Messiah And Mahdi: Caucasian Christians and the Construction of Safavid Isfahan

Messiah and Mahdi explains the formation of the Safavid capital at Isfahan from a new angle by looking at Shah `Abbas I's expansion of the city from the point of view of his Christian subjects. By blending field work in Isfahan with contemporary academic evaluations of the rule of `Abbas and his successors, it is hoped that this book will offer some insight into Christian-Shi`a relations in seventeenth century Iran and offer new ways of interpreting the relationship between the Safavid court and the shah's Christian subjects in the field of material culture.