Agenda

Ahmad Guliyev is a “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions” Research Fellow at the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His recently completed project titled “SAFVEN” West meets East in Venice: Cross-cultural interactions and reciprocal influences between the Safavids and Venetians.

The emergence of the Safavid Empire in the early sixteenth century marked a significant change in the geopolitics of the Middle East. This momentous change coincided with the widening of Ottoman expansion eastward and European powers, especially Venice explored the possibilities of formation of alliance against the Ottomans with the involvement of the Safavids. Although the political contacts between the Republic of Venice and the Safavid Empire did not yield any results, it contributed to the emergence and development of trade relations between these two regions and shaped the Venetians’ understanding of the Safavid culture.

The webinar will briefly present the speaker’s research results on the significance of symbolic communication in Safavid-Venetian diplomatic relations, material dimension of the Safavid-Venetian diplomatic encounters, Venetians’ knowledge of the Safavids, characteristics of the Safavid embassies to Venice, the itineraries of the journeys of the Safavid delegates to Venice, the Ottoman factor in Safavid-Venetian relations, and Venetians’ stance on Safavid-Ottoman military engagements.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement n° 789632.

Registration: ZOOM LINK