Abbas I (Abbas the Great) (1571–1629) shah
of Persia
Abbas the Great (ruled 1587–1629), known for his
military exploits in the Persian Gulf and in what is now
modern-day Iraq, was the grandson of Shah Tahmasp
and the son of Shah Mohammed Mirza Khudabanda
(d. 1595). Abbas may have been named after Abbas (d.
653), the uncle of Mohammed and of Caliph Ali. Abbas
I was named as ruler of Khurasan (now modern Kho-
rasan, Iran) in 1581, and six years later, he succeeded his
father as shah when Mohammed abdicated.
As he took the throne of Persia (now Iran), Abbas’s
reign was challenged by a revolt in Persia and the threat
of an invasion by forces of the Ottoman Empire (cen-
tered in what is now modern Turkey). Abbas paid trib-
ute to the Ottomans to forge a peace and end the threat
of incursion; he was then given a free hand to turn on
the rebellious forces within his country and defeat them.
A military campaign against rebelling Uzbeks (now part
of Uzbekistan) in Khurasan was also successful. In 1598,
after a lengthy and protracted war, he ended the threat
from the Uzbeks when his forces took control of the city
of Moshad (now one of Iran’s major cities). As the first
of the Safavid leaders, Abbas helped establish modern
Persia—later renamed Iran—as a single state, and his
advocacy of a single language—in this case, Farsi—uni-
fied that nation.
With internal dissent and rebellion crushed, Abbas
turned back to the potential external enemy: the Otto-
man Empire. He opened his attack in 1601, with his
forces taking the city of Tabriz (now the capital of East
Azerbaijan province, Iran) in 1604. The mountainous
area in what is now known as the Caucasus also fell to
Abbas’s forces, most notably Georgia and Shirvan. Al-
though Abbas’s military exploits in this area were largely
successful, Ottoman resistance caused the conflict to last
until the end of his reign.
In 1606, Abbas fought off a major offensive by
the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Ahmed II, includ-
ing a significant clash at Sis, where 20,000 Turks were
killed in a single battle. Although Turkey sued for peace,
they continued to fight Abbas and his empire in various
clashes. However, for many years there was relative peace
in his kingdom. It was not until 1616 that Abbas again
moved against the Turks, fighting a two-year war that
culminated in a major victory in 1618. In 1622, Abbas’s
army marched on the island of Hormuz, in the Strait of
Hormuz, and, with the assistance of the English East
India Company, threw out the Portuguese merchants
who controlled that island’s trade. Abbas then moved
the center of trading activity to the city of Gombroon
(now in Iran), renamed it Bandar Abbas, and established
a foothold in the major markets of the Persian Gulf. In
1623, Abbas’s forces took Baghdad, now in modern