Two faces of power in political discourse of Safavid era

The hegemonic strategies of the Safavid discourse: the genealogy of the face of power in the era of Shah Isma'il I and Shah Tahmasb I The Safavid dynasty seems to have held a very important position in the history of political developments in Iran. Among all the factors contributing to the establishment and consolidation of the Safavid government, the recent shift in discurse tends to be of great significance. This discursive turnaround, however, did not take place overnight; rather, a number of background factors and some measures taken by the Safavid kings helped the formation and consolidation of this political discourse and the identity of the Safavid government. Using a discourse analysis method, the present study investigated the strategies the Safavid government adopted to stabilize and institutionalize its discourse. To bring home their discourse, the research findings revealed, the Safavids took advantage from both a disciplinary stance (macrophysics) and the small side of power (microphysics). Then they gradually chose to stay away from the hard and material power and assumed cultural, spiritual and soft hegemony. It was also found that from among the Safavid kings, Shah Isma’il represented the hard face of the power and Shah Tahmaseb was credited with being the first to use the soft face of power for the stabilization of their political discourse. Key words: Safavid, political discourse, Micro power, Macro power, Hegemony.