Saru Taqi

[1] Saru Taqi served in the army during his youth in Isfahan, and was later appointed as the financial minister of the governor of Ardabil, Zu'l Fiqar Qaramanlu.

In 1615, Saru Taqi was castrated by the Safavid shah Abbas I after having been accused by a furrier named Mu'min of having forcibly had sex with him.

[8] During the same year, Saru Taqi made a conspiracy against the powerful military officer Imam-Quli Khan,[9] which resulted in the latter's death and his possessions being converted into the crown estate.

In 1634, Saru Taqi appointed his brother Mohammad Saleh Beg as the governor of Mazandaran, thus reducing the power of the descendants of the Marashis, who were the elite of the province.

[7] In 1638, Saru Taqi, who aimed to having Ali Mardan Khan, the governor of Qandahar, dismissed, demanded a large sum of money from him.

Since he was less than 10 years old when he became shah, the job of governing Iran was placed in the hands of his mother, Anna Khanum, and Saru Taqi, while Abbas concentrated on his education at Qazvin.

The French traveller Jean Chardin said the following thing about them: The power of mothers of Persian kings looms large when they [shahs] are at a young age.

[14] On 11 October 1645, Saru Taqi was betrayed and murdered in his own house by Jani Khan, mostly likely with the approval of Abbas II, who was trying to get independence from his mother and the slaves which supported her.

Mughal painting of Saru Taqi by Bishandas , c. 1618