422 
HISTORY OF JULPHA. 
his wisdom, and of their origin. He granted them, in common 
with all their brethren, his new subjects, a full toleration of their 
religion ; permission to erect churches, with all their ordinances ; 
and, as merchants, endowed them with many valuable privileges. 
This occurred about the year 1603; and, for more than a cen¬ 
tury afterwards, the colony continued to thrive in arts, manu¬ 
factures, and trade. The city kept pace with this prosperity; 
and, it is not to be doubted, that to these very Armenians, 
industrious, rich, speculative, and liberal, Ispahan owed its great 
commercial character; and, consequently, its wealth, magni¬ 
ficence, and redoubled power. It is well known, that where 
trade most flourishes, there the country is most populous, richest, 
happiest; and has the greatest sway with the nations. But as 
trade will not flourish where its profits are not secured to the 
manufacturer and the merchant, no despotic government can 
be really a rich one, and by consequence powerful, that does 
not enact laws to defend the properties of the subject, even 
against itself. Abbas the Great did this, in the privileges he 
granted to the Armenians ; and the happy result was manifest. 
From that time, until the deplorable feebleness of Shah Hous- 
sein, at the period of the Afghan invasion, caused that misled 
monarch to desert them and himself, these merchants were of 
the first advantage to the state. Indeed, the conduct of this 
especial colony, throughout the whole of the protracted and 
dreadful siege of Ispahan and its suburbs, by Mahmoud the 
leader of the Afghans, was becoming a brave and noble people ; 
and would lead us to think, that had the unfortunate Persian 
monarch, at one time trusted the defence of his capital to these 
grateful and intrepid men, it is most probable Ispahan would have 
been saved ; and not an Afghan returned to his country, to relate 
