| Since the time of Bābur, the Safavids--rather than the Ottomans or the Uzbeks--were the dynasty with which the Mughals were the most closely connected. Right from the beginning, this relationship went side by side with a strong territorial and ideological rivalry. Competition with the Mughals thus played an important role in the new ideological formulas elaborated during the reign of Shāh 'Abbās (1587-1629). Whatever the intensity of this rivalry, it never acted as an impediment to the circulation of goods, people, or ideas between the two poles. As a matter of fact, the migration of Iranian elites into Mughal India crucially informed the shaping of Mughal culture and state. This was especially the case under Jahāngīr (1605-1627) whose reign is generally associated with Iranian administrative hegemony. While the iranophily of the "world conqueror" has often been deemed a sign of political weakness, it is here examined under a new light. |