Social life of the Safavid period from the perspective of Taḏkera-ye Naṣrābādi

Biographies have a special place as a source of research in social history. Although the main focus of biographies is on the life and memoires of poets and orators, the peripheral information stated amidst the biographies can play an effective role in supplementing and sometimes correcting the information obtained from historical sources. Among the biographies of the Safavid period, Taḏkera-ye Naṣrābādi is of special importance both in terms of the abundance of biographies and the sheer volume of peripheral information, especially the author's painstaking effort to document the life of different segments of society. This article, which uses a library method and a descriptive-analytical approach, seeks to answer the question, “What role does Taḏkera-ye Naṣrābādi play in explaining the social situation in the Safavid period?” The findings suggest that although the social information in this work are presented indirectly amidst the biographies of poets and orators of this era, the author’s special attention to different classes of society, especially the general public, and their hobbies, beliefs and customs and social interactions, not only demonstrates the challenges facing different social strata of his era, but also males the book an invaluable resource of information that can shed light on various aspects of Safavid social life, especially its late period.