« A Note on the Grand Vizierate in Seventeenth Century Persia ». Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 155, 2005, pp. 435-481.

This seminal article suggests a fresh interpretation of the dynamism of the late Safavid political process, a topic recently attracting more and more interest from researchers. In the first chapter, the author sharply criticizes the kind of approaches that deem 17th century Safavid politics to be power struggles among elite groups such as ġolāms, Qezelbāš, ‘ulamā, bureaucrats, and eunuchs, premising that each of these had its own common interests. To demonstrate further the limited usefulness..