Negotiating Persian Artistic Traditions among Armenian Christians in Safavid Iran
Abstract
This article examines three interconnected domains through which Armenian Christians living in Isfahan during the Safavid period adopted and creatively transformed Persian artistic traditions. The article analyzes the incorporation of Islamic architectural and decorative forms into the exterior and interior decoration of Armenian churches in New Julfa; the depiction of a Muslim shah in the wall painting of the mansions of Christian Armenian khojas (merchants); and the relocation of the Armenian Christian scribal center, as evidenced by two Gospel manuscripts preserved at the Matenadaran (MS 6785 and MS 7639). The research is based on architectural analysis, iconographic and stylistic comparison, and the examination of manuscript colophons. The findings demonstrate that these phenomena should not be understood as signs of religious assimilation, but rather as expressions of cultural interaction, adaptation, and negotiation. Armenian Christians preserved their religious identity while simultaneously integrating elements of Persian artistic tradition, thereby forming a distinctive bicultural synthesis shaped through diplomacy and coexistence within an Islamic context.
Keywords
Julfa,
New Julfa,
Isfahan,
deportation,
khoja mansion,
Armenian church,
dome,
tile,
manuscript illumination,
Gospel
About the Authors
Y. Tajarian
Matenadaran (Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts); Yerevan State University
Armenia
Armenia
Yvette Tajarian — Senior Researcher at the Oriental Studies Department; Associate Professor; Head of the Mat
enadaran Museum
Yerevan
G. Gasparyan
Matenadaran (Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts)
Armenia
Armenia
Greta Gasparyan — Researcher at the Department of Medieval Art Studies
Yerevan
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Review
For citations:
Tajarian Y., Gasparyan G. Negotiating Persian Artistic Traditions among Armenian Christians in Safavid Iran. State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide. 2026;44(2):107-129.
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