Hatem Beg Urdubadi

Hatem Ordubadi Beg
Grand Vizier of the Safavid Empire
In office 1591–1610/1
Monarch	Abbas I
Preceded by	Mirza Lotf Allah Shirazi
Succeeded by	Mirza Taleb Khan Ordubadi
Personal details
Died	1610/1 Near Urmia, Azerbaijan
Relations	Bahram Khan Ordubadi (father) Adham Beg Ordubadi (brother)
Children	Mirza Taleb Khan Ordubadi
Family	Ordubadi family
Military service
Allegiance	Safavid Empire
Years of service	1570s–1610/1
Battles/wars	Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18)

Hatem "Beg" Ordubadi (Persian: حاتم بیگ اردوبادی‎‎), was an Iranian aristocrat from the Ordubadi family, who served as the grand vizier of the Safavid king (shah) Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) from 1591 to 1610/1.

Hatem was the son of Bahram Khan Ordubadi, the lord of Ordubad, the homeland of the Ordubadi family—an Iranian family which was descended from the medieval philosopher and polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Hatem later succeeded his father as the lord of Urdubad, and received the title of "Beg" (lord). Due to local disagreements, he resigned however, and went to the royal court. In the ensuing period he served as vizier of the governor of Khoy. However, when the latter was dismissed later on, Hatem Beg lost his job as well, and settled again in Ordubad and later Ardabil. His fortunes changed in the early rule of Abbas I, when he was appointed as the vizier of the governor of Kerman, Vali Beg Yuz Bashi Afshar and was later made the accountant (mostowfi al-mamalek) of Yazd.

In 1587-1588, Hatem's brother Abu Taleb Beg, then the mostowfi al-mamalek was sent as an envoy to the ruler of the Uzbeks, Abdullah Khan II, who was trying to take Herat from the Safavids at the time. Abdullah Khan II was not interested in negotiations, and had Abu Taleb Beg executed by putting him in front of the mouth of a cannon. As a result of this gruesome tale in relation to his close relative, Hatem Beg was taken under Abbas I's wings, and in 1591, he appointed him as the mostowfi al-mamalek of all of Iran, while six months later he made him his grand vizier. Hatem Beg, who became known by his honorific of Etemad-e daulat ("Trusty Support of the State"), which was given to every Safavid grand vizier, demonstrated to be a statesman of noteworthy capacity during his tenure as grand vizier. During his tenure he managed to form a highly potent state administration that allowed the country to persist to prosper under considerably less adept shahs after Abbas I's death.

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