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The Career of Mohammad Beg, Grand Vizier of Shah 'Abbas II (r. 1642-1666)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Rudi Matthee
Rudi Matthee*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Denver
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Extract

La plus belle charge de la cour, c'est la faveur.

Safavid historiography has oscillated between admiration and vilification in its appraisal of Shah ‘Abbas II's reign (1642-1666). In the accounts of contemporary observers—for the most part European travelers—one finds favorable descriptions of the shah and his court as part of a positive assessment of the overall state of the country. Impressed by the hospitality they enjoyed at the court of Isfahan, these foreign visitors spoke highly of a magnanimous and tolerant monarch; moreover, the absence of rebellion and relatively secure roads prompted them to refer to Iran as a prosperous and stable country. Those who visited Iran within a generation after the shah's death corroborated this image; indeed, in their narratives one already finds an element of nostalgia for the days of ‘Abbas II.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 1-4 , 1991 , pp. 17 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1991

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References

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13. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 617. According to Vali-qoli Shamlu b. Davud-qoli's Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, Mohammad ‘Ali Beg died on Wednesday 8 Dhu'l hijjah 1059 and Mohammad Beg received his assignment on the 12th of the same month. These dates would have corresponded with Saturday 13 and Wednesday 17 December 1649. In reality the events took place two years later, for a Dutch embassy that had arrived in Bandar ‘Abbas from Batavia in December 1651 received the news of Mohammad ‘Ali Beg's death and Mohammad Beg's appointment from a merchant on 24 January 1652. If the date of Mohammad ‘Ali Beg's death was 8 Dhu'l hijjah 1061, the Christian date would have been 22 November 1651. See Davud-qoli, Vali-qoli Shamlu b., Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, Ms. Or. 7656, British Library, fol. 91; and Cornells Speelman, Journaal der reis van den gezant der O.I. Compagnie Joan Cunaeus naar Perzië. in 1651-1652, ed. Hotz, A. (Amsterdam, 1908), 54Google Scholar.

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22. Qazvini, Abu'I Hasan, Favā'ed-e Ṣafavīyeh, ed. Ahmadi, Maryam Mir (Tehran, 1367 S./1988), 66Google Scholar.

23. Vahid Qazvini, ‘Abbasnameh, 103.

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27. Chardin, Voyages 5: 345.

28. This is related in Manucci, Storia di Mogor 1: 21-35; Foster, English Factories, 20-24; and Luft, “Iran unter Schah ‘Abbas II,” 62-3. For the Bellomont embassy see also Lockhart, Laurence, “The Diplomatic Missions of Henry Bard, Viscount Bellomont, to Persia and India,” Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 4 (1966): 97-104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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32. Chardin, Voyages 5: 312-3.

33. Ibid. 7: 137.

34. ARA, VOC 1232, Gamron to Heren XVII, 25 December 1660, fol. 368v.

35. See Rohrborn, Provinzen und Zentralgewalt Persiens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1966), 122Google Scholar.

36. Du Mans, Estat de la Perse, 226.

37. ARA, VOC 1224, Gamron to Batavia, 1 March 1658, fol. 800.

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40. Chardin, Voyages 7: 283.

41. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 621-2.

42. ARA, Coll. Geleynssen de Jongh 283, Extract daghregister Winninx, 8 January 1646, fol. 328.

43. For the struggle within the religious ranks see Said Amir Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890 (Chicago, 1984), ch. 5.

44. For this episode see Rudi Matthee, “Coffee in Safavid Iran: Commerce and Consumption,” forthcoming in The Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient.

45. As is maintained for the Jews by Moreen, “Problems of Conversion,” 220.

46. ARA, VOC 1215, Gamron to Batavia, 30 March 1657, fol. 863v-864.

47. Wilson, “History of the Mission,” 695. This story sounds less implausible when we consider that the period in question was coincident with the messianic expectations among the Jews in the Ottoman Empire that culminated in the movement of Sabbatai Zevi in the 1660s.

48. ARA, VOC 1215, Gamron to Batavia, 30 March 1657, fols. 863v-864.

49. Favā'ed-e Safavīyeh, 66, states that ‘Abbas II regaled Allah Verdi Khan in 1060/1650 with gold-embroidered silk wovens, inlaid with six rubies and a gemstudded dagger.

50. Foster, English Factories, 66.

51. Shamlu, Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, fol. 91.

52. ARA, VOC 1203, Gamron to Batavia, 21 March 1653, fol. 798v; VOC 1201, Gamron to Batavia, 5 April 1653, fol. 777v.

53. Ibid., 16 May 1654, fols. 8O7v-8O8r.

54. Speelman, Journaal, 33, 70, 231.

55. Ibid., 54.

56. Coolhaas, W. Ph., Generate missiven van gouverneurs-generaal en raden aan Heren XVII der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, vol. II, 1639-1655 (The Hague, 1964), 803Google Scholar.

57. This can be deduced from combining the information in Foster, English Factories, 88 & 127, ARA, VOC 1226, 1 March 1658, fol. 806, Coolhaas, Generale missiven 3: 1655-74 (The Hague, 1968), 276, and the EIC documents in India Office Records, London (hereafter IOR), E/3/26/2868, Isfahan to Company, 25 January 1660. 58. ARA, VOC 1226, Gamron to Batavia, 1 March 1658, fol. 806.

58. ARA, VOC 1226, Gamron to Batavia, 1 March 1658, fol. 806.

59. Vahid Qazvini, ‘Abbāsnāmeh, 149.

60. Torkman/Movarrekh, Ẕayl-e tārīkh, 281.

61. Coolhaas, Generale missiven 2: 803.

62. ARA, VOC 1224, Gamron to Batavia, 1 March 1658, fol. 800.

63. Wilson, “History of the Mission,” 700. The embassy in question is the one sent in 1658 to congratulate the new Mughal ruler Aurangzeb with his accession to the throne. It is unlikely that Mohammad Beg's nephew was the head of this embassy, which was led by Budaq Beg, the son of the commander of riflemen (tofangchī-āqāsī) Qalandar Soltan. Upon his return he was appointed commander of riflemen himself.

64. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 633.

65. ARA, VOC 1224, Gamron to Batavia, 3 September 1657, fol. 316.

66. The post of dārūgheh of Isfahan was in the hands of the son of the governor of Georgia following an agreement between Shah ‘Abbas I and the governor, who submitted to Isfahan in return for having his son fill the post in perpetuity. Rostam Khan had thus held the post for thirty years, but ordinarily a substitute held the actual position. Mir Qasem Beg was one such substitute, as is reflected in his official title, nā'eb-e dārūgheh. See Chardin, Voyages 10: 29.

67. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 626-30; Chardin, Voyages 9: 570.

68. Ibid.; Shamlu, Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, fol. 132v.

69. For Pharsadan see Brosset, M. F., Histoire de la Géorgie depuis V anliquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle (trans, from the Georgian), 2 vols. (St. Petersburg, 1856), 2: 509-14, 541, 561-3Google Scholar.

70. The story is told, in slightly different versions, by Vahid Qazvini, ‘Abbāsnāmeh, 220-21; Shamlu, Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, fol. 133v; ARA, VOC 1224, Gamron to Batavia, 3 September 1657, fol. 316v, and VOC 1229, 30 November 1657; Thevenot, Jean de, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant (London, 1687), part II, 101-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chardin, Voyages 9: 567-70. It is also reproduced by Luft, “Iran unter Schah ‘Abbas II,” 97-9, and by Keyvani, Mehdi, Artisans and Guild Life in the Later Safavid Period: Contributions to the Social-economic History of Persia (Berlin, 1982), 156-7Google Scholar.

71. The story of Mirza Hadi's dismissal and replacement by the gholam Babuneh Beg is told by Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 624-5, and Shamlu, Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, fol. 133. See also ARA, VOC 1224, Gamron to Batavia, 9 December 1656, fol. 272v, and ibid., Gamron to Batavia, 3 September 1657, fol. 316v. The fall of the governor of Erevan is narrated by Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 622-3. For the names of the various governors see Luft, “Iran unter Schah ‘Abbas II,” 236-7, fn. 399.

72. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 632.

73. ARA, VOC 1236, Gamron to Heren XVII, 2 September 1660, fols. 9ff; idem in VOC 1232, Gamron to Heren XVII, 25 December 1660, 368v-369r.

74. Speelman, Journaal, 181.

75. Ibid., 269-70.

76. Tavernier, Six voyages 1: 632.

77. See Moreen, “Downfall.“

78. Vahid Qazvini, ‘Abbāsnāmeh, 299-300; Shamlu, Qeṣaṣ al-khāqānī, fol. 143.

79. IOR, E/3/26/2868, Isfahan to Company, 25 January 1660.

80. ARA, VOC 1234, Gamron to Heren XVII, 5 May 1662, fol. 207r.

81. ARA, VOC 1239, Gamron to Heren XVII, 31 December 1662, fol. 1209r, and VOC 1241, Gamron to Heren XVII, 15 February 1664, fol. 576r.

82. Chardin, Voyages 9: 345-6; ARA, VOC 1307, Gamron to Batavia, 12 December 1675, fol. 639v.