Notes on the Safavid State

Bibliographic Data

ID9978057
AuthorsRoger Savory, Roger M Savory (University of Islamic Studies, corresponding author)
Year1968
Volume1
Issue3
Pages96-103
Publication date1968-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIranian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-0862 • E-ISSN: 1475-4819
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00210866808701358
OpenAlexW1998676606
LanguageEN
References cited5

It is axiomatic that, if a language does not have a word for a given concept, that particular concept does not exist for the people who speak that language. We must therefore begin consideration of the evolution of the Ṣafavid state by making the negative statement that, for the Ṣafavids the concept of the state in any Western sense did not exist. As Minorsky has said: “it is a moot question how the idea of the State, if ever distinctly realized, was expressed in Ṣafavid terminology.” The term dawlat, meaning “bliss, felicity”, was sometimes used in an abstract way to denote the aura of beneficence which surrounded the just ruler and sheltered his subjects. Thus the principal officers of the Ṣafavid state were termed arkān-i dawlat. that is, the pillars which supported this regal canopy. So too, especially from the time of shāh c Abba I onwards, the vazīr was entitled i c timād al-dawla, that is, its trusty support or prop

BLISS · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Original meaning · Principal (computer security · Ruler · State (computer science · Statement (logic · Terminology · Computer Science · Families in Therapy and Culture · History · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Mathematics · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub