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Person1571 – 1629

Abbas I

Also called: Abbas the Great, Shah Abbas

Safavid shah (r. 1588–1629) who reformed the army, drove back the Ottomans and the Portuguese and made Isfahan a splendid capital

A son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he came to the throne in 1588 at sixteen with the backing of a Qizilbash faction. At first he made peace with the Ottomans by ceding territory, then won it back once his army was rebuilt. During the Ottoman wars he forcibly deported Armenians from Julfa and elsewhere to New Julfa at Isfahan, entrusting them with the silk trade, and he dealt with Europeans such as the English Sherley brothers. Suspicious of his sons, he had the eldest killed and others blinded, so his grandson Safi succeeded him.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1598 – 1629Abbas I and Isfahanmonarch

    The Safavid shah Abbas I reformed his army, drove back the Ottomans and the Portuguese and moved his capital to Isfahan, which grew so splendid it was called “half the world”.

Themes this person appears in

  • Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800

    Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence