At first glance, early Safavid Iran may not be the ideal place to search for forms of consensual rule in the early modern Persianate world, as there where neither estates nor institutionalised procedures for consens-us-based decision-making. However, perhaps it is no less suitable for such considerations than any other non-European realm. As with most other contemporary or present-day rulers, the early Safavids claim for absolute power was rather convention than reality, a fact that is well reflected in present-day scientific literature. However, this is not the case for ‘rule by consensus’. Was consensus and consensus-based decision-making an issue in 16th-century Iran? If we look at the reports of the chronicles from the Safavids courtly sphere on their first ruler, Ismaʿil, we find passages that might well be read that way. Although it is somewhat difficult to imagine Ismaʿil thinking in terms of consensus or even mutual benefit, maybe he did just that. Obviously, ‘rule by consensus’ is a topic from Medieval Studies and is strongly based on the realms of medieval Europe, with no equivalents to many of the specific phenomena, procedures and theories elsewhere. While a ‘rule by consensus’ did not exist in early Safavid Iran, consensus-based decision-making did.

中文翻译：

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将联合统治代表为 Murshid-i Kāmil 的意志

乍一看，早期的萨法维伊朗可能不是在现代早期波斯世界中寻找共识统治形式的理想场所，因为那里既没有等级也没有制度化程序来进行基于共识的决策。但是，也许它不比任何其他非欧洲领域更适合此类考虑。与大多数其他当代或当今统治者一样，早期萨法维王朝对绝对权力的主张与其说是现实，不如说是惯例，这一事实在当今的科学文献中得到了很好的反映。然而，“共识规则”并非如此。共识和基于共识的决策在 16 世纪的伊朗是一个问题吗？如果我们查看萨法维王朝宫廷领域关于他们的第一任统治者伊斯梅尔的编年史的报告，我们会发现很可能以这种方式阅读的段落。虽然很难想象 Ismaʿil 在共识甚至互利方面的思考，但也许他就是这样做的。显然，“共识规则”是中世纪研究的一个主题，它强烈地基于中世纪欧洲的领域，与其他地方的许多具体现象、程序和理论没有任何等价物。虽然早期萨法维伊朗不存在“共识规则”，但基于共识的决策确实存在。