Advent and Prevalence of Opium Addiction in the Safavid Era

The Safavid era went through a variety of social changes. One of these changes was addiction to opium. In the pre-Safavid era, this narcotic was mostly used for medical purposes. In the Safavid era, opium addiction became pervasive and was regarded as one of the defining characteristics of the society’s lifestyle, especially during the end of the Safavid dynasty. The prevalence of this phenomenon has not been studied so far. Hence, this study was conducted using domestic and foreign resources while focusing on their historical trend through three stages of beginning, middle and final eras of the Safavid dynasty. According to the findings of this study, the changes regarding opium over the whole Safavid era do not follow the same pattern and have increased.