Lesson 20A: International Trade and the King’s Silk Monopoly Part One

*The twentieth lesson (part 1 of 2) in a 22 lesson course on Monuments of Islamic Architecture developed by Professors Gulru Necipoglu and David Roxburgh at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University. This lesson explores the architectural and social formation of Safavid Isfahan that was shaped by the political and economic aims of Shah ʿAbbas and his successors and the sociopolitical reorganization shared in the alliances and competitions among vested groups. This included a royal monopoly in the silk trade, and their Armenian and European facilitators, as well as the “capitalist” ventures of the new mercantile communities that engaged in long‐distance trade.

Citation
Necipoglu, Gulru and David Roxburgh. “International Trade and the King’s Silk Monopoly Part One.” Lesson 20A/22 presentation developed for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Education Programme, 2019.*