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Safavid Road System: The Rahdars Who Ruled Persia's Highways
Long before the Silk Road made Safavid Persia a trading powerhouse, Shah Abbas I faced a more mundane problem: bandits. In the late 1590s, he overhauled the empire's roads with a network of fortified caravanserais, state-run postal stations, and mounted road guards called rahdars. This episode follows how that system worked—from the chain of chapar express riders who could relay a message from Isfahan to Tabriz in six days, to the qanat-fed rest stops where travelers found free bread and a horse for their next leg. We look at the rahdar's dual role as tax collector and police, and the tension…
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