Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran,

A Lecture by
Dr. Sebouh Aslanian
Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, University of California, Los Angeles

Co-Sponsored by
Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard Harvard Armenian Society
Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

Drawing on a rich trove of documents, including correspondence not seen for 300 years, Dr. Sebouh Aslanian's groundbreaking study From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean (University of California Press) explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants from a small outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco.

Aslanian brings to light the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the New Julfans, the effects of long distance trade on the organization of community
life, the ethos of trust and cooperation that existed among merchants, and the importance of information networks and communication in the operation of early
modern mercantile communities.

Sebouh David Aslanian is the Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, established by the Armenian Educational Foundation, at the department
of history at UCLA. He has taught at the department of history at CSU-Long Beach as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2010 after serving a year at
Cornell University as a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral fellow in world history.
He received his Ph.D. (with distinction) from Columbia University in 2007.
From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean was selected by the Committee of the "California World History Library" as the first book to appear in their new series, "Author's Imprint," that celebrates and recognizes "exceptional scholarship by first-time authors."

From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean will be on sale and available for signing by the author.

Praise for From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean:
"The most researched and original work" on the subject that "exceeds, by far,all previous scholarship on the Armenian merchants of New Julfa."
--Prof. George Bournoutian

Naasr