JULPHA. 
421 
wretched families ; dwindling every year, both in respectability 
and numbers. Its thirteen churches, whose pomp and riches 
excited the envy, and thence, the destroying arm of their Ma- 
homedan neighbours, are reduced to two only ; and those, dark, 
dirty, and dismal; the mean, and even ragged, decorations of 
their altars, connecting too well with the general air of squalid 
misery, which prevails over the whole district of this now ex¬ 
piring colony. 
The suburb of Julpha owes its origin to Shah Abbas; it having 
been founded by him for a body of Armenians, whom he trans¬ 
planted hither from their own country. The chief part of Ar¬ 
menia had long been under the dominion of the Turks; and 
during the wars between the Persian monarch and the Sultan, 
it suffered dreadfully between the contending powers. Abbas 
destroyed many of its cities ; and, in the manner of his predeces¬ 
sors, brought their inhabitants into his own land; but not with the 
old-fashioned barbarous design, to compel them to become Ma- 
homedans, and make them slaves. He understood the commer¬ 
cial talents of the Armenians ; and, comprehending the advan¬ 
tages to which he might turn it in Persia, he erected towns and 
villages for his new subjects, and scattered them throughout the 
empire. The inhabitants of the opulent town of Julfa on the 
Araxes, (the ruins of which I have noticed at the beginning of 
this volume,) having particularly conciliated his favour, by ex¬ 
pelling their Turkish garrison, at sight of his troops, and opening 
their gates to receive him ; the conqueror treated them as friends, 
but would not leave such valuable subjects behind, to still enrich 
his enemy. Hence he demolished the town, and brought the 
inhabitants to Persia; where he stationed them in this great 
suburb, naming it Julpha; a memorial of his victory, his clemency, 
