Dr. Sebouh D. Aslanian, the newly appointed Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, established by the Armenian Educational Foundation at UCLA, will speak on September 14 at Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies.
Aslanian’s lecture, “From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa,” will draw on his recently published book of the same name, issued by the University of California Press.
Drawing on a rich trove of documents, including correspondence not seen for 300 years, Aslanian’s groundbreaking study From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants from a small outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco.
Aslanian brings to light the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the New Julfans, the effects of long-distance trade on the organization of community life, the ethos of trust and cooperation that existed among merchants, and the importance of information networks and communication in the operation of early modern mercantile communities.
