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Administrative Stability and Change in Late-17th-Century Iran: The Case of Shaykh ʿAli Khan Zanganah (1669–89)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Rudi Matthee
Rudi Matthee
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Delaware, Newark, Del. 19716, U.S.A.
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Extract

In June 1669 the Safavid ruler Shah Sulayman dismissed his grand vizier Mirza Muhammad Mahdi and appointed Shaykh ʿAli Khan Zanganah as his successor. Shaykh ʿAli Khan served in the exalted function of grand vizier or iʿtimad aldawla for a full twenty years and in this period grew into perhaps the most remarkable administrator of Safavid times.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 77 - 98
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions, and Stephen Dale for permission to use the map.

1 Shaykh ʿAli Khan remained in office until his death in 1689. The period of his tenure is erroneously given as 1668–86 by Busse, Heribert, Untersuchungen zum islamischen Kanzleiwesen an Hand turkmenischer und safawidischer Urkunden (Cairo, 1959); as ca. 1673–90Google Scholar by Braun, Hellmut, “Das Erbe Schah Abbās I: Iran und seine Könige 1629–1694” (diss., University of Hamburg, 1967), 189Google Scholar; as 1669–88 by Röhrborn, K., “Regierung und Verwaltung Irans unter den Safawiden,” in Handbuch der Orientalistik: Regierung und Verwaltung des vorderen Orients in islamischer Zeit (Leiden, 1979), 27Google Scholar; and as 1673–90 by Roemer, H. R., The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 6 (Cambridge, 1986), 306Google Scholar.

2 The relative obscurity of Shah Sulayman's reign is reflected in the fact that most studies that deal with late Safavid Iran fail even to mention the name of Shaykh ʿAli Khan. See, for example, Tājbakhsh, Aḥmad, Īrān dar Zamān-i Ṣafaviya (Tabriz, 1961)Google Scholar; Rāvandi, Murtażā, Tārīkh-i Ijtimāʿ iʿi Īrān, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (Tehran, 1977), vol. 2Google Scholar; Savory, Roger, Iran under the Safavids (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar; Keyvani, Mehdi, Artisans and Guild Life in the Later Safavid Period: Contributions to the Social-Economic History of Persia (Berlin, 1982)Google Scholar; and iʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Navʿ ā,ʿ ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Navʿ ā,ʿ, Īrān va Jahān az Mughūl tā Qājārīya, 2nd ed. (Tehran, 1987)Google Scholar.

3 See Minorsky, Vladimir, ed. and trans., Tadhkirat al-Mulūk: A Manual of Safavid Administration (repr. London, 1980), 19, 23Google Scholar; Lockhart, Laurence, The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia (Cambridge, 1958), 16–34Google Scholar; and Savory, , Iran under the Safavids, 226–41.Google Scholar

4 Lockhart, , The Fall, 29Google Scholar.

5 Savory, , Iran under the Safavids, 239–41Google Scholar.

6 For the argument that the grand vizier was not the shah's alter ego, see Aubin, Jean, “L'Avènement des Safavides reconsidéré,” Moyen Orient et Océan Indien 5 (1988): 115.Google Scholar

7 Chardin, Jean, Voyages du chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de I'Orient, ed. Langlès, L., 10 vols. and atlas (Paris, 1811), 9:405.Google Scholar

8 Khatūnābādī, Sayyid ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn, Vaqāʿiʿ al-Sanīn va al-Aʿvām (Tehran, 1973), 530–31Google Scholar. Members of the Zanganah rose to high office as early as the reign of Shah Ismaʿil (1501–24). See Sharaf Khān Bitlīsī's Sharafnāmah, 1596, cited in Edmonds, C. J., Kurds, Turks and Arabs (London, 1957), 271Google Scholar. Naṣrābādī, Muḥammad Ṭāhir, Tadhkira-ʿi Naṣrabādī, ed. Dastgirdī, Ḥasan Vahīd (Tehran, 1938), 26Google Scholar, notes the courage and loyalty of the Zanganah.

9 See Kurdistānī, Āyatullāh Shaykh Muḥammad Mardūkh, Tārīkh-i Mardūkh, 3rd ed. (Tehran, 1980), 101Google Scholar; Nikitine, B., “Les Valis d'Ardalan,” Revue du Monde Musulman 49 (1922): 83Google Scholar; and Sanandajī, Mirzā Shukrullāh, Tuḥfa-ʿi Nāṣiri dar Tārikh va Jugrāfiyā-yi Kurdistān (Tehran, 1987), 104–5Google Scholar. He must have been amīrākhūr-bāshī until at least 1637, for von Mandelso mentioned being the guest of the shah's “stable master” ʿAli Bali Beg in that year; Mandelso, Johann A. von, Beschrijvingh van de gedenkwaerdige zee- en landtreyze deur Persien naar Oost-Indien (Amsterdam, 1658), 2–3Google Scholar.

10 See Iṣfahāni, Muḥammad Maʿṣūm ibn Khajīgi, Khulāṣat al-Siyar (Tehran, 1989), 264, 286Google Scholar; Turkman, Iskandar Beg and Muvarrikh, Muḥammad Yūsuf, Dhayl-i Tārīkh-I ʿĀlam-Ārā-yi ʿAbbāsi, ed. Khānsārī, Suhaylī (Tehran, 1938), 227–28Google Scholar; Hidāyat, Riżā-qūlī Khān, Rawżat al-Ṣafā-yi Nāṣiri, 10 vols. (Tehran, 1853–1856), 8:215Google Scholar. According to Witsen, Nicolaas, Noord en Oost Tartaryen, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1705), 1:462Google Scholar, the amīrākhūr-bāshī was always recruited from the same tribe. This tribe was clearly the Zanganah. After ʿAli Bali Beg succeeded Mahdi-quli Beg Chagatay as amīrākhūr-bāshī in 1618, the function seems to have been transmitted in a hereditary fashion within the Zanganah until the end of the Safavid era. Shahrukh Sultan directly succeeded his father as amīrākhūr-bāshī in 1634. Shaykh ʿAli Khan was in turn succeeded by another brother, Najaf-quli Beg Zanganah, in 1640. The latter held the post until 1652, when his son Ibrahim Beg succeeded him. Ibrahim Beg, renamed Najaf-quli Beg, was demoted in 1656 and succeeded by his brother Hasan ʿAli Beg; see Valī-qūlī Shāmlū ibn Dāvūd-qūlī, “Qiṣaṣ al-Khāqāni,” British Library, Ms. Or. 7656, fols. 97v, 133. In the later years of Shaykh ʿAli Khan's vizierate, his son Husayn ʿAli Beg was amīrākhūr-bāshī. In 1692 Husayn ʿAli Beg's son, Muhammad Riza Beg, took over; see Mashīzī, Mir Muḥammad Saʿ id (Bardsīrī), Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavlya-ʿi Kirmān, ed. Bāstānī-Parīzī, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm (Tehran, 1990), 626Google Scholar. In 1715, finally, the amīrākhūr-bāshī was Imam-quli Khan, a son of the grand vizier Shah-quli Khan, who was himself the son of Shaykh ʿAli Khan; see Algemeen Rijks Archief, The Hague (hereafter ARA) VOC 1848, Isfahan to Batavia, 24 May 1715, fol. 2299. For the difference between the amīrākhūr-bāshī “jilaw” and the amīrākhūr-bāshī “ṣahrā,” see Minorsky, , Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, 52, 87, 120Google Scholar.

11 See Maʿsūm, Muḥammad, Khulāṣat al-Siyar, 286Google Scholar; and Turkman/Muvarrikh, , Dhayl-i Tārīkh, 246Google Scholar. Āstārābādī, Ḥasan ibn Murtaża Ḥusayni, Tārīkh-i Ṣultāni az Shaykh Ṣafi tā Shāh Ṣafi, ed. Ishrāqī, Iḥsān (Tehran, 1985), 259Google Scholar, erroneously mentions ʿAli Beg as the “brother of Shahrukh Khan” who took over as amir of the Zanganah.

12 Qazvīnī, Mīrza Muḥammad Tāhir Vaḥīd, ʿAbbasnamah, ed. Ibrāhīm Dihgān (Arak, 1951), 182Google Scholar; Luft, Paul, “Iran unter Schah ʿAbbās II (1629–1666)” (diss., University of Göttingen, 1968), 110Google Scholar; Röhrborn, K., Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1966), 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chardin, , Voyages, 10:126Google Scholar; Shāmlū, Valī-qūlī, “Qiṣaṣ al-Khāq'nī,” fol. 154; and Ḥājj Mīrzā Ḥasan Ḥusayn Fasaʿī, Fārsnāmah-ʿi Nāṣirī, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1894–1895), 1:149Google Scholar; ibid., 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Tehran, 1988), 1:480. For the Zanganah, see Kunke, Marina, Nomadenstämme in Persien im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1991), 74, 76, 85, 143, 154.Google Scholar

13 Luft, “Iran unter Schah ʿAbbas II,” 110.

14 Chardin, , Voyages, 10:126Google Scholar; Valī-qūli Sh'mlū, “Qiṣaṣ al-Khāqānī,” fol. 153.

15 Chardin, , Voyages, 10:126Google Scholar.

16 ARA, VOC 1266, Gamron to Heren XVII, 20 July 1669, fol. 952v.

17 Tadhkirat al-Muulk, 114–15; Röhrborn, , “Regierung und Verwaltung Irans,” 19Google Scholar.

18 See Busse, , Untersuchungen, 75.Google Scholar Muhammad Beg's autonomous power is noted in ARA, VOC 1236, Gamron to Heren XVII, 2 September 1660, fol. 9.

19 Chardin, , Voyages, 9:571, 10:2–4Google Scholar; India Office Records, London (hereafter IOR) G/36/105, Isfahan to Surat, 14 August 1668, fol. 36; Kaempfer, Engelbert, Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physicomedicarum fasciculi V (Lemgo, 1712), 41Google Scholar; Hinz, Walther, trans., Am Hofe des persischen Grosskönigs 1684–1685, 2nd ed. (Tübingen, 1977), 59Google Scholar; Archives des Missions Etèrangeres, Paris (hereafter AME), vol. 349, letter by R. du Mans to Mr. Baron, Aleppo, 23 April 1668, fols. 161–64. Information about the occurrence of a famine in the Kirman area is contained in Mashizi, Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavīya, 317, 352–53.

20 Chardin, , Voyages, 10:65fF.Google Scholar

21 ARA, VOC 1266, Gamron to Heren XVII, 28 February 1669, fols. 916–17v, 929v. This tells the story of how Cossacks raided the town of Farahabad disguised as merchants. Chardin, , Voyages, 10:135–38Google Scholar, recounts the same event.

22 ARA, VOC 1270, Gamron to Heren XVII, 24 April 1670, fol. 892v.

23 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 47–48Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 65–66Google Scholar.

24 Chardin, , Voyages, 10:86, 9:331Google Scholar, respectively.

25 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 47–48Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 65–66Google Scholar.

26 For Muhammad Beg, see Matthee, Rudi, “The Career of Mohammad Beg, Grand Vizier of Shah ʿAbbas II (r. 1642–1666),” Iranian Studies 24 (1991): 17–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 ARA, VOC 1288, Gamron to Batavia, 31 January 1672, fol. 887r; VOC 1360, memorandum, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1906v, where it is said that the vizier of Isfahan charged with the payment duties did not receive a penny for his service.

28 ARA, VOC 1266, Gamron to Heren XVII, 20 July 1669, fol. 952v.

29 See ARA, VOC 1270, Gamron to Heren XVII, 24 April 1670, fol. 892v; VOC 1284, Gamron to Batavia, 7 March 1671, fols. 2329v–30r; and Chardin, , Voyages, 8:194–95.Google Scholar

30 ARA, VOC 1304, Gamron to Heren XVII, 24 May 1674, fol. 451 v.

31 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 67–68Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 88–89.Google Scholar

32 ARA, VOC 1284, Gamron to Batavia, 26 August 1670, fol. 2278r.

33 The nāẓir returned to Iran in late 1672. He was granted permission to resume his old post but died while waiting to appear before the shah. His nephew Najaf-quli Beg thereupon was installed as permanent nāẓir, see ARA, VOC 1285, Gamron to Batavia, 5 December 1672, fol. 5r.

34 ARA, VOC 1288, Gamron to Heren XVII, 16 May 1672, fols. 924r, 927r, 928r; VOC 1295, Gam-ron to Batavia, 19 September 1672, fol. 393v; Chardin, , Voyages, 3:29Google Scholar. No source gives a precise date for the demotion, but because Chardin's account and the Dutch reports note that Shaykh ʿAli Khan's reinstatement took place on 26 June 1673 and that the vizier's discomfiture had lasted fourteen months, the event must have taken place in April 1672.

35 For the harsh winter of 1672, see Ettinghausen, Richard, “Stylistic Tendencies at the Time of Shah Abbas,” Iranian Studies (1974): 607, 628.Google Scholar

36 Chardin, , Voyages, 3:29Google Scholar; Mashīzī, , Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavīya, 387Google Scholar; and Joseph, Ange de Saint, Souvenirs de la Perse safavide et autres lieux de l'Orient (1664–1678), ed. Bastiaensen, Michel (Brussels, 1985), 182–83.Google Scholar According to Mashizi, courtiers implored the shah to spare Shaykh ʿAli Khan's life and Sulayman eventually put his vizier under house arrest.

37 IOR, G/36/106, Gombroon to Surat, 29 April 1672, fol. 96; ibid., Gombroon to Surat, 27 November 1672, fol. 38. In the 18th century, Father Krusinski noted that different opinions existed as to whether Sulayman's mother killed herself or was killed by her son; see Cerceau, J. A. du, Histoire de la dernière révolution de Perse, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1728), 2:4.Google Scholar

38 ARA, VOC 1285, Isfahan to Shiraz, 11, 16, and 30 August 1673, fols. 416r–17v; ibid., Shiraz to Batavia, 13 September 1673, fol. 412v; VOC 1307, Gamron to Batavia, 16 December 1675, fol. 639v.

39 ARA, VOC 1307, Garmon to Batavia, 12 December 1675, fol. 639v.

40 See Chardin, , Voyages, 3:116, 121–27Google Scholar; and ARA, VOC 1285, Shiraz to Batavia, 13 September 1673, fol. 41 lv, for examples of humiliation, such as the shah forcing his vizier to become drunk, throwing wine in his face, and, most denigratingly, making him shave his beard.

41 Lambton, Ann K. S., Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia (New York, 1988), 28.Google Scholar

42 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 67–69Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 88–90.Google Scholar

43 In Bāstānī-Pārīzī, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm, Sīyāsat va-lqtiṣād-i ʿAṣr-i Ṣafavī, 3rd ed. (Tehran, 1983), 146.Google Scholar

44 Shaykh ʿAli Khan's own tribe, the Zanganah, being among the mountain people thought fit for military duty, was to be moved to a district near the Persian Gulf under Nadir Shah.

45 An urban bias against people from rural backgrounds is reflected in the Fārsnāmah-i Nāṣirī, where it is said of Shaykh ʿAli Khan's son Husayn ʿAli Khan that, although he was a country dweller and of tribal descent (mard-i ṣahrāgard-i īlātī), he was well versed in the official sciences and especially in fiqh; see Fasāʿī, , Fārsnāmah, 1:153Google Scholar; ibid., 2nd ed., 1:488.

46 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 67Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 88Google Scholar.

47 Chardin, , Voyages, 3:119Google Scholar; and ARA, VOC 1183, Daghregister Bastijncq, 23 October to 13 December 1645, fols. 246–49. The measure was revoked after Shaykh ʿAli Khan's dismissal; see ARA, VOC 1288, Gamron to Batavia, 19 September 1672, fol. 393v.

48 See Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Rome, Gall. 97ii, letter from Isfahan by Claude Ignace Mercier, S.J., 28 February 1672, fol. 350.

49 See Kaempfer, Amoenitatum, 69Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 90Google Scholar; and Careri, Giovanni Gemelli, Giro del Mondo, 6 vols. (Naples, 1699), 2:128.Google Scholar

50 Carmelite Archives, Rome, O.C.D. 243, 1bis, F. Franciscus Maria di S. Syro (n.d.; this is an ac count of a trip to Iran in 1692–93, written in 1703).

51 Ph. Avril, S. J., Voyage en divers états d'Europe et d'Asie (Paris, 1692), 60Google Scholar.

52 Chardin, , Voyages, 2:42–43, 150Google Scholar. For other references to the reputation of Georgians in late Safavid Iran, see Lang, D. M., “Georgia and the Fall of the Safavi Dynasty,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 14 (1952): 524–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 See Fryer, John, A New Account of East India and Persia, Being 9 Years' Travels, 1672–1681, 3 vols. (London, 1909–1915), 2:291Google Scholar. The revolt of Georgia is described in Lang, D. M., The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy 1658–1832 (New York, 1957), 96–97Google Scholar.

54 Chardin, Voyages, 9:206; and Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 139Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 165.

55 Lang, Last Years, 89–90. Brosset, M.F., Histoire de la Géorgie, 2 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1856–57), 2:9Google Scholar, claimed that Shah Sulayman himself had asked Shahnavaz for his daughter Anusa.

56 ARA, VOC 1315, Isfahan to Batavia, 5 June 1677, fol. 729r.

57 Gemelli Careri, Giro del Mondo, 2:29ff.

58 Chardin, Voyages, 3:30.

59 Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, 25, 45, 123.

60 ARA, VOC 1364, Gamron to Batavia, 7 September 1682, fol. 390v.

61 ARA, VOC 1355, Gamron to Batavia, 21 August 1681, fol. 426v; and VOC 1379, Gamron to Batavia, 6 March 1682, fols. 2664v–65r. According to the latter source, the vizier accused the mustawfī of having accepted 6,000 tomans in protection money from the Portuguese.

62 ARA, VOC 1416, Gamron (“Blauwe Hulck”) to Batavia, 20 October 1684, fols. 1609v–10r.

63 Sanson, N., Voyage ou état présent ou royaume de Perse (Paris, 1694), 144–47Google Scholar.

64 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 206Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 234–35. Kaempfer, writing in 1684–85, referred to Sulayman's mother as a member of the secret council. As the queen mother–s death in 1672 would make this impossible, the German traveler may have confused her with Miryam Bigum, Shah Safi–s daughter and Sulayman–s aunt, who wielded great influence in state affairs and was to continue playing a role in court politics until the 1720s.

65 Sanson, , Voyage, 144–45Google Scholar.

66 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 61ffGoogle Scholar.; Am Hofe, 81ff.

67 IOR, G/36/108, Gombroon to Surat, 23 February 1680, fols. 57–58; ARA, VOC 1343, Gamron to Heren XVII, 25 March 1680, fol. 599r; ibid., Gamron to Batavia, 13 April 1680, fol. 509v. In a letter by a Père Jacques(?) from Isfahan, written on 1 March 1680 (AME, vol. 353, fols. 7–8), 29 December 1679 is given as the date when the shah, coming out of his harem and finding the nāẓir at the door, struck him several times and forbade him to enter the palace from that side. The same source mentioned 21 January 1680 as the day when the dīvānbegī lost his eyesight. Some claimed that Zaynal Beg had been punished because he had kept his eyes fixed on the shah in a quasi-contemptuous manner; others maintained that a poor job performance had been the reason. The day before, the shah had punished a doorkeeper for bringing in the wrong cup during a drinking party by having one of the man's hands cut off. Shah Sulayman in this period also humiliated Shaykh ʿAli Khan again by pouring a bottle of wine over him with the warning that he would have to take better care of state affairs.

68 ARA, VOC 1343, Gamron to Batavia, 13 April 1680, fol. 609v. According to Mashīzī, Tadhkira-ʿ Safaviya, 472, Najaf-quli Beg was ordered by the shah personally to perform the blinding of the dīvānbegī.

69 ARA, VOC 1355, Gamron to Batavia, 5 March 1681, fol. 400r.

70 See ARA, VOC 1373, Gamron to Batavia, 19 April 1683, fol. 833v.

71 ARA, VOC 1364, Gamron to Batavia, 14 June 1682, fol. 365v; Brosset, Histoire de Géorgie, 2:pt. 1, 560. Sam Khan's father, Murtaza-quli Khan, had been qūrchī-bāshī as well as sipahsālār under Shah ʿAbbas II from 1645–46 until 1663, when he was executed.

72 The story of Saru Khan's downfall in 1691 may be found in Sanson, , Voyage, 112–35Google Scholar; and in idem, letter 13 August 1691, in Kroell, Anne, ed., Nouvelles d'lspahan 1665–1695 (Paris, 1979), 35ffGoogle Scholar. See also AME, vol. 351, fols. 317–30, 335–38; vol. 353, fols. 176–80.

73 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 69Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 89.

74 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 64Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 85, relates how the vizier managed to present the news of a bloody Uzbek raid in Khurasan to Sulayman as a victory for the shah's army.

75 ARA, VOC 1360, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1908v.

76 Chardin, Voyages, 9:331; and ARA, VOC 1307, Gamron to Heren XVII, 12 December 1675, fol. 639v.

77 Chardin, Voyages, 3:119.

78 Mashīzī, , Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavīya, 23, 420–23, 487, 500, 512–13, 521Google Scholar.

79 ARA, VOC 1379, Report Casembroot to Heren XVII, 25 November 1682, fol. 2734r–v.

80 Sanson, , Voyage, 109Google Scholar.

81 The French engineer engaged for this project had, according to Sanson, already taken all the necessary measures to drill through the mountains when he was obstructed by Shaykh ʿAli Khan, who convinced the shah that the water of the Karun river was bad and would spoil that of the Zayandah Rud; see Sanson, , Voyage, 78–79Google Scholar.

82 Mashīzī, , Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavīya, 442, 433Google Scholar; Mardūkh, , Tārīkh-i Mardūkh, 110Google Scholar.

83 Chardin, Voyages, 2:202. This unspecified son must have lost his position, however, for Chardin, Voyages, 8:452, tells the story of the execution in 1673 of Khusraw Khan, governor of Gilan and Mazandaran and tufangchī-āqāsi.

84 ARA, VOC 1360, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1908v.

85 Kaempfer, Amoenitatum, 68; Am Hofe, 89.Google Scholar

86 Turkman/Muvarrikh, , Dhayl-i Tārikh, 246Google Scholar; Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 68Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 89.

87 NaṢrābādī, , Tadhkira-ʿi NaṢrābādī, 26Google Scholar.

88 See Barendse, René, “Zijde, Zambouqs, Zilver: De Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in Iran 1623–1693” (M.A. thesis. University of Leiden, 1985), 123–24Google Scholar, without a reference.

89 Shāmlū, Valī-qūlī, “QiṢaṢ al-Khāqānī,” fols. 52 and 73. The ʿAbbāsnāmah, 127, mentions Dust ʿAli Khan's appointment as khan of Bust in 1651Google Scholar.

90 ARA, VOC 1360, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1908v.

91 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 68Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 89.

92 Sanson, letter from Isfahan, 8 April 1691, in Kroell, , Nouvelles d'lspahan, 29Google Scholar, mentioned how this nephew came to kiss Shah Sulayman's feet at the New Year's ceremony of 1691.

93 Mashīzī, , Tadhkira-ʿi Ṣafavīya, 485Google Scholar. The amīrshikār-bāshī generally also supervised the Armenians of Isfahan and relayed their requests to the court.

94 Fasāʿi, Fārsnāmah, 1:153; ibid., rev. ed., 1:488, which mentions 1675–76 as the year in which Husayn ʿAli Khan became governor of Bihbahan and Kuh-i Giluyih; see also Khatūnābādi, , Vaqāʿiʿ al-Sānīn, 547Google Scholar.

95 Sanson, letter 13 August 1691, in Kroell, , Nouvelles, 36Google Scholar; Hedges, William, The Diary of William Hedges, Esq., 3 vols. (London, 1887–89), 1:216Google Scholar; ARA, VOC 1360, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1908v; Khatūnābādi, , Vaqāʿiʿ al-Sānin, 548Google Scholar. Shah-quli Khan ruled in Kirmanshah from at least 1675 to 1691.

96 Sanson, , Voyage, 78Google Scholar.

97 Chardin, Voyages, 10:126.

98 Kaempfer, , Amoenitatum, 68Google Scholar; Am Hofe, 89, mentioned two deceased sons of Shaykh ʿAli Khan, one as ruler (ḥākim) of Qazvin, the other as ruler of Kirmanshah. The dārūghah was the police chief, but in a city like Qazvin this official was at the same time the mayor.

99 ARA, VOC 1360, Casembroot to van Heuvel, 4 March 1679, fol. 1988r.

100 AME, vol. 353, Sanson, letter to Raimond Marcye, 4 October 1689, fols. 115–18.

101 Khatūnābādi, , Vaqāʿiʿ al-Sānin, 547Google Scholar, claims that he died on 11 Muharram 1101 (Wednesday, 25 October 1689), at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Sanson reported in a letter he wrote on 4 October that the grand vizier was dying; see AME, vol. 353, Sanson, letter to Raimond Marcye, 4 October 1689, fols. 115–18.