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MAIASP. 2024. No. 16 Lamiya Gafar-zada ( “...One of their chiefe festivall daies”: the
historical significance of the first Safavid trade privileges to the British DOI: 10.53737/2713-2021.2024.87.20.030 Access this article (PDF File) Pages: 631—648 |
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Safavid-English relations were an important part of the international relations,
an integral part of the “West — East” and “Christian world — Muslim
world” systems. Safavid-English trade and economic relations became an
integral part of the global economy. Although
there is a significant body of works on Safavid-English
relations, this article represents the first attempt to study the historical
significance of the first trade privileges granted by the Safavids
to the English merchants. Unlike the prevailing in historiography
misconception that the Safavid Empire was
interesting for Tudor England only as an object of England’s colonial
expansion, i.e. as a source of cheap raw materials and profitable markets for
English goods, and most importantly, as a transit route to the markets of
India and other states of the Far East, the conducted research revealed that
England’s interaction with the Safavid Empire wasn’t
a manifestation of English colonial policy, as most Western and Soviet
historians used to present mistakenly; on the contrary, economic and
political significance of the Safavid Empire in the
region and beyond allowed her to conduct an independent external policy. It
was determined that the penetration of English trading capital into the Safavid Empire depended neither on the Principality of
Moscow, nor even on the desire of the English crown, but directly on the will
of the Safavid Shah himself. Gaining trade
privileges on the territory of the Safavid Empire
was of strategic importance for the British, because the possibility of
further advancement to East Asian markets directly depended on the success or
failure of obtaining them from the Shah. For the first time in
historiography, based on the information of Jenkinson
himself, it was found that the first attempt by the British to establish
trade relations with the Safavids was made back in
1553. As the first Eastern/Muslim country that Elizabethan England sought to
ally with, Safavid Empire’s trade privileges had a
significant historical importance for the British, because they predated
other such treaty agreements, like those with the Ottoman authorities and the
Russian Tsar. The journeys of the agents of Moscow trading company to the Safavid Empire opened a new chapter in the history of
both Anglo-Islamic and East-West relations, in addition to trade relations
they led to a cultural exchange on the basis of “East — West” and “Islam —
Christianity” dialogue. |
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Key words: Safavid-English
relations, Safavid Empire, Tudor England, Shah Tahmasp I, Anthony Jenkinson,
trade privileges, 1563, 1566, 1568, |
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Received
December 12, 2023 Accepted
for publication December 30, 2023. |
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About the author: Gafar-zada Lamiya ( E-mail: leo_558@mail.ru
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