Today the commonest tale told in Iran about Shah Abbas concerns the 999 caravanserais he is supposed to have constructed. Jonas Hanway, in his Historical account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, tells lots more. My two favourites stories are about the shrewdness of Shah Abbas.
The first is about Abbas’ supposed “method taken . . to make a difference in opinion instrumental to the peace and security of his government”:
“This prince, finding in his people a great propensity to rebellion, gave Ali two names, and then artfully insinuated that one ought to be revered in preference to the other; thus he promoted such a dissension among them as brought both parties the more easily to make him umpire, and submit to his government.”
Even more fun than this, though, is a story about Abbas’ relations with the Turks:
“It is amazing to consider in how many instances the Persians demonstrate the highest superstition . . they think the meteors that resemble falling stars . . are the blows of angels on the heads of the devils, who would pry into the secrets of paradise. Cats are held in great esteem, but dogs abominated . . The Turks are not much behind them in this folly. In the reign of Shah Abbas, the Grand Signior [Sultan] sent to that prince [Abbas] to desire, that as none but their prophet and his children had been dressed in green, none of his subjects might be permitted to wear that colour, especially in stocking. To this Shah Abbas, who was a man of understanding, made answer, that if the Grand Signior would prevent the dogs pissing on the grass in Turkey, he would comply with the request.”
This month, the BIPS journal IRAN includes my official academic write-up of Shah Abbas’ 1000km walk to Mashhad.
It’s great to see it in print – I’m especially pleased to see all the hand-drawn maps looking so beautiful (and want to say an especial thanks to my lovely mum for helping me with these. Thank you!).
Since it’s 25 pages, and you’ve anyway already seen lots of snippets here in the blog, or on the website, I’m not going to try to summarise it. Of course, now it’s published, I’m busy finding things that might have been better. Like the table comparing different measures of the distance between Ahuan and Qusha: I’ve just found Jonas Hanway’s Historical account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea – and I would have included his measure (24 miles) if I’d found it sooner.
Since I didn’t, and so can’t, I thought the least I could do was share some of Hanway’s amusing tales about Shah Abbas – in this week’s blog.