“The Gifts Worthy of his Name”: Material Dimensions of Safavid-Mughal Diplomatic Exchanges
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Abstract
Gift-giving was generally an accepted practice in early modern diplomatic contexts. The gift exchange was an integral and essential part of both Safavid and Mughal diplomacy. Despite the occasional outbreak of hostilities, Mughal-Safavid relations were mostly marked by concord and appreciation of each other’s vital interests. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, countless gifts were exchanged between the Safavid and Mughal rulers. The role of gifts in Safavid-Mughal diplomatic encounters is particularly apparent from the numerous references in the local chronicles and reactions of the rulers to the gifts offered to them. The Safavids and Mughals viewed the exchange of diplomatic gifts as a matter of political significance. They used gifts to influence diplomatic relations with each other. Gifts accompanied the embassies that were dispatched for various purposes, including, but not limited to congratulating on ascension, offering condolences, informing the counterpart on victories, delivering “letter of victories” or taking part in circumcision festivals. The display of cultural affinity and close bonds between these two polities was manifested and materialized in the carefully selected gifts. The gift-giving has always been a prominent topic in the field of anthropology since the publication of sociologist Marcel Mauss’s Essay on the Gift in 1925. Although the existing historiography notes the essential role of gift-giving in the establishment of diplomatic and economic relations, little has been done to explore the history of Safavid-Mughal relations from the perspective of material culture. Safavid-Mughal interrelations have mainly been analysed through the lens of political relations, and correspondingly, the gift exchanges have generally been discussed as part of the larger topic of diplomatic relations between the two powers. Drawing on contemporary Safavid and Mughal chronicles, as well as European trave-logues, this paper attempts to explore how gift exchanges functioned within Mughal-Safavid diplomatic relations.
How to Cite
Guliyev, A. (2025). “The Gifts Worthy of his Name”: Material Dimensions of Safavid-Mughal Diplomatic Exchanges. The Oriental Studies, (96), 105–130. https://doi.org/10.15407/skhodoznavstvo2025.96.105
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Keywords
Safavids, Mughal Empire, Safavid-Mughal relations, early modern diplomacy, diplomatic gifts, gift-giving, 16–17th centuries
References
Unpublished primary sources
BL = British Library (London).
I.O.Islamic 379 – Tahmāsnāma.
Or. 3482 – Nusha-yi jamiayi murasalat- iulu’ul-albab by Abul Qasim Ev-oglu.
Ms. Add. 7690.
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Ackerman Ph. (1934), “A Biography of Ghiyath the Weaver”, Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 9–13.
Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl-i-ʻAllami (1949), translated by H. S. Jarrett, Vol. 2, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Aʿlam H. (2001), “Golāb”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 11, Fasc. 1, pp. 58–9, available at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/golab (accessed 27 November 2024).
Anderson C. (2016), “Material Mediators: Johan Maurits, Textiles, and the Art of Diplomatic Exchange”, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 63–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700658-12342489
Asgarpanah J. (2012), “Phytopharmacology and Medicinal Properties of Salix Aegyptiaca L.”, African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 11, No. 28, pp. 7145–50.
Bernier F. (1916), Travels in the Mogul Empire: A. D. 1656–1668, translated by A. Constable, Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London.
Bruyn C. de. (1737), Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and Part of the East-Indies: Containing, an Accurate Description of Whatever is Most Remarkable in Those Countries, Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, S. Birt, et al., London.
Casale S. A. (2023), Gifts in the Age of Empire: Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639, University of Chicago Press, London and Chicago, IL.
Casale S. A. (2024), “Mumia: Luxury Between Art and Medicine in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey”, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 473–86.
Chardin J.(1711), Voyages de monsieur le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autrelieux de l’Orient, Vol. 8, Chez Jean Louis de Lorme, Amsterdam.
Della Valle P. (1843), Viaggi di Pietro della Valle: il pellegrino descritti da lui divisi in tre parti cioè: la Turchia, la Persia e l’India, colla vita e ritratto dell’autore, Vols 1–2, G. Gancia, Brighton.
Edwards C. (1915–1917), “Relations of Shah Abbas the Great of Persia with the Mogul Emperors Akbar and Jahāngir”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 35, pp. 247–68.
Eilers W. and Aʿlam H. (1989), “BĪD”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 4, Fasc. 3, pp. 236–40, available at: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/bid-willow-genus-salix-l (accessed 12 December 2024).
Esin E. (1969), “Turkic and Il-Khanid Universal Monarch Representations and the Cakravartin”, in XXV Congress of Orientalists, Vol. 2, New Delhi, pp. 84–132.
Farhat M. (2014), “Shiʻi Piety and Dynastic Legitimacy: Mashhad under the Early Safavid Shahs”, Iranian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 201–16. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2013.860323
Farimani E. M. (2023), “The decrees issued by Safavid Shah Abbas I regarding the Ali ibn Musa al-Reza’s (AS) Holy Shrine”, Journal of Safavid Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 1–12.
Farooqi N. R. (1989), Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political & Diplomatic Relations Between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748, Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, Delhi.
Floor W. (2000), The Economy of Safavid Persia, Reichert, Wiesbaden.
Gulbadan Begum (1902), The History of Humāyūn (Humāyūn-nāma), translated by A. S. Beveridge, The Royal Asiatic Society, London.
Guliyev A. (2022), Safavids in Venetian and European Sources, 1st ed., Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, Venice. DOI: http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-592-6
Guliyev A. (2023), “ ‘Giving What They Hold Dear’: Safavid Diplomatic Gifts to Venice”, Diplomatica, No. 1 (5), pp. 24–45, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/25891774-bja10079
Guliyev A. (2024a), “ ‘A Brother’s Portion’: Regifted and Requested Items in Safavid–Mughal Diplomatic Gift Exchanges”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 515–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/062.2024.00425
Guliyev A. (2024b), “Safavid–Mughal diplomatic encounters through the eyes of Italian and European travellers”, Orientalia Antiqua et Nova, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 167–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48255/ORIENTALIA.1.2024.13
Herbert T. (1929), Travels in Persia (1627–1629), edited by W. Foster, M. Robert, McBride & Co, New York.
Ināyat Khān (1990), The Shah Jahan Nama of ‘Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Compiled by His Royal Librarian: the Nineteenth-century Manuscript Translation of A. R. Fuller (British Library, Add. 30,777), edited by W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai, Oxford University Press, Delhi, New York.
Islam R. (1970), Indo-Persian Relations; a Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between the Mughal Empire and Iran, Iranian Cultural Foundation, Tehran.
Islam R. (1979–1982), A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations, 1500–1750, Vols 1–2, Iranian Cultural Foundation, Tehran; Institute of Central and West Asian Studies, Karachi.
Junabadi M. B. (1999), Rawzat al-Safawiyya, edited by G. R. Tabataba’i-Majd, Bunyad-i mawqufat-i Afshar, Tehran. (In Persian).
Kuiper K. (ed.) (2010), Islamic Art, Literature, and Culture (The Islamic World), Britannica Educational Publishing, New York.
Lahori A. H. (1868), Badshahnama, edited by K. A. Maulavi and A. R. Maulavi, Vols 1–2, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. (In Persian).
Laufer B. (1925), Ivory in China, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL.
Littlefield S. (1999), The Object in the Gift: Embassies of Jahangir and Shah Abbas, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Malecka A. (1999), “Solar Symbolism of the Mughal Thrones. A Preliminary Note”, Arts Asiatiques, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 24–32.
Manucci N. (1907), Storia do Mogor: or Mogul India, 1653–1708, translated by W. Irvine, Vols 1–2, John Murray, London.
Mauss M. (1925), “Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques”, L’Année Sociologique, No. 1, pp. 30–186.
Munshi I. B. (1978), History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (Tārīk-e Ālamārā-ye ‘Abbāsī), translated by Savory R. M.,Vols 1–3, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Munshi I. B. and Isfahani M. Y. (1938), Zayl-i tarikh-iʿalam-ara-yiʿAbbasi, edited by Khansari S., Kitabfurushi-i Islamiyyah, Tehran. (In Persian).
Narayanan D. (2015), Cultures of Food and Gastronomy in Mughal and post-Mughal India, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
Nasiri M. I. (1994), Dastur-i shahriyaran, edited by M. N. Nasiri, Muqaddam, Tehran. (In Persian).
Niẓām al-Dīn A. Kh. (1939), The Tabaqāt-i-Akbarī of Khwājah Nizāmuddīn Ahmad: A History of India from the Early Musalman Invasions to the Thirty-sixth Year of the Reign of Akbar, translated by Brajendranath De, Vol. 2, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Peçevi İ. E. (1982), Peçevi Tarihi, edited by Baykal, B. S., Vol. 2, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, Ankara. (In Turkish).
Qaddūmī Gh. Ḥ. (1996), Book of Gifts and Rarities (Kitāb al-Hadāyā wa al-Tuḥaf): Selections Compiled in the Fifteenth Century from an Eleventh-Century Manuscript on Gifts and Treasures, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Qandhari M. A. (1993), Tarikh-і-Akbari, translated by T. Ahmad, Pragati Publications, Delhi.
Rahim A. (1934–1935), “Mughal Relations with Persia: Babur to Aurangzeb”, Reprinted from Islamic Culture VIII & IX, Department of History Muslim University, Aligarh.
Roe T. (1926), The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–1619: As Narrated in his Journal and Correspondence, by W. Foster (ed.), Humphrey Milford, London.
Rosenthal F. (1986), “Hiba”, in B. Lewis, V. L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht (eds), Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 3, E. J. Brill, Leiden, London, pp. 342b–344a.
Saqi M. K. (1947), Maāsir-i-ʻālamgiri: A History of the Emperor Aurangzib-ʻĀlamgir (reign 1658–1707 A.D.), by Sarkar Jadunath (trans.), Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Simpson M. S. (2011), “Gifts for the Shah: An Episode in Habsburg-Safavid Relations during the Reigns of Philip III and ʾAbbas I”, in L. Komaroff (ed.), Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving in Islamic Courts, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 124–39.
Spuhler F. (1986), “Carpets and Textiles”, in P. Jackson, S. I. Grossman, L. Lockhart (eds), Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 698–727.
Szuppe M. (2003), “Status, Knowledge, and Politics: Women in Sixteenth-Century Safavid Iran”, in G. Nashat and L. Beck (eds.), Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, pp. 140–69.
Tavernier J. B. (1925), Travels in India, by Jean Baptiste Tavernier Baron of Aubonne, Vols 1–2, by W. Crooke (ed.), Oxford University Press, H. Milford, London.
The Ā’īn-I Akbarī by Abul FazlʾAllami (1927), Vol. 1, translated by H. Blochmann, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
The Akbarnama of Abu’l-Fazl (history of the reign of Akbar including an account of his predecessors) (1907–1939), Vols 1–3, translated by H. Beveridge, The Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
The Babur-nama in English (Memoirs of Babur) Translated from the original Turki text of Zahiru’d-din Muhammad Babur Padshah (1921), Vol. 1, translated by A. S. Beveridge, Luzac & Co., London.
The Jahangirnama: memoirs of Jahangir, emperor of India (1999), ed. and translated by W. M. Thackston, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
The Victoria and Albert Museum. IM.23–1925, available at: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16756/painting-mansur/ (accessed 20 September 2024).
Trentacoste D. (2021), Granducato di Toscana e Persia Safavide. Informazione, politica e diplomazia mediterranea e levantina nel XVII secolo. History. Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris III, Università degli studi Teramo, Italie.
Isfahani M. Y. (2003), Iran dar zaman-e Shah Safi va Shah ‘Abbas-e devvom (1038–1071 h.q.), ed. by Mohammad Reza Naseri, Anjoman-e Asar va Mafakher-e Farhangi, Tehran. (In Persian).
Winter H. J. (1986), “Persian Science in Safavid Times”, in P. Jackson, S. I. Grossman and L. Lockhart (eds), Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 581–609.
BL = British Library (London).
I.O.Islamic 379 – Tahmāsnāma.
Or. 3482 – Nusha-yi jamiayi murasalat- iulu’ul-albab by Abul Qasim Ev-oglu.
Ms. Add. 7690.
Bibliography
Ackerman Ph. (1934), “A Biography of Ghiyath the Weaver”, Bulletin of the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 9–13.
Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl-i-ʻAllami (1949), translated by H. S. Jarrett, Vol. 2, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Aʿlam H. (2001), “Golāb”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 11, Fasc. 1, pp. 58–9, available at: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/golab (accessed 27 November 2024).
Anderson C. (2016), “Material Mediators: Johan Maurits, Textiles, and the Art of Diplomatic Exchange”, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 63–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700658-12342489
Asgarpanah J. (2012), “Phytopharmacology and Medicinal Properties of Salix Aegyptiaca L.”, African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 11, No. 28, pp. 7145–50.
Bernier F. (1916), Travels in the Mogul Empire: A. D. 1656–1668, translated by A. Constable, Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London.
Bruyn C. de. (1737), Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and Part of the East-Indies: Containing, an Accurate Description of Whatever is Most Remarkable in Those Countries, Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, S. Birt, et al., London.
Casale S. A. (2023), Gifts in the Age of Empire: Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639, University of Chicago Press, London and Chicago, IL.
Casale S. A. (2024), “Mumia: Luxury Between Art and Medicine in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey”, Journal of Early Modern History, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 473–86.
Chardin J.(1711), Voyages de monsieur le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autrelieux de l’Orient, Vol. 8, Chez Jean Louis de Lorme, Amsterdam.
Della Valle P. (1843), Viaggi di Pietro della Valle: il pellegrino descritti da lui divisi in tre parti cioè: la Turchia, la Persia e l’India, colla vita e ritratto dell’autore, Vols 1–2, G. Gancia, Brighton.
Edwards C. (1915–1917), “Relations of Shah Abbas the Great of Persia with the Mogul Emperors Akbar and Jahāngir”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 35, pp. 247–68.
Eilers W. and Aʿlam H. (1989), “BĪD”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 4, Fasc. 3, pp. 236–40, available at: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/bid-willow-genus-salix-l (accessed 12 December 2024).
Esin E. (1969), “Turkic and Il-Khanid Universal Monarch Representations and the Cakravartin”, in XXV Congress of Orientalists, Vol. 2, New Delhi, pp. 84–132.
Farhat M. (2014), “Shiʻi Piety and Dynastic Legitimacy: Mashhad under the Early Safavid Shahs”, Iranian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 201–16. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2013.860323
Farimani E. M. (2023), “The decrees issued by Safavid Shah Abbas I regarding the Ali ibn Musa al-Reza’s (AS) Holy Shrine”, Journal of Safavid Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 1–12.
Farooqi N. R. (1989), Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political & Diplomatic Relations Between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire, 1556–1748, Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, Delhi.
Floor W. (2000), The Economy of Safavid Persia, Reichert, Wiesbaden.
Gulbadan Begum (1902), The History of Humāyūn (Humāyūn-nāma), translated by A. S. Beveridge, The Royal Asiatic Society, London.
Guliyev A. (2022), Safavids in Venetian and European Sources, 1st ed., Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, Venice. DOI: http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-592-6
Guliyev A. (2023), “ ‘Giving What They Hold Dear’: Safavid Diplomatic Gifts to Venice”, Diplomatica, No. 1 (5), pp. 24–45, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/25891774-bja10079
Guliyev A. (2024a), “ ‘A Brother’s Portion’: Regifted and Requested Items in Safavid–Mughal Diplomatic Gift Exchanges”, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 77, No. 3, pp. 515–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/062.2024.00425
Guliyev A. (2024b), “Safavid–Mughal diplomatic encounters through the eyes of Italian and European travellers”, Orientalia Antiqua et Nova, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 167–81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48255/ORIENTALIA.1.2024.13
Herbert T. (1929), Travels in Persia (1627–1629), edited by W. Foster, M. Robert, McBride & Co, New York.
Ināyat Khān (1990), The Shah Jahan Nama of ‘Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Compiled by His Royal Librarian: the Nineteenth-century Manuscript Translation of A. R. Fuller (British Library, Add. 30,777), edited by W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai, Oxford University Press, Delhi, New York.
Islam R. (1970), Indo-Persian Relations; a Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between the Mughal Empire and Iran, Iranian Cultural Foundation, Tehran.
Islam R. (1979–1982), A Calendar of Documents on Indo-Persian Relations, 1500–1750, Vols 1–2, Iranian Cultural Foundation, Tehran; Institute of Central and West Asian Studies, Karachi.
Junabadi M. B. (1999), Rawzat al-Safawiyya, edited by G. R. Tabataba’i-Majd, Bunyad-i mawqufat-i Afshar, Tehran. (In Persian).
Kuiper K. (ed.) (2010), Islamic Art, Literature, and Culture (The Islamic World), Britannica Educational Publishing, New York.
Lahori A. H. (1868), Badshahnama, edited by K. A. Maulavi and A. R. Maulavi, Vols 1–2, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. (In Persian).
Laufer B. (1925), Ivory in China, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL.
Littlefield S. (1999), The Object in the Gift: Embassies of Jahangir and Shah Abbas, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Malecka A. (1999), “Solar Symbolism of the Mughal Thrones. A Preliminary Note”, Arts Asiatiques, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 24–32.
Manucci N. (1907), Storia do Mogor: or Mogul India, 1653–1708, translated by W. Irvine, Vols 1–2, John Murray, London.
Mauss M. (1925), “Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés archaïques”, L’Année Sociologique, No. 1, pp. 30–186.
Munshi I. B. (1978), History of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (Tārīk-e Ālamārā-ye ‘Abbāsī), translated by Savory R. M.,Vols 1–3, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
Munshi I. B. and Isfahani M. Y. (1938), Zayl-i tarikh-iʿalam-ara-yiʿAbbasi, edited by Khansari S., Kitabfurushi-i Islamiyyah, Tehran. (In Persian).
Narayanan D. (2015), Cultures of Food and Gastronomy in Mughal and post-Mughal India, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
Nasiri M. I. (1994), Dastur-i shahriyaran, edited by M. N. Nasiri, Muqaddam, Tehran. (In Persian).
Niẓām al-Dīn A. Kh. (1939), The Tabaqāt-i-Akbarī of Khwājah Nizāmuddīn Ahmad: A History of India from the Early Musalman Invasions to the Thirty-sixth Year of the Reign of Akbar, translated by Brajendranath De, Vol. 2, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Peçevi İ. E. (1982), Peçevi Tarihi, edited by Baykal, B. S., Vol. 2, Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, Ankara. (In Turkish).
Qaddūmī Gh. Ḥ. (1996), Book of Gifts and Rarities (Kitāb al-Hadāyā wa al-Tuḥaf): Selections Compiled in the Fifteenth Century from an Eleventh-Century Manuscript on Gifts and Treasures, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Qandhari M. A. (1993), Tarikh-і-Akbari, translated by T. Ahmad, Pragati Publications, Delhi.
Rahim A. (1934–1935), “Mughal Relations with Persia: Babur to Aurangzeb”, Reprinted from Islamic Culture VIII & IX, Department of History Muslim University, Aligarh.
Roe T. (1926), The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–1619: As Narrated in his Journal and Correspondence, by W. Foster (ed.), Humphrey Milford, London.
Rosenthal F. (1986), “Hiba”, in B. Lewis, V. L. Ménage, Ch. Pellat and J. Schacht (eds), Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 3, E. J. Brill, Leiden, London, pp. 342b–344a.
Saqi M. K. (1947), Maāsir-i-ʻālamgiri: A History of the Emperor Aurangzib-ʻĀlamgir (reign 1658–1707 A.D.), by Sarkar Jadunath (trans.), Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
Simpson M. S. (2011), “Gifts for the Shah: An Episode in Habsburg-Safavid Relations during the Reigns of Philip III and ʾAbbas I”, in L. Komaroff (ed.), Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving in Islamic Courts, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 124–39.
Spuhler F. (1986), “Carpets and Textiles”, in P. Jackson, S. I. Grossman, L. Lockhart (eds), Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 698–727.
Szuppe M. (2003), “Status, Knowledge, and Politics: Women in Sixteenth-Century Safavid Iran”, in G. Nashat and L. Beck (eds.), Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, pp. 140–69.
Tavernier J. B. (1925), Travels in India, by Jean Baptiste Tavernier Baron of Aubonne, Vols 1–2, by W. Crooke (ed.), Oxford University Press, H. Milford, London.
The Ā’īn-I Akbarī by Abul FazlʾAllami (1927), Vol. 1, translated by H. Blochmann, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta.
The Akbarnama of Abu’l-Fazl (history of the reign of Akbar including an account of his predecessors) (1907–1939), Vols 1–3, translated by H. Beveridge, The Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
The Babur-nama in English (Memoirs of Babur) Translated from the original Turki text of Zahiru’d-din Muhammad Babur Padshah (1921), Vol. 1, translated by A. S. Beveridge, Luzac & Co., London.
The Jahangirnama: memoirs of Jahangir, emperor of India (1999), ed. and translated by W. M. Thackston, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
The Victoria and Albert Museum. IM.23–1925, available at: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16756/painting-mansur/ (accessed 20 September 2024).
Trentacoste D. (2021), Granducato di Toscana e Persia Safavide. Informazione, politica e diplomazia mediterranea e levantina nel XVII secolo. History. Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle – Paris III, Università degli studi Teramo, Italie.
Isfahani M. Y. (2003), Iran dar zaman-e Shah Safi va Shah ‘Abbas-e devvom (1038–1071 h.q.), ed. by Mohammad Reza Naseri, Anjoman-e Asar va Mafakher-e Farhangi, Tehran. (In Persian).
Winter H. J. (1986), “Persian Science in Safavid Times”, in P. Jackson, S. I. Grossman and L. Lockhart (eds), Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 581–609.