6 - THE SAFAVID ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM

Summary

Before the principal phases in the development of the Safavid administrative system are discussed in detail, a brief outline of the Safavid administrative and social structure may be helpful. At the apex of this structure was the shah. Never was the Divine Right of Kings more fully developed than by the Safavid shahs. Shah Ismā'īl I, who established the Safavid dynasty in 907/1501–2, considered himself to be the living emanation of the godhead, the Shadow of God upon earth, and the representative of the Hidden Imām by virtue of direct descent from the Seventh Imām of the Twelver (Ithnā'ashariyya) Shī'a, Mūsā al-Kāzim. It is axiomatic that such a ruler would command instant and unquestioning obedience from his subjects. Since the ruler was directly appointed by God, men were required to obey his commands whether just or unjust. Since the ruler, as the representative of the Hidden Imām, was closer to the source of absolute truth than were other men, opposition to him was a sin. This led inevitably to an assumption of kingly infallibility. In other words, the Safavid shahs usurped the function which the Ithnā'asharī mujtahids had arrogated to themselves, namely, that of acting as the representative on earth of the Mahdī, the Ithnā'ashar' messiah. The net result of these various Safavid theories of kingship was absolutism. In practice, however, there were well defined limits to this absolutism, even when the shah was a strong and capable ruler. Chardin declares emphatically that outside court circles there was no arbitrary exercise of power by the shah, and both Chardin and Malcolm assert that the awe in which the shah was held by the court and the nobility was the primary reason for the relative security and freedom from oppression enjoyed by the lower classes.