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The Evolution of the Safavid Royal Guard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Masashi Haneda
Masashi Haneda*
Affiliation:
Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan
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Extract

Ever since Minorsky published his introduction and commentary on the Safavid manual of administration Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, which has become a classic in the field, scholars have come to agree on the tribal character of the state that was founded by Shah Esma`il. In fact, it is through the military force of the Turkmen tribes, the Qezelbash, that Shah Esma`il was able to accede to the throne, thus inaugurating a period of relative stability for Iran that lasted more than two centuries. Iran owed its ability to resist the recurring and alternating attacks by the Ottoman Empire and the Uzbegs to Qezelbash power as well.

Initially mobilized by religious fanaticism, the military strength of the Qezelbash became a double-edged sword for the Safavid rulers with the waning of unconditional Qezelbash devotion to the shah. Though they were indispensable to the defense of the empire's frontiers, the Qezelbash amirs, with their unbridled despotism and the resulting turmoil, never ceased to be a prime source of concern for the rulers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 2-3 , 1989 , pp. 57 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1989

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References

1 Browne, E.G., A Literary History of Persia, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 4:103-07Google Scholar.

2 Savory, R.M., Iran under the Safavids, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 76–103Google Scholar.

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6 Minorsky, TM, 14-19.

7 MY, fol. 188b; printed ed., 405. I will come back to the question of the tofangchī in a future study.

8 Tavernier, J. B., Les six voyages… en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes (Paris, 1676), 592Google Scholar; English trans. Collection of Travels through Turkey into Persia and the East Indies (London, 1688), 224-25Google Scholar.

9 Minorsky, TM, 32.

10 Savory, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2, s.v. “Ḳurchī.” Cf. Savory, The Principal offices of the Safavid state during the reign of Isma'il I (907-30/1501-24),” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 23 (1960): 91-105 (101).

11 Röhrborn, K.M., “Regierung und Verwaltung Irans unter den Safawiden,” Handbuch der Orientalistik, Erste Abteilung 6:5, 17–50Google Scholar.

12 The functional content is meant here. The etymology of the term—(Mongol qor,“carquois“) qorchi, “archer”, cf. Doerfer, Türkische and mongolische Elementc im Neupersischen (Wiesbaden, 1963), 1:429-32—is questioned by Röhrborn, “Regierung,” 35, on the ground that one finds expressions such as qorchī-ye shamshīr, “qorchi of the sword,” etc. Qor thus apparently referred to weapon in general in Safavid times. The expression “qorchi of the sword” did not in fact signify a military unit armed with swords, and there is a perfect continuity between the “archer of the royal guard” from the period of Jengiz Khan to the Safavid qorchi.

13 AQ, 203; Röhrborn, Provinzen, 46-48.

14 TT, 604.

15 EM, 242.

16 Alessandri/Chronicle, 49 and 53. The sequel to Alessandri (narrative B, ibid. 53, fn.) speaks of 4,000 qorchi. On the position of the qorchibashi, nobleman, member of the council of state and one of the dozen “governors”, see ibid., 49.

17 Minorsky, TM, 117. The coexistence of the two positions is brought out by Savory, “Principal Offices,” 101.

18 Histoire secrète, 269, 278, and passim..

19 Cf. Mano, E., “Timur-cho no shakai” (Timurid Society), Iwanami-koza Sekai-Rekishi 8 (Tokyo, 1969): 308Google Scholar.

20 Woods, John E., The Aqqoyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire (Minneapolis & Chicago, 1976), 8Google Scholar; Minorsky, , “A civil and military review in Fars in 881/1476,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 10 (1939): 141-78 (159-60)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Sumer, Kuruluş, 3-4.

22 Gouveia, , French trans. Relation des grandes guerres et victoires obtenues par le roi de Perse Chah Abbas … (Rouen, 1646), 113Google Scholar.

23 Valle, Pietro della, I Viaggi. Lettere delta Persia, eds. Gaeta, F. and Lockhart, L. (Rome, 1972), 355Google Scholar; English trans. R.M.

24 Garcia dc Silva de Figueroa, D., Comentarios de…la parte del Rey de España Don Felipe III nizo al Rey Xa Abas de Persia (Madrid, 1903)Google Scholar; English trans. Adam Olcarius, R.M., The Voyages & Travels of the Ambassadors from the Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia… (London, 1667), 273Google Scholar, writes that this qorchibashi “who has the command of ten thousand Horse” was “a Peasant's Son of Schamlu, who, in the time of Schach-Abas, had been a Menial Servant to a Lord of the Court.” This corps of archers was established by Shah Esma'il, “as a standing Army, to be constantly maintain'd.” In peace time the soldiers “retire to their own Habitation.“

25 Gabriel de Chinon, P., Relation nouvelles du Levant…(Lyon, 1671), 43–44Google Scholar; English trans. R.M.

26 “ One of Tavernier's informants, Raphael du Mans, P., Estat de la Perse en 1660 (Paris, 1890), 154Google Scholar, calls the qorchi “ancient people who, in the Turkmen way, live under tents, and who send their children to the court to serve the king and to support their families…“

27 Tavernier, 591-2; English Trans., 224.

28 de Thévenot, J., Suite du voyage du Levant… (Paris, 1674), 191Google Scholar; English trans. The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, 3 vols. (London, 1687), 1:100-01Google Scholar.

29 Voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse, ed. Langlès (Paris, 1811), 5:298–302Google Scholar.

30 Kaempfer, Engelbert, Amoenitatum Exoticarum…. (Lemgoviae, 1712)Google Scholar, fasc. 5:71; German transl. Am Hofe des persischen Grosskönigs 1684-84 (Leipzig 1940, repr. Tübingen, 1977), 93.

31 Sanson, M., Voyage ou relation de l'etat present du royaume de Perse (Paris, 1695), 30Google Scholar; English transl. The Present State of Persia (London, 1695), 20–21Google Scholar.

32 Careri, Gemelli Giro del Mondo (Napoli, 1699), 2:224Google Scholar; English trans. A Voyage round the World, 2 vols. (n.p., n.d.), 1:166Google Scholar.

33 MY, fol. 120a-b; ed. text, 258-59.

34 MY, fol. 150a-b; cd., 323: the gholam took 500 persons, the qorchi 801, the followers of Zu'lfeqar Khan 905, those of ‘Ali-qoli Khan 50, those of Pir Budaq Khan and the people from Tabriz 52, etc.

35 Taher Vahid Qazvini, ‘Abbāsnāmeh, ed. I. Dehqan (Arak, 1329/1950-51), 114-15. It is noteworthy that in sources later than Shah ‘Abbas one no longer finds expressions like “Qezelbash amirs.” This change in terminology, at a time when amirs coming from Turcoman tribes continued to exist, points to a change in social status of the Turcoman aristocracy.

36 Anonymous Ms., British Library, Or. 3248, fol. 62a; AQ, 66.

37 See Aubin, “Soufis,” 6.

38 HR, 196: qorchi-ye varsaq; idem, 309: qorchiyan-e Zu'lqadr.

39 Khu, II, fol. 140b: yuzbashi-ye zu'lqadr; ibid., 140b, 143b, 176b: yuzbashi-ye ostajlu; ibid., 143b: yuzbashi-ye afshar; ibid., 145b: yuzbashi-ye qorchiyan-e qajar; ibid., 235a: yuzbashigari-ye qorchiyan-e yirmi-dor.

40 J.-L. Bacqué-Grammont, “Ottomans et Safavides au temps de Sah Isma'il et Tahmasp,” (Unpubl. thèse d'Etat, Sorbonnc, 1980), 206-7.

41 See fn. 13.

42 See fn. 16. Chronicle, quoting Alessandri, 53, fn., gives a number of 4,000 qorchi, and also 2,000 qorchi, whose annual salary was 100 to 160 ducats.

43 EM, 141. See also Minorsky, TM, 15; Röhrborn, Provinzen, 49.

44 Haneda, Mashashi, “Safavi-cho no seiritsu” (The Formation of the Safavid State, in Toyoshi Kenkyu, 37:2 (1978): 24–56 (33-37)Google Scholar.

45 A Qaramanlu amir was qorchibashi for prince Emam-qoli Mirza, son of Tahmasp (BQ, fol. 331b). Yusuf Beg Afshar, son of the qorchibashi of Shah Mohammad Khodabandeh, was qorchibashi of his son (AQ, 724). There is a group of qorchi who guarded the sanctuary of Mashhad (EM, 203) and who were under the command of a qorchibashi (BQ, fol. 339a). Other qorchi, as Röhrborn has pointed out, were stationed in the provinces under Shah Tahmasp (sec AQ, 356 and 383, with mention of the “qorchi of Tehran” and the “qorchi of Nakhchevan“).

46 EM, 1219-20. The term “qorchi of the arrow and the bow” first occurs in 941/1534-35. See BQ, fol. 308b.

47 Savory, EI 2, s.v. “Ḳūrchī.“

48 Röhrborn, “Regierung,” 35, fn. 126.

49 The existence of a mostaufi-ye qorchi is confirmed in 949/1542-43 (Khu, II, fol. 114b). A “vazir-e qorchiyan” is first mentioned in 1511-12 (Aubin, “Soufis,” 14). One vazir, employed in the time of Shah Esma'il, was condemned to dealh for alcoholism in the early 1530s. See BQ, fol. 305b; AQ, 225.

50 EM, 228. See HR, 636. Hasan Rumlu, Ahsan al-tavārīkh, ed. A. H. Nava'i (Tehran, 1347/1968-9), 636.

51 EM, 142. C.

52 See Alessandri/Chronicle, 46. On the land revenues of the qorchi, see the sequel to Alessandri/Chronicle, 53, fn.

53 Khu, I, 60a, quoted in Aubin, “Soufis,” 6. A redistribution of land with the qorchi as beneficiaries is recorded in Qazvin and Sauj-Bulag, at the beginnning of Shah ‘Abbas's reign. See AQ, 874.

54 Aubin, “Soufis.“

55 Ibid., 12.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid.

58 He is only mentioned in an Ottoman document of 1526 (Bacqué-Grammont, J-L., “Une liste d'émirs Ostaglu revoltés en 1526,” Studia Iranica 5 (1976): 96, 97, 100Google Scholar, as qorchibashi at the beginning of the reign of Tahmasp. Bacqué-Grammont, “Ottomans ct Safavides,” 449, fn. 646, identifies him as qorchi Bakr, raised to the rank of beg around 1515. Sumer, Kuruluş, 58, lists (without referring to a source) Badr Beg Ostajlu, one of the brothers of Chayan, as qorchibashi of Tahmasp.

59 Khorshah ebn Qobad, Tāīikh-e elchī-ye Nezām Shāh, Ms. British Library, Or, 153, fol.39b.

60 AQ, 203.

61 He was killed in that year, BQ, fol. 303b; Ja'fari, Tārīkh-e jehān ārā (n.p., n.d.), 286; HR, 310 (in 1931 Seddon ed., 236). He is clearly identical to Duraq.

62 TT, 586.

63 Khorshah, fol. 46a; TT, 595.

64 BQ, fol. 308a. He is identical to the last one. See Ja'fari, 288, “Mohammad Khalifeh qorchibashi Shamlu, known as Oglan Khalifeh.“

65 TT, 608. This is no doubt the Saru-Hosayn qorchibashi of BQ, fol. 319a. The identification as Shir Hasan from the Aymur clan (Ja'fari, 290, under the year 941 h.), that is, from the Zu'lqadr tribe (see Sümer, Kuruluş, 95), remains unproven.

66 AQ, in the index; Ja'fari, 296, 307; Aubin, “Soufis,” 2.

67 AQ, 587 (He was demoted the same year; in its list of high officials in function at the death of Shah Tahmasp, Khu, II, fol. 275b, has Ahmad Beg qorchibashi).

68 He was qorchibashi under Esma'il II (according to EM, 140, he was identical to Qoli Beg).

69 Appointed qorchibashi by Esma'il II, this is clearly Qoli Beg (for a variant of the name of the latter, ‘Ali-qoli, see AQ, 665, fn. 14, and 744, fn. 5).

70 This governor of Kerman was appointed qorchibashi in June, 1576 (AQ, 622), with the accession of Esma'il II. His appointment was accompanied with the order that “no one should intervene in the affairs of the qorchi, that the qorchi who has a request should tell him (Qoli Beg), and that he (Qoli Beg) should inform the ruler if a qorchi commits an error” (BQ, fol. 339a). Qoli Beg Afshar is the only qorchibashi whose date of entry into service is known. He was still in function at the death of Shah Esma'il II (AQ, 656; EM, 223), and continued to serve under Khodabandeh (AQ, 665: Qoli Soltan Afshar). He was temporarily ousted during the “regency” of Mahd-e Auliya and replaced by Eskandar Soltan Afshar (AQ, 695; MY, 16a; ed. 48). Having regained his post, he became one of those who were instrumental in the fall of the vazir Mirza Salman; he fought against the Ottomans when they invaded Azerbayjan (EM, 311), and subsequently went over to their side (AQ, 799; EM, 319-20).

71 EM, 418.

72 AQ, 799, 1018.

73 See Gabriel de Chinon, 43.

74 See Sanson, 46; EM, 885: “[Tahmasp-qoli Beg Shamlu, qorchi of the sword] had no son who could take his father's place. His post (mansab) was transferred to Qara Khan Beg, of the same clan (qaum).“

75 See fn. 95.

76 Rauzat al-ṣafaviyyeh, Ms. British Library, Or. 3388, fol. 292b: “Qorchī kch molāzem-e khāṣṣeh-ye pādshāh-e qezclbāsh bch-ān nām mināmand.“

77 Bedik, P., Chehil Sutun (Vienna, 1678), 245-46Google Scholar.

78 Abbāsnāmeh, 68.

79 “ EM, 305. The printed text has ‘Ali Beg instead of ‘Ali-qoli Beg, but the latter is clearly meant (see the translation by Savory, R.M., History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great by Eskandar Beg Monshi, 2 vols. (Boulder, Co., 1978), 1:438Google Scholar; MY, fol. 26a; ed., 61).

80 EM, 441, 942.

81 EM, 420, 1040.

82 Hasan Khan was qorchi of the arrow and the bow, EM, 400-01, 442. As for the other two persons, there is no direct mention of their being qorchi; but this can nevertheless be deduced from the context for Ganj ‘Ali Khan; see EM, 1041; and for Guneh Khan, whose father was a qorchi (EM, 1041).

83 MY, fol. 240a.

84 EM, 924-925. TM, fol. 128b, trans., 108, notes that the artillery (topchi) received their pay in hameh-sāleh at the end of the dynasty, but does not specify the kind of salary received by the qorchi.

85 TM, fols 59a-60b, trans., 72-73, commentary, 141.

86 Gemelli Carreri may have taken his figure from Tavernier.

87 Babaev, “Voennaya reforma,” 26.

88 EM, 806-07.

89 EM, 1057.

90 EM, 820.

91 MY, 88a.

92 AQ, 872; EM, 381. He was the son of qorchibashi Qoli Beg Afshar (see fn. 70). Caught engaged in a conspiracy against the all-powerful vakil of Shah ‘Abbas, Morshed-qoli Khan Ostajlu, he was arrested and demoted.

93 EM, 384. He was a brother of Eskandar Khan Afshar, governor of Kuh-e Geluyeh at the time of Shah Mohammad Khodabandch (EM, 140). Only qorchibashi for a few months, he was appointed governor of Astarabad on the occasion of the redistribution of posts following the murder of Morshed-qoli Khan.

94 EM, 402. He was a cousin of Yusuf Khan, qorchibashi (EM, 384), and exgovernor of Kerman. He was the father of Bektash Khan, whose rebellion he was unable to prevent, and gave up his post for Allah-qoli Beg.

95 EM, 439. He was a qorchi who became yuzbashi. As qorchibashi he played a remarkable role in the reconquest of the lost provinces. He was suddenly arrested and executed in early 1021/1612. On his fall from grace, see EM, 858-9.

96 Ma'sum Beg Safavi, the famous vakil of Shah Tahmasp. He was the son-inlaw of Shah ‘Abbas (“History of Rostam Khan,” Ms. British Library, Add. 7655, fol. 30a). He was first yuzbashi, then governor, before becoming qorchibashi. He was demoted at the beginning of Shah Safi's reign, in Rajab 1040/Feb. 1632, in spite of his role in putting the ruler on the throne (cf. EM, 1072 ff.; Mohammad Ma'sum Esfahani, Kholāsat al-siyār, German trans. G. Rettelbach (Munich, 1978) (hereafter Siyar), 22, 28) owing to the schemes of his sons, aimed at putting their eldest on the throne (Eskandar Beg Monshi, Zayl-e ‘alam-ārā-ye ‘Abbāsī, ed. Sohayli Khonsari, (Tehran, 1317/1938-39), 86, 90, 257-58, and Siyar, 337-38.

97 Siyar, 109-10. He, too, had blood bonds with the royal family. He was the son of a motavallī of Aradabil who was not respected by the Shaykhavand (“History of Rostam Khan,” fols 30b-31a), and collaborated with ‘Isa Khan's sons, yet subsequently betrayed them and thus gained the post of qorchibashi. Five months later, however (July 1632), he was swept away in their fall (see also Eskandar Monshi, Zayl, 98-99, 258).

98 Siyar, 125. He was, successively, qorchi, yuzbashi of the Söklen qorchi (on the Zu'lqadr clan of the Söklen, see Sümer, Kuruluş, 178-79), and morhdār-e mohr-e homāyūn (keeper of the august seal). He was also governor of Khar and Semnan, and later of Kerman. He kept the latter post until he was appointed qorchibashi at the death of Cherag Khan. See also Eskander Monshi, sequel, 99, 259, and “History of Rostam Khan,” fol. 32a. He died of natural causes in the spring of 1637.

99 Siyar, 233. He was yasavol-e sohbat and next became ishikaqasibashi, succeeding Amir Khan. Jealous of the power of the e'temād al-dauleh (grand vazir) Mirza Taqi, he belonged to the faction of amirs who attacked the vazir in his residence and killed him. Jani Khan was arrested and executed with his entire family (‘Abbāsnāmeh, 64-69). He has an interesting mention in Olcarius, 273.

100 ‘Abbāsnāmeh, 68. He had earlier been ishikaqasibashi. He retained his post until the death of ‘Abbas II.

101 See fn. 96. On his military career, see EM, 962, 999, 1000, 1027.

102 EM, 402.

103 Chronicle, 159.

104 Aubin, J., L'ambassade de Grégorio Pereira Fidalgo à la cour de Chah Soltan-Hosseyn (Lisbon, 1971), 59Google Scholar.

105 TM, fol. 11b, trans., 46.

106 Ibid., 117.

107 Röhrborn, Provinzen, 33-37.

108 Minorsky, TM, 17; Babaev, “Voennaya reforma,” 26; Savory, Safavids, 79, 81; Röhrborn, Provinzen, 33.

109 Röhrborn, Provinzen, 51.

110 EM, 1040.

111 See Savory, El 2, s.v. “Ḳūrchī“: “With the accession of ‘Abbas I, the importance of the kurchlbashi declined pari passu with that of the ḳūrchīs themselves….“

112 This follows a general non-documented remark in Savory, Safavids, 81. An example of an amir who was put at the head of a tribe with which he had no tie is found in Jonabadi, Rauzat, 292b. However, I have not found any relevant examples involving qorchi.

113 The most famous of these assemblies is the one which reshuffled all the important amirs at the beginning of Mohammad Khodabandch's reign. See EM, 223.

114 This is true especially a the end of the Safavid dynasty. See TM, fol. 11b.

115 Della Valle, 348-55; Chardin, 5:298-309.

116 Gabriel de Chinon, 42-45; Tavernier, 591-94; Thévcnot, 191; Kaempfer, Amoenitatum, 70-71, Am Hofe, 92-93, Sanson, 30-32.

117 For example, the elimination of Emam-qoli Khan, the son of Allah Verdi Khan, and of all his sons, by Shah Safi; the execution of the sepahsalar Rostam Beg by Shah ‘Abbas II at the beginning of the latter's reign, etc.

118 MY, 31b; EM, 400-1.