Analysis of the political motives of Ismaeil Mirza's migration to Guilan

Abstract

One of the most significant events of the history of Safavid era is Esmaeil Mirza’s immigration to Guilan which has been reported differently in the historic sources of this dynasty. Lahiji’s report , among all the other sources of safavid period , has got a special importance. Since he observed Esmaeil Mirza’s social, political and intellectual developments in person, he had the opportunity to write the first report about him in his history book. This report is rather brief , eventough it is so significant. There are other sources which refer to some aspects of Esmaeil Mirza’s presence in Guilan. Such writers had an access to some documents and compiled this part of Esmaeil Mirza’s life based on these documents, although they didn’t witness his presence in Lahijan. The most important question of the present research paper is: How have Safavid sources regarded Esmaeil Mirza’s immigration to Guilan? Considering the above mentioned question, one can propose the theory that sources of this era, at first under the impact of Lahiji’s report, and then under the influence of fictional narratives as well as verbal quotations reported this historic event. In the current research, the researcher is trying to present the most authentic report about Esmaeil Mirza’s presence in Lahijan through a comparative assessment of five major sources of the safavid peroid.

Keywords

• esmaeil mirza
• safavid
• guilan
• lahijan