Princely Suburb, Armenian Quarter Or Christian Ghetto? the Urban Setting of New Julfa in the Safavid Capital of Isfahan (1605-1722)
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Ina Baghdiantz-MacCabe* Princely Suburb, Armenian Quarter or Christian Ghetto? The Urban Setting of New Julfa in the Safavid Capital of Isfahan (1605-1722) Résumé. Faubourg princier, quartier arménien ou ghetto chrétien ? L’établissement urbain de New Joulfa dans la capitale safavide d’Ispahan (1605-1722). L’article examine les lieux d’habitation des Arméniens à Isfahan et dans le nouveau bourg de la Nouvelle Joulfa, un quartier résidentiel construit spécialement pour recevoir les marchands de soie de Joulfa déportés à Isfahan en 1604 par Abbas Ier (r.1587-1629). Ce quartier se trouve, non sans raison politique, face aux résidences des notables, souvent eux mêmes originaires du Caucase pendant ce règne, dans la nouvelle capitale d’Isfahan. Il est démontré que, contrairement aux villes arabes sous domination ottomane étudiées par André Raymond, comme Alep ou Le Caire, il n’existait pas un quartier arménien. À leur arrivée, seuls les marchands prospères s’étaient vus accorder le droit de séjour dans le bourg de la Nouvelle Joulfa, tandis que les artisans et les domestiques habitaient parmi la population musulmane d’Isfahan même. La Nouvelle Joulfa était strictement réservée aux Joulfains. Aux termes d’un décret, les musulmans, les missionnaires catholiques et les autres arméniens, n’étaient autorisés à y résider. Cette situation changerait vers le milieu du XVIIe siècle. Après 1655, ce qui était un bourg “princier” – car le prévôt des marchands de Joulfa provient, selon les sources, d’une famille considérée princière –, deviendrait un “quartier arménien”, les Arméniens d’ Isfahan, après avoir été chassés de la capitale, ayant été transférés vers le bourg. Bien qu’établis en marges de ce dernier, ils entrent néanmoins dans la juridiction de la Nouvelle Joulfa, distincte * Historienne, Tufts University, Medford (États-Unis). REMMM 107-110, 415-436 416 / Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe et autonome de celle de la ville d’Isfahan. Après la conquête afghane d’Isfahan, appauvrie et en grande partie abandonnée par les grandes familles, la Nouvelle Joulfa se transforme, pendant le XVIIIe siècle, en “ghetto” où habitent non seulement des Arméniens, mais aussi d’autres chrétiens, y compris les missionnaires catholiques étrangers. Abstract. This article examines the Armenian neighborhoods of Isfahan. The wealthy traders of Julfa deported by Shah Abbas in 1604 were granted a neighborhood, New Julfa, which was reserved for their exclusive residence. New Julfa and Isfahan had separate jurisdictions: under Safavid rule, New Julfa was not an administrative part of the city of Isfahan but an autonomous municipal government. It has been established that at the beginning of the seventeenth century there was no “Armenian quarter” in Isfahan, as there was in Cairo or Aleppo, two cities under Ottoman rule studied by André Raymond. Not all Armenians lived together. The area of New Julfa was often referred to as the suburb of the wealthy by travelers and was reserved exclusively for Armenian silk merchants transferred from Julfa. Muslims, Catholic missionaries and other Armenians were not allowed to live in the area assigned to silk merchants by Abbas I (r. 1587- 1629). Contrary to earlier beliefs, most Armenians lived in Muslim neighborhoods, within the city of Isfahan. Around 1650, a change in government altered the status of all Caucasian grandees in Isfahan: the Julfan merchants and the ghulams or royal slaves lost some of their power to a new faction with religious connections. The new government targeted minorities living in Isfahan, mostly Jews, but also Zoroastrians and Armenians. They moved the artisans who had lived in downtown Isfahan for two generations to the outskirts of New Julfa where they fell under the jurisdiction of the Julfans. In the second half of the century, the remaining Armenians were excluded from Isfahan by decree and also became residents of New Julfa. After this date, the existence of an Armenian quarter may be argued. There was a debate over property rights and the royal protection extended to Julfan property in Iran. The decrees for protection dated back to the first half of the century. Gradually, the “Armenian quarter” of New Julfa turned into a Christian ghetto and drew together not only the whole Armenian population but also the Christian population, including foreign Catholic missionaries. This phase, which began at the end of the seventeenth century, was accelerated by the Afghan conquest of Isfahan in 1722, when New Julfa became impoverished and was abandoned by the leading merchant families who had ruled it in the past. The following article examines the urban settlement of Armenians in the Safavid capital of Isfahan. The New Julfans were the most notorious group of Armenians in the capital. In 1603, this specific group of merchants was deported by Shah Abbas I (r.1587-1629) from the region of Nakhchevan to Isfahan, his new capital. The article also deals, albeit briefly, with the living spaces of two other groups of Armenians in Isfahan. It shows that the urban space occupied by Armenians varied according to class and that there was no “Armenian nei- ghborhood” within Isfahan during most of the 17th century. Armenian artisans resided among Muslims well into the second – if not third – generation following their relocation, until they were evicted in the middle of the 17th century and forced to move to the wealthy silk merchants’ suburb of New Julfa. There, they were under the control of wealthy Armenians who lived in and ruled the all Armenian suburb. New Julfa – once a princely suburb – went through a period of decline and eventually became an open Armenian ghetto at the beginning Principely Suburb, Armenian Quarter or Christian Ghetto? / 417 of the eighteenth century ; the forced migration of Armenians from the city of Isfahan to the New Julfa suburb slowly created what had never before existed: an “Armenian neighborhood”. The mid-seventeenth century decree forcing the artisans to leave their homes to live with the merchants was the result of a major political turning point for two other groups deported from the Caucasus, the converted ghulam and the Christian New Julfan grandees. The second issue examined here is the property ownership rights of this Christian minority pro- tected by a Muslim theocracy. Minorities in Isfahan There were three main minority groups in Isfahan : Zoroastrians, Jews and Armenians (Gregorian,1974). Although Zoroastrians were the oldest group and Armenians the most recent, Jews also had a long history in Isfahan. According to Heinz Gaube, whose sources are Arab geographers, when the Arabs conquered the region around the 7th century, they found two cities : Yahudiyya and Jay. Yahuddiya, the Jewish city, is described in these sources as the most important place in the Isfahan region. The notion of Yahudiyya as a purely Jewish neighbo- rhood would however be wrong, because in 773, following the Arab conquest, the construction of a third mosque began in Yahudiyya, on the location of the present-day Friday Mosque. What had been the Jewish town of Yahudiyya then became the center of Isfahan and remained so for centuries until Shah Abbas reorganized the city by relocating its center. Nothing remains of the 773 mos- ques, and the current Friday Mosque is the product of five different construction phases, the earliest dating back to the 10th century. The fact that Yahudiyya was once the center of Isfahan is also confirmed by numismatic evidence (Gaube, 1979 : 69-70). Unlike Jews, there were few Armenians living in Isfahan before 1604 : most Armenians arrived following Abbas I’s war in the Caucasus. Although they merged with a population deported under Shah Tahmasp (r.1524-1576), many of the early settlers converted to Islam or became the Shah’s slaves – ghulams. Vartan Gregorian’s study has sufficiently demonstrated that Armenians were a relatively privileged group among Isfahan minorities and also that there were major differences among Armenian groups in the capital (Gregorian, 1974). The three Groups of Armenians in the Capital city of Isfahan The principal differences among Armenians of the capital were based on distinctions of class, wealth and regional origins prior to deportation. A study of three groups – the Julfan silk merchants, the ghulams and the artisans – shows how these seemingly distinct groups, who did not initially share the same urban REMMM 107-110, 415-436 418 / Ina Baghdiantz-McCabe space, are in actual fact closely tied to one another. The determining factors of social distinction at the beginning of the 17th century were class and wealth, not as one might suppose, place of residence within the capital city, religion or ethnicity. The first group studied is the New Julfa silk merchants. The town of old Julfa on the bank of the river Aras was internationally renowned for its silk trade. The merchants of New Julfa had long-established their reputation in Ottoman markets. In 1603, Shah Abbas I visited the town of Julfa and spent three days with the town’s leader. A few months later, the people of Julfa were ordered to leave for Iran and given three days to pack. The town of Julfa was razed by fire following their departure. This group of merchants was a major asset in the conflicts between the Safavids and their Ottoman enemies. The main objective in the relocation negotiated with Julfa’s leader was to acquire the silk market. According to an Armenian historian, previous negotiations about a move to Iran had taken place as early as 1590 between the Shah and the Armenian church. Although forced relocation was undoubtedly a traumatic experience, the Julfans’ relocation was nothing like the brutality used against the conquered regions of the Caucasus in wartime. The Julfans were warned and given three days to evacuate with their mounts. In the autumn of 1604 the Julfans departed for a long journey to Isfahan.