Mediating between the Royal Court and the Periphery: The Zangana Family’s Brokerage in Safavid Iran (1501–1722)

Abstract

To control the unruly Kurdish tribal confederates on the western frontier of their kingdom, successive Safavid shahs of Iran tried strengthening their personal ties with the Kurdish emirs by various measures, such as educating young members of the Kurdish ruling families in the Safavid court and recruiting some into their royal guard. The formation and maintenance of such close lord–vassal relationships definitely necessitated various levels of negotiations and mediations. This paper highlights the importance of intermediaries in the political integration of peripheral areas, focusing on the brokering role of the Zangana family, an influential elite family of Kurdish origin, who mediated between the royal court and the Ardalan emirate, one of the largest Kurdish tribal confederations that accepted Safavid rule.