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Minorities of Isfahan: theArmenian community ofIsfahan 1587–1722Vartan Gregorian aa University Professor of Caucasan Historyand Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,University of Pennsylvania

Version of record first published: 02 Jan 2007

To cite this article: Vartan Gregorian (1974): Minorities of Isfahan: the Armeniancommunity of Isfahan 1587–1722, Iranian Studies, 7:3-4, 652-680

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MINORITIES OF ISFAHAN: THE

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF ISFAHAN

1587-1722

VARTAN GREGORIAN

In their "recreation of the Persian nationality"and their proclamation of Shicite Islam as the officialstate religion of Persia, the Safavids performed a crucialhistorical role. They formalized, institutionalized,intensified and politicized the Sunni-Shicite doctrinaland regional schism within the Islamic world.1 Coming inthe wake of the four centuries of Turko-Mongol invasionswhich had already helped to "harden the division of theMuslim lands into separate Arabic, Persian and Turkishregions between which literary communication was confinedto the restricted circles of the educated,"2 the triumphof the Shicite revolution in Persia formalized the divisionof Islamic Asia into three major Muslim political entities:Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal. Safavid Persia drove wedgesbetween the Sunni Ottoman empire, the Mughal empire andCentral Asia. Safavid and shicite Persia, however, was nota monolith. It was an ethnic, linguistic, and religiousmosaic. In addition to Persians there were as ethnicgroups a substantial number of Turkic elements, Arabs,Kurds, Baluchi, Afghans, Georgians, Armenians and Circas-sians, as well as small yet viable communities of Jews andAssyrians, all of which ensured the ethnic and socialdiversity of the Safavid empire. As a matter of fact, atleast ethnically, the Safavid empire represented a polarityof the two dominant groups, the Persians and the Turks, amajority of whom were linked by the Ithna cashari form of

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Shicism, partook of the Islamic heritage of Iran, butretained their ethnic consciousness.3

Despite the fact that Shah Ismacll I (1501-24) haddecreed the Ithna cashari form of Shicism as the statereligion of Persia and that his successors sustained andpromoted it for the next two centuries, the fact is thatthe ethnic diversity of the Safavid empire was almostmatched by the diversity of its creeds and languages.While the Ithna cashari branch of Shicism became the domi-nant form of Islam in Persia, it did not displace SunniIslam completely: the Kurds, the Afghans (except for theHazaras and certain minor tribes), and the majority of theArabs of Persia as well as the preponderant majority ofthe Muslims of the Caucasus and Transcaucasus were Sunni.There were in addition the Christian communities of Persia:the Georgians and the Armenians and the Assyrians. Lastbut not least there were the Zoroastrians and the Jews.

The Safavid religious and "nationality policies"first of all had to deal with the question of non-ShiciteMuslims, then the problem of shicite and non-Shicite Mus-lim Turkic elements who were extremely powerful, and thenwith the presence and fate of non-Muslims: in the firstrank the ahl al-kitab (People of the Book), namely Chris-tians (Georgians, Armenians and Assyrians) and the Jews.Lastly it had to cope with the Zoroastrians who repre-sented a special and unique problem.

In formulating and executing their religious andethnic policies the Safavid rulers had to take into consi-deration socio-economic and geopolitical realities on theone hand and the stability of their realm and legitimi-zation and continuity of their sovereignty on the otherhand. They could not agree to give a de jure recognitionto an historical phenomenon--the reality of a pluralisticSafavid empire and its society—without unleashing centri-fugal forces, undermining the unity of their realm andjeopardizing the historical and moral foundations thatsustained the edifice of Safavid rulers' legitimacy,

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sovereignty and absolutism.

The policies of the Safavids towards non-ShiciteMuslims and non-Muslims fluctuated but basically can besummarized as: violent theoretical opposition towardsSunnis coupled with a narrow intolerance and periodicpersecution of Zoroastrians and Jews, and a relativelybenevolent attitude towards and a comparatively less harshtreatment of Armenians and Georgians.

Since Shicism was the basis for religious and his-torical legitimization of the sovereignty of the Safaviddynasty, it is not surprising that the Safavids had tore-introduce and maintain the theocratic idea that "church"and state were to be conceived of as one. This precludedany possibility on the part of the Safavids of acceptingany theories that would challenge the absolute veracity ofthe Ithna cashari form of Shicism without undermining thefoundations of absolutism of the Safavid rulers and intro-ducing the dangerous principle of the relativity of Sunni,Shicite or other forms of Islam devoid of any eschatology.Aside from the question of legitimacy, the Safavids hadimposed Shicism as a state religion partially, as Ann Lamb-ton puts it: "in order to differentiate their domains fromthe Ottoman empire and to create a sense of unity amongtheir subjects. . . It is not surprising that they shouldhave tried to impose doctrinal uniformity and to suppressany deviation from the new orthodoxy."^

Of necessity, the Sunni-shicite conflict assumed newand major political dimensions and implications as Sunnisbecame identified with the Ottoman and Mughal empires, andthe Shicites with Safavid Persia. In the two centuries ofoff-and-on politico-religious battles the members of eachreligious group under the jurisdiction of the opposingpower were treated as fifth columnists: actual or poten-tial enemies of the state in question. Thus within theOttoman empire those who had

affinities with the Shia Safavids [were] . . . con-sidered potential or actual enemies of the state and

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the Ottoman Sultan used both repression and reeduca-tion to render them harmless. At the same time afar more effective repression was carried out inPersia, this time of Sunnism. . . The one constantcriterion was subversion. The followers of doctrinesand practices which threatened the state, the dynastyor the fabric of society were outlawed and repressed.

t

It is not surprising therefore that such eminentShicite theologians as Muhammad Baqir (1628-99) or hissuccessor Mir Muhammad Husayn, had to wage relentless theo-logical battles against the Sunnis of Persia, denouncingand persecuting them. However, while the Safavids couldnot make any theoretical concessions or accommodationsabout the Sunnis of Persia, they could and often did adopta pragmatic policy towards them.

As far as the non-Muslims were concerned, the Safa-vids had much more room for freedom of action and policymaneuvres. This was due mainly to the fact that outside ofthe Shicite-Sunni question, the Safavids

because of the conception underlying their rule,could not tolerate any independence on the part ofthe religious institution and their supervision ofit was consequently more thoroughgoing than hadbeen that of preceding Sunni rulers. The circum-stances of the imposition of Shiism as the statereligion made it easy for the state to impose controlsince the religious institution owed its positionlargely, if not entirely, to the support of the poli-tical institution.6

The religious institution was from the first subordinatedto the political one. Hence in matters dealing with non-Muslims, short of granting them legal and social equalitywith the Muslims, the Safavid rulers had the freedom toexperiment and exercise policies that could be based onrealpolitik and/or expediency, without threatening thetheoretical bases of their authority, sovereignty and itslegitimacy.

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The Safavid policy and attitudes towards the non-Muslim elements of Persia can be best observed in theircapital of Isfahan, where in addition to the Ithna cashariMuslims, we encounter organized communities of non-Muslims:Jews who were located in Jubarah, a special quarter of thecity, Zoroastrians who were located on the south side ofZayandah Rud (below the Khwaju bridge), and the Armenianswho were settled in New Julfa, a suburb of Isfahan.

The Jews of Isfahan suffered periodic outbursts ofpersecutions, especially during the period of 1642-1722.At times, they were offered rewards, high positions, ormoney as a means to induce them to abandon their religionand to embrace the Ithna cashari form of Shicite Islam.7At other times there were forcible conversions.8

Raphael du Mans, in his Estat de la Perse en 1660,described the fate of Jews as follows:

pour les Juifs, en d'aucunes contrees, ils ont passepar force et a l'exterieure au mahometisme; end'autres endroits, on les a laisses sous le bastona 1'ombre duquel ils passent leur miserable vie danstout le Levant.9

The Jews, along with the Zoroastrians, were attrac-tive targets for conversions by zealous Shicite revivalistswho advocated their forcible conversion to Islam and mani-pulated such popularly held anti-Jewish notions and pre-judices as the myth that the Jews were practitioners ofmagic.10 Force and fear were bracketed with visions ofprospects of economic gain and appeals to human greed andinsecurity as means of inducement to convert the Jews,Zoroastrians and Christians. The provisions of a law thatRaphael du Mans called Machiavellian guaranteed to a con-vert the right to inherit the property and wealth of hisfamily and his relatives.H The condition of Jews deteri-orated further during the rule of the last, independentSafavid ruler, Shah Sultan Husayn (1694-1722), so much asto warrant the late Walter J. Fischel, the eminent author-ity on Jews of Persia and Central Asia, to express the

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verdict that: "Only the downfall of the Safavid dynasty,through the successful invasion of the Afghans and the subsequent rise of a new tolerant ruler, Nadir Shah . . .saved the Jews of Isfahan, and the Jews of Persia as awhole from complete annihilation."12 Later Sir John Mal-colm wrote

that the Jews in Persia, who are not numerous cannotappear in public, must less perform their religiousceremonies, without being treated with scorn andcontempt by Mahomedan inhabitants of that Kingdom. . . This race, who live despised and in povertyin Persia, are not only officially protected, butrespected in Turkey where they enjoy both wealthand consideration.13

Zoroastrians did not fare better. According toLaurence Lockhart, such Shicite theologians as

Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi and Muhammad Husayn andtheir associates behaved in a particularly brutalmanner to Zoroastrians in Persia. The persecutionof these unfortunate people had often been seriousenough during earlier reigns, but it became greatlyaccentuated under Shah Sultan Husain. Not longafter his accession, he was induced to sign a decreefor the forcible conversion of Zoroastrians to Islam.In 1699 the Archbishop of Ancyra was himself a wit-ness of the terrible measures that were then beingtaken to enforce this decree, particularly in Hasan-abad, the Zoroastrian quarter of Isfahan, wherelarge number were compelled to turn Muhammadan.Their temple was destroyed, and a mosque and schoolwere erected on its l^

Why the, did the Armenians of Isfahan and Persia,along with the Georgians, enjoy the so many privilegesdenied to other minorities of Isfahan? Why were theytreated less harshly than the other minorities? The pur-pose of this paper is to study the basis of the uniqueposition of the Armenian community of Isfahan (the largest

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and most prosperous Christian community of the Safavidempire) and the nature and aim of Safavid policies in re-gard to it.*

The establishment of the Armenian community inIsfahan

Intermittently through the sixteenth century his-torical Armenia, Georgia and the territories constitutingpresent-day Soviet Azerbayjan were the arena of Ottomanand Safavid wars. Historical Armenia served either as amilitant borderland or as a battlefield between the twocontending empires. Their wars had a devastating impacton the peoples and economy of the region. The intensityand ferocity of the Sunni-Shicite duel, fought for reli-gious, geopolitical and economic objectives, was accom-panied by the adoption on the part of the two formidablebelligerents of policies of deportation of population anddevastation of villages and towns in an effort to denyhuman and material resources to the conqueror. For in-stance, when Sultan Selim of the Ottoman empire occupiedTabriz in 1514, he took not only booty but some threethousand artisan families, a majority of whom were Arme-nian. He settled them in Constantinople (Istanbul).15Devastations were wrought in the Ottoman territories byShah Ismacll I (1501-24) and his successor Shah Tahmasp I(1524-76) who pursued what amounted to a limited scorched-earth policy: In the event of the retreat of the Safavidforces before the Ottomans, that retreat had to be accom-panied by the destruction of the harvest and all food-stuffs and shutting off of sources of water. For in theart of war, he said, everything that denied one's enemysuccess was both fair and legitimate.17 Such a policyinvolved the deportation of populations too. Tahmasp re-cords the fact that he witnesed Safavid captivity and depor-tation of Armenian populations who were subjects of the

*This paper is part of a larger study dealing with Safavidnationality and religious policies.

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Ottoman Empire. ° The Safavid and Ottoman devastationsare reflected in the Armenian historiography and litera-ture of the period. An Armenian chronicler, HovhannesArtchishetsi, a priest, bemoaned the invasion of Shah Tah-masp's forces into the region of Van and the ensuing wars(1531-34) in the following terms:

there came an epidemic of death . . . how manyfathers and mothers were rendered sonless anddaughterless, how many sisters brotherless andbrothers sisterless, how many pretty brides andbridgerooms were separated, and how many brothersand sisters died the same night? Who can recountthe sorrow and misery of parents and families,loved ones and those of the friends, only God Whocreated them, knows. And all of these came uponus because of our sins.-'-"

The Ottoman historian Pechevi, writing about the 1554invasion of Ottoman forces into the Garbagh and Nakhchevanregions of the Transcaucasus wrote that "during the entirelength of four-five days journey all habitations, construc-tions, and fields were destroyed to such a degree thatthere was no remnant of life."20 Such devastations con-tinued in 1578-90 when garrison armies collected food fromthe peasantry, and cut fruit tress and removed doors andwindows from houses in order to burn them as fuel in thefortresses. Many Christians, and even Muslims who wereadherents of the Ithna cashari form of Shicism, werecarried into captivity during those years.21 Describingthe events of the years 1578-89, the calamities of death,captivity, hunger and disease, Simeon Tigranakertsi, acontemporary source, wrote "no one can describe eitherthrough writing or through speech the difficulties of ourtimes."22 j n 1586 one who tried to do just that, thescribe Arakel Sarkavag, attributed all the ill to the seaof sin accumulated by those who received the wrath of God:the epidemic of death through the sword, and starvationwas not the end, he wrote, because after that the wolvesdug into the graves and ate the dead.23

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These conditions, compounded by heavy taxation,resulted in the first wave of immigration of the Armeniansfrom historical Armenia to Isfahan. According to ArakelDavrizhetsi, the contemporary historian, this first waveof immigration included both Armenian notables, otherproperty owners, and peasants; they were:

Sarukhan beg and his brother Nazar . . . Jalal begand his cousins, Oghlan Keshish and Ghalabeg, MelikSujum, Melik Pashik, Melik Haigazn, Melik Baben andthe entire inhabitants of four Armenian villagesemigrated to Persia, and asked for the Shah's pro-tection and settled in Isfahan.

At the time there were already individual Armenian mer-chants in Isfahan. One of these prominent merchants,Khwajah Nazar, had received a royal edict in 1586 grantinghim individual protection and freedom to trade widelywithin the realm of Safavid Persia.25

Immigration from the war-torm borderlands of theSafavid empire to its secure interior was not confined toArmenians alone. It included Kurdish chieftains, such asGhazi Khan and Hayat Beg Ulamayoghli, and various Georgiannoblemen disaffected from the Ottoman camp. Othersincluded poverty-stricken peasnats fleeing from the chro-nic wars, heavy taxation and religious persecution.26

The Armenian Catholicisate in Etchmiadzin, nearErevan, the center of the Armenian Apostolic Church, ini-tiated contacts with the new rule of Safavid Persia, ShahcAbbas I (1587-1629). The Catholicisate, a bone of conten-tion between rival Catholicoses, heavily indebted andconvinced that Shah cAbbas would surely attempt to regainterritories lost as a result of the Ottoman-Persian treatyof 1590, established contact with Shlh cAbbIs. One of theCatholicoses, along with two Archibishops, went to Isfahan.They were well received by the shah who, motivated toattract commercial and artisan classes to his realm andto forge an anti-Ottoman coalition of Shicite Muslim,Georgian and Armenian leaders of Transcaucasia in his

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forthcoming campaigns against the Ottomans to recapturethe lost territories of Armenia, Georgia, Kurdistan, Azer-bayjan and Tabriz, its center, encouraged and welcomeddisaffected leaders and emigrees from the Ottoman empire.Shah cAbbas accepted various Armenians into his serviceand according to Sherley was impressed with their compe-tence and abilities.28

The second stage of Armenian immigration to Isfahanis closely tied in with the 1603 campaign of Shah cAbbasI. That year the Safavid ruler violated the treaty of1590 with the Ottoman empire and invaded Ottoman domains.He entered Iranian Azerbayjan and conquered Tabriz andNakhchevan. The inhabitants of the Armenian city of Julfa,located on the left bank of the Araxes river, welcomed theshah with open arms and much enthusiasm: they handed himthe silver keys of the city, and gave him an impressivereception: a procession of the clergy, nobility and not-ables of the city, all dressed finely for the occasion,received him with candles, incense, religious and secularsongs. The shah was housed in the residence of KhwajahKhatchig, who offered to him trays full of gold coins ashis token gift. During the reception wine was offeredfrom golden cups.2^

Julfa had emerged as a major commercial centerduring the second half of the sixteenth century. It hadan estimated population of ten to twelve thousand, sometwo thousand houses and seven churches. It was locatedon the overland trade route that linked the Transcaucasusto Iranian Azerbayjan, hence the Ottoman empire, andthrough the Caspian or Khurasan to Central Asia. Thecommercial activities of this Armenian city were not con-fined to just those areas. The sphere of its commercialand financial transactions reached to India, Venice andother cities of Italy as well as other parts of Persiaitself, and the Ottoman empire. The city served as animportant center of east-west trade, and many of the mer-chants of Julfa served either as representatives orbrokers of various European and other commercial firms andinterests.30

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Shah cAbbas was impressed by what he saw. He mustalso have been fascinated by the possible roles that suchan active element, with its ready capital and wide con-tacts, could perform for the development of the realm andthe interests of the Safavid dynasty. The Armenian mer-chants and artisans of Julfa were well suited for such arole: their contacts in Asia and Europe and the presenceof Armenians in many of the strategic commercial and urbancenters of the Middle East, their acquaintance with cul-tures of the region and their familiarity with the lang-uages and traditions of the peoples of the East and Westplaced them in a position to perform well as the economicentrepreneurs of the Safavid dynasty and Shicite Persia.

During the sixteenth century there were Armeniansin India and Goa.31 jn the court of the Mughal emperors,Armenians occupied high administrative posts and served asinterpreters.32 As early as the fifteenth century andthe beginning of the sixteenth, there were Armenian mer-chants in Malabar and Cochin.33 There are reports ofArmenian merchants in Central Asia at the turn of the six-teenth century.3^- By the end of the sixteenth and begin-ning of the seventeenth century, English merchants werepurchasing some of their major wares (silk, spices, rugs,etc.) from the Armenian merchants of Constantinople, whohad brought them from India and Persia via the overlandroute.35 There were Armenian merchant communities inGeorgia, the Crimea, Kiev and Volga regions, Russia, Po-land, Bulgaria and Rumania.36 According to I.A. Lini-chenko, "In southern Russia and Poland it was so customaryto see the Armenians in the role of traders of the easterncommerce that a whole series of oriental goods were knownas 'Armenian goods'."37 There was an Armenian caravan-serai in Moscow in the late sixteenth century and manyactive merchants trading for Czar Ivan IV.3° According toGhevond Alishan, in 1596 there was an Armenian shop on St.Mark's Square in Venice dealing in cotton, wool and rugs.3"

It was the appealing combination of the wealth ofthe Julfa merchants and their international position thatprompted Shah cAbbas I to transplant the Armenians of

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Julfa en masse from their homeland to Isfahan. In doingso the shah aimed to achieve a variety of short and longrange goals. His immediate military objective, similarto that of Shah Tahmasp's, was to depopulate and lay wastethe territories that lay between the retreating Safavidforces and the advancing Ottoman ones, in that way makithe area a liability rather than an asset for the Ottomanarmies. In any event, Shah cAbbas was determined not tolet the wealth of Julfa and its dominant position in over-land trade be controlled by the Ottomans. By re-locatingthe merchants who carried on the trade between Persia,Central Asia and India, and the Mediterranean and Europeanworld, trade which had until then moved through the Otto-man empire, Shah cAbbas hoped also to change that longestablished trade route itself, to one which would by-passthe Ottoman empire entirely by coming down through south-ern Persia and the Persian Gulf, remaining at all timesunder Persian control. Moving the Julfa Armenians wascrucial to this hope.

On the transformation of his capital of Isfahaninto a major trade center, Shah cAbbIs also wanted,through the intermediary of the Armenian entrepreneurs, tocontrol the silk industry which was a state monopoly. Atthe same time he could establish control over a class, ora specific ethnic element, situated in Isfahan under theimmediate eye of the monarch, which could deal with andcompete as Persian subjects against European merchants,thus retaining a degree of independence for Persia withouthurting its trade and the prosperity of the realm anddynasty. The conscious or unconscious over-all policyobjective of Shah cAbbas I seems to have been to developPersia's central provinces as secure bases, not easilyaccessible to external enemies, and then later to developthe borderlands of his empire.

In pursuit of these objectives, in 1604 Shlh cAbbasordered the move of Armenians and other populations fromthe valley of Ararat to Persia. Accoding to Davrizhetsi"all the inhabitants of Armenia be them Christian, Jewishor Muslim"40 were ordered to move out of their homes and

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to adapt themselves to a new homeland in Persia proper.Of all these people Shah cAbbas took most particular careof the deportation of the Julfa Armenians. Three dayswere allowed to them to cross the River Araxes into Per-sia, along with their movable belongings. This was due,among other things, to the shah's determination that theJulfa Armenians must keep their wealth if they were toperform the economic role for which they were being takento Isfahan. Persian forces were ordered to assist themin their crossing of the river. In order to destroy anyhopes amongst the inhabitants of Julfa that their depor-tation or transplantation might be a temporary one, ShahcAbbas I ordered the complete destruction of the ^*

Shah cAbbas succeeded in his short and long rangeobjectives: Ottoman forces led by Sinan Pasha crossed thedevastated lands in pursuit of the Safavid forces andreached the Araxes river. Exhausted, they had to returnto Van for the winter, giving Shah cAbbas enough time toregroup his armies and the following year he defeated theOttoman forces.

Transplantation of the Armenians into Persia alsoserved its intended purpose. They were dispersed through-out the land: Tabriz, Qazvin, Gilan, Enzeli, Darband, andKashan. Most important of all, Shah cAbbas successfullyremoved the Armenians of Julfa to Isfahan.

The exact number of Armenians taken to Persiaduring the wars of Shah cAbbas (1603-29) is not clear.Arakel Davrizhetsi estimated the number at 60,000 familiesor 300,000 souls, removed not on one, two, or three, butmany occasions.^

Such forcible mass dislocations of course causedmuch suffering. Contemporary sources, such as the Arme-nian chronicler Avgustino Badgetsi, Antonio de Govea, theSpanish Ambassador to the court of cAbbas, and IskandarMunshl provide many details about the misery and sufferingthat were the natural accompaniment to these massive dis-locations. The ravages of the extremely cold winter of

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1604 and the terrible toll taken by starvation, producingsome instances of cannibalism, were reported by Antoniode Govea.4-4 Many, unable or too weak to swim the Araxes,were driven into it and drowned. Others dies in epide-mics. ̂ 5 of the many lamentations written at the time,perhaps that of Stepannos Vardapet sums up the many feel-ings of those who were being deported from their homeland;sorrow, nostalgia, humiliation and suffering are expressedin the following terms:

Poor, Armenian people, innocent and without adviceDispersed, hungry, thirsty and nakedOn your way to captivity in KhurasanYou endured hundreds and thousands of illsBut you did not set foot out of your sweet country.Now you are abandoning your fathers' and mothers'

gravesAnd surrendering your houses and churches to others."

The Founding of New Julfa

Shah cAbbas took a personal interest in the fateof the displaced Armenians of Julfa. In 1605 he estab-lished them in a suburb of Isfahan and from 1606 onallowed them to being building a small township of theirown bearing the name of New Julfa.4-7

The shah ordered Persian masons and engineers toassist their Armenian counterparts in building the newtownship.^8 The shah reportedly displaced many Muslimsfrom their houses or other properties to make way for theArmenians.^9 in a n effort to gain the loyalty and affec-tion of the Armenians of New Julfa, Shah cAbbas grantedthem religious liberty, and free citizenship, permittingthem to construct their own churches, to elect their ownmayor (kalantar) and to hold public religious processions,even to the ringing of church bells. Armenians had theirown courts and judges to settle their differences and dis-putes. Restrictions on them as to clothing were removed.

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The Armenian kalantar of New Julfa had jurisdic-tion over the Armenians in the vicinity of Isfahan. Heselected the headman of each village and collected taxeson behalf of the shah. The notables of New Julfa had theright to have a retinue or escort. Shah cAbbas alsodemonstrated a friendly diplomacy on the personal front.In an effort to win the affection of his new sugjects andto demonstrate to others the esteem in which he held theseArmenians, he paid periodic visits to the homes of suchnotables of New Julfa as Khwajah Safar, Khwajah Nazar, andtheir children, Malikagha, Sultanum and Sarfraz. Heencouraged his ministers to follow his example. He evenattended church services on the occasions of Easter andChristmas. In addition, the shah gave the kalantar of NewJulfa one of his royal seals. This was particularly use-ful as a means of facilitating travel, bypassing otherwisenecessary red-tape, and especially in making transactionsand guaranteeing them with the shah's own seal. Finally,the shah lent interest-free loans to Armenians in order tofacilitate the establishmert of their businesses and indus-tries. Taxes for citizens of New Julfa were light. Theking also lent to Armenian peasants of the area who werein need of them oxen and other animals so that they mighttill their new lands and build on them. According toArmenian tradition, in cases of disputes pitting hisChristian Armenian subjects against his Muslim ones, theshah sided most of the time with his new subjects. Inthus siding with the Armenians, the shah would stress thatthey had left their fatherland, their riches and theirhomes, and had come to Persia; therefore, trivial disputesshould not obscure the fact that they were valued guests.Furthermore it had cost the king one thousand tumans tobring each Armenian to Isfahan. All these sacrifices,the shah used to say, he had done not in the interest ofthe Armenians but for that of Persia. Such was the free-dom Armenians enjoyed that when in the bazaar disputesarose between a Muslim and an Armenian, the Armenian hadthe equal right with the Muslim to curse and cuss in kind,without fear of retribution.50

Over a score of churches were built in New Julfa.

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Thirteen are still in existence. The two largest are AllSaviours Cathedral, constructed in 1606 and rebuilt in1655, and the Church of Bethlehem, built in 1627.51 Theinitial population of New Julfa has been estimated at15-20,000, but their numbers increased so that by 1630there were some thirty thousand Armenians in New Julfa,and perhaps some fifty thousand other Armenians in twenty-four Armenian villages established in the vicinity ofIsfahan, in the region of Peria.52

The Armenian community of Isfahan and Peria consti-tuted a new administrative unit under the auspices of theCatholicosate of Etchmiadzin. It had its own bishop whoassumed jurisdiction over the Armenians of Shiraz, Hamadan,Rasht, Anzali, Kashan, Qazvin, Tehran, Basra, and Baghdad.The New Julfa See had jurisdiction over 74 villages.53

New Julfa not only became a religious center forthe Armenians of Persia but a cultural center as well.During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thebishop of New Julfa, who oversaw the administrative andreligious affairs of the Armenian community, was in chargeof its educational enterprise too. During the 1630's anadvanced school was founded by Bishop Khachadoor. It wascalled a University or a Lyceum and its curriculum con-sisted of religious subjects, "liberal sciences and meta-physics." The school was supported by contributions ofthe Armenian khwljahs (notables) of New Julfa and pro-vided education to their children. Among its famousgraduates were Hagop Djughayetsi, who later became theCatholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church; Simeon, thephilosopher, who wrote not only a grammar but a number ofphilosophical treatises on logic and metaphsics, and trans-lated Aristotle; historian Khachadoor Djughayetsi, whowrote a contemporary history of Persia, and KuchukHarootiun, who wrote the history of Thamaz Quli Khan.Another graduate of this school was Hovhannes Vardapet.This man was sent by the bishop of New Julfa to Italy tofamiliarize himself with the art of printing, and hesubsequently introduced the first printing press intoPersia. The first printed book was the Saghmos (Psalms)

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in 1638, which was followed by only a few others, inclu-ding Harants-Vark (Lives of the Church Fathers) in 1646,and in 1647 a Parzatomar.

In New Julfa developed a whole school of Armenianpainters who became specialists in miniatures and mosaicmosaics.-^

Economic Position of New Julfa and the Armenians

Throughout the seventeenth century New Julfa grewin strength, size and wealth. In 1617 Pietro Delle Valle,in his discription of Isfahan, reported that there wereChristians of different sects in Isfahan: "Syrians, Geor-gians in much greater abundance, and an infinite number ofArmenians. These latter are extremely rich, carrying onmost of the commerce of the country, particularly withTurkey . . . Christians are allowed to wear green, whichis expressly forbidden in Turkey."-*5 A major portion ofPersia's trade with India, Russia and Europe was handledby the Armenians,-*" who had trading establishments inalmost all the major cities of Persia, Russia and Europe^'and controlled the wool and silk supplies of the Persianempire and dealt extensively in the spice and Europeanclothing traffic.58 Since the Indian-Persian-CentralAsian trade passed through Afghanistan, Armenian merchantsestablished themselves in such focal transit centers asKabul, Herat and Kandahar. * There were Armenian mer-chants in Holland during the beginning of the seventeenthcentury and Armenians traded with Hollad as well as Moscow,Sweden, Poland and Germany, Tonkin, Java and the Philip-pines. °0 when Olearius went to Persia in 1637 with anembassy from the Duke of Holstein, he was struck by thewealth of Isfahan, its cosmopolitanism and the interna-tional character of its trade: "There is not any nationin all Asia, nor indeed almost of Europe, who sends notits merchants to Isfahan . . . There are ordinarily above12,000 Indians in the city . . . Besides these Indiansthere is at Isfahan great numbers of Tartars . . . Turks,Jews, Armenians, Georgians, English, Dutch, French,

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Italians, and Spaniards."

Much has been written about the particular causesof success of the enterprising New Julfa merchants. JohnFryer, during his 1677 visit wrote the following aboutthem:

Being skilled in all the intricacies and subtiltiesof trade at home, and travelling with them into theremotest Kingdoms, become by their own industry, andby being factors of their own kindreds honesty, thewealthiest men, being expert at bargains wheneverthey come, evading thereby brokeridge, and studyingall the arts of thrift, will travel for fiftyshillings, where we cannot for fifty thomans."^

While thrift, honesty and industry are good characteris-tics, the spectacular success of the New Julfa merchantscannot be attributed solely to them. Three historicalfactors contributed to their unique position: a) thealliance of and protection afforded by the Safavid rulers,who considered them an asset to Safavid Persia and a majorsource of revenues; b) the crucial events of 1618, whenthe British, who held the monopoly on export of raw silkfrom Persia to Europe, lost that monopoly and, along withother Europeans were outbid by the New Julfa merchantswho then obtained that monopoly; and c) Armenian merchantsof New Julfa situated themselves both on the major arte-ries of overland trade as well as of maritime trade, thusinvolving themselves in Indian-Persian, Indian-Ottoman,Central Asian-Ottoman, Persian-European and Persian-Rus-sian trade. Thus they were competitors of the LevantCompany, the Muscovy Company, and the East India Company.

The monopoly of the silk trade became the majorsource of wealth for the New Julfans and a crucial sourceof revenue for the Safavid rulers. According to Issawi,the silk crop of Persia was estimated in the seventeenthcentury to be some 4,300,000 pounds, with an estimateddomestic value of some t550,000: the the 1670's the cropestimate was placed at 6,072,000 pounds. At the time the

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Dutch Company was paying four to five florins a pound whichwould have amounted to a total value of hi,000,000 to£2,500,000.63 In 1637 Olearius reported that every year20,000 bales of Persian silk were exported to Europe (eachbale weighed 276 pounds). This should give some idea ofthe magnitude of the transactions of New Julfa merchants.

In 1667 Armenians became beneficiaries of anothermajor opportunity. Russia's Czar Aleksei Mikhailovych, whohad turned down the attempts of the Swedes, the Dutch, theFrench and the English to participate directly in the East-ern trade through Russia, granted the Armenian merchants ofIsfahan the right to travel north from Astrakhan acrossRussia and to sell Persian merchandise (mainly silk) toEuropean buyers. The monopolistic position of the Arme-nian merchants in Russia was further strengthened after1688 when they concluded a commercial agreement with Swedendealing with the export of Persian goods via Russia toScandinavia.65

The master plan of Shah cAbbas I seemed to have•succeeded: a Persian community, located in the capitalof the Safavids and under the immediate control of themonarchy, closely allied to the shah as the source ofprotection and patronage which secured their wealth, anddependent upon him for the continued exercise of theirprivileges, had become a major economic force in theMiddle East. The symbiotic relationship between the NewJulfa community and the Safavid rulers had contributed tothe dramatic development of Persia's foreign trade andhad more than doubled the Safavid monarch's revenues, whichnow amounted to nine million tomans yearly,66 and contri-buted to the emergence of a healthy and opulent center inNew Julfa complete with a large artisan class.67 The silkindustry and its Armenian entrepreneurs ahd provided theshah and his successors with an independent income.68(Armenian merchants paid fifty tomans for each bale of silkthey bought from the shah and a poll tax of one mithqal(4.69 grams) of gold per each adult male.)69 Most impor-tantly, the profits of the Armenian merchants stayed inPersia.70

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The merchants had also managed, probably acciden-tally, to accomplish another objective of Shah cAbbas'economic and political policies: by outbidding the Britishand other European merchants for Persia's silk, they stavedoff for at least fifty years, the direct European controlof the Persian economy and the introduction of the systemof capitaulations. They were fierce competitors anddetractors of English and Dutch merchants and companies.When New Julfa was at the zenith of its power, there wasno attempt to institutionalize and update the policies ofShah cAbbas 1 by his successors, a policy which had beengeared to generate and sustain the commercial and economichealth of the empire. At a time when European powers andEuropean East Indian companies were embarking upon majoroffensives to capture the Persian market, the Safavidrulers Shah Sulayman (1666-94) and Shah Sultan Husayn(1694-1722) were either not aware of the challenge or notready to meet it. Instead of a continued partnership,these latter two embarked upon capricious policies offorced conversion and open persecution of Armenians, makingdeals with European merchants and firms at the expense oftheir own subjects, using Armenians and Jews as scapegoatsfor such things as crop failures and drought, encouragingthe application of the law of apostasy whereby if a Jew ora Christian turned Muslim he would claim the property ofhis relatives. All of these were coupled with increasinglyheavy taxes. New Julfa was no longer treated as the eco-nomic arm of the Safavid ruler, but rather as an open tar-get and a limitless source of money. All of these thingswere happening at a time when Russian power was rising inthe north, the East India Company's power was increasingin India and both were making overtures to Armenian mer-chants in an effort to co-opt them into their own service.European missionaries, backed by European governments andthe direct beneficiaries of capitulatory agreements, weremaking a concerted effort to proselytize the Armenians intoCatholicism. Shah CAbbas opposed any mass conversion ofthe Armenians into Catholicism and so did the Armenianreligious and secular leadership of New Julfa. The shah'sresponse to the missionaries had been "If they will changetheir religion [the Armenians] being his subjects, they

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shall accept his [religion], knowing how dangerous it willbe to have at least 50,000 at the devotion of the Churchof Rome within his dominions."71

After Shah cAbbas I, the matter became the subjectof intense internecine struggles within the Armenian com-munities. However, with the growing insecurity within theSafavid realm, Catholicism and through it European protec-tion or security also became attractive alternatives tosome of the leaders and artisans of New Julfa.

The attempts of Shah cAbbIs I to divert the majoroverland trade routes from the Ottoman empire to the Per-sian Gulf had not been complemented by the development ofa Persian merchant marine. Thus the beneficiaries of thisdiversion, in the long run, were the European joint stockcompanies, against whom the dispirited citizens of NewJulfa, abandoned by Shah cAbbas' successors, were no match.

On the eve of the Afghan invasion, New Julfa wasstill performing, but in a declining way, its traditionalrole for the trade of the Safavid empire wouthout the bene-fit, however, of the dynamism, confidence and visionaryplans of Shah cAbbas. The Afghans gave the coup de graceboth to that role and the irresolution of the post-1666Safavid rulers.

NOTES

1. Edward G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia, 2nded. (Cambridge: 1956-59), vol IV, p. 3; Eugene Aubin,"Le Chiisme et la nationalite Persane," Revue du MondeMusulman IV/2 (March 1908), p. 458.

2. H.A.R. Gibb, "An Interpretation of Islamic History,"Journal of World History I (1953), p. 60.

3. Tadhkirat al-Muluk, translated and explained by V.Minorsky in E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Series. New SeriesXVI (London: 1943), p. 188: "Like oil and water, the

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Turcomans and Persians did not mix freely."

4. Ann K.S. Lambton, "Quis Custodiet Custodes: SomeReflections on the Persian Theory of Government,"Studia Islamica VI (MCMLVI), pp. 125-126.

5. Bernard Lewis, "Some .observations on the significanceof heresy in the history of Islam," Studia Islamica I(MCMLIII), p. 61; Browne, IV, pp. 23, 63, 69, 94-95.See also E. Eberhard, Osmanische Polemik gegen dieSafawiden im 16. Jahrhundert nach arabischen Hand-schriften (Freiburg: 1970).

6. Lambton, p. 133.

7. Jean Chardin, Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perseet autres Lieux de 1'Orient, Langes ed. (Paris: 1811),vol. V, pp. 132-33; Tavernier, Voyages, pp. 68-69.For a survey of the Jewish community of Persia, seeNemiah Robinson, Persia and Afghanistan and theirJewish communities (New York: 1953).

8. Hebrew chronicles of Babai b. Lutf of Kashan and Babaib. Farhad provide versified lamentations depictingpersecution and forcible conversion of Jews to Islamduring 1642-1666. See W. Bacher's French translationof their chronicle: "Les Juifs de Perse au XVIIe etau XVIIIe siecle," Revue des Etudes Juives LII, pp.77-97, 234-37; LIII, pp. 85-110. According to RobinE. Waterfield, Christians in Persia (London: 1973),p. 72, "By 1678 the persecution of all the minoritiesreached a peak. Many thousands of Jews were murdered."

9. Le P. Raphael du Mans, Estat de la Perse en 1660(Paris: 1890), p. 46. According to du Mans, suchwas the hatred of Shah Ismacll towards Jews thatwherever he found them, he blinded them (ibid., p.274). Du Mans also reports (ibid., pp. 193-94) thatin certain regions of Persia the Jews were forced tobecome Muslims but that they secretly frequentedtheir synagoguges.

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10. Chardin, VI, p. 133. See also L. Lockhart, The Fallof the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan occupation ofPersia (Cambridge: 1957), p. 73.

11. Du Mans, p. 49. Nouvelles relations du Levant par leSr. Poullet (Paris: 1668), vol. II, pp. 283-83.According to Lockhart, p. 73, n. 5: "The law waspassed by the usually tolerant Shah CAbbas I. Itwas reenacted by Shah cAbbas II. . .It affected theChristians in Persia even more than it did the Jews."

12. "Isfahan, the story of a Jewish community in Persia"in the Josua Starr Memorial Volume (New York: 1953),p. 126 as quoted by Lockhart, p. 74.

13. See his The History of Persia, from the most EarlyPeriod to the Present Time (London: MDCCC), vol.II, p. 425.

14. Lockhart, pp. 72-73.

15. The Travels of Sir John Chardin (London: 1686),v o l . I , p . 360.

16. De Hammer, His to r i e de l'Empire Ottoman (Par is : 1835)vo l . IV, p . 225.

17. See Tazkirah- i Shah Tahmasp (Calcutta; 1912), pp.51-527

18. I b i d . , pp. 58-60.

19. Divan Hayote Patmootian (Tiflis: 1912), vol. X, pp.19ff; Lee,Hayote Patmottium (Yerevan: 1946), vol.III, pp. 182-83.

20. Ibrahim Pechevi, Tarihi PecheviVol. II, pp. 46-48; Sharaf Khan Bitlisi, in AramSafratian, ed., Turkakan aghbioornere Hayastani yevHayeri masin (Yerevan:

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21. Scharafnameh ou histoire des Kourdes par Scher,Prince de Bidlis, publiee par V. Veliaminof-Zernof(St. Petersburg: 1860), vol. II, p. 286 and IskandarMunshI, Tarlfch-i cAlam-ara-i cabbasl (Tehran: 1897),vol. I, p. 231 and vol. II, p. 345.

22. H. Adjarian and H. Manandian, Hayots Nor Vkanere(Vagharshapat: 1903), pp. 413-14.

23. B. Sarkisian, Mayr tsootsak Hayeren dzeragratsMatenadarani Mkhitarian ee Venetikpp. 667-68.

24. Arakel Davrizhetsi, Hayots Patmootiun (Vagharshapat:1896), pp. 16-17; Harootium T. Ter Havhaniants,Patmootiun Nor Djughayu vor Haspahan (Nor Djugha:1880-81), vol. I , pp. 10-11.

25. Ibid. , vol. I , pp. 11, note 5 and p. 158.

26. Davrizhetsi, pp. 14, 16.

27. Ibid., p. 17. Malachia Ormanian, Azgapatum, HaiOughapar Yekeghetsvo Antskere Skizben minchev tnerOrere: 1221-1808 (Constantinople: 1914), pp. 2291,2293. Leo, vol. Ill, pp. 237-38.

28. Denison Ross, ed., Sir Anthony Sherley and his PersianAdventure (London: 1933), pp. 159-63 and passim.

29. Hovhaniants, vol. I, p. 13; Davrizhetsi, p. 16.

30. For a description of Julfa see Leo. Ghevond Alishan,Siunik Kam Sisakan (Venice: 1893), pp. 411-13. JohnCartwright, Purchas His Pilgrims (London: 1905),vol. VIII, pp. 498-99.

31. P. Thomas, Christians and Christianity in India andPakistan (London: 1954), pp. 55, 87, 122.

32. Father Pierre du Jarric, S.J., Akbar and the Jesuits:

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an Account of the Jesuit Missions to the Court ofAkbar, Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power, eds.(New York: 1926), p. 17. Father Monserrate, TheCommentary of Father Monserrate, S.J., on his Journeyto the Court of Akbar (Oxford: 1922), trans, fromthe Latin by J.S. Hoyland and annotated by S.N.Banerjee, p. 2. Father Monserrate even reports thatthe Mughal emperor Akbar "was deceived by the commonbut erroneous supposition that all of the Christiansof Asia are Armenians," p. 137. Thomas, pp. 106-07.Mesrovb J. Seth, Armenians in India (Calcutta: 1937),p. 1.

33. Alishan, p. 475.

34. Catholicos Grigoris of Aghtamar wrote in 1519 aboutan Armenian merchant who reached Samarkand and Buk-hara and then India. See K. Kostaniants, GrigorisAghtamartsin yev eer taghere (Tiflis: 1898), pp.88-91.

35. George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey begun in A.D.1610 (London: 1627), vol. I, p. 86.

36. A.G. Abrahamian, Hamarot urvagids hai gaghtavaireripatmutian (Erevan: 1964); on the colonies of Georgia,pp. 91-111; on Kiev and Volga regions, pp. 112-25;on Bulgaria, pp. 305-27; on Rumania, pp. 328-61; onRussia, pp. 302-402; on the Crimea, pp. 157-96. Fora general survey of the Armenian colonies of theperiod, see Arshak Alpoyajian, Patmootiun hai gagh-takanutian (Cairo: 1955), 1961), vols. 2 and 3.

37. L. Khachikian, "Haikakan gaghtavayrer UkraniaiumXVI-XVII DD," Teghekagir 4 (1954), p. 50. See alsoW. Lozinski, Patrycyeti Mieszezanstwo, translatedinto Armenian by H. Zavrian, Hairenik Monthly, 7thyear, nos. 9-12, who provides the names of Armenianmerchants trading with Constantinople, and informs usthat Polish Queens often sent Armenian merchants to

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the East to bring specified luxury products andthat many Oriental luxury goods in Poland were knownas "Armenian goods."

38. V.K. Vosganian, "Hayere Moskvayum XV-XVII darerum,"Patmabanasirakan Handes 1 (1971), p. 31.

39. Alishan, Hai-Venent, p. 415.

40. Davrizhetsi, p. 38.

41. Hovhaniants, I, p. 23-25. L.G. Daneghian, "Hayeribrnagaghtn Iran 17-rd daroom: Araken Davrizhetsutvyalnerov," Lraber 8 (1969), p. 69.

42. Hovhaniants, I, pp. 30-31. Du Mans, pp. 181-83,332.

43. Davrizhetsi, pp. 52-53. See also Abrahamian, p. 253and Daneghian, p. 70. H. Arakelian, ParskastaniHayere (Vienna: 1911), Part I, p. 97.

44. Antonio de Govea, Relation des grandes guerres etvictoires obtenues par le roi de Perse, Chah Abbas,contre les empereurs de Turquie Mohamet et Achmet,son fils (Rouen: 1646), p. 361. See also Leo, pp.254-56.

45. Davrizhetsi, pp. 60-61. Avgustino Badgetsi, in K.Patkanian, ed., Neshkhark Matenagrootian Hayots (St.Petersburg: 1884), pp. 6-7, 100.

46. Shepanos Vardapet, "Voghb Dzughayetsvots," in Bazmavep(Venice: 1847), pp. 94-95. Also in Knar Haykakan(St. Petersburg: 1868), p. 134 and Leo, p. 252.

47. There are no monographs in European languages on thehistory and evolution of the Armenian community ofPersia in general and that of New Julfa in particular.The best work on the latter subject is still the twovolume study by Harootiun T. Her Hovhaniants (inArmenian) published in New Julfa in 1880-81. Soviet

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Armenian scholars have published many valuable articleson various facets and phases of the Armenian communityof Isfahan, but so far no major monograph has replacedthe important work of Leo, Khojayakan Kapital (Erevan:1934), an effort to study the impact of the financialwealth of the Armenian merchant class. H.D. Papa-zian's, ed., Persidskiye Dokumenti Matenadarana:Ukazi, 2 vols (Erevan: 1956, 1959) is a valuablecollection of the edicts of the Safavid rulers, pub-lished in three languages, Persian, Armenian andRussian. An important work also is that of L.G.Minassian, patmootiun Periayi Hayeri (Antilias: 1941),dealing with the Armenian villages near Isfahan. JohnCarswell's excellent New Julfa, The Armenian Churchesand other Buildings (Oxford: 1968), fills a majorgap. Ismail Raiin recently published the first mono-graph in the Persian language dealing with the generalhistory of the Armenians in Iran including those ofNew Julfa. See his Iranian-i Armani (Tehran: 1970).There is a sketchy and general survey of the Armeniansof Persia in Robin E. Waterfield, Christians inPersia (London: 1973). For a survey of the NewJulfa community in the seventeenth century, seeGeorge Bournatian, "The Armenian Community of Isfahanin the Seventeenth Century," The Armenian ReviewXXIV, No. 96, pp. 27-45 and XXV, no. 97, pp. 33-50.

48. Nasrullah Falsafi, Zindigani-i Shah cAbbas avval(Tehran: 1962), vol. Ill, p. 205.

49. Hovhaniants, I, p. 45.

50. Ibid. For the rights enjoyed by the Armenians of NewJulfa, see ibid., I, pp. 35-48, vol. II. GrigorDaranaghtsi, Zhamanakagrootiun (Jerusalem: 1915),p. 39._ Ormanian, Azgapatoom, pp. 2301-02. Tadhkirahal-muluk, p. 202. L.G. Minasian, pp. 34-36. Lockhart,op. cit., p. 474 and L. Lockhart, Persian Cities(London: 1960), p. 26.

51. Carswell, p. 6-12 passim. Raiin, pp. 82-84.

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52. See Hovnaniants, I, pp. 30-32; Minasian, pp. 28-33;Lockhart, The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty, pp. 474, 477.

53. See Hovnaniants, II, pp. 105-08.

54. On the cultural life of Julfa, see KhachadoorDjughayetsi, Patmootiun Parsits (Vagharshapat: 1905),pp. 116-20; Abrahamian, pp. 261-63; Raiin, pp. 158-61;Carswell, pp. 90-91; M.M. Ghazarian, "Nor DjughayiXVII dari Hai Nekartchootiune," PatmabanasirakanHandes, no. 1 (1968), pp. 193-202.

55. Pietro delle Valle, Travels in Persia, in John Pinker-ton, ed., A general collection of the Best and MostInteresting voyages and travels (London: 1811), vol.IX, pp. 27,43.

56. Sainsbury, ed., Calenadar of State Papers, p. 23.Alexander Hamilton, "A New Account of the East Indies"in Pinkerton, op. cit., vol. VIII, p. 293. John Bellof Antermony, "Travels,"ibid., VII, p. 283. Sir T.Herbert, Travels, ibid., IX, pp. 191-92. Travels ofFray Sebastian Manrique (1629-1643), II, p. 361.Alfred C. Wood, A History of the Levant Company(Oxford: 1835), p. 147.

57. Herbert, pp. 191-92 and Manrique, II, p. 361.

58. John Bruce, Annals of the Honorable East India Company(London: 1810), vol. II, p. 618 and Willan, TheEarly History of the Russian Company: 1553-1603, p.60.

59. Manrique, II, pp. 342-43. See also Henry Bernford'saccount of his journey from Agra to Tatta (1639) inThe English Factories in India: 1637-1641 (Oxford;1912), pp. 134, 135; Mesrovt Seth, p. 207.

60. W.N. Sainsbury, Calendar of State Papers, pp. 211-12;du Mans, pp. 342-53, 368; J.B. Tavernier, Six Voyagesof Tavernier (London: 1677), pp. 158-159.

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61. Adam Olearius, The Voyages and Travels (London: 1662).

62. John Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia(London: 1909-15) vo. II, p. 249.

63. Charles Issawi, The Economic History of Iran: 1800-1914 (Chicago: 1971), p. 12.

64. V. Vosganian, "Hai-Rusakan Harabercotiunnere XVIIdarum," Teghekagir, no. 1 (1948), pp. 59-62. SamuelH. Baron, ed., The Travels of Olearius in seventeenth

65. century Russia (Stanford: 1967), intro., p. ii.

65. V. Parsamian et al., ed., Armiano-Russkie otnosheniiav XVII vv: Sbornik dokumentov, vol. I, pp. 224,337ff.

66. Tazkirat al-muluk, p. 175.

67. The ranks of these artisans included, among otherthings, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, printers, masons,watchmakers, carpenters, book binders, furriers, rugweavers, tailors, etc. Hovhaniants, I, p. 189 andRaiin, pp. 129-31.

68. Ta%kirat al-muluk, p. 14.

69. Ibid., p. 180.

70. V.A. Bayburdian, "Nor Djughayi Vatchurakanootiune yevarevmtayevropakan Kapital Antesakan expantsian Iranum',1

P.H., no. 3 (1966), p. 219.

71. Thomas Boys to the Earl of Salisbury, June 10, 1609in Sainsbury, ed., p. 186.

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