The Ottomans also continue to challenge the Safavis for control of Azarbaijan and the Caucasus until the Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin in 1639 establishes frontiers in both Iraq and in the Caucasus that remain virtually unchanged.

The Safavi state reaches its apogee during the reign of Shah Abbas (1587-1629).

The shah gains breathing space to confront and defeat the Uzbeks by signing a largely disadvantageous treaty with the Ottomans.

He then fights successful campaigns against the Ottomans, reestablishing Iranian control over Iraq, Georgia, and parts of the Caucasus.

He counterbalances the power of the Qizilbash by creating a body of troops composed of enslaved Georgians and Armenians who are loyal to the person of the shah.

He extends state and crown lands and the provinces directly administered by the state, at the expense of the Qizilbash chiefs.

He relocates tribes to weaken their power, strengthens the bureaucracy, and further centralizes the administration.

The Ottoman sultan Suleyman had occupied Baghdad in 1533, then extended Ottoman rule to southern Iraq.

Iraq remains firmly in Ottoman hands except for a brief period (1624-38) when Safavi rule is restored.

The Safavids reconquer Baghdad in 1623 under the leadership of Shah Abbas (1587-1629), but they are expelled in 1638 after a series of brilliant military maneuvers by the dynamic Ottoman sultan, Murad IV.

The major impact of the Safavid-Ottoman conflict on Iraqi history is the deepening of the Shia-Sunni rift.

Both the Ottomans and the Safavids use Sunni and Shia Islam respectively to mobilize domestic support.

Thus, Iraq's Sunni population suffers immeasurably during the brief Safavid reign (1623-38), while Iraq's Shias will be excluded from power altogether during the longer period of Ottoman supremacy (1638-1916).

The Sunnis during the Ottoman period gain the administrative experience that will allow them to monopolize political power in the twentieth century.

The Sunnis are able to take advantage of new economic and educational opportunities while the Shias, frozen out of the political process, remain politically impotent and economically depressed.

The frequent conflicts with the Safavids have sapped the strength of the Ottoman Empire by the seventeenth century and have weakened its control over its provinces.

Tribal authority once again dominates in Iraq.

The nomadic population swells with the influx of Bedouin from Najd, in the Arabian Peninsula.

Bedouin raids on settled areas become impossible to curb.

The large and powerful Muntafiq tribal confederation takes shape in the interior, under the leadership of the Sunni Saadun family of Mecca.

The Shamman—one of the biggest tribal confederations of the Arabian Peninsula—enter the Syrian desert and clash with the `Anazzah confederation.

A new tribal confederation, the Bani Lam, takes root on the lower Tigris near Al Amarah.

The Kurdish Baban Dynasty emerges in the north and organizes Kurdish resistance.

The resistance makes it impossible for the Ottomans to maintain even nominal suzerainty over Iraqi Kurdistan (land of the Kurds).

Between 1625 and 1668, local shaykhs rule Al Basrah and the marshlands, home of the Madan (Marsh Arabs).

The powerful shaykhs basically ignore the Ottoman governor of Baghdad.

King Alexander II of Kakheti had officially pledged his allegiance to Tsar Feodor I of Russia, but the alliance had never actually been implemented in practice.

Alexander’s son, David, had revolted against the royal authority and in October 1601 seized the crown I, forcing his father to retire to a monastery.

David’s brother, George, had masterminded a plot which quickly collapsed and led to repression; David had George imprisoned while seventeen of his supporters were executed.

David’s foreign policy was a continuation of his father’s line.

He receives a Russian embassy in 1602 and reaffirms his loyalty to the tsar.

He then marches against Nugzar, the defiant lord of the Aragvi river basin, and forces him into submission.

David dies suddenly a year later, on October 2, 1602, and Alexander is able to resume the throne.

The decline of Ottoman institutions in Anatolia, particularly the land-tenure system, has resulted in extensive revolts by the sipahiyan (cavalry based on quasi-feudal land units) and by the peasants, who are oppressed by taxes.

The Persians retake Tabriz in 1603 after a lengthy siege.

Abbas has since the treaty of 1589-90 been regarded as almost an Ottoman vassal.

The Safavids have never beaten their western neighbors in a straight fight.

Abbas had decided in 1602 that he would longer put up with Ottoman insults.

After a particularly arrogant series of demands from the Turkish ambassador, the shah has him seized, has his beard shaved and sends it to his master, the sultan, in Constantinople.

This is a declaration of war.

Abbas first recaptures Nahavand and destroys the fortress in the city, which the Ottomans had planned to use as an advance base for attacks on Iran.

Abbas now pretends he is setting off on a hunting expedition to Mazandaran with his men.

This is merely a ruse to deceive the Ottoman spies in his court—his real target is Azerbaijan.

He changes course for Qazvin where he assembles a large army and sets off to retake Tabriz, which has been in Ottoman hands for decades.

For the first time, the Iranians make great use of their artillery and the town—which has been ruined by Ottoman occupation—soon falls.

Abbas now sets off to besiege Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, and one of the main Turkish strongholds in the Caucasus.