IRAN The Great. ART IN IRAN The unity of Safavid art. The arts of the Safavid period show a far more unitary development than in any other period of Iranian art. This characteristic is due not simply to the political domination of one family but also to the steady move toward a centralized autocracy supported by a skilled bureaucracy in a single city; it is this political evolution that broke down feudal powers, united Iran as a single cultural entity.