Abbas I (Persian: عباس یکم, romanized: Abbâs-e Yekom; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (Persian: عباس بزرگ, romanized: Abbâs-e Bozorg), was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered one of the most important rulers in Iranian history and the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty.
Although Abbas would reign over Safavid Iran at its military, political and economic height, he came to the throne during a period of instability in the empire. Under the ineffective rule of his father, the country was riven with discord between the different factions of the Qizilbash army, who killed Abbas' mother and elder brother. Meanwhile, Iran's main enemies, its archrival, the Ottoman Empire, and the Uzbeks, exploited this political chaos to seize territory for themselves. In 1588, one of the Qizilbash leaders, Murshid Quli Khan, overthrew Shah Mohammed in a coup and placed the 16-year-old Abbas on the throne. However, Abbas soon seized power for himself.
Under his leadership, Iran developed the gholam system where thousands of Circassian, Georgian, and Armenian slave-soldiers joined the civil administration and the military, thus creating a new strata in Iranian society, this was initiated by his predecessors but significantly expanded during his rule. This allowed Abbas to eclipse the power of the Qizilbash in the civil administration, the royal house, and the military. These actions, as well as his reforms of the Iranian army, enabled him to fight the Ottomans and Uzbeks and reconquer Iran's lost provinces, including Kakheti, whose people he subjected to widescale massacres and deportations. By the end of the 1603–1618 Ottoman War, Abbas had regained possession over South Caucasus and Dagestan, as well as swaths of Western Armenia and Mesopotamia. He also took back land from the Portuguese and the Mughals and expanded Iranian rule and influence in the North Caucasus, beyond the traditional territories of Dagestan.
Abbas was a great builder and moved the empire's capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, and transformed the city into a masterpiece of Safavid architecture. In his later years, following a court intrigue involving several leading Circassians, Abbas became suspicious of his own sons and had them killed or blinded.
Shah Abbas changed the empire, which was mainly held together by the strong beliefs of several militant tribes (Qizilbash), into a unified and stable monarchy. He strengthened the state by securing its borders, improving its economy, setting up a centralised administration, and creating a regular army (Shahsavan) that reported directly to him instead of tribal leaders. His keen economic and commercial understanding brought wealth and prosperity to the nation. Internal stability and consistent regulations encouraged agricultural growth. Infrastructure projects which included roads and public buildings, were carried out on an unprecedented scale, and enabled the flourishing of crafts and industries. As a skilled diplomat with a broad outlook, Shah Abbas sought political and economic ties with Western countries, and foreign ambassadors were warmly welcomed at his court.
Abbas I claimed a fictitious lineage going back to Fatima and Ali. He was born on 27 January 1571, in Herat, and was the third son of Mohammad Khodabanda and his wife, Khayr al-Nisa Begum. His father was the first-born son of Tahmasp I, the second Shah of Safavid Iran. He chose the name Abbas for the infant. Abbas' father, Mohammad Khodabanda, was the governor of Herat, the capital city of the major province of Khorasan. Mohammad Khodanbanda was disqualified from succeeding his father because an eye disease had left him almost completely blind. The Safavid court chronicler, Iskandar Beg Monshi, describes Mohammad Khodabanda as ‘a pious, ascetic and gentle soul’. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was the daughter of Mir Abdollah II, a local ruler in the province of Mazandaran from the Mar'ashi dynasty who claimed descent from the fourth Shi'ia imam, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin. She and Mohammad Khodabanda had already two children before Abbas, Hassan and Hamza, and she gave birth to two more sons later: Abu Taleb and Tahmasp.
When Abbas was barely eighteen months old, he was separated from his father and his mother, who were transferred by Tahmasp to govern the city of Shiraz. The nominal governorship of Herat was handed over to Abbas. At first, Tahmasp intended to make Hamza the governor of Herat, but Khayr al-Nisa Begum was unwilling to be separated from Hamza, who was her favourite son. So she persuaded the shah to appoint Abbas instead. The fact that Abbas was still a baby was not considered an obstacle, as Tahmasp himself had been appointed titular governor of Khorasan at the age of two.
Shah Qoli Sultan Ustajlu, an amir from one of the Qizilbash tribes called the Ustajlu tribe, was appointed as the actual governor and as Abbas's lala (guardian). Abbas's Qizilbash guardians and their wives became substitute parents for him. He never saw his mother again and only saw his father fifteen years later. Abbas learnt the necessary skills of a soldier from his Qizilbash guardians. He played polo and went frequently on hunts. Like most Iranian shahs, he developed a passion for hunting, which was regarded as a form of military training. Abbas was educated alongside household "slaves" (ghulams), who would have become his childhood companions. Some or perhaps most of them are likely to have been Georgians, Armenians or Circassians.
On 14 May 1576, Tahmasp I died without a designated heir, which led to the realm descending into civil war. The following day, Tahmasp I's favourite son, Haydar Mirza, proclaimed himself shah with the support of the Ustajlu tribe and the powerful court Georgians. However, he was immediately overthrown and killed by the qurchis (the royal bodyguards). After his death, with the support of the majority of the Qizilbash tribes and the endorsement of Tahmasp's influential daughter, Pari Khan Khanum, Ismail Mirza, who had been imprisoned by his father for twenty years, was crowned king as Ismail II. The new shah's reign turned out to be short and murderous. The long years of imprisonment had left him suffering from paranoia, with the result that he saw enemies everywhere who had to be eliminated. First and foremost, he began murdering most of the members of Ustajlu tribe regardless of whether or not they had supported Haydar Mirza. He also executed people whose only crime was having held a position during Tahmasp's reign. The young Abbas was directly affected by his uncle's purge when a group of horsemen rushed into his guardian's house, Shah Qoli Sultan, and killed him.
Ismail then turned on his family. He ordered the execution of many of his half-brothers, cousins and nephews. He spared Mohammad Khodabanda, possibly because they were full-brothers and perhaps because Mohammad Khodabanda was already blind and disqualified as a possible claimant to the throne. In November 1577, however, Ismail dispatched Ali-Qoli Khan from the Shamlu tribe to Herat to kill the young Abbas. Ali-Qoli delayed Abbas' execution, giving as a reason that it would be "inappropriate" to execute an "innocent" descendant of a seyed on holy days (Qadr Night and Eid al-Fitr). This delay saved Abbas' life, for on 24 November 1577, Ismail II died from consuming poisoned opium, and Ali-Qoli Khan assumed the governorship of Herat and the role of guardian of Abbas.
On 11 or 13 February 1578, Mohammad Khodabanda was chosen by the Qizilbash as the new shah. The new shah appeared weak, indifferent and incompetent. In these circumstances power soon passed into other hands. Abbas' mother, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, was a strong-willed woman. She took complete charge of the administration and made all the decisions, even in military matters. The Qizilbash were not happy to see her taking power. The divisions in the Safavid court encouraged rebellions in various parts of the country and the old Qizilbash rivalries rose again, with the Ustajlu and Shamlu tribes immediately confronting each other. Mohammad Khodabanda and the queen asked Ali-Qoli Khan to bring Abbas to Qazvin, fearing that Ali-Qoli Khan was conspiring to enthrone Abbas, but the Qizilbash amirs of Khorasan argued that with the threat of the Uzbeks of Bukhara raiding near Herat, the presence of a prince in the city was necessary.