IRAN AND THE WORLD IN THE SAFAVID AGE
Abstracts  

Faroqhi, Prof. Suraiya, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität - München, Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des Nahen Orients, München, ACEM TÜCCARI in Anatolia and Istanbul in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century

Among trade goods arriving from Iran, raw silks and also silk stuffs had a very special place.  Until the end of the sixteenth century, the Bursa and Istanbul manufacturers, whose work can still be admired in the Topkapı Palace Museum, depended almost exclusively on raw silk imported from Iran.  It was only with the dramatic increase in the price of raw silks, which occurred during the late sixteenth century that the raising of silkworms became an important activity in the Bursa countryside.  During the numerous wars of the period, which pitted the armies of the Shah against that of the Sultan, the capture of a sizeable quantity of silk by an Ottoman commander often was worth a special report to Istanbul, which was entered in the Registers of Important Affairs (Mühimme Defterleri) and thus has come down to us.

On the other hand, Iranian merchants were interested in acquiring metals such as silver, copper and even iron.  From the Ottoman government's point of view, this was a highly undesirable activity.  For goods, which might be useful for equipping armies were ipso facto excluded from the export trade.  In addition, the secular flow of silver eastwards was being observed in Istanbul, even though, before the eighteenth century, there was little attempt to stem the flow of imported goods from India or Iran.  What the Ottoman state did however attempt was to institute administrative controls on Iranian traders, often minute, vexatory and, in our perspective, pettifogging.  Even the number of meal trays, which these people might take out of the Ottoman realm for their personal use, was, at least in principle, regulated from above.

In my paper I will focus on those traders from Iran (Acem tüccarı) whose activities were recorded in the Mühimme Defterleri and from 1650 onwards, in the Complaints Registers (Sikayet Defterleri) as well.  For the most part, these traders were Armenians, if only because ever since the rise of Shah Isma'il I, the Ottoman administration was wary of Iranian Muslims, lest they be bearers of messages from the Shah as head of the Safavi order to his Anatolian adherents.  Inevitably, the selection of merchants whose activities have been officially documented is extremely biased; something had to go badly wrong for any foreign merchant to 'rate' a complaint to Istanbul.  On the other hand, this selection of failed business deals is quite instructive, because it shows us transactions which otherwise would never have caught our attention.  Of special interest are probable attempts to use the Anatolian Qızılbash networks in order to purchase iron, in the particular case documented, in the shape of horseshoes from the iron mine of Divrigi.  While the silk trade was doubtless the major reason why Iranian traders visited the Ottoman lands, it seems that the wish to acquire metals, clandestinely if need be, should not be underestimated.

  
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