Review of Trade Changes of Carpet Industry in the Safavid Era

According to the thinkers and historians of Iran history during Islamic epoch, The Safavid era has always been recognized as an era with most magnificent and powerful national-religious state including the controlling central government. Due to establishing new government infrastructures for politics, economics and culture in this epoch, a marvelous revolution happened in the social life of Safavid era; among such infrastructures, economic and commerce factors were especially of great importance for an operational platform to such an extent that it became one of the most critical priorities of grand policy-making of Safavid kings. Considerable capacity of carpet industry due to presence of many centers providing raw material such as: silk and cotton, and also the production and preparation of invaluable carpets in the carpet workshops of economic cities of Safavid era, paved the path for the development of carpet trading as a strategic commodity. In this paper, it has been tried to clarify the status of carpet industry in the foreign trading policy of the Safavid era using a historical analysis approach and reviewing reliable history books covering that era and also travelogues of European travelers in Safavid epoch. This paper also tries to provide a reasonable answer to the question that what the role economic cities played in industrialization of carpet industry.