Iran’s history from the 1500s to 1800s began to involve European powers, giving background for the current state of affairs.
In Iran’s history, part 2, we will learn about the Safavid Dynasty, Persia's switch from Sunni to Shi’a, Shah Abbas the Great, trade with Britain’s East India Company, and oil.
Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with 2.6 billion followers:
50% Catholic,
36% Protestant and
14% Orthodox and other.
Islam is the second largest religion with 1.6 billion:
85% Sunni,
14% Shi'a and
1% Ibadi and other.
Persia’s Safavid Dynasty, under Ismail I, switched from Sunni Islam to Shi’a Islam in In 1502.
Shi’a, or Shi-at Ali, means “Party of Ali” and can be traced back to Mohammed’s son-in-law Ali.
Sunni comes from the word “sunna” which means “the way.”
Sunni trace back to one of Mohammed’s many father-in-laws, Abu Bakr, who fought alongside Mohammed in his battles and raids, and therefore knew “the way.”
Division between Sunni and Shi’a became a blood feud after Sunni warriors brutally killed Ali’s son, Husayn, at the Battle of Karbala, 680 AD.
Shi’a Persians fought Sunni Turks in many wars, beginning in 1514 with the Battle of Calderon, where Ottoman mobile artillery mowed down Persian cavalry.
Methodist founder John Wesley wrote in The Doctrine of Original Sin (published 1757, page 46-47; 1817, page 35; Works, 1841, ix. 205):
“Mahometans will butcher each other by thousands … Why? …
Turks and Persians … differ in the manner of dressing their head. The Ottoman vehemently maintains … a Mussulman should wear a round turban … whereas the Persian … wear it picked ...
So, for this wonderful reason … they beat out each other’s brains from generation to generation.”
Then the King of France, Francis the First, made an alliance in 1536 with the Sunni Turkish Sultan, Sulieman the Magnificent, against their common enemy -- Spain.
In response, Spain’s Charles the Fifth proposed an alliance with Persia’s Shi’a Shah Ismail the First, and his son, Tahmasp, against their common enemy of the Turks.
Persia’s Shi’a Safavid Dynasty was weakened by court betrayals, harem intrigues, poisoning, and murders, which invited Turkish aggression.
Dethroning his father, Abbas the Great took the throne in 1587 to be one of Persia’s most powerful Shi’a Muslim rulers.
Abbas met English merchant brothers, Anthony and Robert Sherley, who had traveled south from Moscow in 1598.
The Sherleys initiated an Anglo–Persian alliance, which opened doors for the British East India Company to trade with Persia, especially for silk, through the Port of Jask in the Persian Gulf.
Robert Sherley married a Christianize Circassian woman from Abbas' court, who took the name Lady Teresa Sampsonia, and is considered as the first Persian to visit England.
England was so fascinated with Persia that Shakespeare mentioned the Shah in his play Twelfth Night, 1601–1602.
Abbas sent Persia’s first diplomatic mission to Europe in 1599, traveling through Moscow, Norway, Germany, to Rome, where they met Pope Clement the Eighth, finally reaching Spain in 1602.
A Persian who accompanied Anthony Sherley was Uluch Beg, who in Spain converted to Catholicism, being called Don Juan of Persia.
Abbas the Great wanted Spain’s help in fighting Turks, and in exchange was willing to grant Spain trading rights and permission for Christianity in Persia.
Negotiations collapsed when Spain’s Philip the Third, demanded Persia cut off trade with the British East India Company and force the 400,000 Armenian Christians living in Persia to convert to Catholicism.
The Sherleys gave Abbas military advice, even training his captured “ghulam" slave soldiers from Armenia, Georgia, Circassia, and the Caucasus.
In 1602, Abbas captured the Island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, which Portugal had controlled since 1521.
Abbas defeated Uzbek Turks in 1598, Ottoman Turks, 1605-1623, and with the help of British East India Company ships captured the Portuguese Island of Hormuz in 1622.
Abbas defeated Sunni Muslim Mughals of India, 1622–1623.
When Abbas suspected his sons were conspiring against him, he had them blinded, imprisoned and killed.
When the Orthodox Christian Kingdom of Kakheti in Georgia appealed to the Ottoman Empire for help, Abbas killed or deported hundreds of thousands, nearly two-thirds of their population.
He tortured the Georgian queen Ketevan to death for not renouncing Christianity.
Abbas the Great chose as his successor his grandson, Safi, who lost the Ottoman–Persian War of 1623-1639.
Safi's excessive drinking and early death in 1642, left 9-year-old Shah Abbas the Second in charge.
At age 16, Abbas the Second captured Kandahar, Afghanistan, from India's Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal.
Abbas the Second defeated Tsar Alexis of Russia in the Russo–Persian War of 1651–1653, the first of several wars with Russia.
In the early 1600s, the Dutch East India Company began taking control of Indonesia, which was Sunni Muslim.
Whenever an imam began preaching sedition or violence, Dutch authorities would arrest and banish them.
As a result, over the next three centuries of Dutch rule, Indonesia developed a more moderate version of Islam.
In 1652, the Dutch East India Company sent ambassador Joan Cuneaus to Persia. He was received by Abbas the Second, who let him to drink from his wine cup.
In 1666, the year of the Great Fire in London, Shah Abbas the Second died and was succeeded by 18-year-old Suleiman, who became preoccupied with his harem.
As a result, he missed the opportunity of making alliances with European powers after the Turks lost the Battle of Vienna, September 11, 1683, to Polish King Jan Sobieski, who uttered his famous line "Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit" ("We came, we saw, God conquered")
The Safavid Dynasty was crippled by internal strife and lost regions of Caspia and Caucasus in another war with Russia, led by Peter the Great in 1723.
The weakened Persian throne was seized by Shah Nadar, also known as Kouli Khan, who founded the Afsharid Dynasty in 1736.
Military historians described Nadar as the “Napoleon of Persia” for aggressively defeating both Ottomans and Mughals.
He killed hundreds of Chaldean Christian monks who refused to convert.
A cruel leader, Nadar’s nicknamed was “the eye-extractor” for his unusual punishment, even on his son.
Nadar sacked Delhi, India, in 1739, killing tens of thousands, which weakened Mughal India.
Yale President Ezra Stiles wrote May 8, 1783: "Kouli Khan, who dethroned his prince, and plundered India of two hundred million sterling.”
The weakened Mughal Dynasty lost battles to the British East India Company in 1757.
Shah Nadar was assassinated in 1747.
Persia fragmented into the Qajar Dynasty and the Zand Dynasty, which let the British East India Company open a trading post.
The Qajar Dynasty consolidated power in 1796 and ruled for 130 years.
In the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, the Qajar Dynasty briefly allied with France against Russia in 1807.
After Napoleon lost his 1812 Russia campaign, the Qajar gave back to Russia disputed border lands with the Treaty of Gulistan, 1813, then Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Treaty of Turkmenchay, 1828.
In the 1800s, Britain and Russia fought over influence in Persia, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Tibet.
Rudyard Kipling, famous for his Jungle Book, referred to this contest in his book, Kim, calling it The Great Game.
Britain won against Persia’s Qajar Dynasty in 1857, forcing it to withdraw from Afghanistan.
After India's Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, Queen Victoria’s British Crown took direct control of India in 1858, which had previously been ruled by the British East India Company.
In 1859, oil was discovered in Pennsylvania, then Oklahoma, 1897, then Persia in 1908.
Winston Churchill transitioned the British Navy from coal to oil, but since little oil was in England, he helped form the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, better known as BP, or British Petroleum.
Germany also industrialized prior to World War One, but it had little oil, so in 1903, Germany agreed with Turkey to trade weapons for oil.
Half of World War I was fought in the Middle East over oil.
In part 3 of Iran's history, we will learn about World War One in the Middle East, Reza Shah’s secular government, Britain’s coup to replace him, Mossadegh confiscating British oil, and pro-American Reza Pahlavi being overthrown by Khomeini’s Islamist revolution.
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