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Julfan Merchants and European East India Companies: Overland Trade, Protection Costs, and the Limits of Collective Self-Representation in Early Modern Safavid Iran*

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Julfan Merchants and European East India Companies: Overland Trade, Protection Costs, and the Limits of Collective Self-Representation in Early Modern Safavid Iran* ISBN 978-4-86337-211-5 Mapping Safavid Iran Editedqy Nobuaki Kondo Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) Fuchu, Tokyo ! Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Contents 3-11-1 Asahi-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8534, JAPAN ©Nobuaki Kondo, Rula Jurdi Abisaab, Rudi Matthee, Yukako Goto, Yamaguchi Akihiko, Giorgio Rota, Sholeh A. Quinn, Sebouh David Aslanian, and Katsuhiko Abe, 2015 Preface ISBN 978-4-86337-211-5 Nobuaki Kondo 1 Studia Culturae Islamicae No. 105 Ijtihiid: MEIS Series No. 22 From Textual Evidence to c Printed by Word-on The Twelver Shi ajuristic Tradition, 10th-16th Century Rula Jurdi Abisaab 7 Cover: Persicmn, lmperitrm Tunicum in Asia. Amsterdam. Reiner and Joshua Ottens. Rep,unum Vaqf Kuroki. c.1740. From the private collection of Hidcmitsu The Shah cAbd al-cAzim Shrine and its under the safavids http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/fsc/gis/ottomanmaps/regnvm_persicvm/index.html Nobuaki Kondo 41 The Safavid King Who Was Crowned Twice: The Enthronement of Saf1· M irza· as sha h Saf i II in 1077/1666, and as shah Sulayman in 1078/1668 Rudi Matthee 67 Development of Transport and Growth of Cultural Homogenization in the later SafavidPeriod Yukako Goto 99 The SafavidLegacy as Viewed fromthe Periphery: The Formation of Iran and the Political Integration of a Kurdish Emirate Yamaguchi Akihiko 127 Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid EuropeanDiplomacy: Strategy, Millenarism, WishfulThinking GiorgioI Rota 155 Figures A Historian on the Move: An Early Modern Persian Chronicler under the Safavidsand the Mughals Sholeh A. Quinn 171 3.1 Talar-i Tavilah, Engelbert Kaempfer 79 1 3.2 Sulayman's (Safi !I's) enthronement,Jean Chardin 80 3.3 The four symbols of Safi II s enthronement, Jean Chardin 81 JulfanMerchants and European East India Companies: 3.4 Chihil Sutun Palace 93 Overland Trade, Protection Costs, and the Limits of Collective Self-Representation 5.1 Genealogy of the Ardalan Family 154 in Early Modern SafavidIran Sebouh David Aslanian 189 8.1 Agreement with the Armenian Merchants 222 9.1 Silk cloth with supplementary wefts in metal wrap foilon silk core 237 9.2 Silk cloth with supplementarywefts in metal wrap foil on silk core 237 Silk for the Court: SafavidSilk Textiles in Japanese Collections Katsuhiko Abe 223 9.3 Pouch accompanying a chaire (tea container or caddie) belonged to Count Akira Matsura (Lord of Hirado, 1840-1906), Private Collection 238 243 9.4 Unstitched pouch, attached on a paper, inscribed and dated 1806, Private Index collection 238 9.5 Kire-cho or Kire-Tekagami (Album of cloths), Private collection 239 9.6 A fragment fromthe Album 239 9.7 Detail of a fragment from the Yomei Bunko Collection 240 9.8 Detail of a fragment from the Yomei Bunko Collection 240 9.9 Detail of a fragment. The A.E.D.T.A Collection, Musee Guimet, Paris 241 9.10 Detail of the back with stamp of tte cloth from the Yomei Bunko Collection 241 Map 2.1 Vaqf villages of Shah cAbd al-'Azim 65 Tables 44 2.1 Vaqfs for the cAbd al-cAzim Shrine before the Safavid! Period 188 Sholeh A. Quinn subject is in need of furtherresearch, Khvandarnir'srewriting of his own history Sebouh David Aslanian and his life as a historian on the move seems to suggest a Persianate Universit of California, Los Angeles historiographical tradition that occupied a fluid, flexible, and easily modified y cultural space. Julfan Merchants and European East India Companies: Overland Trade, Protection Costs, and the Limits of Collective Self-Representation in Early Modern Safavid Iran* During the Ottoman-Safavid wars of 1603-1605, the Safavid ruler Shah 'Abbas I deported Armenian silk merchants from the frontier town of Julfa on the Aras River and resettled them on the outskirts of his new imperial capital of Isfahan where the deportees foundeda mercantile suburb named New Julfa, in memory of their evacuated town. Shortly after their deportation, these merchants accomplished a remarkable feat by coming to preside over one of the greatest trade networks of the early modern period with settlements stretching from London, Cadiz, and Amsterdam in the West to Mughal India, Canton (China), and Manila (the Philippines) in the East. The study of Julfan history is a relatively new field, and we are only now beginning to understand the complexities of the rich history created by Armenians fromthis township. Much of the work in this field, exemplified by the contributions of Levon and Sushanik Khachikian and Edmund Herzig, has focused on the economic facets of the township's history. 1 My own book on Julfa has *EarlierBerg versions International of this Conference,paper were presented at a international conference on "Armenia and Armenians1 in International Treaties," March 20, 2009, University of Michigan and at Persian Literature, Geniza," the l, "In- Between: Trade and Legal Pluralism in the Era of the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, May 29-31'\ 2013. I would like to 2:800-02. Other family members were also active in literary composition ! under the Mughals. acknowledge the organizers of these conferences, especially Gerard Libaridian, for 190 Sebouh David Aslanian Julfan Merchants and European East India Companies sought to illuminate the economic and social institutions that helped sustain the 191 on the most important of these agreements, namely on "The Agreement of the e e r e 2 Emphasis on Julfa's economic global trad n two ks of th Julfan community. East India Company with the Armenian Nation," signed in London on June r e e e e history is in pa t a r fl ction of th vast amounts of commercial docum nts e e r e e e Whil pr vious scholarship has, fo th most part, studi d this tr aty in isolation,22, 1688. e e e e r e writt n by Julfans that hav r markably surviv d in dozens of a chives around th my study seeks to examine it within the larger context of similar agreements r r e e e wo ld. In cont ast to th wealth of documentation on th commercial int raction negotiated between the Julfans and other foreign entities. These include an of Julfans with other members of their own community, documentation on their agreement signed with the Russian state in the little-known and aborted er e r diplomatic and political int actions with sovereign states and th i e ee e att mpts to sign an agr ment with th French1667-73, in e e e e e e e e e e e r pr s ntativ bodi s has b en r lativ ly lacking. Th r sult is that w know an agreement with the Duchy of Courland (Modern day Latvia) in Compagnie des Indes Orienta/es e e er e e e considerably l ss about Julfan int ractions with outsid s in th arly mod rn e e r e e and1681-83, Swed n in th vi tually unknown att mpt to sign an accord with1692 th r r e 3 pe iod than int a-Julfancomm rcial interactions. e e e e Scottish East India1697, Company in and finally th qually obscur att mpts to Inspired by earlier work by Ronald Ferrier and Edmund Herzig, this paper enter into negotiations in 1699,with the Spanish My e e e e e ee e e e e e xamin s a s ri s of trad agr m nts sign d b twe n Julfan m rchants and study inspects these agreements with the intent of exploring what they can tell us 1792 Compania Real de Filipinas. foreign states and/ or their chartered East India companies mostly but not about two areas of Julfanhistory that remain relatively under explored and which e e e e e e 4 e e exclusively during th s cond half of th s v nt enth century. Th essay focus s may be summed up under the headings of 1) economic motives for signing the agreements in question and 2) the methods of collective action involved in treaty negotiations. In terms of the larger motives that led Julfan merchants to open e e e e t s e e e e e negotiations with the companies, I argue that their principal incentive was to 1 ncourag m nt whil writing hi pi c , and Houri B rb rian, Olivier Rav ux, and Afshin s e e t s ess Journal of the Matin-Asgari for comment on an arli r draf of thi ay. e e e er e e ee r e Asiatic Society e e e e e e etsi Hovhannes Ter r duc what Fr d ic Lan and following him Ni ls St nsgaa d call th ir Levon Khachikian, "Th L dg r of th M rchant Hovhann s Joughay ." Davtyan Jughayets'u Hashvetumare i "protection cost," that is "the price merchants had to pay in taxes, tolls, fees,and 8, no.3 (1966): 153-86; Khach kian, Levon, and Hakob Papazian, C. e es t [Th accounting ledger of Hovhann Ter Dav 'yan of bribes, to ensure the flow of their commodities." 5 As we shall see, this is a crucial e e s Julfa] (Y r van: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarakch'ut'yun, 1984); Shu hanik Khachikian, "Hay­ e t e factorin Julfane conomic history in general and in the history of their interactions rusakan ar v rakan paymanagire v Nor Jughayi ink'navar marminnere [The Armenian­ Haykazeans Hayagitakane Handese Jughayii hay vacharakanut'iwnes e ev Rus ian comm rcial agr ement and the autonomous organ zation of N w Julfa]," with the European Companies in particular that has hardly received the attention nra arfevtratntesakan kapere Rusastani het XVII-XVIIIe darerum (1980): 259-88; Ibid m., Nor e i e [Th Armen an commerc of s e e t e s t e se t e t Economic History Review New Julfa and it comm rcial and conomic i s with Rus ia in h ven e n h and ei ee e es 5 ght nth c nturi ] (Yerevan: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarakch'ut'yun, 1988); Edmund t s New Perspectives on Turkey e e e ts e e e ss Eighteen h Century," 2nd er., 26 (1973): 38-62.
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