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95-602: The institute was established in 1815 by the wealthy Lazarev (Lazarian) family . In 1827, control passed to the Ministry of Public Education, the school was renamed the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, and was remodeled as a special gymnasium with language courses in Arabic , Armenian , Persian , and Turkish . By 1844 the school had 105 students, of which 73 were Armenians, 30 Russians, and 2 others. In 1848

190-506: A coup and placed the 16-year-old Abbas on the throne. However, Abbas soon seized power for himself. Under his leadership, Iran developed the ghilman system where thousands of Circassian , Georgian , and Armenian slave-soldiers joined the civil administration and the military. With the help of these newly created layers in Iranian society (initiated by his predecessors but significantly expanded during his rule), Abbas managed to eclipse

285-461: A ceremony in the palace in Qazvin, he placed his crown on the head of his seventeen-year-old son, who ascended the throne as Abbas I. Murshid Qoli Khan, to whom Abbas owed the crown, was rewarded with the title of vakil ( viceroy ). The empire Abbas inherited was in a desperate state. The Ottomans had seized vast territories in the west and the north-west (including the major city of Tabriz ) and

380-635: A courier and uncovered the plot. Saakadze then defected to the Georgians, and led a new rebellion which succeeded in throwing the Persians out of Kartli and Kakheti while crowning Teimuraz as king of both territories. Abbas counterattacked in June, won the subsequent war and dethroned Teimuraz, but lost half his army at the hands of the Georgians and was forced to accept Kartli and Kakheti only as vassal states while abandoning his plans to eliminate Christians from

475-672: A crucial role during the rest of the Safavid era and later until the fall of the Qajar dynasty . Abbas needed ten years to get his army into shape so that he could effectively confront his Ottoman and Uzbek enemies. During this period, the Uzbeks and the Ottomans took swaths of territory from Iran. He also used military reorganisation as another way of side-lining the Qizilbash. He created

570-642: A decisive victory over the Ottomans at Sufiyan , near Tabriz. In the Caucasus , during the war Abbas also managed to capture what is now Kabardino-Balkaria . The Persian victory was recognised in the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612, effectively granting them back suzerainty 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 that

665-404: A few hundred during Tahmasp's era, to 15,000 highly trained cavalrymen, as part of a whole army division of 40,000 Caucasian ghulams. Abbas then reduced the number of Qizilbash provincial governorships and systematically moved Qizilbash governors to other districts, thus disrupting their ties with the local community and reducing their power. Most were eventually replaced by ghulams, whose loyalty

760-647: A large army and set off to retake Tabriz, which had been in Ottoman hands for some time. For the first time, the Iranians made great use of their artillery and the town – which had been ruined by Ottoman occupation – soon fell. Abbas set off to besiege Yerevan , a town that had become one of the main Ottoman strongholds in the Caucasus since the Safavids had ceded it in 1590. It finally fell in June 1604 and with it

855-641: A more feasible plan of resettling Armenians from the Ottoman Empire to the lands conquered by Russia in the Black Sea region (so that they could practise their faith openly). He helped thousands of Armenians to find a new home in the Crimea , Kizlyar , New Nakhichevan and Grigoriopolis . Lazarev bought the royal manor of Ropsha near the Russian capital and commissioned Georg von Veldten to build

950-530: A new palace there. He financed the construction of Saint Catherine's Armenian Church in St Petersburg (also designed by Veldten). At his estate in Fryanovo near Moscow he built a Palladian villa, which still stands. After the death of his only son, Count Lazarev bequeathed his property to his brother Ovakim (Ekim) and asked him to set up a Moscow school for poor Armenian children, which materialized as

1045-611: A pilgrimage to the Shi'ite shrines of Kerbala and Najaf, but used his army to seize Baghdad. However, Abbas was then distracted by a rebellion in Georgia in 1624 led by Giorgi Saakadze thus allowing an Ottoman force to besiege Baghdad, but the Shah came to its relief the next year and defeated the Turkish army decisively. In 1638, however, after Abbas' death, the Ottomans retook Baghdad, and

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1140-414: A puppet ruler of Kakheti, while placing a series of his own governors to rule over districts where the rebellious inhabitants were mostly located. Having momentarily secured the region, Abbas took further acts of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz and Luarsab. He castrated Teimuraz's sons, who both died shortly afterwards. He executed Luarsab in 1622, and in 1624 he had Ketevan, who had been sent to

1235-412: A reason that it would be "inappropriate" to execute an "innocent" descendant of a seyed on holy days ( Qadr Night and Eid al-Fitr ). This dealy saved Abbas' life, for on 24 November 1577, Ismail II died from consuming poisoned opium , and Ali-Qoli Khan assumed the governorship of Herat and the role of guardian of Abbas. On 11 or 13 February 1578, Mohammad Khodabanda was chosen by the Qizilbash as

1330-568: A rebellion in Khorasan by proclaiming him Shah of Iran. Ali-Qoli and Murshid Qoli Khan took control of Nishapur ; there, they struck coins and read khutba in Abbas' name. In the following year, an army from western Iran advanced into Khorasan to resolve the situation. This army laid siege to Torbat-e Heydarieh , where Murshid Qoli was in control, and on Herat, where both Ali-Qoli Khan and Abbas resided. Both attempts proved futile. Upon hearing

1425-512: A rival, Murshid did nothing until the news came that Herat had fallen and the Uzbeks had slaughtered the entire population. Only then did he set out on campaign to Khorasan. But Abbas planned to avenge the death of Ali Qoli Khan, and he arranged for four Qizilbash leaders to kill Murshid after a banquet on 23 July 1589. With Murshid gone, Abbas could now rule Iran in his own right. Abbas decided he must re-establish order within Iran before he took on

1520-479: A significant direct influence on the meritocratic Safavid bureaucracy and the court of the Safavid state. The increasing numbers of Georgians and Circassians in the Safavid bureaucracy and the court of the Safavid state vied with the Qizilbash for power and as a result also became involved in court intrigues. This competition for influence saw queens (and their supporters in the harem, court and bureaucracy) compete against each other in order to get their own sons on

1615-525: A single battle. Ruthless discipline was enforced and looting was severely punished. Abbas was also able to draw on military advice from a number of European envoys, particularly the English adventurers Sir Anthony Shirley and his brother Robert Shirley , who arrived in 1598 as envoys from the Earl of Essex on an unofficial mission to persuade Persia to enter into an anti-Ottoman alliance. From 1600 onwards,

1710-410: A standing army of many thousands of ghulams (always conscripted from ethnic Georgians and Circassians ), and to a much lesser extent Iranians, to fight alongside the traditional, feudal force provided by the Qizilbash. The new army regiments' loyalty was to the Shah. The new army consisted of 10,000 to 15,000 cavalry or squires (conscripted Caucasian ghulams ) armed with muskets and other weapons (then

1805-412: A trading centre with a new port, Bandar Abbas , nearby on the mainland, but it never became successful. Abbas moved his capital from Qazvin to the more central city of Isfahan in 1598. Embellished by a magnificent series of new mosques, baths, colleges, and caravansarais, Isfahan became one of the most beautiful cities in the world. As Roger Savory writes, "Not since the development of Baghdad in

1900-465: A truce with the Ottomans. Now Iranian rule was fully restored over eastern Georgia. In a punitive expedition to Kakhetia, his army then killed perhaps 60,000–70,000 or 100,000 Georgians, with twice as many more being deported to Iran, removing about two-thirds of the Kakhetian population. More refugees were rounded up in 1617. In 1619 Abbas appointed the loyal Simon II (or Semayun Khan ) as

1995-503: Is considered to be among the largest private stone buildings of 17th-century Moscow. Agasar Lazaryan , russified as Lazarev, acquired the land near the corner of present-day Krivokolenny and Armyansky lanes in 1758. Between 1758 and 1812 the main house was gradually expanded, notably by Ovakim Lazarev, son of Lazar and founder of the institute. Armyansky Lane area was spared by the Fire of 1812 . In 1814 Ovakim Lazarev commissioned remodelling of

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2090-518: The Grand Vizier Damat Halil Pasha 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 Halil Pasha heard the news, he decided to march on Ardabil right away. This was just what Abbas wanted. His army of 40,000

2185-618: The Khorshidi ruler of Luristan . One year later, Jahangir IV , the Paduspanid ruler of Kojur , killed two prominent Safavid nobles during a festival in Qazvin . In response, in 1598 Abbas invaded his domains and besieged Kojur. Jahangir managed to flee, but was captured and killed by a pro-Safavid Paduspanid named Hasan Lavasani. Abbas' first campaign with his reformed army was against the Uzbeks who had seized Khorasan and were ravaging

2280-558: The Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages . His fortune eventually came into the hands of Prince Abamelik . Stephen Badalyan Riegg, Russia's Entangled Embrace: The Tsarist Empire and the Armenians, 1801-1914 . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020, pp. 52-62. Shah Abbas I Abbas I ( Persian : عباس یکم , romanized :  ʿAbbās yekom ; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas

2375-717: The Portuguese and the Mughals and expanded Iranian rule and influence in the North Caucasus , beyond the traditional territories of Dagestan. Abbas was a great builder and moved his kingdom's capital from Qazvin to Isfahan , making the city the pinnacle of Safavid architecture. In his later years, following a court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, Abbas became suspicious of his own sons and had them killed or blinded. Born in 27 January 1571 in Herat , Abbas

2470-604: The Stroganov family some important steel works and 115 000 hectares of land in the Northern Urals, where he also set up several new mills. At the time of his death he owned more than 16 000 male serfs. When Catherine the Great asked Lazarev to advise her on the oriental policies in 1774, he drew up a plan of reviving the state of Armenia , with Prince Potemkin as its monarch. After the Treaty of Jassy he came up with

2565-457: The Turkman governor of Mashhad , Morteza Quli Khan Pornak. The Takkalu tribe eventually seized the power in Qazvin and proceeded to purge a number of prominent Shamlu members, among them being the mother and father of Ali-Qoli Khan. This angered Ali-Qoli Khan and, just as the queen had predicted, in 1581, he took arms against the crown and made his ward, the ten-year-old Abbas, the figurehead of

2660-731: The facade in Empire style . Name of the architect remains unknown; construction was managed by T. G. Prostakov, a free man, and I. M. Podyachy - a serf of Lazarevs. By 1823 the main building acquired its present-day shape; an obelisk in the rear courtyard, raised in 1822, was cast of pig iron produced at Lazarev's iron mills in Perm (later, the obelisk was moved into the front courtyard). In 1828 Lazarev purchased adjacent building (2, Armyansky Lane) and converted it to an Armenian printshop. This corner lot has been previously owned by Saltykov and Nesvitsky families. New property remained unchanged until

2755-642: The ghulams (a word literally meaning "slaves"). From these newly introduced slaves, the Shah created a military force of up to 37,000 soldiers, completely funded by the Crown. This weakened the power that the Qizilbash had against the crown significantly as they no longer had a "military monopoly" in Iran. Like the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire , the ghulams were mainly Georgians , Circassians and Armenians who had been brought into Iran en masse (by conquest and slave trade), had converted or had been converted to Islam, and had taken up service in

2850-677: The 1850s, when Pyotr Grigoriev (son of Afanasy Grigoriev ) rebuilt it to match the main building. Subsequent restorations retained the street facades, but removed Grigoriev's finishes on the side wall, revealing 17th-century brickwork. The building currently houses the Armenian embassy to Russia. As of 5 January 2022, the ambassador of Armenia to Russia is Vagharshak Harutiunyan . Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev Hovhannes Lazarian ( Armenian : Հովհաննես Լազարյան ), better known under his Russian name as Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev ( Russian : Иван Лазаревич Лазарев , 4 December 1735 – 5 November 1801),

2945-684: The Armenian, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Georgian languages , history, and culture. Between 1919 and 1920, the institute was renamed first the Armenian Institute, then the Southwest Asian Institute, then the Central Institute of Modern Oriental Languages, and finally the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies . By the 1930s the institute had lost its students, and its library was transferred to

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3040-421: The Great (Persian: عباس بزرگ , romanized:  ʿAbbās-e Bozorg ), was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda , he is generally considered one of the most important rulers in Iranian history and the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. Although Abbas would preside over the apex of Safavid Iran's military, political and economic power, he came to

3135-511: The Iranian kings, he developed a passion for hunting, which was regarded as a form of military training. Abbas was educated alongside household "slaves" (ghulams), who would have become his childhood companions. Some or perhaps most of them are likely to have been Georgians , Armenians or Circassians . On 14 May 1576, Tahmasp I died without a designated heir, which led to the realm descending into civil war. The following day, Tahmasp I's favourite son, Haydar Mirza , proclaimed himself king with

3230-621: The Iranian–Ottoman border was finalised to be roughly the same as the current Iran–Turkey and Iran–Iraq borders. Between 1614 and 1616, during the Ottoman–Safavid War , Abbas suppressed a rebellion led by his formerly loyal Georgian subjects Luarsab II and Teimuraz I (also known as Tahmuras Khan ) in the Kingdom of Kakheti . In 1606, Abbas had appointed these Georgians onto the thrones of Safavid vassals Kartli and Kakheti , at

3325-712: The Moscow's Lenin Library . Pioneering linguist Roman Jakobson was a student at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. The first stone buildings on the site, eventually incorporated into present-day building, emerged in the last quarter of the 17th century as the Miloslavsky residence. In the first half of the 18th century, they were owned by the Meller family - owners of iron mills in Ural region. Miloslavsky-Meller house

3420-406: The Ottoman plan was to invade Iran via Azerbaijan, take Tabriz then move on to Ardabil and Qazvin, which they could use as bargaining chips in exchange for other territories. 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 100,000 led by

3515-487: The Ottomans he demanded that Luarsab accept Islam. When Luarsab refused, he was thrown in prison. Teimuraz returned to eastern Georgia in 1615, taking advantage of a resurgence in Ottoman–Safavid hostilities, and there he defeated a Safavid force. However, when the Ottoman army postponed its invasion of the Safavids, Abbas was able to briefly send an army back to defeat Teimuraz, and redoubled his invasion after brokering

3610-472: The Ottomans in the west. After defeating the Uzbeks, he moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan . The Safavids had not yet beaten their archrival, the Ottomans, in battle. After a particularly arrogant series of demands from the Ottoman ambassador, the Shah had him seized, had his beard shaved and sent it to his master, the sultan, in Constantinople. This was effectively a declaration of war. In

3705-403: The Ottomans lost the support 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. 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

3800-523: The Qezelbāš or remain their puppet. So Abbas single-handedly encouraged the growth in influence and power of this new grouping, also called the third force . It is estimated that during Abbas' reign alone some 130,000 to 200,000 Georgians, tens of thousands of Circassians , and around 300,000 Armenians were deported from the Caucasus to Persia's heartland, with a significant number gaining responsibilities and roles in Iranian society, including some of

3895-543: The Safavid statesman Allāhverdī Khan , in conjunction with Robert Shirley, undertook further reorganizations of the army, which led to a further increase in the number of ghulams to 25,000. During the 1590s, Abbas moved to depose the provincial rulers of Persia. He started with Khan Ahmad Khan , the ruler of Gilan , who had disobeyed Abbas' orders when he requested that Khan Ahmad Khan's daughter Yakhan Begum marry Abbas' son, Mohammad Baqer Mirza , since Khan Ahmad Khan had no male successor. Khan Ahmad Khan disagreed due to

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3990-461: The Shah as a negotiator, tortured to death when she refused to renounce Christianity. Teimuraz, meanwhile, sought aid from the Ottomans and Russia . Abbas was then warned of another imminent Kakhetian uprising, so he returned to Georgia in early 1625. He lured Kakhetian soldiers on a false pretext and then began executing them. He also had plans to execute all armed Kartlians, including his own general Giorgi Saakadze ; however Saakadze intercepted

4085-402: The Uzbeks had overrun half of Khorasan in the north-east. Iran itself was riven by fighting between the various factions of the Qizilbash, who had mocked royal authority by killing the queen in 1579 and the grand vizier Mirza Salman Jabiri in 1583. Firstly, Abbas settled his score with his mother's killers, executing three of the ringleaders of the plot and exiling four others. His next task

4180-459: The age of his daughter. This resulted in a Safavid invasion of Gilan in 1591 under the leadership of one of Abbas' favourites, Farhad Khan Qaramanlu . In 1593–94, Jahangir III , the Paduspanid ruler of Nur , travelled to the court of the Abbas, where he handed over his domains to him, and spend the rest of his life on an estate at Saveh , which Abbas had given to him. In 1597, Abbas deposed

4275-592: The age of two. Shah Qoli Sultan Ustajlu, an amir from one of the Qizilbash tribes called the Ustajlu tribe, was appointed as the actual governor and as Abbas's lala (guardian). Abbas's Qizilbash guardians and their wives became substitute parents for him. He never saw his mother again and only saw his father fifteen years later. Abbas learnt the necessary skills of a soldier from his Qizilbash guardians. He played polo and went frequently on hunts. Like most of

4370-608: The area. Even then, Saakadze and Teimuraz launched another rebellion in 1626, and were effective in clearing Iranian forces from most of the region. Thus, the Georgian territories continued to resist Safavid encroachments until Abbas' death. The Safavids were traditionally allied with the Mughals in India against the Uzbeks, who coveted the province of Khorasan. The Mughal emperor Humayun had given Abbas' grandfather, Shah Tahmasp,

4465-413: The army, royal household or the civil administration, and were loyal only to the shah. Under Abbas' leadership this new grouping in Iranian society (also called the third force ) grew in influence and power, with many thousands of ethnic Georgians , Circassians and Armenians becoming an integral part of Iranian society and taking up key government, royal household and military positions. Tahmasp I,

4560-502: The backbone of the Safavid army from the very beginning of Safavid rule and they also occupied many posts in the government. As a result, effective power in the state in the early days of the dynasty was held by the Qizilbash, leaving the shah often powerless. To counterbalance their power and as a decisive answer to this problem, Abbas turned to the newly introduced members of Iranian society (an initiative put in place by Shah Tahmasp I )

4655-543: The behest of Kartlian nobles and Teimuraz's mother Ketevan ; both seemed like malleable youths. However, tensions soon arose between the Shah and the Georgian kings. In 1613, when the Shah summoned them to join him on a hunting expedition in Mazandaran , they did not appear as they feared that they would be either imprisoned or killed. At this point war broke out, Iranian armies invaded the two territories in March 1614, and

4750-417: The campaign strategy angered the Qizilbash amirs. Eventually, on 26 July 1579, the Qizilbash stormed into the harem where the queen resided and strangled Khayr al-Nisa Begum. Although Abbas was still only a boy and barely knew his mother, her murder at the hands of the Qizilbash made a deep impression on him. That experience probably led to his belief that the power of the Qizilbash had to be broken. After

4845-406: The capital beside Murshid Qoli Khan in late-September 1587. Mohammad Khodabanda and his heir apparent, Abu Taleb Mirza, and their entourage of Ustajlu and Shamlu amirs, were camped 200 miles away in the city of Qom . When the news reached them, the amirs decided to abandon the shah and his heir for Abbas Mirza. Mohammad Khodabanda decide that he had no choice but to abdicate. On 1 October 1587, at

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4940-457: The capture of large numbers of Christian Circassian and Georgian slaves (30,000 in just four raids). These slaves would form the basis of a Safavid military slave system. These slaves would serve a similar role in their formation, implementation and use to the janissaries of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. Their arrival in such large numbers led to the formation of a new grouping in Iranian society solely composed of ethnic Caucasians. Although

5035-431: The city of Shiraz . The nominal governorship of Herat was handed over to Abbas. At first, Tahmasp intended to make Hamza the governor of Herat, but Khayr al-Nisa Begum was unwilling to be separated from Hamza, who was her favourite son. So she persuaded the king to appoint Abbas instead. The fact that Abbas was still a baby was not considered an obstacle, as Tahmasp himself had been appointed titular governor of Khorasan at

5130-462: The city was necessary. The weak state of the realm led to the Ottoman Empire declaring war against Iran in 1578 . The Safavid armies suffered several defeats before Khayr al-Nisa Begum organised a counter-offensive. Together with her son, Hamza Mirza and the grand vizier, Mirza Salman Jaberi , she led an army north to confront the Ottoman and Tatar forces in Shirvan . But her attempt to dictate

5225-461: The country and the old Qizilbash rivalries rose again, with the Ustajlu and Shamlu tribes immediately confronting each other. Mohammad Khodabanda and the queen asked Ali-Qoli Khan to bring Abbas to Qazvin, fearing that Ali-Qoli Khan was conspiring to enthrone Abbas, but the Qizilbash amirs of Khorasan argued that with the threat of the Uzbeks of Bukhara raiding near Herat, the presence of a prince in

5320-518: The court in Isfahan and a Muslim , he was perceived as fully loyal to the Shah. Abbas threatened Imeretia with devastation if they did not give up the fugitive kings; the Imeretian, Mingrelian and Gurian rulers jointly refused his demand. Luarsab, however, surrendered voluntarily to the Shah; Abbas initially treated him well but when he learned that Luarsab and Teimuraz had offered an alliance with

5415-593: The court of Empress Elizabeth . They received the title of Freiherr from Empress Maria Theresa in 1768. It was Hovhannes who moved the family's operations from Moscow to Saint Petersburg . He was the intermediary between Count Grigory Orlov and Shaffrass, a Persian millionaire (and supposedly his wife's uncle), in the purchase of the Great Mogul Diamond , which came to be known as the Orlov Diamond . His great wealth allowed him to buy from

5510-653: The eighth century A.D. by the Caliph al-Mansur had there been such a comprehensive example of town-planning in the Islamic world, and the scope and layout of the city centre clearly reflect its status as the capital of an empire." Isfahan became the centre of Safavid architectural achievement, with the mosques Masjed-e Shah and the Masjed-e Sheykh Lotfollah and other monuments including the Ali Qapu ,

5605-469: The execution of many of his half-brothers, cousins and nephews. He spared Mohammad Khodabandae, possibly because they were full-brothers and perhaps because Mohammad Khodabanda was already blind and disqualified as a possible claimant to the throne. In November 1577, however, Ismail dispatched Ali-Qoli Khan from the Shamlu tribe to Herat to kill the young Abbas. Ali-Qoli delayed Abbas' execution, giving as

5700-455: The first slave soldiers would not be organised until Abbas' reign, during Tahmasp's time Caucasians would already become important members of the royal household, the harem and in the civil and military administration. Learning from his grandfather, Abbas (who had been used by the vying Qizilbash factions during his youth) decided to encourage this new (Caucasian) grouping in Iranian society, as he realised that he must impose his authority on

5795-401: The foreign invaders. To this end he made a humiliating peace treaty, known as the Treaty of Istanbul , with the Ottomans in 1590, ceding to them the provinces of Azerbaijan , Karabagh , Ganja , Dagestan and Qarajadagh, as well as parts of Georgia , Luristan and Kurdistan . This demeaning treaty even ceded the previous capital of Tabriz to the Ottomans. The Qizilbash had provided

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5890-425: The highest positions of the state, including the ghulam corps. Many of those deported from the Caucasus settled in various regions of Iran and became craftsmen, farmers, cattle breeders, traders, soldiers, generals, governors and peasants within Iranian society. As part of the ghulam slave system, Abbas greatly expanded the ghulam military corps (also known as ḡolāmān-e ḵāṣṣa-ye-e šarifa , "crown servants") from just

5985-475: The institute was upgraded to a lyceum , and in this new form trained Armenian school teachers and priests. As the Russian Empire expanded through the Caucasus and Central Asia , the institute became central to the training of Russian civil servants and interpreters. In 1872 it was formally divided into two sections, one of which continued as a gymnasium, while the other presented a three-year course in

6080-402: The key towns on the way, came to pledge their allegiance. By the time they approached Qazvin, their small force had increased to 2,000 armed horsemen. The lord mayor of Qazvin and the Qizilbash amirs inside the city at first urged resistance. But they gave up when crowds of citizens and soldiers, anxious to avoid fighting, came out onto the streets and voiced their support for Abbas, who rode into

6175-450: The largest cavalry in the world ), a corps of musketeers, or tufangchiyan , (12,000 strong) and a corp of artillery, called tupchiyan (also 12,000 strong). In addition Abbas had a personal bodyguard, composed of Caucasian ghulams, that was increased to 3,000. This force amounted to about 40,000 soldiers paid for and beholden to the Shah. Abbas greatly increased the number of cannon at his disposal so that he could field 500 cannon in

6270-406: The meantime, in Khorasan, Murshid Qoli Khan emerged as a rival to Ali-Qoli. He successfully seized Mashhad and abducted Abbas from Ali-Qoli's possession. An Uzbek invasion advanced through Khorasan and laid siege to Herat. This threatened Murshid Qoli's position who realised it was his last chance to enthrone Abbas. Many of the Qizilbash amirs gave their assurance of their support for placing Abbas on

6365-403: The military tribal elite of the empire, the Qizilbash, who believed that physical proximity to and control of a member of the immediate Safavid family guaranteed spiritual advantages, political fortune and material advancement. Therefore, between 1540 and 1555, Tahmasp conducted a series of invasions of the Caucasus region which provided battle experience for his soldiers, as well as leading to

6460-556: The new ruler of the Khanate of Khiva , Baqi Muhammad Khan attempted to retake Balkh and Abbas found his troops were still no match for the Uzbeks. By 1603, the battle lines had stabilized, albeit with the loss of the majority of the Persian artillery. Abbas was able to hold onto most of Khorassan, including Herat, Sabzevar , Farah , and Nisa . Abbas' north-east frontier was now safe for the time being and he could turn his attention to

6555-426: The new shah. The new shah appeared weak, indifferent and incompetent. In these circumstances power soon passed into other hands. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was a strong-willed woman. She took complete charge of the administration and made all the decisions, even in military matters. The Qizilbash were not happy to see her taking power. The divisions in the Safavid court encouraged rebellions in various parts of

6650-655: The news of another Ottoman attack on northwest Iran, the leading ministers of the campaign hurriedly reached an agreement with Ali-Qoli Khan. The former rebel suffered no repercussions and only had to pledge loyalty to Hamza Mirza as the heir apparent . He remained as the governor and as Abbas' guardian and even received a reward from the shah. Mohammad Khodabanda removed Ali-Qoli Khan's old enemy, Morteza Quli Khan Pornak, from his position as governor of Mashhad and replaced him with an Ustajlu amir. According to Iskandar Beg Monshi, many came to believe Abbas Mirza's claim would eventually prevail over Hamza Mirza's. Meanwhile, Hamza Mirza

6745-519: The power of the Qizilbash in the civil administration, the royal house, and the military. These actions, as well as his reforms of the Iranian army , enabled him to fight the Ottomans and Uzbeks and reconquer Iran's lost provinces, including Kakheti , whose people he subjected to widescale massacres and deportations . By the end of the 1603–1618 Ottoman War , Abbas had regained possession over Transcaucasia and Dagestan , as well as swaths of Western Armenia and Mesopotamia . He also took back land from

6840-494: The province of Kandahar as a reward for helping him regain his throne. In 1590, profiting from the confusion in Iran, Humayun's successor Akbar seized Kandahar. Abbas continued to maintain cordial relations with the Mughals, even though he pursued the return of Kandahar. Finally, in 1620, a diplomatic incident, in which the Iranian ambassador refused to bow down in front of the Emperor Jahangir , led to war. India

6935-543: 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

7030-402: The queen's death, Hamza Mirza, aged eleven, was proclaimed crown prince. The Qizilbash found no reason to fear a child. So they took control over the realm while fighting among themselves over the division of power. The conflict was most intense at the court in Qazvin and in Khorasan, where Ali-Qoli Khan Shamlu, and his principal ally, Murshid Qoli Khan Ustajlu, had for some time been at war with

7125-499: The result that he saw enemies everywhere who had to be eliminated. First and foremost, he began murdering most of the members of Ustajlu tribe regardless of whether or not they had supported Haydar Mirza. He also executed people whose only crime was having held a position during Tahmasp's reign. The young Abbas was directly affected by his uncle's purge when a group of horsemen rushed into his guardian's house, Shah Qoli Sultan, and killed him. Ismail then turned on his family. He ordered

7220-426: The resulting conflict, 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. 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. He changed course for Qazvin where he assembled

7315-414: The second Safavid shah, had realised, by looking at his own empire and that of the neighbouring Ottomans, that he faced ongoing threats from dangerous rival factions and internal family rivalries that were a threat to him as the head of state. If not properly managed, these rivalries represented a serious threat to the ruler or could lead to unnecessary court intrigues. For Tahmasp, the problem revolved around

7410-519: The short term at least, for by restoring the Shah's complete control of the provinces formerly governed by the Qizilbash chiefs, the provinces' revenues now supplemented the royal treasury. From now on, government officials collected the taxes and remitted them directly to the royal treasury. In the harem, the Circassians and Georgians rapidly replaced the Turcoman factions and, as a result, gained

7505-546: The support of the Ustajlu tribe and the powerful court Georgians. However, he was immediately overthrown and killed by the qurchis (the royal bodyguards). After his death, with the support of the majority of the Qizilbash tribes and the endorsement of Tahmasp's influential daughter, Pari Khan Khanum , Ismail Mirza, who had been imprisoned by his father for twenty years, was crowned king as Ismail II . The new king's reign turned out to be short and murderous. The long years of imprisonment had left him suffering from paranoia, with

7600-464: The throne during a troubled time for the country. Under the ineffective rule of his father, the country was riven with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who killed Abbas' mother and elder brother. Meanwhile, Iran's main enemies, its arch-rival the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbeks , exploited this political chaos to seize territory for themselves. In 1588, one of the Qizilbash leaders, Murshid Quli Khan, overthrew Shah Mohammed in

7695-486: The throne. After learning that Mohammad Khodabanda had left Qazvin to confront rebels in the south, Murshid Qoli Khan decided to strike. During the first ten days of Ramadan 1586, Abbas, his guardian and a small escort of not more than a few hundred horsemen, decided to ride towards Qazvin. As they rode along the Silk Road, Qizilbash amirs from the powerful Takkalu, Afshar and Zul al-Qadr tribes, who controlled many of

7790-427: The throne. This competition increased under Abbas and his successors which weakened the dynasty considerably. Abbas' own son and crown prince , Mohammad Baqer Mirza , was caught in the court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, which eventually led to him being executed under Abbas' orders. Though the ghulam system did not work as well as it had after the Safavids, the third force would continue to play

7885-449: The two allied kings subsequently sought refuge in the Ottoman vassal Imeretia . Abbas, as reported by the Safavid court historian Iskander Beg Munshi , was infuriated by what was perceived as the defection of two of his most trusted subjects and gholams . He deported 30,000 Kakhetian peasants to Iran, and appointed a grandson of Alexander II of Imereti to the throne of Kartli, Jesse of Kakheti (also known as "Isā Khān"). Raised up at

7980-495: Was a Russian-Armenian financier and millionaire. A court banker to Catherine the Great , he was the only Armenian to receive the title of Imperial Count ( Reichsgraf , 1788). He was born in the Armenian quarter of Isfahan , where his ancestors had been mayors since the early 17th century. His father Agasar (1700-1782) claimed descent from Prince Manuk Lazarianz who had defended Julfa from Shah Abbas I . After moving to Isfahan, Manuk helped establish an Armenian colony and

8075-433: Was embroiled in civil turmoil and Abbas realized that he needed just a lightning raid to take back the far easternmost town of Kandahar in 1622. After the conquest, he was very conciliatory to Jahangir, claiming he had only taken back what was rightly his and disavowing any further territorial ambitions. Jahangir was not appeased but he was unable to recapture the province. A childhood friend of Abbas, named Ganj Ali Khan ,

8170-471: Was hiding at a crossroads on the way and they ambushed the Ottoman army in a battle, which ended in complete victory for the Iranians. In 1623, Abbas decided to take back Mesopotamia, which had been lost by his grandfather Tahmasp through the Ottoman-Safavid War (1532–1555) . Profiting from the confusion surrounding the accession of the new Ottoman Sultan Murad IV , he pretended to be making

8265-556: Was made its governor. His son Lazar headed Abbas II 's mint and treasury in Isfahan. Agasar Lazarian started trading with Russia at the time of Peter the Great 's Persian war . After the death of Nader Shah (1747) Agasar and his sons left Persia and moved to Astrakhan before settling in Moscow . After establishing a silk mill in Fryanovo (1735), they were recognized as the exclusive purveyors of silk and some other luxury items to

8360-445: Was murdered by his own men during the retreat). However, during the battle, Farhad Khan had fled after being wounded and was later accused of fleeing due to cowardice. He was nevertheless forgiven by Abbas, who wanted to appoint him as the governor of Herat, which Farhad Khan refused. According to Oruch Beg, Farhad Khan's refusal made Abbas feel that he had been insulted. Due to Farhad Khan's arrogant behaviour and his suspected treason, he

8455-414: Was preoccupied with pushing the Ottomans out of Tabriz . However, he became caught up in the rivalries between the Qizilbash tribes and angered his officers by executing the Qizilbash governor of Azarbaijan . On 5 December 1586, he was assassinated by his personal barber, who may have had been bribed by a group of Qizilbash conspirators. This assassination provided a pathway for Abbas' ascension. In

8550-437: Was seen as a threat to Abbas, so Abbas had him executed. Abbas then converted Gilan and Mazandaran into the crown domain ( khasseh ), and appointed Allahverdi Khan as the new commander-in-chief of the Safavid army. By 1599, Abbas had conquered not only Herat and Mashhad, but had moved as far east as Balkh . This would be a short-lived victory and he would eventually have to settle on controlling only some of this conquest after

8645-533: Was the daughter of Mir Abdollah II, a local ruler in the province of Mazandaran from the Mar'ashi dynasty who claimed descent from the fourth Shi'ia imam, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin . She and Mohammad Khodabanda had already two children before Abbas, Hassan and Hamza , and she gave birth to two more sons later: Abu Taleb and Tahmasp. When Abbas was barely eighteen months old, he was separated from his father and his mother, who were transferred by Tahmasp to govern

8740-607: Was the third son of Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife, Khayr al-Nisa Begum . His father was the first-born son of Tahmasp I , the second Shah of Safavid Iran. He chose the name Abbas for the infant. Abbas' father, Mohammad Khodabanda, was the governor of Herat, the capital city of the major province of Khorasan . Mohammad Khodanbanda was disqualified from succeeding his father because an eye disease had left him almost completely blind. The Safavid court chronicler, Iskandar Beg Monshi , describes Mohammad Khodabanda as ‘a pious, ascetic and gentle soul’. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum,

8835-542: Was then appointed as the governor of the city, which he would govern until his death in 1624/5. During the 16th century, the Portuguese had established bases in the Persian Gulf . In 1602, the Iranian army under the command of Imam Quli Khan Undiladze managed to expel the Portuguese from Bahrain . In 1622, with the help of four English ships, Abbas retook Hormuz from the Portuguese. He replaced it as

8930-475: Was to free himself from the power of Murshid Qoli Khan. Murshid made Abbas marry Hamza's widow and a Safavid cousin, and began distributing important government posts among his own friends, gradually confining Abbas to the palace. Meanwhile, the Uzbeks continued their conquest of Khorasan. When Abbas heard they were besieging his old friend Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu in Herat, he pleaded with Murshid to take action. Fearing

9025-584: Was to the shah. By 1595, Allahverdi Khan , a Georgian , had become one of the most powerful men in the Safavid state when he was appointed the Governor-General of Fars , one of the richest provinces in Persia. His power reached its peak in 1598, when he became the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces. Not only did the ghulam system allow the shah to control and manage the rival Qizilbash Turks and Persians, it also resolved budgetary problems, in

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