TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

temporary eclipse of the qizilbash power because of the death of many highest-ranking
qizilbash officers in Çaldıran that the office of vakīl, the vicegerent of the Shah, and
vazīr, the head of bureaucracy gained gravity in state affairs. 1975 Together with the
conscious withdrawal of the Shah from state affairs, the absence of powerful qizilbash
khans granted considerable freedom in political and religious affairs to Persian
bureaucrats on one hand and to newly consolidating Twelver Shi’ite clerics on the other.
Khwandāmir reports,
During the winter [following the battle of Çaldıran], when the shah was in the
capital of Azerbaijan, he decided to turn over the administration of the realm to
someone who was capable of dealing capably with the office, and after much
deliberation to office was given to Mirza Shah-Husayn Isfahani, a former deputy
of Ramish [Durmuş] Khan’s 1976 , and an order was issued for him to run the
administration independently and autonomously. All viziers and high
officeholders were to be subject to him, and no action, great or small, was to be
taken without his prior knowledge and approval. Thereafter Mirza Shah-
Husayn’s threshold became a resort for the great and powerful, and his
magnificence and grandeur increased as the shah’s favor shone upon him. 1977
Taking advantage of Ismail’s withdrawal from the day-to-day managements of
affairs, Mirza Shah Husayn enhanced his own power. 1978 Parallel to the increase of its
influence on state affairs, the character of vekālat also experienced a radical change. As
the use of ‘vakīl’ or sometimes ‘vakīl-i saltana’ instead of its original form ‘vakil-i nafs-i
nafīs-i humāyūn’ reflects, the vakīl was no more the alter ego of the shah; the vakīl’s
loyalty is now primarily to the state not to the shah. According to Savory, “this
1975 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 47.
1976 When Durmuş Han was appointed as the governor of Isfahan in 1503, he remained at the court and
delegated one of his retainers, Mirza Shah Husayn, to act as his deputy there and to look after the
administration for him. After Çaldıran, however, the rank of the former servitor preceded that of his
master. In April 1523, Mirza Shah Husayn was assassinated by a group of qizilbash, obviously because of
the perception of the latter to be in service of a Persian as despising. Thus when opportunity appeared,
they did not hesitate to kill the vākil, and as in Savor’s words, added “his name to the list of those who had
become victims of the struggle between Turk and Iranian in the early Safavid state.” See Savory, Iran
under the Safavids, p. 48.
1977 HS, p. 606.
1978 Savory, Iran under the Safavids, p. 47; “The Consolidation”, p. 111.
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