{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period [continued (9)]}[21st April 1991]

[Redbook9:174][19910421:1410yy]{[Islamic Art –] Visual Arts [continued –] The Late Period [continued (9)]}[21st April 1991]

19910421:1410

[continued]

‘Iran: The Safavid period (1502-1730).

It is a paradox that the rapid conquest of Iran by Shah Ismail Safavi, 1502-14, should appear as a great national revival, for the army of the religious leader was drawn almost entirely from the Turkoman tribes of Anatolia and Azarbayjan and the ruling elite remained Turkish-speaking and with strong tribal affiliations at least until the accession of Shah Abbas I in 1587. In the cultural field the rise of the new dynasty did not make for an immediate break:* both in letters and in art there was a steady development in the centres previously dominated by the Aqqoyunlu in the West and South and by the last Timurids in the east. The wholesale adoption of the Shia faith** tended towards isolation of the country from their [sic] neighbours, the Ottoman Turks to the west and the Uzbeks to the north, both strong supporters of Orthodox Sunni beliefs.’

***

*(See [next ts journal entry,] 175)

**cf European Reformation, c[irca]15thC[entury]ff

*** – ibid [Encyclopaedia of Visual Arts 3:] 458

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