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| 1642–66 |
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| ABBAS II. The last fully competent period of rule by a Safavid shah. Shah Abbas II took an active role in government matters. He increased the central authority of the state by increasing crown lands and often intervened in provincial affairs on the side of the peasants, but with peace on the frontiers the army declined in size and quality. He clung to the notion that the Safavid ruler was sacred and infallible, and disputed openly with members of the Shi’ite religious establishment who had begun to articulate the idea that in the absence of the hidden twelfth imam, true temporal authority rightly belonged to the mujtahid, who merited emulation by the faithful. | 1 |
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| 1648 |
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| Capture of the Afghan city of Qandahar from the Mughals, who had seized it some ten years earlier. From this time, the city remained in the Iranian sphere. | 2 |
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| c. 1662 |
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| Death of Baba'i ben Lutf, a Jewish poet and historian who wrote the Kitab-i anusi (The Book of a Forced Convert). In 5,300 verses written in the Persian language, using Hebrew script, he detailed the status of Iranian Jews and, in particular, their persecution and forced conversion under Shah Abbas II in 1656–62. He and other Jews of Kashan outwardly practiced Islam while secretly maintaining their Jewish faith. This unique work also provides details about the socioeconomic status and organizations of the Jews of Isfahan and Kashan. | 3 |
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| 1664 |
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| Kashif al-Din, a pharmacologist, dedicated a treatise on coffee (qahva) and tea (chay) to Shah Abbas II. During the 17th century many poems and essays were devoted to the merits and morality of drinking coffee. Coffee reached Iran during the 16th century. It was probably brought by pilgrims and merchants returning from Arabia, where the beverage had been consumed since the 15th century. Experiments on the effects of coffee were performed by many physicians in Iran who found it good for the stomach and for the relief of headaches. Harmful effects such as palpitations, melancholy, and hemorrhoids were also noted. Within a few years coffeehouses appeared throughout Iran as places where men gathered to drink coffee, listen to music, and play chess. Artists, poets, and government officials used them as meeting places. | 4 |
| It is not known exactly when tea was first brought to Iran, but it may have been promoted by the Mongols in the 13th century. Coffee remained more popular than tea in Iran until the first half of the 19th century. | 5 |
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| 1666–94 |
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| SHAH SULEYMAN (SAFI II). Renamed because the first year and a half of his reign was so disastrous, Shah Suleyman was neither an able nor a vigorous ruler. Shortly after his accession, food prices soared and famine and disease spread throughout the country. Although pressing problems faced the Safavid shah, he increasingly retreated into the harem and set up a separate council of eunuchs. The shah's indifference left his grand vezir to cope with affairs of state. Shah Suleyman did, however, support the work of the three greatest painters in late-17th-century Iran. | 6 |
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| c. 1682 |
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| The English East India Company established trade with Mashhad and Kirman for the purchase of Iranian imitations of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Shah Abbas I had encouraged the initial production of this ware. | 7 |
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| 1694 |
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| Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1699), the most influential member of the Shi’ite religious establishment, was appointed to the new office of mulla bashi (head mulla). Majlisi wrote the Shi’ite compendium Bihar al-anwar (The Seas of Light), an encyclopedic work dedicated to the preservation of the prophet Muhammad's words and deeds. He devoted himself to the propagation of a legalistic form of Shi’ism and to the eradication of Sufism and Sunni Islam in Iran. Under his guidance specifically Shi’ite popular rituals, such as mourning for the martyred third Shi’ite imam Husayn (d. 680), were encouraged, as were pilgrimages to the tombs of holy Shi’ite personages. Majlisi's policies also included the persecution of non-Muslims in Iran, including Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians. Unchecked by the Safavid regime, Majlisi and the Shi’ite clergy emerged with increased strength and independence from the ruling government in the 17th and 18th centuries. | 8 |
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| 1694–1722 |
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| SHAH SULTAN HUSAYN. The reign of Shah Sultan Husayn effectively ended Safavid rule in Iran. Indifferent to affairs of state, Shah Sultan Husayn was the most pious of the Safavids and came under the influence of the Shi’ite religious establishment. At their insistence, he issued decrees forbidding the consumption of alcohol and banning Sufism in Isfahan. | 9 |
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| 1708, Sept. 7 |
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| Treaty with France, granting trading privileges to French merchants as well as protection to the French religious missions in Iran. Trade between the two countries, which had been very limited, did not flourish. | 10 |
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| 1709 |
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| Mir Vays, leader of the Ghilzay Afghans, seized Qandahar. He ruled the area until 1715, followed by his son Mahmud, who built a powerful base from which he invaded Iran and overthrew the Safavids in 1722. | 11 |
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| 1722 |
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| THE AFGHAN INVASION. An Afghan army led by Mahmud, a leader of the Ghilzay Afghans, defeated the Safavid army at Gulnabad near Isfahan. In Oct. 1722 Isfahan fell after a siege of six months. Sultan Husayn surrendered and abdicated in favor of Mahmud, declaring him his successor as shah of Iran. Safavid rule in Iran collapsed, but the Afghans succeeded in capturing only part of the country (central and southern Iran, the province of Sistan, and western Khurasan), and their takeover lasted only until 1730. | 12 |
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| 1722–23 |
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| Russian and Ottoman incursions. Taking advantage of the overthrow of the Safavids, the Russians seized territories around the Caspian Sea while the Ottomans captured parts of western Iran as far as Hamadan. In June 1724 the two powers agreed on a peaceful partitioning of Iran's northwestern provinces. | 13 |
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