The Safavid administration in I raq (1508-1534) A historical study

Abstract

The study of the Safavid administration in Iraq during the first Safavid era (1508 - 1534) examined the political, administrative and economic situation of Iraq during the period of the first Safavid control over Iraq. Before this occupation, Iraq had been suffering from foreign control since the fall of Baghdad in 1258 AD by the Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu, and the powers continued. Foreign powers controlled Iraq until the year 1508 AD, when the Safavid state extended its control over Iraq. The Safavid occupation of Iraq had many motives, including political and economic, the most important of which was religious, as the Safavid state needed to hide a kind of religious legitimacy over its rule through its control of the holy cities in Iraq

The Safavid control was characterized by a sectarian religious      character because it adopted a policy of spreading the Shiite doctrine and adopted a political ideology to confront its political opponents, especially the Ottomans, the Mamluks and other Islamic countries and Mamluks. From a political standpoint, Iraq witnessed many political events during the Safavid control, including the Safavids eliminating all forces inside Iraq and working to subjugate them. To control them, whether by peaceful or military means. Administratively, Iraq remained in the administrative system that it had during the control of the forces that preceded the Safavids. The Safavids did not have an administrative system to manage the areas under their control as a result of the recent establishment of the state and its interest in the military and political aspects. Therefore, they maintained the administrative organization that prevailed before their control over Iraq .                                                                             

There is a great literature on the Safavid state imposing taxes on all economic and agricultural activities and on the lands of the Bhutaniyah and the military in Iraq and elsewhere. What distinguished the control of the Safavids in Iraq was its interest in the aspect and its preservation of the permanent shrines of the Prophet’s family, peace be upon them, in the cities of Al-Kadhimiyah, Karbala, and Najaf. The control of the Safavids in Iraq was not Iraq arose due to the conflict with the Ottomans, so the period (1527 - 1530) witnessed its engine, Zulfiqar, which was declared by many wealthy Ottomans after the Safavid state built on the work of the Ottoman state with a dynamic campaign that lasted. Sultan Suleiman al-Shajara in 1534 annexed Iraq to its wealth and ended the control of .the first Safavid over Iraq