🌹𝑴𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒍-𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𐂂

Concerning the private land-owners we know very little. Some of them lived in the capital and were admitted to the court. The *Alam-drd says, 122: “There was at the Court another category of noblemen belonging to the Tajik class; some of them tried to serve {rdh 4 khidmat ddshtand) and, although they did not attain any important posts, they acted as advisers at the royal assemblies and made themselves conspicuous by participating (in discussions). “ The author quotes the names of a say5dd of Qum who was an important land-owner [sahib amldk va raqahdt), and of another gentleman of Kirman ; both were spoken of as candidates to the post of Grand Vazir but never obtained it.^
On the whole the picture of the society under Tahmasp is a direct continuation and development of the situation obtaining in Persia under Shah Isma'il or even under his Turcoman predecessors.^
A very difierent situation was created by the far-reaching reforms of Shah 'Abbas I. Chardin, V, 224-5, very appropriately says that, in order to unify the kingdom which was split up among various vassals, Shah 'Abbas had to conquer it ''as if it were a foreign land,“ He used this “right of conquest" to crush the old ^ troops and the ancient families of the country, and, having done so, subdued the clergy and even his “people" by mixing the latter with other nations and creeds.^ He concludes, p. 290: “il n'y a point de noblesse en Perse, non plus que dans tout rOrient, et Ton n'y porte de respect qu'aux charges, aux dignites, au merite extraordinaire, et particuli^ement aux richesses." With still more cruel methods, the work of levelling the aristocracy was continued by Shah Safi, that Persian Ivan-theTerrible.