Abbas the Great

Abbas was the son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda and came to the throne at seventeen. To curb the power of the Qizilbash emirs he created ghulam troops of Caucasian origin and equipped the army with firearms. In 1590 he made peace with the Ottomans on harsh terms, then, having grown stronger, from 1603 recovered the lost lands, including Tabriz, Ganja and Irevan.

In 1598 he moved the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, where he built the Naqsh-e Jahan square, the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Ali Qapu palace. He established trade links with European states and made the silk trade a royal monopoly. Abbas died in 1629.