of the realm under famine and an earthquake in November 1667 in Shirvan killed more than 30,000 in the villages and some 20,000 in its capital city, Shamakhi. In the following year, the Northern provinces of the realm had to endure predatory raids of Stenka Razin's Cossacks, whom the Safavid army was unable to subdue. The Cossacks had raided these provinces before, in 1664, when they were defeated by local forces. Now, under the leadership of Razin, they ransacked Mazandaran and attacked Daghestan. Razin went to Isfahan to ask Safi for land in his realm in exchange for loyalty to the shah, but departed on the Caspian Sea for more pillaging before they could reach an agreement. The tsar of Russia, Alexis, made a delegation to Isfahan in order to apology for the damages done and later in 1671, hanged Razin albeit because of his open rebellion.

Meanwhile with the internal problems, Safi caught an unspecified illness that in August 1667, deteriorated his health to the point where many feared that he might not survive, prompting the grandees of the court to stage a public prayer for his health while distributing 1,000 tomans to the poor. The shah squandered his government’s resources as part of endowments to the poor, and as a result of his naive belief that the royal coffers could never end, the treasury became empty and the money, already scarce in Isfahan, became even scarcer.

Second Coronation

During Safi's time of illness, a physician, who was trying in vein to cure the shah, suggested that all this troublesome events must come from a miscalculation in determining the date of the coronation. Soon a court astrologer confirmed this assumption, and the court, the queen mother, Nakihat Khanum, and the leading eunuchs, with the shah in their support, concluded that the coronation should be repeated and Safi should be crowned king under a new name. Thus, in March 1668, at nine o cloak in morning, simultaneously with Nowruz, a second coronation for the shah was held in the Chehel Sotoun Palace. The ceremony was preceded by a ritual of unclear origin, as told by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who witnessed it: "A “Zoroastrian who boasted of descent from the old kings” was put on a throne tied with his back to a wooden statue. Everyone paid him their respects until the auspicious moment for the real coronation had arrived, about one hour before sunset. At that point an official came up from behind and cut off the head of the statue, whereupon the make-believe king fled and the new shah appeared. The Safavid bonnet was next put on his head, and he was girded with a sword, and Safi II took on the name Abu'l-Muzzafar Abu'l-Mansur Shah Suleiman Safavi Mousavi Bahador Khan, with the name Suleiman referring to King Solomon."

After the coronation, New royal seals and coins were made under the name Suleiman I and within twenty-four hours a large quantity of new money was struck. At the same time, a comet appeared in the sky, further proving the event's righteousness.

Reign as Suleiman I

Royal Alienation

Suleiman I, and three of his attendants, during on of his quruqs. Painting by Mohammad Zaman, circa. 1670-85

It was soon proven that a repeated coronation and a new name was not a step closer to the improvement of the state. Suleiman, after his coronation, retreated into the depths of the harem and began a policy of royal alienation. He would not appear on the public and often preferred to stay in Isfahan rather than patrol the country. He would only go out of the palace in form of a quruq, meaning he would order the people of a neighbourhood to vacate their district and move away to a different one so that Suleiman and the women of the harem as his entourage, could ride freely in that district. No male older than six was allowed to be in that district when the shah and his companions came riding, if a man was caught, execution would await him. Suleiman, unlike his father, would no longer allow anyone to enter his palace and petition him. In fact, he would not emerge from the inner palace for periods of up to twelve days, in which, he would not accept anyone outside of the harem to disturb him. Even then, women were still allowed to accost him during his quruqs in the first fifteen years of his reign. In 1683 this access was formally abolished altogether.

The reign of Suleiman I after his second coronation is often considered devoid of any spectacular events by the contemporary observers who refrained from recording the period in chronicle form. Mohammad Shafi Tehrani, the Qajar historian, claims that the Uzbek and Kalmyk raids of Astarabad was the only significant event of his reign, on the account of military actions of this period. The modern historians, however, argue otherwise. It has suggested that Suleiman may have had greater control on the state than its generally assumed: out of eleven firmans collected in the compendium belonging to the modern historian, Heribert Busse, seven were directly issued by Suleiman, and out of them, three are of his own wording while four were clearly worded by his grand vizier. Regarding the post of the premiership, Suleiman was enough self-aware to choose a competent grand vizier who would rule in his stead while Suleiman enjoyed his lavish lifestyle. His choice was Shaykh Ali Khan Zanganeh, a statesman who served as his grand vizier for twenty years.

Grand Vizierate of Shaykh Ali Khan

Given Suleiman's reclusive nature towards out of the inner palace, and thus the scarcity of sources regarding his doings, modern historians, to fill the years of his reign with details, incorporate the tenure of Shaykh Ali Khan Zanganeh as the Grand vizier into his rule. Shaykh Ali Khan was the Amir of the Zanganeh tribe and succeeded Mirza Mohammad Karaki (Who had maintained his position after Suleiman's ascension) as the grand vizier in 1669. Faced with an empty treasury after a series of misfortunes, Shaykh Ali immediately commenced a financial policy that combined cutting expenses with increasing revenue. He sought a stricter observation on the annual silk supply to the VOC, who, using the chaos in the capital, took a supply of silk more than it was initially agreed upon. Moreover, he also attempted to take control over the monopoly of sugar and instituted 5 percent tax on the merchants who shipped sugar to India. Having religious bigotry towards the Christians, Shaykh Ali imposed new taxes on the New Julfa churches and the Armenians who lived in the villages around Isfahan. Through all of his projects, Shaykh Ali showed diligence, and, in contrast to many of his colleagues, refused to accept bribery, and soon became known for his incorruptibility. It is true that few of his projects were completely successful, nevertheless, Shaykh Ali was highly effective in collecting revenue for the royal treasury.

Shaykh Ali Khan's policies made him enemies amongst the courtiers, who disliked his cost-cutting measures regarding the lavish lifestyle of the court. He also urged Suleiman to follow a path of frugality which further infuriated his adversaries who were dependent on the shah's generosity. The actual event whereon Shaykh Ali fell from the shah's grace took place in early 1672, when the shah demanded his grand vizier to drink wine, when he refused, Suleiman forced him to drink intoxicating wine and spent hours humiliating him. Shaykh Ali Khan was soon arrested and in following of his reinstatement, the realm fell into turmoil. In the same year, one of his sons took refuge with the Ottomans, alarming for a potential war. Fourteen months after his removal, Suleiman reappointed Shaykh Ali as his grand vizier to shut the rumours of the war. Having resumed his position, Shaykh Ali started to curb the military outlay and sent tax-collectors to the provinces demanding taxes and imposed fines where these were in arrears. These policies were seemed more out of spite for the realm and the shah than a follow-up to his previous doings. Shaykh Ali had lost a sense of confidence and had replaced it with insecurity. After tasting Suleiman's wrath, Shaykh Ali decided to no longer inform the shah of the reality of the state affairs, and he started shunning responsibilities: Finding a new habit in handing over to Suleiman requests (And urging him to ratify those,) without reading and inspecting them first. Shaykh Ali still would arouse Suleiman's wrath from time to time with refusing drinks from him, the shah's outbursts would always result in humiliation of the grand vizier, but normally, Suleiman would feel remorse for his mockery and would send the grand vizier a robe of honour as a token of appreciation for his efforts.

As the years went by, Suleiman showed less and less desire to partake in the frequent meetings with his grand vizier regarding the state affairs. Hence, the grand vizier was left on his own when important decisions were to be made while Suleiman, alternatively and rather scarcely, would discuss the state affairs with his wives and the eunuchs, who were his confidant. His wives and the eunuchs thus dominated the influence on the shah, and out of jealousy, heavily guarded their influence and were keen to prevent the shah from communicating with anyone but themselves. Suleiman even set up a privy council in the harem, to which the most important eunuchs belonged. Even when the shah would discuss the state affairs not with the eunuchs but with his grand vizier, it was impossible to discuss in detail problems because he was impatient and bitter towards the problems that had risen throughout the realm.

The vacant court positions

"Shah Suleiman I and his courtiers", Folio from the St. Petersburg Album. Aliquli Jabbadar, Isfahan, 1670.

After Shaykh Ali's reappointment, the court of the shah became one intimated and afraid of him. Suleiman showed extreme cruelty towards his courtiers, with examples being in 1679, when he forced Shaykh Ali to shave his beard (So that he would look like Georgians, whom he despised for their Christianity) and in 1680, when he blinded the divan-begi, Zaynal Khan. Moreover, he had Shaykh Ali and one of his royal sec­retariat bastinadoed. In 1681, he killed one of his sons, who was fourteen years old at the time of death and had spent his entire life in the harem wearing women’s clothes, at the instigation of astrologers who had presaged that he would depose him. Many of the courtiers were so afraid of the shah that they would leave the court with the excuse of undertaking hajj. Shaykh Ali once asked the shah to do the same but was rejected. The shah’s erratic and unpredictable behavior led the courtiers to became sycophants towards him, flattering the shah all the time and hiding the unpleasant news from him, while also forsaking their duties and embracing corruption. The army, in general, became undisciplined and soldiers came to regard their pay as little more than a gratuity while also cared little to show some efforts to improve themselves. Some corps of the forces only existed on the paper.

Despite his continued insecurity and his limited contact with the shah, Shaykh Ali Khan maintained his position even during 1680s, when most of the court positions were vacant and unfilled: In 1680, the shah took the position of sadr-i mamalik (minister of religion) for himself; the royal secretariat were all dismissed in 1682; In the same year, the position of sepahsalar became vacant after the death of the incumbent, and remained as much until the end of Suleiman's reign. In addition, the positions of divan-begi, qurchi-bashi, shaykh al-Islam, and mirshekar-bashi (master of the hunt), all became vacant in the same year. Shaykh Ali Khan died in 1689 while still occupying the grand vizier position. Saddened by his death, Suleiman, who had mistreated his grand vizier for twenty years, did not leave the inner palace for a full year and did not choose a successor for two years. In 1691, Mohammad Taher Vahid Qazvini, a poet and court historian, was chosen as the grand vizier.

Later years and death

The new grand vizier was given full and unprecedented executive powers to overcome the realm's most urgent needs and problems. However, Vahid Qazvini proved to be a venal and ineffective grand vizier: He was extremly old, being seventy years old at the time, and lacked the energy to administrate. Moreover, he freely took bribes. Vahid also made many adversaries in the court, his main rival was Saru Khan Sahandlu, the new qurchi-bashi. Saru Khan was from the Zanganeh tribe and was Suleiman's absolute favourite. In 1691, He killed forty members of his tribe, but with having the favour of the shah, his crime was overlooked. However, he incurred Suleiman's wrath when it was discovered that he had started an affair with Maryam Begum, the shah's aunt. Suleiman ordered his death during an assembly in late 1691, during which, he had offered wine to all the members presented except Saru Khan, and had him executed shortly after.

During his later years, Suleiman became more and more reclusive and his drinking finally made him infirm. In 1691, per the suggestions of the astrologers, he did not leave the palace for nine months. Simultaneously, the realm saw much unrest during this period; In 1689, the Uzbeks raided along the Khorasan borderline and in Balochistan rebellions broke out. In 1692, Suleiman Baba took up arms against the Safavids in Kurdistan and rebellions are recorded in Kerman, Kandahar, Lar, and Georgia. Meanwhile, Suleiman was suffering from foot pain and in August 1692 he was said not to have left his palace for more than eighteen months. He did not appear in the public, the hall of the Ali Qapu palace for the Nowruz festivities in 20 March 1694 , and even declined to accept the customary gifts from governors and other dignitaries. The last time he was seen was on 24 March, when he presided over a very brief meeting, after which he returned to his harem. He did not leave the inner palace again until his death on 29 July 1694. Many reasons are suggested for his death, among them being having a stroke during a carousing session, dying from gout or from the decades of debauchery. According to the French cleric, Martin Gaudereau, his last words were: "Bring me wine." He was buried in Qom like many of his forefathers and was succeeded by his eldest son, Soltan Hoseyn, the last Safavid Monarch.

Policies

Religion

Single-volume Quran, belonging to Suleiman. Dated 1689–90, Isfahan.

Unlike his father, Suleiman was more religiously minded: he bore no interest in the Christian as his father had, and on several occasions, issued decrees to ban drinking. Although with his erratic behaviour it is hard to speculate how much zealous he was towards the Shi'ia tradition: He only once gave up drinking, in 1667, and not for any religious morality issues, but for his health and in particular an inflammation of the throat. During Suleiman's reign, the Shia Islam was institutionalised as a functional arm of the state, however, the dissent towards the shah was still heard. On numerous times, Shi'ia scholars tried to dissuade Suleiman from drinking. One of these scholars, Mohammad Tahir Qomi, the shaykh al-Islam of Qom, was close to being executed on the account of criticising Suleiman. Suleiman also continued to practice and expend upon the popular and local religious beliefs. He ensured that the Muharram ceremonies were more of a festival than purely ‘devotional’. Cursing Yazd (the Zoroastrianism main centre) and the Ottomans on these ceremonies were encouraged. The shah took upon himself to embellish several imamzadehs and other ‘popular’ religious sites. Furthermore, he continued to insist on the leadership of the Safavid ancestral Sufi order, the Safaviyya.

In the struggle between the three main spiritual communities in this era: advocates of popular Sufism, philosophically minded scholars, and sharia-minded ulama, the last group gained the upper hand in Suleiman's court. The ulama became ever more assertive and took advantage of Suleiman's indifference towards the state affairs. Their new-found power manifested itself in the continued pressure on the none-Shi'ia Iranians; anti-Sufism essays increased greatly during this era. Moreover, In 1678 the ulama of the capital proclaimed Armenians and Jews responsible for the drought that afflicted much of the country in that year. Several rabbis murdered and the Jews of Isfahan only escaped death by paying 600 tumans.

Diplomacy

Connections with foreign nations reduced greatly during Suleiman's reign. Like his father, he avoided doing anything that might lead him into diplomatic difficulties with other nations. Even when it was possible to wage war against the Ottomans (Who themselves were fighting with many nations during this era,) he steadfastly refused to violate the peace treaty which his grandfather, Shah Safi, had made with the Sublime Porte in 1639; even though repeated offers from Mesopotamia (1684, 1685) and from Basra (1690), invited him to re-establish Iranian suzerainty there. On the same premise to keep the peace with the Ottomans, Suleiman avoided relations with Europe except for a letter in 1668-69 sent via the English East India Company to Charles II of England, asking him for skilled craftsmen. Suleiman even dismissed the Russian emissaries who arrived in Isfahan in 1670s and were keen to seek anti-Ottoman cooperation. The various European envoys who visited in 1684-85 received the same response. No reciprocal missions to Europe have been recorded in this period.

During Suleiman's reign envoys from Mughal, the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbek states arrived in Isfahan. However, only the Ottomans received response. In 1669 and 1680, King Narai of the Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya sent envoys to the court of Suleiman. Their intentions was to request for Safavid naval assistance against the Kingdom of Pegu. It is questionable if the Iranian navy could assist the Siamese. At any rate, the Iranian delegation under the command of Mohammad Rabi' ibn Mohammad Ebrahim was sent to the court of Narai in 1685. The details of this mission was immortalised by Ibn Mohammad Ebrahim in his account, Safine-ye Solaymani. Safine-ye Solaymani consists of four parts and narrates upon the Iranian's journey to Siam and the Iranian community which existed in that lands from the times of Abbas II. Iran, during Suleiman's reign, continued to be a shelter for exiled notables of it's eastern neighbours: for instance, in 1686, Suleiman offered shelter to Muhammad Akbar, the rebellious son of Aurangzeb.

Arts

Portrait of a young ruler, probably Suleiman I, painted by a student of Aliquli Jabbadar, circa 1670-80

Paradoxically, with how much intermittent relations with the west was, the Farangi-Sazi or the Western painting style saw its zenith during Suleiman's reign. He was an outstanding connoisseur and, as the patron of arts, influenced directly or indirectly some of the most impressive works of the three greatest painters of the late 17th century Iran: Aliquli Jabbadar, Mohammad Zaman, and Mo'en Mosavver. Suleiman inherited these painters from the patronage of his father, and promoted their works further with patronising both the traditional Persian miniature, which Mosavver was mastered at, and the new tendencies inspired by Western painting which mark the work of Aliquli and Mohammad Zaman. Suleiman's sense of aesthetics, if blossomed during more favourable circumstances, could have led to the development of a new artistic era in the Iranian history.

Suleiman's patronage also extended to architectures. He built the Hasht Behesht palace in Isfahan and ordered the repairment of a number of buildings in Mashhad, including the Shrine of Imam Riza, damaged during an earlier earthquake, and several schools. Moreover, many of the courtiers during his reign began patronising buildings; Shaykh Ali Khan, personally funded a caravanserai in the northwest of Isfahan (built in 1678) and in 1679, patronised a mosque in Khaju quarter of the city. He also built a school in Hamadan which he dedicated as a vaqf from his new-founded revenue.

Personality and appearances

Suleiman lacked the best qualities his father was known for: energy, courage, decisiveness, discipline, initiativeness and an eye for the national interest, and after his second enthronement, it was simply clear that he neither desired nor was able to acquire them. Most of the contemporary observers speak of Suleiman's character with traits such as idleness, gluttony, lasciviousness, and also mention his abominable desire to demand money with menacing. Throughout his life, Suleiman became a great lover of wine and women, to the point where foreign observers insisted that no Persian king had ever indulged so much in both. He spent many an evening drinking with high court officials and under him the royal Nowruz festivities seem to have been drenched in alcohol. Suleiman's drunken states often led into unpleasant consequences, an example being when his ordered the blinding of one of his brothers. As for lasciviousness, Suleiman's harem included at least 500 women.

Suleiman was generally described as mild-manner, yet, there were times when he showed great rage, and even cruelty, especially when he was drunk. He enjoyed humiliating his courtiers with forcing them to drink intoxicated alcohol. For the forced drinking, a huge goblet made of gold was used, the contents of which are variously given as about a pint and almost a gallon.

Regarding appearances, Jean Chardin describe him as tall and graceful, with blue eyes and blond hair dyed black and white skin. This description seems to be in concurrence with Nicolas Sanson, who called Suleiman “tall, strong and active; a fine prince, a little too effeminate for a monarch who should be a warrior, with an aquiline nose, large blue eyes, a beard dyed black”.

Coinage

Gold coin of Suleiman I, dated 1684/5, minted in Isfahan.

Suleiman's reign saw the final stages of Iran's monetary unification system; the larin currency were not minted during his reign, and only the mohammadis currency from Hoveyzeh, which gained special fame in Iran and abroad, were officially minted until the end of the shah’s rule.

There are no surviving coins of Safi II left, apparently, they were replaced by heavy silver coins issued for the first time in Safavid history. After his second coronation, Suleiman issued coins with the distichs, "Soleymān banda-ye shāh-e velāyat" (Suleiman, the servant of the realm's majesty). Gold coins (weighing about 57 grams,) were rarely minted whereas silver coins were struck throughout his reign, usually in Isfahan and, less often, in Qazvin.

Historiography

The reign of Suleiman I is often seen as the beginning of the terminal decline of the Safavid state. According to the modern historian Rudi Matthee, Suleiman was what the British historian Hugh Kennedy calls an "internal absentee" (in reference to the tenth-century Abbasid caliph Al-Muqtadir), a ruler who "had no real appreciation of the constraints and limitations of the financial resources". He was a king who never reached “political adulthood” and come to be known as a weak and erratically cruel ruler whose drug-addled insouciance and predilection for the pleasures of the harem caused a great deal of harm to the country. Jonas Hanway, who visited Iran decades after the Siege of Isfahan, calls Suleiman's reign "remarkable for nothing but a slavish indolence, a savage and inhuman cruelty." Suleiman fared little better in the estimations of modern historians, who unanimously see him as a failure in kingship.

Suleiman gave up on the concept of siyast or the ruler’s punitive capacity, an indispensable ingredient of statecraft and instead led his grand vizier rule for him. So long with a competent grand vizier by his side, provided he himself intervened decisively at crucial moments, an idle shah was not necessarily fatal to good governance. With Shaykh Ali Khan, Suleiman chose a competent grand vizier. Yet, instead of supporting him wholeheartedly, he began abusing Sheykh Ali, thus forcing him into inactivity. Suleiman was the first Safavid king who did not patrol his kingdom and never led an army; in this circumstances, the wheel of power fell under the influence of court eunuchs, harem women and the Shi‘i high clergy, precluding a forward-looking policy based on a realistic assessment of challenges and opportunities.

References

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