A closer look
To stop his own relatives from assassinating him, Shah Abbas I outsourced his royal court to castrated Georgian slaves. The Safavid ruler dismantled the rebellious Qizilbash tribal elite by creating a new military and bureaucratic class of 'ghulams'—enslaved Christian boys converted to Islam, many of whom were eunuchs. With no family ties or ability to start dynasties of their own, these eunuchs became the most powerful and ruthless administrators in Persia, fiercely loyal only to the Shah.
