ABSTRACT
Iran under the rule of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736) was an early modern artistic crucible par excellence. Its historical borders corresponded roughly to those of the present-day country of Iran plus parts of western Afghanistan and Pakistan, making it an integral piece of the early modern trading network that linked the eastern Mediterranean with India, Russia, and—via the Persian Gulf—the maritime corporations of the Portuguese, Dutch, and British East India Companies. By the seventeenth century the Safavid empire's major export was raw silk. The cities of Safavid Iran were home to foreign traders who hailed from Central Asia to western Europe, with commodities from pepper to porcelain and from English woolens to Indian indigo passing through its borders. 1
