Mohammed Khodabanda

Not to be confused with Mohammed Khodabanda (Ilkhanid dynasty).

Mohammed Khodābande or Khudābanda, also known as Mohammed Shah or Sultan Mohammed(Persian: شاه محمد خدابنده) (born 1532; died 1595/6; reigned 1578–1587), was the fourth Safavid Shah of Iran. He was the son of Shah Tahmasp I by a Turcoman mother, Sultanum Bekum Mawsillu.^[1] When his father died in 1576 Mohammed was passed over in favour of his younger brother Ismail II because his poor eyesight meant he was nearly blind. On Ismail's death, the Qizilbash army factions chose Mohammed as the next shah for want of a better candidate. Mohammed was gentle but weak-willed and his reign was marked by fighting among court factions and the Qizilbash. This allowed Iran's main enemy, the Ottoman Empire, to seize Iranian territory, including the major city of Tabriz. Mohammed was finally overthrown in a coup and replaced by his son Shah Abbas I.

Power struggles at court and among the Qizilbash

Mohammed succeeded to the throne of Persia on the death of his younger brother Ismail II. Ismail had attempted to kill or blind all the royal Safavid princes but he was assassinated before the order to execute Mohammed and four of his young sons could be carried out. Mohammed's eyesight was so poor he was nearly blind but the Qizilbash army factions who controlled the succession to the throne had no other viable candidate to turn to and they proclaimed him shah at Qazvin on 11 February 1578.^[2][3]

Mohammed was mild-tempered compared to his brother, but he was also weak-willed. His sister, Pari Khan Khanum, who had conspired with the Qizilbash to assassinate Ismail, believed she would easily be able to dominate him. However, when she fell out with the Grand Vizier Mirza Salman, he left Qazvin for Shiraz, where the shah and his ruthless and ambitious wife Khayr al-Nisa Begum (known by the title Mahd-i Ulya) were staying and turned them against Pari Khan Khanum. On their return to Qazvin they had her strangled.^[4][5]

Mahd-i Ulya now took personal control of Iran and began to promote the career of her elder son, Hamza Mirza (she cared little for her younger son Abbas Mirza). But she antagonised the Qizilbash who eventually asked the shah to remove her from power. When she refused to concede to their demands, a group of Qizilbash conspirators burst into the harem and strangled her on 26 July 1579.^[6][7] The Qizilbash factions increasingly came to dominate Iran. In 1583 they forced the shah to hand over his vizier, Mirza Salman, for execution. The young Hamza Mirza took over the reins of state but on 6 December 1586 he too was murdered in mysterious circumstances.^[8]

Ottoman invasions

Foreign powers took advantage of the factional discord in Iran court to seize territory for themselves. Uzbek bands attempted to invade north-east Iran before being repulsed by the governor of Mashhad. The most important event of Mohammed’s reign was the war with the Ottomans. In 1578, the Ottoman sultan Murad III began a war with Safavid Iran which was to last until 1590. In the first attack, the sultan's vizier Lala Mustafa Pasha invaded Georgia and Shirvan. Another Ottoman army under the leadership of Osman Pasha and Ferhat Pasha crossed into Iran and captured Tabriz in 1585. Sultan Mohammed sent Hamza Mirza to fight the Ottomans but the young prince was murdered during this campaign and the city remained in Ottoman hands for 20 years.^[9][10]

End of reign

When the Uzbeks launched a large-scale invasion of Khorasan, the leader of the Ustalju Qizilbash faction in the province, Murshid Quli Khan, decided the time was right to overthrow the shah and replace him with Mohammed's son Abbas Mirza, who was Murshid's ward. Murshid and Abbas rode to Qazvin where the prince was proclaimed the new ruler of Iran in October 1587. Mohammed made no attempt to challenge the coup and accepted his dethronement. He lived in the capital for a time but was then apparently banished to the prison of Alamut, although Iskandar Beg Munshi records him dying in Qazvin some time between 21 July 1595 and 10 July 1596.^[11][12]

Mohammed was also a poet who wrote verse under the pen name "Fahmi".^[3]

References

1. ^ Andrew J. Newman, Safavid Iran, I.B.Tauris, 2004, p.42
2. ^ Cambridge History of Iran Volume 6, p.253
3. ^ ^{a b} Savory p.70
4. ^ Savory pp.70-71
5. ^ Cambridge History p.254
6. ^ Savory pp.71-73
7. ^ Cambridge History of Iran p.254
8. ^ Savory pp.73-74
9. ^ Cambridge History of Iran p.257, p.260
10. ^ Savory p.74
11. ^ Savory p.75
12. ^ Cambridge History of Iran pp.261-2

Sources

• Roger Savory Iran Under the Safavids (Cambridge University Press)

See also

• History of Iran
• Safavid dynasty

Mohammed Khodabanda Safavid Dynasty
Preceded by Isma'il II	Shah of Iran 1578–1587	Succeeded by Abbas I

Persondata
Name
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1532
Place of birth
Date of death	1596
Place of death