Isfahan Becomes Safavid Capital

In 1598, Shah Abbas I moved the capital of the Safavid dynasty from Qazvin to Isfahan, a city in central Iran. The move was more than a change of address. Over the following decades Abbas turned Isfahan into one of the largest and most admired cities of the early modern world, and its monuments remain among the finest achievements of Persian architecture.

The Safavids had ruled Iran since the early sixteenth century and had made Twelver Shi'ism the state religion. When Abbas took the throne in 1587, however, the dynasty was in a weak position. Uzbek forces were raiding Khorasan in the northeast, the Ottomans held substantial Safavid territory in the northwest, and the Qizilbash, the Turkmen tribal military elite who had brought the dynasty to power, acted as rival power brokers. Qazvin lay relatively close to the Ottoman frontier, and historians commonly point to strategic security as one motive for relocating. A central position, away from the most exposed borders, was also easier from which to govern. Some scholars add that Abbas wanted to break from the entrenched court factions of the old capital.

Isfahan was already an ancient city with a famous congregational mosque, but Abbas reshaped it on a grand scale. At its heart he built the Naqsh-e Jahan, a huge rectangular square surrounded by two-story arcades of shops. Around it rose the Shah Mosque, the smaller Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, the Ali Qapu palace, and a grand covered bazaar leading toward the older city. The design deliberately placed religion, royal authority, and commerce side by side. To the south, a broad tree-lined avenue called the Chahar Bagh ran down to the Zayandeh River, which was crossed by elegant bridges such as the Si-o-se-pol.

Abbas also reorganized the state. He built up a standing army of slave-soldiers, often of Georgian, Armenian, or Circassian origin, which reduced his dependence on the Qizilbash, and he reinforced the army with firearms and artillery. With this force he recovered lost territory from the Uzbeks and the Ottomans. Isfahan benefited from his commercial policies as well. He relocated Armenian merchants from Julfa to a new suburb, New Julfa, where they became important in the international silk trade linking Iran with Europe and India.

The city reached its peak during Abbas's reign, which ended in 1629, and remained the capital until the dynasty's decline. Safavid rule collapsed after an Afghan siege and capture of Isfahan in 1722, a blow from which the city only slowly recovered. Even so, the Naqsh-e Jahan and its neighbors survive today, and UNESCO lists the square as a World Heritage Site. Isfahan's popular saying, "Isfahan is half the world," reflects the pride the city inspired.