The Safavid era is the key to the emergence of modern Iran. Safavid Iran became a regional superpower, with its reach extending beyond its domains into the Middle East, South Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. This was the period in which, challenging Ottoman and Mughal power, an Iranian nation state was established, with a defined central government, state sovereignty and settled borders. The Shahs, especially Shah Abbas, have been credited with Iran's rise to power but Andrew Newman's revisionist study demonstrates that the mainspring of Safavid progress was the work a range of intellectual giants who would dominate the thinking of any era. This title covers: Karaki and Mirza Makhdum's contributions in cementing a new Shi'a and Islamic identity; Khayi al-Nisa's demonstration of elite women's influence in tribal societies; Iskander Beg', historian and court Chronicler; Reza Abbasi's painting defining the intimate in Persian miniatures; Mir Damad and Shaikh Bah'i, the philosophers and political thinkers of the Esfahan school; Majlisi the leading theologian who emerged as the voice of reason and tolerance - these iconic figures provided the religious and cultural underpinning of the renaissance of Iran under the Safavids. Their influence has endured to this very day.