Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PhD candidate of History, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22059/jhss.2024.378109.473721
Abstract
Iran is a land with a rich history in foreign relations. Due to the antiquity of the “Government” institution in Iran and its reliability over the centuries, a rich legacy has emerged in the field of foreign relations of this country with other realms. Despite this, since the rise of the Safavids (early 10th AH/16th AD), Iran's foreign relations also changed and entered a new arena. In the field of research on Iran's foreign relations during the Safavid era, most of the works have focused on Iran's relations with the great neighboring realms or European states (such as the Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, Portugal, England, and Netherlands/Dutch), and this issue has caused the lack of attention to Iran's relations with other lands. One of these lesser-known fields is the foreign relations of Safavid Iran with Sweden. Despite the limited perception of the Swedes by Iranians in the pre-Safavid period, Iran's official relations with Sweden were established and flourished during the reign of Safavid Šāh Sulaymān (r. 1077-1105AH/1666-1694AD) and Šāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (r. 1105-1135AH/1694-1722AD).
Now the question is, what reasons and motivations made Iranians and Swedes willing to establish relations in the late 11thAH/17thAD century? Also, despite some initial successes, why did these relationships remain fruitless? In this article, an attempt has been made to answer the above questions by adopting a descriptive-analytical approach and using the qualitative research method. It seems that a set of bilateral economic and political motivations made Iran and Sweden, and especially the Swedes, inclined to establish relations. However, obstacles such as distance, dissatisfaction of rival states and internal and external challenges of the two realms (especially the involvement of Swedes in the “Great Northern War” and the challenge of Safavid court with the Ġilzāyid uprising) caused the mentioned relations to not reach a clear result
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