Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

266 HISTORY OF PERSIA
seclusion, and ejoaplayd--the--&iropean and his arts to
strengthen his country. The breadth of his outlook is
shown by
his behaviour towards the Armenians. Instead
of treating these Christian captives as slaves, he transported
five thousand families with all their possessions from
Julfa on the Aras to a new Julfa close to Isfahan. There
they speedily took root and prospered and helped to open
up trade with other countries. $p_flourishing was the
Christiari__cf:ritr_lh-us founded that, ~untIT quite recently,
ajl Europeans, whether missiojiaries ^or^tngrchants^wHo
had business^ at Isfahan, fnnlc up their residence jnjthis
Armenian village.
An attempt was made to establish a
second colony in Mazanderan, but this proved a complete
failure in cpnsequence__of_the_ malarious climate, which
lulled off the Armenians by hundreds.
His Encouragement of Pilgrimages. \^ nothing was
the practical genius of Shah Abbas more clearly
shown
than in- the difficult task-of consolidating the various
tribes and peoples- that^-dwelt in-Jrafi. This he effected
in greal_mfiasiire^Jiy_ encouraging the idea, that Meshed
was the national centre for pilgrimage and the special
glory of the Shia world. In the belief that practice is
better than precept, he made pilgrimages to the shrine of
the Imam Riza, and on one occasion lie actually waited
th_entirejiistance-^f -eight- hundred miles from Isfahan.
He also performed the menial task of tnmming^the
thousand candles which illuminated the sacred courts,
and the incident inspired the following verses by
Shaykh Bahai :
The angels from the high heavens gather like moths
O'er the candles lighted in this Paradise-like tomb :
O trimmer, manipulate the scissors with care,
Or else thou mayest clip the wings of Gabriel.
Among the gifts of this monarch to the Shrine was
his bow, which bears his name a priceless treasure, little
valued by Persians. He also visited Najaf, where he
swept out the tomb of his ancestor Ali, and in every
way he stimulated and encouraged religious feeling,
more especially as expressed in pilgrimages.
The fact