This article studies Qāsim Beg Ḥayātī Tabrīzī's unpublished account of Ṣafavid history, which has long been considered lost. Ḥayātī's account-dedicated, in 961/1554, to Shah Ṭahmāsp's sister, Princess Mihīn Begum (d. 969/1562)-spans the period between the formative years of the Ṣafaviyya Sufi order under Ṣafī al-Dīn Isḥāq Ardabīlī (d. 735/1334) and the early years of the reign of Shah Ismāʿīl (907-30/1501-24). Emphasis is given to the way in which it fills in the gaps of our knowledge insofar as the pre-dynastic and early dynastic phases of Ṣafavid history as well as the administrative history of the Ṣafavid shrine in Ardabīl are concerned. 3. J. Aubin, "Chroniques persanes et relations italiennes: Notes sur les sources narratives du règne de Šâh

This article looks at the treatment of the Zoroastrians by central and provincial authorities in early modern Yazd, Kirman and Isfahan, emphasizing the institutional weaknesses of the central or khāṣṣa protection they were supposed to benefit from under the Safavids (907–1135/1501–1722). It is argued that the maltreatment the Zoroastrians endured under the Safavids had little to do with religious bigotry. Rather, it arose from rivalries between the central and the provincial services of the Safavid bureaucracy, putting Zoroastrians in Yazd, Kirman, Sistan and Isfahan at risk of over-taxation, extortion, forced labour and religious persecution. The argument developed in this article pivots on the material interest of the central and the provincial agents of the Safavid bureaucracy in the revenue and labour potentials of the Zoroastrians, and the way in which the conflict of interest between these two sectors led to such acts of persecution as over-taxation, forced labour, extortion and violence.

Muslim-Christian Polemics in Safavid Iran. By Alberto Tiburcio. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. Pp. viii + 223. $125.

Öz Bu çalışma Mirza Mahdum Şerifi'nin (1540-87) Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'ndaki hayatı ve kariyerini incelemektedir. Mirza Mahdum Safavilerde yüksek rütbeli bir Şii bürokrattı, ancak Osmanlılara sığındıktan sonra Sünni olup Diyarbekir, Bilad-ı Şam ve Haremeyn'de geçen bir kadılık kariyerine başladı. Bu makalede onun ilmiyeye alınışı ve ilmiye rütbelerinde ilerleyişi vurgulanmaktadır. İlmiye bir yandan (dışarıdan gelenlere) açık bir yandan da ideolojik ve kurumsal sınırların olduğu bir ortam olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Mirza Mahdum'un yatay seyreden ilmiye kariyerini 16. yüzyıl Osmanlı bürokrasisinde istihdam edilen İranlıların kariyerlerinde yükselmelerinin nüans ve incelikleri anlamaya yarayan bir pencere olarak kullanmaktayım.

The assignment of land as tiyūl to early Safavid military and bureaucratic elites was conditional on their emoluments being subjected to direct taxation on annual basis. Between 914 and 918/1508 and 1512, the money-based disposal of tiyūl land assignments boosted Shah Ismā'īl's control over fiscal resources in Iran. In the province of Diyarbakir, however, the Safavid practice of tiyūl expedited dynastic transition, enabling the new regime to uproot the regional allies and partners of the Aqquyunlu. A glimpse at monetisation of tiyūl brings necessary torch into the dynamics of bureaucratic centralisation and its political implications in this early phase of territorial expansion and political absolutism in the Safavid history. The principal primary source this study explores is an unpublished fiscal statement, kept as document E. 1071 at the Topkapı Palace Museum Archives in Istanbul, that details the taxes paid to central treasury by early Safavid tiyūl-holders in Iran and eastern Anatolia over the course of four fiscal years (914 -918/1508 -1512).