Princely Suburb, Armenian Quarter or Christian Ghetto?The Urban Setting of New Julfa in the Safavid Capital of Isfahan (1605-1722)

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.