FROM THE INDIAN OCEAN TO THE MEDITERRANEAN:
Sunday, March 18, 2012 4pm
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
chants 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
Manila and Acapulco.
Aslanian brings to light the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the New Julfans, the effects of
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 mod-ern mercantile communities.
Sebouh David Aslanian is the Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, estab-lished by the Armenian Educational Foundation, at the department of history at UCLA. He has taught
the department of history at CSU-Long Beach as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2010 after serving
year at Cornell University as a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral fellow in world history. He received
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 Histo-ry Library” as the first book to appear in their new series, “Author’s Imprint,” that celebrates and recogniz-es “exceptional scholarship by first-time authors.” It received the 2011 Houshang Pourshariati Book Award in Iranian Studies and the PEN literary award for outstanding first book of the year from UC Press.
For more information about this free event contact the Ararat-Eskijian Museum at 818-838-4862 or Ararat-eskijian-museum@netzero.net; the Armenian Educational Foundation at 818-242-4154; the Armenian Society of Los Angeles at 818-241-1073; or NAASR at 617-489-1610 or hq@naasr.org.
