Grand bazaar of Isfahan, 1703, drawing of van G.

Hofsted from Essen, Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden

Carvansaray in Isfahan, painted by Cornelis de Bruijn in 1703, from Jona Lendering’s collection

The Silk road and Isfahan:

The Metropolitan Area of Isfahan, is located about 340 km south of Tehran and has a population of about
3,500,000 and is the second most populous metropolitan area in Iran after Tehran1.
Isfahan is situated in a fertile and well-watered area, with a river, the Zayandeh-Roud (which
means in Farsi Birth giver) flowing through it. During the period before the Islam, Isfahan was
called ‘Jay’. Jay was an agglomeration of two big settlements: Yahudiyeh (Jewish-town)
and Shahrestan. According to Al Baladhuri in his book Fotuh al-Buldan written in the seventh
century A.D. about 16 of medium-sized towns and urban centers were at his time situated in
the suburbs and proximity of Jey which later from the ninth called Isfahan2.
From the beginning of the first millennium A.D. until the end of the eighteenth century,
Isfahan was one of the largest cities in the world and still the city retains from its historic glory
with many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. This led
to the Persian proverb "'Esfahān nesf-e jahān " 3(Isfahan is half of the world).
Under the Abbasids, Isfahan served as a trade city and the capital of the province Al-Jibal (the
mountains). According to Nasser Khosrow the famous Muslim geographer and traveler of the eleventh
century, the Isfahan region in that time included 2300 cities, towns, and villages irrigated with the
river Zayande-Roud. His book discusses a good management plan regarding the

1 2006 Census Results (Statistical Center of Iran, Excel file, in Persian

2 AL Bladhuri, Fotuh-ol-Boldan, Tehran, 1985

3 Isfahan Is Half The World", Saudi Aramco World, Volume 13, Nr. 1, January 1962
allocating of water resources for the province cities4.
At that time Isfahan was located on the heart of the Silk Road and other north-south and east-west routes
crossing Iran and the Middle East. It has been the central market place of the Persia and the Middle East. Om
Parkash in his book European commercial enterprise in pre-colonial India notes the overland trading Indo-
Persian trade links throughout the Silk Road,(From Lahore to Isfahan). He mentions that the volume of the trade
between Lahore and Isfahan seems to have been reasonably large with 20,000-25000 camel loading travelling
each year. ( Om Parkash , European commercial enterprise in pre-colonial India, Volume 2, 1988,155,
Cambridge).
Later during the early-modern period the Dutch VOC company, maintained that the land-
route between Indian major cities (Agra, Mumbai, Lahore) and Isfahan with land-cum-sea
route could involve the transportation of the goods from India to Gombroon (later Bandar
Abba) by sea and from there to Isfahan by Land.
Due to Its geographical situations in the Middle of the Persia and in the cross-point of the
ancient trade routes. Throughout the history, Isfahan has been a cluster of trade-based
urban networks which have gathered there as the power-hub of the commerce and cultural
interconnections. The development and existence of these networks have been the most
effective fa/actors in field of urban development in the city.
Through the history of trade in the Middle East, the Grand Bazaar of Isfahan has been a
major and decisive institution wherein different merchants and businessmen did businesses
and brought the development of urbanity and accumulation of wealth in this particular region.
The current Grand Bazaar was originally constructed during the 11th century, close to the
main Mosque and was later expanded up to the greatest and longest roofed marketplace in
the world until the modern ages5.(). It is certain that in Isfahan, the creations of
neighbourhoods are based on not only the growth of the population but also on the increase
of trade networks and international links. One of the oldest descriptions written by “Hamze
Isfahani” in the eighths century describes the Grand Bazaar as a neighbourhood for
businessmen, craftsmen and workers in Isfahan. Later in the ninth century, "Moghadasi",
described it into a long roofed quarter and some open-spaces. .( Hosein Soltanzade, Iranian Bazaars, Cultural
Research Bureau Publication, 2001: 106)
In the eleventh century “Nasser Khosrow Qubadiani” the famous
Persian traveller, describes Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar and illustrates one branch of that
wherein (just in this part) about 200 bankers were functioning . According to him just in the
western part of the Grand Bazaar, were fifty caravanserais situated. This shows the
hugeness of the bazzar and vitality of its international trade links.( Naaser Khosru, Safar Naame, revised by Nader
Vazinpour, Amirkabir Publications, Tehran, 1978: 120)

In 1387, Esfahan was accupied by the Turko-Mongol warlord Teimur. Initially treated
with relative mercy, the city revolted against Teimur's punitive taxes by killing the tax
collectors and some of Teimur's soldiers. In retribution, Timur ordered the massacre
of the city residents and his soldiers killed a reported 70,000 citizens. An eye-witness
counted more than 28 towers, each constructed of about 1,500 head. (Fisher, W.B.;
Jackson, P.; Lockhart, L.; Boyle, J.A. : The Cambridge History of Iran, p. 55 After the
disastrous invasion of the city, for some decades,the city had shrunk in population
and commercial importance but later because of its suitable geographical situation, it
flourished again. In fifteen century, after the raise of Safavid dynasty, some
Landowners, merchants and craftsmen from Isfahan invited the Safavid kings who
established an Iranian kingdom to move their capital from city as their capital from
Ardabil to Isfahan and offered the city’s full social and commercial supports for
building a suitable economical-power-hub for raising power of the new empire.

For Isfahan’s merchants and trade organizations, this offering was not just because of the
loss of their familiar environment and previous glory of the city but because they wanted to
rebuild their position in international trade which they lost during the second half of the
4 J.Shoar, Nasser khosrow’s Safarnama, Tehran, 1992

5 Bazaar of Isfahan By: Mohammad Gharipour, 12 December 2003 , Iran Chamber society
fourteenth century. Because of the request of the Isfahan’s delegations prompted by the fear
for the safety of the old capitals, Tabriz and Qazvin, which were considered too close to the
Ottoman Empire in 1598 Shah Abbas the King of Safavid chose Isfahan as his capital.
Isfahan at that time was searching for its revival. Without the cooperation of Bazaar and the
support of religious leaders, Shah Abbas and his successors never could develop the
greatest urban plans in the globe until the sixteenth century.
Shah Abbas’s decision to relocate the Azeri Safavid’s capital from Qazvin to Isfahan was
motivated by Isfahan’s active economical institutions and by concerns for searching a safe
distance from troubled Turkish borders. Favourable cultural institutions also set Isfahan apart
from other Iranian cities. The religious organizations in Isfahan had never autonomy from
trade institutions namely the bazaar. It has been always under the shadow of bazaar.
In the hierarchy of the decisive actors and factors in the field of urban development in the city
, the Islamic organizations like the mosques and the Madrassas could not act as the have
acted as supporters of the urban plans commissioned by bazaaris or government.

For instant when Shah Abbas’s urban planners decides to develop a new street-pattern in
the middle of the old city which was not oriented toward the Qibla (direction Mecca) no one
from the religious organizations did object this plan . also when the Safavids decided to build
the entrance of their royal mosque (Sheikh Lotfollah mosque) not toward Qibla axis, the
famous Isfahani Imams (the most famous one Molla Sadra and Sheikhe Bahai) supported
the implementation of these plans, however in each other Muslim city this could be defines
as blasphemy,
The religious leaders legitimised the construction of new Armenian and Jewish
neighbourhoods inside the city and had no objection against the flows of the Christian,
Jewish and Indo merchants from other countries into the city. This was completely different
from the at Each major social/urban plan should be legitimised by the Islamic clergy but the
money and capital came from the Bazzaris and these two social classes supported each
other in various socio-economic circumstances that ensured a remarkable degree of
cooperation as far as their organizational arrangements and social-networks were
concerned. In Isfahan and most of the other historical commercial cities, the proximity of
Grand Bazaar and Grand Mosque is not accidental. The Grand Mosque is constructed
around 771 towards the Northern wing of the Grand Bazaar. The most impressive thing
about this mosque is amalgamation with Bazaar’s economical urban fabric which appears
from its dozens of gates that weave it with commercial activities and blur the boundaries
between religious and commercial space.6
From the sixteenth century, the political power was added to this part of the city and from that
time, Isfahan’s urban development became totally mixed with the triangle bazaar, Mosque
and toyal palace.
During the Safavid’s golden ages (1580-1650) the city had about half million population. Jean
Chardin a French traveler from those time notes, really fine bazaar, the water channels and
the streets of which the sides were covered with tall plane trees. 7
The economy also blossomed under the security afforded by the stable rules, with new
irrigation works supporting industrial and agricultural productivity. New bazaars in the region
were bringing traders and visitors to the city. Silk, carpet and ceramics were exported from
Isfahan into the international markets in the west and east and Indian continent.8

Same as the economic integration, the religious tolerance also played a major role in the
urban development of the city and its booming markets. By the seventeenth century, Isfahan
attracted not only European merchants but also missionaries and mercenaries, as it became
a religiously tolerant hub of mercantile and diplomatic activity. Chardin notes the active role
of Armenian and Jewish merchants in the city’s markets. The city fabric was significant as an
embodiment of this religious, commercial, and political unity, and was exceptional in the
6 Grabar, Oleg. The Great Mosque of Isfahan. New York 1990
,
7
Jean Chardin, Chardin's Travels,1737, 1988
8 Valerie Hansen,Kenneth R. Curtis, voyages in World History, 2008,488
early modern Islamic world.9 (The Safavids (1502-1763) instituted state capitalism to support
their wide-ranging political and social goals. Trade and the commercial international links
were crucial for them and therefore they sufficiently re-constructed the Silk Road through
Isfahan so that the empire could enjoy a trading monopoly.

In the trade city of Isfahan, the DNA and the setting of institutional elements and the
playground of the decisive actors in the field of urban development have structurally been
different than the capital city of Baghdad. Although through the second half of the second
millennium both cities have been more or less equal in size but they differ substantially in
terms of institutional context and leading actors which resulted different spatial strategies. In
short, Baghdad for its structural urban plans has been fully dependent on the Caliphs or
Imams but in Isfahan grand plans were implemented in the form of partnership between
bazaars and royal palace.

ce,

9 Kim S. Sexton ,Isfahan:, the half of the World, Silk Road Seattle, Washington
From the late fourteenth century, the interconnection between the trade cities and the flurishment of textile
industries created a prolonged economic growth and prosperity in some major Flemish cities.

During the late sixteenth and the seventieth century and made Amsterdam the second largest and wealthiest city
in the World. This “Golden Age” resulted from three related conditions that were skilfully exploited at the time:
networks, local diversification, and immigration. Sea and inland waterways connected Amsterdam with other
continents and the European mainland. Advances in shipping technology, navigation , finance, and management
all were the major institutions which pushed the city to expand its boarders and develop its urban infrastructure.
Except the city government the companies firms and organizations like the V.O.C., stock-exchange he major
decessive actors at this phase actors

The city of Isfahan, is located about 340 km south of Tehran and the Metropolitan Area of Isfahan has a
population of about 3,500,000 and is the second most populous metropolitan area in Iran after Tehran. (2006
Census Results (Statistical Center of Iran, Excel file, in Persian.)
Isfahan is situated in a fertile and well-watered area, with a river, the Zayandeh-Roud (which
means in Farsi Birth giver) flowing through it. During the Sassanids era, it was called ‘Jay’.
Jay was an agglomeration of two big settlements: Yahudiyeh (Jewish-town) and Shahrestan
, According to Al Baladhuri in the book Fotuh al-Buldan written in the weventh century A.D.
about 16 of medium-sized towns and urban centres were situates in the suburbs and
proximacy of Jey which later from the nineth cenury agglomerated and formed the unified city
that called Isfahan . ( AL Bladhuri, Fotuh-ol-Boldan, Tehran, 1985). From the beginning of
the first millennium A.D. until the end of the eighteenth century, Isfahan was one of the
largest cities in the world. Isfahan still retains from its historic glory with many beautiful
boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. This led to the Persian
proverb "'Esfahān nesf-e jahān " (Isfahan is half of the world). ("Isfahan Is Half The World", Saudi Aramco World,
Volume 13, Nr. 1, January 1962
)
Under the Abbasids, Isfahan served as a trade city and the capital of the province Al-Jibal (the
mountains). According to Nasser Khosrow the famous Muslim geographer and traveler of the
eleventh century, the Isfahan region included 2300 cities, towns, and villages irrigated with
the river Zayande-Roud. His book discusses a good management plan regarding the
allocating of water resources for the province cities. (J.Shoar, Nasser khosrow’s Safarnama, Tehran, 1992.)
At that time Isfahan was located on the heart of the Silk Road and other north-south and east-west routes
crossing Iran and the Middle East. It has been the central market place of the Persia and the Middle East. Om
Parkash in his book European commercial enterprise in pre-colonial India notes the overland trading Indo-
Persian trade links throughout the Silk Road,(From Lahore to Isfahan). He mentions that the volume of the trade
between Lahore and Isfahan seems to have been reasonably large with 20,000-25000 camel loading travelling
each year. ( Om Parkash , European commercial enterprise in pre-colonial India, Volume 2, 1988,155,
Cambridge).
Later during the early-modern period the Dutch VOC company, maintained that the land-
route between Indian major cities (Agra, Mumbai, Lahore) and Isfahan with land-cum-sea
route could involve the transportation of the goods from India to Gombroon (later Bandar
Abba) by sea and from there to Isfahan by Land.
Due to Its geographical situations in the Middle of the Persia and in the cross-point of the
ancient trade routes, it was a cluster of the trade-based urban networks which gathered there
as the power-hub of the commerce and cultural interconnections through the history. These
elements have been the most effective fa/actors in field of urban development in the city.
Through the history of trade in the Middle East the Grand Bazaar of Isfahan has been a
major and decisive institution wherein different merchants and businessmen did businesses
and brought the development of urbanity and accumulation of wealth in this particular region.
The current Grand Bazaar was originally constructed during the 11th century, close to the
main Mosque and was later expanded up to the greatest and longest roofed marketplace in
the world until the modern ages.( Bazaar of Isfahan By: Mohammad Gharipour, 12 December 2003 , Iran Chamber society ). It is
certain that in Isfahan, the creations of neighbourhoods are based on not only the growth of
the population but also on the increase of trade networks and international links. One of the
oldest descriptions written by “Hamze Isfahani” in the eighths century describes the
Grand Bazaar as a neighbourhood for businessmen, craftsmen and workers in
Isfahan. Later in the ninth century, "Moghadasi", described it into a long roofed
quarter and some open-spaces. .( Hosein Soltanzade, Iranian Bazaars, Cultural Research Bureau Publication, 2001: 106) In the
eleventh century “Nasser Khosrow Qubadiani” the famous Persian traveller, describes
Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar and illustrates one branch of that wherein (just in this part) about 200
bankers were functioning . According to him just in the western part of the Grand Bazaar,
were fifty caravanserais situated. This shows the hugeness of the bazzar and vitality of its
international trade links.( Naaser Khosru, Safar Naame, revised by Nader Vazinpour, Amirkabir Publications, Tehran, 1978: 120)

In 1387, Esfahan was accupied by the Turko-Mongol warlord Teimur. Initially treated
with relative mercy, the city revolted against Teimur's punitive taxes by killing the tax
collectors and some of Teimur's soldiers. In retribution, Timur ordered the massacre
of the city residents and his soldiers killed a reported 70,000 citizens. An eye-witness
counted more than 28 towers, each constructed of about 1,500 head. (Fisher, W.B.;
Jackson, P.; Lockhart, L.; Boyle, J.A. : The Cambridge History of Iran, p. 55 After the
disastrous invasion of the city, for some decades,the city had shrunk in population
and commercial importance but later because of its suitable geographical situation, it
flourished again. In fifteen century, after the raise of Safavid dynasty, some
Landowners, merchants and craftsmen from Isfahan invited the Safavid kings who
established an Iranian kingdom to move their capital from city as their capital from
Ardabil to Isfahan and offered the city’s full social and commercial supports for
building a suitable economical-power-hub for raising power of the new empire.

For Isfahan’s merchants and trade organizations, this offering was not just because of the
loss of their familiar environment and previous glory of the city but because they wanted to
rebuild their position in international trade which they lost during the second half of the
fourteenth century. Because of the request of the Isfahan’s delegations prompted by the fear
for the safety of the old capitals, Tabriz and Qazvin, which were considered too close to the
Ottoman Empire in 1598 Shah Abbas the King of Safavid chose Isfahan as his capital.
Isfahan at that time was searching for its revival. Without the cooperation of Bazaar and the
support of religious leaders, Shah Abbas and his successors never could develop the
greatest urban plans in the globe until the sixteenth century.
Shah Abbas’s decision to relocate the Azeri Safavid’s capital from Qazvin to Isfahan was
motivated by Isfahan’s active economical institutions and by concerns for searching a safe
distance from troubled Turkish borders. Favourable cultural institutions also set Isfahan apart
from other Iranian cities. The religious organizations in Isfahan had never autonomy from
trade institutions namely the bazaar. It has been always under the shadow of bazaar.
In the hierarchy of the decisive actors and factors in the field of urban development in the city
, the Islamic organizations like the mosques and the Madrassas could not act as the have
acted as supporters of the urban plans commissioned by bazaaris or government.
For instant when Shah Abbas’s urban planners decides to develop a new street-pattern in
the middle of the old city which was not oriented toward the Qibla (direction Mecca) no one
from the religious organizations did object this plan . also when the Safavids decided to build
the entrance of their royal mosque (Sheikh Lotfollah mosque) not toward Qibla axis, the
famous Isfahani Imams (the most famous one Molla Sadra and Sheikhe Bahai) supported
the implementation of these plans, however in each other Muslim city this could be defines
as blasphemy,
The religious leaders legitimised the construction of new Armenian and Jewish
neighbourhoods inside the city and had no objection against the flows of the Christian,
Jewish and Indo merchants from other countries into the city. This was completely different
from the at Each major social/urban plan should be legitimised by the Islamic clergy but the
money and capital came from the Bazzaris and these two social classes supported each
other in various socio-economic circumstances that ensured a remarkable degree of
cooperation as far as their organizational arrangements and social-networks were
concerned. In Isfahan and most of the other historical commercial cities, the proximity of
Grand Bazaar and Grand Mosque is not accidental. The Grand Mosque is constructed
around 771 towards the Northern wing of the Grand Bazaar. The most impressive thing
about this mosque is amalgamation with Bazaar’s economical urban fabric which appears
from its dozens of gates that weave it with commercial activities and blur the boundaries
between religious and commercial space. ( Grabar, Oleg. The Great Mosque of Isfahan. New York,1990.) The Islamic
economy is totally in accordance with Islamic law. From the sixteenth century, the political
power was added to this part of the city and from that time, Isfahan’s urban development was
totally related to the triangle bazaar, Mosque and Royal palace.
During the Safavid’s golden ages (1580-1650) the city has about half million population. Jean
Chardin a French traveler from those time notes, really fine bazaar, the water channels and
the streets of which the sides were covered with tall plane trees. (jean Chardin, Chardin's Travels,1737, 1988)

The economy also blossomed under the security afforded by the stable rules, with new
irrigation works supporting industrial and agricultural productivity. New bazaars in the region
bringing traders and visitors to the city .Silk, carpet and ceramics were exported from Isfahan
into the international markets in the west and east and Indian continent. (Valerie Hansen,Kenneth R. Curtis,
voyages in World History, 2008,488
)

The religious toleration also played a major role in the sustainable development of the city
and its markets. By the seventeenth century, Isfahan attracted not only European merchants
but also missionaries and mercenaries, as it became a religiously tolerant hub of mercantile
and diplomatic activity. Chardin notes the active role of Armenian and Jew merchants in the
Persian markets.

The city fabric is significant as an embodiment of this religious, commercial, and political
unity, and was exceptional in the early modern Islamic world. (Kim S. Sexton ,Isfahan:, the half of the World, Silk
Road Seattle, Washington
The Safavids (1502-1763) instituted state capitalism to support their wide-
ranging political and social goals. Trade and the commercial international links were
crucial for them that they sufficiently re-constructed the Silk Road through Isfahan so that the
empire could enjoy a trading monopoly.

The DNA and the setting of institutional elements and the playground of the decisive actors
in the field of urban development have structurally been different than Baghdad. Although
through the second half of the second millennium both cities have been more or less equal in
size but they differ substantially in terms of institutional context, leading actors which
resulting spatial strategies. In short, Baghdad for its structural urban plans has been fully
dependent on the Caliphs of Kings.
Bazaar of Isfahan, source, Gharipour 2003

During the period of the Shah Abbas I(1571–1629), Isfahan was selected as the capital of the Sfavids Empire
and as seat of Shah Abbas, a new bazaar was designed between the old bazaar and the square. Shah Abbas
redeveloped one of the key elements of city extensively and had a number of new bazaars built: the buildings
surrounding the Naghsh-e-Jahan square (originally including a large number of coffee houses), both the Hasan-
abad and mosque bazaars to the south east and the large bazaar to the north, where the old bazaar was located.
Lots of books and researches have written about the international links and interrelations
between Isfahan and other regions especially during the 17th century (i.e. M. ISMAIL
MARCINKOWSKI From Isfahan to Ayutthaya: Contacts between Iran and Siam in the 17th

Century. A New Julfa (A village inside the Isfahan) Merchant in India: the Book of will of Khoja Petrus Woskan,
(b. New Julfa, 1680, d. Madras, January 15, 1751 ,Bhaswati Bhattacharya, Leiden University, The Netherlands,

Combining trade with Islam and politics, the Isfahan’s Bazaar’s international trade networks
have survived the shifting fortunes of history to the nineteenth century
During these periods, the Bazzaris mostly participated in the urban development plans and
the construction of great social/religious buildings acted also within the frames of socio-
economic structure of the city they played a remarkable role.

Shah Abbas moved Iran's capital in 1598 from Qazvin to Isfahan, where he launched an
ambitious construction program. Around the great square, Maidan Naqsh-i Jahan, were built
his royal palace, the personal mosque named after his father-in-law and spiritual advisor
Shaykh Lutfallah, and a luxury goods bazaar. Isfahan remains one of the world's most
beautiful cities.
Even the appearance of fashionable people changed, with big almond-shaped eyes and bee-
stung red lips coming into vogue. "The fact that a new fashion swept Isfahan after Shah
'Abbas and his court settled there is hardly surprising," says the exhibition catalogue. "To this
day people emulate trendsetters and the gilded youth of Isfahan were no exception."
Images of the cities' architectural masterpieces are projected on gigantic screens. The array
of exhibits includes luxurious carpets with gold and silver threads, delicate Chinese porcelains,
illustrated manuscripts, watercolours, intricate metalwork and sumptuous silks. These objects
are similar to those Shah 'Abbas donated to important religious sites.
MacGregor notes that it was during the reign of Shah 'Abbas that Persia fully entered
European consciousness, as trade, diplomacy and military expansion multiplied the contacts
between Isfahan and European capitals. "Ever since, it has been of the greatest importance to
Europeans to study and understand the history and culture of Iran. This exhibition will, we
hope, contribute to that process."

company settled its office in Isfahan, the capital of the empire in the middle. Here was a major international trading community, including the
Armenian merchants. Some of them acted as broker for the Company. In Persia, the silk export monopoly of the monarch, the shah. Private
merchants, including the VOC, were with him when they wanted an export permit. For the Company, imports trade in Persia just as important as
the export; it was much deserved gold ducats. The number of staff in Persia was only slight, it was only men who were closely involved in trade

Gharipour 2003

During the period of the Shah Abbas I(1571–1629), Isfahan was selected as the capital of the Sfavids Empire
and as seat of Shah Abbas, a new bazaar was designed between the old bazaar and the square. Shah Abbas
redeveloped one of the key elements of city extensively and had a number of new bazaars built: the buildings
surrounding the Naghsh-e-Jahan square (originally including a large number of coffee houses), both the Hasan-
abad and mosque bazaars to the south east and the large bazaar to the north, where the old bazaar was located.
Lots of books and researches have written about the international links and interrelations
between Isfahan and other regions especially during the 17th century (i.e. M. ISMAIL
MARCINKOWSKI From Isfahan to Ayutthaya: Contacts between Iran and Siam in the 17th

Century. A New Julfa (A village inside the Isfahan) Merchant in India: the Book of will of Khoja Petrus Woskan,
(b. New Julfa, 1680, d. Madras, January 15, 1751 ,Bhaswati Bhattacharya, Leiden University, The Netherlands,

Combining trade with Islam and politics, the Isfahan’s Bazaar’s international trade networks
have survived the shifting fortunes of history to the nineteenth century
During these periods, the Bazzaris mostly participated in the urban development plans and
the construction of great social/religious buildings acted also within the frames of socio-
economic structure of the city they played a remarkable role.

Shah Abbas moved Iran's capital in 1598 from Qazvin to Isfahan, where he launched an
ambitious construction program. Around the great square, Maidan Naqsh-i Jahan, were built
his royal palace, the personal mosque named after his father-in-law and spiritual advisor
Shaykh Lutfallah, and a luxury goods bazaar. Isfahan remains one of the world's most
beautiful cities.
Even the appearance of fashionable people changed, with big almond-shaped eyes and bee-
stung red lips coming into vogue. "The fact that a new fashion swept Isfahan after Shah
'Abbas and his court settled there is hardly surprising," says the exhibition catalogue. "To this
day people emulate trendsetters and the gilded youth of Isfahan were no exception."
Images of the cities' architectural masterpieces are projected on gigantic screens. The array
of exhibits includes luxurious carpets with gold and silver threads, delicate Chinese porcelains,
illustrated manuscripts, watercolours, intricate metalwork and sumptuous silks. These objects
are similar to those Shah 'Abbas donated to important religious sites.
MacGregor notes that it was during the reign of Shah 'Abbas that Persia fully entered
European consciousness, as trade, diplomacy and military expansion multiplied the contacts
between Isfahan and European capitals. "Ever since, it has been of the greatest importance to
Europeans to study and understand the history and culture of Iran. This exhibition will, we
hope, contribute to that process."

In the sixteenth century, the Dutch V.O.C company settled its office in Isfahan, the capital of the empire in the middle.
Here was a major international trading community, including the Armenian merchants. Some of them acted as broker for the Company. In Persia,
the silk export monopoly of the monarch, the shah. Private merchants, including the VOC, were with him when they wanted an export permit. For
the Company, imports trade in Persia just as important as the export; it was much deserved gold ducats. The number of staff in Persia was only
slight, it was only men who were closely involved in trade.