Harem role in the foreign policy of the Safavids

Subject Areas : Epistemological and methodological researcher of historical research

anvar khalandi ¹ , kaivan shafei ² , masumeh dorsar ³

1 - university of tehran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of History, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University Sanandaj, Iran.
3 - Islamic Azad University of khoy

Received: 2022-05-06 Accepted : 2022-08-06 Published : 2022-08-23

Keywords: Foreign policy, Women, Safavids, Harem, Eunuchs,

Abstract :

Harem had always played a social and political roles throughout the history of Iran and generally had influenced the political structure of the country. And also, in the Safavid period, the Harem interfered in the Internal and foreign policy of the country. This article wants to clear the rates of impact and interference of harem on the foreign policy of the Safavids, a problem that can be studied as one of the raised canon on the act of decision making on the foreign policy of the Safavids. The findings of our research shown that in this period the role of Harem in the foreign policy of the Safavids was in Ups and downs condition. Before Shah Abbas I the Harem had little interference in foreign policy in compared with the period before him. But because of the king's new policy on keeping and upbringing the princes in the harem, after him, a hidden center of power that was composed of women and eunuchs had been formed within the harem in which had important role in decision-making and relevant issues on the foreign policy of the Safavids.The research method in this article is based on analytical- descriptive method and the way of data collecting is Libraries method.