Isfahan
Half of the World
Isfahan was once one of the largest and most important cities in Central
Asia, positioned as it is on the crossroads of the main north-south and
east-west trade routes that cross Central Asia. The city was the
splendid capital of the Seljuq and Safavid dynasties, and is renowned
for its beauty, which has given rise to the Iranian saying that “Isfahan
is half the world”.
Commerce has always been central to the growth of Isfahan, to the
extent that the Safavid Shah Abbas I (1588-1629) effectively re-routed
the Silk Road through Isfahan and made the city his capital so that his
empire would enjoy a trading monopoly. By the seventeenth century, the
city attracted not only European merchants but also missionaries and
mercenaries, as it became a religiously tolerant centre of mercantile
and diplomatic activity in which merchants and travellers from a variety
of cultures and religions rubbed shoulders.