The course focuses on the period of the Safavid dynasty (16th–18th centuries) which represented a watershed in the history of Iran not only because of its adoption and promotion of Shi'ism as the state religion, but also on account of its fostering an imperial court culture that patronized the arts and architecture. The reigns of the Safavid shahs will be examined from the point of view of their political, religious, economic, and cultural history, as well as their relationship to the polities that immediately preceded them and their interactions with the contemporary Muslim states they neighboured, in particular, the Ottomans in the west and the Mughals in the east.