Using a wide range of archival and written sources, Rudi Matthee considers the economic, social and political networks established between Iran, its neighbours

The Safavid dynasty originated as a fledgling apocalyptic mystical movement based in Iranian Azarbaijan, and grew into a large, cosmopolitan Irano-Islamic empir

I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation The decline and fall of Safavid Iran is traditionally seen as the natural outcome of the unrelieved

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Safavids ruled Persia for nearly two and a half centuries. This study is divided into two sections, the first of which includes studies on the historiograph