ABSTRACT
In 1605 Sháh ’Abbás invaded Armenia, and transferred 12,000 inhabitants of Julfa, on the Araxes, to the neighbourhood of Ispahan, where he allotted them land on the banks of the Zindarúd, which subsequently became the site of a town, since known as New Julfa. While Sháh ’Abbás lived, he treated the settlers with remarkable liberality, advancing money without exacting interest, granting the free exercise of their religion, and permitting them to elect a ‘Kalántar’, or headman, of their own. No Muhammadan was allowed to reside within the walls, and, as the murder of an Armenian could only be expiated by the rigorous law of retaliation, the inhabitants were respected, and favoured, by the Persians themselves. During the reign of Sháh Husain (1694-1722), however, many of these privileges were repelled, and the slayer of an Armenian was absolved from all punishment on payment of a load of corn. The prosperity of the settlement was destroyed by Sháh Mahmúd and the Afgháns in 1722, but not until after a gallant though unavailing resistance.1 Previous to the Afghán invasion the Persian Armenians numbered about 70,000 souls, but in 1742 the oppressive exactions of Nádir Sháh forced many to leave their homes, and seek an asylum in India and other countries. As a consequence, in 1829,2 only 500 poor Armenian families resided in New Julfa, where formerly 2,500 families throve, and throughout Persia their numbers had dwindled to 12,383 persons.. In 1877 two thousand Armenians remained in Julfa, the children being educated by the Church Missionary Society. Education is only encouraged as a means of enabling the young men to emigrate from poverty-stricken Persia to India.3
