Slaves of the Shah : new elites of Safavid Iran
"The Safavid dynasty represented the pinnacle of Iran's power and influence in its early modern history. The evidence of this-- the creation of a nation state, military expansion and success, economic dynamism, and the exquisite art and architecture of the period -- is well-known. What is less understood is the extent to which the Safavid success depended on an elite originating from outside Iran: the slaves of Caucasian descent and the Armenian merchants of Isfahan. This book describes how these elites, following their conversion to Islam, helped to transform Isfahan's urban, artistic and social landscape."
History
xiii, 218 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 25 cm.
9781860647215, 1860647219
50614704
"Our panel was entitled "New Elites of Isfahan: Patronage, Aesthetics and Power in Safavid Iran", Second Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies (SIS/AIIS), Washington DC, May 1998"--Page 149