Shah Abbas I

Shah Abbas I (1571-1629), known as Abbas the Great, was Shah of Safavid Persia from 1588 to 1629, generally regarded as the dynasty's most successful ruler. He reformed the Safavid military, reducing reliance on tribal levies in favor of a professional standing army loyal directly to the crown, which he used to recover territory lost to the Ottoman Empire and to expel Portuguese forces from key positions in the Persian Gulf. He moved the Safavid capital to Isfahan, which he transformed through an ambitious building program of mosques, palaces and public squares into one of the great cities of the early modern world. His reign is remembered as a high point of Safavid political and military power as well as a golden age of Persian art, architecture and international trade.