Iran - Andrew Burke [13]
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Marco Polo crossed Iran while travelling to and from China in the 13th century, stopping in Tabriz, Kashan, Yazd, Kerman, Hormoz, Bam, Tabas and Neishabur, among others.
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Tragically, the Mongols destroyed many of the Persian cities they conquered, obliterating much of Persia’s documented history. Perhaps feeling guilty about all the violence, they became great arts patrons, leaving many fine monuments, including the wonderful Oljeitu Mausoleum (Gonbad-e Soltaniyeh, Click here), near Zanjan. During Mongol rule Farsi definitively replaced Arabic as the lingua franca and Marco Polo followed the Silk Road across Persia (see the boxed text). In 1335 the Ilkhanid empire came to an end when the death of Sultan Abu Said left it with no successor.
The fragmented empire succumbed to invading forces from the east led by Tamerlane (Lame Timur), who swept on to defeat the Ottoman Turks in 1402. Tamerlane came from a Turkified Mongol clan in what is now Uzbekistan. Tamerlane managed to stop the constant warring in Iran and moved the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin. He was yet another of the great contradictions who ruled Persia over the years: an enthusiastic patron of the arts and one of history’s greatest killers (after one rebellion 70,000 people are said to have been executed in Esfahan alone).
When he died in 1405, Tamerlane’s empire immediately started to struggle. The Timurids in eastern Iran clung to varying degrees of power for several decades, maintaining their support of Persian art, particularly the miniaturists of Shiraz. Gohar Shad, the wife of one of the Timurid rulers, was responsible for the beautiful mosque at the heart of Mashhad’s Holy Shrine to Imam Reza.
The pattern of strong ruler, decline and the fragmentation of empire is a recurring theme in Persian history. The years following the Mongol and Timurid periods were no different, with the power divided and fought over by several blocs. Among the more notable groups were the Kara Koyunlu (Black Sheep) tribe, which managed to set itself up in Tabriz and grab power from the Mongols in eastern Turkey. Having held strong for almost two centuries (1275–1468), they, in turn, gave way to the Ak Koyunlu (White Sheep) tribe, which ruled the northeast until 1514.
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Genghis Khan took the most beautiful women from the lands he defeated and made them wives or concubines, fathering hundreds of children. A recent study across Asia found that some 16 million men living today can likely trace their heritage back to the loins of the great ruler.
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THE SAFAVIDS & THE THIRD PERSIAN EMPIRE
A Sufi called Sheikh Safi od-Din (d 1334) was the inspiration for and progenitor of the Safavi, a powerful sect of Shiite followers from Ardabil. Ismail Savafi, a distant descendent of Safi od-Din, was eventually to conquer all the old Persian imperial heartlands, from Baghdad to Herat. He ruled as Persian Shah (r 1502–24) and although forced out of western Iran by the Ottoman sultan, Selim the Grim, at the disastrous battle of Chaldoran, his Safavid dynasty ushered in a great Iranian revival.
Under Ismail’s son Tahmasp (r 1524–76), the capital was moved from Tabriz to Qazvin, and European monarchs started to take an interest in Persia. The Safavids reached their peak under the brilliant Shah Abbas I (Abbas the Great; r 1587–1629), who, with military advice from English adventurer Robert Shirley, finally crushed the assorted Turkmen and Turkish factions to create what is considered the Third Persian Empire.
The Safavids oversaw a renewed flowering of Persian art and architecture. Abbas moved