Khalifeh Sultan

Khalifeh Sultan
19th-century Delhi painting of a Safavid grand vizier (left), most likely Khalifeh Sultan, and Shah Abbas II (right).
Grand vizier of the Safavid Empire
In office 1623/4–1632
Monarch	Abbas I Safi
Preceded by	Salman Khan Ustajlu
Succeeded by	Mirza Talib Khan
Grand vizier of the Safavid Empire
In office 1645–1654
Monarch	Abbas II
Preceded by	Saru Taqi
Succeeded by	Mohammad Beg
Personal details
Born	1592/3 Isfahan
Died	5 March 1654 Ashraf, Mazandaran
Spouse(s)	Khan-Agha Begum
Mother	Unnamed Marashi noblewoman
Father	Mirza Rafi al-Din Muhammad
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam

Sayyid Ala al-Din Hoseyn (Persian: سید علاء الدین حسین‎‎), better known as Khalifeh Sultan (خلیفه سلطان), and also known as Sultan al-Ulama (سلطان‌العلماء), was an Iranian statesman and cleric, who served as the grand vizier of the Safavid king (shah) Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), the latter's grandson Safi (r. 1629–1642), and Abbas II (r. 1642–1666).

A member of a prominent Sayyid family with origins in the royal Marashi family of Mazandaran, Khalifeh Sultan was a well-educated man of letters, who played an important role in the Iranian clergy affairs, and also later in the Safavid administration, when he was appointed as grand vizier in 1623/4.

He was, however, in 1632, disgraced and exiled by the ruthless newly-crowned shah Safi. Later, in 1645, Khalifeh Sultan was re-appointed as grand vizier by the latter's son and successor, Abbas II, whom he became a close companion of, and gained considerable influence. Khalifeh Sultan later died in 5 March 1654 in his ancestral homeland of Mazandaran due to illness, and was succeeded by Mohammad Beg.

Khalifeh Sultan was born in ca. 1592/3 in Isfahan, where he grew up; his father Mirza Rafi al-Din Muhammad was a prominent aristocrat who occupied high offices in the Safavid Empire, and belonged to a family known as the "Shahristani sayyids", which was descended from Shah Nimatullah, the founder of the Nimatullahi order. Khalifeh Sultan's mother belonged to a family known as the "Khalifeh sayyids", a family of Marashi descent, whose ancestor, Amir Nezam al-Din, was forced to settle in the Golbar quarter of Isfahan in the 15th-century. Khalifeh Sultan was thus related to Shah Abbas I, whose mother was Khayr al-Nisa Begum, a Marashi princess who had fled to the Safavid court and married the previous Safavid shah Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–1587).