Suleiman I was the eighth and the penultimate Shah of Safavid Iran from 1666 to 1694. He was the eldest son of Abbas II and his concubine, Nakihat Khanum. Born as Sam Mirza, Suleiman spent his childhood in the harem among women and eunuchs and his existence was hidden from the public. When Abbas II died in 1666, his grand vizier, Mirza Mohammad Karaki, did not know that the shah had a son.

After his second coronation, Suleiman retreated into the harem to enjoy the pleasures of flesh and excessive drinking. He was indifferent to the state affairs, and often would not in the public for months. As a result for his idleness, Suleiman's reign was devoid of spectacular events in the form of major wars and rebellions. For this reason, the Western contemporary historians regard Suleiman's reign as "remarkable for nothing" while the Safavid court chronicles refrained from recording his tenure. Suleiman's reign saw the decline of the Safavid army, to the point when the soldiers became undisciplined and made no effort to serve as it was required of them. At the same time with the declining army, the eastern borders of the realm was under the constant raids from the Uzbeks and the Kalmyks who had settled in Astrabad also had begun their own plundering.

Often seen as a failure in kingship, Suleiman's reign was the starting point of Safavid decline: weakened military power, falling agricultural output and the corrupt bureaucracy, all were a forewarning of the troubling rule of his successor, Soltan Hoseyn, whose reign saw the end of the Safavid dynasty. Suleiman was the first Safavid Shah that did not patrol his kingdom and never led an army, thus giving away the government affairs to the influential court eunuchs, harem women and the Shi‘i high clergy.