Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Erin Manky,

listener discretion advised.

Hey, this is Dana Schwartz.

Thank you so much for listening to Noble Blood.

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Let's get started, shall we?

All throughout Cosvine, the capital of the Safavid Empire, it was rumored that Shah Tamasp

I was dying.

The news came as no real surprise.

The Shah had been ill for more than two years and he had come close to death several times.

No, what people were talking about now was the fact that the Shah, even after those two

years spent on the brink of death, still had not declared a successor.

Successions are often the most vulnerable time for any government, and things in the Safavid

Empire which had a border extending past present day Iran were particularly fraught in the

spring of 1576.

Shah Tamasp had spent much of his 52 year reign quelling tribal uprisings.

With his death, it seemed likely that such fighting could break out again.

...