Tashkīl-i Dowlat-i Mīllī dar Īrān: Ḥokūmat-i Āq Qovaynlu va Ẓuhūr-i Dowlat-i Ṣafavī Persiska (Farsi) 1998

ChatGPT said:

Following the collapse of the Sasanian rule, for nearly nine centuries no government in Iran was able to establish independent political and national unity over the Iranian plateau. Even after the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, successive local rulers emerged, each exercising power over a part of Iran. Continuous wars over centuries had left the country fragmented, insecure, and distant from major centers of civilization, where science and art, if present, were dependent on the patronage of whoever controlled a specific region at the time.

The establishment of the Safavid state marked a profound transformation. A centralized and powerful government brought about national, political, and religious unity, while reviving bureaucracy, education, science, and the arts that had been neglected for centuries. The book The Formation of the National State in Iran is arguably one of the most important studies detailing this period, offering a comprehensive and thorough analysis of historical sources, documents, and extant works from the Aq Qoyunlu rule to the establishment of the Safavid dynasty.

The author, Walter Hinz, with mastery of Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, French, German, and English, leaves no relevant source unexamined. His meticulous scholarship successfully illuminates many previously obscure aspects of the origins and development of the Safavid state, shedding light on a period that had long been overlooked.