Page 17 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

Safawid Silk textiles and raw silk became
highly desirable commodities in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries sparking intense competition between the British, Dutch and Portuguese for control of the silk trade. Through trade, Shah ʿAbbas sought to strengthen Safawid political and commercial ties to Europe, increase revenue and bolster Safawid power. In the rst half of the 17th century, the Safawids established trade ties with the Dutch East Indies Company (founded in 1602) and silk became the most important commodity exported from Persia
to Holland. The British also sought direct and exclusive trade with Persia and sent trade
delegations to Persia. The British navy also assisted the Safawids in expelling the Portuguese from the Straits of Hormuz in the 17th century and establishing Bandar-i ʿAbbas as the Safawids’ main trading port. As a reward, the Safawids granted the British duty exemptions and a portion of the port’s customs revenues.
Detail from a portrait of Sir Robert Shirley (d. 1628) by Sir Anthony van Dyck (d. 1641) made in Rome in 1622, dressed in a Safawid coat and silk cloak with gures. Shirley travelled from England to Iran in 1598 as part of a British delegation to establish military and trade relations, particularly to secure trade concessions for Safawid silk. There
he married Teresa Sampsonia, a Safawid noblewoman from a Christian Circassian family close to Shah ʿAbbas, and became the Shah’s envoy to European courts.
Detail from a painting by the Dutch painter Jan Baptist Weenix (d. 1663) made 1653–1659 of the Dutch ambassador Joan Cunaeus
(d. unknown) and his secretary Cornelis Speelman (d. 1684), escorted by the Sultan of Bandar-i ʿAbbas on a journey to Isfahan in ca. 1650. The Sultan, his horse and Cunaeus are all shown wearing silk garments.
Detail from a 16th-century Safawid silk textile brocaded with silver thread in a repeated oriated design of a dancer and musicians wearing Persian and European clothing. Some gures also wear curved-brim Portuguese or Dutch hats. One of the tambourines (lower part of image) is inscribed with the name ʿAbd Allah’ which may refer to the individual who designed the textile.
silk