Solṭān Moḥammad Shah

The third son of Moḥammad Khodābanda, ʿAbbās came to the throne in October 1588, at a critical moment in the fortunes of the Safavid dynasty. The weak rule of his semiblind father had allowed usurpation by the amīrs, or chiefs, of the Turkmen tribes, who had brought the Safavid…