Latest / The Safavid Empire: Persia's Return to Greatness — Fexingo History
The Persian Silk: How Armenians Built Safavid Trade
When Shah Abbas I forced thousands of Armenian merchants from Julfa to his new capital Isfahan, he wasn't just relocating a population—he was engineering an economic revolution. This episode explores the creation of New Julfa, the Armenian quarter that became the hub of Safavid silk trade. We follow the rise of the Khwaja family, merchant princes who financed the shah's wars and built churches in a Muslim empire. Learn how the Armenians used their diaspora network from Venice to India to monopolize Persian silk, and how their privileged position eventually crumbled under Shah Abbas II's…
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