What do you think?
Rate this book
Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society
The Safavids ruled Persia for nearly two and a half centuries, longer than any other dynasty since the pre-Islamic period. this book on Safavid Persia is divided into two sections, the first of which includes studies on the historiography and the religious politics of the period. Among the contributions to the second section are chapters on the silk industry, which brought European merchants into the country and at the same time exposed the Persian economy to the vagaries of world trade on the capital city of Esfahan, beautified by successive Shahs and on the Safvids' reluctance to adopt firearms and artillery, which was one of the factors in the collapse of the dynasty when the Afghans invaded Persia in 1722.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Charles Melville
33 books3 followersCharles Melville is Professor of Persian History and Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 4, 2020
A perfect book to start with for those who wish to familiarize themselves with Safavid history.
I love how each article that follows the other appears to coordinate its final thoughts with the subsequent article that is about to be discussed, despite the fact that each one touches on totally different subjects. I suggest for readers to have a basic knowledge of Persian , since one in particular delves deep into Turkish grammatical influences on Safavid Persian and how the language adapted itself into the one that's spoken today in Iran. Another thing worth mentioning is that the book does not solely focus on the internal economic or politico-religious aspect of Safavid Persian society, but also on external cultural and sometimes economic relations with other territories, namely with Central Asia and Europe. One thing that I found to be a shame is that one of the most (if not the most) interesting article I happened to read in this book happened to be the one that was written in French, which may lead some readers to skip the read.
I love how each article that follows the other appears to coordinate its final thoughts with the subsequent article that is about to be discussed, despite the fact that each one touches on totally different subjects. I suggest for readers to have a basic knowledge of Persian , since one in particular delves deep into Turkish grammatical influences on Safavid Persian and how the language adapted itself into the one that's spoken today in Iran. Another thing worth mentioning is that the book does not solely focus on the internal economic or politico-religious aspect of Safavid Persian society, but also on external cultural and sometimes economic relations with other territories, namely with Central Asia and Europe. One thing that I found to be a shame is that one of the most (if not the most) interesting article I happened to read in this book happened to be the one that was written in French, which may lead some readers to skip the read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review