Banian in the View of Safavid Age Travel Accounts

This article studies one of the foreign minorities in Iran during the Safavid period from the viewpoint of European travelers. This minority known as the Banian or the Moltanis were Hindu Indians who resided in Iran. In the Iran of the Safavid era, the Banian were known to work as middlemen for foreign traders and were also famous for taking usury. With a more precise look, it is possible to shed light on other dark corners of the life of this minority in Iran. This is especially true because of the fact that minorities enjoyed a reasonable degree of religious freedom in Iran in this period. Banian’s wealth and corruption among the officials of the Safavid government had even made the holding of the Sati Ceremony possible for this minority. They possessed their own special buildings and freely held their feasts and religious ceremonies. It is even more interesting that during the reign of Shah Soleiman, the Banian of Esfahan informed the Mughal emperor of India, Aurangzeb, with meticulous details of the fundamental weaknesses that were contributing to the downfall of the Safavid Dynasty and encouraged him to conquer Iran. Such correspondence between the Banian and the Indian emperor are the first recorded written reports, by the foreign minorities who resided in Iran, of the trend of the disintegration of the Safavid Dynasty.