New Julfa: Shah Abbas and the Armenians of Isfahan (1605)

New Julfa is the Armenian quarter of Isfahan in Iran, founded around 1605 by Armenians whom the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I forcibly moved from the town of Julfa on the Aras river. Born of a brutal wartime deportation, it grew into one of the richest merchant communities of the seventeenth century, with trade links stretching from Amsterdam to Manila. Its churches, above all Vank Cathedral, still stand as a reminder of that remarkable history.

Old Julfa and the silk trade

Old Julfa (Jugha) lay on the north bank of the Aras river, in today’s Nakhchivan. In the sixteenth century it grew into a prosperous town of Armenian merchants, who carried Iranian raw silk overland to Aleppo, Venice and other markets. Its cemetery of carved cross-stones, or khachkars, was famous for its size.

Armenians had a long Christian history going back to the conversion of Armenia around 301. By the sixteenth century their lands were divided between the Ottomans and Safavids and repeatedly fought over.

The deportation of 1604–1605

In 1603 Shah Abbas the Great went to war with the Ottomans and recovered much of the Caucasus. When a large Ottoman army advanced in 1604, he ordered a scorched-earth retreat. Towns and villages of the Aras valley were emptied and burned so that the enemy could find no food or shelter.

The people of Julfa were among those forced to leave. Crossing the Aras in winter, many deportees drowned or died of cold and hunger. Numbers are uncertain: historians speak of tens of thousands up to several hundred thousand people moved from the region as a whole. Most were settled in rural areas of Iran, especially Gilan, Mazandaran and around Isfahan.

Founding New Julfa

The merchants of Julfa received special treatment. Abbas settled them on the south bank of the Zayanderud, across the river from his new capital and linked to it by the Si-o-se-pol bridge. Their suburb took the name New Julfa.

The community was given privileges unusual for non-Muslims. It could elect its own mayor, or kalantar, build churches and run its own affairs. Abbas lent money to help merchants rebuild their businesses. In return, they became essential to the royal silk trade, which the shah used to earn silver. From 1619 the merchants of New Julfa bought much of the crown’s silk at auction and sold it abroad.

A global trading network

From their base in Isfahan, New Julfa merchants built a network of family firms and agents across Eurasia. They traded in Venice, Livorno, Amsterdam and Marseille, in Russia, the Ottoman Empire and India, and as far as Tibet, Burma and Manila. Partnerships known as commenda contracts let travelling agents trade on behalf of investors at home, with careful accounts written in a special Armenian merchant dialect.

The wealth of the merchants paid for churches, houses and art. By the late seventeenth century New Julfa had around two dozen churches. Vank Cathedral, rebuilt in its present form between about 1655 and 1664, combines a Persian-style brick dome with walls covered in paintings of Christian scenes. The first printing press in Iran was set up there in the late 1630s, and its first Armenian book appeared in 1641.

Life in the suburb

New Julfa was laid out with broad, straight streets lined with plane trees and water channels, with large merchant houses set around courtyards. Wealthy families decorated their homes with wall paintings and imported European goods, and travellers noted that they dressed and entertained in great style.

The suburb was home to the Armenian archbishop of Isfahan, whose authority extended to Armenian communities in India and other places. European Catholic orders, such as the Carmelites and Jesuits, also worked in the area, sometimes causing tension with the Armenian Church.

Decline and survival

The privileges of New Julfa depended on the goodwill of the shahs. Later rulers, especially Shah Soltan Hoseyn at the end of the seventeenth century, imposed heavier taxes and religious pressure. During the Afghan siege and capture of Isfahan in 1722, the suburb was forced to pay a huge ransom. Many merchant families moved to India, Russia and elsewhere, and the network gradually broke up.

An Armenian community survives in New Julfa today, with churches, schools and the Vank Cathedral museum, which preserves manuscripts and documents from the merchant era.

Timeline

• 1603: Shah Abbas I begins a new war against the Ottomans.
• 1604–1605: Abbas deports the population of Julfa and the Aras valley.
• c. 1605: New Julfa is founded on the south bank of the Zayanderud.
• 1619: New Julfa merchants gain a leading role in royal silk sales.
• 1636–1641: A printing press is set up in New Julfa; its first book appears in 1641.
• c. 1655–1664: Vank Cathedral is built in its present form.
• 1722: New Julfa pays a heavy ransom during the Afghan capture of Isfahan.

Why it matters

New Julfa shows both the harshness and the pragmatism of Safavid rule: a population uprooted by war, then given privileges because it was useful. Its merchants became one of the great trading diasporas of the early modern world, linking Iran to Europe and Asia.