From the battlefield to the harem

Scholarship on Iranian women, virtually non-existent until the 1970s, has made great strides in the last few decades. Even the role of females in pre-twentieth century Iranian society has belatedly shared in this attention, and the Safavid period has been relatively well served in the process. ¹ Since the 1990s Safavid women have received more coverage than Iranian women in any period prior to 1900, reflecting the tremendous leap made by the study of the Safavid period in general. The themes and topics thus far explored by scholars are limited, though, and mostly concern the lineage and genealogy of court women in the sixteenth century as well as the careers of individual women of power and influence in the same period. ² More synthetic work is confined to a recent Persian-language book-length study which examines the royal harem, tracing its evolution until the fall of the dynasty in the early eighteenth century. ³